What confident people do with their tongue

Hey Reader,

Happy holidays!

Now, on to a few things you can’t eat…

You know that feeling when you’re mid-sentence, and suddenly your brain takes an unscheduled vacation?

There you are, speaking, and out it comes again:

“Umm… so… umm… today we’re gonna… umm…”

It’s like your mouth’s filling dead air with the world’s most annoying placeholder sound.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you: your brain isn’t broken.

It’s just that when you hit a thought-gap, your mouth panics and goes “QUICK, MAKE A NOISE SO THEY KNOW WE’RE STILL ALIVE!”

Thanks, mouth. Super helpful.

Here’s the thing, though. Your tongue already knows how to fix this.

It just needs new instructions.

Try this right now.

Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

Go ahead, nobody’s watching.

Feel how it automatically makes you pause? That’s not an accident. It’s telling your brain, “Hey, we need a second here.”

And here’s the magic part: that “pause” sounds totally natural to whoever’s listening. They don’t hear “umm.”

They hear someone who’s thoughtful. Confident, even.

Whenever you’re searching for a thought, try placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth! It also trains your subconscious mind to pause for a sec while you’re thinking.

There’s another trick, too…

When you need a beat to collect your thoughts, just silently count “A, B, C” in your head.

It feels like forever to you.

To your audience? It’s the perfect amount of air.

Breathing room.

The good kind of pause that makes people lean in instead of tuning out.

But here’s what really helps: Watching yourself back. I know, it’s painful.

Nobody likes seeing themselves on camera… but nothing will help you improve faster than “Getting used to YOU!”

[BTW, if you haven’t grabbed my latest (free) guide,

Download it instantly here: https://bit.ly/4orCOK2 ]

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But your subconscious is smarter than you think. Once it sees you saying “umm” seventeen times in two minutes, it’ll start catching you before the word even leaves your mouth.

You’ll start noticing ‘patterns’ too.

Like maybe you always say “umm” right before you introduce a complicated topic… Introducing a Guest… Or when you’re wrapping up a segment.

Once you know where the potholes are, you can steer around them.

Let’s get your mouth on YOUR side.

Stellar Marketing Quotes

“Every marketing channel eventually becomes saturated. The only unfair advantage is originality.”

Rand Fishkin

“The mic doesn’t give you authority; your preparation does.”

Kara Swisher

Bonus Holiday Quote:

“The holidays are magical. You spend money you don’t have, on people you barely see, to impress people you don’t even like.”

Back in my Portland Radio days, the station cut a holiday promo deal with a big home-furnishings chain around town: “Free photos with Santa”.

Multiple locations. Tons of kids. Big crowds.

Which meant one thing for me…

I was “Driving Santa”.

I was doing Afternoon drive at the time, and we had a fully tricked-out station van—complete with an antenna that could extend 35 feet so I could do live cut-ins back to the station while parked outside stores.

We’d set up remotes, kids would line up, Santa would hand out gifts, parents would get free photos, and I’d keep the whole thing rolling on-air.

Only problem?

We needed a “Santa”.

Turns out, the perfect Santa was hiding in plain sight.

The guy worked next door to our Radio station. An OSHA engineer, of all things. Big beard. Big belly. Big laugh. He looked so much like Santa that we’d joked about it for years—which, trust me, he’d heard WAY too often.

But yes… he’d done a few “Santa” gigs before.

So for more than 20 days, it was just me and Santa, crammed into that van, driving from location to location, day after day. And he was a huge hit.

Kids loved him. Parents loved him. Management loved him.

Now here’s where it gets good, Reader…

At the time, my son was four years old.

On Christmas Eve, after our final stop, I did what any logical Radio guy would do…

I brought Santa home.

In my head, this was going to be magical.

“My kid’s going to lose his mind—Dad knows Santa Claus!”

Instead… Santa walked in, sat down on the couch… and my son froze.

Wide-eyed.

Silent.

Not joy.

Pure fear.

You could practically hear the thought bubble:

Why is this weirdly dressed stranger in our house… and why does Dad know him?

Doug (Santa’s real name) and I laughed the entire drive as I took him home.

No harm done.

Childhood preserved.

Santa returned safely to the North Pole… or at least to his OSHA day job.

Holiday lesson?

Sometimes the behind-the-scenes story is way better than the on-air one.

And sometimes… It’s best NOT to bring Santa home.

Diversions

Your Thoughts

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