Two Amplify Speakers Earned the CSP This Year. Here’s What That Actually Takes.

Why This Credential Is Hard to Get

Most professional designations are a test. This one is a decade of receipts. NSA’s published guide for the most recent class spells out the bar an applicant has to clear:

250 paid presentations documented across a ten-year eligibility window. Every qualifying engagement has to run at least 20 minutes, with at least 75% of the content delivered by the applicant. A minimum of 20 different clients willing to complete a formal evaluation — and the first 20 evaluations that come back have to meet a minimum score for the application to advance. At least $50,000 per year in actual speaking-derived income for at least five of those ten years, not averaged. A video submission — either two 20–25 minute recordings or one 40–45 minute recording from the prior two years — evaluated for platform skill. Required coursework, three educational video sessions with post-tests, and a signed CSP Oath.

And it is not permanent. The designation renews every three years, with 15 education credits required each period.

Read together, the requirements are less about whether someone is a good speaker on their best day and more about whether clients kept hiring them for a decade. That is a useful thing for a meeting planner to know.

What It Means If You’re Booking

A CSP after a speaker’s name is not a guarantee that they are right for your room — fit, topic, and audience still decide that, and plenty of excellent speakers never pursue the designation. But it does answer a specific question quietly and in advance: has this person done this professionally, repeatedly, for paying clients, long enough that twenty of them would go on record about it?

For a planner assembling a shortlist, that is one fewer unknown.

Beyond the 2026 class, several other speakers on the Amplify roster already hold the CSP, including Jake Thompson, Mike Robbins, and Henna Pryor.

The Full CSP Class of 2026

As published by NSA: Adrian Miller, Angel Tucker, Carole Copeland Thomas, Charlotte Stallings, Christoph Merrill, Darryl Bellamy Jr., Diane M. Rogers, Dr. Holly A. Sullenger, Erin King, Fotini Iconomopoulos, Gaelin Elmore, Jamie Crosbie, Jason O. Harris, Jennifer Willey, Jill Schulman, Johnny Quinn, Joshua Cadillac, Julie Holmes, Kate O’Neill, Kelly Jahner-Byrne, Kendal Netmaker, Larry Long Jr., Lynn B. Unsworth, Matt Brauning, Nan Gesche, Nikolai Behr, Rachel Druckenmiller, Robert Meader, Sandy Geroux M.S., Sharon Delaney McCloud, Stacy Sherman, Trevor Blondeel, Tricia Broderick, Vincent Fournier, and Vitale Buford.

Congratulations to all 35 — and to our two.