This is the Premiere Episode of the Builder’s Digest Founder interview series.
It is a weekly series where I Interview Founders building community-driven products.
My guest for this week is Joseph Don, a sales expert and Founder of Kaizen Digital Academy.
This is his Story.
Hello Joseph! Who are you and what are you currently working on?
I am a sales expert, more of direct marketing I work with businesses and help them increase their revenue by teaching them and giving them easy to apply sales and marketing strategies.
I am currently working on Tech platform, an online education platform like Udemy but this is built by Africans for Africans
What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
In 2016, I interned at NNPC. I was earning 20k per month then. Things became tight, had to find something else to bring me money.
Heard someone on the radio advertising about making money and I attended and heard him speak and got exposed to how to make money online.
Started doing dropshipping, moved to e-commerce, and then did photography
My first teaching experience was on e-commerce, how to teach people to import etc.
I organised my first training on sales and it was successful.
I then entered the information marketing space and taught a wide range of topics from crypto, e-commerce etc.
However, I found myself experiencing burnout after each session and then decided to find ways to make the teaching and learning process easier.
I got an idea to build an online digital platform where Africans can learn at their own pace.
And that was how Kaizen Academy was birthed.
How did you go from idea to product?
I already had the idea and the person to build the product came along and we started execution immediately.
Tested it, and its working and has started selling already
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
I believe that this was easy for me because I already have a brand and followers so I just marketed my products to them
How have you achieved so far and what are your goals for the future?
I have gotten over 1000 paid students on the platform and over 3000 registered users.
We have also moved into our physical office in Port Harcourt to achieve more results.
Students from different countries learn online using our platform. We have students from Nigerian, Ghana, Tanzania, United States etc
Our goal for the future is to bring digital money-making education to every African in a context and manner to which they can relate to.
One of our goals is to explore the metaverse-related features, and have a token for our events and courses.
Since starting Kaizen Academy, what have been your main lessons?
Never trust any programmer
You need money to make your dreams happen
Always be willing to learn
Take a proper record of whatever it is you are doing.
Also, you have to constantly sell your product before people can buy
If you were to Recommend just one Kaizen Course to someone, what course would it be and why?
All Kaizen courses are beautiful
For someone just starting, I’ll recommend your start with the Urgent 2K course so as to discern a part to take in the online space
What were the biggest obstacles you overcame? What were your worst mistakes?
We faced a lot of issues with our hosting platform.
Don’t use a Nigeria hosting company if you are going to build a tech company
Where can we go to learn more about You?
You can follow me on Twitter @Josephdonsells
Set a Reminder for the Upcoming Twitter Space with Joseph Don with the link below.
We would be discussing how you can leverage your skills to build an in-demand product.
