Amy asks listeners to picture their museum one year from now on an ordinary Tuesday. She connects the internal systems work of the Summer Survival Guide series to the external strategy of the Love my Museum method. She explains why one depends on the other, and encourages listeners to take one small step this week towards that vision.

Links from the Episode:

• Grab the free Summer Survival Guide
• Book a Discovery call with Amy

More Free Resources for Museums:

• Getting Visitors Through Your Museum’s Doors: Building Connection in a Noisy World ebook
• Museum Planning Calendar
• Museum Metrics Template

About the host:

Amy Kehs is a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. She has owned Kehs Communications since 2000 and has worked for the most renowned and well-loved museums in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to ensure that museums thrive into the next century and she hopes people will come to love museums as much as she does. Her proven process sets up proactive communication habits for museums, cultivating relationships with visitors who will want to return and bring a friend. Want to talk more? Click this link to book a call.

This episode wraps up my anniversary month series.

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This month I've looked back on 26 years

and the new chapter I'm stepping into.

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Today, I wanna talk

about your next chapter.

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Let's get started

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Hello, and welcome to the

Love My Museum podcast.

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I'm your host, Amy Kehs,

and I love museums.

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I'm also a brand strategist and

communications expert for museums and

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the creator of the Love My Museum method.

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So if you work in a museum and you

wanna get more visitors through your

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doors, you're in the right place.

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My method will help with that.

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I've spent decades helping museums

just like yours become places their

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communities can't stop talking about.

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If you're new here, welcome.

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This episode is wrapping up my anniversary

month series, and I have spent all

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of this month looking back at what

these past 26 years have taught me.

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In the first episode, 26 Years

In, I got pretty personal.

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I talked about a chapter that's

closing in my own life and that

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is leading to a new chapter that's

opening for me and for my business.

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In the second episode this month, Thriving

Not Just Surviving, we talked about what

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it actually takes for a museum to move

from just getting by to truly thriving.

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And today I'm going to bring it all

together because I want to talk to you

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about your next chapter, not where your

museum and your museum career has been

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and not even where it is right now, but

what it could look like a year from now.

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So let me start close to home

because my own next chapter is

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part of why this is all on my mind.

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Just a few weeks ago, my husband and

I dropped our youngest off at college,

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and we walked back into a quieter house.

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And one big chapter of my life closed,

and of course, that was gradual.

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You know, we, we got through senior year

of high school and all of the milestones

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that brings, and graduation, and over the

summer getting him ready to go to college.

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And at the same time this past

year, a new chapter has been

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starting to open in my business.

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And I'll be honest, that new chapter,

it's a little scary, but I have decided

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to step into mine with excitement.

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I'm pouring energy into helping more

museums than I ever could before.

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And so when I talk about your next

chapter today, I'm right there with you.

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I am in one of my own, both in my home

life and also in my career So here's

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what I want you to do for a minute.

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I want you to imagine your museum one

year from now on a really great day.

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But it's an ordinary day, so picture it.

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It's an ordinary Tuesday.

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There's no exhibit opening.

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There's no special programming.

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It's just a regular day at your museum,

and your parking lot has cars in it.

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People came on an ordinary Tuesday because

your museum is just simply part of how

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this community spends its time now.

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Some of them are back for their

third or fourth time this year.

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Some of them have brought a

friend who's never been before.

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Your staff isn't frantic.

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The monthly newsletter went out this

morning, and it went out because it lives

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in a system, not because one exhausted

person stayed late to send it or scrambled

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yesterday to get all of the approvals.

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When someone was out sick last

week, the work didn't stop because

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everything that they do doesn't

live in their head anymore.

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Your team has room to breathe.

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You can be proactive.

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The people who work there actually

seem glad to be there, and your

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visitors feel that too with every

interaction, with every touchpoint

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that they have with your museum.

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And here's my favorite part of the picture

Your phone rings and it's a journalist.

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Not because you sent a frantic pitch

three months before an opening, but

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because over this past year, you have

built a relationship with them and

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now they call you when they need a

museum voice, when they need an expert.

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They trust you, your community

trusts you, and you've become

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the place people think of first.

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That is a thriving museum and I want you

to notice something about that picture.

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It was all built on

relationships and consistency.

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Nothing in it required a giant budget.

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It didn't require a PR firm.

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It required that consistency that has been

building up over a year of showing up in

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some small ways, but showing up steadily.

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That museum a year from now is

completely within your reach no

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matter what size your team is.

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Now, I wanna make a connection I'm

not sure I've ever said out loud on

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this podcast and it ties this whole

summer series that we did together

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and everything that we've been talking

about during this anniversary month.

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All summer in the Summer Survival

Guide series, we worked on systems.

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Documenting your tasks, getting things

out of your head, setting up processes so

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the work doesn't all live in one person.

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That work is internal communications.

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It's how your team talks to itself

and keeps the museum running.

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And here's the part I

really want you to hear.

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The internal work is not

separate from the strategy work.

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It's what makes the

strategy work possible.

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Think about that thriving Tuesday again.

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The reason that museum has a clear

message and a great visitor experience

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and real relationships with journalists,

the, the three keys of the Love My

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Museum method that I always talk about,

that external communications that bring

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people through the door is that the

staff finally had the bandwidth to do it.

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When the internal systems are humming and

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All of your priorities are getting done.

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When the, the newsletter is getting

out and no one is feeling like

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they're drowning, that's when you

actually have the time and the

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head space to be strategic about

how the world sees your museum.

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So the summer series was never just about

surviving the summer or taking a vacation.

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It was laying that internal

communications foundation.

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And the Love My Museum method, the

external communication strategy,

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is what you build on top of it.

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You need both.

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The systems give you the room

and the space to create and

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execute the communication strategy

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And that is what makes your museum thrive.

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So how do you get from a

regular Tuesday today to that

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regular Tuesday a year from now?

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You do not get there with a big overhaul.

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You, you are not going to fix

everything in one big push,

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and you really shouldn't try.

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You get there the same way you

get anywhere worth going, one

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step and then the next, and then

the next, done consistently.

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The museum in that future picture,

it didn't transform overnight.

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It started with someone writing down

the brand message so the whole team

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could finally say the same thing.

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Or setting up one simple system so the

newsletter didn't depend on one person.

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Or sending one email to one journalist

just to start the relationship.

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Small, doable steps, but taken

consistently month after month,

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they add up to a completely

different museum a year from now.

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And that is what I mean when I

say today is the day to start

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writing your next chapter.

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Not the whole book, just today's page

And if you want a first page that's

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already mapped out for you, that's exactly

what the Summer Survival Guide is for.

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It's free.

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It's the whole summer series in one PDF,

and it walks you through getting your work

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out of your head and into simple systems,

which is exactly the kind of foundation

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that a thriving museum a year from now is

built on the link is in the show notes and

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I'll remind you about it again at the end

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. Now I want to tell you why I

care so much about getting you

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to that Tuesday a year from now.

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When I have watched museums turn that

corner, first, I feel really excited for

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their visitors because those visitors

have found a real safe, important space

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in their community and in their lives,

and communities need that right now.

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I also feel relief for the

staff because I have been there.

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I have been there when you are stuck

being reactive and answering the

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next phone call that comes in, and

you don't have time to be proactive.

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You don't have time to think.

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You don't have time to be strategic.

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And not only have I been there, but I've

also seen it happen with my clients,

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And I've read the research setting

up this method doesn't just help

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the visitors fall in love with the

museum, it also helps the staff fall

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back in love with your museum, too.

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The whole place gets calmer.

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. In the last episode, we talked

a little bit about your mission

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statement and how your mission

statement is an internal document.

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And today, I would like to

share part of my mission

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statement, my internal document.

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Part of my business' mission is to

help 1,000 museums before I retire.

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And I don't mean just

helping them open an exhibit.

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I still love doing that.

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I, I still am doing that.

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But what I really want is to set museums

up to thrive into the next century so

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they become places their communities

value and love and will fight for if

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the day ever comes that they need to.

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Because so much would be

lost if museums faded away.

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And that is why this work

matters so much to me.

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And your museum is one of the 1,000.

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So here's your action for this

week, and might be the simplest

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one I've given you in a while.

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It's just two things that I want

you to take a minute to think about.

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First, picture your own

Tuesday a year from now.

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What does a thriving version of

your museum actually look like?

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Make it specific and make it

yours, and really picture it.

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Second, name the one small step you could

take this week to start moving toward it.

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Just one.

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Write it down somewhere

where you'll see it.

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That written-down step is the

first page of your next chapter.

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That first step might just be to

download the Summer Survival Guide

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PDF and make a plan to get it done

Before I go, I wanna say thank you.

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This has been a really fun month

celebrating 26 years, and you're a

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part of that anniversary celebration.

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Thank you for being part of the

Love My Museum podcast community.

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Whether you've been here since the

beginning or you just found me,

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I'm really glad that you're here.

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And if you're ready to take that

first step on your own, grab

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the free Summer Survival Guide.

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It's the easiest place to begin,

and the link is in the show notes.

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And if that vision of a thriving museum

a year from now really spoke to you

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and you'd love a partner to help you

get there faster, I would love to talk.

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You don't have to figure

this out on your own.

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You can book a discovery call with me.

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It's just a friendly conversation about

your museum and where you wanna go.

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The link is in the show notes.

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Whether we ever work together or not,

I really want that thriving Tuesday

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for you, and I am here to help.

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Keep loving your museum,

and I'll see you next time.