Do You Need Virtual Work Makeover? Here’s How to Make It Awesome
Covid19 has accelerated the virtual world of work. Remote work is growing. Virtual meetings are a reality. Virtual interviews are common. As a career coach, I have been working virtually for several years and training my clients for virtual interviews and remote work.
What I’ve learned?
We want to look professional and “uniquely us” virtually.
We want to feel confident in virtual interviews or meetings with our boss, co-workers and clients.
We want to create a polished personal and company brand image.
Here are three steps to transform our “virtual scramble” into a purposeful, professional and polished virtual presence that we feel proud of.
STEPS #1 - CHOOSE YOUR EQUIPMENT
Choosing equipment can be a hard decision. There's so much on the market at varying degrees of price points. It can be daunting and overwhelming. I know because I've been there. We don't want to over purchase equipment and over spend. We want to have what we actually need.
Several years ago, one of my clients worked in a camera and video store, and he also had a background in video production. He helped me pick my equipment by asking me these 5 questions.
What is it you want to accomplish? What do you plan to do?
Where is your work space?
Will you be mobile?
What kind of equipment do you already have?
What's your budget? How much do you want to spend?
Evaluate your situation, your needs and be really honest with how much you want to spend. In addition, take stock of what you already have. You may have most of what you need and really just need to make some minor adjustments to create the perfect setup for your situation. You don't want to buy equipment if you don't have to. When it comes to choosing new equipment, you want to know that it will meet your needs before you make a purchase.
Here are the four pieces of equipment we need for virtual work: meetings, coaching, teaching, live streaming on social media or video production.
Your device
The camera
The lighting
The microphone
> Choose Your Device
In order to choose which device is best, we first have to decide what we will be doing and how we plan to work. Ask yourself these questions. It will help you determine what device to use.
Do you have a desktop computer, a laptop or a smart phone?
Will you be virtually coaching, training or teaching from your office, or conducting remote meetings?
Are you doing short video production?
Will you be working this way for a long length of time or is this a short and temporary situation?
Do you need to be mobile?
Can you effectively work from the space that you have in mind?
Are you going to live stream your coaching, teaching or training on social media?
What is your budget?
Before we go out and buy new equipment, we want to test drive the equipment we already have to see if it works for our needs. In addition, I always suggest conducting an information gathering session with people you know who are working virtually to see what others are using. I spend a lot of time talking to people and spending time on YouTube checking out equipment before I purchase. I’m really picky when it comes to purchasing equipment and I always have a budget in mind before I spend.
>Choose Your Lighting
Lighting is so important especially if you are going to virtually coach, virtually teach, do video production or live stream on a regular basis. Lighting options are vast and it really depends on your needs, but one thing is for certain, lighting is important. Here are some tips:
Use natural light as a foundation.
Use lamps from home.
Use professional lighting.
Lighting is so important. In my course, How to Create a Professional Virtual Work Setup - From drab to fabulous in 3 easy steps, I go over the ins and outs of equipment and show you what I own from lighting to microphone. I also provide you with video examples of me on video so you can get a feeling for how to manage lighting.
>Choose Your Microphone
If the built in microphone on your webcam or laptop is good, you won’t have to add another microphone. However, if I teach a group of clients off Zoom or Google Meet, I use either a wireless microphone system or a USB Microphone. Microphones come in all shapes and sizes as well as price points.
STEP #2 - CREATE A STYLISH BACKGROUND
When it comes to what is behind us, we really want to create an appealing background but not so STYLISH that it somehow distracts from what we're saying. We want to strike a balance between being generic and PROFESSIONAL while also having PERSONALITY.
A bookshelf behind us can be a really great backdrop for our virtual coaching sessions or virtual meetings. Research shows that plants ground a room and add a sense of peace and calm. A picture and paintings can add personality to a virtual work space.
STEP #3 - SET YOURSELF UP ON CAMERA
When they say the camera adds 10 pounds, we don't have to worry if we are sitting down! When it comes to virtual coaching, remote meetings or video tutorials, we can just focus on the chest up.
> What to Wear
Fashion on camera can be tricky. When it comes to coaching, teaching, meetings and video tutorials, we want to look professional so choosing what we are going to wear is important.
> Wearing Makeup
When it comes to makeup, some is better than no makeup at all on camera. I don't wear a lot of makeup on a day to day basis, but I do wear some basic makeup. When it comes to the camera, I typically dial it up a notch.
> Frame Yourself Out
Before you turn on the camera, you want to frame yourself out, make sure there aren't any weird things in your background and make sure your face, hair and clothing look okay on camera. I’m always amazed by how much the camera picks up the lint on a black sweater and the wrinkles in that shirt we didn’t press. The camera has eagle eyes.
The other thing we want to do is frame ourselves out on camera and make sure we aren’t too close or too far away. We want to make sure we are sitting at the right height and angle. The camera on our computer should be at eye level. You may have to prop yourself up to be at the right height, or you may have to prop up your laptop (use cereal boxes).
FINAL THOUGHTS
Practice. Set up your background, pick out some clothes, put on some makeup and practice. The only way to really know how your equipment will perform, what you and your background will look like on camera is to practice. The more you practice and adjust yourself, you will develop a professional and polished look.
