Turning off Zoom blur lets people see your real environment, facial expressions, and personal details. This builds trust faster than a curated background. Authenticity matters more than perfection.
Turn off your Zoom blur. You know, when the pandemic started is when I started doing video conferencing and using technologies like Google Meet and Zoom and some others to communicate with counterparties, with clients, with colleagues. And I have come to learn that there are a few things that are really key for building trust in that environment. And there's such an opportunity to do so. Like when you're able to communicate with people more frequently, when they're able to see you, when they're able to read your facial expressions, your hand gestures, all that stuff. They are able to build a lot more trust with you much more quickly. And the— but this also goes for your background. This goes to the context in which you are working. It's something that's going to tell a bit of a story about you. Now, there are some people who very carefully craft what's going to go into their background, like having the right logos behind them or a particular item of interest. I've seen people who write books who have— make sure they have a copy of their book clearly visible on the bookshelf behind them when they go on video podcasts and the like. You don't need to be that fancy. In fact, you're going to find that most environments you're in are perfectly fine. But if you show where you are, they'll trust more of who you are.
