why world building is wealth building
this post is part of my series on world-building.
In this post, I’ll outline a framework for turning creative flow into wealth flow. But I’ll tell you the secret first. To turn creativity into wealth, you have to truly see your creativity AS wealth — a form of abundance that you must share.
How? I’ll explain why world-building is the bridge — the way of wealth-building.
But first, let me outline the beliefs and frameworks that got me here:
Beliefs about wealth that changed everything
Wealth is more than money. Your creativity is a form of wealth. Your relationships are a form of wealth. And, at the root source, YOU — and all that you encompass — is a resource of infinite inner wealth. To create more wealth, you must see yourself as first — as wealthy.
Wealth is about flow, not accumulation. It’s not about amassing a static wealth, but creating flows in your life; forms of exchange that nourish both giver and receiver in the most aligned way. The flow must feel good to your soul.
Wealth is a process (or a series of processes) — NOT an end product. It’s not about “how can I make money?” but “how can I serve the people I want to serve, in a way that’s aligned with my own creative flow?” And: How can wealth be an end result of my creative process — rather than separate from it? I detail this in my writings on artist-entrepreneur.
Money is only a byproduct of these processes and flows. When the processes are aligned, money will happen — without effort.
Money is energy. So is creativity. Building wealth is, in itself, a deeply creative and energetic/spiritual process.
Why world-building is wealth building
I’ll break down a series of processes that connect creative flow — with the flow of wealth, and explain why world-building is the bridge between immaterial and material flow. See also: the guiding question to build wealth as an artist
Creative Wealth ➡️ A Rich Digital World
To world-build is to distill down the infinity of the self — your experience, knowledge, ideas, creativity, skills, perspectives, wisdom, insights — into a digital form that others can experience, use, learn from, and be inspired by. (Modern marketing calls this “content marketing,” but I explain in this post why I don’t use that terminology.) if you consistently create things and share them, one thing at a time, then, over time, they accumulate and intertwine to form your “digital environment,” a garden-ecosystem of your ideas, creativity, and way of being in the world.
A Rich Digital World ➡️ Wealth of Relationships
The more you create, the more the environment expands. it grows tendrails. what started as an authentic expression of your creative wealth — becomes a digital space that nourishes your visitors, and invites them to return, again and again. To do this, it’s important that your world feels human and inviting; an interactive experience, rather than a resume-showroom, designed to impress.
the point, here, is NOT create an “efficient” marketing funnel designed to convert your guest in as few clicks as possible. in digital world-building, you focus on creating a space where they feel nourished, not on selling them something.
you focus on unconditional giving — creating for the sake of creating, and in the process, you build a place they want to spend time in. over time, the wealth of your world nurtures slow relationships with your visitors. they might: sign up for your newsletter. bookmark your website. send you a note.
Wealth of Relationships ➡️ Flow of Offerings
I’ve found, through experience, that it’s much easier to create offerings in context of existing relationships — rather than offerings for an imaginary “target client” profile. when the offering is created for a specific person (or people) in mind, the intimacy feels palpable. it feels specific, rather than generic. it has heart and soul, a “made for you” vibe. this is rare.
when you build a world that magnetizes the right people, your wealth of relationships and connections, in turn, feed your creative wealth. you’re able to create specific offerings that serve your specific people; offerings that truly speak to them, because you’ve taken the time to understand what it is that they truly want, and need — what offerings could transform their world.
Flow of Offerings ➡️ Flow of Money
The flow of money is the last thing that happens in this process of wealth-building. The flow of money is only a byproduct of other, less tangible flows — a flow of creativity, a flow of sharing, a flow of trust, a flow of connection, a flow of understanding, service, and offering.
The flow of money is an energetic exchange that happens as a single node of a bigger process. It is an important factor, but it’s not the point. (If it were, you wouldn’t be building a world, you’d be building a capitalist digital machine). Paradoxically, this contextualization of money as NOT being the point — actually is what makes the flow of money feel effortless.
If all of the above are aligned — the process of “selling” an offering will feel effortless. there is no hard sell. if you’ve taken the time to (a) understand your people’s needs in creating your offerings, and, even before that, (b) cultivate relationships with the people who are most authentically aligned with your work, then what you create will sell itself.
the flow of giving and receiving
for a long time, I thought being an artist meant that I had to be poor — that chasing money would stain the integrity of my work. and yet I did chase, and the more I chased, the more I struggled. it took me a long time to rewrite that belief of separation, to see money and creativity as not diametrically opposed, but as intertwined ways of flowing value into the world.
in that sense, building wealth — is the practice of noticing ways in which we are already rich — and sharing that richness with others, who then give it back to us.
this is part of my series on world-building. I also write a weekly email on creative process & world-building, which you can sign up for here.
see also:
the guiding question to build wealth as an artist
the way of the artist-entrepreneur
build a world, not an audience