It’s 2025 People. If you’re running a creator business (or any business for that matter) without an email list to keep you warm, you’re a virtual squatter, getting high on the algofumes you thought were perfume.

One algorithm tweak, one government intervention (in a time when governments have form for banning stuff), one random server outage, one rogue solar flare….and BAM….your “audience” evaporates faster than Vine stars in 2017. Remember Vine? Yeah, neither do your customers. That’s the point.

Most people confuse followers with fans.
Here’s the facts: Likers don’t like you and followers aren’t following you. They are not your fans (yet).
They liked you enough to press the button once, sometime in the past.
But they are not loyal to you. They are loyal (or addicted) to the platform.
If you disappeared tomorrow, do you think they’d look for you? (Not likely).

That is not to say they aren’t interested, BUT….you are only borrowing their attention from the platform. They don’t login to YOU, they login to “THE PLATFORM” to get their daily dopamine hit. And “the platform” puts your content in front of them as long as its keeping them there. You pay rent in the form of your hard work - the platform permits you to hang out and lets the audience to see you.
Fans are the ones whose phone numbers and emails you actually own though. The guys who liked you more than a subscribe button smash and wanted what you had enough that they traded their email for it.

Without an email list, your “followers” (however many million they may be), are a stadium filled crowd only there to see whoever’s playing next. Sadly you don’t get a vote on when you will play, who’ll be there to see you when you do or even IF you’ll get to play at all. TikTok’s 12-hour ban in the U.S. gave creators a taste of what it feels like not to play.

If your entire livelihood depends on an app, you’re not a business owner. You’re a tenant without a lease praying the landlord let’s you stay another day.

Every platform is gaslighting you. They tell you: “Just post great content, and the algorithm will reward you.” But we’ve all lived the reality: one day you’re riding high on reach, the next you’re invisible.

Instagram’s latest 2025 algorithm change nuked entire categories of creators overnight. YouTube forces constant reinvention just to stay visible. Creators admit they spend more time “pleasing the algo” than actually creating. That’s not business, it’s servitude.

Here’s the truth: the house always wins, the longer you play, the more chance there is the algorithm will break you and take your audience from you.
Don’t let them do you like that…. build an email list. Owning the broadcast makes you immune to the algo’s whims. Then you aren’t just creating, you are building.

Let’s talk numbers (and this is where most people’s jaws drop). Email marketing delivers an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. Social media? A measly $2.80. That’s a 13x difference.

Email subscribers are 3–5 times more engaged than social followers, with conversion rates nearly triple. Translation: your email list isn’t just insurance—it’s a license to print money. Codie Sanchez puts it bluntly: “Newsletters print money. Never stop growing your email list.”

“Social Media” isn’t a strategy unless you are directing the flow of attention you generate to a place you can capture it for when you need it.

The smartest creators already figured this out ages ago:

See the pattern? The creators who own their audiences become entrepreneurs. The ones who don’t become cautionary tales. And the coolest thing is when you own your audience you don’t need millions of followers, you only need one or two a month to buy something big from you and you are making more than your smug Uncle who thinks you're off with the pixies.

Here’s what platforms never want you to realize: they’re not just gatekeepers, they’re middlemen selling access to your fans. You get scraps of analytics; they get the real insights and a lion’s share of the ad revenue.

When you own the relationship though (via your email, text, or private community) you get first hand data: who buys, what they love, what they ignore. That data is the holy grail for product launches, personalization, and scaling. You’ve got what the platforms can’t give them A RELATIONSHIP, PROXIMITY, CONNECTION.

With new privacy laws killing third-party cookies, first-party data is becoming the single biggest advantage you can have. The sooner you build it, the further ahead you’ll be.

Unpopular as it may be….

Every business needs to become a creator business and to be a creator business, creators need to capture the details of their audience.

HubSpot literally bought the newsletter The Hustle just to own the audience. Joe Rogan’s Spotify deal was less about exclusivity, more about capturing the audience (he got paid but they got PAID).

At the highest level of wealth and business, Elon Musk bought Twitter to save free speech (but maybe also a little bit for distribution ;). People say how silly he was and how he lost money - what he did was ensure that every product he ever launched was not at risk of de-platforming (and he’s got form launching new products).

If the world’s biggest brands are paying billions just to own attention, what makes you think your social brand can survive on vibes and hashtags alone?

Don’t panic. Do this:

Even if your list starts with 54 people, that’s 54 humans you can reach tomorrow no matter what Meta, TikTok, or YouTube decide for you. Build it every week, one by one and turn every piece of content into a sign post towards your list.

If you don’t have an email list in 2025, you’re sitting on a ticking time bomb. Likes don’t pay the bills. You’re high on short-term dopamine. Audience ownership isn’t optional anymore - your survival depends upon it.

The creator economy is heading toward $480B by 2027, and the lion’s share of that will go to those who own their distribution. Everyone else? They’ll keep chasing algorithms, dancing for scraps, and waking up one outage away from bankruptcy.

So, build the list. Own the relationship. Take control of your future.
BUILD AN ASSET.
Because in 2025, the only thing crazier than not having an email list… is thinking you’ll survive without one.

IMPLEMENTATION

This is literally building an asset out of thin air.

If you have an audience and no time to do it, hit me up and I’ll find you someone who can. Its too important not to start.

CONTENT I LOVED THIS WEEK

Seth Godin is the GOAT. I hadn’t seen much from him lately and it was great to hear a 2025 refresher on marketing from the Legend. Its nearly an hour and a half so I’ve shared my notes here. You can get all my other notes/summaries in my community resource now and in the future here.

Banger Quote from this Video:
“Attention has always been critically important and it has a best friend named trust.”
- Seth Godin