Awhile ago, I blogged at the WordServe Water Cooler about an audio span recording I did with my publisher.
It was my very first experience doing an author interview.
The interviewer asked me five questions over the phone, all pertaining to my book. He did this with several other Waterbrook Multnomah authors. The interviews were put together on a CD that will go to the sales reps, who will use them to help sell the books to retailers.
Anyway, after the interview, I felt pretty confident in my answers. I thought things had gone well.
Until I got the CD and listened to myself speak.
My confidence? Yeah….it melted into mortification. My cheeks flamed with heat as I listened to myself insert “um” after “um” between my words.
It was horrible, you guys. I’m not kidding. Um became my own personal overused comma. Anytime there should have been a pause, I inserted an “um” instead. My answers were decent, but they were almost impossible to listen to in light of all the distracting um’s.
I sat there thinking, “When in the world did I say all those?”
Then I remembered my first ever vlog recording.
When I watched that vlog, I knew right away I couldn’t publish it. To my complete surprise, I said um. A lot. So I re-recorded it, making a determined effort to avoid that particular syllable. And I barely said um at all. Only by then, I’d already done the audio span thing and it never dawned on me that I might have said um a bunch during that too.
Until I got the CD.
So there I was, listening to the interview, 100% embarrassed. It only got worse when I listened to Liz Curtis Higgs. Her interview was amazing. She was well spoken and completely charming. And in the midst of blushing my brains out, my husband said something.
“Kate,” he said, “Liz Curtis Higgs is a pretty established author, right?”
I hid my face behind my hands and nodded.
“She’s probably done interviews and stuff like this before, don’t you think?”
“Yes.”
“I’m willing to bet she’s learned some things over the years.”
I peeked at him between my fingers.
“You should cut yourself some slack. This was your first interview. Next time you do one, you’ll know better.”
My hubby. So logical.
But he’s right, you know? I do know better. In fact, I’m completely aware of every um that comes out of my mouth now. And awareness is the first step to kicking a habit.
So why am I telling you all this?
Mainly as a cautionary tale.
When you listen to your first author interview, I don’t want you to feel like crawling in a hole because of how many times you said “like” or “you know” or “um”.
So here is my tip to you:
Record yourself.
Sure, I practiced. But I never actually listened to myself talk. I had no idea, while I was practicing, that I was inserting a whole bunch of um’s into my answers.
You won’t know your speaking ticks until you hear yourself. And there’s no way to fix those buggers until you’re aware of them.
Let’s Talk: Please tell me I’m not alone here. Have you ever had an experience like this? How do you prepare for speaking engagements or interviews? How do you keep yourself from saying “um”?