Joe Delfgauw · Public speaker · Entrepreneur · Author
Building businesses since 1996. Ask me how it really went.
I'm Joe Delfgauw. Thirty years of starting companies: call centers, marketing software, lead generation. I wrote a shelf of personal-development books along the way. When someone hands me a mic, I tell the truth about how it all actually happened. Including the expensive parts.
Signature keynotes
Every talk comes from something I actually ran, built, closed, or wrote. No borrowed stories.
Thirty Years of Starting Things
What three decades of starting companies actually looks like. The ones that worked, the ones that didn't, and what separated them.
For founder rooms, ownership groups, and anyone about to bet on an idea.
The Lead Business, Told Straight
How leads actually get made, moved, and paid for. I've spent years in this business and built the software that runs my own. I'll explain it in plain English, because almost nobody does.
For marketing teams, affiliates, and lead buyers who are tired of jargon.
Close the Buildings
The hardest decision I've made as an owner: shutting the six call centers my whole business grew out of. What it cost, what I got wrong, and how the company that came out the other side ended up stronger. I wrote the story down here.
For leadership teams staring at a decision they keep postponing.
Happiness for People Who Hate Posters
The systems from my books: the Five Frequencies of Happiness, the Four Me's, the 60/20 Relationship Rule. The practical version, not the poster quote.
For rooms that need the personal-growth hour but are allergic to fluff.
Catch me live
Where I'm speaking next.
Contact.io 2026, Denver
I'm on the Peelvoice.com Stage inside the exhibit hall. Contact.io runs August 23–25 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. If you're in the lead business, this is the room I'd tell you to be in anyway, so come say hi.
Everything about my slot → · Tickets at contact.io
Every speaker page has a jet photo. Not this one.
You've seen the playbook: the rented Lambo, the stadium stock photo, the numbers nobody can check. Here's the reverse card.
A highlight reel with a jet in it.
I showThirty years of businesses you can look up, including the ones I closed.
A course, from the stage, in the last ten minutes.
I sellNothing. When the talk ends, I'm done talking.
Numbers that round up to a billion.
I quoteNumbers I can back up, and I'll say "I don't know" out loud when I don't.
Somebody else's story they bought the rights to.
I tellWhat happened in my own buildings, with my own payroll on the line.
The short version
I'm a Florida-based entrepreneur. I started in 1996 and never really stopped: six physical call centers in Grand Rapids that grew into a lead exchange, a suite of marketing software, an affiliate network, and a list of other ventures at various stages of alive. I write personal-development books, and I teach what I've learned online as Joey Matterhorn.
Speaking is the same thing I do everywhere else, just out loud to a room. I tell people what I did, what it cost, and what I'd do differently. The long version of who I am lives at joedelfgauw.com.
The books
The personal-development side of my work. These are where the frameworks in talk #4 come from.
For event organizers
The practical stuff, so you don't have to email me twice.
Formats
Keynote, fireside chat, Q&A, or a working session with your team. I'm good in a general session and better when the room gets to push back.
Logistics
Based in Florida, will travel. One phone call to book: 888.631.7141. No speaker bureau, no middleman markup.
Program bio, ready to paste
Joe Delfgauw has been building businesses since 1996: six call centers that grew into a national lead exchange, a suite of marketing software, and six personal-development books. He speaks about what thirty years of building actually costs, and teaches online as Joey Matterhorn.
Want me in front of your people?
Tell me about the room: who's in it, what they're working on, and what you want them walking out with. I'll tell you straight whether I'm the right guy for it.