Walking away from stability isn’t easy. But what if staying still is even riskier? Emmy-winning journalist Molly Grantham (pictured) bet on herself - and now, she’s proving why you should too.
Grantham built a decorated career in broadcast journalism, earning four Emmy Awards and nine nominations while anchoring at WBTV, a CBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. She started as an intern at ABC-TV in Sydney, Australia, before working her way through WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham and WLEX-TV in Kentucky. Over 20+ years at WBTV, she became a household name—covering major stories, producing acclaimed documentaries, and earning accolades like the Reporter of the Year award.
Then, in early 2024, she walked away from it all.
Now, Grantham has taken her storytelling expertise beyond the news desk. She’s a keynote speaker, author, and media consultant, helping professionals and organizations refine their messaging and elevate their communication strategies.
She will speak at the Women in Insurance Summit Chicago on May 14. Register here to secure your spot and join the conversation.
"I didn't have it mapped out when I left my job; I'm building the plane as I fly it. There's a lot of how-to’s that I'm learning transparently. I want those three words in front of me all the time. They remind you to be fierce, to take action. You're stronger than you think. To bet on yourself is to have teeth and go do something,” she said.
Her decision to leave a stable career wasn’t about having all the answers. It was about having the courage to move forward anyway. That same mindset reshaped how she viewed success.
"Practice makes progress because we were taught wrong. I think every one of us was taught 'practice makes perfect.' There's nothing that's perfect. No one's perfect. Our falls are what make us interesting. So, the progress along the way, and adding on top of everything, is the journey,” she said.
Grantham has seen too many people freeze because they think they need to have it all figured out first. That’s the mistake.
"I use this analogy often; you say you want to lose weight; you don’t just start out by running the 5K. Walk 10 minutes every day, then see where you are,” she said.
The same principle applies to building a meaningful career. Success isn’t about giant leaps—it’s about small, consistent progress. But even with the right mindset and work ethic, there’s another crucial factor: emotional intelligence.
"Insurance can sound really dry, but you're actually talking about things that impact people's lives. It's not sexy stuff, but it's the needed stuff,” she said. “With news, I was in people's homes, talking about things that really mattered to them, their lives, and their families. Truth-telling about stuff that made a difference.
“Emotional intelligence is putting yourself in someone's boots. You get the smartest person around you, but if they can't relate to the person talking to them or can't be relatable to a customer or someone they're working with, they're never going anywhere."
Without that ability, you hit a wall. You won’t connect, you won’t sell, you won’t lead, Grantham said.
She’s seen this play out in real time. The best leaders—the ones who inspire, who drive results, who build teams people actually want to be part of—understand this. The ones who don’t? They stall out.
Too often, leaders focus on the wrong things. They chase numbers, rankings and traditional performance metrics while overlooking what actually makes a team thrive.
"What fosters collaboration is obviously important, and not everybody coming in is going to be your best salesperson. So, everybody has different strengths,” she said. “We all have different gifts inside of us. Maybe someone always leads with empathy, and that can be a person on your team that is needed for different reasons than the top sales. For the top person making them this money, maybe someone is a remarkable networker. Maybe someone else is just great at organization—they’re naturally structured."
A business doesn’t thrive on sales alone. It thrives when leaders recognize and harness the full potential of their team members. Beyond just performance metrics, what truly drives long-term success is an understanding of how different strengths complement one another.
"My gift is writing. I can write fast. I can process information quickly. I can talk to a parent of a very critical child to be able to write something while they like quickly, fast. Put it out [on] social media. People see them. I'm lifting up that child. It cost me nothing. But now this family feels seen, and they educate, oftentimes, the community out there about whatever the illness might be that, very often, is greater or unknown,” she said.
Every company has people who bring things to the table that aren’t easy to measure—but they matter. The best leaders don’t just acknowledge that; they build around it.
Recognizing strengths in others is one thing. Recognizing them in yourself—and acting on them—is another. The easiest thing in the world is to stay where you are. To keep doing what’s comfortable. To tell yourself that someday, when the timing is right, you’ll take the risk. Grantham knows that’s a lie.
"Bet on yourself, because the ‘can-do-it-ness’ we have inside of us is so often not tapped, or we get very comfortable in our positions where they almost become these mindless things we can professionally get through and do," she said.
Now, she’s proving that betting on yourself isn’t just a leap of faith—it’s a strategy for long-term success. And for Grantham, that’s the ultimate win.
