How Excel Transformed a Beginner into a 9 Million Follower Educator with Emma Chieppor

Do you think AI will be able to build the models for us in the future?

Yes.

How close do you think we are?

I think we are getting decently close, but I would never just rely on the AI output. But I do think that AI is going to be able to build some pretty crazy models pretty soon. Emma Chepor is the founder of Excel.

Dictionary, a platform that's helped millions learn Excel faster. With over 9 million followers, she's turned spreadsheet skills into a global movement, making.

Excel fun, accessible, and powerful for everyone. The worst experience that I personally had using a model was whenever all of the data summaries were using pivot tables. I just found that it was very hard to update. Things would get messed up a lot easier if you actually built out the summary tables using Excel's functions. I just don't really like when there's pivot tables and models. Wanting to start a social media business or you're wanting to start posting, you're thinking about all the things you have to do beforehand. Just start posting. You can figure out all of this stuff as you go. Like you will never know everything that you need to know to run a business.

When you start, what's the number one lesson you've learned so far during your career? Career.

Oh, this is a tough one.

I would say it's great life advice.

That was like a huge thing for me.

Welcome to Financial Modelers Corner, where we discuss the art and science of financial modeling with your host, Paul Barnhurst. Financial Modelers Corner is sponsored by Financial Modeling Institute. Welcome to Financial Modeler's Corner. I'm your host, Paul Barnhurst. This is a podcast where we talk all about the art and science of financial modeling with distinguished guests from around the globe. The Financial Modeler's Corner podcast is brought to you by the Financial Modeling Institute. FMI offers the most respected accreditations in financial modeling, and that's why I completed the advanced Financial Modeler this week. I'm thrilled to welcome on the show Emma. Emma Chipper. Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. I'm super happy to be here. Excited?

Yeah. Really excited to have you. So give a little bit of your background and then we'll get into things. Emma is the founder of Excel Dictionary, right?

Yep. So I founded Excel Dictionary about four years ago at this point. So I've just been working on growing the brand Excel Dictionary. We teach Excel tips across all the different social media platforms and we've grown an audience to over 9 million around the globe at this point, which is crazy, but we're on every single platform at this point. We do every type of content, short form, long form, newsletter. And so yeah, only 9 million. That was crazy.

I thought my little over a hundred thousand was pretty good. That's impressive. That's great work and we'll definitely dive into that. I know you started your career as an actuary and then obviously spent a lot of time using Excel there and decided to start your own business. So, you know, one of the first questions we ask everybody, and I know it's been a while since you've been doing modeling as you've mostly been focusing on Excel and Excel training, but tell me about kind of the worst financial model or something you hate to see in financial models.

Yeah, so it's been, it's been a little while since I've been deep in the Excel models. And whenever I was an actuary I was typically in insurance pricing models. So a little bit different than financial models, I guess. But I just remember the worst experience that I personally had using a model was whenever all of the data summaries were using pivot tables. I just found that it was very hard to update. Things would get messed up. I just found it a lot easier if you actually built out the summary tables using Excel's functions. And I just, I would say that that is probably my worst. I just don't really like when there's pivot tables in models. I've seen a lot of other random stuff though too, like hard coded values. That's a big no, no. When there's no like input tab or people are trying to calculate everything on the one tab, I think that's not good as well. But yeah, I would say I don't like when there's a lot of pivot.

Tables and the ones you're seeing a lot of pivot tables, are they pulling the data off the pivot tables or like, are they using a lot of pivot formulas too?

They were just like using a bunch of pivot tables to summarize the data and then they were referencing the data in the pivot tables and it just was messy.

That gets really messy.

And it was really hard. As someone who like had just started out, who didn't really know Excel, to kind of pick up on that. I had no idea what a pivot table even was. So taking that over was just. I didn't like that. I like. I prefer sumif functions and just calculating everything yourself. I think it's easy now.

You can just use the pivot by function if you want.

That's true. Yep. Group By. And pivot by, which I didn't have that whenever I was back as an actuary.

But yeah, no, I mean, those will come out. What, last year or so? I think. So during college you did some fashion influencing. Talk about how that came about. How did you end up doing that?

Yeah, so I've always been really into fashion and clothes, and I've always really liked social media. I've always posted on it. And it was just like a fun hobby that my friends and I did in college. We would just get dressed up, take pictures, post them, and when we. This was like, right when Instagram came out. So our accounts, like, naturally started to grow, and then brands started reaching out to us and we're like, will send you free clothes in exchange to post. And I was like, this is the coolest thing ever as, like a. As a broke college student. Free clothes. I was like, yes. So, like, I don't know. I kind of worked with a couple brands throughout my college career and just was posting content for them. And I kind of got a feel of how social media worked by doing that and, like, working with brands and sponsorships. So, yeah, that was like a fun hobby. And then whenever I graduated, I kind of moved away from it a little bit to focus on the actuary exams because those pretty much took up all my time outside of work.

Yeah, I'm sure all your free time was spent studying for those exams. I'm curious, did you have a favorite brand that you got clothing from or one that you're. You really like to work with?

Yeah, I would say my favorite was Princess Polly. That was like the biggest brand that I really like to work with. I love their clothes. I still buy their clothes today. I don't really do much fashion influencing anymore. I kind of just focus on Excel. But that. That was my favorite brand.

I was gonna say, if you have time for fashion influencing and Excel, I'm impressed with how much you want Excel.

Yeah, I don't have time for that anymore, and I prefer teaching people Excel at this point. Sure.

No, that. That makes a lot of sense. So after graduating college, as you mentioned, you went to work as an actuary. What interested you in being an actuary or how did that come about?

Yeah, so I actually went into college into chemical engineering, and I always thought that I wanted to make makeup kind of related to, like, the fashion products. Like, really enjoying the math, and I was not liking the science, like, at all. Like, I was really good at the math, didn't really enjoy the science classes, so I was kind of reevaluating, like what I should do. And it was either kind of math, a math teacher, or an actuary. And I thought becoming an actuary sounded very interesting because it's. It was all math and I really, really liked math. And it was more of like the traditional 9 to 5 route, which I really enjoyed. And then. Yeah. So I would say, like, that's what interests me the most about it and how it came about. And I did really enjoy it. It was interesting.

Yeah. So talk a little bit more about what an actuary does. I know there's a lot of math involved, but if you have someone listening that's not familiar, what's the kind of typical work like as an actuary?

Yeah. So we typically just base. Well, in my personal experience, I placed insurance based on statistics. So just doing a lot of risk analysis, statistical modeling, just to kind of figure out what the best rate may be based on statistics for different insurances. I worked in property and casualty for a little bit and I also did health insurance for a little bit. So two completely different sides. But essentially an actuary calculates risk, I guess I'd say so looking at a.

Portfolio or what, whatever might be a certain customer and calculating the risk to help them with determining pricing and making sure that they price in the risk to the different products.

Right. So just looking at like past data trends, how many accidents someone's been in, just like taking all of these factors into consideration, like calculating the probability of that person getting into an accident and then pricing it based on that.

So a lot of statistical modeling, I'm going to guess.

Yes, tons. There's a financial modeling piece as well, but I never personally did any of that work. I did think it was really interesting though, we had to take a full actuary exam on financial modeling, which go. Looking back, I probably would have enjoyed that a little bit more, but. Oh, well.

Well, you're. You're doing something you enjoy now. So that's. That's the important part. So I'm curious, you started your career. I think you're probably studying for the exam and starting your career right. During the COVID pandemic of kind of graduating college. How did you manage that? It sounds like that'd be a really tough transition to going from kind of college to all of a sudden a job and the COVID hitting at the same time.

Yeah. So that was really tough. That's kind of how I. Why I started Excel Dictionary too. That's like a huge part of my story is I had started a new job at A new company right out of college during COVID Like I was supposed to go in to my new job and then Covid hit so they delayed my start date. I remember they didn't know what to do because no one had ever worked from home before. And then they started me work from home. But it was just really difficult because one, I didn't really, I didn't know anyone at the company. I didn't know how to use Excel, I didn't know how to. These corporate nine to fives worked. So it was just very, it was just a lot. And then on top of that I was getting thrown Excel tasks and I had, I had never really used Excel. I didn't take a class in college so it was just, it was a lot. And I just remember being like very stressed out trying to figure stuff out, like alone in my bedroom just trying to work and I didn't even have anyone to ask for help. I didn't know anyone except for my boss and I wasn't gonna message my boss Excel questions. So I eventually decided like enough was enough and I was just going to start teaching myself everything that I could about Excel. I watched countless YouTube videos, read a ton of blogs and then after a year of working and working with those insurance models in Excel, I like really started to figure out Excel and I got the hang of it and I realized how much I liked it. And then I just, I was still work from home after a year, kind of bored. We weren't going in anytime soon so and I was just trying to think like there has to be other people in that situation out there and work from home isn't going away anytime soon. So I started Excel Dictionary to try to hopefully be that co worker that I didn't have whenever I started. And I wanted to make 30 second tips because I remember whenever I was learning it I would have to watch like really long youtubes, read really long blogs, apply everything I learned. Like it just took a while. So I wanted to take out like the 30 second format to just like help people get exactly what they needed as quick as possible so they could move on with their workday.

Essentially kind of do the micro learning versus here's your five page blog to read.

Yes.

As you started and you learned Excel, did you have a favorite resource, maybe a go to YouTube or blog that you really like that kind of, you know, resonated with you? I know there's a ton out there and everybody has their kind of favorites.

Yeah, no. Layla and Kevin were huge on YouTube. They taught me A lot. There is one blog. I'm like blanking on the name right now, but it's like the first Excel blog that comes up. I'll have to figure out what it's called, but it's like the orange one.

The black and Excel Jet. Is that the one you're talking about? Yeah. I love Excel Jet. With Dave. Dave Burns or. Yeah, Brian.

Read a lot of Excel Jet, watched Layla, Kevin and. Yeah, so those, those were like the big three that come to mind.

Yeah. Leela has a lot of great content. For me, it was watching a lot of Mike. Mike Girvin and his videos. She always does the craziest things in his videos. At first I was like, I'll never be able to do any of that. Now I'm like, I can do a little bit.

That's good. Yeah, that's awesome.

Did you start videos originally? Did you create a website from the beginning? Kind of. How did that, how did you get started in teaching? Teaching others?

Yeah, so I just started a TikTok and an Instagram page and I started posting 30 second tips. I didn't have a website. I started with Excel and TikTok because I kind of knew how social media worked from doing fashion influencing. So that was kind of like my starting point was I'm going to just start an Instagram, start a TikTok and just start posting on those too.

And, and how long, how quickly did you grow? I. If I remember right, it kind of exploded pretty quick on you, right?

It did. Within the first week we had a video go viral and like get 750,000 views. And I was like, wow. Like, this could actually turn into something like people are actually interested in my Excel tips, which is, which was crazy. I didn't really expect anything from it. And then within like four months, I had a million followers on TikTok. And then within like eight months, I had a million on Instagram too. So it was just, it was crazy. It blew up so quickly. I was just shocked.

When did you realize you, you know, kind of. When did you start monetizing it and realize that you could, you know, turn this into something more than a hobby?

Yeah. So it took me a little bit to actually monetize it. I was growing really quickly, but I really wasn't monetizing the audience that much. And then I created my Excel dictionary guides, which are my shortcut guides with the dictionary along with it that kind of go with the brand. And so I started out with those and then I started monetizing them by selling those and then my situation is a little bit different because Excel Dictionary was actually acquired by Morning Brew after a year. So after doing Excel Dictionary full time while being an actuary for a year, I was acquired by Morning Brew and I had left my corporate job and was running Excel Dictionary under them for a year. And then when I was working with them is kind of when I really learned like how to monetize your audience and like all the different stuff that you can do. And we kind of built out a lot of the different revenue streams together with them, which was great.

So do you still work with them or is it now your own brand again or how's that work?

No, it was just a one year contract and then at the end of the contract we decided to go separate ways. And so now I just, I've been running Excel Dictionary independently for two years now.

So what's been. We'll start with what's been the hardest part about running your own business? What's been kind of most challenging as you've jumped into that especially, you know, teaching Excel and influencing and all those things.

Yeah, so it's honestly like I would say the hardest part at first was kind of really just like focusing a lot on growth and kind of getting really discouraged when I would spend all this time on content and it didn't do well and just getting discouraged really easily on stuff like that. I would say like that was a really tough part about starting and it's hard to like to. It's easy to focus on like those things and when you're running your own business it's like. But as I've of grown and expanded the business, I've come to kind of realize that social media growth isn't like the only thing that matters. Like as long as you're growing as a person and as a business, like that's more valuable and that's more important versus like if a piece of content goes viral. So I kind of like stopped looking at all of that and it's just been a lot better for me personally. And then obviously there's been like a lot of little struggles as well. Like there are so many different pieces you need to know when running a business. All the different softwares you have to know how to use, you need to know marketing, you need to know how to do accounting. For me it was another huge hiccup was with our merch line, like finding a 3 PL, a warehouse. Like there is just so much that I've learned over the past four years that like I had no idea That I would have learned all this whenever I just started like posting four years ago, which is crazy.

Yeah, no, I hear you. And I can totally relate to the, how easy it is to get caught up in the content. It's like, well, I spent four hours on this and hardly anyone looked at it. And then you throw something out in 10 minutes and you get, you know, hundred thousand views or it goes viral or whatever and you're like, what the heck?

I know.

I don't understand how this works.

You probably never will either. They are constantly changing the algorithms and there's no secret fault formula. So you can do your best and just put your best content out there and it's most likely gonna be fine. I think that's.

Yeah, I agree with. That's why I always tell people, it's like, find whatever your, your platform is to start with our platform, some people like to do, you know, mo multiple, be consistent and put out good content. That's really what you can control. You can't control the algorithm, you can't control how many people see it. So as long as you put out valuable content over time, you're gonna, it's gonna work out, right?

A hundred percent. I agree. Consistency is like a huge thing as well. That's a great call out.

You don't ever have those days where you're like, I don't wanna be consistent, I wanna be done posting stuff, right?

Oh yeah, I definitely do.

How do you get through that? What do you do on those days when you're just like, I know I need to do some stuff, but you don't wanna. How do you manage that kind of keeping that consistency going?

I think about the big picture. I'm kind of like, I think about how far I've came in the past or how far I've come in the past four years. Kind of like how I got to this point is by staying consistent and just like thinking about that. I'm also like a very like, regular person and I like consistency. So like, I have a set schedule that I stick to every single week. That's kind of like how I stay really consistent with running my own business. I think of it like a real time, like an actual job where like somebody is making me post this many times a week. I do this many youtubes, I do this many newsletters and I never miss on that like it. And I haven't in the past like three years. So now I'm like, just kind of crazy about it. I will make sure that it gets done no matter what. I'm doing or where I am. I posted in the middle of the night in Europe. Some nights, like out, like it just is what it is. I don't know. I feel like I'm very motivated in that aspect. It's like I'm going to stick to this schedule. The only time that I'll let it slide is if it's a holiday, then I won't, but that's it.

That makes a lot of sense. And that consistency, like you said, is huge. You, you've obviously developed a system that works for you. You know what I'm curious to know? What's your favorite part about teaching others about Excel? What do you enjoy about. About that?

Yeah, I think the favorite part about teaching others Excel, particularly with our my tips is just, I've just learned like how much people don't know about Excel. So I really like teaching people the stuff that is not taught in a typical Excel class and kind of like showing how versatile like Excel actually is and all the different things you can do with it. And I think like, I love when people are like, wow, like I literally never knew Excel could do this. I've been using Excel for five to 10 years and I had no idea that I could do this. Like, that is definitely my, one of my favorite parts. And I obviously love helping people become confident in their jobs and doing better and being more successful in their career. But I think like that's a really fun part for me because I try to focus on fun stuff that is not taught typically and doing fun things with Excel and just showing like how much you can actually do with it. And it's not just your typical data entry software.

FP and a guy here. And as you know, I am very passionate about financial modeling and in the Financial Modeling Institute's mission. I have been a huge fan of the FMI for years and I was super excited when they decided to sponsor the Financial Modelers Corner. I recently completed the Advanced Financial Modeler certification and loved the entire experience. It was top notch from start to finish. I am a better modeler today for having completed the certification. I strongly believe every modeler needs to demonstrate they are a qualified financial modeler and one of the best ways to do that is through the FMIS program. Earning the accreditation will demonstrate to your current and future employers that you are serious about financial modeling. What are you waiting for? Visit www.fminstitute.com podcast and use code PODCAST to save 15% when you enroll in an accreditation today. Do you have maybe a favorite video you've created for, you know, kind of social media, one that you had a lot of fun with or maybe went viral for whatever reason. Do you have one that kind of really stands out to you?

There's like a lot that actually come to mind, like QR codes, barcodes, removing image backgrounds, like Excel, Photoshop tips. Like, there's just so much. I like creating fun charts too. We have a whole plot twist series on our YouTube where we create unique charts that no one has really ever seen before. So there's a lot on there. But yeah, those are like some of the first things that come to mind.

So unique charts, like, give us an.

Example, like a scorecard chart, radial bar chart, KPIF circle charts. We did a thermometer chart. There's a lot out there. We have timeline charts, but it's fun.

I bet you spend quite a bit of time learning all those, because I know none of those are easy to build until you figure them out.

Yeah, once you get the basis down of how to build an Excel chart, it's typically the formatting, which is like the fun part that turns it into that. So as long as you have a good basis, I feel like it's not too bad.

You just have to be the creativity side of Excel is what you love. Part of what you love.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Makes a lot of sense. All right, so you know, this is a modeling. We talk a lot about Excel on this podcast. So this one, I have to ask, favorite Excel shortcut.

Ooh, that's a tough one. I. Whenever I was in actuary, my favorite Excel shortcut was control open bracket. To jump to Excel references like that saved me so much time. Like, versus going back and tracing these references and formulas. That is definitely a top one of mine. If I'm going off like social media content, alt HOI is a big one. People love that one. And then alt equals is autosum. Like those are the two big ones that.

So I'm curious, how long did it take you to learn that control left bracket was an option? And what. What was your response when you found out?

A while. Yeah, I was tracing cell references, like manually for so long. And then I think I was on a call with my boss and he did it and I was like, what did you just do there? Like, what was that? I was. That is definitely like a very underrated shortcut. That saves a lot of time.

Yeah, those are the moments you kind of mind blowing when you talk about when somebody goes, oh, you taught me that and I didn't know. And it will save me hours, at least for me. That's what I love when I'm in a course and they're like, where were you last week when I was doing this?

All manually, but yeah, that's the best too.

Agreed. All right, so what's the number one lesson you've learned so far during your career?

Ooh, this is a tough one. I would say always try. Like, if you want to do something, try it, test it out, don't overthink it, just try it. You don't have to have everything figured out. Like, for example, if you are wanting to start a social media business or you're wanting to start posting, but you're thinking about all the things you have to do beforehand, I would just say don't just like, just start posting. You can figure out all of this stuff as you go. Like, you will never know everything that you need to know to run a business. When you start, it's all about learning as you go. So I feel like that's also a pretty good career advice. Like, if you never put yourself out there and you never try, like, you're not going to get anywhere. It's all about putting yourself out there and learning and adapting as you go and you'll grow as a business and as a person. I think that was like a huge thing for me.

No, it's great advice, life advice, right? Not just running a business, but anything is putting yourself out there and trying new things, challenging yourself, not waiting until you're perfect. You know, we, we met at the Financial Modeling World cup. And I remember I interviewed Dim early, you know, that he's won a couple times. And one of the comments he makes is everybody always tells him with the Excel modeling, they like, I want to compete, but I need to practice first. They all know competing will be your practice. Just jump in and learn and you'll get better. Like, you don't have to think you got to be on my level to compete. And that same idea applies to so many things. But yet often we worry, oh, I'm going to embarrass myself, or what if I'm terrible? And as I tell people, when it comes to content, yeah, early on, first time you learn content, it's probably going to stink. But don't worry, nobody's looking at it anyway, right?

Like, the more you do it, the more you get better. So you might as well start. And the sooner you start, the sooner you'll get better. And it's all practice and you're a hundred percent. I've done so many things in starting Excel Dictionary that I never thought that I would do, like presenting on a stage. That is like my worst nightmare. And I. But I've done it with Excel Dictionary and it's just. I just feel like I grown so much as a person and ever since starting this and I've done things I never thought I would even be able to do. So it doesn't matter. You don't have to be perfect and you don't have to be the best at everything. You just kind of have to do it and put yourself out there.

Agree. And you get better with time. So, yep, this is a fun one. We like to ask people the most unique or funnest thing you've created in Excel for your could be personal life or business that you've done in a spreadsheet.

This is a good question. What initially comes to mind are my budget and habit trackers. Like, those are really, really cool trackers that I built out, and they do a lot of really cool things. But I personally do everything in Excel, so anything that you can think of, I probably do it in Excel, like accounting, planning a trip, all of it. I pretty much plan my life in Excel. But the two coolest spreadsheets I'd say that I built are probably my budget and habit trackers, because I put a lot of time into those and they are very interactive and I think they're really cool.

Cool, that's fun. So I'll tell you a couple others. I think you'll get a laugh out of some of these. Mark Proctor had some. It was something to do with tracking going to the bathroom with his tracker. That made me laugh. Someone created one where they used some kind of API or something, and they were pulling in, like, the transcript from a video that they were watching where the person cussed a lot and they wanted to count how many times they said swear words because there were so many. So they built that in Excel. One guy built. I know you're engaged, right?

Yep.

Okay. So one guy built a marriage tracker for, like, their goals and a dashboard. This was Tim Vapond who runs cfi. He started it to manage everything and help their goals, to make sure they were aligned to track things. And I'm like, how did that work? Like, let's just say she was not as big a fan of it as I was. And I just laughed. Like, yeah, I can't see that one. That would be a hard one to. To do. But. So I've seen some pretty interesting ones. Figured you'd get a laugh out of those, the other person that mentioned they built one for their friend for their wedding, he's like, they still went way over budget. You pulled a budget tracker?

I should probably build a wedding tracker, but I honestly just. I don't have time at the moment. But that would be a fun one to create if you do.

Let me know how that goes.

I will.

All right, so this next section, we call this Rapid Fire. And I know it's been a while since you've modeled, so we'll give you, you know, feel free to take a minute and think on each of these. But the idea is you have to pick a side. So working in Excel, building a model, you know, it's kind of a yes or no. And then at the end, if there's one or two you want to elaborate on, you can, because all of these could be. It depends. And if I have any consultant on the show, they tell me it depends for all of them, which doesn't make for very fun listening. So I make you pick a side and you just going to rapidly go through them and then you can elaborate or if you want one or two. All right, ready?

Yep.

All right, here we go. Circular references and models. Yes or no?

I'd say yeah.

Vba yes or no?

No.

What about dynamic arrays?

I say yes. Maybe yes.

What about fully dynamic models? Like building the entire model with dynamic arrays. You think we're there yet?

Mm, probably not. No.

That's usually what I get. How about external workbook links? I say yeah, all righty. Named ranges?

I think they're fine. I personally don't use them, but probably fine.

Yeah, I use them sometimes. It depends. What about. Do you think financial modelers need to learn Python in Excel? What's your thoughts on that?

I'd say no for right now.

We're kind of split on that one.

Yeah, I'm going to go for no for right now. If it continues to grow and really adapt, maybe. But it's still so new right now, so I would probably say no.

Makes sense. What about Power Query?

I think yes. I think Power Query is good to know.

Is that one you learned when you were an actuary? Did you use Power Query much?

Nope. I honestly never use Power Query, but I have learned that it does a lot of cool stuff from posting.

So I think, yeah, I used it a ton in work when I figured when I first learned a Power Query, I was like, where have you been my whole life?

Yeah, I've seen it do some really cool stuff, so I think that's valuable. But I never personally used it.

Sure. I was just curious because. Yeah, Power Bi. You think we should model or should learn that?

I'm gonna go with no.

Okay. Will Excel ever die?

I'm gonna go with no.

My favorite answer I get every so often is yes, but just please don't be in my lifetime.

I would agree with that. Yeah.

Do you think AI will be able to build the models for us in the future?

I do think AI will be able to build models for us in the future, yes.

How close do you think we are? I'm curious. What's your kind of thought on that?

I think we are getting decently close just based on some stuff that I've seen. I've worked with a bunch of different AI tools and I was pretty impressed with what they can do. I obviously think that a person should always be looking over it. I would never just rely on the AI output. But I do think that AI is going to be able to build some pretty crazy models pretty soon.

Favorite AI tool.

This one's a little tricky. I like the ChatGPT for Excel functions. I use those a lot where like it's the AI functions built in Excel. I think those are really cool. Yeah, I'll go with that. But then a different tool maybe. I've been using Quadratic AI recently and that's a fun like online tool modeling tool.

I'll have to check that one out. I haven't heard of Quadra Quadratic, but what did I see the other day? They estimated there's now 70,000 AI native companies out there.

Yeah, they're growing very rapidly. There's so many now.

Pretty crazy.

All right.

So curious what you say on this one. Do you think financial models are the number one corporate decision making tool?

That's a hard one. I don't know. I would maybe say no, but I've never been in financial modeling and I don't know about.

You've mostly done the actuary side, so I get it. You haven't done a ton of the modeling, so I'm always curious to see what people say. What's your favorite lookup function? That should be an easy one for you.

Xlookup.

Why xlookup?

I just like how versatile it is. You can look from the left to right, you can look from the bottom, you can look from the top. I was never really too big into index batch. I. That one is obviously a lot better though now looking back, but we only really used Vlookup in our models. Not really a next match. But now that I kind of have a deep understanding of everything. Index match was definitely better than Vlookup, But I think I like xlookup because I just think it's the easiest to learn.

I agree. It's. It's the easiest to teach. I still remember teaching these girls that they were freshmen in college and their dad paid me to teach them Excel. And I was explaining Vlookup. I'm like, why do I need to know this? It seems like xlookup superior. I'm like, yes, it is, but trust me, you'll run into Vlookup during your career, so you need to understand it. And they're like, oh, I think a.

Lot of people still do use Vlookup, just from what I've seen, because I don't. I also don't think a lot of people have xlookup because you need to have the most updated version of Excel. So I run into that a lot where people are. They don't even have xlookup yet. I'm like, how do you not have xlookup yet? But. So they're still using Vlookup too. So it's Definitely still around 100% agree.

All right, last one of these. If you had to pick one platform, you could only post on one platform. Social media. Which one you gonna Pick? TikTok, Instagram? YouTube? What's your. Your one? If you can only have one, this one's.

That's pretty hard. I would say right now at this moment, Instagram, that's always been our biggest platform, our most engaged audience. LinkedIn is definitely a close second, though. LinkedIn's been really doing well for us recently.

Yeah. You're up to what, about 600,000 on LinkedIn? I think I looked the other day. You were five something.

We're almost at 600,000, which is crazy. It gets kind of blew up last year out of nowhere. But I do really like the audience on there. It's a lot of really good professionals, and I like connecting with them. So it's like a completely different audience in Instagram, which is great.

Yeah. No, I would imagine it's quite different than Instagram for. For LinkedIn. So you get different comments and different type of audience.

Yep. And people are really engaged on there as well. People like to comment on stuff.

Yeah, well. And people love. People just love Excel information. It's funny, I. Whenever I want to post to get more views, I know I can always go back to Excel. I talk a lot of subjects beyond Excel, so Excel is a small part. But if I want to get a bunch of views or comments. I know I can say something about Excel and it almost never fails.

Yep, that's great. People do love Excel. That is one thing I've learned from posting Excel content. I was shocked. I didn't think anyone was going to watch my Excel content. And now millions of people do, which is crazy.

Do you get a lot of people saying, do you know, you should have done it this way or you could do it better that way? You get a lot of that, I'm going to guess.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And it's like, I'm. I know that I can do it that way. I'm showing you how to do this this way for educational purposes is. But honestly, like, I kind of stopped reading comments altogether, like a couple years ago. I don't even look at them anymore because people are just a bit crazy on the Internet. So I don't even look at any of the comments. I don't see.

Sometimes people are crazy.

Yeah. Comments and DMS I stay out of.

Probably a smart decision because otherwise you could take some things too personal, too, if you're not careful with the crazy things you get out there.

Yeah. And you can't take things personal. It's hard to not. But like you, these people are just commenting behind their screen. It's just. It's fine if you're starting and you're seeing comments. Don't take anything personal. It's. It. It's going to come with posting on social media. Just don't read them like I do and then you'll never know.

Not a bad idea. All right, if you could offer one piece of advice to our audience to get better at Excel, what would be your advice?

Follow Excel Dictionary. That in practice, I would say just practicing the skills that you've learned. That's what made a huge difference for me, is actually repeating, like, repetitively doing the function over and over. You'll eventually get it and it will. You'll get it down. But practice is huge. If you just read something and do it once, you're never gonna actually learn it.

No, I agree. It's when you really practice and then start having to teach others. And I know when I get people every so often that people ask me for help on something and I haven't done it. I learned so much when I got to figure out how to do something for somebody in their workbook. It's like, I love getting the juices flowing, thinking, okay, which formulas do I use? What combination? And half the time, it never fails. You solve it well, that's not what I wanted. You're like, all right, well, let me try again.

I know trial and error is always good too.

Yeah, yeah.

You're most likely not going to get a complicated thing right on the first try. And Google is your friend. You can always use the re. Use the resources that are out there. Because there's a lot of good resources.

There is. And now with AI, it's really easy too sometimes to just ask. Like I was writing a big old long indirect formula and I hate remembering when you have a lot of text where the quotes, single and double quotes go. And so I just told, you know, chatgpt what I wanted and broke it apart into sections. About 20 minutes later I was done. Because I was referencing a ton of different things. I'm like, that would take me an hour to get it. All right. Cause I'd miss a comma somewhere for sure. Or a double quote or whatever.

It is crazy what AI can do. And I think back about when I started my job in Excel, like how different it would have been if I would have had AI. It is crazy.

Well, I think, you know, when I started that there wasn't even, you know, it wasn't dynamic arrays. I mean, I remember using, you know, 2006 and now I think of all the formulas there and I just can't go back. I don't know if I could work in, you know, a 20 year old version of Excel.

I know, I agree.

Yeah. You know, last question here before we let you go. I've enjoyed chatting with you. It's been fun to, you know, spend a little time and just hear your story and your journey. It's amazing what you've accomplished. But if our audience wants to learn more about you, get in touch, see your resources. Where do you recommend they go? What's the best way for them to connect with you?

To actually personally connect with me and contact me, I would go to my website, which is www.excel-dictionary.com and fill out the contact form at the bottom. Or you can email, contact, celldictionary, contact cel-dictionary.com. those are going to be the two main ways if you want to just like keep up with the content. Instagram's always a good one. LinkedIn, those are. Or YouTube is also another one. Any. We're on any platform. So if you want to follow on, follow along on your favorite platform. And then if, but if you want to personally, like get in touch with me, definitely go on the website, use the contact form or our contact email address.

Perfect. Well, thank you for that, Emma, and thanks for joining me. It was great chatting with you and you have a great rest of your day.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks for coming. Financial Modeler's Corner was brought to you by the Financial Modeling Institute. This year I completed the Advanced Financial Modeler certification and it made me a better, better financial modeling. What are you waiting for? Visit fmi@www.fminstitute.com podcast and use code podcast to save 15% when you enroll in one of the accreditations today.