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Joel Zeff
About
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biography Highlights
- Dynamic keynote speaker blending humor and insight to boost team collaboration and productivity.
- Engages audiences with interactive improvisation, creating memorable learning experiences.
- Helps organizations cultivate passion, innovation, and success through joyful celebration of achievements.
Biography
Joel Zeff Creates Energy
He is a dynamic speaker, work culture expert, 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 their 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 keynote speaker and a nationally renowned motivator, humorist, and improvisational actor. His spontaneous humor and vital messages have thrilled audiences for more than 25 years, and he has shared his insight at more than 2,500 events.
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 a corporate communications specialist. He helped clients with their internal 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 a 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 weekends. The client invited him to entertain and speak to a group of executives before dinner. 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 hurts, and their bellies ache. And he does not 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 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 triangles, or “paradigm shifts in a cross-functional organization.” Joel will make you laugh, and he will make you think. His keynotes deliver 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 can 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.
He has appeared on CNBC and featured in The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, and many other media outlets.
Videos
Showreels
Topics
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 team, and navigate change. Are you ready for the TA DA?
This session will focus on:
- Creating opportunity and positive support for your team.
- Making the choice to “be in the moment.”
- How to Stay in the Game when faced with challenges, change and disruption.
- Thrive during change by making the choice to be prepared and open and flexible.
- Fueling your passion and reducing stress.
- Collaboration: how we help each other find success.
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 through 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 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 no 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?
TESTIMONIALS
Books
Make the Right Choice: Lead with Passion, Elevate Your Team, and Unleash the Fun at Work
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