Bankrupt woman now lives in a £1.5M Suffolk Tudor mansion

Bankrupt woman now lives in a £1.5M Suffolk Tudor mansion

When Jo De Rosa was declared bankrupt she thought her dreams of running her own yoga retreat had come to an end. 

Left with so little money in the bank she could barely afford to eat after a franchise deal went terribly wrong, she thought she'd never recover, either emotionally or financially.

But seven years on the 45-year-old is now living her 'dream-life' in a £1.5m property in Suffolk from where she runs a hugely successful business.

The beautiful Tudor farmhouse sits in three acres of perfectly manicured land and has a total of 18 rooms and she managed to achieve the home of her dreams by creating a vision board. 

'I am a huge believer in the law of attraction â€" that if you put something 'out there' and truly believe it will happen, you will attract it,' Jo explained. 

'So, I found a picture of my perfect retreat house in a magazine - a black and white farmhouse - and created a vision board, telling myself every day that it would be the house I'd live in.' 

Jo would spend time in the mornings gazing at it to conjure up a motivation to reach her goals, and take this feeling with her throughout the day.

Jo De Rosa is now living her 'dream-life' in a £1.5m property in Hertfordshire with her husband Dom after she pulled herself back from bankruptcy 

The dining room at Jo's lavish home which boasts 18 rooms and extensive grounds 

Clients practice yoga in the sprawling grounds of Jo's home where she runs a successful wellness retreat 

'I placed the board above my desk, which back then was my favourite place, so that I could keep looking at it for motivation throughout the day,' she explained. 

'I’d sit first thing and really try to get into the feeling of where I wanted to be and I take this feeling into meditation too. 

'I would take something from my board into the last quarter of the practice, when I was in the deepest state, and visualise my dream as if it were a reality. 

This process has become a lot more sophisticated these days, now that I am quite an expert at it but back then it was much more simple and I would picture myself where I wanted to be. 

'It is the vibration of what you are trying to create that actually attracts the dream to you,' she said. 

'I now have so much experience doing this that I can literally manifest stuff instantly, and if you don’t manifest it you don’t really want it or don’t believe that it is possible.'

One of the rooms in Jo's home, which she also runs as a hotel and yoga retreat 

When manifesting her yoga retreat and home, Jo chose an aerial shot of a large house with two very distinct areas to it to place on her board.

'It was vitally important to me to have a very separate area for our personal quarters and the business, so the picture that I choose had just that,' she explained.

'Now our "apartment" takes up the whole first floor of the extension, which houses the yoga studio, leaving the rest of the house for guests. A total dream come true.

 I placed the board above my desk, which back then was my favourite place, so that I could keep looking at it for motivation throughout the day.

'I put that picture up in 2011, and Hill Farm became a reality in 2013. I cannot believe we have been there four years already. 

'I pinch myself everyday and both my husband and I still feel that we are living the dream every single minute of every day. 

'We work hard but we are doing what we absolutely love and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world, although I don’t really believe in ‘luck’ as I believe we make our own, and that anything is possible.'

But it was a different story in September 9th 2009, the day Jo's accountant told her she had to wrap up her franchise. 

I will literally never forget,' Jo recalled. 'I felt so ashamed â€" like I'd failed. Bankruptcy seemed like such a dirty word and I was terrified of what the future might hold.'

Yoga teacher Jo was left with home, no assets and £5 to her name when she was declared bankrupt in 2009 

In March 2013, Dom was browsing on a property website and by chance spotted a house that looked almost identical to the one on Jo's vision board

Jo had heard about a company who were offering franchises to teach yoga to children in schools and put in £10,000 of her own money, most of which she had to get a business loan out for.

LAW OF ATTRACTION

Vision boards (sometimes called mood boards) are a motivational tool, used to summon up success

Victoria Beckham credits a key part of the success of her fashion line to this technique. The designer Kelly Hoppen is also a big fan an d Oprah Winfrey said that every one of her ventures started with a board.

The concept was made popular by Rhonda Byrne's bestselling book on the law of attraction The Secret.

First published in 2006, The Secret dictates that positive thinking â€" of which visualisation is a huge part â€" can change your life and compel the universe to deliver your dreams.

But the sums didn't prove quite as profitable as they appeared. The schools weren't willing to pay as much as Jo had been told by the company and she soon found her overheads far outweighed her earnings. By the time she'd paid her small group of instructors she was left with nothing.

By 2009 Jo was £35,000 in debt, using credit cards to keep her franchise afloat. Her accountant advised her to declare herself bankrupt. She had just met her husband Dominic, now 46, an d came home to him in floods of tears.

'I was devastated,' she says. 'I'd always been careful with money and had never asked anyone for anything. I felt like a complete failure. I had nothing â€" no home, no assets and about £5 to my name.' she recalls.

Luckily, even though they hadn't known each other long, Dom gave Jo a roof over her head and stood by her.

'He was my rock,' she says. 'He told me to keep my chin up, that he'd help in any way he could.

'Dom ran a music school and shop of his own so knew that sometimes in business, things don't go your way and kept reminding me of that whenever I had down moments.'

In 2000, Jo moved to Thailand, where she opened up a yoga shop and began teaching too

Jo recalls Dom shouting to her excitedly when he spotted the property as it looked just like the one on her vision board 

Jo knew that the only way out of the mess she was in was to start again. In 2010, she moved into Dom's four-bedroom house in Hertfordshire and they converted his garage into a small yoga studio. 

She worked 12-hour days teaching yoga and meditation to put herself back in the black.

'I had to be so careful not to spend anything and put every penny I made away to pay off my debts,' she said. 

Amazingly, after a year Jo managed to save enough to get back on her feet. But the financial mark would stay on her record for a further five years.

'I almost gave up on my dream of a yoga retreat,' she said. 'Being bankrupt, I couldn't borrow any money or run a business in my own name so it seemed impossible.'

In the past, yoga fanatic Jo was worried that people would judge her over the bad business deal that led to her bankruptcy 

The studio at Jo's Inner Guidance retreat, where guests can enjoy yoga, meditation and workshops on healthy living, has gone from strength to strength

That's when Jo was inspired to create her vision board after finding a picture of her perfect home and retreat in a magazine, adding pictures while she worked teaching yoga round-the-clock and saving money.

Eventually, she had enough to hire out a country house in Norfolk to run 'test' retreats in 2012. They proved a huge success.

Then oddly, in March 2013, Dom was browsing on a property website and by chance spotted a house that looked almost identical to the one on Jo's vision board. 

Jo's current home looks almost exactly like the one on her vision board that she kept telling herself she would one day live in 

The stunning 16th Century Grade Two listed Tudor house in the idyllic village of Lavenham featured ten bedrooms, a large downstairs room for studio space squeezed into their price bracket.

'He shouted me over excitedly and when I saw the picture that had popped up I just knew,' said Jo. 'It was almost exactly the house on my vision board in a gorgeous part of Suffolk.'

The couple, who married in 2011, rented out their Hertfordshire home, combined their savings, and got cracking on their new venture, the Inner Guidance retreat.

Jo's life ambition was to set up her own yoga retreat but after she was declared bankrupt she was certain it would never happen 

'We had to furnish 41 rooms in the house, including the corridors, hallways and bathrooms, not to mention the basement. But when we were finished I was ecstatic. It was exactly what I'd wanted,' recalls Jo.

The business had to be put in Dom's name initially but was transferred over to Jo last year after the bankruptcy was scrubbed off her records.

'I was on cloud nine that day,' she said. 'Finally I was free of my financial burden and finally I had the business and home I'd always dreamed about. 

Every day Jo told herself that one day she would live in her dream home and continued to add pictures to her board while she worked teaching yoga round-the-clock and saving money

'I remember walking around the grounds and listening to the birds in the trees and looking up at the house and thinking how lucky I was. 

'Many people never recover from bankruptcy and things could have ended so differently for me but it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened in the end.'

Every day Jo is thankful for the 'perfect' life she has and says anyone can achieve the same thing if they want it badly enough.  

Jo's 18 room home needed decorating from top to bottom, but she enjoyed every minute of making it perfect 

Inner Guidance, where guests can enjoy yoga, meditation and workshops on healthy living, has gone from strength to strength with more than 40 fully-booked weekend retreats so far plus regular hotel guests mid-week. 

'I can't believe how different my life is to how it once was,' she added. 

'I'm not afraid of anything. I've hit rock bottom and know I can get back up again. And whenever I doubt that I only have to look around me. Not only am I doing what I love for a living but living somewhere I love too.'

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