Reflections on a retreat with Denise Duffield-Thomas

Transcript

I recently invested into attending a 2 day retreat with money mindset mentor Denise Duffield Thomas.  It is definitely the most money I’ve ever spent on anything in my business, but when the opportunity arose, I didn’t hesitate for a moment to apply…  As she has literally been the single most influential person on my business journey to date.

I shared a bit about the retreat on Instagram and I got a lot of private messages asking questions about the retreat and Denise so I wanted to dedicate a whole episode to sharing more about the retreat.  In this episode, I share

• What Denise is really like in person
• What the group and the group dynamic was like
• The itinerary and what was covered
• A bit about the venue at Denise’s rose farm
• My biggest takeaways
• Whether I would suggest that attending one of her future retreats is right for you

Today’s episode is bought to you by my freebie How to Grow your Instagram Engagement… it’s my easy roadmap to getting more comments and likes on your posts, which in turn leads to more eyeballs on your social media that you can then convert to paying clients! To get your hands on this freebie, check out the shownotes for today’s episode or clarewood.com.au/podcast/episode38/

OK now let’s get started chatting about this retreat.

Who is Denise Duffield Thomas?

If you have never heard of Denise Duffield Thomas, I would strongly suggest that you head over to her Instagram or her website and check her out (I’ll include both in the shownotes for today’s episode) but basically she teaches how to uplevel your money mindset to attract more abundance into your life.

She does this in a number of ways.  She has several books, I’d highly suggest that you check them out, I’ve read Get Rich Lucky Bitch and Chillpreneur and absolutely loved both of them.

At the next price point she also offers a course Money Bootcamp, which again I have completed and was absolutely incredible.  I cannot recommend this course more highly, it’s teaching the skills of manifestation (which was all new to me) through exercises and group coaching calls

The most common question that people asked me, is what was Denise like?

Denise is absolutely lovely and she is 100% in person how she is online.  There is such a congruence between how she shows up in online and in person and… If you follow Denise online, you will already know what she is like, and that was exactly my experience with her in person.

If I was thinking a little more about how I describe her?  There are two words that spring to mind, Inspirational and Down to Earth (although yes, I know down to earth is actually 3 words and not one but you get the drift).

In terms of being inspirational, she has achieved really great financial success in her business, and she shares a lot about what this means in terms of actual numbers throughout her marketing.  She is inspirational in her honesty, in her authenticity and also inspirational in terms of how she is motivated by a chilled life and how success to her doesn’t look like working crazy hours. 

The next thing that I really noticed about her is how down to earth she is.  She opened the retreat in a pair of overalls and socks and there is nothing show-offy about her at all.   Again this is a message that she shares a lot- money won’t change you, it just makes you more of who you already are.  I would describe her as pretty chilled, gentle and considered.

There was something that she said about the retreat that has resonated with me again and again… and that is that people are happy to pay just to be in your energy.  And that sums up EXACTLY how I felt about investing into the retreat.

What is the rose farm like?

The rose farm is a property that she purchased as a creative project.  Somewhere to escape, dream, hold retreats, and maybe workshops and weddings.  It is based near Maitland just outside of Newcastle Australia.

The retreat attendees stayed nearby in Maitland which was super accessible.

The farm itself is absolutely beautiful.

Decorated with help from Denise’s bestie Naomi, the theme is romantic and rose themed.  There are photos if you want to check it out, either follow her rose farm on Instagram or check out the Instagram highlight DTT Retreat on my Instagram account which is @clare_wood_coach.  One of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the world.

There was also incredible attention to detail with everything.  We were asked beforehand about our favourite drinks and they appeared. The food was literally unbelievable.  The chef was a local organic chef and if you check out the photos on my Instagram highlight, you’ll be blown away!  It tasted just as good if not better than it looked!

How much did it cost?

Including my travel costs it was a 5 figure investment.  Now this is not small change for me, but as soon as this opportunity came up, I instantly jumped on it.  Why?? Because I know that when you surround yourself with people with an incredible mindset and a great money mindset, that it massively rubs off on you.  The opportunity to spend that time with Denise was in itself an opportunity of a lifetime, but I also knew the women that would invest into this would also be of an incredibly high calibre and I was so excited to form these relationships and connections.

What were the others on the retreat like?

Truthfully, there was a bit more of a mix of business models than I had thought.  I suspected that the  attendees would be running online courses and about half were but there were a few other business structures.  However, I personally felt that the variety in the business types was a massive asset to the group collectively!  We were all also very different personality types, which again was a MASSIVE asset as we got to hear different opinions and points of view which I always find is invaluable.  For example, when I asked the group what they thought of some of the bonuses I was going to offer in my upcoming program relaunch for Money and Marketing Makers, they said “why would someone want that?”  I was thinking what I would want as a bonus, and not thinking about what my ideal client might find valuable.  These kind of insights were absolute nuggets of gold!

I would love to at this stage give a massive shout out to the attendees- Amy, Tash, Wendy, Diana, Sandra and especially to Emily Osmond who I have had as a guest on the podcast before and who I spent a lot of time with at the retreat. 

These women, are all absolutely beautiful humans, and as diverse as we all are, were all bought together at this special place for a special reason and I know we’ll always hold a really amazing bond.

The juicy stuff, what did I learn

Now something I would say, I did NOT go on the retreat to learn anything per se.  I came to uplevel my mindset, to connect with others.

Throughout the retreat we each had a 20 minute hotseat where you could ask anything of the group and of Denise.  We also had Denise’s husband Mark join us for a session where he spoke all around launching as he plays a major role in her business now. The other thing that I loved was that we had heaps of time to ask anything of her, and that inspired some really interesting conversations and she was an open book and really honest with a lot of her answers.

We did a session all about launching which was fantastic for me given that I have my online program Money and Marketing Makers, we also did a tour of the rose farm.

My biggest takeaways:

• Taking space is such a great thing for the soul. I left my hubby and kids for 4 whole nights, which is the longest I’ve ever been away from them and although I did Facetime a lot, it was just really amazing to take that space to work on me.  In fact, next time I’d probably even take more, as the time was very full. 
• People are happy to invest to be in the energy and space of people that inspire them. I have come to realise that this is why a lot of my clients and people in the program choose to work with me over another coach.
• Good things take time to build. It’s easy to look at their business and think it was an overnight success, but truthfully, they have had their fair share of challenges and it has taken them a long time to build the business and success they currently enjoy.
• Little touches make ALL the difference. I love being spoiled like I was on this trip and it has really inspired me to uplevel how I make my clients feel and to think of ways to be able to offer VIP experiences like this.

Would I suggest attending one of her future retreats

The first round was only available for Money Bootcampers, and I imagine that Denise would continue that.  As I mentioned earlier, Money Bootcamp is the course that Denise Duffield Thomas offers and if you haven’t heard me mention it already a tonne of times on the podcast, well, you need to check it out!  This literally changed my entire mindset around money and has absolutely been worth every cent. 

This retreat was a significant investment but for me personally,  it was literally a life changing opportunity. 

If you aren’t at the stage where you are ready to invest in this retreat just yet, don’t forget that Denise has books, and a course that you could invest in if you are ready to uplevel.

If you want to find out more about Denise and future retreats, I will share in the show notes for today’s episode how you can connect with her.  She is also going to be a future guest on the podcast too so that she can share some of her money mindset hacks and how you can attract money into your business and your life!

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit more about the retreat and I truly hope that you get the chance to experience a retreat with Denise or another of your favourite mentors someday, it truly was incredible.

Have a fab week and I’ll catch you next week.