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There’s a lot about arts leadership most of us were never taught. And you can’t win a game if you don’t know the rules. So we’re bringing you three bonus episodes from our recent training series, “They Never Taught You That: How to Grow Your Career in Arts Management.” This is Part 1, where Aubrey shares the seven research-backed steps to growing your leadership in arts management. She also offers some reflection prompts, so you can tailor the research to your specific work in the arts.
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Working your way up in arts admin can feel like an uphill battle, but it doesn’t have to be a fight! In the final episode of the season, arts administrator Chelsea Chambers at the Peninsula Symphony talks about working her way up to executive director. Hear how realizing that “I don’t have all the answers” helped her climb the ladder to ED and create a kickass company culture along the way.
Guest: Chelsea Chambers, Executive Director of the Peninsula Symphony
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Ever heard the saying, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take?” What if we told you that when it comes to jobs they’re not 100 percent qualified for, white men are more likely than women and people of color to apply anyway? This was the statistic that made today’s guest decide to take her shot. Hear how an early version of the Uplevel professional development program – and the community of people within it – helped her find confidence, overcome imposter syndrome, and land the job she wanted.
Guest: Jo Griffin, Recruitment Specialist at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
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Ever feel like you’re not quite giving off the confidence you know you should be as a leader in the arts? Social psychologist Amy Cuddy says it may have something to do with your “presence” – a sort of “self-assured enthusiasm.” Today, we get into her research on presence as an incredible indicator of leadership success, from how you come off to your colleagues to whether people you meet trust you. Hear how to tap into your personal power and harness it to lead. Hint: it can start with something as simple as changing your physical posture.
For more on this, check out Amy Cuddy's Ted Talk: "Your body language may shape who you are."
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What is your unique purpose as an arts administrator? How do you find the courage to lead with purpose once you know? Carlos Cordero is a conductor, new choral music advocate, singer and self-proclaimed “great hug-giver.” But he started off with a broad, more generic vision that wasn’t connecting with audiences the way he wanted to. As a gay Latinx immigrant artist, Carlos did some soul searching and clarified his mission: to advocate for the LGBTQ+ and immigrant community through his brand, The Happy Choir, and his professional Tenor-Bass choir, Un/heard. Hear how Carlos learned that you can’t be everything to everyone. By going from generic to specific, he took ownership of his brand and unlocked community connection for himself and his ensembles.
Guest: Carlos Cordero, new choral music artist and advocate; creator of The Happy Choir
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“Closed mouths don’t get fed.” This is the mantra that Paula Wilson has led with, basically since day one of her arts administration journey. Like many of us in this field, she started off as a musician and realized that wasn’t for her. But when she transitioned into administration, she couldn’t seem to land the right internship. This episode, Paula shares how resourcefulness, mentorship, and finding her niche helped her end up with multiple job offers to do the work she loves.
Guest: Paula Wilson, Member Services and Communications Manager at Equity Arc
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“Convince me to stay.” This is what Allison Lambacher told Aubrey after years in arts administration and being totally burnt out. If you’ve been in the industry long enough, you’ve probably been ready to throw in the towel at least once. "But you are not alone and the narrative is changing". Hear how Allison – now Associate Director of Digital Engagement with the St. Louis Symphony – used arts management tools from Uplevel to go from being ready to quit the industry to advocating for herself and landing her dream job.
Guest: Allison Lambacher, Associate Director of Digital Engagement at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
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Innovative, inclusive, collaborative – these are some of the top traits of a healthy company culture. Last episode, we identified the toxic traits you may be dealing with at your arts organization. This episode, we talk about how you can renovate your company culture, based on the book “Culture Renovation” by Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp. And guess what: you don’t have to burn it all down and start over; here’s how to identify what’s working and build on that.
For more insights on this, check out this past episode with Kevin Oakes himself.
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Bureaucratic, disrespectful, chaotic, complacent. Sound familiar? If you would use these words to describe the culture at your organization, you and your colleagues may be working in a toxic environment. This episode is part one of two: First, we get into the top nine traits causing toxicity in company culture, based on the book “Culture Renovation” by Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp. In the next episode, we get into the blueprint for building a healthier culture at your organization.
For more insights on this, check out this past episode with Kevin Oakes himself.
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Data is one of the most powerful tools you can use in arts management to increase patron retention. But how do you know which metrics to track? How do you find the time to stay on top of key performance indicators?
Over several years of experience, from my first job at the Seattle Symphony to becoming an executive director and developing the 'Long Haul Model', I can now identify the main, underlying problem most arts organizations run into when thinking about their data. And I brought in some folks to help me talk about it.
In this bonus episode, I interview special guests Sune Hjerrild and Jan Pilgaard Carlsen, co-founders of Artelize, a company that eats, sleeps, and breathes using data in the arts. We talk about how to harness your data to retain more patrons, what key metrics are important to monitor to know if your retention efforts are working, and why most CRMs make patron retention challenging, either because extracting the data and reports you need is tricky, or because it just takes too much time — and what to do about it to make it a million times faster.
Tracking and understanding your data doesn’t have to be a pitfall for your organization. Enjoy this special bonus episode to carry you through until the podcast starts again this fall.
Resources:
The Long Haul Model article
Rethinking Audience Engagement Panel Hosted by Artelize
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We wrap up season 3 with one of my most requested topics of all time: the topic of how to lead change. If you ever find yourself asking questions like ‘How do I get buy-in from my board?’ or ‘Where do I even begin when it comes to implementing new ways of doing business in my arts organization?’, this episode is for you.
We talk about what the experts say about fear of change, resistance to change, and other barriers to change; debunk three big myths about change; and share five things that actually work to drive change effectively at your arts organization.
No matter what role you fill within arts management, leading the change is one of the most important skills you can build. This episode unpacks the research every arts manager and leader needs to know.
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Every episode this season has focused on business strategies that apply to arts management, such as patron retention, leveraging the subscription and membership economy, ecommerce, and digital content (to name a few!).
And in this episode, we look at how these strategies apply to my own business, Changing the Narrative—and how those same strategies have guided the evolution of my business over the last year or so as we’ve scaled up.
We walk through my personal experience with growing Changing the Narrative, including the areas I needed to step away from, as well as the areas I decided to lean into further and build out. I also highlight some of the key lessons I've learned in hiring and building an effective team, using data and analytics for direction, and how important of a tool digital content is. My hope is you will find these lessons to be both relatable and applicable to your own arts organization.
The article mentioned several times: Scarcity Mindset Is Killing Your Arts Organization
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Copywriting is one of the most important tools you can use to boost ticket sales, donations, and revenue across various platforms. And the best part is—it costs $0 to update the words you use.
In this episode, learn five actionable tips on how creating small, emotional connections through specific language creates a big and lasting impact on your revenue. Hone your copywriting skills as a no cost tool to grab your patrons’ attention, fill those seats, and bring in more donations.
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For anyone who asks, “What’s the one thing I can do to increase revenue, ticket sales, audiences and donations,” this episode has your answer: copywriting.
For almost every arts organization, writing better, stronger copy is the free solution to upgrade every public facing channel you have, from website to program book, social media to fundraising appeals, subscription brochures to press releases.
The words you use are so powerful, and harnessing better copywriting is key to making every word work harder for you.
This episode covers four tips for you to implement right away to immediately start seeing more revenue—all at absolutely zero cost to your bottom line.
Example content referenced in episode:
On my first day as CEO of an orchestra, the board chair told me they had just considered shutting down... Can’t play Beethoven faster and save money...This is why planned giving is one of the most important things fundraising teams should be working on
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Major gifts are critical for every arts organization. This episode features board member and major gift philanthropist Susan Bay Nimoy, wife of the late actor Leonard Nimoy (most known for his role as Spock on Star Trek, and yes, we talk about it!). We cover all things major gifts, including relationship building, how that takes time, and what the process is that compels her as a major donor to give generously.
Susan Bay Nimoy has served on the board of many arts organizations, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Symphony Space in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Griffith Observatory. She recently endowed The Nimoy Theatre in LA, which is part of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance.
Want to know what to say when building major donor relationships in the arts and ultimately soliciting a major gift? Download your free resource, the Major Donor Fast Track Guide.
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The need for diversity in our audience and for the audience to reflect the community is a hot topic in the arts these days. And rightfully so.
There is a moral imperative to do this work at arts organizations, but I am also a fan of the business case for diversity. And in this episode, we are talking about what the numbers look like if and when the audience actually does look like the community — and wow, is there money on the table when the audience becomes more diverse.
This episode looks at just how many more tickets would be sold in a year if your audience makeup mirrored that of your community, or at least came close. We talk through the numbers, and I have a free download that does the math for you so you don’t have to.
Get your free Demographic Revenue Calculator and see the potential for sales growth in three easy steps.
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How arts and culture organizations can use advocacy to drive awareness for your cause and brand, even when you’re not a global, visitor-based institution.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is known as an international nonprofit conservation organization with an annual budget over $400 million and thousands of staff and employees. They have two local front doors — the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park — in addition several eco-regional “hubs” around the world.
The global work of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is helping the entire ecosystem, and this conversation with immediate past Board Chair Javade Chaudhri exemplifies that having a business mindset does not fly in the face of the mission driven work.
In fact, the data show that nonprofits of all sizes that advocate outperform their peers, and you do not have to be a $400M+ organization to engage in advocacy — it can happen small and locally. Chaudhri is candid about what separates organizations doing that well—having a business mindset being able to execute on that—versus those in his mind who aren’t.
We also talk about a few topics that have become near and dear to my heart in recent years, including company culture and staff compensation (as well as the need to pay staff competitively).
I am so grateful for Javade Chaudhri and him generously sharing his time, wisdom, and expertise. Enjoy his take on how the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and all kinds of arts and culture organizations can run it like a business, and get your free resource to help you start or uplevel your own advocacy work: the Advocacy Cheat Sheet.
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The subscription model is thriving everywhere else besides the arts—to the tune of 20% of all consumer credit card transactions now go to subscriptions and memberships. So why then, are subscriptions and donations on the decline in the arts?
It turns out, there are three big things these successful brands are doing differently than arts organizations. This episode breaks it down, as well as offers ways to implement these ideas.
Get your free resource for this episode: 3 Reasons Your Subscriptions are Declining & 11 Ways to Combat It.
00:00 Introduction to Season Three of The Offstage Mike
00:34 The Theme of Season Three: Running it Like a Business
01:43 The Importance of Subscriptions in the Cultural Sector
02:03 The Current State of the Subscription Economy
02:58 The Decline of Subscriptions in the Arts
03:05 The Discrepancy Between the Arts and Other Industries
06:58 The Three Big Differences in Subscription Models
07:50 The Importance of First Year Subscription Renewals
14:00 The Impact of Price Increases on Subscription Renewals
20:26 The Three Steps to Combat the First Year Cliff
29:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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This season on The Offstage Mic we are talking about strategies to combat the challenges in the cultural sector borrowed from the business world that have proven successful across patron retention, subscriptions, ecommerce, raising money, and digital content (to name a few).
And throughout the season, I’m occasionally bringing in some people who know the business world quite well to help me break it down: board members of our orchestras, operas, ballets, theaters, museums, zoos, and more.
These are the people governing our cultural institutions, who also have incredible professional experience outside the arts, and who are also among the most connected to and engaged with our mission-driven work.
All so that we can Run It Like a Business — without sacrificing the art we produce. Season 3 of the Offstage Mic is coming up right here. Hit “follow” or “subscribe” right now.
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Yesterday was publication day for my new book, Run It Like A Business: Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money—Without Losing the Art.
To celebrate, we put together something special for you: a live show we recorded just last night at the book launch party here in San Francisco. It’s a conversation with myself and Kelly Harris, Executive Director of Haight Street Art Center.
The book and our conversation is for people and arts organizations who want to:
Grow audiences and keep them coming back againMake our organizations more inclusiveGet younger attendees in the seats and on the donor rollsAnd generate millions more dollars in revenue, in order toContinue to create the art we love—without the stress of figuring out how to afford itBook details and how to get your copy: https://www.aubreybergauer.com/book
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