John Spence: Breaking down walls; building up people

 Dubbed as the “Human Cliff Notes,” John Spence’s practice of condensing thousands of pages of information into one page of key notes helps his clients understand the essentials of business strategies.

With a positive attitude, motivating expressions and a welcoming smile, John Spence’s successes are an inspiration.

At 14722 NW 140th Street in Alachua, Fla., there sits a small one-story building with a quaint white picket fence, a magnolia tree and a sign that reads Flycaster & Co.

John Spence, 47, uses this office as a workspace to help handle his plethora of clients and organize his extremely busy schedule.

When not in Alachua, he is traveling all over the world using his personal experience, knowledge and passion for his career to provide guidance to businesses with his cutting-edge presentations and motivational speeches.

“Nothing in my past would have led you to believe I would become a professional speaker. It’s actually reversed because I prefer to be in the audience,” Spence said. “The truth of the matter is, I get very nervous speaking. I still get very nervous even though I’m entering my 18^th year and speak to groups as large as 6,000-8,000.”

Spence is truly a master of leadership, business-related strategies and knowledge about what it takes to be successful in this competitive industry.

“I always try to be a resource for everybody,” he said. “I have a really simple philosophy: If you help other people get what they need, you’ll get what you need.”

Each year Spence reads over 100 business-related books and listens to an additional 50 on CD. As a professional speaker, he spends roughly 225 nights per year away from his home in Alachua, and his reputation has recently earned him one of Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior.

“I’m a heavy-information driven speaker. The stuff I cover is motivating, but very information intensive,” he said. “I am focused on helping people get better in their lives, their career, and their business. It’s not about me at all; it’s about the information.”

He said it would be difficult to find someone who has read as many leadership books as he has or talked about the concept for as long as he has.

Some of his clients even call him the “Human Cliff Notes” because of his ability to find pattern recognition.

“I will read 200 books and boil it down to the 10 key points. That’s 5,000-6,000 pages in one page,” he said.

As a top graduate of the University of Florida, his resume is extensive, including CEO of an international Rockefeller foundation at age 26 and author of two recently published books.

His public speaking career began when he was pushed into delivering speeches for companies he worked for. He said after the presentations he realized he was actually pretty good at it.

“After 15 years of practice and a couple hundred speeches a year, you get a little better at it,” he said. “I’ve always been good at being a leader, so I didn’t mind being in front.”

Starting his new career as a professional speaker was not easy, he said.

“It was hard for the first 2-3 years because nobody knew me and I had never done this kind of work. The first couple of years were me trying to prove that I knew what I was doing,” he said. “I needed to build a foundation under my career so that people will look at me, take me seriously, and say this is someone who knows what they’re doing.”

He said as the years progressed, his career evolved to fit the needs of his clients. He also developed criteria for potential clients and created a simple rule to determine whether or not he would work with them.

“I won’t work with somebody unless I would have them over for a barbeque,” Spence said.

He said he refuses to work with a business unless the people are fun, interesting, honest and have high integrity.

“If they’re not like that, there’s no way I’ll do work for them. Life’s too short,” he said.

Spence is a firm believer in surrounding yourself with the right kind of people. He said the single most important thing he learned in his life is, “You become what you focus on and similar to the people you spend time with.”

He said one of the things that turned his life around was the concept of “mastermind groups” found in Napolean Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”

“Whatever you think about, whatever you fill your brain with, whatever you’re reading, studying, learning, listening to, watching, and whoever you choose as your closest friends will determine what your life looks like,” Spence said.

He said he’s been using the concept of mastermind groups for more than 20 years. He said in college, it was his study group and when he graduated, he started one as his career.

Even now, on top of his endless resources with successful businesses nationally and internationally, he has one in Alachua.

“I’m trying to find really smart people and bring them here. I’m trying to take all the travels I do, and pull it back here,” he said. “With the connections I have, at the level they’re at, I am trying to bring some of that here and make the city of Alachua a better place.”

Spence said he is trying to be very involved in the community. He wants to help make Alachua a recognizable international hub of entrepreneurship and innovation.

“I like the vibe of a place where people dream big and make it happen,” he said. “If you want to make a difference, you have to get involved at the highest level you can possibly get involved at.”

Spence said surrounding yourself with genuine people can be extremely beneficial. He said there’s nothing wrong with not knowing an answer, but there’s something wrong when you don’t know a person to call to find the answer.

He said in this community alone he has surrounded himself with 25-30 very friendly and successful people.

“I’ve got this amazing group of friends and a support network of people I can call and ask for help,” he said. “Life becomes really easy when you have 600 or 700 really smart people that want to help you succeed.”