About Me
Hello and welcome! Aside from being a Full Sail Student I'm also an Orlando-based performer. I've worked with local theaters such as Orlando Family Stage & Winter Park Playhouse, traveled and performed with Disney Cruise Line, and I currently work in Entertainment at Universal Orlando.
I'm deeply passionate about constantly improving my craft— I believe there’s always more to learn. This mindset helps me grow so I can become not only a better performer, but also a better version of myself. Through all the time I have spent immersed in the world of theatre and enterainment, I have developed a true love of storytelling. I approach every creative project as an opportunity to move, encourage, and inspire. For more on me, check out my website here!
Intention Statement
Throughout my next 12 months at Full Sail University, I intend to have a better idea of what my options in entertainment are outside of performance alone. I will use this journal as a means to keep track of the different facets of this business that interest me through assignments in areas of focus such as marketing, project management, publishing and distribution and executive leadership. As my long term goal involves rising in creative in companies such as Universal Destinations & Experiences, Disney Parks Creative & Disney Cruise Line Creative, I will use this Mastery Journal as a way to track my progress in becoming equipped to join the aforementioned teams.
I hope to learn skills that will allow me to become a necessary part of bringing iconic stories to life and in doing so. I want the tools needed to take my experience in bringing stories to life from the onstage perspective to a behind the scenes approach, creating the framework of the experiences, fine tuning both vision and show, with a hand in the financial aspect, the marketing aspect, the branding aspect etc. I want to better understand the financial and legal limitations of entertainment so I do not feel blindsided by such things when I am in the act of creating. I want to understand the business aspect of this business so well that I can seamlessly merge creativity and reasonability. Finally, I'd like to create a business plan with roots in my direct interests without shying away from the aspects of entertainment that really strike a chord in my soul. And while I'm not quite sure what kind of business/plan that would look like, let this also be one of my aspiring achievements; to better understand how to apply my passion to a fruitful and meaningful career.
Inspiration lies in the possibility.
Can I make the world kinder? Can I love better? Is it ridiculous I believe such things can be done through stories? Perhaps. But I refuse to see the world as it is, instead choosing to see what it could be. If stories like Cinderella inspire me to hold on to hope to persevere despite it all, what kinds of stories could I help bring to life that would do the same for others. If I'm not yet where I want to be, I can see the possibility of it and that alone gives me hope.
LinkedIn Profile
Do it for the younger version of you, who needed to see it happen.
As I listened to Laufey's Letter To My 13 Year Old Self on a late drive home, I found deep resonance with the lyrics. In adolescence, I was often told to pursue other dreams, not the ones that led back to what some considered, juvenile entertainment. In a world of theater, theme park and IP entertainment is not always seen as a respected sect of the arts. And in layman terms, some might call it silly. But if the thirteen year old girl who went to Disney World and Universal on weekends with wonder and amazement could know where she would be a decade later, she would be so proud. And I hope to continue to make her proud as I further my career. I will continue to pursue the silly dream, because it is the one I care about most.
MY MASTERY JOURNAL TIMELINE
The Type of Leader I Want to Be
As a leader, I want to be more aligned with Maxwell’s style. Maxwell’s leadership style comes from a place of servitude, a mindset of helping others and lifting them up, which I want to do in both my personal and professional life. In summary, Maxwell’s style of leadership is about the people you’re leading. The focus is not on how leadership can benefit you, but how your leadership can support and motivate others. I think this style of leadership is necessary in my industry because theme park work requires an immense amount of teamwork to fulfill both daily and long-term operation. In creating projects that will be seen by thousands of people per day, there is too much responsibility to be on one person. Even those in the highest position must have a reliance on their team to see things come to fruition on such a large scale. It requires trust and teamwork, which are two elements that Maxwell’s style of leadership directly fosters. My faith is the driving force in my life. I believe personally, professionally, emotionally and spiritually that I am meant to love others. Maxwell’s belief is that we can make the world a better place by being “the person who does something selfless for others and helps them along their way” and that “if we do it for the people. We lead and help them become successful with no ulterior motive, we can develop a relationship of trust” (Maxwell, 2019, p. 56). A leader that goes out of their way to help those that they lead, without an ulterior motive for their own success but for the betterment of that individual and of the entire team in general will not only directly align with the type of leadership required for my industry but with my own personal beliefs.
Works Cited: Maxwell, J. C. (2019). The Foundation of Leadership: Character Developing the leader within you 2.0. (p. 49-70). HarperCollins Leadership.
Entertainment Business Finance
For a large majority of my life, anything mathematical felt unapproachable. I excelled in English and Social Studies but found myself struggling with certain math classes. My personal objective for this course was to get out of my own way and allow any insecurities in the subject to dissipate in the face of practical application. My learning objective was to understand the concepts of business finance to ensure that financial statements, financial ratios, and other economic practices of business were known and understood enough for me to engage with them not only on my own but in professional settings. While not necessary for me to be a financial advisor or anything of the sort, in the entertainment industry so often free-form creativity can be stifled by monetary restrictions. It's in everyone's best interest for creatives to have awareness of every aspect of a business, as at the end of the day entertainment businesses are still businesses.
I've learned about investments and opportunity costs and how sometimes when considering financial decisions, we don't always just look at the finances. But also in looking at the financial repercussions of financial decisions such as purchases or investments there are ways to determine if those investments will pay off. Professionally, I intend to keep the Break Even concepts readily available to determine if certain creative endeavors will be monetarily successful and if not, finding ways to readjust the costs and expenses without sacrificing story and quality of said project. Personally, I intend to continue forward with a mindset of preparing and analyzing all possible costs of any ventures I take on. Even something as simple as road-trips or vacations will come with certain costs I might not think to budget, like snacks and drinks for example. Before this class, I may have only considered gas and tolls in budgeting but now I have full understanding to be detail-oriented in every facet of life, not only creatively.
Digital Marketing: Storytelling In Every Capacity
Being a performer in the entertainment industry means that, for most of my career, my marketing has been done for me. I have not the one convincing families to spend thousands of dollars to sail on a cruise ship or fly to Florida to spend a week at a theme park. I am, however, a very active part in making the experience worth it and helping the marketing live up to any and all expectations set. It was with this mindset that I began Digital Marketing; knowing there was so much I did not know but should know, to not only better improve the quality of my work, but to understand how to best share the products, services, and experiences that I love with others who have the same capacity to love it just as much as I do.
I became a performer because of a deep-rooted love of storytelling. Truthfully, my preconceptions of marketing that it was a necessary – sometimes stifling – step on the way to storytelling. This course helped re-shape my opinion to understand that the best and most effective forms of marketing are stories themselves. What I came to discover, was that through research, creativity and imagination a marketing campaign can be both effective and unique. There is a balance of the analytical and the personable. I can play towards my demographic with consideration to search engine optimization, analytics, budgeting, and competition while also simply playing.
As I continue my career, specifically as I market myself and my artistic works, I can allow my personality to shine through in my brand identity and tell the kinds of stories I want to tell more effectively, with the understanding of how to best reach and engage with audiences. Like the marketing photos for my cabaret, It’s My Party and I’ll Sing if I Want to; I can keep my brightly colored clown-esque pants, my heart-shaped party sunglasses (purely for the aesthetic as they are fully unnecessary indoors), and further say, with one picture, that this show is a party and everyone who attends get to be my guest. Dare I say, in a thinly veiled metaphor, that Digital Marketing not only helped me learn that I can have my cake and eat it to, but now I know how to find those who also want cake.
The value of a product is best celebrated through marketing. And with the newly added tools in my toolbox, I now have both the internal and external resources to confidently conjure campaign ideas, knowing the story does not start and end with the product; but the story surrounds the product through every search result, every ad, every web page, and social media post associated with it.
Product and Entertainment Management
When I saw that one of the classes within the Entertainment Business Masters Program was Product and Artists Management, I immediately developed an expectation that it would help serve as a stronger foundation for my career. Seeing as so much of my career involves me going to/setting up auditions, submitting myself and maintaining all my different contracts/gigs, I fully believed there would be information on how to manage my own self more productively in this course. I was not anticipating the product side of this course to be so impactful. While it was certainly out of my wheelhouse, the product management concepts are where I think I really learned without expecting to with a newfound understanding that product management can be a way to celebrate audiences. Before this, I used to think product development and any involvement with it was completely out of my wheelhouse. Now, I have an understanding of how we can use information gathered in marketing like demographic, psychographics and spending behaviors to create products relevant to our target audiences with some kind of enhancement to their life that makes the products more than just a simple piece of merchandise, but a compelling and satisfactory addition to their life.
The business principles taught in this course, I believe directly applies to my own career and my future success. As I would like to continue to rise in the theme park industry, a large aspect of theme parks are the merchandise as in the creation of new attractions and entertainment, there is always a wave of merch that accompanies it. Like the new Villains: Unfairly Ever After show at Disney's Hollywood Studios had an entire merch collection released with the opening of the new entertainment offering. Not to mention, with Epic Universe, every single land has multiple shops filled with merch celebrating the characters, visuals, and stories of those lands. Theme parks and storytelling go hand in hand, and storytelling and merch can go hand in hand if done right, with a prioritization of the target audience and a value beyond the product itself, tying into the specificity of why it exists, celebrating the stories that inspired it. Whether it be a decorative pin or a water bottle, when created with the story in mind, there is value behind it.
And then, for me personally, the concept of narrowcasting has been an eye opener. So often, as entertainers, we feel this need to welcome everyone into our space, and create something that caters to all. However, any art, no matter how strong, is subjective and instead of trying to water down our art to make it more palatable for everyone, staying true to ourselves and catering to the audience that we know will enjoy our work will bring us more success than generalization ever will. I love musical theater. Not everyone does. Instead of trying to get everyone to like musical theater, if I focus on being a part of musicals that lean into the traditional musical theater values, with specifically theatrical music and heartfelt stories, I will find my niche of audiences and that niche will celebrate that art with me, leading to more success in that demographic that I would have previously seen making a more bland musical to appeal to all. As I further pursue entertainment jobs, it is in my best interest to use narrowcasting to evaluate all my options. To find what I love, theatrical and theme park entertainment, and go even more specific from there; to stage shows and atmospheric entertainment, scripted performances and improv interactions. There will always be a niche, and every niche deserves champions of it.
Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution
As a creative person who knows many creative people, so many of us understand what it takes to create the art but often the block is on how to share it with the world. My original goal for this course was to come to understand the necessary steps to distribution of art so as to equip myself with the tools to allow for creative works of either myself or my friends to see the light of a public world. I found that my goal was met by this course not simply in the sharing of information but also by the tools given for us to use both in this class and in our personal and professional lives beyond it.
In this course I saw a glimpse behind the curtain of the commodity of creative works. While it can be hard to digest, entertainment is a business and the selling of our entertainment is not always as simple as we might hope. Making sure to utilize the right avenues and the correct agents can make our break the success of a creative work. As someone who is a performer, the distinction between when the creative product is you versus when the creative project comes from you is important.
From the perspective of a theme park performer who wants to continue to rise and grow into theme park creative, so much of bringing stories, IP's and entertainment offerings to life involves pitching these ideas to higher ups and convincing those who make the decisions why exactly the money should be green lit for an offering. Universal Epic Universe, a staple new theme park in the theme park industry, began as an idea those creatives had to sell to those with the means to bring it to life. Every land and every portal was brought to life with a pitch.
Even if theme park entertainment varies from a book or a film or an album, the skills and techniques used in this class are more than applicable to what it takes to pitch any creative offering to someone who needs to be convinced of its merit both artistically and monetarily.
Project and Team Management
As someone who has produced, written and starred in multiple solo shows I found myself thinking through the entirety of Project and Team Management of how I wished I could have had the benefit of these tools and strategies earlier but now that I have them, I am eager to apply them. The lessons I've learned in Project and Team Management, specifically the WBS sheet and the Risk Management Sheet are ones to be directly applied into both our personal and professional lives. A simple list may have served me well in the past, but the specificity of a Work Breakdown Structure protects my project's time, budget, and scope. A backup plan is only helpful when planned and a Risk Management Sheet forces that planning to fruition.
I am going to take the WBS sheet and the Risk Management sheet and use them for my next solo cabaret as these shows take a lot of planning, a lot of prep and require a solid organized, applicable way to maintain the work load for both me and my stakeholders. Not to mention, live entertainment has a certain amount of potential problems that could risk the entire event, sometimes on the day of the show. An understanding of all that can go wrong and all the different ways to mitigate these potential risks is something that could benefit a project manager of a cabaret or a family trying to plan Thanksgiving Dinner. The difference being that a family's worst case scenario is dinner out after a burnt turkey and an entertainer's worst case scenario is a cancelled show with refunded tickets. Preparation, planning, and performance are key to success when completing a Work Breakdown structure and a Risk Management Sheet and any event, whether it be a holiday gathering, a birthday party, a cabaret, or a full musical theater production can benefit from these tools.
As I think about the greater plans of my career–my ambition to become involved in the creative teams of theme park and cruise ship entertainment, the greater the project the more important the sustainability of the time, budget and scope, the more necessary these tools. Now, I have familiarized myself with the tools and the processes standard with Project and Team Management, even if certain terms, names, and applications might be different, my knowledge is applicable to all. If I could give any piece of advice to those venturing into one of the many facets of the entertainment industry, it would be to recognize the methodologies in practice and application to see where the lessons taught in this class are being used, even if they may look slightly different than how we were taught them. For it is in the recognition and participation of the direct application that we can carry the core of this class with us into whatever plans, projects, or teams we lead in the future.
Business Plan Development
At first glance, one would assume the goal of Business Plan Development is to, as the title says, develop a business plan. I could say that was my original goal, as it was, but as I continued in the class I feel as though it suddenly shifted. My business plan is more complete, developed, and modeled out so my original goal has been achieved but a new goal began to form when I realized the expense of knowledge Professor Burhoe had at his disposal for us from. This goal has only just begun to be seen to fruition and that is how I believe it should be. As we are challenged to discuss what business will look like in the real world, outside of a school format, I came to realize our greatest teacher will be experience. As Jayson Whitmore, Full Sail Hall of Famer revealed, humility is a quality of those still wishing to learn. What looks good on paper is not always reality and ensuring that our business plan aligns with the reality of our business, acknowledging both the good and the bad will suit us better in the long run. Allowing experience, not just mine but also of those that have come before me, to be my teacher will help me in preparation for an ever-changing business world. The classroom has importance, the classroom has helped me build roots, but it is in the workplace that I can fully start to grow with the grounding of my educational experience as the foundation. This course and this program have most greatly impacted me by cementing the idea that outside of being students, or professionals, we are people. Prioritizing being the kind of person I want to be—kind, passionate, and intentional, has allowed me to be a strong student, but it will also enable me to be a strong professional as well. This class, with its structure of building and implementing the chapters of a business plan while studying other professionals and their businesses in action allows for the ascent out of the classroom and into the world.