Why Building A Community Is Harder Than Ever In 2025

Getting there can take a lot of time, energy and consideration, as well as facing obstacles along the way.

In 2025, these challenges have intensified for those trying to build communities from scratch. While success is achievable, it’s essential to acknowledge these hurdles.

I have always used YATM as a case study to illustrate with you how a community works. 

If I want to share my insights with you, the least I can do is go out and prove my points. I would never want to rely on an anecdotal approach. Instead, I want to share my experiences, including both the challenges and the lessons learned. This way, you can see the steps I took and the dilemmas I faced.

Community involves people, initiatives, ideas and is always focused on making progress each year. Getting to this point with YATM has taken many twists and turns.

After over 10 years of navigating this journey, I recognise the importance of adopting a scrapbook approach to your work. This method allows you to look back and identify the pivotal moments and how things appeared at various points in time.

YATM is a live experiment for people to walk in and experience it for themselves. It’s good to provide that space for people to experience and look around. It also provides food for thought for others who want to establish a community approach to their work.

Where I started, YATM was a side project. Today, however, it has become a thriving community. I hope this provides context regarding its longevity. It has required a lot of hard work, but being able to create a space where others can develop, connect, and grow is truly a privilege.

Here is some advice I would give my younger self if I wanted to build a community in 2025.

This is taking onboard what I see and the experiences gained over the years. 

It’s not here to halt you in your steps or to make you reconsider your aspirations. More than anything else, it’s here to save you time.

Here is why building community in 2025 is more challenging than ever.

Being distracted by others who have established communities can create a sense of pressure.

Community building is a valid business strategy today, and there are more platforms available for hosting an online community, such as Circle or Discord. However, the desire to replicate someone else’s successful space cannot be achieved through conventional methods like paying for ads or increasing posting frequency on a platform.

What looks desirable, behind the scenes can come with years of work, toil and constant homework. People sometimes forget that.

It’s easy to overlook the journey and focus solely on the perceived utopia, forgetting the miles traveled just to stay in the race. Being distracted by someone else’s achievements can create unnecessary pressure.

The appeal of recurring revenue motivates many individuals to create communities.

It’s understandable, who wouldn’t want the peace of mind that comes from knowing there are people engaged and financially supporting the entire experience?

When that becomes the driver, the building effort becomes transaction led. The intention all along is to make a space where people consider it an integral part of their life.

Scale can become a focus for so many people. 

The pursuit of more can be damaging as well as draining. I understand that reaching a larger audience can help validate an effort and demonstrate social proof. However, when it comes to building a community, what truly matters is serving those who feel connected to the initiative.

It is challenging to know 100 people well, let alone 1,000 people. According to Dunbar’s number, we can realistically manage around 150 stable relationships at any given time. Beyond that, our connections may be driven more by ego than by genuine interaction (read more from the BBC here).

I couldn’t successfully manage an event with more than 300 participants; at that scale, individuals get lost in the crowd, and I lose sight of the original purpose.

I am giving credit here to Darryl Sparey from Hard Numbers, who helped my thinking with this. 

Five years ago you knew where to spend your time and Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and possibly LinkedIn became your places to head to. 

The polarisation, addiction, and volatility of social media platforms, along with the rise of newer options like BlueSky and TikTok, have created a chaotic environment.

As people begin to tune out and spend less time on these platforms, they face the dilemma of deciding where to focus their energy. Additionally, algorithms now dictate content visibility, making it increasingly difficult to reach and connect with your intended audience and the nudges you give.

According to recent survey from The Verge and Vox Media social platforms are rapidly losing ground as trust and authenticity fade, with more people flocking to AI chatbots.

When we start, we want people to trust our knowledge and expertise in a specific topic area.

If you always lead with “listen to me,” the burden falls solely on you. This can lead to burnout and increased pressure.

At the beginning, it’s important to share your perspective, as it reflects your beliefs and will attract people. Over time, the focus can shift from “listen to me” to “what do you think?”

When a community is built around one person’s personality, that individual feels the weight of responsibility. However, when we view each member as an expert, we can learn and grow together, which is a powerful dynamic.

The core principles of community-building remain unchanged. The development and success of a community is tied to the people who feel like they belong. 

Shifting our focus to serving others fosters a sense of attachment, first to you and then to one another. This is why live events are essential to YATM. Finding the right balance between the online and offline experiences is crucial. The purpose of YATM events is for people to meet and recognise their connection to the same community, allowing them to express, ‘I’m a part of this too.’

Over time, these connections create a natural flow within the community. Simple interactions, such as acknowledging each other on social posts or forming friendships, become commonplace.

When this is cemented as part of a community, it provides a place for people to share freely and to be accepted for who you are, not who you pretend to be. It is by having an event for people to head to, that becomes the seed to build deep and lasting friendships. We need that today.

Progress comes from empowerment. By this, I mean the ability for other people to step up and to have opportunity to shine. The communities who will win, will be those who empower others to be leaders, even if they previously did not see themselves in such positions. Change happens when other people lead. 

I have seen the collective energy of people stepping up, taking charge, and adding their unique strengths to the mix. Those who lead sessions in YATM Club, Lunch Club and Creator Day don’t just fill a gap, they bring new layers of depth and energy that cannot come from a single voice alone.

Building a community in 2025 is challenging, but the outcomes are what truly matter.

People who are active and engaged drive progress. The Verge and Vox Media survey shows that many are leaving large platforms for smaller, trust-based groups focused on shared values and meaningful content. That is encouraging for everyone.

Encouraging people to feel valued and participate ensures the longevity of a community. By confronting the challenges of community-building today, we can create spaces where everyone contributes to a collective, impactful creative effort.