Avoid These Common Blunders at All Costs

• 00:05 Let's go over some of the most common blunders people make,
• 00:09 you want to avoid these at all costs.
• 00:11 For starters, look at this behind me.
• 00:15 It looks nice outside but you can't see my face.
• 00:18 If you're doing a video conference from home,
• 00:21 you may be fortunate enough to have a nice home office with a window.
• 00:25 Your desk is in front of the window, your computer's on the desk.
• 00:29 So this would be the natural way to do it but it looks horrible.
• 00:33 You can't see my face, I'm a shadowy figure, very distracted.
• 00:38 No one wants to look at that.
• 00:39 So when it comes to your lighting,
• 00:42 you want light in front of your face, not behind you.
• 00:46 I'll demonstrate in a moment just turning it around using the natural light to look
• 00:51 much better.
• 00:51 Now, here's another big problem that people have when
• 00:55 they are doing a video conference from home.
• 00:59 Now we can't all have extra rooms just for video conferencing.
• 01:04 So people improvise.
• 01:06 Now pull back a minute, and what do you see behind me?
• 01:09 If I do a video conference like this, the only thing most
• 01:13 people are going to remember, TJ likes the Jose Cuervo.
• 01:18 So keep in mind it's very, very distracting that anything
• 01:23 like that laundry, liquor, or anything like that.
• 01:27 Now the other thing that is really bad, you don't want to do,
• 01:31 look at the camera angle, it's looking up my nose.
• 01:34 This looks horrible and this unfortunately is how people
• 01:39 have the webcam on their laptop or their desktop.
• 01:43 It's too low, let's bring up the camera.
• 01:46 You want your camera to be just a couple of inches above your eyes,
• 01:51 it will make you look much better now.
• 01:54 Let's demonstrate some of these things all together.
• 01:59 Here I am with a laptop, but
• 02:02 again the problem is it would be looking up my nose, that's too high.
• 02:07 But what do you do if this is your laptop or this is your computer?
• 02:11 You really need the camera to be a couple of inches above your eyes.
• 02:16 Here's a simple, easy way of making this happen.
• 02:20 I simply add a stack of books.
• 02:21 Come around this way and show them.
• 02:24 I'm going to put my laptop on a stack of books.
• 02:29 Now, the camera on my laptop is just a couple of inches above my eyes.
• 02:36 This way it will make me look much, much better.
• 02:40 Now that the window is that way I'm getting natural light on my face,
• 02:45 it's going to be much more flattering.
• 02:48 When you're framing your head,
• 02:50 remember your head should almost be touching the top of the screen.
• 02:53 A real sign of an amateur is if your head is in the middle of the whole screen, and
• 02:58 it will make anyone look like a little kid.
• 03:01 So, show my head right in the middle for a minute so they can see,
• 03:04 it's going to make me look like a little kid.
• 03:07 You want your head to be touching the top of the screen.
• 03:11 Now, the good news is you don't have to go out and buy a big fancy studio.
• 03:15 But if you have your camera just a couple of inches above your eyes,
• 03:20 show the camera again the laptop.
• 03:22 The other thing I'm doing is I have some light.
• 03:25 I have a light to my right and a light to my left.
• 03:29 And this just sort of evens out the light on my face.
• 03:33 These are just $10 simple reading lights.
• 03:36 There's nothing fancy.
• 03:38 All you really need is more light in front of you, not behind you.
• 03:42 If you have good lighting, a backdrop that is not distracting, and
• 03:47 the camera is at your eye level, you will be way ahead of most people.
• 03:53 You need to do everything you can to eliminate distractions for
• 03:57 yourself and your audience.
• 03:59 One other thing, >> Look who's here?
• 04:03 My lovely.
• 04:05 My lovely bundle of joy, Rosa.
• 04:08 Okay, I love my daughter.
• 04:10 I think she's the greatest thing in the world, but why should I assume you care?
• 04:15 Keep your children away.
• 04:17 I don't mean to sound anti-child.
• 04:19 I love my daughter, but this is not the time for it.
• 04:23 So let your family know, do not disturb, put the sign on the door.
• 04:29 Or if you all have to be in the same room, let them know they have to be quiet.
• 04:34 Now it's one thing if it's your colleagues and you've been working together every
• 04:38 day, for five years and everyone shares information.
• 04:40 An occasional 'here's my kid' is fine but if it's a business presentation,
• 04:45 new business, clients, customers important colleagues,
• 04:49 don't assume they want to know everything about your family life.
• 04:54 Keep it focused because it's distracting.
• 04:56 Now they may love your kid but if that's the most memorable thing,
• 05:00 you've taken a spotlight off of what was really important.
• 05:03 Did you notice in the last video, there was my daughter?
• 05:08 She didn't say anything, but it's still distracting.
• 05:11 I want you to pay attention to how little things like that can be distracting.
• 05:15 You want to do everything you can to keep the focus on what's really important,
• 05:20 your ideas.
• 05:21 And that's going to mean telling family, friends, pets,
• 05:25 this is a do not disturb time.

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