***If You Expect to Hear What You Are Saying, They Must Be Able to 'Hear' You Saying It!

By Nancy Daniels The Official Guide to Public Speaking
The official guide to Public Speaking

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Nothing is more frustrating than not hearing the person who is speaking. The problem for the soft-spoken, however, is that they do no recognize this problem for what it is. If you are soft-spoken, the reason you are being interrupted or talked over is because others tire of straining to hear you. Unfortunately, this can lead you to believe that what you are saying is not important or of no consequence. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is often difficult for the soft-spoken to acknowledge that indeed they do not speak with enough power or volume. Often ready to accuse others of being poor listeners, those who speak too softly do not recognize that the reason they are often asked to repeat themselves is because the message was unintelligible.

We tend to think that the word unintelligible deals with those who speak with a heavy accent or those who mumble. By all means, that word pertains to those individuals as well. But, in truth, if your message is not heard, then it too becomes unintelligible.

The reason for speaking or having a conversation is to share some type of information with others; but, it is a 2-way street. If you expect others to hear what you are saying, they need to be able to ‘hear’ you saying it.

A good exercise for increasing your volume is to record someone from the radio or TV by means of an external microphone at a comfortable listening level. Place the microphone 6 feet away from the speaker. Then record yourself, next to the professional’s voice, keeping the mic the same 6-foot distance from your mouth. The distance for both recordings is extremely important. They must be equal for this to work.

Now play back both recordings at a normal listening level. While the professional’s volume level will be normal, it is most likely that your voice will be softer in volume. Only when you can hear the difference between the 2 volume levels will you begin to appreciate that you are not speaking in a ‘normal’ volume of sound.

Make the change. Learn to increase your volume to what is considered ‘normal’ so that everyone else can hear what you have to say.