Stop Saying Um: 6 Voice Techniques That Make You Sound Like a Pro

Jul 26

"Do I really sound like that?"

After editing thousands of hours of podcast content at Bamby Media, I can tell you this reaction is universal. It’s so common to have that moment of vocal horror when you hear your recorded voice for the first time. The way you think you sound can often be very different to how you actually sound, and it can be really confronting.

Maybe you’re a mumbler, speed talker, “ummmm”er or you’re just boring as hell. It’s all valid, and I’ve heard it all.

The good news? Most vocal issues that make you cringe are completely fixable with the right techniques.

The Foundation: Vocal Warm-Ups Aren't Optional

Before addressing delivery issues, your voice needs proper preparation. Professional voice artists never record cold, and neither should you. The warm-up exercises I covered in a previous article and video aren't suggestions - they're requirements for sounding professional. Skip them, and you'll spend a lot more time in post-production trying to fix problems that could have been prevented in a couple of minutes with a few warm ups.

Slow Down: Speed Kills Clarity

The biggest mistake I see podcasters make is rushing through their content. This usually stems from poor breathing technique and nervousness about dead air or those awkward pauses. When you speak too quickly, your audience can't process your message effectively, and you sound anxious rather than authoritative.

Place a visual reminder like a post-it note in your recording space to slow your pace. This deliberate approach gives your thoughts room to develop and allows your audience to absorb your content. Try recording a simple introduction about yourself at different speeds. You'll immediately hear the difference in clarity and confidence.

Master the Strategic Pause

Pauses eliminate filler words like "um" and "uh" while projecting confidence and authority. Most content creators fear silence, but strategic pauses are your secret weapon for professional delivery without peppering your content with filler words.

When you feel an "um" coming, pause instead. Give yourself space to gather your thoughts and your audience time to process information. In post-production, you can always tighten pauses that feel too long, but you can't easily remove filler words without affecting your natural speech rhythm. I know through the power of AI editing tools, you can, with a click of a button, remove filler words but I’ve found that oftentimes the “um” is attached to other words that are harder to edit around.

If you’re an aspiring public speaker, using too many filler words will cause your audience to question whether you know what you’re talking about, or whether you’ve adequately prepared. Get out of the habit and pause instead.

Energy Starts with Your Face

A monotonous voice kills engagement faster than poor audio quality. The solution is simpler than most people realise: lift your cheekbones and smile while speaking. This facial adjustment automatically creates a more energetic, engaging tone that translates directly to your recorded voice.

Your facial expression affects your vocal resonance. A lifted, engaged face and heightened cheekbones create more space inside your mouth, which increases vocal resonancy and produces a more dynamic sound. This keeps listeners interested throughout your content as you sound more energetic.

Develop Your Vocal Melody

Your voice has natural melody, but most people flatten it when recording. Instead of maintaining a single tone throughout your content, create vocal variety to emphasise key points and maintain listener interest.

This doesn't mean dramatic overacting and singing through your script. It means allowing your natural speech patterns to come through in your recordings. Vary your pitch, pace, and emphasis to create a dynamic listening experience that holds attention.

Study Professional Speakers

Learn from speakers that you like listening to yourself. I personally love the way Simon Sinek speaks and find his content very engaging. As you’re listening to someone you like, focus on their delivery technique rather than their message. Notice their strategic pauses, tonal variations, and vocal melody. These elements are learnable skills that you can incorporate into your own speaking style.

Professional speakers use these techniques unconsciously because they've practised them extensively. You can develop the same natural delivery with focused practice and attention to these elements.

Improving vocal quality requires consistent practice, not perfection. Focus on one technique at a time for several recording sessions before adding another element. This gradual approach will stop you from feeling overwhelmed with all the things to remember. Implementing one thing at a time will help you build sustainable vocal habits.

If you're struggling with specific vocal challenges that these techniques don't address, professional voice coaching might be necessary. Some issues require personalised guidance that goes beyond general improvement strategies.

My final thought on this is to remember that even if you’re recording with no one else around, you are recording something that someone will eventually listen to. If you have that listener in your mind as you’re recording, this often helps you feel more connected to what you’re saying. You will naturally record more authentically if you have a listener in mind. Try to imagine you’re sitting with a friend, and record your content with the same level of enthusiasm.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Brianna: Oh my God, I sound awful. Do I really sound like that? I sound so bad. These are the comments that I get in my emails from clients when they've recorded something and they're like, oh God, I hate the way I sound. How do I fix this? We went through in a separate video where I spoke to you about just the little techniques that you can do to actually warm up your voice, because that's a very important part of actually having a sound that you like in your podcast episode.
[00:00:34] Brianna: Your videos or your audio book, all those techniques in the warmup are key. Okay? So watch that first or listen to that first. Once you've done that, then we can move on to the things that could definitely help you actually sound better in your recordings. There are a lot of things that people get agitated about when they listen back to themselves.
[00:00:54] Brianna: And in fact, we have had clients that that's why they start working with us. 'cause they're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to edit [00:01:00] myself because I can't stand listening to myself. I want someone else to produce it so that I never have to hear it. That's valid. You can do that, that's fine. But if you are not in that space, if you can't afford to outsource all your things and you need to edit it yourself, you've gotta get a bit more comfortable with.
[00:01:16] Brianna: The actual way you sound. Some things you can't fix. Some things are just your voice and that is more of a, like you, being confident and comfortable with who you are as a person and the way you sound as a person. Some of those things are little intricacies of your actual voice that will always be there, that are, are part of your voice.
[00:01:36] Brianna: And let's say for example. English is a second language and you are struggling with the way you sound speaking English. That is not really something that you can change that much over a short period of time. If you are trying to improve the way you sound in English, and maybe you have an accent, this is not the video for you because that's not something I have any skills in, but do know that it, [00:02:00] it does take considerable training to train out an accent.
[00:02:03] Brianna: If we think about this now. The first thing that most people hate is the fact that they talk really fast. We can definitely fix that. Talking really fast can be because you literally aren't breathing, you're not breathing enough. We went through that in the previous episode and video as well. You need to relax in order to get the pace that you want.
[00:02:22] Brianna: Giving you an example here. If I'm all hyped up, let's say I'm gonna talk about myself. Okay. Hi, I'm Brianna. I'm the head of BA Media. We're a podcast and video production company. We work with founders of brands and we help them produce podcasts for their brands to help their podcast grow and their thought leadership.
[00:02:40] Brianna: See how fast that was? Like that was really fast and also made me feel a bit manic like when I'm actually talking, that's too fast. How is someone going to listen to that and take in all the information? They're not, they're gonna feel like you are uncomfortable, and so that's gonna make them uncomfortable.
[00:02:58] Brianna: And then probably turn you off. [00:03:00] The way to combat that is to just slow down, is to actually put like a post-it note or something so that you remind yourself to slow down. If we try that same sort of thing again, let's say I'm gonna talk about myself, which is one of the hardest things for people to do.
[00:03:14] Brianna: They don't like talking about themselves. Okay. Hi, I'm Brianna. I'm the head honcho here at Bambi Media. We're a podcast and video production company. We are based in Australia, but we have clients that we work with. All over the world. We work with founders of brands, helping them build their thought leadership, their personal brands, through the power of podcasting and video production.
[00:03:37] Brianna: How is that as a reference to the other one? I got out what I was going to say more. It also allowed me to think about what I wanted to say more because I was talking slower. So it allowed for me to process what it was that I wanted to say before I said it. And again, this is a skill. It's not something that you'll be good at straight away.
[00:03:57] Brianna: You may need dot points. This is what I'm gonna say next, and [00:04:00] then this. And then this. That's okay. That's fine. It's not a great idea to use a teleprompter if you can avoid it or to have too many notes or scripting. The more you have a teleprompter or scripting, the more options there are for you to actually speed through the content because you're just reading it and then it starts to feel and sound like you're reading it, and that's not genuine at all.
[00:04:24] Brianna: I have no notes here. I have no script. I have no nothing. I'm just talking to you like you are someone in my house, in my studio. I'm talking to you like I would a friend and it's okay if I stuff up. It's okay if I say some words that I don't necessarily wanna say because they'll be edited out. That's the point of editing.
[00:04:44] Brianna: That's why editing is, is such a good thing. If you can afford to actually have it edited. That's the first thing. Okay. We wanna breathe. And then we wanna actually be really cognizant of the fact that we need to slow down when we talk. And some of the [00:05:00] ways that you can build in the slowness is actually just pausing.
[00:05:06] Brianna: There's a pause right there. So when you pause, that allows for space that allows for you to feel like you have taken ownership on what you're saying. And the listener, it actually gives them a moment to go, oh. This person's intriguing. This person feels different from other people 'cause they've paused and they're not thinking that necessarily.
[00:05:28] Brianna: Like, they're not like, Ooh, this person, blah. It's, it's like a subconscious thing that they're actually perceiving you in that way because you have pause. So using pauses when you're podcasting, when you have videos, uh, that you're recording, when you're doing audio books, the power of the pause is huge. It is so big, and it will also actually stop you from saying, um, and uh, because you've paused instead, the power of the pause is so much better than the power of an, um, [00:06:00] when someone says, um, and especially when they say too many of them, it makes them sound a bit like.
[00:06:06] Brianna: They don't know what they're talking about. They don't feel like they're as much of a thought leader, I suppose, especially when I come across that and I'm seeing that, you know, in podcast episodes or videos and there's just saying I'm all the time. I'm like, man, just take a break. Just take a pause. You will come off so much more confident if you take out the, um, and you replace it with a pause.
[00:06:28] Brianna: So that's my next tip. Replace the um, with a pause. And allow yourself that, just silence that feels awkward because the silence that to you feels awkward is actually powerful to the person listening and to the person watching you. And if the pause is too long, you can just tighten it up and just edit it a little bit.
[00:06:48] Brianna: That's completely fine, but you can't really lengthen. Something if you've spoken too fast or if you put too, too many ums in, especially with video, trying to cut out all those ums is an [00:07:00] absolute nightmare. So just pause. Just take a pause, relax, and chill. And you'll be fine. The next thing we're gonna talk about is the actual tone of your voice.
[00:07:09] Brianna: So people saying that they sound boring. Oh my gosh. That is also something like a monotonous tone. Okay. So this is an example of a monotonous tone. So I've got these microphones here in front of me. I've got a dj, I, uh, mic. I've got a. DJI, Mike Mini, although that's the other way around. Sorry, that's the Mike Mini and this is the DDJI.
[00:07:34] Brianna: Big one, and I've got a road. This thing, it's so hard for me to be monotone, right? That's so boring. I wanna go to sleep. It's putting me to sleep. Instead of that, what I want you to do is actually, now I'm talking to you, my cheekbones are up. This is something that we learn as singers, as vocalists, to have your cheekbones up, it means that you're kind of [00:08:00] smiling.
[00:08:00] Brianna: You're smiling as you're talking, and that gives you more energy as a speaker, and it actually makes you come across more energetic to the person listening. More bubbly, more excitable, just a bit more fun. It's more than I would be if I was talking to someone on a couch next to me. I wouldn't be like. Hey, here's my cheekbones, you know?
[00:08:21] Brianna: But there's like, there's an element of it. I still do it most of the time when I'm talking because I want to appear more enthusiastic, and I am a very enthusiastic person. So I use my cheekbones and a smiley sort of vibe to the way I talk, so that I come across in a way that people are excited to listen to.
[00:08:42] Brianna: So if we do the same thing again right now. I've got in my hand the DJI MIC mini, although this case is quite big for what you would think is a mini microphone. And then I've got this other one here. This is the DJI MIC Pro and I also have this other little one here. This [00:09:00] is the Road Mic Mini. I'm yet to review and battle all of these together.
[00:09:04] Brianna: That is a video that's coming soon. FYI. Can you hear the difference between that? I would hope so. A lot of the time you're probably listening and looking at that and being like. Of course they need to speak with more energy, but the amount of people that don't, their default is no, the default is they don't do it.
[00:09:20] Brianna: That is something that is a skill that you have to develop. So instead of coming with the frown, like the, the sad eyes and the no. No cheek bones up and they're just kind of you, your resting bitch face instead of coming like that, which is the, you know, it's your normal face, that's fine, but it's not how you present for camera.
[00:09:39] Brianna: You present for camera by, uh, cheekbones up. Maybe my eyebrows are up a little bit and I'm just. Presenting in a way that is a little bit more engaging to the person actually watching and listening to me. Even if you're not recording video, this is a very good habit to get into because you sound better, you just sound better, right?
[00:09:58] Brianna: You sound clearer. You [00:10:00] have more space inside of your mouth because your cheekbones are up. Your palette is more open and you will just have a better experience overall. So that's my next thing, right? You've got some breathing techniques to slow you down to improve your pace. We've got some pausing happening so that you're not uming and ahing all over the place and that you are building that thought leadership by having the pause, the power of the pause, and then you are using your cheekbones and a smile face to actually improve the way you sound to get rid of the monotone.
[00:10:31] Brianna: These are the keys. These are the big things that people often don't think about when they are. Recording and it's a lot of the reason why they think they sound bad is because of those things. The other thing that we can do, and you may have noticed I've been doing throughout this whole thing, we use like a melody to the way we talk.
[00:10:50] Brianna: So instead of it being like, I'm just the same note, this is the same note that I'm talking, that will mean that I sound monotone because I'm just using basically [00:11:00] the same note all the time. Instead, we create a melody to the way we talk, where we go up and we go down and we go up and we go down. So that you sound more interesting.
[00:11:12] Brianna: See? There we go. I went down more. Interesting. If you're trying to get your point across. There we go. I went up point across. Then you come down after that. Today I am gonna talk about this microphone right here and why it's not very good. So I went up here and then I went. Not very good. So we've got use of tone, use of actual melody in the way we sound to make you sound more fun, to make you sound like you know what you're talking about.
[00:11:40] Brianna: More to make you sound like they want to keep listening to you because you have a nice feel. You have a nice sound. I mean, I hope that that's the way you feel when you're listening and watching me. Right now, I have a tonality that. Makes you feel warm, makes you feel comfortable, makes you feel like you wanna keep listening to me.
[00:11:59] Brianna: And that's from [00:12:00] these things that we've gone through. Play with this inflection, play with this tone, play with this melody in your voice, and it's not gonna be something that you're good at straight away. And sometimes you go overboard too, where it's then you start going up all the time and then. You wanna go down and like it's too much.
[00:12:20] Brianna: So you'll have to find a middle ground where you start to present in a way where you're not giving it too much energy and making it sound really weird. Uh, you'll get better at that over time the more you do it, but it's something to be aware of. You need to have melody in your voice. I would also recommend that you watch some other people or listen to, if you have other people that you listen to and you watch on YouTube or podcasts or whatever, listen to them and listen.
[00:12:48] Brianna: Not to what they're saying, but the way they're saying it. Simon Sinek is a, is a really good example. I really like the way he speaks and he's got a lot of power in the way he presents. He [00:13:00] uses a lot of pause. He also uses a lot of melody in the way he speaks as well, so that again, he's a thought leader in his space.
[00:13:08] Brianna: I'm very sure of what he's saying based on the way that he's presenting the information. So make a little list of some people that you really find powerful. In your industry or in your field or people that you wanna learn from and listen to the way they talk, not what they're saying, but the way they're speaking.
[00:13:26] Brianna: And then you'll be able to, based on this episode, this video that I've just shared with you, find and, and, and kind of recognize the tools that they're using to improve the way they sound. And you'll be able to then emulate that and try those things for yourself. I really hope that this was very helpful for you.
[00:13:45] Brianna: I'm very passionate about helping people sound better and feel more confident in their voices, and so if I've helped one person today, that would be amazing. If you have some comments, if you have any, like particular, uh, what about this? [00:14:00] I have this particular really annoying thing that I do. Just put it in the comments and maybe I'll do a video on how to address that particular concern.
[00:14:08] Brianna: Or if I don't know. I can certainly refer you to some fantastic public speaking coaches and voice coaches that will help you through any particular challenges that I can't help you with as well. That's it for this video. That's it for this podcast episode. I hope you have enjoyed it and have a wonderful day.
[00:14:27] Brianna: See how I went down at the end? Do that as well. Bye.