# How to Turn Free Talks Into Paid Speaking Gigs with Dr. David Chastain

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-speaker-lab-podcast-454882/how-to-turn-free-talks-into-paid-speaking-gigs-with-dr-david-chastain
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-speaker-lab-podcast-454882/how-to-turn-free-talks-into-paid-speaking-gigs-with-dr-david-chastain.md
Podcast: [The Speaker Lab Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-speaker-lab-podcast-454882)
Published: 2026-07-02T10:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/rss.art19.com/episodes/5ba0ad42-4096-41d6-9c06-be1937b52c62.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/rss.art19.com/episodes/5ba0ad42-4096-41d6-9c06-be1937b52c62.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
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Duration seconds: 2001

## Resource

"I didn't get paid to go to Seattle, but I made a good connection there that I will be paid for." Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this Alumni Spotlight episode, host Dan Irvin sits down with Dr. David Chastain, a speaker who works at an intersection most people are afraid to even name out loud: grief and addiction, and the way the two are wound together. Grief can delay recovery, and it can trigger relapse years into sobriety — and David speaks on it from both professional expertise and lived experience. David has been quietly stacking wins, and almost every one of them traces back to the same source: relationships. A paid webinar that came through a former colleague. A talk for an addiction professionals association in North Carolina where one conversation with the executive director — and one leader who happened to be in the room — turned a "our keynotes are full" into a three-hour pre-conference workshop. An unpaid conference in Seattle where he worked the empty expo hall and walked away with three or four potential webinars in the pipeline. He didn't chase the money. He tended the relationships, and the money followed. Dan also puts on his coaching hat for a candid working session: how to handle the conference that passed on your proposal (spoiler: "apply again next year" is an invitation, not a brush-off), why you should retitle your talk to match a conference theme without rebuilding it, and the insight from a local speakers association that unlocked a whole new pitch — framing grief and addiction as the employee-retention problem businesses are already paying to solve. Whether you're waiting on your first paid gig or wondering whether the free rooms are worth it, this episode will change how you measure a room! You'll learn: Why grief and addiction i…

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