Laura Gassner Otting

After stewarding thousands of leaders through massive moments of career shift and organizational disruption, Laura knows a thing or two about the emotional rollercoaster of going after everything you’ve ever wanted. This talk was born out of the question, “Why doesn’t success feel better?” In this keynote, Laura explains that success isn’t just an endpoint, but a waypoint, a portal that shows you that you were made for even more… if you choose to embrace your ambition, conquer your fear, and actually learn to enjoy the ride. This talk throws down the gauntlet and dares your audience members to dream even bigger.

Many of us spend our lives pursuing a singular idea of success, one that was created for us by someone else. We give votes to those who shouldn’t even have voices and strive to go faster and faster even as we ?nd ourselves falling further and further behind. We chase gold stars, we check all the boxes, we Lean In – and we still feel incomplete. In this keynote, Laura teaches you how to ignore the rules that created your limits, align your energies and your actions, and do work that really matters so that you can live your best life. Aimed at entrepreneurs and mis?ts, idealists and dreamers, as well as anyone seeking to align who they are with what they do, this talk lights a fire within that catalyzes energy and excitement toward becoming the change agent needed to maximize impact.

Your clients don’t buy your products. They don’t buy your services. They don’t buy your brand. They buy the solution that you provide to the problem that they have. In order to win at the sales game, your audience must connect to why this product, this service, this brand actually matters to them, and be able to communicate that meaning as they build mutually beneficial relationships with your clients. In this talk, based on decades of experience as an entrepreneur and chief rainmaker, Laura breaks down the process of connection… to self, to product, and to sale.

Demographic shifts in the workforce have led to conversations about purpose and meaning that have heretofore never been had. Millennials, GenXers, and Boomers alike are all demanding that their work matter more. And, yet, only one-third of the US workforce reports that they are actively engaged in their work. We are using an outdated scorecard that measures the value of a job – title, money, prestige, among others – without adding in the most important part of the equation: the employee. We know that engaged workers are 22% more productive and pro?table for their employers, but what recruits the employee doesn’t retain them. Backed up by a 20-year career in executive search and a three-year research project, comprising nearly 6000 responses from 74 different countries from before, during, and now as we come out of the pandemic, Laura Gassner Otting teaches leaders how to unlock their employees’ engagement to not only make them limitless but make their companies and their profits limitless too.