Humour me for a moment.

You and I decide to build a bank. We have two location choices.

Option A: A free piece of land you borrow from the lender.

But…

• They can take it off you whenever they want
• It’s in a crazy competitive area
• There’s a 70% of being wiped out by an earthquake in the next decade

Option B: Land you can buy.

It might take a bit longer to build, but…

• You own it forever
• It is, on average, 8x more profitable than option A
• It has a 100% survival rate (so far)

What d’ya reckon?

Think we’d spend months discussing the decision?

Hell. No.

We’d grab our shovels and start building on B faster than we could say, ‘we’re not an idiots.’

And yet, when it comes to digital real estate, we go a bit crazy.

Because option A is social media.

On social, you don’t own your audience. You rent it.

You don’t decide what works. An algorithm does.

You don’t have a sure way to speak to your audience (on average, 3% will see your posts).

And neither is it safe.

Because platforms come and go—even the big ones.

In 2007, Bebo was used more than Google in Ireland. Say Bebo to a teenager now and they’d think you’ve mispronounced Bieber.

Now, I’m not suggesting you renounce social media.

It’s a tool for discovery.

But that’s all it is—a tool.

If you rely on it as the forefront of your business, you’re building a ticking time bomb.

Either your sanity will snap (because posting and commenting daily is not freedom).

Or the algorithm will change and you’ll finally have had enough of dancing around like a puppet to please the platform.

For example, I spent three years building my Twitter audience.

I’ve posted 57,000 tweets (let’s not talk about that).

But when Elon came, my traffic was wiped by 90%.

Could I do anything about it?

Well, except write about politics or get sucked into super generic posts that start with, ‘This is random person’…

Nothing at all.

But here’s the kicker.

Despite traffic plummeting, my business grew by 460% this year.

Why?

Because I grabbed my shovel early and began building on option B—email.

Email has been around since the dawn of the Internet. It’s the most personal, powerful, and profitable way to reach your customers.

There are no likes to chase.

No trends to follow.

This means you can focus on building genuine relationships without worrying about the algorithm overlord. Plus, you can pitch your offers without looking desperate on social media (because selling there is so ick).

Your audience expects you to make offers when they join your list.

In fact, if you can connect your ideas with their pains and problems, people want to buy your products and services.

You just need to invite them to invest.

It’s why I built Magnetic Emails. You’ll be amazed at how powerful writing simple story-driven emails can be for your business.

For your sanity, and for your bank balance.

Don’t get blinded by the likes.

Kieran