šŸŽ¤ Teen sensation: This 17 year old's speech went viral in the House of Commons

Ft. Izzy Garbutt MYP

There arenā€™t many speeches that go viral in the House of Commons, but Izzy Garbuttā€™s did. The twist? She was just 17 years old.

At the heart of her success was an important principleā€¦

Who are you speaking for?

Most people speakā€¦

  1. At their audience (feels like a lecture šŸ„±),

  2. To their audience (feels like a keynote šŸ¤“),* or

  3. For themselves (feels like a sales pitch at best, an ego trip at worst šŸ™„)

Izzy spoke for everyone who felt like theyā€™d been failed by the education system.

Advocacy is an important (and all too often forgotten) part of thought leadership and when you speak on behalf of a group, you are not only elevating the profile of your ideas, youā€™re increasing your chances of getting your message heard.

People share things they resonate with.

735k views on her TikTok account. 1.6 million on someone elseā€™s. It went viral on LinkedIn. It sparked a debate between educationalists and political advisors on Twitter and itā€™s been cited in books and blogs and articles ever since.

Watch her 2 minute, 18 second speech and youā€™ll see whyā€¦ enjoy šŸæ.

Three rhetorical techniques that made Izzyā€™s speech so powerful:

  1. Bookending šŸ”„
    Starting and ending your talk with the same idea or story helps to reinforce your message.

ā

Beginning: ā€˜I can recite the quadratic formulaā€¦ā€™

Closing: ā€˜Go on Madame Deputy Speaker, ask me, and I'll tell you all about the quadratic formula.ā€™

  1. Personal Testimony ā¤ļøā€šŸ”„

    Strengthens the sense of connection between audience, speaker and message.

ā

'That flash card was stuck on my wall for three months in the lead up to my GCSE's'

  1. Anaphora šŸ’¬
    The repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of a sentence.

ā

'We are not... a percentage of A* to C's

We are not... evidence in an Ofsted report

We are not... a pass or a fail.'

The bottom line?

When you know what you stand for, you know who you stand for

Soā€¦ if you were going to give a talk on behalf of a group of people, who would they be and why? What would you say? What shift would you like to create?

Advocacy is powerful.

The best bit? You donā€™t need to wait for an opportunity to speak in the house of commons to do it. Write a LinkedIn post (like this one), or better yet video one!

Alex

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