María Fernanda Lugo Mastery Journal Business Entertainment Master

About me

Hello! My name is María Fernanda Lugo and I'm currently pursuing the Business Entertainment Master's in Full Sail University. I have a Bachelor degree in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting, being that said, I worked as an accountant in a curtains component wholesaler in Puerto Rico. I also used to be a professional dancer here in Puerto Rico and now I am concentrating in mi career and in my fitness life, to maintain healthy life and all the energy to reach my goals.

Intentional Statement

Over the next 12 months I will be pursuing my Master degree in Business Entertainment in Full Sail University. In 2011, I started to work in the entertainment industry as a professional dancer. I used to dance in a recognized Dance Company here in Puerto Rico called GOP Dance Academy. By the time, I also started working in entertainment productions of the company and used to worked as an assistant director. In G.O.P. Dance Academy is where I found my passion for the entertainment industry. From this journey, reaching for my master degree, I want to gain all the possible knowledge to be an outstanding worker inside the business entertainment. I want to learn a lot of the artist management, singers and actors, and gain knowledge about movies and films. I am a determinate person, I have passion for what I do and I always maintain a positive attitude. Those skills will help me achieve my goals and dream, and also would help me, during this journey, to no matter what, I will keep going forward working with what I want. My biggest goal is to work with multinational tv chains like Warner Bros, Fox or Dream Works and also work for Dc. Comics or Marvel or with artists as well. I am a movies fan and since I was little I have always dream to work in movies, behind the scene or in front of cameras. Full Sail offers the student a full experience and all the tools to the students so they can achieve their dreams. I want to take advantage of all the tools the university will bring me to be an outstanding worker and student. I know that this task isn’t easy but when you propose something, anything is possible, always remembering to be perseverance and patience.

Erase the world can't from your vocabulary. Whatever we propose to do it will happens but we have to look for all the ways to make it possible. Thanks to my efforts I have achieve what I propose, I have been though a lot in between the journey of the projects, But I have always in mi mind that I CAN and I will. This photo describe perfectly what I repeat to myself every morning, "I can, I will, I only have the power to achieve all my dreams. Nobody's going to push me but me."

Adobe Spark. Free motivational photos (2021). Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/images/id-2470506/

LinkedIn

Start working on your dreams. Motivate yourself to become what you want to be in your future. Sky is the only limit, if you thing you can win, you will. Success begins with you affirmations and your believing. Look in the mirror every morning and say to yourself, you can and you will, it's all in the state of mind.

Thinking

"If you think you’re beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you’d like to win, But you think you can’t, It’s almost a cinch you won’t. If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost, For out in the world you’ll find Success begins with a fellow’s will, It’s all in the state of mind. If you think you’re outclassed, you are. You’ve got to think high to rise. You’ve got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize. Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man, But soon or late, the man who wins, Is the one who thinks he can"

–Walter D. Wintle

Mastery Journey Timeline

Graduation: Business Entertainment Master’s Degree (Short term)

The business entertainment master’s is a one year degree in Full Sail University. I pursue to take advantage of the tools that Full Sail University will bring me during my master journey. Negotiation and Deal Marketing is my main course of my interest through the master’s curriculum. This course will help me develop skills to do proper negotiations and deals for the growth of companies. For my future goals, I aspire to be a strong negotiator in the industry and change scenarios for better results of projects. Furthermore, another course of interest is product and artist management that will provide me the tools and strategies to resolve issues in different scenarios with artists. The third course of interest is Project and Team Management, the same seek to develop leadership capacity through the knowledge acquisition as learning the principle of projects management and explore the various factors of team management and create a productive team. For my future goals, I shall be able to apply the knowledge acquired through the master courses and performed an outstanding work in my short and long-term goal.

Steps:

• Internships:

Internships are part of my short-term goals, I plan to develop my skills during the experience acquire on it. Those will help me to be closer to my long-term goals and have the experiences needed to be professionally prepared. A great internship would be on No Limit Entertainment LLC. This LLC is a production event company recognized here in Puerto Rico. The company’s owner named Francisco “Paco” Lopez is an event coordinator here in Puerto Rico. He has worked with several artists from Puerto Rico and the USA. Working beside him I can gain the knowledge I need to be a great deal maker and negotiator.

• Learn about Negotiation and Deal Making:

This course will help me develop skills to do proper negotiations and deals for the growth of companies. For my future goals, I aspire to be a strong negotiator in the industry and change scenarios for better results of projects.

• Product and artist management:

It will help me with tools and strategies to resolve issues in scenarios with artists.

• At least 3 connections with people inside the industry:

Through industry networking will provide me the tools to growth and be recognized by important films. I can learn from them and use them as models and reference to make upgrades of my future plans. Making connection is important, so you can make moves in the industry and let the people know you as a person and professionally. Through the hard work in connection with industry professional results in a good performance and can also provide references upon request for future job opportunities that may arise.

• Job in entertainment industry here in Puerto Rico (Duars Entertainment, Jose Dueño Entertainment)

Working in the Puerto Rican entertainment industry will amaze me personally and can gain knowledge professionally. Also, it will be a great reference for future request to move on to USA industries.

Long term Goal: Job in an Entertainments Company (multinational chains as Warner’s Bros., Dc Comics, Marvels…)

My long-term goal is to work in a multinational tv chain like Warner Bro’s. Having a job in this big enterprise it would be a dream come true. I know that I will reach this goal with my hard work and determination. The experiences that I will learn during my journey will help me to do an outstanding work and be an excellent employee.

Executive Leadership Course

Currently I am taking the Executive Leadership course from my master’s degree. During the course, we have been discussing about to leaders with different thoughts and positions about leadership, Maxwell and Greene. Also, we have been reading 2 books “Developing the leader within you”, written by Maxwell and “The 48 Laws of Power” written by Greene. The difference with this two characters is that Maxwell is more of a leader that believe in people, he works with different minds and recognize people hard work and dedication, unlike Greene, who believe in taking advantage of people to get to his mastery goals. If I have to choose between them, I would be a leader like Maxwell, is the one appropriate for me and my personality, taking a little bit of Greene’s thoughts. Maxwell believes that all of the employees makes great performance with the right person as a leader. Leaders must work the same ways as others, be role models and work with integrity. He implies that leader’s actions need to a go according to their demands for recurrent and consistent result. Maxwell’s book “Developing the Leader Within You” in Chapter 3, talks about integrity. I want to highlight this chapter because not every leader in high positions work with integrity and go according to their demands. In my past experiences, I have worked with a leader with no integrity or empathy and I can tell the people were so disappointed to have a leader like the one we have and not trusting her at all. They were always complaining about her presence and the less they have to work with her the better. This impact me in many ways and reading this chapter I can tell that what Maxwell’s says is a reality in the professional environment. People will do their best if they are surrounded by people who work hard beside them, who are honest and gave a great example of a professional. “The secret of rising and not falling is integrity” (Maxwell, Chapter 3). This is the leader I am becoming, I am fair, I recognize others hard work and I work with integrity. About one Greene law there’s one that is about delegating work and taking the credit, being fair like Maxwell people will be happy to work for me to reach future goals and growth.

• Maxwell (1993). “Developing the Leader Within You”. Thomas Nelson, Inc. (Nashville)

• Greene (2000). “The 48 Laws of Power”. Penguin Books

Project and Team Management

As we can define, project and team management are composed of a group of people working in collaboration to reach a common goal. During this class, we built a project management about one of our future projects. Thanks to those assignment we have an idea of what it takes to plan it and how much (more or less) it will cost. Each week we have different assignments to create our project plan for one month. We did Brainstorming, apply and chose which methodology is the right one for each project, we made a conflict resolution to avoid risks, a budgeting and work with our team positions and quality management. Making a big event is not an easy task, my project was about a live event. It takes a lot of time to build and thinking all of the possible risky events and the equipment that will be need it. Also, having the license and permits and compose artist contracts may take more time that we think, and these are the ones of high importance. I have always dream about producing a live concert/ event, I was a professional dancer and worked in the music industry for several years. I loved how each production worked and they were also different and seeing the result of each one was satisfying. Being in the entertainment and music industry is hard but I enjoy every part of it. Now that I have a project plan, I can use it for the future and make reality one of my dreams. Working hard, with dedication and patience I will make it. Having knowledge of the Project 365 program is a plus for building any plan in mind and budget, excellent for any company. If you want to create and build a project or if you are an accountant, you should have this program. Thanks to my project class I have the right tools to develop my creations.

Business Storytelling and Brand Development

This course helps me to improve my digitals skills using platforms to create business brands. It gave me tools to create my business project, using templates for a better presentation of each project tasks and process. We learned about Canvas.com, which offers templates to organize ideas and assignments for the creation of new projects. We did research of business related with our projects, it helps us to understand more about our business projects and how we can differentiate from others. This course has been crucial for our business projects, my favorite part was when we did a portfolio of our personal brand. This will help me for my future project, to gain more followers on social media and it gave me the perfect tools to help others to connect with their audience and increase it. I learned to work with Wix.com, a platform where you can create portfolios, brands, or anything your busines project’s needs.Business Storytelling and brand development course is important for anyone creating a business. Business owners should take courses like this to let their business run with the advance of nowadays technologies and be up to date. Having the right tolls and knowing how to use it, will lead business to success. People should take advantages of nowadays digital tools to reach more people and connect with a bigger audience. “You should have a clear picture of the strategic opportunity you are going after” (Wood, 2020) Building the right strategy may lead you to achieve more than your expected goals. Don’t fear technology, we are on the digital era, where everything’s move through technology. Nowadays, people are always on their phones or laptops, this is the opportunity to build your brand. Building a brand is easier now that a couples of years back because of the great use of technology.

Entertainment Business Finance

This course consists of learning to manage the finance of a future or present company. As the mastery goes by, I have been working on the same business project plan through the months. This course was essential and important for my future business, saying this, finance is the foundation on which businesses are sustained. Entertainment Business Finance helps me personally and professionally because, thanks to the tools I received during the class, now I have a realistic average of how much will cost building my enterprise. One of the tools that we used was the proforma statement, which I will still using for this project and other plans that I have in mind. I recommend to future business owners to use this Proforma statement so that they can anticipate the gains and losses for at least the first year. This statement will help them know how much of a loan they should take.

As an accountant I refresh a couple of topics of my bachelor’s degree. One of them was the ratios which was the worst topic for me during my journey fulfilling my bachelor’s degree. During this course, I understand the ratios better because I remembered what I Iearned on my past class and I combined it with the course lectures. It was good to refresh the accounting and finance topics to work and build my project in the most accurate way possible. Finance and accountant go hand in hand in the administration department for any business. Is important that business owners acquire the most knowledge about administration (accounting, finance, management.) because they must know how the company moves financially through the year. Is important to pay attention on every detail inside the financial reports, in these reports people can detect any fraud that may occurs during the year, inside the company. Letting your employees known about your capacities and knowledges it may avoid fraud or any irregularity financially.

Digital Marketing

Since the beginning of this master, I have been waiting for this course. For my current busines and my future business project this course has been essential for them. Currently, I work as a social media manager for several businesses and the digital marketing course has been very helpful. For this course, I did my digital content plan, during the journey developing it, I learn about several programs that measures the traffic of users in websites and emails. I also learn more about the usage of traditional marketing and email marketing as well, the usage of mockups was new for me and for the presentation of my business project are essential. As a Social media manager, I used the calendar monthly to organize when I will upload contents (vides, photos, reels…), the dates when I will pay ads and when I will create the reports of the measurement of the movements of each page. I focus on each social media target market, is very important to create curiosity on users to then get them to follow each social media pages. For this, the digital properties, long tail phrases and KPI’s are so important to apply for better results and increasement of followers. As a business owner and accountant as well, budgets are important, and need to be established before starting any project. Business creators need to know the amount of money they will count on at the time the project is in the making, losing money is not an option, and not having a budget plan is too risky. I will apply what I learn on my personal social media and the ones I am managing, for me doing a complete report for my clients is crucial, being this said, all I learned will help me improve in my job performance.

Negotiations and Deal - Making

At the beginning of this master, I put an eye on the Negotiation and Deal-Making course. Since then, I have been looking forward to taking this course because it will help me in the future with my projects and jobs. During my career, I want to focus on deal making a negotiation between my customers (talents) and production companies that want to hire them. When I started this course, I didn’t have that much knowledge of negotiations and deal making, not that properly. I look in negotiations win-win agreements, and, very importantly, that everyone feel satisfied with it. In the course I have learn about negotiations elements, which as a negotiator I must keep in mind to achieve win-win agreement and obtain more asset (talents) for any company I may work with. Other concepts that must be present on any settlement are the principles of negotiation, is very important to think about what priority has, have different options for a solution, and choose the best solution for each party (Henschel, 2018). Another part of this course content was to know about the communication styles of people that includes, the commander speaker, the inspirer, the quiet supporter, and the thinker. Learning about these kinds of communicators, now I can identify which type of communicator I will be dealing with during any negotiation or in a work area. Speaking about differences, in the industry, I can face private negotiation or public negotiations, which I prefer to attend private negotiation if there’s any dispute. Having a mediator in between that could solve the problem fast and with the best solution for the parties included, it is my preference. The entertainment industry is not an easy environment where everyone is comfortable, people used to want more and are very rigorous with agreements. When hiring an actor or another talent, all terms and agreements should be written, workdays, hours, food, money, royalties, insurances, and any important detail that must be included in a contract. Solving dispute privately will protect the parties included and having all settlements in the contract.

Product and Artist Management

Product and Artist Management course is an excellent and recommendable for those who are starting their own business either in retail or as an artist manager. I was expecting learning about some marketing tools and a guide managing an artist, but this class exceed my expectations. I appreciate lectures that gave me fundamental information when approaching to our customers and the number of tools on how to learn important information on your followers/ audience. Thanks to this course I can put in practice ideas to help my future artists to gain recognition and increase their audience, also it will help me with my small business of women clothes. As part of what I learned, I understand how important is to add a value on our products, such as why I customer should follow my artists, what my artist will give them, the benefits of buying their merchandise, and ideas to have authentic engagements with an audience. As a future artist manager, I will encourage artist to create authentic and organic content, that share their experience with others and be real with their followers. People love to follow other to know about their experiences in places and with things artist use. Also, I will encourage the artist to use their own merchandise, that will make the customer curious and would want to buy it. Using social media is a form to approach directly with your audience and producing live events as well. Live events are crucial because artist can be with their followers and will let a lot more about them. This course has though me basic and important information that can lead me to do a better job when marketing a product, such as designed products and beginner artists on a specific industry. The entertainment industry has different type of entertainers and with this class managers and business owners can learn on how to manage anyone within the industry.

Advanced Entertainment Law

Knowing about the entertainment laws is essential for people who are following the artist management career and want to create their talent agency as business plan. I stated on the Mastery Journal course post, that I want to work as an artist manager or tour manager and for the future, have my own talent agency. Being that said, the advance entertainment law educates students to protect their rights of owning what they create, is a course that help you to be conscious when a new project is created and exposed to the word. Having knowledge about the registrations to the ownerships of what I will create is essential for my future career. Is important to be prepare and aware of how the business works, especially when we are beginning in the industry. Contracts are commonly in the entertainment business, the first contract are the one created when an artist hire you as an agent, and then, for all the artist performances are contracts in between each presentation or production they make. The AEL course instruct students about the legal liabilities people may confront inside the industry. Contract needs to be reviewed by attorneys because contracts can have clause that can lead you or your artist to confront legal liabilities. Knowing about legal liabilities can help agents or artist make decisions that can avoid lawsuits and conflicts. This course is crucial, people need to start by protecting themselves from people with the wrong intentions and take advantage of your hard work. Advance entertainment law is the most important class that I have taken, and thanks to the information I acquire during this course, I can start my business by protecting it before exposing it to the world and protecting myself and my clients working as an artist manager. I recommend entertainment law courses to everyone, and managers should take this course, from time to time, to keep updating their information about contract, legal documents, and laws.

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution

Currently, I’m creating a Tv series about the Entertainment Business giving forum to the 7 types of entertainment. I start creating this project at the beginning of this course, it was a coincidence that I was taking this course at the same time. Thanks to this course, I learned about how to do a query letter and a Tv treatment to send it to a potential film sales agent. A publisher can help me to sell my creative content and to distribute it in the industry. Also, I gain knowledge of websites distributors where I can submit my content and reach to big retailers on the industry.

At the beginning of this master, I didn’t though about doing a tv series. Thanks to all these courses, I have all the tools to develop my creations and have the knowledge to do a great content and promote it by myself. Entertainment and Media Publishing and Distribution has been an essential course for my new project. I recommend this course for people who are creating books, dropping new music, creating films and tv content. The author of this course book is Kimberly Craft, our professor. The book obtains all the information you need to create important document to publish, distribute and hire resources and services that will help you go big when launching our content.

This master has help me grow professionally and right now, I have the knowledge needed to help others or to manage artists. The original goal for this course was and still is becoming a talent manager for musicians and have my talent agency as well. This course has provided me with more knowledge, which didn’t know, and I need it. I hope that everyone learned as much as I did, and beneficial for others as well.

Business Development Plan

Business Development Course is help business owners to start developing their own business plan. This course helped me to create a professional, solid, and complete business plan. When people create a solid business plan, investor takes people projects in consideration to invest on and become partners. At the beginning, future business owners won’t have enough money to cover the start-up costs and that’s one of the main reasons to create a solid plan for the purpose obtaining and call the attention of investors. I recommend this course to those who want and needs to reinforce or learn about the skills to create a business plan. During the course, people will learn to understand the importance of the finances at the beginning of the project, the importance of knowing the industry, and other aspects that business owner should put in their business plan which are important information to investors. Is mandatory to have in place the amount to invest (start-up cost) and what include that sum of money. Investors would want to know on what the money would be invest on. Business owners should know about every aspect of their industry of interest, in order, to guide their business to be successful. Furthermore, knowing the target market can lead them to build a solid marketing campaign directed to who will buy their product or services. A marketing campaign should last at least 1 year, to get a big number of followers, viewers and/or customers. Therefore, is crucial to obtain more than enough information of the industry of preference. Starting a business plan isn’t an easy task, it consists of professionalism, determination, and knowledge. Since the beginning of this master, students have worked with their business project. My business plan consists of building a talent agency. When I get the experience required, I want to have my own talent agency which will consist of recruiting singers, actors, and storyteller, as well as, to work as a learning center for those artists who needs to reinforce their artistic skills. It’s been challenging but, right now, I have most of the knowledge needed to build a talent agency in the future.

Business Entertainment Master's

During this past 12 months I have been taking courses to complete the master’s degree on Business Entertainment in Full Sail University. Before I started this master, I worked as a professional dancer, producing events, and as an extra on movie projects. Those experiences are the reason why I decided to pursue my career on the entertainment business. Choosing Full Sail University to fulfill my academics desires was, also, the best decision I made, I learn how to build a solid business plan, what implies to make your ideas a structured business, finance my business and to overall be a great leader. On the executive leadership, students learn to understand the difference between a boss and a leader. A leader works with integrity and help their team learn and do better each time. When leaders are attentive, empathic, and supportive, it will make their team/ employees, satisfied and happy in their job environment. Is very important to create a healthy environment to rise the amount of production and customers. Projects and team management are composed of a group of people working in collaboration to reach a common goal. Being that said, I built a project plan, which is crucial to put my business plan in place. Thanks to this assignment, I can work with the Project 365 program which is very used in business and to run the finances. On the course of business storytelling and brand development I improve my digital skills using platforms such as Canvas, to organize ideas and tasks, and the Wix (Wix.com) platform to create and develop brands. This is a tool that most of us, business owners, should know to manage and take advantages of it.

Finance is the foundation on which businesses are sustained. With the Entertainment business finance, I got the ability to create Pro Forma Financial Statements, an essential tool to calculate a realistic average of how much will cost to build an enterprise. Since the beginning of this master, I was looking forward to the Digital Marketing tools because with a great marketing campaign, specially digitally, the number of profits can increase. For this course I create a digital content plan where, throughout the development, I found several programs that measures the traffic of media or website users, which is important to use to learn about the consumers. I learn about techniques that can help businesses to reach more clients and customers can search for business easily. After getting customers, or potential partners, or investors, there is a negotiation and deal-making in between. Is very important to attend negotiation privately and hired a mediator to solve the conflict. Thanks to the negotiations and deal-making course, I understand the pros and cons of a public and private negotiation and various ways to solve a conflict where the outcome can be a win-win for the parties includes. Here is when it comes the entertainment law course which educates students to protect the rights of owning their productions and to be conscious when it exposed to the world. Is important to have knowledge about the registrations to the ownerships and be aware of how the business works. The AEL course offered information about the legal liabilities which business owners may be concerned, about future and not positive events, that could happen and create a contingency plan.

Thanks to the Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution course, I have the ability to create solid query letters and tv treatments, which will help me hire a film sales agent for my customers. Now, I have a list of website distributors where I can submit my client’s content and reach big retailers on the industry and sale their content, this will give opportunities to my client and open doors for many high projects. The Business Development plan is the course where I present a solid business plan, applying all these skills mentioned previously from each course. It guides us to create a complete business plan with a successful writing and presentation. On the final project we did an elevator pitch to give highlights of what my business consists of, and we present the business plan to investor. This course is very important because giving and presenting a solid business plan is crucial to, later on, obtain potential investor and build a long-term business relationship.