Nick Gray on Turning Your Hobby Into a Business, Standing Out in a Crowded Market, and Being a Leader - Cracking Creativity Episode 92

Nick Gray is the founder of Museum Hack, a twist on the traditional museum experience. The funny thing about Nick is, he used to hate museums. That is until he went on a date that forever changed his life.

During a snowy day in NYC, a girl brought him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and showed him artifacts, furniture, and other interesting things in the museum. This changed Nick’s perception of what a museum tour could be. That’s when he started frequenting the MET, and learned to love museums.

The first time Nick charged for a museum tour, he even tried to give money back to the people who took it. He had so much fun with the tour that he thought he shouldn’t charge people for it.

“The first tour that I actually charged money for, it was a Sunday morning tour at 11 in the morning, and I was like ‘Alright I’ll just see if I can charge money. I’ll charge them $20. See if they come.’ And everyone gave me their cash, and I gave them the tour. And I had so much fun Kevin, I had so much fun, that at the end of the tour, I think I freaked everybody out because I gave them all of their money back. And they were like ‘Why are you giving us… is this Candid Camera or something?’ and I was like “No, I had so much fun. It feels dirty for me to take your money, to do something that I love, something that I’m having so much fun with.’ So for me that was the first time I experimented, but it didn’t really go so well.”

Before Nick started Musuem Hack he was a salesman of flat screen monitors. But the success of his initial tours, and the experience he gained as a salesman, allowed him to turn his passion project into a business.

“What I think is special about what I’ve done with Museum Hack that your listeners might find fascinating, is that I took something that was a passion project, something that I just did for a hobby, for fun, and I was able to convert it and make it into a business. And my time selling these screens really taught me the importance of marketing and sales and dollar value of creating premium experiences. So for me that was really helpful.”

The thing that makes Museum Hack different from other museum tours is what Nick likes to dub the 3 G’s. While most other tours are zigging, Museum Hack is zagging.

“The three Gs. These are the three things that makes Museum Hack completely different from most museum tours. Three Gs. Number one, guides. Number two, games. and number three gossip. So it’s the tour guides that are so engaging, that are actors and educators, and science teachers, and musicians who write their own tours who are so special. That’s the guides. The games means that the tours are so fast paced. They’re ultra fast paced. They’re two to three times as fast as most museum tours. And we also do selfie challenges. We takes shots of espresso or drink some wine. And then the gossip, that’s the juicy back story. The cool stuff about the art that we like to talk about.”

Instead of trying to find people who are knowledgeable in history and museums, Nick hires guides who are good with people. Anyone can learn about art, but not everyone is good at connecting with people.

“The number one thing we look for is someone’s ability to be a good host. How is their body language? How comfortable to they make people? Do they make us laugh? That’s the most important thing. It’s not about their knowledge. It’s not about how much they know about the art history. It’s about how do they make the guests feel. Because that’s what we’re trying to do, right? We’re trying to make people comfortable and we’re trying to get them to warm up inside the space. So that’s really what we hire for first and foremost. And then we can teach them about the art. We can teach them about the museum… We hire folks that are really good with people.”

He also gives his guides the freedom to create their own tours. When you are building something yourself, you become passionate about it. So, Nick gives them the freedom to come up with their own tours and write their own scripts.

“We think that having our tour guides write their own tours is so powerful because the guests and the visitors can hear that excitement and that passion, and you can hear me talk right now, right? I’m excited. I’m pumped up. I’m jazzed to talk about my business with you, and that’s because I’m not going off a script. No one is telling me what to do. Our tour guides have to be the same way, so we let them explore the whole museum, come up with their own tours, stuff that they’re excited about and they write their own scripts.”

One would think that competing with instant gratification culture would be a detriment to Museum Hack, but it isn’t. Nick tells his guides to embrace people’s attention spans and work it into their tours.

“We’re dealing with an increasingly ADD generation. These are people that are like me that are on their phones every two or three minutes. I mean, it’s not just millenials. It’s people of all ages that have a short attention span, and we try to teach our museum friends ways to engage with that type of audience. Make it personal. Keep it fast. Don’t be afraid of smart phones. Encourage people to take selfies and pictures. Things like that.”

In a world where museums can seem stale and uninteresting, Nick has captured people’s imaginations. That sort of innovation requires curiosity, risks, and failures, and that’s exactly what he has done with Museum Hack.

“Figuring out like you did, people who have that curiosity, and people who are willing to troubleshoot and make failures, and I’m guessing the podcast hasn’t been perfect since day one, would that be a correct assumption?… That willingness to make mistakes and resourcefulness to figure things out. Those are two key things we look for.”

Shownotes

about Nick
- founder of Museum Hack
- used to hate museums
- was electronics salesman who sold flat screen monitors
- got into musuems when girl took him on a date and gave him a tour of Metropolitan Museum of Art
  - Nick’s TED Talk
  - snowy day so no one was there
  - she showed him artifacts, furniture, and interesting things
  - loved the tour and museum
  - went back many weekends after
things from childhood that influenced tours
- causing trouble and finding ways around the rules
- entrepreneur that used to tinker
how his experience selling screens influenced his museum tours

5:22 “What I think is special about what I’ve done with Museum Hack that your listeners might find fascinating, is that I took something that was a passion project, something that I just did for a hobby, for fun, and I was able to convert it and make it into a business. And my time selling these screens really taught me the importance of marketing and sales and dollar value of creating premium experiences. So for me that was really helpful.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art
- loving the Met because it has all types of art
first tour he charged money for
- Sunday morning at 11am
- charge $20
- had so much fun he gave the money back

7:56 “The first tour that I actually charged money for, it was a Sunday morning tour at 11 in the morning, and I was like ‘Alright I’ll just see if I can charge money. I’ll charge them $20. See if they come.’ And everyone gave me their cash, and I gave them the tour. And I had so much fun Kevin, I had so much fun, that at the end of the tour, I think I freaked everybody out because I gave them all of their money back. And they were like ‘Why are you giving us… is this Candid Camera or something?’ and I was like “No, I had so much fun. It feels dirty for me to take your money, to do something that I love, something that I’m having so much fun with.’ So for me that was the first time I experimented, but it didn’t really go so well.”

deciding he would make money
- met someone who was a great tour guide and wanted to hire him
  - started charging at that time
- pitch to him
  - was already a freelance tour guide
  - was progressive and forward thinking
  - was a way to connect with a new audience

10:34 “The idea that I could hire and pay someone who would treat this with professionalism and respect and like a job, that was very very attractive to me because it made me think about scalability. It made me think about the quality of our tours. It was a really nice feeling.”

people leading their own tours

12:34 “We think that having our tour guides write their own tours is so powerful because the guests and the visitors can hear that excitement and that passion, and you can hear me talk right now, right? I’m excited. I’m pumped up. I’m jazzed to talk about my business with you, and that’s because I’m not going off a script. No one is telling me what to do. Our tour guides have to be the same way, so we let them explore the whole museum, come up with their own tours, stuff that they’re excited about and they write their own scripts.”

hired out contract work for tours
- paid by the tour, not true employees
- figured things out on the fly
how things have evolved since the beginning
- they didn’t buy guests’ admission to start
  - made prices look lower, but it made it a hassle
  - museums wanted them to do it together
- used to switch tour guides half way through
  - switching would allow people to see more things
  - Nick wanted to switch so he could be with friends too
Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins
going to new museums
- Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto
committing to expanding to new cities
- choosing Washington DC
  - close to NY and has a ton of free museums
- team helped launch the DC tours
different people he’s hired
- they look for good hosts
  - body language, make you laugh
- not about the history
- giving people a personalized experience

23:19 “The number one thing we look for is someone’s ability to be a good host. How is their body language? How comfortable to they make people? Do they make us laugh? That’s the most important thing. It’s not about their knowledge. It’s not about how much they know about the art history. It’s about how do they make the guests feel. Because that’s what we’re trying to do, right? We’re trying to make people comfortable and we’re trying to get them to warm up inside the space. So that’s really what we hire for first and foremost. And then we can teach them about the art. We can teach them about the museum… We hire folks that are really good with people.”

favorite tour
- night time tours at Metropolitan Museum of Art
my favorite museum experience
- things that involve interactivity
escape rooms
- they make you think and they incorporate themes
- concepts for escape the museum
- comparison to scavenger hunts
- getting people to work as teams
Ramit Sethi’s Forefront Event
- doing a Museum Hack speak easy tour
- the most impactful part of event is meeting like minded people
team building events
- customer asked if they could do holiday party for their company
- incorporating games, storytelling, and fun into events
feedback from events
- they are difficult yet rewarding
- holding his team to high standards
- Ramit’s standard levels and event space selection
- not always charging the lowest prices
  - creating premium experiences and spreading by word of mouth
day to day activities
- recruiting and hiring

35:34 “There’s three basic roles that a CEO has. A CEO does three things. Number one, you gotta keep money in the bank. You can never miss payroll. You gotta make sure that you always have cash. Number two, a CEO helps the team and builds the team. So whether it’s making a career path for your staff or recruiting new people, CEOs are all about the team. And number three, it’s the vision and the strategy, where the company is going.”

what he looks for in hires
- loves resourcefulness

36:37 “Figuring out like you did, people who have that curiosity, and people who are willing to troubleshoot and make failures, and I’m guessing the podcast hasn’t been perfect since day one, would that be a correct assumption?… That willingness to make mistakes and resourcefulness to figure things out. Those are two key things we look for.”

delegating tasks and finding someone who can do them
strategy and vision
- hiring for a sales manager
  - difficulty in choosing and what you need to look for
  - new cities/museums, how to work with them
- building relationships with museums
  - museums hire them to train their staff
  - doing tours and leading workshops for staff
- techniques for storytelling
  - dealing with ADD generation
  - short attention spans

41:18 “We’re dealing with an increasingly ADD generation. These are people that are like me that are on their phones every two or three minutes. I mean, it’s not just millenials. It’s people of all ages that have a short attention span, and we try to teach our museum friends ways to engage with that type of audience. Make it personal. Keep it fast. Don’t be afraid of smart phones. Encourage people to take selfies and pictures. Things like that.”

telling a better story
- cut it in half, don’t talk so long
three Gs

42:22 “The three Gs. These are the three things that makes Museum Hack completely different from most museum tours. Three Gs. Number one, guides. Number two, games. and number three gossip. So it’s the tour guides that are so engaging, that are actors and educators, and science teachers, and musicians who write their own tours who are so special. That’s the guides. The games means that the tours are so fast paced. They’re ultra fast paced. They’re two to three times as fast as most museum tours. And we also do selfie challenges. We takes shots of espresso or drink some wine. And then the gossip, that’s the juicy back story. The cool stuff about the art that we like to talk about.”

story from tour that stood out
- Picasso painting – someone fell through it
- guides feel audience and curate experience based on it
mistakes
- lack of communication or communicating better
- being clear in what he’s looking for

46:15 “Recently we had a big manager’s meeting setting the course and the strategy for the next year and when we let some of the employees know that we had had this meeting, many of them were very upset that they were not included, and they wanted to be a part of that discussion. They wanted a seat at the table. And we realized, wow, we really should have done a better job of communicating what we talked about, telling people ahead of time, taking the time to make people feel a part of the business. Instead of just this is coming down on high.”

if he wasn’t doing Museum Hack
feedback from museums and acting on feedback
- cater to a specific audience

48:42 “I’m not trying to make a product for the museum, right? I’m trying to get new visitors to come in. So that’s who I listen to. I listen to the visitors, and I’m obsessed with what they think.”

recent projects
- corporate projects
- Florida Museum of Natural History
  - scavenger hunt
- Corning Museum of Glass
- team went to Mexico for private tour
- LACMA in Los Angeles
  - contemporary art and influencors
marketing
- things that didn’t work
  - tried to work with hotel concierges
- social sharing has worked well
future of Museum Hack
- focusing on live experience and human connection
- experimenting with audio walks
if he had unlimited funds
- Sleep No More – immersive museum experience based on Shakespeare play
- would like museum experience with suprise characters, magical characters, surprises
favorite quotes
- “Hate the sword but love the samurai.” – quote from Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- “When you blend a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get a magical alchemy resulting in superior performance.” – Jim Collins
- “the hardest thing for me to learn was that the market does not care about effort or struggle, only output” – Sam Altman tweet
- commonalities among quotes: discipline, hard work, focus on execution
morning routine
- doesn’t use alarm clock, wakes up naturally
- water with salt/lemon
- before caffeine – eats eggs/spinach
- drinks green tea

- habits
  - standing desk
recommendations
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
  - business story of Nike
- Temple Grandin movie
creative people
- Josh Sperling
  - wood with canvas, bold colors/shapes
- Kaws – famous world-re-known artist
- being in touch with creative self
definition of creativity

1:00:49 “My definition of creativity is making something new.”

being more creative

1:00:56 “Recently I took a day entirely off. I took a free day where I didn’t look at any social media. I didn’t look at my email for 24 hours… and I had some new ideas. It was a very restorative process for me. I’m on social media all the time. So I think that process of clearing out a little bit of a cleanse was very helpful.”