Whenever I get asked the same thing two or three times, I figure it’s worth turning into a post. So I am genuinely surprised I haven’t written about how I became an Excel trainer yet. I’ve written about why my business is called Stringfest but not how I got into this business.

So let’s change that in this post.

Liberal arts beginnings

I went to a liberal arts college mostly because I loved writing and exploring different ideas. And I did get a great education, which I credit toward my personal and professional happiness. One thing I absolutely didn’t explore during that time, though, was Excel! I might’ve used it occasionally to make a quick plot or run a simple regression, but I never really thought much about it.

One professor kept encouraging us to learn Excel, yet I didn’t really understand why. It was one of those “unknown unknowns.” I couldn’t grasp why office workers relied on it so heavily, mostly because that whole world felt completely alien to me back then.

And let me tell you, that didn’t help when graduation came around. It was the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, I graduated in Michigan and was looking for jobs back home in Cleveland. Wrong place, wrong time much? I ended up heading to grad school to get a master’s in finance, thinking I’d get another year to pull myself together and learn some solid “hard” skills.

It kind of worked—I learned all sorts of useful stuff about WACC, DCF, LBOs, the efficient frontier, and so forth—but guess what? I still wasn’t good enough with Excel. Interviews made it painfully clear that not being an Excel wizard was costing me job opportunities. Deep down, I was still a liberal arts kid who wanted to explore ideas more than spreadsheets.

The Excel wake-up call

Eventually, I did get a job, and my lack of Excel skills hit me hard. I was slow, made mistakes, and honestly just didn’t enjoy my job. Being someone who needs to do things optimally, I dove headfirst into learning Excel. I even started blogging about it. Initially, I blogged about lots of things, but the Excel content was what stuck. So I ran with it.

I moved through a few jobs, improving but still seeing firsthand how badly most organizations handled data literacy. Companies had fancy strategies and initiatives, but none of it meant much without strong Excel fundamentals. It was clear business was changing, and digital innovation was going to separate winners from losers. I felt like many companies just weren’t ready.

Back to school (again)

At the same time, I still had an itch for more education (liberal arts habits die hard!), so I saw grad school as a way to transition out of my job and maybe build an online Excel teaching side hustle into something more sustainable. I enrolled in a PhD program in information systems, which was actually pretty interesting in many ways. I learned a ton about digital innovation and research methods.

But, ultimately, the PhD path wasn’t the right fit for me, and I didn’t finish. Probably for the best, as I didn’t want to commit my life to academia, but the move made job hunting even harder afterward. Companies were skeptical about my random career shifts and multiple master’s degrees.

Fortunately, my blog was still kicking (without a ton of motion, admittedly), even though Excel took a backseat during grad school while I taught myself R and Python for statistical modeling and predictive analytics. But post-grad life was tough. Consulting gigs and course sales were sparse, and I nearly gave up.

Thinkful and finding direction

Then, a friend referred me to a now-defunct career accelerator Thinkful, which was launching a data analytics bootcamp at the time. They initially brought me on for a couple weeks as an Excel subject matter expert, but I ended up staying for three years! I wrote tons of curriculum, helped run the program, and got deep into instructional design. It was awesome.

When that chapter ended, I thought I’d help other organizations build similar data bootcamps. Unfortunately, that idea didn’t have a good product-market fit. Instead, the market wanted Excel. I felt a little typecast as the “Excel guy,” which bothered me because there’s so much crucial analysis work you can’t do in Excel, particularly robust statistical modeling. Still, I needed income, so I stuck with Excel but kept pushing to integrate deeper analytical tools.

The great convergence

Thankfully, the landscape shifted dramatically. Now, with Python integration in Excel, AI tools like Copilot, and automation options like Power Automate and Office Scripts, everything started converging perfectly. Suddenly, I wasn’t forced to choose between Excel and advanced analytics.

I could teach Excel users in finance, accounting, and operations to become citizen data scientists, analysts, engineers, and BI developers right within Excel. My goal became empowering people to handle data efficiently, autonomously, and without waiting around for IT or budgeting for pricey software.

My mission today

This vision informed my content. My first book showed how Python and R could empower Excel users as citizen data scientists, long before Python in Excel was available. My second book focused on modern Excel’s BI toolkit: Power Query, Power Pivot, dynamic arrays, and early AI tools like Analyze Data (now largely superseded by Copilot). Thanks to my liberal arts background and PhD training, I became adept at weaving technical tools into broader professional narratives, whether designing LinkedIn Learning courses or training analyst cohorts at major banks.

Today, when I’m creating content or training materials, I think back to being a new analyst, overwhelmed by chaotic spreadsheets and inadequate skills. I recall how critical statistical literacy felt when making serious decisions. And I empathize with stressed managers who shouldn’t have to worry about IT red tape or software licenses. Those are the things driving my work now.

This post is pretty off-the-cuff, but if there’s interest, maybe I’ll expand it later. For now, at least I have something to point to the next time I’m asked.

The post How I became an Excel trainer… the Stringfest origin story first appeared on Stringfest Analytics.