Deirdre Van Nest
Meet Deirdre Van Nest, the speaking coach who overcame her fear of public speaking to create a thriving business teaching entrepreneurs how to become powerful communicators.
Speaking & Communications
St. Petersburg, Florida
Crazy Good Talks
Deirdre Van Nest’s career journey began with a profound fear of public speaking that kept her off stage for 24 years following a crushing critique in her ninth-grade acting class. Still, she transformed from someone who once declined running for class president to avoid giving a speech into a renowned speaking coach. As the founder of Crazy Good Talks, she has developed a proven system that helps entrepreneurs and subject matter experts become high-performance speakers, storytellers, and content creators who can effectively grow their businesses through communication.
Along the way, Deirdre discovered Strategic Coach®, which helped her make the critical shift from working constantly in her business to creating a Self-Managing Company® while still honoring her passion for client-facing work. The impact on her business model and personal freedom has been profound, allowing her to spend 90% of her time doing what she loves while living her dream life on a boat in St. Petersburg, FL, with her husband.
“Strategic Coach has taught me how to think differently, and when you think differently, you become different, and when you become different, you do different. They gave me the tools, the camaraderie, the love, the support, and the belief that I could create a business that manages itself and allows me to live in my passion.”
- Deirdre Van Nest
From Stage Fright To Speaking Expert
“In ninth grade, I had a very bad experience in my acting class,” she explains. “I thought I had delivered a Meryl Streep-worthy performance, only to have my teacher basically say it stunk. I was devastated and humiliated.”
After becoming a certified Fearless Living coach in 2007, she kept hearing the same advice: speaking was the fastest way to grow her business. Despite her fears, she hired a coach, wrote a speech, and practiced relentlessly. “I got on every stage I could for free. I did the reps,” she says. To her surprise, she started bringing in coaching clients from her presentations and began getting paid to speak.
The real breakthrough came when she helped several chiropractor clients on the verge of closing their practice. They secured 103 new patient exams from a single presentation using her speaking techniques. “This became their repeatable process to bring in clients. Their practice became very successful, and they were able to sell it years later for what they wanted,” Deirdre shares. That moment crystallized her passion: “The only thing I love more than knocking it out of the park myself when I speak is teaching other entrepreneurs how to do the same.”
Creating A Company That Manages Itself
Before joining Strategic Coach in 2018, Deirdre hit what she calls “the proverbial Ceiling of Complexity.” She explains, “I knew I desperately wanted a self-managing business, but had zero clue how to get there.”
Through Strategic Coach, Deirdre had a critical realization about herself as an entrepreneur: “I’m maybe one of the rarer entrepreneurs who loves working in the business. I am never happier than when I am teaching clients, coaching clients, loving clients, and being on stage.”
So, instead of removing herself completely from the business, she realized she needed to focus on her unique strengths while finding the right people to handle operations. “Once I understood that, I returned to my team and said, ‘Ninety percent of my time needs to be working with the clients, doing what I love. I want to spend the other 10% on strategy, and you need to manage the rest.’”
This shift proved crucial to her success. “Fortunately, my husband stepped in about a year and a half ago and became my integrator, my fractional COO, and he has turned this company around.”
A Lesson In Opportunity Cost
When Deirdre joined Strategic Coach, she admits that she learned a hard lesson: the opportunity cost of waiting. “There is a massive opportunity cost to not joining,” she explains. “You’re allowing a lot of opportunity—not just for revenue, but opportunity for peace, fun, and joy—to walk out the door the longer you put off this decision.”
Beyond the business benefits, Deirdre has been deeply impressed by the level of personal care she’s received. “In a very automated world, they’ve kept this business personal and relationship-oriented.”
Strategic Coach even made a massive impact on Deirdre’s team. After enrolling her long-time client relationship manager in The Strategic Assistant® Program, Deirdre’s team member finally understood her entrepreneurial thinking, transforming their working relationship and making their collaboration much more effective.
“Strategic Coach has helped me balance freedom with business growth,” she reflects. “It’s a line item in my budget that continues to pay dividends in ways I never imagined possible.”
Deirdre Recommends: Who Not How
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