Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know

Erica: I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum. We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it.

Erica: This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com. Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone.

Erica: Today, we have with us Elizabeth Pran. Now, Elizabeth is not only a fellow Floridian and a proud Gator, but she is also a power house in journalism with an incredible story to share. I want you to get ready to hear about her unique path from the lacrosse fields to the national newsrooms, and how she and her husband navigated two high powered careers and long distances and the valuable lessons that she's learned about overcoming imposter syndrome and shedding what no longer serves you.

Erica: Trust me, you do

Erica: not wanna miss out on this episode. You are listening to the Glass Ceiling and Sticky Floor podcast. The podcast that will empower you to shatter the limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors to uncover infinite possibilities so you can live your best life. I'm Erica Rooney, and I'm on a mission to bring more women into positions of power and keep them there. I'm obsessed with all things growth and abundance, and I'm here to talk you through the tribe entry secrets to get you to level up your career and your life.

Erica: We talk about the hard stuff here. Imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear, and burnout. So pull up a seat, pop in an earbud, and let's dive in.

Erica: Today, we have Elizabeth Pran on the show. Elizabeth, I am so super pumped to have yet another Floridian and a UF grad at that on the show. How are you?

Elizabeth: Yeah. Go Gators. I'm in the Windy City, and a little bit far from home, but, of course, we both know that our hearts are in Gainesville. We're Gators at hearts, but sunshine state can't be with us forever, so we're on the road again.

Erica: Yep. Yeah. We bleed orange and blue. I love it. Well, Elizabeth, tell everyone who's listening, who is Elizabeth O'Brien?

Erica: What's your story?

Elizabeth: I know. I hope I can make it sound as interesting as some of the guests that you've had on here, and I'll go back, go back to Gainesville because I will admit that I am a little bit in the a unicorn in the journalism world only because I went to the University of Florida being a Colorado native, actually, because of their journalism program. And I played lacrosse in high school, and I wasn't quite good enough to play d one, d two, or d three. Now the women's lacrosse team now, in Gainesville is, of course, d one, but at the time they were transitioning. So they were taking, like, you know, the water girls like me and allowing them to play on the team and compete at that level.

Elizabeth: And, I went to school there. I went there for print. I had no really no interest getting into television news. I was pushed and pushed by my professors that it is a dying industry, and I said, well, writing is never a dying industry. I see what you're saying.

Elizabeth: Print is. But they did say that perhaps there would be some crossover after college. And, I met my now husband there. He was a baseball player at the time, and was gonna go to med school where I was able to get a job outside of college. There was no thought of him playing in the major leagues, so that wasn't necessarily part of our future.

Elizabeth: But, of course, life is what happens when you're planning for other things. Right? So if you fast forward to our graduation, I had gotten a job as a young assistant to Greta Van Susteren, so it was really my gateway into the industry at the time. She was a 10PM prime time host doing mostly crime, and I loved crime. You might relate to this.

Elizabeth: I'm a little bit of a crime junkie, and that's how I got in into journalism. I worked behind the scenes for a couple years. I worked for her. I did some booking for the news channel at the time. At the time, Fox was really launching in into the world of politics.

Elizabeth: It was wonderful to be in DC. I traveled internationally with her, went to the booking desk, got into producing. And after some time, I thought, you know, I'm gonna give it a shot. I'm gonna take a job at local news. I was older at the time to get in front of the camera, and I got a job at one of the smallest markets in The United States, Panama City Beach, which is obviously known for other things.

Elizabeth: I was making $18,000 a year, and at this point, my my boyfriend, now husband, had, he wasn't my husband at the time, but he deferred an an offer for $5,000 to play for the, Los Angeles the angels, angels of of Anaheim, not Los Angeles, of Anaheim. And for us, $5,000, $18,000, I mean, we're rich. Right? We are we are living the life. So he took that opportunity, and I took the local news job.

Elizabeth: And we both gave ourselves two years to see where we would end up. And I had gotten a phone call from the network, and I was very young, very, very young in my late twenties to be at the national level. And I took the job out of the Southeast and then probably slept in Atlanta just a handful of nights over the next three to four years. I was all over the country. He was all over the country.

Elizabeth: And it was really an exploratory period for us to sort of figure out where we and we would always just meet each other on the road. And it was lonely at times, but it also was an opportunity for us both to explore what boundaries and what capabilities we had, and we always ended up going back to each other. We got married and didn't end up living together until we decided to have our first child, and I thought I was gonna hang up my hat. And I was blessed enough to be transferred to our DC bureau where I anchored for years and years. He, at this point, was in probably year 12 of his major league career, and he was traded to the Braves, which is in Atlanta.

Elizabeth: I thought my television career was over, and I was lucky enough for connections to find me at CNN and HLN, and I worked there for a number of years before I was laid off. And then again, I thought my career was over. At this point, we had three children. And, you know, after being in the business for a number of years, I did have connections at Now NewsNation, which is almost four years old, and it's a start up network that is really just looking to provide people a balance. I think we can all agree that it's hard to find, an unbiased network.

Elizabeth: The network's not perfect, but it's doing a great job. I'm actually really proud to be a part of it during the election, and that's why I'm in the Windy City today.

Erica: And, yeah, I was gonna say what a crazy year to to be joining up with them with everything going on again in the world today. But, wow, what I didn't know all of that about your love story about how you would just meet up on the road, like, so unique, so different, and y'all have been married for how long now?

Elizabeth: This is gonna be our fourteenth year of marriage, so we spent six years doing long distance. So, I mean, Darren doesn't like it when I round up, but we met in 2004. So we are are just right around our twentieth anniversary of being, I guess, together in some way or no. We all know that there's there's rocky points prior to getting married, especially when you're doing long distance. But for the most part, we have spent the past two decades somehow navigating life together with two very, very odd careers that typically do not sync up.

Elizabeth: And there were times when we talk about sticky floors, I don't I could not count on on both of my hands how many sticky floors we have hit, in both of our in both of our careers where we thought we were done. It's very black and white

Erica: in both. Very interesting. And three kids

Elizabeth: to the mix. Right? Three kids, seven chickens, four dogs, and a number of turtle and crayfish depending on what my nine year old daughter picks up in the ponds near by the house. Oh, that just sent me y'all because she

Erica: immediately knew exactly how many chickens she had.

Elizabeth: Yeah. I love a good chicken. I'm Jones. I I mean, if we didn't live in Metro Atlanta, boy, it would be livestock. I I was, you know, goats, pigs, sign me up.

Elizabeth: I'll take it all. I'll take it all. Take any animal I can get.

Erica: Oh my gosh. I love that. Well, let's dive into these sticky floors because I am just my brain is going wild thinking of which ones you probably experienced throughout this entire wild ride. And so when you hear that term sticky floors, which one jumps out at you?

Elizabeth: I would say the intimidation of, of my husband's career is one of them. I would at times feel, selfish that I was following my career. I would feel shame that I would miss huge, huge monumental moments in his career that anyone who is with their life partner in would miss. Right? I mean, I missed him in some time.

Elizabeth: I mean, he was in the World Series, and I couldn't make it there once. And he had, you know, championship games that I missed or division games that I missed. We were really blessed that Darren had this long career that no one could anticipate, and he never put that pressure on me. I would say it'd be passive aggressive comments, whether it be, unintentionally, maybe from, folks who work in the stadium who who just couldn't understand why I wouldn't be there all the time supporting him. I think it's so hard when you have and you're so proud of that other person.

Elizabeth: But I just wanted to to scream from the mountaintops that I I married the man. I I didn't marry the sport, and we both knew going into it that there's no guarantees in life. And so for him to have that career and that length career, that's not a guarantee, but having a career outside of it, so mine would be something that we could always fall back on. And we were we were blessed. We were blessed with Darren's career, but that wasn't part of the plan.

Elizabeth: We never banked on that. I would say another sticky floor, would be trying to navigate you know, in my early thirties, I really did wanna start a family. How was I going to do that? There was no way that I was gonna figure out how to maintain a network level career and have three children, but I just I just didn't want to give it up. Even if it was taken from me, if I let's say it was laid I was laid off at one point or Darren was traded another point, I didn't know where I was going, but I knew that I wasn't done, and that was always in the back of my head.

Elizabeth: Each pregnancy felt like I was hitting a stickier floor because I would have breathing issues during some of my live hits, which led me once to a panic attack on Fox and Friends. And for some reason, Jesus protected me and it doesn't live on the Internet. But when I tell you I walked out of the office that day and I thought to myself, I'm never sitting sitting in a studio again. And then I had a mixture of combination and shame and imposter syndrome. I'm too young to be at this level.

Elizabeth: I'm making my mistakes at a national level. I had assumed that video would be circulating all over the Internet. And for some sure someone can find it, and it would be fabulous for them, and it would be not so fabulous for me at this point. Now it was it was such a long time ago. But the the instability in not knowing if I was gonna be able to work the next day make it to work the next day or if I was gonna be viral on the Internet was just another another sticky floor.

Elizabeth: And then also, you know, am I staying relevant? Am I am I making the right decision? I'm sitting here in Chicago when, you know, there are other people taking care of my three children right now. I could talk to about a sticky floor right now. Am I making the right decision?

Elizabeth: I'm not picking them up from camp. They only have so many summers at home. You know, the sticky floors can be anywhere you look for them. It's just whether or not you keep walking. And that would that would be a a few sticky floors, but I think that they're they're everywhere.

Erica: Yeah. No. They really are everywhere, but I loved what you said earlier. And I wrote it down, but you said that you didn't know where you were going, but you just knew you weren't done. And I thought that was so powerful because, number one, none of us really know where we're going.

Erica: Sometimes we think we do, but then we're and we never end up where we're headed. And I thought that was so powerful. But I wanted to ask you, when you were growing

Elizabeth: up, did you come from a more of

Erica: a traditional household where the dad had the powerful career and the mom kinda followed suit behind?

Elizabeth: Very, very traditional, and I and I never knew I I could never tell you how that impacted me to where I am today. Was it a motivator? And I tell my nine year old daughter this a lot because she'll ask me, you know, we'll be on the way home and she'll say, you know, so and so's mom doesn't work. And I say, well, she does, actually. She works really hard, and she doesn't have someone like us who is helping her.

Elizabeth: And so in some ways, her job is actually harder than mine even though you don't see her mom, whether it be on network news or whether it be her speaking and engagements or whether her be going to the doctor's office where she works or at a law firm where she works or as a store owner or a boutique owner. You know, so I think I I think it was a motivator for me, also because I did want to offer something dynamic to my family. And I wanted, I also wanted my husband to feel a sense of pride with who he chose to be his partner. And I say that in a sense it doesn't have to be a career. If I wanted to have my own dog walking business and I only walk three dogs, I would own that.

Elizabeth: I would own that, and that would be my career, which, by the way, sounds like a fabulous

Erica: say, it sounds kinda dreamy right now.

Elizabeth: Sounds kinda it sounds really dreamy. So I don't think that women need to feel pressure that you have to you have to be, someone like you who leads on the Internet or is a motivational speaker or does hard things. Your hard thing can be whatever you find hard, and that could be something as unique as owning your own business online or owning a dog walking business, which, again, I think is anything that you own, I think is awesome.

Erica: Yeah. No. I was asking because I often reflect, like, number one, on how different childhoods and how people support, you know, and and their kids grow. But I came too. My father was a business owner.

Erica: My mother was a nurse. It wasn't ever said that one career was better than the other, but there was always this implied powerful head job and then a nurse. You know? And I don't think I really internalized that either. I thought I I I was always just gonna be a mostly not a stay at home mom.

Erica: I knew I always wanted to work, but I was never really motivated by, like, chasing after big titles or growth. And then all of a sudden, I'm in the c suite looking around like, how the hell did I get here? And it's because I do love accomplishment, and I think that's good. But I want to encourage at least my kids. I have a boy and a girl, six and nine, that they can either stay home or they can go to work.

Erica: They can work for a corporation or they can do a business. Right? Like, whatever they see us doing in this house and kinda like how you're talking about other homes doing other things, like, it works for everybody and kind of stepping away from that societal expectation of this is what it should look like.

Elizabeth: And I also tell I I tell my oldest, to own the niche that you find. So I'm not someone like Lynn Smith who has my own show, and I think I own that because I'm really good at being your number one brides maid. I am a maid of honor. I show up on time. I know the program.

Elizabeth: So if you're gonna go out of town and you are the bride, I'm gonna let you know that I can stand in for you. And I actually sold that to my now boss who was my boss at at Fox News, and I sent her a wish, by the way. I could I'd love to talk about how I think I've had these guardians, these female guardians. I call them the guardians of my galaxy throughout my career. Is that when I told her, this is what I can give you, and I'm just gonna be honest.

Elizabeth: I do. I would love to be a bride. I would love to have all of the things. I would love to have the assistant and the show and the studio and the lights, but that doesn't fit my narrative and my fantasy. What my fantasy right now is is really just living in the moment with my kids, perhaps to a point where it's flirting with being unhealthy because the reason why I don't wanna be a stay at home mom is because I think they'll just break my heart when they leave me, when they're ready to leave me.

Elizabeth: So I have to have my own hobby and my own things. But I also own the fact that I'm not looking to take anyone's chair, not looking to steal your job. I just wanna make sure that you get good ratings when I sit in your chair. I'm gonna do my research. It's probably not gonna be perfect, little bit of ADHD, but I'll keep the I'll keep the train on the tracks, and I own it.

Elizabeth: And so what I figured on how to serve the only way that I survive at the network level was to know exactly what niche I could fill, and it was unique to me. I wasn't vying for another person's job. I wanted that woman at 6PM to succeed. She's really good at it. She makes more money than I do.

Elizabeth: She does she has more time to dedicate to it. But when she wants to go on vacation on July, you better believe I'll sit in that chair for her, and I will do a great job. And then I will go home with my bags packed. No one has to worry. I'm not not picking a fight with anybody.

Elizabeth: I'm not stealing anyone's job. And, also, I get a lot out of it too. I love working with producers on stories, and I like doing it for all the different shows. And that's what I bring to the table too is when I said, you know, I I don't want I don't want my own staff and my own show, but I wanna work with everybody and and figure out what makes that show tick and what do they love to do. And it's been actually that's a ton of gratification.

Erica: Yeah. And you're not stretching yourself too thin. You're not chasing after dreams that don't suit you. You're doing what works for you right now.

Elizabeth: Doing what works for me right now. And and there are like all of us, there are times when you feel like you're hitting a wall. But you can't ask a mother in the middle of summer if she feels like she's balanced. I mean, all she's eating for six weeks is French fries. Even if you really consider yourself to be a healthy individual, there's I mean, I I can't I can't look at a French fry until December at this point.

Erica: Well, let's talk about motherhood because having a very high powerful career and balancing motherhood, three kids, like, everybody's busy. And you even said this. Like, here you are in Chicago. Somebody else is shuttling your kids around. Do you experience the guilt?

Erica: And if you do, how do you kind of pull yourself out of that funk?

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Elizabeth: Well, I think I've spent a lot of time and money in therapy to realize that I probably need my kids more than they need me. I mean, we waited for years to have kids. We had the very which now seems commonplace infertility issues. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. We spent almost eight years just trying to get our family physically in our arms.

Elizabeth: And so, I actually never thought that I would love being a mother this much, but I genuinely do. It could be some Freudian issue as to why I love my children so much. Maybe we could dig deep into that about mommy issues. I had a wonderful childhood. I'm I'm not sure why.

Elizabeth: But, you know, I think I I get it. The time with them is short. The guilt is when I leave to go to the bathroom. Right? It gets to a point where I get guilt fatigue, and I actually say that I have a little meter.

Elizabeth: And it's like, well, I'm so glad that it's already x ed out because now I'm numb, and I don't feel anything at all. And I catch myself making selfless decisions that bite me a little bit. I took the latest flight into Chicago last night and somehow had to get up at 02:00 in the morning for a morning show. But then again, I don't know. I mean, you just get so few hours with them.

Elizabeth: I already see my nine year old girl preparing for a very normal developmental stage of preferring her peers over me. So if I can just be away from her for thirty six hours in a month, then I'll make it abundantly clear to whatever management I have to that these are the boundaries that I have. It'll kill me if you don't choose me for the job, but it'll put me closer to my children. So this is all this you get what you get. And I've found that the vulnerability piece has been the most successful part of me navigating the workplace in my forties as a mom.

Erica: Just being willing and open to say, this is what I need at this time in my life as it relates to my family, and that's my number one priority.

Elizabeth: Yeah. And people are really receptive. I mentioned the the guardians of my galaxy. I think I've just had these little little guardian angels, and I don't mean to be sexist, but they have been women throughout my career. I mean, the very first woman who hired me is Suzanne Scott who now runs the Fox News channel.

Elizabeth: I certainly haven't talked to her in years and is a very busy woman, but she was definitely someone who guarded me for the first couple years of my career. I worked for Greta Van Susteren who is now over at Newsmax, but I just texted her a few weeks ago on a case that we worked on, you know, the OJ Simpson case years ago. I mean, I was entering news at that point, but that was where she got her break, and it I just made it just made me think of her. And then the woman who actually brought me on to NewsNation, her name is Sherry Gretch, and she worked at the Fox News Channel. It's a loss for them because she's one of the best female leaders I've ever worked for, because I think she just is able to communicate with people.

Elizabeth: It's very it's blunt, and I don't think it could be any any bit more gracious, if that makes sense. She just walks such a fine line. And and I think that that she's someone who has given me an opportunity, I don't think was there, especially before COVID.

Erica: I love that. A whole bunch of women. And my biggest thing that I think is going on here is number one, the mentorship, which is so key for all of us who are in that role is the mentorship. And then, also, my friend Caroline Adams has coined this word, amplorship, which is what you just did, which is when you amplify the names of other women. Right?

Erica: Because we so often don't talk about other women's names, and they don't get the recognition they deserve. But you just drop three bombs right there for all of these amazing mentors who served you. Do you find a red thread kinda between them that really kinda drew them to you, whether it was a core value of theirs or just how they commanded a room?

Elizabeth: I think what all all of them all of them are capable of listening. And one of the biggest reasons I think they are successful is they put you in the same boat as them. So I remember being working for and Greta of Ancestor is one of them. She had a very small staff twenty years ago, and she was at 10PM prime time when Fox was in his prime, so she didn't have to have a small staff. And she would say, we're on the same boat, so if I go down, you go down.

Elizabeth: And I think for someone who's 21 years old, for just a a just a little twinkle, it puts you on their level, which you're not. Right? You know? This is a woman who's been working for decades, and I'm a 21 year old assistant who's trying to hide her armpit sweat in the middle of, you know, a national newsroom with with presidential candidates and all of these big these big figures. And and Sherry said the same thing to me after I was laid off from HLN.

Elizabeth: From CNN, it was it was a big layoff, and it was in December. It was hundreds of us. And she said, I think we can figure out something that works for you and that works for us. And that's just another example of of being in the same boat because we're I'm talking to a woman who's a senior vice president of a network. And in that wrinkle of time, I felt like we were equals.

Elizabeth: When she's my boss, it's her choice whether or not she wants to hire me. She could hire someone who is younger and doesn't have kids and doesn't have seven chickens and doesn't have three dogs and can travel because that was me. I mean, for for ten years, I lived out of a suitcase, and that's what networks want. But instead, she said, okay. I'm not gonna get you for five days a week.

Elizabeth: Can we talk about getting you for three and in what capacity? And I said, if I'm available, I'm yours. The only thing that would take me away from an opportunity at work would be my family. And that that mutual respect has been honored for the past year, and I think it's working out for both of us.

Erica: I love that. And I love that they're willing to be flexible and meet you where you are. And and, hopefully, that is the wave of the future for so many of these workforces out there, especially especially as we bring more women into higher level positions. Like, that is the most important thing is that flexibility. We're not multi like, one dimensional.

Erica: You know? We have all of these lives and these things going on around us. How have you and your husband with with two high power careers been able to balance family and work and keep everything running?

Elizabeth: I would say the there's not a day go by when even if it's hard that we just don't have a substantial amount of gratitude.

Erica: Mhmm.

Elizabeth: And Darren is is hugely easy to be married to, and I would give Darren the credit for teaching me how to communicate. I had a very blessed childhood. I wouldn't say that we were, like, the highest on our communication skills. And Darren taught me how to argue, which is actually just a a a normal, you know, way that marriage is conducted. But that's something that I had to learn.

Elizabeth: And I would say that that, I'm still evolving in that, and that that helps me in my career, and that helps me, personally. And I would also say acceptance of the other person. Acceptance of their choices has helped our marriage be successful. And that's another thing that has developed recently. When Darren retired, I went through what I think was my own metamorphosis.

Elizabeth: Right? Because I was just stepping into a new network. It was life. He was retiring when we had our third. So what does that look like for us?

Elizabeth: And I actually felt like work I was able to work more, so my life got a little bit more stressful. And you and I had talked earlier. I had to shed a lot of things that didn't serve me, and I had to shed relationships. I had to shed friendships. I had to shed my dependency on alcohol and really focus on where I was gonna place my energy.

Elizabeth: So energy and friendships that weren't serving me went to figuring out how I'm gonna balance a 2AM shift, go home, and pick up the kids from camp, and then go to a pool party. And you know what wasn't gonna be part of that equation is alcohol. And that was a huge change for me, and it's really only been six or seven months, but I don't think there's any going back.

Erica: No. Yeah. No. I love that. And and it's so true.

Erica: Someone who is a nondrinker, once you actually remove that from your life, it is wild how much more time you have, how much more space you have for other things, how much more patience you are with your children and your husband. Like, it's incredible. That's been my experience. So I'm excited for you on that. But on that, you know, that those are a lot of big changes.

Erica: Right? Shedding all of those things that are no longer serving you. Was there a catalyst that really just kind of said, this has gotta change where I need to make some drastic changes so that I'm aligning with who I wanna be at my core and the wife and the mom I wanna be? Or was it a gradual, you know, coming coming to once your husband retired and kind of was able to be more with the family.

Elizabeth: It was both. Yeah. Because it it it was a decision a decision that I made, to work on myself in my late thirties when I said, okay. I'm I'm happy with who I am. We made a move, you know, to a better school district for our children that we were we were settling down after 11 moves.

Elizabeth: We had moved all over the country. Darren had played for half a dozen teams, and I had worked for networks all over the country. That was a big catalyst when I said, this is my fresh start. I wanna be more conscious of the relationships that I have. And I will tell you that there was collateral damage.

Elizabeth: Right? It was it was a huge, that catalyst, that move was a huge turning point in our marriage. Because for the most part, Darren and I have always agreed on just about everything, which up until that argument, I realized wasn't even a good sign. And finally, I said there are things that we we don't have to agree on something that isn't important. We agree on everything that is important, but maybe some relationships in our life that aren't serving me anymore and maybe serving you, well, that's okay.

Elizabeth: We can disagree on this. The drinking was gradual, and I think you've experienced this. I just got to a point of exhaustion where I physically will not be able to maintain the back and forth, the decision fatigue, the am I gonna just wait till Thursday and then suddenly my weekends start on Wednesday? I needed to eliminate that to have more energy to even compete at the national level. And keep in mind, I'm not doing forty to fifty hours a week.

Elizabeth: Sometimes I am, but at the same time, in order for me to perform at the national level, I simply cannot be wasting energy when I don't have it.

Erica: No. We're already tapped out. Right? Three kids, a career, we're already tapped out.

Elizabeth: We're already tapped out. We really are.

Erica: Oh my gosh. Well, Elizabeth, we've covered a plethora of sticky floors. Like, almost all of them and even ones I never even imagined. I can't I I just I love it. We've covered so much.

Erica: But I wanna know what is next for you. What's I mean, I know we've got the news job, but what is next?

Elizabeth: It's so funny. You know, I ask that question to myself quite a lot. And I've I've reached out to a couple of my guardians, and I consider one of my guardians to be also Christy Paul, who is a former CNN anchor, and Lynn Smith, who you also know, former NBC anchor. So, you know, I I'm never too I always tell if you're one of my guardians, you know, never too proud to call you up and talk about myself. You know, I do wanna listen about you, but, you know, more about me.

Elizabeth: And so I think as I continue to grow, I keep those conversations open all the time. And I also keep a really open mind as to what's new. I made changes, which I told you I started becoming more active on social media, which is a which is a slippery slope for me because I do have that nine year old daughter, and you and I are both educated on the dangers of social media. So I just kinda take that one day at a time. But I don't think that my career will be, always the same.

Elizabeth: And I'd and I'm really open open to new ideas and new things. I always tell when my my husband asked me the same question because he said, are you gonna are you gonna stay? Are you gonna stay with NewsNation? I said, yeah. Of course.

Elizabeth: I'm I'm happy now. I'm really happy now. The only time I'll make a change in my career is when I feel like I'm not learning anymore. And I remember I was really young. I was, like, 27 years old, sitting in Roger Ailes' office, and, I really wanted to start a family.

Elizabeth: Darren and I were thinking about it. Of course, it didn't happen until we were in our thirties, and he asked me what I wanted. And he and I said to him I said, every day, I wanna come to work, and I wanna learn something new. And there was, like, a really blunt pregnant pause. And he said, why usually, people ask me for a show.

Elizabeth: And I said, I don't, I don't want a show. He didn't.

Erica: Do. He was like, well, that's weird.

Elizabeth: Yeah. I guess it didn't fit the narrative. So I wasn't I I never had anything awful happen to me. I was at Fox News for fifteen years. I don't know if I should be taking that personal.

Elizabeth: I don't know if I don't look right, if I don't fit the narrative, but I was in his office many times. And and when I when I watched the movie, I said, well, damn. I I I guess I don't have it.

Erica: Oh my goodness. I love it. Well, I've got one last question for you, and it's one that I love

Erica: to ask everybody. But if you could go

Erica: all the way back in time to the woman who's jet setting around the world, she doesn't know where this is all gonna lead. She's struggling with the syndrome and all of the other sticky floors. What piece of advice would you give her today?

Elizabeth: Oh, one that I heard and I didn't listen to was just slow down. I could never slow down. And maybe you experienced this too much more so probably when we were drinking more, but it's the spiral. I mean, I wish I had the tools and the tricks that I didn't get, until that catalyst I told you about to just slow everything down, to slow your nervous system down. Because once you start to spiral, it transfers into everything in your life, your professional, your personal.

Elizabeth: And I don't think and I'm, I mean, I'm still working on it. Right? I'm still a work in progress. But slowing down is one of the biggest strengths anyone can have to just breathe.

Erica: You know, everybody says you have to slow down to speed up, and I never believed that for the longest time. You know? It's not until I'm in my very late thirties that it's like, no. No. You do need to just do nothing.

Erica: You need to sit, and you need to be still, and boom. So I love that piece of advice. That is amazing advice. Where can people find you if they're like, oh my god. This woman's amazing.

Erica: I've gotta track her down. Where can they find you?

Elizabeth: Ma'am, I wish I was that interesting. Well, I'm on Twitter, Elizabeth Pran. I'm also on Instagram. If they wanna watch NewsNation, there's an app that you can find a channel finder because there are, a number of affiliates across the country. You can stream it on Hulu.

Elizabeth: You can also stream it on YouTube TV. So there is a myriad of ways, that you can watch NewsNation. It's fun. It's a great network. I would try it.

Elizabeth: I would just try it. Just try it. Keep an open mind. We're gonna try it.

Erica: We're gonna try it. Well, Elizabeth, thank you so much. It was such a great conversation. Have a great rest of your day.

Elizabeth: Thank you so much.

Erica: Oh my gosh. What an amazing conversation with Elizabeth Pran. From her inspiring journey in journalism to the heartfelt stories of balancing a high powered career with a family life and a famous husband, Elizabeth has shared so many nuggets of wisdom today. Now if you're looking to learn how to navigate your own career challenges, overcome imposter syndrome, and find your need, this episode was packed with insights just for you. Now be sure that you connect with Elizabeth on Twitter and Instagram, and check out her work on NewsNation.

Erica: Thank you so much for joining us today, and remember, you are enough just as you are. Keep striving, keep thriving, and keep breaking through those sticky floors. And don't forget, the only ceilings that exist are the ones we place over ourselves. Let's smash through them together.