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And this part of the journey is complete!

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Month 12: Public Relations Final Project and Thesis

I can’t believe I’m graduating and have earned my Public Relations Master’s Degree. I have learned so much! It’s been an intense year and I couldn’t be happier. My original goal for this month was to use my newly acquire skills to create a successful, real-world public relations campaign. I’ve accomplished that for my client SPARS. When I set this goal, I could barely comprehend what it required. Now, my perspective has completely changed. I am proficient in many social media and marketing tools and strategies. This was never about a grade for me. It was about empowerment, growth and tools.

My second goal was to sharpen my time management skills and I have accomplished that. In my early life, I was a procrastinator. That simply wasn’t an option for this degree program and the amount of work required. This program taught me to schedule projects by planning small attainable goals and I will apply this technique to many more areas in my life. As I look at my final thesis paper I’m so proud knowing I created it step by step.

This academic journey has benefited me in so many ways. Observing my reactions to new challenges and deadlines has made me self-aware of my creative process and behavior. It’s taught me to have faith in myself and to trust the learning process. Psychologically, this experience has opened me up to new stress management methods. In addition, I can now relate to Full Sail University’s students and graduates on a deeper level with patience and empathy and support colleagues who are just embarking on their own degree programs.

My client is very happy with the work I’ve produced for them and I’ve also secured a freelance public relations job running the media room for the IBEX Convention in Tampa this September. I’m committed to continually learning and growing and I’m inspired to stay on Lynda.com and expand my knowledge.

I want to thank the faculty of Full Sail University, The Society of Professional Audio Recording Services, my family, and friends for their support. This has been a true testament to Lao Tzu’s quote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We can all accomplish anything we set our minds to. Sometimes taking that first step is the hardest part!

#fsmasters workhard dreambig takeastep learnandgrowalways

Month 11: The Online Media Room

My initial goal for the Online Media Room class was to learn how to create a meaningful, strong and consistent web presence. I wanted to be able to produce effective corporate communication pieces using my asset creation and web design skills. Honestly, when I started this degree I wasn’t even sure what these skills required and now I can do it! On a personal level, I will always rely on sites such as WIX or Squarespace. On a professional level, I’ll be able to intelligently communicate ideas about design, content marketing, user experience and style with colleagues or vendors I work with.

Creating the capstone video snapshot was challenging. This assignment combined technical and creative skills. Recording the narration was a life lesson in patience all on its own. Learning how to create and deliver an effective presentation is important to me and will be very useful in my career. I’ve had the opportunity to watch many colleagues’ presentations and I’m inspired to challenge myself to grow in this particular area.

I’ve also realized this month that my passion lies in content creation and design. The tools available for this are abundant and intuitive. Creating SPARS’ Online Media Room was incredibly rewarding. I enjoyed combining content to create a brand experience mindful of voice, tone and style. I enjoyed thinking about fonts, color palates and layout. Finally, learning how to create a social media press release expanded my public relations abilities even further.

With the exception of another classmate leaving our cohort, I loved this month! Now, it’s up to my classmate Jennymar Torres and I to support each other through the last month of the program and graduation. We’ve inspired each other through our required assignments and critiques. Our relationship has shown me that it is truly possible to bond through online education.

Month 12- Here I Come!

#learnandgrowalways #PRMasters #fullsailuniversity

Month 10: Reputation Management Strategies

I can’t believe it’s the end of month ten! It was an extremely busy month at work and it's been challenging. To be honest, this course was more complex than I had anticipated. I’ve learned so much and was even inspired to take a closer look at my writing skills.

My favorite assignment in this course was expanding my media contact list. This task required me to step outside the media market I’m familiar with and research national and local breaking news outlets. It required research and reaching out for help. Fortunately, my childhood friend, Amy Riemer, is Principal and Founder of Riemer Communications. She was generous with her time and shared some of her industry insight and experiences with me. I suddenly remembered the story of when she was managing press relations for the 2014 Food Safety Annual Summit where hundreds of attendees got food poisoning! Can you imagine handling that? I now have an even higher respect for her skills and we had a good laugh reminiscing while incorporating my new perspective. I also enjoyed learning about identity verses image in corporate branding and communication. Contemplating perception is always fascinating to me.

As a public relations professional, the most valuable skill I’ve learned is the ability to craft an effective crisis communication plan. I've learned about the components of a good plan and important items to consider for the future. The message that was most impactful on me was the importance of creating an open dialogue with your audience. I’ve learned that effective social media communication is about audience engagement and conversation. Creating great content is important but not enough to achieve engagement.

I will be a more well-rounded public relations strategist because of the knowledge I’ve acquired this month. I am now able to examine situations for potential negative consequences and intelligently discuss crisis management. I am able to recommend online reputation management strategies and resources. I can talk about constituent groups, stakeholders, and address how each requires customized messaging for a local or national media market. It’s been a rewarding class!

Month 11- Here I Come!

#fullsailuniversity #prmasters #learnandgrowalways

Month 9: Events Marketing and Production

My initial goal for this month was to learn how to plan, promote and execute a successful event. I feel I’ve definitely accomplished that. This month was exciting particularly because of the new technical skills I’ve acquired. I created my first educational webinar using Keynote and learned new slide design concepts. I also used the Go to Training platform for the first time as a presenter and created new multimedia pages for my website. Not being a digital native, I’m extremely pleased with my progress. Learning about crowdfunding and how to launch a successful fundraising campaign was also very useful. These skills are so valuable and I’m looking forward to using them in the future to help others.

What’s really affected me this month is the realization that technology is making content delivery and presentation fairly easy and cost-effective. For example, I used a site called Proposify to create an event proposal for a SPARS event at the 2017 AES Convention. This event is a three-hour networking mixer open to students and aspiring engineers at Avatar Studios in New York City. Proposify was easy to use, easy to share and looked extremely professional. The concept I keep returning to is that technology is creating tools that are getting faster, easier and more intuitive every day. However, coming up with an idea or creating content is still a creative process. Our unique human perspectives, creativity and thought processes are still extremely valuable.

My classmates have been so supportive and we’ve really bonded. Their work has inspired me and I love the fact that we can all receive an assignment and express our thoughts in completely different creative ways. I found this month empowering and I’m excited about the future.

Month 10 –Here I Come!

#learnandgrowalways #PRMasters #fullsailuniversity

Month 8: Media Relations

What an incredible month! The foundation of Full Sail University’s Hall of Fame Week is passion, talent and connection and it was a perfect complement to my Media Relations class. I was really looking forward to Media Relations because I am passionate about this area of public relations and it allowed me to use some of my real-world connections. It’s taken me many years to build my professional network including my media contacts and looking at the lists I created for class the best part is I consider most of these names my friends. Relationship building and connecting with people has always been my passion. I’ve stayed connected with people in the media because I care about them and not because I’ve needed something from them. It’s gratifying to know they will take my call, help me out and support SPARS when needed.

My original goal for this class was to understand the structure of the media community and to learn how to effectively identify and engage with its key players. I feel I have accomplished that goal through our coursework which helped me discover my strengths and weaknesses. While I am strong working with traditional media and trade publications I also need to develop more contacts in the consumer market and blogging community. My second goal was to manage my professional contacts so our assignment to create a clean Excel spreadsheet not only satisfied this goal but also satisfied my self-study plan to create a contact data base.

It was a pleasure to work with my classmates this month. Their work inspired me and I received quality feedback and ideas from them. Our teacher, Ms. Lee, was clear, inspiring and very communicative during this hectic month. Overall this was an incredibly gratifying month!

Month 9 - Here I Come!

#learnandgrowalways #prmasters #fullsailuniversity

Month 7: Market Research and Consumer Analysis

What a month! My goals for this class were lofty. I wanted to learn how to identify target markets through research and analysis and determine the most effective tools and communication methods to reach them. I also wanted to learn how to develop metrics, collect data and analyze results.

It’s been a running theme in my degree that I’ve only scratched the surface. I can study each subject this month for years on its own and work full-time keeping up with the technology. However, the exposure to each facet of marketing, learning the language and tools and being introduced to the important elements of each topic has been invaluable.

My capstone project is well on its way. It’s brought the SPARS Board of Directors closer together and forced us to look at some hard facts. Using SPARS as my subject has allowed me to take new educational concepts and immediately apply them to a brand that I care about.

The online tools available to help create and understand content are incredible. I conducted research both primary and secondary research, designed infographics, performed a SWOT analysis, created a promotional video and designed a narrated keynote presentation. All of this in one month! Writing reports, conducting market research, analyzing data and identifying the SPARS customer persona was challenging. Although the primary research findings were not surprising, they were a clear sign SPARS needs to examine its mission. In order to grow successfully SPARS must find ways to engage with its intended audience or change direction and serve the audience which now exists.

On a personal level pursuing this degree has taught me far more than just the art of Public Relations. It’s required commitment, discipline, sacrifice and taught me to say yes before I say no. I saw a great graphic on LinkedIn that showed the creative process. It charted all the thoughts from “I’m terrible and can’t do this” to “This is amazing and I’m fantastic” and everything in between. I’m still trying to figure out how much stress is healthy and necessary and what I can let go of. I’ve learned so much. It’s a process.

Month 8- Here I Come!

#learnandgrowalways #PRMasters #fullsailuniversity

SPARS “Do You Need an Audio Mentor?”

Happy to donate my time to mentor aspiring audio pros!

#spars #audiomentor #audioeducation #protools #audiohelp #giveback

Month 6: Social Media Metrics and ROI

This month has been challenging to say the least. Having never been exposed to analytics I knew I’d have a lot to learn. For years, I’ve been faced with trying to find metrics to quantify the value of relationship building and PR. Reflecting on my original goals, this month has covered them all. I certainly haven’t mastered analytics but I am now aware of the many tools available and how to use them. My desired skill was to gain the ability to collect and analyze data to support ideas, goals and performance. I’m also taking Google Analytics Essential Training on Lynda.com which I had picked as a tool for self-study. In today’s data-driven business environment it has become even more important to report on public relations metrics and ROI. The value of goodwill, relationship building and awareness will always be more difficult to measure than revenue, however, with analytic tools provided by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google it has become easier to quantify results. Google Analytics is fascinating and multi-layered. This month brought visions in my head of armies of marketing professionals analyzing consumer activity and strategizing how to sell to the population. Business Intelligence and Big Data are big money careers. I don’t plan on working in these areas but as my professor astutely pointed out to me I do want to be able to communicate with these professionals and be a part of their teams. Data is data unless you can look at the numbers and interpret the story they are telling. I enjoyed learning about key performance indicators and the importance of crafting a strategic social marketing plan. Social Media offers many ways to reach your target market and today’s easy access to data analyzing your audience and their behaviors is both incredible and a little frightening. Discovering these intuitive and accessible tools has been rewarding and these metrics have proven to me that analytics knowledge is power. If I have the discipline and intelligence to look at these reports and act upon the deciphered information my ability to run a successful PR campaign will increase greatly. I find this exciting!

Happy Holidays and after a two-week break…

Month 7-Here I Come!

#learnandgrowalways #publicrelationsmasters #fullsailuniversity

Month 5: Innovative Public Relations Tools and Resources

Once again, I truly can’t believe I’m writing this journal post as I’m wrapping up month five of my master’s degree journey. Innovative Public Relations Tools and Resources was the month I’d been dreaming about. It was challenging, enlightening and pushed me into areas I knew I wanted and needed to go. This month I created blogs posts, app ideas, web content, personal brand videos and a Facebook business page. The technology and social media platforms that I had shied away from in the past have now become integral tools for me. I’ve used Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Later, Hootsuite, LinkedIn, Evernote, Snapchat, Google+ and more. It’s been truly remarkable to watch my website grow with content and a new blog. Reflecting on my original goals for this class, I’m shocked to find that I’ve actually surpassed them! I’ve learned how to use more social media platforms and tools than I knew existed and I’ve created more content than I had anticipated. It’s true what they say about a journey of a million miles starting with one step. Often, I try to talk with students about how experiences that are unknown to us seem to have an almost mythical quality. This can occur when observing others’ accomplishments or learning about professional networks that we are not yet a part of. This month that concept really hit home for me. Now I’m blogging, have a website and am creating a personal brand. When I look at the work, it seems like someone else’s but it’s mine! This month has inspired me to do the work and take things one step at time. I’m pursuing this degree to grow and learn. There’s no end game. There’s no “there” there. It’s the experience of overcoming self-doubt and fear and breaking new ground.

Month 6 – Here I Come!

#learnandgrow #prmasters #socialnetworking #fullsailuniversity

Watch my new video on the importance of connection!

#career development #networking #mentor #fullsailuniversity #pr #entertainment media

Month 4: Legal Aspects of Media

I can’t believe I’m completing month four of my master’s degree journey. Legal Aspects of Media was a challenging month mixed with business travel and Hurricane Matthew. My favorite assignment was crafting my publication. It was fulfilling to apply what I’m learning to actual events that are occurring in my life. In this case, I attended the 2016 AES Convention and organized a volunteer mentoring session for audio professionals. There’s something about writing about the event and publishing an article with pictures that made this accomplishment feel more tangible. What has been most valuable for me is learning about copyright law and the guidelines for using content and images when publishing. It’s so easy to grab a photo or use background music to enhance a piece but the ramifications are serious. I wanted to learn about licensing and how to legally obtain content and what I’ve learned is invaluable. I’m not likely to defame someone, however, I might have used an image or two improperly. Exploring the First Amendment and other legislation to consider when publishing has equipped me for the future and warned me of possible mistakes that could lead to litigation. While I in no way have a law degree, I can now identify potential issues. Thinking about my rights and responsibilities as a writer is important. This course definitely met my expectations and pushed me. The material was presented in a way that was accessible and manageable to comprehend. Reading case briefs, creating narrated Keynote presentations and writing case studies are all fairly new to me and I enjoyed the challenge. The combination of studying academics while learning new technology has been challenging, frustrating and exciting. Overcoming obstacles and acquiring new skills motivated me to enter this degree program and I have not been disappointed.

Month 5 - Here I Come!

SPARS Mentors volunteering their time to help the audio pros of tomorrow at the 2016 AES Convention. Honored to work with these people!

#spars #mentor #payitforward #aes

Honored to be among these women audio pros at the 2016 AES Convention!

#soundgirls

Traveled to Belfast, Ireland to visit the set of Game of Thrones! Here’s my colleague, Rick Ramsey, on the iron throne. Thank you alumni Stephen Beres for an incredible experience!

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