Ann Daly Arts Consulting LLC:
“The Successful Artist” E-letter
Sign up to receive Ann Daly's monthly e-letter, written to support and inspire your success as an artist.
Update Your Press Kit
If you want to actively shape your brand, add a mini-interview to your press kit. Here’s how to do it. read more
Microfinancing
Here’s an innovative idea from Jane Hirshberg of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. It’s a microfinancing scheme for dancers and choreographers. read more
How to Live Creatively
Here is my list of recommended books to help sustain your creative life. Take your cue from artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Virginia Woolf. read more
Get Clear & Get Going!
How can you stay focused on what matters most, when there are so many distractions and urgent items on the “to do” list? Learn how in five simple (but I didn’t say easy) steps. Here is an excerpt from my new book, CLARITY: How to Accomplish What Matters Most. read more
Leadership Development
What does it mean to be a leader? I recently gave a speech, “Finding the Leader in You,” to a women’s business conference. I also spent several days with a think tank on arts leadership sponsored by the Americans for the Arts. Those experiences have got me to thinking. If you want to be a leader, here are my top ten pieces of advice. read more
Involving Youth
A new report calls for the cultural sector to recruit and retain youth ages 16 to 30. If we are to attract the best and the brightest into the arts, then we need to do three things, two of them easy and one of them perennially elusive. read more
Strategic Planning
Even though the point of strategic planning is to “look in the direction you’re going,” we are all too tempted, like Lot, to turn backward. It’s a challenge to let go of the situation we know, love, and enjoy comfortably. But if we don’t, we risk destroying it. read more
Career Coaching
According to a new report, 77% of early- and mid-career arts and culture professionals plan to leave their positions within five years. The reasons? A lack of career advancement and training. When asked what would remedy the problem, the majority of respondents suggested personal coaching. read more
Book Recommendations
Tony Forman (Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee) was so eager to share with me the title of his current favorite when we last talked that I decided to collect book recommendations from a number of arts leaders. Here’s what people are reading. read more
Media Planning
As you design your media plan, keep in mind that it’s not all about you. Here are the four fundamentals you need to keep in mind in order to make a successful article pitch. read more
Managing Change
The times, they are a-changing. And it’s a great time for artists to prepare to make their own changes. Here are three things you can do today to ensure your success tomorrow. read more
Creative Class
As drivers of the creative economy, let’s stop talking about support and staring talking about incentive packages. Here are the kinds of incentives that cities and towns can provide for the creative class. read more
Audience Development
This new book on audience development aims to help us “engage, educate and activate (primarily, but not exclusively) audiences of color.” It challenges us to address the larger question: How can we devise cooperative initiatives for audience development? read more
Measuring Impact
The “new philanthropists” are ready to invest heavily in the non-profit sector. In return, they want to see a demonstrable return on that investment. How do you articulate your impact? read more
Rules of Audience Engagement
Even arts lovers want to have fun! And I’ve been having lots of it lately. Here are three rules of audience engagement for appealing to people’s basic drive to socialize. read more
The Secrets of Their Success
Delfos took a gamble moving away from Mexico City to a remote coastal town. The gamble paid off. Looking back, the artistic director shares her core principles for success. read more
Paying Attention
Making change doesn’t need to be so difficult. The better part of changing unwanted habits, beliefs, and thoughts is simply observing them. read more
Lessons from the Botanical World
A trip to the Ladybird Wildflower Center inspires a few questions about where you are and where you want to go. read more
Lessons from Ellen DeGeneres
All you really need to know about audience development you can learn from “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” And what’s you’ll learn is that it’s all about the viewer. read more
What’s a Mission Statement?
It’s all so confusing … There’s a vision statement, a positioning statement, a mission statement. What’s the diff? Let me sort it out for you. read more
Successful Artists
What did I do on summer vacation? I read books by artists and about artists. I chatted with a dancer-turned-funder. I visited the studios of apparently very successful artists. read more
Ambition: Dirty Word or Final Word?
I’m on a campaign to bring back ambition. Not the Icarus-Enron-Lady Macbeth type of ambition, but the Mother Teresa-Jackson Pollock-Bill Clinton type of ambition. read more
Limiting Beliefs
Sad but true. We’re usually our own worst enemies. Artists, too, can be sabotaged by their own limiting beliefs. Here are the top three limiting beliefs I’ve heard recently from artists. read more
What Makes a Successful Artist?
It’s time for spring cleaning, so let’s toss out old ideas about who we are and what we do. For artists, that means asking: “What does it mean to be an artist?” And furthermore: “What does it mean to be a successful artist?” read more