What's the difference between linear growth and exponential growth in an art business?

Linear growth is what happens when you’re a one-person band playing all the instruments yourself. Even if you stay consistent with creating, marketing, selling, and all other business tasks, it’s still just you at the end of the day. The business becomes a long, slow, arduous grind that’s hard to maintain consistently, especially when results come slowly. It’s like a slow-moving train. Exponential growth is rocket-ship growth—the dream scenario where your output and results multiply rapidly. This traditionally required hiring a team, which meant selling enough first to afford one. AI changes this equation by giving you virtual team members that multiply your output without the cost of hiring, potentially allowing you to 10x or even 50x your business GDP and shift from that slow train to the rocket ship.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2025-01-23