The Art of Manliness14 Jan 2025

Stop Saying Um (And Fix the Other Vocal Tics That Are Sabotaging Your Speaking)

Think about a time you've had to speak in front of others — maybe during a work presentation, a wedding toast, or even on a first date. Did you struggle with using too many filler words, such as "um" and "like," talk too fast, or awkwardly ramble?

Most of us try to fix these saboteurs of speech by giving ourselves mental mantras: "Slow down"; "Think about what you want to say."

But my guest would say that becoming a more engaging and effective speaker comes down to realizing that it's a very physical act that requires getting out of your head and into your body.

Michael Chad Hoeppner, a communication coach who has worked with everyone from presidential candidates to business executives, is the author of Don't Say Um: How to Communicate Effectively to Live a Better Life. Today on the show, Michael explains why you need to treat speaking as a sport and shares embodied drills and exercises — from playing with Legos to talking with a wine cork in your mouth to throwing a ball against a wall — that will fix common delivery problems, including eliminating ums, enhancing vocal variety, and managing your gestures.

Resources Related to the Podcast

Connect With Michael Chad Hoeppner

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1186)

Brandon Flowers, Frontman of the Killers, on Family, Faith, and Becoming a Thrasher

If you’ve been following the Art of Manliness for a while, you know that I typically interview the authors of books on this podcast. But,if you’ve been following the Art of Manliness for a while, you’...

13 Okt 39min

Silence, Solitude, Stillness: The Spiritual Disciplines We Need in a Noisy World

We live in a world of pervasive noise. Even when we're alone and our surroundings are quiet, our devices bombard us with an endless stream of inputs — messages, news, opinions, entertainment — and we ...

6 Okt 53min

Why Modern Convenience Feels So Inconvenient

Modern life is filled with conveniences designed to make things easier. We can order dinner without leaving the couch, check ourselves out at the grocery store, communicate instantly with anyone, and ...

29 Sep 52min

The One-Skill-a-Year Plan for a More Interesting Life

We all have things we’ve always wanted to know how to do, but have never gotten around to learning. Speak a foreign language. Play an instrument. Write a book. Take up surfing. Maybe you’ve even start...

22 Sep 54min

The 3-Step System for Simplifying Your Work and Life

When people are faced with problems and complexity, our instinct is to add instead of subtract. As a result, we have a tendency to make our work and our lives more and more complex, and less and less ...

15 Sep 46min

If I Don’t Return: A General's Wartime Journal for His Sons

When Mark Hertling learned he was deploying for Operation Desert Storm, he decided to start a journal.Back then, Mark was an Army major and cavalry officer with two young sons. His unit would be out i...

8 Sep 48min

To Change Yourself, Change Your Situation

Professor of psychology Angela Duckworth is famous for her work on grit — the combination of passion and perseverance that leads to high achievement. But she’s come to an increasing appreciation for t...

1 Sep 55min

The Lost Virtue of Thumos (And Why Men Need It)

The ancient Greeks believed the human soul had three parts: reason, appetite, and something called thumos. Thumos is difficult to translate into English. It encompasses anger, noble spiritedness, prid...

25 Aug 53min