Overcoming Adversity: How Fatherhood Fuels Entrepreneurial Growth

Michael Stansbury (00:01.187)
Hello everybody, my name is Mike Stansbury. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. Today we have my friend Andre Blackwell already messing up names and stuff like that, terrible of me. So I’m gonna actually restart that. So let me do that. All right, in three, two, one. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Mike Stansbury. Today I have a special guest.

Andre Blackwell (00:16.238)
How you got?

Michael Stansbury (00:29.417)
Andre Blackwell. Andre, thank you for coming to the Real Estate Pros podcast. Hey, tell us a little bit about you, your origin story. What does Andre do? Where are you at? What location are you at? Tell us what that looks like.

Andre Blackwell (00:44.974)
Hey, thanks for having me, Mike. I’m Andre Blackwell. I’m the founder and CEO of Dream again. I’m currently in Delaware at the moment. I got a couple properties here. I got properties in Florida. I got property in Florida, property in Vegas too, in Delaware. In Delaware, this is where I started Dream again. No corporate, no sales tax. So I reside here. I’m fixing up a property now that I’m about to rent out and I’ll get that cash flowing by September.

Dream again, started as a tax firm in 2013. Over the years, I transitioned into the financial literacy and gaming. So that’s where I’m at now.

Michael Stansbury (01:23.683)
Okay, Andre, so I learned a little bit about you before the show. So you’ve had an interesting life. one of the stories that you tell us that you were orphaned to an entrepreneur. Tell us that story. What is the origin story of that and kind of your life story? What are some lessons that you can talk to us about, about having that difficult situation and kind of overcoming it?

Andre Blackwell (01:52.214)
So yeah, I started off in, I’m from Chester, Pennsylvania. So I started off in like section eight. So if you don’t know what section eight is like low income, you know, being from section eight, was raised by a single mother. I lost my mother at the age of eight in a car accident on 95. After I lost my mother, like I moved around with different family members and I was with my grandma for some time. And then I just moved all around and I just seemed different.

financial backgrounds, just being with different families and things of that nature. Coming from Section 8, it’s really like a dependent, everybody share everything mentality. And then just seeing other people’s economic standpoint and how they live. I learned that the more independent side, and then I got into real estate, got my own properties.

FHA 203K loan where I built over half a million in equity, I mean a quarter million in equity. So I got like four properties now, I’m renting them out. I’m fixing up a property currently. just being an orphan, I was a student athlete and things like that. And then gave me like this competitive edge. then-

been in school, I was an accounting finance major. And then I transitioned into business and finance. And then I just started learning the finance aspect of things. So I just started reading a bunch of books, trying to learn and better my situation. So it’s been a journey for sure.

Michael Stansbury (03:31.854)
So growing up that way, you got curious because you obviously, what it sounded like to me is that you just started watching people. How do they react to situations? you saw people in different, I guess, financial hardships. You saw some people maybe doing OK financially. And then you just got curious. And then I guess that began your journey of trying to figure out what

How does money work? What does it look like? Yeah.

Andre Blackwell (04:03.542)
Yeah, definitely. And just seeing people with their families, having a good life, traveling, and just seeing people just overall just in how they… I always was curious, just like, what are they doing with their money? How are they moving their money? And then I had to figure out how I felt about money. Because that was the biggest thing coming from an undervalued community.

You know, like our dependency on certain things and aspect of money, you have to see how you like emotionally tied to it. So, you know, I got my CFT, like my certified financial therapist license, just to understand my point of view and how I felt about money and, you know, just seeing other people’s setups and stuff. didn’t want to get, like, I’m not, I don’t get jealous type, but I do get curious of like, how are you doing it? So it helped me like not.

to feel like emotionally drained by other people’s and be curious and learn and grow through it, if that makes sense.

Michael Stansbury (05:07.757)
Yeah, I think that’s a really good antidote to, because know, envy works two ways. You can be, you can have a lot of money and have a problem with envy because you’re looking at the next guy. But one thing that I know is because I’ve been poor before, I can be poor and be envious as well. I can be like, well, you know, that’s not fair. And there’s always somebody, so there’s always somebody poorer than you, and there’s always somebody richer than you.

And so the envy bug is it hits us all and there’s no one’s immune to it. I think your antidote though is you got curious. Why, you know, instead of going, you know, instead of going, you know, Hey, this is, this is just not a, I don’t know what this looks like. It’s not fair. go, well maybe, maybe there’s something here there. Let’s, let’s go figure it out. So, you know, what are those lessons that you can tell people like some of the

the people that you’ve taught or mentored about financial literacy, kind of what are some things that you teach people about those things?

Andre Blackwell (06:10.538)
you know, I try to keep, you know, just keep it simple and, just, you know, learn every aspect. Like everybody’s going to have a different strategy. Like everybody’s output, like the way you go about things is, it’s going to be different because everybody got a different financial setup. Right. So you gotta find what works best for you. You know, probably read some books, talk to like multiple people, you know, get into different groups and just learn what people are doing. You know, whatever, whatever you’re comfortable with, you know,

go along with it. I always tell people, I teach people to tax side of things. So I just be like, look, if you grab a property, 250K, if you resell it tax free, living it two years, rent it out for three. So stay under that threshold. If you married 500K, stay under that threshold. Just so you can create a spread for the most part and gain on those capital gains. Then I just let them know, if you…

just learn the business aspect of things when it comes to real estate, because you can write off a portion, you know, like the home office, like they just brought it back 2025, they canceled it in 2017. You can do, you know, 300 square feet times that by five, you can write off 1500. You can do the simple method, or you can do the actual method, whereas 300 square feet divided by like the square footage of your home. So if you got 2000 square feet.

300 divided by 2000, you can do 15 % of your actual expenses. know, interest, utilities, like anything within that home office, taxes, you can pretty much write those things off. So always go about it in a strategy way and then try to, you know, save your money and then try repeat, repeat and do it again. Yeah, ransom repeat. Once you got that nest built up.

Michael Stansbury (08:01.452)
Rinse and repeat, yeah.

Andre Blackwell (08:06.11)
can strip equity. Like me personally, I’m a service based business. So if I go to the bank and try to get a loan, it’s going to be kind difficult. like me, I got equity in my properties. It’s over 200K. So maybe I’ll do a heat lock and I’ll buy a franchise. I purchased the Indians and the Cinnabons. So that’s going to help me scale up to get products. And it’s already is established business. my mindset is, yeah.

Michael Stansbury (08:30.699)
Yeah, selling real things. Yeah.

Andre Blackwell (08:34.574)
acquire more assets and then, you know, build more assets. You know, I build video games and comics, you know, I’m going do anything to try to create strands of income. So I’m always, I’m always strategize, but you got to figure out what works best for you and then make a plan and stick to it. And it’s going to be growing pain. just stay disciplined throughout the process.

Michael Stansbury (08:54.859)
Right, yeah. So some of those things that you’re doing now, obviously what’s great, you’re teaching people about real estate, you’re showing them, hey, this is some things you can do, this is some things that I’ve done. And then you’re also buying these assets. Most real estate people are like, hey, we’ll buy cashflow on commercial properties. You’re buying businesses, tell us a little bit about that.

Andre Blackwell (09:15.948)
Yeah, so my wife, she pretty much dropped everything. She’s from Chicago, so she dropped a six figure job. She had like three properties. She ended up losing a couple because she had like squatters and things like that. she came and helped me. was like bad. I had like bad tenants. They suck.

Bad tenants and bad contractors in real estate are like the worst thing. So I had like a bad tenant, like destroyed one of my properties completely. But she like came, sacrificed and helped me with my situation. know, I feel like I owe her, you know, in like some way, form. So we was looking at different franchises. We was just thinking like, how can we expand and like keep growing? So we was looking at Indians and Cinnabon, opportunity came.

you know, purchased them. So now we’re in the process of like building a store out, going to Austin, you know, in Austin, franchise, in Texas, franchise tax just pretty much doubled. So you don’t owe taxes for 2.4 million. So like I’m in Delaware. So I’m thinking like no corporate, sales tax. I set up an LLC in Wyoming, no income tax. And then I got to Texas, no franchise tax.

So I’ma just, you know, so like, that’s how I think. I’m always gonna think from the tax perspective. So I wanna scale out that business model and also build on my brand. You know, I make comic books and video games. I got into it just, you know, just staying strategic and thinking like how I can expand my portfolio in any aspect, if that makes sense.

Michael Stansbury (10:58.849)
Yeah, it does. So again, are you operating in multiple states now? Are you going to stay in Delaware and operate it from…

Andre Blackwell (11:04.782)
Nah, I’m definitely going to relocate to Austin. I’m moving in September. would just fix a couple more things to fix up at one of the properties. Once all that’s fixed up, I’m going rent that out. It’s going to do like $25K a year with the other Delaware properties. So that’s going to be $50K for those two properties. And then just living off, using those cash flows to keep building and scaling up.

Michael Stansbury (11:08.163)
Okay, yeah.

Michael Stansbury (11:32.981)
Okay, so we talked a little bit about the financial literacy. You kind of mentor people there. Are there any other services that you provide with that or what is the day-to-day operations look like for that?

Andre Blackwell (11:45.07)
I was just doing taxes. My day to day is crazy because I got like multiple businesses. So I’m talking to my art director. I was talking to my art director today. We try and get the comic. We got bringing, we doing a manga that’s going to release in August. So I don’t know if you’re familiar with like Danny Simon. He’s like one of my mentors now. He like, he produced like the Mortal Kombat movie. And then he did the licensing behind Rambo, Baywatch.

Michael Stansbury (12:10.765)
Okay.

Andre Blackwell (12:14.894)
He like a legend in the field, but I got the opportunity for him to mentor me. He’s helping me with his last book production and stuff like that, helping me with my synopsis. So it’s been like a great experience. So just like talking to him, he got me like the right IP lawyers to make sure all my assets is protected. So I was talking to them today, talking to my comic director where he trying to figure out who we gonna use to publish our last book.

And then I was doing taxes. I do taxes, like guiding people through that. And then I was just, before we jumped on the call, was helping somebody fix their 401k. I told them not to put it, they was doing like target funds, but people don’t know like target funds just came out in the seventies. We don’t even know if they hit their targets. So I had her, I had her, you know, do 80, 20, you know, like with the S and P index and then like with some bonds. So my day is just like communication, just talking to people.

you know, helping them, you know, with their situation. So I’m constantly just communicating with people and just helping them, you know, financially, setting them up, like explaining like dividend stocks or explaining anything like financial wise or tax wise to individuals. And then I’m also like making mini games for Apple right now. They got like a merchant ID and it sucks. Like it took my art director last company like a year just to get it. So.

We’re going like the Android route. So I had to follow up with Ronald. So it’s a lot of different missing pieces, but I’m collaborating. I’m working with people just to build this thing out and just keep it going.

Michael Stansbury (13:43.425)
Yeah, man.

Michael Stansbury (13:49.675)
Yeah, what is the one thing that you do that you’re the best at?

Andre Blackwell (13:53.742)
Being a dad, know, my kids love me. Yeah, like my two sons, being a father, like honestly, like the whole real estate thing, like buying my first property was because of my older son’s name, Andre too. So, you know, you you either, you’re going to flee or nest. So like it started my nesting process and it started me just, you know, like building, cause you know, I’m freaking out in my mind. Like I ain’t been a dad.

Michael Stansbury (13:54.978)
Yeah!

Andre Blackwell (14:21.206)
I only see my father one time, so it means a lot to me. So I feel like out of all the things, I just want to make sure that they set up and they don’t live the same life that I lived or feel how I felt. I think out of all the things, being a father is my number one thing.

Michael Stansbury (14:27.106)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (14:37.036)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (14:41.069)
That’s really cool. you have two boys, two sons. All right. So that’s awesome. And you’re motivated by your past experiences for them to have something different. That’s what it sounds like.

Andre Blackwell (14:43.404)
Yeah, yeah, I got two sons. Andre and Yassin. Yeah, yeah.

Andre Blackwell (14:55.372)
Yeah, yeah, I definitely don’t want them to have like those trauma bonds that I had and just things I had to learn and grow through. I just don’t want them to have like the same experience. I mean, I’m gonna make them work, but I’m not gonna let them feel like, you know, they got to start from rock bottom like I felt. Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (15:11.211)
Right, yeah that’s a good transfer of your experience to say, you know what, it’s gonna be different for them in a good way. So that’s really neat. Do you have any mentors in your life? you any people, you talked about one with the IP with your comics and your gaming, but anybody else, any other mentors, any other people speaking in your life that, you know this person had an impact on my life or they.

Andre Blackwell (15:22.403)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (15:40.023)
they changed the trajectory of Andre’s life.

Andre Blackwell (15:44.622)
But like, I feel like everybody I come across as a mentor in a way, you know, cause like, as you talk to people, you learn something through everybody, you know, it could be like something little, you never even know. Like I’m like a type of person, like every time somebody talk, I really listen, you know, because it is going to be something I’m going take away from the conversation. like, I look at everybody as a mentor in a way, and I feel like how can I apply it for myself and you know,

live better and be better. you know, I met people from all walks of life. So I feel like everybody has an impact on you, you know it or not, like you is going to have some type of influence. So everybody I talk to, you know, I try to pull something away from them, try to learn and try to keep growing from that. So yeah, like any and everybody that I encounter, all my friends, families, like people I went to school with, because all that stuff meant something to me because you know,

Michael Stansbury (16:23.799)
Right.

Andre Blackwell (16:42.486)
I started with no relationships. know, like after my mom died, like I stopped talking for like a year and you know, now I can communicate with everybody. Like I could talk to anybody, like any subject matter. So over the years it’s just, you know, if people negative, like I don’t rock with them, but they’re positive. try to, you know, all right, what you really saying? What can I take from this? So like, yeah.

Michael Stansbury (16:48.535)
Yeah, I can’t imagine that. Yeah. Right.

Michael Stansbury (17:00.193)
Right?

Michael Stansbury (17:07.043)
What would Andre tell 8-year-old Andre right now?

Andre Blackwell (17:15.566)
It’s going to be okay, man. Just keep going. It’s going to be okay. It was a dark time for me. So I feel like when I was eight, I was crushed. Losing my mom, it was just like I didn’t talk for like a year. it was real painful. I didn’t know how to cry about it. I didn’t even know if it was real, but I definitely needed somebody to talk to. just got …

Michael Stansbury (17:18.84)
good.

Andre Blackwell (17:41.804)
Like the first person I talked to, man, I just started talking a couple of weeks ago, his name is George Fish. I feel like you gotta have a mentor your age, somebody older, and then somebody younger so you can learn from all walks. So, I rekindled with him and he was the first person I talked to. Like I didn’t talk to the teachers or nothing. I used to be like quiet in class. was in Juksu Hill, it’s like a suburban area.

He was the first person I talked to, he was like, he was real cool, a white kid. You know, like I ain’t, you know, and I don’t know why I was able to talk to him and we like been best friends since like, and we fell off cause you know, I went to college and stuff. know, you people, but you know, good friends always come back around. That’s just how it worked. And we just started talking. We about to link up like next week and go out, you know? So, yeah.

Michael Stansbury (18:13.015)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (18:29.633)
Yeah, when you’re that young too.

Yeah, it’s something about that too. And having the story that you had and having somebody come in there and kind of get shoulder to shoulder with you, even at that age, I mean, that’s gonna have a deep and lasting impact. That’s really cool. So yeah, so I like the fact, one of the things that I think is your superpower, whether you believe it or not, is you’re very a curious person and it doesn’t…

It sounds like to me that every conversation you have, you’re paying attention in a way that most people don’t. Some people go in conversations and they’re just like, how can I get my thing across? How can I navigate this person to feel this way or talk this way? It sounds to me like because of the way that you experienced life early on, you’re just really interested in talking to people.

and finding out some things about their world and the financial literacy thing. Some of the things I knew that you were talking about, I was like, I gotta look into that again. So you hear something and you give so much value to it that you internalize it. Where some people just, they just hear people and it just goes in one ear and out the other. Does that make sense at all?

Andre Blackwell (19:57.164)
Yeah, I feel like I became an empath, you know, through my experience. definitely, I intake everything. Like if you say something, I’m like, all right, how can I build with that? You know, like I don’t discard anybody or anything anyone says because it can add value to your life. You know, I’m always trying to add value and I’m just trying, you know, build myself up. Cause I feel like, you know, where I came from, it’s like, I gotta keep building. I gotta keep growing. Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (20:01.347)
That’s what it sounds like.

Michael Stansbury (20:23.351)
Yeah, awesome. Well, so you’re doing these multiple things and you’re moving sometime in September. These franchise opportunities are happening in Austin, Texas. You’ve got a real estate, you’re helping people teach financial literacy. So of all those things, what is your biggest maybe obstacle or struggle that you’re having in your business right now, if you could articulate that?

Andre Blackwell (20:52.462)
The biggest struggle right now is probably, you know, when it comes to financing, it’s different methods. You you always, you know, I try to, it’s like right now I’m in like a couple of different cohorts, like just learning like different funding aspects. So like the most difficult thing is probably just learning like which funding route to go by. feel like I’m about to, I’m coming on.

like my route, like just meeting like these different connections, like bankers and things like that. So I feel like just meeting the right people and knowing the right connections, that can be difficult and just like trusting the right people. You don’t want to come across the wrong people. And then difficult, I would just say dealing with certain people just from like, I feel like I be repeating myself a lot, like to some of my clients, but like, it’s not that bad.

Some people truly try to grasp what I’m saying, because I do say a lot of information and stuff like that. I like helping people, so it’s not really that bad. So I feel like nothing’s really difficult coming from my circumstances. All this stuff is like, it’s a breeze. I feel like it’s not easy. Everybody think I’m doing a lot, but I’ll like, it’s not that much to me. But yeah, I don’t think it’s that much. think.

Michael Stansbury (22:06.589)
Right? Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (22:14.071)
Perspective, yeah.

Andre Blackwell (22:17.954)
I’m not doing enough, you know? So that’s how I be feeling sometimes. I just want to keep growing, so we’ll see where it goes.

Michael Stansbury (22:25.495)
Well, Andre Blackwell, how can people reach out to you? you have any, some information out there on the web about you and about what you do and how can we, if somebody wanted to reach out to you, where would they find you at?

Andre Blackwell (22:37.37)
If you just Google Dream Again, Inc. all my pages and all my stuff gonna come up. You’re gonna see me. I took over the SEO. I learned the different things, you know, so I’m on it. You you’re not, you’re not gonna beat me at my keyword, you know.

Michael Stansbury (22:51.657)
I love it. You’re an SEO magnet too, aren’t you? Well, Andre Blackwell, it’s been a pleasure to have you on the Real Estate Pros podcast. Thank you for coming on. Appreciate you very, very much. Folks, we’ll see you next time.

Andre Blackwell (22:56.256)
Yeah, I gotta learn everything.

Andre Blackwell (23:07.278)
Thank you Michael for having me.

Michael Stansbury (23:08.598)
Yes, sir. Hold on just a second.