Diywithjoy

26/10/2026

Next week I’ll be speaking at WTM London, and I’m moderating a session I’m really excited about:
Can Next Gen Find You? How Language, Search and Trust Shape Discoverability

Trends Stage, Tuesday 3 November, 11:15–11:55
Many Gen Z travellers now start their search on social platforms and AI assistants, not just Google. That changes which words matter, how brands get found, and what builds trust.
We’ll explore the language Gen Z uses when searching for travel, how brands can show up in AI-generated recommendations and social search, and what it takes to stay credible rather than performative.

I’m joined by Brennen Bliss (Propellic) and Reza Moaiandin (SALT.agency). If you’re at EXCEL, come and say hello.

If you’re a travel brand trying to work out how Gen Z finds you, this is the work I do through Crescendo Digital. We help travel, tourism and hospitality brands get found and trusted, from the words on your website to the creators and platforms your next traveller actually uses.

World Travel Market (WTM) London

22/10/2026

Trust was the thread running through both of our talks at Traverse Events 26 x GNTB Travel Creator Summit. Here’s how Sophie | Solo Female Travel | Content Creator | London and I unpacked it 👇🏾

🎤 Insider/Outsider: How Creators Earn Trust Telling Someone Else’s Culture

We shared our CULTURE framework for telling a place’s story without the colonial gaze. The part closest to my heart was Listen first. I shared how I applied it during the Ukraine relief work: listening to international students on the ground, sometimes with bombs audible on the call, then mobilising multilingual trauma-informed therapists and pro bono lawyers, and using my marketing abd PR background to connect press with people in Ukraine so their stories were told truthfully. With Black Women for Black Lives, we raised over £326,500 in five weeks and helped 2,000+ people.

🎤 Community Over Content: Turning an Audience Into a Room

We shared our ROOM framework (Reason, Offer, Overcome doubt, Moment), a creator strategy for building the consumer trust that gets people to show up. My examples: my Tanzania travel guide, which went from concept to 100+ ebooks sold plus travel consultations, and Crescendo Digital at Cannes Lions, where a WhatsApp community of 200+ turned into 12+ speaking opportunities, press trips to Ghana and Ethiopia, and global brand campaigns for our 400+ diaspora travel network.

With more travellers using social search to plan their trips, the creators they trust are becoming the search results. That’s why trust isn’t a soft metric in travel marketing. It’s the whole game.

The feedback was so lovely. One attendee told us, “It was a truly amazing session. I learned a lot from you.” 🥹

Thank you Traverse & Germany Tourism Feel Elbphoria. Love Hamburg. for hosting a great conference!

Consumer Trust Travel PR

12/10/2026

This week I’m heading to Hamburg, speaking at Traverse Events 26 with the brilliant Sophie | Solo Female Travel | Content Creator | London 🇩🇪

The conference will be full of creators, tourism boards and destination brands, and our two sessions are:

Insider/Outsider: How Creators Earn Trust Telling Someone Else’s Culture

Community over Content: Turning an Audience into a Room

I’ve spent my whole life as both the insider and the outsider.

I was born in the UK to Nigerian parents, so I know what it’s like to love a culture deeply and still be reminded you’re not quite from there. As a creator and travel writer, I’ve travelled to over 50 countries and lived in 3, and I’ve been the outsider far more often than the local. Those experiences gave me a global perspective, and a healthy respect for the people whose stories I’m telling.

All of that shapes how we work at Crescendo Digital - Tourism Marketing & PR Agency | UK & Africa , an integrated PR and marketing agency I co-founded. We help travel and tourism brands across Africa and the diaspora, global brands and the wider creative industry tell culture-led stories, often alongside the creators who know those cultures best.

Sophie and I have been having these conversations for months from shared experiences to different perspectives, so it’s good to finally have them out loud,

If you’re at Traverse, come and find me. And if you’re a brand or tourism board thinking about how your destination shows up online, let’s talk.

25/09/2026

If you missed this week’s webinar, I’m running it again and this time in the evening 🙌🏾

Thank you to everyone who joined the first session! The feedback has been so encouraging, and I’m glad people found it useful.

Next Thursday, I’m hosting another free session:

How to Turn a Cold Email into a 5-Figure Paid Partnership from Events and Conferences.

I’ll walk you through my original CRAFT Framework, including how I used it to secure a $22,000 paid partnership with one of the fastest growing tech brands.

We’ll cover:

→ How to research the right brands before an event.
→ The green signals that make a business worth approaching.
→ How to write a cold email that gives someone a reason to reply.
→ What to ask on the discovery call.
→ How to follow up and move the conversation forward.

Whether you’re a founder, small business owner, consultant or creator, you can adapt the approach to your industry.

Everyone who joins also gets a free worksheet with the tools I use, so you can start applying what you learn.

📅 Thursday 1 October
🕗 8pm BST · 12pm PDT · 3pm EDT · 9pm SAST
💻 Free, live on Google Meet

An afternoon session for my US folks and anyone who couldn’t make the daytime one!

Bring an upcoming event or a brand you’d love to work with.

Comment CRAFT and I’ll send you the registration link.

22/09/2026

British Airways is flying to Zanzibar. 🥳🇹🇿

From 29 May 2027, BA will fly from London Gatwick to Tanzania three times a week, landing in Kilimanjaro first and then carrying on to Zanzibar. Fares are starting from £849 return.

If you’ve ever asked me how to get to Zanzibar from the UK, my answer has always been a stop in Nairobi, Amsterdam or Doha. I lived in Tanzania and I’ve been to Zanzibar three times, so trust me when I say this is big for anyone who has had the island sitting on their list.

It also means you can combine safari and beach holiday in one trip. Land in Kilimanjaro for the Serengeti, finish in Zanzibar, fly home from the island.

Before you book anything, there are things I wish someone had told me first. The travel insurance you have to buy from Zanzibar itself or you can be refused entry. Why the tide decides whether you can swim outside your hotel. What to wear in Stone Town. What a taxi should actually cost, because there are no meters and no Uber.

It’s all in my Zanzibar travel guide on the blog.

Comment GUIDE and I’ll send the link straight to your DMs.

Have you been to Zanzibar or would you love to visit? Would love to know.

18/09/2026

Six weeks before Cannes Lions, I sent a cold email to a brand I had zero relationship with. That email turned into a five-figure paid partnership.

Most people spend time, money and energy going to events and come back with a stack of LinkedIn connections and zero signed contracts. The follow-ups get stuck on “It was great meeting you!” and die in the inbox.

The deals that actually close start before you walk in the room. That’s what I’m sharing next Wednesday, the exact framework, from pre-event research to cold outreach to closing the deal.

Join me next Wednesday 23 September at 12pm BST

Comment ‘ Webinar’ and I’ll send you the link to register.

Tag someone who would benefit from this webinar ☺️

02/09/2026

8 Situations Where an eSIM Becomes Essential Outside Your Country

Travel outside your country brings new places, new routines, and unexpected moments that require quick decisions. In such situations, mobile connectivity

14/08/2026

I recommend being OOO in Barbados, you won’t regret it 🇧🇧👌🏾

18/07/2026

So I was talking to my girl Sophie | Solo Female Travel | Content Creator | London | UK about solo travel and honestly it brought me back to this moment I think about all the time.

2019, I took my mum to Portugal for her birthday. We were on a boat trip and I met this lovely young married couple from Pakistan. I ended up talking to the husband about solo travel - like really passionately, the way I always do lol and I didn’t think anything of it.

Months later he messages me. He’d gone on his first solo trip. Said it was one of the best decisions he’d made for himself.

I got so emotional reading that 💛🥺 Like that’s the whole point. You have one conversation and you genuinely never know what it plants in someone.

So if you’ve been going back and forth about solo travelling, this is your sign 🌍

5 reasons to just book it:

1️⃣ it’s honestly one of the best ways to reconnect with yourself
2️⃣ you learn to trust your own instincts. There’s no one to lean on but you
3️⃣ it makes you SO much more adaptable. i’m not scared of change the way i used to be
4️⃣ you’re forced out of your comfort zone, from talking to strangers, eating alone, figuring things out in another language and it opens your mind in a way nothing else does
5️⃣ it’s genuinely good for your mental health. grounding yourself somewhere new, learning to be okay in your own company

I get emotional every time I talk about this because it changed my life and I want more people to know they can do it too.

If you’ve solo travelled, what did it teach you about yourself? tell me below 👇🏾

ps i’ve got a blog post up on solo travel safety tips for women. Go read it before your next trip 💛

14/07/2026

Met Oprah and Jay Shetty ☺️

But you know what was even more special?

Meeting the Crescendo Creative Bridge WhatsApp community IRL - 200+ brand marketers, C-suite leaders, agency founders, investors, creators and media, all heading to Cannes 🌍

People gave Crescendo Digital - Tourism Marketing & PR Agency | UK & Africa their flowers in real time. I got a speaking opportunity from this group. And most importantly, I found community.

What the community did at Cannes 2026:
✨ Found last-minute accommodation for members
✨ Shared invite-only event access
✨ Surfaced PR and press opportunities
✨ Unlocked speaking slots
✨ Introduced people who ended up collaborating together
✨ Shared the tips no one tells you the first time

If you’re heading to Cannes Lions 2027 for first time or fifteenth, this is the group I wish I’d had when I first arrived 🤍
Everyone genuinely supportive. Everyone giving before they ask.
Join us - link in bio