Nely Galán on women’s empowerment, finding success in the digital age and her former ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ boss Donald Trump

QUOTES FROM THIS 'LARRY KING NOW' INTERVIEW WITH NELEY GALÁN:

*Posted Online on Ora.TV on June 1st 2016:

“I was born in Cuba. I’m an immigrant. I came to this country at five years of age. It was ‘68, so it was late, late. My family was in Cuba and it was very hard to leave so we were blessed to come here. We got out via Spain and it was a lottery and it was crazy as you can imagine. We came here with this idea of the American dream and of freedom of speech. So for me I am self made because I am someone who came here from nothing and worked really really really hard with no connections and nothing.” —Nely Galán on coming to America from Cuba and becoming self-made on her own

“I think my first big move is that I was in catholic high school and I got accused of plagiarism, suspended for three days, and I wrote an article on why you should never send your kid to an all girl catholic school and sent it into Seventeen Magazine. When it came out it was sort of a scandal and the nuns said, “We may expel you.’ I went to the board of education and the board said, ‘You have to put up with it because it’s a private school but we are going to send you a reporter and you should tell your story.’ The next day a news article came out that read ‘Cuban girl get expelled for first amendment issues.’ It all turned out incredible, Larry, because it should have been the worst day of my life. My parents were freaking out, but instead Seventeen Magazine offered me the youngest guest editor in their history and the nuns let me graduate a year and a half early.”—Nely Galán on her rebellious move in high school that led to her career path to working at Seventeen Magazine

“So from then on, I realized this is not a country of wimpy people; that you have to stand up and we have all these rights that we need to use. I started at the bottom in the entertainment business, started as an intern worked my way up to a producer, ended up running a TV station- channel 47 in New York for Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio who were the owners- and then worked my way up to becoming president of Telemundo.” —Nely Galán on working her way up the ranks at Telemundo

“When I went in as president of Telemundo, I was only there for three years and then we sold it to NBC. I started my own company producing TV shows and I always say, ‘I’m like the latina Tyler Perry,’ because I produce a lot of shows in spanish that have crossed over into english and I had the hit reality show ‘The Swan’ which is how you and I met because I came on your show to promote the show.” —Nely Galán on being the ‘latina Tyler Perry’ and selling Telemundo to NBC

“A number of years ago after I finished school, l I got on his board of Coca-Cola’s and they told me that latinas in the United States are the number one emerging market in the world and multicultural women like them are really the answer to the US economy. I thought that was so different than what I was hearing in the mainstream, from politicians, or from everybody. It was like ‘the multicultural people were the problem in the country’ and I realized there was this revolution going on unbeknownst to us that women, after the 2008 crash multicultural women were becoming the fastest growing entrepreneurs in the world. So I started this thing, the Adelante Movement’ which means ‘Let’s go, let’s move it’ and Coca-Cola supported me and I went around the country training latinas in entrepreneurship.” —Nely Galán on why she decided to write her book and her program ‘The Adelante Movement’

“If you’re in a corporation, it would be a lie to say there are no roadblock or no glass ceilings. I’ve done both so I can tell you. I bought the house next door to my house so my office can be next door to my house so I could raise my kid. I couldn’t do that the same way when I was working in a corporation. An extra challenge that ‘Self-made’ resolves, that ‘Self-made’ is the answer too.” —Nely Galán on how being an entrepreneur makes ‘having it all’ easier than working in a corporation for women and how her book explains that

“Donald was a different version of the Donald we are seeing now. He was a guy who was very tough, very tough all across the board, but it was in the spirit of a TV show. It was in the spirit of we were all in a competition to raise money for charity. It was all in good fun. He was the Simon Cowell of business. It was a lot of fun. They picked me because they wanted a latina woman who could keep up with Trump. I got into episode eight...I felt that Donald, you could go toe to toe with him. He was fair on the show. The new Donald I have seen run for president is very shocking to me. Very, very disappointing.” —Nely Galán on Donald Trump being very disappointing and not the Donald she remembers

“I think Hillary is someone who over and over again has proven herself to be someone who supports women, supports women of color, supports all women in this country and has supported women entrepreneurs. It really pains me as well that other women are so harsh on her...This woman has killed herself at every job you could possibly have. She is the most prepared woman to go into a presidency in history and women are still tough on her and I think we need to stop. This is the moment of women!” —Nely Galán on her support of Hillary Clinton and confusion of other women’s hatred towards her

“Best piece of advice- don’t buy shoes, buy buildings. And I give it to women. Real estate is the answer!” —Nely Galán on the best advice she ever received