Episode 271: Laura Gassner Otting: Why Success Doesn't Feel Like It Should + What to Do About It

Habits and Hustle

Jen Cohen

Entrepreneurship, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Business

4.5 • 818 Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you ever wondered what it would take to write a best-selling book? Imagine going from a phone call, to crafting an inspiring narrative, to becoming an acclaimed author. This exhilarating journey comes to life in our conversation with accomplished author and motivational speaker, Laura Gassner Otting. Laura shares her extraordinary evolution as an author, the importance of a book as a marker of legitimacy, and her unique perspective on public speaking. Laura also dives into sales techniques and the life-changing transition from working in an executive search firm to launching her own venture. Laura's emphasis on the significance of client trust and her candid admissions about the role it played in her success are truly enlightening. She also gives us an insight into her fight against self-doubt, and how her achievements served as stepping stones to fulfilling her potential. Laura has appeared regularly on Good Morning America and the TODAY Show, and her writing has been seen in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, HR Magazine. She is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of three books, including Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn’t Feel Like It Should… and What to Do About It, Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life, and Mission-Drive: Moving from Profit to Purpose. Her books have been translated into five languages. What we discuss: (0:00:01) - Laura’s journey into literature and public speaking (0:05:29) - Sales techniques (0:13:40) - Overcoming self-doubt to fulfill potential (0:25:46) - Influence of your social circle (0:30:02) - Embracing ambition and overcoming doubt (0:40:17) - Gaining strength through belief (0:45:34) - Success, networking and recognizing self-worth (0:52:09) - Emphasizing the importance of support Key Takeaways: 1. Self-doubt and fear can act as catalysts to success: Laura discusses how she navigated self-doubt and used it to fuel her ambition. Instead of letting self-doubt hinder her, she harnessed it as a driving force towards achieving her full potential. She also shares insights on how to manage fear, particularly in public speaking, viewing it as an invitation to adventure rather than a deterrent. 2. Surrounding yourself with the right people is crucial: Laura emphasizes the importance of the people you surround yourself with in shaping your journey to success. She warns about the dangers of having the wrong people in your circle and stresses the need for a supportive network that encourages and sees your worth. 3. Embracing failure and understanding that it's a part of the journey: Laura shares her perspective on failure, seeing it not as a finale but as a fulcrum from which we learn and grow. She suggests making a list of your proudest achievements and acknowledging the failures and lessons along the way, as these experiences contribute to personal growth and reaching your next goal. Thank you to our sponsors: Go to HelloFresh.com/50hustle and use code 50hustle for 50% off plus free shipping! Go to cozyearth.com and get up to 35% off site wide when you use the code “HUSTLE” Go to blissy.com/HUSTLE and use code HUSTLE to get an additional 30% off You can save 30% off your first subscription order of Ketone-IQ at HVMN.com/JEN Head over to www.pendulum.com and use code JENCOHEN for 20% off Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off. Head over to oneskin.co and use code HUSTLE15 for 15 % off your entire order.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.
0:09.0	Laura Gassner-Odding. That's the way you put it, right? Okay. Her new book is called WonderHell. Her first
0:14.9	bestseller was Limitless, which I also highly recommend. Before we go right into, go right into WonderHale,
0:20.2	because I have a lot of question. They also saw your TED Talk, which was very good. I want go right into, go right into WonderHale, because I have a lot of
0:21.0	question. They also saw your TED Talk, which was very good. I want to know your, like,
0:25.1	how did you become an author, like double author? What was your like evolution? Yeah, so my evolution
0:32.6	was in 2007, I got a phone call from Kaplan Publishing, and the phone call was this,
0:39.0	Hi, we'd like you to write a book. Are you interested? And I said, oh, come on, who is this?
0:44.6	I thought it was a friend of mine crank calling me. And basically what they said was we're writing
0:48.8	this Change Your Career series, one about going into nursing, one about going into teaching,
0:53.0	and one about going into nonprofit work. And at the teaching, and one about going into nonprofit work.
0:55.0	And at the time, I was doing headhunting for nonprofits, universities, socially responsible
0:59.7	businesses, anybody sort of in the mission-driven space. And I said, sure, why not? I've kind of
1:06.2	always wanted to write a book. Why not do it? So I wrote a book in 2007, which was this sort of how-to
1:11.5	manual type of thing. Put that on the shelf, right? I put it out, I dealt with it, but put that
1:16.6	story on a shelf. Fast forward several years later, it's 2016, and I'm selling that executive
1:22.5	search firm to the team of women who helped me build it. And I just kind of had this moment of identity crisis
1:30.7	when I'm no longer LGO CEO, Who Am I? And I bought a website, laura gassner aiding.com, because I'm
1:38.7	super clever. And I started blogging on it. And the executive producer of TEDx Cambridge called me up.
1:45.5	And TEDx Cambridge is like one of the big TEDxes.
1:47.7	I know it is. It's a big one. It's a big one. And she says, we just saw your blog post. It's really great. It would make a great talk. Do you want to do a TEDx talk? And I went, no way. That's terrifying. I don't want to speak in public.
1:57.9	I've never spoken in public.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jen Cohen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jen Cohen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.