StJohn wanted to be sure which firms would want his help most, just as his first clients were coming in.
StJohn Smythe, founder of Notion Devotion Works
Notion Devotion Works is StJohn Smythe's Notion consultancy for professional services firms.
He'd been using Notion himself for more than four years and running Notion events in Brighton, and in the spring of 2026 he was just starting to bring in his first clients. So we did a VELO audit together, and in April I gave him a piece of market research and a written strategy for the business.
Where he started
StJohn wanted a second pair of eyes on who he was going after and how he was pitching it, at the point where his consultancy was just getting going.
And there are a lot of Notion experts out there, many of them selling templates and dashboards.
He said afterwards that the audit made him look hard at whether his own plan made sense.
“It offered us the chance to really stay focussed on exactly who it is we’re reaching.”
What working with us involved
Strategy
I said to him while we were filming his interview that the whole method is really just holding up a mirror, and for what he knew about Notion and about running a business, that was true. The market research was the new part, and it's what pointed us to chartered surveyors first.
Delivered 28 April 2026
Distribution schedule
The strategy also set out what he should publish and how often, with two LinkedIn articles a month, a short screen-recorded demo every week and a seminar in Brighton every month or two.
Content pillars for three kinds of firm
What we made
StJohn's work with us was all strategy, so everything we made for him is on paper.
A VELO audit
He answered the online questions first, and then we sat down together and went through it.
A market research dossier
It looks at the professional services firms he could serve, starting with chartered surveyors, solicitors and architecture practices.
A written strategy
It runs to seventeen sections, covering his position in the market, a three-stage offer, the objections he'd hear and how to answer them, and a 90-day plan.
In his words
Afterwards I filmed an interview with StJohn about how it had gone, and this is some of what he said.
“It was an excellent clarification exercise.”
“A hell of a lot of market information that I just wouldn’t have known even where to begin to look for.”
StJohn Smythe “I would say very much trust the process ... because you’ll be really surprised by what comes out of it.”
StJohn Smythe “The quality is top notch.”
StJohn Smythe
What he did with it
Within a few weeks StJohn had his website up, built around the strategy, and some of it he changed to suit himself.
A three-stage offer
His site now sells a paid Clarity Sprint first, then an eight-week build, then an optional retainer, which is the shape we proposed, and he set the retainer higher than we'd suggested.
A clear limit on the work
He spells out that the price covers moving the last twelve months of a firm's history into Notion and that anything older is scoped separately, the same boundary the strategy drew.
His own calls
We'd recommended starting with chartered surveyors, and he chose to speak to professional services firms more broadly. He also recorded six videos for the site himself.
