Bonus Episode: Run It Like A Business—Book Launch Conversation with Kelly Harris
Live conversation on publication day about my new book, Run It Like A Business: Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money—Without Losing the Art.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Aubrey Bergauer: Hey, everyone. It's Aubrey Bergauer. Yesterday was the launch of my new book. Run it like a business. Strategies for arts organizations to increase audiences, remain relevant and multiply money without losing the art. It's for people who want to grow audiences and keep them coming back again, make our organizations more inclusive, get younger attendees in the seats and on the donor rolls, And generate millions more dollars in revenue in order to continue to create the art we love without the stress of figuring out how to afford it.
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. Really quickly, the Haight Street Art Center serves San Francisco's thriving poster art and artist communities.
This goes all the way back to the 1960s, 1970s, during the summer of love and the origins of the rock poster art scene here in San Francisco. Today, the Center not only houses an impressive collection of this iconic artwork, they also serve the community with exhibitions rooted in San Francisco counterculture and social justice, through educational programs with screen printing and poster making in their on site print studio and their traveling pop up print studio, and through cultural development programs and activism projects.
Drawing upon art, music, and social and political counterculture history, Haight Street Art Center provides a space that bridges communities through social activism and artistic expression.
[00:01:35] Kelly Harris: Welcome everybody to the Haight Street Art Center. You are in our print studio slash event space for this evening. I am so excited to have the chance to talk with my friend and colleague Aubrey Bergauer. about her amazing new book, which I've learned so much from you guys. This book is incredible. How to Run It Like a Business.
Aubrey, you've been influencing audiences for years, including myself. The Steve Jobs of classical music. I mean, who gets to have that title? Thank you for all the work you've done for arts non profits. My question to start is really why a book and why now well
[00:02:16] Aubrey Bergauer: first off. Thank you so generous Thank you all for being here.
I just like really am feeling the love and support. So thank you guys But why a book why now why all this topic a couple reasons one? So many of us in the room know post pandemic every arts organization wants their audiences back And one reason for this book, though, was because the trends that are in place with audiences really were in place before the pandemic even ever hit.
And the pandemic really accelerated and exacerbated a lot of the challenges that the arts and culture industry was already facing. So that was sort of thing one, why now, to say let's, let's address these challenges. And thing two, reason two for the book is I started realizing as I was thinking about the different challenges affecting the sector, not just getting audiences back, but how do we use digital content?
How do we retain our customers? I started realizing so many of those challenges have been successfully solved by for profit businesses. And over the years, just really learning that there are so many things that we can learn from our for profit counterparts. And that we can adopt and employ as strategies of our own.
So all of that combined came together as, let's run it like a business. Alright, well I'm
[00:03:36] Kelly Harris: going to jump right in because chapter one, for those of you who are in arts organizations, um, we know how important the newcomer experience is. And I'm just entering my third year here at the Arts Center. And so this is really important to me.
I'm hoping that you can talk a little bit about the newcomer experience. Let's start off with that. So
[00:03:55] Aubrey Bergauer: many times at arts organizations, we, because we love the art and we as administrators are familiar with the art, we design experiences for people like us who also love the art, who also know a lot about the art, whatever the art is, whether that is visual art, performance art, you know, theater, classical music, you know, pick your, pick your discipline, dance.
And yet, over the years through user experience research, that's a lot of what we talk about in chapter one, talk about a concept borrowed from the business world, user experience research, we learned that the experience isn't always welcoming to newcomers, isn't always helpful to newcomers, meaning There's a big knowledge gap often about what we know about our art form and what a newcomer knows about our art form.
So creating a newcomer experience is really about how do we fill in that knowledge gap? How do we help somebody who's experiencing our art for the first time, our venue for the first time, to not feel intimidated? That was a word that came out a lot when we would do focus group research. I feel intimidated.
I feel like I don't belong. These are negative emotions. Nobody wants associated with their brand, whether you're a for profit organization or nonprofit organization. So newcomer experience is really about breaking all of that down. How do we center the customer? That's another way to say it. How do we center our customer?
When for hundreds of years, we've been centering the art, perfecting the art. We have such a high quality product. And then the newcomer experience is really about how do we take that great product? And not sacrifice it, but also center what a newcomer is experiencing.
[00:05:35] Kelly Harris: I mean, and this is so interesting because when you think about messaging, how people understand what you do and why you do it, one of the things I've learned from the book, um, is really about how you market and brand yourself.
And I actually realized I was making a huge mistake. And I had received feedback from several people, and one of my great friends who's in the beauty industry has nothing to do with the art industry, and this is another reason why. This all crosses over. I'm doing this as a funder, saying, Donate now. The urgency is now.
Big green button. Donate here. Exclamation point. You have one chance. Do it now. Save the arts. And, so I think I'm pushing all this content, and I'm like, wow, people are really gonna They're going to engage with this. This is so important. This is so important. It's now I'm also thinking this is my one chance for them to understand what we're doing.
So I'm I'm including this text heavy e blast with these huge buttons, but I'm not really sending anyone to any other location, and I'll let you take it from here, but the success story is I did take some advice from the book, and when I looked at the numbers of how many people clicked through and actually went to our website, and they maybe even bought something from the gallery shop.
It would never have gone to that space. So, I'll let you talk a little bit more about that, but I just wanted to let you know that was one thing that was so important that I learned from the book. Yeah, thank you for that. I think
[00:06:54] Aubrey Bergauer: it really put together some of this, um, whether it's newcomer experience or just customer experience in general.
We tend to use a lot of words in the arts, whether it's a long email blast or a big donate now button and This is also coming back to user experience research What we learned is that grown adults smart grown adults educated grown adults grown adults that self identify is attending Lots of live entertainment experiences.
They do this user experience research and they started telling us things like, wow, your website reads like inside baseball. So many words I don't understand when I go to your website. So many words that for us in the like working in the art form were words that we use all the time in classical music.
It was words like concerto. It was words like names of the instruments in the orchestra or composer names. And. Again, smart, grown, educated adults said, I don't know what these words mean. And that was a real eye opening experience. And we learned, on the heels of that, things like, Yeah, also we're not going to take the time to read a bunch of stuff and go look it up.
Like, you have, we want to learn, we want to understand, but reading, like, a whole, it or something like that is not, is not what's going to be helpful to us. We need content, we need digital, we need, you know, pick another medium to help, again, fill in that knowledge gap and make it more approachable. And so, some of what you're talking about in, Toward the beginning of the book is this like, yeah, we don't need to, you know, blast the neon lights, donate now, but we do need to help people learn because people want to learn.
And I think that's a big difference over, here's a bunch of artist names, shouldn't you like this? Yeah, and I
[00:08:34] Kelly Harris: think that's, that's just so interesting because also the messaging, the content of what we're, we're putting out. One of the things the Art Center is doing as you experience this, we have this amazing bicycle when we go out in the community.
We don't have people walking by the Art Center. You can see we're at the bottom of Haight Street. So really what we're trying to do is drive traffic into the center so we created this new opportunity for people to learn about what we do up here in the print studio and possibly even engage in classes and education here.
But one of the things that we're doing Now, more than ever is capturing these on site experiences and making sure people see themselves represented and that activity so people know that this is something they can come and do and enjoy. It's accessible. It's exciting, but we're also driving traffic back to the center.
And so Another piece that you that you speak about is this digital media piece of capturing this You know through video and sharing it out and allowing people to see themselves represented in this activity. So thank you for that
[00:09:34] Aubrey Bergauer: yeah, I think this is something you all do exceptionally well and This idea of talk about centering the customer you literally take a bicycle out into the community and let people have a tactile experience with your art form and I think that's amazing.
I think any art form that can combine a tactile experience with what they present is, uh, engaging people in a different way, and then capturing that, being able to push it back out into digital, check, check, check, for Haight Street Art Center, and I think something else that you all do that I, I want to turn it back on you, if I can, Is this idea in the book?
It's called vertical integration, and the topic from the business world of vertical integration is how do you bring under one roof different revenue streams? Everybody in the arts wants new revenue streams, more revenue streams. How do you bring under one roof? More revenue streams different revenue streams that typically would exist under different roofs So I'll give a business example and then I want you to tell what you're doing here.
So Amazon is like the king of this at Amazon. They used to outsource shipping and warehousing, right? Eventually they brought that under one roof. We call that Amazon Prime. Amazon eventually needed, or at first they hosted their website elsewhere. Then they decided to bring that under their roof. We call that Amazon Web Services.
AWS is now the largest internet hosting provider in the world, I believe. You know, then they said, Oh, what about the goods that we sell? Then they came out with Amazon Basics. They brought that in house. And so, Amazon has just been the king of like, bringing these new revenue streams. It's under their roof and it's just helped their business scale monetarily, dramatically.
So how does this apply to an arts organization? Arts organizations, I think our biggest area of opportunity is this education piece. And so often at almost any artistic discipline that I've learned about over the course of researching this book, we often do education for children. No problem with that.
But what about grown adults? If somebody wants to learn to play an instrument as a grown adult, there's not a lot of ways to get exceptional teaching. Like you either have to major in music in school or you don't have access to that kind of quality teacher. And what you all have done is started to really embrace this idea of vertical integration and really taking the education piece Yes, it's helpful for first timers, but it's also something you've been able to monetize.
So, can I turn it back to you and have you share more about this?
[00:12:16] Kelly Harris: I think that's great, yeah. Okay. So, you know, with the bicycle going out into community, we're also, we're spreading activism, really. So we pop up at FoodWise, down at the farmer's markets. We work with artists to talk a little bit about activism, but we also engage people in, you know, the art of screen printing.
Um, and we've found that so many people have, in post pandemic, really are missing that tactile group experience of creating art. screen, you're closer to whatever it is, the activism, everything that you do. If it's your own artwork, you're even more excited about what you're producing, right? So we decided, you know, we wanted to grow the membership model at the Art Center, so we created a way to engage people in memberships to utilize the print studio here with our experts in screen printing.
So our first class size was around, you know, three to four people, and they're very interested in putting their own art, but it's a beginner class. And the more of these pop ups we were doing, the more folks we were engaging with, the more people were coming and having interest in signing up for these classes.
So now we're, we're full. We're full for the spring. And the cool thing that we're doing And so we're offering these beginner classes, but then we're also taking them to the next intermediate level. So they're doing a two color process. And then the advanced level, we'll engage with another one of our artists in our network to learn a little bit more about how they might market their prints.
Where can they sell these? Can they create an exhibition on their own? So it's really this process of leading people through a program that's growing and also supporting membership. But the foundation of this is really in poster art. And, you know, if you saw the posters downstairs in the exhibition, they're both historical and contemporary.
So we also have education classes for young folks to learn a little bit about the poster. And one of the most interesting things is the typography that you see in psychedelic posters, right? So, we also provide classes for youth here, and when we're really winning, we're doing an intergenerational connection.
So, they're learning a little bit about the artist who, um, kicked off this whole psychedelic scene, and then they're creating their own poster. And if they're in conversation with those folks, we have still, still several of them, um, that contribute to the programming here that come and do workshops and Q and A's and get people more interested in creating their own artwork.
And that's what we're
[00:14:35] Aubrey Bergauer: doing. I think that connects so many themes in the book. That's why I get excited about what you're doing here. Because we talked about newcomer experience. You're bringing people in. You're out in the community. You're capturing that content. You are then, uh, You built a membership model around the pe Like the people who are very interested in that experience.
You have also monetized the education part of it. So it's bringing new people in, but you're also monetizing the people who say, Yeah, I want to learn how to Like, develop my craft at that. That's vertical integration. And I just think you all are just crushing it. So, for what that's worth. Well,
[00:15:08] Kelly Harris: thanks. But here's the problem.
So, we have them in the door. And then my biggest issue is the retention piece. So, how do we get people to come back? Even, you know, we, we do not charge admission here. So, our exhibitions are always free. And so, that revenue stream becomes really important. Can we talk a little bit more about the book and that piece?
[00:15:30] Aubrey Bergauer: Retention, I think, in many ways is, this is chapter two, by the way, uh, retention in many ways is, is one of those topics that I really started looking at the business world and seeing so much success at the strategies they were employing, and this is things like the membership and subscription economy, and so much of what we consume.
As consumers is, is based on the membership economy. So we're talking our Netflix subscription, Amazon again, our, you know, like my toothbrush literally gets delivered to my door on subscription, right? Like everything is pretty much available these days on subscription. And so I was researching the book, and Uncovered that literally 20 percent of all global credit card transactions go toward a subscription or a membership for all of us.
I see nodding heads. You're like, yeah, I saw my credit card bill and that is good. That is correct. And And what I started trying to unpack is, why is the subscription model working for all of these other sectors? And yet subscriptions and memberships in the arts, we say they're on the decline, or some people would even say the subscription model is dead.
And I thought, these two things just do not compute, like they, I don't understand. So it turns out, on this topic of retention of subscriptions and memberships, there are some things that these thriving brands are doing differently. Then the rest of us in the arts. And so then that became the sort of model for this whole chapter.
And then how do we adopt these strategies? It's not rocket science. There are some really pretty simple basic things in my opinion we could be doing that these other brands are already successfully employing. And I'll just wrap it up by saying, It starts with that first visit. How do you collect the information?
How do you then invite them back again? And every time I speak it out loud, it sounds maybe very simple, but somehow this idea of extending an invitation to come back and not upselling too much too soon, not donate now yet, but just will you come back? That's a different ask. And so, that's what that chapter is all about, is how do we bring a customer, a patron?
along a journey from their first visit with us to inviting them back to introducing a membership or subscription model, eventually a donation ask and on and on.
[00:17:53] Kelly Harris: That's so important. And then I think that's so interesting in the book too. There's all these case studies because whether you are in the arts with visual art, Um, or if you're in the beauty industry, I think it's so interesting how you're able to tie this all together and it's like, it's so accessible and important, um, information for us to all have.
Um, can you talk a little bit about some of the case studies that really are sort of important, um, for this audience to know about?
[00:18:21] Aubrey Bergauer: Yeah. I think not only does every chapter talk about. from the quote unquote business world. So there's plenty of case studies from for profit and data that's brought in, but every chapter I discovered, also as I was putting all this together and researching, every chapter features one or more case studies of arts organizations that are adopting that strategy already and have been, and have nailed it and are seeing the results because of it.
So, I get so excited when I think about this part because Yes, we're trying to take inspiration from outside the arts and bring it in. But there are organizations across all kinds of artistic disciplines, visual arts, performance arts, uh, membership and service organizations across our entire cultural sector that are doing these strategies and have been, and they're crushing it!
They're seeing the results. And so I got to write about all of that good news too, which really, really gave me just so much hope and encouragement for the future of our sector. Well,
[00:19:21] Kelly Harris: speaking of that, I think it's just, it's so exciting to have you here and, um, I know we're all really anxious to get to the book.
I mean, I want to tell you, I've gotten, I'm almost through it, and obviously there's certain chapters that we really focus on together, but I want to make sure that all of you take home a copy tonight. And if you have already purchased your book, thank you so much for supporting. Um, and the Hayes Street Arts Center is really lucky to have Aubrey here.
Um, she's, um, It just helped me immensely. We did our first impact report this year. We're a baby organization. And so I just invite all of you who are thinking about growth right now, for you personally or for the organization that you're working with, this book is essential. It really is so timely and so important and it's so relatable in so many ways.
So Aubrey, thank you for your time. I don't know if there's a few last words that you want to throw out there to the audience.
[00:20:17] Aubrey Bergauer: I just want to also add my gratitude and thanks. I just like, look out and see so many, just a mix of friends and colleagues and people I love in all of those categories. So, truly, thank you all for being here.
And, uh, as Kelly mentioned, it's being recorded. So, for everybody listening later, just thank you all too. So, really. Thank you for doing this. It's, it's a pleasure.
[00:20:37] Kelly Harris: Great. And thank you. And please join us downstairs, um, for your book signing opportunity. We'd love to have a chance to get to know you and we are accepting new members.
So if you pulled a screen front this evening and you love that experience, please see me after we'll sign you right up. Anyway, thanks for coming. Everybody.
[00:20:55] Aubrey Bergauer: Thank you all.
This special episode was recorded by Emma Markowitz and edited by Novo Music. An audio production company of all women audio engineers and musicians. Special thanks to Haight Street Art Center for hosting this event. I'd be honored if you ordered a copy of my book, Run It Like a Business, Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money Without Losing the Art.
It's available wherever you like to buy books in pretty much every format out there. Print, ebook, audiobook, it's all there. Thanks so much for listening. I hope this book and very soon Season 3 of this podcast, yes, Season 3 is coming, brings you tons of value. I can't wait to see you soon through the pages you turn.
And of course, right here on The Offstage Mic.