Last week – I participated in two podcasts.  The first one was the podcast Millennio.us – a joint venture of my friends Alana Edmunds and Eric Hansen.  It was the third episode but I already enjoy their podcast because it’s focus on tech in our lives – not just tech in general.  As a millenial – even on the outskirts of the defined age range – it was a nice conversation about my work, my thoughts on social media and millenials in the work place.  You can check it out here – millennio.us or subscribe to it via iTunes.

The second podcast was more work-centric.  It was with Amber Naslund and David Alston of Radian6 for “The Engaged Brand” podcast featured on the Radian6 blog. Again – I enjoyed talking shop with two people I highly respect and it was quite the energizer for me for the rest of the week.  I love taking the time out of my day to discuss what I am doing.  It’s somewhat philosophical – allows me to take a step back and continually ask if what behaviors I am engaging in with Crocs are not only beneficial to the brand but to my personal philosophies on Social Media.

What I don’t like is the personal inflections I add to my speech.  The “Um’s” or, my personal pet peeve “Ya know.’  I hope that these aren’t too distracting but they bother me and improving on my public speaking is already one of my top priorities.  Practice makes perfect though, so I see this as a challenge to simply start doing more public speaking – whether it’s for professional use like the Radian6 interview or simply personal fun – like on this blog.

If anyone out there has tips on how to control those silly things we all add to our public speaking, let me know.  I think learning to talk slower, to let my brain and mouth sync more – would be the best.  Not sure if that fits with my personality though and that’s brought me a long way.  We’ll see.  Each day brings me something more I can learn.