Short answer: To keep an audience engaged when presenting on stage, eliminate filler words, open with a story instead of a pitch, move around the stage instead of standing still, and stop reading your slides. Most presenters lose the room in the first sixty seconds because of these habits, and all four are fixable with practice.
Key Takeaways
- Filler words quietly kill credibility. Um, uh, so, and “and then” signal low confidence and push audiences to their phones.
- Open with a story, not a commercial. Lead with who you are and what changed, then move into what you do.
- Use the whole stage. Movement closes the distance, holds attention, and builds eye contact across the room.
- Never read your slides. If the deck can stand alone, you could have emailed it. Use the time to connect.
- Connection beats impressiveness. The room does not need you to be polished. It needs you to be worth listening to.
This year has started shaping up as one of my biggest yet in terms of speaking events. I’m now on track to attend somewhere between forty and fifty events if the current run rate continues. Most of the time I’m either delivering the keynote or chairing the conference, with the occasional panel discussion thrown in the mix. When you spend that much time working these rooms, you start to notice the same patterns repeat over and over. The one that stings me the most is watching someone with a genuinely good product lose the entire room before they ever get to it.
I’ve sat in those audiences and watched a sponsor spend five, ten, twenty, even thirty thousand dollars to get in front of a few hundred executives, which is exactly the audience they were chasing, and then lose every single one of them inside the first minute. It blows my mind every time, because the things that cost them the room are so small. They’re also fixable once you actually know what to look for. So let’s talk through where people trip up the moment they step on a stage, and what to do instead.
How to Eliminate Filler Words When Speaking on Stage
To eliminate filler words, record yourself running through your full presentation, then watch it back to hear how often you say um, uh, so, and “and then.” Repeat this regularly until you can feel a filler word coming, pause, and move through it. Getting comfortable with silence is what replaces the filler.
The very first thing we need to discuss is your filler words, because it’s the fastest way to lose a room. You know the ones… the um, the uh, the so, the and then that sneaks in between every other thought. On their own they feel harmless enough, but once they start piling up you can watch the damage happen in real time. People drift straight down to their phones and somewhere in the back of their mind they start wondering whether you actually believe what you’re saying or whether you’re just fumbling your way through and hoping it lands.
The fix isn’t complicated, but it is going to make you uncomfortable.
Set your phone up on a tripod and run through your entire presentation. Then flip the phone around and watch it back.
The first time you do this you’re going to be mortified at how often those words slip out (and at the sound of your own voice). That reaction is exactly the point, because now you can’t unsee it.
Then you record yourself again. And again. And again. Somewhere in that process you have to make peace with the pause and give people a beat to absorb what you just said.
We’ve somehow conditioned ourselves to throw out this wall of words with no room to breathe, and that wall is the very thing pushing people away. It won’t disappear overnight, but if you keep getting the reps in, you’ll eventually reach the point where you feel a filler word coming, you pause, and you move right through it.
Why You Should Open a Presentation With a Story, Not a Pitch
Open a presentation with a story because audiences disengage the moment a talk sounds like a commercial. Leading with who you are and a surprising turn in your background hooks attention and earns the right to explain what you do later. A pitch-first open loses the room before you reach your point.
The second trap is the one I watch vendors and sponsors fall into more than anyone else, and to be fair to them, most were never taught any better, because someone handed them a slide deck and told them to get up there and get the reps in. So they open with something like, hey, I’m Sean Barnes with Wolf Executives, we do executive coaching, and we focus on branding and presence and public speaking skills, and… you’ve already lost them. You lost them because you led with a commercial. Nobody in that room showed up to hear a commercial.
Now watch what happens when you open with a story instead. My name is Sean Barnes, and I spent the majority of my life as an extreme introvert leading IT, right up until about ten years ago when I jumped in and started leading human resources. It breaks their brain a little, in the best possible way, because the introverted IT guy is suddenly running HR and they want to know how that happened. You’ve hooked them, you’ve shown them something is possible, and you’ve given them a reason to lean in and connect with you as a person… and then, once you actually have their attention, you can move into the what and the how.
How to Use the Stage Instead of Reading Your Slides
Use the full stage by moving deliberately to close the distance with the audience and make eye contact across the room. Do not turn your back to read slides word for word. If the slides could deliver the message on their own, the talk could have been an email. The stage time exists for connection, not narration.
A lot of speakers plant their feet in one spot and never move for the entire talk. Even if you happen to be captivating enough with your voice and your hands to hold the room that way, you’re still leaving so much on the table. When you actually use the floor you’ve been given and walk that stage, you give yourself room to close the distance, to make real eye contact with people across the room, and to connect with the human beings sitting in front of you instead of talking in their general direction.
The version of this that really gets under my skin is when someone turns their back to the audience and starts reading their slides word for word. You fought for the front of that room. You may have paid a small fortune to be standing there. Then you spend the whole time pointing at a screen. If all you were ever going to do was read the slides out loud, you could have saved everyone the trouble and just emailed them the deck. Use the time you earned to captivate them, to tell the story, to hold the eye contact, and to pull every last person in the room toward you.
What an Effective Conference Presentation Looks Like
An effective conference presentation shares a story and real experience rather than a sales pitch, then invites interested audience members to continue the conversation afterward. This approach typically generates more genuine follow-up conversations than a slot spent trying to close from the stage.
I was in Nashville recently to speak at a cybersecurity event, and most of the stage that day was solid. There was one presenter, though, who stood out in a way the others just didn’t. He was a field CTO for a solutions provider, and after he stepped off stage I walked straight up to him to tell him how well he’d done, because he never once pitched. He got up there and shared a story. He talked through some of the things his team had been seeing out in the field. Then he simply handed it back to the room and said that if any of this resonated, he’d be there the rest of the day and would love to have a conversation. That was the whole thing. He didn’t sell anyone anything from that stage, and I’d put real money on the fact that he had more meaningful conversations afterward than every person who spent their entire slot trying to close.
How to Connect With an Audience Instead of Impressing Them
Connect with an audience by being worth listening to rather than impressive: tell a story that lands, pause to let it breathe, make eye contact that makes people feel seen, and cut the words and habits that distract. You earn a room by making people feel you are speaking with them, not at them.
Here’s what I keep coming back to. The room doesn’t need you to be the most polished or the most impressive person who’s ever held the microphone. It just needs you to be worth listening to, and that turns out to be a completely different skill… a story that lands, a pause that lets it breathe, eye contact that makes people feel seen, and the discipline to cut the words and the habits that aren’t serving you. You don’t earn a room by proving you belong on the stage. You earn it by making the people in the seats feel like you came there to talk with them, not at them.
So if you’ve got a stage coming up, whether you’re delivering the keynote or you’re a sponsor with a ten minute slot you paid dearly for, that right there is the work. This is the kind of executive advocacy I focus on with the leaders and teams I coach, helping them earn the room long before they ever try to win the deal. If any of this hits close to home, let’s talk about how to get you there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do speakers lose their audience in the first minute?
Speakers usually lose the audience in the first minute by opening with a pitch instead of a story and by leaning on filler words that signal low confidence. Both habits tell the room there is no reason to pay close attention, so people quietly disengage before the real content arrives.
How do you get rid of filler words when public speaking?
Record yourself delivering the full presentation, then watch it back to hear every um, uh, so, and “and then.” Repeating this builds the awareness to catch a filler word as it forms, pause instead, and continue. The pause is what replaces the filler over time.
Should you open a presentation with a story or your credentials?
Open with a story. A short, surprising piece of your own background hooks attention and earns the audience’s trust, which then makes them receptive to what you do and why it matters. Leading with credentials or a company description reads as a commercial and loses the room early.
Is it bad to read directly from your slides?
Yes. Reading slides word for word turns a presentation into something that could have been an email, and it forces you to turn away from the audience. Slides should support a spoken story, not replace it, so the stage time can be used to connect through movement, eye contact, and delivery.
What makes a conference presentation effective for a sponsor or vendor?
The most effective sponsor and vendor presentations share a relevant story and real-world observations, then invite interested attendees to continue the conversation afterward rather than pitching from the stage. This builds credibility and tends to produce more meaningful follow-up conversations than a hard sell.
About the Author
Sean Barnes is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and the founder of Wolf Executives, where he helps directors and senior leaders build the executive presence and communication skills that move them into VP-level roles. He spent roughly two decades in progressive leadership across IT, HR, project management, ESG, safety, transportation, and leadership development, and has been through dozens of acquisitions, integrations, and two IPOs. Sean now speaks at forty to fifty events a year across North America, drawing on his own journey from extreme introvert to keynote speaker to teach leaders how to earn a room and advocate for the people on their teams.
