There's a different story for every entrepreneur, but there's always a similar mindset. The objective of the class is to teach a mindset, but your story will be unique to you.

 

How do you define entrepreneurial media management?

Everyone who makes things is an entrepreneur. In this class we try to define that word expansively. The class is about strengthening and expanding all the skill sets needed to understand media, create media, and own as many unique methods of media-making as possible.

The class gets the students in touch with the fact that in the media-making space, you have to be a manager of all the elements of it. The whole timeline of how things were made, what goes into it, and what comes out of it. The class also reflects the very personal realities of creating things that have personal value and also communal value. It shows you the relationship between your passions and the needs of a group, the needs of a community, and the needs of a city or a town. Because entrepreneurs care less about what they think and more about what other people think.

A large part of the class is also an objective look at how empathy works in a business. Empathy works in building something that doesn't exist yet and proving its value before it even exists. I think that the class is a reminder of how much goes into all types of communication management, whether it's making, analyzing, or testing. So, in a way, it's just the greatest hits of all that communication does.

 

What types of projects will the students be working on?

The ongoing assignments reflect how you build the spaceship. You're going to be both the captain and passenger of all the different elements of the entrepreneurial vessel. That'll mean creating strategic plans, defining revenue streams, and looking at team leadership and management. It'll also touch upon communications marketing, branding, and messaging. Every assignment helps build a bigger machine that will be your final project. All the assignments are in service of an ongoing final project/prototype of a company that the students will launch. The assignments reflect all the forms of strategic thinking, communications-based thinking, and leadership tenets that entrepreneurs either acquire on the job or acquire now in the class.

 

What will students get out of the class?

The course introduces students to a lot of real world entrepreneurs. And what I think is special about the class is you hear there's a different story for every entrepreneur, but there's always a similar mindset. The objective of the class is to teach a mindset, but your story will be unique to you. So what I love is speaking to the guests how I would speak to my students, because they know exactly how it feels to be learning and doing at the same time. They're often shocked that they're being looked at as experts. I like the fact that adding guests in this kind of learning makes you feel very empowered in your own journey.