“Maybe stories are just data with a soul.”

Why it was said

Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston who studies shame and vulnerability, said this in her 2010 TEDxHouston talk, while describing herself as a researcher who had come to see herself as a storyteller. Carmine Gallo uses the line in Talk Like TED to frame his chapter on storytelling.

What it actually means

Brown built her research by collecting people's stories as data, and the line reconciles the two halves of her work. For presenters it makes a sharper point: numbers alone rarely change minds, because an audience remembers what it can picture and feel. A story gives data a face, a sequence and stakes. Gallo builds on this to show that the most-watched talks mix evidence with three kinds of story: personal ones, stories about other people, and stories about the success or failure of a product or idea. The line does not license replacing evidence with anecdote. A story without data is an opinion, and data without a story is often forgotten; the craft lies in joining them.

How to use it

1. 1For your next presentation, pair your most important number with one specific case that shows what it means for a real person.
2. 2A day after you present, ask a colleague what they remember: the figure, the case or both.