Alter Everything Podcast

AlteryxMatt

In our latest episode of Alter Everything, we interview Monica Kay Royal, founder of nerdnourishment, about her career transition from IT auditing to data analytics. Monica chats with us about her initial exposure to data analytics, the development of an internal data analytics program, the tools she used, and her career advice for those looking to pivot into data-focused roles! She also talks about how she builds her personal brand, her career coaching business, and her upcoming LinkedIn learning course.

Panelists

Monica Kay Royal, Audit Analytics & AI Consultant @ nerdnourishment - @MonicaRoyal, LinkedIn
Megan Bowers, Sr. Content Manager @ Alteryx - @MeganBowers, LinkedIn

Topics

Ep 182 (YT video).png

Transcript

Episode Transcription

[00:00:00] Introduction and Inspire 2025 Announcement

Hey, Alter Everything. Listeners, we wanted to let you know that you can join fellow data lovers, analysts, and innovators at the Alteryx Inspire 2025 conference. It's the analytics event of the year, happening May 12th through the 15th in Las Vegas. Head over to alteryx.com/inspire to register now.

We would love to see you there.

[00:00:27] Meet Monica Kay Royal

Welcome to Alter Everything, a podcast about data science and analytics culture. I'm Megan Bowers, and today I am talking with Monica Kay. Royal founder of Nerd Nourishment. In this episode, we chat about her transition from it auditing to analytics, her career advice from coaching in the data space, building her personal brand and more.

Let's get started.

Hey, Monica, it's great to have you on our show today. Thanks for joining. Thank you, Megan, for having me on the show. Yeah, of course. Could you just start off and give our audience a quick introduction to yourself? Absolutely. So my name's Monica Kay Royal. I am the founder and chief data enthusiast at my company, nerd Nourishment.

So what I do is some data career coaching where I help folks transition careers into more data focused roles. And I also provide some consulting where I help out internal audit departments, leverage data analytics for their audits, and I'm also an instructor at LinkedIn learning where I get to share my passion for teaching and continuous learning.

That's awesome. Yeah. I'm excited to dive in and hear about all those different pieces of experience you have, all the different things that you do.

[00:01:49] Monica's Background in IT Auditing

I think a good place to start would be just to hear some more about your background in audit. Yeah, so my very first job out of college was as an IT auditor and IT auditors.

What they do basically is go around companies and test the systems and applications at the company to make sure basically that they're working properly, their. Safe and secure, making the organization run like a well-oiled machine. And so there's lots of stuff involved in auditing, lots of cool things that you can do.

In my very early. Days I got to be put on like social engineering projects and I did not get to actually do dumpster diving, but that was projects that were available to us. Basically what you're doing is making sure that people aren't throwing away sensitive information in the trash or with the social engineering stuff.

I like to say one of the projects that I was on, I. Try to break into a bank. Basically trying to get behind the scenes to see if, you know anybody had sensitive information lying around on their desks, making sure people are abiding by what are called clean desk policies. Basically that specific project that I didn't even get.

Behind the doors. They actually, they passed the audit because they wouldn't let me get, because you couldn't get in behind the doors. So that's a fun one though. That's awesome. I had no idea that things like that would be involved in it. Auditing. It sounds more exciting than I maybe pictured. Right, I agree.

That's great.

[00:03:35] Discovering Data Analytics

So then when did you discover data analytics and what did that look like to pair data analytics with your IT auditing role? I think it was around three years into when I was an auditor, I stumbled on data analytics while I was helping out one of the financial audit teams and they had me helping them test for revenue fraud.

So they had me using this tool called idea. It's a data analytics tool that they were using to ingest all of the data related to revenue and identify any fraud that there was. And so I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. I need to figure out how I can do more of this in my IT audit world. Yeah, I think that's a common experience for people coming to the analytics field from all sorts of different fields like that first.

Exploratory or problem solving experience with data, it's, oh, I think I really like this. I really like this type of problem solving. So then I think you took that experience and established more of a program focusing on data analytics for audits. So just what kind of technology did you use? What benefits did you see?

What did that look like?

[00:04:52] Building a Data Analytics Program

From that moment where I became hooked, I ended up exploring opportunities, taking courses on Coursera, Udemy, and just learning the most I could. I also was talking with the data analytics team that was within the organization, asking them how they leveraged analytics in their departments, and they specifically were using r.

And so R that's a very statistical based programming language, and so I was like, okay, that's what I need to learn more about. Then, so my very first program that I learned was R and figuring out how to use that to help with the tests that I was performing as an IT auditor. I went to my manager and I was like, Hey, I think it.

Could really help us out, make our lives easier when we're doing our testing. And my manager at the time, he was amazing. He was like, sure, put together a project, figure out how we can do this and we'll see how it goes. And so I did that and it was so successful that we ended up building out a data analytics program.

Within our internal audit department, we ended up analyzing every single audit that we had on our audit plan to see if there were opportunities to leverage data and analytics to make their lives more easy. So when you talk about making lives easier, is it reporting they were doing, or what kinds of tasks were you speeding up with?

Analytics. You can do all kinds of things nowadays, but where we first started building out our program was in identifying risks during the planning stage. So looking at, say, revenue. Recognition controls or identifying high risk systems within the company. What you're able to do is ingest user access reports and see if there are any trends or anomalies that you'll see within those reports and say a specific.

System, for example, is very heavily used. You would then know that's probably a critical system to the company. So you would focus your audit tests on that specific system. I can see how user access. Reports like that would be a lot of data potentially. Is it like every time someone goes into a certain system or something?

Absolutely. So you're looking at those logs like every time somebody logs in or how many hours that they're using a certain system, what they're doing within that certain system. There's lots of things that you can look into there. That makes sense. You talked about using R as the first tool. Was there any resistance to the fact that R is very much.

Coding, or maybe since it was it audit people were more well versed in coding languages at the time because the data analytics program was just me. There wasn't too much resistance. It was a very small team, so it was just me that was running the program and analyzing things along the way. We did end up adding another person who fortunately also.

So new R, but then we started pivoting to other tools along the way. But yeah, at the time there wasn't too much resistance and I think it was just because we were such a small team. Gotcha. Yeah, that totally makes sense. I just asked that because I think at Alteryx, our product is used a lot by more of the finance audit sign, and I think there can be some resistance or just people.

It's not part of their jobs to use a coding language, which I think is where Alteryx can come in nicely for similar tasks like that, like aggregating, viewing all the data, optimizing these kinds of checks and things like that. So I'll definitely link some resources in the show notes for that. But yeah, that's, that's super cool.

Very cool that you bought to start your own. Program essentially. I'm wondering, based on all your experience, what advice you have for people that are in the auditing field that are looking to leverage data analytics more. What's your advice for them getting started? Yeah. Nowadays there is so much available out there that you can accidentally stumble on using data for your audits.

I am, the advice I would give is if you're not already be involved in professional organizations. So the IA or isca are two of my favorite organizations, and they have tons of resources available on how to audit and how to leverage data analytics or even AI into your audits. Tons of stuff available there.

A little plug for myself. I have an upcoming LinkedIn learning course as well that goes over some examples on how you can leverage data analytics for your audits. That should be coming out sometime in spring, I believe. Very exciting. What was that process like? Making a LinkedIn learning course? The process is so fun.

I was connected with a content manager over at LinkedIn learning to share my ideas. You have to put together your formal ideas down on paper, and if you are approved, then you start. Building out your course, your scripts, your slides, et cetera. And then you get to work with them in the LinkedIn Learning studios.

Some people do it remotely as well, but I was fortunate enough to go to California to the studios and record my course, and they have such an amazing team available out there to help you look and sound your best. And it's amazing the work that they do out there. It sounds fun for sure, and excited to see that course come out in the future.

That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:11:08] Career Coaching and Nerd Nourishment

Going back to your experience, what you do now, you do a lot of things is what I'm realizing, but you mentioned at the beginning of the episode that you are now a career coach as well. A career coach, and you have the nerd nourishment business. So I'm wondering how you've.

Built your personal brand and how that's contributed to your career journey? Yes, absolutely. When I built out Nerd Nourishment, that was the name of my brand that I established, and it was just a play on word. I'm nourishing the minds of nerds. I'm very passionate about teaching and continuous learning, and just sharing everything that I know, everything that I'm learning with others.

What has that journey been like? What does it look like now? Why are you passionate about the nerd nourishment brand? So, as I mentioned, nerd Nourishment was created just as a brand. I came up with a funny name where I'm a nerd and I want to nourish other people's minds and teach them just random things.

And so Nerd Nourishment started off as a hashtag. And I had been very new to posting things on LinkedIn and everyone at the time had a hashtag. And so I was like, oh, I wanna create a hashtag. So that's where Nerd Nourishment came from, and then I was like, now that this is a brand, let's maybe make it bigger.

And so I just had thoughts of creating a blog, and so that's where it first started was. A blog. And so I got a Wix account, I had a website, and I was just creating all of these blog articles and I just kept adding and adding to it. I always have wanted my own merch, and so I was like, oh, that's one of my goals.

But before you get merch, you need to have a logo, right? And so I came up with this logo. If you saw it in its original state, you would laugh. It's. It looks terrible. I cannot draw, but I drew out this picture of what I had in my mind. I gave it to my husband, and he is creative. He knew exactly what I was going for, and so he went and he created the logo, showed it to me, and I was like, yes, this is exactly what I was thinking about.

So I had a logo, and then I started putting that on merch t-shirts and sweats and sweaters, et cetera. And then I was like, okay, what? What can I do more? And that's when the career coaching came into play. The consulting, I think was the last thing that I added onto it, and who knows what's next. Yeah, that's awesome.

Do you find people finding you more or reaching out to you more since you've gone through this effort to create this brand? Create your website, create a blog? Yes, I would think so. I'm the most active on LinkedIn. In, so I do have the nerd nourishment page available out there as well, and I can't believe that I forgot to add this.

I also have a podcast. Yeah, that was also added to my brand as well. My podcast is called Data Podcast for Nerds. And with that podcast we interview all kinds of professionals, whether they're in data or they just transferred into data, or they're just curious about data and just talking about the skills that data folks use.

We focus a lot on nerdy tips and tricks. Fun bits is what I call them. And so we dive into people's hobbies, whether that's building Legos, playing board games or card games, et cetera, and really looping in the skills that they use for their hobbies and how that makes them a better data professional. And so those discussions are always so fun to have with people in the data community.

Totally. I love that focus and we'll definitely link your podcast to the show notes. Our listeners are very much in the data analytics space and it's Alter Everything can be your work time podcast. And then yours is like the After Hours Nerdy Side Projects podcast. And I love that you the after hours.

Yeah, hand in hand, the hobby data project's done on the side. I love that. So yes, we'll definitely send people there and excited to check it out for myself too.

[00:15:52] Advice for Aspiring Data Professionals

As far as with the data career coach side of it, I think it really comes from my work as an auditor. So specifically I help folks in their career pivots.

So what. Ever industry or role that they're coming from, helping them understand ways that they can leverage data and analytics in their current roles to then help them get to their goals of possibly becoming a data analyst. What I mean by this. Ties to my audit work is that as an auditor, you get exposed to every single department within a company.

When you're auditing those different departments, you understand how they work and then you make that connection like, oh, this is how they use data. 'cause data's everywhere, right? And so that's how my audit background has helped me with my career coaching. Oh, that's cool. What are some consistent pieces of advice you find yourself giving for these people?

Career pivoting. I always say if you're curious into wanting to get into the data field, start looking for ways to use data. Now I. Whether that be at your job or in your personal life, data's everywhere. You're definitely not gonna have a hard time finding data. And the reason why I suggest doing it now in any way possible is that so you can first figure out, even if you like using data, you might not like it.

So then making a career pivot when you don't even try it out might not be the right move. So wait. Try it out. If you do like it, then go out, build your own personal brand, share what you're learning with others. Build specific projects, answer questions, answer problems, and just be part of the data community.

That's great advice. What challenges do you see the people you coach facing in the industry right now? I think the biggest challenge is. Figuring out how to leverage data and also what projects that they can work on. 'cause they think of projects as these big, massive things that they need to tackle. But if you reframe it in a way of it's, don't think of it as a project, think of it as a problem that you're trying to solve.

Like if you're trying to use it at your current role, what frustrations are you dealing with on a daily basis? What is everyone complaining about during lunch or et cetera? Try to focus in on that specific problem and solve that problem using data. Totally. I think that's similar to maybe focusing on any sort of manual effort that you do in a spreadsheet of any kind, any sort of copying and pasting and how you can automate or get rid of that, I think is another absolutely.

Opportunity area. But yeah, I could see how that would be challenging. If we think of data analytics projects as a project that you're assigned, that's like this big effort. How do you even start getting involved in that? But it could be smaller, more bite-sized, or just more independently, those challenges that you see.

That's cool.

[00:19:14] Future of Data Analytics

So I think a good place to end would be just to hear a little bit about what makes you excited for the future and the analytics space. I would say what gets me most excited is all of the new tools that are becoming available to the data community. These tools are becoming more and more easier to work with, right?

So I started out with idea and now there's amazing tools like Alteryx out there that are super easy to use. So I'm very excited for being able to explore these new tools. And also to talk with the data community and seeing that data community expand and just being able to have that community. Yeah, I'm saying community a lot.

I love the data community. Oh, it is. It's a cool community. I've seen it on LinkedIn and there's also, you know, the product specific communities. But as our focus on data, the amount of data. The amount of data required for AI grows, there's stronger and stronger communities around it, which is cool for sure.

And I think too, the amount of tools, the ease of use of new tools and such, I think like something I look forward to seeing is AI incorporated into more tools like that to make it easier to use. I don't know if you have any experience with. AI being integrated into the tools you use or what your take is on that?

Yeah. I've not integrated into the tools that I'm specifically using, but I have seen it being available out there in things like Excel. So they have Python, Excel, and I think copilot. Now just thought integrated into Excel, so that makes that a lot easier. I need to definitely get out there and play with that.

There's a lot of tools out there to be able to play with all of them, and I think that's the hard part because you want to play with all of them that there's only so many hours in the day. Yeah. You can't like learn every single tool. For sure. Yeah. Awesome.

[00:21:19] Conclusion and Farewell

Thanks so much for joining us on the show today.

It's great to hear about. Your experience and what you're up to. Thank you so much for having me on the show, Megan. Thanks for listening To learn more about Monica and listen to her podcast. Head over to our show notes on alteryx.com/podcast. And if you like this episode, leave us a reveal. See you next time.

[00:00:00] Introduction and Inspire 2025 Announcement Hey, Alter Everything. Listeners, we wanted to let you know that you can join fellow data lovers, analysts, and innovators at the Alteryx Inspire 2025 conference. It's the analytics event of the year, happening May 12th through the 15th in Las Vegas. Head over to alteryx.com/inspire to register now. We would love to see you there. [00:00:27] Meet Monica Kay Royal Welcome to Alter Everything, a podcast about data science and analytics culture. I'm Megan Bowers, and today I am talking with Monica Kay. Royal founder of Nerd Nourishment. In this episode, we chat about her transition from it auditing to analytics, her career advice from coaching in the data space, building her personal brand and more. Let's get started. Hey, Monica, it's great to have you on our show today. Thanks for joining. Thank you, Megan, for having me on the show. Yeah, of course. Could you just start off and give our audience a quick introduction to yourself? Absolutely. So my name's Monica Kay Royal. I am the founder and chief data enthusiast at my company, nerd Nourishment. So what I do is some data career coaching where I help folks transition careers into more data focused roles. And I also provide some consulting where I help out internal audit departments, leverage data analytics for their audits, and I'm also an instructor at LinkedIn learning where I get to share my passion for teaching and continuous learning. That's awesome. Yeah. I'm excited to dive in and hear about all those different pieces of experience you have, all the different things that you do. [00:01:49] Monica's Background in IT Auditing I think a good place to start would be just to hear some more about your background in audit. Yeah, so my very first job out of college was as an IT auditor and IT auditors. What they do basically is go around companies and test the systems and applications at the company to make sure basically that they're working properly, their. Safe and secure, making the organization run like a well-oiled machine. And so there's lots of stuff involved in auditing, lots of cool things that you can do. In my very early. Days I got to be put on like social engineering projects and I did not get to actually do dumpster diving, but that was projects that were available to us. Basically what you're doing is making sure that people aren't throwing away sensitive information in the trash or with the social engineering stuff. I like to say one of the projects that I was on, I. Try to break into a bank. Basically trying to get behind the scenes to see if, you know anybody had sensitive information lying around on their desks, making sure people are abiding by what are called clean desk policies. Basically that specific project that I didn't even get. Behind the doors. They actually, they passed the audit because they wouldn't let me get, because you couldn't get in behind the doors. So that's a fun one though. That's awesome. I had no idea that things like that would be involved in it. Auditing. It sounds more exciting than I maybe pictured. Right, I agree. That's great. [00:03:35] Discovering Data Analytics So then when did you discover data analytics and what did that look like to pair data analytics with your IT auditing role? I think it was around three years into when I was an auditor, I stumbled on data analytics while I was helping out one of the financial audit teams and they had me helping them test for revenue fraud. So they had me using this tool called idea. It's a data analytics tool that they were using to ingest all of the data related to revenue and identify any fraud that there was. And so I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. I need to figure out how I can do more of this in my IT audit world. Yeah, I think that's a common experience for people coming to the analytics field from all sorts of different fields like that first. Exploratory or problem solving experience with data, it's, oh, I think I really like this. I really like this type of problem solving. So then I think you took that experience and established more of a program focusing on data analytics for audits. So just what kind of technology did you use? What benefits did you see? What did that look like? [00:04:52] Building a Data Analytics Program From that moment where I became hooked, I ended up exploring opportunities, taking courses on Coursera, Udemy, and just learning the most I could. I also was talking with the data analytics team that was within the organization, asking them how they leveraged analytics in their departments, and they specifically were using r. And so R that's a very statistical based programming language, and so I was like, okay, that's what I need to learn more about. Then, so my very first program that I learned was R and figuring out how to use that to help with the tests that I was performing as an IT auditor. I went to my manager and I was like, Hey, I think it. Could really help us out, make our lives easier when we're doing our testing. And my manager at the time, he was amazing. He was like, sure, put together a project, figure out how we can do this and we'll see how it goes. And so I did that and it was so successful that we ended up building out a data analytics program. Within our internal audit department, we ended up analyzing every single audit that we had on our audit plan to see if there were opportunities to leverage data and analytics to make their lives more easy. So when you talk about making lives easier, is it reporting they were doing, or what kinds of tasks were you speeding up with? Analytics. You can do all kinds of things nowadays, but where we first started building out our program was in identifying risks during the planning stage. So looking at, say, revenue. Recognition controls or identifying high risk systems within the company. What you're able to do is ingest user access reports and see if there are any trends or anomalies that you'll see within those reports and say a specific. System, for example, is very heavily used. You would then know that's probably a critical system to the company. So you would focus your audit tests on that specific system. I can see how user access. Reports like that would be a lot of data potentially. Is it like every time someone goes into a certain system or something? Absolutely. So you're looking at those logs like every time somebody logs in or how many hours that they're using a certain system, what they're doing within that certain system. There's lots of things that you can look into there. That makes sense. You talked about using R as the first tool. Was there any resistance to the fact that R is very much. Coding, or maybe since it was it audit people were more well versed in coding languages at the time because the data analytics program was just me. There wasn't too much resistance. It was a very small team, so it was just me that was running the program and analyzing things along the way. We did end up adding another person who fortunately also. So new R, but then we started pivoting to other tools along the way. But yeah, at the time there wasn't too much resistance and I think it was just because we were such a small team. Gotcha. Yeah, that totally makes sense. I just asked that because I think at Alteryx, our product is used a lot by more of the finance audit sign, and I think there can be some resistance or just people. It's not part of their jobs to use a coding language, which I think is where Alteryx can come in nicely for similar tasks like that, like aggregating, viewing all the data, optimizing these kinds of checks and things like that. So I'll definitely link some resources in the show notes for that. But yeah, that's, that's super cool. Very cool that you bought to start your own. Program essentially. I'm wondering, based on all your experience, what advice you have for people that are in the auditing field that are looking to leverage data analytics more. What's your advice for them getting started? Yeah. Nowadays there is so much available out there that you can accidentally stumble on using data for your audits. I am, the advice I would give is if you're not already be involved in professional organizations. So the IA or isca are two of my favorite organizations, and they have tons of resources available on how to audit and how to leverage data analytics or even AI into your audits. Tons of stuff available there. A little plug for myself. I have an upcoming LinkedIn learning course as well that goes over some examples on how you can leverage data analytics for your audits. That should be coming out sometime in spring, I believe. Very exciting. What was that process like? Making a LinkedIn learning course? The process is so fun. I was connected with a content manager over at LinkedIn learning to share my ideas. You have to put together your formal ideas down on paper, and if you are approved, then you start. Building out your course, your scripts, your slides, et cetera. And then you get to work with them in the LinkedIn Learning studios. Some people do it remotely as well, but I was fortunate enough to go to California to the studios and record my course, and they have such an amazing team available out there to help you look and sound your best. And it's amazing the work that they do out there. It sounds fun for sure, and excited to see that course come out in the future. That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you. [00:11:08] Career Coaching and Nerd Nourishment Going back to your experience, what you do now, you do a lot of things is what I'm realizing, but you mentioned at the beginning of the episode that you are now a career coach as well. A career coach, and you have the nerd nourishment business. So I'm wondering how you've. Built your personal brand and how that's contributed to your career journey? Yes, absolutely. When I built out Nerd Nourishment, that was the name of my brand that I established, and it was just a play on word. I'm nourishing the minds of nerds. I'm very passionate about teaching and continuous learning, and just sharing everything that I know, everything that I'm learning with others. What has that journey been like? What does it look like now? Why are you passionate about the nerd nourishment brand? So, as I mentioned, nerd Nourishment was created just as a brand. I came up with a funny name where I'm a nerd and I want to nourish other people's minds and teach them just random things. And so Nerd Nourishment started off as a hashtag. And I had been very new to posting things on LinkedIn and everyone at the time had a hashtag. And so I was like, oh, I wanna create a hashtag. So that's where Nerd Nourishment came from, and then I was like, now that this is a brand, let's maybe make it bigger. And so I just had thoughts of creating a blog, and so that's where it first started was. A blog. And so I got a Wix account, I had a website, and I was just creating all of these blog articles and I just kept adding and adding to it. I always have wanted my own merch, and so I was like, oh, that's one of my goals. But before you get merch, you need to have a logo, right? And so I came up with this logo. If you saw it in its original state, you would laugh. It's. It looks terrible. I cannot draw, but I drew out this picture of what I had in my mind. I gave it to my husband, and he is creative. He knew exactly what I was going for, and so he went and he created the logo, showed it to me, and I was like, yes, this is exactly what I was thinking about. So I had a logo, and then I started putting that on merch t-shirts and sweats and sweaters, et cetera. And then I was like, okay, what? What can I do more? And that's when the career coaching came into play. The consulting, I think was the last thing that I added onto it, and who knows what's next. Yeah, that's awesome. Do you find people finding you more or reaching out to you more since you've gone through this effort to create this brand? Create your website, create a blog? Yes, I would think so. I'm the most active on LinkedIn. In, so I do have the nerd nourishment page available out there as well, and I can't believe that I forgot to add this. I also have a podcast. Yeah, that was also added to my brand as well. My podcast is called Data Podcast for Nerds. And with that podcast we interview all kinds of professionals, whether they're in data or they just transferred into data, or they're just curious about data and just talking about the skills that data folks use. We focus a lot on nerdy tips and tricks. Fun bits is what I call them. And so we dive into people's hobbies, whether that's building Legos, playing board games or card games, et cetera, and really looping in the skills that they use for their hobbies and how that makes them a better data professional. And so those discussions are always so fun to have with people in the data community. Totally. I love that focus and we'll definitely link your podcast to the show notes. Our listeners are very much in the data analytics space and it's Alter Everything can be your work time podcast. And then yours is like the After Hours Nerdy Side Projects podcast. And I love that you the after hours. Yeah, hand in hand, the hobby data project's done on the side. I love that. So yes, we'll definitely send people there and excited to check it out for myself too. [00:15:52] Advice for Aspiring Data Professionals As far as with the data career coach side of it, I think it really comes from my work as an auditor. So specifically I help folks in their career pivots. So what. Ever industry or role that they're coming from, helping them understand ways that they can leverage data and analytics in their current roles to then help them get to their goals of possibly becoming a data analyst. What I mean by this. Ties to my audit work is that as an auditor, you get exposed to every single department within a company. When you're auditing those different departments, you understand how they work and then you make that connection like, oh, this is how they use data. 'cause data's everywhere, right? And so that's how my audit background has helped me with my career coaching. Oh, that's cool. What are some consistent pieces of advice you find yourself giving for these people? Career pivoting. I always say if you're curious into wanting to get into the data field, start looking for ways to use data. Now I. Whether that be at your job or in your personal life, data's everywhere. You're definitely not gonna have a hard time finding data. And the reason why I suggest doing it now in any way possible is that so you can first figure out, even if you like using data, you might not like it. So then making a career pivot when you don't even try it out might not be the right move. So wait. Try it out. If you do like it, then go out, build your own personal brand, share what you're learning with others. Build specific projects, answer questions, answer problems, and just be part of the data community. That's great advice. What challenges do you see the people you coach facing in the industry right now? I think the biggest challenge is. Figuring out how to leverage data and also what projects that they can work on. 'cause they think of projects as these big, massive things that they need to tackle. But if you reframe it in a way of it's, don't think of it as a project, think of it as a problem that you're trying to solve. Like if you're trying to use it at your current role, what frustrations are you dealing with on a daily basis? What is everyone complaining about during lunch or et cetera? Try to focus in on that specific problem and solve that problem using data. Totally. I think that's similar to maybe focusing on any sort of manual effort that you do in a spreadsheet of any kind, any sort of copying and pasting and how you can automate or get rid of that, I think is another absolutely. Opportunity area. But yeah, I could see how that would be challenging. If we think of data analytics projects as a project that you're assigned, that's like this big effort. How do you even start getting involved in that? But it could be smaller, more bite-sized, or just more independently, those challenges that you see. That's cool. [00:19:14] Future of Data Analytics So I think a good place to end would be just to hear a little bit about what makes you excited for the future and the analytics space. I would say what gets me most excited is all of the new tools that are becoming available to the data community. These tools are becoming more and more easier to work with, right? So I started out with idea and now there's amazing tools like Alteryx out there that are super easy to use. So I'm very excited for being able to explore these new tools. And also to talk with the data community and seeing that data community expand and just being able to have that community. Yeah, I'm saying community a lot. I love the data community. Oh, it is. It's a cool community. I've seen it on LinkedIn and there's also, you know, the product specific communities. But as our focus on data, the amount of data. The amount of data required for AI grows, there's stronger and stronger communities around it, which is cool for sure. And I think too, the amount of tools, the ease of use of new tools and such, I think like something I look forward to seeing is AI incorporated into more tools like that to make it easier to use. I don't know if you have any experience with. AI being integrated into the tools you use or what your take is on that? Yeah. I've not integrated into the tools that I'm specifically using, but I have seen it being available out there in things like Excel. So they have Python, Excel, and I think copilot. Now just thought integrated into Excel, so that makes that a lot easier. I need to definitely get out there and play with that. There's a lot of tools out there to be able to play with all of them, and I think that's the hard part because you want to play with all of them that there's only so many hours in the day. Yeah. You can't like learn every single tool. For sure. Yeah. Awesome. [00:21:19] Conclusion and Farewell Thanks so much for joining us on the show today. It's great to hear about. Your experience and what you're up to. Thank you so much for having me on the show, Megan. Thanks for listening To learn more about Monica and listen to her podcast. Head over to our show notes on alteryx.com/podcast. And if you like this episode, leave us a reveal. See you next time.

This episode was produced by Megan Bowers (@MeganBowers), Mike Cusic (@mikecusic), and Matt Rotundo (@AlteryxMatt). Special thanks to @andyuttley for the theme music track, and @mikecusic for our album artwork.

MonicaRoyal

Thank you for having me on the show!! 🤓

Alter Everything Podcast

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182: Unleashing Analytics in IT Auditing

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This episode was produced by Megan Bowers (@MeganBowers), Mike Cusic (@mikecusic), and Matt Rotundo (@AlteryxMatt). Special thanks to @andyuttley for the theme music track, and @mikecusic for our album artwork.