How To Make A Scene For People To Feel Part Of

There’s an old saying that goes: “Who you spend time with the most, is who you become.” So it stands to reason that the people you surround yourself with in business – your friends, supporters and customers – and the community you’ve built from your content creation efforts can and will drive positive feedback loops. 

Ultimately what you’re doing is creating something that benefits others and the positives from that will eventually come back to you. In the words of You Give A Little Love from Bugsy Malone, “You give a little love and it all comes back to you. You know your gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do.”

Helping and championing others up, seeing them develop the confidence to take on active roles themselves, increases collective value and cements links between people and businesses in your community.

In 2019 I wrote an article on the importance of creating a community that can run itself. These sort of communities work best because they’re about everyone coming together and creating that all-important sense of occasion rather than being driven by top-down, hierarchical organisation. 

At the time that piece was written, the You Are The Media Lunch Club was a regular offline event.

A year or so later, as we find ourselves in very different circumstances, with a pandemic and lockdowns. What I now recognise is that as well as everyone coming together, the quality of the work you end up producing is influenced and both directly and indirectly contributed to, in no small part, by the people you’ve surrounded yourself with.

It’s about recognising that we can all benefit from this kind of togetherness, whether it’s virtual (as it is now out of necessity) or in-person, via a weekly email, podcast or video. It provides reason enough for creating work, sharing it regularly and finding ways to bring people together. What you’re doing is encouraging others to step up and raise their game too. As the saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

This is the polar opposite of merely pushing or broadcasting your message onto others (or just advertising on social media) in the hope that people will be there listening. It will be interesting for that reason to see how a space such as ClubHouse will evolve. Will there be enough focus on people being able to find those they want to listen to? Will it be a good vehicle for building communities?

There is something to be said about surrounding yourself with a community of people who encourage each other to achieve more, creating important work in the process. 

People coming together through shared purpose, which can also end up being identified with a particular place include:

— Those advocating for women’s right to vote: this gathered pace in the UK in the late 19th and early 20th century, spearheaded by both the suffragists, who believed in peaceful, constitutional campaign methods, and the suffragette movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst which willed women to stand up to “do the work” themselves, taking direct militant action.

— In Silicon Valley, a group of employees who originally worked at PayPal went on to found companies such as LinkedIn, Tesla, Uber, YouTube, Yelp and Yammer. PayPal was a seedbed for some of today’s best-known brands. 

— The late ‘80s Manchester music scene produced a distinctive identity with bands such as the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and The Charlatans achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success – all turning out incredible music.

This begs the question, ‘Who is in the scene that you are a part of?’

When people who are already part of a community stand up, create and share, their work is all the better positioned to develop momentum. This means accelerating their reach beyond what they may have achieved from a standing start, alone. 

Here are a small handful of examples:

— Chandy Green has started his Chatting with Chandy podcast, reaching out to others from the YATM community to take part.

— Matt King is taking his SalesChange project to a place that can help others find creativity in sales.

— Trisha Lewis has the Make It Real podcast and is about to publish her book,

— Jackie Goddard has launched the Atticus Arts Creative Conversations Podcast and reached out to other YATM members such as Joseph Jaffe and Matt (King) to be guests.

— Claire Burdett’s upcoming book, Social Goodness has You Are The Media as a case study as does Trevor Young’s book Content Marketing For PR which features a section dedicated to You Are The Media. 

— Sarah Townsend was the main guest on the show of YATM good friend, Joseph’s Jaffe’s CoronaTV show in the US.

— Two teachers from April’s, You Are The Media Month of Learning were on the same show. John Espirian was a recent guest on Trevor Young’s Reputation Revolution podcast.

Truly creative people rarely work by themselves, they know that having other people around them adds to, and is a vital part, of the process.

When you do something that you enjoy, that springs from genuine interest and intent, and achieve consistency with it, people will gravitate towards you.

Through You Are The Media Online and YATM Learning I’ve discovered the significance of harnessing that creative energy that comes through shared experience.

People share what they are up to, ask questions and tap into the knowledge and wisdom of others in the group. This means that everyone benefits, creating better work across the board. For instance, YATM Learning sessions’ questions and discussions have resulted in my being inspired to produce articles such as what to include in your regular email newsletter. 

It’s as if you’re in an orchestra where you have to be in tune with everyone else, both so that you sound good but also because you’re always contributing to the collective sound. 

This is what I mean by the value coming back to, and being created for you, too:

— The output is more in tune with what others are looking for. For instance, if I’m looking to introduce something new, I’ll ask the YATM community first. Creating on a whim has no such guarantee of buy-in. 

— People ask you to come on board with their projects. Last week I was on two other community members’ shows. Two people who are part of You Are The Media. The benefits accruing to all of us flow all the easier as we are all familiar with each other

— You can settle into being calm and happy about the work you create. Knowing your work can make a difference to others creates a huge feeling of satisfaction. For me, writing to you every week isn’t a chore, it’s something I have a huge amount of fun with. It lets me explore and work things out not just for myself, but with, and for, you.

A community works best when everyone involved is driving it forward and there’s an impetus to people’s content creation efforts.

You can’t push your message relentlessly onto others, hoping to find purchase, it doesn’t work like that. When people enjoy and can relate to what you’re saying it helps them find the confidence and space to develop their own voice, something that can, in turn and in time, help you. 

I look at what I produce now as a message to myself two years ago!

As for the people around you – never stop raving about them. For new people who sign up – point them in the direction of others that you feel may be a good fit for them. The stronger the space you build becomes, the more opportunities there will be for everyone. And the more likely it will be that you’ll be enjoying every minute of the journey.

2021 IS THE YEAR TO GET YOUR CONTENT MOJO BACK, COME TO THE YOU ARE THE MEDIA MONTH OF LEARNING, READ MORE HERE