Highly Effective Networking: Matt Bronsil Of iMonteSomething On 5 Strategies for Successful Networking, Both Online and Offline

An Interview With Athalia Monae

Take improv and standup comedy classes. It is hard to come up with just a specific example without going into long stories, but improv classes will help you how to listen and respond to situations and a standup class will help you with different ways to structure your talk and material. It doesn’t have to be hilarious, but entertaining and engaging.

In an age dominated by digital communication, the power of articulate and effective verbal communication cannot be understated. Whether it’s delivering a keynote address, leading a team meeting, or engaging in a one-on-one conversation, impactful speaking can open doors, inspire change, and create lasting impressions. But what truly sets apart an effective communicator? What techniques and nuances elevate a speech from mundane to memorable? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Bronsil.

Matt Bronsil has been a Montessori Teacher for over 2 decades. He currently works in Taiwan and is often a speaker at Montessori conferences and workshops, including the Shanghai Montessori Conference, the Montessori Association of Malaysia, and even at the American Montessori Society’s Annual Conference. In addition to this, Matt is a ventriloquist that performs and trains people in improv and standup comedy and has developed his own experience from comedy to develop his perspective on public speaking. He runs a website, iMonteSomething.com, which blogs about Montessori and provides webinars about Montessori.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about communication, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

My career path itself is a Montessori teacher. Publicly speaking about Montessori goes back to a class I took before I came to Taiwan. When I was working in America as an assistant in a classroom, I got very sick and was out of work for a month. It wasn’t anything critical, but it was just one thing after another that kept me out of the classroom: the flu, then bronchitis, then mono. I was so bored I decided to learn ventriloquism. When I came back from that, I introduced my 3–6 year old students to Noodle, my blue furry monster puppet. The children loved it and I began doing parties for them. Before moving to Taiwan, I took a standup comedy class at the local Funny Bone Comedy Club. Before that, I would have never been able to get on a stage with a full audience of people, but that class changed my life entirely.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Both my parents were also Montessori teachers. They both spent their life helping and training Montessori teachers. My mother still does this voluntarily on a regular basis, even after retirement. My parents were so well-known, and I was blessed to have such great parents, but at conferences people would often see my name badge and come up to talk about my parents. There were times if I wanted to just walk across the room, I would have to hide my name badge in my pocket or I would be stopped every ten feet.

My mom was the first recipient of the American Montessori Society’s Douglas M. Gravel award in 2017, so my parents attended the conference for that honor. They started getting asked, “Bronsil? Are you related to Matt Bronsil?”

It is wonderful to be recognized for doing something you are passionate about, but it made me smile more that my parents were able to witness the success as well.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

First off, I stay committed to connecting the basic ideas of Montessori, and I make sure to talk about them when I talk about Montessori. Montessori conferences are often looking for new and innovative ideas for topics, which is not a bad thing. But the speakers must bring these new ideas and talk about them in a way that still reflects what Montessori is. I was at a conference and a presenter was talking about technology in the classroom, which is a hot topic for Montessori teachers with a wide range of ideas. The way the presenter was presenting technology is if we just have things like computers in the elementary classroom, children will learn from it. My first worry: I worry about WHAT they will learn about and how appropriate it is. But I would have approached the talk differently and talked about how the goal of the Montessori Elementary classroom is to spark imagination, create curiosity, then use that curiosity to teach the child how to engage in research on the answers to that question. So, if a child has several questions about the solar system a way to use technology properly might be to find articles about those questions in online science magazines designed for children, print them out, and read through them, but with the ability to write more questions down or highlight stuff. Then use that as part of the data you compile. Maybe some articles do not say the same exact thing. “Well, that is a new twist. Let’s investigate that and find out why.” Maybe I, as a teacher, can contact a university to ask to talk to someone in the astronomy department and have the child email them questions that they can answer. That is another use of technology. But a basic purpose of Montessori elementary education is learning how to research, so learning how to use a computer to properly do research is something that would be more meaningful to a group of Montessori teachers because it sticks to the very basic ideas in their philosophy.

Knowing the audience is important. Since I live in Asia, I have been to many conferences in different countries. I often see the same people present the same talks and it is always the same phrasing, even if their talk was marketed to parents that send their child to a Montessori school or teachers and owners of schools. The content is still good, but school owners don’t want to sit through a 15-minute opening on what Montessori is. Similarly, parents who are just curious about what Montessori is don’t want you to open with a discussion of whether the Muriel Dwyer method is better than the Pink-Blue-Green Series of Montessori reading instruction. Things like this happen if you fail to focus on one key point in business: what needs do the people come to my talk need to fulfill? Many times, you can get information from people at the conference if your talk is later in the event. During breaks, find people interested in your topic. See why they are interested, then bring that perspective into your talk. You might even often make people you talked to feel like a contributor by saying something along the lines of, “I was just talking to someone today at break about x and it gave me the idea of y.” You can have a talk with the same basic content every time, but framing the information so it fits the needs of the audience is important.

I think the most important reason I get invited to do conferences and workshops regularly is because of how entertaining I am. I am not jumping up on that conference stage to do a standup comedy routine to get an hour of laughter. That said, many people just read off their PowerPoint presentation. I want to make sure my content is useful in that it can provide the person with new ideas they can immediately do when they get back into the classroom and it sparks more questions about the topic that they can then ask me. From my own personal end, I want people to say, “That talk was more engaging than all or most of what I saw. If he is ever at a conference again, I want to see him talk.”

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that we are all on the same page. How would you define an “Effective Communicator?” What are the characteristics of an effective communicator?

An effective communicator is somebody who can listen to what people are telling them, internalize that information, and adapt what they are talking about to their audience. Effective communicators are problem solvers that attentively listened to your needs and responded by communicating something that helped with that idea.

Often when people are asked this question, they try to describe how an effective communicator can organize their thoughts or convince people to do something. But communication is not telling people what you want them to hear, it is telling them what helps them in their situation. The only way to do that is to first listen and even ask questions about what their thoughts are.

The more you know about their needs, the better the communication is.

This is a basic premise of improv comedy. Many people watch improv and just think it is people coming up with funny lines or zingers that make the audience laugh. It is much more complicated than that. Improv comedy’s most important skill is listening to each other. What you are seeing in improv shows like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” is not just people coming up with funny lines for a laugh, but people listening to each other, creating this entire situational world out of nothing, and the laughs come when someone says something you would honestly say if you were in this situation. All that starts with listening.

How can one tailor their communication style to different audiences or situations?

Observation and listening. We humble ourselves to not be “the best speaker.” It is important to observe the audience you have and listen to what they say they need. See what you can offer.

One of my worst experiences with standup comedy was when I moved to Taiwan. I had only done standup for a few months and went up on stage in front of an audience that is a mix of Taiwanese and British. My American jokes failed. Horribly. Thankfully, the person running the show had a lot of experience in Taiwan and gave some great advice about how to get the feel for the audience’s experience and how to adjust my material. It all comes down to putting yourself in the audience’s shoes and having enough material to work through whatever the audience needs.

What I learned to do before a performance is move around to different spots and observe. If I don’t know the venue well, I sit in seats when it is empty (or empty enough to do this) and see how the stage looks from different areas. If the area looks so far out of the way I remember that to somehow engage that area. Maybe I’ll be sure to look out to that area first for the questions or make sure if I hear a bunch of people shout out answers to something I ask, I point to that area and say, “I heard someone back there say, ‘water.’ Brilliant answer!” I’ll focus my eyes more to that area when making points and they feel I am getting confirmation from them. I sit as an audience member before anyone else hears my speech and think, “If I were sitting here, how would I feel?” One other thing I do is walk around, point to things, and say what they are not. Like walk up to a chair, point to it, and say, “hot dog stand.” Walk up to the microphone, point at it and say, “beautiful woman.” I know it sounds weird, but it is a great improv exercise. What it does is make you more familiar with your surroundings.

I then do something I do before every single performance. I stand on the stage by the microphone. I look out to the crowd. I think about what that person in the back is feeling and how I can connect with them from where I am. I spend time standing in the spot I am going to talk from and look out to see how it feels for me to be on stage looking out into that and how I feel. If I feel unsure on how to connect with a place while I am on stage, I go and sit in that place. I reflect on what it felt like looking at that section. I go back on stage to see how it feels. I prepare my stage: I move my microphone to the right spot and look around. Then there are questions about the microphone: is my microphone a handless headset? Is it stuck to a podium? Can I move around with the microphone? If I cannot move with the microphone, is the room a size I can project my voice through without the microphone or am I stuck in one place for my whole talk? All these things to think about have a big impact on how you engage the audience.

Many people focus on tailoring their speech or the wording, which is key. I think people also forget you have to customize your talk to the venue you are in as well.

For the audience you are dealing with, it often comes down to just what you devote your time to. I am one of the first to really tie teaching English as a Foreign Language and Montessori Methods together. It is becoming more popular now, but there was originally not a huge push to really bring these ideas together. To become successful, I should not just prepare for an hour-long talk if I have an hour. I should be able to talk for almost an hour about foreign language teaching and almost an hour about how to use Montessori to teach a foreign language.

If I show up at a conference where I think my audience is going to be half Montessori teachers that know nothing about foreign language and half foreign language teachers that know nothing about Montessori, then my talk is easy if that happens. I can take 15 minutes to talk about what Montessori is and get the Montessori people engaged in answering my questions. I can spend 15 minutes talking about foreign language and getting my EFL teachers engaged in answering questions. I can spend 20 minutes running through the scenario in a Montessori classroom and providing examples of how this works. That leaves me 10 minutes to wrap up and do questions. My hour-long talk is done.

If the balance is different, I need to adjust. I always plan for that 50/50 split on this particular talk I am thinking of. So maybe I need to spend 10 minutes talking about Montessori and 40 minutes talking about foreign language teaching. By listening to and observing my audience, I know how to adapt my talk. It all comes down to listening and observing.

Can you provide an example of a time when you had to adapt your communication style to reach a particular audience successfully?

This has nothing to do with a Montessori conference. My first year in Taiwan I got invited to do a comedy show in Taiwan at a bar. Remember, I am a ventriloquist, so I have puppets. I showed up and nobody in the audience spoke English. The show was going horribly. I was new to comedy. I got up and tried to do what I planned, but nobody cared because they did not understand me. It was a language issue.

I decided to take my puppet, which is a brown dog that wears khakis and sunglasses, into the audience to start singing English songs Taiwanese know: the alphabet song, “Happy Birthday,” “Jingle Bells” (even though it wasn’t Christmas). My dog puppet even hugged with someone while singing “Yesterday Once More” by the Carpenters with an old Taiwanese Lady, which (for some reason) Taiwanese really knew at the time. The entire bar just wanted to sing along with my puppet. I had to throw out my entire comedy set I had planned and focus on silly songs everyone knows. The Taiwanese loved it. I was invited to do the first English stand up show at the first Taipei Comedy Club.

This all came down to listening to the audience. No matter what your specialty is, listen to them and listen to what would help them. This is a story of me in a bar meeting the needs of bar patrons listening to comedy in a language they did not understand and not caring about the show. Easy for an experienced guy with a puppet to find what would work for them. People show up to a bar to be entertained and have fun and participate in it. But if you are doing a conference, people showed up for a reason. Listen and find out why they showed up and adjust your performance for that.

How do you handle difficult or sensitive conversations while maintaining open and effective communication?

Honesty and trust. My dad died December 28, 2021. My dad is one of the most important people in my life. And to give you a sample of who he is, I don’t think anyone reading this could beat him at Trivial Pursuit. While my brain is much more “specialized” on a few things, my dad had a much broader knowledge of things. He taught me a lot about Montessori, especially the elementary years, which I do not focus on as much in my teaching. My dad went through stages of dementia. And it was hard living overseas at that time when he died because I wanted to be there to help him so much before then. I was supposed to go to America for Christmas that year but held off because of issues I would face getting back into Taiwan. Taiwan did a great job of keeping the initial wave of COVID off the island. While much of the rest of the world was dying, Taiwan held off the disease.

I did go back for my dad’s funeral, which we held off for a few months. And the rest of that year I had my ups and downs. Things that would normally not impact me hit me hard. A few times my bosses wanted to talk to me about what was happening. I honestly did not know many of the times, but several times I had to be honest and say I just did not feel the same passion for teaching. But what kept me at my job was them saying to me: “This is honestly what I see with you right now. Tell us what is going on.”

Then I say, “This is what I am experiencing and thinking. I might want to jump out of this teaching job eventually. But let’s make sure things are good first.”

That open communication made me fall back in love with my job. And made them want to keep me around.

With any job, the employer is on edge because you want to make sure things are stable for the long term. As someone working, you feel if you spill too much information, you could be fired. What I found was a place where the *focus* is on solving the issue. I needed to trust I was ok to fail at times, but the school needed to trust I was bouncing back. I had to be honest in what I felt at that time. They had to be honest about their expectations. They wanted my trust I could improve. I wanted their trust they would let me work this out. That is a lesson to leaders: if you can approach your employees with an approach of trying to help in difficult situations, you may solve more problems.

In your experience, how does storytelling play a role in impactful speaking? Why do you think stories are effective in communication?

Rather than tell you how storytelling plays a role in impactful speaking, let me show you. Let’s assume I tell you two things.

Assume I say to you, “It is important to stand back and let children figure out the solutions to the problems they are struggling with. Maria Montessori always reminded us that the child wants us to, quote, ‘help me do it myself.’ So do not step in too quickly to fix the students struggles.” That memory might stick with you.

But what if I follow it up with some context? “I had a student one time who was trying to match up the numerals 0–9. He had a line of the numerals that were displayed from 0–9 and a set of each individual numeral 0–9. He had to take the numeral and match it up with the numeral in the already prepared line. He did well, but somebody put the 6 upside down so it looked like a 9. When he discovered this, he came up to me to ask about why there are two 9’s and not this 6.

“’That’s strange,’ I said. ‘Maybe you can go back and figure it out.’ He went back and he tried deciding what to do. He took the 9 away and placed the other 9 there, but it still had this extra 9. Then he put all the numerals away and tried it again, but there was still this extra 9. He eventually put it back on the shelf. The next day when I came in, I made sure the 6 was upside down. He still had an issue with it. He still kept trying. The third day, I saw something different. This child looked at the 6 and the 9, turned one of the 9 cards over, and suddenly had a 6. His eyes lit up and he was so excited to tell me about the discovery he had found. He solved a problem he thought I had no idea how to solve, did it on his own, and did it by continually trying to solve it. By me not stepping in, he owned that knowledge.”

Which one is more impactful to my point: just telling you my idea or adding a story that applies to that story? Stories bring the point you’re trying to show to life and makes it meaningful. That lasts longer and gives context people can evaluate their own situation to see how it applies to them.

What are your “5 Essential Techniques for Becoming an Effective Communicator”?

1 . Take improv and standup comedy classes. It is hard to come up with just a specific example without going into long stories, but improv classes will help you how to listen and respond to situations and a standup class will help you with different ways to structure your talk and material. It doesn’t have to be hilarious, but entertaining and engaging.

2 . Embrace failture. I honestly typed that incorrectly by accident. That was a typo. But you know what? You know I meant “failture.” Embrace mistakes when they happen. You will give a talk that is horrible (not on purpose. Just know it will happen if you do this enough). You won’t do well for a while. You will do better and get better. Work on that improvement every time. And the big, horrible performances you do, learn from them. It will make you better and we all go through those.

3 . If you are giving a talk, sit around the audience, go back on stage and look around as if you’re giving the talk, go back to the audience, and repeat that as many times as necessary in the free time before the talk. This is the best way to improve your comfort level of the area.

4 . Make sure you are prepared to talk about any single aspect of your point for the time given to you and adjust as needed. This is a more “advanced” piece of advice. If you are new, know that won’t happen right away. Know you might not be able to adjust or change your talk to suit the people there because that takes time. But even if you cannot, remember this last piece of advice.

5 . Everyone wants to see you succeed. So even if it is not your best speech ever, people showed up. They want you to succeed and you have their support. Even if you feel like you did a poor job, a good percentage of the people came to your talk and learned something. So be humble and accept when you did not do well, but also know you gave people something. So great job for getting up and sharing your experience.

How do you integrate non-verbal cues into your communication? Can you provide an example of its importance?

This all goes back to the point I made about moving around the venue and seeing how people will “feel” when they are sitting in different areas. I work to look towards those areas. If I have a cordless microphone, moving down into the audience at times helps make them feel more engaged.

How has digital communication changed the way you convey your messages? Are there any specific challenges or advantages you’ve encountered?

I have a different perspective on this than I think most people have. My degree is in website development. Before doing live talks about Montessori, I did many webinars about Montessori. My message has primarily been conveyed through digital communication, so doing in-person talks was a switch for me. Digital communication is easier for me.

But I think for most, it is a new challenge. You don’t have the same type of audience to gauge their reaction and adjust. That is one of the biggest challenges to most.

An advantage to it is we are more used to people speaking without knowing their audience reactions. Dan Rather never watched his audience when he started the CBS Evening News and he is one of the most respected newscasters in history. If you can study people who communicate information in a similar style you need, see how they do it, and how they use both verbal and non-verbal styles, you can eventually find your own voice.

Public speaking is a common fear. What techniques or strategies do you recommend to manage and overcome stage fright?

I have stepped on stage for over two decades. I am still afraid every time because it is uncertain what you will find. If you have stage fight, embrace it; don’t overcome it. The bonus: if you are afraid to get on stage, you are looking for what the audience wants. That means you can change. I think every comedy show I have done where I was not nervous has been terrible. Every talk I gave where I thought, “This will be easy” has been horrible. I know people that have no nerves about getting on stage. Good for them. I fear for my life every time. And I have failed and had low moments. Learn from those. But the times I succeed and am prepared and just figure out what to do are amazing.

My advice: Glad you have the stage fright. The glory of success will be better if you have it. Still doesn’t make it easy.

What additional resources do you recommend for individuals looking to improve communication skills?

A standup comedy class will help you figure out how to write the same material in different ways.

An improv comedy class will help you to figure out your audience and situation well.

Most important: really care about what you’re talking about. Don’t just find a way to get into speaking because you found something to talk about. If you love the topic, try to convey that LOVE to the audience, not just the content.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

A change in education where we focus on the developmental needs of the children, not solely the academic aspects.

How can our readers further follow you online?

3 ways:
Follow “Montessori Cool Things” on Facebook AND

My website: https://www.iMonteSomething.com

Buy my Montessori books. Look up Matt Bronsil on amazon.com

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Thank you. I hope the same for you and all your readers.

About the Interviewer: Athalia Monae is a product creator, published author, entrepreneur, advocate for Feed Our Starving Children, contributing writer for Entrepreneur Media, and founder of Pouches By Alahta.