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Copilot vs. My 2 A.M. Brain

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Copilot vs. My 2 A.M. Brain I’ll be honest: I didn’t think much of Copilot at first. I was all-in on ChatGPT, and Copilot felt like a lightweight version of something I already used. And because this is my job, I couldn’t exactly slam it, but I wasn’t impressed at first. Over time, though, I’ve found small but meaningful ways Copilot has made a difference for me. This is one of them. As a Gen X’er, I remember when the internet was going to “take all our jobs.” It didn’t; it changed them. AI feels similar: bigger, faster, closer to the work we do every day. And for me, Copilot has shown up in one very personal way: helping me manage social anxiety. I’m not shy. But I do live with social anxiety. Which means my brain can take the smallest moment in any interaction and spin it into hours of second-guessing. And it’s not just in the moment. Anxiety is the kind of thing that gets you at 2 a.m., lying awake, replaying a comment you made in a meeting two days ago , convinced it sounded ...
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SharePoint: The Most Powerful Tool You’re Still Undervaluing

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Stop Underestimating SharePoint Online You’ve seen the infographics. You’ve read the blogs. Every other post in your feed talks about optimizing SharePoint for Copilot, implementing robust governance, and getting your data “AI-ready.” They’re all making really valuable points. But... None of it matters if your organization still underestimates SharePoint. Until you recognize and understand that SharePoint is foundational to how Microsoft 365 works, no amount of governance checklists, security policy overhauls, or AI excitement will get you across the finish line. Stop the SharePoint Hate You’ve heard (or maybe said) it all before: “I hate SharePoint.” “It’s confusing.” “Why can’t I just recreate the same folder structure we had on the file share?” “It’s dumb.” This mindset is where transformation efforts go to die.  💀 SharePoint powers more than you think : Microsoft Teams file sharing OneDrive’s document backend Viva Connections home sites Copilot’s conte...
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So You Want to Rename Your SharePoint Online Tenant? Read This First

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So You Want to Rename Your SharePoint Online Tenant? Read This First Let’s be honest, choosing a tenant name isn’t always a carefully considered decision. Maybe it was chosen in a rush during initial setup, or maybe it made perfect sense at the time but no longer reflects your organization after a rebrand or merger. Whatever the reason, the good news is that Microsoft allows you to rename your SharePoint Online tenant. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should jump in without a solid plan. I’ve performed several tenant renames since this feature became available, and where it fits as a solution, it’s a great alternative to migrating everything into a brand-new tenant just to change the name. I recently worked with a client to rename their tenant, and while the technical steps were fairly straightforward, the overall impact reached much further than many expect. I thought it was a good opportunity to share what I’ve learned after managing multiple renames over the years. At ...
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"Old Punks Never Die, We Just Stand in the Back" – A SharePoint Metaphor

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As a SharePoint consultant with a deep love for punk rock, I easily find parallels between the two. One of my favorite t-shirts says, "Old punks never die we just stand in the back," which accurately describes SharePoint Online's evolution.  SharePoint's wild, early days were like the mosh pit of a punk show in a small smoke-filled club—chaotic, loud, and full of custom-built solutions that felt like DIY band flyers scattered everywhere. Still Rocking, Just a Bit Different In the early days of punk, everything was raw, fast, and loud—much like the early days of SharePoint. Early iterations of SharePoint were rough around the edges. Configuring sites and managing content was a DIY experience, where every admin had their approach, often involving custom development or workarounds. But just like the punk scene, SharePoint matured. It's cleaner, sleeker, and more polished, but the fundamentals remain the same: empower users and deliver collaboration in ways that fit a...
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Overcoming Bias in Your SharePoint Journey

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Navigating bias based on perceptions is something we all deal with—whether based on appearance, gender, age, cultural background, educational background, or whether you like pineapple on pizza 🍕+🍍. Assumptions based on perceptions can shape how we are seen and treated, even if the assumption does not reflect reality. From my own personal perspective, my vocal cords are damaged, leaving my voice soft and easily fatigued. My quietness is often mistaken for shyness, but I constantly evaluate situations to avoid unnecessary speaking to conserve my voice. It's frustrating to be misunderstood based on superficial perceptions. Still, I've learned to handle it with resilience (mostly 😀) and determination, and I use my not speaking time to constantly improve my listening skills—not just hearing but actively listening. My personal experience is an excellent example of perception bias, and it mirrors a broader challenge that I often see organizations face when planning and implementing...
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A Weekend in the Life of a SharePoint Consultant - Migration Playlist

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Depeche Mode, Barclays Center  When I have a SharePoint migration planned it is typically a weekend long affair. Friday night into Saturday is reserved for party time, aka final migration deltas 😆 It is the culmination of the weeks of initial data and permissions migrations, followed by countless delta's, remediating issues, and verifying the file counts and permissions align.   A part of me secretly loves these Friday nights (why else would I do it, right?), I usually spend the days leading up to it firming up my final delta schedule, ensuring that I select 8:00 PM and not 8:00 AM, I have made that mistake before.  It also means queuing up my playlist.  I love all types of music, side note - the most fun job I ever had was as a sales clerk in a record store. I will sit and watch the migrations kick off, make sure that everything is behaving itself. I am a night owl, and I can not fully trust that any tool is going to kick off when I told it to 😅 Once I am con...
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Resilience

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  Tjörnin Pond, Reykjavik Iceland Once during an interview, I was asked to describe myself in one word. Without hesitation, I said, "resilient." The interviewer, looking somewhat perplexed, responded, "Like a duck?" I laughed and replied, "Exactly. Like a duck."  I was offered the role—one of many where I transitioned from being a technical writer to a SharePoint person. I wrote workflows in Visual Studio, fought to get approval for a paid version of SharePoint (which sadly went nowhere), and eventually I moved on to a contract role. Life at the time required flexibility, and unfortunately, that role was not as "duck-like" as I'd hoped. Words like resilient, adaptable, and flexible have become buzzwords, but that doesn’t mean embodying them is easy. I struggled when transitioning from SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online. I feared that I would lose control over my environment and, with it, my job. But what I found instead was relief—fr...
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