Spotlight on Success
Featured Interview
Oz du Soleil
“Spotlight on Success” is an interview series created by David Levine of I Am Your Virtual Professional. Its purpose is to amplify the voices of today’s business leaders. Each interview provides actionable insights that readers can implement immediately. No fluff, just practical wisdom that enables individuals to move forward with clarity and confidence.
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Oz du Soleil
| Company | Excel on Fire |
|---|---|
| Role | Excel Developer & Consultant |
| LinkedIn Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozdata/ |
| Company Website | https://ozdusoleil.com/ |
| YouTube Channel | https://www.youtube.com/@OzduSoleilDATA/videos |
Oz du Soleil an Excel expert and educator, is best known for advancing better data practices through practical, hands-on teaching. A Microsoft Excel MVP since 2015, he specializes in data clean and workflow design that improves accuracy and confidence in reporting. His work emphasizes Power Query, formulas, formatting, data tracking, and introductory VBA, always grounded in real world use cases. He has taught Excel internationally, including in countries such as Bulgaria, Brazil, Australia, Amsterdam, London, and at the Excel World Championships. His LinkedIn Learning courses extend this approach, helping professionals build durable Excel skills they can apply immediately.
Who Should You Nominate?
- Leaders doing meaningful work
- People with insights others can learn from
- Voices worth elevating
Interview Questions
1. What’s one thing you stopped doing that actually helped your business grow?
I stopped being shy about asking my colleagues about their financial and business details. (I didn’t ask them about money.)
That’s how I discovered the S-Corp, SEP-IRA and Solo 401k.
It may not have helped growth in terms of more customers and bigger projects, but it’s surely helped with lowering my tax exposure, stabilizing my business and it increased the likelihood of having a comfortable retirement.
2. What’s a customer insight you discovered that changed the way you do business?
I learned to listen better, ask more questions and deliver what the customer wanted. Sounds obvious. But this is what I mean.
After I could afford to hire people, some would deliver overly slick results that felt more like showing off than giving me what I needed.
OOPS! That reflected back on some missteps I made when delivering for my own clients.
Over-delivering is ok but that’s different from being flashy and delivering things that frustrate or overwhelm the client.
This is also highlighted in one of my favorite blogposts, written by Christopher S. Penn around 2012: Avoid magic for magicians, marketing for marketers
3 If a business had to improve ONE area to grow faster in the next 90 days, what should it be?
I question this idea of growth. It feels like a default mode. Grow. Scale. More. And one risk is building something that owns you. Or, you can’t satisfy clients in a way that you used to because they don’t fit into templates or automated processes.
Growth is a legitimate option. Enough should also be a legitimate option. What are you really trying to build? What do you want your life to look like?
Also. Growth, to me as a consumer, often looks like fiddling with stuff and adding features that inject confusion for no good reason other than chasing growth.
4. What’s one thing you do consistently that keeps your pipeline healthy?
Ensuring that I get good consistent sleep. No more meetings at 4am because of global time zones. I’ll do meetings or lead online sessions up until midnight local time to accommodate other time zones. I’m ok going to bed at midnight. But, getting up or staying up for 4am meetings leaves me foggy-headed and unproductive for 2 days.
5. What book, podcast, or resource has influenced your thinking or business decisions lately and why?
There are 2 people in my life who’ve inspired me to focus on living a good life. They work hard but they don’t run themselves ragged chasing growth and scale. As one of them described, “when my father was dying I was the only one of my siblings who was able to really be with him.” The others popped in briefly and popped out because they had jobs. Thus, my friend’s livelihood affords him ENOUGH finances to have the time to have the freedom he wants.
That doesn’t equate to living a small life. It’s about having an idea of enough. He bought his dream car only after he could buy it with cash. And has enough money to live the rest of his life with no problems. He doesn’t need 5 dream cars, 3 homes, 100 employees, 1M followers on TikTok …
This is important and impacts my decisions because death is a motivating factor for me. We’re all going to die. Close friends of mine have died in their 30s and 40s and all they had done was work. I want my life to have been about truly living, enjoying the world and the people close to me—including my colleagues, the people I meet at events, and those who’ve consumed my Content over the years.
Who Should You Nominate?
- Leaders doing meaningful work
- People with insights others can learn from
- Voices worth elevating
I am Your Virtual Professional's
3 Key Takeaways
# 1
Stability is a growth strategy. Asking better questions about business structure and taxes didn’t add clients—but it reduced risk, increased control, and made the business more sustainable long-term.
# 2
Serve the need, not your ego.
Listening more closely revealed that “flashy” work often misses the mark; real value comes from understanding what the client actually wants and delivering that—over-delivering is fine, showing off is not.
# 3
Clarity beats flash for customers. Listening harder and resisting “showy” delivery leads to outcomes clients actually want, not solutions that overwhelm or distract.
Who Should You Nominate?
- Leaders doing meaningful work
- People with insights others can learn from
- Voices worth elevating
