How To Succeed at Creating an Encore Experience with Your Team
Gregory Offner is an award-winning keynote speaker and author who focuses on helping organizations improve performance by redesigning the experience of work . Greg was a keynote speaker at the 2026 Sandler Summit, and he introduced the concept of the Encore Experience—a powerful shift in how we think about engagement, culture, and sustainable high performance. In this conversation, we break down: The real driver of most employee performance problems — even when numbers look strong How true ownership (versus compliance) impacts long-term performance. Why incentives and pressure stop working over time Who your internal, and external, audience is; and why it matters. When disengagement starts, and the two questions that can stop it in its tracks. What leaders can do, right now, to create an "Encore Experience" for their audience. If you're a business owner, entrepreneur, or sales leader looking to build a high-performing team that's energized, engaged, and sustainable, this episode will give you a new framework to lead by. To learn more about Greg's work, or to inquire about bringing him in to speak at one of your events: Website: https://www.gregoryoffner.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregoryoffnerjr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregoryoffnerjr Chapter 1: Opening and Theme: The "Encore Experience" 00:00:02 – 00:02:22 Dave Matson frames the podcast's focus on the Success Triangle—attitude, behavior, and technique—then Jim Marshall introduces guest Greg Offner and the premise: performance problems are often experience problems. Greg is positioned as a keynote expert on engagement, ownership, and results, and Jim asks him to define the "encore experience." Chapter 2: Defining the Encore Experience 00:02:22 – 00:03:42 Greg explains an encore experience as any interaction that leaves people eager to repeat it, like shouting "one more song" at a concert. He argues workplaces should intentionally create encore experiences daily for customers, colleagues, communities, and oneself. Chapter 3: Engagement Crisis and Opportunity 00:03:42 – 00:05:12 Greg cites long-standing data showing roughly 70% of workers are disengaged, with a subset actively disengaged. He positions encore experiences as both a remedy for struggling cultures and a multiplier for organizations already doing well. Chapter 4: Creation, Agency, and Meaning at Work 00:05:12 – 00:07:41 Using a story about his daughter and sidewalk chalk, Greg illustrates the innate human joy of being the cause. He argues work should be reframed from obligation to opportunity—especially in sales, where relationships and experiences can be intentionally designed for "encore" reactions. Chapter 5: Turning Events into Culture 00:07:41 – 00:10:56 Greg outlines a simple, repeatable playbook: meet the audience where they are, add something uniquely yours (or invite their unique contribution), then reflect and refine. He emphasizes consistent application over one-off events and highlights post-call reviews as a natural reflection mechanism. Chapter 6: Performance Is Interaction: Audience, Not Monologue 00:10:56 – 00:13:58 Greg reframes daily work as performance and every counterpart as an audience member, noting sales should be a dialogue. He introduces the three audience archetypes—keepers, leapers, and sleepers—explaining their motivations in both business and his dueling piano bar experience. Chapter 7: Sleepers as Trapped Value 00:13:58 – 00:15:14 Sleepers arrived with expectations but disengaged when they felt the experience wouldn't deliver. Greg argues they represent the greatest hidden opportunity and that organizations should provoke strong opinions—positive or negative—rather than indifference. Chapter 8: High Performers, Voice, and Retention Risk 00:15:14 – 00:19:31 Greg cautions that voicing improvement ideas is a sign of engagement, not insubordination. Ignoring such input drives talent away. He distinguishes leapers and keepers as likely high performers and warns that o