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We've all heard stories about Wall Street CEOs who put quarterly earnings ahead of the long term health of the companies that they run.  This typically adds rocket fuel to the stock price....for a while.  But, eventually, neglecting the long term health of a business catches up with you and, if you constantly prioritize the short term, you'll eventually run out of gas.  Then the stock price plummets.

Here's another way to look at this idea:  You can maximize for a local maximum.  Or you can optimize for a global maximum.  Optimizing for a local maximum often involves a strong focus on metrics.  You either want to increase the metric (such as number of customers).  Or decrease the metric (such as reducing expenses, often by laying people off).

Here's what a local maximum looks like:





Gimmicks, metrics and short-term thinking can get you to a local maximum, however, if you want to optimize for a global maximum, you must think differently.   You must think long-term.  You must respect your customers.  You must innovate.  You must relentlessly improve the quality of your products....paintings....and relentlessly protect the image that your brand portrays.   These are very difficult things to quantify.  How do you measure "respect your customers?"  

But, nevertheless, if you want to optimize for the global maximum, which is ultimately much more valuable, then you must learn to invest in things besides metrics.   

You can A/B test your way to more newsletter subscribers.  But reaching the next level means investing deeply in the quality of your writing.  You can A/B test your website into converting a few more customers.  But reaching the next level means investing in a new, better website.

As Albert Einstein said, "Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts."  


Here's what a global maximum looks like:




Here's my concern and frustration:  Modern internet "best practices", and a lot of the advice that internet marketers publish, are teaching people to optimize for local maximums.

I can't tell you how tired I am of nearly every website pushing a newsletter popup in my face.  Some websites are so bad, I spend the first minute closing popups and slide-outs.  I'm sure their A/B tests "proved" that this increased conversions.  Publishers took this to such an extreme that they're now literally begging us all to turn off our ad blockers.  I'll never turn off my ad blocker and I pray for the day I can block your newsletter popups.

Or what about the advice to get more "leads" with an "ethical bribe"?  Even the name is creepy. 

Every site is pushing me to "engage" with them and everyone is measuring "engagement".   That just sounds like busy-work to me.  Let's track how many "Likes" our latest post received!  Yay!  We're making (fake) progress!  

By the way, these same marketers used to debate with me online about the value of spending time meticulously trying to rank for lots of "keywords" on Google.  Yet Google has systematically taken away nearly all the benefits that the gurus argued for.  Guess what Google rewarded in the end?  Brand based searches.  Which, for artists, are super-simple to rank for....just as I said over and over more than a decade ago.  Search harvests demand.  It doesn't create it.  You have to create it for yourself.  But I digress.

If we were to personify what all these marketing coaches are pushing you toward, it would look something like this:

Cartoon by John P. Weiss

I contend that pushing popups in my face, garnering leads with the ethical bribe, and chasing 'likes" (and a million other "secrets") represents the same short-term thinking as the CEO who optimizes for the current quarter.  Be mindful of what such practices are doing to your brand.  And more importantly, your own priorities and inspiration.

Metrics and short term thinking have their place, when used thoughtfully, intentionally and sparingly.  But don't make your site look like the side of a NASCAR race car. 

Please don't get so carried away that you neglect the areas that are the most important to your career:  Improving the quality of your art, developing deep relationships with your best customers, building your reputation ("brand") as a quality artist, respecting your prospective customers.  These things take years, if not decades.  

Fortunately, it's decades of doing what you love: creating, innovating, beautifying, inspiring.

The most artful CEO in recent memory was Steve Jobs.  When he regained control of Apple in the late 90's, he didn't engage in short term thinking.  He ignored the calls to improve the stock price by making short term moves (like licensing MacOS to run on PCs).  No, he thought big.  He innovated.  He thought long term.  He was seeking a global maximum.   And it took decades.  But the result was Apple becoming the most valuable company in the world.  Imagine if he had focused on adding popups to Apple's website instead of giving us OSX, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

With your art and the way you present it, you can change the world for the better.  I hope you will.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic