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Thank You Entertainment Business Master’s Degree

What a journey it has been over the last year or so while attending my Master’s degree at Full Sail University. On October 2017 I was took my first class, and little did I know the level of knowledge I would be encountering in my next 12-15months. During the first class, Mastery, we learned about how to obtain personal development and leadership. During that month we read the book Mastery from Robert Greene, and better learned how to become a better master through his book.

           The second class during the program we took the next step in leadership, and had Executive Leadership, during it we learned multiple areas of executive level leadership, and the different types of leaders I would encounter in my career, or the types of leader I would need to become depending on the company culture and my role in it.

           Following I took Project and Team Management, my first class online at Full Sail. It was very tough at the beginning, as I hadn’t experienced a class online. The lectures were very entertaining and I better understood how to work in a team and manage the project or the team itself. It definitely takes more than a few weeks of class to master it, but I believe that through some Lynda.com videos and more experiences I’ll soon develop better and life long team management skills.

           Furthering the lectures, we had Business Storytelling and Brand Development. One of my personal lectures of the program. We got very creative throughout that month and developed the looks and feel of the company we were developing. It gave a face to the project that we were going to develop for the next 8 months.

           Now that we had developed the looks of the company, we had to understand the financial standpoint behind it. That being said, we had to look at the numbers and analyze if we were going to be able to lift this company of the paper or didn’t have the financial ability to do so. During the month we learned how to develop a budget, which I was fortunate enough to have done one before, and also the Pro Forma spreadsheet.

           Digital Marketing took place next. Now that we had the face and the financials of the company, we can start developing a marketing plan for it. My biggest take away of the lectures was to be able to identify effective ways of digital marketing.

           Negotiation and Deal-Making was also a very interesting class and opportunity to practice some negotiating skills that I could benefit in the future, and make deals for my company or the company I’m working at the time. So, my biggest goal that month was to learn and practice how to negotiate a deal without harming either my own company with a bad deal, or a current partner of the company. Really important skill set to have, and with all the simulations and software we could have used throughout the month, I believe I had acquired a better knowledge and skill set from this month’s class.

           The following 3 months were all about sports; I was looking very much forward to it. The first class we had was Sports Management and Operations. As a Sports Marketing graduate I wanted to better understand what the difference between Sports Marketing and Sports Management was, and also how sports operations could work in the different scenarios, like a venue, or a specific event.

           Furthering, we had Legal Issues in Sports. Throughout the month we read several contracts, and deals that were made. We also, looked at different trials that took place and tried to analyze what other information the legal side could have used to better themselves in the deal or trial. I thought it was a very interesting opportunity.

           The last sports class I took during the Master’s degree was sports marketing and sponsorship sales. One of the biggest revenue streams of a business, so I wanted to make sure I could gather as much information as possible. During the month I managed to learn and practice how to pitch sponsorship opportunities to prospect partners, meaning that I would be also negotiating deals, so I took several notes from my Negotiating and Deal-Making class into consideration.

           The final two months was a 2 step class were we starting developing the company we worked for during the entire program. We combined everything we had done so far and made one whole business plan for it, including the financial side, marketing side, content side, legal side and much more. The last month was one of my favorites classes of the course, as I was able to see all the work I did throughout the program narrowed down into one specific project.

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Business Plan Development

Going through my first Master’s degree program is very different, not necessarily a bad thing but it is something that I have never done before, and all new challenges are different to the mind. Especially when asked what you expect about it, far before you even start it, it can lead into several misconceptions, but also open several doors in the near or far future. During our very first month at the Master’s program, we took lectures on Mastery. During that last week of class we were asked to put down expectations for each and every single one of our classes. It was a tough task as I had to research some further details on each class and see what were the topics being covered during the lectures, from that I had to set three goals/expectations from the class and eventually draft out the path to which I was going to accomplish those goals.

For this month’s class, Business Plan Development, I set 3 goals to be accomplished in the end of the month. They were as following, Better understand the term Business Plan, learn how to develop a realistic Business Plan, and lastly, identify a mentor to assist me in my career. Accomplishing those goals were no easy tasks. Being able to draft a realistic business plan might sound simple, but it takes hours of thinking and developing, as well as study of the industry. One of biggest reasons in the market these days that lead a company into shutting down, especially the newer companies, is the development of a poorly studied business plan. You must be realistic, don’t expect every business to be making 500% profit in their first month; it comes with time and hard work.

After this analysis I do believe that I did a successful start of the business plan, and therefore my business will realistically develop into becoming on the largest and most recognized mobile app and CRM developer in the country, especially in the sports and entertainment industry.

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Legal Issues in Sports

Being asked to write about some of the topics I’ve learned throughout the month can be quite challenging. What is even harder is to analyze what my initial goal for this course was, especially a goal that I developed over a year ago during my very first month here at Full Sail, in my Entertainment Business program. Back then, I had no clue what this class had to teach me and what topics it entitled. Keeping in mind that I didn’t really know what to expect from this course, and how deep we would get into when it came to legal issues in sports, my first goal for this course was to “Understand the legal issues in sports”. It does sound very basic and very broad, but there is no better way to master a course or topic if you don’t build the base and the basics of it. Every lecture or knowledge you obtain should always be like a pyramid. You will first learn the base, what keeps the pyramid solid and strong, and then you go up narrowing the information and getting more specific.

           The second goal I laid out to myself was “Learn to draft a contract”. Using the pyramid example again, this would most likely be a few steps up the stairs. It is something more focused and all. Learning how to draft a contract is really important in the sports world, it is how majority, if not all of the deals are put under a contract. So the better you are at drafting a contract, the safer you will be when it comes to legal issues in sports. Everything on paper that is signed cannot be contested.

           My final goal was score at least an A for this course. As of right now I can’t guarantee what my grade will be at the end of the classes, but I do believe I am going on the right track. Working a few hours a week and going to school full time is definitely challenging, but something I need to overcome if I want to excel and master the sports industry.

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Sports Operations & Management

For this month’s Mastery Journal post I will be sharing my experience regarding the Sports Management & Operations class I had while attending Full Sail University for my Master’s degree in Entertainment Business, Sports Management Track. When I first started the program in October 2017 I was asked to develop a Mastery timeline, where I had to look into each of my classes and see what they related to and from that draft 3 goals I wanted to achieve after each class, in addition to the goals, I had to explain how I wanted to potentially achieve that goal.

When I first started this class I had a rough idea of what I had to expect. I’m an avid fan of sports event and operations, so I knew I would have enjoyed the class right of the bat, but still was unsure on what kind of knowledge and assignments they would be having us perform. My main goal for this class was to learn difference between Sports Marketing and Sports Management, although they sound similar, they can be fairly different. I believe I achieved this goal. Sports marketing is more the marketing/sales of the sport or sport product, Sports Management is how to make the business around the sport or sport product work smoothly. I think that Sports Marketing can be one of the many tools inside the scope of Sports Management.

I feel that this course met and defied my expectations. As I mentioned, I really enjoy sports operations, therefore this class was really something I was looking towards in the program. During the month we touched base on several aspects of the sports industry but I believe that the media rights growth in recent years was probably the information I learned that most raised my interest. I want to always get deeper in sports events and operations, maybe having more of hands on experience besides just acquiring knowledge from the classroom; I believe this is where I would be able to show hands on what I’ve learned in class. Make mistakes, and learn from them.

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Negotiation & Deal-Making

During this month I studied in depth the best techniques of a negotiation to reach the ultimate goal, and also the different types of communication styles you can potentially encounter when handling a negotiation. You might one type of communication style, or multiple at the same time, if it’s the case of a meeting with several people, and different hierarchical positions. When I first started the month I really wasn’t sure what to expect; my best knowledge of the course was that we would probably mock several negotiation styles, more aggressive and less aggressive styles.

For this particular month I switched the class for the online program, as I came across an internship I couldn’t turn down, so learning about negotiation online was quite challenging. During the first week’s reading we went over some terms which are quite common in the negotiation world, such as; Bargaining Position, Underlying Interests and Neutral Criteria. I thought it was a great idea to go over some terms, although some might be pretty explicit in their meaning, some are hard to understand if you don’t come from a negotiation background.

During week 2 we went over the different communications styles that I could potentially encounter during a negotiation. From more aggressive and straightforward style like the Commander, who is agenda driven and gives no time to talking off topic; to less aggressive styles like the Inspirer who is less agenda driven, and more empathetic with the interests of the person he/she is negotiating with.

Lastly, my goals for this month was to learn about the negotiation style, and their communication styles and better understand on how to use each communications style into my benefit. I believe that right now, I still haven’t reach my goal, as we are still half way through week 3, but I’m positive with the remaining reading from this and next week I can excel in class and reach my goal.

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Digital Marketing

During month 1 we were asked to write goals for each class, and what expectations we had about each specific class. I had 3 original goals for this course, I set them not knowing what to expect from the class. They were: Better understand the term Digital Marketing, Learn the difference between conventional (Traditional) and Digital Marketing channels and identify effective ways of digital marketing. I set these 3 goals, and to achieve them I was going to go through articles about the topics, make a table of definition and examples of each digital and traditional marketing and access the Full Sail Library for articles and insights of Digital Marketing, as Full Sail has a large variety of articles, books and videos. My main goal was to learn the difference between traditional and digital marketing channels.

I met this goal as I read a few articles, both found at the Full Sail Library or search engines. My biggest take away from this course is that you can have several marketing channels, being digital and traditional. One is not better than the other; it all depends on your target market, audience and product being offered. Knowing these 3 things you can identify better channels for your campaign, but without acknowledging these 3 items, any channel is worth using.

This company I’ve been using throughout the program is something I’ve been working on my free time, and something I really believe can be developed, and used by large sports/entertainment organizations. I believe that technology is the future, and the sooner you get on board, and the sooner you convince sports organizations that your product will increase their revenue the more successful you’ll become. CRM software are crucial for a business, it’s a way to understand your fan base, and what you as an organization is doing right and things you should improve.

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Entertainment Business Finance

This past month has been an eye opening experience for me. When I first enrolled myself in the Entertainment Business, Sports Management Track program, Finance was one of the courses I was looking forward the most too. A lot of people believe that Finance is about mathematics and numbers and all, it is, but is mainly associated with to manage, increase and invest your capital. I was fortunate to work with Orlando City SC after I graduated my Bachelor’s degree in Sports Marketing and Media at Full Sail, over there I had my first experience with finance, were I was responsible for creating and managing my department budget for the year. I had the mentoring of my supervisor; since it was my first time working on it, and I feel now with the help from this class I am way more confident to do more.

Another great part of this class that will help me a lot in both my personal and professional path was the personal finance class we had. Coming from a different country I was never introduced or taught how taxes works here in the US, and from what I’ve noticed, Americans weren’t ever taught about it either.  It will help me a lot in the future to better understand how to mortgage a house, potentially get a loan from a bank to open a business or personal life.

Lastly, the assignment was we developed the Pro Forma spreadsheet was also super eye opening for me. When you think about opening a business, you never think about the expenses you’ll have for it, although you’ll have a small business you still have expenses that you need to plan for, and expect to pay for it to keep your business opened.  Everything I’ve learned in this class I will cherish in my future, both on my professional and personal career.

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Business Storytelling and Brand Development

When I first started the Business Storytelling and Brand Development I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish by the end of the 4th week. My number 1 goal, and top in my priority list was to take advantage o the incredible benefit of having free unlimited access to Lynda.com. I have a deep passion in video editing and logo designing, so I set myself the goal to watch a minimum of 4 videos by the end of the month, or watch a video per week, to enhance my skills. 4 weeks later I am happy to say that I was able to exceed my goal in enhancing my skills and was able to watch over 5 videos, majority of them being on logo design, since I had to design a logo for class.

Throughout the month we touched based in several different areas of the course syllabus. Different from a normal month, due to Hall of Fame happening during our 3rd week of class, we were still able to cover all topics listed on the beginning of the month. My favorite topic covered in the month was Visual Communications of the brand to customer, either being through a logo, image or video. This is a very important step for a business and should always be thought out. We were able to watch and evaluate some examples that were used during the Super Bowl. A great example was the Amazon Echo ad where it used different actors and voices interpreting Alexa. A negative example we saw was the Coca Cola Diet ad, it didn’t really appeal to the customer, as they wish they did, providing them with horrible brand reviews.

The branding and storytelling knowledge I gained this month will provide my with enough information to plan a future business plan for either my business or my personal brand. This way I’m always taking care of my interests in a good way, and keeping stakeholders happy, and my brand image always intact.

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Project Management

Being able to learn about Project Management is vital to any student going into the industry, specially in the Sports Events area like I am. Being able to manage a group of individuals is really important, and it will separate you from the others, because if you don’t do it right you will be loosing your company’s money and you will eventually loose your job...

Another great skill I learned this month, which for me is the most important in a project was budgeting. I’ve dealt with budgets before at work but I never got to do one myself, they were given to me and I had to work with it and generate the revenue targeted for that year.

Just wanted to send a big thanks to my professor for the month.

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Leadership Mastery Journal

It’s hard to say exactly what level of leadership I want to hold when out in the industry. If possible I wish I could have several of these levels. I believe that when I get out in the industry I would be on a Permission (Level 2) level of leadership.  When I’m out in the industry I will be focusing on getting to know people, networking will be a catalyst in my leadership level to rise. As time goes by and more experience I hope to be achieving Personhood (Level 5) and leave a legacy.

When it comes to Greene I like Law #2 Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies. Trust is something to be earned with time, so just because someone is a friend it doesn’t mean you can trust him or her 100%. Also, your enemies can be very beneficial on your development. On the simple way, improve your skills simply by trying to become better than your enemy. Another law I’m a big fan off is Law #1 Never Outshine Your Master. The reason I like this one is due to the fact that your master is there to guide you and mentor you in your career choices, therefore if you’re making decisions in which you’ll jeopardize their image and possibly your career you should probably re-think it.

Looking at both Maxwell and Greene I consider myself more of a Maxwell type of person, with some thoughts of Greene. I identify myself more with the Maxwell leadership points, specially on the Levels of Leadership.

I believe the Permission style is the most important for me due to 1 main reason. I consider myself a very people oriented type of guy, in other words, I like to talk, network and get to know other and their background.

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Brown, H. (n.d.). H. Jackson Brown, Jr. Quotes. Retrieved from 

    https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_jackson_brown_jr_382774?    src=t_inspirational

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Mastery Journey Timeline

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I really enjoy this quote from Mark Twain. I’m a strong believer in being polite and respectful to people, and things will go right for you. By being kind there is not difference in religion, color, race or gender, kind is as simple as kind.

Twain, M. (2017). Mark Twain Quotes. Retrieved from  https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marktwain106287.html?img=null

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I first created my LinkedIn when I first started at Full Sail. I used to think it wasn’t really useful and didn’t really add anything into my network, but I was proven wrong. LinkedIn is a very good tool to get to know people in the industry. I have reached out to several people that work in my industry just to reach out, get some insights on their career and more.

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For my Feedly feed I kept some of the same websites as I used on my Papaly account, but for this one I used one more Lynda.com. Lynda.com falls into the category Education. If you haven’t heard of Lynda.com, it is a website that has video tutorials in several topics, I like to say they have everything available to watch. Its a great tool.

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This is the logo I designed for my personal brand. I followed the guidelines by adding my first initial and last name. I used the skills I learned in some classes from my Bachelor’s degree to design this logo on Adobe Illustrator.

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For my Papaly Bookmarks I decided to choose between a series of websites to bookmark, but focused them into 2 main categories, Sports and Global News. I believe that these 5 websites are enough to give me a brief daily report in sports and global news.

https://papaly.com/7/XcPx