Can a tiny word make you sound less confident? Yes. Annoying, isn’t it? The word itself is usually not the problem. “Um” is not evil. “Like” is not a crime. “So” has done nothing personally wrong to you. The problem is repetition. When filler words show up too often, they start to blur your message.…
Have you ever heard a speech begin and thought, “Please get to the point”? Yeah. Me too. The first line of a speech has a hard job. It has to interrupt whatever the audience was thinking about five seconds ago. That is why good hooks for writing a speech matter. A hook is not a…
Can you speak with confidence before you feel confident? Yes. And that is good news, because waiting to feel ready can take a very long time. A lot of people think confidence is a personality trait. Some people have it. Some people do not. End of story. The truth is more useful than that. Speaking…
What is a keynote speaker, really? The short answer: a keynote speaker sets the tone for an event and gives the audience a central idea to carry with them. That sounds simple. It is not always easy. A good keynote does more than fill a slot on the agenda. It gives shape to the event.…
Most people think public speaking is about standing on a stage. That is part of it. It is not the whole thing. The bigger benefit is what public speaking does to the rest of your life. It changes how you think, how you prepare, how you listen, and how you handle pressure. I believe public…
Filler words are the verbal tics that survive every other speaking improvement. This is the complete field guide: 7 common fillers, 5 universal fixes, and the tracking method that makes them stick.
The word “like” wears three different hats, and most advice on stopping “like” treats them all the same. Most advice on stopping “like” also makes you sound stiff, formal, or older than you are.
“So” is the filler word that survives every other fix. It is the one your subconscious reaches for after you have trained yourself out of “um” and “like.” It is sneakier because it sounds smart.
A speaker’s breakdown of every World Championship of Public Speaking winner from 1999 to 2014, with the one technique you can steal from each champion.
A speaker’s breakdown of every World Championship of Public Speaking winner from 2015 to 2025, with the one technique you can steal from each speech.