LikeSo Launches to Improve America’s Verbal Habits, Like, Ya Know…

For Immediate Release

LikeSo Launches to Improve America’s Verbal Habits, Like, Ya Know…

New Mobile App Provides a Personal Speech Coach to Train Against Excessive Use of Filler Words and to Practice “Speech Fitness” 

Chappaqua, NY – March 7, 2016 – How articulate are you? Do filler words pepper your speech – “like,” “ya know,” “I mean,” “totally,” “so,” “whatever”?  Today, Say It Media, Inc. announced LikeSo, a mobile app that acts as a personal speech coach. LikeSo offers an engaging and fun way to train against verbal habits and practice speaking articulately, confidently, and without the “like, ya know” syndrome.  LikeSo is now available in the App Store for iOS devices.

Recent research and a tsunami of media coverage has highlighted that increasingly lax verbal habits affect how individuals are perceived and may undermine the potential for success.  The excessive use of filler words – meaningless words or phrases used to fill a pause or hesitation – weaken our speech, water down our meaning and distract our listeners. Whether giving a presentation, interviewing for a job or internship, meeting with a college recruiter or business partner, or just having a conversation, poor verbal habits can make anyone sound unsure, inarticulate and even incompetent.

“There is a verbal epidemic that is raging through our American population and we are launching a mission to do something about it,” said Say It Media, Inc. Founder Audrey Mann Cronin. “We all want to speak in a way that compels others to listen. But when we insert too many “likes” and “ya knows,” we lessen our credibility and invite unnecessary judgment.”

Verbal tics affect both genders and people of all ages. No one is immune to this sociolinguistic scourge. The good news, however, is that verbal habits are not pathological.  Like all habits, the use of filler words is behavioral and can be fixed with awareness and practice.

According to Ita Olsen, recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on human speech communications and founder of Convey Clearly, “Every person you know who is a great communicator worked on it.  Why would we think we shouldn’t get better at communicating?  It’s the one single pivotal thing that gets us what we need out of life!  We take music lessons, we hire tennis pros, we go to the gym – we improve all aspects of ourselves.  Why do we think we should be born an amazing communicator?  We aren’t.”

A key contributor to this verbal tic epidemic may be linked to our addiction to mobile devices.  Tethered to our smartphones, and with so many social channels to communicate on, we reduce our opportunity to have articulate face-to–face conversations.  And when it comes to real-time conversation, we are literally at a loss for words, and filling pauses with filler words.

“With LikeSo, we want to turn our smartphone addiction into a solution,” said Mann Cronin.  “Using the most advanced voice recognition software, LikeSo offers a fun and effective way to capture and count your filler words.  Like any muscle, we need to train so our words roll eloquently off our tongues. LikeSo helps you train against your verbal habits and practice talking on the fly. With practice, you’ll be more aware, more articulate, and more confident.”

How it Works:

LikeSo provides users with real-time analysis of their speech fitness and calculates a score based on the number of filler words divided by the total words spoken. LikeSo also measures pacing for the fast and slow talker – with optimal pacing generally understood to be approximately 150 words per minute.

LikeSo offers two modes of “play”: TalkAbout and FreeStyle:

• TalkAbout is a conversation game to practice talking on the fly. Choose a topic from the list of eight.  Your session will include five prompts.  Select your Talk Time and the filler words that you want to train against. Speak into your smartphone’s microphone (or headset’s) and LikeSo will listen and capture your speech. At completion, you will be presented with an analysis of your talk session and see your results.

• FreeStyle is your own open mic.  FreeStyle gives you the flexibility to practice for any of your upcoming presentations, interviews, auditions – or just because you want to improve your speaking skills.  In FreeStyle, you can speak for up to 30 minutes. Select the words that you want the app train against. You can “pause” or “stop” at any time.  As in TalkAbout mode, at completion you will be presented with an analysis of your talk session and see your results.

“As a communications consultant, the way people speak is always on my radar,” said Mann Cronin.  “I was inspired to create LikeSo after a confluence of conversations took place during one defining week in May of 2014.  First, my poised and well-spoken teenage daughter started injecting her sentences with “like,” “um,” and “ya know.” Later that week, a former colleague emailed me about his two brilliant co-workers, but that he cringed when he heard them speak on the phone and in meetings.  And then – the crowning blow… My doctor, a top surgeon in her field, said that she had experienced these uninspiring verbal habits, even in the operating room. She told me that instead of saying, “Scalpel,” her fellow female surgeons might say,  ‘Would you mind, like, handing me the scalpel?’ Something had to be done, and LikeSo was born.”

LikeSo is the first app from Say It Media, Inc.  LikeSo is for your next presentation, interview, audition, date, debate – even your next conversation.  LikeSo was created by Audrey Mann Cronin with inspiration and input from her two chief muses, her teenage daughter, Amanda and son, Jake.  The app was developed by hatchmap and designed by Subluxed.

About Say It Media, Inc.

Say It Media, Inc. was founded in December 2015 by Audrey Mann Cronin, veteran consumer technology communications consultant, blogger for parenting site, Our Digital Daughters, and, most notably, the mother of two teenagers. With a mission to improve our communications skills, Say It Media creates fun and engaging solutions using the latest consumer technology. LikeSo, its first mobile app, is a trademark of Say It Media,