A Notion for Success: Leticia's AI-Powered Solopreneur Leap. A Conversation with Leticia Americo. (Epi. #181)

See Letecia's free recorded mini-course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_hYyECnifg

Bio:
Leticia Americo is a 26-year-old girl who moved from Brazil to London five years ago, determined to create a life of freedom and opportunity. As the first woman in her family to move abroad, she landed a job in healthcare (NHS), but soon realized that long hours and exhausting shifts weren’t the dream she came for. Driven by the need for flexibility and freedom, Leticia discovered the power of digital products and embarked on a journey to build her own business.  

✨ Feeling the pull to pivot from corporate, but unsure where to start? ✨

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Chapters

• 0:53 Leticia's Journey to Entrepreneurship
• 1:09 Discovering Notion and Its Impact
• 2:18 Building a Business with Notion
• 4:51 Understanding the Concept of a Second Brain
• 9:22 Teaching and Expanding the Business
• 13:58 Streamlining Content Creation with Notion AI
• 22:29 Future Plans and Personal Insights
• 29:23 Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Transcript

[00:00:00] Shilpa: Welcome Leticia. Oh, thank you so much. I was so excited for this call and I'm very excited for this recording. I am so excited to have you. You are such a remarkable soul. And when I became aware of you, it was through the AI Unlocked Summit. And I thought I definitely want to have her on my show on the topic of female entrepreneurs and streamlining with AI.

[00:00:34] Shilpa: So. Without further ado, I know a little bit about your story. I also mentioned in your introduction, but for those who may not be aware, tell us a little bit about how you came upon the path of entrepreneurship and utilizing AI in your background. So I'm from Brazil. I am Leticia. I'm from Brazil and I started [00:01:00] working here in the, I moved to the UK five years ago, and I started working for the NHS.

[00:01:06] Shilpa: So I was very busy, you know, trying to study and do all those things. So I came across Notion, which is this productivity app. And I started exploring everything. I was very curious. I, I have always been this Planner girl. So I was buying planners every month, basically. I had like a big pile of planners.

[00:01:30] Shilpa: And when I came across Notion, I was, I just became obsessed with it because you can literally create anything you want. Um, you can think about Notion as a box of Legos, so you can just pick the blocks and build whatever you need. So. That's one of the reasons why that it fitted so well for my life. And when I started using Notion as my second brain, I started like planning my life, organizing things, and I [00:02:00] started to feel a lot better.

[00:02:01] Shilpa: calmer, and I started having more space on my mind to be creative. And that was when I, I needed to express myself in some way in working in the hospital, in the emergency department, you don't really get this opportunity to be creative. So, I started a side hustle on Etsy. I started sharing my own templates that I was using for myself, and I just started putting my templates out there on Etsy.

[00:02:30] Shilpa: And after a few months, like around six months, I was with over 500 sales. So I was like, okay, people are really enjoying this. And that was when I started to invest more time in that fast forward. to today. I am working full time on this and that's my full time job. I get to work people on how to get organized and also on to create.

[00:02:59] Shilpa: On [00:03:00] creating their own templates and reselling that as well for those who are not familiar with Entrepreneurship in terms of the digital space and digital products Maybe you can describe what it means to be able to sustain your life Uh, you know professionally through your digital products Yeah, so notion notion opens a a world of possibilities because first of all I started using it for myself And then I actually turned those templates that I was using for, like, I could share it with people, I could charge for it, and then it just became a whole business.

[00:03:44] Shilpa: I started teaching people on how to use Notion, then I started sharing with people how to sell Notion, and it evolved very naturally. It wasn't like I didn't have all this planned from the beginning. It was just, okay, [00:04:00] I'm just going to put my templates out there. And it really became this business. But now my entire life basically is in Notion.

[00:04:09] Shilpa: All my backend systems, everything is my second brain. And that's why I'm so passionate about it because it makes my life so much easier. I can run this business with just a VA and I feel calmer most days. I'm not saying like, okay, I'm never stressed because that's impossible in entrepreneurship, but it does make my life so much easier.

[00:04:33] Shilpa: When I go to my calendar, I know exactly what I need to get done. I don't have to. I store all this information on my brain so I have space to actually be creative and do things that are really going to impact my business. I've, I've heard you say a few times the concept of a second brain and I think many of [00:05:00] us, even if we're not tech savvy, are unconscious that we tax our brain.

[00:05:06] Shilpa: There's so much energy that we demand of our brain and then our body. Perhaps you can go a little bit deeper into what a second brain means for you.

[00:05:22] Shilpa: So I heard this, I saw this quote from David Allen, um, years ago. So it's something like this, your brain was made to create, not to hold ideas. So that makes so much sense for me because when we start overloading our brain with all the information, everything you need to get done. All your ideas, all your plans, your trips, grocery lists, all these little things, they add up and they start killing your energy.

[00:05:53] Shilpa: They are draining your energy all the time because on the back end of your mind you are thinking, Okay, I have to [00:06:00] do this next or tomorrow I need to do this. And all these little things, they leak your energy. And that's one of the reasons why we feel so tired all the time, because we don't realize how much our brain is working just to hold information.

[00:06:17] Shilpa: So Notion, the way that I use Notion as a second brain is a concept that I learned from Tiago Forte. So if you go on YouTube, you're going to find a lot of videos about this. He actually has a book as well, and is this concept of using a digital app. It doesn't need to be Notion. Notion is just the option that I found the best.

[00:06:42] Shilpa: I've tried different options, but it can be literally anything digital that you can just have organized, organize your information, books you are reading. your ideas, projects, and as entrepreneurs, we do have a lot of, a lot going on all the time. [00:07:00] And I think it's absolutely essential on like on today's age to have some kind of digital system to not just to help us run our businesses, but to give some space for our brains to breathe, to come up with new things.

[00:07:19] Shilpa: And reclaim our energy because we're not supposed to be holding all this information. We were not made for that.

[00:07:29] Shilpa: Absolutely. We're not meant for that. And it is so profound that there are numerable people in this space now that are talking about it. You mentioned Tiago Forte. I believe I follow him. So he also recommends, uh, Notion or other similar apps. He does recommend Notion in Evernote. So I, So a few videos, he does have videos showing in different [00:08:00] platforms.

[00:08:00] Shilpa: So if you do already use, let's say, if you use Evernote and you don't want to migrate everything to another platform, you can just find these tutorials on YouTube. But the thing that I like in Notion is because it's all in one app. So just by using Notion, you can already ditch so many apps. So Google sheets, Google forms, um, Google drive, you can store your information there.

[00:08:26] Shilpa: You can have PDF files, you can add links, images, you can create forms. So once we can like have everything one place and reduce all these apps that we need to use, it makes it easier and your business simpler and everything. Just flows easier.

[00:08:47] Shilpa: And Leticia, so you started using Notion more for personal, personal reasons, like just to keep your life maybe organized and you became familiar with the [00:09:00] templates and then you turned those templates around and. experimented with selling those and then you became successful and now it's your business now Where have you taken the business now that you are in it to help others?

[00:09:22] Shilpa: So now I do have programs where I teach exactly the path that I went through how to turn your knowledge into a template because everyone has some kind of expertise even though sometimes they don't really identify that easily but everyone has some kind of system or some kind of process that they follow that it works and they can turn that into a template that can be shared with others for free or they can charge for it.

[00:09:50] Shilpa: So I do have programs where I teach my students that already use Notion or they are just getting started to sell their own templates. [00:10:00] So that can be on Etsy, just like I got started because the reason why I got started on Etsy is because I didn't have an audience at all. So I started there, but then I migrated to my own website.

[00:10:13] Shilpa: I started building my own audience. So now I basically guide my students Um, to do the same that I did. So I do have students now that do high level mentorship. They are launching their own programs. So they are not just selling templates. Uh, templates is just like the first step. And then you go, okay, now I can help these people go to the next level.

[00:10:37] Shilpa: But the templates is just an easier way for people to get started. started in the space. That's excellent. Um, in terms of starting with the pragmatic, because we all have in our personal life, things we want to maintain and keep organized. I tend to be one of those people who's hyper organized. I have three ring binders and [00:11:00] post it notes and labels.

[00:11:01] Shilpa: And, um, I use the notes app a lot. I've used notion in the past. I have spreadsheets, but like you said, it can bring everything into one ecosystem. That's brilliant. is within Notion, correct? Yes, yeah, that's the magic of Notion because Notion has this feature which are the databases, so you can store information, so for example, let's say as creative entrepreneurs we are coming up with ideas all the time so it's It's normal for us to feel sometimes overwhelmed by those ideas.

[00:11:33] Shilpa: So the way that I can honor these ideas that are coming, instead of just like putting in a notes app that I'm never going to go back to it or putting the post it that is going to get lost. I do have a database where I put my ideas and this can be a product or this can be an idea for a home project.

[00:11:52] Shilpa: This can be an idea for an outfit. So all these things, I have all this information organized in a [00:12:00] database in Notion so you can make it visual. You can use like galleries to see the images. So that's one of the reasons why I love Notion because I'm very visual. So my Notion is full of images. Yeah, I'm very visual as well.

[00:12:17] Shilpa: And I love the fact that you can actually, um, going back to the theme of the month is streamlining. You could streamline things in terms of, I need to do. A and then get to Z, but in between what the steps are, make it more visual. It's almost like having your post it notes only in a visual digital form.

[00:12:39] Shilpa: Yeah, totally. And I do have like systems to make things easier for me as a creator. So now that I do this full time, I have multiple platforms, so it can feel very overwhelming. Okay, now I have to create content for TikTok, now for Instagram, now for YouTube. And it does can feel very overwhelming. [00:13:00] But once you have a template that you just follow through.

[00:13:03] Shilpa: So for example, I do record one YouTube video a week. So I have my process. I always start with YouTube. I write all my content there. The research, everything. And then naturally I already have the blocks, um, of AI because Notion has an AI feature. So I just asked, okay, now can you just use my notes from this page and write a newsletter?

[00:13:28] Shilpa: Can you turn this into an Instagram post? Can you turn this into a carousel on TikTok? So it can get all those notes and transform into the content. So we Streamlines that process for you instead of like feeling that you need to create everything, uh, or you need to be copying and pasting notes in chat dbt, or you use one app for one thing.

[00:13:52] Shilpa: So again, it just brings everything to one place. To make it easier. That's wonderful. So [00:14:00] in terms of marketing speak, what you're saying is you take your long form content and you start out with your main platform, which is YouTube, but then you were able to then break down the long form into the types of other, I would say, platforms.

[00:14:18] Shilpa: You want to place your copy in and do you train it so that it knows. X number of characters or words and your tone, your, your voice. Yes, you can do all that. And you can also have like prompts that, uh, you can save them. You can favorite them. So for example, you, I have like one prompt that has like my tone of voice, my brand, my brand values, who am I talking to, and all these things.

[00:14:49] Shilpa: So e, uses that on all the content. So, and one thing as well, that's just very new, it just came out, like Notion is coming with new [00:15:00] things all the time, so the Notion AI can find information even in your Google drive and on Slack, so if you, can you find like this file, can you find this image, it can search through your account.

[00:15:14] Shilpa: So this is something that just came out and it can search through all your Notion pages. So if you store all your information in Notion, you should be able to ask KEI to find that information in your workspace. And Notion is also available on your mobile device, or just a desktop app? No, you do have the desktop app on your phone.

[00:15:37] Shilpa: Um, and sometimes you don't even need the app. You can access on the browser as well. If you don't want to download the app, or if for some reason you are in a different computer, you can literally access anywhere with internet access. And the offline mode is coming soon. It's something that is, we've been waiting for it, but it should be coming soon as well.[00:16:00] 

[00:16:00] Shilpa: And Leticia, can you explain to me, um, we're, we were talking about streamlining and you've, you, you utilizing streamlining. For those who are not familiar with, I mean, a lot of people in our space are, but there's a little bit behind, maybe you can explain what is under the hood in terms of AI, because there's, there's so many there's chat GPT, meta AI, Claude underneath the hood.

[00:16:28] Shilpa: Is it all the, um, AIs that are working together? I mean, this is, this is the kind of things I think a lot of people may wonder. Yeah, this is one of those things that I don't really, I'm not really sure. The last time I checked is, I think is based on chat GPT. I know they can, Browse the web, but it's a kind of different AI.

[00:16:52] Shilpa: So I don't really, I'm not really sure what is on the back end, but it's something that they are working on and keeps [00:17:00] improving. And just a point as well, that Notion AI is paid. So you can use Notion for free. You can do like all the databases, all the organization, all for free. But if you want to add Notion AI, it's 10.

[00:17:13] Shilpa: Right now it's you just pay 10 a month and you can have that motion AI on your workspace So you can ask questions you can ask, you know to find things for you and all those things, but it's not free yet and so For someone again, I want to keep this practical as well for those who may not be an entrepreneur like yourself Self, let's say you are a, I'm just speaking to maybe a persona that isn't savvy with technology, but they want to be more organized.

[00:17:46] Shilpa: So what if someone is a retired woman who has no desire to become an entrepreneur? However, she's thinking, you know, I wouldn't mind being organized. Who wouldn't, how [00:18:00] could they in their daily life use it? What is the type of template you could help them with? Yeah, so I do have a variety of templates on my shop, but what I would recommend is for you to get started with Notion, create your account.

[00:18:16] Shilpa: And if you are just getting started from zero, I would highly recommend go to YouTube. I do have a Notion course for beginners, but there are so many videos on YouTube. It can help you just get started and understand the basics. And when you download Notion, you are going to see on your right, um, on your left sidebar, there is a section with a template gallery.

[00:18:40] Shilpa: So there are thousands and thousands of templates for personal productivity, for work, for travel, for organizing like plant care, all the things that you can think about, there are templates for it. So my advice is just pick one small area of your life [00:19:00] and something that is fun, something like travel, you're going to plan your trip for something fun and pick a template to get started with.

[00:19:07] Shilpa: So you can pick the template ready for you. There are tons of templates that are free to get started. So you can duplicate the template into your account and you're going to be able to edit the template. You can customize it. And usually most templates, they come with tutorials. So all my templates that I sell in my shop, they come with a video tutorial because a lot of people never used Notion before.

[00:19:33] Shilpa: So all my templates. They come with like a, a walkthrough. This is how we use it. And yeah, my advice would be to start with a pre made template. And give us an example of one of your most popular templates. Well, one of. Um, my templates that I started using it for myself and became my bestseller is the 12 week year.[00:20:00] 

[00:20:00] Shilpa: I don't know if you ever heard about the 12 week year book. So I read this book, I became obsessed about it. It's from Brian Moran. I became obsessed about the method, so I created a template on the same day after I finished reading this book. And it's about. Organize, uh, planning your goals within two, 12 weeks.

[00:20:21] Shilpa: So you have actions to take each week. So it's very actionable. It's not just about planning your goals and forget it. It's about like executing. So I created the whole template based on the book and I launched it and it became one of my bestsellers. So it's very simple. We only has two databases, one database to organize the tasks and one database to organize your goals.

[00:20:47] Shilpa: And that's it. And it's very simple. It's just for goal setting and executing. So you can track all your tasks that are related to your goal. I'll make sure [00:21:00] if it's possible that the show notes have a link to your popular template there. I think everyone should be doing goal setting in that way. Um, so Leticia, like, let's take a step back now.

[00:21:11] Shilpa: Where do you see yourself another five years from now with the mindset of a woman who is, uh, aware that her energy needs to be harnessed. So I'm always working on automations and things that I can make it easier for myself because first of all, I'm planning to have kids soon. So I want to make sure like my business is Easy as easy as possible to run when I have kids, um, because I live abroad, I don't have family around me.

[00:21:47] Shilpa: Childcare is very expensive in the UK. So I'm already planning all this. And one of the key things, which is the foundation for everything is systems. It's [00:22:00] absolutely impossible to run a business, any kind of business really, but especially in the online space without a system. So I'm Already working on systems.

[00:22:10] Shilpa: Uh, for my virtual assistant, I create processes for her and all the automations, all things automation. I'm always learning like to all these little things that you can add to make your f.

[00:22:29] Shilpa: And um, that is really nice that you mentioned that you're thinking ahead if you want to be a mother because it gets so overwhelming and I think being proactive is one of the keys in life. So if you, you may not be able to anticipate all the factors. of being a mother and having children, but at least having some, uh, ability to keep it streamlined would be wonderful.

[00:22:56] Shilpa: Um, especially because it is expensive also. [00:23:00] Yes. Now, um, before we hit record, we had talked about a topic that's related to energy, not completely related to AI and technology like notion, but I thought it would be interesting for the, This concept of human design, which you and I both believe in, and maybe you can share high level, for those who are not aware what it is, you don't have to define the details, and describe your particular human design chart, and how that works.

[00:23:34] Shilpa: information has helped you, um, manage how you approach entrepreneurship. Yeah, I was telling Shilpa before we start the podcast, because this is something that completely changed the game for me because I used to be very, workaholic and when you watch those videos on YouTube, you get super motivated and you just go, go, go post every day in all these things [00:24:00] that, um, don't, doesn't apply for everyone.

[00:24:03] Shilpa: So it doesn't really apply for me as a 4. 1 projector. So if you know a little bit of human design, you probably know that projectors, they are the guides, but they are not supposed to be working as machines. So we are basically those. those people that don't have a lot of energy. So we have to use that wisely.

[00:24:27] Shilpa: And I actually joined a mentorship program in the beginning of this year, just to learn about this. And it was so life changing because before I used to work, work, work as much as I could, as many hours as I could, I quit my job and I was working 12 hours a day, every day, even on weekends. And I was so tired and I wasn't getting anywhere.

[00:24:51] Shilpa: And when I actually understood my design, I'm supposed the way that my energy works is I have, I'm, I can be very productive, but I [00:25:00] can also sustain that productivity for a long time. So what I need to do is to be productive, work on a project, finish, take a break. So that's what I've been doing. So every time that I do a launch, I usually go away.

[00:25:14] Shilpa: So because I work from home, it's very hard for me to rest at home. So I like to go away, um, travel. So for example, right now I am I'm finishing a big project and I'm traveling on Friday, I'm going to have two weeks, a little bit like one and a half week off just to recharge and then I come back to it. So since I started doing that, my business just works much more smoothly.

[00:25:41] Shilpa: I don't feel tired. I respect my body more because I understand that I'm not a machine and I cannot compete with someone who is like a manifesting generator because they do have that. energy center that keeps them going and I don't have that [00:26:00] so it's really All these like tools can really help to understand where we are and don't, you know, be so hard on ourselves, like when we can't keep up with other people,

[00:26:16] Shilpa: you know, and I wish I had understood some of these concepts sooner. I think there's some other aspect of my human design that also affects me because while I'm a manifesting generator. There, I think there's other elements that also play a role in how. My energy comes about, but in college they used to call me the energizer bunny because I didn't have, I would just be bouncing and I would have energy and my, my brain would just go.

[00:26:46] Shilpa: And now I have to really, really. think about how do I take care of myself. So that goes back to Notion. Yeah. Yeah. But that's why I think it's so important that [00:27:00] people are aware of this tool, Notion, and how it can help you with pragmatic tasks. Even if you're not an entrepreneur, um, keeping your life organized is that edge that'll give you the ability to then free up your mind.

[00:27:17] Shilpa: Like you said. Yeah. And come up with new solutions with new things, because if I was running my life as I was before, I was, I used to buy temp, uh, planners all the time. It was never solving a problem. And I was just writing down all those tasks, feeling overwhelmed. And I didn't have space to think, to like be creative.

[00:27:40] Shilpa: And when I started using like a digital. tool to be, to hold that information for me, I became like so creative that I had to start a business. I didn't have another option because I was creating so many things that it was, I need to do something about it, you know?[00:28:00] 

[00:28:03] Shilpa: Yeah, absolutely. And I, I completely agree with you, because as someone who enjoys the creative aspect, but does not always feel like she has enough time, this is something that is vital to me. Well, Leticia, I hope you come back in the future and share with us the evolution of these technologies that you're working with, anything else you've incorporated, and any words of wisdom for those who need to understand the value of streamlining as a female entrepreneur.

[00:28:33] Shilpa: Well, my message is really to that having a system or any digital resource that you can delegate this like story, uh, information story is going to free up so much energy and it will help you to reclaim your energy and your creativity. So you can focus on what really matters. Um, and enjoy your life as well.

[00:28:58] Shilpa: So you've not. You know, [00:29:00] holding all this information, having to think about everything they need to do, and you can just be present knowing that Notion or whatever tool you are using has everything you need and you don't need to worry about tomorrow. You just need to be present. Love it. Well, thank you, Leticia.

[00:29:18] Shilpa: I hope you have a lovely day in London. I truly enjoyed your energy. Oh, thank you so much. I really enjoyed this conversation. I'm very happy to come back anytime we want. Um, and I feel energized already because I can get your energy. So as a projector, I, whenever I talk to people, I feel that energy. I feel so energized.

[00:29:42] Shilpa: So thank you so much. And I'm excited to come back to it. Thank you, it's my honor, and yes, I will bring you back.