Here is a masterful piece of public speaking.
If you have a speech coming up – watch this video BBC Gavin Esler Speech
This is a political speech given by Gavin Esler, a TV news broadcaster who is standing in the European elections for the new Change UK (https://theindependent.group/)
Here are some lessons that you can use to prepare and rehearse your next speech.
He develops a line of story telling that grabs the audience. He uses his voice (word stress and pauses to the best effect.
Here are my takeaways:
- Speech structure – use of repetition. He uses the magic of threes – “…………but I am now”.
- Voice – rhythm and pauses in the voice with this repetition of “but I am now” there is rhythm in his voice.
- Bring your message close to the people – why should they care? He then pivots to why you should care. He appeals to emotion and sense of worth. This makes the speech personal and appealing.
- Personalise the message. He then tells us what he is proposing to do – his three reasons and he counts these off with his hands.
- Use short, sharp simple language to deliver the big message
- Voice – use word stress when you need to.
Here are my notes from the speech
| What he says | What the audience hears |
| “I’ve never been a member of a political party, but I am now.” | I’m listening, but tell me more.
Gavin Esler is well known in the UK as a TV host and interviewer and it’s not a big surprise that he joined a party. |
| “I’ve never been a candidate in an election, but I am now.” | But this is new – so you are standing as a candidate in the European elections. |
| “I’ve never been seriously worried about the future of our country, but I am now.” | This is why the audience should care – it’s about all of us, not about him. |
| “Our political system is a joke, a worldwide joke. They are laughing at us.”
“We know that this country cannot possibly be strong when it is weak at home.” |
Why should you care?
Phrases that appeal to our emotion and sense of worth. |
| “I will do whatever I can to start to change this.” | Here are three things – and you will remember them. He uses his hands to count them off. |
| “I have joined this Remain Alliance for three reasons” | Again, three things that you will remember. |
| “Stop Brexit, fix Britain and move to reform the EU.” | He punches out three imperatives (verbs) with short pauses. |
| “And the first step is a Peoples’ Vote because we have to stop Brexit now.” | The big message. Strong voice, Stressed words – he punches these out. |
Great public speaking habits can be used for media interviews too.
This excerpt is only 1.25 minutes long. Almost every point is quotable and can be clipped by the editors for their digital news of video clips.
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