Ep. 056 — The Law of Storytelling: Why Your Story Matters in Communication

Release date: March 23, 2026

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

Stories do far more than make a talk more interesting. They help people think, feel, remember, trust, and act. In this episode, Roddy breaks down why storytelling is one of the most powerful tools a communicator can develop — and why your own story is the one with the greatest impact.

Key Takeaways

• Stories animate the audience’s reasoning and make ideas easier to understand.
• Great stories evoke emotion, which makes communication more memorable and more persuasive.
• Stories help audiences picture who they could become and inspire them to act.
• Personal stories build connection and credibility in a way secondhand stories cannot.
• Humour, persuasion, memorability, and emotional engagement all become stronger through story.
• The goal is not to sound like a teacher with all the answers, but a fellow traveler sharing what you are learning.

Quote of the Week

“You’ve got to put yourself in the story.” - John Maxwell

Resources & Practice

Before your next talk, training, or presentation, ask yourself:

1. Where did I learn this?
2. What personal story helps bring this lesson to life?
3. Am I speaking like a teacher, or like a fellow traveler?

Then try this:

• Take one point you want to teach.
• Find one personal experience that helped you learn it.
• Tell it as something you are learning, not just something you have already mastered.

That shift alone can make your message more human, more convincing, and more memorable.

Get the companion guide here > MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

Learn about the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team: maxwellleadership.com/speak

Full Transcript (Ep. 056 — The Law of Storytelling: Why Your Story Matters in Communication)

Released: March 23, 2026

This transcript was auto-generated. It may contain minor errors. *Copy text adds attribution automatically

Hey guys, welcome back to the Speaker's Edge podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you to learn from some of the world's very best speakers and communicators so you can learn to master your message and inspire your audience every single time you speak. I'm your host for this podcast, Roddy Galbraith. I'm thrilled you've chosen to join us today. We've got a great episode for you today. We're going to be hearing from John. He's going to be talking about the importance of finding your story. It's the only good one you've got, he says. So finding your story, we're going to be talking about the Law of Storytelling, Law Number 12 from John's great book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication.

And storytelling is key if you want to develop as a communicator. And if you do, then you're in the right place, because on every episode we're helping build the idea that communication is a learnable skill. No matter what you may think, communication is a learnable skill, and it's worth learning. It's worth developing your communication skills because it will do more for you than any other skill you can develop. John will tell you this himself. It'll do more for your business, it'll do more for your career, it'll do more for your self-confidence than any other skill you can develop. So you're in the right place. We've got a great episode for you today, but before we get to that, if you haven't downloaded the companion guide, go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge, download the guide.

And if you enjoy the show, if you enjoy this episode or any of the episodes, we'd love it if you rate and review the show as well. All right, so over the last couple of episodes then, we talked about connecting and we talked about the Law of Anticipation, both from John's great book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication. Now we're going to look at Law 12, which is the Law of Storytelling. And we're going to take a deeper dive over the next few episodes, I think, because there's so much to storytelling. So many different ways that we can look at it. And I think example is one of the best ways for us to learn. So I want to share some different approaches to story for some different speakers that we've highlighted on the show over the last year or so. So we're going to take a deeper dive over the next few episodes.

But today I wanted you to hear from John on the importance of storytelling, because there's so much that we can do with stories. And your story particularly, he says, is where your power lies. But before we hear from John, I wanted to just look at some of the reasons why great communicators use stories. So I want to share 12 uses, if you like, of stories, or the 12 ways that you can use stories to help you in your communication. The first one to understand is that stories animate our reasoning process. Stories animate our reasoning process. So it's great to look at something and to understand it, but when we have examples, and particularly stories, then they can really help us in that process. So number 1, stories animate our reasoning process.

Number 2, stories evoke emotional responses. So it's not just intellectual information. The real power is with our emotions, isn't it? And so if we're feeling something as we listen to a communicator, then it's much more enjoyable, it's much more engaging, and we're much more likely to retain that information. Number 3, stories are pictures of what we aspire to be. So it can be very inspirational, can't it? So number 3, stories are pictures. It gives you a visual of who we aspire to be. And number 4, stories can inspire us to then take action towards that. So number 1, stories animate our reasoning process.

Number 2, stories evoke emotional responses. Number 3, stories are pictures of who we aspire to be. And number 4, stories inspire us to act towards that image. Number 5, stories give us permission to act as well, because we see that other people can do it and we believe that we can do it too. So stories give us permission to act. Number 6, stories are a great way to connect with the audience. Remember when we were talking about connecting, we've talked about it a number of times over the last year or so. John says that connecting is job number 1.

Connect with your audience, that's job number 1. And stories are a great way to connect, number 6. Number 7, stories give us credibility as well, depending on the story, we can share a story where the audience can say that we know what we're talking about. We have lived this out. We have experience of this. So number 7, stories can give us credibility. Number 8, stories are very persuasive examples, aren't they? So we can watch it, we can be like, oh yeah, no, I really believe that. I can see that that would work.

So stories can be very persuasive. Number 9, stories can be very disarming. When we listen to a story, then rather than being very judgy, we get swept along, emotionally transported with the story, and then we're like, oh yeah, no, and we let ideas in that perhaps we wouldn't otherwise. Peter Guber said that a good story can be like a Trojan horse smuggling ideas into your audience's mind for their own good. Number 10: Stories stick. Our brains seem to be made for stories, and so if we hear a story, we can follow the story, and then we remember the story and we remember the point. Number 11: Stories captivate us. So our attention might be all over the place, but then we hear a good story and we're drawn in and we're focused and we're paying attention to that particular thought process.

And then number 12, stories are a great way to introduce humour in a way that most people are comfortable with. Most people don't want to be funny, but they can share a story that's funny. So stories can introduce humour. And as Les Brown says, humour disengages the ego. So we can use stories to introduce humour to disengage the judginess of our audience. Because whether we like to admit it or not, we're all a little bit judgy, aren't we? So 12 things then. Stories animate our reasoning process. Stories evoke emotional responses, number 2.

Stories are pictures of who we aspire to be, number 3. Number 4, stories inspire us to act. Number 5, stories give us permission to act. Stories connect, number 6. Stories give us credibility, number 7. Stories can be very persuasive examples of what we're teaching, number 8. Stories are very disarming, number 9. Stories stick, number 10.

Stories captivate us, number 11. And stories are a great way to introduce humour, Number 12. All right, now there's nothing like a good example, which is what a story is really, isn't it? So I want to share with you a great clip of John from 2014 where he's talking about the importance of your story. Watch this and then we'll talk about it.

There are 5 different areas of which you could do masterminds and learning lunches and coaching that you're certified to do. And the first one I want to talk about briefly for a minute or two is how to be a real success. And I want to share with you that it was in 1976 that I came to the conclusion—I asked myself for 2 years, what is it that a person needs to be able to do well to be successful? And I came to the conclusion that if you could do 4 things well, regardless of what your occupation is, that you could probably be pretty successful in doing it. And that's where I came up with REAL, R-E-A-L, because each letter stands for a different area that you need to be successful in. The R stands for relationships. You got to be good with relationships. The letter E stands for equipping. If you're going to be highly successful, you need to know how to train people.

You need to know how to equip them because that's where all compounding of success is. The A stands for attitude. You got to have an attitude that will help you, especially during adversity and very difficult times. And the L stands for leadership. Leadership. You got to learn how to lead. You got to be able to influence people. Now, whenever you teach REAL, what you need to do is when you teach the material, you need to always take the material and apply it to yourself.

So if I'm teaching you in a mastermind or in a learning lunch, I've got to take relationships, equipping, attitude, and leadership and I have to have a personal story. It's the only good one you got. So I don't need a story about someone else who had a good relationship with someone or someone else who had a good attitude with somebody. I need to talk about how relationships have helped me be successful, how equipping has helped me to be successful, how an attitude during difficult time helped me to overcome adversity and be successful. I need to talk about how I learned how to influence and lead people so that I could do something. So what you have to do is, now I'm telling you, whatever the content is, there's some things you got to do. You got to—hey, you got to put yourself in the story. Remember this: if you're an observer of the story or a teacher of the story, you're not as effective as if you were a player of the story.

You got to get in the book. You got to get in the story. You got to get in the game. Does that make sense to you? So everything I give you, you need to have some personal application, personal stories, so that you can talk out of your life, not out of my life, not John Maxwell said, but this is what I have discovered myself. Because the convincer of people to change their life is for you to talk about how your life was changed. That's exactly how it works. So in all 5 areas, I want you to make sure that you have to personalize everything to where you are.

This is the process I went through. This is what—hey, hey, hey, and always one more thing. As you personalize the process you're going through, don't come across as a teacher. Come across as a fellow traveler. So here's exactly how do I do that. It's very simple. There's a world of difference between saying I've learned and I'm learning. When you say I've learned, you're the teacher.

When you say I'm learning, you're the fellow traveler. Are you with me? And people want to take a trip with you. They don't want to sit at your feet. So take a trip with them, take a journey with them, personalize this stuff. And this is what I'm learning.

He's so good, isn't he? What a great clip. It's such a short clip, but such a powerful clip. He's talking about the power of examples. He's talking about the power of stories, and he's talking about the power of your story, because you have a story and you know you do, and someone somewhere needs to hear that story, and they need to hear it from you because they can't hear it from anyone else. So your story is your superpower. It really is. So you've got to put yourself in the story. John says if you're an observer of the story, you heard him say it, or if you're a teacher of the story, it's not as effective as if you're a player in the story.

Now what most people don't realise when they're communicating is they can be the narrator and they can be characters in the story and they can be the voice of other characters in the story. So when you're actually reliving it and allowing us, the audience, to relive it with you, it's much more powerful. So he says, you've got to get in the book, you've got to get in the story, you've got to get in the game. It's the only good one you've got, the only good one you've got. So you have to have some personal application, he said, in the form of personal stories, and you want to speak out of your life. If you say to John, what should I speak on? He's going to say, well, what have you lived out? Don't memorize something and recite it. Speak on what you've lived out. Share with what you've discovered on your journey, because that's what's convincing.

The convincer for other people, he says, is you telling them how it's changed your life. That's what's convincing for them to try it themselves. So we have to personalize the lessons that we're teaching, the information that we're sharing. In fact, a great question to ask yourself before you teach anything is, where did I learn this? That could be a great story that's going to help other people learn it too. So he said, as you personalize the process you're going through, don't come across as a teacher. You should do this, you should do this. Come across as a fellow traveler, that I'm learning rather than I've learned. Not I've arrived, but I'm on that journey, I'm on that process.

So there's a world of difference, he said, instead from saying, "I've learned" or "I'm learning." When you say you've learned, then you're the teacher. But when you say, "I'm learning," then you're the fellow traveler. Because the bottom line is, people want to take a trip with you. They don't want to sit and worship at your feet. So take a journey. Take us on a journey. Don't just tell us what you want us to know. Take us on a journey and allow us to arrive at that point of understanding.

Personalize the information and say, "This is what I'm learning," rather than, "This is what I've learned." Then you become a fellow traveler, and it's much easier for us to opt into, to choose to go on that journey with you. Okay, that's it for this week, but before we wrap up, I just want to quickly talk to you about the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. I mention it every week on the show. If you want to find out what it means to be a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team member, then just go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Speak. If you're interested in developing your communication skills, there's nowhere better to go to get great help. There's no one better to model than John Maxwell. I've been working with John on the Maxwell Method of Speaking since 2002. It keeps getting better and better and better. We're really passionate about it.

We're really proud of it. And if you want to learn the Maxwell Method of Speaking, modelling John, there's nowhere better than the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. There's over 62,000 coaches worldwide now in 168 different countries. You wouldn't be the first people through the programme. We've ironed out the bugs. We've ironed out all of the wrinkles, and so it's safe for you to join. It's a great programme, massive, massive value.

So just check it out. Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Speak. All right, we'll wrap up now for this week. And as I said at the beginning, we're going to do like a mini-series on storytelling. And so next week, we'll be digging into that with some great examples from some great speakers. Don't forget to download our companion guide. Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge to do that. And don't forget, communication is a learnable skill, which is great news because it's one of the best skills you can learn.

So keep learning, keep developing. You'll learn to master your message and inspire your audience every single time you speak. Thanks for listening today. Look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Take care, lots of love. Bye-bye. God bless.