In this episode, Amy talks with Kira Pogge Brewka, founder of Kira Pogge Creations and host of The Authentic Communicator podcast. Kira shares her insights on developing genuine communication strategies that resonate with audiences and enhance connection.

Show Links:

Where to find Kira: https://www.kirapogge.com/

The Authentic Communicator Podcast

Amy’s episode on The Authentic Communicator Podcast

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Today on the podcast, I'm joined by my friend, Kira Pogge Brewka.

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She's a content strategist and the

host of the authentic communicator.

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podcast.

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Today, we're talking about.

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what it means to be authentic in.

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your messaging.

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Let's get started.

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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.

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I'm thrilled to welcome Kira Pogge Brewka

to the Love My Museum podcast today.

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Kira is a content strategist for

small businesses and theaters,

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and she is a The host of her own

podcast, The Authentic Communicator.

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I am so excited for this episode,

and I'm so excited that you get to

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hear from my dear, dear friend today.

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Kira, welcome to the show.

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Kira: Amy, thank you

so much for having me.

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I'm so proud of you.

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I'm so happy the podcast is going so

well, and I'm so honored to be on it.

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So thank you so much.

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Amy: Aw!

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Thank you.

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I thought we could actually start by

telling everyone how we know each other.

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I've talked on the podcast about Momentum,

a conference in Disney World that I

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attend every year, and it's a place

that I learn a lot, but I also develop

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amazing friendships and a support network.

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Thank you.

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And Kira and I met at Momentum, and our

businesses are similar but different.

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And so it's such a special friendship

because we bounce ideas off of each other.

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And we just have a really nice place

to talk about being a business owner.

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And now we both have businesses.

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baby podcasts that we're

sharing out into the world.

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And I think no matter what your

job is, it's so important to find

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a group of people where you have a

really safe space to brainstorm, to

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workshop ideas, sometimes vent a bit.

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And so I, I'm so grateful for

just all of the, you know, all of

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the conversations that we have.

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And this morning when I was getting ready

for our podcast, I was thinking like,

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we've had so many conversations that would

have been really great podcast episodes.

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Kira: Yeah, it's so true.

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It's so true.

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And I think, you know, we've talked

about, and we talked about this just the

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other day, but being an entrepreneur,

especially a solopreneur, A lot of times,

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it's kind of lonely, and for those of us

who worked in offices before, you know,

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taking this path of solopreneurship,

when you first begin, you're like,

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wow, it's really quiet in here.

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And sometimes you feel a little

crazy, and you don't, you know, you

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can't look over the cubicle and go

like, what do you think of this idea?

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What do you think of this tagline?

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Like, like you said, bouncing

ideas off of each other.

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Um, and momentum has been such a

beautiful space to, to meet other

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people who are going through what we're

going through and to have you as a

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friend and to have our conversations.

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Like you said, I'm so grateful for you

and to you and for the conversations

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that we've had, because it really

does make you feel so much less alone.

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Um, and also validate some of your ideas.

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Cause sometimes we can come up with an

idea, but then if we sit to it with, Yeah.

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If we sit with it too long by ourselves,

we can also talk ourselves out of

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things because, you know, there are a

million reasons not to do something.

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And it's really nice to have a friend

where you're like, is this, am I crazy?

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And having them be like,

no, you should do it.

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Um, exactly.

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You don't always have that when

you're working alone in an office

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in your house, which is a blessing.

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I'm so grateful to be able to work

from home, but you know, it's quiet.

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So the friendships and everything.

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Amy: Definitely.

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And you know, Especially this year,

you know, both of us launching

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podcasts which is a little scary

and requires a lot of work.

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Um, and so it's been so nice to be able

to sort of do that journey with you

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this year, so I really appreciate it.

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And I'm so glad you're here.

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Can you tell us a little

bit about your journey?

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What made you passionate about

helping small business owners and

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theaters communicate and especially

communicate more authentically in

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this really, really noisy world?

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Kira: Yeah, absolutely.

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So I, I worked for a long

time in corporate spaces.

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I was always on an in house

marketing team, so never really

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worked in an agency space.

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I was always working for a brand,

um, in a couple of different.

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vertical.

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So I worked in like

architecture and engineering.

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I worked in the tech space and I

really enjoyed my time on those teams.

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I learned so much.

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Um, but when I went out on my own, what

I found a lot of times in corporate

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is that we think that we're Okay.

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We're business to business.

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So we have to do things a certain

way, which then puts our marketing

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sometimes and not every corporation.

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I don't want to generalize, but I've just

had experiences where sometimes that puts

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our marketing inside a box and we kind of

become less creative because we say, okay,

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this is how the corporate world does it.

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This is how the corporate world

speaks in terms of voice and tone.

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and even though we'll sit in branding

meetings where we try to come up

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with something authentic and unique.

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We tend to.

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Fall back into that corporate mode.

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and I just found that

happening over and over again.

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And when we sometimes we'd sit down

and we look at numbers and analytics,

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which is all really important.

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but we were so focused

on what are our results.

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Without being focused on what are we

doing for our clients and putting that

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into the content, you know, what benefit

can we bring to them and what results

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are they getting versus how many people

can we get to sign up for a webinar

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or an event or download something?

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Um, it's not that those things, like

I said, it's not that that's not

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important, but I think sometimes

we get so lost in that, that we

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forget that a lot of marketing and

communications is meant to serve.

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And the more we serve others, the

more results we'll actually get.

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And when we're focused

too much on the sales.

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We forget that we're in the service

business, you know, and no matter what,

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whether you have a product or a service,

technically you're serving your clients.

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So how are you benefiting them?

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Um, so I went, when I left corporate

to help small businesses, I was really

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excited because I'm like, I'm going to

be working with either small businesses

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that are just, you know, a small group

of individuals or a solopreneur where

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it really is about them being authentic.

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And it is about what they

offer to their clients.

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And I could.

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Delve a little bit more into

that because I think it's what

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ultimately brings success.

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in the social and content space.

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So that's kind of where I'm coming from.

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And when it comes to the theaters,

it was part of my undergrad.

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I'm really passionate about theater.

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I'm a total like grew up

a band geek theater kid.

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Um, and I just realized it was

kind of a realization last year.

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At the beginning of this year,

last end of last year, that wait

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a minute, I, I work for myself.

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I can work in any vertical I want to.

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and so I really geared towards the

solopreneurs because I want to help

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people like me who have a dream that

they're building, but also theaters.

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especially after COVID, like

they've really struggled to come

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back in a lot of ways and getting

people back into live events.

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even though, you know, they're

definitely better than they were in

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2021, but they're still struggling and,

I want to help them survive just, you

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know, just like you, we talk about.

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I want to help them survive

and thrive because they're so

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important to our communities.

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everybody who works in a theater is kind

of like me, like they were theater kids.

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They love it so much.

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And I think sometimes they.

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We all fall back into that, okay, here's

a corporate strategy, corporate speak.

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Here's what we have to do.

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And I want them to just kind of,

it's hard, but like unlearn that.

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Let go of it and lean into the theater

kid passion, because that's when

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they'll connect with people in the

community that, you know, have that

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same vibe and wanna be a part of that.

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Amy: I love what you

said about you kind of.

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Put yourself in a box or corporations or

I really think no matter what organization

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you a lot of times lean too much into

feeling like you have to be professional

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and Put yourself in that box, and It makes

it a lot harder to make those connections

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and everything is about connections and

serving people means that you, you have

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to connect with them and it's almost

like giving them permission to let their

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guard down a little bit and and give them

that space to be more themselves, and

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that's why I love your podcast so much.

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Because you talk with people from all

walks of life, you talk to them about

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what it means to, to be authentic.

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you ask all of your podcast guests,

and I'm going to turn the tables.

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What, what do you think makes a

message feel genuine or genuine?

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Or feel authentic to people.

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Kira: I think, I think

it's a mix of things.

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Um, and again, this is my

definition of it, right?

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Like there's the Webster's

definition of authenticity.

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And then everybody I've talked to has

kind of had similar and different.

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Versions of it.

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Um, for me, I think when somebody

is being really authentic, it

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doesn't feel forced or scripted.

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And I'm not saying that

it can't be scripted.

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Like I definitely prepare

for podcasts, right?

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We do our intros for our guests.

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Um, a lot of people that I look up to that

are incredibly authentic, you included,

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like we prepare for what we're doing.

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so it's not that you can't

script or prepare, but just.

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Your, the way you're speaking,

the way you show up, the way you

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get excited about what you love so

much, that naturally comes across.

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So, um, let me see if I can

like turn it into an image.

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But if we're like sitting at dinner

with a bunch of people and you and I

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are there and we're big Disney fans.

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And, you know, we're talking

about business and PR and

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social media and all the things.

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And then somebody else at the table brings

up Disney and all of a sudden we're like,

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Oh, Yeah, we're ready to talk about that.

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Like how much time do you have and

you're like people's body language

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changes that like twinkle in your eye

changes the voice, your voice changes.

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And I think if people can

just lean into that instead of

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worrying about what you said.

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Like being too professional, kind of let

your guard down and just be yourself.

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And somebody we both love who

I use as an example of this

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all the time is Lou Mongello.

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Like the fact that he can sit in

an office on a Wednesday night and

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be talking about the cheeseburger

spring rolls and, at Adventureland,

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and he gets like really excited and

like his whole vibe changes and he's

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not presenting something, he's just

talking to people about what he loves.

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Right.

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And I think that's.

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What I envision when I talk about

authenticity is that, you know, every

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industry, if you go on Instagram and

you look up the wellness industry

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or the architecture industry or the

whatever it might be, and you cover

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a logo, can you tell the difference?

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Between those different accounts and

the people that stand out are not the

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people that look at the industry and

say, Oh, I have to dress like this,

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sound like this, have this background.

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They're the people that just show

up and say, I love this so much.

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Don't you love this so much?

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Can we talk about it together?

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Because I just want a community

of people who are going to

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geek out about the same things.

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Um, And to me, that's authenticity.

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Like, just be yourself.

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Come to me to have a conversation

the same way if we were sitting

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down to have coffee and you were

telling me about what you love.

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And don't worry about, um, the

performance of it too much.

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Cause I think we get

really insecure about that.

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And, and then we get nervous and then

we hide our true passion and voice.

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Not intentionally, but it just

happens, right, when we're,

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when we're being insecure.

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Amy: Oh, that's so, so true.

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And I think there's also like a little

bit of vulnerability that goes into that.

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and even, play.

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being okay to have fun and to be playful.

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Uh, one of my favorite social

media accounts to follow is

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the National Park Service.

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They're the best.

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They're so good.

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They're the best.

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And they have fun with it.

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They still take their, their mission,

their vision, their values very seriously.

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They run a, you know, it's a

huge organization, their social

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media accounts are amazing.

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And it's because there's fun!

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They, uh, they have fun with

it, and it just, it's great.

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It feels so authentic.

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So we were, we were talking about

corporations and larger organizations

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and, museums and small business owners

and They're different, but they also

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can be the same, like you can be a

big organization, a big museum, a big

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corporation, and be like the National

Park Service and still have that

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connection and, you know, Authenticity,

uh, in the content that you're creating.

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Kira: Yeah, I believe that's so true.

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And I love that you brought

them up because they're my,

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they're my absolute favorite.

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Um, and also small libraries.

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Like, they just get it.

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The National Park Service and look up your

local library because I haven't looked

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at them all, but like, I guarantee you.

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Local libraries have the best

social media because they're

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just they're like the rest of us.

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Like, they're very nerdy and

passionate about something.

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And I'm a reader.

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So, like, I love seeing their stuff.

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and I guess that's the

point is if you're going to.

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It used to be that if you're going

to win in the marketing space, you

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were like big companies, big ad

dollars, super bowl commercials.

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And we still like watching those,

but because of social media,

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it's become more personal and you

want things that are relatable.

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So when you see the national perk

service doing a rendition of hot

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to go by travel around, You're

like, Oh, these are just humans.

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Just like me who are listening to Spotify

every day and like doing the trends and

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connecting with people and being relevant.

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And that's the, like, bring

the humanity back into it.

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Cause I think sometimes big companies

are like, we're, we're a brand

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and like, this is how it sounds.

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But the reason Disney does so well is

because they're constantly showing us

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of families just having a good time.

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And they did a whole I don't know.

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You might remember.

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I don't remember which year it

was, but they did a whole marketing

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campaign, which was just like home

videos that people sent in of them

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surprising their kids with trips.

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Oh yes.

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Yes.

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I remember that.

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That was the most brilliant thing

they've ever done because they

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didn't even have to create it.

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Yeah.

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Definitely.

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Authentic experiences from real

people that we as a family could

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absolutely relate to because we

were having those same experiences.

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So that like bringing

the humanity and the.

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That personal vulnerability,

and like you said, is huge.

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Amy: Yes, definitely.

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I have those videos.

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I have those videos that I

took of my kids, like, when we

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surprised them with a Disney trip.

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You know, and that's, like you said,

it's, it's so, it's so relatable.

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Um, and we've been talking a bit

about social media, and, I think,

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too, that museums and probably

small businesses and theaters forget

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that it's two way communication.

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That it's, it's a chance to

really connect with your audience.

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And so, making sure that your social

media content is not just the sales pitch

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or an ad for an event that's coming up.

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And so, when.

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We're talking about social media,

how do you think the idea of

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authenticity in communications has

evolved, especially with social

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media, because it's so different.

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I mean, it's so different now than

even four years ago, or Definitely 10

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years ago, but, you know, just since

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and how you make those connections.

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So, do you, Do you have advice, like,

for planning content or being more

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authentic, especially on social media?

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Kira: Yeah, and that's

such a good question.

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And it has changed a lot.

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Because if we, like, way back when, when I

first, you know, got a Facebook account, I

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was in college and it was only for college

kids to connect with college kids, right?

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And to meet one another

and to grow community.

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And it was very heavily focused

on community and connection.

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Um, and you know,

marketers ruin everything.

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So I was actually just listening

to this video by Gary Vaynerchuk,

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where he talked about how, when he

started email marketing, he had 91

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percent open rates, but that's before.

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Marketers ruined email and,

and email is so important.

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I'm not saying it's ruined, but what

happens is, you know, this, whatever

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it is, email, social, whatever kind

of connection medium comes into play.

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It's incredible.

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It creates new communication avenues.

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It creates community.

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It's like this beautiful thing.

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And then marketing comes in and

they're like, Hey, everybody does it.

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We're like, we can sell to you with this.

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So we're going to do it.

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And I say that as a marketer,

because I'm like part of the problem.

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But, but I think the big shift we saw was

from like, it used to be called social

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networking and now it's called social

media because it, it went through this

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phase where it was just broadcasting.

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Like there, people were just

using it as a broadcasting medium.

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And what you said is so important.

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The only way you move someone

through a funnel is by creating

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relationship, community, and

actually connecting with them.

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And I think the biggest thing

that I would say to people is,

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Yeah, balance your content.

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And this is kind of an old rule, but I

think sometimes we forget about it, but

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like the 80 20 rule, you should be serving

more than you're asking people to serve.

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So, you know, give more, give value away.

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And I know people get nervous about that.

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They're like, well, I don't

want to give it away for free

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because I want people to pay me.

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I'm like, if you don't give them anything

to prove that you know what you're doing

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to add value, to build relationship,

it's going to be really hard for them to.

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Whole, you know, the trigger on

actually purchasing something.

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So having that value, building

those relationships, making sure

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you're answering people's questions

in the comments or in direct

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messages is really important.

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And there's a huge shift for

marketers and communicators right

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now for going back to community.

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Um, because building community is

really Where success and ROI is, um,

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if people are looking at the numbers

and it's because if, if you're genuine

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and you build a loyal community

and you're actually helping those

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individuals, not only will they come

back to you over and over again, but

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they're going to go tell other people.

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About your community.

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And, you know, we'll go back to Lou

because he's like the best example.

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But momentum, that's what it is, right?

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Like we all went to this conference,

we meet one another, we have these

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incredible communities and friendships,

and then we can't miss it every year

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because I get to see you in person.

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Human form and give you a

chance to talk to a person and

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that's such it's such a gift.

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Um, and because of that, I

tell other people about it.

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So like, you have no idea what this has

done for me personally and professionally

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come be part of this community.

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So building community is it helps

you help your audience in a huge

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way and add so much more value.

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Um, because they're not

just talking to you.

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They're talking to other

people in that space.

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Um, and it brings you in terms of business

so much ROI because they're also going to

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be, you know, evangelists for your brand.

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Amy: do you have a favorite museum?

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I asked this question of all my guests.

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Yeah.

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I'm so excited to hear your answer.

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Kira: This was hard.

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This was hard actually.

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Um, so I was going to

say Carousel of Progress.

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Can that be my museum??

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No.

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Um, I, so I have to say the New

York State Museum is one of them.

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It's in Albany, New York.

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It's the museum I grew up going to,

so it was our field trip museum.

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We went there on weekends with my family.

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Um, and they have a beautiful Native

American exhibit that was, you know,

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as a small child, they had like

a long house that you could walk

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through and learn about the history.

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And I was like, Oh, this is amazing,

very engaging, interactive exhibits.

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Um, and then they had a woolly

mammoth, which was like, I was

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obsessed with when I was a kid.

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So that was a big deal.

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Um, and they also have like really

interesting exhibits about New York.

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Um, so they have a beautiful

September 11th exhibit now.

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Um, but when I was a kid, they had like

part of Sesame street, cause that's

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New York and like all this stuff.

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so that for me, that's, A big

place locally that I really love.

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Um, and also they do a

ton for the community.

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So when I worked in the space, I was

on the board of our local construction

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organization and I don't know if you've

heard about construction before now.

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It's so cool.

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It's a thing in the architecture

engineering industry.

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In different cities where architects

and engineers or anybody who works

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for those organizations can create

teams where they build structures out

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of canned goods and boxed food items.

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And then all those items are

donated to local food pantries.

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Um, so that's like so long.

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That's so cool.

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Yeah, it's so long ago that I was a

part of that, but I'm still And like

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it was such a great experience and we

partnered with the New York State Museum.

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So that's where we built when I

was, um, a part of it, that's where

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we were building our structures

and it, it's just really cool.

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And that's not the only thing they do.

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They do attend for their community,

and the people that work there are

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so passionate about what they do.

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So I think there's a lot of love in

museums, just like in theaters, right?

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Like the people that work there.

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Want so badly for the community to

come in and enjoy it and learn so

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that's one of my favorites and then

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Amy: Yeah, I love that you picked

your local community museum, and

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it's something that, you know, Walt

Disney, my favorite Walt Disney quote

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is, do what you do so well so that

they'll come back and bring a friend.

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And so it's a place that you've

visited time and time again.

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And now it's her favorite.

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I love that.

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Do you have another favorite?

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Kira: Yeah, and this is a big one, but

only because it again, it's kind of close.

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It was easy to get to.

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So the Met down in New York City.

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Um, pick.

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Yeah, I took art history

in high school and college.

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I love art history so much.

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I love the reflection of the

social culture at the time.

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The how art moves moves us forward.

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Also, it's just such a beautiful thing.

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So I love.

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I love the history of art, but I remember

the first time I ever went there was

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with our high school class, and they

took us to look at, like, the Lamassu and

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Greek art and Roman art, and I couldn't

believe I was like, I looked at this

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stuff in books and I've watched movies

about it and you study it, but then

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you go to these places and you stand

next to something that is so incredibly

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old, but it's still here because

it made such an impact on humanity.

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And I just, it like blows my mind every

time I'm there and I stand next to

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something and I'm like, This is amazing.

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Like, I can't believe it made it this far.

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And then we get to still

enjoy it and learn from it.

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Um, it's really emotional.

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So, yeah, well, you can totally get

lost in there, which I have for hours.

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Amy: And it's such an

iconic museum, right?

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It's such a, and like you said, it's,

it's that mix of going back to see old

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favorites and also seeing new things too.

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It makes every visit

different, which is very cool.

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Those are great picks.

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Very good choices.

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Do

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Kira: you have a museum that you've

been to that you suggest people go to

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that maybe they haven't thought of?

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Amy: Oh, I have so many.

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I actually, I actually have a podcast

episode coming up where I talk

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about my trip to London last year.

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And when I went to London, my

goal was to go to museums that

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I had never been to before.

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So I might save my

answer for that episode.

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You'll have to tune in and listen.

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Um, because I think there are definitely

a few that I went to that were off

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the beaten path and, um, and so yeah,

definitely have to tune into that.

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But locally, one of my favorite

museums to visit in Washington D.

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C., of course all of the Smithsonian

museums are my favorites, but

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I love the Phillips collection.

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It's a Art museum in DuPont

Circle in Washington DC.

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the inside is beautiful.

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I'm, I am a sucker for,

like, museum architecture.

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So, I have so many pictures of, um,

museum floors and ceilings on my phone.

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Renoir's, Luncheon of the Boating Party

is there, which is one of my favorite

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Paintings, and for the same reason that

you said, like, there are things that

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you can go back and visit time and time

again, but then they also always have,

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new and exciting exhibits that are

moving through there, and it's also a

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little bit off the beaten path, so that

would be one of my, my local favorites.

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That's kind of a bit of a hidden gem.

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Kira: Yeah, I've never been there

before because we, when we go

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to DC, we go to the Smithsonian.

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So yeah,

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Amy: you'll have to do that one next time.

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Yeah.

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Thank you so much, Kira, for

joining me on the podcast.

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I've been looking forward to this

for so long and thank you for

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sharing such valuable information.

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And for everyone listening, I

hope that you'll check out Kira's

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podcast, The Authentic Communicator.

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Her episodes are packed with rich,

deep conversations for anyone

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looking to communicate with more

clarity and purpose and authenticity.

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Thank you.

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All for tuning in.

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I'll see you next time.