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In this episode of The Business Owner’s Journey, host Nick Berry sits down with Nick Nanton, entrepreneur, 22-time Emmy Award-winning Director/Producer, and master storyteller. Together, they dive into business leadership, creative freedom, finding a business mentor, scaling a business, and operating from your unique ability. Nick shares lessons from building global creative businesses, how EOS and Strategic Coach shaped his leadership, and why building the best team possible is non-negotiable for scaling. This is an episode packed with insights you can use whether you're running a fitness studio, a manufacturing business, or launching your next big creative venture.
Nick Nanton highlights a crucial distinction: self-awareness is your superpower, while self-consciousness is a trap. Being self-aware helps you recognize your strengths, weaknesses, and unique edge without falling into the paralyzing loop of worrying about what others think. Learning this early allowed Nick to build teams, find his role, and scale across industries like film, music, and entrepreneurship.
Stay self-aware to grow. Stay self-conscious, and you’ll stay stuck.
Nick’s journey took a major turn when he met Jack Dicks, a mentor who taught him the importance of scaling early and not trying to do it all yourself.
If you can't afford a business coach or formal mentor right now, start by learning from a “virtual mentor” - books, podcasts, and audio programs. Then level up by finding someone real who’s been where you want to go. Mentorship shortens the learning curve and provides the confidence you need to bet on yourself when stakes get high.
Nick credits two frameworks for much of his business success:
He emphasizes that EOS, when properly implemented (with an outside implementer), completely changed how he runs operations. No more bottlenecks. Clearer roles. Better hiring.
If you want to stop feeling trapped in your business, Nick says investing in EOS and Strategic Coach is a must.
Nick shares how he moved from trying to do everything himself to intentionally building world-class teams across his companies. The result? Freed up time, bigger opportunities, and more impact.
Strong hiring is about finding A-players who live inside their unique ability, just as you should.
Quick list:
Nick shares that one of the keys to sustained success is operating intentionally while leaving room for wonder.
He plans his actions purposefully (using quarterly and annual frameworks) but never locks himself into rigid expectations.
Here's a dangerous assumption: Thinking you can predict every opportunity that will come your way.
Instead, Nick advises: Leave a little "elbow room" for magic to happen.
“I had to learn how to do business to be able to earn the right to be in entertainment.” - Nick Nanton
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“Self-awareness is one of the most important skill sets for everything in life ever.” - Nick Nanton
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“Find a virtual mentor if you can't find the real mentor first, but then find a real mentor.” - Nick Nanton
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“If you want to capture something amazing, you got to let go of something really good.” - Nick Nanton
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“Do you want to be the quarterback, the coach, or the owner? There's not a right answer.” - Nick Nanton
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The Business Owner's Journey Podcast host: Nick Berry
Production Company: FCG
Chapters
03:00 Nick Nanton's Entrepreneurial Journey
10:45 The Role of Mentorship in Business
16:37 The Importance of EOS and Strategic Coach
23:56 Navigating the Tensions of Entrepreneurship
26:44 Navigating Self-Awareness and ADHD
31:43 The Power of Collaboration in Creativity
36:17 Strategic Planning and Future Vision
42:47 Balancing Achievement and Nurturing Relationships
48:01 Choosing Your Role: Quarterback, Coach, or Owner
Nick Nanton (00:00)
what I really wanna make sure that people understand is that I'm in entertainment, which is sexy, which is where I always wanted to be. But I had to learn how to do business to be able to earn the right to be in entertainment. And just because I'm in entertainment,
That's my story. don't want people to turn off their brain to listen to stories. Because what works for me in entertainment will work, as you know, I've used the same principles in my business and that I use for 3,000 other clients around the world. even though I'm gonna talk about things that are fun and sexy, it will work in your garbage business too, or in your fitness business or in your maid service business,
Nick Berry (00:48)
Nick Nanton is an entrepreneur and a 22 time Emmy award winning director and producer. He's worked with legends like Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Dolly Parton, Dick Vitale and Larry King and me.
Nick and I were among the co-authors of The Only Business Book That You'll Ever Need and have collaborated on several businesses in the past. I've been fortunate enough to have known Nick for a long time and I'm really excited to have had him on.
The list of people that he has worked with is a who's who of prominent figures.
But what does it really take to earn the right to be creative at the highest level? Nick and I talk about the business side of creativity and what it means to design your business with intention, how to find mentors who can accelerate your growth and the tension between the visionary ambition and the practical realities of scale. You can expect to learn the difference between self-awareness and self-consciousness, why most businesses stall at the team building stage, how to identify your unique ability.
what EOS and strategic coach did to change the game for Nick, and then how he's applied those lessons to build award-winning documentaries, global music ventures, and a creative life on his own terms. Whether you want to be the quarterback or the coach or the owner of your own business, this conversation is going to challenge how you lead and how you build. So let's get into it.
Nick Nanton (02:06)
you know, and, I'm currently ranked in the top 5 % of songwriters in the world. and just some things that I just interviewed, Dolly Parton, Chris Jenner, Keith Richards, Joan Jett, Jelly Roll. and what you probably don't know about me, which we could, I'm deputized as a sheriff's deputy for undercover work in human trafficking. I've done 12 docs on anti-human trafficking, probably the most anyone in the world. And sound of freedom is based on one of my documentaries and we're developing sound of freedom too right now. So there's a couple of things that most people just don't know that we could talk about if you want.
Nick Berry (02:32)
mentioned this list of people that you had most recently interviewed and
Nick Nanton (02:39)
I'm finishing up Kathie Lee Gifford's life story with her right now. So one of it's part of that. And I'm also doing a documentary on the Hit Factory, which is the most successful recording studio in history. I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston is recorded there. My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, born in the USA. Uptown Funk, I just interviewed Mark Ronson. I haven't announced it yet. I don't know how long before this comes out, but I don't mind talking about it.
I'm doing the Blind Boys of Alabama's documentary, which is the longest touring act in history. I've got most likely Barack Obama, Stevie Wonder, just some wild interviews for that. So yeah, dude, we just go wherever's fun. I'm gonna open books. Let's talk about it. Because I think what I really wanna make sure that people understand is that I'm in entertainment, which is sexy, which is where I always wanted to be. But I had to learn how to do business to be able to earn the right to be in entertainment. And just because I'm in entertainment,
That's my story. don't want people to turn off their brain to listen to stories. Because what works for me in entertainment will work, as you know, I've used the same principles in my business and that I use for 3,000 other clients around the world. even though I'm gonna talk about things that are fun and sexy, it will work in your garbage business too, if you want, or in your fitness business or in your maid service business, whatever,
right?
Nick Berry (03:51)
Right. Yeah. So that's, mean, that's
such an interesting thing for you to see what you're doing now, because, you know, when I met you, you know, at first it was, an attorney, right. And I think we were doing some, maybe working on the franchise and then, books. and so that's where I got introduced to your, like the business side of Nick Nant and now it's like come full circle and really the whole time. you know, Nick, you were building, creating your story, which is.
a lot more in the entertainment side of things. And so it's been cool to see you figure out the business component to let it take you where you're at, where you really, where you want it to be the whole time, right?
Nick Nanton (04:27)
Yeah, it's interesting because I, when, excuse me, when I started out, so I started out in, I started playing guitar at six. I don't know how wide the shot will be if people can see, but I've got a bunch of my guitars behind me and stuff. But I started to write, playing guitar at six, started songwriting. I don't actually don't remember. I got to look it up, but either 15 or 16, put on my first record at 18. And I always want to be, you know, first a singer, songwriter. Then I really, I realized, and we can talk a lot about this too. I I think I tell my kids, there's a fine line between,
self-awareness and self-consciousness. think self-awareness is the most, one of the most important skill sets for everything in life ever. Self-consciousness is when you get in your head and you wonder what people were saying about you. So like stay out of that, stay out of that side, stay in, stay in the self, but, but you need to be self-aware. Right? So I realized when I was playing and singing in college and you know, go Gators by the way, just won that national championship. I'll take it. Thank you. I'll take it. But when I was playing at bars and Gainesville and stuff and working with friends, I mean, I realized pretty quickly that.
Nick Berry (05:15)
Congrats.
Nick Nanton (05:22)
I mean, I can turn a tune. can do, I can sing, but like I couldn't sing as well or even play guitar as well as like a lot of my buddies. And I was like, okay, well like I either got a double down on this and try to become, you know, uh, better at it. Or actually now would quote my friend, Sally Hogg said it was just different is better than better. Right? Like you can't be better than most people or like there's always someone to be better than you. Right? So if you're starting out in the business world, like trying to be, if you're going to try to be better at something, you better try to be
really nichey better. Other than that, just try to be different because different is so much easier to win at. So I realized I either got to double down on being really different. I can get a little bit better, but I just don't have the natural gifts that some of these people do. And it's just, that's just the truth. Like I'm five foot eight on a good day, dude. I'm not going to make an NBA team. I just got to know this. Right. And so, so I realized that I wasn't, people weren't going to fill arenas to hear me sing.
Nick Berry (05:58)
It'll take you there.
Nick Nanton (06:19)
So, all right, so I'm gonna start writing and managing, started managing bands and doing things and just started working. And it was very evident to me very quickly with all the help they needed, how much most of the bands and musical people had no idea about business. And it was pretty natural to me because I'd had to become entrepreneurial at a pretty young age to make ends meet and to sort of buy some things I wanted and get the coaching I wanted and whatever. And so I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't gonna make it as a...
most likely when we make it a singer songwriter. let me go ahead and just delve further into songwriting and then get into music management stuff. So I started with my business partner, Jack, who, you he's retired now, but, you know, the, helped me with music and he's like, man, this is the toughest business I've ever seen. And he basically said, look, if you would do the same things you're doing, cause I was, I didn't realize what I was doing, but I was building brands for bands. I was, you know, at the time I was designing their logos. was, I sometimes doing the photography, sometimes editing their music videos, producing their records, like,
And we had to do it on a level where we were getting distribution at the time when there's still like CD stores. Like I'd produce a band in Gainesville and we'd have it mixed by Great Mixer and we could get into record stores. What I didn't realize at the time is no one knew it was in a record store if we didn't have the money to market the fact that it was there. So we ended up pressing a bunch of CDs and they're just getting mailed back to us later. So it was like a nightmare, right? You press 10,000 CDs or whatever, you get these orders, you send them out and then six months later they come back and you got to refund them all.
So he was like, man, this is a tough business. Just do that for entrepreneurs and you can have a great living. And so that's how the celebrity brand, the agency came about. It's how you and I started working together. I still own that business. I've got 19 team members who run that business. I spend about 20 to 30 % of my time in that business and the rest of my time songwriting, directing documentaries, and most importantly, operating within my unique ability, which is, you know, Dan Sullivan concept. I'm great friends with Dan from strategic coach and my unique ability is having
meaningful conversations that lead to produced outcomes. And that's how esoteric it is. And that's what you could do. So I have you asked me to have a conversation in the podcast, great to catch up with you. No problem. If you'd said, Hey, Nick, will you write a book for me? I'd either say no. Or if it was worth it, I'd have a meaningful conversation with a ghostwriter, and they will produce the outcome of the book. have meaningful conversations on my podcast. I have meaningful conversations behind the camera on my documentaries. I have meaningful conversations in front of the camera in my Amazon series on Amazon Prime. So anyway,
We've gone all over there, I guess the bottom line and I'll be quiet and let you ask more questions. But the bottom line here is that I, it's funny. used to say, you know, Hey, don't cause I do a lot of documentary work and raise a lot of money and stuff from, business guys. And so I used to say, you know what? You don't have to worry. Cause I'm, can deliver on budget on time every time. Cause I'm a business guy first creative guy second. So don't worry. I understand you. But I realized actually wasn't true when I really analyze like, you know, as a creative guy first.
who had to learn how to do business to afford to be creative, to earn the right to be creative. But I understand how business works. I am an entrepreneur, so we speak the same language. And so that's sort of a little bit of my journey to get here and we can go wherever you want.
Nick Berry (09:21)
I love it. I knew what to expect. I think it sounds like you're talking to, boy, you just described there. One of the things you just described there was kind of recognizing that you may be more visionary than integrator to use the EOS language, right? So was Jack, because I I remember you guys working together quite a bit. how did he fit into that? Was he an
Nick Nanton (09:23)
Ha ha.
Yep. Yep.
Nick Berry (09:45)
one or the other, or did he influence you to kind of become more aware of which you really were?
Nick Nanton (09:50)
Yeah, so the first thing, so I'll give a bit of backstory. I met Jack when I was 15 or 16, when my cousin who was living with me, we're from Barbados, my cousin moved up to do high school, his last two years of high school in the US with me. We live in Orlando area, I still do, but I was born in Barbados. And so we through his daughters who my cousin met going to a Christian camp called Young Life, right? And so I met Jack and he was an attorney, didn't practice law.
lived in a big house, was an entrepreneur. like, that's my guy. Like this is my guy. And so I, then I didn't, I lost touch with him. I went to college. His daughters went to college with me too. And I, and then a buddy of mine in college started dating his daughter and I reconnected with Jack and he started the company with me. So one of the number one things I'd always say is find a mentor, right? Number one, if you can't afford to pay for a mentor, like, you know, I've apologized in person and we're good now, but like my tennis coach in high school,
Nick Berry (10:16)
That's my god.
Nick Nanton (10:41)
I was like in the top 50 to a hundred in the state of Florida getting recruited, playing college, all that. And my tennis coach gave me a pirated set of Tony Robbins CDs. And so like, if you can't afford a coach or can't afford, I'm not advocating for piracy. I hate it actually, but you know, you do what you gotta do, right? And I couldn't afford a $2,000 set of CDs at the time. So my buddy gave it to me and like, you know, thankfully now we've got audio books and podcasts and regular books and all the things.
Like you can get access to knowledge. So find a virtual mentor if you can't have, if you can't find the real mentor first, but then find a real mentor. Cause what Jack, someone asked me the other day, Nick, how did you learn to scale your business? And I was like, you know, man, Jack and I went into business together when I was 22. And I was like, maybe 21, 21, 22. I'm getting so old. can't remember anymore. I'm 45 now. It's like, everything's going right. All the dates are going. So I was like, and every time we would start something, he would just say, Hey, yeah, we need to bring in somebody to help.
And so Jack and I really are both visionaries, but he had the he's 30 years older than me. So we had the experience of having to hire people and bringing people to integrate his ideas. So I was never, I never had to have that like uncertainty that I can remember of like, my gosh, should I hire somebody? Can I afford their salary? Can I not afford a salary? Like I go from having to be responsible for one mouth to feed to two mouths to feed. Like I'm sure, I mean, I had some of those thoughts, but it was just like, no, no, this is what we're doing.
And because I had so much confidence in him as a mentor, I really never questioned it. So I would say we both are integrators. You know, for a long time, his daughter, Lindsay ran our server, both visionaries for a long time. Lindsay, his daughter ran our business as an integrator. She's now a stay at home mom. But like, I think we played really well together in, um, in visionary world together. We, you know, it's funny cause we really like best friends in that, like we were brainstormed three, four hours a day.
But then we would have a team that would execute, like I'd go out and speak on the road. I'd go out and execute on the documentary stuff I got. But really, I really blessed with this from the beginning. I never really had to worry about being an integrator. I mean, I've always had to do certain things, but it was never, like, no, no. Like he realized, like in looking back, he realized because he had 30 more years experience than I did in life, that like, you know.
you know, Nick doing invoicing is really bad use of his time, right? Let's, let's get, and the cool thing is he had another business. So we were able to take on some people fractionally, which you can still do even if you, but it was like really easy to step in and like get some shared help. And so that was a, that was a big blessing. Cause I think I see a lot of people who get stalled at scale because of, the paralysis of how much money they need and all that. And one, another big lesson I think I'd put in that same vein. When I came out of law school,
I was working with Jack at the time for another company he had and I couldn't make ends meet because we had the real estate crash. I needed to make a hundred grand a year, you know, at 24 just to pay student loans. My wife had our first son a week after I took the bar exam. I mean, just all the things. And so one of things I learned from Jack was really interesting was like, Jack, I got to make a hundred grand a year is like, great. You don't need a hundred grand right now. You need like eight grand a month. So like, let's just focus on making you eight grand a month and the rest will come like, oh man, that makes sense. Cause like, I'm thinking.
before I start, gotta have a hundred grand and you don't. Like, and quite frankly, if you can't figure out by month three or four, how to make a grand in that month, then you, then you got a different issue to solve. Right? So I had a lot of blessings from him, by the way, just in EOS world, Gino Wickman, good friend of mine. Gino's an investor in my bourbon with Chris Voss. it was just funny. I, I, I didn't integrate EOS. I didn't have the right team to do it until when COVID happened, Jack retired. like, you know what?
Nick Berry (13:55)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nick Nanton (14:19)
I'm gonna go all in on EOS. And I would tell anybody listening, it is absolutely life-changing. Like people told me it would be, and it is. I don't think you can do it effectively without an implementer. I really don't. You need someone from the outside to make you have harder conversations than most are willing to have on their own. probably the two things that I've done.
in that world that have changed my life the most would be strategic coach with Dan Sullivan and EOS. I would absolutely advocate for those two things. If you're stuck in your business, you don't know what to do next, you gotta invest in yourself. Those are two places I would start.
Nick Berry (14:50)
Totally agree. Yeah. I listened to your interview with Gino. So we did, I did EOS in like 20, maybe 14 when, when there were like four implementers in the world, like Gino is who sold me. He was still doing it then. Like, so, I mean, it's been, and it was life changing, right? It's, there were so many things that so many questions that you have as an entrepreneur that you're like, you may not even realize it, right? It's like, there are these challenges that are in front of you that you're
Nick Nanton (15:02)
Yeah.
Nick Berry (15:17)
They're not getting solved and they're like, maybe it's recognition of blind spots. I'm not sure, but I remember through the first half of the day in the workshop with Gino walking out of there. And I told my wife, Kelly, I was like, that's it. Like all these things that have been plaguing me in my mind, I now understand how to get the answer. Like you didn't tell me the answer, but there's a method for finding the answers. And it's, it just like turns you loose. It's, it's an incredible feeling.
Nick Nanton (15:44)
Yeah, one of the things when I first, when I went in, so I brought back a guy who used to work with me years ago to, was like, hey, read this book. And if you, he had gone off to chase some other opportunities, was looking to change again. I was like, hey, well, if you want to come back, read this book and maybe you can, can help me, you know, integrate this stuff. Turns out he was a bad integrator, a great human, just not his gift either. I mean, he's more visionary too, which fine. But when we went to the first meeting with our implementer, one the most eye-opening things.
And again, like I don't do nuts and bolts with business for I'm a visionary, but one of the coolest things of like, he's like, all right, so let's break down your business. And he's like, you know, he even broke at the very beginning. like, we can break it down however you want. But basically it's sort of like, there's like an operation seat. There's like a sales seat. It could be maybe sales and marketing. There's a finance seat. And then he was like, there's two of you who's going in these seats. I was like, ah, man, I never thought of it this way. And so then we had, you know, the way they do the first.
typical EOS meeting now is like you have your first one, your first start meeting, and then 30 days later you have your second one because you've sort of started learning the system and now we're going to get serious. so by the, between the first meeting and the second meeting, I'd hired two more people to fill the seats. He goes, well, this is the, this is the fastest growth I've ever seen in a, a company. You know, you, you double your seats. I'm like, well, but it became just something as simple as that became so obvious that like,
Nick Berry (16:57)
Yeah.
Nick Nanton (17:05)
One person can sit in all these seats, but like when you see it, like, you somebody's gonna run fine. And when it's laid out, even in a very simple four boxes on a board, you're like, oh man, I could never be effective doing all of these things. There's, mean, first of all, most of them give me hives. Like I just can't do it anyway. And then, you know, one of the other biggest, you know, ah-has for me in my life, you know, cause it's so counter-cultural to what most people, to the, as they call the hustle porn of the day, like you just gotta work harder. You gotta grind more. You gotta like, whatever. It's like,
Dan Sullivan's whole who not how concept, right? Like you've gotten to where you are in life by being who you are and being spectacularly good at a few things, get rid of the rest and find who's. Like as my friend Dean Jackson says, who up your time? You gotta who up your time, you know, and get some more who's. And so I would say to anybody who's like on the edge of breaking through and a little bit nervous, that's a, man, that means growth is around the corner.
You know, as Jack Canfield says to me, and by the don't, I don't name drop. just give credit where it's due. Right. Jack Canfield chicken soup with the soul. You know, he said, Nick, if you want to, if you want to capture something amazing, you got to let go of something really good or even great. And so if you're on that cusp, like realize that you cannot be world-class at more than maybe one or two things. Right. That's it. And so if you want to run a world-class business, if you want to, if you want the ability, and I don't want to say, forget to say this. So just, I was interviewing Richard Branson, right?
Nick Berry (18:19)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Nanton (18:29)
And I was interviewing Richard Branson for my documentary on Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X-Prize. So Peter created a prize for space flight, because Peter, he got an MD from Harvard and a master's from MIT. did it at the same time. And when he graduated from medical school, he was running a rocket company during medical school. And the dean of the medical school was like, hey, I will let you graduate. You're great student, but I will only let you graduate from medical school under one condition. He goes, what's that? goes,
You promised me that you never will practice medicine because that is not what you want to do. You want to chase space. And so he realized that NASA wasn't going to be putting up more people in space. And by the way, funny, but not funny joke, if you become an astronaut, you don't go to space. They call you a penguin because you never got to fly. anyway, so Peter creates a prize to help put him and his friends in space. And it's called the X prize. And Richard Branson ends up buying it becomes Virgin Galactic. Right. So I go to interview. It's a 10 year anniversary of the prize being won.
Richard buying it, and I go, why didn't you just, Peter came to you two times while he was raising the money to raise the $10 million, and you didn't give it to him. You ended up buying the technology for a lot more. Like, why didn't you, why didn't you just buy it, dude? And he's like, you know what, Nick? He goes, Peter came to me twice and foolishly I passed. You know what, Virgin, we're always strapped for cash and doing too many things. And it really didn't hit me until like a year later. I was like, wait a minute, this dude's a billionaire, and he told me he's always strapped for cash and doing too many things. And it sort of gave me like a,
an aha and like an exhale, like, let me just own it. It's always going to be this way. So like, if I gave anyone on this listening to your podcast, a hundred million dollars, like it'd be really exciting for the first day, maybe first month, maybe going on big vacation, buy a big home, like whatever. But within like two weeks to 30 days, if you're an entrepreneur, you're going to get restless and you're going to, you're going to see like, you know what, man, I would love to put some of this money into my church to help its missions. Man, this person is doing awesome. This guy.
I love this guy with his lawn service. He could be something I'm puts money and before you know it, you're going to be strapped for cash and doing too many things. You're just gonna be right back to square one. So just own it. And so what you got to realize is this. I like to refer, you know, whatever your faith is, it is anyone listen. My, I'm Christian. My friend of mine at church said, Hey, you know what, Nick, a of people have a hard time with the Bible because God is good all the time, but bad things still happen. He goes, just think of it as a hammock. And the only way you can relax in the
in that hammock is because there's tension on both sides. And I feel like an entrepreneurship is the same thing. Like that Richard Branson thing is like the only reason I get to enjoy that nice dinner or I get to live on a lake or I can take my family on a nice vacation and drink that nice bottle of wine and go to the nice dinner or do it is because I can live in the tension of being between broke and billionaire at all times. And you just got to own it. You just got to understand it. And by the way, it's way easier to give this advice and laugh about it when you're up on that swing. When you're down on that swing,
Like man, we've had like just a couple things haven't gone right in the last six months. Biggest cash crunch in my life, biggest puckering I've ever had in my life because the stakes are just higher, man. They're just higher. But I've had to learn that like, again, based on my faith, I believe God's gone before me and prepared a way. I've got to do the best. If I don't do the best with the talent he's given me every day, I'm failing him. Like that's my only job is to do the best I can with what's in front of me and to serve other people well.
But at end of the day, man, I can't control it all. So I just gotta do the best I can. And so I think where people get like, and again, that advice is way easier to give than to take. It's way easier to give and take when things are on the upswing. you know, letting go and allowing people who are better than you to help you and you serve them as like one of the most rewarding things ever in not only life, but business. And that's the only way.
Nick Berry (22:11)
Did that always come pretty easily to you or did you have to have it? Did you have to get pushed a little bit?
Nick Nanton (22:17)
Oh man. I'm so I have the attention span and the memory of a squirrel. And so I, you know, it's funny. Like I relearn the same lessons every fricking day. I'm like, like, I don't, I'm like, oh man, like you all be like 90 % down the road. I'm like, oh man, I've been here before. I know better than this, but you know, it's, it's interesting because the opportunities look really different and you obviously, you know, pattern recognition is a big deal. And I, yo, my pattern recognition isn't broken. I could tell you that. I mean, it's, you know, it's done. All right. I've done it right for myself, but
It is fascinating when you certainly, we all have biases and when things are going well, it's like, was listening to a podcast here today, the founder of Tiger 21. And for those who don't Tiger 21 is really like a high-end high net worth mastermind group. And it's really designed for people who've had an exit, a massive exit from business net worth about 50 million or more. And one of the things the founder was saying that when someone sells a business, that's pretty much against all odds basically.
And so they have a bias that can just do it again really easily. So most people tend to lose a lot of money the second or third time because they realize like everything worked out right the first time or whatever time they did it. And so, you know, and a lot of times, you know, you, you discount the fact that it took you like, I've been in this business now. I think this is your 17 of me sort of going out of my own. And it's like, you know, you had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way to get to this hopeful, like peaks and valleys, but the peak ends up really high and you sell and you know,
You, you learn a lot, but a lot of people, think you can recreate that instantly in two years or three years or some number. And so, yeah, no, I, I'm, I'm an idiot, man. I really learned the same lessons a lot. I mean, I, I take a lot of the lessons with me I, think I've learned, have two or three, you know, like EOS would call it like three uniques. I probably got two or three unique things that if I bring it to any business, it can make an impact. And that's like, you know, forming the bourbon with Chris Voss has been really interesting because I've been able to like,
It's the first time in a long time I started a whole, it's not just a project, it's a business. And I have investors and I have shareholders and I have like, so I've been able to see, all right, where can I shortcut with my skillset? And then, know, and then, oh yeah, I've seen this in my agency. I need someone to finance see, I need someone to sales see. So, you know, it's been interesting, but yeah, it comes hard every day, man. It comes hard every day.
Nick Berry (24:34)
Well, so I want to go back before we finish and get a little bit more, if you don't mind sharing about the, you mentioned the difference in self awareness and self consciousness. Where do you think you got that from?
Nick Nanton (24:46)
a couple of things. So, I mean, I have pretty severe ADHD. Now that is a, you know, you know, one of the best adages in the world is every sword cuts both ways. think it has been a massive competitive advantage to me in some ways and a massive detriment. If I don't have people help me with the things I'm really bad at, like if anyone hears the filling of the Colby score, like I'm a 10 quick start and a two follow through.
Right? So like I can, like if me and you agree we're going skydiving today, like if you don't show up, like I'm pissed. Like my, when I was little, my parents couldn't tell me the day before we were going to Disney because like, if there's a hurricane the next day, like I'm pissed. Cause like I'm, you said we're going to Disney. I don't care. Come hell or high water. You said, right? So people often think like, if I have a phone call with them that like I'm rushing to get off the phone with them. No.
I'm like hanging on like a squirrel on a power line. Like if we talk like in the wind, like, and we agree to do something like I'm trying to hang up. Cause if I don't do it right now, it's never going to happen. So, I have had to learn, how to have, how to get people to help me along the way because of the fact that, I have some skillsets that are, you know, I can hyper focus.
So like
And that I'm having other people who can you can catch the back end of the things that I actually shouldn't be doing but I'm just or not my skill set
And so for the self-awareness part, I just had to be very self-aware, like that being good at being bad at something, there's no shame in it. That's a really interesting thing, right? I mean, one of the hardest parts is just because of the nature of life, like, you know, grade school, middle school. I mean, it's a pressure cooker, man. And so many of us carry baggage with us. So we just don't even realize from teachers and peers and like, and you know, it like,
You know, everybody does track and field or whatever it, it's good for everyone to try it. But you know, a lot of kids will make funny if you're not good at sports or like kids are like, or, or if you're not good at music and it depends on whatever program you're not good at drama and you, you gotta do the acting class to get the credit. need to graduate, whatever it is like, or the speaking class. But so I think I learned somewhere along the way. Thankfully I was good enough at a few things that I had, and I had really great parents and had really good support systems on stuff. Like I don't.
I don't know what it's like to not have that to start with in life, right? So that's first. Like I definitely building on a strong foundation of security and faith and things like that, We didn't have any money. were more or less broke immigrants a lot. I mean, not totally broke, but I felt the financial pressures my parents felt of moving to a new country and trying to make it, right? But I had that foundation. And so I think I had enough self-confidence to learn that like, oh, you know what? I'm just never gonna be great at that.
And so, you know, making records in college was one things that really taught me. was like, I was producing records and like I was a hack producer, but like, man, this dude is like, I've been playing guitar since I was six, but this dude is way better than me guitar. And like, he'll play the whole record for like, you know, a 12 pack of beer and three McDonald's meals. Like we could afford that guys. Let's pay that guy instead of us trying to do it. And then, we've got this drummer who's had a major record deal. He's been on the road with sister Hazel and Backstreet Boys. He'll drum, you know, he'll drum in the studio for us for 50 bucks a song.
Let's use that guy. And so it was like, well, man, we could try to do this on our own, but we're surrounded by people better than us. Like we could be, uh, we could be egotistical about it. Like, man, I got to play my own drums on my own record, or we could be like, you know what? Let's just let the guy who's great at playing drums play the drums and listen to the rest. And so I think I learned mostly from failure of like, I've always had, I've always been able to, um, I don't know if this is a gift or just against, I've always been able to hear something like on the radio and I'd hear what I was doing. And I've been able to say,
that's that's that's as good or man that's nowhere near and that's nowhere near like what do need to do and who I need who can help me figure this out and and it's just that breed self-awareness because you have like if you want to compete on a global scale even at the time even on a local scale with college bands or whatever like the world is a competition man I mean it's a collaboration too but you got to be able to compete you got to be like if there's
Nick Berry (28:29)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Nanton (28:47)
Like I tell people, like I have a place in Nashville and I've been writing there for 25 years. So finally got a place recently. I have a whole list. Whenever someone goes to Nashville, I text them this list of like all my best advice, best places to eat, place to whatever. And I don't know. I don't like to brag, but I'm pretty good at eating. So if anyone needs it, they can hit me up. But like I always say, look, Broadway, lower Broadway, where all the bars are every band, they're pretty much plays for free. They play for tips. And so typically
The later in the day it gets, better the bands are. The later at night, the better bands play because they get drunk. People will give them bigger tips, but there's always great music and there's always crappy music. So it, there's three floors, not every bar and there's a hundred of them in the three blocks. So just keep going. Don't settle for bad music. Just keep going till you find something you love. So like you go in the first floor, you don't love it. Go to the second floor. You don't have to go to third floor. You don't have to go to the next bar. And so, because the world is a competition now.
The good news is the person who's probably a four out of 10, probably still making some money on the right day in Nashville when it's busy. But the 10 out of 10 is going to make more money every time. And like, if I'm a four out of 10, well, what is it that I'm missing? Like for me, like I, like you said, I'm, currently ranked in top 5 % of songwriters in the world, which literally makes me hundreds of dollars a year. So don't be jealous, but I, you know,
Nick Berry (30:05)
You
Nick Nanton (30:07)
I'm there because I know my ability and I'm actually not the best lyricist or melody guy, I know. I I had to write the other day, I'm writing with the guy who plays keys for third day and he's in the band third day. He's got like six Grammys. He's key player for Luke Bryan on tour right now. He's got multiple number ones. The other guy in the room's got 16 number ones and multiple Grammy nominations. The other guys, so it's a room of four guys and between all of us, so I'll just exclude me,
They got like eight Grammys and 25 number ones. But I used to be self-conscious of like, dude, how do I even stack up to these guys? But what someone told me along the way is like, hey, Nick, you know what? We know you don't, like these guys write two songs a day every day. They're like, we know you're out like making movies. You don't practice enough to be as good as us. And you know what? Totally great, because you save your ideas for big days. Like we got a couple of new ideas. You'll save your ideas for a month and come in and write too, and you got great ideas.
Cause you've been out in the world doing while we've been holed up here and even better yet, like if we write a song with you, we know for the most part it's for a, it's going to go somewhere. It's not just to write a song, to write a song cause we got to write a song. So we love the fact that you're bringing something different to the table. Don't worry. We got you on the rest. And it's like, Oh, because like the self, the self-consciousness would be like, man, I can't beat this guy's lines. I get my share in like, you know, 25 to 50 % of lines I can get in.
Nick Berry (31:20)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Nanton (31:32)
But like, had to be like, dude, there's nothing, I don't need to be ashamed of that. That's great. Like I'm bringing what I bring to the table and all these guys had these guys with this many Grammys, they'd never written together before. The only reason they're in a room together is because I'm working on a record with a famous band that I'm trying to write for. And I'm like, I'm just going to put together a dream team. They're all like, awesome, let's go. So my self-awareness was like, Hey, let me just, let me just build the best team in the world and we'll win. And dude, the songs that have come out of that collaboration have just been just.
Sick. I mean you like you can't lose with guys this good I mean they've been doing it for thousands of hours every year for 20 years and they have the success to prove it That's fun. If you want to be great at something go find your way into a groom of people that are better than you Jeff Bezos principle never hire someone you don't admire Never never work with somebody don't admire if you can help it and like I had to work like to get into those rooms I had to be I had to be super humble me like hey look
I can't do what you do as well as you do, but I could bring this value to the table. How do you feel about that? And eventually I worked my way in and now like I get some of the best rights in Nashville other people can't get because I bring my own value in a different way. And so I just had to learn like, that's okay. So like, what is my unique ability? Let me just own that, bring that to the table. And it's shocking. It's a funny example of like, like I went out and interviewing Kenny Chesney. You know, we were talking about how like every great musician wants to be an athlete.
Nick Berry (32:42)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Nanton (32:57)
And every great athlete wishes they could sing and play guitar, right? So just own it. Just find a guy who can sing and play guitar better than you and do what you can do for him. And the same thing in business. It's just team building. Like directing, I'm a director and producer. It's just building the best team possible. And when you build the best team possible, man, you got a hell of a shot.
Nick Berry (33:15)
Yeah, absolutely. I love it. It's staying, figuring out what your role is, right? What your unique ability is, and then staying centered on it. So you can be purposeful and intentional with it, not drifting. Because the world is, a lot of the world is trying to get you to drift. know, social media, it's like, it's pulling you off target. How far out in the future are you looking?
Nick Nanton (33:37)
well, you know, we do, we do annual planning and quarterly planning, thanks to strategic coach. and, so, you know, about a quarter out and then, you know, we do EOS level 10 meetings. do ours every Monday. I try not to travel on Monday so I can be there for that. And, you know, and, but the nicest thing about like, I hate meetings, like other than like, you know, meetings at the bar or brainstorming creative means like operational means like kill me now. Right. But I actually love them.
the discipline of the level 10 meeting because I can, if I'm on that meeting once a week, or even if I miss it, I can get the notes and everyone knows their complete plan for the week. And only if there's a massive problem, do I need to get involved. And then I go out, I only travel seven nights a month because of my family for like the last 10 years. I break that every now and then I just have to, I have a bargain with my family. Like if I got to break that and add another night, we'll talk about it. We'll do something cool. But like, when things started going well, I started traveling so much. My wife's like, Hey, hey, hey. And we just had our third.
child, our third and final child, I think. And she's like, Hey, I didn't sound to do this on my own. You know, we, like you around. So I travel about a night and a half a week, which is enough to be disruptive, but it's not, I'm not gone all the time. But it allows me to make sure the ship is running so that I can go out and have the freedom to do whatever it is. I feel like I need to do to grow the business. And so like, if I want to go to a concert or a golf tournament or something that you might normally get grief from your partner or spouse for it.
I don't because it's within my parameters. She's like, Hey, you know, as long as I'm not doing anything unethical or that would, you know, uh, throw shade in my family or cheating on my wife or anything, know, anything shady. So as long I'm not doing that, I don't travel on weekends. mean, every now and then I will maybe once a year, but you know, I don't miss the first day of school. I don't miss the last day of school. I don't miss birthdays. Like I got rules, right? And so as long I my wife's like, she, yeah, you can spend four year nights. you, go to a concert in the Bahamas, if you want it.
That's how you want to spend your time. don't care. You know, and so it's nice to sort of set those parameters and that's helped me a ton as well.
Nick Berry (35:31)
What about the future of your business? How far ahead are you looking? Or like what is the vision for the future?
Nick Nanton (35:38)
So it's really interesting
because, know, they say to have like a three year and a 10 year target essentially, right? Which vision is great. And I'm not short on vision at all. The last few years, because since COVID, my business partner retiring, in a lot of ways our business that's been operating for 17 years has become a startup again. So I feel like a 10 year target is not a bad idea to talk about. You have a little bit of vision, but I don't spend a lot of time on it because.
Um, I think my 10 year target is maybe more important in, in one of the business and startup phase. Like what do I want to not be doing anymore in 10 years now? What do I not be worrying about? What do I want to be spending my time doing? I think I can spend more time there with just creating intention, knowing it's going to shift. may not work out perfectly, but I got a plan. The 10 year target of the business we spent a little bit time on, we spent a pretty good amount of time on every year at our annual on a three year target. It keeps shifting because we're in a bit of a, of a shift in a startup phase and some other things. Um, but.
So yeah, I mean, one to three years, we, I, we, we really focus on this quarter, like, and, and, and to some extent, I think we've learned maybe a little bit too myopically this quarter. So really for the most part, this quarter and how it affects this year, this quarter, how it affects this year with we try to put a solid outline on a three year, knowing that we're, still tweaking as we, you know, as we dial in, I'd say in a lot of ways, this, this part of my journey for me is sort of like, you know,
Nick 4.0 maybe of like going through the different levels of the journey and now going, you know what, here's what I should be doing. Here's what I shouldn't be doing. How do I, how do I need to prepare for that? How do I need to shake off some of the fear of letting go of something really good to continue climbing and thing that's great. And so I would, I would expect my next decade will, you know, I've continued to, to sort of rise in the documentary world, which I've really enjoyed.
I think I'll do more of that. I'm getting into scripted feature films, which I don't know if I'm gonna like or not. We're gonna see. But most likely moving out of some of the lower level, I'd say services we offer now that have just always sort of cranked and been good. But I'm not dispassionate about serving those entrepreneurs anymore than I was originally, but you can only do so many things. And where my skill set seems to be greatest is,
having meaningful conversations that lead to produced outcomes. the more connected, the more impactful people I can have those conversations with, the more effective I can be and the more change I can create in the world.
Nick Berry (38:05)
So I kind of laugh when you're talking about that because just knowing you, you know, one year or 10 years or whatever, your years that you're measuring in is like dog years, right? Because the volume of things that you compact into time, but it kind of brings the conversation full circle because it's not an accident. You just mentioned again, kind of your unique ability and like you said, I'm going to have an impact for whenever I take any type of action.
Nick Nanton (38:14)
Hahaha.
Nick Berry (38:31)
I want it to be impactful and lead to an outcome. Right. mean, and that's, that's why you get things done at the pace that you get them done. It's you're like super purposeful. You always have been that since I've known you, which has been like, I don't know, 12 years, something like that, 14 years. yeah, we got old together. but it's like, yeah, I think you've never lacked it with intention and purpose. And, and so you're able to, to make sure.
Nick Nanton (38:47)
Yeah, it's been a while. We're getting older.
Nick Berry (38:58)
habitually when anything that's getting effort from you is there's an outcome expected. It's moving something. And I think that's important for people to recognize because it doesn't happen automatically for everybody.
Nick Nanton (39:12)
No, that's a really good point. I think.
I've always been like an achiever, like a completer, like, you know, super ADHD and kindergarten, we'd have worksheets and we did the worksheet, we'd go to centers. And if we did every center you completed, you get a stamp. So I'd be like sleeved up with tattoos by the time I was done. like, you know, and again, every sword cuts both ways. Like that can be a monster too, right? Like running too much towards achievement and forgetting nurture for people. like, so, you know, you got to find your balance in all of these things.
Nick Berry (39:37)
you
Nick Nanton (39:40)
I don't do it as intentionally as this, but I love the idea that, and maybe I do subconsciously, but yes, I'm always chasing something. I'm always, by the way, um, when I first started in business with Jack and again, having that, that mentor who even maybe things weren't as okay as he told me they were, I believed it. So it was okay. Right? Like there's really nice to have just good people around you. That's key. And so one time I was getting real frustrated, even though things weren't going fast enough, he's like, Hey Nick, you know, I see you getting a little frustrated that like,
Like you can't achieve something today that you just decided about this morning. I was like, yes. He's like, well, you know, look, I know you're a believer. He's like, so let me just put it in our framework. He's like, if you want God to work in your life, just remember you got to give him a little bit of elbow room. I was like, Ooh, okay. And so one thing is I've had to learn. I will say, I try to take, don't have an exact percentage of time, but I try to take some of my time. Like I will, it has to be on my schedule, but if someone asks,
kindly and politely and they're a good person. I will sit down for lunch or an hour on Zoom or whatever with any student of high school, college, another entrepreneur, someone's nephew, someone getting started in business. I will always make time for people because we all got extra time. I mean, we're all busy, but we got time that we could fill with that, right? So I will always do that. But I also try to go like, you know, I've been invited to speak at events and stuff and...
Nick Berry (41:01)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Nanton (41:06)
I'm like, well, I don't even know. I don't even know why I'm going to this except for I like the person I said yes, but like typically when I do, and by the way, I remove myself from the typical day to day of my business, the nitty gritty, and I get on a plane and I go somewhere and I spend some time with someone I hadn't spent time with like opportunity shows up. So I'd always encourage you to like be intentional about what you need to accomplish, but like leave, leave some time for God to have elbow room because, because there's always a plan bigger than you can see and whatever your faith is.
whatever you believe, I believe everyone could probably buy into that. Like you don't know the whole plan. So you should be intentional. You got to make sure you block and tackle. And by the way, if you can't pay your mortgage, if you can't feed your family, like block and tackle only as much as you need to, right? So make things healthy, but leave room for that exploration, leave room for that wonder and excitement. And I don't know what's going to happen. And that's where some of the most magical things happen. Dan Sullivan is intentional. He says, I wake up every morning.
And I and with a plan the night before for the three things I'm going to accomplish that day, he goes, you know, sometimes fire happens, I can't accomplish all three of those or whatever. But for the most part, if you just said, tomorrow, I'm going to accomplish three things. And these are the three most important things you'll find for the most part, you accomplish the three most important things in an hour or two. And you by the end of every week, you've accomplished 15 important things. If you do that.
you will be the most productive person you've ever met. Like life will just work well. Like, because you are, you're doing the important things rather than just letting the schedule get filled with the stuff. And so I, I love that idea. I'm way less disciplined than that, but I think, you know, subconsciously and sort of my, my style has been like pushing. I've been very, very good at juggling a lot of balls. I just have been good at that by having good teams, but I'm very good at making sure that every project is.
Nothing's getting stalled because that, I've learned if you stop spinning the plate long enough, it's going to fall. So I got to make sure I go spin that plate and spin that plate and spin that plate and spin that plate and check in with that guy and that plate that's spinning. And, you know, that for me is fun. It can get stressful, but it's fun. And, you know, the good news is I've gotten to point where there's not many plates. I have to spend myself. I just got to make sure that that person is spinning that plate still. And if they're struggling with spinning that plate, how can I help them? And that's like a nice place to be. last thing I think is a really interesting perspective.
When we first started the business, Jack asked me a question when I was going out on the road, speaking a lot and he said, Hey, you got to make a decision. Um, it's not an instant decision, but in life, do you want to be the quarterback? You're going to get all the glory, right? You can get all the glory. If you hit that touchdown pass, you know, you can get some criticism, you know, if you've, if you missed the pass, but you know, you get all the glory. Um, or do you want to be the coach? Like, do you want to prime? I don't get paid as much as a quarterback, but like you get to like work with all the people, or do you want to be the owner?
So you want to be the quarterback of the team, the coach of team, the owner of the team is like, there's not a right answer in there, but it's like a really interesting perspective of like, what would make you happy? Like instant gratification as a quarterback might make you happy for a while, but like, man, you can, you can bail out. Uh, you know, you, as a coach, you can maybe have a little less stress cause you can replace that quarterback if there's a problem. So it's just, I thought that was a really interesting way to sort of look at business and life.
Nick Berry (44:25)
It is. Yeah, I'd be... What was your answer?
Nick Nanton (44:27)
You know, I said, well, I'm clearly being the quarterback right now, which is where I need to be. Like that's what I have to do right now. I would prefer, and he was being my coach. I'm like, but in a lot of ways, man, I mean, I think that for me, that I was in, I want to be the owner. Like I want to, I want to have diversification in my talent, diversification, my income streams. I'm like, you know, quarterback, you have an insurance policy, hopefully, but if you get injured, I mean, I guess now you can go be a Fox commentator for Brady, I guess, but you know, it's.
And for me, I'd like to be the owner and it doesn't mean you can't be the owner and have active roles in certain things, which is where it's really fun. You control, you get all the pressure to write and all the financial strain, but you can choose where you want to where you want to put yourself in as quarterback. And so I think that's a fun, you know, that's so I'd say the owner for sure.
Nick Berry (45:14)
Yeah. Yeah. Nick, you're fantastic, man. I really appreciate it. I appreciate everything that you've taught me over time and you've been willing to come here and share. It's very valuable.
Nick Nanton (45:25)
Course man likewise great to see you and I'm glad you're doing well and yeah, it's been a long time since in days at the Brown Hotel.
Nick Berry is an accomplished entrepreneur and CEO, whose track record includes founding and leading numerous companies since 2002.
After his most recent exit he started Redesigned.Business to mentor and coach to other entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for a trusted (and proven) advisor.
Among peers, colleagues, staff, and clients, Nick has been referred to as both 'The Business Guy' as well as 'The Anti-Guru', due to his pragmatic approach and principled leadership.
He shares his insights and lessons learned, along with those of his expert guests,
on his podcast, 'The Business Owner's Journey'.
