One of the skills I greatly desire to be good at is public speaking, which is part of the reason I started making these videos.
Doing some basic research, I found several things I need to work on to start learning how to be a better speaker. One of the major things is removing filler words. Doing this will make us sound more confident and avoids the distraction of people counting the 'ums' and 'likes' while talking.
I pulled up a few short videos on the subject and found the common key features among them.
1) Get comfortable with silence - we often are afraid of leaving space between thoughts and want to fill them with something. However, this isn't necessary, and often the other party doesn't even realize the pauses.
2) Count your filler words - You can record yourself and review it or have another person ring a bell when you use the filler words; this helps you become more aware of what words you use and how often.
3) Breathe - We often get flustered and start using filler words to formulate our thoughts, so take a deep breath, even in the middle of a speech.
4) Focus on how you want your listener to feel - Think about how you want to get your message across; let that be the motivator
5) Practice - The more you practice being aware and replacing the filler words with silence, the more natural it feels.