Business demands continue to expand.
Is your team ready?
There are only a few official media representatives of a company, but the whole company now does business on camera:
HR does hiring interviews remotely
Hybrid and WFH teams meet daily on Zoom and other meeting platforms
Leaders are handling internal addresses to their global workforce online
Each of these touch points are professional engagements that represent the individuals and the company to the world, while reflecting official policies and, more subtly, respect to one another internally.
You invest readily in your employees’ professional development across multiple areas - don’t wait any longer to invest in their camera training.
When that camera light goes on, it’s the whole company that’s being judged.
IF YOU…
Are an HR Manager struggling with employee relationships, fractured due to hybrid work
Are losing potential quality hires because company representatives aren’t representing your company professionally on camera
Are losing potential clients because of poor representation online
Find everyone’s looking pretty disinterested…not bringing their best selves to the group meetings
…or maybe you’re a team lead who just can’t deal with that one guy who doesn’t know he’s being gross in every online meeting…
…there is a solution.
Gain Confidence on Zoom:
Invest in your team’s camera readiness so they have the skills and set-up to represent themselves and, in turn, the company, professionally and with ease.
What’s included:
> 30-minute pre-class Zoom between your team and Stefanie and/or Tara directly
> 90-minute live class on Zoom, inclusive of participant engagement and Q&A with participants
The psychology of being on camera
How to cope with nerves
Online meeting etiquette
Proper camera, screen, and lighting placement
Tech tweaks - both specific to Zoom and for all platforms
> Digital course book inclusive of cheat sheets, checklists, and recommended video trainings for
deeper learning for your team
In this overview class, class creators Stefanie Small and Tara Blau Smollen, trainers with a combined 60 years of on camera, interview, and performance experience, will introduce the structure, mindset, and tech of being an effective communicator in online meetings with real time activities to implement as we go along.
Setting each person up correctly, supporting them to overcome nerves, and codifying their appearance on camera is necessary on any platform (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.) and for any reason they may be meeting on camera.
This is not media training in which we broach your company’s public performance or practice a response to journalistic “gotcha” questions.
Still, people who would otherwise be very intentional with how they would dress, present, and organize themselves for face-to-face meetings throw everything they know about making an impression out the window when they present online.
Our impressions in a virtual setting are just as important.
And without training to know how to present themselves in a way that instills trust, leaders and teams are rapidly losing the modern business race.
The real question is … Can you afford not to have your team camera ready?
Fact: Appearing on camera builds trust between employees and managers, across teams, with clients.
“I feel as if my presentation skills have gone up a notch and I look and feel better in front of my clients.”
- Craig S. - Milly Valley, CA
FAQs
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GCOZ gets everyone on your team in top form to represent themselves and the company professionally whenever they engage on camera. The class takes approx 90 mins for everyone at once and is a professional investment that’s transferable across teams.
Media training is for senior executives. It takes at least half a day, 1:1 with a PR professional, to prepare them with messaging targets and for handling tricky or volatile media questioning. It’s next level training for those in the media field.
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By 2025, it’s estimated that 32 MILLION people will be working in a hybrid work situation. That’s a monumental shift in the way business is done and no one ever trained their employees to be effective on camera for this new stage. You have the opportunity to make the most of it by setting up your teams to be a cut above.
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The mental preparedness, physical readiness, and basic tech that individuals need to present confidently and professionally when on camera.
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It is! No one wants to be on another boring online meeting - especially us! We’ve made it easy to take in, engaging to be part of, and (a little) silly in places where we can, to show the extreme behaviors that make people look professional vs. questionable on camera.
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It runs 75-90 minutes, inclusive of engagement activities and Q&A. If you have firm time constraints, however, let us know and we can adjust content accordingly.
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Our company classes are $100 per person with a $3k minimum. Over 100 people on your team? Please contact us.
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We do! We offer individual set-up assessment and coaching for key personnel, either in-person or via Zoom for a separate fee.
“I love my new Zoom hacks that I learned in class!”
- Kamaljit B., San Francisco, CA
Increase inclusivity
Foreign-born and Out-of-Country Employees/Contractors - The global nature of business today has created a demand for teams that can work fluidly across a broad range of cultures and backgrounds - sometimes virtually and sometimes in person. Throwing a mix of culturally-diverse employees together without first establishing expectations and etiquette for on-camera meetings can have an adverse effect on team success and productivity, though. There are cultural norms unique to Western business that your international team members may not be aware of. This class is an investment toward achieving social cohesion for your all your team members.
Women in Business - Online meetings can effectively level the playing field for many women who, in person, may feel physically overwhelmed. That feeling inhibits many women from fully contributing their ideas and (either through conscious or unconscious bias) often keeps managers from engaging with the women in the room.With proper camera set-up and mental preparedness, though, everyone can feel confident contributing, and thus make the most of their time in a virtual environment.
“I had been thinking about ways to improve my presentation style.
Taking this class was such a good thing to do! Both Stefanie and Tara have a wealth of experience and information that make this class great — and they give many valuable pointers for gaining confidence and presenting online.”
- Vicky B, San Francisco, CA
Make “Work From Home” Work For Your Team
Workers want to work-from-home for multiple reasons:
1. Decreasing Their Carbon Footprint
2. Their Proven Remote Productivity
3. Cities Can Be Dangerous and Are Certainly Expensive
Employers, though, argue that the success of WFH was rooted in the good will and face-to-face collaboration practices built up over the years prior to the pandemic.
At this point, disengagement has never been higher and being remote makes it harder for teams to foresee or preempt problem areas.
By training people to set-up and step-up more confidently in their work-from-home situations, team leaders and HR can:
1. Overcome underperformance of your hybrid work teams
2. Address underlying tension/dynamics within teams
3. Improve your team’s sub-par communications intelligence (despite how excellent they may be in their field!)
4. Have more impactful 1:1 meetings
5. Close more sales
6. Reignite engagement
Work infrastructure is forever transformed. While we honor the way business was done, it’s time to be honest and confront what is here and now.
“Gain Confidence ON Zoom was an incredible learning opportunity!
Stefanie and Tara not only taught me valuable technical skills but their exercises instilled confidence in me. I highly recommend this class for everyone, even if you already know the basics of Zoom.” - Edna T., Merced, CA
is Their camera off during Zoom meetings?
Whatever their reason might be, when they have their camera off, the whole team becomes less effective. Leaders feel like they are talking into a void and participants are disengaged.
Is it:
Exhaustion: Zoom fatigue is real. We’ve got some great solutions for making it easier.
Appearance: People used to think that being on camera meant needing to look like a news anchor or a movie star. Not so! Being on camera is so common now that all people need are a few simple steps we can share to look quickly polished.
Tech: Many people may think they have it all together because they’ve been on camera for 2 years already, but no. It’s only that no one’s ever told them that they couldn’t be heard well (Or seen well.) We’ll help everyone get set-up and apply a few simple tools so that they look like the professionals they are.
With the camera on, individuals have the opportunity to be seen and heard in a way that may even be more advantageous to them and the team than if everyone was actually in person.
WHO ARE WE?
Stefanie Small
Producer, writer, and publicist Stefanie Small has worked a lifetime in the arts – both in front of the cameras, on the stage, and behind the scenes. She is currently retained by clients for strategy, web, and media development that is accessible, engaging, and in support of their communications strategies.
As a professional, Stefanie spent years as a content creator for an educational nonprofit, as a podcast producer for multiple entities, and kept a roster of independent clients that she supported in (re)launching their businesses.
Prior to those years, Stefanie was a sought after publicist in the Bay Area’s performing arts market, working first for the premier arts presenter of the West Coast, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, then with the boutique PR firm CBPR.
Tara Blau Smollen
Tara Blau Smollen is an award-winning actor, director, and theater professor. She holds an MFA in acting from the National Theater Conservatory in Denver and has worked extensively both Off-Broadway and in regional theater across the U.S. As a professor, she has taught at numerous colleges in the Bay Area including SF State, Contra Costa, and Los Medanos.
During the pandemic she saw a need to support creatives, coaches and individuals with learning how to present themselves with more authenticity, when speaking online, so she set up her own coaching business, TBS Coaching. Her client list includes, actors working on MFA auditions, organizations working on immigrant rights and policy at the state level, the health care industry, working with indigenous women on finding their voices and prepping clients for online interviews with Fortune 500 companies.
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