Dustin Huibregtse

Ethos

Your life’s work matters, and I want to help you share it with the world in a way that is memorable, resonates, and affects change.

In high school I founded a Talent Show. The thrill of building an experience with an inspired team to call forth friends, witness people’s (often unexpected) talents before school started in the gymnasium, and then put on a production for two sold out nights was exhilarating hard work. Here’s the moment that changed my life: A student’s mom ran down the hallway to the back-of-house, tears rolling down her face. She had just witnessed her daughter sing, on stage, in front of 700 people. Behind the scenes, I’d been working with her daughter (my classmate) for a while to build up her confidence to take the risk and overcome her fears of performing in front of so many people. Her mother said, “I’ve never seen her sing.”

I deeply believe in the transformative power of a stage and a moment of excellence, delivering a talk or the performance of your life before a richly supportive and caring audience. These moments matter. For decades I’ve obsessed with the power of the “short form talk”, also known as the idea talk, the toast, or the TEDTalk, and their power to change people’s lives, including the speaker’s. But there are so many talks out there, and yet so few would be considered, I feel, talks that cause your mind to go quiet, your heart to swell, and your sense of wonder and awe to fill you. These are great talks, and I’ve spent the last decade I’ve been pulling out the hidden secrets and patterns that underly these talks and giving them away.

Why? Over and over and over again, I’m moved, in the moment and for long thereafter, and so is the audience, when someone gets on stage and delivers a great talk of their life’s work; a talk they’ve been preparing for months. But it’s not just that moment on the stage, is it? It’s the journey in collaboration of creating a master work - to jointly see and weave your story, life’s work, and values into a compelling narrative that moves people. The Journey is and always has been the transformation.

Experience & Results

Since 2010, Dustin Huibregtse has coached and guided over 200 speakers for TEDx events and other platforms, including WTTW's Firsthand Talks. He is the founder of TEDxUMN (University of Minnesota), TEDxMinneapolis, and Former Executive Producer and current Lead Speaker Curator & Coach of TEDxChicago, one of the few Legacy-tier TEDx’s in the world recognized by TED for excellence in curation, coaching, and experience. In 2025, in partnership with TED, Dustin Co-Directed and speaker coached one of the nine TEDx Global Idea Search events, with TEDxChicago representing North America.

Since coaching and guiding TEDxChicago speakers since 2022, two TEDxChicago talks were selected for publication on TED.com alongside main stage speakers, collectively achieving over three million views. Thus far, an additional 15 TEDxTalks were selected to be TEDx Editor’s Picks. Altogether, the talks Dustin has coached have over 5 million views.

As a volunteer TEDx organizer, he has led the activation of over 20 events reaching more than 9,000 attendees in total. Dustin has invested over 15 years mastering what makes the short-format TED Talk so powerful and memorable.

Professional Background

Dustin is currently a MEd Community Counseling (Psychology) graduate student at Loyola University of Chicago where he is studying to become a licensed psychotherapist. He is deeply focused on learning and infusing counseling, psychology, and narrative theory into the idea-to-talk coaching process.

Since 2012, Dustin has worked at Deloitte Consulting leading digital transformations for major U.S. healthcare systems. He also headed Deloitte's partnership with the Scottsdale Institute, where he convened healthcare innovators to deliver thought leadership to executives nationwide through over 35 high-impact webinars and roundtables.

Dustin holds an MBA with Healthcare Management Concentration and Social Ventures from the University of Michigan and undergraduate degrees in Management Information Systems and Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Minnesota. This interdisciplinary expertise in leadership, business, healthcare, strategy, technology, and marketing/branding creates unique value for his clients.