Crash Course's One Year Subiversary

The good, the bad, and the what the hell was I thinking after one year building 'Crash Course' on Substack

For a long time, I ran away from having an online presence. I always understood the value, even the appeal, but cultivating an army of followers always felt cheap, and inauthentic, and exhausting—a horrible mix of a constant chase of fake clout and an incentive structure that rewards clickbait, loud, extreme voices. I wanted no part of it.

Thennnnnnnnn I had a book I needed to promote. (Which, still to this day, sounds vomit-producing douchey to even type.)

But the truth is, I had no existing platform to tap into; just some friends and contacts. And if you’re trying to get your book read by people who don’t share your DNA, that ain’t good.

So the indomitable publishing folks at Authors Equity kindly brought up infinity times I had a simple choice: sell seven books or build a platform and at least have a chance at selling eight. What they really were saying is, ‘you’re a nobody with a publishable idea, but there are a lot of great books out there serving as table levelers. We need to break out.”

I finally broke down, with two conditions:

1. I will never charge for the content. And,

2. The content’s main purpose must always be to promote better understanding of our government and politics in a nonpartisan way (no preaching to the choir for clicks; there are plenty of other places for that).

Having decided to jump into the cringy influencer-infested waters of social media, the next battle was over the platform to build the brand. We batted around all the usual suspects.

Instagram? For videos, sure, but not the right fit if I ever wanted to write. Plus, I couldn’t ever decide on the right filter.

TikTok? Would rather stab my self in the eyeballs with a spoon.

YouTube? Getting closer if my goal was to explain like a normal human what was happening and how things are supposed to happen.

Substack kept popping up. I knew—and read—some very smart folks’ (see, Gabe Fleisher and Lindsay M. Chervinsky) newsletters, so I was certain there was potential to write there. And at the time, they were bringing on a video component that I knew I wanted to use (mostly because it’s easier for me to talk than to write). Add in the user-friendly post creation, ability to upload my podcast episodes, and it’s email distribution capabilities and it became a no-brainer.

‘Crash Course’ was born. And we’re already a year in. Let’s see what this thing has become.

Year 1 Highlights:

• Crash Course has subscribers in all 50 states and in 74 countries (shout out to my four subscribers in Morocco, ya weirdos).

• We’ve grown from the 650ish subscribers gained on launch day to 4,075 subscribers as of this writing. Slow and steady, with a trendline going up and to the right just like Warren Buffett taught us to love.

• Crash Course also has nearly 13,000 followers.

• We had a great launch of the aforementioned book “We Hold These ‘Truths’: How to Spot the Myths that are Holding America Back." We even hit some Amazon bestseller lists in the first couple of weeks. A win for a nobody.

• Top Posts:

  • “100 Ways to Make a Political Difference. Today.” I’ve heard from numerous readers the actions they’re checking off the list. The response to this one has filled my bucket, as my six year old son would say.

  • “A Six Decade, 60-Second Tour of Uncle Sam’s Budget Priorities”—a quick data-driven video showing you how the US budget has changed over time. Nerds.

  • “It's time to break the cycle...”—we started a donation initiative to get my book on political myths into high school and college government classrooms. This post announced the initiative to subscribers and resulted in thousands of books in real students’ hands. And now it’s getting a little dusty in here…thank you, thank you!

• Top Podcast Episodes:

  • Steve Vladeck on “Why we need the courts to be MORE political.”

  • Tim Miller joins Mastering the Room.

  • THE Sharon McMahon joins Mastering the Room.

• Worst Performing Post (had to do it)

  • “Convention Delegates: Who are they and why do they matter?” I get it. Really.

• Something I’m excited about: Crash Course will host it’s first book club meeting this summer. Pick up the book “America First” by the amazing H. W. Brands, read it, then join us for a Q and A with H. W. this summer.

Year 1 Lessons Learned:

• People love teamwork. The posts I coauthor with other folks are always more popular than solo ones (like this chat with Ben Sheehan on government reform). Duh. Peeps dig this, though I must admit there’s a hesitancy from many with big platforms to share their followers—they see it as zero sum, and they need to get over it. Collaborating means you reach each other’s network, but it also creates better content from different sources and voices. More teamwork more frequently is a focus for year 2.

• I lose subscribers after every post; sometimes a humbling number.

• Constantly vary the medium. Some love video explainers; others like audio; some of you sickos like to read. The variety is the point.

• Being timely matters, but it shortens the shelf life of the post. Again, a no brainer. People are interested in knowing more about what’s happening now. So explainers do well on newsy topics. But, tying them to the news of the day limits how long they remain useful. I try to have posts with gov knowledge that is important after the news of the day changes, but that’s easier said than done.

• Many of the posts I thought would be the most boring turned out to be the most popular. And many of the ones I thought would slap were ignored like my offers to Rihanna to be my prom date. (I was joking unless she said yes).

• Don’t publish on Fridays and don’t publish in the middle of the day. Early morning posts see the best engagement.

Now, how can I make ‘Crash Course’ better?