Stop Waiting — Build The Space You Deserve

When you trade in money for time and figuring things out, you can build a space—a campfire—for people to gather.

If you can see a space that isn’t currently served, even if you don’t know that it will work but aligns with your values and beliefs, the last thing you should do is ignore it.

Can you bring people together to support one another over time? Can you create a collective effort?

The aim is to own a corner of the world or the web that’s uncontested, where you feel seen and heard.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps and thought process behind creating that space.

You can get lost, or you can be seen and you lean more into your corner so it provides value. 

This is what I have learned over the years:

LOST = My narrative was on digital and content marketing (nothing different)

SEEN = how to promote you and your work by having a team of cheerleaders on your side

For your side, it could be:

🤘 An event that sits separately from what people are used to ie. networking

🤘 An approach to your industry where you believe in something else (where it’s broken)

🤘 A newsletter that leans into your values where the storyline helps others

🤘 Sharing your life in the industry you represent

🤘 A content format that isn’t video or writing such as animation

Most of the time the opportunity won’t come to you, so you have to make your own luck.

When I was 15 I played for a football team called Canford Park. Canford Park only lasted two seasons, but it was created for a specific purpose.

A man named Larry Bush, responded to his son’s wishes to have a football team where he could play in goal every week. Although Nathan was talented, he wasn’t the tallest of goalkeepers. Larry assembled a team of Nathan’s friends, and their friends, and obtained approval from the local FA for them to compete as a football team.

Larry noticed an opportunity to establish a football team that could play on Sundays, independent of any existing club. He saw a gap and took the initiative to create a team for his son.

Last week, we launched our new YATM Lunch Club series of events, which will continue until May 2025.

This didn’t exist in 2016. I created it to meet people who had subscribed to the newsletter. The purpose was to get to know each other better, rather than just selling to people we didn’t know very well.

That space didn’t exist, so I made that space. Small changes each year and incorporating them into the Lunch Club events we have today. I still enjoy trying to figure it all out, where people make that choice to step away from work for a few hours to meet people they may not even know.

Having ambition is a key trait for achieving success in any field. Progress is a natural part of the journey, and there will be times when you face obstacles. This is because you are charting your own path rather than following someone else’s directions.

In reality, there’s no ceiling—just get resourceful, do your homework, and persistence as your foundation. You don’t have to please everyone. Focus on a niche that’s big enough to get you where you want to go, and show up with helpful content and open ideas, consistently.

You can’t make everyone care, but you can inspire those who do. 

You have to take the risk and say, ‘I am going to do it this way.’ This is how to map your progress where you build your own space.

I believe that we can promote ourselves without always relying on a middleman to decide who should see us. From algorithms to journalists, we can find ways to reach people. It’s about getting people on your side.

It’s important to create approaches and systems that can make an impact on the people you want to attract. When I say ‘your side,’ I mean a place where people visit for a reason; it could be a newsletter, it could be a live event. You need to give people a compelling reason to return.

In the past, if you wanted your work to be seen or experienced by more than a few people, you needed access to the production and distribution networks. Someone else controlled access to the audience you wanted. Today, you can access your audience and if you want to, build your legacy through a community. 

When you have a worldview and something you are willing to fight for, it transcends industry skills, professional activity and technical know-how. If you can show proof from your own experiences and efforts, you stand in a place of one. For me, that’s to continually show how we have the power to cut through the shouting and reach your audience, directly. You become the media in your own right (hence the name, You Are The Media).

Do you have a set of beliefs that you stand for?

Can these beliefs be integrated into your work?

Are you curious and persistent in your pursuits, even when faced with challenges?

This is how you maintain the motivation to carry on.

You need to bring your true self to the table, not the version of yourself that’s shaped by the industry.

When you look deeper, it’s your values that motivate you. They keep you enthused and ensure that your spark never dies out. For You Are The Media, creativity, visibility, experimentation, co-learning, and community are key values. These are the values I believe in and stand by.

Your values become the pillars of what you stand for. What happens is that it attracts like-minded people who resonate with your reason. When you recognise your values, it guides the decisions you make. From the content you produce to the partnerships and friendships you make, it all comes back to this place. 

When people can see our values in action, they move beyond mere connections on social media and become advocates with a deeper connection.

Bringing people to you from what you stand for, isn’t a one size fits all approach. 

It starts with understanding your audience, where your message and voice can truly connect. It’s tempting to just follow trends, but it’s important to concentrate on building genuine connections. Once you do that, you can then cultivate a space that has the potential to become a community.

Let me break it down into the must-haves when it comes to nurturing the space that wasn’t there before you.

🤔 Know the space you want to be vocal about  

If your message is solely driven by your industry, you will fall into the space of catering to what the industry expects from you (I’ve made this mistake myself). What is happening around you that aligns with your values? It could be perseverance, it could be confidence. How does this connect with the role you serve in your industry? More importantly, how can you pursue ideas as a student rather than solely as a teacher?

🤔 Recognise where your fuel is coming from  

Your own opinion alone isn’t sufficient. Where can you find additional information that supports your beliefs? The answer might not always be found within your industry; it could be outside of it. It could even be in the realm of entertainment. This suggests that you are driven by more than just commercial interests (where your work resembles a marketing campaign), otherwise, you’ll lose motivation.

🤔 Find your origin story  

Your origin story is connected to what you do in the present day. It is important to establish a connection that is more personal rather than just using industry jargon as your foundation. Your competitive edge lies in the narrative that revolves around your work, rather than the specific industry you operate in. This article on your origin story can help you.

🤔 Find a common theme  

Embracing a common theme that people can relate to helps them understand. . For instance, customer service, innovation or excellence has no meaning, until you put it into the context of your values. At our Lunch Club events, we don’t focus on industry-specific topics; instead, we centre our discussions on universal concepts like character, creativity, and relationships.

🤔 Stay focused  

Lean into a focused topic, rather than a broad one, that way you can go deeper, plus you are continually honing your craft to be seen as the person others want to be with. For instance, marketing is a vast topic, but focusing on a small part of the whole industry can make your message more compelling and people, over time, know it’s from you.

🤔 Seek validation  

Leadership isn’t always about imposing your views. Sometimes, it can be challenging to find the right approach, but seeking out people and examples that support your actions can be helpful. By putting others and their work first, you can also make progress towards your own goals. It’s important to remember that you can’t achieve everything on your own – your friends and sources of inspiration are right in front of you.

🤔 Always start small  

It can be unsettling seeing others parading their huge audiences, but when do they spend time looking to get to know people a bit better? When you begin with a small but engaged group, it enables you to reach out and ask questions so you can share ideas together. This slowly builds momentum and others find out and can see the value of joining in. To get to a worthwhile place, it starts by being with the right people, not everyone.

🤔 Invite people to join in  

Just because you have a great landing page doesn’t mean people will subscribe. If you have a cause that you believe in and that can benefit others, you have to invite people to join. Simply ask them. Not everyone will take you up on your offer, but they may know someone else who will. Keep being engaged and encouraging. Make it easy for people to join and to connect with others.

If the space doesn’t exist, go build it.

When you make your own space, you understand that it was never about being popular to all, but to be famous in the family with the right people.

The aim is to create a space for people to return. It becomes a mix of connection, belonging, and shared purpose. You can build and flourish within your own space alongside the people who truly matter. It can be done.