Can this really be a good time to become a Power BI consultant? We're gonna look
at the long-term picture but certainly consider the current situation in 2020
as well before we start though the world is certainly facing great adversity at
this time but with great adversity can come great transformation but that's
gonna depend on what each one of us decides to do the action that we decide
to take and hearing from a lot of you I realize that we're all asking ourselves
some bigger questions. At this point as we reflect on our lives reflect on our
purpose we're asking ourselves how can we be the best versions of ourselves how
can we change our own lives and how can we help others now for some of you the
answers to those questions may lead to the path of becoming a Power BI
Consultant. So let's talk about that so again we're gonna look at the long-term
picture we're gonna see how the current situation impacts that and then answer
the question ask ourselves that how can we use that to help others I'm Avi
Singh, Microsoft MVP and best-selling Power BI author and as a Power BI
Consultant I have helped hundreds of companies all over the world and not
just that I've also helped students all over the world become successful power
bi professionals through my power bi training programs now if you want to
become a power bi Pro make sure the clips make sure to click subscribe and
hit that Bell so you are notified whenever I go live to answer your power
bi questions so let's dive into our video and we're gonna start with the
long-term picture and we're gonna break it down in two parts a power bi
consultant is that a good idea or bad well we're gonna look at power bi and
then we're gonna look at consulting side of things so let's talk about power bi
now this is the famous Gartner's bi Magic Quadrant you've probably seen this
now this is the pretty much the go-to standard to get the lay of the land of
all of the bi technologies out there and this is how things stood back in 2015
and that is when power bi was officially released now you can see the yellow dot
there is Microsoft and you can see it's kind of middle of the pack kind of lost
in the crowd there but the rise of Microsoft and Microsoft
power bi is nothing short of amazing as you you know kind of watch this journey
so this is 2016 2017 1819 and this is the latest 2020 Microsoft has been since
then the clear leader with wide gap between any of the close competitors so
that is good proof on Microsoft power bi success but another proof comes from one
of their competitors Google and I love looking at this and this comes from
Google Trends data and you can check this out yourself and this charts the
meteoric rise of power bi and its popularity so power bi by all
indications is certainly a big wave but here's what I would like you to realize
that this wave is actually riding on much bigger waves that's what's fueling
the growth and success of power bi in the marketplace right now so power bi is
in writing the big wave of data the explosion in data which in turn is
writing another big wave the profusion of technology in our lives in everything
we do now if you do realize that fact then you also realize that the key to
riding a wave is to get in front of it so if you don't take anything away from
this lesson understand that power bi you know the quicker the sooner you step
into it start learning it or start adopting it for your business the better
it is going to be for you so we have talked about the power bi side of things
now let's switch gears and talk about the consulting side of the world now
this is also another place that where the world is changing fast and change is
happening and we got to acknowledge that and so this comes from the freelancing
study in America and it shows us where the future is headed and as you can see
here it's saying that the majority of the workers will be freelancers by 2027
that's not that far away so that's where the world is headed now I'm gonna stop
you here and make sure to talk about this so often when people think about
consulting and jobs about this in a very black or white
fashion they think that Oh either I have a full-time job or I'm a consultant but
the reality is actually quite different in fact a lot of people are stepping
into consulting as a psychic and transitioning gradually as they go along
and as you can see in this graph a lot of people just you know kind of dip
their toe into it get started on it and then they're doing monthly bi-weekly
weekly and daily so there's a gradual transition so stop seeing this as a
black and white world as an either/or choice most people transition from one
to the other and also I want to emphasize that this knows no age barrier
so across all age groups young and old are embracing this and going along with
this change talking about embracing the change well those are actually the two
choices in front of you whether you realize this or not so as you saw from
this data that the world is headed this way
so either you go with that change and embrace that change and you know
proactively gonna step in that direction or as unfortunately has happened with
quite a few of my old colleagues and ex colleagues who have been working for
many years sometimes decades in a company before being laid off and being
forced to then accept this change of now than having to explore this world of
consulting all right so that hopefully gave you kind of the long-term picture
from two different vantage points now let's move on and talk about the current
situation so hey clearly you know this is the whole world
is being impacted by this and nobody is immune and businesses all over the world
are definitely slowing down and of course some businesses have been ground
to a standstill so this is a severe impact but I'll say
that we've also seen a counter trend and what I feel is that some smart
businesses are using this time this opportunity and I often say that
adopting bi or power bi is like changing tires on a moving car it's very hard to
do when the business is running that fast but smart businesses right now are
using this opportunity to slow down to focus
the internal systems that processes the analytics the reporting and automation
so we're seeing a little bit of an uptick there as well and also you know
remote consulting is certainly doing well because pretty much that's not an
option that's the only way pretty much the economy and you know kind of the
work force is working right now so those factors are working in favor of
consulting or specifically remote power bi consulting now how this is going to
evolve well nobody can kind of tell that but let's take a look at so this is the
US market and this is a long-term graph so sometimes when we're caught up in an
event we lose the long term picture and here if you can watch the dips here you
would probably I certainly remember these events and so this one was the
dot-com bubble burst and the next dip here was the global financial crisis now
as you can see that we did not these certainly were painful and impacted a
lot of lives but we did pull through so I would say that the question to ask
yourself right now is that do you believe that we will has humanity as a
species as a society will we overcome this current challenge as dire as it
seems right now and the bigger question is do you believe that we're gonna come
out of this stronger than ever now hopefully if you are looking for
some inspiration around this then I would definitely recommend this video by
simon Sinek about not just playing the long-term game but the infinite game so
here we've talked about a current situation and how it is gonna impact the
world of power bi but what impact is it gonna have on the consulting side of
things now this is my opinion so again the world was already moving in this
direction that there was been and you know there 2027 is not that far away so
we were already moving in this direction my belief is that the trend is only
going to be accelerated and that's that is for two reasons the first reason that
when economies contract and at when they start expanding as is inevitably going
to happen they expand first by looking at consultants so
part-time or full-time consultants they hire that before they hire full-time
employees and again the world was companies were already moving in this
direction anyway and of course the second big factor is that because a lot
of us have been forced to work remotely I believe that now companies and people
are going to be a lot more comfortable working with remote consultants and
remote power bi consultants and that's gonna kind of fuel things in that
direction as well so that's kind of my take on the current situation but then
again there are bigger questions that we are asking ourselves and that one is how
do we help ourselves how do we change our lives and how do we help others but
before we go there I wanted to ask you if you are interested in this topic of
power bi consultant but would you like to see more videos so here are some of
the ideas that I have now I would love it if you can leave a comment and vote
for an idea so these are just labeled ABCDE so just write that in the comments
say hey avi I would love to see this video or if you have ideas of your own
please write that down and I'll come back and create those videos around
those topics so the first topic that I was thinking was that hey a lot of
people don't even know like how do I help a client remotely how does this
remote power be a consulting thing work and what does it mean to be an
independent power bi consultant what is the life like for them and then
maybe you know help and I help people try to figure out then how can they
answer this question that hey is this the right thing for me what are the
factors to consider do I have what it takes stuff like that and lastly well if
I do make that choice how do I transition from a full time to you know
kind of an independent power bi consultant and how can I and I hear this
quite a bit it's like how can I attract clients without having to sell and you
know do the hard sell so again if you would like to see any of these videos
vote for these ideas by leaving a comment down below so let's move on to
the last part and I believe this is the most important part we're asking the
bigger questions and this was a two-parter one is how do we kind of help
ourselves how do we change your own life and how can we help others let's talk
about the first part first and this is again as I said
be about becoming the best version of yourself living your best life possible
now I realize that the answer to this is gonna be very subjective and only you
can decide that but I have been working with a group of professionals for about
two years now and helping to coach them and and and
and you know grow them into successful barbiere consultants and i can share
with you that the principles that we live by and those are three the first
one is to make an impact and use your power bi skills to help others the next
one is to do what we love and really because if you if you do what you love
it isn't working anymore and you just get to enjoy every day of your life and
lastly it freedom to create a life by our own rules
I really believe if anything this kind situation has you know taught me is that
life is too short to mess around and if you do want to live your best life
possible at some point you're gonna have to go for it now if you want interested
in the six figures bar be a consultant program that we're gonna link it up in
the corner and in the details below you can find out more information about the
program and join the waitlist but let's move on to the other part which is how
do we help others now this is where I must admit that I was feeling quite
helpless as perhaps a lot of you were as well where I felt like I'm not a doctor
I'm not a nurse and I have heard all those stories and they're working here
heroic lis saving lives and putting their own their own lives on the line
but I felt so helpless that I can't do anything and how can I help others now
this is where I you know came across this idea of zone of genius so think
about this think about imagine a musician what would be their job at this
time what would be the best way that they can help others well that's simple
by creating the most beautiful music they have ever created and that's how
they can inspire or comfort others so think about us well what is our zone of
genius if it is power bi your job is to have
our company your clients create the most beautiful and powerful Peruvian models
and reports help the business and you would be helping all the people involved
and impacted by that business with great adversity can come great transformation
but as I said it is gonna depend on each of us and I know that you will make the
right choice click to watch our next video don't forget to subscribe until
next time wrong difference