Entrepreneurs
How Mary Njoki Is Redefining Public Relations in Africa
She is an entrepreneur, innovator and an African girl whose mind has been transformed over time. She grew up in Nga’rariga Village, Limuru. Her name is Mary Njoki, the founder and CEO of Glasshouse Pr.
Having no entrepreneurs in her neighborhood to look up to, all that Mary wanted was to be was either a teacher, nurse or doctor, basically the white-collar jobs.
Her entrepreneurial mind was however triggered after she completed high school at the age of 16. She scored a B, really wanted to pursue computer science but couldn’t afford the parallel Program and at that time the regular program demanded a B+ grade.
Mary stayed home for almost a year before she decided to pursue and nurture her acting skills at the Kenya National Theater where she stayed for three months.
In 2007, Mary’s mother took a loan to facilitate her daughter’s education; Mary enrolled at graphic designs college and pursued BBIT that lasted two years.
Upon completion, because she loved programming and so she started marketing her skills in it. She even recalls creating software.
In 2009, Mary landed a job with an IT company, Soft Links Options in the marketing department. At first, she was disappointed as the position was not in line with what she wanted at that particular time, but now looking back, she admits it helped her a great deal.
Her work entailed selling software and websites door to door from one town to another.
“At this job is when I realized that people don’t like salespeople,’’ she says with a laugh “The hardest part of the job was people chasing you away.”
While doing her sales she came across a business card that belonged to Mike Mohan, whom she called with the mission to sell him software. In their talk, he invited her to a networking event called Business Networking International (BNI) at the Panafric Hotel, where she would get business.
She went for the event and was blown away considering she had never been into such a hotel. Her interactions with people amazed her even the more;
“I found young people in Nairobi who owned small businesses and were making millions,” she said with so much excitement and shock at the same time.
BNI customarily gives a thank you note and Mary got one, “The thank-you note meant I came to you and you introduced me to a company that gave me a business worth Ksh. 300,000. So next time I am coming for a business meeting, I am going to give you a thank you note saying you gave me a business worth Ksh. 300,000, and that’s networking” Mary explains.
Following the BNI event, she got more clients for the IT Company she was working for. And slowly she started developing interest in owning her own company. At first, she thought that the entrepreneurial milestones and achievements were beyond her as they appeared extraordinary.
The more Mary went for BNI meetings, (which her boss was now facilitating for her to attend every week), the more she realized that entrepreneurs are just normal people. And here she learned about how to build a business.
Around 2011, she got another job at Cope Edge Solutions, which sold hardware. Here she had a hard time selling hardware as she did not understand the product.
“At Soft Links Options, I was the best employee but now in this other company I was the worst employee.” Mary recalls, “This was when I began questioning my purpose in life and what it is I could do better”.
The biggest lesson I learned was that selling works best when you are selling a product you understand. “When I was selling software’s it was easy since I was conversant with the package and programming as a whole” She explains.
Besides Cope Edge Solutions, Mary was also a volunteer at Kubamba Crew. She ushered in all their events and also did online marketing for their Sold Out yearly event. “I was kind of doing public relations but I didn’t realize it” she cites.
She also noted that her excitement was inclined more towards her voluntary work than her day job. As days turned to months and months into years, her curiosity about what exactly she was doing at K-Crew was aroused and she decided to feed it. She began research on it seeking more insight then decided to go back to school to study more.
She enrolled at Daystar University to study public relations. With the help of her brother, she was now able to pay school fees. She loved what she was studying and for the first time felt that her heart and life were finally in sync.
In January 2012, she received a message that she was fired and surprisingly that brought a sense of relief to her. During her K-Crew missions, she met a lady, Nthenya Masiyuko, who owned a PR firm, The Orange Company. She called her inquiring for a job that she got on the spot.
When Mary joined, the firm was trying to revive as they were struggling financially following some setbacks they had suffered. Mary played the role of the PR, Admin, tea girl, receptionist, etc. because they didn’t have a team.
Surprisingly by midday, Mary was always done with her daily tasks and took time along the way to learn what PR was all about from the events that they organized. She worked at the firm for 6 months before she quit.
The Hatching of Glasshouse Pr
Going back home Mary had savings of about Ksh. 6000 and decided to start her own company. People thought it was too far-fetched but that is where and how the story of Glass House PR began.
How she came up with the name is interesting. Her company was first called Diva Image Experts. All the networks and contacts she made in her previous workplaces came in handy as she emailed every one of them.
One time Mary received a call from a brand consultant who inquired from her about the name Diva Image Experts.
“Mary, tell me what you want” He inquired. In response, she said, “I want my company to represent clear communication and transparency”. Then she recollects telling him “Something like a glass”.
With his help, they wrote down a couple of names and finally came up with the name GLASS HOUSE PR which she loved and registered as her company had finally found a business name.
Still in the village with Ksh. 6000 which she used it to buy a modem that didn’t work, so ended up borrowing money to buy another one, created a website for her company and here her IT skills came in handy. She bought a domain, got a free template and created proper content for it. The website was up and running and again she mailed the people in her network briefing them on what Glass House PR was all about.
People could call her for meetings seeking to know the experience of Glass House PR and she could wonder at such questions as she had just started.
In the back of Mary’s mind, she would think, “You know me, you can trust me”. After all her efforts people didn’t trust her even though she had worked with them before.
She then decided to do probono. As she went by met a guy who owned a company in River Side who paid her kshs.5000 every month to do social media management and attend every Friday meeting.
As she did his work for three months she would market her company online. She didn’t have much to do so majorly; she would promote her company on all social media platforms citing how it was the best PR Company in Kenya.
She had a good name for her company. She pointed out she invested in proper content and professionalism and so her website was up to standard. Onetime she recalls, Waihiga Mwaura, a journalist, retweeted about Glass House PR thinking it was a company in New York only to find out it was Mary Njoki’s Company in Kenya.
“The name you give to your company is very important to even attract clientele.”
Her company began in August 2012, a time when Kenya was having her having elections. There was no business for her company but interestingly after the elections due to a lot of activities online, if you googled PR companies in Kenya; Glass House PR would appear among the first companies. This, considering she was in Limuru operating with her laptop and modem was even more fascinating.
One day she received a call from Google Kenya asking Glass House to go and pitch about their company. She went to school, picked five of her friends and told them they have to pitch to Google Kenya. They sat down brainstormed and came up with a presentation.
After the presentation to Google, they loved it. But it was more focused on marketing than PR. Google wanted to see or rather hear of PR and communication strategies that would help their branch target their audience with the products they had like Google Plus. They went back to brainstormed again and made another presentation. This time they were shortlisted among the companies Google would work with.
The lady in charge of communication in East and Central Africa called Mary and informed her that they beginning the process of connecting them with their lawyers and would be paying them in dollars. Mary out of excitement called her team and told them;
“You guys need to open dollar accounts since we will be paid in dollars and you are now officially hired.”
A week later, Google called and she was asked to meet the Marketing Executive who came from Silicon Valley. Mary met the lady who couldn’t believe that Mary owned the company. They didn’t connect very well, Mary could tell, she felt as if she was a bit racist.
Throughout the entire month, Mary and her team didn’t do anything. They just spent time researching about Google and coming up with strategies on communication as well as see how Silicon Valley was run.
A week later after the meeting she had with the Marketing Executive, they called and informed her of their decision to choose another PR company.
At this point, Mary was now on the verge of giving up on her company and decided to look for employment as she knew she could easily sell herself for any job given her experience.
She slept for three weeks in depression then one day woke up, got out of her depression and decided to write in Google Plus “Glass House PR is the best PR Company in Kenya.” Once again, she started marketing her company. “It was tough.”
In January 2013, she borrowed money to go to Ethiopia for an event. This loan took her a whole 18 months to repay. At that event, she met Uche Agu, a Nigerian Gospel artist famously known for his song “double-double” and many other people from different countries.
She told them about her company, how huge it was and how she was going to do their PR in Kenya.
Uche gave her some work to do for him in Kenya. She also approached Juliani, a Kenyan Musician, and told him she could do his PR and which he agreed to. At that time she had leverage, Glass House PR looked and sounded like a serious company.
One thing that struck me the most is how Mary believed in herself and what she does. When she does something she gives it 100%. When she was doing PR for Juliani, he was all over in the media. During the launch of his new Album like close to 100 media personalities came for the event. She took Him to the National Bank and they sponsored Him.
All this time Mary was not paid and she was fine. She says “At times, as an entrepreneur, there are things you need to learn. There are people you will need to work for, for free, then when you look back you realize that they were a stepping stone for your big breakthrough.”
During that period she got some SMEs from BNI who would pay around Ksh. 20, 000 to manage their social media.
Mary tells us that she always gave it her best and after she was done with her work, they would recommend her to other people and wrote testimonials for her which were good for her and her company image.
In 2014, Facebook was looking for a PR Company in Kenya and wrote to her. Because of her previous experience with Google Kenya, it was now easier for her to know what exactly they would want or ask. She sent them a proposal and they hired her.
From there she was able to hire people as the company was growing. They worked with Viber, Real Estate Companies and other companies that she couldn’t mention due to NDAs signed. The company now started taking root and growing.
With her team, they registered an office and registered Glasshouse PR as a business in Kenya.
In 2015, she learned a huge lesson when working with one of the famous billionaires in Kenya who she met on twitter. Her company was about to get 60% of what they were going to make in the events which were a good deal. She came up with the concept and together with her team gave it all their best, they made sure the person was trending and was all over in media.
But something was always a miss, this personal story was changing constantly when it came to the companies he invested in, how much he was making, etc. which ended up dragging Glass House PR’s name in the mud and the company’s reputation was at stake.
They never did a proper background check up on his papers like KRA details, incorporation papers and the list of the companies he has invested in to prove his value. Since then they pay keen attention to details and everything that their clients say or do and invest big in proper research.
She had to write a press release to specific people to apologize because they had made this person famous. Now they are currently doing a PR case study on lessons learned from all that. She counts it as a good lesson.
Between 2015 and 2016, she didn’t want her company to be just an ordinary PR Company, so she started thinking of technological solutions in the PR world. She started developing a PR system that they are hoping to license to all PR Agencies in the world.
Inversk Magazine March 2017 Cover Featuring Glasshouse PR’s Mary Njoki
She did the prototype and as a result of that, she was selected to attend one of the top tech conferences in the USA. She went, presented it and in that event met Chris Sacca (Shark Tank Panelist) which was a big deal for her; he has invested in Instagram Twitter and Uber.
She met other people of course and she realized she has met so many people that she could easily connect to other people, she is now a connector of people to people.
And she asked herself “what can I do to help African entrepreneurs to get where I am or to get funding and proper contact?” Chris Sacca wanted to invest in Africa but at that point, glasshouse PR was not his kind of model to invest in.
Mary realized if she knew someone in her network she could have presented it to him and he could have easily invested.
When she came back she knew she had to start a network of entrepreneurs. Currently, they are doing it as a CSR Project under Glass House PR, dubbed A Billion Start-Ups. Glasshouse PR is supposed to bring in a billion startups whose launch is next week on Friday, 19th may at Michael Joseph center.
In December 2016 she started meeting entrepreneurs on Fridays and the meetings realized she was able to identify the problem entrepreneurs were having in their business.
She started by meeting 5 entrepreneurs in a week but someone put it in the newspapers and so the network has grown to more than 100 entrepreneurs and she is hoping to grow to a billion. She knows everyone’s business and is now able to connect them to other people to help their startups grow.
In this Project, Mary believes it’s better to empower people than to give and make people dependable on others. So they are training them how to fish by introducing them to another fisherman or are buying them a net or a fishing rod or show them the way to the lake where they will find fish.
Her formula for success in business is remaining focused patience and understanding resilience because we live in a generation where people want things quickly. “If you focus on your goals it will help you get through tough times especially when you feel like giving up and quitting.”
She also added that employment helps with discipline and focus. It helped her get and build proper networks. Sometimes she meets people full of ideas and advises them to go get jobs first because they need to develop discipline.
At the same time, she meets others with good unique ideas, advises them to consider starting as soon as possible but if they have responsibilities like rent food, etc. they will need to get a job to sustain themselves. So the situations vary from time to time.
As her company continued to grow Mary never got any funding because as the company and their services got recognized, it attracted more and better clients.
The company has monthly retainers, although, through the years there are companies and people who have shown interest in buying and partnering with them because of its system it’s still under discussion.
Glass House PR has now moved from startup to the growth phase. They are coming up with growth strategies, getting partners, coming up with their products as well as getting qualified people to work for the company.
“People have misplaced ideas for capital, capital is not just money”, she explained. For instance, her case capital was the skill she had. Let’s not put capital in a box thinking it is money, it can be the skill that you have, someone that you know or a good product you have.
She advises wantrepreneurs to “Start where you are with what you have.”
With growing the company, she came up with a structure and system of how she would want her business to run. So she knew how many people she needed to hire and she got them. Currently, she has a team of ten.
Lately, on 5th May 2017, Mary was listed as one of the top 40 under 40 women in Africa by Amazon Watch Magazine.
She was also awarded the continental Young Women Leadership Excellence Award from the Center for Economic and Leadership Development Organisation in South Africa where she attended the African Women Leadership Excellence 2017.
So what does Glasshouse Pr has to offer?
As a PR Company in Kenya, Glasshouse Pr positions brands to connect with their target audience through media relations, digital communication and events. They come up with strategies depending on the target audience the client wants to reach out to.
Their products include media relations, digital events organizing strategic planning and development on small businesses on how to grow and reach out to the audience strategic partnership mapping and PR consultancy.
They work with small-medium enterprises, banks insurance companies, cooperates, international companies and personal brands like celebrities.
One thing that has helped the company stand the test of time and still thrive in the fact that they understand the stage they are in and know how to solidify the team, striving to be professional and give quality work to their clients.
Below are a few Q&A with Mary to end our interview.
What is your greatest fear?
Leaving earth having not accomplished the purpose I was created for. I manage to face my fear by not procrastinating, when I think of doing something I just do it or when I know I am supposed to do something I get right on it.
What inspires you?
What inspires me to wake up in the morning is the fact that I have a purpose that many people are attached to and depend on. When it’s no longer about you anymore but other people are involved, you will have to wake up and go to work.
I am inspired mostly by God plus the people who I look up to like Antony Wahome, CEO, Soft Links, owner of Hill Crest runs a business program called Kingdom Network and Vuyelwa from South Africa behind brand South Africa.
What is your final Advice?
It is better to say you did it rather than regret you didn’t do it, after all, you have nothing to lose. Start today.
Additional writing by Lynn Wamalwa
Article first published at Inversk on 27th Feb 2017.
