In partnership with

Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community.

I hope you are enjoying the Holidays with family and friends to close out 2024. I’m working on a content calendar, watching college football (#GoDawgs), and wrapping up with year-end Beehiiv metrics.

Let’s get into it.

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

The 2024 Launch Key story is growth: from 640 subscribers to 14,000.

As many of you know, I started Launch Key as an old guy side hustle and a way to share Creator Economy ideas, links, modern tools and old school business tips.

I started with friends and family and an audience of my peers, some of whom had asked for software recommendations. Most were over 50, experienced professionals, interested in adding something entrepreneurial to their late-career portfolios.

Everyone should have a side hustle.

I thought a newsletter was my best creator avenue because I :

• enjoyed the writing/editing process

• wasn’t sure I could beat the search engine algo’s

• started with a 35 year business network

• could experiment with content, polls, surveys, ads, etc

I chose the new-to-me newsletter platform of Beehiiv.

As 2024 came to a close, the company sent personalized slides of how we did. And the few I include here are a good overview of how Launch Key performed.

Newsletters are just one possibility for your own late-career startup. We’ll dig into others going forward.

I spent a little time most mornings working on content. But it wasn’t perfect consistency because life got in the way. My oldest son got married last summer. We spent time in the mountains. We packed up a 25 year home and moved across the state.

Still, these once a week diatribes turned into almost 60,000 words and 175,000 impressions. And I’ve now been consistent for 66 straight weeks.

Thanks to you, the newsletter has solid engagement. My goal is to improve that with links, articles and collaborators that you find interesting. Comment or email me with ideas. It’s your community after all.

The top 3 post impressions is a little misleading because they all came late in the year when our audience was larger. But, if you missed them, here are their links:

• Your PTO has been denied

• That meeting should have just been an email

• Your dream job? It’s a lie

All-in-all, I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of building this newsletter (see Build in Public). Now I have the opportunity to iterate into something even better.

The year-end takeaway is that anyone can build a newsletter.

Or create a podcast. Or a blog. Or a product. Or write a book. Or start a consulting practice. At any age.

The tools are affordable. The reach is global. Your uncommon knowledge is your differentiator.

If you have ideas about creating a digital product or starting something in 2025, then Launch Key might just be the resource you need.

Thanks for your support and Happy New Year! 🎆 

Now go launch something 🚀 

Build Smarter, Faster: AI Voice Agents for Every Industry

Save time building your AI calling assistant with Synthflow’s AI Voice Agent templates—pre-built, pre-tested, and ready for industries like real estate and healthcare. Get started fast with features like lead qualification and real-time booking. You can even create and sell your own templates to earn commissions!

Register Now

Modern Tools

I’ve used many different email platforms over the past 20+ years, including both enterprise and individual solutions. I never really loved any of them, until Beehiiv 🐝.

If your new business will send newsletters, I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

• They’ve made it drag-and-drop easy and free to start

• They have built-in design tools

• They have a very good recommendation engine for other newsletters

• Their Advertiser network is robust and growing

Each week I get suggestions of companies who want to boost or sponsor my newsletter. I simply choose the ones I think will make the most sense for this audience.

Everything is automated: scheduling, distribution, payments, sponsorships, recommendation engine - all integrated with easy-to-use tools.

Ready to get started?

Click on the link below to save 20% off your first 3 months of a paid plan after a complimentary 30-day trial.

Old School Wisdom

Tiny changes, remarkable results.

What end-of-year newsletter wouldn’t include James Clear’s tome on building good habits? Over 20 million copies sold and Clear has become the answer for change.

Heck, even longevity superstar Peter Attia reposts his podcast with Clear for New Years because it was so popular.

Atomic Habits is worth revisiting as we turn over the calendar.

Free Knowledge

There’s a reason 400,000 professionals read this daily.

Join The AI Report, trusted by 400,000+ professionals at Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Get daily insights, tools, and strategies to master practical AI skills that drive results.

Sign up now for free and work smarter, not harder.

Recommendations

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

 🧠 Seven Deadly Stupidities : Discover the patterns that lead to failure and learn how to avoid them.

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

Visual Crapshoot