Goodbye Marketing. Hello World-Building

At a Glance

• What is World-Building?  

• The Steps Required

• Why it Matters

First, some news. My next book, The Eros Advantage, will now officially be published by Ben Bella Books, a great publisher with a modern spin. Most likely Fall of ‘27. More to come! 

In researching that book, I saw how traditional marketing is fading, like Homer Simpson into the bushes, amid the white noise of AI claptrap. 

What will emerge? 

World-building. Creating spaces around your company that invite people in to shift their identity in a positive direction. 

My friend Andrew Green is an expert.

He was a video game producer before founding Storygrounds, a platform for creator-driven webcomics. He’s always been fascinated by world-building. 

“I was a weird kid who didn’t make friends easily and didn’t know how to represent myself.” And then he found Dungeons & Dragons. 

The game gave him a structured way to create and participate in group storytelling. It led to his career and, over time, a solid methodology for doing it well. 

If you want to build something uncopyable in this era, here’s the path (with lots more to come in the book).

A Return to Enchantment & Love 

Andrew references Max Weber, the 19th-century German sociologist, who said modern society has become “disenchanted” through our machine-like optimization of everything. 

Fast forward to now, and AI is pouring gasoline on that fire. And it’s not just the tech. It’s how freaked out everyone is right now (I’m not immune either) and flailing around in a vibe-coding and layoff mania.  

AI is a given. But if even I can write software, we’re clearly headed towards a singularity of disenchantment. 

Green, like me, believes the only path is a return to enchantment. As he says, “Great worlds aren’t birthed from strategy, but from love.” 

So, what do you deeply want to exist in the world? 

That’s the new wellspring of thriving organizations. 

How Worlds Form 

Andrew sees four stages for successful world-building. These stages closely map to my ideas on Emotional Market Fit (products that amplify your customers' inner lives) covered in the last newsletter. 

1. Vision: What wants to exist through me/us? Whether it’s D&D, Star Wars, or even an insurance company, it always starts with one or a few people who care deeply about a unique change. With that in place, the creators experiment, prototype, and refine their ideas until they’re good enough to share with outsiders.

2. First Acolytes: The creators then engage a small group of users to shape the world. This reveals the ache and problem, emotional desires, rituals, language, and changes they seek. If these early believers love the vision, they stay involved to help hone it. 

3. Early Community: As the product and world take shape, a small, intimate space forms for connection and co-creation. The original creators are still active and vulnerable, as frequent conversations create the inside jokes, language, memes, and rituals that give the world its culture. 

4. Living World: New users come into the fold. They quickly sense how people speak, what values are appreciated, and what contributions are celebrated. “If done well, roughly five percent will be the active users who make the whole system hum,” he says. “While five percent sounds small, their influence is enormous.”  

Let it Breathe 

“Most importantly,” Andrew says, “Worlds should not be controlled too tightly. Let yourself be surprised.” When creators dictate every element of the world, it becomes rigid and pushes people away. 

If they allow the community to influence the story and the world, the world can breathe into its destiny and become a relatively self-sustaining ecosystem. 

This takes us from building tools to channeling meaning. It turns customers into believers, participants, co-creators, and fans. And it turns employees into stewards, storytellers, and collaborative builders of the world. 

And it’s no longer the realm of comics, games, and movies. Great companies are following the same path. 

Products can be copied; worlds cannot.

With Love,

Dave 

Conversations like this are shaping the book I’m currently writing on imagination, calling, and human-centered competitive advantage in an AI era. Have stories? Hit reply - I'd love to hear.