Laura Gassner Otting

Stop Asking “How Can I Help?”
We all feel a calling to serve, to solve the big problems. Each time we hear of a terrible situation, in our homes, our communities, our places of work, or the world at large, we ask ourselves, “How Can I Help?” And, we get in the way of actually helping. In this talk, Laura implores audiences to stop asking this question, and to ask a better one, one that brings a fundamental shift in how we go about solving our most vexing of problems. This talk reframes the question, and gets entrepreneurs, staff, donors, volunteers, and investors out of their own way, so that we can finally solve our big problems.

Finding Your Mission Driven Leadership Voice
At every stage of our careers, drilling down to our fundamental state of leadership matters. For those young and old, this topic speaks to those trying to find or amplify their voice towards making change in the world. Audience members come away from this talk understanding their unique leadership voice, and excited to apply that voice in its highest and best purpose in the big problems we must collectively work to solve.

What’s Your Impact?
Aimed at those trying to figure it out, or become aligned in personality, passion, and purpose, this talk lights a fire within that catalyzes energy and excitement towards making a difference. It asks fundamental questions about the change one seeks, the resources at hand, and the steps needed to take to move towards that impact.

Building a Career of Purpose
Building a career of purpose entails taking ownership over the change sought in the world and the collection of levers and resources necessary to make that change. Topics covered include skill development, network enhancement, and storytelling. This talk is personalized to the age of the audience, from audiences mapping out their career’s first ten years, all the way to audiences trying to carve out a purpose-driven retirement or encore career.

Transitioning from Corporate to Nonprofit Work
More than ever before, the nonprofit sector has become a place for those looking to give back. The impetus is there, but the knowledge of how to make the shift remains elusive. In easy to digest steps, Laura breaks down the complexities of the nonprofit sector and outlines concrete steps necessary for graduate students, mid-life job changers, and encore careerists alike to make the nonprofit sector their next home.

Laura Gassner Otting helps innovators, idealists, and iconoclasts get “unstuck” — and achieve extraordinary results. Through Limitless Possibility, Laura collaborates with entrepreneurs and investors to push past the doubt and indecision that consign great ideas to limbo. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic landscapes. Laura’s 25-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She served as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House, helping shape AmeriCorps; left a leadership role at respected nonprofit search firm, Isaacson, Miller, to expand the startup ExecSearches.com; and founded and ran the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, which partnered with the full gamut of mission driven nonprofit executives, from start-up dreamers to scaling social entrepreneurs to global philanthropists. She is the author of Mission-Driven, a book for those moving from profit to purpose. Through her own commitment to give back, Laura has helped build a local Montessori school, co-founded a women’s philanthropic initiative, advised a start-up national women’s PAC, grew a citizen-leadership development program, and completed three charity-inspired marathons—projects emblematic of her passions and values. She’s turned on by the audacity of The Big Idea and that larger-than-life goal you just can’t seem to shake. She’s an instigator, a motivator, and a provocateur, and she’s never met a revolution she didn’t like. Get a sense of Laura's on stage energy here: http://bit.ly/lgovideo