Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

Everyone has their own factory reset button. Mine is time spent in the NC mountains.

It doesn’t hurt that there is only mediocre cell service up there, so you are forced to just enjoy the views and think.

I’m back in town now, but my mountain reset delivered a list of new possibilities as Launch Key evolves.

I hope you’ve all had your Summer reset too.

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

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Default setting of self-reliance

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Everyone needs a factory reset

They can be big or small:

• a new workout

• a road trip

• a good book

• reconnecting with a childhood friend

• learning a new hobby

• an ‘Aha’ moment listening to a podcast

• when the last child goes off to college

• a beach trip

For me, it’s always been the mountains.

Cooler temperatures, lower humidity, clear blue skies and mediocre cell service are my perfect August reset.

There is something magical once you get 3000+ feet above sea level.

I wrote every morning. And then I went outside.

I didn’t catch any fish this trip, but I had deer on a tee box, a bear in a garbage can, hikes with 50 mile views, happy hour on a screen porch and steaks on the grill.

You have to appreciate the natural beauty when your cell phone doesn’t work.

I came back with hand-written pages full of new topics, product ideas, content tweaks, partnership possibilities and other Launch Key improvements.

A week outdoors fishing, golfing and hiking may be some sort of inner child thing for me. We were all wired to be outside.

Just like we’re all wired to be self-reliant. You know who you are in the photo below!

Somewhere along the line we’re pushed to fit in.

Forced onto a conventional path. Get good grades. Go to college. Get a job.

But it’s not working for the younger folks.

Default setting of self-reliance

It’s never too late to break away from convention.

Even late in our careers there’s still plenty of time to return to our roots - but you need to want to.

And we have so much more knowledge than the algos are churning out. People who aren’t afraid to change are breaking down conventions.

If you have a few gray hairs you have exactly the knowledge that is lacking online.

Survey responses from Launch Key readers indicate hesitation to start something new because they hate selling.

Come on … we’ve all sold stuff.

And you probably started as a kid.
 
Whether it was door-to-door thin mints or lemonade on a driveway card table, you’ve sold something.

When saving up to buy your first car, you sold yourself while you:

• waited tables

• made french fries

• baby sat

• walked dogs

• umpired little league games

• served ice cream

You sold your girlfriend or boyfriend to go on a first date. You probably oversold your spouse! 😉 

Many side hustles get put on hold because people don’t want to ‘sell.’

That’s just not a good enough reason for procrastination.

You’ve been doing it since before you were told its not cool.

Get back to your own inner child.

Reset complete.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

Hire Ava, the AI SDR & Get Meetings on Autopilot

Ava automates your entire outbound demand generation process, including:

• Intent-Driven Lead Discovery

• High Quality Emails with Waterfall Personalization

• Follow-Up Management

Free up your sales team to focus on high-value interactions and closing deals, while Ava handles the time-consuming tasks.

Book a demo to see how Ava can 10x your outbound.

Old School Wisdom

Remember when I discussed the importance of writing well? (The Anti-IPO plan)

Tim Denning changed directions over a decade ago by becoming a prolific writer.

Great startup insight. Even better ideas about writing.

Free Knowledge

Driving to and from my mountain reset I did catch up on a couple of pods.

Shaan Puri answering his fans on how to build an audience in 2024 is a goldmine of great advice.

He has started a new content series and I can only imagine more of this insight in the coming months.

Recommendations

📰 Marketing Memos : Proven Marketing Tips for Founders

🧠 Seven Deadly Stupidities : This newsletter will help improve your decision making by removing bias, unnecessary information, and emotion from your process.

💪 Dealroom : Learn directly from billionaire entrepreneurs on how to grow a business.

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

🤓 The Product Led Geek : Join over 9,000 founders and leaders learning how to scale their B2B software companies with product-led growth and product-led sales.

🏆 IDiyas : Weekly patent newsletter highlighting the most prolific inventors, engineers, executives and entrepreneurs.

Visual Crapshoot