Crafting Impactful Data Narratives for Your Coaching Practice

Daniel Meyer
3 min readSep 18, 2024

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Use a Virtual Assistant to Optimize Your Time

“Data is only valuable if you can turn it into insights and communicate those insights in a compelling way that leads to action. For small businesses, using data narratives is key to unlocking the value of your data and driving informed decision-making.” — Bernard Marr

As a coach, you know the importance of delivering insights that drive action for your entrepreneur clients. Crafting a data narrative — combining data, visuals, and storytelling — is a powerful way to highlight the results of your coaching. But building these narratives takes time, which is where a Virtual Assistant (VA) can help you streamline the process. Let’s break it down into five steps.

Step 1: Identify the Core Insight

Every data narrative starts with a clear message. What’s the main takeaway you want your audience to know? Maybe your data shows that clients who attend regular coaching sessions boost productivity by 40%. This is your anchor for the story.

VA Tip: A Virtual Assistant can sift through your data, identify key trends, and help you zero in on the most impactful insights.

Step 2: Collect and Organize Your Data

To support your narrative, gather relevant data on client outcomes, satisfaction, or progress. This could include client surveys, retention rates, or milestone achievements over time.

VA Tip: Let your VA handle the data collection process. They can organize spreadsheets, survey responses, or CRM data to give you a clear overview of client results.

Step 3: Visualize the Data

Next, transform your raw data into easy-to-understand visuals. Graphs, charts, and infographics can help illustrate how your coaching methods lead to measurable improvements in your clients’ lives.

VA Tip: A VA can create professional-looking visualizations using tools like Excel or Canva, saving you hours of design work.

Step 4: Weave a Story Around the Data

Now, turn the data into a compelling narrative. Explain how your coaching has helped clients, the challenges they overcame, and the outcomes they achieved. Use a mix of data and real-life stories to make the narrative relatable and engaging.

VA Tip: A VA can help write or edit the story, ensuring it’s clear and impactful, while you focus on your client sessions and business growth.

Step 5: Present and Share the Data Narrative

Finally, share your data narrative through blogs, client presentations, or social media posts. This not only builds trust with current clients but also attracts new ones by showcasing your results.

VA Tip: Your VA can format your data narrative into a polished presentation or prepare it for different platforms, allowing you to maximize its impact without getting bogged down in the details.

Crafting a data narrative is an excellent way to communicate the value of your coaching practice. With the support of a Virtual Assistant, you can focus on delivering powerful insights while optimizing your time. Let your VA handle the heavy lifting, so you can stay focused on what you do best: transforming lives through coaching.

Training Analysts with my business partner, Surge Freelance Marketplace!

MR. DAN MEYER is the President & Founder of DMAIPH, Decision-Making, Analytics & Intelligence — Philippines. DMAIPH is an analytics-centric consulting, outsourcing and training company with teams in the United States and the Philippines. We specialize in corporate analytics consulting, public analytics training and small and medium business analytics outsourcing.

One of the top analytics experts in the Philippines, Dan is also one of the most sought-after public speakers in the country and has personally trained over 10,000 Filipinos in various analytics functions. A gifted data storyteller and Tableau expert, Dan has consulted with over 300 companies and government entities in the Philippines.

Before setting up his own company, our founder worked as a Senior Analytics Consultant for Wells Fargo Bank for 15 years. Dan provided executive management analytics for the bank’s Remittance Service including developing business dashboards, overseeing competitive intelligence gathering, managing data analytics outsourcing projects and facilitating audit and risk management.

Dan earned a B.A. in History with a minor in International Studies from Sonoma State University and a M.A. in Education with a focus on Student Affairs in Higher Education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Dan recently published Putting Your Data to Work, an analytics guidebook designed to provide organizations with a solid foundation in using analytics to empower more data-driven decisions.

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Daniel Meyer

At that sweet spot in life where I do what I love, am really good at it and get paid to do it… helping businesses scale using big data & virtual staffing!