We were lucky to catch up with Nicole Sahbaee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

When we started En Root Travel, we knew we wanted to create a safe, joyful space for HBCU alumni to explore the African Diaspora. We also knew that service was core to who we became at Howard University. That’s why intentional service —meeting the real wants and needs of the communities we visit, has been part of every trip from day one.

From the beginning, whether we had $100 or $1,000,000, we committed to making an impact. Sometimes that looks like taking a group of 16 travelers to shop for toys, food, clothes, and school supplies for a preschool in a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Other times, it looks like painting a mural with students and donating office supplies to a nonprofit in a favela in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

Our travelers come for the culture, the vibes, the community, and yes, the parties! But time and time again, the community service project ends up being one of their favorite parts of the trip.

Right now, we’re fundraising to support our NGO partners in Ghana. They run two vocational schools that teach women trades like bead-making, dressmaking, baking, and hairdressing, skills they can use to start businesses and leave dangerous home situations behind. This work means a lot to me and my business partner, Tyshana Richard-Curry. As Black women entrepreneurs, we feel honored to support other women on their paths to freedom and stability. These schools have been pillars in their communities for over 15 years, and we’re proud to be part of their journey.

On your next trip, I encourage you to find a meaningful way to give back to the community you’re visiting.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m the CEO & Co-Founder of En Root Travel, LLC, THE Black travel group for HBCU alumni and Black travelers. We curate high-quality, all-inclusive group trips, and we’ve been in business for over 6.5 years.

I graduated from Howard University in 2018, and while I was in school, I had the opportunity to travel to seven countries. During my junior year, my friend (and now business partner) and I were in South Africa on a trip with YAALI at Howard. I remember sitting in our hotel room reflecting on how incredible it felt to be in Africa for the first time, but also how our time at Howard was coming to a close. I started thinking about how trips like that would soon be behind us, and how so many alumni would talk about missing the closeness and community they felt at their HBCU. That was the moment the idea clicked: What if we created a space for HBCU alumni to experience that same sense of community, outside of Homecoming, while traveling and connecting with other Black cultures around the world?

About a year and a half later, after graduation, we decided to make it real. With my background in education and hers in film, we didn’t know much about business, so we taught ourselves everything we could. We spent six months dividing up topics—like LLC formation and SBA resources—then took turns learning each subject deeply, building presentations, and teaching them to each other. By January 2019, we officially launched En Root Travel and built our first website using Squarespace.

One of the amazing things about that early time in the business is that we were only 23 years old and juggling so many other things. Since launching the business, I’ve earned my M.Ed. in Special Education, taught in the classroom, discovered a passion for aviation (I’m currently just 10 hours away from earning my private pilot license!), and launched—and later closed—a candle business, which taught me how product-based businesses compare to service-based ones.

I didn’t expect to build this in the beginning, but I’m most proud of the deep community we’ve created through En Root Travel. Some of our travelers have become close friends, and we’ve seen lifelong bonds form on our trips. Because of En Root Travel, we’ve had the opportunity to connect with so many different types of people. When you travel with us, you truly feel that our team cares about you, wants you to have an amazing experience, and is excited to welcome you back.

Being an entrepreneur is one of the most difficult and most rewarding careers you can have—but it’s worth it when you believe in what you’re building and who you’re building it for.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Transitioning from being a solopreneur, or even working in a small partnership, into leading a team can be a challenge. All of a sudden, your calendar fills up with check-in meetings, you’re training people, and you’re figuring out how to support your team while still running the business. One of the best things I did early on was lean into resources. I researched tools for managing teams and reached out to a former manager I really respected. That helped me start thinking more intentionally about the different ages, experience levels, and growth goals of the people I was bringing on.

Each year, I check in with my team individually about their personal and professional goals. Because we’re a travel company, it’s especially important for me to know who wants to travel a lot that year and who might need more time at home. It helps me align the opportunities we have with the lives they want to live. I try to always think about what would make working here feel fulfilling for this person.

Another big piece of team leadership is being committed to your own growth. When you’re at the top of your business, there’s rarely someone giving you regular feedback in the way you’re giving it to your team. You have to stay open and submitted to the idea that you might not always be right, and that there are professionals, mentors, or even team members who can help you grow as a leader. That humility and willingness to learn makes you stronger and builds trust across the team.

For me, maintaining high morale comes down to this: Why would someone want to keep working with you? Yes, people want to be paid well, but they also want to feel appreciated, respected, and like they’re growing. If you’re ever stuck on how to boost morale, think about what you would want if you were in their shoes. Then ask yourself honestly, “Am I giving that to my team?”

That doesn’t mean you can always give people everything they want, but being aware of what matters to them helps you find creative ways to show appreciation. For example, when we brought on our first intern, we didn’t have the budget to pay her traditionally. Instead, we compensated her with experiences and tools that aligned with her goals. She joined one of our group trips every six months, and we gifted her things like Apple products for school or Delta gift cards for her own travels. Travel was a major goal for her that year, so it was a win-win.

Managing a team is a learning process, but when you stay people-centered, values-driven, and open to your own growth, you create a space where people want to stay and grow with you.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We had to build our resilience as a business very early on because of the pandemic. Our very first trip was in December 2019–January 2020 in South Africa, and just a few months later, the world shut down. Suddenly, we were left with no way to travel, no new trip content, and the pressure of staying afloat after already losing money on that first trip. We had to keep our social media running for over a year using photos from just one trip, while trying to keep our audience engaged and our business alive.

One of the biggest blessings during that time was being in a partnership. When one of us was panicking, the other stepped in to provide support. We kept going by leaning on each other, getting small loans from three of our family members, and continuing to show up online—even when we felt like we had nothing new to say.

By 2021, the world was slowly opening again. We launched our second trip to Nassau, Bahamas, hoping it would help us bounce back. Instead, it became the ultimate test of faith. When we opened the trip, no one booked. Looking back, it makes sense—we were a brand-new company with one trip under our belt and over a year of inactivity because of the pandemic. But at the time, it felt crushing. We couldn’t understand what we were doing wrong or what needed to change.

For the next four to five months, we went into overdrive—creating content, reaching out to our networks, and going door to door in our cities to leave flyers at local businesses. We were staring down a $10,000 loss if the trip didn’t fill, which would have been the end of our business.

Thankfully, our efforts paid off. The trip ended up running, and it’s still one of our favorite groups to this day. That entire season tested our resilience more than anything else. We were only able to push through because we gave ourselves no other option but to succeed.

That kind of pressure forces you to learn what you’re really made of. It was incredibly difficult to go through, but now it gives me some peace. Whenever we face a challenge or a trip doesn’t turn out how we hoped, I look back at those early moments and remind myself that we have the resilience to make it through.

A special thank you to Addie & Parviz Sahbaee, my parents, and Stephen Tucker, my business partner’s uncle, who loaned us the money to stay alive during the pandemic! We are so grateful for your faith in us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.enroottravel.com
• Instagram: @enroottravel & @nikkisahbz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enroottravel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-sahbaee-5840a0140