"Eventually, you're either going to get slapped in the face and learn that you made a mistake or you're going to iterate on what you're already doing and make it better."
Welcome to this exclusive interview with Jamal English, the visionary entrepreneur and driving force behind EDM, a media company that has redefined customer acquisition strategies for enterprise-level clients in insurance, home services, and financial services sectors.
In this in-depth conversation with ValiantCEO Magazine, Jamal shares his insights on the unique approach that sets EDM apart, the importance of embracing mistakes in business, and his admiration for Ray Dalio’s investment thesis based on historical patterns.
With a focus on strategic customer acquisition, proprietary software to prevent cannibalization of business, and internal call centers specializing in various insurance verticals, EDM has carved a niche for itself in the subprime consumer market.
A true business leader, Jamal English believes in the power of resourcefulness and taking accountability for one’s decisions. His learnings from Ray Dalio’s book, Principles, have played a significant role in shaping his outlook on business and life.
Join us as we delve into Jamal’s journey, explore the challenges he has faced, and uncover the wisdom he has gained along the way.
Learn about his perspective on the evolving business landscape, employee satisfaction, and the underestimated aspects of running a company. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from a true trailblazer in the industry!
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Jamal English: EDM, at its core, is a media company that specializes in generating live transfers and inbound calls in digital form fields for insurance, home services, and financial services.
Specifically, we focus on strategic customer acquisition strategies for enterprise level customers that are looking to get and scale their business to the next level. We also have internal proprietary software that’s developed to help customers stop the cannibalization of their book of business through either internal or external distribution.
In addition to that, we have internal call centers that close business in a lot of insurance verticals, just Medicare, final expense and ACA.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Jamal English: What makes EDM different is not only do we care about our clients’ success, we understand what that success looks like. The things that we market to consumers we also internally sell to ourselves. Everything serves the subprime consumer market.
On a side note, I like Warren Buffett and how he looks at businesses that he wants to be a part of. He always looks at what the mass market is consuming. And that’s the way that I look at business as well.
Every vertical that we market for our customer’s mass market opportunity specifically focuses on the subprime consumer market, which is what Buffett’s business has been predicated on.
What advice do you wish you received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Jamal English: The first thing I wish I learned was to make problems. As a young entrepreneur, people are often trying to be really proactive to solve so many different problems that come up in the business.
And I think that you need to make problems and make mistakes. Eventually you’re either going to get slapped in the face and learn that you made a mistake or you’re going to iterate on what you’re already doing and make it better.
That’s what success is in business. It’s constant iteration, going through the process, and changing things as you go.
Here is a two fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Jamal English: Principles by Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio is a very successful fund manager. I like that he’s a historian first, even though I don’t think he went to school for history. I think he went to school for economics. But Ray Dalio looks at history as a means of predicting the future, that’s his whole investment thesis.
For example, he would project what Tyson would be trading at based off of what the commodities and feed were trading. Based on feed cost, and the price of getting a cow to maturity, he would know that meat is going to cost more.
And then ultimately, he would know buying is going to go down, and that their market share is going to go down, and he would trade based off of that. And that outlook made me start looking at our businesses differently.
I’ve learned that nothing is guaranteed, and that family is what matters.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Jamal English: I started reading a book a few years ago after we opened our first final expense call center, on how to sell final expenses over the phone. It was only an 80-page book, but it was pretty much a training guide that we could distribute to any new agents.
I felt like it would be the template for their success in this business. But that was not the case, it was not that simple. Because people need to work on their mind and their mindset.
I’m not ready to write my own book, just yet. The value that I want to bring in a book is more than I’m able to articulate at this point in my life.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Jamal English: Being accountable to everybody.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Jamal English: Resourcefulness. The number one superpower anybody can have is being resourceful-not knowing what to do but figuring it out anyway.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jamal English for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jamal English or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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