3 steps to remove filler words from your speaking & writing

Liam Sandford
3 min readOct 30, 2024
Photo by Daniel Monteiro on Unsplash

Are filler words killing your presentations? Did you say one too many ‘umms’? We have all been there (me included).

What about your writing? I bet you don’t associate filler words with writing. But how many unnecessary words are you using that do not add value? Get to the point. You are playing the attention game.

The solution to both is simple.

1. Slow down.

Speaking: You use filler words to subconsciously avoid silences. This speeds up your delivery and tells your audience you are rushing to finish. But what if you slow down? Both your delivery and your thought process.

Start introducing pauses when you speak in place of filler words. This will help you be more thoughtful and give you more time to focus on what needs to come next. Silence is a powerful tool. Embrace it.

Writing: You are rushing to publish but that is not your fault. It is what the creator economy tells you to do. Thoughtfulness is important. After writing content go through and eliminate any words that don’t add value or keep it moving to the next point.

Slowing down your publish process will be valuable in refining content that both captures attention and gives people actionable items to implement.

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Liam Sandford
Liam Sandford

Written by Liam Sandford

I help ambitious people scale their impact with quiet communication • Best Selling Author of Effortless Public Speaking • liamsandford.com/subscribe