Umms and Aahs

Ooh! Aah! Glenn McGrath!

Umm…  Uhh…  Au Revoir? 😶🤐

That first line will be recognisable by all Australian cricket fans who cheered Australia's most successful and emiment fast bowler across all Australian stadiums and game formats during his career.

While the second is my take on how you feel when talking in front of others… the imminent feeling of wanting to stop and leave.

I have surprised myself first and foremost at my own improvement in recent years in public speaking and running workshops.

The best method I have found (and it works), is to simply pause when a 'umm' or 'aah' is about to leave my mouth.

Fellow Aussie @Vinh Giang, an international speaker superstar when it comes to teaching others about communication skills, teaches this exact same method in many multiple different videos he has on YouTube shorts.

Now while pausing is the method to be used… the second important key to actually become good at it, is to practice.

THE best way to get started with practicing is to actually first know how you talk.

This is done by recording yourself on your phone.

A practical exercise you can use to start would be as follows:

-- Pick a knowledge area you are familiar in… E.g.: your favourite sport, or movie, or something about your family etc.

-- Give yourself a simple assignment where you talk about your knowledge area for two minutes.

-- Draft up a rough outline if needed, or just talk off the cuff.

-- Remember to voice record or video record yourself.

-- Important - Do NOT stop and restart… once you start keep going for the two minutes. (this is so, that once you are into a rhythm, you'll know it when you review the recording)

Now listen to it…

-- Take note of how often and where you are umming and aahing.

-- Take a count of the umms and ahhs and use it as a baseline for measuring improvement.

-- Run in your mind, particular sections of the talk and imagine how it should have been said.

Next,

-- Repeat the above exercise.. Same topic, same time limit, same method to record and review.
-- Did you see a difference?

 Continue to practice over a week with different topic areas for about 10 minutes a day. You should see a difference.

Next time you are in a practical situation, try and implement pauses in your speech.

-- PS: No-one will think you are weird for pausing while speaking… if anything, it adds a certain charm and character to one's persona.

-- PPS: When you listen to your own recording, don’t worry about how cringe you sound… we all hate the sound of our voices… the more you listen to yourself the sooner you'll accept it.

Happy speaking.