Zeff, Joel

Spontaneous Speaker and Humorist

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About Joel Zeff

Joel Zeff creates energy. He is a dynamic speaker, improvisational humorist and author. His interactive performances invite members of the audience to participate in hilarious improvisational exercises that illustrate Joel’s central message: That organizations and individuals should CELEBRATE every day successes to increase collaboration, productivity, passion and innovation.

Since 1997, Joel has inspired audiences from Wells Fargo to Samsung to KPMG and even the IRS. Yes, the IRS. Joel is a masterful public speaker and a nationally renowned motivator, lifelong humorist and improvisational actor.

His career is a search for fun and passion. He quickly realized the importance of both at his first jobs delivering the hometown newspaper and cleaning up trash at a suburban movie theater.

He started his professional career as a newspaper journalist and public relations executive. In 1994, Joel went out on his own as corporate communications specialist. He helped clients with their employee communications, media relations, strategy and customer marketing. Throughout the consulting process, Joel realized his clients – many of them high-level technology and telecommunications firms – needed more than marketing and public relations strategy. Many of his clients’ employees were starving for fun, passion and new perspective on finding success.

At the time, Joel was having fun on the weekends as a comedian. Through friends, he discovered improvisational comedy. One of his clients (a large technology company) knew Joel performed comedy on the weekend. The client asked him to play some improvisational games before dinner for a group of high level executives. He brought a fellow comedian and a corporate speaking career was born.

He connects to his audience with humor that has them laughing so uncontrollably that their mascara runs, their cheeks hurt, and their bellies ache. And he doesn’t do it alone. Volunteers from the audience join him on stage and play an integral role in an improvisation game in front of hundreds or thousands of people—something the audience members have never done. He expects nothing less than their success. He expects the volunteers to focus and work together as a team; communicate effectively; positively support each other; and take responsibility.

Joel makes his audience laugh so hard that they forget about the corporate nonsense of conference calls, “strategic deliverables,” PowerPoint presentations with upside-down triangles, or “paradigm shifts in a cross-functional organization.” Make the Right Choice is conversational, funny, and very informative. Yes, Joel will make you laugh, but he’ll also make you think. This presentation delivers a combination of inspiration, essential business knowledge, and significant ideas to help audience members reconnect with their own passion and success.

As discussed in his book, Make the Right Choice, Joel believes that we all encounter choices in our careers. We always have the opportunity to make the right choice to live a more creative, passionate, and productive life. How do you “make the right choice”? You can choose to provide opportunity. You can choose to provide positive support. And along the way, you can choose to have fun. It’s really that simple. Joel teaches us just how easy it is to make these choices.

When he is not speaking, Joel expresses his creativity as an actor, writer and comedian. He started performing professionally in 1992. In Dallas, he was co-host of The Movie Zone on UPN 21. He has appeared in dozens of commercials for numerous clients, including the Dallas Cowboys, Harrah’s Casino, Mydiscountbroker.com, Time Warner Cable, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Eagle Country Markets, and Extraco Bank. He has appeared in hundreds of corporate videos and has appeared on shows from CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch to the Fox Network’s Fox and Friends Weekend. His articles have been featured in The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, among many other mainstream media outlets.

Watch What Happens When Work Becomes Play

We’ve all witnessed the excitement of a three-year-old child. They celebrate finding a ladybug. They celebrate drawing a flower. They celebrate going to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time.

Somewhere along the way, too many adults lose this sense of excitement about our lives and our work. Our tanks are empty. There is no fuel for collaboration, productivity and innovation. When employees and managers are not having fun and enjoying their work, they become “Bye-Bye” people. “Bye-Bye” people don’t care about taking care of the customer, meeting goals, producing results, or having fun.

Employees and managers who have fun at their jobs are more loyal, enthusiastic and passionate. They sell more, communicate more effectively, take better care of customers and produce more sustainable results. And fun increases employee retention.

In Joel’s dynamic and motivational keynote presentation, employees will appreciate the value of fun in the workplace and learn how to make the simple choices to have more fun, and increase their passion and success.

Seven Lessons Learned:

Learn to celebrate work and create a positive environment.
Learn to improve teamwork and help all partners find success.
Learn the three keys to leading change: be prepared; be focused; be open and flexible.
Learn the key to success: staying in the game and keeping your passion.
Learn to promote ownership and accountability.
Learn to encourage innovation by creating opportunity.
Learn to enhance communication.

Make the Right Choice: Taking Ownership and Responsibility for Your Happiness and Success

In Make the Right Choice, Joel shares his experience and insight on creativity, communication, teamwork, passion, and fun. With wit, a sharp observational eye, and playful irreverence, he discusses the choices we all encounter in our careers. We each have the ability to take initiative and make the right choice to live a more creative, passionate, effective, and productive life.

How do your employees and managers Make the Right Choice? We all must take ownership of our work environment and create a foundation of opportunity and positive support. We can choose to be patient, supportive, and more flexible to change. We can choose to have fun in the workplace and still be productive. Joel teaches us just how easy it is to make these choices.

He connects to his audience with humor that has them laughing so uncontrollably that their mascara runs, their cheeks hurt, and their bellies ache.

And he doesn’t do it alone. Volunteers from the audience join him on stage and play an integral role in an improvisation game in front of hundreds or thousands of people—something the audience members have never done. He expects nothing less than their success. He expects the volunteers to focus and work together as a team; communicate effectively; positively support each other; and take responsibility.

Seven Lessons Learned:

Learn to celebrate work and create a positive environment.
Learn to improve teamwork and help all partners find success.
Learn the three keys to leading change: be prepared; be focused; be open and flexible.
Learn the key to success: staying in the game and keeping your passion.
Learn to promote ownership and accountability.
Learn to encourage innovation by creating opportunity.
Learn to enhance communication

Make the Right Choice: Leading Teams during Change with Passion and Success

It’s hard to have fun and stay passionate at work during stressful times. Your employees build stress after each media report about economic challenges. Business today means surviving and thriving during a merger, layoff or the all encompassing “restructuring.” How do managers continue to motivate and energize employees during difficult times? Managers must help employees stay in the game; work in the moment; and take ownership of their happiness.

Joel leads the audience through a series of exercises that demonstrates how easy it is to continue working creatively, effectively and productively while dealing with change. This interactive and hilarious presentation will teach managers the importance of creating opportunity and giving positive support to their employees. Just as important, managers must allow employees to create ownership. Ownership and responsibility will allow the employee to care. And once the employee starts to care, the next step is passion.

Joel uses humor and improvisation to teach his audiences how important these simple choices are to success. During this keynote, audience members will laugh, have fun and be motivated, inspired and energized.

The Tao of Teamwork: Chemistry, Trust, and Risk Taking

It’s hard to explain, but we all know what happens when a partnership or group has chemistry: it’s important in any relationship. When co-workers have fun together, they communicate better and connect on a deeper level. And when they connect, this creates trust, which enables individuals to take greater risks with the knowledge that they have their team behind them. In order for a company to innovate, it must manage risk well, and it can only do so through the prerequisite communication and teamwork. Joel’s interactive exercises train audience members to enjoy their work so they communicate better and ultimately, take more risks.

The Tao of Change: Flexibility, Reaction, and Persistence

Change happens. We can either be open and flexible to it or let it steamroll us. Too many of our daily problems are not worth getting worked up about, but we react to these small events, and it impacts us negatively. We don’t always have control over our changing circumstances, but we do control our reactions. There’s only one reaction that’s not acceptable: quitting. You can’t quit. You may have to communicate your needs; you may have to try something new. But you can’t give up. Joel’s presentation reinforces this message through his dynamic interactive skits.

The Tao of Innovation: Creativity, Risk Tolerance, and Problem Solving

Innovation isn’t a spontaneous occurrence. Innovation is often the result of individual creativity and initiative, as well as a tolerance for the risk that enables such change. Joel’s interactive presentation makes the argument that none of these can occur as effectively without the element of fun that enables risk. When coworkers have fun together, they are more likely to create ideas together, solve problems together and build great success together. Participants learn how to stay in the game, work in the moment, and help each other be successful by asking themselves a very important question: “How may I help the people around me become more successful?”

The Tao of Leadership: Communication, Positivity, and Patience

A leader has to innovate (by tolerating risk and solving problems). A leader needs to know how to prepare for change (by controlling his or her reaction and never quitting). And a leader must communicate well (by creating a 50/50 communication partnership, giving details when necessary, and maintaining a positive and patient attitude). But first and foremost, a leader must set an example by having fun and enjoying one’s own work so that others can do the same. Joel’s interactive presentation will highlight this important lesson through concrete tips and tools.

Testimonials

“Your messages were right on target and, just as importantly, the forum in which they were delivered kept everyone engaged and entertained. I have to tell you that it was truly the best ‘”motivational speaker” type presentation I’ve ever seen!’”
– American Heart Association

“Everyone loved you and I was walking behind a group of ladies and as they were turning into a office, I heard a couple of them yell “TADA!!!”.That is what I strive for with all my events – create a memory that is talked about in the future. Thanks for being partof it!”
– Administaff

“Just another in a long string of superb jobs … Thanks so much for making the recent event at The Westin an exceptional success. I have enclosed the evaluation summary results of the attendees for your review and, as you can see, your performance earned the highest marks of any speaker on the program.”
– PGI

“Joel was upbeat, entertaining, funny, wild and yet was able to get important comments in about behavior and styles we should incorporate to make life and work better. We have had speakers a each of our three retreats, but none has held our interest for an entire two hours as Joel did. In a nutshell, Joel was fabulous.”
– Washington Mutual

“Thank you again for a great performance! You certainly got rave reviews! I will certainly keep you in mind for future events! I really enjoyed the interaction of the audience. What a bonus that we had a couple of Amen’s and hallaluyahs from the audience”
– Sprint

“The interactive games and motivational activities you shared with our trainers will help them inspire thousands of yearbook students, foster creative learning environments and enhance the overall quality of Taylor’s summer workshop program nationwide. In addition, I know that our participants valued your innovative ideas and team building concepts.”
– Taylor Publishing