Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection
Business Plan Development
The Business Plan Development portion of the program began the culmination of all information learned during my experience at Full Sail. This course allowed be to begin drafting my business plan for a live event production company. The pre-development of the business plan allowed me to complete the actual business plan with much more ease than what I had anticipated.
Digital marketing is a course I had to retake during the program. During the Mastery portion of this program, I was asked to declare my goals relating to this course, Digital Marketing. My initial goal was to create a digital plan that could be used across several digital mediums. My plan in creating my company’s digital strategy would include visiting www.adage.com, related TED Talks and Seth Godin’s marketing blogs. I have been familiar with Godin’s marketing techniques through his books and blog but I had never explored digital marketing until this course.
The coursework and textbook introduced me to the various methods used to track and analyze web content. Much of the content published to the Internet is tracked by a group of keywords; these keywords are described as long tail or short tail. Long tail keywords contain a greater number of descriptive words, often similar to the title or main idea and yield more accurate search results. Short tail key words are typically no more than groups of three keywords that may help you find more closely related content to original content. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools are used to drive traffic towards particular sites and content when a search is performed using these keywords, both short and long tail.
I am retaking this course and upon a second look, I am learning new things relating to digital marketing. The course study of social media and its use in digital marketing also have reinforced lessons taught in previous branding courses. As social media impressions are measured do to mentions of a specific username or hash tag, it is important to brand yourself and your business uniquely. Analyzing the use of a term such as ‘tidal’ on social media will yield many different content results along with a neutral sentiment. Using a more targeted search term such as ‘Tidal Music’ will yield more brand specific results, impressions and sentiments. Using the term ‘Tidal music’ as the search term will yield information about the music service as well as related content found around the Internet.
The inclusion or exclusion of a few words or terms can make all the difference when analyzing a digital footprint. Skills learned during this course have given me a greater understanding of the role of digital marketing in a company’s overall marketing campaign. I will take the information gathered in this course to better market myself as a professional and to market my future business. Digital marketing and the internet provides an abundance of new opportunities, individuals and companies must be willing to learn new platforms and audit the platforms to see if it’s the right fit for their audience.
Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution
Upon starting the program at Full Sail, I had decided that publishing is a aspect of the entertainment business I would like to explore professionally. The course taught me the duties of a media publisher though assignments such as writing a query letter. I expected to learn more about music publishing in relation to a digital platform as well as current events and concerns surrounding publishing and distribution.
The course helped me to explore the policies of publishers such as TuneCore and Createspace. There are many services that are contributing to the digital music environment helping artists to distribute their craft throughout the world. This course has helped me to realize there is so much more to publishing and distribution.
Advanced Entertainment Law
Prior to starting the course, I set the objective of evaluating popular contracts that are used within the recording industry. I was interested in the increasingly popular 360 Recording Deals as well as recording contracts issued by independent labels. Interest in neither topic directly aligns with my business plan of opening an event production company but I was curious due to the changes within the music industry. I was also interested in examining copyright issues surrounding digital distribution of intellectual property. Copyrights and trademarks are the protections for content creators that allow them to monetize their crafts and creativity.
During the course, I learned to identify the legal liabilities that my event production company may be subject to as well as ways to reduce the risks and protect myself as an individual as well my business. The course also introduced me to valuable websites such as caselaw.findlaw.com. This website allows me to research the decisions of cases in many courts that may be pertinent to my business directly or indirectly. During the course, we also completed exercises registering trademarks and registering a business with the Secretary of State. The trademark exercise showed how simple it is to apply for trademark registration with the US Trademark office.
Product and Artist Management
My original goals for the course included researching artist managers such as Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber) and Troy Carter (Lady Gaga’s former manager), instead I had the opportunity to learn more about Sharon Osbourne’s management career. Sharon Osbourne is responsible for her husband Ozzy Osbourne’s solo career after he left his group Black Sabbath. She saw the potential for Ozzy as a solo artist and took the necessary risks to cultivate him as an artist. Sharon also has managed several rock-n-roll acts including her daughter as well as represented her family landing the hit MTV reality show, The Osbournes.
This course has helped me to think critically about things I can do to better manage my current career path as well as help determine if I would be interested in artist management. Although my business plan involves live show promotion and production, talent management is an integral component of the promotion business. Although promoters are not artist managers, they deal with many artists, managers as well as work on behalf of an artist to increase ticket sales. The product and artist management was among one of the most enjoyable and informative subject matter courses in the program.
Negotiation and Deal-Making
Negotiations take place when making simple decisions such as where to go for a family dinner. Individuals present their choices to an opposing group or individual along with their opinion and facts about why this place should be chosen over another. Our course material, Beyond Reason and Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, introduced several elements needed to prepare for a successful negotiation. One that particularly stood out to me was the process of creating a BATNA or Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. A BATNA is the course of action a party will take in the event they are unable to come up with an amenable agreement with the other party. In terms of business, the BATNA can result in a relationship that no longer exists or operates at a diminished capacity. The BATNA can also provide provisions for business to carry on as usual until the negotiation can be revisited.
The art of a negotiation is used in everyday life and not just in business setting. Negotiations can take place internally within an individual or organization as well as among multiple parties. Preparing an argument with the wealth of information as support allows you to craft the negotiation and play towards the best possible outcome. When both parties agree about the reason, they are entering into a negotiation/agreement, the chances of settling on mutual terms increases. The purpose of a negotiation is to explore all options to find the terms that would best suit all involved.
Entertainment Business Finance
Prior to beginning the course, Entertainment Business Finance was one of the courses I was most nervous about in terms of my success. Finance is one of the components of business that can scare away many potential entrepreneurs. This course helped me to better understand some of the requirements needed for successful business funding and use of funds.
The course helped me figure out how to forecast business financials. The chosen textbooks for this course, Entrepreneurial Finance and Rich Dad Poor Dad taught me a great deal about finances, personal and business, that I had not previously understood. The in-depth explanations and analysis of different financial concepts in Entrepreneurial Finance helped me to understand how companies make financial decisions. With decisions involving investments and capital, there are formulas to help business owners to make the most fiscally responsible decision. Rich Dad Poor Dad presented many personal finance concepts that will lend to me becoming a better businesswoman. As an entrepreneur, it is important to have your personal finances in order so that you will be able to cover our personal responsibilities such as a mortgage and loan payments.
Business Storytelling & Brand Development
The main idea behind this course was to teach students how to tell the story of his or her business. Branding is a concept that receives much attention in business but not many understands all components of branding a business. The most important component of branding is the art of business storytelling. Completing exercises essential to the brand development of my business has helped me to understand the importance of business storytelling in creating a compelling brand around a company and product/service. Impactful exercises included conducting a brand audit on industry leaders, AEG Live and Live Nation. I also learned a great deal studying the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. The Laws included concepts such as The Law of Publicity, The Law of Quality and the Law of Borders. Using these laws has helped me to evaluate the direction in which I’d like to take the branding of my business.
The Law of Quality will be one of the most important aspect of branding I can bring to my business. As a live event production company, it will be important that I offer quality services into an already crowded marketplace. Customers and artists will be able to trust that I will produce quality events. The Law of Consistency will also be an important element to incorporate into my branding strategy. It is important that the events I produce are consistent in quality, innovation and good business practices.
Project and Team Management
Project and team management allowed me to further examine my leadership ability. Leading a team or managing a product requires leadership even if one individual solely handles the project. The course was also effective in teaching effective methods for managing a team of people. A major part of being able to manage a team depends on an individual’s ability to work with and understand others. Great project managers and team leaders must be able to motivate members of their team to do that best work at a pace that is respective of deadlines. Motivation comes easier when managers are able to assign proper work assignments due to each team member’s skill set and personality.
Project managers should also be able to foresee all of the tasks that come with a project and allot the proper amount of time to finish each task and the project in its entirety. Successful project managers also have to account for the costs of completing a project. Project and team management are skills that are greatly sought after in any industry but are especially important in entertainment industry where there are many moving components to all projects.
The executive leadership course at Full Sail helped me to discover the type of leader I am so that I am able to improve my leadership skills by knowing which weaknesses should be targeted. The course text Developing the Leader Within You and 48 Laws of Power giving two different approaches to leadership.
As my career progresses, I would like to use my influence to get others in entertainment to use their gifts and talents to serve the community. Service to my community has always been important to me and I believe that an individual can be of service in more ways than just the traditional sense. Entertainers have a reach of influence that transcends beyond the entertainment industry touching politics, consumer goods and several other industries. I hope to use my professional influence to serve my community along with inspiring others to do the same.
Mastery: Personal Development and Leadership
The Mastery course was the first course in the Entertainment Business program at Full Sail. The goal of the course was to introduce students to the goal of the program: mastery. The purpose of the program is to master skills that will allow alums to be successful as professionals and entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry.
The Mastery course prepared me for the duration of the program by introducing me to the Full Sail online educational environment. During the course, I was able to establish that I would keep for the majority of the program with weekly Go-To Sessions, discussion posts and other assignments. I was also able to boost me professional online presence by creating blogs at cheyannewoodyard.blogspot.com and cheyannewoodyard.tumblr.com and reestablishing my twitter presence at @CheyanneJade.
