10 Questions with ... Liz Claman

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Producer, KCBS-TV/Los Angeles; Reporter, WSYX-TV/Columbus; "Morning Exchange" host, WEWS-TV/Cleveland; Anchor, WHDH-TV/Boston; Host/Anchor, "Wake Up Call," "Market Watch," and "Cover to Cover," CNBC and Anchor, MSNBC; Anchor, "The Claman Countdown" Fox Business Network and host, "Everyone Talks to Liz Claman" podcast, Fox News Radio

NOTE: Liz will once again be anchoring for Fox Business Network the week of January 6th from CES in Las Vegas

1. What got you interested in journalism in the first place? What was the trigger to get you started in the business?

In 6th grade, my dad brought home our first video camera. I come from a family of five kids so we all pounced and began playing with it. Each one of us sprouted an alter ego: my brother pretended he was race car driver Mario Andretti, my sister Holly wanted to be Barbra Streisand, and all I wanted to do was interview them.

But if you're looking for the exact trigger, it arrived in the form of one single class I took as a student at UC Berkeley: Broadcast Journalism. The professor, Andrew Stern, had worked at ABC and CBS during the '70's. He told us about covering breaking news -- major stories from the Vietnam War to the Jonestown massacre in Guyana. He also showed us old Edward R. Murrow "See it Now" episodes. The one that surgically destroyed Senator Joseph McCarthy and his vicious Red Scare hearings hooked me. McCarthy was bullying America and everyone was too frightened to speak out. Murrow did it simply by reporting the facts and down McCarthy went. I realized then that while the pen may be mightier than the sword, television--with its reach--had the power to be mightier than everything.

2. You added a podcast to your already busy schedule earlier this year. What prompted you to do a podcast, and what's your goal for it?

I do a daily, one-hour show. Ex-commercials, I'm left with about 47 minutes to get my viewers up to speed on all the stories that have brought the markets to where they are in the final hour of trade, bring them crucial interviews with business newsmakers, add in original reporting courtesy of our star reporter Charlie Gasparino, and top it off with our Countdown Closers -- market makers and high finance names who reveal their best ideas in the final 3 minutes of the show. I'm thrilled by the frenetic pace, but I'm often thinking, "I wish I had more time to give the backstories of these amazing guests." I realized that a podcast would be the perfect vehicle to tell those stories. I let the idea gel, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized what fascinates me most about these luminaries who come on my show wasn't so much their amazing successes but rather, the 'climb.' The stumbles, falls and failure they endured *before* they found success. I'm fortunate to have an amazing assistant, Tania Joseph, who I immediately bestowed the title of podcast producer upon, and together we decided to launch "Everyone Talks to Liz." We established a high bar: we only want to tell stories of people who have reached great success only after facing real challenges. And the stories we tell must leave listeners thinking, "After all this person has overcome to achieve their dream, if they can do it, why not me?"

3. You have interviewed business leaders from (all of the) Treasury Secretaries to A-list CEOs and entrepreneurs. Which business stories stand out to you as most inspirational?

There are so many. Howard Schultz grew up in public housing, had an abusive father, endured poverty and yet grew his dream of a coffee house chain into Starbucks, even as just about everyone around him said he was crazy. This is the guy who turned the people of the United Kingdom and China -- two TEA DRINKING NATIONS -- into Starbucks addicts. He's my kind of crazy.

But inspirational stories come in smaller, less famous packages too. Dave Dahl was in and out of prison for drugs and robbery for much of teens and twenties and thirties. When he finally got out, he worked at his parents' bakery in Oregon, obsessively worked to develop a recipe for organic bread, called it Dave's Killer Bread, and hit local farm stands to peddle it. Today he's a multi-millionaire and Dave's Killer Bread is sold in 22,000 outlets around the world.

4. Now, for the non-business guests, the same question: Which stories from guests have been most inspirational to you?

9 years ago, I began volunteering for a charity called Building Homes for Heroes. We build mortgage-free, custom homes for our worst wounded soldiers. Many of them are paralyzed, amputees, blinded by IED's. After the ultimate sacrifices they have made, giving them and their families a roof over their heads is the least we can do. It is their stories of courage, grace and, ultimately, their inner strength to face each day and move forward under excruciating circumstances that make them my favorite interviews, but I'd be lying if I said they were non-business guests. Many of them have started their own businesses after being gifted one of our homes. It helps them start a new and productive life. Staff Sgt. Aaron Hale was a member of the Army's EOD (Explosive Ordnance Device) team. He was blinded and burned in Iraq when a hidden explosive device blew up in front of him. He later lost 90% of his hearing. We built him a home with a braille kitchen and with the help of his amazing wife Mikayla, he started a candy company called EOD (Extraordinary Delights) Fudge out of that kitchen, and today, he's got a 60,000 square foot industrial kitchen with dozens of employees churning out the most delicious salted caramels and fudge I've ever tasted. He's a living miracle.

5. You've been a business anchor/reporter for a long time now, at Fox Business and at CNBC before that. Has reporting on business matters ever led you to want to be on the other side, a businessperson yourself? Have you ever felt the entrepreneurial bug biting you while you've been reporting on others' successes (or failures)?

Brilliant question. Yes and Yes! Let me tackle the second part first: I made the jump from local news to business news in 1998, just as the dot-com bubble was inflating. One of my first assignments was to cover theglobe.com, the first social media site that eventually broke all records when it went public. I interviewed the two founders who were twenty-nothing, brilliant Cornell graduates. They were worth $90 million on paper and I thought, "Wait, here I am toiling every day telling *other* peoples' stories. What am I doing?" But then the dot-com bubble burst and I realized I was only doing what I always wanted to do: be a television journalist.

Now, have I ever wanted to be a businessperson myself? I feel I am already. Peter Guber, the Oscar-winning movie producer, Broadway producer and owner of the LA Dodgers and Golden State Warriors is a friend and a mentor. He once advised me to make myself my own business. He said, "Liz Claman is a brand. Build it, drive it, own it," and I feel I have. Fox Business has helped me do that. The podcast is called "Everyone Talks to Liz," a slogan the Fox marketing team came up with when I first arrived in 2007 because I was landing all the big CEO names from Warren Buffett to Bill Gates to the Fortune 500 leaders. And this year, after anchoring "Countdown to the Closing Bell" for 12 years, our new network president Lauren Petterson granted me the name change to "The Claman Countdown."

The only other business I'd like to start is a makeup line exclusively for redheads because no one makes the right shades for us. I'm always mixing and matching and then I get calls from gingers all the over the world asking what lipstick or foundation I'm wearing. The bloggers call me the Red Fox, so maybe I'll name it that!

6. You're active in the theater world and are a Tony Award voter. What about Broadway and live theater appeals to you the most?

My mother is a formally-trained Shakespearean theatre actress who was plucked from a tiny Canadian town by a scout from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London who saw her perform "Romeo and Juliet." She studied in London under the tutelage of Sir Lawrence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud, among others. So we grew up getting yelled at in iambic pentameter. For as long as I can remember, we'd hear her rehearsing her lines with her fellow actors and watching her perform in the Los Angeles theatre. There's nothing like live theatre. Each performance is different, because actors feed off each night's audience, which by design is always different. It's why I love live television too. You've got to roll with the punches and anything can happen. Once it's over, it's in the ether, never to be captured again so you try your damndest to get it right each time. There's something amazing about that to me.

7. Who have been your mentors, inspirations, and/or influences in the business?

My father was my biggest inspiration. He was the son of poverty-stricken Russian Jewish immigrants and grew up to be a world-renowned surgeon. He was a true feminist (how can you not be with four daughters!). He was always whispering in my ear, even I was very young, that I could be anything I wanted to be and could accomplish anything I set out to do. My mom is a huge influence from a performance standpoint. She still watches me every day and takes the time to comment (and criticize!)

As for mentors, I was extremely lucky to have very generous news directors. Ron Bilek gave me my first on-air job in Columbus, Ohio. He set the foundation for what you see of me today. He always told me, "Don't be what you *think* a TV reporter should be. Be YOU." Joel Cheatwood hired me in Boston. He turned the news business upside down by being completely unafraid to break the mold. He wanted hyper-aggressive, super-smart, competitive reporters. He didn't care what you looked like, he cared that you were different and interesting. I was honored to work for him.

8. Of what are you most proud?

Life is a work in progress and my story is still be written but I'm most proud that I'm raising two children who are wonderful human beings but at the same time, I haven't lost myself in the process. I'm eminently fulfilled by both my career and being a mother.

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _________.

10. What's the most important lesson you've learned in your career so far?

No job is too small, take chances in life, and as Teddy Roosevelt once said, when someone asks you to do something you don't know how to do, say "Sure I can!" and then start learning how to do it.