Every New Idea Needs A Familiar Doorway

If someone understands what they are walking into, they are often more open to something new than we give them credit for. People just need a doorway that feels familiar.

That has taken me a while to learn. When I launched Creator Day in 2022, I avoided calling it a conference. I didn’t want another conference, but this was a big mistake as few people attended

I wanted people building things together, with more emphasis on conversations than just presentations. I wanted the people in the room to feel as important as the people on the stage.

Looking back, I wasn’t wrong about the experience I wanted to create. I was wrong about how I invited people into it.

By avoiding the word “conference”, I removed the thing that helped people understand what Creator Day was. I made the doorway harder to see.

People don’t need to know every detail before they decide to come closer, but they do need enough context to know whether something might be for them.

By leaning too far from ‘conference,’ I created uncertainty. When people don’t know where they stand, they’re far more likely to stay where they are.

Over time, I became comfortable saying, ‘It’s a conference.’ It didn’t mean giving up on what made Creator Day different, it was giving people a familiar doorway.

The conference wasn’t the experience. It was the way into the experience.

Once people understood the format, they could discover everything that made it feel different. They worked together instead of simply listening. They built friendships instead of being in a room of strangers. People became part of the day instead of sitting on the edge of it.

That was what I’d wanted all along.

Last week, Phill Agnew, from Nudge Podcast, joined us in YATM Club to talk about the ‘new and safe’ effect. It helped frame my thinking and why I am writing this for you.

Here is Phill setting the scene…

People are attracted to what feels new, but they need enough familiarity to trust it. Too much sameness becomes forgettable. Too much novelty creates uncertainty.

I’d spent years trying to attract people with what felt new. Looking back, I can see why that sometimes made things harder.

If people don’t understand what something is, they struggle to care why it matters. This is where a lot of us make work harder for ourselves.

We often try to make the outside look different when the better opportunity is to make the inside feel different.

That is what I have come to understand about YATM.

Next week we have our YATM Summer Party. On the surface, it’s exactly what people would expect. It’s a summer party.

Inside it, we’re adding something unexpected, a silent disco. Not because it’s quirky, but because it changes how people experience each other.

Work-related summer parties are difficult to get right. If you make it too formal (such as a guest speaker), it feels stiff. If you make it too relaxed, it can feel like forced fun. The people you’re with aren’t always your friends. They aren’t the people you’ve known since college. They’re connected in some way to work and the environment people are part of.

That means the setting has to do some of the work. Safe is having a work summer party. New is asking people to put on headphones for a silent disco and dance through a cloud of smoke. That is where shared experience starts to do its job.

Shared experiences are what turn people you know through work into people you’re genuinely pleased to spend time with. That’s how we make better friends.

The label matters because it helps people enter. The experience matters because it gives people something to remember.

Anyone can copy your format. What people can’t easily copy is how someone feels when they’re with you.

This is where the real difference lies in the work we create.

The aim is not to make YATM feel different to everyone, it is to make it feel unmistakable to the right people. People who want to join in instead of simply consuming. People who want to be around others where they know connection and friendship is important.

It is easy to stop at the label, such as a networking event or a webinar, what makes the difference is how people feel when they are in the space with you. Did I feel welcome? Did I feel like I could join in? Did I feel like I was in the right place? Did I meet someone I want to see again? Did I leave with more confidence than when I arrived? Did I feel like this was built with people like me in mind?

It is not about making everything unusual. It is about creating enough familiarity for people to step in, then enough of an unexpected experience for them to feel something different once they are there.

What is the familiar doorway into your work? And once people step inside, what changes?

Perhaps your doorway is a workshop. But instead of leaving with notes, people leave having started something new.

Perhaps your doorway is a strategy session. Instead of leaving with a list of actions, someone leaves with one clear decision that helps them move forward.

Perhaps your doorway is a newsletter. Instead of simply sending people information, it gives them language for something they have been feeling but haven’t yet been able to say.

I spent years believing I needed to make the outside look different. When I realised that people need something familiar, they already understand. 

I now believe the stronger work is this: make the outside recognisable enough for people to understand, then make the inside more useful, more connected and more human than they expected.

People don’t remember what you called your initiative and what you wanted them to buy into. People remember whether they felt included, had good conversations and left with a sense that this was for them. That is the return from your work.

I’ve realised that being different isn’t always about inventing something nobody has seen before.

Sometimes it’s about taking something people already understand and helping them experience it differently.

The outside needs to be recognisable enough for people to step towards it. The inside needs to feel different enough for people to remember it.

Familiarity gets people through the door. The experience gives them a reason to stay. Belonging gives them a reason to come back.