June/July 2008

Cheryl Casone, Fox Business Network Anchor

 Don’t let appearances fool you, Casone has the brains to go along with her beauty and fashionable presence. This tenacious Texas gal self-taught her way to financial know-how by reading books. She bridged her flight attendant career and landed on the national travel update with CNX Media, moved on as a business reporter for Bloomberg in New York, and then anchored for MSNBC and NBC. Using what she learned from books and her grandparents, she freelance reported from the New York Stock Exchange floor as a correspondent for CNN. A contributor with FOX News Channel’s Cashin’ In, she then corresponded for the business unit and became a regular on FNC’s Your World with Neil Cavuto.
   Casone’s motivational spirit and ability to make financial matters relateable to audiences with her genuine, Texan friendly style serves as an inspiration to anyone, especially women. And we want to know her secret behind being fashionably beautiful and still being taken seriously ...


Excerpt from the Interview:

SV: You’re blond, beautiful and have fashion pizazz, yet you’re presenting what is generally seen as a dry, humorless and generally male dominated news format. How long does it take for others to see that you have the brains behind the advice? And by the way, I’m blonde!

CC: OK, that’s funny! Well, one of the great things about Fox that I’ve learned is that everyone is so smart, but you can’t let our great sense of fashion fool you. I work mostly with former Wall Street traders and journalists, and everybody here has either been covering business news for many years or actually comes from the floor. We actually have a lot of varying degrees of experience and when we come together as a group, you are getting a lot of differing opinions. That allows us to broaden our reach to a more diverse America. It’s a great mix! From New York to California we are all affected by all the things foremost in our broadcasts like food prices and housing—like in Dallas, I know that housing prices are down about 30%, just on that market.


SV: There’s what we love about you -- brains and beauty. You can have both. But you know how critical the medium can be when it comes to women anchors. They’re constantly being picked apart with regards to their looks. Do you have any advice on how other women can get what you have -- the ability to get people to take you seriously as a beautiful woman who is also a powerful business executive?

CC:   Well as far as looks and fashion, all the things that come with being on television, I’ve never really thought about it, but it’s because I concentrate mostly on what I’m saying. I really want to help people and I try to make the stories we run relatable to people, so they can walk away and say, “Wow, I did not know that!” And TV doesn’t lie, you can’t hide from the camera—people see through that. After being on-air for around 10 years, I know you’ve got to be the real deal.


SV: But seriously, don’t you ever worry about those bad hair days?

CC:   Oh, of course! I had one today. Are you kidding? Sometimes I’m in such a rush that the makeup and hair women are chasing me into the studio. All I want to do is get there and get logged on and look at the markets and stocks and make sure I have all the numbers I need. So yes, I do have bad hair days, but it’s my fault,not theirs. They do try to contain me, but it doesn’t always work!

Read the full interview in the June/July issue of SV