Speak UP!
- Speak up, Nick.
- I AM speaking up.
- What?
- I am speaking up.
- What?
- I said, 'I am speaking up'!
- What now?
- I AM SPEAKING UUUUUUUUP GODDAMMIT 🤬😡
Repeat ad nauseam. I used to have this conversation on a regular basis up until my early 20s. It was so frustrating! Sometimes it felt like everyone was in on it, trying to drive me nuts, pretending they couldn't hear me.
At drama school, I learned that I was, in fact, very quiet when I spoke. I would mostly whisper and mumble, and unless you were a foot or two away from me, you'd likely not understand what I was mumbling about.
Why are some people so quiet?
Well, your brain adjusts. So if you're a mumbler who speaks at 0.01 decibel, you will eventually hear that as 'normal' in your head.
When I finally started speaking at a regular (audible) volume at drama school, I felt like I was yelling. They'd keep telling me 'louder, for the people in the back!' and I'd be like '...😨 LOUDER?! I'm practically bellowing already!'
(Spoiler: I wasn't. )
For those of you who have to address audiences: if people keep telling you to speak up, you are most likely mumble-whispering! Your brain might have just adjusted to that. It’s also the reason loud people don’t realize that they’re loud. No, they’re usually not slamming doors or stomping around like a herd of elephants out of sheer evil. Their brains have just normalized the amount of noise they create.
Credit: Oleg Laptev, Unsplash
So if you want to improve your stage and/or camera presence, you will need an external observer at first. So you can tell the difference between what you think you’re doing…and what you’re actually doing.
If hiring a public speaking coach (ahem) isn’t in your budget yet, less-effective-but-still-good sounding boards are
other people (whose opinion you can TRUST! No, not your mom who thinks everything you do is perfect)
a camera (potentially a bit more painful as you’ll have to watch yourself back and analyze)
But if you commit to it, you CAN improve your presentation skills dramatically - you just have to keep your eye on the ball: how and what you’re doing. Not how/what you think you are!