Meet DAndre J Herron

We recently connected with DAndre J Herron and have shared our conversation below.

Hi DAndre J , thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
How I overcame being burnt out was a hard lesson within itself. In 2019 – 2020 while working in Michigan State Politics the environment was a very face paced environment and ironically the slowest part of the job was actually working in our office. While being an external affairs director, a college student and a newly business owner at the time for my Tech company ERD Technology. the pace was definitely high tempo from sun up to sun down for me. From attending meetings, community events, legislation hearings, planning town halls all while being in college definitely was a great experience but also stressful at 23 years old. I had to learn that I cannot give more to my job, business or community. if I am burnt out, I won’t be able to fulfill the things that has to get done, that’s when I realized that self care is very important. You have to step back from your craft at times to rest your mind to be able to continue to create whatever it is you’re creating in the world. If we give everything to our crafts or jobs and don’t have any energy for ourselves that’s when the burnout crash will happen. It was an humbling experience in my life to learn to avoid being burnt out.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an entrepreneur and business owner in the city of Detroit. My primary company is my tech company ERD Technology, I founded my tech company during my senior year in my associate’s program at Wayne county community college will obtaining my Computer Information Systems associates. I started out with creating websites and now venturing into mobile application development. As a small business my company took a hit during COVID as most small businesses. I officially reopened my tech doors this year in April of 2023, I took the necessary steps to make sure my tech company can get back up and running and can be sustainable by going to Tech Town Detroit where tech companies and entrepreneurs can go for resources and potentially funding for their idea or business, building a further foundation and relationship with tech town is critical to my tech company. My community organization 58Homes58Families is something that is also important to me because that’s where I can give to my community without obtaining anything in return besides the satisfaction of helping those I’ve reached. I began my community journey in 2017 by volunteering with different community organizations within Detroit then eventually obtained a job in Michigan State Politics at Michigan House Of Representatives in 2019 and that experience was definitely life changing and helped me obtain the skills and knowledge necessary to be able to create my organization 58Homes58Families in 2020 during COVID and I started by doing a fundraiser for COVID materials such as mask and hand sanitizer to those who were not able to get access to them. 3 years later in 2023 my community organization is still active and in new development stage of obtaining more board members and more community organizations Allies, our primary focus is providing city, county and state resources for my community. Just like politicians have districts, I adopted a section where I am from in Detroit, northwest Detroit area, West Seven Mile (Southfield to Greenfield) and those residents in that area are my constituents and will always make sure they have the resources and support in that area. We are not limited to that section of Detroit, but that is our primary focus, our home base. The last thing that I’m working on now are my books, my poetry and philosophy book called the Philosophy & Poetry of DAndre J. Herron, it’s a book that’s combined from all of poems and writings form my personal journey and I’ve finally gained the courage to actually put it into a book and give it out to the world. I sent out a few unedited copies to a few people and all responses were great feed back, so I’m excited to give the world my thoughts and feelings because I’m not a vocal person when it comes to express and this is a way I’m giving to people a way into my world and mind, my expectations for my book publishing is before 2023 is over. My other book I’m working on is called ‘Detroit 4 Life’ and that’s an urban novel with a little bit of my life coming up in Detroit. Truth and fiction but that’s for the readers to decide what’s real and what’s fake when it comes to my urban novel. My urban novel will not be published until mid or late 2024, that’s been a book I’ve been wiring since I was in 4th grade when I was just writing about things I’ve saw in my neighborhood or the stories I’ve heard from my older brothers during our time growing up on the WestSide of Detroit.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three thing impactful things that helped me along this journey this far and still helping until this day are perseverance, leadership, and adaptability, those are just the qualities I’ve learned through my trying times trying to overcome my own challenges. Having the skill to organize people, understanding how to network and project coordination. Giving advice is always tricky because my advice is simple, well it’s simple for me, I believe that once you take that leap of faith on yourself and craft it will be life changing, the brutal truth is no one will come to give you a hand out to get your dream up and running. You have to make up in your mind that this is what you want and if you don’t get it done then it won’t get done and that dram has died. Another major piece that I give people is understanding that your family and friends won’t support your dreams or goals in the beginning stages, it’s just the reality and once we truly understand that the better creators we will be, they will support you once the masses appreciate your craft, it’s a whole world that’s waiting for your craft, don’t limit yourself to only pitching or trying to get your business heard or seen from your family or friends, that’s the fastest way to fail, the road to success will be lonely in the beginning but it will be worth it, because you will meet new likeminded people in all kinds of industries.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The biggest challenge I’m facing now is having a team for my tech company and for my nonprofit organization. I’ve been running all of my companies by myself which is always the case in the beginning, but at the point I’m at now with my businesses, I can’t be in 10 community places at once nor can I do 10 websites at once so it can be a bit stressful at times. A solid team is something that I am seeking for everyday to make my loads lighter on me.

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Powerful Chyna

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