By Prisca Sam-Duru

Ifedayo Agoro, fondly known as Ife, is an entrepreneur, creative writer, content creator, content marketer, and media strategist. Agoro who studied English at the Onabisi Onabanjo University, is the CEO of Dang! Lifestyle and founder of Diary of a Naija Girl (the DANG Community), an online community inspiring women across the world through creative storytelling.

In this exclusive interview, Ife shares interesting stories about DANG Lifestyle, a premium home and body care production company, and how something that began on her personal page transformed into a community of over a million women as well as the DANG Women Fest held recently. Excerpts.

What inspired your interest in women-focused community building?

What influenced me to start the Diary of  a Naija Girl, DANG, is the need for the voice of women to be heard because I grew up in a place where everybody could speak, everybody was equal. My mom raised us equally in my home. So, having come into the world of business and career, I began to realise that women are not allowed to be too ambitious or allowed to make mistakes and be forgiven or corrected, or our opinions really don’t matter; people say we are emotional. That’s not correct and, it’s not okay.

I wanted to be able to speak to women who think like me or who want to think like me and let them know that every woman can be anything and say anything she wants. You have every right that a man has.

So, I started the page by just writing about myself, sharing my story without shame. You know people like to shame others. When you have an experience especially as a woman, if you bare it, the society likes to make you feel shame, meanwhile you are the victim you did nothing wrong. So, I started speaking my mind and gradually it became what it is today where we are a people who are now unashamed to tell our story.

So DANG grew to accommodate other women’s stories?

Yes. Other women started sharing with me. And it grew into what it is today.

Now with over a million followers, what will you say drove DANG’s transformation; is it money?

Well I didn’t put money into it. Rather I put more of my truth, integrity, and stories I put out there. Because there’s nothing you can do to hide your intentions, people will still see you no matter what. I wanted to tell my truth; I wanted people to share it and I wanted women to speak their own truth as well. So, there was no money that was put into Diary of a Naija Girl. When we started, it was just me and gradually we started sharing and then that’s it.

As one of the earliest social media communities that have stood the test of time, what factor(s) sustained it?

I think at the end of the day, people like to share. They like to be in a community. They like to show that they care. I’m very passionate about women so, I realised that it’s because of consistency. Sometimes when things are not going well, people give up. I did not give up when people were not liking and sharing stories. Sometimes, we’ll have only two likes; because I was doing it for a reason not to get likes, I didn’t care that it wasn’t receiving all that likes and attention. I didn’t care at all. I just continued. I don’t know what happened over night and people just started following. For two years, I just told my stories; there were not much likes and comments but, we just continued. Consistency paid, true stories, real stories, helping the women on the platform, making them feel that they are part of something, that’s very important.

So how has DANG impacted the women?

Oh! It’s amazing, it’s amazing. Not only has the Diary of a Naija Girl community impacted me first as a person because even from that platform, I’ve been able to set up a business that is very successful- DANG Lifestyle. Not only has it impacted me as a person, it impacted many women. I wake up every day and go online to read opinions of many women saying ‘it is because of you that I did it, it’s because of you I wake up and feel better’. So there’s something every day and it’s amazing to say that this is me; this is what I started and this is what it has turned out to be.

Can you share one of the cases/stories?

There’s a girl named Lady T. She wrote that she was on drugs and I was in London at the time doing a pop-up for the community. She said she wished she could come for the pop-up because she was in rehab and she would love for me to visit. So, I visited her at the rehab. She told me that she pasted the comments of the women in the community on her wall in her room. She wakes up every morning to read them. She said they were so kind, their comments so lovely; she said their over 3k comments encouraged her. That motivated her into going back to practicing law. She also said she has not gone back to drugs; she is booming because of DANG’s impact- because we came together for her. I went to see her on behalf of the community and that was so encouraging for her that she never went back to drugs. That’s one of the many success stories of DANG. Every morning when I wake up, my email is filled with stories that impact the community.

Do you get to a point where you need the service of a professional like a psychologist?

Absolutely! We do that all the time. When we have these issues, we send people to therapists, because I’m not a therapist, I can’t do everything myself. For domestic violence cases, we send them to Lagos state domestic violence unit. We have people who are always willing to help.

At no cost?

Yes. They help out at no cost.

Tells us about the business you said sprung from DANG?

The business name is DANG Lifestyle. We started in Nigeria in 2020 and it has since expanded into a diverse portfolio of over 20 products. So far so good, DANG Lifestyle as a community is growing in leaps and bound. We are in UK, USA, Canada, Ghana and Kenya. The women there talk about how the business has grown.

What’s the essence of the launch of DANG Women Fest?

It wasn’t actually a launch. It was a get together for the first time, because normally we meet on Instagram. We decided that for the first time, we would come together to learn and have fun. We brought together women who are successful, serious in their fields to have conversations with the women. The crowd was overwhelming. It was a successful and amazing outing.

Is the get together a one-off thing?

No. It’s going to be an annual event.

It’s coming after nine years of online meeting, why now?

I just decided to start because if I didn’t start, I may never start. Now we know what to do to make the next one successful. And the next one will be our ten years of opening the platform.

Any plans to also empower women in the rural area?

This is a very good idea. Now that you have drawn our attention to it, my team and I will make plans towards that. The women in the rural areas also need enlightenment and empowerment.

Encouragement to other women

I always tell women, there’s nothing that is too much for you to achieve. Wherever, whatever position you’re in, you can build that thing you want. Don’t doubt yourself, go ahead and don’t apologise. When you do it and you’re successful, don’t apologise; every woman is capable of whatever she sets her mind to do. But please, don’t sit around hoping that somebody will give you permission to do it.