Master Thy Self & BE

This is a journal of my journey to self-mastery obtaining a Masters of Science degree, pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Psychology, owning a company (Aeonian Legacy), and managing a not-for-profit entity.

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My main original goal for this course was to narrow down my future thesis in preparation for a doctoral journey.  I also wanted to make sure I identified our venture pivot in our business model and to clearly identify our return of investment points for potential funding sources.  

These goals were met by the compilation of a final presentation project for this degree plan.  This presentation required a deep review of all coursework taken throughout this program. The constant requirement that I be able to address “why” I am pursuing this venture helped bring my hypothesis regarding entrepreneurship in minority communities in to clearer view.  

The explainer video, business feasibility video, elevator pitch, and marketing video required in this course all helped this process by forcing me to look at data deeper than my own ideals or vantage point. The thesis and my business “why” became more than numbers and percentages, it began to speak from my heart versus my head. One would think the best ideas about potential content to defend in thesis and dissertation would come from cold hard facts.  I have come to believe; these topics are best found from die hard curiosity and an unyielding desire for answers and solutions to things that pain our society. I want to know why the black community does not produce more than 5.9% of the total small businesses in the United States and why 70% of all small business do not remain in existence beyond their 5 year of business.  

In this final course I was stretched beyond my comfort zone.  I am accustomed to speaking to investors, peers, clients and others from the aspect of our corporate heart.  I can speak to the passion of our “why” and to the need for a resolution easily.  However, to do so from the place of logic and numbers is not my strength.  My business partner and I usually tag team presentations such as this.  This course, in particular, taught me how to incorporate the passion and heart behind our “why” with the logic of our company structure and model.  

The future use of what I learned are applicable in many areas of life.  The final presentation is a product I can tweak, update and reuse when presenting to various audiences.  That is the most obvious take-away.  And yet, there are several non-tangible lessons learned as well.  This course taught me how to incorporate both heart and data in my conversations about this venture.  This course also assisted me in overcoming my feelings of inadequacy due to my speech impediment.   Overall, the wrap up and culmination of this degree path provided the much needed re-set for my business venture.

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1.    What your original goal was for this course.

Upon entry in to the Entrepreneurship and Innovation degree program at Full Sail University I was asked to establish goals of learning for our course content.  My final course was the Business Model Implementation and Management course of which my goal was to garner information from the total degree course offering to develop a solid business model for my venture, Aeonian Legacy Management and Consulting Group.

My venture had already begun prior to my enrollment in this degree program therefore I also hoped to utilize my learning to evaluate existing aspects of this venture and make necessary adjustments or changes based on the things I have learned throughout this course.  

Finally, I had hoped to develop relationships with other students in different degree paths maximize the strengths of the community in areas I am weak, such as social media management, graphic design and videography.

2.   How the goal was met by the course.

This course along with the previous courses helped me identify needed pivots in my company structure such as redefining my target market. This course also helped me create material to better communicate our mission and vision to our market and potential investors.  The program overall highlighted areas where our financial model was not profitable and how we could make changes to reverse our current profit and loss trend.

3.   What you learned from this course.

This course helped me identify my leadership style while also providing valuable information on how to interact with other leadership styles that are different than my preferred method.  Seeking to be a transformational leader via an authoritative leadership style requires the ability to interact with and lead all types of leaders.

This course also helped me establish a continuous process improvement plan for my company.  This process also feeds in to our sustainability plans and successor plans as well.  More importantly, this course helped me to better identify metrics of which to measure success and improvements.  I also now have the ability to create metrics to identify potential new service offerings my market might need and/or want.

4.    How you will apply the material learned in the course personally or professionally.

The lessons learned with be applied immediately in our plans for seeking funding for a new project in 2020.  We will re-visit our mission and vision to clearly define that project. We will create our metrics early to ensure we meet benchmarks and identify where we might need to adjust our model.  And I will better be able to select a team that works well with my leadership style to maximize our strengths versus getting stuck on our differences.

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This course met the expectations derived at the beginning of our degree journey.  When identifying industry standards for healthy working conditions the information provided discussed things such as methods that provoke creative thought and how open spaces promote collaboration among co-workers.

We discovered how materials matter when selecting furniture and colors schemes.  This course brought to light things often overlooked when thinking of workspace needs.  We typically think of technology and equipment needs to ensure employees can complete tasks.  However, we rarely think about the desk area layout of where this equipment will sit or stand.  We rarely think about how often employees need breaks and how the flexibility to work from anywhere might promote their ability to complete tasks readily and fluidly.  

We also discovered how to update home offices and maximize shared work spaces.  And while many of us might be a one-man shop for a long time it is never too early to begin to think about or plan for or growth and scale.  Rather we participate in an incubator program or an accelerator program or if we take it one day at a time how we work and where we work helps create our creative process and outcomes.

This information will be utilized to in the future of Aeonian Legacy as we prepare to break ground in our premier co-working space in 2020. Legacy House – Orlando will combine the concepts of incubators and accelerators programs with a AirBnB twist; providing not only our clients with perks but also our independent consultants from a wholistic vantage point.

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My journey in the Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs class formatted the marketing strategy for the pivot of Aeonian Legacy in our target market and marketing campaigns.

My original expectation was to develop a branding strategy for Aeonian Legacy based on our original concept of being a business for existing small businesses and would be entrepreneurs in the African American community.  During my course studies with Full Sail our company target market has been refined to the creative entrepreneurs within underserved communities.  These individuals do not only reside in the African American community but also the socially shunned communities such as the LGBTQ and homeless community or other minority communities such as the Hispanic or immigrant communities. 

This course helped me develop a new branding concept that does not require a complete re-branding strategy.  It also required research to determine where we would maximize entry in the conversation with our target market.

This conversation shapes our image and how we are perceived by our market, our community, our peers and our competitors.  Whereas our ultimate goal is to be recognized as the premier company delivering services that assist entrepreneurs in a holistic manner (Mind, Body, Business, Family, and Community), we better understand how we must address each aspect strategically and systemically in order to be successful.

Overall, this course met my expectations.  Where I did not expect to have a pivot introduced to our company culture and model, I believe the course helped me identify revenue generating opportunities while assisting me to defer unnecessary expenses.  

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I was asked to identify what I hoped to gain from my participation in the entrepreneurial finance course long before I knew what to expect from the course work.  I anticipated this course to discuss all of the pitfalls entrepreneurs face when establishing a new venture.  I also expected to be faced with finance information presented in methods that overwhelmed me while attempting to identify financial issues and barriers in start-ups and methods to mitigate financial risks for my venture.

Now that I have completed the course, I can say it was a tremendous experience.  The information presented was done in a manner that neither overwhelmed me nor was centric to supply chain management or sustainability as like previous finance courses I have taken.  The information was relevant to my position and company make-up as an entrepreneur. And the instructor provided priceless information to assist in my continued journey.

The financial issue I identified as most challenging was the projected profit and loss statements.  This course highlighted the intense need to research and investigate our market in order to develop a projected anything in finance as it pertains to business.

I further identified that it is ok to take a smaller salary as the visionary and founder of my company in order to increase my profit margins.  Also, while this course forced me to revisit a poor investment made in our second year of business, doing so helped me identify better methods of identifying sound business investments.  This will assist our company in our overall budget and planning.

Business ownership and entrepreneurship is a financial risk however, proper research and planning will help anyone considering this journey be prepared prior to taking the leap of faith and sustaining in the free-fall.

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Legal issues are a part of life in EVERY dynamic of life; from birth to death and everything in between.  I told my children there were 4 constants in life (Life, Death, Change and Litigation).

The goals I hoped to accomplish while taking the Legal Issues for Entrepreneurs course at Full Sail University where;

1.    To identify the most prevalent legal issues faced by entrepreneurs

2.    To discover methods to mitigate and reduce legal risks for my company

3.    To establish a legal budget for my company based on the current fees charged by legal representatives.

I met these goals by being presented with course work which required me to apply to attention to research regarding Intellectual Property, Contract Law, and Social Media Identity cases.  This course also enabled me to identify more specific areas I needed to concentrate as it pertained to my business structure legally; such as, what does becoming a Limited Liability Company mean to my members.

I learned the importance of observing the legal structure of my competitors and how to explore options to litigation.  Mitigation is better than defense in the case of litigation.  Being able to avoid injury is the goal.  Being transparent in operations while maintaining a company culture of compliance, integrity and ethics is our implementation strategy.  

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Upon completion of my first course at Full Sail University they provided a list of courses I would be taking in my degree path.  The object of that exercise was for me to “guess” what my outcomes of learning would be or to better explain, the intent was that I give myself goals to obtain in learning.  The following was my reply to what I hoped to learn, “This course will help me refine and greater develop my business model and plan in an effort to establish clear, concise, feasible, realistic and obtainable goals, courses of actions and business structure.”

The goals I set for myself while learning are listed in the picture above.  I realize now there will never be a “final” business model for our company.  One of the greatest assets for scale and longevity is the ability to pivot, adapt and change; least you become another Blockbuster.  We have determined what our business model will be for 2019.

Consumer requirements conflicting with our company culture was a huge eye-opener when trying to decide how to provide services to a person or group that does not present an image we do not want to be associated with.  There is a saying in the game of dominoes, “All money is not good money,” and learning how to make good decisions in this area was a challenge.  We had to review our company culture and code of ethics and review what each meant to ensure we did not violate either for the sake of revenue.

During this course I also spent time trying to think outside of my little box.  I brought in a team of diverse people, from diverse industries to assist me in locating possible cross industry entry opportunities.  As a result of this activity, our company is now being pursued as a publication ad management team.  This provides an additional revenue stream but more importantly to our team, it provides a platform for us to further assist our clients in obtaining brand awareness.

Previously my favorite course was Creativity and Innovation, I think Business Model Development just unseated the champion to date.

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Walking in to this course I was prepared to have my business venture stripped to nothingness.  Wait, is that a word?  What I discovered instead is while the business concept is a worthy cause it is not a feasible viable financial venture as it stands today.  In order to make this venture viable we need to pivot our intended market to a smaller sub-set and better identify what service we offer.  It is great to want to give everyone a 5-course meal but perhaps our specialty is the drink and salad.

My goal on identifying ways to rebrand the concept of competitive forces was not actioned as I became more engulfed on understanding and shaping who we are as a company.  I need to identify that information before I can step in to the branding conversation.  One goal remains, a priority to display and that is to dismantle the ideal that entrepreneurs within the African American community cannot and do not support each other because we are so busy competing with each other.

As we dig deeper in to who we truly are and want to be as a company our financial goals, requirements and resources shift as we pivot.  Whereas we were once focused on giving we must now also focus on recovering or return of investments to ensure we can continue giving long term.  We must identify our investment in our company greater than we identify investment in our clients.  Our budget must include our branding and marketing plans as we do not specialize in the technology to produce content for these purposes.  We must invest in venue and event spaces to host consistent and regular meeting to build brand awareness.  We must invest in memberships and partnerships with entities that will increase brand awareness and provide useful resources.

Overall, with the proper adjustments this idea is a feasible journey, but we must be willing to pivot and pursue different ideals to accomplish the goal.

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Oh the joys of Product Design and Development.

This course has been rewarding through its challenges.  The conversation around product development is severely skewed to consider products of technology or items that can be “built.”  The conversation for products in the service industry are ambiguous or they merely state, “these concepts can also be applied to products of service.”  

It is this statement that forced me to dig deeper in search of the “how” to apply topics like an Minimum Viable Product and iteration to the service industry.  As such I have begun the development of a new strategy for product delivery to my market.  I had to get a group of people together to help me brainstorm how to cross-level the course information and thus they have become my “think tank” cohort.

Yet perhaps the one goal I feel I rendered the most accomplishment is the review of “case studies” or material of product design as it pertains to the service industry.  I was supposed to be looking for anomalies in information regarding my market and instead gained a new venture intent.  Since I could not find a great deal of information regarding service product development, I will create what I need and hopefully help someone else in the future.

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When reviewing the course content prior to taking the course I was all a buzz about actually developing research tools.  I somehow thought that in a master’s level course the requirement to teach students the validity and importance of conducting research took place in undergraduate level courses.  I expected to learn the “how to” of research methods versus the “why to.”  

However; the course tutorial methods did help me accomplish my goal of identifying methods and tools to adequately research business opportunities.  While demanding that I complete research goals as it pertained to why research is important I also gained access to tools to help me research opportunities which interest me.

The tools offered by the Full Sail library such as Lexus Nexus and EBSCO host proved extremely helpful.  Getting stuck and not being able to locate exactly what I was looking for inside the library resources force me to research other research tools such as Hoover and Gartner.  It also helped me find out if a particular artificial intelligence company could provide data I needed.  

I learned to test my services in my chosen market(s) and to plan for regular and consistent information queries throughout that market.  I successfully connected to an international entity in the field of which I also provide services. I also successfully completed a survey of my market regarding sponsorship vs. product purchase.

Jointly connected the lessons learned in this course will be utilized to complete a product offering for our clients at Aeonian Legacy Management and Consulting Group.  It will also be utilized as lecture points for upcoming conferences with entrepreneurs and S.T.E.A2.M advocates (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Agriculture and Math).  The research methods will be utilized in ongoing research and development of tools, services and platforms for current and potential clients to our Co-op.

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Creativity and Innovation; are they one and the same? When I reviewed the course description of this course I expected to learn:

Ø  How technology impacts markets

Ø  Strategies for a clean, lean start up business

Ø  Strategies to identify products and/or services valued by markets

How I planned to accomplish this learning was to:

Ø  Identify technology tools used in the market I desire to expand and learn the basic “how to” for utilization and why my market (consumers and providers) use this tool.

Ø  Read in entirety “The Lean Start Up” by Eric Ries

Ø  Identify tools to spark conversation with my target market audiences.

What I have learned:

Ø  Creativity and Innovation are NOT one and the same.  They do however fuel one another.  

Ø  My DNA of an innovator leans more towards a developer.  There are times when I am high in innovator characteristics and other times I am high in executor characteristics.  Understanding the situation will help identify who I will be.

Ø  Innovation stages and types; leaving me to ask, “How will I accomplish all stages and types with Aeonian Legacy?”

Ø  The Design Thinking theory process for empathetic business practices driving innovation and creativity.

 Ultimately this course reinforced my desire to be a company focused in social development and community empowerment.  Our tag lines are Together We Rise and Bigger Than Me.  Our desire is to add meaning and leave a legacy of excellence.  The theory of Design Thinking with an emphasis on empathy sparks conversation at our round table about what is needed versus what we want to give.  The recurring concept of acceptance of failure, because failure happens, but training ourselves to fail forward and fail fast drives us to “try” and “try” again. One of the main take-away tidbits of wisdom for myself personally was the step in Design Thinking that states “Iterate Relentlessly.”

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If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there...

Lewis Carrol

The things we may not have been taught while reading nursery rhymes or watching Walt Disney movies.

Alice and Wonderland

https://philosiblog.com/2011/07/13/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going/

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The Mastery Journey embedded in 12 Courses

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No matter what your age, the ocean of your life is full of ripples and waves of opportunities.  Take a moment to gaze upon each one then dive in and go for them all.

This is a photograph of one of my granddaughters sitting at the riverfront in Nashville, TN.  During our visit to the river we talked about how she felt, what she was thinking, what she thought she wanted to be.  As we were about to leave she looked to me and asked, “So Granny, life is kind of like the water and I have to learn to swim?”

My children and grandchildren inspire me daily.

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The professional platform of LinkedIn provides the value of developing a network with other like minded professional while also exposing professionals and businesses to your expertise and skill set.

My LinkedIn Profile is:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

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Remember to ALWAYS celebrate the JoyS of Life.  I use a tree as a reminder that my purpose in life is growth and development, not only for self but also for others.  If I could I would etch the word “Purpose” in the soil of the tree because a seed planted in purpose grows with branches strong enough to hold the weight of others as they swing.