Speaking Engagements and Consulting Projects

Coach Nev is currently booking speaking engagements, consulting projects and mental performace sessions for individuals and groups:
For more information, contact Coach Nev directly at:
coachnev@blockoutacademy.com or Book Your Time:

Because of her approach to coaching that includes plenty of blatant honesty and just enough grace and humor, Coach Nev has created a following of thousands of athletes, parents, and coaches. She will offer invaluable strategies and resources to close the gap between average and elite mindset, and help you release break that is holding you or your team back.

If you need help with volleyball / athletic performance, team dynamics, entrepreneurpship challenges, lifestyle change and wellness: Coach Nev delivers. She shares information that makes people consider new approaches to problems they thought were too difficult to solve, motivational tools to help people reach their goals, and tips that help people become the best version of themselves.

Read more about Coach Nev’s speaking engagements below.

Coach Nev loves speaking to all kinds of groups. She has done talks for high school and college athletic teams, the Boy Scouts, and college students. Overcoming Adversity, Leadership, and Growth Mindset are Coach Nev’s favorite topics to address during speaking engagements, but she is open to discussing additional topics, as well. 

Coach Nev’s speaking events are effective for athletes and others who have specific goals because she helps people grasp what it takes to perform at a high level, and she motivates them to apply her tools in their own unique circumstances. As a successful business owner, Coach Nev has enabled entrepreneurs to better understand how to be confident and diligent while following their dreams and starting their new ventures. And as a woman, mom, wife, and neighbor, Coach Nev has walked with others who need encouragement to transition out of a rut and into a better quality of life. 

Coaching skills aren’t only for athletes. The lessons Coach Nev has learned and the insights she’s cultivated will move anyone forward closer to their goals, closer to the best version of themselves.

If you’d like to discuss speaking opportunities with Coach Nev, please contact her at coachnev@blockoutacademy.com.

More about Coach Nev:

Coach Nev's story is a textbook story of the American dream. She was born and raised as Nevena Stefanov in Belgrade, Serbia, a country with a rich volleyball tradition, but also with a very complicated and turmolous history. Her first encounter with volleyball was when she was only eight years old. Thanks to excellent coaching and support, and despite the devastating civil war the country was going through at the time, Nevena thrived. Thanks to her ability and relentless work ethic, at only 14 years old, she became a member of the National Youth Volleyball Team that won the Balkan* championship.

When she was 18 years old, she received a full athletic scholarship from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, USA. With only two duffle bags and some pocket money, she left home and moved to the United States, speaking less than basic English. With typical determination and iron will, she dominated in the new role of a student athlete, receiving numerous prestigious awards as a Division I setter.

Today, she holds two degrees from UAB - a BA in Psychology, as well as an MA in Clinical Nutrition/Dietetics.

During her collegiate career, she received numerous awards and recognitions, including NCAA division I All- American Honorable Mention 2018, Setter of the year Conference USA 2018, and a Post Eligibility Scholarship for an Exceptional Student Athlete, On and Off the Court.

Upon completing her career as a player, she stepped into coaching, primarily working the UAB summer camps, discovering a whole new dimension to the game, and thus starting a brand new chapter of her life.

She founded Blockout Academy with a firm conviction that a good coach has a crucial role in an athlete's success. Teaching all the key values necessary for success - work ethic, confidence, dedication, perseverance, persistence and respect, as well as knowledge of a healthy lifestyle is a coach's most important job.

If Coach Nev had to be described in one sentence, it would be Dream Big, Work Hard.

*A region comprising of 10 countries in southeastern Europe