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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

What works and what doesn’t at the bargaining table with unions in arts and culture. Cellist Ted Nelson served as chair of the players committee at the Cincinnati Symphony, and clarinetist Jessica Phillips served as players committee chair at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Both worked toward collaborative and creative agreements, and in this final episode of the season, they share first-hand about their experience. What needs to happen before negotiations ever begin, how training musicians...

Talent acquisition and the state of the workforce in arts and culture is shifting. More Baby Boomers are nearing retirement, more Gen-Z workers are entering the labor force, the Millennials and Gen-Xers are changing their relationship with work and their thoughts around remote or flexible work options. National research from Advisory Board for the Arts shows the top driver of employee satisfaction and talent retention in the arts is no longer reputation for artistic excellence, but a strong...

You no longer need a label to release digital recordings for streaming. Today, any ensemble of any size can take advantage of the way recording and distribution has changed and release directly to streaming platforms. In this episode, Aubrey is joined by two experts — Mike Warner, Head of Editorial Marketing Partnerships - North America at Believe, and Jamie Freedman, Head of Classical Programming at Pandora — to talk through the play by play (stream by stream?!) They cover topics including...

Tell the stories of your arts organization and artists with tips and techniques from former Pixar Hollywood producer. Marcia Gwendolyn Jones, the producing force behind blockbuster animated films Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and PAW Patrol: The Movie. Aubrey and Marcia cover what bringing a script to the screen has in common with bringing performances to the stage, expert storytelling tips to apply to your own stories at arts organizations, and the highs and lows of storytelling: what are the...

The influencer industry is worth billions of dollars and growing because consumers trust people more than brands these days. Arts organizations have a built-in influencer army—our artists—and we can train them on digital content and social media. In this episode, Aubrey brings in David Taylor, who worked with the Philharmonia in London to do just this. We'll hear the case study of what they did, what worked and what didn't, and some unexpected results they saw. Get David’s book, The Future...

How to update the organization structure of your arts organizations to be more productive, break down silos, and better do the work. Hear from Julian Chender, an expert in organization design through his work at Accenture as well as his own company he founded. Together, Aubrey and Julian look at the challenges with the existing structure that's been in place at most arts organizations for the last 40+ years, and how to design the organization for goals that affect everyone going...

How to monetize streaming performances for new and alternate revenue streams for your arts organization well beyond the pandemic. In a world where many arts organization have struggled to make money with streaming and digital content, or stopped streaming altogether, here’s one organization still streaming and making lots of money from it—and growing their audience, too. Learn more about Dallas Black Dance Theatre. Drew's article for the Wallace Foundation: Can Pandemic Be Catalyst for New...

For development folks in the arts who want to increase fundraising revenue and reverse the trends of declining donor households. As more organizations are facing the national trend of donor households down, dollar goals up, Louis Diez is a thought leader with results to back it up across both higher education and classical music. Learn more about the Donor Participation Project Louis founded: JoinDPP.org Follow Louis on LinkedIn for great fundraising thought leadership and ideas.

Why is the subscription model thriving in just about every consumer-facing sector yet in the arts is on the decline? Aubrey takes this question to Robbie Kellman Baxter, the world’s leading expert on subscription models. Aubrey and Robbie explore four areas where the arts are doing it differently, and what we can do to update our own practices to maximize the important revenue streams we need: subscriptions, memberships, and donations. Resources: The Forever Transaction The Membership Economy

Marketing that focuses on the art or artists is no longer effective for sales. Instead, marketing that focuses on the customer grows sales revenue. That's because today, audiences “hire” organizations to solve a problem, meet a need, or do a job they need done in their life. This is the premise of Jobs to Be Done Theory, developed by Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christensen. In this episode, Clayton Christensen Institute Chief of Staff Ruth Hartt joins Aubrey to talk about the Jobs to...

Learn the top findings from one of the largest studies ever conducted on company culture and how it applies to the arts. Best-selling author Kevin Oakes is the CEO and founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the leading human capital research company in the world, and he shares how high-performance organizations we’ve all heard of have successfully changed organizational culture.   We don’t have to be giant behemoth orgs or flush with cash to make inroads on culture. A...

Season two is here! You all were so fantastic during the pilot season, so now we’re back for season two — this time with a team of awesome women audio engineers and musicians working behind the scenes to make this come together for you. And that’s extra fitting because this whole season is about how the narrative is changing in the arts.   We are at an inflection point for arts organizations: audiences are down from pre-pandemic levels, subscriptions on the decline, still confronting systemic...

The job of the board at a non-profit organization is to govern, and governing an institution of which you’re an employee can be a conflict of interest. Instead, when thinking if a musician should be on the board, ask what the goals are we’re trying to achieve. Engagement? Information sharing? Both those things can and should happen without a board seat — and both those things should not be relegated to only one or two musicians.

Pro tips on how to address employee turnover, toxic workplace culture, and microagressions like when a man interrupts you while speaking. This episode looks at how to show up as your authentic self back in the office when there is such a narrow view of what “professionalism” looks like. These questions are all addressed in this final episode of season one. It’s raw, it’s vulnerable, and all of that feels like a good note to close out this pilot project season. Thanks to everyone who's...

How arts organizations can use data and analytics to build audiences and enhance artistic decision-making. Plus how a small arts organization can use data, not just the big institutions. This episode covers questions that were asked in a recent interview with San Francisco Classical Voice all about how arts organizations could use data and analytics like Billy Bean and the Oakland A’s did in Moneyball. Special thanks to San Francisco Classical Voice for covering this topic and for graciously...

How to balance risk taking with sustainability at an arts organization. And how you can make sure a new idea is not really that risky after all. Then, Aubrey covers how to find common ground in negotiations, sharing lessons we can learn from big organizations like the Met Opera, smaller organizations like the California Symphony, and a Harvard Business School professor.

How to build an arts organization culture that embraces continual improvement, design thinking, iteration, and innovation—especially when we feel so much pressure to make everything we do an overnight success with no room for failure. Then, Aubrey addresses a job seeker’s question about what to do when there’s something about their work history they don’t want to come up in an interview.