You Are The Media (YATM) is the home for marketing misfits. It started in 2013 at the seaside, in England 🌊 The community is built around creativity, interdependence, visibility, experimentation and co-learning.
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Hi YATMers, I'm Rich Burn. I've been part of the community since 2014.
I'm a marketer by trade turned facilitator and tech/digital upskilling project manager. I have my own little business helping regions across the country designing and delivering digital skills and business/marketing programmes as well as delivering mentoring directly to small business owners.
I also work part-time for the charity FutureDotNow helping grow their community and share their mission to help raise awareness of the digital skills gap.
I live in a little village in Horton, Dorset with my wife and teenage daughter and our little dog Churro.
Here's a book recommendation for you. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, is a fascinating but honest perspective on us humans and our relationships!
I'm running The Marketing "Show," a peer led AI Watchalong for Marketers and small businesses owners. Every other Wednesday, online. 8:45 - 9:45am. Here's the LinkedIn post that started it all. DM me and I can share more with you.
Burnout is a pressing issue for people creating and promoting their work.
Behind the outward picture of consistency and determination, many people are running on empty.
Too often it’s a solo mission to build awareness and trust. The result is fatigue, isolation and a creeping sense that no matter how much you produce, it’s never enough.
My Own Admission
I wrote about burn out whilst I was experiencing it. You can read here from 2018.
I was sharing that my eyes were straining more from time on the screen.
I described burnout then as twofold:
Being hard on yourself to always meet deadlines. Such as sending an email every Thursday morning or hitting a deadline for a conference build up.
Carrying high expectations without a team to lean on when the pressure builds.
After the 2019 YATM Conference I promised to myself never to take everything on my own shoulders again.
Back then, while positivity and good feeling were being shared online after a big event, I was slumped on the sofa, asleep for most of the day.
Burnout By Numbers
A 2025 survey from social agency, Billion Dollar Boy, on a survey of 1,000 creators and 1,000 senior marketers across the US and UK, shares a sobering picture where creative, emotional, and operational pressures are beginning to overwhelm people.
52% of creators report experiencing burnout.
37% have considered leaving their careers altogether.
The top causes: creative fatigue (40%), workload (31%), constant screen time (27%), and financial instability (the number one stressor).
We’re even seeing the rise of a new term this year, ‘AI fatigue.’
Juliette Denny recently shared, "Most organisations respond to AI anxiety with technical training. "Learn prompt engineering!" "Understand machine learning!" They think knowledge cures fear. They're catastrophically wrong."
Research into remote work and isolation mirrors the same story. A study of students showed that those in isolation reported significantly higher burnout and psychological distress than their peers.
Going it alone magnifies exhaustion.
When we isolate ourselves, the load becomes heavier. That is talking from experience and also what the research says.
When you’re constantly running to keep up, while looking around at others who seem in control, anxiety grows, it’s a troubling and unsafe place to be.
How Isolation Feeds Burnout
From experience, here’s what happens when you try to figure it all out alone:
Every burden is yours.
You are the strategist, the writer, the marketer and every decision is on you. Small tasks stack up like weights on your shoulders.
You lose perspective.
Without peers, minor setbacks can feel catastrophic. There’s no one to normalise the dips, remind you of progress, or share their lessons
There’s no shared energy.
Creativity is relational. Ideas flow in conversation, momentum builds when other people are invested. Alone, that energy source dries up.
What Collective Effort Can Look Like In Seven Days (Evidence)
In YATM Club, leaning into collective practices has been a way to replace pressure with participation:
🙂 Week Map (Sunday evenings, 7.30pm).
This is an idea from Beth Carter. It’s a shared planning space where people set intentions for the week ahead. It helps to creates clarity before the week begins, and by doing it together, no one feels like they’re navigating alone. This is all about accountablity.
🙂 Sense Check (every last Wednesday of each month, it was yesterday).
Ben McKinney suggested a forum where unfinished ideas could be shared to see if they resonate. On the last Wednesday of each month that forum is open to other people to share and test concepts that might otherwise stay bottled up. This is about feedback and validation.
🙂 Knowledge Sharing (mid part bi-monthly).
These sessions give the floor to everyone. Our latest session focused on AI and people to share what works for them, on screen. Instead of one authority, the session drew from everyone’s experiments with AI. What emerged was a layered picture of trial, error, and learning, the knowledge of many, not the authority of one. This is all about shared learning.
How You Make It A Reality
Never try harder on your own.
The shift comes when ambition is shared, not shouldered in silence. Collective effort reduces the weight, builds momentum, and gives everyone a reason to stay the course.
Here’s how you bring it to life:
1) Start with a visible centre of gravity
People need a focal point. A collective doesn’t form in the ether, it needs a place to gather, notice each other, and recognise the direction of travel. Online or offline, consistency signals reliability.
The longer people are connected, the more familiar and invested they become. When there’s a clear hub, participation feels natural and not forced.
2) Let participation happen at the right pace
Burnout works best under pressure. Collective efforts work best when people feel safe and trust your intention. That comes from a visible track record, proof that this is not a passing whim but something with substance.
By showing care and consistency, you create conditions where people want to take part, on their terms, without the fear of over-commitment.
3) Create room for peer-to-peer connection
Isolation magnifies stress. In-person gatherings, even small ones, puncture loneliness and remind us we’re part of something bigger.
At YATM Creator Day and Lunch Club, momentum happens not on stage but in the conversations between attendees. A collective grows strong when members can reach sideways as well as upwards.
4) Share the spotlight
If a collective is just one voice amplified, it’s not a collective, it’s a broadcast. Burnout lessens when recognition is distributed, when people are invited to share their experiences, stories, and ideas.
This isn’t about guest slots on your platform but about designing space for others to lead, contribute, or experiment. When more people get a turn in the spotlight, responsibility is spread and everyone benefits.
5) Build expertise as a shared asset
When people pool knowledge, the weight of figuring everything out alone disappears.
The presence of trusted peers attracts more people in, creating a cycle where expertise compounds.
At YATM, this has meant accountants, coaches, designers, and creators all contributing to a shared toolkit. When people see the calibre of others around them, it raises the bar and strengthens the identity of the group. Expertise becomes not just personal capital but collective resilience.
Let’s Round-Up
Collective effort doesn’t erase hard work, but it does protect against the exhaustion of going it alone.
The facts are stark, more than half of creators report experiencing burnout and isolation has been repeatedly linked to distress and fatigue.
Shared spaces, recognition and expertise are not luxuries, they’re safeguards.
Burnout thrives in silence and isolation. Collective ambition thrives in visibility and connection. If you want to build something sustainable,start with the group, not just yourself.
Data is a tool. It locates friction, tests hypotheses and measures the health of systems, but it isn't your boss.
The real work is by being creative: building rituals, finding threads, designing experiences and inviting people in.
If you start with the people who choose to be with you, the numbers become clearer and more useful.
You’ll stop optimising for strangers and start creating for the people who are actually on your side.
Susanna's Think Tank Summit Is 10th to 14th November
Join in with YATM family member Susanna Reay and a host of talented people online in November. Think TED style short talks and interviews that inspire discussion and action.
It's free for you to attend and all you need to do is book here.
Tomorrow (Friday) at 12pm to 1.30pm (BST) our YATM pal, Emily Sedgwick is delivering live ChatGPT training. The online session will look at how to write prompts that give you what you need and you want support that’s simple and easy to follow.
You Are The Media (YATM) is the home for marketing misfits. It started in 2013 at the seaside, in England 🌊 The community is built around creativity, interdependence, visibility, experimentation and co-learning.
