If You Could Just Bottle It…

(Part 2 of 3)

By Lance Avery Morgan

Roy Spence

If you could just bottle the phenomenon that is Roy Spence. That’s what so many people have thought over the years about the GSD&M advertising agency co-founder. He is a force to be reckoned with, as I well knew before he greets me with a big bear hug. In fact, Roy Spence actually has been bottled—with his eponymous Royito’s Hot Sauce. Growing up, he was known as Little Roy, which translates to Royito in Spanish.

Yet, the advertising agency founder is doing more than just bottling his favorite condiment. He’s about changing the world for the better with his own purpose that already has affected millions with his creativity and co-leadership of the agency. To Spence, business is life, life is fun, fun is work, etc. You see the trend of Spence’s big picture of the world. And the world is in sharp focus in his new book, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For, sprinkled with anecdotal references from his own agency world, devoted to helping people understand their own purpose in both work and life,

When I ask Roy the difference in his life purpose and work purpose, he answers with zeal, “Whether it’s the Red Cross or John Deere, those are companies that you don’t have to say, ‘I’ll have a purpose on the weekend, but I have a job during the week.’ And I think the difference is when you have a job, you make only money. When you have work to do, you also make a difference.”

He’s also known to quote poets and politicians and his office is lined with every sort of business philosophy book you can imagine. As he likes to quote Robert Kennedy, “‘What can be instead of what is.’”

Part of Spence’s journey is becoming what can be, as he has taken to the road—literally. And not just for his book tour. He’s walking across America, large chunks at a time. Why? He finally got fed up with the bad news he was seeing. On this journey he is taking a photo of, as well as experiencing, something good every single mile.

“I’ve already walked 500 miles from New York, doing about 18 miles a day,” Spence shares. “So here’s what I found out about this spiritual journey:  Robert Frost is right. There are two roads that diverge in that yellow wood… and you cannot travel both. You can only be one traveler. And I’ve tried to travel both.”

Stay tuned next week for Part 3 as we visit with Roy again and learn who his guests would be at his dream dinner party and other roads he is traveling…

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