John Spence

10/02/2026

Years ago, I went through a period of serious depression. I never missed a speech, a workshop, or a flight. From the outside, I was still doing my job. Inside, I was struggling badly.

I waited far too long to ask for help.

That experience came up in my latest conversation with Josh on Notes for an Awesome Life. Josh recently learned, at 55, that he has ADHD. For years, he had struggled with focus, organization, time management, and getting started on things. He assumed those were simply flaws he needed to overcome.

Understanding how his brain works gave him a very different way to address those challenges.

Our experiences are different, but we arrived at some of the same conclusions. We both needed to take an honest look at what was happening, learn as much as we could, and then make changes based on what we learned. We also had to recognize when we needed help from other people.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my life is that I cannot fix everything by myself.

Listen to the full conversation on the latest episode of Notes for an Awesome Life.

Listen to Notes for An Awesome Life with John Spence wherever you get your podcasts!

10/01/2026

You can have excellent data, smart people, and a carefully developed strategy and still get it wrong. Nobody can blueprint the future. At some point, you have to make a decision without knowing for certain how it will turn out.

That’s what I talk about in this Business in a Minute video.
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Get Your Team Ready for Your Strategic Planning Session.

This is the part of the year when many companies set aside time for strategic planning. Your leadership team will make critical decisions about where the organization is going, what deserves your attention and resources, and what you need to accomplish to move the business forward.

I built Strategy Made Awesomely Simple around the tools and ideas I have used with organizations for more than 30 years. It will help your team think more strategically, make better choices about where to invest limited resources, and come into your planning session better prepared.

If your team has a strategic planning session coming up, you can learn more here: https://johnspence.gr-author.com/courses/strategic-planning-course

09/29/2026

A company can be producing strong results while weakening the organization that produces them. That is one of the reasons I have been thinking so much about stewardship lately.

Leaders have an obligation to deliver results. But they also have responsibility for the culture, trust, people, and organizational strength behind those results. You can push hard enough to improve performance for a period of time while doing damage underneath it.

I believe the best leaders hold both responsibilities at the same time. They produce results today while building an organization capable of performing tomorrow.

That is what stewardship means to me.

Lets partner to help your organization deliver results today while building the strength to perform tomorrow. Id love to hear from you. [email protected]

09/28/2026

This conversation was a little different from many of the interviews I do. I recently sat down with William Menadier on the Mind The Gap podcast. We spent much of the hour talking about the people and experiences that shaped my career.

We spoke about the college professor who helped me turn things around, becoming the CEO of an international Rockefeller foundation at 26, eventually starting my own business, and some of the relationships in Gainesville that have influenced me along the way.

Relationships became a recurring theme in our conversation. I can trace many of the opportunities in my career back to someone who taught me, trusted me, challenged me, or opened a door. That is still true today.

We also talked about leadership, culture, AI, the importance of knowing your values, and a few mistakes I have made along the way. Near the end of our conversation, I shared an idea I have believed for a long time: “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.”

Thank you to Bill and the Mind The Gap team for having me on. I enjoyed the opportunity to share some stories I don’t often get to tell.

Link in the first comment.

09/25/2026

It was great to be back with the Board of Directors and senior leadership team at Allegacy Financial to facilitate their annual strategic planning retreat.

I always enjoy working with CEO Nathanael Tarwasokono and this team. My role was to help guide the conversation, challenge assumptions when needed, and keep the group focused on the strategic decisions that deserved their attention. Good strategy requires making clear choices about where an organization will focus its time, people, and resources.

This is some of the work I enjoy most. Getting in the room with a strong leadership team, asking difficult questions, bringing an outside perspective, and helping them leave with greater clarity about the decisions ahead.

A special thank you to Lisa Baty for once again doing an excellent job coordinating the retreat.

09/24/2026

Every session on your agenda is answering the same question for the member sitting there: was it worth leaving the office for this?

The people in the room come from different organizations and different roles. The material has to be relevant across the room and give people tools they can use when they get back to work.

I have been speaking at association events for more than 25 years. I put this page together for the people planning them.

https://go.johnspence.com/associations2026

09/23/2026

The executives in my Strategies for Life Success class at the Securities Industry Institute at The Wharton School of Business spend countless hours developing strategies, setting goals, and making decisions about the future of their organizations. Yet many have never applied that same level of thought to their own lives.

In this week’s blog, I share three exercises we work through in the class so you can try them yourself.

This is the first of four articles based on the classes I will be teaching at Wharton in 2027.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/strategy-better-life-john-spence-qqkde/

If this is something you want to explore for yourself or your leadership team, send me a note. [email protected]

For more than 25 years, I have taught at the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. SII is considered the premier executive development program in the securities and financial-services industry.

09/22/2026

I never leave a meeting without running through the same short set of questions. Skip them, and everyone can walk out with a different idea of what happens next. I share those questions in this Business in a Minute.

If you want your leadership team to leave meetings with greater clarity, stronger accountability, and a clear path forward, send me a note. [email protected]

09/21/2026

Flashback to this year’s Management & Leadership Institute with my twin, Anthony Demangone. For 19 years in a row, I’ve had the privilege of delivering sessions at MLI on leadership, strategy, resilience, and other issues facing credit union leaders.

And after all that time, people still do a double-take when Anthony and I are in the same room.