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 am Filiz Taylan Yuzak, founder of Vibrant Content, based in Winchester. I am an award-winning content writer with 14 years of experience.
I help independent, creative, and sustainable businesses to become more visible online, through content and social media marketing. I am committed to authentic content and organic growth.
I love to sing, and I am a choir member. I also enjoy dancing very much, so my recommendation would be Clubbercise lessons. This is a fitness class that looks like a party, with glow sticks, disco lights, and upbeat tunes! Let's make sure we connect today.
Your work isn’t getting people to show up once. It’s giving them a reason to return.
If people don’t come back, none of this lasts.
Retention isn’t a metric, it’s the proof that the space deserves to exist next month.
The success of any community isn’t driven by how many people you can keep coming through the doors. It’s driven by who stays, who returns and what that repeat behaviour does for everyone else.
For a long time, I thought the answer was to keep going with ‘more.’ More posts, more events, more ways to be visible. More output is what keeps people engaged.
Now I know the real lever is for people to stay.
Making Win Win Economics
Retention is top of mind right now because we’re about to head into a full year of events and launching Lunch Club in Bristol, at the end of February.
I used to think the job was to make each new event feel different, that way it stood apart from other options. Now, the job is simpler, and harder, it’s building something people want to come back to.
That’s where the economics of community become apparent. When the business grows with help from the community, everyone benefits: the community wins, the business wins, the ecosystem wins (Rosie Sherry takes credit for that sentence).
Anchors Turn A Room Into A Place
In every strong community, there are people who make it easier for others to belong.
Christophe Stourton calls them anchors, the familiar faces who stabilise the room. They’re the people who welcome, include, and introduce without being asked. They create grounding for people where it may feel new.
Anchors matter even more when you run events in multiple locations and there is frequency. When the rituals and tone are carried by people, not just the organiser, you get cohesion.
People arrive in a new location and still feel like they’re stepping into a room that feels linked. The community teaches itself, “This is how we do it.”
This is the retention benefit many people overlook, repeat attendance reduces social risk. When familiar faces are present, newcomers relax faster.
Stewardship Is Distributed
I’ve learned that retention relies on stewardship. It can’t be held by one person, but becomes shared responsibility.
There’s safety in numbers. I’ve seen what happens when people are invested, they create value for each other that no organiser could do on their own.
In the build up to Creator Day, last year, people from the local area helped those who were travelling down with recommendations, via a WhatsApp Group. Where to walk, where to eat, the best fish and chips, what to do nearby. It created a collective spirit, people looking out for each other, before the event even began.
That’s a different experience from arriving isolated, where your only relationship is with an organiser and a schedule. Many of the people who travelled for Creator Day ’25 are coming back for Creator Day ’26, this May.
Here’s the loop I’ve watched happen over the years:
1) Familiar faces lower social risk
2) Lower social risk increases participation
3) Participation increases belonging
4) Belonging increases return
Why Churn Is Commonplace
Churn happens when the experience doesn’t match what was promised. Even worse, when the space someone steps into is unclear.
You see it in events where it’s always new faces every time, so no continuity. You see it in online spaces that feel like revolving doors of input, where nothing settles.
Churn can look like rejection, but it’s simpler than that, confusion, friction, or just feeling slightly disappointment.
I’ve had to be explicit about what Lunch Club is and isn’t.
If someone comes to Lunch Club expecting to meet as many people as possible and talk about their business, they’ll leave disappointed. There are better places for that.
We lean into themes people can relate to, rather than a hierarchy where one person talks and everyone else sits quietly. The design is about participation, not performance.
The Basics Are The Retention Strategy
Retention isn’t persuasion, it’s removing the reasons not to come back.
Most reasons are personal, uncertainty, friction and the feeling of “I don’t know what I’m walking into.”
It’s about doing the basics well. Eventbrite reminders and calendar invites are table stakes. Retention is built in the touchpoints around that.
This is what I do in the build-up to a Lunch Club event:
1) A week before, I send a “it’s on the horizon” email and what to expect
2) Two days before the event, I send the agenda and what’s going to happen
3) After the event: a thank you email, what’s next, and a clear next step
The mistake many people make is putting effort in only when it’s expected or only when it’s already too late.
Over the years I have learned that the experience becomes more valuable the longer someone stays. When you come and go, you don’t build friendships and other people don’t get the chance to build them with you.
Retention isn’t just “people returning.” It’s the community becoming easier to belong to because people start to know one another.
A Practical Model For You To Use
This is what it takes for people to stay.
Retention = (Friction removed) + (Value that grows)
Friction removed means clarity, someone knows what they’re stepping into. It’s expectations, onboarding, responsiveness, and “we’ve thought about you arriving.”
Value that grows means the experience gets better with time, familiarity, identity, anchors, shared rituals, and the ecosystem strengthening because people feel invested in the whole effort.
From my own experience removing friction is when people know you are there for them.
For instance, someone thinking about joining YATM Club may not understand how it works, or looks. So onboarding has to start before they join, helping them picture themselves inside it, and making the first steps feel safe and obvious.
Here’s a practical checklist I work from:
✊ Make it easy to book and commit (remove decision friction)
✊ Answer the awkward questions before anyone has to ask
✊ Find and support anchors (they welcome, include, introduce)
✊ Make the second call-to-action close to the first (design for return)
👉 Remove anyone who’s not engaged in your last 6 emails.
Finding your good people this year....
Whatever you’re building in '26, the business, a side project, a new chapter, a braver version of you, you don’t have to do it alone.
Find a supported space you can step into, they are out there. It's where you don’t have to perform, where you can test ideas, and where people genuinely want you to win.
You were never meant to figure this out on your own.
This film dropped at 6am this morning...
Having a place called home means a lot to me. It's so I can make you feel comfy when you step into my town. I want you to feel welcome and at home too.
The Dolphin Shopping Centre are producing a series of short films called People Of Poole. I felt chuffed to be asked.
It includes clips from the sea dips to the Xmas Party, Party and allows me to explain the role of YATM and what it all means for people.
You are one of the first to see this film and I've held on from sending today's newsletter, until it's been released.
YATM Club is our next layer where belonging is something you can take part in.
When you contribute, ask good questions, share what you’re learning, and back other people, the more doors open.
It rewards participation with depth, more useful support and opportunities to shape what we’re building together. It’s a Club where access isn’t about status, it’s about trust, contribution and moving from “I’m here” to “I’m part of this.”
Let me show you how it looks before you join, here.
(We rallied around Rainbow Tomes this week and launching her new podcast)
Lunch Club starts again in February...
Poole | Thursday 5th February and theme is trust, book here
London | Thursday 12th February and the theme is connection, book here
Bristol | Thursday 26th February and the theme is being you, book here
My shouty video to start your Thursday. Enjoy the day...Mark
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.
