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Full Sail University Entertainment Business Masters Degree Justin M. Black

Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

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Page 1: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

Justin M. Black

Page 2: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

MASTERY: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT & LEADERSHIP

This class was one of the most important classes for me. I came out of High School and completed a 2 year accelerated Bachelors program, then I followed it with a 1 year Masters

program. I didn’t really know much about myself from the beginning. In this class, I learned more about myself than I had ever learned in the past. I think this class was important

because it taught us how to look into ourselves to find what it is that makes us tick. Being 19 years old, I really hadn’t figured that out yet. I will never forget this class or the teacher. It explained how knowing your inner most self will help you relate to others in the process.

If you don’t know your path, then you will stumble around just trying to figure things out. It is better to gain knowledge about yourself, be truthful about it and reconnect with your

purpose for this life. When you are driven and connected with your childhood self, then a life has takes on a greater meaning. It will give you strength to fight the next battle when things

don't seem as great as it could be. I’m glad that this class was first because knowing yourself and where you come from is definitely the first step in achieving personal Mastery.

Page 3: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

In this class we learned about the mindset of great leaders. We learned the importance of having balance and keeping yourself at peace when you are in such a high position. We learned the importance of the smallest jobs and the importance of the executive positions. I couldn’t just take one thing away from this class. There where many parts that grabbed my attention. We all like to look at many material things in life and think that those things are what make us cool or those things are

what will make us fit in.

But in reality, a leader doesn’t think that way. A leader doesn’t focus on material possessions. A leader leads people and cares about seeing everyone treated with

importance. A leader focuses on having the inside right before focusing on the outside because once the inside is clean, there will automatically be a change on the

outside. This class was a real eye opener into the world of leadership and what it means to be a true leader. I have taken away many skills that are important even in todays workforce. And I hope that I can demonstrate those qualities at any job that I

am taking.

Page 4: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

PROJECT & TEAM MANAGEMENT

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

Project and team management is all about the people who are working with you because in the end, your team mates are your support. We are all people and just because we step into a work environment doesn’t mean our problems and feelings go away. Building a team for

any situation especially entertainment is about truly caring for your employees and building them up as if they were family. You will make life long relationships if you look at it this way.

In my journey to mastery in the entertainment industry, I know that I cannot do it all a lone. I will use the concepts and scenarios to help build a trustworthy and loyal team that will always be willing to help each other out in any way. The team building activities and

character studies that we’ve learned have truly opened my eyes to more connection in the workplace. This month has reconnected me with something that I loved as a child, which is people and activities. I hope that I will be able to inspire such thinking in other people in the

near future. You can also apply what I’ve learned to your career by starting to truly care about the needs and feelings of others inside of the workplace. Every industry thrives off of

human interaction. If human interaction didn't exist, there would be no business. We have to bring that love back into the workforce, so our work will feel more meaningful.

Page 5: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

BUSINESS STORYTELLING & BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

I came into this class not knowing anything about branding and marketing. The goal that I set for this month was to understand branding and make

strides towards finishing up my re-branding process. Honestly, my goal was met. I learned a lot about color theory, creating buyer personas, researching existing brands and how they developed throughout the years. This branding

class has truly given me a clear vision and new steps to take.

I learned that strong brands are deep rooted. Most of the 50 -100 year old brands have a backstory and nothing about their company logo/brand is a mistake. These top companies plan everything out from the bottom to the

top and their content is meaningful. Companies like Apple create an experience instead of a product. I learned that it’s not about just creating a business and making money. It’s about living your life in the way that you

feel it should be lived and sharing that with others in a business experience. It’s more about connecting with the people and growing your business based on relationships instead of blasting people with your product.

Page 6: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS FINANCE

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

In our finance class we created a three year Pro Forma which included everything from marketing, sales, salaries, employee benefits, etc. This document consisted of everything we

needed to start a business and run it for three years including start up costs and other miscellaneous expenses. We also learned how to calculate break even amounts. This class

was very important because it really helps you think about everything before starting a business. It helps you see the bigger picture and know what you are getting into.

For example, office supplies, insurance, keeping a lawyer on retainer. All of these expenses will add up in the long run and making a financial statement that calculates your net and gross sales along with total expenses and deductions for a three year period is something

that every business plan will need.

Page 7: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

NEGOTIATION & DEAL MAKING

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

This class taught me a lot about finding out what truly matters in a conversation. The greatest thing this class taught me was to learn the underlying interests in a negotiation or conversation. We could argue all day about “Positions” and weather you believe this

or I believe that. Once you get down to what really matters, everything else seems to fade away. For example, Usually If I’m going to meet someone famous or someone who is very well respected in the industry, I try to make it the best moment ever and I try to say the right thing, wear the right thing and do the right thing. But that usually makes me seem very awkward. After learning about different negotiation techniques, I was

able to speak with confidence and a purpose.

I got to speak with Marcella Araica (mixing engineer for Timbaland, Missy Elliot and many others) in person and I was able to identify to Marcella my main passions and

goals in life outside of mixing and engineering. Yeah mixing and engineering is great, but that’s not really why I do it. I was able to tell her that I really want to inspire people and

help the youth through music. Music was just a platform for me to do that. So after knowing my own interests I was able to relate to her on another level to the point where she saw what I saw deep down in myself instead of just someone trying to get a job or a picture with her. This lead to Marcella actually giving me her personal email address to contact her if I ever needed anything. Which in my eyes, is much better than a job offer.

Page 8: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

PRODUCT & ARTIST MANAGEMENT

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

You cannot always control everyone’s destiny. No matter how much you think you can help someone in the way that you feel is the best for them, that might not always be the best thing for them at the moment. People are going to be people and the best thing that you can do is let them be themselves. But also let them know that you are there for them if they ever need your advice or someone to talk to. From a manager’s standpoint this makes a lot of sense.

Work with people that fit into your goals and plans as a manager. Make sure the people that you work with fit with your personality. This will make for a great team.

The second key learning experience for me in this class was learning how to be all in when making a commitment to an artist. We learned that you need to make sure that you will be behind an artist’s decisions no matter what happens, in essence, marry your job. This can also go as far as applying this to your life. Lots of times, we commit half way to things and give 50% to certain areas. I realized that we need to give 100% in the right areas and stop

worrying about things that we cannot commit to and or control. Even if it seems like a great opportunity, You have to think about yourself and how you will fit into that opportunity. If the

artist is great and there’s a chance for money, but you don't agree with their lyrics, then it would be much better to find another artist with lyrics that you don't mind standing by. This

will make the manager/artist relationship much better.

Page 9: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

ADVANCED ENTERTAINMENT LAW

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

I’ve learned more than I expected to learn this month about entertainment law. The main concept that I will take from this class is that a great lawyer is essential in

today’s entertainment industry. If you are just starting out, you need to keep our eyes open, do your research and keep a paper trail of every business transaction. It’s easy to think that certain moments aren’t important. It’s easy to think that contracts and

agreements aren’t needed for smaller transactions. But this thinking will get you sued and in lots of trouble. After learning from this class, i’ve realized that I have

100’s and 100’s of instrumentals that I’ve sold in the past that I can’t do anything with now because I gave away the exclusive rights to use them.

I wish I could dive deep into some of the better concepts that I’ve learned this month but for the sake of time, I will go over one main concept. This is the concept of

transferring ownership of your copyright. If you are a creator who makes content and you’re going into negotiations with another company, you really need to make sure that you read the contract thoroughly. There are many ways to write words into a contract that will transfer the full copyright over to the person interested in your

material. This can be a very bad thing. If you aren’t paying attention, you could be signing a contract that will get you into a lot of trouble in the future if you aren’t

careful. In this class we studied court cases and learned legal terminology. Understanding contract language can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in

the future.

Page 10: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTION

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

This month we created a 4 page publishing strategy for a piece of work detailing the specifics about how we will execute a certain goal. In previous months, we have learned everything from Artist Management to Branding and even some Advanced Entertainment

Law concepts. This class came right on time, teaching us how to publish our creative content the traditional way and teaching us ways to self publishing our works. One thing that really stuck out to me this month was learning about how publishers usually need

concrete evidence of why they should take a chance in publishing your work. We learned about how the industry changed from accepting unsolicited works to barely accepting

anything at all without proper representation.

It was good to learn that getting an agent or having someone speak on my behalf would give me a big leg up. But it was even better to learn that even though you have an

agent, doesn’t mean you will be set for life. You need to have an agent or someone to represent you (Lawyer, Manager, Publisher) that has experience or knows a lot about the field that you want to go into. For example, if you are a painter, it would do you no good to have a literary agent. The same goes for your lawyer. You wouldn’t want to hire a traffic lawyer for any litigation dealing with copyright infringement. Just because you have an

agent doesn’t mean they can do any better than you at finding publishers.

Page 11: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

DIGITAL MARKETING

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

To the left is a marketing canvas which consists of the many workings of my company. This canvas is meant to ensure vision and quality within a business. We also learned about advanced marketing techniques using

google tools. For example; the Keyword Planner page of Google Adwords, will give the monthly search volume of keywords, how much competition there is for those keywords and the suggested bid price (suggested bid

price will only be used for pay per click campaigns.) With this information, now I can conduct a Google search for each keyword in parentheses. This

will give me the exact amount of search results there are for each keyword. The goal is to have high monthly search volume and low search results.

That is one way to optimize your keyword results and bring more value to your businesses SEO efforts.

Another piece of information that we’ve learned is in regard to learning how to pinpoint our target market and knowing how to get your products to

them easier. Our teacher explained to us that everyone speaks different. Everyone communicates in different ways. Is your target market a group of scientists? Or are they Middle School students? If they are Middle School students, they probably will search the web with in very different ways. A

middle school student may search, “How high can kangaroos jump?” A scientist may search, “Highest elevation recorded for members of the

Macropodidae Family?” It’s all about knowing your target market so well that you are literally tailoring your ads to them. I’ve always known this, but I never knew how to fully put it into practice. This class has taught me how

to think deeper about marketing, even in the way that I type an ad.

Page 12: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

BUSINESS PLAN DEVELOPMENT

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

My business plan making skills were strengthened just by listening and taking in the knowledge of someone who had been in the field for many years for around 12 hours per week. The course showed us a lot about making the business look good for investors and

knowing the things that make them tick.

I also learned about business structures and how to make sure you can keep control in important situations by writing your own laws into place regarding shares and stock options

for owners of the company. For instance, I learned a little bit about how stocks work in a company and different ways that shares can be distributed. The instructor this month told a story about a businessman who wrote into plan that his shares would be worth 10,000 votes in the company. Everyone else’s shares only represented 1 vote. So when decisions are made,

it will be much harder for someone to buy lots of stock and become a majority holder to change the direction of the company. Before this class I had no idea what stocks were for

besides the fact that you could sell them and make money. After getting insight in this area, my eyes were opened yet again to another field of study.

Page 13: Justin Black Entertainment Business Masters Program Reflection

FINAL BUSINESS PLAN

Full Sail UniversityEntertainment Business Masters Degree

One of my favorite classes was the Final Business Plan class. We finished our 24 page business plan with full financial documentation, marketing plan and vision. This class was priceless in my eyes because we have gained the knowledge to create businesses from the

ground up. We have also gained the knowledge to present this plan to a potential investor in a way where they will be very impressed with our knowledge about how business plans

work. I came into this class just wanting to finish a business plan, but I left with the knowledge on

how to take an idea, turn it into concrete business plan and execute a strategy to begin rolling out the product and or service. This clashes taken my knowledge of business to a different level and showed me how I can start making and building companies from the

ground up.