Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

• Subscriber Stories: Gary Frey

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

If you are of a certain age, you know people who worked their entire career in the same company. My father had a pretty great 40 years from college through retirement with one.

But the more likely scenario is a few different careers. And gestalt job experiences that add up to your career portfolio.

Its a relatively new idea that you can combine jobs and have multiple titles. Maybe writer/photographer or developer/personal trainer.

Gig economy jobs may have started the trend, but its deeper than that. 9-5ers are building very solid side hustles that diversify their career portfolio.

For example, a corporate communications writer might pen articles for an online magazine on the side. Or a full-time accountant might pursue their cooking passions with part-time work as a weekend chef. Or host a podcast. Or sell their cookbook on Gumroad.

And that portfolio is embraced more today as employers are willing to capitalize on your diverse work experiences.

This concept is not just for younger workers.

In fact, the more experience you have, the easier it is to cultivate your digital portfolio.

Create the ‘How To’ guide of your day job. Write an ebook.

Author LinkedIn articles. Or answer questions on Quora.

Demonstrate expertise in your niche.

Thousands of people may need the answers only you can provide.

A portfolio career can:

• allow you to test drive several new ones without making a full-time switch.

• have more flexibility to decide when, where, and for whom you work.

• help you explore your varied interests and develop multiple talents.

• build rainy day income possibilities with digital products you create.

As you’ve read in Launch Key Modern Tools, the costs to create solutions are almost zero.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Subscriber Stories: Gary Frey

This week we start a once-monthly highlight of Launch Key subscribers who have broken the mold.

Gary Frey is not just a member of this community. He’s a friend of almost 30 years who has crafted a fantastic portfolio from his career.

His is the perfect title: Speaker. Author. MacGyver.

From national Ad firms to running his own agency to doing time at Fortune 500 companies, he has never wavered from his authentic self. Like most of us, he had setbacks, but he got back up more times then he fell.

And man did he.

Today Gary co-hosts the Anything But Typical Podcast, recently released his book Silence the Imposter all while leading BGW’s business development efforts and coaching a select group of CEOs.

The man is full of crazy ripped grandpa energy and is a fantastic conduit to business. He knows people who can solve the problems your business has.

Modern Tools

Basecamp continues to be a solid choice for managing projects.

Not the bloatware of tools used in corporate, but just the right tools to get projects done well. Started by Jason Fried when he was building a web design agency, Basecamp has its roots in small business success.

Old School Wisdom

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.

Naval has become widely followed for his thoughts on startups, investing, crypto, wealth, and happiness.

Entrepreneur and Investor. Naval is founder of Angellist, Epinions, and Vast.com. He is an Angel investor in Twitter, Uber, Yammer, and 100+ more.

Free Knowledge

Here’s a free MIT class on launching a technology company, if that’s something you plan to add to your portfolio.

• Assess product ideas for rapid development and commercialization.

• Understand the start-up team, develop partnerships, and produce a prototype.  

• Prepare and evaluate strategies to identify and court the vital first few customers.  

Visual Crapshoot