Kitty Thomas
Kitty is the Founder and CEO of Debt Angel Solutions with over 2 decades industry experience. Kitty
- Trusted
- Experienced
- Professional
Founder of Debt Angel Solutions, Kitty Thomas, features in the new Brand Documentary UNSPOKEN. Meet the person behind the company that is transforming the conversation around debt and her powerful story from crippling debt to financial freedom and why she believes everyone has the fundamental right to live without the burden of unmanageable debt.
Debt is the UNSPOKEN conversation– a topic that brings to the surface feelings of shame, embarrassment and anxiety. Like all things that hide in the dark, when you shine a light on debt, it becomes less scary and more manageable.
Kitty shares her personal story of overwhelming debt and how she was shocked to discover alternative debt solutions that nobody was talking about when it comes to Debt Negotiation, Debt Management and Debt Reduction, secrets the banks don’t tell people about and how she used these strategies to break free from debt and reclaim her life.
Knowing she needed to get the word out about these alternative options on a far greater scale than she had already achieved through her company Debt Angel Solutions and their Done-For-You model, Kitty founded ‘The Freedom Shift Academy’ and created the ‘Breathe Easy’ course that teaches and empowers everyday people how to get out of debt using the very same strategies she and her team use every day to help their clients save time, money and mental anguish so they can get back on track financially and reset their lives.
Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge you for taking the first step toward financial freedom. You are on this page for one of a few reasons — you may be in search of alternative solutions to managing and ultimately, getting rid of debt or you might be an existing or graduate client of ours. You may be at a point in your life where you’ve had enough of this debt cycle or the situation has gotten so bad you know that you need help to get through it. Or you may be enquiring into what is possible for a friend or a loved one.
Either way, it takes a lot of courage to decide to reach out for a helping hand when it comes to solving an unmanageable debt situation and I honor you for that.
2023 is a big year for our team. We will be celebrating our 8th year in business at Debt Angel Solutions and after helping hundreds of people save more than $15 million dollars in debt, we are ready to take the business to another level so we can accommodate more people who are in need of our service. Now more than ever, more and more people are finding themselves in an undesirable debt situation (understandably), and my team and I are committed to helping them get back on track and thriving asap. I am proactively stepping out as a thought leader when it comes to the conversation of debt on a mission to remove the shame and embarrassment/stigma associated while educating and empowering people around the alternative solutions available to them (that their creditors are not telling them about) so they are able to make powerful and informed choices when it comes to their finances, not just their debt.
I’ve said this many times before, no one ever chooses to be in an unmanageable debt situation. It’s not a result of a single decision but rather, it’s many different things that have accumulated, often leading back to a change of circumstances and it’s not always just ‘someone’s fault’. Life happens. Unexpected challenges occur. Economies crash. This is why I feel so strongly that NOW is the time to get rid of the guilt and the shame around debt and for people to know that there is another way. I have done it, our clients have done it and you, too, can get rid of your debt and live a debt-free financially secure future. (Unless of course you are one of our awesome graduate clients who has already done this – woohoo!)
It’s important to know that breaking free from the constraints of debt (WITHOUT entering into a formal debt agreement like Bankruptcy or a Part 9 Debt agreement) is not an overnight process. We are all about creating lasting change and making sure our client, once done with us, never comes back! 🙂 It takes something to address your situation head-on and acknowledge the habits that no longer serve you while creating new ones that do. With our guidance and support, we believe that you can achieve the financial freedom you deserve.
If you haven’t yet (or even if you have and we haven’t spoken in a while), I invite you to jump on a FREE Consult Call so we can have a one-on-one chat, and assess your overall financial situation. At the end of the call, we will discuss the options and strategies that are available to you, based on your unique situation. This is a safe space, and it’s absolutely free. My team and I are 100% solution-focused and we are here to help. To book your FREE Consult Call, click on the link here.
This is a story about how I followed my dream, got things wrong, fell into debt and tried to run away from it; it’s about how I clawed my way out and swore I would NEVER get in to debt again, only to find myself there once more; of how I did the same things over and over and wondered why things didn’t change.
And this is a story about the angels I had around me, the family and friends who literally scooped me up when I was unable to stand, held my hand and said : “you’re going to be OK”.
I want to share this story with you to tell you how Debt Angel Solutions came to be here.
I am and have always been an entrepreneur and I have always been a people person. For as long as I can remember, my mind has been buzzing with ideas of how I could make a difference and change things for the better, from volunteering to converting a working wharf into a stunning major Sydney entertainment venue, from working with businesses to help them operate better to launching international brands locally with that special Aussie sparkle, I have tried, and succeeded, in many different transformative ventures over the past 20 years. I succeeded on a professional level, but on a personal level, it was a different story.
As a fresh-faced 22 year-old I thought I could take on the world – so I tried!
I dreamt big and put those dreams into action. But I was naive, and my naivety got me into trouble – $150K’s worth of trouble, $150K’s worth of debt.
I had no idea what to do, so I stuck my head in the sand and left it there for 5 years. It’s amazing what you can do to escape a problem even though in your heart, you know it’s not going away. I avoided calls from numbers I didn’t recognize, I didn’t open my mail so that I didn’t have see what was inside the envelope, I even moved house and didn’t advise my creditors of my change of address.
On the surface, ignorance was bliss. But inside I felt awful. I knew I was lying to myself. In an effort to dull the gnawing feeling I lived with every day, I drank and smoked way too much and spent hours and hours watching mind numbing TV.
After five years of living like this, I knew it couldn’t go on. I knew that if I really did want to make a difference, in the world, to myself and to others, I had to take stock and clean the slate, so I started to investigate my options. The first option I was offered was a Part IX Debt Agreement. I considered this for quite some time. I had been living with the anxiety of massive unmanageable debt for five years – I wanted a quick fix, something to take that anxiety away NOW! But a Part IX didn’t sit right with me, something about it left me cold. It was something around Integrity – one of my core values. I had got myself into this mess – I was going to get myself out!
So I looked for other ways. I started conversations with my creditors, I learnt about what they needed, why they needed it and how they could help me. Over the next five years, I developed strategies and knocked down my six-figure debt to nothing, educating myself along the way.
And ten years to the day when I went from a fresh-faced entrepreneur to someone with $150K’s worth of debt – I was finally clear, I got myself debt free and saved myself thousands of dollars along the way.
Being debt free was wonderful. I felt renewed, facing the clear space to follow my entrepreneurial dreams once again. I put all my energy, time and effort once again into listening to other people’s needs and creating solutions, building platforms, systems and processes to enable other businesses to fly.
At the same time, I used what I had learnt to help friends and family manage their own financial problems, so much so that often they would tell me I should make a profession of it, but at the time I couldn’t listen. Helping those I loved was one thing but stepping back into the world of “debt distress” full-time – I simply didn’t have the emotional capacity at the time. I also became a mother, one of the most important roles and lessons I have ever had in my life.
So now with my hands fuller than ever before, juggling a new family whilst seeking out opportunities to satisfy my entrepreneurial cravings, I approached everything I did with the same energy and attitude that I had 10 years before.
But unfortunately, the energy wasn’t the only thing that echoed my twenties. Every time I produced a new idea, it cost me financially. These financial outlays took me back to a place I swore I would never go again, they put me back into debt. Spending money to make money.
I got caught up in this cycle, over and over again. I put huge time and effort into someone else’s ideas and I paid the price financially, I incurred debt and worked furiously to get myself out again. Build, borrow, pay-off, repeat, build, borrow, pay-off repeat. It was exhausting.
But this time, it wasn’t just my financial world that was suffering. Cracks started to appear in my personal world as well. A damaging and abusive relationship with my children’s father forced me to leave and start over again alone, the sole-parent of two children under three. I struggled to support the three of us, whilst bouncing around in this never-ending cycle of creation and debt. The only thing that kept me going was my support network, the friends and family I had around me.
I existed like this for a long time until I had another set-back, this time physical. A disc in my neck ruptured. In excruciating pain, and on a cocktail of medication, I tried to push on with my life. But I couldn’t.
A specialist told me I needed an operation that involved slitting open my throat to get to the top of my spine. The thought was horrific, I had no money, no health insurance, but all I could think about was getting rid of the pain. I was on incredibly strong painkillers that took away my ability to function. They left me comatose, unable to drive and unable to parent properly. Once again, my support network was amazing, helping out where they could, but depression set in and I began to feel that there was no way out.
One day I reached rock bottom. I got into bed, took a triple dose of medication, I was so desperate to get rid of the pain.
That night, I had a phone call. A long-time family friend, mentor and confidant was on the other end of the phone, telling me he had heard about the pain I was in and that I wasn’t alone, he was going to help me. Within 48 hours I was having (much less invasive) surgery.
Again, my support network gathered round me. The freezer was continually full. I didn’t have to cook a dinner for months! People constantly checked in to see how I was doing and whether there was anything they could do to help. One friend came EVERY morning for three months to take my children to school, others rotating to bring them home to me daily. It was incredible.
Knowing that I wasn’t alone, allowed me to gradually regained my strength.
With all of the love and support that I had from those around me, my mission became clear. I was ready to give back. I wanted to tell others that they are not alone, like I had been shown. I had come full circle and I was ready go back into “debt”, this time by helping others who were in the same or similar financial position that I had been in. It was time to hold out my handand say, you are not alone. I will walk with you through and out this, I will help you get to the other side.
And so Debt Angels was born. Starting my own company, using my own experiences, I knew I could really make a difference to the lives of thousands. Living with debt can be crippling, it eats away at you and keeps you trapped, it destroys relationships, self-worth and prevents you moving forwards. I had angels around me and they helped me climb out of the pit I had found myself in, It was time I realized my purpose and did that for other people.
At Debt Angel Solutions I have gathered my own team of Angels, people who have the same values and beliefs that I do. Debt is something that can happen to anyone, it’s so often the result of circumstance, of situations beyond our control. At Debt Angel Solutions, we don’t judge, we don’t question how or why people have found themselves in the position they are in, we simply support, nurture and Guide. We share our knowledge and expertise as we provide workable strategies and solutions that can help people get out of debt, with amazing results and often in timeframes you never thought possible.
To learn more about what we do and how we help our clients not only get back on track financially but also thrive in their lives please check out our website Debt Angel Solutions, or to speak with me personally, please get in contact.
