Launch Day

Pull up a chair. This issue is a little different.

Today, The 10 Commandments of Successful Corporate Narratives is officially out in the world.

If you've been reading The Narrative Intel,  you’ve seen this book referenced again and again.

It's been "coming soon" for a while. Well — today it’s here..

How it started

The short version: I met Jeff Gomez in college in the mid-1980s over tabletop roleplaying games. 

He ran games differently than anyone I'd encountered --- participant-focused, where the players shaped the story rather than just following it. He was doing something that most of us couldn't even articulate yet: making the audience part of the narrative.

Even then, Jeff was thinking bigger. By 1986, he was predicting storytelling would move across multiple media platforms. He called it “symphonic storytelling.”

That’s exactly what happened.

Jeff went on to found Starlight Runner Entertainment and became one of the most respected narrative architects in the entertainment industry. His work helped shape the storyworlds behind global franchises including Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Halo, Transformers, and Spider-Man.

He also helped formalize the role of the Transmedia Producer, now recognized by the Producers Guild of America.

At the core of Jeff's work is a structural discipline:
How do you build a narrative world that can expand — across creators, platforms, and audiences — without breaking apart?

That question is now extending into AI-native media, where he advises platforms on narrative defensibility and long-horizon world architecture.

Over the years, these frameworks have extended beyond entertainment into global initiatives involving institutions and NGOs.

But one application stood out to me.

The Bridge to Business

In 2012 he published The 10 Commandments of 21st Century Franchise Development --- the rules for building immersive, evergreen storyworlds. 

When I started working with Jeff again at Starlight Runner shortly after, I saw something in those techniques that went beyond entertainment. I felt they could be adapted to how businesses tell their stories. I called this framework corporate narrative.

The full story of how Jeff and I arrived here is in the book. But what matters more is why it matters to you.  

Why This Book, Why Now

If you've been reading The Narrative Intel, you've seen one question come up repeatedly: What business are you really in?

But answering that question is only the beginning.

The harder challenge is codifying your narrative so every stakeholder understands it — and can maintain it.

The harder work is documenting and codifying your narrative so every stakeholder knows what it is and knows how to stay true to it. That’s where most organizations break down.

The issue isn’t the story itself.
It’s what happens when the story changes hands.

A new hire joins.
A new market opens.
A new platform launches.

Slowly, the narrative begins to drift.

Most companies respond by tightening control.

But control doesn’t scale.

Architecture does.

That's what this book brings to business.

It introduces:

• Three foundational elements for understanding corporate narrative
• The 10 Commandments for building narratives that scale without fragmenting

If you’ve been following this newsletter, you’ve already seen pieces of this framework in action.

Concepts like:

• Can You Do What You Say You Can Do
• Narrative Myopia — the quietest threat to alignment
• People Like Bad Pizza

All trace back to the principles laid out here.

The newsletter has been (and will continue to be) the conversation. 

The book is the foundation.

Get the Book HERE

If you know a founder, marketer, or leader whose story doesn't hold up when it changes hands — send them this issue. And the book.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

Alan