Nancy Duarte > Quotes

“Ideas are not really alive if they are confined to only one person’s mind.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“The audience does not need to tune themselves to you—you need to tune your message to them. Skilled presenting requires you to understand their hearts and minds and create a message to resonate with what’s already there.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Leading people requires not only sensing change afoot, but imagining a brighter future and communicating it in a way that motivates others to follow you there.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols

“Your ability to shape your future depends on how well you communicate where you want to be when you get there.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“The enemy of persuasion is obscurity.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Changing beliefs changes actions.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Gussying up slides that have meaningless content is like putting lipstick in a pig.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Getting ahead of the next curve requires courage and communication: Courage to determine the next bold move, and communication to keep the troops committed to the value of moving forward. Rallying stakeholders to move together in a common course of action is all part of the innovation and survival process. Leaders at every level in an organization need to be skillful at creating resonance if that organization is to control its own destiny.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Pick the one type of person in the room with the most influence, and write your presentation as if just to that subgroup. The presentation can’t be so specialized that it will alienate everyone else—you’ll need some content that appeals to the greater group. But tailor most of your specifics to the subgroup you’ve targeted.”
― Nancy Duarte, HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

“We remember stories because they connect our hearts and minds to an idea.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“When employees feel that their leaders care about them, they feel more optimistic about the future and are more committed to the organization.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Motivate them by describing the possible future with wonderment and awe to show them that the reward will be worth their efforts.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“The people in your audience came to see what you can do for them, not what they must do for you. So look at the audience as the “hero” of your idea—and yourself as the mentor who helps people see themselves in that role so they’ll want to get behind your idea and propel it forward.”
― Nancy Duarte, HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

“Your presentation proposes an idea, and you’re asking the audience to adopt and shepherd that idea to positive outcomes. Your idea might be to reshape an organization for the future or to show customers how your product will fill a need they have.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Today, stories are becoming more pervasive in business because they make ideas, data, and plans relatable, recallable, and repeatable by associating information with powerful feelings.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“You are not the hero who will save the audience; the audience is your hero.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Ceremonies fulfill a need to express emotion collectively, resulting in communal catharsis.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“By illuminating the rewards of committing and the costs of resisting, you can help them keep moving forward.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Ask them to tell you whether your dream is achievable or not, if the path is smooth or if obstacles need to be removed, and whether they’re energized and able to keep going or whether it’s time for you to ease up and give them a rest before taking the next hill.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Persuasive speeches establish a gap between what is and what could be, and then resolve it by introducing a new bliss. Just as a great story creates and resolves tension, the gap between what is and what could be creates tension that jolts audiences out of complacency.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Middle: What Could Be”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Three-Act Story Structure”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Tell Stories”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Modern rite of passage ceremonies include the bar mitzvah, debutante ball, graduation, baptism, wedding, coronation, and inauguration.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Speeches differ from stories because stories typically unfold in a chronological sequence, whereas speeches aren’t bound by the constraints of time and place.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Currently, emotion is a powerful driver of consumer behavior, but it didn’t used to be. Before the 1900s, people rarely expressed emotion publicly; it was not socially acceptable to discuss feelings or desires. Products developed were solely marketed as items of necessity, not items of desire. As PR and advertising became prevalent, companies began to compete based on consumer desire and not necessarily consumer need. Suddenly, irrelevant objects became powerful symbols of status. Today, appealing to emotion is commonplace. Ads can make us laugh or cry, feel sexy or feel guilty. A full range of emotions can be felt during one thirty-minute television show.”
― Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

“Symbols we see through images or objects that make meaning tangible.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

“Speeches motivate forward movement because the gap between what is and what could be creates tension that your travelers will want to resolve.”
― Nancy Duarte, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols