Mark Schaefer: How to create urgency in an audience through your stories

22 snips

Jul 24, 2025

Mark Schaefer, a globally-touring keynote speaker and marketing expert, shares his insights on creating urgency through storytelling. He explores how to convey essential ideas that resonate with audiences who might not initially care. The discussion highlights innovative storytelling techniques and the importance of authenticity. Mark also reveals how constraints can boost creativity and the power of keen observation in enriching narratives. With a compelling personal story from South by Southwest, he encourages deeper connections through impactful storytelling.

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ADVICE

Use Warm Openings with Humor

Start speeches with a warm open including humor to set audience expectations.
This approach gives permission to laugh and eases the audience into serious material.

ANECDOTE

Embrace Stage Mishaps

During a speech, Mark’s video malfunction led him to act out the ad improvisationally.
The audience loved this spontaneous moment, showing how mistakes can enhance connection.

ADVICE

Rehearse Until Mastery

Rehearse your speech until you are sick of it to gain mastery.
Mastery through rehearsal grants confidence to improvise during a talk.

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What ideas haunt you? What can't you stop thinking about, you care about it that much? As public voices and experts, we all have those ideas that chase us around and color how we see everything. The thing is, our audience might not "get it" the way we do, nor care. So we have to work overtime to show them why they would. This in turn creates a sense of urgency in the audience: to care, share, subscribe, buy, or take action of some kind.

That kind of urgency is the role of the story we’ll hear today for my friend, Mark Schaefer. It's a story from his keynotes and his new book, AUDACIOUS: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World

Mark is a globally-touring keynote speaker and the author of more than 10 books on marketing, technology, and business growth. He’s worked with clients like Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, and Dell, and has appeared on CNN and in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. In addition to his speaking and services, Mark is also faculty member of the graduate program at Rutgers University, and hosts the popular podcast The Marketing Companion—where I appear as co-host every few months!

Today we talk about how to tell stories that show others something important you already see, so they care. Plus, signs you’ve rehearsed your speech enough to nail it and communication tripwires which can cause the audience to object to your ideas (and how to avoid them).

This is a fun one, with my friend, Mark Schaefer.

Find and follow Mark at businessesgrow.com and on LinkedIn. Get a copy of AUDACIOUS at businessesgrow.com/audacious

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ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZO:

Subscribe to my free newsletter at jayacunzo.com/newsletter
Work with me one-on-one: jayacunzo.com/services
Book me to speak to your group: jayacunzo.com/keynotes
Connect with me on social: LinkedIn, Instagram

I help experts differentiate and resonate. Together, I work with you to develop a distinct and memorable premise driving your platform, turn that big idea into signature IP you own, and help you embody it as a speaker and storyteller. Compete on the impact of your thinking, not the volume of your marketing. This makes it easier to win more and better clients.

You’ve done lots of things. Now it’s time to [be] a thing. Stop chasing attention and become more highly sought.

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