Ambassador of Hope - Andre Norman - Taking Flight: The Entrepreneur Journey Podcast - Episode # 017
Today’s guest is a captivating motivational speaker, a leader, a mentor, and a prison success story. Please welcome to the show Andre Norman, Founder of The Academy of Hope and Community Development Workshop Leader at Genius Network. Andre joins the host Sarah Tourville to share the struggles he went through in prison and how he was motivated to improve himself.
Takeaways:
- Andre’s first entrepreneurial flight did not go as planned. The police got involved and informed Andre what he was doing was against the law. Andre then found himself in solitary confinement for two and a half years.
- While Andre was in solitary confinement, he started to plan out his next endeavor but it wasn’t working for him. So he decided he wanted to go to Harvard and become successful. When he told his friends about it, they looked at him like he was crazy. This motivated Andre more.
- The lessons that Andre learned were to be fearless and to not care about losing. This impacted him while he was in prison to help him realize that you don’t have to be number one all the time. He believes that if you put enough effort into something, you'll find out if it works.
- Andre specializes in talking to felons, offenders, and gang members about how you can become part of the system, and not part of the prison system. This has been a long ongoing project Andre has been working on with Detriot to lessen the percentages of gun violence in Detriot.
- Andre labels himself a crisis manager. He says that it doesn't matter whether it's a business crisis, a family crisis, or a community crisis, he creates solutions for those.
- Harvard University was a goal for Andre because while he was setting in prison, he knew he wanted to be free but, freedom wasn’t that easy to get.
Quote of the Show:
- “It took me a total of 14 before I walked out of prison with a goal to go to Harvard, be successful, and launch myself. I’ve been home for 23 years now and I’ve made it to Harvard and beyond.” - Andre Norman
Links:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-norman/
- Company Website: https://geniusnetwork.com/ and https://andrenorman.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrenorman
- Book: https://www.amazon.com/Ambassador-Hope-Turning-Poverty-Purpose-Driven/dp/1544507232
- Organization: https://www.eoatlanta.com/
Ways To Tune In:
- Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/1035225
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4e67LgZSZ0Vc2anrFzN8A1
- Anchor: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/taking-flight-eo-atl/episodes/Ambassador-of-Hope---Andre-Norman---Taking-Flight-The-Entrepreneur-Journey-Podcast---Episode--017-e22hpet
- YouTube: https://youtu.be/k91e4s2Y5Rg
- Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/taking-flight-eo-atlanta-podcast/id1652695640
- Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/82088400-c5a3-413c-9692-4719c8f1fd67/taking-flight-eo-atlanta-podcast
Taking Flight: EO Atlanta is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Creators and Guests
Host
Sarah Tourville
Sarah Tourville is the CEO and founder of Media Frenzy Global along with being the Communications Co-Board Chair of the Atlanta Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and an Advisory Board Member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
