“About six years ago, I made a New Year’s Resolution never to say um, ah, or er. And no single thing that I’ve done to the way that I speak has served to make me sound smarter than I actually am than that.” –Taylor Mali
This is one of those pieces of advice I’ve heard given many times but never heard in practice. The greatest public speakers know how to do it. Even the not-so-great ones know how to do it. But not many can switch from casual conversation to poetry as seamlessly as Taylor Mali.
[Click through some of his videos to hear what I mean.]
I want to speak like that. I wonder how far I’d get on that kind of resolution. I wonder how far I’d get without um, ah, and er.
