Joel Zeff

Leading Expert/Author in Collaboration, Change and Communication

Hilarious interactive speaker and emcee that inspires, engages, energizes, and wows your audience with improvisation and humor. His clients hire him again. Your team will give him a standing ovation.

Fee Range: $10,001 – $20,000

Location:

Texas

Phone: 800-328-6008

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.

Speech Titles and Descriptions:

THE TA DA OF TEAMWORK: SUCCEEDING DURING CHANGE AND DISRUPTION

We are all improvising. We face challenges, disruption, change, and obstacles without a script or rehearsal. To find success, we need to work together, build trust, and create opportunity. During this session, Joel will discuss how the tenets of improvisation create successful teams during change and disruption. Joel has spent the past 30 years performing and teaching the lessons of improvisation. This interactive, engaging and hilarious session will focus on staying in the game; facing fear; building trust, and asking the important question, “How do I help the people around me be successful?” Joel will also bring his famous TA DA energy as he discusses the importance of opportunity, positive support, and active listening in collaboration. Yes, you will have fun and laugh during this session. You will also learn how to collaborate more successfully as a sales and marketing team, and navigate change. Are you ready for the TA DA?

This session will focus on:

1. Creating opportunity and positive support for your team.

2. Making the choice to “be in the moment.”

3. How to Stay in the Game when faced with challenges, change and disruption.

4. Thrive during change by making the choice to be prepared and open and flexible.

5. Fueling your passion and reducing stress.

THE TA DA OF CHANGE: LEADING TEAMS DURING CHANGE WITH PASSION AND SUCCESS

Change and disruption are constant. Your teams must navigate the chaos and disruption to find success. Too often, we become stressed, frustrated and impatient. Improvisation is finding success during that constant change, chaos and disruption. 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. Improvisation teaches us to embrace change. Joel will focus on the key choices that improvisation teaches us: be prepared for change; be open and flexible to change; be present and in the moment with change.

In improvisation, there is not script, no plan and no rehearsal. Joel focuses on the famous TA DA spirit of creating positive support and opportunity during change. 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.

Change happens. We can either be open and flexible to it or let it steamroll us. Most change is completely out of our control. We only control how we react to change. We choose our attitude. We choose to stay in the game. We chose to be positive and supportive.

The session will focus on:

Embracing change and finding success.
Creating opportunity to lead change.
Being open and flexible to change; being prepared for change; being in the moment during change.
Making the right choices to be an effective leader during change
Asking the most important question of a leader: How do I help the people around me be successful?

THE SPIRIT OF TA DA: WATCH WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WORK BECOMES PLAY

How do your employees and managers embrace the Spirit of TA DA? 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.

In The Spirit of TA DA, 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.

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." 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, creativity, 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.

THE SPIRIT OF TA-DA: A VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE OF FUN, ENERGY, AND PASSION

Sometimes we just need to laugh, recharge and refuel. Joel's session will bring the energy and fun. And hopefully, he will make you laugh.

Joel Is a national speaker, author, workplace expert, emcee, humorist and improvisational comedian. He has presented more than 2,000 keynotes to companies, organizations and associations. Thousands of audience members have joined him on stage to improvise, create and collaborate. The volunteers faced their fear, dealt with change, and found success.

During this virtual program, he will share the secrets that improvisation has taught him. We will explore dealing with change; facing your fears; creating opportunity and positive support for your team; staying in the game; being in the moment; and successful collaboration.

He focuses on the simple choices to increase passion, reduce stress, and overcome the challenges of change.

He also just wants you to laugh. Yes, we are virtual. We still need to laugh, connect, and have fun with our peers, friends and colleagues. Joel promises this will probably be the greatest virtual event you have ever attended or the most recent.

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.

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.

GENERAL SESSION EMCEE/AWARDS EMCEE/EVENT ENTERTAINMENT

For awards presentations, there are two goals: recognize and reward the award recipients and entertain/motivate the rest of the audience. As the emcee, I create energy, set the tone and become the ultimate hype man for the winners, sponsors, and attendees. During award programs, my humor comes from the moment, audience, surroundings, and everything that is happening. I customize each emcee award experience with the client. Some clients want me to do everything. Others want me to share duties with the CEO. I work with clients to determine how best to use my skills. My job is to do the heavy lifting and create a fun, energetic and memorable awards evening.

General Session Emcee and/or Keynote Emcee

More clients are asking me to use my humor, improvisation skills, and entertaining games as an emcee for general sessions. As an emcee, I can use my message and improvisation exercises as mini keynotes. Think of it as splitting up a powerful keynote into small modules spread out during the event. Some of the modules can be short (5 minutes) or a little longer (10+ minutes). Each module can include a short message. The interactive game can also be used just as an energy burst. Of course, there are going to be events where I don’t present a game and just move the event forward as a traditional emcee.

I bring to my clients a different perspective on the emcee experience. Using my messages and improvisation exercises, I can deliver more in the same amount of time. I believe the emcee can engage, entertain, motivate, inspire and deliver powerful messages. So, the ROI increases tremendously. Yes, I do all of the typical emcee duties. I bring more. The ability to add message, engage the audience with interactive experiences, and partner with the client and use my meeting expertise (2,500+ events) to create a memorable event.

Using the improv games is not required. It is just one of my tools that I can use to create an amazing, memorable event for clients. Many of my emcee clients do not use the improv games because of time constraints, agenda or event limitations. To me, the improvisation games are the perfect form of comedic entertainment for a corporate environment. Comedy is a shared experience. I do not rely on stand-up comedy bits that may or may not work. The improvisation games are successful 100% of the time because the humor is based on three levels: the uniqueness of the game; watching your peers play the game; and my ability and interaction with the audience and volunteers.

Everything I do is based on my foundation tools of humor and improvisation. I believe in the power of fun. As the emcee, I bring the fun and energy. I partner with my clients to create amazing memorable events with the power of TA DA!

Event Entertainment

Joel uses a unique blend of improvisational and traditional comedy for his event entertainment. His comedy is clean, relevant, interactive, and suitable for any corporate audience. Joel uses the same dynamic energy and audience interaction for his entertainment performances as for his keynotes. Joel can also customize his presentation to include custom themes, key ideas, or specific products and personnel. His entertainment is ideal as a quick energy burst in between conference sessions, or after dinner to reinforce the key messages of the day.

Testimonials:

Today’s meeting was fantastic!! Joel – you were superb! Thank you so much for conveying your message with great humor! All through lunch, our employees were commenting on how great the meeting was. ‘Best meeting ever’ was stated numerous times!! I don’t think we have laughed so hard in a long time. Thank you so much for working this Cox Communications system into your schedule.

Cox Communications

Thank you for making our LDI such a success. We will remember you for future jobs. I did receive your articles, and we have posted them on the LDI intranet site. Your part of our program was rated a 4.9 out of 5 score on the evals — this is the highest score anyone received. 172 people wrote “Joel Zeff” as the answer to the question on the eval that asked, “What did you like best about this LDI?” You exceeded our expectations, Joel! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Baylor Health Care System

I just wanted to take a moment to personally thank you for an AWESOME ending to our conference. I have received nothing but OUTSTANDING reviews on your performance. Most importantly I was THRILLED to see the maintenance/construction team so involved on stage. Again, many thanks — you were a perfect ending to a great conference.

Laramar Group

The team truly enjoyed your keynote. The feedback sheets tallied…Very Bueno which is the best rating possible. So I would love the opportunity to work together again for our 2007 conference. I’ll keep you informed. Once again, thanks for the phenomenal keynote presentation.

Taco Bueno

I just wanted to let you know again how much our group loved Joel’s presentation at our conference on June 27th. He made such an impact with our group. They just loved him! He was definitely the hit of the conference. People are still talking about it.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Your presentation was a real hit and a GREAT way to end our conference. I heard nothing but positive feedback, and we were thrilled to have you there. I’ve told the Awards dinner story many, many times since I’ve been back.

CenturyLink

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