Matt Hughes - King of Video: Hello.
Speaker:Welcome to YouTube Success.
Speaker:The podcast where we're talking about YouTube success.
Speaker:And once again, I've got somebody who's not necessarily fully focused on YouTube,
Speaker:but she is a speaker at TubeFest and with the previous speakers that you've heard
Speaker:from so far, I wanted to bring Sam in and just talk about a journey, really.
Speaker:And I think actually from a YouTube Success point of view, this is going
Speaker:to be really interesting from you if you're looking for financial
Speaker:freedom and work based freedom, all of that kind of good stuff.
Speaker:But the first thing we should do is the most awkward thing for most people,
Speaker:unless you're super prepped with this is ask Sam to introduce herself.
Speaker:Over to you.
Samantha Cameron:Thanks you for having me on the session and also,
Samantha Cameron:yeah, really excited about TubeFest.
Samantha Cameron:It is going to be an incredible event.
Samantha Cameron:So I'm Samantha, Samantha Cameron.
Samantha Cameron:People know me as Sam.
Samantha Cameron:I'm the social media alchemist and I help businesses turn their content into gold.
Samantha Cameron:I'm a social media expert, social media psychologist and strategist.
Samantha Cameron:And what I do is I help businesses, entrepreneurs, people that are using
Samantha Cameron:the online space to build their business to actually look at selling
Samantha Cameron:and social media strategies to be more consistent and visible so that they
Samantha Cameron:can build the business that will give them that flexibility to work when
Samantha Cameron:they want to work, earn the income that they want to earn, and also
Samantha Cameron:choose who they want to work with.
Samantha Cameron:And, and that's what this is all about.
Samantha Cameron:This is why we work for ourselves, isn't it?
Samantha Cameron:This is why we quit the corporate role or that, you know, that really slog
Samantha Cameron:of the rat race to work for ourselves because we want something better.
Samantha Cameron:Um, and that's what I help businesses do.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Perfect.
Samantha Cameron:And I really want you to pay attention to that.
Samantha Cameron:If you're somebody that's just getting started in your YouTube journey and
Samantha Cameron:you're thinking, is it something that's possible for me to leave my corporate job?
Samantha Cameron:Maybe you're a part time YouTuber, something like that.
Samantha Cameron:This session is going to be really important.
Samantha Cameron:And I think, but I'll kind of preface it with just remember that we're a
Samantha Cameron:little bit further ahead than you.
Samantha Cameron:And so when Sam describes it, it takes a bit of time, takes a bit of strategic
Samantha Cameron:thinking, and we'll come to all of that as we talk about this stuff, I'm sure.
Samantha Cameron:So Sam, I guess whilst I'm talking about the time it takes, why don't
Samantha Cameron:we go back to where you were before?
Samantha Cameron:So what is it you started out doing?
Samantha Cameron:Where was you when you decided to make this leap..
Samantha Cameron:Oh my god.
Samantha Cameron:Okay, so I've been doing this for over 8 years now.
Samantha Cameron:So in the social media world, I'm a bit of a dinosaur.
Samantha Cameron:But, you know, it doesn't mean that I don't know what's happening, and what's
Samantha Cameron:going on in the social media world.
Samantha Cameron:How my journey kind of started out, so I had my own, I'm a mum of five,
Samantha Cameron:got five children, and I worked in the corporate world, very, very, you
Samantha Cameron:know, long hours, travelling, and 13 years ago decided that we would, after
Samantha Cameron:having a break from our older three, we would start having children again.
Samantha Cameron:So it was very, we had two small children together, very difficult
Samantha Cameron:to continue doing my corporate role.
Samantha Cameron:So I left, I was actually made redundant, which was really handy.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: What was the corporate role?
Samantha Cameron:What were you doing?
Samantha Cameron:A large bank, and I was an account relationship manager,
Samantha Cameron:so I was doing a lot of traveling.
Samantha Cameron:I was traveling all over the country, which is really difficult
Samantha Cameron:when you've got two small children that over a year, there's a year
Samantha Cameron:age gap between the two of them.
Samantha Cameron:So we made this decision that when redundancies came up, which they often
Samantha Cameron:did back then in the banks, and still does now, I don't think, I mean, a
Samantha Cameron:lot of people say to me, Oh, you know, running your own business is a bit risky.
Samantha Cameron:I think actually having a job these days is even more risky.
Samantha Cameron:At least if you've got your own business, you're in control of what happens.
Samantha Cameron:So I took the redundancy, but I've always been independent.
Samantha Cameron:I've worked since I was 16, you know, I had my own house
Samantha Cameron:and mortgage at the age of 18.
Samantha Cameron:So I've always had money.
Samantha Cameron:I've always been independent and I wanted to do something, but I wanted
Samantha Cameron:to be able to be at home with the two smaller ones, but then be there at home
Samantha Cameron:so that when the older ones came home,
Samantha Cameron:I could be around.
Samantha Cameron:So I qualified as a childminder and it, you know, I got a couple of, I
Samantha Cameron:got a family that had two children themselves, started looking after them.
Samantha Cameron:But me being me, I've always been an entrepreneur.
Samantha Cameron:My dad always said to me as a, you know, as a kid, I could sell ice to an Eskimo.
Samantha Cameron:I've always been an entrepreneur and I've, you know, I had like three jobs
Samantha Cameron:at one point and it's, it was like, actually, how can we make this bigger?
Samantha Cameron:And within 3 months, we turned my little child mind in business from two
Samantha Cameron:children to 48 children on the books.
Samantha Cameron:We turned the whole downstairs of our house into like a nursery.
Samantha Cameron:I had two staff members working for me as well.
Samantha Cameron:And it was great.
Samantha Cameron:It was brilliant, you know, it was having this business and the dream
Samantha Cameron:was to then find premises to really take it to the next level with a big
Samantha Cameron:massive nursery and after school care.
Samantha Cameron:But what happened was I was finding that my children were starting to get
Samantha Cameron:neglected because I would be, you know, playing with another child or looking
Samantha Cameron:after another child and I couldn't sort out my own, and I think the day that
Samantha Cameron:reality hit was when I couldn't actually take my kids to the dentist because
Samantha Cameron:they were like, oh no, our appointments are 9 to 5, or school holidays.
Samantha Cameron:And it's like, but I'm working constantly.
Samantha Cameron:I can't leave the children that I'm looking after to take my
Samantha Cameron:own children to the dentist.
Samantha Cameron:And it was, it started to really take its toll on me, the family and the house.
Samantha Cameron:So 6 months before all of this, I'd been introduced to network marketing when
Samantha Cameron:network marketing was at its high, massive high, and I thought, you know what?
Samantha Cameron:This is an opportunity for me to earn a bit of extra money.
Samantha Cameron:Maybe I can reduce what I'm doing with the child minding.
Samantha Cameron:And it would be a nice little side hustle.
Samantha Cameron:So I started doing that and then within 3 months of the network marketing,
Samantha Cameron:I'd made manager position, which normally takes people around 2 years.
Samantha Cameron:And I've done it all, I did it all through social media because having the
Samantha Cameron:two small children and actually having a full time business, I couldn't go out
Samantha Cameron:and do what was traditional with network marketing, which was basically going to
Samantha Cameron:people's houses, doing parties, speaking to people in the street, going to, you
Samantha Cameron:know, to networking, that kind of thing.
Samantha Cameron:I just couldn't do it.
Samantha Cameron:So I started building my network business within social media.
Samantha Cameron:Then because of the success I had, head office said, would you mind coming
Samantha Cameron:and do some social media training just to show others how it's done?
Samantha Cameron:Yep, not a problem.
Samantha Cameron:Started doing that.
Samantha Cameron:Then other network marketing companies heard and were like, Could
Samantha Cameron:you come and do training for us?
Samantha Cameron:Would you mind doing it for us?
Samantha Cameron:Yeah, not a problem.
Samantha Cameron:So the company that I worked for, the head office knew what I was
Samantha Cameron:doing and they were fine with it.
Samantha Cameron:But unfortunately, the people at the top within the network marketing,
Samantha Cameron:unfortunately, you know, they think that they can do whatever they want, weren't
Samantha Cameron:happy, put a complaint in with head office and said that I needed to stop.
Samantha Cameron:And it was like, hold on a minute, I'm a grown woman, I pay my own
Samantha Cameron:bills, I shouldn't be, no one should dictate to me what I do.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: You're kind of independent, aren't you?
Samantha Cameron:It's sold as like an independent run business, but actually the
Samantha Cameron:hierarchy of corporate still exists.
Samantha Cameron:It was this witch hunt and it was awful.
Samantha Cameron:So I spoke to head office and said, look, well, head office gave me an ultimatum.
Samantha Cameron:You either, you know, stop doing the social media training or,
Samantha Cameron:you know, you need to, you know, you're going to lose your business.
Samantha Cameron:So I made the decision to walk away.
Samantha Cameron:I love the business that, I love the products that the business do.
Samantha Cameron:I still use the products and I still have my managers discount, which is great.
Samantha Cameron:But then what happened was I then became a freelancer for all the
Samantha Cameron:other network marketing companies and was doing the training for them.
Samantha Cameron:And then my husband said to me, look, if you're doing it for them, why
Samantha Cameron:don't you do it for other people?
Samantha Cameron:But I had this mindset of, no, that's my comfort zone.
Samantha Cameron:I can't do, I can only do that for these people.
Samantha Cameron:I can't go out and do it for Joe Bloggs, who's a plumber, or that big
Samantha Cameron:company, you know, computer company.
Samantha Cameron:No way.
Samantha Cameron:This is my comfort zone.
Samantha Cameron:This is what I know.
Samantha Cameron:So I bit the bullet and I went to a networking event that I, because I used
Samantha Cameron:to network quite a lot when I was working in corporate and then I did a little bit
Samantha Cameron:networking with my, you know, when I was in the network marketing business and I
Samantha Cameron:went along and explained what I was doing and it was incredible because people
Samantha Cameron:were like, well, do you do training?
Samantha Cameron:Yeah, I can do training.
Samantha Cameron:Do you do social media management?
Samantha Cameron:Well, I do my own so I could do it for other people and within 2 months,
Samantha Cameron:I had 30 clients, where I was doing social media management for them.
Samantha Cameron:And oh my god, that was burnout.
Samantha Cameron:Massive burnout.
Samantha Cameron:And I was charging pittance.
Samantha Cameron:I was working all hours.
Samantha Cameron:And I was like, I can't do this, can't maintain this.
Samantha Cameron:It's just not healthy.
Samantha Cameron:So we went away over Christmas and New Year and I decided to put my prices
Samantha Cameron:up, emailed all my clients and said to them from the 1st of February,
Samantha Cameron:these are going to be my prices.
Samantha Cameron:Thank you for being with me at the start, but I'm now have a,
Samantha Cameron:you know, I have a proper agency.
Samantha Cameron:This is what the prices are going to be and..
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: When was that?
Samantha Cameron:8 years ago.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: When was that?
Samantha Cameron:Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: So it's eight years ago today, actually.
Samantha Cameron:Cause at the time of recording, it's the 1st of February.
Samantha Cameron:That's amazing.
Samantha Cameron:What happened was out of those 30 clients, 10 stayed,
Samantha Cameron:the rest left, which I knew that's what would happen, because I knew that
Samantha Cameron:there were people that would value me and know that what they were going to
Samantha Cameron:pay going forward would be of value.
Samantha Cameron:So that's how,
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Do you remember what, just, sorry to
Samantha Cameron:interrupt you, but just do you remember what you were charging before and.
Samantha Cameron:Oh my god, so this is really going to scare you.
Samantha Cameron:So for social media management, for doing a post every single day to one
Samantha Cameron:platform, I was charging £99 a month.
Samantha Cameron:And I put, and I put the prices up to £250.
Samantha Cameron:We now charge £400 a month for one platform, and for a post every single day.
Samantha Cameron:So we have, you know, we've kind of scaled, but it was, in
Samantha Cameron:a way, it was, I had no mentor.
Samantha Cameron:I had nobody telling me, this is what I needed to do.
Samantha Cameron:So it was figure it, go on Sam, you've got to figure this out yourself.
Samantha Cameron:So it was a really interesting one.
Samantha Cameron:And then I started doing a lot of training.
Samantha Cameron:A lot of the stuff I did from a training element, I did for free in the
Samantha Cameron:first kind of 6 months of that year.
Samantha Cameron:I remember running a training.
Samantha Cameron:There was a solicitors in Milton Keynes for new businesses because I
Samantha Cameron:applied for grants and startups and everything else to help me get going.
Samantha Cameron:And one of the things I could do is I could use the function
Samantha Cameron:room of a solicitors in Milton Keynes, which was great.
Samantha Cameron:So I ran all my trainings there and my trainings for 6 months were free.
Samantha Cameron:And I would have 100 people in on these trainings at any one time.
Samantha Cameron:But I do feel that that was the foundation to getting my name out
Samantha Cameron:there, to building up my pipeline.
Samantha Cameron:And it's kind of, I then started doing things in the right way because
Samantha Cameron:then my trainings became paid for.
Samantha Cameron:Anytime I worked for somebody, I would charge.
Samantha Cameron:I started to learn my worth and my value.
Samantha Cameron:And that's
Samantha Cameron:important what we need to do.
Samantha Cameron:So yeah, so moving forward, now 8 years, I have my yeah
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Can I just, can I just dig in?
Samantha Cameron:Can I dig in?
Samantha Cameron:Sorry again to interrupt you because I'm finding this fascinating.
Samantha Cameron:I just want to dig into some of this stuff because I was writing
Samantha Cameron:it down as you're talking about it.
Samantha Cameron:And I think this is really important because you're flying through this stuff
Samantha Cameron:and there's so many important things here.
Samantha Cameron:Like even going back to the child money thing, like in a small period of time
Samantha Cameron:you've gone from a couple of clients to 48 or whatever the numbers that you
Samantha Cameron:said exactly, which is huge, right?
Samantha Cameron:And then you went into the network marketing and you took something
Samantha Cameron:that should have taken a long time.
Samantha Cameron:You did it in a quick time.
Samantha Cameron:So you're obviously very self-motivated, very driven to get the results
Samantha Cameron:that you're trying to get to.
Samantha Cameron:And I think part of the, we shouldn't ignore that because you
Samantha Cameron:say it so almost passively and blasé, but actually that's huge.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah, yeah, it's blasé.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah, but it's huge, right?
Samantha Cameron:Because you, you need that actually when you're starting, when you, and I
Samantha Cameron:would wonder, and I will come back to this question in a second but I wonder
Samantha Cameron:what was your main driver at that point.
Samantha Cameron:But I just want to come to these numbers before I asked you that question.
Samantha Cameron:So you went from £99 for 30 posts, 30, 31 posts, you know what I mean, a
Samantha Cameron:monthly, a daily post for a month, right?
Samantha Cameron:And was it, did you do it
Samantha Cameron:We, I would do a week at a time, so I had 30, like, 30 clients.
Samantha Cameron:Oh
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: it 7 days or did you just do it working
Samantha Cameron:like doing like 7, 8 clients a day.
Samantha Cameron:Ridiculous, I was working ridiculous hours.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: So at that point, so I worked it out.
Samantha Cameron:You had 30 clients charging a hundred pound.
Samantha Cameron:You were about three grand and then you upped that to £250, you said, right?
Samantha Cameron:And you went to 10 clients and you were getting two and a half grand.
Samantha Cameron:So you shared 20 clients of work that must've been killing you at that point
Samantha Cameron:to do 10 and you only were £500 less.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: It's £3 a post up to £13 a post, like that's
Samantha Cameron:a huge lesson in itself about, you said about knowing your value and
Samantha Cameron:you know taking that, I'm so overwhelmed because a lot of people
Samantha Cameron:as well when I speak to them and I say, oh you should do YouTube.
Samantha Cameron:They say I'm just so overwhelmed.
Samantha Cameron:How can I add this over platform into what I'm already doing?
Samantha Cameron:I'm already so busy.
Samantha Cameron:I'm already doing all the things.
Samantha Cameron:And it's like, well, actually, if you just re-evaluated why you're so busy in what
Samantha Cameron:you're doing, perhaps the price increases the thing that you should be doing.
Samantha Cameron:That's the thing you should consider.
Samantha Cameron:And you've proven that, that you've cut down your work by
Samantha Cameron:a third or two thirds, sorry.
Samantha Cameron:And you've about at the same amount of income.
Samantha Cameron:That's..
Samantha Cameron:If anything, the income drop because the time that I
Samantha Cameron:had back, it enabled me to then go and do 1-to-1 training with clients.
Samantha Cameron:And I think at the time, I was like, at that time I was doing, I would do a
Samantha Cameron:2-hour training session for like £149.
Samantha Cameron:So I would have one of those a week.
Samantha Cameron:So actually I was working less hours.
Samantha Cameron:I had nicer clients.
Samantha Cameron:I had less clients.
Samantha Cameron:I had more free time.
Samantha Cameron:And I was earning around the same kind of income.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: So, and also, you know, when you started and you
Samantha Cameron:got those 30 clients, as much as that was difficult, actually, I would imagine
Samantha Cameron:that the pressure of all of that probably made you far more efficient than a lot
Samantha Cameron:of people that maybe go straight away and get the high ticket clients because
Samantha Cameron:you were forced to be more efficient.
Samantha Cameron:And so you were forced to find the ways and the strategic ways to do these things.
Samantha Cameron:So then, yeah, it must've been a dream then moving to 10 in that way.
Samantha Cameron:So yeah, I want to dig into that.
Samantha Cameron:We'll come back to what happened after that, but I want to dig into the driver
Samantha Cameron:of all of this because you said you were made redundant, you've got two young kids.
Samantha Cameron:What do you think?
Samantha Cameron:And you said also that your dad said you could sell ice to Eskimos.
Samantha Cameron:Do you think you've always been driven then as a kid?
Samantha Cameron:Because there's a lot to be said from like somebody saying you can do something as
Samantha Cameron:a parent, you know, you always think that your kids can do everything, don't you?
Samantha Cameron:And you want them to be able to do everything, to actually
Samantha Cameron:go in and living up to that.
Samantha Cameron:So what do you think was..
Samantha Cameron:I think for me, it was always, I always wanted
Samantha Cameron:to have the nice things in life.
Samantha Cameron:So, you know, as soon as I turned 18, it was like, I'm buying my own house.
Samantha Cameron:And that's what I did.
Samantha Cameron:As soon as I turned 18, I knew I could get a mortgage.
Samantha Cameron:It was like, right, what does my deposit need to be?
Samantha Cameron:And I remember my deposit was £2,303 for my first house.
Samantha Cameron:I mean, God, you wouldn't even be able to buy a car for that these days.
Samantha Cameron:I was like, right, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to make sure I've got that money.
Samantha Cameron:So I was working as an estate agent at the time.
Samantha Cameron:And then I went, I went and found a job in a pub.
Samantha Cameron:Um, and it was like, right, I'm going to work the hour, I'm going to work in the
Samantha Cameron:estate agents during the day, I lived at home, and then in the evening, I'd
Samantha Cameron:work in the pub, and it was that drive to go, right, I need to get that money.
Samantha Cameron:But then, my mortgage, I bought my first house for £32,000.
Samantha Cameron:And it was like, right, I've got a mortgage to pay now.
Samantha Cameron:I only pay my parents five quid a week rent.
Samantha Cameron:I've now got to pay a mortgage.
Samantha Cameron:I've got nothing to put in my house.
Samantha Cameron:So I had to buy furniture.
Samantha Cameron:So it was this drive to actually have that independence, to have that house.
Samantha Cameron:And that's what I've always, always kind of strived for.
Samantha Cameron:And it's, I think it's, I think money is a great motivator, but
Samantha Cameron:it's also having the nice, it's being able to have those choices.
Samantha Cameron:And I'm not saying money brings you happiness, because I don't think it is,
Samantha Cameron:it isn't the whole thing for happiness, but what it does give you, it does
Samantha Cameron:give you those options to decide.
Samantha Cameron:Okay, do we want to go away this weekend?
Samantha Cameron:Yes, we can, because we've got the money to do it.
Samantha Cameron:And, or do we want to go out for a meal, or should we order a takeaway tonight, or
Samantha Cameron:shall we move, or should we buy a new car, or should we go on holiday, or shall we
Samantha Cameron:give back and do something for charity, or, you know, and things like that.
Samantha Cameron:So, I think having money is a, or money is a great motivator, and it
Samantha Cameron:is for me, but also has that sense of achieving, and I'm now, I think my
Samantha Cameron:motivator now, like where I'm taking the business moving forward, it's not
Samantha Cameron:just about me, it's about what, how I can do that for other people as well.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:It's really funny when you say like,
Samantha Cameron:I wouldn't say money buys you happiness.
Samantha Cameron:I don't know where that comes from, whether it was a film or whether
Samantha Cameron:it's a line in a book or something, but like, I just don't buy that.
Samantha Cameron:Like for me, I'm finding it financially driven and I'm far
Samantha Cameron:happier when I've got money.
Samantha Cameron:Like I make no bones about that but money makes me feel more safe.
Samantha Cameron:It makes me feel like I can go and do the things I want.
Samantha Cameron:All the things you've described, like, would I prefer to eat at McDonald's
Samantha Cameron:or go to a five star restaurant, Michelin restaurant or whatever?
Samantha Cameron:I know which one I choose.
Samantha Cameron:Sometimes you want to McDonald's, but sometimes you want to eat, you know,
Samantha Cameron:and have a gourmet meal or whatever.
Samantha Cameron:I just, I don't know why people seem to be so negative about money.
Samantha Cameron:And I think there's a, the saying money is the root of all evil.
Samantha Cameron:And again, I just think that's, it's probably a control thing from people
Samantha Cameron:that have money to try and control the people that, that want the money to
Samantha Cameron:make it sound like it's a bad thing, but
Samantha Cameron:it's not.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: thing at all.
Samantha Cameron:I think it's just having that balance to understand
Samantha Cameron:that not everybody has money and there are people, you know, and I
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: yeah, yeah, totally.
Samantha Cameron:having, it's not going around swanning around saying
Samantha Cameron:that this is, you know, you do, but we all have lives and we shouldn't have
Samantha Cameron:to justify what we do in our lives just because somebody, somebody can't,
Samantha Cameron:because we all have choices and it's the choices that we make, isn't it?
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: And actually, although I'd imagine the job that you took
Samantha Cameron:redundancy from, the account manager job was a reasonably well paid job, probably
Samantha Cameron:not when you consider it now to what you're doing now as your own business.
Samantha Cameron:But, you still then have to fill that hole, don't you, when you've not got that.
Samantha Cameron:And again, I see like,
Samantha Cameron:No, and that's, that was a difficult situation because you're
Samantha Cameron:kind of, you've got two wages coming in.
Samantha Cameron:No, two good wages because my husband worked at the same company, so
Samantha Cameron:we've got two good wages coming in.
Samantha Cameron:And then all of a sudden you have these two kids and go, well I don't
Samantha Cameron:really want to go back to work.
Samantha Cameron:And he's like, I've now got to pay all the bills.
Samantha Cameron:I can't do that, Sam, because, you know, we're not going to have the holidays,
Samantha Cameron:and we can't have the nice things.
Samantha Cameron:And we did, you know, we had to move house because we couldn't fit five kids
Samantha Cameron:in the three bedroom house that we had.
Samantha Cameron:Well, three straight four bedroom house, so we had to move.
Samantha Cameron:And we moved to a seven bedroom house.
Samantha Cameron:So we had, we went from a mortgage to a mortgage and then I decide to leave
Samantha Cameron:work and it's like, you know, putting that pressure on my husband was just
Samantha Cameron:incredible and that was the other motivation because it was this thing
Samantha Cameron:of, I never wanted to be a kept person.
Samantha Cameron:I wanted to continue paying my way.
Samantha Cameron:I wanted to continue,
Samantha Cameron:you know, still paying my half of the bills and everything.
Samantha Cameron:So it was right.
Samantha Cameron:It was about how do I make that work?
Samantha Cameron:How do we make it work?
Samantha Cameron:We actually went down to one car at one point because we didn't need, and it was
Samantha Cameron:because we didn't need two cars anymore.
Samantha Cameron:And you do, you'd look and say, okay, where can you cut back, and what
Samantha Cameron:makes life more flexible for you, not from, you know, even financially.
Samantha Cameron:So, yeah, there is that motivation as well of where you,
Samantha Cameron:you know, of bringing that in.
Samantha Cameron:And it's always been the same.
Samantha Cameron:It's a 50, our relationship is very 50 50.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:And, and I think we're very fortunate.
Samantha Cameron:I know we talk about money in that way and we're very fortunate to be
Samantha Cameron:in the UK and, and what benefit that we have in the UK is that making
Samantha Cameron:money is a straightforward thing.
Samantha Cameron:People make it out to not be a straightforward thing, but you proved it.
Samantha Cameron:You had 30 clients, a hundred pounds, and that gave you a good amount of
Samantha Cameron:money, arguably not valuing what you should have been valuing at the time,
Samantha Cameron:but you realise that and move, you know, change the goalposts a bit, but
Samantha Cameron:actually the fact that you were able to, in this society, start a business,
Samantha Cameron:charge an amount of money and find 30 people that would give you that
Samantha Cameron:means that it is available to you.
Samantha Cameron:I think the hardest thing probably is being in this mindset that you go to work
Samantha Cameron:and someone else pays you wages and then all of a sudden going, I've got to go
Samantha Cameron:and find these people to pay my wages.
Samantha Cameron:It's a very different way of thinking.
Samantha Cameron:Okay.
Samantha Cameron:So you've done that, so good.
Samantha Cameron:took a major tangent into that.
Samantha Cameron:I think it's so important though, these conversations.
Samantha Cameron:So you, you did that, you moved to these 10 clients.
Samantha Cameron:Then what, how have you got that from there to then the agency that,
Samantha Cameron:So I've got
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: are working
Samantha Cameron:in the team that work within the agency.
Samantha Cameron:So when I, so I got to a point within the business that actually I realised
Samantha Cameron:that my passion was the kind of social media coaching and training.
Samantha Cameron:But then when we go back about 5 years ago, I start, because I started having a
Samantha Cameron:really successful social media agency and a social media business, I started having
Samantha Cameron:other social media managers, specialists come to me and saying, you know, Sam,
Samantha Cameron:I'm really struggling to get clients.
Samantha Cameron:Do you offer mentoring?
Samantha Cameron:And it was like, yeah, I can do that.
Samantha Cameron:I can show you how I've grown my business and what you should be doing
Samantha Cameron:and what you shouldn't be doing, learning from all of my mistakes.
Samantha Cameron:So I started doing that on a 1-to-1 basis and then COVID hit.
Samantha Cameron:I was mega busy during the first part of COVID because all of these
Samantha Cameron:business realised that they had to go online but didn't know how to do it.
Samantha Cameron:So I literally had to stop doing everything I was doing because I was kind
Samantha Cameron:of helping all of these business and I had to, I hate using the word, but I had
Samantha Cameron:to pivot what I was doing and there was this big panic of, Oh my God, I'm going
Samantha Cameron:to lose all my social media management clients because COVID, you know, as
Samantha Cameron:soon as COVID hit, we thought that the world was financially going to end.
Samantha Cameron:And I thought all my clients would leave because it would affect their business.
Samantha Cameron:We only lost, I only lost one social media management client.
Samantha Cameron:And at the time, I think I had about 8 to 9 clients that I
Samantha Cameron:was doing the management for.
Samantha Cameron:But because I started getting really busy, it was this juggling act of
Samantha Cameron:helping businesses turn online, still doing the mentoring, still doing the
Samantha Cameron:training and the social media management.
Samantha Cameron:So what I decided to do was set up the Social Media Academy, which is
Samantha Cameron:a credited, certified program now that not just mentors, social media
Samantha Cameron:managers and specialists, but also takes somebody from having no social media
Samantha Cameron:knowledge or experience, to becoming a qualified social media specialist.
Samantha Cameron:And the idea around that, when I started that four years ago, because
Samantha Cameron:it was in COVID that I started it, was everybody that came through the programme
Samantha Cameron:would be given an opportunity to then become a specialist within my agency.
Samantha Cameron:And that's how it's kind of grown.
Samantha Cameron:It's kind of been this chicken and egg situation, you know.
Samantha Cameron:I see gems that come through my academy and go, you would
Samantha Cameron:be amazing working for me.
Samantha Cameron:Do you want to come and work for me?
Samantha Cameron:Exactly.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:And then getting the client.
Samantha Cameron:And then what I did, the clients I was looking after, I transitioned
Samantha Cameron:over to them because I kind of fell out of love of doing the social media
Samantha Cameron:management because I fell in love with doing the mentoring and the coaching.
Samantha Cameron:And then it just got to a point where we were getting more inquiries and
Samantha Cameron:then having to take more people on.
Samantha Cameron:And then when we kind of look at today, we've got, yeah, eight in the
Samantha Cameron:team that all look after different social media clients on a daily basis.
Samantha Cameron:And that's what I love.
Samantha Cameron:And then like with the Academy now that's kind of merging, I'm going to
Samantha Cameron:be building a foundation this year because the idea around it is I want
Samantha Cameron:the Academy to be a place where parents with special needs children or children
Samantha Cameron:with complex issues, those parents can't work, they can't have a full time job
Samantha Cameron:and they feel that they're not a person.
Samantha Cameron:They feel that they're just there for their child.
Samantha Cameron:So the idea around the academy and the foundation will be to give them the option
Samantha Cameron:to go, look, there is this option for you to have your own business or the option
Samantha Cameron:to come and work within my business.
Samantha Cameron:But I know that the money's tight.
Samantha Cameron:So what we will then do, we'll use the foundation to help fund the academy
Samantha Cameron:for those families that, you know, want to do it, but they financially can't.
Samantha Cameron:And then of course the academy's open to everybody else as well.
Samantha Cameron:So, because that part, the part where everyone pays for the academy,
Samantha Cameron:is going to fund the foundation.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Yeah, which is funny, right?
Samantha Cameron:Because you can only be altruistic in that way if you have your fees covered,
Samantha Cameron:you know, if you're being paid a good amount for what you do, you can then
Samantha Cameron:decide how can I distribute some of this wealth, whether you call it wealth
Samantha Cameron:or not, depending on where it's at.
Samantha Cameron:But you can just distribute them the money and decide that you can support
Samantha Cameron:other people in whichever way you see fit.
Samantha Cameron:And I think that's the other part of people say it's like just earning
Samantha Cameron:loads of money means you go and get a private jet or do whatever.
Samantha Cameron:And actually, a lot of the time when you get to that point, you sit and
Samantha Cameron:think, well, I know where I was.
Samantha Cameron:I know what I struggled with.
Samantha Cameron:I know how difficult it was for me to make that step.
Samantha Cameron:How can I help people?
Samantha Cameron:No, what I think is the best thing for them to do to go and
Samantha Cameron:start their own social media management agency or whatever,
Samantha Cameron:whatever it is they want, you know.
Samantha Cameron:So you said like you support people with special needs, additional
Samantha Cameron:needs, whatever you want to call it.
Samantha Cameron:How did it, was that, how did that come about?
Samantha Cameron:Why?
Samantha Cameron:Why did you choose that?
Samantha Cameron:I think it kind of happened naturally.
Samantha Cameron:So last year, the business had incredible, we tripled the
Samantha Cameron:business turnover last year.
Samantha Cameron:We had an incredible year last year, and the growth was absolutely outstanding.
Samantha Cameron:But for me, that's what I wanted to do.
Samantha Cameron:So if I take you back to 18 months ago, I, so I only came back, I had to take
Samantha Cameron:18 months out of my business and only actually came back into my business
Samantha Cameron:in September 2022, because my son, our fourth child Beau was became really,
Samantha Cameron:really poorly in October 2020 to the point that I became his full time carer.
Samantha Cameron:And I couldn't work, couldn't look after my clients.
Samantha Cameron:Thankfully, I did have, I had a couple of social media management clients that I
Samantha Cameron:was looking after that gave me that kind of income you know, just so I was kind of
Samantha Cameron:having something coming, but I had this 18 month gap where I was very, very backseat
Samantha Cameron:in my business, but because I built the foundations of having residual income,
Samantha Cameron:passive income, and also the people knowing exactly what I did and who I was,
Samantha Cameron:not only did it give me an income in those 18 months while I was off with Beau, it
Samantha Cameron:meant that when I came back in September,
Samantha Cameron:I didn't have to think to myself, I've now got to pick everything up.
Samantha Cameron:I came back and everybody knew what it was that I did.
Samantha Cameron:So I think that's why the growth last year was incredible, because
Samantha Cameron:I kind of knew what I wanted to do.
Samantha Cameron:I knew where I wanted to take the business.
Samantha Cameron:And it was like, nothing's stopping me now.
Samantha Cameron:We've got to go with this and what's the worst that can happen?
Samantha Cameron:And how it's kind of worked out.
Samantha Cameron:So Beau has, Beau's had special needs since he was two.
Samantha Cameron:And Beau goes to a special needs school.
Samantha Cameron:But when he was poorly, he was later diagnosed with a rare mental health
Samantha Cameron:condition called PAWS, which is Pervasive Arousal Withdrawal Syndrome.
Samantha Cameron:It's when a child suffers a trauma and the body, the subconscious part
Samantha Cameron:of the brain shuts the body down.
Samantha Cameron:So it stops them from walking, talking, eating and drinking independently and
Samantha Cameron:it shuts them away from the world.
Samantha Cameron:So we went from having a fun loving boy who loved his lego, loved playing
Samantha Cameron:on his playstation, his gaming, to watching TV programs, to playing jokes,
Samantha Cameron:to literally, in theory, being in a coma, where I would feed him, I'd
Samantha Cameron:have to bathe him, the whole works.
Samantha Cameron:And that was a massive shock, you know, not just for the
Samantha Cameron:family, but for everything.
Samantha Cameron:And we didn't know what the outcome was, because we were, when we got the
Samantha Cameron:diagnosis, we were told that recovery and rehab was 12 to 18 months, but
Samantha Cameron:we wouldn't get a bed in a mental health facility for at least a year.
Samantha Cameron:So we had this kind of thing of, well, Beau could be 14, 15 before
Samantha Cameron:he's even on the road to recovery.
Samantha Cameron:So I didn't at that time know what was going to happen with my business and
Samantha Cameron:the business was just put on hold, you know, I was earning 1500 quid a month
Samantha Cameron:and that was fine because that kind of meant that I could still be financially
Samantha Cameron:contributing to the household and that was fine for what we needed to.
Samantha Cameron:So when I came back into the business, it was like, right, Beau's back in school.
Samantha Cameron:Bo's now better because we spent six months in a rehab hospital.
Samantha Cameron:And it was like, come on, you've got to do this now.
Samantha Cameron:There's no COVID.
Samantha Cameron:Beau's not ill.
Samantha Cameron:Let's get going.
Samantha Cameron:And that's why, you know, I decided that we needed to, you know,
Samantha Cameron:really move the business over.
Samantha Cameron:And from March last year, up until the end of, we had this humongous growth.
Samantha Cameron:Absolutely incredible.
Samantha Cameron:I mean, I'm happy to share the figures if you want me to, but I was And
Samantha Cameron:that's because of the hard work.
Samantha Cameron:I had a plan, I knew what I wanted to do and I just started bringing team
Samantha Cameron:on because I do believe that if you want to grow your business, you need
Samantha Cameron:to have that team supporting you.
Samantha Cameron:You can't do it on your own.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah.
Samantha Cameron:I, and so what I'm hearing you say is, so it's partly that you had the personal
Samantha Cameron:issues go on that, that highlighted the need for this residual income, this,
Samantha Cameron:it allowed you to take a back seat, but keep things going enough that you, we're
Samantha Cameron:able to continue bringing an income in, which I think is why it's important,
Samantha Cameron:you know, bring it back to YouTube as a general thing, but really any kind
Samantha Cameron:of social media platform where you can bring an income in is having that
Samantha Cameron:residual income, knowing that it's going to come in regardless of what happens.
Samantha Cameron:I know that would have meant it slowed your growth down at that
Samantha Cameron:point, but again, you were able to then 18 months later, just go and
Samantha Cameron:pick it up again, which is brilliant.
Samantha Cameron:Okay, we're kind of running out of time and so, we don't need to know your
Samantha Cameron:numbers, although if anybody wants to speak to Sam, like me, she's very open.
Samantha Cameron:I'm sure she'd love to have a conversation with you about it.
Samantha Cameron:And of course, Sammy is at TubeFest, so you can come and hang
Samantha Cameron:out with us both on May the 23rd.
Samantha Cameron:Sam, can we just talk about your session quickly at TubeFest?
Samantha Cameron:What are you going to be talking about in that session?
Samantha Cameron:The session is called The Alchemy of Social Media Psychology.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah, so I'm going to be showing you and talking to you,
Samantha Cameron:or telling you, or talking to you, not telling you that, you know, I'm not
Samantha Cameron:going to tell you off, but I'm going to be sharing with you how, you know, you
Samantha Cameron:can implement social media psychology strategies and social media strategies
Samantha Cameron:into your kind of business to really help you get your content out there and
Samantha Cameron:make sure that your content is actually turned, you know, creating those sales,
Samantha Cameron:because so many businesses put content out there and it's just tumbleweed.
Samantha Cameron:It's not working.
Samantha Cameron:It's not getting engagement.
Samantha Cameron:It's not telling people what you're trying to achieve.
Samantha Cameron:It's not bringing the sales in and that's what I'm going to be doing.
Samantha Cameron:And I'm going to be sharing lots of tips and advice on how you can do that as well.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Wicked.
Samantha Cameron:And I think that's the thing that I think a lot of people miss is the, they
Samantha Cameron:do all the marketing and they do all the content that they put in together,
Samantha Cameron:but they're not making any money.
Samantha Cameron:And I'm like, how have you not got a call to action or moving an audience
Samantha Cameron:into an email list or something?
Samantha Cameron:This seems mad to me.
Samantha Cameron:And you've got to start thinking strategically, you know, you can generate
Samantha Cameron:this huge audience on these platforms, but you've got to actually do something.
Samantha Cameron:But if that's your driver, maybe it's not your driver and you just
Samantha Cameron:love the, you know, you're doing it for you as a passion project.
Samantha Cameron:But for most of us, I think financially, we need to be secure and hopefully what
Samantha Cameron:you're going to be sharing is going to help them with that kind of thing.
Samantha Cameron:Thanks so much, Sam.
Samantha Cameron:I really appreciate it.
Samantha Cameron:I could talk to you forever.
Samantha Cameron:I feel like your story is so fascinating.
Samantha Cameron:And definitely digging into those numbers and looking at how you've
Samantha Cameron:managed to do that in such a small, small amount of time is probably
Samantha Cameron:something we should do as a follow up.
Samantha Cameron:You're welcome.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Thanks so much for your time.
Samantha Cameron:Really appreciate it.
Samantha Cameron:Oh, I should..
Samantha Cameron:Oh, I'm everywhere.
Samantha Cameron:I'm on social media, so you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok.
Samantha Cameron:I do have a YouTube account, but I'm gonna be honest with you, I
Samantha Cameron:don't use it as I should be, but Matt's gonna change that for me.
Samantha Cameron:We are gonna
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: We're going to change that.
Samantha Cameron:Yeah Yeah, you can find me.
Samantha Cameron:It's Samantha Cameron.
Samantha Cameron:If you search Samantha Cameron's social on your internet browser, you'll find
Samantha Cameron:all my social media and my website.
Samantha Cameron:Welcome.
Samantha Cameron:Thanks for having me.
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Really appreciate it.
Samantha Cameron:Bye!
Samantha Cameron:Matt Hughes - King of Video: Bye bye.
Samantha Cameron:See you in May.