We recently connected with Rasheed Stevens and have shared our conversation below.

Rasheed, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

It takes dedication, hard work, and passion to be successful. Knowing what you’re capable of doing and keeping your goals light and fun to keep a positive a positive experience and move forward without losing perspective.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I originally got into my hobbies by doing a lot of Dead Mall explorations after seeing the decline of my childhood mall in my hometown of Macon, Georgia. From there, I became fascinated by the retail history of Department Stores how they were formed, and the reason why they shuttered.

This prompted me to release my first Top 10 video on “Forgotten Department Stores” which became an instant hit on YouTube. I have since expanded it to Retail Stores, Electronic Stores, Grocery, Candy, etc.

I also became fascinated with Urban Exploration by visiting abandoned buildings where I document, and research the history through old newspaper articles, and publish it through my blog.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When I was laid off from my job for over 5 years due to COVID-19 in 202o, Georgia paid up to $600 on top of the regular unemployment fund as part of the Economic Impact Payments. After making sure my bills were paid, I used what was left and invested in creating a YouTube channel by hiring Freelancers to help design my logo, intro/outro video to my channel and hired some writers to help me out with SEO.

In the beginning, I paid experts to edit my videos until I learned how to edit my own videos. This helped me reduce costs.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Promoting and advertising my YouTube videos across all Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Blogger. Using popular hashtags tends to help out as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sheednomics.blogspot.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheednomicsonthego
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sheednomicsonthego/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasheed-stevens/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@undergroundretail
• Other: Personal Social Media Accounts: https://www.facebook.com/rasheed.stevens/ www.instagram.com/rasheed.stevens

Image Credits
Photos taken by me (Rasheed Stevens)