How do you stop saying um in interviews? Record yourself talking, listen back until the filler genuinely bothers you, then learn to cut every um, ah, like, and you-know and replace it with a short pause. That is the whole method, and it works because the problem is almost never your ideas. It is the verbal clutter wrapped around them.
I once coached a senior executive who was brilliant in the room and a mess on camera. Every other sentence opened with "um, so" and closed with "you know." He had no idea he was doing it. The day I played his own clip back to him, he winced, sat up, and said "turn it off." That wince did more than any note I could have written.
Why this matters (and what most executives get wrong)
In a media interview, your filler words are not background noise. They are the message. A reporter, a producer, and the audience at home all hear "um" and "like" as hesitation, and hesitation reads as doubt. You can be the most prepared person on the panel and still sound like you are guessing.
Here is what most executives get wrong: they think the fix is to think harder or talk faster. It is the opposite. Ums and ahs are what your mouth does while your brain catches up. They are filler poured into the gap. The fix is to get comfortable leaving that gap empty, which on camera reads as a confident pause, not a stall.
And it is not only "um" and "ah." Watch for "like," "you know," "so," "actually," and the sneaky one, starting answers with "and." I have caught myself doing it. Everybody has a tell. The first job is simply to find yours.
People do not hear your ums as nerves. They hear them as doubt, and doubt is the one thing a spokesperson cannot afford to broadcast.
The 4-step method to clear the filler for good
This is the same sequence I run with spokespeople before a network hit. Four steps, in order. You can practice it any time of year, not just before an interview.
Step 1: Record yourself and actually listen
You cannot fix what you cannot hear, and you genuinely cannot hear your own filler in the moment. So capture it. Record one side of a phone call, or set a recorder going in a meeting and tape only yourself. Do not record the other person, that can be illegal in some places. Then play it back. You need to hear how often the ums and ahs show up, and you need to be a little angry about it. That irritation is the fuel for the whole process.
Step 2: Edit the filler out so you hear the clean version
Pull the recording into a simple audio editor. Highlight every um, ah, like, and you-know, and delete them. Then listen to the cleaned-up track. This is the part that changes people. You hear yourself sound sharp, certain, and senior, and you realize that version was inside you the whole time. The clutter was hiding it.
Step 3: Replace each filler with a pause
An um is just a pause you filled with noise out of nervousness. So make the trade on purpose. Where the um used to be, leave a beat of silence instead. Silence feels endless to you and barely registers to the listener. On camera it reads as a person who is thinking, choosing the right word, and in command. That is the swap: clutter out, pause in.
Step 4: Rehearse the pause until it is your default
Comfort with silence is a trained skill, not a personality trait. Say a few sentences out loud, and every time you feel an um coming, stop and let the pause sit. Do it for two minutes a day. Within a couple of weeks the pause stops feeling like a void and starts feeling like control, and the old filler simply has nowhere to land.
The mistake most executives make
The mistake is treating filler as a personality quirk they are stuck with, instead of a habit they can break. "That's just how I talk" is the line I hear most, usually from the person who needs the work the most.
The other version of the mistake is trying to fix it live, mid-interview, by white-knuckling every sentence. That never works. You cannot consciously police your own speech and answer a tough question at the same time. The reps have to happen before the camera is on, so that the clean delivery is automatic when it counts. You train it in private so you do not have to think about it in public.
Record sixty seconds of yourself answering a question off the top of your head. Count the ums and ahs. That number is your starting line, and it is the only honest measure of whether you are improving.
Case study: the spokesperson who could not hear his own ums
A communications lead at a large organization came to me before a round of broadcast interviews. On paper he was perfect: sharp, credible, knew the material cold. On camera he sounded shaky, and nobody could say why. So we recorded a mock interview and played it back.
He was stunned. "Um" opened nearly every answer. "You know" closed most of them. He had never heard it because in the moment your brain edits the filler out, it only survives on the recording. We cut the fillers from the playback so he could hear the clean version, then drilled the pause. By the third take, the ums were gone and what was left was a calm, deliberate voice that finally matched how smart he actually was. When the real interviews aired, he sounded like the leader he is. Same person, same answers, just the clutter removed.
Filler words versus a confident pause
| What the audience hears | Ums and ahs | A confident pause |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate read | "He's unsure." | "She's thinking." |
| Perceived authority | Drops | Rises |
| What it signals | Nerves, guessing | Control, intention |
| Effect on your point | Buries it in clutter | Frames it cleanly |
Look at the top row. Same gap of time, opposite impression. The pause is not the absence of an answer. It is the sound of someone who does not need to fill every second to feel in command.
What to do next
Start today with one recording. Capture sixty seconds of yourself, listen back, and find your tell. That single honest listen is usually the moment the habit starts to break.
If you want to go from clearing filler to genuinely owning the camera, that is the work I do with spokespeople and executives. You can get pricing for working with me directly, and if you want the bigger picture first, here is how to leverage media interviews and what real media training actually covers.
Your ideas are probably ready. It is the clutter around them that is costing you the room.