Close recording necessary but clips certain words as a result

I want to record close to my mic within my isolation shield in order to reduce a lot of room echo. However, when I do this, certain words come out too big and sound distorted. For example "sound" in the example attached.

1- is there a way to fix this in audition without re-recording ( I already tried Diagnostics but the waveform doesn't actually get clipped so when I scan it, it doesn't find anything to fix) 

and

2- what am I missing in my settings (gain seems to be fine) when recording that I'm able to record better in the future.

Let me know if you need any specific screenshots or whatever and I'd be happy to provide. I know the example sounds subtle but my podcast is focused on sound....so fixing it is my life's goal now.