Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

Hello my friend!

At the time of writing, Facebook has just started deleting lives that have been recorded over years. This means that everyone who's built a business online needs to download in some cases hundreds or thousands of videos in days, regardless of what their schedule looks like. Worse, if someone has a family member who passed away and was known for their Facebook videos, years of content now must be downloaded or lost forever. 

This is something I've warned about for years. You need to lead thoughts, not just collect vanity metrics, as this post from 2018 explains. And your data is never safe with social media companies like Facebook, as I told you during the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

Finally, you don't own social media. It hasn't gone in the direction that those of us who built what pioneered it had in mind at the start of the internet at all. I may not have had the vision I created for online marketing and social media when I went into the Mogwai Basement in 1986, but I did by the time I built my first email list in 1995. We were stoked at the thought of the world coming together in a way that meant we could collaborate in business, form friendships across borders, and understand each other. Some of us held out for the idea that if people understood each other they might stop bombing each other. Personally, I'm not ready to give up on that idea, which is why I'm reviving The Blogosphere.  Starting at the end of February, I'm launching a 52 week challenge, to get 52 pieces of content up on a blog by March 2026. 

You Don't Own Social Media

You don't own TikTok, it can close any second. You don't own Meta, they can take down years of your work overnight. You don't own X. Your account can be closed and you can be banned in a heartbeat, while your data is all taken and fed to Grok. 

You need something you own and control. 

You need a blog, and you need a self-hosted community and podcast. 

Most important, you need an email list. 

The Money's In The List

It has always been the case that the money's in the list, from the moment I made my first $1,000 online in 1996 to today. But where the money really is, is in the RELATIONSHIP with the list. 

How do you create a relationship with your list? You communicate with them. You let them know that they matter to you. 

That can happen on your blog, your podcast, and your email list. By all means also do it on social media but never fall for the lie that you own any of that. 

I had a 30,000 person account on Google+. CLOSED.

Similar number on WebTalk. CLOSED. 

In both cases, I'd moved some people across to my email list, but not enough of them. However, if you're here from my Bluesky account, you're probably on my list. 

What's Your Message?

To keep the main thing the main thing, you must first know what is the main thing.

If your main thing is to make a ton of money with no effort and without speaking to anyone, the path to that is way different than if your main thing is to build a community that cherishes your books and buys all of them, or to create a blog around your passion for cakes from a Victorian recipe book you found. 

For what it's worth, if you're all about the first option, marketers on places like X can see you coming a mile off. More people have gone broke fast trying to get rich quick than any other way in business. 

When you're building something sustainable, based on a core philosophy, that aims to serve people for the long term you can still go broke, but it's less likely. Entrepreneurship is never guaranteed. However, if you build this way you change lives, and you have something of value that you can keep even if it doesn't work. You also maintain your humanity. Something that is increasingly hard to find in the crypto space, for instance. In fact, if you're in that space I urge you to set something else up to give your brain a break from that culture, as it causes brain damage. What are you passionate about? Do that. 

Are You Struggling to Keep Going?

Building something long-term can be hard. It takes patience. It takes faith. It takes self-belief. It isn't easy, but it's worth it. But it's important to stay in integrity even if and when there are set backs. So few people now act from a place of true purpose and passion.

Les Brown says you need to remember 3 things, operating out of a larger vision of yourself. Operating out of your imagination, not your memory. People won't believe in you. Do it anyway. You won't always believe in yourself. Do it anyway. Because:

1. It's possible. If someone else has done it, so can you. You've got good stuff in you. 
2. It's necessary.
3. It's ON YOU to make it happen. 

I believe in you. You can do this. But don't do it alone. Go through all the links I've put in this post, because I've dropped a ton of FREE training inside this blog. So if finances are tough it's still possible. But if you have some money to invest, you don't need to do this alone. Get in on my new Blogosphere Revival course. At the time of writing, we have early bird pricing in place. This will go up soon, so get in now and let us support you with your dream of keeping the main thing the main thing, and building something real you can believe in while making friends that get you. 

Wishing you an amazing day,

Rebecca