{"id":223,"date":"2011-05-23T18:06:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T22:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/?p=223"},"modified":"2018-04-30T14:19:01","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T18:19:01","slug":"too-manly-to-use-the-mike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/too-manly-to-use-the-mike\/223","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019s Too Manly To Use the Mic – What Can You Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to use the mic for my presentation,\u201d bellows our baritone speaker. \u201cI have a strong voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, of course you do,\u201d I soothe him. \u201cBut please don\u2019t be afraid <\/em><\/strong>to use our microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rooster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Jim Bahn<\/a><\/p>\n

Fear.<\/p>\n

Many times, fear is the reason why seemingly polished presenters balk when we request that they use the microphone. With macho bravado, a speaker will claim that he doesn\u2019t need extra help. But deep down, the real reason he\u2019s brushing off microphone support is because he\u2019s \u00a0scared.<\/p>\n

Scared? Chicken? Of what?<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it\u2019s fear of the unfamiliar. We\u2019re most accustomed to hearing our voices without amplification. With a mic, our voices can sound loud and imposing to our own ears. If you\u2019re not familiar with the sound of your amplified voice, it can sound intimidating or even too loud.<\/p>\n

Also, a speaker may not be familiar with the actual microphone itself. This is why running an audio check prior to the presentation is so important. The sound check isn\u2019t merely to make sure the equipment is working: it\u2019s often even more important to make a speaker comfortable with using the microphone.<\/p>\n

When a speaker refuses mic support, I\u2019ve learned to accuse him (oh, it\u2019s usually a \u2018him\u2019!) of being chicken. I might say,<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the microphone must be\u00a0scary<\/strong> for you<\/em>. But if we run a quick mike check, maybe you can get over your fear <\/strong><\/em>really quickly. Let me set you up… there\u2019s really no reason for you to be so afraid<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do I accuse seemingly confident men of being afraid?<\/p>\n

Two reasons:<\/p>\n

1. Most of the time, the scared person is quick to prove me wrong. \u201cI am NOT afraid!\u201d he\u2019ll exclaim. To prove it, he often lets me mic him immediately. This saves me the lengthy hassle of explaining that no matter how strong his voice is, it\u2019s not going to be heard by many people in the audience without a mike.<\/p>\n

2. Rational explanations take too long and usually don\u2019t work. Let\u2019s say I make the usual rational explanations: i.e.: \u201cThe people in the back will not hear you well. We\u2019re recording this, and it will not record properly. Your voice may be strong, but it will tire over time….\u201d Rational arguments are usually poo-poohed with a delusional \u201cNo, it\u2019ll be just fine<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A macho man wants to prove he\u2019s not scared. And a scared man won\u2019t respond well to rational arguments.<\/p>\n

Either way, my goal is to get the speaker to use the mic. In my experience, appealing to emotion works faster and better than appealing to logic.<\/p>\n

How else might you get recalcitrant speakers to use the microphone?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t need to use the mic for my presentation,\u201d bellows our baritone speaker. \u201cI have a strong voice.\u201d \u201cYes, of course you do,\u201d I soothe him. \u201cBut please don\u2019t be afraid to use our microphone.\u201d Photo Credit: Jim Bahn Fear. Many times, fear is the reason why seemingly polished presenters balk when we request […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presentation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}