Who's Zooming Who?

​As I get ready for my big Zoom meeting next week, I can’t help but think of the immortal words of Jeffrey Toobin, writer for The New Yorker and CNN analyst, when he said…
“Is this thing on?”
Which is a brilliant segue into our blog topic this week: Zoom meetings—dos and don’ts.
Hey, we’re all adults. At least we think we are. But it might be a good time to go over a few rules for a successful show business Zoom meeting. Remember, you’re there not only to sell your current project, but to sell yourself—so it may be a good idea to leave the “Mel Gibson was right” T-shirt in the bottom drawer.
And even though I am a fan of cat faces, leave them where they belong—in the courtroom. Here is another line you never want to have to say when collaborating with a future boss:
“I’m here live… I am not a cat.”
Now for a bit of personal history.
Be prepared. Check your computer. Check your settings. Run a visual and audio test. I had a meeting a few years back and was not prepared. I spent several minutes attempting to simply be seen. Sure, they could hear me—but because I didn’t prepare, they didn’t get to see me in real time.
With a kitten face—kidding.
No crazy Zoom backgrounds, please. No one wants to look at the picture you took with Worf at a Star Trek convention in 2012. Well… maybe I do. But I’m not a producer.
And most important: be yourself—and listen. As we talked about a few months back, you don’t have to do all the talking. Eighty percent them… wait, what does that leave? Sorry, not great at third-grade math. Whatever it is, take a breath, relax, and have some fun.
Oh—and congratulate yourself.
You’re a writer.