Search Results for: kids care

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 and my friend, Scott Hartsfield, Chief Development Officer at Focal Point and a leader in business coaching, leadership development, and organizational growth. With more than two decades of experience, God has helped individuals and organizations unlock growth, develop high performing leaders, and drive meaningful business transformation. At Focal Point, he leads strategic initiatives focused on expanding a global network of business coaches and helping professionals transition into successful coaching careers. In addition, Scott is the CEO of Supportive Education Group, where he partners with higher education institutions to improve enrollment strategies and outcomes. Known for his energy, maybe his laugh, insight, and practical approach, Scott brings real world strategies that help leaders grow their businesses, lead more effectively, and navigate career transitions with confidence. Scott, welcome to the show.

Scott Hartsfield: Thank you so much, Trisha. Appreciate you having me on today.

Trisha Stetzel: I don’t know how I haven’t had you on yet. I’m so stoked about you being on. So first let’s start with, tell us more about Scott.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah, absolutely. So thanks for the amazing introduction. I appreciate all of that. Um, so as you can tell, yes, I’ve been part of this focal point system now for 15 years, uh, leading development, working with individuals that are in the second half of their career that are looking to make a change. Uh, my team and myself like to work with those individuals to help them navigate that change. Uh, but just a little bit about me personally, I’m originally from Durham, North Carolina. If you can’t tell from the, uh, the southern accent a little bit, um, I’ve got, uh, three kids. Uh, my oldest is, uh, graduating from college in May. Uh, we’ve got two boys still in the house. 14 and ten. Uh, I’ve been married now for about 19 years. Coming up May 17th to my wife, who’s also a business coach who you’ve trained.

Scott Hartsfield: Yes. Um, but, uh, yeah, absolutely love the work that I’m doing here at Focal Point. Uh, and happy to be here today.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh. Uh, shout out to Theresa. We love her.

Trisha Stetzel: We might like you a little bit, Scott.

Scott Hartsfield: I definitely, definitely leveled up.

Trisha Stetzel: I would I love to hear what led you to doing this work with Focal Point. So give me some background on who Scott is and how you grew up in this leadership development space and how you actually landed here at Focal Point.

Scott Hartsfield: It’s an interesting story. It’s actually kind of serendipitous as you kind of think about it. So, you know, grew up, um, you know, my dad was, uh, my dad’s always been a strong business leader. He’s been in executive level roles for a very long time. But he started at the very bottom. He was a janitor sweeping floors in a retail shop and just, you know, kept trying to influence himself to get into positions. And my career started very similarly. You know, we we grew up in the church, so very faith based. And, um, I’ve always looked at, you know, things that allow me to serve and to help others. Um, but I started my career early on. I was working in property management. I had a job where I was leasing apartments. And uh, one day there was a gentleman by the name of Mr. Nello. He was the president of a university. Uh, he came in looking for an apartment. We met, uh, he asked me several questions that made me think. I was like, why is he asking me all of these detailed questions? He was asking me like, do I like my job? And how much money do I make and things like that? And so I didn’t realize he was at the time recruiting me. Uh, and he said, hey, I want you to come over to our university and help us to grow our admissions department. We want to help to recruit more students. And, you know, I didn’t know a lot about the role, but it sounded, you know, attractive. And so I took this job to go out and work as an admissions rep.

Scott Hartsfield: And so at this time, I was new to Jacksonville, Florida. I was living in Jacksonville, Florida at the time, and I was serving in the church. I was working with our Angel tree Ministry, where we worked with the youth, the inner city youth, and we these were the folks that their parents were typically away. Um, most of them were in prison. Um, and so I worked with those kids. And so when I took on this job, as much as I loved it, it really impeded on my ability to continue to serve deeply in the church. Right? So I had a meeting with our pastor, um, Pastor McKissick senior. And, uh, so I went to him with this challenge. I said, hey, you know, I really want to serve and I really want to help, but my job is not really allowing me to with the hours that I work. And he said, what do you do? I said, I work with students and I help them to navigate life and to help them to go and make a change through education, find their career path through education. He said, Scott, that’s your ministry. I was like, okay, well. And so I put a pause on the Angel Tree ministry and started using the work that I was doing in college admissions, um, really as my ministry. And so this, what I loved about that, that role was we weren’t just selling education, we were really transforming lives. We had people come to us from all walks of life where, you know, they were the first one in their family to go to school or, you know, all, all types of firsts for them.

Scott Hartsfield: And so there was a lot of, um, challenges that they were up against because they had just never gotten to this stage before. And I wanted to bring them hope. I wanted to make sure that they knew, hey, there is a better way you can do this. And a lot of it was sometimes us just believing in them. And so I progressed in that. I remember one day, maybe six months in, I had gotten a rookie of the year trophy for helping the most people, you know, get recruited into school. I didn’t even keep track of the numbers. I had gotten so involved into the people’s lives and their stories that I realized that was one of our top recruiters. And so one day my boss, his name was Montrez Lucas. Shout out to Montrez. He’s amazing. He is. He was very influential in my my growth. He called me in his office, Scott Hartsfield am I, I was like, oh crap, I’m getting fired. And so I go in his office and he said, hey, um, the corporate is putting together a team called the A team. They want you to be part of this and they want this team to be, they want you to do whatever you’re doing here and roll this out to all of our campuses at large. We had 11 locations. And so I took on this role overnight. I became my boss’s boss, which was pretty weird. Um.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s a whole nother conversation, right? That’s a whole nother conversation.

Scott Hartsfield: And so, um, so I did that for a while. I was helping other institutions do what we were doing, transforming lives and making the work that we were doing in college admissions, more about the people and their stories and less about just the numbers and the profitability that came with that transaction. And so being part of that. I got a tap on the shoulder and somebody said, hey, I think you could do what you’re doing at a higher level in franchising. Okay. Now I had, you know, never really looked at franchising before, didn’t really know much about franchising. I had always had this entrepreneurial mindset. Everything we did growing up, I started a business around it. And originally I was going to reject this opportunity because I said, you know, I don’t want to be selling franchises to people. I want to, you know, I like, I like what I’m doing. I’m changing lives. He said, no, I think you could make the same life change just on a different stage. And so my wife, um, Teresa, my girlfriend at the time, um, she said, I think you should take this on. I think you would do really well on this opportunity. And so it was really that advice that encouraged me to step into this new space. Right. And so got into doing recruitment for franchising, helping people navigate the world of business ownership, did that successfully for 5 or 6 years with a consulting company that was based out of Europe.

Scott Hartsfield: Uh, had a lot of fun, learned a ton. I learned a ton. Um, and during that I bumped into, uh, Steve Thompson, who’s the CEO of Focal Point. Um, focal point was just coming on the scene. Then I think this was probably like around 2006. Uh, I bumped into Steve Thompson and when you asked me about like, what? How did I get the focal point? When I heard Steve talk about the work that we do at Focal Point, it really took me back to the work that I was doing in college admissions. They were really about the impact transformation. They had this whole saying around the pebble on a pond, and that really resonated with everything in my core. I was like, this is what I like to do. This is me. And so I got to know Steve, um, ended up coming on to be a recruiter and ended up taking over our recruitment department for focal Point. Um, my, I became a franchisee at Focal point. So I do some coaching on the side. My wife became a franchisee. And so that’s just been kind of my, my journey of how I got to focal point, the long version.

Trisha Stetzel: The long version. I think the short version this time. Scott. We still have time for more questions. Yeah, I heard you say something that really resonates with me, and I heard the reason why I asked you on the show is because you said this before, and it’s people and their stories. Can you expand on that? Why that’s so important to you? It really sits with you to get to know the people in their stories.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s something for me. I’m a curious person by nature. I’m the type of person if we meet. I’ve never met a stranger. And when we meet, I like to really know who you truly are. Like, I don’t like to just say, hey, how are you doing? I really am genuinely interested to know, how are you doing? Right. Um, and I know that, you know, a lot of the people that because a lot of what I do is in the business world and a lot of people, this is more of a corporate environment, sometimes things tend to stay at the surface and we never get to the, to the core and the why. And I’m genuinely interested in what that is. I’m always like my my kids always laugh at me. I’ll ask, I’ll ask people when I meet them right away. What’s your middle name? My kids are like, why are you asking what their middle name? Like, I want to know. Like, I really want to know. I asked you your middle name before, right? And so I just have this interest in really understanding what that is because to me, that’s the driver. And a lot of the times, because of our environments, we have to hide who we are, right? Um, and you know, I call it, you know, kind of marrying your why with your what? Like I like to be in roles where I can be my authentic self, get to know your authentic self. And that can still be part of my job. But I want to be able to really unpack kind of what’s driving that why and that purpose, because to me, that’s the engine for who we are as people. Um, and there’s no need to cover that up, right? And once we can really tap into what that is, that’s when you can really start to go places that you never thought you could go. Um, and so I love really getting, getting down to that root cause of what’s that driver.

Trisha Stetzel: That I thought you were just making middle names up. That’s what I liked about not just make middle names up or a middle initial?

Speaker 5: Middle initial.

Scott Hartsfield: There you go. Absolutely. Yeah. So we I’ve always worked at work to get to those. I appreciate you asking that.

Trisha Stetzel: Of course. Um all right. So I do want to jump into coaching. But before we get there, I know there are some folks out there that would love to connect with you, Scott. So what’s the best way to connect with you?

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah, best way to connect with me would probably be on LinkedIn. Um, you can just go right to my LinkedIn page, type in Scott Hartsfield. So you may be able to share this as well after the show as well. But yeah, hit me up on LinkedIn. We’d love to have a conversation or explore anything that might be on your mind.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. And if you can’t find them, just reach out to me. I’ll make sure you get connected.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And of course, it’ll be in the show notes. So if you’re sitting at your computer, you guys can just point and click and go straight to his profile. All right, Scott, if it’s okay, I’d like to jump right into coaching. So one, I want you to tell us what, uh, what focal point is as a franchise. And then I want to talk about the types of people that we attract as franchisees.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah. So Focal Point is a business coaching and executive leadership coaching franchise model. And you know, the word franchise. I know sometimes people hear that for the very first time, we think about, you know, chick fil A and Burger King and all of these different types of things. You know, franchising is really just a word to describe, you know, a proven system and a process that provides support. That’s really what a franchise is. And so the franchise that we have is business coaching, and it’s a structure around people that want to become a business coach. And so all of our franchisees themselves, they are business coaches. These are typically folks that are looking to leverage their experience. And I’ll share a little bit more about that when we talk about the profile. Um, but we’ve structured the way people can get into business coaching by providing curriculum, by providing, you know, a system and a process for people to follow that’s proven when they’re working with individuals to increase their business revenues or help them with their challenges. Um, and we provide training and support to people that want to do this, that don’t want to build from scratch. Um, and so I’ve been part of helping to grow this, you know, focal point community for 15 years now.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And I think it’s all your fault that I’m here.

Speaker 5: Yes.

Scott Hartsfield: I indirectly had something to.

Speaker 5: Do with it. Indirectly, yes. Indirectly. Uh, and.

Trisha Stetzel: We’re glad that you did. We’re so glad that you did. It’s such a fantastic community. Let’s talk about the I’m just going to be real high level focal point coach profile, or the people who might like to be in this business in the first place.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah. So, um, I speak with every single person that comes through focal point that’s considering this opportunity. And there is a, a standard and a profile that we are always looking for. Um, there’s two words that come to mind when I think about our coaches. Number one is leadership and number two is serve. Right. Those are the two, one, two punches that I’m looking for in every single person that I speak with. So when we look at leadership. Most of our most successful coaches are folks that have come from some type of a leadership role, whether it’s in the military, whether it’s in the business world. They’ve led at some capacity. It doesn’t really matter what they were leading in. The common theme is they’ve been a leader. Um, and as a leader, you’re doing a lot of coaching, development and mentoring, um, and strategy. Um, and so there’s a lot of traits that come with leaders and that really lend itself well to the work that we do. Okay. So we really, you know, attract people that have been doing that for a long time. And most of our coaches have led for, you know, 25, 30 plus years in whatever they’ve done. So they have seen it. All right. Um, and secondly, which I think is, is really the glue to it all is there’s this, this heart to serve others. They, they’re, they want to use that experience for good. They don’t want to just tell old stories about what it was, but they genuinely want to use that to serve someone else. That’s our ideal coach. Um, and, uh, as I talked about earlier in my career, that’s something that’s very important and meaningful to me is servant servant leadership. Um, and so we attract and look for those types of people.

Speaker 5: Okay.

Scott Hartsfield: And so Trisha, you shared that as well. Yeah.

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, let’s take a deeper dive into that about what actually makes a great coach. And I think the question that I have for you is, what separates someone who’s just interested in coaching from someone who can truly build a successful coaching business?

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah, that’s a really good question. So when you start thinking about and that’s actually perfect, you know, taking that unique skill that you have and channeling it towards coaching, building a business around that is different than just being the coach, right? Because a lot of folks will leave corporate and just, you know, say, I want to go out there and coach. And they don’t really get very far because they haven’t really built the infrastructure around the business side of how to have that business and what their marketing is going to look like, what their curriculum is going to look like, what their sales process is going to look like, what their coach processes look like, their website, their tech platforms. And so that’s the business side of coaching that a lot of folks don’t think about when they’re out there trying to do it on their own. And so the reason why they find so much success at Focal Point is because that infrastructure has already been pre-built. We’ve been doing this now for 22 years, right? We’ve built out curriculum. We have curriculum on top of curriculum processes that have been tried and true. And so through through Focal Point, you can invest in what we’ve already built instead of trying to start at scratch. And I tell everybody, you know, try to do it on your own, doesn’t mean you’re doing it for free. Um, you know, and so although there’s an investment in focal point, that investment isn’t something that’s been tried, trusted and proven right. Doing it on your own. You’re, you know, wishing on a prayer and, and trial and error and, and developing things on your own. And so, um, we have found that most folks that go down this path tend to have a much more successful coaching franchise. And the most common feedback that I get from people that join is, man, I wish I would have done this ten years ago. Um, and so, uh, so yeah, that’s just a little bit of the differentiation between doing this on your own or, you know, partnering with somebody like focal point.

Trisha Stetzel: Love that we talk about the culture. Uh, you mentioned earlier, pebble on the pond. Let’s expand on that and tell me a little bit more about the culture in Focal point man.

Scott Hartsfield: Um, so one of the questions I get asked often because you don’t really see it a lot anymore is, you know, what’s kept you at focal point for as long as you’ve been here? I’ve been here 15 years. Right? And it’s the word that you just described right there. It’s our culture. Uh, it’s real. Um, one of the things about focal point that impresses me the most is before we built out the structure of this business with curriculum and content, the culture was predetermined. They said, we want a business that represents these culture points, right? And those culture points have really been woven and intentionally designed in every single thing we do, from recruitment to the time that our coaches are running their practices. And so our, our, the couple of things that I’ll talk about with our culture. Number one, it’s real. Um, number two, it comes from the people. So when we recruit great people that fit that culture, it just continues to multiply. Um, we have our annual conferences where we all get together. It’s literally a family reunion. Um, we’re, uh, you know, we have one coming up in a few weeks here in San Diego. Um, but it’s a very collaborative, um, culture and a lot of it’s because of those two things we brought in the right people that are leaders, we brought the right people in that want to serve and that starts to blossom this culture. But for me, there’s a few things that really stand out about our culture. Number one is integrity. Integrity is one of those culture points that all businesses will love to put in their mission or vision or whatever, but it’s one of those integrity is tough because that’s doing the right thing no matter what.

Scott Hartsfield: No matter what. When somebody’s not looking, doing the right thing, when somebody is looking, doing the right thing. And if you’re going to be a business coach that’s influencing and helping others, you need to always do what’s right and focal point as a culture where that’s at the center of what we do. We have a very transparent arrangement with our clients. We’re not here to sell coaching or do something that just benefits us as a coach. We’re here to benefit what our client’s needs are. And that to me is pure and it’s raw and it’s what I love. Um, I also love the fact that our culture represents legacy. You know, when you talk about this pebble in a pond, this is actually bigger than the client that we’re coaching. Because when we coach that client, there’s a ripple effect that happens. We start to create change within their office, which starts to create change within their community and their families. You know, I’ve seen so many different coach stories. We do these interviews at conferences where we interview our clients that have been coached by our coaches. And I’ve watched so many of these interviews, and most of them typically are emotional with tears attached to them. And they talk about that ripple effect. And sometimes our coaches don’t realize that until they’ve gotten involved. So I love the fact that legacy was something that we wanted our coaches to be able to participate in, and it’s what our coaches are looking for when they’re doing something like this. So I could go on and on about culture, but those are just a few that really stand out.

Trisha Stetzel: On and on.

Speaker 5: And on and on.

Trisha Stetzel: Do you have some really great coaches? And, um, I appreciate that you and your team are really vetting for the right people to be a part of this culture because it is special. It’s very special. And the pebble on the pond is something that resonates with all of us who are a part of Focal Point.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, okay.

Speaker 5: What’s next?

Trisha Stetzel: What’s next for Scott Hartsfield?

Speaker 5: So you’ve.

Trisha Stetzel: You’ve done a lot of things and a lot of it has been around, uh, coaching, mentoring, um, bringing people to the right places, being involved in the right things. What’s next for you?

Scott Hartsfield: That’s so awesome. That’s the big that’s the big question, right? Um, you know, I’ve got a I’ve got a wonderful team around me, um, of people that I’ve been leading and developing over the years. Um, I own a coaching franchise with focal point. I own another company as well. And you know, as, as I do all of these different things professionally, my family is growing. I’ve got three kids, you know, ten, 14 and 21. And I start to think about, you know, how I’m there for them. I coach flag football. I’m very involved in their in their lives. And my daughter is looking to go off and be an attorney. And I told her, hey, you should go into franchise law so I can leverage you. Um, you know, but when I, when I think, you know, kind of further out, um, you know, when I’m ready to pass this baton on one of my team players that’s on my team, I’m probably going to be a coach. This is what I see myself doing, I really do. It comes so natural. Uh, one of the first businesses that I ever started, I was in middle school. Um, and, from there, every single thing that we did that we found interesting, we turned it into a business. That business that we started back in middle school was a street hockey league.

Scott Hartsfield: Um, and it all started because, um, I decided to get a pair of rollerblades for Christmas. This is when they first came out. Inline skates. When people were, you know, this is dating myself. This was back in the 80s. And, uh, my friends all got rollerblades. And I said, you know what? We started playing and then we picked up some hockey sticks and started playing hockey in the, in the, um, the neighborhood. I said, we ought to start a league. Right. And so, and I was like, I think I was like 10 or 12 or something like that. Um, I said, well, if we’re going to start a league, we need to get a sponsor. I didn’t even really understand what sponsors were. I just knew that if you had a league, you needed a sponsor. I didn’t realize that the relationship with the sponsor. So I rode my bike down to this place called Life Cycle Fitness. It was a local place that sold bikes at the store. And, um, I said, hey, we need a sponsor. And he said, okay, great. What do you guys need? I said, what do you mean? I said, we need a sponsor. He said, no, what do you need? And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. I said, well.

Speaker 5: Since you’re asking my shopping list. Yeah.

Scott Hartsfield: We need jerseys. We need. And so we ended up starting a league. We ended up having 12, um, uh, teams in this league. Uh, we rented out space, um, at the local school, Hope Valley Elementary School. Uh, we had referees and so I’ve always had, like everything we’ve ever touched, you know, once we moved on from them, we got into skateboarding. I started some skate TV show. We wanted to create. We wanted to be on TV doing skateboarding. And so everything’s always been a business, right? Every single thing we touch. And so naturally, I just have this affinity towards business ownership and entrepreneurship and helping people get into this space because it’s so freeing. You don’t have to have a job. And so, um, I see myself long term, really just playing heavily into this coaching space and leadership.

Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we can let go.

Trisha Stetzel: Of the J.o.b..

Speaker 5: I love it. Yes.

Scott Hartsfield: Put that behind you? Yeah, there’s a better way.

Speaker 5: There’s a better way. Oh my goodness. All right.

Trisha Stetzel: Last question. As we get to the back end of our conversation, for someone who is listening that’s feeling ready for that next chapter, whether that’s growing their business or even stepping into coaching as a business, what’s one step they can take this week to move forward?

Scott Hartsfield: That’s a good question. Um, you know, a lot of people that I help, I’ll kind of address this from the recruitment side of helping people transition into focal point. A lot of people want our journey takes about 4 to 6 weeks to help someone figure out if this is the right move for them. And when they get to that and they do figure out this is the right move, they tell me, man, if you’d have told me two months ago I’d be starting my own business in coaching, I’d have thought you were crazy because it wasn’t on my radar. Right? I wasn’t even thinking about that. Right. So I would encourage you to take the very first step and just explore, right? We have conversations. They’re not sales conversations. We’re not trying to sell you anything. I would just say explore what it could look like for you. Right? We have a very open process where you get a chance to speak with coaches that have already done this before you. They’ll show you their story. So I would encourage you to hit me up on LinkedIn or connect with Trisha, you know, speak with me or somebody from my team and have an initial conversation just to explore if this could make sense for you. Okay. We’re going to always come back to that culture point of integrity. We’re going to make sure that this is the right move. It’s a mutual process. And so I would just encourage you to take the first step. You may learn that business ownership is for you. You may learn that it’s not for you. Right? And but you only will know unless you take the first step. And so I’d be happy to have that conversation with you at any time.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, I love that. Okay. And the best way to find Scott, as he mentioned earlier, is on LinkedIn. You can find him at SCOTTHARTSFIELD. Scott Hartsfield on LinkedIn, Or of course, you guys can connect with me and I’m happy to connect you with Scott. Thank you so much for your time today. This has been so much fun. I know you were probably like, you want me to be on your show? And I’m like, yes, I want you to be.

Speaker 5: On my show.

Scott Hartsfield: It’s an honor. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate the work that you’re doing, Trisha, and thank you so much for having me on today.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: This is so much fun. All right, you guys, it’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Scott and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. 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.

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.