Mobile Marketing & Commerce

            Month ten was a course entitled Mobile Marketing & Commerce.  I was very surprised by the diverse results in our Leadership Portfolio assignment for this class.  Our requirements were to create a mobile survey, which we would ask a number of people from different backgrounds, age groups, gender, lifestyles, geographic location, etc. to participate in.  The objective was to determine what each of the subjects surveyed think about today’s mobile technology and where they see it going in the future.  I surveyed five people with an age range of 23-54 years old.  A few of the questions asked in the survey include “how do you feel about mobile advertising overall”, “what do you primarily use your cell phone for”, “are you comfortable with personal information being shared”, “will increasing mobile functionality harm future generations”, “how many hours in a day do you use your cell phones”, “where do you see cell phones going from here”, etc.  Some questions prompted everyone giving similar if not exactly the same answers.  Others prompted completely dissimilar answers.  Interestingly however, some people seemed to share more consistent similarities with one or two people throughout the survey while remaining consistently dissimilar to the rest.  These relationships go beyond the quantitative data in the survey.

            The most interesting thing I took from exercise was the improvement made in my problem solving skills.  At first, I just saw random answers to my questions on the page.  However, as I continued to review the data over and over again, I was eventually able to use the quantitative results from the survey to decipher certain qualitative similarities and relationships.  Because I personally knew the five subjects surveyed, I know what they do for a living, whether they live in a city or a suburb, their age, what they do for entertainment, how technologically savvy they are, etc.  Since one of my strengths is people, especially in terms of psychology and sociology, I was able to make correlations in the data based on a number of different factors these people either share in common in their life or do not share in common.  In other words, this Leadership Portfolio really helped me to look past what is sitting in front of me and not to always analyze the information at face value, because you may be overlooking a major piece to the puzzle.

Digital Marketing

        Our class for month nine was Digital Marketing.  This course had a very useful Leadership Portfolio for understanding what you can do for yourself and your company using today’s newest online technologies.  Our Leadership Portfolio assignment was to set up an account using an RSS reader, like Google Reader for example, to search keywords utilizing multiple aggregator sites like Indeed.com Twitter Advanced Search and Google alerts for job searches in a specific “job search” folder.  We also created a “reputation” folder, where I utilized Twitter Advanced Search, Google Alerts, and SocialMention.com.  Lastly, I created an “industry news” folder utilizing Active8Social RSS, Fusion Sports RSS, Twitter Advanced Search, and Google Alerts.  The final part of our assignment was to create a “professional profile article” listing three of your biggest values, why they are important to you, and how you are going to ensure that these values are effectively portrayed in your online reputation.  The three personal values I listed were creativity, integrity, and boldness.  As a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, I feel that these are the three characteristics I aspire to have associated with my name when people think of who I am both as a businessman and as a person in general.

            My strengths of attitude, vision, and people all come into effect in the professional profile.  These characteristics represent the positive attitude and vision I want people to associate with my name.  I also want them to see me as an entrepreneur who is extremely influential, solves problems, and creates positive change in every aspect of my life.  Whether personal or professional, your online reputation is very powerful.  It can cause people to pass judgment before they even meet you either in a positive or negative light.  It can cause people to spread information about you like wildfire.  It can shoot you straight to the top or destroy your career before you even realize what’s happening.  Simply put, the Internet is a very powerful tool.  If you can harness its powers and use it for good, you can find all the information you’ll ever need to know, and can lay the framework for you and your business to become an instant sensation.          

               

Entertainment Media Publishing & Distribution

            In month eight, our course was Entertainment Media Publishing & Distribution.  The Leadership Portfolio assignment this month was to create an electronic press kit for a book, movie, album, etc.  Given that I have a Bachelors degree from Full Sail in Recording Arts, I naturally chose to do my EPK on an album.  Though I have made music for years now and have been on other artists’ and bands’ albums, I have never actually made a record out of the 70+ self-produced songs I’ve compiled over the years.  This assignment was my chance to at least lay the framework for my own album.  I entitled it “Rhyme Will Tell”.  For the EPK, I included an artist bio, professional photos, equipment personally owned and equipment venues must provide, an album cover I designed myself, the track list of the album and gigs I’ve played in the past, lyrics to one of the album songs, a sample demo track, published quotes about me as an artist, and finally my contact information with a business card.  This assignment was fun for me because it is something I can actually use if I decide to create a solo album at some point.

            It was interesting putting an artist bio together of myself.  I’ve had to write personal bios of myself prior to this Leadership Portfolio of course.  However, I’ve never done it in a way that promotes me as a solo artist planning to go on tour with my solo album.  My strength of vision certainly came into play here as I thought of the brand image I wanted to portray, drew my album cover, and had to narrow down a 15-track album from a song library of 70+.  I would also say that I worked on my weakness of problem solving with this assignment.  One would think that with so many self-produced songs to my name, I would have taken the steps to put fifteen of them together onto a CD, make an album cover, and try to make some money and/or create a name for myself and my art.  This was the first step to me realizing that it really isn’t all that difficult to do, and if I put so much effort into the songs, I could spare a fraction of that time to create an album so they can be heard instead of collecting dust as wasted effort and talent.               

Advanced Entertainment Law

Month seven was a class entitled Advanced Entertainment Law.  Our Leadership Portfolio for this month was another interview with an industry professional.  We were asked to go interview a lawyer related to our chosen business profession.  I interviewed a patent lawyer, Rob Frame from Boston MA, who I had worked with on a few of my inventions in the past.  Though I had worked with him before strictly for business purposes, I had never previously sat down with him to get information on his actual career.  In the interview, Rob Frame and I discussed how he got to where he is today, what qualifications he needs, and the process he has to go through with each client who tries to file a patent.  What interested me in this conversation were the moral issues involved.  Rob explained that obviously everyone who comes into his office with an invention is more money in his pocket.  However, he also explained the moral dilemma that comes into play when his years of experience tell him that someone’s invention is not patentable and/or not going to be successful.  He said that some clients are so stuck on an idea that they don’t listen to his advice.  He also said that some clients don’t want his advice.  They simply want him to do what they are paying him for.  This made me think that probably in every area of law, there must constantly be moral battles you need to balance against your need for the money from these clients.

I was very pleased with Rob’s response when I asked him if there were anything he would recommend that I do in the future to be a better client to patent attorneys.  He said that he really couldn’t give me any advice, because based on our previous dealings together I was actually a perfect client.  He told me that I had the right attitude and vision to know when to keep pursuing an idea and when to drop it.  He also said that many people just expect him to know everything there is to know about the industry their patent will reside in, which is unrealistic.  He commended me on my ability to keep him updated from my own research and industry knowledge for him to use as a starting point to then further conduct his own.  I would say that creating positive change, influence, and problem solving, which I have listed as weaknesses are actually the foundation to being an entrepreneurial inventor.  I have not had a successful patent yet, but I believe my positive attitude and vision will persevere to one day have it all pay off.                  

Product & Artist Management

Jorge Bettencourt

Product & Artist Management was our month six course.  Our Leadership Portfolio for this month was to go out and interview a professional product or artist manager.  This assignment for me was very useful in getting to know the true story of a personal hometown hero.  The artist manager I interviewed was Jorge Bettencourt, who grew up in a large family in my hometown of Hudson MA.  Jorge Bettencourt, who now works with my mother at Hewlett Packard, was the manager for his brother Paulo’s band Flash and more famously his brother Nuno’s band Extreme, who had the hit song “More than words”.  Nuno is also now the lead guitarist for Rhianna though Jorge does not manage him anymore.  Jorge and I spoke on the phone for more than an hour discussing his role as an artist manager for the only person in my hometown who is considered to be a true celebrity with chart-topping music.  I had long considered the possibility of going into artist management as a career for myself, but Jorge was quick to shed a realistic light on heading down that path.  Jorge said he’s glad he did it and enjoyed life on the road, but also explained the downfalls.  Jorge was constantly stressed out as an artist manager, was always dealing with problems from the band, labels, and promoters, and was even left by his wife because of the schedule and lifestyle that comes along with the profession.  Jorge offered to buy me a drink sometime when I’m back in town to discuss my own career further and see if he can connect me with some very powerful hitters in the industry.

Nuno Bettencourt

Again, this assignment was extremely helpful in giving me all the insight I could possibly ask for regarding artist management.  However, this assignment was also personally helpful in finally hearing the full story of a family I often only heard rumors about growing up in my suburban hometown.  This was another assignment that maybe didn’t help my weaknesses along as much as others, but was still a very worthwhile project for a Leadership Portfolio.  The fact that Jorge offered to buy me a drink and help me in my own career when the whole point of this assignment was to get in his good graces and learn about his career was very humbling.  Surprisingly, my strength of being able to effectively communicate with people might hold even more weight than I originally thought.  I was able to get someone who I look up and was asking a favor of to turn the tables and want to know more about me and what I do.

Negotiation & Deal Making

Month five was a good confidence-boosting course called Negotiation & Deal Making.  Our Leadership Portfolio for this class was a choice of interviewing an experienced negotiator or dealmaker, or going out and conducting an actual negotiation on your own.  I chose the second of the two options, as I was conveniently involved in an international negotiation at that time.  A friend of mine, who is a boxing promoter in Boston MA asked me to join him in working out a deal with Rudy Gonzalez, Mike Tyson’s former bodyguard.  Rudy was trying to set up a fight in Tanzania Africa, which is where my friend Razza, the promoter in Boston is originally from.  The fight was between U.S. Heavyweight Roy Jones Jr. and Mexican Heavyweight Hector Macho Camacho.  The negotiations Razza and I had to deal with were between us and Rudy, us and the Universal Boxing Organization, us and Tanzanian government, and us and HBO.  Unfortunately, much to our disappointment, Rudy ended up making a few fraudulent deals in trying to put this together that we did not know about, eventually upsetting the two professional boxers, and prompted the cancellation of the fight all together due to legal actions taken against him.

Of course, I was extremely disappointed with the turnout after putting in so much time and effort with Razza dealing with international negotiations and promotions.  On the bright side however, Razza and I were free from any legal responsibilities Rudy brought on himself and we learned more from this experience than any business dealings I had ever been previously involved with up to that point.  When it comes to using both my strengths and weaknesses, this experience required them all.  I needed to have a positive attitude, a solid vision, and great people skills.  I also needed to problem solve, influence others, and attempt to create a positive change by bringing an internationally televised boxing title fight to Tanzania.  I hope that one day Razza and I can bring an event that big to countries like Tanzania, and I believe that we will be able to pull it off successfully based on our experience from this instance alone.                 

Entertainment Business Finance

Paul Travis

Month four went into a subject I was very intimidated by, but knew was extremely important for both personal and professional success.  The course was Entertainment Business Finance.  This was the first class where our Leadership Portfolio required us to go out and interview a professional in the financial field.  Upon a visit back home to Boston, I interviewed a man my father knew quite well.  His name is Paul Travis and he is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).  My interview with Paul was extremely informative and surprisingly gave me a greater appreciation for my father’s financial intelligence as Paul explained some of my dad’s dealings with him.  Though Paul only deals with clients with a certain level of money, he gave me some great financial advice as a struggling college student and left an open door for me to contact him whenever I need free of charge.

Though I was not able to enhance my weaknesses through this particular Leadership Portfolio, Paul commended me on my strengths of attitude, my vision for future financial plans, and my effectiveness in holding an intelligent conversation with a financial professional, which is a topic I am not an expert on by any means.  I was a little intimidated by meeting a financial professional at the beginning, but quickly realized based on his reactions that I probably knew more on the subject than many of the people who walk through his door on a daily basis.  In other words, I often fill my head with thoughts of doubt and fears of failure.  However, if you just go out and make that intimidating contact, ask the question you thought was stupid, and put yourself on the line once in a while on a topic you’re not an expert on, people will respect you more for your interest in the subject and your respect of their intelligence.  It’s a great feeling knowing that although I may not be a financial professional, I do have people in my corner who are professionals and are willing to help me out when I have questions or need advice on that subject.