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Hi, 
I'm Valerie

I fell into Excel as an intern over a decade ago and have been 'that Excel person' at every job since. I've used Excel to sort out HR and compensation distributions, relationship management reporting, management information, prospecting, client targeting, financial modelling, budgeting, forecasting, complex pro/con decision making, marketing calendar... and I'm sure you're as bored of this list as I am so let's move on. 

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​​I've shown in the course how I solve issues and think about data problems so if you're still on this page you're probably after some random facts about me and what I do with my life, besides this. I play the violin and viola, I do a lot of home improvement projects in my spare time (anything that won't collapse, flood, burn down or blow up the house), and I read - nothing high brow, mind; I have lots of recommendations for space aliens and magic books and absolutely nothing related to business. I speak English and Latvian and know enough to be dangerous in Spanish and French. 

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I quite like knowing enough to be dangerous, so you'll most often find me peppering people with questions about what they are doing or how they are solving a problem. From that I know a lot of use (less or ful) facts - like the fact that going from a preview to the live version involves a few hours of abject panic because they're never as close as you'd like.

I created this course because

I believe knowing at least some Excel* helps everyone make better decisions both personally and professionally. I've been asked often enough what courses I recommend and I've not found one I'm happy with yet, so I've made my own. 

 

Why wasn't I happy with anything else already out there (because there is a lot out there)? 

  • You don't need to know 99 functions to use Excel

    • Trying to string together xxxxxx number of functions into something useful is also... unhelpful at best, distracting at worst.​

  • You don't need to know the latest functionality that Excel just released (and hot take - you probably don't want to use it hot off the press; usually it's buggy to start with till they work it all out...)

  • You shouldn't need to spend loads of money on what is effectively bloatware (remember that??) to get a few nuggets that you need. 

  • Who has 12 hours to spend on a course?

  • Why do I need to subscribe to get 'free' things just to have half the time spent flogging a very expensive course?

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So here we are. This is a free course that goes into the 'why' of Excel - explains how it is built and how it expects data to be entered for it to best work for you. Once you understand this, the rest is just a matter of finding the right function and plugging it in. A formula - if you'll forgive the pun.​

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*Other spreadsheet software is available, like Google Sheets which is what I use in this course. When I say Excel I'm usually referring to the entire grouping of spreadsheet software providers, though have a look at each case study to see which one I've used to solve the issue as there are all sorts of compatibility nuances between Sheets, Excel Windows and Excel Mac. ​​​​

What's with the tip jar?

Have you ever gone on a tips based tour? The ones without any fixed fee but if you enjoyed it at the end you are encouraged to pay your guide based on the value you feel you got from it? (If not, I recommend Sandeman Tours* available in several major cities.)

 

That's what I have here - if you find the site useful and you'd like it to continue to exist, chuck a few quid into the jar. Tip jar > spammy subscriptions.

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*This is not sponsored - no idea how that would even work given it's a free tour (?) - I've enjoyed the London, Paris, Lisbon, Rome and Dublin tours and recommend them to anyone who comes to stay. 

Questions? Comments?

I may live to regret this but until I get a contact form sorted - which is lower on the to do list than modules 2-4, if you have questions, comments, spotted an error or otherwise want to get in touch you can do so by emailing:

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valerie //at// futuretechventures //dot// co

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Yes, it's co at the end, I didn't misspell com :)

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