Stop Building Products. Start Building Ways In

A lighter way is to build multiple ways in. 

When you create more than one route into what you believe, your work doesn’t live or die on one launch. It all works from the direct relationship you have with your audience. The stronger it is, the more resilient it becomes.

Let me share what I’ve done to build a business around different revenue streams.

I see it for so many people, one delivery and one giant emotional crash. I’ve been part of this.

One of the reasons I started YATM was because I was going through a very tough time. I had around £40,000 of debt (my own fault). I’d placed too much emotional weight on one client, and when they went bust, it triggered legal fees and a spiral that took a toll financially and personally.

Today, I see small businesses, similar to me, pouring everything into a main focus, a course, consulting, a big event. They build the project, spend time on generating awareness, and it still doesn’t land. Often the real issue isn’t the offer. It’s the lack of audience and the fragility of the model.

The idea isn’t the problem. The structure is.

When your income relies on one delivery, you don’t have a business, you have a single point of failure. Timing, energy, platform reach, the economy, life… one wobble can throw everything off. I’ve experienced it and it’s awful.

The next decision isn’t to walk away. It’s to stop forcing the idea to survive through one mechanism.

What I’ve learned over time is, if you have a central idea, and multiple ways to support it financially, you stop being dependent on one “yes”.

For many people, their work is understood through an industry label, such as marketing, accounting, property. The label carries meaning as well as reputation.

If you’re building around an idea rather than a job title, you have to work harder to help people understand what you do and why it matters to them. That’s the difference between industry identity and idea identity.

Idea identity is a promise that plays a role in someone else’s life.

That’s the real product. Not ‘a course,’ but progress. Not ‘a membership,’but belonging. Not ‘an event,’but the feeling of being supported by people on your side.

Once you lead with the promise, multiple strands start to feel like different routes into the same change.

For me, YATM was never ‘content.’ It was a place for people to find their voice, build their audience, and learn in the company of others.

For the record, I did not build this with some masterplan. I learned it the long way.

You don’t need one perfect product. You need a system that lets people join in at different levels and at different times. It’s all connected to the same belief.

Here’s how it shows up in YATM:

Events (Lunch Clubs): this is the first room many people step into. It’s low pressure and simple commitment for time away from the screen. The goal is to meet people and feel, “I’m not doing this alone.”

Membership (YATM Club): this is continuity alongside your work. A place to practise, be supported, learn together and stay close to people who are on your side.

☀️Annual event (Creator Day): this is a shared identity moment where lots of people come together. This is all about feeling part of something bigger than ourselves, where everyone feels 10ft tall.

Education (further education and higher education): Creator Lab. Helping young adults build confidence and employability, and giving them a ready-made community if they want it.

Partnerships / sponsorship: organisations align with the YATM stamp because the space is visible. They’re not funding ‘content,’ it’s aligning with connection, community and trust.

This is where the difference between direct revenue and indirect revenue helps.

– Direct revenue is tied to a delivery: membership, tickets, services.

– Indirect revenue supports the idea: sponsorship, education work, partnerships, collaborations, paid opportunities that exist because the platform exists.

The key point is that these aren’t separate businesses. They are layers of the same idea and promise, just in different formats.

The most underrated part of building anything is the direct relationship you have with other people.

When people choose to hear from you, by email, by showing up, by replying, by recognising your work, you’ve got something durable.

That’s why the Thursday newsletter has held everything together since 2013. It helps build trust, creates familiarity and it gives me a place to share.

That relationship is what makes every paid route possible. The deeper the relationship, the less ‘salesy’ the offers feel because people already understand what you stand for.

Without a relationship in place, diversification can take longer.

I think about YATM in commitment levels. You can do the same with your own work and how people stand alongside you.

Low commitment. People get to know you (newsletter, free resources, open sessions). For YATM it’s a weekly newsletter.

Mid commitment. People engage and build trust (events, workshops, training). For YATM is is Lunch Clubs.

High commitment. People invest and become part of the framework. For YATM this is membership, annual events, consulting and partnerships.

It’s the same idea, but different entry points and different timing (during the year).

A turning point is when you stop separating creativity from commerce.

Creativity isn’t adjacent to the business. It becomes the business when you package it into repeatable assets.

An asset is anything you can re-use, re-deliver, re-sell, or recombine and the best ones are built on trust.

That’s why monetisation works best as a second step. You create something useful and original first. This means people get to experience the work and feel comfortable. Then you give them a way to go deeper.

Over time, you take the risk out of everything. You stop relying on constant launches and start building an ecosystem where the same idea can travel through different formats.

For instance, coming to a Lunch Club helps to build familiarity within a location, this becomes an ongoing calendar commitment, this becomes a membership benefit as people feel ‘part of the family.’

Seth Godin said, “Ideas are worthless unless they ship.” Shipping is the feedback loop.

When you ship, you learn what people respond to, refine, and you keep going. I learned this the hard way with a podcast. I struggled as I couldn’t gauge what was resonating with the audience.

The mistake is treating shipping like a single launch that everything depends on.

The point is to ship with direction, and use what you learn to create more ways for people to step into what you stand for.

You don’t need to keep asking, “What should I sell?”

It’s stronger to ask: What change do I help create? What room do I host?

Then build two or three routes into that change, so your business doesn’t live or die on one output.

One route can be small and accessible. One can be deeper and paid. One can be periodic and high-energy.

The more diverse your routes are and the stronger your direct relationship with your audience, the more resilient the ecosystem becomes.

Build the system and ways in. Your work stops feeling like a gamble and over time it carries you forward.