Ep. 004 — 10 Steps to Develop Your Keynote

Hosted by Roddy Galbraith

A Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production

Weekly highlights from The Speaker’s Edge — a Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production hosted by Roddy Galbraith. Learn how to communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact — in business, on stage, and in life.

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This Week’s Big Idea

Content is king — but not just “more content.” The job of your keynote (or any talk) is to solve a real problem your audience has.
Confidence alone isn’t enough. Charisma alone isn’t enough. A “cool story” isn’t enough.
If they don’t walk away better equipped than they arrived, you didn’t do your job.

This episode walks you through 10 steps to build a keynote that actually helps people:
– You identify the problem they’re living with
– You build a clear solution
– You deliver it simply, with real stories, in a structure they can follow
– You keep improving it every time you speak

That’s how you become valuable on stage.

Key Takeaways

1. Start with their problem.
   Before you write anything, ask: “What problem do they have that I can help solve?”
   If you can’t answer that in one or two plain sentences, you’re not ready to build a talk.

2. Get clear on your solution.
   You should be able to explain how you can help them in simple language. If they wouldn’t understand it, you’re not clear yet.

3. Less is more.
   Overloading people with everything you know is not serving them. A great 40-minute keynote is usually one big idea with ~3 main points. Not 17.

4. Use a simple structure.
   Beginning → Middle → End.

   • Open (set the destination)

   • Body (3 points / lessons / steps with examples)

   • Close (what this means for them now)
     This gives the audience a “map” so they can follow and remember.

5. Tell us where you learned it.
   Don’t just teach the principle. Tell the story of how you learned it. What went wrong. What finally worked. That makes you relatable and gives people hope.

6. Give credit.
   Share who helped you. Mentors, coaches, voices that shaped you. That shows humility and makes it easier for the audience to believe “this is learnable.”

7. Share your struggles, not just your wins.
   If you only talk about success, people disconnect (“good for you, but my life’s not like that”). When you talk about fear, failure, stuck moments — they see themselves, and they lean in.

8. Take your audience on a journey, don’t just dump tips.
   Set the starting point (“here’s where you are”), the destination (“here’s where we’re going”), the obstacle (“here’s what’s in the way”), and the path. People remember journeys.

9. Make them feel something.
   Information matters. Emotion lands. Laughter, honesty, vulnerability, tension, relief — that’s what makes your talk unforgettable.

10. Your keynote should evolve.
    You don’t “finish” a message. You reps it. You trim it. You test what hits. You tighten stories. You sharpen the close. Every time you deliver it, it should get cleaner and more valuable.

Quote of the Week

“Don’t stand up to speak until you have something to say.
And when you’ve said it — sit down.”

Resources & Practice

1. Build your keynote spine in 10 minutes. Do this now:

• Who am I talking to? (Be specific, not “everyone.”)

• What problem are they living with today?

• What’s the core promise / transformation of my talk? (“By the end of this, you will…”)

• My 3 main points that support that promise:

  1. ---

  2. ---

  3. ---

• One real story I can tell for each point (include the struggle, not just the win).

• My closing call: “Here’s what I want you to do next.”

That’s a working keynote draft. It does not have to be perfect. It has to be useful.

2. Run the “So what?” test.
Take any sentence from your talk and ask, like a slightly grumpy audience member:
“So what? How does this help me?”
If you can’t answer that, cut it.

3. Practice out loud.
Not in your head. Out loud, as if you’re actually delivering.
Clarity doesn’t come from staring at slides. Clarity comes from saying it and hearing yourself say it.

Get the cheat sheet here > MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

Full Transcript (Ep. 004 — 10 Steps to Develop Your Keynote)
Released: March 24, 2025

This transcript was auto-generated. It may contain minor errors.

Hey guys, welcome back to The Speakers Edge podcast — the podcast designed to help you learn from some of the world's very best speakers so that you can master your message and inspire your audience every single time you speak.

My name is Roddy Galbraith and I'm your host for this podcast and I'm delighted that you've chosen to join us today in this episode because in this episode we're talking about what are you going to say

What are you going to say

You've got to have something to say. So what is it. What are you going to say

Now you might want to go back and check out some of the earlier episodes because this is the foundation for later episodes. We're talking about some of the things that we need to get in place that some of the later ideas that we're going to share are going to sit upon. These early foundations.

So the first episode we talked about fear. This is where many people start with speaking and communicating isn't it. You've got to overcome your fear. How you can overcome fear but not stop there. Maybe build confidence and maybe unshakable self confidence.

Then we talked about the importance of who's in the audience and knowing something about them. Finding out something about them. Finding out where they're struggling so that you've got some idea then of how you can help them.

Then in episode 3 we talked about the importance of connecting with your audience and how that is a real foundation for influence to sit upon.

And then in this episode having found out something about our audience and how we can connect with them got our mindset right now we can talk about providing a solution potentially to our audience so that we can really add value to them.

So in this episode we're going to be looking at 10 steps to help you create great content every time you speak.

Now don't forget to download the companion resources. You can go to maxwellleadership dot com slash the speakers edge and download your cheat sheet there.

So. We're talking about content. We're talking about content is king.

And the bottom line is you have to have something to say.

Don't stand up to speak until you have something to say. That's good advice isn't it. Don't stand up to speak until you have something to say. And then when you've said it sit down. Don't keep talking. Don't keep going. Sit down when you're finished.

So this is important. This is why we're talking about adding value to the audience. This is why it's not just about having confidence. It's not just about the confidence to stand up and speak.

I think so many people get mixed up with this at the beginning because maybe they see themselves as the complete opposite of a natural speaker. They don't have the confidence to stand up and speak. And so it seems like that's the most important thing in the world. In fact it seems like that's the only thing.

But when you think about it that's just the beginning of the journey isn't it. It's not enough to just be confident. We all know people who are confident can stand up and can speak endlessly. They love the sound of their own voice but at the end of the day they've got nothing to say. So obviously that's not going to help.

It's possible for some people. In fact John talks about this in his book The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication. He said the world is divided into two halves of people really. People with a really good message but no confidence at all to deliver it. And then the other half people who have great confidence. All the confidence in the world. But nothing to say.

This podcast is really designed to help you try and develop in both of those areas so that you've got a great message and the confidence to deliver it. And that starts of course with great content.

Now John says that every message is really a puzzle for the audience that they're trying to piece together. And he uses the example of a jigsaw. You imagine you've bought a 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle and all the puzzle pieces are laid out on the table and then you've got to try and complete the puzzle.

Imagine if there was no picture on the box top before you started that journey. It would be a nightmare wouldn't it. You'd have no idea where you were going. It would be very very difficult to make any progress whatsoever.

Well he says putting together a talk is a lot like that. If you can show them the box top. If you can say this is where we're going guys. This is where we're heading. This is the journey that I'm taking you on. Then it makes it a lot easier for them to follow along.

So when we're talking about the message we're talking about potentially the title of your talk so that people have an idea of what it is you're going to cover. The positioning of your talk. Of your area of expertise. Your program. You in the eyes of the audience. And we're talking about the hook that is going to grab their attention so that they know I'm in the right place. This talk is for me.

So great content has to start with understanding your audience. It has to start there. There's no other way of doing it really is there. If you don't understand who you're speaking to then how are you going to be able to help them.

So great content starts with your audience. And then you can research what information you're going to include in your message.

And your message is going to be an intersection really of your areas of expertise and the needs of your audience where they overlap. That's going to be a great place for you to focus your message.

And your content is only going to be as good as your expertise. It's only going to be as good as your research isn't it.

Now we'll come back to researching. That's one of my favorite parts of the process actually. Spending time if you've got the luxury of time just kind of browsing the internet finding different articles finding different information casting the net wide for information that you may want to include in your message. We'll come back to that at a later stage.

For now just think of your message as being your areas of expertise overlapping with the problems that you've identified for this particular audience.

And the question you're trying to answer of course is how are you going to help them.

How are you going to help them. What problem is it that they have that you're going to be solving for them. That's the question we're answering isn't it.

So step one in this process is getting clarity on that. What is the problem that we're solving for the audience.

Content that solves problems is always going to be in demand. It's always going to be in demand.

So. Understanding the audience. Understanding what their problem is. The answer to that. Your solution to that. Is what you're going to say. The solution to the problem that they have. That's the match. That's the match.

Now the reason this is so important and the reason I'm spending so much time on this is because there's a real tendency for you to think. Well I've got a good story I want to share that. I've got a good teaching piece I want to share that. I'm going to tell them about this I'm very confident and I do a good job of sharing this particular whatever it is.

They're not interested in that. Spoiler alert. They're not interested in listening to you just talk about yourself unless you're a celebrity.

If you're Beyonce or Eminem or Taylor Swift. If you're famous. People are going to listen to you talk about anything. Even the most mundane details about your life because there's a fascination with celebrities. Not with people like us.

So the only reason that they're going to listen to us is not because we're confident. Not because we've got a story that we like sharing. It's because we can help them in some way. They have to see that we can help them.

John says you've got to get to the point before the audience starts asking what's the point.

So they've got to see that there's something in it for them. There's something in it for them. When you start talking they've got two questions. Who are you and how long are you going to be. What's in it for me and why should I listen to you.

In fact there's a great test here that you may have heard of called the so what test. When you speak the so what test is after everything you say you ask yourself so what. How does this help them.

Imagine the audience is sitting there with their arms crossed every time you say something and they're saying so what how does that help me.

It's brutal but it really helps you. Keeps you honest doesn't it. You start asking is this for me or is this for them. Am I sharing this because I look good in this story because I'm showing off that I know this information. Or am I genuinely trying to help them.

If you just think about the problems that they've got. The business problems that you're solving for them. And your content your message is a solution to the problem that they have. Bingo. Then it keeps you on point. Keeps it simple.

So then it moves us on to step two.

We've got to get that clarity around our solution.

We need the clarity because otherwise we're going to bore them. We're going to use way too many words. You have to really understand something if you're going to explain it simply.

In your solution you really need to understand. So get clarity around your solution probably by explaining it teaching it sharing it many different times thinking about it a great deal because you're passionate about it. This is your area of expertise in all likelihood isn't it.

You don't really understand something until you can explain it to somebody else so that they understand it. If you can do that if you can explain it so they understand it you probably know it quite well.

How do you get to that point. Practice explaining it to other people. And gradually you'll get better at explaining it so that they understand it. And you'll get clearer on it yourself in that process.

Jim Rohn said the more you struggle to explain these ideas that you want to teach the more you struggle to explain them to people the better you understand them yourself. And the better you understand them yourself the better you get at explaining them. The more crisply and cleanly you can explain them to other people the more you can simplify them the more efficient you become.

So getting that clarity is very very important. You have to understand something very well in order to explain it simply. And it takes time. It takes time.

So the longer you teach things the more you explain them to people the better you get at them and the more concise your teaching will be the more effective your teaching will be. But it does take time. It's important to realize that. It does take time.

Blaise Pascal apparently said sorry this letter is so long I didn't have time to write a short one.

This is a great example. Anyone can just type out a long message. But to edit it down so it's tight so it's respectful of the audience's time. That takes effort.

Your audience will reward you with attention if you do that work. If you don't spend the time to do that then they're probably going to drift off and start thinking about something else. There's just too many words for the payoff they're getting.

If you've ever written a report for your boss and they're like can you just do me an executive summary on the front so I can show it to my boss I can't give her all this. Then it's exactly that process isn't it.

You're going through and you're trying to find everything that needs to go into the executive summary. And that means leaving out stuff from your baby that you spent all this time creating. And then when you do that you get it down to one page or two pages. Then you realize why you had all the other stuff in there in the first place. But it takes a while to get there intellectually. You need to work through that process of refining it down to just the information that is needed.

For 20 years plus I've been working with people on their stories. And initially when people put together their stories they're easily 10 15 minutes long. But by the time we've worked on them and focused on them and worked out what does the audience need from this then they get down to two minutes three minutes. Seldom do they need to be longer than two or three minutes if you put in the work to get them down to their most efficient.

So here's three questions that you can ask yourself that really help you focus in on what does the audience need to know for a story or for a presentation.

The first thing is what is the point you're trying to make. Your communication is purposeful. You're trying to convey some point or benefit to the audience. Nine times out of 10 that's the case isn't it. So what is that point. What's the point you're trying to make.

Then if it's a story ask yourself how does the story make the point. If the story doesn't make the point do you need the story. Normally the story is an example in story form of the point you're trying to make. So how does the story make the point.

When you focus in on how the story makes the point you can see that a lot of the story that you've included is not necessary to make the point. It's just things that happened.

And then the third question how is this relevant to the audience.

So number one what's the point you're trying to make. Number two how does the story make the point. And then number three how is this relevant to the audience.

Then you can take a 15 minute story and get it down to a minute two minutes 90 seconds because you cut out everything that the audience doesn't need to know.

One of my golden rules with working with people is just because it happened doesn't mean you need to tell them. Doesn't mean the audience needs to hear it.

I know it's hard because it's your baby. You're like no they need all this they need all this.

No they don't. They don't need it and they don't want it. They want you to work hard to whittle it down to just the bits that they do actually need.

Les Brown often says don't let what you want to say get in the way of what the audience needs to hear.

So it's not about what you want to say. It's about what the audience needs to hear because that's what's going to help them. That's what's going to help you get the point across that you want to get across. So it's about them not you.

John Maxwell says something similar slightly different. He says stop answering questions no one's asking.

Stop answering questions no one's asking. You may have a great answer. But if no one's asking that question it's not relevant here. Save it for another day when someone is asking that question.

Now you may think well who would do that. Me. I've done that.

I can remember we were doing a high ticket event about 2007 so years and years ago now. And people had come in for five days for this event. We were on day two I think it was. We were doing some Q and A and so we were in a breakout room with some of the elite people in that group. There were three of us on bar stools and we were taking questions from people in the audience.

There were problems with the sound and so I was in and out liaising with the sound guys and then it was done. I came in just as one of my colleagues was finishing off answering a question and as I walked in they gave me a mic. I sat down on the bar stool and I said well I didn't hear the question but let me just add to what they were saying. And I gave what I considered to be a great answer.

And then afterwards when we got the feedback back somebody said I cannot believe that Roddy actually started out by saying I didn't hear the question but let me just say this and then he gave his answer. What a total waste of time.

I have never forgotten that. That was very painful for me. Because it's true isn't it.

I wanted to sit up on the bar stool and I wanted to give a great answer right at the beginning. But it wasn't relevant to the question that was being asked. They had the opportunity to ask us questions and get answers to the questions that they were asking. Not answers to questions that we wish they had asked because we had good answers.

It's not about us and our answers. It's about the audience isn't it. So we want to answer questions that they have not questions that we wish that they had.

All right. Number three. Less is more.

This is important because it's not about you saying it. You can say a load of things. You can race through a load of information. But it's not about what you say. That's not communication is it. It's what is heard. What they get. What lands with them.

So for them to get it you need to say less stuff. Because otherwise it's overwhelming and it doesn't work. It doesn't land.

The easiest thing when you first start out as a communicator is to memorize information and then repeat it to the audience. Recite it to the audience. It's the easiest thing to do. But it doesn't work.

Information on its own even though we all probably know you're listening to this podcast because you enjoy information you want to get information. Information on its own is boring. We need to work harder than that to bring it to life.

We can't just tell them everything we know. Two hundred words a minute hours on end. I'm overdelivering I'm giving them great value.

No. You're killing them. You kill them in the first five minutes. After that they're just out.

So it's more than just the information. It is about the information but we need to do a better job with the delivery. We need to do a better job with the packaging.

So it's the information but we need to make it interesting and we need to make it impactful.

They're not going to remember everything but they should remember something. They should remember something. So what is it. Those are the bits that we need to make stand out. The key bits of information.

You can't just tell them everything you know.

People make this mistake all the time when writing a book. They want to overdeliver for their first book. So they put everything they've learned over the last 20 30 40 50 years however long it is and put it in a 20 dollar book thinking they're overdelivering.

No one's going to read it. And it's not going to help them even if they did.

We want to be much more selective than that. Less is more.

And very often when I speak to them when they want to turn their book into a keynote they want to put everything in their 300 page book into a 40 minute keynote. It doesn't work.

Less is more.

A keynote is going to be a 40 minute keynote. It's going to be three big ideas and that's it. Brought to life with your examples. That's how you help people. Less is more.

So. The structure number four that you can use to really keep it simple.

One big idea is a great idea for a keynote or for a message of any kind. One big idea. And then roughly one main point every 10 minutes as a part of that.

So 40 minutes you've got an open and a close and three points. Ten or twelve minutes each. Thirty to thirty five minutes in the body. Open and close. There's your 40 minutes. Three points.

John would typically include one big idea or one big point every 15 or 20 minutes. So he'd only really cover three big points per hour.

So it's not about telling them everything that you know.

Now to chop your message up the age old three part structure is a great way to do that. There's a beginning there's a middle and there's an end. Your open your body and your close.

And for the stories that you may include. Your examples that you may include in that message. There's a beginning a middle and an end.

So going back to if you're an author and you've got a book and you want a keynote you're trying to work on a signature story. Maybe there's 12 chapters in your book. Maybe just one chapter is the content for your keynote.

If it's your signature story and it spans your life it can be more of the chapters but just a little piece here and a little piece there. You're not giving them the whole thing. You can't in 40 minutes. Otherwise it just becomes a mass of words that they can't retain. It doesn't work. You can't give them everything.

Now you may not have your own book or you may be an aspiring author where your book is just coming together. Maybe you don't have your own content yet but you still want to stand up and speak to other people because you feel a passion for speaking.

Why not check out the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team.

Because as a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team member you have access to a great deal of John's content. So John is giving you the content that you can use in your presentations. In fact we give you the presentations. The PowerPoints. We give you an enormous amount of information to make it really easy for you to go out and speak and train and coach.

All you need to do is go to maxwellleadership dot com slash speak. Book a call. Fill out the form. Jump on a call with a program advisor. They'll tell you about the program and you may find that it's exactly what you've been looking for a great step forward.

All right. Let's look at step five then.

Where did you learn this.

Where did you learn this. This is a great question to ask yourself before you share anything before you teach anything. Where did you learn this. Where did you get this from. Where did you pick this up from.

Because that story of how you learned that could really help your audience. Typically people can really relate to your story. Particularly your struggles. The challenges that you've had. The failures that you've overcome in learning this. The obstacles that you found a way around.

That story makes you very relatable to your audience because that's probably where they're stuck. And then also the information that you're sharing is very helpful. The way that you tackled the problem is very helpful to them.

So it's relatable and helpful. It makes it interesting. Makes it relatable. And makes it helpful. And it can be very inspiring. It can be very hopeful. If they relate to you and they think that you're just like them and it worked for you maybe it'll work for them too.

So it's a great way to help your audience. Just asking this simple question. Where did I learn this. How did I learn this. How did I pick this up. Where did I get this from. It's a great question to ask.

All right. Number six then. This is another great question along similar lines to number five.

Who has helped you on your journey.

Who has helped you.

No one does it all themselves. No one is born with all the answers. So somewhere along the line other human beings have helped you. Whether you'd like to admit it or not that's the case for all of us.

And even if they hadn't it's very easy for people to listen to you when you share what you've learned from other people. We don't like people who are heroes and they have all the answers. We can't relate to that because our life's not like that.

Think about it. If you're stuck somewhere in your life and someone helps you overcome the challenges or whatever it is that's keeping you stuck. They provide you with a plan or a solution. They provide you with some information. And somehow they help you get unstuck.

If we can relate to you and that worked for you if we think that you're just like us and it worked for you maybe it will work for us too.

And it's very easy to think well that person gave them the answer. If I only had that answer I bet it would work for me too.

It's really powerful. It's really easy for the audience to listen to that and think yes I would really like that.

The opposite of this really is if you're a genius and you've got all of the answers and you're telling us what you just kind of somehow felt would be the right way forward and it worked out spectacularly well. You can't help me. Because my life's not like that. I've got real problems. I do stupid things because I'm selfish and I'm lazy and I'm greedy and things don't just work out for me. I have to really work at it and I have to really struggle for that to come together.

So being a genius with all the answers. One of those people that life just comes easily. Pretending to be perfect. It doesn't work. At best your audience is going to look up at you and think wow you're made of different stuff to the rest of us. But they're not going to think that you can help them because they're not like that.

Growth is really the answer. We want to understand how you outgrew your problems. What was it that made the difference so that you could outgrow your problems. Because maybe we could follow the same plan the same path and maybe it would work for us.

So number seven. Share your struggles.

Share your struggles because it really helps your audience and it makes it so much more interesting.

If you just teach information it very quickly becomes dull. But if you share your journey. Share the mistakes. Share where you're stuck. Share your failures. We can really relate to that. We can really relate to that.

Imagine this. If there's no challenge if there's no conflict if there's no drama it doesn't make a very good story does it.

If you say to somebody will you marry me and she says yes and that's the end. There's nothing really to wonder about. There's no suspense. There's no drama.

But if you say will you marry me and she says no I prefer your brother. Now that's the beginning of a story. You know if they're going to end up together there's a journey there. There are stakes. We don't know which way it's going to go. And we want to know. We need to know.

Your audience has a need to know what happens next. They really do.

And the need to know what happens next keeps their attention alive. It's a great technique to use.

Too many people I see it all the time every day people squander that opportunity to capture the need to know what happens next in their audience.

Very often people will start out with a question. How many of you have ever had the experience where ABC happens. Has that ever happened to you. Yeah that happened to me. What happened was A B and C happened.

We know. You told us right at the beginning.

So you don't want to squander that. Keep the mystery alive. Keep the intrigue alive. Don't telegraph what's going to happen in the story. Let it happen. Let it unfold. Let it unfold. Don't tell us what happens until it happens in the story. You can relive it then and we can relive it with you.

It's a great way to hold our attention. It's a great way for us to feel like we're really earning the aha moments or the information or the points that you're sharing with us. So don't just tell us. Let us discover it for ourselves.

And this leads us to number eight.

Take them on a journey.

Take the audience on a journey. Don't just tell them the answer. Don't just tell them the destination. Take them on that journey to arrive at that point of understanding.

Now for a journey to happen if you think about it going back a little bit to the picture on the box of the jigsaw puzzle at the beginning. What do we need for a journey.

We need to know where we're going. If you put the destination in your phone in the car you need to tell it where you want to go. So the destination is important.

It needs to know where you are now as well doesn't it. Then it can tell you roughly how long it's going to take and what route you're going to go on. And it's your guide for that journey.

Well your audience may be asking the same questions about you. How long is it going to take. Where are we going. Where are we starting from. How are we going to get there. Are you my guide through this process.

So that three part structure beginning middle and end is a great way to put that journey together so that your speech can take them on that journey.

Set it up as quickly as possible. The beginning. Then the body the middle. This is where there's the story something happens the drama or the conflict. You need something to happen if you're going to hold their attention. So that's in the middle bit. And then it's resolved in the end where there's some kind of learning.

It's the same for your presentation or each story or example within your presentation each teaching piece. Think of it with a beginning a middle and an end. Then you can take them on that journey which is so helpful for them retaining the information.

All right. We're nearly there.

Number nine. Information. We all love information. That's why we're here. But emotion is even more important.

So number nine. Make them feel something.

You're sharing information but you also want to evoke emotions. So it's about the information but emotion is even more powerful. Make them feel something.

People will pay for education but they'll pay a lot more for entertainment. They'll pay a lot more to enjoy themselves. It's funny isn't it. People will pay more for entertainment than education. It's true.

So if you can make it enjoyable. If they can have fun while they're learning. Then your value as a speaker and a communicator is going to go up significantly.

In 2013 I went to Guatemala with John Maxwell Mark Chris the whole team. About 150 Maxwell Leadership Certified Team coaches. And we transformed the country. While we were there we spoke to about 15000 people. Trained them how to do the transformation tables. They went on to do more themselves.

Now I think it's about 17 percent of the population of Guatemala that has been through those round tables teaching values. Incredible. In less than 12 years 17 percent of the country has been through that process.

I also went to Paraguay with John in 2016 Costa Rica in 2018 Dominican Republic in 21 and 22 Panama in 23 and 24. There's another big one coming up this year which I'm really looking forward to which I better not say too much about but that's going to be epic as well.

And the reason John is asked into these countries to transform the nation and the presidents of those countries are happy to put John in that position of influence is because John is a great person to learn from.

Not only does he have this incredible infrastructure with all of these coaches. Nearly 60000 coaches around the world. So he has an army to engage in that transformation. But they can put him in front of the nation on national TV because John is very enjoyable to learn from.

He's got great stuff. But you have great fun. You have a great experience while you're learning. And that makes him stand alone really in this industry doesn't it.

Who else gets invited into. I think it's 28 presidential invites so far. 28 countries asked John to bring the team in for country transformation. There's only about 192 countries recognized by the United Nations. So that's like a sixth or a seventh of them that have reached out to John and the team to say please come and bring country transformation to our country.

It's extraordinary really when you think about it isn't it.

And a big part of that is because John is so enjoyable. He's got great content but there are a lot of people with great content. John is very enjoyable to learn from. And that makes him higher value.

So finally then number 10.

Allow your message to evolve.

You don't need to get it right first time. Let it evolve.

Every communication is a package. It's not just the words. Every communication is a package of the words the way you use your voice your body language your facial expressions.

We need that connection layer that we talked about. We need to appear credible to be seen as an expert or an authority. The message needs to be relevant. We need to understand the audience.

There are all of these different pieces that go together in putting together a very persuasive message. So it's a package and we need to work on all of the package.

You need to allow your message to evolve.

And the best way to do that is try and get to the first draft of your message as quickly as you can and then start practicing it like you're going to actually deliver it.

So practice out loud like it's the real thing. It's a great way to think about it. Then all of these different pieces you can begin to get better at all together. And it will just keep getting layer upon layer better and better and better.

The best way to get clear on what you're trying to say is try and say it. Try and say it. You don't need to be a hero. You don't need to get it right first time. Keep speaking. Keep teaching. Keep training. Keep explaining. Keep growing. And then you'll keep getting better and better and better. And if you're growing it's just a matter of time.

All right. So that's it then for episode 4.

Let's just do a quick recap because I know it's a lot. Let's do a quick recap of what we've covered.

Content is king. You've got to have something to say.

10 steps.

In the first step we talked about what's the problem that you're solving for your audience. Getting real clear on the problem that you're solving.

Then step two getting clarity around your solution.

Then step three realize that less is more. Less is over delivering. Not more is over delivering.

Then number four think of the structure as one big idea and then one point every 10 minutes if it's a longer message. And think about that three part structure for pretty much every message. A beginning a middle and an end. Beginning a middle and an end.

Step five think about where did you learn this. Ask yourself that question. Where did I learn this. How did I learn this before you teach anything. That's probably a story or a journey that you're going to want to include.

Same thing ask who's helped you. That's probably information that you're going to want to include.

Share your struggles not just your wins. Share your struggles because that's what they can really relate to and what's really helpful to them.

Step number eight take them on a journey of discovery. Don't just tell them what you want them to know.

Step number nine make them feel something. Invoke emotions wherever possible.

And number 10 allow time for your message to evolve. The more you share it the more you work on it layer upon layer the better and better it will get and the more people you can help.

I think working on your communication skills is the most important skill you can develop.

Connecting with your audience being credible with your audience and then sharing a relevant message is a great way to influence your audience.

If you follow these 10 steps it's going to make a big difference as you get better and better and better at putting together a message that can really help your audience. Solve problems for your audience.

In the next episode we're going to be focusing in on something I've talked about throughout these episodes which is different examples stories illustrations. We're going to focus specifically on examples. The examples that bring your ideas to life.

Don't forget to download our companion guide. You just go to maxwellleadership dot com slash the speakers edge to download that.

Communication is well worth your effort. It makes a big difference. And the rewards are out of all proportion to the effort that you put in once you get past a certain point.

Keep going. Keep growing. Keep moving forwards. And you'll learn to master your message and inspire your audience every single time you speak.

That's it. Thanks for listening. I'll see you in the next episode. Take care. Bye bye. God bless.