Prepped ≠ productive 🔆

Plus: Wildcards in Excel FTW!

February 27, 2025

Hey! There’s nothing worse than genuinely wanting to learn Excel…but feeling totally incapable of figuring it out, no matter how many hours you spend studying, watching videos, or dissecting spreadsheets. 😩

I don’t want you to go through this—and that’s why I’m hosting a free Excel class on Data Cleaning and VBA Macros!

In just one hour, I’ll equip you with simple, power-packed Excel tips that you can clearly understand, so you can finally feel confident in your Worksheets. Ready to save your spot? Go here! 

P.S. We’ll have a Q&A at the end of the class, so be sure to stick around!

Wildcards FTW 🃏

“Can anyone get me all the first names in this spreadsheet pronto?” your boss asks. This is your chance to shine before that upcoming quarterly review. 🤩

“I can!” you reply. Then you open the file and see…the names are next to a bunch of stuff in parentheses.

Don’t worry—you don’t have to manually clean all that data for the next hour. Because I’m about to show you how to use Wildcards to get what you need in just 30 seconds:

Step 1) Press CTRL + H. (This is the shortcut to open the Find and Replace tab.)

Step 2) In Find What write (*) and leave the Replace With blank

Step 3) Click Replace All > Ok > Close 

There’s a lot more we can do with wildcard characters in Excel (using asterisks, question marks, and tildes, to name just a few!). Want to harness their full power? I’ve got just the thing… 👀

Join the 400,000 People Who’ve Learned Excel

Using wildcards to find exactly what we need in a massive dataset? That’s just the beginning. Come to my free Excel class on Data Cleaning and VBA Analysis and you’ll learn:

  • My top Excel hacks and productivity boosters

  • How to execute tasks that would’ve taken you hours with a single click

  • The VBA tricks that clean up even the messiest of spreadsheets in seconds

Excel doesn’t have to be your arch nemesis! After just one hour, you’ll finally know how to use Excel for—and not against—you. Best part? It’ll be a blast, as these previous attendees will tell you!

Save your spot below!

Prepared ≠ Productive 🔦

Ever mentally rehearse all the ways something could go wrong…before anything’s actually gone wrong? (Guilty 🙋‍♀️) The habit of preparing for imagined setbacks has a name: Founder and CMO Amanda Goetz calls it “future casting.” 

A few examples: 

  • While creating a PowerPoint, you mentally prepare for criticism. 

  • After landing an amazing new job, you update your résumé “just in case.” 

  • Despite signing a dream client, you start planning how to replace their income when (not if!) they leave. 

Why do we future cast? Because these hypothetical scenarios act as a “flashlight” to illuminate the uncertainty ahead—and give us some peace of mind. 

While future casting feels productive (we’re just being prepared, right?), it’s a big energy drain. When you shine a flashlight into tomorrow, all you’re really doing is depleting today’s batteries. 

POV: You’re on a new uncertain path 🫠 

The truth? We can never fully prepare for the future (even if we run through 5,139 different scenarios). 

While there's value in looking ahead, we shouldn’t let future casting blind us to what’s happening right now: the achievement of getting a new job, the thrill of growing your income, or the hard work of building something great for your team. 

The next time you want to shine a light on the entire road, ask yourself: What would it look like to just focus on the next step? 

Trust the process. Focus on what’s in front of you. And save that flashlight battery for when you actually need it. 🔦

I recently had allergy testing done and discovered that my body has a super inflammatory response to…coffee. 🤦‍♀️ 

I’ve been on a side quest to find my new morning beverage and so far I’m really digging matcha. What’s your go-to in the morning? Drop me a reply—I’m collecting alternatives!

Stay Exceling,

Kat