How to Eliminate Ums When You Talk

Have you ever listened to yourself talk and realized you said a bunch of “ums” and “likes”?  I know I have and it’s pretty rough. I’ve gotten better over the years, but they still show up here and there.

“Ums” can be distracting when you talk so it’s best to avoid them.

Here are 3 tips to help you eliminate ums in your speech.

Rehearse:

When we have “ums” when we talk, it’s typically because we’re trying to think of what we want to say.

You want to go over your content and rehearse a few times so you have it down on video shoot day.

This will not only help you eliminate “ums”, but you’ll come off as professional and confident.

Slow Down:

If you’ve been following our content for a while, you’ve heard this before.  Slowing down your speech pattern will help you eliminate “ums”. If you need to think for a second, you have time to “catch up” without using filler words like “um”, “like”, and “ah”.

Slowing down your speech will help you come off as more trustworthy instead of sounding like a fast-talking salesperson.

Take a Pause:

If you find yourself at a loss for words, pause to gather your thoughts quickly.  This is strong for a couple of reasons: 1: it eliminates an “um” and 2: people will tend to lean in because they are waiting for what you’re about to say. ex: a dramatic pause.

Please keep in mind, that we can eliminate some of your “ums” in our editing process but if there are a ton, the video can come out choppy.

So it’s best to not have them to begin with. This will also help you come across as more confident in your day-to-day conversations like phone calls and networking events.

What filler words have you been able to eliminate?

How to Sound Better on Camera

Audio is 50% of a video, so paying attention to how you sound in your company’s professional video makes sense.

Here are 3 tips that you can use to sound better on camera:

Slow Down

Slowing down your speech will help you sound more trustworthy.  No one trusts a “fast talker”.  This also ensures the person watching your video can understand every word you are saying so the video has an impact.

Speak clearly and slowly and your message will be received.

Let the Mic Do the Work

Similar to lighting, ensuring your video has great audio is our job.  We do this by always providing the correct mic setup.  Sometimes we use a Lavalier mic that we secure to your shirt or we can use a shotgun mic.

Regardless of the mic setup, we ask that you let the mic do the work so we can control the volume on our end.  You’d be surprised but there’s no reason to shout into the microphone.  This will cause the audio to spike and turn the viewer off immediately.

Use your normal, smooth voice and we will handle the rest.

Take a Deep Breath

Before you start talking, take a deep breath.  This does a couple of things: it will relax your nerves so you come across as calm.  It also helps you to think about what you’re going to say so you sound confident.

Whenever we stop breathing when we get tense, it’s harder to think.

This is why after you’re in an argument you start thinking all of the things you WANTED to say.  When you’re in a disagreement, you tense up instead of breathing and you can’t think clearly.

So take a deep breath and the words will flow naturally.

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