Hi YATMers, I’m Matthew Tam. I’m passionate about creative expression, communication in its many forms and community.
My companies are Macromonium and Nurithm, with both aiming to elevate Human lives. For Macromonium, this is done through the automation of monotonous repetitive Excel tasks, while Nurithm seeks to bring clarity through Human-first AI integration.
Outside of my work, I’ve been delving into the Cosmere, a fictitious universe brought to life by the great Brandon Sanderson. For those of you who feel the allure of such a universe, I would recommend that you start with The Way Of Kings.
Here is me, just living life with my new friend Patrick!.
Let's make sure we connect today.
Here I am on LinkedIn
Where I work here
A community is the distribution of your values, not a monetisation of your audience.
The dilemma of whether a community should be free or paid, divides people.
I have seen people dismiss paid communities as glorified service models, I have seen people struggle where the free community model becomes a mish mash of strangers who dip in and out.
When people ask ‘should a community be free?’ it presents a binary choice.
This means one or the other, it limits strategy and longevity. It’s similar to whether you should see a band for free and give them a tip, or pay to see them.
The answer is that it’s rarely one or the other. When free or paid options take precedence, we create transactions, while ecosystems are what we aspire to build.
Rosie Sherry said this, "For people to come in and have top of mind whether it is "free" or "paid" takes away from the value that we hope to create.”
Rather than the focus on free or paid we need to ask, ‘What role does community play in our business and in peoples lives?’
The False Binary
Choosing a side, free or paid community, puts your head in one place.
Over the years, I have developed a hybrid model that I'd like to share with you. When it's time to strengthen community connections, you guide people from one place to another.
The free forms of community participation are what we are used to. This could mean WhatsApp or Discord Groups to a newsletter.
Paid formats provide that extra step for people to commit. It could be a events, mentorship or membership.
Layered access is effective; it offers various entry points unified by purpose.What changes is depth of involvement, not ethos.
Let me explain how it works from this side.
Free
Email provided to opt-in
Newsletter every Thursday
We have a WhatsApp Group around events
Paid
Events to attend (September to April)
Creator Day to attend (May)
Membership with YATM Club
Each level has the same meaning, it just means deeper connection and belonging with each level of commitment.
The weekly newsletter? One-to-many communication (2,000 subscribers).
YATM Club? One-to-one, one-to-few, a trusted support system and peer council.
As time and investment deepens, price is just one way people contribute to a community. Creativity, involvement and trust are often worth more.
Without context, a paid offer can feel like a transaction.
Instead, what happened was organic:
- Free newsletter → consistent value
- Events → face-to-face resonance
- Club → deeper belonging and contribution
Each step prepared people for the next.
A word of warning, the jump from free to paid can be challenging, unless it’s planned properly.
Setting The Question
Set aside pricing models for a moment.. Ask:
- What real-world problem do you help people solve?
- What role do you play in someone’s progress?
Mark Schaefer shared recently, “You'll be more successful if you align your strengths with pressing and obvious problems people are willing to pay to solve.” By this, there is a role that you play that is of value to someone else. It could be a role within your industry, or creating a shared space where the calibre of people creates association.
The value you provide helps people determine if what you share and stand for is for them. It also implies that it can't simply be free or paid.
Free doesn't mean “no cost,” it means the cost is hidden, such as time invested to share and produce a newsletter or collecting data to progress initiatives. Conversely, ‘paid’ services do not always ensure value. In fact, they can lead to unmet expectations if not managed properly.
The more you understand your role, it opens up ways to develop that is values-led, human-first and commercially sustainable.
Why It’s Good To Have Flexibility
A hybrid model to a community framework means you lead with the right approach for the appropriate community.
I enjoy writing for you and I want to share my thinking, hence the newsletter plays that role to share ideas and also spotlight people from the wider YATM community, such as Matthew at the top of today's email.
When people attend Creator Day or join YATM Club, the focus and attention is put into that part of the community. We shift from broadcast to belonging. This is especially true for those who choose to attend an event by the seaside, where our attention and efforts are dedicated to them.
This has developed over time as a side project, to become an initiative more substantial based on the role it serves people.
A purely free model can easily turn into an expensive hobby and is rarely sustainable unless it's supported by investments or contributions from others.
What matters is how to develop and grow a project that benfits other people. Ultimately, it is people who decide whether to pay or not.
Let’s Round-Up
You define a community not by its cost, but by its contributions to the people served and to the broader mission.
If YATM is about building independent, self-sufficient spaces beyond algorithmic control, then our pricing model should also resist binary thinking. It’s not just free or paid. It’s layered, purposeful, human.
So before asking 'how much', ask 'why now'?You build the rest from there.
Share this with someone else 💌
youarethemedia.co.uk/free-or-paid/
Time Wasting
Make your own firework display to celebrate tomorrow is Friday.
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This Week Around The Web
GROWTH, CREATION & YOUR INDEPENDENCE
Take blogging seriously - from Tom Critchlow
THE COMMUNITY YOU CAN BUILD
The community dating period - from Fabian Pfortmüller
Why is modern commerce corrosive? - from Tim Harford
GROWING YOUR NEWSLETTER
Include this line in the next newsletter you send - from Josh Spector
You can't build businesses “on top” of newsletters - from Louis Nicholls
We're Getting The New Term Ready For You
Everything starts in September. Hope you can join in for the new YATM year.
When it comes to the live side, it's from September to April and then it's the 'finals' with Creator Day next May.
Starting a new term, means you feel fresh and ready to get stuck in. Whether that's friendships or ideas, let's make sure that happens.
To coincide with the start of the new term, we're heading to Canada to spend time with Ron Tite and talk about ideas from his latest book, The Purpose of Purpose. It's all about living what you believe in and building your business from it. This session is going to be in YATM Club.
Come to London on 4th September for Lunch Club, book here
Come to Poole on 11th September for Lunch Club, book here
How People Can See The Effort You Put In, Next Week
Let's turn invisible effort into visible value that resonates with people.
Next week, we're going to bring people closer to you.
Phill Agnew walked 12 hours to get to Creator Day '25 and everyone loved him for it.
There was a reason. If Phill walked and documented the journey, people would recognise the effort he put in and like his presentation even more.
We're going to have a live session in YATM Club next Wednesday (16th) at 2pm BST, where the purpose is how you can add this effort slant into your work.
If you want people to see the effort and they value what you do more, what’s one small change we can make? We're going to do this together.
Book it in here.
If you're not part of YATM Club, join here or let me show you how it looks before you join and you pick a time here.
Pick You
It’s better to be relevant to the people who matter, rather than spending your life on someone else’s platform looking for attention.
It's scary and isolating to start off with, but it becomes easier as more people join you.
If you built your own platform and people feel a part of the space you spent nurturing, you’re in a strong place.
Click here to watch the end of newsletter video. See you soon.
END OF NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCEMENT
We normally have a summer YATM party, I have to be honest, I am exhausted from a busy few months. I just didn't have it in me to organise a full-on summer event.
This is what we're going to do....low key, on the Quay.
If you live near to YATM HQ, in Poole, I have booked outside at Creator Day party central, La Mias, on Thursday 17th July. I will sit at a table, on my own, at 4.45pm with jugs of Sangria.
Imagine it as the end of a shift, before we start again in September.
If you'd like to have a drink with me and a 'have a great summer' come and sit at the table with me.
Will it just be John Jocham and me? Let's find out.
No need to book, no sign up, turn up. Let's see where the end of the day takes us.
