We know that working from home is no longer a pandemic-era phase, but has become the permanent norm for many mid-career professionals nowadays. Most people have got a firm handle on mastering the mute button on video calls, having a ring light for picture-perfect lighting, and ensuring you have a professional backdrop… except have you actually thought about exactly what sits on that wall behind you? Nobody wants a client to notice the blank, sterile wall behind you rather than pay attention to the conversation. There’s a very simple way to fix that problem.
In a virtual working world, your background isn’t just a wall. It is actually the perfect advertising spot for your personal brand and expertise. You will have subconsciously acknowledged the perfect professional background when speaking to a client before; seeing an impressive, put-together setup builds an image of silent authority and can make the viewer feel they’re in safe hands.
This article will introduce you to the concept of building a personal credibility wall, upgrading your space not as a way to show off, but as a way to ground yourself in your own achievements and allow your inner confidence to shine, impressing both your clients and enhancing your pride.
The psychology behind your workspace
The environment we work in helps to shape our mindset. That’s why high-value companies place a lot of value on the layout of their office space. Working from home can feel isolating and mundane to some, and part of this will be due to the items these people are looking at on a daily basis. Having an intentional design to your home office can help change the psychology of that space when you sit in it for hours on end, week after week. As part of this, having a wall of achievements can act as a daily visual boost.
The mid-career stage is the most common period in which feelings of imposter syndrome or burnout can creep in and begin to affect even the most successful of professionals. When the camera is on, we switch into ‘stage mode’… almost like an actor in front of an audience. But when it is off, and you’re left grinding through an email backlog alone, seeing your diploma, awards and certifications can serve as a quiet reminder of your resilience and hard work that got you to where you are now.
Those visual prompts also help you communicate your professional competence to new clients and can build an immediate, unspoken trust with new colleagues too. It introduces you before you can launch into your personal spiel and starts any relationship off on the right foot.
Designing a professional display
Of course, this is still a home office rather than a high-value communal workspace, so your display shouldn’t reflect a corporate boardroom but rather become a professional extension of your own style and home decor choices. For example, if you have a modern environment, selecting a matte black finish for your frame helps create that sleek look, while a more traditional environment would favor the choice of a mahogany or walnut frame instead.
There is also a very fine line between having a professional display of credentials and it becoming an ego shrine. You can’t just have gigantic framed diplomas on a plain wall. What you can do instead is pair a framed document standing on a floating shelf with tasteful professional art and small houseplants. The objective is to make your credentials just part of the overall picture that colleagues and clients see when they’re on a Zoom call with you.
Creating a curated and sophisticated space isn’t something you should overthink either; just make it an extension of your home. Use simple lighting and stylistic choices to fill several floating shelves, including some professional books or magazines, and create an overall picture of who you are and what you represent. It is supposed to be visible without dominating the entire frame of your camera. This is what makes that subtle, immediate statement to any first-time viewer of your workspace.
The common mid-career dilemma
Now, if you are sitting here reading this and thinking “I wish I hadn’t lost my diploma”, whether that be because it was inevitably accidentally left behind when moving house or because it was destroyed in a flood or a storm, then there is hope yet. You aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last, for life to get in the way and cause you to lose a credential in the shuffle. But trying to acquire a replacement for a 15- to 20-year-old document can be painstaking.
Even if you do possess the original parchment, you probably shouldn’t mount an expensive, difficult-to-replace historical document on your wall. Home offices can have bright windows which leads to sun damage, fading inks, and warped paper. Instead of stressing over hunting down your university-issued diploma or even risking its condition, a modern replacement strategy is to keep the original safe and instead use a reputable college diploma maker to create a flawless, high-quality replica document that is designed specifically for your display usage.
Not only does it solve the aesthetic problem, but it can also give you a psychological boost to be reminded of your achievements, without any of the hassle of chasing down a replacement or duplicate original document from your educational institution. Creating an accurate replica to match your original document is the practical choice for any busy professional to display in their home office.
Feel good and look good, all at once
Having an optimized video background is the perfect blend of both smart interior design and personal pride in your career journey. It’s about both feeling good about yourself and looking good for a strong first impression. It only takes a couple of hours to pick up some floating shelves, affix them to your office walls, and then head to your chosen home decor store to find the perfect frames, bookends, and potted plants to round out the aesthetic.
Those few hours are enough to pay off time and again when you log in on a Monday morning and face your first video meeting of the week with a fully renewed confidence, knowing that your backdrop reflects your personality, achievements, and style, whether you’re talking to your favorite colleague or having an introductory call with a new client.
