Improv, Leadership, and Workplace Joy: Joel Zeff on Creating Engaged Teams

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Joel Zeff, keynote speaker, work culture expert, author and humorist who has been energizing audiences for more than 25 years. Joel has delivered more than 2500 presentations using a unique blend of Improvizational comedy. Yes, that’s what I said and real world business insight to help leaders and teams navigate change, improve collaboration, and create stronger workplace cultures. His work is grounded in a simple but powerful idea that success comes from the choices we make every day, especially in how we show up, support others, and respond to uncertainty. He’s also the author of Make the Right Choice. Lead with passion, elevate your team, and unleash the Fun at Work, where he shares practical strategies for building more engaged, resilient, and high performing teams. Joel, welcome to the show.

Joel Zeff: Thank you. I think we’ve covered everything in the introduction we have. Okay. We’re done. It’s perfect. I just need that snippet to put on my website. Okay. Boom. We’re covered. That was I.

Trisha Stetzel: Love that I’m, you know, I spend a little bit of time making sure that you feel special when you come on the show, because we don’t always spend the time to do it for ourselves. Right.

Joel Zeff: I feel very special. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, absolutely. Joel, why don’t we start with this? Tell us a little bit more about just who you are.

Joel Zeff: Well, I started as a journalist. That’s my degree from the University of Kansas. I’m a Jayhawk. And then I, I was working at a newspaper. I came to Texas, to Dallas. They recruited me. I was working at a newspaper in Michigan, the Dallas Times Herald. I don’t know if you, uh, how long you’ve lived in Dallas or lived in Houston. And remember the Dallas Times Herald? But the Dallas Times Herald recruited me, came down to Texas, and then six months later, the paper closed, which is a chapter in my book, and I talk about losing my job. We can talk about that if you if you would like. And so I had a lot of free time, as one does when you lose your job. And I started doing stand up comedy and started doing improv, taking workshops because that was a passion, something that I loved to do, something I discovered and something I wanted to explore. And I had some free time and a severance check, which is always the origin story of a great speaker. Always, Always. That’s the origin story. Severance check and free time. And and so, uh, I started doing improv and discovered that I needed to eat and pay rent. And so I started working at a PR agency and then an ad agency. And one of my clients was Texas Instruments. And they said, I know you do improv on the weekends. We’re having this executive retreat. Can you come play some improv with us? And I said, sure. I didn’t go like, yes.

Joel Zeff: I went, okay, yeah, it was all men, all VP level, and they’re all engineers. So you’re like, oh, the perfect comedy audience. Gold. Pure gold. And so, uh, I did some improv with them before dinner. It’s oh, which is always again, that’s always, that’s a perfect time to that’s when the comedy really happens right before dinner. And so they had a great time and I had a great time. And that’s when the light bulb started flickering on. I said, well, maybe I could offer this to some of my other clients. And just like anything, if you’re passionate about something you love, something you put that energy into it. It’s going to come back and people start passing my name around. And I didn’t plan on speaking and doing 2500 events and writing a book that was not even in my scope at all. I always say the universe chose it for me because I didn’t even know existed. And so, uh, the universe said, this is what you’re going to do. And people would call and say, we need someone to come talk about teamwork. We have 200 people. And I would just go and figure it out. That’s a big part of improv. It’s just kind of saying yes and then figuring it out at the afterwards. And that just inspired me and propelled me. And I just would share what I loved about improv, what improv taught me, what it gave me. And, and 2500 events later, here I am Houston Business Radio.

Trisha Stetzel: Houston Business Radio. So I grew up in south of Dallas in the suburbs. And I know exactly what the Dallas Times Herald is. I’m just saying.

Joel Zeff: Yeah, I was there for the for the end. They, they, they hired me six months before it closed.

Trisha Stetzel: Yikes.

Joel Zeff: So yeah, it was like the Titanic going one more, we got room for one more and I jumped on board.

Trisha Stetzel: Everything happens for a reason though, Joel. It does.

Joel Zeff: It does because that first weekend I lived in Dallas, a friend took me to an improv comedy show, and it was like the movies where the light shines on the protagonist and the music goes, oh. Because that’s how it was. It was just I immediately fell in love with with improv and started taking workshops. And that moment was a really huge. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a really huge moment in my life. And that happened because I took that job in Dallas.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. Okay. Can we talk about. Ta da! Yeah. Okay. All right. Sure. Tell me, what is the culture of. Ta da!

Joel Zeff: So when my kids were younger, they’re old now. They said they barely, I barely I mean, it’s like, where’s the money? That’s about. That’s all I get really, right now. But when they were younger, and I’m sure most people have similar situations, everything was a ta dah. We celebrated everything. And now I’m sure most parents do that. I don’t know if everybody says, ta dah! They might use other words, but we everything was, you know, they ate the whole sandwich. We’re like, ta da! You did it. You know, the first time that I held a spoon, a sippy cup. The first time they went to the bathroom by themselves, everything was a ta dah! We celebrated everything. And just like, you know, the magician, he says, ta da! At the end of the act, because it’s a flourish. Something big just happened. They’re celebrating. Look what we just did. We made this person disappear, and then they came back. Ta da! And so that’s. That’s what ta dah means. It’s a flourish. It’s an energy. It’s a look what I accomplished. It’s an excitement. And so I brought that to my keynotes. And that because when we’re adults, as we get older, we do great things. We just don’t celebrate them. We just think that’s part of our job. That’s what we’re supposed to do.

Joel Zeff: And if we don’t celebrate, where’s our fuel coming from? That fuels our passion, our ability to be successful, be a great leader, great teammate, great communicator. And so I think it’s important that we celebrate these moments. And we have many moments during the day that are that are worth celebration and that we don’t we just once a year, we get together, we give each other some pointy awards, a glass award. You know, it’s like, hey, have some chicken and a rice pilaf and that’s it. We should celebrate every just like when we were kids, we need to celebrate every day because we’re doing great things for our customers and our partners and our team and our and everybody around us. And it isn’t just part of our day. It’s something worth celebrating because that fuels our passion. And when I send email, I’m sure you got when I emailed you probably 95% of my emails, I end with ta dah! Even when like the accounting team wants my w-9 and I’ll send it W-9 I go, here’s my w-9. Ta dah! With an exclamation. And that’s how I hope they read it. I hope they read it like here’s my w-9. Ta da! It’s Joel, right? Because we should celebrate. And that fuels our passion. That’s that’s that’s that’s the meaning of ta dah!

Trisha Stetzel: So how do we shift? Like, how do you how do we someone’s listening today that says, gosh, I would love to bring this into my business or to my leadership team. Where do they start? Besides just yelling, ta dah! In the middle of a room?

Joel Zeff: Yeah. First you got to go to my website, Joel’s dot com. Hire me to know. That’s step one. Step. That doesn’t happen. There’s no celebration. Not at my house. Yeah, I think it’s it’s a choice. And we talk about choices, how important they are in everything that we do. And in my keynotes, I use improv games and it’s very powerful to see audience members play these improv games. We laugh, we have fun, but we’re also talking about choices, how important, being positive and supportive, creating opportunity, helping the people around us be successful, embracing change. And so it’s a choice and the choice to be positive and supportive. And, uh, I shared this story earlier today on a, on a, on another show. I was speaking to a manufacturing company and this woman, we were talking about positive support and she was talking about how uncomfortable it was to receive positive support, which I find very sad, which should never be uncomfortable to receive positive support. That’s my fuel. And it’s important for everyone. And she took what I talked about, how important it is. Took it to her team at the plant. She sent me an email and said I started giving people positive support, making it a point to appreciate people and to say thank you and that you’re doing a great job. And she said in her email, she said, people started giving me the side eye and they’re like, what are you doing? You know, like they, they were pushing back. They were feeling because they, they had never had a job where they received positive support, which is that’s sad to me. And she did not give up, which I really applauded. She kept doing it. And guess what? They appreciated it and they expected it and they needed it and they wanted it. And so it she just by making that choice changed the culture. And I think it’s, it’s, it’s really that simple. Just making the choice.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Can we take that just a little bit further? The choices that we make at work or even in life can create success. Or maybe the opposite, depending on what choice choices you make. How do we really dig into paying attention to the choices we make because things are moving so fast, Joel, right now that oftentimes we’re having to make decisions, or I’ll call it a choice, you might not to do something that might not lead to success in the way that I would like to do it, if I could take the time. So what would you say about that?

Joel Zeff: Uh, we talk about being present.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Joel Zeff: How important is to be in the moment? That’s what it’s called in in improv. In improv, you can you can make lots of choices, but you have to be present. You have to be in the moment with the team, the people that you’re working with the objective. Because if you don’t listen, if you’re not present, you don’t know what people need. You can’t help them be successful. You can’t find that that energy for the team to work effectively together. And so it just falls apart. And so that is, I think, the critical choice to be present and in the moment. Because when that happens, we’re at our best as leaders, as communicators, as innovators. And I think that will help us make the next choice. If we don’t, if we’re not present with somebody, I don’t know if I’m communicating with you. I don’t know if you’re a person that needs a lot of information, you’re analytical and you need all the information in the world. I got to make sure I give you all that information and the right details so that you can make a decision. Or are you more the executive summary type of person? And if I give you too much of that information, I’m going to overwhelm you. You’re not going to be able to make a decision. So how do I know when I’m communicating to you unless I’m present, unless I’m really listening to you and I’m in the moment. And that’s just one choice that I’m going to make when I’m when I make that connection. And I think you’re also talking about choices in how we are fulfilled and how we’re happy and how we find joy in our work.

Joel Zeff: And to me, that’s, that’s my guiding light is to be fulfilled and to be, to enjoy my work and be joyful. That’s my guiding light. So what is it that’s going to make me fulfilled? What is it that’s going to make me happy? And if you really are honest with yourself, you’re going to know the answer. It’s not more money. We that money only lasts to the next page or that money. That happiness only lasts to the next paycheck. And you’re right back where you started. You’re not fulfilled. You’re getting the money you thought was going to bring happiness, but you’re not fulfilled. You want something else. You want a different role, a different responsibility. You want more training. You want to live in a different part of the country, or you want something else. What is it? Once you are honest with yourself, then you tell your manager, your director, whoever you report to. This is what I need to be happy and fulfilled here. You’re going to be surprised how easy it is for them to give you that opportunity, because what do they get back in return? They get a passionate, energized team member that’s going to help them reach their goals. And if they don’t give you that opportunity for you to be fulfilled and have joy, then that’s a big clue. You’re in the wrong place. I promise. Somebody down the street wants someone just like you that’s passionate and energized. That’s going to help them reach their goals, and they’re going to give you that opportunity.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that it was such a great message being in the moment. All right. I know folks are already wanting to connect with you. We’re about halfway through our conversation. Where can they find more information or connect with you in the best way?

Joel Zeff: Uh, the website joseph.com pretty easy. And for anyone that goes to the website, it’s very easy to send an email or, you know, the little box comes up to to send or connect with the team or to join the email list. If you mention Houston Business Radio in that email, I will send you a free chapter of my book, Make the Right Choice, lead with passion, elevate your team, and unleash the fun at work and the free chapters about change. It’s a cool PDF and has some photos and it’s really cool and you can share it with your team. Just mention Houston Business Radio and I’ll send you a free chapter.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Thank you for doing that, I appreciate it. All right, you guys, it’s joelzeff.com. That is how you’re going to connect with Joel and his team and get your free chapter from his book. So before we jump into the book, because I do want to spend some time there, I want to draw this improv and your keynote together because we’ve talked a little bit about you bring it there and you use it. Tell me a little more. So I’m really curious how you’re bringing improv into a talk.

Joel Zeff: So I bring audience volunteers up to the stage, play an improv game, and it’s fun. Lots of laughter, lots of energy engage. The audience is very engaged. And if if they walk out and that’s all they get out of the time spent with me, I’m cool. There’s no better way to spend an hour than laughter and have fun, and you’re actually getting quite a bit out of that. You’re getting you’re connecting with the people around you. It’s very powerful to laugh together. But what I want to do is I’m playing that improv game because I think it’s a very powerful way to make a point to show these choices. I could put up a PowerPoint and show, hey, you need to stay in the game and you need to be more present in the moment and you need to embrace change. But if you see audience members, your peers, your managers, your friends, someone you don’t even know because it’s an association and it’s just, you know, some person in the same industry and they’re playing an improv game and you’re laughing and have and you’re having fun and you’re engaged. You want them to be successful. Now you want to find out why. And so I’m going to point out those choices. Here’s the choice they made, whether I’m talking about teamwork and they’re helping the people around them be successful, which is a key foundation message, whether I’m talking about creating opportunity and the audience is giving them positive support and then helps build their confidence.

Joel Zeff: And so they’re making choices to be successful in the game because they care now. They care about the game. They want the game to be successful. And that happened because I gave them the opportunity and the ownership and the audience gave them positive support, which is the same magic chemistry that you need at your job. Whatever industry you work in, you want opportunity and you want ownership and you want positive support, and then you start to care. And if we care, then we’re going to have passion. And that’s really exciting. And so to see the games and these audience volunteers make these choices is very, very powerful because you’re seeing in real time these choices, not just someone talking about it. I’m showing you what happened when we made these choices. And now let’s take it back to your job and your industry and what you do. And I want to help you be a more successful leader, communicator, teammate, innovator. And I think by making these choices or remembering to make these choices, that that becomes extremely important and powerful.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And practice helps us remember. I believe I like role play, so I call it role play because I’m not so good at improv. I don’t think I’ve ever tried it before. Or maybe I have. I probably do it all the time.

Joel Zeff: You’re improvising right now.

Trisha Stetzel: Actually. We started improvising with the show, didn’t we? Um, but I do think it’s so powerful to have it acted out to actually do the thing and feel it. What’s happening in the moment? Uh, just using your words again.

Joel Zeff: Being present and laughter is is really it creates a memory. You know, when you, you love a song and that song, you have a memory with that song. And laughter is just like that. When you really laugh and you’re smiling and you’re having fun, you’re going to remember that moment more than than a typical moment. And now you’re going to, you’ve got this message with the, the fun and the laughter that’s going to be tied into that. And that becomes something that really sticks and that, that now that’s powerful. And what I want to happen is for the audience to have these moments, these, oh, okay, I get it kind of aha moments. And they take it back and they think about some of these messages because I want people to be passionate about what they do, but you’re not going to be passionate unless you care and you’re not going to care unless you have ownership and that you have opportunity and positive support. It’s just this magic chemistry that happens and we show it in real time. What happens when we create that chemistry?

Trisha Stetzel: It’s so much fun. I can’t wait to come to one of your talks.

Joel Zeff: I would love.

Trisha Stetzel: That. Not volunteering though. I’m going to sit in the audience and watch. I need Trisha. All right, Joel, we’ve said the title of your book. You’ve already offered to deliver one of the chapters, which sounds really important. I’d love to know more about make the right choice, lead with passion, elevate your team, and unleash the fun at work.

Joel Zeff: I think it’s a guide book for leaders and for managers, and really anyone that’s wanting to make these choices, to be more passionate, to be a better teammate, a better leader, a better communicator. And, uh, it follows all the messages that I talk about in the keynote in much greater detail. I use a lot of fun stories, a lot of analogies. A lot of you wouldn’t believe what happened to me type stories in, in work that I think will connect with the reader. I want to make them smile. I want people to, I hope, giggle and enjoy the, the. This is not a, it’s not a textbook. This is not one of those business books that you’re like, you know, snooze. I want it to be fun and engaging and talk about these messages about teamwork and leadership and embracing change and being more present and in the moment, and the importance of creating opportunity and how to be a better communicator. And we talk about these, the messages. And then at the end of almost every chapter, I give you some ideas, some takeaways, things that you can do with your team, with your group, whether it’s how do I create appreciation and positive support with my team? How do I connect? How do we create? Uh, what are some ideas to to foster a great team.

Joel Zeff: And I try to create some ideas and build in each chapter that you can take away and use some of those ideas, things that I’ve seen from other companies. You know, I talk about appreciation and I talk about, uh, there was one company before every meeting, they do a tip of the hat and everybody can, anybody can stand. They do this for five minutes and say and appreciate somebody else on the team for whatever they’ve accomplished or did. And it’s very man, you want to talk about energizing and inspiring and motivating, just like, and they do this before every meeting, whether it’s a huge all hands meeting or it’s, you know, five people in a conference room that, uh, getting together to, to talk about whatever issue they’re, they’re dealing with that day and they call it tip of the hat. And they say, well, we want to give a tip of the hat. And they just, you know, that’s just one idea. And you could Google. It’s not like these are secrets. It’s just they’re out there and and it’s about making the choice to do these things that are going to create energy and being in positive support and appreciation.

Trisha Stetzel: Perfect. I’m just guessing that they could probably find your book at Joel zeff.com.

Joel Zeff: I will link there’s links. Yes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Porchlight books, uh, wherever you purchase your book. And it’s, you know, audible, the voice of animated Superman. Oh, nice. Yeah, that’s kind of. And and, uh, if you ever saw the movie father of the bride with Steve Martin and Martin Short. Yeah, they did not do the audible, but the groom in the movie, father of the bride did do the audible.

Trisha Stetzel: That is awesome. You know what? You’re just full of surprises today, right?

Joel Zeff: That was a surprise to me because to honestly, I didn’t know who that was. And I was a little, you know, a little crestfallen. The publisher didn’t ask me to do the audible. Nobody even said, hey, should we have Joel, the guy that’s done 2500 presentations.

Trisha Stetzel: The one that could actually bring the voice to the book.

Joel Zeff: Yeah, we should ask him. Nope. Nobody asked. And then they go and they just said, hey, by the way, you have an audible and and I’m just thinking some regular guy, they, you know, paid a couple hundred bucks to. And, and so I’m at lunch and with my wife and a friend and a friend goes, George Newbern did your audible. And I go, I don’t know who that is. He was the groom and father of the bride. I’m like, what?

Trisha Stetzel: Oh yeah. Oh my goodness.

Joel Zeff: He does a good job.

Trisha Stetzel: Famous. Well, good. I’m glad. Yeah.

Joel Zeff: I mean, I would have rather done it. Well sure. But nobody.

Trisha Stetzel: We’re waiting. We’re waiting for your version.

Joel Zeff: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: We’re waiting for your version. All right. As we wrap up today, I would love to know what’s next for you today.

Joel Zeff: I’m I, I have to talk to my accountant about my taxes. We’re going to go over my taxes. Pretty excited.

Trisha Stetzel: I love.

Joel Zeff: This. Yeah, pretty excited about it. It’s a big day. It’s a big day.

Trisha Stetzel: Big day.

Joel Zeff: Yeah. I almost I almost gave you I didn’t know that we I’m sure a lot of people call you Trish. Yeah. I don’t know if we’re on that friend level that I.

Trisha Stetzel: Well we’re we’re pretty close.

Joel Zeff: All right, all right.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah we can. Yeah. It’s okay. As long as there’s nothing like making fun of the Trish parts. Okay. Yeah.

Joel Zeff: Well on the podcast I do did this morning he called me Jeff. So.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh. Oh, okay.

Joel Zeff: Well, yeah, seven minutes in.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s it’s close. Like Joel and Seth, if you put them together.

Joel Zeff: And you get Jeff and I get Jeff every day, but I’m actually, um, I have a lot of events coming up.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Joel Zeff: With, uh, a really wide range of, uh, clients. I have a back. To, um, the hospital to get your infusion. You go to um you can have a home nurse come, uh, dentists. I have, uh, the, uh, an HR group. It’s pretty wide range.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so before we close, because now I’m curious if someone’s listening today and they’re like, oh my gosh, we need Joel to come and talk at our, at our company, who, who are your best clients? Who’s bringing you in for that?

Joel Zeff: That’s a great, I, you know what, that’s a, that’s a really great question. I have a wide range of clients and I’ve spoken to government agencies like Social Security and IRS, and I’ve spoken to manufacturing companies and restaurant banking. There’s rarely do I come across an industry like, well, I’ve never, never worked with them before. And, um, and so, you know, health care and. And so everybody wants to have fun every these these messages, I think are very universal in being more present, creating opportunity, how we find joy and passion in what we do, how to be a great leader, how to embrace change, creating a work culture that is supportive and positive and energizing. And I think that transcends all different industries, all different groups. And that’s one of the really cool things about my job, is I get to meet so many different companies and learn about what they do and be inspired by them because they’re passionate, whether they’re in the restaurant business or they’re a dentist or they’re an accountant or they’re an HR or, um, recently a group, um, with, I was with Samsung, the group that sells the big displays to different companies. And so it’s, it’s fascinating to learn about different companies and what they do and how passionate they are about their job.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, Joel, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. This has been not just insightful, but fun.

Joel Zeff: Well, I had a great time. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Ta da!

Speaker 4: Ta da! I love it. Okay. Ta da! All right, you guys.

Trisha Stetzel: That is all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Joel and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran, or Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.