I talk about Business Vision often. Sometimes people think I am just seeing things that aren’t there, and shake their head. Unfortunately for them, I have learned that learning to look at your business objectively, and with a fresh eye, allows you to discover unique opportunities that you have been missing. Looking at other peoples’ businesses with the same open view allows you to ask the proverbial question, “What if?” Invariably, this question always leads to new possibilities, including working on someone else’s business for a fee or JV.
Business Vision came up today when I read a newspaper report about Michael Eisner buying Topps Co., the 60-year-old trading card company. Clearly, for years, this long-term successful company had continued to operate the way it had always operated and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Now, Eisner walks in and looks at the company differently than the millions of other people who have seen it. Yes, he sees a trading card company, but what he also sees is a media company. In his view, the trading and sports card company had a different kind of business just waiting to be released from its confines. Using the new view, instead of just “Bazooka Joe” trading cards, how about a “Bazooka Joe” movie, followed by a “Bazooka Joe” web site, book, t-shirts and likely an entire amusement park or at least part of one (ala the Harry Potter Attraction going in at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida). [Note: These are my expansions of ideas based on his comments.] Note also that “Bazooka Joe” is only one of the hundreds of real and imaginary characters in the Topps Co. stable that give them a virtual library of talent and personalities from which to draw.
As always, let me now suggest that you bring this concept home and take a moment to step back and look at your own business, or even the business of someone else you like, and see what they aren’t doing that your vision of another profit center could add.
One more quick point from the Eisner announcement: his method of moving Topps into the position of a media company is web-based from the beginning. He envisions web movies, as well as many types of mobile entertainment. He sees new platforms to be generated, and is preparing to stake a beachhead now for the future in the long-term. To me this is more than Web 2.0, this is the next transformation from being tethered anywhere for sports, news or entertainment; and keeping this in mind in your own business will certainly have profitable overtones for your future.















“I chose Dicks Nanton Agency because they get it. A lot of people provide marketing and PR but I was impressed with their ability to understand what drives a customer to do business with you. That’s pretty rare. I really felt that I needed a fresh vision in my business to help us pull off the extraordinary for our clients. I’m looking to Dicks Nanton Agency to provide fresh insight into Florida Leisure Vacation Homes and to help me take it to the next level,”

“I mentioned to you while we were in Hollywood that the day before I came, I got a call from a producer who found me through a press release and my participation in America’s PremierExperts®. I had a phone interview and received an email inviting me out for an all expenses paid shoot for a TV show, where they want me to talk all about my business and what I do. I just wanted you to know how much I enjoy working with you all and think what you are doing is terrific. The fact is, what you guys are doing works. There is absolutely no way they would have found me, nor would I have this interview without you guys. The great thing is I can use whatever they produce in my arsenal now and hopefully get more interviews. So, again, thank you for everything—it works!!!”
–Jennifer Myers, Realtor, First Time Homebuyer Expert
Nick, We were interviewed live today by Fox 40
“Nick, the weekend in Hollywood was great… your program is terrific and I really appreciate the speakers you brought in.”
-Ben Glass
“Hi this is Kimberlee Frank “The Real Estate Junkie” and I am writing to let you know how joining America’s PremierExperts® made a difference in my life. First off, I have shared the stage with a lot of people. However, it was always me having to impress my audience. Now, thanks to America’s PremierExperts®, I have a long list of credentials that allows me to get on any stage. The media coverage was out of this world. The friendship with Jack, Nick, and Lindsay is something that can not be replaced, we will always be connected. I have written many courses and wanted to write a book but never seemed to find time. With the help of America’s PremierExperts®, they made it happen and not in years but everything was done in just 12 months. I just wanted to say “Thanks”. I couldn’t have gotten this type of media coverage, book, and
When we first met Nick and Jack, we were floundering a little with our training business…we had all of the pieces, but didn’t have a cohesive vision or strategy of where it could take us. Since working with them, we have put more systems into our office, we are looking at the marketing (and the results of that marketing!) in a whole new light, our website actually looks like a professional did it, AND we have an awesome vision for our company that will allow us to retire in just a few short years. Sometimes we get so busy in the day to day “stuff” of our businesses that we forget to stop and look AT our businesses, The Dicks + Nanton Agency has afforded us an impartial outsiders’ view of our own business and the potential that it has.
Andy Tolbert, The Blue Jeans Broker, 