A movement that was reignited with The Kings Speech

by @shachartg
Shachar Scott, head of digital strategy

For as long as I can remember I stuttered. My mom stuttered as a kid, but “grew” out of it. My brother still stutters today, and is a successful entrepreneur with a booming business (check out @EyeFiCard). Stuttering is something that can’t be stopped, fixed, or eliminated. But as many of you probably recently saw in the inspiring film, The Kings Speech, there are tricks of the trade that stutterers use to avoid getting “stuck” while talking. For most this becomes so debilitating they don’t speak — out of the 65 MM stutterers in the world this is their daily reality, not being able to fluently utter a word. The stigma says that stutterers are dumb, because they can’t speak. But the reality (and not to toot my own horn or anything) but we’re quite smart and can be articulate when we can speak.

Why am I writing this? Because I have never publicly spoken about my speech impediment and the fact that I stutter. Most of you who know me well, may not even notice it (as my dear friend of almost 5 years @pepebrie who attended the Our Time Gala with me last night pointed out she never knew. But I do stutter, and there are certain words and letters that I have always avoided. For example, D’s are hard for me, so ordering food for “delivery” is always challenging (thank you @seamlessweb iPhone app!). But I’m not writing this blog post to reveal some secret — I am writing to help clear the air of the stigmas surrounding stuttering and to maybe teach all of you that there are more people than you probably think or knew with this daily / hourly challenge. Be patient, be kind to us. Most of us have been made fun of our whole lives and the reality is we are the courageous ones that continue to speak even though we can’t utter the words our brain already knows it wants to say.

For the last ten years of my professional/adult career, I have conquered my greatest fear (other than snakes and spiders): Speaking :). I LOVE public speaking — I can make a crowd laugh and command a room to listen to me present a deck, a strategy or my insights. But only now can I confidently say that it’s ok if I stutter along the way. I am not going to stop speaking because it’s hard, I’m only going to practice it more so I get better and better.Thanks to stuttering I’m learning how to be patient. And a better human being.

Thank you David Seidler — writer of the Kings Speech — who brought an issue to the forefront that for so many is paralyzing, and reminding me to be brave. Thank you Carly Simon for your beautiful words of wisdom. Thank you to ALL of my friends, family, and colleagues who patiently listen to me speak (a lot) even when I do stutter. Thank you @frogism for giving me the platform and opportunity to speak about stuttering, something that is near and dear to my heart.

Join the movement, go to www.ourtimestutter.org!