Are you ready to become a Notion consultant?

We often get emails and messages from folks who want to start consulting with Notion, but might be a little intimidated by not knowing if they’re ready. If this is you, then this article is for you; 1 parts pump-up motivation, 1 parts guides for things to think about when/if you want to make the jump to earning money selling your Notion services.

You’re more ready than you think

Many of our students “finish” (haha, impossible) the Notion Mastery core curriculum and become absolute Notion wizards. I’m talking about being more knowledgeable than almost anyone out there. To the point where I’d stack up many of our students against some of the top well-known creators. Sometimes our students get so skilled they even educate Marie and I. This is when I know we’re doing a great job!

The “Not Ready” Myth

But here’s the funny thing—many of these advanced learners still think they’re “not ready” for consulting. Why? We’ve heard things like:

• “I can’t figure formulas out”
• “I don’t know how to code so can’t work with the API”
• “I’ve never worked with teams before”

Let me put it plainly:

You don’t need to know Formulas or Code to run a Notion Consulting business.

You don’t need to know code to use Notion at all. Mind-blowing, right?

By knowing Notion’s feature-set at even an intermediate level, you’re already well ahead of the game. You’re already thinking like a developer.

Reality check

I know a lot about Notion, but want to know a secret? When I do builds for clients, I use around 25% of my technical Notion knowledge. It may shock you, but:

1. Most companies do not need Formulas, and if they do, they tend to be more on the basic side.
2. Most companies can’t even describe how the workflows in their companies work, let alone be ready to design automations around them.

Here’s an example of the most complicated formula I added to a client’s workspace during a two-month project:

Display Formula showing contact information from the primary contact related to the client.

It’s four lines. My secret is that the only time I’ve needed to be hyper-knowledgable about Notion Formulas is when I’m teaching…Notion Formulas. How’s that for meta?

What you actually need

This is to say that you don’t need a certification or formulas or API experience to do consulting with Notion. You don’t need my permission, or to compare yourself to the top creators.

What you do need to be able to do is solve organizational problems that are beyond your clients’ abilities. And send them some kind of invoice for solving those problems. That’s it.

Level up your consulting game

To take your Notion-based business to the next level, consider that you might need to solve adaptive business problems and not technical problems. Even when the problem is a technical one, simply knowing more about the domain than the person hiring you is sufficient.

And if you don’t know how to solve a technical challenge, that can be okay too. One of the most powerful tools in your consulting toolbox is this phrase:

“I don’t know, but I’ll look into that for you.”

I often tell my clients things like “that’s more complicated that I can figure out right now, but I’ll work on it after our call and share the results of my findings”.

Clients hire you for results, so as long as they’re delivered in a timely fashion, you’ll continue to delight.

Want to dive into some of the real knowledge needed to be a successful Notion consultant? I’ll give you a clue: it’s not Formulas. Check out my guide below:

👉 A Guide to Selling Notion Consulting​

Want to know what potential clients might be looking for when hiring a Notion consultant? I’ve got a guide for that too.

👉 A Guide to Hiring Notion Consultants​

But everyone seems to be doing consulting and/or templates! Is there any opportunity left? How do I stand out?

I wrote this guide for creators in 2022, and it continues to be more and more true as more and more people start Notion-based businesses. Your success in business is not going to be determined by being the top Notion expert. Notion expertise has become table stakes. How do you stand out among the other eggheads?

👉 Standing Out in the Growing Notion Creator Economy​

But, Ben, I’m really set on getting that certification badge.

That’s cool too, check out my guide on whether you should get certified:

👉 Should you get Notion Certified?​

TL;DR: don’t sell yourself short

You may be ready for consulting now. Not after you learn formulas, APIs, advanced permissions, and automations*. The wild thing is that you don’t even need to be certified. The only thing stopping you is exchanging money for services (and even this is flexible if you’re working for trade or doing a small job for free to get more experience).

You do however need to find clients who’ll hire you for whatever expertise you might provide to them.

(*If you want my advice, permissions is the most valuable thing to learn about for consulting. Start with that before anything else. It’s the thing teams get stuck on the most because of Notion’s design limitations.)

Start practicing! You’ve got this!