Laura Gassner Otting 
Who’s in your framily? I found out a few weeks ago that some guy I know in my small corner of the world was talking shit about me. Over the weekend I learned that someone else from my small corner of the world has held a years long grudge against me. Just yesterday someone sent … Read more
Have you ever need to find the courage to step so far outside of your comfort zone that you found a different version of yourself? That happened to me this past weekend. I got on stage in front of 5,000 people, my biggest audience of my career, and the crowd was wild. The DJ was … Read more
Asking for advice… It seemed like a good idea at the time, right? But are you getting too much advice? You had a problem, an issue, a confusion, and you said, “You know what? I’ll get some advice. I bet Jane can help.” And so you asked Jane. But while you were playing phone tag … Read more
The year was 1994, and I was 23 years old and worth my weight in anxiety and 80s power suits inherited from my mother (the suits, not the anxiety). I was working in the White House after having Wizard of Oz’ed my way into the campaign, the transition team, and eventually a staffing role helping … Read more
When the millenium turned from 1999 to 2000, my husband and I were at a party in Greenwich, Connecticut. Don’t get it twisted. We weren’t “of” Greenwich. We were just “in” Greenwich. To be honest, It was probably the fanciest party we’d ever attended. It was thrown by peers who were friends of friends. These … Read more
At the end of 2016, a young man I know asked me to give him some career advice. I asked him the usual questions about what made him happy, and what he wanted to do, how much he wanted to earn, and the type of job that would give him these things. His answers were … Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about why we do hard things, why I do hard things, and how you can do hard things, too. Over this past week so many of you have told me things like: “You are so much stronger than me.””I could never do that.””You must be superhuman.” But, I’m … Read more
“Hey Laura, you live in Boston, right? We’re here for a wedding and would love to catch up,” said the Facebook message. The message was from my high school bully, my tormentor, my source of constant fear, stress, and anxiety, and as you might imagine, it gave me pause. Now, I’ve done pretty well since … Read more
I made it weird. Around mile 8, I started seeing all the super fit runners who’d already made it to mile ten and were on their way home. And something came over me and I just got so happy. It’s been a very long year and a half for all of us Many people I … Read more
I have a recurring fantasy about Dave Grohl, and it is fiery hot!Picture this, if you will… summer is coming to an end, the Labor Day bar-b-ques are heating up, and as soon as I throw those burgers on the open fire, my neighbor, six pack in hand, pops his uninvited head around the corner … Read more