From Aerospace to Real Estate: Transform Your Career with Proven Strategies

Michael Stansbury (00:33.814)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Mike Stansberry and today I have a special guest, Mr. Taylor Kenda. How are you Mr. Taylor?

Taylor Kenda (00:47.373)
Wonderful. It’s a fantastic day. How you doing Mike?

Michael Stansbury (00:50.988)
Man, I’m doing good and I’m gonna get into your story in just a bit about how you’re helping people in real estate, but first, we’ve got to pay the bills over here. So we wanna let everybody know that at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs two to five X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and to allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. So, Taylor.

Tell me the origin story, talk me through the yellow brick road. Before you got into real estate, what were you doing? What kind of work were you doing? What did life look like for you?

Taylor Kenda (01:27.087)
Sure, yeah. Thank you for having me on the podcast. Very excited for the talk. My origin story goes back. I’m Congo Lise from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I’m also an aerospace engineer. So my background is primarily Christian. I’m coming from a Christian background with biblical principles. And I try to apply that in engineering and in my investments.

So just a bit about myself. I’m an aerospace engineer, real estate investor, entrepreneur, business coach, and speaker.

Michael Stansbury (02:08.118)
Okay, gotcha. did you learn, when did you come to the States? you learn in your home country about aeronautics? Did you go to school there or what did that look like?

Taylor Kenda (02:19.321)
Yeah, went to school there. The majority of youth that are coming from the the DRC are coming in with a lot of discipline in order for them to come and apply that discipline here. And so that’s that’s definitely one of the attributes that I pulled from my country. So I came here ambitious, ready to go after it. And once I got here, I might continue to progress all the way to becoming an engineer by God’s grace. And today,

finding myself as an entrepreneur as well, continuing to move forward and impacting people the best way that I can, by God grace.

Michael Stansbury (02:55.982)
Okay, well that is great Taylor. So when you’re in engineering, do have a full time gig in engineering and aeronautical engineering and then did you transition to real estate or are you doing both at the same time?

Taylor Kenda (03:09.893)
Yeah, as of right now, I have a passion for both. I still have a strong passion in developing some of the best technology that we have as an aerospace engineer. And we make fighter jets for the defense of the US, the United States. So it’s a strong passion of mine. And apart from that, I also have a calling that I felt in order to step into my entrepreneurship journey.

and to impact others through real estate and through other means in business development. So I carry both of those.

Michael Stansbury (03:47.884)
Okay, yeah. And so what was your exposure to real estate? At what point were you like, did you take a course? Were you mentored by somebody? But what was it about real estate that caught your attention as like, I want to be a part of buying houses and helping people buy property. What did that look like?

Taylor Kenda (04:10.073)
You know, that goes back to my biblical principles. The Bible tells us that the earth is, we have an abundance. When God first created us and put us on this earth, he put us here to cultivate and to build his kingdom, right? And when I try to, exactly, when you try to apply those principles, I like to apply it in real estate because it’s one thing that allows us to

Michael Stansbury (04:29.528)
Yes, be fruitful and multiply.

Taylor Kenda (04:39.589)
to multiply our efforts and impact others in helping others, whether it’s for them to get a rental place to stay or for them to increase their wealth. It’s just how I’m able to impact others. So when I first fell upon that biblical principle, I wanted to start impacting others through real estate. And real estate has been a way that I’ve been able to use to just pivot myself.

and help others grow their wealth and improve their lives.

Michael Stansbury (05:13.324)
Okay, yeah, so tell me, can be as creative as you want, but tell me about a recent deal or tell me about a creative real estate deal that you’ve done recently or you helped somebody with. Yeah, kind of give us some information about that.

Taylor Kenda (05:27.247)
Fantastic. recently, pretty recently, week, myself and a few joint venture partners, we closed on a $2.6 million deal here in Dallas, Fort Worth. That was a fight, I would say. It comes with, it’s a lot of the principles that you bring into entrepreneurship. understand that it’s not easy. As an entrepreneur, things might get tough, especially towards the end.

So one of the ways I’ve been able to help my team, my joint venture team to be able to acquire the asset was just implementing my network. And I’m a strong advocate to just say that the people that you know, it makes a huge difference. Your network is your network. So it’s one of the things I was able to help us close the deal.

Michael Stansbury (06:21.026)
Yes.

Taylor Kenda (06:25.873)
and acquire that asset in commercial real estate. So that’s one area. And of course, I help other individuals that are really starting off in real estate. They don’t know where to start. And perhaps they want to start in rental properties. So I help them acquire properties here in Texas, Georgia, and other states, and then list them on platforms like Airbnb, and then acquire more cash flow from those.

Michael Stansbury (06:54.478)
Okay, interesting, so you’re working not just in Texas, but in other states as well.

Taylor Kenda (07:00.015)
Close out.

Michael Stansbury (07:01.793)
you are not just working in the state, is your local market Texas?

Taylor Kenda (07:06.435)
Yeah, my local market is Texas. The reason being, I see there’s a lot of growth here in Texas, especially here in Dallas. There’s so much potential in real estate and in business. I like to look at other markets, but my primary market to develop is here in DFW.

Michael Stansbury (07:25.518)
Okay, awesome. And so you’re also a business coach. What is the business coaching entail? How do you execute that on a weekly or monthly basis? Tell us about that.

Taylor Kenda (07:38.597)
Yeah, on a weekly basis, I have one-on-one coaching and I have also a community which people can join. Especially if you’re aspiring to be an investor or you’re wanting to build a business. My coaching spans from helping individuals form their LLC, their business and acquiring business funds and then using those business funds to apply it and put it into real estate. And then I go into helping individuals acquire rental properties.

all the way up to commercial real estate.

Michael Stansbury (08:12.066)
Awesome. Okay, so you’re not just helping them with their businesses, but you’re helping them acquire real estate as well. So interesting, so Taylor, when did you get, how long have you been in real estate?

Taylor Kenda (08:21.049)
Definitely.

Taylor Kenda (08:27.375)
I’ve been in real estate for half a decade.

Michael Stansbury (08:30.71)
Okay, awesome. So in the Dallas area, and do you have any short term rentals or what is it that you’re steering people to right now?

Taylor Kenda (08:39.673)
Yeah, I do have some short term rentals. Majority of my properties are here in Texas. Like I mentioned, I love Texas. We have about 11 properties, rental properties here in Texas. And then we have a few others that span Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina and a few other areas. One of the things I like to, one of the areas I like to steer people is, especially if they’re starting off fresh, is to first get into rental properties.

Rental properties allows them to generate cash flow and just learn about management in real estate. But if somebody is coming to me with a lot of capital, say $250,000 or so, they want to deploy some capital somewhere, then I would definitely steer them towards commercial real estate because that’s where, in my opinion, that’s where wealth is generated.

Michael Stansbury (09:34.87)
In commercial, okay. so what is, Taylor, does your family look like? What does your world outside of real estate look like?

Taylor Kenda (09:43.693)
Yeah, my family, I’m currently engaged. And I have majority of my family here in DFW, external family and whatnot. So I am growing my family. I’ll be soon married within the next few months. Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (10:04.622)
Okay, congratulations, that’s awesome. Do you do any big rehabs or new construction there in the Texas area in Dallas Fort Worth?

Taylor Kenda (10:14.893)
Well, I try to stay away from rehab, development, flicks and flip. I personally like to go for assets that are like value-add assets, right? Value-add assets that help us be able to acquire and then generate the cash flow from essentially month one and month two. Once we’re…

Michael Stansbury (10:29.24)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (10:40.428)
Yeah, instant cash flow, right? Yeah.

Taylor Kenda (10:42.277)
Instant cash flow, exactly. The instant cash flow, that’s the type of asset that I like to go for. I don’t really like to get my hands dirty in regards to construction, remodeling and things like that. That’s a different type of real estate that I try to stay away from.

Michael Stansbury (11:03.116)
Right? And, okay, so we talked about the real estate, we talked a little bit about your aeronautical engineer. You’re still doing that and that’s still something that you’re working at. So what are you working on right now? mean, tell us a little bit about, like this is a real estate show, but I love the variety and people’s, you know, what they do. People come to real estate and their backgrounds are all diverse. so, yeah, tell us a little bit about what you’re working on in the engineering space.

Taylor Kenda (11:20.378)
Yeah.

Taylor Kenda (11:28.837)
That’s true.

Taylor Kenda (11:32.643)
Yeah, appreciate it. That is true. I’ve worked with a lot of different individuals that come from nursing, medical field, the Marines, all over, lawyers, you name it. Myself, I come from an engineering background. And currently, of course, I have a classified clearance, which limits me in the things that I can say. But right now, we’re developing the best technology in terms of aircrafts.

Michael Stansbury (11:57.058)
Yes.

Taylor Kenda (12:02.507)
and the aircraft that were developing it for the US allied countries and the US Army and the Navy.

Michael Stansbury (12:16.238)
Okay, interesting. So any drone work at all?

Taylor Kenda (12:19.545)
We, so the company that I work for, have drones, have helicopters, have aircrafts, they’re jet aircrafts. We have Navy ships. We have all sorts of different types of weapon systems and things like

Michael Stansbury (12:40.236)
Okay, so I know you can’t talk too much in detail, how has the technology in this space changed over the last, let’s just say, three to five years?

Taylor Kenda (12:50.181)
You know, technology has been, it’s been tremendous because we’ve seen the growth in artificial intelligence. The growth in artificial intelligence is changing everything. It’s changing the landscape of how warfare is approached. And not just warfare, but how the user interfaces with the technology. So, and I think it’s something that we’re going to continue seeing within the next five, 10, 20 years or so.

It’s going to continue developing. And I’m excited to continue seeing that growth. I think it’s a fantastic time to be alive, to just see this tremendous boost in technology.

Michael Stansbury (13:26.796)
It is.

Michael Stansbury (13:32.428)
Yeah. Well, Taylor, you know, first, I really, it’s been a great to get to know you. Where can people find out more about you on the internet? Where are your, where’s your socials located? What does that look like?

Taylor Kenda (13:48.837)
Sure, yeah, for those that are interested in getting directly in contact with me, LinkedIn, reach out to me on LinkedIn, Taylor Kenda, or on Instagram, Taylor Kenda seven, you will find me there. And I also have my team that you can reach me out at realteagoteam.com. So you’ll be able to find me in those platforms there.

Michael Stansbury (14:15.534)
Well there you go folks, there you have it, Taylor Kenda. You can find out more about him at those locations. We’ll have that information in the show notes so you can reach out to him. Thanks for being a part, Taylor, of the Real Estate Pros podcast folks. We’ll see you next time, like and subscribe.

Taylor Kenda (14:31.589)
Appreciate it. Thank you.