I Made $2.5M Selling A Digital Product
Summary
TLDRIn this inspiring interview, Thomas Frank reveals how he built a multi-million dollar business selling digital products on Notion, a free platform. With a niche focus and strategic marketing, Frank's templates have reached over 30,000 customers, generating $2.5 million in sales. He shares his journey from YouTuber to entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of studying successful founders, providing valuable insights on creating and selling Notion templates, and the power of niche marketing strategies.
Takeaways
- 😀 Thomas Frank made over $2.5 million by selling digital products, specifically Notion templates, using a free platform.
- 📈 He launched a product and achieved $90,000 in revenue within 30 days through an email launch to a 3,000-person waitlist.
- 🔴 Thomas transitioned from running a YouTube channel with 3 million subscribers to starting a new channel from scratch, finding a strategy that made him over $100,000 a month.
- 💡 His marketing strategy revolves around niche marketing, which he considers the gold standard, and he shares blueprints on how to find million-dollar niches on YouTube.
- 📚 Thomas's main channels are 'Thomas Frank' with nearly 3 million subscribers and 'Thomas Frank explains' with 230,000 subscribers, focusing on teaching Notion.
- 🔑 He offers two premium Notion templates: 'Ultimate Brain' for personal productivity and 'Creators Companion' for social media and content management.
- 🎯 Thomas emphasizes the importance of studying successful founders to learn from their strategies and growth channels.
- 📈 He experienced burnout from his main YouTube channel and started a new, niche channel, which reignited his passion and led to significant revenue growth.
- 🛠️ Thomas's business model includes offering free templates to build an email list and driving sales through direct purchases of premium templates.
- 💼 He discusses the importance of active support for customers, which helps in understanding their needs and improving the product.
- 💡 The power of a niche channel lies in catering to an audience already interested in a specific topic, such as Notion, which can lead to higher revenue despite a smaller audience.
Q & A
How did Thomas Frank generate over $2.5 million in sales with digital products?
-Thomas Frank created and sold digital products using the free platform Notion, focusing on templates that enhance personal productivity and social media management for creators.
What was the initial success of Thomas Frank's email launch for his templates?
-Thomas Frank made $90,000 within 30 days from an email launch to 3,000 people on a wait list.
How did Thomas transition from running a YouTube channel with millions of views to creating a new one?
-Thomas started to feel burnout from his main channel with 3 million subscribers and millions of views, so he decided to start a new channel focused on Notion tutorials, which rekindled his passion.
What are the two premium Notion templates that Thomas Frank sells?
-The two premium templates are 'Ultimate Brain,' a personal productivity template, and 'Creators Companion,' a template for social media and content management.
How does Thomas Frank's strategy of studying successful founders benefit his business?
-By observing and learning from successful founders, Thomas has been able to implement effective products, launch strategies, and growth channels in his own business.
What is the role of 'Thomas Frank explains' in his business model?
-'Thomas Frank explains' is a side channel that focuses on teaching Notion, which helps attract viewers and potential customers to his premium templates.
How does Thomas Frank's business utilize the concept of a niche market?
-Thomas targets specific niches within the Notion user community, such as individual creators and professional students, to sell his tailored templates.
What advice does Thomas give for creating a successful Notion template?
-Thomas suggests making something useful for oneself, a client, or an audience, and then making the Notion page public with the 'able to be duplicated' option checked.
What is the customer journey or funnel for Thomas Frank's Notion templates business?
-The customer journey involves attracting viewers through free Notion tutorials on YouTube, offering free templates, and then upselling to premium templates through email marketing and direct purchases.
How did Thomas decide on the pricing for his Notion templates?
-Thomas considered the value provided by his templates in managing a creator's entire business and initially priced 'Creators Companion' at $99 and 'Ultimate Brain' at $49, with adjustments made over time based on market response.
What tools and software does Thomas use to run his business?
-Thomas uses Notion for its templates, Circle.so for customer logins and support, Lemon Squeezy for point of sale, ConvertKit for email marketing, and Pipedream for automation.
What advice does Thomas have for someone starting on YouTube?
-Thomas advises to publish on a schedule, get feedback, and improve a little bit with each video to compound skills over time.
What is the advantage of having a niche channel like Thomas's 'Thomas Frank explains'?
-A niche channel can attract a dedicated audience already interested in the topic, such as Notion users, and can fulfill a demand that's already present.
How can the business model Thomas uses be replicated for other software or channels?
-The model can be adapted to any niche where there is a growing interest or 'ground swell,' offering products or services that cater to the needs of users within that niche.
What does a typical day look like for Thomas Frank as a Notion entrepreneur?
-A day for Thomas might involve morning routines, gym time, and then variable work depending on the day's demands, such as filming videos, working on templates, or doing CEO tasks.
What personal challenges has Thomas faced in building his business?
-Thomas has struggled with self-doubt and perfectionism, which can hinder the process of publishing content and receiving feedback.
What advice would Thomas give to his younger self or to someone just starting out in business?
-Thomas would advise building friendships with ambitious people, becoming a fan of others' work, and leveraging these relationships for mutual support and growth.
Outlines
📈 Million-Dollar Digital Products with Notion
This paragraph introduces a successful entrepreneur who made over $2.5 million by selling digital products, specifically templates, using the free platform Notion. The entrepreneur, Thomas Frank, shares his journey from running a popular YouTube channel to discovering a profitable niche marketing strategy. He emphasizes the importance of studying successful founders and leveraging free platforms to create and distribute products. Thomas also highlights his two premium Notion templates, 'Ultimate Brain' for personal productivity and 'Creators Companion' for social media management, which have attracted thousands of customers and significant revenue.
🚀 Scaling a Niche Business with Notion Templates
This section delves into Thomas Frank's business model, focusing on how he scaled his Notion templates to generate substantial monthly revenue. He discusses the process of creating and selling Notion templates, the importance of active customer support, and the strategies he used to grow his business. Thomas also shares insights on pricing strategies, the customer journey, and the tools he uses to run his business efficiently. He emphasizes the low cost of entry for a similar business and the power of a niche channel on YouTube to attract a dedicated audience and generate sales.
🎥 Leveraging YouTube for Business Growth
In this paragraph, Thomas Frank discusses his experience with YouTube and offers advice for aspiring content creators. He stresses the importance of consistency, feedback, and continuous improvement to build skills and an audience over time. Thomas also highlights the power of a niche channel, explaining how it can attract a highly engaged audience even with fewer subscribers, leading to higher revenue. He provides tips on how to create content that fulfills existing demand and how to monetize a niche channel effectively.
🛠 Overcoming Challenges in Entrepreneurship
The final paragraph focuses on the personal challenges Thomas faced in his entrepreneurial journey, particularly self-doubt and perfectionism. He shares his struggle with wanting to create the perfect product before launching it and how this mindset can hinder progress. Thomas advises overcoming this by embracing feedback and learning from it to improve future products. He also emphasizes the importance of building a network of ambitious individuals who can provide support, advice, and inspiration, as success in business is often a collective effort.
💡 Final Thoughts on Digital Product Success
This concluding paragraph summarizes Thomas's business approach and offers a final piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. It reiterates the low cost of creating digital products and encourages viewers to explore digital product ideas that are currently successful in the market. The paragraph ends with a call to action, directing viewers to a free resource for digital product ideas and highlighting the potential for success in the digital product space.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Digital Products
💡Notion
💡Launch Strategy
💡Million-Dollar Business
💡YouTube Channel
💡Niche Marketing
💡Creator Funnel
💡Email List
💡Productivity Template
💡Content Repurposing
💡Customer Support
💡SaaS (Software as a Service)
💡Pricing Strategy
💡YouTube Growth
💡Niche Channel
💡Self-Doubt
Highlights
An individual made over $2.5 million selling digital products using the free platform Notion.
Launched a template and made $90,000 within 30 days via email to a 3,000-person waitlist.
Thomas, with nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube, experienced burnout and started a new channel from scratch.
A marketing strategy focused on niche markets is considered the gold standard for success.
Thomas teaches people how to be organized and productive through his YouTube channels.
Two premium Notion templates sold are 'Ultimate Brain' for personal productivity and 'Creators Companion' for social media management.
Thomas Frank explains channel garners a few hundred views a month, often converting to free or premium template purchases.
Studying successful founders and their strategies is a key approach to business growth.
Starter Story provides over 4,000 case studies and business idea breakdowns with real revenue data.
Thomas's initial foray into blogging and YouTube was driven by a desire to share life hacks and learn from admired figures.
The transition to creating niche videos on a new channel rekindled Thomas's passion and led to business growth.
Active support and understanding customer needs through direct engagement is vital for product improvement.
Notion templates are created by making a page public and allowing duplication, facilitating easy online sales.
The customer journey involves free educational content leading to potential purchases of premium templates.
Pricing strategy started with a minimum of $100, considering the comprehensive utility of the product.
Thomas uses a variety of tools including Notion, Circle.so, Lemon Squeezy, ConvertKit, and Pipedream for business operations.
The cost to run a business like this can be as low as a few hundred dollars a month, including content creation tools.
Consistent publishing and incremental improvement are key to growing skills and audience on YouTube.
A niche channel can be more profitable due to targeted content fulfilling existing demand.
The business model could be replicated with different software or niches, not limited to templates.
A day in the life of a Notion entrepreneur involves a mix of deep work, content creation, and business development.
Overcoming self-doubt and the tendency towards perfectionism is a personal challenge in the business journey.
Building friendships with ambitious individuals and being part of a supportive network is crucial for business success.
Transcripts
this guy made over $2.5 million selling
digital products and the crazy part is
he creates them using a free platform
notion I flew out to Denver Colorado to
ask him more about these products why
they sell like hot cakes and the simple
launch strategy that created a
million-dollar business essentially
overnight I had made a template for
myself launched it and I think we did
$90,000 within 30 days just from an
email launch to 3,00 people on a wait
list a few years ago Thomas was running
a YouTube channel with almost 3 million
subscribers he was getting millions of
views but he was starting to burn out so
he decides to start a brand new channel
from scratch and along the way finds a
strategy that makes him over $100,000 a
month without having millions of
subscribers marketing strategy around
Niche is what I sort of model my own
after and what I look towards as the
gold standard for it in this video
Thomas will share his blueprints on how
to find million dooll niches on YouTube
how to build a million dooll Creator
funnel and how he would start a
million-dollar business from scratch on
a budget distribute for free on
distribute for free on whatever you want
I'm Pat walls and this is starter
story how's it going thank you for
having me Thomas thank you for letting
me be on your show yeah man tell me
about this amazing business you Bel yeah
so for the most part I make videos
teaching people how to be more organized
get more done the main Channel which is
just called Thomas Frank is coming close
to 3 million subscribers I think it's
around 180 million views Lifetime and
then I have a side Channel called Thomas
frck explains that does nothing but
teach notion I think we're up to 230,000
subscribers about 60 or 70,000 on our
core notion email list and 200,000 on
our full email list we've sold about
$2.5 Million worth of templates at this
point for about 30,000 customers all
right break down your business a little
bit more for me okay so we have two
premium notion templates that we sell
one is called ultimate brain which is a
personal productivity template so it
combines task management note taking uh
project management it's got useful
dashboards for daily planning GTD stuff
like that and then we have creators
companion which is just our exact social
media and YouTube and blog management
template basically productized creators
obviously use creators companion we have
creators who have actual teams using it
all the way down to solo creators just
getting started on YouTube and then all
kinds of people ultimate brain
professional students just people from
all walks of life use that template now
with Thomas Frank explains we do a few
hundred, views a month those funnel into
a lot of times free templates to our
email list in many cases just direct
purchases of our our premium templates
as well in our previous interview our
written interview on starter story you
talked about the power of studying
successful Founders and studying how
they built their business can you tell
me more about that yeah this is
something that I've been doing ever
since I started the blog all the way
back in 2010 I've never been a course
learner when I want to learn something I
just go and deeply observe somebody who
I admire and usually that's not like a
strategic decision on my part it's what
seems like the most fun decision on my
part and when you do that over time you
just kind of observe what people are
actually doing at a world class level
instead of going through course material
I think in many cases you can learn the
exact same things yeah as you just heard
from Thomas he grew his business by
studying worldclass Founders and seeing
what they're actually doing the products
they sell they're launch strategies and
the growth channels they use now imagine
there was a place that gave you access
to all of this a place where you can see
exactly how simple ideas turn into
million-dollar online businesses that is
the power of starter story over 4,000
case studies in business idea breakdowns
all backed by real Revenue data from
real entrepreneurs so if you're serious
about building a million-dollar business
like Thomas head to the first link in
the description and you're going to get
our free database of 102 digital product
ideas that are making millions right now
just like Thomas's and if you're serious
about building a million online business
consider joining us at starter story
much love and I hope you guys enjoy the
rest of the video with Thomas peace so
tell me about your backstory how do you
get to this place where you built this
business going into college my thought
was I have to be as competitive as
possible just to get a job what this led
me to do was start reading blogs like
Life Hacker and crucially there was
another one called hack College which
was life hacker for college students I
thought it might be fun to write for
them when they put out a call for new
writers so I spent a whole night writing
a guest blog post I thought would knock
their socks off and they rejected me I'm
glad they did though because I took that
blog post I wrote for them and I started
up my own website College inb.com I just
started writing throughout a lot of my
college Years it was purely for fun just
I was like building up stuff I wanted to
share all the little life hacks I was
kind of implementing myself and then um
we started YouTube in 2014 again a lot
of just like I'm imitating the people I
admire I was posting videos every single
week the channel eventually grew up to a
million subscribers every video was
sponsored I felt pressure to get 100,000
200,000 views on every single video it
became the job and it sort of had sucked
a little bit of the creative freedom out
of it for that reason in 2020 I had made
a couple of notion videos for the main
channel that did well and I was getting
so into the software that I wanted to
make more Niche videos but I'm like it
just doesn't fit on the main Channel
super Niche tutorials it just isn't a
good branding play so I decided to start
a brand new channel and I started having
fun again you got this bigger Channel
but now you're getting excited about
notion and something else tell me about
that transition for you yeah so we
launched Creator companion within the
first couple of months I think it was
about $3,000 per month eventually scaled
up to $155,000 a month within the first
6 months of launch then when we launched
ultimate brain I think that was 90 grand
from a weight list of 3200 people and
then we made a video on Thomas FR
explains just going going through the
template it was a 45-minute video like
the whole video is an ad but I'm showing
so much of it that I feel like it's
still educational because people will be
able to replicate parts of it if they
want to without buying it the video did
so well that it goes up to 100 Grand a
month another thing that I had set up
from the very beginning with creators
companion was active support if anyone
comes in number one if it's just not for
them they can get a refund but if
they're stuck or they want to customize
or whatever it is they should be able to
get support so I was doing that support
for 8 hours a day for at least a full
month I actually think this is something
that Founders should do because you just
get really in tune with how people
perceive your product and how easy it is
for them what their pain points and
sticking points are but at that point
it's like now we're making between 100
and 120 Grand a month and now there are
all these new opportunities that just
sort of put the main channel on the back
burner every month for almost two years
yeah let's talk about how notion
templates work what's your process for
creating A Great Notion template that
you can sell online uh yeah notion
template is a page of notion that you
make public and and you tick the little
box that says able to be duplicated and
that's it so to create an ocean template
you just make something useful either
for yourself or for a client or for an
audience put the link out there sell
access to the link Creator companion was
just an evolution from 2018 all the way
to 2021 of everything we needed to make
our YouTube videos and then we just went
to the process of polishing it up adding
a few more features like a Content
repurposing dashboard and stuff like
that packaging it up and selling it for
ultimate brain it was a similar thing
where I had made a task management
template for myself and I'm just like
let's build on top of that so
note-taking getting things done
workflows project management goal
tracking all kinds of stuff like that
packaging it up can you break down what
the customer Journey or the funnel looks
like for a million dooll notion
templates business uh yeah so Thomas
Frank explains is the main way that
people find us right now especially for
notion templates because we just have
all these videos teaching people how to
use notion for free so we have build
guides this is literally I'm going to
teach you how to build a habit tracker
or task manager those build guides
always include a free template as as
well we also have notion new feature
releases because people are searching
for Content about new features
fundamentals content so we have like a
whole sort of free beginners course on
how to learn notion from scratch and
then we have listicle kind of like fun
popcorn content like 10 ways that you're
using notion wrong things like that our
videos will do one of three things they
will pitch a paid template they'll pitch
a free template that's for the build
guides or they'll just say like hey
we've got a resource page here with all
of our notion fundamentals content cheat
sheets we have all kinds of like cool
resources you're going to want so get on
our email list and then from there first
thing I do is send them an autoresponder
saying like hey enjoy your free
templates here's a link to all my other
free templates but if you want to
upgrade to full productivity and notion
you can get ultimate brain here's a
discount code for being a subscriber
yeah how about pricing did you decide on
the pricing for your products my thought
was if you could run your entire Creator
business from idea capture to publishing
have like a full Archive of all your
scripts everything in one tool people
will probably pay tens hundreds of
dollars a month for that so let's at
least charge over $100 initially price
creaters companion at 99 and $49 for the
higher addition at launch right now
we're at I think it's $19 for ultimate
brain alone $229 for the full bundle
Edition and that's what most people buy
if they are getting creators companion
sales do pretty well we did a price
increase last year and we saw volume dip
a little bit but overall Revenue went up
all right so let's talk about tools what
kind of software and tools do you use to
run this business well notion for one we
definitely dog food our own software and
we use our own temp templates notion
templates can be easily pired since
they're just a link so what I am
concerned about is maintaining paid
access to our support so we use circle.
Soo and we have actual customer logins
for that for uh point of sale we use
lemon squeezy I like them because they
actually act as merchant of record so
they completely handle taxes for you we
use convertkit for email marketing we've
got a lot of actual funnels and
automations and autoresponders as well
as our newsletter we use a lot of pipe
dream actually so pipe dream is
automation software kind of like zappier
but sort of built for developers that's
all JavaScript and no JS all right let's
talk about what does it cost to run a
business like this so if you were
building this it would really just come
down to some camera gear some video gear
and then you could build a framer
website for 15 to 30 bucks a month
depending on how content heavy needs to
be distribute for free on YouTube
distribute for free on Twitter LinkedIn
whatever you want and that would be kind
of it for the actual SAS cost to run a
business like this you could get it
under a few hundred bucks a month let's
talk about YouTube You're an experienced
YouTuber you've used YouTube to grow
this business what kind of advice would
you have for other people looking to
start on YouTube essentially when you're
starting out you need to get reps you
need to go through a feedback cycle
where you learn you try stuff out and
then you publish so you get feedback
what you basically gain when you do this
when you go through this process of
publishing on a schedule and trying to
improve something small every time is
you get a body of work that just slowly
compounds your skills over time and you
wake up 3 years later and you're like wo
I know color grading I Know audio I know
how to build a set I know animation I
can speak to the camera a lot better and
I got to learn all that while I
published content that got to grow my
business and build an audience and all
that kind of stuff so do whatever you
have to do to make sure you publish on
the schedule and try to get just a
little bit better at something
interesting every single time you
publish okay let's talk about the power
of a niche Channel this new channel that
you created is a lot smaller than your
bigger Channel but it makes more money
can you tell me more about that so the
power of a niche channel is you're not
necessarily trying to interest people in
you You're Building content about
something that they're probably already
interested in notion already has a ton
of people who are trying to do things
they're looking for answers so I'm
fulfilling demand that's already there
zapier's marketing strategy around Niche
is what I sort of model my own my own
after and what I look towards as the
gold standard for it so zapier is
automation software that's a very small
Niche really small but there's a wider
group of people who are interested in
the top calendar apps the top
productivity software so when you look
at zapier's marketing they cast this a
little bit wider net that's still very
focused on workflow and productivity
software and there's going to be a
smaller proportion of people in that
group who are like oh I wanted to
connect up these two apps and oh your
tool can do that for me you need to
figure out what are people looking for
so you bring them in and then you show
them we can do this thing that some of
you want yeah all right let's talk about
how this business can be replicated
across potentially other software or
other channels uh what would be your
advice for someone trying to start
something similar so don't assume that
uh Niche software plus templates is the
only way you can kind of monetize this
it could be any kind of Niche where
there is ground swell and if it's a
smaller Niche is that Niche businesses
is it Enterprise would onet of the views
bring in the same amount of Revenue and
then the business model could be
Consulting could be courses could be
templates could be any kind of thing
could be SAS you build on top of all
kinds of stuff that helps people who are
already using that software let's talk
about Day in the Life what is a day in
the life for a notion entrepreneur
typically up at 6:30 make coffee do a
bit of deep work in the morning kind of
like you yeah go to the gym usually at
the gym for an hour or two come back
here and then from there my days are
very variable because some days I'm
doing CEO kind of stuff some days I'm
filming videos some days I'm working on
templates just depends on what my
schedule demands in your journey is
there anything that uh you've personally
struggled with or has anything that's
been a challenge in your journey
building a business I would say the the
biggest challenge that comes to mind
right now is self-doubt and how that
combines with wanting things to be
perfect before I put them out of the
world when I got started with videos I
had this feeling that I could make the
perfect video and put it out so I spent
like weeks working on it and then never
ended up publishing it I have like this
perfectionist tendency and it's just at
odds with the truth that you have to
actually publish and get feedback and go
through that cycle make it as tight as
possible so I guess my biggest piece of
advice for people who feel the same is
it doesn't matter if you get harsh
feedback because it's you're going to
learn from it and it's going to make the
thing you publish next better yeah what
advice would you have if you could sit
on young Thomas's shoulder or advice for
someone who's just getting started out
and who wants to build a business that
changes their life the main thing I
would say is start building friendships
with other people who are ambitious and
who also want to build businesses I have
this uh this term that I used a long
time ago called fan first where just
like become a fan of people that you're
interested in share their stuff be
commenting because eventually you paying
attention to them often leads to
conversations me leads to meetings at
conferences leads to friendships and
then you have this network of people who
inspire you you can help each other out
that's how you succeed in business I
think even if you are building your own
business solo it's not done alone
because anyone who's successful I think
is surrounded by other people in their
Network in their their friend group who
are constantly giving them advice giving
them feedback giving them everything
they need to succeed all right thanks
for having me Thomas absolutely follow
this advice and you will be a
millionaire with notion all right guys
that's it I hope you like the video
personally what I love about Thomas's
business is that he's selling a digital
product and for the most part these
products cost nearly 0 to create if
you're also curious about this head to
the first link in the description and
you're going to get our free database
of2 digital product ideas that are
making millions right now just like
Thomas's all right guys I'll see you in
the next one peace
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