To speak succinctly is an art. The irony of talking concisely is that people will listen to you longer. Master of pith, Mark Twain, describes a soundbite as, "A minimum of sound to a maximum of sense." Soundbites consist of fascinating phrases. They can be facts, anecdotes, stories, one-liners, or clever quips. Bottom line, they are sentences memorably packed with meaning. Here is how to create them:

Understand Your Purpose.

Know your intention. Are you trying to entertain, inspire, teach, persuade, or provoke? Your purpose in a job interview, for example, is to explain what you've accomplished in previous jobs and how you have successfully resolved difficult situations. Your mission is to answer any question-no matter how vague-while bathing yourself in a glowing light of pertinent information. Practice out loud. Then tape yourself. Try to tell your stories in 10, 20, 30 and 60 seconds.

Find your own voice.

Your voice is as personal as your thumbprint. You use phrases and have mannerisms that are like the billboards that holler over city highways. Ask your friends and family what your billboards are. These stories are one way we frame our lives. Observe how you talk about your experiences.

Practice your patter on people before any important meeting or appearance. Many of our unconscious beliefs surface during spontaneous interactions. Begin to notice yours and discover what you are saying about yourself.

Listen Rapturously.

Take the bore out of boardroom meetings by enjoying listening rapturously. To entice your audience to listen rapturously to you, first listen rapturously to them. Connect with people individually by holding their gaze as if they were the only one alive. Be sincere in your desire to connect. A phony stinks like old cheese.

Pausing silently to receive the audience's support before we speak creates a sacred ground for our talk. To keep that field of resonance with our audience-we have to keep listening to them. The more we keep noticing and receiving our audience as we speak, the more they will hear us

Make potent points.

Keeping to your most potent points makes an interview, presentation, meeting, or media appearance move forward smoothly. Sound bites don't have to be big, sophisticated ideas. In fact they should be the opposite. A great guest or presenter is someone who is articulate, well-informed, entertaining, and profound.

The process of developing your sound bites is about peeling away the unnecessary to arrive at the essential. We want to see your core unadorned by anything except the truth.