Quick episode for you today. I have been deep in the podcasting world, obviously. But what I mean to clarify here is I have been deep in studying nuances of podcast hosts and things that they do that I believe they could eliminate to make themselves stronger as a host. Now, let me preface with what I'm gonna share here, which is just gonna be a list of common things I see and basically how to eliminate them. But let me preface this by saying, there is no perfect podcast host. We all have nuances that create this unique identity and those are the things that you don't wanna eliminate because they make you relatable and that's why people are gonna tune in. But there are certain things podcast host do that I think stop people from listening. And a lot of podcast hosts either are aware or unaware of them. So I might list something here that you might find yourself doing or you might do and you might not even know that you do it or you might not do all of them. Starting with filler words. Examples of filler words are like the word I just actually said a filler word when I was saying that like. Like is one of my crutch filler words. There's also, so, you know. These words, usually what they're doing is trying to buy our brain more time to think of what we wanna say. And if you were to look at late night TV show hosts, for example, you would see they do not use many filler words. Now completely eliminating all filler words from your vocabulary might sound robotic. So the goal is to not have any filler words. It's just to be mindful of the words that you're using. And if you're using certain words to fill in time for your brain to catch up, know that you can just take a pause. Go slower. Nobody's gonna cut in. The big problem with filler words is that they become a distraction. And I hear people that go on podcasts that aren't used to being on podcasts, maybe they've only been on one podcast or it's their first podcast interview. They'll use so many filler words that it becomes distracting. And as a listener, that's what I focus on most is they keep saying you know or like and then I start just zeroing in on those words and I'm missing the message of what they're actually saying. Close to filler words is repeating words. Now this is kinda similar to stuttering, but I don't have the exact definition of stuttering. And I don't think it's exactly the same as stuttering, but it's usually repeating words. So, like, so, like, what I was gonna say, notice how I said that. That also included a filler word for a bonus. But podcast hosts will repeat words, and I don't exactly know why part of me thinks it's because a lack of confidence to committing what they're about to say. That's my hunch. But I hear them a lot. And when I hear them done, it comes off to me as just like a insecurity. I guess to give you another example if it's not clear already is what I mean is, like, what I mean is and people will do this. You know, sometimes they're excited, but it's not always when they're excited. Sometimes they just do it when they're about to ask a question or they're following up after a guest finishes what they're sharing. And again, a really easy way to remedy it is just to slow down. Try to be intentional. Try to breathe. When we're recording, it can feel like one second of silence is five seconds of silence, and it feels awkward. But if you were to listen back, you would realize one second of silence is not a big deal, and it sounds more normal. And it gives your listener a break to process what you just said or what you're going to say. Sticking with, repeating words, there's also repeating questions. So I hear podcast host a lot of time when they're interviewing a guest, they'll ask the question like four different ways before the guest can answer. If I was interviewing myself and I was doing what I'm talking about, I go, Dylan, so tell me about, like, what is it that guests do to get in their own way? What are the things that podcast hosts say that maybe they shouldn't be saying or what are ways that podcast it's like, you see how many times I just ask the question instead of if I just cut it off after the first one. You could edit that out, but that's not really solving the root cause of the problem, which is just ask the question once. Again, if you slow down, you ask the question once clearly to your guest. The guest can now respond to one question versus you saying the question four different ways and them trying to figure out what exactly you mean because you think you're being clear as you refine the question, as you're thinking out loud, but your guest only needed to hear the first question to be like, boom, got it, let me answer that. If they need a clarifier to the question you just asked, let them ask. There's nothing wrong with you asking the question wrong and them asking you if they understood correctly. It's almost more confusing if you ask the question four times and now they gotta use their brain power to sort through what exactly you're asking them. Last thing I wanna mention here on this episode is something that is different than what you do in a normal conversation. So if you and I were talking in a normal conversation, as you're saying something, I would go, mhmm. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. I would affirm what you're saying so that you know that I'm understanding what you're saying. But during a podcast interview, particularly a virtual interview, there's a slight delay which makes it for this weird nuance and harder to hear as a listener. So a lot of crosstalk can happen when you're affirming what the guest is saying. Let me give you an example. So say, I'm just talking about this thing and then all of a sudden, which this example is really hard to do right now with just one voice. But if I'm talking and then in the background here, mhmm. Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. As I'm talking, it's harder to decipher as a listener what point I'm making because it's being interrupted by someone else just going, mhmm. Yeah. Like your listener is already doing the mhmm. Yeah. In their head. And as a host, you're better off just pressing the mute button while your guest responds and then intentionally committing to talking when you're talking. Now if there's some crosstalk that happens when you're diving back in, cool. But to add in a, yeah, mhmm, right, those little additions as a podcast host in a conversation just create confusion for the listener, they don't sound pleasing. Again, you could edit those out afterwards, but it's not addressing the root cause of the issue. It's causing more work on your editor. And if you just know better, you can do better. I hope these helped. I want you to be the best podcast host you can be. And I think that starts by being yourself and clearly communicating to your guest, to your audience, and eliminating anything that makes that fuzzy along the way. Look, here's something I hear from creators all the time. Dylan, I know I need to be putting out content every single day, but I just don't have the time or resources to make it happen. And I get it. You're busy creating amazing podcast episodes, but you know that video and posting every day is absolutely crucial. It's been reported that over 80% of people have been convinced to buy something after watching a video on social media. That's huge. And the thing is you shouldn't have to choose between creating great content and getting it out to the world. That's exactly why I created Content Clips. We take your podcast episodes and we transform them into engaging social media content that gets you noticed without you having to do anything extra. No more workflow bottlenecks. No more resource constraints. You just share a link to your content with us and we'll handle everything else. We're talking podcasts, social media videos, the whole package. Our philosophy at Content Clips is simple, be everywhere every day. And we make that possible without you having to spend hours figuring out editing software or hiring a full production team. If you're ready to multiply your content reach without multiplying your workload, let's talk. Just head over to contentclips.com and we can get started. Thanks again for joining me today. Until next time, keep creating.