Look AMAZING On Zoom [0:00:00]
I absolutely love this. It fits right onto my phone. [Sound effect]
Now, this first tip to looking good and feeling confident on Zoom is so simple you may be
tempted to disregard it. The tip, take a shower before you have a meeting.
Now, I know you're thinking, “Thanks Captain Obvious. I shower daily right after my workout.”
Hold on, that's not what I meant. I said take the shower right before your video conference
call. You want to feel fresh, you want to feel clean.
According to a 2009 study out of Liverpool University, whenever men felt dirty if they
felt that they smelt at all, their confidence on a video call dropped significantly. Seriously,
nobody in a video call can smell you, but you can smell yourself and that has an effect
on your confidence and how you show up to the meeting.
So, when you've got a 6:00 AM videoconference, don't roll out of bed at 5:55 and turn off
the video. No, even though nobody sees you, you're going to be less confident. Wake up
a little bit early. Take that shower. Put on your favorite fragrance. Brush your hair.
Properly take care of yourself when it comes to grooming and you're going to be more confident
in that meeting. All right. So now, let's go a little bit technical
let's talk cameras. If you've got an old camera, if you've got a crappy quality camera, guess
what? Your picture is not going to be the best quality. That seems obvious, but most
people are surprised, “Hey, I spent $2,000 on this laptop. Why am I not looking great
on the picture?” Because that camera on that expensive laptop, they skimped on it
and you got a poor quality camera and that's why you're not getting a good picture.
So, one of the easiest ways to remedy this is to simply buy an external camera. Right
here, I've got this Logitech, it's got 1080. You're going to find some of the other ones
out there have 4k. Maybe a little bit hard to find, but if you can find one of these
one of the most simple solutions. Another option, let's say you've got an older
digital SLR. This one shoots an 1080 video. We don't really use it too much, guess what?
I connect a cable right here directly to my laptop, all of a sudden I've got a slave with
the right software and I'm able to use this and actually have a great quality camera.
But this one right here is the easiest that most people forget they have and that is their
phone camera. So, if you've got a Samsung, if you've got an LG, if you have a Google,
whatever you may have, understand that the camera on your phone is probably the best
camera that you've got in your house. That's what's so simple about this and people
forget they have this and they suffer through these poor cameras that are on their laptops
when they could be using this one. You've got a great camera right here, use it.
Next up, let's talk sound. There are three rules when it comes to sound. First up, it
matters - a lot. Have you ever tried to watch a video and the sound is bad? Even if the
video quality is great, guess what? You're not going to pay attention. You're going to
turn it off because if the sound is not good you don't understand what's going on even
if you can read the words even if you could read their lips.
Rule number two. Do not rely on the microphone that came with your laptop. That is a poor
quality microphone. You want to upgrade. And rule number three, always have a backup.
Again, sound incredibly important. And if your microphone, the battery dies on that,
guess what? You want to have another microphone that you can jump to, so you can continue
the presentation. Now, there's a wide variety of different types
of microphones out there. The first one I'm going to recommend is a simple headset. They're
inexpensive and what I like about this is it really does a good job of preventing feedback.
Now, the issue with that headset is that microphone is tiny and it's not very good quality. If
you want a better quality microphone, if you're the one giving the presentations, then definitely
look for a higher quality microphone. You're going to find somewhere like this.
This one looks pretty good. The only issue with this one is it's omnidirectional which
basically means that it takes in sound from all around. This can be an issue especially
picking up background noise. I really like this microphone the Blue Yeti because you
can actually set it whether you want to take sound from all around or just from the front.
And you may notice back over here, I've got another Blue Yeti and I've got a pop filter
and I've got a filter around it. Why do I have this set up? Basically, that prevents
any type of background noise. And a lot of my videos that you watch on this channel,
I record with that set up, so that you can basically hear my voice and nothing else.
Now Bluetooth headsets are another great option whether you want to spend $25, $250. It really
comes down to the features that you want and all the details the style all that stuff.
But, I find that this $25 pair does an acceptable job. Yeah, these Apple ear pods are awesome,
but you're going to pay for them. And, if you're committed to using your phone,
I advise you to check out the Shure MV88. So, what I like about this it's a microphone
that plugs right into the phone and I'm able to get a pretty good sound whether in the
wind or outside of the wind. And if I'm just recording a video from the channel or if I'm
doing a video conference, I'm able to talk and sound good.
Now, what about lavalier mics? Well, if you've got them, great. But remember, you're going
to need a headset and wireless lavalier mics can get very expensive.
Now, this next piece of advice, absolutely free and absolutely priceless, learn to use
the mute button. If you're not talking, mute yourself because nobody wants to hear that
dog barking in the backdrop. Nobody wants to hear your kids screaming. I know you don't
want to either, but here's the thing, don't torture everybody in the meeting. I've got
dogs, I've got kids, I get it and, yeah, we don't want to hear it.
[0:05:00] Next up, let's talk lights. Now, I like this
one because it's so simple and it shows you don't have to spend a whole lot of money.
You can find these for 10 bucks and they fit right onto your phone and they enable you
to get more light right on the face. That is what we're doing with video. Photography
is the capture of light. So, you want to make sure that the light bouncing off your face
doesn't actually make you look bad, in fact, enhances the way that you look on camera.
Now, here's an example of bad lighting. Why? Because the light is coming from the back
hitting me right there and it's creating this silhouette. How many times have you been in
the meeting and this is what you see? Now, the opposite is when you've got a light
coming from the front and it absolutely blows you out especially if it's coming from one
side, it creates shadows and, yeah, this doesn't look that great either.
Now, for most people, the best light source is going to be the free light source a.k.a.
the sun. So, what's nice about this is during the day in the right light, you can look amazing
and it's absolutely free. You position your camera over on this side, so that the light
is hitting you in the face as you're talking to your camera and, boom, you look good.
But, there are issues with this because if you wanted to film at 9:00 o'clock at night,
if you've got a conference call first thing 5:00 o'clock in the morning and the sun hasn't
risen yet, guess what? You don't have any light coming in, so what are you going to
do? So, first up, look around your house, see
what you've got for options. If you've got some older lamps lying around, that's a great
find because guess what? Those older lamps usually have a warmer life you're using the
right light bulb and they've got the shade which is basically a diffuser and it's going
to put a soft light on your face. Now, if you've got one of the more modern
lamps that bounces off the ceiling, the issue there is it basically the lights coming off
the ceiling and it can put shadows on the lower part of your face. You got to be careful
with those. Now, if you've got a bit more of a budget
or you're going to be making a lot videos, I do recommend you invest in some good lights.
You've got soft boxes, you've got LEDs. What I like about LEDs is they're relatively small,
they're very bright, but they can be overpowering they can create a lot of glare especially
on the face. Soft boxes, they're larger, they're going
to take up more room. They're not as portable, but what I like about soft boxes is just as
its name implies, it's a very soft light. So, you could have these right next to your
face and they're not going to basically blow you out.
Another technical tip for looking great on video especially live video like Zoom is manage
your upload and download speeds. So, first up, test it, just simply type in internet
speed upload download, you're going to find a tester. You want to see what your upload
and download speed. Basically, if you don't have an upload speed
of at least 5 to 10 megabytes per second and the download speed of at least 10 megabytes
per second, you are probably going to have issues. If you don't have reliable internet,
if you don't have fast enough upload speed, then guess what? People aren't going to be
able to see you no matter how much great equipment you have.
So, you're probably going to want to speak to your internet service provider and ask
specifically because most people don't even know that upload speed is really regulated
and they don't give you that much unless you specifically asked for it.
All right. So, you called, they can't do anything about your upload download speeds, how can
you get better quality on your live calls? Do them first thing in the morning. Why and
not wait till early afternoon? Because guess what starts to happen at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00
PM? People start watching movies online. Internet usage spikes in the evenings and at night
and it doesn't end until about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.
So, you probably don't want to have meetings then, but can you move your meetings to 6:00
AM? 7:00 AM? 8:00 AM? Guess what? Internet usage is down, so you're simply going to have
more room in the pipe to be able to upload and download your videos and guess what? You're
going to get better quality. Protip from a dad. I know this is going to
cause a revolt. But, if the meeting is that important, kick your kids off for 30 minutes
to an hour because guess what? When they're on Netflix when they're playing those video
games, they are sucking that bandwidth and, no, you need it for your meeting.
Now, this next one incredibly simple, but I want to use it to wrap up all the technical
stuff I just talked about and that is to test your equipment. Be on early because, yeah,
you bought that new microphone, you've got those new lights, you've got that new camera,
but if you haven't tested it and you think that simply flipping it on, it’s going to
work right as you're going into that key interview, guess what? It's not going to. It's going
to be Murphy's Law. It is going to fail. So make sure to test everything. Do a dry
run. Be at the meeting 5 to 10 minutes early and guess what? You're just simply going to
look amazing because you are there on time. You're not that guy showing up 10 minutes
late because, oh, I had technical difficulties. You know who I'm talking about. This happens
again and again. Plan for it. Oh, and this tip, not technical at all, but
people forget to do it all the time and that is lock the door. You don't want your kids
busting in on you. You don't want random people walking in on your important meeting when
you're delivering that information to that team, to -- to your boss, or whatever it may
be. And pay attention to the background. So, if
your bathroom is in the backdrop, make sure that the camera is not on when your spouse
is getting out of the shower. Next up, let's talk about the positioning
of your face. So, you want to make sure that your face isn't down over in a corner or that
you're not like this. Yes, I've seen people in video in which their face is only partly
in the video. So, be able to see yourself and you want to frame your face properly.
[0:10:05] So, your mouth, this is actually going to
be about the center point. You want basically the top of your head to hit the top of the
screen, not for your face in the center. Because you see all this excess room right here, that's
useless, you don't want that. Point being is you want your face to be properly
framed, so that people can see you and they can interact. It's about your emotions, and
that's what you want to be able to get across when you're looking at them in the eye.
Now, this next tip is one that most people get wrong, and even if you've got great equipment,
it will make you look bad, so pay attention to it and that is the camera angle. So, you
want to make sure when you've got the camera right here that you are about eye level. A
couple inches above is fine and you can even go more than that if the camera is farther
away from you. But, you don't want the camera to be low.
And the issue here is a lot of people when they're on their laptop, they're on it, they
are oftentimes looking straight down. Guess what? You're getting the triple chin and it
just makes you look weak. It's not a good look, it's not flattering.
So, if you are having to look right down at people, if you're looking down at the camera
and the screen this is not a good angle, you want to bring it up. One of the easiest ways
to do this is simply to stack some books. Or better yet if you're going to be on your
phone to use a tripod or to be able to find something that can hold the phone at eye level
as you're looking at it. So, this next tip really matters if you're
the manager, if you're hosting the Zoom meeting, if you are the guy that's speaking that's
giving a presentation. First up, smile, be happy. Yes, I know it's
6:00 o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday, you don't want to be -- you'd rather be sleeping,
but here's the deal. You should be grateful for your job, for your team, for the company
that you're with that they're still around that they're still doing okay.
Yes, you may be looking for other things, but be grateful be happy because people can
pick this up. That's the beauty of a video meeting is it you can pick up moods, you can
pick up this vibe. And if you are upset, if you are frowning, if you're just like grumpy,
other people are going to pick up on this and it will affect the meeting.
Let's also talk about energy. So, drink your coffee, drink your tea, should go exercise
before you actually show up there because guess what? If you don't have the energy,
that camera is going to suck it right out. That camera is a vampire. It reduces your
energy levels by 50%. So, give a good presentation. Now, I'm not saying you got to be over-the-top,
but I am saying bring the energy, bring the excitement. Make sure that when you show up
there, you're not putting people to sleep. And this next tip during the meeting, don't
multitask. Don't think you're listening to the meeting and you can also be checking your
email. People notice when you're zoned out. And if all else fails, your camera is not
working, your sound is not that great, well, guess what? Learn how to screen share. Right
here, you can save a presentation. You can save a meeting if you've actually got things
prepared and laid out, so that people can read them they can see them. You can actually
pass the video or notes on after the meeting because you've got to end it early because
everyone's just having a really bad internet connection.
The point is if you show up organized, if you show up prepared, you are going to look
good even if the internet craps out on you. Now, what about dressing up for a video meeting?
Should you wear a suit? Should you wear a sports jacket? Gents, find out in this video
right here where I make the case of why a man should care about his appearance even
if he's working from home. [0:13:19] End of audio