By Kayla Cobb

Olivia Metzger’s client list is a who’s who of some of the biggest names in broadcast journalism: MSNBC president Rashida Jones, “CNN This Morning” anchor Poppy Harlow, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker and CNN senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid. It helps to have connections: Before she founded her talent development firm, OManagement, she counted names like Lester Holt and Jeff Zucker as colleagues at NBCUniversal and worked as an agent for eight years at CAA.

Not bad for someone who started her career as an unpaid NBC intern after “having failed out of college.” She studied at Fairleigh Dickinson but “didn’t go to class” because she “had a sick mother at home and didn’t focus,” Metzger told TheWrap for this week’s Office With a View. She eventually graduated by taking night classes.