Author: Laura Gassner Otting

  • Top 10 Moments that Made 2024 Unforgettable

    If you caught last year’s ​Access Hollywood segment​, you know I usually dive headfirst into talking about New Year’s resolutions around this time. But this year? I’m hitting pause on that hustle. Instead, I’m pulling out the highlighter to reflect on the moments that made 2024 unforgettable, both for me and for all of us…

  • Want a perfect holiday? Here’s how.

    It’s Christmas Eve! It’s Chrstmas Eve! And everything’s perfect in Storybook Christmas perfection. Well, maybe not exactly. Let’s try that again. It’s Christmas Eve! It’s Christmas Eve! And everything isn’t perfect. But it’s perfectly *your* story. How do I know this? Because meaning matters, and I was taught about meaning in the very best possible way:…

  • Should You Quit?

    First, we need to define success for ourselves. I used to have this crystal-clear idea of what success was supposed to look like—who I was going to be and who would make my parents proud. I thought law school was the path, but when I got there, it was nothing like the courtroom dramas on…

  • That’s Ms. Jackson, if you’re nasty

    Picture me, dancing around my office, singing, “That’s Ms. Jackson, if you’re nasty.” Yes, my friends, we’re talking about control. (And, go ahead, play this little ditty while you read on… Ms. Jackson would want it that way.) This time of year, control feels like the ultimate luxury. Between the wild pace of holiday commitments,…

  • The Queen Of Control: Martha Stewart

    Last weekend I found myself entranced by the Martha Stewart documentary. I am, you see, a female entrepreneur, well on the other side of what my mother once called the “F*ck You Forties,” and in possession of exceptionally high standards which seem to me to be obvious and, really, table stakes at the barest minimum.…

  • Defy The Definitions

    It’s 2018 and I’m sitting in the dark in a hotel room on an US Army Base in Japan. It’s 3:00am, and I’m jetlagged. I’m not saying that the freeze-dried coffee of dubious age that I just brewed in the coffeemaker of dubious cleanliness is the worst I’ve ever had. But, it’s pretty damn close.…

  • Hey Hot Stuff, Here’s What I Think…

    Well, I wasn’t going to tell this story…but it’s just too good. And after last week, I think we could all use a little lightness. So, it turns out that my husband—my wonderful, endearing, and apparently very confident husband—signed up for my newsletter ages ago to support me (thanks, honey!). You know the drill: you signed up too.…

  • I Propose a Solution.

    I am from Miami, I’m think it’s cold when it is 65 degrees outside. Because my son was raised in Boston, he thinks it’s warm when it’s 65 degrees outside. The fact is that it’s 65 degrees outside.But our personal truths are a different matter entirely, and those personal truths determine how we internalize actual…

  • Scared and Afraid

    When I was about eight or nine years old, dressed up for Halloween in a cute little clown costume my mother handmade for me — or maybe it was the year I chose to go as a “car accident” and wrapped bandages all over myself and sprayed ketchup to look like blood? I don’t know,…

  • Hire More Moms

    Before becoming your favorite author and speaker—come on, now!—I ran an executive search firm. We had 35 staff living all around the globe, from Seattle all the way to Siberia (literally). And yes, I know Seattle is not far from Siberia if you take the short way, but going the other way around, we had…