Meet Ekko Gaha

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ekko Gaha a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ekko, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

The first answer I could say is from watching my mum work every day and bring me up by herself, I would go to after school care for years because she worked until 6pm and it was the best experience going to the Holsworth St play centre and meeting the gang after school every day. But yeah she worked throughout and beyond my whole childhood and being an only child I was out and about a lot and started my own car washing service at age 9 or 10 with my best mate at the time we would go around the neighborhood with our buckets and sponges, suds and towels all that good stuff and charge 10 bucks a wash if I remember correctly… it was fun and I was unconsciously teaching myself how to run a business.
My next crusade was at age 16 or 17 my best mate waxhead and I started an exclusive valet parking service at a high class restaurant in Rose Bay, Sydney called Catalina, literally on the harbour, very exclusive establishment, we were in charge of over 40 very expensive luxury cars at a time and the first day we started business we actually lost all 30 cars locations because our key system was definitely not organized and all the pieces of paper we had attached to each set of keys that were all together in a bum bag fell off… so we had no way to know what key went to which Porsche or what Bently there were so many and we had no map or locations mapped out at al for the area we would just zip off and find a park somewhere so long story short, Michael, the owner of the restaurant (Rest his soul) had to give one of the customers a lift to the airport because we couldn’t find his car and when he got back and we finally tracked down the last persons sports car he came flying in bright red with anger screaming “You and You!! DEAD!! Your’e both F@*%ing DEAD!!! Your’e like F%$#ing HECKLE & JECKLE you two! Get the F&%4k out of my office!!!
So we get back to our house we lived in and I call my sister Sloane who introduced us to the owner, I said “That went pretty well for our first day right?” She just could not do anything but laugh and say “Yeah Michael wants to kill you both but he said be back at 2pm tomorrow. Don’t be late”. So being the crazy teenagers we were we absolutely lost our minds we were so stoked so we go grab a case of VB and drink and brainstorm hard then next day 145Pm we turn up with professionally made very elegant business cards with “Heckle & Heckle Exclusive Valley parking Service” And a game plan that created the valet parking service that is now still there to this day… I don’t own it of coarse.. we only lasted about 3 more months until he got rid of us and brought in a real valet parking team. It was a good run while it lasted though…
And throughout the years I have experimented in several different business and ventures but my work ethic, probably from my mum, and from being a performer from a very young age. When I was a kid I used to get paid for doing commercials and my aunty owned a dancing school so I was out performing all over the place from a very young age. I also managed my first rock band “The Penguins” at age 12. I was the drummer too. I got us on MTV Australia and Good Morning Australia.
We did a few different stories on Tv that I somehow hooked up. So yeah It’s probably also in my blood. I’m half Lebanese.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Hi, my name is Ekko Gaha, I’m the owner of Yungsters Of America.
A Sports and Entertainment Brand I started in the South Bay, California in June 2024. We are beginning to gain some great momentum considering the short length of time we’ve been in existence. I just got back from a trip to Bali, Indonesia where I did some amazing promo and shot some footage for a commercial I made for a couple of the products I gave out as samples to the locals. I also got some items in a big store there called “Surfer Girl” they really love YOA gear over there as its so hot all the time and our tank-crop tops are such nice light, soft material you can hardly tell you’re wearing it. And some of our yoga and surf lines go well with the locals and the tourists. I also went to El Salvador and did a lot of great promotion there, I gave a bunch of YOA gear to the National Surf Champion Julissa Castillo and we did an amazing shoot in her hometown and I did a nice commercial for that and also the store I have our products in that’s in San Salvador and it’s called “Varidades XioMara” and they love our stuff too but more of the “After Dark” series as they sell a lot of Lingerie and night wear there. I also gave a lot of samples out so I can have people over there walking around with it on, free advertising.
Well not free but a small investment to get the name out there while doing market research on the quality and designs I’m whipping up. For the past few months I’ve been in “Sample & Market Research Mode” as far as my actual business plan goes but for the most part I’m just making it up as “I go. I’m. musician so making clothes is in a strange way very similar. When I’m pressing a new design and I see it all clean snd beautiful on the fresh T it’s like I just played the sickest bass line down and listened to it back just fully stoked! I love it and I’ve never done it before. My Grandfather on my mums side was an actual Tailor. I only remembered this as I was glueing jewels onto one of my first designs, it has to have something to do with why I love doing this so much also I think.
At the moment I’m working on a great new concept line with a European Brand at the moment, I have some fresh new models from France helping me with the campaign. It’s very exciting actually and if everything goes as planned and I pull off one of the most incredibly miraculous (Or incredibly stupid) ideas have brewing then this little company of mine will really expand drastically and quickly. That’s in a perfect world of coarse but I stay optimistic because, why not, not why?
I have another brand I started around the same time as Yungsters of America that I’m sure was influenced by my family trip to Italy last year and of course my life long fascination with anything Italian. “Sonia Amore Mio” is my night ware/Lingerie brand and caters to a very different demographic or group than your average YOA customer. I have not put as much energy into this brand yet but I will be incorporating it within the Concept Line I’m doing with the European brand.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

People Person-
I know how to go up to strangers and give them a sticker, or tank top, introduce myself and ask if they would like to model for my new brand. That’s literally how I have made all the commercials and posts on my instagram, with willing strangers who have liked my clothes and kept and wear them, or a couple of my good mates that do it for the love. And a hoody. 🤣

Imagination-
I think being an artist, musician and producer, and a bit nuts has helped me with the whole creation process. be it clothing wise or contact, ‘who to approach’ wise or ‘master plan/evil scheme’ wise it helps to have a healthy imagination.

Organization-
I have always been pretty organized, I try to use a bunch of small systems together so-as they eventually run themselves while creating more sub-systems developing a momentum and work flow that really ends up being much easier to control as confusing as that probably just sounded…But yeah organization is key.

Advice, just keep learning and keep executing.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Yes, I am always looking for partners to collaborate with. I have 2 skate boarders, two Champion Surfers I’ve already worked with and I have some very exciting entertainers I will be collaborating with in the near future. I also have my eyes on a couple of big brands one of which I’m doing the Concept Line Campaign I mentioned earlier and the others I’m still working out which really would blend well with Yungsters Of America.
But yes, I think it’s very important and if done well and correctly, works for both parties.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you are reading this and you like what you see/hear and you have a business that would make sense blending with YOA or if you are an artist or musician you can also be a part of our “Musicians Incentive” program that helps young bands or sports teams by supplying custom merch for cost price just to give them a bit of a hand as being a muso myself I know they don’t get paid f&8k all and at YOA, we have big hearts. and we care. 😎

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yungstersofamerica.com
• Instagram: @yoarags
• Other: Tik Tok – @yoarags

Image Credits

@theofficiialbre
@sunbair.poppygirl
@biancamj7
@mr.lattner