Bert’s Blog

Good public speaking technique is something that you constantly need to work on. I have been speaking in public in non-sales situations for over 20 years, and it is amazing how certain words that you should not use can creep in to your language again.
The two most common speech pauses that we vocalize are “umm” and “you know”. These take away from the professional manner in which the information might otherwise be received, and might even reflect negatively on the speaker. I know that this can be perceived as shallow thinking, but welcome to life.
I sat next to someone recently who became so annoyed at how many times the speaker used the pause of “you know”, that he stopped listening to the talk, and started counting how many times it was used. Childish? Yes. Real? Also yes.
Why take a chance on being shallowly judged if these word pauses have crept into your speech style? Here is a trick I learned, and teach my students. If you need that pause in your talk to gather up a thought, say the pause in your mind and not through you voice. You will be surprised how different you will sound. If you have a hard time listening to your speech carefully when you talk, record yourself and play it back later. Getting these verbal pauses out of your talking voice will make a world of difference in how professional you sound. Good luck, and as the person recording the pauses said at the end of that talk….no, I DON’T KNOW!