85 Percent: A Wanderful Podcast

Exposure Leads to Expansion: Eileen Ivette on Slow Content, Afro-Latinidad, and Why Data Keeps Failing Black Travelers This season has been all about our 2026 Bessie Award winners, and this episode features our Trailblazer Award recipient, Eileen Ivette — the Afro-Colombian journalist and creator behind Black Latin History, a video series that uplifts Afro-Latino stories and confronts anti-Black erasure across Latin America and the Caribbean. Eileen started posting Black Latin History content in October 2022, with zero followers and a pitch she couldn't sell inside the newsroom where she worked — her bosses told her the stories about anti-Blackness in Latin America made her "too close to the story" to be objective. Within a month of launching on her own, one video about how Afro-Colombian women used braids as escape maps during the colonial period hit 4 million views and got reposted by Viola Davis. Three years later, she's built an entire ecosystem — video, articles, mentorship for other creators, and group trips to places like Medellín — out of a story she once had to fight to tell. We talk about her "speed versus substance" talk at WITS this year, and why she believes quality content builds trust in a way virality alone never can. We get into her own layered identity as an Afro-Latina raised in Houston, constantly having her Latinidad questioned, and the anti-Blackness she's encountered from within the Latino community itself. And we dig into what the travel industry keeps getting wrong: the tourism boards leaving money on the table by ignoring Afro-tourism, the historical census erasure that's left the industry working off bad data, and why she had to publicly beg the internet just to find an Afro-Peruvian tour operator in Lima. It's a conversation about identity, patience, and what it actually looks like to build something real instead of chasing a trend. Connect with Eileen Ivette / Black Latin History: Website: eileenivette.com Instagram: @eileen_ivette LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/eileen-ivette

The Business of Being Seen: Danny Guerrero on Allyship, Data, and What Travel Keeps Getting Wrong This season has been all about our 2026 Bessie Award winners, and this episode is a special one: our very first Allyship Award recipient, Danny Guerrero. Danny is the founder and CEO of The Culturist Group, a multicultural and inclusive marketing agency working with brands like Brand USA and Visit California. Before starting his own company, he spent five years as VP of Strategy at MMGY Global, one of the biggest names in travel marketing, and over 20 years in the industry overall. We talk about how Danny's whole career led to this point — from drafting an "elaborate long email" to MMGY leadership in 2018 (before George Floyd, before BLM, before the industry reckoning of 2020) arguing that travel marketing was ignoring underrepresented audiences, to eventually finding his voice on a national stage with MMGY's Global Black Traveler Study. We get into the "pat on the head" feeling of being dismissed for years, the financial risk of leaving a stable role to start his own agency as a first-generation kid who put himself through school, and what The Culturist Group actually does — research, strategy, storytelling, and now MOSAEX, their new media platform for reaching "growth audiences" with precision. We also don't shy away from the moment we're in: DEI budgets are being slashed, the word itself has become politically radioactive, and yet Danny argues the economic case for representation has never been stronger. We talk about the regulatory tension that makes multicultural media targeting so hard, why he believes this shift "is not going away" no matter what it's called, and what it will actually take for the travel industry to stop reacting to crisis after crisis and start building toward the future he wants to see — one where communities feel safe, seen, and genuinely invested in their own tourism economies. Relevant links: The Culturist Group: culturistgroup.com MOSAEX: culturistgroup.com/mosaex Danny's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dannyguerreromba Martinique Lewis / Black Travel Alliance (mentioned in-episode): blacktravelalliance.com ABOUT THE 85 PERCENT PODCAST 85% of travel decisions are made by women, yet women's voices and leadership are still underrepresented across the industry. Hosted by Wanderful founder Beth Santos, this show features candid conversations with the women shaping the future of travel, spotlighting the Bessie Award winners pushing the industry forward. ABOUT THE HOST Beth Santos is founder and CEO of Wanderful and author of Wander Woman. She's been named a changemaker by Business Insider and an inspiring person to follow by Condé Nast Traveller, and is godmother to the Azamara Onward cruise ship, a cafe owner, and a mom of three. Website: 85percentpodcast.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/santosbeth Instagram: @maximumbeth

Only 10% of safari companies worldwide are led by women — and just 15% are Black-owned. Sisters Amanda and Asnath Kessy are rewriting that story. In this episode, Beth sits down with the co-founders of Still Waters Safaris, a woman-owned, family-led luxury safari company in Arusha, Tanzania, and winners of Travel Startup of the Year at the 2026 Bessie Awards. They share the story of growing up watching their father run tours in a male-dominated industry, the leap of faith it took for Amanda to leave a banking career to build Still Waters from just two clients, and the pushback — and unwavering family support — that shaped them along the way. They dig into what makes their tours different, why investing in women transforms local economies, and what it will take to get more women into the safari industry. It's a conversation about family, resilience, and the belief that "the sun is big enough to shine on everybody." RELEVANT LINKS Still Waters Safaris Website: stillwaterssafaris.co.tz Instagram: @stillwatersafaris Facebook: facebook.com/stillwaterssafaris LinkedIn: Still Waters Safaris If you were moved by what you heard in this week's episode of "85 Percent," I invite you to leave an honest review of how this episode impacted you. Also, share this podcast with your travel buddy! ABOUT THE 85 PERCENT PODCAST 85% of travel decisions are made by women, yet women's voices and leadership are still underrepresented across the industry. Hosted by Wanderful founder Beth Santos, this show features candid conversations with the women shaping the future of travel, spotlighting the Bessie Award winners pushing the industry forward. ABOUT THE HOST Beth Santos is founder and CEO of Wanderful and author of Wander Woman. She's been named a changemaker by Business Insider and an inspiring person to follow by Condé Nast Traveller, and is godmother to the Azamara Onward cruise ship, a cafe owner, and a mom of three. Website: 85percentpodcast.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/santosbeth Instagram: @maximumbeth ABOUT WANDERFUL Wanderful is a global community for women who travel, connecting members through meetups, an online community, and events like WITS and the Bessie Awards. Website: https://sheswanderful.com

Season 3 celebrates our 2026 Bessie Award winners, starting with Creator of the Year winner Anela Malik, who built a full ecosystem out of a hobby Instagram account she started almost by accident. Beth and Anela talk about turning a creator career into an entrepreneurial one: the financial instability of the early years, why she crowdfunded Our Block instead of waiting on a brand, the pay gap she's faced as a Black creator, and what travel companies get wrong when they treat creators as marketing instead of business partners. Enter to win: we're giving away a copy of Anela's book, American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States. Subscribe to our email list at 85percentpodcast.com to enter. Anela Malik is the 2026 Wanderful Bessie Award winner for Creator of the Year, honored for combining creativity with advocacy to challenge the status quo in travel. She built Unfiltered & Fed into a platform reaching nearly 400,000 people through food, travel, culture, and identity. She authored American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States (National Geographic, 2025), a two-time NAACP Image Awards nominee, and launched Our Block, a crowdfunded series spotlighting Black-owned businesses nationwide. She's also a former U.S. diplomat, now leading small-group trips through the Middle East and North Africa. Connect with Anela Malik Website: anelamalik.com Newsletter (Unfiltered & Fed): unfilteredandfed.com Instagram: @theanelamalik TikTok: @theanelamalik YouTube: @theanelamalik Our Block: ourblockshow.com Book: American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States (National Geographic, 2025) Chapters 00:05 — Welcome to Season 3 + how to enter the giveaway 01:44 — Introducing our Creator of the Year: Anela Malik 03:44 — What Creator of the Year means at Wanderful 06:39 — How Anela became a creator by accident 09:42 — Learning entrepreneurship with no safety net 12:04 — The moment content creation became a real career 15:08 — From platform to published author: American Soul 18:02 — Crowdfunding Our Block: telling stories no one wanted to fund 23:07 — What the travel industry keeps getting wrong 26:42 — Being evaluated as a business, not just an influencer 30:03 — Creators and companies doing group travel right 33:37 — Where to find Anela and how to work with her 35:14 — Outro + one more reminder about the giveaway

What does it mean to travel as your full self when the world isn't always built with you in mind? In this special edition episode, I'm joined by journalist and author Lindsey Danis to celebrate the release of their debut book, (Out) On The Road: The Radical Joy of Queer Travel (Ig Publishing) — and we get into all of it. Lindsey is a queer writer whose work has appeared in AFAR, Fodor's, Condé Nast Traveler, Longreads, Eater, and more, and this book is the kind of thing the travel world has genuinely needed. We talk about what it took to write it, what they learned from years of reporting on LGBTQ+ travel around the world, and why queer joy on the road is, in itself, a radical act. Chapter List: 00:00 Introduction to the Conversation 02:26 Celebrating the Launch of 'Out on the Road' 05:06 Exploring the Book's Unique Approach 10:47 Understanding the Queer Travel Experience 15:12 The Radical Joy of Queer Travel 20:30 Navigating Personal Identity While Traveling 25:07 Personal Stories and Their Impact 29:12 Empowerment Through Travel 32:19 The Emotional Journey of Writing a Book This podcast is hosted by Beth Santos, founder and CEO of Wanderful and author of Wander Woman: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World, Solo. Beth has been recognized in Business Insider as one of 17 changemakers transforming the hospitality industry, and in Conde Nast Traveller as one of 12 inspiring people to follow. She's also the godmother to the Azamara Onward cruise ship, a cafe owner and a mom of three. 💼🚺♀️👩🏾👵🏼👩🏽‍🦱✈️🚢🧳 If you would love to connect with Beth, join her in these following spaces: Website LinkedIn Instagram Facebook