Episode 19: Top 10 Takeaways from the Momentum Weekend Workshop

Amy: 00:00:04

Last time on the podcast.

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I told you about my favorite

conference of the year momentum.

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The momentum weekend workshop is

hosted by my friend, Lou Mongello.

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Lou loves a good top 10 list.

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And so in true Lou fashion today.

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I'm going to give you a top 10 list.

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These are my top 10

takeaways from momentum.

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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.

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And I love museums.

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I'm also a brand strategist and

communications expert for museums.

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And on the last episode of

the podcast, I told you about

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the momentum weekend workshop.

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My favorite conference of the year.

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In that episode, I explained, uh, why

this conference is such a big deal for me.

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And my business and also my clients.

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Go check it out.

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If you missed it.

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So the conference takes place in Walt

Disney world, which is such a great

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spot for the work that we're doing.

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It's a great place to be

inspired, to feel creative and

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the perfect location to dream big.

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And the workshop is for entrepreneurs.

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And it is limited to 50 people.

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We have two and a half days of

amazing speakers and I always

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leave having so many new ideas.

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Not just for my own business.

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But ways to help my museum clients too.

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I've been attending the momentum R chop.

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Since 2019, it is a group

of really supportive, smart,

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inventive, and innovative people.

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From all types of businesses and.

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I thought I'd compile a top 10 list.

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Lou Mongello, our host.

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Loves a good top 10 list so these are

my top 10 takeaways from momentum.

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Some of them are things that I've

learned at previous conferences.

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Some things are things that

we talk about every year.

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In some things for new this year.

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I also decided to separate my

top 10 list into two sections.

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Based on the two parts of love.

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My museum.

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If this is your first time listening

to the podcast, let me explain.

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Love my museum is a suite.

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Of free and affordable

services for museums.

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It is my guide to help you get visitors

to fall in love with your museum.

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We want them to love your museum so much

that they come back and bring a friend.

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But love my museum is also

for you, the museum worker.

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Working at a museum can be hard.

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And statistically right now, museum

workers are burnt out and I want

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to teach you ways to work smarter.

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And not harder so that you will

love your museum again, too.

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So here are my top 10 takeaways from the

momentum conferences that I've attended.

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The first five things are things.

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That are going to help you connect

with potential visitors so that they

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will fall in love with your museum.

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Probably every one of these

things on the list we will dive

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deeper into, on future episodes.

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The first takeaway and

number one on my list.

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Is that email marketing is

a must for a year museum.

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Lou reminds us of this

each and every year.

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That you shouldn't build your

community on rented land.

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That means while engaging on social media

is important that can all go away in an

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instant, all of those likes and follows.

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Don't belong to you.

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If you want to grow relationships

and strengthen connections with the

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people that have visited your museum.

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Or the people that you hope to visit your

museum, you need to start an email list.

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For museums, I actually recommend

using your email marketing platform to

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segment your list into three segments.

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But we'll talk about that another time.

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Being able to connect with your

audience is really important.

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I've learned so much about

creating that audience.

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And providing value to

the people on my list.

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I've seen how keeping in touch with

the people on my list has helped them.

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And helped me be a

better guide for museums.

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I also have seen the impact

that having a good email list.

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Has had on my clients and their visitors.

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And one of my first recommendations.

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Is always to start an email

list and start providing value

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to the people on that list.

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The second takeaway from the

momentum weekend workshop.

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Is how to repurpose content.

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I just wrote a fun blog post

on how we learned about.

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Repurposing content this year

with my friend, Jeff Sieh.

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I'll link that blog

post in the show notes.

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Honestly, I couldn't decide

which section of my top 10 list.

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This one should go in because.

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Re-purposing helps your museum's brand.

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And it helps you work

smarter and not harder.

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You can take one piece of content and

use that in so many different ways.

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That is really good for

your brand messaging.

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People are watching.

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To see if you were consistent.

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In what your museum says and does.

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So using the same words and letting

them see the same messages in several

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places helps to gain their trust.

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It is a really noisy world out there.

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And you were asking for people

to spend their most precious

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commodity their time in your museum.

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Building that know like, and trust

factor is key to helping them

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fall in love with your museum.

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Like I said, re-purposing content

could have gone into the second

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half of my top 10 list as well.

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Because.

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It's also so much easier on your staff.

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If you can create one piece

of content that can be used.

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Several ways.

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It saves you valuable time.

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Okay.

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Number three.

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On my top 10 list of things

that I have learned at momentum.

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Is the importance of long form content.

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This goes hand in hand with re-purposing.

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Long form content can be a blog.

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A podcast.

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A video on your museums, YouTube channel.

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Whatever long form content you.

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Are creating should be the beginning

step of your content creation.

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That blog posts can be repurposed

into an email sequence or

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a few social media posts.

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That long form content is where you

should be concentrating your time.

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And it.

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Is also where you can

be the most creative.

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It's also where you could

talk the most and dive.

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The deepest into the work

that your museum does.

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You.

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Can use your long form

content to tell the stories.

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Behind your collection, or maybe

tell the stories from an exhibit.

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In a new and different way.

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Maybe it is how you preserve

parts of a temporary exhibit.

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If you are not doing any sort of long form

of content right now, definitely start.

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Along with an email list.

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It is the thing I encourage

clients to start on.

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As soon as possible.

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Number four on my top 10

list is brand messaging now.

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We already talk a lot about brand

messaging on the podcast because

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it's definitely one of the things

that I love to talk about the most.

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A couple of years ago, I was the

speaker at momentum on brand messaging.

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When you think about your museum's brand.

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You probably think about a logo

brand colors, a brand font.

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Those are the parts of your

visual brand, but your brand

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means consistent messages to.

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It needs a voice.

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Thinking about what your museum

has to say and how you say it.

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Is so important.

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Again, it is a noisy world out

there and you only have a few

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seconds of someone's attention.

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And brand messaging helps you keep

your message about who you are top of

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mind, whether that is for an exhibit.

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Or a program or a blog post, the brand

messaging should be the foundation

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of what you say out in the world.

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Number five on my top 10 list.

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Is creating community.

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I always say that.

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Every museum is a community museum.

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In order for your museum to survive.

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You need to create community with the

people that are your biggest fans.

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Creating community.

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It can happen in a few different ways.

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It can be making sure that

you are engaging with your

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audience on social media.

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Social media is two way communication.

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So creating habits.

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So that you are engaging

with your audience.

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There is very important.

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One thing that we talk about am

I love my museum consulting is

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starting with just 15 minutes a week.

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To engage with your followers and

encourage that two-way communication.

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Creating community can be in

the programming that you offer.

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It can be in the value that

you bring to a community.

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That are sort of the extra things

that you do, like a free book

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library in your parking lot.

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Hosting a farmer's market.

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Offering your space as a meeting

place for a local nonprofit.

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If you can tie those things

back to your mission.

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That's great, but sometimes it's just

important to be there for your community.

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Now the next five takeaways are things

that will help you as a museum worker.

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Current research shows that

museum workers are burnt out.

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And so I want to help you fall in love

with your job and your museum again, to.

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So my number six, take away

is to continue learning.

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I think a lot of us who work at

museums are lifelong learners for.

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A long time when I was a museum

worker, I thought that meant

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that I had to go back to school.

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And get a master's degree or get a PhD.

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Attending momentum for

the first time in: 2019

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Taught me that, that wasn't the case.

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You can continue to learn.

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In so many different ways.

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Learning can be going to conferences.

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Learning can be listening

to a podcast like this.

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It can be reading books.

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It can also be getting

that next degree as well.

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Uh, continuing to learn

can help your career.

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But it also can just give you joy.

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The next thing on my top

10 list of takeaways.

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Number's seven.

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That I learned at

momentum is to be visible.

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This could be through social

media, like on LinkedIn.

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It could be networking at conferences

or even speaking at conferences.

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Being visible helps your museum.

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And also your museum career.

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You never know what opportunities

will come up when you are

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being brave and being visible.

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Number eight on my list of momentum

conference takeaways is finding

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tools that can help you in your work.

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It might be a new software

application or program.

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It could be a standard

operating procedure.

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One thing that Lou always asks us during

momentum is to share with everyone key

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tool that they use in their business.

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I always come home with a lot of

ideas to try, and some of them

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have helped me make my life easier.

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I share some of these tools with my

clients and I have seen them change

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their habits at work so that they

are working smarter and not harder.

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Number nine on my top 10 list is

to think about the big picture.

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What is your vision for your career?

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As a museum professional,

we often get caught in the

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weeds of the day-to-day work.

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And it's often hard.

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To pause and think about.

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The big picture.

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Make time to dream big.

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Also your vision for your future may

look a lot different than your coworkers

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or a colleague at another museum.

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And that's okay.

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It's your vision.

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Number 10 on my top 10 list of

takeaways from the momentum weekend

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workshop is to have a community.

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If you have been listening to

the podcast for awhile, you know,

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that my career has been full of.

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Twists and turns and.

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Most importantly, a lot of amazing people.

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Being a solo preneur is

tough and working by myself.

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Means that.

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I have to work really hard on this one.

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But.

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All of the work families, accountability

partners, mastermind groups.

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Those relationships have enriched

my work and the rest of my life to.

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My takeaway and top tip for

you since this is number 10.

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Is to find a mentor, but also

give back and be a mentor to.

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Even though I own my own business.

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Aye.

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Work by myself for the

most part every day.

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I have a lot of work families.

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My momentum family, my museum families.

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Accountability partners

from group courses.

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Creating a community, your community.

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We'll change our life.

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And if you're looking for a

community or accountability

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partner, join my Facebook group.

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The love my museum, Facebook group.

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It's free and we'd love to see

you there and support you there.

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So that's it.

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Those are my top 10 takeaways.

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From all of the momentum weekend

workshops hosted by Lou Mongello.

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That I've been to it's one of my

favorite weekends of the year.

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I had such a great time this year.

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I met a lot of new friends.

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And it's always great to see old friends.

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As well.

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I think that's about it.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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I'll see you next time.

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