Creating a Psychologically Safe Environment

Matthew Dicks is a bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction books. His fiction books are Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend; Something Missing; Unexpectedly Milo; The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs; 21 Truths About Love; and The Other Mother. And he also has non-fiction books which is how I came to really find out about him through his work around storytelling. His book Storyworthy, which is about engaging, teaching, and persuading to change your life through the power of storytelling, and Someday is Today: 22 Simple, Actionable Ways to Propel your Creative Life. So, at his core, Matthew is a storyteller and he’s going to tell great stories in today’s conversation. He uses storytelling to really create and leverage philosophical beliefs and wisdom and ideas to help us live a better life. He’s also a teacher. He’s won awards as a teacher, he has won awards as a storyteller, he is the author of a rock opera called The Clowns and the musicals Caught in the Middle, Sticks and Stones, and Summertime. He’s also a wedding DJ. His content has been featured and published in Reader’s Digest, The Huffington Post, Parent’s Magazine, and more places. He is someone who is multi-faceted, as you’re going to find out in today’s conversation. But once again, he is a storyteller and a storytelling champion. He’s won a record 56 times from The Moth Story Slam Championship. We’re going to talk about competing in this conversation, we’ll talk about parenting and teaching. He teaches fifth grade and it’s interesting to get his perspective on his mindset when he’s teaching, when he’s doing TED Talks, when he’s writing, as he’s podcasting in today’s conversation. You can tell that Matthew, I think, shows up very similarly in all of those spaces because he believes in storytelling as a thing and a tool and a skill that we can use in our daily lives. He’s also the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Speak Up, which is a Hartford-based storytelling organization that produces shows throughout New England. Matthew’s also a Yankee fan, so we’ll talk about sports in today’s conversation. And, once again, I think you’re just going to love Matthew’s approach to life, his desire to continue to make conversations and interactions more intentional, more thoughtful, and with storytelling in mind.

Matthew had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I want to have the story” (6:25).

“Storytelling, for me, is a way of making sense of my life” (6:50).

“The most important audience for any story you tell in your entire life is yourself” (6:55).

“When I tell stories about my life, my life gets better both in the moment and in reflection” (7:10).

“I’m so deeply curious about why I am who I am” (8:00).

“Everything that’s happened in the past is essentially who we are now” (10:05).

“I try to bring in every possible element of life to my classroom that I can” (10:55).

“What you have now does not define your future” (11:45).

“When I’m writing fiction, it’s a little scarier because I don’t know what the end is, and I don’t know if there is an end” (16:20).

“One of the things I love to do is talk to kids about unsung heroes” (19:50).

“I seek to ensure that kids know how much I care about them as quickly as possible” (22:35).

“As a teacher, I give positive feedback relentlessly” (28:35).

“Everyone wants some validation, everyone wants some appreciation, everyone wants to know that some of the stuff I did was good” (29:35).

“Every time you’re going to say something critical to someone, there should be 6 positive things that are accompanying it” (29:50).

“Statistics collapse when fear arrives” (39:25).

“Every single day, the third slide I show my kids is a message that says, ‘mistakes are valuable.’ We celebrate mistakes” (42:00).

“I want to see [my students’] mistakes. I love their mistakes. We’ll learn from them” (43:00).

“Schools should be fun. The number one thing should be that schools are fun” (45:25).

“Choice is a way to entertain kids” (46:15).

“Every single day, every lesson I teach, there has to be a reason why kids are excited to do it. And that is the only reason I have been successful as a teacher” (46:30).

“I make kids love coming to school and it solves all my problems” (46:50).

“In my mind, there is always a competition” (52:00).

“My competition in the classroom, and there is a lot of it, is almost always centered around effort and kindness” (53:55).

“Constantly look to expand rather than contract” (58:10).

“Whenever someone invites me to do something new, I always say yes even if it sounds terrible because it’s an opportunity to expand my life, and if I don’t like it, I’ll just close that door and move on to something else” (58:15).

“I’m shameless” (1:02:55).

Additionally, you can find all of Matthew’s info, including links to purchase all of his books, on his website. You can also go to storyworthymd.com to find courses and other free materials to learn how to become a better storyteller.

Thank you so much to Matthew for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.