How to Communicate in A Face-Mask-Wearing, Social-Distancing World
Summary
I previously did a video on How to Do a Virtual Listing Presentation https://yesmasters.com/how-to-do-a-virtual-listing-presentation/but face-to-face meetings are still more powerful.
Here are 4 key strategies for communicating effectively when you need to wear a mask and practice social distancing when meeting people in person.
- Pay special attention. Listen extra hard to what they’re saying when they’re talking and they’re wearing a face mask,
- Speak louder and more clearly. Exaggerate your mouth movements, making sure that you articulate your words. Speak slower so people can understand you.
- Exaggerate your body gestures. Smile bigger, so they can see how you feel even with a mask because a large part of our communication is body language.
- Wear a see-through face mask https://buy.theclearmask.com/ . This makes 2-way communication more effective because you get to see each other’s facial expressions as you talk.
Communication is so critical in inspiring people to hire you. Don’t stop connecting because people that need your help are still out there. Figure out the best way to communicate with them and you can always expect YES!
Full Transcript
How do you communicate powerfully in a face mask wearing social distancing world?
Hi, there it’s Kevin Ward, the founder of YesMasters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more YES and more successes in your business and in your life. And yes, it really is me. See, it’s me. I faked you out. Don’t you hate it when people wear their face masks like this? It makes my nose runny and my ears stick out. I mean, I just hate living in a face mask world and yet that’s what we live in.
So how do you communicate powerfully in a face mask wearing social distancing world? That’s what we’re going to find out today. Okay. So here is how you communicate effectively and how you inspire the hire, how you get people to trust you, how you get people to say yes to you and want to work with you in a face mask wearing social distancing world.
I feel like a puppet. Look, this sucks. Doesn’t it? I hate wearing face masks. Is so difficult to do it. I mean, this is my favorite one when I’m going out, but I’m like, I look like a bandit, right? So we’re in a world where today people are afraid to sit down with you. They’re afraid to meet face to face because nobody wants to get sick. And I get it. I totally understand.
But how do you succeed effectively? How do you communicate effectively with people in a face-mask wearing-social distancing world? And so sorry for a little bit of humor, that’s not my thing normally, but we’ll go there.
4 KEY STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
So just want to give you four key strategies for communicating effectively and still being able to get people to say yes to you and get the hire when you are meeting with people in person and you need to practice social distancing and even face mask wearing.
Now first, I just want you to understand that face to face in person is always more effective and powerful than on video. Now I did a video recently on how to do a virtual listing presentation. We’ll put the link down below in the description of the video here so that you can click on that to go back and watch that “How to do a virtual listing presentation”. So if you’re going to use Zoom or whatever, how to do that powerfully and effectively, and the good news with that is you don’t have to wear a mask.
But it’s still more effective if you can sit down with somebody face to face, the problem is people don’t want to get sick. And so how do you practice social distancing in somebody’s home, do a listing presentation and so forth. Well I’m going to give you some ways to do that and I’m going to give you some strategies for how to deal with face masks. Okay?
So first sanitize. If you’re wearing gloves and carry hand sanitizers, when you come in, when you meet people always wear a face mask so that they’re aware, and some people are comfortable like with social distancing, without wearing a face mask in a face to face interview, assuming you have no symptoms and they have no symptoms and all that. But you’ve got to be respectful to people.
Now let’s just say, though, I have to wear a mask in a conversation with somebody like this. So let’s just demonstrate this. How does this work? So, number one, when they’re talking, when they’re talking to me and they’re wearing a face mask, have you noticed how hard it is to understand what people are saying? And the reason is because number one, their speech is muffled with the mask. And number two, because we do a lot of our communication is body language. We don’t just listen to the words. We actually read the lips. We see people’s faces. We see their mouth. And so we can see their expressions and so forth.
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION
So number one, in communicating in a face mask wearing world is you have to pay special attention. You have to listen extra hard. Okay? Listen, extra hard. So I love this. Pulls my ears out. That’s perfectly symbolic of listening extra heart. That’s number one.
SPEAK CLEARLY & WITH MORE VOLUME
Number two is to speak super clearly. You want to speak super clearly and with more volume. Now, I don’t know if you can hear it through the microphone. I don’t know if you can hear it or not, but I’m actually speaking louder than I do when I have my mask off, because I’m aware this is muffling it. So you want to speak more clearly with more volume and exaggerate your mouth movements.
So you want to make sure that you articulate your words very closely. And if you tend to speak quickly, speak fast, like I do, you probably want to slow down your speech just to make sure that people can understand you.
One of the keys to effective communication is to speak so clearly, to communicate so clearly, to speak in a way that not only can people understand you, but it is impossible for them to misunderstand you. So you want to speak super clearly.
EXAGGERATE
Number three, you want to exaggerate the other gestures with your body. So you want to exaggerate. For example, when you smile, I want to smile super big so that it shows in my eyes and my eyes are smiling too. Because when you smile, they can’t see your mouth. So if I’m going to smile, I want to be so happy they can see the smile on my eyes. They can see my eyebrows when I’m excited, when I’m shaking.
Exaggerate your body motions, use hands more than you normally do. It’s just important because 55% of our communication is body language. And a big chunk of it is right here in the bottom half of our face. And it’s gone. It’s hidden. So I have to exaggerate the other parts of my body to let them know this is what’s happening. Let them know I’m excited. Let them know I’m interested. Let them know I’m happy. Communication is so, so critical. So your eyebrows, your head nod, your smiles, where you smiled so big your eyes are showing it and so forth.
Now. Having said all of that, the best way to do it is when they can see your mouth. But here is cheating right now. There’s no protection. So in a situation where you need to wear a face mask, and I think there are situations where out of respect for other people, you need to do that. Here is the ideal scenario is I just came up with this. Is now there’s no germs. This is perfect. So this except I can’t breathe, but you can see my mouth. This is the ideal scenario. Now that I get it is not going to work. Right?
WEAR A SEE-THROUGH FACE MASK
But here’s the deal. What I discovered was, I just discovered this this week, is wear a see-through face mask. Now I’ve ordered some see-through face masks. I haven’t got them yet. So I’m sure, but I wanted to get this video out right away to you as real estate agents. I want you to get this right away. I want you to order a see-through face mask.
Now you go to Google type in see-through face mask you’re getting all kinds of safety goggles and all kinds of stuff. But you’re looking for basically a face mask that is see-through. Now I’m going to put a link down below for the one that I ordered. The reviews look good on it. I like it. I like the look of it. I like the way it looks like it fits and all that kind of stuff. It looks like it’s really, really good. But here’s the beauty of it is, it allows you to have all the benefits of a face mask, almost like the piece of plastic but I can breathe. And you can talk and people can see you. And you can order them. I ordered a box of 24, so you can order several boxes of them and you can literally take them in and you can use them with you and you can give them to your clients so they can also wear them. So you can see their face because when I’m communicating, communication is two way.
So I want to be able to see their smile. I want to be able to see the look on their face because the look on their face tells me a lot. So if I’m going to communicate effectively in a face mask wearing social distancing world, if I can listen extra hard. Okay, good. But if I can see so that I can listen with my eyes, as well as listening with my ears and they can see my mouth. So I’m communicating not only with my words, but I’m also able to communicate with my full body language and all the arsenal that you have of smiling, of facial expressions that you can do when you have your face uncovered. My friend, that is the way to go. So I’m going to put that link down below.
I just wanted to shoot this video and get it out really, really quick for you guys? Because right now, your ability to communicate effectively and clearly and influence people and persuade people to still say yes to you. If when you hide your face, guys, I mean, look at this, just make my last point here is, does this look like a face you can trust? It’s so crazy, right? When you walk into a business and used to, if somebody walked into a business, looking like this six months ago they’d have been calling the cops, they’d be calling 9-1-1. But today that’s become the standard. But it also lies deeply and embedded in our subconscious mind is if somebody is hiding their face, I can’t trust them.
And so your ability to have your face visible and be seen, I think is so, so critical. So get a see-through face mask. Order those. And I don’t get paid anything or I’m not even recommending the ones that I put down here below. It’s just one that I ordered and I’m going to check them out and see how good they are. And I may change my mind after I do that and post another video with a different recommendation.
See, I got stuff in my mouth after a face mask. Figure this stuff out, my friends, but the key is don’t stop. With all the stuff that’s happening. Don’t stop. There’s still people out there that need your help. Figure out the best way to communicate with them and to win and to always get yes.