The Mastery course is the first
course I will be undergoing during my time in the Masters program for
entertainment business at Full Sail University. I recently graduated from the
music business program and I am anxious to see what I can learn on this new
adventure. This course has entailed concepts about performance and I can relate
to this when it comes to practicing something. Being a musician I can say that
more than half of the talent it takes to play an instrument is the discipline
of practice.
After
this course, I will be entering executive leadership. From the description of
the course I hope to learn which leadership styles best suits me as a person.
After that, I go into project and team management where I will learn
organizational skills and project managing. In business storytelling and brand
development I can study how to best market my projects. Entertainment business
finance will teach me how to fund and manage businesses and projects.
Negotiations and deal-making will help me learn how to prepare to create deals
with other professionals. Product and artist management will teach me how to
handle scenarios in the industry. Advanced entertainment law will help me know
which legal action I can take should I ever need to. Entertainment media
publishing and distribution will show me how I can get a product into the hands
of the consumers. Digital marketing will give me the knowledge to create a
presence on the internet. Business plan development will show me how to create
a business plan and doing the research necessary for one. Final project will be
my opportunity to present my plan.
After reading through both books, I feel I have an
understanding of the thin line that separates the concepts from these books.
Maxwell’s insight into leadership differs from Green’s 48 Laws, but it is not
only about the differences, it also important to connect the similarities and
why they are still different. The underline theme in both of these books shares
the concept of leadership and success, the differences start at the approach
and agenda. Maxwell’s approach to leadership is all about personality; he
describes the state of mind that is required for setting out on a mission and
how everyone else’s state of mind may behave when faced with someone’s
leadership. Greene’s approach is more self-interest driven, which isn’t bad and
is justified with shining the light on everyone else’s self-interest. The
agenda is probably the biggest thing that separates the two: Greene’s being
self-fulfilling, Maxwell’s being about teamwork.
When I sit and reflect on these books I come to an indecision, and indecision
is a weakness I’ve learned in this course while learning from Greene and
Maxwell. In order to counter I have chosen I am both. I have enough of an
attitude to do what is necessary as Greene describes, but I do care for my
building interpersonal relationships, as Maxwell teaches. Because of this, if I
had to choose one over the other it would have to be Maxwell. In most
situations I would be more like a Maxwell leader, but each situation is
different, and if I had to become more like a Greene leader in order to move
forward then I would. In that sense, you could say I’m more of a Greene leader
using tactics and using different persona’s. I choose Maxwell based on how I
mostly act, and it’s something that I believe suits me better.
When
starting this course I had the idea this course may have been a focus on
projects and how to build them up. Now however, I realize this course was about
picking a project and building the people. More specifically, this course
helped me understand what is means to have a world filled with people of
different skills, background, and experience. Everyone has their own way of
thinking and in order to create success, you have create a successful team. In
order to accomplish this you need the right fit, and sometimes that may not
always go right the first time, but a process of trial and error is essential
in order to create anything. Even when the right people are put together,
you’ve only begun starting the development stage. From there, as a leader, you
have to lead by example and by understanding your team and what their needs
are.
By studying
the sixteen personality types I’ve only begin to scratch the surface of
learning the skills to lead others towards goals. I’ve also learned that
businesses are changing how they operate now, and conventional ways may not be
effective anymore. During the course, we had to take personality tests, and began
researching my own type which is the INTJ personality. The DISC assessment also
taught me I have a very dominant style personality trait. I’ve learned to
accept these traits about myself and also to be cautious of the weakness that
comes with these traits. With the skills and knowledge I’ve taken from this
course I will create my own project and assign roles to the people I have met
at Full Sail that are the right fit. Also, these skills can benefit me in daily
life as well as in any career I might find myself in.
This month made me think about how I might
want my project to be perceived by my audience. Not just that, but how I will
find my audience with what I choose in the visual appearance. Choosing color,
font style, and a logo is difficult when considering how it might be seen by
someone else. Everyone wants to have a successful product, but I’ve learned a
product for everyone is a product for no one. One
thing I’ve considered is what we as a team like as a collective, and what we
are trying to convey to those who might want to check us out. Within the group
we’ve talked about how we’d like to stay away from certain stereo types about
the visual appearance of our music. We decided on a retro look to hopefully
reflect our eclectic taste in music and how we try to incorporate that in what
we write. After learning about how I should create visual concepts, I thought
about how much work would need to get done down the line in order to create the
right imagery for our project. Our target market is something we’re only
beginning to understand as we start building this project. I’ve been given the
opportunity in this course to do a good amount of research who I want to sell
to, and how I want to sell to them. Creating an effective logo is still a
process we need to make decisions on. The idea is floating around but we’re
leaving it up to a real graphic artist to come up with a few concepts.
We’re slowly making progress with the art and visual aspect of the project. Our
branding goal for the project is creating something unique in metal and
hopefully make a living doing something that makes us happy.
These past
few months have been making me think about something abstract. When coming up
with a business model for my project, each class has taught me a different
skill. Starting this finance class will open my eyes to other aspects I
probably haven’t even thought of yet. But there is an underlining lesson I’ve
been learning: If you don’t do it yourself, no one will. It’s arbitrary, but
without an idea of what an ego is, it’d be hard to comprehend other points of
view. But having reasoning and having an ego in of itself is a conflict of
interest for the individual. Beyond target markets and demographics, from a
psychological point of view, the mind is almost wired a certain way to respond
and then consume based on the needs. We’re a species that thrives on
consumption and the ultimate goal of business is to consume the consumption.
I’m learning more about having an open mind about how things work, or even
don’t work. I’m anxious to see what concepts I’ll be researching for this new
course. With this, I’ll be able to put a relative figure on the expenditures
for the projects I would like to work on in the near future. In time I feel
I’ll have an understanding of what I will need to include if I were to set out
on a venture and what expenses I’ll will need to be aware of in the duration of
the project. Also, knowing more about economics and how our government works
with economics is important to understand if I don’t want to be taken by
surprise by something I could’ve know about. Business Finance isn’t my
strongest skill, but this will be a chance to strengthen it over the course of
this month.
This month
at Full Sail, I had the opportunity to take the Entertainment Business Finance
course and learn a bit about what it means to have the capital to complete or
progress in life whether it be professional or personal. I’ve also grown my
ability to pragmatically solve problems. As someone who has always lacked
confidence in my math skills, I’ve attained the confidence to find my way
around this and find the best solution rather than what can sometimes be seen
as the only solution. My first assumptions of this course were proven wrong and
I left this month with a newfound perspective on how I need to think in order
to solve problems. Although there were stumbles along the way, I was able
to complete the work and hopefully, this was enough. Other than the experience
of absorbing knowledge from a financial course, I was also able to relate to
with what I would like to do after Full Sail. I would like to take advantage of
the opportunities around me to lessen the burden of debt of my loans. I would
like to do volunteer work in a third world country country to gain a different
kind of education while helping others and using the government as a
resource financially to lessen my student loan debt for when I would come back.
The program is for a duration of 2 years so I am still considering the reality
of leaving the country for 2 years and where I would be going. I don’t have a
reason to not go, which what makes this decision all the more difficult of
having to leave everything I know behind. I still have the option of staying in
Orlando, and with my degree I’ll have other opportunity. I’ve learned though
it’s not about making the right choice, it’s about making the choice right.
This month I had the opportunity to learn new
concepts in the negotiation and deal making course. Although I’ve learned
skills for business purposes I feel I could take those skills into my personal
life. One of the main aspects of negotiations is handling other people’s
emotions as well as my own when discussing issues whether they be
inconsequential or significant. While it may seem like a simple idea, sometimes
it can be easy to forget how human we are and how basic it is to remember
underlying interests and relativity of importance to certain issues to certain
people of different backgrounds.
During this course I learned skills that
pertain this idea such as separating people from the problem; Which is learning
to identify why the dispute is happening rather than who it is happening to and
how we could use that to help different parties gain what there are look for.
I’ve also learned about the BATNA strategy in order to compromise if an
agreement cannot be met. Just these alone can easily be seen as aspects for
handling everyday issues. Another concept I felt was beneficial to study was
the game theory concept; The game theory concept was best explained to me by my
instructor using the example of driving. While driving, you have to make
decisions on where to go based upon others decisions on where they are going.
This entails changing lanes, speeding up, slowing down, or having to stop
completely. This concept taught me how pragmatic thinking can lead to an
abundance of solutions instead of just one. How there are rules to deal-making
and negotiation, but they are relative depending on the person, issue, and
situation. I’ve gained a new outlook and perspective on things since finishing
this course and am curious to see what else there is to be learned.
While in
Product and Artist Management, I was given the opportunity to study about the
‘how’ and ‘why’ aspect of selling. It can be a bit abstract, but what I got out
of it was creating that I have to be able to create the atmosphere rather than
show someone something. It’s the idea of involvement and exclusivity. The real
‘demographic’ is the people you can connect with, they aren’t a statistic. I
may be in a business program but I’m not going to think like a businessman for
the rest of my life. I know more about my product than anyone else, and the
reason why I want to continue to pursue its completion is solid. I feel others
would stand by me and help if they knew.
There is an
aspect to believing in something I haven’t quite figured out yet, but there’s
more to business than just telling someone they belong somewhere so they should
be associated with something they should spend money on. But realizing this has also made me realize
that the road I go down now is going to be very tricky. I only hope my convictions
out weigh my ambitions. I know where my product stands according to most
people: it’s loud, it’s angry, there’s screaming, the guitars are too fast, and
the drums are too fast. But it’s mine, and it’s the people’s too. It’s the
dysfunctional soundtrack to a dysfunctional society. I can market it that way
too, because it’s honest and people will like that. Personally, it’s my gift to
a friend who once believed in me. Hopefully I can find others who believe in
the product though, because the message is in there, not in a mandatory three
hundred word blog post few people take the time to read.
Advanced
Entertainment Law has opened up my eyes to the legal battles of our world.
Aside from technicalities and what goes on during litigation, there’s more to
this subject than fancy language and paperwork, it can cause real discussions
about ethics and principles with content like intellectual property. Although
our justice system may not be perfect; it is the only tool we have to protect
and fight those who may infringe or steal work. During this month I had the
opportunity to study about court cases involving artists protecting their work
to record labels protecting the work of an artist. This course introduced an
aspect of this industry that I acknowledged but overlooked for sometime.
My business
will need to secure multiple copyrights and publishing rights if we were to
continue and I now know how to go about attaining these items. In order to run
our studio and release albums we would also need to register a trademark for
our name and logo. As an artist myself I find it very important protect
original content. The artistic and business side of my company can do well, but
it means nothing if we can’t protect our products, business and/or artists from
lawsuits that affect everyone in the entertainment business. This course gave
me the knowledge to prevent avoidable legal cases with infringement or
publishing issues. From the case studies and research I was given examples of
what not to do in the industry as well as example of what needs to get done if
I want to guarantee my success and the success of my business. I know that the
albums that will be produced under my business will need to be protected by
multiple copyright registrations. Understanding how to go about this process is
one the most important steps.
I took a
publishing and a distribution course, respectively, during my undergrad at Full
Sail. Going into this class, I thought I had a good idea what it was about, but
I soon found that there were materials and information vital to the success of
my future plans in the music industry. Looking back, I had been working on
branding and content for a while. Currently artwork is in development as we
continue to work on the process of the project. With that said, going into this
course opened up my eyes to the customer’s point of view. Although each course
intertwines with each other, the focus changes from one side of the spectrum to
another, in this case it is Entertainment Media Distribution and Publishing.
Aside from
the essential skills I’ve learned, it was intriguing to learn about the history
of the topics and how they relate to the way the industry is undergoing a
change in business models and strategies; learning even more of the inner
workings of the entertainment industry. This course gave me ideas for how I
will build my content and how I will sell it. I was also given insight into
other forms of media through my peers as well as this course. There are certain
underlying fundamentals, both technical and creative, when producing your own
content whether it be music, a novel, or film. There is one fundamental
however, I find that is a reoccurring theme in both my life and my work, and
that is the story. Without the story, there is no feeling, and without feeling,
it would be difficult to understand why one should care. I care about what I
do, and I think that’s something. My audience or customer is the person that
enjoys the story from beginning to end.
There is a
certain level of faith when it comes to taking on projects. In reality, it
takes a certain level of faith to accomplish most if not all tasks. I speak of
faith apart from religious context. I’m speaking from a stand point of belief
and faith of the self. It’s easy to say or feel like you believe in yourself
but it takes more than that to express it. I would like to say it is courage,
and maybe it is, but I feel it’s always been a bit more abstract. I always
pondered how to measure the personal growth of a person. I realize the simplest
answer is time, but that entails years of memories, experiences, and emotions.
All these together make up a person but a person always inevitable has to act
in accordance to a reaction to the world they are presented to under a
perception based on environment. In short, everyone can be different and
similar at the same time. It can be difficult to believe in yourself if you
don’t know yourself.
After
looking at Seth Godin’s blog I noticed a post that caught my attention about
the subject of ‘believing in yourself’ He says instead “Do work you can believe
in.” That’s something I believe in. I would rather not think too much about
myself, it can occupy your time and waste lots of it. Instead I’m going to
think about my work, and what I enjoy. Part of me will wonder what I’m
perceived as but I don’t feel that it’s that important. My work will speak for
itself because I enjoy what I do. If this is truth to me then that’s all that
matters in the end. Time will measure growth and progress. Humans cannot
perceive the future or past. We can only perceive time going in one direction;
forward. So we have to live in the now and think about what kind of work we
want to do.
My goal for
this course was to increase my understanding of how to structure my business in
terms of employees, finances, and operations. The employees are structured
based on expertise and technical skills. I will have people managing their
specific departments which include a developer for our online platforms,
recording engineers, and marketing representatives. Our finances are coming
from out of pocket and investors among family and friends. Our operation will
largely focus on independent music to create an independent record label.
I was
fortunate to gain insight from Mr. Burhoe’s firsthand experience with
businesses. Through the reading, lectures and assignments I was able to put
things into concrete terms and numbers.
This month helped me think about selecting people that would assist me
and I could rely on. Currently I can say I have at least four people on board
who can handle the technical side of the company. I also was given the chance
to start thinking about the company will operate and make money, along with
where our budget will come from and how it will be spent in order to keeping
running. The idea of being as realistic
as possible comes to mind when considering what I’ve learned from this course
and the reading material.
The concepts from the course were relevant for my business
plan for my program at Full Sail
University. At I come towards the end of the program I can see how everything
I’ve been taught thus far will be connected towards my final business plan next
month. At this point I will be finalizing the pieces and reflecting on my time
here. After graduation I will see what resources are available to start up the
company, but the route of finding somewhere I can gain more experience will
always be open.
