Well, that escalated quickly, huh?

Just a few short months ago, we were all making plans about what we wanted to learn in 2020. We sketched out our goals, our conference plans, maybe even how we wanted to do our first user group presentations or SQL Saturday presentations.

These days:

• The events you wanted to attend are canceled or postponed
• Your company banned travel (either for health reasons, or budgetary ones, or both)
• Your family isn’t too keen on you leaving, either
• It feels like your projects are all in a holding pattern

So, what’s the rational thing to do? Learn online instead.

But here’s the thing: you have to take control of your training. In this economy, nobody’s gonna hand you a golden ticket and take care of you. You’re gonna have to take a risk, go to your manager, and lay out your case. In this post, I’m going to show you why to do it, and how.

“Brent, why would I wanna learn from you?”

About a decade ago, when I started working with SQL Server, I really struggled. The learning material was dry, boring, and unrelated to the actual stuff I worked with on a day-to-day basis. It was theory, mostly taught by people who’d never been an actual database administrator. It was like a blind person teaching you how to take pictures.

So over the years, when it became my turn to teach and give back, I was determined to have fun while discussing real-world topics that your users would notice right away. I designed the courses that I would wanna take myself:

• I do a lecture, explaining concepts with a mix of slides & scripts
• I pass it over to you, and you do a real-world-style lab exercise where you have to prove what you just learned (and you get all the scripts & tools necessary to do it on your own)
• Then you watch me do the same lab exercise, and you can see how my thought process works, and pick up on things you missed out on during the lecture

It’s super-lively, super-interactive, and you can get a feel for it by watching me teach Fundamentals of Query Tuning free today. Of course, that’s just an introductory Fundamentals class – the Mastering classes get much more challenging, complete with hands-on labs.

“What do the Mastering class students say?”

After every class, I encourage students to leave a review, and I don’t edit ’em. Every single review goes out as-is, typos and all, hahaha. That’s because I’m really proud of what the students say:

“This is an excellent course as is the Mastering Query Tuning course. Brent’s teaching style is effective, efficient and entertaining. I learned a lot and have already put things I’ve learned to use in my job. I really like that he answers questions posted in Slack as well. The format is very interactive and has a similar feel to an in person class with other students. I highly recommend this course.” Laura Beranek

“If there is one master class you take, it should be all of them. This class is a fantastic study to improving performance solely through indexes. Amaze your clients/bosses with newfound performance. Your biggest challenge will be convincing your clients to let go of old, tired indexes that aren’t being used. Tune your indexes to DEATH.” Sam Carey

“This was my first experience with a multi-day on-line class. It could not have been better. Having the Q&A in Slack with the other students is brilliant.” Steve Malcolm

“This class is a must-have for database professional. Brent’s class delivery is impeccable. He is very proficient and engaging. He demystified performance tuning with a very effective methodology that I put in use at my work right away. I especially appreciate the way he talks through his logic of resolving problems. After years of being a DBA, I feel a lot of knowledge he shared was still eye popping/opening to me. His performance tuning training series are the most useful classes I have had.” Angela Couch

“I watched several Brent’s free online training before and finally got my boss to pay for the live season pass. Boy, it is life changing. First, I feel shocked to know how little I knew before. As I went through the three mastering tuning classes, I became more confident and by the time I finished this mastering server tuning class, I felt so empowered to tackle performance problem. I thoroughly enjoy all his classes, especially his humorous consulting stories and practical hand-on labs. (His “clippy” voice is hilarious!) It is also valuable to learn from other students through interactive slack channel. Brent is a very effective instructor. Unlike other training I went to, I am able retain the maximum amount of information from his classes and apply them at my workplace. It is amazing that he even offers every student to ask his tech questions outside the class. His training is no doubt “the best bang for your buck” and opens “a whole new world”! Thank you, Brent!” Angela Couch

“Okay, I’m sold. How do I convince management?”

Copy/paste this into an email with a subject of “SQL Server online training – need to join before April 21”

Hey – I know a conference or training class is totally out of the question this year, but Brent Ozar, a Microsoft Certified Master who runs one of the biggest blogs & maintains sp_Blitz and the First Responder Kit, is running a big sale on his online training classes.

Here’s why we should sign up:

• I can start learning right now – his next round of Mastering classes starts on April 21.
• I can learn for a year straight – he’s selling a pass that lets me attend all of his online classes.
• I can do it from home – he’s been teaching online classes for years.
• It’s way less expensive than a conference – and no worries about me being unavailable due to travel problems or quarantines.

His Live Class Season Pass is usually $3,995, but he’s running a 65% off sale for just $1395 due to the quarantines.

To get me a ticket, go here: https://www.brentozar.com/product/2018-live-class-season-pass/ You can pay with a card online, or you can even pay via PO or invoice, but if you do those, he has to receive payment before I can start attending classes.

If you have any questions about how it works, his email is Help@BrentOzar.com.

And that’s it. Copy/paste that in, hit send, and see what happens. You’ll never know if you don’t try – good luck, and see you in class!