Filler –

There are a number of things that people are scared of: Death, I think we all know why - we’ve never done it before. Taxes, this is especially true when you get a letter or call from the IRS. I’ve never received a call but I have gotten and couple of letters. Both times I was right, but I had to prove it. After a couple of faxes of a birth certificate and social security card they decided to let me keep one of my kids. The next year I think the computer hadn’t gotten all of the bad information out – so I had it do it all over again. It wasn’t that big of a deal, it just delayed part of my return. I think we could go on forever discussing what people are afraid of. They say that one of the most common fears is public speaking. My little sister thought public speaking was talking to anyone other than our family. I think that for the first half of her life she hid behind our mother whenever we left the house. We were only a year apart in school and when we got to high school hardly anyone knew I had a little sister. Maybe that’s because we didn’t look or act a bit alike – it was easy for her to hideout as I was in front of everyone trying to get attention. I was willing to speak anytime – anyplace, whether I was suppose too or not. That doesn’t mean I don’t get nervous or crash and burn once in a while. The scriptures say that if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. I don’t think they were talking about public speaking. But it’s my experience the more prepare you are the better it usually turns out. Normally I’m obsessed when it comes to preparation for talks or presentations – usually I go over it so such you’d think I have it memorized, that may be true if I was twenty years younger – but at my age I don’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday. When most people are speaking they need to have fillers of phases when they change ideas or try to collect their thought. When done right this is a valuable tool – but when it’s not done right it can be quite distracting and detrimental to the presentation. Quite often I need to listen to a speaker or attend a seminar where those that are suppose to be in the know impart of their wisdom. One presenter seemed to be a little disorganized and used the word uhh, is that a word? He used it more than forty times in a fifteen-minute presentation. Now the reason I said more that forty times is because it took a moment before I started counting – that’s when it became obvious it was going to be the theme of his remarks. Now if your audience is counting uhh’s I promise you they will not remember what you wanted them to know. I really don’t think he even knew that he said it once. There are hundreds of words or phrases that people use in this way – but normally they don’t use it that often, or to be honest if they do their not presenting very often. In many religious congregations they call each other brother or sister. This is because we are all part of the family of God. The other night I was asked to give a talk to the male member of our stake – which is a group of wards or congregation. I guess I was a little distracted or was looking for what to say next - as three times during my talk I said “brothers and sisters.” Now this is s phrase I use quite often when there is actually men and woman in the audience. The next speaker trying to bring a little humor into the meeting stood up and said I still can’t see those sisters. Everyone had a laugh at my expense – well except me, I didn’t know what he was talking about.