How Excel Transformed a Beginner into a 9 Million Follower Educator with Emma Chieppor
In this episode of Financial Modeler’s Corner, host Paul Barnhurst (aka the FP&A Guy) welcomes Emma Chieppor, founder of Excel Dictionary, a social media-driven Excel education platform with over 9 million followers. Emma shares her journey from being an actuary to becoming one of the most influential Excel educators online. She discusses the power of Excel, the challenges of running a business, and how short-form content transformed Excel learning for millions.
Emma Chieppor started her career as an actuary before launching Excel Dictionary, a platform dedicated to providing quick and practical Excel tips. Through social media, Emma has built a massive following by sharing 30-second Excel tutorials. Her expertise has helped professionals worldwide enhance their Excel skills efficiently.
Expect to Learn:
How Emma transitioned from actuary to Excel influencer
The challenges of learning Excel while starting a corporate job during COVID
Why pivot tables in financial models can be a nightmare
How Emma grew her social media following to over 9 million in less than a year
The most underrated Excel shortcuts that can save hours of work
Here are a few quotes from the episode:
“I had never really used Excel before my first job, so I had to teach myself from scratch.”
There’s no secret formula for social media. Just post good content and stay consistent.”
“If you’re learning Excel, repetition and practice are key.”
In this episode, Emma Chieppor shared her journey from actuary to Excel influencer, emphasizing consistency, hands-on learning, and creativity in Excel. She highlighted the power of shortcuts, automation, and social media in making Excel more accessible. Emma’s key message? Excel is more than a tool; it is a platform for innovation and efficiency. Keep learning, stay curious, and master the skills that set you apart!
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Website - https://excel-dictionary.com/
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In today’s episode:
[01:30] - Introduction to the episode
[03:09] - Worst Financial Model Mistakes – Avoiding Pivot Tables
[06:43] - Emma’s Background from an Actuary to an Excel Star
[09:03] - How COVID Led to the Creation of Excel Dictionary
[13:04] - Emma’s Journey to One Million Plus Followers
[17:49] - The Importance of Consistency in Content Creation
[28:23] - Rapid-Fire Excel Questions on Excel Features
[34:51] - Emma’s Number One Tip for Getting Better at Excel
Full Show Transcript
[00:01:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Welcome to Financial Modeler's Corner. I'm your host, Paul Barnhurst aka The FP&A Guy. 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. Welcome to the show.
[00:01:59] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Thank you so much. I'm super happy to be here. Excited?
[00:02:03] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I'm 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?
[00:02:11] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 of 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.
[00:02:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Only 9 million.
[00:02:43] Guest: Emma Chieppor : No, it was crazy.
[00:02:44] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I sit there and thought, I thought my little over 100,000 was pretty good. That's impressive. That's, you know, great work and we'll definitely dive into that. I know you started your career as an actuary and then obviously we 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, is 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.
[00:03:14] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah. So 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 is probably my worst. I just don't really like when there's pivot tables and models. I've seen a lot of other random stuff though, too, like hard coded values. 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.
[00:04:10] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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 to.
[00:04:17] Guest: Emma Chieppor : They were 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. 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, it was just I didn't like that. I prefer sumif functions and just calculating everything yourself. I think it's easier now.
[00:04:41] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You can just use the pivot by function if you want.
[00:04:43] Guest: Emma Chieppor : That's true. Yeah. Group by and pivot by which I didn't have that whenever I was back as an actuary. But yeah.
[00:04:50] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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?
[00:05:00] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah. So I've always been really into fashion and clothes. 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 saw 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, we'll 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 actual exams, because those pretty much took up all of my time outside of work.
[00:06:01] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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 really like to work with?
[00:06:10] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, I would say my favorite was Princess Polly. That was like the biggest brand that I really liked to work with. I loved their clothes. I still buy their clothes today. I don't really do much fashion influencing anymore. I kind of just focus on sell, but that was my favorite brand.
[00:06:23] Host: Paul Barnhurst: As you can say, if you have time for fashion influencing and excel, I'm impressed with how much on Excel.
[00:06:28] Guest: Emma Chieppor : So yeah, I don't have time for that anymore. And I prefer teaching people excel at this point.
[00:06:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Sure, no, 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?
[00:06:43] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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. 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 teacher or an actuary. And I thought becoming an actuary sounded very interesting because 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.
[00:07:24] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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.
[00:07:35] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah. So we typically just base well, in my personal experience I based 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 then 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.
[00:08:06] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So looking at a portfolio or whatever it 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.
[00:08:19] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:08:33] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So a lot of statistical modeling, I'm going to guess.
[00:08:36] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 looking back, I probably would have enjoyed that a little bit more, but oh well.
[00:08:53] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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, the kind of graduating college. How did you manage that? 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.
[00:09:15] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, so that was really tough. That's kind of 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 the 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 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 going to message my boss Excel questions.
[00:10:23] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 working 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, 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 coworker that I didn't have whenever I started. And I wanted to make 32nd 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 test out like the 32nd format to just like help people get exactly what they needed as quick as possible so that they could move on with their work day.
[00:11:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Essentially kind of do the micro learning versus here's your five page blog to read.
[00:11:36] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yes.
[00:11:37] Host: Paul Barnhurst: As you start and you learned Excel, did you have a favorite resource? Maybe a go to YouTube or blog that you really like to kind of, you know, resonated with you? I know there's a ton out there and everybody has their kind of favorites.
[00:11:48] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, I know 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.
[00:12:04] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. Is that the one you're talking about? Yeah I love Excel jet with Dave. Dave Burns or yeah Burns.
[00:12:10] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Write a lot of Excel jet watched Layla Kevin and yeah. So those those were like the big three that come to mind.
[00:12:18] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. Leila has a lot of great content for me. It was watching a lot of Mike Girvin and his videos, and 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.
[00:12:31] Guest: Emma Chieppor : That's good. Yeah. That's awesome.
[00:12:35] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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?
[00:12:42] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah. So I just started in a TikTok and an Instagram page and I started posting 32nd tips. I didn't have a website. I started with Excel in 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 two.
[00:13:04] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And how long, how quickly did you grow? If I remember right, it kind of exploded pretty quick on you, right?
[00:13:09] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:13:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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?
[00:13:48] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:14:46] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So do you still work with them or is it now your own brand again, or how does that work?
[00:14:51] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:15:01] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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?
[00:15:12] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 that was a really tough part about starting, and it's hard to like, it's easy to focus on like those things. And when you're running your own business, it's like. But as I've kind 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 three 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.
[00:16:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, no, I hear you and I can totally relate to the how easy it is to get caught up in the content. Like why spend four hours on this? And hardly anyone looked at it, and then you throw something out in ten minutes and you get, you know, 100,000 views or it goes viral or whatever, and you're like, what the heck?
[00:16:59] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I know.
[00:16:59] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I understand how this works.
[00:17:01] Guest: Emma Chieppor : You probably never will either. They are constantly changing the algorithms, and there's no secret formula, so you can do your best and just put your best content out there, and it's most likely going to be fine. I think that's yeah.
[00:17:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I agree with you. That's why I always tell people it's like, find whatever your, your platform is to start with or platform. Some people like to do, you know, 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 going to it's going to work out, right?
[00:17:38] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 100% I agree. Consistency is like a huge thing as well. That's a great call out.
[00:17:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You don't ever have those days where you're like, I don't want to be consistent. I want to be done posting stuff, right?
[00:17:48] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Oh yeah, I definitely do.
[00:17:49] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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 want to? How do you manage that kind of keeping that consistency going?
[00:17:57] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 real time, like an actual job where 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, 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.
[00:19:05] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That makes a lot of sense. And that consistency, like you said, is huge. 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?
[00:19:17] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, I think my favorite part about teaching others Excel, particularly with 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 5 to 10 years and I had no idea that I could do this. Like, that is definitely my one of my favorite parts. And like, 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.
[00:20:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: FP&A guy here, and as you know, I am very passionate about financial modeling and 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 Modeler’s Corner. I recently completed the Advanced Financial Modeler certification and love 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 FMIprogram. 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,
[00:21:22] 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?
[00:21:33] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:21:59] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So unique charts like give us an example.
[00:22:01] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Like a scorecard chart, radial bar chart, KPI, f circle charts. We did a thermometer chart. There's a lot out there. We have timeline charts, but it's fun.
[00:22:13] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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.
[00:22:20] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 like.
[00:22:33] Host: Paul Barnhurst: The creativity side of Excel is what you love part of what you love?
[00:22:36] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, that's for sure.
[00:22:38] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Makes a lot of sense. All right. So you know this is a modeling we talk a lot about Excel in this podcast. So I just want to have to ask favorite Excel shortcut.
[00:22:47] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Ooh that's a tough one I whenever I was an 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 all Hoy is a big one. People love that one and then all equals is autosum. Like those are the two big ones that.
[00:23:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So I'm curious, how long did it take you to learn that control? Left bracket was an option. And what was your response when you found out?
[00:23:23] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Well, while 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 like, that is definitely like a very underrated shortcut. That saves a lot of time.
[00:23:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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? And you're like.
[00:23:53] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, that's the best too.
[00:23:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Agreed. All right. So what's the number one lesson you've learned so far during your career?
[00:24:01] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Oh, 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 the 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.
[00:24:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: No, it's a 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 till you're perfect. You know, we we met at the Financial Modeling World Cup, and I remember I interviewed him early, you know, that he's won a couple times. And one of the comments you make is everybody always tells them with the Excel modeling thing like, I want to compete, but I need to practice first. Well, no, 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?
[00:25:44] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 100%. I've done so many things since 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've 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.
[00:26:21] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Agree. And you get better with time. So 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.
[00:26:33] Guest: Emma Chieppor : This is a good question. What initially comes to mind are my budget and habit trackers like those are really, really cool, um, 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.
[00:27:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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. There 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 Vipond, who runs CFI. He started it to manage everything and help their goals and 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 do that one. That would be a hard one to to do. But. So I've seen some pretty interesting ones. I 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. The budget tracker.
[00:28:08] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:28:19] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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, uh, 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 1 or 2 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 a very fun listening. So I make you pick a side and you just kind of rapidly go through them. And then you can elaborate if you want 1 or 2. All right. Ready?
[00:28:54] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yep.
[00:28:54] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Here we go. Circular references and models. Yes or no?
[00:28:59] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I'd say yeah.
[00:29:00] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Vva yes or no?
[00:29:01] Guest: Emma Chieppor : No.
[00:29:02] Host: Paul Barnhurst: What about dynamic arrays?
[00:29:04] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I say yes, maybe yes.
[00:29:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: What about fully dynamic models like building the entire model with dynamic arrays? Do you think we're there yet?
[00:29:12] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Probably not. No.
[00:29:14] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That's usually what I get. How about external workbook links?
[00:29:18] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I say yeah.
[00:29:19] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Alrighty. Named ranges.
[00:29:22] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I think they're fine. I personally don't use them, but probably fine.
[00:29:26] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I use them sometimes. It depends. What about do you think financial Modeler’s need to learn Python in Excel? What's your thoughts on that?
[00:29:33] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I'd say no for right now.
[00:29:35] Speaker4: Because we're kind of split.
[00:29:37] Host: Paul Barnhurst: On that one.
[00:29:38] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:29:46] Speaker4: Makes sense. What about Power.
[00:29:47] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Query?
[00:29:48] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I think yes I think Power Query is good to know.
[00:29:51] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Is that one you learned when you were an actuary? Did you use Power Query much?
[00:29:55] Speaker4: Nope.
[00:29:56] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I honestly never used Power Query, but I have learned that it does a lot of cool stuff from posting, so I think it's cool to know.
[00:30:03] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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?
[00:30:08] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, I've seen it do some really cool stuff, so I think that's valuable, but I never personally used it.
[00:30:13] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Sure. I was just curious because, yeah. Power BI, do you think we should model or should learn that I'm.
[00:30:18] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Going to go with. No.
[00:30:20] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Okay. Will Excel ever die?
[00:30:23] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I'm going to go with no.
[00:30:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: My favorite answer I get every so often is yes, but just please don't be in my lifetime.
[00:30:30] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah.
[00:30:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Do you think I will be able to build the models for us in the future?
[00:30:37] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I do think I will be able to build models for us in the future. Yes.
[00:30:41] Host: Paul Barnhurst: How close do you think we are? I'm curious. What's your kind of thought on that?
[00:30:45] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:31:06] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Favorite AI tool?
[00:31:08] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 modeling tool.
[00:31:29] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I'll have to check that one out. I haven't heard of quadratic quadratic, but what did I see the other day. They estimated there's now 70,000 AI native companies out there.
[00:31:38] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah they're growing very rapidly. There's so many now.
[00:31:42] Host: Paul Barnhurst: It's pretty crazy.
[00:31:43] Guest: Emma Chieppor : It is. All right.
[00:31:44] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So curious to what you say on this one. Do you think financial models are the number one corporate decision making tool?
[00:31:50] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:32:00] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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.
[00:32:08] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Xlookup.
[00:32:09] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Why? Xlookup?
[00:32:10] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I just like how versatile it is. You can look from the left, right? You can look from the bottom. You can you can look from the top. I was never really too big into index match I. That one is obviously a lot better though. Now looking back, but we only really used Vlookup in our models. Not really index 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.
[00:32:38] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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? This is 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.
[00:32:58] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:33:18] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Last one of these. If you had to pick one platform that you could only post on one platform, social media, which one are you going to pick? Tiktok Instagram YouTube. What's your your one if you can only have one.
[00:33:31] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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.
[00:33:45] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. You're up to, what, about 600,000 on LinkedIn? I think I looked the other day you were five something.
[00:33:50] Guest: Emma Chieppor : We're almost at 600,000, which is crazy. It just 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.
[00:34:04] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, no, I would imagine it's quite different than Instagram for for LinkedIn. So you get different comments and different type of audience.
[00:34:12] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yep. And people are really engaged on there as well. People like to comment on stuff.
[00:34:17] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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 to 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.
[00:34:37] Guest: Emma Chieppor : But yeah, 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.
[00:34:51] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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.
[00:34:57] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Oh, yeah. For sure. And it's like, I know that I can do it that way. I'm showing you how to do this way for educational purposes. 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.
[00:35:15] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yes, sometimes people are crazy.
[00:35:18] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, comments and DMs I stay out of.
[00:35:22] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Probably a smart decision because otherwise you can take some things too personal too. If you're not careful with the crazy things you get out there.
[00:35:30] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Yeah, and you can't take things personal. It's hard to not. But like you, these people are just commenting behind their. 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.
[00:35:50] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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?
[00:35:58] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Follow Excel dictionary. Know. 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 you'll get it down. but practice is huge. If you just read something and do it once, you're never going to actually learn it.
[00:36:24] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, 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 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 the getting the juices flowing, thinking, okay, which formulas do I use? What combination? And yeah, and half the time it never fails. You solve it like, well, that's not what I wanted. You're like, all right, well let me try again.
[00:36:49] Guest: Emma Chieppor : 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 use the resources that are out there because there's a lot of good resources there is.
[00:37:03] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And now with AI, it's really easy to 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 of about 20 minutes later I was done because I was referencing a ton of different things, and I'm like, that would taken me an hour to get it all right, because I'd miss a comma somewhere for sure, or a double quote or whatever.
[00:37:31] Guest: Emma Chieppor : It is crazy what I 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.
[00:37:41] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Well, I think, you know, when I started that 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.
[00:37:55] Guest: Emma Chieppor : I know, I agree.
[00:37:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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 and see your resources. Where do you recommend they go? What's the best way for them to connect with you.
[00:38:15] Guest: Emma Chieppor : To actually like personally connect with me and contact me. I would go to my website which is https://excel-dictionary.com/ and fill out the contact form at the bottom, or you can email contact at Excel dictionary, contact at https://excel-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 along on your favorite platform and then 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.
[00:38:57] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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.
[00:39:04] Guest: Emma Chieppor : Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:39:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 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 financial modeling. What are you waiting for? Visit FMI at www.fminstitute.com/podcast and use Code podcast to save 15% when you enroll in one of the accreditations today.