The Offstage Mic

“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.

“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. 

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.