She’s never at a loss for words, but Felicia Scott was speechless when she won.

“I hadn’t prepared an acceptance speech so I really can’t remember what I said,” explains the empowerment coach from St. Albans, New York. “I just remember crying because I was so incredibly humbled.”

Scott was selected from more than a thousand speakers to compete in the North America's Next Greatest Speaker contest held in Dallas earlier this month.

First came the elimination round. Under the glare of the spotlights, TV cameras, a panel of judges and a capacity crowd, the top ten speakers had to give a three-minute speech.

“That was really tough,” said Scott. “If you went even one second over, they killed the mic so there was a lot of pressure to make every word count.”

The field was reduced from ten speakers to just three. Felicia found herself pitted against two top-notch professional speakers --Sean Smith from Moorpark, California and Anne Palmer from Washington Township, NJ.

This time they were given six minutes to impress the judges and a crowd of more than three thousand at the 12th Annual eWomenNetwork International Conference.

“Believe it or not, I was so focused on my message, I couldn’t think about anything else. I couldn’t think about winning. I couldn’t think about the judges. I just went out there and left it all on the stage.”

Her speech was called “Commit to the Chisel” and compared a person’s life to a beautiful sculpture that’s always a work in progress, slowly being chiseled away.

“There was some amazing talent out there, but the judges decided that Felicia Scott just had that special something that set her apart,” explains Kym Yancey, the President and Co-Founder of eWomenNetwork and creator of the contest. “There’s really no limit to how far she can go in the speaking world. She could be the next Lisa Nichols or Tony Robbins. She really knows how to use that chisel and she’s creating a masterpiece.”

Felicia received a prize package valued at over $100 thousand dollars that included the DELL XPS 13 Ultra book, Macy’s gift certificate, keynote speaking engagements and a contract with the famed International Speakers Bureau (ISB) and much more. Felicia will also participate in a reality show pilot based on the contest.