Editing a Podcast is more work than I imagined. Not just are you bringing your team together and recording the content, you then have to go in and have a hard look at what you have, how to present it and how much you want to tweak it.

I have found, I can’t stand hearing our unconscious verbal stumbling. We all do it, and it infects our daily speech. I never heard it before to be honest, but now that I have to edit out hundreds of times per episode, I am taking my crusade to the people.

It is a under appreciated skill to speak fluidly and continuously and intelligently on a subject without inserting the “and yum”, “you know”, “yes….no”, “kinda like” verbal salad we sprinkle in every sentence.

The solution? Practice. Record yourself. Don’t be in a rush. It is much better to just pause for a moment instead of filling in the moment with a “piece of lettuce”. The people we have had on the show, with the fewest of these, are professors and people who speak in front of others everyday. I also find, once you hit someones sweet spot (something they know a lot about and are passionate about) their verbal salad disappears.

To be fair, even though I am painfully aware of this, I still do it. Normally it’s when I am trying to move the conversation from one conversation to another and am not 100% sure of where I am even going.

So lets all try to take a breath, let the silence in. We will listen. Goodbye “and ummmm”, you will not be missed.