Latest posts

Below are the most recent articles or resources I’ve published. If you are looking for help on a specific topics, it would best to look at the topics in my Articles archive as I have grouped my recent and best articles by topic there.

  • Hybrid Event Lesson 11: Use one device in the room for audio

    This article shares one of the lessons I learned when planning and running a hybrid class reunion event in May 2022. Read the introduction and see the other lessons in this series here. Lesson Poor sound is one of the biggest complaints in hybrid meetings. Either the people in the room can’t hear the remote…… Continue reading

  • Why today’s Apple Watch Series 8 and iPhone 14 launch is not a model you should follow in your business presentations

    Apple just finished its latest product introduction. Soon we will see the parade of presentation experts and enthusiasts who say you should use today’s launch as a model for your own business presentations. Please don’t listen to them. Here’s why. First, you don’t deliver global product launch presentations. As a business professional you deliver project…… Continue reading

  • “Our staff don’t have time for training!” Why this myth is hurting many Canadian businesses and leading to “quiet quitting”

    Since the 2008-9 recession many Canadian business professionals have been doing the work of 1.5-3 people. Companies downsized during that time and have never returned to staffing levels required to actually do the amount of work required. Add on the stress of the pandemic and employees have had enough. The recent “quiet quitting” is a…… Continue reading

  • Excel/PowerPoint tip: Accurately estimating the values in a column/bar/line chart image

    What do you do in this situation. You get a chart from another source, like a website or PDF and it doesn’t have data labels with the values. You need the values to incorporate into your analysis or your chart. How can you accurately estimate the values from an image of the graph? This video…… Continue reading

  • Dual-axis graph makeover: create a better visual for your data using Excel

    I see dual-axis graphs frequently in the customized FinancialViz courses that I teach. In this video I show you an alternative to a dual-axis graph that better communicates the message to executives and stakeholders. It is possible to create the type of effective graph you see in this video just using Excel. If you want…… Continue reading

  • 5 Tips for handling the increased financial reporting workload after colleagues get laid off

    We are in another round of layoffs in many organizations. This time it is a slowing economy due to rising interest rates. In the past it has been different factors and the result is the same: fewer financial professionals doing the same (or more) work every month. Here are five tips to get those monthly…… Continue reading

  • How to use a single Excel stacked bar chart for multiple diverging bar charts to report variance (planning a complex chart in Excel)

    One of the visuals I show in my FinancialViz courses is a multiple diverging bar chart that can show variance between actual and budget and actual and last year. This can also be used for actual and relative variances as well. I create it using a stacked bar chart and scatter with straight lines charts.…… Continue reading

  • Hybrid Event Lesson 10: Introduce the remote attendees to the people in the room

    This article shares one of the lessons I learned when planning and running a hybrid class reunion event in May 2022. Read the introduction and see the other lessons in this series here. Lesson One of the issues with hybrid meetings is how to build a connection between the people in the room and those…… Continue reading

  • Hybrid Event Lesson 9: Have multiple cameras for views of the room and the presenter

    This article shares one of the lessons I learned when planning and running a hybrid class reunion event in May 2022. Read the introduction and see the other lessons in this series here. Lesson One of the issues I identified early in planning for the hybrid reunion event was that I wanted the people attending…… Continue reading

  • Excel Chart Tip: Add a goal or target line to a bar chart

    When you are showing ranked data in a bar chart you may want to add a goal or target line to easily identify those with performance above the goal and those below the goal. Instead of drawing the line on top of the chart, build the target or goal line as part of the chart…… Continue reading