From Drug Dealer to Nonprofit Leader: Doug Smith's Remarkable Journey of Transformation

In this episode, Doug Smith, host of the L3 Leadership Podcast, joins the Lunch Break series of the Boss Juice Podcast to discuss his journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful podcaster and leader in the Pittsburgh community. 

Doug shares insights on how he was inspired by mentors, the importance of community, and how no leader should do life alone. He also delves into his work with Light of Life Rescue Mission, focusing on addressing homelessness and helping people find employment. Additionally, Doug emphasizes the significance of teachability, generosity, and integrating faith with business. This conversation shows the value of resilience, supportive relationships, and intentional living in shaping effective leadership.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:24 Doug Smith's Background and Podcasting Journey
02:52 First Big Interview and Lessons Learned
03:58 Common Characteristics of Leaders
05:52 The Importance of Community in Leadership
11:59 Light of Life: Mission and Impact
18:34 Pittsburgh's Support for Second Chances
22:29 Doug Smith's Personal Story
23:39 A Troubled Youth and Turning Point
24:42 A Life-Changing Revelation
25:58 The Start of a Leadership Journey
26:34 Impact of Mentorship and Faith
27:26 The Power of Social Media and Content Creation
30:41 Balancing Faith and Entrepreneurship
33:16 Generosity and Community
37:00 Podcasting and Media in Pittsburgh
40:18 Advice for Aspiring Podcasters
42:58 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Boss Juice Podcast - No matter how successful someone may be, they always have their story to tell. Boss Juice is a podcast that interviews small business owners, entrepreneurs, founders and the like to let them tell their story. Not just their stories of success, but their stories of failures. We all can learn a lot about business and life by listening to the stories of others! 

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Transcript

Doug Smith: 0:00

Hey, leader, and welcome to another episode of the L three 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 in today's episode, you're gonna be hearing me be interviewed by my friends Antonino Rero and Jaden Johnson on their podcast, which is called The Boss A Juice podcast. What a name. If you aren't subscribed to it already, please do. Again, that's the Boss Juice Podcast. And in our conversation, you're gonna hear me talk a lot about leadership, about homelessness, about generosity, entrepreneurship, and so much more. I think it's gonna add a ton of value to your life. So enjoy the episode and I'll be back afterwards.

Antonino Febbraro: 0:41

Welcome back to our third installment of the Lunch break series of the Bosch Juice podca st. With us today, we have Doug Smith of the L three Leadership Podcast here to talk about his story, entrepreneurship, and you know, the Pittsburgh community in general. Doug, thanks for coming on To get started, tell us a little bit about your background about the LL thr ee Leadership Podcast and how you got kind o f st arted in, in to podcasting.

Doug Smith: 1:05

Yeah. Honored to be here. The Boss Juice podcast. Yes. I've seen you guys on my social for a while , so I was honored to , to get the invite , um, specifically about the podcast, how I got into it , uh, based , I , and we can go into my story later, but I had a really , uh, hard childhood. Uh, people would not anticipate the life that I'm living now if they would've seen the life that I had to live when I was a teenager. But , uh, when I was around 18 years old , uh, I had my life turned around, I had lost my mom. She passed away when I was a senior in high school, and my whole life turned around at that point. And I had two , uh, men who were leaders that came into my life. One was who would be one day my future father-in-law. And , uh, the other was a youth pastor named Larry Bettencourt . And I started interning at this church. And , uh, Larry would bring in leaders from the community. So, you know, before there was podcasting, we'd have in-person events like this. And so someone would speak and he'd say, Hey, if you really connected with this leader, you should ask them out to coffee. And he gave us this whole process for getting mentors and what to do during a meeting, what to do after a meeting. And so I started doing that and I would invite leaders out to coffee every single month. And after about 10 years literally of doing that, all my peers started saying like, wow, Doug, you get to spend time with all these cool leaders. I wish I could. And you know , I always laugh. I just thought like, have you ever asked <laugh> ? Yeah . 'cause 99% of the reason you probably haven't met with 'em is 'cause you haven't asked. And so, but I saw that as an opportunity and I thought, Hmm . This was before podcasting was really big. I just thought, Hey, what if I start recording my conversations with leaders so it's not just selfish and benefiting me, but benefiting anyone that would listen. And so , uh, my wife bought me literally a $50 recorder off of Amazon. I know nothing about equipment. And , uh, I would just, my first interview was my father-in-law, and so I threw a small recorder in between us on a couch and his living room. And that was the beginning of , uh, now we're 400 plus episodes in. I've been doing this for 12 years.

Antonino Febbraro: 2:51

That's awesome. What year was that when you first started?

Doug Smith: 2:54

2012.

Antonino Febbraro: 2:54

Oh, wow. Okay. So you're like, you're no g you're a podcast,

Doug Smith: 2:58

OG podcast. Before it was cool is what I tell people. Yeah.

Jaydon Johnson: 3:00

A couple .

Doug Smith: 3:01

But now the competition is fierce. Oh

Jaydon Johnson: 3:03

My goodness. Oh my goodness. Yeah . But that's a cool story. That's a really cool story. And you started off, it was just audio, no mic and a video camera. Just the recorder.

Doug Smith: 3:10

Yeah, just audio. I , I didn't had video for a long time, probably until like five years ago. Okay . Yeah . So yeah .

Jaydon Johnson: 3:16

Interesting . Awesome .

Doug Smith: 3:16

I could probably learn from you guys. Yeah .

Antonino Febbraro: 3:18

<laugh> Dylan . Dylan's great. I need to boss

Jaydon Johnson: 3:20

Joe . Yeah . A boss . <laugh> .

Antonino Febbraro: 3:22

But actually, I'm gonna throw your question back at you that you asked us before this. Who was your favorite interview?

Doug Smith: 3:28

Yeah, for me, and again, it's like, I am sure it's the same for you guys, it's like picking your favorite child. Yeah . Um , I'd probably say Clint Hurtle . Uh , he was the former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I had seen him speak at a few events and just a phenomenal, phenomenal human being. But he was the first really big interview that I had, or at least that felt big to me. Uh , you know, a professional sports coach. And he was a larger than life personality. And , uh, how I got it was, I was, I had a friend that's friends with him, and we were at a fundraiser and he's like, oh, I'll introduce you. I'll set you up. I'll throw you a softball. And basically he just said, Hey, Clint, this is my friend Doug <laugh> . And he just , just total silence. I'm like, how am I gonna turn this into a podcast interview? And I just said, you know, I admire you. And , and I just asked him, and man , he's such a servant , uh, leader minded guy, and he just said yes. And so I still remember shaking, walking into PNC park and into his office, but within five minutes, he makes you feel so comfortable. And , uh, from then on, we've been great friends since. And , um, he lives in Florida now. And , uh, yeah, definitely one of my favorites.

Jaydon Johnson: 4:24

That's awesome.

Antonino Febbraro: 4:25

One of the things that I think our shows parallel is we interview leaders, you know? Yeah . We interview, we focus more so on entrepreneurs, but we interview leaders, entrepreneurs are , are leaders. And you've interviewed a lot of interesting leaders, and one of the things that we've noticed on our show is that we've noticed that when we ask certain questions, there's a common characteristic or common answer that a lot of guests give from your interviews with your guests. You know, what would you say is a common characteristic , uh, that they portray or they talk about on your show?

Doug Smith: 4:53

Yeah, I think one thing, and we were kind of talking about with this before we started recording, is , uh, people's lives aren't perfect. There's the , you know, their lives are hard. We were just talking about Clint Hurtle , and Clint's very open with this , and he would share it on a pod . He shared it on my podcast. Like he went through , uh, he got divorced twice. He was an alcoholic for a while . You know, if we go into my story, you'll hear my background. And I think sometimes when we see leaders or people we admire, you know, we see the social media highlights or see them in a newspaper on ES , espn , and we think, oh , if I just, if I could be Clint hurtle , my life would be perfect. But the reality is, man , we all go through suffering. We all fail more often than we succeed. And I think that's been what's been so humbling about it, is when you actually get to know 'em, it's like, wow, these, these are just real people who are just like you and me. And it really encourages me and gives me courage to, to go out and make my own risks. 'cause I recognize that there's no path that's just straight up into the right. It's tough, and I'm gonna hit times where I want to give up and someone this , but that's why I need community around me.

Jaydon Johnson: 5:47

Yes. It seems like those people, the characteristic is they were the best at dealing with the adversity. They were able to continue and push forward harder than the other people. Yeah . 'cause it's like indefinite that you're going to do that or have to deal with

Doug Smith: 5:59

That. Yeah. Never give up.

Antonino Febbraro: 6:01

Yeah . Never give up. I like that. And so, in interviewing these guests and you see them, they talk about their adversity and their hardships. Is there something, do you think that, and you, I'm sorry, you had mentioned community. Do you think that it is their community or the people in their life that helps them succeed? I know you had talked a little bit about how your , you know, your father-in-law played a big role. Um, or do you think that people can take their own accountability and kind of turn their life around?

Doug Smith: 6:27

Yeah, for me, so at L three leadership, one of our core values is community. Mm-hmm . And we always say that no leader should ever do life alone, but in community and other people that can charge pretty hard and , and go pretty far and be pretty successful on their own. Yes. But what I found, I actually had a leader tell me when I was in my twenties, he said, Doug, I think only about 2% of leaders make it to their finish line. Uh, truly realizing all of their potential and doing everything they were supposed to do . And a lot of times it's just because they didn't have community around them that when things got tough. So, for me, one of the reasons we do mastermind groups is we believe every leader needs to be three things, fully known, fully loved, and fully challenged. So what that means is you need a place and a group of people around you, and you're fully known that you can come to and share anything with. And when I mean anything, anything, you could be going through the hardest thing ever, but you can share that because number two, you're fully loved. And so , uh, we had a , I have a group I'm leading now, and we had a national leader who mentors me, come in and pour our guys . He said, guys, if you're struggling with something, you don't have to tell everybody, but you have to tell somebody. And he said, the people you need to tell are the people in this room. And it's because they couldn't care less what you're going through or struggling with, but it's because they couldn't care more. And so we need that. But then not only do we need to be fully known and fully loved, we also need fully challenged. You know, I often joke that my personality, I'm a words of affirmation guy in the love languages. Like, just pat me on the back, tell me I'm awesome, and man , I could charge back out there mm-hmm <affirmative> . Um, but sometimes I don't need a , a hug and a high five. Sometimes I need a full a slap in the face. And that's the fully challenged part. And we all need challenge a time with the truth of, Hey, you're better than that. Or, Hey, you need to do and we need truth. And so fully known, loved and challenge is absolutely essential for anyone in leadership. Yes .

Speaker 4: 8:09

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Speaker 5: 9:09

That's

Antonino Febbraro: 9:09

Awesome. In a previous episode, we interviewed Jeff Cher . Yeah. And , and he, he's big on leadership too. Has this whole leadership, you know, class and , and , and masterclass and stuff like that. He had mentioned, you know, one of the qualities of a leader is kind of having accountability and responsibility, but reflecting. So if you know, your team kind of points out something's wrong, you know, addressing like, Hey, maybe you're right. Do you see that quality or characteristic in leaders that you've interviewed?

Doug Smith: 9:35

Yes. Teachability is , is everything. In fact, the mentor I was talking about wrote a book called The Key to Everything. Oh , okay . And the key to everything is teachability. Uh, this is absolutely huge. You know, I , I shared , uh, on Fridays Clinton Hurdle actually got me doing this. I started sharing failures in my life. So we call it Friday fails. And one thing that we do on my team , uh, at Light of Life is we have quarterly retreats. We get offsite and we spend a large , large part of the morning planning and things like that. But then we spend the afternoon actually identifying, discussing, and solving issues. Well , one question that I always ask, no matter what in those settings, is, is there anything causing division, disunity or distrust on our team? Is there anything causing disunity division or distrust? 'cause if there is, we're never gonna be successful as a team. And so, <laugh> , the one time I asked this, it was actually one of our team members, it was our very first day, so this is her first experience. I asked that question, and one of our marketing team members said, you, you, Doug , you are causing division, division, disunity, and distrust. And it's like, and this is front of the whole team. It's not like, Hey, this is a one-on-one. So it's like, what do you do with that? Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Uh , well, one, I could get defensive and say, you're, that's so stupid. I am not, I'm a great leader. Or I can say, okay, hey, lean in and lead with curiosity. Like, tell me more. Help me understand what, what is it about the way that I'm leading? And then she ended up being very specific of saying, Hey, the way you communicate , uh, getting certain things done is very, very frustrating to us. And if you just did X, Y, Z, that would be a lot more helpful. And so I was able to make a shift in my leadership and become a better leader because one, we created a safe culture where people could actually speak up and speak the truth and give that feedback without having any punishment. And, you know, I wanna encourage the leaders. When we talk about teachability, there's a leader called Andy Stanley, and he has this great quote. He said, if , uh, when people give you feedback, if you don't listen to them, you'll soon be surrounded by people who have nothing to say, because people realize that you're not gonna actually receive the feedback. And so I think being humble and teachable is one of the greatest skills that we can ever develop in our lives.

Antonino Febbraro: 11:33

Can we get a sneak peek into this Friday's , uh, failure of the week? What'd you call it? The

Doug Smith: 11:38

Friday fail. Friday fail. What was I gonna do this week? <laugh> ? Uh, I did have this planned. You may have to, to edit this back

Antonino Febbraro: 11:44

To it , and if not , it's something, if you remember something. Oh , just like

Doug Smith: 11:46

A , I remember top tier failure. Yes . No, no. Just recently. It's actually on the same subject as teachability. Okay. In the past three weeks , uh, I've had three separate meetings where I was in a meeting with an, an individual, and all three of them pointed out to me that I, I was getting really defensive and energetic about what they were telling me. Yeah. And, and I didn't even notice it. Like, I, I was, it was it , I was actually a blind spot. I'm like, me defensive, I don't get, I'm Mr. Teachable, but it's like mm-hmm <affirmative> . Okay . Three specific people said that. And so for me, it's just recognizing like, okay, what is causing that failure for me to get defensive? And do I have too much on my plate? Am I too passionate about something? And so I really had to dissect that and get back to those people. Apologize, own it, and say, please continue to call that out me when you see it. 'cause again, that's the only way I think we get better, is when we get coached. That's awesome .

Antonino Febbraro: 12:33

Sure . Absolutely. So you had mentioned Light of Life. Can you explain what you do there?

Doug Smith: 12:37

Yeah. So Light of Life, for those listening here in Pittsburgh, we're a nonprofit on the north side of Pittsburgh, have been there for over 70 years, serving the men, women, and children of our city who are experiencing homelessness. And so what we do is we have a continuum of care. And what we mean by that is, no matter where someone is in their journey of experiencing homelessness, we want to have a next step for them. So we have a street outreach team that'll go out to those , uh, encampments and sitting out on the street, and we'll build relationships with them in hopes that they'll come in for a night of shelter or a meal. We have an emergency shelter with up to 75 beds for men, women, and children that can stay there every night. And they'll get a warm bed, a hot meal, and a shower. Uh , and then we have long-term programming as well. And so we have men and women who can live with us anywhere from nine months to two years, and we help them with their recovery. If , if addiction is part of their journey, we help them get an education and find employment. We help them have housing, and then ultimately , uh, you know, relaunch them into society, hopefully better than when they walk through our doors. And so it's a great honor to be there. I've been there for 14 years and I'm currently serving as the Assistant Executive director. So basically overseeing the day-to-day operations of the organization. And I've been in that role for about two years.

Antonino Febbraro: 13:46

You mentioned that you help these people kind of recover, find housing, and then get employment. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . How could businesses in Pittsburgh or entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh help you guys or help the less fortunate people get more involved in the business community? Yeah.

Doug Smith: 14:00

It , specifically on the employment end , and I know this depends on, you know, what your business is, but hiring the men and women that we serve, you know, a lot of these men and women , uh, we're in a position where, you know, they're undesirable in the , for the workplace. And so we're so blessed to have partners with businesses that'll say, Hey, we'd love to give someone a second chance. And we see that happen. We , uh, there's one guy that that's coming to mind that , um, one of my coworkers got him a job at BNY Mellon , uh, over 10 years ago now, and he's still there, and he's loved. Wow . And, you know, it's just an amazing thing. And so you can make a huge difference. And, you know, I think sometimes as employers, it's like, well, what's their skill level? Like, you'd be surprised mm-hmm <affirmative> . How skilled the men and women who walk through our doors are, you know, we talk about education, you know, sometimes we have to teach people how to read and get a GED, but other times, literally, we're just trying to help people who literally have master's or doctorate degrees , uh, but because of some of their choices found themselves in our door at our, you know, doorstep. Um, and we're able to help them find it. So I would say employing people one, and then two on the, the ways to get involved. Volunteering is always huge. So you can always come down. That's how I'd encourage you to start your relationship with light of life. Come down and serve a meal. See what it's like. Interact, get to know some of the men and women. Get to know their story. Don't just, you know, scoop them food. Say, Hey, how are you? What's , what's your story? And listen to them. And I think, you know, most people come to light of life volunteering, thinking that they're gonna change lives. Uh, but what they end up finding is there's , their life is the one that ends up getting transformed. Yeah . And it's a beautiful thing. Yeah . Um, and then I'm in fundraising, so I'd be remiss not to say, you know, Hey, you can support us financially as well. We're funded primarily through individuals, businesses, churches , uh, in the region. And so without them, we wouldn't be able to do the work that we've been doing for 70 years.

Jaydon Johnson: 15:36

It's such an issue that's occurring right now in our country. And it's a topic, we hear it politicized constantly. But really , uh, it annoys me when you're dealing with having conversations about human life, and it's a political conversation, like it goes a layer deeper when it comes to human beings, like our brothers and sisters who really did maybe just one or two decisions. They went off the beaten path, and now they really just need another chance. So when I hear stories like this, nonprofits like this, like, it just very uplifting to know that you guys aren't making political statements. You're literally looking at somebody for the human being that they are. Yeah . And you're seeing the best in them, and you're, and you're just, you're, you're trying to connect with them in a human level. So like, it , it's awesome. I love that.

Doug Smith: 16:17

Oh , and I learned this personally. And again, we can go more into my story, but , uh, you know, I was a drug dealer in high school into drugs. I had a younger sister, and I mentioned how my life kind of turned around because I had different people coming into my life and show me another way. My sister kept going down the same path. Uh , and about a year into my time at Light of Life, she came to me, she was five months pregnant with my nephew, first nephew. And she said, Doug, I need help. And I said, well , what do you mean you need help? And she said, I'm a heroin addict. And , um, I had no idea. I had done drugs, but never gotten heroin and had no idea what to do. So I reached out to our program director at Light of Life. And for nine years, light of Life walked me, my family and my sister through my sister's addiction. She ended up homeless twice in that nine year period. Had two kids , uh, was in our program three different times. The third time she was in our program, she was clean for 18 months. It was beautiful. I felt like I had my sister back. Uh , we're a faith-based organization too. And so she rededicated her life to Christ and became a person of faith. So that was really important to me. Um, but unfortunately after those 18 months, she ended up relapsing for , uh, the Upteenth time. And she overdosed and passed away in December of 2019. And I always share that story going back to the human side. If you would've ever asked me personally, if I would've ever known someone in need of light of life services , uh, let alone it being a family member, I would've never believed you. But what I've come to learn through my sister's story and through getting to know men and women in our program for the past 14 years, is everybody is somebody's sister. Everybody is somebody's brother, somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's mother, and somebody's father. And when you see it that way, it really does change. Everything does , when I show up to work every day , I show up because, because as long as someone's breathing, there's hope. And so I see my sister walking through the doors. And again, on the faith side, I don't mean to get too heavy on the spiritual side, but for me, you know, knowing, even though I didn't get the natural when I wanted with my sister, I believe I'll see my sister again because of light of life services. And the reality is also the work we do , uh, is extremely dark. Like we , we say that we stand on the gates of hell, like it's life or death. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . There's people that will walk through our doors today, and if they have a good experience, it could be the first step to their transformation. And if they leave and have a bad experience, we may never see them again. And tonight could be their last night. And so , uh, the work we do is so, so seriously. But you said, I love what you said, it's all about seeing the individual. And that's why I encourage you guys, when you come down, get to know people's story. Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers mm-hmm <affirmative> . He often said that there isn't a person that you couldn't learn to love if you just knew their story. And , um, I think there's so many preconceived notions about why people were homeless, and we can get into that if you want to, but it's a very complex issue. And many, many people were one or two decisions or paychecks away, way more. They're way closer to homelessness than they think. Yeah . And so I think we all need to keep that at heart with the issue.

Antonino Febbraro: 18:53

In a previous episode, we interviewed Benny Fisher, and he had said that, you know , his company is , the company is second chances, but he said, America is the country of second chances. And it sounds like you guys at Led life do a good job of giving people that, that second chance at life, at at work, whatever it may be. Do you think that the community, the Pittsburgh community, does a good enough job at supporting second chances and helping people get back onto their feet?

Doug Smith: 19:17

Yeah, I think in general, I think we all want to. I mean, I think, and I would say I would add to the second chance, third chance, fourth chance, of course, fifth chance. Uh , hey. And me too, right? It's not just people walking through doors of light of life. I need five chances, six chances, seven chances. You know, we all, we all mess up. Um , but I think that that's our hardest pittsburghers. We want to help, we want to cheer for the underdog. We want someone to rise up out of the ashes, so to speak. Um , where I would say we, we've grown, or I see growth in Pittsburgh, and the mayor often says this, he said, man, Pittsburgh was one of the most isolated cities in in the world. And what he means by that is, you know, there's a million nonprofits, but none of them talk to each other. Uh , there's a million organizations trying to help, but none of them talk to each other. And so, what I have seen since COVID , uh, as a lot of organizations, and I'm specifically thinking in the realm of, of homelessness at least, yeah . These organizations along with the city, the county light of life, are all coming together and saying, listen, we may all have different philosophies on what to do about this issue, but we all want the same thing. We all wanna see people's lives transformed. We all , we don't wanna see a people out on the street. And so we want to help people. And so that's been a beautiful thing, and I hope that that continues. And I hope that that makes us even better at giving second, third, fourth chances.

Antonino Febbraro: 20:23

Sure. Wow .

Jaydon Johnson: 20:24

That's encouraging to hear. I'm happy that, to , to hear that Pittsburgh. 'cause one thing that we did , um, in the last lunch break special is we do try to, you know, break down previous episodes that have come on and kind of interconnect for the audience who've watched multiple episodes. Sure. And also look at these larger topics, specifically in our city, because we're pittsburghers, you know, we have vision for the city, and we want certain outcomes to be there. So to hear that in the nonprofit sector, that you guys are improving your communication tenfold, that's super encouraging. When we talk about, like, the tech scene, for example, like much less important. But also if you see more of a community being built, that's when amazing things happen when everyone comes together. That's

Antonino Febbraro: 21:04

Topic though, too, kind of. We can get into a discussion on that. So one of the things we discussed on our previous lunch break series was how Pittsburgh, you know, frames itself in the entrepreneurial nature of, it's a tech company, it's gonna be the next Silicon Valley, it's gonna be the next Hollywood, you know , yada, yada, yada. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . But it's like lacking certain things where like, the money isn't here. It seems like, like if you're, if you have a , a health startup , you're off to the races. But tech ai, things that are more risky, like the culture here we we've discussed in the past is different in that the city might not be willing to take a risk on something that might not see a return for five years. And it's just, we talked about it like, maybe it's the culture here,

Jaydon Johnson: 21:45

Conservative.

Antonino Febbraro: 21:46

Right. You know. Do you feel that the culture around nonprofits in the city is, is like that? Or are people more close-minded in to , you know, helping fundraise? Or what's been the experience around that?

Doug Smith: 21:56

Yeah. Not at all. For me, at least a light of life. And , and again, I know there's, I forget how many nonprofits are in Pittsburgh. There's plenty. Yeah. Um, but my experience, at least the light of life has been people are overly generous. Organizations are overly generous. Foundations are overly generous , uh, because I think everyone wants to help. And so that's been my experience overall. Again, I can't speak for all nonprofits. I would also say, you know, at light of life, we're dealing with a major issue that's front and center of everyone. And I think everyone's heart. And same thing with the food bank, like in general, like basic human needs. You know, those are the areas that people usually care about the most. So often, even, even when there's pandemics or, you know , uh, issues going on in our economy, we're usually the last to feel it . 'cause everyone has a heart that, hey, no matter how bad things are, we wanna make sure that no one goes without. And , uh, that's one of the beautiful things about what we do. And I think the nonprofit community here in Pittsburgh,

Jaydon Johnson: 22:45

That's amazing. That makes me proud. Um , I , I want , I root for Pittsburgh. We were talking about sports earlier. We're rooting for the professional teams. We're root let's go root for the tech scene. But to hear that, you know, at least as of right now, the , the , the overall vision for Pittsburgh and the nonprofit scene is looking very positive. Like, that's amazing. I love to hear that.

Antonino Febbraro: 23:04

And let's dive into a little bit more about leadership. Sure. And kind of, I want to talk more now about your journey of becoming a leader. So you had briefly mentioned, you know, you had some run with drugs and , and whatnot. Can you just open up a little bit about your story? 'cause I think that it's important for listeners to understand that leaders are not perfect. We might have a shady past , we have a shaky past , but it's about how we overcome and build ourselves up to a , a , a better version of ourselves. Can you just share a little , a little bit more about your story? Yeah.

Doug Smith: 23:32

Yeah. Growing up at , I grew up in Wexford, north Allegheny School District had a pretty normal family life until middle school. In middle school, you know, two things happened to me. One was , uh, my mom got diagnosed with a rare nerve disease. So it wasn't ms, but she basically lost, she had pins and needles in her legs and feet 24 hours a day. Ended up in a wheelchair, ultimately ended up in bed most of her life. Um, and so that changed a lot. My dad had to work two jobs, and my dad's a bus driver for our school district. And , uh, at the time, he was driving trucks on the weekend to get our family by. So my dad, you know , I went from always being around to basically being able to do whatever I want as a 13-year-old, which when you're 13 is awesome. <laugh> No one wants boundaries. But it wasn't awesome for me long term . Uh , and then I also went to a faith-based , uh, camp over one summer, and that's when I became a person of faith. And so I actually wanted to be a pastor when I was in middle school. Uh , but because I had no boundaries in the middle of eighth grade to ninth grade , uh, I was in the woods and tried drugs for the first time with my friends and never looked back, felt totally away from the whole church thing. Never wanted anything to do with that. Again, found out that my mom had these pills called Oxycontins that I could sell, which is basically synthetic heroin. And so I sold that in our high school. Um , I did all kind of drugs and just basically partied. Barely. I , you know, I had to go to summer school every single year just to get to the next grade. Um, but that all changed my , you know, and if you would've ever said anything to me like I'm a leader. In fact, I remember my senior year of high school, me and my buddy got called to the office for the upteenth time. And , uh, and the vice principal , uh, Walter Minsky , who I still am friends with today, he looked at us and said, guys, I'm so sick of seeing you here. Uh , you guys are leaders and people follow you. And you can either use that influence for good or use it for bad. And right now you're using it all for bad. I encourage you to do otherwise. And we walked outta the room, we just laughed. We're like, can you, that guy thinks we're leaders. Funniest thing ever. Yeah. Well , uh, fast forward later that year, in my senior year, my mom ended up passing away. And if, again, person of faith, the only thing that bothered me when my mom died is I didn't know if she had a relationship with Christ. And I didn't know why that bothered me. 'cause I didn't care about God at the time. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Uh , but I'm tormented by that. I'm getting drunk in high every night. And that thoughts just hitting me like, you're never gonna know. And three months after my mom passed, I get this call from a relative I don't even have a relationship with. And she just said, Doug, I really felt like God put you on my heart this morning and wanted me to call you and let you know that I was a nurse in the hospital with your mom. And I led your mom into a relationship with Christ. And I think God wants you to know that. So for me, that's crazy. Hey , my niece hit the floor. I opened my eyes . I started crying. I said, God, whatever you want for the rest of my life, I'm yours. Two weeks later, I, I put in quotes, randomly got invited to a Bible study that was led by a mom in our high school. 150 kids would go to this every week. Wow. And I saw this beautiful girl sitting on the couch. I'm like, I think I could show up here every week. Uh , left. And I said, fellas , I told my high school friends, I met the girl I'm gonna marry. Uh , which spoiler alert I did. Uh , and her mom was the one that led the study. And she said, I said that to my friend . She said to her mom, I can't believe Doug came to to Bible study tonight. He's one of the most influential kids in our school. But he used all his influence for party and drugs. Like if he ever got intentional with his life and followed God, like I think he could change the world, <laugh> . And this is really the start of the leadership journey. Like, for whatever reason, that mom who was married to who would be my father-in-law, who was the dean of admission at Carnegie Mellon for 45 years. Oh wow . Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little intimidating. No ,

Jaydon Johnson: 26:45

But that's pretty cool. That's a good father-in-law. <laugh> . Yes.

Doug Smith: 26:47

But he came into my life and he became a father figure. And, you know, I was, I was telling someone my story the other day, a friend from high school who knew me, and he said, how many, how many kids do you feel like that are in this situation that you were in actually get out? And I , I'm an optimist by nature, as you could probably tell. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And I said, I bet 50%. And he goes, I think it's more like five. Wow. I mean , my heart just shattered. But what I've learned in my experience is the number one way, and again , again, as a faith-based person, God was the number one way out. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . But in the natural world, the number one way out was having people show me another way of life. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . It was having my father-in-law, Dean of a mission . Say, you're a leader. You have potential. You should go to college. 'cause I barely graduated high school. You need to go to college. You can do great things. You can change the world. They brought me to a church where I met the youth pastor. I mentioned. He was the second father figure in my life. And these two men showed me a different way of life and actually gave me a vision of myself as a leader and someone who could actually do something with your life. I had no, when I say I had no ambition, I was the laziest kid. I used to make my parents, I, I wouldn't even take my dishes from in one room to another. I'd just leave them there for my dad to clean up. Uh, and so for me to turn my life around from there to where I am today , uh, is unbelievable. But it's really because of the people that came alongside me and showed me that I had potential to be a leader.

Jaydon Johnson: 28:01

Amazing. In the world of social media, this is the real, like, blessing in the world that we live in today. Uh, people that have podcasts is that Yes . You know, with social media now, everyone is so interconnected. This is the information agent . We thankfully can be that type of mentor, at least a first stage of that with the youth, just by making content and putting it on our phone . So it's, you know, to go to God, I really believe it's a blessing. It can be a curse as well, but if we use our platform for good, we could be that first step for somebody who's in that position, you know, to get out of it. Or at least think that it's possible just hearing a story like this. So we are living in interesting times and , and that's incredible, man. Yeah.

Doug Smith: 28:39

That's so incredible . Well , and everything I do today, I do for that very reason. Yeah. Every podcast I write, every social media post I, I put out there, any, anything that I put, it's because, man , if this impacts one person and they get a similar message that I got and helps 'em turn around their life, man , I'll do that every day for the rest of my life. 'cause it's possible. I understand people . Like my story is living. I don't care where you are, how bad your journey is right now, how old you are. You can have an amazing life if you'll just start to live intentionally and get around the right people.

Antonino Febbraro: 29:04

Going off that topic, have you ever gotten feedback from someone that listened to your podcast or read one of your posts and said, Hey, you changed my life.

Doug Smith: 29:13

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh , it's crazy. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Uh , I feel like I get that all the time. Um, one that comes to mind, I, I , I used to have a blog. That's how I basically started before podcasting. And again, this is more on the faith side of things. Again, I don't know your audience, but , uh, I actually wrote like how to have a relationship with God , uh, on my bout page. And , uh, this girl who I didn't even know, like calls me out of nowhere and she's like, Hey, I , I just want you to know that I literally just printed out your entire about me page. And I, I gave my life to God. And I think I'm supposed to tell you that. I'm like, and now she's, she's a leader in her community making a huge impact. Um, I've had people come up to me and say, Hey, I was at the darkest point . I remember I was working at a bank , uh, when I started writing. And this kid came up to me who I didn't even know. And he said, Hey, I just want you to know I was in the darkest season in my life and your posts on a daily basis, or the only thing that got me by, thank you so much for doing that. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And so people can criticize creators all they want of like, oh, are you just doing the podcast for you? Or you just want, like, no, I, I believe I can impact lives. And I've seen that and it becomes addicting. Like I am addicted to helping transform lives. 'cause there's nothing more fulfilling. Money won't fulfill you that way. Uh , big house won't fulfill you that way. There's nothing like knowing that you had a positive impact in the life of another mm-hmm

Jaydon Johnson: 30:24

<affirmative> . So me and my family, the holiday season are coming up and we have a tradition every year , uh, right before Christmas. We watch It's a wonderful life together. Yes. And I mean, that's the basis of that entire story is that he thought that he had missed out because he hadn't got all of the material wealth. But then he realized that his life was completely fulfilled because all he had done his whole life was served . So it's an amazing, amazing story. Dude.

Doug Smith: 30:44

I cry every year. I'm trying not same year , man . When he opens the book and the , the angel, what's Aaron Joe's name ? Clarence. Yep . And it's like, man, he has no failure. Who has friends? Yes . Oh ,

Jaydon Johnson: 30:54

It hits us every year on , there's usually like 20 people in my parents' living room. And , and we're, we're losing it a little bit. <laugh> . Yeah ,

Antonino Febbraro: 31:00

Absolutely. Yeah. Oh my , that's an interesting topic though. 'cause I want to tie in your , your , your faith. So I'm Catholic. Yeah . I was raised Catholic. I'm a practicing Catholic. Whether I go to church every Sunday is a different story. But, but I, I , I , yeah . You know, I Jesus, Jesus and I are tight. Okay . All right . You know , um, good . But I think that as a Catholic, and, you know, being strong in my faith and being an entrepreneur, there's this question that always came up in my mind around, you know, greed and , you know , 'cause Jesus' teachings are a lot about, you know , kind of helping the poor, you know, don't, don't be greedy. You know, you know, be , be selfless. And I feel like the, the business world, the entrepreneurial world is more, you know, all about how much can we take in and how much profit can we make. Do you think that, you know, there's a way that, you know, faith can be served in business?

Doug Smith: 31:51

Oh, for sure. I mean, when it comes to greed and, and I forget, I'm not gonna remember the actual statistic, but Jesus talks more about greed a lot more than he talks about a lot of the stuff that we bicker about and judge other people for that crazy <laugh> , no one, no one ever looks within themselves and say, am I like, no one ever reads that scripture where Jesus calls people out on greed, thinks, oh, that's me. <laugh> . Right ? Yeah. But man, how many times in scripture does it say like, man, here's a warning to those who are rich mm-hmm <affirmative> . Um, on the generosity front. So, so one in Christianity, so from , at least from my journey , uh, tithing is a part of that. And so it's giving 10% of your income. We, we tithe off the gross , uh, to God that I've done that since I was 17 years old. And so one, and we believe the tide belongs to God. So that's not even technically giving, it's just giving back to God, what is his. But even having that heart of like, Hey, the first thing I do when I get paid is I give my 10% to God. Now, where I've, my wife and I have been challenged and have tried to grow in generosity is every year we, we just pray about God, how do you want us to give this year? And we try to increase that percentage of our income. And some years we've been able to do a lot more. Some days we , we've had to scale back. We do have five kids or fifth kid on the way. Uh , which is crazy. Wow . But , uh, the , the model or what inspired me, Rick Warren, who is a pastor in California, he purpose-driven life bestselling book of all time outside of the Bible, he has a TED Talk that's phenomenal. And when he wrote The Purpose-Driven Life, he said , um, he became very, very wealthy. Right. Obviously, if you have the second bestselling book of all time. And he said, I didn't buy a new car. I didn't buy a new house. What he did do, which I love, is he now reversed tithes. He gives 90% of his income away and he lives off 10%. And , uh, he paid back the church any, every single penny and dollar that the church ever paid him. 'cause it was never about money for him. And for me, that's kind of been the motto of like, Hey, I , I don't know if we'd ever get to 90%. That would be pretty cool. Yeah. But what if we thought more about how much we can give than how much we could save and invest every year , um, and make a difference through our giving. Um, I think that could go a long way in helping people. Uh , yeah. But overall, I would say entrepreneurship and faith. Like you guys are making the world the best way I've heard faith work integration is no matter what you're doing, if you're making a widget, et cetera , ultimately you're making the world more of the way it ought to be in the kingdom of God. And so there's great work . You know, a lot of times people say to me, oh, I, you know, I don't work at light of life. Like, the work you do is so noble, but the work you do is a software creator is just as noble. Like, you're creating something that make , is making millions of people's lives better. And again, you might be on the coding end of that thinking, what does my coding have to do with this? But on the other end of the user, it's like, Hey, how many apps am I grateful for that I use every day that there's hundreds and thousands of people that made these things possible? A hundred percent . And I think when you find your purpose in that , uh, it's a lot more fulfilling and not being like, oh, I don't work at a nonprofit , so I must not be making a difference for God. I don't think that's true at all. Right.

Antonino Febbraro: 34:37

One of the other interesting things I think about our society is sort of our tax code. I mean, there's , there's tax incentives for businesses to donate to nonprofits, to charities. Do you think the government does a good enough job of incentivizing businesses to help nonprofits?

Doug Smith: 34:50

Uh , yeah. So I'm , I'm not gonna be great at all of these questions. <laugh>, you guys could probably answer what I will say, and I'll challenge those, especially if people of faith, if, if you, if if giving to benefit from, from taxes is the only reason you give, then like, it's really not charity at all. The real question is, Hey, if you got no benefit from the government for giving , would you still give? And would you still give it the levels that you would? And I think that's the true, you know, Jesus warn about, it's all about your heart, right? The , the story, the widows might, she gave everything she had, which was barely anything. And Jesus said she gave way more than all those entrepreneurs who had tens of millions of dollars, and they may have given hundreds of thousands of dollars, but compared to what they had and what was in their heart, they did it for the wrong reasons. And , and Jesus actually says, man, if you give for the wrong reason, if you are giving to impress people to say, wow, look at me, or Look what I did, you , that's your reward. There is no other reward. Yeah . Like you did it for you. Yeah . And so generosity is all about a heart issue and how you can make an impact. So that would be my challenge to entrepreneurs listening to ,

Jaydon Johnson: 35:48

To add to the point that you made earlier, I think that's the importance of community and fellowship is that if you have people holding you accountable, they will ask you or they will see those things inside of you. It's still up to us to accept the truth and to, you know, reflect on the reason why we're doing things. But it starts with having a bunch of people that you trust that can call you out and be like, Hey, man, you look like you're a , uh, a reap in the glory. A little bit too much on that thing that you did being on stage, or, you know, this doesn't seem , uh, doesn't seem genuine. So,

Doug Smith: 36:16

Oh, and you mentioned community. Uh , so I've been leading mastermind groups for over 10 years now. And part of the , what we do at mastermind groups is we share our goals with each other. And often what I found is people of faith have giving goals, and there'd be people who maybe weren't in that season of their life or maybe weren't people of faith, and they hear about other people having generosity goals, and then they get inspired, and then they start to give, and then you can go back and forth. Like there's a , there's a guy named Dave Ramsey, I don't know if you guys are familiar with him. Yeah . Dave Ramsey, one of his life goals was to give away a million dollars in a day. And I think just a few years ago, he did it. Like, man, when you start getting excited about generosity and impact, you can make financially think of how much that would drive you to bring in even more revenue for your business, when you can make an even bigger difference. Of course , it's , it's a much better motivator. Yeah ,

Jaydon Johnson: 36:57

Of course.

Antonino Febbraro: 36:58

I agree. Absolutely. I think that's important too. Speaking of Dave Ramsey, I , I know a little bit about his story. He's done a lot for his employees. I mean, if you listen to his story and what he's done for some of his employees, it's incredible. So when you talk about, you know, I'm sure that guy makes a ton of money, but where his heart's at, you know, I think he's, you know, more focused on the , the giving than , than the money. So , oh ,

Doug Smith: 37:16

Yeah. He's one of my heroes. I know recently, I think around every Christmas they'll go to either Costco or the mall, and everyone gets a thousand dollars, every employee, and he has a thousand employees. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Gets a thousand dollars just to go buy their family presents or whatever. It's just one example. So yeah. Find heroes that are generous and , and have them inspire you. Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Antonino Febbraro: 37:33

Absolutely amazing , man . Absolutely. So, going back onto the , the whole podcast realm and interviewing , um, different leaders and , and starting a podcast in Pittsburgh, one of the things I want to talk about on the entrepreneurial side is we believe, I believe that podcasters are another level of entrepreneurs. You know, there , it's, it's still a risk. You're , you know, it , the barrier of entry might be low, but it's still a risk. You know, you're still trying to create something, build something, build a brand and a business out of this. Do you think that Pittsburgh has a good culture around podcasting or

Jaydon Johnson: 38:07

Media in

Antonino Febbraro: 38:07

General, or , or media in general? Sure.

Doug Smith: 38:09

Yeah. Uh, I don't pay that much attention. Like, there's a few people on my island, like, you guys are on my radar now. Um, so I , I think so, but at the end of the day, it's just like, Hey, just , just create like, and, and when I meet podcasters, so , uh, this is totally random, but if you're meeting people that compete against you, like hopefully that just drives you more of like, Hey , uh, I'm reading a great book now called Choose Your Enemies Wisely <laugh> . Um , which is really, really interesting. Yeah . Uh , but it's basically like, Hey, how many, like if you watched the last dance with Michael Jordan, like how many times was he driven by an enemy who was another player who said, man, Jordan's not that great. I I'm gonna own him tonight. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And what did Jordan say? Man, that's all I needed. Yeah . Yeah . So, but when we actually, so I think it's great to compete against one another. Um , but what I found is when we actually get, and again, going back to community when we get in a room together. Yep . Hey, we can compete all day out there. But yeah , it's , it's a brotherhood, it's a sisterhood. It's brothers and sisters coming together and friends. Right. And so understand , I think on the community sense, yes. It's very, very good. Even if we have some, Hey , I need to outdo that. I need to , man , boss Juice is competing with me now. Yeah . But you

Jaydon Johnson: 39:11

Mentioned it even with nonprofits, the nonprofit scene in Pittsburgh, you felt really , uh, grew, you know, two three x because of communication between different nonprofits. I think to answer his question, my opinion is there's not, we haven't , uh, reached our full potential in regards to the media potential that Pittsburgh has. Yeah. There isn't massive brands, you know, like there's not a Joe Rogan podcast or Yeah . Even something , let's change that , something smaller. Yeah ,

Antonino Febbraro: 39:33

Absolutely.

Jaydon Johnson: 39:34

But it starts with people coming together and just like, you know , reposting each other's stuff. Like, I'm very thankful that we got to sit down with you today and , and hear your story and Yeah. Just amazing. So, you know, hopefully we, we spend 2025, you know, helping each other out. So is

Doug Smith: 39:47

That the goal of the Box Juice podcast is , uh, competing with Rogan <laugh> ? Yeah . That's

Jaydon Johnson: 39:51

Good .

Antonino Febbraro: 39:51

One , one day. One

Jaydon Johnson: 39:52

Day. Like I always told him I'd love to have him . He reminds me a Lex Friedman. He's a Lex Friedman guy. I believe in him. <laugh> ,

Doug Smith: 39:57

Let's go .

Jaydon Johnson: 39:57

Let's go. Yeah. Good question. Asker, you

Antonino Febbraro: 39:59

Know, I've got him better. I will say, you know, it's been a , it's been a journey. You know , Dylan's been Di Dylan . People don't know. I gotta shout Dylan for a second. 'cause he , he's good at what he does. He's, he's good at critiquing and , uh, you know, he gives me good feedback. And so, as you kind of mentioned, being able to take feedback and listen to what people say, you know? Uh , so he's

Jaydon Johnson: 40:16

Blunt. He tells you the truth. Yeah . Even when it hurts really bad. He's our guy. That's our guy .

Doug Smith: 40:20

I can't wait to hear the feedback on this episode. Let's

Jaydon Johnson: 40:22

Go.

Antonino Febbraro: 40:23

But Doug, you know, I , I appreciate you kinda sharing your story and you know, things about nonprofits and your , your views on podcasts and , and , and leadership. Usually we ask our guests a question and it's about their word of advice for entrepreneurs. But I want to change this question today because, you know, I do view you as an entrepreneur , uh, as a leader. But we wanted to change, you know, Jay and I were talking and we kind of had an idea for a different type of question. And Jay , this was your , your idea. So why don't you kind of hit him with our Yeah . Our little change of

Jaydon Johnson: 40:55

<crosstalk> . So we do one word of advice but because of the fact that you've made such a career in media and you've been doing it for a very long time, what would be your one word of advice for podcast or brand personalities based on your experience? What's the one word of advice?

Doug Smith: 41:09

Oh , man . Me with one word, with anything. It's tough. You

Jaydon Johnson: 41:12

Can make it like 20 ,

Doug Smith: 41:13

Trust me . So , so start where you're at and get feedback and get better. Start where you're at, get feedback, get better. So start where you're at. One of my, the , the greatest things that I hear for feedback from me on a positive note is, Hey, I went back and listened to the first 20 episodes of the L three Leadership podcast, and I am blown away by how far you've come in question asking and quality, et cetera. And so to look back on a journey of growth, the 12 years, phenomenal. Always get feedback. The times I've grown most, I ask two questions at the end of every , uh, podcast that I do. Number one is, Hey, make me better. What, what was this experience like for you? I'm gonna ask you guys the same thing when we get off this mic. What , what could I have done to make the experience better? How can I be better the next time I'm a guest or the next time I'm a host? A lot of times people say, oh, you're great. Great. I've had probably three or four, and I'll just give you one if it's , if it's helpful . Helpful. Yeah . Uh , I remember which it was two, same piece of advice from two different leaders. One of my mentors said, Doug, when I listened to you on the podcast, it sounds like , uh, you're so focused on getting to the next question, that you're not actually listening to the guest. And I would come up with a , uh, three or four pages of questions. So I thought, okay, I need to chew on that. Ken Coleman, who works for Dave Ramsey, he's interviewed people for a living. I brought up that feedback to him after an interview, and I'm like, Hey, speak to me. He's like, well, what are you afraid of? I'm like, what do you mean? What am I afraid of? He's like, you're afraid of something. If you're so focused on going to the next question that you're afraid , you're , you're not afraid what the audience think the audience is in here. He said, you're afraid of the person you're interviewing. You think that they're better than you. And the reality was, I did. And I was so insecure about what the people sitting across me thought of me. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . That I , I didn't let my curiosity lead the interview. That feedback changed everything for me. And so I got feedback that was number two, start where you are, get feedback, and then grow. Okay. I changed some things after that. I stopped caring . I not completely, but I stopped caring about what my guests think. I listened . I didn't have to follow my script of 30 questions. If you guys said something and I'm interviewing you, and I'm like, wow, I'm just gonna follow that. Yeah. That was a game changer in my interview skill . So that would be my advice to people in media. Just always get better.

Antonino Febbraro: 43:13

That is amazing, man. Yeah, that is, that is awesome. Cool . Doug, thanks for coming on, man. I really appreciate the time.

Doug Smith: 43:18

Yeah . Lost juice. Hey, we're playing with Rogan. Let's go. Yeah , let's

Antonino Febbraro: 43:21

Go. Absolutely. One day, Joe, we want you to come on. <laugh> . Yes.

Doug Smith: 43:25

I'm , I , invite me, I I went in the room. Remember me when you're that big. Yeah .

Antonino Febbraro: 43:29

Hundred percent . Okay. Cool . Thank you so much, Doug . Doug , Doug .

Doug Smith: 43:33

Well, hey , leader . Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with my friends from the Boss Juice podcast. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. You can check out their podcast, the Boss Juice Podcast, anywhere you listen to podcasts. I encourage you to check them out. I also wanna thank our sponsor in Dosha Marketing Solutions. They are the producers of this podcast, and if you are looking for help with your organization's marketing, I cannot recommend them enough. I've been working with them for years. You can check them out@enddosha.com, that's a n do CI a.com . And as always, I like to end every episode with a quote. And today, I'll quote Lao too , who said this, A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled. They will say, we did it ourselves. I love that. Well, that's gonna make a wrap on today's podcast. And as always, leader, remember, don't quit. Keep leading the world desperately needs your leadership. I'll talk to you next episode.