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My Stutter. My Monster.

We all face something that prevents us being the person we are destined to become. My something is a MONSTER that confronts me nearly every waking moment. My stutter is my MONSTER.

For too many years, stuttering stifled my voice and stunted my growth. It wasn’t until I reached a very low point in my life that I decided stuttering wasn’t going to manage me. Instead, I was going to manage my stuttering. Meaning, I wasn’t going to allow the shame and guilt of stuttering to silence my voice. I was going to use every tool I had learned to minimize my disfluency and actively seek opportunities to speak, even if I stuttered. It was simple. For me to stop stuttering, I had to start talking.

I’m finding ways to weave in my story of living life as a person who stutters in the presentations I give. Recently I gave a presentation to a roomful of restaurant and hotel marketers and briefly shared my story. Afterwards, two people came up to me and shared their story of living life as a person who stutters. It is so gratifying when people open up and share such stories with me because for those of us who stutter, we have an inherent bond.

Perhaps you stutter. Or maybe your child stutters or someone you know stutters. If you do stutter or know someone who does, this video might be worthwhile to watch. It’s from a recent talk where I opened up about my MONSTER. People who have seen it have been positively affected by it. Enjoy…