The Magic Office, Working From Home Game Changers, by Shannon Levy

Hey you! Yes- you, me, and everyone else who is working from home these days? Do you want to know about something that seriously rocked my “working from home” world?  Since this was such a simple thing that brought so much joy to my world this week- I think it's only fair to share the goodness with all of you who want to instantly upgrade your home office FOR FREE and also in an instant. 

Many of you may be seasoned at working from home, but there are also quite a few of you who are new to the “working from home life”. As someone who has had a home based interior design business for two years,   I am quite familiar with the benefits and the struggles of working from home. Until now, there was one HUGE pain point that for years I could not get around -  how the heck am I supposed to create a presentable space for my video meetings online? 

My home in San Francisco is a very modest size, but even if you don’t have a smaller home like I do, you might still struggle to find the perfect place to hold your video conferences. At home my “office” doubles as my dressing room, storage space for interior samples and a small amount of stock for my interior design business. It is simply impossible to have my space camera ready. And being a designer- it is super important to have your image reflected in your presentation right? 

And now, since the world got all crazy, we have now moved to less populated spaces, but that means staying with my mother in law and staging my office from her guest bedroom. While her guest room is lovely, it is definitely not the space I feel comfortable having a business meeting. I mean, do we really want to bring our clients and our colleagues into our bedrooms? Of course not! Actually, if you really think about it, it is quite a creepy thought isn’t it. 

But more than anything, it is just impossible to keep our multi-purpose offices and spaces camera ready. Let us be fair to ourselves, we need to remember that very often, a camera ready space takes teams of people, hours of preparation, and a lot of money to accomplish. It isn’t easy, and that is why perfect spaces are for instagram and magazines, captured as a moment in time. 

You know what I am talking about here, we have all dreaded it- getting on that Zoom or video call knowing that your office is a total disaster. And now, not only is your bedroom, (that also doubles as your dressing room in the morning, and acts as your office during the day) constantly full of unfolded clean laundry, the likelihood of your kids catapulting a football at your head during a chat with your client is also incredibly high. But being strong thinking, “ No worries, I’ve got this!” you diligently schedule your meetings on the days you plan to put on makeup and have a pressed shirt ready- but STILL!  It just takes so much effort to reorganize your multipurpose office every day to reflect the professional that you really are!!  

And does it really matter? At the risk of sounding superficial,YES!  I absolutely believe it matters. We all know the value of effortless and quality presentation and sure you could “phone it in” as they say-and not show your face. But, if you want to make a real impact and connect with your audience or your client, you do need to “show up” to be truly effective. 

But wait- WHAT? Alas, you no longer need a stage manager and a crew to prepare a set for your video meetings anymore? That is correct!  No we can all present our meetings in effortlessly beautiful professional spaces without the cost of a remodel or even paint? So, if you are prepared to “show up” and put on your makeup, the geniuses at Zoom have given us the gift of enabling us to show up in a stylish space for your video calls.

Now, all you need to do is upload the space or background of your dreams to your Zoom profile and you are ready to go. It is true, if you have a green screen in the background the effect is even better- but if you don’t it is still pretty fun to try and totally awesome. 

Even though many of us have traded the stresses of commuting to work for spending “quality time” with our kids as homeschool teachers during this time, it isn’t easy. This new feature was such a delight for me, and I hope you have fun with it. Click here to learn how to change your background wiith Zoom.

Just for kicks, you can check out my very first YouTube video below. This shows you how one of my uploaded backgrounds looks without a green screen. A green screen will help optimize your new stylish background, but it still looks much better than the bedroom hiding behind me.

And while sadly I have not quite figured out how to solve for our restless children launching footballs at our heads during calls on lockdown days, I can however offer you a few fun backdrops for your next zoom call. Click here to download your zoom room.

Keep an eye out for more designs to come from Shannon Frances | Shannon Levy Interiors. 

Until next time stay safe and be well,

Shannon

Shannon Frances SF | Shannon Levy interiors

Click below to download your new office!

Created by Shannon Frances | Shannon Levy Interiors

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SHANNON FRANCES | SHANNON LEVY INTERIORS