What's this publication about? Start here.
A collection of joyous things (design / art / witty copy) I find online + quick notes on creativity, authenticity + getting your work into the world
About
Kelly Trach is a business consultant, 4x entrepreneur, and 2x author of P.S. You’re A Genius (BenBella Books, 2021) and Love Letters I Can’t Send (Sunny Side Books, 2025).
As a founder with a decade of entrepreneurial experience, she helped launch 50+ companies with clients and is the person you call when you have an idea and want to turn it into a business. Or, take what you’ve got and sell more of it.
Now, she runs Sunny Side Up Ventures, a creative house and venture lab that produces start-ups, books, and offers 1:1 consulting on going from zero to one.
Kelly has a bachelor of commerce honors degree from the University of British Columbia where she studied on scholarship. Kelly previously worked at Tesla Motors, studied at Sciences Po in Paris France, and was accepted into a Silicon Valley accelerator program taught by a billionaire venture capitalist.
After her first three tech start-ups failed in San Francisco, Kelly built a business centered around her genius. It worked. Generating traction by doing work that came most naturally to her made her re-think her approach to finding meaningful work. Now she teaches others how to find their genius and turn that into a business, career, or side hustle.
Her former podcast ran for 7 years with 175+ episodes, 100,000+ downloads, and 100+ 5-star reviews. Now, Kelly pens a popular Substack newsletter called “A Year of Joy” on creativity, entrepreneurship, advertising, and getting your work into the world.
She's spoken at places like Uber and NASDAQ and her work has been featured in RBC’s The Intelligent Investor and mindbodygreen.
What is “A Year of Joy?”
This is a joyous, upbeat newsletter you can look forward to savoring with a coffee in hand—about creativity, entrepreneurship, authenticity, writing tips, and life-giving articles that make you feel nourished after reading them.
You’ll get a (multi-colored) sprinkle of everything — like, recipes for lemon sea salt, thrift hauls featuring fuchsia suede skirts, and practical advice to get you out of a creative slump.
Together, we’ll explore what it means to make life pivots, start new ventures, and craft creative work that you get paid for. This also means: discussing failure, burnout, and rejection. And, how to make the mundane a bit more magical (especially when it feels like it doesn’t).
It’s an online space for us to connect, plus monthly Q+A so that it feels like a two-way street.
What you can look forward to:
$0/month
[✓] Quick 1-liners about stuff I find online + why I like it / how it inspires me / made me laugh / had a cool font.
[✓] Promotional emails supporting paid offerings / books / consulting.
[✓] Articles ft. sponsored product + shopping roundups with affiliate links.
$5/month
[✓] Everything that’s free PLUS:
[✓] Monthly Q+A: Recorded and you can submit Qs in advance.
[✓] Lessons on Entrepreneurship + Creativity: Monthly audio lessons + practical teachings on getting your art into the world.
[✓] Moon Landing: Real life, honest updates on how it’s going starting a new venture in real time - sales, cash flow, what’s working, etc. (The behind the scenes of MoonDust—one of my small businesses).
[✓] Inner Most Thoughts: Personal essays on authenticity and living life true to you.
[✓] The ‘Lifestyle Section’ of the Newspaper — Fun content! Travel guides, what’s in my shopping cart, how I styled something thrifted, overpriced toiletry bags I will never buy, etc.
[✓] Recipes: Plant-forward, colorful, and beautifully styled.
[✓] Full access to the archive.
Why did you start this newsletter?
Social media has shifted. Yet, I missed sharing intentional and intelligent content with the odd 90’s pop culture reference. I wanted to build a friendly, online space for thoughtful readers to come together and explore topics. Honestly, I want go back to old-school “pour yourself a cup of joe and read something nice in your slippers” vibe.
I retired all social media, my podcast, and old free newsletter. (Substack is the only place I’m publishing new work). A few years ago, I decided that I don’t want to waste my life hunched over the glowing blue light of my iPhone. Every time I wrote lists of “what’s not working in my life?” social media came up. Plus, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport showed me that you can be a NYT best-selling author and have zero social media.
You will receive the occasional free email about promotions and upcoming books, but everything else will be for paid subscribers only.
Why shift?
I’ve created an immense free content library since 2016. Here’s the data:
180+ podcast episodes. (100,000+ downloads).
A free e-newsletter since 2017. (ConvertKit says I’ve collectively delivered 1,500,000+ emails since).
2,000+ posts on Instagram (most being educational).
My very popular “What’s Your Genius?” free quiz with 20,000+ takers (and 16+ free corresponding reports).
Dozens of free 90-minute webinar trainings on how to start and scale your business.
Why paid?
$5/month is Substack’s cheapest paid option. The platform doesn’t let you go lower than that. My goal is to make these teachings accessible.
It curates a welcoming, private place for you to bring your budding creative projects and get questions answered in a judgement-free zone.
Paid content is non-promotional, so I can focus on supporting you. That means, there is no “sales pitch” or “upsell” or “use my code for 25% off” AG2, BrookCotton, and MadeOut Pans.
It pays me for my time and helps avoid creative burn-out.
If budget is tight, there will always be a wonderful free content library of 180+ podcast episodes to enjoy and you can always request P.S. You’re a Genius from your local library.
With that said, I’d love to have you here!
Thanks to the 400+ folks who are already here. Join for $5/month. Cancel anytime.
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