Do you need anything besides passion to succeed as a speaker?  Is passion enough?

Unfortunately, no.  If passion were enough, monkeys would write great fiction (the ones who are allowed typewriters).  Public speaking involves both artifice and emotion.  It does take passion — and without passion, a speaker is dull indeed — but it also takes knowledge, practice, and skill. 

There are no natural public speakers.  There are good and bad ones, and practiced and unpracticed ones.  But don’t waste your time envying the ‘naturals’ because there are none.  There’s an old story of Ted Williams, the famous Red Sox hitter — he was asked about his ‘natural’ swing and how he acquired it.  He responded that he swung the bat in his basement 1,000 times every night.  That’s how he developed his ‘natural’ swing.

And that’s exactly how you can take your passion and become a natural speaker.  Practice.  Study the greats.  Rehearse.  Get yourself videotaped and study the tapes.  I once worked with a speaker who sent me a speech on DVD.  It was 45 minutes, and we went over it frame by frame, discussing every move she made, both the content and the delivery.  We analyzed the audience reaction.  We checked out lighting, costume, props, slides — every aspect of the presentation.  Five hours later we were still hard at work.

She is well on her way to becoming a natural speaker.