Today we’d like to introduce you to Igxtelle Mbah-Acha Dopgima.
Igxtelle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
If you looked at my life today as an attorney, mediator, and the founder of Igxtelle Law Group, APLA, The Immigrant Mom, and AMIG-COAL, you might think I had a seamless blueprint. But the truth is, I didn’t choose entrepreneurship. A mass layoff eight months into my dream job chose it for me.
On November 9, 2022, I woke up at 6 AM to an email telling me I was one of 11,000 people laid off. I held my phone and wept. The irony was that I had spent months playing the corporate circus—doing the skip-levels, taking the hardest projects, trying to shield myself—while simultaneously praying for a release because the job was siphoning my mental health. I wanted a smooth landing, but I was dropped mid-air.
That forced drop-off became my launchpad, but it wasn’t an overnight success. I failed at six businesses before I built what thrives today. I tried staffing, matchmaking, a billboard company, marketing, medical billing, and logistics. Every single one failed. I was so desperate to be free from corporate America that I kept chasing trendy business ideas, thinking the answer to my freedom had to be complex and flashy.
The breaking point happened after a major business deal crumbled. Sitting in the wreckage of those six failures, I had a profound spiritual moment. I was reminded of the question God asked Moses: ‘What is in your hand?’ Moses had a simple rod, and he didn’t think it was enough to part the Red Sea. I looked down, and I realized I was sitting on a New York law license that I had spent years earning but was completely overlooking.
Earning that license wasn’t accidental. Seventeen years ago, at age 20, I left Cameroon for South Korea to study law. When I decided to sit for the New York Bar with an LLB from Cameroon and a JD from South Korea, the precedent wasn’t just low; it was zero. Nobody from my school had ever done it. People called it a financial gamble. But I anchored myself in faith, ignored the fears of others, and wrote my own playbook. I passed.
Yet, there I was years later, ignoring that very gift to chase trends. When I finally looked at what was already in my hand—my intrinsic ability to counsel, protect, and find solutions—everything shifted.
I stopped interviewing for people who wouldn’t choose me and decided to build my own thing. I launched Igxtelle Law Group to lean fully into my purpose. Because my journey as a mother and an executive shaped me, I created The Immigrant Mom to support women walking similar paths. My commitment to the legal landscape of my home continent drove the creation of the Association of Privacy Lawyers in Africa (APLA). And because my husband and I believe deeply that you don’t have to live in Africa to build in Africa, we intentionally founded AMIG-COAL in Cameroon to drive local impact despite the inconveniences of managing it from abroad.
Sometimes the turning points in our lives look like disasters, but they are actually just forcing us to stop looking outward and start looking at what we already carry. True security is knowing how to deploy your own parachute, and I am grateful everyday for the drop that forced me to sew mine.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not even close. If the road were smooth, it wouldn’t have required me to build the wings I have today.
If I look back at the hardest struggles, they weren’t just the external rejections; it was the internal warfare. The first major struggle was unlearning the employee mindset. When you’re used to a bi-weekly paycheck, your security is tied to someone else’s validation. Transitioning into entrepreneurship meant I had to become my own validation. I had to learn to wake up every day and choose myself, even when the revenue wasn’t matching the effort yet.
Another massive hurdle was overcoming the noise of conventional advice. When you decide to pursue a path with a zero percent historical success rate, or when you choose to walk away from corporate safety to build your own entity, well-meaning people will project their fears onto you. Cultivating the psychological resilience to block out that doubt, to anchor myself in faith, and to trust what was already in my hand when the immediate environment suggested otherwise – that was a daily, grueling workout for my mindset. The road wasn’t smooth because I had to completely reinvent my definition of security while mid-air.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Igxtelle Law Group PLLC , and I am often referred to as “Iggy the Lawyer.”?
I am the Managing Attorney of Igxtelle Law Group PLLC, popularly known as Iggy the Lawyer. We are a personal injury law firm licensed in Texas, Washington D.C., New York, and Cameroon. Through our strategic co-counsel partnerships, we have the capacity to serve clients across all 50 states, ensuring that no matter where you are in America, you have access to top-tier legal protection.
What we do is incredibly critical: we fight for people who have been hurt due to someone else’s negligence. Whether it’s a car or truck accident, a slip and fall, a work injury, or the devastating reality of a wrongful death, we step into the gap to secure the justice and financial compensation our clients deserve.
As an American of Cameroonian descent, I know firsthand how intimidating the American legal system can feel, especially when you are dealing with the physical, emotional and financial trauma of an injury. Far too often, people in our community get shortchanged by big insurance companies or choose to suffer in silence because they don’t know who to trust.
With us, your pockets never have to dictate your access to justice. We offer 100% free consultations, and we work entirely on a contingency basis. That means there is absolutely no fee unless we win your case. That is my promise to you.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Honestly, it’s nothing flashy.
Being with my parents and siblings is one of my most cherished childhood memories. Growing up, it didn’t matter what we were doing or where we were – just having all of us together under one roof was everything.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://iggythelawyer.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iggythelawyer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/igxtelle.mbahacha
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igxtelle-dopgima/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IgxtelleMbahAcha
