Hype Girl: The Confidence Playbook You Didn’t Know You Needed

Samantha L. Santiago—call her Sam—is an award-winning global Chief Operating Officer, 5x Fortune 500 executive, keynote speaker, and author of her debut book, Hype Girl: The Confidence Playbook You Didn’t Know You Needed. Known for leading high-stakes transformations across health tech, insurance, and private-equity-backed companies, Sam teaches confidence through execution, not motivation. Her work sits at the intersection of leadership, performance, and results, helping people step into roles they don’t yet feel ready for and win anyway.

In Hype Girl, Sam breaks down how confidence is actually built, through action, discipline, and the right people in your corner. It’s a practical playbook for silencing self-doubt, owning ambition, and showing up with conviction in moments that matter most. Whether you’re chasing a promotion, leading a new team, or making a comeback, Hype Girl delivers the mindset and the moves to perform under pressure.

Across her career, Sam has led multi-million-dollar transformations, been featured in The Wall Street Journal as the first executive to deploy robotics in the insurance industry, and earned recognition as a 3x Top Leader in Massachusetts. A first-generation success and first-degree black belt in Krav Maga, Sam brings a corporate-athlete mindset to everything she does, because confidence isn’t a personality trait. It’s a skill. Her tagline, “Make Big Bets” is a reminder for all leaders to bet on themselves.