I've designed over 500 YouTube thumbnails.

Today I'm going to share all my tricks for making thumbnails FASTER:

- How to get hundreds of high-quality poses of yourself
- How to create a consistent look
- A sprinkle of thumbnail strategy (especially in the last tweet) Here's the main hack right up front:

I have a gallery with tons of poses I took over a single session.

Nearly any emotion or reaction I'd want to use in a thumbnail is in it.

Here's how to make your own:

Another extremely useful ChatGPT prompt:

"What additional questions would a person seeking mastery of this topic ask?"

This helps with unconscious incompetence – i.e. the things you don't know that you don't know. I had this idea today after @ctrlaltdylan rewrote some of the code for my voice notes-to-@NotionHQ automation.

His new code uses a JavaScript library called Bottleneck, which vastly improves the code's speed.

I started learning how to code only 10 months ago.

I am NOT a very talented coder. But with the help of:

- AI tools
- Automation platforms
- No-code tools

...I can build nearly anything I want.

Here are the exact tools I used to learn how to code (all are free): TL;DR version:

(For context, I chose to learn JavaScript.)

- JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures by @freeCodeCamp (start here)
- The Modern JavaScript Tutorial by @iliakan
- That Weird JavaScript Course by @fireship_dev
- The MDN Web Docs by @MozDevNet
- ChatGPT 😉

ChatGPT pro-tip:

You can do a LOT with ChatGPT output if you add this to your prompt:

"You only speak JSON. Do not write text that isn't JSON." JSON is a structured way to store and represent data.

It stands for JavaScript Object Notation.

Send tasks to @NotionHQ with your voice

This can automatically set due dates, assignees, and even projects.

And you can create multiple tasks at once! @NotionHQ This automation uses:

- Shortcuts + Siri (MacOS, iOS)
- @OpenAI's ChatGPT API
- @pipedream for all the code and steps
- @NotionHQ as the destination

Tutorial coming soon (see the last tweet in this thread), but here's the gist:

To make real progress, you need to turn conscious activities into unconscious ones.

Consider this:

If you had to think about breathing, your mind would be constantly occupied by that task.

But because it's unconscious, your conscious mind is free to think creatively. In business, it's the same story.

If you want to make progress, you need to turn conscious activities into unconscious ones.

You do that by:

- Hiring great people
- Creating systems and processes
- Optimizing for unsupervised excellence

How over-thinking destroys your potential

Instead of:

- Asking real questions
- Trying things out
- Getting real-world feedback

...you try to simulate all of this in your head.

All your conclusions are simulated, so they're lower-quality. Over-thinking is a problem caused by over-reliance on a truly useful principle:

"Think before you act."

This is useful in many situations.

But fear causes over-thinkers to mutate it into:

"Think; never act."

All my threads on AI

Including:

- ChatGPT tips and findings
- Getting the most out of Notion AI

(I'll add more as I make them) Write team docs and SOPs at 10x speed with Notion AI:

https://twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1640818791935512579

All my threads and tips on becoming a @NotionHQ expert

(I'll add more as I make them) How to make a database full-width (on a normal-width page)

https://twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1637151835252244482

All my threads on productivity

(I'll add more as I make them) The 7 keys aspects of productivity

https://twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1629923186359009280

How to Succeed as a Creator

There are two modes you need to spend time in:

1.) Cave mode
2) Stage mode

When you're in Cave mode, you focus all your energy on making something amazing.

Then you switch to Stage mode. This is your chance to get attention for what you've built. The key is simple:

You can only be in one mode at a time.

When you're in Cave mode, focus on building. Pour your entire being into making something amazing.

When you're in Stage mode, focus on promoting. Pull out all the stops, employ stagecraft, and put on a great show.

How to write docs for your team at 10x speed using @NotionHQ AI: One of my team members needed to know how to convert a video file to an audio file easily.

I know how to do this with FFMPEG, so I wanted to create a doc in our internal wiki on how to do it.

Here's how I did it in under 60 seconds with Notion AI.

10 must-know keyboard shortcuts for @NotionHQ: Show and Hide the Sidebar

Mac: ⌘ + \
Windows: Ctrl + \

Notion just launched a game-changing new feature: Buttons!

For the first time, we can build and run automations right inside of @NotionHQ.

Here's a quick crash course on what you can do with Buttons.

First up, you can track your habits with them: Even better:

You can create a project (like a YouTube video), and then use a Button to create a set of "default" tasks for that project, such as:

- Write Script
- Film Video
- Edit Video

This has been a highly-requested feature for YEARS, and it's finally here!

I built a 56,000-subscriber newsletter in 2.5 years, focused entirely on @NotionHQ tips.

Here's my exact process and all my tricks for building a successful newsletter: First, the main idea. If you take away nothing else, take this to heart:

Find your audience, then build your audience.

- Find: Create great content on popular platforms that already have millions of users

- Build: Get those people to join your newsletter (the platform you own)

Fantastic improvement to this idea from @TheTaleFoundry:

The best thing you can offer your audience isn't just "more of you" – it's specifically more of WHAT PEOPLE LOVE about you.

https://twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1526265017900814342

This is a valuable distinction.

I can remember several times when I published content that was more "about me" – vlogs, a video about my personality test results, etc.

I thought these would do well because the same topics work for other creators (e.g. people like Markiplier).

Quick @NotionHQ tip:

Write and build pages much faster by mastering a handful of Markdown symbols.

Here's a full list: Heading 1: # + space
Heading 2: ## + space
Heading 3: ### + space
Italic: *text*
Bold: **text**
Strikethrough: ~text~
Pre-formatted text: `text`
Code block: ```
Unordered List: * + space
Numbered list: 1. + space
To-Do: [] + space
Blockquote: ” + space
Horizontal Line: ---

My last @NotionHQ template launch made $88,421 in its first 30 days.

This came entirely from two emails sent to a waiting list of 3,201 people.

Here are the exact subject lines, email copy, and all other details: Subject Line:

"IT'S GO TIME - Ultimate Brain is live"

- 3,201 recipents
- 81% open rate
- 60% click rate (1,913 clicks)

(I use @ConvertKit for my email marketing)

In mathematics, there's something known as the Hill-Climbing Problem.

You can write an algorithm that tries solutions to a problem and constantly moves in the direction of the best one it finds.

The problem is that you might not end up at the best possible solution. You're guaranteed to end up at a "local maximum".

But because your algorithm can only move upwards, and because you don't already know the BEST possible solution, you might end up climbing the wrong hill.

It's very easy to get stuck and never find the global maximum.

My website is fast, ranks well in Google results, and is a crucial part of our sales funnel.

Here's my site's exact tech stack.

This is NOT a beginner stack. I've optimized for speed + great UI/UX, not ease of setup.

Just want to share what I'm using in case it's helpful. At a glance:

- Platform: @WordPress (self-hosted)
- Hosting: @Vultr HF VPS, managed through @gridpane
- Theme: custom-built by @yomartholomew, some @elemntor
- CDN: @Cloudflare
- Backups: @gridpane managed, sent to S3
- Speed plugins: @FlyingPress_ and @_perfmatters

5 Ways to Become More Disciplined

1) External systems
2) Accountability buddies
3) Coaches
4) Team-based goals
5) Leadership

Here's how to leverage each of these: First, the core idea:

Discipline = ability to voluntarily accept discomfort and put long-term goals over short-term wants.

When other people (or systems) rely on you to take certain actions, discipline becomes DUTY.

When you're duty-bound, it's easier to accept discomfort.