My first impression of Eric ___________ was that he is a really determined speaker full of energy. I never saw a man that's so determined, and I can feel that everything he says is coming from the bottom of his heart. His words really strike deep and they carry a lot of weight. He is self-confident, and secure he really knows what he's talking about. Everything he says is really trustworthy and you can hear the honesty in his voice not only because he uses personally references. Eric Thomas just talks with so much charisma and passion, and you can hear it from his voice that he really believes in his message. There's so much power behind his voice and his body language shows how driven he is. The speaker uses tempo changes in his speech and that keeps up interest. He moves a lot around in the room and he is also pointing a lot. Eric really has the expression in what he does. This grabs attention and makes the listeners stay focused. This speech is addressed to an audience, and at the same time the individual. The audience is a group of high school students and I think the speech was really fitting for them. It's not that easy to engage an audience but in this case he really succeeds to get close with the audience. The contact with the audience is so unbelievable and I would say he is literally a part of his own audience. He asks questions to get the audience involved and at no point he reads from a piece of paper and that makes everything feel so natural. His presentation is almost like a conversation so automatically it becomes catchy. The speech is really effective and he's speaking with authority. Eric has a purpose of his speech and that's to motivate people to do the best they can do, and make them achieve the potential they hid. By telling them his own story with the determination and passion as he does he makes them believe they're also able to succeed in life. And I would dare to say that his speech actually calls to action. E