17+ Nancy Duarte Quotes On Success, Communication And Great Talks

Nancy Duarte is an American author, speaker, and CEO of Duarte, Inc., a design firm that helps create presentations, videos, and other visual communications. She is the author of the books Resonate and Slide:ology, which focus on how to create effective presentations. She is also the co-author of the book The HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Nancy Duarte on success, leadership, communication.

If you feel tempted to use a picture of two hands shaking in front of a globe, put the pencil down, step away from the desk, and think about taking a vacation or investigating aromatherapy. — Nancy Duarte

Practice design, Not Decoration: Don't just make pretty talking points. Instead, display information in a way that makes complex information clear. — Nancy Duarte

Personal stories are the emotional glue that connects your audience to your message. — Nancy Duarte

The only difference between the failure of a great idea and the success of a medocre idea was the way in which the idea was communicated. — Nancy Duarte

Words that are carefully framed and spoken are the most powerful means of communication there is. — Nancy Duarte

Presentations are the most amazing persuasion tool available in organizations today — Nancy Duarte

Don't blend in; instead, clash with your environment. Stand out. Be different. That's what will draw attention to your ideas. Nothing has intrinsic attention-grabbing power by itself. The power lies in how much something stands out from its context. — Nancy Duarte

Sometimes all it takes is a kind word of encouragement to get your heroes back on the right path. — Nancy Duarte

To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can't really name a movement that didn't start with the spoken word. — Nancy Duarte

The audience does not need to tune themselves to you - you need to tune your message to fit them. Skilled presenting requires you to understand their hearts and minds and create a message to resonate with what's already there. Your audience will be significantly moved if you send a message that is tuned to their needs and desires. They might even quiver with enthusiasm and act in concert to create beautiful results. — Nancy Duarte

Most great leaders are also great communicators. Great leaders have learned how to persuade so their objectives can be reached. The most powerful device to persuade is story. Stating facts and figures is not memorable. Emotionally connecting your audience to your idea through story will move them. — Nancy Duarte

The greatest communicators have unknowingly used a story pattern. They not only use anecdotes effectively, but their communication followed a persuasive story pattern of tension and release. That tension and release is created by contrasting [what is] with what could be as a structural device. — Nancy Duarte

To keep people interested, your presentation needs to have contrast. As humans we process contrast. We are assessing "what's the same," "what's different," "what's like me," "what's not like me." Humans stay interested if they can process contrast. Varying types of contrast can be used. With content, you can contrast between what is and what could be or between your perspective and alternative perspectives. — Nancy Duarte

Spending energy to understand the audience and carefully crafting a message that resonates with them means making a commitment of time and discipline to the process. — Nancy Duarte

The future isn't a place that we're going to go, it's a place that you get to create. — Nancy Duarte

My hope is that design thinking becomes an innovative discipline and not just the trend of the decade. As a nation and globally, we have some of the biggest problems to solve we have ever faced. We need innovative ways to solve our problems and communicating the solutions will be paramount. Original thinking, complex problem solving, and collaboration are all important skills for our future. — Nancy Duarte

When ideas are communicated effectively, people follow and change. — Nancy Duarte

Life Lessons by Nancy Duarte

1. Nancy Duarte's work emphasizes the importance of storytelling and the power of visuals to communicate a message.
2. Her work also highlights the value of collaboration and the need to understand the audience in order to create effective presentations.
3. Lastly, Nancy Duarte's work emphasizes the importance of practice and preparation to create an engaging and impactful presentation.