Mastering Copilot: Real Productivity with AI Tools

00:00:06 Mark Smith
Welcome to the MVP show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to become an MVP. The link is in the show notes with that let's get on with the show.

00:00:35 Mark Smith
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to today's show. We're heading to Quebec, Canada. As always for links will be in the show notes for this episode. Please welcome David, our LinkedIn learning instructor and Microsoft MVP.

00:00:48 David Fortin
Hello Mark, how you doing?

00:00:51 Mark Smith
Good, good, good to have you on the show. I'm I'm very keen to hear about your length and learning instructor journey. That sounds exciting. Yeah. Before we get started, food, family and fun. What do they mean to you in Quebec?

00:01:07 David Fortin
Food, family and fun. All right, so food, I guess I I didn't expect this question. So I guess food is like poutine. I guess if you do, you know, Putin at all or not. Yeah. So French fries, some sauce and some cheese.

00:01:20 Mark Smith
Yeah.

00:01:25 David Fortin
Of course, it's like typical Quebec. I don't eat that much because, you know, it's very heavy. But yeah. And you said friends.

00:01:35 Mark Smith
Yeah, food, family and fun. So.

00:01:38 David Fortin
Yeah, a family. I'm really close to my sister. I have a sister. I have a brother. We have kind of not sure big or small family. I mean, we're five kids, but like from different parents and stuff like that. Uh, my family is close. I'm. I'm from a very small town like 2 hours east of Quebec City. Even though Quebec City is very small, I'm in Canada, as you said, I'm from a town that is called Sydney and most of the people there don't even speak English and my main language is French and. And yeah, and that's family and. For fun, I do lots of things. I run for fun. Actually started my whole year. To career YouTube stuff and I call it project Marathon, I ran a marathon, so that's part of the fun. I don't do them too often because yeah, they're very hard in your body and and another thing that I like is having, you know, friends for dinners. And you can maybe sit in my background here and it's not. Podcast. But World of Warcraft? Huge fan here. It led me to some opportunities in my professional career as well, so I love playing a little bit of wow. I've been a gamer all my life. I have older brothers so here, here I am. So yeah, you get a lot. About me now.

00:02:57 Mark Smith
That's good. That's good. I like it. I like. It. Tell me about LinkedIn learning. How did that become? A thing for you?

00:03:04 David Fortin
I'm in a group of finance professional which is called the finance creators community and I actually got connected by some friends by some people there to LinkedIn and we got into discussions and you know from there they I just basically just sent. Link to my YouTube videos and to show my style and to show like what I'm doing and then discuss with the content manager there you know and from there they said oh, we like your style blah blah and and all all of that. So I got to make one course on LinkedIn so far hopefully more are coming and. I did a course that is called Excel quick. Tips. So there was already a course on LinkedIn that is called Excel. Quick tip they wanted me to refresh it so and to bring my my energy and everything to it. So that was a super cool experience. I actually have a short video on my Instagram which is goes behind the scenes at Carpinteria in California where I went to the studios. There and record the course in the booth with my producer at the other side of the screen, so that was super, super cool. I went there with my girlfriend so it was super nice. Super great experience. Man, the team there is just they're they're amazing and it's it's like a small family, it's super, super cool. And yeah, such a great experience for my age and my young like it's not it's been only two years and I'm a Microsoft MVP now and it's been less than two years. But you know like it's it's been super super great experience. And I'm I'm very grateful for everything that's happening right now.

00:04:42 Mark Smith
So tell me about that the the experience in the studio, that's a lot different than shooting your own YouTube clips and and videos and things like that. Right. So how does that all work? Do. Do they leave cameras rolling in entire time? And if you just need to take it again, the producer is going to say, hey, let's take. Take that one again.

00:05:04 David Fortin
It takes a lot of time before you actually get the agreement, and OK, it's going to be discourse and then you provide like a content. Outline A curriculum. What you think should be in the course with all the learning objectives. It's really well, well made. You know, like they have experience. They do a lot of courses and and you have to know your your need to be a subject matter expert, right. And bring all the learning objectives for every every lesson. In my case it was a little bit different because it was a quick.

00:05:35 David Fortin
Tips course. So it was not like 8 minutes videos, it was sometimes 20 seconds 30 seconds. So yeah. So I brought the whole curriculum. They green lighted and then basically I I made a script for pretty much all of the the videos and you know. All of these I could go on top of my head, but once you get in the booth there you you can forget some key points, right? And so I went word by word. I was not reading. I was basically just going through. But, you know, going in the book had through screen the screen on the right at my script. So I was able to, you know, quickly have a a glimpse of OK, what's coming next. What I shouldn't. I shall say next, basically and and that's super cool like. Just imagine and I know I'm on audio only here, so I will try to describe it the best with my French Canadian accent. But just imagine you get in a super big room where there are many, many, many small booth like 30 of them and and you you. Yeah, that's and you have your producer on one side so they they open the door and it's like. And we cannot see it. But like you know, the the stuff that absorbs the sound like it's really Muffy. I'm not sure I'd say that. And they're like many, many booths and you can even hit the record button. So it's like a a light. So. And you can turn it on and it it shows recording in in red at the top. That's super cool. So people know they don't need to. They cannot bother you or disturb you while you're doing that. And and your producer is basically there's a like behind your screen there is a window and your producer is there. And and she, in my case, she or he is listening to everything that you're saying and seeing your screen as well. So basically on my side, I have my 2 screens, my excel. It was an Excel course and I press record whenever I'm ready. And I I basically managed myself here like when I thought the take was not that great and the producer is super transparent, like if it's not good enough, they will tell you, hey, you need to redo or sometimes especially on my side was not someone that knew excel very well and and if she could understand and she was like, oh, it's really clear. And she knew like that. It was a great take. Right? So yeah, there were super. And I was super conscious about, OK, should not put like any cell in yellow and in in case like someone is colorblind and stuff like that. Because I think accessibility is really important. So it was a great, great experience. And in in California and you know all of that. That was that was super cool.

00:08:08 Mark Smith
So I'm going to ask you a few more. Detailed questions around this. So when you hit the record button, is it automatically saving a separate audio track screen? Track your video. You know cameras on you. How many cameras did you have on you?

00:08:24 David Fortin
That type of thing. Yeah. So that's a I did a course. There's specific names internally. I'm not too sure like. So my course was a screen share. So basically I was not filmed. My face wasn't filmed at all except at the yeah, except at the beginning and at the end, if I'm not mistaken. And I can get to this a little bit later. I can't remember. Well, they call it live experience or something like that, but it's like a separate booth day and you get some makeup and all the I'll get back to this in a few seconds. So basically I hit record and on my side, I don't see anything. It's all recorded into the recording computer that is basically I guess. Connected to this one that I'm using. And it's. I'm guessing there's an audio track and a video track, and then they can do the QA. They do a quality analysis and all of that. So yeah, that's that's what we see on our side. So it's basically getting there. You have a headset, do your thing, record voice over while you're doing it. Umm. And that's it.

00:09:29 Mark Smith
Interesting. And so you talked about when they do the makeup session and stuff, tell tell me a bit about that.

00:09:35 David Fortin
Yeah. So that was super cool. So basically they they book you for three hours, session 2 hour session where you basically get into a room that is really cool and they it's a studio. And then I had Christina and I made a behind the scenes with this one. It's super cool. It's the person that that does the makeup. At LinkedIn learning and and she she put stuff on my face so I don't have any. Glare. I think they call it like the shiny face, no shiny face for me. And then they they do the makeup and then you go with a teleprompter and you know, like basic recording, where you record an intro and and outro. And I know there are some other types, of course, where, you know, you can record your face while doing it. For me, it was not the case.

00:10:20 David Fortin
Like really? For short quick Excel tips, the course is on LinkedIn learning. I can share it to my LinkedIn page as well and it gets free for everyone, which is pretty cool I think. And so yeah, that's I think they call it the live experience. I'm not too sure of the exact word, but that's the the, the morning that you bring a lot of clothes and you you do a lot of takes with. All the the cameras and and all of that. I had a lot of fun doing that and with the producer and with the director of live experience or something like that. So that was super, super, super fun, yeah.

00:10:53 Mark Smith
And so then tell me about the post production process. Do you not have anything to do with that? Is all all done by somebody else their post production team.

00:11:01 David Fortin
I didn't do anything on this site, so very different, so I'll to get your initial question. I didn't have to do any post production with with the thing they took care of all of that. So basically yeah on my side, I did just record and then make sure to double check at the end like if there is any issue and that's it.

00:11:22 Mark Smith
So tell me about the outcome of it. You know you've you've completed the course, it's gone live. What's your, what's the feedback you've received from the market? What was, you know, is it something you're do again in a heartbeat? What value did you get from it? And what value have you heard other people have got from doing your Force.

00:11:43 David Fortin
Yeah. Well, I think it's a super great experience. If anyone listening have the chance to apply for, you can apply online, you know, and and if you're a subject matter expert in any field basically like. You look on the LinkedIn learning and if you think there's a content gap then you can, you know, just apply and they will. They will maybe reach out to you. But yeah, the outcome has been super great because first like. It helps a lot of people, right? Like I'm I'm always everything I do like, this is really important for me. It's always to help people. Like sometimes I get invited to some places or hey, can you do a course without and and most of the time my first question is. Who are we helping and how and how many people are listening to that right? I want to help people every time. That's what I do. So I think in terms of that, I serve a lot of people because I basically packaged my best Excel tips from 10:10 years into like an hour and 15 minutes course. So I'm really happy to help people. And you know, it's super great when I think right now it's been like. Out for. Four months, if I'm not mistaken, 3 months, and I think it's like more than 10,000 people that followed it. Did they follow all of it? Probably not. Probably just chunks of it. Like if you were having questions like shortcuts or pivot tables, it's all in there. But you know, it's always great to see people sharing the course like, hey, I've completed the course from David Fortune and then it's my face. And then I. I go in there very often and I love to do that like. And anytime someone comments on my YouTube channel or stuff like that, I really see. This says if if someone comments I really want to answer because if you get into a store and you know the salesperson or you say hi to the salesperson and doesn't, he doesn't answer back, you won't come back. Right? So I go in there, I open a lot of tabs and I comment on everyone and and all personal stuff. Like I don't control.

00:13:32 David Fortin
Control V, like all different stuff, and I did this again like a week ago and even LinkedIn like blocked me from commenting cause I they thought I was a bot. I guess because I'm typing fast. Yeah. I I I think I come into them like 150 in like a one hour and LinkedIn blocked me. That was for for like a few hours. That was super fun. But I think it's super cool to actually see that, you know, have an impact and and and it helps people and I'm guessing some people are following me afterwards of course like because it brings you. That brings you to my LinkedIn profile, so it's super great this outcome and the experience. And like the contacts I made there, I've met some other LinkedIn learning instructors as well on the spot like they were filming their course with Super Great. There was someone doing a PowerPoint course or someone doing another course. Like design tool, I can remember the name exactly like all types of courses. People from all over the globe like that was that was great, you know.

00:14:31 Mark Smith
Yeah, epic. You've got into it to copilot right in recent times. Is that right? Yeah. So tell me, are you taking it when you look at M365 copilot, are you looking at it from explicitly in Excel point of view or?

00:14:46 Mark Smith
Are you more broad?

00:14:48 David Fortin
No, I'm actually. I started doing videos on Microsoft Excel. That's how I started because I'm a CPA and you know I'm an I'm an Excel MVP, but now I'm also a Microsoft Copilot MVP. But I think right now where I can help people because I'm this tech guy and, you know, I've played video game all all like all my life. I feel like there's a lot of people needing help in M365 environment, not only Excel. Yes, I can help people with Excel, but I can go more broad where you know I'm a CPA. I've been, I've seen a lot of clients. I I know what people struggles with taking notes. I'm really organized. I'm. I'm guessing it's because of the accounting stuff, but I'm really organized, so I know lots of people probably need help. With. All that you can do with copilot, I'm a huge power user, so I I teach busy professionals how to make the most out of Microsoft 365 Copilot, including the agents. I'll show you how to build an agent to be more productive. I will show you how to use cobalt in teams so it can help you summarize all your meeting notes and you put. All of that, you put it back into OneNote and you can with it click send it to Microsoft to do like I like to show people very nice tips that they can. Use on their day-to-day and hope people listening right now get some value and can apply some of these tips you know and I'm huge on the on the prompting. You know it's it's always how to understand how this tool works. I always like to say it's a machine to forecast the next word. So if you understand that and you know we're going to use AI. For. The next I don't know, 25 years. It's like the new Internet. Like if you just understand how it works, I think you can get the most out of it. So so I'm I'm a very long answer. You're very short question. But yes, I teach people on Microsoft 365 Copilot not only.

00:16:37 Mark Smith
Well, what's the kind of fundamentals that people need to get right in the context of M365 to get the best value out of copilot?

00:16:48 David Fortin
Yeah, I think the I I said a little bit about it like I think to understand that this is a machine to forecast the next word and everything that you type in there is so. It's so important like. Make sure you understand how it works, how you should prompt it. You know it's so important. Make sure that you understand that this works with a large language model behind it. It's a machine that forecasts the next word. It's based on the context that you're giving it, because it's, it's sometimes it's one word. If you say, help me instead of do this. Is going to do 2 completely different things, right? And a lot of people and I tell this story all the time. I was giving a Microsoft Copilot training. The other day and a a lady raised razor and I was showing them how they can put a PDF in and and have compile analyze it for them right and and she raised her and and she's like they've the results are not great and I I just walk over to the desk it was in person and have a look at her screen and she just typed in. Can you analyze this. PDF and she attached a PDF. And then she she just talks to me and she says, hey, Dave, I want you to analyze this PDF. It is a PDF about blah, blah, blah. And then she goes and and I I let her talk. And I was like, OK, you know, we don't know each other. I'm just training you for, like, a few hours now and. Co father doesn't know you as well. So why didn't you just tell what you just told me? Tell it to copilot instead, and the results will be better. You know, it's it's very basic and and lots of people listening are probably. Oh, I know that. But lots of people don't, and it's completely normal because it's brand new. And myself, I'm learning every day and I stay updated on all of that. So I think it's really important to get. And and. And get a basic training and I you know I, I I gave training. I'm not saying that so people get to me but I was just talking to a VP in HR 2 days ago at a party. A family party and he told me oh why do we need a training on that it's just type in and and it gets gets you back the answer and I think it's a lot of people. But it's what a lot of people get wrong right now. It's more complex than that and it evolves so fast, so fundamental. Make sure you understand how it works and how to prompt, and then go from there. And also I think fundamental #2.

00:19:05 David Fortin
Use it every day like use it every day. You're going to get better at using it by using it, I should say. And yeah, I think that's that's my main tips here.

00:19:15 Mark Smith
Nice. How do you stay up to speed with? The new features that are rolling out all the time in in 365 copilot. So for example, a couple of weeks ago open AI announced GT5 and then I suppose within 24 to 48 hours we saw a button appear called try GPT 5. In the application right? And then there's things like a lot of people would know that researcher is using the three O model different than Analyst Agent, research agent, you know so. And then you've now got, you know, this trade, GPD fight, how do you make sure, is it purely you all of a sudden discover something new in it or do you have a concise here's the latest build that's probably been rolled into my tenant? That moment.

00:20:11 David Fortin
Yeah, I have to be honest with you. I would love to do more cop out because I'm running a business here and I'm like a one man and a half army. Like lots of my is e-mail marketing accounting, you know, making a video. So yes, I do my learning. I have all these Microsoft and VP trainings. You know, all these these calls that we're receiving to stay up to date. I cannot attend all of them sometimes and I have to be some 100% transparent with you. I knew that something was coming for GPD 5 because I saw it online. I I say a lot. Updated with like Instagram page. There's a page called Chat GPD tricks and like honestly I scroll on Instagram and I also received the AI report every day. It's like a very popular newsletter and I I just wake up and I get my news there right? And but for GPD 5 to get back to my story. 
 They learned it. It was a Thursday. I had a big day. I think. I think I did 4 videos refilming, my whole copilot course, because that's another story. If you do on demand course on AI, you need to refill it every time three Times Now, because it always evolves, right? It's 4 GPD 5 was 5:00 PM. I was about to open a beer. It was. And and and then I see like I open my Google Chrome or edge and I see the news GPT 5 is available and normally ChatGPT gets it first and then it gets on copilot like few months after because open AI company behind chat app is the one that developing the the the large language model right and.

00:21:40 David Fortin
This day I was like, OK, I'm not going to bed right now. I need to make a video and test this thing out. So I went in and did the work. It was not the best test because in three hours so much, you can. But so yeah, that's how I stay up today. There's a lot of resources happy to send you the link, so you put it in the show notes so people get more infos. But Microsoft is big with their blogs. There's one guy, Jack, that I cannot remember the last name huge and the the copilot studio and copilot in general is doing a great job. Wellington at keeping people posted. Yeah. And for me, it's not. It's not always being on the last news. It's just showing like people how they can use it in their real life use cases. So, but I tried to stay up to date. Of course I I need to be up to date and I see all these things when deep sea came out, I knew who they were, what they were doing. Like I tried to to stay up to date but it's hard. It's hard even for me and you probably know that, right?

00:22:35 Mark Smith
That's so true. Thank you, David. It's been so good talking to you and and getting your lens on LinkedIn learning as well as copilot. It's been a pleasure to have you on the show.

00:22:46 David Fortin
Thank you for having me Mark.

00:22:50 Mark Smith
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MVP, Mark Smith, otherwise known as the nz365guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buy me a coffee.com/nz365guy. Thanks again and see you next time.