¶ Intro / Opening
I am here with Scott Feld. Scott is a children's author and coach who has been empowering kids for over 30 years through storytelling games, and confidence building experiences. Welcome, Scott. Thank you.
Good to be here.
Scott.
¶ Empowering Kids Through Inner Superpowers
Yes. What matters to you right now and what's the story behind it?
It's empowering kids. It's building confidence and resilience. It's through my new book Dax to the Max and it's through my courses, the Keys to Unlock Your Inner Superpowers. And it matters because I realized as I studied personal development for many years, that I wish I would've known a lot of what I was learning when I was a kid. I've worked with kids a ton and I saw a lot of the same troubles, challenges, problems, so I thought it is my duty, my mission.
I must create some ways for kids to learn about their own inner powers, and build confidence.
What do you mean by superpowers? It inner powers.
It means that from the inside out you feel like you can go do things. You can't be stopped by fear, doubt and worry. External forces don't control you. You, feel like you have control of your own mind, which allows you to go do things that might be challenging, hard, difficult. So you're a step beyond a superpower. Where others, maybe don't have that if they haven't heard. The types of lessons that I teach inside my course, in my
¶ Play-Based Learning and Real-Life Examples
book.
How do you get kids to realize what their superpowers are?
It's done through play-based. Science backed play-based because of their kids, and it needs to be fun. So I give 'em a power bag full of props and toys and activity sheets, and I have created my course so that, when they do it, they're playing. If they want to, when we talk about the power of imagination, we play with Play-Doh and we create something from our imagination and then we apply it to our life as an example.
So tell me about a moment or a kid that you work with that realized they had a superpower. What was the superpower and how did you help them realize?
For sure. So there was a little girl who would wake up every night around midnight and go into her parents' room. Scared. And she couldn't really say why. And so when I worked with her and she took my course, she found out that she had control. So whatever it was that was scaring her, she could actually stop, take a breath, and choose there not to be scared of. She could make games out of it. She could do a scavenge hunt and see if she could find anything that was scary. Stuff like that.
We also had her put a bunch of stuff she really liked next to her bed, so when the fear came up, she could go and she could draw. She liked to draw or she had her favorite music, things like that. So she took control of the situation and that's how she found out she had a superpower that she could do that.
So the Superpower is about controlling your thoughts, taking something that you feel like you can control and having power over it.
Having power over it. And there's also a power of, if you can't control it, how you react and respond is also your superpower, your
¶ The Story Behind 'Dax to the Max'
choice.
And this is all in the book.
In the book, Dax is having some stinking thinking, which is that negative self-talk. It creates blah blah blobs, which are these imaginary creatures that get in your way. And the long comes, Max, his inner superpower named him to his maximum to show him how to power think so they can create power pods together, which are the only things strong enough to defeat the blah blah blahs. So yes, it's in the book in that way.
It sounds like a video game.
And it should be.
Well, that's great. Thanks for sharing that, Scott. Anything else you want to talk about related to superpowers, how you came to this.
Yeah, Dax of Dax to the Max is my own 9-year-old son. I wrote seven when I started writing this, and so I want to make sure that Dax knows that he has his own inner superpowers. And look, Dax gets afraid of things and he doesn't want to do things. But now we have a place to go. We can say, yeah, but let's talk about how you can get this done so you're not stopped. Right. So you can have the fun you want to have, you can have the achievements that you want.
So Dax, the most important thing is that my own son is getting this.
So the book, in a way, is a legacy to your son. It's parenting advice, if you will, or life advice.
Yeah, it is written for the kids, but so many parents have written it and not only just thanked me for writing it, but it said they got something out of it for themselves. They have their own stink think and they now had a visual of a blah, blah, blah, and their own Max, whatever they wanted to name 'em. So yeah, it's definitely for the parents as well.
¶ Speed Round: What Matters and What Doesn't
That's great. Okay, let's, move on to a quick speed round. As you know, speed round, I'm just going to propose some topics to you and you say matters or not matters and why. And let's start. Okay, ready.
Ready?
Children's literature matters, not matters.
It matters. it's my whole world actually right now because I wrote the book. I'm with other authors and I'm marketing the book, so it matters a lot.
Pizza.
No, it doesn't matter. I'm lactose intolerant,
That's the only reason for pizza, not to matter. Self-confidence.
It matters a lot because I know the power of it, and I know that how hard it is if you don't have it.
Music.
Matters. A lot of what I got in the training with kids is that I've been a kid's party DJ for 25 years.
That's not an easy job.
No, I'm gonna go DJ today 'cause I'm still, trying to pay for the marketing for the book.
Personal development.
It matters because I know the power of it. I know that if you do that work on yourself, just like if you lift weights, you're gonna feel stronger, you're gonna feel better, you're gonna accomplish more.
Golf.
Matters. I was watching the US open a little bit this morning. I think I just love the psychology of it and I just love the game I played since I was a kid. It's a connection to my dad too 'cause he taught me.
It's a hard game.
It's ridiculous. It's so dumb.
I don't, it's torture.
Yeah.
superheroes,
Superheroes as we see 'em out in the movies and stuff, they don't matter. But as I relate 'em to like Max and that inner superpower, if there's a connection, then it matters to me.
Artificial intelligence.
It matters. I like it. I think it's great. I think chat gpt is so much better than Google and it helps me find things and figure things out that would take forever. So I like it.
And last but not least, parenting.
Matters the most. That's what I do. I have a 9-year-old son, Dax and that's my favorite thing to watch him grow up just in awe all the time.
Scott, thanks so much for bringing all this great passion, energy. And before we go, let folks know where they can find you, where they could find your book.
Yeah, IThinkScott@ConfidenceInKids.com is a great place to go and get some free ebook and empowerment book. You can book a webinar call with me and we can talk all about confidence in kids. You can find my book there as well, and on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Great. Thanks for coming on Scott.
Thank you.