Jack Newcombe is the co-founder and CEO of technology company New & Co. and serves as CEO of the media company Creators. He is also a founding partner of the investment companies Newcombe Real Estate and Newcombe Capital.
Jack earned his Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow. Before Stanford, he worked in investment management for Goldman Sachs. Jack earned his undergraduate degree at Georgetown University, majoring in government and Spanish, where he was a four-year varsity athlete and captain of the rowing team.
1. Walk us through your morning routine.
I am a morning person. I have a dog and kids. I haven’t set an alarm in years. On average, I am up somewhere between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. If I am training for a marathon, I’ll wake up as early as 3 a.m. to get a long run in before the kids wake up. The first thing I do is walk the dog while listening to an audiobook, but it has to be something chill (e.g., The Body by Bill Bryson or The Creative Act by Rick Rubin).
I love coffee. It literally makes life worth living. I make it myself at home and have perfected the right balance of beans and water. I drink one, strong cup in the morning with frothed milk and try not to have more throughout the day so that I don’t have trouble falling asleep.
I have all notifications on my phone turned off except Slack. I use Slack to communicate across my companies, and since I am the CEO, I need to respond in a timely manner, otherwise people cannot do their jobs. It’s not fair to them if I am the bottleneck. I take a look at everything (Slack, text, email) and make sure the world is not ending but don’t dive into “work” beyond that.
2. Do you have an exercise routine?
I run because it is the most time efficient way to workout. Door to door, there is nothing better (i.e., no travel time, no setup, no waiting in between sets). I run marathons because I am a psycho competitive person who needs a goal to help me stay motivated.
I do hot yoga as many days a week as I can. It’s restorative physically, emotionally and spiritually. I have an amazing studio (SoHo Yoga in Hermosa Beach) in between my house and my office. I like yoga because it forces me to be unavailable for 60 minutes (no phones) and to focus on my breathing. I am also a big believer in the power of heat; heat promotes blood flow, and blood helps our bodies repair. You can never really master yoga – especially in the heat. It’s a humbling and invigorating experience every time. Also, the community is incredible. Everyone is nice and chill, even when red-faced and dripping with sweat.
3. Do you follow a specific diet? Share a little about how you approach nutrition
I try to eat clean. I look at ingredients more than nutritional values. I want to eat more real food and fewer chemicals.
Oats, Greek yogurt, bananas, eggs and dates are staples of my diet. I eat some combination almost every single day.
That said, I will absolutely eat good pizza, In-N-Out and ice cream (Handel’s and Salt & Straw are favorites).
4. How many hours do you sleep each night?
I go to bed early. I am a morning person, and I stop being productive around 8 p.m. Similar to my morning, I like to walk the dog and listen to an audiobook for 20-30 minutes around that time to separate from the day and wind down (I have been super into biographies recently). I have little kids, so sleep is a bit erratic to say the least, but I strive for 7-8 hours.
5. Who has had the biggest influence on who you are today?
My dad has been hugely influential. He taught me the importance of health and fitness – he was a competitive bodybuilder in Los Angeles during its boom in the ‘80s. He also taught me entrepreneurship. He raised venture capital money and started a successful business. I learned the work that went into starting an organization, the stress that it caused and ultimately the reward of being in control of your time.
6. Do you have any life mottos or principles you follow?
Process over results.
7. How do you approach setting goals?
My pattern of behavior is to research as much as possible, dive in way too early, fall on my face, evaluate what I did wrong, try again and fall again but not as hard. I repeat this until I stop falling.
Along these lines, in my opinion, the best, most rewarding goals are intrinsic. There is no better feeling than crossing a finish line, both real and proverbial, at a certain pace that you weren’t sure you could hit (but most of life doesn’t have scoreboards).
Intrinsic goals are inherently mercurial and unpredictable, and trying to get other people to be motivated toward a common goal is even harder. I cannot force another person to want to do something (even with money). As a leader, I try to inspire but not in conventional ways (rah-rah speeches). Inspiration comes from care, belief and love. The other person needs to know that I care about them and that I believe that they can be more than they are today. I show that care by being present and listening.
I am a competitive person and like winning. Setting a goal, working toward it and seeing improvement is addictive. Obviously, I hope to reach whatever goal I set, but that’s less important than me and my team making progress and seeing improvement. So much of the “results” are out of my control, which is why I focus on the process.
Goal-setting for me is like gift-giving in that I get more pleasure out of giving gifts than I do receiving them. Helping someone else reach their goals is often more rewarding than me accomplishing something.
8. What is your favorite way to learn new things?
In terms of gathering information, I am an auditory learner – meaning if I hear something, I usually remember it.
I listen to podcasts and audiobooks at 1.6X speed and can usually retain the information. I like audiobooks and podcasts because I can walk my dog, go for a run and be outside (I never listen to them driving – only music).
In terms of doing, I need to get my hands dirty, make mistakes and start breaking things. Only by jumping in do I actually figure out what moves the needle for me. I am better with a teacher than trying to teach myself. One of my business partners is the exact opposite so it’s all personal preference.
9. Is there a particular author that you publish for today that you were surprised to sign on?
One of our top sellers is a book about Social Security by an author named Tom Margeneau. The material in the book is useful and important. It takes a dry subject and makes it interesting.
We published his book because he’s a good writer and had a defined lane. I had no idea it would resonate with the public the way it did.
10. If you could leave one piece of advice for someone younger, what would you share?
Don’t try to be happy or find your passion. Just do things. Try things. Build things. Create.
Greatness comes from being OK with the mundane. Find the thing that you don’t mind doing the boring stuff.
Life is beautiful, and it is a statistical miracle that each one of us is alive. Furthermore, it’s even more incomprehensible that we are alive at the same time. Appreciate everything.
Nothing matters. Most things are fake (i.e., constructs). Try replacing the word “money” with “credits” in your mind and see how your view changes.
Tell your friends and family that you love them. All the time.
11. Is there anything that you haven’t done that you still want to do?
Professionally, I want to continue to build my businesses because I love mentoring and coaching young people. I believe in the next generation and want to be a part of their building our futures.
Personally, I want to go to India, Japan and attend a Super Bowl.