Of course, no one breaks into a new industry and starts at the top. “You have to earn the big job,” says Kelly, who freelanced once day a week as a reporter for ABC, covering events like car-jackings while still working as a lawyer. Soon, people noticed her, and 10 months later she was offered a full-time on-air position – a job she turned down because, by then, Kelly had upped her own ante: She wanted to work for a national program. She sent her tape to FOX News Channel, which hired her as a reporter in the D.C. bureau. Two and a half years later she was tapped as co-anchor of the morning show America’s Newsroom, and that led to her current job as host of FOX’s America Live, the highest-rated cable news show in its time slot. “You can’t just coast along,” she says. “You need to be extraordinary. If you want a promotion or a raise, ask yourself, ‘How can I behave in a way to get my boss to believe I deserve one?” How to do that in a way that sill allows you to have a life? “It’s all about prioritizing,” says Kelly. I’m not out every night. You won’t see me at a lot of red-carpet events. In my free time, I go home to my husband and son.”
