On January 25, 2022, Philip J Martin spoke to the membership of the Magnolia Rotary Club (via Zoom) about how to best engage with other people. Pictured above is Philip J. Martin.
 
Philip provided a slide show where he told everyone that he had 35 years experience in writing, acting, directing plays, musicals and TV shows and teaching. He now teaches others how to engage and get the best out of people.
 
Philip told everyone that when he was a director, his job was not to shine but to get everyone else in the play, musical, movies or TV that he was directing to shine. He explained that he was successful at doing this by harnessing the power in other people. In order to harness that power, he had to connect with people in order for them to take his direction and because communication is best if other people are also able to connect with him. To explain how communication can be misunderstood Philip told a story about when he was a security guard at the Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville Tennessee. A man came up to him and said where is the car sale? Philip directed to go to the local hotels for information about a car show that might be happening. However, when Philip told the man this, the man said no I am trying to find the thing that has wooden horses on it and goes around and around while people ride on it. That is when Philip realized that he had heard the words "car sale" instead of the word "carousel" and was then able to direct him to the carousel in the park.
 
Philip then explained a number of ways to improve communications between individuals:
  • Connect with your authentic self.
    • Philip explained this concept by explaining that the words to the opening song in the play Oklahoma are not necessarily the best lyrics but because they are common words that everyone can understand, they sound like they come from the heart and are well loved and understood.
  • Listen.
    • Philip explained that we should listen more so that other people will want to talk. Also be curious about what they are curious about. Philip told a story about a talk show host who had been told about 2 topics that his guest was interested in. One was a recent vacation and the other was a new single the guest had released. However, when the guest answered the first question about his recent vacation, he asked the host a question. However, because the host really did not listen and was thinking about the next question he would ask his guest instead of answering the question, he launched directly into the next question for the guest. This left the guest and the audience feeling that the host did not listen to the guest.
  • Attitude.
    • Philip talked about Steve Martin who had the power to make audiences feel like they were in Steve Martin's living room which made the audience feel special. One of the ways Steve Martin did this was to stop in the middle of a song he was performing to tell the audience that they were the best audience he ever had. Steve Martin would then ask if anyone else had another song that they loved and then asked them additional questions to really connect with his audience. At that point Philip played  a guitar and sang a song called "Look on the Bright Side" and asked everyone to help him by singing the chorus which he showed on the screen.
Philip then showed a slide of "5 Amazing Skills and Strategies" to connect with people:
  • One size does not fit all
  • Patiently persistent
  • Admire and Inspire
  • Collaborative Language
  • Serious fun
Because of time constraints, Philip only talked about "Collaborative Language" and listed 5 examples of it:
  • I don't know. Let's figure it out together.
  • Can you try something else?
  • Can we try something else?
  • That was an amazing choice. How can we build on that?
  • Don't worry. That is why we rehearse.
Philip than spoke about creating an environment of serious fun. Philip used Roger Miller's statement of "I just want to share the fun" when he brings the audience into his show to explain how Steve Martin creates that environment of serious fun.
 
Philip then spoke to a final thought in what he looks for in people he hires which is:
 
"The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than any other under the sun".
 
For more information about Philip J. Martin, go to https://philipjmartin.me.
 
 
 
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