Back in 2003, one of my first entrepreneurial activities was to get a 20-foot container of galvanized steel springs made in China. They were called “Branch Benders,” and their purpose was to open up the branches of a new tree so the sunlight could get in and the tree would grow better.

By the way, I thought I was pretty cool at the time, but now that I look back on that deal, I laugh at myself and how much risk I was taking with it. I guess every entrepreneur has to start somewhere, but man, now I wouldn’t touch that transaction with a 10-foot pole.

Anyway, back to the Branch Benders. I wanted to do a second container, so one day I was in California trying to interest some Chilean farmers in them. Only I had no idea how to describe them to the farmers. So, needless to say, the meeting went nowhere and here I am, well, not selling Branch Benders. Oh well, such is life.

That brings me to telling interesting stories about pretty much anything. One of the banes of the life of any presentation trainer is the client who insists that no story is needed, that the data will stand on its own. In my experience, this is particularly common when working with clients in finance or software engineering (sorry to throw your industries under the bus, you know I love you).

In this podcast episode, one of my favorite people from Hungary, an economist named Zombor Berezvai, goes into the importance of having a story for even the most data-driven audiences…