Numbers have impact. Make your's count.
Like game day fireworks crashing in the distance, Jeff Bezos' (Amazon's founder) net worth has exploded to $239,400,000,000. For all of us counting commas, that’s $239.4 BILLION.
Impressive, right?
Actually, I’m not sure it is. I can’t start to comprehend what this number really means. Neither can you.
Numbers are found everywhere. In your presentations, on social posts, sprayed across billboards, peppered through reports, scrolled across the weather channel.
They're everywhere.
What if you could process the magnitude of a billion? Actually know it's huge. Numbers have impact, but too often their punch is lost.
Let’s change that. Start by:
Squishing numbers into manageable concepts
Making numbers relatable.
Dusting off your 8th grade math
Here’s how to deliver numbers with impact.
Squish numbers into manageable concepts
Hans Rosling (one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People) says, “Numbers are boring, people are interesting.”
Nobody wants to be boring, so we need to introduce more stories. More relatable concepts. More simplicity.
Forever now, you've never hesitated to drop boring numbers into even more boring documents, presentations, and advertisements. Never giving them a thought. That's the number you were given, so you present it as so. Not a thought more.
You’ve gotta take the time and help the number SURPRISE, or hit hard. Help it be understood.
Start by breaking them into more manageable concepts. Connect your numbers to something relatable.
Nancy Duarte, the numbers GOAT and author of DataStory, encourages the following three approaches:
When dealing with size, compare to length, width, height, thickness, or distance.
If you’re using the measure time (seconds, hours, minutes, days, months, and decades), imagine how you could build more relatable timeframes. Try work hours, flight time between cities, an episode of a sitcom, a TED talk, or the time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn.
Let’s say you have one million users. It’s easier for an audience to get a sense of that quantity if you compare it to the number of people who could be seated in a stadium.
Good guidance.
My 14 year old son tracks his water intake.
The app he uses does more than deliver a percentage of his daily drinking. Tracking starts with the silhouette of an empty human body. After chugging each glass of water, he records it to fill the stick-figured body. Moving from the feet to the head.
Progress is simple for him to see, and understand.
He attacks his goal with passion when it’s visual and fun. Of course there are percentages being calculated in the background, but they’ve found a more simple way to show progress.
In your work, how can you make the numbers more consumable?
Make numbers relatable. Skip unfamiliar units of measure.
Numbers can be terribly abstract. Yep, they’re difficult to understand and hard to conceptualize. It’s your job to help audiences understand by using units of measure that are easy to follow.
Think of how you can make it easier to see the impact of a gigabit, metric ton, percentage, megawatt, trillion, lumen. Work to turn your intangible into something tangible.
Remember when the iPod was released?
Apple was lining up to battle Sony and Creative Labs (leaders in the MP3 player business). Apple needed to think differently. Again.
At the time, the landscape was filled with ads talking endlessly about the number of gigabytes an MP3 player had. A unit of measure that people don't understand. But, music lovers did know that a typical CD came with 12 songs on it. So, Apple advertised the iPod boasting that it was like "1,000 songs in your pocket".
No mention of gigabytes.
Now, that’s easy to understand.
Apple's 1,000 songs in your pocket. Image Credit: Bret Waters
Another great example is RXBAR.
To reinforce the natural ingredients in your bar, RXBAR lists them on the front of the label. 3 egg whites, 6 almonds, 4 cashews, and 2 dates.
Pretty simple to understand.
RXBAR's ingredient chart. Image Credit: Real Good Eats
When you break numbers down for people, they have weight. They’ll be remembered.
Don’t lean on obscure concepts like the number of times you can circle the earth with lined up edge-to-edge five dollar bills, how the value is similar to stacking quarters to the moon, or hiking Everest 4 times. Your readers haven’t circled the earth, they’ve never been to the moon, and they can barely hike around the block.
Make your numbers relatable.
For your next assignment at work, try to cultivate your numbers into something perfect. Chances are good you’ll win that extra budget. Get that new equipment approved. Enjoy that contract extension.
Make your numbers count for you.
Dust off your 8th grade math
Let’s look at Bezos' net worth again.
Remember, his net worth is $239,400,000,000. This number is too larger to comprehend, so let’s break it down using simple math.
Luckily today is my birthday, so I get to use easy numbers. I’ve been alive for 17,520 days (48 x 365 days).
If the net worth of Bezos was paid out in equal instalments for every day I’ve been alive, he would have been paid $13,664,383.56 each day. That’s $13.6 million. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Slightly more than what I made as a 12 year old drugstore delivery boy.
See what happens though?
The number of a billion becomes something we start to understand when we dice it into smaller units. 13 million is still a huge number, but it’s not as hard to break down. Our brains comprehend a million much better than a billion.
Even more simply is to look at how quickly you could spend $1,000,000 dollars vs. $1,000,000,000 dollars.
Let’s say you spent $1,000 each day. If you were a millionaire (cha-ching 💰), you’d be broke after 2.7 years. But, if you were a billionaire you’d be broke after 2,740 years.
Noooww, you’re feeling the magnitude. These numbers are impressive.
A billion dollars is a shit ton of money.
No, I’m not breaking down what a shit ton 💩 is. It’s my lazy expression, not an actual unit of measure that I’m prepared to explain.
So, as you build your next slide deck, remember you’re in a growing world of data. If you give your numbers impact, you’re going to encourage people to act. Move people to understand. Persuade people to listen.
It’s powerful. Make it happen.
Focus on turning the driest numbers into compelling stories that matter to your audience. Bring in the human element.
That’s all for this week.
🔗 Take a deeper dive. 9 helpful references related to this tactic.
↪ Nancy Duarte, “3 ways to help people understand what your data means”, Duarte, October 21, 2019, https://www.duarte.com/blog/3-ways-help-people-understand-data-means
↪ Ejike Uchenna Splendor, “From Numbers to Narrative: A Step-by-Step Guide to Data Storytelling”, Medium, March 1, 2024, https://medium.com/@Splendor001/from-numbers-to-narrative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-data-storytelling-ff6d1d1f9570
↪ Peter Khoury, “How To Make A Big Impression With Numbers”, Magnetic Speaking, https://magneticspeaking.com/make-big-impression-numbers
↪ Jacob Funnell, “How to make an impact with numbers and statistics”, Emphasis Training, https://www.writing-skills.com/knowledge-hub/technical-writing/use-numbers-statistics-effectively
↪ Fio, “How to make sense of stupidly large numbers”, contentfolks.com, December 30, 2020, https://contentfolks.com/how-to-make-large-numbers-easy-to-understand
↪ Scott Bourque, “Making big numbers relatable”, The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, October 11, 2017, https://businessjournalism.org/2017/10/writing-millennials-making-big-numbers-relatable
↪ “A Practical Guide to Data Storytelling”, United Nations Statistics Division, October 2022, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/data-storytelling/documents/Practical_Guide_to_Data_Storytelling_in_VNRs_and_SDG_Reporting.pdf
↪ Chip Heath and Karla Starr, “Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers”, Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, January 11, 2022
↪ Kim Grob, “Numbers Are Boring, People Are Interesting.” RightOn, July 5, 2023, https://wearerighton.com/numbers-are-boring-people-are-interesting