Neither kids nor pets roam through our homes.Īt first, we tried to disguise our clutter with one of Zoom’s virtual backgrounds. She has a good excuse: three sons – ages 3, 6, and 8. There’s a large TV on one wall and she routinely flips the camera to show her boys wrestling, and a huge messy pile of toys. Jamie Apody, a sports reporter for Philly’s Action News, Zooms from her basement studio, previously known as her family den. Some people can get away with a messy background. If people were so quick to criticize the Barefoot Contessa on the contents of her dishwasher, what would our audiences think of what we put on our shelves and walls? Didn’t she know that good knives should always be hand-washed? The famous cook didn’t realize that her innocent post would really stir the pot. We didn’t think about our backgrounds until Ina Garten, celeb chef and cookbook author, shared a photo of her loaded dishwasher on Instagram – with knives in it! Her followers were aghast. We had our work cut out for us! We bought microphones so people could hear us better, adjusted the lighting in our offices so it didn’t highlight our wrinkles, and elevated our computers to minimize our double chins. But, when COVID put an end to in-person group meetings, we realized we would have to transition our “ Shmoozing With The Word Mavens” program to Zoom.

We’re the authors of three books – and we have been presenting our popular book talk to audiences for almost 20 years.

Generic office background for zoom