0:07

Hey , leader , and welcome to another episode of the L3

0:09

Leadership Podcast , where we are obsessed with helping

0:11

you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize

0:14

the impact of your leadership . My name

0:16

is Doug Smith and I am your host , and today's episode

0:18

is brought to you by my friends and fair tongue advisors

0:20

. We also recorded this episode live from the

0:22

new returncom studio . If

0:24

you're new to the podcast , welcome . I'm so glad that you're

0:26

here and I hope that you'll enjoy our content and become

0:28

a subscriber . I know that you can also watch all

0:31

of our episodes over on our YouTube channel , so make sure

0:33

you're subscribed there as well . And , as always

0:35

, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while and it's impacted

0:37

your life , make sure that you are subscribed

0:39

. And it would mean the world to me if you would leave us

0:41

a rating and review as well on Apple Podcasts

0:43

or Spotify or whatever app you listen to podcasts

0:45

through . That really does help us to grow our audience

0:47

and reach more leaders , so thank you in advance

0:50

for that . Well , leader

0:52

, in today's episode you're going to hear me share a personal

0:54

lesson on the subject of three

0:56

reasons that you and your team need to attend our L3

0:59

One Day Leadership Conference in 2024

1:01

. And we couldn't be more excited . On Thursday

1:03

, February 29th , we are

1:05

going to be hosting our third L3 One Day

1:08

Conference . Our keynote speaker is going to be Horst Schulze

1:10

, the founder of the Ritz Carlton , and

1:12

the conference will be right here in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , at

1:14

Northway Christian Communities , Sewickley

1:17

Campus , and so you are not going to want to miss this

1:19

. Registration is open . Officially . You can

1:21

go to L3OneDaycom to get more

1:23

information . But this isn't just about

1:25

attending L3 One Day . This lesson is really

1:27

about why you need to make leadership conferences an

1:29

annual part of your personal growth plan

1:31

, and so I hope it will add value to you . But

1:34

before we dive into the lesson , just a few announcements

1:36

. This episode

1:38

of the L3 Leadership Podcast is sponsored by

1:40

Beratung Advisors . The financial advisors

1:43

at Beratung Advisors help educate and empower

1:45

clients to make informed financial decisions

1:47

. You can find out how Beratung Advisors

1:49

can help you develop a customized financial

1:51

plan for your financial future by visiting

1:53

their website at BeratungAdvisorscom

1:55

. That's B-E-R-A-T-U-N-G-Advisorscom

2:00

. Securities and investment products

2:02

and services are offered through LPL Financial

2:04

. Member of FINRA and SIPC , Beratung

2:06

Advisors , LPL Financial, and L3 Leadership

2:09

are separate entities . I

2:11

also want to thank our sponsor , hennie Jewelers . They were

2:13

joined by my friend and mentor , john Hennie , and

2:15

my wife Laura and I got our engagement and wedding rings

2:17

through Hennie Jewelers and had an incredible experience

2:19

. And not only do they have great jewelry

2:22

, but they also invest in people . In fact , for every

2:24

couple that comes in engaged , they give them a book to

2:26

help them prepare for marriage , and we just love that . So

2:28

if you're in need of a good jeweler , check out HennieJewelerscom

2:32

. And I also want to

2:34

thank our new sponsor , returncom . And

2:36

Leader , let me just ask you this have you ever

2:38

had an interest in investing in real estate ? Well

2:40

, now , for as little as $500 , you can become

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a commercial real estate investor . Just

2:44

visit Reiturn . com to learn more . That's

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R-E-I-T-U-R-N . com . Investing

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involves risk . Please consult the Reiturn offering

2:53

circular if you're interested in investing . Hey

2:56

, leader , Today I'd like to talk to you on the subject . Three

2:58

reasons that you need to be in the room at our L3

3:00

One Day Leadership Conference in 2024

3:02

. And that's right . We're hosting our

3:04

third L3 One Day Leadership Conference on Thursday

3:06

, February 29th , 2024

3:09

. Right here in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , we'll be

3:11

hosting it at our Northway Community Church's

3:13

Sewickley campus , which is a beautiful facility

3:15

, and we couldn't be more excited . Our keynote

3:17

speaker this year is going to be Hor Shultz , who

3:19

is the founder of the Ritz Carlton . We're

3:22

really excited to have him in , and I'll be

3:24

talking more about the details of the conference later

3:26

, but for now , if you're interested in learning more

3:28

about the conference and actually registering

3:30

registration is now open you can go to L3OneDaycom

3:33

. Again , that's L3OneDaycom

3:36

, and we would love to see you in the room

3:38

on Thursday , February 29th

3:40

. So , that said , today I am going

3:42

to be talking to you about three reasons why you need to come to our

3:44

L3 One Day Conference , but in general

3:46

, I'm going to be really telling you three reasons

3:48

why you need to have leadership conferences

3:51

on your calendar every single year to help you grow

3:53

and develop . But before I dive into those

3:55

three reasons , I simply want to give you some history and

3:57

background on our L3 One Day Conference

3:59

. I started going to leadership

4:01

conferences very early on , from the time

4:03

I was 18 , I went to the Global Leadership

4:05

Summit every year and several other conferences

4:08

, and my life has been dramatically

4:10

impacted and transformed by going

4:12

to events . And I want to say around

4:14

2007 , I started having a dream

4:16

that one day maybe I could host my own

4:18

leadership conference , because , just with anything

4:21

that I experienced , I always want to bring you along in the

4:23

journey with me , and I want to help other

4:25

people experience the transformation that I've experienced

4:27

, and so I always have had my eyes set

4:29

on hosting a conference . Well , like

4:31

many things in my life , it took me a long time for that to

4:34

come to pass . It actually took me 12 years

4:36

, but we hosted our first L3

4:38

One Day Leadership Conference in 2019

4:40

. We had 220 leaders in the room

4:42

. It was incredible . And

4:44

then we went to host it a second year , and then COVID

4:46

hit literally two days before our conference

4:49

and we had to cancel , and so

4:51

we weren't able to host our second conference until 2022

4:54

, and then here we are , now , going into our

4:56

third year . But really the

4:58

vision for the conference is we want to help leaders grow

5:00

their leadership . We want to help them grow

5:02

their network and to grow their future . That's

5:05

the whole purpose . We want to get leaders in a room

5:08

. One of our values is community , and

5:10

we believe that no leader should ever do life alone

5:12

, but in community . And to actually build

5:15

community , you actually have to be in person

5:17

, building real relationships , and

5:19

I found that in my experience , nothing replaces

5:22

actually being in the room and connecting with

5:24

leaders , and so some of the aspiring

5:26

thoughts that help us have vision for

5:28

the conference are number one you are one

5:30

idea and one connection away from

5:32

changing your destiny . That's one of the reasons

5:35

we host L3 One Day , because we believe

5:37

leaders can get one idea and one connection

5:39

at the conference that can change their destiny forever

5:41

. And we've seen that happen over and over again

5:43

just in the two years that we've hosted the conference . It's

5:45

been incredible to hear the stories that have come out of that . Number

5:48

two we believe that transformation doesn't

5:50

just happening by listening to lessons . It

5:53

happens by actually life on life connections

5:55

, and that's why we live in a day where you can

5:57

watch a million talks online

5:59

and you're gonna be able to watch talks from L3

6:02

One Day online but again , it doesn't replace a

6:04

life on life connection . There's something about

6:06

it . You need to be in the room . And number three

6:08

the reason we started the conference is because we have

6:10

no idea who we're developing

6:12

, who we're investing in and what's gonna happen

6:15

into their life and what will be set into motion

6:17

as a result . And again , I've shared many

6:19

, many times things that have happened as a result of us

6:21

starting L3 leadership . We've seen

6:23

babies be adopted . We've seen people be saved . We've

6:26

seen people leave their corporate job to start

6:28

their own company . It's just been

6:30

incredible . And so we get excited

6:32

every year , just dreaming about what

6:34

could happen . What's the one idea that's gonna happen this year

6:37

? What's the one connection that's gonna happen ? It's gonna change

6:39

someone's life forever . What's gonna be set into motion

6:41

, and so those are some of the reasons that

6:43

we have this conference , and so why should you attend

6:45

? Three reasons . Number one

6:47

you need to grow your leadership . You

6:50

need to grow your leadership . We know this

6:52

that everyone wins when a leader gets

6:55

better , and I've also found that everyone

6:57

loses when a leader doesn't

6:59

get better . And so , leader , if you're gonna

7:01

get better , then it has to be on purpose , and I

7:03

talk to leaders all the time about you need to have

7:05

a personal growth plan , and

7:07

here's what I know about personal growth You're gonna

7:10

grow today by the mentors that you have in your life , by

7:12

the books that you read or listen to , the podcast

7:15

that you listen to and the experiences

7:17

that you experience , and one of those experiences

7:20

is by putting yourself in rooms with leaders

7:22

that are bigger than you that you can learn from Again

7:24

, your one leadership idea or principle

7:26

away from changing the destiny of your leadership

7:28

journey , and so , if you wanna grow your leadership

7:31

, I can't encourage you enough to have an annual

7:33

leadership conference on your calendar , and I really

7:35

wanna encourage you to make that L3 one day this

7:37

year . The other thing that I would say is

7:39

it's also a way to invest and grow your team's

7:41

leadership . If you're responsible

7:43

for leading others , you know that part of your

7:45

responsibility as a leader is to grow them , and

7:48

one great way to grow your team is

7:50

to bring them to a conference together , because it's

7:52

an opportunity for them to bond together . It's

7:54

an opportunity to let them know that you want

7:57

to invest in them and that you value them . It's

7:59

also an opportunity to help them grow

8:01

. And maybe you're sitting here and you're saying , well , I don't

8:03

have a team . Well , are there other people that you could invest

8:06

in ? Potential leaders , emerging leaders , people

8:08

that you know you wanna help grow , that you could invite

8:10

? Bring people with you . This is huge

8:12

. If you wanna grow others , you have to bring

8:14

other people with you around the journey

8:17

. So the first reason you need to attend L3 one

8:19

day is to grow your leadership and also grow

8:21

your team's leadership . Number

8:23

two is to grow your network . And again , this is

8:25

the tagline of our conference . It's a one day

8:27

leadership conference to grow your leadership , grow

8:29

your network and to grow your future . So

8:31

number two is to grow your network and this is the whole tagline

8:34

of you . Or one relationship away

8:36

from changing your destiny

8:38

, one relationship you have no idea when

8:40

it'll happen or how it'll happen and how it'll change your

8:42

life . I can't tell you how many leaders

8:44

that I've met at conferences and events that have become

8:46

mentors or have become a podcast

8:49

interview . I remember Clint Hurdle , the former

8:51

manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates , was on my bucket list

8:53

forever and I just wanted to interview him so

8:55

bad . And he happened to be an event that I went to

8:57

and I had a mutual connection who introduced

8:59

me at the event and I asked him to be on

9:01

the podcast and we ended up developing a wonderful

9:04

friendship and mentorship just through

9:06

that one connection that it would have never happened if

9:08

I wasn't in the room . You know , at

9:10

our last L3 One Day Leadership Conference , I remember

9:12

a woman who leads the local big brothers

9:15

and big sisters organization here in Pittsburgh

9:17

. She came up to me and she said thank you so much

9:19

for putting on this conference . We

9:21

had Andy Tool , who's the head

9:24

basketball coach at Robert Moore's university , speak

9:26

and she said we went up to Andy after his talk

9:28

and connected with him , and now he's

9:30

actually connecting all of the athletes that

9:32

he oversees . He's helped making

9:34

them be big brothers and big sisters to

9:37

our little littles that they call

9:39

them , or mentoring young kids

9:41

in their organization , and that

9:43

wouldn't have happened had we not had

9:45

a room or a conference that brings people

9:47

together . They grew their network . This is huge

9:50

and I would also

9:52

say this when it comes to networking sometimes it's not the lesson

9:54

that you need , but it's the life of a leader

9:56

and the ROI that you

9:58

get from a conference may not be from one of the talks

10:00

or the idea , but it may be from a conversation

10:02

that you had with a leader that you met . There's

10:05

a guy I admire greatly named Dan Sullivan and he

10:07

leads an organization called Strategic Coach and

10:10

I want to say that on average , to be in his program

10:12

is between $10,000 and $50,000

10:14

to be in one of his programs , and

10:16

he always shares a story that he hosted

10:19

one of his programs and they were going

10:21

through the day and one of the program participants

10:23

came up to him and said Dan , the

10:26

content here is okay Some of the stuff I've

10:28

learned before but I

10:30

got all the value I needed . I just met this guy

10:33

and it's going to change everything . But I guess

10:35

I have to ask you , like , what am I paying for ? I'm not

10:37

really paying for the content . Like , what's

10:39

the value in this ? And Dan replied

10:41

to him . He said , yeah , but who created the environment

10:44

for you to get that relationship that you got ? That

10:46

would have never happened had this environment not be set

10:48

. And that's how I feel about O31 Day . Like , your

10:50

value may not be in getting a principle that

10:52

someone shared from stage , but it may

10:54

be the one connection that changes everything for

10:56

you , that provides a hundred X

10:58

return on the value of your

11:00

ticket and being in the room . So you need

11:02

to be in the room . Leaders , you need to grow your network . And then

11:04

number three is grow your future , grow

11:07

your future . The reality is you have no idea

11:09

what will be set into motion in your life through

11:11

a conference . It may be an idea

11:13

that you get that changes the trajectory of your life

11:15

. It may be a connection that leads to a mentoring

11:18

relationship or a business partnership . It

11:20

may be finally getting the courage that you needed

11:23

to go after your dream . It may lead

11:25

to you getting your next promotion or your

11:27

next job . It could be a bonding

11:29

experience that your team needed , and it

11:31

could be that your team just realized that you value them

11:33

because , for the first time ever , you invested in

11:35

them , and so it's a great way to grow

11:37

your future . But here's what I know If you don't

11:40

put yourself in the room , you don't know what you

11:42

missed out on . You just don't

11:44

. You don't know what ideas and connections that

11:46

you could have had that you didn't because you

11:48

didn't go in the room . And so my question

11:50

to you is simply this leader will you join me on

11:52

Thursday February 29th at our L3 One

11:54

Day Conference ? It's a day where I guarantee

11:57

that you're going to grow your leadership , you're going to grow

11:59

your network and you're going to grow your future

12:01

. The details of the event , again , this

12:03

can all be found at L3OneDaycom

12:05

. Again , that's L3OneDaycom , but

12:08

it's on Thursday February 29th 2024

12:10

at Northway Community Church of Swickley

12:12

Campus . Our keynote speaker is Hor

12:14

Shultz . He's the founder of the Rich Carleton

12:17

and we'll have our entire speaker series

12:19

lineup out

12:21

soon , so be looking for that . It's going to be an all-star

12:23

lineup that adds massive value to your

12:25

life . And the last thing I'll say some of you have

12:27

attended L3 One Day . You might say , well , what's going to be different

12:30

this year than in the past years ? Well

12:32

, I have a really exciting partnership . That's how you about

12:34

. About a year ago , I

12:36

got invited to speak at a leadership conference in

12:38

Florida and the guy that

12:40

put on the conference his name is Matt Higgins , and I

12:42

went to this event and I was blown away

12:44

by the level of excellence that

12:46

the conference was put on . The entire experience

12:49

was unbelievable and I thought

12:51

this is what L3OneDay needs to

12:53

look like from an experience level and an excellence

12:55

level . And , long story short , I

12:58

became friends with Matt , who hosted the conference , and

13:00

we started talking . We both lead large nonprofits

13:02

and are very busy , and we just talked about it's

13:05

really hard to have the capacity to put on an event

13:07

, and we started talking and said what if we partnered

13:09

together and put on an event together

13:11

? And so that's what we've decided to do , and

13:13

so Matt is bringing all of his skill

13:15

sets around excellence and creating a

13:18

five star experience to

13:20

L3OneDay this year . So if you've attended in the past

13:22

, I'm telling you . It's going to be 10X the

13:24

experience that it was in years past . If

13:26

you've never been , get ready to be blown away . It's going

13:28

to be a wonderful day and leader . I

13:30

just want to encourage you . If you want to help , there's

13:32

several ways that you can get involved . Number

13:35

one attend the conference . We'd

13:37

love to have you in the room . Our goal is to have 400

13:39

leaders in the room . That's our capacity

13:41

, so that happens one person at a time

13:43

and not only you attend . If you have a team

13:46

or an organization that you lead , bring your

13:48

team . I had one guy that I followed

13:50

up with a leader of an organization . He came up to me after

13:52

our last conference and he said oh

13:55

, I'm bringing in at least 20 of my clients to

13:57

next year's conference . I can't wait , and so maybe

13:59

there's clients or there's vendors that you can bring as well

14:01

, but help us get people in the room . Maybe

14:03

you also want to become a financial sponsor . We

14:05

have plenty of sponsorship opportunities . Again , you'll be

14:07

able to find those on the website so

14:09

you can sponsor the event , and there's different levels of benefits

14:11

based on the sponsorship level . But

14:14

help us put this on financially . That would be huge

14:16

for your person of faith , pray for us . Pray

14:18

that God would do things that only he can do in

14:21

and through the speakers and in

14:23

through all the connections that are formed . And then

14:25

you can also volunteer . We need people to help actually

14:27

put on the conference . We need help people to

14:29

help plan , to greet , to park in

14:32

so many different areas . So if you're interested in any

14:34

of those things getting involved , email

14:36

me at Doug Smith at L3 leadershiporg

14:39

. Again , that's Doug Smith at L3

14:41

leadershiporg . Or you can go to

14:43

L3 one day dot com and just click

14:45

the contact section . So that's

14:47

it . Leader , more than anything , I love

14:49

you and I believe in your growth and I want to see you grow

14:52

your leadership . I want to see you grow your network and

14:54

grow your future . So make sure that annual

14:56

leadership conferences are a part of that growth journey

14:58

and I'd be honored if you allowed

15:00

L3 one day to be a big part of that journey as well

15:02

. So hope to see you at the conference in February

15:05

. Can't wait , and thanks for allowing me to come into your life

15:07

this week and add value to you . I'll talk to you

15:09

next episode . Hey leader , thank you

15:11

so much for listening to my lesson on why you need to

15:13

attend L3 one day , and I really do hope that

15:15

you'll attend again . You can register and get all

15:17

the information that you need at L3 one daycom

15:19

. Again , that's L3 one daycom

15:22

. And , as always , leader . I want to challenge you that

15:24

if you want to attend extra growth this year , then you need to either

15:27

launch or join an L3 leadership mastermind group

15:29

. Mastermind groups are simply groups of six to 12 leaders that

15:31

meet together on a consistent basis for at least

15:34

one year in order to help each other grow , hold

15:36

each other accountable and to do life together . For

15:38

me personally , mastermind groups have been the greatest source of

15:40

growth in my life over the last eight years . So

15:42

if you're interested in learning more about launching

15:44

or joining a group , go to L3 leadership grouporg

15:46

or slash masterminds or

15:48

email me at Doug Smith and L3 leadershiporg

15:51

. And , as always , leader . I like

15:53

to end every episode with a quote , and I will quote Craig

15:55

Groeschel today . He said this . He said your

15:58

life is too valuable , you're

16:00

calling too great and you're God

16:02

too awesome to waste your life on

16:04

what doesn't matter . Make

16:06

sure you're living a life and focusing on

16:08

what matters . Leaders , it makes a difference

16:10

. Well , I hope that this episode encouraged you

16:12

, none of my wife , lauren . I love you , we believe

16:15

in you and I say it every episode . But don't quit . Keep

16:17

leading . The world desperately needs your

16:20

leadership . We'll talk to you next episode .