Play back the last video you filmed of yourself.
You will hear every 'um.' You will hear every 'like.' You will hear every 'so, basically...' You will lose your mind by the fifty-second mark.
I want to tell you something first, before I give you the fixes: you say "um" less than you think you do. Playback distorts it. Your brain latches onto every filler word because you're listening to hear them.
But — you also do say them, and they do affect your videos. So let's actually fix it.
Here are the five techniques I've watched work on real coaches, on real sets. In order of how much they'll actually change things.
Fix 1: Pause where you'd say 'um'
This is the single biggest change you can make to how you sound on camera.
Right now, when your brain needs a second to think, your mouth fills the space with "um." What if you just… stopped filling it? A one-second silence sounds thoughtful. A one-second "uummm" sounds unsure.
Try this: film a two-minute video and every time you feel an 'um' coming, close your mouth and think for a beat before continuing.
You'll feel like the silence is enormous. It's not. On playback, one second reads as "she's choosing her words." Two seconds reads as "considered." Three seconds is a real pause, which is powerful when you use it.
The best interviewers in the world all mastered the pause. It's the first thing they train out of nervous guests, and the last thing they'd give up themselves. Pauses are where credibility lives.
Fix 2: Breathe before you answer
'Um' often comes out because you started talking before you knew what you wanted to say.
The fix: before you speak, take a single breath in through your nose.
That breath does two things. It gives your brain a beat to line up the thought. And it slows your speech pace, which reduces the whole rhythm of filler words.
Watch anyone who speaks well on camera. They breathe before they answer. Every time. You can see it — the slight in-breath, the microsecond of stillness, then the sentence.
Fix 3: Prep the question, not the answer
Most people prepare for a video by writing out what they want to say. Then they try to remember it while filming, and their brain is doing two jobs — remembering the script AND performing it. That's where the ums come from.
Instead, write out the question you're answering. Not the answer.
For example: "How do I know if I'm ready to raise my rates?" is a question. Your answer will come out fresh because you're actually thinking, not reciting.
Prompts do this for you automatically. So do interview questions from a friend off-camera. Anything that keeps your brain in "answering" mode instead of "reciting" mode.
Fix 4: One thought per take
You start recording. You have three things you want to say. You start on point one. Halfway through, you remember point two is more important. Your brain switches. Ums appear. You lose the thread.
The fix: film each point as its own take.
Stop recording between thoughts. Take a beat. Think about the next thought. Press record again.
You'll have more takes. Every take will be tighter. Some of them will need no editing at all.
This is the entire principle behind the way Creative Compass works — you film to one prompt at a time, hit "next prompt," and start fresh. It removes the whole "keep three things in your head at once" problem.
Fix 5: Edit them out (the last resort)
Every video editor knows how to cut a filler word. If you shot on your phone and edited in a simple mobile editor, you can literally chop 'um' out of the middle of a sentence in about eight seconds.
I don't love this fix, because it teaches you nothing. You just cover the symptom instead of learning to pause.
But — if you have a video you love except for the ums, absolutely edit them. Don't let one word ruin ten minutes of good coaching.
"I'm more comfortable showing up as myself on camera than I ever thought I could be." — Tina Shafer, Community Member
The honest thing about pros
You know who says 'um' constantly? Some of the most-watched people on the internet. Tech founders on stages with millions of dollars of production behind them will still 'um' their way through the launch of their own product. It doesn't stop them shipping.
You know who almost never does? Speechwriters and news anchors — because they've written every word down and rehearsed it.
You are somewhere in between. You are not a scripted keynote and you are not a nervous first-timer. You are a coach who knows their stuff and speaks about it out loud. The 'um' is not the enemy — the unpreparedness underneath it is.
Get your prompt right. Take a breath. Pause where you'd have filled. Film in one-thought takes. Trim what still bothers you in the edit.
Your videos will sound tighter within one session.
Where Creative Compass fits
The one-prompt-at-a-time filming rhythm inside Creative Compass is designed to solve fix #4 without you having to think about it. You get a prompt, you answer it, you tap "next" — the app splits everything into individual clips at the end. Your ums stay down because your brain isn't juggling three things.