It tastes terrible and the audience doesn’t deserve the result.
Sound systems are designed to amplify. They always are more capable than people imagine.
Here are some tips on making the microphone work for you rather than against you:
Speak in a steady, normal tone of voice.
Keep your lips about six inches from the mike.
If you are behind a lectern, try to keep the microphone in front of your face when you turn your head while speaking. Turning your mouth away from the mike will make your voice instantly fade.
Your audience hears you better than you think they do. If you do doubt that you’re being heard, however, simply and gently ask them, “Can you hear me well enough?” Don’t demand to know “Is this thing working?” and don’t say “testing, testing, one, two, three…” And please don’t make a big deal out of it. You don’t want any microphone problem to be the most memorable part of your presentation. Make adjustments and move on.
Of course, if you arrived at your speaking engagement early, you would have had the chance to test the sound system and be confident that it was working properly. But that’s a topic for another post…
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