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Welcome back to the Launch Key 🚀

We spent the weekend celebrating my younger brothers 60th birthday and retirement. He is in good company. More than 11,000 people retire every day in the US.

What should we do with the freedom of time?

Growing an audience can be possible just by making fun of life’s twists and turns. This week’s update on the Creator economy and why quick-witted shenanigans might be more valuable than you think.

Let’s get into it.

• Gmail users may wish to read online since some parts may be clipped.

• Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Half of young people want to be influencers?

I heard this stat in a TEDtalk pod last week and was dumbfounded. Clearly the education system has failed if ‘influencer’ is the preferred career path.

On what planet do half of young people have enough valuable information to generate income from said knowledge?

It’s fine to have hobbies, and good for you if you can monetize them. But ‘hobby’ seems to be the vast majority of so-called influencer ‘work.' Just like the boom of 300 channels during the cable TV rollout, most content will never gin up enough interest to be mainstream.

This is exactly why I started this newsletter aimed at late-career professionals. We actually know stuff. Stuff that’s valuable. That can be monetized if we are so inclined.

The Creator Economy has graduated from being niche. And narrowcast knowledge by the grey-haired cabal is perfect content for various channels.

I’ve updated this a number of times:

• Creator Economy Update

• Attention is the New Oil

• Creator Economy Hype Cycle

Marketers have shifted how they grow their brands by partnering with influential content creators.

Importantly, big brands are not just doing commercials with partners, but are building out platforms for their preferred content creators. And it might include storefronts, or access to additional funding or longterm sponsorships.

The best marketers react quickly to online stories with unique cross-pollination.

Last weeks ring camera footage of a bear walking off with a chainsaw in his mouth blossomed into a funny trending thread. Not AI – just a hilarious interaction caught in the act of theft. Later recovered in the bears den.

Quick-witted Husqvarna social media folks recognized their product in the clip and inserted themselves into the conversation as the ‘preferred chainsaw brand for bears’.

That went viral so they followed up by creating a few AI-generated chainsaw bears in different locations. The humor ran its natural course and they literally put him into hibernation. But, pledged donations to the National Park Service for chainsaws sold through the end of the year. 💥 Perfect.

BowTiedBroke, who posted the original video, has been promised a couple of free Husqvarna chainsaws. He also got a 10% discount code promo from the company. He decided to re-gift the chainsaws to his rapidly growing audience, plus he’s added a stay at his VRBO mountain cabin.

Husqvarna reps will hand the winners their prize at the cabin. And no bears were harmed throughout this entire hijinx. 🐻 

Win. Win. Win.

I’ve had excellent Husqvarna tools in the past. But this makes me want more. And earned my follow on X .

That’s real influence.

Now go launch something 🚀 

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Modern Tools

Do you need to quickly create an image of a bear with a chainsaw? Grok Imagine might be the place to start.

Old School Wisdom

Creativity is one of American society’s signature values, but the idea that there is such a thing as “creativity”—and that it can be cultivated—is surprisingly recent, entering our everyday speech in the 1950s. As Samuel W. Franklin reveals, postwar Americans created creativity, through campaigns to define and harness the power of the individual to meet the demands of American capitalism and life under the Cold War. 

Free Knowledge

I hate the word seniors. But there are lots of ways late-career folks may want to start something new after retirement.

Recommendations

🎓️ Daily MBA : Compound Your Knowledge. Join the free Daily MBA community to start receiving daily, 5 minute lessons in Strategy, Finance, Marketing and more.

💼 Thriving Freelance - Gigs and Growth : Hundreds of job opportunities sent directly to your inbox each week, plus timely resources to support you as you grow and evolve.

📕 MGMT Playbook : Practical management insights straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

🗃️ Dealroom Business Success Uncovered : Learn directly from billionaire entrepreneurs on how to grow a business. Join a community of 2,000+ innovators.

Visual Crapshoot