How to Make Your Business ‘World’ More Addictive
A lot of restaurants serve multiple courses. But only some take you on a journey.
Back when we lived in Sydney, we were on a shoe-string budget. I had just opened a retail store, and I had spent everything I had. Still, for special occasions, there was a restaurant we would go to by the beach, called Pilu.
They had a set degustation menu, with six different courses.
You got to know your wait staff as they brought out each plate, and talked about the food. Which region the pork came from. Where the cheese was sourced. Why they chose a certain wine. Then there were the stories about how the restaurant started.
Anyway, we used to stuff ourselves until we could barley stand up, partly because we were so tight on cash and partly because it was so good. We would talk about the experience for days.
Sometimes, we’re in a rush. We want a $1 coffee from the gas station because it’s fast.
But most of the time, we want to be part of something meaningful, that we can talk about, and remember.
And, the difference between the two, is often the depth of the story and detail of the world around the product or service.
Most businesses lack ‘depth’ or detail in their worlds.
Their clients are only loosely engaged. They end up competing on price. Or, with a case of ‘comparative superiority’, where they declare why the customer should come to them, not somewhere else.
But that’s a frustrating cycle to be in. And in the modern economy, where customers are demanding deeper worlds, and more trust, it’s rarely successful.
When we work to create deeper stories, we end up with more addictive worlds that people can engage in.
This changes people’s relationship with the business. It creates more referrals, longer lifetime value of the client, and a more satisfying business for both the creator and the clients.
Last month I was checking out MIT’s online courses
These have been going for about twenty years. They’re free. You can study computer science, geometry, mathematics. Anything. I was going to take a geometry class.
I sat on the decision for about four days.
Not because of the investment (it was free), but because I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to be a part of.
I knew if I took the course, and didn’t feel that it resonated with me, I would bail on it.
In the end, I decided to can it.
MIT is one of the great learning institutes in the world. As an engineer, part of me nerds out on that stuff. But it ain’t that different from Pilu, where a ‘takeaway’ degustation just wouldn’t be the same. It’s not just the information, or the food that has value. But all of the detail of the world that we learn from the staff, and from being ‘in the building.’
In a business, it can take time to create this ‘addictive’ depth
Some never develop it. Maybe they don’t want to - they would rather just be a run-of-the mill biz. But usually it’s because they have no idea that they can, or they focus only on the transaction. They don’t realise there’s a strategy to create more detail and engagement. So they’re constantly fighting with promotions, retention tactics, or trying to stand out in the noise by being louder.
When we first opened our second business, which was a gym, we had no detail at all.
The world was far from addictive.
But over the years, we started to accumulate stories.
Our programming got better.
We got a dog.
We did different merchandise runs.
We ran a lot of events that built a history.
I started to write blogs and create content.
Slowly we created a more compelling and detailed world.
But what we learned, was that ‘time’ isn’t necessarily required for this. You can create an addictive business world that people love to come back to, through a strategic process.
Here Are Three Ways You Can Add More Depth to Your Business World to Create Addiction and Meaning For Your Clients:
Step One: ‘Backstory Everything’
When I was young we went to Disneyland. I remember going around on all the rides, but the thing that I remember most was the depth of the world. You could go on the Matterhorn ride, then when you went to get a drink or a hot dog, you could buy something to do with Matterhorn. Then you could learn all about the history of the ride, or the backstory.
There is a timeless lineage for everything in the park. From Mickey Mouse, to the physical park itself. Each feature has a story.
Disneyland is an addictive world for people for a lot of reasons, but one of them is the level of depth created through backstory.
The movie Dune based on Frank Herbert’s book is another example.
Alongside the film there’s a ‘behind the scenes’ book, all about the worldbuilding that they did. The book made a way for true fans to learn more about the backstory, or lineage, of each part of the movie. They talked about how the props were built, who designed the costumes, how they put it all together.
Another example I talk about is Quentin Tarantino, who wrote pages of dialogue and story of his characters, before he would write the whole script with them.
He was ‘manufacturing’ back story (even though it never was shown), because he knew that if it existed somewhere, it would give more depth to the characters.
One of the most helpful things we can do early on with established business owners is build out a more detailed and real backstory.
Not because a soppy story will help them ‘get clients,’ but because a richer, deeper world with lineage is more immersive.
In my own work, I talk about parts of my marriage, the lair that I write from, or whatever is going on in my own life because it creates depth and context.
What happens if you go through your business and uncover, or even ‘manufacture’ back story with everything that you do?
Where did your logo come from?
Where did the music come from?
Where did you learn the style of programming you do at your studio?
Whether it’s Westside Barbell, Disney, Oprah, Lord of the Rings, or Virgin, deep and addictive worlds have backstory built out for almost all parts of the business.
Step Two: Tie Things Together
In The Dark Knight there’s a scene where Batman shuts down the lights when he’s fighting Bane.
Bane says:
“Oh you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark, I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, and by then it was nothing to me but blinding… Shadows betray you, because they belong to me.”
Bane’s strength in the dark is suddenly tied into his back story of growing up in the prison cave.
In our membership Creator Club, we use Circle as a community platform, not Facebook. I’ve been off of Facebook for a few years. I’m inept at that platform, and actively avoid it because of distraction that it creates. So this is the reason for Circle.
I write books, articles, emails, because personally, while I like instagram to connect with friends, et cetera, I don’t like to spend the time on those platforms. Nothing wrong with those that do, but that’s just me.
Plus, I’ve always enjoyed writing.
My desk right now is riddled with yellow paper.
That’s because my grandfather built a concrete company with a yellow legal pad as his organising tool. Now people have the most complex ‘task management’ tools, even though they don’t necessarily get much done.
Complex is trendy.
Well I kind of counter-trend that and go simple, so that’s the connection to the yellow paper.
Building in those connections with your world creates a lot of depth.
The less ‘random’ you can make it, the more connected and deeper it gets, and the deeper the relationship is that we can have with your business.
Look at the art on your walls. The type of diary you use, how you set up your service. It can all be used as fodder for content and stories.
Making a point of tying things together can be profitable.
Step Three: Create a Unique Language Set
In Tolkein’s work, there’s an entire language set that almost nobody can even understand. He was deep into linguistics, so spent a lot of his time creating new languages for the book.
Richard Garriott did something similar with his games. He created symbols and languages that you could understand in any country, so people could decipher secret scripts and codes in the games.
The addiction level (and money-making ability) of these games was immense.
In my own work, I purposefully make up words, misspell names, and create new concepts. Even the whole world building schtick for service business is really not something that anybody talks about.
But Creators have this whole language set around it: Allied Worlds, Character Building, Magic and Technology, Player Types, et cetera.
In 2020 I interviewed the marketing guru Seth Godin.
He has an ability to come up with new ideas, and tie them to a language set: Purple Cow, Linchpin, Tribes.
These are ideas and concepts that already exist. But he explained them in a way that was compelling, made sense, and was easy for people to take that language and run with it, spreading his ideas further.
In your own business, you also can come up with a new and unique language set.
Start off with just a word or two.
Something you’re already using, that you can amplify and bring out into your world.
Or a secret handshake (side note, one of the businesses we worked with did this very well, building out a whole secret handshake in their gym. We capitalised on it by filming it, then distributing that across content. Engagement skyrocketed in those months, for a few reasons).
Conclusion
The ‘depth’ of your business world ain’t something a lot of people talk about.
It ain’t ‘scalable’. You have to think.
But if you look at the most powerful business worlds over time both past and present, you’ll see they often have an extraordinary level of depth built in.
And you don’t need to wait for your business to be decades old either.
The founder of Aesop Dennis Paphitis built depth into the Aesop space from day one. Eventually creating a billion dollar company.
The more depth you create, the deeper your clients can go.
You can tie this into your content, your delivery and even your business strategy and offers. And the deeper you are, and the richer your world, the stronger the relationship can be with you and your business, and the stickier your service becomes.