SPEAKING

SPEAKING AT SCHOOLS

In 2008, Scott was invited to come to a high school to give a presentation on the making of his second film, “Larry’s Home Video”. This was a very flattering request and something he is still very appreciative to this day. It was in the preparation for this event that a core point occurred to him. When speaking with these students, “Don’t talk about yourself in a grand fashion, speak with them so they can feel, they can make great accomplishments too.”

The key to this was to demonstrate that it was dedication, collaboration, and perseverance that got the film done, not any superpowers. After giving this speech, he served on an alumni panel at his alma mater Franklin Pierce University at special event for graduates of their Mass Communication program to provide insights to current students. Again, he carried with him the stories of the ins and outs of film production. He strove to do it in such a way that was conversational and not in any fashion to make them feel like he thought he was somehow better than them. Which, he firmly believes he was not. He just wanted the audience to feel that they had within them the capabilities to make their goals and dreams come to fruition as he had.

TOASTMASTERS

After giving a few more speeches at Franklin Pierce and participating in a Career Day event at another local high school, Scott decided it was time to get properly trained in oratory pursuits. He attended his first Toastmasters meeting in the summer of 2017. That night, he gave an impromptu 5–7-minute speech about turning his life around through diet and exercise. he made sure to say this was just his way of doing things. He just wanted people to see the story as one of his personal experiences and feelings of self-doubt evolve into what is an ongoing journey of self-acceptance.

After giving this speech, he was encouraged to join the club. Together with the guidance of an incredible mentor, he worked his way through a manual laying out criteria to give ten speeches. The lessons therein covered using the right words and sentence structure, proper body language, vocal variety, researching topics, visual aids, how to persuade with power, and lastly how to inspire an audience.  He completed them in under a year and was honored to receive a Competent Communicator award.

Being a part of Toastmasters International has really fine-tuned his speaking skills as he has had he great privilege to have won two speech contests at the club level and have been asked to be a test speaker twice at contests. A test speaker gives a speech for evaluation by contestants who are judged on their evaluator abilities. One of these speeches is posted on this page.

In addition to his own speaking pursuits, he has learned a lot about leadership as well. In his second year, Scott served as Vice President of Membership, became a mentor for a great person who went from being very shy to a fantastic orator and then President of the club. He has also served as Club President and an Area Director. The Area Director is the liaison between a handful of clubs and the district which serves a greater geographical region.

Whether Scott giving any kind of presentation or running a meeting or an event for Toastmasters or any other purpose, he wants everyone to feel like an equal from beginning to end. He wants to help others to become their best selves however they see hat and their own definitions of success. The capabilities are with us, and he just puts himself at the podium to demonstrate that if he can do it, so can any of them in the audience in-person or virtually.