One thing unique about the founder of DatJoblessBoi Television (DJBTV), Babalola Idowu Olumide, is the fact that he always make sure his clients get world-class value for their desired services.
Babalola, who is a celebrity publicist, blogger, entertainment executive and digital media entrepreneur, started this journey at an early age of 19 years, when he delved into the media space, while in the university. However, he failed woefully simply because, he had passion without vision.
“So, I decided to develop a business plan. From then, I put in a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, and constant effort to rewrite the future for my brand projection,” Babalola disclosed.
His sleepless night and effort actually paid off. In 2012, Babalola formed DJBTV, a platform that provides services for popular artists, influential personalities, high profile individuals, private and government sectors and non-governmental parastatals. “It will interest you to know that my clients are stuck to us because they know our services are the best in the whole of Africa; we know exactly what they want and we deliver beyond their imagination and expectations,” he bragged.
What keeps him going? Babalola said: “the fact that I can work and make money from anywhere around the world just from my mobile phone and the use of the internet at the comfort of my home, is it! These give me the thrills on the job every day.”
DJBTV has been widely accepted all over the world, and as such its founder, has been celebrated through several awards including the Nigeria Youths Excellence Award, StarsOfNaija awards, SME 100 Africa 25 Under 25, Nigeria Hype Awards, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List and Extraordinary Females Awards where he was recognised as a social entrepreneur, amongst others.
Though, the journey wasn’t an easy one for Babalola, as he faced challenges ranging from difficulty in finding the right people to work with, lack of mentorship to inadequate finances, he was able to weather the storm, through unflagging zeal, focus, discipline, fervent prayers and everyday improvements.
“I did not cut corners. I did not allow any of my talent to waste. You know, talent alone is not enough; I put in years of hard work; and I was determined. In addition, relentless prayers helped a lot. That is how I have been able to develop and convert my skills and expertise into money-making ventures,” he stated.
There are many youth who inspire to be like Babalola, even as he urged them to learn from his early days, by having vision and to dream big when setting off on the entrepreneurship trail. “It is possible to build local startups into global brands, with having a vision,” he added.
Babalola while revealing his five-year plan of his wave-making media, said: “our mission at DJB is to become the biggest promoter of African artistry, creativity, businesses, notable figures and culture. Our vision is to create, distribute and monetize engaging visuals, promotional and economic sustainable contents for individuals, celebrities, NGOs, corporate organizations and governmental bodies.”
Babalola has a philosophy which is, ‘Grow and help others grow’ hence, the reason he is actively involved in humanitarian works through his Babalola Idowu Foundation (BIF), by offering scholarship opportunities to less privileged, orphans, vulnerable but intelligent children that are in primary and secondary institutions across Africa to achieve their full potentials.
Babalola has been in the entertainment industry for more than a decade and as such, has seen some grey areas in the industry he would love to address.
Highlighting these grey areas, the founder said there is need for Nigerian celebrities to have entrepreneurial and leadership skills; drug abuse in the entertainment sector is a major menace in the society that needs to be curtailed and Nigerian celebrity publicists are underpaid, the system should pay more.
He said: “most Nigerian celebrities live for the now , with little or no future investment plan. They have insufficient business knowledge, poor habit of money management and lack of interpersonal communications with people working with them. Some of them allow the fame to get to their head and feel like a demi-god. Most of them are self centered and live for the now, with little or no future investment plan.
“Also, I need the entertainment industry to address the fact that celebrity publicists are not well paid. In the western world, top celebrity publicist makes a lot of money yearly; but Nigerian publicists are underpaid. They are offered peanuts because the system do not value and place importance in the work they do. This narrative needs to be changed, the system should pay more.”
Babalola has a trove of professional certificates and has worked with notable brands and personalities across the entertainment and business spectrum in Nigeria , Ghana, Liberia , Sierra Leone , Togo, United States of America , United Kingdom , some parts of Asia , to mention but a few.
