How do you practice eliminating filler words from your speech?

One way to identify your filler words is to record a video or audio of your talk. It will become apparent quickly what those words are. Then you can begin to exorcise them from your talk. It may take a lot of time and effort. How do I know? I've been doing keynotes for close to 20 years, and one or two still sneak in sometimes. Keep at it - And good luck!

The most recent filler words are, “right?!”, “uh”, “uhm,” “like,” “you know,” and my favorite, “okay?” As others mentioned, you are more likely to improve your delivery with public communication by practicing, recording, and soliciting feedback. Finally, more important than filler words, is “filler body language.” Connecting with an audience and building rapport is largely dependent on eye contact and body movements. SL

Everyone uses filler words and phrases, but they only become a problem when you use so many and so frequently, they distract your audience from your message. They won't notice the odd 'um' or 'er', but they will notice if you use them every few seconds, or if you use 'you know' or 'basically', 'actually', 'in fact', 'going forward' etc. in nearly every sentence. Record yourself and notice where you use filler words and phrases. Is it when you're nervous, hesitant, distracted? Fix that problem and you will fix the filler word problem. Using filler words can just be a habit, and like all habits can be broken. Being aware of your filler words will help you eliminate them. Don't chastise yourself for the odd 'um' or 'er', we're all human.

Recording yourself is the best way. The key thing is to record yourself talking about different topics and see what filler words you use. Then practice a few more time. Once you have done that then ask a friend or colleague to listen to you and tell you to stop every time you use a filler word. This will help you become more aware of where it is you need to be careful about filler words.

Change starts at home. Practicing accurate and deliberate speech in your daily conversations is the easiest way to improve your presentations. It's also very eye-opening when you start paying attention to your use of filler words. Exercising those muscles will give you the flexibility to speak fluently during your speeches.

Check out these breathing techniques to help with your public speaking: Diaphragmatic Breathing: This technique involves breathing deeply from your diaphragm, which can help you speak with more power and authority. To do this, take a deep breath in through your nose, allowing your stomach to expand. Then, slowly exhale through your mouth, allowing your stomach to contract. Square Breathing: This technique involves breathing in a pattern of four counts in, four counts hold, four counts out, and four counts hold again. This can help you regulate your breathing and calm your nerves before speaking.

Considering your pace is important to minimizing filler words and expressions. Unless you freeze from stage fright, you can always expect nerves to speed up your presentation by 15-20%. Thus, remembering that you have time can give you the confidence to think before you speak and to utilize pausing. As mentioned, pausing can help emphasize points, and create anticipation. When practiced, any fear of silence can be replaced by a feeling of control over the audience's attention.

The breathing recommendations in some of these articles are acceptable off-stage. But breathing in the middle of a big keynote can slow the momentum. That being said, pausing midspeech is not terrible. In fact, pausing can be especially valuable around a talking point you are trying to emphasize.

Knowing you don’t have to finish it in a jiffy is a great way to tackle. You ensure you have some points for each topic and always have the mindset that you have to be crisp, authentic and succinct.

Pausing and taking a moment to breath or recalibrate your thoughts is great. However, be mindful that the pause is not to long. Often when folks pause longer than 5 seconds, you're likely to loose the audience focus and attention.

No matter how much you plan and practice, filler words sometimes have a way of creeping in. Unless every speech you give is the same, over-practicing to cut out filler words can make your speech sound artificial, rehearsed, forced, or even inauthentic. Should you practice and plan? Yes. Will that likely kill all filler words? No. Be reasonable and patient with yourself when giving speeches.

One tip is to practice your talk, speech, or presentation out of order. This way you are as comfortable with the end as you are in the beginning and middle. This helps eliminate the ummms and ahhhs.

I personally found that the root cause as to why I was using filler words was that I wasn't prepared to speak on the topic. The filler words were a way to let my dialogue continue while my thoughts caught up with what I eventually wanted to say. It's not an overnight process to remove filler words, but I found that a combination of planning out my points, focusing on what I really wanted to say, and transcribing those as scripts to read off really helped.

The ability to deliver the presentation in random or reverse order is a great way to ensure you have (a) broken it up into discrete sections and (b) mastered the materials to eliminate the need for filler words. Rarely, is there a comment that a public speaker has spoken too slowly, so use this fact to your benefit.

Always record your presentation, both video and audio. You need to see and hear how you are doing. Pausing is your friend, not your foe. It gives you milliseconds to regain your command and it also creates and urgency on the audience to look up back at you if they were distracted.

Gestures are physical movements that accompany speech, such as hand movements, head nods, and facial expressions. These movements serve to emphasize and complement the spoken message. Additionally, gestures help to relieve speaker anxiety and allow the speaker to think clearly during short pauses. When a speaker utilizes gestures, they are less likely to rely on filler words during these pauses because they can communicate their thoughts and ideas through movement, bringing a visual component to their speech.

We speak with our eyes. If you're presenting in an area where eye contact is not considered offensive, transmitting your main points while making eye contact can add emphasis for everyone in the audience. It's important to make an effort to connect with individuals in your audience and not just rhythmically move your eyes across the room. Admittedly, keeping your material in mind while making eye contact with strangers can be one of the most difficult parts of a presentation. Think of your sentences like playing catch with the audience. As you see expressions of acknowledgement of your thought, think of that as the toss back, and pick another audience member to play catch with.

When it comes to gestures, it's important to use natural movements that complement your words and add emphasis to your key points. Avoid using gestures that feel forced or exaggerated. Try to make eye contact with different members of your audience throughout your speech, and hold their gaze for a few seconds before moving on to someone else.

Great group to check out: Toastmasters Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization that helps people improve their public speaking and leadership skills through a structured program of training and practice. Members of Toastmasters participate in weekly or biweekly meetings where they have the opportunity to deliver speeches, receive feedback, and practice various leadership roles.

Joining speaker clubs is an excellent way to eliminate filler words because it offers a structured and supportive environment for individuals to develop their public speaking skills. Filler words, such as "um," "like," "so," and "you know," tend to inadvertently creep into our speech when we are nervous or uncertain about what to say next. These words can make the speaker appear less confident, knowledgeable, or articulate. Therefore, one can address and overcome these challenges by participating in speaker clubs while developing more effective communication skills.