How to Choose a Storefront Location That Helps Your Business Grow

Ishmael Akbar (00:00)

I really want to give to everybody, my viewers out there that, you could be whoever you want to be. You could do the impossible to be possible. And anything in this world which you put your mind to, you put it full first. Don’t second guess it. Don’t second look at it and say, it ain’t a good idea. Just make sure it’s a right move and it’s a right idea of implicating of making a business.

Quentin Edmonds (01:55)

Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m excited today. I’m excited about my guests. Listen, this gentleman wanna help people.

to be real estate literate, right? And so I’m so happy to have him here so he can drop some gems, give you a little peek about, the businesses. Y’all heard it, right? The businesses that he’s built. And so I’m excited for us to get a chance to talk to and learn from Mr. Ishmael Akbar. Mr. Ishmael, how you doing today, sir?

Ishmael Akbar (02:25)

How you doing, sir? I’m doing good.

Quentin Edmonds (02:28)

man, doing good. Yeah, y’all. see the smile on my face because he’s not too far from me and my negative woods. And I absolutely love when I get to talk to somebody close, man. So let’s do this, man. I am a type Ishmael. I like to jump right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story, kind of how you got started, and then tell us, what market you’re operating in. So, Ishmael, you got the floor, my friend.

Ishmael Akbar (02:52)

All right. I just wanna say that, I’ve came up where I came up with a business about back in twenty twelve. The name of the business called Youth to Heal Clothing Brand. And I’ve had scaled that business since then. And the message for my business is healing is winning. And being the difference of influencing the influential youth the future generations

coming of to the world of the future communities of the world. And what I really want to really implicate is that in order to, facilitate a business to where in my real estate mature is that it comes to where that you have to go through different steps, go through different s types of processes. you can’t like, just make

a business overnight and be a success. It comes to the groundwork of a process where, you spread the word of mouth. You put the business cards out there. You shop it around, you talk to people, see they’ve talked a tout, and you really need to get them engaged to what they really want about the quality of your business. And that’s what inspired me the most, and I say that what really did inspire me

was musician that everybody knows world renowned, Mr Michael Jackson. That inspired me

Quentin Edmonds (04:10)

Who’s that? I’ve never heard of him, but no, yeah, I’m messing the certain though, but I hear you. Yeah, man. Yeah, No, that’s good, man. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t run mess up your train of thought, but yeah, Mike for inspiration. And man, I hear you want to inspire the youth. The youth. I love how you say healing is winning. That’s the message. And I

Greatly believe in that. And I heard you talk about processes and systems. And so we’re going to get to that. but Ishmael, I always say, destiny has no wasted moments, right? We are learning from each leg of our journey. So I would love to know, man, through the process of building businesses, becoming successful. What has the journey taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resilience? What has the journey revealed to Ishmael

Ishmael Akbar (04:51)

it has taught me about, discipline, go going from the grade down coming up. And, what it really had is that being steadfast to consistency, but also taking the down turns of what at your lows of your lows to your highs of your highs. And, what it really had gained throughout all the years that I’ve been utilizing my company is that, you got people that’s gonna want

your business and you got people that don’t want your business for however reason they might see it as within the scope. And it’s kind of a really double edged sword. And it’s like, you’ve taken it upon where the gamble that you gotta have that mental focus of being grounded. Yeah. To take the hits, to be able to, get the yeses and get the no’s and to know yourself

the of the implications that, my business is for whatever it is through the message and what that message that would implicate for my business to show whether people like it or don’t like it. And that’s what really had got me to be very self sufficiently disciplined for my business to be able to flourish thus so far, even if being an independent up rising business so far.

in the state of marketing right now.

Quentin Edmonds (06:05)

Yeah. I love it, man. No, I love it. And I love how you talked about discipline. And with discipline comes putting certain habits, systems, or operations in place, right? And so I would love to know, Ishmael, what are some operational things, maybe like one or two operational things you’ve put into place, let’s say the last two years, that has really helped you be successful?

Ishmael Akbar (06:28)

I’ve had put that bur back burner of what I had done in the past that was kinda limiting me to where I had a lot of a lot of distractions. I was doing, some very side jobs though outside of what I was doing entrepreneurial wise within my work. And, I’ve dealt with others that, sore my vision but w really didn’t see the long haul of what I really wanted.

And it didn’t really kind of fit the critique that I wanted to see out of having the circle that was around me. So I had to really, distance myself from a few people that I had thought was gonna benefit me, but it didn’t necessarily had to benefit me. So what I did was that, I took time and really done the inner work, not only for myself, but also did the inner work through faith.

spirituality and prosperity of wisdom of consciousness through our cray I pray God between him and having the necessary people in my family that truthfully wanted to see me be to grow this business as a success within the long term of things.

Quentin Edmonds (07:37)

Love that answer, man. I love the growth, like I love the growth mindset because one constant thing is change, right? And we got to be ready to pivot and change and grow our mind and have that growth mindset so we don’t get stuck in the fixed mindset. And so I love that, man. I love how you’re talking about growth, changing your environment and different things. Absolutely love that, man. What’s next for you, Ishmael? What’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve or scale next, my friend?

Ishmael Akbar (08:50)

Well, right at the moment I’m looking to abroad to reach a worldwide global reach expansion, to expand my business through all the inner city kids that the youth that that’s growing now going into the next couple of years within the next few decades to be able to learn the right from wrongs for their life, to be able to grow themselves sp spiritually and consciously and mentally.

inclined positively of healing not only the wounds that’s with inside their souls or their hearts, but as well as the conscious mind of the subconscious of what they’re moving forward for themselves of he’s healing spiritual for self through their lives for the rest of their lives. Absolutely and that’s what I truly want to extinguish though through my business scale.

Quentin Edmonds (09:36)

I love that man. So I obviously you want to touch the youth. Obviously, you want to build healthy relationships. So talk to me a little bit about your perspective when it comes to relationship building within business. What is your approach? What are some relationships in your corner now that has helped you be successful? So talk to me a little bit about relationship building your realm of business.

Ishmael Akbar (09:57)

this a relationship style is usually that, if I have my family for example, I had my mother and my dad, truly want to see this business flourish and grow and to really support this business as much as possible. And they basically believe it is from the beginning since the start. And we’ve had our, ups and downs, our in-betweens and a lot of things that, we’ve had to really kinda get right.

And it kind of came to me and I really had to get some ideas to where I needed that consistency dynamic of closeness of having that relationship support. And what I needed was through that is the ingredients to where, if this is a good idea, is that a good idea? Should I, implement that? Should I not implement that? So I needed to kind of get, a little bit of a hint.

To see where my path was going through this journey of getting youth to heal off the ground. Yeah. And that’s truthfully that I could really honestly say is what really kept me going and kept me consistently elevating my business ventures through the spontaneity of suggestions and QA answers of, having a very personal conversations with my family. Yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (11:10)

I love it, man. Now I know you said helping people with real estate literally lit literacy within real estate is one of the things that’s close to your heart. So talk to me a little bit about the real estate aspect of how you’re helping people get literate within the real estate space.

Ishmael Akbar (12:06)

Well, through the real estate aspect of things, I could really s hon you say that, when you have a company and you wanna build a business and scale through the c the company, now we take the variable outside of being on the internet, being online. Now if you wanna have a f storefront and you wanna have a couple of storefronts, you have to start, at the beginning smallly. You have to be able to, work the ins and outs of the equity properties.

and the equalities of the business within the community. If that area of that community is geared towards retail, that’s geared towards the marginalization of where it could implicatly generate traffic towards the business front and be able to expand that from a small front within the town where I’m at, for example, and to really grow that.

To another storefront within the next town. So being said that is that you jump from having a branch as a tree and you let it grow from one town to the next town to the other town. So it’s kind of like, kind of growing of scaling like a tree of life. So that’s kind of like my philosophy is like tree of life growing. And that’s what I really want to add and stretch to that I could really honestly say that.

I want to give everybody that, inspiration of how I see business to grow within the real estate aspect of things. Not to focus on necessarily the business, but also focus on the property infrastructures of is it gonna be a concrete property of having the business there in that town, or is it gonna limit that individual, that entrepreneur that has this business in that town that would

not grow, but maybe sometime have to take it outside the norms of that town from somewhere else to be able to for it to grow. So you gotta check your perimeters, you gotta check your town, community, and you definitely gotta check your, aspects when it comes to where you can really grow the business and flourish within your own community background.

Quentin Edmonds (14:10)

I love it, man. So the shirt keeps going in and out. I want you to give me a nice clear view of the shirt. So hold the shirt up for a minute.

Ishmael Akbar (14:17)

I’m sorry.

Quentin Edmonds (14:18)

I love it, man. Yeah, I see it. Yes, sir. Hey, listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, man?

Ishmael Akbar (14:30)

just go straight to my website. my phone number’s right there and my emails right there too, right on the main page of my website at youth2heal.store You can check out on me right there. Or you could also ha find me on my other website, which is my musician’s website. I do music too. sketchapeaze.com And you just check me on there as well, my official musicians website as well too.

Quentin Edmonds (14:55)

Yeah,

And I appreciate you coming on. any last words of wisdom, education, motivation?

Ishmael Akbar (15:02)

Yes. I really want to give to everybody, my viewers out there that, you could be whoever you want to be. You could do the impossible to be possible. And anything in this world which you put your mind to, you put it full first. Don’t second guess it. Don’t second look at it and say, it ain’t a good idea. Just make sure it’s a right move and it’s a right idea of implicating of making a business. And indefinite with that as well. Also

When it comes to real estate, make sure that you cover all your grounds. Make sure you’re getting the whole no five backs of what you truly want to scale to build your business within however it may be, whether it’s through the real estate that you build, literally through the land of vacancy, whereas through the communities of the buildings of the property limits that you’re trying to find of the location codes through which you want your business to scale within

those residential neighborhoods or within those side stores. But most importantly is that truthfully is that to be motivated, to be determined and to be implicatively sure that you have nothing to worry when it comes to giving you a hundred and fifty percent towards what you really want to go for and strive in your world and restrive within yourself. Yeah. For your lives.

And that’s what I really want to give that message to everybody at. Become somebody that you wanna be, instead of becoming somebody that you think you don’t wanna be, of becoming that somebody in the company.

Quentin Edmonds (16:33)

Well, sir, man, again, I appreciate you coming on. Let me say three things to you. Thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity, so thank you. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for coming and sharing. Thank you for the gift of your authenticity, man. I believe our stories, they plant seeds, right? And we never know what those seeds are going to grow, but I think you came and planted some seeds today. And then lastly, man, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you coming on today, sir.

Ishmael Akbar (17:00)

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. I appreciate that so much.

Quentin Edmonds (17:04)

Absolutely.

So listen, I’ve heard my friend Ishmael, aka Sketch. Listen, I want y’all to go ahead. His information is in our show notes. Get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you subscribe here because I promise you we’re gonna keep continue to bring up amazing people. And so, Sketch, thank you, sir. Mr. Ishmael, thank you, sir, and everyone else. Y’all have a fantastic day.