3 Reasons You and Your Team Need to Attend our L3 One Day Leadership Conference in 2024!

Episode Summary: In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast,  Doug shares information about the upcoming L3 One Day Leadership Conference and the value that it can bring to you and your team. You'll gain a fresh perspective on why and how these conferences can be catalysts for your personal growth, bolster your leadership potential, and even generate life-changing experiences.

About Doug Smith: Doug Smith is the Director of Development at Light of Life Rescue Mission and Founder and CEO of L3 Leadership. He is the author of his eBook, “Making the Most of Mentoring”, a step-by-step guide to help you build and cultivate relationships with mentors. He blogs at dougsmithlive.com, he is the host of the L3 Leadership podcast, and he is a sought-after public speaker. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Laura, who currently works as an Account Executive at Ivalua. Together, they love family, personal growth, travel, working out, and serving others.

3 Key Takeaways:
1. Doug reveals the top three reasons why you and your team should mark your calendars for the L3 conference in 2024, with Horst Shultze, founder of the Ritz Carlton.
2. You'll also learn about the various ways to engage in this leadership conference, from participating as an attendee, to bringing a team, becoming a sponsor, praying for the event, and volunteering.
3. He shares a personal experience in which attending a conference led to a life-changing connection he wouldn’t have had the chance to meet anywhere else.

Quotes From the Episode:
“You are one relationship away from changing your destiny.”

Resources Mentioned:
The L3 One Day Conference

Connect with Doug:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram

Transcript

Doug Smith: 0:07

Hey, leader, and welcome to another episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host, and today's episode is brought to you by my friends and fair tongue advisors. We also recorded this episode live from the new returncom studio. If you're new to the podcast, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here and I hope that you'll enjoy our content and become a subscriber. I know that you can also watch all of our episodes over on our YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed there as well. And, as always, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while and it's impacted your life, make sure that you are subscribed. And it would mean the world to me if you would leave us a rating and review as well on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever app you listen to podcasts through. That really does help us to grow our audience and reach more leaders, so thank you in advance for that. Well, leader, in today's episode you're going to hear me share a personal lesson on the subject of three reasons that you and your team need to attend our L3 One Day Leadership Conference in 2024. And we couldn't be more excited. On Thursday, February 29th, we are going to be hosting our third L3 One Day Conference. Our keynote speaker is going to be Horst Schulze, the founder of the Ritz Carlton, and the conference will be right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Northway Christian Communities, Sewickley Campus, and so you are not going to want to miss this. Registration is open. Officially. You can go to L3OneDaycom to get more information. But this isn't just about attending L3 One Day. This lesson is really about why you need to make leadership conferences an annual part of your personal growth plan, and so I hope it will add value to you. But before we dive into the lesson, just a few announcements.

Doug Smith: 1:38

This episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Beratung Advisors. The financial advisors at Beratung Advisors help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions. You can find out how Beratung Advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future by visiting their website at BeratungAdvisorscom. That's B-E-R-A-T-U-N-G-Advisorscom. Securities and investment products and services are offered through LPL Financial. Member of FINRA and SIPC, Beratung Advisors, LPL Financial, and L3 Leadership are separate entities.

Doug Smith: 2:11

I also want to thank our sponsor, hennie Jewelers. They were joined by my friend and mentor, john Hennie, and my wife Laura and I got our engagement and wedding rings through Hennie Jewelers and had an incredible experience. And not only do they have great jewelry, but they also invest in people. In fact, for every couple that comes in engaged, they give them a book to help them prepare for marriage, and we just love that. So if you're in need of a good jeweler, check out HennieJewelerscom. And I also want to thank our new sponsor, returncom.

Doug Smith: 2:36

And Leader, let me just ask you this have you ever had an interest in investing in real estate? Well, now, for as little as $500, you can become a commercial real estate investor. Just visit Reiturn. com to learn more. That's R-E-I-T-U-R-N. com. Investing involves risk. Please consult the Reiturn offering circular if you're interested in investing. Hey, leader, Today I'd like to talk to you on the subject.

Doug Smith: 2:58

Three reasons that you need to be in the room at our L3 One Day Leadership Conference in 2024. And that's right. We're hosting our third L3 One Day Leadership Conference on Thursday, February 29th, 2024. Right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we'll be hosting it at our Northway Community Church's Sewickley campus, which is a beautiful facility, and we couldn't be more excited. Our keynote speaker this year is going to be Hor Shultz, who is the founder of the Ritz Carlton. We're really excited to have him in, and I'll be talking more about the details of the conference later, but for now, if you're interested in learning more about the conference and actually registering registration is now open you can go to L3OneDaycom. Again, that's L3OneDaycom, and we would love to see you in the room on Thursday, February 29th. So, that said, today I am going to be talking to you about three reasons why you need to come to our L3 One Day Conference, but in general, I'm going to be really telling you three reasons why you need to have leadership conferences on your calendar every single year to help you grow and develop. But before I dive into those three reasons, I simply want to give you some history and background on our L3 One Day Conference.

Doug Smith: 4:00

I started going to leadership conferences very early on, from the time I was 18, I went to the Global Leadership Summit every year and several other conferences, and my life has been dramatically impacted and transformed by going to events. And I want to say around 2007, I started having a dream that one day maybe I could host my own leadership conference, because, just with anything that I experienced, I always want to bring you along in the journey with me, and I want to help other people experience the transformation that I've experienced, and so I always have had my eyes set on hosting a conference. Well, like many things in my life, it took me a long time for that to come to pass. It actually took me 12 years, but we hosted our first L3 One Day Leadership Conference in 2019. We had 220 leaders in the room. It was incredible. And then we went to host it a second year, and then COVID hit literally two days before our conference and we had to cancel, and so we weren't able to host our second conference until 2022, and then here we are, now, going into our third year.

Doug Smith: 4:57

But really the vision for the conference is we want to help leaders grow their leadership. We want to help them grow their network and to grow their future. That's the whole purpose. We want to get leaders in a room. One of our values is community, and we believe that no leader should ever do life alone, but in community. And to actually build community, you actually have to be in person, building real relationships, and I found that in my experience, nothing replaces actually being in the room and connecting with leaders, and so some of the aspiring thoughts that help us have vision for the conference are number one you are one idea and one connection away from changing your destiny. That's one of the reasons we host L3 One Day, because we believe leaders can get one idea and one connection at the conference that can change their destiny forever. And we've seen that happen over and over again just in the two years that we've hosted the conference. It's been incredible to hear the stories that have come out of that.

Doug Smith: 5:48

Number two we believe that transformation doesn't just happening by listening to lessons. It happens by actually life on life connections, and that's why we live in a day where you can watch a million talks online and you're gonna be able to watch talks from L3 One Day online but again, it doesn't replace a life on life connection. There's something about it. You need to be in the room. And number three the reason we started the conference is because we have no idea who we're developing, who we're investing in and what's gonna happen into their life and what will be set into motion as a result. And again, I've shared many, many times things that have happened as a result of us starting L3 leadership. We've seen babies be adopted. We've seen people be saved. We've seen people leave their corporate job to start their own company. It's just been incredible.

Doug Smith: 6:31

And so we get excited every year, just dreaming about what could happen. What's the one idea that's gonna happen this year? What's the one connection that's gonna happen? It's gonna change someone's life forever. What's gonna be set into motion, and so those are some of the reasons that we have this conference, and so why should you attend? Three reasons.

Doug Smith: 6:47

Number one you need to grow your leadership. You need to grow your leadership. We know this that everyone wins when a leader gets better, and I've also found that everyone loses when a leader doesn't get better. And so, leader, if you're gonna get better, then it has to be on purpose, and I talk to leaders all the time about you need to have a personal growth plan, and here's what I know about personal growth You're gonna grow today by the mentors that you have in your life, by the books that you read or listen to, the podcast that you listen to and the experiences that you experience, and one of those experiences is by putting yourself in rooms with leaders that are bigger than you that you can learn from Again, your one leadership idea or principle away from changing the destiny of your leadership journey, and so, if you wanna grow your leadership, I can't encourage you enough to have an annual leadership conference on your calendar, and I really wanna encourage you to make that L3 one day this year.

Doug Smith: 7:38

The other thing that I would say is it's also a way to invest and grow your team's leadership. If you're responsible for leading others, you know that part of your responsibility as a leader is to grow them, and one great way to grow your team is to bring them to a conference together, because it's an opportunity for them to bond together. It's an opportunity to let them know that you want to invest in them and that you value them. It's also an opportunity to help them grow. And maybe you're sitting here and you're saying, well, I don't have a team. Well, are there other people that you could invest in? Potential leaders, emerging leaders, people that you know you wanna help grow, that you could invite? Bring people with you. This is huge. If you wanna grow others, you have to bring other people with you around the journey. So the first reason you need to attend L3 one day is to grow your leadership and also grow your team's leadership. Number two is to grow your network. And again, this is the tagline of our conference. It's a one day leadership conference to grow your leadership, grow your network and to grow your future. So number two is to grow your network and this is the whole tagline of you. Or one relationship away from changing your destiny, one relationship you have no idea when it'll happen or how it'll happen and how it'll change your life.

Doug Smith: 8:43

I can't tell you how many leaders that I've met at conferences and events that have become mentors or have become a podcast interview. I remember Clint Hurdle, the former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was on my bucket list forever and I just wanted to interview him so bad. And he happened to be an event that I went to and I had a mutual connection who introduced me at the event and I asked him to be on the podcast and we ended up developing a wonderful friendship and mentorship just through that one connection that it would have never happened if I wasn't in the room. You know, at our last L3 One Day Leadership Conference, I remember a woman who leads the local big brothers and big sisters organization here in Pittsburgh. She came up to me and she said thank you so much for putting on this conference. We had Andy Tool, who's the head basketball coach at Robert Moore's university, speak and she said we went up to Andy after his talk and connected with him, and now he's actually connecting all of the athletes that he oversees. He's helped making them be big brothers and big sisters to our little littles that they call them, or mentoring young kids in their organization, and that wouldn't have happened had we not had a room or a conference that brings people together. They grew their network. This is huge and I would also say this when it comes to networking sometimes it's not the lesson that you need, but it's the life of a leader and the ROI that you get from a conference may not be from one of the talks or the idea, but it may be from a conversation that you had with a leader that you met.

Doug Smith: 10:04

There's a guy I admire greatly named Dan Sullivan and he leads an organization called Strategic Coach and I want to say that on average, to be in his program is between $10,000 and $50,000 to be in one of his programs, and he always shares a story that he hosted one of his programs and they were going through the day and one of the program participants came up to him and said Dan, the content here is okay Some of the stuff I've learned before but I got all the value I needed. I just met this guy and it's going to change everything. But I guess I have to ask you, like, what am I paying for? I'm not really paying for the content. Like, what's the value in this? And Dan replied to him. He said, yeah, but who created the environment for you to get that relationship that you got? That would have never happened had this environment not be set. And that's how I feel about O31 Day.

Doug Smith: 10:49

Like, your value may not be in getting a principle that someone shared from stage, but it may be the one connection that changes everything for you, that provides a hundred X return on the value of your ticket and being in the room. So you need to be in the room. Leaders, you need to grow your network. And then number three is grow your future, grow your future. The reality is you have no idea what will be set into motion in your life through a conference. It may be an idea that you get that changes the trajectory of your life. It may be a connection that leads to a mentoring relationship or a business partnership. It may be finally getting the courage that you needed to go after your dream. It may lead to you getting your next promotion or your next job. It could be a bonding experience that your team needed, and it could be that your team just realized that you value them because, for the first time ever, you invested in them, and so it's a great way to grow your future.

Doug Smith: 11:38

But here's what I know If you don't put yourself in the room, you don't know what you missed out on. You just don't. You don't know what ideas and connections that you could have had that you didn't because you didn't go in the room. And so my question to you is simply this leader will you join me on Thursday February 29th at our L3 One Day Conference? It's a day where I guarantee that you're going to grow your leadership, you're going to grow your network and you're going to grow your future. The details of the event, again, this can all be found at L3OneDaycom. Again, that's L3OneDaycom, but it's on Thursday February 29th 2024 at Northway Community Church of Swickley Campus. Our keynote speaker is Hor Shultz. He's the founder of the Rich Carleton and we'll have our entire speaker series lineup out soon, so be looking for that. It's going to be an all-star lineup that adds massive value to your life.

Doug Smith: 12:26

And the last thing I'll say some of you have attended L3 One Day. You might say, well, what's going to be different this year than in the past years? Well, I have a really exciting partnership. That's how you about. About a year ago, I got invited to speak at a leadership conference in Florida and the guy that put on the conference his name is Matt Higgins, and I went to this event and I was blown away by the level of excellence that the conference was put on. The entire experience was unbelievable and I thought this is what L3OneDay needs to look like from an experience level and an excellence level. And, long story short, I became friends with Matt, who hosted the conference, and we started talking. We both lead large nonprofits and are very busy, and we just talked about it's really hard to have the capacity to put on an event, and we started talking and said what if we partnered together and put on an event together? And so that's what we've decided to do, and so Matt is bringing all of his skill sets around excellence and creating a five star experience to L3OneDay this year. So if you've attended in the past, I'm telling you. It's going to be 10X the experience that it was in years past. If you've never been, get ready to be blown away. It's going to be a wonderful day and leader.

Doug Smith: 13:30

I just want to encourage you. If you want to help, there's several ways that you can get involved. Number one attend the conference. We'd love to have you in the room. Our goal is to have 400 leaders in the room. That's our capacity, so that happens one person at a time and not only you attend. If you have a team or an organization that you lead, bring your team.

Doug Smith: 13:49

I had one guy that I followed up with a leader of an organization. He came up to me after our last conference and he said oh, I'm bringing in at least 20 of my clients to next year's conference. I can't wait, and so maybe there's clients or there's vendors that you can bring as well, but help us get people in the room. Maybe you also want to become a financial sponsor. We have plenty of sponsorship opportunities. Again, you'll be able to find those on the website so you can sponsor the event, and there's different levels of benefits based on the sponsorship level.

Doug Smith: 14:14

But help us put this on financially. That would be huge for your person of faith, pray for us. Pray that God would do things that only he can do in and through the speakers and in through all the connections that are formed. And then you can also volunteer. We need people to help actually put on the conference. We need help people to help plan, to greet, to park in so many different areas. So if you're interested in any of those things getting involved, email me at Doug Smith at L3 leadershiporg. Again, that's Doug Smith at L3 leadershiporg. Or you can go to L3 one day dot com and just click the contact section. So that's it.

Doug Smith: 14:47

Leader, more than anything, I love you and I believe in your growth and I want to see you grow your leadership. I want to see you grow your network and grow your future. So make sure that annual leadership conferences are a part of that growth journey and I'd be honored if you allowed L3 one day to be a big part of that journey as well. So hope to see you at the conference in February. Can't wait, and thanks for allowing me to come into your life this week and add value to you. I'll talk to you next episode. Hey leader, thank you so much for listening to my lesson on why you need to attend L3 one day, and I really do hope that you'll attend again. You can register and get all the information that you need at L3 one daycom. Again, that's L3 one daycom. And, as always, leader. I want to challenge you that if you want to attend extra growth this year, then you need to either launch or join an L3 leadership mastermind group. Mastermind groups are simply groups of six to 12 leaders that meet together on a consistent basis for at least one year in order to help each other grow, hold each other accountable and to do life together. For me personally, mastermind groups have been the greatest source of growth in my life over the last eight years. So if you're interested in learning more about launching or joining a group, go to L3 leadership grouporg or slash masterminds or email me at Doug Smith and L3 leadershiporg. And, as always, leader.

Doug Smith: 15:53

I like to end every episode with a quote, and I will quote Craig Groeschel today. He said this. He said your life is too valuable, you're calling too great and you're God too awesome to waste your life on what doesn't matter. Make sure you're living a life and focusing on what matters. Leaders, it makes a difference. Well, I hope that this episode encouraged you, none of my wife, lauren. I love you, we believe in you and I say it every episode. But don't quit. Keep leading. The world desperately needs your leadership. We'll talk to you next episode.