“I’m here to help people move forward and succeed”

After a year of stripping everything back, entrepreneur and Success Coach Dee Airey explains to Eileen Leahy how refocusing on teaching, mentoring and leadership has reshaped her career and inspired her brilliant new book Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch…

2025 was the year Dee Airey decided to make some big changes in her professional life, which has seen the successful entrepreneur going into 2026 with a renewed sense of focus, purpose and alignment.

So what happened, I ask her, as we sit down to talk about her exciting new projects which include an incredible new book and a trip to Miami to speak at a specialist global coaching event.

“I decided to strip back everything,” explains Dee. “I thought to myself it must be pretty confusing for people to determine what I do exactly, as I have a number of diverse businesses and professional profiles.”

She’s not wrong, as Dee is one of the most prolific people in business in Tunbridge Wells – and beyond.

Some will know her as a successful portrait photographer with a studio on The Pantiles; others will know of Dee’s eponymously named Success Coach services and podcasting. Then of course there is her role as CEO of Construction Professionals HR & Recruitment (CPR), the business she set up in 2024 which places experts within the construction industry.

She’s also the author of many successful empowerment books and creator of many business training modules including The Wealth Switch and Limitless Woman. And her professional prowess doesn’t end just there. Dee is also a well-respected public speaker and runs a charity for children in Zambia. But despite all of this, she tells me that the epiphany she has had over the past 12 months is that her true passions are teaching, leadership coaching and supporting people.

“It was actually my own coach Lisa who made me see this. She said to me after a very long chat, ‘Stop hiding behind all this stuff, Dee. You’re a coach, you’re a teacher and a mentor’. And so that’s when I started to streamline everything,” reveals Dee.

And by doing that, she says it has led to her feeling far more focused on both her businesses – and herself.

“I am an entrepreneur, and have been from a very young age, but I have realised that actually I am happiest teaching and mentoring others.”

That, says Dee, could be writing leadership and safety courses for graduates looking to go into the construction industry; providing expert guidance through her Dee Airey Success Coach platform or courtesy of her latest tome Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch, which will be out soon.

“I am so proud of this book and I think the only reason I could write it is because I have lived through what I talk about in terms of setting goals, not ignoring those important moonshot moments and envisaging yourself living your dream life – and then achieving it. I feel that I’ve had to do the journey in order to authenticate writing it. And despite the title Dee says that this isn’t a ‘get rich quick’ book. Money isn’t the goal – it’s the facilitator to a better life.

 “Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch has been sitting just below the surface for about three years. It opened up a lot of old wounds talking about my ‘Why’ when I was a lot younger and how I dealt with negativity. But essentially I have always been a huge goal setter – that’s my whole satnav for everything – so writing the book was both cathartic and also very healing. I have had to break through a lot of hurdles of self-doubt and lack of confidence throughout my life in order to achieve what I have now.”

Dee says that when she reflects on the different stages of her life, she can see how her ‘Why’ reshaped itself over the years – but interestingly it never really changed.

And her book confirms this with the following opening statement: “At the age of 14 it was about freedom. At 17 it became about generational change. In my early businesses it became independence. In yoga, it became teaching. In HR, it became responsibility and purpose. In photography, it became confidence and self-perception. And now, as a Success Coach, it’s about alignment, growth and impact.”

Dee says that having such a diverse and demanding career has provided her with the tools to not only write the book but to help others identify their ‘Why’ and achieve it.

She started working as a secretary back in the late 1980s, primarily in the construction industry, where she went on to achieve great things, and quickly moved up the ranks.

In 1994 her then boss Peter (who nearly 20 years later became her husband) decided to set up a small consultancy and Dee took the risk of leaving her salaried job to go with him.

“We were recovering from a recession on and he told me he couldn’t afford me, but instead of seeing this as a knock-back I saw it as an opportunity, so I suggested that I go self-employed to freelance secretarial services for other small surveying offices. It was a way of earning more money and fulfilling my dream to work for myself.”

Dee, as an entrepreneur in the making, also enrolled at night school to further enhance her tech skills so that she could teach basic IT and word processing skills to others.

“It’s always been about learning then teaching others for me – even with tech,” she says with a wry smile.

Together, along with another colleague, the pair co-founded Airey Miller from the dining room in Peter’s house. It’s worth noting that Airey Miller is now a multi-million-pound multidisciplinary consultancy business that boasts 120 staff and numerous offices dotted around the country.

During Dee’s time in the business, she discovered yoga.

“That practice changed everything. After years of practice I got a teacher training qualification and started to teach my own classes on evenings and weekends. Later, I remember having to write a 200-hour course as I wanted to teach yoga teachers – not just do classes – and so I left Airey Miller to concentrate on yoga. I gained a qualification as a registered school from the Yoga Alliance to teach in the UK and Ireland but in all honesty I had no idea how much teaching and mentoring would become part of my life at that stage.”

She shares another quote from her new book to frame the reasoning behind this: “From 2003 to 2006, I taught full-time. It was a big change for me. People may look at that move and think it must have taken confidence to leave what I was doing and step into something new. But confidence didn’t exist yet. Courage did.”

Dee explains that she stepped back into the Airey Miller business three years later with more experience, more maturity, and a deeper understanding of people – and herself – and felt ready to take on more responsibilities.

“I headed up everything from admin and IT to HR, and I delivered in-house training, blending everything I’d learned across my career. I talk more about this in the book but in a nutshell, it was courage that allowed me to step into that role, not certainty. Courage is what makes you willing to reinvent yourself.”

Dee adds that all that dedication and effort has given her the opportunity – and confidence – to launch her other businesses including her wedding and portrait photography and CPR.

The former came about thanks to a passion for photography that Dee always had, but it was when her husband Peter bought her a course it ignited something that Dee could see as a business. CPR was a direct result of Dee’s involvement at Airey Miller where she could see how much the company was spending on recruitment. Dee tells me the fees were astronomical and she knew she could do a better job.

“I can never resist creating a business opportunity,” she states.

“When Covid happened, suddenly all the opportunities I had to do wedding and family portrait photography were gone. I thought, what can I do? And I had that lightbulb moment of going online. So, I started a podcast and community where I was coaching professional photographers about how to create great businesses.”

That idea proved to be extremely successful and although Dee’s photography work quickly picked up post-pandemic, she says that she is now actively taking a step back from that in order to concentrate on coaching full-time.

“Letting photography move to the background wasn’t easy. In fact, I was heartbroken,” she says. “It had been part of me for so long and I had built something beautiful. But courage said, ‘You’re meant for more’. This meant that I could be more focused and serve more people, inspire more people through showing up as the teacher, coach and mentor that I truly am. It means I can still coach photographers to create and build amazing businesses, but I can no longer limit myself to that.”

In her new book Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch she writes: “I’ve always believed that every one of us carries a version of ourselves that we rarely admit out loud. It’s a life that has been calling us for years and highlights our greatness.”

She adds that most people never say these dreams out loud as they feel too bold, too ambitious and too unrealistic. They feel like something other people get to have. But not them.

“I understand that feeling deeply. I grew up around messages that told me to stay small. Money was for greedy people. For white people. Ambitious dreams were for other families. Life was meant to be safe, not expansive. When you grow up hearing things like that, they settle into your DNA if you don’t question them.”

She tells me that she set her first big goal at 14. “I told myself I would work for myself one day.”

By the age of 17 she’d added a second goal and that was if she ever had children, they would go to a private school.

“Setting those two initial goals felt almost preposterous as I’d been thrown out of school with no qualifications and was working multiple jobs just to keep going.

“And yet what I want to tell people, courtesy of Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch, is that no matter what your circumstances are, if you dream big enough you can achieve. Living so far away from the life I wanted, it almost felt foolish to keep dreaming. But the older version of me – the one I hadn’t met yet – didn’t let me quit. She nudged me constantly. She reminded me that more was possible, even when my circumstances suggested otherwise.”

Despite taking many risks and working multiple jobs, Dee’s initial dreams never disappeared.

Instead, she says they wait until you are ready to hear from them again.

“In my new book I describe how the moment you stop pushing them down they actually begin to take shape and reveal a path that you just couldn’t see before. I talk about this extensively because those dreams, those goals are the catalyst for change. Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch is all about that turning point and what happens next.”

Having had an exclusive preview of the book I can tell you that it is a truly inspiring read and knowing that it’s based on Dee’s own journey, it has a really genuine tone to it – unlike a lot of the noise that you find on the internet. The book is totally transparent, honest, revealing and supportive. If you are looking to make those dreams a reality, then this is a very good place to start.

Divided into ten chapters, Dee takes her readers through the many stages of dreaming about and achieving success. She says that it’s definitely not a ‘get rich quick’ guide but more of a manual pepper

WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE: Dee Airey is passionate about public speaking and helping people reach their potential

Some key areas Dee concentrates on include courage, consistency, clarity and gratitude.

“I know that you need courage in order to change direction in life and clarity comes when you make that choice to change and cancel out all the peripheral noise. And remember that gratitude isn’t passive. It’s an active decision to place your attention where it will serve you best.”

Dee admits that the chapters in the book are honest and sometimes confronting. And at the end of each one there is a call to action to help the reader further on their own journey to realising their individual and transformational goals. This could be a reflection, an invitation or a quiet challenge but the common theme is moving closer to what you want out of life. Not just treading water…

Dee also talks extensively about the power of ‘moonshot’ goals.

“I focused on that because I know only too well that moonshots don’t respond to logic. They respond to commitment. Most people start burying their moonshot dreams for one simple reason. The gap between the life they want and the life they’re living feels too big but I am proof that if you pursue them then they work. People get very dramatic about wanting more, as if desire is a betrayal. It isn’t. It’s the information connecting you to your moonshot.”

One of my favourite lines from Set Goals Like A Rich B*tch is this one: ‘Nobody knows what they’re doing. Some people just wear nicer shoes while they figure it out.’

I love it because it’s so very true – and I can hear Dee all over this statement. Just like her, it is witty yet insightful and encouraging too.

As well as publishing her latest book Dee is busy writing another one: Becoming Her. She has also upped her coaching exponentially since honing everything in and focusing on what she does best: teaching and supporting people.

“Last year was incredible because I reduced my online presence and walked onto actual stages, all over the UK and made keynote speeches. I’ve also run workshops and am preparing to go to Miami in May where I’ve been invited to deliver a special workshop and speak on another stage.

“Spending less time online and being in real life environments has been a real game changer for me. I am still involved with Women in Business Network here in Tunbridge Wells, and am taking up the Regional Director position for Kent Global Woman Club. That’s something very exciting to look forward to. I don’t believe in being kept small, I think it’s essential to grow. The truth is that identity evolves. Who you were at fourteen isn’t who you are now.”

Before we finish our conversation Dee sums up her year of change and refocusing perfectly by telling me that she is at her strongest when she’s teaching, mentoring or supporting someone’s growth.

“It’s where I come alive. It’s where I feel most aligned.”“It’s where I come alive. It’s where I feel most aligned.”

Discover more
about Dee Airey:

Website:
www.deeairey.com

Instagram:
@deeairey.successcoach

LinkedIn: @deeairey