Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the ways music makes our lives better and spotlight the resources you can use to enhance your life with music. Joining me today from the San Francisco Bay area is Aubrey Bergauer, who has been called the Steve Jobs of Classical music and the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony. Aubrey helps organizations optimize the business side of the arts, including growing audiences and donor bases, building relevance and visibility, using technology to elevate and extend the brand, and ultimately generating the revenue needed to sustainably fund the art that’s produced. As chief executive of the California Symphony, Aubrey propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadrupled the donor base. Her work and leadership has been covered in media including The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and Symphony magazines; and she’s an in-demand speaker at universities and conferences in the US and abroad. Aubrey’s first book released in February of this year; it is called “Run It Like a Business: Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money Without Losing the Art.” Welcome to Enhance Life with Music. Aubrey.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:01:22] Hi Mindy. Thank you for having me.
Mindy Peterson: [00:01:25] I am so excited about our conversation today, and I’m so thrilled with your book and the work that you’re doing. My background is in music and business, so you are speaking my language in this book. I know you have a lot of experience with classical music organizations. So in your book, a lot of the examples and statistics are associated with that artistic discipline. But this book is not just for classical music performers and venues. Tell us more about who this book is for, what organizations you had in mind when you wrote it.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:01:59] Sure. I think you nailed it. First of all, that it really is meant for organizations beyond classical music. And the reason for that is I started seeing in my work that so many of the challenges are really similar. No matter what corner of culture you’re in, and culture in a pretty broad use of that term. And so to be more specific, so many of us are, whether you are a, you know, solo teacher or working at a performing arts center or working in administration at some other cultural institution, like no matter your role, even an artist performing the challenges of growing the audience base, increasing donor support, uh, trying to really generate the revenue necessary to fund the art we produce. Those challenges permeate the sector. Again, no matter kind of what corner of culture you’re in. And so is it all identical? No. But are there these real through lines? Yeah, that’s what I started seeing. And then when I really started digging into the data and research, the data bears that out, that yeah, there are so many trends that are similar among the different disciplines. So the book is written for all of that, no matter where you are in arts and culture, no matter your role. And the idea is that there are businesses outside the arts, namely for profit businesses that actually have dealt with a version of these challenges before. And so every chapter is a different strategy of how do we borrow what’s already been vetted and tested and apply it to our work in the arts?
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:33] Yeah, yeah. So all kinds of arts disciplines, whether it’s dance, theater, classical music, jazz, and on and on, I mean, there’s, you know, visual arts. So all of those, you know, anyone in that field can really benefit your from your book, but also things like museums, zoos, libraries, aquariums. I mean, there’s, uh, science centers, botanical gardens, you name so many. Your book even says even sports teams, which I found kind of interesting. Do you have a lot of sports teams that you work with a lot?
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:04:05] No, I wish, but no, but because it’s just fun. It’s fun for me when I think when somebody else comes out of the woodwork and is like, yeah, I see what you’re doing, and I see how that applies to me. And, you know, so it’s funny because there are I said, not a lot of sports teams, but there are like this growing number that are like, yeah, we sell tickets. Yeah. We need to grow our audience base. Everything you’re saying really applies to us. And when they when I get these calls or emails, I’m like, okay, yeah, I see it too. Like so I just really love when people make those connections on their own. But but yeah. So sometimes that means sports.
Mindy Peterson: [00:04:36] Yes. Well and I want to add to that a couple. One is university arts departments because I, I am just continually blown away by the lack of business training that our artists receive. And it’s it’s so crucial because most of these artists and end up running their own business. Essentially, I started out in music and eventually ended up in a business and marketing track with college, but I ended up teaching piano lessons for decades, up until recently, really. And all of that business training was so helpful for me in running my own studio and running my business. So definitely want to include those departments in this conversation. It’s so much, uh, just crucial information in your book that will directly apply to them. But I also want to mention music businesses. These are for profit businesses, but I’ve realized a lot of them are run by musicians who have backgrounds in performance or education and not business. They don’t have that accounting or entrepreneurship or fundraising type of a background. And so this information is really, really critical for them as well. Yeah.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:05:49] Oh, I so appreciate you saying all of this. Like I said, I love it when people make these connections and that’s what you’re doing. You’re like this also applies here. It also applies there. And and then I hear you say it and I’m like, yeah I do see those parallels. Good. Like good job. Oh for sure. Yeah. And as you said I mean you have you have forged your own path with a background in business and as an artist. And I think that in particular just is so, uh, so common, like in that we were trained as an artist and then we have to figure out this whole other way to basically apply that art and manage the business around it. And that really, I think is a summary of the book. How do we manage the business around the art?
Mindy Peterson: [00:06:27] Sure. And even if you as a performer, you end up successful enough to hire an agent or a manager. If you have some of this background training, you’re much less likely to be taken advantage of by someone who’s not ethical in that role. And we just hear way too many stories of people being taken advantage of by unethical managers and publicists, you know, who are skimming money and stealing from their the people that they’re managing. So I just feel it’s it’s really critical information to. Have. And you can’t go wrong with getting this information. Uh, I think that anyone who is listening, who is intimately involved in any of these organizations, their ears perked up immediately when they heard the title of your book and when they heard what you do in your vocation. But for listeners who aren’t intimately involved in these sectors, can you just set the stage for us? Pun intended there? Uh, why why give us the context of why this book is needed?
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:07:27] Yeah, I.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:28] I do hear that jackhammer in the background.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:07:30] Oh, dang. I’m so.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:31] Sorry. Oh, don’t worry about it. But just for listeners, Aubrey warned me when we started. She’s like, I just found out last minute. There’s some work that’s going to be done. We may hear a jackhammer. So excuse, excuse us for that. Welcome.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:07:45] Welcome to the construction zone, everybody. This this is this is real. All right. So, uh. So, yeah. Speaking of challenges. Yeah, yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:54] So set the stage for us. Give us some context of why this book is needed and how Covid, how the pandemic played into that, too.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:08:01] So the idea is that the challenges facing arts and culture challenges such as declining audiences, subscription model really, uh, declining really. Some even say the subscription model is dead, being beholden to more and more major donors, having to raise more money from fewer people. All of those challenges were in place long before Covid and Covid just really accelerated that, and so many people have said so. Many experts have said Covid, for any industry, any sector, any trend was an accelerant. And that is true for us as well. And so the idea of these challenges were already in place, accelerated and exacerbated by Covid. Now, what do we do? Because they’re not just going to reverse themselves. That has been made clear now over decades and is even more urgent now as just for so many organizations, we’re just at a real I hate to be dramatic about it, but kind of crisis point. And so to set the stage, as you said, you know, that was the broader cultural context that I was looking at. And then my whole career has been almost 20 years now in arts management. I’ve always wanted to work in off stage roles and have a degree in music performance as well as business, and that’s been the whole track.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:09:17] And no matter which organization I served, whether it was major institutions or when I was executive director of a regional orchestra, I mean, no matter the size of the budget, a version of those challenges existed. And the strategies I write about, every time I implemented a version of those strategies, we saw results. And then fast forward to the last five years I’ve been, uh, working in a consultant role, helping other organizations implement these same strategies. And now I’ve seen it scale like more and more organizations. Whenever you adopt, again, some version of these strategies, everybody doesn’t have to do it all. But it’s just I’ve just seen it again and again and again. So you put all that together. Severe challenges I’ve seen solutions. The data and how this has worked in other fields is just, you know, fuel for the fire on all of that. So you put it all together. And I thought, the time is now for this book. I just really hope it brings value and, uh, hope and solutions to people who are looking for them.
Mindy Peterson: [00:10:16] Yeah. And I just want to point out some things that you highlight in your book. And one of those is that one of our one of the challenges we all face is it does get more expensive every year to produce our art. It’s a very labor intensive type of an industry. And there’s not there just aren’t a lot of ways to save on costs. You, you point out in your book, you can’t play Mozart faster, you know, and somehow trim costs. And this human heavy industry, you know, the labor wants, raises every year, just like every other working human does. And you have not only the artists who are performing, who are humans wanting raises, but you have all the people supporting them, whether it’s fundraising, marketing, production, education and and on top of that, there’s there’s usually not much fat to trim. You know, I like I said, I work a lot with music educators and in universities, you know, it’s kind of like we’re to the point where we’re trying to cut costs and there’s nowhere left to cut, you know? So working smarter rather than harder is what we’re really looking for, which is exactly what your your book presents. I also love in your book, you are very clear multiple times about saying the art is not the problem. And as cultural institutions, we make incredible art and people want that art. They’re drawn to it. We really have an incredible competitive advantage that a lot of brands work a lifetime to achieve, where we do have this incredible product. Um, in fact, I love the quote you say in your book, our artists are so remarkable and their training so rigorous that it’s harder to win an audition at a major. Orchestra, then it is to get drafted into the NBA. And I was like, oh my goodness, that is an incredible perspective to put on this. And so true. So yeah.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:12:09] It is so true. And I just want to underscore that and just say, yeah, I think this is a real I don’t want to say misnomer, but something we get confused about so many organizations, we attempt to make the solution. Oh, let’s tinker with the product. Let’s do a different concert. Let’s do a different play, a different opera, you know, whatever. Fill in the blank discipline. But the reality is, no, our product is what we’ve been working for hundreds of years, literally to almost perfect. I mean, that’s what we’re trained to do as artists. And so I just really underscore and appreciate that you’re calling that out right now that, yeah, the art is so good. The training is so rigorous. That stat is true. We ran the numbers. And yeah, it is statistically harder to win a job at a major symphony orchestra then get drafted in the NBA. And that just speaks so much to the talent we have. And so that is such good news for us as an industry. That’s when I say I hope there’s hope. For me, this is hope. It’s not a fundamental product issue. A lot of companies have a fundamental product issue. Let’s talk about Boeing. Right. You know, like to draw these parallels to the business world. And that’s not what we’re grappling with. So this is just really like a foundational asset we have.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:20] Sure. And your book does have so much objective information hard data statistics and results. So I love that so much about the arts. And music is subjective, which is beautiful in its own way. But one thing that sort of drew me to business and marketing was you also have some of this objectivity and some concrete principles and things that you can you can stand on, and I love that your book includes a lot of that data and research and case studies and success stories. So basically we have a fabulous product. We just need to change our approach in ways. And there are so many strategies from the Non-art sector that can be applied to arts organizations. So tell us about some of the strategies and topics that are covered in the ten chapters in your book.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:14:07] Sure. I think let’s talk about maybe subscriptions first, because I think that that is, for me, the one that we can like. It’s in some ways low hanging fruit. People ask me all the time, Aubrey, what’s the low hanging fruit? There’s not a lot, but this might be like the one. So okay.
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:21] And it’s one everybody gets. Exactly, exactly. Everybody’s familiar with this model 100 100%.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:14:28] So for everybody listening the subscription economy, some people call it the membership economy is booming. So it’s Amazon, it’s Netflix. It’s all the things we get delivered to our door. It’s all the services we subscribe to online. I mean, just so much in our world right now is based on this membership economy. And yet I already said earlier in the conversation, some people even say in the arts the subscription model is dead. And I thought these two things do not compute. How is it booming? Rising? It’s literally 20% of all credit card transactions globally are towards subscriptions. And I’m like, how can this be true? Exactly.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:07] Automatically.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:15:08] Exactly. And so I thought there’s got there’s some there’s some disconnect. And I’m going to figure out what it is. So I started going really deep dive into the research, talked to experts, really started reading up on this. And it turns out there are some things that we do very differently than these other thriving subscription brands. So just to quickly name a couple of them, for example, Netflix does not ask me if I want to renew my subscription every month, right? No way. Netflix charges my card and I have to opt out if I want to leave that subscription. What do we do in the arts? This is true for donations too. Not just our season ticket sales. We opt out everybody for them and ask them, would you like to renew? And again, same thing for donations. Would you like to give again? And just that one thing is so costly for us. We are losing so many subscribers and donors, so much recurring revenue because we just have this opt. We’ve asked people to opt in instead of ask them to opt out. Yeah, and I explained a whole bunch of ways of how do we make this shift? Because it’s not something you just rip the Band-Aid off and do. So there are ways to navigate it, of course, but I just offer that as an example.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:16:17] Um, and then just to give one more, I would say, uh, let’s talk about onboarding. Like what happens when somebody makes a donation at an organization, usually like a tax letter in the mail that’s kind of sterile comes that’s not a great onboarding experience. And the turns out the research shows, like the better the onboarding experience, the more likely somebody is to stay. And so that just really set me down a path of thinking, oh yeah, there is so much we could do a welcome series just to be even like basic about it. But a lot of organizations don’t have a welcome like email series. And so when I say low hanging fruit, that’s what I mean. I think there are ways that we can learn from these other. Businesses and what’s working and think, oh yeah, we could have an onboarding plan for our season ticket holders, for our donors. We could do that. And that alone is going to save me money on the back end later, when I’m not having to mail them 30 versions of the subscription brochure and 5000 emails to try to get them to renew. You know, like we’re investing that money up front and that just, like, feels like a better solution. And it turns out for most businesses, it is.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:24] Well, and you point out in your book too, how important it is just to thank donors. And that’s something simple. And yet you give a lot of really practical ideas for different ways to do that and sort of going along with that too. You talk about let’s dial back how many donor benefits, quote, air quote we’re giving away and really focus on what donors are wanting, what their causes. So as a parallel to the healthcare industry, when people give to healthcare, it’s because they want to cure cancer, not because they want to be invited to another wine reception. And the same is true for the arts. You know, people do want to be thanked, but they have a cause that’s important to them that they believe in, too. And they don’t necessarily need to get a bunch of freebies that are going to cost these arts organizations. They just want to be acknowledged and recognized and thanked. And your your book gives so many practical ways to do that. So really liked that. Go ahead.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:18:21] Oh, I was just going to say I just love all these quotes and examples. You’re pulling out like you’ve totally done your homework and I love it. Um, yeah, I think, I mean, in some ways it’s it’s not it’s just not rocket science. Right? Like, of course people want to feel thanked. Of course people want to feel like they’re making an impact on the world. And like like in some ways we forget that and we just. Or we’re so like the hamster in the wheel of, like, what? What else can we give? What other tchotchke can we give, what other donor benefits can we give? And I’m not saying there’s not a place for the wine receptions, and that’s community building and there’s a place for that. But it’s this idea of, yeah, if we remind people about the cause, about the impact, like that’s kind of the Holy grail, because then we’re we’re not we’re not just trading in transactional value at that point. Now we’re talking about something way deeper. And that is really the sweet spot of like why people give and why they continue to give.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:14] Sure, absolutely. Well, and one other thing I just want to touch on too is your, your or your, uh, statistic that you mention nationwide, 90% of first time orchestra attendees never return. And that just hit me between the eyes because, as you mentioned, it’s not a problem with the art. If you get when you talk to these people who are filling out these surveys, you get them talking about the art and they’re just in awe and they’re raving about the art that they experience. It’s so it’s not the product, it’s the packaging. And you kind of go into how we’re welcoming these people as first time guests into our home, basically, and they’re not necessarily feeling comfortable. A lot of people, um, are not coming into arts experiences with the same knowledge base that they did 50 years ago, and we need to recognize that. And you give some really practical, easy solutions to just make it more approachable. Make even if every single program is an hour and a half, just list that time so that people can plan accordingly and but touch touch on some of that a little bit for people. Yeah.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:20:25] So this chapter is this is chapter one. And it’s all about the strategies user experience research and the eye. Ten years ago I didn’t even know it was called user experience research. I started doing it, but I didn’t I didn’t know that was what it was called. And just the simplest, simplest definition is just going to your users or your customers, your patrons, your audience, your students, whoever your customer is, and asking them about their experience. And the key in many ways is to ask people how they feel, because how somebody feels is their truth. And so what we learned in doing this is that newcomers feel intimidated. They feel, um, anxiety, even anxiety over what to wear, which that was always that was just really talk about, like hitting it in the head between the eyes. That’s what I felt like. I was like, you have so much anxiety over what to wear. Like, it’s okay. Especially in California. It’s cool. Like, no problem. They’re like, no, no, no, no, no. And it wasn’t that they wanted to dress down. Like sometimes we think like the quote unquote younger audiences want to be casual. It wasn’t that they said, I want to fit in. And so going back to like talking about deeper needs of people, like fitting in, that’s a real deep need that all of us have.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:21:36] And so it started becoming so clear that these very troublesome emotions, they feel unwelcome, they feel intimidated. They feel like they don’t belong, they feel anxiety, they’re words. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is all about the experience I’m trying to provide before the experience, quote unquote, even begins. Except for them, it has. Begun. Right. And so this just was very eye opening for me. And so it became clear that these emotions are why so many people come once and never come again. And just to put a finer point on this, when we get to the part of the discussion where we’re talking about the art itself, and this is how I know the product is so strong, aside from the stats and how difficult it is to win jobs and things, because they tell us, and this has been replicated multiple times now, and the work I’ve done, we talk about the product and how does that make you feel? The emotion is awe. I felt awe and I’m like, okay, the music is not the problem. The product is not the problem, the art is not the problem. It’s all these other things tangential to the experience that are causing deeply negative emotions. And I thought, but wait, these things are fixable. These are fixable things.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:56] Sure. Yeah. And you, you your surveys reveal that first timers really deeply want to be educated attendees. They want to be informed. And so it’s really easy to make small changes that will help them set their expectations. They know how early they should show up, what they should wear, when they should clap, how long the event lasts so they know how long to get child care, or if they should plan dinner before or after. You know all of those things. They’re pretty easy to make and I’ll link in the show notes. Holly Mulcahy is a musician who’s done a lot in this field, and so listeners can definitely learn more about this specific issue by following some of her work, too. But above all else, you say in your book, make it easy. Just make it easy for people to feel comfortable. It’s not hard to do, and just those small changes can make huge bring huge dividends for our organizations.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:23:50] Yeah, and this idea of make it easy. This comes from research out of Yale. The professor there at the School of Management is Zoe Chance. And and so I just want to say it’s not just me saying make it easy. Her research shows that more. This blew me away more than any other factor. And I’ll name some of them in just a moment. But more than any other factor, ease is the number one predictor of if people will take action, buy a product, buy a service. And so she says, it is more than price. It’s more than loyalty programs. It’s more than surprise and delight. It’s more than the, um, I’m trying to think the actual experience itself, I mean, you name it, the number one factor is of if people will make a transaction. In this case, we’re talking about ticket sales. We want people to come see our performances and we want them to come back again. The number one factor is make it easy. The easier it is to do something, the more people will do it, she says. Period.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:45] Well, that’s all the more reason to to do the subscriptions the way you were talking about earlier in our conversation. If people have to renew all the time, it makes it less convenient for them to do so. They have to take more, expend more effort to make that happen, whereas just make it as convenient as possible for them to to attend and continue to be subscribers.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:25:07] Yeah. Can I just share a story on this? This was because this is not in the book. This is an orchestra I was working with recently. They’re in my run at like a business academy, and we were talking about this exact like series of conversations and, and topics, and they were working on their subscription renewals. This was last year. And they said, okay, you know, we’re so nervous. What are the long timers going to think? Like, you know, this is the common question I get. What about our quote unquote core audience? And they said, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. They said, we really believe that this quote unquote like should work. So we’re going to try some of this. And they said in their subscription renewal form, they just put a box at the top. First of all, they merged in all the account information which we have. We have their name, we have their address. And they used to ask people to like refill all that out. So like, I know we’re going to make it easy. We’re going to. Yeah. Totally. Right. And so they’re like we’re going to make it easy.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:25:58] They merge in everything. They merge in their seat location. They merge, you know, all the stuff that they already had on file. And they put a box at the top and they said, check this box if you want everything to stay the same. If you want changes, there’s a space below you can request a different seat or whatever they got. I forget the exact number, but it was the vast majority of their longtime subscribers were like, oh, thank goodness all I got to do is check a box and send you my check or write in my credit card, you know, and like what? Talk about emotions. The emotion was relief. They’re long timers. Were relieved. Like you made this so easy for me. Oh my gosh. Check a box. Here you go. I’m done. See you next season I’m in and and talk about relief for the organization too. They’re like oh this didn’t rub anybody the wrong way. This made it easy easy easy. And their subscription renewal rates were super high. And they were like, well, we’re never going back. Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:51] Wow. Love that. Well, I could talk to you all day about your book. I do want to save time for you for you to tell us about your. Podcast and all of the resources that you offer. Before we jump into that, is there anything else that you absolutely want to make sure you squeeze in about the book, other than it’s I’ll just tell listeners like, just get it, just get it and read it. It’s fantastic and give so many, so many, um, you know, very practical, um, very practical hands on solutions that you can implement right away. But any anything else about the book that you want to squeeze in before we talk about some of those other topics.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:27:25] I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you very much. You’re so you’re so generous, I appreciate it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:30] Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell us about your podcast, the off stage mic.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:27:35] Yeah. So from one podcaster to another, I think for me, it’s just so important to be able to provide more value to our field, to be able to expound on some of these topics that are in the book and, and talk about other topics that weren’t maybe quite right for the, you know, 250 pages or whatever the book is, but other things that we confront and deal with on a daily basis. So it’s called the off stage mic. It’s really for anybody who wants to think about the business surrounding the art, the arts management of it all. And so we’re on season three right now. And yeah, anybody who wants more where this came from off stage mic.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:12] Okay, we’ll have a link in the show notes. But just tell us verbally what your website is.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:28:18] Aubrey Bergauer comm. And for the podcast it’s just Aubrey Bergauer compered cast. Great.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:24] Fabulous. You on that on that website you offer a ton of resources. Um, we haven’t really talked much about your services, but you provide consulting services. You mentioned, uh, in the academy of some sort. There’s also free articles, of course, your free podcast and other content. You have a short quiz that will filter results and give somebody a customized list of articles and episodes that are tailored to that individual and what their role is. So tell us about some of these resources available on your website.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:28:56] Yeah. So let’s see. We’ll start with the quiz because I think that’s the if anybody who’s just learning about me and you’re like, how do I get more of what this woman is talking about? I would say, just go to my website. It’s a pop up, so you’ll get hit with it. But, um, but the quiz is, um, but it’s designed that way because it’s been so popular. So I’ve been creating content now for ten years, as Mindy, as you just said, it’s blogs, it’s the podcast, it’s all kinds of stuff. And so I was getting a lot of requests of like, where do I begin? Basically. And so that’s what the quiz was about. It’s like five questions. It takes 60s and you just, you know, fill out the quiz and then you get sent to you, your curated playlist of podcast episodes, reading list of, uh, blog articles that are really tailored for you and what your role is, where you are in your career, all that kind of stuff. So that’s the quiz. And like I said, it’s been super popular because people are like, yeah, thank you. I just like need to take it easy seconds and make it easy. Yes, definitely trying to practice what I preach here.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:29:54] So that’s that. And then the academy I’ll just share is for anybody who does still want more. I have all of the strategies in my book in a training course, and that’s the run it like a business academy. So for anybody who’s like, yep, I get it, I need to know how I need like the book has a bit of that. But for anybody who’s like, I want more, I want worksheets, I want the checklists, I want, you know, like, just hand it to me. Aubrey that’s the run it like a business academy. And, uh, it’s it’s an online course. You can go at your own pace, but there’s also live office hours with me every other week. So participants get that real time support. And that right now is where the majority of my client work has moved, to be honest, because it’s like the same like 90% the same stuff I was saying when people would bring me in. But because it’s online and digital, fraction of the cost to the user, to the consumer, to the customer. So running a business academy for anybody who is like, yeah, I really want more of a training on these topics, that’s that’s the route for you for sure.
Mindy Peterson: [00:30:54] Love it. Well, I’m just so thrilled that you’re doing this work. Um, love the book. Love, uh, all of the offerings that you have and full spectrum from free articles and podcasts to paid academies and consulting one on ones with you. So love all those different options. Uh, as you know, Aubrey, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending a coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Do you have a song or a story that you can share with us today? In closing.
Aubrey Bergauer: [00:31:25] Yeah, I remember when I was really little. I think it has to be like three years old or four years old. And my dad, I’m a child of the 80s, so my dad was super into his record player. Still, this is like right before CDs probably came out, you know, to the forefront. But so it was like this record collection was everywhere. And I just remember being young and he would just bounce between genres all the time. And so it was like, you know, Bruce Springsteen on One Minute, then I have this vivid memory of the Stravinsky’s Firebird. And like both of those songs, I’m just dancing around the living. Three year old Aubrey. Just like, dancing around and like. And I didn’t know these were different genres either, of course. And it was just this effortless, like I said, like, oh, there’s this song and now there’s this other song, you know, and, um, and so that’s what I remember is just, yeah, dad and the record player and just dancing around, whether it’s Stravinsky or The Boss or Michael Jackson or again, child of the 80s here. Right. So there you go. There’s my coda.
Mindy Peterson: [00:32:20] Love it. Thank you.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai