Speaker 1:                           (singing).

Denise Duffield...:            Hey gorgeous, and welcome to another edition of Chill & Prosper. And today is something that I've been so dying to talk about, is money lessons from celebrities. Actually, when I was planning out this podcast I wanted a whole segment every single week about celebrity money lessons, because I love reading celebrity memoirs. I love when celebs talk about money. Occasionally they'll talk about money or a salary or something, and I find that people hate it. Like I always see that there's always really bad comments whenever anyone's talked about negotiations or how much they've got. People get really triggered by it. And I find it fascinating. And so I think it's a great thing for us to talk about on the podcast. And I will try and make it a more regular feature because, as I said, I just learn so much from people.

                                                So first of all, I want to talk about three celebrity autobiographies that I have read fairly recently, and what it can reveal to us. But first of all, I just want to like really encourage you to do the same thing too, and really look at what we have learnt from celebrities. Because if you don't know any wealthy people in real life, you might have a lot of embedded stories about what you've seen on TV and in movies about rich people. Things like rich women are bitches. And because you've only ever seen like Dynasty, or you've seen very scripted things like Paris Hilton and her show, where she very much played up that spoiled kind of rich girl persona. And so sometimes we can really learn few little nuggets from wealthy people that you might not see in your real life. You might not have seen that.

                                                So the first autobiography I want to talk about is Elton John's one that came out, I think maybe, I don't know, 2019, 2020, something like that. And it's called Me. And he talks about how he had a massive drug problem when he started making money, and he spent a lot of money obviously on drugs. But then, as he became more sober, he started spending on flowers and extra houses and art, and didn't even really look ever about how much money he was spending, until his accountant sat him down and said, "Hey, you're going to run out of money now." And that's when he had to tour and he had to do albums to basically pay for stuff. Now you might think, "Cool. Well, Elton John, that's not a very relatable story of him spending $200,000 a week on flowers and things like that."

                                                But actually, what was really interesting about the book is that, when he got a handle on those things and he started looking at where he was spending money on, it actually didn't change his behavior so much about what he spent it on, he was just more aware of what was going out as well as what was coming in, and being a little bit more mindful about some of the business deals that he was doing. And so again, I don't want you to think that this is an unrelatable lesson for us, because how many times and how many people do you know who spend more money than they earn, or don't look at what is coming in? So I know I've done that before in the past. I've spent money that I didn't really have to make myself feel better. I've overspent on things to make myself feel good. I have not wanted to look at my bills.

                                                I went through a big stage in my 20s where I never opened my credit card statements, and I just didn't want to look. And so I related to that quite a lot. And so if you know anything about the money archetypes, so I'm certified in Sacred Money Archetypes, an amazing course by Kendall SummerHawk. And this is the celebrity archetype. I have friends who are celebrity archetypes, who spend more money than they have, who don't keep an eye on their finances. I have been places with friends who wear designer clothes, and then their credit card gets declined because they forgot to pay the bill, or they didn't realize they didn't have any money in their account. And so we can learn from Elton's lesson there.

                                                And then here's what is really cool. Once he got a handle on how much was coming in and out, he still spends money on things that bring him joy. And he talks about that, about how it brings him joy to give gifts, it brings him joy to have flowers in his house every day, and fresh flowers. It brings him joy to buy outrageous things for his family, and to spend money on things that bring his whole family joy, like vacations and like football. He's a big soccer fan, for example. And then I actually went to his concert. He came to Newcastle, where I live. And what I noticed was he did his show, and then like a minute after the show he just flew off in a helicopter. And it was amazing.

                                                And I was just like, "Why wouldn't he stay locally?" And I thought, "Well, while he's in Australia and touring so much, he probably wants to have a home base with him and his family and his kids. And then he can just get on a helicopter, it's like 30 minutes to Sydney from Newcastle in a helicopter, and then he'll be home in the same bed. His kids will be there." And so I was like, "Money buys him convenience, as well as everything else." So if you are a celebrity archetype, and by the way you can find out your money archetype, I've got a quiz that you can take. It's at denisedt.com/quiz. And you can find out if you're a celebrity archetype. And the big lesson for celebrities is that you are allowed to be, do, and have everything you want, guilt free, as long as you keep an eye on your money, and you don't just bury your head in the sand. You can have all of it without guilt. So that's what I learned from Elton John's book. I thought it was fabulous.

                                                And it even inspired me to sometimes, because I'm not a celebrity archetype, to buy things like flowers and candles guilt free. It meant that I looked at some of the candles that I had been given for gifts that were just sitting there, and I allowed myself to burn them. And so we can learn a lot from celebrity archetypes about how to treat ourselves with self care and self love, and yeah, live a more glamorous life. All right.

                                                So the next book I want to talk about is Samantha Wills' book. So Samantha Wills is a jewelry designer who famously actually quit her jewelry company in the last year or so. Her book is called Of Gold and Dust. And it's a book about her business lessons being a jewelry designer. And there was one example in this book that blew my mind completely. Okay? So Samantha's always had a really amazing profile in Australia. She's seen as like a real girl boss success story in Australia. And she's very beautiful and very glamorous. And as well as designing things she endorses other products and has partnerships with other companies. So she tells in the book about how this champagne company wanted her to be the face of one of their champagnes, and to be in all the photos. And it was just going to be this very limited time for like celebration time in Australia, which is usually around all the horse racing and all those parties. And so she went there.

                                                And they were just going to pay her like a one-off fee to be the face of it, just like a celebrity endorsement kind of thing. Instead what she did was she went away and came up with a whole proposition to do a licensing brand with them. So a separate name, that she owned, a separate brand, that she owned, a separate look and feel, and for it to be an ongoing product. And it went so, so well. It was an incredible success story. I still see her billboards up around. I'm not sure if you can still find the champagne. It's not a champagne, it's a sparkling wine. Of course you can't say champagne unless it comes from the region of Champagne in France. But what I really got from that memoir was that I wouldn't have done that. I would've just been like, "Yeah, sure. Just pay me, I don't know, a couple of 1000 dollars. That's fine. I'll be on your billboard. Yep. Cool. Let's do this limited thing that you own forever and I'll just be the talent and show up."

                                                And what that taught me about, oh my God, just being a bigger business owner, like thinking of things from an ownership perspective. It just honestly like blew my mind about how small I think sometimes, and how much I would like to just be a better, smarter, more savvier businesswoman, and think about things that I can own.

                                                Now, the last memoir that I want to talk about in this half is Lily Allen's book. So Lily Allen is a British pop star. She's probably my age. I don't know why. I always think she's in her early 20s, but of course she's not. And she grew up in a family that had rock and roll kind of there. Her dad's a famous musician. Her brother is a famous actor as well, Alfie, who was in game of Thrones, who played Reek. And it was just such a fascinating memoir. But there was just one little thing that I want to share about how she said, "I have no idea how much money I made. I have no idea how much I make. I just make it. And I don't even think about it." And again, you might go, "What? Of course she can do that. She's a multimillionaire musician. Or of course she's made heaps of money." But I know heaps of people like this. I know heaps of people who are creatives, who have no idea how much money they make.

                                                And they are mavericks. They just live in that feast or famine all the time. And things just seem to work out at the last minute. And if that's you, there's a big lesson to be learnt there about giving yourself permission to have a buffer, to look, to give yourself permission to be on top of your money that's coming in and going out. And that might not feel very rock and roll, it might not feel very fun, but it can give you such a beautiful stability to then take risks from, to create some really cool things from. And so that's the maverick, and that could be the alchemist archetype. And remember, you can find out yours and your money sabotages if you go to denisedt.com/quiz. So yeah, there you have it. So Elton John celebrity archetype. Samantha Wills, I would say she's the ruler, and probably the alchemist. But I would say connector as well. Connectors are very good at finding different connections between things. And I wouldn't have seen that connection.

                                                And then Lilly Allen, I would say she's a maverick alchemist. So I would love to hear what yours are. And I'm sure there's so many more lessons that we can get from celebrity memoirs. So I actually have a few more that I want to share with you after the break.

Laura:                                    Hey everyone. My name is Laura Kåmark. I live in Ventura, California. And I'm a web designer that works with female coaches, helping them transition from a DIY minimum viable website, to a strategic website so they can make more money. I first heard Denise on a podcast back in August of 2020, and then quickly bought all of her books on Audible, and just devoured them. At that point I knew I would be joining Money Bootcamp come January. And in January, when I was on the webinar call, I manifested the biggest thing by far that I have been able to manifest, which was winning a ticket to her Rose Farm retreat. And that was just such a magical thing to have happened to me when I set the intention, I put it out there, I put it in the comments, and I said, "I am going to win that trip." And it happened. It came true. It was incredible. Her bootcamp has been so transformational for me and my life, and the money that has come in since tracking, which works. I tell everyone, just track. Track the money, track the money, track the money. It works.

                                                Well, I highly recommend bootcamp to anyone who wants to just really break through in their life and just have more money come in, and just get to the next step, and feel a supportive community.

Denise Duffield...:            Hey, and welcome back. We are talking about celebrity and celebrities' money and all of the things that we can learn from celebrity memoirs. So I talked about how much I love reading celebrity books. So yeah, Elton John, Samantha Wills, Lily Allen, and just what they can teach us about our own money personalities and some of the sabotages that we can look for. We can really learn massive, big lessons. But I've got a couple other lessons that I've noticed as well about books that I've revisited recently, books that I loved at certain points in my journey, that I revisited and I've realized how much the conversations have moved on.

                                                Okay. So this is a really tricky one, but I loved like Tina Fey's book, Amy Poehler's book, Amy Schumer's book, Mindy Kaling's book. And they were at times very powerful for me to see women who are kind of my age talking about their success. But, reading them today, I've noticed something that has completely moved on and shift since they've written their books, and they're not even that old. How much they talk about their weight and their appearance and their looks in those books. And that's not a criticism. I think when they wrote them, because they're on TV, and I mean they feel like they have to be perfect. Right? And so I suppose, even though I look at them and I think, "Wow, these women are so beautiful," in the industry they're at they obviously feel like they have to justify their success a little bit more, because they might not look like a model. Which is ridiculous, because all of them are absolutely just freaking beautiful women. Right?

                                                But what's the lesson to money mindset, and how might that be showing up for you in your life? So I hear this a lot from people that they're waiting to lose weight before they get a photo shoot. They're waiting to lose weight before they launch their program or their book, because they don't want to be visible. They don't want to be judged for their weight. And let's face it, I still think that so many of us feel like we have to look a certain way before we're allowed to make more money. Now, you can do this. If you're in front of a computer listening to this, you can do this. Or if you're in your car, wait until you get home. If you just Google like 100 top richest men in the world, and just hit the image search on Google. You'll see that the men are very different in how they look. Some of them are tall. Some of them are short. Some of them are fit. Some of them are large. Some of them are fat. I'm just going to say the word fat, I know it triggers some people.

                                                Some of them are like handsome. Some of them are not handsome. Some of them are bald. Some of them have amazing hair. Some of them have had hair plugs. Some of them have not bothered. Some of them wear suits. Some of them wear fancy designer clothes. Some of them wear tracksuits. Some of them wear t-shirts. Some of them look like homeless wizards. Do you hear what I'm trying to say, right? Now, if you were to think though about how you're supposed to look as a wealthy person, do you have a look in mind? So if you're a woman you might think you have to look a certain way. If you are someone who is shy, you might feel like you have to be flamboyant. If you are someone who is like larger than average size, you might think that you have to lose weight.

                                                So I want you to think of like when you go to a roller coaster, you must be this tall to enter. What stories and barriers are you setting up for yourself? I have to be this tall to enter. I have to be this skinny to enter. I have to be this good looking to enter. And some of that is total BS. It really is. There is no weight limit for success. There is no height limit for success. You totally can do it how you look now. And I'm not saying that there is not something like pretty privilege. Skinny privilege, pretty privilege, it absolutely exists. But that doesn't mean that you can't chill and prosper, you can't prosper with exactly what you got right now. You might not want to be the face of your business. That's okay too. There are so many different ways that you can succeed, but not if you are hiding how you can help people, if you are hiding or waiting for you to be perfect and skinnier.

                                                And I know this is a triggering topic, like I really do apologize, and if you need to skip this. But we have our own barometer of what we feel like we should be, do, and have before we're allowed to be, do, and have success. And it's really stupid. Now, I want to share a quote, a Marlon Brando quote. Right? So towards the end of his life when he was acting, he was about 300 pounds. And he got heaps of jobs. And you know what he said? Quote, "I don't mind that I'm fat. You still get the same money." And you might think, "Yeah, but women don't. Actresses don't have that same privilege." And it is absolutely true. But in business, where are you setting yourself up for failure? Where are you stopping launching because you don't feel like you are perfect yet?

                                                And let me tell you, every time there's someone who just shows up exactly as they are, someone is just so thrilled and happy and relieved and motivated by that. Not everyone is going to love you no matter what you do. Right? You can be perfect, and someone's always going to hate you, someone's always going to criticize you, so you may as well show up how you are now and inspire someone who needs to hear that. And if you get hate mail, if you get like bad comments, you can block people. You can like unsubscribe people from your newsletter. But there'll be people who'll absolutely love you showing up exactly as you are right now. And every time I've felt like, "Oh my God, I don't want to have a photo shoot," I look back at those photo shoots and I go, "Oh my God. I'm so glad I did that. I'm so glad I captured that time for myself."

                                                And there was one photo shoot where I did with my family. And I had like all the post baby weight. And I was just like, "Oh my God, I do not want to do this photo shoot." And yet, in some of the photos, I'll be really honest, I look like I'm pregnant again. It looks like it's a maternity shoot. Because I thought, "Oh, I'll just wear this big bulky jumper and no one will notice that I've still got the baby weight." It just made me look pregnant. But there's so many beautiful photos from that shoot where I just think, "Oh my God, I'm so glad I captured that moment of me and my young family." And you'll feel the same way in your business as well. So that's just something I really got from reading some of those other celebrity memoirs, is just how much energy we take up around our appearance and telling ourselves that we are not enough.

                                                And there's just one more lesson too I'll finish just before I go, is if you read some memoirs from like women who've been around a long time. Like I recently read Julie Andrews. She's got a lot of memoirs, by the way. But I read one recently about her early days in Hollywood, where she grew up and she was singing in variety shows with her family, and then she was doing Broadway, and then it finished just when she got Mary Poppins. But what I really got from that is, even when she was the headliner, she was in My Fair Lady on Broadway with Rex Harrison, he was getting paid so much money. She was Eliza Doolittle. She was the head headliner, and she was still rooming with a flatmate and still counting pennies because she wasn't getting paid enough. She never thought that she was allowed to negotiate. She never thought that she was allowed to question what the men and her co-stars were receiving. And so it really makes me mad when I read some of those old school things.

                                                And even Mariah Carey, right, who isn't super old, but she's been around for a long time, reading about how she was ripped off for so long, and how people tried to take advantage of her. It really made me angry. But we can learn from that ourselves. We can make sure that we have contracts in place, that we're setting prices that make us feel good, that we're valuing our own worth. Because other people won't. And I see this a lot for myself, like reading those books, realizing that it's okay for me to charge people to speak at their event. It's okay to charge my friends to speak for them. It's okay for me to charge doing virtual workshops for people. Because, trust me, even really big companies try and get you to speak for free. So we can absolutely learn from that, and we can learn from all of those women who came before us, and people who came before us who weren't valued, who were ripped off.

                                                And this is the best bit about being an entrepreneur now, is that you can set your own prices. You don't have to be beholden to gatekeepers. You can publish your own books. You can create your own events. You can have your own podcast. You don't have to wait for somebody else to deem you ready. Ah. So yes. If you liked hearing about this celebrity stuff, let me know. Tag and share this episode. Let me know what your ahas are about, because I would love to make this a feature. Because as I said, I read so many celebrity books. And I really love finding them in thrift stores as well, because I love finding those ones from the '80s and the '90s, and just seeing all those money lessons and those different personalities. And remember, I talked about doing that quiz. So if you go to denisedt.com/quiz you can find out your money personality too. And it will give you a really great framework to see what your sabotages are. All right, my lovelies. Well, I will see you straight after this final thought.

Janet:                                    Hi, my name is Janet [Barreto], and my business name is Primary Formed. My website is [any1cancraft], with a one, .com, and I live in New York. And I can officially say that I am an inventor, and one Lucky B. I downloaded that book off of Audibles, and everything changed. I got cleared and went for it. I had no funds to join the program that would help me manufacture my invention, but I signed up anyway. Guess what? The money came. Magic. If you don't understand what that means, read the book. Thank you, Denise.

Melanie:                              My name is Melanie Huestis, and I'm an intuitive energy coach with a big heart, and a mouth to match. I live in London, Canada with my three kids, one of which I just happen to be married to. When I read Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!, I found Denise's authenticity so refreshing. I dove into the part about money beliefs, and discovered that I believed I could do what I love, or I could make lots of money. I had no idea that this powerful thought was affecting pretty much every business decision I made. This book helped me discover that I really can have it all, and without sacrificing what matters.

Denise Duffield...:            Hey and welcome back. Ah, what a great episode. Thank you so much for sticking with me. And how cool are all these testimonials that people send in? They sound so amazing. Everyone sounds like pros, but they're not. I mean, everyone's a great business person, but I'm so appreciative. Thank you. Now, my final thought is about business breakups. And this might be mentors, business groups, suppliers, friends, clients. And this can be such a necessary part of growth. Trimming stuff that doesn't work. I have a farm every year. We have to trim our roses back to practically nothing, and it looks harsh, it looks a bit too aggressive. But that's what they need to thrive for the next season. And every couple of months, a couple of times a year, maybe once or twice a year, really look at where you need to prune some things in your life and your business.

                                                And sometimes things come to an end, and that's okay. So business breakups don't have to be dramatic, they don't have to be stressful, but it could be you've come to the end of the road with a mentor. And it's, "Okay, I think this is going to be our last session. I'm good now. Thank you." It could be business groups that you feel like you've outgrown, and you can just click that button and leave if you're on Facebook. You can mute people. You can unsubscribe from newsletters. It could be clients where you've just gone, "You know what? It's come to the end of the road." And it doesn't have to be bad. It's safe for you to let things go. It's safe for you to acknowledge the end of something. It's safe for you to let go. And that can be scary, but it also can be very liberating, and it can create a lot of new growth. So I would love to hear what things you feel like you could let go of now.

                                                And please, share this episode, tag your friends who need to hear some of the lessons from today. And I'd love to hear from you as well. I will see you next week for another episode of Chill & Prosper. Bye.