Storytelling With Data: The Case For Emotional Presentations

Once upon a time, a caveman named Brad was out hunting with his buddy, another caveman named Craig. They’d been out a few days targeting wooly mammoths and were getting pretty hungry.

“Brad, I’m starving, and these look super tasty,” said Craig, pointing to the mushrooms on the ground. He bent over, picked a few, brushed off the dirt, and munched on them happily.

“Yummy!” said Craig. It would be the last word he would ever speak.

Within minutes Craig was dead, by way of a most gruesome, painful, and upsetting process that Brad witnessed firsthand. After the shock and sadness subsided, Brad shuddered with fear. What if his children made the same mistake? The thought of it alone was enough to send him racing back to the village to warn them.

Upon his return, Brad described his friend’s unfortunate death in explicit detail, showing his family and his tribe samples of the deadly mushrooms he collected to make his point. He stressed to his tribe and especially to his children, NEVER EAT THESE MUSHROOMS. And from then on, no one in the tribe died from eating those mushrooms.

In short, Brad told a story. And I’m telling you a story right now. And I’lI bet I had you listening from the moment you read “once upon a time.” Brad’s deadly mushroom…