Video is essential to cement your brand in the memory of viewers. I have never been afraid of my looking into a camera, until now. It finally struck me!
My LinkedIn profile has enough video of me in action to get the point across well in my About and Experience sections. Thus I am not a stranger to acting the right part with an impression in the viewer’s memory.
I realized how ancient my webcam is. I don’t even know when I bought it. And viewers see me fuzzy and jerky, though I always try to be clear and deliberate. At least in what I say.
Soon in how I appear.
My timing could not have been worse: shopping for a new webcam in a pandemic where everyone, including my nonagenarian mother-in-law, is zooming.
So as the prices of these small devices zoomed, I maintained my denial that I needed a new webcam. A colleague shamed me into a new one. After all, what are snarky fiends for?
Then I suddenly decided to make the plunge, seeking a webcam that would make me sound, and now also look, professional. Two quick emails to my tech guru Fredd Fishman (thank you Fredd!) and I was in possession of 3 model numbers that he advised would suit me.
Shopping for a webcam proved frustratingly challenging over the next 2 days, between zoom calls, and each time I stepped into “the hunt” I was reminded that the last zoom call made a new camera ever more and more important, while each attempt to find one was zooming my frustration level.
Those babies are really hard to find! Out of stock, back ordered, no information when they could be replenished. One was available for arrival in August 2020, but I persevered.
Then as I was playing the ebay game, a new vendor came to market, literally poof! on the screen, with a model number I was comfortable with, and I made the plunge. Purchased on the spot; bidding would be fruitless.
It’ll be here in about a week, and I will dutifully douse the box and the cam with antiseptic wipes and install it in time to be seen better, and sound better too.
Be a pro. Look and sound like one.
Be more memorable, yes on LinkedIn and Zoom, even if it takes a mechanical device to portray your best side in today’s world! Next adventure, a green screen backdrop.
