Thomas Frank
Hosted by Thomas Frank
Actionable productivity advice and life systems for students and professionals, from a creator who shares his own data and frameworks.
This is a YouTube channel focused on meta-learning and productivity systems, where Thomas Frank acts as a human guinea pig for building a more effective life. He develops detailed frameworks for goal-setting, habit change, and learning, then shares them through highly-structured videos. The content has evolved from its student-focused "College Info Geek" roots to encompass broader productivity topics for professionals and online creators.
“Frank's radical transparency is a key differentiator; he openly shares his personal goals, struggles, and even detailed financial data from his business to ground his advice in reality. Unlike many productivity gurus, he focuses on building robust, repeatable systems and designing one's environment, rather than relying on sheer willpower.”
Who hosts this show
Thomas Frank is a productivity expert who creates videos and resources to help people learn faster, manage their time, and build better habits. He started his brand as "College Info Geek," a blog and podcast aimed at students, which has since evolved to cover broader life and business productivity for a general audience. Frank often uses his own life as a case study, transparently sharing his personal productivity systems, business ventures, and even his channel's sponsorship earnings.
Credentials & credits
- Founder of College Info Geek
- Graduated with a degree in Management Information Systems from Iowa State University
- Author of "10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less)"
- Creator of Notion templates including Ultimate Brain
- Co-creator of the Flylighter web clipper app
- Host of Crash Course Study Skills
Other ventures
- College Info Geek (blog and podcast)
- Thomas Frank Explains (Notion-focused YouTube channel)
- Flylighter (web clipper app)
- Ultimate Brain (Notion template)
- Nebula (creator and part-owner)
What kind of podcast
- Country
- United States
- Region
- usa
When new episodes drop
- 01The ultimate guide to YouTube sponsorships and brand dealsMar 22, 2024 · 3h 20m
- 02Why are you scrolling your phone in bed AGAIN?Mar 20, 2024 · 6 min
- 03How to get everything you want this yearJan 26, 2024 · 21 min
- 04I learned to code from scratch in 1 year. Here's how.Nov 24, 2023 · 42 min
- 05I left my 2 million-subscriber channel. My income doubled.Oct 20, 2023 · 47 min
- 06How to Break Your Phone AddictionMar 1, 2022 · 9 min
- 07The 10 Best Windows Productivity Apps in 2022Feb 26, 2022 · 15 min
- 08Watch this if you’re having an “off day”Feb 1, 2022 · 8 min
Notable episodes
- 01The ultimate guide to YouTube sponsorships and brand deals
A masterclass on the creator economy where Frank and his agent openly discuss his channel's sponsorship earnings (over $1.2M) and rates.
- 02How to get everything you want this year
Details his personal 6-question annual planning framework that led to major life decisions, such as moving to a new city.
- 03I left my 2 million-subscriber channel. My income doubled.
Explains a major shift in his career and business model, detailing his move away from the main channel to focus on other projects like Notion templates.
- 04Why are you scrolling your phone in bed AGAIN?
A concise, actionable argument for digital minimalism by removing social media apps, ending with the memorable "touch grass" advice.
What you'll be asked on this show
The show is not exclusively an interview format. When he does conduct interviews, Frank's style is direct and data-driven. He often opens with a highly specific, practical question that grounds the conversation immediately, sometimes using his own channel's metrics as the starting point. He clearly outlines the interview's goals for the audience upfront and uses his own experiences as a recurring case study to probe the guest's expertise. The goal is to extract a comprehensive, actionable guide for the viewer from the guest's knowledge.
The channel mixes solo, highly-structured instructional videos with occasional deep-dive interviews that function like podcast episodes. Solo videos often present a specific, numbered framework for solving a problem, using on-screen graphics and personal anecdotes as illustrations. While the main channel is a YouTube production, he has also hosted a separate, more traditional podcast called The Inforium.
Questions Thomas Frank keeps coming back to
10 cataloguedIf you're going on this show as a guest, expect some version of each of these. Each note explains when Thomas Frank reaches for it.
money
1- Q.01
“How much money can you get me for a video with 400,000 views?”
He opens interviews with a direct, personal question to immediately ground the topic in real numbers.
process
7- Q.01
“At what point is a channel ready to work with brands?”
Asks this to establish the baseline requirements for creators seeking sponsorships.
- Q.02
“What do I want?”
This is the first step in his annual planning framework, designed to surface all possible goals without judgment.
- Q.03
“How do I get it?”
The second step in his planning framework, used to brainstorm potential actions for each desired outcome.
- Q.04
“Are there any common actions?”
A key step in his frameworks for identifying high-leverage activities that serve multiple goals.
- Q.05
“Which of these items on my action list is actually a project?”
Used to differentiate simple tasks from complex, multi-step endeavors requiring more detailed planning.
- Q.06
“What systems do you need to build and habits to adopt?”
Pushes beyond simple to-do lists to focus on creating sustainable routines for consistent progress.
- Q.07
“What are the things that you might need to cut out of your life?”
A crucial question in his planning exercises to force prioritization by identifying low-value activities.
advice
2- Q.01
“What metrics should a creator track to be attractive to brands?”
Seeks specific, actionable advice for his audience of fellow creators.
- Q.02
“What would your life be like without social media apps on your phone?”
A rhetorical question used to encourage viewers to reflect on their digital habits and their impact.
Signature segments
- · Presenting numbered frameworks (e.g., "six questions") for solving problems
- · Using his own life and business as a transparent case study
- · Ending videos with the advice to "touch grass"
Topics covered repeatedly
Who gets booked here
Guests are typically experts or high-level operators in fields relevant to creators and online business, such as his own agent, Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus. The focus is on extracting practical, expert knowledge for the audience rather than on celebrity profiles.
- Dave Wiskuson The ultimate guide to YouTube sponsorships and brand deals
Where to find this show
Audience & reach
Thomas Frank has a sophisticated approach to sponsorships, often integrating with services he uses, like Skillshare and Brilliant.org. He has disclosed earning over $1.2 million from sponsorships since 2017 and is transparent about his rates, making his channel attractive to sponsors seeking a trusted partnership. Based on his own disclosures, his sponsorship rate was $15,000 for a Skillshare integration in 2024.
Subscriber and view counts are pulled live from YouTube and re-verified on a 30-day cycle. Listener estimates for the RSS feed aren't published here unless they're host-verified.
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People also ask
- What is Thomas Frank's real name?
- His real name is Thomas Frank.
- Is the Thomas Frank YouTube channel still active?
- Yes, but it posts occasionally. As of early 2024, he has been posting new videos every 1-2 months.
- What is the show's format?
- It's primarily a solo-host YouTube channel with highly-structured videos on productivity. It occasionally includes long-form interviews with experts that function like podcast episodes.
- What is College Info Geek?
- College Info Geek is the original brand and website Thomas Frank started in college, which includes a blog and podcast focused on student productivity.
- What apps and tools does Thomas Frank create?
- He and his team have built productivity tools, most notably the web clipper Flylighter and comprehensive Notion templates like Ultimate Brain.
- How can I pitch to be a guest?
- The channel rarely features guests. When it does, they are typically high-level experts with whom the host has a pre-existing professional relationship, making unsolicited pitches unlikely to succeed.
Built from the show's public RSS feed, YouTube, the host's own websites, and the cited sources below. Computed and AI-extracted fields are labelled. Facts only — no private info, no fabrication, no transcripts republished.
Sources & how this page was built
This page is AI-assisted, grounded in the public sources cited below, and host-verifiable. We publish facts only; we do not republish transcripts. If anything here is wrong, the host can claim and correct the page above.Model: gemini-2.5-pro · high confidence
- [01]About Thomas Frank (Official Site)thomasjfrank.com
- [02]College Info Geekcollegeinfogeek.com
- [03]Flylighter - Chrome Web Storechromewebstore.google.com
- [04]How productivity influencer Thomas Frank uses Notion to make money - Mashablemashable.com
- [05]About Thomas Frank - Author, YouTuber, and Founder at College Info Geekcollegeinfogeek.com
- [06]How We Built a $150 Million Streaming Platform with $100,000 - Wendover Productionsyoutube.com
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