This is a list of some of my favorite Excel books & products. I only recommend what I’ve read and what helped me improve my knowledge.
Disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links. Please only purchase the products if you believe they will add value for you.
Ctrl Shift Enter: My absolute favorite Excel Advanced Book. No matter how advanced you are in Excel, there is gold in this book. I’ve learnt so much from it. It opened my eyes to so many different possibilities! It’s not a book you read once and forget about. It’s a book you can refer to anytime you need to solve a complex Excel (formula) problem. Even though it doesn’t include your exact problem, you will find ideas that help you find the right solution.
Power Programming with VBA (Excel 2013): If you want to master VBA, you need this book! I first learnt VBA through Google. Whenever I got stuck with stubborn error messages, Google helped me find the solution. Slowly VBA started to make sense but the pieces only came together with this book (…well originally the Excel 2000 VBA version).
Show me the Numbers: Do you want to create impressive reports? What is it that makes a report readable and impressive? What type of charts work well and what to avoid? This book is a great starting point! You’ll learn how to structure your tables; How to bring attention to certain elements without confusing your readers and which chart types to use when. I learnt a lot from this book!
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: This is a classic! If you want to deepen your knowledge about the theory of data visualization and see some impressive graphics, this book is a must-have. It’s about graphical integrity, graphical excellence, chart-junk and data-ink. Each chapter is an eye-opener. You might be familiar with a lot of these topics, but if you haven’t read Edward Tufte’s version, I suggest you check it out.
Power Pivot / Power Query / Power BI Resources
Power Pivot and Power BI by Rob Collie & Avi Singh is truly the Excel user’s guide to Power Pivot, Power Query, DAX & Power BI. It’s informative. It’s entertaining. It’s a book I gladly take with me on holidays. What I also value is the high quality print and screenshots provided.
Intro to Power Query, Power Pivot & DAX is an online course by Chris Dutton from ExcelMaven.com. If you want to get up & running with Power BI – Chris has the right course for you too. His style is easy going and to the point. He uses a lot of examples and exercises which I love. I’ve referred many of my students and friends to his course and they all found a lot of value in this one course. If you’re not ready to purchase yet, check out his free preview course here. His other courses are great too!
Excel 2016: Power Query (Get & Transform) is available on LinkedIn Learning. He takes you through the different aspects of Get & Transform. For example how to work with columns, un-pivot, merge & append data. Oz’s style is unique & super fun. One thing’s for sure: You’re not going to get bored here!
Mike Girvin has the most comprehensive Excel YouTube channel: ExcelIsFun. I’ve learnt so much from his videos. In fact, I’ve never stopped learning from him. He has an amazing talent to breakdown complex topics into simple steps. His Power Query playlist has over 100 videos! You need to check it out.
Learn to write DAX: A practical guide to learning Power Pivot for Excel and Power BI is great for starting your ADVANCED POWER journey. Teaching yourself DAX is not easy – you need Matt on your side. Matt Allington has done a great job in simplifying complex concepts. Learn the fundamentals and much more with his book.
This is a list of tools I use for my Online Video Training Tutorials:
CAMTASIA from TechSmith is great screen recording software. It allows you to capture and record your screen activity. I use it to record my Excel Tutorials. It’s relatively easy to learn – you’ll find lots of free tutorials on YouTube and on the TechSmith website. You can also find affordable courses online. You can also get CAMTASIA in German here or in French here.
I switched to ConvertKit in 2018 and I’m really happy I did. Simon Sinek says “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. There’s an amazing team behind ConvertKit that genuinely wants to create the best email marketing tool out there to help creators like us. You can see it in every aspect of the tool. From customer service to automations, to reports etc. They’ve done a great job.
SiteGround WordPress Host: Looking for a great host for your WordPress site? SiteGround is it. I’m really grateful for their immediate availability and helpful assistance. Their customer support is outstanding. I’m really happy since I switched to them.
Canon EOS 70D Digital SLR Camera 
Studio Lights: I use a similar set to the ones here. Good lighting is not an easy task. You do need a good set of lights specially if you’re filming in a naturally darker environment.
Lavalier Microphone: I use the Edutige Lavalier Microphone which I plug in to my phone. I tried different microphones and found this one to be the best and the easiest-to-manage lavalier microphone. I use it together with a free app on my phone for the sound recordings.