"First" is a word that comes up often in a review of Kandi Burruss's road to building several Atlanta-area businesses, winning songwriting Grammys, and starring on Bravo's Real Housewives of Atlanta for a record 14 seasons. Onstage at Marie Claire's Power Play at the St. Regis Atlanta, she tells editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike about her new mission: to get "first" out of descriptions of entrepreneurs like her—and make diverse leaders the norm in every industry.
"I'm tired of hearing all the time, this is the first woman to ever do the blah, blah, blah," she says to applause. "My goal is to open the door for other women, minorities, people of color to take up space and places where it is not the norm for us to take up space."
