OK, the webinar is on. Now I want to dare you to be human. This will help the participant feel there is a person talking, and not a computer, which will increase their engagement. Remember – we want to build strong relationships!

Here are a few tips on how to stay human:

• Start by a SHORT presentation about yourself.
• Tell stories! You probably have a million stories, examples and experiences about what has worked or not worked in your field of expertise. So share them!
  Examples: “A customer once asked me…”, or “On my first trip to China…”, or “The first time I…” et c
• Stop screen sharing from time to time, for example during Q&A sessions, or during your introduction, to increase the personal contact.
• Address the participant as YOU (instead of them), so that he/she feel addressed to as a person instead of an anonymous group (if appropriate in your county’s culture).

Other practicalities:

• Keep the participants muted and their videos off during the webinar
• Turn off entry and exit tones, and chat sounds
• Record the webinar
• Close your e-mail provider to avoid e-mail sounds
• If technical difficulties, it always feels worse than it is actually perceived. Just breathe and explain what is happening. Own it!