How memories become wisdom 💭

Plus: Don't do this to your images in Excel

Hey! Coming to you live from Engelberg, Switzerland.🇨🇭 I’m here with the entire family. One of my big personal dreams with Miss Excel was to be able to take my family on vacations and show them the world (this is my little brother's first time in Europe!). So far, we’ve gone to Dublin and Galway—here’s a snapshot of the journey so far! 🙂 

How To Get Picture-Perfect Spreadsheets

A few months ago, we hired a few new members to the Miss Excel team (shoutout to my AMAZING Spreadsheet Specialist, Jen 👀).

This meant updating the company’s org chart to include our latest hires—complete with names, positions, and headshots.

Adding images could’ve been tedious—no one enjoys clicking, dragging, and manually adjusting images in Excel.

But the whole shebang took only five minutes…thanks to the tip I have up my sleeve:

Step 1) Select your desired cell and navigate to the ‘Insert’ tab on your ribbon.

Step 2) Click ‘Pictures’ and go to ‘Place in Cell.’

Step 3) Select your image and you’re all set!

Peek Behind the Scenes with Professional Creators…

Like yours truly! 👋

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly goes into being a full-time creator, there’s a podcast for that.

Jay Clouse’s Creator Science digs into what professional creators are doing TODAY to achieve success. This Signal Award-winning podcast, part of the HubSpot Podcast Network, gives business professionals valuable insights into how creators do what they do.

And you can get started with Creator Science by listening to my interview! 😁 In it, I describe how I went from a full-time banking consultant to a creator who made more than $100,000 from Microsoft Excel courses in a single day—which still blows my own mind.

How Memories Become Wisdom

90% of the time, emotions are good. Great, even! They color our lives and make us, you know…human. But emotions have a time and place, and knowing when to set them aside (and access that logical brain of yours) is key to leveraging your past personal experiences.

Here’s what I mean:

Let’s say you’re interviewing for a job you really want. You’ve gone through three interviews, submitted two tests, and are awaiting that one “yes.” Finally, you hear back—only to open the email, and be hit with “Unfortunately…”

Ugh.

For days (or even months!) you can’t think about the job without feeling rejected, ashamed, and discouraged.

But what if you removed the emotion from the event?

What if you just evaluated the facts from a third-person perspective?

Maybe you’d notice that your experience didn’t really align with the role. Or realize that there’s a good chance an internal hire got the gig. Or learn that your “tell me about yourself” answer needs some tinkering.

You’d see that event for what it is: Data to guide your future decisions. And that’s when one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Joe Dispenza comes in, “A memory without the emotional charge is wisdom.”

Because the truth is, reflecting objectively on past events can teach us tons:

  • A not-so-great quarterly review can be the catalyst to learning a valuable new skill.

  • A flopped social media post gives you valuable insight into what is (and isn’t!) resonating with your audience.

  • A failed relationship can teach you exactly what you definitely do—and more importantly—don’t want in a relationship.

This isn’t to say you should suppress your emotions—always give yourself space to feel the feels in the moment! Rather, it’s about seeing past them to truly understand the situation. By doing so, you’ll harness the power of your past—and prevent it from taking the present away. 💫

  • If Dr. Joe Dispenza is up your alley, his morning and evening meditations are on Apple Music.

  • Boss: “I wish there was a way to organize all my notes.” You: “I got this.”

  • This podcast episode with Arthur Brooks, who teaches courses on happiness at Harvard Business School, is a perfect 10.

  • 50+ Excel shortcuts to help you become the office’s go-to Excel pro. 👀

  • Five AI tools to help you create online courses, videos, clear notes from audio, and more.

Thanks for reading! Here’s a journal prompt to channel gratitude: 🧘‍♀️

“What do I have today that my past self from five years ago could’ve only dreamt of?”

Stay Excelent,

Kat