Did you know that you can have a good voice and deliver great messages, but still fail in a presentation or interview? Yep, you can because your visual elements, including eye contact, are so distracting that your audience doesn’t receive your messages
This can be especially true in close-up remote interviews where gestures and other body language elements usually don’t come into play.
Case in point is a podcast interview with up-and-coming minor league baseball player Walker Janek. The Houston Astros prospect is not a “pro” at giving remote interviews and his inexperience shows in this one.
Instead of looking into the camera to maintain eye contact with the audience, Janek spends much of the interview looking up. In the clip below, he is asked to outline his near future goals.
There is nothing wrong with the content of Janek’s response. But his lack of eye contact is distracting and makes him look unconfident and unsure of himself. This is not uncommon in remote interviews because many people are unaccustomed to looking into a camera while they speak. We have seen it in communicators with much more experience than this young athlete.
It’s fine to break eye contact occasionally during a remote interview. But don’t do it too often. And look down, instead of up, so you won’t appear to be seeking heavenly guidance.
This interview was a learning experience for Walker Janek, and we suspect he’ll rapidly improve. We hope you will learn from it as well, before you give your next remote presentation or interview.