The Excel Lab · By Zach Houk

Finally learn Excel.

It’s simpler than you’ve been told. But you need a system.
This is the system built for you.

Online · Self-paced · 60-day access · AI coach included

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The problem

Every other course is selling you information.

Information is free — YouTube has 10,000 hours of it. What you need is clarity: knowing exactly which tool to reach for, so cold your head stays on the story the data is telling.

Excel is just a tool. I don’t worship it. I use it. And I use it damn well.

That’s what I’m going to teach you.

What changes

You start sending answers instead of data.

The job doesn’t change — you do. And the people above you notice faster than you’d think.

The file you send

It stops being a data dump and starts being an answer — the kind that gets forwarded up the chain.

The meeting

Your boss asks what the number means. You know — and you can say it in one sentence.

Next Monday

Not someday. If it doesn’t change what happens next Monday, I don’t teach it.

Take a closer look.

I simplified all of Excel into 8 “F’s”. One system, not 300 functions.

Fundamentals. The basics most people skip — learned properly, once, so everything after them makes sense.
Formatting. Guides the eye straight to the answer. A formatted sheet gets read; a wall of cells gets skimmed.
Filtering. Cuts the noise and finds what matters — 4,812 rows down to the twelve that count.
Formulas. Makes Excel do the thinking, so your head stays on the story the data is telling.
Functions. The few that handle everything. Not 300 — the ones that actually move your work.
Flexing. Pivot tables. Raw data, tamed fast — the skill that looks like magic in a meeting.
Framing. Charts that tell the story — so the answer lands before anyone asks a question. You will make charts here; choosing the one that makes the case is taught in the Numbers at Work Lab.
Fixing. When it breaks, you don’t panic. You know what the error is saying and what to do next. That is here. Knowing a number is wrong before anyone else spots it is taught in the Numbers at Work Lab.
Zach Houk
The coach

My voice in your ear, 24/7.

I cloned my own voice and handed it the entire curriculum, every practice file, and 20 years of my finance opinions. It’s not a chatbot — talk through anything and hear how I’d actually explain it.

My actual voice — it explains things the way I would.
On call 24/7 — stuck at 11pm? Ask it to re-explain until it clicks.
Coached for your role — the walkthroughs land through your job.
AI ZACH · LIVE 24/7

“Don’t touch the formula yet. Tell me what you want the answer to look like.”

Your role. Your world.

Practice files and coaching, built around the job you actually have.

Marketing

Campaign exports that never line up from one channel to the next — until they do.

Leads by channel · Q3
Meta1,240
Google986
TikTok431
Matches CRM2,657 ✓
HR

Headcount and salary data, where one wrong cell is a real problem.

Payroll register
M. Torres68,400
A. Chen71,200
J. Whitfield6,840
D. Okafor64,900
Ops

Schedules and throughput, rebuilt every week by hand — for the last time.

Units shipped · week 34
84Mon
132Tue
118Wed
161Thu
96Fri
Sales

Pipeline and quota, with someone asking about the discount.

Pipeline · Q3
Qualified$412K
Proposal$268K
Closing$145K
“Can we do 12% off?”
Product

Usage data and a launch recap, with everyone reading a different number.

Feature adoption · 30 days
38.4%
AdoptionRetentionTicketsRoadmapSpend
Finance

The close, the variance, the forecast — on a deadline.

Variance · August ($K)
BudgetActualVar
Revenue1,250.01,283.433.4
Opex940.0981.2(41.2)
Every version is included

Eyeing a move into finance? Switch over and watch that one too — nothing locks.

Marketing · HR · Ops · Sales · Product · Finance
The other side

There’s a version of your life on the other side of learning this.

01 / The paycheck

The raise you stopped waiting for someone to offer you.

02 / The trip

The vacation you take that you always dreamed of.

03 / The car

The car you stopped pretending you don’t want.

04 / The weekend

The festival weekend — booked because you can.

The point

None of this is about Excel — it’s about what knowing Excel buys you.

About all that AI hype

AI multiplies what you already know. So know something.

AI can be really useful - but you have to know if it’s giving you a correct number and answer.
It’s a multiplier — and a multiplier needs something to multiply.

The deal

Here’s exactly what you’re getting.

The Excel Lab$1,500
The Stack$2,500Recommended
The 8 F’s — the whole system
Six
All eight
Sessions
6
14
Hours Half me teaching, half you building.
16
32
A Boss at the end of every session You build it, you send it in, the coach reads it.
Practice files built for your role
The AI voice coach, 24/7
Excel
Excel + the numbers
60 days of access
The Numbers at Work Lab Finishes Framing and Fixing — the last two F’s.
“Accounting for Cool People” cheatsheet
$100 value
Cash Money Turning the skills into actual money. Ridiculous name. Serious course.
$200 value
The dual-context AI coach Bring it a spreadsheet and a business question.
$150 value
The final assignment — and the reference letter I read it myself. Limited capacity.

One payment either way — no subscription, no hidden fees. Nothing in the Stack is a dated bonus; it’s what the extra $1,000 buys, permanently.

$0 out of pocket

Your company will likely pay for this.

Training budgets exist — professional development is literally what they’re for. I’ll even write the ask: a one-pager for your boss is included.

The window

60 days. On purpose.

I’ve watched what happens with lifetime access — people bookmark it and never open it. Sixty days means you actually do it. Need more time? Email me. I’ll extend it. Nobody gets cut off.

The guarantee

Forty-five minutes. In or out?

Watch the first three chapters of Fundamentals — about 45 minutes — then I ask you point-blank. Out — full refund, every dollar. In — we finish what we started, and refunds are off the table.

Before you buy

Make sure it’s for you.

For you if you use Excel at work and never really learned it properly. Not for you if you want VBA, Power Query or macros — that’s not what this teaches.

The launch special · Limited capacity

An actual reference letter for your career.

Everyone else gives you a certificate. I read your actual work — and if you truly learned what I taught you, I write you a personal reference letter. Real, signed, yours.

I taught business at a college — youngest they ever hired — and I’ve spent twenty years in finance since. I’m not telling you that to impress you. I’m telling you because you’re about to pick someone to learn this from, and you should know who’s actually on the other end.

And yes I’m grading your actual work and signing your personal reference letter if you truly learn what I teach you.

It has to be earned — that’s the only reason it’s worth having. If the work isn’t there yet, you get exactly what to fix and another go. This doesn’t scale, so I’m taking a limited number. When it’s full, it’s full. Stack only.

The reference letter — signed by Zach Houk
Expense it

Your company pays for this.

This is professional training, and it comes out of a training budget the same way a conference or a certification does. Two ways to do it, and I make both of them easy.

1Bill my company

Send me their details and I’ll invoice them.

Their name on the invoice, off to whoever handles it. Nothing comes out of your pocket.

No waiting to be paid back.
2Expense it yourself

Pay it, then claim it back.

You get a proper invoice with your company’s name, address and tax number on it, the moment your expense system asks for one. One click, and you don’t need me for it.

The invoice is ready when you are.
The ask

I’ll write the request for your manager.

One page with their name at the top: what this covers, what it costs, and what their team gets back for it. You read it and send it.

Training budgets sit in a different line from tuition, and your manager usually spends them without going any higher. Email me and I’ll get your company invoiced.

Before you ask.

Do I need to already know Excel to start?

If you can open a file and type in a cell, you’re ready. Fundamentals starts at the actual beginning — the basics most people skip — and builds from there.

What if I already use Excel every day?

Using it daily and having learned it properly are different things — most people run on a handful of self-taught habits. If you already build summaries your boss forwards without edits, you don’t need this.

Does this cover VBA, Power Query, or macros?

No, on purpose. That’s the complexity everyone else sells. This is the 20% that actually moves your work — learned cold.

Will my employer pay for this?

Very likely — training budgets exist for exactly this. There’s a one-pager included that makes it easy for them to say yes.

What’s the difference between this and Numbers at Work?

The Excel Lab is the tool. Numbers at Work is the game the tool is played in — the numbers themselves. It also finishes the last two F’s: choosing the chart that makes the case, and knowing a number is wrong before anyone else spots it. The Stack is both.

Why are two of the 8 F’s in the other course?

Because that’s honestly where they belong. You’ll build charts and read error codes here — those mechanics are Excel. But picking the chart that wins an argument, and catching a number that’s wrong before finance does, are judgments about the business, not the software. Teaching them here would mean teaching them badly.

How does the reference letter work?

Every session ends with a Boss — work you build and send in. The last one I read myself. If the work is there, I write you a personal reference letter for your career. If it’s not there yet, you get exactly what to fix and another go. Stack only, and capacity is limited.

What’s the refund policy?

Watch the first three chapters — about 45 minutes — then decide: in or out. Out is a full refund, no forms, no call. In means refunds are off the table and we finish.

What if I get stuck?

That’s what the coach is for — my cloned voice, on call 24/7, for your full 60 days. Ask it to re-explain anything as many times as it takes.

Finally learn Excel.

Or explore the Numbers at Work Lab →

The waitlist

Doors open October 1.

I’m recording through September, so the doors stay shut until October 1. Get on the list and you’ll know the morning they open — and the reference letter, my read of your final work with my signature on it, is reserved for people who are on it. Capacity is real, and it goes to whoever was here first.

Nothing to pay today.

I have things to say. This is how I say them.

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