Hoda Kotb is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country. Meet this year’s honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.

NEW YORK — Hoda Kotb is terrific at many things, but saying goodbye isn’t one of them.

Last September, the ebullient “Today” anchor announced she was leaving the morning news show after 26 years at NBC. Since then, she’s been doused with “a fire hose of love” from colleagues and viewers as she embarks on an exciting new chapter: a wellness app and company, which aims “to take the ‘woo’ out of ‘woo-woo’ and just make it ‘woo!’” More importantly, she wants to take a step back and focus on being a mom to her two daughters, Haley, 8, and Hope, 5.

Days before her “Today” show exit last month, Kotb jokes that she’s been chugging Gatorade to rehydrate after all the crying.

“The end of anything is sad, especially anything as beautiful as this,” Kotb says, at times tearful but still beaming as she sits down for a chat at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. After turning 60 last August, the veteran journalist has thought a lot about her “time pie” and how she wishes to slice it.

“Like anybody who’s done anything for a long time, you feel safe and know what tomorrow is going to bring,” Kotb says. “I decided my kids needed more of my time pie and I wondered what else I could do. I changed my life 8 million times in my 50s. Then I started thinking about my 60s, like, ‘Well, what’s that decade going to be about?’ Let’s make it something different; let’s be brave.”

The Norman, Oklahoma, native has always strived to live courageously – after all, her mantra is “you can’t scare me.” She embraced the saying after her 2007 breast cancer diagnosis, which left her unable to conceive. But that didn’t squash her lifelong dream of becoming a parent, and Kotb adopted her kids in 2017 and 2019.

“It was a huge pivot,” says jewelry designer Jennifer Miller, one of Kotb’s best friends for nearly two decades. “She loved being a mother so much that she was like, ‘I want to do this all the time. This is so important to me.’ The decision she made to change her career really came from these two beautiful girls. It’s been amazing to watch.”

Kotb says she is “honored and flattered” to be among USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, as someone who’s been “rah-rah women most of my life.” She opens up about her career, parenting and radical positivity.

Question: You’ve always aimed to come to work with a smile, but obviously, we’re all human. How do you push through those days when you just want to crawl back into bed?

Hoda Kotb: I do a little morning practice: I write a note in my journal and say, “Dear God, thank you for this precious day. It’ll never come like this again, so let me see all the treasures and lessons.” The guy who’s picked me up every single day, Eddie, is freaking amazing. When I get in the car, he has a song ready, cranked up full (blast), windows down. We will go into 30 Rock singing. There was one day we were playing Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” and on the corner, people were singing (with us). It was beautiful; it reminds me that you can make magic.

When did you first catch the reporting bug? Was there a moment when you realized, “Oh, I like getting to know people?”

That’s who I am at my core: “Tell me more” is my favorite question. When I was younger, I was the person my friends went to with their problems. I thought, “I’d be good at listening and telling people’s stories; people who are afraid to tell their own and don’t think they’re worthy enough. I’ll help with that.” I loved it from the beginning, whether it was Mary Smith down the street or some celeb.

I worked in Greenville, Mississippi, at a tiny (news station), making no money at all and barely paying the bills. And I thought, “If you love it when you’re getting zero, you’ll love this forever.” If you choose a profession where you’re only happy on payday, then every other Thursday will be a good day, but all those others are going to be pretty crummy.

Early in your career, you had an old boss tell you to “get on the treadmill” to lose weight. Were there other instances when people said you needed to change parts of yourself?

When you start in those markets, everyone wants you to cookie cutter in: get the hair, wear the jacket, use a different voice. When that news director told me to get on the treadmill, I thought he was joking, and it didn’t hurt my feelings. And as I went through life, I learned to be what the market wanted at the time. But there comes a point – and I learned this very late in my career – where you can’t be somebody else, no matter how hard you try.

One day, I was with Kathie Lee (Gifford), and that’s the very first time the news corset got ripped off. I was so busy concentrating on the camera and my mic and my notes, and she looked at me and said, “Hey! I’m right here next to you. Talk to me.” That’s when it all changed and I was myself.

You’ve said that you hope to teach your daughters to stand up for themselves – to say what they deserve and not feel like they’re “too bossy.” That was a lesson you learned after your breast cancer journey; until that point, you always waited for the next raise or promotion …

Or even said “thank you” for getting crumbs; that’s what I used to do. I got paid less than every single person I sat next to throughout my career because that’s how it was, local news all the way through. There are 1 million people who want your job, so it takes a ton of courage to say, “I’m worth more than this. This is what I bring.” At one point, I remember I said to my agent, “Ask for more.” She said, “You’ll never get more.” I wrote down a number and said, “Ask for that.” And guess what? They said yes. Be your own advocate and fight for yourself.

What do you hope your greatest legacy at “Today” will be?

I feel like I’m a cheerleader here. I was that way on my high-school basketball team: I wasn’t the best player, but I made sure everybody knew who the best player was. That’s what my job has always been, so I do think my legacy at the “Today” show among the staff is that I cheered them on because they deserved it.

Over the years, you’ve been open about your fertility challenges and experience with adoption. What advice would you give to people who may feel like it’s too late for them to become parents?

The first piece of advice is, “Say it out loud that you want kids.” Say it to yourself in the bathroom mirror. Once the words come out, all of a sudden things start happening. I didn’t think it was possible. But I said out loud to a friend, “I really want kids,” and literally two weeks after, I interviewed Sandra Bullock, who had just adopted a baby. I was like, “How old is Sandra Bullock? Oh, my gosh, she’s my age exactly.”

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Another thing happened when I was watching some horrible news story and there was a young boy who’d lost his parents in a war. He was sitting there with soot all over him and I thought, “I have love and kids need love. Why not me?” Andy Cohen asked me the same question. He said, “Look, I’m scared to adopt. It’s too late.” I said, “You’re not too old. It’s right on time.” We come with knowledge and emotions and maturity that no 23-year-old has.

I lost my dad when he was 53. Tomorrow’s not guaranteed. If you’re saying, “I’m not going to do it because maybe down the road, I’ll be an older parent,” so what? You’re an older parent. There are kids who need it; they’ll have you or they’ll have nothing. I’m all for it, man. It was the biggest life-changer, Haley and Hope. Every other decision I’ve made is on a totally different scale.

What do you hope your life will look like when this story publishes?

I think my kids will be used to seeing me walk them to school. I’m imagining that I will feel like the mom I’ve always wanted to be. I imagine that my wellness company will be bubbling and vibrant. I imagine that I’ll be really good at guitar; I want to practice more!

I imagine I’ll take long walks through my neighborhood without a podcast and without music, just to be outside. I imagine taking fun road trips with my kids in our Toyota Sienna – God, I love that van. I imagine cuddling up at the end of the day and watching my kids dance around.

I just imagine a regular old Wednesday: I didn’t win the lottery, I didn’t get an award, but it’s just the perfect day.