The recipe for creating viral videos 🧑‍🍳

Hey hey! Last Thursday, I asked you which free Excel class you’d like to see next, and wow—let’s just say I have enough ideas to last me for years. 😅 The winner by a landslide was XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP, followed by VBA. BRB, going to hop directly into creating that class for you. 🏃‍♀️ I’ll let you know when registration dates are live!

PowerPoint Appreciation Post 🫶

In the 60 editions of The Workbook, I’ve only featured two or three PowerPoint tips. Today we’re changing that—because being a PowerPoint pro instantly elevates your résumé.

Let’s start with PowerPoint 101: The Selection Tool. Here it is in action:

Say you want to select all of the different objects on a page of your presentation.

Maybe you want to make them smaller, bigger, or delete them altogether. Sure, you could highlight, click, and drag everything, but there’s a more ✨ seamless way ✨ to do this.

Under your Home Ribbon, click ➜ Editing ➜ Select ➜ Select All.

Bonus: Use the Ctrl A shortcut for “Select All” to be even more efficient!

Now imagine there’s a specific shape you want to select. If your PowerPoint doesn’t allow your cursor to click on that element, it can quickly switch from your BFF to your worst enemy.

The easy fix is to go to Editing ➜ Select ➜ Selection Pane. This will list out all the different objects of our particular slide on the right-hand side. From here, you can easily move, show, and hide each individual object. That’s it!

The Recipe For Creating Viral Social Media Videos 🍳

“Am I hallucinating? This can’t be real.”

One day in June 2020, I was sitting in my parent’s living room when I absent-mindedly grabbed my iPhone to open TikTok. That’s when I saw it: 177,000 notifications. 7,982 comments. 3.6 million views.

I’d gone viral. 

Fast-forward to today, and I’ve lost count of how many of my videos have exploded 😅 (yet the thrill never goes away!). The wildest part? The recipe for creating thumb-stopping videos isn’t super complicated. Here are the three simple ingredients you’ll need:

1) Creativity 💭 ➜ Let your creativity spice things up. In fact, my first popular video was of me dancing to Ciara’s “Level Up” to showcase the LEFT and FIND functions!

“What if I’m not a creative person?” A quick reminder: Creativity is a skill, not a trait! That means you can train yourself to be creative by scheduling creative practices into your calendar. I give myself at least two hours a week to meditate and journal so I can empty my mind and clear it for new ideas.

2) Utility 🛠 ➜ Your video should have a purpose and solve a specific problem. However, utility doesn’t have to be as straightforward as “master PowerPoint’s selection tool” (😉). It can also come in the form of inspiration and entertainment.

3) Polarity ❄️ ➜ Combine polar opposites to get people’s attention. When people think of “Excel,” it’s usually pretty boring and blah. But when I infused my videos with the polar opposite (fun, dancing, singing, etc), my content was different and got people to stop scrolling.

Lastly, the videos that perform (and feel!) the best are authentic to you. Try mixing up all your interests to create something unique—in my case, that was teaching, Excel, and dancing.

Most importantly, have fun with it, and don’t be afraid of flops! After all, you can’t become a good cook if you aren’t willing to get dirty. 🧑‍🍳

• Let’s keep the PowerPoint vibes going, shall we? 😎 Here are 50 tips to improve your presentations!

• Out of the 137 productivity tools YouTuber Ali Abdaal tried out, these were his favorites.

• Create an Excel data entry form in 36 seconds.

• If you were recently rejected, this podcast episode might be just the thing you need. 💌

• Breaking AI News 🗞: You’re now able to both speak to and send pictures directly to ChatGPT.

Thanks for being here! I hope this lovely little quote will brighten your week. ☀️

Stay Excelent,

Kat