Self Made with Dee Brown CEO | S02 E51: Andre Riley | Season 2 | Episode 51

(bright music) (upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) - Hello, and welcome to this episode of Self Made.

I'm your host, Dee Brown CEO.

Joining me on the program today is global real estate advisor, Andre Riley.

Welcome to the program, Andre.

Glad to have you.

- Glad to be here, Dee.

Thanks for having me.

- Oh man, no problem.

The pleasure's all mine.

So we wanna jump right into the program.

So Andre, just to frame everything up, talk to me about your childhood.

Where did you grow up, and what was your early years like?

- Early years, grew up in Greenville, South Carolina.

It was, wow, I mean, it's just one of those situations where you don't realize what you don't have.

You're just living and growing.

Major inspirations from my grandmother and my mother.

My mother ended up being the first in our family to go to Clark College, which it was in the 60s.

- [Dee] Uh-huh.

- So that's my HBTU tie-in.

And I was supposed to follow her there, but ended up going a different route.

But just great family, great support.

Lot of motivation and inspiration just growing up there.

- Were there any particular challenges that you faced as a youth growing up in Greenville?

- Lots of challenges.

At that time, it didn't seem to be too much of opportunities outside of manufacturing.

But there seemed to be a limit as to far you could go as an African-American at that time, but I always thought outside of the box, and was gonna blaze my own path, and take some risks.

And people where I come from, they never really took that jump, and I was all about taking that jump to go out and see.

I said this world here isn't gonna always be here for me to come back to, so why not go out and explore it, and see the world, and travel, and have different experiences?

But I wanted to leave, but I always knew that I could come back - Right, right, right.

So what about high school?

What was high school like in Greenville?

- Athletic.

Football, you know, basketball.

JV quarterback.

I think at that time, being involved in athletics really put you in a group that didn't expose you to some of the other things that were going on in the area.

- [Dee] Yeah.

- And I was protected a little bit.

Guys in my neighborhood, they were just like, there was something different about him.

He's gonna do something different than what everybody else has done.

So they protected me from the drug game, and illegal activities going on.

I was kinda protected by them, and I'm so thankful that they saw something even in me at that early age that I didn't even know I had in me.

- Right, right.

So talk to me about your journey from high school, what's your next move after high school?

- Well, my mom wanted me to go to Clark College, and I just felt like I was not ready.

And I felt like I was a little bit of a late bloomer, and I said you know what?

I'm gonna try this, I think I'm gonna go to the military.

I wanna go into the Navy.

I wanna be in the dental field to prepare me for becoming a dentist, which was my ultimate goal.

And my parents did not support me on that, and they would not sign me up early, so when I had my 18th birthday, I was able to sign up on my own.

So I did at that time what was called a three by three.

Three years I did, three years reserve in the Navy, and part of my reason for doing that is it was gonna give me $100,000 for college.

- [Dee] Okay.

- So I did that, and then Desert Storm happens all of a sudden, and I'm like, oh my god.

There hadn't been a war in 20 years.

- Right.

- And so be it, it happens when I'm, you know.

But we were in and out of the Red Sea when I was on the US SS Saratoga, which was an aircraft carrier, and on the evening of December 23rd, 1990, several of my shipmates were lost in an accident off of Haifa, Israel.

When we were in liberty.

21 members of my ship died in a ferry accident that night.

- [Dee] Wow.

- It was so ironic.

Yeah.

So ironic that that ferry that left, that capsized, Dee, it was right in front of me, and I was trying to get onto that boat, but it was so full, they said you have to wait.

So me and my buddies, we had to wait, and we saw that ferry drift off, and after that, my life kinda changed forever.

And one of the things of losing friends like that, in that way, at that young age, it really motivated me even more to say if there's something you wanna do in life, you better go do it.

- Right, right.

So how did being in the military help shape you into the man you are today?

- I think taking risks and hard work.

That was really something that started in my childhood.

I think back to seeing my grandmother go work, and she would clean houses on the weekend.

I don't know if you're familiar with that type of a situation.

- My grandmother did the same thing.

That was her full-time job.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And I'm sure they paid her well.

(laughing) - Right, exactly.

- And then to find out many years later, Dee, that, and sometimes my grandmother would take me with her, that for that whole day of work, ironing, cleaning.

$10.

They would pay her $10.

And I'm like, wow.

This is, wow.

And so this kinda fueled me throughout my life, and has been motivational for me, that even when I started my fitness career, and getting paid very well, on days when I was tired, and didn't wanna do it, I'd think back to my grandmother about how many days did she not want to go clean that house for $10, and here I am in a position because of her, to make 10, 20, 30 times that for one hour of training, when I jumped into the fitness industry.

So it's just, having support from family and relatives, it's always allowed me to take risks, and move forward.

- Yeah.

- And be that example.

- Hey, I wanna just take a step back to the day that the ferry capsized, and you lost a number of friends in that particular incident.

What do you remember about that day, and that moment when that happened?

- You don't forget.

You really don't forget.

Because one of my Navy buddies, we often discuss this, even to this day.

What would have happened to us if we had not gone back and gotten an extra beer on liberty?

Because that was basically what we did, was like, we're gonna have one more beer.

And we could have been on that ferry, and I don't know, I mean, I was a, I think, a below average swimmer.

But you know, it was pretty traumatic.

I mean, pretty, pretty traumatic to see those names, even now, and it's emotional to take you back 30 years to that night.

And it was just unbelievable.

That ferry took off, and just kinda drifted off into the dark.

You know, this was like midnight.

And then the ferries, for whatever reason, they run a rotation, and they drop off, and they pick up.

- [Dee] Right.

- And we're sitting there waiting.

It should only be five minutes for the next ferry to come around to pick you up, to take us back to the ship.

And we're sitting there for 20, 30 minutes, and then we see, I remember the lights on the aircraft carrier lit up, and I said, oh something's definitely wrong now.

- Yeah.

- And it was really, really sad, and somber.

A day that you just don't forget.

- Right.

I had a similar experience my freshman year of college.

A group of guys were gonna go out to a night club, and they wanted me to park my car and ride with them, but I was insistent that if I was gonna ride with them, I had to sit in the front seat.

I didn't wanna sit in the back in between two people.

And so I couldn't get the seat, so I said you know what, you guys go ahead on.

I'm not going.

And someone opened fire on that vehicle that evening, and the person that was sitting in the seat I wanted was killed, was shot in the head and killed, so I've had one of those life-changing moments and just wondered, how did I dodge that particular bullet?

No pun intended.

In that particular instance.

So I feel you on that one.

When you ended your military career, what was your next journey in life?

- Next journey was to, all right now I'm ready for college.

Let's go.

And ended up at Georgia State.

Free dentistry major.

My kids now often kinda joke with me and say Daddy, so what type of football team did you have at your college?

And I said Daddy's school at the time did not have a football team.

At that time, Georgia State in the 90s did not have a football team.

So being an older college student starting at 21, I kinda did not have a traditional college experience, but the AU Center in Atlanta was always there.

So when you go to Georgia State, you hang out at Spelman, you hang out at Morehouse, you hang out at Clark Atlanta.

- [Dee] Right.

- So you do have that experience.

And at that time, there was the classic, Battle of the Bands, and so many different activities in Atlanta that you could just feel the city on the rise.

And it came to be the music capital of the world for us, I think, for what was accomplished in the 90s with music.

So I'm in this little bit of a pickle.

I started to get into the fitness game, just through wanting to take care of my body.

And I started training music groups for videos at the time.

This was when there was the rise of the videos.

- Right.

- And you know, I was doing that, and I was like man, my family was kinda against me.

You don't need to be doing fitness.

It wasn't that popular at the time.

You need to focus on going to dental school.

You'll never make any money in fitness.

That's just a side business.

And so I was motivated to prove them wrong.

But I thought to myself, if you're gonna take this to the next level, you need to go to Miami or California.

That's where I saw fitness being taken seriously, where people took care of their bodies.

In the year 2000 with about five years of praying, and kinda like, I wanna say acknowledgement or confirmation from the man above, I decided to move to Southern California in 2000, and really jump into my fitness career, and it exploded after that.

I did a TV show called Fear Factor in the early 2000s.

That led to another TV show called Workout, which is where I was playing a trainer, and it's like, oh my god.

How crazy is this, that I'm gonna be on a TV show playing a trainer?

I mean it doesn't get any easier than that.

(Dee laughs) So, and then that led me to having a celebrity clientele, and charging, and being able to be in a position to make hundreds and hundreds of dollars doing something that people kinda laughed at me in the mid-90s saying you'll never make money in that thing.

And I said, well somebody is making money in this business.

But started at $15 an hour, and then ended up training families, celebrity families and clients for a lot, lot more than what I started with.

- Right.

So how do you make this transition from fitness to being a global real estate advisor?

What piqued your interest in real estate?

- Well, I've always wanted to be of service, and I think after doing this and being very successful at it, being in fitness for 20 years, I wanted to try something else, but I still needed to be of service.

I still needed to be in a situation, a workforce, where people, there's some gratitude to it in a reasonable amount of time, unlike my grandfather who worked at GM for, I don't know, 30, 40 years, and they gave him a little SACO watch at the end, and that was it.

And I thought you know what?

Real estate, I can work with people, have personal contact.

Some can be 45 days, others can be lifelong friendships that can be made.

I have a strong existing clientele base to pull from of people in the fitness world that trust me, and now how do I transition to this and create that same trust, and be the same person that I am, that's made me successful throughout my life, and it was kinda seamless.

It was kinda seamless, and not something that I pushed when I was with my fitness clients, if they had a question about real estate, I would say oh, this is my opportunity.

It's been great, and refreshing.

And to be with an international brand that's in 81 countries, Sotheby's International Reality, it's amazing.

It's just right up my alley, and having a brand behind you like that allows me to just go out into the world and just meet people and be myself.

- Yeah, now I'm gonna backtrack for just a second, because you mentioned that you were on Fear Factor, and I want to say you were on there, was it six seasons?

- Six episodes.

- Six episodes?

- On Fear Factor, yes.

That was interesting.

- Talk to me about that experience.

- So, yeah.

So I had a good friend at the time who went to interview and audition.

This was a big show back in 2003, 4.

Back in those years.

I didn't really know much about it, the show, because to be honest, I'd never really seen anybody of color on there.

I'd never really seen anybody that looks like me on that show, so it just wasn't a show of mine, and being ex-military, I'd done a lot of that stuff, jumping out of helicopters, and adventurous stuff.

And a friend stopped by, she said Andre, Andre, we're gonna be on this TV show.

It's called Fear Factor.

And I was like, what?

So in support of her, I went down with her to this audition.

She had went with her girlfriend, but they did not like her girlfriend, they liked her, and they asked her, do you have anybody else you could be on the show with?

We think you'd be good for this couples Fear Factor, and it's for a million dollars.

So I think I was more interested in trying to get that million dollars than the show.

Once she said a million dollars, I was interested.

(Dee laughing) And so we go down there, we go through multiple interviews, Dee, just on and on, like six or seven interviews.

I'm like, why do they keep bothering me?

I just thought it'd be over.

But anyway, they selected us, as the process went on, I said I think we're gonna get this opportunity, and so what made that so special was it was seven weeks for the million dollar prize, couples Fear Factor, and most of their shows the contestants just did one episode.

So 14 million people were watching this show every Monday night, and it was something.

I had people calling me going hey, I'm watching your show right now.

And it was just so cool.

And from that show, that transition, I got a call one day from someone that said, Amy from Bravo, and I think you'd be good for my show.

It's a workout show with fitness.

So it's just amazing how being at the right place at the right time, and being ready.

I tell people this all the time.

Don't complain when you're not having the opportunities that you feel you deserve.

Be ready when the opportunity comes.

- [Dee] Right.

- Be ready.

- That's right.

So how do you feel that, I guess, your performances on television, how has that assisted you or impacted your ability to be successful in real estate?

- Visibility.

Visibility, and for some strange reason, Dee, I often get you look like this guy from the "Show Me the Money" movie.

Cuba Gooding Jr. - [Dee] Right.

- I don't get it.

But sometimes that's a tie-in.

And once someone mentions that, and you get into a conversation, oftentimes, it's gonna lead down to real estate.

So what do you do?

- Yeah.

- And I round it up, when I go out, carwash or whatever.

What do you do?

Oh, I'm a realtor with Sotheby's, and I'm always up for a conversation.

- [Dee] Now what's your specialty?

- But I still, even to this day, people recognize me from Fear Factor, and then you were on that workout show.

It's amazing to me, how being on TV has such an effect on people when it was really just my calling and my destiny.

I was in a place and a position that God put me where I was supposed to be.

- So what is your area of specialization in real estate?

Do you focus on commercial, residential, combination of the two?

- Residential out in the San Fernando Valley, but I also go into Beverly Hills, but Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area, and specifically San Fernando Valley is my area.

And I'm looking forward to, as a veteran, doing, I would really love to do multiple VA loans to help prior military to get homes, first-time buyers.

That's something that is really drives me.

So I'm really looking forward to doing that.

- So what is it that you like most about being in the real estate industry?

- You have freedom.

Unlimited income.

And I just still get to be a people person that I love being.

- So what's next for you?

What do you see yourself doing, either expanding your real estate career, or what's the next move?

- I don't know.

Right now I think I really wanna be a strong representative in this field, in this business, because I just, throughout the years, I look back and I think why isn't there more representation in that business, that particular business, which is very lucrative?

Why isn't there more representation of people that look like me?

And I want to take that, maybe become a mentor to others, and to just continue to try to build.

- Sure.

So in your life, who would you say have been most inspirational over the years to support your successful journey?

- My mother.

My mother.

And she started this thing, and back at Clark College, and I think a lot of my life that I've been able to live and share and travel all over the world, this was really kind of like the life my mom should have probably had.

So that's motivational for me too.

Just almost like carrying her legacy, and almost like living the life that I think if it wasn't for a different time and period, she would have these experiences of travel, and just not being limited to one particular area.

- Right.

So is your mom still in Greenville?

- She is.

Yes.

- So coming from Greenville, South Carolina, and now being in the position that you're in now, global real estate advisor, having the ability to travel, and do all these things that you didn't have the opportunity to do as a kid, what are you doing, or how do you think that you can take your success and inspire or pull others along that may be from your community, or that you may interact with that are trying to become successful?

- I wanna be an example.

I wanna be an example, and I always try to give advice, and seek out opportunities to make myself available when someone may want to ask a question or want information, but they're not confident, or comfortable sharing.

Usually I'm able to identify that, and I'll say hey, how's it going, and do that introduction to get the ball rolling.

But I do wanna be, continue to be, an example, and just continue to broaden my horizons to whatever comes to me in the future.

Just be available to take it on.

- So when your mom sees your journey, and see where you are now, how does she feel, or respond to all of your success?

- I think she's very proud, and there's so many reminders back home, or with social media now, people share oh, I saw Andre doing this, or I saw Andre, he sold this house, or he did that.

So she gets, I think, constant reminders, whether she knows what's going on in my life fully from people in the neighborhood and the surrounding areas, they call her or stop by and they let her know what's going on with me.

And sometimes that's good, or it can be good and bad, because there's a couple times I've been out of the country and she didn't know, and I'm like, oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm in Colombia, and that's not Colombia, South Carolina.

(both laughing) - Hey, so just to wind the show down, in about 20, 30 seconds, what do you want your legacy to be?

- I really would like for my legacy, hardworking, determined, risk-taker who just wanted to do good in the world.

My grandmother always just wanted to do good in the world, even when she did not have, she would still give.

And that's basically me in a nutshell.

Being of service- - I think that's a- - Being helpful.

- I think that's a noble cause, and a noble attitude to have.

I wanted to take the time, Andre, to thank you so much for being on the program.

We're out of time for this particular episode, but I wanna thank my viewers also for watching this episode of Self Made with Dee Brown, CEO.

And remember, without you, there's no me.

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