3 things we’re covering today:

• Easy checkboxes in Excel! ✅
• Is Microsoft Loop gaining ground on Notion? 🏎️
• Improving my negotiation skills 💁‍♀️

🎬 Six Ways to Make Money With Your Excel Skills​

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In my recent video, I sat down with digital nomad entrepreneur Jordan Goldmeier to answer the question: how can you make money with your Excel skills?

We decided there are 6 main paths:

1. Corporate Jobs: Building Excel skills can make you indispensable in your team or organization, and can lead to solid earning potential in the shape of increased salary and access to new roles. I share more about that and my story in the video.
2. Consulting or Freelancing: By showcasing your Excel skills within your corporate job, you can attract consulting gigs when you decide to leave (or as a side-hustle). This approach involves a ladder of increasing payment, starting with lower-paying gigs and progressing to retainer agreements.
3. Online Courses: Creating and selling online courses is rewarding but can be challenging to set up, especially marketing them. However, once established, it can be highly profitable due to scalability.
4. Books: Becoming an author can establish authority and build your brand presence. But I do think you have to enjoy the writing process, and know exactly what you’re talking about!
5. Speaking and Workshops: As you gain expertise, you can lead workshops and speak at events, making good money in a short amount of time. Charging a fixed amount for a class of around 20 people is recommended. Preparing materials in advance is required, but the earning potential is significant.
6. Social Media Content: Platforms like YouTube and blogs can generate income through ads and sponsorships. While it's easy to get started, the money-making potential might be limited unless you have a substantial amount of content, or leverage it in other ways.

Watch the whole video for more details, and to see how we rank each strategy by:

• 💪 Difficulty
• 🤑Potential Profitability

PS: Just for you… here’s my blooper reel from that video. Who said being a creator was easy! 😅

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🤓 Geeky News

📊 Excel - Easy Checkboxes

We haven’t seen an official announcement from Microsoft yet, but some of us already have the new checkboxes in Excel! I don’t have it yet on any of my devices, but my team member Anna shared this GIF:

Check out the XelPlus LinkedIn to get a free Checkbox Cheat Sheet, which shows a cool way of using the FILTER function together with the checkbox functionality.

📝 Microsoft Forms - Improved Real-Time Feedback​

MS Forms’ live feedback feature bridges the gap between presenters and their audience, letting audience members respond in real-time.

And it has new features, including:

• New design style
• Treemap view to show the most and least popular answers in real time
• Concealable QR codes
• Fullscreen mode

For a refresher on Forms, check out my video on how to use Forms in your business.

🧬 Loop - Embed Planner Boards​

You can now embed Planner boards inside the new Loop app, simply by pasting planner links. If you’re wondering what Loop is, check out this article. It’s essentially Microsoft’s answer to Notion.

I’ve held off making a video on Loop until it gains enough functionality (in my opinion) to become a super productivity app. We’ve been using it internally for some time now - and with the addition of planner blocks and the recent code boxes, it’s slowly gaining ground.

💚 My Favorite Things

I started re-reading Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. The first time I read it was 2 years ago. My negotiation skills at the bazar go like this:

Unfortunately I didn’t take notes when I first read the book but I remember as I was reading it there were so many insights and reasons why you should never split the difference. It’s a great negotiation book for any situation whether you’re negotiating with your managers, clients, children, husband or wife.

I started reading it again, this time adding my notes to my OneNote as I complete each chapter. Highly recommended.

🚀 Power Stories

Well done Savio on completing our Master Excel - Power Pivot & DAX course. Great achievement! 👏👏👏

Got a success story about using your XelPlus skills? I’d love to hear it! Hit reply to share the details, and inspire other students 😇

See you next week,

Leila

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