Podcast summary and Notes on " laura gassner otting"

Unleashing Your True Potential: Finding Confidence and Fulfillment with Laura Gassner Otting

Key Takeaways

Unshakable confidence is the key to success and happiness — no compromises!
Ready to find the right ladder? Why you should define your success, align with your calling, and connect your actions to your goals
Remember, personal growth means priorities change
Imposter syndrome is common. You're not alone.
Break the cycle of pretending to be confident. Open up and have real conversations.

In This Episode:

[04:24] Is it worth going to Wonderhell?
[06:32] Tactical steps to go from the wrong ladder to the right ladder
[07:09] Defining success and consonance
[09:41] Prioritizing personal definition of success
[11:02] New levels equal new devils
[11:22] Imposter syndrome and self-perception
[13:20] The looking-glass self-theory
[17:51] Following your passion vs investing in your passion
[18:39] Laura’s biggest flops or face-plants
[19:40] Laura’s story on the importance of being a grown-up business lady
[25:06] Managing burnout and realizing your importance
[31:20] How to build unshakable confidence

Notable Quotes

[05:16] “If what you're pursuing is somebody else's version of success, then the answer's no, it's not worth all of it. But if you're pursuing your own, then actually the stress of the uncertainty, the anxiety, and the envy and all those things are actually not crappy feelings, they're actually signs that we're on the right track because we're living in that discomfort that we know is the only path to growth.” – Laura
[13:00] “Every time we achieve something we haven't achieved before, we find ourselves in a room we've never been in before. And then we think we're impostors because we're like I didn't expect to be here, people are going to find out. But it turns out that everybody else in that room also didn't expect to be there either.” – Laura
[13:32] “We're not who we think we are, we're not who others think we are. We're who we think others think we are.” – Laura
[16:58] “In the end, I think we have to remind ourselves that, you know, we're so afraid not to be perfect, and we're so afraid to fail. But in every one of our moments of growth, it's come out of failure.” – Laura
[22:58] “If you want to get past impostor syndrome, the best way to do that is to teach somebody something that you've already done.” – Laura

Our Guest

Laura Gassner Otting is a Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, keynote speaker, and Executive Coach. Laura’s debut book, Limitless reached #2 on The Washington Post Bestseller List. She is also the author of Wonderhell which was released in April 2023. With a 30-year entrepreneurial career, including serving in Bill Clinton's White House, Laura has a wealth of expertise. She has appeared on Good Morning America, TODAY Show, Harvard Business Review, and Oprah Daily. Recognized for her ability to see greatness in others, Laura is an instigator, motivator, and provocateur.

Resources and Links

Paul Epstein

Laura Gassner Otting

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heylgo/
https://www.lauragassnerotting.com/
Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life - https://www.amazon.com/Limitless-Ignore-Everybody-Carve-your/dp/1940858763
Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn't Feel Like It Should . . . and What to Do About It - https://www.amazon.com/Wonderhell-Success-Doesnt-Should-About/dp/1646871227

Win Monday with Paul Epstein

enAugust 06, 2023

Your Future Is Yours for the Taking with Laura Gassner Otting

This episode of The Jake Dunlap Show features Laura Gassner Otting, WaPo best-selling author, keynote speaker, media personality, and executive coach. Today, she looks back on her life growing up in a Jewish household in Texas and Miami and her eventual decision to study government in college.

She shares that the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration became the driving force behind her desire to go to law school and enter politics. Laura shares funny anecdotes of life before the internet and pivotal moments which led her to work for the Clinton/Gore campaign.

By the time she served with AmeriCorps, Laura learned that nobody actually really knows what they're doing. She shares that faking it until you make it is a real thing and that "grownups" who have it together are in the exact same boat as everyone else.

So, knowing this, creating your own future is the only real thing left for you to do because nobody will hand it to you. She shares how she actually got her job in the White House and how nothing is what it seems, especially as an intern. But with an honest desire to do a good job and listening to the wisdom of others, she made it.

Fast forward, Laura reinvents herself as a headhunter with her Rolodex filled with contacts from her life in the White House. Realizing that she wasn't part of the solution and she wasn't connecting the organizations with the people that needed them the most, she decided to strike out on her own.

She ran her firm very differently and focused on creating positive impact and aligning her work with her true values, rather than chasing the most lucrative deals. Laura talks about consonance and how knowing that you are at your best solving a problem you care about is the best motivator.

Quotes

19:03 Laura: "On the black and white TV is then Governor Bill Clinton... giving this impassioned plea about service and saying there's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed with what's right with America... and he offered as a solution this idea of community service in exchange for college tuition. And in that moment, what I realized was that needs to happen."

24:07 Laura: "I was able to fake it 'til I made it to a certain point. And then I got there and it was like built on a house of cards. I didn't actually have any of the mistakes that you make along the way they teach you things. So that's how I learned that nobody really knows what they're doing."

30:13 Laura: "I had nothing to lose, I had everything to win. And sometimes you just need somebody to sort of bang you over the head and be like, you know, he's going to fuck you... This is your moment. Take it. Go."

35:25 Laura: "I started my own firm and I then ran that firm with this very different business model of creating budgets for searches based on the complexity of the work... I was no longer trying to build the bottom line of this firm by doing the biggest flashiest searches, but I was actually trying to create the most amount of impact in the sector."

39:20 Laura: "If success doesn't lead to happiness, then what does? And what I realized is that this idea of consonance... What is consonant with who you are? And consonance is alignment. It's flow. It's when you feel like the very best of what you do is being called upon to solve a problem at hand, a problem you actually care about."

More about Laura

Laura has a passion for philanthropy and public service. She graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a BA in Government and worked as a staffer during the Clinton/Gore campaign soon after. This introduction into public service would lead her to work in the White House as Special Assistant to the Director, Office of National Service.

The White House Office of National Service was formed to author and ensure passage of President Clinton’s AmeriCorps legislation. It paved the way for the birth of the Corporation for National Service, which at that time was a $731.6 million, 400-employee federal agency whose programs annually engaged more than one million people in community service

Laura would eventually become a program officer of AmeriCorps.

In 1996, Laura finished her MA, Graduate School of Political Management from George Washington University.

Laura became the Vice President of Isaacson Miller, a nationally retained executive search firm concentrating on nonprofits, socially responsible businesses and the public sector. It is one of the largest firms in New England, and one of the most highly respected niche firms for nonprofit executive search.

She would then start her own executive search firm, the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, designed to operate with "new economy" savvy, the firm unbundles traditional executive search and leadership transition packages and offers sophisticated services tailored to clients’ various needs.

In 2019, Laura published her book Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life which talks about consonance, helping others align their work with their values, and finding satisfaction solving problems which matter to them.

Find out more about Laura in the following links: