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Nobody wants me

I am in a rejection business on two sides. On the one hand I have been trying to secure some paid speaking engagements. And the other is trying to get a book published.

From the speaking angle, I’m often “not right for their event,” “time isn’t good,” “not a good fit,” and “I think it’s fine to talk about all this. Just not around my audience,” and my favorite, “can you make your story more positive?” If I played some of these scenes back on video, they’d see it in themselves. They would cringe and say, “What was I thinking?” … Read more...

Colonial Heights Heroin Summit Presentation

I met so many dedicated and wonderful people at this event and honored to have been asked to do the keynote. Parents who’d also lost a child joined the event in support.

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“Mom, I have nothing.”

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Real Life Podcast. Grief from a stigmatized death

This 15 minute podcast focuses on the stigma of Substance Use Disorder and grief over a child lost to this disease.

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The REAL Life Program in Richmond, Virginia was founded in 2016 by Dr. Sarah Scarbrough in response to the growing number of challenges faced by men and women exiting incarceration. Read more on their mission here.

To build awareness of the issues in the Recovery community, they’ve started a podcast and I was honored to be their first guest. This one is hosted by Tim Alexander, a person in recovery and one of … Read more...

Can you offer feedback for my speaker profile?

espeakers profile

I created a profile at espeakers and would love some feedback. If you find typos, let me know. I know I need better videos. Audio is compromised on some of them or my voice sounds like it’s been put through a dispose-all in one of them.

Mental health speaker profile is here.

You can search by topic here. If you choose mental health, you can see how I compare with other profiles.

I’m also listed in these topics:

  1. Mental health
  2. Alcoholism/Drug Abuse
  3. Marketing (might change this to content marketing)
  4. Social media
  5. Bereavement
  6. Women in Business

The goal is to … Read more...

My ‘Eyes on Richmond’ Presentation Video

I did appreciate the opportunity to present on this topic, “Addiction and Mental Illness: Injustices to our youth” to share why Virginia ranks 46th for treating youth mental health.

That means 7 out of 10 most at risk for dropping out of school, struggling with relationships, ending up in prison, becoming addicted or dying by suicide, do not get the care they need.

I began with my story about my son Charles who died by suicide and talked about the injustices we faced as a middle class family and what I’ve seen are the gaps in a flawed system of … Read more...

I need testimonials

keynote speaker mental health

I am going to apply at some speaker’s bureaus. Hopefully, next year I’ll get some paid speaking gigs so I can continue my advocacy work.  Because I can’t afford to retire yet and need to make a living.

For my applications, I need quotes from people who’ve seen me speak.

I really hate to ask this. But if you’ve seen me, I would love some feedback and quotes in your words. You can comment below or send a message. Thank you.

 
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CareTalks Presentation Video

8 minutes

I am so grateful to have a community partner like McShin Foundation and I’m honored to have been invited to present at the Care Talks event focused on solutions for addiction.

I am still quite hoarse from gamma knife radiation (voice slowly improving) in this video and struggling at times to get sentences out above a whisper. But I got it done! Thank you Tim Alexander and team for shooting the videos.

See other inspirational Care Talks here.

Transcript

I had hoped to be standing before you today telling you about my success story, Charles.

But 2 years … Read more...