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 with Dennis Hopper, Peter Max, Harry Chapin, Otto Preminger, Senator Ted Kennedy and others.

JoAnn was lured from broadcasting to Top 40 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 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, CBS Records, Arista Records, Warner Bros. Records and Pictures, ATV Music Publishing, Island Music, ABC-TV, NBC-TV, Dick Clark Productions, The Burbank Studios, the Playboy Mansion and various entertainment law firms.

She worked for five years at Rogers & Cowan, the world's largest entertainment public relations firm, whose music clients included Olivia Newton-John, the Bee Gees, Paul McCartney, Barry Manilow, Al Jarreau, Henry Mancini, B.B. King, the Beach Boys, Rod Stewart, Julio Iglesias, Peter, Paul & Mary, Anne Murray, Bette Midler and many others. 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 music clients including Ozzy Osborne, Iron Maiden, Wasp, Manhattan Transfer and David Foster, in addition to booking and coordinating the national press/media corps for the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City.

IJoAnn'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 provides instant 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, for creative people in songwriting and all artistic disciplines. See her creativity blog, containing exercises and articles about the creative process: Goosing Your Muse.

JoAnn has presented her Goosing Your Muse seminars and workshops on music industry publicity and/or the creative process for songwriter/music organizations, having appeared in the following venues throughout the past 20+ years:

Arizona Songwriters Assn. (Phoenix), Annual Arizona Songwriters Gathering

Atlanta Songwriters Assn. (now Georgia Music Industry Assn. GMIA), Georgia State University

Bermuda Songwriters Assn. (Hamilton, Bermuda)

Bismarck Songwriters Assn., (North Dakota)

Boston Songwriters Assn. (Boston, MA)

Breckenridge (Colorado Mountain College) 1-week Songwriters Retreat

Chicago Songwriters Assn. (Chicago, IL)

Connecticut Songwriters Assn. (Hartford)

Driggs, Idaho (Jackson Hole, Wyoming) - Performing Songwriters 10-day Retreat

Eugene, Oregon, Lane Community College

Honolulu, Hawaii, Musicians Union of Hawaii

Houston Network of Lyricists and Songwriters (Texas)

Kansas City Songwriters Assn.(Kansas)

LASS Songwriters Expo, Austin, Texas

Nashville Songwriters Assn. Int'l (NSAI), Nashville (SONGPOSIUM)

NSAI Chapters in Sacramento, San Diego, and Hanford, California

Portland Songwriters Assn. (Oregon)

Rochester Songwriters Assn., (Rochester, N.Y.)

Rocky Mountain Songwriters Assn., (Denver, Colorado)

Salt Lake City Songwriters Assn. (Utah)

San Francisco (Palo Alto) - West Coast Songwriters Assn. Conference

Seattle/Tacoma Songwriters Assn. (Washington)

Shaw Island (Washington), Song and Word Writers Retreats

Shreveport, Louisiana - Centenary College songwriters seminar

St. Louis Songwriters Assn. (Missouri)

Texas Songwriters Cruise to Cozumel, Mexico

Vancouver, BC (Canada) Craft & Business of Songwriting Seminars

Washington, D.C., Songwriters Assn.of Washington (SAW), George Mason University

Contact her at joann@johnbraheny.com