247. Three ways to revive your boring online meetings
“You’re on mute.”
It's the post-COVID catch-cry, right? But let’s be honest… there have been plenty of meetings where you wished people were on mute—or that the Wi-Fi would just drop out altogether.
Sitting through a dull Zoom, Teams or Google Meet is a special kind of hell—but it doesn’t have to be.
In this episode, I’m sharing 3 simple and powerful ways to breathe new life into your online meetings, whether you’re running them or just attending.
✨ In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to reframe meetings with gratitude and awe (yes, really)
Why offering a micro-break can actually boost productivity
How to ditch death-by-slides and show up with energy, heart, and presence
Whether you’re a leader, facilitator or just someone tired of soul-sucking screen time, these tips will help you bring more spark to the screen.
Let’s not just survive the online meeting grind. Let’s revive it—with energy, presence and the power of your voice.
🎧 Tune in, and I promise: this episode is anything but boring.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome back to That Voice Podcast.
“You’re on mute.”
Now if you are in a job that has online meetings, you would have heard these three words a lot, I imagine. It’s like the catch-cry of the post-covid world isn’t it – you’re on mute.
I have been in several meetings where I wish people were on mute. Or that the wifi would drop out. Sitting through a boring zoom, or teams or google meet session is a special kind of hell isn’t it?
In today’s episode I’m going to share 3 simple ways you can revive your boring online meetings.
And in our July Soul Speakers coaching call, we go deeper into this topic. So if you need to make an impact in online meetings, Soul Speakers will help you. If you are a leader or a facilitator it’s even more important that you can command the virtual room. Some people say oh isn’t Soul Speakers just for people who want to be speakers? No no no no no, there are some people of course who are wanting to speak on stage, they are usually in my higher level program -Soul Speakers Advanced. The main Soul Speaker program includes professionals and business owners who recognise they need to be effective communicators for the every day. The phone calls, the pitching, the online meetings. We have cleaners and hairdressers and health and safety professionals and engineers and lawyers and accountants and online business owners. It really is communication for the every day. And our July coaching call, remember all the coaching calls are recorded, is how to spice up your boring online meetings.
This podcast episode gives you a little glimpse, in Soul Speakers it’s interactive, and you get to see first hand how I run my online meeting. The link is in the show notes, You can join for 6 or 12 months at a time. It is the best value comprehensive voice and speaking training out there, and one of the only ones that truly blends the spiritual and energetic components with the technical training. And you’ll read more about my unique approach in my book VOICEPRINT, which is out later this year. Join Soul Speakers and get on the pre-sale list for my book. All the links are in the shownotes.
So the first way you can revive your online meetings is to lead with GRATITUDE and AWE.
Reframe the boring online meeting to the incredible feat of technology that lays before us. Wifi was invented in 1997. At the press of a button you get to see and hear people from all over the world. You can work from the comfort of your home. 30 years ago, people would be floored to learn they could collaborate and share and work in this way!
I was watching one of my favourite movies the other day – UP IN THE AIR, with George Clooney and he flies all around America for his job which is firing people, but the company gets disrupted with this amazing new concept that you can fire people online, saving all the travel expenses. Now I do believe there are conversations better to be had in person, but seeing that film made me chuckle because it was an insight into how quickly this technology has moved and if you enter into every online meeting with beginner’s mindset. Imagine you are experiencing this technology for the first time and you are blown away by what it can do…
That energetic shift in your mindset and your attitude will work wonders. Person one, reluctantly logs on, hoping they can keep their camera off and have a nap, person two, logs on like they’re walking into willy wonkas chocolate factory for the first time, full of wonder and possibility. Which person would you rather be. Your energy sets the tone. Ask yourself what vibe do I want to bring to this virtual room?
So lead with gratitude and awe. Number two, super simple. Offer a little break.
I don’t have many back to back meetings. It was one of the reasons I left corporate. I’m the master of my calendar and I couldn’t think of many more depressing things than sitting in online meetings all day. There is a term – ZOOMTIGUE the particular flavour of fatigue that washes over you after staring at the screen all day. Remember your box is a one person TV show, you want to make it easy for people to interact with. This is why lighting and framing and audio and background are important. If you’re not on top of this, join Soul Speakers and you get all that info.
Now you might be listening going, eek yep I’m in that back to back meeting season. And people I meet often are. So just offering, leading a 2 minutes stand up and stretch, doing a breathing exercise, saying let’s take 5 to grab a cup of tea. That few minutes of time you “lose” by taking a break, you make up for in the productivity of the meeting. It’s not about the time, it’s about the energy and the focus. For more ideas on exactly how to offer little breaks, join Soul Speakers.
Ok so you’re coming into the meeting with a great attitude, you’ve offered a little break and a third way to revive your boring online meeting is think outside text on slides.
Constant slide sharing is bloody awful.
Yes, I use slides in my Soul Speakers coaching calls, I use pictures, videos, large text and I constantly stop to chat to the group, because these are interactive calls.
Beyond that. Can you use props? Can you use costumes? Can you look down the barrel of that camera and speak from the heart with your beautiful organic human voice. Can you stop hiding behind the slides that stop the heartbeat of your message?
Putting it out there.
Online meetings are not something to endure, to get through, to survive… you can REVIVE it. Oh I can’t wait for my next online meeting.. you might think no-one said that ever… but I do say that. And what would change if you genuinely felt that way too.
You bounced into the meeting room excited and ready to go, you offer a little break and you surprise and delight by not feeding the sleeping masses with powerpoint slides they don’t even read. You’re awake, they’re awake and nobody is on mute!
That’s all from me this week. If you’re not in Soul Speakers, why not? If you resonate with the podcast content, you will love the content in Soul Speakers – and that’s where the real change happens. Always happy to chat as well, you can book in a free call with me. We will be on zoom – and it won’t be boring. Haha. See you there.