Ife and Frank’s love story is proof that sometimes the most meaningful relationships begin by working together.
This love story began on set for a Dang Lifestyle photoshoot. For Ifedayo Agoro and Frank Itom, what started as a straightforward work engagement soon revealed something deeper: an ease, a joy, and a meeting of minds that felt anything but ordinary. As founders, creatives, and collaborators, shared values and mutual respect have shaped their relationship as much as laughter-filled moments that blurred the line between work and friendship.
In this exclusive interview, the couple opens up about how collaboration became connection, how trust fuels both their businesses and their bond. They honour their community, culture, and family, which sits at the heart of their journey to marriage.
Ife and Frank’s story is one of intentional love — grown steadily, creatively, and together. With the wedding just around the corner, they open up about creating something remarkable together, professionally and personally.
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How did you both first meet, and what was it about each other that made you realise this relationship was something special?
Frank: We met during a work engagement, and she had reached out to collaborate on videos to promote her business, Dang Lifestyle. It was the first time we ever interacted. She came over to my studio, which was at my house at the time. We had a very productive and enjoyable session. We had people from both our teams there, and after the session, we had a mini karaoke session because we had such a good time with the shoots, and we just became really good friends.
Ife: It was a good day. I had planned to go to work since it was Dang Lifestyle’s sale season, and we needed extra content to drive sales. We thought he’d be perfect to help with that. That’s all I was thinking — just a straightforward content shoot. Then it turned out to be a very joyous day. I thought, “Okay, I think we can be friends.” The best part was realising through our conversations just how different he was from his playful online personality; in reality, he was thoughtful and quite intellectual. That was good, and from there I knew we would be friends from there.
Tell me about your working relationship. You’re both getting married and often work together — what’s that like, and what’s your secret to making it work?
Ife: The work ethic that he has, I really admire. When he sets his mind to do something, he will make sure that it happens. It’s working with someone you can trust and going to bed knowing that things will definitely get done by this person, and that’s just really endearing for me. We’ve never really had any issues working together. We have creative differences because I’m more chill, and he wants to go off all the time.
Frank: I’m very expressive, and she’s more on the reserved end. However, I think working together is something that we learn every day. It’s like a perfectly fitting Lego, but we have to make sure that the pieces align, and that’s something that we know takes time. And so every day we are putting those pieces together, and we are looking forward to what that will look like in the years to come.
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Ife, tell me a little bit about Dang Lifestyle and how it came to life?
Ife: I came out at one point to complain on my Instagram story about how a particularly expensive brand did not work for my skin. I continued using it because it was expensive. People came to my DMs to say “Same.” I went to research and saw that several people have complained not only about these expensive skincare brands, which aren’t made with people of colour in mind, but also about other issues.
I thought to myself, this is a problem, and not many brands are already working to solve this. There are brands, but not many. I began by doing some research and reaching out to friends and others, asking, “Do you think I can actually make this happen, even without any experience?”
We hired two board-certified formulators, one from Nigeria. When I announced to the Dang community, “I’m starting a skincare brand, I need testers, 5,000 people came on board as volunteer testers. So we had to pick out of them, and they tested them with me. My friends suffered so much with testing; we all did that together to make Dang what it is today. The first product we launched was a body care product to tackle body pigmentation issues. We eventually created the exfoliating and moisturising shower gel, and in weeks it was sold out. That was shocking to me. But that was when I knew we had something here. We just invested more of our money and involved more community members so that we are all in this together. That’s how Dang started.
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Frank, let’s talk about your content creation business. How did you get started?
Frank: It wasn’t always content. At first, it was just a passion for the arts. I have a master’s degree in environmental and public health, but I always knew from my 200-level that I was not for the sciences. When I picked up dancing in 200 level, something in me came alive, and from there I just followed that desire to express myself.
I did stage design for sometime and then I picked up graphic design along the way. After graphic design, I realised that there were other parts of communications that I needed to learn. I started working as a communications specialist. Then I became a brand manager, I also became an event coordinator, and I was working more in corporate communications at the time. This was 2020, during the lockdown, when everything took a different turn. That was the first time that I ever attempted something big on social media. I was barely scratching 1,000 plus followers at the time.
I jumped on the Bop Daddy challenge, and people really liked my take — and that took off. That went very viral in Nigeria, and I started to grow followers from there. It was not until 2021 that I realised that there was something unique in the way I expressed my creativity and myself on social media. I honed in on all of that, and people started to call me the transition king. That allowed me to collaborate with a lot of people from personal to international brands to local Nigerian brands.
It was here that I grew my brand from just being the person in front of the camera to being the person behind the camera. I handle creative strategy, social media strategy, content direction, and creative direction. And this applies across the board, from individuals to businesses and brands.
Can you share your engagement story? What was going through your mind during the proposal?
Ife: A lot was hidden from me; I didn’t know what was happening. I suspected he was on to something, but I could never have wrapped my mind around him proposing on that day. It was supposed to be our first engagement day, but it wasn’t actually. There was this elaborate scheme that he was proposing to his girlfriend on his birthday, but it wasn’t his birthday!
They all just lied, and I was there preparing for my friend’s proposal. I noticed him acting a bit dodgy — sometimes when I’d approach, he’d swipe away from whatever he was doing on his phone. I was like, “Why are you acting funny?” He would just say something different. So I just moved on from that, but I knew it was dodgy.
When I arrived at the event space, I noticed some of the decorations and started suggesting changes: “Let’s put this here, move that there, and arrange it this way.”
Another of our friends who was taking pictures said, “Why don’t you stand in the middle of the decor? Let’s just take your picture so you can see how it aligns.” I was like, “Cool.”
Then I stood there, and Frank came in from the corners. My mind still couldn’t fathom that you are really going to do this on somebody else’s day? But then I quickly realised it was a setup and it was just amazing. It was amazing.
The words that came out of his mouth, the people that he flew all the way from wherever to come to Dallas. It was really and truly a surprise. I could never have asked for something better. Even though I would tell him all the time, you could just wake me up and give me a ring, and I would take it. I don’t need any drama, but I really did love that he went all out to do what he did on that day, and I can’t forget it.
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Frank, how were you feeling the day you proposed?
Frank: I was nervous. I was very nervous because I felt like she was onto me. Typically, I don’t hide anything. There’s nothing that’s a secret between the two of us, so this was one of the times when I had to start sneaking around and making calls at night. It was one of the most difficult things to do because she’s also very nosy. Once you start performing, she doesn’t know how to keep to herself, to be like, let me mind my business. She will ask, “What are you doing? What’s going on?” and then I was like, “Maybe I should just tell her.” They said, “No, just see it till the end and then, let’s just hope for the best.”
Her reaction made me even more shocked. But I could tell she wasn’t acting. It was very genuine. That’s why I knew she didn’t know, because two days to the day, I felt like she already caught me with the way I was moving around in the house. I was nervous putting everything together.
It was a wonderful day. I genuinely enjoyed the entire process. I documented it and shared it on YouTube, and I loved collaborating with everyone and bringing all the pieces together. Seeing how delighted she was by the surprise made it even more rewarding.
I loved the engagement photos that honoured your parents. Tell me more about that?
Ife: My mum, of course, is a major part of who I am and the values that I hold on to very strongly. My beliefs and the woman that I have become, my mum is a major part of that. Sadly, she’s not here with us because this would have been one of those days when she would go all out. My mum was like me — quite reserved, but she was observant, very thoughtful.
When we are presented with situations where we need to show joy, we don’t hold back. And that’s my mum. So I can just imagine if she were here, how she would have reacted, especially knowing that she would definitely love Frank. It’s just very easy with him, and she would absolutely have seen it. I know she would have said, “This is where you should be, it’s a good place for you.” So we had to honour her and Frank’s dad because we really, really wish they were here.
Frank: Our tribute to them means a lot; it doesn’t end only with that picture; it was just a start for people to see how much we value our late parents. Seeing how her family responds and treats me.
For example, yesterday we had a call with her two sisters, and I noticed how freely they express love, often telling me, “We love you.” They’re so happy. I can imagine what it would be like because these ladies were raised by their mum. I loved creating these photos; they were a way to honour the legacy of Ife’s mum and my dad — celebrating them while also reminiscing and wishing they were here.
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What has been the most joyful moment so far in planning your wedding?
Ife: There are so many joyful moments, but I must say that for me, one of those will be the rest that I feel. I’ve heard stories of weddings, especially how the women have to take it on, and the men don’t care about what’s happening. They just won’t show up. That’s not our story. I’m truly happy that this is not something I am doing by myself. Frank is more involved than I am in the planning of this wedding.
I like to go into something feeling peaceful. Even if there are challenges, I just need to know that I have peace with whoever I’m working with. Either vendors, and in this case, my partner, who has helped make this process easier. One of the most joyful moments for me is seeing how hands-on he is — things aren’t nearly as stressful or difficult as I’d been told they could be.
Another moment that has cost me so much joy is seeing how our friends are coming from wherever they are for this event. It makes me feel like maybe we’ve taken them for granted for a while, not knowing how they would go above and beyond to be here for this traditional engagement that we’re doing. That gives me so much joy, and it just leaves me in awe of how intentional they are about us. They are very involved in the whole process, and I just cannot imagine how they have set out time and money resources to come travel all the way.
Frank: It brings me so much joy to see everything coming together, and even more knowing my bride is staying stress-free. Starting yesterday, as we count down to the wedding, I asked her, “On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s your stress level?” Anything over a four, and we know we need to step in. My goal is for her to be completely rested. I just want her to be as rested as possible.
Looking beyond the wedding, what are some goals you have as a couple — both personally and professionally?
Ife: Personally, I want to have a lot of fun. I want to see the people that I love and care about, that I respect, and just have this moment with them. Somebody recently asked me, “Why are you guys doing this?” Because we’ve already done our civil wedding in Dallas. We just knew that this is something that our family and friends would love to celebrate with us. Being Nigerians — I’m Yoruba and Frank is Edo — we’re grounded in the cultures and traditions our parents value, and they would never let anything pass unnoticed.
I’m just really looking forward to having fun on that day. I’m looking forward to the memories — just his friends, family, my nieces, my nephews. It’s just nice to have everybody in one place for one day, genuinely happy, for us, and we genuinely love having them there and just having fun.
Frank: Personally, what I’m looking forward to past the wedding will be growing as a person on all fronts. Yes, we recently relocated to Dallas, and we are expanding our influence, circle, and network. The goal is to grow that network effectively and use it to benefit both ourselves and those around us.
As a couple, we have so many dreams. We have so many ideas, we have so many plans and things that we’re working on. We have discussed some, and we are still in the planning phase. There are so many moving parts to our life post the wedding that we are looking forward to. The majority of them involve growing so that we can help a lot more people. As you know, Ife has a thriving community of women who she would not relent in going the mile to ensure that those women are okay, and whatever it costs, she’s ready to do that.
The more money we have, the more we can do all of that, but most importantly, travel together. We love travelling and can’t wait to take more trips together. I handle the photography, while she takes the lead as the model.
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