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effectively without letting their workspace become a "dumping ground" for scattered info, links, meetings notes, and outdated docs that no one can trust.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! 🙏

Vanessa Jupe

Leva

Leva is a wellness platform reimagining how we support working parents, because parenthood shouldn't mean career penalty or burnout.

Key Highlights:
◆ 60% improvement in retention for parents at employers using Leva
◆ 85% ongoing use after 6 months (high engagement)
◆ 65% exclusive breastfeeding at 12 weeks in a clinical trial (vs. 45% nationwide)
◆ 10× ROI 
◆ Award-winning, multi-service platform supporting lactation, mental health, sleep, nutrition, and career reintegration.

I founded Leva to close the gap in maternal and family support, especially during postpartum and the transition back to work. Our platform delivers personalized care through expert coaching, mental health services, and digital tools that help families thrive and employers retain top talent.

Founder and CEO

I help mission-driven companies modernize their digital experiences and scale with clarity, empathy, and intentional strategy. Drawing from 20+ years of executive product leadership at large, international companies, I partner with teams to bridge vision and execution, with a strong bias toward action and impact.

Consulting focus includes:
◆ Digital transformation strategy & product roadmapping
◆ AI/ML Implementation 
◆ Customer experience redesign & go-to-market planning
◆ Tech stack evaluation & vendor recommendations
◆ Team structure, roles & capability building
◆ Executive alignment & change management

Digital AI Strategy Consultant

Clearcover

◆ Introduced new ways of working that delivered strategic alignment on roadmaps across the enterprise 
◆ Delivered mix shift to profitable segments through machine-learning technology (+$290 ARPU)
◆ Led servicing and mobile efforts to increase retention, delivering 4pp better than the goal
◆ Through engaged leadership, increased employee satisfaction scores by >7pp 
◆ ‘Best’ Award: 2022 Comparably Best Product and Design Team

Senior Vice President of Digital Business

H&R Block

◆	Created vision and product strategy for online business unit 
◆	Managed product roadmap for large portfolio, using creative thinking to solve problems
◆	Leveraged excellent communication skills to explain complex business and technical concepts 
◆	P&L responsibility for >$400M business  
◆	Delivered +60% revenue growth in only three tax seasons, exceeding financial goals
◆	Led double-digit client growth in 2019 and 2020 – largest client retention growth ever
◆	Transformed the organization thru automation, AI, user-centered research and design
◆	Automated the tax preparation experience – ideation, design and pilot in production in 8 months which enabled clients to do their taxes 34% faster
◆	Created culture of hypothesis-driven experimentation, bringing in tools and processes to increase testing
◆	Delivered new two-sided marketplace product line (+86% revenue growth in year 2)
◆	Hired first technical product managers to deliver machine learning platform/infrastructure model
◆	Established cross-enterprise leadership team of Product, Engineering, and Design to collaborate on product development best practices and roadmap alignment 
◆	Analyzed data and metrics to drive business results and impact; taught team to do the same
◆	Partnered with CEO, CTO, and CMO
◆	‘Best’ Awards: Business Insider, Nerd Wallet, CNET, PC Mag

Vice President, Digital Products and Services

USAA

◆	Built 20-person team that delivered sales growth (2016 +22%; 2017 +18% YoY) 
◆	Led redesign of dotcom/mobile, increasing conversion by over 50% 
◆	Led move to agile methodology reducing cycle time by 25%
◆	Led research/design for new product; received multi-million-dollar funding stream
◆	Leadership awards (‘top talent’ and mentoring)
◆	‘Best’ Award: JD Power

Executive Director of Digital Investment Products 

I build systems that don’t just work for people — they fight for them.

As Founder & CEO of Leva, I lead a platform that helps companies retain working parents through a blend of digital innovation and personalized human care. We close the gap between workplace policy and lived experience, because parenthood shouldn’t mean career penalty or burnout.

I also partner with organizations on AI and digital product strategy — helping leaders cut through complexity, accelerate results, and build solutions that stick. Drawing on 20+ years as an executive in product management and design, I’ve led initiatives generating hundreds of millions in revenue while building inclusive, high-performing teams.

What drives me: Turning systemic challenges into measurable wins. I believe workplaces can be both people-first and performance-driven — and that bold leadership is the bridge.

Core values: Freedom, integrity, continuous learning, joy.

If you want to create cultures and products that retain top talent, deliver innovation at scale, and reflect the world we want to live in, let’s talk.

Senior Vice President of Product and Design

Momentum.
This week has been a week of near effortless momentum for Leva. 

I am thankful. The uphill slog has been real. In the last year, I have posted less about Leva on here. I have let it run. I have not been forcing things. 

We have kept relationships and support for new moms and dads going. But rather than try so hard to force something and extract value, we've been more organic about our efforts. 

The opposite of hustle culture. 

We've been focusing on our family, our lives, and our enjoyment.  

And so far in the last week, we've had:
- Prospect outreaches out of the blue 
- Revenue increases from renewals moving to an unlimited support model for new parents, which I have been so excited to offer. 
- A deal we worked on three years ago coming back to life unexpectedly.  

For those of you who haven't heard me talk about Leva, it's my company. Our mission is to support women across their life journeys. And the current focus is on supporting moms and dads in pregnancy, postpartum, and increasingly in child rearing. We offer coaching and support in lactation, mental health, nutrition, parenting, and more. 

Much love to all of you. In darkness, there is always light.

Redesigning Life Beyond Corporate | Host, 101 Ways Out | Founder/CEO & Digital Strategy Executive (20+ Yrs)

Vanessa in a colorful shirt that says Leva and has hearts on it standing in front of a sign that says "Strong Mujer."

"I sat in the chemo suite typing technical docs while the Real Housewives played in one ear and corporate demands buzzed in the other. Then my manager called it a 'vacation.'"

Lauren Tarpley was a tech leader who returned from 11 surgeries and a double mastectomy to a workplace that had lost its humanity. It's no wonder she thinks corporate is evil. 

She didn't just quit; she transformed her life. 

Lauren stopped measuring quarterly KPIs and started measuring the nitrogen in her soil. She traded a "unicorn" startup for a six-acre farm and an Academy of Agriculture.

Today, she is 97% elated with her life. Not because it's perfect, but because she owns it fully. It's no surprise Lauren says health is wealth. 

🎧 Hear Lauren’s full "Way Out" on the podcast.
📩 Get the roadmap to your own exit in my newsletter.

Success is a design choice. Stop negotiating with a system that thinks your survival is a holiday.

Follow Vanessa Jupe for more blueprints on leaving the grind behind.



#101WaysOut #CareerPivot #Sovereignty #LifeDesign #Entrepreneurship #Resilience

Lauren's professional image in black and white. She is writing her book. 

Happiness is the ultimate KPI. 📈

I recently sat down with the founder of StoryBeat Studio for Episode 7 of 101 Ways Out, and one thing she said really stuck with me: "For me, happiness is success."

In a world that often measures "making it" by revenue milestones and headcount, we often forget the most important metric: fulfillment. We talked about:
- The transition from the corporate world to a decade of entrepreneurship.
- The danger of listening to "too many voices" instead of your own intuition.
- The importance of surrounding yourself with people who are willing to tell you the truth—even when it's hard to hear.

If you’re currently at a crossroads or feeling the itch to start something new, this conversation is a reminder to quiet the noise and listen to what actually lights you up.

Check out the full episode at the link in the comments. 

Enjoying these insights? Let’s stay connected: 
🔔 Follow me for more conversations on career pivots, entrepreneurship, and finding your way out. 



#101WaysOut #Entrepreneurship #CareerPivot #Leadership #Storytelling #WorkLifeBalance

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