Sparking others

Looking for the spark

May 14, 2025

I love lighting people up. In all areas of my life, what gets me going most is seeing others get excited.

Why?

It’s not just because it’s a nice feeling- sure there’s that too.

Effective

When people are excited they are also at their most effective. If someone is excited about something, they have more energy to give to it. It’s in everyone’s best interest to be excited.

Genius

If genius is the unique gift one brings to the world, then it’s proceeded by this spark of excitement. Genius doesn’t come out when things are dull or when it feels like a chore. Genius is waiting to be invited. We all have genius inside us and so it’s all of our responsibility to access it to help everyone in only the way we can.

Dancing, signing, acting and listening in all directions

When I teach, content comes second to the approach. I believe if I can orient the student to see the work in a way that they enjoy, we can cover whatever the learning is easily. So I use everything in my power to elicit that response. What exactly does an excited student look like? Well maybe excited isnt the best choice of word; some might associate that with being hyper, loud or unsettled. No. What I’m looking for is the focussed spark in the eye of ‘Oh, this matters to me’ or ‘I’m ready to play‘. That’s the magic zone.

Do all you can to get that. Look for the spark.

Being the guy who doesn’t know

May 6, 2025

I was on a tour for an ancient structure today and I didn’t know anything about it. As I went up to buy the ticket I felt the impulse to play cool and nonchalant and purchase the ticket.

Feeling a little allergic to the impulse to try and be cool, I decided instead to just ask what the heck it was I was about to see. I was afraid the person selling me the ticket (who already looked a bit foreign and aloof) would roll their eyes because I’m the annoying tourist.

So what is this ticket actually for?

To my delight, her face changed and she was more than happy to explain it all to me.

Being in a non-English speaking country is forcing me to be the guy who doesn’t know, the guy who will probably look dumb, out of place or do the wrong thing.

And I’m so okay with it. I want to use my time in these countries to condition a comfort in me with being this person.

Resist it when you feel yourself think “Hmm, no I won’t ask that I’ll look dumb”

Ask away and be brave enough to look a bit silly. You’ll be stroger for it and will probably make a nice little human connection.

It has to rhyme

April 18, 2025

I’m thinking about how audiences like things they recognise.

The short films of mine that seem to resonate with people are the ones that are strongly referencing something else or that they can easily categorise in order to appreciate.

It has to rhyme.

The bits that make you chuckle

April 8, 2025

It’s a good sign when there’s a section of something you made that cracks you up.

Or something you’re particularly proud of, the bit you want to watch back over and over. The bit you notice other people respond to as well.

That stuff is special- that’s the spark. Collect them, remember them, build on them.

The Game Frame

March 19, 2025

Kids love games. The mere mention of a game can be enough to get them excited and ready to engage. If there’s a piece of learning I want to deliver in class I’ll often frame it as a game to prime the kids for the type of engagement I’d like from them. It’s the difference between:

“Let’s learn five new words”

and

“Who’s ready for a game?!”

Each can lead to the same lesson content, but one will activate a different type of engagement from the kids.

When in doubt frame it as a game.

The drama teacher jumps in

February 21, 2025

I was teaching an acting workshop with a high school drama class here in Florida. They were an awesome group.

I set the students up with an exercise that required them to be in pairs; everyone paired up but one student was left without a partner.

Before I had time to problem solve- the drama teacher, who was watching from the auditorium, leapt on stage and stood shoulder to shoulder with the student and patiently waited my instruction.

This is such a drama teacher thing to do. It’s what makes these kids first trust her, then open up to become the confident young world changers they are.

I’ve met many drama teachers in my time and this is a common trait. It’s the secret, I reckon.

It’s putting yourself in the arena.

It’s marbles in the jar.

It’s saying “Hey, I’ve got your back and we’re on the same level”

Look for opportunities to jump in I reckon. You’ll rarely regret it. Even if you feel like it ‘failed’ in your jumping in, it didn’t; there is infinite value in falling on your face. For you and for others. Jumping in is generous so it’s always a good idea.

“Yes, and” People

February 8, 2025

You’ve probably heard of that rule for improvising “Yes and…”

Basically, it’s a strategy that helps improvisers build scenes together. Someone says or does something and the other actor will ‘yes and’ them.

Actor 1: This trees are massive!

Actor 2: Yes and there’s someone stuck up the top

Actor 1: Oh my god, that’s my aunt!

Actor 2: The one I dated?

Actor 1: You WHAT!?

And so on. By accepting what your scene parter says and adding to it, you can build a scene easily without friction.

There are people in the world who operate from this frame. I love those people. I call them “Yes and people”.

Being a yes and person, I think, is the most generous way to be. It’s seeing people as they are, it’s listening, really listening. It’s building, not destroying.

It doesn’t mean you just agree with what people say or lose your own sense of opinion. But it is honouring difference in people, catching the ball from where they are throwing it and adding to it with where you are coming from.

You can sense a yes and person pretty easily. You feel comfortable, there aren’t awkward pauses, you feel heard and seen, things feel fresh and completely present.

I’m always delighted to meet them out in the wild. Any time I feel self conscious or nervous in a social situation I lean on yes and. Of course its easier to block off in those tricky situations.

After all, tearing something down is easier than building something. It’s easy to gain false status in a situation by blocking someone with various versions of ‘no’. Negativity is easy to bond over with new people we feel self conscious around. But I know how good it feels to be on the receiving end of a yes and person, so when the going gets tough, I’m more than happy to live into yes and.

Anything is possible when yes and is at the beginning.

Marbles in the jar

January 14, 2025

Someone once told me a great analogy for trust. To begin with, we have a large empty glass jar. That is a LOT of potential! This jar presents itself when we enter into any relationship personal or professional:

Our partner

Our children

Our colleagues

Our employees

Our students

Our friends

In the beginning these are all empty jars. Our job is to fill that jar; with what you ask? Well, trust being something that is earned over time, we need to fill it with trustworthy actions consistently.

In the analogy these actions are represented by marbles in the jar. But you can only put in one marble at a time.

Every interaction is a marble in the jar. Every look, every response to their vulnerability, every acceptance and extension on their ideas, every time they need you, every time they need kindness and understanding. We have an opportunity to put a marble in the jar.

Marbles that say:

I’m here

You can count on me

I won’t shame you

I think the best of you

You put enough marbles in the jar that say these kinds of things and the person has certainty of what to expect from you. That’s trust.

There’s no short cut (thank god); just time and small consistent acts of love.

You can trust me. You can trust me. You can trust me.

When you earn trust in this way, you deserve the most overflowing and beautiful jar of marbles.

That’s exciting because

January 8, 2025

Because is a powerful word.

I was watching Grand Designs and there was an amazingly positive, vibrant lady on there whose house build was being documented. I was struck by how magnetically optimistic she was; against all odds, she seemed to be grooving along and riding the waves of life, loving every minute.

She was ambitious and able to enjoy the process.

I zoomed in closer to see if I could figure out what it was she was doing in order to be the way she was. How does she have such a great time even when things are tricky? Of course we can’t know everything from the outside, but there are certainly clues.

One of these clues was in her language. The host asked how they were funding the project without financing or knowing exactly where the cash would come from. He was probing for drama as is necessary in that part of the show. She automatically said “That’s exciting because we don’t know”.

Did you catch it?

‘Because’ is a causative word. It links two things in a cause and effect seamlessly and helps us believe it and thus changes our perceptions and feelings about a thing.

She did a judo move when she used ‘because’. She linked the not knowing to being exciting using because.

A simple way I’ve been playing with this is to complete the phrase “But that’s great because…” and insert the difficulty or unexpected thing.

This is optimism in action. A simple way to link a positive spin on a tricky moment and so access a more resourceful perception for yourself to open new possibilities going forward. Possibilities that perhaps you wouldn’t have seen had the thing remained an difficulty or a road block.

Because opens the door to new possiblities by gently wedging open what might have been a sealed door.

Big is generous

January 1, 2025

When I was a kid, I thought that the person who was making the most noise in the room was not the person you wanted to be. The person who stands up in class and says “I’ll go first”. Or the kid who actually has an opinion on something.

The problem with that, is it lacked nuance. Being loud is not synonymous with being arrogant. Being decisive or opinionated does not make you narcissistic.

But as I find myself in more rooms of people trying to do their work, I find the loud ones are the most generous.

-Who has an idea?

I do.

-What should we do first?

Let’s do this

-Who can show the new guy around?

Hey new person, my name is Susan!

Be lovingly loud. Openly big. That’s the most generous way of being.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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