Organic Marketing vs Paid Ads: how to know which lead generation strategy is right for you

Lead Generation for 2026: Why Attraction Comes First (and How to Combine Organic and Paid Without Burning Out)

Let’s be honest. Lead generation is the thing quietly making or breaking most online businesses right now. If you’ve been listening to the last few episodes of the podcast, you’ll already know my stance on this. Attraction is everything for 2026. Inside my programs and masterminds, we are helping our clients build real demand. Not just posting more content. Not just launching louder. But actually:

• Building volume in their lead generation 
• Warming their prospects properly 
• Creating an ecosystem where sales feel inevitable rather than forced 

Because whether you sell low ticket, high ticket, or anything in between, your sales results are only ever as strong as the quality and warmth of your leads. And understandably, I’m getting a lot of questions right now about lead generation. Questions like:

• “Are you only about Facebook ads now?” 
• “Do I need paid traffic to grow?” 
• “Is organic still enough?” 
• “What actually works in today’s market?” 

So today, I want to break this down properly and share the core philosophy that shapes how I think about lead generation, paid ads, and attraction as a whole.

The One Quote That Will Change How You Think About Lead Generation

There’s an old-school marketing quote I come back to again and again. It’s by Howard Gossage, and it perfectly sums up my entire philosophy: “People don’t read ads. They read what interests them. Sometimes that’s an ad.” This is where so many people get lead generation wrong. They treat paid advertising and organic content as two completely separate strategies, when in reality, the best-performing businesses treat them as part of the same ecosystem. Paid ads are not meant to replace your organic content. They are meant to amplify what is already working. And organic content is not meant to do everything. It is meant to build trust, authority, and connection so that conversion becomes easier, faster, and far less draining. Before we even talk about ads, though, we need to talk about the three core ways I believe every expertise-based business should be generating leads.

The Three Core Lead Generation Channels Every Business Needs

When I teach lead generation, I map it into three distinct but complementary channels. Not ten. Not “be everywhere.” Just three, done properly.

1. Your Magnetic Channel: Where People Get to Know You

Your magnetic channel is the place where people can feel you. It is where they:

• See your personality 
• Follow your thinking in real time 
• Decide whether they like you, trust you, and resonate with your worldview 

For most of my clients, and for me personally, this channel is Instagram. Instagram works exceptionally well because it is almost a one stop shop:

• Stories for daily connection 
• Posts for authority and reach 
• DMs for relationship-building 
• Links, highlights, and funnels that convert 

TikTok can also function as a magnetic channel, but I will be honest. I do not love it for conversions. You can grow followers quickly on TikTok. I have tested this myself. I once ran a friendly competition with a friend where we each grew 2,000 followers in a month. The difference was simple. Those followers did not convert at the same level. Instagram, in my experience, still attracts a higher calibre buyer. The Cloud 9 clients who are willing to pay to solve their problems, not just consume content. Your magnetic channel is not about perfection. It is about presence. People want to see that you are alive, active, thinking, and evolving.

2. Your Authority Channel: Where Trust Is Built at Scale

Next, you need one authority channel. Just one. In my world, that channel is either:

• A podcast 
• Or a YouTube channel 

That is it. Do I like Substack? Yes. Do I like blogging? Absolutely. But I see those as supplementary, not foundational. Here is why. Google has a well-known principle called the 7–11–4 rule. Their research showed that before someone buys, they typically need:

• 7 hours of content 
• Across 11 touchpoints 
• On 4 different platforms 

Depth and volume matter. Here is something else people do not talk about enough. Humans recognise each other through faces. Written content alone makes it hard for people to truly know you. Nearly every single client I have ever worked with has binged my podcast before buying. That is not a coincidence. Audio and video create intimacy. They build familiarity. They shorten trust timelines dramatically. Podcasting and YouTube also act as evergreen traffic sources. My previous podcast generated over 20,000 downloads per month, even two years after I stopped publishing new episodes. That is demand that keeps working for you.

Podcast vs YouTube: Choose Based on Your Life, Not Trends

YouTube is phenomenal. It is a search engine owned by the biggest search engine in the world. People can see your face, your energy, and your expertise. The reason I choose podcasting is simple. I am a mum. I consume content in audio form while walking, driving, cleaning, and cooking. I do not have the capacity to sit and watch long videos. Podcasting allows me to:

• Show up quickly 
• Record without perfection 
• Stay consistent without heavy production 

YouTube requires more finesse, more setup, and more visual polish. Both work. Choose the one that fits your life, because consistency beats intensity every time.

3. Paid Advertising: Your Hardest Working Employee

Now let’s talk about the channel that tends to trigger the most resistance. Paid advertising. Here is how I see ads. They are not separate from your content. They are an extension of it. Paid ads amplify what is already resonating. They take your best-performing ideas and push them further. They also do the jobs many business owners secretly hate:

• Asking for the email 
• Asking for the click 
• Asking for the sale 

Ads work for you 24/7. They optimise. They scale what is effective. I often say my ads manager is one of the hardest-working employees in my business, and it does not need sick days.

Organic vs Paid Is the Wrong Question

I hear people say things like, “I built my business 100% organically.” And that is amazing. Truly. But my honest reaction is that must have taken so much time. I live by this philosophy. Why walk when you can run? Everything has a cost. You either pay with time or you pay with money. As someone who works part-time and values peace just as much as profit, I am very happy to do a bit of both. Organic builds trust. Paid speeds things up. The magic happens when they work together.

Attention First, Conversion Second

One of the smartest things you can do as a business owner is study attention mastery. Think about creators like Bailey Sarian or Brad Mondo. They know how to stop the scroll. Millions of views. Massive reach. But attention alone is not the goal. Conversion matters too. This is where paid ads shine. When you understand what captures attention organically, your ads become cheaper, more effective, and far more scalable. That is the difference between throwing money at ads and strategic amplification.

Marketing Is an Ecosystem, Not a Single Post

Not every post is meant to:

• Go viral 
• Get followers 
• Generate leads 
• Make sales 

Marketing is an ecosystem. Some content builds authority. Some builds connection. Some builds reach. Occasionally, you hit the holy grail and content does all three. But the goal is not perfection. The goal is momentum.

Do You Need Ads to Generate Leads?

Here is the truth. You can generate hundreds of leads per month organically. It is possible. But it requires:

• More output 
• More energy 
• More time 

If you want to consistently generate 300 to 1,000 or more leads per month while working part-time, ads become a powerful ally. Not instead of organic. Alongside it. That is how we build sustainable, scalable demand without burning out.

Where This All Comes Together

Inside the Peace + Profit Mastermind, this is exactly what we focus on:

• Attraction-first lead generation 
• Authority-led content ecosystems 
• Strategic paid amplification 
• Warming audiences before selling 
• Building demand that makes launches convert 

No hustle. No chaos. No “be everywhere” advice. Just a lean, intelligent system that works with your life, not against it.

Your Next Step

Reach out in the DMs with your questions about ads, audience growth, or authority building. Use the Monday Q&A sticker to ask about podcast growth, Instagram strategy, or paid ads. Or, if you are ready for deeper support, request the details for the Peace + Profit Mastermind. Because lead generation in 2026 is not about doing more. It is about attracting better and amplifying what already works.