Facts & Figures – Data Mozart’s 6th Birthday…

It’s already been six years…Time flies and that’s so true! On this same date five years ago, I did a short retrospective of year 1…Then, I did the same thing four years ago for year 2. In December 2022, I “covered” year 3. Then, two years ago, I described year 4. Finally, last year I shared year 5 experiences. Now, it’s time to reflect on everything that happened in the previous 365 days.

Blogging

In terms of blogging, my productivity was way below usual – I’ve published only 13 posts (including this one)! There’s been a lot of hectic periods with a lot of regular work to do, so I have hardly found spare time to write. But, hey, it’s still 1 blog post per month, which is not that bad at all! It’s not that I didn’t have ideas or motivation to write (I have a serious backlog of ideas for blog posts) – I simply struggled to find time to write:(…

Or, to be more honest, I spent my writing time on another “places” (but, more on that later:))

I’ll repeat: I firmly believe that content is king! Therefore, I tried my best to produce quality content that would be both interesting and helpful to other people. And, trust me, there is no better feeling than when someone gives you feedback that your text/idea helped to solve their problem.

Or, even better – when someone tells you that your blog posts helped them pass the exam, such as DP-600 (Fabric Analytics Engineer) or DP-700 (Fabric Data Engineer)!

In the 1st year, data-mozart.com was visited by ~22.000 users, and had 36.000 unique sessions, while in year 2, there were ~73.000 users and ~105.000 sessions. Then, in year 3, there were ~103.000 users and ~ 151.000 unique sessions…In year 4, ~159.000 users and ~260.000 sessions. Year 5 was absolutely crazy, with ~215.000 users and ~361.000 sessions. Since the writing was less frequent in Year 6, the decrease in numbers was expected:

Translated into page views, it’s ca. 285.000 page views:

Similar to the previous year, the absolute winner was the blog post where I demystified the Parquet file format, and the one in which I explained how to work with tables in Microsoft Fabric.

Substacking

The reason I’ve been blogging less at data-mozart.com is that I moved some of my writings to Substack. I started more than a year ago, and published almost 50 articles over time, building a community of 2.000+ subscribers along the way!

I’ll probably continue using Substack for most of my musings about data in 2026 as well…

Speaking

This was again a very productive year from the speaking perspective, especially considering that I’ve intentionally given up on traveling to conferences in the first half of 2025, because my son just started his school, so I had to take him there and pick him up. I’ve presented at 17 events during 2025, which means 1.5 presentations per month. Again, most of the sessions were delivered virtually (14) – but there were some delivered in person as well (3)!

As a speaking highlight, I’d mention the Dynamics Community Summit North America in Orlando, where I got the best ever swag for not only being a speaker, but also a member of the Programming Committee. I also enjoyed presenting in person at other fantastic events: Data Platform Next Step in Billund, Power Conference Prague, to name a few!!!

And, I owe huge gratitude to all of the organizers, for giving me an opportunity to present, and all attendees for deciding to spend their most precious asset – TIME – with me! THANK YOU!

I’m looking forward to more in-person events in 2026. I already have two confirmed engagements – beginning of March, doing a full-day precon with my good friend Augustin Dokoza Bukvic, and presenting two additional sessions at Power BI Gebruikersdagen – this will be my first time in Utrecht, and I’m super excited about it! Also, two sessions at FabCon Atlanta in March, yaaay!

Books

Bam! This is a brand new section in this annual review! Last year, it was called: Writing a book, Fundamentals of Microsoft Fabric”…Now, it’s written! Ben Weissman and I did a thing, and our book has already been sold in more than 1000 copies, which is amazing for a tech book!

But, you know what’s even crazier?! I’m writing another one, together with Shabnam Watson: Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. It can be read as the early release at O’Reilly’s learning platform, where we add new raw chapters every month.

If someone asked me 18 months ago if I would ever write a book, I’d say: “Never!” Now, if someone asked me if I would write a third book, I’d say: “Maybe”:) I guess this wisdom comes with maturity:)

Also, writing two books is probably the main reason why my blogging suffered in the previous 12 months.

Huge, huge thanks to Michelle Smith, for providing all O’Reilly opportunities and supporting me along the way. Also, a big shout to our editors, Shira Evans and Corbin Collins, for their tremendous work on these projects.

Youtube-ing

I started the Data Mozart Youtube channel in the summer of 2021, as many people asked for a video to complement the blog post. After 11 videos in 2021, and 7 videos in 2022, 9 videos in 2023, and 21 videos in 2024, I published 13 videos in 2025! I plan to continue publishing new and fresh video content in 2025, especially around the Microsoft Fabric and Power BI.

As of today, I’m close to 7.000 subscribers, which is huuuge for me!

I have some super cool and interesting plans for 2026 when it comes to YouTube-ing, so stay tuned:)

Courses

I was very active in 2024 as a Pluralsight author. After creating 3 Pluralsight courses in 2021, 5 more in 2022, and 3 courses in 2023 (and updated two older ones), and 5 courses in 2024, I’ve created 3 new courses in 2025, which gives 19 courses in total! Btw, as I’m writing this, I’m also working on two additional courses! What a year!

Huge thanks to Austi Whetten and Kaylee Udinski for believing in me, but also to all the other lovely, kind, and supportive people from Pluralsight. It’s really a privilege to be part of the Pluralsight family.

I’ve also published two courses for O’Reilly Media: Mastering PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst, and a full Power BI – From Beginner to Advanced course. Again, huge thanks to Michelle Smith and Amelia Blevins for their support in these projects.

Joining iLink Digital

Beginning in October, I joined iLink Digital as a Principal Architect. The first three months were nothing short of amazing, as I got an opportunity to work with many talented people in various enterprise-grade projects. I like this day-to-day technical work, and I’m very much looking forward to helping our clients modernize their data estate in 2026 by implementing Microsoft Fabric.

What next?

Well, 2025 was (again) a year to remember – mostly in a positive way!

I would lie if I said it wasn’t exhausting sometimes, especially in the last months of the year – but, I truly enjoy working with data, and even more enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience. There is no better reward than when someone says to you that your article or idea helped to solve a problem or pass the exam!

I hugely appreciate how much I’ve learned, and how much I’m still learning on a daily basis from different data community experts – that being said, I promise to continue making music from the data in 2026!

If you have come so far reading this article, then I’d really like to give you special kudos! Thanks for reading, happy holidays, enjoy the festive period in peace and health with your loved ones, and hope to see a lot of you in person in 2026!

Cheers!

Last Updated on December 22, 2025 by Nikola