My son, Charlie, once asked me,

“Dad, how big is the sun?”

It’s a perfectly reasonable question — and an impossible one to answer.

Sure, I could tell him that you could fit about 1.3 million Earths inside the sun. But that doesn’t help, because he has no sense of how big the Earth is. Honestly, neither do I. I haven’t walked around it. I’ve only seen tiny pieces of it.

So the number — 1.3 million — means nothing.

That’s the same challenge we face every day in business when we present numbers to an audience.

We think we’re being clear.
We think big numbers sound impressive.
But to the people listening, they often mean absolutely nothing.

When 27,000 Meant Nothing at All

A few years ago, I worked with a nonprofit organization that helps troubled teens in Hartford. It’s an incredible group—they run programs, mentorship, and community initiatives.

During a presentation, they told me,

“Over the course of a month, we gather 27,000 data points on the teens we serve.”

I said, “Wow. That sounds like a big number… or maybe a small one. Honestly, I have no idea what that means.”

They told me it was “a lot.”
I still didn’t understand.

So I did a little math. I looked at how many teens they worked with, how many interactions they logged, and what “27,000” really represented.

It turned out to mean this:

Every single day, one of their team members connects in a meaningful way with every single teen.

Now that means something.
That’s a story.

When I heard that, the number suddenly became emotional, not abstract. It wasn’t data — it was connection.

That’s what storytelling does. It brings context to numbers in a way spreadsheets never can.

Why Context Is Everything

The problem with numbers is scale. We can’t feel them. We can’t see them.

If I say “a trillion dollars,” your brain shuts down. But if I say “a trillion seconds,” and then tell you that a trillion seconds equals 31,000 years, suddenly it becomes real.

Thirty-one thousand years ago, the Earth was in an ice age. Saber-tooth tigers and mastodons roamed the planet. There were only about 3,000 humans alive.

Now you can feel it.
You can see it.
You’ll remember it.

That’s what context does — it transforms information into understanding.

How to Make Your Business Numbers Tell a Story People Actually Remember.

You don’t have to work for a nonprofit to fall into the same trap.
Numbers are everywhere in business — and they’re usually underperforming.

• In your marketing, they live inside “proof” slides, retention percentages, and revenue claims.
• In your keynotes or pitches, they’re used to impress — but not to connect.
• In your presentations & meetings, they show up as stats, growth charts, and client results.
• In your case studies, they appear as ROI metrics, conversion rates, and testimonials.

The problem isn’t the numbers.
It’s that we forget to translate them into something people can actually see and feel.

When you turn numbers into stories, you stop presenting data and start communicating meaning.

You move from informing to influencing.

That’s the difference between a report and a sale.

The best communicators — in sales, marketing, and the boardroom — don’t just say numbers.

They translate them.

Every number tells a story.
It’s your job to find it, shape it, and share it.

Because the truth is: people don’t buy statistics.
They buy stories.

Every time we share data — whether it’s sales numbers, engagement metrics, or impact reports — we face the same challenge I faced with Charlie.
Numbers alone don’t make people care.

Our job as communicators, leaders, and storytellers is to give those numbers shape and meaning:

• Make them make sense — Translate the scale into something the audience can picture.
• Make them emotional — Connect the number to a person, a story, or a moment that matters.
• Make them memorable — Use comparisons, metaphors, or time to anchor understanding.

When you do that, people don’t just understand your numbers — they remember them.

And when they remember, they act.

Because storytelling isn’t just how we explain meaning — it’s how we create it.

Numbers don’t inspire action.
Stories do!

When you learn to translate your metrics, results, and data into stories people can visualize and feel, you stop sounding like a report — and start sounding like a leader worth following.

That’s the heart of Storyworthy for Business.

It’s where we teach you a system for communicating with clarity, authority, and humanity — in presentations, pitches, sales conversations, and internal meetings.

If you’re ready to turn your numbers into narratives that actually move people, you’ll fit right in.