Does Your Business Have a Purpose? – With Roy M Spence, Jr

Posted on May 18, 2009 - 8:08 AM PST

Are you infectious? As a startup you can’t outspend established competitors, but you can out-evangelize them. You can infect people with your sense of mission and inspire them to join your crusade to change the world.

I invited Roy M. Spence, Jr on Mixergy to help you learn how and why you can find your purpose and inspiring people.

Video excerpt

(Can’t see the video? Try this.)

About Roy M Spence, Jr.

Roy M Spence Jr

Roy Spence is chairman and CEO of GSD&M Idea City, a leading national marketing communications and advertising company. Under Royâ€™s leadership and their Purpose-based Brandingâ„¢ philosophy, the agency has helped grow some of the worldâ€™s most successful brands. Roy is also the author of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For.

Text excerpt

We entrepreneurs have to make a difference. We have to improve lives. We have to have services of value and values–and more so today than ever before. Money is a byproduct of that.

I’m a capitalist, but I’m a conscious capitalist. I believe that in the process of doing good you will do great.Â A classic example of that is our client Southwest Airlines.Â Herb Kelleher, the founder, in 1971 looked at the airline industry, and said, “Wow, only 15 percent of the people have ever flown.”Â It was for the rich.

He said, not in an altruistic way, “I think I’ll make a fortune serving the under-served.”

One of the best things to do if you’re an entrepreneur and if you’ve lost your way a bit–and we all do, my goodness–don’t be grasping for straws.Â Don’t be gasping for air.Â Stop digging.Â Go back and re-figure out what was the reason that you built that business to start with, that’s number one.

Number two, Jim Collins is a mentor of mine, and we’re friends. In his book, Good To Great, he has those three circles that you have to fill out.

One circle: what are you most passionate about?Â You gotta write it down.Â Especially entrepreneurs who are trying to do everything.

Second circle: what can you be the best in the world at?Â That’s hard.Â Write it down.

And then third: what’s your economic engine?

I would say in order to discover or rediscover, go back to where you started, or your founders, or whomever, look at that passion, and then second, fill out the three circles.

The full interview includes

Great stories about the founders of Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart.
How to connect purpose with profit.
How to express your company’s purpose.

[Thank you Mark Fortier for introducing me to Roy Spence!]

Suggested comments

Do you agree that a company needs a purpose?
What’s your company’s purpose?
What’s your personal purpose?
What did we miss in this program?
Was the excerpt and/or full program helpful enough?

Get the full program

Alli

This is GREAT! Thank you very much for your effort to do this. I'm so happy I came across this. I've been doing an assignment on organizations' adaptation and survival and do think purpose is the core thing for long-term development and survival in such turbulent environment. The interview covered lots of matters and I wonder if the purpose would determine the culture and structure of a company as well...
chrismanfrank

Great interview, Andrew. I really enjoyed this one. Really cool to hear how Roy started in his 20s and, by his own admission, didn't know anything about advertising. Very inspiring, keep it up!
Jack

nice questions! i like that you tried to have him explain himself further and not get away with "soft serve" answers. and he did that (though i say that with lingering suspicion)
mergoc

this show is what made me realized that my calling is to become an entrepreneur
Manuel

This interview is one of the greatest you've done
Roy

Andrew, You are doing a fantastic job with Mixergy - the content you are creating through your very eloquent interviews are priceless.

I have been an entrepreneur for about 5 years now and I think I was loosing my sense of purpose - your interviews have given me some of that zeal back and has kind of refined the purpose I had when I started my venture.

I run a business forum and already I have initiated changes which I believe will help millions in the coming years. Thank you for doing what you are doing and I hope and pray that you will continue on this journey and help many small and big business owners. Great job... really great job with the interviews!
Dan M.

Wow! Great interview!

Makes perfect sense. Ive been wondering why my passion has become more of a job and I think its because I dont have a direction or purpose!

Seems being too concerned with making money and taking on projects that aren't in line with your vision can turn your passion into a job.

Thanks Andrew for the awesome interview!
Andrew Warner

Isn't it odd how the meaningless stuff just seems to take over our days, but
the things that we really care about require us to fight for them?

Thanks for adding your experience here!
Chris N.

Andrew, thank you again.. Everytime i watch an interview that looks interesting i think, he cant outdo himself can he, but once again you found a great orator with a message that i believe in and always have believed in. But because i watched this interview i was able to really harness my beliefs and think about what my purpose in my startup will be and write it down. Best interview for now, way to ask the great follow up questions that so many interviewers forget to ask and way to shout out the viewers who are loyal and who watch the entire interview.. I am so truly inspired right now.
Andrew Warner

Thanks Chris.

This kind of reminds me of the interview I did with Frank, the founder of
PostSecrets.com.

I interviewed him about how he used social media, and I kept pounding him
with questions about how he got traffic from this site or that site.

After I hung up the phone with him, I realized that it wasn't the tools that
got him such a big following. It was the sense of mission that he had about
his work. His passion is what drew people his site, his books, and
everything else he did.
Melissa

Andrew, once again, I really love the new website and the recent content is great. I look forward to more and thank you for following your passion! It makes me excited!
Andrew Warner

Melissa, notes like this are what keeps me going.

Thanks!
Harsh Batra

Hi Andrew,

I have been following some of your interviews for a while now. I am based in New Delhi, India. I have traveled the world, got the best education, and have a job which pays well but I got no purpose! At 26 I am stuck right in the middle of what they call the 'RAT RACE'. And everyday that I wake up I have a "job to do", not "work that needs to be done".
I am asking myself the tough questions; have been for a while now. I would like to thank you for all the interviews because they help. Hope you can convert all this content into a business, if thats what your eventual aim is.

Best,
Harsh
Andrew Warner

Great to hear from you Harsh!

Olivia (my fiance) and I had a heart-to-heart conversation about the rat
race recently. Even though I haven't had a job since selling my business
about 6 years ago, I still find myself getting sucked into the rat race
where ordinary obligations take over my bigger passions. I feel like I need
to keep reminding myself of the bigger mission.

Harsh, you and I are you going to push for our missions side by side. This
message isn't our last conversation. Let's keep talking so I can hear how
you're doing and how we can get you where you need to be.
Toma - Optimizing the web

Thank you for this video interview : extremely valuable information (tweeted and stumbled). Every company needs a purpose that is not related to money. Disney wanted to make people happy and he made millions. Audi wants to progress through technology and they made millions. It's also important to be able to relate your purpose to a need, to something that people really want. Knowing what the purpose is and defining ways to get there I think is a good start.

@TomaBonciu
Andrew Warner

Toma! Thanks for tweeting this and Stumbling it. Promotional help is some of
the best help I could ask for!

Glad you're out there supporting this mission.
Jennifer

I find that being stubborn works well when starting your own business from scratch. Going into the business with a Determination, Integrity, honesty, & Stellar Customer Service will get you noticed. Offering services and products that customers want will make your business succeed.

http://www.videotrainingpro.com/
Andrew Warner

All part of that sense of mission that I think makes great companies
possible.
Andy Dang

Great interview.

Idea: There are many common lessons in every interview. I think it's time to write down 20-30 common lessons from all the interviews, and turn it into an e-book. With the top 30 common lessons, as you do future interviews, you can just start to check mark them as the speaker mentions them. It would be interesting to realize that only a handful of messages are repeated over and over.
Andrew Warner

I'm starting to see that too.
David Ronnie

Yet another superb interview Andrew. I've been loving all the interviews you've been doing so far and have been getting a ton of great content from them. Looking forward to the forthcoming ones :)
Andrew Warner

Thanks. Can't tell you how much it means to me that you're listening and
enjoying these interviews.
christi

Andrew:

This information is perfect. It is so easy to get so wrapped up in the process of business operation that you can stray away from your real purpose. That is what I am battling right now with the transformation of my company from promoting world music to including global affairs news, business intelligence, and products. Ambitious entrepreneurs, the ambitious upstart, really need to hear this type of interview and the other interviews that you bring to us to help us to be more successful. Unlike many of the other business-related sites that sometimes target young professionals, you actually go and get our current innovators in business and pick their brains. I have been bombarded with so many ads on other business-related sites and networks from other entrepreneurs that just want to persuade everyone that they can help us make $10,000 in 2 seconds, just click on the link...or promising us that they have the next biggest business internet marketing opportunity......it is so refreshing to be on the site with young entrepreneurs who are here to go after their purpose and create a product or service that will do that.... and will go far beyond claiming that they can make you a billionaire in less time than it takes to eat a sandwich and burp. Roy is right, people are going after the values and value....money is all fine and well, but we are in bad need of legitimate and creative entrepreneurs who are there to build something that will last and that will help improve the lives of others. We need to stop being lazy, and start creating legacies..something more solid. Money can only take you so far. Whole Foods is worth more than a promise to earn a million dollars..because at least Whole Foods deal with the nourishing and health business....something that can either make or break your well being. That is just my two cents. Keep up the great work!
Andrew Warner

Those "get rich quick" flim-flam artists are one of my big targets. I
created Mixergy as a way of channeling my frustration with the people who
claim they know every single thing.

No one knows everything and can show you how to be rich tomorrow. But if we
listen to a mix of smart, EXPERIENCED people, we can learn what we need to
build companies that will survive for the long run.
Andy Dang

Agree. Procrascination kills. I think if our average life span were cut 30 years shorter, people would live more.
Andrew Warner

And what a painful death.
Ricardo Solon

Seriously one of the best interviews I heard hands down.. wow… I had no choice to listen to it twice… I like the way he puts thing in perspective……. You know what I order his book... cannot wait to read it... now time to work on this purpose
Andrew Warner

Thanks Ricky. Let me know what you think of it.
PaulMagee

Great interview Andrew, Roy has a real evangelical presentation style :)

He used one of my favorite quotes "where the needs of the world and your talents cross, their-in lies your vocation".

So many people forget "the needs of the world" bit (especially in the creative world) and focus just on their own needs and talents.

Our purpose:
An entire generation have been told it's OK to follow a creative path, but someone forgot to tell them HOW to make a decent living doing it. Our purpose is to help ambitious artists, musicians, designers and producers overcome their personal barriers and market themselves more effectively by giving them with the knowledge and support they need to uncover their true value and then tell the world about it.

I wish I had time to read his book but I think I've got a book back-log.
Andrew Warner

I know what you mean. I never have enough time to read all the books I want
to read.
Khuram Malik

Aha! One thing we DID get right. We made sure we had a sense of purpose the day we re-geared this business.
It took me a while to understand the key point of the interview but now i got it :)
Andrew Warner

Do you want to get on the phone and talk about your business? Any time, I'm
here buddy.
marvinythomas

This was another great interview. I enjoyed his quotes especially "where the needs of the world and your talents meet". I liked his over all approach to branding and marketing. His story is a unique one. He gave some good advice for what today's startups need to understand about how to put passion into their products.

"I don't have a job, but I do have work to do."
Andrew Warner

Great note Marvin.

He said that in response to my question about profit. I never want to get so
lost on purpose or mission that I forget that a company has to pay attention
to profits. He was very good about showing how to connect value with values,
profits with purpose.
KevenDones

Rock start interview. I learn so much today thank you Andrew once again.
Andrew Warner

Thank you keven!
Chance Stevens

Andrew - this is great info. Thank you for sharing. Most of what people need is the constant boost. Once things start going wrong you realize that maybe you aren't as good as you thought you were. Second guessing yourself can be a really bad habit.

Once again, I'm going to say that these interviews on CD or DVD would be great. I don't want to just burn them and not give you a cut. It doesn't matter if you need the money....good work should be rewarded.

I'm definitely going to pick up the book since my library is looking pretty antiquated.
Andrew Warner

My buddy Chance! Great to see you on this post!

I'm going to write up a semi-private post about my revenue ideas for
Mixergy. Looking forward to hearing your feedback on my options.