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Business doesn’t need four walls anymore… it needs clarity, connection, and a plan you can trust. I’m Betsy Sabatini, and on The Virtually Reimagined Podcast, I share simple, real-world ways to run your business from anywhere. No jargon. Just what works.
You’ll hear my own shift from in-person to virtual… the wins, the fails, and the fixes. I’ll walk you through easy setups, smarter meetings, and little tweaks that make a big difference. If you’re a coach, creator, or entrepreneur, this show will help you create success in a way that feels calm, professional, and doable.
Come as you are. Leave with one clear next step… and the confidence to lead your business from wherever you are.
You're listening to the virtually reimagined podcast with me, Betsy Sabatini. This is where we shake up the way business gets done. No offices required. Well, that is no physical offices required. We're using the virtual office space.
Betsy Sabatini:And if you're ready to learn how to build connection, confidence, and success in this digital space, well, you've come to the right podcast. Let's jump in. So in today's episode, we're discussing the benefits of using a virtual waiting room before your event begins. Now in the Zoom world, let's specifically focus there. In the Zoom world, when you are creating a virtual event, you have this option of enabling what's called a waiting room.
Betsy Sabatini:And it is where people congregate when they are waiting for you to open the doors and admit them into the meeting room. So let's say, for example, you are sent a Zoom link and, you've been invited, whether it's to a public event that you don't know the speaker and you're going to learn about what they have to offer, or it is a regular recurring event with someone that you know very well or possibly that you work with every week. And now think about you're going to be the host and initiate that event. So I want you to think about both. Think about your experiences when you have been given a link to attend someone else's, and you click on the link, and what do you see?
Betsy Sabatini:Well, for Zoom events, you see a Zoom logo, and it probably talks about one of the newer Zoom features called AI Companion. And when I am looking at that logo for your event, I'm not quite sure I am in the right place. You know? I've just clicked the link. I'm waiting to see your face, hear your voice, and instead, I see a Zoom logo.
Betsy Sabatini:And I hesitate because I think maybe I'm in the wrong place. Maybe I didn't click the right thing. And sometimes when this happens, people leave the room. So I want to bring to your attention the need to brand that waiting room. Let's give it some branding.
Betsy Sabatini:And that is possible with your Zoom events. So if you're just getting to know me, I have spent every day for the past five years on Zoom so that you don't have to. I am a technology specialist and coach and instructor, so I know how to teach people about technology. And I also love following up on when applications update. And every week, practically, definitely every month, the Zoom application updates.
Betsy Sabatini:And one of those updates more than a year ago, so it's been there a while, was to enhance your waiting room with video. And if you don't have video ready, you can use a graphic. You can use a graphic with animated elements that looks like a video, so it doesn't have to be your face, but it can be your logo. It can be a picture of you. It can be a picture of your presentation and your title so that the first thing they see after they click that invite link is something related to what you've invited them to.
Betsy Sabatini:So I highly recommend that you listen in as we talk about what are some of the ways that you would brand that, as I call it, your digital welcome mat or digital doorstep. They're right there waiting to get in. And part of the options k? So in the in the world that I teach of how to do it, Betsy, okay. That's a great concept.
Betsy Sabatini:I want them to see a video, but how do I do it? Does Zoom take my video and automatically put it in there? Can I record it in there? So you need to record the video outside of Zoom. And then when you get into your settings, which is an area inside your Zoom account.
Betsy Sabatini:So all of the pieces that fit together involve knowing that you have a Zoom account, number one. Number two, that you pay for a Zoom account. So if you are listening in right now knowing that you have used a free Zoom account for years and it's it's working just fine, keep doing that. It does work fine. It limits you to the number of minutes you can be on with your audience.
Betsy Sabatini:However, it does not allow you to customize your waiting room. So if you're listening in and saying, I want what she's got, I wanna brand that digital welcome mat, then you'll need to upgrade your account at least to the pro level, which is approximately $17 a month as of this recording. It's a little less expensive if you pay for a year in advance. But if you are just trying this out and you wanna go month by month, I highly recommend that. Once you upgrade, you'll have the ability to change and customize your waiting room.
Betsy Sabatini:And here are some of the choices that at least I have used and I have seen people use. You know? When you have your audience waiting for you to open the doors, think about it when it's a physical in person event. I've arrived at your building. You have probably given me instructions on what to do, where to park, where the the the waiting room or the doorways to enter to the room are, where I maybe register or sign in.
Betsy Sabatini:And these types of activities can happen in your Zoom waiting room. You have the ability in a Zoom waiting room to post a a banner. Maybe it's some instructions. You can do that with your voice and your face so you can record a video ahead of time and say, welcome, everybody. I'm so glad you're here.
Betsy Sabatini:And before we get started, I'd like to make sure you have the following supplies or you've done the following steps because it's important that we take care of that before the training begins today or be before our summit begins or before our workshop begins. And all of this, as I'm saying to you right now, can be recorded by you. You can record it in your own Zoom, save that recording, and then put it inside your waiting room before your virtual event starts. And then when they click that link, they're gonna see your face. You can even add music if you wanted to.
Betsy Sabatini:If you're thinking to yourself, well, I've got an event coming up right away, and I don't have time to record myself. There are ways using some third party applications such as Canva, which is one that I I really enjoy using. Canva has a way that you can create a video without using your face. You can put a graphic. So let's say it's your logo, add in some little animations, which is a part of Canva.
Betsy Sabatini:You can even use the free version of Canva to do this. And then Canva lets you save that as a video. So it has to be in the right format to allow Zoom to import it in. So if it's, you know, if it's the wrong format, you can't take out a Word document, for instance, and give that to Zoom and say, here, make that my my Zoom video in my waiting room. It's not the right format.
Betsy Sabatini:It has to be a video file. And that's where it gets maybe a little technical for you. That's my my secret sauce and my expertise is being able to walk you through that in layman's terms. So definitely follow me for more on that as we go through this journey together on this podcast of reimagining your virtual space. Stay with me on that, and I will take you through and over those tech hurdles.
Betsy Sabatini:So once you get that video file, which is most likely in m p four or MOV formats, yep, that's what they're called, then your waiting room is set. And it is set for every meeting, every virtual event. So if you're not used to calling it a meeting, maybe it's a workshop, maybe it's your coaching one on one or you're coaching with a group, possibly it's a member onboarding, or you are meeting with your your board of directors on a weekly basis or a monthly basis, all of these are types of meetings. That's where in Zoom, everybody has the ability to appear on camera, and they can unmute their microphone as opposed to a Zoom webinar where everyone is off camera and not able to unmute. And in both cases, you can have a waiting room.
Betsy Sabatini:You can have a waiting room. Just today, we're talking about a meeting style. But, nonetheless, if you were running a webinar and you're listening in thinking, I really want this for my webinar, well, you can brand your digital welcome mat for that webinar as well. Some of the other ideas that I've seen people do, I've seen people put in a quiz or a riddle, and those are really fun. I was I was actually walking through the airport the other day approaching my gate, and up on the banner that is right the screen, let's call it a screen, right in front of my gate where they would post, like, what zone is boarding or, you know, where the flight is going out to, there was a sort of an advertisement type of screen.
Betsy Sabatini:And it had trivia on it, and it said it just kept. It would show you the first trivia question, and it would ask you the question in writing, and then it would pause. And you could see, like, a little line going through knowing that you had, like, ten seconds to think of the answer, and then they would show you the answer. So you literally you could make a way a waiting room video with trivia about your industry topics, maybe what current events are going on right now having to do with your industry. Like, keep your audience entertained when they're in the waiting room waiting for you.
Betsy Sabatini:Another way is to do a type of game, and you can actually involve people's mobile devices while they're in the waiting room. You can use third party programs. I teach this in both my collective, which is a membership where we meet every week live on Zoom, and I teach the members how to use QR codes to create games that you can then display. If you are a speaker, an event, in person, or virtual, you can use these QR codes. And when people scan those with their phones, they can play the game on their phone.
Betsy Sabatini:And the game could be, like, a fill in the blank. It could be a multiple choice, and you can use that as gamification. So if they answer all the questions, then at the end of your virtual event, you can spin a wheel and and pick a prize winner. Really fun, very enticing ways to keep people to attend your event all the way to the end. And all of this starts inside the waiting room before you've even let them in, before you've even admitted them.
Betsy Sabatini:So the purpose of the waiting room could be everything from a simple image that they have made it to the right place, or even more fun, you can have video with instructions. You can have music playing. Maybe you need to set the tone before they enter, or you can even incorporate gamification. And these are all ways that I bring my students through learning how to use Zoom better than just a glorified phone call. I mean, let's admit that there are many Zoom meetings where you have attended where it's a glorified phone call.
Betsy Sabatini:Meaning, they are just talking. They're not showing you anything. There is no engagement. And I say it's especially with my audiences where they have to stay on camera. You're not allowed to go off camera.
Betsy Sabatini:Some industries, in order for you to get credit for that online event, you need to stay on camera. And, you know, how often in real life when you're in person do you stand within a foot or two away from the person like I do when I'm on camera, and I sit there for an hour or two hours or three, even just with a short break. So anywhere that you can add in engagement is highly recommended, one of my best practices. And it all starts with your waiting room and your digital welcome mat. And if you wanna know more about how you do this for your own business, well, I've got two places where I bring students through this with live high touch training.
Betsy Sabatini:One of them is in my membership, the Virtual Business Collective, and we meet weekly. You can certainly try it out for a month and cancel at any time. So it is a membership where we have been going strong now for three years, and we cover all tech in there, not just Zoom. But it is meant to get you over the tech hurdles of your virtual business. The other place where I bring my students through Zoom specific scenarios to help you stop winging it on Zoom calls, pretty much stop using it as a glorified phone call, and start discovering and mastering all the cool stuff Zoom can do for you is inside the Zoom Business Academy, and that occurs four times a year.
Betsy Sabatini:And just look at the description for more information. That's it for today's episode of the Virtually Reimagined podcast. Remember, your business doesn't need walls. It just needs vision, confidence, and the right tools. I'd love for you to hit subscribe and leave a review and join me again next time as we keep exploring this exciting world of business.
Betsy Sabatini:Until then, I'm Betsy reminding you that success is virtually unlimited. Hello?