How to give yourself a competitive edge, build your brand and bring in business through speaking. Deirdre Van Nest shares top speaking tips to win customers. Learn more at MarkMiletello.com.
Note: “Where The Insurance Pros Meet” is an audio podcast and is meant for the ear. A transcript of the audio is provided for referencing a particular section or for you to follow along. Listen to the episode to get the most out of our show. We use both speech recognition software and human transcribers to create the transcripts so they may contain errors. If you’re going to quote us in print, please be sure to check the corresponding audio.
TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1:
Where the Insurance Pros Meet, episode seven.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Every time you speak you have the opportunity to attract people to you, to build up your brand, to bring in business, or the opposite.
Speaker 1:
Where the Insurance Pros Meet is a podcast that brings the greatest talent in the world together. Managers, coaches, and producers the very best experts the insurance and financial services industry has to offer. Get ready to change the way you do business to have your most successful year ever. Now here’s Mark Miletello, a top one percent producer, manager, and your host of Where the Insurance Pros Meet.
Mark Miletello:
Welcome back to the show. Today is an exciting day, I promised myself and the listeners that when I started this show, in my opinion the best, the greatest platform for really investment reps or insurance agents of Where the Insurance Pros Meet anyone that’s in the financial services industry that I would search out and even have brand new agents, veteran agents, top speakers, top thinkers and minds in the industry, so today we have a very, very special guest. We have someone and let me give you a little background before I give you all the goods. As you may or may not know I’m speaking in Lamp in 2018 for Gamma as a multiple line speaker and I fly in to Chicago and right before I’m going into my rehearsal where they do provide a professional speech coach I’m fortunate enough to sit next to the next speaker that arrived a little bit early and just so happens she is a professional speech coach. To me that was very lucky to build a quick friendship the few minutes we had together I knew this individual was special, I knew that she was on it and I invited her to critique and to come in and watch me, which they didn’t really allow but I forced it. I want to welcome a very special guest to the show that in a few short minutes I just really felt could really help our industry in a way, welcome Deirdre Van Nest to the show.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Aw thank you, Mark.
Mark Miletello:
Deirdre you’re the creator of Crazy Good Talks the Blueprint, a system that teaches financial and insurance professionals how to become crazy good speakers so that they can bring in business and build their brands using speaking. I mean I didn’t really know what all that meant until I met you and within a few short minutes, you’re molding me into something that’s doing a lot better job at what I’m attempting to do. Welcome to the show, I’m excited to have you and what you do for our listeners here.
Deirdre Van Nest:
I’m excited to be here and it’s been a pleasure to help you. You are a quick student.
Mark Miletello:
What does that mean? Are there some that are not?
Deirdre Van Nest:
Some are not, yeah. Yes, you are.
Mark Miletello:
Well thank you and like I said I just realized you’re very special. Can you tell me a little bit about … tell the listener a little bit about your background and maybe they’ll get a sense for maybe what I’ve found in you?
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah you know what I first loved to do is talk for a moment about why I care about helping the industry, particularly when it comes to speaking. I firmly believe that every person, and then this is regardless of what you do for a living, but every person unless we develop a skill set of becoming a compelling speaker, the type of speaker Mark who can get other people to sit up and listen and act we will never truly reach our full potential. I’ll never forget, I used to be in a networking group where … you know those networking groups where you have to a 60 or 30 second commercial every week?
Mark Miletello:
Yep.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Ever been a part? Okay. I was in this networking group and every week I was with the same people and people would get up and they’d speak for 60 seconds and there were certain people where as soon as that person stood up everybody tuned out and it really hurt my heart, it really bothered me, because as I got to know these people I thought, well you know that person’s really good at what they do and that person really cares about the people in room, but they’re not conveying who they are and what they do in a way that gets other people to sit up and listen and want to take action. It didn’t matter if they were an A-plus attorney or an A-plus financial adviser or A plus this or that if they’re a B minus or C plus speakers it was hurting their career. Does that make sense?
Mark Miletello:
No absolutely and I think I’m learning more about you every time we meet and talk, but I guess what you do helps … I mean you even said attorneys, I guess attorneys do a lot of public speaking in the courtroom and things like that. How do you help … I mean what industries do you find yourself helping most and how did you end up really relating and now that you’re a speaker at Lamp of course in front of every general manager, general agent across all boards of financial services and insurance. I mean how did you really connect with our industry?
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah that’s a great question so there’s a couple of touch points. When I first hung my shingle out in 2008 I just started speaking everywhere I could and the professionals that raised their hands the most saying, “Hey, we’re interested in you. We want what you’re doing, we want you’re helping. We’re financial and insurance professionals.” In one sense I fell into these industries, these professions, but it’s interesting Mark as I’ve dug deeper I’ve really developed a love for this industry, for these professions, and for the people in it. As I sat back, and I started thinking okay I know I feel like I’ve sort of fell into this, but why do I stay here and why do I love it, and why do I feel a passion around it and why is that pretty much the sole focus of anything I do from an outbound perspective? It circled back to this, and you know this you heard my story about when I was 10 years old my mom was killed in a car accident and Mark I literally was kissing her goodbye one moment for what I thought was the night and within four minutes she was gone.
Mark Miletello:
Yeah.
Deirdre Van Nest:
My dad was in the car too, we were really blessed that he didn’t die, it was touch and go with him and he was out of work for several months and it took him about a year to recover from all his injuries. What that did for me was I lost my innocence in the sense that I realized from that experience and I realized early in that life can change in a snap. As I got older I became a very strong advocate for proper financial planning.
Mark Miletello:
Right.
Deirdre Van Nest:
I was the person at 30 who got pregnant with my first child and instead of running off to the fun little store to pick out outfits and furniture I’m dragging my husband to our adviser and making sure we have enough life insurance, I’m dragging him to our attorney making sure all the guardianship and beneficiary stuff is taken care of. Most people don’t think like that and I didn’t realize that until I started talking to my friends about it. They’re like, “That wouldn’t have crossed my mind.”
Mark Miletello:
Yeah. Well, thank you for-
Deirdre Van Nest:
And I was like, “It doesn’t?”
Mark Miletello:
Thank you for sharing your personal story with the listeners and I know that’s tough, but I see now that you have a passion for what our products do and with your expertise-
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yes, I do.
Mark Miletello:
With you being the guru, you are the foremost thinker of how to speak and a teacher in that realm I mean I do see that passion come out and so I’m excited that you’re connected. I’m sorry that that happened of course, but I’m excited that you’re connected with our industry and it kind of leads me to another question that kind of left me thinking after meeting you is if I’m not giving a speech, a public speech on stage, would I really need someone like Deirdre Van Nest to coach me and help me and I think the answer yes and I think you’ve kind of … I was able to listen, I wanted to sit through your whole rehearsal and I wasn’t able to do that because of my flight, but I did catch one little, and I’m going to try to squeeze that out of you for our listeners, one little tip that you were giving maybe a couple tips, but I do think that there’s some validity to increasing your ability speak, finding your voice can help you even if you’re not giving a stage public speaking event. Correct?
Deirdre Van Nest:
Absolutely. This is where I feel like I’m hoping the profession will veer towards and start changing is that you speak at seminars, right? That’s kind of what everyone thinks right now in the industry is, “Oh speaking is seminars,” and I would like to broaden the perspective and offer that speaking is anytime you’re in public. That means outside of your own home opening your mouth and talking to let’s say two, three, or more people.
Mark Miletello:
Right.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Because every time you speak you have the opportunity to attract people to you, to build up your brand, to bring in business or the opposite, to push people away or just have them be neutral to you. We are in what I believe the communication age, there are so many people vying to be heard and so to have a skill set where you can cut through that and you can be compelling and inspire I don’t think that skill to have, I believe it’s a critical practice development tool.
Mark Miletello:
Well that’s exactly where I was going with it, is that’s what I left feeling is that … and you just hit the nail on the head as you would and should. Every time you’re speaking to two or more or even to one person, but two or more people especially that’s a speaking engagement that you should be on your game. I’m excited to kind of dive more into this. As you may or may not know Deidre this show I kind of connect it to the professional athlete and if you recall in the rehearsal one fellow said, “People in our industry earn professional athlete type incomes.”
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yes.
Mark Miletello:
But my concern in a leadership role is that we don’t practice like professional athletes, you know. We go out and do our hobbies, we golf and fish and whatever, play sports and we have our hobbies but we don’t look at our own profession. That’s a lot of the drive behind Where the Insurance Pros Meet is to have something where you can ride down the road and you can listen to, but it reminds you from the greats as well as you telling us is how you become better is practice, it’s learning, it’s continually developing and so to me what was kind of neat about meeting you is it reminded me I’ve never really put any work … I’ve never been involved in Dale Carnegie courses or another speaking so it’s kind of neat to connect our listeners to someone like you that I think could really help them because you had a lot of good tips before I left early to catch my flight, you had a lot of good tips and one of them that I thought was very interesting is how you can plug yourself into speaking gigs or arrangements or connections or networks. Would it be too much to ask you how or to tell us how to do that if maybe we don’t have anything on the agenda for a speaking?
Deirdre Van Nest:
No, I think that’s great. I think what you’re alluding to is I made this comment that speaking is not just for seminars. Right? The broad vision is that anytime you’re speaking, like we just said, to two, three, or more people you’re speaking, you’re public speaking. Then the other strategy I offered up as if you’re having seminars and they’re successful great, keep doing that, but I would also invite you to recognize that there are places in your community where you could get booked at other people’s events in front other people’s audiences, and what’s beautiful about that Mark is that most people in this profession complain about seminars and rightly so because they’re expensive to put on in terms of all the mailing and the postage that goes into it. Then there’s the meal, maybe the chicken lit dinner, the steak dinner, whatever it is, and then there’s the whole stress about getting people there. It’s not an easy thing to pull off and what if you could eliminate that by speaking to a ready-made audience?
Mark Miletello:
Coattails.
Deirdre Van Nest:
That’s something that professional speakers like me, right professional speakers like me we know, we do this all day long, but that’s something the more I bring this up to different financial advisers and insurance agents they’re like, “I never really thought I could play in that arena,” and you can.
Mark Miletello:
Okay.
Deirdre Van Nest:
I just want to even put that idea out there is that you can play in that arena.
Mark Miletello:
Okay give us one idea.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Let me give you an example.
Mark Miletello:
Thank you.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah so one client, and I think I might have mentioned this to you, I was thinking of client of mine who is an insurance agent, he and his family own their own independent company and he has the specialization of working with daycare providers. We’re like okay, well let’s just build a presentation for that group and then let’s pitch it and market it to them. We have this presentation, now quite frankly that presentation isn’t largely different than it would be for any other business owner, but you put the word daycare provider in there when he tells stories he talks about his other clients that are daycare providers. Right? So that you’re customizing the words and the language and then you start to think about where do the daycare providers hang out? Let’s check out their association. Right? Then you would go, and you would apply to speak at one of their association events. If there are local chapters that they belong to you would talk about having them bring you in. I know that he got brought into a daycare center not necessarily to talk to the owners because there’s only one owner, but the different staff that works there. Right?
Mark Miletello:
Yeah.
Deirdre Van Nest:
If you pick a couple of niche markets, maybe you work with chiropractors, maybe you like vets, maybe you like dentists.
Mark Miletello:
Whatever your niche is. I get it.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Exactly. Whatever your niche is.
Mark Miletello:
I tell you coming home and on the flight, that’s probably what stuck with me the most of what a great concept that was and I had to have it on our show because in a leadership role I’ve gone with my agents and we’ve spoken at realtor meetings and we do certain break out speeches that are kind of impromptu but I kind of thought what about looking at what our niche is. Let’s just say our niche is farmers or chiropractors. Let’s just say it’s farmers, then I never thought of taking and going to their organization … I’ve thought about going to their organization and trying to connect and relate and be in the backroom and shake hands but I never thought about trying to get on their agenda because I know when you put on a meeting number one you have people coming in that throw a little money at you to take up 10 to 15 minutes of a sponsored lunch, things like that, and also sometimes you just want good information for the speech and I just never thought of that and I think that listeners hopefully could have a light bulb go off like I did and say there’s so many niches that you could go after based on whatever company or organization you represent and you don’t have to … because I’ve thought about doing seminars and at one time did them, but thought about them over the last few years but when I start putting together the time, the effort, the pieces, the invitations, the mail outs, whatever all those things I find a lot of times that was a fleeting thought that fades away very quickly.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yes, I understand that.
Mark Miletello:
When someone else is doing all that and you’re plugging yourself into that I thought that was just a brilliant concept, Deirdre.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Good, good. Go after it. Here’s the thing if you decide to go after it, with the putting together of your own seminar the easy thing is deciding you’re going to do it and then all the work comes into doing it.
Mark Miletello:
Yeah.
Deirdre Van Nest:
With going after other ones your job is going to be reaching out to enough people. Right? And staying after them and following up with that. That’s where the work will be is in staying persistent.
Mark Miletello:
Well you know-
Deirdre Van Nest:
And following up with them.
Mark Miletello:
We took off a fast start, we gave the listeners I think what I really, I walked away after just a few minutes of knowing you with that valuable thought. We kind of jumped right forward without really asking you, how did you get involved in coaching with Crazy Good Talks which is a name I love, crazygoodtalks.com.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Thank you, I love it too.
Mark Miletello:
I’ve been to your website, it’s awesome. I kind of skipped over you right at the first so I apologize, I’m gonna back up which I don’t normally do.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Oh, that’s okay.
Mark Miletello:
How did you kind of get into this and when did you find out you’re really good at helping people learn to speak and maybe you speaking yourself?
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah, I’ll tell you what, this is by accident as well. I was terrified to speak. In 2008 I was certified as a fearless living coach, okay? My specialty was helping other business owners get past the fears and excuses that were holding them back in their business. I would work with financial advisers, insurance agents, chiropractors, attorneys, pretty much anyone who had a service-based business. I was out there marketing myself one by one, going to the networking groups like what we were talking about earlier and meeting people that way. Then I just kept hearing, “Deirdre, you really should go out and speak because that’s the best way to grow your businesses.” I thought no way, no way no how, I had a really bad experience in my ninth grade acting class where my acting teacher told me I stunk.
Mark Miletello
:
Me too.
Deirdre VanNest:
It broke my heart, Mark. From that moment, I was 14 years old, I left the stage. When I say left the stage I didn’t act any longer and I didn’t speak in public for 24 years. I never wanted to hear those words, “You stink,” again. When someone said, “You should speak,” I was like, “Not happening,” then what happened was it was kind of like the lesser of two evils. I became more afraid of not growing my business and not helping people with this message that I had than I became of speaking and, so I just forced myself to get out there and do it. Okay? Fast forward a couple of years later and I’ve actually gotten good at it and I’m actually helping people and I’m actually getting paid for it, but what’s not happening is I’m not bringing in clients from the back of the room and at the time that was a really big part of my model was bringing in clients from the back of the room, so I didn’t have to run around to all these one on one coffee meetings all the time. Right? So, I thought I got to crack this code so someone knows how to do this, it’s just not me. Who knows how to do this? I started studying with some industry gurus and became certified by Craig Valentine as a certified, world-class speaking coach, I worked with another woman Lisa Sakovich who was just a guru upselling from the stage, started using some of what they taught me, then started tweaking it for my own style and trying my own things, and then my clients at the time were asking me if I could share what I was learning about speaking with them. Just kind of like casually and I was like, “All right, yeah. I’ll give you some tips on what I’m trying.” I was doing that and then I had one client, I’m going to tell you this is the results not typical. One client, it was a husband and wife team, they went and gave a presentation, and this was in I think this was 2011, it might have been early 12, it was 11 or 12. They gave a presentation and within an hour they had signed up 103 new people, prospects to come into their office from one 60 minute presentation. She and I, we were all blow away, we were all blown away. The wife Becky was like, “Deirdre, you have to do this. I don’t care what you’re doing, but you need to formalize this and start teaching other people,” and I was like, “Yes, I do. You are right, this is amazing.” I was so excited by their results it actually saved their business. Then that’s what happened, I started systematizing things and I started creating a process, I started getting out there and I was out there a lot myself too. I’m out there in the trenches doing the same thing that I’m teaching which is what I still do Mark to this day. Then the brand Crazy Good Talks we came up with that branding a couple of years ago and that was an evolution of time. Right? Of working with different people and helping me figure out the branding, but I do love it because it’s fun and that’s what it does, it helps people become crazy good so it’s just sort of progressed to this point.
Mark Miletello:
Well you are great and you’re a great person and we’re glad that you overcame that class. I kind of had a similar story where I could not say two words in front of a group and I said, “I’ve got to fix this,” so yeah thank you. I’ll tell you, in our industry especially professional athletes they fumble every now and then. Sometimes they get mulligans sometimes they don’t. Well in our industry because you don’t make mistakes. When you’re on stage you’re flawless, so tell me maybe what you think the biggest mistake that most advisers, agents make when speaking. Let’s get into some meat that really, we can bite down onto that could help somebody.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah, that’s great. I’m sure I make mistakes too, I am not perfect. The last thing I ever want to paint is that picture.
Mark Miletello:
You’re right, I shouldn’t do that. That’s extra pressure.
Deirdre Van Nest:
It’s extra pressure, exactly. Let me give you a couple of quick wins that you can go and use. The biggest mistake is that most financial insurance professional rely too heavily on their technical expertise alone to deliver their message, Mark. That type of message or language tends to be boring for the consumer and it tends to not be sticky, it tends to be just a lot of facts and figures thrown at people and not have the elements of a presentation that help make it memorable and emotional. The key to really fixing that problem is to be sure to weave stories and analogies and activities throughout your content.
Mark Miletello:
You watched my rehearsal. I think I tried to do that, I tried to make it more about the storytelling than the facts and figures. I think that’s exactly what you’re saying is to … you even kind of helped me understand, which I knew it as well as the others that were watching me, I knew that I was turning my head and looking too much at my own information. The less information that you plaster on the wall the less you’re going to be tempted to turn around and look at it more than you’re connecting with the audience. I agree I think we must have more stories. We talked about a mistake that they make, what about … can you give us like a quick win like a strategy that listeners can use right away to make the best that they can with what they have? You know, make their next speech better.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah, this is my favorite tip to teach because it’s one of those small things that makes a big difference and it’s something your listeners could use the moment they stop listening to the podcast. Here it is, the most important part of the presentation is the opening. The reason for that is that’s the time frame that people are going to decide if they’re going to tune you in or tune you out. Okay? You only have about five to 30 seconds to capture their attention and if what you’re saying isn’t anything more interesting than what they can find on their phone your talk is toast. What’s interesting Mark is that if you can grab people right away they are likely to stay with you for the entire presentation, but if you lose them, in the beginning, you’re going to work doubly hard to get them back. You’ve probably been to presentations where’s that happened, where like they start snoozing you in the beginning and you’re like, “Oh man,” right? And then you’re off to the races.
Mark Miletello:
You can tell from right off the bat, I agree.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah.
Mark Miletello:
I went to your website and I watched all the free tips that I could grab off of their which I think we’re really informative, but that’s one of the few things you said to me when we met for just a few minutes before my rehearsal and its really kind of gotten me to thinking about is my beginning powerful enough? I’ve gone back to the drawing board and thinking how can I make that really connect in a way? I think you’re right, it’s real helpful but maybe you can give us an example of how we can do that.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Absolutely, absolutely. There are two strategies that I love for grabbing your audience’s attention from the first words out of your mouth. The first strategy is to open by immediately asking them a question. Okay? The question should do three things, it should be related to your content in some way, it shouldn’t just be some random question, it should be related to what’s coming and the topic. It ideally would get them nodding their heads yes in agreement with you and then the third is it should get them thinking about themselves, the audience thinking about themselves. For an example, tell me what are the benefits that the listener will receive from taking your advice?
Mark Miletello:
What are the benefits … in the meeting they’re more informed of what their coverages are so personally maybe they should consider doing business with us but to be able… they’re not a licensed insurance agent but they can say, I do know this, and I know a person that you should talk to because looking at your current policy or moving to this new home you might need to talk to a professional that I know. The benefit is educating them to make them think that you are the go-to person regardless of price. A real estate in town do we shop around and find out who has the lowest fees, or do we go to the most well-known person that we feel will do the best job? That’s I think the ultimate reason we would speak to a group of realtors is to become the expert in the field and I need your help to be a better speaker so that I can look better in front of them.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Got it, got it. You could do something like your point is, hey we want to educate you so that you have the best information and you’re not going out and price shopping people. Right?
Mark Miletello:
That’s right.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Your question could be to them; your opening question could be something like how do you feel if your own clients’ price shop you or how would you feel if a client-
Mark Miletello:
Chose their realtor based on commission rate.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah, exactly. Yes, if you lost a listing based on the commission or if you lost a listing because your competitor was willing to list for one percent less or half a percent less.
Mark Miletello:
Right, that’ll get their attention.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Right and they’re gonna be like, “I wouldn’t like that, I don’t like that.” That’s how you should be looking at this, in this industry. Maybe you’re going in there because you’re educating them, and you want to equip them so that they’re the trusted adviser to their clients who have all the answers about their home buying experience. Maybe your angle is would you rather your clients see you as their real estate agent or a part of their trusted advisory team?
Mark Miletello:
Right.
Deirdre Van Nest:
“Oh trusted advisory team.”
Mark Miletello:
I guess my feeble attempts at funny jokes is not the way to open a meeting, huh?
Deirdre Van Nest:
I guess it depends on how funny the joke is.
Mark Miletello:
Yeah, I guess so.
Deirdre Van Nest:
I was going to give you the second strategy.
Mark Miletello:
I’ll take it.
Deirdre Van Nest:
That’s the first strategy is to open with a question. The second strategy is to just jump right into a story. You could open with a story and so let’s say you’re talking to those same realtors, maybe the story is about a realtor who used to work with another agent and now they’re working with you and what their experience has been. Maybe it’s what I call your Why Story, why you’re even in this business and why you care about the realtor relationship. Kind of like I told you my Why Story earlier.
Mark Miletello:
Yeah, things are going through my mind right now of how I could have spoken in front of the realtor group and maybe had other realtor’s endorsements and talk about how those relationships have evolved. Yeah, it’s good stuff.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah. Then if you’re going to jump right into a story my recommendation isn’t just say, “Oh I’m gonna tell you a story,” you could just start by saying, “It was May 24, 1980, beautiful spring night in Chappaqua, New York,” or you could say something like, “I want to take you back to the fall of 1992,” or “I want to introduce you to my client Mark. Mark was a blah, blah, blah,” right? Those are story starters if you will.
Mark Miletello:
No one’s getting up and leaving when you start like that.
Deirdre Van Nest:
No, they’re not.
Mark Miletello:
I want to hear.
Deirdre Van Nest:
And you’ve got their attention, exactly, you’ve got their attention.
Mark Miletello:
Well I love the nugget that you gave us about how to interject, implant ourselves in someone else’s efforts of either networks or events or seminars. I love the advice, the professional advice that you’ve given us. I felt so privileged that I had a few minutes to meet you and know you and to have you watch me rehearse. To me just really the things that you’ve said have given me more confidence, I’m going in a better direction than I was without you. If other people … and I don’t want it to stop there, I do want to continue getting better and there are several ways to do that, but one is to connect with you in a better way. As we kind of wind down this show how would I work with you more, how do I reach you, what do I need to do to
take the next step into learning the things that you’ve already taught me to build off that?
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah great question. There’s a couple of different options. I think the best step is to subscribe to Crazy Good Talks TV. That’s something that was just launched and it’s a weekly video episode specifically for financial advisers and insurance agents.
Mark Miletello:
Nice.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Each episode, yeah yeah, each episode has a strategy on how to either be a better speaker or how to grow your business for speaking, how to market yourself, get books for speaking, all things building your business and your brand through speaking. Then each episode also comes with a downloadable template, worksheet, cheat sheet to help you implement that week’s lesson. That’s a great first step and that’s great for readers or advisers and agents and to get that you just got to crazygoodtalks.com/tv. Then the other option is one of the things that I do a lot of is keynoting at conferences and individual companies will hire me to come in and do training for their advisers and agents. If you’re a leader listening, and you’re interested in something like that just shooting me an email, likewise if you’re an individual producer and you’re interested in learning this skill set for yourself I do have a 12-month Crazy Good Talks training program where I will teach you step-by-step the ins and outs of how to become a crazy good speaker and how to really build your brand and bring in business through speaking. If either one of those things interests, you I think just sending me an email Mark to D-V-N so Deirdre Victor Nancy@crazygoodtalks with an S .com.
Mark Miletello:
Well that’s crazy exciting, I think that of course you’re gonna be on a platform speaking at Lamp in front of all the industry greats and as well as the show will reach a very broad audience including managers and anyone that wants to host a meeting I think you would be a valuable addition like I said in the short amount of time I’ve known you I feel like I’ve learned a lot and I feel like I owe you something. I guess you need to invoice me, but-
Deirdre Van Nest:
No, you are very kind. I’m thrilled to be here.
Mark Miletello:
It really is, just those few little things when someone is trying to get better at something that is not their forte and yeah, you’re saying, “Well Mark you’re hosting a radio show so …” well you know I’m just having fun, I know I can be better at even doing this and every show I get better. But more importantly than that Deirdre is I want to be able to go to my next meeting, I want to go into that and now I can teach my agents how to connect with niche markets that we have, and I can assist them and maybe be the guy that stands up until they feel the confidence and find their voice or help them find their voice.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Yeah.
Mark Miletello:
I see a lot of application in what you do and if I wouldn’t have sat next to you or if I wouldn’t hear you speak I probably wouldn’t realize the value of how much we need that to be better at that type of talent. I just want to thank you for agreeing to come on the show Where the Insurance Pros Meet and thank you for your time.
Deirdre Van Nest:
Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure.
Mark Miletello:
Absolutely and if you like what you hear go to iTunes, rate and review the show so that others can find it. You can follow me of course on MarkMiletello.com and you will be able to connect via the show on my website on the podcast link, you’ll be able to connect to Deirdre Van Nest. Thank you again and we will see you at the next show.