The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
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welcome to scaling up h2o the podcast
where we’re scaling up on knowledge so
we don’t scale up our systems
hello scaling up nation I am Trace
Blackmore and I have the enormous
privilege of being the host of this
podcast and I want to thank everybody
out there who listens to this podcast
and shares this podcast our numbers are
going up and I love watching how many
people are downloading this podcast it
makes me feel good that in trying to
make our industry better that so many
people out there agree that they want to
be part of that they want to help make
the industry better and by sharing the
podcast and getting ideas on little
things that we can do to make each and
every day just a little bit better that
is making the industry better so thank
you for helping me do that and thank you
for doing that that has just been
phenomenal I love it of course when we
were able to travel people would come up
to me and tell me they really enjoyed
the show they really got inspired by a
particular show and this is what they
did different well we’re gonna be able
to see each other at events very shortly
I know things are slowly coming back
we’re getting more information each and
every day so we’ll probably have a new
version of normal but folks I cannot
wait to see you in person
and I cannot wait to hear what questions
you have that you want me to ask on
scaling up h2o or answer on scaling up
h2o of course if you want me to ask them
to a particular expert please let me
know who you think would be great on
this show and it will be my privilege to
get them on scaling up h2o so we can all
get a little bit smarter about that
topic well the topic that I want to talk
about today is something that has become
a tool that maybe some of us used to use
a little bit but now we
we are using it a lot and that is the
video conference so many different tools
out there for video conferencing the one
that I like to use is zoom I’ve been
using zoom for a while and I found that
zoom has been one of the easiest
platforms for me to use not only as a
moderator or a host the person that is
orchestrating the zoom calls but also as
a participant some other services are
just really difficult people have to go
set their settings log out log back in
there’s differences between if you have
a Mac if you have a PC and folks I just
haven’t had that issue with using zoom
well you might have heard that over the
the state home orders during the
pandemic I did several webinar series on
some things that I thought could help us
over that time you could go to scaling
up h2o comm forward slash webinar and
see all the work that we put together
there and that all came from a lot of
people from our mastermind group of
course the rising tide mastermind group
of people that we get together on a
regular basis and we asked each other
hey during this really weird time what
some information that we need so we can
help each other and we can do more
instead of just worrying about all the
things that we couldn’t do so I started
getting a different guest lined up we
did webinars and you can see all of
those at scaling up h2o comm forward
slash webinar now one of the webinars
that I did was on zoom call etiquette
our video call etiquette and it was
funny I was trying to find an expert and
there are lots of people that do video
calls but I couldn’t find anybody to do
an expert and I think I’m stealing my
intro from the actual webinar itself but
what I’m going to do now is I’m gonna
play you that
webinar and it’s my hope that after you
get some of those tips you can apply
them to your next video conference to
make it that much more productive so
please welcome our guests me
my name is tres Blackmore and I will be
your host today for this webinar and
this webinar is about virtual meetings
and virtual meetings is something that
several the mastermind members asked for
me to find an expert on and folks I’m
gonna tell you there’s lots of people
out there that do virtual meetings but
outside of the platform videos
themselves I had a hard time finding
somebody who was coming out and saying
that they were experts on virtual
meetings so I thought over the last few
years I’ve been doing a lot of virtual
meetings I think we’ve all been doing a
lot of virtual meetings lately and I
think that’s one of the great things
that has come out of all these stay at
home orders is that we’ve learned how we
can be very productive at home and how
we can still get that nonverbal
communication with each other even when
we’re not in the same room what I’m
gonna do today is I’m gonna share with
you some of the tips that I use when I
use virtual meetings and they’ve really
helped me connect with people on the
other end of the video camera and I hope
that they will help you now for those of
you that don’t know who I am my name is
tres Blackmore I host a podcast called
scaling up h2o and I also host a
mastermind group called the rising tide
mastermind we meet weekly on virtual
calls specifically we use zoom and we do
that and it’s it’s just like we are in a
room together well it’s as close as we
can get but we are all over the country
we have all corners of the United States
covered and we get together on a weekly
basis in the same virtual meeting so
some tips and things that I have learned
from hosting the
meetings the first thing that I think is
very important is you find a room that
is comfortable for you so are you gonna
be able to get your work done in this
room do you feel good about having a
videoconference in this room just quite
frankly is it comfortable for you then
is it private enough where you’re not
gonna get a lot of interruptions are you
going to have good lighting in this room
is your Wi-Fi signal strong in this room
think of all the things that you are
going to need to be able to do and is
this the best room for it so a lot of
people just start having a video call
many don’t think about what room should
they be having it in and I think that
should be the first thing that you think
about also we’re doing all these calls
from home let your family members know
for the next half hour for the next hour
you’re gonna be on a video call and
anything that they need
maybe you prepare an hour or so before
and make sure they have everything so
they don’t need you within that hour and
I think a lot of people forget to tell
their family members that they are on a
call and then I get embarrassed when
they get photobombed or maybe that’s
called video bombing in this format when
a family member walks into the frame of
view well normally it’s because they
didn’t know so just take a few moments
and let them know you’re gonna be on the
call asked them not to interrupt you and
I realize sometimes with small kids that
just doesn’t happen but what are the
things that you can do to minimize some
of those interruptions and if you just
can’t you know you gotta you gotta roll
with it and sometimes you have video
calls with kids and your arms so that
just happens but I know that can be
distracting so if there’s another option
for that normally the other participants
would appreciate that also ask people in
the house to try to keep background
noise too
again with kids I realize that this is
probably not going to happen
but at least you attempted to do so I
like to use a zoom we used Microsoft
teams before and we’ve also used some
other services GoToWebinar personally I
have found that zoom has been one of the
most user-friendly not only for the
hosts but also for people logging on
it’s just a simple one-click it takes
you to all the software downloads so
we’ve been using zoom exclusively for
about a year now before that we were
using Microsoft teams and a little bit
of zoom and before that I think we were
using GoToWebinar so find the platform
that works best for you we have found
that zoom seems to work best for us and
the participants on the other side it
just makes things a little bit easier
and they’ve got some great videos with
that well with zoom and I know with some
other services as well but I’m speaking
specifically with zoom they have a phone
platform and they have a computer
platform I’m gonna recommend whenever
possible use your computer the phone it
can work rates but you have very limited
features on the phone
and I’m gonna talk a little bit about
the different views that you have within
a video webinar specifically zoom but
you are limited to I think four or six
people at one time on a screen
when you are using the phone platform
you can’t see everybody and that’s the
best thing about virtual meetings as you
can see everybody in the room the other
thing is you just have more real estate
you have more features you have more
real estate you have more room to
actually see people’s facial expressions
so when you use the computer you just
get so much more than on the little
phone screen so so try to use your
computer we talked about picking out the
room but it’s also important to make
sure you have good lighting so is the
room you that you chose is that going to
give you some
good lighting another tip is don’t sit
in front of a window your webcam is
going to try to balance the light and if
you have a high light source like a
window behind you it’s going to put you
in shadow so preferably you want your
light in front of you and if you don’t
have good lights you good luck finding
them right now because everybody’s
buying video cameras and web equipment
with with the pandemic going on but you
can do front light video camera lights
you can get them from Amazon I think
they were all out of stock I was trying
to do a vanity link so you guys can see
some of the ones that we use but there
is nothing in stock right now but you
can actually put a light right around
your video camera so that way you are
getting the best light again all the
nonverbal cues that we get from
communication when we can see somebody
we’re able to do that through web
conferences and if we don’t have good
lighting we can’t see those cues so
remember make sure you have good
lighting and people are checking out all
your stuff hey what what’s going on in
his office what does he have behind him
you can see behind me I’ve got some
Marty McFly and Doc Brown characters and
a DeLorean and you’re probably wondering
what the heck’s going on of course if
you listen to the show you know I’m a
huge Back to the Future fan but the
point is is what are people seen behind
your actual face so what is in the
background and the freer of clutter it
is I guess that would be the more free
of clutter it is the less distracting
that it can be also take a moment and
make sure that everything you have in
the background is business appropriate
I’m not gonna go too much into this but
I will tell you I’ve been on a
conference call where there was some
things that were not business
appropriate in the background and I
guarantee you that was very distracting
so what does the
ground looked like and is it saying what
you want it to say about you and then be
prepared my hope with my type-a
personality I hope that the host has
sent out an agenda we’re going to talk a
little bit about the host
responsibilities in a moment but if the
host has sent out an agenda and they
should make sure you read it make sure
you prepare for it are there certain
things that you’re going to need to have
access to during that call go ahead and
make sure you have those things open so
you don’t have to fumble around for them
are you going to need to share your
screen if you’re going to need to share
your screen should probably make sure
that you’ve got all of those windows
open and ready to go so you can just
simply toggle back and forth but just be
prepared and anything you think you’re
going to need on the meeting or anything
you’re going to need to prepare and
folks this means taking care of all the
human functions so you know if you’re
hungry eat before the meeting if you’re
thirsty get something to drink and have
that on standby by all means you should
use the restroom before the meeting so
all those things to prepare yourself for
that meeting I think is good advice I
can’t tell you how many calls that I’ve
been on where somebody was late because
they said oh I had to install the
software or there was this issue well
folks normally you don’t get a meeting
for three o’clock at 2:59 so take some
time and do a dry run try to figure out
how to use the software go through the
features make sure your Wi-Fi signal is
good test the room out that you chose
all the things we’ve done up to this
point go ahead and do them on a practice
run zoom especially has some great tools
where you can see what you look like in
your camera you can adjust your
microphone you can do some tests so go
ahead and run those and see what your
background looks
like in that frame do all of those
things and now you are ready for the
meeting we mentioned before if you might
have to share your screen do you know
how to do that do you know how to toggle
back and forth from sharing your screen
to not sharing your screen do you know
how to use the chat functions do you
know how to raise your hand if something
happens and you have to turn your video
off for whatever reason do you know how
to do that do you know how to get that
back on do you know how to mute yourself
do you know how to unmute yourself do
you know how to talk privately with
somebody all these things go ahead and
practice before the actual call and it
will make the call go so much better for
those of you that are listening on the
webinar you are for those of you that
are watching on the webinar you can see
that I just put a picture of a guy that
is business casual on the top and in his
underwear on the bottom for those of you
that are listening on the podcast you
can’t see that but the point I want to
make here is that you want to dress the
parts when you are on the video
conference that’s the whole point of
having a video conference as so people
can see you folks if you are in the the
slum iasts clothes that you have some
people can take that as a lack of
respect and you might not be thinking
about that it that way but why have
somebody else have that in their mind
about you and just make sure that you
dress professional it does show respect
also I think when you get into your work
clothes rather than pajamas say
especially when you’re working at home
it tricks your brain to make sure you
know what you’re doing you are at work
and you’re in your work attire and
you’ve got your work mindset now if
you’re this guy and you’re just dressing
from the top up just be very conscious
that you do not stand up during the
video call now during my video calls
when I host and they’re longer I
normally have people switch positions
stand up sit down move rooms just to try
to keep it fresh this guy is going to
have a
with that if we did that so just keep in
mind and keep it professional I
mentioned earlier try not to use your
phones if you have a choice to use a
larger format like a computer but if you
are using your phones please turn your
notifications off in fact if you have an
iPhone there’s a do not disturb mode
there’s an equivalent on the Android we
sometimes you’ll actually lose the
videoconference with certain
notifications there’s a service that I
use and if somebody is on it with me
it’s not zoom it’s something we use for
the podcast it will actually disconnect
them if they get a phone call and it
says in the instructions that I send out
to please put your phone on Do Not
Disturb and I can’t tell you how many
times that people have not done that
notifications are distracting now folks
I know we’re all having issues getting
used to working from home some have been
doing it for a long time some have not
had a choice where they either had to go
into office or had to work from home and
others are doing it for the first time
with that try to keep mont your mind set
on the task at hand and notifications do
the exact opposite so if you’re having a
notification come up every time you get
a text every time you get a every time
you get a email all that stuff it is
taking your mindset away from the task
you should be focusing on on your
computer I use Outlook and the first
thing I do when I set up outlook is I
turn off the notification every time I
get an email there’s a little window
that comes up and on that window it has
a few lines of the email and you can’t
help but look at that and I promise you
your mind will go away from the tasks
that you’re thinking about and it will
focus on that email folks don’t do that
to yourself
keep your mind where it should be and
then schedule times that you’re going to
look at your email schedule times that
you’re going to look at texts and I got
to tell you when I’m in a meeting and
somebody’s constantly
their phone or now they’re looking at
their eye watch I know that they are not
paying attention to me and I look at
that as is they’re not giving me the
respect that I’m trying to give them it
all starts with notifications and it all
starts with keeping a schedule so if you
can keep a schedule that you’re going to
check these things every so often you
don’t need these notifications but
especially when you’re in a meeting be
present in the meeting and you’re going
to be distracted if you have those
notifications on so please turn those
off when you’re not the one speaking
mute yourself when you are on a
conference call and you start hearing
all this wind noise or maybe kids in the
background or something else that’s
distracting so a good webinar a good
video etiquette is to mute yourself when
you’re not the one speaking now you
might not think there’s any background
noise but maybe there is and you just
can’t hear it now as far as the host
goes a good habit to get into and if you
open up the participants screen on zoom’
you can manage all the participants very
easily you can also do that by hovering
over each participant screen of their
video image and you can do some
management techniques there as well one
of the things is you can mute people
there is a red button so to speak at the
very bottom if you open up participants
and it says mute also let’s say there’s
this you’re having a meeting and there’s
this horrible background what you can do
is you can quickly mute all and then
turn on the person that is speaking so
that’s a little tip that I’ve used in
the past now for the people that are
muted you got to remember to unmute
yourself a lot of people will start
talking and there’ll be three minutes in
before they realize that nobody is
listening to them normally somebody will
say hey I can see your lips moving but
you’re on mute now those the hosts can
unmute and mute people but
only participants can mute and unmute
themselves you might also want to be
familiar with gestures and you can use
them virtually or you can use them
yourself so maybe you might raise your
hand the host should tell you what cues
to give if you have a comment or a
question but they’re also virtual ways
to do that and you can actually raise
your hand virtually so good tip mute
yourself when you’re not talking I think
this goes without saying but I can’t
tell you how many video calls that I’ve
been on and people don’t use their
videos folks has called a video call use
your video use your webcam so take
advantage of the video feature and use
that we talked about how to get good
lighting we talked about how to test all
that we talked about the background
there’s no reason not to use the video
feature and at least the third time I’ve
said it on this webinar when we
communicate 60% or more are non-verbal
cues now being face to face is always
the best way to communicate but
definitely having a video component is
the second best folks make sure your
cameras are on and when your camera is
on look into the camera so I’ve been
trying my best to look directly into the
camera during this webinar but I got to
tell you it’s difficult because my
screen and my notes are all below the
camera so if I would actually to look at
my notes you can tell that I have my
eyes off of the camera now that’s fine
if you’re not speaking directly to the
audience when you’re speaking directly
to the audience my advice to you is that
you are going to look directly at the
camera and then when you’re not speaking
you can look at the screen at the person
that is doing the talking that way you
can see their verbal cues now if you
need to read your notes like I’m doing
right now
you are perfectly welcome to do so but I
can tell you from webinars that I’ve
attended and also ones that I’ve done
that people have given me criticism on
and feedback is probably a better way to
say that they said that they really
appreciate when I was looking directly
at them that they’ve been on other
webinars that people have not always
done that so just keep in mind look at
the camera you’re going to connect with
people better now as you’re connecting
with people what is your body language
saying about you so are you reacting in
a way when somebody is bringing up a
particular topic or a solution that just
makes it look like you don’t care about
what they’re saying or it’s the dumbest
thing you’ve ever heard keep in mind the
conference calls they’re a great thing
to have but the the two things that I’d
like to point out is when we’re in a
conference room if I want to look at
somebody across the conference room I
can just see that one person’s reaction
but on this video conference I’m looking
at everybody’s reaction the entire
meeting so how we’re holding our face
how we’re making gestures when people
are talking that is nonverbal
communication and it might be
communicating something that you mean to
say it might be communicating something
that you don’t wish to say just keep in
mind that people are watching and what
is what are your nonverbal cues saying
about you
zooom specifically and I know the other
services do as well they have different
view modes and the mode that I recommend
is called gallery view the other one is
called speaker or spotlight view and the
difference says gallery view is like the
Brady Bunch if you remember how the
Brady Bunch
opened up and they had nine screens and
you could see everybody there well
that’s I think the best part the best
way to have a video conference you have
everybody
in front of you you can see the
nonverbal cues you can see if somebody
has something to say you can see if
somebody raises their hand you can see
all of these things and it really makes
videoconferencing very efficient now if
you have it on spotlight or speaker view
you’ll have very small screens of the
people that are on the conference call
and then you’ll have a slightly larger
screen of the person that is speaking my
advice is that you go ahead and use
gallery view because now you can see
what all your cohorts are doing in the
screen and you know maybe you notice
that cindy has something to say or
because of her facial expression you
know she’s not saying something but you
know as the host that you need to call
on her because it looks like she has
something to say gallery view is
something that I highly recommend it’s
the best way to do that for those of you
that are using zoom it’s going to be in
the top right hand corner and you can
toggle back and forth for those of you
that are using the phone app you want to
go ahead and I think swipe to get the
different views by the way speaking of
the phone if you have the phone straight
up and down you’re gonna have a long
skinny picture if you do the phone
sideways you are going to have a wide
picture and it’s going to look more like
the people that are on their computers
so another tip is to go ahead and do if
you have to do use your phone during a
web conference again I highly recommend
using your computer but sometimes you
don’t have any options if you’re using
your phone use it sideways because it
gives you a lot better profile picture
and it makes you match with everybody
else now one of the coolest things that
we can do in video conferencing as we
can share our screens now zoom everybody
has the ability to share
their screens on some of the other
services that’s not true and then on
some of the other services the the host
has to grant those rights with zoom you
just get it from logging on that can be
a blessing and a curse depending on who
is on the conference call I do a web
call with 13-year old boys in my church
group twice a week and sometimes sharing
screens distracts us a little bit but
it’s all about having fun we always have
fun but just just keep in mind the host
has to know how to control that and
there are controls for that you can have
people stop sharing their screen by
being the host again zooms got some
great videos on that so if you go to the
zoom website and they have basic
features they have advanced features you
can learn how to use all of those now
the feature I want to show you right now
is sharing the screen and I’m sure most
people have done that but a couple
things I want to point out one when you
know you’re going to share your screen
have every other application in your
background closed that you are not going
to need a friend of mine was sharing his
screen and he accidentally shared the
wrong screen and it was financial
information about his company now I
wasn’t a huge deal but maybe that could
have been maybe he could have been a CPA
and it was financial information about
somebody else’s company that could have
been a huge deal and a deal breaker as
far as you know how he’s supposed to
keep his customer information
confidential so that wasn’t the case but
I just use that as an example if you
don’t have it open and you shouldn’t
have it open your focus should be on the
webinar itself so you don’t need to have
that open but if you don’t have it open
you’re not going to show it by accident
the other thing I want to point out is
you can share your entire screen and
then you can use your screen as a
palette where you just add things to the
screen now I have multiple screens here
in in my office so I need to choose the
correct screen now whatever goes into
that screen
is going to be shared but another thing
you can do is you can share the
application so here I’ve got a
PowerPoint video that’s running what you
can do is you can simply just say I just
want the PowerPoint view presentation up
and regardless of what else is on the
screen it’s only gonna show that
application so I recommend you always
choose that for the same reason that I
just shared about the person with the
financial information now there’s also a
whiteboard feature so you can draw on
the screen and sometimes that’s really
good if you have a spreadsheet up you
can draw people’s attention to a certain
area so you’ve got a lot of tools here
if you were sharing video you know I
always like to open up meetings with a
funny YouTube video or something just to
break the ice and get people you know in
a good mood if you’re going to do that
and it has video and it has audio you
have to put share computer sound there’s
a check mark at the very bottom you have
to check that it’s also a good idea to
optimize for fullscreen video clip that
just does a couple things in the
background to make others see the video
that you are sharing just better and
then of course after you choose those
you click share and you should be good
to go now you’re gonna have a little
screen that’s going to tell you that you
are sharing and it’s going to be in
green and then right beside that in red
if you’re using zoom it says stop share
now I recommend as soon as you are done
using the share so we’re looking at an
Excel spreadsheet and now we’re done
looking at immediately in the share
because now we get larger pictures where
we can see each other now what happens
what zoom does is it puts everybody over
on the right hand side of the screen we
can still see each other but we’re very
small now you can drag your screen over
that right hand side border it will you
can drag that over
and it will allow the pictures to get a
little bit bigger and will also I think
sometimes bring people into the screen
that weren’t there if you’re having a
large meeting so you can play with that
as well try to think of a quote that
would be a good bottom line with any
meeting and here’s what I came up with
if you wouldn’t do it in the conference
room you shouldn’t do it in a video room
folks this is about being prepared it’s
about respect it’s about all these
things if you would not go and eat a
plate of spaghetti during a conference
in the fanciest conference room that
your office has to offer folks don’t do
that
on a video call I don’t think people
care about drinking and a lot of things
like that and I just realized I’m
stealing another slide down the road but
having a huge plate of meatballs and
spaghetti is probably not something that
you would do unless it was a lunch
meeting in the conference room so just
use that if you wouldn’t wear a
ripped-up motley crue t-shirt to the
conference room you probably shouldn’t
do that in the video room so just take
that for what it is worth
I will say this is more for hosts than
anybody else but this is something that
I have really come to realize and I’ve
hosted a lot of meetings especially over
this stay at home orders where I was
supposed to be in places and help
facilitate meetings and these meetings
were 8 plus hours that I was supposed to
facilitate well of course when we’re in
person we can have breaks we can do all
these things we can do different
activities there’s no reason that we
can’t do that on video calls but the
thing that I want to point out most of
all is that video conferences are super
concentrated we are staring at not just
one person when we look at somebody like
across the conference table we are
looking at everybody for the entire call
especially when we’re in that gallery
view that I recommended so I want you to
think of video conferences to be
measured in dog years
they are super concentrated so if you’re
going to do an eight-hour call you you
probably want to consider reducing the
time and make sure you have a lot of
breaks I try not to go over 45 to 55
minutes without a stretch break is just
a really really good habit as a host to
get into to give lots of breaks because
if people are getting uncomfortable
they’re not paying attention they’re not
being their best and we can we can
definitely make more out of the meetings
when we feel better when we’re more
comfortable so remember conference calls
are definitely more concentrated than
regular in-person calls now I talked a
lot about the host and I I’ve seen some
very good hosts and I seen some hosts
that all they did was send out an
invitation folks being a host it’s a
responsibility you have to know all of
the tools that are within the software
better than anybody else because guess
what you are the host you are the person
that’s gonna have to help them through
some things now if you’ve got somebody
to share in a lot of information you
might even want to call them before and
get on a practice call to help share the
tools with them so they can effortlessly
share their screen do things like that
that’s something the host should do the
host should be putting on an agenda make
sure the people that are attending are
people that are prepared they know what
they’re going to need to review before
the meeting so they can come in primed
and ready to go with great information
and for those of you that get an agenda
please review the agenda and make sure
you are ready to go because the host did
spend some time on that
now the hosts are the moderator that’s
what you need to do you need to moderate
your job is to definitely be in that
gallery view you are looking at
everybody’s facial expressions and
you’re making sure that everybody’s
being heard you know we haven’t heard
from Jan the entire call I’m probably
going to talk with her I’m gonna say Jan
yeah you know we haven’t heard from you
do you have anything that you want to
say don’t be embarrassed about calling
people out and folks don’t be
embarrassed about talking on video calls
there’s a reason that you are on this
video call we need to hear your opinion
well the host the moderator can
definitely help with that we talked
about some different features earlier in
the call the host job is to manage the
participants all of a sudden if there’s
a bunch of background noise you need to
look hopefully that screen is
highlighted you can see where the
background noise is coming from you need
to mute that person a lot of times
people say you know Sally can you mute
your screen well the host can do that
probably even quicker and then maybe the
host could even send a private chat to
the person and saying hey Sally you had
some background noise in your screen I’m
you did you remember if you need to say
something go ahead and unmute yourself
and then immediately put yourself back
on mute so just keep that stuff in mind
something I’ve experienced a couple
times especially with wire earbuds is
that sometimes those wires get frayed
and even though the person wearing the
earbuds cannot hear the noise it’s
actually putting a hum into everybody’s
speaker so if you notice that people
have said that there’s background noise
that might be the issue and maybe you
need a new pair of those so also for the
host knowing how to use all the features
knowing how to help people understand
that technology maybe doing some
practice with them but always ask for
feedback what would make this meeting
better and it techniques that I like to
use is called plus and Delta what do you
like what’s the pluses about this
meeting when we do the meeting again we
knew and liked meeting like this what do
you want to make sure that we don’t
leave out and then the Delta what do you
want to change what would make this
meeting even better next time you can
ask people sometimes depending on the
group they’re very apt to tell you what
they think some people are a little shy
with that you might want to send out a
survey I think if you’re a host and
you’re really trying to get better at
this you should call people and now it’s
just one-to-one or better yet do a video
conference and now it’s just you and me
and I’m gonna ask you what you liked
about it I want to ask you what you
think we should change about it and I
want to get some great information that
way and that’s gonna make me a better
host that’s gonna make our calls better
and that’s gonna make the meetings so
much better don’t be afraid to tackle
big issues on a video conference might
be awkward it might seem that we need to
wait until we’re face-to-face well folks
in the situation that we’ve been in with
the pandemic we can’t get face to face
so this is how we’re doing business so
whatever the issue is this is the
meeting that we’re dealing with it so
though we have the appropriate people
there it’s important for us to use those
people present the case and then figure
out how we are going to do that so
virtual meetings are for tough issues
too
I mentioned this a little bit but eating
I don’t think people appreciates
unless you know a lot of people say hey
I haven’t had time to have lunch do you
mind if I eat and I don’t think anybody
cares but if all of a sudden this I
don’t know why I’m hooked on spaghetti
today but if all of a sudden this huge
plate of spaghetti and meatballs comes
out and nobody’s expecting it that’s
very distracting especially the meatball
rolls off your plate and into your
background I just I don’t think it’s
best meeting practices now I will tell
you I’ve had plenty of meetings where
people have said you know this is the
only time I have to eat lunch I’ve got a
call after that nobody cares you’ve made
people aware of that or we say you know
what we’re gonna eat lunch together
during this meeting and now we’re all
doing that so just keep that in mind if
if it’s something distracting if it’s
something that you wouldn’t do in a
regular conference room just try not to
do that on the video conference as well
also stay focused we talked about
turning off notifications
well now we’re also going to talk about
staying on the task at hand so if I’m on
a video conference I need to have my
mind in the video conference I need to
pay attention to what everybody’s saying
I’m looking at those nonverbal cues and
I’m being my best in this video
conference and folks if we’re all doing
that what a great meeting we’re gonna
have if we are working on something else
in the background and I know for a fact
you have been on a call where somebody
is watching television in the background
they are not present they are not
helping the team so stay on the tasks on
hand and the other thing I want to
mention especially if you’re using zoom
and the host is on participant view you
can see if zoom is the most forward
program that that person is using
meaning if zoom is open and there’s and
it’s in the foreground and
it actually notifies the hosts that that
person’s paying attention however if I
go over to a Word document
and that’s what I’m working on that’s in
the foreground even though I can still
see the videoconference there’s a little
icon it’s a little clock that goes next
to that person’s name I can tell as the
host that that person doesn’t have me in
the foreground a lot of people don’t
know about that so I just want to want
to let you know about that folks please
please please please don’t do private
things while you’re on a video call a
couple of weeks ago a viral zoom video
when out where I guess you know we had a
bunch of people that were getting
together for a video call and one lady
put her phone down on the sink and and
started going to the bathroom and
everybody saw it and of course if you’re
if you’ve seen that you see how
surprised everybody is folks do that
stuff before and after the call and if
you’re a host and you’re doing a long
meeting folks you’ve got to build
breakout time into the meeting so we
need to I like to say every 45 minutes
to 55 minutes have at least a
five-minute break when I do breaks I say
you know during this break you got to do
five jumping jacks or you got to go get
a new beverage or you’ve got to go
outside for at least one minute or
something we come back you’re in a
different position host we got to make
sure that people are able to do the
things they need to do so they can stay
attentive and definitely we got to give
them time to use the bathroom bottom
line do not use the bathroom while you
have an active video call just don’t do
it if you’ve ever been on a call and say
we’ve got 12 people on the call and only
three are doing all the talking and then
we get off the call it’s probably nine
people that could have been more
productive doing something else
so as the host only invite the people
that need to be on the call don’t invite
everybody on your team if only a couple
people on the team need to talk about
and make a decision
people will appreciate that and let’s
face it if you’re a supervisor
you’re wasting their time and you’re
wasting your time getting other things
done through your team free them up to
be more efficient on working on what
they need to do you know a tip that I
think is so important especially where
so many of us are working from home
these days is supervisors must connect
with their people if people feel that
they are now working as an island and
they don’t feel connected they’re not
going to be motivated so having team
calls is great but the host needs to
make sure that everybody stays engaged
something that I’m a huge fan of is a
daily huddle Tim Fulton taught that to
me Tim Fulton is my business coach and
he has people on teams get together for
no more than five minutes every morning
and they do three things what do they do
yesterday what are they doing today and
what do they need help with now if they
need help with something
you’re gonna connect them with people
that can help them but you’re gonna do
that offline so everybody goes through
you know what the entire team is working
on and then you are able to make sure
that you have a very connected and
productive team I believe it was last
year maybe two years ago there was a BBC
journalist and he was on an interview
and his four year old son kept
photobombing him or video bombing him
and he was mortified he was trying to
ignore him for the longest time and then
finally he had to deal with it and and
it became a viral video folks we’re
never going to have the perfect video
call so if your kids do appear in the
background I think now more than ever
everybody is very patient with that now
if you didn’t tell them because as we
said in the very beginning when you have
a video call let everybody in the house
know that you’re going to be on a video
call so they can respect that time that
might have been your fault but if you
did all those things sometimes kids just
do what they’re going to do that’s what
kid
do you know don’t get mortified I think
people understand that and then I can’t
tell you how many meetings that I’ve
been on where private conversations
break out and again two people are
talking about something that the other
nine aren’t able to relate to folks take
that stuff offline and especially if you
have to discipline somebody don’t to
that on the video call do that in
private it was Vince Lombardi that says
you praise in public you criticize in
private so just make sure if anything
comes out of a meeting that is not for
everybody
be very respectful of the other people’s
time and take that offline set up
another video conference with that one
person the host should always be the
last one to leave the video conference
it’s it’s just good etiquette I think
plus you want to make sure that you’re
keeping the team on task now as the host
when I exit I can either exit I can
close everybody out or just myself
I recommend that unless two people need
to have a private meeting that’s not you
that you stay on until that call is over
and then you were the one that ends it
for everybody and there are also some
different features that the host can use
there’s some advanced features like
breakout rooms so while we’re in the
conference let’s say we’ve got nine
people plus the host so we can set up
breakout rooms of three people and now
all of a sudden we have three separate
rooms we take an issue and now we have
three separate opinions that groups have
worked on and the host can actually move
from room to room they can send content
to the rooms they can send reminders
there’s a timer on the room so lots of
cool features with that so if you have a
very large meeting and you want to make
sure that you get some breakout time
with people you can use breakout rooms
and you can have the computer randomly
select who
you want or you can put certain people
in breakout rooms so something else that
the host needs to know how to do I’m not
sure other services do that but I know
zoom does and the last thing I want to
mention are the differences between
webinars and meetings so meetings are
what we’ve been talking about today
pretty much everybody has the same
privileges the host has a few more
because they can manage the people in
the room by the way the host can also
make other people co-hosts and that is a
good thing to do if you’re trying to
help manage a lot of people it gives
somebody else maybe maybe say hey can
you make sure people are muted and
unmuted we don’t have any map background
noise and now somebody’s in charge of
that you can make them a co-host and
then they can do that if you have to get
off the call you can make somebody else
a host so everybody can share their
screen everybody can be visible
everybody can mute and unmute themselves
everybody can turn on and off their
video by the way the only person that
can turn on and off their video is the
participant the host can never can never
do that they can request it but they
can’t turn it on all that is with zoom
meetings webinars are when there is a
host and there is a panelist and the
panelist is typically though the guests
that’s coming in speaking and those are
the only people that are shown on the
screen now we may have 300 people that
are joining us participants they can’t
speak and we cannot see their video now
they normally can chat and they can ask
questions and they of course can see the
participant and the host so that’s the
big difference with the webinar if
you’re managing super big crowds of
people that are watching an expert so
that’s probably the best way to go with
that there’s some workarounds where you
can do with the zoom meeting and by the
way meetings I think you can see up to
49 people on a meeting I’m not sure if
you can have more people and only see 49
so that’s something that you might need
to check out I think most of our teams
are a little bit
than that if you’re doing something
larger than that you might want to
consider a webinar especially if it’s
just relaying information to people I
think we can boil this down into three
captions how do I make sure that this is
the best video conference that I can
have well number one I need I need to be
prepared you need to have everything
that I need to have I need to review
everything I need to be in the right
mindset I need to be familiar with the
software I need to be prepared I need to
be respectful being respectful with
people means that I want them to be
respectful of me and I’m gonna show them
respect so I can get to that respect and
we talked about making sure we’re
dressing the part making sure we’ve
prepared for the meeting make sure we’ve
done all of these things for good
meeting etiquette that shows that I’m
being respectful and of course being
professional so we’re all professionals
at our job we need to make sure that
week chime in we’re showing good meeting
etiquette we’re letting people talk
we’re asking people for their opinion
were well prepared with our answers we
know what the call is going to be about
because we’ve read the agenda and we’ve
prepared for the agenda and now the only
new information we have is the
information that we’re getting on the
webinar so if we’re prepared if we’re
professional and we’re respectful I
think you’re gonna have one of the best
video conferences that you’ve ever had
so I hope that this has been helpful for
you and I hope you share this with
somebody I think we all are learning
more and more every day about how to
have a great video conference and I hope
this has helped you to get a little bit
closer to making your next video call
just a little bit better thanks
well this is normally the part where I
come in and say trace thanks so much for
coming on scaling up great guests I
think I was a great guest folks I talked
about that because that was a topic that
somebody reached out to me and they were
asking me for tips and tricks on a zoom
call or on a video call so that being
said not necessarily water treatment but
I know all water treaters are using that
tool so I need to know what you want to
hear on scaling up h2o without you I
will not know the topics that I need to
talk about to keep everybody out there
in the scaling up nation interested so
if you go to scaling up h2o dot-com and
you can go to our show ideas page and
you can just let us know exactly what
your idea is who you want me to
interview pretty much anything you want
me to do on the show if it is relevant
and it gets us all to where we are
trying to go elevating the water
treatment industry I will definitely try
to get that on and many of you have
already taken advantage of this but you
can also click on the right hand side of
our webpage and you can record your own
voice asking your very own question with
that I will play it on the air and we
will get your questions answered folks
thanks again for listening to the show
thanks for being part of the scaling up
nation and I can’t wait to bring you
another exciting episode of scaling up
h2o next week have a great week folks
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