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18 Plays7 days ago
In this episode, Rustam Irani shares a pivotal early-career moment that reshaped how he presents data, and breaks down four essential rules for delivering clear, credible, and impactful insights that drive action.
Resources Mentioned
ChatGPT — https://chat.openai.com/
Google Gemini — https://gemini.google.com/
Timestamps
00:00 – The CEO Meeting That Changed Everything: A high-stakes presentation goes wrong and reveals a critical gap in data storytelling.
04:53 – Introduction to the 4 Rules of Presenting Data: Rustam frames the episode and the lessons learned over years of experience.
05:44 – Rule #1: Clarity and Simplicity: Why overcomplicating data loses your audience and how to present at the right level.
08:08 – Rule #2: Accuracy and Reliability: The importance of validating data, checking formulas, and spotting red flags.
09:23 – Rule #3: Tell the Story Behind the Data: Focusing on what changed, why it changed, and what it means.
10:33 – Rule #4: Use Effective Visuals: Leveraging charts, graphs, and modern tools to make insights instantly clear.
12:00 – From Reporting to Responsibility: Shifting mindset from sharing numbers to owning the narrative and outcomes.
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Transcript
Meeting the CEO: First Impressions and Challenges
00:00:00
Rustam Irani
Two weeks into my new role and i had a meeting with the CEO. This was pretty amazing. I was going to meet with him with one of the other team members in the office. He was a data analyst.
00:00:16
Rustam Irani
And I was asked to pull together our media plan for the month and present it. The CEO at that time was very involved across the board. And I actually liked that. It was pretty amazing that the CEO wanted to see this data and to see how we were working with our marketing plan and what we had.
00:00:39
Rustam Irani
So we had the data. Apparently, he was very particular with the format that he wanted it in. Back then, we were printing out on sheets still 11 by 17 landscape format.
00:00:51
Rustam Irani
And he wanted everything color as well as in transition, like basically the format, right?
00:01:00
Rustam Irani
So we go in and we have it all printed out. We get ready to meet with them. We've got this little time slot. We sit down, had a little bit of small talk, and he looks over at the person next to me and says, you know, all right, let's do it. Let's look at this. And he goes, Rustom, you ready?
Lessons Learned: The Importance of Preparation and Clarity
00:01:21
Rustam Irani
said, yeah. And literally, this was probably one of my first times meeting the CEO. So we flip around the sheet that we had with the entire media plan. The first thing he does is he reaches in his desk, he opens the drawer, and he pulls out a calculator, puts it on the table, and he starts to look down the list. He goes one by one by one. He's looking at the columns. He's looking at the rows. He's looking at everything. And then he starts making a couple calculations, and he posits.
00:01:56
Rustam Irani
And he looks around on the sheet and then he looks at who is next to me and I and he goes, hey guys, what's the date range of this data?
00:02:07
Rustam Irani
And we said, well, this is year to date data, but the view that you're looking at is for the month.
00:02:18
Rustam Irani
And he said,
00:02:21
Rustam Irani
how would I know that by looking at this sheet? And basically hooks back, he pauses for a second, and both of us are like, literally in shock, because that's pretty much the first conversation we had with him about it.
00:02:34
Rustam Irani
And he turns the sheet around, he looks at us and says, Hey, guys, make sure all these calculations are correct. please don't ever bring anything or don't present anything without the information about the date of the data and the data set, where it comes from, what the date range is, and how you put it together.
00:02:59
Rustam Irani
Really, the kind of the behind the scenes of it. So then don't have to question it. He gives it back to says, all right, guys, try to reschedule another meeting with me. And please have this ready this week.
00:03:14
Rustam Irani
So we look at each other. get up. We say thank you and we walk out. Honestly, he wasn't rude. He wasn't mean about it. He wasn't rude about it. But what it did make us realize was we need to be more prepared.
00:03:34
Rustam Irani
We knew the numbers, we knew what we were presenting, but how can we expect other people that don't know those things to understand that?
00:03:46
Rustam Irani
And that was such a huge lesson early in my career or kind of mid in my career, but early at that company at least. And especially as I was digging more into data analytics and more into media plans and so on. It's just such a powerful lesson that taught me what I need to do in order to be successful be prepared.
00:04:13
Rustam Irani
right and make sure that I have a very clear story and understanding of what I am presenting.
Rules for Impactful Data Presentation
00:04:20
Rustam Irani
And that meeting was very impactful and powerful. And it definitely changed the way I looked at and presented data moving forward. And so, it's been powerful for me and I hope that story resonates and can be impactful for somebody as well.
00:04:39
Rustam Irani
Welcome back to ROI University, the podcast for higher ed marketers and leaders who want to change the game and of course themselves. I'm Rissa Mirani, a former higher ed CMO and recovery engineer.
00:04:54
Rustam Irani
And today, wanted to give you four rules of presenting data and how to make it impactful and what are some of the keys to look out for. This is something that I've put together over the years in presenting many, many, many data sets, many, many case studies, many, many slides.
00:05:12
Rustam Irani
I wanted to just share really the four rules that i use when presenting data. And that one initial meeting was very impactful for me building this. And I literally use this even today in a lot of the times when we meet with clients and when we're presenting data.
Coaching for Effective Communication
00:05:29
Rustam Irani
Number one, you want clarity and simplicity. You do not want to overcomplicate it. You want to keep it very simple and very high level. There was also couple times when I presented, or actually my team, we had two analysts on my team, and one of them had presented in a meeting. And I remember he presented, and the data was amazing. The work he did was great.
00:05:54
Rustam Irani
But at the end when he was presenting it actually in the boardroom to a bunch of executives, He got so detailed into the data and into the analysis that they were not sure what he was talking about, which was...
00:06:14
Rustam Irani
hard for him to understand the level of detail and work he put into it was so great that he couldn't understand why they weren't comprehending what he was what he was talking about. And this is one thing that is so, so big.
00:06:30
Rustam Irani
And I actually met with him a couple times. And I said, Okay, here's what we've got to do. Your analysis is fantastic. But We've got to bring it up two notches to who we're presenting it to. Can you explain this to somebody in middle school or even high school?
00:06:51
Rustam Irani
And how would they perceive this data? We'd have to think about that. Not only that, but what is this data telling us? What's the story behind the data, right? Keep the discussion high level when you're presenting the data.
00:07:05
Rustam Irani
be ready to dig in the details, but keep it high level. And from there, actually, he really took that to heart. the next set of presentations, really awesome and how transformative they were with what he was presenting. So that was pretty awesome. To the point where a couple of the executives said, hey, Ristam, that was awesome. Whatever you coached him on, it was amazing to kind of see the transformation there.
The Narrative of Data: Accuracy and Reliability
00:07:32
Rustam Irani
Number two, accuracy and reliability. Make sure to double check your data. I can't tell you how many times I've run into spreadsheets that were broken formulas that were wrong, data sets that were wrong.
00:07:48
Rustam Irani
I don't know if you need to pull out a calculator like the CEO did, but you definitely want to just make sure do a litmus test. Does it make sense? If you have $200,000 cost per enrollment,
00:08:00
Rustam Irani
if you have let's i don't want to say that because if you have a two hundred thousand dollars cost per enrollment I'm hoping something is very wrong there, right? You know, there are red flags in the data. If you have a cost per lead, that's $4,000. Either the data is not tracking, something is wrong, your calculation can be wrong. So just really hone in on accuracy, reliability, double check your formulas. You know, know, and the other thing is know your numbers, like know month over month, year over year, is it makes sense based on what's trending?
00:08:36
Rustam Irani
We do this all the time with our clients where we're absolutely checking and seeing, hey, if they're used to getting 20 or let's say 30 enrollments in a week and all of a sudden they're at two, something's going on, right? Is it the data? Is it something happening internally? So always kind of validate before presenting the data.
00:09:00
Rustam Irani
The third thing I always say is, and this kind of goes back to number one, which was like clarity and simplicity. But when you're telling the story, like tell the narrative, what changed?
00:09:14
Rustam Irani
Why did it change? And what does it mean for the business? Like those are the three key things to kind of address, right? In your story.
00:09:25
Rustam Irani
What changed? Why did it change and what does it mean for the business? And that could be so many different things, but that's really at the end of it, what people are looking for.
00:09:38
Rustam Irani
Is it positive? Is it negative? And what does that mean for what we're going to do as next steps, right? Do we have action items based on what we're seeing? Are things going well? Are we going to double down on what we're doing?
Enhancing Data Storytelling with AI and Visuals
00:09:51
Rustam Irani
So i think those are the different you know areas that that story can really bring things to life.
00:09:57
Rustam Irani
as far as what do we need to do next. And lastly, the thing I also like to say, and honestly, it's getting a lot easier with AI.
00:10:08
Rustam Irani
There are so many tools out there now. make sure you use effective visuals. So you want to have very clear data sets. You want to present it in a very clear manner.
00:10:22
Rustam Irani
You want to use charts and graphs. Those tell a story amazing. It's an amazing way to tell a story, right? You want to have key highlights. You want a graph or a chart to highlight that.
00:10:34
Rustam Irani
You want to make the data obvious at a glance on what it's telling you, right? So can that visual, you know, we say a picture is worth 1000 words, like can a visual be worth 100 words, right? And we've seen where it can be. And again, now with whether you're using Gemini or you're using ChatGPT or any of these other tools, there's just so many powerful tools to create just some amazing visuals to the point where now they're even like video. You can even use video or motion videos to tell a story. I see some really cool things, and we've done some really cool things as well.
Owning the Story in Marketing and Upcoming Guests
00:11:18
Rustam Irani
So again, to reiterate, Four key rules in presenting data, clarity and simplicity, accuracy and reliability, telling the story, and then utilizing effective visuals.
00:11:30
Rustam Irani
I can also tell you from the internal side, it's a little tough, right? Sometimes you might get challenged in meetings. Sometimes there may be data you don't want to present because it doesn't look great, but you've got to share the insights, the story behind the insights, why things have happened. And when you can do that,
00:11:57
Rustam Irani
then you don't have to hide behind the data. Show it, showcase it, show what's happening, and then figure out ways if there are problems for solutions, and if things are going well, how to double down or triple down on it, right?
00:12:13
Rustam Irani
So the mentality really, when you think about kind of you as a marketer, here your mentality should shift from reporting to responsibility, right?
00:12:25
Rustam Irani
And really, owning the story behind the numbers. So that's been a huge, huge impact in my career. I am so grateful to two weeks into my job being put my place and basically being told to leave the office and come back.
00:12:45
Rustam Irani
And I can tell you that it was just such a key, pivotal moment in my career. And I'm so, so grateful. Great news. In the coming weeks, we're going to be having our head of SEO join. And he's going be talking about AEO, GEO, and pretty much everything EEO. So that's all for this class of ROI University, where the biggest ROI is personal.