September 15, 2025 • 39 mins
Can you build a wildly profitable business without sacrificing your sanity?
In this episode, I’m joined by Denise Duffield-Thomas — money mentor, Hay House author, and the creator of the wildly successful Money Bootcamp. Denise has helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs release their money blocks, step into premium pricing, and create first-class lives… without the hustle.
We dive into:
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The mindset shift that helped Denise generate $32M+ in revenue
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How to create premium offers that your clients are excited to pay for
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Why consistency (not constant reinvention) builds sustainable wealth
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How Denise designs retreats, VIP Days, and group offers that feel luxurious AND low-lift
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Embracing imperfection and letting go of the “perfect sales funnel” fantasy
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What it really means to chill… and prosper
This episode is packed with real talk, practical ideas, and permission to create success your way — whether you're just starting out or scaling to seven figures and beyond.
🎧 If you’re ready to ditch burnout and grow your business with ease, this conversation is your invitation.
Resources Mentioned In the Episode:
Ready to build a visibility plan that matches your brilliance? Book a free call with Karen.
Books by Denise Duffield-Thomas:
🧲 Want to Work With Me?
If this episode got your wheels turning, and you’re ready to finally create your premium offer, build a personal brand that gets you seen, and land high-ticket clients on LinkedIn — let’s talk.
🔮 Book a complimentary clarity call and let’s reignite your visibility, credibility, and income.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I haven't done any of that perfectly. I've never had perfect sales funnels. I've never had, you know, a massive team. I've never done anything perfectly in my business. But I have, I have just done stuff. I've tried stuff, you know, and I've, I think that's the key. You have to sort of go, why not me? I'm just going to try it and see. I
(00:29):
Karen, hello and welcome to another episode of The Good girls get rich podcast. I'm your host, Karen Yankovich, and I am excited to have our guest with us today. We have Denise Duffield Thomas with us today, and Denise is the money mentor for the new wave of online entrepreneurs who want to make money and change the world. She helps entrepreneurs like you charge premium prices, release the fear of money and create first class lives. She's got books. Her books, lucky bitch get rich. Lucky Bitch and her newest chill and prosper give a fresh and funny roadmap to living a life of abundance without burnout. Her money boot camp has helped over 10,000 students from all around the world. She's a lazy introvert, a Hay House author and author, and an unbusy mother of three. She lives on the east coast of sunny Australia with her family and two fur babies. Denise, it is so great to have you here. It is so great to be finally having a conversation with you.
(01:17):
I know. Thank you so much for having me. Karen, as you were reading my bio, I was like, I need to update that, because I actually have four fur baby.
Oh my goodness, yes, you have two fur babies who are feeling left out now. Oh my goodness, yeah, that's a lot of human that's a lot of living, breathing things to to take care of three kids and four fur babies. Yep, that's so funny. So we've known each other for a long time. And I love, I love your work. I've got all your books. I've read all your books, and I love your kind of like, down to earth approach with all of this. You know, I think that, I think that the way you approach what you do is in such a way that it feels like it doesn't it feels like it feels like it feels attainable. It feels doable. It feels achievable, you know. And I love that about your
(02:04):
work. Well, thank you. Um, I think that's for me. I love talking about money. I love it. But I think at the start, when I first started to learn about things like the law of attraction and personal development, I felt like I wasn't good enough or smart enough to talk about money, and I wanted to create communities where it was just normalized and we didn't have to feel embarrassed about talking about money. And so I'll, I'll still tell people, I'll sometimes I release my tax returns, I talk very honestly about all the mistakes that I have made, as, let's face it, a new money person, right, nouveau rich person. And I think that's really important for us, women, is that we've always been so good about sharing out about our lives and being so honest and vulnerable with each other. And if we can do that with money, with business, we can only, like, you know, help each other to make that a normal yeah conversation and normalize ourselves, but for the kids who are watching too, yeah?
(03:06):
And you know what normalizes? It is, and I, you know the as an entrepreneur, right? My family, none of my family is entrepreneurs. They're all they all have paychecks and pensions and health benefits paid till the rest for the rest of their lives and all those things. So I didn't really have anybody to talk to about these kinds of things, except my entrepreneur friends, because my family doesn't get it. Like, if I whine, as I have been known to do, about how hard it is to have good health benefits in the US without paying, you know, an arm and a leg for them. They're like, well, go get a job, you know, and then you'll have, you'll have those health benefits. So they don't, get it right. How could they so, having a community like the kinds of communities that you create, or having conversations, normalizing these conversations in the entrepreneur community, I think is so helpful for so many of us that have to have these conversations. You know, we have to. Somebody told me one time, you know, even though you are, it's not a difference in earning your paycheck or earning, you know, your money, your income as an entrepreneur, but for when you get your paycheck every Friday or whatever, it just gets deposited into your account as an entrepreneur, you have to ask for every dime that you have, right? Like it's somewhere, somewhere along the line, there was an ask for that, and that's a mindset shift as well as a strategy. So Denise,
(04:22):
I have actually a little bit of a funny story, and I think that is the hardest thing. Denise, I have a pretty
funny story about when I was reading, I was literally in the middle of reading one of your books. I don't remember. It might have been Get Rich, Lucky Bitch. I don't remember, but I was reading one of them, and in the book, maybe you'll know which book. When I say this, in the book, you talk about like just celebrating everything that comes your way, if, if somebody leaves a pen at your house and you have a new pen, you know, celebrate that you've just manifested this new pen, right? Like all the things, celebrate all the things. So I was driving, and I live in New Jersey, and in New Jersey, you're not allowed to pump your own gas. You have to pull up to a gas station attendant, roll your window down, and somebody says, you know, tell them what you wanted. And for whatever reason, I. Said to the attendant, you know, I don't remember what the number was, but I was putting it on a card, and I was like, 20, put $20 in, you know, whatever on this. And I hand in the card. So he comes back to me and he says, it is your lucky day. I said, why? What do you mean? He says, I swiped your card. I put $20 and he goes, every single time you I do that, I put the number $20 in, and I swipe your card. It builds you $20 and it gives you $20 worth of gas, but you got $20.05 worth of gas. He goes, and I don't know why, and I don't know how, but somehow you got an extra five cents worth of gas. I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll take that five cents. I will celebrate that five cents, you know. And, and he was because he was so funny about it. He was like, I never saw this happen before. You're so lucky. I'm like, I am lucky. Thank you for that five cents worth of gas, you know, but it's, it is about paying attention, like it's do, are you paying attention to where the five cents worth of gas, or are you paying attention to the to the lack, right? And where you pay attention the, you know, the that's what follows, right, with what you're paying attention to. So, you know, I know your story in that, right? Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about where, how you started in this work? Because, you know, you mentioned that you didn't, you weren't born to this, right? That you call yourself nouveau riche, right? So, how did you start with this work?
(06:14):
So I grew up, as I said, East Coast of Australia, to a very, very young single mom. So my mom was 17 when she had me. My mom and dad had very volatile relationship. He was only very young as well, and so all I remember from my early years was we moved around a lot, and my little brother came along, and it was literally just moving every couple of months. But what? What's fascinating about my mom? She's actually the Lucky Bitch, you know, like I write about being being a lucky bitch, but she kind of raised me with this mentality, I think of easy, come easy, go. Money's gear. It'll just show up when we need it. And that's kind of what our early life was like. And she was very easy, breezy with stuff. And funnily enough, now she lives in a motorhome. She's in Bali at the moment. She just travels around, and that's kind of what our life was like. And she would just have these windfalls out of the blue, like she would always win the meat tray at the raffle. I don't know if you guys do that. We could win a meat tray or a fruit platter, or you could win whatever. She won money on the slot machines every now and again. You know, she's just such a lucky person. But I it was very like it was very up and down, very feast or famine, right? And I didn't have any role models of even people who went to university, or even really people who had, like, a real job, let alone entrepreneurship. So I think from an early age, I saw what money could, lack of money could create in your life, which was insecurity and also lack of power. Because this is the 80s we're talking about, right? So it's not like my mum could really start a side hustle at home when we're asleep, which we can do now, which I'm so thankful of. And so my mom, my auntie, my grandma, they were all in bad relationships. It's because of money. And they would all look at me all the time and say, Never trust a man. Make your own money. Do your own thing. And so I think I had this seed inside of me from a young age to say, I have to do this myself. I have to be responsible. I have to make my own money. And so I was a bit of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial kid. And I think one of the first seeds for that was reading the Babysitters Club series, which so many kids of the 80s did, and this idea that you could earn your own money. So I started just little side hustles. I guess as a little kid, I was selling bracelets. I would try and do a garage sale. I did a little bit of babysitting. And I think that was just, again, that hunger for me, of I have to make my own money. I spent my 20s really searching for what that was. You know, I had kind of saw a little bit of this world of coaching, but I didn't know that you could really make that into a job. So I went from job to job in my 20s, really searching for my thing, like literally doing every personality test and what am I here to do? And when I found the world of coaching, particularly the world of online coaching and online businesses for women, which my first entree into, that was Ali Brown, who was amazing. I won a ticket to her conference, you know? And it was just like, Oh, my God, there are other women doing this. So I think I started very generically as a life coach, and then very quickly realized I loved talking to entrepreneurs, so I moved into business coaching. And the the thing that came up again and again with all of my clients was this fear around money, not wanting to say our prices, not wanting to talk about money. And I think it was a bit of a natural like progression for me to go, Well, why? Why are we not allowed to talk about it? And I think my own curiosity led me to marrying some of the personal development tools I'd been learning for. For a long time and going, Are we allowed to apply this to money? What if we talked about forgiveness and money? What if we talked about visualizations and money, all the things that were kind of easy to talk about in the woo, woo spiritual world or personal development world, and it was just a huge, I think, eye opening thing to say, Oh, well, this actually does work for us to make friends with money, like like women talk about everything honestly and openly. And it led to my first Money Boot Camp, which was 13 years ago now. And then I just kept on going with it. I was like, oh, people like this. Oh, let's do it again. Let's do it again. And as you know, 10,000 students, yeah, later. Well, let's talk about that for a
(10:45):
second, because that's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you today. Because 13 years you've been running money bootcamp, and there are very few people, especially entrepreneurs, that are still doing today what exactly what they were doing 13 years ago. And I'm sure you're not doing exactly what you're doing 13 years ago, but you, you built your program, you you owned, you know that it was your, your, you know what you're good at, your zone of genius, and then you're still running it. And to me, that's huge. That's huge. There's so few people doing that. So were there ever times that you were like, Okay, it's time to to sunset this and create a new program, or, you know, tell us a little bit about that.
(11:26):
Every day I have that feeling because, not because it's great, not because it's not getting people results, because I'm an entrepreneur, and that's the hardest thing, I think for us, is that we have squirrel brains, right? That's exactly what we do. So I'll tell you, I think the way it's worked for me, one, I've always been incredibly consistent in my business, not in my personal life, so I've always embraced things like batching content and batching marketing, and I think that gives you a little bit of distance, I think that you are not your business. And I learned this from the great coach and spiritual mentor, Hero Boga. Oh yeah, yeah, when I worked with her a few times, she's amazing, right? She really had to teach me to energetically separate my myself from my business. And once you do that, you realize I don't need to get all of my excitement and and creativity through my business, because the business exists to do that for clients. And I think when we're so intertwined with our business, we feel like, if I have a bad day and I don't feel like doing work, which is very normal in any job. Doesn't matter how much you love your job. There will be days where you go I don't want to do this. And what entrepreneurs do is go well, that means now I have to do something else. Now that means I have to throw it all in the bin. And I've just because I learned that from her, I could go, Well, that doesn't matter, you know, and it's fine that you're bored with it today, but just wait till tomorrow. And it's always been one of those things like, quit it tomorrow, burn it all down tomorrow, just don't do it today, right? And what I've had learn as especially now, where I'm kind of definitely in the mature stage of the business, right? And this is where people either decline or they start something new, and where I've had to channel my energy now is into my personal life. So I get my excitement and energy from I do adults ballet, I do adults tap, I make costumes and all these fun things. Because I'm like, No, but the business is good. The business can help people. The business doesn't have to fulfill all of my personal excitement and newness, if that makes sense. So that really helps destroy it tomorrow, burn it down tomorrow. Just don't do it
(14:01):
today. Oh, that's great. That's such good advice, yeah. And, you know, we that that's one of the beauties about being an entrepreneur, right? We might work, you know, we can work on a Saturday if we want, if we want to take Friday, and, you know, go to the beach with our kids, right? So it doesn't mean you have to replace it. Sometimes. You just can have a week where you work a little bit less, right? So I didn't get to do that when I was in corporate, right? I had to be there every day. So that's, you know, that's, to me, one of the best parts about that's really why I did this. Because when my kids got old enough to for them to be on their own and and I remember thinking like, when they have kids, I want to be able to be there for my grandkids, you know, like my mother and mother in law were when, when my kids were little, and at the way that I was working at the time, I wasn't going to be able to be because I had to be at work every day, right? So I said, Well, what does it look like, if I you know, what would I have to build? And that to me, creating, like, what does your life look like, and then building your business around that it can be done. It absolutely can be done. As a matter of fact, I'm going to state this, and now I have. To make it happen the episode that's coming out right before this episode. So you guys, I don't remember what this number will be, but go back to last week. I did an episode on 50 ways you can turn your paycheck, your paycheck skills, into an entrepreneurial skill, like, go back to work if you need to go to work. I am so cool with that. But if you're feeling the pull, you know, then you know, you don't have to learn something, you don't have to do something new. You probably already have the skills. It's just, how can you turn that into, you know, into a profitable or a profit making service, right? So, and I think, and that will allow you, it's, it's certainly not easy all the time, right? But it will allow you to work on your own time terms, in your own hours, doesn't mean you're gonna work less, that's for sure. At least for me in the beginning, what didn't mean that at all, but, you know, thankfully, it does now. So you know, I get to, I get to do that. You know, the other thing that you talk about in your bio that I think is important is premium prices, and you know, I I like to call it like, when I work with people, I want to flip the funnel, like, what is the most, highest price thing you can have? Like, let's create that first. It doesn't mean you don't have to create sales pages for it, and all a million things, but you just have to know what it is, right? Like, if you're a coach and you have a three month coaching package, and it's, you know, $3,000 for your three month coaching package. What if you front load that three month coaching package with a VIP day now maybe it's a $7,000 coaching package, right? And you're still doing exactly what you did, and you're giving maybe more value, because you can do in one day what was going to take you two and a half months to with the same client to even get to you right now you can start from that space. So so to me, premium prices doesn't have to mean just overcharging. It could be creating premium packages. And I believe the world we live in right now, people want that. They want more high touch. Which, which you which requires premium prices?
(16:55):
Yeah, it does. Um, I just want to say as well that episode sounds amazing. Can you please make sure that when that goes live, you send it to me as well. I know my audience
will absolutely I will love that. And you know, Denise, it came from a Facebook post. I saw a Facebook post that somebody was like, I am leaving maternity leave is over. I have to go back to work. I can't believe I have to go back to work. What are you guys all doing instead of going back to work? And I was like, You know what? I need to do an episode on this. So anyway, yeah, I will let you know it'll be it'll be out. What is it? I would say it'll be out soon, maybe the early September, if not the end of August. So it'll be out soon, perfect.
(17:30):
Well, I think what's really cool about that, though, is that people really over complicate things. Yes, and we think that every everything we create has to be so different. And as you said it, we could literally have the exact same message in so many different formats. So really, if you read my book, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, it is like doing my money boot camp, but it's not the accountability, it's not the community. So I've had people say, well, like, can I just do a book, book version of my course, or my one to one stuff? I know absolutely it doesn't cannibalize your work. It only enhances the opportunities for people to find you and then, similarly So, I've got, you know, my book, my money bootcamp, I'll do live events. It's the same work, because people need to hear it in different formats. They need to experience it in different formats. Same with my retreats, which are obviously much higher end. It's the same work, and I think we're just constantly over complicating things. Also, what I'm excited for for people to listen to that episode about the 50 ways, is that we discount what we already know, and we think everybody knows this. Yes, everybody knows how to do this, and it is absolutely not true. And even still, like I can, I'm a Virgo, oldest child, you know, ruler archetype. I can do every everything. I can say that, hand on heart. I can figure out things, but I don't want to Yes, finding a shortcut, yes. I love learning from someone who's figured out a system. I love condensing knowledge, you know. So instead of buying a course, often, I'll be like, I will buy someone like, I buy someone's VIP day. I'm about to do two days with somebody working out my marketing funnels right for the next year. I can do that myself. What I'm paying for is space, someone to hold my hand through it, someone to bounce off, someone to get me away from my house and my kids and my dogs and my cats, and all the accountability, spaciousness, all the things
(19:42):
I'm going to ask you this because this is my I if that same person said to you, Denise, I would love to help you with this, but I only do this in groups, and we start August 15 or September 25 and it's every Tuesday at two o'clock. Would you be as excited about that? Like that's to me, I feel like there are people that want that they do. Want your group that not that they don't love your group, not that they don't like I happen to be in a group right now, and I feel I'm feeling guilty all the time because I'm not really participating as much as I should be, you know, and I, and it's, it's, I don't for me, I would much rather pay the extra money and hire somebody exactly like you said, and sit down and the people listening, you guys need to hear this because somebody wants that from you. You don't have to. You just have to have it ready. Yeah, you don't have to even have you maybe talk about it every now and then. You know, there's a couple different ways I work with people. We could do this. You can do this, or if you want, we can create a custom package for you. And the beautiful thing is your custom package, because it's custom, you just can make it up as you go, you know, you can say, well, you know, I can send a car for you at the airport. And we can, I can bring a massage therapist in the middle of the day, and you can make it up as you go. So you, you it's and, you know, it's the most fun that I have is when I get to do that. So important topic, an important topic. And you just, I
(20:55):
love to, even if you're a bit scared about doing this, there's a couple of ways you can try it. So one of the ways is whatever you do, especially if you have a service based thing, have a fast track. Have a skip the queue, because especially for people like me, I am so impatient. So if I see somebody, I remember, I think it was like an astrologist or something I wanted to work with, and they said, Oh, my wait list is three months long. And I said to her, why don't you have a VIP skip the queue? It could be double the price. So you could spend three days of your week with regular clients at the regular price, and you could have two days a week, or even one day a week for the skip the queue VIP people. And they were like, but who would pay that? And I was like, me, because I'm impatient and I want it now. Similarly, I had this lady who had this service where it was you had to sign up for the month for a couple of months, and she would go through all of your audio calls with people, anything that you've done, and turn it into social media snippets. And you could get 10 a month to 20 a month, right? Her name's Claire panacea. It's called the Golden Nugget service. And I said to her, instead of doing 20 a month for three months, could you just do like, 1000 for me this month? Because I have so much content. She was like, Oh, I've never thought about that. Because in her mind, she was like, people will want to piece this out. And I was like, I don't want to. He said, out. Give me it now. In the next two weeks, we'll never have to talk again. And yeah, it was like a real she was like, I'll create it for you, right? Because there are always people who want it now. Want to skip the queue. Want to condense six months of something into a VIP day, a weekend, the private coaching, and all of those things can be done so easily. And as you said before, there was a little nugget. You said, Karen, a couple of minutes ago, we said, you don't even need a sales page. And this is so perfect, because especially if you're working with people who want it. Now, I'll give you another example. There was a lady. I can't remember her name. Off the top of my head, she was doing this service where she would go through your dropbox for you and organize it. I know I'll try to
(23:08):
remember to send
it to you. But she was like, she started, I think she was saying, I can do your Vimeo, I can do your Dropbox, I can do any system, right? And again, I was like, I have got so much. Like, I want it now. I and I signed up for two VIP days with her. And I think even the way she'd organize it, she was like, we'll get on the phone at the start of the day, and then I'll go and do it, and we'll check in. And I said, I'm in Australia. I don't need to check in with you. I don't need to get on the phone with you. I don't need a discovery call for this. I was like, Just do it. I'll sign up for two, two lots, you know, two VIP days. And basically, just, just do it. And it was so easy. I didn't need to see a sales page. She just said me the payment link done right? And there is such a it's such an easy thing. But also, again, if you're scared to do it, why not come up with the craziest thing you can think of, and just have it there. Because I think even expanding your mind as possible, and even if one person buys it, you go
(24:09):
exactly, just talk about it every now.
And that is, yeah,
I was talking to a high school friend of mine a couple, like, couple years ago. Now probably she's a yoga instructor, and she retired from business and is doing yoga. And I she said, All right, like, what does that look like, Karen, for me? And I was like, You know what? Oh my gosh. Give me like, you know, all my, all my yoga teacher friends are like, $20 a class, and I'm like, You know what, if you I'm I may or may not come to your class, because I may or may not be feeling it, and I also may or may not feel like my shoulders can support a down dog today or whatever, because I'm not 25 anymore, so I'm a little sometimes intimidated by some of the classes, whatever. Give me a hat, give me a day, give me a private day, where you're going to, we're going to come together, and you're going to create, you're going to ask me, how what, what am I body hurts? What do I need? What do I need less of and more of? And create some custom, you know, some custom sequences for me. And then. Maybe some essential oil blends. Maybe give me a massage, get a massage. Masseuse to come in the middle of day, like, give me a day, a yoga. Like, just an a yoga, high end Yoga Day. And I would rather do that then come to your $20 class, because then you can check in with me and you can say, you know, how's it going? How are those sequences doing? Maybe we meet once a month, virtually now. And, you know, we talk about, do we need to add another sequence? Is there? You know, do we need to progress? Right? There are people willing to do that. And, but we, but what we look was, so many women I talked to are looking for the, you know, how do I charge that? Because everybody else charges $20 a class. You just do, you just do and, and you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. And then, and then, doesn't that sound amazing, right? Isn't it amazing? Like when you start to dream up these high end packages, they're so much more fun than trying to create something that's $50 you know? And and, you know, this is my I can go on a tangent forever, but, and you're never going to be in a position if you price this properly. You're never going to be in a position of saying, well, position of saying, Well, I can't do that, because we're at a budget. Have so much budget in there that if you decide halfway through that they need, you know, a PR strategy, that you can bring in a PR strategist and give them that too, like over deliver, you know. And you can really just keep over delivering if you come in with a big enough budget and everybody, it's win, win, win. So I love you. Know, more people need to talk about that too. I think
(26:27):
see already we're sparking off ideas, right? This is what happens when you get in community, exactly with other entrepreneurs. And that's the fun thing, right? When you have your consistency in your business, which I do, it gives you freedom to play in these other possibilities and to have fun with it and be creative about it as well. So another example, retreat. Some people are really scared to run retreats, run conferences, and I found really creative ways to be able to do this without a lot of financial risk. So for example, a friend of mine, we're just like, let's go to Bali and, you know, offer a small retreat. Now, where people get stuck is that sometimes they'll contact a hotel. A hotel will be like, Okay, you have to guarantee a certain amount of rooms. You have to pay for everything. We always went, No, we're going to go to a hotel that has enough rooms, has enough space, all we'll do is we'll book our own rooms, and we'll book if there's a usually, what we'll do is we'll get a big enough Villa or room that we could run it in our rooms if we wanted to, and then we we pick a price, but the people only are paying for us. They have to pay their own flights, their own accommodation, right? So we've got nothing to do with any of that, and it's very, very low risk. So even if we had one person sign up, we basically paid for our own right holiday. And we're, we're besties anyway, so we're like, even if no one goes, we'll still go right, right? And that is always been such an easy way for me to run retreats. I wanted to come to New York two years ago to go to broadwaycon. And I just said, Does anyone want to do a VIP, a small group VIP day in New York? A couple of like, you know, people said, Yeah, cool. So I booked again, just a boardroom. Everyone can book their own accommodation. Everyone's grown ups. So I sold out 110 day, sold out another 10 day. So I had just two days that I had to do with work, and then I had a drinks in between for both groups. So I was like, come before or come after? Right? My only costs were the boardroom, which usually fairly cheap. It was, you know, a couple of $1,000 per person. I paid for me and my best friend to go business class to New York, to go to broadwaycon, to have we went, we saw, like seven musicals in a week, and I did two days of work. Beautiful people. Very simple agenda. And what was lovely about that people would say, thank you so much for putting this on. Thank you so much for coming. I was like, You guys are paying me to be here. Thank you. And I just thought, I mean, it was only a day, so it's not like I can change people's lives in a day. But again, very, very, very simple agenda, even my three day retreats that I run very simple agenda, because most of the time, what people are paying for is spaciousness, to think someone to bounce ideas off, maybe meeting community, being outside of their normal life, to open up to possibilities. And I didn't have a sales page for it again, I was just like, I'm coming to New York
(29:40):
last time. Who wants to join me? I love that so much. Exactly I've done that around.
I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh yeah, you're, I think you're gonna say, I think you're gonna say the exact same thing that I did, right? Book a suite. Have like two, three people to come. Yeah? VIP day, you've paid for your suit. You paid for your
thing. Yeah? Yep. Well, I. I did that. I've done that a couple of times around a conference. Like, if I'm speaking at a conference, sometimes I'll be, you know, like, if it's like in Florida in the winter, you know, and I'm in New York, New Jersey, and New York in this winter, it's cold up here, I'll book a suite, and I will say, All right, I'm going to be there. And I'll book a suite a couple days early, and I'll, you know, if you're coming, especially if they're going to the conference anyway, you know, we'll mastermind or something for, you know, a day or two, whatever, before, on the front, usually on the front end, because then I can work with them as they go through the conference, and then they know each other as they go through the conference. But I'm going there anyway, you know, my I was already going, it's just the more, the higher, the higher, the bigger room, you know, so that you have room for them. I usually that works. Usually that works. And then, you know, you get a great room, you know, then you have a great room for the whole time too, which is never, which is always fun. So, yeah, awesome. All right, Denise, tell us what is next for you? What's coming up with Denise Duffield, Thomas and money bootcamp and your books? What's going on? Oh, I
(30:53):
think I'm in a period of life where I'm really focused on creativity outside of my business. So again, it's that, for me, it's that discipline of going the business works, right? Keep on putting people, people in the business, you know, keep on taking people through that program. Don't, don't break it. That's my that's my philosophy, right? Although it's all roads lead to money, but you can, don't break it. So for me, personally, as I said to you, I think before we started recording. My kids are seven, nine and 11, and I'm just trying to survive that, right? I'm trying to survive my daughter's going to high school next year. Wow, yeah, all the pets, everyone takes turns throwing tantrums in the house. So I am so grateful that I have a business vehicle that allows me to help people but doesn't burn me out. Personally, I'm so so grateful for that, especially at this phase of life for myself. So can I actually please show you something I'm working on? I would love that. So random you're gonna you're gonna be like, What the heck are you even talking I'm actually so I can see what you're talking about. It's prop based. Okay, so when I was a kid, I was obsessed with dancing, obsessed with tap, jazz ballet, kind of dancing. So now what I do is I am in an adult, oh my goodness, ballet school, and we do a lots of performing, and I make random costumes for you. Made that costume. My friend and I were, well, I when I say I made it I like, this is a dress from, like, one of those cheap stores. This is another dress from a cheap store that, okay, made an overskirt. This is, like, random trim from different places. You know, this is this necklace is from the thrift store. And so this is my ugly stepsister. So what? Someone's wearing pink and someone's wearing green and blue. And so this is what I was up late last night, sewing and making the wigs for this costume. That's what I do now, to try and make sure and look at these little butterflies. It's impressive. So I don't break my business. I literally, like, I've got this massive bow on this back. It's so much fun. So I literally, I go to something like eight ballet classes a week, and I try not to break my business, and I do a ton of really ugly cross stitch. And so what's next? It's really, I don't know. I'm I'm in this really delicious space of I'm not hungry. I've made a ton of money over the last couple of years. I've so I'm happy to tell people, like, from when I started my business, I've made about $32 million so I've invested in real estate and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And I think sometimes I have to, I have to remind myself that I'm not that little kid who is hungry and, you know, wanting to prove myself. And so I'm trying to learn at this phase of my life, especially perimenopause and all of those things to calm my nervous system to remind myself that there's space so that I'm safe. There's still a lot of healing work to do around that, to try and raise my kids to be good people, and try and be in a state of contentment. I know that sounds really strange, but I it
(34:17):
doesn't sound strange. I mean, I feel like, as entrepreneurs, contentment is not doesn't come naturally to us.
Yeah, right. Because it's like, what's next, right? Right? We have it like, I'm really trying to avoid writing another book just yet, exactly, to try and be content and like, let me show you my other little project that I'm working on, because, again, it's you have to keep your little brain. I'm, I'm making this Christmas cross
(34:43):
stitch. Oh, my goodness, wow, it's pretty. But this
is my, yes, this is my new thing. Karen is make ugly stuff, but make it Christmas. This is my new thing, right? Because this is the room up to because, if. You make an ugly I don't know diamond art ever. You feel so bad when it's finished, right? Because you go, What the frick am I going to do with this? So I've decided that all of my random craft projects are going to be Christmas themed, because they know how ugly it is. You can get it out at Christmas and then put it away for the rest of the year. So even even my cross stitch kits, I've got, like, cross stitch kits where it's like a crunch, country house. I'm turning them into, like gingerbread houses, because now I've got so many random threads and stuff. So this is what keeps my squirrel brain. It's awesome make an ugly Yes, and so I literally take this everywhere. Now this little it's got all my cross that's awesome. That's awesome. It's just like one of those little backpack inserts. And so I will be sitting there in the waiting room doing cross stitch. If you're sitting there on your phone, people go, oh god, she's a bad mom. This is such a great tip for moms. If you're sitting with cross stitch, people go, look at you. So mindful and creative, I'm still ignoring my kids, but it is so wonderful. So I'm not like innovating in my business. I'm literally going, here is my course. It will help you, if you want it. I don't know it's a really interesting phase that I climb,
(36:19):
but if matertise, I feel like you are living, you are living your chill and prosper book, right? You are living that book, which is, by the way, it's a great book, if you guys, if you you know, all of her books are good books, but chill and prosper is a great book because it teaches exactly what Denise is talking about right now, right? Continue to make money, but you don't have to do it by hustling. You can do it while cross stitching, right? Or while pure wedding
(36:41):
awesome, making ugly stepsister costumes.
Yeah, yeah. And at the heart of it, I love that. I love it. And there was, there's a lot of great tips in that book. There's a lot of great tips in that book too. So Thanks for, thanks for all you do, because you've helped me a lot. And I know a lot of my student, I send a lot of I send chill and prosper to a lot of my students. Sometimes when I know who needs it, you know, and I'm like, You need to read Denise Duffield Thomas's book, because this book is going to help you get out of your head a little bit, you know. And, and, and you're doing it, you know, kind of to circle back to where we started in the beginning. You've brought $32 million into your into your world, in the last 10 years, and you're doing it from this place of just comfort and and support and and chill and prosper. So I I love that that's a good you're a good role model for people like me and everybody else. Denise, thank you for doing what you do when we're when we well, I run around a little too
(37:36):
much perfection, right? Imperfection. I want people to hear that is, I haven't done any of that perfectly. I've never had perfect sales funnels. I've never had, you know, a massive team. I've never done anything perfectly in my business. But I have, I've just done stuff. I've tried stuff, you know, and I've, I think that's the key. You have to sort of go, why not me? I'm just going to try it and see, and not wait for things to be perfect, not wait for the stars to align. And, you know, things like, do it, try a little VIP day, you know, try and make those little offers, because you'll be surprised about who says yes. And we're waiting, I think, for for us to feel ready. And I've never felt ready. I'm still, don't feel ready, and I still sometimes look at that and go, How have I created that much money? I've done everything so imperfectly.
(38:28):
I know what I'm doing, and I've got imposter syndrome, all those great who
doesn't every every new level, there's new there's new imposter syndrome. Yeah, we could, we could go on and on and on, all right, I want to. I so appreciate you being here. I love all the work you do. I love what you do for the world. And I'm so glad we finally got to do this, and I can't wait to continue to follow your adventures. Denise, thanks for coming and being here with us today.
(38:52):
Oh, my God, thank you so much. Oh, and by the way, follow me on Instagram. I do share ballet stuff sometimes on Instagram, especially my stories, and it's Denise dt, yeah, we'll link it. We'll link everything in the show notes everywhere. So please follow me, yes, yeah, great. And then yes, my website's Denise dt.com, but thank you so much, Karen, and I can't wait to get to know your community a bit better. I can't wait to hear that episode. Yeah, yeah.
(39:15):
It is a good one. It was a fun one. All right, thank you so much again, and everybody else, we'll see you next week. Take care, everyone.
I haven't done any of that perfectly. I've never had perfect sales funnels. I've never had, you know, a massive team. I've never done anything perfectly in my business. But I have, I have just done stuff. I've tried stuff, you know, and I've, I think that's the key. You have to sort of go, why not me? I'm just going to try it and see. I
(00:29):
Karen, hello and welcome to another episode of The Good girls get rich podcast. I'm your host, Karen Yankovich, and I am excited to have our guest with us today. We have Denise Duffield Thomas with us today, and Denise is the money mentor for the new wave of online entrepreneurs who want to make money and change the world. She helps entrepreneurs like you charge premium prices, release the fear of money and create first class lives. She's got books. Her books, lucky bitch get rich. Lucky Bitch and her newest chill and prosper give a fresh and funny roadmap to living a life of abundance without burnout. Her money boot camp has helped over 10,000 students from all around the world. She's a lazy introvert, a Hay House author and author, and an unbusy mother of three. She lives on the east coast of sunny Australia with her family and two fur babies. Denise, it is so great to have you here. It is so great to be finally having a conversation with you.
(01:17):
I know. Thank you so much for having me. Karen, as you were reading my bio, I was like, I need to update that, because I actually have four fur baby.
Oh my goodness, yes, you have two fur babies who are feeling left out now. Oh my goodness, yeah, that's a lot of human that's a lot of living, breathing things to to take care of three kids and four fur babies. Yep, that's so funny. So we've known each other for a long time. And I love, I love your work. I've got all your books. I've read all your books, and I love your kind of like, down to earth approach with all of this. You know, I think that, I think that the way you approach what you do is in such a way that it feels like it doesn't it feels like it feels like it feels attainable. It feels doable. It feels achievable, you know. And I love that about your
(02:04):
work. Well, thank you. Um, I think that's for me. I love talking about money. I love it. But I think at the start, when I first started to learn about things like the law of attraction and personal development, I felt like I wasn't good enough or smart enough to talk about money, and I wanted to create communities where it was just normalized and we didn't have to feel embarrassed about talking about money. And so I'll, I'll still tell people, I'll sometimes I release my tax returns, I talk very honestly about all the mistakes that I have made, as, let's face it, a new money person, right, nouveau rich person. And I think that's really important for us, women, is that we've always been so good about sharing out about our lives and being so honest and vulnerable with each other. And if we can do that with money, with business, we can only, like, you know, help each other to make that a normal yeah conversation and normalize ourselves, but for the kids who are watching too, yeah?
(03:06):
And you know what normalizes? It is, and I, you know the as an entrepreneur, right? My family, none of my family is entrepreneurs. They're all they all have paychecks and pensions and health benefits paid till the rest for the rest of their lives and all those things. So I didn't really have anybody to talk to about these kinds of things, except my entrepreneur friends, because my family doesn't get it. Like, if I whine, as I have been known to do, about how hard it is to have good health benefits in the US without paying, you know, an arm and a leg for them. They're like, well, go get a job, you know, and then you'll have, you'll have those health benefits. So they don't, get it right. How could they so, having a community like the kinds of communities that you create, or having conversations, normalizing these conversations in the entrepreneur community, I think is so helpful for so many of us that have to have these conversations. You know, we have to. Somebody told me one time, you know, even though you are, it's not a difference in earning your paycheck or earning, you know, your money, your income as an entrepreneur, but for when you get your paycheck every Friday or whatever, it just gets deposited into your account as an entrepreneur, you have to ask for every dime that you have, right? Like it's somewhere, somewhere along the line, there was an ask for that, and that's a mindset shift as well as a strategy. So Denise,
(04:22):
I have actually a little bit of a funny story, and I think that is the hardest thing. Denise, I have a pretty
funny story about when I was reading, I was literally in the middle of reading one of your books. I don't remember. It might have been Get Rich, Lucky Bitch. I don't remember, but I was reading one of them, and in the book, maybe you'll know which book. When I say this, in the book, you talk about like just celebrating everything that comes your way, if, if somebody leaves a pen at your house and you have a new pen, you know, celebrate that you've just manifested this new pen, right? Like all the things, celebrate all the things. So I was driving, and I live in New Jersey, and in New Jersey, you're not allowed to pump your own gas. You have to pull up to a gas station attendant, roll your window down, and somebody says, you know, tell them what you wanted. And for whatever reason, I. Said to the attendant, you know, I don't remember what the number was, but I was putting it on a card, and I was like, 20, put $20 in, you know, whatever on this. And I hand in the card. So he comes back to me and he says, it is your lucky day. I said, why? What do you mean? He says, I swiped your card. I put $20 and he goes, every single time you I do that, I put the number $20 in, and I swipe your card. It builds you $20 and it gives you $20 worth of gas, but you got $20.05 worth of gas. He goes, and I don't know why, and I don't know how, but somehow you got an extra five cents worth of gas. I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll take that five cents. I will celebrate that five cents, you know. And, and he was because he was so funny about it. He was like, I never saw this happen before. You're so lucky. I'm like, I am lucky. Thank you for that five cents worth of gas, you know, but it's, it is about paying attention, like it's do, are you paying attention to where the five cents worth of gas, or are you paying attention to the to the lack, right? And where you pay attention the, you know, the that's what follows, right, with what you're paying attention to. So, you know, I know your story in that, right? Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about where, how you started in this work? Because, you know, you mentioned that you didn't, you weren't born to this, right? That you call yourself nouveau riche, right? So, how did you start with this work?
(06:14):
So I grew up, as I said, East Coast of Australia, to a very, very young single mom. So my mom was 17 when she had me. My mom and dad had very volatile relationship. He was only very young as well, and so all I remember from my early years was we moved around a lot, and my little brother came along, and it was literally just moving every couple of months. But what? What's fascinating about my mom? She's actually the Lucky Bitch, you know, like I write about being being a lucky bitch, but she kind of raised me with this mentality, I think of easy, come easy, go. Money's gear. It'll just show up when we need it. And that's kind of what our early life was like. And she was very easy, breezy with stuff. And funnily enough, now she lives in a motorhome. She's in Bali at the moment. She just travels around, and that's kind of what our life was like. And she would just have these windfalls out of the blue, like she would always win the meat tray at the raffle. I don't know if you guys do that. We could win a meat tray or a fruit platter, or you could win whatever. She won money on the slot machines every now and again. You know, she's just such a lucky person. But I it was very like it was very up and down, very feast or famine, right? And I didn't have any role models of even people who went to university, or even really people who had, like, a real job, let alone entrepreneurship. So I think from an early age, I saw what money could, lack of money could create in your life, which was insecurity and also lack of power. Because this is the 80s we're talking about, right? So it's not like my mum could really start a side hustle at home when we're asleep, which we can do now, which I'm so thankful of. And so my mom, my auntie, my grandma, they were all in bad relationships. It's because of money. And they would all look at me all the time and say, Never trust a man. Make your own money. Do your own thing. And so I think I had this seed inside of me from a young age to say, I have to do this myself. I have to be responsible. I have to make my own money. And so I was a bit of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial kid. And I think one of the first seeds for that was reading the Babysitters Club series, which so many kids of the 80s did, and this idea that you could earn your own money. So I started just little side hustles. I guess as a little kid, I was selling bracelets. I would try and do a garage sale. I did a little bit of babysitting. And I think that was just, again, that hunger for me, of I have to make my own money. I spent my 20s really searching for what that was. You know, I had kind of saw a little bit of this world of coaching, but I didn't know that you could really make that into a job. So I went from job to job in my 20s, really searching for my thing, like literally doing every personality test and what am I here to do? And when I found the world of coaching, particularly the world of online coaching and online businesses for women, which my first entree into, that was Ali Brown, who was amazing. I won a ticket to her conference, you know? And it was just like, Oh, my God, there are other women doing this. So I think I started very generically as a life coach, and then very quickly realized I loved talking to entrepreneurs, so I moved into business coaching. And the the thing that came up again and again with all of my clients was this fear around money, not wanting to say our prices, not wanting to talk about money. And I think it was a bit of a natural like progression for me to go, Well, why? Why are we not allowed to talk about it? And I think my own curiosity led me to marrying some of the personal development tools I'd been learning for. For a long time and going, Are we allowed to apply this to money? What if we talked about forgiveness and money? What if we talked about visualizations and money, all the things that were kind of easy to talk about in the woo, woo spiritual world or personal development world, and it was just a huge, I think, eye opening thing to say, Oh, well, this actually does work for us to make friends with money, like like women talk about everything honestly and openly. And it led to my first Money Boot Camp, which was 13 years ago now. And then I just kept on going with it. I was like, oh, people like this. Oh, let's do it again. Let's do it again. And as you know, 10,000 students, yeah, later. Well, let's talk about that for a
(10:45):
second, because that's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you today. Because 13 years you've been running money bootcamp, and there are very few people, especially entrepreneurs, that are still doing today what exactly what they were doing 13 years ago. And I'm sure you're not doing exactly what you're doing 13 years ago, but you, you built your program, you you owned, you know that it was your, your, you know what you're good at, your zone of genius, and then you're still running it. And to me, that's huge. That's huge. There's so few people doing that. So were there ever times that you were like, Okay, it's time to to sunset this and create a new program, or, you know, tell us a little bit about that.
(11:26):
Every day I have that feeling because, not because it's great, not because it's not getting people results, because I'm an entrepreneur, and that's the hardest thing, I think for us, is that we have squirrel brains, right? That's exactly what we do. So I'll tell you, I think the way it's worked for me, one, I've always been incredibly consistent in my business, not in my personal life, so I've always embraced things like batching content and batching marketing, and I think that gives you a little bit of distance, I think that you are not your business. And I learned this from the great coach and spiritual mentor, Hero Boga. Oh yeah, yeah, when I worked with her a few times, she's amazing, right? She really had to teach me to energetically separate my myself from my business. And once you do that, you realize I don't need to get all of my excitement and and creativity through my business, because the business exists to do that for clients. And I think when we're so intertwined with our business, we feel like, if I have a bad day and I don't feel like doing work, which is very normal in any job. Doesn't matter how much you love your job. There will be days where you go I don't want to do this. And what entrepreneurs do is go well, that means now I have to do something else. Now that means I have to throw it all in the bin. And I've just because I learned that from her, I could go, Well, that doesn't matter, you know, and it's fine that you're bored with it today, but just wait till tomorrow. And it's always been one of those things like, quit it tomorrow, burn it all down tomorrow, just don't do it today, right? And what I've had learn as especially now, where I'm kind of definitely in the mature stage of the business, right? And this is where people either decline or they start something new, and where I've had to channel my energy now is into my personal life. So I get my excitement and energy from I do adults ballet, I do adults tap, I make costumes and all these fun things. Because I'm like, No, but the business is good. The business can help people. The business doesn't have to fulfill all of my personal excitement and newness, if that makes sense. So that really helps destroy it tomorrow, burn it down tomorrow. Just don't do it
(14:01):
today. Oh, that's great. That's such good advice, yeah. And, you know, we that that's one of the beauties about being an entrepreneur, right? We might work, you know, we can work on a Saturday if we want, if we want to take Friday, and, you know, go to the beach with our kids, right? So it doesn't mean you have to replace it. Sometimes. You just can have a week where you work a little bit less, right? So I didn't get to do that when I was in corporate, right? I had to be there every day. So that's, you know, that's, to me, one of the best parts about that's really why I did this. Because when my kids got old enough to for them to be on their own and and I remember thinking like, when they have kids, I want to be able to be there for my grandkids, you know, like my mother and mother in law were when, when my kids were little, and at the way that I was working at the time, I wasn't going to be able to be because I had to be at work every day, right? So I said, Well, what does it look like, if I you know, what would I have to build? And that to me, creating, like, what does your life look like, and then building your business around that it can be done. It absolutely can be done. As a matter of fact, I'm going to state this, and now I have. To make it happen the episode that's coming out right before this episode. So you guys, I don't remember what this number will be, but go back to last week. I did an episode on 50 ways you can turn your paycheck, your paycheck skills, into an entrepreneurial skill, like, go back to work if you need to go to work. I am so cool with that. But if you're feeling the pull, you know, then you know, you don't have to learn something, you don't have to do something new. You probably already have the skills. It's just, how can you turn that into, you know, into a profitable or a profit making service, right? So, and I think, and that will allow you, it's, it's certainly not easy all the time, right? But it will allow you to work on your own time terms, in your own hours, doesn't mean you're gonna work less, that's for sure. At least for me in the beginning, what didn't mean that at all, but, you know, thankfully, it does now. So you know, I get to, I get to do that. You know, the other thing that you talk about in your bio that I think is important is premium prices, and you know, I I like to call it like, when I work with people, I want to flip the funnel, like, what is the most, highest price thing you can have? Like, let's create that first. It doesn't mean you don't have to create sales pages for it, and all a million things, but you just have to know what it is, right? Like, if you're a coach and you have a three month coaching package, and it's, you know, $3,000 for your three month coaching package. What if you front load that three month coaching package with a VIP day now maybe it's a $7,000 coaching package, right? And you're still doing exactly what you did, and you're giving maybe more value, because you can do in one day what was going to take you two and a half months to with the same client to even get to you right now you can start from that space. So so to me, premium prices doesn't have to mean just overcharging. It could be creating premium packages. And I believe the world we live in right now, people want that. They want more high touch. Which, which you which requires premium prices?
(16:55):
Yeah, it does. Um, I just want to say as well that episode sounds amazing. Can you please make sure that when that goes live, you send it to me as well. I know my audience
will absolutely I will love that. And you know, Denise, it came from a Facebook post. I saw a Facebook post that somebody was like, I am leaving maternity leave is over. I have to go back to work. I can't believe I have to go back to work. What are you guys all doing instead of going back to work? And I was like, You know what? I need to do an episode on this. So anyway, yeah, I will let you know it'll be it'll be out. What is it? I would say it'll be out soon, maybe the early September, if not the end of August. So it'll be out soon, perfect.
(17:30):
Well, I think what's really cool about that, though, is that people really over complicate things. Yes, and we think that every everything we create has to be so different. And as you said it, we could literally have the exact same message in so many different formats. So really, if you read my book, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, it is like doing my money boot camp, but it's not the accountability, it's not the community. So I've had people say, well, like, can I just do a book, book version of my course, or my one to one stuff? I know absolutely it doesn't cannibalize your work. It only enhances the opportunities for people to find you and then, similarly So, I've got, you know, my book, my money bootcamp, I'll do live events. It's the same work, because people need to hear it in different formats. They need to experience it in different formats. Same with my retreats, which are obviously much higher end. It's the same work, and I think we're just constantly over complicating things. Also, what I'm excited for for people to listen to that episode about the 50 ways, is that we discount what we already know, and we think everybody knows this. Yes, everybody knows how to do this, and it is absolutely not true. And even still, like I can, I'm a Virgo, oldest child, you know, ruler archetype. I can do every everything. I can say that, hand on heart. I can figure out things, but I don't want to Yes, finding a shortcut, yes. I love learning from someone who's figured out a system. I love condensing knowledge, you know. So instead of buying a course, often, I'll be like, I will buy someone like, I buy someone's VIP day. I'm about to do two days with somebody working out my marketing funnels right for the next year. I can do that myself. What I'm paying for is space, someone to hold my hand through it, someone to bounce off, someone to get me away from my house and my kids and my dogs and my cats, and all the accountability, spaciousness, all the things
(19:42):
I'm going to ask you this because this is my I if that same person said to you, Denise, I would love to help you with this, but I only do this in groups, and we start August 15 or September 25 and it's every Tuesday at two o'clock. Would you be as excited about that? Like that's to me, I feel like there are people that want that they do. Want your group that not that they don't love your group, not that they don't like I happen to be in a group right now, and I feel I'm feeling guilty all the time because I'm not really participating as much as I should be, you know, and I, and it's, it's, I don't for me, I would much rather pay the extra money and hire somebody exactly like you said, and sit down and the people listening, you guys need to hear this because somebody wants that from you. You don't have to. You just have to have it ready. Yeah, you don't have to even have you maybe talk about it every now and then. You know, there's a couple different ways I work with people. We could do this. You can do this, or if you want, we can create a custom package for you. And the beautiful thing is your custom package, because it's custom, you just can make it up as you go, you know, you can say, well, you know, I can send a car for you at the airport. And we can, I can bring a massage therapist in the middle of the day, and you can make it up as you go. So you, you it's and, you know, it's the most fun that I have is when I get to do that. So important topic, an important topic. And you just, I
(20:55):
love to, even if you're a bit scared about doing this, there's a couple of ways you can try it. So one of the ways is whatever you do, especially if you have a service based thing, have a fast track. Have a skip the queue, because especially for people like me, I am so impatient. So if I see somebody, I remember, I think it was like an astrologist or something I wanted to work with, and they said, Oh, my wait list is three months long. And I said to her, why don't you have a VIP skip the queue? It could be double the price. So you could spend three days of your week with regular clients at the regular price, and you could have two days a week, or even one day a week for the skip the queue VIP people. And they were like, but who would pay that? And I was like, me, because I'm impatient and I want it now. Similarly, I had this lady who had this service where it was you had to sign up for the month for a couple of months, and she would go through all of your audio calls with people, anything that you've done, and turn it into social media snippets. And you could get 10 a month to 20 a month, right? Her name's Claire panacea. It's called the Golden Nugget service. And I said to her, instead of doing 20 a month for three months, could you just do like, 1000 for me this month? Because I have so much content. She was like, Oh, I've never thought about that. Because in her mind, she was like, people will want to piece this out. And I was like, I don't want to. He said, out. Give me it now. In the next two weeks, we'll never have to talk again. And yeah, it was like a real she was like, I'll create it for you, right? Because there are always people who want it now. Want to skip the queue. Want to condense six months of something into a VIP day, a weekend, the private coaching, and all of those things can be done so easily. And as you said before, there was a little nugget. You said, Karen, a couple of minutes ago, we said, you don't even need a sales page. And this is so perfect, because especially if you're working with people who want it. Now, I'll give you another example. There was a lady. I can't remember her name. Off the top of my head, she was doing this service where she would go through your dropbox for you and organize it. I know I'll try to
(23:08):
remember to send
it to you. But she was like, she started, I think she was saying, I can do your Vimeo, I can do your Dropbox, I can do any system, right? And again, I was like, I have got so much. Like, I want it now. I and I signed up for two VIP days with her. And I think even the way she'd organize it, she was like, we'll get on the phone at the start of the day, and then I'll go and do it, and we'll check in. And I said, I'm in Australia. I don't need to check in with you. I don't need to get on the phone with you. I don't need a discovery call for this. I was like, Just do it. I'll sign up for two, two lots, you know, two VIP days. And basically, just, just do it. And it was so easy. I didn't need to see a sales page. She just said me the payment link done right? And there is such a it's such an easy thing. But also, again, if you're scared to do it, why not come up with the craziest thing you can think of, and just have it there. Because I think even expanding your mind as possible, and even if one person buys it, you go
(24:09):
exactly, just talk about it every now.
And that is, yeah,
I was talking to a high school friend of mine a couple, like, couple years ago. Now probably she's a yoga instructor, and she retired from business and is doing yoga. And I she said, All right, like, what does that look like, Karen, for me? And I was like, You know what? Oh my gosh. Give me like, you know, all my, all my yoga teacher friends are like, $20 a class, and I'm like, You know what, if you I'm I may or may not come to your class, because I may or may not be feeling it, and I also may or may not feel like my shoulders can support a down dog today or whatever, because I'm not 25 anymore, so I'm a little sometimes intimidated by some of the classes, whatever. Give me a hat, give me a day, give me a private day, where you're going to, we're going to come together, and you're going to create, you're going to ask me, how what, what am I body hurts? What do I need? What do I need less of and more of? And create some custom, you know, some custom sequences for me. And then. Maybe some essential oil blends. Maybe give me a massage, get a massage. Masseuse to come in the middle of day, like, give me a day, a yoga. Like, just an a yoga, high end Yoga Day. And I would rather do that then come to your $20 class, because then you can check in with me and you can say, you know, how's it going? How are those sequences doing? Maybe we meet once a month, virtually now. And, you know, we talk about, do we need to add another sequence? Is there? You know, do we need to progress? Right? There are people willing to do that. And, but we, but what we look was, so many women I talked to are looking for the, you know, how do I charge that? Because everybody else charges $20 a class. You just do, you just do and, and you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. And then, and then, doesn't that sound amazing, right? Isn't it amazing? Like when you start to dream up these high end packages, they're so much more fun than trying to create something that's $50 you know? And and, you know, this is my I can go on a tangent forever, but, and you're never going to be in a position if you price this properly. You're never going to be in a position of saying, well, position of saying, Well, I can't do that, because we're at a budget. Have so much budget in there that if you decide halfway through that they need, you know, a PR strategy, that you can bring in a PR strategist and give them that too, like over deliver, you know. And you can really just keep over delivering if you come in with a big enough budget and everybody, it's win, win, win. So I love you. Know, more people need to talk about that too. I think
(26:27):
see already we're sparking off ideas, right? This is what happens when you get in community, exactly with other entrepreneurs. And that's the fun thing, right? When you have your consistency in your business, which I do, it gives you freedom to play in these other possibilities and to have fun with it and be creative about it as well. So another example, retreat. Some people are really scared to run retreats, run conferences, and I found really creative ways to be able to do this without a lot of financial risk. So for example, a friend of mine, we're just like, let's go to Bali and, you know, offer a small retreat. Now, where people get stuck is that sometimes they'll contact a hotel. A hotel will be like, Okay, you have to guarantee a certain amount of rooms. You have to pay for everything. We always went, No, we're going to go to a hotel that has enough rooms, has enough space, all we'll do is we'll book our own rooms, and we'll book if there's a usually, what we'll do is we'll get a big enough Villa or room that we could run it in our rooms if we wanted to, and then we we pick a price, but the people only are paying for us. They have to pay their own flights, their own accommodation, right? So we've got nothing to do with any of that, and it's very, very low risk. So even if we had one person sign up, we basically paid for our own right holiday. And we're, we're besties anyway, so we're like, even if no one goes, we'll still go right, right? And that is always been such an easy way for me to run retreats. I wanted to come to New York two years ago to go to broadwaycon. And I just said, Does anyone want to do a VIP, a small group VIP day in New York? A couple of like, you know, people said, Yeah, cool. So I booked again, just a boardroom. Everyone can book their own accommodation. Everyone's grown ups. So I sold out 110 day, sold out another 10 day. So I had just two days that I had to do with work, and then I had a drinks in between for both groups. So I was like, come before or come after? Right? My only costs were the boardroom, which usually fairly cheap. It was, you know, a couple of $1,000 per person. I paid for me and my best friend to go business class to New York, to go to broadwaycon, to have we went, we saw, like seven musicals in a week, and I did two days of work. Beautiful people. Very simple agenda. And what was lovely about that people would say, thank you so much for putting this on. Thank you so much for coming. I was like, You guys are paying me to be here. Thank you. And I just thought, I mean, it was only a day, so it's not like I can change people's lives in a day. But again, very, very, very simple agenda, even my three day retreats that I run very simple agenda, because most of the time, what people are paying for is spaciousness, to think someone to bounce ideas off, maybe meeting community, being outside of their normal life, to open up to possibilities. And I didn't have a sales page for it again, I was just like, I'm coming to New York
(29:40):
last time. Who wants to join me? I love that so much. Exactly I've done that around.
I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh yeah, you're, I think you're gonna say, I think you're gonna say the exact same thing that I did, right? Book a suite. Have like two, three people to come. Yeah? VIP day, you've paid for your suit. You paid for your
thing. Yeah? Yep. Well, I. I did that. I've done that a couple of times around a conference. Like, if I'm speaking at a conference, sometimes I'll be, you know, like, if it's like in Florida in the winter, you know, and I'm in New York, New Jersey, and New York in this winter, it's cold up here, I'll book a suite, and I will say, All right, I'm going to be there. And I'll book a suite a couple days early, and I'll, you know, if you're coming, especially if they're going to the conference anyway, you know, we'll mastermind or something for, you know, a day or two, whatever, before, on the front, usually on the front end, because then I can work with them as they go through the conference, and then they know each other as they go through the conference. But I'm going there anyway, you know, my I was already going, it's just the more, the higher, the higher, the bigger room, you know, so that you have room for them. I usually that works. Usually that works. And then, you know, you get a great room, you know, then you have a great room for the whole time too, which is never, which is always fun. So, yeah, awesome. All right, Denise, tell us what is next for you? What's coming up with Denise Duffield, Thomas and money bootcamp and your books? What's going on? Oh, I
(30:53):
think I'm in a period of life where I'm really focused on creativity outside of my business. So again, it's that, for me, it's that discipline of going the business works, right? Keep on putting people, people in the business, you know, keep on taking people through that program. Don't, don't break it. That's my that's my philosophy, right? Although it's all roads lead to money, but you can, don't break it. So for me, personally, as I said to you, I think before we started recording. My kids are seven, nine and 11, and I'm just trying to survive that, right? I'm trying to survive my daughter's going to high school next year. Wow, yeah, all the pets, everyone takes turns throwing tantrums in the house. So I am so grateful that I have a business vehicle that allows me to help people but doesn't burn me out. Personally, I'm so so grateful for that, especially at this phase of life for myself. So can I actually please show you something I'm working on? I would love that. So random you're gonna you're gonna be like, What the heck are you even talking I'm actually so I can see what you're talking about. It's prop based. Okay, so when I was a kid, I was obsessed with dancing, obsessed with tap, jazz ballet, kind of dancing. So now what I do is I am in an adult, oh my goodness, ballet school, and we do a lots of performing, and I make random costumes for you. Made that costume. My friend and I were, well, I when I say I made it I like, this is a dress from, like, one of those cheap stores. This is another dress from a cheap store that, okay, made an overskirt. This is, like, random trim from different places. You know, this is this necklace is from the thrift store. And so this is my ugly stepsister. So what? Someone's wearing pink and someone's wearing green and blue. And so this is what I was up late last night, sewing and making the wigs for this costume. That's what I do now, to try and make sure and look at these little butterflies. It's impressive. So I don't break my business. I literally, like, I've got this massive bow on this back. It's so much fun. So I literally, I go to something like eight ballet classes a week, and I try not to break my business, and I do a ton of really ugly cross stitch. And so what's next? It's really, I don't know. I'm I'm in this really delicious space of I'm not hungry. I've made a ton of money over the last couple of years. I've so I'm happy to tell people, like, from when I started my business, I've made about $32 million so I've invested in real estate and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And I think sometimes I have to, I have to remind myself that I'm not that little kid who is hungry and, you know, wanting to prove myself. And so I'm trying to learn at this phase of my life, especially perimenopause and all of those things to calm my nervous system to remind myself that there's space so that I'm safe. There's still a lot of healing work to do around that, to try and raise my kids to be good people, and try and be in a state of contentment. I know that sounds really strange, but I it
(34:17):
doesn't sound strange. I mean, I feel like, as entrepreneurs, contentment is not doesn't come naturally to us.
Yeah, right. Because it's like, what's next, right? Right? We have it like, I'm really trying to avoid writing another book just yet, exactly, to try and be content and like, let me show you my other little project that I'm working on, because, again, it's you have to keep your little brain. I'm, I'm making this Christmas cross
(34:43):
stitch. Oh, my goodness, wow, it's pretty. But this
is my, yes, this is my new thing. Karen is make ugly stuff, but make it Christmas. This is my new thing, right? Because this is the room up to because, if. You make an ugly I don't know diamond art ever. You feel so bad when it's finished, right? Because you go, What the frick am I going to do with this? So I've decided that all of my random craft projects are going to be Christmas themed, because they know how ugly it is. You can get it out at Christmas and then put it away for the rest of the year. So even even my cross stitch kits, I've got, like, cross stitch kits where it's like a crunch, country house. I'm turning them into, like gingerbread houses, because now I've got so many random threads and stuff. So this is what keeps my squirrel brain. It's awesome make an ugly Yes, and so I literally take this everywhere. Now this little it's got all my cross that's awesome. That's awesome. It's just like one of those little backpack inserts. And so I will be sitting there in the waiting room doing cross stitch. If you're sitting there on your phone, people go, oh god, she's a bad mom. This is such a great tip for moms. If you're sitting with cross stitch, people go, look at you. So mindful and creative, I'm still ignoring my kids, but it is so wonderful. So I'm not like innovating in my business. I'm literally going, here is my course. It will help you, if you want it. I don't know it's a really interesting phase that I climb,
(36:19):
but if matertise, I feel like you are living, you are living your chill and prosper book, right? You are living that book, which is, by the way, it's a great book, if you guys, if you you know, all of her books are good books, but chill and prosper is a great book because it teaches exactly what Denise is talking about right now, right? Continue to make money, but you don't have to do it by hustling. You can do it while cross stitching, right? Or while pure wedding
(36:41):
awesome, making ugly stepsister costumes.
Yeah, yeah. And at the heart of it, I love that. I love it. And there was, there's a lot of great tips in that book. There's a lot of great tips in that book too. So Thanks for, thanks for all you do, because you've helped me a lot. And I know a lot of my student, I send a lot of I send chill and prosper to a lot of my students. Sometimes when I know who needs it, you know, and I'm like, You need to read Denise Duffield Thomas's book, because this book is going to help you get out of your head a little bit, you know. And, and, and you're doing it, you know, kind of to circle back to where we started in the beginning. You've brought $32 million into your into your world, in the last 10 years, and you're doing it from this place of just comfort and and support and and chill and prosper. So I I love that that's a good you're a good role model for people like me and everybody else. Denise, thank you for doing what you do when we're when we well, I run around a little too
(37:36):
much perfection, right? Imperfection. I want people to hear that is, I haven't done any of that perfectly. I've never had perfect sales funnels. I've never had, you know, a massive team. I've never done anything perfectly in my business. But I have, I've just done stuff. I've tried stuff, you know, and I've, I think that's the key. You have to sort of go, why not me? I'm just going to try it and see, and not wait for things to be perfect, not wait for the stars to align. And, you know, things like, do it, try a little VIP day, you know, try and make those little offers, because you'll be surprised about who says yes. And we're waiting, I think, for for us to feel ready. And I've never felt ready. I'm still, don't feel ready, and I still sometimes look at that and go, How have I created that much money? I've done everything so imperfectly.
(38:28):
I know what I'm doing, and I've got imposter syndrome, all those great who
doesn't every every new level, there's new there's new imposter syndrome. Yeah, we could, we could go on and on and on, all right, I want to. I so appreciate you being here. I love all the work you do. I love what you do for the world. And I'm so glad we finally got to do this, and I can't wait to continue to follow your adventures. Denise, thanks for coming and being here with us today.
(38:52):
Oh, my God, thank you so much. Oh, and by the way, follow me on Instagram. I do share ballet stuff sometimes on Instagram, especially my stories, and it's Denise dt, yeah, we'll link it. We'll link everything in the show notes everywhere. So please follow me, yes, yeah, great. And then yes, my website's Denise dt.com, but thank you so much, Karen, and I can't wait to get to know your community a bit better. I can't wait to hear that episode. Yeah, yeah.
(39:15):
It is a good one. It was a fun one. All right, thank you so much again, and everybody else, we'll see you next week. Take care, everyone.
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