Consider this. Any time someone hears you speak, it forms an impression, and a potential for loss or gain. Let me share a quotation from luminary speaker and former New South Wales premier Bob Carr. “If your speech sounds under educated there are people, consciously or unconsciously, who are marking you down”. One way that you may sound under educated is by using fillers (eg. ums, ahs). I view fillers as noise that interferes with the signal (ie. the words you speak). At the 4:11 – 6:24 minute segment of the below clip there are examples of business man and investor, Elon Musk using fillers, and practical ways to reduce the number of fillers in your speech. (If you have time the entire clip is worth watching).

Here is the LINK for the clip

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Implementation idea (1) For the next seven days, at the start of each day audio record yourself for about 50 seconds describing what you’ll do that day. (2) Immediately listen to the recording and note the use of any fillers. (3) Reward yourself for listening to your voice. This could be as simple as a patting your forearm, or a fist pump, or saying ‘Well done”. ++++ p.s. Here is a message from a business friend and top performer, Bob Wallace: Balance Recruitment specialises in placing Permanent and Contract experts at prestigious companies. With over 20 years+ of Recruitment experience per consultant, we developed the deepest network in the Australian market. These networks allow us to deliver quickly with pinpoint accuracy to provide an outstanding experience for both our candidates and customers.  Please connect to find out more https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowallace/ (Disclosure: I do not get any payment for sharing information about Bob’s services.)