In this episode, Amy kicks off the fifth annual summer series by tackling the real reasons vacations feel impossible for museum professionals. When all the knowledge lives in your head, it feels impossible to step away. Amy introduces a simple, practical fix and shows you how to create your very first standard operating procedure (SOP) in the time it takes to do the task itself.

Links from the Episode:

• Sign up for the Summer Series
• Episode 62: You're Not Imagining It-The State of Museums in 2026
• Episode 63: Introducing the Summer Survival Guide Series
• AAM National Snapshot of United States Museums 2025

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.

The summer series is officially here, and today I want to talk about

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the things standing between you and

a vacation you can actually enjoy.

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The good news, you can

start fixing it this week.

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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 a brand strategist and communications

expert for museums and the creator

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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 and have them come back and bring

a friend, 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

Not only do I love museums, but I

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love the people that work in them too.

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And today is the official kickoff of the

Museum Professional's Summer Survival

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Guide, my fifth annual summer series.

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And if you've been with me

for the last few weeks, you

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know what this is all about.

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It's about giving you permission to log

off so you can actually enjoy your summer.

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So let's get right into it, because these

summer episodes are going to be short.

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I want you to be able to listen

on your commute or your lunch

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break and then go do the thing

that we're talking about that day.

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Before I dive in, one quick note.

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While the ideas I'll be sharing this

summer mostly sound like they are for

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a museum director or a communications

professional, you can apply them to

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whatever your job is at your museum.

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You can take these ideas and

apply them to your own work.

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So stick with me no

matter what your role is.

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Today's question is simple: Why

is it so hard to take a vacation?

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Of course, it's not because

you don't want a vacation.

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You do.

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You're dreaming about it.

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And of course, it's not because you're

bad at planning or bad at taking time off.

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It's because nothing is

set up to run without you.

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Think about it.

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When you're the only one who knows

how the newsletter goes out, you're

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the only one that knows the password

to the social media scheduling

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tool, you're the only one who knows

what to say when a reporter calls,

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Then leaving for a week

doesn't feel like rest.

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It feels like a risk.

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So you do one of two things.

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You either work yourself into the ground

the week before you leave trying to get

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ahead of everything, or you come back to

a mountain of work that's piled up while

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you're gone, or maybe both things happen.

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I talked about this a few weeks ago

back on episode 62, I'll put that

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link in the show notes, I shared

a statistic from the American

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Alliance of Museums' 2025 report that

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Only 4% of museums are using systems or

tools to lighten the load on their teams.

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4%.

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That means almost everyone is

holding it all in their heads.

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And when it's all in your head You

can put it down and go on vacation.

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So here's the shift I want

you to make this summer.

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It's a small one, but it's

going to change everything.

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The knowledge that makes you

indispensable, most of it living

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in your head, the fix is not

to do more before you leave.

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The fix is to move what's in

your head onto paper where

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someone else can follow it.

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That's it.

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That's the whole idea.

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Now, there's a fancy term for this.

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It's called a standard

operating procedure or an SOP.

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And I know that the second I say

that, Some of you just pictured

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this giant binder full of corporate

policies that no one ever reads.

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Let, let that picture go.

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An SOP is not a binder.

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An SOP is just this.

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Here's how we do one thing, it's written

down, and then somebody else can do it.

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That's all it is.

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It's just instructions.

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The same way you'd text a friend

on how to feed your cat while

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you're gone or water your plants.

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So where do you start?

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Because I know some of you are already

thinking, "Amy, I do a hundred things.

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I can't write them all down before I

leave in two weeks for my vacation."

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And you're right.

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Don't do that.

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If you try to document

everything, you'll never leave,

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and you'll hate me by Thursday.

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Here's what to do instead.

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You start with the tasks that only happen

because you're there, the ones that

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stop the moment you walk out the door.

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and actually, if you read my email last

week, you will already have this list.

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If you're not on my email list, please

jump in the show notes and get on

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my email list because those emails

are going to be like a supplement,

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an-another part of this series.

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So in that email last week, I asked you to

think about what at your museum depends on

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you, the things that you're worried will

slip through the cracks, the things that a

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colleague might text you about, the things

that you're dreading coming back to.

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And if you wrote those

down, look at that list.

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You probably saw the same few task

showing up more than once, and

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those repeat offenders, that's

exactly where you'll start.

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If you didn't do that

exercise, no worries.

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Take two minutes today and ask yourself

that one question: If I were out

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for the next two weeks, what's the

first thing that would fall apart?

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And that's your answer.

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That's task number one.

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Now, pick just that one, the single task

that you most dread someone needing while

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you're gone, and here's the easy part.

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You don't have to write it from

memory, and you don't have to

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set aside a whole afternoon.

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The next time you do that

task, just document it as you

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go, each step as you do it.

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Open this, click that, here's

the login, here's who to email.

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And by the time you finish the task,

you've finished your first SOP.

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One task written down once.

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That's a real concrete step toward a

vacation where the world doesn't fall

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apart without you while you're gone.

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Okay, so here is your action step.

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pick the single task you'd most hate

for someone to need while you're away.

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and the next time you do it,

write down the steps as you go.

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That's it.

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One task, one simple set of instructions.

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And next week, in the Tuesday email, I'm

going to give you a pre-vacation checklist

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you can steal so you know exactly what

to hand off and how before you go.

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So if you're not on the email list

the link is in the show notes.

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Please make sure you join because

this summer series lives in two places

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this summer, right here on the podcast

and in my weekly Tuesday email,

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and they're built to work together,

so I really want you to have both.

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And that's all for today.

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Keep loving your museum,

and I'll see you next time