Month 3 - Business Storytelling and Brand Development - " The Branding and Story of a Business""

"Branding adds spirit and a soul to what would otherwise be a robotic, automated, generic price-value proposition. If branding is ultimately about the creation of human meaning, it follows logically that it is the humans who must ultimately provide it."


-David Aaker

Class Reflection

Business storytelling and brand development was one of my favorite classes. The reason being is because of the fact that it teaches us, as business students, the importance of branding and how we can successfully advertise something through storytelling. In addition to that, it also teaches us that as people we should value the importance of branding ourselves through how we present ourselves in the work place and as people.

For our leadership portfolio, we had to create a “Turning Point” video in which we had to tell our story and a pivotal moment in our life that changed things. As for my turning point story, it was titled “99 to 1” and summarized my story of how I use to be a problem child because I suffered academically with school and physically with my asthma. In addition to that, it told how I overcame my obstacles and how I grew from that experience.

It also talks about how one should never give up and relates it to one of the most valuable lessons I learned from Jason Blanchard, who was one of the instructors from Full Sail’s producing class. In teaching us, Jason taught us his theory called 99 to 1. In which he explains that sometimes a person has to go through 99 rejections and failures to get that one success that was always meant for you. He explains that in order to make it in the entertainment industry and in life you got to persevere and be resilient in everything you do. If you get rejected or fail just go on and say 99 and try again. If you fail again, say 98 and try again. You just keep going and going until you succeed because one of those 100 attempts ought to a success story that’s waiting to happen. He explains that is like a process of going through the no’s to get that one right yes meant for you. That it is going through experiencing those failures that you grow and improve as a person. All in all, the basic theme through my story was that you should never give up despite obstacles and that it’s more about how you get back up than how you fell down that matters.

In taking this class, I learned so much about the importance of storytelling and branding. It made me realize how stories are powerful tools in helping my company succeed. Likewise, the leadership activity helped me realize how my own personal story can help shape my company and it’s success. In relating this to my story, it took some trial and error for me to finally realize who I was as a person and what I was passionate about. I made a lot of mistakes and it’s through those mistakes that I learned and grew the most. In creating my company, AXL Entertainment, our company goal is to give voice to stories untold. We aspire to make films that will tell stories about the power of the human spirit to over come adversary. We look into making films that inspire and tell about the different struggles that different people go through that help define them as individuals. I want to bring awareness and voice the different stories people have because what makes life interesting are the story that’s told from different points of view. Taking this class helped me identity what my company was about and brand it as a company that produces film that expresses human spirit and the inner strength of people.

Leadership 2

My second leadership activity was the “Revelations Entertainment Thanksgiving Soup Kitchen” held the day before Thanksgiving. For this event, I was one of the two interns put in charge with managing the event and helping organize it. In doing this job, the other intern, Kirk, and I had to coordinate things with the church such as schedules, food, and equipments. Likewise, we also had to coordinate things with donation for the soup kitchen from people and various businesses. It was a lot of responsibilities but it was exhilarating because we were doing things in such a fast pace and helping people at the same time.Though we were put in charge, we still had to report to the Producer’s assistants Dani, Phoebe and Torin with what we’ve been doing and do more things for them too.

Part of doing the job was to actually show up at the event and help coordinate stuff and be the go to person in case people have questions or need things. During the event, I was serving food, helping set things up and running errands throughout the whole day. Moreover, I was the person where the other interns had to report too so that they can get their volunteer hours. At the end of the day, the event went well and Dani, Phoebe and Torin were very thankful for the help that Kirk and I gave.