Get That Life: How I Became an On-Air TV Correspondent

Sara Haines spent four years as a sunny presence on the fourth hour of the Today show, helping Americans wake up alongside Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. Now she's a correspondent for ABC News, still in the a.m. slot with Good Morning America. She talked to Cosmopolitan.com about how she first got on TV, why media now is more exciting than ever, and her ultimate dream job.

I grew up in Newton, Iowa. No, not the cool "Newton" of Massachusetts. I feel the need to clarify that because I spent my four years at Smith College, which is in Massachusetts, explaining all of my high school sweatshirts to people who lit up in recognition of that wicked awesome place called Newton. It took me a good year to stop reacting so excitedly by the fact that they all knew where I was from … because they didn't.

Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be growing up, I would say a marine biologist — at least that was my answer in high school. Eventually that response evolved into practicing international law, which I'm pretty sure was born from what everyone else was saying around me at Smith. It seemed like a good choice for a government major. I loved my major and my liberal arts course load, but I had a dirty little secret: I really daydreamed about being a cast member on Saturday Night Live. OK, it wasn't so dirty.

I was always an athlete growing up, which meant I couldn't be a theater kid too. So as I balanced a multi-sport lifestyle in high school, I colored it with performance by playing in the marching band, dancing in show choir, and always teaming up with friends in comedy sketches when the talent shows rolled around each year. I continued my athletic pursuits at Smith, playing volleyball throughout, and I even tried adding basketball during my sophomore year, which had me stretched way too thin, so I dropped it after that.

Whether it was on a court or onstage, I loved performing, so I decided that after graduation, I was going to give myself a shot and head to New York City to try my hand at comedic acting. Now, I knew nothing about the business. I hadn't studied it, and I didn't have any experience with internships, so I was starting from the ground floor. I cast the net far and wide to find any job within the industry where I could take a crash course in the biz by day that would afford me my acting classes by night.

And then I found it, the job I had been hoping for, which was actually even better than I could have imagined — the NBC Page Program. It's a yearlong position that is a combination of studio tours and assignments in different departments and at different shows throughout the company. Although the meager wages of $10 an hour and no benefits — at least at the time — had my mom in a tailspin, with a tight budget, I was able to make rent and save up for classes.

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Since my focus was entertainment, I went for every assignment that would allow me to get a little closer to how all of this TV magic happened. During my stint as a page, I had five assignments, which is actually a lot considering you aren't eligible for the first three months to do anything beyond cutting your teeth on the tours and learning the ins and outs of this magical place called 30 Rock. The biggest thing I learned while I was a page is that you have to be a sponge and soak in everything because new things, people, lessons are all around you if you are open to letting them in. The problem many people have is that they are so busy worrying about what they are working toward, or the "next" in their life, that they miss out on the "right now."

After 10 months in the program, a job opened up for production coordinator of the Today show. I interviewed for the job, and I got it. As the coordinator, I would work under the production managers. I was in charge of arranging guest transportation, ordering on-site catering, booking hair and makeup teams, VIP tickets to concerts, and so much more — basically, an event planner for TV.

If you had originally asked me what my plan was, I would have said that I'd be there for a year and then really jump off in the performing world. Well, that isn't what happened at all. I was the production coordinator for seven years. Throughout my time at Today, if I wasn't in an acting class at night, I was auditioning, whenever I could step away, and when auditioning slowed down, I would sign up for another class.

Since I spent so much of my time at the office though, I thought I needed to soak in as much as I could, so I attended pitch meetings, learned how to produce, and would shadow producers and production managers on assignments. My focus had also changed in my passion pursuits. With a few years under my belt of taking classes at Stella Adler, Upright Citizens Brigade, and TVI Actors Studio, I had decided that I was better being myself than other characters, so I had honed in on hosting auditions.

After about five years at the show, the website became a big priority at the company, and they were in need of content. I asked a friend who produced a lot of the concerts if he would mind if I conducted one of the website interviews, but I wanted to be on camera rather than asking questions from off camera, which is how producers typically conduct interviews. I told him that I would do all of the necessary research and anything else he needed me to do to make it happen. The first one went well, so I kept doing them. In time, with the help of a couple of colleagues — actually a PA who is now a producer at the show and an intern who is a producer at the website — we branded our productions "Backstage Pass." Our goal was to give viewers a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes. Our main beat was a short interview with the performer and then we colored it with fan interaction on some of the long lines, chats with the traveling entourage, and other fun shots that you could only experience at the studio.

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After a couple of months into that concert season, we approached our executive producer and said that we were really enjoying making these, but that the fans of the show may not know about them unless we mention it on air. I asked if he would mind putting me on air just to "tease" our online content. He thought about it and then agreed to let me take a swing at doing an on-air tease. Afterward, we followed up to see what he thought. He said it was fine and then politely mentioned that if we made another one that we should let him know and he would consider letting us do another on-air tease. Well, we took him for his word and did one every week that summer.

By the fall, Kathie Lee and Hoda had mentioned that I should come play with them on the fourth hour of the Today show. I was so flattered that they had noticed my work and were being so gracious in asking me to "play" with them on their show. The catch was I didn't exactly know what I had to offer. I wasn't a chef, a trainer, a fashion expert, so what could I do? Finally, they said that I should show them how to use a flash drive or download photos from their camera or anything else that was deemed "young." That should be easy enough.

I still remember the segment that changed my life. I put together a segment launching Kathie Lee and Hoda's "fan page" on Facebook. I reached out to Facebook directly, which should show you how early this was in the Facebook era. While on the air, fans started writing in and we read some of the comments aloud. It was a rush to see the instant feedback. Right after the segment, Kathie Lee and Hoda said that I had to come back to read comments again tomorrow. That was the beginning of my daily appearances on the fourth hour.

I was still actively the production coordinator for the show, so after stepping off the set, I would head back to my desk and get to work on the job that actually paid me. Although the hours were really long, and I was doing two jobs, this period of time was my favorite because my morning appearances fueled everything else in my day. By March, I felt that I had built up enough appearances to make a really solid reel and go somewhere and do my on-air hosting as a full-time gig. A wise friend told me at the time, "Why don't you ask if they would keep you at the Today show?" I thought it was so absurd. Why would a show, or rather, an institution, add someone like me to their all-star lineup when that is the destination for everyone in this business, not the starting block? The problem was that after the seed was planted, I realized my friend was right. I couldn't live with never having asked if there was room for one more.

In May of that year, I signed my first contract as an on-air contributing correspondent. For the next four years, I appeared daily on the fourth hour of the show. My favorite part was my weekly series, "Sara in the City," where I stepped into a variety of odd jobs including the Yankees grounds crew, lobstering in Maine, learning to be a butcher, and so many more. I also did daily segments geared toward viewer interaction. After so many years learning the production of live television behind the scenes, I had now entered a boot camp, taught by the best in the business, of how to be on air. It was amazing, exhilarating, humbling, and every range of emotion that comes with a dream realized. Although I had originally called this dream acting, my discombobulated route had lead me to a role where I could play myself, indulge my insatiable curiosity for life, exhaust my Midwestern work ethic, and pepper it all with a ton of comedy and laughter. I had found my happy place.

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Last fall, I got an amazing opportunity to move to ABC as a correspondent for the news division. And as much as I couldn't imagine leaving the place I had grown up, a friend said to me, "Sometimes you have to leave home to grow up." So I did. And it's been a total blessing. My primary role is on Good Morning America as the weekend "Pop News" anchor, and I also cover lifestyle segments, online trends, and anything that involves fun on the weekday show — they call me the "ambassador of fun" at GMA.

One piece of advice I live by came before I entered the doors of NBC, and it isn't new, but it's crucial: If someone asks you to make a cup of coffee, make the best cup of coffee they've ever had, because why would they trust you with anything else if you can't do that? No task is too small. In my position at the Today show, I hired pages, and I was the one that selected pages to have assignments on the show. I did not take that task lightly. I would call their managers and their bosses and ask, "Who is working when they're up there in the page office?" At 30 Rock, it's easy to impress people when you're on the show. But I wanted to know who was answering the phones when no one was watching. I believe in worker bees — people who are proactive, who make things, who are doers.

I surround myself with wise, smart people. And a lot of girls. I've had a lot of conversations with groups of girls over coffee about "I'm going to have a meeting today and I'm going to ask for a title change" or "I'm going to ask for a jump in my pay," and we'd sit around being like, "Yes, and you have to word it like this, and don't forget to mention that project you worked on." My fellow pages were great girlfriends who were the moving force in my taking steps up the career ladder. The best friends are people who make you want to be better. And that's the type of friends I have.

The thing that stops me up the most and continues to get in the way is getting antsy about what's next. We trust our own minds to dream big enough to know what we want — we think it's right there. Rarely is it right there. Sometimes, the better modus operandi is to treat a job like it's a job. It's a paycheck. So many of us live with so many blessings that we're able to dream about working in our passion, but there are times it will serve you better to clock in and clock out. You get some perspective. It's like, let me take this overthinking, obsessive person out of my head so I'm not dreaming every day and dissatisfied with my job, and find my passion outside of work. For example, I joined a volleyball league, and it helped to remind me that I am all these other things. When I wasn't hunting for the golden ticket in my job every day, my morale would lift and I could reassess. You have to do the job you have well, and if you're looking up too much, you're not going to get your job done. When you don't find passion at work, go find it somewhere else right now, and then come back.

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This is a great time to pursue creative on-air projects because it is no longer just about TV. The digital landscape is growing so fast that opportunities are popping up everywhere if you take the time to look. You will change over time in regard to what you want to spend your days doing, so make sure that you don't hold on too tightly to old dreams without reassessing or you may lose sight of why you started the journey in the first place.

If I could snap my fingers and have the ultimate dream job, I would love to cohost a show with a format similar to Kelly and Michael, Kathie Lee and Hoda, or The View. I love the combination of chatty topics, practical life stuff — fashion, cooking, family, etc. — mixed with a lot of humor. And if Lorne Michaels called because they needed a fill-in on SNL, let's just say that I wouldn't turn him away.