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The past twelve months have been surreal. I knew the time would go by fast, but it seems impossible that I am sitting here writing this a week out from graduating with my Master’s of Science in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University. I have spent the last 11 months on campus with some of the best people, both classmates and teachers, and could not imagine going through all of this with anyone else. All of the classes that I took in the program exceeded my expectations. And during the year I had the opportunity to join the WWE NXT Student Initiative, working all of the Florida live events and television tapings for NXT. That in itself has been an amazing experience in which I learned so much that will benefit me in my career going forward. Below I am going to outline the courses I’ve taken over the past year and what I learned from them and if they met the expectations from my month 1 Mastery Timeline.

In our Executive Leadership course, we studied two books, Developing the Leader Within You by John. C Maxwell and The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Greene is cutthroat and ruthless; while Maxwell takes a kinder, more honest approach to leadership. After reading the different chapters from Maxwell and Laws from Greene, I have determined that I am definitely more of a Maxwell leader. With that said, I very much do see the value of Greene’s style, especially in the entertainment industry.

One reason I can say that I’m definitely not a majority Greene leader is because I don’t believe in taking credit for other people’s work. I have had that happen to me in the past, I know what it feels like to see your own idea presented as someone else’s and it’s not something I would want to do to a fellow employee or someone that is apart of my team. In my Mastery Timeline, I wrote that this class would help teach me how to manage relationships with colleagues and I believe that learning and understanding the nuances between a Maxwell and a Greene leader will do just that.

In Project and Team Management, we learned about project planning and budgeting which will help us greatly when tackling projects throughout our careers. The budgeting portion will especially come in handy when we take our finance class in the program. The different personality tests helped us to not only identify and explain qualities in ourselves, but to also to identify them in others. How to effectively manage risk helps prepare us for the future so that we will be able to assess risk and consequences of a given situation and make the right decisions for both our team and any guests or customers that the risk may effect. Personally, I will take the conflict resolution policy I created and keep it for future use as a guide if a conflict should arise in any teams I work with in the future.

We also did character studies which were all very interesting, my favorites being the Mike Wallace and the lyrical interpretation. The Wallace story was interesting because it covered almost his entire life and showed many different sides of the man, including some insight to his interview styling’s and how he was able to connect with his interview subjects to get them to share information with them that they would not tell anyone else otherwise.

In my original Mastery timeline, I said that from this course I wanted to learn how to form a project team and lead it to successfully completing a project. I would say we learned how to do that and much more. Besides learning how to form a team and plan a project, the course looks at the personalities of team members and how to effectively handle people of all different personality types.

The next course was Business Storytelling and Brand Development. I believe that the information that we were provided with in that month will benefit all of us for the rest of our lives, regardless of whether or not we go on to create our own company or are an employee for someone else. We learned not only how to create and cultivate a new brand for our future companies, but we learned in great detail what kind of work has gone into some of the most successful brands in the world. We also learned how to craft our own personal brands, and the importance of doing that.

Because of this course I now see the benefit of using LinkedIn in ways I had never thought of before, and also the benefits of pushing out quality content to my social networks. It not only lets me share articles that I think others will benefit from, but gives my followers a look into what I’m about, maybe someone will look at a link that I share and put together that I have an interest or experience in that industry where before they would not know unless they specifically asked me. In my Mastery Timeline, I wrote that the class would “help us to understand how to build a brand and use storytelling to strengthen that brand.” This class accomplished that and much more.

The course that followed was “Entertainment Business Finance”. Some of the concepts covered in the first week of the course were different business types (Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Corporations), the difference between Finance and accounting, an overview of financial statements and the Time Value of Money. Next, we covered Financial Ratios, Capital Budgeting and Personal Finance. We went over the many Start-Up and Break even costs incurred when starting a business and learned about the “Valley of Death”. We talked about working capital and how to make sure we have enough money to start up and run our business, taking into account any cash shortfalls we might incur. We covered Cash and Credit Management, and went over the Money Market (short-term fixed income investments that mature in less than one year) vs. the Capital Market (short-term fixed income investments that mature in more than one year). We learned about the importance of Pro Forma statements and an introduction of Forecasting; looking at the Pro Forma income statement, cash budget, and balance sheet.

The course was much more in depth than I thought it would be. I did not expect to go through the basics of finance and accounting, but it was nice to have a kind of “refresher” course to cover what I learned in my undergraduate degree. The course provided us with everything we need to get a head starting on the financial planning of both our company’s and personal finances. I can definitely see myself using the lessons learned in this course to improve my personal finances by investing early and in the future if I decide to pursue starting my own company.

Next up was “Negotiation and Deal Making”. Some of the concepts covered in the first week of the course were the different styles of negotiation. Integrative, Aggressive or Competing, Accommodating or Avoiding, and Compromising. Next, we covered the stages of negotiation; analysis, planning, and discussion. We went over the goals of negotiation, and the two levels of negotiation. We talked about basic human needs such as physical and economic security, sense of belonging, recognition, and control over one’s life. We also talked about positions versus interests.

From there, we covered BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and Objective Criteria.  We learned how to identify and handle dirty tricks. We were shown how to handle negative emotions, and the importance of preparation. We also covered the various research methods to use when preparing for our negotiations and the elements of negotiation. In my Mastery PDL I wrote that this class would help us by not only teaching us different negotiation tactics, but by providing us with real life examples of well known entertainment deals. The course covered a wealth of knowledge, I very much enjoyed the content covered. Assignments like the Interview Blog were a great way to connect with industry professionals to hear about real world experience. But overall, my favorite part of the course was participating in the mock negotiations that we held in class.

Next up was “Product and Artist Management”. I took this course online because I needed to travel home for a few weeks, and it was quite a different experience than I had gotten used to in the previous months I spent on campus. After talking to my classmates when I returned, I definitely wish I was able to stay on campus for this class, though I still enjoyed what I was able to get out of it. I enjoyed the class structure of splitting the course into two sections to differentiate between product and artist management. Prior to taking the course, I was familiar with some of the things covered regarding product management, but I had no prior knowledge of anything related specifically to artist management.

In my Mastery PDL I wrote that this class would enhance our journey by providing us with the tools to effectively manage a product or artist in our field. This course did just that. We went through a lot of great information over the month, but the way it was structured made it manageable. The assignments were well thought out and engaging, and were very helpful to really gain an understanding of the material. I also enjoyed the Go-To sessions, they were very informative and added a great commentary to go along with the readings and assignments.

Advanced Entertainment Law was the next course on the docket. This was one of the courses in the program that I was looking forward to the most. I have taken law classes previously in my undergrad program and have always been interested in different law topics. We covered topics like Intellectual Property law, Cyber Law, and Contract law.  I found the course to be extremely interesting, I enjoyed covering different topics in law that applied specifically to the entertainment industry. Prior to taking the course, I was familiar with some of the things covered initially from the previous law classes I had taken, but we went further in depth on topics such as Intellectual Property law than I had in the past.

I felt that all of the assignments were very interesting and helped us to further understand the topics covered in the class discussions. My favorite assignments in the class were the “Make Your Case” and Group presentations, I enjoy working in teams and feel that all of the members of our class work very well together. In my Mastery PDL I wrote that this class would enhance our journey by teaching us how to navigate through things like copyright law and intellectual property, which are both topics of immense importance in our fields. This course accomplished that and much more. We covered a wealth of information over the month, but the manner in which it was covered made everything manageable. The assignments were all relevant to the topics covered in class and were interesting to complete. Also, I very much enjoyed the GoTo meetings, they were clearly structured and I never felt like they were going longer than they needed to. This is another course in the program that I wish was longer, I would be happy to spend another month or two learning about entertainment law.

Next was “Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution”. I was looking forward to this course because I am very interested in distribution, specifically in film distribution. The course did a great job in explaining both the traditional methods of distribution and new methods of self-publishing and distribution. I really came out of the course with a great understanding of how publishing and distribution worked in the past, and the direction it is moving towards in the future. I enjoyed the course layout of covering traditional methods of publishing and distribution in the first half of the course and covering new methods of digital self-publishing and distribution in the second half. Before taking the course, I knew a little about traditional methods of distribution. I did not know how self-publishing worked. Also, I knew only a little about books and film, so it was great to get a little knowledge of music and game publishing. I thought the assignments were very interesting and served as great takeaways that we will be able to look back on later in our professional lives.

In my Mastery PDL, I wrote that this class would “show us how to get our projects to the masses, to “protect and monetize creative content”.” This course definitely achieved that. We covered a lot of great information over the month, the most important of which will help us publish and distribute our own content without having to rely on the traditional models. Also, the textbook was a great resource and the supporting documents in the appendix were very helpful when it came to the assignments. My favorite assignment this month was the Current Event presentation. It was great to go out and find something relevant that is currently happening that pertained directly to the material we were covering in class.

“Digital Marketing” was up next. I learned quite a bit about marketing in this new era with the increased importance of social media. We have covered the difference between organic and inorganic search results, broad and long-tail keywords, and why blogging matters with SEO. I believe that I will use what we have learned about Social Media Optimization in class the most. I believe that Social Media is now and will continue to be the biggest marketing factor for us going forward. The rise of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now Snapchat have changed the way people take in content. In turn, this has changed the way marketers can provide advertisements to consumers. Previously they relied on print ads, then commercials, all they way to banner ads on the web. Now there is the opportunity to create sponsored posts that users scroll through on their social media feeds, ads in front of videos on streaming services, and even product placement in YouTube videos. On top of all this, there are opportunities for marketers to create content from content. Almost similar to the way television commercials are cut (60 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.) there are countless ways to take a larger piece of content and create “micro-content” with it, which will help marketers to get their message out into more places and help them reach a broader audience.

In my Mastery PDL I wrote that this class would teach us how to promote our ventures digitally, building on what we would learn in Storytelling and Brand Development. So far, this course has done just that. We have used many of the same concepts taught in Storytelling and Brand Development along with some new topics such as search engine optimization.

Coming up on the home stretch, month 11 was Business Plan Development. I enjoyed the class very much, the stories and examples discussed in class made it easier to understand the concepts from the textbook. The concepts covered and the work done in this class need to be understood and completed before being able to move on to the next and final month in the program so that the final project can be completed. The given assignments were well detailed and engaging. They were very helpful to fully understand the material. I also enjoyed the Go-To sessions. I watched the archives rather than attend the live session because of my schedule, but they were a good reinforcement of what we covered in class. My favorite part of the class were the stories that Dr. Burhoe told from his various experiences in the business world, they were a key part of seeing a real application of what we were learning in class.

In my original Mastery Journal PDL, I wrote that my goal for this course was to create a functional business plan. This course provided us with real life examples of the different concepts covered and started to tie together everything learned in previous courses. At the end of the month, I feel that I have a good grasp on my business concept and the beginnings of a solid business plan. Also, I feel confident enough in my understanding of business plan creation that I can go to other individuals and offer my services as a consultant and review and critique their business plans before they send them out to potential investors. Essentially, this course has taught me a skill that I will be able to use for the rest of my life.

Lastly, month 12 of the program was “Final Project – Business Plan”. This class finalized our business plan project, the capstone for the EBMS program, and gave us the opportunity to present it in front of the class and a panel of former instructors and our EBMS Program Director. It was a great experience at getting used to what a “real-world” business pitch is like. Aside from that we covered so much more in the course. We went even more in-depth on financials, covered debt and equity financing, business ethics, and entrepreneurship. We also went over different tips and tricks that could help us get a job if we’re going that route rather than starting our own company. Classes were great, and the weekly GoTo sessions were extremely informative. I enjoyed the way the class was structured and that we are able to have all of the information to look back on after the course is over.

(Sanchez, 2015)

This month I have the wonderful opportunity to learn about Digital Marketing from our course director Kristen Stewart. My intended goal for this course is to learn how marketing plans are created and why exactly, are they so integral to this day and age. Within the first week I learned what “Content Marketing” is and it’s relevance in marketing, the importance of “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO), and discussed what factors maximize the efforts of an SEO campaign. We also discussed useful tools currently available that aid in monitoring the performance of strategies being used in a campaign.  Lastly, by the second week we covered topics pertaining to best practices for using “Paid Searches” and planning our own campaign for our specific business.

  What is “Content Marketing”? It is the strategic act of driving profitable customer action, utilizing valuable content created and distributed to a specific target audience. When it comes to content marketing not all content is created equal. A creator should ensure the content made is valuable, relevant and consistent with the consumers they are trying to attract.  However content alone will not be effective, a marketing strategy must accompany the content. How do you create quality content when you don’t know who your audience is? What do you do after you gain the attention of an audience? The marketing strategy answers these questions. Ultimately content marketing is the integral piece of the puzzle needed to communicate with your customers and piqué their interest in a specific product. (Content Marketing Institution, 2007)

  I was truly interested in (SEO) or “Search Engine Optimization”. I had heard the term before and the name alone caused my brain to shut off. Kristen was able to demystify it and explained it simply and plainly. SEO is how search engines rank your content and it’s relevance to consumers. Understanding SEO enables you to customize your content and create it in such a way that optimizes its relevance, potentially resulting in a higher ranking. Search Engine Optimization is free (organic), a company cannot pay to be placed or ranked higher than another company, and they must optimize their content similar to everyone else.  This infographic illustrates some of the best practices to enhance your content for SEO

(Search Engine Land, 2016)

  Using a blogger account created for the purpose of acclimating students to the digital world, Kristen explained how to set up specific tools that will aid us in learning the concepts of Digital Marketing. We linked Google Analytics, Webmasters, and AdWords to our blogs, which afforded the class the opportunity to observe these tools in action.  Ms. Stewart recommended other resources such as Google Adsense, SEMRush, Spyfu, Keyword Density Checker, Pintrest, and more be researched to determine how each can benefit us individually.

  Lastly, we discussed the pros and cons of utilizing a “Paid Search” strategy for digital campaigns. When you search a topic, do you genuinely avoid the ads that populate at the top of a search? If you are like me, the answer is a resounding yes. Statistically, numerous consumers avoid the paid ads. However, having a paid ad may offer validity with a company to a certain degree. Consumers may overlook the paid ad, but actively seek the ad free version of the company further down the list. Using a combination of “Paid Search” and “SEO” can create a sense of legitimacy in the consumers mind.

 Overall, this class is a blast and a wealth of extremely useful information. Applying these skills, tools, and principles towards our final project, which is to create a marketing strategy for our individual businesses, will prepare us for the real world. As entertainment business students, the ability to understand marketing in a digital world is integral to our success. Whether it is marketing a video game product or starting a multi-million dollar recording studio, creating a winning marketing strategy will set us apart from the competition. I have high expectations for the second half of this mind-blowing class.

Mastery Journal

  This month was an excellent introduction to the principals of Product and Artist Management. We learned that "Show business is the business of the show". Profitability is the name of the game or else you just have an expensive hobby. Our instructor, Christine Winn, performs a remarkable job injecting her knowledge and experiences into the lectures. It takes a great deal to manage anything; understanding those responsibilities and what's expected of a manager is paramount to the success of your business. I would like to reflect back to my Mastery Timeline to determine how this class has helped me grow and if I met my goals set for myself.

 My goal for the class was to, “understand the nuances concerning managing both a product and an artist (Sanchez, 2015).” This course delivered exactly that by highlighting what a manager is and what they typically face. Throughout the class, we observed examples of how management is utterly vital to an artist success. She/he is the CEO of the client’s business. The manager serves as a bridge between the content creator and the rest of the daily operations that must happen in order to capitalize on the content. I interpreted what was learned as, the manager is a “chief advisor”, and must build a team whose goal is simply the success of the client/product.

Mastery Journal:

Negotiations and Deal Making

FullSail University

  What a month! Negotiation and Deal Making was an incredible class. The instructor Elizabeth Rockhill Counsman, Esq. is a fabulous instructor who is very knowledgeable on this subject. We learned topics such as: the difference between Positions and Interests, what are Dirty Tricks and how to recognize them, why Mutual Benefit is imperative, the benefits of being Prepared, how to use Objective Criteria, what a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is and most importantly, Separating the Person from the Problem. My goal for this class, was to understand how I personally perform in a negotiation setting so that I may build the skills needed to become a more successful negotiator. Ultimately, This class delivered that and more.

  Initially, this class was not what I expected. I assumed the focus would be on case studies and papers. Instead, Mrs. Counsman used scenarios in which we role-played specific negotiations. The purpose of these scenarios was to understand how we would handle the outcome of each deal. We had one role-playing exercise each week with a worksheet that accompanied it. The worksheet challenged us to review how the concepts she taught us were applied to the issue. I truly enjoyed getting into character and observing how the other students would play their roles. Having a chance to learn this way gave us the opportunity to apply the lessons she taught and evaluate what our strengths and weaknesses were. It was easy to see from the first negotiation, that the selfish mentality of winning, losing, and bartering came into play. For some students, it was a competition and would ask, “how do you feel you won”, in reference to the outcome of the negation. Strangely however, the outcome was beneficial to both parties and in essence both were winners.

  A great example of what we learned is the Orange story. Two kids are arguing for an orange, the mother in her wisdom intervenes and figures out that each child wants the Orange. She determines that the solution is to split it in half. Using this solution both children are 50% satisfied with there half of the orange. Mrs. Counsmans showed us that, understanding the interest (why they want it), in the orange would aid in achieving a solution where both children would be 100% satisfied. In this scenario, one child wanted the orange peels to make a cake; the other wanted to eat it. With this knowledge, the more obvious solution would have been to give one child the peels and the other the fruit. Sadly, this concept is lost when parties are in a negotiation. This is mainly due to factors like negative emotions, perception, and lack of preparation, which strongly affect the outcome. Elizabeth educated us that the person is not the problem. We must separate the person from the issue and focus on finding a solution to the concern that benefits both parties.

Edward Sanchez

Entertainment Business Finance

Full Sail University

  Like most people I do not consider myself a numbers person, and when faced with my finance class, I felt it rang true. Managing funds are such a daunting task with serious repercussions if not handled properly. Learning the fundamentals boosted my confidence in dealing with my personal budget. The resources that I learned helped with developing my business idea. During my Masters class, I was tasked to create a timeline with goals for each class. The goal I set for Finance was to “learn how to manage my funds” (Sanchez, 2015). Not only did I learn this, I was able to apply those skills within the assignments given. David Wolfe’s class instructs that, in order to truly master the finances associated with business, one must also have a grasp on the basics of personal finance.

  Two projects solidified my understanding of money management and opened my eyes to how it relates to business. The first was a research paper I was assigned, that addressed specific questions on how I planned to reach my consumer-base and break down my product. This forced me to take a focused, realistic look on what I expected from my own company.  Countless people believe they want to run a business, but have no real clue about what’s necessary. Key topics within the paper included, consumer identification/research, target marketing, product development, and insurance. The results were surprising and somewhat overwhelming. Scrutinizing an idea you have on this level is a sure fire way to determine if it is something one wishes to pursue.

  The second was the Pro-forma Project. I created a budget and forecast the first three years of my business. This was a particularly difficult task.  In August, a group of colleagues and I started a video game studio. For the Pro-forma project, I was actually able to implant the studio’s estimated numbers into the forecast.  It was enlightening to see exactly what’s needed to develop a profitable endeavor. I used much of the research from the prior project for assistance. Several of the financial plan equations from the book, “Entrepreneurial Finance, 5th Edition” (Adelman & Marks, 2009) were instrumental in completing this project.

 Here we go again. Another month down and new information to digest, analyze and assimilate into my plan to establish myself as an entrepreneur. Business Storytelling and Brand Development was an amazing class. Our instructor Ken Degilio aka OrlandoKen, is a great instructor who is practicing what he preaches by running his own business as a brand consultant. The two biggest takeaways from this class are: learning everything from defining our personal brand to breaking down the psychology behind what makes a brand successful.  Throughout the class, each assignment built from the previous one. It afforded me the ability to apply the lessons directly to my current project of making a game studio.  Applying these skills practically, allows me the opportunity to not only understand the importance of breaking down what you represent as a brand but also how to visually convey your message.

  Project and Team Management was an amazing class. Nicholas Carver is a great professor and approaches team building in a wonderful and inspiring way. My original goal for this class, created in my Mastery Timeline, was to learn how to manage a project or a team. This month did not disappoint and I was definitely afforded the opportunity to do this. Nick taught the class the valuable skill to recognize the types of people we could work with. We utilized both the DiSC and Myers Briggs personality tests to be able to see how we can overcome potential obstacles within the character of a person. Most importantly I can recognize these potential obstacles within myself. We were also shown potential risks associated with a project and good practices to solve conflicts. I really enjoyed the team building exercises that gave us the chance to come together as a class and the multitudes of amazing guest industry professionals that reiterated his teachings.