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Post University
Michael Barry
Marketing director for Laughing Buddha Music
MBA in marketing and business management student
Post University
Michael Barry is a marketing director for Laughing Buddha Music, a music production and distribution company in Norwalk, Conn., where he produces music for albums, digital broadcasts, private clients, films, and television. He is also a musician, composer, writing teacher, published writer, skier, and windsurfer, and he frequents the Caribbean to just float around and watch the fish. He loves to have fun, but he also wants to continue to increase his professional success.
His creativity and ability to think on his feet have fueled Laughing Buddha Music thus far, but he feared that mismanagement could have a negative impact on the company. He decided that he needed to learn the principles of business and more effectively manage his company, so in August 2010, Barry enrolled at Post University Online to earn a master’s of business administration degree in marketing and business management.
“I am [approaching] my business very much from the creative side and had to learn business concepts on my own, often in a hurry, as needs arose,” Barry said. “Before the business exploded from creative mismanagement, I wanted to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and really solidify what I already knew.”
While taking classes at Post, he has enjoyed learning new concepts and expanding his knowledge about business. He joked that one thing he was pleased to discover is that he’s much smarter than he has been giving himself credit for. He also said that one of his favorite classes has been Economics and Statistics because it focused on a new area for him that he had never really learned about prior to enrolling.
At Post, each of Barry’s classes last eight weeks and continue year-round, with an occasional week-long break thrown in. The weekly assignments are posted every Monday morning and are due by the end of the week. In addition to participating in at least three online discussions throughout the week, Barry said he generally spends around 10 to 15 hours a week reading and completing assignments.
Setting aside this much time to complete his degree program requires a lot of discipline and time management. Barry found that the easiest way to accomplish this is to devote about two hours to school every morning before beginning his work day. “My method is to have a regular schedule and follow it every week. I stop when I’ve reached the allotted time and never save things for the last minute,” Barry said.
Barry also credits his success at Post to the support he receives from his family and friends. “Everyone knows what I’m doing and gives me some latitude,” he said. “I start first thing Monday (Sunday night, if I can), and often, I am finished by the weekend and can give myself time with my wife, family, and friends.”
Barry wants to be able to spend time with the people he cares about, so he pushes himself to complete his assignments during the week, most of which are based on the required textbook for the course, in addition to online videos, articles, and websites, which can be accessed
through Post’s online library.
Barry has found that as an online student, much of his learning is done independently, but this doesn’t mean that he’s learning completely alone. His professors provide guidance, and he is able to contact them and his advisors to ask questions. He said that some of his professors were very engaging and willing to help as much as they could. Post also provides online resources that are available 24 hours a day to help students in terms of technical issues, research help, and advice. Yet there’s definitely an emphasis on accountability. When he is given an assignment, he must determine how much research to do, how much time to spend on it, and when to work on it. “[Completing assignments requires] plenty of research and self-directed learning,” he said.
The education Barry is receiving from Post is helping him to hone his skills as a businessman and will allow him to improve his business and ensure that it’s managed professionally and runs as smoothly as possible. Barry’s creativity has been a major contributing factor to his success, and earning his degree will only make things better.
