How To Look Your Best on a Zoom Meeting

Now that Zoom meet­ings have become a pri­ma­ry way we do busi­ness, it’s impor­tant how we present our­selves —and our brand—online.

Just like the right info can make or break your pre­sen­ta­tion, which we cov­ered in 7 Tips to Cre­ate Pow­er­ful Keynote Slide Decks,  now we’re focus­ing on how to enhance the pre­sen­ter on a Zoom Meet­ing. What we have to tell you also applies oth­er for­mats like Face­Time, Google Hang­outs, and Skype!

How to look your best on a Zoom Meeting

Whether you find Zoom meet­ings be a breeze or they make you want to crawl under the table, we reveal lit­tle things that will make a big dif­fer­ence in your con­fi­dence – and up your best!  Even the most sea­soned online par­tic­i­pant will find a few of our tips to employ right away, like:

• How to look and act to keep the empha­sis on what you’ve got to say
• What to do if your kids or your pet intervene
• What works for your back­ground— and what doesn’t

In the video below we talk basic Do’s and Don’ts as well as how to best project your own per­son­al brand while main­tain­ing and even build­ing brand con­ti­nu­ity for your busi­ness!  Ready to get started?

So don’t let this medi­um get in the way of your tal­ents and per­son­al­i­ty — or your brand. There’s much more in the video but here’s the skin­ny on some of my key points:

1. How to Look Good on Zoom

When you look wrong, that’s all peo­ple see… but when you look right, they focus on what you’re contributing.

• Look the way your col­leagues would expect to see you on a typ­i­cal day at work.
• If it’s a job inter­view, or you’re pre­sent­ing, dress to impress with­in the “uni­form” of your field.
• Think of clothes and hair as the frame to your face (the focus), and min­i­mize dis­tract­ing bolds — in col­ors, prints, make up or jew­el­ry — unless that is your brand.
• In a pinch? Be sure your hair at least works front, and keep a dark sol­id sweater/jacket with a nice neck­line hang­ing some­where to grab –and you’re good to go!

2. Lights, Framing, Background 

Fifty per­cent or more of how you’re per­ceived has to do with these three! All it takes is a wee invest­ment of time to test these out, but once you get it right, you’re golden!

• Light your­self head on, not from above, below or the side — whether uti­liz­ing a win­dow or a com­mon desk lamp. Wear glass­es? Check for light reflec­tion (block­ing your all-impor­tant eyes) or shad­ows cast from them on your cheeks. All can be fixed by repo­si­tion­ing your light source.
• Be cen­tered in the frame, from just below the shoul­ders and up — not show­ing all ceil­ing, or being too close/too far away on screen.
• Set a neat, neu­tral back­ground to keep the focus on you. But — it can be used to enhance your brand by using a graph­ic, logo or appro­pri­ate items like books, art or fam­i­ly pho­tos, which tell view­ers some­thing good about you.
• If pos­si­ble, keep a “meet­ing” area, with your back­ground and light­ing set some­where in your house, so all you need to do is sit down.
• Use Zoom Pre­view to check and adjust all the above before the meet­ing starts!

3. Body Language Do’s and Don’ts

It’s easy to for­get we’re still being seen when we’re not the one talk­ing. Be present and pro­fes­sion­al even if you are one of many in an online meeting.

• Don’t fid­get with hair, piv­ot in your chair, eat, get up and pace or leave, let your cat walk across your lap­top. Stay conscious.
• Do look right into the cam­era when you’re talk­ing, even if it feels unnat­ur­al, rather than look­ing down at the face of those on the screen.
• Don’t ges­ture wild­ly when you speak. If that’s part of you, be aware of how close your hands come to the lens and how dis­tract­ing they can be!
• Do take a quick glance at oth­ers when some­one else is speak­ing to pick up clues about how they are react­ing to the material.
• Do plan to min­i­mize inter­ac­tion with kids and pets, but if it’s inevitable, make ONE dis­claimer up front, and no more.

There’s more in the video but hope­ful­ly these tips show you how eas­i­ly you can turn every Zoom meet­ing into an oppor­tu­ni­ty instead of an obsta­cle by apply­ing these sim­ple practices. 

This blog was writ­ten by Rochelle Joseph, who helps peo­ple look, feel and per­form their best every day — and also hap­pens to have joined the team at NCD over 7 years ago! 

Called the Styl­ist to the Stars, Image and Mar­ket­ing Con­sul­tant Rochelle has dressed tal­ent on CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, HBO, Martha Stew­art, The Food Net­work, PBS, ESPN, Show­time, FX, V‑66, MTV, Broad­way and all talk and red car­pet award shows… work­ing in Hol­ly­wood and New York City with celebri­ties such as Leonar­do DiCaprio, Philip Sey­mour Hoff­man, Paul Gia­mat­ti, Kim Cat­trall, Madon­na, Bob­by Flay, Denis Leary and Mario Cantone.