Kevin Seifert recently presented this deck during an AMA Triangle Transitions Mastermind Meeting. He offered some great tips on using Zoom and how to present yourself better online.

1. How to Professionally Present Yourself Online:
Video Calls + Virtual Meetings

2. Our Focus for this Workshop and Conversation:
3 types of meetings
• One-to-one interview or client/vendor (could be 3-5 people involved)
• Team stand-up meeting - could be in-house team or a collaborative freelance team
• Networking, Mastermind, Roundtable, or Seminar, like this one.
Your Online Image and Professional Impression
For Video Conferencing and Virtual Meetings

3. Our Focus for this Workshop and Conversation:
Other popular options:

5. Ground rules and basic setup
Are you Plugged In?
• Nothing makes a bad impression like suddenly leaving a meeting because your battery died.
Are you logged in to your Zoom account?
• Please do so now using the app. No worries if you don’t have an account. We will address why you should sign up for a free
account
Speaker v. Gallery View (top right)
• Speaker View is preferred for this workshop
Mute
• Please stay muted when you’re listening
• Press and hold spacebar to temporarily unmute
Stop/Start Video
• We want your video on
Chat
• Please turn on
• More on Chat coming

7. Ground rules and basic setup
Chat
• Please enter you name and contact info if you wish to have the other
attendees possibly reach out
• When someone new joins chat, they do not see the chat prior to
their opening the chat feature
• We will be using chat to ask questions and answer questions
• If you have information or can answer a question, please do so in
chat
• You can comment to everyone or have a private DM
• The chat between Everyone will be recorded/downloaded by the
host, private messages are not included
• More features will appear in our chat window than this sample from
the NC Marcomm U – former Higher Ed Link + Think Group

8. Ground rules and basic setup
Annotate
• Cool feature where you can write or draw in your own video tile
• We are not using this as it is distracting like graffiti
Screen Share
• We are limiting screen sharing to the host/co-host
• Note that if someone is sharing their screen there is no way for
others to overtake the screen share. Only the host can reclaim the
screens.
Virtual Backgrounds
• We are going to talk about these during this workshop with some
live examples and a slide

9. Ground rules and basic setup
This is not about Zoom
Please take the time to learn about the platform you are using on your
own. Become an expert. Learn one, do one, teach one.
Zoom video tutorials:
https://support.zoom.us/
Practice with friends - you host small meetings and join small
meetings hosted by them.

10. Start with Your Appearance
• Every virtual meeting gives you visibility
• You might not know who is in the ”room”
• Virtual meetings can give you a bigger voice and more influence
• Envision how you’d like to be perceived
• Pretend other people are in the room with you
• Stay authentic

11. Start with Your Appearance
Dress professionally
• Wear professional tops like a button down, sweater, a blouse, a collared polo, maybe even a sportcoat or blazer.
• Wear pants, a professional skirt, dress or dress shorts
• No gym shorts or PJ bottoms (Mullet outfits are not good - professional on top and party on bottom)
• Especially if you are in an interview or client meeting
• Low-cut tops for women are distracting – please wear a camisole and a bra
• Men’s chest hair is not good either – wear an undershirt and button up
• Don’t overdress. For instance, if you are on an interview and normally be in a suit and tie in-person, you can likely simply wear a nice dress shirt.
If you want to wear sport coat, go for it. You’re not going to need to dry clean it if you wear it for an hour or so in your house
• You’re at home so be authentic. When we actually get back to norms, you’ll be dressing for work, but the other people for now don’t expect you
to be dressed to the nines.
• This is going to be the new norm even after Coronavirus, so don’t start bad habits.
• You’ll be surprised at how dressing professionally can make a good impression while making you feel more confident

12. Start with Your Appearance
Groom yourself
• Men
• Shower and shave
• Comb your hair
• Wear deodorant (I kid you not)
• Keep good hygiene up - you don’t have to commute, so you can use that time to keep yourself fresh
• And trim your nosehairs, please, for the sake of humanity
• Women
• Wear make-up if you usually do
• Use the time you’d be commuting to get yourself ready
• All – get more sleep. Bags under the eyes* show more in video. If you have control of meeting times, set them an hour
later in the day
• *We will address screen-time and staying away from close proximity to the screen

13. Image Tiles and Headshots
When the Video is off, Zoom and other virtual conferencing apps have a tile or profile pic.
• If you have an account, you can add a tile profile image
• You can use a headshot
• When you need to get up from your computer or are doing something that might be distracting, you can turn the
video off and display the headshot
• You can create an info or ad tile
• This is like an ad or mini-billboard
• Just be advised to change your tile depending on the particular conference call
• Some people create multiple free accounts to log in using different emails
• You can change the image while live in Zoom, but it can fail and is a little tricky

14. Image Tiles and Headshots

16. Video, Lighting and Technical tips
• Raise your laptop and “square” your frame (place your monitor or laptop at a 90-degree angle to eliminate parallax –
place a laptop on some books or a box
• Clean your lens or screen where the camera is hidden
• Make sure you’re not backlit
• Soft window light is great but supplement with a daylight balanced lamp
• Place the lamp behind your laptop and above the plain of your eyes
• This will light your eye and place a shadow under your chin helping hide a double chin
• People with glasses, we have some special instructions
• Flare is usually caused by a light behind you. Turn off lights in backgrounds and close blinds
• Clean up clutter like plants or lines from a door/picture frame cutting through your head
• Perfect is the enemy of the good
• You don’t need to create a studio, just a space that has less distractions

17. Pet Peeves/Fails
• Chewing gum/Vaping/Smoking
• Leaning back/rocking in a chair
• Looking at the person on screen instead of the camera (hard for everyone) when you’re presenting/talking - look at the green light
• Looking up your nose - elevate your computer or lower your chair
• Use a laptop if its available, not your iPhone
• The video is generally poor on the front facing camera
• People tend to hold the phone
• Or position it on a counter so youre looking up their nose
• Sitting to close or to far - we need to see your hands and your entire head, but not your waistline
• Multitasking – don’t be trying to do other work, concentrate on the task at hand
• Taking notes is fine , even typing. Just don’t be looking up the weather.
• Headphones with a boom microphone in front of your mouth
• Headphones, even the DJ full ears are great, but the arm in front of your mouth is distracting
• Again, headphones, ear buds with a microphone along the cord are completely acceptable. Invest in a good pair.

18. Tools, Apps, Tricks
• Virtual Backgrounds
• Built-in to Zoom
• Can be distracting as if you move, it cannot keep up; therefore not good for the presenter
• Need to create a slightly soft background as most webcams and built-ins are soft

19. Tools, Apps, Tricks
• iGlasses
• Allows you to control brightness, color-temp/white balance, and even zoom

20. Tools, Apps, Tricks
• Soft focus
• Built-in to Zoom
• This actually does a pretty good job of softening the skin
• Audio
• We didn’t have time to go into audio
• My best advice – use a plugged-in set of headphones
• You won’t have to worry about the battery dying on a Bluetooth
• The microphone moves with you
• If you’re using the computer’s built-in microphone, you either need to move a little closer to the
computer when you’re talking or raise your voice a little; hence, we recommend minimally a
headphone set
• Bluetooth is fine, just make sure you have a fully charged battery and a backup set handy.

21. How to Professionally Present Yourself Online:
Video Calls + Virtual Meetings
Q & A

22. Thank you!
kevin@kevinseifertphotography.com
www.RTP.studio
919-208-9458