Week 1 Project: My MCBS Story

Before I started the MCBS program at Full Sail university I was a married, father of three who happened to be perfectly okay with everyday life. This was not fulfilling in the least bit and found myself wondering what life was going to show me. I worked full time and pursued a local Hip Hop career in my city. This came with a little bit of success but nothing that would ever amount to more than a second job income. In January of 2012 I dedicated my life to my savior Jesus Christ. It was at that moment a lot of things changed and transformed me into what I am proud to be today. The importance on my walk with Christ made me realize I needed to achieve an college degree. I knew in my heart I could not look at my children and tell them how important college was if I myself hadn't completed college as well. So with the support of my wife Ashlee, I took the next step and enrolled through Full Sail. This was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have found a new purpose and a new sense of pride being a full time student. It is so much easier getting through my eight hours of work each day knowing I am destined for something greater in life. My passion for advertising and marketing some days seem uncontrollable. I know I have what it takes to help a company realize what its customers want and I am positive I can come up with new innovative ways to achieve that. These classes each month are literally my escape path from the mundane life I live right now. I know with God by my side guiding me, I can achieve what was once thought to be unachievable in years past. This is my MCBS story and its just getting started.

I read the practice story of Darrell Moffit and Karrie Pittman. I really related to Karrie and how her employment with a company who did not care about its employees. This is exactly my situation as I type this. The job I have now pays very well, yet every day I envision the time when I graduate and pursue a different career. It is people like Darrell and Karrie who motivate me to push myself for excellence with every assignment. I see them and how well they perform in their pursuit of this degree and I hope that I am walking right along side them.

Week 1 Analysis: Business & Blogs

Upon review of these 3 fantastic blogs, the things I noticed that made them alike were the huge eye popping graphics. They all seem to fit the same standard format as far as scrolling the page goes. I noticed every blog has an attached image or video. This is something I need to get better at with my own blogs. All three seem to have a standard font used as well. I've noticed the better graphic designers don't rely on crazy hard to find fonts. The more clean and professional the blog looks is usually due to clean fonts and font sizes.

Dollar Shave and Science World seem to differ from the Full Sail blog due to how commercial the approach is. The Full Sail blog seems to have a very infomercial like approach. The other two seem to be more narrow in there reach. It is as if Dollar Shave and Science World have a very specific approach and Full Sail is going for a broad horizon with its blog.

Dollar Shave and Full Sail differ from Science World in the aspect of how clean and easy to look at they are. Science World seems to take the classroom approach. This is fine but if they are in the market of attractive new readers, in my opinion the blog itself needs to be updated with a more contemporary look.

Science World and Full Sail differ from Dollar Shave just by a more conservative approach. I quickly noticed viewing the Dollar Shave blog they have some funny but risky graphics to go along with the different blog post. This is a double edged sword in that, this could attract new customers but also quickly turn away potential customers. Science World and Full Sail seem to rely on a more safe approach with graphics and blog topics.

Science World is unique for the simple fact they have mastered a fun learning approach. The blog itself is very simple and doesn't seem to overwhelm at first glance. This is very essential for a couple reasons. First with the simple but effective approach it seems to make viewing the blog easy for the younger readers as well as the elderly readers. Secondly the blog seems to understand how to interest the blog viewer into learning without forcing learning.

The Full Sail blog is very speak and graphic heavy. This is a perfect tool for advertising to potential students. It also seems to stand ahead of the rest by the moving story tiles. This is something I think Science World could do better. The Full Sail blog seems to come alive as soon as your screen comes up. I've noticed blogs like this have more traffic just off the strength of how well it interacts on the screen.

The Dollar Shave Club blog is the most modern of the three. It seems to scream hip and coolness. It is very apparent this is a strictly man blog. The uniqueness of this approach seems to be what has driven this company to success. They could have easily got this blog wrong just by not following its business model but the creator of the blog really hit it on the head with the All Man All Business look.

RSS & Industry Blogs

Being fairly new to writings blogs, this whole week has been a great experience. I knew very little about blogs or what RSS was until this week. I chose to use Feedly as my RSS feed. This became a fun thing for me because I started searching for all kinds of blogs on a variety of topics. Before I did my freelance searching I looked for blogs about the media industry. I chose Empire News, Ads Of The World, Adverblog, and PSFK.

Empire News is a blog about the movie industry. It features movie trailers and reviews. This blog is important to me because of the vital role Movies play in media. Especially for advertising and placement within the movies. The next three blogs mentioned above are all reputable blogs dealing with the marketing industry of today. Ads of the world really peeked my interest due to how it covers advertising globally. I find myself a lot of times only learning how to advertise on a national level, when in reality I need to challenge myself to learn and understand how to advertise on a global level.

I then took a look at my fellow classmates blogs and decided to subscribe to two of them. The first I subscribed too was "The Window Gazer" which is published by Darrell Moffit. Having been in a few classes this year with Darrell and having the pleasure of seeing his work, I knew I had to subscribe to his blog. I am drawn to people to who challenge themselves and have a social understanding of their place in the world. I also subscribed to "KarrieBelle Designs" blog by Karrie Pittman. Karrie seems very educated in the world the rest of us are trying to learn. She is well spoken and seems to be a person who would be fun to engage in conversation on any topic.

To those who subscribe to my blog I thank you and plan to blog about more than just my homework dictates. God bless!

Week 1 Practice: Start A Blog & Tell A Story

Start A Blog & Tell A Story

Before I started the MCBS program I was just your average early thirties male in America. I worked full time, pursued a hip hop career locally and raised 3 kids with the help of my beautiful and fantastic wife. I have a good paying job but the factory life is not for me. I like to create and use my brain to come up with new ideas. Working on an assembly line, doing the same thing all day does not excite me in the least bit. I had always thought I wanted to pursue a music career. I actually did for a bit of time. I became marginally successful locally. I toured the Midwest and opened up for artist such as Too $hort, Trick Daddy, Tech N9ne, 2pac’s Outlawz, Mac Lethal, Young Buck and a few others. I made a few mistakes in the music industry and also turned down a few record deals. When your 21 and you think you know the secret to life you tend to make idiotic choices like I did. But then as time went on I found myself searching for more to life than just material things. I became saved by the lord Jesus Christ in January of 2012. Because of that I started to view things differently. I realized that by raising three children I needed to establish a more secure way of life. I also realized I could not preach to my children how important college was without having a degree myself. Because of that I enrolled at Full Sail University, which was the best decision I have ever made. And ever since I decided to pursue my passion for media my eyes and world have been rocked open to a stimulating and exciting new future. I am so excited for all that my future has to offer and I believe with God by my side and my commitment to hard work I will earn my degree and begin working in the career field of my dreams!