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7 Magic Phrases That Make You Instantly Likable on Video Calls
“I love the way you think.”
I received the ultimate “Can I pick your brain?” email. Quarantine had just begun here in Spain, but I was already feeling burned out from everyone’s initial infatuation with Zoom.
“Is it cool if we just do an old-fashioned phone call?” I replied.
“I’d prefer video,” the man immediately shot back. “There’s something cool I’d like to show you.”
I wanted to insist, but after giving him a warning that my apartment wasn’t very big and I didn’t always get to chose when my youngest son cries, I gave in.
The next day, however, not even 5 minutes into our call, he asked to do a screen-share and tried to sell me on a product he was pushing.
Despite not being able to see my knuckles turn white, I thought for sure he’d picked up on the fact that my face was cemented in a permanent yawn.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to cut him off as shortly after he started his pitch our apartment exploded into tears and I jumped on the opening to end the call.
Much like in “real” life, during video calls, some people have said or done something that rubbed me the wrong way. But for every call that could have gone better, there have been just as many that have turned out well.
A big part of this is because someone said something that traveled straight through my ears and hit me hard in both my head and heart.
When it comes to building relationships, few exercises are more valuable than keeping track of the phrases that both light people up and those that bring people down. Then either adopting them for yourself or making a point to banish them from your vocabulary.
Since the world decided to get weird on us six months ago and video calls have become the norm, I’ve been collecting both the kind and questionable phrases people have said to me.
To kick things off below are a handful of the phrases people have said that made me instantly like them.
