EXL - Leadership Self-Assessment

First was the leadership self-assessment I filled out in the first month of my graduate degree. This involved ranking myself on different traits that showed my leadership capabilities. This exercise was meant to help me understand my leadership strengths and weaknesses so that I could utilize my strengths and work on my weaknesses.

The results showed that I was highly effective in the following skills: integrity, problem solving and people. The results also showed that I needed improvement in these skills: priorities and attitude. From these results I learned that I needed to focus on keeping my priorities in order and maintaining a good attitude when times get tough. To improve in these areas I set to goals for myself.

The first goal was to get a 3.5 GPA or higher by the end of my degree. This made me prioritize my life, which made school first and fun last. This worked for me because it is now the last month and I have maintained a 4.0 GPA for the entire degree. I’ve learned how to make a list of things I need to do and rank them from most important to least important. Being able to do this has helped me eliminate the clutter in my life as well as open up a lot of free time because I don’t waste time trying to figure out what I need to do anymore.

The second goal was to get perfect attendance, which I had never done my entire time spent in educational systems. This not only helped me with prioritizing my life but it also helped me with my attitude. I achieved this goal by waking up everyday with a smile no matter how I felt. Everyday I would show up 30 minutes before class, ready to start the day. This was a huge deal for me because I have always had a problem waking up with the attitude to “take on the world”. I forced myself to keep going and now it is engrained in my mind.

Overall this exercise has taught me a lot of important skills that will help me in the entertainment business industry. Most importantly it has taught me to sit down once a year and reflect on what I have learned and what I need to improve on. This will help me to make goals for myself so that every year I grow as a person and a leader a little bit more.

PTM - Help A Non-Profit Organization

For this leadership portfolio activity I was assigned to a group of people and we had to help out a local non-profit organization. I was chosen to be the team leader and as a group we chose to help the non-profit organization Hands On Orlando. We met with them and decided to shoot a promotional video that would help them attract sponsors. From this project I learned to be more assertive when performing the role as team leader. At first I was more laid back and I noticed that my teammates were starting to look lost. That is when I stopped being laid back and started giving specific instruction and setting deadlines and it worked. After I made the change to my leadership approach my teammates started to take their own initiative to get things done. I learned that giving specific instructions and setting up a time frame for when these objectives needed to be completed helped my teammates feel comfortable with what they were doing. After they felt comfortable they started to make their own decisions, which was what I wanted from them in the first place.

BSB - Turning Point Story

This assignment was very personal for me because I had to make a keynote presentation about a turning point in my life. My story was about my life long dream of playing professional sports and how it all ended one day in high school. I broke my ankle badly in a game and had to get surgery on it, which caused my level of play to drop dramatically when I returned from the injury. I learned two really valuable lessons from this time in my life. I learned that I could adapt to a situation with out skipping a step. I took the competitive nature and passion of sports and turned it into a passion for learning. This inevitably helped me to come to Full Sail where I found my true calling. I also learned that a person should never put so much devotion into one aspect of their life. It is good to be passionate about something but have a backup plan or a paralleled passion so that it is easy to transition if one of them doesn’t work out. 

EBF - Interview With A Financial Expert

This assignment required me to interview a person that had experience with negotiations. For this I went to a family friend that had six years of experience negotiating for the United States Air Force. From this I learned that I could never be too prepared for a negotiation. The way to get the advantage over the person you are negotiating with is to research them thoroughly. For a job interview I will not only have to be ready to answer questions about myself but I will have to understand the company I am trying to work for.

NDM - Interview With A Negotiation Specialist

This assignment required me to interview a person that had experience with negotiations. For this I went to a family friend that had six years of experience negotiating for the United States Air Force. From this I learned that I could never be too prepared for a negotiation. The way to get the advantage over the person you are negotiating with is to research them thoroughly. For a job interview I will not only have to be ready to answer questions about myself but I will have to understand the company I am trying to work for.

PAM - Interview An Artist Manager

This leadership portfolio assignment gave me the opportunity to interview an artist manager. The person I interviewed was successful managing his own band and another small local band in Maryland. The one thing I learned from this interview was to be mindful of my limitations. If I am doing too many jobs I may overextend myself and end up hurting whatever project I’m working on. There are a lot of talented people in the world and while I may be able to do the job I might be better suited concentrated on something else. I will have to be able to understand when I need to work on something and when I can have someone else do the job. This also ties into getting my priorities straight and if not done correctly could waste a lot of time and money.

AEL - Entertainment Law Podcasts

For this assignment I was required to listen to multiple entertainment law podcasts to get some ideas about possible legal problems with businesses. I learned a lot of information from these podcasts but one thing I can say about all of the information is to plan for everything you can think of and be ready for what you didn’t think of. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with different countries because laws and customs are different. Something that may be legal to do here might be illegal somewhere else.

MPD - Self-Publishing

I had the most fun with this assignment because it allowed me to create content and come up with a plan to self-publish it. I created a science-fiction book that I would target towards teenagers. This assignment really helped me understand the value of self-publishing. Before I only thought of getting a big publisher behind me so that their name would help promote my book. This is no longer true and with the power of technology we now have print-on-demand services that offer a better royalty rate. I now know that I shouldn’t be enticed by the big name publishers and that I should evaluate what they can offer me and what I can do for myself.

IMO - Is The Internet Making Us Stupid?

This was an assignment that really made me think about something everyone takes for granted, myself included. I had to read a few articles about the direction the internet is going and whether or not it is making us as people less intelligent. I learned to analyze things that I would normally take for granted. I use the internet everyday and I have never once thought to myself whether or not I like the direction the internet is going. I have learned that being comfortable with something is good but every once in a while I should re-evaluate what I think about it and if there is anything I can do to help change any problems I might encounter.

MMC - Consumer Survey

This leadership portfolio assignment was to create a survey for people in different demographics to fill out. The survey was full of questions about the use of mobile phones. I learned that the greatest source of marketing is directly from the consumers. After the survey was taken I learned more about the use of mobile phones in different age demographics then I ever did looking up statistics from marketing websites. If I want information about a product I will go straight to the source rather than use percentages from a website.

BPD - Business Plan Experts

I had to read a few blogs from business plan experts for this leadership portfolio activity. I think I learned the most valuable business lesson from this assignment and that was to seize the day while it’s here. I could spend a year developing a business plan and making sure I’ve accounted for everything or I could just do it. That is not to say don’t plan while creating a business but if you waste too much time trying to perfect something you might miss your chance to capitalize on gaining more target market than potential competitors. 

Six Extra Curricular Activities

International Film Society (Art Team)

My first extra curricular activity was helping a Full Sail group called the International Film Society. They were shooting a film and I was apart of the art team that was responsible for creating the sets that the movie would be shot on. This was the first film I ever worked on and it really taught me how to work hard and smart when I’m out of my element. I learned how to be more assertive by learning my job and figuring out what needed to be done before anyone asked me to do it. I also learned how to work really well in a team because every person is important when a film is being made.

International Film Society (Art Director Assistant)

This was the second film I worked on with the group called International Film Society. This time around I had more responsibilities, which really helped me learn how to manage people. Shoot days can be long and stressful but I had to learn quickly how to keep people motivated especially outside in Florida in mid August. I learned that leading by example is the best way to gain loyalty from those under your management. I worked really hard and never stopped and it motivated the people around me to keep that same intensity. If I had slacked off for a while it would have ruined the pace that I had set for the day. That is why I have to stay true to my goals while in the work environment. The minute I stop trying as hard as I can is the same minute when everyone else stops.

Open Mic Night

I also worked closely with the Full Sail group MEISA, which stands for the Music & Entertainment Industry Student Association. My first activity with this group was to help during an open mic night event they were holding at Full Sail. This gave me the chance to use my problem solving skills. The sound wasn’t working when we showed up to start the event so I used my knowledge from a previous degree to help them get signal. I was expecting to show up there and help people sign into the event but I ended up having to utilize knowledge from a few years ago. This has reinforced the idea that I need to be prepared to handle anything at anytime.

MEISA CIO

I also became the MEISA CIO for a month because of scheduling conflicts with the previous CIO. I was just an original member that was there to hear about events happening in the music and entertainment industry and then I got the job of CIO because I had a notebook and an understanding of what the job entailed. Once again I learned that being prepared is probably the most important part of being successful in the industry.

Get Out Of Debt Seminar

This activity was a seminar that one of our instructors put on for us about the debt we have accumulated as students. He showed us steps that we could take to help us get out of debt with out having to worry about the amount. The main lesson I learned from this seminar was to not worry about something that seems insurmountable. I have to look at the situation in smaller steps and take one “bite” at a time. If I look at the amount of debt as a whole it will seem impossible to get rid of but if I look at it in a step-by-step process it will make it easier to deal with.

  

Johnny Cupcakes

This was a seminar put on by Johnny Earle who started the t-shirt company Johnny Cupcakes, Inc. This seminar really reinforced my idea that while it is good to plan for a business, sometimes you just have to start something and learn as you go. I also learned that when you are trying to do something different you can’t be afraid that people will think it’s weird. If you constantly second guess yourself you will never start anything that you could potentially improve from people’s feedback.