Brandon Needam's Masters of Entertainment Business Journey: A Program Reflection Memoir

Brandon Needam's Masters of Entertainment Business Journey: A Program Reflection Memoir

When I first started this amazing journey to enrich, empower, and educate myself to future success by obtaining my masters from Full Sail University's Masters of Business in Entertainment Program, I had no idea the magnitude of personal growth, resourcefulness, drive, ambition, and direction that it would instill upon me.  

Like a lot of individuals, I was at a stage of transition, and coming off of a huge career setback, and in a state of idleness to which my next move would be.  But within that time, i began to realize that being a mirror to your world is sometimes the only way to gain a true reflection of what you need to learn for your soul. My soul was telling me that because you are at this state, there has to be something greater waiting to be instilled into you to which can carry you further in your future, but you have to seek the knowledge first.  

A elder in my family once told me this: breakdown and breakthrough are just one emotion away from each other. Its all on your perception and response to what life has put you in.  I had to remind myself that all things happen in divine time, and patience is the fuel that fosters that time. If you can master you patience and curb you desires to act tactful, you can master anything. But you have to gain the knowledge to position yourself to do all that you want to do later; with that, I enrolled into Full Sails Master program. 

 This journey was also a test of will and courage for me.  There were many times that I was beginning to get overwhelmed and wanted to take time to collect my thoughts on even completing the program, but I am glad that I remained diligent and  stuck it through. I am beyond thrilled to say that I too will soon be a graduate of the most illustrious and best media and technology related university in the world of entertainment. I am beyond proud of myself as well as Full Sail, and will always be a sound representation of this school. 

Full Sail's Masters of Entertainment Business Program entails of 12 classes and they are Media Literacy and Research Methodologies; Executive Leadership; Project and Team Management; Business Storytelling and Brand Development; Entertainment Business Finance; Negotiating and Deal Making; Product and Artist Management; Advanced Entertainment Law; Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution; Digital Marketing; Business Plan Development, finally creating a Final, Real Business Plan that embodied and utilized all that I have learned to create a business plan for my own company and entrepreneurial endeavors that can be pitched to investors and venture capitalist at the optimal time. 

Media Literacy and Research Methodologies taught me how to obtain and find factual and statistical data within my chosen industry through Alexa.com, The United States Census Bureau, The Arbitron Corporation, and the Neilsen Online Ratings website. In addition, I learned how to effectively market yourself to potential employers and clients on social media platforms such as Twitter and Linked In, to give yourself a savvy edge to engage your industry instantly with real insight and supported statistical information to show that you understand the trends of your field and can anticipate where its headed. One of my biggest accomplishments within this class is my Linked In Profile, which can be accessed here:http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brandon-needam/32/339/7a9. 

Executive Leadership was the second installment of classes that was given with the program. Within Executive Leadership, we were required to read Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power as a way to interpret  as well as effectively understand how to counteract the personality traits of others to always be beneficial within a working environment. One of the most important lessons that I have acquired from Executive Leadership is the 3 most common Leadership Traits which are Authoritarian or autocratic, Participative or democratic, and Delegative or Free Reign.  As learned, Authoritarian style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want done and how they want it accomplished, without getting the advice of their followers. Some of the appropriate conditions to use it is when you have all the information to solve the problem, you are short on time, and your employees are well motivated. Authroritarian style leadership usually applies to government or military organizations, as well as facets of law enforcement, so that all representatives act instantly and accordingly to the safety or others.  A great example of a Authoritarian principle to be used is if I am representing an artist on a show, or promoting and coordinating a night club or party venue, and task need to be handled and done the day of as final preparation for the event. Participative style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness, rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect. This is normally used when you have part of the information, and your employees have other parts. Note that a leader is not expected to know everything — this is why you employ knowledgeable and skillful employees. Using this style is of mutual benefit — it allows them to become part of the team and allows you to make better decisions. One of the greatest examples of this trait is when a record label allows the artist to have creative control over the album content and direction of marketing, yet puts in place which songs and music videos shall be marketed at what time as singles in record stores. One of the greatest examples of this is with Roc Nation, Jay-z label. He gives complete creative control as far as the music, yet is completely involved with the single selection process and overall distribution operations. In Delegative style, the leader allows the employees to make the decisions. However, the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made. This is used when employees are able to analyze the situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. You cannot do everything! You must set priorities and delegate certain tasks.I beleive that all entertainment companies and successful record labels use a delegative sense of management and leadership. A&R's are delegated certain task pertaining to certain artist that they are in charge of overseaing. In addition, task are delegated depending on expertise with entertainment companies. 

The best overall way to be effective is to use all three. You can use the authoritarian style when trying to train new employees are implement new procedures to a task that is in a company, because it will motivate the employee to learn the new skill. Participative can be used to establish and set parameters for team based work. The leader knows the problem,yet does not have the time or the resources to come up with all the answers. It makes employees feel truly part of the solution and valuable to the results needed for the company, and self entitlement. Using all three: Telling your employees that a procedure is not working correctly and a new one must be established (authoritarian). Asking for their ideas and input on creating a new procedure (participative). Delegating tasks in order to implement the new procedure (delegative).

With Project and Team Management, myself and fellow Full Sail classmates collaborated to create a event coordination pitch to which we had to create our own company, pose a problem that needed fixing, and create an event that really tested or project management skills in areas of budgeting, getting sponsorship funding, creating marketing materials, as well as organizing a event schedule to which will be followed that is logical to make every portion of an event truly come into fruition. One of the most interesting aspects of this class is that we had full creative control, and all of our collaborative efforts were done via Skype conference calls and information being sent through Google Documents that were shared, and created together. 

Business Storytelling and Brand Development is a class that I truly enjoyed because it gave me the foundation to both create and implement the story and meaning behind my future brand, BreakThrough Multimedia Studios. It also taught me the proper way to describe my logo, trademark my logo, as well as create a mantra and tagline for all promotional materials of my company. In addition, I learned how to position a brand, write a compelling mission statement that comprises your direction and vision for your company, what brand category your company falls in, and how this knowledge applies to being an effective brand in your company culture.  A few interesting thing that I learned is the power of colors within the visual imagery of your company. You have to be very careful of color schemes that represents your company, and try to create logos and chose colors for logos that further personify the meaning of the logo, as well as embodies the spirit of the company. Another thing to be mindful of, is how those colors are represented and what they portray in other countries around the world to which you may want to market and distribute your brand to. Here is my Mission and Mantra I created in that class:

Breakthrough Multimedia Studios will be a One Stop Shop Multi-Media Entertainment Complex that offers major industry resources to aspiring artist affordably. We will provide everything to artist from artist development; pre and post State-of-the- art audio production; innovative Green Screen Studio Lots which will handle Videography/Movie Scores, as well as services such as promotions, public relations, graphic arts, and legal publishing services with ASCAP/SESAC/BMI at a fraction of the cost as the same services from major industry corporations. Company/Client Mantra- “Empowering Entertainment’s Future”, will resonate through that we at BMS does. From the structuring of day to day productions of clients, to hiring and structuring the perfect staff, to the resources and insight that are available upon the website, the focus to empower through technology will be concise in all that we do.

Entertainment Business Finance was a class that gave me all the necessary tools to both find financing, understand and structure myself to take advantage of trends within the stock market, calculate formulas and ratios to project current financial scenarios for our companies, to which were created into break even analysis, Monthly Pro-Forma Excel Sheets, Net Profit Margin percentages, Debt Ratios, and other real Financial portions of our company business plans.  In addition, I learned how to obtain and find venture capital, differences in debt loans and equity loans, and how even to find angel investment that can fund all of your endeavors. One of the most important aspects of this class is understanding the dynamics and strengths of using the Small Business Association, Inc.com, and NVCA. 

In short, the SBA.gov is the most in depth resource in regards to even opening a small business, giving detailed insight about contracts, loans, angel investment, venture capital trends, as well as ideas to further expand your business.  SBA generally doesn't actually make loans itself. Instead, it offers financing at decent rates through normal lending channels like banks and credit unions. They're called SBA loans because the loans are guaranteed by the SBA. In order to qualify for SBA or other loans, you'll need your business plan, as well as a history of your business experience.

For amounts up to $1,000,000, the SBA expects entrepreneurs to have enough equity to cover 25 percent of a start-up loan. For example, If you need $10,000, then you must have invested about $2,500 in your business.

Inc.com focuses more on industry insight from columnists and researched articles that explained what has worked for them in the past, which could put your business in a trial and error approach because some of the advice might not apply to the structure of your business to a tee.  National Venture Capital Association website is membership based  that helps  the investor meet and establish ongoing relationships with the future business owners. 

With Negotiating and Deal Making, I learned the logistics of what contracts should entail, as well as how to protect myself within a contract. This class also instilled sound negotiation principles in me that allows me to stress my demands and the beenfits of doing business with someone, provide benefit and fairness to their end of an agreement,  and still be able to establish a bottom line. We also engaged in mock negotiations in which we had to provide premises for contract content such as royalty percentages, contract terms and length, as well as create the premises for sunset cost for taking on such task, and the groundwork for an exit strategy in the event of continuing to start another contract with other clients. 

The Product and Artist Management Course addresses management issues and scenarios that apply to artist managers and gives the students the tools and strategy to solve these issues. In addition, we learned how to creatively link products to artist for joint venture and sponsorship purposes, for the sake of adding layers to a artist professional ventures and career opportunities. One of the greatest parts of this class was having the task to create the groundwork for a live venue to which our artist will be represented, and including negotiation tactics and management practice that makes the artist obtain a new lease on his or her career. An example of my live event and artist management project can be seen here: http://youtu.be/HL9XvdsmzT8. 

Advanced Entertainment Law  gave me the insight to interpret, understand, and apply the laws that govern entertainment contracts and intellectual property protection, with a more structured concentration on Copy Right, Right to Privacy, Tort, Patent and Trademark regulations, Sample Clearance, and Slander. In addition, I was advised to analyze real case studies and Jurors Doctrine on topics such as exploiting and protecting rights through digital domains and the internet, with a more defined look on how past court cases and decisions have now implemented changes in the entertainment industry to date, and how contracts have been now structured to meet these requirements my industry currently. I also had the pleasure of interviewing the Simon Law Firm of Dallas, Texas and getting some sound advice and answers to some of my inquiries for my business and some of the current law trends of the entertainment world. That interview can be accessed here:http://b-needamsworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/simon-and-robinson-law-firm-share-key.html

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution examined the traditional and new means to publish and distribute media content to the masses. Within learning and understanding these concepts, I was also able to gain sound insight on topics such as piracy and how it applies, social media guidelines, digital distribution trends, and rights for digital media and digital. With this acquired knowledge, I was asked to comprise a strategy to both protect and draw capital for any of my creative works that I have planned for the future. 

Digital Marketing was a class to which we learned how to create and implement marketing campaign initiatives in multi-facet platforms for broadcast, viral, computers and mobile devices, and effectively reach multiple structured target audiences, which fostered the ability to create an online presence of my own with this very blog and other personal media resources. One of the most interesting things that I have learned to apply is the concept and skills behind Search Engine Optimization. According to Tim Frick (2010), and the book Return on Engagement, “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to your site from search engines via organic measures (i.e., those you don’t specifically pay for, as in search engine marketing).  As SEO is an always-evolving process that should begin before you start work on your website and continue long after an initial launch, there are several important distinctions to make when devising an SEO strategy.”  I have began using Search Engine Optimization to increase engagement by driving traffic to this blogsite with key word search via Google, and other search engine sites.

Business Plan Development is where I began putting all the knowledge that I have conjured from all of my classes to create a step-by-step draft of an authentic business plan which included financial preparations, an executive summary, a marketing mix and defined marketing strategy, legal and publishing registration information, technological knowledge,as well as compliance in regards to whom views this content. I am honored to say that I have received one of the highest grades for my business plan in class, and was advised by my professor to attempt to obtain more insight and investment capital for this plan to make it a reality. 

Each one of these classes not only were a small piece to an even greater career and personal accomplishment puzzle, but even further, they truly laid the groundwork to propel me closer to my true purpose in life, and propelled my desire to be legendary within the industry that i aspire.  With these skills, I feel that the sound principles from that knowledge base could potentially propel both my own as well as your in future endeavors given a opportunity to be a client.  But the even greater lesson is this: Being successful in your endeavors does not just equate to the accolades, accomplishments or the stories that you can tell, it equates to the the groundwork and insight that you can leave behind. The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. This experience is none different. Everything that I have learned will be utilized to the max and brought to the surface of all that I do, to be the best employee, self, and professional representation of Full Sail University, my potential employers, and clients that are an extension of me. I shall make you proud.  But even further, I shall be a reference mark, mentor, and catalyst for the future generation entertainers and entrepreneurs of this industry to come by leading by example, teaching, and uplifting through knowledge and resources. 

I am Brandon Needam. Future Entertainment Mogul. 

Resources:

• http://www.inc.com/
• http://www.nvca.org/
• Hoosear, J. V. (n.d.). Pursuing Strong Brand. Retrieved July 22, 2011, from Brands in the Boardroom: www.iam-magazine.com 
• Smith, K. (2011, March 17). All About The Color White. Retrieved July 22, 2011, from The Sensational Colors: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-white.html
• http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html
• http://online.fullsail.edu/degrees/entertainment-business-masters/courses/product-and-artist-management-EBM%20590
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HL9XvdsmzT8
• http://online.fullsail.edu/degrees/entertainment-business-masters/courses/advanced-entertainment-law-BUL%205628
• http://online.fullsail.edu/degrees/entertainment-business-masters/courses/digital-marketing-MAR%20680
• Frick, T.(2010).Return on Engagement [electronic  version].Oxford:FocalPress. Retrieved 
   January 27, 2011.