How to use Zoom, and speak on camera with confidence

Hello everyone. My name is Melanie Wood, founder and owner of Speaking Styles, and I specialize in helping people like yourself to be able to gain more clarity and confidence so that you can share more about who you are, what you do to be able to grow your business or organisation.

Hello everyone. And welcome to today's video that you're going to be able to learn more around how to get started on zoom, and to be able to grow your confidence online. So welcome everybody and let's get to it.

So how we're going to get started on zoom today? That's what our video is going to be. So for any of you that have never used them, or you have used them that you want to be able to build some more confidence and clarity around doing it. That's what we're going to be able to learn today. So who is it cited to learn a little bit more about zoom? I'm been able to gain that clarity and confidence to get started.

So the thing is, is when we do speaking, and this is a great quote that I find. ‘And when you have confidence in your speaking, you get to have fun.’

And who wants to have a little bit more fun around speaking more about yourself and what you do? So when we start to have fun, amazing things happen. So that's what we want to look at today is building that confidence, so that you can enjoy yourself, have fun around speaking about who you are and what you do, and really being able to extend that communication and conversation online.

1. Getting started on Zoom

So let's do this. So my tips for today are to really get yourself comfortable and confident on zoom is that ask a friend, ask a peer and start to practice. Because we never want to be that person that just gets on and we haven't even looked into, what you're doing on zoom and you can't connect, you don't know if the camera's there, the sound’s there. Then what I really recommend doing is asking a friend and start to practice.

So you can go on to zoom and the frequently asked questions as well around anything to do around setting up zoom. Then they have a wealth of information on their website to get started, but go on to Zoom.com set up an account, get started, get a friend and start to practice. So that you begin to get comfortable with speaking on camera. You can then be able to work here, any of the technological issues that might come up, but also around how you can start getting comfortable with and confident to speak. Then ask a friend to be able to get started. So that's number one.

2. Consider camera, lighting and sound

So let's take a look at what is number two. That's really, really important is that you want to be able to check your camera. So sometimes when people are using their laptops, their camera might not be as great. So again, practicing with a friend means that you can get to see what it looks like.

So sometimes on our laptops, the quality is not that great. So then I highly recommend that you might look into getting a webcam, so that you are going to be able to increase your quality around your video. And then what you want it to do is check the sound. So again, you want to be able to go into your settings and check where you're connected to your sound. When you're practicing with your friend, finding out if they can hear you, they can see you and how it sounds to you as well.

Sometimes some people use microphones, some people use headsets. So again, practicing all of those things with the friend is such a good idea to do that. As well, having a look at your lighting as well in the place, depending on what time of day that you might be logging on to Zoom, then you want to maybe check your background. That's really, really important as well, because again, just to increase some of the professionalism and what you're doing on camera, you might want to check what's behind you. And not having loads of different mess around you at the back of you. And sometimes as well, you could look at putting a sheet up, putting a screen up, and then just create eating less distress for your viewers. Then they can focus on you and what it is that you're going to be saying.

So what we want to do is really check that technology because sometimes we can't control it. However, if we get to practice it beforehand, then it will make all the difference. So that's number two.

3. Recording and reviewing

Let's move on to number three. Now I know for a lot of you, when I see what, what am I about to see is that to record and review yourself? Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. And I know for a lot of people, they go, Nope, I can record it, but I don't know if I could review it of myself speaking. Watching myself. Yeah. But, you know, there's such a benefit in doing that when we can become the observer and what we're doing, then that is going to help you improve in your areas around your confidence and your speaking, becoming an observer and not being judgmental on yourself.

Actually going in with an open mind around how did I sound? Is my lighting is the background okay? Am I looking into the camera? Where am I focusing my time and my energy? Is really about going onto Zoom, recording it, doing a few minutes, and just giving it a bit of a practice over saying who you are and what you do. Then you can shut it down and then you can go back over and you can look over it or do you know what you could do? Send it to that friend that you did a practice with and ask them to give you some feedback on it, if you really want to have someone else review it for you first. But what I would really recommend is reviewing it for yourself and listing out some of the key things around technology that you could change, but also some of the things around your own speaking and some of that confidence that you can be able to gain from doing a next one.

So what's really important is really reviewing that is so, so important. Really get used to the setup of Zoom, to be able to get yourself confident in your speaking. And those are some three key things that can really get you started on Zoom. So that's my key ones around getting started on zoom, but what I really want to touch on is tip number four.

4. Understanding mindset and confidence

And that is around mindset. So when we're doing something new that getting on camera, setting up zoom or whatever online platform that you might be on, there might be some things, things that potentially hold you back in the beginning. So what I have listed here are some of the general ones that I hear from people.

You might have a couple of, more of your own. So I want to look at is that we have an inner voice. So we have an inner voice that tells us that we're not worthy, that we're not good enough at what we do, and why should we be speaking? And who's going to listen to us? So we all have that, have that inner voice. And sometimes I like to suggest to people is that you call them by name.

So I have Jen, and Jen just loves to be able to get everything done and rushing around and all of those things that Jen loves to do. So sometimes when we name them and we start to become aware of those people and what they say to us, it's an opportunity for us to be able to work through that, and to be able to reduce the volume on that inner voice.

Sometimes we get overwhelmed about getting on camera and setting something up for the first time when we haven't done it. We might get a little bit confused about how long does it, I speak, what do I speak on all of those things that comes with getting online and using different forms of technology?

Then we could have some fear that comes up and holds us back. So the fear can be that you might feel that you have fear of failure for doing it. Fear of rejection. Fear of humiliation and embarrassment of doing something wrong and it's on camera and you've got an audience there, and then you have fear of judgment as well.

So having a bit of a think about what fear might be holding you back as well. Cause it's not really the fear or speaking and it's not the fear around getting on camera. It's more around whether it's rejection, judgment, humiliation, failure. Those are what could be driving you in holding you back. So have a real think about that.

Stress is that it's adding something new to your day that you haven't had to do before. Time as well of thinking the time to set these things up the time to ask a friend, the time to record and review can all be a massive factor that could then go, I'm just gonna put my camera. I'm just going to put my laptop away, my phone away and let's do it tomorrow. And one of the things that I find is that tomorrow never comes. So it's about getting started today and really overcoming some of those mindsets that come around new technology and as well as confidence in your speaking.

So have a bit of a think for yourself. What could be holding you back? What inner voice might be shouting the loudest for you when it comes to getting on camera and getting started on Zoom? And then you can start to put a foundation to be able to start to overcome those things.

So that's my four tips around getting onto zoom and then getting confident and changing that mindset to be able to get yourself started today.

Ask yourself these two questions

So I'm going to leave you with these two questions that I want you to ask yourself. So you might want to note that down somewhere. And I want you to think about. Why do you want to pitch about what you do? Why do you want to share your message and share more about who you are and what you do?

Because this is a key question that's going to help you move forward to overcome any of those mindset obstacles about reaching out and asking a friend for help. When you know more around your why you're doing it, then that's going to behave to help you move forward and really those steps in place. So that's question number one.

Question number two is that I want you to write down what one step are you going to take each day to move forward with your speaking? So rather than thinking about, it's a real massive goal that you want to achieve. What's something one day, every single day that you're going to do to build a habit. And that could be writing down those fears, writing down how confused you might feel or overwhelmed. Blocking out some time that you're going to, to have each day 30 minutes every day to work on it. So something for you is when we build the habit every single day. It means when we get to the end goal is that it hasn't felt like we've climbed that mountain when we break it down. So those are two really important questions that I really want you to ask yourself and then start to be able to implement them and take it forward.

So to leave you with how are you going to use them to speak online and connect with your audience?

Thank you so much, everybody for watching and tuning in. Go out there. Get started on Zoom. Start to grow your mindset, grow your confidence and your clarity around why you do what you do and do it one step at a time. Go out there. I believe in you and you can do it. Thank you for watching.