Samantha Smith: From First Female Stockbroker to FinnCap IPO CEO

Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:00) Sam the first female stockbroker of a City investment firm. Samantha Smith (00:04) my choir master actually, he was in the city and I said, I'll get your day's work experience in the commodity exchange. But as I walked in age 17, you know, my little suit, feeling all excited. they started barking, like literally dog barking as I walked in. I look back to that and think, my God, all had these little boxes with lots of pastry girls and naked pictures stuck up on the walls. Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:29) into a leading investment firm over 24 years leading it to IPO as the CEO. Samantha Smith (00:36) even though I've IPO'd a business, I say to people, I still have all these insecurities I was not good enough. don't value myself properly. know, should I be at the seat at this table? Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:45) What also really stood out to me is actually true inclusivity and culture drivers of both profit and growth for a company. Sam is now the co-founder of Super Scalers working hands-on with she is also a huge champion of underrepresented founders in the UK. Annie Wenmiao Yu (01:56) Sam, it's such a pleasure to have you on the Low to Grow podcast. Who do you want to be listening to our conversation today? Samantha Smith (02:03) So I think it's probably useful for any entrepreneur that's starting out, any entrepreneur that's scaling, any entrepreneur that wants to really super scale and probably particularly any entrepreneur that's feeling a bit stuck or needs a bit of encouragement and really wants to think a bit bigger. Annie Wenmiao Yu (02:18) how would you describe where your journey started? Samantha Smith (02:20) When it started, know, it my career journey, I'd done three years accountancy. So I was at KPMG for three years, studying to be a qualified charged accountant, which I got my exams and I left the day I qualified and I was going to go to a big corporate bank. And I decided that wasn't for me. Something happened and that, that made my decision. And I started working for a private wealth manager that just wanted to set up this new department to do corporate finance. And I was 24. Everyone thought I was mental. I thought it was worth taking the risk. I didn't even think it was a risk, to be honest. I thought it was a risk doing something I didn't want to do. And I set about working out how you set up a corporate finance department. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to do a corporate finance deal. I just learned. And gradually that decision meant we built that division out. We built it to something quite significant, to three million turnover. And then I bought that division out. became FinnCap eight years later and then built it to be the largest investment bank for growth companies in the UK. idea what I was doing at the start, no idea that I was an entrepreneur or no idea I was going to build something. It just happened by keep growing and keep getting to the next stage. And that was my 24 year history. Annie Wenmiao Yu (03:34) Wow, you make it sound so smooth, but I'm sure that there were a lot of challenges and also maneuvers that you had to do in there as well. Samantha Smith (03:36) Hahaha It's definitely not smooth. No, definitely not smooth. But I think all us entrepreneurs are extremely positive. So even when something is going really badly wrong, you sort of see the positives and actually I'm a great one for thinking whatever happened happened for a reason. got a great quote, which I love is, you know, you need one door to close before another one opens. And that's always my philosophy. When something's going really wrong, you're really, really, really struggling. that that's the opportunity that something else is about to happen. And if you keep that mindset, I think you see the things that are about to open and then you never look back. Annie Wenmiao Yu (04:18) I like that. It's similar to that saying of you have to leave something behind in order to welcome in something else. And I think that's very true. So for you then Sam, ⁓ early on in your career, was there one particular opportunity that you remembered losing or really feeling bad about losing, which then actually ushered in a new opportunity that set you on the track to do what you have been able to do and achieve. Samantha Smith (04:43) So losing, I I don't frame things like this in my head. So when I go back, think, God, what do we, you know, every single client loss, every time something went wrong, I would feel that very painfully. Every single member of staff that I lost, I would feel it very painfully. I'd try and fight for them. I think all those losses, you you feel it because building a business is in your DNA and it was very personal and I took everything very personally. And I think one of the lessons I learned when I had a very good chairman who would say, look, these things are going to happen. Loss and failure is what comes with growth. You have to lose to win. You can't just always be winning. And actually, you just learn to deal with the losses and they become smaller and you stick to the vision. And you just learn to accept that loss and failure and things not working is just part of know, growing forward. there's probably a few major things that have happened that are really my lowest points. But in terms of losses, don't see them like that. Annie Wenmiao Yu (05:47) Mm-hmm. I think that's a very positive mindset to have and also very true to a lot of entrepreneurs that I know as well. in those times when you were at your lowest, who did you lean on to get you through that? Samantha Smith (06:02) Okay, so, you know, the lowest point I think was one year in where I actually had a great maternity leave. You know, I, the beginning was like, this is amazing. My daughter's sleeping. I had a maternity nurse. I was working three quarters of the time. I was really, really happy and things were going very well. And the problem started for me when she was about six months old, when I was back in the office full time. feeling quite guilty about not doing the dinners that I was doing before, feeling like everyone expected me to be exactly the same CEO as before. So challenging that at the same time, at six months old, my daughter got very ill, went into hospital, lost a lot of her birth weight. And suddenly I didn't have a good sleeping baby. I'd lost all my support that I'd had during my maternity leave to mean I could work and have EFRA at home all the time. And suddenly I was like, we both got ill, both got a bad parasite illness. And I was sleeping probably two hours a night, looking after her, working. The whole thing became awful. And consistently my two hours a night turned into, you I was falling over in the road. I just couldn't function anymore. And I had to go to the doctor. So it's like, you have to be in bed for two weeks. So went off, went to bed for two weeks. Still was working because my brain was still working, but I had no energy to even walk down the stairs for two weeks because I was so tired. And I think what that tells you is, there's, are a few things going on. One is you feel so guilty. your life's completely turned around and you need to fit it into a new box. You've lost your whole identity. are coming to you from all angles. There's lots of things to process while you don't have any time to process it. So, I think the big thing for me and the thing I did then and then the learning I've taken ongoing is you need help. You you have to ask for help and I'm rubbish asking for help. So for me, I tried everything. I tried every single approach to alternative stuff, life coaches, yoga, everything. And the two things were transformational for me. One, I went to this amazing yoga teacher who did life coaching and yoga at the same time. And I can't even quite explain it. And she tried to think about how you train your thoughts. And this was at the point where I was thinking the only way out is to sell the business because I can't do this. I can't do this any longer. the end of one hour and I only went to see her for the first time the hour before the end of the hour. She said, okay. I managed to get my brain sort of slightly calmer to say, do you want to sell your business? And I instantly went no. She said, okay. So everything else is noise. brain, when you're overwhelmed, your brain is sending you thoughts that are super unhelpful. your answer's no, anything else that comes into your head that's like, can I do this? Can I sell the business? what am going to do if I sell the business? What happens? you're in that state. She managed to just close that thought of, do I want to sell the business? No, I don't. Okay. So how do I solve my problem? And Annie Wenmiao Yu (08:58) Mm-hmm. Samantha Smith (09:09) almost instantly all the noise to do with what happens if I have to sell the business was gone. So that was one thing, like calming your brain down. Then I went to see Geeta, who's now my coach and has been since then, like 10 years ago. And I actually went to see her about something completely different. And what we realized at the end of this was, okay, you don't want to sell the business and you don't need to go on a weight loss feel better. What you need is Annie Wenmiao Yu (09:25) Mm-hmm. Samantha Smith (09:37) how are you going to function well, building a business, being a mum and not driving yourself into the ground? And I remember at the end of the hour with her, she promised me, she said, look, I will, if you're on this coaching program, I will help you work less hours, but you'll be more productive and you'll make more money. And I thought very unlikely, Geeta, but you know, if I feel a little bit better, I'll give it a go. And a year later, honestly, I was working less hours, but I was achieving more. I was more strategic. I was more productive. I was happier. And I just did not believe that was possible. So I think for me, it's finding what works for you, but it has to be someone else supporting you. Coaches, I think, are amazing. I think other alternative forms of help. Annie Wenmiao Yu (10:11) Hmm. Samantha Smith (10:31) and support to help you through it, which can be ongoing or one off are massively important. And then once you're through the really tough times and realizing that they're always going to come, they're always going to be those times when your brain is telling you, no, no, no, you can't do it. You've got to fight those thoughts, get the clarity and then build in a schedule where you can always find that clarity and space. So when my thinking goes off, it's because I'm too overwhelmed. I'm too stressed, I'm too busy and I've got no clarity of thought. So then I lose all sense of what I'm doing. get back to that focus of, okay, what's right, what's wrong? Should I be here? Should I not? Should I ask for this? Should I do not do this? Am I going the right direction? I have to find the moments of clarity. And through that next two years, I found what worked for me for clarity. And that's not the same for everybody, but Annie Wenmiao Yu (11:27) Yeah. Samantha Smith (11:28) I found where I find calmness. I found the things that trigger me to go into this cycle of overwhelm. I started to learn when the triggers are hitting. And I've got some funny stories about how I notice when that's happening now, but I now do notice and I then get the support and help when I know that I'm going down that process or when something's gonna get tough and I ask for the help. Annie Wenmiao Yu (11:57) thank you very much for sharing that. you were the first female CEO of a city stock breaking firm. And I believe from some of my peers who are working in corporate finance or in the city at the moment, that there's still a gender parity to be reached. How would you say that that has evolved over the course of your career? Samantha Smith (12:17) Well, if you think about when I started, you know, God in the early days, so when I first did my work experience, which is when I got hooked on the city, I was 17 I went to a state school, so you have no contacts and I managed to find someone who was my choir master actually, I was in the choir and he was in the city and I said, I'll get your day's work experience in the commodity exchange. So I went up to see him, went across to the commodity exchange and you know, I thought it was amazing. But as I walked in age 17, you know, my little suit, feeling all excited. I walked into everything. It was open out quite then. So everyone's shouting prices everywhere. There was one woman in the whole place. Everyone else was male. They all had these little boxes with lots of pastry girls and naked pictures stuck up on the walls. And as I walked in, they started barking, like literally like a dog barking as I walked in. I look back to that and think, my God, so much has changed since then. That would not happen. But then, back then, did it put me off? No. Did I think it was a bit odd? Not really. I think I just thought, God, this is fine. How do I make the most of this? were very nice people. You just have had to get on with it and join in and join in the fun and and... almost be part of the boys club. That's how it was back then. So if I think that's how it started, God, you know, how, how has it moved on it massively, massively. But then I look at other things where I look at how power runs right at top level, how governments run, how regulate it, where, decisions are made, that is still predominantly done by white men. you know, generally from a privileged background. So there is a lot of work to do where power lies, where all the decisions are made in terms of getting more representation across the board from particularly, you know, I went to state school, particularly from state school backgrounds, particularly for women, particularly just different ways of thinking. So you avoid this group think. And I think banking and financial services is one of the sectors that has moved on least into more less group think. So I think they do lots of things, but they pay lip service to a lot of it. And I don't see serious change in leadership around culture, where culture is really driving what I think is important to avoid group think. Annie Wenmiao Yu (14:55) Hmm. And picking on the point that you mentioned about culture. When I was doing some research into you and also your achievements, what really struck out to me was actually you mentioning that it was inclusive culture and staff ownership that really were the drivers of FinnCap's success. as someone who led that company as a CEO, what does inclusive culture actually look like in practice when a business is scaling quite fast and also under a lot of pressure? Samantha Smith (15:23) So for us, when we started, so you know, those early days when I was building, it was just me and a small team. So we didn't think about culture. We were just doing it in the way we wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it differently. When we did the buyout, by that point we were 3 million turnover and we had about 25 staff. So at that point we were separate. We called ourselves FinnCap. We had a separate identity. I became CEO. So I went from running a team to running the whole thing, being the CEO. And then you start thinking, okay, right, well, how, how is this actually working now? This, you know, culture thing. And back 20 years ago, when we did that culture wasn't a word. wasn't, it wasn't something people were used to. They didn't talk about it. There were no culture consultants. There weren't books on culture. There was a nothing. So we didn't use the word culture. We would just talk about, work, valuing people, how we wanted to structure, you know, how decisions are made, how we wanted ownership to work, how we wanted openness to feel. what was really great about that is you didn't have to write, right, what's our culture? Let's write it down. It wasn't like that. So we just started to do what felt absolutely right, which was, well, if you've got the happiest people in your team, if they love coming to work, if they love what they do, if they're driven by something more than money, So they're driven by helping these companies grow. Our strat line was helping ambitious companies grow. So we wanted people who cared about the businesses that they saw when they raised money for them, they're actually creating employment, they're creating tax revenue, they're creating jobs. It's a really important thing to do. You're helping society. we just looked at it completely from a different way. We would just want people to be happy. Happy staff means they're more productive. They join the vision, they're included in the vision. So everything that I worked on for the next 20 years was how can I make people the happiest they can be at work? And how can I use that to help the companies that we want to advise grow? And that resulted in profits. just morphed into something that I now call inclusive culture, but it was just around what we felt was right, how we should treat people. And our goal was to be a different sort of bank. We wanted to be an investment bank that treated people well, that listened to people, that didn't hire a fire, that wasn't full of testosterone, where people came to work because they cared about something more than money. And that's where it came from. And that's why I think culture comes from the top. And it comes from Annie Wenmiao Yu (17:55) Thanks. Samantha Smith (18:08) someone's belief in how they want to work. And if you start writing down too much and you're focused on the detail, you lose the heart of what you're trying to create. Annie Wenmiao Yu (18:18) love that. Thank you for sharing. on the morning of the IPO of FinnCap, what was going through your mind? IPO that was actually linked an acquisition company. So I feel like there must have been a lot going on in the background. And I'm really curious to understand how you felt on that day. Samantha Smith (18:28) Yes. Well, it was a tough IPO because the time we decided to do it, December 2018, it's always tough to IPO. It's not a good idea to buy a business and IPO at the same time, one conditional on the other, but we were doing that as well. But the market was very, very difficult. So it was the time when the government was losing MPs left, right and center and the government was collapsing. So most people were pulling their IPOs. So we were at a point, we had this deadline of the 5th of December. We'd had that planned that day from the start and we were organizing everything around that date. And then the market was getting worse and it was more difficult to raise the money. And at many points, like, are we going to get this done? So by the time we'd actually done it, I was so tired. just relieved that we'd raised the money. We'd done the deal. It was six months of absolute brutal work, particularly the last two weeks when everything's going on. didn't think about it too much until the morning I walked in to the stock exchange. And you you're just like, I've got everyone's here. We've acquired the business, spoken to the team. We're all going to go to the stock market. We're going to watch our share price come up on the big screen. And when I walked in, you know, you're just like, thank God we did it. Thank you. It's just relief. And you're exhausted. I walked in and you see your business's name flash up. Everything's branded, your colors, everything's about your firm. And I walk in and see it and I've walked into the Stock Exchange many times to see other people's IPO's, but when it's yours, I actually started to get, and I'm not a crier, I started to get. very choked up. And I think that's, you you just take those split seconds of going, this is 20 years of work. We are actually IPOing ourselves. We're actually, we're listed. That's a big deal. And it was so emotional, way more emotional than I thought. And a much bigger event than I thought in career. And probably one of the proudest moments of my entire life, just seeing the fact that we got there. Annie Wenmiao Yu (20:18) Okay. Samantha Smith (20:45) The other thing, was my daughter's nativity in about an hour's time after that. And I had to rush because I'd missed the previous years. So that was all I had a motorcycle outside to get on to get to her nativity in time. you know, it was also a weird day of, right, okay, let's get this IPO done and let's get to the nativity as well. But it was a hugely proud day and it makes you realize how. Annie Wenmiao Yu (20:51) wow. You Hmm. Samantha Smith (21:12) And IPO is just such a major event in a corporate life. Annie Wenmiao Yu (21:17) It's so beautiful how you were able to make in time to go to your daughter's nativity play as well on the day of your I.P. month. That's very special. Samantha Smith (21:22) One minute to spare, one minute to spare. And that's why it was an amazing day. Cause it's like, I've IPO'd my business. I've celebrated that you get there at half seven, the market opens at eight. And I was straight on a motorcycle straight to my daughter's. You know, running in, in all my work suits and get to the front row. And she walked in, she was actually first cause she was a little sheep walking on first. And I probably had less than a minute to spare, but you're like, I've actually done both. I've IPO'd my business and I've got to my daughter's nativity and I can't really decide which is the better feeling. But the best feeling was the fact that I did both and I made both work and that can fit together. It was a bonkers day. Annie Wenmiao Yu (22:02) No. Mm-hmm. That's incredible. And I'm with you. think it's the fact that you managed to do both. That's pretty impressive. at the same time of you building your company for the, you know, over two decades, you also had commitments to your family, to your children as well. I'm not going to ask about balancing work and family, but how did you find it personally? in terms different parts of and also to your family. Samantha Smith (22:32) it's a major struggle. know, when I had my daughter, which was 2014, the first two years were rough. You know, I was working very hard trying to get back to normal And I was actually the first female in our office to have a baby. So I was trying to write the maternity policy while my board were telling me I was conflicted. It's like, what? No man had a baby then in their family. It was completely bizarre. So I'm trying to set the role model standard while going through it myself for the first time. And it was very different to how I expected it to be. And I realized, I think then that balance is different for everybody. There isn't really a balance thing. What I think we find as women is are moments in your journey at the early stages of having a baby definitely but then later and later with aging parents here when you have these responsibilities they come in small windows of time but whenever your window is where you need support you need your corporate employer to support you and that is very much a one-to-one case you might have an ill child you might have a child that sleeps from day one you know you don't know what it's going to be like and you just need to support someone through it. And I have moments where probably three or four moments where I thought, I can't do this anymore. I can't, I can't do everything. I'm broken. Particularly after sort of year one was the work, probably the lowest, lowest point. And you get help, you get through it. But I think there was a real sense of, for me, I'm feeling so guilty that I'm not doing what I was doing before. But on the other side, I am the role model here. If I don't do it and take on the criticism and take on the guilt and if I don't do make this work in a way that is going to work for other people, how is anyone else going to do this? I struggle with the most is not just finding the balance, but being able to live the balance and still feel like you're a good boss. and still feel like you're a good mum. what I call the guilt threshold is trying to manage your own guilt threshold. So you can do your job and you can look after your daughter well, but do it in a way that you just don't feel guilty. other people aren't doing it, that's quite tough. Annie Wenmiao Yu (25:02) From what I'm hearing Sam, it sounds as though ⁓ one of the things that got you through those times actually your desire to pave the way so that women who come after you are able to follow a good example and have the support that you had really fought to have set up for them. How are you teaching your daughter to lean into her own clarity of thought? Samantha Smith (25:25) my daughter appears to be the expert in chilling out and relaxing. And I've learned probably more from her than she's learned from me. So a couple of years ago, she got diagnosed with dyslexia. And as I was doing all the work with her, was like, hmm, this is looking familiar. And then I realized I was dyslexic and then everything falls into Annie Wenmiao Yu (25:31) Okay. You Samantha Smith (25:51) What is fantastic is when you realize that you're dyslexic, you've got ADHD, you think in a completely different way to other people and you understand it, things piece together. But what she has automatically done is managed to switch off from at school she was doing a few clubs. That was a bit overwhelming for her. We cut all her outside clubs apart from one. And she just has that still time. For some reason, it's worked for her that she finds a lot of space to just do nothing and to think. And that's made me relax and try and do nothing. And you know, not be in that doing, doing, doing mode, actually just be in the present nothing, nothing mode. in a funny way, I've learned way more from her in that. I'm probably much more conscious now of, God, she needs to see me calmer. And when I'm out of whack, she's out of whack. And if I'm feeling discombobulated and a bit upset, her behavior goes a bit strange. realize actually the two are in tandem. When I'm calm, she's calm. When she's calm, I'm calm. of calmness levels really impact each other, which helps us to focus on being calm. And now it's my greatest strength to remain calm at all times when that wasn't always the case. Annie Wenmiao Yu (27:14) And. That's a superpower. And I also think it's so beautiful how you described person's peaceful state can really radiate and affect the people that they love and the family around them as well. how do you feel that becoming a mother has affected your leadership style as a CEO? Samantha Smith (27:40) don't think it's changed my leadership style because I think I've always had a very, very clear view of how I want to lead, which is doing it my way. And I've become more authentic to me, which is something I've had to grow and learn. But what has been great about being a mum, and as I said about being coached with Geeta is, because you've got lots of things going on, you have to be focused. So I've become, as the business has grown, and I've become a mum, more focused on what's critical. better at saying no to things, better at boundaries, better at working on the things that only I can do and delegating everything else, more organized, ⁓ more productive with my time, not fapping around wasting time. And I think that's what being a mum and having to ⁓ do a lot of things. and manage things, it helps you to prioritize what matters. There's no way I would be as good a CEO as I am now, or as good a leader if I wasn't a mum. I don't think. Annie Wenmiao Yu (28:40) And now you are a co-founder of Super Scalers and you work with a lot of high growth, high potential businesses in the UK. How did that come about? Because, you know, from an outsider's perspective, you are someone who led a financial company to an IPO. Why did you choose to start with Super Scalers and work with other growing founders? Samantha Smith (29:01) So I think it's from my experience. I spent 24 years building a business. You know, I had no background in building a business. My mom was a nurse. My dad was a computer engineer. I went to state had very ordinary childhood, I didn't have any network whatsoever. So when I got into the city, I'd dread the first question of, my God, what does your dad do? Where did you go to school? Like you don't fit in. I built the business from a place of not feeling like I'm worth very much, not feeling my value, know, trying to do it because I really wanted to focus on my mission, but never feeling like I was probably good enough or as good as other people because it wasn't the same. And so by the time I got to the end, I started to feel like, okay, I've got this now. I've built this business. It's gone over 50 million revenue. We've is good. And finally people were taking you seriously. So I was very keen that, you know, building business of size not only helps you make more impact, it helps you get your voice heard and gets you taken seriously. So that was sort of part of it. And on leaving, when I wanted to do lots of different things and champion entrepreneurship, championing the voice of the underrepresented founder, what I found very quickly was, do you know what? The one way I can really help change the way decisions are made and change what power and influence looks like is helping underrepresented families build big businesses because that's how we get a seat at the table. And that's what I can actually help do. set up the Super Scalers. It was a mission firstly to find out how many women in the UK have ever built business past 50 million. That took two years to find the data. It was A year ago, it's now 144 women. So it's growing really, really sharply, but it's still a low number. What we're doing with the superscalers is to get a community together of aspiring superscalers that are at one million turnover to 50 who want to be at that 50 million plus level. And we are giving them the playbook to superscale. So we are helping them work out how they can scale, how they can do it quickly quicker than I did it. and basically saying, look, what did we want when we were scaling and we had no network and no one to talk to and not know what we were doing and not believe in ourselves and just carry on doing it? What would we have wanted when we were scaling? What could have helped? What could something around us to say you could do it quicker? What would have helped us avoid the pitfalls? This is the community that we would have wanted when we were scaling. So it's very exciting. know, there is a playbook. We've written the playbook now. We're getting the courses ready, which are going to be launched in March. Super Scalers is a community that people can join if you're over a million pounds revenue and building a business. And we just want to showcase as many founders as possible that are scaling, that have been there and done it to encourage the next group that are coming through. So then we can change the system because We know what they need. We know that they're doing it differently and we can start to make a real difference. a mission driven project. Annie Wenmiao Yu (32:19) Hmm. What did you learn about yourself over the course of creating this community and working with your group of founders? Samantha Smith (32:27) I'm a great self-awareness person. think self-awareness is the most important thing to building a business and being an entrepreneur. You've got to work out what you're good at, what you're not good at, and you've got to be willing to find things that can help you work on the things you're not good at. So every year I find something that pushes me out of my comfort zone. Every year I find a bit of me that I didn't know before and that I need to work on. that's why coaching is so important. I've got really good at building a business. I'm really good at all the things that's technical about building a business, how to scale. What I hadn't done during that time was work on me. And suddenly when you're not running a business and you're just you and you're going on boards and you're just selling you and Superscalers is just me selling me, I can help you build a business. Those insecurities pop up all over again. So even though I've scaled a big business, even though I've Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:19) Hmm. Samantha Smith (33:21) IPO'd a business, I say to people, I still have all these insecurities that I was not good enough. I don't value myself properly. You know, should I be at the seat at this table? Can I actually coach this course? my God, what people are going to think of me. So I've had to go through again, these things and peel the layers back again and go, right now I need to do the work on myself. And I've realized if I'd done that work while I was building FinnCap, my God, I could have done way more than I ever did with it. I could have done things so differently, so much faster, if I'd worked on myself and overcome some of those things that I'm only dealing with age 50. So, you know, it's a it's a work in progress. And, and I love that about, you know, life that you you're constantly finding out new things, but it makes me more passionate to help. female founders, particularly and underrepresented founders from different backgrounds that don't feel the system is working with them to just feel more confident, to value themselves more, to realize that everybody who's up there that you see running these big businesses and you think is not like you is just like you and you're no different. And I think it's taken me this long to work that out because I'm finally meeting them and I go, oh, you're a CEO of a FTSE 100 company. you're no more impressive than my entrepreneurial friend who's just got to 2 million revenue. And for some reason in my head, I thought that was not the case for so many years. And the more people I can get to believe that, the more I can get them to value themselves and to believe that they can build to create more businesses for people to start the ecosystem of investment so they can give back. to create more communities, create more role models for girls at school, to see building big. things I'm learning now are probably most useful to the work I'm doing to help Superscalers grow. Annie Wenmiao Yu (35:27) I find it really refreshing to hear you say very honestly about how you still experienced imposter syndrome, even after having IPO'd a business. it seems like the work that you are doing with the superscalers community and the courses and the founders, it's your part in setting about systematic change so that there can be more successful women entrepreneurs in the UK. And I just wanted to say thank you for doing that. Sam, it's been a pleasure to have you on the Low to Grow podcast. Let me end by asking you our podcast staple, is what is one thing that you believe will allow more people to have better mental health? Samantha Smith (36:05) if I've only got one. Okay, so I think the best piece of advice I've ever had for my mental health is, and it's very personal to me, but when you use the word should in your head, or you say it out loud, that probably indicates you're under pressure and you might not be doing the thing you want to do. So whether it's I'm saying to myself, I should be at that event for IFA. I should be going to this dinner because all my clients are there. I should be working harder. I should be here. As soon as I hear that word should, it starts ringing alarm bells now going, no, this is, this is an expectation of me. It's a pressure. It's not what I want. The should thing has to be the alarm bell that you probably shouldn't be doing what you're thinking in your head. So that should word is like noting when you say I should is a real red flag. And I have to add getting a coach. getting regular check-ins is just transformation of the mental health. And there are really good ways to do that now. And we're actually launching something with Super Scalers for early stage founders very cost effectively where they can get access to good coaching. Cause I believe that is a game changer. So that's two things, sorry. I got one cheekily in as an extra. Annie Wenmiao Yu (37:23) Please don't apologize. please don't apologize. You will not be an entrepreneur if you didn't try to over deliver. what a wonderful piece of actionable advice about noting when we are telling ourselves that we should be doing something and then really, taking the space to delve into why we think that we should be doing it. And also just assessing critically, does it actually matter with what I want to do? Does it actually align with what I want to do with myself right now? Samantha Smith (37:28) in. Annie Wenmiao Yu (37:48) So thank you very much, Sam. It's been such a pleasure. Samantha Smith (37:50) Thank you, Annie.