Date: November 17, 2024
Executive Leadership
Leadership is taught from the beginning stages of life. Babies and small children follow one another while playing. You can tell who is in charge by their body language, amplification of voice, tone, etc. The leader barks orders and the other kids humbly oblige. This produces a relationship solidified in everyone’s mind of who is in charge and who will jump up to volunteer. Leadership is fluid. The type of leadership required for various circumstances must change for an intended outcome. This means being flexible when necessary.
Robert Greene gave the world a cheat sheet when he wrote 48 Laws of Power. He educated others on how to attain power, increase it, and keep it. The methods described carried a tone of deception and apathy. They asked for someone to become another person, the dark alter ego that gets the job done. Not all methods were dark in nature. Greene offers a light at the end of the tunnel via chapters 10 and 11, my leadership styles. Chapter 10 is called “Infection”. It describes the importance of avoiding unhappy and unlucky people. This type of environment stifles growth and causes delays in all areas of life. Chapter 11 is titled “Learning to Keep People Dependent on You”. Chapter 11 explains why it is important to remain indispensable.
I came from a hostile environment that caused me to grow up fast. Once out on my own, I found it hard to adjust to people that were happy, or those that were nice to me. As I got older, I realized I was in control of my own happiness. This meant staying in control of my environment. Toxicity and negativity can sneak up in your life at any time; this is why Greene’s 10th law is so relevant for my life. I have a responsibility to myself to keep my peace. The 11th law explains how talent and skill are necessary to keep others dependent on you. If other’s see me as a commodity for their organization or lives, then it is a win-win relationship. There are other laws that I live by. However, these two define my professional and personal attributes the most.
Date: February 2, 2025
Entertainment Business Finance
My initial objective for this course was to learn the importance of finance as it related to the entertainment industry. I had little knowledge of finance from other courses, but this course proved to be more detailed and diverse when it came to various components of entertainment. These areas pushed the course in the direction of learning at a steady, yet necessary pace on ways money could be used in entertainment.
Examples of things learned in the course were the amount of time it would take to see a return on investment. Some of the methods shown included looking at how many concerts would have to be played or how many shows would need to be performed to recoup the initial money invested into a project. This concept was known as breaking even. Breaking even on an investment meant looking at when profits were equal to the costs. This could be achieved by viewing Opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are determined by comparing the possible advantages or value of the option not taken when making a business decision. These costs mean looking a price, time, perks, etc.
Professionally, I learned that looking at future investments are important when making present decisions. These decisions can save a lot of money and show how to make the best career choices. These choices are based on looking at money in form of annuities or lump sums. Four tables can be used to get the answer for the choosing the best method. Personally, I was able to use the information taught in the class to pick three investments that would help me in the future. Those were retirement, real estate, and stock. Retirement is something all people should consider when looking toward the future for income that is protected once working has ceased. Real estate appreciates (increases) in value. This is attractive to the average investor. Finally, stock is something that must be considered. Results fluctuate, meaning they can increase or decrease in value.
DATE: March 1, 2035
Digital Marketing
My original goal for this course was to gain an understanding of digital marketing and the role it plays in business plan development. This goal was met during teaching sessions and discussions. Digital marketing is highly used today as the main marketing tactic of advertising products and branding. The internet has made digital marketing available and accessible to massive audiences across the globe. Availability encompasses various digital platforms to include social media, video, and blogs. Accessibility includes visiting company websites of products and third-party sites that include ways to purchase products.
I learned many things in this course that helped me understand the impact marketing has on a product and brand. The first, was the importance of having a marketing campaign. This campaign may deal with increasing profit or increasing brand awareness. Both require a plan to reach the masses. This can be accomplished via a digital marketing campaign. This campaign has a business concept, target market, keyword strategy/digital properties, competition identification, content strategy, campaign objective, marketing channels, creative content examples, and analytics. Each objective requires a different campaign for reaching the target audience.
Professionally, this class has been one of the hardest concepts I have learned in business. It requires a mindset of thinking outside the box and using analytics for testing products. The results can make or break a campaign and require the ability and willingness to pivot when necessary. It has also showed me the importance of organization in business. An example is organizing and planning when and how a company should post to social media. Different sites may contain different audiences, but the integrated message should be the same across all platforms. Personally, digital marketing has helped me understand why and how certain ads are geared towards me while online. This includes allowing or denying certain sites permission to my information. Allowing permission can include accessing browsing history; to include keywords searched that can be used for marketing products.
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