0163: The Professionals Mindset for Success with James Newcomb

Ea interviews, episode 163, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's expert Authority Effect interview. I'm excited to bring to you author, speaker, host of Easy School of Hard Knocks podcast veteran, which I'm very thankful for, and professional musician James Newcome. He's going to be sharing with you today right after I thank the sponsor. How would you like to grow your wealth Easier than you think with the change you probably don't notice anyhow automatically. That's why I started the compounding interest Snowball investing with ACORNS and advise you do too. Get started simply and easily today@eainterviews.com ACORNS Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. James Newcomb. James, how are you doing today?

I'm well, Mario. Thank you for having me on your show.

I'm excited to hear your background as a professional musician and what got you to this point right now. I know you have a lot of great stuff you've done over the years, but what got you into music? Musicianry.

Musicianry, yeah. I started when I was 8. Like my dad gave me my first few lessons because he was a trumpet player in the Navy. And after his military time he was like, he taught a little bit and so that's kind of was what he did. And when I was eight years old, I just decided I want to like they. I think my mom gave a challenge to do some New Year's resolutions for my siblings and I and I just said, well, my dad plays trumpet. I'm gonna resolve or have a New Year's resolution to play trumpet. So that was eight years old.

And third grade and I was like the star standout trumpet player throughout high school and I knew that I didn't want to go to college. And the army recruiter called me up and asked if what I was interested in and I said in the band, that's sort of what I do. And he said, well, you know, the army has bands. We could maybe hook you up with that. And long story short, I did that for four years. This is 94 to 98. And then 10 years later, I had been out of the military for a while and I realized that music is more than just a hobby. It's more than just something that I should do as an amateur.

Just with some good coaching and with some good mentorship, I decided to make make music. My like, like really go, go for it and really become a really top tier professional musician. And so I went back into the military in 2008 and did that for about eight years. And since leaving the military in 2015, I've been more into the. The podcasting and the blogging realm as far as what I do for my. To make my bones. But like we talked, we were talking, Mario, before we hit record is like, I don't play that much, but when I do play, it's professional. Because I realized that even if you get paid to play an instrument, you can play unprofessionally, you can have an unprofessional mindset. And for me, it's just a professional is a way of going about your business. It's a way of thinking about, you know, if I'm going to play, I'm going to play at the very best that I can, even if it's once or twice a year.

Well, I appreciate that. And first off, thank you for your service. And I. You got me thinking when you said 8 years old, because I started piano. I play piano, alto and tenor sax. I was in marching band. And I love music also. And I'm thinking it was right about the same age. Truthfully, it was fourth grade.

I don't know how old you are in fourth grade, but it was fourth grade. So 8, 9, 10 ish. We'll go with. And what you're talking about with your mindset, it's the same thing. I apply to my show and business and life. Like you're saying, when you're doing it at the highest level, it's a lot different than just going. You know, there's people that, like you said, do play all the time and make money, but are they professional? And then there's other people that maybe you get paid for it, maybe you don't, and they do it at the highest level. And there's people that do it at the highest level and make millions doing it. And there's people that. It's no different for music. You know, music, band, marching, podcasting, video, even book publishing. You know, when people come to me, I go, you know, what are you trying to do? And you can write a run of the mill book or we can do it at the highest level for your business. So tell me more about what goes into your mindset that you've no doubt carried through with your show, with your book, when you're speaking with your company. You've learned from professional musician.

Well, what I was talking about with being a professional musician, it's very relative because musicians often, especially classical musicians, and if I were to define my as a musician, I would define myself as a classical musician who dabbles with other things like contemporary jazz, whatever. But I would define myself as a classical musician. And classical musicians have this horrible tendency to compare themselves with others. There's this. There's any.

You know, anybody who's an entrepreneur exclusive for classical musicians?

No, of course not. I think. I think it's just a little bit more pronounced with classical musicians.

You.

You have this. I think there's this tendency to have this, like, standard of performance.

That defines professional or it defines a virtuoso. And a virtuoso isn't someone who can play something.

Exceptionally well, something very technically difficult, exceptionally well. That's not a virtuoso. Virtuoso is Italian for virtuous. It's someone who approaches their craft with virtue, humility.

Having. You know, you don't have an ego. You do what you do for yourself. I mean, it's your career, so you're doing it for yourself, but you're also doing it for others. You've been given a gift, and you share that gift with others. And classical musicians, they're just awful about, well, I don't play at this certain level, so I'm not good enough, or I can't. You know, I can't do this like someone else does it at that level. So I'm not. I'm. I'm in. I'm inadequate. And it's a real issue. I mean, people. People really struggle with this, and they really have their identity tied in with how well they play their instrument or how fast they can move their buttons or how high they can play a note on the trumpet. And it's kind of sad to see that. And I've been stuck in that mindset, too. And I've just realized, you know, when you go into a performance, it's like.

This is what I can do. This is the best that I can do today, given the conditions that I have. And it's just that.

I guess it's a fine balance between. You want to be the absolute best that you can be, but sometimes the absolute best that you can be on that particular day isn't maybe what you want, but no one cares. You know what I mean? No one. No one is gonna, like. No one's gonna know that you screw up unless you point it out to them, if you're stupid enough to point it out to them. So it's just. It's just. I think the way I attribute it to business is like, I'm. I'm no Mario Faccini. When it comes to podcasting, Mario is like the gold standard when it comes to. Look at him, He's. He's got this beautiful suit and this awesome tie and this stance in this studio, and it's. It's awesome. And he's always on the Facebook groups, just, you know, lighting it up with all of the value that he shares. Well, but I'm not.

Appreciate that. But you know that the suit, the tie, and that has nothing to do with podcasting.

Right? That's true. Podcasting is audio. But it's the approach that you take to it. Your appearance tells us that you take it seriously.

You don't just show up.

I do appreciate it. I was trying to make light of it and everything, but I think it's very important what you're sharing, because, you know, and even hearing you say that, I appreciate it sincerely, but I'm also going, I just started this a year ago. You know what I mean? You know, I haven't been doing it 10, 15, 20 years, but I have taken the 15, 20 years of business and incorporated it.

So, yeah, but a year into it, like, this is the best that you can do, right? It's like you're not. You're not mostly giving.

I have a few things up my sleeve. Of course.

Of course.

Everybody, everybody there's always snafus with. With stuff. So it's not like you have this standard of perfection, and you're gonna. And you're gonna, excuse me. It's not like you're gonna, like, get. Get hard on yourself if you. If you fall short of some sort of arbitrary standard of. Of what excellence is. But you here in. We're recording this in April of 2020. You've been doing this for a year, and this is the best that you can do in April. And if you were to do like this, this standard in April of 2021, if it's the same, well, maybe you're not. Maybe you should be asking yourself if you should be doing it, because if you're not improving, if you're not getting better, then that's not. That's an unprofessional mindset. And I think if I were to pinpoint an unprofessional mindset, whether it be a musician or a podcaster or any type of entrepreneur, it's just settling. You say, okay, this is the best that I can do. And I'm. And there's really no reason for me to improve. That's an unprofessional mindset. And people who. Musicians who play at extremely high levels have that mindset.

I'm here, I've made it. I'm done.

There's no reason for me to improve.

I like that. So that is a great expert authority insight. Always be growing and learning.

Mm, Great.

That's what I'm hearing. And.

I'm. I'm smiling. I was gonna say I'm smiling to myself, but I'm not because it's visible. But, yeah. When I started, I mapped out the five stages I wanted to take the show through, and I was just. Every time I did, like, 10, 20 more episodes, it's like, why am I not there yet? Why am I not there yet? And it was like, relax. You started four weeks ago. You have a few years to incorporate things. You don't need a. You know, that's part of where my mindset was. And I want to ask you, what are some things people can do to go, hey, I want to move forward. I am ambitious. I do play at the highest level. I do. Whether that's a horn or business. Yeah. How do you not beat yourself up? Because even when you said, well, this is the best you can do, and I'm thinking it's close, but it's not. I'm still striving. How do you walk that thin line and just know that fine, whatever. Fine line, thin line. How do you go forward with it without losing your mind? Driving everyone nuts, but also making progress?

Well, you hit on something just a few moments ago when you said, you're talking about, you know.

You'Re frustrated with your progress at such and such a point. But then you say, wait, I've only been doing this for four weeks, for six weeks or whatever. I still have a few years to work this out. And that, I think, is what's missing with a lot of entrepreneurs.

I'm sorry you have to edit these out, because.

I'm sorry. It's like the first thing in the morning, and I'm just still having fun.

I can apologize to Steve and Nick. I appreciate them.

Yeah. I edit podcasts, too, so I know the deal.

Oh, I. I will be doing the audio, though, so.

No, you're doing the audio, so.

Sorry. I do the audio. I'll just silence it out. No big deal. Stephen. Nick, leave this in.

This is funny, but that. That mindset of, I'm going to be doing this a year from now, this is what I'm going to be doing five years from now. That's. I see that missing so much from new podcasters or new entrepreneurs. They. They're. They have this mindset of, I've been doing this for seven days. Why am I not making my living doing this? Why is this not paying the bills?

And they don't have the mindset of I'm. This is what I'm going to be gonna be doing five years from now.

You don't hear that. That's almost unheard of in modern business is five years from now. That's like an eternity in this day and age. But if you don't have that mindset of this is what I'm going to be doing for five years. You're not going to lay a foundation for success. And like the things that you're talking about, the failures or the falling short of your standards, that's all part of the process of setting a foundation because we build on our failures, right? We. We learn from our mistakes.

Like them, though, they still. They're not efficient. They screw up the ratios and the numbers. But. Yeah.

But it's all part of your overall success. It's all part of the big picture.

I know.

Five years from now. No, Mario, five years from now, you're going to think about that mistake that you made in April of 2020 and say, I'm thankful for that mistake. I'm grateful that I fell on my face because I made that boneheaded move, because I learned something from it. And the pain that I felt from that mistake caused me to not make it again. And it caused me to make a better decision in the future. So successes, failures.

It'S all relative to what you really define success.

All right, I gotta ask because I know someone's thinking it. What should the recovery period time be? You screwed up. Everything went to heck in a handbasket, and you need to recover now.

Should you take a year to do it? A couple years? Should you do it fast? Do you think there is even a I'm taking too long and procrastinating versus hey, give yourself some breathing room. I tell people all the time, enjoy the journey, but that doesn't mean take a journey for a decade. But conversely, maybe you need more than a few days or a week. Do you have any arbitrary timeframe at all? Because I know there isn't one. But what's the point of too long versus too short?

I have just come out of a scenario of what you're just describing. I just. Two years ago, I separated from my wife of. At that time, it was 12 years. We had been married and we had been on. We had been on the brink for a while. So it wasn't Any surprise that it didn't make it, But I wasn't excited about that.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Truly.

I thought it was something business related. Sorry to hear.

Well, it is business related because at the time, I had another podcast called musicpreneur, and it's this. At the. When I sat down with John Lee Dumas himself, and I just paid him for a day of his time, and we just came up, we hashed out this podcast, this business called musicpreneur. Right? And this is. I. I just devoted my heart and my soul, blood, sweat and tears into this podcast and in hopes that it would become a business based around this podcast. It's kind of like what happened with Entrepreneur on Fire.

And so I was just. That's what I did. And then the divorce happened, and it caused me to.

First of all, my life was in complete. Completely upheaved. And the business, it didn't make it because, quite frankly, the business wasn't built on a solid foundation like we've already talked about. And in hindsight, I can see some of the mistakes that I made that caused that foundation to be weak. And that's why the business ultimately failed when my life, my personal life went through that upheaval. So that's an example of, you know, you fall on your face and you learn from it and you get back up, and then you don't make those mistakes anymore. But, you know, after. After the separation, and we have to. The state of Virginia makes us wait an entire year. I don't know why they do that, but if you know that you don't want to be married to this person anymore, you should be able to. I'm not going to get into that. But we have this time frame where we have to wait until the divorce is finalized. And during this time, I was like, thinking, okay, I'm going to get the musicpreneur podcast back up. I'm going to. You know, I thought, okay, I'm going through this, but I'm just going to fight through it. Right? That's what I was thinking. But then I just thought, I think I just need to take some time. I need to take some time off. Like, this is a major, major cataclysmic event in my life, and there's nothing wrong with taking a moment to just. Just be quiet, just be still. And, you know, I lived on the beach in Virginia beach, and I walk on the beach two or three times a day, which was great. And I just took some time. And I even interviewed you, Mario, for a Podcast that I was trying to launch about a year ago. And every time I tried to do it, that, that still small voice inside me just said, stop, just wait.

Just, you're, you're moving too fast, James.

And I, so I waited. I just listened to that intuition inside of me that has, you know, become more attuned and more clarified with age. And now here it, here we are in April of 2020, and now, almost two years later, I have clarity on, on where I should be going with my business. And you know, you mentioned the easy school of hard knocks, and that's, that's the name of my business. It's a podcast. It's eventually going to be an educational platform teaching things, the basic things of business. We have courses on slack, trello, zapier, little things like that. But there's also going to be courses on how to be a good person, how to get along with others, other co workers, business, whatever. A lot of that has to be hashed out.

But if I didn't wait, if I had just tried to power through and make that musicpreneur business work, maybe it would have worked, but I would have been injured and I just needed that time to process my emotions and just.

Get through the muck. And now that I'm through it, at least I'm more through it than I was two years ago. You know, things clarify with time and there is no, there is no set time. I think it's just, you just know when it's time to move something. Something inside of me just said it's time to stop. And then something inside me said, it's time to go. You got to get going, James.

Well, I'm glad you had that realization. I've had that a couple times in my life. And I think when people just stop inundating themselves with messages and signals and this, that, the other thing, and just listen.

We'Re pretty smart. We can figure out stuff on our own. I think people just don't calm down long enough to go. Give your brain a chance to let it do its thing. It's one of my favorite things to do. You get a good idea today, let's think about it. Give it a 24, 48 hour window. See what comes to you when you're cooking in the shower, getting the mail, just doing nothing at all, and you'll get the answer.

Yeah, I first had the idea for the like the easy school of hard knocks came to my mind while I was on the walking on the beach about a year and a half ago. And I was just thinking, like, man, building a podcast is about the hardest thing you'll ever do in your life. But doing a podcast is so easy. It's not difficult to make a podcast once you learn the basics of it. It's not difficult. It's not rocket surgery. But actually making a business out of it and being successful at it is really difficult. So I just kind of put the EZ and then the School of Hard Knocks together. It was a catchy little business name, but that was a year and a half ago, and now, 18 months later, I'm starting. I'm getting going with it full speed ahead. So I had the idea, but it took a long, long time to where I was in a state of mind, where I was ready to move forward with it.

Well, I'm glad you are, because I know you have so much value, even beyond what you shared already. And I think it's great that you talked about that, that time to heal. Because there's this quote by someone smarter than me, and it's something. If you don't heal the wound, you'll always bleed on the people who didn't cut you.

Mmm, that's a good one.

And that I can apply to a lot of stuff, I'm sure, as other people can, and you can. And I was just like, wow, that is profound. Yeah. So let me ask you this before we go to the imperfect action round. What would you say is your biggest success story? That despite all of this, because of your mindset for professionalism, what would you say is one of your biggest success stories?

I think my biggest success story is just.

Having gone through failure after failure after failure, and I'm still in the game. Like, I just didn't. I just didn't quit. Like, I'd say. I'm not trying to brag here. I'm not. I don't mean to come off as.

Arrogant, but a lot of people, you could say any. You could Talk for about 10 minutes straight with all you've done, and it wouldn't come off that way.

Thank you. But what I'm saying is that there are many people who would go through what I've been through and they would give up. And I don't mean that to be arrogant, but I've seen some things, and I've been around the block a couple of times, and I have suffered.

But I don't take that suffering as, like, some sort of permission to be a victim. Be a victim or think that I'm entitled to anything. I just failed. I realized how I contributed to the failure.

And I just got back up and said I'm going to succeed. And it's not. Success is not for me. It's not tied to a certain number of downloads for my podcast or it's not like a certain number of amount of money that I make. That's not success. Success for me is just doing what I believe I was put on the earth to do. Having that mission, that vision for your life clarified and doing it.

Irrespective of money or.

Well, I'm glad you are. I'm glad.

Thanks, man. I'm glad to be here.

I have one more for you and it's a fun one. We're gonna spin the wheel of whatever here.

Everyone thinks I'm joking about that. That thing's real.

Oh, yeah. Let me see it.

Where is it? Where is it?

You must have misplaced it.

It's in the box.

Got it.

I'll make sure you see it. I gotta paint that.

Who is someone you'd really love to have dinner with.

That you haven't been able to yet?

Huh? I was about to say my wife, but we have dinner together every night.

Man, I have no idea.

I would say.

I mean, I thought this would be an easy one, but if you want a conspiracy theory one, we can jump there instead.

Sure.

I kind of wanted to know about the onto dinner one, but let's go.

Back to that one. Okay.

Do you have someone like an entrepreneur or. I mean, it could really be anyone, but. Okay, let me rephrase. Bill Gates or Warren Buffett? And why, why.

He.

With all due respect to Bill Gates, Warren Buffett has been in the trenches and he just comes across to me as a little more seasoned, a little more wise.

Bill Gates, I think came across as riches a little quicker than Warren Buffett.

Okay, that's fair. Nice. All right, we're going to thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. Invest automatically, save for later, and spend today. That's why I love acorns. I used to think spare change didn't make a difference and saving and investing was an old fashioned manual process. It's not. And it's a game changer. If you're not leveraging, compounding interest in your business and life automatically, you're missing out. Acorns not only makes saving and investing easy and automatic, it makes it even more valuable. By investing with diversified portfolios, spare change, extra cash, and rounding up everyday transactions, you can even set recurring monthly investments in the amount you desire to make good. Great. There is also a debit card option that will continue to help you save and invest even further when you spend plus no minimum balance and overdraft fees. Now for the cherry on top. They have partnered with 250 plus companies and brands and growing with their found Money program to invest back a percentage into your account with the everyday purchases when you shop, two of which you're probably listening to this right now through an Amazon or Apple device. Get started profiting from your everyday life and business simply and easily today@eainterviews.com Acorns or once again, that's eainterviews.com Acorns and we are back with the imperfect action round. James, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Of course I am. I'm always ready to take imperfect action.

I feel the same way. First question I have for you, what is the fastest path to the cache?

Here you go down the road is by Tower C. You take a right and then there's Viet Cong bank right there.

No kidding.

Fastest, fastest way. I know.

Don't tell me that I like. I'm not even gonna say that. No, I will. Bank robber movies. If you're implying to rob the bank.

You ask the fastest way.

Okay, that's fair.

There's a good one I just saw this week. Number two.

What is the biggest problem you see your prospects make and the fastest way they can fix it?

I think going back to that mindset of if you're doing this, you're going to be doing it five years from now.

Play the long game. Don't think that you're going to get.

You'Re going to have all your dreams come true in the first three months. What about four? Yeah, what about four? But just have this, this attitude of this is what you're doing. It's a process of learning and growing and stick it out. Be committed to doing it three to five years from now.

Love that great expert authority insight. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Customer service? Be nice to people. Answer the phone.

Within the second ring. Actually have a phone number that people can call and talk to a real person, which is kind of a novelty in modern business. But it turns out people do like to talk to people rather than just fill out a form on your website. So something to think about.

That is very true. And you're making me think of when I got, I think it was a BlackBerry or something. He's like, you can satellite uplink. It does some video stuff. You can go on the interwebs and boom and like 10 minutes later I go, oh my gosh, this thing's so cool. Yeah, it's the latest and greatest. And I'm like, will it make a call?

Right?

And he just started cracking up. It's like it's a phone. Like, I'm glad it does all the other stuff, but can I call clients? You know?

Right.

All right. Business book, which, which couple business books could you recommend for?

Expert Authority, World.

Principles by Ray Dalio and.

Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey.

Nice.

Founder of Whole Foods.

Very nice.

Well, James, I do appreciate it. You have shared a lot of expert authority insights and always love learning from you. Where would you like people to learn more?

Easy schoolofhardnocks.com and if I can give a shameless plug for a project I'm working on that I think people listening to this will be interested in.

Absolutely. It was on the forum. I'm glad you have one.

Well, I. Three years ago, this was a kind of a passion project that I did. I interviewed musicians, all about 95% trumpet players, because I had a trumpet podcast at the time and it basically took entrepreneur on fire. If you're familiar with that podcast and the old format of asking a set of questions to each guest, I basically customized it and made it for musicians. So I asked each.

Musician, these are all world class, world class performers. Better, better performers than I'll ever be. And I'm asking them, what was your worst performance moment?

Can you give a piece of what's the best performing advice you've ever received?

5 minutes before you go on the stage for a big performance? What are you doing? So I ask every single person these questions and I've taken the top 21 from the 50 that I did. And.

By the time that this interview goes live, it'll be well past the date of completion. But I'm just putting the finishing touches on it. And although it is musicians, don't think that you have to be a musician to appreciate it. It's about performing at a high level, whether in business, public speaking, talking with clients, whatever. I think that it's applicable to anybody and I'm titling it High Performance Master classes. So it's 21 virtuoso musicians giving their take on performing at a very, very high level. And just go to easyschoolofhardknocks.com and you'll see the link to it's free. So it was a free podcast then. It's free for anyone who downloads it now. Just go there. Easyschoolofhardknocks.com be right there and I've got other goodies that I've got prepared for people who visit my site as well.

Excellent. Well, thank you for making that available. It sounds very intriguing and I do want to check it out myself.

Right on.

Well, James, I appreciate everything. You're awesome and I'm so glad we could get your value that I've known for some time now to Expert Authority World. So thank you again.

Thanks, man. And I appreciate what you're doing. You're like the shining light on the Facebook groups where you and I kind of cohabitate. And it's just you're always giving so much value. The, the level of detail that you share with just the most. It seems like the most basic of questions and Mario is always just giving extremely detailed answers. Sometimes I'm like, dude, do you really have to go that in depth with your question? He's just asking if you, if you like blue or brown on his logo and. But it's just, I just love that, that just the care that you put into it. I really appreciate it and what can I say, It's a pleasure to know you, man.

Well, the pleasure is mine and I appreciate that. Not only for the compliments but for the laugh. And it depends on the context. You know, I think that's the number one thing you're talking about, customer service and all that, that some. Most people are looking for an a B answer. And when it comes to growing your business, it's like, you know, what microphone should I get? Good gravy. Well, what's. Again, what are you. Where do you want to be 5 years from now? Are you doing a one time fix this week or is this something you see yourself doing? Makes a big difference on the answer I'm going to give you.

Right?

So I'd say blue, brown is pretty much disgusting looking all the time. Unless it's teak on a boat that's navy.

But.

Thank you again, James Expert Authority world. We have another great episode today. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless.

Why every business needs a book, including yours. Would you like to save five plus hours with every prospect, generate more leads and profit in your business? Now visit businessbookchecklist.com and learn how you can implement this in your business today. Spare change? How's that gonna make a difference? I know that's what I thought before I started investing. With acorns, throwing change in a jar is not very leverage and time consuming. But what about all the transactions you don't use cash for you know, like majority Acorns not only invest your spare change automatically with roundups, it also lets you add a preset amount to each transaction. Regardless, it's pretty inspiring to see how quickly and easily you can end up with a pile of cash instead. A pile of receipts. Get started simply and easily today@eainterviews.com Acorns Once again, that's eainterviews.com Acorns hey, thanks for listening to today's episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out eainterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow.