He started Gleam Futures in 2010 after emergency brain surgery, from a Costa Coffee, in an industry that didn't have a name yet. He went on to build the careers of Zoella, Mrs Hinch, Grace Beverley, Alfie Deyes and more, before selling up and walking away.

In Episode 8 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Dom Smales, founder of Gleam Futures, Europe's first creator management agency, and the man now coming back for round two.

Dom is sharp, honest and sharing all his thoughts on where the creator economy went wrong, and where it's going next. He talks about the era of building IP before brand deals existed, navigating cancel culture on a weekly basis, and why selling Gleam was probably the biggest mistake he ever made.

He also shares why the sponsored post as we know it is dying, why short form content is almost invisible to AI while YouTube isn't, and why there is still a massive opportunity for creators, if they stop chasing the quick check and start building something that actually lasts.

In this episode:

Emergency brain surgery at 34 and the epiphany that started everything

Spotting Pixiwoo on YouTube before the word influencer existed — and what he actually saw

Four years convincing doubting rooms that social media was real before anyone believed him

Building IP from day one: makeup brushes, books, tours and movies — while everyone else chased brand deals

The toxicity wave of 2016 and managing national press crises on a weekly basis

"I wouldn't sell my business" the shoulda woulda coulda that still stings

Why the brand deal as we know it is dying and what brands need to do instead

Short form is almost invisible to AI. YouTube isn't. What that means for creators right now.

"There's a sh*t ton of money being left on the table" on the state of talent management today

Why he's coming back and what WinnieWood is building next

If you're interested in talent management roles or working with Dom's new venture, reach out to: [email protected]

Follow Dom Smales:

LinkedIn: Dom Smales Instagram: @domsmales

He started as a professional poker player. Then built a bootstrapped software company in the northeast of England. Then raised £8M before a single product existed and built Skin + Me into a business with over a million customers and well over £60M in revenue.

In Episode 7 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with James Mishreki, founder and chairman of Skin + Me, Hair + Me, and his latest venture S3 Sensitivity Science, the man quietly building a portfolio of consumer health brands on one founding principle: build it, hand it over, do it again.

James is level headed, precise and completely unbothered by the fact that most people think founders should run their own companies. He figured out early that founding and running are two different jobs and that knowing which one you're good at is the whole game.

He also talks about spending £60k on a brand name only to throw it in the bin, why you can never get internal validation from external achievement, and why as he turns 40, he wants maximum two paragraphs of his obituary to be about work.

In this episode:

* Poker to founder - the one thing he still takes from two years at the table

* Raising £8M pre-product and why conviction is what investors actually buy

* Why he bootstrapped his first company and why he'd never do it again

* "You can never get internal validation from external achievement" - the advice that hit him at 19

* Founding without running - what that actually looks like day to day

* How he finds and hires a CEO, and why it's the hardest part of the whole playbook

* Spending £60k on a brand called Gleam. Throwing it in the bin. Doing it again with Life Supplies.

* Buying back time - the chef, the PA, and why writing off £10 is a skill

* "I felt most out of my depth when I raised £8M and had to hire 20 people in a month"

* Two obituary paragraphs maximum. Why he's heading into his 40s differently.

Follow James Mishreki: @mishreki
LinkedIn: James Mishreki

Join The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious marketeers: thegrowthcollective.com

Follow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She spent 15 years building other people's brands. Then she quit a six-figure job, saved £60k, and launched a supplement brand about poo with her best friend of 20 years.

In Episode 6 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Holly Brooke, co-founder of We Are Regular, the bootstrapped, Boots-stocked supplement brand on a mission to get women talking about the thing nobody wants to talk about, poo.

Holly is funny, honest, and completely unbothered about the raised eyebrows. She spent a decade at the top of premium beauty, watched the influencer industry go from chaotic to corporate, and still chose to launch a lilac poo stick because it was the problem she actually wanted to solve.

She talks about the toxic workplace that broke her and built her, why she thinks hustle culture is a lie and what it really took to go from commercial director to co-founder.

She also gets into losing £45k when REGULAR sold out in it’s first month, why she's never not paid herself, and why building a £1 billion brand starts with genuinely believing it's possible.

In this episode:

* 15 years in premium beauty and what you only learn by doing it for someone else's brand

* Quitting a six-figure job nine months before the business even launched

* "I was on £60k savings and I'm not even that frugal" on bootstrapping honestly

* Selling out in six weeks, losing £45k, and doing it again twice after that

* Landing Boots in year one and why a big PO isn't always the win it looks like

* The toxic workplace in Australia that sent her to therapy and shaped the leader she became

* Why she refuses to sacrifice her salary, her lifestyle, or her sanity for the business

* Anti-hustle culture, burnout, and building for the long game

* "Delusion is the greatest asset I have" on ambition, billion-pound goals, and why she says it out loud

* Fear and excitement are the same thing. It's just that fear forgot to breathe.

Follow Holly Brooke:
Instagram: @@hollyvictoriabrooke)
Brand: @wearegular

Join The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious people doing the real work → thegrowthcollective.com

Follow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She started her career writing about sex and relationships at Australia's biggest women's media company. Then she built the agency she thought should already exist, for the women no one else would represent.In Episode 5 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Emma Gillman, founder of The Siren Group, a 7-figure PR agency representing the top 1% of adult content creators globally, including some of the most famous names on the internet.Emma is sharp, funny, and completely unfazed by a room full of people who don't take her seriously. She built her agency at 21, relocated from Sydney to London to grow it and has spent every year since proving that the business model is serious, the results are real and the criticism is almost always rooted in something much simpler than people admit.She talks about what it actually takes to build credibility in an industry that doesn't want to give it to you, why she'll always ask "do you watch porn?" when someone says they don't respect her work, and why the real conversation we should be having about women's sexuality isn't the one that's actually happening.In this episode:Writing about sex at 19 and deciding it was more interesting than anything elseBuilding The Siren Group at 21 — and why youth and rebellion were the whole point"Women's sexuality has always been monetised. It's just not usually women who are doing that."Sitting next door to a shoot with a cup of tea. What that's actually like.Why being taken seriously is harder when you're a young woman — and harder still when your clients are OnlyFans creatorsHow mainstream media coverage changes everything for adult creators — and why PR is the missing pieceManaging a team of 5 when you desperately want everyone to be happy all the timeNearly accidentally committing tax evasion. A £10k lesson."I want to be known for changing the way people perceive women and sex work."00:00 Coming Up01:02 Meet Emma: Making OnlyFans Creators Famous03:23 From Journalist to Adult Creator PR06:20 Why We Love to Hate Women Online10:19 Building a Business Around OnlyFans13:53 Why Adult Creators Aren’t Taken Seriously19:42 “Do You Watch Porn?” – The Double Standard23:22 Women, Money & Power in the Sex Industry28:51 Working With Lily Phillips & Changing Public Perception35:06 Platform Risk, Business Lessons & Emma’s AdviceFollow Emma Gillman:Instagram: @emma.gillmanBusiness: @thesirengroup.coJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious people doing the real work: thegrowthcollective.comFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

He started with £30k split between three co-founders, building an app out of a single room where two of them shared a bed and the third slept on the floor. That was Dojo. It didn't work out the way he planned. He did it again anyway.

In Episode 4 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Dev Karaca, co-founder of Kyra an AI-native creator marketing company built for ambitious brands and one of the most quietly sharp entrepreneurs in the UK creator economy.

Dev's story is 13 years of spotting the right wave slightly too early, pivoting without panic, and building through moments that would have finished most people. From shutting down a production company overnight when Covid hit, to nearly losing everything and rebuilding from scratch, to quietly developing technology that now watches 3 to 4 million videos a day — he's done all of it with a co-founder, a notepad full of ideas, and a wife who told him early on that he wasn't his best self at work.

He also talks about why obsession is overrated as a badge of honour, why the best decision he ever made lost them money, and why, if he lost everything tomorrow, he'd be quietly fine about it.

In this episode:

* Starting Dojo at 22 with £30k, three co-founders, and no idea what was coming

* Why not getting the exit they deserved taught him everything about expectations

* Spotting Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae before they blew up — and what they did with that

* Renting a jet and a crane for a Converse campaign and losing money on it. Best decision they ever made.

* Covid hitting overnight when they'd just signed a massive LA lease and were about to raise

* "Jump out of the plane and build your parachute on the way down" — the advice that stuck

* Why every great period in the business coincided with him finding balance, not grinding harder

* Building AI that watches 4 million videos a day — and why they're keeping it for themselves

* "I felt most out of my depth... all the time." On imposter syndrome, 13 years in.

Follow Dev Karaca:
Instagram: @devrankaraca
LinkedIn: Dev Karaca / devran-karaca

Join The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious people thegrowthcollective.com

Follow Behind the Growth: @behindthegrowthpod

She founded an agency, scaled it, navigated a private equity deal while pregnant across three time zones, and then walked away, by choice.In Episode 3 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Sedge Beswick, OG creative industry founder turned mentor, advisor, and champion of the people who build things quietly and brilliantly.Sedge talks about what it actually cost her to exit the business she built, financially, emotionally, and personally. And why she'd make the same decision again. She gets into the realities of motherhood and ambition (spoiler: they're not opposites), why quitting is the most underrated growth strategy and how resigning nearly half her client base tripled the business's profitability almost overnight.She also talks about the five minute rule she's lived by since she was 18, why she'd bet everything on TikTok Shop right now, and what she tells every founder who's too busy being busy to actually build.In this episode:* Selling yo-yos in the playground at 8 years old — and nearly getting expelled for it* Why saying yes got her everywhere early — and why she had to learn to stop* Resigning 47% of clients and watching profit triple* Navigating a private equity deal, a house renovation, and a first pregnancy — simultaneously* "Ambition doesn't die in the delivery room" — and why she'll say it all day* The factory reset: exiting a business at its peak and what comes after* Why she doesn't want to run another agency — and what she's building instead* TikTok Shop, live commerce, and where she'd put her money todayFollow Sedge Beswick:Instagram: @sedgebeswickLinkedIn: Sedge BeswickJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious marketeers: thegrowthcollective.comFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She was editing videos on the tube in the morning, going live every night after a 40-hour work week, and taking briefing calls in the staff toilets. Then she hit her first £10k month and took a bet on herself.In Episode 2 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Mia McGrath, founder of the Frugal Chic Movement, creator CEO with over 1 million followers, and the woman on a mission to make the whole of the UK financially literate.Mia's story is one of the most quietly radical ones we've heard. She wasn't chasing virality, she stumbled into it with a video called "5 things I did to get ahead financially in my 20s" that hit 50k views overnight. What followed was a year and a half of 60-hour weeks, a fashion showroom job she was quietly outgrowing, and a decision to walk away from a £10k pay rise because she could already see what was possible on the other side.She talks honestly about undercharging (£700 for a brand deal that should have been £5k), the identity trap of being "Frugal Chic" when you start earning real money, and why she made over £400k before she even felt like she'd properly started. Mia also gets into her £1 million FIRE goal, why she'd rather have her money in the stock market than a London house, and what it actually means to want to be known as a businesswoman, not just a creator.NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE IN CAPTIONIn this episode:* Going from fashion showroom assistant to 1M-follower creator CEO in under two years* Filming on the tube, going live every night, and working 60+ hours a week before quitting* Hitting a £10k month and nearly taking the £40k salary instead* Charging £700 for a brand deal worth £5k and what she learned about her own value* The identity pressure of being "Frugal Chic" when your income starts to grow* Making £400k+ and still feeling like she's only just at the start* Her £1M FIRE number, the 4% rule, and why she sees a house as a cost not an investment* Hiring her boyfriend, outsourcing her editing, and building a business that runs without her.Follow Mia McGrath:Instagram: @miarose_mcgrathTikTok: @miarosemcgrathLinked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-mcgrath-6ab0911a1/Join The Growth Collective:The community for ambitious people doing the real work → thegrowthcollective.com Follow Behind the Growth:Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod

She built Plant Made from her mum's house during Covid. Scaled it to 80 countries. Hit £700k in four days on Black Friday. Then a legal battle took it all.

00:00 Losing Everything
00:47 Meet Ama Hill
02:44 Psychology to Business
05:15 Becoming an Entrepreneur
08:16 Broke and Jobless
11:14 Building During Covid
13:05 Plantmade Begins
14:12 Catching Business Momentum
21:02 Success Felt Unreal
25:00 The £700K Month
31:56 Losing the Business
36:16 Giving Up Control
44:24 Founder Quickfire
46:13 Costliest Business Lesson

In Episode 1 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Ama Hill, founder, creator entrepreneur, and one of the UK's most compelling voices on building businesses and the honest realities behind them.

Ama gets into the unfiltered version of her story: how she went from studying psychology with plans to become a psychiatrist, to copywriting at 20 years old charging £2k a pop ("I should have said more"), to getting fired two weeks before Covid hit and turning lockdown into the launchpad for a haircare brand that would make the Sunday Times 100 Fastest-Growing Businesses in the UK.

But this isn't a highlight reel. Ama speaks openly about losing 100% equity in her business through a legal battle she didn't see coming, the moment she realised she'd trusted the wrong person, and why walking away from her customers was the hardest part of all of it. She also talks about what the end of Plant Made actually taught her about control, about character-vetting the people you let into your business, and about why she refuses to let it define what comes next.

Follow Ama Hill:

Instagram: @amaa__official

LinkedIn: Ama Hill

Join The Growth Collective:
Ready to build alongside founders who actually get it? Join the community for ambitious marketeers.

thegrowthcollective.com

Follow Behind the Growth:
Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod