I Made More Money in My 60s Than Ever Before. Here's What I Tweaked
This changed everything
“The YOUier you are. The happier. “
This is #1 takeaway I learned in today’s (live) conversation with my friend and bestselling author and serial entrepreneur Karen Salmansohn who’s building her category newsletter The Stand Up Philosopher: Weighty Musings, Lightly Served trusted by tens of thousands of readers.
Yesterday the 65-year-old sent me an email sharing a big milestone: getting that so well-deserved and overdue Substack Bestseller badge. YAY!
My LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel bootcampers know her. And if you want to master Substack Notes, I’m jumping out of my skin excited telling you Karen will be the co-host of this year’s Substack Notes Bootcamp 2026 in April with Ellen Scherr.
But today what I want you to do is check out Karen’s amazing and no-brainer MasterMind where she just told me she has 2 spots left… 1 is for YOU!
If you want to become a better online writer and make it a real business, earn passive income and join an empowering and fun group setting you can bring all your positioning and writing questions, and Karen will bring you solutions.
What you need to know: She’s a 100% human writer who is not using AI for her creative craft simply because she so much enjoys writing.
During our 3 hour long (!) chat today, she told me she once asked AI to write in her voice but after a few sentences it just… disn’t work anymore.
AI doesn’t know about the mistakes she made in her 30s or the toxic relationships she had.
In my opinion, Karen is 100% Karen
When I see her on Notes. When I read a long form story (that took her hours or even days to write).
There’s no expiration date for becoming even more YOU than in your 20s or 30s. The time when you’re still on the journey of finding your true self. Setting boundaries and saying no instead of YES YES (I’m a recovering people leaser!). I guess that’s one of the reasons bestselling author Karen is now making more money than ever before!
I can’t wait to hear what she tweaked to get to this point in her long life.
Oh and here’s what Tony Robbins says about her…
Or Goldie Hawn…
I mean… HELLO!
I’m a late-in-life mom. I became pregnant in my late 40’s
After my son was born, I quickly developed what I lovingly called “Mom-ory Loss.”
I’d walk into the kitchen for a needed “Mom Support Coffee” and immediately forget why I was there.
Eventually it became clear. If I wanted to keep making money, I needed to learn how to make passive income in my sleep (and/or in my sleepiness!).
Online courses seemed like the answer.
But there was a problem.
I was in my 50’s… and had zero idea how to use the technology
It all looked like a highly voluptuous learning curve.
Then one day, my 8 year old son Ari walked into my office.
“Mom,” he said, “will you buy me Adobe Premiere?”
I looked at this small person who still couldn’t tie his shoes properly and said, “Adobe Premiere? Why do you want that?”
“I want to make movies,” he said. “Cool ones.”
Now, I have a lot of skills. I can write a bestselling book. I can make a decent marinara from scratch.
But Adobe Premiere? Not in my arsenal
“Honey,” I said, “Mommy doesn’t know Adobe Premiere. I can’t teach you that.”
He looked at me and confidently replied: ”That’s okay. I can teach myself.”
“Fine,” I told him, “I’ll buy it for you month-to-month.”
As soon as I purchased it, Ari ran to his room.
Two hours later, he called me in.
“Look what I made, mommy!” he announced proudly.
On the screen was an actual movie. Flying fonts. Sound effects. Transitions that looked professional.
My 8 year old son had taught himself Adobe Premiere
And that’s when it hit me! If my eight-year-old could teach himself professional editing software in two hours, what the hell was my excuse not to learn the online course business?
I was using “I’m too old” as a (b)lame excuse to stay stuck.
So I learned all about creating an online course business - the whole digital infrastructure I’d been avoiding.
But I didn’t simply boost my income from courses
I boosted it from learning email sequences.
Viral social media content tricks.
Then SEO secrets.
And quirky book promotion strategies.
Plus, Substack when that showed up.
In fact I launched this Stand Up Philosopher Substack in Feb 2025 - and in 1 year I researched and learned how to build it into a Substack Paid Bestseller with over 80K subscribers…with it regularly hitting number #6 on the Rising List.
Every time I worried “I’m too old for this” … I reminded myself..
“Wait, if Ari can do it...I can do it too!”
And that shift (being willing to be uncomfortable and adopt a lifelong learner mentality) …it changed everything.
Eventually this mindset led me to making my strongest income ever in my 60’s!
This is a Guest Post from long-time Online Writing Club member and friend Karen Salmansohn
Share the 💖and support Karen and her message for all 50+ and midlife writers to finally take inspir-ACTION!
What was your #1 tweak that changed the whole trajectory of your business and/or life? Karen will reply!
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