Owned Assets vs. Borrowed Assets

Ownership is #1

You already know that owning a business is the only way to make it. If you didn’t then you wouldn’t be here.

I’m lucky enough to have a high-IQ audience so I don’t need to beat that dead horse. BUT there are layers to the Iron Law of Ownership.

It’s possible to technically own your business while simultaneously building it on a shaky foundation that you neither own nor control. Many people do this, and it works well… until it doesn’t.

Your efforts need to be focused on the protocol (ownership) layer.

Important concept: the protocol layer and the corporate layer

There are tons of different places to build your business.

Your website (obviously).

But also YouTube, email, social media, paid traffic.

Which are most important?

The best way to think about it is: view the different platform as either existing on the protocol layer or the corporate layer.

Your website is on the protocol layer (DNS). Your email list is on the protocol layer. Crypto is also on the protocol layer (one reason why you shouldn’t listen to boomers who say it’s not real, it’s as real as it gets).

Anything that you own that exists on the protocol layer can’t be taken from you.

You own your domain name. As long as you don’t break the law (and pay the nominal fee) you own it forever.

You can download your email list and take it with you anywhere. Yes the layers built on top of it can ban you (MailChimp, Mailerlite, etc.) but the actual list is yours.

Same with crypto. As long as you own your keys and keep them secure the coins are yours forever.

The protocol layers contrasts with the corporate layer, which is made up of assets that you don’t own and definitely don’t control.

Social media and YouTube exist on the corporate layer.

You don’t own your account on [insert preferred social media platform here]. It doesn’t matter how much time you put into it or how many followers you have, the companies that own these platforms can remove you for any reason or no reason.

How can you possibly think you own your social media following if a random neckbeard working at X or Meta can delete your account and there’s nothing you can do? It doesn’t make sense.

The metaphorical Meta/X Censorship Department neckbeard doesn’t GAF if they destroy your business, if anything it probably makes them feel powerful/godlike. And that’s IF they even bother to think about you at all after hitting the big fat delete button on your account.

The same goes for paid advertising on any platform. The companies can shut off the spigot at any time for any reason and there’s nothing you can do. If they don’t want your money you can’t force them to take it.

I hope you get the gravity of the distinction here.

Protocol layer = you own it.

Corporate layer = someone else owns it.

(There’s a semi-decent book called Read Write Own by Chris Dixon that goes into more detail about this btw)

Everything you do should be directed towards building up your owned assets

Obviously you can’t ignore social media and YouTube.

If you want to be an effective marketer you need to go where the people are, and in 2024 that’s on social and video platforms.

The real key to success is to leverage those platforms to help grow the assets you actually own (your site and email list).

Too many people build their entire business on the back of platforms they don’t own.

It’s easy to see why: you can grow much faster, it’s somewhat gamified (follower counts and views), it feels cooler than building an old-fashioned website.

There’s no reason why you can’t regularly encourage your followers on X or IG to sign up for your email list. There’s no reason you can’t drop links back to the written reviews on your website in the description and comment section on your YouTube reviews. There’s no reason why you can’t drop “natural” comments linking back to your site on Reddit.

Everything needs to work together with the primary goal of growing assets that you fully own.

If all you’re doing is growing your follower count but not doing anything with it then you have the WRONG MINDSET. One day you may wake up to find that everything you’ve worked for is completely gone. Maybe not, but maybe/maybe not is an insane concept to rely on when you’re talking about your business. Don’t rely on the good graces of nameless, faceless corporate neckbeards. Your fate should be in your own hands, no one else’s.

And yes, the growth can go both ways.

You SHOULD send out email blasts to your subscribers encouraging them to follow you on social. You SHOULD embed your YouTube videos in your blog posts to help grow your views and subscribers.

You can use owned assets to grow borrowed assets. It all works together.

If you do this right then the rising tide will lift up everything you own and turn your business into a multimedia powerhouse brand that completely dominates your niche.

Just keep the following principle in mind: the assets you own are the base layer of the online business cake. Everything else is just icing on top.