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Hoda Kotb looks back on when she told her former Today cohosts that she was leaving in an exclusive excerpt from her new book Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life”I was preparing myself to speak the truth out loud, and I think that that was very scary,” she tells PEOPLEJump and Find Joy is available now, wherever books are sold

Hoda Kotb knows a thing or two about never giving up. She also — miraculously, simultaneously — knows exactly when the job is done.

These principles, wrapped up in Kotb’s perfect brand of optimism, drive her latest book Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life, available now. The book, which is filled with anecdotes from Kotb’s own life and career as well as words of advice from fellow changemakers, serves as a guide for anyone looking to take a leap of faith into something new.

For Kotb, that meant leaving her gig as cohost of NBC’s Today show, and she tells PEOPLE that she really had to psych herself up before she told her colleagues (who she also counts as dear friends) her big news last September.

Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on Thursday, September 26, 2024, after Kotb announced she would be leaving the show.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

“I was preparing myself to speak the truth out loud, and I think that that was very scary. Because I knew what I felt and I knew what it was, but sometimes you wonder, ‘I already know inside, but I have to convince everybody that it’s the right thing,'” she recalls.

“I invited Libby [Leist] in. I remember my heart was pounding, but I was playing music. I was playing ‘Both Sides Now’ from the movie CODA, that version. But Libby walked in and I had already set the tone of, ‘This is me, this is real.'”

“And I didn’t know what to expect,” she continues. “I didn’t know what to expect from anybody — because Savannah [Guthrie] and I are compadres too — and I didn’t know that she would say what she said … You know when you tell the truth, and your body relaxes? That’s what it felt like. All of a sudden it was like, ‘Ah, there it was. Okay.’ And then I just felt something, like a calm, even though there was still a lot to do after that moment.”

Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life by Hoda Kotb.

G.P. Putnam’s Sons

The broadcaster left the NBC morning show in January in order to spend more time with her two daughters, Haley, 8, and Hope, 6, as well as her mom, Sameha. Kotb also launched her wellness business and app, Joy 101, in May, which she says has her “feeling like a kid [who’s] learning all over again.”

“The headline is, it’s super fun,” says the newly-minted entrepreneur. “Building something from the ground up is crazy … We’re having fun and we’re hiring, and we have a culture of optimism and hope.”

Read an exclusive excerpt from Jump and Find Joy below.

The time had come. This was the day I would tell my bosses and colleagues that I wasn’t renewing my contract.

I remember feeling a crazy mix of emotions, my big news about to move from my heart to my lips. I knew the words I was about to share were unexpected, and that my decision would affect a wide range of coworkers and their plans. The list of people I needed to tell was long, and the order in which I told them was important to me. I was ending a relationship, the longest of my adult life, and breakups are hard. And breaking up over and over is unbearable. I felt like I had been cast in that Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, where he’s trapped in a time loop and forced to relive the same events again and again. You’d think it would have gotten easier each time, but believe me, it didn’t.

The first person I reached out to was my boss and friend, Libby Leist, the executive vice president of Today and NBC News. I asked her to visit my office, where I was sitting quietly, my candles lit, Emilia Jones’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s song “Both Sides Now” playing in the background. When Libby walked in, she took one look at me and said, “Oh no.” And I just started talking. I told her that I was thinking a lot about this time in my life and about numbers and how I felt about the math. Twenty-six years at NBC News, 10 years at Dateline, seven on the seven o’clock hour, 16 on the ten o’clock hour. And I had just turned 60.

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Libby listened as I explained that I’d been asking myself what I wanted this next decade to look like. And that the answer was I wanted it to be different from my fifties. I wanted it to have more adventure, and I wanted to chase something, try something scary, go for something that didn’t have a net. I said that my family formed in my fifties, and now my professional life would transform in my sixties. I told her that I knew I’d have more financial security if I stayed at NBC but that I had to think about my kids. When you wait so long for children — like I did — you don’t want to miss your time with them. That’s when Libby burst into tears. She said, “As your friend, I’m proud of you and so happy for you. As your colleague and boss, I’m kind of freaking out!”

We laughed and talked and cried together. She asked me if I was positive, and I told her I was. Even though my heart was pounding, and I knew it was a big deal, I’d slept well the night before. Sleeping well after a big decision has always been my litmus test to know if a jump is right. And the night before, I’d slept like a baby.

After my talk with Libby, I called Savannah. I had wanted to tell her in person, but she was traveling overseas for a wedding. I reached her by phone and then waited as she tried to find a private place to talk. When I was done sharing my news, she got very quiet. Then she said, “God, you’ve got balls.” I laughed.

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“You’ve got courage,” she continued. “I’ll mourn for me and our show later, but right now, I’m just marveling at this whole thing. You’re leaving something that’s like gold in your hands, not because you don’t love it anymore, not because you’re tired of it; you’re just deciding. And that kind of leaving is really something to marvel at.” Gosh. How about Savannah? She always knows exactly what to say.

Next up was Mazz, a.k.a. Today and NBC News executive producer Tom Mazzarelli. When Mazz saw Libby crying and asked what was wrong, she said to him, “We’ve lost our soul.” Well, if I wasn’t emotional enough before, look out. I cried as Mazz hugged me tightly and wished me well. It was the best reaction I could’ve hoped for.

Then it was time to tell my beloved cohost and partner, Jenna, and our wonderful boss and executive producer, Talia Parkinson-Jones. We met in my office, and I waited to share the news until we were all seated on the couch. Then, I began. “I have to tell you something…” But, before I could get another word out, they both shouted, “No, no, no, no!” I kept trying to speak but they wouldn’t let me, saying that word over and over. Finally, I managed to tell them that this would be my last contract.

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Jenna started crying, saying through tears, “I only did this because I’m with you. You chose me, and we chose us, and now it’s us. This is our show.” When Talia asked me to stay for just one more year, I told her I couldn’t. That I wanted to be able to be there for my girls and do basic things like walk them to school. That’s when Jenna jumped in to say she could make that work. She was sure if I stayed on, it could be arranged for me to walk them to school one time. One time! We laughed at that. I knew their reactions were coming from a place of such kindness and love. The three of us kept laughing and crying and hugging. Boy, were we a mess.

Later, Jenna told me that when she called her dad sobbing, he thought someone had died! When she explained that her tears were because I was leaving NBC, he reminded her of an earlier call she’d made to him when she was just starting at Today. At the time, her dad asked her if she could handle being my cohost. He said, “Look, Jenna, Hoda’s the star of that show. Hoda. Are you going to be able to handle that?” Jenna laughed and replied, “Yes, Dad!” This time, she said his words of wisdom were different. “Jenna, you’re going to be fine because now you’re ready.” I couldn’t have agreed more. It was her turn, and she was more than ready.

Adapted from JUMP AND FIND JOY by Hoda Kotb. To be published on September 23, 2025, by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by To The Moon Entertainment.

Jump and Find Joy is available now wherever books are sold.