At Sampson Community College, local leaders and students watched motivational speaker John C. Maxwell provide inspiration as he shared personal moments of his life.
Although the best-selling author was about six hours away speaking to a crowd in Atlanta, participants in the “Live2Lead: Clinton-Sampson Simulcast 2019” felt a connection to someone who considers himself “just a friend” — regardless of his many accomplishments such as earning the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership.
“I love you, I believe in you and we have L2L every year to plant seeds of potential growth in your life to help you go beyond anything you could imagine,” Maxwell said toward the end of the presentation. “When you go through anything you could imagine, there’s one person who’s not surprised. His name is John and I’m your friend.”
It was one of many uplifting messages during his Live2Lead program shown in 30 countries, reaching more than 40,000 people. The purpose of the half-day event was to help participants with leadership and personal growth.
Some community members fought back tears as they listen to the speakers share their experiences. Maxwell was joined by Marcus Buckingham, author and motivational speaker; Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of Apple; Rachel Hollis, author and motivational speaker; and Chris Hogan, personal finance expert and author.
Locally, the simulcast was hosted by CommWell Health in partnership with the Clinton-Sampson Chamber of Commerce, the college and its Small Business Center.
“This has been a fantastic learning and growing day,” said Pam Tripp, CommWell Health CEO. “We are so happy to be presenting L2L in Sampson County with all of our sponsors and hosted by the Sampson Community College. We look forward to being back here in 2020.”
Hollis, a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, used a lot of energy and humor to capture the audience while spreading a message about digital leadership through social media online and missing out by not participating.
“You have the opportunity today to put something on a social platform, on a website, on a blog and touch the heart of someone who lives in an entirely different country,” she said. “And the reason you don’t is because you’re worried that you don’t have enough followers.”
She continued to encourage audience members to not be discouraged, despite low numbers or hits.
“You think that you’re an imposter and that you don’t deserve to offer your advice to the world. You think ‘who cares what I have to say,’” Hollis said. “Your story has value. The things that we have gone through are the things that someone else is struggling with right now.”
Next, she encouraged everyone to become leaders, not only at work but to the world. Hollis spoke about making people care though a global social media fanbase.
Buckingham, a best-selling author, global researcher and strength revolutionist, presented a portion of his work “Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leaders Guide to the Real World,” while sharing personal stories of overcoming a stammer as a child and an ACT cheating scandal involving his ex-wife and son, who was unknowingly involved. He left the crowd with a lesson about leaders not trying to control people like a joystick, which tied into his belief on making space for them and seeing others for their positive attributes.
“If every single instinct of yours is to grab the joystick on the Pac-Man game and even when you say I’m doing it for love, you’re not,” he said. “Love is space making. Become a great space maker. Whenever you take away the space, you take away the choice. When you take away the choice, you take away the learning. When you take away learning, you take away growth.”
Amy Artis, a regional manager for Beachside Home Service of Myrtle Beach, S.C., was one of many participants who enjoyed the L2L experience.
“It was awesome,” Artis said. “I laughed, I cried and the takeaway from here inspired me to go do more and be a better leader. I’ve been having a few bad days, but when I came in here, it remotivated, so now I’m going out with a different mindset.”
For Melissa Overton, president and owner of the MedicalTraining.me of Smithfield, has attended L2L for several years. She hopes the momentum for the program continues to grow.
“I always tell people that this is the fuel for a leader,” Overton said. “As leaders, we spend a lot of time feeding other people and giving information. We don’t take time to be fed, so this is always an invaluable opportunity to get training here.”
Christopher Vann, CommWell vice president of development/chief development officer, said he was glad to have an opportunity to share the event with the community. He was also excited to see students from Midway High School and Bladen Community College.
“We all have the potential to be people of influence,” Vann said. “We all have very unique gifts and we hope that we planted some seeds today, not only to young folks, but everyone who participated to go out and add value to everyone in their communities.”
