Stop Building Your Business on Rented Land
Every few years, something comes along and reminds creators of a lesson we keep having to relearn. You don't own the platforms you build on.
The latest reminder showed up in the inbox. Gmail rolled out AI summaries to its three billion users, and suddenly the channel a lot of us treated as our safest one looked a little less solid. I unpacked the whole thing in this piece on what the AI inbox means for your newsletter.
But I want to zoom out today, because the inbox is just the newest example of a much older pattern. And once you see the pattern, you'll know exactly where to put your energy.
You've Seen This Movie Before
Think back over the last decade of building online. Facebook used to send you a flood of free traffic, until one day it didn't. Organic reach quietly dried up and we all had to pay to reach the people who already followed us.
Then Instagram switched to an algorithm, and the followers you worked so hard to earn stopped seeing your posts unless the app decided to show them. Reels, then something else, then something after that. Every time, the rules changed without warning, and every time, the people who'd bet everything on that one platform scrambled.
Now it's the inbox getting an algorithm of its own. Same movie, new theater. And the creators who get rattled by each new twist all have one thing in common. They were building on land they were only renting.
Rented Versus Owned, Plain and Simple
Here's the difference, and it's worth getting clear on because it changes how you spend your time.
Rented land is any audience where someone else controls whether you reach them. Your Instagram followers are rented. You don't decide who sees your post. The algorithm does, and it can cut your reach in half overnight without asking you. If the platform changes the rules or disappears, your audience goes with it.
Owned land is any audience you can reach directly, on your terms, whenever you want. Your email list is the classic example. You can download it, you can write to it, and nobody stands between you and the people on it. That's why I've told creators for years to treat list-building like the foundation of the whole business.
"Followers feel like an asset right up until the algorithm changes. A relationship you own is the only thing that survives every update nobody warned you about."
Dr. Destini CoppSo Wait, Is Email Rented Now Too?
This is the fair question, and I want to answer it honestly. The Gmail news pokes a hole in the idea that email is perfectly safe. An algorithm now sits between you and your reader's attention, even in the inbox.
But here's the thing. Email is still the most owned channel you have access to. The list itself is yours. You can export it, move it to a new tool, and reach those people directly, which is something no social platform will ever let you do with your followers.
The deeper lesson is that the channel was never really the asset. The relationship is. Gmail can change how your email gets displayed, but it can't change whether someone genuinely wants to hear from you. When a person wants you specifically, they'll find you in the inbox, in a community, on a podcast, wherever you show up. That want is the thing you actually own, and it's the thing worth building.
How to Build on Ground That's Actually Yours
This is where my Creator Growth Flywheel comes in. It's my framework for how a creator business grows, and the five stages are Attract, Engage, Nurture, Retain, and Advocate. The whole point of the flywheel is to turn strangers into people who know you, trust you, and stick around. Here's how that looks when your goal is owning the relationship.
Turn Borrowed Attention Into Owned Contact
Use the rented platforms for what they're good at, which is reach. But every time you catch someone's attention there, your job is to move them somewhere you own. Give them a real reason to hand you their email, like a free resource they actually want, and capture it on a page you control. Borrowed attention is fine. Just don't leave it borrowed.
Build the Relationship, Not Just the List
A big list of strangers isn't worth much. A smaller list of people who open because they trust you is worth a fortune. So show up consistently, be genuinely useful, and let your personality through. This is the Engage and Nurture work, and it's what makes the difference between a list that ignores you and one that buys from you.
Give Them Places to Go That You Own
The more of your world lives on ground you control, the safer you are. Your newsletter, your products, your own community space. When your audience can spend time with you in places no algorithm governs, you've built something that can't be taken away by a platform update. That's the Retain and Advocate end of the flywheel, where people stick around and bring their friends.
Why This Should Make You Feel Steadier
I don't share any of this to scare you off social media or make you anxious about the inbox. Use every platform you want. They're powerful, and they're great at putting you in front of new people.
What I want is for you to stop building your foundation on someone else's land. When the next algorithm change comes, and it will, you want to be the creator who shrugs and keeps going because the relationship is yours. Not the one starting over because the platform pulled the rug.
The creators who own their audience get to feel calm when everyone else is panicking. That's the whole reason I built my business this way, and it's the reason I keep pushing you to build yours the same. The ground stops shifting the moment you're standing on land you own.
So if you're not sure how solid your foundation actually is right now, that's the very first thing I'd find out.
How Solid Is Your Foundation, Really?
Take the free Creator Business Scorecard and see how much of your business stands on ground you actually own, plus where your biggest growth opportunity is hiding right now.
Take the Free Scorecard →Frequently Asked Questions
Owning your audience means you have a direct way to reach people without an algorithm deciding who sees you. An email list or phone list is owned, because you can contact those people anytime. Social media followers are rented, because the platform controls how many of them ever see your posts.
Yes. Even with AI changing the inbox, an email list is the closest thing to a direct line to your audience. The list itself is yours to export and reach, which no social platform allows. The real asset is the relationship behind the list, and that travels with you no matter what any platform changes.
On social media, the platform owns the connection to your followers and decides through its algorithm how many of them see each post. Reach can drop overnight with a single change you have no control over, and you cannot take your followers with you if you leave. That makes it rented, not owned.
Give people a strong reason to hand you their email address, like a useful free resource, and capture it on a page you control. Then build a real relationship through consistent, valuable contact, and give them places to go that you own, like your newsletter, your products, and your own community.
Email is still the most owned channel available, but the Gmail AI inbox is a reminder that no channel is fully under your control. The lesson is to invest in the relationship rather than the delivery mechanism, so that people want to hear from you and will follow you across any channel.
