Does improv comedy hold the key to creating a positive, innovative and productive work life? Workplace expert Joel Zeff answers!

Hello everyone and welcome to the Better Life Better Business podcast presented by The Speakers Group. I'm Shawn Ellis, founder of The Speakers Group, and our guest today is Joel Zeff, a national workplace expert, speaker, author, and humorist known for captivating audiences with a unique blend of hilarious impro— improvisational comedy and essential ideas on work. And life. He has appeared on CNBC's The Big Idea. He's appeared on the Fox Network's Fox Friends Weekend. He's been featured in Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, Kansas City Star, and many other media outlets. And his book, Make the Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative, and Productive Work Life, is consistently listed as one of the top work-life balance books on Amazon. And I am excited to have him here with us today, excited to talk to him. So Joel, welcome and thank you for being here.

It's my pleasure. Thank you, Shawn Ellis. Great.

Well, you know, I love improv comedy as entertainment. I'm just curious, starting out here, where— when did you discover this improv business connection?

Well, I moved to Dallas in 1991 to be a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, and some friends took me— probably the first week I was in town— took me to a club that performed improvisational comedy, and as soon as I saw it, it was like this beacon of light. It was just, "Oh!" I just knew that I had to be part of it, and I started taking some workshops, and eventually I got into the comedy troupe in '93. And so that's when I started my professional improvisational career. And a few years, about a year later, I started on my own as a consultant. By that time I was working for a PR agency and an advertising agency, I entered the agency world. And then in '94 I went on my own as a consultant, mostly PR, writing, marketing, advertising. And one of my clients was Texas Instruments. And they knew I did this on the weekends, did this improvisational comedy. And they were having a retreat, all VP level, all men, all technology, small group. I think it was around 15, maybe 20.. I took another guy with me and they had a blast. More importantly, I had a blast. I was like, well, this is something I can offer my other clients. But at the time I thought it was just going to be small groups, 20 people, 25 people focusing mostly on creativity. Then somebody got my name and number and called me and said, well, we've got 150 people, can you talk about teamwork? Well, sure, improv is all about teamwork. Then someone would call me and go, well, we got 200 people, can you talk about teamwork? Communication. I said, well, okay, sure. And that's kind of where it started. And in '97, I said, well, I should make a demo video. And at this time, I had no idea speaker bureaus existed. There were meeting planners. I had no idea that there was a speaker industry. I was just off just having fun. So I put a video together in '97, and once I did that, it just blew up, and I haven't looked back since. And I love it. It's extremely rewarding. And I always tell people that it's a career that chose me because I didn't even know it existed, and it chose me, and I was meant to do this, and I love it.

That's awesome. You mentioned teamwork, and obviously collaboration is a big part of business today, always has been, but especially today. Talk a little bit about some of the lessons from, from improv that can help us with collaboration.

Sure. And it's, it's not that I'm teaching my clients improv. I'm using the improv as a tool to get to the message. And the message really is, through my experience, taking kind of through the vision of improv, through the vision of my business experience, and then we kind of come out at the end with these messages. And improv is just a great learning tool. That's how it was originally created, long, uh, 1930s, '40s, uh, by a woman named Viola Spolin at NYU. She created improv to teach her acting students. So there are always It was always a teaching tool first. A lot of people, a lot of groups, a lot of organizations use it for entertainment because it's highly entertaining. And I want that entertainment value as well, but it's a great tool because it talks about choices, and improv is all about choices. We're trying to make the best choice in how we collaborate, in how we communicate, in how we lead, in how we deal with change, innovation, risk-taking, focus. There's just these brilliant choices.. And it also shows us how easy it is, how natural these choices are. And that's how I use the games. Certainly there's a lot of fun, a lot of entertainment value, a lot of energy. That's a big part of it. I think people need to have fun, especially in corporate environment, associations, these types of events. We need to have fun. We got so much learning going on, so much industry information that we have to take in. It's good to take a break, have some fun, create some energy, and look at things through a different perspective, kind of get out of our comfort zone a little bit, have a little fun, and then talk about these choices.

Great stuff, and it's so relevant today because we never know what's going to happen, you know, in the next minute, let alone the next day or week. We can have the best plans, but we're going to be faced with making choices. So I assume that's what led to the title of your book, Make the Right Choice, based on what you what you said. So talk a little bit about, maybe if you want to go into more about what make the right choice means, but then what are some of the key choices that we need to make to create that positive, innovative, productive work life that you talk about?

You know, when I first started in the '90s doing improv with corporate groups, organizations, associations, I was just having fun. And then I would talk and some message would come out and go, by the way, this game kind of teaches us this. And then as more and more, as I watch more and more executives, managers, employees play these games, I noticed they were all making certain choices. And that the game was forcing them to make these choices. They were forced to collaborate, how they work together. And one of the key messages there is, how can I help the people around me be successful? Improv is you've got to help each other be successful. That's about the collaboration. And then the choice in how we deal with change, how we have to be prepared for change, because you never know what somebody's gonna say, what's gonna happen, what the next step is going to be. So you're prepared for that. And once you're prepared for change, you say, "Well, I better be focused because change is going to happen. I better pay attention. I better be present in the moment and focused." And so now things are really— this really affects how we collaborate because we're so focused. We're working so well together because we're paying attention, we're in the moment. The next step, we're becoming a little more open and flexible to the change. We understand that there are several people involved, each with their own ideas going a certain direction. If we all jump on board and go the same direction, we're going to be extremely successful in how we collaborate and how we innovate and how we communicate. And so we're becoming a little more open and flexible to each other's ideas. If we just focus on being a little more prepared, a little more focused, a little more open and flexible, watch out. Wow. And that's where that success happens. And that's just a— those are just the choices about collaboration and change. So watching all these executives and attendees, employees make these choices, that's how the title of the book, Make the Right Choice, because they were always making the right choice. And they were being extremely successful, productive, creative, taking risks, having fun, being passionate, dealing with change very effectively. And I said, well, isn't that what we all want? Isn't that what every CEO wants from his group or every VP? That's what we're all striving for. And I'm taking 3 people from the audience that may or may not know each other, they come up on stage, I give them 30 to 60 seconds of instruction, they get a lot of encouragement from me, from the audience. Before they even start, they probably get 3 rounds of applause. And through that positive support, matching it with opportunity, bam, they're off and they do incredible. And so that's kind of where the book came from, watching everyone make these choices.

Okay, that's awesome. You know, one of my favorite lessons from improv, and I think I heard this from you, but it's the the "yes, and" responding to whatever happens with "yes, and" or I guess being open to the possibilities. And I know I've used that a lot in my life in business as opposed to kind of wanting to retract or step away or turn in the other direction. Can you share more about that?

Yes, and is extremely important in improvisation, how we perform. But I don't really focus on that message. I separated the message because when you say "yes, and," I'm not so sure that translates well to the business environment. Now if we take the "yes" part, the positive support, that's— I've separated the "yes" and the "and." The "yes" is, to me, positive support. Creating an opportunity and matching that with positive support, and people are going to give more. When I bring people up on stage And I give them the opportunity, and the audience gives them positive support, they do more. They produce more. They take more risks. They're more creative. And then you match it, you know, that opportunity and positive support, then they're gonna— it just creates a more effective end result. And that's what we're looking for. That's the positive, the yes. The and is you're adding to ideas. You're building on each other's ideas. You're helping each other be successful. That goes back to the message of How can I help the people around me be successful? That's what we want. And if most companies can ask that question, that's pretty easy. We're smart, we know, we can ask that question. And most people can answer it. We know what the people around us need to be successful. The hard part is to act on it. That's what separates the great organizations, the great companies, to act on it and not worry about what comes back. What you're going to get. Just worry about sending it out because it will come back. I promise it will come back tenfold, hundredfold. But if we all focus on how can I help the person around me be successful, just ask that question, answer it, and act on it, that's a successful team. And you don't have to take my word for it. Every time there's a political victory, a sports victory, they interview a company on CNBC and they say, what makes you successful? They all answered the same way. We had a common goal. We all helped each other get there. So I've kind of separated the yes and the and. In improv, it means something a little bit different when you're talking about performing professionally at a comedy club, and it's very, very important. And that message is equally important in what I do. I've just kind of separated it out because I think it translates a little bit better to my audiences, and it becomes a message that's mine rather than a message that just is repeated over and over through whatever place you're going to find as far as improvisation.

Right. I think that's definitely one of the things that's unique about you and one of the strengths you bring is you've got the business experience plus the improv experience to be able to combine the two and really pull out those key lessons and adapt it to business. So that's good stuff. For someone who wants to learn more about this, obviously Your book is available at Amazon.com and other booksellers. You're speaking at conferences all throughout the year, so someone can definitely bring you in as a speaker. Before we go here, what is kind of your best advice or maybe the most important message that you would leave us from improv comedy?

My favorite message is the message, and it's the only thing you can't do in a game, you can't quit. You can't give up. It's the only thing you can't do. So the best message I ever learned is to stay in the game. And that's, I think, a great message, and my favorite message when I talk to these groups. And every session is very customized. Some of my clients, we want to just talk about innovation. And some clients want to just focus on collaboration. And some just want to focus on communication, or maybe a mix. So every session is extremely customized. To fit the client's needs as far as what message we really want to focus on, and then what becomes the planets that are rotating around that, that sun. And staying in the game to me is, no matter what, what we're trying to focus on is important because it means no matter what, as long as we stay in the game, we're going to be successful. Might not be tomorrow or next month, but as long as we stay in the game, whatever our goals agenda, initiatives, themes, whatever we want to accomplish. We're going to do it as long as we stay in the game. Now, stay in the game means you might have to learn something new. You might have to get out of your comfort zone, try something different, get more training, work harder, come up with a new idea. It's— you've got to do something. That's why it's so rewarding at the end when we go, wow, look what I accomplished. It's rewarding because you stayed You stayed in the game and you did what was necessary to be successful. That's what separates those that are successful and those that just kind of wander around looking for something and never really finding it. To me, that's my favorite, favorite message. Like you mentioned the book, my website, I have a brand new website, fingers crossed, hopefully will be born very soon with brand new demo videos. That's a great way to check out what's going on. Lots of different articles and videos and other information about my message and what I do.

Great. And that's JoelZeff.com, right?

Yes. Got it.

Z-E-F-F. So, yes, very good. JoelZeff.com. So pick up his book, check out his website, and most importantly, as Joel just reminded us, stay in the game and look for a way to put this to work in your life and business today. And of course, if we can help you here at The Speakers Group We'd be glad to. You can learn more about Joel at thespeakersgroup.com as well. But Joel, thank you again for, for your advice and wisdom, for sharing this with us, and thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time.