9:05am
Saint Paul
I saw a video on LinkedIn just now where a woman walks through ehr video production using AI.
And one of the first things she mentions is how the AI tool can remove filler words.
The umms… The ahhs… and whatnot.
I used to do this for my Persuasion Play Podcast episodes.
Remove filler words. Shorten silences.
It added hours to my work. Like, 3x the length of the recording. So a 1 hour interview took an additional 3 hours or so. Before adding slides, splicing in the introduction and theme song, and writing show notes.
And today, AI can do it all for me?
Great, I’ll pass. Here’s why.
I don’t want to spend half a day editing, or even 5 minutes with an AI tool that does the work for me. My time is valuable.
But that’s selfish, so here’s a better reason:
Video.
Once I started posting Video episodes, cutting out those filler words and silences can create a jarring on-screen jump for the viewer. That’s no fun. Especially if there are 5 filler words a minute (not uncommon).
But there’s a better reason still:
Personality.
A conversation isn’t a polished transmission of information (a concept which has its own problems as Justin Oberman discussed in his email today –– get on his list ASAP).
The pauses in a conversation…
the thoughts being formed and spoken and stumbled on…
the tension in a brief silence as we wait to hear what’s next…
Those moments build personality. They’re 100% human. And by editing them out, I disrupt the flow of conversation and connection in disservice to you, the listener (or viewer).
Today’s episodes still take plenty of time, both before and after recording. They exhaust me, to be honest. In a good way, but also in a way that makes me want to put the recording on a shelf and forget all about how dumb I sound lol.
But the episode are not about me!
So I get them out there for you and for anyone else that’s interested in interesting people.
And because I’m not looking to get on a hamster wheel of video content, I take my time to produce each episode.
Great guests. Slow content. Warts and all.
Take your time and create something meaningful,
Jeffrey
PS. I have two new recordings lined up. How many months might these take? Meanwhile, find existing episodes here:
https://www.youtube.com/@JeffreyThomasSalesCopywriter/podcasts
PPS. When I publish the episodes, I try to pick a semi-unflattering screenshot of the guest to use as the video still.
Not a terrible image. But not a polished studio headshot, either.
Some guests won’t let me. Others probably cringe and say nothing.
But it is intentional.