Notion! Notion is an infinitely customizable blank canvas of ultimate power. 

Notion's greatest advantage is also it's biggest weakness. That's where I come in.

As the GTM Lead @ Optemization, I specialize in helping companies in hyper growth mode scale effectively without letting their workspace become a "dumping ground" for scattered info, links, meetings notes, and outdated docs that no one can trust. 

Optemization is an Ops Design consultancy focused specifically on the adoption of Notion. 

That could mean large migrations onto Notion, improving current workflows, creating custom automations and integrations, or auditing what you're currently working with.

If you've made it this far and want to learn more, here's some resources that can help:

Notion's Eleven - A free online course exploring the fundamentals of building an effective Notion workspace for teams of all sizes:

https://optemizations.notion.site/Welcome-to-Notion-s-Eleven-317a0fd26bf24d0295504e4cab1eba83

AND, my last offer is if you ever want to about anything related to Notion, I'm your guy 😎 

Lastly the fun part. My Special Skills and Fun Facts include:

🏆 3x Cornhole Champion 🏆 
🏅 3x Dodgeball Champion 🏅 
👨‍🍳 Former Food Cart Owner 👨‍🍳 
🥩 Steak Off Champion 🥩 
🐔 Notoriously known as “The Chicken Man” 🐔

Skyler Birk-Stachon

Mama I made it! I'm officially a Notion consultant.

Haters are fuming right now.

What's the first thing I should build? 

**note that everyone on our team were already Notion consultants and I was just late to the party

Ask me how we optimize Notion workspaces for 150+ of the world’s top companies

I threw 10 Notion stickers at a camera to signify 10 harsh Notion truths.

#1 98.6% of companies use Notion wrong

#2 You can’t use Notion AI properly if your workspace is a dumping ground

#3 You need to stop letting your employees create random loose pages

#4 The reason you’re not getting the most out of Notion is that you haven’t properly invested into it

#5 I love Notion but 90% of Notion’s fancy features don’t actually matter to your employees

#6 You don’t have a Notion problem, you have an adoption problem

#7 Your company has a tool culture problem if you don’t have a unified way of working in Notion

#8 If your company didn’t architect Notion correctly from the start you probably hate it now

#9 If your company isn’t database driven you’re using Notion wrong

#10 No company should ever be on the plus plan. Business or Enterprise only

Fight me on them 👇

--

Psssst if you need help optimizing your Notion workspace we should talk

1000 podcast episodes produced. That's a lot of freaking episodes! Huge huge congrats to Jake Hurwitz and the Thursday Labs team on an epic accomplishment. Best in the business. And an even cooler person.

You'll be celebrating 5k in no time.

You're a legend. 

And also heard you have a pretty impressive Notion setup.... 

Wonder who built it 😉

Fun fact: We don't just help with Notion 😏

Notion has over 100 million users, over 4 millions paying customers, and over 35,000 companies using it but most of companies are still using it wrong. Here’s the reality if you want a successful rollout:

#1 You need an adoption plan - Don’t wing it. Be intentional.

#2 Define a unified way of working in Notion - How will you work in Notion at X company?

#3 Exec alignment - Why do you actually care about rolling out Notion? What bigger initiative is this a part of?

#4 Need to assign Notion champions - Internal owners who are in charge of each teamspace / the big databases

#5 Patience - Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your Notion workspace be.

Get these right and Notion becomes your company's greatest productivity asset. Get them wrong and it becomes just another abandoned tool.

I’m gonna let you in on a secret.

Your employees don't give a shit what software your org uses.

Notion. Confluence. Asana. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. They couldn't care less about your tech stack.

**unless you give them clear enablement and support

Here’s what this looks like in practice for Notion:

Most companies look like this: (wrong way)

→ “Hey we use Notion for knowledge management or product roadmapping or xyz use case”

**leads to uncertainty, negative sentiment overtime and people using it however they see fit (and an FAQ / youtube tutorial rabbit hole) 

Here’s what it should look like:

→ “Here’s how you use Notion in your day to day role and here’s how it enables you to get more done and become a better employee”

- Here’s how product uses Notion to do their roadmapping

- Here’s how marketing uses Notion to plan their content calendar and upcoming launches

- Here’s how eng uses Notion to find information across scattered tools in the snap of a finger

- Here’s how sales uses Notion to find commonly asked questions for enablement

**Much better what to do it ^^

To have a successful rollout you must define:

1. What is the pain point this tool solves for?
	- and why?

2. How do I use it my day to day role?
    - and how am I being set up for success?

3. What are my expectations around the tool? 
    - how do I use this tool for success not failure

Remember, You don’t have a Notion problem. You have an adoption problem.
The tool isn't the problem. The rollout is.

Stop debating the tool. Start investing in the rollout.
That's the difference between a tool people hate and one they can't live without.

-- 
Pssssst this is exactly what we help with at Optemization, let us know if you need Notion help :)

Just an average Optemization team meeting...

Creating custom agents designed to roast Tem ‎and building Notion sauce.

All a part of our great agentic bakeoff where everyone presented the craziest, funnest, and most useful custom Notion agents they've been working.

It's more fun to highlight the goofy + fun ones but I promise we're cooking up some ones that are going to change our clients' workspaces forever.

Stay tuned 👀

-- 

Want to be a part of our epic team culture? 

We're actively hiring for our next great Notion workspace developer 👀

Check out the full job description (link below) and send your resume + a 90-sec Loom to Natalie Pottie at hiring@optemization.com.

**expecting bangers only in that Loom

https://lnkd.in/evXuHNZi

Just fired off 100 of these cold emails to COOs who went to Villanova.

Think I'll get any takers??

"Skyler, don't hate this personally but we hate Notion" 

Said the Head of internal comms at a 1000-person fintech to me.

Now, normally a statement like that would piss me off. 

But in this case, I couldn't blame them. 

They had been using Notion for the last 3 years but:

1️⃣ They never set up the infrastructure correctly
2️⃣ They didn't have a unified way of working in Notion 
3️⃣ They had over 100,000 loose pages
4️⃣ They had random databases all over the place not tied to anything
5️⃣ They didn't have any Notion champions in charge of governance 

The result?

Their workspace was a "Dumping ground of meeting notes, scattered workflows, links, and out of date docs that no one can trust"

It doesn't matter how good Notion AI is if it's only helping you find outdated info 5x times as fast.

So we ran a workspace audit, created a health report, aligned on a solution and a gameplan moving forward.

And put our hardhats on and went to work.

The result? 

🤩 46,638 pages optimized 
🤩 64% teamspace consolidation
🤩 46% reduction of outdated content

And the best part?

They LOVE Notion again :)

YAY

If your workspace has become a dumping ground over time and it's time for a refresh, know you're not alone.

But also shoot me a note, we'll run an audit for you and create a let's fix it gameplan! 🙏

I help small business owners 2X their profits in 12 months without feeling overwhelmed and lost.

Founder | Investor | Managing/Operating Partner | Fractional COO for low and mid-market SMBs. I have bought, sold, and invested in the growth of 160+ businesses. I now help service-business owners streamline operations, grow profits, integrate AI-powered solutions, and build real value - so they can create scalable businesses, create real wealth, and empower others. Want me to help you grow your business? Click the link in my bio or shoot me a DM to get started.

Evan Gove

If you prepare right on Sunday evening…

You set yourself up for success for the entire week.

The worst assumption you can make as a business owner is this…

“Once I hire people to run my business, I will be hands off”

No matter how good your team is, you will always need to be involved in some way. 

Owning a business is so much more than running the day to day operations. 

You must coach, lead, inspire, network, and invest in the people and processes that will help everyone grow.

What is your best advice for business owners 5-10 years behind you? 

#network #entrepreneur #advice

Showing your team you appreciate their efforts is one of the most under rated ways to unlock more potential.

The best advice I have ever received on when to fire someone? 

Here it is...

When evaluating whether to keep someone on your team, ask yourself this:

Knowing what I know now about this person's character, values, work ethic, and performance, would I hire this person again? 

If the answer is yes, keep them and invest in elevating their skillset. 

If the answer is no, replace them asap. 

If the answer is maybe. Determine if it is because they lack the values that align with your company (bad fit). 

Or if they are lacking in performance (production metrics - aka not producing the desired outcome they were hired for). 

If a bad fit, replace them asap. 

If they are lacking in performance, create a plan for improvement and enable them to succeed. 

If they still are lacking after giving extra enablement and support, it is time to let them go. 

What would you add to this?

The hardest lessons to learn are the ones you don't want to be wrong about. 

So many business owners fight the same battles over and over because they don't want to accept the reality of their situation. 

Whether it is an employee who is a bad fit, a failing department, or a collapsing business... 

Failure only means something if you learn from it and change your actions moving forward.

The growth mindset asks for permission later. 

Commit. Figure it out. Repeat. 

All that’s required is trying and iterating until you find success. 

Try. Fail. Try again. 

There are no secrets. 

There are no shortcuts. 

Only relentless determination to implement learnings from failure fast enough and long enough to (hopefully) find success.

Understanding the real cost of your lead gen is crucial for growth. 

CPL is vanity. Conversion is cash.

We build social platforms that generate a clients using your social platforms in 90 days

Your cost per lead is the last thing you should be looking at.

I see business owners getting hyped up about a cheap cost per lead all the time.

I've been speaking to a lot of business owners, and I spoke to one just this weekend. They were getting hundreds of leads but barely any qualified conversations.

A cheap CPL looks great on a report for the first month, but it gets exhausting very fast once you actually dial all of them and try to convert them.

You soon realize the quality isn't what you paid for, and your team is wasting hours on the phone with people who have zero intent to buy.

Let me give you a quick math lesson on this.

If you're generating 200 leads a month for $2,000, but only having 5 good conversations, you're not paying $10 per lead.

You're paying $400 per qualified conversation.

That's the real number. That should wake you up.

Here are two questions you need to ask your marketing agency tomorrow:

1. How are we actually qualifying these leads? We need 3-4 real qualifying questions. If they answer wrong, they get disqualified. Period. Yes, your CPL will go up, but your cost per qualified conversation will go down.

2. Why are we still using image ads? Videos attract higher-intent people. If your image ads are outperforming your video ads, it just means your videos aren't good enough. And by videos, I mean actual videos with you talking, testing hooks, and providing real value, not just graphics turned into a slideshow. Test more videos.

Stop optimizing for a fake number. Start optimizing for actual, qualified conversations that turn into cash.

P.S. Do you know your cost per qualified conversation? Not your CPL.

Whatever you accept in the small things becomes the big thing your company is known for.

Is running a marathon or being an entrepreneur harder?

The best systems run so smoothly you forget they are there.

People will be the number one factor that will make or break your business. 

Great people. Great success. 

No great people. No great success. 

Hire accordingly.

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The #1 reason businesses stagnate is not what you think. 

Most business owners I talk to say their business is stagnating for a number of reasons. 

"The economy is bad". 

"I can't find good employees". 

"I just had a slow year". 

"Folks aren't buying the way they used to". 

Everything except for the real problem. 

So what is the real problem? 

A personal willingness to dig into the business to identify the true constraint holding their business back. 

This is 70% of the work on its own. 

Then, you need to be willing to do everything you can to solve the problem. 

Some wait weeks, others months, years, and even decades. 

Once you reach this point, it is better to simply sell the business. 

A quick exit for less than what you would ideally want is better than a decade long slow death. 

Do you agree?

Marketing or sales…

Which one is more important to drive business growth?

A great life starts with gratitude. 

Gratitude for what you have and an understanding of how you can use what you have to improve the world for others. 

Without a true purpose in life, you will always lose drive. 

You will never deeply connect with your work. 

And most importantly, you will never feel gratified by the work you do…

And no one should live in that torturous cycle.

The best plan for success in business? 

Never stop trying to succeed…

You will eventually.

Fit > function

It doesn’t matter how good someone is at something. 

If they don’t embody your company’s ideals. 

They create friction in your company culture. 

Or generally lack an understanding of what it is that makes your company great. 

You don’t need to invest another dime in them. 

There are better fits out there to explore.

The greatest leverage you have over your competitors is your brand.

If more people, know you, trust you, and want to buy from you… 

You become a category of your own. 

And that’s hard to compete with.

Get your wildest ideas out of your head and into the world. 

Cooler things happen when you do.

What is the best way to determine “fit” for a person in a role in a business?

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