Pacemakers
A recent post on www.inc.com called sellers and other people
who pitch ideas (marketers, media professionals) to task for the use of the
word actually. The author, Eric V.Holtzclaw, states “’actually’ is a dead giveaway of an area that at the least needs to be further investigated, and may point at a deception.”
I’m not sure I’d go that far. To say that actually may point to deception is to
ascribe motivation, and by implication, intent.
But I will say that actually
falls into a category that I call “pacemakers.” These are words that we use to
pace our speech so that we can make our “close” at the point that feels most
natural.
True, the word actually
should be used to refer to something that is a fact. Used properly its purpose
is to change a perception from one that is incorrect to one that is based in
fact.
For example, “I did go
shopping yesterday, but actually I didn’t shop downtown. I shopped at the mall.”
However, we use it more as filler—to give our speech a
cadence that we feel is more natural and comfortable.
Teenagers do this all the time when they pepper their speech
with words such as “like” or “anything,” or “you know.” As in “I did go shopping, like yesterday. But I
went, you know, to the mall, not, like downtown, or anything.”
Unless we're going for the Valley Girl effect, we use pacemakers as we search for our normal speaking
pattern and rhythm. The question is why we do that. The answer is because we
either lack confidence in ourselves as speakers or in our message or pitch to a particular audience.
The way to overcome the need for pacemakers is to be
thoroughly familiar with your material, whether it’s a sales pitch, a media
pitch, or an answer to your parents’ question of where you took the car
yesterday.
(For information on how to prepare a pitch scroll down to
our January 20 post, “Magic Time.”)
Perfecting your pitch
or any public presentation requires thorough familiarity with you material and
with your audience. But it’s that familiarity that breeds confidence. And it’s
that confidence that eliminates the need for pacemakers.
Give it a try.