Ep. 068 — How to Create an Experience Your Audience Will Never Forget

Release date: June 15 , 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.

Listen or watch the episode:

• 🎧 Audio: Apple Podcasts
• 🎧 Audio: Spotify Podcasts
• 🎥 Video: YouTube
• 📘 Learn more about becoming a speaker or coach: MaxwellLeadership.com/JoinTheTeam
• ▶ Browse episodes & resources: MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

This Week’s Big Idea

Good speakers explain things well. Great speakers help audiences feel them. Transition six — from tell to show — is about the difference between information and impact. In this episode, Roddy shares six secrets for moving beyond content delivery into audience experience design. Because as Les Brown says, you want the audience leaving feeling good about themselves but thinking about you. And that only happens when you stop filling time with information and start creating moments they'll carry with them long after you've left the room.

Key Takeaways

• Audiences forget content, but they remember moments. Impact doesn't come from how much you cover — it comes from what sticks. The audience is not a filing cabinet. Less is more. Design moments, not just slides.

• Facts inform, but stories disarm. Facts trigger evaluation — the audience starts asking "do I agree with that?" before they've even heard you out. Stories invite people in and lower their defences, so the facts can actually land.

• A good story is like a Trojan horse — you can smuggle ideas into people's minds for their own good. Once people are inside a story, they make the meaning themselves. And nobody resists their own discovery.

• Silence isn't awkward — it's where meaning lands. A pause doesn't lose the audience; it gathers them. Your words may arrive in two seconds, but meaning can take ten. Give space around your best ideas.

• A powerful story isn't just dramatic — it's relevant. Drama without relevance doesn't connect. Simplicity with relevance does. Don't search for your most dramatic story. Search for your most useful one.

• Predictability goes unnoticed, but variety commands attention. Structure helps people follow; predictability dulls their attention. Variety reinvites the audience back in, again and again. You can't win attention once — you have to keep renewing it.

• You don't have to be funny, but laughter accelerates trust. Forced humour creates pressure. Authentic humour — the kind that comes from honesty and shared recognition — opens people up and builds trust faster than almost anything else.

Quote of the Week

"Influence is not measured by how much you said. It's measured by how much sticks." — Roddy Galbraith

Resources & Practice

Before your next talk, run through these six questions:

1. What moment do I want this audience to remember? Am I designing that moment — or just listing points?
2. Where am I relying on facts to persuade when I should be using a story to invite?
3. Where can I add a pause to let a key idea settle and breathe?
4. Is the story I'm planning to tell truly relevant to this audience — or is it just dramatic?
5. Where does my talk feel too predictable? What could I shift to re-engage attention?
6. Is there something honest and human I could share that might naturally create laughter and connection?

The shift from information to impact is a different way of preparing — not just asking "what am I going to say?" but "what do I want them to experience?" Start there, and your speaking changes.

Get the companion guide here > MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

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

Full Transcript (Ep. 068 — How to Create an Experience Your Audience Will Never Forget)

Released: June 15, 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've chosen to join us today. If you want to be a better communicator, you are in exactly the right place. Because on every episode, we're building on the central idea that communication is a learnable skill — and it's worth learning because it will do more for your business, your confidence, your career than any other skill you can develop. We've got a great episode today. But before we get to that, if you haven't downloaded the companion guide for the show, go to MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge. You can download the companion guide, and if you enjoy the show, we'd love it if you rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts.

---

TRANSITION SIX: FROM TELL TO SHOW

All right. We are on the sixth transition. Last week we had a break where we talked about TEDx, following Kelly Merbler's TED Talk and everything she learned — a great episode. Go back and listen if you're interested in doing a TED Talk. In the five weeks before that, we worked through the first five transitions of the seven transitions you need to make if you want to earn influence with your audience. So today we're back with the transitions. We're on transition number six.

This transition is from tell to show — or from information to impact. It's not just about grabbing attention. It's not just about applause, or people saying "that was good." We're talking about real influence — ethical influence. This is the transition where we go from explaining things to creating an experience that truly affects and impacts people.

Les Brown says you want the audience leaving feeling good about themselves — but thinking about you. So that they come back. And they come back and they bring someone with them. Not because you did an information dump on them — people don't come back for that — but because you created an audience experience they'll never forget.

That's what transition six is all about. And I think this is where a lot of good speakers get stuck. They've learned how to structure their content, how to be clear in what they say, how to build credibility and earn trust. But even trusted speakers can lose their impact if meaning stays abstract — if it doesn't land in things people can truly relate to. Because ideas don't change people. Experiences do.

If all you do is explain something, people may understand it. But if you help them experience it, they're far more likely to remember it. That's the difference between sharing information and earning influence. Information is what they hear. Influence is what stays with them. What sticks is usually not a paragraph, a slide, or 19 bullet points. What stays is a moment.

This transition is all about moving from telling people what something means to showing them in a way they can feel it. Because when meaning is just understood, it often fades. But when meaning is felt — when it's experienced — that's when it's remembered, and that's when it becomes useful after you've left.

There are six secrets in this transition.

---

SECRET 20: AUDIENCES FORGET CONTENT, BUT THEY REMEMBER MOMENTS

Most speakers don't prepare for moments. They don't even think it's necessary. They spend all their time preparing their content — what do I need to cover? What are my points? What's going on my slides?

Of course, clarity around your content makes a big difference. But impact doesn't come from how much content you cover. It comes from what the audience remembers, what they carry with them afterwards. And those are not the same thing.

In fact, sometimes the more you try to cover, the less actually sticks. Because the audience is not a filing cabinet. Just because you say it doesn't mean they're filing it away for later. Most of it misses. They start thinking about something else. Human beings are often tired and distracted. Into everything they have going on, you're trying to place an idea — and it's easier to land one idea at a time than to bombard them with things they'll never store.

So if your strategy is simply "more information," you may be working against yourself. Less is more. More information does not create more impact. In fact, sometimes more information just creates more noise, more clutter, more friction — and dilutes the power of your message.

Amateurs try to cover material and over-deliver. Professionals design moments. Because there's a huge difference between delivering content and designing an audience experience. Content says: "Here are some things I want to tell you." Experience says: "Here is what I want you to feel, recognise, and remember."

Don't just ask what you're going to say. Ask what you want them to remember. And start there.

---

SECRET 21: FACTS INFORM, BUT STORIES DISARM

Most people think persuasion comes from facts — strong data, clear evidence, a solid logical argument. And yes, facts matter. You need truth, substance, facts. But facts by themselves often trigger evaluation. The moment you load people up with facts, part of their mind starts asking: Do I agree with that? Is that right? Is that my experience?

All of this is happening while they're looking at you and nodding — and they're not really listening anymore. They're comparing what you're saying against their own map of the world. They're defending and resisting, even while they appear to be paying attention.

Stories work differently. Stories don't challenge in that direct way. As Peter Guber said, a good story is like a Trojan horse — you can smuggle ideas into people's minds for their own good. Stories invite people to listen. They engage. They lower the defences. They take people on a journey where they're not being asked to agree immediately — they're making meaning for themselves.

That's incredibly powerful. If people can see themselves in the story, they often understand the point before you even get there. And then they feel like they discovered it themselves. Nobody resists their own discovery.

One of the mistakes speakers make is using facts like weapons — clubbing the audience with cold, lifeless data to prove they're wrong. That's too direct. It's met with equal opposition. Winning the argument doesn't mean you win. As John Maxwell told me, when he and Margaret were first together, he would win every argument. Margaret said: "John, you're very good at arguing and you win every argument. But you're winning the arguments and losing my love." The bigger battle was never the argument.

A story gives the audience choice. Dignity. Freedom to arrive at the insight in their own time. So I'm not saying facts don't matter — they do. But stories prepare the ground so the facts can get in. Facts inform. Stories disarm. And once people are open, the facts can do their work.

---

SECRET 22: SILENCE ISN'T AWKWARD — SILENCE IS WHERE MEANING LANDS

The right pause doesn't lose the audience. It gathers them. It gives them time to catch up emotionally.

A speech is one way. It's not like a book where you can stop and reread. It's not a podcast where you can pause and go back. When someone is speaking live, people are either swept along or they get lost. A good pause allows people time to think, to catch up — so what they just heard isn't only understood intellectually, it's felt.

Your words may arrive in two seconds, but meaning sometimes comes slowly. You can say something in two seconds and it may take ten seconds to absorb. So give space around your best ideas.

John Maxwell says: when I slow down, you can be sure something good is coming. And when something good comes, I put space around it so you have time to soak it up.

If you rush past your strongest ideas, you weaken them. You end up competing with your own best points. You plant a seed and immediately dig it up to show people the seed. Let it settle. Let it germinate. Let it do its work.

One of the marks of a professional speaker is knowing not only what to say, but when not to say anything. Mark your pauses — write them into your preparation. Where does the audience need a moment? Where should you let them breathe? Because silence is not empty — it's active. It's the space where the idea finishes its work and the audience begins to build meaning from it.

---

SECRET 23: A POWERFUL STORY ISN'T JUST DRAMATIC — IT'S RELEVANT

Because people think powerful stories have to be dramatic, many speakers either exaggerate their stories or don't tell them at all — because they don't think they have anything dramatic enough. But drama is not what makes a story powerful. Relevance does.

A story can be dramatic and completely irrelevant to the audience, so they don't care. Or it can be simple and relevant, and they lean in the whole way through. A story becomes powerful when the audience understands why it matters to them. It's not "is this story impressive?" — it's "is this story relevant? Can they see themselves in this?"

I've seen speakers tell very dramatic stories that don't connect. Gratuitous drama. It doesn't really work. And then I've seen speakers tell very simple, everyday stories — and the room is riveted. Why? Because it was relevant. It helped the audience see themselves. They stopped thinking about you and started thinking about themselves in relation to it.

Your story doesn't need to be extraordinary. It needs to be useful to this audience in this moment. Search for moments that reveal the truth — small human moments, confusion, embarrassment, failure, humour, moments of realisation. Sometimes the best story is not the biggest story. It's the clearest story, and clarity is power.

When the audience says internally, "That's me, that's just like me" — they're leaning in. The story is no longer about you; it's about them. You're not telling it to impress them. You're telling it to serve them. And when a speaker tells a story to impress, the audience may admire them. When a speaker tells a story to serve, the audience trusts them.

---

SECRET 24: PREDICTABILITY GOES UNNOTICED — VARIETY COMMANDS ATTENTION

Structure is important — I love structure, I teach structure. Without it, audiences get lost. But structure and predictability are not the same thing. Dale Carnegie's classic principle — tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you've told them — is a great training technique. But at a certain level, it can be insulting. You're repeating the same thing, robbing the audience of the discovery moment. When you see John Maxwell and you're eating out of the palm of his hand, it's not because you know what he's going to say. It's because you're wondering where it's going.

Structure helps people follow. Predictability dulls attention. If every sentence feels the same, the audience may still understand you — but their attention begins to wane. Not because the content is bad, but because it feels too samey. Human beings respond much better to contrast. Our attention wakes up when something changes.

So shift the pace. Shift the tone. Change from content to story, from serious to lighter, from explanation to question. Variety reinvites attention. It draws people back in. Because attention is not something you win once at the beginning — you have to keep renewing it. And think what you're competing with: they've got a phone in their pocket, emails, worries, distractions. If they only need to half pay attention, they'll drift.

The key is variety that supports the message, not variety for variety's sake — which becomes distracting and annoying. Predictability creates safety, and there's a time for that. But variety sustains and recaptures attention. Influence requires both: safety and attention.

Start with your message, then layer by layer ask: how can I make this more interesting? How can I make it more varied, more compelling? Layer by layer, you get better and better.

---

SECRET 25: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE FUNNY — BUT LAUGHTER ACCELERATES TRUST

Les Brown says humour disengages the ego. We start out very guarded — judgy — and then we open up. Humour can do that.

Now, the moment speakers hear that laughter matters, most of them panic. They think: I'm not funny. I can't tell jokes. I'm not a comedian. And that's actually the right instinct — trying to be funny can make the room less comfortable, not more. Forced humour creates pressure. The audience can feel it. We don't want that.

What we want is authentic laughter — the kind that lowers defences, opens people up, releases tension, and creates shared recognition. It says: we see this the same way, we're in this together. And that accelerates trust. Not because you've entertained people, but because you've helped them recognise something true about themselves — and see it in a way they hadn't before.

As John Maxwell says, when the audience is laughing with you — not at you — it's impossible not to be connected. The relationship is building in real time.

The best laughter in a presentation doesn't usually come from jokes. It comes from honesty. From sharing something that happened to you that just happens to be amusing — an everyday moment, a stupid mistake, something awkward. Not stand-up comedy. Recognition. And if the audience feels safe, if they can see themselves in the situation, they'll laugh — and feel understood. And when they feel understood, they feel safe. And trust builds faster.

Things are much funnier from someone you like than someone you don't like. So the relationship is the foundation. Humour sits on top of it — not the other way around.

---

So those are the six secrets of transition six — from tell to show. There are 28 secrets in total across all seven transitions. We've got one more transition next week. That's the final one.

The point of this transition is not to become more dramatic, or to add stories for the sake of stories, or to pause randomly, or to chase laughs. The point is to understand how people actually receive meaning. They don't receive it just because you said it. They receive it because they experience it.

So as a speaker, your job is not simply to explain the truth. Your job is to help the audience feel it. And that requires a different kind of preparation. Instead of only asking "what am I going to say?", start asking "what do I want them to experience? Where's the moment? Where's the story? Where's the pause? Where's the contrast? Is this relevant to them? Where might I get some laughter to release the tension?" These questions move you from content delivery to experience design. You're not assembling information — you're shaping their journey.

At the end of the day, influence is not measured by how much you said. It's measured by how much sticks. Did the audience leave with something they could feel, remember, and act on?

Audiences forget content, but they remember moments. Facts inform, but stories disarm. Silence gives meaning somewhere to land. Relevance makes stories powerful. Variety keeps attention alive. And natural, generous laughter accelerates trust.

That's the transition from tell to show. When you make this shift, your speaking becomes more memorable, more human, and more influential.

---

I've talked a lot about the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team over the last year or so on pretty much every episode. We have a big event coming up in August in Orlando. If you're interested in developing your speaking, jump on a call with a programme advisor — there's over 60,000 coaches worldwide in 168 countries. Next week I'm off to Romania for the IMC in Romania. If you want to develop your speaking, it's a no-brainer.

Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Speak — it costs you nothing to find out. If it's not for you, you've only lost a few moments of your time.

Don't forget to download the companion guide: MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge. Communication is one of the most important skills you can develop. And it's worth developing because it will do more for your business, your career, your self-confidence than any other skill you can develop. It is a learnable skill. Keep learning. Learn to master your message so you can inspire your audience every single time you speak. That's it for this week — I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Take care. Lots of love. Bye-bye. God bless."