Questions are often more powerful than answers.  As a coach, I’ve learned that asking the right question can inspire a coachee to work and think harder than mere instruction.  So here are a series of questions that I believe are essential for speakers to ponder as they grow in their craft and become better at what they do. Be warned. Normally, I’m offering answers in my blog posts. Today, it’s questions. Twenty of them. If you just want the answers, then skip this one.

1.What do you love about the art of public speaking?

2.What do you hate about public speaking?

3.How do you feel about a life on the road?

4.In what ways does the relationship between speaker and audience sustain you, and in what ways not?

5.What do you want your audiences to remember of your presentation?

6.What do you want your audiences to do differently as a result of having heard your presentation?

7.What do you fear most about giving a presentation?

8.What from the past haunts you about public speaking? Were you not good enough once? Was there an audience that didn’t like you? Was there a speech that didn’t land? Was there a speech that you didn’t give that you wanted to – or should have? What are you holding on to?

9.Who are the speakers and venues that you envy?

10.Why do you feel impelled to speak?

11.What are your best memories of speaking?

12.Who inspires you in their speaking?

13.What speakers make you want to give up?

14.How do you divide your time between delivering ideas and creating them?

15.What’s your overall elevator pitch?

16.At what point do you come alive on stage – before you walk on, when you walk on, or three minutes after you start?

17.What are the physical effects of speaking on you?

18.What are the emotional effects of speaking on you?

19.What do you want the audience to be saying about you afterwards?

20.What are you going to say in your last speech?

You’re going to confront these questions in one form or another if you devote even part of your professional life to public speaking. Thinking about them deliberately will help you be intentional and deliberate about your career rather than accidental. And looking them over, if there are any that you can’t answer, at least provisionally, then you’re not ready for prime time professionally speaking.

The business of professional speaking has become more and more competitive since the Great Recession. The influence of TEDx.com means that the stakes keep getting raised on speakers to become more and more crisp, entertaining, and life-changing. And the sheer number of new speakers means that the field keeps getting more and more crowded. To stand out, speakers are thinking of more and more extreme ways to label and portray themselves. The results are not all good, but you can’t ignore the increased competition and so thinking about questions like these will help you keep focused on the right things and keep moving your career forward.

And good luck.