Something small has been shifting in the way I talk, and once I saw it, I could not unsee it. Specifically, I have been noticing two words I say when I ask someone for something. And one pattern keeps coming up over and over. Things like: I need you to do this. I need you to be there. I need you to help me with that. It sounds completely normal. We all say it. Constantly. Without thinking. But lately I have been more conscious of what saying "need" is actually doing. When I say I need...
8 days ago • 2 min read
Last week, I wrote about starting therapy. So many of you replied with kind words, encouragement, and stories of your own. Some of the emails were short. Some were deeply personal. Every single one meant a lot to me. Thank you. Writing that newsletter felt uncomfortable in a way I’m not used to. I can teach Tableau for hours without thinking twice. I can coach, present, and share ideas with confidence. Writing honestly about myself like that felt very different. But I’m glad I did. And over...
15 days ago • 3 min read
That is not a sentence I ever imagined I would be writing in my newsletter, but here we are. I have been reluctant to go to therapy and to ask for help for far too long. Not because I did not think it could help, but because my past experiences with counseling were mixed. During my marriage, we had struggles, just like every other couple. We did couples counseling, and it did not feel very effective. Looking back, I think a big part of that was simple: it is very hard for counseling to work...
22 days ago • 4 min read
One of the biggest frustrations I hear from analysts isn’t about Tableau. It’s about what happens after the dashboard is built. You spend hours designing something thoughtful.You check the calculations.You test the interactions. Then you show it to stakeholders. And the reaction is… underwhelming. Sometimes people get lost in the first thirty seconds.Sometimes they focus on the wrong thing.Sometimes the conversation drifts away from the insight you were trying to highlight. None of that means...
29 days ago • 1 min read
There’s been a (not so) quiet question floating around for a while now. Is Tableau Desktop going away? With everything moving to the cloud, with more companies standardizing on Tableau Cloud, it’s a fair question. You hear it often enough that it starts to feel inevitable. But wait! This week, I taught a full course using only Tableau Cloud. No Desktop. No fallback. And it reminded me of something important. Tableau Desktop isn’t going anywhere. Let me explain. There are dozens (if not...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
I realized something uncomfortable this week. I’m more afraid of not being chosen than of hearing “no.” Ever felt that way? That idea hit me harder than I expected the last couple of weeks. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about standards: What Next-Level Tableau stands for How I price it How I position it What it means to hold the line on my beliefs And I noticed something in myself. When I imagine someone hesitating or saying, "That feels like a lot," my first move isn’t to explain the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Last week I shared how Matthew and I designed the role he wanted, instead of waiting for someone else to define it. Our follow-up coaching call was the fun part, because he actually did something with it. He met with HR, walked them through why "Business Intelligence Analyst" didn’t match the scope of what he’s doing, and HR went to his manager unprompted. The early signal is strong, his manager agrees, and they’re lining it up with the upcoming review cycle, which is exactly how these things...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
I recently had a conversation with Matthew that had very little to do with dashboards and everything to do with career direction. His manager had left. He was now reporting directly to the CFO. His responsibilities had expanded quickly, but the role itself hadn’t caught up. More visibility, more ownership, but no clear definition of what progression looked like from here. So instead of talking about projects, we stepped back and started mapping what he actually needed to do to shape his next...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Eva Murray and I are hosting our first in-person Next-Level Tableau workshop March 24th in Essen, Germany. Registration is now open (limited to 10 spots). Hey Reader. Every few weeks, I see a post saying AI will wipe out data analysts. All of them. Gone. For real? I usually laugh and keep scrolling. Not because AI isn’t powerful, but because those bold claims miss something big. Do jobs stay the same forever? Do people stop learning? Is an analyst just someone who clicks buttons? Of course...
2 months ago • 3 min read