Raymond Wade (CEO)

So here we are at the end of another step in my life and career; a master’s degree in business science from Full Sail University. I must admit that while it was tough managing my time between school, work, and being a single father, I am very proud of the work I put into this program and the resulting feedback I’ve received.

I’ve been involved in various aspects of the entertainment industry for a number of years; however, there was still much in the industry that I hadn’t been exposed to and I was sure that this program would help remove those barriers, and I was right.

When I came into the program, I expected it to be intensive and fast paced since it is an accelerated program, but it was also informative and engaging. The instructors are all experts in their fields, and it was exciting to learn from their experience. The assignments were setup to accurately mimic real-world examples and the scenarios we were given seemed very realistic. It was a pleasure and joy to learn the material this way and I was able to easily relate to the situations.

The courses covered every aspect of the entertainment industry including marketing, publishing, distribution, legal and financial, and finally building a business plan. Everything I needed to help ensure my career in this industry is a successful one.

It’s going to be exciting to see where I go from here. Will I continue working in film, or perhaps get back into talent management? Maybe I’ll get my transmedia company off the ground. Either way, I now believe that my options are limitless at this point thanks to this program and I can go forward with the confidence that I not only know what I’m doing, but I have reputable credentials to back up my words.

If a bank or an investor where to say to you; “Describe how you plan to use our investment to make us a profit”, how would you go about showing them your plan? Simple, build a business plan.

A business plan is just as the name implies . . . It is a formal written-out plan for a business. It describes who you are, what you do, how you do it, where and how much money is spent and how the profit is going to be made. This class was to help us start the process of building our business plan.

We constructed the elevator pitch, which is a brief statement about who you are and what you do. This should be no more than 45 seconds to a minute, and it must be succinct. This is designed to get your proverbial “foot in the door”. The elevator pitch is to be the quickest way to state as much as you can to get a prospective customer or investor’s interest in your venture without boring them with too much detail. If the prospective person takes an interest in the elevator pitch, they may ask for a business plan. This means they want to know the details.

The business plan can be as brief or complex as you may like it to be but be mindful of the person who will be reading the plan and be sure that it has all the details they might want.

The person reading the business plan will most assuredly want to know who manages the company, what daily operations are like, and what’s involved in the company’s marketing strategy, but they may not be familiar with the industry, so they may also want to know what the industry is and how the industry is doing overall. For instance, if you were going to invest in a restaurant, you would probably want to know how other restaurants like the proposed one are doing in the target area.

Publishing and Distribution is such a vast subject. It includes everything from turning an idea into a tangible item, to getting that item to the consumer, and everything in-between. Throughout my career I’ve been exposed to many aspects of publishing and distributing multimedia in some form or another and I wasn’t sure how much new information I would learn in this class because of my experience in the industry. However, after having taken the class, I realize that there is more to publishing and distribution than I knew when it comes to traditional models of music and books.

While I am familiar with publishing and distributing digital multimedia online, I wasn’t extremely knowledgeable about the old traditional publishing model of music and books. I knew how this media was produced and I knew what channels were involved in the distribution, but I wasn’t aware of some of the finer details of its distribution.

I’ve been more involved with video games and movies through the years and only recently got into music and book publishing. Publishing and distributing media have changed so much over the last few years with so many self-publishing options available online. Even self-distributing films and video games has gotten easier thanks to the availability of these services.

YouTube has only become the platform it is because it allows easy distribution of video media for everyone with access. This means a person can shoot and edit a video on their mobile phone, then upload it to YouTube for others to see, and generate a livable income from the revenue generated by the media.

Advanced Entertainment Law was one of the classes I was looking forward to most. I knew we would cover Intellectual Property like Trademarks and Copyright, and I also figured we would discuss contract terms and the importance of having everything legally protected, but this class provided me with so much more.

We examined existing liability cases in the entertainment industry and discussed how we can use their experience to minimize our own liabilities. I really enjoyed this and decided to dig deep with my research for the final paper.

I was familiar with some of the cases that were a part of my research, but I never released just how many productions had severe accidents on their film sets. I read about cast and crew members who were either killed or seriously injured by things like planes, trains and automobiles and I read stories about people being impaled, burned, or bludgeoned all in an effort to bring us the entertainment we ask for.

Granted, today’s filmmaking is nowhere near as dangerous as it used to be thanks to technology like Computer Generated Images (CGI) and 3-Dimensional modeling, but when audiences ask for more and more realism, filmmakers will take more and more risks to provide that realism.

With the invention of better cameras and display screens, it can get difficult to present the realism that audiences ask for without putting people at risk. There is only so much realism that can be presented with computers; however, every possible option to mitigate the chance of injuries should remain a high priority in the industry.

So, another class done in this master’s degree. This class was called Product and Artist Management. It focused on things like target audience and introduced the class to the concept of narrowcasting, which is simply narrowing down your target so that you can focus on providing the best product possible for that niche. It’s a concept that I’m not unfamiliar with thanks to my experience in this industry, but It’s kind of difficult to narrowcast your audience when you’re a transmedia company.

See, our company features a world of characters and stories, and some of those stories might fit into a specific demographic while others might not. Midian Entertainment will have fans that cross medium, genres, and even cross platforms. We can’t limit our “Deadeye” audience to just people who like sci-fi books because next year he might appear in a film or a video game. The next adventure he goes on might not be in a location of science fiction, it might take place in the old west.

I can concede to the idea that we will be able to use demographics and such things as a general guideline; however, when you blur the lines of multimedia . . . you’re also kind of naturally blending the lines of everything that goes along with it as well. We believe that is one thing that will set Midian Entertainment apart from the competition. We are viewing our audience on a grand scale while still acknowledging and making use of the narrowcasting of our target audience.

I wasn’t sure what I was personally going to learn in this class, since I have been negotiating deals for a little while; however, the class seemed to go pretty much how I expected it to and I was completely comfortable with the material and lessons.

I have found that while I understand what bargaining position means, I seem to have a little bit of an issue trying to explain what the bargaining position is in any given negotiation. I don’t think it’s going to be important for me to be able to explain what the bargaining position is to a third party after I finish this degree, as long as I can personally identify what each person’s bargaining position is when I am involved in a negotiation.

I learned a great deal about the various communication styles that exist and how to adapt to each one when needed. One of the tests we took for class claimed I was a “Quiet Supporter” type of communicator. I somewhat agree with it, but I think I sway more towards a Thinker or analyzer type of communication style.

We studied Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADRs) and how important it is to include specific resolution methods; such as arbitration or mediation clauses within a contract, but I also discovered my preferred method of ADR is negotiation with mediation following closely behind.

I watched a lot of simulated negotiations and read a lot of case studies, which will help me to refine my own negotiating style, and result in better more solid deals and contracts.

My experience in deals and negotiations really helped me in this class. I ended up getting sick for almost 10 days and was barely able to function; however, I was still able to complete all of my assignments accurately and on time resulting in good scores each week.

Well here we are, six months into my master’s degree program and we just finished Marketing class.

I have been doing Marketing for “a few years” so this class was not that difficult for me; however, there were still things I needed to learn.

My original goal for this class in reflected in the image below. And I was successful in learning what I set out to learn.

Even though I have been doing marketing for a few years, I needed to learn how to come up with a documented marketing plan. You see, I am easily able to figure things like this out “in my head” and since I was the only one doing the marketing for my company, I really didn’t need to know how to document and actual marketing plan. Now I know how and I am looking forward to putting it into action within my business plan.

For me Marketing is all about “attracting attention” and often that is almost impossible without the content to back it up. Images, text, video . . . all of that is essential in marketing a transmedia company and the products it releases and without “quality content”, investing in marketing efforts could be a wasted expense.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media sites are a key element in marketing today. With millions of potential customers on each platform it should seem like it would be a given to include social media in a digital marketing plan, but we must not forget traditional marketing opportunities like billboards, face-face meet & greets, newsletters, and media advertising.

The only way to ensure that we take every opportunity to reach as many people in our target market, is to use an integrated marketing campaign; which I have been doing with Midian Entertainment and the BREED since we started.

I am always inspired when I see something that focuses on “becoming a better person”

Soon we will celebrating New Years Eve (NYE), and typically for NYE people make resolutions or “promises to themselves”. I usually make the same resolution and it is simply to be a better man and father than I was the previous year. For the last 5 years it has worked well and I’ve kept making that resolution every year because it seemed general enough that I didn’t feel “pressured” but open enough that I could accomplish it through many methods.

This year will be the same, and as the picture displays, I’m not YET where I want to be, but I remember every day where I used to be and I am so thankful that my worst day in the past 5 years has been nowhere near as bad as some of the days of my past.

This month in class was studying all about the financial side of running an entertainment business. The class was full of algebraic formulas (which I’ve never dealt well with) and lots of calculations.

We talked about things like Revenue Streams, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), and how to figure out interest gained or paid over the course of an annuity or loan.

I’ve never been strong with math, but considering this would center around my business, it was easy to stay interested.

Our final assignment was putting together a pro-forma financial statement, which is to show an investor all the monies that we at Midian Entertainment estimate to spend and generate over the course of the next year.

I enjoyed the class, but I am saddened by the limited amount of time I had to focus on my assignments and the readings considering that we are so understaffed at my job and I had to pick up a lot of overtime in order to fill the schedule. I hope to revisit the class materials after I finish this program to ensure that I have acquired all the knowledge and skills that I need in order to make Midian a competitor in the entertainment industry.

Finances are probably one of the biggest parts of running a business and I always figured I’d simply have an accountant on staff, but I realize that may not be a feasible expense when the company first opens its doors and someone needs to know how to account for all the money going in and out and as the owner of the company, all responsibilities ultimately fall on my shoulders.

Blumhouse and Amazon Partner for Eight Original Genre Films With a Thematic Connection

It has been a struggle to manage my available time the last month or two. We are understaffed at work and I am pulling a lot of overtime. However, I push hard to get done what I can and at the very least, I learn what I am supposed to learn.

This class was all about Storytelling and branding, and how a brand tells a story. Most of the focus was on understanding a target audience and using your brand to covey your intended message to that audience.

Inspirational Post : October 2018

This month has been intensive studies on Project and Team Management. I was required to build a comprehensive project plan, which incorporates managing resources like a team and finances. I chose to do this project plan based off of Midian Entertainment’s Phase I Roll-out.

Some of the information in this plan is fictitious, as you will see, but I based the project itself off of our upcoming plans for Midian Entertainment.

I discuss books like Deadeye, Kersa, and the Blacksheep, which are in development, as well as films like “Feeding on Fear” and “Midnight Carnival”. I talk about writers and artists that may be involved in the project, but much of the financials, and celebrity mentions are fictitious. 

I just want to demonstrate the quality of work that has been put into this project plan. 

#Inspirational

I have just spent the last three weeks studying the leadership styles outlined by Robert Greene, in his book entitled “The 48 Laws of Power”, and John C Maxwell’s book entitled “Developing the Leader in You 2.0”. After careful reflection on these two styles of leadership, I believe my empathic nature would cause me to be more of a Maxwell leader than I am a Greene leader, probably with a 70-30 split respectively.

I have been “on the low end of the totem” for many years and I know how it feels to be on a team managed by poor leaders and have to answer directly to the customer, but I have never been the type to complain. I have listened to the complaints of disgruntled employees and customers in numerous industries for years and I empathize with their grievances.

Maxwell names Character as “the Foundation of Leadership”. He talks about the character based “diseases” that Pope Francis said are “the problems inherent in leadership” (Maxwell, 2018 p. 50). Maxwell emphasizes good values and valuing people. I strive each day to work on improving my character and I’m often putting others before myself.

Courses I will be taking for my Master of Science degree in the Entertainment Business from Full Sail University. It will take 12 months to complete these courses. I am expected to graduate July 2019.