Everyone says the occasional “uh” and “um.” Don’t beat yourself up if you do. Bill O’Reilly and Martha Stewart both say “uh” and “um” all of the time and they both make tens of millions of dollars a year by speaking! So let’s put your problem in perspective. Martha and Bill are still successful because they have messages that audiences find interesting. Your biggest problem is always making sure you have something interesting to say, not whether you have too many “uhs” and “ums.”

However, all things considered, the few “ums” and “uhs” you have cluttering your speech, the better. The first thing you have to do is actually determine if you have the problem. In my experience, executives and sales people who think they have a problem with too many uhs and ums rarely do. Those who think they don’t have a problem often do.

There is only one way to find out. That’s right, let’s go to the videotape (or audiotape). Record yourself and then note how often you say uh, um, like or any other annoying filler words. The video will not lie to you.

Although the occasional uh or um isn’t the end of the world, you do want to pay especially close attention to how many come out of your mouth the first 30 seconds of your presentation. This is when you are making your first impression in front of people. Sadly, they will interpret your uhs and ums to mean that you are scared, nervous and possibly unprepared. Of course it’s OK to be nervous, but we don’t want to let our audience know that.

Saying a sound like uh or um is the equivalent of filing up your pauses with punctuation; these sounds are like extra comas. Imagine if someone sent you a cover letter and a resume to apply to work for you. Imagine their resume is perfect. But their cover letter has a comma after every word in the first sentence. You could still read the letter and you could still understand it, but the extra commas would be annoying and a serious distraction. That is the problem with too many ums and us.

So how do you get rid of the uhs and ums? You should not have someone stand in the back of the room and ring a bell every time you say uh or um. That will only make you more nervous.

You need to re-condition your brain. No, I will not have to hook up your brain to a painful electric shock (this has been suggested to me many times!). I simply place stickers with the word “uh” or “um” in small type surrounded by a red international no sign. I place this sticker on my client’s watch, cell phone, computer monitor or combination of all three. What happens is you look at your watch or cell phone dozens of times a day, and now you see the visual reminder to Not say uh or um. After one day, you still say the annoying sound, but you are at least aware of it.

After a couple of days, just as you are about to form that sound of uh or um, the image of “don’t say uh or um” pops up into your brain. You almost catch it…but it still comes out. Drats!

But after one week, the image will come up in your brain and you will be able to hold the uh or um in. Now, you can simply pause, and this will make you sound more comfortable, confident, and authoritative.

You don’t have to use my stickers (although I’m happy to send you some for free if you send an email to freestickers@tjwalker.com); you can just create them yourself. Type several uhs, ums, likes or whatever your annoying verbal tic is in small 10, 12, or 14 point type. Next, print out the sheet of paper. Now, put a red international no sign around your word. Next, cut out the word. Finally, tape the word on the 12 on your watch and somewhere on your cell phone where you are likely to see it. Within one week, your uh or um problem will have been minimized to the point where it is no longer a problem.

(Note to editor-we need to include the artwork of the um with the no symbol here. Kris in my office can send that to you kris@mediatrainingworldwide.com)

This goal is not to have zero uhs and ums, so don’t beat yourself up or wince in the middle of the presentation if one slips out. This solution I’ve outlined sounds simple, but it really does work—just not instantly. I’ve used this technique on billionaire fund managers and politicians around the globe and it works for them—it can work for you too.