ryanhsummers

[ryanhsummers]

Business Plan Presentation Post

It's kind of surreal to be at the end of the degree program. It hasn't seemed like a long dragged-out process. I think this is mostly because each course tends to keep you pretty busy. I learned a new level of time management over the last year. I think this has seemed like a longer process to my wife. She's never complained, but I've certainly taken time away from my family on the weekends. I usually tried to finish as much of my work during the week as I possibly could. I've never been one to allow others to determine my deadlines. I always tend to start assignments as soon as they're open, so I don't run into last minute problems. This also allowed me to ask the course directors questions during the week while they were still around. I'll give a run down of the courses here -

Mastery - I think the best part about the Mastery course, was Dan Spellman. He seemed like a genuinely positive and considerate person. I hear he left to go do some marketing work for Universal. I would have liked to have him in the Digital Marketing course, and I was looking forward to spending more time with him. Professor Woodward took over some of the Digital Marketing responsibilities, and he did a fine job. The Mastery course started me thinking about my goals more - within context of my career. It made me feel like I needed to do more research in general and it taught me to take on my research of my own in figuring out how I can create opportunities for myself.

Executive Leadership - Executive Leadership was an interesting course. I like the books we got for it. I'm a pretty big fan of John Maxwell. I think he has a pretty good feel for demystifying management concepts. On the other hand, I'm not much of a Robert Greene fan, unless I want to pick up some ideas about how to obliterate other people for my own gain. I know that's not the entire point of his writing, but I find his concepts to be a little more difficult to practice.  I also felt some of his examples were a little bit of a stretch. This made the subjective grading of the assignments a little annoying. Overall, I took away from this course the necessity of really lifting people in management. I have always felt this way anyway, so it wasn't a challenging adjustment.

Project and Team Management - Professor Lester introduced me to project management software. I really like organizing things and creating timelines. I appreciate the free use of the software we were given while in the class. I hope the school has an opportunity to partner with another software developer at some point, because this software is a little buggy and that can be scary. I really want to run the Monday management software online, but it's pricey to spend $30mo for it, so I'm not there. I look forward to taking these legitimate concepts into my future planning work in my career and look forward to using this kind of software as well.

Business and Storytelling - I remember specifically getting into Adobe Spark for the first time and I hated it. I felt so limited. It wasn't fair to the course, but I remember trying to record voiceovers per slide rather than a narrated presentation take like we did for our final business presentation. I also spent a lot of time trying to figure out my business name. The name I settled on at the time was Orbalign. I was looking for a unique brand name I could trademark. I bought the URL and everything. Later I decided on High Harbor, but that URL was $1000, so I went with "High Harbors". It was a good exercise in brand identity and helped me discover the process for solidifying a name which allows you to reserve all of the social media channels that go with it.

Entertainment Business Finance - I thought this course would be really difficult, but I learned early on that I could find Excel formulas for everything and that made everything much more understandable. When you don't have to retain all of the math formulas, you can focus on the concepts a lot more. I think academically, the program is missing an opportunity to utilize Excel a lot more by showing students how to organize formulas for these things and creating a single document to use for reference. Instead, it becomes very intimidating to read through the book. In that course you have to watch the GoTo sessions with Chris before doing the reading. I tended to start the reading immediately. I learned I spent a lot more time worrying that way. This course forced me to lay out the math formulas for how my business plan would work. That took some time, but I like Excel and it was a real accomplishment for me. I spent more time in that course developing things than any other course. I was time well-spent.

Digital Marketing - Digital Marketing was good, but it was a little unorganized. Around this time, I also purchased a little book written by a family friend - Flint McGlaughlin from MECLABS. It's called The Marketer as Philosopher. It's all about understanding marketing from a perspective of understanding people and ultimately what it takes to cause people to click on every "call to action" to get a conversion. Since this course, I am much more critical of website design in general. I think that's a good thing. I think the less money a website has for implementing financial tools, the more calls to action they have to cycle for the buyer to purchase something. This is a detriment to conversions and revenue. I feel a good strong understanding of these things - tying in social media channels and digital retail tools together as efficiently as possible to create conversions.

Negotiation and Dealmaking - I liked this course for one simple reason. It trained me to be confrontational on purpose. I've always had an issue being confrontational, but when I understood how it is expected and you're supposed to return a better position for yourself, it made negotiation a fun concept to review. I liked this course. It also helped me save money on my car purchase a few moths ago…

Product and Artist Management - This course was good for helping me plan some personal marketing ideas for a music release I was working on. I planned a printing of a dual CD manufacturing. I also recognized that most CD printing services don't do dual CD printing any more. This was a good course for helping me understand how to create a target market and put an honest price value on goods sold. I think sometimes we find it hard to be honest about out market and what we can get.

Advanced Entertainment Law - This course gave me a good, continued understanding of contract language from the Negotiation course. It also helped me understand legitimate liabilities in my business model and how to cover for those. Starting a business is all about minimizing liabilities. My business model requires a number of legal agreements and contract templates. This helped me prepare for that process.

Entertainment Media Publishing - During the month, Professor Kim was recognized as educator of the year. This course came along right at a good time for me as I was preparing to promote a music release. I learned about the use of professional communication to reach out to publishers and music supervisors. This set my official release back because I recognized the work I needed to put into this and didn't have time for. My emails are ready to go out in a few weeks now that I'll have more time.

Business Plan Development - What can I say? My business plan is over 30 pages. This was the culmination of everything. It made the work I put in for the full degree program worth it, to finally summarize everything into this document. I feel good about my first business plan, but I also recognize that my business plans in the future will be much more cleanly developed. The first one is rarely the best one. I think I did good for my business concept though. I learned the uniqueness of my network marketing business and the challenge of pitching something so different from a typical revenue model.

Final Project Business Plan - I've enjoyed putting the finishing touches on the business plan and seeing the presentation through. In some ways, I was adjusting things right up to the last minute as Professor Bill was giving me suggestions. I don’t think a business is ever really fully developed until you get into it. I've understood the business plan is essential for documenting the process you've taken to think of as much as possible. It’s the only way to prove to investors that you're serious.

I'm proud of the process we all took and appreciate the organization of the degree. I think that due to the subject matter, this could be something that is always constantly evolving in the way the academics are organized. The process brought me through my first business plan and the presentation of it. I feel like I really know what I'm doing and know what I'm talking about. That makes it a relief to see the time I committed to it go to good use and contribute to my overall growth.

Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

BPD Mastery Post

According to my digital portfolio timeline, this is the stage I planned to establish the business as a legitimate revenue-generating business. In the initial stages of the degree program, I had this business concept I wanted to explore and determine how it might all work. This concept of a network marketing business model for nonprofit revenue generation actually started from a backward perspective of creating an environment where creative artists could be leveraged and supported by incentivized companies who look to hire them. That is where the need for a cause came into the picture and where the nonprofit angle pulled everything together. I had the concept of the model very early on, but I feel the survivability of it and the legitimacy of it was completely hypothetical until we began forming this business plan this month, in combination with the budget preparation. In the Finance class, I had designed a full staff and resources to make this business plan work, knowing the growth would be continuous and eventually generate considerable revenues. Faced with the mandate of restoring an investment by the end of the third year, changes everything for me. Even up to this last week, I assumed I'd be able to incorporate more staff and resources than I legitimately can in reality, if I am to generate revenues in the third year. 

One of the main issues with my business model, which I can see clearly now, is that I know it must be developed in a small, regional ecosystem first. The launch must be a tightly-controlled grassroots campaign of a select group of businesses, in order to establish healthy networking. This means the business wouldn't benefit from more of an investment up front, because it's not product or volume based. A network has to grow. More money doesn't register more nonprofits, relationships do. A larger investment would affect things like travel, a few more staff, and a more legitimate office environment. However, these things will not show a direct increase in growth and revenue. They will fortify the business model until more significant revenues come about. The fact of this business concept is that by the fourth year, revenues are comfortably in the black. I did not plan it that way, but that appears to be the appropriate span for revenue development. 

This course of Business Plan Development has helped me understand and recognize all of these details. It was always a concept with a slight blur, until the rules of investment and pitch were set this month. I needed these rules. It has taken the puzzle pieces of my past developments and illuminated the adjustments that must take place for this all to work together to form a cohesive, viable company in the real world. Only now, at this stage, do I see how it can all be presented together as a complete package - the business design, web plan, staff plan, outlook schedule, tutorials, legal development, and specific budgeting - as a potential commitment to a legitimate investor.

I'm looking forward to the continued development of this concept and the final stages of the presentation in next month's course. It will be very rewarding to experience the final outcome. 

Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

MPD Mastery Post

In my Mastery timeline, I entered something extremely generic for several courses, including this one. For example, I stated, "I need to link my portfolio directly to distribution channels of my creative projects." Really, a link to Spotify sort of solves this, doesn't it? Way to go, Ryan. Huge strides there!

This course, though not even completed, has aligned with my personal position in business, very well. As I've been going through the degree program, I have 2 different objectives. First, I have a music release I've been working through with the development and implementation of my own publishing company. Second, I have a business model idea which transforms the dynamic of art content creation by aligning creators with non-profit organizations through an online platform. I feel like traveling through the program with either one of these alone, would create quite a challenge, because the courses shift between products and global business practices, regularly. Having both options to explore each course, gives me material for every scenario.

This month, with the Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution course, we're discussing a lot of material I already figured out on my own earlier this year. However, I've already gleaned some good insights about professional communication with licensing agents and discovered a new, appropriate order for marketing outreach, press kit development, review solicitation, and promotion. It’s funny. I don't know why I didn't process this before. A new music release should begin with a pre-release to a select group of professionals - just to get quotes for press kits. The whole point is to promote. Rather than releasing the music and saying, "Here’s my music, check it out, everyone." The best idea, is to send a handful of marketing packets to a select group, in order to solicit feedback. This feedback is crucial, if only to secure a few quotes. I know in marketing today, everyone is looking for a quote from that one personality for their product. I just hadn't attached that to a song before within the context of what I do. The reason this is so important for me, is I make instrumental music. My avenue for income is music licensing. I need to be able to design a press kit and release story with real feedback and reaction of others to my music, with examples of how it could be used. I need to be able to sell a licensor on 5 minutes of their time to devote to my tracks. This is an impossible task, made only nearly-impossible with the strategy I can implement. I have some good creative ideas now, for how to set up and leverage those few minutes. As I've completed the content with this course, I've been very comfortable with the work, as it's easy for me, but I've also been pleasantly surprised at the insights I've received. They are causing me to plan a whole new strategy for how I release this music and new music in the future. I thought I had accomplished so much just to get to this point in my release. I'm recognizing that in order to do it right - that one shot to make an impression on someone - I still have quite a few steps to complete. But, I like that I know the steps and I know the "why".

 Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

Advanced Entertainment Law Journal Post

Advanced Law isn't something I generally look forward to, but I enjoyed this course and the concepts I learned, more than expected. I still struggle with some APA formatting standards, but that's honestly a bit of my own apathy to perfect my writing and citing of things expertly, even though I know the importance of it.

Before taking this course, I had already begun 6 Days, Ltd. I intended to use this as a general business cover for music production, visual media, publishing, and any other creative business purpose. Naturally, I wrote up this extensive and vague description of what it would all entail. Then, I took this class and learned I could have just entered, "Every legal purpose."

Ooooookaayyyy then...

In an effort to practice a publishing contract, I structured one with myself as an artist and publisher separately for a recent music release. I then registered 6 Days Creative as a publisher with BMI and entered the royalty breaks between the artist and publisher. What this course has confronted me with is the detail in the contract I used. I pulled a template from an entertainment website and reviewed it for adjustments to details, but I have come to appreciate new specific details I would now change. The agreement provides 6 Days a publishing administration fee of 15% of gross receipts, rather than net receipts. In my case, there is no difference, but I would renegotiate this as an artist. It also allows the publisher to enter into sub-publishing at an extra 5-10%. This wording would have to be adjusted as online licensing companies often have specific percentages which would have to be allowed. There is nothing in the agreement about Severability or settling disputes. This is obviously a problem. There should clear cut guidelines for these things. It is a simple 2-year contract. That is fine. So, in the end, I'm able to practice some adjustments to my own business model and consult others on best practices.

My capstone project involves a number of registration roles who will enter into agreements with my business platform and also with each other. This course confronted me with the responsibility to create contract templates for the various roles to utilize with each other. It also confronted me with the responsibility to absolve the business from the liabilities presented by the registered parties and their companies. This will actually be a dual-fold purpose for me to establish accountability within the organization, and secondly, to legally protect the business from disputes perpetuated by others. Liability insurance and coverage was always part of the office plan. My experience here also introduced me to the potential of how my business risks identity theft and other information privacy. I need to be mindful of security, device access, and software and cloud-storage plans with specific safeguards.

 This has been a positive, intriguing, and enlightening month. It was a bright spot I didn’t anticipate.

Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

Product and Artists Management Journal Entry

In my digital portfolio timeline for the degree program I stated for this course, “I need to show a capability to link art to distribution.” I don’t have an interest in managing artists and taking on aspects of their lives to help them fulfill their potential. In that respect, I felt like I was going through the motions for the first few weeks. I have taken away certain aspects from the artist management side, such as understanding finer details of contracts and ownership, and the cohesiveness required to earn a consistent living that way. If I spend too much time with another individual, I will adjust my personality to be more like them and lose myself. Fortunately, my wife and I get along great because we view and approach many things in the same way. From the start of this course, the assignments focused on maintaining a professional demeanor – even in the heat of conflicts with other’s desires and personalities. It’s good to be confronted with the likelihood that there will be conflicts in our professional exploits because everything we do involves other people. This topic also connected with the negotiation strategies we learned previously as there was a string focus to always be as polite as possible and maintain positive energy in our body language. For me, I want to develop a broader approach to practicing my own ideas and releasing them through the products I create. My interest in this course is more through the lens of product management. In this way, I feel this course is really a “Digital Marketing 2.0” experience. What I’m understanding more and more is that it’s not just about managing my one product, but managing the development of other products around my one main product. On the side of this degree program, I have already researched a number of things including setting up a business, publishing, distribution, and registrations. Much of the initial reading implemented in this course overlapped those things. I appreciate the further peeks into the way products can be leveraged and distributed into today’s entertainment market – and the further suggestions to find the narrowed path I can carve out for myself.

Thank you, Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

Negotiation and Deal Making Journal Review

My main objective for this course was to learn more of the psychology of negotiating and presenting myself and my interests to others. The material provided in this course has given me some things to consider with regard to how I handle myself in negotiation and contractual situations. It also presented me with a bit of experience now and an understanding of how impersonal the negotiating process can be. Negotiation is a procedure and we’re learning the procedures. 

I now personally own a publishing company. I am also a musician and recording artist. In the process of setting up my company, I discovered that there were web sites I could use to download and implement templates for contracts. It gave me a place to start from as a business-owner, so I didn’t have to have such a broad understanding of contracts from the start. I’m looking forward to the advanced law class coming up shortly, but I have also taken away a few things with regard to what goes into a contract. For example, the concepts of severability and mediation in a contract are really important. The ability to maintain a large part of the contract without a particular clause being maintained - and then that clause being able to be negotiated through mediation - is an example of how those could work together. I’ve been in accidents before and had to undergo the mediation process, so it’s pretty straightforward to me now. However, the defining characteristic of this course is to understand how particular agreements really need to be in order to establish accountability and create order. Win-win scenarios are essentially only possible with clear accountability from and for all parties involved. 

One of the clear ways I need to apply some of the concepts in this course to myself is in my open communication during agreements. I tend to be stoic and observant, but there are times I really need to be more engaging and event feign reactions and emotion to things that happen in a negotiation. I have a pretty good mind and approach to researching things I don’t know or things I need to know more about. I like to make informed decisions. While the advanced law course may focus more on the contractual side of agreements, this course focuses much more on the open communication and body language associated with agreements when they occur. I need to focus and be present in these situations and be mindful to be open to other parties and gauge my reactions wisely. In general, I have very good discernment about people, but only with the research component will I be able to see their ulterior motives and underlying interests cleanly. 

This journal requirement feels a bit premature, but I’m enjoying the way this is making me think and prompting me to be more specific and document everything I do while moving forward. 

Ryan 

[ryanhsummers]

Digital Marketing Journal Post

My business interests have changed since the Mastery course. This month I found myself in the middle of a music release that went off the rails. It was interesting to see how I was learning to gear up for the marketing outreach, while simultaneously needing to hold my position and not do any marketing at all, because my music has to come down to be redistributed. Anyway, my original goals for the course were to learn how to monitor social media traffic and how to tie together a marketing campaign across several marketing channels. Having just completed my final presentation, I feel I have achieved a realistic level for those goals. This month, the eMarketing book by Robert Stokes proved to be a good resource for digital marketing content online. I found some useful online resources for things I wanted to set up for my own business. I feel there is a significant component missing, which is a variable of understanding how people “funnel” from one location to another. Even the course instructor in the videos referred to “funneling” in his presentations, but there was not a determined contribution to explain the objective of funneling. The objectives have to do with planning what consumers want and meeting them at that precise page with exactly the “call-to-action” to match. I picked up a lot of useful information integrating the company MECLabs (Marketing Experiments) along side my course material. I feel the two go together very well.

I think this was the course I have been looking forward to the most. I was disappointed to hear the main marketing instructor left, but such is life. There was one main disappointment with the organization of the course however - reading assignments. The reading assignments from week to week have us covering the entire eMarketing book - out of order. Sometimes this happens single chapters at a time. Also, there were multiple assignments conflicting with each other. Who organizes reading assignments like this? 

In the end, I have some valuable resources to carry forward. I’m looking forward to doing more research in this area and testing some product releases of my own soon - after I complete the Law course and figure out what to do with these music distributors... lol.

Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

Mastery Journal for Finance

Finance has seemed like one of the more intimidating topics to review for me personally. I never liked the process of math while growing up. In college, all of my effort went into choosing which professor to take for the math credit I had to show. After the grade curve between me and 40 football players, I received an A in the course. In my professional life, I've developed a significant troubleshooting mindset, however, and this has dramatically changed my perspective. I try harder to really understand the workings of things. That's really all finance is within context of this course. Initially as I read through the chapters of the book, I would calculate things on my own before reading further. As I read further through and things became more complex, I was a little concerned. I started searching for Excel templates online where all of these equations were provided and things became really easy. It caused me to wonder why Excel isn't used more as a tool in this course, but it filled in some gaps of concern I had as I traveled through the course. Now I have Excel templates for everything.

For the portfolio timeline, I had entered a desire to build a disciplined habit of projecting releases. We finished the course doing exactly that. I think what I took away from this process the most was the way that doing a pro forma sheet gives me the feedback I need to review the entire process more than what it shows a potential investor. As my business idea isn't real yet, in the real world, I would save multiple versions of this projection for myself first in order to make changes, reduce costs, fire people before I hire them, and streamline everything to determine a valid launching point for the official business.

With regard to implementing this information into my portfolio, I honestly have no idea. I'm to protective of my idea to share it with the world. I'm not uploading spreadsheets online, although I am emphasizing a good practice of Excel in my resume from now on. I don't actually like Excel much. I much prefer Numbers for the simple reason that Numbers allows me to create multiple tables formatted completely differently - on the same page. In Excel, you’re forced to link information across several sources which you can’t actually see at the same time.

In the end, I enjoyed what I learned in the class. I think this book works much better as a printed book and was able to find one at my library. I feel more confident moving forward, having peeked behind the curtain a bit. I also learned that Netflix seems to be a company in constant success and crisis at the same time. I don't wish that for my business plan, ever.

Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

An Organized Business Plan

My desire for this course in my portfolio elements assignment earlier in the year was, "I’d like to build an appropriate storyline around my brand and content creation which draws consumers in." 

I'm quite sure at the time I was planning things out very generically, because, well, how the heck do I know what I need to learn? That's a weird list to make in your second month of the year. My appreciation for the material of this course came in pretty early on - when I learned about the Business Model Generation Book. I have two things to say about this book. The first thing is that it very clearly shows the discrepancy between the Safari e-book style of displaying a book and having the physical book in your hand to reference and compare pages and topics. This book looks kind of neat in ebook style, but for the same reason it makes such a good printed book design, it is a horrible idea to use this as an ebook when you need to cross-reference pages as often as you need to. Even on Amazon, people were saying don't get the ebook. The second thing is that this is the first book I've purchased because I want to have it and to flip through it. It's a great book in print. It's available on Amazon for $24. I think it should just be a tuition item. It's designed well, it's interesting, and it helps things look less businessy. 

The Business Model Canvas was a great introduction to business layout and really helped me focus on how to organize the setup and execution of my business idea. Speaking of my business idea, in the beginning stages of the program, I wanted to use my own business as the example for all of my course assignments. I had filed for a sole-proprietorship and set the foundation for the record label and publishing company I'm setting up for music releases I have coming up soon. Coming into this month, I felt that was no longer a big enough challenge for me. I had been organizing my thoughts around an entirely new business concept. As this month kicked off, I decided to really apply some brain power to it. Once I applied the business model canvas to organize everything, I spent the better part of 2 weeks in Numbers setting up formulas and tables for how the fees, donations, dues, and organizational scales would work. I think that is my greatest accomplishment so far - what I haven’t even submitted for an assignment yet. Next month is financing. It's likely I already have a significant amount of work completed for an assignment there somewhere - if not for the overall plan.

Reviewing the assignments, the biggest challenge I've had consistently is settling on a brand name and logo mark for my business plan. I'm not too worried about it. Even now, I think I have a good name I've settled on, but I'll wait until some time passes to determine if it settles in my spirit. OrbAlign - the name I settled on for 5 minutes last week is really bad. I can laugh about it already, but at least I was able to execute the assignments with it. I do know that my brand archetype is a Magician. I'm really trying to explore something new that I've never seen before, but which is rooted in business models I've seen in my family as a young person and experienced in my creative life as an adult. If it were to succeed or come to a real-life existence, it would be unlike anything anyone is doing now.

So, this month I picked up a few good books and got my business plan, model canvas, and currency/percentage formulas nailed down. I feel it's been a very productive time. I also felt I needed to really dig in after the Christmas break and hit the ground running. I want these good grades. 

Ryan

 Osterwalder, A. (2010). Business Model Generation. Wiley.

[ryanhsummers]

Thank You PTM, Hello Christmas

Project and Team Management (PTM) has represented, for me, the first real experience in learning new organizational processes. What I appreciate the most from this course is the introduction to Project Plan 365 software and the introduction to project planning and forcasting in general. Conceptually, this course makes good sense and is organized well. However, undertaking research into this topic of “project management”, “team management”, or “plan management” is a mine field within context of researching. Every individual pursuing an MBA or management degree of some kind is probably required to research these topics, compile information and recreate a dossier of their own. Online searches return so many of these reports, it only clouds information which is formally useful.

The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, by Eric Verzuh is a good book for the class. Time and quality aspects of project management are filled in well by the book, Mastering Project Time Management, Cost Control, and Quality Management: Proven Methods for Controlling the Three elements That Define Project Deliverables, by Randall Wilson. Part III of Wilson’s book explores details in quality management which are left alone in Verzuh’s book. I must say – the titles of books people write on this topic are like, full sentences. One of my initial gripes regarding the book material was that I feel the writers try to micro-manage “management” to explanations on how to plan and account for every possible scenario when leading and dealing with people. They do this to convoluted effect, writing chapters of lists, broken down into sub-lists, detailed in multiple steps, and summarized in points. It would be more useful to study basic psychology and personality groups. These are the things about the course and the subject matter which make the most sense. Otherwise, it’s lengthened theory without a practical exercise, because no one could memorize the hierarchy of so many points. The perception I have of books like this is that the writers are looking to create a place of their own in the publishing industry, by authoring books full of searchable buzz words to seem important. I have learned actually very little from reading these books. Maybe that means I shouldn’t be managing projects. Or, maybe that means I’m the kind of manager who only cares about practical management of well-trained people to complete common goals.

The MBTI and DiSC personality tests and reviews were great. The introduction to project management software was great, because we need tools which showcase organizational details to help plan and manage budget channels. Through each step of this journey, I look forward to picking up genuinely useful things to keep in my back pocket as new seasons of ideas come. It’s also useful to know what not to do. While I understand the value of a trial period for the project software we used. I expect I would seldom commit to it in the future because it’s very buggy in my experience and cost me hours of troubleshooting things which only took relaunches to solve. Project management software is costly, but I can imagine why. I don’t think project management certifications appeal to me. Everything I do is to try to create a way for me to stay closer to doing the thing that’s in my heart to do – create music. There’s only so far away from that line I’m prepared to stretch.

Through the course, I did complete the objectives I listed in my Mastery presentation. I wanted to learn how to effectively create a plan for people to follow, utilizing useful software tools. I also wanted to get a better understanding of how to form teams of people based on personality reviews and how to manage personality differences to keep individuals on task with the team. In my current position, I even led my team to review their own personality tests and explore some of this self-analysis information.

I also just learned Tumblr does not support copy/paste from Word - only free text. I used One Note for my previous posts. I’ll have to continue that trend.

Ryan

Wilson, R. (2015). Mastering ProjectTime Management, Cost Control, and Quality Management: Proven Methods for Controlling the Three elements That Define Project Deliverables. Pearson.

Verzuh, E. (2015). The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, 5th Edition. Wiley.

[ryanhsummers]

Mastery Journal: Executive Leadership Self-Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this assignment is to, as clearly as possible, define a leadership style from a self-analysis of sorts; based on a comparison of the two books provided for this course – The 48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene, and Developing the Leader Within You, by John Maxwell. While the two books appear to be somewhat at odds with each other, it is my perception that these two books work hand-in-hand, due to The 48 Laws of Power being a book of strategy in manipulation, not necessarilly leadership. In this article, I break down what I believe my personal positon in business to be and how both sets of information contribute equally to a singular purpose, regardless of “style”.

My Path

My career is trending into a few areas simultaneously. I’m a music producer and creative developer by nature and training, but I’ve been studying this area of gamesmanship in music publishing and distribution. I know the process of publishing can be a tricky one, but it’s dawning on me more and more how the process is extremely subjective. This understanding, forces me to consider the character traits I need to develop more from the perspective of a leader of others I’m in partnership with. This concept is complex. I ask myself, “What kind of leaderhsip qualities do I need to grow, in order to lead others, I am not in direct authority over?” Also, “Beside the people skills necessary to broker negotiations and licensing contracts, what methods can I practice to draw people to my ideas and proposals, without negatively affecting others’ agendas they already have working, thus not associating me with a strain on their business?” When I first began reviewing Robert Green’s book, The 48 Laws of Power, my reaction was, “Is this guy serious?!” I have come to the realization that, while contrary to the terminoligy of the course, this is not a leadership book. It is a book about tactics in manipulation. I struggled to reconcile The 48 Laws of Power with Maxwell’s book, Developing the Leader Within You, because I tried to stack them up next to each other and tie them together. This isn’t possible or necessary. While the examples Greene provides in his book are of several individuals who rose to leadership positions, the reveletions are not about leadership. The point of The 48 Laws of Power is not to practice all of the laws in an ongoing packet of Thor-hammer-downs on those one desires to rule, but to be painstakingly precise in utilizing individual strategies toward oposing personalities requireing the appropriate response. This is what The 48 Laws of Power fails to explain. Maxwell’s outline for developing a leadership-style others will want to follow, depicts the individual who can master the art of understanding and supporting people, in order to utilize a group of people to serve a greater group of people with a partcilular need. In this context, a leader might always be exhibiting a successful role. The way I see Greene’s laws in this context is the way the laws come into specific positions when coordinating with specific types of people.

My practice of Maxwell’s principles will help me establish a following in regard to the content I create. This will establish a leadership role for me – of people who desire the product I can provide. My practice of Greene’s principles in manipulation may help me establish a presence in business relationships with people I am not a leader of, but in partnership with. In this way, both sets pf principles work together and the only “style” is in regard to how my personality is naturally weighted.

How to Use Them

As a creative developer, looking to provide music content to consumers, I want to exhude multiple traits listed in Maxwell’s book. To begin, I want my content to have a positive affect on others (Developing the Leader Within You, ch4). Specifically, I look to maintain authenticity, humility, and a predisposition to have the “courage” to try something new. I believe people will look to support and follow new ideas which introduce them to positive changes. It takes courage to engage and committ new ideas to realities. I wouldn’t ordinarily expect Greene’s Law #15 of “Crush Your Enemy Totally” to be particularly effective as a strategy in releasing music. However, my enemy in content creation is not another content creator; In fact, it’s not another person, it’s complacency and reinforcing the status-quo.

Secondly, I need to maintain a contagious positive attitude (ch 6). So much of this process is a choice to look to the benefits of the moments of a day; and not let a moment define a day. I won’t have the courage to develop new content if I’m focused on the disappointing moments. I want to genuinely appreciate others, their lives, and their emptiness, and “nurture my passions” toward bridging the emptiness with a “gameplan” from my own improved growth. This is the way I can serve others, and build my capabilities beyond a stagnant third level in Maxwell’s leadership phases (pg 8). Greene’s Law #11, “Learn to Keep People Dependent On You”, is a manipulative version of this same principle. The way for me to separate the two, is to practice a Maxwell serving attitute with regard to the creation of the artistic projects I do. Next, situationally, to provide a product to licensers and distributors, utilizing Green’s law in business interactions to need my offerings to line their own pockets. Greene’s law is meant situationally for those who’s personalities or tendencies result in narrow windows of engagement.

Greene’s most seemingly devious laws have a contextual place in my dealings with people. Law #14, “Pose as a Friend, Work As a Spy”, contextually isn’t hard to pull off, as I’m naturally friendly. However, as I am naturally friendly and will look to build relationships with other businesses, I will count on their inability to miss Law #12 , “Using Selective Honesty…”, to learn vital details about how my strategies can be more effective. This is actually less a manipulation and more of an awareness. It can be a more positive representation of this principle to learn the underlying details of what business partners really want. Law #17 of “Keep Others In Suspended Terror”, is less a scare tactic for me, and more of a single concept of “unpredictability”. Predicatability is a danger for creative content development. On a business level, instilling a natural fear of predictability in another should only be necessary, situationally, if the other individual is trying to confine my product into a smaller box than is appropriate. Another’s tactic of minimalizing my product, should be met with a strategy which reveals their foolishness of attempting to lazily label my releases ongoing.

The Style

In all honesty, I don’t believe it’s appropriate to define a “style” in my “leadership” roles, outside of the way I treat people. I don’t think the net gain of reading these books and reviewing these cases is for extrapolating styles. Maxwell’s principles are the style. Greene’s laws are the practice of maximizing situational exchanges with others on any level, regardless of whether or not one is in a leadership role over that individual; and regardless of the level of apparent ruthlessness of the law. In point of fact, it appears Maxwell defines these laws as “Attitudes” (ch 6). “Whatever It Takes” requires an openness to adapt and adjust to the rolling tide of change. The challenge of the exchange with another, is simply determining which of Greene’s laws to practice, situationally, in order to maximize each encounter and help serve the greatest number of people.

References

Greene, R. (2000). The 48 Laws of Power. Penguine.

Maxwell, J. (1993). Developing the Leader Within You. Nelson.

[ryanhsummers]

Mastery Presentation

*Tumblr removed logos on the final 2 slides. I don’t know how.

[ryanhsummers]

#1 - Papaly is not longer available.

#2 - My LinkedIn page.

#3 - My social logo provided by hatchful.shopify.com

#4 - My Feedly stream.

[ryanhsummers]

Mastery and Leadership Wk 3 inspirational post. 

From @HolyYogaOfficial. I slept half the day, this past Sunday.

[ryanhsummers]

(via https://open.spotify.com/track/7JyDf9e1zyNePJ26XVChJ5?si=lse_fUNMSyWH__40kg6CSQ)

The things that inspire me personally, tend to be the things I hear or see that prove to me that there are still new things to make. That sort of sounds silly, but I think creatives can get into a mind funk in which one begins to believe there aren’t enough new ideas left to discover. Recently, my wife and I went to see Mission Impossible - the typical Tom Cruise movie with the theme everyone already knows with the last minute heroics everyone already expects. Lorne Balfe is the music composer for this movie. During a high-intensity scene in the middle of the movie, he composed a track named “The Exchange”. To describe it - it’s like a merging of the Mission impossible theme with the Sicario soundtrack. The Mission Impossible theme for this scene is broken down into dissonant half-time movements and it just sounds amazing. This is probably the best audible surprise of a movie for me in the past few years. It’s just a reminder to me that yes, new things are possible, even where you least expect them.

Ryan

[ryanhsummers]

The Plan

I’ve been drawn to music and production for as long as I can remember. As a 40-yr-old, I can understand now that my mind has worked like a catalog of musical ideas for my entire life. While others catalog names of artists, songs, and lyrics, it appears my mind works by cataloging musical themes, arrangements, and movements. When I make music now, the themes I come up with originally, tend to be emphasized with musical movements which invoke a particular sensibility similar to how I felt when I heard a particular song, movie soundtrack, etc. when I was younger.

I’ve been using computers to produce music for over 20 years. I’ve grown up in the computer music age and learned how to leverage these complicated tools to create my ideas. I even took a career path which keeps me involved in this kind of market every single day. Every day I’m reviewing software releases, computer specifications, and instruments, filing the information away until I can add a piece to my workflow or come back to it later when I have more resources. My life’s work has become the knowledge to do this well, rather than accruing the tools to really explore this myself.

I have what I would describe as an organized creative mind. I wasn’t always technical, but my career and position dictated I train on and be aware of these kinds of tools. My technical mind has developed and grown significantly. Years ago, I only wondered what I would appear like in a business setting. Now, I have a few concepts I’d like to practice and build a business around.

I have a series of things I want to explore, in an effort to combine my artistic, technical and spiritual views. I want to better-understand the processes and avoidance of pitfalls I need to make plans and develop strategies for making my work marketable, profitable, and influential in a positive way to others. I need to shake the day-dreaming fantastical ideas of seeing myself as successful and actually learn the proper techniques to make it real.

Today, I want to develop a multi-functional business in which I release music, release musical assets, produce instructional tutorial content based around the making of the music, commit time and resources to apply my technical expertise to help others reach their production goals (mixing, music production, etc.), and intertwine some spiritual insights in the process. Right now, I see this as a multi-prong strategy involving music production and distribution, visual promotion in the form of video promotions, social media, and in-person contact, the development of a YouTube channel for tutorials and promotions, and websites for centralizing traffic of my brand to myself, my assets and resources, and for connecting and funneling these things together.

My goal for the next 12 months is to figure out how to put these things together and develop a mindset for researching and implementing other business ideas. I actually expect some of these things to change. The truth is I’m in the middle of a significant music release for the first time in my life and I’m figuring this promotional and distribution thing out as I go. I also have a few other business ideas that have nothing to do with media.

Ryan