Laura Gassner Otting 
I make my living center stage, but if I’m being totally honest, I’d much rather be stage left. Stage left is where it’s at. In March, the business I spent the past four years building vanished into a germ cloud of coronavirus. This doesn’t make me special. It happened to a lot of us, in … Read more
We’re all feeling a little lost right now, aren’t we? But Cher is never lost. Last night I was thinking about all the travel I’m not going to get to do this year, and about all the travel that I loved doing last year. One trip, in particular, stood out for me: a family trip … Read more
Confidence, power, brilliance. I could look at Janelle Monae all dae in her limitless yellow. “Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.”— Janelle Monae How many times have you stopped … Read more
If you believe Black Lives Matter: Hire them. Pay them. Promote them. And have the hard conversations about why they might turn down your offer. Are you recruiting them simply for the color of their skin, to check a box, or because you are interested and actually making space for their point of view? And … Read more
Memorial Day is here and it’s gotten me thinking about patriotism lately. “We should get an American flag for our house,” I woke up yesterday morning and turned to my husband and said. “Why? Why now all of a sudden?” he replied. I had a hard time putting it into words, but I am feeling … Read more
Crisis brings out the worst in people. But it also brings out the best in people. What if it brought out the best in you, your team, your company? What if you could get to the other side of this crisis knowing that in the greatest hour of need of those who rely upon you, … Read more
The world needs your message. It’s been eight weeks of quarantine, eight weeks of completely re-branding and re-inventing myself professionally, eight weeks of being smacked in the face on a daily basis with my complete and utter incompetence. Every day a new lesson. Every day a new discovery. Every day a new failure. Every day … Read more
Who is in your inner circle? Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you keep closest to you.” I believe that to be true. And, it’s not just me; studies have shown that people with overweight friends are 57% more likely to become overweight. And, in fact, proximity doesn’t make … Read more
Are you watching Schitt’s Creek? I just finished the last episode of the last season, the series finale, this morning. I laughed, I cried, I had an a-ha moment. In the time of COVID-19, we are all the Rose Family right now, and we’re all up Schitt’s Creek. If you aren’t watching Schitt’s Creek, I … Read more
Emotionally intact. That sounds pretty good, right? So, let’s talk about do-overs, mulligans, restarts… Have you ever had any? Sure you have. We’ve all screwed up. We’ve all tried again. We’ve all reinvented. Our kids will be able to do that too. But how do you raise emotionally intact kids? Are you a parent struggling … Read more