Duarte, Inc.

For over 30 years, Duarte, Inc is the business leader in transforming communication cultures, creating differentiators in every level of your organization so leaders, teams and individuals can achieve their strategic priorities.  

We do this through message strategy,  story writing and communication, Visual Design, and Speaker coaching.  We can create your message for you through the same agency work we've done with the world's highest performing brands or we can teach you how to transform your company with the new opportunity of our academy training.   

In either case, we exist to help companies transform communication cultures of all sizes and scopes.

Communication Training Advisor

California State University Northridge  Entrepreneurial School

Helping young entrepreneurs compete in “Shark Tank” style and pitch, launch, and grow their SaaS ventures.

Mentor

Sales/Marketing/Strategy

Sales/Marketing/Strategy Specialist

Dodge Data & Analytics

General Sales Manager. Hire, onboard and success path training/leading of sales team utilizing LMS and presentation tools. Proven record of developing up to 91% of sales team to President's Club high-performance honors.
● Coach team to identify client problems and present solutions to sell SaaS, digital, print and network marketing solutions to Subcontractors, general contractors, architects, engineers, owners, and manufacturers and suppliers.
● Developed 7 KPI processes to increase quality service and sales by focusing on buyer relationship, new customers, on-boarding, service, loss control, and maintaining / increasing customer base.
● Participated in quarterly corporate meeting to contribute to the company's direction.
● Collaboration with product and marketing teams in branding, sales and marketing strategies through innovation, development, and execution. Utilized technology including EZ Text, Sly Broadcast, Google mail merge, Quickmail, Mailchimp, Convertkit, Certified letter software, CRM's Pipedrive and Streak, and Webinar Jam.
● Delivered 40% increase in user base by deploying LinkedIn, email campaign using Mail Merge with Google sheets, Pipedrive, and direct mail using the California Contractor Board database.
● Eliminated 60% of office cost by redirecting sales to individual territory management and adding on-demand meeting locations through Liquid Space, creating a $40,000 annual cost savings.
● Expanded Los Angeles Region territories from 8 to 11 in first 2 years by growing and splitting high-growth territories.
● First Regional Sales Manager of 30 regions in the nation to exceed goal by $1.2 Million, in first two years.
● Used Survey Monkey, Bucket.io and email campaigns to gain market insight of 1250 customers raising customer satisfaction.
● Achieved 25% increase in revenue in 105-year-old brand in first 2 years. Grew market every year since.

General Sales Manager

AT&T INTERACTIVE

Sales Operations Manager, Sales Training Enablement Manager and General Manager
● Hired, onboarded, trained and  coached countless award-winning Sales associates, helping to develop and transform many from telephone representative to key sales account and management roles.
● Grew market upwards of 30% consistently year over year by selling product and services included SaaS, Web sites, mobile sites, Google Ad Words, SEO, reputation management.
● Coached Sales associate in high performance mind set, organization, time management and technical sales skills, including discovery, presentation and closing.
● Managed 12 premise sales consultants and support personnel in generating $30 million annual revenues for Los Angeles County
● Leveraged analytical skills to evaluate pricing, market conditions, and competition to optimize market penetration.
● Utilized leadership skills to execute strategic and tactical plans and initiatives.
● Personal interaction with customers through surveys, using Survey Monkey and face-to-face feedback sessions.

Sales Leader/Operations/Trainer

Communication Is The Most Overlooked Component Of Business Success.  I'm here to help your organization surface and solve the communication blindspots and value chain inefficiencies that can cost your business millions of dollars

Strategy, culture and communication alignment specialist- Helping Fortune 100 teams from L&D, Product engineering, Analytics, Sales, Marketing and Customer Success build more consistent growth and predictable revenue through better communication that connects their work to organization strategy.

A company who relies too heavily on technology and workflows fails to improve the real driver in business - people - the human relationships between employee and C-suite, company and clients, work group to work group. But the organization that nurtures communication, culture and cooperation in company, teams and individuals creates more profitable and unique value that bolsters their competitive advantage.  Connect with me to see how we can use communication to your best and unique advantage.  ken@duarte.com

What ChatGPT Can't Do For You

ChatGPT can write your presentation.
It can't:

→ Read the room when your CFO's body language shifts
→ Pivot your narrative when resistance surfaces
→ Build trust with a skeptical board
→ Navigate the political dynamics of your stakeholders
→ Know which data point will move your specific audience

AI is making hard skills easier.

It's making strategic skills more valuable.

The gap between professionals who understand this and those who don't is about to become a canyon.

#ExecutivePresence #Leadership #AIReality

Ken Rickerman

li_at

JSESSIONID

“Strategic Skills Development: Where Communication Meets Competitive Advantage” - Drive speed, revenue, retention, and leadership impact — the costs of standing still are measurable and rising.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔 𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒖𝒑:

𝟏. 𝐈𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬

Teams (data, compliance, HR, etc.) struggle to surface insights and communicate recommendations clearly to decision-makers. They drown leaders in data or details without telling a story.

𝟐. 𝐋𝐨𝐰 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

Employees (especially new associates or technical staff) lack presentation experience. They hesitate, over-explain, or under-deliver when presenting to leadership.

𝟑. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐯𝐬. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞

Teams often feel stuck in “order-taking” mode. They want to move from reactive execution to proactive advising and influence.

𝟒. 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬

Staff lack the frameworks and confidence to shape executive decisions. They struggle to build trusted advisor relationships with senior leaders.

𝟓. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

Different teams (compliance, marketing, medical, HR) craft messages inconsistently, creating confusion and wasted time in reviews, approvals, and leadership prep.

𝟔. 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬

Teams feel buried in high-stakes meetings, last-minute deck creation, and leadership “fire drills.” They want a way to cut noise, save time, and focus on what matters.

𝟕. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Hand-offs between departments are messy (data to leadership, medical to sales, HR to business units). Teams lack a shared language/framework for clarity.

𝟖. 𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚

Analysts and managers often provide numbers without narrative. Leaders can’t quickly see “what’s important, what it means, and what to do.”

𝟗. 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝

During times of change (mergers, growth, leadership shifts), L&D and skill development lag behind. Teams want to elevate skills but don’t know how to prioritize training.

𝟏𝟎. 𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞

Even after workshops, learners lack reinforcement and tools in the “flow of work.” Without follow-ups or job aids, new skills fade quickly.

The soft skills approach:
"Be a better communicator" through general training.

Strategic skills advantage:
Systematic frameworks that turn communication into organizational infrastructure.

Soft skills improve individuals.

Strategic skills transform companies.

The difference isn't effort—it's evolution.

https://lnkd.in/dXwmVfUj

The cost of Decision Inefficiency ?

- McKinsey: “Inefficient decision making costs a typical Fortune 500 company 530,000 days of managers’ time each year, equivalent to about $250 million in annual wages.” McKinsey & Company

https://lnkd.in/g6BDyc3V?

Open article: What is decision making? by mckinsey.com

Why Your AI Strategy Is Failing

Your team learned the AI tools.
Your adoption rate is still 23%.
Here's why:

You trained them on the hard skill (how to use AI) but ignored the strategic skills:
→ How to drive change adoption
→ How to influence resistant stakeholders
→ How to communicate value to executives
→ How to align cross-functional teams

Organizations with effective communication see 3.5x higher likelihood of outperforming peers.

Those without? They have expensive AI tools gathering digital dust.

The bottleneck isn't technical. It's strategic.

#ChangeManagement #AIImplementation #Leadership

Every business recommendation is a story:

What is → The current state
What could be → The desired state
The contrast → Creates tension
Your solution → Resolves it

This is Story Thinking™. And it's how you turn analysis into action.

The Skill Stack That Ages Like Wine

Some skills age like milk:
→ That programming language from 2005
→ That marketing automation platform
→ That "revolutionary" project management tool

Some skills age like wine:
→ Strategic stakeholder influence
→ Data storytelling that drives decisions
→ Executive presence that builds credibility
→ Change communication that ensures adoption

AI is accelerating the milk-to-wine ratio.

Every hard skill you learn today has a shorter shelf life than the one before.

Every strategic skill you develop today becomes more valuable as technical complexity increases.

Choose your investments wisely.

#SkillDevelopment #CareerLongevity #StrategicThinking

Cultural ceremonies embed new behaviors.

Symbols. Rituals. Recognition. Storytelling.

Change isn't about the new process. It's about making the new process feel like "how we work here."

Strategic change communication creates culture, not just compliance.

The Hard Truth About Hard Skills

Everyone's racing to learn AI. Prompt engineering. Model training. Tool mastery.

But here's what they're missing: AI is a hard skill. And hard skills become obsolete.

Remember when we all rushed to learn Flash? Or master MySpace? Or become Excel macro wizards?

The professionals who thrived weren't the ones with the best technical skills. They were the ones who could influence stakeholders, tell compelling stories, and drive organizational change.

Those capabilities didn't expire. They compounded.

Today's AI tool will be tomorrow's legacy system. But the ability to move people to action? That's forever.

What are you investing in?

#StrategicSkills #Leadership #AIStrategy

The $150B Mistake

Organizations will spend $150B on AI training this year.

But 70% of their change initiatives will still fail.

Why?

Because they're treating communication as a "soft skill" while racing to master the "hard skill" of AI.

The result: Teams full of people who can use AI tools but can't:
→ Influence executive decisions
→ Drive stakeholder alignment
→ Lead organizational transformation
→ Translate insights into action

AI won't fix your communication infrastructure. It will expose it.

The smartest companies aren't just building AI capabilities. They're building strategic communication capabilities that make their AI investments actually work.

#OrganizationalChange #AIAdoption #CommunicationStrategy

Overwhelm

Cause: Too much data, too many meetings, too many competing demands.

looks like: 

 Compliance teams buried in endless decks and regulatory updates, can’t prioritize key risks.

 Data insights team floods leaders with metrics, but no one acts.

 HR comms group spends weeks coordinating town halls with last-minute fire drills.

 Sales leaders overwhelmed by decks from multiple product teams, each formatted differently.

 Analysts paralyzed by “everything feels important” and fail to highlight what matters.

What To Do Instead

 Good intel: distill signal from noise.

 Clarity: frameworks to structure what’s most important.

How Duarte can help when you're ready...

 DataStory (insights prioritization, recommendations)

 Slide:ology (visual clarity, simplify decks)

The hero's journey can still be strategic...

Old world → Current state (safe but limiting)
Call to adventure → Why we must change
Challenges → What we'll face together
New world → Where we're heading

People don't resist change. They resist unclear journeys.

Soft skills approach:"Slide organization" to reduce clutter.

Strategic skills framework:Big Idea thinking that organizes complexity around central business implications.

Soft skills make slides cleaner. Strategic skills make thinking clearer.

Impact: Complexity becomes strategic narrative instead of information overload.

The soft skills career limit: Positioning yourself as someone who "presents data well."

Strategic skills transformation: Becoming a strategic advisor who turns analysis into competitive advantage. 

Soft skills make you a better presenter. Strategic skills make you indispensable to strategy.

Impact:You drive business outcomes, not just deliver information.

How to Transform Your Next Presentation into Strategic Influence

Why?

Your next presentation could accelerate a decision by 6 months or kill a project entirely. Here's how to make it strategic.

Most presentations inform. Strategic presentations influence. The difference? You're not just sharing information—you're architecting stakeholder thinking.

SHIFT: Use Big Idea framework: Start with your strategic recommendation, not your agenda. 

Then build the narrative: 

What's the current challenge? 
What's possible? 
What's your solution? 
What's the specific ask? 

Stop building slide decks. Start building decision frameworks. That's strategic communication.

Soft skills limitation: "Presentation delivery" for one-time communication events.

Strategic skills solution: Working documents that become ongoing strategic resources.

Soft skills improve the meeting. Strategic skills sustain the momentum.

Impact: Insights influence long-term strategy, not just immediate decisions.

Most companies aren’t struggling with a lack of data.

They’re struggling because nobody can turn that data into decisions.

Brilliant analysts are producing insights that go nowhere. Dashboards sit unused. Reports gather dust in inboxes.

The problem isn't the data quality. It's that organizations need three different skill sets to turn data into action.

In this video, I break down the three-stage skill path that transforms teams from sitting on piles of data to actually using it to drive decisions.

And if you want to see the skills that build on each stage so you can help your teams develop, download our free Skills Roadmap for Data Storytelling (link in the comments).

#datastorytelling #communicationskills #leadershipcommunication

The soft skills approach: "Information gathering" to find more comprehensive data.

Strategic skills capability: Using familiar information to reveal unfamiliar strategic implications.

Soft skills collect more facts. Strategic skills generate strategic insights.

Impact:Analysis becomes indispensable to organizational planning.

The soft skills habit:
"Regular updates" about transformation progress.

Strategic skills methodology:
Milestone storytelling that celebrates progress, reinforces direction, and maintains momentum.

Soft skills keep people informed.
Strategic skills keep people invested.

Impact:
Change momentum sustains over time through strategic milestone communication.

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