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Advanced Entertainment Law

Advanced Entertainment Law

 My mastery journey through this course has been a little rough. I had this course circled on my calendar because I expected it to be very challenging and full of legal jargon that I was going to have to decipher. Needless to say, this class did not let me down. From the start, we dove into legal case studies that were all relevant to what it is I am doing. Being able to learn about copyright law was extremely important and something I knew we would be covering. I had hoped to learn the process of claiming all my copyrights and trademarks and make sure everything is registered correctly and legally. I needed to know where my copyright would and would not be valid.

I will be able to gain off of the concepts in this course by being able to profit off of the copyrights and trademarks that I own. Also, I will be able to protect myself against copyright infringement. That works both ways. I will be able to make sure I do not get sued and I will be able to protect my work and sue somebody for stealing my work.

My goals in this class were to watch more Lynda videos over copyright laws. I did not get to this but when you are hustling seven days a week in Los Angeles to make rent, some things get left by the side of the road. I do not want to make this a regular practice, but when other people are paying for my services, their work will always come first.

Overall I would say this class will come in use. I was lucky to study a large portion of this stuff while going through my Bachelor’s Degree. Being able to protect your work is key to being successful in the entertainment industry. Some may say it is the most important thing.

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Product & Artist Management

I actually went into this class expecting to learn the ins and outs of artist management and how to deal with the everyday life of this career. Since I am pursuing a career in this field I had this class circled on my schedule. I took away a few things in this class. Most of them being how to deal with artists and how to promote your artists. I also really enjoyed the research assignment into different talent agencies. By doing this i actually was able to secure an interview for a intern position with a very prestigious company here in LA. Shortly after, I signed my first artist. I have been using the skills I have learned over the last few months to start negotiating performance contracts for my artist and make a little money on the side. If any of you have lived in LA you know how you have to wear different hats in order to make it out here at first. I have had to attend a few meetings with my artist and in  no time at all i was able to really WOW him into trusting me with his career. I approach everything as a product in the music business because that is what it really is. My guy is making art and I am selling it. Luckily, I have a history of working in the sales industry and have some past success in doing so. Product management was not really my thing but I did have some take away. The big one was this final weeks discussion board. I really liked how Ryan Leslie preached about being authentic with your audience. I also liked how we studying narrowing your audience down into a niche market.I am starting to play around with these principles and have found some success. I recently created a new video and did a paid advertisement with a very direct target market. Before I rarely had any interaction with these paid ads, but today I am already up to 30+ interactions and some 60 likes and follows. That may not seem like much on the grand scale of a major star but for me, it is a big deal.

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Negotiating & Deal Making

I took away a few things from this class. To begin I learned how to find a common ground during a negotiation to work towards a common goal. I also learned about the techniques of negotiating. If I am able to master all these techniques I will become a master negotiator. My goal with this course was to learn how to prepare for a business negotiation. I wanted to learn what I should prepare for. I learned about underlying interests as well as how to prepare neutral criteria. By knowing what your clients bargaining position and underlying interests are, you are able to find ways to work out a deal with them. I hope that I will be able to use these techniques one day when conducting business on a large scale.

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Digital MarketingMastery Journal Post

This week we are to write about what we learned on our Lynda class. I took the class on YouTube marketing because it was the social media channel that I use most often and am most interested in. I as very glad I did this. Even though it was a 3 hour course, I spent almost ten hours going through it and setting up my YouTube channel and making it look professional. I already had been using YouTube for over five years now and always wondered how to make it look like the professional’s sites. I was able to make the layout look professional. I learned how to monetize my content. I was able to really dig into all the analytics and see what I should be paying attention to. This has changed how I will create content for YouTube in the future. I will now be more interested in how long I can retain someones attention versus just putting out as much content as possible. If I am able to put out a video a week, and make it something worthwhile even if its not too long, I will be able to make a little bit of money off the sight. this also comes into play when I am trying to build a fanbase. By putting out a steady stream of content, I will be able to really push outward on my fan engagement. This is something that I have been trying to focus on with minimal success so far. I really need to work on improving my content and making videos that people want to watch all the way through. That is the one take away that has made the most impact on me. Until now, I have only put up music with a picture as the background. I want to focus on creating stories that go along with whatever it is I am doing. I can do something as simple as live stream a recording session. Or put a video together of me mastering a song, or mixing a vocal session. I don’t necessarily have to give away secrets, just show people what I am doing.

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Entertainment Business Finance

This class was very challenging for me personally. Starting out in week one I had to do a massive amount of personal research just to build a foundation to build on. It took me a full week just to read the initial three chapters of text.

I did however learn many valuable lessons that will come in handy when I begin to search for investors in my business. I had built a skeleton budget and had some items already priced out before this class. But when we started plugging everything in the Pro Forma chart, I began to find new items that I needed to fit into an updated budget. I learned little things like how to plan for insurance, payroll, maintenance and depreciation. By building this Pro Forma Statement I can know see how quickly this business can become successful. I initially thought that by securing 500 clients, I could maintain the business. Now I see that if we are able to average 1000 clients a show, we will be very profitable. I also learned how to build the profit-loss section of my budget and this will help me with how much I am going to secure with loans and investors. I also learned a little about investing. I have never invested my money before, but after this class I am seriously considering it.Being able to put my money to work and build a nice nest egg to retire on is the ultimate goal with this. I learned how to read income statements and will put this to use when figuring out what company I want to invest in. This is also helpful to consider some companies to try to work with. I am trying to learn fromm other companies and now I can see how companies are doing before I even submit a resume.

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Business Storytelling & Brand Development

To be honest I didn’t have too many expectations when it came to this call. My brand is something that I have been working on for over five years now and feel like I have a pretty good grasp of where I am and where I need to go. The things I took away from this class was building a story behind the brand. Even though I knew I wanted to build everything around community, this class really showed me how important it is to show that in everything that I do. I think I have become more involved with my fellow artists as the class has progressed because I have focused on how I can give back to them more. Also I have tried to be more informative on social media versus self promoting. Branding and storytelling will help me in my professional life by giving a means for clients to feel connected to my brand. To help them see what I am trying to achieve and let them know how, when, and what they can do to get involved with us. I think that is very important when it comes to my business. Especially with the focus being around building the community.

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My goal for Project Manager

This class has been great! I started off this class with an idea and it has really transformed into something special. I plan on taking the skills that I have learned and using them to build my festival. I have already begun to piece my team together and lay out the groundwork for things to come. I want to use some of the spreadsheets that we built to eventually start pitching this idea to investors. I have already secured most of the financing, but any extra would really help us out. I also will be using the last weeks activities to find other team members. I never really thought about connecting personalities together but it really makes sense. All together this classic the foundation from which I will build the rest of my project from. It has been great and thank you

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Leadership Mastery Journal Post

               What kind of leader am I? I have asked myself this question numerous times while reading both of the books for this month. Wanting to get into artist management and the entertainment industry in general, I see the need for Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power. Being able to have and hold that edge over the people you deal with in the industry is crucial to your and your artist’s success. Keeping that in mind at all times, I will still try to approach everything from a perspective closer to Maxwell’s Developing the Leader Within You. I think that having a foundation built on the principles and skills discussed in Maxwell will help you know how far to push Greene’s laws when making tough decisions.

           I will start with Maxwell’s book. I believe using Integrity with every decision you make will, in the long run, be of great benefit to both you and the people who follow you. “Integrity is not as much what we do as who we are.” (Maxwell, page 37) If I run my business with the highest level of integrity I will never have to answer for any unethical behaviors. By running my business like this people will be more apt to trusting me. I have always lived by the phrase, “lead by example” when representing myself and my clients. When I was running restaurants, how could I expect my employees to show up everyday in clean clothes, on time, and treat each and every single customer with a friendly helpful attitude if I did not do the same? Like Maxwell says in the book, Integrity helps a leader be credible and helps you have a solid reputation, not just image. (Maxwell, page 41)

I have already started using the Pareto Principle every week. (Maxwell, page 24) Being able to have a visual representation of the tasks that I need to perform and the urgency that they need to be completed has been a huge help. I also believe that change is inevitable and difficult but necessary for any professional. I have moved between cities and states, and held multiple different positions within completely opposing industries. I have worked in restaurant management, construction, animal health, all while working towards my Mastery in audio engineering and now artist management. Change has never been a difficult thing for me to do. Unfortunately, most other people can be extremely resistant to change. (Maxwell, page 58) I believe the only way to grow and be a better you is to make steps towards positive change. If I would have never accepted change I would not have lived such a thrilling life full of new adventures and fresh faces. I have made connections from coast to coast and it has only made me a better rounded individual.

The final Maxwell trait that I would like to discuss would be Self-Discipline. (Maxwell, page 161) I believe besides integrity, self-discipline is the most crucial skill you must learn in order to be successful and lead successful people. This is all about setting and following rules with you. I don’t have to like getting up at six in the morning on my day off after working forty hours and doing school all week, but it is my self-discipline that makes me get up and go put in the work needed to get ahead. If you are not working then someone else is getting better than you. I always try to feel the fire on the back of my neck to keep me moving forward and making progress. If I did not have that drive, then how can I ask the people around me to work hard? It really goes back to leading by example. These are all key skills I deem necessary to be successful in entertainment. If I am able to take this foundation and mix them with Greene’s laws I will always be the master of my own destiny.

Now I would like to move into Robert Greene’s book, The 48 Laws of Power. Law number twenty eight is where I would like to start and I will be trying to incorporate these laws into how they can be used in conjunction with Maxwell’s laws which will dominate most of my decisions. Law number twenty eight states, “Enter action with boldness.” (Greene) I see this law as really taking chances and letting yourself live on the edge of failure at all times. Through all these failures you will only create positive change. I think it is also about avoiding conflict. If you are to avoid conflict all the time, people will only walk all over you and you will always be too timid to put your foot down and proclaim you dominance. I would use this practice in event coordination mostly. By writing scripts and putting together stunts I am giving my artists the opportunity to really make an impact in a room full of people. I will also be applying the seventh law which is letting other do the work for you, but always taking credit. (Greene) This law I will use especially when putting together shows. Just because my entertainment company is putting on the show doesn’t mean that I need to run all the cables and set up lights and microphones and run sound check. I do not need to build the stage props and costumes, but I can let everyone know who enjoyed the show that it was my company that put it together. With that being said, I believe in giving credit when credit is due. The final law is the thirty eighth law which is to create a compelling spectacle. (Greene) I really see no downside to this law. I think that imagery has to compliment everything today. No longer do most people just listen to a new song. You have to supply a video or performance of the song in order to get peoples attention. This goes with shows as well. I see the importance, and want to incorporate it into all our shows, of creating something memorable for the people to enjoy. I blank stage with no props is not going to cut it. I want props and scripts and explosions and lights. I want to give everything to the people who pay their money and spend their time to come out and support our cause.

I believe if I use both of these books together I can really build something great in the world of entertainment. By combining the morals and principles of the Maxwell book with the cut throat tactics of Greene’s, you will have all the tools needed to lead yourself and others.

 References

Greene, R. (2000). The 48 Laws of Power. London: Penguin Books.

MAXWELL, J. (2018). DEVELOPING THE LEADER WITHIN YOU. NASHVILLE: THOMAS NELSON.

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Inspirational Post #3

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This is some great insight from Jeff Dorenfeld on your role as an artist’s manager. I think it is great how he says you need to work with someone who has a vision and where they want to go. It is almost impossible to try to take someone who isn't driven and try to make them into your vision. It is not about you it is about making someone else’s (your artist) dreams a reality.

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I chose this name title because I think it resembles my business logo. I think it is important to have something that really makes you stick out but isn’t too much. I went with something subtle and simple with my logo. The circle with the quarter inch cable shaped into a sound wave going across it was a perfect statement for what we do. When I was building it in photoshop I used the glow of the eyes on Deadmau5′s Lack of a Better Name album as a reference. I think it is very current with the trend of EDM and all the lights and razors that you see at a show.

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This Feedly reader will be great for following and saving articles. I kind of feel like Twitter would be just as much use as this because most of the articles I was finding and following were the same places I follow on Twitter with the same articles. This does have a much cleaner layout, and I really like how you can separate things into categories and keep things professional looking. 

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I have been using LinkedIn for a while now. I think it is important because it puts you on a professional social platform. It is also very useful when you need to look for jobs, people, and companies in your industry. 

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I started this papaly page in hopes to keep track of important news articles and industry leads that I could use later. I think that it is always important to save things like these so that you don't forget them and also so you have something to look at when you need something to push you forward. You can visit my page and see what I have at https://papaly.com/milesknox.

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Rodney Mullen on overcoming failure and getting back up again after every single setback

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Intention Statement

Hello everyone and welcome to my opening statements for this, My Mastery Journal’s first entry. I would like to start by saying how excited I am to be starting down this path towards becoming a master in my chosen field of Entertainment Business. What I hope to achieve over the next twelve months starts with this class and leadership. I hope to learn strategies on team building and leadership. I believe I already possess outstanding leadership skills from my years of running restaurants, but want to learn how to incorporate them into the entertainment industry. I want these skills to translate into my business as I begin to piece my team together to get my business off the ground. There are so many moving pieces in this industry and it truly takes a concerted effort to get projects launched. I also hope to become an expert in writing contracts, work orders, and sync and licensing requests. I see a lot of job ads looking for people just to deal with licensing. I hope by completing classes like Advanced Entertainment Law this will open up doors for me to possibly obtain an entry level position with one of these companies. I could later apply the tools and lessons I have learned to my own business. I also hope to learn about finding and luring business investors. My goal of starting my own entertainment business is going to take financiers, and it will be necessary to find sponsors to help me fund events and shows. In the end, my ultimate goal would be to sign my own acts, help them record and distribute their own material, and book tour and shows for them. I know there is a long road ahead of me to get to where I want to be, but I think taking these courses is a step in the right direction. I wish everyone the best of luck in their journey and please contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Regards,

Miles Knox