“Closed mouths don’t get fed,” was the quote that resonated the most with me from this interview. Caleb Franzen explained at this week’s Investing Happy Hour the best thing he did was “just start.” He put his ego aside and jumped into launching his Substack, and turned on paid right away. Collaboration and connecting with other writers was a major key to his readership growth which you’ll hear more about in the recording.
Thanks to the Substack writers who tuned in live to this week’s Investing Happy Hour.
Ian Bezek - Ian’s Inside Corner, Twitter
Brian Albrecht - Economic Forces, Twitter
Kyle Musser - Macro Daily Co., Twitter
Barbara Serra - News with a Foreign Accent, Twitter
Thomas Dadmun - Focus Signal, Twitter
Were you there too? Say “hello” in the comments.
See you next week for our conversation with Austin Hankwitz.
—Linda
On complimenting existing work streams
“I quit my job. My intention was to start trading and investing full time and to help manage money of friends and family. I coupled that with sharing macro and investment research on Twitter. For years I've had people telling me, ‘Caleb, you should start a newsletter.’ [...] Susbtack was this way to complement the research that I was already posting on Twitter and switch to more a long form research.”
On writing into the void
“When I started I think I had maybe 20 or 25 people on the very first distribution of my newsletter. I don't know exactly how long it took me to even get it to 100 or 200 people.
For a long time it does feel like you are writing into the void. I think that for a lot of people it is a difficult thing to get over. We all have an ego and it's hard to recoginize how much value or energy we’re putting into writing these publications without it having a larger audience. So, if someone is able to put that ego aside, just start and recognize that things are flexible. There's no wrong time to start and, I think for me at least, that's the hardest part.”
On building trust
“I don't have a marketing background. I don't have a social media growth background. I went to school for economics, I worked in wealth management and then in banking.
For me, having to experiment in this kind of marketing field has been a totally different beast to tackle. [...] The one thing that I’ve been able to default back on is trying to create and share as much value as possible, and let the rest take care of itself.
When we think of some of the best product designers or business people ever like, we think of a Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos. They're obsessed with the customer experience and the value that they deliver to their customers. And by no means am I trying to do anything on their scale, but the core principle is the same: you need to obsess over the customer experience and the value that you’re providing.”
On never saying “no” to collaboration
“One thing that always helped was never saying ‘no.’ The very first show that I went on, was at the end of May and it was a a fairly small account and channel, but it gave me my first opportunity to put a face and a voice to the writing that I was doing on Twitter and on Substack. I didn't know exactly what that initial opportunity was going to do for me but, I knew at the very least it was a going to give me experience so if and when I did have other future opportunities, on maybe a larger platform, I would hopefully be a little bit more comfortable.”
On staying true to you
“The very first guest post that I wrote for Pomp, I really viewed that as an opportunity to share my perspectives. I didn't want to echo something that he had already said or something that he had already talked about. You want to always come in with fresh new perspectives and stay true to your integrity, your brand, and everything.”
On going paid right away
“I think probably the worst advice that I've received is to wait to monetize. At the end of the day, if you have a voluntary customer who's willing to give you money to receive something, you don't want to' leave that on the table.”
Subscribe to Caleb’s publication, Cubic Analytics, on Substack.
This conversation first took place as part of Investing Happy Hour. Join our next one this coming Wednesday with Austin Hankwitz.
“Closed mouths don’t get fed,” Caleb Franzen reminds writers