How to Avoide Filler Words & Phrases Ep. 3

The Filler Buster

Hello dear MSP fans, members and visitors!

@globocop again for you, on behalf of the station.

This time, we are going to improve our talk-performance when the mic is hot.

These tips are based on my personal experiences in the corporate world delivering presentations and speaking to audiences, hosting video conferences with hundreds of staff and, of course, my life as a presenter behind the mic on our MSP-Waves Broadcast Station

Click the links to read Part 1 and Part 2 of our series.

Filler Words & Phrases

Many of us are comfortably speaking and communicating, in our own minds.

But when we listen to a recording of ourselves, we quickly discover, that more often than not, our speech is laced with filler words, even stutter. I was, and still am shocked when doing an air-check of my shows against filler words and phrases (listening to your recorded shows). Here are some:

Em
Um
But
Like
I mean
You know
Your favorite goes here...

Quality

One quality measure of a good DJ is the concise expression of thought without deluting our speech with filler words and phrases. It makes it painful to listen for any audience and knocks many points off our professional image as a radio host.

There are a number of things I do to minimize my use of filler words and phrases, and I hope you find them useful not only for your radio performance, but for interviews, negotiations and establishing authority in daily life. Here they are:

Emergency Response

In today's fast paced world, we are expect to receive responses immediately. As a result, we are trained to give answers without delay - like an emergency response when there is no need for rush. Still, we feel a compulsion to be responsive the moment we're addressed.

Um, Filler words, you know, and, em, phrases, I mean, make it difficult you know, like, to understand the message I um, wanna get, you know, across, right?

We don't use filler words and phrases when we write. Why?

Because we have time to order our thoughts and formulate our sentences carefully. We take our time to write.

When we take our time to speak, we have already won half the battle. We need to take steps to un-conditioning ourselves to become razor sharp speakers that an audience loves to listen to. Your message is better absorbed, you're credibility is raised exponentially, and your audience will be glued to your show. That's what we want!

Prepare & Relax

When we are apprehensive, we don't think as clearly. When we don't think clearly, we cannot formulate our thought properly and we begin to stumble. Preparation and relaxation go hand in hand. I layed this point out in more detail in Ep 2 of our series.

Location Location

There are usually two places were we insert fillers.

At the beginning
When bridging ideas...

and we do it without thinking.

Now that we know where our filler hot-spots are, we can eliminate them. How?

Pause. If we don't speak, we can't say Um...

Next time you're answering a question, take 2 before speaking. Two seconds pause. The result is amazing. You start your reply with substance, which is exponentially more powerful and credible than the insecurity of an Um.

The formula for eliminating filler words is:

***Pause + Think -> Speak***

At first, inserting the pause to think before speaking feels unnatural because we have been conditioned most of our lives to give immediate responses. It only takes a few weeks of conscious effort and air check to get rid of most, if not all filler words and phrases in your presentation.

The odd emptiness we feel when we pause gives us not only time to think, it gives the listener time to process what was said before - so the message becomes much more memorable. It also conveys an aura of gravitas, and people will stay tuned and receptive to what you have to say.

#Chunk-it Another clever way to eliminate filler words is chunking, the development of your own rhythm of sentence delivery.

Another clever way to eliminate filler words PAUSE is chunking, PAUSE the development PAUSE of your own rhythm of sentence delivery PAUSE.

I use chunking also when learning/speaking a foreign language. It gives time to order your thoughts, check where you are in your sentence and to prepare the next chunk of syllables. A very effective method of speaking and pronouncing words accurately.

So, our message goes:

***Pause + Think -> Speak + Chunk***

Pace yourself

The faster we speak without chunking, the more difficult it is for a listener to follow. If they lost the train of thought, did you?

Your audience tunes out and loses interest in the subject when the comprehension goes.

Pacing ourselves also gives us more time to think. A fast pace may work for our thinking, but not so much for the tongue and the ear. Slow down, Develop a new pace of speech, especially when presenting. This doesn't mean we have to crawl to a halt and become utterly boring. It just means to check our pace and make sure we take our time. It also reduces our tendency to swallow word endings, which doesn't sound very appealing. Remember, as a radio presenter on MSP-Waves, you're often speaking to non-native English listeners.

As much as I despise his politics, Tony Blair is a master of speech delivery - a master manipulator.

Despite his relative fast speech, notice his chunking and rhythm in his delivery? Even if we disagree with his message, do we not feel compelled to listen?

https://youtu.be/DnHm9T1iDoU

Summing Up

ALl it takes to improve, dear friends, is to

Prepare & relax
Be conscious of our filler word use
Know when and where we use fillers
Chunk-it (don't chop-it though)
Pace ourselves
Be willing and disciplined to improve our presentation and to
Check our progress.

Check your progress

When air checking your previous shows, make a list and count the numbers of filler words and phrases and you will see a drastic reduction, even elimination of these ugly companions over time.

Week	Filler	Filler Word	Count
1	Um	~~IIII~~ I	6
1	Em	~~IIII~~ III	8
1	You know	II	2

Week	Filler	Filler Word	Count
2	Um	IIII	4
2	Em	~~IIII~~ I	6
2	You know	I	1

Week	Filler	Filler Word	Count
3	Um	II	2
3	Em	I	1
3	You know	-	0

Week	Filler	Filler Word	Count
4	Um	-	0
4	Em	I	1
4	You know	-	0

You get the idea...

Did you find our tips useful? Do you have your own method to reduce filler words and phrases?

Please let me know in the comment section.

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmd1mBDEb5tjmfEjk4xnVyNATsjocSUcosNknVqtst7dSM/image.png)

Next time, we will look at our home studio environment, destructions that can foil our transmission and what we can do about it. I hope I see you then, and don't forget to tune in to MSP-Waves for amazing content.