Want to Be a Brilliant Public Speaker?

I was quoted in an article on Inc.com about the importance of pausing regularly when talking.

Here is an excerpt:

Award-winning speaker Steven D. Cohen of Harvard University acknowledges the cognitive value of fillers. But as Toastmasters International points out, too many fillers can distract your audience. That’s why so many speech experts recommend trying to eliminate them from your conversations or presentations. Cohen asserts that the easiest way to do this is to pause.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “But I can’t pause! Pausing will make me seem inarticulate!” But according to Toastmasters, this fear is pretty unfounded. It asserts that pauses actually are more impressive than fillers, because listeners know that you’re trying to find the right thing to say in a more controlled way, and they respect that process.