How To Be More Confident In Virtual Meetings

Do you want to be more confident in virtual meetings, in video interviews, Anything over a screen where you're going to be interacting with someone, which is especially important right now because a lot of our communications have shifted for this time period into interacting on screens. In fact, I had a client recently who went through a round with a big tech company, one of the biggest ones in the world, not going to name names, where he went through a round of four interviews. Four interviews, just as the initial preliminary process. And then there's more after that, after you pass those four. And every single one of them was done via video. And so if your presence in virtual meetings and video and interaction like that is not strong, it can affect you in your career. It can affect you in being able to just connect with people socially, your friends. And like, you just kind of maybe limit the amount of contact you have with people virtually over the screen, and that can limit those connections and friendships. So there's simple techniques that you can use right now to appear and actually be more confident on video and through virtual meetings. Let's get into those right now. So, number one is body language is even more important on video than in person. And it's extremely important in person. But there's also a lot of other subtle data that we're gathering in person beyond the video, beyond what we're seeing with our eyes. You're getting a sense of someone in terms of their emotional energy that they're emitting, in terms of how they're reacting to you. In very subtle ways, they're. But what you're getting through a screen is some of that stuff is filtered down. You can still see it. Like if you saw someone on video and they were like, just like emitting a lot of negative emotion or something, you'd still see it, but it takes a little bit more than in person. In person, really subtle things are happening between our bodies and exchanging. But on screen, the body language is a little bit muted. And so you need to actually, if you want to be confident, you need to bring a little bit more than normal. And so if your body language in real life and face to face tends to be a little, like just a little bit restricted, a little bit muted, because there's a little pattern of social anxiety which a lot of people have and they don't know it. They think, oh, this is just how I am. This is just how I operate. I'm a cool person. I'm not one of those excitable people. But actually what's happened is they learn to be cool over Many years of social conditioning which they want to get made fun of. And so now flash forward, they're in the 30s or 40s or 50s and they're like, they're kind of robotic. Hi, how's it going? You know, a little bit sedated seeming. Yeah, it's pretty good, you know. How was your weekend? Oh, weekend was amazing. It's like, why do you sound like you're falling asleep? You know, My weekend was amazing. Right? Wow. Well, don't get so excited. What are you all excited about? Right? So you gotta bring that though into if you wanna be confident in your video interviews, in your virtual meetings, with team members, even interacting with a friend. You gotta bring more of your body language. What does that mean? The best way to do that is, is to stand upright. When I record this video, right now I am standing like I'm not sitting down now. I do some videos sitting down, but the energy is way higher when I'm standing. So if you can stand up during your meetings, stand up during your meetings. If you do need to sit down, sit down where your butt is on the edge of your seat and not against the back of your chair. Because you're going to sit down like this. It's just going to totally shift the energy in the meeting. And you want to be upright for that meeting. You want to be energized, engaged, especially during an interview. Right. You know, he's like, yeah, there's a lot I could bring to your company. It's not going to work. You got to be energized, upright, and you got to move, move your body, move your face more. And these are things that you could practice and build regardless, even when you're in person. But it's especially important in video. Notice how much I'm moving my head and my face and my hands as I talk. The more you can. In fact, there's tons of research about the amount that you gesture is related to how confident perceive you, how much people perceive you as confident, as certain, as capable, as an author, as intelligent, literally by how much you gesture. Isn't that crazy? So increase your gesturing, increase your body language, increase your face. That's a huge tip for becoming more confident on video. The second thing, and this one's like a no brainer. But I just got to say it, don't have anything else open. It's amazing to me. It's like people think they're like, no one would know. I'm just going to go read my emails while we're on this meeting. No People are going to know. First of all, you can see light changes on people's faces. If new screens and windows are opening up, the colors of the screen or a white screen opens up on their face, you could see it changing versus if they're not doing that, you could see what their eyes are doing. Come on. I mean, their eyes are like scanning and stuff like that. So don't do it because it detracts. The other person's instantly gonna notice it. It detracts from your energy. You're obviously like 90% disengaged at that point. And so don't do it. It's gonna severely impact how confident you appear. Another thing that you wanna do to become more confident on video is to speak up more. Now this one is generally a good thing for more confidence in meetings is to speak up more. And this is something I teach a lot in all my courses, including career acceleration inside of Confidence University. But if you're scared to speak up, you're not sure how to do it. First of all, when I give that suggestion, some of you might just go out and do it right away. But if you're watching this and like, I don't know, you have some fears or concerns, you definitely need to go through Confidence University to eliminate those. But then also start with a question. I have a question about that, or what about this versus that or that sort of thing. Or start with when someone else asks a question that's like needing a sort of a. Like, do you guys understand that or does that make sense? Instead of just sitting there, say, yeah, that makes sense, right? Instead of saying yes, you can say, yeah, that makes sense. You see how you've said more in the meeting. Like make it a game, say how much do I talk on a meeting? How many sentences do I say? Maybe I can double that. Maybe I can sense. If I usually say two, maybe I could say four. If I usually say three, maybe I could say six. You know, how can I speak up more in this meeting? Make that a specific goal and it will radically change how you show up in meetings, how people see you. And the last little thing is when people are talking, give affirmation as they talk. So in person this might be. Mm, yeah, you know, on video you could say those things. Sometimes the speaking can interrupt someone else while they're speaking because the voice, you know, two different voices coming at the same time. But, but do it non verbally nod. That doesn't mean your head's coming off like you're nodding all the time. But just when they say something and make a point, you're like, you might even say, oh, okay, makes sense. Or something like that. Do that. Because when people are talking into the video again, those signals are not coming back as powerfully as when we're in person. And so they might feel like you're less engaged, even though you're actually sitting there paying great attention and right there with them. So you want to give them a little bit more affirmation that knows that you're engaged. So these are powerful tools and techniques to engage the person that you're with in the meeting for you to feel more engaged, to make a better impact during interviews, in any sort of meeting, and to become more of a leader in your business or industry or company. Awesome. Thanks for being with me today. Share your tips and ideas down below. Subscribe as well if you want more of these videos. And until we speak again, may I have the courage to be who you are and to know on a deep level that you're awesome.