“The most powerful delivery tool for information” - Nancy Duarte on the power of stories.
“I picked up the phone and started to call. I called NASA, Tandem and Apple in one afternoon and we won accounts at all three of them.”
That’s how Duarte Inc launched back in 1988. Nancy, along with her husband who was a technical illustrator, started a business designing business presentations. It’s testament to their innate understanding of what organisations and leaders need to communicate - and how - that has kept them at the top of their game for over thirty years. Duarte Inc has brought to life some of the ‘world’s greatest presentations for leaders and brands.’ Based in Mountain View CA, with 111 employees, the company provides presentation design alongside training and communication strategy. It’s a company with storytelling at its heart.
Recently I caught up with Nancy for my ‘Meet The Storytellers’ series. We talked about the ‘three acts of a story’ framework, why she’s built a company culture based on storytelling and what we can learn from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs when they create what Nancy calls STAR - ‘something they’ll always remember’ - moments.
“Storytelling attaches meaning to whatever you’re saying, it gives an emotional attachment between you and the audience,” Nancy says. “You can use story as an anecdote - to actually tell a story - or you can frame your information in the shape of a story. Both are very influential and persuasive ways to communicate.”
(Scroll down to watch the video, read the highlights or hear the audio.)
Highlights from the conversation
“Visuals are the words you use, the metaphors, the pictures. Even a shocking statistic can be a visual. It’s very effective - if people can see what you’re saying, they can understand.” Nancy on how selecting the right images and metaphors can create a heightened sense of emotion and surprise.
“It’s about empathy. If it’s an internal, all-hands meeting, people want to see sincerity, they want to see where you live. Look in the camera, let them see what you’re feeling…” on how leaders can build engagement with their teams on video calls.
“I can tell an ‘I’ story from a place of personal conviction. There’s something about the vulnerability, the transparency of saying ‘I went through a messy middle and I’m different because of that’.” Nancy on the power of a leader or executive sharing a personal story
“I’ll follow a leader who’s tried and failed and talks about it before I'll follow one who pretends life is easy. People want to know you’re not all bravado and you’ve tried and failed just like they have.” Nancy on how honesty builds engagement.
