The Journey
My Master’s journal at Full Sail University has been exactly that—a voyage of self-discovery and unearthed findings about my dreams to be an entrepreneur. The past twelve months have acted like a progressive chart in that each month helped me develop new skills and furthered my understanding of foundational business concepts. To be short, I’ve been an apprentice in training. With my suitcase full of tools, I’m ready to use my skills to bring the dreams to fruition.
Whether or not you are an entrepreneur, a current employee, or simply on a self-discovery journey of your own, the insight that I”m about to share may inspire you with fresh ideas.
So let’s get to it…
…the 12-month breakdown of my EBMS (i.e. Entertainment Business Masters of Science) program at Full Sail University.
Course 1: Mastery and Personal Development I like to think of this as “Point A”. We all have places and times in our lives when we mark the start of something new. This class was my origin. The month prior to this class involved one of my biggest life choices to date—the decision to leave the path of becoming a doctor and follow my earliest dreams of being an entrepreneur. A scary decision! Being a medical doctor is stable while starting up your own business involves huge risks, yet I was ready and excited for the challenge.
For me, the mastery course was a necessary beginning because the material helped to focus my thoughts in the right direction. In particular, Robert Greene’s book Mastery was extremely insightful in terms of the mindset of people and how to achieve success. I highly suggest listening to the audiobook or picking up a hard copy. Even if you don’t agree with Greene on every subject, the topics he discusses can help you handle confrontation and everyday life scenarios with a fresh outlook. Additional learning points for me in this course were setting up my business blog: www.sampsonblack.com and also starting this Tumblr blog.
Reflections and journaling have always been great learning tools for me because writing forces me to identify exactly “what” I have learned. As a big iMovie fan, making the Mastery Journey iMovie was definitely my favorite project from the class, and it helped me bring together my favorite topics from Greene’s book, Mastery, in additional to motivating me for the upcoming classes. In a way, the iMovie project helped me self-assess my life and how I went from taking an MCAT to being a Full Sail grad student.
My personal learning objectives were met in that I truly felt “inspired” to begin my coursework at Full Sail. I became familiar with the online platform, got to know other students, and familiarized myself with my new Mac Book computer—all of which were important for me to be successful in future courses.
Course 2: Executive Leadership Learning about different leadership styles and what it takes to have integrity helped me identify factors that I need to have in order to work as a team leader and to effectively make decisions that will benefit my project goals. Problem-solving, self-discipline, staff development, and investing in positive change were all topics that I enjoyed discussing in the Go-to-Training sessions as well as in the group discussion boards. The case assessments were helpful because I had to identify which leadership style was being used and had to come up with a solution to the problem. Like a practice leadership run, the scenarios forced me to think about real life situations.
In terms of my objectives for the course, I surpassed my goals in that John C. Maxwell’s 5 levels of leadership helped me see that I am a strong level 3 leader, but I have a long way to go before I can become a level 5 leader. Level 5 leaders are people that reach the world with their contributions and are highly respected for the efforts. I enjoy challenges that push me to work hard, so this course motivated me to prioritize my goals according the 80/20 rule (i.e. the Pareto Principle), which states that you should put 30% of your effort into your top 20% priorities to be effective. I challenge you to try it; it’s effective!
Course 3: Project Management and Team Building Dealing with teams means thinking of things that will benefit the group instead of benefiting an individual. Think “pro-team”! It sounds easy because we hear it so much, but in order to effectively bring positive results to a group project, you have to know your individual team members. This means knowing each person’s strengths and weaknesses. Once you know these factors, each person can be assigned tasks that fit in accordance with their area of expertise. It takes a lot of pre-knowledge about the members before a team manager can effectively delegate the work and collaborate with the team departments. Working with my class group helped me practice important details such as setting a timeline for jobs to be completed, having a group discussion, giving followup information, and having constant communication. The flow chart and conflict resolution was a great project for thinking about problem-solving and the order of steps that one should take when faced with a work dilemma. Characters in Teams—this assignment helped me identify strengths and weaknesses of potential colleagues and place them into a role based upon the project that I wanted to create. This was an impacting assignment because it put me in a real-life scenario where I would have to assess my colleagues skills in order to achieve project results.
From my objective list, I truly felt as though I learned how to effectively assess people’s personalities and skill levels. Understanding the different phases of the Project Management lifestyle—startup, plan, execute, close-out—helped me put together a timeline of phases that need to transpire when carrying out a project. Ultimately, this class helped me understand the total process of positive and effective collaboration.
Course 4: Storytelling and Brand Development A brand is more than a name! The impacting brand is one that offers a unique proposition that nobody else has, and the product or service is presented in a way that it offers the viewer a taste of the company’s culture. In other words, people will grow to like the product and the company as a unit because they can connect with the company’s story (i.e. the company’s brand identity). The Brand Audit and Entertainment Research Brief helped me assess the process that other companies use in portraying their brand’s message to customers. Collaboratively, these assignments helped me develop the framework for my own company plans because I was able to identify effective storytelling through visual aids, social platforms, and by reading company mission statements. Ultimately, writing my own brand positioning statement helped me identify factors that could make my company unique. Below is an image of the company logo that I created.
Objectively, I surpassed my goals in this course because I learned what it takes to develop a brand, but I also studied numerous other companies and analyzed their brand statements. Studying your competition or simply assessing the formula that others use to put a company or a project together is a wonderful tool because it helps break the big picture into small components. Looking at all of the pieces helped me see how they fit together as a whole. Upon finishing this class, I felt as though I truly understood the art of “telling a story” versus “selling a product”. The difference is this: storytelling entices customers to buy from you because they identify with your mission and “why” you exist whereas selling simply tells customers to “buy” from you.
Course 5: Financial Pro Forma Project! This is the one assignment that floods to my mind. While financial statements may seem tedious, boring, and a bit like drudgery to some folks, they are essential to a successful business! The financial course gave me a list of formulas that help determine the monetary stats and operations of a business such as calculations for Cost of Goods Sold, Net Profit, Break Even Point, ROI, and many others. Analyzing financial statements gave me confidence reading numerical reports. The class discussions helped me relate the information from the case studies to my personal business because the assignments helped me think about the factors I will need to assess when I determine my own company’s profitability and predict my break even point.
Financial Planning…look into your future!The Pro Forma Project was my number one objective filler. This project was all-encompassing and well worth the effort. Building on the project each week helped me break down the financial components into tangible pieces. I started the course hoping to gain a basic understanding of “what” a successful financial plan looked like. In other words, I wanted to know how I could look at a report and determine whether or not a business was operating in the red or black. I surpassed my expectations by building up a financial plan for my entire business via the Pro Forma Project. Mainly, I learned a great deal from this assignment because it forced me to use the course calculations, but it also helped me think about factors that I need to consider (e.g. amenities, insurance, licenses, phone bills, etc.) that also have to be factored into my business financial spreadsheets. If you are running a business, then you need to know how the financial operations work so you can determine if they are working effectively or negatively. The best advice I can give myself or anyone else is to routinely assess the figures, and make adjustments based on the data!
Course 6: Negotiation and Deal-Making I would relate this course to a stress management class just as much as a techniques class. Handling emotions in a negotiation can be tricky and at times stressful. Some people are really good at pushing all the right buttons that can send an individual into an emotional meltdown. Combating this type of emotional “edge” is all about knowing yourself, your topic, and if possible, some details about the other negotiator’s personality. Researching and having plans of action in place “before” you get to the negotiation will help you stand your ground when you feel backed into a corner and will help you in discussing the BATNA. Preparation will protect you against something you cannot do because you will have given yourself a “bottom line” as well as secondary plans of actions before you attend the negotiating meeting. Sticking to your pre-set plans is essential!
The “mock” negation in this course was very memorable and beneficial because it was the closest experience to a real life meeting session that a student could obtain from the classroom. The fact that my negotiator and I did not know one another’s pre-set plans helped me gain experience with preparing backup responses, secondary actions, a bottom line, and industry research. From an objective standpoint, I met my objectives by learning about different tactics that negotiators use in discussions. Hard and soft approaches can be effective at different times, depending on the person you are meeting with and the approach they give you in return. Through the worksheets, discussion boards, and the Research Case Study, I was able to pinpoint weak negotiation tactics and propose stronger tactics. Affiliation, showing appreciate for someone, and recognizing status—sometimes thinking about the other negotiator and mentioning their attributes in a positive way can start the discussion on the right foot because it shows them that you appreciate their work and their purpose. If there is one suggestion I can offer anyone in a negotiation situation it is this:
In other words, don’t get caught up in emotions and what you feel about the person. Instead, constantly assess the situation and make every word from your mouth reflect the topic your are discussing. Solutions, suggestions, and concerns should always be focused on the problem and never on the other negotiator.
Course 7: Product and Artist Management This course was a collaboration of the numerous foundational skills (e.g. leadership, team-building, finances, and negotiation tactics) that are necessary in order to drive positive business results. The Pitch Presentation about the manager helped me understand how a manager’s actions can develop an artist’s career. The manager/artist relationship is truly a partnership, means that both parties have to work as a cohesive unit in order reach a mutual understanding and make successful career choices. The SWOT Analysis and One Million Cups review were also insightful activities for me because they helped me identify tactics that need to be in place in order to be a successful entrepreneur. These tactics always come back to three categories:
If a manager knows the industry, competitors, and the strengths/weaknesses of his or her company, then the manager can tactfully conduct business that will bring positive results because the strengths will be highlighted and the weak areas will be avoided or protected from failure.
From my personal learning objectives, this class helped me in terms of self-analysis. Whenever I study other people, it forces me to look at myself and identify similar traits or things I should and should not do in order to be successful. Analyzing other’s work helps me see “how” effective operations can run and also how failures can begin. Ultimately, the observation is a helpful learning tool because I can develop a variety of skills to use in different situations based on the people involved. Flexibility and knowing the right tool to use at the right time are imperative because the action that is taken is the factor that will make or break a deal. Upon finishing this course, I felt confident in understanding how to handle the decision-making process, create positive goals, and develop future visions.
Course 8: Advanced Entertainment Law Contracts, amendments, revisions, and different legalities that pertain to an industry can be complex, but this course helped me grasp a solid foundation of the different contract components. Simply knowing “what” to look for in a contract and understanding “how” to interpret the information is a tremendous asset because it can protect my company from commitments that I may not agree with. The case law studies and contract reviews helped me familiarize myself with legal jargon, which was beneficial because it helped me gain confidence in approaching contract terms and conditions. Joy R. Butler’s book, The Permission Seeker’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle is a wonderful resource than can help a person gain basic understanding of legal terminology and liabilities. I particularly enjoyed the group discussions in this class because they gave me the opportunity to analyze a variety of court cases. By week 3 and 4, the legal terms were comfortable and my skills to interpret the cases went from basic to solid. Interpreting legal information is a skill that takes time to develop.
From this course, I wanted to understand contract terms and the overall process of legal registration, licensure, and basic terms to look for. I surpassed my goals in that the endorsement assignment and business registration worksheets helped me physically go through the registration process. Physically filling out the forms was beneficial for classroom understanding as well as future endeavors. Additionally, the industry expert review was a powerful presentation for me because it helped me locate helpful websites and legal information for the future. Having a library of resources, bookmarked for the future, will be an asset to the prosperity of my business.
Course 9: Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution Perhaps one of my favorite courses in my Full Sail experience, I enjoyed this class because it allowed students to be creative with the basic skills of the program as the foundation of the projects. The query letter and promotional media project were the most beneficial for me because I was able to use my creative skills combined with my business knowledge to formulate a presentation project. I chose to create a book, which is actually something that I am currently working on and hope to publish in the future. This class taught me how to approach agents and introduced me to effective writing styles that will capture an agent’s attention. The attention captivator is key! It was also helpful to analyze self-publishing and distribution methods that I can utilize in the future.
Objectively, I was thrilled with this course because I was able to create media that I will use in the near future when I contact agents to propose my book. Working on projects that you actually plan to pursue is encouraging because you can obtain instructor’s critiques and input prior to submitting your work to a professional. I was excited to learn about the royalties and overall distribution process of the publishing world. I wanted to gain knowledge of the overall operations of the industry, and I can confidently say that I met this expectation and more! Learning about the power of online distribution was also very helpful in giving me confidence about my future business plan.
Course 10: Digital Marketing The marketing material was a pleasant surprise! I was expecting to further my understanding of distribution methods, but I actually learned more about business growth. This was a tremendous positive because the topics in this class helped me understand how I can use different analytics tools to assess the progress of my business. Setting up Google Analytics was one way that I was able to practice the course topics in that the platform allows me to track the results of my current blog: www.sampsonblack.com. Observing my website’s statistics from a first-hand perspective helped me relate the class material (e.g. SEO optimization, mobile and interactive advertising, social media campaigns, etc.) in a real life situation. Additionally, putting together the marketing canvas and full marketing plan concept were extremely valuable activities because they helped form the basis of my business plan. Staring with small pieces of information helped me brainstorm about my brand, overall business concept, products, and company mission. Developing the media and backing the concept with marketing plans and text was a beneficial way to help me write a “rough draft” for my business plan. These projects really helped me determine the unique traits of my future company in addition to helping me put together powerful marketing methods and analytic processes.
In terms of my course objectives, I met my expectations in a different and better way than I originally anticipated. I learned more about tracking progress from campaigns and how to use analytic tools than I did about putting media together. For me, this was positive! Understanding the promotion process and how to track progress and determine success is essential because it will help a business decide what factors were and were not successful. In the future, the company can push more toward the successful campaign factors and revamp the less successful campaigns so they can work more effectively. Knowing how to analyze your system is one of the first steps toward having a successful campaign because it takes constant evaluation and flexibility to make sure the campaign is working to grow the business!
Course 11: Business Plan Development I like to think of this class as the writer’s “rough draft”. Writing the different chapters of my business over 4 weeks helped me manage the task by breaking up the work into manageable portions instead of one daunting task. Working out the financials was easier this time around because I had experience with the information from the Pro Forma Project in Course #5. Personally, I gained a lot of helpful information from the Go-to-Training sessions because the instructor outlined the written business plan requirements in detail. The instructor’s weekly comments were a powerful learning tool because his feedback pertained specifically to my business plan. This helped me assess my initial draft so that I could revise it to make it more powerful for the future. Having an expert’s advice gave me confidence to move forward for the next course.
From my initial objectives, I’m happy to report that my expectations were met. Actually, I ended the course with more confidence than I originally anticipated, and I accomplished more of the plan that I initially expected. Writing the differentiation assignment helped me put together all of the skills that I have been developing since my very first class at Full Sail. It was an enjoyable assignment for me because I could feel my knowledge coming forward based upon the variety of different classes and instructors that I’ve had. In a sense, this assignment helped me pull everything together, which helped me recall the different pieces of information that I’d learned over the previous months. It’s encouraging to look back at your progress and see how far you’ve come in obtaining the information that you need to move forward!
Course 12: Final Project: Business Plan The course of all courses! This final project course has been the completion to my Master’s study at Full Sail and the final piece that I need in order to finish my business plan project. Building upon all former classes that I’ve taken, the course material has truly been a collaboration of everything that I have learned so far. Through putting together my final written plan, I’ve been able to see my business concept reach a final stage. Additionally, creating my elevator pitch helped me put my business concept into a short 1-minute summary that I can use for future presentations or in conversation and e-mails. It’s always good to physically state your company concept and operations in a concise manner so that it can be explained in a clear and concise manner. Answering the question, “what do you do?” can be more difficult than people anticipate. The elevator pitch helped me answer this questions effectively. This biggest learning factor came in the business plan presentation assignment. This project took everything from the written plan and elevator pitch into a visual and verbal project that could be presented to future investors and partners. It’s was tremendously helpful to learn about the investor and presentation process from the Go-to-Training archives because the information helped me understand “what” investors are looking for when they are presentation.
Objectively, this class was a reflection of my entire Full Sail experience. The discussion boards helped me further my understanding of the investment process, helpful websites, and leadership styles. I was pleased to meet my goal of completing my formal business plan and was surprised at the confidence I felt when bringing everything together. In the Mastery course, I admittedly had a bit of angst whenever I thought about the final course, but the tools that I learned along the way gave me complete confidence in putting my plan together. Now that I have the knowledge I need, I feel passionate and excited to put my business plan into real life action. Writing the executive summary for my plan was almost therapeutic in the sense that it helped me draw everything together into a condensed overview of my ideas. It gave my plan focus, which gave me confidence.