One of the many skills that we get to develop at Toastmasters is the ability to prepare and deliver powerful speeches that can inspire an audience, and even persuade with power so that people will want to take action.

Here is Harrison Ford speaking at the Global Climate Action Summit that took place in San Francisco recently.

(From: NowThis. Full speech can be found here or here.)

If we focus on the content of the speech, we notice that he inspires the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement. He does this, for example, by speaking with passion and by using logic and emotion to support his position. Here are some excerpts:

“You’re here, I’m here, because we care. Not just for today. But we care passionately for the future.”

“While you work to recognize the challenge of climate change, I beg you, do not forget nature. Because the destruction of nature today accounts for more global emissions than all of the cars in the world. We can put solar panels on each and every house. We can even turn every car into an electric vehicle. As long as Sumatra burns we’ll have failed.”

“Nature doesn’t need people; people need nature.”

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Would you like to know more about how Toastmasters can help you be a more effective speaker and a stronger leader? Feel free to come visit us.

Here is the programme for the St. Lawrence Toastmasters Montreal meeting of September 25, 2018.