REMARK: This article introduces how opinion leaders express their voice from inside to outside the company, and moreover, how their career paths evolve. From 'The Advanced Course of Interpretation', the article locates at Test One Reading Three, Page-300.

American companies are giving their people a good talking to. For qualified talkers, that can make for a career opportunity. The same workaday challenges that are bane of the modern corporation — issues such as struggling sales forces, spotty leadership, intense global competition, and flagging morale — are a boon for thousands of professional speakers nationwide. Using their gift of gab, they impart knowledge, hope, motivation, big-picture thinking and, occasionally, a few laughs to audiences at conventions, company powwows, trade shows, and association meetings.

Eric Wahl is one such beneficiary of corporate America’s hand-wringing. For the past three years, the San Diego-based lecturer and artist has toted paints and an easel around the country for a presentation titled “The Art of Vision.” At each stop, he literally draws parallels between the creativity that drives great artists and that which fuels the world's most successful entrepreneurs, underscoring his most memorable points and examples by painting quick portraits of visionaries such as Einstein or Lincoln.

Mr. Wahl’s “think outside the box” message and high-energy delivery have brought him a steady stream of lucrative appearances. He says that by year's end, he'll have logged 100 speaking appearances at his going rate of between $6,500 and $9,500 apiece. Wahl’s success story, by his own admission, is something of an aberration. Still in his late 20s, he hasn't published a best-selling management book. He isn’t a household name or a corner-office veteran with a trove of great war stories. And he hasn't rebounded from personal tragedy to lead a last-place team to a world championship.

Wahl, who majored in art and business at the University of San Diego, took a job at Speak Inc., a San Diego company that books speaking talent for corporate clients. What Wahl does have, says Rich Gibbons, the firm’s president, are the three elements a successful speaker needs in today’s marketplace: relevance, uniqueness, and, most of all, passion. “An audience can tell when a speaker is truly committed, versus someone who’s doing something by rote and reciting professional platitudes,” Mr.Gibbons says.

It is virtually impossible to pinpoint the exact number of speakers working the lecture circuit in the United States today, and it’s equally difficult to generalize about fees those speakers command. While the National Speakers Association includes roughtly 3,500 speaking professionals, the NSA’s membership doesn’t include most of the celebrities, high-profile pundits, atheletes, authors, CEOs, politicians and ex-politicians who often make the scene as keynote speakers at major social and business functions.

And while more than 60 percent of respondents who participated in a recent NSA member survey reported earning from $2,000 to $5,000 for a major engagement, it costs a great deal more to bag a big name, even for only a short while. Charles Moose, the former Montgomery County, Md. police chief who headed last fall’s Washington, D.C. sniper manhunt, now asks up to $30,000 per appearance. Frank Abagnale, the con man who was the subject of last year's Steven Spielberg hit “Catch Me if You Can,” is in the same range. After-dinner addresses from the like of former President Clinton or former New York City Mayor Giuliani have been reported to fetch $100,000 or more.

John Truman, director of marketing for Keppler Associations, which represents Mr. Moose, says the former chief’s defection to the greener pastures of the lecture circuit was a logical byproduct of the case’s drama and Moose’s instant-hero status. “This is a celebrity culture. Moose was the lead diversity speaker; and he was a memorable figure in the media,” Truman says. It’s still possible for people who lack Moose’s track record to make it big in public speaking, but those whose reputation dosen't precede them have to be able to wow prospective clients with a dynamic demonstration tape that does the talking for them.

Of course, putting that video together demands that the speaker get caught during a terrific performance at the podium, and therein lies the Catch-22, says Mark Sanborn, NSA’s president and a speaker who address corporate audiences on topics such as leadership, team-building, and customer service.

A speaker can’t be heard until he or she is hired, Mr. Sanborn notes, but “you can’t get hired without first being heard.” By far the most popular misconception about public speaking is that it is easy. Well, if I’m doing my job right, it should look easy. “The cost of entry in this business is whatever Kinko’s charges for a business card, but it is much harder than it looks to make a living at it.”