Changing the Narrative needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at anytime.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Aubrey Bergauer: Hey everyone, I am excited to bring you today's episode because it's a little different than most of the other episodes I've ever done. That is because we are spending the entire time today looking inward at my own business. So this is sort of a real peel back the curtain kind of look at some things I've been up to.

As you know, unless this is your very first episode, in which case Welcome. Otherwise, as you know, this season on the Offstage Mike, we are talking about strategies to combat the challenges we face in the cultural sector. And every episode has focused on strategies borrowed from the business world that have proven successful across patron retention.

Subscriptions, e commerce, raising money, and digital content, to name a few topics. And you literally hear those exact phrases in my podcast trailer for this season, plus some of those in the welcome intro theme that you'll hear in a [00:01:00] moment, right? I was thinking about all of that, and I had the idea for this episode a while back now, because it was when I was planning out all the episodes for this season, thinking about those different topics I just listed.

And I had one more slot to fill. I had been going through the mental Rolodex thinking on what might be helpful to you all listening as I was going through that list, patron retention, subscriptions, e commerce, raising money, digital content. I realized, I mean, I always knew this, but somehow it hit different in the moment.

That is to say, I realized that every one of those topics is something I do in my own business every day, just like everybody working in their day to day jobs at cultural organizations. So, to break it down, customer retention. My goal since launching my business about five years ago now has been to provide so much value that people keep coming back for more.

And just like an arts organization, repeat customers are worth more, [00:02:00] they have a higher lifetime value, and they mean that the work is Really actually making a difference. And otherwise you, they, people wouldn't come back, right? Subscriptions. We'll talk a lot more about this in this episode, but I launched my own subscription membership product a year and a half ago.

I am just so fascinated these days by the membership and subscription economy. I learned as much as I could about it when I was researching and writing my book. There's a whole chapter on this. If you've read it, you know, deep dive just really had me sold on the value and benefits of. What we can learn from the membership economy and subscription revenue and recurring revenue.

And I wanted to practice what I preach, to be honest. I wanted to be working firsthand on a subscription product. I was, of course, when I was in my other full time arts administration jobs, but I wanted in my work now to be employing all the principles, strategies, and tactics I learned about, which makes me that much more able to then help others [00:03:00] as you all are applying these strategies.

And your daily work, too. So more on that to come, but moving down the list here, e commerce. Almost my entire business now is e commerce based. That is the biggest part of my own evolution and my business evolution. The biggest change at changing the narrative is how much e commerce is a priority now. And wow, have I learned.

So much and have continued to grow my own chops in an online e commerce world. So a lot more to share on this in this episode too. What else? Uh, raising money. This one I guess is probably where I differ the most from traditional arts organizations right now. I just don't raise money in the same way with individual donors because I'm not a non profit.

I still occasionally write some grants that I qualify for as a small business owner, as a women owned small business. So fine, but not the main focus of this episode, I suppose. Digital content. This is so important to both arts organizations and my own business now, probably [00:04:00] any business anywhere. The concepts and strategies are just all so similar.

I've come to Not just know or see, but really like deeply feel and believe. So similar in terms of using content to educate, to make people want more from you, to be that gateway to more content and ultimately the product that you offer. Content driving hunger for more. So all of those are topics that I talk about all the time.

They affect so many of us, no matter your role in arts management, no matter if you are at an orchestra, opera, ballet or other dance company, a theater. If you work in jazz, museum, or other visitor based institution, the point is these topics affect all of us in arts and culture. I draw the parallels to my own business quite often, I feel like, but suddenly, as I said, I had this moment where it kind of hit different, and I had this thought of, you know, I'm Aubrey, so talk about it, share what you're doing, [00:05:00] share what you've learned.

It's going to be helpful to somebody listening. I hope that proves true and here's the plan for what we're going to do in this episode. I have made big changes in my own business over the last year and a half or so. We're going to talk through it all and why I chose to make those changes, what I did and why, why I chose to make those changes.

So, we're going to talk through it all, and not just the what, but why, why did I make those changes, and how it relates to the strategies and topics so many arts organizations and so many of you all are also working on on a daily basis. Along the way, I am also going to share some practical, tactical tools, programs, software, in other words, kind of the tech stack that I use, as I get a fair amount of questions on this, especially for smaller arts organizations or students.

Startup organizations or new ensembles. But some of these tools, I will say, are even for the big organizations, too, and really don't depend that much on budget size or staff size at all. So hopefully something in there is helpful to different folks [00:06:00] listening. I have all of that for you in a free resource that you can get if you want the list to quickly reference, get the URLs, the details.

Go to my website. It's aubreybergauer. com slash 28. That's 2 8 for episode 28. And you can download my total resource list. That's what it's called. And it has all my favorite tools, programs, services that hopefully some are helpful to you too. This is now the penultimate episode of the season, and just, I will tease for you here that I am working on something really great for you.

Speaking of resources and tools, it is another new free resource to help you over the summer And as you're prepping for the fall, as long as you're listening to this in real time, that is, when this airs, I will share more in the next episode. So the final episode of the season, I'll share more on this.

But just so you know, you don't want to miss it. If you are not on my email list, you need to go there now to be notified. New free resource. So it's aubreybergauer. com slash free [00:07:00] resource. And that's going to get you on my email list. So when it's time for me to be able to share this with you, you're going to get it, you're going to get notified.

So that's if you like free things. For now, we have this episode to get to. We are talking about building a business to scale and how my own business has changed. Welcome to episode seven of season three of The Offstage Mike, and it starts right now. I'm Aubrey Bergauer, and welcome to my podcast. I'm known in the arts world for being customer centric, data obsessed, and for growing revenue.

The arts are my vehicle to make the change I want to see in this world, like creating places of belonging, pursuing gender and racial equality, developing high performing teams and leaders, and leveraging technology to elevate our work. I've been called the Steve Jobs of classical music at the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony.

I've helped offstage roles managing millions of dollars in revenue at major institutions and as chief executive of an orchestra where we doubled the size of the audience and nearly quadrupled the donor [00:08:00] base. And now I'm here to help you achieve that same kind of success. In this podcast, we are sorting through the data inside and outside the arts, applying those findings.

Findings to our work, leading out with our values, and bringing in some expert voices along the way. All to build the vibrant future we know is possible for our institutions and for ourselves as off stage administrators and leaders. This podcast is about optimizing the business around the art, not sacrificing it.

You're listening to the Offstage Mic.

Have you read Core Storm's, new State-of-the-Art Report, yet it's a data-driven resource for all things arts education in the past year. This one is for all the executive directors of nonprofit arts organizations, teaching artists and other leaders in the arts and culture community. Imagine tapping into more than 10 years of exclusive class registration data to [00:09:00] uncover invaluable insights for your organization.

CourseStorm has done the legwork so you can make informed decisions. Things like what day and time is best to hold your class, when do most people register, and which digital marketing channel is most effective. Discover the successes and strategies of arts education programs that not only weathered the pandemic storm, but are thriving.

Yes, you heard that right. Thriving. I love that the State of the Arts report shares exclusive data from the top class registration software company, CoreStorm. I got to see trends discovered from CoreStorm's analysis of more than one million class registrations, and you'll want to see them too. So, if you're ready to elevate your education program, don't miss out on the State of the Arts report.

Visit Core storm.com/soar. That's slash SOAR, like the acronym for State of the Arts. And download the free report today. 

[00:09:55] Novo Music: And we're back today on top. Tunes the music production, 

is it just me or does [00:10:00] this sound terrible? 

Wait, I think I heard of someone who might be able to help us. There's this company called Novo Music.

They provide across the board audio solutions from recording repair, to audio editing, to original music and sound design and beyond. 

Well, what are we waiting for? 

Today on Top Tunes, the music Now that's better. Novo Music. Conducting your creative vision. Find out more at novomusic. co 

[00:10:25] Aubrey Bergauer: So, as I said at the top, a lot has changed in the last year and a half.

A lot has changed at changing the narrative. So I am recording this now in May 2024, if you're listening to this in real time. So May 2024, and everything I'm about to share with you began really in November of 2022, I would say. So about one and a half years ago. November, December, that time frame is when I do normally a lot of annual planning for the year ahead.

So November of 2022, I was doing just that. At the time, I was [00:11:00] facing a A few challenges in my business, namely just how I had maxed out how many people in organizations I could serve. That's a good problem to have, of course, but what really doesn't scale is time, right? That's true for any of us. We all have limits on our time.

I was doing a lot of one on one work, which I realized was kind of the fundamental crux of the problem here. I was doing one on one work in the form of a lot of on site consulting, a lot of on site workshops, and some one on one coaching as individuals would reach out. I just realized that, that just, that's the reason it doesn't scale.

There's only so many hours in the day, right? It became clear that the, the way to scale is you move away from one on one to a model that's one to many. So also happening simultaneously is I had just at that time, November of 2022, November 1st, I had, this date is so burned into my brain, I had turned in the first draft manuscript of my book.

That means I had just [00:12:00] finished writing, I mean, all of it, but in particular the chapters on monetizing education. I And the subscription membership economy. I was like, you know, talking to myself, Aubrey, you can serve more people. The answer is like, hello, staring you in the face. So I started making a plan to move to that one to many scalable model based on monetizing the education that I had previously offered as in person workshops and consulting, plus incorporating all I had learned on the subscription membership economy.

I spent all of 2023 doing that, moving everything over, really changing so much of the model. So, what did that entail? Here's what that looked like. I always talk about changes step by step, little by little. If you have followed me for probably just about any amount of time, you've probably heard me talk about this.

I talk a lot about iteration. Just start. Doing something is better than nothing. Like, just take a step, a small step, whatever that looks like for you. [00:13:00] Toward whatever thing you're moving toward, you know, just begin, right? Do something, not nothing. And progress, not perfection. That's another one I talk about a lot.

For me, I thought, okay, that's what this is gonna, that's what it's gonna take. You just gotta start moving. That meant finding ways to make my time more scalable. I thought, okay, I need to reduce the number of one on ones I do. That includes number one on ones with individuals plus the number of one on ones with organizations.

Point two for me on this was I said, Aubrey, you cannot give away your time for free. And that meant, you know, the old model of the business was, was doing that. It was intake calls, for example, or writing proposals that may never even result in contract work agreement, right? It meant. Sometimes giving away time for free was letting people, you know, pick my brain when they reach out to me.

I was realizing, you know, contributing to the problem I was having with my time not scaling, and I needed to stop. Reframe how I view my time so that I could [00:14:00] reallocate that time to serving more people. Okay. I said, also, I need to find a way to reduce that on site work. I was doing lots of long haul model trainings, and honestly, probably about like 95 percent of the content was mostly the same for everyone.

I thought, okay, clearly there's redundancy there that I can figure out how to streamline better. I was looking at, in terms of time, making time more scalable, managing my digital presence, my own digital content. I had gotten better over the years at getting more efficient, at developing processes that streamlined, but I knew I needed to keep iterating on that one, really finding kind of the next way, next step, to improve that piece of my And again, I had just written a whole chapter on that.

I, what is that chapter? Three, I think, is all about digital content driving the desire for our services and products. So I had just come off of writing that chapter, reading the research, [00:15:00] consuming way more case studies than even made it into the book. And I just realized this was an area not just ripe for improvement, but an area I was under investing in.

I had decided. I wrote a blog article that's now kind of fast forwarding just a few months ago on overcoming scarcity mindset and investing even when you think you don't have enough resources. So anybody who read that blog article, when did that come out? March or maybe March of this year, I'm thinking.

But anyways, put a pin in that is the point because we'll come back to it as I talk about building out the team to support these strategies. But just know for now, I knew that digital content was a strategy that had paid off in years past. I literally started my business. It was 10 years ago as a side hustle because of the blog content I was creating at the time.

So I knew that content was effective and that it was going to continue to be part of the model going forward, but I just knew that it was time for kind of that next iteration, whatever I could figure out what that would look like. [00:16:00] Moving on though, other parts of my business, speaking engagements. That was one of two things I already had as part of my offerings that were already one to many.

And, you know, anytime you get on stage in front of a group of people, that's one to many. It's also something that I generally really like, so wanted to keep that in the mix. The other thing, I said there were two things that were already one too many, the other was my up level course, which used to be called Summer Up Level, I'll talk about iterating, before that it was the Young Professionals Leadership Development course, through those iterations I already had done.

Leading up to 2022, three iterations of proof of concept of this online one to many model working. And then also the Comeback Planning Sprint. For anybody who did that in 2021, that was my OG course online. So for anybody who did the Comeback Planning Sprint in 2021, you are amazing. I still think about the cohort.

I did two cohorts of that and you all were wonderful. All of that means that I already had been doing some one to [00:17:00] many work offerings. I wanted to continue to build on that, build on what was working there. Again, iteration, what's the next version of this to level up for me? Here are the different offerings I came up with.

Knowing me, I will likely continue to iterate and evolve. And of course, that's going to happen. But here's where I started. Given all of that that I just laid out for you, I decided to make my flagship program the Run It Like a Business Academy. The material I was sharing over and over again in that one on one consulting work, the long haul model, anything else people were asking of me, All of that, I was like, okay, this is how we're going to reconfigure this and package this up to scale better.

And here's one more added problem that I wanted to solve for as I was moving this forward. That problem is that I had found over the last five years of doing the in person consulting work, one on one, I say one on one, like going to an organization, doing the workshops, is [00:18:00] that organizations wanted to bring me in, and I would go, usually for like a two day kind of a workshop or retreat, and After five years of that I realized I don't think I can foster lasting change, sustainable change, lasting impact in two days.

Over the years, maybe even longer than five years, because so much of this started as a side hustle before I ever left my full time job. running the orchestra. And so just seeing that again and again was plaguing me a little bit, I think, is the word. And I realized that I need to be more of a guide, not a get in, get out, right?

I talk so much, here we are again, talk so much about being iterative, going step by step, building organizational muscle, pilot testing, and then building on that. And I had just come to the conclusion that Workshop is the opposite of that, right? Like you just don't see, or at least I wasn't seeing [00:19:00] real change that way in the way I wanted to.

I want the organizations and people I work with to be successful, to crush it. I saw that I needed to offer the material in a different way and plenty of organizations were having some success, but I just wanted, I wanted more. I hope this is making sense. Like, you know, I just, Sometimes you get hungry for more, right?

I wanted organizations to be able to just like run, fly, not hear what I had to say, feel warm and fuzzy and inspired for a couple days, and then go right back to doing what they were doing because they didn't have all the tools they needed to continue going on their own without me there. So more of a guide, not get in, get out, right?

Guide, not consultant, really, is what I would say. Putting all this back together, this Run It Like a Business Academy became my vehicle to help organizations apply the top business strategies I've become known for. step by step. It's also the primary vehicle to move that [00:20:00] consulting work at organizations I used to do on a one on one, org by org basis, now to this one to many model.

Lastly, it's my top vehicle for serving organizations going forward. And this is really important for people to know about me and my business now. I want ongoing success with me by their side, by your side. Not get in and get out. Okay, maybe this is worth mentioning, I guess, sometimes organizations did recognize their need for ongoing support.

I would get these calls and I would hear what they were asking and all I could think in my head was, I don't want to be your surrogate executive director or your surrogate marketing VP or something like that. on board with me with like a retainer model to do some of that is pretty pricey for organizations anyways.

And that's another problem I needed to solve for were, you know, the budget constraints that are so real for arts organizations. All of that, again, just supported this idea of [00:21:00] being an ongoing guide in a more lasting way than a workshop. All in a way that's scalable that addressed, you know, a lot of the issues that we're talking about today.

All the above issues of time. Okay, let's get into some of these like content based outcomes. I knew organizations that work with me want or need to learn things like how to understand their customer. How do you talk like they talk? How do you know what they want and need in order to maximize the customer experience?

How do you make your website convert at higher rates for people? Already coming there, right? You start making more money when you convert more of the people already visiting your website. How do you make them decide to have a transaction to purchase or to donate? How do you make your website more newcomer friendly?

How do you retain the patrons you're already getting? Less churn, more repeat revenue. That's all my long haul model stuff that I was doing so much work on already and really have become known for. What do you do when you do get more new people? So you're not starting from scratch, but you're, you know, adding on to the people you've already retained and really spin up that [00:22:00] flywheel.

I now say like, wow, retention is like compound interest. That was one of the topics to try to get in there. How do you get more subscribers? How do you make a strong onboarding program? How do you stop doing backwards renewals and stop opting everybody out for them? If you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a previous episode this season where I talk about all this.

But how do you roll all that out so everyone stays happy, everyone meeting our customers, and it's easy and seamless, and the long timers are good too? That's not just happenstance when it works out that way, it's strategy. How do you make the house look sold even when it's not? I don't talk about pricing strategy at all in the book.

So for me, it's too specific for the reader audience. According to my publisher, I don't think they were wrong necessarily. But it is something really important for. Arts managers dealing with pricing all the time. You know the language, so I wanted to make sure I was teaching, you know, how to price well.

When can you dial it up? How do you keep accessible pricing as part of your strategy in a way that drives demand, not blocks other revenue? And of [00:23:00] everything I talk about and all my content I put out there, I think I, I only cover pricing strategy in the academy. I'm saying this out loud and kind of pausing.

Is that correct? But I, I think that's true. But the point is, like, I don't talk about pricing a lot except in the academy because it's just something that's such a, like a teaching thing. But anyways, how do you, another topic, how do you write or design patron retention materials that actually do the trick?

Like what exactly do you say? What's the psychology? behind driving people to action to buy tickets and donate money. I knew organizations needed to learn or wanted to learn how to plan great donor content that doesn't conflict with what the marketing people are sending out, right? Like, how often does that happen?

So I needed to incorporate that into my curriculum. And how do you make your digital content and social media support all of those things I've already mentioned so that they are aligned and elevating everything else you're doing, not sort of a side strategy. in the corner or something. All of that, all of those things I just rattled off, that all became the [00:24:00] backbone of the curriculum for the academy.

How did I set this up? What did I do with that? So all of that became the academy. Very quickly, what's the setup then? How did I try to bring it home and bring it all together? One to many means I made an online course, video lessons on all of those topics, top revenue generating strategies I've become known for.

It's all the things I would teach when I would go on site somewhere, which comes down to customer experience, patron retention, digital content, supporting all of that, if I had to boil it down. I knew, as I said, from my client work that teams and organizations need more support. So I decided to make the resource library.

And Every template, every checklist I have, every cheat sheet, how to document. Spreadsheet, Standard Operating Procedure, everything I have and have used, basically I made this SOP, Standard Operating Procedure, repository for the clients and organizations and people I work with in the Academy. And then lastly, for this ongoing [00:25:00] support guide that I wanted to be able to do somehow, I wanted this live component with me because videos alone will get you far, but I thought, you know, this real time interaction felt important to me to be able to offer.

I came up with these live sessions with me. I call it office hours, and we meet twice a month doing that. People can come, participants bring their questions, sometimes they bring materials. Can you look at this? Let's talk about what's the psychology behind this to motivate, whether it's sales or donations.

So we do that, and we talk it through and things like that. And then I also knew, coming off the book, I'll wrap this up, but I knew that all of those strategies were in there, but in the book I could only go so deep. So this is kind of similar to what I was saying about the pricing conversation. Book is, you know, it's at a level that there's a reader audience that's broad, you know, it could be arts managers, it could be people like you listening, it could be artists, could be board members, could be general audience members who have an interest in arts and culture and wanted to [00:26:00] learn about some of the business side of it all, right?

And so that's a lot of different constituents. I wanted to still be able to meet the need for organizations that Wanted training, wanted tools, wanted the strategies, but really needed and wanted more of the deeper dive than what, than what the book could offer. So trying to solve for all those things, called it the Run It Like a Business Academy.

And I spent months building that out. I told you it was almost all of 2023. It really was through the end of 2022 through most of last year. By happenstance through the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator program. I was in that program in 2021. I had met someone who was an editor for Masterclass, Alex. I hired him to help me bring this all to life.

So I did the curriculum. Alex produced it, directed it, brought in his team for lighting. Camera operators, you know, editing, all of that was just him and his masterclass level experience. And [00:27:00] so he crushed it, in my opinion. He did such great work and just made a product I'm really proud of and helps the goal of serving more people, still offering that real time live interaction and support and giving that entire resource library so people have the tools at the ready, all in order to help.

Arts organizations grow audiences, grow your donor base, grow your revenue in a sustainable way that is way more executable than a two day, one off workshop. May I change all that eventually? Yeah, probably. Did it fill a need? Yeah, I think several of them and addressed some challenges I was having in my own business.

Okay, that's kind of the rundown on that. I'll just briefly mention the up level course. I won't say a lot because that one was already in existence, as I mentioned. It was online and scalable from the beginning, and I realized that model was largely working. The differentiator, though, is that where the academy is really for revenue generation within an organization, individuals can participate, too, but it's really designed for the [00:28:00] strategies to be implemented within.

In organizational context, no matter the size. But the up level was always for individuals wanting to up level themself. That's career development, no matter your role. It's managing up, managing laterally, how to advance to the next role, the next step, the next phase. Leadership skills, no matter somebody's Title or seniority.

That's everyone from students about to graduate and enter the workforce to entry level to mid career to aspiring executive directors, current executive directors, senior staff. I mean, so all of those different places and steps in our career, it's really meant to do leadership development training no matter where you're at.

And then there's a group coaching component. With that as well. So that one, like I said, worked really well for the past several years and already had that one to many. All the way down to the group coaching as part of that. Yeah, so this year I guess I should say the only change I made is that it used to be called Summer Up [00:29:00] Level.

Now it's just Up Level. I can offer it at different times during the year. Right now the plan for 2024 is to not do it in the summer but to do it in the fall. So the wait list is open for anybody who wants to get in on that. But the idea is that the name change offers some flexibility there. That's on my website, AubreyBergauer.

com slash uplevel, if that's of interest. But what I want to talk about really now is the changing the narrative community. Addressing another challenge was that I wanted a lower level entry point, lower price entry point for folks. I mentioned the membership economy and writing that chapter in my book really had me thinking.

I saw the opportunities with all the membership economy research I read and just all the opportunities it brings for businesses in literally every sector, like any type of business in any industry Membership economy. I just saw the benefits. I just got [00:30:00] so thirsty. I don't know what else to say to try to put this into practice.

I always try to do that in everything I do. It's so important to me to practice what I preach. I wanted to explore a recurring revenue membership for my own business. I thought, I can't talk about these concepts with others unless I'm really living them. out myself. Anyways, it also continued to address this one to many model.

I put together this idea of this membership. It includes monthly professional development events on topics related to the field, the future of work, career advancement, basically topics I personally care about and wanted an outlet for outside of what I was teaching in the academy and up level courses.

It does also come with monthly open office hours with me. It also provided a way for me to address the challenge of not giving away my time for free. So there's a whole other lesson here in like, how do we value our time? And I so badly want to be helpful to people. [00:31:00] I want our field to succeed so badly that it was a real tension I felt, if I'm being honest.

A tension that, you know, as I was redoing the business model thinking, how do I, how try to serve people who reach out and have, you know, just random questions on this or that and want to talk about it. Yet, I'm trying to find this way to make my time more scalable. So, office hours and the Changing the Narrative community gave me the vehicle for that.

I have to say, while I'm being honest here, I just felt so liberated once I started rolling that out because instead of turning people away, you know, I'm too busy or nicely trying to say that or the schedule's jammed or whatever. Now, it gave me this opportunity to offer the best, easiest, cheapest way to meet with me.

It's literally only 10 to join. So, so if somebody doesn't value my time at that, then fine, they can help themselves to all the free content I put out regularly, which is still true to my mission to change [00:32:00] the narrative for the industry. All of that became the community. We also have this networking and connection component.

It's, I would say, the last piece of the changing the narrative community trifecta. It's professional development. It's the real time. access to me and being able to just have that resource. And then the third piece is this networking and connection. It started as quarterly networking events, like more kind of virtual group events when we launched in early 2023.

And just side note, we launched by me sending an invitation to just past clients and past course participants. And I said, we're going to do a past participant reunion in this new community I'm launching. Come join if you want. That's how we began. So that was, I think, I think that was January 2023. We had maybe 20 members or so who joined then just at that invitation, and we kept growing and adding people every month.

And then last summer, to get back to this networking and connection piece, Alana, you're going to hear me talk more about her in a [00:33:00] moment when I share more about my team. Alana, at the time, summer of 2023, had the idea to launch Coffee Club. Instead of quarterly networking, which honestly I think felt a little pandemic- y, these like quarterly virtual networking events, a little lockdown- y, you know what I mean?

She said, Aubrey, I just want to connect with others. She said, I'm more of an introvert. So can we do monthly one on one matches for people who want that? Like low key, I just kind of want a little bit of one on one, meet people, and we can do these quick Zoom chats to get to know other folks who, who have, you know, raised their hand and said, I want to be here.

I said, I love this. Do you want to lead that? And she was like, yeah, I'm in. So now we're about to hit a year of Coffee Club. And at the end of year survey last year, Coffee Club was one of the highest rated features of the entire community. That brings me to the final thing I want to share on this idea of the community, which is, whereas I talk [00:34:00] about so much of what's important to my business model now is one to many, What I've learned about communities and memberships is that they thrive when they are many to many.

That is where it gets super exciting to me. It's not just Aubrey and a bunch of other people. It's all of us kind of serving each other. I don't know if that sounds hokey, but this is a great example where the idea came from within. She said she wanted to lead it. Now it's one of the most popular features of the whole community.

Like that's many to many, or at least a way that plays out. So. That's super exciting to me. And yeah, everybody's welcome there, whether artist or administrator, that's the, that's the community. Speaking, that's still a big part of what I do. That did not change with the business model. As I said, it was already one to many and this year, it's a big part of the business with the book tour, just a lot of speaking right now.

All of that rounds out the offerings and how I've moved things to serve more people to scale up is [00:35:00] the way to summarize it, to scale. Okay, that's the summary of kind of the what's been going on, what's happened, year and a half of making that change. And I just thought it was hopefully, like I said, helpful to somebody to hear how that took place and how that unfolded.

Now what? Now it's a year and a half later. So, As you scale, it turns out, you do serve more people, and that is good news, but the downstream effect of that is that eventually it was no longer feasible for me to be a team of one. which I never expected to be in a place to grow the team. I just really thought I was going to be a solopreneur kind of forever until I started putting this new model together, which just opened my brain to the idea of scaling and, and growing the business in a different way.

The scaling started to work. We started serving more people. We started growing. And by mid 2023, I really started seeing the need for a team to support this work better. For me, I have to [00:36:00] say, that is one of the most fulfilling things is being part of a team, and it is one of the things I miss the most from the other jobs I've had leading the organization.

When I was running the orchestra and just having a team of people, like that, I miss that more than any, like the team more than anything. So here we are. So building the team, I thought I would just quickly run down the who's who and what role and how kind of the evolution of how that was built out.

First up was editing the podcast. That's Molly and Sarita and Daria. You hear on every podcast episode about Novo Music. Daria Novo is the founder there, and they're an all female team of musicians and audio engineers. So they were already on the team since 2022, whenever I started season two of the podcast.

So content, right? You heard me say digital content, super important. So rolling out the podcast was, for me, a big pilot project and experiment in 2021. That's when I launched it. And at the time I did it all myself. That was a model of [00:37:00] MVP. So MVP, if anybody doesn't know that, that's a real like Silicon Valley phrase.

I'm here in San Francisco, but MVP is minimum viable product when you're talking about Not like sports, but instead talking about business models. So MVP for the podcast was me doing season one by myself, but that was, well, I was going to say it was a bad idea, but it was a good idea in terms of a pilot project in terms of something sustainable going forward.

It's not my skillset, not my strong suit. So in 2022, I brought in. Daria and Molly and Sarita to help edit the podcast and yes, as many of you have said, it's so much better now. So fast forward, summer of 2023, continuing on the importance of digital content. I mentioned social media and I said we'd come back to that.

In summer of 2023, one of my past course participants reached out, Johanna, and Johanna had participated in my comeback planning sprint. So I [00:38:00] mentioned that was my very first online course, the OG online course I offered. She reached out to me before I was bold enough to get over my own scarcity mindset and start scaling the team.

So I said we would come back to this also, my own scarcity mindset and overcoming that. I mentioned, you know, I said I thought I'd be a solopreneur forever, and I now realize that was my own limiting belief. I thought I needed to wait until I had made more money, until I could hire somebody full time, until, until, until, and that is scarcity mindset talking, I now realize.

So the truth is You don't have to hire somebody full time. The truth is I was drowning and needed help. And when she reached out in summer of 2023, I've told her this, but her pitch was so good. Like we have to pause and I have to tell you how hardened I am to marketing pitches. I've been doing this long enough that like, you know, the emails come in and I'm like, Nope, delete.

Nope. Block. No. You know, I just am so hardened to [00:39:00] marketing pitches, but her pitch was so good. Just really caught my attention and I could tell she was understanding my brand and what I was trying to do. So we started with a very small arrangement that I thought, honestly, she knows this too, but I thought it was gonna go through the book launch in February of this year.

That was last summer. By December, so fast forward just a couple of months of working together, and I said, I want to put you on a bigger contract. That was a big move for me to overcome that scarcity mindset and decide to make a modest investment and bring experts alongside me. Anybody, if you haven't read that blog post, go look it up.

It's called Why Scarcity Mindset is Killing Your Arts Organization. This is just, this story I'm telling is not in there, but it's just such a example of, yes, I face these things too and, and try to overcome them too. She, I will say, talking about bringing experts alongside you, she is the single best social media strategist in arts and culture I have seen, period.

Hands [00:40:00] down. For anybody who's followed me since last summer, July, August 2023, because of something you saw online, that's her work. So to give credit where credit's due, that's Johanna. And when you hear me mention classical content in the podcast promotion credits, for example, that's her. I talk a lot, it's a whole chapter in my book, on digital content, using that to support our work, to drive trust in the organization and the brand, and ultimately, through that trust and trust building, you drive sales.

That's another area where I just have really tried to iterate, up level, get better at practicing what I preach, using content strategically and effectively. And, of course, it was so important to scaling up the work, serving more people. So I still produce content, too, for what it's worth. Here I am recording the podcast.

I still write blog articles. You've heard me talk about them in this episode. I do the outline. I do the talking points. I develop all the talks I give. I'm still super, super involved in developing content, [00:41:00] but the social strategy behind it is all her. Okay. Alana. You already heard me mention Alana because she runs Coffee Club in the Changing the Narrative community.

But she is also a past client and past course participant. She's done the up level, she was already very active in the community, and she and I worked together at an organization that had brought me in a few years ago now. We had done some one on one work together along the way, so just lots of ways I'd had these interactions with her over the years.

And Alana is now a data analyst. She has undergone training in the last few years. Really talk about up leveling, really up leveling those skills. So as things started to scale for me, and in combination with moving so much of the business online, it meant that things were trackable. And if you know me, I am data, data, data all the way.

And this was yet another area where Of course, I want to practice [00:42:00] what I preach. The more things moved online, the more data there was, the more people came into my universe, the changing the narrative universe, the more data to track, the more the tech stack grew, you know, on and on, more systems to integrate.

So January of this year, I reached out to Alana and I said, Hey, you want to come be the analyst here? Do you want to come be our analyst for all things data? She said yes. So from Google Analytics to systems integration, my data loving self is so happy. I have somebody coming alongside working on this now.

And I think hiring Alana, first I had Johanna and then Alana, had the podcast editors in place already before that. I think Alana is where I broke the dam of scarcity mindset for me. I could see. So clearly, suddenly, I know it's probably not suddenly, right, but I could see so clearly how investing in better data and better analytics will grow things for us.

And I [00:43:00] am now all in on this and just could not be happier. So speaking of systems and growth and growing pains. I'm going to mention this. I know it's pretty in the weeds, but we had to migrate to a new email platform. Okay, why am I sharing this? Because so many of you ask me about systems and email programs and CRMs and oh, we just went through all that migration in the last few months.

Basically, Long story short, the old system wasn't working anymore, we had outgrown it, it wasn't supporting the new business model that I just outlined for you like I needed, et cetera, et cetera. So if you want details on my tech stack, again, it's, it's the download to go with this episode to give all the details on the different tools and programs I like, and then I'll share more on how you can get that again at the end of the episode.

Migrations are always a ton of work, but so worth it for us so we can provide a better customer experience. So, right, I am thinking about these things all the time, even in my own business. To wrap this part on email migration up, that brings me to the next hire. I [00:44:00] guess wrapping up email migration and breaking the dam of scarcity mindset, my next hire was Jamie.

So for Jamie, this was different. The other folks had all come into my network before, right? They were past course participants. Daria and Molly, I had met in a past professional job. Jamie though, I went through a firm. I knew that I needed help, not just migrating over a lot of my email automations, but we had and still have a lot of emails coming down the pike.

And email support, email marketing is what Jamie's doing. I knew that as we were doing the migration, we were getting better at segmenting. That means more versions of different emails needed. It means as we were producing more and more content, you already heard me talk about, that means more to put into the weekly newsletter.

Like it was just more, more, more, another way of scaling. I just knew that I needed support here. I knew that these next few months were a juncture to really [00:45:00] get the email marketing in better place. Like, doing the whole migration and fixing all of that, up leveling all that, just made that juncture happen, right?

So I brought on an experienced person who had done so much email marketing before and had a really great track record. Like I said, I went through a firm. I've included them in the doc for this episode because it turned out so well. So if you want the details for anybody who needs like some temporary or contract marketing support, totally recommend.

I would keep Jamie forever if I could. Some of you reply to my emails, like when you get an email blast in your inbox, some of you reply. And just know, like, Jamie wrote that and inspired whatever action that was from you. If you're listening to this episode because you clicked on the email, like, she wrote it, right?

Anyways, like I said, I would keep Jamie forever if I could. Maybe someday, eventually, I'll be able to do that. But I mentioned this for anybody listening who does want or need some sort of temporary marketing support, get the download for the episode because I'm just so happy that I went with the [00:46:00] firm and It just, I was skeptical, but wow, now I'm a believer.

So okay, moving on, along the way, I brought on Kelle. A lot of online business owners will tell you that your first hire should be a VA, a virtual assistant. I've heard that, like, preached so much by so many people, and I see the logic in that. Administrative support is so critical, delegating is so critical, and I'm a big believer in that.

Kelle. As the chief executive, there are things that only I can do. And I give this advice all the time to new executive directors. They're like, I'm drowning, Aubrey. I talk a lot about it in the up level course. Like, we have got to, as chief executives, do the things that only we can do. That is where we need to prioritize.

Spending our time. So that means we've got to bring in support along the way. Administrative support, project support is so important in that. And I knew I needed to do that too. I also knew the reason I didn't make VA my first hire, like I said, I see the logic in that, but I also knew I wanted revenue generating positions in [00:47:00] place first.

So that's everybody you heard me talk about already. And then I brought Kelle into the mix. Kelle is now the grease that keeps the gears turning. I kind of hem and haw. Did I wait too long? I'm not sure, but I think the timing was right for me. And now that the business is really growing this year. I'm just so glad to have her on the team and she's brought so much value, so for anyone who puts off tasks, you can delegate because you think it's easier, cheaper, whatever to just do it yourself.

I've been there, but let me be the one to give you permission to bring in the support you need, whether you are an executive director at an arts organization or founder of an ensemble or any other role where you know that, yeah, support is, is a good thing. I went through a firm to find Kelle too. I was, again, nervous, a little skeptical about that at first, but it turns out in addition to all of her excellent project management skills, [00:48:00] relationship skills, attention to detail, to keep all things running, like all of those things, it turns out she also played piano growing up.

And just like everyone else on the team, believes in the mission to change the narrative for classical music for arts and culture. I'm just so glad we were matched, and now I just can't imagine not having her on the team. Last one as I'm going through the who's who and how we've, you know, divided the labor and work ahead of us.

The last one and newest team member to introduce you to is Jeremy. Jeremy still has his full time job. He runs marketing at an orchestra. He is also a conductor. That makes him exceptionally qualified, that combination, for what I brought him on to do, which is client support. Jeremy is also a past participant in several of my programs.

He did the up level, then he got his organization to join the Run It Like a Business Academy, and then he joined the community. Because of all of that, he's super qualified to do client support, [00:49:00] and there is definitely a growing need for client support. I get a lot of questions from people about, you know, am I ready to do your program?

What does it look like for me and my team? How can we implement these strategies when we don't have tons of time? Right? That kind of thing. And I realized that I think people are better served when they can hear from somebody who's been there, right? Somebody who's done it, somebody who's lived it, and answered those questions for themselves and for their own organization.

Plus, he really knows the art form, or at least knows orchestras and classical music, which is who I Mostly serve, even though I love that other types of organizations are who I also get to serve now. But the point is, he's been there, he's done it, he knows the arts, and he knows the business. He knows my business as well, from the client side.

Now we're working on rolling out some client support options that he is leading, so more to come on all of that, but there you have it. That is a lot on how my business, how changing the [00:50:00] narrative, that's the actual legal name of my business, how we've grown and evolved over the last year and a half.

That's if you're listening to this, you know, near when the episode comes out. I am One, just hoping this is helpful to somebody listening. You know, if you're thinking about scaling up or anything like that, I hope on a tactical level it's helpful to hear that, but I'm also just really happy and excited by this iteration of my work, and I'm just really excited to be helping more people this way.

That's already proven true, and just the idea that there's potential to serve more people than ever before. I didn't mention this one yet. I love that it costs the people I work with, people, clients, organizations, that I work with, less now. Like I said, we didn't even talk about this yet, but the beauty of models that scale is that you get to pass that on to the consumer.

So that's a bonus, too. And lastly, I I love the idea of being more [00:51:00] effective as a guide. Kind of coming full circle to the top now, but that is just more possible now than it was five years ago in 2019 when I first went full time on my own. As we wrap up here, I hope that hearing all of this was helpful to you in some way.

Or maybe certain parts were helpful to some of you and other parts helpful to others. But like I said, it's a little bit of a different episode. And yet I still hope it inspires you in your own journeys at your own organizations too. As we are all part of this growing movement to, you know, change the narrative.

Hey, offstagers, we covered a lot in this episode that I don't normally talk about the infrastructure of my own business. From the people I hired to the programs and tools I use. I have experimented a lot over the years, and now I have my short list of favorite systems I rely on every day. And I assembled it all for you because [00:52:00] I get these questions a lot.

What email program do you recommend? What do you use for project management? How or where did you find qualified people? It's all in my total resource list, which is a free download for you, detailing all of my favorite tools and programs and services that might be helpful to you too. Go to my website, aubreybergauer.

com slash 28. That's two eight for episode 28. And you can get my total resource list to start making your work, your team's work, and even your organization's work more efficient and productive. That's www. aubreybergauer. com. That's all for today, folks. Thanks so much for listening. And if you like what you heard here, hit that button to follow or subscribe to this podcast.

If you're new, welcome. I am so glad you made it. And if you've been listening for a while, I loved so much that you were getting value from this. So if that's you, please take just two seconds to leave a quick [00:53:00] one tap rating, full on review Bye isn't even required if you're short on time. To all of you once more, thanks again.

I'll see you next time right here on the Offstage Mic. The Offstage Mic was produced by me, Aubrey Bergauer, and edited by Novo Music, an audio production company of all women audio engineers and musicians. Additional podcast support comes from the Changing the Narrative team and social media brand management by Classical Content.

This is a production of Changing the Narrative.