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[aurtalk]

Imagine your dreams becoming reality!!!

The time has come and I am now a graduate of Full Sail University gaining my Master of Science in Entertainment Business. Although the road was not easy and I went through trials & tribulations to get here I’m thankful for all those bumps in the road because they made me strong.

Mastery:

I had a goal of enrolling in school and learning how to master my craft. With the course I did just that. I was able to enroll at Full Sail and learn how to master my niche. Public relations is what I do and I do it well. I received an A for this course.

You have to know what it is that you are actually good at before you go about starting a business or putting yourself out there to the public. I never really thought about that until this course. I know that me helping people help themselves is a wonderful thing. 

Executive Leadership:

I wanted to learn how to be a great leader. Although I thought that I was a good leader, I knew I could become better. This course taught me that there are different leader styles. In order to be a great leader you have to know when to use each style and why. Staying positive, influencing others, positive changes, problem solving, having priorities, having integrity, fixing my attitude, having a vision, love for people, and being self disciplined are all traits of the Maxwell leadership style and I have them all so the Maxwell leadership style is my style for now and the future. I received an At for this course.

I set out to find mentorship because a leader needs a mentor. I found that in a pastor at a young adult ministry. This person tells me when I am right and wrong and you need a person like that on your team. I have used my leadership to mentor young boys and girls and help them get through tough situations. I have also used my new way of thinking leadership skills with my clients and I must say we’ve been successful thus far. 

Project and Team Management:

I have always found it hard for others to be in control of something I put my heart into. It’s not that I don’t trust others, I just felt like it’ll get done right if I do it myself. The time came for me to bite the bullet. I set out to go network in another city. This course taught me that the word team is important. I allowed the team to handle business while I was away. I received an At for this course.

I booked a flight and went to Las Vegas. It was my first time flying so I was terrified. The trip turned out to be a success. I met so many different people there. There was opportunity for a show as well.  I have had the chance to work with a graphic designer that I met when I was there and the partnership is still going. 

Business Storytelling & Brand Development:

I needed to figure out how to brand myself and business separately. It is hard to do but once you figure out who you are and how you want to be preceived by your fans it gets easy. This course taught me how to build a brand. Everything you do has a purpose. I received an At for this course.

When you think of a logo, you just don’t want anything. You want something that stands out. I thought I had everything all together but it wasn’t until this course that I changed my business logo and I happy I did. I have learned to tell a story with my visions. 

Entertainment Business Finance:

I was looking for a business team. Since I had started the company it had only ben my husband and I. When you have to do all the work yourself it becomes overwhelming. I decided I needed to put together a team. I set out to interview different people but they just didn't fit. I received an At for this course.

My business is built around family. I asked myself why can't I keep it that way. I reached out to a few close family members and close friends and they came on board. Each person that I picked worked out in the best interest for the company because either they were in school for the position I wanted them to have, already had a degree, or had known knowledge about it. My team and myself were able to start creating the perfect business regiment for success.

Digital Marketing:

I wanted to use the internet more to market my clients and Tee-shirts. I had been always using word of mouth, posters, emails, and texts. I needed to make them known to the world. I set out to introduce my Tee-shirt line the world by having my artist showcase them as models. I received a Bt in this course.

This turned out to be a success. I had my web team to create an account for any social site that the company did not already have. They also created a webpage that included a lot of things regarding the business and the artists. Since creating all of this my artist have gained so many followers and the company has as well. There has been mention by a few known artist such as Juvenile, so I think we are on the right track.

Negotiation and Deal-Making:

This course taught me how to get the best deal and seal it. I had been struggling back and forth with a wholesale company about pricing. There was also the subject of one of my artist performing at a local event for a club that had a 21 and older policy. I did not take no for an answer and this is where this coarse came in to play because I used my BATNA to get what I want and make everyone happy and come out good. I received a Bt for this course. 

I was able to get my artist the performance and the deal included they leave right after the show was over. Since then they still perform at the club and we keep the same agreement in place. I was able to get a deal with the wholesale company as well. I got the shirts for $1.74 versus them wanting to charge me $3.29. I will continue to use them until my shirts go nationwide.

Product and Artist Management:

This course helped me to sell and manage my products. I created a mock product in this course and because my classmate and I done so well I took what we did and used it for my business. It is very hard to do things in the industry without help from investors and doing it out of your own pocket. I received an A for this course.

My team and I started doing local events, talent shows, birthday parties, and selling singles on Cd’s to raise money for a small 25 city tour we were putting together. A local group got wind of this and donated half of what was needed for the expenses. Some of the places the tour consisted of was Michigan, Iowa, Chicago, Wisconsin, Indiana, and St, Louis just to name a few. We were able to sell our tee-shirt to fans as well.

Advanced Law Entertainment:

I needed to find out how to take the necessary steps to make my business legal. I had been using a bank account with my social security number for the longest with the company name attached as a business. This course helped me to decide to go from a LLC to a S. Corp. company. I received an At for this course.

I used the worksheet that I received in a homework assignment and mailed in my company information. This course also helped me to send in for my artist work to make it theirs. I learned how to copyright things as well and since then I’ve been doing well and feel confident about securing my artist sounds and music lyrics.

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution:

This course has helped me so much. This course introduced me to the company CD Baby. It has been hard trying to distribute the music on our own and that is without publishing and rights. I learned about all the rights and royalties that can be paid out  that we were missing out on. I received an At for this course.

I have since registered with CD Baby but it will only be temporary. The company has had some major views with using the 3rd party company. I learned how to use the PRO and being a member of BMI has helped my clients to gain the monetary values that they are owed from their work. This course has taught me how to start my own publishing company and that is in the making.

Business Plan Development:

This course has taught me and gave me the confidence to come with any type of business plan that I want. I got an A in this course and I feel my work will show in the real world about what I can accomplish. I set out to create a 5 year business plan but the assignment for the course requires us to do a 3 year business plan and I’m glad. The reason is because I believe after my 3 years my plans will change because I be ready to add other ventures in the mix. I received an A for this course.

I created some good financial reports as well as revenue streams. Some of those revenue streams are already generating income. I got great feedback from my course director and was told my plan was good enough to show to a real investor. I had the pleasure of showing my business plan to my mentor and he showed it to his friend which is manager of a bank and she absolutely loved it. I was given her card and she said when I am ready to do potential business to give her a call.

Business Plan:

This last course was a bit rough for me or so I thought. The course director gave me a lot of great feedback and input on things I could implement in my plan. I took everything he said and used it to get a good grade which was an A for the final assignment. I must say there are things that I will work on. I did mess up the financial a bit. I have to learn how to name my assignments different in order to use the one with the correct information. I am confident I will receive an A in this course.

I learned how to write a business plan and pitch to present to potential investors. I have had the chance to pitch my work to a local sponsor and they loved it and want to be apart of what I am doing and help out in any way. I am certain that once I get the errors on the financials fixed I will be ready for meetings with investors. I set out to find a home for my business and I have. I will be moving to Charlotte, North Carolina in a few months with job offers and potential office space in a great location.

Conclusion:

Over the past 12 months I had goals lined up that I had to set up in the first course. I can confidently say that with each course I was able to do what I set out to do. I have learned and took in so much from these courses and have accomplished so much as well. I am excited for my journey and can’t wait to take my career to new heights. I can now say that I am confident with taking all I’ve learned and previous knowledge and open up a business and run it successfully. I feel confident about walking in a room full of investors and know without a shadow of doubt that I will be partners with one if not more.

I have successfully completed the Master of Science in Entertainment Business

Tanisha Johnson

1/28/2017

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[aurtalk]

Business Planning

I was so afraid going into the Business Plan Development course at Full Sail University. I felt I would not do well. It turns out I am doing just fine. I would like to take advantage of retaking the last two courses for free which is something Full Sail offers its former students. The reason why is because although I am doing well in the current course, I feel retaking the course will better my knowledge. I do think once I get out in the world and actually put what I’ve learned to use I will do well too. This course has shown me how to go about setting up meetings with potential investors and figuring out how I want to run my business. Since I will be doing both brick&mortar and online this class has taught me how to make the best use for both business ways for sales. I can confidently go into a loan office and pitch an idea without feeling I don’t know what I am doing. My marketing and promoting skills have picked up as well. I was also able to make use of the company CD Baby for distribution and marketing. I was able to set up my own google adwords for my company as well and it was very easy to set up and past classes helped with that. My goal for this course was to come up with a five year business plan. I have not come up with a five year plan but this course held me come up with a three year one and I believe it looks great. I was able to get together with the COO & CFO and come up with a pitch that I will use in my meeting. I have also reached put to potential investors to set up meetings for next month. I was able to find a building with great office space in Charlotte in a great location for $2,500 a month. As of right now I just was office space and not a whole building. I want to get the business off the ground first before I purchase land and build. I look forward to the last course and I hope that my final financial statements are good so I can move forward with everything. This course has taught me how not to give up, humble myself, and believe in myself.

Tanisha Johnson

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[aurtalk]

Time to show the merchandise!

I have enjoyed myself in this course thus far. I have learned a great deal of knowledge for legal purposes within my business. The discussion posts for this course have opened my eyes up to new websites that I can use to help my artist get a jump start on putting their music out into the world to ensure they’ll get paid and receive royalties. I have been looking into the performing rights organizations trying to figure which is best for my artists as well as myself since I also am an artist. I was also able to finish my tee shirt project and now I am just waiting to see what direction to go in as far as distribution. I do recall one of the sites brought up in this course talked about merchandising and help in distribution. I will definitely go do my research on that. I thought I could do everything on my own since I have always been so independent but now I see it’s not as easy as it sounds. Although I know the independent route could be taken, I just feel it would take longer than I want it to. My goal was to introduce my tee shirt line and make a website and I have done that at a 90% level of being finished. The website was also to feature my artist music and that has come together beautifully. I believe if I had not went back to school to educate myself on the things that are important to establish yourself in this entertainment business I would not succeed. There is so much more than I have to learn but what I have gathered so far has helped me to go back and correct some of the things I have done wrong in the past trying to get my business of the ground. I was able to put together an amazing press kit for my artist based on what I had given in this class, I just went back and revamped a little of it. I look forward to the last project in hopes it challenges me to go beyond my skill set.

Tanisha Johnson

November 13, 2016

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[aurtalk]

Knowing the Law is Good for Business!

I am so excited to be almost at the end of my journey to making my company a success. I have learned so much throughout this course in such a short amount of time. The articles that I have read gave me a lot of insight on what people in the industry go through behind the scenes. Looking at the lives of famous people you think it’s all glitz and glam. People really never know of the legal troubles that are involved in some of the careers of these people for not knowing the law and how it works in reference to the music industry. My goal this month was to learn about legalizing things and to get somethings legalized. I must say that after doing the assignment with the registration forms I feel confident in sending off for my copyright registrations. Before hand, I had no idea that trademarks, art, sound recording, name, and logo were under different legal liabilities and forms. At first it all seemed to go together without having knowledge that these things were in separate categories. I had established my company back in 2004 under LLC. Since taking this course and in light of information given to me by instructor Willard I know claim my company to be S-Corp. I was astonished by the information that has been taught to me in this course. I’ve learned that you have to not only file state but federal registrations as well to be able to use certain content all over. In an article I listened to discussing the artist Rick Ross it talked about how his copyright registration could be looked at as fraud because the registration was filed as unpublished even though the work had been put out so it should have been marked published. After hearing that I have now instructed my artists to not put their songs on any social media site like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Soundcloud, Youtube, and etc. because I don’t want anything to interfere with their work or registrations of their work when the time comes. This course has taught me that I should be very careful of my word choice because it can come back to bite you in the end, for instance I could tell someone that if when I make it big they’ll be sure to be in a video or song and that is a verbal agreement that could hold up in court and it would be bad for business if that person and I are no longer on good terms. The things I’ve learned in this course have helped to start applying to the way I run my business as we speak. It has also helped with locating a home for the business. Location is everything for a business including the economics surrounding the state. I look forward to learning more and with that comes growth which equals success.

Tanisha Johnson

October 22, 2016

Below is the reference to find the article on Rick Ross

Eric Gardner. (2016, March 1). Retrieved October 22, 2016 from site (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/lmfao-bombshell-rick-ross-hustlin-871698

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Ready to manage the artists & put out products!!!

It is getting down to the wire and I’m almost at the four months left mark for school. It is a scary feeling but I am happy to know that I will have accomplished a goal that I never thought would be possible. At an early age I’ve always wanted to entertain people. I knew that I would one day do something in that field. I have always loved to create stuff and pretend that I had my own business. Those days of hoping, wishing, and pretending came to an end in the year 2004. So many people think it is easy to run a business or come out with a clothing line just because you have the idea in your head but it takes a lot of hard work to make that happen. This course has taught me so much about the ends and outs of running a business as far as marketing and promoting through social media sites. I’ve learned that if these sites are not managed and evaluated properly all the posts you put up are for nothing. There are a lot of tricks this course has taught me that I can use going forward in my endeavors. Some of the articles and videos were good to watch and listen to and gave good insight on things that are going on in the industry. They also provided some great tools to use as well. I believe I will incorporate Gumroad in my business using it to allow fans to send money and in return they’ll receive a gift. This course has made me take a step back and reevaluate the way I want to brand myself. I now know the correct name to call myself and that is a side entrepreneur and I am trying to turn myself into a full blown entrepreneur. I never realized there was a different name for entrepreneurship's until this class but it all makes since that a side entrepreneur is someone who works a 9-5 and tries to manage a business verses an entreprepeur is someone who does not have a job and their income consists of what comes from their business. I look forward to learning more for the last week of class. I am excited about the last project because I think that helps me step into my product planning of my Tee-shirt line. I am definitely taking all the information in and will use it to the best of my ability. This course has helped me to better assist my artists in helping them to better manage their social media sites posts. I am still a work in process but in just these last three weeks I’ve learned so much and see what I was doing wrong and was able to make it better. I look forward to the rest of my time in school and hoping for a strong finish.

Tanisha Johnson

9/20/16

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[aurtalk]

Party, Flyers, and Venue, “Lets Close The Deal”

So far this course has been very interesting. I have learned so much in the short time I’ve been in the course. Although it is something small the Game Theory strategy has taught me how to become a better negotiator in doing research that will benefit both sides. This course has given me insight on how to approach a situation during negotiations where the other party uses dirty tricks. The course has also taught me how to use my best BATNA’s and WATNA’s to come out on top in a negotiation. I need to work on being a better researcher because without doing research I can't be a good negotiator. I can’t go into a negotiation without knowing anything about the other party and expect to argue my position without any knowledge to back up what is at stake. Another offer by bending a little by agreeing to what they are offering as well as my offer. My PDL goal for the month is to have a listening party for my artist. On August 17, 2016 three of my artist performed at On The Rocks. It was an interesting negotiation between myself and the venue owner. I had to go in there with my game face and argue why my artists should be allowed to perform in his club due to the fact that two of the artists are not 21 yet. There was a lot that went into this deal because of legal issues but we managed to come to an agreement. They did perform and soon after the performance they did meet and greets and I got them out of there. I was able to see the owner’s point of view but my BATNA overcame his and I won. I was able to show him that I would be responsible for the artists and show him the money that he would make if they perform versus the money he would lose out on if they didn’t. I saved money on the flyers by using social media for the invites and also the venue that was used has their own food and bar and that is where the owner made his money because the guests had to purchase food and drinks from his bar. The owner and I have now formed a business ship and every Wednesday and Saturday my artists are welcome to perform under the same provisions as before which is they will leave soon after, not drink in the club, and stay with me at all times. My future for my company is looking brighter and I can’t wait to see what waits ahead. 

Tanisha Johnson

August 21, 2016

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[aurtalk]

Its Tee-Shirt Time!!!(Decisions)

So far I have had an amazing journey in school. I look forward to learning more and as it gets near the end I am excited about the last course. Each course that I have taken thus far is preparing me to make my business successful. I am literally taking all the information in and applying it to my business plan and everyday life. My goal for this month was to find a wholesale company and purchase tee shirts for my company. So far I have found a wholesale company with shirts at a price of $1.74 a shirt. This is the cheapest I have found with the shirts being of good quality. The colors I have chosen are black and white since those are basic and men & women can wear the two colors. I have not purchased them yet because I am now waiting on the design to be finished. I don’t want to purchase the shirts and the design not be ready and then have something come up and the money I spent on shirts can be used for a just in case situation. That takes me to an article I read titled Good Decisions (and sunk costs), “We make decisions (about what to do and what not to do) every single day. And we lie to ourselves all the time about costs.(Seth Godin) I have been going back and forth with myself about choosing one thing over another for the greater good (sacrifice). I do have faith in myself and my team that this will and can happen but if I am being realistic I know there are situations that happen. Now I am playing the What If game. Of course I am worried about my window of opportunity due to the fact I have a lot of family & friends waiting on the line to launch but I can’t just do it because they are ready. I have to do it when the time is right and the product is ready. Choosing an image to represent your product and business is very important. Time and Time again I have seen where companies take a plunge due to these types of small hiccups and I don’t want to fall flat on my face on my first run. This course thus far has taught me how to use social media to my advantage in marketing and promoting. I had never heard of SEO’s until this course. I have leaned how to gain a larger audience through social media as well. Although I did not learn this in this course, taken this course is the reason why I have been researching things that I have such as other companies and the future of music and entertainment. This course has also shown me other sites such as social mention.com, back tweets.com,and icerocket.com and how they work with mentions, hashtags and keywords. I look forward to learning more in this course that I can incorporate in my business plan for success. 

Tanisha J.

7/17/16

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[aurtalk]

It takes money and mentorship to start a business!

This course has taught me so much about building and starting a business from the ground up. It seems as the months go by I find out something new that I haven't thought about I needed in order to create a business plan to run a successful company. My company right now is doing just ok for itself with just the little effort I put into it. I now see all the things that I am missing to even think of moving into a rental space. I know that as of now the way I am running my company is not in its best interest because I don’t have all the legalities to run it efficiently. I can now say with confidence that I am ready to go meet with investors, and apply for a loan. I have met with a mentor that has guided me in a lot of ways that have worked out well. I am in the process of making a video for crowd funding but that will have to wait to be put out until I receive news from the bank and investors so that I may be able to cover the expenses from the items given out to the fans. It is funny that for my June month goal was to meet with investors, get mentorship and apply for a loan and to be in this course for this month as well. It looks like all things happen for a reason. I too have spoken to possible job offers in my field of schooling. I am so excited it seems as though all is coming to plan. I am really looking forward to my business starting in Jan. 2017. I have learned that I do not have to make a lot of money in the first couple months of my company opening but I do have to work hard to make up for those short comings in the coming months. This course has also taught me how to write off depreciation assets on taxes because I never knew I could count those assets. An accountant and a lawyer is to me the two most important professional services I will need before I start my business because the accountant will help me with the finances so that I don’t spend the wrong way and the lawyer will help me with every legal aspect of the business start up. I look forward to learning more in the months to come. I believe the knowledge I have gained thus far will help me in the now process of business planning and definitely in the future.

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