Scott Nicholson Of Bruce Merrin’s Celebrity Speakers Bureau On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Believe in yourself and have confidence. In order to get up in front of hundreds of people and have the credibility and control to educate other human beings about very powerful life lessons and advice, you, as an individual, must be extremely confident in yourself as a speaker, communicator and motivator.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Nicholson.
Scott Nicholson has more than 25 years’ experience in creating, operating, building and selling successful businesses, and he draws upon his expertise in “Seeds of Achievements, Dominate Your Destiny,” a powerful, inspirational and educational seminar, geared primarily to today’s youth and young adults. He considers himself a “mot-emotional” speaker, empowering those in his audience to reflect on their past, their current path, their future, their life’s purpose and how to use their unique abilities for the maximum impact on their lives — as the father of teenaged triplets, Nicholson finds his mission of keeping today’s youth on the right path hits close to home. In 2019, Nicholson signed on with Bruce Merrin’s Celebrity Speakers Bureau, one of the longest-operating organizations providing bookings to an elite clientele of event planners and corporate meetings since 1973.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in West Islip, New York, on Long Island, and my early life revolved around sports. I played every sport you could think of and was focused on always winning — being the fastest, strongest, or best at whatever sport I was playing. This personality was built into me. If I felt I was not the best in something, I would always work harder, train or practice at whatever it was I needed to do to get better. I was always putting myself under a lot of stress because I was never satisfied with where I was and always had to keep raising the bar to make myself better. I had no problem sacrificing my time, my social life, opportunities to go out with friends and such. I can remember being in my backyard on Friday and Saturday nights, sprinting to improve my speed for football and baseball while all my friends were out at parties.
From an early age I was an intense, passionate, Type A personality that always strived to exceed all expectations and achieve all the goals I set for myself, regardless of what it took. I believed that you need to do the things that nobody else will do in order to attain the things in life that nobody else will have. And I also believed that you needed to become someone you never were in order to achieve the things you hadn’t yet.
As for my family, I was blessed beyond words. God provided me with a mother, father and brother that loved me, cared for me, supported me and supplied everything I needed to live a blessed, wonderful and fulfilling young life. Possessing a strong faith in God also gave me a solid moral foundation that allowed me to do things and make decisions based not on what was popular but whether it was the right thing to do. I believed possessing character traits such as integrity, humility, kindness, gratitude, honesty, trust and the desire to help and serve others is what truly defined me as a person.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Early in my business career, I was asked by my alma mater, Hofstra University, to give a motivation seminar to the young business students that could impact their lives in positive ways. After my 90-minute seminar, a young man asked if he could speak with me. He proceeded to tell me that before my seminar, he’d felt depressed and did not have any clarity and focus on who he was or what he wanted in life, and he even questioned whether he had a future. After listening to my seminar, he said he experienced what he called a defining moment in his life. He said my seminar gave him inner strength, a feeling that he possessed all the gifts and skills necessary to actually be somebody and achieve success in a specific area of strength. He did not realize any of this until my words brought it out for him, he told me.
That interaction was a defining moment for me. Being able to impact the life and future of a young person with only a few words gave me so much gratification, I knew at that point God gave me this gift of motivational speaking so I could impact the lives of others.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
For me, the most interesting experience is living what I preach. I’m a firm believer that if you want to achieve life fulfillment and find your why — your purpose — you must find your gift. That’s the one thing you love to do and are great at with the least amount of effort, the thing that makes you come alive as a person. You must do what you love in life if you truly hope to possess all the passion, dedication, commitment and desire required to be the best at something.
That said, when I was 44, I was asked to play competitive lacrosse with a men’s tournament team. Now, I had been an athlete my whole life, played college football and baseball and had been coaching lacrosse for many years — but I’d never played it competitively. The one thing I knew was I loved it. In my first game, I was absolutely terrible. I mean terrible. I could not catch well, throw well or really do anything well. After the game, many of the players asked the guy who ran the team to please remove me. They were told to give it some time and see what happened.
I had a decision to make. The first option was to quit. This sport was too difficult, too overwhelming physically, and it would take me years to really become a true lacrosse player. The second option was to dedicate myself to practicing every single day for as long as it would take to turn myself into a competitive lacrosse player. By now, I’m sure you know what option I chose. I spent the next three years, literally every day, playing and practicing lacrosse, working on all the areas I was weak at, until I felt that I was worthy of playing the sport. Now, I play at the highest level of competition in tournaments all across the country.
The great thing about this story is that I lived it myself, and I can now share my experience with the thousands of people I speak to who might be thinking they can’t achieve something because they’ve never done it before. I looked fear of failing directly in the face and took it on, and I won!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Once I was speaking to a group of MBA students at a university and was not prepared 100% with my material the way I like to be. That forced me to rely too much on the material that I was projecting on the screen instead of being able to talk more freely. Because I had to keep turning to look at the monitor, I did not see a garbage pail on the floor — until I literally tripped over it and fell in front of the entire room. This helped keep humility in my list of character traits, as you can imagine.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The one individual who defined the person I became is my father. I have never met a more unselfish, giving and generous person than him. He truly tries to serve others. Because my father lived his life giving his time, efforts, support and money to help others, he in turn received so much back. I believe that giving starts the receiving process. The natural law of “Give, and you will receive” is one of the truest statements on earth. My father lived a life based on the phrase “What you sow, you reap,” another one of the most powerful phrases, and it’s so true. Give love, kindness and generosity to people and you will naturally receive it back. This concept goes for anything you do. My dad was a lifelong giver and helper, someone who impacted many lives. His way of life impacted me to live the same way.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
For people who want to embark on this career path but have a fear of failure, my advice is as follows:
1. Find, then live, your gift — the one thing you do better than anyone and you are extremely skilled at with little effort.
2. Do what you love. If you love it, you will put in all the work, effort, dedication and commitment necessary to achieve your goals.
3. Believe in the power of you. If you don’t believe in you, how can you expect others to? You can succeed in life if others don’t believe in you, but you cannot succeed in life if you don’t believe in yourself.
4. Find your why. Figure out your purpose, the reason why God put you on earth.
5. Live with habits and rituals. You must discipline yourself with daily habits and rituals that make you better, stronger, wiser, faster and more intelligent. Make a daily commitment to daily improvement. Be obsessed with always improving.
6. Invest in the most important thing in the world — you. Stop investing in stocks, bonds and companies and start investing in yourself. Live a life of constant improvement by investing in your mind, skills, knowledge and capabilities.
7. Respect time. Every second counts in life, so make every second count. In each moment you are either progressing in life or decaying. You must use every second of every day to its maximum potential. Don’t waste one second. Time is your most valuable asset: you can use it or abuse it, it’s your choice. Use your time to become an anomaly in your craft and uncommon in your skill.
8. Understand that life is precious. It’s the greatest gift on earth. Be sure to prioritize your time and spend it with the ones you love. Ask yourself, “If I was told I have 24 hours to live, how would I spend it and who would I spend it with?” Then, take care of those things.
What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
I’m driven by a burning passion to succeed and impact the lives of others using the gifts that God has provided me. The first hour of every day I spend in meditative prayer with God. I believe His purpose for my life is far greater than what I think my purpose is; therefore, I ask him for guidance, clarity and direction in all I do. Not only does speaking impact the lives of the people I am speaking to directly, but, if I am successful in impacting the lives of my audience and they, in turn, embrace my teachings and implement those teachings into the lives of others, my ability to impact positively can affect the lives of thousands of people I never even meet or talk to. That’s powerful!
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
My specific target area, where I desire to impact lives, is in leadership education directed at youth, athletes and business professionals. The need for leaders in our society has never been greater. The world is filled with fake leaders, people who call themselves leaders but can only lead by using control, fear, power, ego, manipulation and monetary rewards. This is not leadership. Simply put, leadership is serving. My definition of leadership is the desire to serve others and a dedication to making everyone around you great. If serving is beneath you, leading is beyond you. My goal is to educate the next generation of leaders, coaches, teachers and politicians on how to become legendary leaders. My seminar series with that goal in mind, “The Journey to Legendary Leadership,” is designed to transform people into world-class leaders.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I believe that the single most powerful thing in life is your mind. After all, it controls all your thoughts, emotions, decisions, actions and choices. So, the strength of your mind will determine the heights of your success. That said, my favorite life lesson is, to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson and author Joyce Meyer, “What lies behind you and before you is miniscule to what lies within your mind. Life is fought on the battlefield of the mind. This is where the war of life is won or lost.” I always try to possess a strong, positive, optimistic, passionate mindset and that keeps me focused on life and my tasks at hand.
Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
1. Believe in yourself and have confidence. In order to get up in front of hundreds of people and have the credibility and control to educate other human beings about very powerful life lessons and advice, you, as an individual, must be extremely confident in yourself as a speaker, communicator and motivator.
2. Know your material. Great speakers gain confidence in themselves when they are 100% confident in their material and their ability to deliver it with passion. You can tell when a speaker is on their game or not. I personally use both a visual and audio approach in my seminars because human beings retain the most material when they are able to see it and hear it.
3. Have a desire to serve and impact others. The greater your desire to serve and impact the lives of others, the greater your success as a speaker will be!
4. Keep faith in God. Without this, you can never achieve your greatest successes.
5. Aim for constant improvement. The greatest speakers never stop learning and searching for new material and new wisdom. I am always enhancing my seminar material, making it better and better every day.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
The two keys to overcoming such fears are: 1. Have a great introduction ice breaker. I usually start with a funny story or situation that lightens up the room and, more importantly, lightens up the stress that I might have in front of a large group. With a good story and some laughs, all the fear or stress vanishes and I get into my zone. 2. Know your material down cold! You should never get in front of an audience as a speaker until your have your material and message so buttoned up that you can recite it in your sleep.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
My movement would be to establish a leadership philosophy centered around serving others. There is no such thing as a business, there are only people. If leaders could focus their time more on fulfilling the lives of their people and less on their clients, products, profits and financials, their success would skyrocket. Legendary leaders sacrifice the numbers for their people.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Though you can’t tag him, I’d love to meet with Jesus and get some answers on a number of things!
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
www.linkedin.com/in/toscott-nicholson
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
