In this episode we have Shea Toepel and Joey Sweeney as our hosts. They talk about how being employee's at Dearing on the guardian team is such a blessing. They both have a true passion for acting and talk about their dreams of being an actor and how that has brought them to the studio. The people they are today is all thanks to the personal development coaching and guidance they've gotten from Matt Dearing. Being on this team allows us to make work our passion. Not only are we able to continue growing in our acting craft, but we've been given the opportunity to bless others with that same gift on their journey. Work is our passion at Dearing Acting Studio and the connection between acting and personal development we teach has been something that both Shea and Joey believe in and are proud to be a part of!

Welcome back to the Dearing Acting Studio podcast. It's been a long time and a LOT of innovation has happened. As a studio we've been fighting to innovate through all of the uncertainty. Our team has gone through a ton of trials but we've seen a ton of reward from it. We came out of this uncertainty with a brand new virtual acting program that allows us to teach worldwide. This episode got a little feisty, but I'd like to think that's because we were all so ecstatic to be back on the mics.

Going Virtual

As a studio, before the shutdown we had already been test running a beta online acting program. At the beginning of the coronavirus spike, we had a team meeting to talk about strategy and we made a group decision to be a positive light for everyone and use this situation as a teacher. We spent hours going through cords, setups, tables, wifi connections, anything you can think of! What helped us persevere through all of the adversity was our strong why. No matter what the circumstance, our team was going to find a way to keep pushing forward together. Not only did we successfully make a transition to virtual classes, but we gained new students, and we're continuing both programs together in the future. 

A Class to Remember

This was our first week back in studio for the beginning of June classes. It also came with it's own problems to solve after our decision to continue the virtual acting program alongside in person students. There was so much trial and error, Matt was re-wiring, innovating, and changing each day before class. The payoff was truly amazing because at the end of the week we had multiple very special emails from students who were ecstatic to be back. The energy on thursday night specifically was something our team will never forget. It was electric in the theater, and we believe you could've felt it from the parking lot. 

Welcome back to the Dearing Acting Studio Kids Podcast. We promised our Youth Improv students a personal podcast to help them practice improv from home during quarantine. As the coronavirus has shaken the nation, we've been forced to move our classes online. In 13 years of operation, we've never closed our doors and we refused to give up now. Our Wednesday online Youth Improv class was a huge fail forward. Navigating different programs, and technical difficulties we fought through and had a fun class, but it was far below our expectations. 

What are our expectations?

Our guardian team at Dearing Acting Studio runs on a belief in the 10x rule. We repeat it day in and day out and the concept is simple. You give ten times the value of what the person is paying for or expecting. The key is to do this selflessly seeking nothing in return. We believe that giving is one of the most powerful things you can do in this world, so we seek ways to help every day. Even though the class technically "worked" it wasn't smooth, organized, and seemless yet, and that is what we shoot for. 

What is Yes Because?

Yes because is an improv exercise that helps with building your scene. You might have heard of the famous second city exercise, "yes and" which is what we used to teach. We've transitioned into using because for what it does to the scene. Yes because is a vertical move. What that means is it pushes the scene forward into a new direction, building off of what has already been established. Yes and is a horizontal move. This adds new information to the scene instead of building on what's right in front of you. While they are both great tools, yes because is the foundation for our program.

Teach Me How

Yes because starts with a relationship based statement to your scene partner. For example I might say, "Mom you always make me smile." The second step is agreeing to the information that your scene partner gives you. For example, you would respond by saying, "Yes I always make you smile because..." The third step is giving a logical reason for why the information is true, this is your because statement. For example, "Because we have a strong relationship." From here the exercise continues, with you repeating the latest statement and adding because! 

Welcome back to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast! Today our Guardian team had three loaded topics that we reviewed. Masterclass, Goal Rocks, and Teaching to the Person. Let's dive in and unpack these topics as we head into March.

Masterclass Intensive Scene Study 

Our Masterclass scene study intensive is one of the highest levels of mastery training offered at the Dearing Studio. Within a four day period, students perform various scenes from award winning plays receive critique by master coach and studio director, Matthew Dearing. Each scene performs twice over the course of the 4 days, with a day in between to rehearse and apply critique from day one. Matt chose to model this intensive after training with the highly coveted acting coach, Larry Moss. 

Each one of the Guardians team has performed in the Masterclass. We have all had transformative experiences as we have grown as performers and human beings. Each story is unique in the way that our struggles and demons  to light. Although our stories are varying, the outcome was the same for all of us... LIFE CHANGING. We believe in using acting as a vehicle for personal development and this class is a direct representation of that. 

The "Rock" Idea

We revisit our goal "rocks" as Matt explains how the idea originated from Gino Wickman's book, Traction. Wickman speaks about creating small but big goals that are concrete and attainable to hit quarterly. Of course, Matt being Matt encourages us as a team to take a mini field trip to the "mountain of beauty" as his daughter calls it. :) We all gathered different rocks and assigned them goals. We all connect with having a "physical" elements constantly present and reminding us of the goals we set. 

Teaching the Person

As a team, we typically will de-brief after each class to go over the celebrate the successes, but most importantly, discuss growth points and evaluate where we can grow as high-level coaches. Brian mentioned to us that his transformation happened when he was teaching the student instead of teaching the piece. Every student that walks through our doors is coached from where they are at. This means, their state of mind, their skill level, their work ethic, and of course, their willingness to grow and succeed. 

Thank you for listening to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. Please like, subscribe.....and have a Dearing day! :) 

In this episode of our professional development podcast we discuss the importance of seeking new clients while you are having success. Or in other words how to "Plant While You Harvest". We're excited to have special guest Tony Calvis on the mic with Brian Sweeney, Matthew Dearing, and Joey Sweeney.

Tony Calvis and the Nextiva connection to professional development

Tony Calvis is an extremely successful human being who believes in constant growth. He works with Nextiva, one of the top business communications companies in world. Nextiva's CEO, Tomas Gorny, is a visionary in the tech industry. Nextiva has been using our Professional Development Services for years. Dearing Acting Studio has partnered in Nextiva for Corporate Training, Keynote Speech Writing, Speech Coaching, Team Building and Sales Workshops. Matthew Dearing also reflects back on the early days of Dearing Acting Studio and how we first came to meet Tony. We enjoyed going down memory lane to celebrate our growth.

Other topics include casting in phoenix, video production and mastery mindset

Tony Calvis is the creative content director at Nextiva. He is also an expert in video production and video editing. Tony was brought into the studio to check out our acting classes, theater and online acting courses in order to help us find ways to continue to grow. In this podcast we go through the importance of conflict within the work environment, having a mastery mindset, casting in phoenix, production best practices, and more. We hope you enjoy this episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Professional Development Podcast where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Please Like, Subscribe, Share and have a Dearing Day!

To see the full video of this podcast go you the episode HERE on our Youtube channel.