There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from being the person who just *fixes things*. You see a manual, time-sucking process, and your brain refuses to accept it. So you brute-force a solution, partly out of stubbornness, partly because the alternative is watching hours of your life evaporate into repetitive clicks. That's exactly where the author of this post finds themselves: they started dabbling in Power Query a few months ago, built a few automation projects that saved colleagues hours of work, and now they're being asked to host a lunch-and-learn. The panic is palpable. They didn't ask to be a team lead or a trainer. They just wanted to stop being bored.
But here's the thing: this isn't a problem. This is a signal. The person is worried they've "fucked themselves" by appearing more skilled than they feel, but what they've actually done is demonstrate a mindset that can't be taught in a single workshop. The request to host a lunch-and-learn isn't a trap. It's an invitation to reframe how they see their own work and, more importantly, how they communicate it. The real challenge isn't teaching Power Query or VBA. It's managing expectations without shrinking their own value. They're right to feel uneasy about being cast as an expert when they still feel like a novice. But the solution isn't to downplay what they've done. It's to be honest about the messy, iterative process they used to get there. That's a far more valuable lesson for the team anyway.
This connects directly to a broader theme we've been exploring: the gap between using AI tools and actually understanding how they work. As we noted in our Unlock ChatGPT for Work: A Practical Guide to Getting Started, the people who get the most out of these tools aren't the ones who know everything. They're the ones who are willing to experiment, fail, and iterate. The author did exactly that. They used ChatGPT, they hyper-fixated, they brute-forced their way through. That's not a weakness. That's a methodology. And it's worth sharing, but on their terms. They don't need to pretend they have all the answers. They need to frame the session as a starting point, not a definitive guide. Something like, "Here's how I approached these problems, here's where I got stuck, and here's how you can start exploring on your own."
The practical move here is to set a boundary that still feels collaborative. They can say yes to the lunch-and-learn, but scope it down. Offer to walk through one or two specific examples rather than trying to boil the ocean. Be upfront that they're still learning and that the goal is to give people a foundation, not to make them experts in an hour. That's not underselling themselves. It's managing expectations with integrity. And if they're worried about time, they can ask for it to be recorded or made optional for the team. The person is in a stronger position than they think. They have proof of value. They have a story. The only thing they need to do is tell it without pretending they've arrived. The real opportunity isn't teaching Power Query. It's showing the team that resourcefulness is a skill, and it's one they can learn. The question isn't whether they're qualified to host the session. It's whether they can turn this moment into a chance to define what kind of expert they want to be.