Shownotes
In the fourth episode of The Museum Professional's Summer Survival Guide series, Amy pulls the whole series together, recapping everything you have built this summer and showing you why it matters far beyond your summer vacation.
Links from the Episode:
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.
Transcripts
It's the final episode of the summer series, and I saved
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:the most important one for last.
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:Today, the realization that ties
this whole summer together and
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:what I want you to do with it.
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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 you 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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:Today is the fourth and final episode of
my fifth annual summer series, The Museum
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:Professional's Summer Survival Guide.
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:If you've been here all
summer, thank you so much.
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:And if this is your first one, welcome.
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:You picked a good day to jump
in, because w- today we're
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:pulling the whole thing together.
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:Let me take you behind the scenes
for a minute, because I think
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:the story of how this series
came together actually matters.
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:So back in the spring before I planned
any of this, I sent an email to my
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:community, and I just asked, "What
do you want help with this summer?
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:And of the answers that came back, there
were a few themes that rose to the top.
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:Someone wrote that they had talked it
over with their staff, and their top
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:two were making a bigger impact with a
small team and putting better systems
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:in place to make their work easier.
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:Those are actually two things
that I heard over and over again.
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:And then there were also more
specific ones, real practical
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:questions like, "What can I actually
give my summer intern to do?"
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:And, "How do I finally create a real
system for planning my social media?"
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:Now, here's what struck me when I
looked at all of those together.
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:They sound like different questions,
but they're really similar.
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:Making a bigger impact with a
smaller team, that's systems.
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:Knowing what to hand your
intern, also systems.
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:A social media plan that
runs itself, systems.
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:Every single thing you asked for came
down to getting the work out of your
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:head and into something that runs
without you having to hold it all.
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:Add to this all of the conversations
that I have had with my clients,
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:they're burnt out, they are dreaming
of a vacation and not really sure how
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:they could make one happen this summer.
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:And all of that also made me think
back to a statistic that I had read in
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:the 2025 AAM Museum Snapshot Report.
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:The one that we've been talking
about all summer, that only 4% of
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:museums are using systems or tools
to lighten the load on their teams.
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:4%.
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:You were all asking me for the very
thing the data says almost no museum had.
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:And so I built the whole summer around it.
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:So let's recap and talk about
what we've done this summer.
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:We started by making a list of tasks
that depend on you, the things that
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:would most likely fall apart if you
stepped away for a summer vacation.
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:Then we started documenting
those tasks using tools like Loom
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:and Fathom to make it easier.
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:Next, we took an honest look at those
tasks, and we tried to put them into
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:three piles: things you need to do,
things anyone could do, and things you
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:really need to let go of completely
Then we zoomed out and we mapped the
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:workflows of your museum's priorities.
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:So a whole process could live with the
team instead of all of it in your head.
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:And then we went looking for places
where maybe there was overlap and
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:you could help each other out,
places where work was maybe getting
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:duplicated or where one department had
no idea what the other one was doing.
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:All of these are small steps, and every
one of them was doing the same thing,
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:moving the work out of your head and
into a system that everyone could see.
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:And that's how a small
team makes a big impact.
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:That's how you finally get a break.
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:That right there leads to a museum
that hums, that runs like a machine.
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:I told you the story of my amazing client,
a team of two and a half, and that they
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:do these extraordinary things, and they
offer so much value to, to their community
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:because they have nailed this internal
communications thing Now all summer
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:we've been framing this around taking a
vacation, but here's what I really want
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:you to see as we wrap this up today.
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:What you've built doesn't just help
you take a week off in July or August.
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:It changes how your museum runs all year.
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:Think about it.
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:Someone gets sick, the work doesn't
stop because it's documented.
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:Someone leaves for a new job, their
knowledge doesn't walk out the door
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:with them because it lives in a
system and not just in their head.
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:Maybe a new person is starting.
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:They can actually step in because
there's something to step into.
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:Maybe you decide to mentor
an intern for the summer.
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:You can easily see the things
in the system that you can give
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:them the responsibility to do
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:They don't take up any more bandwidth
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:The thing you built so you could rest
is the same thing that makes your whole
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:museum steadier all the time There's
a quote I love from David Allen, who
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:wrote the book, Getting Things Done.
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:He says, "Your mind is for
having ideas, not holding them."
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:When you stop using your brain as the
filing cabinet for every process and
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:password and deadline, you free it
up to do what it's actually good at.
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:The big picture thinking, the
creative programming, the vision
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:for where your museum is going.
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:That is what you get back when the work
lives in systems instead of in your head.
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:So what's next?
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:I don't know.
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:Are, are you excited about
building an internal communication
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:system that makes your museum
hum like this well-oiled machine?
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:One where you can finally have
the time and space to be creative,
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:to think big, to make these real
connections with your community?
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:Now, here's something…
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:Speaking of community, here's something
that we haven't talked about all
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:summer, but it's really important.
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:A burnt-out staff doesn't
just affect the staff.
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:Visitors feel it, too.
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:They feel it in the energy of a place
and the little things that do or don't
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:get done and whether the people who work
there seem genuinely glad to be there.
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:When your team has room to breathe,
your visitors feel that too.
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:So this work, it isn't just for you.
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:It reaches all the way out to the
people walking through your doors.
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:So keep going.
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:Keep working through that list.
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:Keep documenting your
systems and your processes.
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:And maybe this fall, find time
to get your whole team in a room
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:together for a retreat to map
some of this out as a group.
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:And if all of this feels a little
overwhelming and you'd love to just
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:talk through your strategy with someone
who's been there, I'd love to help.
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:For a limited time, I'm bringing back
something called SOS, Strategy On Sale.
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:It's a 60-minute strategy session
with me one-on-one for just $97.
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:You tell me what's on your plate,
and we spend an hour getting you
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:clarity and a real next step, whether
that's your systems, your social
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:media, your team, your priorities,
whatever's keeping you up at night.
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:Think of it as your chance to phone a
friend, a friend who happens to know
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:a lot about museum communications.
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:I'm only running this for
the month of September:
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:So if it sounds like what you need,
the link is in the show notes.
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:I would generally love to
help you take that next step.
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:You've spent this whole summer gathering
the pieces, that list, your workflows.
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:If you're on my email
list, you did an audit.
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:Please don't let them sit in a drawer.
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:Talk to your team about them.
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:If you still have a lot to
work through, block time on
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:your calendar to get them done.
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:If you're still feeling stuck,
come spend an hour with me.
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:This has been the Museum
Professional's Summer Survival Guide.
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:I really hope you're inspired, though,
to turn it into a four-season survival
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:guide, a year-round survival guide.
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:Thank you so much for
spending your summer with me.
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:Keep loving your museum,
and I'll see you next time.
