welcome to our world with black enterprise. i'm your host. this week the lights are shining brighter for our all access guest nene leeks and entrepreneur of the week got a multimillion dollar business and he has a more lucrative beat as a real estate maven and

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welcome back to our world with black enterprise. with the supporting role in the broadway attraction cinderella nene is living her dreams. she's confident she'll always be one of the leading housewives on tv. >> this season on the real housewives of atlanta. >> see these legs here honey. >> you're my sister. >> what is going through your mind right now as you are about to embark on a whole new career? >> well, you know, it's exciting. i'm a little nervous about it. >> okay. >> but i also am the kind of girl that likes a bit of a challenge. i'm happy. i feel like it's an honor and

lots of people know me from being a house wooif. they know me from the reality world but they don't know me. they have a different idea as to who i am because they have seen me on the housewives show. they don't know my level of professionalism. they don't know my real talent. they just know me as a girl on a reality show that is hold on, wait a minute. >> right. >> but they don't really know me. >> so who are you? >> i'm a strong black woman. i am. i am very educated and i am also very professional. when i go to work. i go to work. i am 100% professional. i don't come to work to argue. i am here to work and you can ask anybody in the cinderella family that. you can ask anybody at glee or dancing with the stars, the new normal. >> you're professional? >> yeah. >> you are successful as an author, producer, successful as a fashion designer, actress, tv

personality in all of these generes right. but i see lately, at least this is my opinion but that i feel like you're distancing yourself from reality tv. is that the case? >> well i would like to say i have grown. >> i'm just seeing a cynthia that i didn't know exists. >> unfollow, whatever, friend contract is dead. >> i know of claudia, yeah. >> it was a different reality when leaks was the first to be cast as a real housewives of atlanta. >> we started so long ago there wasn't a lot of black african american reality shows on television. but now we have every show in the world. >> there weren't many black reality tv shows but today we have many and we also know that most of america, they only have the opportunity to see or understand another ethnicity through tv. so what do you think the impact of these black reality tv shows

has been on the perception of black america? >> it's been both negative and positive, okay? i feel like when our show first started we were positive. i thought people really liked it. even though we got in your face it was never a fistfight. it was mouthing. our first physical fight on our show was last season. they really took it there. it's just been negative. it's been negative the type of shows that have come on and i always say when i meet all of these reality stars because they all contact me at some point or another and i said i can't believe you did all that for $1.50. they are not that serious. you cannot go all the way left and feel like you're going to have a career after that. i don't think you can have one. >> so what positive has come from this for black america? >> it definitely shows other black girls who are watching the tv, i can be an author. they can be a designer like me. >> right.

>> oh my gosh. i can be a designer. i can actually be an actor. i can actually be on broadway. >> sure. >> it's the way you go about it. >> so what's the future then? what do you think the future of reality tv is for black people in particular. >> these girls are not even going to be able to get a radio interview in a minute if they continue the behavior of going so left on tv. i feel like they can use their platforms a lot better. they could. >> at this point right now you're at the height of your star power. >> for an african american reality star, i'm probably that girl. >> that girl is now a powerful business woman, wife, and mother but juggling stardom and family has not always been easy for nene or her children. >> me being in the entertainment industry has been taxing being a mother in several different ways. it's not always a good thing. it's not all positive because i miss out on being with my children when they need me the most. but the positive side of that is i am opening up doors and opportunities for my children. have opening up doors of

opportunity for other little black girls so there is positive in it. >> what is your dream for your children and granddaughter. >> i say it all the time. i think it's very cliche but i say it. it sounds ridiculous. i love to tell people to reach for the stars. i swear. >> that's fine. reach for the stars. >> yes i always say you can be anything you want to be. you should reach for the stars and i tell my children that and they roll their eyes. >> thank you very much. we wish you the best. >> thank you. >> not just here in broadway but beyond. >> up next our entrepreneur of the week made millions focussing on more than just a business plan. can we get a little help? >>we've got pepsi! >>what if we just take like 15 minutes? halfway through the game? >>they've got pepsi. ♪ so what do we call that? >>halftime. i like halftime. even the first halftime wasn't halftime without pepsi! see katy perry live at the pepsi superbowl 49 halftime show.

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that coffee breaks down tooth enamel. thankfully, she uses act restoring mouthwash. it rebuilds tooth enamel, making your teeth two times stronger. act. smile strong. welcome back. our entrepreneur of the week has the strength to follow her

dreams all the way to the food chain. now she is a top employer in her community and keeps many families in more ways than one. she has more. >> by the mid 90s the civil war in liberia left thousands of children homeless. helpless, and feeling hopeless. but despite the severity of the turmoil one survivor chose an optimistic perspective when describing her experience. >> what i do remember about that time is how fearless i was. >> and then you transitioned and migrated to the united states. totally different culture. how were you able to adjust and be a part of it seamlessly? >> coming here i was ready for america because i was starved. i was just starved for education, opportunity, and just being able to just be a kid again. >> your first job was at mcdonald's. >> mcdonald's. down the street from me. >> down the street. >> yeah. it was the best experience ever. everything i was doing there i

would do for free. even when i was working for someone i was my own boss. so when i was in banking i was treated like it was my own. that's the only way i know how to be. >> after college she began pursuing ownership on a larger scale. >> i remember buying my first house. exhausting everything i had and every penny and i remember for the first six months sleeping on the floor. literally on the floor because i had no furniture. no money to buy furniture either but it was okay. part of that sacrifice made that transaction so worth while. because i can look back and say wow i did this. i did it. >> with her ambition leading the way she began making stieds toward her next goal. to open an ihop in her community no matter how many doors were shut. >> i went to 7 local banks and 7 local banks said no to me. >> after the 7th no you were not

deterred. >> the next was they would say no for something else and i started working at an ihop on the weekends. i said i'll be here just learning. the reason why this restaurant got funded was a conversation i was having with someone at ihop corporate and i remember getting a call and the guy said to me i got your information from ihop corporate. i got off the phone with the gentlemen and 30 days later hi the funding for my restaurant. >> it was done. >> yeah. >> and you knew it wasn't for naught. >> the reason why the application was necessary when i got on the phone i had everything already packaged. >> that was the big break she needed. from there she became the youngest franchisee in history. it was the fastest growing ihop

in the northeast with increases in revenue each and every year since 2009. >> often when we come into these neighborhoods we have the security plan and the plan for everything else. i think one of the plans that we missed is the plan that says how am i going to come in this community and, one, connect with that community, provide experience that is unmatched. be here in the same core or anywhere else in america. >> today she is a real estate developer and coowner of a firm that manages more than $200 million in urban redevelopment projects. she is dedicated to serving her community in every way possible and she is the most generous with her advice for others. >> i do believe and i tell my

staff here now be very present in your experience you have to be present because you don't know when you might have to pull the experience that you have here in your future life. so you have to be extremely present in your life now. >> thanks trish. that story is a true snapshot of the american dream. still to come we'll meet someone that left the d.j. booth for a new life in the corner office.

see these hands? they gripped the wheel of a humvee in afghanistan. these hands? six years treating soldiers. twelve years, flying choppers. my hands? they're here for the person who fought in afghanistan. i made the call and got support for my sister. my hands are here for the person who treated those soldiers. i helped connect my son with the care he's earned. mine take care of the person who flew those helicopters. and if life gets overwhelming they're ready to dial the veterans crisis line. the veterans crisis line is here for all veterans and their loved ones. call 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. or chat online at veteranscrisisline.net

welcome back to our world with black enterprise. for many years this woman owned the air waives at a radio station. she climbed to new heights by focussing on a different type of ownership. here's a look inside this week's corner office. >> in the pursuit of success

there's pieces of professional advice heard by all and ignored by many and then there's those that know a good thing when they hear it. >> where do i start? >> former radio personality turned business woman the career advice she received many years ago meant all the difference in her life. >> i had a mentor that said if you want to last and want your career to have longevity across the board these are the things you should do and some things you shouldn't do. part is having a plan a and plan b. working and massaging that plan b which for me was real estate. i grew up knowing that real estate was the foundation of wealth and i got bit by that bug much like the radio bug early on. >> it was only a matter of time before plan b would become the master plan. >> i think when we put energy out into the universe it gives us the same back and for me i decided that i wanted people to know that i wasn't just a voice that you heard on the radio or some cute face you saw on tv. i had a brain and bigger plan

and i had a purpose. my purpose which i decided was going to be imbedded in the fabric at an early age is to teach people about financial empowerment. so i would talk about it on my radio show and the latest entertainment news as well but see how you're getting it all in one place. a casting director said do you really do real estate and i realized where he was going. i said can you hold on for a minute and finished my show. at that time they were looking for someone new to host property virgins on hgtv and he thought based upon listening to me that i was the perfect candidate. >> the question is how much are they willing to sacrifice to have all of this in their backyard. >> who knew. i could have never predicted anything like that would happen.

i used to watch the show all the time myself. but it was the perfect marriage. to peel back the layers and let my listeners and viewers see this is who i am. not one dimensional but i'm all about real estate as well. that's my passion. >> egypt has always been driven by her desire to see more people from our communities taking initiative and ownership. >> when you sit dormant and just collect a paycheck, you're letting someone else be the master of your destiny. pick up a black enterprise magazine and read about the things you should be doing. wealth preservation is important. you can make $200,000 a year but do you know how to make that money work for you and make compounded interest so you can retire. >> egypt also has her own foundation and makes it a point to stay grounded. >> if you see me and my head seems like it's too big, which should never happen because working with my foundation givesmy me a greater sense of

purpose as to why god has afforded me the opportunity to talk to millions of people or be on television in front of millions of people to empower them. >> coming up, we serve another slice of life. ♪ it's not new. and that's what you like about it. it is not back. but it's always got yours. it's crunchy lettuce. creamy mayo. crispy chicken. made with a pop of pepper and a little tlc... all for just a dollar. no bells, no whistles, no apologies. the mcchicken you know, the mcchicken you love. part of dollar menu & more. choices you can count on at prices you'll be lovin. ♪

that coffee breaks down tooth enamel. thankfully, she uses act restoring mouthwash. it rebuilds tooth enamel, making your teeth two times stronger. act. smile strong.

welcome back to our world with black enterprise. this is a show that brings you deeper into the world we know and digs deeper for the world we all want to see. that means highlighting those that are making a difference. here is this week's slice of life. >> when it comes to stem

education science, technology, engineering and mathematics the united states lags behind in it's global competitiveness. >> currently we're in a crisis in this country when it comes to public education. >> but at howard university's middle school of mathematics and sciences they're exposing students to stem education at an early age. >> even though they serve a student population that is 100% made up of students classified as minorities under 70% of our kids come from households below the federal poverty line and 2-thirds come performing below grade level. it's not uncommon to have a student that comes to us 11 years old and functionally illiterate. >> the curriculum is designed to help students catch up academically. >> we created a platform that does two parts. both accelerate and provides the necessary interventions to have those students that come to us so behind and up and at grade

level by the time they exit us in the 8th grade. >> when i look at my own experience my mom is a nurse. she would take me to her job. i would see things that totally fascinated me about medicine. i think that early engagement with people that look like you doing the things that can encourage you to do them is extremely important. >> but this school does something few other schools do anywhere in the country. whether you agree or not it makes a difference. >> we have a longer school day and longer school year. that longer school day allows us two additional classes per day. one we call our acceleration period. what it allows us to do in the core subject areas of math and reading allows us to put in the necessary intervention to rapidly bring that student up to grade level. we also realize that while the majority of our kids may come to us struggling not all of our kids come to us struggling.

numerous students are testing off the charts and perform at a high school level because it also allows us to offer them unique stem courses like computer science or stem project learning or an advanced high school biology class in the 6th and 7th grade. >> students embrace the opportunity the school offers. >> i love film. it's a really good program. i like all of my teachers and they're really, really cool. really make sure that you understand and they're very interactive with you. >> with the growing success of the students the message is clear. >> every child has an opportunity. every child can be motivated and can providing that they're actually giving the necessary tools. >> ideally, 5 or 10 years down the road there would be a panther, moorehouse, tuskegee

and the list goes on and we would be working in bringing our young minds together to help them to achieve the level of success that we know that they can. >> and that does it for this edition of our world with black enterprise. be sure to visit us on the web at black enterprise.com/our world. like us on facebook and follow me on twitter at paulcbrunson. thanks for watching and we'll see you next week. >> we want to put you on the hot seat. >> okay. >> so first question is what are you most proud of. >> i am very very proud of just how far i have come. you know whefrom where i starte. sometimes i can't believe it. >> what's most misunderstood about nene leaks? >> i'm misunderstood in many ways especially the whole popping off thing. >> right. people don't understand you're regular. >> yeah, popping off at me like

i'm so tired i just want to sit down. and you really have to take me there. >> l.a. or atlanta? >> atlanta. >> all right so let's say that you are a producer at a show of the real housewives of atlanta and you had to bring back one of the previous housewives who would you bring back? >> kim. >> if you could have dinner with anyone tonight, who would it be? >> i'm not a star struck kind of girl. i've been around everybody. i could see anybody and i would be like girl i ain't thinking about her. i don't know, you know, people like when you say i'll sit down with oprah. how about that. >> i love it. >> but she would have to be very open and let me drill her. >> last question is what is the most important lesson in reality tv. >> shut up and

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