Session #65: Nicholas Pallesen on Hypnotizing Artists

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

---

This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 65, Nicholas P on hypnotizing artists. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast with Jason Lynette, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business success. Here’s your host, Jason Lynette. What do you get when you combine hypnosis as well as a seasoned and accomplished and massively successful opera segment?

Well, you get this podcast session here today with Nicholas Palace. It’s Jason Lynette here and welcome back once again to the program and here with a session, which on one side I could not be more proud of. This content you’re about to hear, though on the other side, the person who I’m about to have this chat with is fully responsible, of course, for his own success.

I first met Nicholas perhaps about two, three years ago when suddenly my phone rings. And rather polite gentleman introduces himself as an opera singer. An opera singer who has an interest in learning hypnosis. And Nicholas then went through my hypnosis certification program and was just a rockstar from day one, really jumping in, putting this information to use and doing so in such a way that just the passion behind what he does and what he has now since accomplished that.

I don’t want you to dismiss the success that he’s had. He, I don’t believe he mentions this in this conversation you’re about to listen to. Though Nicholas recently successfully completed a whole season working professionally as an opera singer, being directed by people who you’ve likely heard of. He was directed by Terry Gillum from, You might know from Monte Python, but Nicholas just did a whole season of performing professionally as an opera singer.

Without having to audition. That’s how incredible he is as a performer. And to take that experience and to then use one of my favorite terms nowadays to pivot and realize that there’s perhaps another market, another need, another passion behind that. So chances are you’ve heard my story of how I went from being in management in the arts to then transitioning over to hypnosis full time.

And here’s Nicholas Now in this beautiful place of being successful as an opera singer and seeing the need that’s out there for fellow performance artists just like him, to chip away, to sand away. Whatever things have been holding them back to really take their skills from good to great. So in this conversation, you’re gonna get to meet Nicholas and learn all about, first of all, of course, his performances with places like the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the English National Opera in London, and the work that he has been doing with fellow artists to really reframe these sensations that they’ve been feeling in their bodies.

I mean, even if you don’t have an interest in working with opera singers and performance artists, you’ve gotta hear his unique take on working with clients to peel away and dissolve away fears and anxieties. This is incredible stuff. You gotta hear this. And if you’re going to the NGH Convention, if you’re going to the Hypno Thoughts Live convention in 2016, you have got to check out the seminars that he is going to be presenting different programs at these two different conventions.

I’ll be linking to that over in the show notes. Work smart hypnosis.com though, of course. Check out Nicholas’s website, whole artist hypnosis.com. It’s a fantastic site. Let’s jump right in. Session number 65, Nicholas Palace on Hypnotizing Artists.

But hey, what kick us off, We always like to start Origin story. Uh, what was it that kind of first peaked your interest? What was it that first grabbed your attention about hypnosis? Well, when I was, uh, when I was in high school, I discovered that I had this really great love of singing. I joined the high school choir and, and ended up, you know, having a really cool experience.

And through the experience of being in high school choir, I thought, you know, this might be something that I want to pursue a lot more of in my life, maybe after high school. And, but I had this really bad problem, which was that I had really bad stage fright and. And when I say that I had really bad stage fright, I mean, I would literally throw up sometimes before performances, I would always forget the words.

I’d, you know, have all these kind of shaking and, and kind of fast breathing and sweating and all of that. And, and pretty much anytime I performed it was, it was a meltdown. And these things are generally frowned upon in, in performance, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. . Yeah. You know, throwing up isn’t very good for a singer

And, you know, and it’s not fun for the audience either. Thankfully, you know, I did it all backstage, but , But, you know, but I remember I had this experience where my senior year of high school, I got at the choir Christmas concert, the coveted O Holy Night solo, you know, which, you know, for the singers is kind of a big deal.

And really all it’s about is you wanna sing the big, loud, high note at the end and have everyone go, Ah, you know, and, you know, so I was, I, I got that solo and. You know, I was getting ready for it and I started kind of freaking out about it and worrying that I’d forget the words. So I had this really cool idea that I was gonna take a music stand and I was, you know, my high school theater was one of those theaters where you have the stage and then it kind of drops a little bit onto the floor and then goes up for the audience.

And so I had this idea where I’m gonna get a music stand, I’m gonna put all the, the words to O Holy Night on it, and I’m gonna stick it down on the floor, put it up all the way high as I can so that when I forgot the words, I’d have a little cheat sheet that I could look down on. But then, so I go out on stage and I start singing and I’m totally freaking out.

And, and, and I had this moment where I’m like, Crap, what are my next words? And I look down and I to, you know, look at my cheat sheet. And I had this experience of forgetting, you know, when you start a performance, the lights on stage go up really bright. And the lights in the theater go really dark. And so here I am on stage trying to remember my next lines, looking down at my cheat sheet and I totally can’t see it because it’s dark in the theater and I’m blinded by all the lights on stage.

Yeah. That moment you’re up there, it becomes that tunnel and you only can hear the audience. You can’t even see them. Exactly. You know, you can see sort of like faded things in the audience, but you really can’t see anything. And so, you know, so I still to this day have no idea what I sang for the rest of the song.

You know, it was probably like, Oh, Night Divine O Holy Night. A whole bunch of times repeated. But you know, it was one of those moments where I was about to graduate from high school. I had had this experience and, and by that point I had said, you. I think I really want to pursue this much more of the singing career, but I knew that something had to change because, you know, number one, if I was gonna have a meltdown like that every time I auditioned or performed, you know, who was gonna hire me for any sort of job.

But also, the second thing I realized, which was even more important to me, I think was, you know, if this is how it’s gonna feel every time I get up and perform, do I even wanna do this? Because, you know, life’s too short to do things that don’t make you happy. And so I, I realized that I needed to do something to address it.

And, and I had tried others, other, you know, avenues for that. I had gone to a little bit of therapy. I had been on some medication. I had tried all sorts of d. approaches, but then, and nothing had really stuck, Nothing had really helped me in the way that I was hoping for. But then my senior year of high school, I grew up in southern California about an hour east of LA and a big thing in Southern California, I don’t know about other parts of the country, is that the night that you graduate from high school, they do a grad night party to, you know, basically give the seniors something safe to do.

So keep ’em inside, keep ’em from going out and partying or whatever. And as part of our grad night party, we had a hypnotist come and, and do a stage hypnosis show. And you know, and it’s interesting because everyone in the audience, you know, everyone in the audience was laughing, thinking it was crazy. Oh my gosh, how is he making these people do these things?

And, and I was sitting there in that moment getting really curious because I was like, you know, look at what these people are able to do with the power of their mind and. If, if people could in that moment imagine these things to be true with the power of their mind, you know, can’t I use that same power of my mind to be able to imagine myself stepping on stage more confidently or standing up, you know, to people who had been bullying me or, or, or whatever.

Couldn’t I use that same power? And so it got me really curious about hypnosis. And, and sometime later down the road, I finally started exploring hypnosis and I did some hypnosis sessions and it completely transformed my life. And, and I mean, and I, and I really don’t, I’m not exaggerating when I say that, that that my, my stage, I completely went away.

And, but what I was really surprised about was that my ability to manage stress and anxiety in everyday life. Also went away. It was kind of that thing of, because I had learned these new mindsets and skills in my everyday life, then it was just so natural and easy to be able to take that same mindset into my performing and my auditioning.

So, so, you know, it had such a big impact on me. And it’s interesting cuz you know, sometimes people, you know, sometimes I’ve heard people kind of poo a little bit on stage hypnosis or, or something and say, Oh, you know, you know, it’s, it’s bad for the profession or whatever. Or the Yeah. The arrogance of, I’m not one of them.

Well, exactly, yes. And, but yet I, I’m living proof that I would not be a hypnotist if it weren’t for seeing it in stage hypnosis, you know, So it, so having that experience, you know, I was like, this could be really helpful. For so many other performing artists. It had such a transformation in my life that, that I thought, you know, I wanna be able to share this with other people.

So, so then I, I started getting more and more curious about hypnosis and studying and learning more about it, and which, you know, then eventually led to me getting trained and certified as a hypnotist and continuing my education in that. But, but, you know, I, like, I, I say I, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my experience, a stage hypnosis show in high school.

This is a question that I ask my clients and, uh, I’d love to ask you this yourself, to have gone through those issues of fear and anxiety and everything related to performance to then being up there without that sensation. How would you describe that shift? Well, I would, I would describe the shift. As really being able to look at that energy in a new and very empowering way.

There you go. You know that, you know, in fact, I tell this to a lot of my clients, you know, our goal is not to take away all of that energy that you naturally, normally feel in those moments. Um, I, I talk to them about the fact that that energy that you experience is very natural and it is very normal. And that really what that energy does for you is really up to you.

That, that how you look at that energy really makes the difference in it working for you or working against you. So, so when I, when I get up to perform, I, I still feel energy. I still feel those things that maybe in the past I, I had called anxiety or stress or, or fear. But now that energy has turned into something that’s very exciting, something that really gives the life and the vitality and that spontaneity and individuality to all the performing that I do.

So, so I would say that the feeling is, is that I still feel a lot of those physiological symptoms, you know, that I still feel that racing heart a little bit, my, my breathing getting a little faster. But now I’ve learned to be able to look at it in a new way. And, and it’s interesting too, because some of the things that I’ve encountered in, in my research is, is that idea that people like Stanley Shecter especially have, have done a lot of research and emotion and talking about how a lot of times.

The, the emotions that we feel physiologically speaking, most of them feel almost exactly the same, and that it just varies in degrees of intensity. And, and that that idea, that excitement and anxiety physiologically almost feel exactly the same. That it’s the context that we’re in that, that we use to then decide what it is that we’re feeling.

So, so, yeah. So now I feel that stuff, but because I look at it in a different way now it becomes the thing that actually enhances everything I do rather than taking away from my performance. There’s a phrase that keeps popping up, at least in terms of just a mindset in some of the sessions that I’ve been doing recently, that you, you could imagine why the phrase really hasn’t, uh, crept its way into the actual vernacular of things I’m saying to the client, though it should, it’s the phrase of your feelings are meaningless until meaning is attached.

Absolutely. In fact, that reminds me of something, uh, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the work of Byron Katie. Yes. But, but you know, that’s, that’s one of the big principles of her work that, that a thought is harmless until we believe it. That, that it’s not the thoughts, but it’s our attachment to those thoughts that really cause us the, the stress.

So then, uh, as we first met, you were working full time in opera and this goal of exploring hypnosis, uh, was just beginning to flourish. What was it about these experiences that you had gone through that drove you to want to share that with others? Well, it, it had such an impact on my life because now I was able to go into performing and auditioning with a much more empowered and confident mindset.

And, but also I felt so much more in control of, The stress and anxiety that I felt in everyday life. And, and as I got more active in performing and as my career started to take off, I really began to notice a pattern, which is the, in, in our field, in in, in music and opera. And, and I think in the performing arts in general, there’s, there’s a lot of emphasis placed on technique and, and learning technique.

And, and, and for good reason. Because, you know, that technique is what really allows you to then be able to, to share your story in a more powerful and authentic way. But I think that sometimes people get really stuck on that and thinking that that technique is really the end, rather than being a means to an end.

And, and what I, what I also discovered was that, you know, a lot of emphasis was being place. On, on, you know, developing those skills of your technique, but no one was really talking about the mental aspect. No one was really addressing the psychological or the emotional aspect of what we do. You know, what do you do when you feel that energy?

What do you do when, when you’re dealing with that negative self talk going through your head? Are those limiting beliefs? You know, what do you do when you know you get rejected, you know, from, you know, you, you do an audition and you don’t get hired, or you’re dealing with a lot of rejection, which is something that we encounter a lot in our business.

I mean, I’m, I’m pretty established now as a performer. I’m certainly not, you know, super, super famous, but, but I’m fairly established as a performer and out of every 10 auditions that I do even now, You know, I, I probably get hired from, you know, one or two of them. So, so it’s something that we deal with a lot.

And I found, although I want to jump in there just to give, uh, the proper credit here for, for the, uh, for a profession where there’s so many people that are not working, you are constantly working. I mean, you live maybe 15 miles down the road for me, but here we are connecting via Skype as you’re up in New York right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I’m, I’m probably home, I’m probably on the road as a performer about nine or 10 months out of the year. So, so yeah. So things are going really well and, and you know, but like I say, you know, even at that point, I still get told no more often than I get told Yes. Which is part of that career.

Exactly, yeah. And, and, and then I found that, That really in my own training, in my own schooling and, and in the training programs that I did, that no one was ever really addressing this mental aspect of it. What do you do about all that stuff? And, and so, and I knew that I wanted to, to change that because, because I think a lot of, a lot of artists are, are dealing with a lot of challenges and pressures and demands and, and, and there is no real support system in place to be able to help people know what to do about that.

So, so I wanted to be the person to change that conversation to really actually start having that conversation. And so I think what really kind of came to a head is, uh, I went, I did a postgraduate degree in opera at the Julliard School in New York. And my first year at Julliard, I went to orientation.

And it turns out that every year for orientation, uh, Julliard hires a hypnotist. To come and do a stage show as part of the orientation. And actually that hypnotist is Paul Ramsey. And Paul Ramsey does a great show. I love his mind game show. And, and, and sitting there in that experience watching that show, I was thinking, you know, gosh, you know, I really should be finding a way to utilize hypnosis more in my work with people because, because, you know, because this is, is something that I think would really benefit them.

And, and so I think then that’s what really spurred me to, to more actively pursue, you know, getting all the, the trainings and the certifications in hypnosis so that I could be that person to be able to, to help people. You know, have that stuff that, and access to that information that’s really lacking in our profession right now.

It’s something that we share. A similar background, I was, I was behind the scenes. I, I took all the acting classes due to the wonders of, uh, a liberal arts education of, uh, wanting to be the guy behind the scenes, organizing everything in Excel and running, uh, tracking documents and calling cues. Uh, though the experience of being backstage with the actors that if you think we have a bit of a disconnect in the hypnosis profession in terms of methodologies and principles, oh man.

Step into that environment too. So as I, as I moved into hypnosis and I saw that, wow, we’re all talking about the same thing, but everybody’s using different words. Everybody has their own different style of approaching this, that artistic aspect of it definitely converted over where here would be. Here would be the actress that she’d have to be in character the entire time backstage, otherwise quote, she would completely lose it when meanwhile, here’s the other actress that is standing backstage waiting at a cue light for her entrance to walk on, begin the scene and is back there cracking jokes about what’s going on on stage.

And the light goes off and just suddenly goes, Hang on, I gotta go do this thing. And to see the same quality of performance from either one, the, the back to the, uh, the method acting one, having to have the moment of please don’t talk to me backstage, I’m in character. And it took every bit of my smart ass attitude to hold back from saying, So Juliet has an iPhone and no response.

Uh, but it’s that moment. , No, but it’s that, it’s that, what’s that trance? What’s that principle of the mind that in many ways the actor. And I’d imagine up until recently, until some of the work that you’ve been doing, the performer kind of has to either model what they’ve seen someone else do or just kind of guess and test it for themselves.

Absolutely. There, there, there really isn’t that support system in place or, or resources available. And so yeah, most people would just do what was modeled to them by their teachers or, or they would, you know, try to, you know, figure out that out on their own. And, you know, a lot of people would find success doing that.

Um, so it’s not to say that, you know, people can’t find that success, you know, without all the work that I do. But I think, uh, now I think people are becoming much more mindful. You know, we, we really should do something about this and, and here are some concrete, you know, ways that we can go about that.

Well, warming up is such an integral part of everything that’s talked about in terms of theater that, I mean even getting into, I’m sure, uh, what’s the book? The Kristin Link letter, Freeing the actor’s voice and the follow ups as well. That so much of it is getting into the physicality of the warming up process.

And I flash back to the recording that I did uh, last year, I think with John we, where we were talking about working with athletes that. Talking about the, the pregame routines, the postgame routines, that to pull a lot of that into performance, that, that was a principle that I was already using, working with opera singers, myself, working with actors, um, having the similar background.

It was something that if someone was calling around and seeing what the options were, you know, the experience of, Oh, Jason’s been in that environment as well, So it, it’s something that I’m sure that for you though, perhaps it’s not so much of the working with clients one on one. How much of your time has been spent, let’s say, in the one to one relationship versus coaching?

This in terms of a group? Well, I see in terms of one to one sessions, I, I see anywhere from 20 to 30 clients a week. Uh, just depending, and a lot of it really depends on what I’m doing at that time as a performer, obviously, when I’m in rehearsals for a show and I’m doing six hours of rehearsal a day, I, I can’t see as many clients.

But when I’m, you know, like when a show opens or, you know, when I’m not in a, in between shows, like I can see more people. So I would say I see anywhere from 20 to 30 people a week, either in person or over Skype. Uh, I, I work with Skype. On Skype with artists all over the world. But then most of the people, my, my main office where I work is based in New York City.

And, and most of the people who work with me come to see me there. But what I also do is I go out and now I’m doing a lot more group workshops, uh, group classes, you know, you know, to help get that conversation going. So what what’s great is I think that in, in the arts world, we have come a long way in that, and, and people are now starting to realize that it is a conversation we should be having.

We should be doing something to help people on that mental, psychological, emotional level. So, so I’ve been really fortunate now to teach a lot of group workshops. I, I get invited to speak at a lot of the major conservatories in the us, uh, the three major conservator here in New York. Manus, uh, Manus, the New School of Music, the Juilliard School in Manhattan School of Music.

I, I regularly teach classes at those schools. Um, I also go around other schools around the country to teach, uh, workshops there, just to give people exposure to, to this information. And, and also another really cool thing that’s happened is now I’ve started joining the guest faculty. Of various, uh, music programs, of, of summer festivals and, and training programs.

So, so I’m on, in, in the summer, I, I go and I visit several summer music festivals and I do a bit of a residency there, teaching classes and then doing some individual work with, with the artists. And then I, I’m not at a point to where I can formally announce this yet, but, but there are also a couple of other big, uh, opera companies and symphonies that are, are looking at having me join their, their, their faculty as well to, to work with their orchestra members and, and singers too.

So, so it, it’s really cool. I would say that now it’s probably. , two thirds working with people individually, and then about a third doing these group workshops. Excellent. Excellent. So then someone’s in front of you for the first time. What’s kind of the, the overriding theme that will often kick off that process for you?

Well, the first thing you know, everything that I do is customized to the client. I, I believe, really strongly in a client centered approach. And, and that’s actually something that, that I learned the value of as a singer. It’s one of those things that I, I understood as a singer that really helped translate into the hypnosis world.

You know, I remember when I went, when I was in grad school, I had this one voice teacher who, you know, he would basically teach everybody the same lesson all week. And, you know, everybody got the same lesson. And, and what people started to figure out at a certain point was that whoever got the lesson on Monday at 10:00 AM.

that was the lesson everybody else got for the rest of the week. So, so I ended up being like, Hey, you know what, can I sign up for the Monday 10:00 AM lesson ? So, you know, so, so that I, so that I could get the voice lesson that was best for me rather than somebody else’s voice lesson. And, you know, and, and it really, it really, But, you know, then when I was at Julliard, I had this experience where I worked with an acting teacher named Steven Wadsworth, who, you know, is a tremendous teacher.

And what I noticed about him was that he was able to basically talk about the same principles and philosophies, but, but I was amazed at how he could, you know, with each individual. That he could speak their language, he could talk to them in a way that they processed information. He could, he could really utilize what they were giving him in terms of feedback in a way that he could really customize the approach to them.

And, and, you know, with the other teacher in grad school, you know, I, I believe that, you know, if you do a, if you have a certain approach and you do that with everybody, you know, you’re gonna help some people probably, you know, So I’m not gonna say there’s no value in that, but I think that you have an opportunity to help even more people if you’re flexible.

If, if you, if you’re able to, To really adapt to the client. So one of the things I like to say is that before a client comes into my office, I have no idea what’s gonna happen. You know, I, I don’t want to have any sort of agenda or idea ahead of time because that might not be what they need in that moment, on that particular day.

So, so I like to sit down and I, and I like to say, you know, very much in the style of John Overdr and Melissa Tier, I like to say, you know, okay, so what do you wanna change today? What are, what are we gonna work through today? And then in the course of them giving me that information, I start to get a better idea of, of what we’re gonna be doing in that session.

So, so we, we sit down conversationally and we talk through, you know, what it is that they want to change and, and always kind of keeping that focus solution oriented on, you know, where do you want to be? How are we gonna help get you there? And, and I’ll, I’ll work with them and I’ll teach them various techniques that they can do on their own, because I want them to be able to walk out of the session feeling like they can continue to do this work on their own, rather than being dependent on me in order to get the changes.

And, and then, we’ll, we’ll do the, the formal hypnosis, even though, you know, conversationally we’re already doing the hypnosis, uh, so to speak, you know, then we’ll do that formal hypnosis process, you know, bring them out of hypnosis, talk to them about the experience, send them on their way so that, that would be, you know, how a typical session goes.

And then of course, you know, the, the more minute details really depend on what is the person looking to change. Is there a story that stands out of working with, uh, performer in terms of what they were able to achieve by overcoming whatever was holding them back before? Yeah, I, So I remember a couple of years ago I was performing down in the south and, and a school had me come up while I was there to do, uh, a workshop.

And, and I remember that the faculty, uh, of this school pulled me aside after the class and they said, You know, there’s this one girl that we want to, we, we really want her to work with you individually, but. We, you know, but, but we don’t know if you can help her, you know, because she has really bad stage fright and, and you know, and we just don’t know if there’s any hope for her.

And I’m sitting there thinking as a hypnotist, I’m like, Gosh, I hope you’re not telling this to that girl. You know, be, because, you know, if, if these authority figures are telling her that, that’s some pretty powerful hypnosis going on there. And, you know, I hope you’re not saying that to her, but, you know, but what I’ve found is that sometimes, you know, someone will, will say, Oh, I have really bad stage fright, and maybe kind of, you know, overplay it a little bit, you know, and then you talk to them about what’s going on and, and it’s really maybe not that big of a problem, but, you know, so, so I was, I was kind of curious when they were saying it was really bad.

Well, she comes in to, to work with me and I say, Okay, so, you know, to talk to me about this. And, and she says, Well, Uh, I get so nervous when I perform that I have actually in the last couple times I’ve had to perform. I’ve actually fainted in the middle of the performance and I was like, Oh, okay, . You know, so maybe, maybe the teachers were right about this being a lot of stage fright.

Um, and, and I said, Okay. So, so we did some work and she did really well. She, she did really amazingly, she responded great to hypnosis. We had a lot of fun in the session, did awesome work. And we, we met a couple of times in person while I was there doing that residency. And then we worked once over Skype and she then ended up going to do this competition and.

And I remember she texted me after the first round of the competition and she said, Nicholas, I felt so great. She says, I, I felt so in control the whole time. And, and I sang great, and I passed on to the next round and I was like, Awesome. And you know, then a couple days later I get another text, Nicholas, it was so great again.

I loved that I had so much fun performing. I advanced to the finals and I’m like, Awesome. That’s great. And, and then she texted me after the finals and she said, she said, You know, and I always remember this, she said, Nicholas, I have never felt more in control over how I perform in my life. She said, I felt so confident.

I sang probably the best I’ve ever sung. And, and, and I, and I kind of get a little emotional when I think about this. She said, You know what? Regardless of whatever happens in this competition, I know that I’ve already won. Because, because I, and I don’t need a prize to let me know that I’ve already won.

Because now for the first time in my life, I feel like I can go up and I can do the work that I know I’m capable of doing, and I can sing the way I’m capable of singing, and I can feel good about it and have fun and be in control and, and, and, and just to be able to see how this girl had gone from basically fainting, you know, in performances to now feeling that power and that confidence was so great.

And then a couple weeks later, she, she did a professional gig where she was the soloist singing, you know, for a theater of 1500 people. And she felt great the entire time. And, and so I, you know, that’s one story that immediately comes to mind. But that’s, you know, that’s one of the coolest things is there are so many stories like that in, in my work of watching people take that journey from.

You know, as, as Michael Elner says, you know, helping them suspend their disbelief and activating belief to be able to really help them get in touch with what they are capable of doing. It’s, it’s one of the most thrilling things really, especially in this category because, I mean, think about, think about that person with a fear of public speaking, the quote, standard fear of public speaking client coming in, or any other perhaps related fear, like a travel fear or even, uh, you know, highways or flying.

And chances are you might find yourself working on something that they haven’t successfully done themselves yet. Uh, here here’s someone that I worked with for public speaking that had never had the experience of getting up there and feeling comfortable. When, when we’re jumping into this process with a performer or even an athlete, there’s a bit of an ace in the hole already there, that they’ve had that experience.

In some way, they’ve successfully gone through that experience. In order to be chasing that, I, there’s a quick story that I will usually say if I’ve got, uh, usually a teenager here in front of me, either for performer or athlete, uh, which I tell the brief anecdote of being about seven years old and my parents putting me on a soccer team, and I was so bad at soccer that my only goal was to at least kick the ball.

You know, forget getting it in the goal. Forget scoring any points. I think that’s the right terminology, at least let me kick the ball. So, needless to say, within a year I was no longer playing soccer and I was now playing piano. Uh, and I tell that story to just highlight the fact that my parents would’ve never brought me to a hypnotist to work on my soccer game because it was something that was just not within my interest, not within my skill, not within my goals yet.

Meanwhile, here is that young person in front of me that. For them to already be there as it is with you. You could already go into that scenario, assuming they are top notch at what they do, otherwise they would not be there. I’m curious if there’s any of that mindset going into that process of drawing out resources, drawing out these skills, and just heightening indeed what’s already there.

Absolutely. I mean, I, I, I, I believe that all of my clients have, have most of, if not all, the resources that they already need in order to be successful. And, and I agree with you. I think that, that, that most of the people who come into my office are already doing the things that they want to be doing.

They’re already being the way that they want to be in so many other context of their life. And that, you know, perhaps for some reason, one reason or another that. That they just haven’t learned yet, that they, that they can be that way in this context or maybe their brain had, had mis learned a, a habit or a response that wasn’t working for them.

So, so yeah, in, in order to get, and, and as a performer myself, I, I understand when people come into my office, I understand all the work and all the things that they had to overcome already just to be at the place where they are now in their career. So, so we do, we spend a lot of that time just reminding them basically of of the resources that they already have, helping them reconnect to those strengths, those attributes, all those things that they’re really good at doing already that are gonna help them now to be able to overcome this issue that they had had.

So, you know, so yeah, we do spend a lot of time really drawing out, cultivating those strengths and resources and then just teaching them then to be able to, to be able to map it across into this other context of, of performing or auditioning or whatever it is they’re there to do. So you mentioned some things that are in the works and not yet ready to announce.

I know though. Where, where do you see this taking you in the next couple of years? Well, uh, to be honest, I. I’m, I’m, I’m about to make a big transition in my life. Um, so right now I have a really good problem, , which is, which is that, that I have, that I have two very successful careers happening at the same time.

And, and I’m really grateful for, for, for where I am now. And, and what I’ve realized though is that, is that I, I, I know that if things keep going the way that they are, I’m not gonna be able to sustain both careers going at the level that they’re going at, you know, with things going the way they are now.

I mean, as it is, I’ve already had to kind of put the lid on the hypnosis business a little bit, you know, in terms of not implementing all of the business strategies that I could implement, because I know that if I do that, I’m, I’m just simply not gonna have the time or the space. To be able to, to really work with everybody that I wanna work with, cuz I’m still actively performing.

So, so I’ve, I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching in, in the last, you know, bit, especially in the last several months. And, and I, and I really feel very drawn and called to, to doing this work of hypnosis and, and, and really helping be an advocate in the arts for people for that mental, psychological, emotional aspect of what we do.

And so, Basically what I’ve decided is that I’m gonna start significantly cutting back on the amount that I perform so that I have more time and space to be able to not only cultivate, continue to work on becoming a better hypnotist myself, doing the training, the research, you know, being able to really invest in becoming better at what I do, but then also being able to, to help more and more people and give more and more people access to the work.

So, So I think, you know, next year this coming, you know, an opera season generally runs from August to May and I, so I would say this upcoming season, 2016, 2017 is gonna be the last season that I’m really actively performing as much as I am. I have some really cool gigs coming up in Europe and that are really exciting and I want to do those, and then I want to really significantly cut back.

So that my focus is, is really on doing hypnosis, teaching more workshops, you know, getting some, some products out there so that, so that, you know, if people aren’t locally where I am or if budgets an issue, that there are some no cost to low cost ways of them still getting access to this work. So, so probably, you know, in the next few years I see myself phasing more and more out of performing and more and more into doing a full-time hypnosis practice and, and, and still keeping that niche of working primarily with performers, but expanding even more into a general hypnosis practice so that I’m working with, you know, what we would call the civilians, , you know, a, a little more often as well.

And I, and I feel really good about that because, because I, I, you know, to be honest, being able to help clients. , you know, take that journey and really discover those abilities and those strengths and that power within themselves. You know, to be honest, watching them make those transformations is much more fulfilling for me than any standing ovation I’ve ever gotten as a singer, you know, because as a singer, you know, you hope, you know, you go and you do your best work.

You, you tell a story. You try to be as authentic as you can, and you hope that you’ve made an impact in people’s lives. Um, when you’re working with someone in a, in a hypnotherapy session, you know, you really get to see that journey up front and up close and, and it’s really exciting. So, so that’s kind of where I see myself going is, is moving more in the direction of making hypnosis my primary, uh, focus and, and, you know, in performing, You know, if a project is interesting, if it’s, if it’s something that I want to explore or an opportunity that I, I find interesting, I’ll do it.

But, but really to focus on being a hypnotist first. That’s excellent. No, there’s something to be said about. Especially in this category, and I say this not to discount anything else that we would normally work with, with the, you say, uh, the civilians. My phrase is quote, the normies, uh, . Uh, though I’ve been using muggles a little bit too frequently, recently.

Oh. Uh, though, in most cases, that refers to the fact that, uh, I, I take Mondays off. Monday’s my usual Monday, Tuesdays usually a day off. So it’s the game of, I have to share it with the muggles. I have to share it with the Normies. No, there, there’s something very life changing. Here’s the client in the office yesterday that had been smoke free now for about a month and all these outstanding things that have been happening in our life.

Here’s the guy that’s down 30, 40 pounds, and here’s what he’s able to do. Here’s the person releasing pain. There’s something. And to overuse the word here. There’s something really artistically beautiful though about, I, I can think back to a concert violinist that suddenly was losing his edge in performance was suddenly missing notes and missing cues.

The piano player that was one of, I’m sure there’s dozens in this category that basically, Hey, the White House needs someone to come and play piano during a dinner. And she was one of the folks on that type of list and all these incredible, uh, credits behind them. Yet there’s something to be said about that moment where suddenly just something clicks and it’s not there anymore.

And to revitalize that. It’s perhaps, I mean, I, I, I went through theater training myself and that moment where something first captivates your attention, like for us that moment, first seeing the stage hypnotist, similar to that first moment, watching something on stage and watching an entire audience gets swept up into the experience.

There’s something to be said that as we, as hypnotists working with people in this category, you’re helping them to rediscover that art form for themselves all over again, and perhaps by doing so, get a better visceral experience the second time around going into it. Absolutely. You know, it’s, it’s when you, when you help people get kind of reconnected to that joy and that, and their abilities and that edge, it, it’s, it’s amazing how, how much more story, how much more art, how much more beauty comes out of them.

In, in their work. You know, I mean, people, you know, it, our profession is, you know, for various reasons, one that, that people can easily kind of lose touch of why they do it. And, you know, when you’re dealing with all the, this other stuff that has nothing to do with actually making art, you know, sometimes it can be easy to get burned out, but yeah, getting reconnected to that makes all the difference in the world.

And, and it’s almost as if, you know, you’re, Yeah. Like you said, it’s almost as if you’re starting again and you have this brand new beginning and, and it’s, it’s, it’s pretty exciting to see what happens. I flash back to a story of an actor that I’d work with, uh, when I was in the theater career, not when I was there as a hypnotist.

And he’s a guy who’s a local DC based actor, though he bounces back and forth, up and down the East Coast and several movie credits as well. Though as I knew him, I believe he was in his late seventies and one of these folks who had the, the, the. The resume that would basically point out at that age, he had played every male role, and I think it was King Le.

And same was true also for Hamlet. And he talked about this journey of being the young actor and identifying with this character, identifying with that character. And over time where, you know, I was the young upstart and I got to play Hamlet, then I was the one who was angry at everybody and fitting into the role of Layer T.

And here he was when I worked with him playing Polos in Hamlet. And the experience of revisiting something from our own life experiences that in many ways I can’t imagine just how invaluable it is to be the performer on stage who also has overcome their own challenges and what that even brings to the performance as well.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I think that I, I, I know that as an actor, as a, as a performer myself, that. That all of the challenges that I’ve had personally in my life, you know, and overcoming them, uh, has given me so much to draw on as, as an artist. And, and I think that that’s what makes it more beautiful. You know, I think sometimes, you know, one of the most common things that people struggle with when they come to see me is, is feeling like there’s this need to be perfect.

You know, there’s this, there’s, you know, I have to be perfect. I can’t make mistakes. I can’t do anything wrong. And, and, and I tell people, you know, it’s, it’s actually, you know, it’s, it’s your imperfections that, that are actually what make you so beautiful. And, and it’s those things that you’ve overcome.

It’s those things that you’ve experienced in your life that, that give so much more richness to, to everything that you have to share as an artist. and, and so yeah, it’s, I think our, all of our lives are, are full of so many rich stories that, that you can draw on as a performer. But I also think, you know, as, as a hypnotist too, that that, that, you know, there’s so many times when the things that I’ve gone through can now become that, that metaphor or that thing that I use with clients to help inspire them to be able to make changes or to give them hope that, that, that change is possible.

Well, that theme of imperfection was one that, and, and I just had to do a quick Google search for it, uh, as we were chatting here, uh, that I had a client in, uh, the violin player a while ago that was talking about how his mindset would be that if he missed so much as one note, That was everything that he could then think about.

And this was, uh, about the time of, uh, the New Year’s event, uh, I think last year. Uh, and there’s a horrible joke inside of this as Adina Menzel was there singing the song from Frozen Let It Go. Yeah. And she’s singing outside and it’s cold. And yes, the gag is, well, I guess the cold does bother her anyway, but it’s a moment where there’s like one, one specific high note at the end of it.

And there’s so many headlines about the fact that she did not hit that one high note. And I, I didn’t see the quote in the search, but it’s this beautiful moment where her only response was, No one’s talking about the other 10,000 notes that I hit perfectly. Well, that’s where my focus is. Absolutely.

Absolutely. You know, it’s, uh, it’s, I, I want, you know, I’m always talking to people about, This idea of, you know, give yourself permission to, to make mistakes, give yourself permission to get messy a little bit. You know, I think, I think that that feeling of I have to be perfect is, is a lot of what drives that stress and that anxiety in the first place.

And, you know, and what I tell people all the time is, you know, if, if we went to, you know, I think we’ve all had the experience of, well, whether we realize this is what it is or not, we’ve all had the experience of going through a performance where someone is up there and, you know, from a technical standpoint, they’re doing everything exactly by the book.

You know, they’re, they’re, everything is right. They’re not real. They’re not making any mistakes. And, and so from that standpoint, you can say it was accurate, it was perfect, but, but yet, you know, they’re not saying anything as an artist. And, and you know, and you leave with that kind of feeling as an audience member of, well, you know, that was.

Well, you know, they, that was good, you know, it was fine, but, but not really feeling, you know, kind of feeling a little like the glass is half empty, that not feeling completely full. But I can tell you then that some of the most rewarding and fulfilling performances I’ve ever witnessed are when someone is up there and, and they are, they’re totally honest, they’re totally vulnerable in that moment.

You, they’ve given themselves permission to be imperfect. And because of that, that actually allows the audience in more, it, it allow, it allows you to bring the audience to you because, you know, I don’t think we can understand perfection, you know? I know I can’t, I, I can’t relate to that. I don’t know what that is because as a human being, I’m, I’m imperfect.

So, so when I see someone up there who’s imperfect. You know, it’s like, Oh, that’s a person just like me. I get that. I can connect to that. And, and so I think allowing yourself to be imperfect really creates more opportunity for connection, which is ultimately what it’s all about as an artist is, is that connection, that opportunity to express and share in this moment together with people.

And, you know, and, and I think, and, and I think that’s helped me a lot as a hypnotist as well, because I think that sometimes we get so bogged down with, Oh my gosh, you know, when we’re doing a particular induction or a particular process, you know, in thinking, Oh my gosh, well I forgot that one step. Or, or I didn’t say these words exactly the way, you know, I learned in my training or, or whatever.

And, but, but if you, if you, if you, if your intention is there, if you, if you give yourself permission to. To, to, you know, maybe make a mistake or, or to get a little messy, so to speak. Then I, I feel that that really opens you up. It allows you the space to really be there in that moment, to be able to listen more to your client and to be aware of verbally and non-verbally what they’re giving you.

And to be able to really let that intuition help you know what to do, what’s next That if we get so caught up on, I can’t make mistakes, I think we, we, we hold ourselves back from being able to do much better work so that, so that, yeah. So as a hypnotist, I’m constantly reminding myself, cuz I think all of us can, you know, all of us can look back and, and have some moment where we were like, Oh gosh, you know, after the fact, Oh, I wish I had done that or I didn’t do that, or, or I forgot to do that.

But, you know, yet the client still made some really awesome changes. and, and so, you know, I mean, yes. I mean, I think we should all strive to become the best that we can be at what we do, but I don’t think we should ever expect or demand of ourselves to be perfect because, you know, I, I don’t think that we need to be perfect in order to be enough.

So, which I think that’s a theme that can carry over to so many other issues. That clients would come in with, even outside of performance. I, I’m flashing back to, I had this awesome guy that I worked with, uh, for weight loss that he’s down 30, 40 or so pounds, and he, he’s loving the hell out of this experience of being out with his friends.

They went to a bar, it’s the Super Bowl, and first of all, all of his friends are freaking out that here he is eating. The foods that they’re eating. It’s like, Joe, don’t eat that way. Don’t eat that way. Don’t have the pizza you’ve done so great. Don’t throw it all away. And the experience though, was in that span of time, I think he mentioned he’d only had like one and a half slices of pizza, quote when I normally would’ve had four.

Uh, when he normally would’ve ordered a pound or two of wings, I didn’t know that was the serving size. Uh, he would, he had had basically three and he goes, In the span of time, I normally would’ve gone through nearly a six pack of beer myself. I nursed one the entire night. And the experience though, that he fed back to me was that he goes, You know what though?

For the first time ever, I actually gave myself permission to enjoy these things. for the first time ever, I actually tasted them. I liked them rather than going through it and critiquing and judging and hating on what I was doing in that moment. And if anything in this phrase, and it’s, it’s been folding its way into my process recently, as I’ve told elements of this story, Avie goes, and for the first time, I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Now, this was me seeing him like a month after, after that event. And he goes, And I haven’t eaten that way since it was an event. It was a happening. And he goes, and it was every reason why I don’t have to eat that way every night like I used to. But I love that aspect of actually enjoying it. So it’s not this all or nothing mindset.

It’s the, it’s the performer on stage. It’s that draw of life theater that you don’t, you know, she, she hits the wrong note in the song. They go back into the studio. And in the movie, of course, it’s flawless. Yet the aspect of seeing it live, seeing it in performance, uh, and bringing that theme to doing the best we can that day, I love that as a application of it.

Absolutely. It’s, uh, yeah, in fact, that it reminds me of that idea of, you know, when I, when I talk to people, you know, sometimes they feel like if I make, you know, if I, you know, I want to control it, you know, I don’t, I don’t want to make mistakes. And that by somehow, you know, they think by giving themselves permission to make mistakes, that that means that they’re just gonna have a total train wreck.

And I say, no, actually, by giving yourself permission to do that, you actually free yourself up to do more of the stuff that you want to do and that you’re capable of doing. And, and like with Yeah, the example you gave that now you actually give yourself by, by letting yourself have the freedom to get messy a little bit, you, you actually give yourself more ability to enjoy the moment.

Outstanding. Well, I know you’ve got several workshops that you’ve been doing for opera companies, for theater companies. Uh, where can hypnotists find you? Well, hypnotists can find me at my website, which is www.wholeartisthypnosis.com. There’s, there’s a lot of information there on my website. Uh, but also this summer I’m gonna be presenting at the National Guild of Hypnotist Convention In August, I’m gonna be doing a one hour workshop on a lot of the strategies that I teach people, uh, clients who work with me to help them manage self-talk.

So I’m, I’m gonna teach ’em a lot of really cool exercises that I give to my clients to help ’em to either, you know, manage unwanted self talk, deal with limiting beliefs, or just to quiet those voices in your head when you need. Be more present and more mindful of what’s happening. And then at the Hypno thoughts, live convention in Vegas, at the end of August, I’m gonna be doing a one hour presentation, basically talking about the process that I use with clients to help deal with performance anxiety and stage fright.

And, and not, and, and that process is something that I not only use with performers when it comes to performing and auditioning, but also other things like public speaking or, or other instances where, where we might deal with a little bit of, of stage fright. So, so I’m gonna be sharing a lot of the, a lot of the techniques that I use with clients in that process, but also a lot of the research that, that I give to people that really gets them to start questioning and, you know, and really wondering about those beliefs that they had held onto, you know, talking to them about, , You know how actually they might have never had performance anxiety to begin.

And that they had just been perhaps misdiagnosing or misinterpreting what that they were feeling. So talking about a lot of that research as well. So, so I’m excited. You know, this is gonna be, this is gonna be my first year presenting at, at these hypnosis conferences, so I’m really excited to, to share this information with other hypnotists now.

Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast. And work smart hypnosis.com. Hey, wasn’t that phenomenal? And again, thank you so much to Nicholas for taking so much time outta your busy schedule to be here as a part of this program. Thank you to everybody who has been heading over to the Work Smartt Hypnosis listing over on iTunes and sharing your feedback.

Uh, to share your feedback for this program, you can head over to work smart hypnosis.com. iTunes. That’ll take you right over to the podcast listing and over there, leave your feedback. For this program. I’ve been getting some phenomenal feedback, of course, from the Create Awesome Weight Loss Success webinar on core presentation that I did this past week, and you did not miss out on that.

If you missed it as it happened, just head over to learn virtual gastric band.com. You’re gonna learn all about that specific weight loss hypnosis offering, and as a thank you for interacting with this program as you register for that digital access program, again, the promo code type in work smart. All caps, all one word that’s gonna knock off 10% off that program.

Head over to learn virtual gastric band.com. Type in the promo code, Work Smart, all one word, all caps. You can link from it Again, from the training link over at Work Smart Hypnosis, though again, the learn virtual gastric band.com url that’s gonna take you directly over there. Work smart, all one word, all caps.

Thanks again to Nicholas. Thanks again to all of you. And as you’re attending upcoming conventions in August, whether it’s ngh or Hypno thoughts Live, be sure to pop into my seminars. Be sure to pop into my presentations, hop over to my table as well, and say hello. And if you have not registered for Hypnotic Business Mastery, my live two day pre-convention offering at Hypno.

Thoughts. The hell’s wrong with you. Register for that today. Get started on growing a more successful hypnosis business. It’s Jason Lynette. I’ll see you next.