Blam Partner Interview #14 Jenani Paul, CEO of Digital Consultants Canada

Toronto, Canada

Here’s the original video link to view the testimonial in full https://youtu.be/sDfv0HdHuDE

Grant Intro: I've got Jenani Paul with me, one of the Blam Partners over in Toronto, Canada. So although you are in lockdown at the moment [13th May 2021] as we record this we are still in the pandemic. I'm guessing people are going to be watching this for years to come so you will remember these days and we're all learning to live with these restrictions. But, of course, being in digital marketing doesn't stop us from doing business - we're still rocking and rolling.

Today, Jenani, first of all, thank you for joining me. I appreciate that she's taking some time out of her busy schedule. I know she's very busy so I'll try and keep this short and sweet to talk about her business and a little bit about the Blam Partnership. I'm hoping that we can help inspire other Blam Partners to follow in your footsteps and you can help inspire some of the new guys that started. Then also for people that are looking at us and thinking of becoming a Partner, this will give you the benefit of her

experience.

Grant: You've been a Partner for quite a while now, how long has it been?

Jenani: It's been a while, almost five years I think.

Grant: Wow that was it yeah because I remember actually when you first started. Were you originally working alongside your husband?

Jenani: Yes I was. My husband and I decided to start it together part-time because we were both doing different consulting and insurance jobs. 

Grant: For a while, you kind of dipped in and out of the business didn't you

Jenani: I did, I was trying to do this at the same time as I was working as a consultant for large corporations and the projects would take between 16 to 24 months. Then around the end of 2019, we're like okay we have to kind of make a decision: 'what do we do?'  At the start of 2020, we decided I'll go full-time as a Blam Partner and my husband will continue with his job. So, yeah, it's been an awesome uphill drive since then.

Grant: There have been so many partners that join us who take a similar trajectory. It's quite often that partners join us and they've already got a job or they're busy doing their own thing and they take their time to get going -four years is extreme!

"I wanted to build a business where I can manage everything without always being in the building."

Jenani: I think I had my legs in both oceans: 'which way am I going right?' I loved digital marketing, I loved working with you guys and, from a website perspective, this is the direction right now in the future because businesses need to have a digital presence. 

I wanted to build a business where I can manage everything without always being in the building.

Grant: I've done a few interviews like this since we started in lockdown and we've had a lot of partners that finally took the plunge to go full time on their business. Ones that had their feet in both sides [before Covid-19] and I think it's given a lot of people the confidence to say: 'Right, I can do this full time now!'

So let's talk about that journey from when you took the plunge and decided to go full time. I suppose the benefit of doing that was that you'd already had a few years of experience with just just a handful of clients?

Jenani: Yes, I had just a handful of clients and they were quite needy from the client's perspective which was great. For me, it was more about understanding the ins and outs of the onboarding process, how to deliver a good experience for them to be able to transition online and get their website launching. 

"I was used to corporate vocabulary and long, drawn-out projects."

I think it took me a while to figure out because it's a little different from the corporate world of consulting. When you're dealing with smaller businesses as well, they can be so different from one end of the spectrum to the other. Plus, I was used to corporate vocabulary and long, drawn-out projects. 

Then I realized, these guys are just different in the way they understand the process. They don't need a whole document explanation, they don't need an approval process, they just make a decision and they run with it. The turnaround time is a lot faster and the communication is so much easier because there's not a large number of people having to make decisions so it's different. 

Grant: It's interesting and you're not unusual in that respect. When you come from a corporate world and you are used to drawn-out processes and decision-making it's often strange when you deal with an entrepreneur who makes decisions about their own business.

We were just talking earlier about how you can actually close the deal on a first appointment and it doesn't come naturally when you've been in a

corporate environment does it?

Jenani: Yeah, no because you think you have to get all the risks signed off and communicate all the issues. Whereas entrepreneurs and small businesses are all about taking risks so for them it's like 'let's just do it and let's see how it goes'. I had that mentality of having to cover every boundary, I had to put it all into a detailed document and that's the learning curve that I've been on. 

Grant: That's one of the exciting things when somebody actually commits to going with you for their digital marketing whether that be the website, an app, or something else. Although yes, it is a big commitment because it's an important part of their business; financially it's not a big decision for them to make because you're not going to be walking off with tens of thousands of dollars. It's not a big risk for clients in that respect because of the way that we go about helping our customers. We try to take as much of that risk out of it as possible. If somebody's not happy, we don't tie them into a contract we're not going to say: 'well, you're paying me for the next three years whether you like it or not'.

Jenani: Exactly, it gives clients more freedom to say, 'okay you know what I can try'.  I personally don't like contracts much either, so why would I want to put my clients in one as well? If we do a great job why would they want to leave? So my goal is just to get them over the line and then show them how good it is. 

Grant: Yeah exactly, so with that in mind how have you enjoyed dealing with the team? Are you now getting a good rapport and getting what you what in terms of the service and the design? 

Jenani: The experience with Blam's designers has been very positive. Originally I was thinking to do the designs myself but

it would take so long and it was a lot of pressure on top of what I was already doing. I think we have a good flow happening right now where I understand what the client wants to get out of their value proposition, what they're trying to communicate, and then brief it over to Blam's designers: Hey, can we professionalize this and make it more modern?

I think the website team at Blam probably knows us very well now and hears from us at least once a day.

Grant: That's good, that's what we're there for. Hopefully, you don't mind me getting into this but you are at that stage now where you've built a solid foundation. You've got a substantial number of clients now you've and you're at that point where you now start to think how do you scale?

Do you take on employees to grow your business? So at the moment, you've got a lot on your plate.

"I’ve got to figure out ‘what’s the best use of my time?’... it’s a good problem to have!"

Jenani: Yeah definitely because as an entrepreneur you try to do everything on your own. I've got to figure out what's the best use of my time, I think that's where I'm at - where, when, and how do I get a team together? I have taken on some recent graduates who are helping me figure out how to simplify and streamline some of the activities so that frees me up to talk to more new clients and be able to communicate the value of being online. So yeah it's a lot but it's not a bad problem, it's a good problem to have.

Grant: I always love it when Partners get to that stage because typically - for the benefit of people that are watching - Partners tend to fall into two different camps in my view. I'm delighted to hear you say you actually want to go out and deal with the clients and do the sales because when you are looking to recruit for the admin side of things, customer retention, and support, you know we'll be working on that together to help you grow. We've got lots of partners that have been through that stage and it's the tipping point where you just can't do it all on your own.

[Jenani loses connection]

Grant: Oh, I've just lost her. Hopefully, she'll come back in but while we're waiting for her, this is for me the exciting bit for partners when they're just at that point where they're starting to scale. We can then help them. Just to point out that at Blam, we can take a lot of the account management and the support away from partners. I hope Jenani, won't mind me saying this when she's not here. Part of what I'm going to be helping her do is show how she can use us more because she's so used to being hands-on

and supportive and super helpful...

[Jenani rejoins the session]

Grant: Don't worry I was doing a great job of filling. 

Because you've been through quite a rapid growth stage last year where you were very hands-on and you really want to deliver an absolutely A-plus service by giving all your customers loads of support. It means that you get pulled all over the place, so we can actually help you with a lot of that support by helping you put systems and processes in place...for me, you're at the most exciting stage.

Jenani: Yeah I think so too. I'm excited, looking forward to scaling up and getting to a place where we're going onto the next stage of growth.

Grant: So yeah exactly, as you start to come out of lockdown then I guess you will see lots of lots of positivity this year. We've just come out of lockdown in the UK, we were in lockdown for 4-5 months - it feels like forever! - so the light is at the end of the tunnel.

As you look to the future, where do you see yourself taking the business? What do you see the business looking like in the next two to

three years? 

Every partner's different with that as well some people want to grow a beast, some people want to have a boutique and some people want to

stay on their own. 

Where do you see yourself?

"I want to grow to become a medium-sized business with at least 150-200 clients this year"

Jenani: I want to grow to become a medium-sized business with at least 150-200 clients. So we're trying to be aggressive in our sales but it's not about us just building websites and apps then never seeing the customer again, we're not that kind of business. It's a partnership with our clients where they're able to see us as their digital consultancy team and, in turn, have a service from Blam as well. This approach also means I'm at the point where referrals are coming in or people are talking to us because of the good experience our clients are having. So yeah it's growing. I don't see it being a small boutique agency but I don't know if I'd be seen as a big large corporation either so somewhere in the middle would be good. I don't want clients to just feel like a number, I want them to know their business is important. When you go into a bank you know you're just a bank account number and they don't know you personally. I don't have to know every single client personally, but at least someone in my team knows them and has their best interests at heart.

Grant: Just briefly, before we wrap things up...How many of your clients are from referrals or have you just done the numbers yourself?

Jenani: I would say a bit of both. The majority [of new clients are from] are referrals because I connected with them through networking meetings or they heard about us. Then there are few other things I do such as pure cold calling or just emailing. During the lockdown, it was a lot easier because the market kind of pointed towards our direction which helps. After making a lot of connections, a lot of calling, and getting to know new people I've been able to get more and more referrals.

Grant: I'm delighted to hear as well because if you're getting referrals it means you've got happy customers. You've got people that are happy to refer to you, which is always the best way to get new business.

Jenani:  Yeah, no definitely it is and then you know that you're doing it right to some extent as well. Because if I have clients who can't refer me then are we actually adding value to them? 

Grant: Yes, we have to ask ourselves that question. Brilliant, well it's been a pleasure talking to you and catching up. I really appreciate you taking the time as I know you've got lots on at the moment. So do you want to give yourself a little plug?

"You guys are genuinely about helping partners"

Jenani: Well we're Digital Consultants Canada and we love helping people. You know what? We also want to thank you, Grant, you have been a superstar in helping and supporting your Partners and you know I try as much as I can to come to your live [training] sessions on Facebook. You guys are genuine which is why it would be hard for me to part ways or take on full-time consultants because you guys are genuinely about helping partners.

Grant: Oh it's really kind of you to say that thank you. I didn't ask her to say that!

[Laughter]

Brilliant, well thank you so much and it's been a pleasure. Good luck with the expansion and I'll speak to you tomorrow on our call.

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