Ep. 057 — Transform Your Business Through Speaking with Marissa Nehlsen (Part 1)

Release date: March 30, 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

Speaking can transform a business when it is used strategically, authentically, and with real value behind it. In this episode, Roddy talks with Marissa Nehlsen about her journey from an emotional stage-time setback to becoming a highly effective communicator whose speaking helped massively grow her business. The throughline here is simple: keep going, do the work, and learn how to communicate in a way that truly connects and converts.

Key Takeaways

• Communication is a learnable skill, and improving it improves every area of life and business.
• One painful speaking moment can become a turning point if you decide, “never again,” and keep practicing.
• Authenticity builds trust, but authenticity still needs preparation.
• A great communicator can speak on many topics because the real skill is connection, clarity, and value-delivery.
• Speaking can become a direct growth engine for business when it is paired with the right audience, offer, and follow-up.
• Marissa used other people’s rooms and audiences strategically, then built a highly profitable education-based marketing model around speaking.

Quote of the Week

“Nothing happens in the world until people buy an idea.”

Resources & Practice

This week, think about your speaking through two lenses:

1. Where have I been holding back because of one painful moment?
2. How could I use speaking more strategically in my business or work?

Then ask:

• What problem do I solve?
• Who already has the audience I want to serve?
• What would it look like to teach first, add value, and invite next steps clearly?

That is one of the strongest practical lessons from this episode: speaking is not just inspiration — it can be a serious business tool when used with the right strategy.

Get the companion guide here > MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

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

Full Transcript Ep. 057 — Transform Your Business Through Speaking with Marissa Nehlsen (Part 1)

Released: March 30, 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 that 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, and I'm thrilled you've chosen to join us today. And if you want to be a communicator, I have to say you are in the right place because communication is absolutely a learnable skill and it's worth developing your skills of communication because it would do more for your business, more for your career, more for your self confidence than any other skill you can develop. Because as human beings, we interact with each other a great deal and if we get better at those interactions, then we're literally getting better at life. So it's a great skill to spend some time developing. But before we get into today's episode, if you haven't downloaded the companion guide, then go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge. You can download the companion guide, and if you enjoy the show, then we would love it if you rate and review the show as well.

Now, I have such a great treat for you today. Marissa Nelson is a good friend and she's been part of the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team as a team member for many, many years. She's got a great story, She's a fantastic speaker, but she's worked hard to become a great speaker. I asked her if she would share her journey with us, and this is an epic interview. You're going to love this. So without further ado, let's just dive into the interview with Marissa and then we'll chat about it at the end. Marissa, thanks so much for doing this. It's so good to see you.

I've been wanting to get you on the Speaker's Edge podcast for a long time. So thanks for joining us.

Marissa:
Oh, this is so delightful. I'm so glad that I'm here with you. And hey, to all of you that are in the room with us, man, thanks for coming to work today. We are so glad that you showed up because this is going to be really, really fun.

Roddy:
It is going to be fun. It's not really like work, is it? No, no, no.

Marissa:
I just figure every day you show up above ground, you're doing something of purpose. If you're part of our kind of people, the people that we, you know, we're tribe people that thrive on getting stuff done and making a difference in the world and leading. And so that's who we are.

Roddy:
I think that's pretty much everyone out there, isn't it? We're all part of this wonderful community of life giving people. So we've known each other now for what, at least 10 years and maybe 12.

Marissa:
Yeah. 2014, Roddy. 2014, when I joined the team.

Roddy:
Oh, my goodness. You don't look any different from the day that you went up on stage during think tank at the Maxwell Leadership Conference back in 2014.

Marissa:
Well, is why we're friends, Roddy, because your eyesight's failing or delusional, either one. I'm just teasing. I'm teasing.

Roddy:
But actually, I love that. It's true. My eyes, I get most. But you still look. You still look as youthful and joyful. In fact, you've got more joyful as time has gone on. That's the truth.

Marissa:
It is true. And, you know, part of that for me, Roddy, is being part of a tribe that helps you thrive, right?

Roddy:
Absolutely.

Marissa:
I've been able to thrive inside this team for the last 12 years. I joined in 14, and I came actually because I wanted to be a better speaker. And so when they said John Maxwell is, you know, one of the lead communicators in the world. He's not just a speaker. Right. There's speakers and then there's communicators. And I wanted to be a communicator. And so now when I found out, oh, we got this whole lane that this is what you focus on, I was like, oh, that's for me. That is for me.

Roddy:
So let's talk about that a little bit then. So you joined the team back in 2014. I remember you. And for those of you who are new, it's the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. So back in 2014, it was called the John Maxwell Team back then, wasn't it? I remember you going for stage time. So during one of the think tank breakout sessions, what did you want to do when you joined the team? What were your goals? You wanted to develop your speaking? What was on your mind at the time?

Marissa:
Yeah, you know, I didn't quite have a really good. You know, like, some people come in and they just have absolute clarity of purpose. Friends, that was not me. Like, I was just like, I want to get better. I want my businesses to grow. At that point, I only had one business. Now I have seven. I wanted that business to just really do better, and I wanted to do better in it. But I wanted to grow as a leader, and I wanted to grow as a communicator and a speaker, and I knew that that skill had to be better. And I had been doing some speaking because I'd been doing workshops for several years, very specific workshops in the area of finance and teaching people about how to make money, keep it, multiply it, pass it with purpose, generational estate planning, stuff like that. So when I joined the team, I did go for stage time, and it was epic failure. So for all of you who are going, it wasn't a big failure. Roddy, let me tell the story. Roddy, I've got to tell the story. Okay?

So I go for stage time. We go to this thing called Think Tank Day. You got to go. And back then, let me just tell you, there was like 400 people in the room, right? It was several hundred people in the room. We were at the Orlando World Center Marriott. I remember this like it's yesterday because it was literally a turning point of painful in my life. It was like, oh, my. So I go up. I go up on stage, I've been working and working and working on this speech and this, you know, and it's only like, you know, five minutes right at that time. And I go up, and I've been working. I got on your calls. I joined mentorship. I did that. And I'll just tell you, I kind of played around with it. I wasn't fully committed then, and I didn't know really what exactly I should be talking about. Should I be a motivational speaker? Should I be, like, a topic speaker? Should I be speaking just on the basis of what my company does? And then I realized, here's where was the aha moment for me. Like, if I'm a good communicator, I can talk on anything, right? If you got good communication skills. So I realized any of those things apply if I just get good. And so then I just started following you around like a little puppy dog, just trying to consume everything you had out there, listen to every single call, went on to all the things, did the whole process.

But I go for stage time. I get up on stage, I'm super excited, super nervous, and I look at these 400 people, and the biggest I'd ever spoken to at that point was like 70 people. And it was on a topic that I knew really, really well, and I had like two hours in a workshop to do it. So it's very different than a you got five minutes to shine, right? And I get up on stage and I forget all my words, and I'm telling a story about the passing of my fiancé, and I forgot all my words, and I looked over at you, and I'd been working with you. If you just remember, Roddy, I was on all your calls. I mean, I'm submitting these videos, and I've been working with you, and I don't know what happened. And I start crying like a psychopath.

Roddy:
It was an emotional moment, considering what you were talking about.

Marissa:
Well, it was. And why it was so emotional is because I wanted to honor him, right? And this story, I thought, would just honor him. And if people just knew him and they could know him through this story, I would honor him. And then I started to fail at it because it was about all these other things that you tell us it can't be about. It's your story. Just tell it authentically. And I was trying to be stage, right, and I wasn't stage. So I look over to you, and Roddy says, just keep going. It's your story. Just keep going. And so I finished it. And that audience, you know, the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team, is so kind. It's such an environment like any other in the world. And I've never been any place, and I go to a lot of conferences, I've never been any place and I come off the stage and you're there, and you greet me and you give me a hug, and you're like, I'm proud of you. And I, you know, like, you were my speaker mentor, but I didn't know, you know, you at that point. But amazing kindness. And then the audience got up and gave me a standing ovation because I finished. Right? Now, you couldn't put me up on the main stage. There's like 4,000 people in that room. You can't put me up. And I'm a risk at that point. But I went back, and then I just went back and practiced and practiced and practiced on that same stage till the people at the Marriott had to kick me out of the room and said, you can't go now because we're turning off the lights, honey.

But what it taught me in that moment was, you know, we just have to keep going. Just keep going, just keep going, just keep going. So that's what I learned way back then. And then that led to so many more things.

Roddy:
So there's a couple of things I want to pick up on in there. One is that story about James was very emotional anyway, and I feel like because it was, you're used to succeeding at everything. And I feel like this was like a mental blow for you. That was unacceptable, which is why I think you've magnified it because I think you actually did a good job. You just got stuck in one or two places and it's such a pain point for you that you've made it seem to you like it was worse than it was. I still think you did a good job. But then you decided, right, that is never going to happen to me again. I am going to be up on this stage. Whether it's in six months time, 12 months time, or whatever, I'm going to be up on that stage.

Marissa:
Yes.

Roddy:
And you were what, in 2015? 16, I want to say 16. I think you introduced me. You were on stage with John that year as well. So you suddenly, like, were everywhere.

Marissa:
Yeah, yeah. This was in August of 16 when I had that situation. And then, you know, the next year I went back and really got it right. And then I was able to introduce you in the speaker lane, which was amazing. And then I got stage time that year, and then I had also won, won is probably not the right word, but they nominated and selected me for a transformation award, a culture award, a transformation in transformation, and for the work that we've been doing in Costa Rica. But, you know, you hit the nail on the head. I think we need to have some never again moments. And that for me was a never again moment. Never again will I get up and fail an audience or fail myself in such a way where I just don't keep going. It was such an emotional thing. But, you know, you talk about preparation and don't wing it. And I learned what I had prepared, but not to that level of the mental fortitude. And what I learned is that you've got to have a coach. You've got to have a mentor that sees it and helps you attach the meaning to it. What's really meaningful and what's really what I call like BS belief systems that you're hanging on to in your head. And you're so good at that, Roddy, of calling stuff out. And then the other thing that you did, you know, I jumped on a call with you one time, if you remember, I was working on this keynote for the 60-minute keynote, and I'd been working on it for four months, and I just couldn't make it all come together. And so you took your little spreadsheet thing and in eight minutes, Roddy Galbraith in eight minutes takes this thing and completely reorganizes my keynote and helps me go with my open, my body, my close, my offer, the seating all the way through in eight minutes. And I was like, oh, that's why you work with a master. Okay, got it.

Roddy:
So what I want to say about that, I remember that, but you had done the work. In fact, you worked very hard. We spent a lot of time together on some of those stories that were, you know, I think of them as beads on a necklace. If the necklace is your keynote, then the building blocks are the beads of the stories. And you'd worked really, really hard week in and week out to have the raw material. So then reorganizing it was the easy bit.

Marissa:
I couldn't see the reorganization. People miss. Yeah, you saw the reorg and I couldn't see it, right?

Roddy:
Yeah, but you'd done the work. So it is a partnership, but you got to do the work. You did the bulk of the work and working on those stories. So I think that was great. I think you were on stage with John as well, though, that same year. Was it for a Culture award or were you on stage for one of the values or something?

Marissa:
Yeah, it was the Culture Award. And so the culture was on transformation for Costa Rica. So, yeah, it was a big year. And it was so funny because it was actually the first full day, and I was actually on stage three times that day. And so then after that, it was so funny because people are wanting to stop and take pictures with you, and they just think you're some kind of celebrity. And I'm like, you realize, like, I'm just a little girl from North Dakota. I just happened to speak three times on that first day.

Roddy:
But you also did a good job. You also did a good job because you worked hard when you were there. I just want to say one before I forget, I want to say about your James story as well and choking up and forgetting what you're going to say or being overcome with emotion. Because if you were teaching overcoming fear of speaking, then it would undermine your confidence if you choked up while you were trying to teach them how to overcome their fear of speaking. But because you were talking about a really emotional moment in your life, a life changing moment in your life, which is a really, really sad, heartbreaking story, if you forget what you're going to say, get choked up, stop, have to look away, it actually, as long as you keep going, as long as it's not too disruptive, it actually helps that message. So I think people sometimes think if I put one foot wrong, I've blown it completely. And emotion can really help you.

Marissa:
That is so true, Roddy. And I've told that story many times since because there are people in the seats that need to connect, right? And they're carrying these burdens and these challenges and these situations and these really difficult moments in their life. And what I learned from you is we need to be authentic speakers. I don't have a stage voice anymore.

Roddy:
I was listening to you today, actually. I was just going through your presentation from last week.

Marissa:
Yeah, there's no stage voice anymore. I just get up there and we're just Marissa. Raw.

Roddy:
Marissa. Raw.

Marissa:
Yeah, that's it. Now prepared. I am 100 prepared. I know what I'm going in there to say and do and what I really want to be able to add value and open to receive. And I also know that transparency builds trust and authenticity. Authenticity is your greatest weapon in beating stage fright, in beating this need to be seen in a certain way and perfectionism and all that stuff. If you just really are authentic and you say, listen, this is my heart, hear my heart. And so I learned that from you, Roddy. And I'm so grateful. Thank you for being such a great, masterful teacher and helping me tell my stories.

Roddy:
You worked very hard and you're a wonderful human being as well, which really helps. So I want to just go back to something else as well before we move on. You were speaking initially, so you had a successful financial services company. You still do. You're less involved on the day-to-day running now than you were, but you still have that company. But at the time you were using your speaking to build your business in many ways, weren't you? You were doing something you loved and you got incredibly successful. Tell us a little bit about that.

Marissa:
Yeah. And still are in that place of clamoring to do it for. I turned down last year in 2025, I turned down over 146, I think is where my final count was, speaking engagements. So my financial services organization, I would teach workshops and seminars and I would do shorter keynotes, 90-minute things and then I would do full day seminars. And so I just really wanted to get good at wrapping stories through what normally people, you know, you start talking about taxes and legal stuff and wealth management and risk management, like big snooze, hit the big snooze button in that audience. Nobody wants to be there more than 30 minutes, right? So you have to make it interesting.

And so I didn't fill my rooms. I used OPR, other people's stages, other people's rooms, other people's rooms. And what I said in my financial services business was I need to build this business. And the best way to do this is one to many to find my ideal clients. And I didn't want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars every month marketing or doing ads or doing that kind of stuff because I just don't think that's really effective and there's so much white noise. But I wanted to get in front of people. And so what I said is strategically, strategic planning for me is really up there. And one of the things I would just say to all of you that are listening is that strategy is just organizing your current set of resources into a repeatable outcome you want to achieve. So I asked the question, what do I have and who needs it now? Who has a client that actually needs what I have? So I had gone to other organizations that were working with my ideal client and I said, listen, I can do seminars and workshops and at the end of this your client's going to feel seen, heard, educated, empowered and equipped. And they're going to connect that back to you and your organization. And so hire me to come in and speak. You fill the room with your 50 people, 75 people, 100 people. I like to have a hundred or less for those groups because I'm making an offer for them to come see my financial services group at the end of it to do tax planning, legal planning, risk management, wealth management, kind of the whole enchilada of holistic planning, right? And they were like, wow, you mean you'll come do that for 10k a day? I'm like, yeah, because you can't hire people to do what we do for 10k a day. But you know what, I'll do that for 5K if you just allow me to say these three things at the end of this. One, will you fill out my survey at the end? Two, if you've got questions that you don't have the answers to by the end of this today and you want to meet with me for an hour, I'll give you a one-hour tire kicking visit. Just come pick the tires, ask some questions. If you're working with corporate, you just say a one-hour let's get to know each other session. You use different words for different audiences. And then the third thing I want to ask them is, did we do a good job? And if we did, who do you know that could benefit from this type of education? It's education marketing. That's what I was doing.

And so that became very successful. And we took that business, we 10x that business in three years by really getting good. And then we created a self-managing company. I say we, me and my team, we created a self-managing company which means it no longer requires me to do that, but I call it a million-dollar week. I go back to one location in a very rural state, North Dakota, and that one state in one week I do five sessions and I make a million dollars literally every. And it's trackable every single time. One week, million bucks. That's what our net revenue is to the organization when I speak and do that in that way and they fill the seats. I don't have marketing into it. They have the calls out, they put the people in, they put them into those chairs. They are working with exactly our ideal client. And we say, hey, how do we partner up and give them real education, real services and we bring workbooks and we do, you got to have the goods. Got to work hard for it. And we did that. And that has just been a massive game changer. And now that's nationwide. This is very niche for area, but I think you can do it in any area because I've done it for all sorts of different types of businesses. This particular one was agriculture and now we turned down over a hundred agriculture speaking events in a year nationwide just for that one area.

Roddy:
So again, it sounds like great. And I know your close rate was very, very high in the 90s. I think most people wanted to take you up on your offer at the end. I seem to remember 98%.

Marissa:
That's a 12-year running. 98% that we know. That's our close rate.

Roddy:
What went wrong with the 2%?

Marissa:
Yeah, you know, it still bugs me. I want 100% every time. You know what I will say though, what I learned about this, whatever business you're in, how you communicate, what problem you solve, how do they receive the sleep at night and the compelling future that's on the other side of them taking action. That's what getting good at speaking is and getting good at communicating and creating a language that you can speak with your ideal people that you want to help serve and make a difference for and help them overcome what they're dealing with today. Nothing happens in the world until people buy the idea. And it's always created twice. First in our mind with us and then in theirs. And then we take action.

Roddy:
And again, I think you're underplay. You worked really hard on that workshop. I can remember going through at least eight or maybe ten stories with you, all of which were really good, but all of which you were obsessive about making them better. Like, everything's a quarter. Everything's a quarter. You remember that one?

Marissa:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I can't really tell that one from stage because I get along with my ex-husband now, so I can't really tell again.

Roddy:
Oh, really?

Marissa:
But it's funny now that now you've outed me. So one of the stories that Roddy and I worked on for years, friends, was I went through a really ugly divorce. And my former husband was on vacation with his new girlfriend, and we weren't yet actually divorced. And so I was kind of mad. And he said, just sell everything in the house. We'll do an estate sale, we'll split the money. And then I got mad. So I opened up the garage, called the radio station, got some balloons, and created signs that said everything's a quarter. So I sold the entire bag of golf clubs for a quarter. I sold one of those whole tool chests filled with tools. A quarter. And he was out of town. He was on vacation with the girl. So I was like, hey, you know what? And so he came home, we had like, you know, 400, like $28 split divided by two on probably about $300,000 worth of stuff that I sold.

Roddy:
Was there a car in there, or did I make that up?

Marissa:
No, it was a piano. I sold a baby grand piano. The only thing I didn't sell was the dog. I kept the dog. Now, I will tell you, my kids did well because I had three kids. And I said, listen, you can buy anything you want here for a quarter, but if you buy it for a quarter, you got to go over there and you got to see those kids over there, and if they're going to charge you 10 bucks for a soda pop and a hot dog. And they were like, so you're gonna give me $3,000 worth of tools, but I gotta just buy $10 worth of pop? And the kids did well.

Roddy:
The only person that lost. Well, you didn't mind though, but your ex-husband obviously. That's such a great story. Like typical you, you're not just everything's a quarter, which in itself is extravagant enough, but calling the radio station to let them know, to get more people there. Everything's a quarter. That's a great story.

So what I was gonna say is you worked really hard on those stories, on that presentation and you connected, you worked hard at connecting with the people so they really like you. Everyone really likes you. You've got clear credibility. So it's obvious you know what you're talking about very quickly. I remember us doing an event together just down the road here at the hotel. You were doing your financial audit. Like here's some of the things you need to know and if you need more, we'll do an audit. So you worked hard, you come across well, you're obviously very credible and you try and make it enjoyable for them, like little stories like that, everything's a quarter, so that it's an enjoyable learning experience. So you work very hard at that and you deserve the success that you've got from it.

Oh, we're going to have to leave it there I'm afraid because there's still so much great stuff to come. I've decided we're going to break it in two and it's going to be a two-parter this week and then next week we'll finish off with the interview with Marissa. You heard her talk about the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. If you're interested in developing your speaking it really is a no-brainer. Jump on a call with a programme advisor. There's nearly 65,000, I think it is now, coaches around the world in over 168 different countries. Why not find out? Jump on a call with a program advisor. Simply go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Speak and find out what it means to be a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team member. You heard Marissa talk about it, you hear me talk about it every week. It could be the best call you've ever made.

All right, so that's it for this week. Don't forget to download the companion guide. Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge and remember, communication is one of the most important skills. I think it's the most important skill that you can learn. It is a learnable skill. So keep learning, keep developing. Learn to master your message and inspire your audience every single time you speak. Thanks for listening today. I'll see you next week for part two in the next episode. Until then, take care. Lots of love. Bye bye. God bless.