Laura Gassner Otting 
Whenever I hear someone decry, “Tell me what you would do even if nobody paid you, and I’ll show you your passion,” I want to hurl. Ugh. Your passion. Praise your passion. Live your passion. Follow your passion. Stop it. Tell me what you would do even if you knew with 100% certainty that you … Read more
This weekend I had the privilege of speaking to a room full of women of color, all in the first part of their careers. Each of them were trying to figure out how to marry their passions with their skills to become the leaders that they know deep inside they can be. I was the … Read more
Grandma Moses didn’t pick up a paintbrush until she was 80 years old. Steve Martin became a dad for the very first time at 67. Madonna has reinvented herself every single decade. Even James Bond was trying to figure out how to be old in Skyfall. And, why is this? Because being the same is … Read more
A few weeks ago, I tried to do a good thing for someone that I had admired from afar for a long time. We belong to a small, private community of authors and speakers. He reached out to the group with an emergency, and I, along with a few others, jumped at the chance to … Read more
“Dream it, and then you can be it!” I’m calling bullshit. You know those sun-soaked, flaxen-haired, boho-chic girls in Instagram memes, the ones who blow dandelion petals into the air as they stare longingly, and yet purposefully, into the distance? This is precisely the kind of advice they give. And it’s terrible. Don’t believe me? Then … Read more
Do you sometimes feel like your life has no consequence? We want our lives to matter. We want our love to matter. And, we want our work to matter. But, how can we feel confident that it does? It starts by first figuring out your consonance. So, what is consonance? It’s best explained by one … Read more
I have a freak flag. I’m damned proud of it, too. And, that makes me unapologetic. That wasn’t always the case. I worked hard to fit in, to be like everyone else, to wear the right clothes, get the right jobs, say the right things. And, I was good at it, and it sucked. You … Read more
I think what makes me different as a speaker is that I have this attitude, this fearless attitude. I know that everybody who’s sitting in the audience is just as afraid of screwing up as I am. Everyone that’s in the audience listening has the same fears the rest of us do. We all fear … Read more
Seven years ago, Katherine E. Jacobs and I ate slices of the best dive NYC pizza. Immediately after, we proudly marched ourselves into the chief executive suites at the ACLU to announce it would be a capital idea to put our little search-firm-that-could on retainer. You see, we knew the demographics of all their state affiliate offices … Read more
No one said parenting was easy. No one said having a career was either. Being both a parent and a professional creates a constant battle between your head and heart leaving your emotions as the unintended victim. I recently read a friend’s Facebook confession of how they were feeling guilty for being away from their … Read more