Eyitemi Popo: Girls Trip Tours by Iranti

Eyitemi Popo is a Forbes-listed social entrepreneur and the Founder of Girls Trip Tours by Iranti, an alternative tourism economy led by women that will change the way people travel Africa.

A bi-continental expat living between Canada and Kenya, Temi draws on her global experiences, having lived in seven countries and visited 30.  She is passionate about empowering women to thrive financially and personally while embracing rest, balance and joy.

Eyitemi is a seasoned entrepreneur with over a decade of experience as a solo founder.  She previously co-founded Africa's first data science academy for women and led developer-focused strategies at Mozilla, where she developed AI tranparency best practices.  Her work has been featured in National Geographic, AfroTech, and Talks at Google.

Currently based in Nairobi, Eyitemi advocates for designing a soft life rooted in wellness and financial independence.  She also teaches first-time founders to scale efficiently through her Co-Founder for Hire program.

Transcript

00:00:00 Lifuo Makhele: Tammy. Thank you. Welcome to my Entrepreneurship Jenny Pus podcast. I'm happy to have you here to share your journey with us. Welcome.

00:00:12 Eyitemi Popo: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

00:00:15 Lifuo Makhele: I would like us to dove into your childhood, you know, way back, looking back. How was that like, do you think, as a young girl. You always knew that you would one day want to start a business or start something your own, something new.

00:00:36 Eyitemi Popo: So my childhood was really magical. Like, that's how I would describe it. I grew up

00:00:41 Lifuo Makhele: We?

00:00:41 Eyitemi Popo: in New York City, so even though I was born in Lagos, Nigeria, my first memories are of New York. We moved when I was three and I was raised by a single mom, but she did everything to make sure that we had more than we ever dreamed of. So, you know, like Christmases were always magical. Lots of presents under the tree. We would bake cookies for Santa and leave

00:01:05 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:01:05 Eyitemi Popo: milk. I would get money when a tooth fell out from the tooth fairy. She very much gave us, like, a full childhood. And so, yeah, I just grew up with a lot of strong women around me, even though, well, while we were in New York, my mom had a 9 to 5 job. When we moved back to Nigeria for high school, she became a business owner and that really inspired me. So it made me want to create my own reality like she did. And

00:01:39 Lifuo Makhele: And.

00:01:39 Eyitemi Popo: so I think it was when we moved back to Nigeria and I kind of saw the hustle of Lagos and I saw all these people around me, like I had uncles that owned banks and, you know, movie theaters and television and radio. And I just saw the potential of like owning your own business and kind of being in control of your destiny, which was very different to how I grew up in New York, where it was more about like getting a quote unquote dream job.

00:02:10 Lifuo Makhele: Hmm. So. So indeed, environment can somehow help in seeing things in it in a different perspective.

00:02:19 Eyitemi Popo: Hundred percent. I think the different places I lived kind of gave me perspective into what I wanted out of life, and it also opened my mind up to the fact that you didn't have to live in one place. And I think my

00:02:35 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:02:35 Eyitemi Popo: nomadic lifestyle and my love of travel really came from my childhood.

00:02:40 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. Yeah. And then later on, you went on to start an online magazine, a digital publication called ABA. What was ABA focusing on and why? The name Emma.

00:02:55 Eyitemi Popo: So I started DBA in 2012, so that was the summer I graduated from undergrad. At the time I was in the States, so I graduated in Massachusetts and I moved to New York City. So I kind of moved back to where I grew up, searching

00:03:09 Lifuo Makhele: We?

00:03:09 Eyitemi Popo: for my first full time job, and it took like three months to land my first job. So in that time I was just like, what can I do to like, you know, keep myself busy? And I decided to start a DBA. It was an online publication dedicated to connecting the African diaspora to the continent. And so I think for me, again, growing up between both worlds of like even though I grew up in the US, I never really considered myself American. Even as a child. I consider myself a New Yorker because like anyone can be a New Yorker, if you like, if you live there. But I always knew I was Nigerian, but I don't think

00:03:46 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:03:46 Eyitemi Popo: I really did. I was Nigerian until I moved back to Nigeria at age 11. And so, yeah, I kind of understood the African American perspective growing up and then getting back to Nigeria. I truly understood my Nigerian identity in a more real way. And so even when I went to college, I was always kind of the person that bridged the gap between those two communities. I kind of wanted to be involved in both, and so the magazine was my way of kind of repairing what I saw as like a broken link between those two communities. So I really wanted people in the States to understand what was going on on the continent and vice versa. And so that's what I Ebo was about.

00:04:32 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:04:32 Eyitemi Popo: And the name is actually a part of my name, one of my names that

00:04:38 Lifuo Makhele: Okay.

00:04:39 Eyitemi Popo: I was get. Yeah. Was given by my great grandmother. So it means God or the Almighty in her language.

00:04:46 Lifuo Makhele: Lovely. Well, that's nice. And and, of course, that that is beautiful. That is a beautiful. I started Tammy and. And you finally you say three months later, I got a job, got employed, but still running. I'm out on the side. And how did you find that to be, you know, juggling both work commitments, because it just was your your job, but your side hustle, your baby that you started and now you're also employed. How did you find that going in between the two to be like.

00:05:21 Eyitemi Popo: Yeah. So I think I'm really glad I started the business when I was in New York because that's kind of the energy of New York anyway. Everyone has a job or multiple jobs and a side hustle, so it didn't really feel strange to be juggling both. And because I was so early in my career, I think I was very naive as well. So

00:05:39 Lifuo Makhele: He.

00:05:39 Eyitemi Popo: at that point I would like tell my colleagues about my business and what I was working on. Like, I very much melded both. I think as I would get further into my career, I kind of tried to separate them a bit more, especially as the business got more successful. But yeah, in the beginning I was very open. I had a super supportive boss and I was actually going to NYU at the same time. I had a certificate in digital publishing that I was pursuing, so it was like it was juggling multiple things. And then I think later in my career, after I did my master's, it became a lot harder just because I guess it was a more senior position. And yeah, it was just kind of harder to mix the two. And then as the magazine became more successful, I started getting invited for panels and, you know,

00:06:30 Lifuo Makhele: In.

00:06:30 Eyitemi Popo: speaking and things like that. So I remember there was one week where I was living in Toronto and I was in South Africa, you know, doing business. And then I flew back to Toronto for a day, went to work, then flew to Las Vegas and then to U.C. Berkeley for a speaking gig. I'm back to work. It was just like I was really running my body into the ground.

00:06:54 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:06:55 Eyitemi Popo: And so I was at that point, I felt like, okay, I need to kind of figure out which way I want to go with this and if I actually want to pursue full time.

00:07:07 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned earlier where you were excited about this, what you've just started, Eva, and you were mentioning it, telling all your colleagues about it. And do you think that was like not a bad move, too, to talk about it that much at work?

00:07:25 Eyitemi Popo: No, I don't think it's a bad thing to talk about

00:07:27 Lifuo Makhele: He.

00:07:27 Eyitemi Popo: it out where it shouldn't be. But I think

00:07:29 Lifuo Makhele: In.

00:07:30 Eyitemi Popo: early in my career and I think also environment matters, I think in New York, like no one really cares. You know what I mean?

00:07:38 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:07:38 Eyitemi Popo: Like,

00:07:39 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:07:40 Eyitemi Popo: either didn't care or they were supportive. Right. But I think

00:07:43 Lifuo Makhele: I.

00:07:44 Eyitemi Popo: later, like when I moved to Toronto and I moved to Canada and John, I think Canada and the U.S. are very different in their approach to just excellence. Like Americans think they're excellent, right. And Canadians are more modest in everything that they do. And so the American energy or even the Nigerian energy, which has a lot of bravado as well, that I was bringing to just being proud of what I was doing outside of work I don't think was as appreciated in Canada. And so

00:08:12 Lifuo Makhele: And.

00:08:13 Eyitemi Popo: that's when I started to just like dial back how much action on LinkedIn and things like that, like I won an award or you know, I was asked to be a keynote. I wouldn't necessarily not just at work, but I wouldn't even post it on LinkedIn because I didn't

00:08:27 Lifuo Makhele: Mm

00:08:27 Eyitemi Popo: want my colleagues to see.

00:08:28 Lifuo Makhele: hmm.

00:08:29 Eyitemi Popo: Yeah.

00:08:29 Lifuo Makhele: I see. It's so important because, you know, culture, you know, and you go to a different environment, the culture there could be totally different and just thinks differently from the previous one. And I guess we learn by doing sometimes we we learn the hard way sometimes, you know, you just do your research before going, hey, these are people here in South Africa like this. Okay, so I have to adjust, but it's it's quite important what you've just

00:08:55 Eyitemi Popo: But

00:08:55 Lifuo Makhele: mentioned.

00:08:56 Eyitemi Popo: you should adjust. If

00:08:59 Lifuo Makhele: And.

00:08:59 Eyitemi Popo: I had to do that, I think I would have been louder. Even in Canada,

00:09:03 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:09:04 Eyitemi Popo: even despite, you know, certain colleagues not appreciating it because at the same at the end of the day, like we're peers. So I don't really care. If you approve of what I do outside of work or you try to belittle it, or you know what I mean? Like

00:09:18 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:09:19 Eyitemi Popo: you don't pay my bills and this side hustle does. So I wish I had just like kept doing what I was doing. I had a supportive boss in Canada as well, but he had worked in the States. I think he understood me a lot more. So yeah, if you feel like as long as you're a manager and even if they don't, I, I would advise people to not really care because 9 to 5 is not going to make you rich. And it's only at least for me and else who wants to pursue entrepreneurship full time. It's a stepping stone to save money, to learn skills. It's not where you want to end up. And so don't let people who don't see your vision bring you down regardless of culture.

00:10:01 Lifuo Makhele: Awesome. Thank you.

00:10:02 Eyitemi Popo: And.

00:10:02 Lifuo Makhele: Thank you for that for that. And and mentioning the 9 to 5, that isn't going to make you rich anyway. I read a blog where you wrote about your work with eBay. You wrote that a side hustle work was bringing in a side hustle revenue. I found

00:10:22 Eyitemi Popo: When?

00:10:22 Lifuo Makhele: that's so profound. If you really think about it, can we expect that?

00:10:28 Eyitemi Popo: Yeah. So I think at that time it was just like I was putting part time hours into my side hustles and of course you can't make a full time income on part time hours. So I really had to reevaluate what I was doing, especially for people who are working, you know, abroad. I think Europe, North America, it's pretty similar with the tax structure, right? You're very heavily taxed as an employee, but then businesses are taxed a lot less. So if you really think about the number of hours you have to put into, you know, getting the same amount of revenue in your business that you earn in your salary you can go a lot further with business. And so for me, I kind of had to shift my mindset to. To just appreciate my time a lot more and say like, I don't have to work 40 hours a week every week for almost the entire year to earn a decent income. I can. I'm a smart person. I'm resourceful. I've built a network. I've built a reputation. And I can think of new ways to make money that don't depend on my time. And so that's what I really transitioned into doing.

00:11:47 Lifuo Makhele: To me. That is so encouraging. Thank you. Thank you for for highlighting that. And and nonetheless, you then pivoted to from ABBA to guests trip toss. Take us through that transition and how the idea came about and what exactly is guest's trip to those?

00:12:10 Eyitemi Popo: So initially I had the magazine, like I said, and the idea was to connect the African as the African community to the diaspora and community. And I was doing this through content, through articles, through videos, through storytelling. But at the same time, you know, there wasn't that tangible connection. So I actually started with events for us. I had an event called Mystikal Freak, and that was my way of like physically bringing those communities together to kind of celebrate art, you know, African art in all its different forms. And then I started Girls Trip, which I noticed my magazine was about 90% female readership. So I was just like, okay, let me lean into this women angle and let me curate travel. Because I think the most tangible way of connecting these two communities is actually by bringing one to visit the other. And so I started curating trips to Africa through girls trip tours. We started in Ghana in 2018. And yeah, it was just like I had the idea at the end of the year, I remember was December by like, you know, you have that break from work. I just use that to build a website. I applied for a fellowship just like really put it out there because I had a magazine, I had contacts in PR, I sent it to a bunch of folks to just get the word out and I got five people to join that trip and it was something that I was going to do myself anyway, because Girls Trip is really about connecting those two communities, but also using one to uplift the other. So in every trip we mentor girls and that's a huge piece of it. So I felt like I was going to go and mentor girls in Ghana anyway, but it was really nice to be able to bring women from across the diaspora to join

00:14:04 Lifuo Makhele: The.

00:14:04 Eyitemi Popo: me in doing that. And you know how things always align. So everyone that signed up that year was working in big tech. We had people at LinkedIn, eBay, we had some executive for the from the Ford Foundation. So it was just like the right people

00:14:19 Lifuo Makhele: Any.

00:14:19 Eyitemi Popo: found me at the right time. And yeah, the rest is history.

00:14:23 Lifuo Makhele: Wow. And those first five that actually subscribed and went with you to Ghana. How was that experience?

00:14:33 Eyitemi Popo: It was amazing. It was just,

00:14:35 Lifuo Makhele: And.

00:14:35 Eyitemi Popo: you know, one of those things that you've kind of been delaying. You know, like you. Because with Abba, I kept wanting to figure out what's the product. Like I have this community that saturates it. It's not really making me any real money. Like, it's it's paying for itself. But like, what's that next? Evolution. And it took me a while to get to travel. And so it just felt like it was the right time. So it was 2018. It was a year before the year of return in Ghana. So there was like a bit of buzz around Ghana, but like it wasn't as crowded as it is right now.

00:15:12 Lifuo Makhele: Hmm.

00:15:12 Eyitemi Popo: And then just everything went so smooth and I was so worried because, you know, West Africa can be a lot trickier to curate. And then I'm not necessarily from Ghana, even though I had been a few times and I had friends there. But yeah, everything just came together and it was like really a really seamless experience. And most importantly, the take away. I saw the transformation in the women that came on the trip.

00:15:40 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:15:41 Eyitemi Popo: One one of the actually youngest participants we've ever had. She came on the trip right after she graduated from Yale, and she was studying computer science. And I remember on the trip, I had introduced her to a friend of mine who had just been on the cover of Forbes Africa. And so during that dinner, I was talking to my friend and she was just listening quietly. But then the next morning she told me, Oh, by the way, like, I've been working on an app for the past year or so, and after the conversation last night, I decided to launch the app. So I was like really proud of her. But fast

00:16:19 Lifuo Makhele: Well.

00:16:20 Eyitemi Popo: forward, she actually became the youngest black woman to raise over $1,000,000 venture capital with the evolution of that app that she launched on our Ghana trip. And she has an incredibly successful startup. She sold products to Google. She's doing amazing work. And it's it's just so funny to think back to that moment where because of, you know, being around African ingenuity, looking at African entrepreneurs who are doing incredible things, who looked like her. Right, she was able to to push away the imposter syndrome and launch the app. And I just I marvel at her journey every time.

00:17:00 Lifuo Makhele: Well, to me that that is amazing you doing amazing work. And you know, you dubbed girls trip tours as they are likened it to the sisterhood of Traveling Pants, but

00:17:12 Eyitemi Popo: So.

00:17:12 Lifuo Makhele: with less soul searching and more self-actualization. I can attest to this because I attended one of your tours last year and the event and the time that I do not regret and a time that I will never forget and connected with some of the amazing people that that were there with with you. I thank you for that. And for someone listening in now thinking, hmm. This is amazing. Can we give them a hint of what this interaction is that like?

00:17:46 Eyitemi Popo: Yeah. So with Girls Trip, my goal really is to create experiences that leave a lasting imprint on the soul, something you'll feel long after all the details of the day fade. So I really like Chase that feeling, giving people a certain feeling, something intangible that they'll remember. And the idea is just to explore the African continent. So you caught me in Johannesburg, you know, in the cradle of humankind. But we do trips across the continent. We're operational in six different African countries. But everywhere we go, it's really about centering African women in how we tell the story. Through travel, we honor the history, the culture and the contributions that African women have brought to society. And more than that, I just really want every woman that's on the trip, regardless of their background, their age, or their culture, to really feel seen, understood and respected through how actuate experiences. And so each trip is really designed to be a safe space for black women, a place where they can exhale, they can rest and reset knowing that they're in a community that really prioritizes their well-being. You know.

00:19:07 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. No, that's amazing. And I just. What. What is the next? I guess it's happening. What's what's what's in the calendar that is still available for. For anyone listening in now to join.

00:19:20 Eyitemi Popo: Yeah. So the next girls trip is to Kenya, which is where I'm currently based. So I'm based in Nairobi and I've really built a beautiful life here in Nairobi. And so I kind of want my community to come in and see what's possible outside of the U.S. And I feel like a lot of people are living in the US right now in this moment,

00:19:42 Lifuo Makhele: It.

00:19:42 Eyitemi Popo: but they're going to Europe, they're going to Latin America and some are coming to Africa. So I just want Nairobi to be on their radar as an option. So I'm hosting the Legacy Retreat, and we're going to three different cities in Kenya to kind of give them a full perspective of like, okay, this is what city life is about. If you want to live, you know, a bit, you know, in nature by a lake, you could do that. If you want to live on the Indian Ocean by the coast, you can do that as well. So while we're here, they'll tour properties, they'll understand the rental market. Kenya just launched a digital nomad visa. So it's just a moment that, you know, they can figure out if, you know, living in Africa, living in Kenya is something they're interested in and also kind of understand what it's like to start a business in Africa. There's so much money to be made on the continent, there's so much potential. And I don't want people to overlook Africa as a place to invest in.

00:20:41 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. And when is this one happening?

00:20:44 Eyitemi Popo: It's happening November. So November 16th to 25th.

00:20:50 Lifuo Makhele: Okay. And and you also have another company, a startup co-founder for hire. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

00:21:00 Eyitemi Popo: Yes, I started co-founder for hire last year and it was just like my kind of giving back to

00:21:09 Lifuo Makhele: It

00:21:09 Eyitemi Popo: my

00:21:09 Lifuo Makhele: was.

00:21:09 Eyitemi Popo: community because I feel like I've been building my businesses for the last ten years and I really didn't share too much of the journey along the way because I was so busy. I was just like so in it. And now that I've kind of scaled my businesses to a point where I'm not doing everything and I have employees and I have teams, you know, supporting me, I feel like, okay, I can share a bit more about what it was like building all the different companies I built along the way. I've raised venture capital. I have bootstrapped businesses, I've hired employees, I've done it on my own. And so

00:21:45 Lifuo Makhele: You.

00:21:46 Eyitemi Popo: co-founder for hire is just me offering my services to other folks who want to build a business but are too afraid to or not sure what they want to build. And I'll just hold your hand. I'll guide you. I'll help you not make a lot of the mistakes I did. So I

00:22:03 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah,

00:22:03 Eyitemi Popo: help you twice

00:22:04 Lifuo Makhele: right.

00:22:04 Eyitemi Popo: as fast with half the heart and headaches.

00:22:07 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. And right now, someone it's still a brand new year, 2025. Someone out there in that business, Jenny, feeling stuck or they are looking for growth or they are looking to do new things, you know, and and but they still somehow feel stuck. What advice can you give them?

00:22:33 Eyitemi Popo: I would honestly say, just start. Just do it. Scared. Do a confused. Do it not knowing how. In working with clients, a co-founder of the Hire, something I notice is a lot of people do all the work in their heads, right? So they'll overthink and they'll get exhausted while they haven't even done anything because they've literally thought through every scenario, every possible failure, they thought ten steps ahead. But they didn't even take step one. Right. They didn't even do step one. But they're exhausted because they thought through all the way to step ten. So

00:23:10 Lifuo Makhele: Hmm.

00:23:10 Eyitemi Popo: I always tell people to just start you learn through trial and error, but a lot of people hate the error part, but you need that

00:23:20 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah,

00:23:20 Eyitemi Popo: to get it right. Yeah.

00:23:22 Lifuo Makhele: yeah, yeah. And someone thinking, okay, I think I need to be

00:23:27 Eyitemi Popo: It.

00:23:28 Lifuo Makhele: on co-founder for hire. How can they get in touch with you?

00:23:32 Eyitemi Popo: So the best way to reach me as co-founder for her at Gmail dot com or you can connect with me on LinkedIn at any time you.

00:23:41 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. Yeah. And guess reporters. Someone went in to join one of the trips. How can they find you guys?

00:23:51 Eyitemi Popo: You can email support at Girls Trip Tours or you can reach out to us on Instagram at Girls

00:23:59 Lifuo Makhele: And.

00:23:59 Eyitemi Popo: Trip Tours, and we're also on LinkedIn at Girls Trip Tours.

00:24:03 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah. That's amazing. And tell me in closing, do you have any favorite book you would like to share with us that, you know, you you could. Yeah. It's a favorite book or a book that was impactful in your life that you could share with us.

00:24:18 Eyitemi Popo: So I think we should all be Millionaires by Rachel Rogers is a really good book. It's really short. It's just like, Well, I listen to it.

00:24:28 Lifuo Makhele: Yeah.

00:24:30 Eyitemi Popo: The audible is like 3 hours. So it's a really short book. But I've read it multiple times because it's just another black woman who has been able to, you know, become a millionaire multimillionaire, just hyping you up and telling you all the reasons you should. So whenever you feel doubtful. For those people who feel stuck, I feel like it's a really great book to just, like, hype you up, get you in the zone and get you started.

00:24:55 Lifuo Makhele: We should all be millionaires.

00:24:58 Eyitemi Popo: Yes.

00:24:58 Lifuo Makhele: Amazing. And indeed we should. Jamie, thank you. Thank you for coming on. I thank you for this insightful conversation with learned so much from you. I can't thank you enough for being here.

00:25:11 Eyitemi Popo: Thank you for having me.