Motivation on the Run

Oh, the bane of the ever present ‘um’ and ‘ah’ that is the non-prepared speaker’s crutch. Tim writes a great article on how to remove these from your speech, and from experience, I can attest to how well it works.

Toastmasters is a great lab to work and learn in, and with the help of peers, filler words can be removed from the vocabulary, but it is hard. As I listen to my weekly podcasts, I notice very few errant ‘um’ and ‘ah’ fillers. I credit this to my two plus years in Toastmasters. It really works, as does working on it yourself like Tim suggests.

Mother Tongue Annoyances » How to Lose the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from Your Speech
How to Lose the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from Your Speech

Hey there. One of my largest pet peeves as an audience member, I have to admit, is a platform speaker who does not have his or her ‘ums’ or ‘ahs’ under control. Sure, these involuntary ‘placeholder,’ ‘filler,’ or ‘bridge’ noises are understandable in their way. However, in my opinion, one of the hallmarks of a professional teacher, trainer, or public speaker is that his or her speech just f-l-o-w-s as naturally as possible, and is relatively or completely free from extraneous filler words. In this blog post I will share a technique that has helped me to solve this problem.