Entrepreneur Builds Business with Skills & Inspiration Gained at the Summit

The Global Leadership Network’s premier two-day leadership event of the year has been held annually in August for the last 25+ years. Gathering hundreds of thousands of people from various industries and backgrounds, one of the things that makes The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) so unique are the leaders in our audience with a heart to make a difference in our world.

It was the GLS that gave me the tools I needed to grow as a leader.

One of those leaders is Chris Lesner—an entrepreneur who attended his first Summit with his dad back in high school. Having not missed a Summit since, Chris has absorbed the learning like a sponge, integrating new ideas and perspectives into his life as well as into his work with businesses and nonprofits globally. In fact, Chris takes the Summit to another level. For example, he rewatches his favorite talks monthly with his staff and has reached out to faculty members after reading their books. If anyone is getting the most out of their Summit experience, it’s Chris Lesner!

With an open mind and an opportunistic mindset, Chris shares how the Summit can change the trajectory of your life.

Gaining Skills to Grow

“The first time I went to the Summit during my senior year of high school, I was fascinated,” said Chris. “I didn’t have much business experience yet, so the GLS was like drinking from a firehose.”

Between his freshman and sophomore years of college, Chris’ entrepreneurial spirit led him to help start a marketing company which grew to run campaigns for national and global brands, bringing in multi-millions in revenue. “I was helping to run this marketing company, and it was the GLS that gave me the tools I needed to grow as a leader.”

Finding Mentors

Early on, Chris heard Jim Collins talk at the Summit about the concept of ‘Good to Great’ and began a journey of connecting with new mentors who would support him into the future.

“His talk was revolutionary,” said Chris. But it wasn’t just Jim’s talk that was revolutionary. What happened next impacted Chris for years to come. “I wrote him a letter just to say thank you and tell him how meaningful his talk was to me,” Chris continued. “Two weeks later, I got a handwritten letter back from Jim Collins saying, ‘this means more to me than you know.’

“I thought, there’s no way this guy, who speaks all around the world and gets paid a ton of money to do this, took the time to write me a letter! I was so excited, I framed it and put it up the next day. I’ve had it up ever since. Since then, I’ve had the chance to connect with Jim Collins and his team.”

After that interaction, Chris realized how accessible people really are. “Part of the cool thing about the Summit is the opportunity to surround yourself with high-capacity people who see things you may not even seen in yourself,” said Chris. “Because of my experience with Jim Collins, I make it a habit to try to read two books every week and many times, I reach out to the author. About 70% of the time a connection is made. There’s been some crazy conversations and doors opened as a result. You never know where God is going to take those things. I’ve even found myself flying across the U.S. to meet authors and had the opportunity to work with leaders who have mentored me over the years.”

Realizing Value

For example, it was at the Summit where Chris had the unique opportunity to personally meet Wess Stafford, then president of Compassion International, who was a faculty member at the time. “He might not have realized it, but Wess had such a big influence on me,” said Chris. In fact, Wess helped Chris see his value more clearly, which ultimately changed the trajectory of his life.

Prior to meeting Wess, Chris had been personally raising funds for Compassion with an idea he came up with to go door-to-door selling wristbands with the words “grace and love as you are” on them. “I remember meeting Wess at the Summit for the first time,” said Chris. “My voice was shaking as I was trying to tell him my story and hand him one of my wristbands. Then he just put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘thank you so much.’ I asked him if I could reach out to him, and we’ve since met and talked on the phone a number of times.”

Gaining Wess as a mentor, Chris continued to raise funds for Compassion and grow the marketing company. “We grew really fast, and I was trying to figure out what to do with my life,” said Chris. “I was in a different position than most college students. So, I started to talk to Wess about this and he said to me, ‘What if you stopped just supporting Compassion International, and instead figured out a way to use your skills to build the Kingdom and help people?’

The Summit is the opportunity to surround yourself with high-capacity people who see things you may not even seen in yourself.

Wess saw value and potential in Chris to make an even greater impact. “Once, during a break at the Summit, I was talking to Wess when my dad walked up. Wess turned to my dad and said, ‘I don’t say this about people, but I just want you to know that one day your son is going to change the world.’ And I thought, wow, here’s such an influential leader, who is sincerely focused on speaking into my life and encouraging me? That was amazing”

Skills to Build the Kingdom

With a shift in mindset about using his skills to impact the Kingdom, Chris left the marketing company to build a new venture called Project World Impact (PWI), which manages two different business models under the same entity—one to support the work of thousands of nonprofits and the other to provide digital marketing services for a wide range of for-profit companies. “On the nonprofit side, we use our proprietary software products and marketing skills to help nonprofits raise money, get more visibility, and improve their operations—collectively, the nonprofits we work with raise well over a billion dollars a year and will be seen by millions of followers,” said Chris.

The nonprofits we work with raise well over a billion dollars a year.

“Bottom line, although we don’t actually touch the people or causes served by these many organizations, we have the chance, if we do our work well, to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people through them. That’s actually PWI’s Vision, ‘To impact hundreds of millions of people’”

Expanding the Impact

Chris continues to attend the Summit and utilize the event to empower his team and grow his business. “I couldn’t have really imagined my life going this way at all,” said Chris. “The Summit has been integral in that and in my ability to lead our team to where we are today and where we want to go in the future.

“Each month, I use Summit talks to inspire our team and have great discussions. Those talks and discussions have really expanded our thinking and motivated our team members work together towards our vision and mission. In fact, our whole strategic plan is based on what I’ve learned at the Summit! I can see the tangible impact on so many people’s lives and that’s why I get passionate about it!”

Join Chris Lesner at The Global Leadership Summit and discover how this event can change the trajectory of YOUR life. Learn more at GlobalLeadership.org/Summit.