Before you say a word, the room has already read your posture, your phone and your face.

Rooms make their read fast and mostly without thinking about it, using whatever is visible. Standing at the edge on your phone says something whether or not you meant it, and by the time you speak people have already begun forming an impression. That is not exactly fair. It is how attention works when there is a lot of input and very little information.

You can change the input without becoming somebody else. Pocket the phone for the first five minutes, face the group, ask one person a question. The rest tends to sort itself out.