Let me offer you one self evaluation that will help you qualify yourself for the public speaking industry. The great English poet and artist William Blake said it best when he described the energy he felt as a writer: “Sparks emit from my fingertips, in anticipation of my day’s vocation.” That is it! Step one in making a decision to go after a public speaking job is passion. It’s as if you have a burning desire to become speaker. Do you remember the 60′s rock singer Janis Joplin? She not my favorite but one thing I do admire about Janis Joplin is — she had passion.  Her passion comes through in her songs. And when I listen to her stirring music, I hear someone who has set her soul on fire. There are many times when I am contemplating making a statement to an audience that may be a bit risky, and I glance down and see Janis’s picture in my notebook, and she literally encourages me, saying: Say it, man.  Go for it! Speak like it’s the last time you’re going to speak.  It may be the hundredth time you’ve said these things, but it’s the first time they’ve heard it.  So, go for it!

Janis= Passion. Passion,” contends Richard Chang, “is not a privilege of the fortunate few, it is a right and a power that we all possess.” Passion, then, is neither a gift nor a talent.  It is a choice, a decision. In my training course for speakers I help you identify your “Passion Point” in your presentations. Every great keynote speech must have one.  Practice and rehearse with the great passion and it will generate within you. Make it something you believe in, and you’ll be on fire every time and keep your audiences enthralled.