I will admit right upfront, this is still my number one weakness. I am aware of it,. but do not let it hinder me from getting in front of people to talk and communicate what I care about. Which is investing in you and others my life education and experience.

Today we’re going to be discussing the important subject of eliminating garbage and filler words from your speech.

SUCCESS FACTOR:

My guess is that when you practiced going off script yesterday, you ended up using a LOT of filler words like

• “Ummm”

• “You know”

• “Like”

• “Basically”

• “Kind of”

This is understandable. After all, it’s HARD to speak without a script.

But here’s the thing: filler words can be REALLY distracting for the audience.

On top of that, they make you seem unprofessional and amateurish. Those who don’t use filler words seem smooth, polished, and like they KNOW what they’re talking about.

If you can eliminate these filler and garbage words from your speech, it will INSTANTLY give you a credibility boost.

ACTIONS:

Take out the primary ideas and concepts that you created yesterday from the Gettysburg Address.

Now, download the Ummo App or open up the voice recorder on your smartphone.

Speak off the cuff again, just by glancing at the main concepts, taking care to vary your speech speed and tone. Record this speech using the app or the voice recorder.

Next, determine how many filler words you used.

The app will count these automatically or you can listen and count them manually.

You’ll probably be surprised at how many filler words you used!

Say and record the speech again, taking special care to cut down on your use of filler words.

Count the number of filler words you used. It should be less than before.

Repeat this until you can cut your filler words in half!

Okay, now it’s your turn. Get practicing.

When you’re done, tell me what this experience was like in the comments below. Was it tough to cut down on your filler words?