Non-State Actress Special Additions #6: I Think I Need Help?

Things are heating up...and there are stickers.

Aug 15, 2024

BLUF

Beginning the first week of September - September 2, 2024 to be exact - Non-State Actress will be dropping new content across multiple platforms…every day. I’ve never planned my creativity in my entire life so taking the last month to dig in and figure out how to reach the people I want to reach on the platforms *they* frequent while also satisfying my own intellectual itches has been a growth experience. And also kind of freaked out my colleagues. This post is a quick run down of what to expect and where to find it.

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Is Non-State Actress Leaving Substack?

Absolutely not.

This page will become even more active. Free subscribers here will get a post and a free version of the podcast *each week*. Paid subscribers will get the post and an ad-free version of the podcast plus a weekly round up of content across platforms, and news and analysis from me twice a week via Notes.

Paid subscribers will *also* get stickers and some other cool merch 💅🏽.

That’s It?

Nope.

We’re turning up the volume on Instagram, big time. The Non-State Actress IG will feature exclusive reels, bonus content from the podcast, and Live sessions for Q&A. This is a huge leap for me and has required way more problem solving than I anticipated, but is crucial for me to Make National Security Make Sense. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated 🙃.

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What’s On the Calendar

First, an enormous thank you to my colleagues who have inquired into my well-being over the last several weeks as they’ve watched my office walls be overcome by layers and layers and layers of giant Post-It notes. Content calendaring is hard, friends!

Over the next few months I’ll be covering international security partnership institutions and skincare(NATO, the United Nations, 5 Eyes, and State Partnership for Peace), looking at the difference between information warfare and misinformation through the lens of conspiracy theories and true crime, breaking down how key US national security institutions function as different sections of Costco, and diving in to how it’s different or similar to other nations around the world... Obviously, none of it will be boring.

So far, I’ve mapped out September 2024 - January 2025.

Why? Because I want to do more and it’s too hard to do ad hoc, I think this will give me the freedom to cover not only foundational, timeless topics but more responsive to current events without teetering into complete chaos, and most importantly:

Because I have a maybe once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pour everything I can into Non-State Actress and 120 days to prove its worth it. And I know it can be.

This is where I need your help.

Nearly 30,000 people subscribe to my writing on Substack and nearly twice that many Follow me on here (please don’t ask me the difference, I don’t know what it means). Across all the platforms, Non-State Actress reaches about 560,000 people a month.

Of those hundreds of thousands of people, 36 are paid subscribers and I am immensely grateful to each and every one of them. I also know attempting to convert people from free to paid subscribers is really, really hard and not a sustainable use of my time and energy. So while more paid subscribers would be wonderful, what I really need are Partners.

I am looking for underwriters for the video podcast series, the Reels, and everything else. Companies, mostly, that see value in this work, in reaching my growing audience, or both. And I think my first leads are going to come from YOU - the people who are already here!

What’s Next?

So, it will be quiet-ish for the next few weeks as I prep as much of the preplanned stuff as possible which will then free me up to do more in real time, too. In the meantime, become a Paid Subscriber before September 2 and get a free Non-State Actress sticker…or wait for the merch store to open :).

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