Mindset & Action: Grow and Streamline Your Business
Mindset & Action is a business podcast aimed at helping business owners grow and streamline their businesses. It focuses on four main pillars, building an audience through different mediums including Donna's preferred method, podcasting, planning, productivity and mindset Giving you a MAP to success from entrepreneurs around the globe.
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Mindset & Action: Grow and Streamline Your Business
What If Success Looked Different for You? (with Denise Duffield-Thomas) | EP305
What if the key to business growth isn't hustling harder but designing a business that works with your natural strengths? Money mindset mentor Denise Duffield-Thomas introduces us to "the chustle" – a chilled approach to hustle that creates success without burnout.
Denise reveals how she's built a multi-million dollar business with a surprisingly lean team structure – no full-time employees and minimal management headaches. She challenges the entrepreneurial obsession with arbitrary financial benchmarks, encouraging listeners to define success on their own terms rather than chasing someone else's definition of achievement.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Denise unpacks the psychology behind passive income guilt. She shares her personal struggle with feeling undeserving of earnings from her first ebook, explaining how this mindset block stems from our conditioning about the relationship between work and compensation. For entrepreneurs who find themselves sabotaging their passive income streams, her insights offer a path to greater acceptance and profitability.
Perhaps most refreshingly, Denise outlines her remarkably simple business framework: showing up daily on social media (through batched content), providing value weekly (via her podcast), and offering something to purchase monthly or quarterly. This streamlined approach maintains consistency without the exhaustion that comes from constantly creating new content.
Whether you're building your first business or looking to scale an existing one more sustainably, Denise's practical wisdom offers an alternative to burnout culture. Success doesn't require sacrificing your wellbeing or conforming to someone else's business model – it comes from aligning your business with your authentic self and focusing on what truly moves the needle. Ready to chill and prosper? This episode shows you how.
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You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, Donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I'm so glad to have you here today, and with me I have Denise Duffield-Thomas. Welcome to the podcast, Denise. Thank you so much for coming on.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Oh, my God, thank you for having me. We are totally opposite sides of the world, so early morning for me, late night for you, thank, you so much for having me. We're making it happen, oh dear.
Donna Eade:So the reason we're coming to talk today is because you have written a fantastic book called Chill and Prosper, among among other books which I know my audience will be well aware of and if you aren't aware of them, go to the show notes. They're all in my bookshelf on so you can go and grab them. But Chill and Prosper was one that I listened to recently, and when you said you were looking to come and speak on some podcasts about the book and about what you do, I was just like, oh yes, I need to have you on my show, so I'm so glad to have you here. Why don't you tell my listeners not that I think any of them don't know who you are a little bit about who you are what it is that you do? Just on the off chance they don't know who you are.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Oh no, I love this because I never assume that anyone has heard of me at all, and I think sometimes we get into these little bubbles where we think you know, we know the industry, we know all the players in it, and when I get together with other entrepreneurs and we start to share do you know this person, do you know this person? We're always like no, never heard of them. And so, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a money and mindset mentor. I help entrepreneurs deal with their gremlins and their fears about charging, about making more money, and I do that through my books and my podcast and my course Money Bootcamp. So I live in Newcastle, australia, and it's about two hours out of Sydney on the East Coast, but my clients are all over the world and that is the beauty of having an online business and I have three kids and two dogs and yeah, that's me basically.
Donna Eade:I love that. I love that. And I have two cats, one of them who is trying to attack my computer right now.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Oh well, you have to show the cat now.
Donna Eade:My listeners are very well aware of my cat Twinkle, who is 19 next month and likes to meow. Can't hear a word, so she is as deaf as a doorpost, but for your eyes, there she is. Oh, she's beautiful.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Meow, meow, trying to be's beautiful, trying to be good, trying to be good. They've been asking yes, they've been asking for a cat for two years and we can't keep on going. Yes, when the house is finished, yes, when this has happened, yes, where this has happened, and we're going to run out of excuses soon well, they are definitely a law unto themselves, that's for sure.
Donna Eade:And, yeah, trying to keep her off the laptop is hilarious, oh dear. Anyway, one of the things that I wanted to ask you and I think a lot of my listeners will be interested to hear your take on this is we are hearing a lot in the industry now. A lot of big online entrepreneurs are saying you don't need to hustle to make money. You know, you can do it without hustle, it's all good, we can make it happen. Yet all of the people that I hear saying that they hustled to get to where they are and it's kind of hard for us to kind of see, well, how can we do it without the hustle? If you're saying that it without the hustle? If you're saying that you did the hustle and we watched you know the likes of Amy Porterfield we saw the hustle, we watched it, we listened to it. So what is your take on how, how the hustle doesn't have to be part of the journey?
Denise Duffield Thomas:Well, I love this question because there's no doubt that you do have to do some stuff to run your business right. We know it does not happen by accident, and in my book, chill and prosper, I call this the chustle and this is the chilled hustle. Now, that doesn't mean you do nothing, and I often say to people it's effort less, not effort none. So how can we effort less in getting the result that we need? And for me, that is being really clear about what you can do and how you can help people. It is doing things in an efficient way for you, which we'll come back to in a bit. It is designing your business in line with your natural personality and it is not reinventing the wheel all the time, because when you do those things, yes, you'll still have to work. There's no free. You know money on this, but it's not going to feel as hard, it's not going to unknowingly sabotage yourself, and I'll give you an example with this right. So when I started my business, I did everything in the business myself. Of course you have to. Then, as you start to make more money, you look at okay, what are some things that only I can do versus something that I can outsource out, okay, and so when you start to build your team, you can build a team in a way that creates more work for you sometimes I'm sure you've experienced that or you can find a way that works with your personality and to do the things that only you can do and outsource the other things.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Setting up your business model is really important too. So if you're someone who hates a lot of one-to-one but you've set up your business that way because you feel like you have to, that is going to feel hard. You are going to have to hustle, you're going to have to do things that are against your natural ability. Know thyself and prosper, I think, is the key to all of that. It's not doing nothing. It's doing the right things or the things that feel good to you.
Denise Duffield Thomas:It's also being very, very honest about busy work and procrastination, because there's often things in a business it's like this is not going to move the needle, this is not going to make you money, it's not going to get you clients. So you feel like you're working, but you're really not. You feel like you're doing too much, but you're really not. So it's finding that line. That's why I call it the chustle, the chilled hustle and it's easy to get out of balance. I've definitely gotten out of balance and it's bringing it back. How much do you want to make and what would feel good to make that money?
Donna Eade:yeah, I love that and I yeah, I remember you saying that in the book the chustle and it just made me think of, like the dancing, a little bit of a cha-cha and a little bit of the hustle do the chustle yeah, do the trestle. So you wrote the book Chill and Prosper. I would love to know what that looks like to you in your business now. So what does chilling and prospering look like in Denise Duffield Thomas's world?
Denise Duffield Thomas:Yes, so I run my business on a very, very simple framework. Okay, and this is the same. That's been since probably 2009,. Even before I had my current business. It is every single day I'll show up in some way. So for me, that social media is how we reach people now. So every single day I show up on social media. Now I get to that point, though. I batch all of my social media. Okay, so if you're doing everything day by day, you're going to always feel like you're behind. You're always going to feel like you have work to do.
Denise Duffield Thomas:So recently, because I now know my audience so well, in pretty much in March, I had all of my social media done for the year. Wow, I can do that right. I've had three days in the podcast studio this year, which is pretty much three quarters of my podcast done for the year. So that's my other tenet. So it's stay up, sorry. Show up every day in some form, once a week, give something of value. So it used to be. I used to write lots of long form blog posts. That was easy for me for a while. Then, when I had kids, video was a bit easier. So I would, every Monday, get my hair done, do five videos. That would be, you know, for the month. Now it's a podcast, so whatever it is for you, it could be a weekly value add for your audience and then once a month, once a quarter, I try and do something a little bit more value add. So it could be a webinar, it could be an affiliate thing, it could be a launch, and that's how I run my business Very, very simple In terms of what I offer.
Denise Duffield Thomas:We have this philosophy in my business all roads lead to money bootcamp. So that means, like any podcasts, that we do any opt-ins. Eventually people will filter down into joining Money Bootcamp. We don't chop and change the business model all the time. We don't offer a ton of different things and there's a real discipline in that sometimes of going. This is what I'm good at and this is how I can help you. I think sometimes where people get into trouble is that they try a lot of different business models all at the same time. So they might have a membership, they might have one-to-one, they might have events, they might have all these different things, and some of those will be easier for your personality than others. The way that Money Bootcamp has always been set up for me is it's not a membership. People pay once and they get lifetime access. That works for my personality, because I don't like to be tied in to a long-term commitment, even though I've done it for 12 years. It's so funny, it's a psychological thing for me.
Donna Eade:I could walk away at any point.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Honestly, that is what works for my personality, what I see people do, though they might be really good at selling things and so they go. I'm going to do an 18 month mastermind. I'm going to do even a six month mastermind. Would be too much for some people. Then they feel locked in.
Denise Duffield Thomas:A lot of one-to-one doesn't work for my personality and so I've always created my business model that works for me, but also the stage of life that I'm in with young kids. When my hubby came into the business, he was like people are dying for a mastermind. When, when my hubby came into the business, he was like people are dying for a mastermind. We get emails all the time asking for a mastermind. We could make so much money from a mastermind and I've said it's not my, it's not my thing, it's not my business model, it's not what works for me, even with interviews.
Denise Duffield Thomas:So on a Thursday morning for me, I do five interviews in a row. I don't have to wear makeup for the rest of the week. Yeah, I don't have to talk to anyone for the rest of the week. That's what works for me. Now, my business model might not work for other people, and where we get into trouble is that we try and copy someone else's business model, we feel guilty, we feel like we should, or because people have asked us to do a particular thing. So that's how I've run my business, as I said, since 2009,. Like touch point every day, longer touch point every week, monthly or quarterly launch or something to buy, and always give the opportunity for someone to buy from you, and so that could be a book, it could be an e-course, and for me, all Roads Lead to Money Bootcamp.
Donna Eade:Yeah.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I love that.
Donna Eade:I love that and I love that focus because for me that's one of the things that I love things to be quiet. I'm an introvert, so the quieter things can be, the better. So if it's all roads lead to one thing, that's quiet in my brain, whereas if I've got lots of different things going on, that's too much to keep hold of and as a solopreneur I don't have a team. It would be an absolute nightmare for me to control that.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Absolutely. I'm an introvert as well, which a lot of people don't understand, but for me, I think the most podcasts I've been on in a year is 200. I could not even do 20 speaking gigs in a year. That would be too many for me. Yeah, but being on podcasts no problem, because it works for my personality. And some people listening to this might think but isn't that really creatively restrictive? I like to do lots of different things and that's totally fine. You can find a mechanism to do that. But for me, I had to get to a point where me and my business are separate energetic entities. I am not an organized person, I'm not a consistent person, but my business is and I don't need to be consistent. I just need to set up those mechanisms for my business. When I create something, it's none of my business. When someone consumes it, they're going to get it when they need it, not when I feel like it, because I'll never feel like it ever, ever, ever.
Donna Eade:I love that and I love your honesty. So the next thing that I wanted to talk about was money. Obviously, it would be silly not to talk to you about money. One of the things that has really bothered me over the years and I actually did a podcast episode, I think it was last year, it must have been last year talking about the 10K months being a myth and talking all around this. And what we hear a lot of in the space is oh, get your six figure years or your six figure months or your six figure launches. And there's all of this talk about making an awful lot of money. And you know that's great and I'm all for it, and if that's your jam, go at it.
Donna Eade:But there are a lot of people out there that are starting out in business because they want the flexibility to be able to work around their children and they want to make enough money to keep themselves going. You know, the more comfortable the better. But they don't want to have loads of employees, they don't want to have the stress of having this big business. They didn't leave corporate to make their own corporation. They just want to run their business so they can be there for their families and so their numbers? They're not aiming for that. And what I find is a lot of people feel like, well then, I shouldn't be listening to these people because I'm not aiming for that, or I'm lesser because I'm not aiming for that, or I'm not ambitious enough because I'm not aiming for that. What would you say to entrepreneurs that are kind of in that space where they want to make their business successful but they're not aiming for these big numbers and they're kind of feeling a little bit in the middle of it all?
Denise Duffield Thomas:Oh, I love this question because in my money bootcamp so we've got a community we've had 10,000 people go through the program. When people first come in, I say to them there is no hierarchy here in how much money you make, because what you'll find is your money blocks are the same throughout your journey. Whether you're making your first bit of money or your first passive income or you're cracking through some of those income figures, what you'll realize is those same money blocks will follow you along the way. So everyone in here we're equal, because we're all learning and discovering those blocks and dealing with them all of the time. And an example of that is so I've made $30 million in my business and my blocks are still the same as when I started.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Is well, people are going to think I'm too big for my boots, they're not going to like me anymore, and so we sometimes think, oh, the money blocks will get different and bigger as we go along. And so once you realize that and this is what my money mentor told me as well she said, talking about money should be as simple as saying can you please pass the salt. No emotion, there's no judgment. And when you can get to that point, then you realize, well, it doesn't matter if I want to make this amount or this amount, because, to be honest, the mindset, work will probably be the same, and so I can choose, and knowing too that the lesson at every point of that is self love and acceptance. So if you're not happy now, you're not going to be happy with more money. If you feel content and abundant with whatever money you have now, you're not going to be happy with more money. If you feel content and abundant with whatever money you have now, then it doesn't matter how much more money, you'll still feel that feeling. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, it does. So I think it's a really interesting line sometimes for us as entrepreneurs, because we're always striving for more and we have goals. And how do you feel simultaneously confident and content and proud of yourself, but also still want more? And that is, that is the lesson, right. And so, uh, if we can work on our self-love, our self-compassion, and be curious about what's coming up for us, then the actual amount does not matter, you know, and so I help people create a first-class life. That doesn't mean everything is the same version of first-class for everyone. You know, I have stayed in very fancy places. I've stayed in very plain places. It's like whatever you know, and I want you to feel comfortable in every scenario, in every situation, at every income level for you, and I've also.
Denise Duffield Thomas:When I started making money, I did upgrade some things in my life, thinking that's what rich people would have, and then just going that's not what I like. It's okay for me to like what I like I mean, I eat at McDonald's all the time but I think it's okay. And so if you can stop the self-judgment or the worry that people are going to judge you for your goals and just accept okay, so I want to make this amount of money, or this is what I want to create in my life. Next, what do I have to do to do that? And so for some people, it's literally doing the math of going okay, I need to get X amount of clients per week to live that life that I want to live. I you know. Or I need to sell X amount of my course to do that. That's bloody, that's joy and freedom, isn't it?
Donna Eade:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love that. Yeah, I think to me, it's all about what your rich life is, you know, I really believe that we have to look at what it is that we want out of our lives in the end and work backwards from there, rather than just plucking out a figure or going with what you know. You've seen all these adverts on Instagram saying I can get you to 10K months and whatnot. Well, what does 10K mean to you? Is that what you need? Or you know? It could be more, it could be less, but it's got to be what gets you the life that you want, not the life that you're aspiring to be, because you think, like you said, that's what rich people do, so that's what.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I need to do. Tim Ferriss talks about this a lot. He calls it dreamlining and he's got a really great spreadsheet for this and it's free. People just Google Tim Ferriss dreamlining.
Denise Duffield Thomas:It's an Excel and you can put in things like you know, big dreams or things like okay, I want to be able to be able to take my kids to school, to and from every day, things like that. You put all the stuff in there and the key is to find out how much that costs for you, and then it breaks it down into a daily and a weekly and monthly figure, and so it might your dream might not cost as much as you think yeah, you know. Or it might cost more, and then that's okay, cool. Then there's a. There's what do I need to do with my business? You did say something a little while ago too, about a lot of people don't want to replicate their corporate job into their, into their business life, and I think it is a little bit of a rite of passage. I think that you go through a little bit, because I did leave the corporate world and then I ended up working like 5 am to like 9 pm every day, seven days, a right Totally cool.
Denise Duffield Thomas:But I also want to reassure people too, that even if you do want to build a big business, it doesn't have to look the same way as everyone else. I got to a million dollars with just me and a part-time assistant, and I think I had a baby towards the end of that as well. And then even now so the peak of our business we're doing 5 million a year. It's less at the moment because we've had some sabbatical. We had still no full-time employees. It was myself and my husband Neither of us have ever worked full-time in the business An assistant working 30 hours a week who does most of our tech and admin, and then a couple of contractors.
Denise Duffield Thomas:So we have a community manager and then we bring people on as we need to. So the most people we've ever had working for us is maybe five people, none of them full-time. I hate managing people as well, so that has been part of my first class life is building a team that's as lean as possible, where nobody talks to me ever and I seem to attract people. It's funny because I had a friend who's like we go on all these team retreats and I'm so bonded to my team, and so I sent out a message to my team. I was like do you guys want to do a retreat together? And everyone else is an introvert. Everyone was like no. And I'm like thank God. So a lot of my team I've never spoken to, they don't need that relationship from me. And that is my dream. No one talked to me ever.
Donna Eade:I bet. But honestly, thank you so much for sharing that because I think that is going to be a breath of fresh air to people to see what can be done with so little. You know, I've I've followed Amy Porterfield since. I always tell people that I was listening to her when her podcast was on. Episode like 43 or something was the first one I get, whichever the first episode she did with Jasmine Starr, because that's how I found her and that was right at the beginning of the journey. And I've followed her this whole time and watched her build this business where she's got now sort of 20 something employees of her business and I'm just like I don't want that. I don't want that with a barge pole, like I don't need to make that much money, I don't need all those people to look after, like I don't need the pressure of their families depending on my bit. No, oh, it just gives me the heebie-jeebies, doesn't?
Denise Duffield Thomas:doesn't work for you, right, and she's made what? 150 million dollars and I I think, well, that's cool, like that's what she wants to do. And I, I love amy, I love her approach, I think she's wonderful, and it's not for me either and that's okay. And I actually um said to mark last night so we sold our big beach house two years ago that we spent so long working, you know, building our business, to buy this beach house, and then we were like we don't like living by the beach and so we moved to the Burbs and it's like we've paid off our house. And I said to Mark we could have done this, like five years ago. We didn't need to go in that big journey, but I always would have wondered what that would have been like to then go. Ah, it's not for me.
Denise Duffield Thomas:And I think people have to really honor as well their personalities, their energy. Some people have chronic illnesses, some people have, you know, maybe you can't work when you have your period. You know some people have massive period pain every month. That means that they can't do that. Some of us have caring responsibilities with family, with parents, with children. There'll be different times in your life, like for me, perimenopause was a massive game changer for me, where I couldn't work like I used to and I had to make changes, and so if you can build your business that is always in alignment with what you need, that's the only sustainable way to do it. There'll be times where you will hustle a little bit more, and that's okay too. Sometimes you've got to do that, but that's not sustainable to live in that energy all the time for most of us.
Donna Eade:Yeah, yeah, I completely agree, fabulous for most of us. Yeah, yeah, I completely agree, fabulous. So you mentioned earlier about passive income. I wondered if you can talk a little bit more about some simple ways that we can leverage passive income to help us so that we don't get to that sort of burnout stage in our business. I think a lot of people see passive income as an answer to this thing and I think it can be a little bit harder than people think it is, and I know you've got some passive income areas in your business, so talk to us about passive income to help us achieve our goals.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Absolutely so. I think the biggest problem I see with people is 100% a mindset issue around passive income. So we know it's income that you make, well, you know you're not actively working for it, and I think sometimes people get caught up in that definition of it because then they go well, it looks like you're marketing, you know, or you have to do marketing for your passive income. So does that not count? Right, and it's like, oh, chill out. But so there's a couple of, they're the accumulators, they're always just like but how? But is that really passive? And you go dude, that's all right.
Denise Duffield Thomas:But honestly, I think the guilt is the thing that kills people around passive income and it's something that not everyone talks about, because you might say that you want to do it, but yet there's a part of your mind that feels like I don't deserve it. It kind of breaks your brain a little bit and I'll tell you why. I think so many of us grew up with this notion of what work is. You go to work, you get paid per hour, per widget, per sale, and so suddenly passive income breaks that equation and it feels like nonsense, right. It just feels like that does not make sense and it really became clear to me when I created an ebook in the first version of my book Lucky Bitch.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I released that in 2011. And every time someone bought from me, I felt sick and it was so weird because I thought this is what I wanted, right, and I had to get over all my mindset gremlins of everyone's gonna hate this and whatever, whatever, whatever. And then it was ten dollars and every time someone bought it I felt like I had to call them up and read it to them over the phone to earn that $10. Because it was like where's my effort in this? It broke the equation. Does that make sense?
Donna Eade:Yeah, absolutely it does.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Yes. And so it wasn't enough that I thought but I wrote this and people are getting value out of it. So there is an energy exchange there. But it was like but how dare I keep on getting paid for this thing that I've already done? Like it doesn't make sense to me. And so I had to get over that thing that it's safe for me to profit from my skills and talents even if I'm not physically there. And what happens at that point is some people start to sabotage it, and I've seen it again and again. So people will then like break the links, like they'll hide their stuff from people, they won't talk about it, they won't market it, they'll like publish something and then unpublish it. You know, because they're trying to get back to what are the laws of gravity here? Does that make sense? What are the laws of gravity? Where am I allowed to make money from this? And so that's why you have to start. You have to start early, start small. So after that $10 ebook thing and I got over that I created a mini course and it was $50. And I felt like you know what? This is a good energy exchange I'm giving, and people are saying that you know it's helping them. So I was like, okay, cool, and that's then. I could kind of build on to that.
Denise Duffield Thomas:And I still sometimes struggle a little bit. And I noticed this in my team as well. My husband, who is my marketing manager. He has stuff around passive income and that can filter into our business, because then he'll be like, well, let's do a live launch for this. And I go why? It's like we've already got it there and I see his, I see his money blocks coming in from it, because both he and I grew up in this mentality you have to work hard to make money. And he's from Manchester or Nantwich and he, like me, saw our mums, single mums go to work, do a thing and get money for it, and so we have to work on it all the time as a team to make sure that their stuff isn't sabotaging this right.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Because I know, especially with, say, for example, my Sacred Money Archetypes, e-course, that it would help people where they're at right now. My participation does not need to be micromanaging that person's relationship with that work and actually I'll sabotage that if I do that. You know, if I start to say, well, you know it's not authentic. If I'm not doing it one-to-one. I don't care about people.
Denise Duffield Thomas:When I get over that, I start to attract people who are very self-reliant, who just want the information, and they'll be like oh thanks, denise, I, you know, bought your e-course and I just did the things that you were telling me to do and I go oh, of course you did. If you feel bad about it. That's when you start to attract people who are like but it doesn't count, unless you're doing it. They're just reflecting your fears back to you that it doesn't count, it's not real, it's cheating. Somehow it's been unethical, instead of just realizing no, I created a thing that solves a problem for somebody and I'm going to give them access to that thing. And I also think it comes down to money personalities and, as I said, the accumulators is one of the money personalities who really overthinks passive income. They get in a real tizz about it because they are often the people who are DIYers, and so they think why would someone buy information that they could probably figure out? Because they don't understand that some people they value their time more than money, they value taking shortcuts, they value just buying a solution that they don't have to figure out themselves, and so it's not about us and how we feel about it. It's who needs this solution and who needs it now.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I am a ruler money archetype. I hate waiting for someone's launch to open. Just give me the information. I don't need your personal help. Actually, that's annoying to me. Just give me the information, don't talk to me about it, I'll you know, I'll take it and I'll figure it out.
Denise Duffield Thomas:And or some people they get an idea in their head. They just want to take action straight away. Give them that opportunity to do that. And that's why, even with my money boot camp, we do launches for sure, because there are some people who want to go through it, even if it's like an arbitrary kind of thing. Some people who want to go through it, even if it's like an arbitrary kind of thing, they want to know that there's a start and a close date. Some people do not need that handholding, or they don't need the community, or they don't need the extra accountability and they want it now. So that's why my course has always been both evergreen and launches, because I know that there are people like me who just go yeah, I want it now, I'll give it to you here's the link that there are people like me who just go yeah, I want it now, I'll give it to you.
Donna Eade:Here's the link buy it, yeah. Yeah, it always makes me. That's one of my blocks, I think, is the having something that is a launch only thing is like but what if somebody wants it right now and then they don't want to wait for me to launch it in three months time, and then they go somewhere else and find it.
Denise Duffield Thomas:That's always absolutely, and some people are that instant gratification people or they're action takers and they want it now and you don't have to go through all the rigmarole of it. Not every course and thing works like that. That's totally fine, you can do. You know, I have a live version of Sacred Money Archetypes. That's just once a year and you can buy the e-course and they're different. They're differently priced. Yeah, you know they don't have to be, but they are in that situation. So it's. It's totally up to you how to do it.
Denise Duffield Thomas:But it's like what? What are people asking you for all the time? What you know, the things that if you had all the time in the world you would create. You know it's there's so many different ways to look at it. I actually say to people what's the easiest, quickest thing for you to create right now? Because it's almost like you need proof of concept sometimes of oh, people will buy from me and no, it's not the same as me doing it with them, but it might be a good lead, like lead into working with me, or it might be a good you taster of my work. And I think there's a couple of little nuances in that of not overloading those things you know, not necessarily giving everything. It is a solution and that's, that's okay, it's okay, yeah, I love that.
Donna Eade:So you have, over the years, talked about how you have simplified your business. What I would love to know is what is the one thing that you let go of that has made the biggest impact for you?
Denise Duffield Thomas:Oh, let go of.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Well, I think that idea that everything has to be in real time and that my energy has to match the businesses, I think that's really key and that's that's then giving me permission to batch all of my content to, you know, to create those passive income things, because I know that the work has its own energy, and so I think that's giving up being responsible for everyone.
Denise Duffield Thomas:That makes sense, yeah, and that has filtered into so many things in my business. So it took me years to get a community manager for my group. I did everything in there myself because I am responsible. I was very reluctant to set rules in that group because I thought, no, I just want everyone to do what they want to talk about what they want to talk about. And even, like I remember people would tag me in things all the time and I would answer them instead of just saying it's in the course. So, giving up that thing of I have to be available 24 seven for everyone else and I'm responsible for everyone else, that has changed everything in my business and it's a lesson that I still have to learn all the time.
Donna Eade:Brilliant. I love that. That's awesome. When we started talking, I told you that my podcast has these four main pillars and that I would ask you questions about that, so we're going to move into that. So a bit more quick fire.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I'm terrible at quick rounds, by the way, because I'm like here are five different tangents that I want to take you on and let's go back to 1993. Yeah, sorry, I'll try my best, we shall see, we shall see.
Donna Eade:So your number one planning tip.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I'm terrible at planning. I have the same plan for 13 years and it is show up on social media every day, do a long form thing. Once a week, do a thing. That's literally all my planning. Simple, but actually no. There is something that I've really burnt myself on the last couple of years is literally go to your calendar, block out all the school holidays so people can't book in meetings with you. I make this mistake all the time and I end up doing launches or doing stuff when I have no childcare and I'm like, why did this happen again? So I live by my Google calendar and I really, yeah, and I actually just said to Mark too, when I have my bootcamp call days, go and block it out so no one can book in a podcast with me, you know, and it's really looking ahead and just going. It's more. Blocking out, I think, is my saying no to stuff is probably my planning tip rather than what I'm putting in, because I used to always just put way too much stuff in Love that.
Donna Eade:So your productivity tip. So what is the one thing that helps you to stay on task? And I know you've talked about ADHD as well, so staying on task is probably quite difficult. So what's? What's one of the tips that you use to keep you on task?
Denise Duffield Thomas:So again, I'm a massive procrastinator, so for me I do need to block out those times to batch. So for my podcast, I need external accountability. I book a podcast studio from nine till five and I sit there and I do 12 podcasts. I could not do that at home, and so I think accountability is always so important. So if you want to write a book this year, you have to do what I did and say my book is out on this date. Here's the wait list. Or take pre-orders. Same with my first course I sold it before I finished it.
Denise Duffield Thomas:With anything else, if you go oh, I really want to do a course book, a videographer, what am I going to talk about? You'll figure it out because that's blocked and so public accountability and movable deadlines. Because I know for me at school I'd always do the assignment, no matter what. I'd manipulate time and space to do it. Then you get smarter about okay, don't do everything the night before, but it's um, it won't get done otherwise for me anyway, if I don't have that big public accountability, because I'll let myself down, but I will not let someone else down.
Donna Eade:Yeah, yeah, I'm the same your number one audience building tips. How do you grow your audience?
Denise Duffield Thomas:It's pure consistency. So, as I said, for those 13 years, show up up every day, do that weekly thing. And the reason why you need the consistency is because you cannot get too hung up on any one thing. There are things I've put out I thought, oh, people are gonna love this, no crickets. Then the thing I was like shit, what am I going to talk about this week? But I've made that commitment, I'm doing that thing. That's the one that people love. So I've never had anything go viral. It is literally showing up every single day. But again, that's not me doing it every day. My business has the consistency. I don't. That's. My only audience building tip is literally just show up, show up, show up. Yeah, consistency, that's it.
Donna Eade:Love that, love that it is boring, but it's so true. So true. And then the biggest mindset shift that you've had to make in your business why?
Denise Duffield Thomas:not me, because it's so easy to look at someone else and think, well, they're successful because of blah, blah, blah, they're successful because of blah, blah, blah. And I was actually thinking about this in the shower. I was like, if you think about yourself as like a meat puppet that you have control over, and it's like I can just make this person do the thing Like this is so cool. And what happens is that people believe you, you know, and so it's not saying you know that fake it till you make it thing, necessarily. But it's like you realize that when you take action, no one's like going oh how dare they do that? You know. They just start to go oh, of course she's got a podcast, oh, of course she's got a book.
Denise Duffield Thomas:And that's the weirdest thing I've noticed is that for years, when I was like so had self imposter syndrome about being a writer, I put author in my email bio and people would go, oh, you're an author, I'd go, I guess I am, because you said it. Yes, that's right. And then even you know, after writing several books, I would still be like, am I? But people believe that I'm an author, so cool, yeah, I guess I'm an author, you know. And so it's that question of why not me? Like, what am I waiting for? Am I waiting for someone to give me permission to do this? No one is going to, why not me? And then you just do it, love it.
Donna Eade:Love that, love that. Okay, so the book that has made the biggest impact on your life so far.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Oh God, that's so hard. I think the first personal development book I ever read was the Magic of Believing by Claude M Bristol. I read it when I was, I think, 14. I was in a secondhand store because I'd always forget my keys and I'd be locked out of my house at home. So I used to go to this bookstore and read books and it was just like oh, my God, my god, you can change your, you can control what you think, and that can change your outcome in your real life. So any book like that I think that has yeah, it just has helped me realize oh, wow, you can, you can change your thoughts. So that's the first one that comes to mind.
Denise Duffield Thomas:But of course, over the years, you know, think and grow rich was obviously a really big one for me in my early 20s. The four-hour work week was a game changer for me in my early 20s too. You can heal your life from Louise Hay is still such a great message of self-love and acceptance. Um, yeah, I mean, I love books as you can, yeah, you can see. But um, yeah, I just yeah. Or any book that is like, why not, you love yourself and it'll all be okay is always a good book.
Donna Eade:Love that, yeah, your. What is your go-to snack when you're in a hurry?
Denise Duffield Thomas:oh my god, this is really embarrassing because, again, adhd, I don't. I really don't care about food at all. Um, I'll just eat whatever's in front of me. So no, it's really bad. But sometimes we go to Costco and we get those like big boxes of things and they're like those sesame bars. You know those ones, they're like four little sesame things. But my thing is celery. I love celery. So sometimes at night Mark calls it like I get the hangries at night because my ADHD meds are born off and so I'll be like night chips. But now it's night celery. I love that.
Donna Eade:And on my way. That's good for you. That's better than eating the Doritos right.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Yes, but I'm a real snacker kind of person. I love that idea of girl dinner because that's just how I would live my life, and so I actually eat a lot in my car, which is bad as well, but I'll be rushing to ballet and I'll be. You know, imagine sitting there at the lights and you turn around, this person just gnawing on some celery in a car or an unpeeled carrot, my car carrot. So I love all food. I eat junk food, I eat healthy food, I it's literally whatever's in front of me. I do zero cooking. Mark does all the cooking and I just don't. I don't care about food at all.
Denise Duffield Thomas:So, that can be a good and bad thing. You know cause I'll eat. I'll eat junk if it's there and I'll eat healthy stuff if it's there. But I love, I love celery.
Donna Eade:So yeah, yeah, stick with it, stick with it. What is your favorite me time thing to do?
Denise Duffield Thomas:oh yes. So, um, growing up, I loved going to dancing. That was my absolute, yeah, joy, and for years I couldn't do it as an adult, and so recently I found an adult ballet studio and so I do eight classes a week now and, yeah, I love it because I've never craved going to the gym, I've never craved going to yoga. I always felt better afterwards. But for me, going to ballet and I literally, you know I'll I'll put my hair up in a bun, I'll put my ribbons in, like it's a real ritual for me. We don't have to have a street uniform. I wear my ballet tights, you know. I have my matching little outfits and it's pure joy.
Denise Duffield Thomas:I come out so happy, I'm exhausted, my body hurts, but it's like that's that feels really good and I love doing bad craft. So I I'm working at the moment on this hideous cross-stitch that is like this big it's taken like I've literally worked like 400 hours on this hideous cross stitch that's so ugly and I just have to finish it now. I also make really bad art sometimes. Actually, that that one's not too bad. There's an art piece there that I like, um, and I just I like being creative and I think that's the thing I lost a little bit when I got super into work is that I felt like all of my creativity had to come from my business, because I'm I entrepreneur, right. And so now I realize, yes, my business probably makes less money because I'm not super ambitious and focused in it, but I'm kind of living that life that 11-year-old me would have loved to do, because she loved being creative and making art and craft and doing it. It's not my job, it's not my business to do it, just to make something.
Denise Duffield Thomas:And yeah, and my the cool thing is, yeah, absolutely my cool thing is the dance school that I go to, the adult studio. Um, this year we're doing a lot of competitions and a steadfords and little shows places and I love doing that. Like we're not right, like you know, we're not the best, but it's nice to be like a learner in something. Yeah, and do it for pure joy.
Donna Eade:Yeah yeah, well, I'm with you there. I am a salsa dancer and I used to teach before the pandemic, so I love dancing too. Never got to do ballet, I was never allowed to, but, um yeah, dance has always been a favorite of mine. Thank you so much for all of that. I absolutely love that conversation. Tell people where they can find out more about your money boot camp and find out more about you.
Denise Duffield Thomas:Absolutely so. If anyone's in front of their phone or computer, go to Instagram. My handle is Denise DT, so that is always a really great place to know about. You know, when we're doing a next intake of one of my courses and my books and all that kind of stuff and my website's the same denisedtcom. I've got a ton of free resources on there too, if anyone needs it. And then, obviously, the link to my money bootcamp. If you need some, if you know that you're ready, you just need to jump into a community and, you know, deal with your money stuff. It's there for you. And then my books are available on Audible. You know, kindle, all the things, amazon Book Depository, all the places my books are available.
Donna Eade:So that's always a good place to start books if you're not on social media, otherwise, follow me on social media. I love that. I will have all those links in the show notes for you guys. And, like I said, my bookshelf is there Chill and Prosper is on it because I've read it. I always put all my books on there, um, so that you can go and see what I'm reading, because we are lovers of reading over here on this podcast as well. So, um, go and check all of those out. Thank you again, denise, for coming on the show. Really appreciate it and we'll see you in the next one. Bye for now, you.
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