Success Secrets Exposed - ZOOM MAKE-OVERS

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Welcome to Success Secrets Exposed with Sally A. Curtis, where we share stories of challenge, success, and inspiration, along with practical tips and strategies to move you forward to your success. And now here is your host, Sally A. Curtis.

Good evening, good morning, and good day to you all. Welcome to another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. You're in for a treat today. We're going to be talking about Zoom makeovers. And haven't we all been using Zoom and similar platforms a lot in the last few years? So we're going to be sharing with you how to elevate your Zoom presence so you actually feel more confident and always look your best. So hang around, we're going to dive into some really good juicy content and topics for you today. For those that are new to the show, I'm a content repurposing specialist specializing in speakers, coaches, and consultants and helping them turn their existing content into new profit opportunities for them. And it's my role to help them amplify their voice, their message, and their impact. And in that theme today, we're going to be talking with our guest today, Shelley Golden, who is the creator of Zoom Makeovers, and she helps companies, professionals, and speakers transform their Zoom presence. All in an effort to increase engagement, eliminate those distractions, and really elevate their personal brand. She's worked with thousands of professionals on how they can present the best versions of themselves online in this new real world that we have, as well as learning the techniques to manage Zoom and other video platforms effectively. She's got more than 25 years experience in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, helping professionals from all walks of life to create their right style and their presence whilst they stay true to themselves. And she's the founder and principal of Shelley Golden Style. So without any further ado, please help me welcome to the show Shelley.

Hello. Hello. Hello. So glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

You're most welcome. I'm, I'm, I've been a bit giddy because I know we've had a few fabulous conversations and I just love everything that you are doing and all those great little, little teeny tiny tips that you've given me because we haven't done the full makeover, but you've certainly given me some little tiny tips that have been extraordinary and had given me great stories to tell. So Thank you.

Oh, my pleasure.

So I'd love to start, um, as a bit of an introduction to you, if you could tell us a little bit of your, I suppose, your backstory, how you've come to now doing the Zooms, and also, also some of that history about being the, uh, 4th generation in that fam— fashion and, um, and clothing business as well, if you could please.

Yes, well, it's sometimes I say it's genetic. I can't help myself. Um, I'm 4th, possibly 5th generation in the fashion and clothing business. My great-grandfather made fur coats in Russia, so I always wondered, did his father also make fur coats? Likely. I don't know. Mom and Dad were both raised in the men's clothing business. When I went to college, I actually studied textiles and business. Didn't start there. started in radiology but, uh, changed over. So textile queen. My uber, uber passion is historical clothing. So I actually used to teach history of costume clothing at a fashion design school in Chicago. I've lectured on it around the world. So that's kind of my uber passion. Even worked in a museum with a historical costume collection. So that was super fun. I've designed and made costumes for theater. And as an image consultant, I've had businesses, 3 businesses in 3 cities on 2 continents, in the US, in Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, the East Coast of the US, in New York, Boston. And now I live in San Francisco. So I really have a very international, very broad perspective. And, and this is, this is my secret sauce. This, this is, this is what I do best.

Yeah, yeah, brilliant. And I can only imagine what it would have been like for, um, the, the costume side of things because you've just, you've just triggered a memory for me there. We had a, a great movie called the— it's an Australian movie called The Dressmaker.

Um,

yeah, I thought you may have seen that. We actually got to see the collection here. Well, I stumbled across the collect— the collection when they were doing an exhibit here, and it was just extraordinary. So I can only imagine what it would have been like deep diving into that in the way that you have and then finding that passion, because it was just extraordinary.

Yeah, that's, you know, I just— it's just, it grabbed me. It's something that I've loved, and I have a really, I guess I could say, a really keen eye For colors, shapes, juxtaposition of that, and how it works on people. Don't even— I know how to design clothes, but do not ask me to do it. I'm not that creative. I'm not that good at it, but I'm good at helping people. As I say, sometimes I call myself the camouflage queen. Queen of camouflage. What needs to be camouflaged and what needs to be accentuated.

Yeah, beautiful. So I'd love to actually explore that because that'll dive into some of the, the common, I suppose, the common problems that you see and help people with. So I'd really like, and I'll just sort of headline it and then I'll let you take the lead on it, but I'd love you to share as it relates to the color side of things and the shape and where things are positioned and definitely some of that camouflage things. And if you can share the lipstick Tip as well.

Lipstick tip. Oh yes, I recall the lipstick tips. Well, it's, it's actually interesting because that all of that experience has really transferred over directly, uh, in doing Zoom makeovers, which is really what we're talking about here today. Uh, here's, here's my funny story. I think it's funny. You might not think it's funny. Right, a couple weeks before COVID and COVID hit, I met a woman as a business coach and we got along great. And she said, hey, let's do a workshop together. I'm like, sure, I could do a workshop with you. Well, our first day to talk about it was the day California closed and I live in California. So, we were on a call and I said, well, I could help people look good and feel confident in a Zoom box. And she said, okay, let's run with it. Anyhow, that was the beginning. It started the first day. I didn't think, oh gee, how can I pivot my business? It just happened just because I, as I often say, I'm in the I help you look good business.

Hmm.

So if I'm helping you look good in person, I'm helping you look good, feel confident in your Zoom box. And one of the things I do for, for the, for those of you who cannot see, who can only hear, I always take my fingers and draw a little square around my Zoom box. And people get it because that's all you see. And so I've taken, I've created this 5-step process to really help People look good, feel confident in their Zoom box. And those 5 steps are camera angle. You know, you just want to have the camera straight ahead of your eyes so it feels like you and I are sitting across the table having a conversation. Lighting. You definitely need to have lighting on your face and you want to have it even left and right. So people don't see shadows. We're not talking about Rembrandt lighting where you light up half your face because it's, it's distracting enough to not be able to see everybody. So you really want to see people clearly. You want to be able to hear them. So we talk about sound.

Hmm.

And then background. You know, sometimes I am the set decorator. I'm the interior designer. I'm often giving people, here's the link, buy this light, buy this plant. Let's buy this piece of furniture. Buy this piece of art. Let's revisit it, get it all positioned. And like, wow, you have an awesome Zoom setup. I actually, I'm not sure if we have ready a visual. We do. Aha. Okay. So for those of you who can see, I have a before and after here. of a client that I worked with. On the left is the before. You could see the camera is looking up to the ceiling. And for those of you who can't see, it's clear as day. There are 2 bicycles stacked up on the wall behind this woman. And this, this was her office. This is where she was working out of. Hmm. So, fast forward. I do a Zoom makeover with her. The bicycles are still in the bedroom. That you just don't see them. We move furniture over. I gave her links. She bought new lights. We changed the camera angle. There's a, a 5-foot-tall plant. There's a piece of furniture. There's a piece of artwork. We talked about the juxtaposition of what color clothing, makeup. And now she looks like she has a lovely home office. It's not distracting, but for her, it's still her storage room and her bicycles are still there. So that's important to her.

Yeah. And I think that was lovely. And that's such a great visual. And if I just go back to it, you've got the before-after, which we often refer to as the camera angle where you're almost looking up somebody's nose to the ceiling, which is not pleasant, or the mess The messy background, because that's one of my pet peeves, is seeing into somebody's office and you've got paperwork all hanging out of drawers and all those sorts of stuff. That distracts me because I'm thinking that's just messy versus the after shot there where you've just, as you said, rearranged things, brought in those 5 key elements, and she just looks like she pops and effervesces and you naturally feel engaged and the whole setup feels more inviting. Therefore, I feel like I can trust her more.

Right. So when I'm working with somebody, I really— my 2 things, well, there's lots of things. 2 of them, 2, 2 or 3 of the main things is I try to increase engagement. How, what can we do to increase engagement? So she's actually in pharmaceutical sales. So, she needs to appear trustworthy. She needs to appear credible. And when you have bicycles in a room behind you, it doesn't look like she's a very successful salesperson. So, we created the illusion of this lovely home office. So, it's creating engagement, increasing the engagement, and minimizing the distractions.

Mm-hmm.

You know, that, that's really what I'm aiming for. And of course, once you know you look good, you know, you feel confident. It's kind of like putting on a really great outfit and stepping out into a party knowing you look awesome. You stand taller, you, you have more confidence. And, and that's what I do. I, I, I'm in the confidence business.

Business. Beautiful. So I'd love to try, um, and I, for those that are, um, listening to the show, um, currently or going to be listening to it later, do check out, we do have Shelley, um, website going across, which is shelleygoldenstyle.com. So it's S-H-E-L-L-E-Y-G-O-L-D-E-N-S-T-Y-L-E.com. Do check that out because there is lots and lots and lots of before and after shots. So do check that out. What I wanted to ask you, just as an extension of the conversation where you really, really helped the pharmaceutical salesperson present herself in a much more professional light, can you just talk us through about how you do and what you do as it relates to the corporate arena as well? Because I know you've done a lot in the law arenas, but I know you've done work within that corporate arena as well. So can you just explain What either the similarities or the differences are within that type of setup as well?

So in the corporate arena, every company has a slightly different need. That's the one thing that I've noticed. Yes, they want their employees to look good. Sometimes it's a combination of what I would call Zoom etiquette, as well as how to Look good as a company, to look professional, to have a consistent look, almost like a branded look. But everybody always seems to want— the larger the company, the more what I say Zoom etiquette they need. So what does that mean?

Hmm.

Depending upon the company, and sometimes it's age-related, sometimes it's not. One of the things I find is that younger people tend to always sit back in their chair and are much more casual and maybe not necessarily in the center of their Zoom box.

Yeah, and for those that can't see that, that was the most extraordinary demonstration. So Shelley's gone from sitting up beautifully professionally in her Zoom box window to what I refer to as lolloping, as though she's got the tracksuit tacks and the beard on the belly and just, you know, right out in the casual, you know, pose. So there's your before and after. So I'll just let you continue.

And then kind of leaning off to the side so you're almost off the Zoom screen.

Yeah, you're not really paying attention.

So that's— it's really— so I— it's how to be present How to be centered in your Zoom box, how to focus in on the people you're speaking with. One of— I have a lot of tips and tricks.

Yes.

I'll just share a couple of them. One of the things that a lot of people do is they take— if they're on Zoom or Webex or BlueJeans. BlueJeans or Teams, they take their screen and make it the entire size of their monitor if they're sitting at a monitor. So now when you're looking at all these people in their little boxes, maybe to look at JoJo, who's down in the bottom left corner, you're actually looking down practically towards your desk. Toward JoJo, who's sitting down and whose box is in the bottom left corner, and your eyes are really diverted.

Hmm.

So one of the suggestions I have is you take your window, whether it's Zoom or whatever window, and you make it really small. And you might want to make it 1/6 or so of your whole monitor. Just bring that window in really small. So when you're looking at everybody left to right, left to right, your, your eyes aren't moving that far.

Hmm.

So that, that's a way to keep engaged. Also, another thing that I've noticed is how you introduce yourself. It's really important to have your name the way you want your name to be. And also introduce yourself because not everybody knows who you are, your first name and your last name. Mm-hmm. Even if it's within the company, you wanna have your first name and last name. I was working with a film production company in San Diego, as a matter of fact. And I was a fly on the wall for a couple of calls. Just observing when I worked with this company, observing their, their how they, how they interact with their clients, how they show up on a Zoom call. And one of the things that I noticed that was shocking was that they didn't introduce everybody.

I remember you telling me this. So, I'm glad you're sharing this story.

They didn't introduce everybody. And like, wow, you know, they had a new producer and And, and so in my report, I said, it's really important to introduce everybody on the call because the other company doesn't really— well, who is that? You know, they, they didn't know if I was a fly on the wall and this other person was a fly on the wall as opposed to an in-house producer. So it's really important to really know who is on the call. And So working with companies, a lot of them also want a consistent look. So sometimes I work with companies and we design a custom branded virtual background.

Yep.

What you don't want, you, in terms of color, as a color consultant, I'm gonna just jump in on the color bit.

Yeah.

Since you and I are color girls.

We

are. Sally, you're the red girl for sure. And I am wearing kind of a teal-colored blouse. And so it's very important that I stand out. I have a very busy background. So I need to stand out in the foreground of my very busy background. But, oh, I forgot what I was gonna say.

That's right. We were— you were gonna start talking about color. And I've actually just noted something from an observation perspective, because the color that you're actually wearing also is picked up in the artwork behind you and the plant behind you, which therefore I imagine is centering you.

Yes. As a matter of fact, I, I have a large piece of art over one of my shoulders. It just happens to be those are my colors, and I always wear colors that are in that painting. On— for those of you who cannot see, on one side of me I have a cream-colored sofa, and the other side of me I have a dark piece of furniture. And so I— oh, that was what I was gonna say. It's always best not to wear white and not to wear black. I'll tell you why. Because the camera picks up white and light first. So if you're wearing all white, the camera is picking up on that first, and that's what people are seeing. It'll darken everything else. It'll darken your face. It'll darken the rest of your background. But also, if you're wearing white, people will look at your white clothing first and not your face. So you really want them to look at your face and your eyes. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, if you wear black, you actually recede to the background.

Hmm.

And people will find it more difficult to read your nonverbal body language, which is really important as we kind of live in these— I'm going to call it a Zoom box for all practical purposes. Because that's what we're missing. We're missing that verbal, that nonverbal body language. Whereas, like, for example, if I looked over to the right, if you and I were sitting in the same room, You would know exactly what I was looking at. You wouldn't go, oh my God, what is she looking at?

What is she looking at?

Yeah. Is it important? Is it, is it like somebody walking by? Is it a kid, an animal? But when we're online, it's a little disruptive.

Yeah. Yeah.

So

I think there's a couple of things that just come out of that for me. I love the conversation around the black because I don't think we actually had that. And I can imagine how, as you said, you recede into the back of the Zoom box, you recede into the shadows. Therefore, those cues aren't as easily seen because they're in the shadows. And I do remember you saying, like, for me, I'm always, as you've seen, I've dropped my head a couple of times because I'm writing notes. And that's one thing, one of the conversations we had was around the PA that was on a Zoom call in one of your corporate clients. And she was writing You mentioned writing notes. So she wasn't introduced and she wasn't given the opportunity that she was actually the minute taker. Therefore, like, you know, why is she— what is she writing? Just like the, you know, what are you looking at becomes an intrigue. And the minute there's an intrigue, the attention's been lost. So that's such a great explanation. Thank you.

Yeah.

Happy for you to add to that.

Yeah, no, that was quite interesting. And when I was working with this company, this woman, she kept looking down. And I, and I could see she was working on something. And I thought, she's always multitasking. You know, okay, she's not contributing that much to the conversation. But then I found out she was the note-taker. Hmm. So, in my report back to this company, I said, it's really important when you introduce everybody back to being introduced and proper introductions of who's on the call. I had suggested make sure that you introduce her and that she will be taking notes. Hmm. So, it's really important to know who's the leader, what position people are within your company, within another company. I always, um, I don't know, I feel like I always knew this. Somebody had told me once, uh, oh so very long ago, that when you introduce somebody, you always give a name and a relationship. This is my friend Sally. This is my, my colleague Bob. You know, whatever it is. Mm-hmm. That so people really understand what the relationship is.

The dynamics. Yeah. And that comes back to such good, good old-fashioned good manners.

Yep. That's it.

And isn't it, isn't it so common these days for the Zoom participants, the you and I, even though there might be other participants on the call with us, for you and I to get involved in the conversation and the note-takers and the other people that are listening or, you know, part of a discovery session or whatnot. to not be introduced. Therefore, no one knows why they're there. Therefore, people don't open up as much because there's that— we've just not provided context. We've not had the good manners to position and introduce people.

Right. It's almost like being at a party when at your home or at somebody else's home, you want to make sure that everybody is introduced.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, brilliant. I'd also just carrying on from the corporate side of things, and we were talking about the corporate need, the Zoom etiquette, the consistency of brands, etc. Is there— and I've written, does my notes say? I can't read my writing because I was trying not to look down. I think it was just the company culture, which is involving in that introduction. Is there any other elements that, um, come into that? Because I want to then bridge across to the, uh, a lot of the work you do with law firms.

In terms of the corporate culture, it's, it's really just branding sometimes. That, that's, that's a really important, an important aspect. And this is something that you deal with every day, Sally.

Yeah, so there's that credibility piece. It's adding to the credibility. Yeah.

Right. And so, and I, for example, I was working with a company here in the Bay Area. I was just thinking, okay, I have a couple different companies. Which one should I pop into my head and talk about?

Yeah.

I was working this with this one company who's a mergers and acquisitions company. And they all had what that was custom-made virtual backgrounds of people outdoors.

Oh,

hiking on a hiking path with like little sailboats, nature, like lots of nature. And I said to them, you know, I questioned this virtual background that they all had, like different themes of the same.

So it's been socialized. Yep.

I said, you look like you're REI. Which is you look like you're an outdoors specialty company, an outdoor travel company. And I don't think they really appreciated that because they had just paid for this new virtual background. But they didn't look like an international mergers and acquisitions company. They looked like they were a— like I said, they do something with outdoor.

Outdoors. Yeah.

Because they all had this very green outdoors, little people on a walking path, hiking path.

Yeah.

And so it didn't jive. So it's really important that whatever background you have, whether it's a real background, whether it's a virtual background, that it really represents who you are. People say to me, well, Shelley, you know, why don't you have a virtual background? You could even take a picture of your background. And so you don't always have to have it so neat. Well, first of all, that's my thing is I help people with their backgrounds.

Yeah.

But if you have a virtual background that doesn't jive, like people would question, what's the credibility? What's the believability of what you're doing, what you're selling, your, your company with, with the background? You want it to, you want it to work together. So for example, I have, for those of you who can see, I have a small sign with my company and It says Zoom Makeovers, just so people can see what it is that I do. It also initiates a lot of questions, but it's, it's not very big. But interestingly, I have it just, just over my shoulder when I'm— because one of the things that I try to do is create subliminal lines.

Hmm.

So here's a little story.

Yes.

I lived in Amsterdam for 10 years. I lived in Amsterdam, I lived in Abu Dhabi for another 4 years. But when I lived in Amsterdam, one of the things that I was fortunate enough to do was to study European artists and, and, and, and art, uh, in particular the Dutch Masters. And like the Dutch Masters painting their paintings, they had these lines of where does your eye look first? Where do you want the viewer to look? So when I'm working with people, I'm creating paintings. I'm creating a visual. Where do I want the viewer's eye to look first? Then where do I want the viewer's eye to look second? So what's the path that the viewer's eye

takes?

Mm-hmm. Which is very important because that's when people get distracted with what people have in the background.

Mm-hmm.

The painters, the Dutch masters, they quite often had subliminal lines. Okay, here's the line. I'm going to paint everything on this line or that line. And I have 2 intersecting lines. This visual doesn't show my— the width of my, my normal Zoom screen, but I have Let's see, on one side of my shoulder I have some little round flowers going up on a diagonal. I have round glasses, and then I actually have some round hardware on a Chinese cabinet. And when I'm positioned, um, just so— I, I change my position for this, for this interview, but there's a— it's a diagonal, and my eyes are in the middle of that diagonal. Like, oh cool. You know, there's like a tic-tac-toe.

Yeah, absolutely.

And we like, we like patterns. So a tic-tac-toe is an easy pattern. Then I have another one. I have a branded sign with my eyes in the middle and a large painting. And it's another tic-tac-toe. So I have 2 intersecting lines right at my eyes. And then I always wear a V-neck. So your eye goes down my neck so you could see my torso. So you could read my nonverbal, my nonverbal communication, even though I have a very busy background. I'm forcing you to look at me. Let's say you have a bookshelf. Here's a tip, hot tip alert for all of you who have bookshelves behind you. Yeah. One of the things that I Often suggest is if you have, whether it's on the left side or on the right side, take your books and put them from tallest away from you, angled to the shortest one closest toward you. So, if you have bookshelves, you want to angle your books toward you. It'll help act like little arrows. Hey, look here, look at her, look at her in the middle.

Yeah. Brilliant.

It's very subliminal, but it's effective. So you might want to have a tall plant yourself and maybe something over on the side, tall on this, on the periphery, angled downward. So that's, that's a really good tip and trick that I do with people all the time.

Yeah, brilliant. Just as a little note, um, um, Roxy, who's our engineer, has actually just said she's been able to grab 5 before or after images from your website.

I

don't know which ones they're going to be because I know you have so many. Would you like them to come up and to talk through those, or would you like to share something else?

No, that's good.

That's great. So Roxy, just giving you the cue, uh, when you're ready we can have— yeah, beautiful.

Oh, oh, these are, uh, clothing images, not the Zoom makeovers.

Yeah.

Um, I, I thought we were gonna do Zoom makeovers.

Yep. That's all right. She might've just grabbed some different ones cuz that's another area that you do work in. You've got your Zoom makeovers, um, and you've got the clothing makeovers there as well. So let's go back, um, just depending on what she has or hasn't got, uh, there, because we, we, we are very much doing this on the spur of the moment because Roxy's so super good at doing things in the background. Let's talk about, um, I suppose Zoom makeovers as it relates to the speaker that's often standing versus sitting. If you can sort of talk about some of the scenarios and perhaps the before and afters that you've created in that scenario as well.

Yep. I just did this, this past week. I was working with a business coach and he both sits and stands. So it's really important, especially if you're sitting, you're standing, you have a desk that goes up and down. Or if you're just standing, that whatever view, that all the views work.

Yes. Sorry, I just had to catch that. All the views work, right? Yeah.

If I— I'm going to do this in real time. Let's see. So I'm sitting now. I'm— my desk, I'm— for those of you who can't see, I have a desk that goes up. I am now standing, and one of the things that you can still see is a plant. So sometimes when I'm working with somebody, I, I feel it's really nice to have some sort of plant in your space.

Yeah.

And the reason I, I think, whether it's a flower, artificial, real, doesn't really matter if you have a brown thumb versus a green thumb. Artificial is great.

Yeah.

Because plants calm us down. When we need to calm down and relax, you go for a walk out in nature, whatever your nature is around you. So it calms us down. It's welcoming. So sitting in our Zoom box, if we have some sort of plant, it's welcoming. It's calm. When I'm working with people and I have to have a standing visual and a sitting visual, I want to make sure that I have that plant is either green from top to bottom, or if it's a— if it has like, say, an orchid, sometimes are really lovely. It's— you could see it both standing and sitting.

Yeah.

When you're standing, You need to be really careful that you are not moving from left to right.

Yes.

Because, you know, I'm gonna just— my back hurts. I've got to stand up and like move my back around in the meantime because I've been sitting all day. So I'm going to be moving around, and that is really, really distracting. It's important to have some cush under your feet. A lot of people say get an anti-fatigue mat. That's great. Or just have some really great padded, like, sports shoes. I'm from Chicago. I call them gym shoes. Some other people might call them sneakers or tennis shoes, depending upon where you are in the world. They have different names.

Yeah, they do.

But if you have soft-soled shoes, you'll feel more comfortable. Spread your legs out a little bit further, and it'll really act like a little bit like a tripod, even though it's a dipod, to really keep you balanced. And it's harder to wobble If your feet are spread wider. If your feet are narrower and you're, you're talking, it's easier to wobble. Whereas if you have your feet spread wider apart, you wobble less. And you're, you're, you're, you've literally planted your feet down in this slightly wider position.

Mm-hmm.

So that, that's, that's one piece of advice that, that I often give to people who are speaking. I work with a lot of speaking coaches and people who are giving presentations, people who are, who are speaking for their company. They're making lots of videos. They're doing video courses. Sometimes people are standing. Sometimes people are sitting. But that's, that's the one piece of advice I always say is spread your legs apart.

Yep. Get solid, get grounded, create a really strong foundation. Right now, Roxy's got the right images if you're prepared, if you're happy to play along with us again.

Okay, let's go. Right. Okay. Let's see. This woman is in Canada. Her On the left, if you look on the left, for those of you who can see, she's wearing an orange top. She has turquoise walls, and there's a room behind her that has very, very high ceilings. It's actually her kitchen and her family room with a big sliding glass door behind it, even though it looks like a window.

Mm-hmm.

And there were constantly people walking there. And it was very unprofessional. And it was a large doorway. She's sitting in her dining room. So we didn't want to really change it too much. But we got this really lovely screen that kind of blocks the space that she could still walk around. Her brand is a bee. So she likes to have bee and her colors are yellow. And she Her logo is a bee. So, we put yellow flowers. We put a bee on the wall. And there's a plant not in the best spot but it's covering a vent. Or maybe it was an electrical outlet. I would have put the plant over but it's covering an electrical outlet. Again, get rid of all the distractions.

Yeah.

Easier for people to focus on you. One of the things I say is, I try to make it look nice, period.

End of story. Beautiful. Do you want to do another one?

Yeah, let's do another one. Oh, this is a great one. Yeah, I love this one. Thanks for bringing this up, Roxy.

Yeah.

On the left where you— before, there's a couple of things that you could see. This woman who is a dietitian, her big issue was the light coming through this lovely stained leaded glass window, which she said was actually even brighter a little bit later in the afternoon. But also, if you notice, the camera's looking on top of her head.

Mm-hmm.

When, when people— when the camera is too high and people are looking on top of your head, it doesn't give you the authority. You really want that camera at eye level to really have the authority and the gravitas as opposed to looking diminutive.

Great call.

So I asked her, what do you— I work with what people have in the space that they're in. Can we bring that picture back up again? I asked her, what does she have? I didn't think she'd have a painting that fit perfectly in the window frame in her storage closet. That was a total fluke.

Oh, she did.

That was a painting in her storage closet. It was absolutely amazing how it fits in the window frame.

Yeah.

I looked, whatever's on the left, I couldn't figure out this square thing, which I kept like, what is that? What is that? What is that? I'm like, let's lose it, move it over. We moved the leather chair over that was behind her. And now was a very shiny brown leather chair. And it was distracting because the lights were reflecting off of the shiny brown leather. So we, hahaha, we upholstered it. With the backside of a duvet cover that she had in her linen closet, threw a pillow on it, straightened up the books, cleaned up the bookshelf a little bit, put some makeup on. And after 90 minutes of her Zoom makeover,

yeah,

all she really needed to do was buy a light for the left side of her face. But by changing the camera angle, she looks, she looks younger. Authoritative. And she looks like she's in a lovely home office. Or, or even like an office that she would normally have been in in a hospital.

Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, that was a great one. My studio— I've got a question just come in. My studio is a basement with no windows. Any suggestions for, uh, lighting?

Oh, to even out the lighting?

Even out the lighting?

Uh, yes, my suggestion to you, uh, for most people, you want to have 2 lights on the left and on the right. Think of it as a clock. You want— if you— and especially for those who wear glasses, Mm-hmm. if you have a light on your left at 10 o'clock and on your right at 2 o'clock, a little bit higher than your eyes, angled downward toward your face, it actually Softens out the light and it softens out your, your skin tone. The light is a little bit softer on your face and you're lighting up both sides of your face and a little bit of your space coming left and right.

Hmm.

And that's my suggestion. What if you have can— you need to be careful if you have can lights in your ceiling because sometimes you get a, a spotlight effect on your head, there's 2 things that you can do depending upon the light. It— for, for those in corporate offices, they actually have fluorescent light diffusers for those big rectangular office lights, the fluorescent office lights. If it's in your house and you have just a round can light, You might want to just either turn the light bulb off or put a piece of white paper over the light to diffuse the light, but be careful of fire.

Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant.

Because you don't necessarily want this halo sitting on top of your head.

No, no. That's been great. Now we actually have a few minutes left. So if there's anything that you'd like to share in wrapping up, especially telling people how they can get in contact with you and what the, your 5-step process is, that would be great.

Okay. So my 5-step process, the Zoom makeover, whether it's individual or for a company. I also give a lot of presentations to professional companies and organizations showing my 5 steps. So camera angle, lighting, background, what color clothing works best on you in your space, sound. And we didn't quite get to makeup. But I do have some tips and tricks to create the optical illusion that it's more 3D than it really is.

Yeah. Sorry, no, go ahead.

And my website, which is shown at the bottom here, it's shellygoldenstyle.com, and it's Shelly with an E-Y. And I also I have been giving a lot of webinars. I've been doing— I don't have anything lined up quite at this moment. I do have something coming up Wednesday on Zoom fatigue. I'm facilitating a group event on combating Zoom fatigue. This is all based on a study from Stanford University. What's causing Zoom fatigue and what you could do about it. If you're interested, Feel free to contact me.

Yeah, beautiful. So I think the key thing there, Shelley, if I can just sort of wrap up and make sure that we've covered everything off, if you're wanting to find out how you can present yourself better from a Zoom perspective, there is certainly some incredible tips, one of which is the lipstick and a number of others that I've learned from Shelley. Also, if you're a gentleman wearing glasses or a little bit balding on top, there's some great tips around there. So my advice to any of our current listeners and our listeners who will be listening to us later is to certainly check out and make time to connect with Shelley to go through one of her sessions and discover more ways in which you can present yourself at your best and certainly put your environment in its best light to demonstrate you and your inner genius or your expertise. There is an absolute wealth of knowledge. And absolutely, if you've got a community that you're serving yourself, then certainly do speak to Shelley about coming in and doing a webinar or speaking for your organization on Zoom makeovers and anything Zoom fatigue related, because you're an absolute, absolute wealth of knowledge. So thank you very, very much for joining us today.

Well, thank you so much for having me. It's, it's, it's been a pleasure, and I think I love your personality and I love your energy.

Thank you. It's been so— it's been such fun. I appreciate everything that we've— we have explored and we're going to continue to explore together. So thank you very much. Thank you very much, Rachel. And please do reach out and connect with Shelley. She can certainly help you organize that basement scenario. And I look forward to her organizing because I have just written so many notes and noticed so many things about my own environment. So I'm looking at discovering more for myself as well. So thank you once again, Shelley. Thank you, Roxy, for supporting us with our little additional playing that we were able to do today because we've got great support there in the background as well. So thank you everyone. Thank you for listening. And we look forward to sharing and speaking with you again next week on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Thank you.

Thank you.

That's it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. And I trust that you got some inspirational tips to move you forward. You can find this episode along with many more on your favorite streaming platform such as iHeartRadio, Spotify, iTunes, and more. See you next Thursday at 7 PM Eastern time for more Success Secrets Exposed with Sally A. Curtis.