The Toki Story

Most “about” pages are a CV in a nicer font. This isn’t that. Toki exists because, in 2025, I got made redundant — and then turned down the safe job that came next. Here’s how that happened, and why it worked out.

Jack Lenton?? Never heard of ’em

Fair enough. So: I’m Jack, and Toki is my ClickUp and Zapier automation consultancy, run out of Norwich. In plain English, I connect the tools a business already pays for so the boring, repetitive admin does itself. That’s automation — “when this happens, do that,” minus the human copying and pasting at 9pm. I’d been doing it for years before Toki had a name. Seven of them, in fact, elbow-deep in ClickUp.

Cheers for the redundancy

Toki was born the way a lot of good things are: a door closing a bit harder than you’d like. I got made redundant. Not ideal when you’ve got a mortgage and a growing list of responsibilities. But I’d spent the previous few years doing something most people in that building couldn’t — I’d automated an entire agency, end to end, and built ClickUp workspaces that teams actually used instead of quietly abandoning. (A workspace is just the place your whole team’s work lives. The trick isn’t building one. It’s building one people don’t run away from.) I just hadn’t thought to put a name over the door yet.

The sensible job I turned down

Here’s the part my accountant still raises an eyebrow at. Right after the redundancy, I had an offer on the table — a proper, lucrative role at a YouTube production agency. Security. A salary landing on the same day every month. The grown-up choice.

I said no.

Instead I went for the thing with no safety net at all: building Toki. And the timing was, let’s say, spicy. My wife was ten weeks pregnant. We’d just handed over a big deposit to start an extension on the house. The pressure wasn’t theoretical — it had a due date and a build schedule.

I backed myself anyway. Part stubbornness. Mostly because I knew exactly how good the work was.

What I actually knew how to do

Strip away the job titles and here’s the skill: I make businesses run on less admin.

Two halves to it. First, ClickUp — I build workspaces that are simple enough that people actually use them, instead of the 47-view monster that gets opened once and never again. Second, automation with Zapier — wiring your apps together so enquiries, onboarding, invoicing and reporting move on their own, while you’re doing something more useful. Or nothing. Nothing’s good too.

The bit I care about most: I build things to last, and to be owned by you. Deterministic, maintainable, documented — not clever, fragile stuff that falls over the second I look away. Anyone can bolt a shiny AI gadget onto your business. Far fewer people can hand you a system that still works in a year.

So I started shouting about it

A skill nobody knows about pays precisely nothing. So I did the uncomfortable thing and started making content — showing the work, explaining ClickUp properly, being useful in public until “ClickUp expert” stopped being something I said about myself and started being something other people said about me.

It is the least natural thing in the world to point a camera at yourself and go, “hello, I’m quite good at spreadsheets’ angrier cousin.” I did it anyway. It worked.

Then ClickUp made it official

The content got me in the room. The work kept me there. ClickUp made me a Verified Consultant — their actual, checkable stamp that says this person knows what they’re doing, not a badge you print off at home. If you’re hunting for a ClickUp consultant in Norwich, or anywhere in the UK, that’s the line between someone who’s watched the tutorials and someone the platform itself vouches for.

Then Zapier did too

Then Zapier came knocking. I became a Zapier Silver Solutions Partner — again, earned on the strength of real builds, not a form I filled in on a quiet afternoon. Both credentials landed fast, which sounds like a humblebrag but really just means the seven years of work were already sitting there. The titles were catching up with the reality.

What Toki does now

So here’s today. Toki is a ClickUp and Zapier automation consultancy in Norwich, building end-to-end systems that take the admin off agencies and growing businesses, so teams do more by doing less. Think of it as a business cheat code: the repetitive stuff that eats your week, running quietly in the background while you get on with the work you actually started the business to do.

Cut time. Cut costs. Cut the shit. No 47 views. No duct-tape that falls apart the moment you look at it. Just systems your team trusts.

Who it’s for

Mostly UK agencies and growing small-to-mid-sized businesses — the ones who’ve outgrown spreadsheets and shared inboxes and can feel the admin scaling faster than the team. If that’s hitting a little close to home, we’ll get on just fine.

Norwich, since you’re asking

Toki’s based in Norwich, Norfolk. The build work happens in the cloud, so I work with clients right across the UK, even worldwide from Australia studios to Canadian Campgrounds, I’m international baby. From one corner to the other. But being local and open to travelling means I can actually sit down with businesses and map how they really work. Which, nine times out of ten, is where the good automations are hiding. Norfolk or Madrid. Paris or Tokyo. I’ll meet you wherever.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about you.

Book a 30-minute chat, or tell me what you’re trying to fix. Bring the boring stuff, that’s my favourite bit.