To be a great leader, you have to first be a great communicator. Think about any historical figure you admire….I bet they had a seemingly innate ability to motivate people. However, the ability to motivate through strong communication is actually a skill that can be easily acquired, with the right knowledge! As a leader, you have the same potential to not only anticipate the future and invent creative initiatives, but to also inspire those around you to support and execute your vision. By harnessing the power of persuasive communication you, too, can turn your idea into a movement.

In this episode we speak with two incredible women – Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte, Inc., and Patti Sanchez, Chief Strategy Officer at Duarte, Inc. We are talking with them about their brand new book, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols, and Nancy and Patti are going to equip you with the same communication tools that great leaders like Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to move people. Duarte and Sanchez lay out a plan to help you lead people through the five stages of transformation using speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols.

NANCY DUARTE is a communications expert and the CEO of Duarte, Inc., the largest design firm in Silicon Valley. She is the author of Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, and HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations. She has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review,and many other outlets.

PATTI SANCHEZ, the Chief Strategy Officer for Duarte, has distilled twenty-five years of experience as a communicator into this book. She has led transformative communications initiatives for brands including Cisco, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, LexisNexis, Nike, Symantec, VMware, and Compassion International, and has taught hundreds of leaders to become more empathetic and effective communicators. Her work has been honored with awards from IABC, BMA, and Vital Speeches of the Day.

—

Interested in the Smart People Podcast Mastermind?

Sign up at mastermind.smartpeoplepodcast.com!