Hi gang!
Chris French here from Modern Midwest Entertainment! What a difference a year makes, eh gang?! This week, I graduate from Full Sail University's Online course and I will earn a Master of Science in Entertainment Business! Amazing huh?! I thought so too! Now, in reference to the title of this post, that's the question my mom asked me recently when I told her I was about to finish up my Masters. You see, I already have a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, so that makes me a people person. But what exactly did getting this Masters entail? Well, I sat down with my mom and dad and explained it to them what my classes had been. . .now I'm going to explain it to you.
First off, we had the Full Sail Orientation. Of course, with any school, you've gotta get oriented into the procedures and policies of the school. You have to learn class schedules, or in this case, homework schedules; availability of your professors and so on. Well, in the orientation, we also learned to use the Full Sail Online (FSO) platform, because, without learning that, we wouldn't know the hows and whys of what we were doing.
While the Orientation was in full swing, we simultaneously started our first class, Media Literacy and Research Methodology. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a researcher, BUT. . .THIS kind of research I could really get into, since it was going to be about entertainment. . .or so I thought. Actually, we had some pretty straight forward research assignments, as well as learning, or in my case, relearning, the APA Format of writing. It was actually rather interesting to me to relearn things I had forgotten and to see the changes in the APA style from the last time I was in college, 10 years previous, to now.
Next came Executive Leadership. Now I am lucky, in that I spent time in the US Navy, which gave me some leadership skills already, but I was amazed by what I was taught in the Executive Leadership class. I never realized, at the time, that a blog can be an effective leadership tool. I had never used a blog much before. I had read a few, but had never written my own. Learning that a blog can show leadership through industry knowledge was something that I had never imagined. The blog I created, which you happen to be reading right now, was rough at first, but, as I researched; and found good knowledge about the topics that were presented toward us over the next few months; I realized that I have a lot of good information on this blog that will show that I can be a leader in the entertainment industry.
Project and Team Management was not an easy class. The assignments in this class could not be completed without a team effort. The culmination of this class was a team project in which I was part of a team that put together a non-profit organization called Green, that was geared toward feeding and sheltering the poor and needy. We came up with the idea of a benefit concert. I used expertise I have in radio broadcasting to create the radio campaign for this particular project. Our 14 page project document turned out to be a huge undertaking, but one, in my opinion, that truly taught me what being part of a good team can do for a person.
For me, Business Storytelling and Brand Development was an awesome class, even though I had to take it twice (first time, I had too many things going on outside of school that kept me from concentrating on class). The text for this class, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries, covered so much about branding that I never even thought about. I know so much more now about how a business brands itself in order to achieve maximum effectiveness of the business and what businesses do to put the brand name in the consciousness of people. I am still using this book, along with all my books, to work on my businesses.
The next class I had was, to me, the scariest class I ever had. Entertainment Business Finance was scary to me because I am NOT a math brain. We had formula after formula of calculations to use for different aspects of business costs, analyses and all sort of figures. I was on the phone nearly daily with the course director, and thankfully, he was able to show me different ways to get to the same conclusions with my numbers. As I said, I'm not a math brain. . .but I survived this course!
Next came a course I had fun with, Negotiating and Deal Making. In my current professional life, I have to apply these skills to dealing with mentally ill people in crisis. In my new professional life, I will use these skills to help people I represent get the best deals possible while working for a mutually beneficial deal for both parties. I will admit, I had a lot of fun with a phone negotiation that I did with one of my classmates where I played a former "BIG STAR" and I got to negotiate the contract for a reality show. I was being a bit hard headed with this, but we managed to come to an agreement. It was awesome!
When I got to Product and Artist Management, I thought I knew what it takes to manage an artist, as I had tried a few months previous to this with a friend of mine who has been on the music scene for about 10 years (he has worked behind the scenes with the like of Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe). I was less than successful at the time. During this course, I was able to find out what it actually takes to manage an artist, or bring a product to the masses. One assignment that stands out to me in particular is when we were asked to create a product pitch. I created a product pitch involving First Alert fire safety products and Comedian/Actor Denis Leary of the show Rescue Me. I really enjoyed doing that pitch and the research accompanying it.
Advanced Entertainment Law came next, and, even though my comments are brief on this, I will say this: This course is the one that convinced me to turn my attention to Entertainment Law for part of my future. I learned more of law in general in this course than I ever knew before this, even with my current profession in mental health.
Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution was an interesting course. The assignment that sticks out most for me was learning how to create a literary press kit, and how to find a publisher for my material. I never knew how many independent publishers there are out in the world today. I encourage anyone that has an idea for a book to run with that idea and learn what I have about creating a press kit and getting yourself published!
As I was getting near the end of my course, I had Digital Marketing after Media Publishing and Distribution. The concepts of Digital Marketing has always eluded me. I had tried time and time again to learn these concepts, but I had failed. Until I took this course, that is. The course director took the time to explain in simple terms the concepts of Digital Marketing and I honestly can say, I felt like a dunderhead when I learned it was a lot simpler than I thought.
Finally, we came to Business Plan Development and the Final project Business Plan. I felt a sense of pride as I went through the assignments of these two courses and completed them. I ended up with a fully functional business plan for an entertainment venue that I can shop to investors and most likely get some money to make that venue a reality!
And there you have it. On Friday of this week, I will have the degree.
It's been a long, fun ride. . .but I made it.
Talk to again soon, gang!
SEE YA!
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