Close encounters of the remote kind. Removing conscious distractions, 5 tips for great remote presentations.

If getting additional investment, a job, or influencing a client is your goal, your audience needs to hear what you have to say. Unfortunately, when your pitch takes place digitally, distractions can prevent your message from being heard.

Remember the last time a car backfire or flash of light caused you to be momentarily distracted? A slight rustle of leaves on a calm day or the creak of a floorboard are enough to grab your attention. These subtle effects can occur in any digital engagement. Pixelation of your image, a dog barking, the sun ducking behind a cloud, or even your daughter walking by in the background. When these distractions take place, your audience, even just for a few moments stops paying attention to what you are saying. Lost was your comment about the business growing 25% or the time you created the video that went viral.

These five sets of steps can greatly reduce any of these distractions from occurring. Given how important your meetings are, using some of these simple tips may make a big difference.

Control Audio Interruptions (1). How about that dog barking or the doorbell ringing in the background? Your first fix is to use the mute button, but distractions always seem to happen when it is your turn to speak. Using your computer or camera microphone tends to pick up background noises. A better option is to use a lapel microphone and your computer speakers for sound or a small wireless headset. The closer the microphone is to your mouth, the lower your microphone gain required, the less it will pick up external noises. Your voice will be more natural, and you won’t sound like you are in a tunnel.

Improve Connection Quality (2). Your video suddenly seems choppy, pixelated, your voice drops out and then speeds up. These can be caused by slow Internet speed or an overloaded computer. Start by using a wired connection directly to your router. If that is not possible, try placing your computer and your router closer together, or add an extender. You can check your Internet speed with www.speedtest.net. Household members can also be a problem by using up available bandwidth. Ask other users to pause their streaming or online gaming while your big meeting takes place. Reboot your computer and turn off other programs like web browsers, message apps and email that slow the hardware and that might also cause distracting alerts to pop up.

Minimize Lighting Variations (3). It is not just sound that can distract. Each time the sun ducks behind a cloud your face gets brighter. Your camera does not adjust as quickly as your eyes do. To prevent these annoying changes, if you have a lot of natural light in your office, pull down or close the shades on your windows. This will reduce the effect of sunlight changes. Magicians love lighting changes since that flash of light always distracts you.

Reduce Background Activities (4). Zoom bombing is not your only problem. Your audience will look away from you when a family member runs across your living room, or there is activity outside your windows. Reorient your computer to minimize high traffic areas and background activity. If you cannot, see about setting up a folding screen behind you to hide that movement. Make sure your computer rests on a firm surface to keep the image stable.

Master the platform (5). One more thing that will distract your audience are your fumbles with the platform. Whether you use Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, WebEx, or Hangouts, practice with them. Visit the application’s website to get usage tips. Learn where the camera controls are, the mute button is, and how to admit attendee s. Each time you struggle with the program your audience will stop listening to your message and will focus on your troubles.

Once you get the technology right, practice your presentation! Use the application’s ‘Record’ feature to see yourself giving your talk to spot these distractions. Just like proofreading a paper, watching your recording will allow you to spot things viewers will see. These suggestions should help you remove obvious distractions, but some are not as easy to spot. For handling those challenges please read: Revengers: Age of Zoom. Eliminating Unconscious Distractions. 5 More Tips to improve your digital pitches.