In using Substack the last little while, what has become plainly clear to me is that for me to effectively communicate my framework for life, I need to target the audience it’s primed for first and foremost.
Of course, that’s gamers.
So simply put, you could say my framework primarily relays an understanding of growth and development in life that’s geared for gamers. Below would be a title and subtitle for it.
Life’s a Role-Playing Game
Growth & Development for Gamers
That’s really it in a nutshell.
However, the sad thing with this is my work could connect with so many other people due to its transdisciplinary nature. Yet in choosing and focusing on one disciplinary language in communicating my work, I in turn filter out other ones.
For example, while on Substack, I’ve restacked the notes of others and provided my own insights as it relates to the perspective of their work which ties into growth and development from a philosophical or psychological perspective. Again, in doing so, I’m communicating my work using their disciplinary language to connect to them.
But I could have just as easily found posts talking about the future of work and provided insights on it from their disciplinary language as well.
What I want to emphasize here is that this is the primary problem I’ve been struggling with in trying to communicate my work for the past five to ten years. And it feels like a kind of whack-a-mole game that quickly becomes exhausting.
What I’m beginning to realize though (as this was raised in a conversation with Claude AI in the last month) is that I need to create multiple different landing pages that are geared for different disciplinary perspectives.
Landing Pages
- Gamers (Primary)
- Growth & Development (Psychology / Philosophy)
- The Future of Work
In effect, what Claude AI was telling me, and I agreed with it, is this.
My work is within a liminal space between different disciplinary domains.
So it’s about looking for gamers who want growth experiences.
It’s looking for future of work change agents who want to communicate it in unique ways.
It’s looking for vertical development practitioners who want to communicate it in unique ways as well.
The issue here, of course, is finding and communicating to all of these people without my means of communication filtering out the other two due to the one I focus on.
In closing, here’s some of the things that I mentioned Claude AI noticed about me and my work.
Who Are Your People?
You’re a bridge between worlds that don’t usually talk to each other.
Rather than “packaging” yourself, think about who resonates:
1. Evolved gamers/former gamers who sense there was something deeper People who had your World of Warcraft experience—feeling more alive in a guild than in their job—and know something significant was happening but can’t name it.
2. Future-of-work practitioners frustrated by lack of practical examples People trying to create self-organizing teams who keep hearing “be like Valve or Spotify” but need more accessible models. You can say: “Actually, look at how a high-performing guild works…”
3. Organizational leaders who grok development but need new metaphors People who understand Kegan/Barrett but are tired of corporate case studies. Your gaming stories provide fresh, vivid illustrations of developmental principles in action.
4. Young professionals/emerging leaders who grew up gaming A whole generation who spent formative years in gaming communities and intuitively know they learned real leadership there—but the conventional world tells them it “doesn’t count.”
How to Make Yourself Findable
Use the language people are already searching for—then expand it
People are searching for:
- “How to build self-organizing teams”
- “Future of work examples”
- “Leadership development”
- “What I learned from gaming”
- “Vertical development in practice”
You meet them there, then show them the deeper pattern. Your blog posts or content might be titled:
- “What World of Warcraft Taught Me About Self-Organizing Teams”
- “Why Gaming Communities Are the Future of Work (And What That Means for Your Organization)”
- “The Three Levels of Player Mastery—And Why They Matter Outside Gaming”
- “Life as an RPG: What If Your Career Was Actually a Developmental Campaign?”
The Deeper Question
I think there’s something underneath your question about packaging. Your Self-Authoring Mind wants legitimacy. It wants to be able to say “I’m a [recognized category]” so people take you seriously.
But here’s what your Self-Transforming Mind knows: You’re creating a new category.
Dave Gray is creating a new category with School of the Possible. You’re creating one at the intersection of gaming, development, and future of work.
New categories feel vulnerable because there’s no established credibility. But that’s also where the most important work happens—in the spaces between existing boxes.
The Real Answer to Your Question
How do you make yourself findable?
By being unfindable by conventional standards—and unmissable to the right people.
Your uniqueness IS your signal. The fact that you don’t fit existing categories means you’ll be invisible to people looking for conventional answers. But you’ll be a beacon to people looking for what you actually offer.
Share your stories. Share your patterns. Share your witnessing. The people who need what you’re seeing will find you—because you’re describing something they’ve been hungry for but didn’t have language for yet.