However, some data is flowing now:

Perhaps solution one was the correct solution....and now I have a data length problem?

Error messages:

[Excel Source [14]] Error: There was an error with Excel Source.Outputs[Excel Source Output].Columns[Asset Description] on Excel Source.Outputs[Excel Source Output]. The column status returned was: "Text was truncated or one or more characters had no match in the target code page.".

[Excel Source [14]] Error: The "Excel Source.Outputs[Excel Source Output].Columns[Asset Description]" failed because truncation occurred, and the truncation row disposition on "Excel Source.Outputs[Excel Source Output].Columns[Asset Description]" specifies failure on truncation. A truncation error occurred on the specified object of the specified component.

[SSIS.Pipeline] Error: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PRIMEOUTPUTFAILED. The PrimeOutput method on Excel Source returned error code 0xC020902A. The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput(). The meaning of the failure code is defined by the component, but the error is fatal and the pipeline stopped executing. There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.