Meet Helen Zhao

Today we’d like to introduce you to Helen Zhao.

Hi Helen, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a digital video reporter, producer and host at CNBC, telling stories about entrepreneurship, careers, personal finance and basically all things money. My day to day involves interviewing, writing, on-camera hosting, shooting and editing.

I wanted to give up so many times in my journey to get here, and I’m so glad I stuck out all the rejection and the periods of unemployment, being broke, and not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Because now, I’m so passionate about going to work every single day! Here’s how I got to where I am now!

Growing up, I went back and forth between wanting to be a fiction novelist and a psychologist. I loved writing and exploring how the human mind works. In hindsight, I realize that until college, writing and pondering psychology were forms of self-reflection and therapy I used to understand myself better and navigate my own insecurities. Once I felt more grounded in my own identity, I became much more interested in understanding other people and writing about their stories.

My senior year in college, I joined UCLA’s student media, The Daily Bruin, as a copy-editor. The Daily Bruin allows you to cross-train into other departments. That’s how I joined the radio and video teams. After one quarter on the radio team, I was asked to host the weekly Daily Bruin Radio show due to my energetic and extraverted personality. Every week on the show, I interviewed members of the UCLA community. I was hooked.

Suddenly I had found a dynamic and fun outlet for my love of psychology and telling stories. I got to ask questions, connect with and learn about other human beings on a deeper level, and then share their stories in the most compelling manner possible with the outside world.

It struck me that this is exactly how I see my role in this world – as a communicator and intermediary of stories, meaning, emotion and information. From that point on, there was no question I wanted to pursue journalism as a reporter, producer and host.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Identifying your calling is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. For many years, I wished I wasn’t so singularly passionate about one career path. I wished that I didn’t have “a calling” or “a passion” because trying and failing to make it in a cutthroat and unstable industry is very painful. I watched my friends advancing in careers in engineering, accounting, finance, and healthcare, while broke and struggling to find a job in the media industry.

The real world was a big slap in the face, especially after feeling on top of the world pursuing my passions in college. After graduation, I was unemployed, living at home and broke for about six months. For a couple of years out of college, I did A LOT of free work and took $10/hour internships.

At one point in, I landed an exciting contractor role at a startup TV channel, only to be let go a couple of weeks later. I think the startup realized it was running out of money. A couple months later, I got a job at a local Beverly Hills newspaper with an abusive egomaniacal boss who screamed at employees everyday and often reiterated, “that is the dumbest question I have ever heard!” I made one too many accuracy errors (I know I shouldn’t have) and was let go a couple of weeks in. (Thank God).

Man, I really wanted to give up. But as cliché as it sounds, a fire burned within me that refused to let me stop pursuing journalism. I was driven by the idea that life isn’t worth living unless you do what you love, and in order to feel the highs, I had to embrace the lows.

I eventually got a contractor job writing celebrity articles around paparazzi photos. I found a lot of comfort in how easy, stable, and well-paying the job was. But after a year, I felt empty. I lacked passion and purpose and questioned – would I ever get to do what I love in this field and make a living doing it?

That central question has shaped what I do today in business journalism. I believe business is at its core about survival and pursuing our dreams, two of our strongest drives in life. Now my goal as a journalist is to help empower other people economically in doing things that give them passion and purpose.

I have often envied journalists younger than me, who are further in their careers. But I remind myself that my struggles have given me a deeper and more complex perspective in my particular niche.

In my mid-20s, I got a full-ride scholarship to USC’s graduate school of journalism. From there, the struggles didn’t end, but I’ve been building my career in business journalism and digital video ever since!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a digital video journalist, I produce videos from A to Z. I pitch stories, research, conduct interviews, write scripts, appear on camera, shoot in the field and edit. In digital video, you have to do it all: from mastering a Canon Cinema C300 camera to nailing your on-camera presence. I specialize in deep-dive videos in the 8 to 12-minute range, on topics from why you spend so much money at Trader Joe’s to whether ESG investing has any meaningful benefit to the planet, to why some people are moving to big cities during the pandemic, as others flee.

Many people – from strangers to acquaintances I haven’t spoken to in many years – have reached out to tell me they randomly stumbled upon and loved a video I produced. (As women, we should brag and be unabashedly proud of ourselves more often.) One time, someone whose Airbnb I stayed in in 2015 (whom I hadn’t spoken to since then) reached out to me on Facebook saying they were shocked to see me in a video that was circulating on Facebook that had racked up 14 million views. It’s amazing to know your work is actually reaching and touching people!

I think the reason some people get excited about my work is that I excel in telling stories that create an emotional connection with viewers. Even with the most seemingly mundane topics, I always ask myself, “what is universally relatable about this subject?” and tease out those themes. I strive to find characters with compelling stories and perspectives to help bring my videos to life. I try to make sure that every story (even when it comes to seemingly dry topics like investing!) is a human story.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think risks and the sacrifices they come with are worth taking if you know that a positive result aligns with your true calling and passion. I find that the risks worth taking are the ones that don’t let you give up on them. You’re tired of fighting and exhausted. The rational part of you wants to throw in the towel and pursue something that “makes more sense.” But there’s this involuntary fire inside of you that forces you to keep going!

The risks that aren’t worth taking are the ones that you give up on with a shrug when things get challenging. I’ve casually given up on many different endeavors, which always tells me it wasn’t something I wanted enough for myself.

I also believe there are smart ways to mitigate risk. If my future daughter or son wanted to pursue a creative field, I would advise them to study business as well as whatever it is they’re passionate about. Learn how to make money in different ways. Learn how to invest and earn passive income. Learn how to be entrepreneurial or have a side hustle.

Business skills are essential in every industry and in our survival. It blows my mind that high school students learn tons of complex abstract knowledge like trigonometry, physics and art history – and critical basic survival skills like how to get a job, personal finance, investing and entrepreneurship are completely neglected.

I believe this is a major reason why so many millennials have been underemployed, living at home with their parents and delaying marriage and having children. That hurts our economy as a whole. Anyways, I digress.

The bottom line is, I think learning business skills is a great way to mitigate risk and at the very least, have something to fall back on while pursuing a creative profession. And that’s why I’m a journalist specializing in business economics coverage!

Contact Info:

• Website: helenjennifer.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helenjzhao/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/helenjzhao?lang=en