Pull to Eject

Build in public goes completely against my natural bent, but community members have asked, so this week is a bit of a public update.

The Launch Key spark came from a few friends asking for tech advice to start their own late career side hustle.

Most of my answers were educating them about software used by influencers and growth of the Creator Economy.

Sure - in our 50’s and 60’s - we’re probably not going be be Instagram models or OnlyFans girls. But the trend of solopreneurs creating video, podcasts and content is really only getting started.

And the more I talked to peers - over 50, experienced professional types - the more I realized there was huge buyin of the idea of starting something new.

But the reality is harder to execute.

I am not going to nudge anyone out of their 9-5 with a few software reviews, useful books or free online classes.

The corporate paycheck and benefits are too good to just quit. And if you’ve risen to a certain level, the status quo is still ok despite corporate ideology.

So I’ve edited the central theme to be more about adding to your career portfolio. Creating digital products. Things you might do outside your job to encode your experience and maybe even drum up a little side income.

For 2024 I kicked off a new monthly highlight of Launch Key community members who have done just that.

Built their own voice, maybe via articles, podcasts, published books or speaking engagements. And we’ll also highlight subscribers who have leveraged their skills and experience into completely new opportunities.

Feel free to forward your recommendations of others I should highlight. Find me on LinkedIn if we’re not already connected.

The initial October 3rd “Hello World” Launch Key issue was delivered to 32 friends and family. It was an automated launch because I had a hip replaced the day before.

I had spent late summer planning, writing and getting feedback from a few trusted resources - both small business leaders and corporate execs.

Subscribers grew organically by messaging contacts who I thought might know audience members or be interested themselves. I added posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. I asked friends to repost weekly versions to their networks.

I listened to my middle son who has worked-from-anywhere creating his own VC community and chose to build on the new-to-me solution: Beehiiv.

And its the best newsletter tool I’ve ever used.

BeeHiiv includes other newsletter recommendations (we’ve added 200 subscribers), paid boosts (another 135) and only charges for 100% verified email addresses.

I’ve purged about 200 users who had never opened an email, but sent 850 this morning with another 230 subscribers pending verification.

5 referrals will get you the yellow keychain to attach to something fun to launch, so forward this to like-minded folks.

Eat your own dogfood.

The issue about buying existing baby boomer businesses had higher engagement.

So I created a free downloadable PDF of resources to Buy then Scale. I started recommending Helen Guo’s newsletter dedicated to buying cash flow businesses and have sent her about 50 subscribers.

Lifestyle Business and Creating Digital Products topics both had good open rates and will get future issues.

Which led me to create my first paid product: Pre Launch - Digital Product Planning. I’ve condensed 30 years of product planning into a $35 PDF complete with research links and examples.

I’ve had other newsletters pay for boosting theirs (made about $20) and have experimented with paid ads (suggested by Beehiiv). This brought in $15 in January so I’m not sure that’s what I would call a revenue stream ;-)

I’ll continue to see what the community responds to and have included a new poll at the bottom of this newsletter - and for every new subscriber.

It’s your community. You tell me how I can make this better.

The 120 day takeaway?

You don’t need to wait for hip replacement to start something new.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

Don’t just take my word for it, Beehiiv is exploding.

Jaryd Hermann does a deep dive on just how good BeeHiiv is.

Old School Wisdom

Steve Blank’s bestselling classic that launched 10,000 startups and new corporate ventures - The Four Steps to the Epiphany is one of the most influential and practical business books of all time.

Free Knowledge

There are more options available to teach yourself something that you didn’t know how to do.

Skills gaps are not going away.

Excellent Andreessen Horowitz podcast episode.

Visual Crapshoot