Drumroll please…enter stage left “The Finale”!
I have finally made it to The Finale of my Mastery Journey in studying Entertainment Business Management. The last twelve months have been something of amazement to me as I reflect over my initial goals entering the program and my ending accomplishments.
Personal Development & Leadership
My goal for this course was to establish an online presence and find my focus for mastery. I started out with various mediums such as LinkedIn, a Blog, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. In the end I found myself more drawn to the ease and artist community of Tumblr. Tumblr was a better fit for me because it didn’t include the noise of the other sites, I could relate more to the artists found here, and most importantly it was very easy to use.
Creatively I felt that I was off to a great start and had a lot of excitement. I searched through the library resources available through Full Sail to learn more about Leadership. Afterwards, I dove into studying Robert Greene’s strategies for Mastery.
As I continued studying Robert Greene, into my executive leadership course, I had three goals. The first was to develop executive leadership qualities. The second was to learn methods for making effective decisions. The third was to learn how to manage relationships to achieve business goals.
In this course I learned that the key to being a good leader was to have a good attitude. According to John C. Maxwell, our attitudes are the extra pluses in life that makes the difference in leading others. Additionally, I learned how to apply the six stages of attitude change to avoid the wrong frame of thought and from being discouraged to ultimately improve the development of my leadership skills.
Project & Team Management
It wasn’t until I reached my Project & Team Management course that I began to formulate ideas about what it was that I wanted to do in the entertainment industry. Initially I had all kinds of reservations to the idea of “project & team” being contained in the same class, as I had plenty of bad previous experiences with projects and teams failing or not working together effectively. To my surprise, this course not only addressed those issues but taught me how to turn them around positively.
The most enjoyable factor of this course was the fact that I had creative freedom to express my thoughts free of the usual and generally mundane research paper requirements. To portray my industry research on Authenticity, Crowdfunding, Project Launch, and Agents, Managers, and Publicists I created a comic, using Marvel’s “Create your own comic book”, to tell a visually interesting story about what I learned.
Business Storytelling & Brand Development
At my core I am truly a storyteller. I love all things fantasy and adventure, and most importantly the art of telling a story. In Business Storytelling & Brand Development, I learned how successful businesses create, inspire, support, and embrace the ways to engage customers in immersive experiences through their brand and storytelling from Derrick Dave in the “Brand Identity Defined”.
The most influential business brand that I studied was Apple, Inc. Personally and professionally I’ve had a relationship with this brand since it was first introduced to me as a child in grade school playing Oregon Trail. As I grew into the more creative aspects of my previous work history, I found that a Mac, Final Cut, and at the very least an iPhone were going to be major tools for my success. So it was only fitting that I dive deeper into the study of this brand to learn why it was so successful at accomplishing such loyalty, encouraging excitement, and establishing “stay power” within its industry, so that I could gain perspective on how to apply such qualities to my future business.
Entertainment Business Finance
One of the most important courses in my program of study was Entertainment Business Finance. Prior to this program, I came from a background in Economics and Finance. I knew that the success of any business rests on the effective management of its finances. In the world of entertainment, this couldn’t be more true.
In this class we learned more about the effects of Opportunity Costs in the decisions we make everyday. Additionally we discussed important financial concepts such as TVM (time value of money), crowdfunding, vertical and horizontal analysis, and Proforma analysis.
Negotiation & Deal-Making
Have you ever heard of BATNA? I never had before Negotiation & Deal-Making. BATNA is the acronym for “best alternative to a negotiated agreement”. Why is this important? Well if you’re in the business of negotiation or find yourself in the position of making a deal you’ll want to avoid positional bargaining tactics (aka haggling) and need this in order to arrive at the best deal possible for the parties involved.
I had the opportunity of interviewing Ron Ackins, an Illustrator / Graphic Designer of an American-based comic company to gain industry insight from his negotiating experience. From his perspective haggling in the industry is kind of a dishonest sport and makes him hesitant to want to do business. Which makes sense as such practices tend to frustrate, delay and even breakdown trust during the deal making process and should definitely be avoided.
Project & Artist Management
One of the most important concepts that I learned from Project and Artist Management was to make sure that the manager and artist are properly fit for each other. Having an artist / manager mismatched can lead to a world of tumultuous failures as neither will be able to work effectively together. Maintaining creativity, open communication, and a commonly shared focused is important for both to have, so much so that if they don’t the partnership should immediately be re-evaluated.
Also I learned that when it comes time for your main artist or product to part ways, that it is important for a manager to have a backup plan. Having a plan to reinvent your business was key to the success of managers like Scott Siman who was known for managing artists such as Tim McGraw, Dixie Chicks, Julianne Hough, and Hot Apple Pie.
Advanced Entertainment Law
During the Advanced Entertainment Law course I learned about current industry liability trends effecting the industry and how to deal with them. Though at first it may have seemed that to deal with issues of use of likeness, privacy, and copyright, that all one needed to do was simply get approval. However after a deeper review I learned that there was much more than approval that was needed, more specifically a microscope!
I learned that it is extremely important to do your research and cover your steps when obtaining agreements and approvals that seemingly allow you to use a likeness or even copyright that involves another person. The person providing you that approval may or may not have full access to the likeness or copyright, thus you may end up paying significant fines or finding yourself at a loss when it comes to using them. Additionally, various states have different ruling when it comes to privacy and the “artist use” of another person’s privacy. It is important to be aware of these things in case you find yourself and your family being put on display in an art exhibit without your direct consent.
Entertainment Media Publishing & Distribution
Thanks to the internet and digital media, new barriers of entry have been opened in the world of Publishing & Distribution. At this time, the independent or even student entertainment producer now has more options available to obtaining self-distribution. PODs (print-on-demand) are becoming the way of the future for accessing big retailers such as iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix for release.
During this class I learned about the important role these company’s play in the collection of publishing royalties, sales revenues, and even placements with larger projects. The most important thing when choosing a POD, is to be conscience of the fees involved and whether or not the services available will fit your project’s distribution needs. Additionally, I also learned that some of these company’s have exclusive agreements, so if you’re looking to use more than one for services it is important to be aware as to whether or not there will be a conflict of interest.
Digital Marketing was another valuable course that taught me the important skill of market planning and strategy development. I learned the importance of SEO marketing and helpful digital media and social media tools to generate interest in products and services. I utilized various case studies to gain perspective on different marketing strategies and measure their effectiveness.
At first glance the information seemed overwhelming, but as I began to work through the material I found this it to be absolutely valuable. For instance, one of my classmates posted a link to Sajeel Quershi’s article “What Digital Marketing Tools to Use and When” that helped me to better understand how tools like Infographics and Marketing Automation work and how they can help you better prepare your marketing strategy. Which, is something to think about when considering how best to reach your target audience.
Business Plan Development
Bringing everything full circle was the Business Plan Development course. In this course I began to structure the details into each of the important sections of my business plan. Drawing on everything that I learned from each of the previous courses I was able to formulate a plan that I could actually use to start an entertainment business.
By having invested time into working on each of the individual sections previously, it made the research for my plan flow much smoother and allowed for my creativity to shine through. I learned how to measure the strengths and weaknesses of my plan and build strategies to enhance or improve them. The most effective portion of the plan was the development of the financials which in the end is the “make it or break it” factor for most startups and existing businesses.
Of my final project “The Business Plan” I am happy to proudly say that I have accomplished what I feel is an effective business plan to launch an entertainment business specializing in children’s entertainment. I have solid financials and sales projections, have conducted thorough market research, and am ready to reach out to perspective investors.
One of the most important aspects of this final course was the development of the elevator pitch. Being able to effectively and quickly deliver the “meat and potatoes” of who your company is, what it does, why its important, and how its going to do it is something that can determine how far you’ll get with a perspective investor. Knowing how not only to present yourself but also how to sell yourself is key in any industry and is a skill that I have very well accomplished.
