Ep42 Joel Weldon, Speaker to Hall of Fame, Communication Is a Superpower: Leadership Development Podcast

 HOST: Ovi Vásquez is a nationally recognized bilingual leadership keynote speaker who inspires audiences at education conferences, corporate summits, and association events. A #1 Amazon bestselling author and TEDx speaker, Ovi draws upon his journey from working as a child farmworker in the sugarcane fields of rural Guatemala to working for some of Silicon Valley’s leading companies.

Through his story, he delivers a powerful message of resilience, leadership, and purpose. Speaking in English and Spanish, he specializes in youth leadership, first-generation student empowerment, and developing values-driven leaders across education, business, and communities. 

GUEST BIO: Joel Weldon, Hall of Fame professional speaker, founder of the National Speakers Association, and creator of the Ultimate Speaking System. With over 50 years of experience, Joel has spoken at more than 3,000 events and coached over 10,000 speakers worldwide. From being told he was the worst speaker at 28 to becoming one of the most respected speaking coaches in the world, Joel teaches leaders how to communicate with clarity, confidence, and connection.

Find our guest at: https://ultimatespeaker.com
Find our host at: https://www.ovinspires.com
 

Leadership Development Keywords: executive leadership, communication mastery, public speaking skills, influence, clarity, accountability, emotional intelligence, storytelling, audience engagement, leadership development

Leadership Development Summary: In this episode, Joel Weldon shares the communication principles that built his 51-year Hall of Fame speaking career. He explains why speaking is a learned skill, why authenticity beats performance, and why leadership communication must focus on the audience—not the speaker. Joel introduces the NFV formula—Needs, Fears, Victories—and practical feedback systems that transform ordinary communicators into influential leaders. His insights apply directly to executives, educators, and emerging leaders developing high-impact communication skills.

10 Takeaways on Leadership Development
✅ Speaking is a learned skill
✅ Be yourself, don’t perform
✅ Make it about the audience
✅ Use the NFV formula
✅ Ask for anonymous feedback
✅ Open with “You’re here because…”
✅ Avoid ending with “Thank you”
✅ Always include a call to action
✅ Speak to one person at a time
✅ Clear expectations build credibility

5 Titles for Leadership Development
✅ From Worst Speaker to Hall of Fame
✅ Speak to Your Audience, Not Yourself
✅ The NFV Formula for Influence
✅ Communication Is a Leadership Superpower
✅ Stop Performing. Start Connecting.

5 Sound Bites for Leadership Development
🗣 “Speaking is a learned skill.”
🗣 “Be you.”
🗣 “It’s not about you.”
🗣 “Needs. Fears. Victories.”
🗣 “Speak to your audience in a way they can understand.”

10 Chapters on Leadership Development
00:00 – Introduction to Joel Weldon
02:00 – Three Premises of Communication
04:00 – The Story of Boring Bob
10:30 – Feedback as Growth System
15:00 – The NFV Formula Explained
19:00 – Making It About the Audience
22:00 – Opening Strong with “You’re Here Because”
24:00 – Ending with a Call to Action
27:00 – Building Stage Time Through Social Media
29:00 – Final 22-Word Closing Principle

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Leadership Culture podcast
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Organizational leadership podcast
Professional Development podcast
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Corporate leadership podcast
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 Find our host at: https://www.ovinspires.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Leadership Messengers Podcast. I am your host, Ovi Vasquez. Born and raised in Guatemala with no electricity, now bringing you experts to help you develop our next generation of values-driven leaders.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

If you want to be an even better communicator, speaker, leader, here's 22 words that summarize what the entire system I've created is all about and what's taken me half a century to learn.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Welcome to Leadership Messengers, where we bring you experts to help you develop our next generation of values-driven leaders. And today you're tuning in because you care about leadership, education, and helping the next generation communicate with confidence and clarity. Whether you're a young professional stepping into leadership, an educator working with students, or someone mentoring young people, the ability to communicate clearly and connect with others is one of the most powerful skills you can develop. In fact, one of the most successful investors of all time, Warren Buffett, once said, You can improve your value by 50% just by learning communication skills and public speaking. And that's why I'm excited for you to meet our guest today, Joel Weldon. Joel is a Hall of Fame professional speaker and speaking skills coach. He created the ultimate speaking system and has helped entrepreneurs, executives, educators, and thought leaders communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and impact. Joel has been paid to speak at more than 3,000 events and has personally coached over 10,000 speakers, helping them turn their ideas into messages that truly connect with audiences. Today, we're going to explore how communication skills shape leadership, confidence, and influence, especially for young people who want to make a difference in the world. Everyone, let's welcome Mr. Joel Weldon. Hi, Joel. How are you today?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Well, great. Thank you, OB, and welcome as you're listening. Now you might be an educator, or maybe you're in the business world, or maybe you're just starting out and you're still getting your education. But leadership is important to you. And one thing all leaders have, whether it's in business or in education or the military or in any field, is they have to communicate. And since you have been doing this, since you're about two or three years of age, you have lots of experience communicating. But now that we have this virtual world, like Ovi and I are talking to you on a virtual communications call. In the past, it only was in person. Well, now we do both of those kind of things. And you do that all the time. The question is, how effective are you at getting your ideas across? So that's what we're going to discuss for you. Practical things you could do right away. So let me give you three basic premises when it comes to the ability to communicate and speak. Number one premise: it's a learn skill. Now, whatever your hobbies or interests are, you probably weren't born knowing how to do it. Sports, if you like to play golf, you weren't born knowing how to play golf, you learned how. If you know how to type with all ten fingers, you didn't know when you were born, you learned how. Maybe in elementary school or junior high or high school. Speaking is exactly the same way. It's a learned skill. But most people don't really know what those skills are because we've been doing it so long and we just developed our own patterns. Second premise: aside from learned skill, be yourself. Being an effective speaker is not a performance. Now, if you've been tuning into OV and watching him for these last three months and all these podcasts he's been doing, he's always the same. And that's how you should be. You should be you. There's only one of you. And this might sound shocking, but I've worked with people who are dull, boring, and monotone. And the first thing I tell them to do is don't change. But we'll bring it up in the introduction. So I recently had a client, they called him Boring Bob in his company because he put everybody to sleep. But he was the chief financial officer. He had to speak at meetings, he had the numbers, nobody else could do it. And it was a terrible part of their annual event every year. And the president had hired me to be there to speak. And then he asked me before Bob started to close the meeting with the numbers, do you help people? I said, Yeah, that's what I do. He said, Well, maybe you can help Bob. Watch him, watch how terrible he is. So just imagine OV, or as you're listening, a big room stage, and a guy comes out with glasses holding a big notebook, and he goes out to the lectum, puts the notebook on, never looks at the audience, and starts reading numbers. That was boring Bob's presentation. And afterwards the president said, See, everybody's falling asleep. Nobody's paying attention. Can you fix them? I said, I can't fix them, but I can help him be better next year. So here's what happened. I called up Bob after the meeting was over. I said, the CEO president wants me to help you. Do you want help? He said, I need help. I'm terrible. What do you want me to do? I said, I don't want you to do anything different except let me write your introduction and give you the opening statement. And then do exactly what you did this year. He said, You're kidding. I'm dull and boring. I said, Bob, that's what you are. That's your name in the company. You're boring Bob. It's not performing, it's connecting. So as you're listening, what is the point of this story? What about you could be a disconnect. You don't have to eliminate it. You can brag about it. So in the introduction, here's what he said at the next year's meeting. All right, we're up to the next part of our meeting where we give you the numbers for the year to wrap up this great convention we've been having. And we have our chief financial officer Bob give you the numbers. Well, you know everybody falls asleep. Nobody's paying attention. So we're going to do things a little different this year. First of all, we're going to admit that Bob is boring. As a matter of fact, we call him at the corporate office boring Bob. Because he's just that way all the time. If you were to look in the dictionary under the word boring, you will probably see Bob's picture. So here's what we're going to do. Those of you sitting out in the audience are responsible for the person next to you. If they start falling asleep while Bob's talking, you got to wake them up. Now, and then I wrote in the introduction for the president to read, point to everybody in the front row. Now, all of those in the front row, and he pointed to everybody, your job is if Bob falls asleep while he's talking, you got to run up on stage and wake him up. Well, OB, the place erupted in laughter and applause. And then the president said, Please welcome the most boring man you'll ever meet, boring Bob. And he comes out with his big notebook with his glasses and he wanders to the lecturer and he puts the notebook down, doesn't look at the audience, and says, Well, thank you for that very different introduction. I know many of you know me, but some of you know Gladys, my wife. And we've been married 27 years. And on our first date, she slapped me. I wasn't getting fresh. She just thought I was dead. Well, the place erupted in laughter and applause. And he said, I wasn't dead and I'm not dead now. I know I look like I'm dead, but I'm so excited about this year's results. The numbers prove it. And even though I don't show it on the outside, I'm extremely excited for what you've done this year. So with that, let's get on with these numbers. And then he went right into the same number presentation he always did. He got a standing ovation at the end. And when the feedback cards came in for the three-day meeting, he was the highest-rated speaker of the entire event. And I followed this for about eight or nine years with the president. I came back a couple of times as the speaker, and that was his position. He would spend all year thinking about boring jokes. And he would always open with more boring jokes on how boring he was. And they just loved it. So what's the point of that long story? Be you. Be you. There's no one else like you. It's not acting or performing. Third premise is it's all about your audience. It's not about you. And people who are nervous speaking is because they're self-conscious. And the only way you can be self-conscious is to think about yourself. But if you realize, as an educator, if you're talking to people about something you know and they don't, your purpose in being there is to pass on that information. If you're a leader in a corporate situation, leading these people that are waiting for direction, it's not about you. It's all about them. And you can tell by looking at your email. So if you've written an email to somebody you work with, pull it out after you hear this podcast, look at the first two paragraphs. Circle the word I and you. And which one do you have more of? The chances are, if you're an ordinary leader and communicator, educator, or business person, I is the most used word in the English language. Most emails start off. I want to tell you this. I was really excited about no one cares. Why don't you start off with the you? And here's the challenge. You could write a 10-page email and never use I, me, or my one time. If you develop the skill of making it about your listeners and not about you. So those are the three premises. So now I'm going to have OV play you. If you were sitting here in the studio, what questions would you want to ask? So, Ovi, whatever you want to ask that you think your listener would be thinking of, ask away.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Well, of course, and and that is a uh a very imaginary story that you were sharing with us. So I appreciate all the imagery. Now, but I understand that you started speaking after you were told that you you were not a great speaker, and someone may also be told the same. How does a leader turn feedback into a system where you change that mindset and other future communicators can also get through the harsh criticism that they may face when they're presenting?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Okay, well, that's a great question. So the question is: if you're not comfortable speaking and you don't feel that you're a great communicator, how do you get even better? You ask your audience. And this is what I was told at age 28, first time I stood in front of a group, never talked in high school, didn't go to college, didn't think I was smart enough, worked with my hands until I had a life-changing experience that changed the direction. But speaking was never it. 28 years old, never talked to anybody. Until I stood up and was told, like OV said, I was the worst speaker. And he took me to a Toastmasters Club and I joined Toastmasters. And Toastmasters International is a world self-help organization, and I'm still a member, over 50 years later, because you get feedback. So here's a suggestion. If you don't think you're a great communicator, as an educator, let's say, what if you just had a blank index card? Put it where all your students are. Or if you're a business leader and you're doing a team meeting, put a blank index card out for the people on your team. And when you get near the end, not the very end of your message, just say, you notice there's a blank index card. Would you write A, B, and C on that card? And for A, would you pick a number from one to 10 on the value and the effectiveness of what I just did in giving you this message for the last 27 minutes? One, it was a complete waste of my time. I didn't get anything out of it. 10, this was really great. So put a number from one to ten. Under B, of all the things that we just talked about under leadership, what was the one thing that you feel was the most helpful for you? Just a couple of words, I'll know what you mean. And under C, if we could do this meeting all over again, what could I have done to make this better for you or clearer for you so you could have gotten more out of this? Just write down something, you know, is it slow down more? Is it use visuals? Was it a giving the definition of some term? What would help you have gotten more out of this if I had just been able to do it? And don't put your name on the cards. And then O V that's how I ended every presentation. Over 3,000 of them. Everybody in the audience critiqued me every time, telling me what worked, what didn't work, what was my numerical score. How smart do you have to be to stop doing things people don't like and enhance the things that people do like? So that would be a suggestion. If you don't feel you're good, what do you need to do better? And the other thing that it does, you might be a lot better than you think you are. You could be a boring bob waiting to be just discovered. And people might get much more out of it than you think they're getting. But without that written feedback, and now there's of course a QR code, talk a dot is a system, Google has a form where you can just ask the audience questions. They just do it on their phone. There's no email attached to it, so they're anonymous. And by the way, you always want anonymous feedback because then you get truthful feedback. But if you ask me what was the one thing that I did that was the most important to build a 51-year career as a Hall of Fame speaker, that was it. Having the audience critique me every time and learning from those feedback cards. That makes sense, Obi?

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Well, I appreciate the entire framework because um it leads to then an actionable moment for people to take the next step. And and I understand that now you've done several decades of professional speaking leading up to you being a Hall of Fame speaker, and you've built a system for other people to duplicate, replicate, and do their own thing. What are some of the three to maybe five core components that you believe every speaker must master when it comes to building their speaking business?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

You're really wanting to use speaking to build your business. And as you're an educator, your business is your ability to teach, inspire, and uplift your students or followers in the area that you're an expert in. If you're a business leader, it's getting the results that you want where people are going in the same direction. So the first suggestion whatever it is that you talk about, you need to know who your audience is. So the first thing I asked OV was, and I have my notes right here, tell me who's our listener. And he said, 50% are in the educational leadership field, and 50% are in the business leadership field. And in the educational area, some of them are students, but they're all interested in leadership. So we have a very clear definition of who you are. That's what you need. You need to know who your audience is. And so many times people hire me. I want a keynote speech that I could give everywhere. And I said, Well, I can't help you. Well, I thought you helped people build a presentation. Well, I do, but I can't help you build one that you can give everywhere. And of course, you know the reason. The audiences aren't the same. If you were a group of people with 25 years or more of leadership experience, do you think the message would be different if you were all in your first year in a leadership role? Tremendous different. Now, the ideas could be similar, but the focus would be very different to an experienced leader versus an emerging leader. And that's what you need to know. First thing you should know is who is your audience. Second thing, if you want to really connect, I call it the NFV formula. And if you want to write down three words, real simple needs, fears, victories. And I created this decades ago because there's six words if you ever speak in front of a group or a podcast, you're never going to hear. OV, you're never going to hear these words. Six words. Talk as long as you want. No one's going to say that. O V, you've been doing podcasts now for a number of months. You've gotten, you told me, 56,000 views on these. You're doing something right. So somebody wants to have you on a podcast. All right, OV, talk as long as you want. Tell us what you know about podcasts. You could start right now. And a week from now, you could still be talking, and you still haven't gotten halfway through what you know. And if you're an expert like you are as a listener in leadership, you know so much. But you only got 30 minutes. That's what I got. We got 11 minutes and 25 seconds left. What do you say? And that's where the NFV formula can help you. In my experience, the only thing you could speak about is something that meets a need, overcomes a fear, or reinforces a victory or a success or a positive that your audience has had. So let's think about you as a leader. Let's just say, as a corporate leader, not an educational leader, a corporate leader. What's the NFV list? What does a corporate leader need to know about the ability to speak and communicate virtually or in person? So you'd make a list of what are those needs. Second, fears. Now, fears doesn't mean terrified. Fears means worry, concern, or keeps you up at night. One of those would be, well, I'm not comfortable in front of a group. Or I gave a presentation and it was terrible and I don't want to go through that again. Those could be fears. So if you could do that with your next audience, your next presentation, what do they need to know on the subject? What are they concerned, worry about, or fearful of? And now the third word, victories, what are the positive? So the first thing I'd write about you as a listener is you're listening. You're here, you're interested, you're open-minded, or you wouldn't be on this podcast as a listener. You also want to grow and get better. Why else would you turn into a podcast or tune into a podcast? Because you want to gain something and get better. So those would all go on that list. So that's another idea that would help you figure out what you say, because as you're listening, you know so much. Nobody is ever going to say, talk as long as you want. To say you got 30 minutes, you got an hour, you got 10 minutes. Most people don't know what to say, but the NFV formula will help you pick out the right things for that audience at that time. The next thing is getting yourself out of the way. It's not about you. So you want to open with something that includes the audience. So here are three words, no matter what kind of presentation you're making, a video, a podcast, an interview. If you would start with these three words, you're going to go in the right direction. And the three words are you're here because. So think of how we began this, how the introduction that OB read to you. You're here because you're in a leader and you're following this podcast. And I said the same thing. You're here because you're interested in leadership. And maybe you're in the education field or in the business field. Once you do that, you get away from what ordinary speakers say. I'm so happy to be here. I'm just so glad you invited me. Speaking is my passion. I just love talking about it. You know, I can talk about it forever. No one cares. It's not about you. Make it about them. You're here because you're an educator and you've devoted your life to helping other people. Or as a business leader, you have this passion. But have you noticed sometimes the people on your team aren't as passionate? What if you had the ability to communicate even better and get them more excited about their job? That's what this is about for you. There's no eyes in any of those statements. All right, so that's how you can open. Just a simple thing. If you know the needs, fears, and victories, you open with something about them and then. When you talk, and you might go back and listen to the replay of this, and I talked to OV about this in the beginning. I'm talking to one person, you, and that's your name. I didn't say all of you, many of you, some of you, but it's singular. When you stand up in front of a group of a thousand people or four people, talk to one person. Make it about them. And you can include everybody. You might be an educator or you might be a business leader. I just got everybody. You might be new to the leadership role that you're in, or maybe you've been doing it for decades. Wherever you are in this continuum, you need to communicate. You need to be able to put ideas into words and words into action. Okay, so that's the next thing. Now the ending. How do most people end? I can guarantee you if you listen to YouTube videos, TED Talks, podcasts, 90% of ordinary speakers end with two words. Thank you, never end with thank you. Now you might say, what? Well, just think about this. Imagine, OV, you're leaving the studio, you're heading home, you're at a traffic light, and you see a homeless person begging on the side of the road, and you feel sorry for them, you stop your car, it's a red light, you jump out, you hand them a hundred dollar bill, then you rush back in your car. Before you leave, you wave to them and say, Thank you. They would think you're nuts. You just gave them $100. They will say thank you. They are the receiver. When you are speaking, you are the giver. The giver doesn't say thank you. And when a giver says thank you, it's because they're self-centered and they're thinking, thank you so much for tuning in this podcast. Now you know who Joel Weldon is, and you're gonna go to my website and you're gonna order our materials and you'll become a client of mine. And I'm gonna make so much money, I won't need to do podcasts anymore. That's what thank you is inferring. Thank you so much for listening. You fed my ego. No. So when you end, congratulate your audience. Congratulations. You stayed here for this whole podcast, and hopefully you got one idea that you can use. So that's not how to end. But how should you end? Well, you always need a call to action. And many times people in education and leadership think call to action means selling something. No, a call to action is every message needs to have the audience do something, think something, or feel something as a result of what you've said. And if you end with that, so here's what the call to action for you is. Check out your emails, look at your IU combination, open with your here because make it all about your listeners. Use the NFV formula. Those are all call to actions. And then, and I'll give it to you a little earlier, because this is not my formal close, but if I was gonna end right now, I would say this. So just imagine it's a month from now, and you've given two presentations since you heard this podcast, and you got the best results you've ever gotten. You felt so connected to the audience, you got so much positive feedback. You looked at the feedback cards and it averaged 9.4. And the only negative was, I wish it was longer. That's what can happen when you make an ultimate presentation. OV? Okay. If you ended your message, painting a picture of your audience using what you just asked them to do. Paint a picture as a leader of whatever you shared being implemented, and how will that make your listener feel? All right, to honor our time commitment, I've got a closing statement. It's only 22 words, but anything you want to add or ask at this point?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Well, the question maybe the question was you know, lots of leaders don't always have the opportunity to stand on the stage and um be able to build that credibility so they can share their message and uh build their brand authority. So, what would be your advice for those leaders that want more stage time so they can share their message and polish their public speaking skills?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Well, you you're a master at the social media. You you should just be making Instagram videos, you should be making YouTube videos, you should be sharing your ideas and putting them out there, and that's practice. And when you told me your numbers, when you got 56,000 people watching your podcast in just the first three months, something good is happening.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yeah, and I got a million views in one video in one day.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Okay. You know, I haven't had a million people in my audiences in 50 years. You can reach more people on a short video than it's taken me half a century to do as a speaker. That's the power of social media. If you're not using it and using a Zoom call like this one, just make something and listen to yourself. But you should get your message out. And now with social media, it's free. You can have a YouTube video. And I have a client, Jeff Wright, who's in the insurance business, put out a short video, 47 seconds, and he got 17 million views.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

It went viral. And it was a simple message. Don't marry an alcoholic.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Good message. And he was a former alcoholic, and he talked from his own experience. It wasn't a lecture, but it was such a thoughtful message. It went viral. And in his whole career, and he's in his 60s now, he never even had that much contact with people that he was able to do on social media with that one message. Now he's got all these people following because he has a lot of wisdom. You can do the same thing. So I'm going to let you wrap it up, but I'm going to close my portion for you as you're listening. If you want to be an even better communicator, speaker, leader, here's 22 words that summarize what the entire system I've created is all about and what's taken me half a century to learn. Speak to your audience in a way they can understand. Now just stop for a minute. Who is your audience? It's a listener. Speak to your listener in an organized way about things that are relevant to meet their needs and get yourself out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

It's not about you. There's my climber. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Everyone, this is it for the interview. You have listened to Mr. Joel Weldon, a Hall of Fame professional speaker and public speaking coach. And I am Ovi Vasquez. And you were listening to Leadership Messengers, where we bring you it, where we bring you experts to help you develop our next generation of values driven leaders. See you on the next episode. Thank you for being part of our community. Who is a leader you believe should be interviewed in our podcast? We would love to hear your thoughts about it and interviewing the leaders that you admired most. See you on our next episode.