How to prepare for a Zoom/video meeting so you’re not pulling your hair out
Many of my people either already use Zoom—the groovy online tool that lets you do video conferencing on the web—or a similar service like Skype or GoToMeeting. They give people like us the ability to hold meetings with faraway clients, as well as offer workshops, classes, coaching sessions, group meetings, and any number of other business-building offerings. I previously wrote about business-building ways you can use Zoom, currently my method of choice.
Using any of these services requires “bandwidth” —a good internet signal. They’re sending a lot of bits and bytes over your internet connection, whatever it might be. Just keep that in mind if you are sharing your internet signal with Netflix, mobile phone(s), tablets or Kindles, an online-gaming teenager, a neighbor stealing your signal, and more.
If your computer is using a wireless signal and sharing that with all of those things, your video connection can be very choppy, with lots of freezes and hiccups. Super-frustrating, especially if you’re doing coaching, a workshop, or other services that people expect to be smooth and problem-free.
Also, if you’re a person who habitually has lots of software applications and documents open at all times, this too may work against you as Zoom competes with all of them for memory.
For the record, here are some things I do when I’m about to go on a Zoom call/conference, or hold one:
30 minutes before: I turn off the power to my wireless router, wait 20 seconds, and power it back up. These devices often have software updates that take place when you “cycle” it like this, and it gives your router’s brain a refresh.
30 minutes before: I restart my computer or laptop completely. This can clear out memory caches, stuck software, and other stored stuff that might interfere with my computer’s memory or signal.
15 minutes before:
I walk around and do the following:
Turn off my wireless printer.
Turn off my iPad, Kindle, and my husband’s laptop 🙂
Turn off the TV and leave it off.
Put my mobile phone on airplane mode. If I need to make a call (say, if my meeting attendee doesn’t show up) I can.
Make sure I know where my wired headset is. (I have a noisy Mac, so a headset is essential…and a wired headset doesn’t need any signals)
Test my video and audio on my computer by going to Zoom and trying them both out
Turn off ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS that I’m not using.
Pause things that might decide to auto-update while I’m talking, such as Dropbox synching, system backups, and virus protection updates
5 minutes before: (these are the non-tech things that are just nice)
Pour a glass of water
Hang a “do not disturb” sign on my doorbell, front door, office door, and have a chat with my dog, Gordon, about barking 🙂
Review my notes and make sure I have something to write with, and on.
1 minute before:
Breathe deeply, and remember how lucky we are to work for ourselves, bringing our best energies and talents into the world to do something great.
Enjoy your trouble-free Zoom session!
Margaret, you are such a generous resource. Thank you so much. I am a newcomer as a presenter on zoom so I appreciate your tips.
Thank you Trudy!
So here it is a day over a year since you posted this. I warned you that I’m a slow learner! But I am persistent, so here I am, as usual, ask a few questions 😉 I’m guessing those purple earbuds are what you’re calling a wired headset? I thought they were wireless and something like those headsets that look like earmuffs were either wired if you plug them in, or wireless if you push the bluetooth button. But I never see you with that kind when you’re on zoom so I’m confused. Are you somehow plugging the purple ones into your computer? If I turn off all the icons in my icon bar, is that the same as turning off all applications, or do I need to do something more? Also wouldn’t I need to keep email and safari on to run a zoom meeting? Miss you and miss your office hours. Let me know if you ever start doing them again 😉