Fast Track to Power BI

It’s Time to Leave the Excel Safe Zone!

So many Excel users want to switch to Power BI but hit a wall. I call this being stuck in the “Excel Safe Zone.”

Hey, I get it. You’ve been using Excel for years.

You’re comfortable with Excel, its formulas, and its reports. You can perform most tasks blindfolded.

There’s a switching cost when it comes to learning a new tool.

And what about when you have a tight deadline? Are you really going to hop over to a tool you barely know?

Heck no. You’ll stick to what’s tried and true.

Please, don’t do anything to put your job in jeopardy. When you have a tight deadline, stick to what you know.

But let’s look past these tight deadlines and think more long term.

Do you really want to keep reverting to Excel every time you give Power BI a shot?

When will you set aside the time to make sure your skills stay sharp?

My advice is to dig your well before you’re thirsty.

Because if you don’t learn Power BI, rest assured, other people are. We have thousands of them among my students and YouTube subscribers.

And they are the ones who will reap the benefits going forward. They will be first in line for promotions, pay raises, and praise.

You can be one of them. And if you begin now, while we’re still in the early days, you can be the one getting high-fives at the lunch break.

Feedback from our students who enrolled in the preview of this Power BI course:

"Great introduction to Power BI and you took away my hesitations to learn beyond excel." - Raj de Zoysa

"I have attended few Power BI trainings but never had someone like you who beautifully linked Excel to Power BI and made it feel like it was just an extension to what we know already. The overall framework of the course looks great and I am eager to dive into the full course." - Anand

"I had attended day or 2 courses on Power BI - but that face-face learnings were way too fast for me with no review button. It's really difficult to follow as I am a very visual person. Your online courses are just perfect for what and how I need to learn. The quality of your sessions are excellent." - Jitendra

"Looks like you have done it again: great practical explanations; great overview; great quiz and practice exercises." - Bill

"Even though I consider myself pretty good in Power Bi, I still look forward to taking the course, I always learn something new from Leila" - Carina

Three Misconceptions about Power BI

If you’ve read this far, I congratulate you on being open to Power BI. You’re not the norm. Most people stay inside their comfort zone, phone-it-in at work, and have zero interest in advancing their skills.

That’s what I love about our audience: You’re always wanting to learn more.

Still, you may not be completely sold on Power BI. Some common myths are floating around that keep Excel pro’s from making the leap.

Let’s clear those up right now, shall we?

Misconception 1 – “Power BI is an advanced tool”

No! You don’t need to be a coder or a techie to use Power BI! This myth really bugs me.

Look, Power BI may look scary, but it’s harmless. If you can use Excel, you can use Power BI.

The reason it scares people off is the way it’s often taught.

You see, one of our core pillars here at XelPlus is to teach the simple stuff first. Which is different than how most instructors teach.

Most instructors lead with the “super techie” techniques, most of which you’ll never use at work.

Not us. We know you’re busy at work and need to prioritize what you learn. That’s why, inside our courses, we always start with practical use cases – not the super techie stuff.

Our Power BI course will be no different.

Staring with your first lesson, you’ll see Power BI is nothing to be feared. Instead, you’ll think, “Where have you been all my life?”

Misconception 2 – “Power BI is only for dashboards”

When most people think of Power BI, they think of dashboards.

That’s understandable, given these flashy dashboards you’re seeing on YouTube. But Power BI is about more than dashboards.

Power BI is first and foremost about creating reports. Your first report may be a table. “But I can do that in Excel!”, you’re saying.

Yes, but these Power BI tables are not your ordinary tables. These are like Excel tables on steroids. You can click on a table row and automatically filter the rest of the data on your page.

That’s impossible to do in Excel. But in Power BI, it’s only three clicks.

How is this possible? Because of the underlying Power BI technology, and the way it interacts with your data.

The Microsoft team, in a stroke of brilliance, found a way to make dynamic reports as simple as click-click-click-DONE.

How much time might that save you each week?

Misconception 3 – “Power BI doesn’t offer me anything

I can’t already do in Excel”

It’s true, Power BI may not be for you.

Here are three questions to determine if Power BI can help:

1. Does your company want to analyze data on a monthly or annual basis? For example, looking at how product sales have performed over the past three years?
2. Does your company want to segment your data? For example, drilling down by different categories?
3. Does your company want to see a bunch of different metrics, like weighted averages, medians, counts, and max and min?

If you answer “yes” to any of those, Power BI should be an essential step in your workflow. In Excel ...

• You can’t create custom tooltips
• You can’t cross-highlight
• You can’t create quick measures, and instead, need to write lengthy DAX formulas (Power BI writes the DAX formulas for you)

To go back to our phone analogy…

Trying to perform these tasks in Excel is like trying to access the internet from a flip-phone. You can do it, but boy does it hurt.

What if you're Already an Excel Power User?

Today’s world is changing fast, and managers are looking for employees who can adapt.

Can you blame them?

Who would you choose for the promotion? The employee who only knows Excel? Or the person who can jump effortlessly from Excel to Power BI?

You’d choose the full-stack data analyst, of course.

If you’re already an Excel power user, don’t stop your learning journey now.

As Warren Buffett says:

“The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself.”

But Leila, Why Learn Power BI from You?

You have plenty of options for learning Power BI, so why enroll in our new course?

For starters, as with all our courses, you’ll benefit from our XelPlus 3-pillars of teaching.

Pillar 1 - We Speak Plain English

We don’t use jargon or “smart sounding” words when simple words will do. We start with the easy stuff to get you hooked. Then, you can go deeper.

We don’t scare you away by showing you the nerdy details right out of the gate.

Pillar 2 - We Give You Real World Examples

Power BI is meant to solve real world problems.

“What is this data trying to tell us?”

“What are we missing?”

“What should we do after this meeting?”

Some teachers are afraid to go there. They feel safe with theory.

Not us. We come from the trenches of industry.

We don’t shy away from real world examples. We lean into them.

Pillar 3 - We Show You the Big Picture

I’m the type who needs to see how everything fits together.

After all, nothing exists in a silo.

Some courses only show you how to use Power BI Desktop. Some only show you Power BI Service. Others show you how to create beautiful reports.

In our course we show you both Power BI Desktop and Service. And yes, we show you how to create stunning visuals, but we also show you there is far more to Power BI.

As an XelPlus student you’ve been learning one tool after another.

Power BI is a new and extremely powerful tool in your digital workshop. We not only show you how to use Power BI but how it fits into this larger collection of tools.

🎁 Join now to get these special launch bonuses

You’ll find that the course alone is A+. But your experience will be made even better by these four bonuses.

Bonus #1: DAX Recipes

These are quick recipes and solutions for your DAX calculation needs.

Sure, it’s a good idea to learn DAX. But what if you don’t have the time?

Our PDF contains solutions to common problems. Simply copy/paste them into Power BI and you’ll be off to the races.

You can always learn DAX later 😊

Bonus #2: Power Automate in Power BI

Picture this…

You’ve finally got your new Power BI project launched. You’ve tested it, shared it with your colleagues, and everyone loves it.

High-five!

Now you’re in maintenance mode. No, you’re not spending hours a day inside this project. Not like you had. But it still takes time to keep your Power BI project clean and up to date.

Wouldn’t it be nice to automate some of the annoying “little things” while you’re in maintenance mode?

You bet it would. Formerly known as Microsoft Flow, Power Automate is a nifty tool that allows you to automate your Microsoft projects.

And we’ve created a bonus training showing you how to use it with Power BI.

Imagine setting up a trigger for when a special condition is met? You could have an email sent. There are so many ways to automate those manual tasks in Power BI, and this bonus will give you some ideas how.

Bonus #3: The Course eBook

You’re not always in the mood to watch videos. Or maybe you’re not able to.

If you’re a person who enjoys reading, we’ve got you.

Not many online courses offer an eBook version, but we do. And it's detailed - over 330 pages of Power BI wisdom!

Yes, you can take this course by reading it.

For the best results, combine both: Watch the videos and read the eBook.

Either way, you’ll find this an extremely enjoyable course.

(Note: these bonuses will be automatically available for you 30 days after enrollment)

🆕 Earn CPD Credits

You Can Make the Shift to Power BI

How would life be different if you could use Power BI as easily as you operate your car?

When you sit down in your car, fire it up, and drive to work – it’s the easiest thing in the world. You don’t even think about it.

Imagine you had the same fluency with Power BI?

🤔 Is this course right for me?

Most of our students fall into one of these categories:

New to Power BI

Are you new to Power BI? Welcome! This Fast Track to Power BI course will guide you from the beginning - blank canvas - until a completed report & dashboard. We show you how to best use the core elements of Power BI to conduct meaningful data analysis.

Established Power BI users

Do you already use Power BI, but want to get better? Take this course and you’ll reduce your headaches while getting your work done faster, with fewer errors.