Roy Spence: How to Find A Common Purpose

pulling together in common calls. But we can't do that if we can't even agree on a shared set of facts, are on the basic humanity of our neighbors. If we want to solve the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead of us, we have to start by seeing one another is people and finding our common purpose. That's why I'm glad to be joined today by someone who's devoted his entire life to helping people and organizations discover their purpose and help to advance it and share it with a

positive vision. I first met Roy Spence in vo when I went to Texas to help lead the McGovern campaign. There. I was twenty five and Roy was twenty three, and he was running a hot shot young ad agency that the campaign hired. It was made up of brilliant and irreverent recent graduates from the University of Texas at Austin. Even though we got beat sixty seven to thirty three, we learned a lot about how people really felt, thought and expressed themselves. And even more important, I made some

lifelong friends, including Roy Spence. Since then, I haven't gone through any great effort in my life, nor has Hillary without Roy's help and advice. In an industry often viewed from the outside with cynicism, Roy believes that advertising should be driven and by values and help us to build connections that break down barriers between people, something we need far more of these days. I never appreciated as creative, still more than when I visited the headquarters of the

great company he built. It's called Idea City, and if you're ever in Austin, I recommend you at least drive by and look at it. It's an astonishing feat of human imagination. You will see a lot of happy people at work, relating to each other with positive energy and making good things happen. I've worked with Roy several times now since leaving the White House, including on public service announcements alongside other former presidents. After Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake

in Haiti, hurricane season, and several other issues. Roy's a natural communicator and connector. I can think a few people I have ever known who are as good as he is at finding new positive ways to think about things. Roy, thanks so much for being here. So let's start with an obvious question. When did you first get interested in advertising and how did you see it's possibilities to do more than sell a product to service or a candidate. Well, Mr President Bill Um, it's great to be with you,

even though it's virtually and on the podcast. But yes, uh, I met this guy named Bill Clinton and a woman named Hillary during the McGovern campaign. He knocked on my little office door. He and Hillary says, I'm Bill Clinton and I'm taking a leave of bad since from Yale Law School, and so is Hillary. And we're here down to win the presidency from Mr McGovern and we had

just been hired. We've never done a campaign before. As they gave him a lot of confidence, and I was like, you know, he's much older than me, maybe a year a year and a half. I'm a little older than he is, but not as always only I look go ahead, And so we sat down and to start talking about Texas. And Hillary went to South Texas, and he went to East Texas and then come back and talk to me and Gary Morrow and Nancy William and Tommy Henderson, all

these Texans. And I always believe that although he was a man from Hope, he also was a man from Texas. And we got to be friends. And my mom and dad, we grew up in Brownwood, Texas, and my mom and dad were lifelong moderate Democrats. We didn't call ourselves modern Democrats. We just believed that, and I still do. I learned this from my mom that no one's too good and everybody's good enough. I was the only kid debating in the fifth grade Mr President for Kennedy, the rest of

the classes for Nixon. And the next day Kennedy wins. And so I go to school and everybody said, you're the reason America is going to be horrible. I'm fifth, I'm ten years old. And I went home and I started crying to my mom, and again she said, now, listen, there are two kinds of folks out there. They're vinegar people and honey people. Now the vinegar people hate and honey people love. Hang out with a honey people hang out with a honey people, and I hung out with

honey people. And so I'm listening to his and I haven't know this made an impression with you. But when he said asked, not what your country can do for you, but what you I'm in the fifth grade and I'm listening to that. And that was the time I thought maybe I could write stuff like that. So I graduated from high school. Yes I was, you know, a quarterback for an all state team, but you know whatever, and UH went to University of Texas. UH a quick story.

I met a guy named Steve Gerris is Bill Gerris's and a woman named Judy Trebulsi. We were nineteen years old and we started. It was the age of Marshall McLuhan. Now, if you're not seventy, you don't know what that means. But he basically said that the medium is the message. So we created a firm called Media seventy. We were nineteen years old and we did these crazy multimedia shows and kids would line up for hours and pay us fifty cents. When my partner said, well, what should we do?

And he said go into advertising? And I said, great, what is that? And so I went down to the bank and I had a ponytail and my tied eyed T shirt. I was twenty years old. I sat down at the loan officers desk. He wasn't there, but I sat down there anyway, and somebody hits me on the side of the back and said, I'm sorry, young man, but do you have an appointment? I'm the banker And I said no, but you're not like busy that one I didn't know, and he said, well, what do you want?

I think I need five thousand dollars to start my advertising agency. Twenty years later, I meet this reception with a good man named Robert Sneeve when you met Bill, Mr. President. He was a mentor lawyer helped me. And a guy walks up and says, Roy do you see that gentleman over there with the cane Do you know him? This is twenty years after the while. I said, yesterday, his

name is Robert Sneeve. And he said, do you know that he co signed that note for you and never told you because he wanted you to believe you got it on your own. And that's when I realized that somebody helps you to help somebody else. Here's The final point of that story is that everybody wants to be a pardner, they just don't want to deal with the ship the partnership. We need to sink the partisanships and build the ship of state again, because the ship of

state it's where American moves forward. And you knew that, and that's why you're first speech. He said, there's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed with what's right with American And I think goodness can rule. Goodness is hard, but I want marketing to be a force for good.

So that was sort of how it all started. Well, thanks, You know, I have been going back to Texas for all that time, since almost fifty years, and we always get together, usually over Mexican food, with people from back then, people that literally I have known for fifty years. We've lost a couple and every time it happens, you can almost feel their presence in the room because of all

these years and all these things we shared. And to talk a little about this, you just said, you know, your value is basically getting people to trade partisanship for statesmanship, to trade individual short term gain for what we can do together and move together. But it's hard to get that rewarded if you look at how much closer this election was, and most people thought it was going to be right before election to it certainly didn't get closer

by trying to bring people together. So how do you get the values you have and your purpose driven marketing? How do you sell them in a way that makes them more powerful than the politics of blame and division? How can we do that again? I think that's what we did in nine two. But it's hard, Yeah, it is. Uh. This little story, this little story will tell you kind

of how I got on the road to purpose. My older sister, Susan, was born with spinal bifida, and back then, you know, it was the most horrible birth effect because all the nerves that are supposed to go into your legs ball up in an open wound on your back. And she was four years older than me, and she was supposed to live to be four days or four months, maybe four years. She lived to be nine years old.

Because of my mom, she never got to walk. I pushed her to school every day build I couldn't even see it in a wheelchair, And all my friends would go with me and would push her to school and we'd go to our class. I pushed her home every afternoon, and then she graduated from high school. Her name was Susan Spent and she went to a commune of your college outside of Austin. Every Sunday I pushed her around that little campus, Gonzalez, and we'd listen to the Dallas

Cowboys and eat water Burger. And I had this this epiphany that all these years I thought I was pushing her, she's been pushing me. And she used to say, you don't have to have legs to fly, Roy, and I got on the road to purpose because of that. I guess I didn't know it, but the thought, and you've talked about this and you've done it. We gotta walk into each other's shoes again. We got to walk the factory floors and the guys got to ride the subways. And know what that we got to walk in each

other's shoes. You can't have sympathy as a president. You have to have empathy. You used to always tell me you'd go to Brownwood, you go every small town, and you'd say, no, Roy, they might not vote for me, but they're not gonna hate me. Because I went and listened to them and heard what they were saying. So I think part of purpose based branding and what I believe about marketing is a force for good. It's not coom by y'all stuff. When we did don't Mess with Texas,

explain to our listeners what that is. Don't Mess with Texas. Don't Mess with Texas was an anti litter campaign. Mark White was governor and litter was everywhere in Texas and I used to get my daddy's pick up and he'd say, Narito, Roy, throw the trash on the highway because it keeps people employed. It's you know, it makes sense. So all of a sudden, Mark White says, Roy, we have a litter problem, and we're gonna do an ad campaign. And Tim McClure, my partner,

wrote the line don't Mess with Texas. A day before the pitch. We went and pitched don't Mess with Texas, and everybody on the board said, we want the crying Indians and the don't give a hoot and don't pollute. And finally the Bob Lanier was farm mayor of Houston. He was ahead of the Highway Department. He said we're going we don't mess with Texas. First spot we ever did Mr President with Stevie ray Vaughan right before we

passed away. And then we had Willie Nelson too tall, Jones that God bless Jerry, Jeff Walker and all these people talking about don't mess with Texas. Here's what I found out. We weren't in the litter business. We laddered up to the pride business, and we reduced litter by seventy six percent through marketing as a force for good. Mama, tell all your babies, don't mess with Texas. Keep your trash off the roads. And she's a fine yellow roads

tree Texas like someone love. Then I learned another thing about purpose based branding from a guy named Herb telling her who you knew and love? And I've got tears because he's a founder of the Southwest Airlines. I was twenty eight years old. I ran a guy for Congress named Bob Krueger, and he won against all the San Antonio establishment. You made him an ambassador by the ways, and no one thought Krueger could win. So I get a call from Herb kell Her and he said, I'm

Herb Keller. You kicked our rears. I want to talk to you. And I said, well, who are you know? I didn't know he was found her Southwest Airlines herb kell Her was the most purpose inspired business leader I've ever met. And here's what I learned about purpose too. We couldn't win in the airline business. We didn't, you know. We had short flights and and everybody called us the cattle car. So we got out of the airline business and got into the freedom business because we were on

a mission to democratize these guys. Young people are looking for purpose in their life over everything else, and so I would say, let's have purpose over politics. We'll be

right back. One thing you said about higher ground that makes sense, which is that I have found, even in the most polarizing circumstances around the world, the Irish peace process, for example, if you can get people to agree on the end first, if they're really committed to the same goal, really committed, then they can find a way there from

the deepest divides. But if you have a system where people believe that the rewards are always going to be greater and division and short term power gains, it's much harder, even if they're closer together, and that's something we have to change. When you did putting people. First, you actually meant it, and I remember, you're not talking about that, and I didn't come up with the line. And then Carvel, you know, it's the economy, stupid. And I kept pushing

hard for him. But don't forget that this is a man who came from Hope. Because people want to hear where people come from. We need to understand their motivation by understanding where they come from. I think it was like fifteen years or tenure whatever. I got on a backpack and went to New Hampshire, just me and two American flags and a backpack, and I started walking ten to twelve to fifteen to twenty miles a day these back roads and I just sit down and talk to people.

And I found if you didn't talk politics or religion, if you didn't talk politics or religion, pretty much everyone agreed on everything. I believe if we talk purpose with young people and we walk in their shoes again, there could be a moment in time where we could start me in the middle again. And I think marketing plays a part, because, like you said, so much marketing is negative in all of this. It doesn't have to be

and be effective. So I believe that if you find the purpose, Like if we decided for one second, what is something we can all agree on. I went around the country and I told you to the first time too. I was asking every this way before the election or pandemic, what's the number one thing we can do for America. I had no idea the massive shortage of skilled workers in this country, from the machinists to the chamber of commerce.

So I went back and I started a thing called the make It Campaign, the make It movement that I'm launching. We're going to start a massive marketing campaign and teachers and counselors in public schools for the sixteen year old seventeen year olds. You go back to what you said and every time I met you, we have to respect the dignity of all work. I want to market that you don't have to wait four years to make a living in a life then what you love to do

kind of path after high school welders. And by the way, that if you go to the YouTube and you see make It Movement, we have a sixty second spot with real people electricians, welders, solar They all make it because they're making a living doing what they love to do, not what they're expected to do the piping that cools our buildings. I made it, and after proving myself, I make over seventy five th year. Our purpose is to support school counselors in connecting high school students to the

new world of high school high income careers. A difference in someone's life today, I needed. That's terrific, you know. Um Jane Sperling, who you remember it was my National Economic counselor in my second term and held me from has just written whole book about the imperative of giving every American a chance to do dignified work. And he said it's dignity people are looking for, not just a job, not just an income, and that there are more There's

more than one way to get it. You can go to college and get a degree, but you also ought to be able to go through some sort of community college or other training program or other options. And there should be Well, it's interesting because we've got good marketing information now. That is, if you live in west West Virginia, are you live in West Texas, you can get pretty good information on you know, what jobs are available if

you do X, Y and Z things. And that's one of the things that that I think we need to improve on. It's also true that after COVID a lot of small businesses have been taken back and we got to start them up again or start new ones. What do you what you thought about that? Not everybody's got to give to GAB like you do and can talk to their way into that first five thousand goal alone. But what's your what's your thought about that? What's how

can we revitalize small business? And what should the government's approach be to try and to get capital the flowback into them. Boy, that's a great question. I here's kind of where I'm my gut is on this, is that if I could, if I could do this on a national level, I would love to run. Because you can't change behavior, as you know, Mr President, until you change perception.

And we have thousands and thousands and thousands of businesses and labor unions and apprenticeships and community colleges out there are finding By the way, I was comment commencement speecher a speech that three years ago to Austin Community College and Dr Rhodes is the CEO there, and I said on the stage, because I'm like you, but not as good, I talked to every one of the graduates and literally

I'm crying because they were They weren't young people. There were twenty five year old seven but they had gone through this and now they're veterinarians, and now they're welders, and now they're in their kids. So I would say this, I would love to have a national dialogue, a national marketing campaign with all the infrastructure behind it called make it in America, make it, make I meet it. Make

it in America. You can make it in Austin. You can make it in Louisville, in every town, city by city, town by town. We fund those probate community colleges. We fast trade literally grants to community college to say I'm making this up community college in Connecticut. If you will get eighteen year olds right now, we'll pay for them to get trained. And by the way, what we've learned to young people want careers, not jobs. Well, veterinarians a

career well as your career. They want income not just wages. Meaning so that's the language of leadership. I think we need to stand tall for small too, and literally for small. We have to stand tall for small. And I don't know exactly how you fund it, but I would have whoever does it run this program has to be a small business owner in entrepreneurship. We can't lose this miracle of America that if you can dream it, we don't.

We don't teach two percent of our public schools teach entrepreneurship. We need to tell young people, if you can dream it, you can build it. Disney said, you know well, disney Ki said, hell, I just came over here with a mouse, and I think we've got I think we have to do less teaching and testing and more talent development, talent discovery and coaching. By the way, the internet has a lot of flaws, the Mr President, it could be the greatest mentoring medium in the world. My age, people who

are retired or whatever. I want to mentor mentor kids. So I have a national mentoring program again run. So part of this, I think is not the old solutions. A big spending here, selective spending, selective spending. And by the way, if you don't perform, you gotta fess up when you mess up. You're old preacher Gerald Man, God bless him. That's where you taught me. He was my neighbor and he said, Roy, you got to fess up. When you mess up, I miss him. We'll be right back.

Let me just to bring it down to the bottom line, you think that there's still more potential for getting together and doing things then most people. I mean, I think to me, the biggest number, the most important thing, is the staggering number of people that voted. And I think that shows that either that people are trying to win a victory or just want to be seen and heard and want to matter. And if it's the latter, that

can be a great thing. Yes, sir, and I think one of the things that you ask again this is as you know, when you convene all these people all the world for c G I middle ground building bridges. It's harder than burning bridges because we realize that we don't build bridges. We either can't go anywhere because the rivers too wide, or we getting on a faulty bridge and it falls apart. We have to build bridges. I'll finish this. But when I walked across America, I found

out this. You become what you look for in life. If you look for enemies, you will find them. If you look for friends, will be befriended. If you look for hate, they'll live in your heart. If you look for love, it'll lift you up. If you look for it lies, it'll take you down. If you look for the truth, it will set you free. Have a I have a logo already designed purpose not politics. Now will it heal everything? I don't know, but damn it, it's worth a try. Let's have purpose, not politics, try to

run this country. Well, thank you. You know, you know you've help me do a lot of things. Two advanced disaster work I've done over the last twenty years. And so you saw me working with both Presidents Bush and and UH and people at the local level and people

business leaders. And I remember that after I won the election, we had this huge economic conference you remember, in a little rock and we had everybody came, but you know, Democrats, Republicans, Independence, very small businesses, very big businesses, and an enormous number of very specific suggestions came out of that meeting in a short period of time. I think people long to do something that helps not only themselves in their own family,

but other people. But they wanted to matter. And we got a lot of wounded people who are so worried about being taken for a ride by politicians and other people in positions of power and influence. And I always thought that you were, in some ways the most unusual advertising executive I ever saw, because you almost warned in the advertising business advertising was a means to a larger end.

And and every time I talked to you over all these years, now more than forty five years, about what were you doing for this without the other client, it was never what you were advertising. It's what they were about and how you could advance the good thing that they were trying to embody and you just might another suggestion on it. So I'm grateful to you. Besides, we've had a good time, haven't we. Oh my god, Miss Presnell. First of all, it's great to be with you, but

we our journey. I remember this is the final little story.

But I was with you down down in that holding room when you're doing your except acceptance speech after al Gore, and we've worked on it a lot, and you just you meet down there, and right before you went out, and I went to my little boom box and I played Rocky and we were sitting there just boxing and getting ready, and and you looked at me, and you know, you said you know, I got into politics for one reason, to make sure that everyone has a better life and

we can measure it. And I know, and I hugged you in and you went up there and you rocked it. But I think that if we will look to goodness, if we will look to higher ground, it's not a panacea, but goodness is harder than badness and respecting the dignity. And again, we have to have the dignity and the empathy to whether you voted for Mr Trump or or

Mr Biden, those supporters believe in something. Let's put the belief together and say, can you imagine what we could do if we build a bridge and solve one problem together. Maybe we solve the skilled worker problem together. Then let's take the second problem. Don't try to do it all, but do the things that make significant difference. Because I do believe that's nothing wrong with America. It can't be fixed with what's right with America. You said it, I

believe it. Well, You've done a lot of it, and I'm very grateful to you in more ways than I can ever say. But thank you for giving our listeners this. So thanks a lot, and uh, I bless your friend. I hope to see you soon and hope see your family. Thank you. We were not going to do the Haunted House, Mary's Haunted House until you come back, you know where. You tell Mary that I got a social distance and

that I'm not too old to advent. That I was scared to death, but I expect to be more fortified when I step into it next year in a COVID free world. Okay, God bless all of you. Thanks, Thank you, Mr President, Thank you, dear friend. Why am I telling you? This is a production of our Heart Radio, the Clinton Foundation, and at Will Media. Our executive producers are Craig Monascian

and Will Malnadi. Our production team includes Mitch Bluestein, Jamison cat Sufis, Tom Galton, Sarah Harrows, and Jake Young, with production support from Tyler Scott and Olatavia Young. Original music by What White. Special thanks to John Sichs, Tina Finois, John Davidson on Hell Arena, Corey Gantley, Oscar Flores, Kevin Thurm, and all our dedicated staff and partners at the Clinton Foundation.

If you have an idea of suggestion for the show, we'd love to hear from you, so please visit Clinton Foundation dot org slash podcast to share your thoughts with us. If you like the show, tell someone else about it. You can subscribe to why Am I Telling You This? On the I Heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. By listening to this podcast, you're

helping support the work of the Clinton Foundation. So thank you. Hi. I'm Dr Mike Kimpill, director of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, one of a kind partnership between the presidential centers of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. President Clinton often says that the key to great leadership isn't finding our common humanity, something that's

needed now more than ever. That's why each year we bring together a dramatically diverse group of leaders, from doctors to teachers, elected officials to scientists, active military and veterans, all of whom have a passion for making the world a better place. We create a culture of collaboration that transcends partisan divides and ideological differences in service of a

greater good. Today, Presidential Leadership Scholars across the country are working together and actively applying the lessons learned in our program to help tackle today's most pressing challenges. You can learn more about this work and see how you can get involved by visiting www. Dot Clinton Foundation dot org. Slash podcast