We are living in a time of massive disruption and change and the right time is now to rapidly upskill to show up as the best version of yourself in online meetings.
This episode of Leadership Speaking Radio shares more valuable tools from the leadership speaking toolbox to help you to thrive when speaking online. Specifically, this episode unpacks the practical things you can do related to your presence, your voice and your body language when it comes to appearing in online meetings.
We train global leaders and change-makers how to speak in public
www.theleadershipspeakingschool.com
www.theleadershipspeakingschool.com
We are living in a time of massive disruption and change and the right time is now to rapidly upskill to show up as the best version of yourself in online meetings.
This episode of Leadership Speaking Radio shares more valuable tools from the leadership speaking toolbox to help you to thrive when speaking online. Specifically, this episode unpacks the practical things you can do related to your presence, your voice and your body language when it comes to appearing in online meetings.
We train global leaders and change-makers how to speak in public
www.theleadershipspeakingschool.com
www.theleadershipspeakingschool.com
[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Leadership speaking radio. This is episode number nine, how to rapidly up-skill to show up as the best version of yourself in online meetings. I'm your host, dr. Laura Penn professional speaker, coach, industry disruptor and founder of the leadership speaking school. We're based in Switzerland and we train global leaders and change makers. How to speak in public to find out more about the transformational work that we're doing. Feel free to visit our website at www dot the leadership speaking school. That's all one word.com. Now let's get straight into our topic. Today's topic is a relative of the first episode in this series about how to rapidly upscale to show up as the best version of yourself in online meetings. That first episode was about the setup. So from eight
Speaker 3:Visual and auditory point of view, what do you need to do to set up the best environment for yourself so that you can show up and shine in your online meetings. This episode takes things one step further, where the focus is not so much on your environment, but on you. So let's get into this and unpack these juicy details. The first thing I want to talk about is that in online meetings, when you are showing up in front of an audience on camera, you are what you wear. You are representing the brand, you in what you are showing up in wearing what your hair looks like, whether you've got makeup on or not. If you've ironed your shirt, the jewelry you're wearing, all of these things are pointing at you as the personal brand that you are. And you need to be putting thought and elbow grease into what you are wearing online, just as, by the way, I hope you're doing in live meetings. I want you to get comfortable with the idea that as a speaker, not only are you representing that you are what you wear, but as a speaker, you are a performing artist, like a singer, like a dancer, like an actor, speakers are performing artists and their outfits are as much part of their performance as what they are saying. I want you to adopt this mindset for yourself so that you're understanding that you are investing in figuring out what you're wearing. And as a default, it is always better to be overdressed than underdressed, but let's get more specific when it comes to what you are wearing in your online meetings. Make sure of these elements. You just want to show up neutral. You don't want to be projecting or shoving your fashion sense in people's faces. You want to appear neutral because what's important in the online space is that people are paying attention to your message. And if you are distracting them with visual elements of allowed wardrobe, messy hair or jewelry that moves in Jangles, it's harder for them to pay attention to what you're saying. Also remember that in an online space, everything is amplified. So you see things so much more in detail. This means that the color of your lipstick is clearly visible. This means that those hairs out of place on your head are also visible, or the fact that you didn't iron, your shirt is visible as well. So you really need to be thinking about the detail here in what you are wearing, creating a neutral wardrobe, neutral colors, nothing too loud. Everything feels harmonious. Visual equilibrium, which I talked about in the first episode in this series is served. That's your job in thinking about your wardrobe? Another thing you should think about related to what you're wearing is that you don't want clothes that are too restrictive by restrictive. I'm thinking about your breath. Don't wear tight belts or undergarments that make it hard for you to breathe. Don't wear a jacket where you can't move your arms appropriately. Make sure that the clothing that you were wearing enables you to move so that air can flow freely through your body and your lungs on camera and online meetings. You should also be aware of the fact that wearing patterns like stripes or checkers or any kind of pattern pixelates on camera, making it look like kind of having a hallucination. If you are looking at somebody wearing a pattern on camera, the screen kind of moves on its own. Don't wear patterns. Don't wear stripes, go for block colors. Finally, when it comes to what you're wearing, be aware of sharp contrasts. If you are sitting against a white wall or standing up, and the background is a white wall in your online meeting environment, be careful not to dress in a fully black outfit. These contrasts are really sharp. They make the eyes that are looking at you a little tired. You want to think about relaxing those eyeballs. You want to think about colors that not only are neutral, that don't make the eyes that are watching. You have to work so hard. So think about that. That wraps up the section on you are what you wear in online meetings. So let's go into the next topic that I want to share with you related to how to show up as the best version of yourself in online meetings. When it comes to you, the person, the speaker smile, you're on camera. This is everything. When you are working in the online space, a sense of self awareness. People who are not self aware when they are speaking on camera will scratch their nose or fart or do something that, that, that is not appropriate in a public forum, but that they're doing, because they're not aware of the fact that they are on, on with a capital O and a capital N and an exclamation.at the end, you are performing. You are literally on camera. So you need to be showing up with a level of self awareness about what you're doing like never before. And remember, this is amplified. Viewing people. See more of you. There's Technicolor, there's detail, there's nuance. So you really need to be on one big part of this self-awareness is remembering to look at the camera lens. When you are speaking people who are not comfortable on camera or don't have much experience working in the online space will look here and everywhere when they are talking to their audience. And this has kind of messy effect. You want to appear sharp, professional and crystal clear to the people that you're speaking to in this online space. And you do that by looking at the camera. When you're speaking. Another thing related to smile you're on camera is pay attention to how you are using your face. Again. Remember your face is under a microscope. And if you're talking about a happy subject, but you're not smiling. When you're talking about that happy subject, there is a lack of congruence. This is what happens when people say one thing, but then do another thing with their face or their body language. Part of being self aware when you're in the online space is being aware of what you're actually saying. If you're talking about something, happy, be happy, smile. If you're using happy words, smile. If you're talking about something joyful, you get the point, right? The same is true for the opposite emotion. So the online viewers need to see a congruence between what you're saying and what you're doing. This is really important as the message gets stuck and people don't quite continue to listen with the same attentiveness because they're trying to pick apart, wait, how do you really feel about this? Does that make sense? The next subject I want to cover related to the you in online meetings is this one sitting versus standing. I happen to know that the modus operandi for most people in online meetings is that they are sitting and beyond that they are usually sitting in some sort of pretzel formation. So either their legs are crossed or their arms are crossed, or they've got their elbows on the table and they've got their hands underneath their chin. And they're talking lunging over. This is the pretzel communication method, which is highly unfavorable, which is not going to serve you in the online meeting space. What you want to do as a speaker is you want to have open body language. Open is better than closed. Anything where you're locking down in a pretzel, formation is not gonna serve your airways is not going to help air move through your body, circulating oxygen, refreshing your ideas, making your voice freer. That's not going to serve you. If you're sitting like a pretzel. If you're going to sit, sit with open body language. But here's my favorite thing to say. I personally very strongly believe that the best version of yourself and online meetings is seen when you are standing up, standing up and speaking in your online meetings is a game changer. And it's a game changer for all the reasons that sitting in a pretzel formation is not. So when you are standing, your airway is open. Your voice can move more freely. You can express yourself. This is assuming that you're following some of the advice I gave in the first episode, in this series where I talked about the fact that you should be seen from your belly button to your head. So no head shots where you just see from the neck up, but a visual shot where you can see your hands, move your arms, move. Imagine the scenario of somebody saying with their hands in lockdown, I caught a really big fish. Okay. So you don't know the size of the fish. You don't really have much information there except the words that the person said, but if somebody moves their hands and you know, kind of creates like the length of a fish with their hands and says, I caught a really big fish, Oh, you get so much more information. There's supplemental information to that message. And in the online space, this is everything that extra information does this make sense? So that's one of the reasons that I love to recommend standing in online meetings. And here you have to just create your whole environment so that it works for you when you're standing, you've got your computer or whatever it is that you're recording on. And the online meeting, whatever camera you've got working, you've got that set up. So it's at a standing height. You've got a good distance, you and the camera so that you can see yourself from head to belly button. You've got space around you, so you can move your arms and your hands. And here's the thing. If you're not on camera for some reason, and it's just your voice, then disrupt that even further. Go ahead and walk around, walk around, moving your legs, your feet, your hips, as you are talking, this is the ultimate. This also implies that you have some sort of wireless ear pod system, but I digress a little bit. Let me get back to sitting versus standing. I think that based on what I've said so far, you probably get the hint that standing is a good idea in terms of what you're going to do with your voice, how you're going to show up with your message and your overall presence and energy. However, if you do prefer to sit down, do that, that's okay. Just remember that open is better than closed. So just to review, we've done a few things here related to how to show up as the best version of yourself in online meetings in talking about you, what you need to be doing your instrument. And what I've talked about first is that you are what you wear smile. You're on camera and a little discussion about sitting versus standing. And the last thing I want to talk about is about taking care of yourself. What does this mean? Well, look here, it takes a lot of effort to sit or stand and concentrate and be present beyond O N exclamation point with people looking at you online. Let's not kid ourselves. That's a really big deal. So every now and then do things that maintain your energy and your presence. I am willing to bet that you're not going to be on the whole time that other people are going to be speaking. And in those moments, do some self care, make sure you've got a full bottle of water room temperature next to you. Room temperature is important. This sues your vocal chords ice water. Wouldn't it would make them constrict too hot. That wouldn't be good either. So room temperature, water next to you. Take some sips of that throughout your meeting to make sure you've got nice lubricated throat also to supply you with energy because it takes energy to be on. Make sure you've got a little assortment of some healthy, delicious snacks around you. Things that you can chew on to just get your energy back up. Dates are great. Sunflower seeds, dried fruit. These are really nice energy picker, uppers, and they are really nice to have as a supplement next to you when you need that little pickup and energy. Finally, another thing that can help you to stay present is to take frequent. This is easier to do if you're in charge of the online meeting and you're running the show to just give people the opportunity by saying, look, we've been talking for the last 40 minutes or so let's all just take a 10 minute break and come back refreshed. Make sure that you build in this kind of break taking. If you're leading these meetings and if you're not leading the meetings, then ask for them. You want to stay sharp. You want to stay focused. It takes effort not only to beyond, but to stay on. So this is some advice for you to self care during your online meeting folks. I hope you've gotten some value from these tips. These are things that can help you to show up as the best version of yourself in the online meeting space, which is now taking off like gangbusters. There has never been a time when people have been speaking online, as much as they're doing now. And obviously we know why this is happening, but inside of this craziness, this extravaganza Bonanza of online speaking, let's elevate ourselves to be the best version of ourselves. When we are showing up in front of audiences, this way, let's apply leadership, speaking tools and techniques so that people listen to what we say, our messages matter. And we show up as the best version of ourselves. Every time we speak,
Speaker 2:I hope that you found this episode valuable and helpful and that you can apply what you've learned to your own speaking online. I look forward to bringing you another episode. Next time I will unpack more leadership speaking, golden nuggets for you until then. Thank you so much for listening. I'm so grateful for your attention and I really value that you guys are tuning in. I look forward to speaking to you next time.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].