How taking the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge transformed Nathan Rose into the Power Fx guy

Nathan Rose is a Power Platform architect, a Microsoft MVP, blogger, speaker, and thought leader who gets fired up about using Power Fx to unleash human creativity. He’s carved out his space, becoming known around the world as the go-to guy for Power FX.

Getting into Microsoft partner land is like buying a house

But life wasn’t always like this for Nathan. In fact, he struggled to get a job as a Microsoft consultant at first. Nathan explains: “The traditional trajectory for people in our space is you study computer science and get accepted into a grad programme at one of the big Microsoft partners. I’ve a non-traditional background. I worked in corporate sales for a decade, then I managed systems as a business analyst for eight years.” “Getting into partner land is like buying a house. Once you have a mortgage all the banks want to work with you. It's getting that first mortgage that’s hard. And it's the same in our space. Once you work for one Microsoft partner, you can go work for any partner, but getting through the door can be really hard. If you don't come through traditional career channels it tends to freak Microsoft partners out. They're not quite sure what to do with you.”

There’s no magic to being a Microsoft consultant

Nathan finally managed to break through to the partner side and get hired as a consultant in 2020. He says, “It wasn’t easy. Hiring managers at a Microsoft partner are like the sorting hat in Harry Potter. They need to know where to put you. And if you haven’t had a traditional career as a consultant, you’re hard to place. When you manage systems for a business you do a lot of things because you have to. But in partner land, we're all very specialised, so hiring managers don’t know what to do with you if you can build ERPs and CRMs.” Despite the difficulty he had being hired, Nathan didn’t find it a big shift becoming a consultant. He explains: “Microsoft partners act like there's a secret magic to being a consultant. There isn’t. It’s just like being a business analyst. You’re simply wearing a shirt with a collar and you need to be smart about what you say. But it's not that big a deal.” Nathan doesn’t want others to experience the same setbacks he did. He recalls: “I developed this huge inferiority complex because it was a real struggle getting hired. But I didn’t need to. As a new consultant, I was billing by lunchtime on day one. So don’t let people say to you, ‘Oh you've never been a client-facing consultant, you won’t be able to handle this role.’ There's no mystical divide between analysts who work with Microsoft products for businesses, and consultants who work partner side.” Nathan also believes taking the Challenge earlier could have helped him accelerate his career change. He says: “If you’re serious about a career in Dynamics 365 or Power Platform, take the Challenge, do the assignments, and watch your career blossom.”

Making no secret of being ambitious

Nathan saw the Challenge advertised in 2021, after he’d been working as a Microsoft consultant for just over a year. He says: “I make no secret of the fact I'm incredibly ambitious. I wanted to become a Microsoft MVP and the Challenge has a reputation as the path you take to learn how to become an MVP. Also, if I get to learn some new skills, advance my career, and get to where Mark is, I’m gonna to do it. Mark’s career is goals.” “Doing the Challenge is hands down one of the best decisions I ever made. It was mind blowing. People who work in tech tend to think success is all about having good technical skills and learning how to do the latest thing on the Microsoft platform. But that doesn’t get you ahead. Career success is all about knowing how to communicate and carry yourself.” “The first module – Communicating for impact – is worth the cost of admission by itself. If you only implement that module, you’ll see your life change in ways you can't imagine because communication is the foundation for everything. You can be the smartest person in the world, but if you can't communicate your ideas, you’ll struggle to succeed.”

The power of building personal brand

The biggest thing that moved the dial for Nathan was learning to be a confident speaker. He says: “My middle name now is fame whore. I love getting on stage. Getting me to shut up is the challenge. But I was a very shy child and although I wanted to share ideas, I’d get stage fright. I’d script out everything I had to say before I’d talk, and I was terrible as a result.” As part of the Challenge, we encourage you to join your local Toastmasters club. Nathan did exactly that. He says, “Doing Toastmasters, I learned to be comfortable having a topic thrown to me. They’ll say, “Compare and contrast Star Wars and the French Revolution for three minutes. Go!” And if that sounds mildly terrifying, that's the point. You learn to organise your thoughts quickly. So, I started doing a lot of speaking and presenting, and I got active on social media and began posting videos, and everything started to take off for me.” Nathan has done the Challenge twice. He says, “Doing the Challenge again in 2024 taught me even when you think you're really good at something, there's always so much more to learn. I thought, I've got this personal branding thing down, but I still learned heaps from the module on personal branding. And there's still so much for me to learn.” The general consensus in tech circles is people don't have time for nonsense like building a personal brand. Nathan says, “People are too busy being good at their jobs. They think you’re just seeking attention if you post on social. The reality is, without a personal brand, you might be really good at what you do, but no one cares. And there are times when you need to tap into your brand equity, if you’re looking for a new job, or you’re restructured. A lot of people don’t futureproof their career by building their profile, but it’s so important.” “After I became an MVP, the economy wasn't too crash hot for a while there, and the business I worked for had a couple of redundancy rounds. But I was pulled aside and told, “Don't worry, your job is fine.” And I've had a role not work out. But because of all the work I’d done building my profile, all I had to do was make a few calls and I was out of there.”

Becoming the go-to guy for Power FX

When Nathan first did the Challenge in 2022, he learned about the importance of carving your own path to being an MVP by becoming known as a specialist in your field. Nathan recalls, “I remember Mark said, ‘There's not a lot of conversation out there about Power Fx, so that’s an opportunity to own a topic.’ And I thought, alright, I'm gonna make that my thing. I didn't know anything about Power Fx so I set out to learn, fell in love with the tech, started publishing content on it, and now I’m known as the Power Fx guy.” That’s how Nathan became a Microsoft MVP. He says: “Mike Stall, one of the inventors of Power Fx, discovered my content and started tagging one of the product owners at Microsoft in my posts. So, we started having this dialogue. And by the time I was nominated for MVP, the Microsoft product group said, ‘Oh, we thought he was one already.’ So, I always tell people that's the trick. Make the team at Microsoft think you’re already an MVP.” “The Challenge catapulted me from being outside the Microsoft partners’ community looking in, to being an insider with influence. I went to the MVP Summit in Seattle a few weeks ago, and it's probably as close to feeling like a rock star as I'm ever going to get. People were coming up, taking selfies with me, and telling me how much they love my content. I even met Mike Stall himself. It was an amazing experience.”

A watershed moment in Nathan’s career

Nathan often has people come to him asking if they should join the Challenge. He says: “I always tell them, run, don't walk. Mark and Meg are incredible mentors. Taking the Challenge is a no brainer. Just do it. The Challenge really did change things for me. It was a watershed moment in my career. Within 12 months of completing the Challenge for the first time, I saw my income grow, got a promotion, and became an MVP.” “Four years later, I've worked for some of the biggest practises in New Zealand and the projects I've gotten to do have been so cool. I’ve a lot of options and opportunities because of the things I've learned and the people I've met, and I’ve doubled my income as well.” Nathan has a word of advice for you when you join the Challenge. “It's not enough to just watch the videos. A lot of people do the Challenge and say, ‘There's great stuff here. I really need to put it into practise when I have time.’ Make the time. You’ve got to do the work. If you do that, you'll find life totally turns around for you.”

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