who is digital world-building best for?
from my series on digital world-building.
Digital world-building is, most definitely, not for everyone.
It’s probably not for you if you see it as a chore, a marketing “should,” or a task merely as a means to an end (more traffic, more followers, more clients, more money). And I say this with utter conviction that digital world-building, as a long term strategy, works — bringing you money/recognition/audience/whatever — because personal digital worlds, if built with authenticity and care, are the most powerful magnetic fields on the internet. (Correction: magnetic AND non-exploitative)
But. That’s not to say I would recommend digital world building to everyone — as the master key solution to all your creative/life/business problems (even if, for me, it totally was). If the idea of world-building feels anything like a marketing task, like “content creation,” or SEO-beholden labor; if it feels like it’s something you DO to get results, then it’s probably not right for you. At least, not right now.
Why?
Digital world-building is a creative process & practice.
And like all creative process/practices — if you do it while only fixated on the end result — then you’ll suffocate any drop of inspiration, truth, or beauty that wants to move through you. AND/OR, you’ll do it for a few days or weeks or months, and eventually, you’ll get tired and bored.
Digital world-building, like any creative practice, is a long game.
The end results (traffic, money, followers) are merely small byproducts of a way of being, existing, and expressing yourself on the internet — the sum effects of your daily internet-creation habits. It is a slow accumulation of seeds that may or may not sprout. Digital-world building is a practice that must nourish you first.
This process only works — if you do it for its own sake. If the process and act of creation feels like a chore, and you only want the product (end result), then what you’re doing isn’t world-building.
It’s content creation.
Should you build a digital world?
Here’s a simple one question questionaire for determining if you should build a digital world.
—
Do you feel nourished & centered
by the practice of daily creation and expression?
a) YES, like my dream life
b) NO, that sounds exhausting
c) I DON’T KNOW?!?
D) Yes, but IDK about everyday
—
If your answer is YES — then that’s enough to fling yourself forth! What are you waiting for??? Figuring out what to create about, or the how of execution — cultivating the practices, rituals, and digital vessels to hold your world — is a solvable problem we can figure out (I’ll be writing and sharing a lot more resources on this soon).
If your answer is NO — then definitely, don’t pressure or force yourself to do this.
If your answer is I DON’T KNOW — there’s only one way to find out. Cultivate a small daily practice/challenge to create something for 30 minutes, everyday, and sharing it on a personal digital vessel (you can use Notion if you don’t have a personal website) — without thinking too hard about whether or not it’s any good.
If your answer is YES, BUT NOT EVERYDAY — then great! I’d suggest you investigate what kind of a cyclical rhythm would work for you. For me, daily is way easier than weekly or monthly, but perhaps you’ll make Friday afternoons your creation-sprint window, or something like that.
World-building for Artists, Entrepreneurs, and anyone with a Vision
As I drew in my diagram above, I think of digital world-building as a practice in which artists and entrepreneurs (but not ALL artists or entrepreneurs, see previous section) would thrive in — simply because it’s a creative practice and process that requires many of the same skills, talents, and deep impulses to create, express, and share.
Ultimately, world-building is motivated by the same fire as building a creative practice, or a business:
you have a vision, mission, voice, or a way of seeing
that wants to be fully expressed and shared.
As an artist, the vessel for your vision is your artistic medium(s)
As an entrepreneur, the vessel for your vision is your business
As a world-builder, the vessel for your vision is your digital home
As an artist, entrepreneur, or digital world-builder, your vision is something that moves through you — but lives independently of you, and thus, becomes greater than you. the sum of your world, your body of creative work, your business, your digital ecosystem — extends beyond your personhood.
Instead, it magnetizes, magnifies, and creates digital spaces for others to visit; to touch and be touched by, to hold and be held by. In that sense, I see world-building as having more similarities to an architect, interior designer, or curator — than a “digital marketer.”
We don’t create content in order to make sales, even if our digital worlds DO eventually nourish our lives in material ways. Instead, we create digital spaces and fill them with our essence, our ways of being and relating to the world — that connects to others, and, through the things we share, express, and love, can slowly cultivate an intimacy between strangers.