by Doug Stevenson

Created on: February 15, 2007   Last Updated: April 14, 2007

A dynamite speech is built upon a strong foundation of form and structure. I call this the architecture of the speech. Without the proper form and structure the right elements organized in the right order your speech may collapse in on you while you're standing there in front of your audience. Maybe that's already happened to you and you don't want it to happen again.

Step One of the 21 Steps of the Dynamite Speech System is Define Your Core Message. Before you start choosing stories and making PowerPoint slides, you have to have a clear purpose, a distinct point of focus that keeps you on track and makes it easy for your audience to follow you. I call this point of focus your core message. Just for clarification, the terms "core message" and "main point" are interchangeable. Your core message is your main point.

Here's the first question you need to ask yourself when defining your core message: what's the one thing I want my audience members to know or do? The most important thing. Not three or four or seven things. One thing. How do I want them to act differently or think differently? Core messages are designed to get people to act or think differently. They're simple, clear and concise.

Consider the challenge that's facing your listener. What's their pain? Where are they hurting?

Your core message provides a solution to that challenge, a prescription to ease their pain. That solution takes the form of a suggested change in behavior, or a suggested change in their thought process. A change in behavior might be something like, "If you want to increase your sales, increase your follow through." Increasing your follow through is the change in behavior. A change in thought process might be, "If you want to increase your sales, elevate your attitude." Elevating your attitude is a change in thought process a change in one's frame of mind.

Here's an analogy for your core message. Think of it as a major highway with entrance and exit ramps every few miles. Your core message is that major highway and all of your sub-points and supporting information are connected to that highway by entrance and exit ramps. That means that everything you say is logically connected to your core message. Nothing that you talk about, and none of the points that you make, can ever go off on a tangent. That would be like exiting the highway where there's an exit ramp, but not having an entrance ramp to get back on. In a dynamite speech, you can get off the highway your core message to make

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