Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.
Uh, the way I got introduced in hypnosis was I started off unlike a lot of people, uh, most of the people I run into, they’re mostly, they start off as clinicians and they kind of dipped their toe into stage where I was like the exact opposite. I was a, um, well, I still am a performing stage magician going all across the country, North America, performing upwards of around 200 shows a year.
And, uh, and you know, Jason, cause I know you, you’ve dabbled in magic too, and everything that would match. You’ve got props and you’ve got angles and you’ve got equipment and everything. And it’s, uh, kind of a pain in the keister. Well, a friend of mine from Texas, I’ll even say his name right, Right. He, um, introduced me to the idea of stage henosis.
I, I’d heard about it, I’d never seen it before. And he sent me up this videotape of his, uh, first show, which, you know, tell you how old it. And, um, I was captivated by just like amazed. And then, um, I went to see a couple of other shows and there like r rated shows wasn’t really my bag and I finally decided to explore the idea all the way back in.
When was this? 2005? I think. Uh, no. 2004. I don’t know. A long time ago. And, uh, got into stage hypnosis and it actually wounded by dd of all things, maybe can believe that. And didn’t have my first, uh, live training until almost a decade later. And uh, started doing stage shows all across the country and uh, having a great time with it and, you know, supplementing my magic income and stage ofn.
And eventually it worked up to the way where I was making as much stage as I was magic and there’s no props. It was real and people were scared of me. It was, you know, at that time it was kind of cool cuz with magic it was all about, you know, oh, you know, the snarky come is hide your wallet and everything with hypnosis, you know, the adults were more.
Don’t look in my eyes. Literally one of my first corporate jobs, I was having dinner with a client and, uh, the, uh, the client’s wife literally would not look me in the eyes cuz she’s so scared of me, which I just thought was just tremendous. And I, you know, that cold, black, evil part of my, uh, black heart really enjoyed that and got into it further.
Then I had anate, you hit on something there, which, I mean, I had a hobby doing magic. I kind of paid my way through college doing magic. Bush gardens down to Williamsburg and you know, the transition between hide your wallet versus the I have a fear of this thing. Can you help me with that was a much better interaction after a program.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, and that’s what got me into being a clinician. Uh, people were asking me at after stage shows, Can you help me with this? Can you help me with that? I’m like, I, I, I don’t know. And, uh, the way I got into actually formally training and becoming NG certified, It’s kind of funny.
I had an agent and I still have an. Out west to, um, Nebraska and Iowa, you know, the corn country to do post prompts. And after about six years of doing this and get, making upwards of, you know, 40, $50,000 from this agent for, you know, half a dozen shows a year or whatever it was, she eventually said, I need you to send me a copy of range, each certification.
I’m like, What’s that ? And. And so my husband’s, Oh, you’re not an NG certified. Well, we want you to be certified. Oh, I’ve been working for you for years. Everything’s kosher. Well, it’s just for credibility, blah, blah, blah. So I told my wife about it, and, uh, that her husband was gonna train me and she’s, Oh, they want all your money and they’re just trying to bill you and everything.
And I see, honey, this is a great reframe. They’ve given me $50,000. Now they want big 1600 for the training of their evil plan, working . And at the training . So, so I then became, I became a clinician and opened up the Niagara Falls Osis Center, um, about five miles from where I live about six years ago. And, uh, now I split my time between seeing clients.
Doing trainings. I’m actually in the middle of, uh, certifying a couple of students now and, uh, performing stage shows and magic shows and, uh, it keeps me fresh. I don’t allow to do one thing for too long. I just get buggy. So I, um, enjoy doing a lot of different things and that’s kind of where I’m at right now.
Yeah, and I love that aspect. I mean, it’s definitely part of my lifestyle too, that each and every week is this different experience. So, you know, I’m not actively promoting stage hypnosis these days yet still doing quite a number of programs. The high schools are just so loyal, and here’s the date. Okay, I’ll send a contract and then back in the office for a series of clients, and then the moment of, Hey, let’s do a uh, webinar.
Let’s now go to this convention. And just that aspect of mixing it all up. So there are some who would say, Jack of all trades, master of none, though I’ve found that pattern. From so many people I’ve talked to here that, you know, having the feet in so many different pools as it were, um, what is it about that variety do you think lends itself to becoming more effective in, let’s say, at least in working with your clients?
Well, first of all, clients may, if they hear that you do stage hypnosis cause it, Well, let me back up. People call. And they ask about, uh, you know what you can do for them? Can you help me with this? Can help me with that? And they come in and despite the fact that we do, you know, those of us who are effective do an effective pre-talk and we explain how everything is, they will still look at stage IP as something different.
And I even tell them, I said, Look, The hypnotic conduct after about four sessions, I’ll tell somebody, even the hypnotic conductions that I use with you is very similar to what I use on stage. It’s a modified element and um, uh, and so when they hear that you can do stage two, they see that as different, That looks more magical to them.
It looks like mine control. So two that. Two aspects about having the variety. Number one, it allows you to speak from a position of authority and dispel a lot of those common held myths about hypnosis. Even if they’ve already heard it, they still think stage is different. So when you come from that point of authority, it raises credibility in their eyes.
It helps to foster the, uh, the, uh, the good word of hypnosis, as it were. And, uh, and it also helps keep you sharp too, like me starting off with stage first. It was all about getting people into some aism really quickly and getting into the show and monitoring people and having interactions with the audience and stagecraft and monitoring several different subjects.
And when I started doing a clinical work, uh, izing people with easy part, you know, and all the newbies, I mean, people I’m working with right now, despite I, we teach ’em about convincers and everything, they’re like, Oh my God, I still wonder what about this? What if this doesn’t work? I’m like, Guide. Getting him into formal trans is the easy part.
That’s what you do afterwards is, is where the true art comes from. So I think having ma being a master of both, uh, both perspectives, you know, uh, one on one sessions and stage, it makes you a better overall hypnotist all the way around. Cuz if you’re just a stage guy, well then maybe sometimes, you know, you hear stories about people who, you know, they become, you know, enamored with a whole, you know, I’m, I’m God, I’m on stage.
Whereas if you’re a c. It, it, it keeps you, I don’t wanna say humble, but it keeps you compassionate so you can really, you know, it, it informs you in both ways. Does that make, does that make sense? No, it does. And I’d say that, you know, from the stage side of things, some people would have the perspective of, okay, he’s in the casino.
Okay, he’s in the corporate event, which, um, I, and you’ve done some things of that nature, but for the most part, Uh, a lot of your magic programs are for elementary and middle schools, right? Absolutely. Yeah. That’s which I, my fair share of, I always point the phrase of, you know, my, uh, my Vegas as a, uh, high school gym at three in the morning.
Exactly. Yeah. , which is extremely humbling. Can we adjust the lighting? It’s either on or off. . Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I, I remember one of my old, uh, show videos I used using as a demo video for a while where they had me in front of the cafeteria and you could see the lunch legs preparing the lunch while I was doing my show for the kids.
And that was extremely humbling. But hey, that show this. So how does that, how does that convert over to, uh, working with clients? Not that, not that the, uh, not that the cafeteria ladies are there, uh, in the background in that environment, but again, that, that flexibility of, Okay, here’s what’s going on.
Let’s just make this work. Oh, yeah. It’s, it’s, it that, you know, that’s a really great segue. The one I had, I’d not had anybody addressing it before in other interview I’ve done. Um, it allows you to jump tracks really quickly and allows you to. Well, I’ll explain it like this. When you’re in a stage like that and you have to adapt to all these different conditions, it’s not too dissimilar from adapting to different clients, both what they bring to the table.
Like you may go into an interaction with a client with a tend to game plan in play, and then when they sit down for a session three or four, they may throw you for a loop and then you’ve gotta recalculate and you know, come up with different strategies to interact with those clients. So, again, one informs the other.
It’s all about flexibility and picking on your feet and making those, um, Yeah, and not being so rigid, as we’ve, uh, talked about before with, uh, certain other highly ranked images. Mm-hmm. , Yeah. The flexibility inside of it that, I mean, here’s a phone call I received the other day that the commentary was, Well, I don’t know.
I tried hypnosis about 15 years ago and it really didn’t work. And getting the actual story that, you know, it was a friend of his who had a book on it and just simply read something from the book to which I, Right, right. Had to respond. It’s like, well, you know, my, my classic phrase in that environment is, Well, you’ve gotten a bad haircut before, Right?
And you’ve continued to get your haircut in spite of the fact that you’ve had one bad haircut. So, um, I don’t even wanna put that in this category because, That was not the person I flashed to. The examples of the, uh, correspondence courses that would used to have commercials of TV repair, VCR repair, uh, get your degree, veterinary science, and the joke was always, I’d hate to be a cat in that house.
So, , the, the aspect of, you know, there’s a line between the person who’s really out there having already put in those 10,000 hours and has put this work into use. Versus the one who’s kind of dabbling at that. And, you know, bringing that into that aspect that, I mean, even over to the magic world, my uncle knows a card trick.
He’s a magician just like you. Right, Right. Yeah. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. The stories I could tell. Oh, we just revivified you to something there. So I wanna go specifically into one, one part of, uh, this, this sort of career here, which was that, this aspect of, there you were, Already quite successful with the programs you do for schools that, whether it’s the magic, whether it’s the, uh, whether it’s the hypnosis programs, what was that initial intention in terms of this, the seed of the idea that eventually became Niagara Falls Hypnosis Center?
Honestly, uh, , I’ll, I’ll totally be honest with this, that the initial thing was to, well, well, two things. It was to, uh, satisfy the needs of the, of the, uh, of the agent that I alluded to earlier. The second thing was when I was at my training, having no initial intention of becoming a one on one clinician was, um, my trainer, uh, played a video of him working with a client, and, uh, it, it was a very transformative experience.
This particular gentleman was, He, uh, he been, he was a, a first responder. He was a police officer, if I remember correctly. And he’d been shot, and, uh, um, half of his body was almost completely paralyzed. He could walk, but it was with a, you know, with a very noticeable gate and a noticeable limb, excuse me.
And just had a, um, really rough go of it. And I don’t remember the specifics of the case, but it, it turned out it was a lot of both psychosomatic, a lot of grief, a lot of, you know, I can’t provide for my family anymore, that sort of thing. So with, with his permission, they videotaped the session, we watched it in class, and he hypnotized the.
And he is like crying. He’s ab reacting. He’s like letting, you know, letting this stuff out. And to make a long story longer, at the end of the session he reaches up with the, the paralyzed hand and very clearly wipes tears from his eyes. And we flash forward to the end of the session. He walks out having regained about 80% mobility in that side of his body.
And I was completely transformed. I was like, you know, sobbing myself watching it and I’m like, Okay, I wanna help people. And um, and then of course the capitalistic side of me said, Well, I can travel as doing it this too. So, Was, that was basically, you know, my moment of, uh, you know, heading into this wonderful world from a one on one standpoint.
So in terms of the next step, what was the next move from there? Uh, get a dba, . Yeah. Get to dba. And then I got, I got very lucky because I, and this is not which, I wanna just on a pause on that for some people who might not know exactly what that is and I’ll share my thoughts on it and you can kind of back me up or tell me.
No, you idiot, you’re wrong. Um, this is basically in, in the shape of an already existing business. You’re able to file a dba, which stands for doing business as so it’s not performing an entire entirely new business entity. The way that I am, the Jason Lynette Group llc, and that refers to, it’s a group of all of Jason Lynette’s businesses, and inside of that is Work Smart Hypnosis.
Inside of that is Virginia Hypnosis. And back me up on this, please. Uh, the DBA is basically like a two page document at about a $10. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I I have used legal zoom, uh, but don’t use them for this . Exactly. Yeah. And I, I mean, you know, I, I wanted to highlight later, cause a student of mine just dropped about $250 on filing a dba, which again, it’s a two page document and it was a $10 fee.
So, um, Exactly. Use them for things like trademarks, if you ever have that need. But for this specific scenario, you just needed to solidify the name within your local county basically. Exactly. And then years later, I eventually incorporated as did you, you know, I’m Chris Johnson Inc. I didn’t do the group thing, although I wanted to.
My wife got that side dumb. But she didn’t understand, I just didn’t feel like arguing . Um, and, and what I’m about to say, let’s spend the next half hour on that moment. No . Exactly. So I mean, no disrespect to other people out there who have home. Hypnosis businesses. Um, I was never comfortable with having people coming into my house cause I got, you know, dogs, I’ve got cats and it’s just, I didn’t wanna do it.
And also from the get go, when I started seeing clients, I began seeing or having walk-ins who were not qual, I was not qualified to deal with obvious, leave it at that. So I wanted to keep my personal professional life separate. And I got lucky that I did not have to go searching far for a, um, for a place to have my center.
I didn’t have to worry about, you know, making a deal with a chiropractor or anything. My wife has a hair salon and the building next there, the, uh, it was, it was a two business building. Uh, so at one floor. And the building, uh, the, after the building next to her became available, um, about eight months after I got my certification.
And the rent was very favorable. It was only $500 a month. And, uh, it serves two purposes. You know, we’ve got the, a very nice hypnosis center set up with a treatment room and a nice reception area and nice signage jump front and everything. Then I’ve also got an area the clients don’t see, which I affectionately referred to as a nerd room where all my equipment is.
And, um, oh, mine has got the road where boxes go to. I like your better. Yeah. Well I still, I still use mine, so that’s, uh, I didn’t give it a different name. Uh, you know, the, the, the, the room, uh, the sign above the room to the nerd room because having the, the sign say the, the room where a wasted youth will spend was just too long.
It was just too long. . So, but anyway, um, so Ill be able to transition having a professional looking office very, very quickly and I’ve been there ever since. So my transition was relatively easy, although you might have a similar through line here, cuz I. When I was launching Virginia Hypnosis, the original thought was, Okay, well I’m mostly doing these stage hypnosis programs like Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
I’ve got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday available. Let me find something temporary. Let me find something I can sublet. And then the honest realization that no, these programs were so completely scattered that I, I couldn’t play nicely with others and it had to be my own sandbox. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I didn’t wanna have to worry about sharing office space or anything, and it was just, it was just a much easier transition doing that.
I couldn’t imagine. There’s a guy in town, um, and he bounces between four or five different locations. He’ll be at one professional hypnosis center for a couple of days a week and a wedding. Mentioning his names, he’s kind of a friend, and he also bounces around between a couple of churches doing some things out of his house and.
No, I just, That’s, that was a choice that did not work for me. I’ll say it like that. Yeah. Well, it’s where it comes down to the individual in terms of what their goals are. I know that, you know, several folks like up in New York City that it’s beneficial to have one or two days here in Brooklyn, two or three days there in Manhattan, and then kind of bouncing on those locations, um, you know, to, to be in an area that there’s just a lot.
Local people. Uh, I wanna come back to a phrase that you used there that I loved and some people would hear and go, Wow, I don’t think that way. But the fact that you said the rent was only $500 a month, uh, when you were looking, when you were looking at that, I, I chair not to lead you. Uh, I share the thought process that I had because my.
Original office space that I signed a lease on, it was a full two office suite, and the short version of the story was that I signed the lease. It was supposed to be about $1,200 a month. The owner calls up the day after I sign and go, Hey, I need to make like $10,000 appear. And I don’t mean to make that your problem, but would you be willing to pay the rent all at once?
And huh Looking around is like, well, I’ve got this Capital One credit card, that zero balance and $12,000 limit with a balance transfer offer. Um, I can give you $9,000 this week figuring, Okay, I’ll pay rent to Capital One rather than paying rent to this guy and manage to get. The monthly rent, almost practically cutting, you know, almost about, you know, just above a half of it.
And then subleted part of the space. And so by the time I was done with that, the office was now my space inside of this bigger suite that had my name on it, worked out to be about the same number, $500 a month, which you were coming into that already with a successful business. And the mind frame that I had was, Okay, I just need like three sessions a month to even just break even on this.
Right. And if I can’t even get that, I’m not even trying. So right to look at this moment, to unpack it of the initial investment, not to necessarily go broke. I wouldn’t recommend to most anyone else to say, you know, drop the nearly $10,000 in one swipe of a credit card. Um, you know, don’t go massively into debt building something up that’s not there yet.
But that mindset of. Just jumping in, I’m gonna make this happen. Kind of walk us through that moment. Well, it was, uh, kind of funny because before, Well, two things I wanna, I wanna address just, uh, basically and interrupt myself, that newbie hypnotists out there, you know, consider the name of your, of your hypnosis center.
I mean, I named my Nira Falls Hypnosis Center because of the geographical name, which helps me for Google searches. And number two, I didn’t wanna have my name attached to, and in case I other had been just working for me. I wanted people to feel comfortable coming to, and I have. You know, for a while they did have another head that is working for me that I trained and she went out out elsewhere.
Anyway, I, um, when I was, when I was trying to figure out what to do with the hypnosis center, had this new certification, wasn’t completely sure I wanted to become a one-on-one clinician yet, cause I was so comfortable with my stage career. And my wife had said, Why don’t you just try at the salon? This is Soly professional.
We, once you tried at, at the salon for a while. So my first couple of sessions were actually my wife’s styling chair on a Sunday when she was closed. You know, a couple of her clients wanted to see me. So my first couple of sessions were, you know, and right there in the, in the hair salon in a Sunday afternoon and, You know, I’ve got my, literally, I’ve got my scripts in front of me and my lap and everything, and that was horrible.
Ly horrible. And then very rapidly, we realized that wasn’t gonna work. So about two months in, we took her wax room where ladies go to get their, you know, everything removed and whatnot. And, um, you know, cornered that off and, you know, basically put some soundproofing in the walls and whatnot. And had keep my hypnosis center for about six months.
People would come in through the salon and sit on and it was a little bit better, but not much. And then, as I said, about three or four months after that, the, um, office states next door opened up. There was a photographer there and, uh, he decided to jump ship and you. Vacated the premises. And we had a good relationship with the landlord and it became almost a no brainer.
Cause my wife had said, you know, at the very least, even if this crashes and burns, I want you to get all your magic crap out of the house. , we don’t have enough work space for it. So, you know, I mean, so where my mindset was, Okay, great, I, it’s a deduction. And secondly, any hypnosis session I book, it’s a gravy.
And that’s how it got built up. And now again, it’s about, you know, between the, the stage is about a third, the. One on one sessions is about a third, and, you know, training some stage hypnosis about another third. So, you know, I went into the standpoint of, you know, it being gravy, being gravy money and having a professional space.
And then I immediately thought, well then I can do trainings there and I can have, you know, group hypnosis events there and everything. So as it opened up, it was a very easy decision. It. You know, in fact we were, the last couple of months when I was doing sessions at the hair salon, I’m like, you know, this isn’t professional.
I need to find something else. And we heard, uh, murmurings that the photographer next door was not gonna be there very long. So we were just, you know, ready to jump. You know, it bounce on the opportunity as soon as it came up, and it worked out in our favor very quickly. Yeah. Yeah. So then nowadays, where are most of your clients coming?
Uh, well actually three sources. I’ll say, uh, referrals, which, you know, thank goodness means I’m getting the results that my clients want. Uh, secondly, uh, Google searches. Cause I have a very, a fairly active website, you know, blogs and whatnot, updating those website and content and Facebook, uh, but won’t say Google searches, uh, referrals.
And then people drive by to see the sign. You know, I’ve got a sign out. You know, uh, you know, one of those signs, you know, 20 feet in the air, you know, right above my wife’s hair salon sign. So it gives us a, a very professional look and cute little building. And, you know, we just, we have the appearance of somebody who’s not just doing this on the side.
And that’s, uh, that was the goal that I was going for. We did a nice professional logo, designed a, um, An actual sign sign, you know, that lights up and everything and, uh, sign in the front of the building. And, uh, we, we installed Pergo Flooring and I actually put up, cause it was just one big open space, we actually, you know, went in there and had a, you know, construction crew, uh, crew coming in and made a couple of different rooms, put it in different lighting cause it was a very harsh.
Fluorescent lightings. We got all that changed and, um, you know, painted it up with a very nice, very soft, neutral tan color. It’s actually called kitten flush, which is, which is cute. It fits our personalities. Nice and, uh, wanted to make it very warm and welcoming without being, It was actually recommended to me when I first got certified as you make your walls white, that looks very sterile and very, you know, you don’t wanna do.
You, you don’t want, like, if somebody comes in and you’ve got, uh, like see purple, maybe the person has, uh, you had an app reaction cause the color purple for some strange reason and I didn’t wanna go that hard. The only one with tan as opposed to white. And uh, you know, those had to just be damned. I don’t care.
And, and it works. Everybody finds it very warm and welcoming and it just, it fits my personality because while it is neutral, there’s no, um, like I don’t put up a Christmas tree for example, even though I should, um, cause I just don’t care. But, uh, uh, so it’s. But still warm and welcoming, you know, And that was the, the look that I was going for.
To make it professional, make it welcoming, and make people come in, you know, feel welcomed almost immediately. It was a whole, and it was, I’ll give it all to my wife. She’s, um, been customer service as far as a brick and mortar business a lot longer than I have, and she was very helpful putting that together, the entire look of the building.
And it just came together beautifully, which, To, to draw a bit of a through line here. I mean, from that performance mindset, it’s the, it’s the stage picture. It’s what’s happening. It’s the entire experience. And to recognize, as we’d all, you know, often come back to the phrase, the entire experience is hypnosis.
Whether it’s noticing the sign calling in, and then that user experience. So now, Kind of walk us through this. Somebody’s in your space and yes, everything is built to the individual rather than just doing the same stock program for everybody though. What are, what are some of those takeaways? What are some of those experiences that someone’s gonna have when they, when they come into your office?
Well, first of all, there I have a very nice reception area. I notice I call a reception area, not waiting area. Mm-hmm. . It’s a little bit of important language there, um, with some very nice comfortable chairs. Some, uh, some, some like psychology now and GH magazines and so forth that somebody is waiting. So occasionally I do go over, uh, Well, when they first walk into the office, if I’m in session, cause I, I’m working by myself right now, they’ll see a sign hang in the wall saying, hypnosis session in progress.
Please come in for your scheduled deployment and have a seat, uh, on the, uh, one of the chairs and take a bottle of water. And, which is kind of funny cause I had one, I had one, one person coming in for an, for a screening one time and I was running like a few minutes over, came out, greeted her, you know, took care of the, the previous client and sitting there holding the water and she goes, No, I saw your son.
I took the water. I’m not sure what you want me to do. Which I thought was marvelous. This, he was really easy to work with. , we’d like to say compliance precedes suggestibility. , Yeah. Oh yeah. It was like, boom. You, to use your phrase. So, so they see the reception area, they see the desk, they see uh, you know, the room and full sign hanging in the door where the treatment room is in session.
In private, if they were to lock down the hallway, they’d see I’ve got some of those, um, some of those, the inspirational phrases, you know, the one by wall, Disney and some others. Uh, you know, written, uh, with, uh, decals on the walls, and there’s a very professional looking sign for the, for the restroom and whatnot.
And, uh, uh, you know, again, just trying to put forth the idea that it’s a welcoming environment. They look into the, they come into the treatment room, they’ll see a couple of, oh, and in the, uh, for credibility sake, when they come into the office, they’ll see above my desk. My, uh, my major certifications. I say the ones that I actually had to work for.
Yeah. You know, the ng, the ci, the, the board certification, my NLP certifications. All the other ones that I’ve got from classes that are basically participation ribbons, they went into a drawer. I’m not a CERT certification junkie anymore, so you know, I’ll. You know, they sort of a certificate of completion.
It’s like, Okay, you took this class, doesn’t mean anything. So I put all those away. I’d have to share a similar line of, uh, I, I’d chalk it up to laziness that I’ve got this and some of the videos on my website, you’d see this, there’s this long hallway to go from my reception area down to the office where, uh, where the magic happens.
And it’s this long hallway, the classroom’s off to the left. And rather than just hang everything in this kind of squared off, uh, way of doing it, My wife was the one who came in and you know, this one’s in a block of five. This one’s in a triangle of three and it looks really, really cool. And we did like that.
I did that too. We did that once, like back in 2011. And, um, those are the same ones that are still up now. Some of the ones like, uh, you know, the up to date with the n g up to date with I act, I M D H A, that sort of Right. Those are ones I, I’ll trade out as I’ve got the most up to date version of it yet.
Right. It’s where. It’s that benefit that when we begin, we might be chasing that extra piece of paper to hang on the wall. Um, but at this point in the game, you’re really there attending the training because you want the information, you want the experience. Right, Right. And to recognize that as a moment of strength and triumph, though, there has been a quiet moment of offense where someone was in my office and he goes, You don’t have the certificate for my class.
It’s like, well, it’s in this filing cabinet over here.
Well, I mean, there, there comes, and you know this, there, there comes a point where now you’re overcompensating if you have too many up. I mean, I’ve got enough of these, you know, certificate of completion asserts that I can hang, I can cover every space, every space in my wall, you know, in the entire facility.
Um, and it just, you know, if you go too far with it now, it’s like, okay, you know what? It, it becomes an indirect suggestion. Okay. What, what’s, what’s he worried about or what’s he trying to prove? Or, or, you know, the ego wall, you know, the classic phrase from, from lawyers, you know, they got the ego wall above their desk when clients come in and whatnot.
And that’s, that’s one thing I, I learned very quickly after about two years as a one-on-one clinician to, uh, avoid, you know, So again, I get my. My third I set, decide. I’m like, Okay, that’s nice. And it just becomes, you know, it becomes, you know, part of the , you know, something to fill up my file with. So, So now they’re in your space.
What’s, what’s that experience from there? Uh, you mean in terms of the session? Yeah. Okay. I try to have, and I don’t mean that I’m disrespectful, I try to make my sessions. When it’s appropriate, uh, a place of comfort in other, other, you know, I crack jokes when we laugh. If laughter loosens up the neurology, my session structure is basically come in, if it’s our first session.
I teach a lot of in the moment strategies in order to help them work on themselves, you know, condition themselves. You know, lot of most tears stuff where, uh, okay, you had that moment of temptation outside of the session. You were at a buffet line, and here’s the. You know, some, some strategies to interrupt their thought processes.
So I teach them that in the first session. And then I’m a big believer in homework. I give them written stuff to listen to, CDs to listen to. So the session structure is, Hey, how’s, how’s everything going? You know, tell me how your reach been, or whatever the case may be. And we talk about that. We do like an informal debriefing, and then we do a formal, Debriefing with whatever written assignments I’ve given them and, uh, which reveals a lot about their compliance here or, or not.
And then we get into any, uh, waking, quote unquote waking hypnosis strategies that may teach. And then we get into the formal hypnosis state, and then we have another debriefing with, uh, all the, uh, Uh, you know, convincers and, uh, emerging techniques and everything that you lovingly teach so well, And then we scheduled the next session and I’ve got, uh, I’m all automated now with my, uh, computer program.
So I’m not with a paper calendar anymore, so I wanna look up to date and whatnot. And, but basically my approach is to be very, to, to come off as very casual. You know, I, again, I defer to my original trainer and not that what he did was. Cuz so many different approaches to this. I just realized very rapidly that his approach wouldn’t have work for me.
He wore a suit and tie when he did his sessions, and I did that for about my first six months. And I was stiff as aboard. And you know me Jason. Mm-hmm. Can you imagine me running around in a suit and tie all the time? Being all serious . It just didn’t work for me. So I shifted to how black slash black slacks, black dress, and then a uh, uh, three button polo shirt with my logo on over the pocket.
And so I’m still a professional, but approachable. Mm-hmm. , and to me that is extremely important and they’re in my treatment room and they, I’ve got a nice comfy recliner that I refer to as a comfy chair. Sometimes if the client and I have a good rapport, I’ll make a joke. When I sit down for the first time, I’ll say, You can have a seat in the comfy chair.
I get a much better reaction when I used to call the chair of Do. Which, uh, you know, put the laughter there, that kind of thing, which they, and again, it’s very disarming and it’s, which I want people to hear the intention, the tonality as to how you did that, because some people, you know, of course, um, you know, to have it in the written form.
Oh, I can’t believe that they said that. Um, there, there’s a moment, for example of, um, The way that I handle the, uh, I may tap in the hand on my tap in the shoulder. Um, and if you ever have to scratch, move, or adjust, go right ahead. Just helps you to relax even further. And I’m very clearly gesturing to a specific area when it’s a man going.
You ever have to adjust anything, Go right ahead. I don’t judge , and I had a student one time who read the transcript of that in my class manual and going, I can’t believe you say you don’t judge. And then, Saw it. He goes, Oh yeah, that’s fine. Exactly, Exactly. But there’s something around, and I chair, you may have a similar through line here.
There’s something around the power of the transition that when you move from that, you know that that intake interview, that conversation before the process quote officially begins though the entire experience hypnosis to then suddenly now you’re into that session. It’s a clear transition. Which is hypnotic into itself that wow, we’re now, we’re doing the work, now we’re into the experience.
Yeah. And, and it also, it that, that moment of transition, you’re exactly, you know, I’m, I’m right along with you. It also serves as a, as a, for your first time client. Especially, but with any client, it serves as a, as a, a barometer of where they’re at mentally. Cause you can ask somebody, I already be hypnotized, and they go, Yeah, I mean, you know, their words is in congruent with what they’re giving you, nonverbally.
Um, so when we had that moment of transition, you know, I’m watching them very closely, even though I appear to be very casual. You know, are they truly ready? Are there any, you know, fears that have not been allayed? Is there any, you know, concerns, whatever it may be. So it’s. It’s not only a pull point of transition to the, where in their head this through magic hap going on, but also as a way of, you know, taking the opportunity to, you know, gauge where they really are emotionally.
Are they’re ready to, to jump with both feet or is there any, you know, anything I need to address. Mm-hmm And I think that’s very important to underline too. Yeah. I’m gonna go back to the aspect of giving homework. Cause I think that’s one of these things that. There’s, Well, I’ll share with you the, the negative way it was first explained to me and why I didn’t do it.
And once I got over that chunk of BS that was handed to me, , uh, now it’s something I actively make use of as well, that the first way it was explained to me was that, oh, if you have a client who’s not succeeding, Give them a homework task. That way when they don’t do it, they understand the fault is on them and not you.
And I’m hearing that and going, Yeah, exactly. And I’m hearing that going. I don’t wanna give any homework now because that’s the perception of it. Which again, respectfully, which means disrespectfully, once I got over that chunk of bs. Um, what are, what are some of those things? Because again, it’s that building that.
My phrasing is that hypnotic suggestion becomes permanent as long as it’s congruent to the individual. And as long as there’s some form of reinforcement mechanism and simply being happier and healthier and feeling good is also a reinforcement mechanism. The person doesn’t have to listen to the stop smoking reinforcement every day for the rest of their life.
Right, But it’s giving that instant gratification, it’s setting the process and motion, it’s referring back into itself. What are, what are some of those homework assignments that you typically give out? Well, for, uh, for weight loss, I have a lot, Like, I may have a homework assignment where it, there’s a couple, and it’s not a lot, but it’s like a couple of pages of reading where we explain, you know, the, the, the, the whole, um, c salt, fat dynamic when it comes to terms of diet, because I was told originally, Your clients coming in the door, they may know more about nutrition than you do, and I think a lot of ’em they do.
But to, to assume what I think is, is bad. Mm-hmm. . So, uh, there may be some reading assignments about basic nutrition. There may be, uh, you know, stuff I got from, uh, from Laura King and I used with her permission. There may be things where there’s a homework assignment designed to, you know, get them creative thinking creatively about what kind of physical activity they may wanna do to help, you know, further the weight loss.
Cause a lot of people have a negative attitude about exercising. Oh, I can’t stand jogging. Well, don’t. Figure something else to do. So there’s a brainstorming exercise for that. Uh, they may have, uh, emotional issues. So there a homework assignment about that. You know, write down any imprint that you may have, you know, things that your parents may have told you, cleaning up your plate to the starving children in China, that kind of thing.
Some limiting beliefs, all of which get them thinking about what’s going on inside their own head and they bring it to the table. And then I can either reframe it, uh, depending on if, like, if it’s a self limiting. And they say something along the lines of, Oh, everybody in my family gains weight after the age of 40.
Well, like I can do some reframing with that. You know, how would you know if that wasn’t true or, you know, that sort of thing. Or, um, whatever they bring to the table in terms of the work assignment. It may inform me as far as a specific technique, you’re like, Oh, my mother always told me X, Y, and Z when I was growing up.
Okay. In my head I’m thinking nlp. Okay. Reparenting technique, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. Um, also, uh, the, uh, Cause a lot of times if they’re sitting there in front of you and they just, their. Blank. Well, tell me about this. And they just kind of, you know, they just kinda lock up the other aspect of the homework, as I alluded to before, as I give them a lot of pattern interrupt techniques, you know, simple anchoring, you know, the bilateral hemispheric stimulation, that kind of stuff that most materials teach my own, um, instant CRA removal technique that I taught this last summer, that sort of thing.
So they can, they can continue the change work on their own. It’s like it’s a conditioning every time that they interrupt. That, that craving or that negative thought, they’re training their neurology, so they, they continue working on themselves. It becomes more of, you know, less of make me quit smoking and more of let’s do this process together.
So it’s the, the formal, the formal trans work, the waking hypnosis work, the written assignments to continue the uncovering. And the stuff they can do on their own to uh, continue their own change work. And I do give clients CDs mostly because so many other hit and tests do, and I was kind of expected to.
And it also helps build up values for the package. Cause I do consultations, I sell programs. So they may be dropping, you know, uh, you know, 700 bucks, 900 bucks, whatever it is for a weight loss program. And as a result, if they walk out of there after having handed all that money over, they’re getting, you know, a whole lot of value.
Uh, whole lot of, uh, stuff, you know, it’s like the old direct, uh, not the, uh, it’s the old information marketing strategy where, you know, you get the person’s money and, and you send ’em a box of stuff. It’s not just one book. It’s a three ring binder. It’s a couple of three reports. It’s a cd. You know, you give ’em a lot of stuff and it helps you give them a kinetic feeling of value for what they just invested in.
And before we actually started the formal cha change work. Yeah. Yeah. On the business side of things. Um, how labor intensive is this for you to, to provide these extra resources? It’s not really that bad. I mean, I’ve done all the files I’ll organized and everything, and what I’ll typically do is I’ll just, you know, when I see my stock getting low, I’ll simply print up a, a bunch of stuff.
I’ve got a, a five rack CD burner if I can burn five CDs at a time. So it’s relatively quick. Usually depending on my schedule, how things are going, whatever I may have to devote you. Figure like half a day to like replenish my stock. I’ve got a high speed printer and everything, and an entire weight loss books.
I’m actually training this to a couple of students now. You know, they saw my weight loss book. I was showing them and they’re like, Oh my God, this must cost so much money. I said, No. The entire program with all the CDs and the labels and all the printed materials is like 20 bucks if that, and that’s if I don’t get everything on sale at Costco.
right? Yeah. So, but it gets a very high perceived value. And some clients, they really do get a lot out of the, uh, out of the CDs as well. What I don’t like, however, And they say, I’m not doing so well. I need to listen to your CDs more. And that’s helped me. I’ve got more work to do. Yeah. On my end. And not just the CDs.
No, I wanted to highlight that because some people would hear that and you know, you’ve got a system in place basically the same way that, uh, one of the strategies that I’ll often pull in by way of homework is just the mindset of just surround yourself with good conscious reinforcement. So for the weight loss client, you know, here is.
A link to watch, uh, this specific, uh, food documentary Hungry for Change. It’s on Netflix, it’s on Hulu, and most people have that. Okay, here’s a link to go to watch this 10 minute chunk in the middle of, um, uh, what’s a fat, sick and nearly dead. And, and for some of these, I’m giving the disclaimer that’s one that.
Basically turns into an infomercial for Breville juicers, uh, , and to tells, like, I want you to watch this 10 minute clip in the middle. As soon as you click the link, go to this specific, um, you know, timeframe of the video. Because here’s the takeaway I want you to take from this. It’s the scene in the diner, if anyone has seen it, where one person is going, Yeah, I’m the one who got myself into this.
I’m gonna get myself out. And meanwhile, here’s the other guy on his third heart attack with his chicken fried steak going, Well, you know, I’m just addicted to this. It’s just how the things are. So it’s that taking ownership of here’s where I am, here’s what you do about it for the public speaking client.
You know, here’s a link to some of the best TED talks that are out there. And just to get that conscious reinforcement as to modeling excellence, things that are of that nature. Um, in terms of the compliance, uh, chat with me a little bit about. Uh, getting clients to actually make use of these things.
Honestly, it’s uh, surprising to me cause I was told by a lot of the old guard and, uh, you know, take what you will from that expression, that, oh, it’s not even worth giving CDs and reinforcement materials to, to listen to. Cause they, they won’t do it, you know? And so I kind of went into, it was kind of a, um, kind of a dejected attitude.
And then to my surprise, my compliance is not a hundred percent, but it’s pretty damn close. Mm-hmm. , I mean, it’s surprising to me the, uh, the compliance for the CDs. I would estimate that probably around 80% compliance. The written homework, uh, the compliance is probably around 97%. I mean, almost everybody does their written homework assignments.
Um, the, uh, unfortunately the strategies that I feel are most useful, the, uh, the pattern interrupt strategies are, it’s probably around 70% compliance. Mm-hmm. , if my clients are all being truth. And I think they are. Cause they, cause they, you know, most of them wanna change, I think most of them do. So, you know, pretty high compliance and um, uh, you know, so, you know, to the, uh, to the old guard it says they don’t, they don’t use these things.
I say, Well, you’re not doing something right, in my opinion. You know, I mean, it, it works. And the reason why I push these things, especially the pattern interrupts, is because, The way that I look at it is it’s really good to be motivated for change, uh, to, to remain a non-smoker or to continue healthy eating habits when you’re in my chair.
But when you’re out in the real world, you know as well as I do, all the whole anchors start firing off. And, uh, you, they need strategies in the moment to like, mm-hmm. , the gill preaches self hypnosis. And self hypnosis is a great modality for change. But when they’re in that buffet line, they can’t just say, Okay, I’m gonna sit on for a second and close my eyes and go to this place.
No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. So you have to have in. My, my phrase says, I don’t feel good. I need a dark room and a CD player for 45 minutes. exactly as oppos to things that can make use of as you’re doing is my branding is, uh, things you can do anytime, anywhere. And nobody knows you’re doing something. Exactly, exactly.
I tell my clients, I give you a Batman utility belt, about six or seven different strategies you can do that literally only take a couple of seconds and you can do it while people are staring at you and they won’t even know it. And that’s the phrasing I use. Nice. Which is pretty. Yeah, yeah. I chair a strategy on that, which is that when I’m in that final, uh, you know, the, the closing arguments as I anecdotally refer to it as the, uh, in a moment I’m gonna count from one to five, which here comes the expectation.
The session is almost over, which really takes a good four or five minutes to get out of, because now I’m pumbling away. Um, the phenomenon, I’m recapping the session, I’m heading the points I’m reinforcing any, uh, interactive work that they’ve done with me. Um, it becomes, it’s. . Yeah. They think it’s over yet.
And from that expectation, the awareness is heightened. Uh, it becomes a moment where I may start to future pace them into some of these situations. And then hypnotically be suggesting, There you are now running this specific process and here’s the result. So Uhhuh teaching the technique ahead of time and then building the compliance of it inside the process during that, finally emergence inside of it.
Oh, yeah, I’ll, I’ll do that with my clients. We teach it in the waking hypnosis very often. I will reinforce it during the quote unquote formal transition, and then, as you said, reinforce it on the way out. And then that post obno interview, we’ve got that, you know, whatever. It’s two, three minutes of magic after their eyes are open.
I think it’s over pounded in then. So it gets pounded in three, four times, which is, you know, beautiful compounding for the client. Yeah. Yeah. So there’s, uh, two other points I wanted to chat with you here. Uh, we’ll hit one of them here that, uh, You’re somebody who combines modalities, and I love that, that, you know, there’s a workshop that I’ve seen you present before on, uh, NLP age regression.
Um, which one School of Thought would say that, Oh, that school of thought doesn’t do the regression yet. I’m sorry. Yeah. Changing personal history, reparenting. These are regression based processes, no matter how you want to reframe them. So what you have for breakfast this morning we just did a regression.
What is it about this aspect of taking everything and putting these, these pieces together? Um, where, where did that come from? Or is that something that developed organically or is that something that you purposefully went after the intention of doing? Oh my God. Well, you’ve seen a couple of my talks, Jason.
I, you can’t see me right now cause there audio on my mailbox. . This is something I’m passionate about. I originally, when I first, uh, learned, when I first became a clinician, my guy was a, uh, Jerry time train, uh, um, student and was all about aggression therapy and everything like that is a, is a cure for, I shouldn’t say cure, but a cure for almost.
Um, and I went into it and. Very quickly that the, uh, that I needed school. So I got another certification from someone else. I’m, I have one specific names here. And this woman said that his training was applicable cause I was a newbie. I’m like, Oh, this sounds great. His, uh, he talked a great game and it was about a 10 page web webpage talking about, um, his system.
And was, uh, you know, it worked with whatever his numbers were. Like, 97% of your clients will benefit from this. And I took the training and. Immediately found that for my way of working. And I’m gonna be very clear about that. Cause people do have success with the system. My way of working, it just wasn’t the right thing.
Mm-hmm. , it was very hardcore. Revisitation uh, regression therapy, you know, you’re, in other words, they’re not just remembering it, they’re reliving, you know, that moment at five years old being beaten by their stepfather, whatever the case may be. And it, and. And from their perspective, it’s horrific. And you were told not to tell people you’re gonna, that you’re gonna regress them and everything.
I understand all that. Oh, what if I can’t regress? You know, like you kind of get in their own way. And just for me, it didn’t work. The people, they, they’d signed up for a four or five session protocol after this regression therapy. They’d never come back. And they walked out looking as though they’d been struck by a car.
It was just, for me, it didn’t work. And I’m stressing that for me, For me, for me, it didn’t work. Yeah. and then I began exploring other things. I learned NLP and how NLP is wonderful, and if somebody held a gun to my head, it made me pick one modality. It would be an nlp. But either NLP doesn’t work for all clients because not everybody’s visual allow.
The NLP techniques are visual, and I’m gonna get on my for a second. Allow him to say, Well, if you’re not the client’s not visual. It’s tell to think about it. That’s in theory, that works great cause we understand this stuff. In reality, some clients that can’t latch onto that. So MLP is not the only modality regression therapy has, its.
You know, I took, um, and protocol training at your facility and it’s wonderful. It’s not applicable for every client. So it was, to answer your question in the long form answer, it started off as a reaction to, uh, my failure with an all purpose protocol. And then from there, just. For the next couple of years, taking as many trainings as possible.
And I don’t know if it was a conscious thing at first. For the first year, I, I think I was just looking for the McGuffin. Um, and then the second year after I became, after I was a, a clinician, um, it became a deliberate strategy. To gain as much as, as many techniques as possible. Um, knowing that every client sitting in my chair was not going to be, uh, you know, a one session fix all or one protocol fix all, or even a step by step fix all with every client.
I mean, even the, the an Ed Simpson Protocol, which I love. My very first client sat in my chair and I’m going through the process with her and she’s like, I don’t understand this. I don’t understand this. So I actually have, you know, revamped the Simpson Protocol. I’ve got six different versions of it now based on different personality types, whether repeat clients or not.
And you know, I just, it, it evolved over time to the point now where I can’t imagine, you know, being locked in the one way of thinking. And I think to have yourself locked in the one way of thinking is. Bad as a hypnotist. That being said, I’m also not a believer in winging it either. A lot of hypnotist like creating their own scripts and whatnot and, and like what?
I know, a hypnotist in my area, she’s a good friend and she just sits down to whatever the client gives there, she reflects back to the client. And, you know, guided imagery and so forth. And she has success and everything. But my feeling is I don’t know if I’m gonna be brilliant that day, you know, uh, I’m going through a lot of personal issues right now.
Some family members who are sick and whatnot, and the last to do is try to wing it with a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen in front of me for that, waiting for that client. That’s not fair to them. So I very much think standing shoulder. For myself, sometimes I do have breakthroughs, just insight.
And that’s how I created the, that taught us to kill. This year. I had a moment of insight with a client. She snapped down in the chair and boom, it just came to me. And, um, and then I tested a workshop that for another, I think, you know, this couple of years before I offered it as class to make sure it was a viable technique.
So, but I don’t count on an inspiration every day. You know, I, I, I’m a carpenter, I’m a Lego hypnotist. I look at, uh, I get my hammer out, my, my scroll saw, my my socket set, and I use what other people have used before me. And if it works for me, then I continue using it when applicable. But I don’t try to reinvent the wheel and I definitely don’t try to, um, tighten a bolt with a claw hammer.
It just doesn’t work, you know? So that’s kind of my thoughts on the. You know, single system protocol that I am, uh, very much against . Yeah, absolutely. I, I have one more thing I wanna ask you about, but before we get to that, where can people find out more about you online? They can find out more about me.
The best thing to do is visit my website, Niagara Falls hypnosis center.com, all four words, all squish together, no hyphens or underscores, Niagara falls hypnosis center.com. And, uh, you’ll see, uh, you’ll see my website with my you. Stop smoking my weight loss. You’ll also see my GH certification and, uh, I, I am working on a product page, but I do have six to seven products for practicing hypnotists.
I just haven’t got the product page done yet, but I have a smoking protocol, several other things, so if anybody wants more information, Go to Nira falls up, nelson center.com. Drop me a line. I’ll be happy to uh, let you know what I can offer you in terms of additional training and uh, any additional insights, uh, based on what was covered today or just in general.
Just call me up and then we’ll chat. Awesome. Awesome. So the last thing I wanted to chat with you about, and you might be predicting it cuz I’ve asked you this privately before. The decision to drive around the Niagara Falls Hypnosis Center car, . Which is funny cause I’m no longer doing it. Oh, okay. . But, uh, but it, but initially the reason why I did that is I, I will, I will cop to this, that when I started doing that, I was like, panic trick.
And I was experiencing a downturn in my performing. And okay, I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta make something happen really quickly. What can I do really quickly? While the person who designed my sign and my logo, um, we’re no, we no longer speak now, but he is a good friend of mine and he did vehicle wraps and I could get a $3,000 vehicle wrap for the cost of material.
So costly, like $400. And I got the vehicle wrap. So my, uh, I don’t remember if you ever saw, but it was like big and gaudy and everything, you know, with a huge hand crushing a cigarette on the wheel of the car and. And it gave me some, you know, some measure appliance, not a time. It gave me some measure appliance.
The idea is like one more impression for people to become familiar with my business and, uh, and I would’ve kept it. But after a few years of doing this, the, uh, any wrap, it started to, it started to peel back. It was really bad. So I peeled it back and never bothered to get it, to get it redone again because it had a negative effect on my, on my performing business.
I, I pull up to a t through five elementary school. They say he notice all over the car. Oh my God, what are you gonna do to, uh, to our kids? And I’d explained, No, that’s a separate business. You know, that kind of thing. Uh, but initially it was, it was, uh, its one more. A marketing tool to get people into my door, and it was a very reactionary kind of thing.
So I was experiencing a downturn, and even though I got, I may have, uh, implemented the strategy for the wrong reason, it did illuminate something in my head which realized, okay, if, uh, if I ever experienced a downturn in one area and I’ve got other areas I can punch up. Which really helps keep me, uh, keep me sane during times when, you know, maybe a marketing strategy for one aspect of my business doesn’t work and I’ve got to adjust it.
And in the middle of that adjusting period, I can ramp up things in other areas to keep my he playful, so to speak. Yeah. Outstanding. Uh, well, Chris, it’s been wonderful having you on here, Dude, I’ve had a great time. I love to do it again. Awesome. I’ll see you soon. All right. Take care buddy.
