Speaker:

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.