YATM ✊ | Finding Your Doors In 2026

Hi YATMers, I'm Matt King wishing you a very Happy New Year.

However you are approaching these first few days of 2026 may they be happy, your head is in a good place and you are ready to start with a clean slate.

It's been a reason to celebrate this week, hence this pic of me at yesterday's sea dip with a bottle of champagne.

At the start of 2025 I never knew that I'd be able to head into cold water for every day of the year and that I'd also be a new dad.

This week, I have completed 365 days of cold water and my little girl, Autumm came into the world on Tuesday. You never know what twists and turns are out there, but they can be life changing and beautiful.

Let's make sure we connect today.

Here I am on LinkedIn

Where I work here

Here is where I have been raising money for MyTime Young Carers

If 2026 feels like the year you want to be slower and more you, I’m standing with you. There’s a place for you here.

We are about to step back into everyday life saturated with screens, advice, content and noise.

One trap I’ve fallen into over the years is thinking the New Year fix is ‘more output.’ This could be posting more, or having an idea that feels right to launch at the start of the year.

My apppoach used to be if you push harder, there is the belief to be visible enough that it finally clicks.

Many of us have trained ourselves to document everything. Every little project, even parts of our lives, becomes content.

I have recognised what we’re actually looking for is the thing underneath all the tactics, that’s people, a base and familiarity with others. Doors we can walk through where we don’t have to perform competence all the time.

The Part We Don’t Say Out Loud

The ‘always-on’ behaviour is for self-protection.

When your work lives online, it’s easy to fall into a quiet pattern:

🫩 you publish, but you don’t feel seen

🫩 you build, but you don’t feel heard

🫩 you keep going, but it doesn’t feel shared

The cost shows up in strange ways.

You can be busy and still feel isolated. You can be consistent and still feel like you’re carrying it alone. You can be surrounded by information and still feel like you’re missing the one thing that makes it sustainable, other people who know you, notice you, and have your back.

We’re spending more time 'connected' than ever, yet loneliness is rising. Around 1 in 4 adults in Great Britain report feeling lonely often/always or some of the time (Office for National Statistics, April 2025).

When It’s All On You, It’s Hard

This is what I learned in 2025, when it’s all on you, it’s hard.

When you get people involved, it changes everything. It becomes lighter, more sustainable, more likely to last.

That’s the role of You Are The Media now.

It’s a set of places to belong, where people can show up as themselves, be seen, and build alongside others who are genuinely on their side.

It all comes down to being recognised and appreciated for who you truly are.

That’s the difference between fitting in and feeling at home.

Fitting in asks you to sand down the edges. Belonging lets you keep your quirks at the front. This isn’t brand spin, it’s the whole point.

The Front Doors (How To Step Into YATM)

If joining in feels right this year, there are doors here for you.

I don’t mean funnels or offers. Just doors that are open and a room on the other side.

1) Lunch Clubs (London, Poole, Bristol and then more around the UK)

Lunch Club is the simplest format we have.

They are centred around relatable themes to small businesses. The focus is good food and making friends. Panels are for perspective, then a room-wide conversation where everyone can join in.

We made these spaces to connect, learn, and spend time with good people doing meaningful work, without the discomfort of walking into a room and feeling like you have to put your “business head” on.

The goal isn’t a networking format, it’s familiarity.

Familiarity is underrated, but it’s what changes your week. It’s the repetition, seeing people again, building allies, that helps you feel grounded, supported, and more likely to be seen when opportunities come up.

2) Creator Day (the big day in May)

Creator Day is a full day (in fact, it's now become a week) built around direction, activity and feeling part of something bigger. The theme for 2026 is community.

It’s a day where you learn from people doing the work, not people just talking about the work. It’s not designed for you to go home with “lots to think about” that stays left in your notes.

The afternoon is built around working in supportive teams, creating something you may not have made yet, or haven’t been brave enough to share, with people on your side.

It’s focus is to be part of an occasion and taking part. I have seen confidence coming from shared doing.

3) YATM Club (your council)

YATM Club is the ongoing space (on a platform called Circle). It’s rhythms and routines you can rely on.

I’ve recognised in 2025 that the Club is becoming a working council, because it’s built through repeatable actions, sessions, and showing up again.

It’s the acknowledgement that you need a room where you can keep going and to ask questions.

Inside the Club, the point isn’t to crown one expert. It’s to replace pressure with participation, shared learning, sense-checking, working together, and turning “I’m stuck” into “let’s figure this out.”

That’s what a council does. It makes you feel less alone inside your ambition.

What Changes When You’re Supported?

When you’re inside a supported space, a few things happen that no tactic can replicate:

😉 you stop second-guessing every decision in isolation

😉 you ship work faster because you’re not stuck in your own head

😉 you get braver because someone else is standing with you

😉 you build consistency because there’s a rhythm and a room

😉 you make friends in the direction you’re heading

😉 you start to feel like your work has a home, not just a platform

If 2026 Is Your Year To Join In?

Whatever you’re building this year, the business, a side project, a new chapter, a braver version of you, you don’t have to do it alone.

If 2026 feels like the year to join in, YATM is here.

Not as another thing to keep up with, but as a supported space you can step into, where you don’t have to perform, where you can test ideas, and where people genuinely want you to win.

Pick a door, come to a Lunch Club, make a day of it at Creator Day, or join the Club.

You were never meant to figure this out on your own. You don’t have to start 2026 that way, there are so many people on your side.

Happy New Year....Mark