Data is one of the most powerful tools you can use in arts management to increase patron retention. But how do you know which metrics to track? How do you find the time to stay on top of key performance indicators?

Over several years of experience, from my first job at the Seattle Symphony to becoming an executive director and developing the 'Long Haul Model', I can now identify the main, underlying problem most arts organizations run into when thinking about their data. And I brought in some folks to help me talk about it.

In this bonus episode, I interview special guests Sune Hjerrild and Jan Pilgaard Carlsen, co-founders of Artelize, a company that eats, sleeps, and breathes using data in the arts. We talk about how to harness your data to retain more patrons, what key metrics are important to monitor to know if your retention efforts are working, and why most CRMs make patron retention challenging, either because extracting the data and reports you need is tricky, or because it just takes too much time — and what to do about it to make it a million times faster.

Tracking and understanding your data doesn’t have to be a pitfall for your organization. Enjoy this special bonus episode to carry you through until the podcast starts again this fall.

Resources:

The Long Haul Model article

Rethinking Audience Engagement Panel Hosted by Artelize

We wrap up season 3 with one of my most requested topics of all time: the topic of how to lead change. If you ever find yourself asking questions like ‘How do I get buy-in from my board?’ or ‘Where do I even begin when it comes to implementing new ways of doing business in my arts organization?’, this episode is for you.

We talk about what the experts say about fear of change, resistance to change, and other barriers to change; debunk three big myths about change; and share five things that actually work to drive change effectively at your arts organization.

No matter what role you fill within arts management, leading the change is one of the most important skills you can build. This episode unpacks the research every arts manager and leader needs to know.

Every episode this season has focused on business strategies that apply to arts management, such as patron retention, leveraging the subscription and membership economy, ecommerce, and digital content (to name a few!).

And in this episode, we look at how these strategies apply to my own business, Changing the Narrative—and how those same strategies have guided the evolution of my business over the last year or so as we’ve scaled up.

We walk through my personal experience with growing Changing the Narrative, including the areas I needed to step away from, as well as the areas I decided to lean into further and build out. I also highlight some of the key lessons I've learned in hiring and building an effective team, using data and analytics for direction, and how important of a tool digital content is. My hope is you will find these lessons to be both relatable and applicable to your own arts organization.

The article mentioned several times: Scarcity Mindset Is Killing Your Arts Organization