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 Lucy Bennett. I work for Barclays Bank, maybe quite unusually my first and only full-time job. I wanted to be a school teacher!
Here I am 28 years later. More recently within my Barclays career working for Barclays Eagle Labs as an Eco System manager-which really has to be the best role I have come across in the bank so far.
Barclays Eagle Labs is a business support arm of Barclays to connect the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. My job is to engage, listen and tailor support, providing access to my Eco System connections both within Barclays and externally.
Even though I have always worked for Barclays I have also run my own business. When my children were little and my employed hours were less, I run a sewing school “Lucy’s Sew Studio” from my home studio. I then created and taught online sewing courses and programmes. I still have all my equipment it just doesn’t come out as much today.
Here are my recommendations for you. I’d like to share the ‘Jim Carrey – best Speech ever.’ I love his motivational and interesting life story.
Read a book called Strength Finder by Tom Rath. Find out what sort of person you are, learn your strengths and talents and use them to your advantage.
If you want people to stay, help them find one another.
The ‘know your customer’ message has been around for generations.
It’s how we see the habits of others and understand what makes them tick. Awareness matters but it’s becomes a default.
The bigger shift, on building loyalty and people to belong is to help people know each other.
This is where community forms and where confidence grows for everyone. This is where people stay, not just because of what you sell, but because of who they get to be with.
This aligns with Sonja Nisson’s recently work, the future of marketing is relational. The work isn’t just about reach or optimisation, it’s about the quality of connection between the people gathered around you.
When we create environments where people can meet, learn, and support each other, our work becomes something people feel part of.
Why Peer Connection Changes Everything
Here is what I have seen over the past four years.
Would you walk into the sea on your own at 7am in winter? Probably not, it feels cold, quiet and slightly unhinged
Would you go into the sea with others at 7am in winter? Perhaps you would. It’s noisy, it’s uplifting, it’s shared courage, it’s a moment with other people.
Same sea, same time, same cold water. The difference is the people.
Every Friday since July 2021, a group of us have gone into the sea together. I never thought I’d be able to do it and if I am being honest, when Matt King made this video, below, in November 2020, I thought what he was doing was absurd.
Four years later, going into the sea with people is part of the routine of enjoying time with others and this shared experience we have every Friday. It’s joyful and the energy boost is unbelievable (maybe you’d like to join in, just email me here).
The reason I am sharing this sea analogy with you, is that the connection between each other is something we overlook.
People don’t show up just to learn something new, but to be around people like them and who are also figuring things out.
When we launched YATM Lunch Club in London in 2025, I was nervous as the city must be served every half hour with business events. When I asked someone who was travelling from outside of London why they are coming, they said. ‘So I can be with my friends.’
When people know each other, something fundamental changes:
🙂 The room feels safer. People can say what they’re actually thinking and as themselves
🙂 They become braver. People try out ideas, as others are on their side, rather than waiting for the “perfect” moment.
🙂 They build momentum. No one is working in isolation anymore
People don’t return because of content. They return because they found their people.
As we build our London community we have good retention. A lot of this is down to the fact that we’re building that space for each other.
I now know that so much is built around the friendships that are made, the familiarity with each other and the safety of saying ‘I know people here’ when at first it may have been a big step. That’s what makes somebody want to come back.
Where It Goes Wrong For Many
Many businesses or initiatives treat people as transactions from the start. Everyone is a potential buyer, or subscriber and they are also a number.
It doesn’t always work with:
How do we get them to buy?
How do we convert faster?
How do we extract value sooner?
Everyone becomes a transaction before they become a person. The human element, trust, familiarity, connection, comes second. At the same time, the human element is becoming even harder today and that represents where the winners will be.
At YATM, we made our first pound three years after starting, when we introduced Lunch Club in 2016. That wasn’t a delay in revenue, it was foundational work. It took that long for people to feel at home.
When you get it right, you don’t have to constantly chase new people because the right people stay.
How To Create The Conditions For People To Know Each Other
From experience, this is what I know works when it comes to encouraging people to get to know each other.
1) Create touchpoint way before people come together.
Emails, messages, introductions. Make people comfortable before they even step in. I have found WhatsApp a great platform, you just have to manage it, so it doesn’t become noisy and irrelevant.
2) Introduce people early, not during.
It helps when you put effort into connecting people from an early stage, not during or after an event. For instance, we have started Good To See You session, on Zoom, where people coming to Creator Day ’26, get to meet and connect, months before the occasion.
3) Remove any friction.
Nobody wants to walk into a room cold and figure it out alone. You have to make people feel comfortable. It could be a schedule, it could be places to park. You have to make the first moments already feel warm.
4) Designed for interaction, not just delivery.
Find ways where people have every opportunity to be with others, rather than just concentrating on delivery from one side of the room. Arrange small groups, breakout sessions and shared experiences.
5) Encouraged experimentation.
If you keep to what everyone else has done, formats become the same. It’s ok to try new things, as long as people are encouraged. Going into the sea started with a handful of people, it’s much larger today. It’s all about bringing people together.
6) What works, tweak and repeat.
Repeated gatherings strengthen bonds and normalise participation. We tested out Lunch Club London in a coworking space, so people could get to see others, before we moved it to another venu, for lunch.
As Sonja Nisson says in her article, here it is again, “People no longer trust advertising or mass mailouts. They don’t trust social media platforms or faceless brands. What they do trust are the people they know, their friends and peers, their colleagues, communities and creators who show up consistently, who listen, who care.”
Let’s Round-Up
When people know each other, they become braver, they feel supported, they bring more of themselves. More importantly, they stay.
The work is not to be the most impressive person in the room. The work is to create a room where people become better because they are in it together.
Marketing’s real power isn’t in how well you know your customers. It’s in how well you help your customers know each other.
When few people turn up, it hurts. I’ve cancelled events and thought my time is up.
The right people in the room, the way you build familiarity and your message being visible and clear are what turn a small turnout into a powerful foundation.
You’ll shift from ‘only a handful showed’ to ‘these are our people.’
Making something you believe in that has a role to play for others does matter, not just for the people who showed up, but the people who will show up, and the community you’re building.
Let's have a Christmas Afternoon Party, Party 🎄...
We're going to have a Christmas afternoon out. If you can make it to Poole on Friday 12th December, we're going to turn the afternoon into bottomless pizza and unlimited drinks.
The theme for the afternoon is gratitude.
We'll look back at how this year went and we look forward to 2026 with optimism. It won't be in the usual Lunch Club format, as it's a way to let your hair down and know you got to spend it with friends.
Read more about the YATM Christmas Afternoon Party, Party and take the afternoon off and book here.
Lunch Clubs come to town(s) from next week...
It's the November Lunch Clubs next week, they come around quickly.
Next Thursday (6th Nov) the London team open the doors in Wandsworth and the theme is 'self promotion.'
Then on Thursday 13th November, we're in Poole for the session on 'confidence,' come and book here.
We're going to say hello to another YATM home in 2026 and Lunch Clubs will start in Bristol from the end of February. If Bristol is easier for you to get to, let me know (reply to this email) and I can tell you more.
Come & Join In (Online & Offline)
Here's what's up and coming...
🔥 Beth Carter's Week Map is Sunday at 7.30pm GMT in YATM Club join here
🏡 Jon Jenkins Books Club is next Wed. at 10am in YATM Club, book in here
🎁 The YATM Christmas Party, Party is Friday 13th December, book here
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.
