Hallway Lessons with Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts and Laura Gassner Otting on set at Good Morning America

I ran into Robin Roberts in the hallway last week before my ​latest Good Morning America appearance​. (Okay, look, I know that sentence is ridiculous. I recognize that. It makes me uncomfortable even to say it. But, we’re going to have to get through this together, because there is just no other way for me … Read more

We All Have the Twisties

Have you been watching the Olympics? I have. I’m actually quite the Olympics nerd, summer Olympics in particular. Why? The bodies! The nearly naked bodies. But, I promise, I’m not a gross pervert. I just love seeing the muscles, the form, the fitness, all of it which you can’t see under layers of Winter Olympic … Read more

You Don’t Have to Give the Trophies Back

You Don’t Have to Give the Trophies Back Sometime around early fall 2020, I stopped sleeping. It might have been the stress of trying to rebuild a travel-dependent, event-reliant, stage-centric speaking career in the midst of a pandemic that had decimated travel, shuttered events, and obliterated the stage. Perhaps it was the ever-growing pancake stack … Read more

How to Develop Lasting Grit

Studies show that the most important skill that kids will develop isn’t a language, or math, or even coding, but grit.  In an age of immediate satisfaction, instant gratification, and trophies just for showing up, the ability to persevere in the face of challenges turns out to be in short supply.  And it’s exactly what … Read more

Believe in Your Value and Worth

About six months ago, I wandered into the world of public speaking.  It wasn’t a planned career shift, but an invitation to stand on a very big stage, that launched the new adventure.  Yet despite the warm invitation from a most reputable brand, never in a life so fueled by the guiding principle “fake it … Read more

The Worst Advice

It’s Graduation Season or, as I like to call it, Trite Advice Season. Beating out, by a nose, blissfully ignorant platitudes such as the ever-recycled, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life!” we get the world’s worst advice in the history of worst advice: “Follow your passion!” “Follow your … Read more

OH, NO…Success! Now What?

I’m often asked to speak about my experience as an entrepreneur.  Invariably, someone will ask me what I planned to do if I failed in any of the various endeavors I’ve founded or helped found.  I tell her that she is asking the wrong question of me, but also of herself. “You tell me,” I … Read more