S2E10 with Marc Winski - Embracing your Superpower

Meet Marc Winski.

Marc is a dynamic professional actor, singer, dancer and speaker based in NYC who uses his artistry and platform to champion inclusivity. As a person who stutters, he understands firsthand the challenges of navigating a world where fluency is often expected, and voices like his have historically been overlooked. Determined to change that narrative, Marc has made it his mission to advocate for people who stutter across theatre, film, television ... and equally important, in their everyday lives.

With his million dollar smile, sharp wit, boundless creativity, and a deep passion for authentic representation, Marc harnesses the power of social media, particularly his impressive TikTok & Instagram following - to educate, entertain, and inspire. His engaging content not only raises awareness but also fosters a sense of belonging for the stuttering community, a group too often marginalized in mainstream storytelling. By breaking barriers and reshaping perceptions, Marc is paving the way for a more inclusive entertainment industry where every voice, no matter how it sounds, is heard and valued.

During our time together, Marc shared his incredible journey and even gave me a firsthand experience of what it truly feels like to stutter. It was a conversation that left a lasting impact and one I will never forget. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to spend time with this inspiring soul and true change-maker.

To follow Marc on TikToc visit:  https://www.tiktok.com/@marcwinski

To follow Marc on Instagram visit: https://www.instagram.com/marcwinski

Thank you for joining us and we can't wait to welcome you back again next week! New episodes drop every Thursday and can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts!

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Want to learn more about our host, Eric Nicoll? Visit: https://ericnicoll.com

Transcript

0:05

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Just Do You Podcast. My name is Eric Nicole, and I'm your host. If you are a first time listener, welcome to the conversation and if you're a regular, I'm honored that you've decided to join me for another episode. I. The Just Do You Podcast is centered around a network of conversations, which are meant to connect us, to inspire us, to find our own confidence, our own voice, and to live our own truth. And who knows, we might even learn a little something new that ultimately allows us to live in the sweet spot that I like to call the Just do you space of being. Each week, I have the privilege of sitting down for unscripted conversations with friends, family, colleagues, community leaders, and influencers that all share their own personal journeys. I hope that you enjoy our time together as much as I have. We are certainly gonna laugh, and yes, we might even cry a little, but in the end, we are gonna know that we're not alone during our life's journey. So are you ready? Great. Let's do this. Welcome to the conversation. All right everyone. Welcome to today's episode. I am super honored and feel very privileged to introduce you to our guest today. I have been following this individual on Instagram and TikTok and am consistently amazed at this positive, positive energy and light that comes beaming out of this million dollar smile and this really committed component to go out and educate people. So I'm gonna jump right in today and just introduce people to my guest, Marc Winski. Hi Marc. What an intro that gave me chills. Thank you, Eric. Appreciate that. You're welcome. You know I say this to all my guests'cause they have that same response and I'm like, you know, we don't get introduced like that every day, right? Like, we don't get our bios read or we don't get introduced. But how great would the day be if we all woke up in the morning and started our day with an introduction? So, you're welcome. Let's do it. Let's do it. You're welcome. So for our listeners again, I am incredibly. Happy and proud to have Marc on today. Marc is based in New York. He is a globally recognized speaker, performer, and educator on inclusion, stuttering, disability, and diversity. He is an accomplished actor, singer. He was in, as I was telling him before we hit record in two of my favorite shows, Hairspray and Grease, both the national tours. And what I loved in your bio Marc, was you said, as a person who stutters, your goal is to educate and to advocate by creating content and media and then sharing it out to your followers. And as I said, what I was super impressed by, with close to half a million TikTok followers and tens of thousands of Instagram followers, you're obviously doing something right and conveying a message and educating those on the stuttering community. So again, thank you for being here today. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It's, it's an important thing and uh, it's, it's, it can be challenging to take all of this information and kind of put it. Into a small form package that's easily die digestible. Mm-hmm. And I think we're in a social media age where everyone wants their quick meme, their quick conversation, their, their quick make me laugh and go. And so having podcasts and like having these co co conversations are just so, I, I Important. Yeah. And for us old timers. We're not used to the 32nd meme. I'm a little older than you, but I really love the connection and that's why I started this podcast because although I love content and I've met so many amazing people and I've learned so much about so many different communities, in our world, sitting down and having a conversation with someone has been truly the blessing of this entire process. So, before we get into this meat of the conversation, which is about the stuttering community and your advocacy and education and helping people understand. I like to take my guests back to the beginning. Because I believe that we all start somewhere and that start and that beginning shapes us and creates us. So could you give us just a little insight and a little look at Young Marc, you know, where'd you grow up? Did you have siblings? Yeah, sure. Give us a little background. Yeah. I, uh, grew up in a small college town, Lafayette, Indiana right near Purdue University, if you, you know that. Mm-hmm. And just, I, I have always been an advocate for stuttering without, I guess really knowing it. I, I grew up with some great speech therapy at Purdue with a, a gentleman named Bill Murphy, and he always taught me there's this. Uh, this, this acute, acute VV video of me at maybe five or six, and Bill is like, arc, is it e your fault? That ter? I say, no, it's not my, he goes, what? I, I say, it's not my fault. He, he, he, he goes, is it? I go, no, it's not, it's not my fault. And just I was taught that growing up and it was tough though during the nineties, this form of, of acceptance for who you are. This kind of therapy where you. Had a di di disability was new. Yeah. Acceptance therapy was so new. So it was mixture of both the, the things where he'd say, well, it's part of new, but also we can find ways to, to not stutter or, or, or do what's called stuttering. modification by, by, by maybe sliding into a word or saying things easier. Hmm. And at the time, as a six or seven or 8-year-old, that's confusing that Yes. That makes zero sense saying, oh, be you. It's okay. Except. We can accept you a little bit more. If you're more fluent, we can he hear you more? Mm-hmm. If you not stutter as much. And so those messages that, that were being told to me taught me that, that, that I couldn't openly stutter. And so that changed how I spoke and who I spoke to and, and, and I would change all of my words. Now growing up I sang a lot. People, people usually don't stutter when they sing. It's not something we choose. It's just something that the brain does. I like calling it a cool, cool party trick, right? Like, people like saying, oh my God, it's such a blessing. It's such a. Miracle that you do. And then I'm just like, no. Like I'm not, I'm not, I, I mean, I'm not doing that. Yeah. Uh, sure. It's cool. It's cool brain thing. But I think growing up, up, I was praised on that too. Like, oh, he stutters, but, but he's this. So let me ask you real quick before you go on. Yeah. Just'cause I'm sure a lot of our listeners aren't necessarily know someone or aware. Is this something that you're born with, uh, of a lot of, of the time? It is. Yeah. Okay. I was some people get it th through injuries, brain injuries, but the majority, it comes through adolescence. Okay. And about, uh. Three to 6% of children stutter, if not more. And then 1% of the entire population continues to stutter through adulthood. So the odds are pretty good that you've already mm-hmm. Spoken to someone who stutters, whether you know it or not. And as a adolescent, as a child, that is, you know, discovering that this is something that you are. Given living with the stutter, how does that make you feel? Did you have some fear about fitting in? Did you have, because you're super, super positive and very outgoing now, I have to imagine that was maybe not the case when you were a child. I don't know. That's why I'm asking. I'm curious. Yeah, so I, I've always been pretty outgoing. I've, I've always been very talkative. I definitely got x's on my report card for avoids unnecessary talking a big old ex all the way down the road. It was just how I spoke. I think a lot of times I, I, I, I would change my words. Mm-hmm. I, I, I would pretend I didn't know the answer to a question in class. Mm-hmm. I, I, I, I would, I. I would add songs to all of my book reports just to kind of get, get, get through it and sure. People made fun of me and that hurt a lot. I was always trying to find the cure growing up. Mm-hmm. Like my family would invest in these devices that would help and look for me medications and look for things. And it wasn't really talked about to Oh, that's just how, how, how you speak. Mm-hmm. And how did that make you feel in those moments where you were trying to. Fix it or cure it, because again, I think you, the way the conversation's routing right now is that we don't necessarily educate in elementary school about these differences. Right. Stuttering is obviously very outward mobile. You can hear it, you can experience it, not comparing the two, I was diagnosed colorblind, and so I couldn't see the colors, and so I was made fun of for that. Right. It's a let's make fun of our differences. Sure. walla palooza in school, but mine was not necessarily noticeable. Right. So I would just, I. Color things the way that I thought they should be colored. But you are obviously communicating, you're making friends. And I have to wonder, that's got to be super tough when there isn't a lot of vocabulary of languaging, uh, in our school systems of how to have other students deal with the differences. And we're, we're looking at that right now in such a vast, vast, magnifying 100% right now in this, well, we want you to be different and unique, but we don't, and we, you know, we'll accept you this way, but we won't accept you that way. And I think it's got to be so confusing for the young people that are growing up today. Was that, was that difficult or did you It must have been. I mean, a lot of that is deeply covered up. Deeply. Mm-hmm. Like, deeply. Like I, I'm un I'm unpacking that. Mm-hmm. Uh. Full disclosure, I'm unpacking all that in therapy now. Like all those things. Sure. Like all of those things that are coming up and, and, and, and, and forgiving that part of myself mm-hmm. From hiding, um mm-hmm. And just saying no, like, it's okay. Thank you for that protection at that time. Mm-hmm. It's not needed right now. And I love, I, I actually do really respect the generation that's coming up. There's a lot of acceptance, a lot of it, a lot of it, a lot of it. Sure. There's still bullying going on, but I think the bullying, from what I've seen, I. It is changing in a way where some things feel off limits these days. Like if somebody can't control something, I think bullies that try to go for that, are I immediately shut down by their peers. Sure. And it's cool to see that, but growing up, yeah, it was hard. It was different and I think every time I look back at that and find my why of why I do this education, it's for that so that kids and adults can speak their truth. Yeah, listen, I, I say this with a hundred percent sincerity, and it's not meant to be taken the wrong way, but I'm super proud of you for doing that. Thank you. It's not a condescending, I'm proud of you. It's a, it's a, wow. I'm super proud of you because I think in any situation where we're dealing with inclusion, we're dealing big, hot, hot topic words these days, but, you know, diversity and inclusion and all of those things, you know, if you've got somebody who is out in the world speaking for you and speaking about you and educating and making it, I hate this word, but normalizing it and making it more acceptable is, is what makes the biggest difference, right? I look back at several things that I was dealing with growing up that today I look at. This generation now, you know, being themselves in such a way, and, and maybe it's because of social media and this, you can find your tribe so much easier. Yes, you're gonna find your haters, but you can find your tribe so much easier where you might not find it in a little small college town, growing up where you did or the suburbs of LA Does that, does that make sense? So I think it's, yeah, it's, but it's, it's so great that somebody could be flipping through TikTok and see one of your posts and hear your story and watch your journey and go, oh my gosh, I'm not alone, there is somebody else out there that is, just like me. I think that's super, super cool. So I'm, I'm really proud of you for going out there and doing it. Were you, so was high school different than college? I'm just trying to get a sense of when you found this confidence and found this. Oh my god. Well. Well, this kind of second, second tier, third tier confidence didn't come, didn't come until way past college. Mm-hmm. In my CC career, I was, I was acting on stage and doing musical go theater for about eight, eight years before I tried to put in the acceptance in my career. Mm-hmm. I was pretty open about it in my, my personal life. Mm-hmm. But when it came to my c career, there was no place for stuttering in the acting world. Sure. It wasn't, there didn't exist. It wasn't there didn't exist. It didn't exist. And the people who were pushing that, the celebrity, there's this famous celebrities who stutter poster that the community knows and maybe people have seen it, but there's James Earl Jones, Emily Blunt, Bruce Willis, bill Walton, big names Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill. The only thing is we didn't ever see these people stutter, right? Like maybe they stuttered growing up. And they're incredible actors, but those things. Weren't shown. So Sure. What that showed me as someone who was an actor is I used acting to say, oh, like I'm okay. As soon as I've got this memorized, I don't stutter anymore, because that's what James Earl Jones did. Wait, hold that. Hold on. Say that. So you memorize a script, you don't stutter. Well, I told people that, oh, I told, I got it, I got it. I told people that, okay. When really, when really I was on stage, like trying to rehearse a perfect timed cadence or put in a hand motion here to mm-hmm. Allow the words to appear as I was. A fluent speaker when really I was terrified. Mm. For years. For years. And it was just, it wasn't enjoyable. I was living this Broadway dream and, and I was, I, I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified. So, we're gonna talk about this a second, but I want to go back just for a quick second. Yeah. My, the questions are just flying through my head right now. I love it. I love wrong. And we, we, we promised each other that we would ask questions and that you would correct me if I said something wrong and I would ask you questions that maybe people would be afraid of asking. So I have a few of those, but I want to go back just a little bit. So, were you studying acting in college or were you going in complete? I did. You did. So you were studying acting college? I did. Okay. And was, was, was college, uh, was it easier than high school? Did you find your way or were you still struggling with trying to find this, this, this vibe and this, this path and journey? I hid, I hid a lot. I, I, I would. Again, I, I would change words a lot. Mm-hmm. Like everybody knew that I stuttered, but I would do everything in my path through dialogue. Mm-hmm. In order to get to the song of a musical. I got, I would, I would never do a straight play. I would never even consider myself doing tv, tv or film work. I, I, I, I would, I, uh, jumping forward a bit, there were so many pro professional auditions that I would skip out on mm-hmm. Because I felt there was too much dialogue. Mm-hmm. So in college, I would stay up until 3:00 AM 4:00 AM if, if I had monologue for class or a scene and just find these tips and tricks that had nothing to do with acting. Nothing. Nothing. Mm-hmm. It, it was just how all fluently, can I say these words? Mm-hmm. Was that frustrating for you or were you just Yeah. Doing it? Yeah. Yeah. It was horrible. Yeah, it was horrible. Talk, talk about that. I want to, I want to know what that I didn't like acting. That's like, I didn't like it. I hated it. I was terrified of it. It wasn't enjoyable. I. I, I would call myself a performer. I would call myself an entertainer. Mm. I would never call myself an actor. And, uh, it, it was, it was tough trying to hide, be behind this and have to hide a, a big part of me, a really big part of me. Like a, a big and outwardly presenting part of you. Right. A an outwardly presenting part. And I got praised. I got praised because I didn't stutter. Right. Like, oh my gosh. Like that you barely s stuttered at all. Like, oh my gosh, that was ama like, oh wow, you sounded so good when really, I. Was doing everything in order to not stutter. And like that's not acting. Yeah. That's not acting. And that's also not, you talk a lot about authenticity and you talk a lot about no. Being yourself. Was it hard to make friends or did friends treat you just as Marc? I was pretty fortunate to have a pretty tight-knit friend group who mm-hmm. Accepted me. Yeah. And if they didn't, I was pretty quick to be like, okay, like, bye. Yeah. Yeah. Next. I, I had such a great support system and then after college I. I found an even bigger community of people who stutter. And right away, I I, I had this instant, this instant deep connection with people that, from all walks of life, from all walks of life, from all different personalities, all different thoughts, all different, I mean, political thoughts, all different countries, all different states, all different walks of life. Mm-hmm. And it was this instant connection of, oh, oh, I know you already, I know you. And like that was the coolest thing, was to find this. Community of people who just instantly Yeah. Understood. What are the feelings? Is it, is it, is it relief? Is it excitement? What is it? When you, when you in that moment realize that you have found this new space, I want to know what that's like.'cause you've spent your life now hiding out. You've spent a lot of your life being told and praised for not stuttering. Yeah. You know, you've gone through and you've explained this really remarcable way of surviving, if you will. Yeah, yeah. For, for sure. And, and you now are walking into a space of finding this support system in this, global community. I want to know what that's like at, at. First it was really weird. Mm-hmm. To be honest, it was really strange to walk into a, a conference, hotel room or a conference space with seven, 800 other people who openly stuttered. And I guess the feeling behind that was just love, love, I guess would say. Like, it was just this like deep mm-hmm. Deep instant passion of, oh, this is my tribe. Like this is people who like, I don't have to, I. Say anything and they all already know, um mm-hmm. And to have that freedom. Mm-hmm. I think it was the freedom that started there and then allowed me to take that, put it in my back pocket and carry that w with me around the world. Mm-hmm. I think the, the coolest part about the education that I, I get to do is Sure, making videos is great, giving talks. I love being a speaker at events and in the HR corporate world and those things. I love do doing that, but I think the coolest thing is just going to a coffee shop and, and, and I. Ordering the exact coffee that I want and openly s stuttering and like that is education. Yeah. Just by doing, just by being me. Like that is, yeah. The education I get to do. And as soon as I whipped that on its head mm-hmm. It was wonderful. Yeah. I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall in that situation. Like I, I'm such a people observer. So to be in that room when you walk in there and you notice there's seven, 800 other people that ultimately stutter. Yeah, it was wild. I had a similar experience. I had someone that I met, who was deaf, and I was in a sign language class and I remember, he invited me to go to a social. Group kind of coffee, if you will. And everybody there was deaf and signed, and I was one of three people who did not sign as well as they did. I was in class. Sure. And I remember sitting in this coffee shop and watching people and the expressions and the velocity and the yeah. Energy at which these people were communicating and arguing and the hand, it was the most fascinating thing I'd ever been involved. And not a word was spoken, right? Yeah. Not a word was spoken, but I remember looking around and watching my friend and really experiencing his, his energy and his emotion was palpable because it was this space of, okay, we're, we're okay. We're all right. We can be ourselves. And yet I would see him act differently when we were, I. At another event or a friend's party where he was one of the few that did sign and it was deaf. And I remember saying to him lost contact with him a long time ago, which is sad for me. I keep looking for him on Instagram. But I, I said to him at one point, I said, what is that about? Like, why, like I get it logistically if they don't sign, there's a barrier. There is a breakdown, but why does your energy change? And I don't think he had thought about it that way. And he realized that he was walking out of those comfortable, safe spaces and retreating back into a conversation that I don't fit in and that I'm not good enough. And I said, I want you to just walk around. All of your experiences, regardless, regardless of whether you can talk to someone in the room or not, that you are that same person. And it took a while, but I remember watching him change and watching his posture change. And when he would be in a room where he was one of the few that, you know, was signing, he would find people, he learned how to read lips and also got really smart in his business life and brought a translator with him. Mm-hmm. And what I loved about that experience was just listening to you talk about walking into this conference room. If, and I see that that's what you're doing out in the world on your social media platform is you're no different, I'm assuming on those videos than you are when you walk into that room. Correct. Because who Marc is, is not his circumstances. Who Marc is, is not defined by that stutter. Right. You stutter period, but it doesn't period. Yeah. And so here comes the questions. Okay. So, because. I've got questions. Yeah. So for the person who doesn't know this, so are you, when you're speaking, are you thinking about the words coming out of your mouth or are you thinking about the stutter or both? Not anymore. Mm-hmm. Not anymore. That was a big change. I, I was in a incredible speech therapy in intensive program. As soon as I graduated from college at the American Institute for Stuttering I was going off on the, the, the National Tour of Greece and I'm like, great. I have two weeks in York. Let's cure this thing. Let's go. And I was like, I walked in and, uh, this was my first experience with the stuttering community. Day one, my speech therapist, who I'm still now very close friends with, he said, Hey, uh, or do, do you know that you don't have to to change your words? I go, what do you, what do you mean, hey?'cause you can just. Say the words that you, you want to say and stutter on them. It was the biggest life change I've ever heard. Well, that's completely contradictory to what you were told. Yeah. When you were growing up. Everything, everything for the past 20 years of my life was, sure you can stutter, but don't stutter on any words. It was like, oh, oh, that, oh, that makes sense. And then I d didn't anymore. And I think that was the practice of unlearning. I think a lot of the past DDD decade of my life was, the unlearning process was, was. I was going into those uncomfortable situations and, and allow allowing myself to like, play with that and, and, and, and allowing myself to, to, to make those, those those sounds that I was so uncomfortable feeling and saying and having that put out there. And it was just, it was, it, it, well it was an incredible small life change. How liberating though, right? To sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. It was hard though, but I mean, it was so hard. Of course, of course. But, but here's the thing that I find interesting. So that leads into my next question. What's the biggest misconception of people who meet you for the first time and their reaction to your stuttering? I think the biggest misconception is that we're trying to figure out what to say. Yeah. Or that we're unsure. No, we know exactly the things that we want to say. Actually I've got an exercise that we could do if you, you'd be, let's do Yeah, of course. Going through this. So I was a speech consultant for HBO Maxes, the, the Penguin. And, uh, there's a, a character named. Hector played by the incredible Renzi Feliz who had a stutterer on the show. His character stuttered. And I got to, to take him through this deep, deep training of how to be a person who was stutterers and w we did this exercise almost every day. So, so did he not stutter? He didn't stutter before? No. He's not a person who said stutterers. What? Yeah. At all. That was learned. Yeah. That was a learned. Whoa. A learned. We worked on. Uh, so let's do this and then we'll go through that too. So what I would like you to do is just tell me, tell me what you did today from the moment you. Woke up until now. Okay. Uh, woke up. Say, say, so. Say, my name is blah, blah. Okay. And I did this and this, this, and this. Okay. So my name is Eric and I got up and had my coffee and walked the dog and went right to my desk and started working on a project that I have coming up. And then I prepped and planned for this podcast with you today. And Cool. Here we're great job. So fluent. Amazing. So good. Okay. Now I would like you to do, do the same thing. Hi, my name is blah, blah, blah, and I, I woke up, had a coffee, walked the dog, dah, dah, dah, right now I want you to, to take this sound, take a deep breath, and then hold that breath right at. Your throat and go? Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. Yeah. Okay. Nice deep tension. Cool. Now as you are telling me your day, which you just told me, you know exactly what, what happened today. Mm-hmm. Every time I put up my hand like this, he will hold that owls, uh, until I put my hand down. Okay. That's it. Okay. And then keep going. Okay. Okay. Okay. When you're ready. Here we go. Yeah. Hi. My name is Eric and I got up this morning and had had my coffee, and then I took the dog for a while. Uh, what did you, what did you do do? I took the dog for a while. Uh, uh, uh, uh, and then I sat down at my desk and started to get ready for a project that I've got upcoming. And then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then I, uh, prepped for this po uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, cast, and here we are. Mm. Are you sure that's what you did? Yes, I'm sure that's what I did. Yeah. Yeah. So at the beginning, talk me through how that felt at the beginning and then going, going through it. Interestingly enough, in the beginning it, I was paying more attention to when you were like, anticipating when you were gonna put that hand up. So like when that stuttering would start that mm-hmm. That sound, that constant. So that was a, a majority of what I was thinking about. And then as I got through it, I then was,'cause I had to do it right.'cause I'm a perfectionist of, of doing it right. But then it started to just become a little bit more natural actually as we got towards the end. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So as we're talking now, just in regular conversation, I'm gonna be doing the same exact thing. So. It's gonna pop up at any time. Yeah. And you just gotta be ready for it. So, did you want to do it again or, so what's your question? No. Oh, what's your question? Oh, was the, so the question, so you're not thinking about the words to say, you, uh, know whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What you want to say? And so, oh God. That's hard. Your brain just goes right to trying to pick up where you were. But you know what the question, right? Yeah. Yes. So the question is, what can you tell people to do, to respond to you when you actually stutter? Uh, just listen. Just listen, period. Like, that's it. Just don't, don't try to help. Don't try to make a joke. People make people make jokes about it. Yeah. Like what's a joke? What's a joke that they make? Like, gimme an example of what that is. Oh my God, my name. Oh, did you forget your name? The amount of times I hear that still blows my mind. I'm an adult man. Like, like if I did forget my name, there's something deeper happening. Like, why? I, I don't, I don't under, I just don't understand why anyone would ask if someone forgot their name. I. Hmm. I just truly just don't Yeah. Understand that. When, when you're approached with a question like that, or when you're approached with something that is confronting Yeah. Or confusing to you, or mind boggling, mind blowing, I would assume it takes something to formulate a reply so that you're not making them wrong, but that you're actually educating.'cause that's a, that's a teachable moment. Or do you want to just go, are you flipping kidding me right now? I think it, it depends. Depends. It depends if I'm gonna see this person again. Mm-hmm. It, it depends if I am going to work it. Yeah. If I have time. Sure. I, I will usually more likely than not educate the person mm-hmm. By saying. No, I stutter her and lots of, at the times they're so embarrassed, they're so, they're so embarrassed and they'll be like, oh, I'm so sorry, but I didn't know. I'm like, well, now you do, or that are, what'd you say? Sorry, could you repeat that? And they go, oh, did you forget your name? I go, Nope. I, I didn't. That's a new one. I, I can't honestly say that. I would've thought that that would've been a question. I could think of a lot of other questions they may ask, but not, did you forget your name? Yeah. That is a common, common one for people who stutter a lot. So I know that I could talk to you. All day. But I do have a couple other questions that I think is really important to, to talk about in some of your social media. You've covered things that have come up within the world of acting, and you've said it a couple times on this podcast as well. So what was that like knowing that that character on Penguin was gonna have that stutter? Did it give you a sense of maybe we're turning a corner that acting as something this will just become acceptable and commonplace? Or do you still feel that there's a tremendous amount of work to be done in the acceptance of people who stutter being in mainstream? Well, that was a huge change when just the change that the team at HBO would even reach out to me. We never met before. They didn't. If they didn't know me, the only thing they knew was my social media and that I acted as well and the trust mm-hmm. That they had in me to just take the reigns with. So, one of the, the producers and directors, Craig Zobel met with me and I, I got to educate him during our lessons and, and the showrunner, Lauren Franc was really treated stuttering as just a part of the character. Mm-hmm. It really didn't have anything to do with the plot line, and that was so cool. That was the biggest change and. I, I wanted to get involved in this because the, a Pacific breakdown they were looking for character wise didn't exist yet in the world. Mm-hmm. They were looking for, or a Latin man who's 18 or older to play a teenager who's also a person who stutters, who also can play top billing on a high profile HBO Batman series. Yeah. Like that, because of representation not being there, that character didn't exist. Mm-hmm. And so I knew that it was a responsibility to really do it justice, and it was just so. It, it was actually so cool to see his, his changes and how, as a person who doesn't stutter, Enzi would tell me the opposite side of the, the same coin. He, he would say things like, I'm scared people are going to not want to, he hear my character speak if I stutter too much. He was scared that people would mock him all over social media. He was scared that he and we practiced these things. WW we practiced making sure he, he, he stuttered a lot. We, we, we made his, his specific. Cadence as something that he learned mm-hmm. Growing up and how he went into each speaking situation varied differently as a teenager. So having that was just, I, it was one of the best representations. Un unbiasedly it, it was that, and Colin Firth and King speech, and those are, uh, two. Mm-hmm. Right. Do you think this is gonna change things? I hope so. Mm-hmm. I, I, I truly love being part of the, the change. I, I'm seeing a big change in the disability community with representation in theater and tv and. Film, I think it needs a lot of work. Mm-hmm. I think at the ground level right now, things are changing. Mm-hmm. The actor's, authenticity is changing, casting is changing. We just gotta be in those rooms. Yeah. And like having, having this conversation with producers who have the money in business. Yeah. Yeah. So has this always been diagnosed as a disability? Or is that something that changed and why are we calling it a disability? Yeah. So a disability isn't a bad word. And, and I think that's also starting to, to change as well. And I think it's not a bad word, but it sometimes comes with a negative, or a assumption from other people. The, the conversation that other people have about the word disability, right? Yes. It is definitely not a bad thing, but people's conversation about the word disability means something to them. I think it is a D disability just because it is a major difference. That needs protection. It needs protections. The, and it, it needs uh, some people just need. More time. And, and to have that, especially in schools as in the, the workplace, it needs to, to, to be, be there to, to have accommodations with time and grading. And and I think, uh, it's even a debate within the community itself is always, is stuttering a disability? Oh, it doesn't a affect me. Blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Like, it, it, okay. Call, call a spade a spade. And Sure. Uh, it's, it's important just to know that that word did come with a lot of baggage. Mm-hmm. That it doesn't. Have to anymore. Yeah. It really doesn't. And I, I am sitting here, I get a lot of visions. I see things and as you're talking, one of the things that keeps flashing in front of my head is, is your own show is something that I would seriously. Watch. I love that because I have sat here for this last hour and listened to you having a conversation not only with me, but with our listeners. And it's noticeable, but it doesn't change the context of the story. It doesn't change the, the, the reality of who you were as a young Marc, to who you are now as this adult and this actor, and this activist, and this speaker and, and leader and change maker because it's just sitting listening to you. So I, I hope that there is a day where you can do the monologue that you want to do and I think people will respond to it because. I see in what I am experiencing through this podcast and listening to people's stories. Even though we have a lot going on right now in our world and a lot of of conversations and assumptions and, and judgements going around, is that at the end of the day, we're all human beings, right? At the end of the day, I believe we're put on this earth to be of service to others. I believe that we are here to make a difference in people's lives and to share our gift, and everyone has it. Not everyone realizes it, but everybody has it. Mm-hmm. And what I love about you, Marc, and I said this before we jumped on to record, is that. Look, you may have a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, a bad year. We all have those moments. But what I see when you are educating people through your social media and through your platform is an opportunity to be light about something that some people don't understand. It's about bringing that light to something and that lightness, right? To bringing this awareness to people so that they can really see the true, Marc Winski for who he is, not through the stutter. It's just part of who you are. Does that make sense? Yeah. So I really appreciate the work that you're doing and what you're doing out in the world to just be Marc and to just be you. It's remarkable. That's all I can be, and learning that is the biggest thing is I, I, like, I stutter. So sometimes, like, sometimes I'll stutter on a word and sometimes I won't. And those are like, like as, as, yeah. And to, to allow that to be the, the normality in me, friends of mine. Sure. They like, they notice I said stutter her, but also it's, it's my accent, right? It's like Yeah, exactly. It's exactly, it's like no one sure. People say, oh, you've got a southern draw. Like, where are you from? Right. And past that point, that's it, right? Mm-hmm. It doesn't really change who they are, right. What they're saying. And in order for stuttering to, to, to change it has to be seen and heard after generations of hiding and generations of not being seen and entertainment and not being seen, and, it's, I, I, I'm just truly honored to really be a part of this change for everybody involved. Yeah. I say this a lot and I always make a point of saying it comes from the heart and that it's 100% felt, and not meant to be cliche, but the world's a better place with you in it, Marc. And I appreciate that. I'm, I'm really grateful for this time that I could talk to you for, for, or tell me against you for that one. 1 1, 1 1, 1 1. Can I ask you something? Can I ask you something? Please, please. You were talking, the, you said IW was anticipating it, right? Mm-hmm. That, that, that before for anything started, like Yeah. You were like, I anticipated when it was gonna come. Correct. And for a lot of people who stutter, that is real. Like that is the real truth. Sure. Right there. Sure. That there's always this little thing just like ready to attack. Right? Yeah. And as soon as you quiet that and just understand that mm-hmm. It's gonna happen, you are gonna stutter. And just stay mindful and stay in the moment of, of allow it to, to come out. That kind of calm calms that a little bit. It, it was very. Interesting that that was the very first th thing that you told me. Yeah. You said something earlier that I call the Willy Wonka ticket, the golden Ticket in my podcast episode, there's always one that stands out. And it's that you said earlier, and I'm gonna botch re-saying it so you can correct me, but it's that when, when you were told that you didn't have to anticipate that you just say the words and stutter on the words that you stutter on. Yeah. And how freeing that is still freeing. And I, I think that there's a lesson there for a lot of us in this journey to just be ourselves, is that we're gonna fumble a little bit, we're going to trip up on something, we're gonna say the wrong thing. We may do the wrong thing, but to not anticipate that, but just to be you. I always think, that you can always clean up something that you've said, but you can't clean up something that you haven't said. Right. Oh, I love that. Yeah, you can always clean it up. So what's next for Marc? What's next? Uh, I mean, do you, do you, do you know Steven Beberg by chance? Uh, I, I might. Yes. Yeah. Well, if he, hes listening. Let's talk. I, I know he's in town right now filming his new movie. Uh, but I don't know, just keep, I, I, I would love to be on, on a, a TV show. That is something, I mean, I get chills now in real time, but that is something that I never, I never would've talked about or, or shared. I, I never thought that I belonged at the table. I never saw myself having a seat at the table. And, uh, I never saw that because of representation and not being there. And I, I, I, I would love to be on a sitcom, a TV show, a movie, a Broadway show, like these things. I think TV and film right now is going to towards this more authentic storytelling. And as I tell people in, in TV in commercials, when people say, oh, like that person can't stutter, I say, well, I guarantee you there are doctors, lawyers, teachers, doans, librarians, actors. Who also stutter. And in commercials I'd, I'd had a, my gosh, I was taking this commercial voiceover class, and the, the instructor who's a, a casting director, an agent said, Hey, is, is there anything that you can do to mitigate your stutter or stutter lesson? I said, that's exactly why I'm here, is to not do that. And he says, well, that's, that's just how the business is. I go right now. Mm-hmm. Right now. And I said. I guarantee you there are people out there who buy Pampers. There are people out there who go to Starbucks who stutter and drink coffee. So why is not that not being shown? Yeah, yeah. Right, right now I'll make you a deal. You get that Broadway show. I will fly out to New York and sit in the orchestra. I'll be there cheering you on. I am. I'm there for it. I'm here for it. It's gonna happen. We're gonna make it happen. Well, even without that show, come on out anyway. Okay. Absolutely. I absolutely happen. I'm gonna say this. We're gonna put a link to your TikTok and to your other social media accounts so people can follow you. I encourage our listeners to check you out, to spend some time scrolling through your social media feeds and just watching some of the videos. And I think the lesson and the message is so much bigger than the stutter. There's a lot of global shift change, uh, accessibility in your feed, although you're talking about stuttering. If we look at it and apply it in many other directions, I'm encourage people to do that. So we're gonna make sure that they have access to you. I hope you'll come back again and to join us again for another episode. I always love second episodes'cause there's so much more to talk about. So you're always welcome. Welcome to the Just Do You family. I love it. And what I like to do at the end is, is ask you if you could go back to that young elementary school Marc, what would you tell him about his life today? My goodness. He wouldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. I, I, I would tell him all, all of this is for you all, all of all of this content, all, all of this is for you and people like you so they don't have to hurt so that they can be their most authentic selves. Whether that's a stutter any kind of difference. Anything that is not the same as everybody else. You, you can do those things and have this thing not, but, but, and have the thing. And I think that's what I was and, and, uh, and I'd probably say, I don't know. That's all I got. Come on. It was there, it was right there. Come on. I got it. It was right there. Probably about, probably about say, hey, uh, know that that button down that you bought in, in middle school, it was not that cool. It was not as cool as you thought it was. It was not that cool. Maybe don't wear that button down. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't wear that change. If, if there's a single thing to change about you, that would be it. That would be the one thing, yet another lesson to be learned that you would change that button down shirt. Marc, thank you for being here today. Really, you have been delightful and I'm so grateful to you for spending some time with us, and I hope you come back. Yeah, thanks for creating this, this open base of authenticity too. Well, listen, if, if there was a poster child for the Just Do You podcast, you would be the poster child for that podcast, uh, just by going out and just living your life as you have. So, we'll talk. Hey, thanks Eric. You're welcome. We'll talk to you again. All right. Take care. Bye for now. Bye. Alright, everyone, thank you again for joining us on today's episode. I hope our conversation resonated with you like it did me, and I cannot wait to sit down with you all again next week. Remember to subscribe to the Just You Podcast on your favorite platform so you can make sure not to miss a new episode, which drop every Thursday. If you like what you hear, you can easily share the podcast and episode. Directly with your friends and if you would rate us and leave us a review, we'd love to hear from you. You can also follow us on Instagram at just Do you pod as you go out into the world today. Remember to just do you. Alright, talk next week.