George Mount

I’ve been building out something I call the Modern Excel Playbook, a store that brings together the same frameworks, workshops, handouts, and project materials I use with real clients. The goal is to offer a structured way to approach Excel, analytics, and AI so your work becomes more reliable, more scalable, and more deliberate. You can begin with a few free, role-based guides to get a sense of what’s possible. From there, there are short quick win courses on topics like Python in Excel, Power Query, and AI workflows. If you’re ready to go further, you’ll find in-depth handbooks, workshop recordings, and bundled trainings. There’s also a low-pressure monthly membership with new releases to help you stay current without feeling like you have to keep up with every feature update. If you care about doing stronger, more thoughtful work in Excel, I’d invite you to take a look and let me know what you think: stringfestdata.gumroad.com

The buildup to America 250 has been, let's say, restrained. So I'm marking the occasion the only way I know how: with Excel! Modern Excel Demo Day, America 250 edition. A walkthrough of what modern Excel can actually do, with whatever patriotic flourish I can sneak into a PivotTable. Tickets here: eventbrite.com/e/modern-excel… Come for the spreadsheets, stay for the small act of civic spirit.

Excel finally fixed its worst problems—but you're still using the old workarounds howtogeek.com/microsoft-fina…

what happened to culture

POV you work at the slop bowl restaurant at noon on a weekday

Three words: LATINA... LINGUA FUTURA! College students are changing course in search of ‘AI-proof’ majors. But no one knows what they are seattletimes.com/business/colle… via @seattletimes

"AI for Excel in a Week" kicks off next week, and there is still time to grab a seat. This is not the tired "write formulas with this one crazy prompt trick" AI hype track. We are deliberately not overdoing it on prompting inside Excel. The focus is on the whole stack, looking at how AI actually fits into Modern Excel holistically alongside the rest of the tools you already have in your Microsoft 365 subscription. Every session is recorded, so a conflicting time slot is not a problem. Everyone who registers also gets a free ebook copy of my book Modern Data Analytics in Excel to have those foundations as you implement. Would love to see you there. DM me with any questions. eventbrite.com/e/ai-for-excel…

heaven is real

How to monetize engagement when your audience isn’t buying: stringfestanalytics.com/how-to-monetiz… For years I treated every webinar attendee like a future customer. I've stopped, and revenue has gotten more predictable as a result. There is no "average attendee." There are roughly three groups: a small percentage who buy, a larger percentage who engage but don't convert, and a very large group who watch quietly. The mistake is running your business as if everyone in groups 2 and 3 will eventually come around. Some will. Most won't. That's fine, as long as you design value at each level instead of betting everything on conversion. Wrote up the longer version (plus four ways to make non-conversion pay) at the blog.

New Mexico, your stories are amazing. Our American Story rolled through Santa Fe and Espanola last month and we're honored to preserve and carry these voices forward. 🇺🇸

Corporate version of "we're trying an open relationship" 😅

Man, it’s been a minute since I’ve heard anyone say that understanding the problem, business acumen, and stakeholder communication matter waaay more than raw technical ability for analysts. That always felt like a false dichotomy to me anyway. But now it feels like we’ve swung to the other extreme with AI all the things, as if human expertise and actually understanding what’s going on don’t matter as much anymore. Like you don’t need to understand the problem because AI will, and stakeholders are just another agent input into the system. That’s just as off. If anything, AI raises the bar. You still need to understand the problem or you won’t know if the output is useful or just sounds right. You still need technical judgment to shape and validate what AI gives you. And you still need to work with real people to get anything adopted. The truth is somewhere in between. It’s not business versus technical, and it’s not human versus AI. It’s all of it working together.

If you work in finance or accounting and you're not sure where to start with AI in Excel (or how far to take it), you're not falling behind... you're paying attention! Half of what you read is hype, the other half is a clever prompt with no context for whether it belongs in a process people rely on. This Wednesday at 12 PM ET, I'm running a free live session that takes a holistic look: how the whole Excel toolkit shifts when you add AI, and (just as important) where it doesn't shift at all. We'll work through Power Query, Copilot, Office Scripts, and Power Automate on realistic finance workflows, then talk about where each one earns its place and where the old way is still the right way. 60 minutes, live Q&A, prompt guide, demo workbook. Register at eventbrite.com/e/198680876349…

What is with the beer vats at the altar and that weird green lighting? Looks like Alcor back there.

"How do I become a Microsoft Excel MVP?" stringfestanalytics.com/how-to-become-… It’s one of the questions I get most often, so like a lot of recurring topics, I wrote about it my blog (yes, I still keep a blog!). The short version: - There isn’t a direct application process. You need to be nominated by a current MVP or a Microsoft employee, which means building real relationships over time tends to matter more than chasing the title itself. - The path usually comes from consistently “paying it forward” through things like blog posts, free webinars, community Q&A, bug reports, and educational videos. This works best when it’s done for its own sake, not as a tactic. - If you are nominated, the application process is fairly detailed. You’ll document timelines, audience reach, and impact. - Once you’re in, there are meaningful benefits: closer access to the Excel product team, a strong mentorship culture, invitations to events like the annual Summit in Redmond, and some software perks. The little wrinkle: Outside the Excel community, the title isn’t always widely recognized. Some hiring managers may not fully understand it, while the people who do value it most tend to be other Excel professionals, who aren't always your customers. That dynamic can create a bit of a catch-22. So a better question than how to become an MVP might be whether you’re motivated to do this kind of work regardless of the outcome. If yes, the designation tends to reinforce what you’re already doing. If not, it can feel like a long, unpaid effort.

I-Team: Police activity at Costco in Strongsville fox8.com/news/i-team-po… @edgallekfox8 @PeggyGallek

Open tomorrow 🎉: The National Archives welcomes visitors to our new #America250 exhibition, "Free and Independent: A Celebration of the Declaration," beginning April 25, 2026. @archivesfdn @Freedom250

Vermont, you're next. 🇺🇸 Our American Story is coming to the Bennington Community Farmers Market on April 29 from 11am-1:30pm. Come say hello and share your story. 👋

company: no one wants to work their interview process:

"Everything feels so extractive now. So over-derisked. Nobody wants to just take a chance on another human being." There are some analogies here to the dating market but that's a WHOLE different discussion that not even I'm ready for.

'Nobody wants to work anymore'… okay, but if we actually want to fix that, can we start with something concrete? Maybe stop asking people to do unpaid auditions just to get any kind of work. Even for contract roles. It's gotten ridiculous. The contract is the audition. If it doesn’t work, don’t hire them again! Everything feels so extractive now. So over-derisked. Nobody wants to just take a chance on another human being. More Michael Scott energy, fewer Charles Miner policies. For real.