There’s an expression my dad would say from his time in the army:

Failing to plan is planning to fail (or, in ‘squaddie terms’, piss-poor planning leads to piss-poor performance).

I found this out the grueling way with Magnetic Emails.

See, I decided the best way to create the course would be to dive in without a plan and see what emerges.

I like to write like that sometimes—searching for gold in the dirt.

So I pumped out thousands of words per day.

Then I wrote a 10,000-word first draft landing page.

But when I asked for feedback from my mentor, he bounced back with one question:

What is your value proposition?

A value proposition is a statement of what something does and who it does it for.

And it was obvious from my fumbling reply that I had no real clue.

Was Magnetic Emails about growing a newsletter? Was it how to write stories? Was it to write emails that sell?

At his suggestion, I slammed on the brakes of product building and did the work I should’ve prioritised from day one:

Thinking.

Because everything you do is downstream from your value proposition.

If you can’t state something’s function in one sentence, how on earth do you expect your audience to stand a chance?

This isn’t just for products.

It’s for your brand, too.

Because your value proposition is a promise. And you can’t fulfill a promise when you don’t know what it is.

There are many people online who are not clear about who and how they serve.

They create generic content for a generic audience and get generic results.

And sure, some are growing a following fast.

But a lack of specificity turns you into a commodity, not an authority—something they’ll discover in a few years.

My friend, to succeed online, you must think deeply about your value proposition.

Because once you nail it, everything clicks into place.

When I decided Magnetic Emails would teach a simple 6-step writing system for relationship-focused sales emails, I had a north star to aim for.

I ended up cutting 80% of the original material.

I had to rewrite the entire sales page.

I felt like the grim reaper of grammar slicing through my semi-relevant rambles. Hundreds of hours of writing spun down the drain.

And sure, it hurt.

But when the culling was complete, the surviving material was clear, concise, and valuable.

As a result, I felt much more confident in my marketing.

Which made selling easier. And my initial customers happier.

So let me ask you, my friend…

If I read your offer, would I know immediately what you do and who you do it for?

If your ideal client found your content, would they go ‘Hell Yeah’ or ‘Yeah Yeah’?

If you met a stranger, can you describe your business in one sentence?

Be honest with yourself.

This is the hardest part of building online.

But it’s also the most important.

Kieran