IAM641- Business Strategist Empowers Others to Transform Their Lives

James R. Nowlin is the Chief Executive Officer of a corporate consulting firm, Excel Global Partners (EGP), which he founded in 2007. He is also the Fund Managing Principal of EGP Ventures which serves as the umbrella entity for EGP; environmental and water reduction technology company EGP Eco; entertainment and media company Accelerated Media; and others. Through James' experience as a successful CEO and business strategist, as well as the obstacles that he has overcome in life, including being the survivor of a near-death drowning accident, his best-selling book, The Purposeful Millionaire: 52 Rules for Creating a Life of Wealth and Happiness Now, helps him to live out his mission of sharing the lessons that he has learned in both professional and personal life. As such, he empowers others to transform their lives to levels of high achievement, filled with abundance and purposefulness.

• CEO Hack: Idea + Plan + Execution = Success
• CEO Nugget: Relax, drop the ego, would you rather be right or would you rather be rich? It's not about how smart you are but about working collaboratively to move the needle
• CEO Defined: (1) Leadership (2) The job is always with you in your mind (3) Making top decisions to know when to say and when to say no

Website: https://jamesnowlin.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesnowlin1/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKk9JFyTdtFvCzcmYd6tpg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SpeakerJamesNowlin/

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and have a very special guest on the show today. I have James R. Nowlin of Excel Global Partners. James, it's awesome to have you on the show.

James R. Nowlin 0:38

Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem super excited to have you on and what I want to do is read a little bit more about James so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. James is the CEO of a corporate consulting firm Excel Global Partners which he founded in 2007. He's also the fund Managing Principal of EGP Ventures which serves as the umbrella entity for EGP environmental and water reduction technology company EGP, Eco and entertainment and media company accelerated media, and others.

James experience as successful CEO and business through his experience as a CEO and business strategist, as well as the obstacles that he's overcome in life, including being the survivor of a near-death, drowning accident, his best-selling book, The Purposeful Millionaire. 52 rules for creating a life of wealth, happiness, and happiness now help him to live out his mission of sharing the lessons that he has learned in both his professional and personal life. As such, he empowers others to transform their lives to levels of high achievement filled with abundance and purposefulness. James, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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James R. Nowlin 1:40

I am ready to roll Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 1:42

Awesome, great to have you on the show. So to kick everything off, I guess I wanted to hear where everything started. Can you tell us your CEO story and what led you to get started with your business?

James R. Nowlin 1:50

So it was a long and winding story Gresh actually went to medical school and then went to law school and practiced law very shortly. But I was as a kid growing up in rural Virginia, I, you could either kind of become a preacher or a teacher. And I decided that I didn't want to do either one of those things. And I watched The Cosby Show. And I saw a successful family. And I saw a lawyer and a doctor and I went down the path of trying to become a doctor and went to medical school, dropped out of medical school, went to law school, completed medical school, practice law very shortly.

Then I found at my firm, Excel Global Partners back in 2007, which was right before the crash of the markets the housing crisis, and the Great Recession, and got close to declaring bankruptcy and not having enough money to pay the mortgage or pay for my student loans. That period really made me tough. It made me resilient. And it helped me to put things into perspective. And luckily, when I was dialing for dollars, one day, a potential client said, Hey, we want you to come in and talk with us.

They liked me, I did my first project. They referred me to other people, the company began to grow, and I hired more people. And it expanded and expanded and expanded. So today as a corporate consulting firm, we work to fix other companies and operationally and financially. And we've done work in about 15 countries worldwide, and in about 20 different states. So it's been a really blessed journey.

Gresham Harkless 3:08

Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely appreciate you for talking about especially that environmental piece, because I think so many times when you talked about the Cosby Show, I say sometimes things aren't realistic, and until we sometimes see it, that kind of paints our picture and you to be able to do that. And to see that and decide to take that path. But then to take it even step further and create this environment that you have with your organization in your company where you are able to kind of help out entrepreneurs and business owners and these business leaders be more successful sounds like.

James R. Nowlin 3:34

And you know, back then I really didn't know that there was the option to start my own business to become a CEO. You know, I mentioned the options of being a preacher and teacher in the little town in Virginia that I grew up in. And then the Cosby Show opened my horizons about what I could become. And I realized, you know, I don't have to be a doctor, I don't have to be a lawyer. But I do have to do what's in my heart. And I do have to do what I have to do to serve other people to help others and to live in alignment with my mission. And so as our company has grown, we've been able to acquire other businesses, we've been able to work on the environmental side of things with our water reduction technology company, and that's in alignment with my core values and feeds me every single day.

I also get to work as an executive coach, I coach a number of other CEOs who work with boards host board retreats, and facilitate critical conversations about strategy for businesses, whether it's for non-profit organizations government agencies, or corporate companies. The bottom line is I get to live my mission because I crafted it. And that became an idea around how I wanted to shape happiness in my life. So there was not a specific formula. One thing just kind of led to the next by being in alignment with my core values and wanting to achieve Gresh wanting to make more of myself than I could have if I had stayed back home in a small town or if I had followed the template that was presented to me as a child.

Gresham Harkless 5:00

Yeah, I definitely appreciate that so much. Because I think as you kind of touched on, you know, we get so kind of caught up in how we're going to do something but getting in alignment with who we are, what is our happiness, what lights us up, and then having the I guess, patience, and sometimes the freedom to allow things to manifest as they will, and interesting kind of how that process and how things happen because I think so much. So many times we get caught up in exactly we got to do this, or we got to do that. But not necessarily understanding if that's completely aligned with who you are.

James R. Nowlin 5:28

We've got to trust the process. And when you get into a state of elevated consciousness and flow and abundance, you realize that you don't operate as much by force, but you operate by magical energy that's around you have a flow. And when you like yourself, and you've done the work to unpack anything that's holding you back, or need subconscious blockages, you present as a different kind of person in the business world. People want to do business with you, they feel that they know you, they like you, they trust you, you get a big reputation, things and opportunities come to you like you never imagined, if you just take a moment to vision, what you want to become vision, how you want your business to be in the direction that you want to take it in and express yourself and share yourself is this high powerful demonstration of excellence in the world.

And business will take you where it needs to take you and you'll be fed, and you'll be able to feed your employees, you'll be able to grow. And you'll also be able to be in alignment. And at the end of the day, you can say, I've been a really good example of myself today, I'm living up to my potential today. One of the things that I did not feel when I was on the medical path, or the legal path was my sense of living up to my highest potential every single day, there's the sense of you know, you can make a pretty good lawyer or you can make a pretty good doctor. But that's not who you are. And those are very, very respectable professions. But I still felt that part of myself that said, James, you're not living up to your fullest and highest potential. And that nagged me until I just relaxed around who James Nowlin really is.

Who can he be to be the highest and best demonstration of himself in this world? And what can he do to help others? What can he do the most to help others? When our employees come to work for us, they stay for years. For some of the people who started working with me in this firm, we've created a culture of accountability. We work hard and play hard. But we also meditate together, we also pray for each other. We also connect via video when we're traveling, and working on complex projects, knowing that I've got a friend and a partner to help me get certain things across the line. We have invested heavily in culture and that culture is a culture of love. And that's something that might not be found in a lot of corporations.

But knowing that we celebrate anniversaries, knowing that we celebrate wins when it comes to high achievement for our clients and driving the needle of success with these clients that we serve. We were big into celebration, we're big into taking care of people, and knowing that I just don't have employees or team members. I've got human beings working for me. I've got human beings working for me and working with me, and they see me for who I am. And we're constantly working on improving taking our games to the next level. We have critical conversations around, you know, what are my strengths? Let me be honest, What are my weaknesses? And what are my opportunities? And what are my threats to my future success and the success of the organization?

When we have those kinds of Critical Conversations, Heart to Heart conversations, people open their eyes and say, Well, I never looked at things that way, or I thought I was stronger in that area than I actually am helped me to identify and find the tools so that I can be even better and add more value to the company. And it's just a joy. It's just a joy to serve. And to hire and work with people who I consider like myself, I consider myself a Ph.D. P is for poor, H is for hungry and D is for driven. And I might have the book of purpose for me and I might be financially well off. But there's that underdog mentality in my mind. When I'm hiring somebody, I want that underdog mentality of that person aligning with core values is this a personality match? Is this an energy match? Is this a value system match? And when we do that, we create a powerful marriage. And that just helps us to build a company.

Gresham Harkless 9:53

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this might be an Apple book, or, a habit that you have, or even more information from your book, if you can tell us, but what's something that can help make us more effective and efficient?

James R. Nowlin 10:07

I call it the success formula. And that is idea Plus Plan Plus execution equals success. And we've got to make sure that we're spending the right amount of time on each element of the success formula. So it's idea Plus Plan Plus execution equals success, we need to spend about 1% of our time on ideas, everybody has ideas, and everybody's talking about ideas and changing this and changing that. And we've got to move into the planning phase, which takes a little bit longer, which should be about 9% of our time. So idea Plus plan, that's a total of 10% of our time. And then you get into the execution page, which is 90% of our time.

Gresham Harkless 10:39

I definitely appreciate that. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?

James R. Nowlin 10:48

Gresh, I got some great advice from a mentor when I was early on in my business. And that person said, you know, James, you're smart, you've got a lot of talent, you've got a real strategic mind, a lot of companies are going to benefit from you as a consultant, and you're going to be able to grow Excel global partners, and you're just going to be fine. However, I need you to drop your ego, I need you to relax about how smart you think you are. And I just need you to be James. And he said, Don't ever forget this.

Don't ever forget this quote, would you rather be right? Or would you rather be rich? And He repeated it to me? He said, Would you rather be right? Or would you rather be rich, it's not always important to be right. Or to prove to people how smart you are, how capable you are. It's about teamwork. It's about being a partner. It's about having other people like you know you and trust you, and then collaboratively working together to move the needle.

Gresham Harkless 11:40

Exactly. And so now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So James, what does being a CEO mean to you?

James R. Nowlin 11:49

The definition of being a CEO is it's just leadership, it's leadership, knowing that the job doesn't leave you when you walk out of the office, the job is with you at all times. It affects your personal life, it affects your spiritual life, your emotional life, and your physical life, the office is always with us. In our minds, we're always working on improving, and it stays with us. So being CEO to me, creche means that I do the work to make sure that I'm spiritually fed, that I'm emotionally fed, and that I'm taking care of James so that I can take care of others. If I don't sleep, well, if I don't eat well, if I don't nourish my mind with good material and good relationships, and turn off the news, and if I'm filling my head with garbage, then that impacts my ability to be a positive demonstration and a leader to other people.

And so, being CEO is discipline, it means that I've got to say no to certain opportunities to connect with people who might be training on my energy, I've got to say no to certain environments that don't feed my spirit, or feed me energetically for the business. I've got to say no to news or, other things that might affect me, psychologically, and drain me and cling to me, I've got to work on being in an elevated consciousness so that I am the highest, brightest, and best version of myself, so that I, so that I can serve my executive team, so that I can serve my clients so that I can serve the world.

So being CEO means getting all that discipline around you to make the tough decisions of knowing what to say no to, and knowing what to say yes to. And when you do that day in and day out, again, that magic happens in your life in such an incredible way. But it takes discipline. And it takes structure. It takes processes. And it takes planning about how you want to execute in your life. And then you get to that point where 90% of the time, I'm executing in the dream, and everything else, people who are not, you know, helping me or working with me or praying for me or doing whatever, all those things are a distraction, all those things are a distraction.

Gresham Harkless 13:54

Absolutely, yes, when you have that opportunity to be in that flow. And to be able to execute to that level in that degree. It lets you be less you allows you to be in alignment allows you to be able to hit those goals and to fill up your cup and to be extremely rich as you kind of spoke to and then of course see the success and all those ways that it manifests itself. So definitely appreciate that definition, James, I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course how best they can get over you. Get a copy of the book and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

James R. Nowlin 14:25

Well, thank you again for having me on the show. Mental health is important. We touched on the power of having an elevated mind body and spirit and caring for yourself so that you can serve the world. I'm starting on my Facebook public image page a mental health moments, and video vignettes talking about the pressures that sometimes we CEOs face and some of the things tools, tactics, tactics, and techniques that we can take into our lives on a daily basis to keep us elevated, especially during troubling times. And I invite people to join me just look up James R Nowlan. That's n o w l i n. On Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and connect with me. Also, I wrote my book because I've had a lot of challenges and struggles in my life and my business. And I've made a lot, a lot of mistakes. And I wrote that book to help others to not make some of the mistakes that I made.

So if they want to pick up a copy of the book and read it, there's the book that's out there. There's also the audiobook that's out there. But know that when you take care of your mental health, and when you get disciplined around your mind, body, and spirit, there are no limitations, there are no limitations, and this world becomes your oyster. And whatever you want to achieve, whether it's wealth, or great health, or great relationships, or whatever, that begins as a vision in your mind, but if you get the discipline around it to care for your mind, body, and spirit, if you respect the process of cultivating positive mental health, and strong leadership so that you can demonstrate as your highest and best version in the world, you're going to be one hell of a CEO.

Gresham Harkless 15:59

Absolutely, thank you so much again, James. We will have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you but I think I thank you so much, you know for everything you're doing but definitely so much for your time as well too and reminding us of how important it is to to take care of our mental health take care and fill up our code so that we can be rich not just for ourselves, but so that we can make a true impact and dent in the world in the universe. So appreciate you again, my friend. I hope you have a phenomenal rest today.

Outro 16:23

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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