Masterclass Intensive: What Happens in the Room, Why We Had to Earn It, and Teach the Person, Not the Piece

This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Alrighty, welcome back everybody to another episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. Shea is angry about how loud that music is. I mean, she is just furious. Oh my goodness, it's like… My name is Matthew Dearing, I'm here with Shea Toepel, Brian Sweeney, and Joey Sweeney. And yeah, Shea, you were just like eyeballing Joey.

Yeah, I was like, hey. I could not figure out why it was so loud. I was like, change it to be fair. Oh my gosh, you guys, we're loud right now. I did ask you, I said, do you want me to change your headphone volume? My volume's great. You said, do you have sound? Oh. Did I? You said, do you, does everybody have sound? Too much sound?

There we go. And now, yeah, that's, sorry, it just like, I don't know why, it was just blaring in my ear, in my ear bubbles. No, I mean, ideally, like, you just tell me right before we started, then… Or even during, you're just like, you know… Hey, my headphones are… I mean, it was, it was, it was, it was like, it was a death stare, like your cheeks were red, like you were mad.

All right. It was just very light. Thank you. All right, so we've got a few topics to go through today. We're going to discuss masterclass, the idea of rocks, what that means in your personal life and in business, and then we're going to talk about this little transition that Brian's been going through recently that's been very positive. So, let's begin with the masterclass because we've got our brand new format coming out here very soon.

I believe the application deadline is right around the corner, right? Mm-hmm. About, about a few days away. Sunday? Sunday. March 1st. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Sunday. So, so I'm very excited. I cannot wait to get back into the masterclass classroom. It's so intense. It's, it's, I miss it, but it's a workout for, for me as a teacher. And I know for all the students too, it's just nuts, the amount that we grow and learn and how much we accomplish in such a short period of time.

But, but dude, is it hard? I mean, it's crazy hard. Well, it's like, it's like a straight up marathon for you. It's crazy. Like, cause you're like going an hour and then like teeny tiny five minute break, hour, teeny tiny five minute break. Like, it's, it's incredible actually for me to just watch you keep that stanima, stamina up. Stanima. Stanima. Oh, totally. This, this commercial is brought to you by stanima.

Stanima. The Kroger version of stanima. Yeah. Yeah. For real. And you know, I used to watch Larry Moss do this and I used to be just jaw dropped, amazed by it. And I realized now that all he had done was he earned it. He just spent enough time doing the teaching for long periods of time till he, till he figured out how to have that kind of stamina.

So, well, I want to mention, so I was a part of the, um, when I was a student, before I was a staff member, I was a part of the launch of the masterclass after it was still masterclass, but it was the two days a week, you know, advanced class or whatever. And then we launched it. And I remember talking to another student. I was in the drive through.

I lived in Chandler at the time and I was performing and I was talking to another student and I was like sick to my stomach, nervous, like was so scared to go into masterclass. And it was only because we just, it was new and, and we didn't know what it was going to be. Were you first day or second day? Do you remember? I was second day.

And I remember being, cause you saw what happened on the first day. No, but this, this was even before. So I remember it was before we had started the weekend. So I remember feeling lucky that I wasn't day one because I was going to be able to watch it or whatever. And then I would watch it, but I was less nervous, but I was still like, okay, it's, it's, it's my time now the next day or whatever.

And what's so interesting is like we, when we were doing masterclass, we did this every single month. And what's funny about how our team has changed, right? Is we would do it once a month and it is a ton of work on our team, um, a ton of work for production. It, it is an entire production that we would do every single month, four days straight for, you know, 10, 12 hours a day.

And what would happen is on the Monday after we would all like trickle into work about noon, about one or 2 PM, like, you know, cause we were exhausted, but it got easier. Everybody except for Matt. Right. But it got easier. It was, it, but it was, it was kind of this, um, this unspoken, like, Hey, you know, if you need to sleep on Monday morning sleep, cause we were all so tired.

And, but it's funny because that has changed over time as we've gotten better, as we've gotten stronger, it's. Well, your, your stamina grew, you know? Yeah, for sure. So truthfully, I knew back then we weren't there as a team. We, we had to earn that time. And so we spent a year and a half doing that every month and we failed and failed and failed. I mean, so many times there was something wrong with production.

There was a sound issue. Um, I mean, just all kinds of errors. It was work to get through. It was a grind. Yeah. Every month. And we were so proud and happy afterward every time, but we just weren't strong. We didn't have the muscles built up yet. Right. Yeah. It was, it was being somebody who like came onto the team and was finding a role during masterclass each month, doing something different.

The dynamic that it brings was so hard because like you would, you would go in and you would do these things to prevent the problem from the last month. And then some new problem would come up and then you have to try to prevent that problem, but keep the other problem in the back of your head so that you're not repeating the same mistakes. But it was just like, it's this crazy thing where like you said, it's a marathon and for production, like you're, you're swapping batteries, you're swapping cards, you're doing like mic swaps.

And, and so there's so much room for human error and it's all about the systems and just working through. And, and it was so fun to reflect back now on like all of those growing pains because to think that like I would forget to put a battery into a camera is so funny. Cause we were trying to figure it all out. Because I didn't know how to work a camera yet.

Well, and what's funny to me, Joey, is not that you would, that you could forget because you're still capable of forgetting. Yeah, totally. This time around. What's different about you is that now you realize you're capable of forgetting, which is why you won't back then. What's weird is you didn't know how to use a camera, but you thought you did. So you had too much confidence where it didn't belong.

Now you have not enough confidence in a good way. And so I mean that as a positive thing. Like you're saying, I don't trust myself to be perfect. I don't think I am. Therefore, I'm going to cross check everything that I think I already know. And that's why mistakes don't happen anymore as much. Totally. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. You're assuming you're wrong even when you have the training or you've done it before.

Yeah, you assume you're capable of making a mistake. I wanted to talk a little bit about what Masterclass is too for anybody who doesn't know. So I had the rare privilege of training with a man named Larry Moss, who's one of the greatest acting coaches alive right now. And what he does is a sort of, and I do a version of this, so we take great plays, usually Pulitzer Prize winners, Tony Award winning plays, and we have our students pair up.

They get into scenes with each other and they memorize anywhere, usually up to about a 20 minute scene. So it's a ton of work to put together a 20 minute scene. And then you are required to know everything there is to know about that play from beginning to end. And then not only that, but beyond that. So you need to know the time period. You have to know about the playwright and what other plays have they written and sort of what is the feel of this and what are they trying to get across to the audience.

And it's a whole new way of acting for most people. And I know you all probably have your own experience. I know Shea came from ASU and, and Brian and Joey had very successful careers in high school as actors. And you come into this class and it's just different. And I'm different too. You know, I already know this ahead of time. I should probably apologize more often ahead of time because I'm not me.

I come out of my body and I look at you guys third party and I say, I can't treat you like I like you and that I know you and this and that. It's like, I need to help you go next level and I got to put everything I have into it. And this is not personal. This is freaking love. This is me finding a way to help you get better as who you are as a person and, and as an actor simultaneously.

So I'd love to hear about your guys' experience a little bit, if you've had any kind of transformation or what it was like to you, for you to feel the different kind of acting compared to what you were doing to, to what we do in that class. Um, you know, for me, it was, uh, coming from high school, uh, you just get a lot of praise. You get a lot of like, Hey, you did really good and you're awesome and you're great.

And so for me, it was a huge, just ego check. It was a giant ego check. And so I, I loved so much just continuing to, to grow on stage in my work ethic because that was something that I honestly am a pretty free person. So I don't get super nervous. Like I don't mind holding a mic or standing in front of people. And so, which actually, which actually was what was holding you back.

Exactly. Yeah. So it looks like it's something where I could all stand up and be natural, but no one was pushing me to actually do work behind that because of it. So I would just get handed scripts and these great roles and just be doing them and be doing the literal minimum amount of work that you could possibly do on something and doing good, but never great because no one was pushing me to be great.

Well, and you and I, you and I grinded for a couple months in that class back and forth trying to fight some issues, right? Oh yeah. Big time. Like you had to really push me into it because, because again, there were so many years of ego being built upon that it was hard to hear these things and hard to even believe them because you think you're so great and to hear somebody tear them apart, then you're like, you're like now, like there's a billion people who told me how great I am, you know?

You know, what's interesting is that I just realized that do you really get correlation between that and the battery thing with the camera? Yes, totally. So here's the idea of like you thinking you're, you're good. You have a false confidence in something because it's been built up by yourself and other people. And so you have a false confidence. And then when you, when you walk in and have that be shattered, it's very tough.

It's tough to experience that. It's really hard to deliver that information too, as the person delivering it, it's not easy or fun. Um, but then you have to make a decision. You have to go, okay, I'm hearing truth. I'm seeing truth. I'm experiencing truth. It's painful and I don't know how to get out of it. Do I want to keep going down this path or am I, am I good with the amount of growth I've had thus far and let me bail?

Mm-hmm. And that's, and that's a decision for everybody. Totally. Yeah. One of the biggest things for masterclass for me is it was, uh, it was so much not about the acting. So, um, I saw the masterclass first in July of last year. So it's almost a full year since I first experienced the room. Right. And, uh, and I had just gotten out of high school and you called me in and you, you just gave me the opportunity to be in the room.

And I had no clue. Like, it's so funny because we're family and, uh, and it's a family business and all, but like, if, if, if you're not in classes, you don't know what we do here. Right. You know? So, so. And if you've never been in a masterclass, you've never seen me operate at the level I'm capable of operating either. Yeah. Like you said earlier, you're totally different human being.

Yeah. So I came in and I saw that and immediately I wanted in the class and you put me in and I was like sick. And so I did more work than I've ever done for anything. Like I had flashcards I would go through every morning and this was when I was still an intern. So I didn't have very many responsibilities. So seriously, that was my main focus was I was like, all right, I'm going to be the best actor in this class.

And because of the work, not because of like my skills. Right. And so then I came out and I just got butchered, like couldn't walk, couldn't speak, couldn't do certain things because it was so acty. I was like acting for the audience that was in the room for the people that, uh, that I wanted to see it like you and Brian and everybody. And, and we killed those habits.

But it was so crazy because like the biggest masterclass moment for me was, uh, this last scene I did with Jay and the biggest lesson was the, I beat myself up constantly. I used to do it every day of my life. And, uh, and since that masterclass, like slowly but surely that's, that's become something that I've been able to overcome daily. And, and it's totally transformed who I am as a human being.

Well, I'd love to speak into that briefly here because I wanted to hear from Shea's experience also. But this idea of you beating yourself up, what you were doing was you were beating yourself up in real time and you were so quick to judge you and feel as if you were being judged by everybody else that it, it, um, it stopped you from being able to listen.

So therefore the growth immediately stopped because you, you cut yourself off from anything new because you were like, Oh, you're bad. You're not good. You're this or that, you know? And so you, you cut yourself way down so that it was so much effort to build you up. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And what we're learning is this idea of, Hey, let me listen. It's okay to be wrong.

I'll celebrate being wrong. Now let me move on to the next thing so that I can actually grow and develop. A hundred percent. Yeah. Crazy. Shea, talk to us. I'm, I'm trying to think of dates here. So did we, did masterclass launch July of 17? I think it did. In the, in the old format. When we, when we went to the weekend or the weekend. Yeah. Yeah.

It was, it was July. Correct. Yeah. And I'm thinking. Well, and let me tell you why we hadn't done it before then. There was two reasons. One is I wasn't sure I was capable of the eight, eight hour days and I, you know what? I probably wasn't. That's why I hadn't earned it. So before that it was a couple of years worth of two hours twice and twice a week.

And then, and then we built our way up to that. But the other thing was I didn't believe in my heart that we had students in Arizona who had the discipline and dedication to go through something like this. And again, I think I was right. We sort of built up that community. For sure. And so then, then we, we built up a group of people that had that sort of mastery mindset and said, okay, I'm going to try this thing with you.

And then, and then that first one was just like jaw dropping. And all of a sudden we didn't have to worry about filling the class anymore. Yeah. I remember like my transition from the first masterclass and then into when we took a break, which was September of 2019 was I started off. So I had all these expectations for myself and all these expectations that I had, um, that you put on me that I was putting on you to put on me.

And I was so frustrated whenever I would not do good in my head. I was like, Oh, you suck. You know? And I was having these like horrible self-talks and complete self-sabotage and it totally would ruin my mood. Um, and everybody else's mood around me and it would take me four days to get back to where I was and it was, it just would send me in this spiral when I would do one thing wrong, you know, when I would miss a line or, or whatever.

And, um, because I wasn't listening to your critique and you trying to help me, all I heard was you're not doing good enough. Yeah. So, you know, I'm interested too in, if we go even further back with you, I think it would be great because you, you graduated from ASU and I know a lot of people can relate to this where they graduate from a wonderful, just amazing university like Arizona state.

They come from this, some sort of big acting background and then, and then they get put into my class for the first time. And I remember even before the studio rebuild and you were in my room for the very first time, it was a major shock for you to be coached in this new way because like these guys, I think you were used to being told you were good.

Yeah. It was just, it was just used to, um, always being put on this pedestal of getting the lead parts and, and being on top and being a part of, of every board I could be a part of and blah, blah, blah. And then once I, and I was on top at, at ASU and, um, not even in the acting, but just with grades and, and all that stuff.

And I worked so hard and then I quit my job and decided to do this full time. And it was just a huge smack in the face, um, to, to learn that all the, what I had learned before, not necessarily wasn't correct. Cause you were really big on that. You were like, it doesn't mean that you, you have to throw all your training away, but it was, this is a new way of training.

And this is a new way of thinking about truth within acting. And it was, yeah, it was, it was a total, total shock. And to watch from where I was at the first time that I did masterclass and I, I didn't jump around with plays I was in, I worked maybe two or three within three years. I'll just say the lines just because I wanted to be in the room so badly.

And I didn't want to miss out on that. And there was total foam, FOMO and jealousy because I wasn't able to be in the room and, and witness that. And that's the biggest thing that I want people to take away from masterclasses. Even if you're not performing, being in the room is a privilege. And, and that is, is, is, um, a whole class in itself. Even if you're not up there performing as a working actor, but you're, you're sitting there watching all this happen and getting to listen to the critique and get the direction third party.

Like it's, it's an unbelievable thing, but you don't know until you've been in the room. Right. That's the hardest part. You really don't know until you've been there and you sit in and you go, Oh man, I had no idea. So this, this is a really good segue into the, the thing I wanted to talk about next was what this idea of rocks. And, um, I want to give credit where it's due here.

Uh, I read this book called traction and it's by, uh, Gino Wickman and it's, it's a really good business book and it's about how to get traction in your business. But you know, everything I read, I can apply to acting and I can apply to life. So I, I get really excited about anything that's like helping you develop yourself in some way. And I read this book a long while back and I liked this, this guy's concept of what he called rocks and the rocks were, you're going to have like a major goal, like a big goal.

Uh, you know, just something that is a far reaching, um, something that you want to drive for as a business or as a person or in your acting career. And then in order to get there, he had this idea of setting a quarterly rock and you set three rocks for yourself. And these are like little mini milestones that it would be sort of big goals, but like big little goals.

And, and that, that way it gives you a chance to reach for something that's right in front of you sort of, and, and fight hard for it. And then, and then allow yourself to celebrate really quickly. So I get to have this little win, but I know for a fact, for a fact, if I get this rock done, I will be closer to that big one. I'll be closer to that big, you know, dream thing.

And then, um, the other really important thing about the rocks is to share the idea. So if you have people that you're accountable with, so it's not like, not like if you have this, like this rock for yourself, that it's all you, it's more like, Hey, I'm responsible for this thing getting done in any way, shape or form it takes to get it done. And even if it means I have to ask my wife for help or I have to do this or that, like I'm going to find a way to get my thing done.

And I know that whatever that is, is going to push me further along in my goal and my dreams. Yeah. It's a, it's, it's something that I actually hadn't heard of before, uh, I started working here and we did it about a year ago, but then it was a totally different experience when we decided to do it yesterday. Um, it was amazing. And, and this is the other thing.

I didn't get this from the book, but you know, he, he just called them rocks. Like that was his thing. I was like, let's go out and get physical rock. Oh yeah. Which is so cool. That was my own idea. I figured that that was in the book. That's no, it's not in the book. That was my, that was my deal. But the reason being like, I want to, I want to like see it.

I want to visualize it. I want to have something tangible. And if I'm going to call something a rock, like, let me go get a rock that represents this concept. Well, what I love about that is you didn't let us just get rocks, you know, like you had to explain your rock, the mountain of beauty, not even driving. Like you had to explain why you picked that rock for that thing.

Right. I wish you guys could have seen us yesterday. Like I wish there was a camera above us as we're all, I'm with my dog and we're all like, you know, polishing our rocks on the mountain and like looking at this one and comparing this one. And I'm sitting there going, well, this one's prettier than this one. Like for anybody that ever asks or wonders, you know, what do you guys do during the day at Dearing Studio?

I was like, let me tell you, we hiked for rocks, but the idea behind it is so freaking cool. Um, and it's, it's also really special and my rocks are the prettiest. So that's not true. And our rocks are in a place where they are very visible to everyone, but no one will see them. Yeah. Yeah. That's a little, we'll throw that little gem out there. Oh yeah.

Oh, and then everybody's going to look for it now. It's so great. Can you find the rock? They're very visible, but no one's going to find them. So I would love to talk about you, Brian, really quick. So the last couple of days I've been watching, sorry, I stuttered there. No, we're, we're, we're, this is the Brian transition, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would, I want to talk about this too.

This is the last thing we want to talk about. Okay. We'll fight about talking about it. I also want to, I also want to talk about Brian's transition. We should talk about Brian's transition. There was a transition that Brian had and I think we should talk about it. I think we should also talk about it. What about the, what about the Brian transition thing though? Do you guys mind if I go pee really quick and then come back?

We can talk about you. That's fine. Yeah. If you'd like, but if you, here's the thing, if you go pee, then I would think that you're probably not where we think you are. Right. Yeah. I'm just kidding. Can we, can we, can we actually have you intro your own transition? Yeah. Oh, it was so good. And you bailed. Don't bail. I did bail. I did bail. Dude, that was a beautiful moment.

Follow through Brian. Brian. Yeah. Teaching classes to the students about life, life, life, life, life, life. Okay. All right. That was, that was pretty impressive. Thank you. That's going to have to be a soundbite probably. Yeah. Probably that'll happen. No. So, so, so yeah. So Joey, I'm sorry. You introed this. Were you just going to pass it off to Brian or you have something to say? No, I was just going to lift him up because, uh, because of it, it tied into the masterclass idea and even the rocks so well, uh, we were driving last night to In-N-Out Burger to get our dinner.

Um, and we were on the phone with Shea and we were just talking, recapping classes and how the day went and you had this like crazy quote of knowledge where you said it and I thought about it all night this morning, like, and, and I just want it everywhere. And you were like, I, I, I got into this thing where I, it's about teaching the person, not the piece.

And I was like, that is, that is knowledge right there. And it's so cool because that's, that's what we, that's what we preach. And it's tough for us to define what we do here. That's the truth because there's so much that goes into it. And that was just this beautiful thing. And it was so evident in your teaching this week that you've tapped into that. So that's, that's all I wanted to say.

Thank you. Uh, well, you know, it, it kind of stems off of what we were talking about with masterclass earlier too. So for a while, I've just been teaching whatever the monologue is or whatever the scene is and like seeing what that vision is and trying to get them to bring that to life, which, you know, it's important. But really what we do here is it's a personal development facility.

So we're connecting to what that person needs in that moment and building their confidence and, and their understanding of who they are, because if they can do that and be themselves naturally, then they're going to play the characters that fit that. And then they're going to just have massive success. So going back to even our masterclass stuff that we talked about a second ago, each of us had a huge personal thing that we were going through that we didn't even realize that Matt was able to teach us through that affected our entire lives.

Like ego, are you kidding me for me? Like ego, I had no idea how egotistical I was and how highly I thought of myself. And it was total unearned confidence, like total unearned confidence. And you spoke on like your judgment, Joey, of yourself. And like, and, and, and Shea, like you spoke on, I, I, I forgot. Well, Shea, Shea had a perfectionism thing going on. Perfectionism. And so, yeah, so, so Shea's, Shea's thing was, um, she, she wanted it to be right.

She wanted it to be her idea and, and she, she would beat herself up in a different way if, if she'd be like, oh, I should have thought of that. Right. She would think of herself as this person that she's failed because I'm coming up with an idea that can make her better instead of, instead of thinking the way she thinks now, which is I can always get better.

There's always a way and Matt may be wrong, but let me try what he's got going on. And then, and then we can find the, our way to the other side of that. Yeah. That actually speaks into back to transitioning to you, Brian is back to you, Brian. Back to you, Brian. Um, is, is this thing that we do? And, and I think it's interesting. I'd, I'd love for the listeners to, to feel what we, what we do.

Cause we, we end the class. Right. And it takes me an hour to get home some days and Brian's like, get in the car and I'll call you. So I get in the car. I mean, and we sit there and we bash, not bash. We, we go over all our growth points for the class. And like, like we do that every day and we sit and we talk over the classes and we're like, well, it was good, but this is where I could grow and whatever.

And, um, and that is so, so huge. So instead of us saying, well, when we go over the awesome moments too, with our students and the cool things that happened, but it was awesome for me and you to sit there and be like, this, this is where we could have gotten better. And this is what I learned this night. And this is how it's going to make it better or whatever.

And, and if, and if I may, I want to, I want to say we've earned that because it didn't used to be that way. No, no. After the classes, I would say, Hey, how was class? And, and I would get, Oh, it was great. It was good. And I go, okay, what made it great? And then I'd find out later it wasn't that great. Right. And so it was hard cause I would have to dig in and then I, and we'd have to, and then you at first, just like the acting, you didn't want to hear about the critique.

Yeah. And now look at yourselves, you're just grinding and grinding each time. And what happens is you're, you're, you're, you're rubbing together something that's creating a diamond. You know, you're, you're, you're making yourself sharper. You're taking two pieces of steel and it's like every time you do that, you get better. And you're not saying it was, of course it was good. Of course it's a class at the Dearing acting studio.

Like there's no doubt it's good, but, but is it as good as it could have been? Never. Never. Right. And that's the, that's the point. And that's the exciting thing. And that's why it's exciting to train with us because that's our mentality. So next week the students know, and I want them to expect that they will get a different class and a better class and a better version of Shea Tobel and Brian Sweeney than they got this week because you demand that of yourself.

Yep. Therefore they can demand it of you. And, and I want them to demand that of you. Yeah. You know, that's, that's an exciting concept. And we do too. We completely want that. And I think that's where it comes from. Like, again, going back into the, the big revelation I had recently was, was that applies to, to each student and each class. You and I had a big thing about the kids class on Monday's showcase versus the kids class on Tuesday's showcase.

Like it's a different set of kids is a different deal. Like you teach into who's there in the room and you just keep growing. Yeah. So, so, so, um, after the Monday showcase, Joey comes in and he says to me, best showcase I've ever seen ever. And I'm, you know, of course my ego pops in. I'm like, well, I've taught a showcase before, but I shut that up and I was like, okay, you know, that's great.

Uh, what does that mean? You know, I don't know what that means. I wasn't in the room and I, I meant to watch the tape. I didn't have time yesterday, but then my kids were in yesterday's showcase. So I sat through it and when I was done watching, I couldn't wait for it to be over. Cause I just wanted to talk to Brian about how good it was.

And, and when I, when I watched it, I thought to myself, wow, best showcase I've ever seen or experienced or been a part of, including my own ever. I thought that to myself and I'm like, wow, Joey said the same thing yesterday. So then I even asked Joey, I was like, Hey, was this better or worse than yesterday? And he's like, I liked yesterday's better. And I was like, yes.

But I remember after Joey said best showcase ever to Brian, this was our conversation. I sat him down and I said, Hey, that's really great. Why was it great? And he kind of explained it to me. And, and it was this concept of he, he had found this way to connect to the people in the room. It wasn't about him. It wasn't about putting on a show.

It wasn't even about trying to make our studio look good. It was about helping the people in the room get better. And then I remember telling him, I'm like, whatever you did today, good job, but don't try to repeat it. And he kind of looked at me for a second. I go, Hey, have the lesson plan. Like have, that's great. You should have it, but make sure that you teach tomorrow, the group of people that are in the room tomorrow.

And some things may shift. And if I could just say as a parent that I'm sitting there in the room and my, my kids both had moments where they, they lost their confidence for a second and they just sort of got nervous, you know, and I don't know why anyone would get nervous with me in the room watching them, but, but my kids get nervous for a second.

And I watched the way that Brian found these new little techniques with each of them that was specific to them that lifted them up, gave them confidence immediately and had them sit down with not a loss, but a win, a big win so that the next time they won't need that. And another thing you did, which, which I thought was so amazing was with my daughter specifically, she was having a hard time and she was getting kind of giggly.

So you, you went to the back of the room and you're like, just talk to me back here. So in other words, give me your voice, send your voice out. But the way Brian was doing it, you know, Brian can be awkward. Yep. It was making my daughter laugh. And she's like, I'm sorry, I just can't stop laughing, which again was like another mistake, which was making her feel more nervous.

The old Brian would have been like, oh, she, she can't do it. She's, she's failing. Instead, he took the correct approach, which is the harder approach, but he said, I'm failing. The choice I came up with is a bad choice. It's not working for the student. So then he comes up immediately and he says, Hey, let's do this instead. And he creates this whole scenario where she goes backstage and comes back out.

It doesn't matter what he did. The point is he made an adjustment. He's like, whatever I'm doing is not working. Let me see if the next thing will work. And if that wouldn't have worked, he'd have found the next thing. That's what I believe. And therefore he found a way to reach that student in that moment. And I, as a parent felt very safe that my child was safe to fail in this room, to be lifted up and to be held up as a hero.

And it wasn't about you. It was about them. And that was the difference in the room. And it just was, it was jaw dropping to be a part of it. And I'm like, wow, like this is great. So pumped. Thanks, man. I am, I'm super pumped and I can't thank you enough for, for helping guide me to that place. Cause it's been quite a journey. And as Matt said in the beginning, it's never easy to be that guy who just has to keep pouring into people.

But that's what you've been doing. And you pour into us and pour into the studio and it's clear the outcome that it creates, but it doesn't happen right away. So it doesn't, you know, it's been a long, long journey, but, but so much fun along the way and so rewarding. And, and, and I, I've said, I said this about masterclass. When people experience truth, they experience this, this feeling of growth, they're either going to quit or they're going to go to a certain point and then they're going to quit.

But it takes a certain human being to stick with it and to say, I want this to be my life. My life is going to be constant growth. Not I'm going to grow to a certain point that I get good enough that I can make an X amount of money. Like I don't care about that. What I care about this constant growth and everybody's bought in now.

And that's why we're at a new level. And that's why we turn rocks into diamonds. Boom. Yeah, I'm going to, I want, I know we're, I'm going to end by tying this back to masterclass and Shea because, um. Because I forgot about her. I'm kidding. No, no, I didn't forget about Shea. Oh, you meant you did. I did. Yeah, I remember. Um, no. So, so I remember Shea, one of, one of your things was I would give you a direction and something that would be weird, be different.

And, and you'd be like, yeah, immediately your mind would go, why? Yeah. Why would he ask me to do this? Yeah. A, it's either embarrassing or B, why didn't I think of it? Which that's embarrassing or whatever. And so you would kind of freeze and I'd have to force you into doing something. Right. And then over time, what we built was this amount of trust. Right. And I remember there being, um, this moment when your parents were here and Jake was here and there's all this pressure that the masterclass was loaded.

I mean, I think we were just, every seat was taken and, and it's because Shea was performing, which puts even more pressure on you. You know, the students know you. Right. And, and you get on stage and you're the first word, I stop you. Yep. And that, and that's terrifying as a student to be stopped the first word. It didn't, it didn't phase you this time. This time you, you, you stopped, you listened, you moved forward.

And then I was, I was able to sort of like watch and perform with you as I do, as I was coaching. And then I just give you like little tweaks here and there. And you were physicalizing in a way that was so funny and so free and so exciting. And like, much like Brian teaching yesterday, you were coming up with ideas that were better than anything I could have thought of.

But, but only because you were free to take the direction and move and go, instead of saying why, you were saying why not. Okay. You were saying, yeah, let me try it. It could be wrong, but I'll try it because we've earned the trust in knowing that I'm going to give you an idea. And if it sucks, I'm going to tell you my idea sucked. Let's not do that.

Let's do something else. Yeah, totally. And it, and again, that comes down to trust at the end of the day and making sure that that relationship is there. And that, that is ubiquitous in all of our classes between coaches. She loves that word. I find, I find a way to put it in every single description I write. It's amazing. It's a whole thing. Thank you everyone for listening to the Dearing Acting Studio podcast.

Please apply for masterclass before this Sunday. We will see you this Saturday. Yeah. And subscribe to this podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. What is it? Is it at Dearing Studio? Is that right? At Dearing Studio. Um, and you get, you know, we put up a lot of stuff on YouTube, uh, some free tips and different things. This podcast is on there and, and also we put up, um, uh, online classes on our website and we, and we put up a lot of funny and like interesting posts on, on Instagram.

So go out there, follow us and, uh, and enjoy all the content that we're trying to put out for you. Have a Dearing day, everybody.