Ann’s background

Communications:
Years of reading The New Yorker and The New York Times help any reader appreciate good writing and great editing. As a businesswoman (content areas: real estate, pro audio, digital entertainment), I’ve written B2B websites, startup business plans, proposals for government contracts, and marketing documents. No matter the nature of the document, I imagine E.B. White at my shoulder, “Omit needless words; do not overwrite; do not overstate.”

I’ve augmented my real-world writing and editing experience with classes in proofreading and copy-editing from one of Boulder’s best instructors. I continue to hone my craft with coaching from other pros and plenty of practice.

Examples
You can easily view my most public work:
airshowmastering.com
Airshow is a pro audio services company I founded with David Glasser nearly 40 years ago. In 1998, we built our first website, for which I wrote every word. The current custom WordPress site is our fifth iteration—all from the fabulous Michael Signorella—with most content written by me; others’ contributions were copyedited and proofread by me. Read my white papers under “Resources” and my blog posts under “News.”

bouldermountainhandmade.com
I’m an active leader in my volunteer fire department auxiliary, which raises funds to enhance public safety and firefighter resources, primarily through an annual art/craft/bake sale. 2014 marked the event’s first foray outside of the fire district, with a B2C website—now in its third iteration— to support it. I wrote every word, uploaded every image, and managed our web designers.

Digital rights:
We founded Festivalink.net as a live download service focused on roots Americana music festivals, and built a catalog of over 200+ performances and over 2,000 tracks in seven years. I wrote business agreements for recording, sale, and distribution, and figured out procedures and practices for tracking sales and paying artists and publishers. What I learned running Festivalink is valuable to independent artists and songwriters trying to wrangle their repertoire in the digital music space, using manual systems I created that are scaled to their smaller repertoires.

Bookkeeping:
Debbie Merino helped me set up Airshow’s and Festivalink’s first set of books, using MYOB. Since then she has coached me through transitions to Quickbooks for Mac, Quickbooks Desktop for PC, and finally Quickbooks Online. I’ve helped Debbie’s retail clients in their daily bookkeeping, learning from her how to wring the most from the ubiquitous QB platform.

More background:
I grew up in suburban Chicago and went to college in St. Paul (Urban studies, Macalester). In my 20’s, I went to work for National Public Radio at network HQ in Washington, DC. I sold residential real estate for small builders in northern Virginia. I joined the family business when we moved Airshow to Boulder, building new studios and serving as the first studio manager. I continue to manage Airshow’s finances and digital marketing.