Why you should set horizon goals 🌅

Hey you! School might be out for summer (okay, fine—forever), but you still have lots of opportunities to continue learning. 👀 I’m hosting (free!) online masterclasses covering all things Excel and AI from May 31st to June 2nd. In just one hour, you’ll learn how to ace your Pivot Tables, harness ChatGPT, and so much more. If you’re ready to become the Excel pro you know you can be, join us here. 🤗

Let ChatGPT Do The Heavy Lifting

There’s a solid chance you’ve heard a lot about how ChatGPT can boost your Excel capabilities—but you haven’t seen it in action yet. Let me do the honors and show you one of my favorite ChatGPT x Excel combinations. 😎 

A universal Excel experience: copying information from online and pasting it as a table in your workbook. But finding all that information spread across the web and fitting it into a table format?

Big time drain.

For example, say you’re a financial analyst (or if you are, hey 👋) and your boss needs a table summarizing the S&P 500 Index from the years 2000 to 2010. They want separate columns for the year open, year high, year low, year close, and annual percent change.

So, you hop online and find this ⬇️ table.

Not bad—except you can’t directly copy and paste it since it has columns you don’t need.

Instead of inserting the table manually, ChatGPT can whip up the exact table we want. The best part? The table will already be aligned and ready for pasting into cells. Isn’t technology just great?!

Here’s how you do this:

FYI: You can also use this tip with Microsoft Bing and Google Bard!

This is just one of the hundreds of ways you can leverage AI in Excel. I go over more tips, tricks, and best practices in my AI course, AI With Miss Excel, launching next month. Here’s the link if you’re interested in leveling up!

How to Build an Inclusive Brand

Brands can no longer rely on conforming to the "mainstream" to succeed. Consumers today have raised the bar and actively seek out brands that align with their values—with inclusivity being a significant piece of the puzzle.

In the podcast Inclusion and Marketing, host Sonia Thompson explores everything you need to know about building an inclusive brand. She covers topics like:

• How to build an LGBTQ+ inclusive brand

• Influencer marketing’s impact on inclusivity

• Incorporating diversity and inclusion data into your strategy

Step up your inclusion efforts—check out the show Inclusion and Marketing from the HubSpot Podcast network here.

Why You Should Set Horizon Goals

Are you the type of person who zeroes in on a specific goal?

Maybe you’re set on becoming a real estate agent in LA (blame the newest season of Selling Sunset), earning six figures as a pastry chef influencer, or being on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

So, you start meticulously planning how you’re going to get from Point A (where you are today) to Point B (where you want to be based on your super-specific goal).

Costs? Calculated. Timeline? Planned. Everything else? It's all in the Notes app, baby.

But planning out exactly how you’re going to achieve your goal can actually bite you in the in the 🍑 in the long run.

Kat, what?! Isn’t having a defined plan a major key in manifestation?!

I know. This advice goes against everything you’ve heard. But to accomplish [insert dream here], you’re better off setting a horizon goal.

What’s that? “They might not land you in the place you thought you would land…but you land in the vicinity. It’s an approximation of the dream,” author Mathew Dicks says.

I’ll use myself as an example. 🙋‍♀️ In 2017, I started teaching Excel to my co-workers and loved it (picture from one of my first classes below!). The goal was to host 50 in-person Excel training sessions by 2019.

When the pandemic put a pin in things, I had to redefine my goal—and I realized my horizon goal was to teach as many people as possible how to use Excel.

Having a horizon goal meant I stopped clinging to what I thought needed to happen (return to the office, stay in corporate life, etc.), and instead meant I could just follow that general direction (create Excel tips on TikTok, go viral). The rest is history!

The most important step you can take is the one right in front of you. Go with the flow and you might be pleasantly surprised with where you end up. 🤗

• If you’d like to hear more productivity advice from Mathew Dicks, you’ll love his interview on the Deep Dive podcast!

• Here’s how to translate languages in Excel in three seconds. Trés cool. 😎

• The quiz we never knew we needed: what Taylor Swift era you are based on your email style. In case you’re wondering, I’m in my “Reputation” era. 🎸

• Feeling like an imposter at work because your Excel skills aren’t up to par? This Reddit post provides some much-needed reassurance.

• Your girl is *all* about saving those hours, so here’s an AI tool that automatically records and transcribes meetings. ✏️

Here’s your regular reminder to avoid going on social media right after waking up. 😴

As we wake up, our brain’s theta waves are still active, keeping us in a daydreamy and creative state. It’s the perfect time to input positive thoughts into our subconscious (rather than head straight to our chaotic newsfeeds).

Stay Excelent,

Kat