Are You Ready to Discover the Next Level of Excel?

In the actual academy, all videos are presented in HD and are actually much larger than this YouTube version. The videos of Excel are crystal clear so that you can follow the action in perfect fidelity.

The academy reveals dozens of insights like those in this sample video and then immediately backs them up with practical application that will completely change the way you work.

Who Am I?

My name is Daniel Ferry and I will be your instructor throughout the entire course. The productivity turbocharged techniques that I teach are the result of 25 years of developing Excel business solutions in the real world.

I am a Microsoft Excel MVP and am delighted to share my expertise with you. Please take a moment to review my LinkedIn Profile and to read the many recommendations there from real Excel Hero Academy students. Read in their own words how EHA has benefited their careers and productivity. Here are a few snippets:

“Jaw-dropping… For the advanced Excel user, Daniel’s Blog and the Excel Hero Academy are treasure chests full to the brim with invaluable Excel information, techniques and ideas.” – Robert Mundigl
“Daniel is an Excel genius who does extraordinary things with Excel, and uses his considerable skills to create exceptional training opportunities. ...inspiring!” – Doug Kim, Senior Editor, Office.com, Microsoft

“Daniel’s expertise in Excel is unrivaled in my opinion… Daniel’s Excel training has literally changed the way I view Excel and use it for business purposes.” – Vedantham Srinivas
“Daniel has a unique blend of technical expertise and creativity, paired with excellent communication skills which makes him one of the most highly regarded Excel experts in the world.” – Tom Quist

Jorge Camoes even called me an Excel Game Changer in an article at his awesome charting blog, and while that is extremely flattering, I think the larger point is that this course will be an Excel game changer for you!

VBA and Excel Business Solutions

This is a VBA heavy course, but it is not solely focused on VBA. Rather the training interweaves VBA into each and every weekly module, in a very natural fashion. As you probably know, the VBA that the macro recorder churns out is not very good. Although VBA is used to record macros, that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Visual Basic for Applications is a full-fledged programming language, capable of controlling virtually every aspect of Excel and Office, with optional hooks into the entire operating system. The potential of VBA is staggering.

When you can wield VBA at will, you can automate Excel to do your work for you!

This 16-week course will teach you to craft proper VBA, including truly understanding and leveraging the Excel object model, modularization, functions and UDFs, classes, branching, looping, and interfacing with external applications such as Access.

But this is not a theory course, it’s hands-on, applied learning focused on business solutions including extraordinary Dashboards and other methods of reporting. Heavy emphasis is on database functionality both by using Excel exclusively, and with using Excel as the front-end to a real database.

We will push Excel hard, seeing just what is possible without any VBA coding at all (a fun example of this is my Excel Chess Game Viewer), but then Discovering the Next Level of power and the universe of possibilities that VBA brings to the table.

What’s In the Syllabus?

The next class is called EHA3 and it starts on February 6, 2012. Here is the list of the 12 (very in-depth, to the point of advanced) weekly modules included in the academy (remember that each module is strongly peppered with VBA):

MODULE 1

Named Formulas

MODULE 2

Array Formulas and Named Formulas Continued

MODULE 3

Charting 1

MODULE 4

Dashboards 1

MODULE 5

Database
Techniques

MODULE 6

Advanced and Creative Formulas

MODULE 7

Charting 2 with Animation

MODULE 8

Excel and Access

MODULE 9

Dashboards 2

MODULE 10

Classes (VBA on Steroids)

MODULE 11

Optimization (Speeding up large /slow workbooks)

MODULE 12

Extreme Excel

Every module lasts one week and has engaging homework. The academy is very much a community affair and you will be able to share your completed homework on a Homework Wall for each module. This allows all students to learn from your work and allows you to learn from theirs. This interactivity is extremely valuable to your learning process.

After every three modules, we will take one week to review the previous three modules. Trust me, you will need this time. The information is extremely abundant and it takes time to absorb properly. During the review weeks, you will be presented with relevant (and tough) Excel Challenges that will help solidify the content.

Academy Forums

The Excel Hero Academy has a very active community Forums system, a place where the students can discuss, exchange ideas, help each other, etc. We also have a live chat room.

Bonuses

The modules include dozens of hours of potent video. These are broken into manageable module segment videos that average about 20 minutes in length. Each module has at least three videos with many having more.

In addition the course includes many custom Excel and VBA tools that I have written exclusively for the class. These tools become yours to use as you like (except for resale) as part of the tuition.

Everything in the course is designed to allow you to get inside my head, to see first hand how I approach Excel solutions, and how to bring it all together to form interactive applications with spectacular results. I would have paid 10 times the cost of the tuition, personally, if I had that sort of opportunity years ago!

What Are the Prerequisites?

Actually… none. The course is definitely not for Excel beginners. But if you know your way around Excel, know what a formula is and how it is different than plain text, and if you are intelligent, then you are good to go. You do not need to be an expert to enroll in the academy, but you will be an Excel Hero in 16 short weeks when you do.

But what about VBA? I would say this… The academy is designed for someone that knows of VBA, but not necessarily how to do much with it. At the same time it is designed for those that know a lot about VBA. My approach to teaching VBA will work quite well if you are in either group or anywhere in between!

What Are the Guarantees?

Excel Hero Academy tuition comes with a 30-Day, no questions asked, guarantee. I firmly believe that your decision to enroll in the academy will prove to be a remarkable moment in your life. It will transform the way you approach business tasks. But if you decide for any reason that it was not for you, just send me an email during the first 30 days and I will gladly refund 100% of your tuition.

How Long Can I Access the Materials?

Even though the Excel Hero Academy is just 16 weeks in duration, you will have full, unrestricted online access to all 16 weeks of materials for 24 weeks; that’s a full 6 months! Applications that are built throughout the course (including the dashboards) are yours to keep forever.

Alumni Participation

You are enrolling in the 3rd Class of the Excel Hero Academy. A huge number of EHA alumni are enrolling in this class. You will benefit from their participation and the knowledge they share.

The original class was scheduled to be 12 weeks in duration. For reasons beyond my control, it has taken much longer than that for me to complete the course materials (my production standards are very, very high). So I have invited them all to retake the course with us, and I want to make it clear that because of the course extension I am not charging them to do so. I’ve received about a hundred e-mails from them so far and 100% are eagerly awaiting the chance to take the course again with you.

Certification

While I wish I could offer formal accreditation, all students that complete the course will receive an Excel Hero Academy Certificate of Completion, with the hours required printed on it, and the date of completion.

May I See a Sample Video?

Absolutely. All of our videos are produced in HD at 1024 x 768, with no panning or zooming. They can be viewed on a computer or on an iPad.

If you can view the following video segment, then your computer will work with all of the videos. They are all encoded with the same settings. We offer Flash videos for a computer and QuickTime videos for the iPad.

The following segment is one of the first from the course that deals with the subject of VBA programming. It is very basic, but allows you to judge the quality.

EHA sample for a computer. EHA sample for an iPad.

Registration for EHA3 is Still Open. But, Not for Long...

Registration for the 3rd class of the Excel Hero Academy closes on Friday, February 17, 2012.

The next class will be in the summer.

Please choose one of the two enrollment levels below.

So What’s the Tuition Fee?

12 modules with dozens of videos, unlimited access during the academy.
One or several ready to use examples and tools coming with each module for your own use.
Homework and challenges to practice.
Forum to post and discuss your homework and chance to see, download and discuss the homework of your fellow students.
Forum to discuss other related topics with your instructor and fellow students.
Live Chatroom.
Interaction with some of the best Excel minds in the world!

If you are ready to get that promotion… to slice your work into one-tenth…
If you are ready to Discover the Next Level of Excel, enroll now…

Academy Enrollment: Just $499

ENROLL NOW

New Extended Enrollment and Video Download Option

I am also offering a new Extended Enrollment and Video Download Option.

The normal Excel Hero Academy enrollment comes with 16 weeks of instruction, 12 modules, and 6 full months of academy resource access, including video streaming.

The New Extended Enrollment Option includes EVERYTHING in the normal enrollment, PLUS the additional benefits described below.

Many students would like to download the videos for reference after the course ends or for traveling. I am pleased to announce a new option
that allows for this and at the same time extends your enrollment.

With the Extended Enrollment and Video Download Option, videos will not only stream, but will be downloadable when each weekly module is released.
The videos will then be playable by you forever.

In addition, I will be adding three bonus modules, for a total of 20 weeks of instruction. And this option will extend your enrollment and access for
an additional six months to all academy resources, forums, and reference materials for a total of ONE FULL YEAR!

Extended Academy Enrollment: Just $999

ENROLL NOW

Registration for EHA3 is now open!

Please note that we are setup to take all major credit cards through Google Checkout and PayPal. If you need to pay by check, please contact me at: academy.admissions@excelhero.com

Also, if you have a group of five or more, please contact me at the admissions email directly above.

Disclosure: The content of this course is engaging, compelling, and totally unique. The content and the interaction with fellow students is what provides the extreme value of the course. The content was originally planned to be delivered in an interactive workbook. I used that platform for the first module of the first class. It worked fantastically well for 80% of the students. However, the support required for the other 20% was so large that it interfered with my ability to teach. Sadly, I discontinued using it as a result. However, not one student has thought that the course was diminished by this. The videos and instruction are that good!

To ENROLL please use one of the buttons above.

Please keep in mind that this course is focused squarely on Excel techniques to improve business processes. But sometimes it’s fun to use your new skills to build wondrous creations in Excel. In 2011, Microsoft released a video on YouTube and Facebook to celebrate Excel’s 25th Anniversary. It was just 64 seconds long and showcased how Excel has evolved over two and a half decades.

I am honored that the video featured FIVE of my Excel creations. When you complete my course, you will have gained the knowledge required to create these types of projects as well: view video here.

My contributions to the video are all the animated charts, the Butterfly, NFL Drive Chart, Aging Population Dashboard, Bubble Graph, and of course the Animated Business Chart (which lingers near the end).

If you look at the credits, you’ll notice my name directly above Bill Gates. I’m quite certain that’s the only time in my life that will happen!

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