Author: Laura Gassner Otting

  • Fuck the Frog

    Eat the frog?  I say “fuck the frog.” Practically every thought leader guru espouses the wisdom, “Eat the Frog First.” The idea is that if you do the hardest thing first — you know, that supremely annoying, irrationally irksome, bothersome bane of your existence thing — then it’s all downhill from there. Well, that might…

  • Selling Trust is Easy During COVID-19

    I understand selling trust. For 15 years, I sold executive search.   I sold an impeccable read of talent honed through years of Jewish Mothering and witchblood genetic evolution.  I sold a deep and wide research function the likes of which the CIA would envy. I sold a teeming database, a “little black book” which would…

  • Loss and Pain in COVID-19

    I woke up at 1:50am, feeling an overwhelming sense of loss. And, loss is hard. And I don’t mean the loss of someone who dies. That shit is the worst — the exquisite, bottomless aching of a person whose arms will never again wrap around you, whose laughter will never again peal into your ears,…

  • Doing Hard Things Alone

    How do we do hard things, let alone, do them alone? So often, we do hard things by drafting off of others.  We have friends, teammates, colleagues who get us through, give us advice, and role model for us.  Their presence speeds our plow. This morning I did the hard thing — the thing I…

  • The Blessings of Structure at Home During COVID-19

    Structure at home has been our saving grace these last few weeks. Last night, over dinner, ensconced at home during COVID-19, I asked my kids four simple questions: 1. What did you do for your mind today? 2. What did you do for your body today? 3. What did you do for your soul today?…

  • Peaceful Home? You’re Only 1 Post-It Note Away!

    Do you want a peaceful home? For the past four years, my family has held a family meeting each and every weekend.  Sometimes it’s in-depth, gathered around the kitchen table unpacking a deep and difficult problem, sometimes it’s fast and furious, in an airport lounge waiting to come back from a trip and just doing…

  • The Darkness Before the Light

    It’s always 4:30 am. We’ve all done it.  We’ve all looked at the travel website, considered the long list of flight options, and thought, “Well, if I take the 6:00 am flight, it will be a rough morning, but at least I’ll be on the beach by lunchtime…” Most of us, noting that the ass-crack-o-dawn…

  • Oprah Winfrey and My #1 Dream-mare

    Oprah, can you hear me? Today I had a rude awakening morning. You’ve had these mornings, too. They are the ones where you are thrashing about in one of those nightmares that hides as a dream, and then suddenly — bam! — you bolt upright in your bed, blinking away the sleep, trying to piece…

  • A Very Storybook Christmas

    What’s your favorite Christmas ornament? When I was a kid, growing up Jewish, I adored the shiny, matching ornaments of the department store trees, twinkling with the glow of the holidays. This one was all silver! That one was all gold! I assumed this was how anyone and everyone would want to decorate their tree.…

  • Women, Stop Being Too Nice

    Ladies, I beg of you, stop being too nice. (Not a political post, just a political setting.) At the end of the Democratic debate last night, Judy Woodruff asked the candidates if there was a candidate on the stage to whom they’d give a gift, or from whom they’d ask forgiveness. The men talked about…