Leadership Portfolio Projects - Recap

While my projects were mentioned throughout the prior posts, I decided to recap all of the ongoing and "one-off" activities/projects I have been doing for Family Moons and their artists:

Artist Management:

• Ongoing renewal of review and renewal of contracts - introducing artists to Intellectual Property and management practices.
• Ongoing brand building and maintenance - Interviewing and formulation of artists' brand identities and revenue streams.
• Ongoing Promotions and performance booking - Promoting artists' and securing performance bookings.

Event Management:

• Technical Coordination, Scenic Building, Promotions - 2010 Winter DJ Olympics - Benefiting the American Cancer Society
• Technical Coordination, Promotions, Performance - Family Moons 12 Year Anniversary
• Charity event sponsorships - Arranging donation of time and labor to charitable causes.

UPCOMING:

• October 2010 - TBA - Event in Phoenix, AZ (Non-charity event)
• January 2011 - 2011 Winter DJ Olympics - Benefiting Arts Adventures (Respite for children with Autism)
• June 2011 - 2011 Summer DJ Olympics - Benefiting Watermelon Ranch (No-kill animal shelter)

This is a set of skills and traits that I have determined are necessary for efficient management:

Organization - must have a certain level of organization. But most importantly OTHER people need to understand your method of organization.

Problem Solving - If it can go wrong, it will. Be prepared to deal with anything and everything.

Honesty - Don't try and manipulate your way through business. It will come back to haunt you.

Love - If you don't love what your doing then you shouldn't be doing it.

Commitment - Stick it through, but always know when to take a break.

A Special Thanks

Of all the classes that I have been involved with I found two that really stand out: Business Plan Development and Executive Leadership. There placement in this program is planned, I know, but to really sit back and understand these two classes is a bit breathtaking.

School is about encouragement and offering students an avenue for growth and creation. I have come out of the program with full confidence in my business endeavors, something that I didn't have going in.

I offer my sincerest thanks, to all of you, from all my classes: for your time, patience, compassion, and even the swift kick in the behind when necessary.

"What we think, we become." - Buddha

Business Plan Development

A constant within the program has been research. Research can be the line between success and failure. Wisdom is indispensable. The following is the original Leadership Portfolio assignment from Business Plan Development.

Introduction

The two experts that I have chosen are David E. Gumpert and Kevin O’Leary. Each person has extensive experience in small and large business. Each person specializes in different industries. One is internet marketing and the other is educational software.
David E. Gumpert is the author of Burn Your Business Plan! What Investors Really Want from Entrepreneurs. Mr. Gumpert is “a former staff reporter with The Wall Street Journal, former small business and marketing editor of the Harvard Business Review, former senior editor of Inc. Magazine and a graduate of the University of Chicago and Columbia University.” (www.davidgumpert.com) Gumpert has authored multiple books on business.
Kevin O’Leary is most famous for his role on the ABC television show Shark Tank, a reality television show that puts business owners and entrepreneurs up against a panel of experienced and highly successful venture capitalists and businesspeople. O’Leary created and made successful SoftKey Software Products, an educational software company that was eventually sold to Mattel for 3.7 Billion Dollars.

Key Plan Components

Each individual had a unique perspective on a business plan. David Gumpert takes an approach that is written in his book, Burn Your Business Plan! What Investors Really Want from Entrepreneurs. Gumpert states, “entrepreneurs should focus their company-building efforts on such tasks as creating a Web site that communicates their business model, obtaining publicity, keeping the finances under control, and making sales before thinking seriously about writing a business plan.” (Gumpert, 2010) His statement lays out the importance of knowing the internal structure and organization of your company. Gumpert believes that if you don’t know where your company is with in its operations then the time spent on a business plan is useless and wasteful. Knowing where the company is at will inherently feed to your overall “plan” but the plan is not the primary focus, running your business is.
Kevin O’Leary counteracts David Gumpert’s opinion. “It's clear in how they described their business plan that they are the right people to execute their plan.” (O’Leary, 2010) He states the importance of having the right people for the right job. O’Leary continues to say, “If you look at the strengths or the attributes of those that are successful there are three things; one is that they are able to articulate their vision in a very short period of time.” (O’Leary, 2010) Cohesion between the plan and the person is imperative to communicating the concept quickly and accurately, especially when seeking funding.
Both experts seem to encourage a sense of optimism within realism. Being positive and having the correct attitude has more influence on investors then the actual written document.

Pitfalls

To major pitfalls were discovered when reviewing Gumpert and O’Leary. Gumpert discusses of stubbornness in planning. This pitfall goes along with his argument that business people should not spend so much time on the plan, but rather on the business itself. O’Leary links several problems into one: overvalue a product and not having the right people for the product.
Pitfall Avoidance
Avoid overvaluing of the products or services of MEMG will be difficult in the music industry. This is because the industry is attempts to place a value on non-tangible creativity. The biggest problem will be the artists directly. It was stated in Artist and Product management that an artist will tend to overvalue its talent and marketability.
Morrow Entertainment and Media Group plans to avoid the prior pitfalls by following exactly what each expert said. While the plan is important, it is more important to use the business plan as a reference document, in order to view where you are coming from and where you are going. MEMG plans to make a schedule and a time limit for reviewing the internal business plan to facilitate its correct usage.
The importance of having the correct people in the correct job has influenced MEMG to plan on adding staff earlier in the process. MEMG must utilize the strengths of others in order to make MEMG as successful as possible. Rather than incorporating staff at approximately year three, the Company will further research management pitfalls. One of those staff positions will be an additional artist manager. Utilizing a second manager will allow Morrow Entertainment and Media Group to handle artists more efficiently and price there services in a fair and appropriate manner.

Reference:

Gumpert, D. (2010). Burn your business plan!. Sourced from http://www.entrepreneurship.org/burn-your-business-plan.html on May 30, 2010.
Norton, A. (January 8, 2010). 411mania interviews: shark tank's daymond john & kevin o'leary. Sourced from http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/126205/411maniaInterviews: Shark Tank%5C%5Cs-Daymond-John-&-Kevin-O%5C%5CLeary.htm on May 30, 2010.
ABC. Kevin o’leary shark tank biography. Sourced from http://abc.go.com/shows/shark tank/bio/kevin-oleary/276282 on May 30, 2010.

Mobile Marketing

The world of communication is growing at an exponential rate. Mobile technologies are linking societies and commerce worldwide. However, the United States is one of the slowest to fully integrate wireless technology. The interviews conducted for this assignment offer a unique perspective into the reasoning behind United States users. Most of those reasons are based on security and sensitivity to privacy. Yet, demographic differences allude that those reasons may change.

The conducted interviews presented many challenges of how mobile marketing will affect the business plan for Morrow Entertainment and Media Group. MEMG is committed to offering marketing strategies that will be legal and responsible. MEMG has already observed negative feedback just from simple promotional texts for shows. These texts are of a personal nature, not business, but the responses show how easily mobile users are annoyed and how easily the relationship is stressed.

Mobile is a relatively new marketing stream that requires a lot of caution when approaching. Through the class and projects you come to realize that mobile culture, in this country (USA), is still very private.

Internet Marketing and Web Search Optimization

Introduction:
The advent of the Mp3 has changed music forever. The effects have been felt through every musical genre, country, rap, pop, but none more than electronic dance music. Deejaying through the use of digital vinyl systems (DVS), such as Serato Scratch and Native Instruments Traktor, along with other digital software, such as Ableton Live, would cause a massive explosion in the popularity and accessibility of electronic music (Check out this article: http://sites.google.com/site/digitalimo/the-digital-state-of-the-dj).
At one point in time the only way to further your career as an electronic music producer or deejay was to find a label willing to give you a deal. Not the case any more. Any man, woman, and child can use the Internet to distribute, promote, and be successful off their creative content. This is because there is now no one to tell you whether it’s good enough or not. The days of the record executive are over. Welcome the new age of Digital Distribution.

Digital Distribution:
Digital distribution encompasses the act of transmitting any and all forms of digital content through digital means, i.e. the Internet. Digital distribution allows for artists to become self-publishers and disseminate their creative works using an ever-increasing list of digital options. These options include:
• Posting Content to Blogs and other Social Media Sites. See www.soundcloud.com.
• Using a digital distribution service. See www.ingrooves.com;
• Direct negotiations with digital retailers. See www.beatport.com or www.Junodownload.com;
• Direct sales using artist websites and other means.
A common argument is for-profit vs. free. Both sides play an important role the how an artist chooses to distribute their music and each side need to each other. Digital piracy has created the need for new thinking and new models of doing business in the digital world. The primary point that should be made is: there is no money in the record industry. Primary revenue is no longer obtained through the sales of records, or downloads. Creative ideas for income are now required as is the need for more gigs. Releasing music is now as much a part of marketing and promotions as the headshots.

Digital Download Retailers
The invention of the Mp3 created a need for a source to obtain them. At first, file sharing programs such as Morpheus, as well as sites such as Napster, filled the niche. But just as quick as they filled it, they closed it because of copyright infringement legal battles.
While the likes of those past practices set a precedent of piracy, new business models were created to answer the calls of those wishing to purchase high quality music. Those requests were mainly fueled by Deejays seeking higher fidelity in the digital market. In 2004, Beatport was founded. Beatport paved the way for legal digital music downloads. Not far behind, companies such as Juno and Audiojelly soon joined as the competition. The importance of digital retailers lies in the fact that most of them are relatively easy to join. And this creates an excellent opportunity for artists/labels wishing to reach global audiences.

An excellent example of internet marketing is Family Moons artist Omega: http://soundcloud.com/omegadubstep

Reference:
Beatport, LLC
www.beatport.com
Beatport – Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatport
Digital Distribution Definition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_distribution
InGrooves
ingrooves.com
Soundcloud
www.soundcloud.com

"Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill." - Buddha

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution

It was this project that truly made me realize where I needed to take my career. Being unhappy with theatre for the last several years, I have discovered that electronic dance music is where my heart lies. This project provided the opportunity to begin putting pen to paper about a business that I have been discussing for several years.

Another major thing happened during this course, Family Moons nearly fell a part. It all goes back to where I quoted my uncle, "you have to set yourself up to succeed." Because of miscommunication and longtime tension, relations between the owners landed Family Moons in a near death situation. I am happy to say that it has been resolved but it reminds me how important it is to remain involved and informed on all business decisions AND to know when to let the reigns go and allow others to step up and take control. This situation created the need for a separate entity to be created. This is where my business plan has started taking shape.

Advanced Entertainment Law

This class and project were the most difficult pieces of the program for three reasons: I have no legal background, New Mexico is short on entertainment attorney's, and it was right after the holidays.

When I applied some of the legal wisdom (like never try to do a lawyers job yourself!) into Family Moons I received a lot of push back. That push is directly related to the financial problems I stated in a previous post. I have experienced the hesitation within my own businesses as well but legal representation is the WRONG place to cut corners. Protecting yourself and your business is of the upmost importance because, "it's not IF you get sued, it's WHEN you get sued." We are an over litigious society in which everyone sues everybody for everything. Not fully acknowledging legal risks and obtaining appropriate council can cost your ability to do business.