#13: In London, Frances shares how she builds Notion templates for influencers and other insightful advices on consulting

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🗒 Brief summary

In this episode, we talk to Frances Odera-Matthews, a certified Notion Consultant and founder of The Notion Bar. Frances shares her journey with Notion, its advanced features, and the benefits of using it for project management. We also discuss finding clients, the challenges of organizing information in Notion, and strategies for content creation. The conversation highlights the future of Notion, the value of serving both personal and enterprise users, and the diverse uses of the platform. To learn more about Frances and The Notion Bar, visit their website or find them on social media platforms.

📚 Resources

• All the links mentioned in that episode can be found here : link.thenotionbar.com/links
• The Notion Zeitgeist : newsletter.thenotionbar.com
• The Notion Bar website : thenotionbar.com

📖 Chapters

0:00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene in London

0:01:34 Learning Notion at a UX agency in DC

0:06:05 Starting on Fiverr

0:09:37 Introduction and Overview of Clients and Services

0:14:44 Consultant as a Marie Kondo of Notion

0:16:38 The Time-consuming Process of Setting Up Notion Workspaces

0:19:05 Content Strategy and Recycling Old Content for Finding Clients

0:23:02 Selling Templates and the Happiness Bar Journal

0:28:11 Efficiency and Design Principles in Notion Templates

0:35:44 Other No-Code Tools

0:40:16 Exploring the Notion and NoCode Community in London

0:48:28 Recommendations in London

📃 Long Summary

In this episode, Alex welcomes Frances, a certified Notion Consultant and founder of The Notion Bar, to discuss the world of No-Code and Notion. Frances shares her journey of becoming a Notion expert, starting with her introduction to the platform while working at a UX agency.

The conversation then delves into the changes and improvements in Notion over the past three years, particularly in catering to power users and offering enhanced project management capabilities. Alex expresses his curiosity about Frances' experience finding clients on Fiverr and raises his biases about the platform, to which Frances responds with her positive experience and success story.

They further explore the options and experiences for freelancers starting out in the UK or US, discussing the importance of getting paid for services and the value of establishing boundaries and self-worth. Frances mentions her diverse range of clients, from solopreneurs and small creative teams to VCs, startups, and scale-ups, emphasizing the universal need for systems and organization.

The conversation shifts to Frances' strategies for attracting clients, such as recycling old content and utilizing tools like Hypefury for scheduling social media posts. She also mentions her weekly newsletter, the Notion Zeitgeist, which showcases interesting happenings in the Notion community.

The conversation then explores the enterprise shift happening within the no-code community, with Frances sharing insights on the prioritization of paying customers and the involvement of personal users in content strategy. They discuss various tools used for time management and automation, including Google Calendar, Zapier, Hypefury, and repurpose.io, while also addressing cultural differences in valuing free work and the importance of educating the market.

Frances mentions the growing Notion community in London and the challenges of finding networking events and meetups, particularly due to the impact of COVID-19. She expresses her desire to share the stories of creatives using Notion and suggests the idea of conducting TikTok interviews with people in cafes.
The episode concludes with Frances providing recommendations for non-touristy activities in London.