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July 16, 2000
By Heather Shelton
The Detroit native -- who has lived in Humboldt County since 1983 -- has worked a variety of jobs that call for pristine speaking skills, from radio talk show host to sales and public relations.
"I seem to have a gift to be able to talk to people and connect," he said.
Marcus, 45, currently is a popular Weight Watchers leader, heading up six local meetings a week. He is running a blossoming business, delivering inspirational seminars, workshops and keynote speeches to folks near and far. He is also an award-winning public speaker for Toastmasters, a nonprofit organization designed to help people develop speaking, leadership and meeting skills.
"He's expressive, passionate, sensitive," said Kathy Murphy, who, like Marcus, is a member of Eureka "Lunch Bunch" Toastmasters club. It meets three Thursdays a month at the Eureka Chamber of Commerce.
Marcus has long made a career out of communication. He moved to the North Coast 17 years ago to work as program director, then general manager, at radio stations KFMI and KATA, where he also hosted a show called "Talkback." Marcus -- who lost 71 pounds from 1993 to '94 and continues to keep the weight off today -- has also done many public presentations via Weight Watchers.
"Everybody's got bad habits you've carried your whole life," he said, "and you finally start to realize 'I can do this.' There's nothing that comes close to the feeling of helping somebody with that."
His Weight Watchers meetings -- which are informative, supportive and lively -- have attracted many new members to the weight-loss program.
"I joke my meetings are a cross between Nutrition 101, group therapy and a Southern revival," said Marcus, who, after several years leading meetings, wanted to find a way to hone his speaking skills further.
He saw an announcement for Toastmasters in the Times-Standard. The organization -- which has been around since the 1920s -- has more than 8,000 clubs worldwide. Locally there are four groups -- two in Eureka, one in Fortuna and one in Trinidad, with about 100 people participating.
"These are not professionals," Marcus said. "I'm the exception to the rule. Ninety-nine percent are just people who want to speak better in front of a group of one or a group of 100."
Toastmasters offers members of all ages a chance to conduct meetings, give short impromptu talks, write and then present five-to-seven minute prepared speeches, and offer constructive evaluations to fellow speakers.
"More people are afraid of speaking publicly than of dying," Marcus said. "You can't help people with the dying, but you can help them with the speaking process."
Toastmasters also hosts two competitions a year, Marcus said, focusing on humorous and evaluation speeches one time and international and impromptu speeches the other.
Contests begin at the club level. Winners advance from there to area, division, district (which encompasses Northern California), region and, finally, international.
Marcus made it all the way to the district competition with an evaluation speech his first year in the club. In early 1998, he came in second in the district with a speech titled "Perfect-o-holic." Later that year, he placed third in international (the only category that goes all the way to the international-level competition) with "My Last Day in Bakersfield."
"It was the true story of locking myself out of the radio station two times in my last shift," he said.
This year, Marcus won the district competitions in both international and impromptu speech with "The Greatest Good," a moving tribute to his mother who died earlier this year. With the win, he qualified to vie for the Region I title.
"Not in recent history has one person won both competitions at the district level," he said, "nor has anyone from the North Coast achieved such an accomplishment at Toastmasters.
"It's really flattering. It's humbling and it's exciting," Marcus adds. "This is a great group of people, totally supportive. When I'm competing, it's not just me. I'm representing the whole group."
For the region competition -- held last month in Reno, Nev. -- Marcus wrote a speech called "Will Speak for Food," a humorous and uplifting look at weight loss. He competed against seven other Toastmaster winners from British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada and Wyoming.
"I made it very funny. I almost went over time because people kept laughing and applauding," said Marcus, who, alas, did not win. Still, he found the experience rewarding.
"I had 25 to 30 people come up to me afterward saying how much they enjoyed it," he said.
Marcus -- who dubs himself a "THINspirational Speaker" -- is also busy these days building up his own speaking career, giving keynote speeches and seminars to organizations and businesses in Humboldt County -- including Six Rivers National Bank, Humboldt Senior Resource Center, Humboldt Child Care Council and Travel Advantage -- and in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.
Seminars topics include "The Eating Cycle," "The Sales Circle" and "TALK!" Keynote speeches vary from "Fit, Fun and Fiscally Sound by Forty" and "Seven Lessons of Prosperity" to "Thank You for the Heroes."
"Thank for the Heroes is an honest-to-God story about meeting some guy on the side of the road," Marcus said. "I pulled over. I just thought he had a flat tire and found he was homeless. I spent the day with this guy, ushering him around."
Marcus -- who dressed up like a superhero and jumped out of a handmade phone booth when he presented the talk to employees at Northcoast Children's Services -- often uses props, costumes and humor to create his award-winning presentations.
"I tend to think adults are just wrinkled kids," he said. "We tend to lose that little kid part of us. I think people relate much better to somebody who is having fun."
For more information about local Toastmasters clubs call Scott Marcus at 442-6243 or e-mail him at ScottQ@THINspiration.com
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