#SML Who are we? 1. We are learners. The Power BI ecosystem is always changing and we are always trying to stay on top of it. But we recognize that we can't do it alone. 2. We believe in community. We believe that two heads (or 20) are better than than one. We know that a rising tide floats all boats. We share what we know because then we all benefit. 3. We are curious. We are not afraid of new ideas, new concepts, and new challenges. In fact, we relish them. 4. We are diverse and welcoming. Anyone can join us. We have members from all over the world. We are newbies and veterans in Power BI. 5. We all love Power BI. Do you want to join us? Email: Jessica.Jolly@AltEnterTraining.com #SML is short for Saturday Morning Learning because we meet before the Guy In A Cube Live Stream on most Saturday mornings.

#SML is the rising tide

There is a proverb:

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

I don’t know the origin of the proverb, but no doubt it came from a culture that recognizes and values the power of people working together.

There seems to be no better time to talk about the values and the ethos of a group that I founded in the middle of the pandemic: the Power Study Group. It turns out that name was just a draft. We now call ourselves #SML, short for Saturday Morning Learning. Like all monikers with longevity, this name was crowd created. Do I know who came up with it first? Not really (but I have a hunch: looking at you @Chuy Varela). But whether one person coined it or it emerged from our hive mind is not important. What is important is that it perfectly captures our raison d’etre: to share what we know with generosity, to ask questions without fear, and to exchange life experiences without judgement.

If you were to look at the roster of our ‘members’, you would see a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, work and life experience. I can confidently say that of all the members of #SML, I am the least knowledgeable technically. That’s ok because that’s why I started the group; I missed the camaraderie, the banter, the support and the challenge of working with a group of highly skilled professionals. I have had the pleasure of working with such teams in my previous worklife, and I didn’t fully realize the privilege of being part of an amazing team. When I started my own solo practice, I missed my co-workers who were now scattered to other companies, jobs, places, projects. I had to figure out everything on my own. Sure, there are 100s of blogs, books, podcasts, videos. But nothing replaces the value of a personal network.

At first, I was battling the terminology and the technology on my own. Was I going fast? Maybe initially. But I soon reached a wall that I couldn’t breach on my own. We have all had that moment when we are reading a blog for the fifth time and still don’t understand it. Or maybe you attended a conference session and everything the speaker said may as well have been in ancient Sumerian. It can be discouraging, to say the least. But a network gives you someone to reach out to; “Hey guys, I have a question!” is my signature line in #SML. Are my questions basic for some of the people in #SML? Absolutely. But never underestimate the power of a question to get a discussion going. Other times, we are discussing something that I really don’t understand and it is like graduate level seminar in data analytics. And finally, like all healthy communities, we discuss events in our members’ lives (with them present of course–we are not mean girls!) We celebrate, commiserate, condole and care for each other.

Would we all be best friends if we lived in the same town? Probably not. This is different–something equally valuable. We are professional colleagues who respect each other and value each other’s knowledge. We are a collective of humans sharing our life experiences with a focus on our professional passions. I have a motto that informs all of my professional work: “a rising tide floats all boats”. At #SML we are the rising tide.