Build a Personal Email List

Read time: 3 min.

What’s the most personal thing you own?

It’s not your phone, your social media, or even your photos.

It’s your email.

Your email is the digital thread that ties your life together—apps, accounts, subscriptions—everything.

Last year, I learned this the hard way.

My email got hacked.

One minute, everything was fine. The next, my personal Instagram account turned into a billboard for a bitcoin scam. The hacker posted fake stories, claiming ‘’I’’ had made thousands through crypto.

Friends I hadn’t spoken to in months were engaging with these posts, believing they were talking to me. In reality, the hacker was using my account to lure them into his scam.

It took three sleepless nights of relentless effort, but I finally outplayed the hacker and reclaimed my account while he was offline.

This nightmare taught me one thing: the value of an email address.

Lose access to it, and you lose access to your entire online life.

But if one email is that valuable, imagine the power of an entire list.

When someone shares their email with you, they’re opening the door to one of their most personal spaces—their inbox.

That’s why building your own email list is one of the smartest moves you can make as a creator. With an email list, you’re in control. You decide what gets sent, when it gets sent, and to whom. No algorithms. No middlemen. Just a direct, personal line to people who genuinely want to hear from you.

Take social media for example. You might have 10,000 followers, but how many actually see your posts? Five percent? Maybe ten on a good day.

With email, your message lands directly in front of your audience—no filters.

And here’s the real difference:

• Instagram could shut down tomorrow.

• TikTok might be banned next week.

• But your email list? It’s yours. You own it.

Nobody can take that away from you.

Email has been around for over 50 years, and it’s not going anywhere.

It’s the cockroach of the internet—unkillable.

If you’ve been putting off building your email list, it’s time to start.

Every day you wait is a missed opportunity to build something that truly belongs to you.

Social media might be flashy, but your email list?

That’s the foundation.

Much love,

Martijn Douw