Ep. 058 — Transform Your Business Through Speaking with Marissa Nehlsen (Part 2)

Release date: April 6 , 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

The same communication skills that make you a great speaker also make you a better business builder, a more impactful leader, and ultimately someone who leaves the world better than they found it. In Part 2, Marissa Nehlsen shares how authentic storytelling fuelled her business growth, how her work in Costa Rica grew from one mountain to a multi-million-dollar foundation, and how she is now helping Maxwell Leadership Certified Team members build financial strength to fund the missions they care about. The throughline: when you communicate better, you live better — and when you monetise your mission, you can mobilise it at scale.

Key Takeaways

• Real-life stories — even painful ones — are your most powerful connection tool with any audience.
• A great message has three parts: what you want your audience to know, what you want them to learn, and what you want them to do next.
•  Who you are behind the words matters as much as the words themselves — your values and character create a silent influence no skill can replace.
• Communication is not just for speakers: it gets you promoted, grows your business, and multiplies your impact in every area of life.
• "The mission is mobilised when it's monetised" — building financial strength gives you the resources to fund the impact you want to have.
• You don't need to be a natural speaker; you need to commit to getting a little better every week.
• Great mentors and coaches help you see the gifts and opportunities you cannot yet see yourself.

Quote of the Week

"The mission is mobilised when it's monetised." — Marissa Nehlsen

Resources & Practice

This week, think about your speaking and your impact through two lenses:

1. What personal story have you been holding back that could genuinely connect with your audience?
2. Is there a mission or cause you care about deeply — and what would it look like if stronger communication and a stronger financial foundation helped you pursue it?

Then ask yourself:

• What do I want my audience to know?
• What do I want them to learn?
• What do I want them to do next?

That three-part framework — know, learn, do — is one of the most practical and transferable lessons from this episode. It works whether you're speaking on stage, leading a team meeting, or sitting across from a potential client.

Get the companion guide here > MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

Learn about the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team: MaxwellLeadership.com/Speak

Full Transcript — (Ep. 058: Transform Your Business Through Speaking with Marissa Nehlsen (Part 2))

Released: April 6, 2026

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

Roddy Galbraith:
Hey, guys, welcome back to the Speaker's Edge podcast — the podcast dedicated to helping you 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're back with us. This is the second part of a two-part interview with Marissa Nehlsen. If you missed Part 1 last week, you want to go back and listen to that. So much great stuff today. We're going to dig into the second part of the interview. You're going to love it.

So much great stuff to get through. So let's dive right in and then we'll talk about it at the end.

Marissa Nehlsen:
We all have real-life stories — and this is the connecting point that I learned from you, Roddy. If we can take what would be a kind of boring topic sometimes and place it with education, empowerment, and real-life experience — that's the authentic piece of who we are. And if you've been through the death of a mate, if you've been through drug and alcohol addiction in your family, if you've been through abuse — I've got a good lineup of stories based on history.

Roddy Galbraith:
You've been through a lot. One season after another.

Marissa Nehlsen:
And I'm like, use what you've got. Use what you've got. We all have something. So if you're a little seasoned in this room — and seasoned just means experienced, it's a nicer way of saying it — if you're seasoned, you've got human experiences that others will connect to. And then you can wrap that story into: here's what I learned from it. What do I want my audience to know about me and about that season that they're in? What do I want them to learn? And then what's the ask? Take my hand, let's go together. That's the framework.

I learned all that from you, Roddy, and from really diving deep into how you create and craft a great message, whatever industry you're in. Now I have multiple companies — everything from real estate to a foundation — all things that have been built in the last 10 years. Because once you know how to build a good business, it's wash, rinse, repeat. You just do it again and again.

Roddy Galbraith:
Well, some of your businesses are quite different, though. I remember we had a call one day and you said, "Oh, did I tell you I bought a mountain in Costa Rica?" You didn't tell me.

Marissa Nehlsen:
That was fun. We've now got a forestry company there and a sawmill. I didn't know anything about having a sawmill, but I know people who do. And now we're making really cool things — lumber, doors, windows, furniture. It just opens you up to new ideas. When you get the juices flowing about learning how to be a good communicator, I think it also puts you in different types of rooms with people who think bigger. People like you and me, Roddy — we think bigger. And this team, Maxwell Leadership, we attract bigger thinkers and bigger movers. It's not just thinking, because you can't just think bigger and do well. I love Think and Grow Rich, but you can't just think and grow rich. You've got to think, take action, and then grow rich.

Roddy Galbraith:
Take some action. Pick yourself up off the floor. Try again. Try something. Before we move on from the mountain — I think the next time I mentioned it, about a year or two later, you said you'd bought two more. An important part of speaking is who you are behind the words. You can learn the skills — you can learn to connect, to come across as credible — but who you are behind the words, that silent influence, is really important. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing in Costa Rica.

Marissa Nehlsen:
I feel so incredibly blessed. I went to Costa Rica after James — my fiancé — passed away from cancer. For those who don't know that story, he passed away in my arms, and he left me with a great gift. He said, "Baby, you were born to change the world. I don't want you to spend five years in a bottle. I want you to get up every day and live. Really live." And he made me promise, right before he passed on Christmas Day: "Just never waste a day."

I went to Costa Rica about six months after that. I'm not going to lie — I spent about two months crying in my bed, eating a lot of Häagen-Dazs. But then I went to Costa Rica and my heart was healed in that place with those people. I feel like my footsteps were ordered there for healing, new hope, and new seasons. I got with a group of people and we sat around a table and asked the question: what must we do together that we can't do alone? That led us to buying the first mountain, starting sewing schools for women, creating leadership and entrepreneurship programs, a micro-financing initiative, a community centre. It just kept growing. And we keep asking: what's next? What is the need?

Because I can no longer look away from things. Wherever you are in your world, there are things that only you are seeing and hearing. What can you not look away from? I can't look away from poverty anymore. And I know I can be the answer to someone's prayer — but I've got to get up, take a calculated risk, and move. So we said we're going to start building. During COVID we bought a second mountain, and in 2025 we bought a third. We took the first two mountains with all the Airbnbs and organic farms and gave them to a foundation. And that foundation now runs collectively by a group of people who ask every day: what must we do together that we can't do alone? What will we refuse to look away from, where we can be the answer to someone's prayer?

We're not giving a hand out — we're giving a hand up. Real tools. Walking alongside people. Learning and growing together.

I'm so grateful for that experience with James because it led me to who I get to be today. The thing that was meant to crush you and take you out can be the very rock you stand on. And for me, it literally happened to be a mountain of rocks.

Roddy Galbraith:
A pretty giant mountain of rocks. It's a beautiful story, and I think it's why we love you so much. You've got your own businesses, but with every business transaction you're making the world a little bit better, not worse — giving more back than you take. What you've done in Costa Rica is remarkable.

Marissa Nehlsen:
It's part of the DNA of this team. If you're part of Maxwell Leadership, I feel like this is who we are — people who see the world differently and say, "I will not look away. I will do the thing I can do. I can't save everyone, but I can do this one thing." I believe every one of us is uniquely qualified to speak, teach, train, and do something of significance.

And you've got to be around people who support you in your growth. People who say: "You're not crazy. You can ask for more. You can dig deeper." When they put that seed in the ground and covered it with dirt, thinking it would die — it got some water, and it grew into an oak tree with deep roots and beautiful shade. I'm not just planting a tree; I'm planting orchards. I'm asking: what kind of orchards can we have? What territory can we take back from people's dark nights and difficult situations? Where can we be gap-standers and hope-dealers?

Roddy Galbraith:
You're on a roll! I'm glad you mentioned the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. Tell us what you're doing on the team now — who you're reaching and what advice you'd give to people thinking about getting involved or developing their speaking.

Marissa Nehlsen:
I just hit my 24th International Maxwell Conference. Some people ask, "What do you mean 24 IMCs — don't you just go once and you're done?" No. Every six months you have the opportunity to re-audit, re-up, and refuel. And there's something that changes when you keep investing in your growth. I'm living proof — I started in 2014 with one company that was not yet a multi-million-dollar company. Today I have seven, well, six companies and a foundation. Five out of those six companies are multi-million-dollar organisations, all of which were startups.

You can't really argue with me on the growth thing because I'm living proof. And I say that without arrogance — part of that success is because I had people around me on this team who said, "Just keep going. Where can you get better?" They challenged my thinking and held me accountable.

Today, as part of the team, I serve in the role of financial mentor. We created a new lane last year at the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team — a finance lane. In that lane I help people with personal finance and business building, and this year we've added a Financial Foundations Certified Coach certificate. You can get certified to become a financial coach and work with it in your communities, churches, small groups, families, and individuals. You can coach, speak, and train on it. I took my 33 years of experience in the financial world — we manage a little over a billion dollars in one of my companies — and we asked: how do we make this accessible? Because finance is for everyone, everywhere.

Roddy Galbraith:
Everyone needs good financial information and guidance. We're all terrible at it at some level.

Marissa Nehlsen:
Even if you think you're good at it — what would it look like if you 10x'd where you're at? Because the more that flows to you can flow through you and make a difference for everyone around you. The mission is mobilised when it's monetised.

Roddy Galbraith:
That's good, friends.

Marissa Nehlsen:
If you've got a mission — something you say, "I want to right that wrong" — what would it look like if you 10x'd your wealth so you could solve that problem quicker, faster, better? That's what I do with the team: help people build businesses, monetise those businesses, and mobilise for impact. Because before you leave this planet — is the world better because you were here? Is it better because you built something while you were here?

Roddy Galbraith:
That's so good. The team keeps getting stronger and you're a fantastic addition — the financial piece was missing before. If you're interested in finding out what it means to be a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team member, at least get on a call and find out what it's all about. There's no better model for communication than John Maxwell. But it's so much more than that. Final encouragement — what would you say to someone who thinks, "I'm not cut out for this" or "I'm not a natural speaker"?

Marissa Nehlsen:
I'll share what I learned from John and from you, Roddy: everyone communicates, but few connect. Do not leave this world — whatever season you're in — without having communicated in a way that leaves people better. Communication is helping people see, hear, know, learn, and do what adds value to them. Whether you're building a speaking business or not — everyone, everywhere, in every corporate job — you get promoted when you're a better communicator. That's just true.

And so I would say: lean in. Get a little better every week, just like Roddy says. I would not be who I am or where I am today without significant mentoring. I bought into mentorship many years ago and leaned right in — because I knew that if I could just let my voice be heard, the people on the other side of that situation could have hope if I communicated it well. I'm grateful, because now thousands and thousands of people get to hear my voice every year. And I say "get to" — I get to do that. And lives are changed.

Roddy Galbraith:
You are making a big difference in the world. Thank you so much for who you are and everything you do.

Marissa Nehlsen:
Thank you, friend.

Roddy Galbraith:
I look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks for pouring into us today, Marissa. Such a great interview. If you missed Part 1, go back and listen — it's packed with great stuff too. She's a wonderful human being and a real powerhouse.

If you're interested in finding out what it means to be a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team member, it's a no-brainer if you want to develop your speaking — but there's so much more to it than that. Simply go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Speak and find out more. Jump on a call with a programme advisor. They'll ask you some questions, you can ask them some questions, and you'll find out if it's a fit. If it is, it will be one of the best phone calls you've ever made.

All right, that's it for this week. Don't forget to download the companion guide — go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge. Remember, communication is the most important skill you can develop. It will do more for you than any other skill. And the good news is, 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. Until then, take care, lots of love, bye-bye, and God bless.