Nely Galan – Empowering Women to Become Self-Made
Nely Galan is revolutionizing the Latina entrepreneurship space encouraging all Latinas to become Self Made. Nely is a self-made media mogul. Dubbed the Tropical Tycoon by the New York Times Magazine, she was the first Latina President of Entertainment for a U.S. television network (Telemundo). She is an Emmy Award-winning producer of over 700 episodes of television in English and in Spanish. She is the author of The NY Times bestselling book SELF MADE, Becoming Empowered, Self Reliant, and Rich in Every Way. Here’s her story.
Ana: What prepared you to become a leader in the women empowerment space, both in education and prior experience?
Nely: I have had a long career from intern to assistant to working my way up to run a television Network. I have also had a full career as a serial entrepreneur. But nothing prepared me to be a leader in the empowerment space except my desire to do it.
I always say that to be chosen you have to choose yourself . No one is handing us a role a position that we don’t decide we want and that we take the risk to go after.
My goal is to teach all women to become self made, whether it’s as an entrepreneur or as an employee that invests their money in something that makes them self made like real estate, stock, a franchise or buying a business. I chose myself to lead this movement because I believe in it for all of us and I truly love it.
Ana: What makes you proud of the work you do?
Nely: I believe everything I do is in order to pass the torch, to my son and to all the women and men I touch through The Adelante Movement and through my book Self Made.
My son asked me once when he was 8 years old, what is the meaning of life? It was daunting question that I answered something like:
“Life is like a video game, you are on a journey with yourself, competing with your own special gifts, skills, weaknesses, and demons. Sometime when you win you lose and sometimes when you lose you really win. Everyone and everything is there to be your obstacles course. Just like in a video game when you feel you are mastering something and you go up to level two or three, you make a fatal mistake and go back to level one and start again. Life is a puzzle that reveals itself slowly. Only time will show you what is the criteria for success for yourself and then only you can judge how well you did. You will either be proud or you will have to re access and catch up before time runs out.”
I work every day to try to be proud and make my son and my community proud.
Ana: What is your passion? How do you live your “why”?
Nely: My passion is to grow every day by any means necessary. I don’t believe you can grow a business and be truly masterful in any part of your life if you don’t do your own work all the time.
I start every day feeling like I know nothing at all and I am willing to learn. That is my passion.
Ana: What are your contributions to your community?
Nely: I believe we are all here to make the world a better place. I also feel to have to heal yourself first before you save the world otherwise you are a wounded healer. But once you are out of survival more and you are abundant you can give back to your family and your community.
The Adelante movement and my book Self Made, is my way of giving back to my community.
Ana: What advice would you give to other professional and entrepreneurial women, whether coming from other countries, or already in the US, to grow in their career and professional or business objectives?
Nely: In order to be successful I have to start by changing my relationship to fear and failure. Fear is my guide to what I must do, and failure is simply something that has to happen often in order to have two or three successes in a lifetime, whether it’s in my personal life or my career and mission.
When fear shows up I tell myself: “don’t run away, do it anyway”. When I fail, I mourn and I tell myself over and over “get out of bed and get back on the horse”.
Happiness comes from moments that I love, appreciate and earn, in the aftermath of my fears and failures.
Ana: Anything else you would like to share with us?
Nely: We live in times where we need to be louder and braver.
Truths need to be told and people need to stand up for what it is right.
Economic independence through a Self Made mindset and being Loud and brave are the superpowers we need to cultivate.
Thank you Nely for holding the torch for the Self Made movement!
Do you want to learn more? Follow Nely here:
Website: http://becomingselfmade.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nely.galan.3/
Twitter: @Nely_Galan
Instagram: @nelygalan
