The Power of a Woman - Samantha Gilchrist - CEO of The Gilchrist Collection #229

In this episode of the Us People Podcast, Samantha Gilchrist, CEO of the Gilchrist Collection, shares her incredible journey from growing up in Brixton during the riots to becoming a successful wedding photographer and entrepreneur.

Samantha opens up about pursuing her passion, transitioning from HR to owning multiple wedding venues, and the pivotal moments that shaped her career. 

The narrative underscores the importance of creativity, resilience, perseverance, and mentorship. Samantha's story is a testament to dreaming big, overcoming self-doubt, and valuing self-worth. She aims to inspire others through her experiences and emphasizes the power of courage and time in achieving one's dreams.

00:00 Introduction to the Ask People Podcast

01:16 Meet Samantha Gilchrist: From Wedding Photographer to CEO

02:05 Samantha's Early Life and Inspirations

03:31 The Journey to Becoming a Wedding Photographer

10:12 Challenges and Triumphs in Wedding Photography

17:49 Transitioning from Photography to Owning a Wedding Venue

20:35 The Acquisition of Ravenswood

35:58 Expanding the Business: From One Venue to Twelve

39:33 Navigating Ego and Respect in Business

40:51 The Role of Photography in Wedding Planning

42:29 Balancing Business and Personal Life

43:03 Sam's Personal Interests and Hobbies

45:05 Challenges and Rewards of Being a Workaholic

50:43 The Importance of Non-Alcoholic Options at Weddings

53:32 Inspiring Women in Business

01:09:13 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Website: https://gilchristcollection.co.uk/

The power of a women is in her silence and the beauty is within her voice – Savia Rocks

Transcript

Savia Rocks: 0:00

I'm your host, Savia Rocks. And in this season, we aim to empower and embrace creativity through diversity, as we dive into the fascinating stories and experiences of a diverse range of individuals, highlighting their unique perspectives. And creative endeavors from artists and entrepreneurs to innovators and activists. We celebrate the power of diversity in driving creativity and fostering positive change. Join us as we engage in thought provoking conversations like

Tony DADA: 0:33

I made myself intentionally homeless in pursuit of my purpose.

J Harris: 0:37

We're aware that. A lot of people want to present and they, and they were in my position and what's worse, they weren't a white male, which is a joke that that's even still a thing.

Mel: 0:45

Think my family never ever say you can't do something. So full of support, full of support for whatever dream. If I said tomorrow when I fly to the moon, they'll probably say I wish you all the best Mel.

Savia Rocks: 0:56

So guys, I just want to say thank you for supporting the Us People podcast for the past five years. I really look forward to sharing another new theme song. With you. Let's go.

Sam: 1:10

Hi, my name is Samantha Gilchrist and I'm the CEO of the Gilchrist collection. You're listening to the us people podcast with Savya rocks.

Savia Rocks: 1:20

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the us people podcast. I'm your host Savya rocks. And today I am humbled to have Sam here with me. Me, she started her career as a wedding photographer, but she is now the CEO of Gilchrist collection wedding venues with over 15 years of experience within the wedding industry. Sam, I want to thank you so much for taking your time to come on the ask people podcast. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you. And thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure. You are more than welcome. Thank you so much. So Sam, my first question, which I love to ask people who come on the show, is just to find out more about who they are as a person. So could I kindly ask you, could you tell me about yourself and where you grew up, but also how that influenced you to be the person you are today?

Sam: 2:13

Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's a big question. Where I grew up, it's actually funny you ask that, because I was thinking about that earlier today. I was actually born in Brixton. And yeah, and my mom and my dad had a little flat above a shop. And then just to show my age the Brixton riots were occurring, and the police came down the road and said, Hey. You need to get out tonight. They're going to be rioting and we're worried about these shops. So my mom just grabbed a bag and we went to Sussex and that's where my grandma lived. That night they came down and they petrol bombed all the shop windows. Everyone upset for hours. So she went back the next day, grabbed all our stuff, and basically moved to Sussex. So, that's where I started. And, yeah, I don't know why I thought about that earlier. I was like, oh, it's an interesting, you know, how I ended up in Sussex, which is where I am now still. I was always into art and drawing and dressmaking as a kid. My mom. Would make me you know, crepe paper, dresses I think from the age of four, she became a single parent mom. But I, my whole childhood, I just remember it being magic. I don't ever remember anything. You know, I don't really remember any struggles. I know my mom now as an adult had lots of struggles, but, you know, as a kid, I just had a really magical childhood. And I really think that's what developed for me you know, being interested in art and creativity. When I was about, I think nine, I'm sorry, this will roll, but no, I like about nine. When I was about nine, I decided maybe nine or 10, I decided my mom should get married. And you know, to basically shut me up. Yeah. I was like, you know, we need a wedding. I've been a bridesmaid a couple of times. And I was like, let's have another wedding. I think I've been a bridesmaid like three times. So my mom sort of just shut me up was like, why don't you design some wedding dresses? And I pretty much spent the next four years designing and drawing wedding dresses you know, in the evening just for fun. So then when I was about 14, I went to the Brit performing arts and technology school in East Croydon. You're like nodding. You're like, yes, I've heard of that. At the time when I went, it had only been open for four years and you know, our claim to fame was Dane Bowers. But obviously since that time, and Imogen Heap as well actually, but since that time, many incredible people have come out of that school. So when I went there, I went to do set design and stagecraft because I was really interested in costume making. I had to do all my GCSEs at the same time because I was only 14 and I got in. With my wedding dress designs. And also at the time I was yeah, fascinated by a designer called airtay. And I think they was just quite, you know, confused by the fact that here was this 14 year old drawing big wedding dresses. influenced by a 1920s fashion designer. And I think it was very different to, you know, what they were seeing, which was great. So did that then took a break after that school for a while and then decided that I wanted to go to London college of fashion. And I wanted to do fashion styling cause I'd kind of, I, I, had looked at doing set design and stagecraft, but I looked into the courses and I was like, actually, I don't really want to do that. So I don't know, I decided I wanted to dress celebrities. Now knowing me and my friends knowing me, when I say that they laugh because like, I can't dress myself, let alone anyone else. Really like, you know, it's really, it's quite funny. Like it just, it's all a bit discombobulated. I had to get my colors done and get a stylist and everything to get it all around the right way. But luckily there was photography on the course and I remember being so cool because I had paid, I think, like 400 pounds for a two megapixel camera that was state of the art. I had my film camera so I know exactly where you're going with this. I thought I was super cool. Yeah, so I literally just got in the crossover from film to digital. It was just that little crossover. And the screen was about like two inches or something. tiny. I actually still have the camera. It sits in my office on my window. So yeah, just as a fun reminder of, you know, my first digital camera. So that was a journey. But when I, when I finished, I was broke, so I had to get a job. So I went into human resources. And to say I hated it was an understatement. And I think they, they checked, they checked my computer, like a couple of years in, they checked my computer and they were like, we want to see your internet search history. I think it was like, I was on MySpace. I was like, Oh I think we all were on MySpace. There's there's a couple others as well. I think that's when Facebook just started maybe as well. It was like just moving over to Facebook, sort of coming off of MySpace. Anyway, that was fun. But I, Very interesting conversation with my uncle at the time. I obviously wasn't doing great at the job. I was doing fine, but not incredible. And my uncle had just been diagnosed with stage four cancer. And he sat me and my cousin down. He lived in hope and had this incredible apartment that looked out at the sea. And we were sitting on the steps outside his apartment and he was very young. He basically said to us, I've had all this opportunity, but because I thought I was going to live so much longer, I never took it. And I wanted to travel. I wanted to do this. And, you know, I just, I didn't take it. And it, it just impinged. And I think, you know, the next morning, I just walked over a bridge on the way to work and it was one of those weird epiphany moments where I looked out over the bridge and I was like, I hate my job, so I just arrived at work and I quit and they were like, What are you doing? And I said, I'm going to start photography business. And they said, Do you even know how to use a camera? And I was like, Not really. No. And I did. I got a job in a boarding school four nights a week and I started a photography business. See that's power, right? Yeah. When you don't care if you do or do not know how to do something, but you're doing it because the passion of it, everything else kind of just flourishes afterwards because you're loving it. And then you build a team from there. Okay. This is this is where I would love to know the transition. So you decided to open a photography business, but then you decided to do wedding photography. Now, This question I have to ask, you have to have resilience to be a wedding photographer. And I'm sure you know why I'm saying this. You have, you have bridezilla's, you have, you have, you have people that can be very demanding. And You, as a business, you have to cater to the client's needs, as we all know, and we have to be very professional in how we articulate that. One thing I would love to know from your perspective, when you were a wedding photographer, how did you manage to keep up with the demand of people? being a wedding photographer because there's creativity, there's the business itself, there's, there's you handling maybe a team around you. How was that all for you? So it's interesting you say that because when I was at Brits you kind of had your major subject and you had your minor subject and then you had all of your GCSEs. And one of the subjects I took was drama, and I was never interested in being an actress, but I really, I loved performing and I loved being on stage. And I honestly think that that made it so much easier to be a wedding photographer because when you do speak to photographers, 90 percent of them, they run a mile when you say wedding photography. They're like, I'm out. We're not doing it. Yeah, I was like, your hand is up. Like I am that person. I understand. I understand because there's so much control that has to go into a wedding. And I had to learn really fast that I was in charge and Everybody had to fit to my timeline and they had to do what I needed and I needed to control probably sometimes 100 to 150 people to get the group photos done in 20 minutes. So I devised a method of doing them working from the biggest photo to the smallest. You know, and I just used to pull people around. I also got a very thick skin because again, you know, being a woman wedding photographer I came across so many challenges. Whilst the couple were always fantastic. Cause I always built a really good rapport with my couples and I never actually took on a couple that I didn't connect with. Like if I met them and we didn't connect, I actually wouldn't take the job on because. You know, yeah, for me, it's, you know, if I'm going to bring out the love in them and get those iconic photos, I have to be emotionally connected to them. But you know, that doesn't mean that the other hundred people you're emotionally connected to. So yeah, so that was interesting, but I did love doing wedding photography. I would do other things in and around it because for me, I found business wise, it was very difficult because it was seasonal. I never managed at the time when I did photography, I never really managed to crack the winter months. I would do a couple of weddings, but not a huge amount. And for me, I mean, I, like you said, I did wedding photography for a long time. I think by the time I hung up my camera, it was about 15 years. And during that time, I photographed everything from an incredible registry office wedding where they then went to the pub afterwards. I did that a few times. It was fantastic. And, you know, we took pictures on the street to to a wedding that ended up having all their couple photos taken in Windsor Castle, and they got married in the registry office just outside where, you know, Charles and Camilla got married. And I did a wedding in the Tower of London and, you know, Seattle and Florida, just random places. And also at the same time, I would do a wedding in a cow's barn that literally had cows in it three weeks before they were trying to air the smell out in the morning of the wedding. You're my kind of people. Yeah, you know, like for me, it was very much. I was very excited by, you know, people's journey and where they were choosing to get married. And I, I really feel like it really made me understand. Not only the importance of planning, obviously a good wedding because I saw many things that didn't go right that had been due to lack of planning or lack of organization, bad staff at venues, et cetera. But I also really, really, really got the understanding of ultimately at the end of the day, what we're doing is we're taking two people that love each other and they're dedicating themselves to each other. So then be able to share a journey together where they matter because. They get to then come home and tell that person about that day, and it makes their day relevant, and it makes, you know, it brings meaning to their journey in life, and then, you know, hopefully they're blessed with children, and they can create a family, and have that wonderful journey. So for me, that seeing all the, you know, the wedding that didn't spend a lot of money in the wedding that spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, but, you know, ultimately like that's what it comes down to. So I loved that. I loved every part of it. But the honest truth was it got to a point where I was missing out on things myself in life because I was booking weddings 24 months in advance and then suddenly one of my closest friends would announce her wedding and it would be on the same day as a wedding. I'd already booked or My husband played cricket for four years and his cricket team, this was when we were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, his cricket team literally told him that they thought I was make believe because everybody else's girlfriends would come and sit in the grass and lounge around and I was Nowhere to be seen because obviously weekends were peak work time for me. You know, I did other photography things. I did portraits events, some children photography, et cetera around it, but predominantly it was weddings. And it does really got to a point for me where I had I just, I, I had done it all under my name as well. I'd done it under Samantha at the time I made a name Samantha worthy photography. So it's not like I could send someone else. I was it and I had to be there. So I started to mull mull in my mind. Okay. How could I make a transition? What could I do? I also was a little bit lonely, like working, you know, by myself from home on shoot days, I would have people with me, but during the week I was. I was very much on my own and I used to work in Starbucks in the mornings just to, to people, you know? So yeah, I think I'd just gotten to the point where I sort of, you know, I was mid thirties and I was like, I'd like to think about changing this up a little bit. I had a very good friend who is still my very good friend and my now business partner and We've had some interesting conversations about he's a serial entrepreneur and has a number of businesses. And we've had conversations about maybe finding a business park. Like in England, you have a lot of these farms that have turned themselves into business parks. With all these units, you know, so you can have businesses there Monday through Friday in the unit, and quite often they have a big bar. So my idea was let's find a business park. You can have all your businesses there through Monday through Friday, and I'll do weddings in the barn on the weekend. And with kind of Talked about it a little bit, but nothing really serious over a couple of year period. So I had gone to the National Wedding Show, which was a huge show in London, and it was my first time and I was completely freaked out. And I'd spent all this money on the stand and I was like, something, the universe has to give me something good out of this because I've spent more money than I think I ever owned at that moment on this stand. I just it was really surreal because I met this wonderful couple who looked at one of the pictures that I had and said, Oh, we've been to that venue. We're having a very intimate wedding of 20 people, and we're really struggling to find a venue that. Won't just lock us in one room and will actually give us some space because they were looking at hotels and hotels were like, yeah, sure, but you can just have that room all day. And, you know, that wasn't working for them. So I gave them my details. I told them to send me an email and I knew a lot of country houses and I do my best to suggest some places to them. obviously with the hope that I would book the wedding. A couple of weeks later, they sent me an email. I was sitting in Starbucks and the Starbucks is a big part of my life.[Savia Rocks] Mine was Costa's, so it's okay. So yeah, so I, I answered the email and I was just about to press send. And then suddenly I remembered the Ravenswood and we'd been there six months previously. I've never actually photographed that, but we'd been there six months previously for actually awake and a celebration of life. And in my mind I was like, Oh, that's nice. Got smaller rims, maybe on a weekday. It's near the M25, which is what they wanted. Maybe they would consider. So I went on the website and the website was down. So I don't know what possessed me, but I like to be kind and nice and one business person to another. I thought I would phone them. Let them know. Hey, you know, your website's down because I would want to know if mine was down and Steve, who at the time was, you know, late sixties, just about 10 70 answered the phone. I give the context of his age because he, you know, he's he was really funny and I really feel like it's relevant to his character and just You know, an incredible person, but if he doesn't care about something, he just doesn't care about something. I get it. So he, yeah, he, you know, he's at that age now where he's like, my way or the highway, and if I want to talk to you, I will. And if I don't want to talk to you, I won't. And so he kind of answered the phone and he was like, hello? But no, hello, the Ravenswood. How can I help you? Just, hello? So I was like, oh is this the Ravenswoods, and he said, yeah, why, what do you want? And I was

Savia Rocks: 20:03

like,

Sam: 20:05

Well, I just wanted to let you know your website was down. And he was like, yeah, no, I took it down. So I was like, oh, okay. I took it down. So I said, why, what are you doing? And he said, I'm going fishing. So of course I would say, what is this? And I kept just pulling the string. What's happening? Tell me what's going on. And he basically told me that it had been on, he'd canceled everything in the last couple of months due to ill health. He'd canceled all weddings, like within weeks of the weddings. He's just sent the check back. Like we're done. We're out. You're not getting married here. It was quite a thing. And wow. Yeah, and he said that he was hoping to have it. It had had people who wanted to turn it into flats developers that had put a bid in for it, but they just pulled out and he was putting it back on the market. So of course I got overexcited and I was like, you know, we're going to buy this wedding venue. No idea how we're going to do this, but we're buying this wedding venue. So I said, I'll call you back. So phones to it. And I was like, I found our wedding venue. He was in America at the time. He was coming back Tuesday. I said, great. Pick you up from the airport. We'll go look at that. So we're driving down the drive. Now for context, Stuart's thinking you know, little barn business park. This is a 14th century building with a 21st century modern extension with 34 bedrooms. It's massive. I've

Savia Rocks: 21:30

seen it. Yep. I've seen it. I went, what the hell?

Sam: 21:37

That's what Stuart did as he drove down the drive. He was like, Stuart's got a Scottish accent. And he was like Sam, this is not a barn. Like, what is this? I remember that.

Savia Rocks: 21:49

I saw it.

Sam: 21:50

I

Savia Rocks: 21:50

went, holy. How?

Sam: 21:53

Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what either of us were thinking if I'm completely honest, but we just thought it was a great idea. Once, you know, once he'd had a tour, he loved it. But what was interesting is I, in my mind, I was like, we could do a wedding every day. And in Stuart's mind, people got married on Saturdays. So we'd have a restaurant, we'd open up the bedrooms, we'd have comedy night on a Tuesday. And it took a lot. It actually took me taking him to another wedding venue to show him, you know, they do 320 weddings a year. And I said to the girl on the open day, Hey, I want to get married next year on a Saturday. And she laughed at my face. And then Pulled out the calendars with yellow dots on every day that was booked. And Stuart just looked at the dots, obviously, but you know, he's a businessman, he just saw money and so that was how I handled that. But I mean, we were wild, like the bank said, there's no way we're getting a mortgage. Neither of us have any education in hospitality. Those are the best people to have a business. Yeah, we have, we have, I mean, Stuart left school at 14. Like, we, you know, my mentor left school. I think he left school when he was around the same age. And then he opened up his first record shop. And then now he owns like one of the top five music, music publishing companies in the world. And he was my mentor. I was like, amazing. I think I think that banks have it incredibly wrong. Super wrong. They were, I mean, eventually they buckled. They, you know, they just, they asked us for everything. They made Stuart sign his life away. We, we, you know, we, we had a really good deal with Steve. He was really funny on a golden handshake. We gave him 150, 000 and he gave us the keys and we just told him we'd rent it off of him and see what happened. No lawyers, no nothing. He was just like, yeah, great. Handshake's good for me. That works. And

Savia Rocks: 24:07

it's giving you the context previously. I wish I had more business deals like that. You'd have millionaires everywhere. Oh, that's

Sam: 24:14

amazing. Like I look back now and you know, seven and a half years ago and I look back and I'm like, that was just wild. I mean, he had nothing to lose. He was like, Oh yeah, cool. Well, I get to keep the 150 grand if they mess it up and then I get the building back. It's great. But. I very quickly activated everyone I knew from having been in the wedding industry and having, you know, a large collection of people I'd worked with in the local area in terms of mums and hairdressers and everything and just was spread the word and was like, we're open, we're starting this again. And we went back to the bank, probably like, I don't know about six months later and said, look, we've booked 80 weddings. Now you're going to have to, you're going to have to give us a mortgage. We've got, we've got to have a mortgage. And yeah, I mean, still to this day, they kind of laugh about that scenario because we are still, you know, we're with the same bank. We've actually moved up in that salon now with them, but there was a point where about three or four years in, we spoke to the bank manager that gave us the mortgage and he, he kind of. He said, you know, I, I don't know quite how I agreed to it, but you just had something that just made me go, okay, you know what, let's just give it a go. And he said, but it was, it was one of my more concerning decisions. One of my more concerning decisions. Although, fair, I do understand. Listen, in life, life is about the gamble of life and the spontaneity at the same time. In doing that, look what you prospered to and you done, but also I think that you should actually make a documentary about it because I think it'd actually be quite cool and teaching people those type of methods. Yes, it's not contemporary. Yes, we know, we know it's not contemporary, but at the same time, it kind of is some contradicting myself, but I'm sure Sam, you understand why. I know what you mean. It's, there's the element of, you know, life has put something in front of you, just take the leap and take the jump and just go for it. And there's also the other side of it, which is, if you started to think about the what ifs and what could go wrong, You wouldn't get, you just wouldn't touch it with a barge bottle, But I just had this overwhelming sense of confidence of, I know weddings and you had a belief, Sam, that's what it is. You had a belief. And that's what I just had the belief. And for me it was very much that this venue is stunning. You can't not sell weddings here. And at the time, I didn't know how to do a p and l. I didn't know. I mean, I didn't even know what profit loss was. Like I'd been running my one man band show on my, out my personal bank account. Like what's a P and L like, I have no idea. You know, and then it was okay, well, we've got to check people in and we need fire regulations and we need this and we need this. And it was such an incredible learning curve. And, you know, I worked my way from doing the sales to them doing the delivery to closing the venue, opening the venue. Just every part of it. Luckily, thank goodness the venue came with three incredible staff. that had already been there for 20 years. So when it was like, where's the light switch, they, they knew that's one of the funniest conversations in these venues is you're standing in a room and all the lights are on and you have absolutely no idea. And it's under a counter somewhere at the back behind the bar, you know? Yeah, many, many a funny tales of, of, you know, just, Luckily, I had done a lot of bar work in my teens you know, to get through London College of Fashion, et cetera. I'd worked in pubs. Thank goodness. I cannot carry a plate. Like, don't give me a plate to put down, but I can pour a pint. So we're all good. So yeah, so that was fine. And obviously I was fortunate to have Stuart with me and he'd already scaled two companies. And we both, at the time when we took over Ravenswood to make sensible. We both moved onto site. You know, we had some other incredible people helping us at the time. And I literally would go to his house every evening. I mean, his wife is just the most amazing person ever. I would turn up at his house in my pajamas with my cigarettes. I don't smoke anymore, but this time I did with my cigarettes and I would sit in his lounge. For probably about two and a half hours going through everything that happened in the day, what was going on, you know, what this customer said, what that customer said, how the wedding went, what I did with this and blah, blah, blah. And you know, he just helped me to evolve. And yeah, that was definitely a lot of fun, a lot of cigarettes, but a lot of fun, a lot of cigarettes. See, this is, this is why. I love stories like this because it shows that you don't have to have, like we say, education on anything, but at the same time, like we got, when we got really into the depth of it, it was your belief and your faith with Stuart coming in, and he must have been like, holy cow, like I would have, like I was when I saw it and was like, but it There's something about venues that take your breath away. And when you're getting married and you see a venue that takes your breath away, then you know, that's the right venue for you. It's the same way when you talk about having a connection with your client, that is one of the things that I teach people. That's one of the things that I always say to people, if you have a beautiful connection with someone, and it might be that you never have that connection again, but as long as you're working with them to give them 200 percent of who you are, creativity, your, your, your work ethic, how you are as a person, you will flourish and they will flourish in the way that when they look back at their pictures, they will feel an emotional connection for ever. Ever. And that's what you want because stories are pictures just silently. There's still pictures to sign. And I always say that to people. So you doing that, you, you've answered so much, you being a business woman as a woman, as we spoke about, even before we began the show, you, you decided to go in this crazy journey with Stuart. And, and, and shaking the guy's hand and just saying, yep, we'll do this business transaction with you. You know, I think we should do more of those in the world. I, Sam, please teach that in your lesson. Good. I'm so glad you said that. Please teach people to do that because I believe in the world that there are a lot of people still on what if, and that's what the one thing that takes people away from their dreams is the fear. Of what if that word fear and what if takes people away from their dreams and then they start using excuses. Oh, I have a family. Oh, I wouldn't be able to do it because I don't have this, that and the other. But this is so important and I'm so glad that you've come on the show. You know, it's one of the best stories that I've heard in a very long time. And I thank you for it because. There are so many things that are happening in the world at the moment, as we all know, but having people who believe in their dreams and aspirations in doing so lets people know that they're not in their home by themselves, just thinking of a dream, that they can make it reality. So that's my thank you to you. I kind of went on for a little while, but it's something that I love it. I appreciate that. It's something that I must say, I think you're Yeah, and, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there, but I think you're so, you're so right. It's a lot of the things that I You know, look, the people I, I look up to obviously follow people online, et cetera, I've been to some, you know, inspirational speakers, different talks. I'm very much, I'm very much into how I can better myself, how I can improve myself, how I can reach further, how I can look into, you know, what other people are doing and thinking. But it really, for me, is about just going, okay, Well, if you, you know, I love the, I love the quote of, if money was no object, how big could you, could you dream? And, So well, let's start there. And then the concept of, okay, well, let's start there and then let's plan it backwards. Like, how does this go? And also for me, it's an ever moving target. Like, you know, we just talked about Ravenswood. I would have lived happily ever after running one wedding venue. I was thrilled. And I was happy. And Stuart is like one man, one van makes a thousand pounds. Let's get 10. And I remember the first time that came out of his mouth and he said, we should have 10 wedding venues. And I literally looked at him and was like, you are smoking crap. Like there's no way anyone could run 10 wedding venues. What are you talking about? I don't have kids, but they say the transition from one child to two Children is chaos. And then adding 345 and six is like, sure, whatever, just keep them coming. And that for me was very much. you know, going from one wedding venue where I was super hands on to then having to pull myself back and have two wedding venues, one of which was four hours away that I couldn't even get to.

Savia Rocks: 34:09

So

Sam: 34:09

how do you look like? Why would you do that? No, I do understand because now you've got like double figures, right? Like you've got in, in, in England and you also have in the USA, you know. We have 12 now. I have three in the US and nine in the UK. So you've got 12 babies and, and you've got 12 babies. You're, you're international with what you do. So you know what my next question is going to be, right? You've got, do you sleep at night?

Savia Rocks: 34:42

You know what? And even being a photographer, you don't sleep at night. So I can only imagine having,

Sam: 34:47

you know, 12, but how is it handling? These 12 venues, because obviously now you definitely have a, have a team, you know, and then you have Stuart as well, who's been great towards you, but you've also, I'm sure very much so, you've also been great towards him and how things work. How do things work for you now? So it's actually interesting you ask that because For me, where I started, I was looking after the sales and marketing. And then I was looking after the sales marketing delivery. And then I started to take on some of the property and the maintenance and the interior design. And then I started to take on the finance. And then I was like, move over. I'm going to be the CEO and take everything together. And he was like, okay. So I feel like I had to, to a degree, one for my own personal growth, but two, because I just, It's the wedding vision is very it's also interrelated. you know, I'm not gonna lie. There's still things I learned. We've been doing mortgages recently, and he's had to teach me all about the mortgages so that I can learn to take those over. And his role now is still very much the expansion. So the role that he holds is. Locating the new venues. There's a funny, you know, we talked about women in business. They there became a point we've probably looked at about probably somewhere in the region, about 200 wedding venues. I'm super fussy. So for me to accept, yeah, no, you have to be. So for me to accept a venue into our collection, it's, a long list of criteria. And so he'll find good venues, good deals. I'll look at them on the website and then I'll go and I sign them off, but it's my decision. And it's hilarious because 90 percent of the time. When we, not so much now, because now that we called the group the Gilchrist Collection, and then people realize I'm Samantha Gilchrist, and they kind of find out a bit ahead of time, there's a little bit more respect there. But previously, you know, Stuart would deal with we would both turn up, we'd do the whole tour, and It would usually be, you know, a sort of older gentleman that was doing the tour with us. It was his venue. We'd be doing the whole tour and I would ask a question and he would give the answer to Stuart and I would ask the next question and he would give the answer to Stuart and this would go on for the whole tour. He would address everything to Stuart and we just, you know, in the beginning I got upset and then in the end I just, it just became a game for us and we got to the point where. we would get to the end of the conversation and they would say, well, what do you think? And Stuart would turn around and say, Oh, it doesn't matter what I think. It's her decision. And you could see them have this moment of, Oh my goodness, I've just spent an hour ignoring her. It's their decision. That's why we were talking before. That's why we were talking before about the, the ego of a person. And also it's, it's, I always have this conversation with people about a person never knows or respect you sometimes until they either know your title or your name. As you say, and it's sad that it actually has to be that way, you know, especially as a woman in an industry. And that's why we have to be a lot stronger. But like you said, because your personality, your personality can just, you know, it just twists and turns with people and their personalities. It doesn't affect you anymore because you know who you are and you're comfortable in your skin. And that's very important when you're owning a business for you to be comfortable in your skin. So even if it's coming from, because there are many countries where things are not tolerated, especially women in business. Yeah. And we've all been through them and is, again, it's the way we articulate ourselves. But at the same time, one thing I do like, and I, I commend a man for is when he gives the power to a woman as well, like Stuart does with you. I find that really commendable. Yeah, he's phenomenal like that. He really has. You know, ultimately I'm very open about the fact that I'm a photographer. I view all the wedding venues from a photography viewpoint from a, you know, how does the day flow? Where would you take those photos? You know, where's the bar in relation to the vent to the function room? Because you don't want everybody to get lost in lots of different rooms. And there's a lot of things from my experience as a photographer and watching Weddings work well and weddings not work well that I bring to the table. And then there's the creative aesthetics on what I want the website to look like, how I want the socials to look, how I want the emails to go out. All of these details are the things that I am very, Strong and very opinionated about etc. But the business side, I've had to learn and he's been fantastic and mentoring me into that. And I, you know, I would never pretend that, you know, I did this all by myself, but I would love to say that. But how do you learn? You have to learn from someone somewhere. You know, he's been fantastic and, you know, we do, luckily, we also get on really well. We have a very similar taste in music and, you know, we can chat for hours. And so when we do nine hour car journeys, we feel for the person sitting in the back because we just roll the music and sing at the top of our voice and neither of us can sing well. So

Savia Rocks: 40:35

I'm going to get you guys, but we wrote

Sam: 40:37

trips.

Savia Rocks: 40:38

Yeah. Yeah. We'll come for a job. It'll be great. Oh, that's fine with me. Absolutely fine. So one thing I do, Sam is cracking up.

Sam: 40:46

One thing I do want to know is, okay, Sam, I'm going to take you away from your profession for a second. Right. And I want to ask you, who is Sam when you are not doing work? When you are not allowed to have a camera, you're not allowed to talk about wedding venues, you're not allowed to be around any work at all. Who is Sam when she's by herself in the evening or even when you're with your husband? Who is Sam? So Sam lives in tracksuits and trainers with a hair and a high pony, no makeup. She can't cook to save her life and doesn't pretend to either. Like eggs and bacon is great. I love to paint. I am very much into creative journalism. So journaling, sorry. So I have these. Amazing books are called Hobonocci books, they're Japanese, and, you know, they're just, by day my friend in New York got me into them, and you, You can write things in them, but you can also put stickers in them. I mean, for me, it's like an adult sticker book, honestly, but I, you know, I keep things in them like achievements. I also have one of those printers that prints out pictures from your phone. So, you know, a big achievement or a ticket stub from somewhere, or you know, something fun that we did, then I kind of put those in to sort of create memories. And I'll do that concurrent to probably watching something on Netflix and also keeping up with marketing podcast at the same time or scrolling Tick Tock. Yeah, I, I can't do one thing at a time. It's drives my husband crazy. It's the same. It's fine. Yeah. You know, when I'm cleaning my house, I'll have a tripod. I've got actually got it here. A tripod, which I'll put my phone on and I'll put my headphones on and I'll be putting Bridgerton on and traveling the house with the tripods, watching Bridgerton whilst in the house.

Savia Rocks: 42:56

I can see you do that now. Just like, hold on, I ain't got the right angle. Ha ha ha.

Sam: 43:01

Yeah, it's quite entertaining. But I mean, I, I'm not gonna lie. I am a workaholic. It's very hard for me to have downtime. I have an incredible team underneath me that works. I, you know, they're absolutely phenomenal. We've managed to obviously having 12 venues across two countries. We've got fantastic team that we work with and that has allowed me to now get to a position where I do have more downtime compared to what I had before. And for example, this weekend just gone, my husband's super into swimming in outdoor lakes and he's doing Windermere, which is the biggest lake in the country. He's swimming it in six weeks time. So for his birthday, he wanted to go to this gorgeous place called Frinton Lake, where it's like a lovely old country house. And you can do all these walks because they're doing a rewilding project. It's, it's absolutely beautiful. And of course it has a big lake. So off he went to swim for an hour and a half in the lake. And of course I. meet a couple that are there, start chatting, of course they're getting married in three months time, and that's it. The next two hours I'm talking about their wedding with them my husband gets out and is like, I mean, you know, you're supposed to be switching off, and I've helped them plan her hair, I've seen her dress, I, you know, the whole thing's worked out. I've talked to them because they're having a marquee wedding, so of course I was like, you need to make sure you have heaters and. Toilets and blah, blah, blah, and make sure you have a couple of time and it's just a whole thing. It was really funny. But yeah, so I do try to switch off, but I, I am also happiest working. So we were talking about music just earlier on you singing in the car. So if I said to you, Sam, if there was one song that was the soundtrack of your life, what song would it be? And why would you choose that particular song? Oh, that's an incredible question. One song that was the soundtrack of my life. So with, I mean, I have, Many songs that I have connections with, like Joan Armatrading's Love and Affection was our first dance song. It's our love story song about our relationship. You know, me and Stuart both have Scottish heritage. And when we were very drunk in nightclubs many moons ago, for some reason, the last dance the last song of the night was always If I Could Walk 500 Miles. I don't know why, but it was. So, you know, whenever we're anywhere that, like, the end of the night of the awards ceremony at the venues or whatever. It's like I make them play that song and it's the only song I can get him on the dance floor for. But I think there's for me, it's actually a piano piece. And it's the piano piece that I walk down the aisle to, which is the river flows. in me. I'm going to say me. It's probably you. I mean, I was a Twilight girl growing up. Oh yeah. And I don't know, you know, sometimes you just have movies that you Connect with and for me, whatever that was something it's it's the movie that I just it's either that or Top Gun that I just put on in the background when I don't, you know, I need something just going on. And it's not a thing. And there was a piece of music in there that's called Bella's Lullaby. And it's actually an adaption of this piece. It's it is the river flows in you. And it's by I'm never going to say this right. It's Euroma. It's Y I R U M A. Anyway, whatever. It's a very long classical piano piece and the Bella song came from it. And I ended up walking down the aisle quick because everybody was walking down the aisle to a thousand years. And I was like, I'm not walking down the aisle to a thousand years. So I would love this classical piece. So I just, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's necessarily a song that tells my story, but I feel like there's so many songs along the way that have connections to different parts of my life. I mean, there's a whole clubbing era, but we'll leave that there.

Savia Rocks: 47:17

Oh no, please don't. No, like I want to know. Maybe, maybe we could talk

Sam: 47:24

about that off. Yeah, we could. Yeah, we could. Yeah. Let's just say at a very young age I was introduced to by some older friends you know, Ministry of Sound and various other things like that. And, you know, I may have gone to a number of clubs and London and Brighton and it was great fun. Interestingly, I as you know, as I may also for me, I don't think, and I've never really been a drinker, even when we used to go out. You know, I just, I would have a few drinks, but never drink drink. I think I've been drunk maybe twice and didn't really like it. And in my later years, I, I just stopped drinking. I stopped drinking about eight or nine years ago. It doesn't mean that alcohol will never pass my lips. And I'm not like, you know, obviously if someone passes me a champagne to do a toast, I'm going to have a couple of sips, but I'm probably going to put it down right after a huge thing for me. Yeah. And a huge part of that for me was then introducing non alcoholic cocktails into the venues. And that's a massive campaign that we've done because we did a whole survey finding out that, you know, 30 percent of people that attend weddings Don't drink a lot of the time they're there with kids and they're the driver. And there's various reasons, obviously medical health wise, and also just choosing not to say we were like, well, let's make some fancy drinks. Cause honestly, I was fed up with being given Coca Cola and a tumbler. And I was like, I don't, you know, I'm 40 years old. I don't want to drink Coca Cola and a tumbler, you know, or an orange juice. That's like, I mean, like. So I just started ordering coke in a wine glass and I mean, you should see the looks that I get when I order a coke in a wine glass. It's great. You do what I do. I ordered, what's it? A mixed drink. So I would, you would mix my drinks. I don't drink as well. So, but I'd mix juices together. randomly. And then I'll put it in a wine glass too. And everyone's like, you're so, why you have to be so different? I was like, well, what's wrong with being so different? I just, you know, it's so funny. Cause it's like, you know, I don't, I don't know. It's like a really funny, like I don't eat tomatoes either, but I don't have to explain to anyone why I don't eat tomatoes. I just say, please take the tomatoes off my plate. And they're like, yeah, sure. No problem. And You know, I don't smoke anymore, but I don't have to sit and explain to people why I'm not having a cigarette. But as soon as you, you know, as soon as you say, like, especially being a woman, as soon as you're like, Oh, I'm not, you know, actually, no, I'd rather not have an alcoholic drink. Oh, you must be pregnant. Oh, why are you not drinking? And what's wrong with you? And what happened? Like the funniest one for me is people look at me as if to be like, wow, what happened to make you not drink? Like, You know, you must have been a really hardcore alcoholic or something must have happened. And I'm like, I mean, that's just the stigma of the judgment all the time. And sometimes, I'm not, I'm don't worry guys, I'm not violent. You guys all know I'm not violent, but I feel like headlocking people sometimes. I'm like, guys, come on, just, just, just. And yeah, just, just, yeah, just chill. It's cool. It's absolutely fine with me. So I've only got two more for you, Sam. So my, my second to last one is if you were to pack up all, this is a very hard question for me to ask you, because I know, I know When somebody has a passion for something it's very hard to stop, right? Yeah, you shouldn't have to it's something that you do all your life. You shouldn't have to but when you decide To stop if you ever do

Savia Rocks: 51:02

what

Sam: 51:02

would you like your legacy to be being Sam? How would you like people to remember you? Oh, I love your question. I, I think, I think I want to, I mean, part of the reason why I'm here, I don't need to be here. I don't need to be having this conversation with you. I could sit in my ivory tower in my office. I don't, you know, I don't need to have the Instagram that I have. I don't need to have, I started a bride's club to get brides educated on weddings. I didn't need to do that. I didn't need to do any of those things, but for me, I really, I really want to inspire other women to just go, no, I, I can be more if I want to be, I have the utmost respect. I have some incredible friends that are wonderful stay at home moms. They raise their children fantastically. They look after their husbands. They create the house. They're fantastic. Incredible people. It's not what I wanted. And that doesn't mean I'm never going to have kids. And, you know, my husband is fantastic, but we have a setup where everything I can do, he can do and everything he can do, I can do. And, you know, if the laundry is dirty, you know, he deals with it. And if I'm home, I deal with it. And that's just because we both work. And I feel like that's teamwork. And I, I feel like we've very much gone, okay, we don't, you know, We're not assigning job roles based on our gender. We're assigning job roles based on what do you like to do and what do I like to do? And now how do we work as a team as a couple? So for me, it's a narrative that I, you know, obviously I did grow up with a single parent mom. She was left holding the baby. She did have to, you know, raise me by herself on her own for whatever reason. My dad, who's a wonderful person, didn't really pay maintenance. You know, I have a great relationship with him now, but back then it was very, very tricky and very difficult between them both. And I just, you know, I just really, for me, it was very much like, you know, I want to have a career, and I want to have something that I can create, that I can be proud of, and I'm doing that, but at the same time, I'm looking around going, who are my mentors, who's inspiring me, and, you know, I don't, I don't really, like, obviously there's a part of it where it's like, okay, You know, I am a woman in business. I am a ceo. I am. I am running this company. I really had to handle my own considerations and my own confidence to be able to say that and feel okay saying it and not then have to justify it. You know, I'm very open with you about Stuart's influence into this. At the same time, there's been moments where I've been like, well, I can't say that I'm the CEO of this company because I've been, you know, female women in business.'cause I've been mentored by a man and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, no, no, It's like, you should never, you should never feel like that. But it's an interesting journey, like you said, as a woman. There's, there's so many different challenges along the way, and there's so many. So many places where you have to justify something or over explain something or, you know, I'll be standing in a room of incredible people and I'm waiting for someone to realize that, you know, I grew up on a council estate and I worked in a pub and, and it's like, Oh, when are they going to catch me out? And then suddenly you check yourself and you're like, no, no, I delivered 50 weddings last week. I have, you know, in the peak of summer, I have four to five to 600 staff. Sometimes we're delivering an incredible product. I have fantastic feedback. And, you know, for me, that's what the weddings is about is making sure that the weddings are delivered in the venues the way I would deliver them. Exactly. And. You know, of course, that takes work and that takes prep and that takes, you know, educating people to be able to deliver it the way I'd want to. And sometimes when we first take over a venue, that can be a challenge. A good one. The stories are awesome. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, thanks. Oh, remind me when we're done to tell you the story about the left and the people in the bush that I thought had fallen over and they hadn't fallen over.

Savia Rocks: 55:41

You know, I'm so glad this is not recording like video because my face would have just said it all. I've seen many situations in

Sam: 55:50

bushes. Yeah, there's a bit coming one day, I promise you. But yes, to answer your question for me, that's what I would really love to do. I would really love to inspire other women. And I, I have been putting myself uncomfortably out there. Like you know, I was recently nominated by one of my staff for the enterprise vision awards, which is the Eva's awards. And you know, it's a woman in business award. It's quite a big deal. And You know, I'm kind of sitting there being like, Oh, they're like, you need to post it on your Instagram. I'm like, Oh, I don't really want to. Yeah, I voted for you today, by the way.

Savia Rocks: 56:28

I was going to tell you afterwards, but now you've mentioned it. So I just thought, you know what?

Sam: 56:33

One thing I, one thing I love to do is support people. It doesn't matter if I know them two minutes, five minutes or 10 years when someone is doing, when someone is doing something spectacular in what they do, you just, you just do it. What's wrong with you not doing it? Why would you not do it? But that's, anyway, that's my mentality of life. And obviously I believe in peace, kindness and balance. And that's how I see things. And I think that's incredible. So. Yeah. So I, yeah, it's funny that you said that because I was like, yeah, click. Oh, honestly, you should have seen me. I had Abby sitting in my office being like, you've got to post this on Instagram. It's a good thing you did. Cause that's where I found it. Thank you. She was like, get it posted on Instagram. I'm like posting it being like, Oh, okay. It's like, we pull ourselves back from our own achievements. A hundred percent. And I do think that that is something that's also very English. I don't have it when I'm in the U S and it's really interesting because I have some credible, powerful you know, business owner, friends in the U S I've got, you know, my friend, Joanna Vargas, I've got a friend, Layla Joanna and skincare company. And then she's an aesthetician. And, you know, we, We, we meet and we sit down and it's like, what's happening in your business? What's happening in your business? Oh, I could do this collaboration with you. Shall I help you do this? And how do we, how do we grow each other? You know, that's what you do. That's how they do it in England. Yeah. In England, I do have some incredible champions. Like what you just said yourself, like, that's amazing. Thank you so much. And you know, I have an incredible Kelly Mortimer as an industry professional and you know, we go on spa days together and literally sit there for the afternoon and just dissect our businesses. No, I'm really, I think, yeah, I think that really is it to answer your question as I just want to inspire people to just go, you know what, fuck it. Just give it a go. Oh, I told you I'd swear. No, that's what, I was waiting

Savia Rocks: 58:37

for it. I was like, she hasn't swore yet. She hasn't swore yet. I'm trying to keep it a bit in check. Come on.

Sam: 58:46

We have, I think we just, you know, I, me and Stuart are very interesting in the, but particularly also for me as well, in the viewpoint of, we came from nothing. We can go back if we have to, and we can start again if we need to. And I think a lot of people can't actually do that. A lot of people can't actually do that. A lot of people, especially people who already come from something, right. And they have a lot. So for people like us in a way where we have come from, we can say we've come from nothing, but it is something even if it's something small, right? Even if it's love or family or single parents or whatever it might be. No, and a great grounding and a great, great upbringing. I had a fantastic upbringing. Like I said, it never occurred to me that we didn't have money when I was growing up. See, but then you still said to yourself, I still want to drive myself to be a driving force to do something great with my life and look at what you've what you've achieved and what you've done. And when you keep that mindset, it's same. I'm a woman in music. You know, you're a woman in CEO of business and doing like I said, doing these things gives doors and opportunities to people who would have never thought it was even possible of kicking down these doors. And we find a way. It might not be the conventional way, but we find a way to do that. Yeah. You know, so that's awesome. So Sam, my last question for you is, I would love for everyone to vote for you first of all. So make sure you say where to vote for you. And then second of all, I would love for anyone who has a wedding coming up and needs wedding advice, you know, wants to kindly speak to you, where can they find you, your company and what you do. Okay, cool. So there's a few answers to that question. And if they wanted to see the venues, they're on the website, which is the gilchristcollection. co. uk. And then we also have The Gil Collection Instagram and TikTok as well. You know, trying to be down with the cool kids but then if they wanna follow my wild personal journey, because I do document a lot. I recently restarted my Instagram because I just wanted it more authentic. Yeah. And so my Instagram is Samantha Gilchrist official. I had to put that because I used to be the only Samantha Worthy on the planet, and then I got married, and suddenly Gilchrist is Samantha Gilchrist. There's hundreds of us. I'm not trying to be silly, like, being like, oh, I'm official. Like, I genuinely didn't know what else to put at the end of it. So That's where they can follow my journey. I do have a TikTok as well, but honestly, I don't really know what I'm doing with it. And then, and then if they were looking for wedding advice, I created the Gilchrist Brides Club. And that is a super cute place that we just started growing in the last two months. There's an Instagram for it, but there's also you know, a club that they can actually join online, and it's it has a 10 module course with 72 videos where I literally just take them through the entire journey, because the biggest thing we hear all the time is we've never done this before. And I was like, well, for most people, of course, you've never done this before. And people are expected that have never even put on a birthday party. They're suddenly expected to put on an event for 70 to 150 people. That's a big ups. And there's many places that can go wrong. So I, you know, last year I grabbed one of my friends that was a videographer and like over a three week period, she just came to my office every afternoon for about two hours. And, you know, we just spilled it off. And, you know, It's rough and raw, but it's good. And she had to cut out all the times I said, like, but yeah, so there's gold Chris collection as well. And then you did mention that's on my Instagram is the Eva's awards, which is really an interesting awards because I'm not going to lie, I didn't. You know, we've been so blessed and fortunate to have won a number of wedding awards, but the wedding community is quite a small community. Well, I mean, it's a massive community, but in terms of, you know, against the population of the country, it's quite a small community. So When you get nominated for a wedding award, it kind of just goes through the thing. And then you just find out if you want it at the other end. And so when I got nominated for the Eva, so it was like, Oh, okay, cool. And then they're like, yeah, you'll get an interview. And I was like, Oh, okay, fine. And then they luckily gave you an education on the interview and this is what's needed for the interview. And it was a five minute presentation that had to be exactly five minutes long. And then it was three rounds of questions that you had to answer in under 60 seconds, and you didn't get the questions beforehand, and that was past, present, and future. And I'm not gonna lie, I've done a lot of things that were high pressure. That's probably the highest pressure thing I've ever done. They were lovely, like, people were watching, I was like, oh my goodness, this is You know, and like, as you've experienced, I can talk to England, so I have a little phone in front of me with 60 seconds, like timer going off every time they ask the question. But yeah, then I realized afterwards what they really, you know, I, I obviously properly researched it before the interview, but at that time I really started to, to go, oh, hold on a minute. Who is this awards company? And what is this? And actually being in this category of you know, businesswoman of the year, I was like, wow, that's actually a big deal. And, you know, they, they do a lot of things for like international women's day, they go to the house of parliament, they, you know, if you win this award, it's really quite a significant award. So that's where I was like, okay. Put your big girl pants on, put yourself out there because Yeah. Honestly, I, you need to Right. you know what you need to do. You need to treat it like you're buying another child. Yeah. You know that child. Yeah. Like, you know that belief? Yeah. The energy and effort into, into wedding when babies, yeah. When you made that deal, when you took the handshake, that's how you need to treat it, because. there is something in that manifestation of belief that you had in, you know, when you bought your first one, you need to have that now and everything you've done so much is already, but everything that you go through life that is high pressured, always remember that, always remember that manifestation and belief that you had in the beginning. And that would always make you succeed, even though you don't need my advice on absolutely anything. But I love your advice. I appreciate that. No, you're never, you're never too late. In the positivity. No, no, no. It's absolutely fine. There's always a positivity in giving someone something. And sometimes what we do is we don't take our own advice, but in giving it to somebody else, it does something wonderful and beautiful for them. And then they, they realize their worth because life is a big abundance of life is your self worth. And, and that is one of the most beautiful things that you can take with you every day. So anytime like you get in a situation, think of the manifestation and belief that you had from your first one. and carry that with you on every award show every time you answer a 60 second question. You know, anytime you have that. No, no, it's true. It's so true. But I'm, I'm talking on there. So Sam, I want to say Thank you so much for taking your time to come on the ask people podcast, expressing your story, your funny journey, you know, your business mentality, you know, where you've come from in the beginning, your humble beginnings to who you are now and still being humble because one of the things I always know is in interviewing people. Is where they come from and who they are and whether or not they carry that humbleness from the beginning of humble beginnings to who they are even when they have success and success can be defined in so many different ways as we all know. This is me just saying thank you for your time because time is precious. So thank you so much again for coming on the show and I appreciate you. You're so welcome. I've really enjoyed it. And it was so lovely to speak with you. Thank you so much for having me. No, you're more than welcome guys. I want to thank you so much for listening to the ask people podcast. And please remember you can subscribe and leave us a review on Spotify, Google Play and any other platform that you prefer listening to, please also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And you can also donate to the Us People podcast by simply going to the SavioRocks website or the Us People podcast website so we can continue to hear beautiful stories. Guys, thank you so much for listening. Stay happy. Stay positive and as always, please continue to be kind to one another, take

Savia Rocks: 1:08:15

care.

Sam: 1:08:40

Hi, my name is Sam and I'm the Oh, see now I jinxed it! Don't

Savia Rocks: 1:08:45

say that!

Sam: 1:08:47

Okay, I'll do it again. That's hilarious! I should put that in the front. Don't put it in the front. Ugh! Okay, good. Alright, we definitely should have outtakes on your podcast. Okay, good.

Savia Rocks: 1:08:59

Of courage, you win. If you try redirect you, you'll see the, and yes, you try a. Spread your wings and let the wind glide you high. We're just soaring through this journey, leaving fear far behind. Arms are full of courage, you can win if you try. Redirect the S to U, you'll see the power of the S if you try. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let them win. I fly like I'm Superman.