JOANN BRAHENY


Cat Cohen Colleague

Joann is a career counselor and consultant for creative people, i.e., songwriters/musicians, performers, graphic artists, designers, actors, etc.  She also offers workshops for schools and companies who are interested in furthering team-building and innovating new products and services. She offers private consultations in person, by phone, or online video/audio via Skype.com.  A unique resource, she is best at guiding and supporting creative individuals on their career path(s). She’s a well-traveled networker with extensive outreach, a sought-after guest speaker, engaging teacher, and a fun leader for retreats and workshops, especially where creativity, brain-storming and collaboration are featured.

JoAnn Braheny’s career in the entertainment business started with a leap: from a receptionist at a classical music station to Atlanta’s first full-time female deejay for an FM “underground rock” station. She honed her skills doing on-air interviews many notable celebrities and politicians.  She was lured from broadcasting to Top 40 radio promotion for a small label, GRC Records. Her deejay experience, and being a woman in a male-dominated business, gave her unexpected advantages as she called upon national radio music directors.

JoAnn was soon drafted into GRC’s music publishing department to organize and develop it. With no prior knowledge of publishing, she credits BMI, ASCAP and the Library of Congress for her early on-the-job training. Assisting songwriters in their career development became a passion … so much so that when GRC closed, JoAnn opened her own consulting and music publishing company. As owner of (maiden-name) Jaffe Music Consulting, JoAnn provided ongoing career direction to new and veteran songwriters, screened and critiqued original songs, and worked with record producers and recording artists on behalf of writers. During that time she also became a founding officer in the Atlanta Songwriters Association.

When JoAnn met her husband, John Braheny, she moved to Los Angeles, and continued to broaden her experience in the entertainment industry. Her freelance assignments included stints with Billboard magazine, many leading major record labels, and various entertainment law firms.  She worked for five years at Rogers & Cowan, the world’s largest entertainment public relations firm, who had numerous A-list music clients.. JoAnn coordinated press/media activities and edited press releases, bios, stories and script treatments.  From Rogers and Cowan, she moved to Jensen Communications serving as liaison between the entertainment press/media and numerous VIP music clients in addition to booking and coordinating the national press/media corps for the CMJ (College Music Journal) Music Marathon in New York City.

JoAnn’s history of working with creative people took a new turn when she was hired by the Talent Development department of Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), the famed think-tank that creates Disney’s theme parks. There she designed and implemented a custom computer tracking system that providesinstant access to the myriad of creative skills found at WDI. Also called “the skills bank,” this database, created via one-on-one interviews with hundreds of Disney artists, cataloging their skills, preferences and work styles, is still utilized in the areas of career-path work and team-building. At WDI she had the opportunity to work with and learn from the top experts in the field of creativity.

Currently, she does career consulting, by phone and in person, on online via Skype.com, for creative people in songwriting and all artistic disciplines. See her creativity blog, containing exercises and articles about the creative process: Goosing Your Muse (http://www.goosingyourmuse.com).

JoAnn and Cat Cohen have appeared at many songwriting industry events together.  


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