The first five minutes of a Zoom meeting are connection time, not content time. That’s the whole fix. Hosts who treat those minutes as dead air to survive until the real meeting starts are the reason the room goes cold before anybody says anything that matters.
This question came into the Idea Slam mailbag: “The first five minutes of every Zoom I host are painfully awkward. People are trickling in. I’m losing the room before I say anything that matters. What do you recommend in that dead space?”
We’ve all been in that room. It’s an elevator ride, and nobody wants to be the weirdo who talks in the elevator. So here’s what I do instead.
What should you do in the first two minutes of a Zoom call?
Start one direct conversation with the first person who shows up with their camera on. Not a group announcement. One conversation, with one human, by name. “Mitchell. Mitchell, how are you?” Like we’re long-lost friends, even if I’ve never met Mitchell. That’s his cue to come off mute and keep the camera on. My go-to opener is “tell me something good,” because everybody can answer it. If I don’t know him yet, I ask who he is and what he does.
Here’s what that buys you. Nobody logs in on time, and you don’t hit critical mass until three or four minutes past the hour. While you’re waiting, the people arriving hear a conversation already in progress. They hear the host caring about the people in the room, and they see somebody from the audience talking, which tells them this isn’t a webinar they get to hide from.
Why does calling people by name change the whole meeting?
Call out every single person who joins, unless you’re running one of those hundred-person webinars where it isn’t possible. “Hey Mitchell, great to see you. Barbara, welcome to the call. Tyler, thanks for tuning in this morning.”
Part of that is the oldest rule in the book. Nobody loves the sound of anything like they love their own name. But the bigger part is validation. You’re telling somebody you noticed they spent their morning with you.
The practical payoff is cameras. Calling someone by name almost always gets their camera on, and once cameras are on and people suspect they might get called on next, they stay on. Cameras off is a plague, and it’s usually a symptom, not the disease.
What happens when a host stays silent at the start?
You’ve been in this meeting. The host comes on, says “we’ll give people a chance to connect, we’ll start about five after,” and then goes silent.
What happens next is predictable. People feel watched instead of welcomed. Cameras start clicking off. Somebody decides this meeting is weird, and now they’re listening with one ear while they answer email. You didn’t lose them at minute twenty. You lost them at minute two, in the silence.
Silence at the top of a virtual meeting isn’t neutral. It’s a signal, and the signal it sends is that nothing is happening yet and nobody is minding the room. Fill it on purpose, every time.
Should you do introductions and use the chat on Zoom?
If there are ten people in the room, do a round of introductions, even if they aren’t a community and they only showed up to watch a training. It makes the room feel like a room. People learn who’s there, and they start thinking “everybody else here is kind of like me.”
Then tell them the chat is part of the event. If you’re hosting Zoom events and telling people not to use the chat because it distracts the speaker, you need to get better at Zoom. What you’re really saying is that you don’t care that they’re there.
My line, every single time: “Welcome to the call. Use the chat. Share your questions, comments, and sarcastic remarks.” It gets a chuckle every time, and then the chat lights up. People passing notes while you present are people who are still in the room.
Questions owners ask
What if nobody has their camera on when I start?
Talk to somebody anyway, by name, off the participant list. Ask them something easy. Most people would rather turn the camera on than answer a friendly question from a black box.
Isn’t small talk a waste of everyone’s time?
Think of it as warm-up rather than small talk. You’re not filling five minutes. You’re buying yourself an engaged room for the next fifty, and that’s a good trade.
What’s the one question I should always ask?
“Tell me something good.” Everybody can answer it, it’s positive, and positivity in the first two minutes rubs off on the whole call.
Does this work for client meetings, not just group calls?
Yes. One person or twelve, the principle holds. Start with connection, use their name, and don’t let the first thing they hear be silence.
Your next call, greet the first person by name before you touch your slides. That’s the whole homework. If you want to hear the full answer from the Idea Slam, watch the full episode.
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