Hoda Kotb ends her time as co-anchor of the fourth hour of “TODAY” on Jan. 10, closing a major chapter of her career. Kotb started in local news and then joined NBC News as a “Dateline” correspondent in 1998. Following a breast cancer diagnosis in 2007, Kotb pivoted again and joined “TODAY” the following year. From reporting from war zones to laughing alongside “TODAY” co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford, Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager, Kotb has followed her heart, rather than stick to a precise career path.
“If I love it, that’ll be my litmus test,” Kotb told NBCU Academy. “I didn’t have a trajectory. I didn’t say, ‘By the time I’m 25 I want to be here, by the time I’m 30, 35, 40.’ I kept following the road and the road led here.”
Check out Kotb’s reflections on her broadcasting journey above and further advice on career change below.
How did you become interested in journalism?
I loved the immediacy of it: talking to people, being curious, asking questions. I was the girlfriend who all my friends came to if they had a problem. If you’re the place where people go to give their secrets, their heart, then it does serve you well in this business.
What was the toughest story you covered for ‘Dateline‘?
We had to sneak into Burma [in 2000] to interview Aung San Suu Kyi, who was the democratically elected leader [under house arrest]. If you got caught interviewing her, you went to jail for seven years or so.
We were in a secret location. In the middle of the interview, I could feel my heart pounding. I hate to say it, but I was thinking, “Two weeks ago, I was buying shoes at Saks, and now I’m sitting here. What happens after this interview?” Thankfully, we were able to get out with a lot of help from different people on the ground.
It gave me a profound respect for the foreign correspondents who do this day in and day out. I dipped in one day, a tiny taste, for “Dateline.”
How did you handle your career change from “Dateline” to “TODAY”?
I got sick with breast cancer, and after I was done with that, I had this epiphany. Four words: “You can’t scare me.” I had just gone through the worst thing in my life, and I thought, “If there’s something I want, I’m going to ask for it.” There was a new hour of “TODAY,” so I decided it was time to ask for something.
They used to call me “Dateline Hoda,” because I was so boring, and now I was going to be sitting next to Kathie Lee [Gifford], laughing and scratching and drinking. And it was so fun. Working with Kathie Lee was a master class in how to be yourself.
You can spend a lot of your life swimming upstream. You’re fighting: “I’ll start to get the hang of it.” But sometimes you do a job and it’s like riding a wave, it almost feels effortless. All of a sudden, I felt like I was on a path that fits.
You’re masterful at conducting sensitive interviews. What’s your secret?
I usually try to listen. Which sounds weird, but I spent most of my career not doing that. I was trying to think of what’s next. I started to have more eye contact and paying attention more. It’s realizing they’re a human being and they’re trusting you with their secrets. The least you can do is really key into what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.
Sometimes, depending on the type of interview, put yourself in their shoes for a second. If they’re sharing the most tender part of themselves, they’re trusting you to hold with kid gloves what they hold sacred. I try to honor that and at the same time be professional.
Is kindness important to your work?
I think it’s super important. If you had asked me years ago, I would have said, “Yeah, but first you get the story, etc. etc.” But I often think, when we are opening our show in the morning, about people eating their cereal or running their kids around, what it must be like in their home. It’s a very vulnerable kind of time. They’re going to get the news, but there’s a way to deliver it where maybe it’s not with a mallet, not at that hour.
The news that you need is the gold standard of the “TODAY Show.” And you can also feel good with a morning boost and some incredible music. Kindness is the whole thing. I’m kind to [co-host] Savannah [Guthrie] when I see her, and she’s kind to me before anything even happens. Your energy is contagious.
What do you like the most about being a journalist?
Learning a million things every single day. It’s shocking how much you can learn in a day. I only get to live one life, but I get to talk to people, so I get to understand that life, too. I get to learn their life lessons.
The other great part about NBC is not only do you talk to people on camera, you actually get to meet them. People outside who’ve come from far and wide, people you know and don’t know, sorority sisters and old friends. I had a woman outside who said, “I was a secretary at West Virginia University, where your dad worked. I was his secretary.” My dad passed when I was in college. I looked at this woman, I almost cried.
Today I saw this woman who’s standing outside at 4:30 a.m. and she said, “You saw me about three months ago, and I told you we shared a birthday [on Aug. 9]. What did you say to me?” I remembered I said, “Leo’s roar.” Look, she made me a bracelet that says, “Leo’s roar.” Stuff like that happens all the time. It’s a real treat.
How do you find success in journalism?
Be the hardest worker. Starting out, your life’s going to be out of balance. Give a lot to it and it will pay off later. You don’t have to have sharp elbows to make it. You don’t have to be the most talented, the loudest voice in the room. I wasn’t. Just be the one who doesn’t quit. Because the road is littered with people who quit, and then there’s an open road for you.
