Session #162: Your Hypnosis Office

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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 162, your Hypnosis office. 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. Welcome back. It’s Jason Lynette here with a business session all about opening up your hypnosis office.

You’ve got some outstanding skills. As a hypnotist, you have the ability to help people to create some outstanding changes. Yet it’s quite helpful to have a place to do it, which as a quick side note, of course you can work out of your home. You can go to people’s locations. Though to be quite fair, I found it to be much.

Beneficial and also much more lucrative to have my own office. And inside of this content, which you’re about to listen to, this is actually a mini module out of my program, Hypnotic Business Systems. That’s my entire hypnosis business training library. It’s the roadmap as to how I’ve built several six figure hypnosis businesses.

And this is one of the videos inside of the hypnotic office space content. And specifically inside of this conversation, you’re gonna hear the story about how I’ve found the offices that I’m in, the benefits of renting the benefits from shared spaces, some of the pitfalls of having my own space, such as the time that water was pouring in from the ceiling.

And really just a bit of a lineage in terms of the space that I’m now in. So to get more. This, of course, head over to hypnotic business systems.com, not just office space. It’s everything from online marketing network business marketing methods to get greater referrals from your clients, getting medical referrals, getting greater testimonials.

Everything that I’ve used to grow my hypnosis business is documented inside of hypno hypnotic business systems.com. And with that, let’s jump directly on in. This is session number 162, your hypnosis office.

All right. Hey there. In this module we’re gonna be talking about office spaces specifically for those people who work with clients. You know, how do you set up shop? How do you get found? How do you establish yourself in a physical location? And I’m shooting this right now at its January, it’s 2016, and I’m standing outside of my office, Virginia Hypnosis.

It’s a little bit warmer today than it normally would be for January. Let’s see how long I can bear it standing outside before I actually talk about the specific office that I’m standing outside of. Let me give you a little bit of my backstory, because it’s from that backstory that you’re gonna be able to pick for yourself exactly where you are in your journey.

In terms of opening up a professional business. So from that journey, you’ll be able to pick and choose what’s appropriate for you, because I will tell you ahead of time the office that I’m standing outside of right now, Including utilities, including the internet bill, including, um, cleaning services. I’m spending a little bit above $2,000 a month for that office space.

And the obvious statement I want you to hear ahead of time is that not everybody should be spending that amount of money. In fact, I would tell you right now, most people should not be spending that amount of money on their. Most people doing the work that we do are single practitioners in a single room office, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

And indeed, even in that environment, you can establish a thriving six figure business. So understand this office that I’m standing outside of as a bit of an anomaly, and I’ll give you some more details on that in a few moments. Also beyond. I’m in an area where some of the most affluent cities are within a short driving distance from where I’m located.

I’m right next to Washington DC so from that as well, I can actually reference, I know of a husband and wife couple who recently started leasing an office very similar to the one I’m standing outside of. Same, similar, uh, blueprint footprint of the office square footage. And they are spending about a third of what I’m spending, which again, Location, location, location.

So let’s dial the story back for a few moments though. Here I was, hypnosis began as a hobby for me, you know, so it was something that I was admittedly doing on the side. So really at that point, as a hobby, I would tell you comfortably that it really wouldn’t make much sense to go out there and spend money on a physical office location.

Now, inside of this module, I’m gonna give you some rather interesting options. That can begin to bend that reality ever so slightly. It’s windy out here. The microphone should just be picking me up. We’ll find out in post production. Looking at that story here, I was working full-time in another profession, and hypnosis was something part-time on the side.

It admittedly, it was bringing in some income because I was working with private clients, which at the time most of those private clients were finding me either from the stage hypnosis shows that I was already doing. Or they were likely people that I already knew in my circle of, you know, connections.

So whether they remember I was in a theater career in the, uh, in the, in the management side. So the actors, the designers, the crew members, Very often those would be my clients. So as you’re starting up, if you’re in that startup phase, realize people who are already around you may be your easiest first dream of clients to begin to work with.

So in that environment, it made perfect good sense for me to travel to their homes. Uh, there were even some times where. . I say this now. Luckily I was working in a career that I’d say was very friendly to me having other interests, so there was no real conflict of interest as long as I was doing my job.

There were times that I was doing stop smoking sessions, one-on-one with actors, you know, in their dressing rooms, you know, maybe two hours before call. Time for a performance. Not every business, not every company is gonna have that kind of. Openness to it. So have that in mind. But in this environment, you know, they were right on track.

It was a huge deal that the artistic director of that theater company that I was working at, uh, came to one of my stage hypnosis shows. She really didn’t do anything social with the staff, uh, beyond something that was actually happening in the building. So she had a fascination, Not saying that that’s why it worked.

So, But just be aware of that, especially if you’re looking at doing something on a part-time. , the actors traveling in would have temporary housing apartments that were right up the road, and if I was working with one of them, I would go to their, their, their apartment and work with them there. So be mindful of that.

You know, also, in terms of my startup phases, there’s a brief span of time that I was doing something called a home hypnosis weight loss party, which I would go to people’s homes, I would go to people’s businesses, I would go to people’s churches. And present this group weight loss program in their environments.

So recognize that when you don’t have your own environment, everything I’ve just told you is every reason why. If you’re positioning, I’m right near a fire station. Luckily you don’t hear that in my office. Um, so here that all of these examples are every reason why you can be taking action, right? You know, do not fall prey to the game that I don’t have a big office that I can’t get started yet.

You know, that is absolutely no reason why you can’t be doing something, to start some flow of business, some flow of experience, and really some flow of income beginning to come in. So it’s, as I left Baltimore, as I officially left the career in, uh, theater and fully transitioned to be, I am a full-time hyp.

It’s in that phase that I finally signed a lease and, uh, signed an office space. Now this is a section of the content. Remember, I am the hypnosis business Guinea pig, and I will not teach you things that I have not done myself well. This is the one category of training. That I have to begin to bend that ever so slightly because maybe it’s my upbringing.

Maybe it’s where I came from. Remember that everybody in my family growing up was an entrepreneur. My grandfather owned a jewelry store. My uncle owns a series of pawn shops. My parents are wedding photographers. I came from a background that being the employee. Definitely not something that was frowned upon.

Not at all. But it was something that, that was the minority in my upbringing. So I think because of that I was instilled this work ethic that in many ways it comes about from this mindset that if I’m going to do something, I’m going to make it work. So it kind of goes, I’ve heard, uh, another trainer once referenced the phrase, Nothing is worth doing unless you’re gonna give it your full effort for at least a year.

You know, So that’s why. Admittedly, at the time I was working full time as a stage hypnotist and in the early scanning phases looking around for potential office spaces, I was looking for some sort of temporary option, which as you go through this office space module, I’m gonna fully detail how you would go about doing that because I’ve coached and I’ve trained others on how to exactly use that.

But in this section, let me talk about exactly what I did. So I was looking at temporary office spaces as in this module you’re gonna learn how to do, and I was just simply seeing that my schedule, doing stage hypnosis was one that. , I wasn’t going to work well with others. You know, it wasn’t going to work out for someone to lease me in office space, and that was my room.

Tuesdays, that was my room on Thursdays. The performance schedule that I was already working was one that it just didn’t make sense to sign that type of experience. So that’s where I eventually found the office space. That’s over an old town, Alexandria. Understand. Alexandria is a massive, massive area. So there’s Alexandria City.

Which is its own separate thing, but then there’s Alexandria, Fairfax County, So more of a neighborhood, more of a suburban side of it. And that’s the side of it that I’m now in, uh, needless to say, the office rent when I was in Old Town for basically a one room suite. Excuse me, is about the same as what I’m paying for this much space.

And you can see I’m specifically highlighting that I have parking. Um, that was part of why I left Old Town. Also, I didn’t have a classroom space, so again, my story of my office, I signed a big scary lease for two years with the mindset I’m going to make this work. Now I’ll soften this part of the story slightly, uh, and we’ll move inside in a few moments as I talk about some other bigger picture office space.

Thinking I signed, originally it was supposed to be a, a deal with two of us going into the space. There was a psychologist who was gonna be in one room, and then I was gonna be in this other room. And again, I’ll soften the story. Uh, she backed. Of the offer, which then put me in the position to then look at this lease, but I didn’t want to go in for that much of a big investment, so I began to look for possible sub letters, and I signed the lease with a possible sub letter already jumping in to the other space.

So I was in this one room and I had a massage therapist in the other room. Eventually she moved on and I replaced her with someone of a similar modality also in massage therapy. Also, when we move inside in this module, I will also break down the principles in terms of office space. We can put it in the same section in terms of how to think about sharing a lease.

There are some specific nuances that I’ll share with you that may be different from what you may have heard elsewhere, but may begin to open your eyes if growing a hypnosis center is a goal of yours. Which is a side note. Let’s go off in a little bit of a rant here. There are too many people, in my opinion, calling their offices a hypnosis center when it really isn’t.

It’s a bit of false advertising in my true opinion to hear hypnosis center and you walk in and it’s a single room, single practitioner, and that’s it. As opposed to 1200 square feet, classroom, two practitioner rooms. That’s a center. Let’s use our language in such a way that is more honest, that is more representative of what we’re doing.

That being said, realize my business name is Virginia Hypnosis. Yes, I am squatting on Virginia Hypnosis center.com. Should I have ever wanted to rebrand, but specifically Virginia Hypnosis is what I stuck with. So I was in Old Town for going on about three years. I’ve been in this office space now for going on about four years, I believe at this point.

And a couple of points inside of that as I look for office space, and again, inside of this module, you’re gonna learn the actual systems that I have used to track down office space. As a fun preview. Every office I have ever leased I have found on Craigslist. Every office space I’ve ever made use of, even when I had to temporarily move to another location due to some construction happening in the building I was at, uh, again, Craigslist.

And again, in this module I’m gonna show you exactly how to do that. So, Understand a few things. First of all, in the other space I was subletting. I had another practitioner of another modality in that space, in this location. At one point I did have an associate staff. Now, as a lot of my training has expanded to a global market, I gotta tell you, I’m just not interested in doing that.

And I’ve got another hypnotist up the road who actually it is bragging rights that the entire hypnosis staff in that. Are all my students and more power keep sending referrals in their direction. We’re allowed to pick and choose our goals. We’re allowed to pick and choose the style of business we want to use.

So as I moved to this space, it’s a bigger commitment. Yet I only made that transition when I knew that the financials were. Understand, depending on the office space you might be looking at now, you’ve gotta look at possible two options. One would be renting, one would be buying. And admittedly, at the time of this recording, I have not bought an office space.

I’ve only leased. I’ve only rented specifically because, uh, a global. I’ll say it here, a global domination, a global empire is a big part of what I’m building right now. So I didn’t want to be ta uh, chained to a specific, uh, a specific office location. And indeed, even if it were building at a massive hypnosis center, bigger than I have right now.

This space is great. Yet in many ways, I’ve also had to move some classes to other spaces recently just because it’s a good problem to have. I outgrew the size of this space and at the time of this recording, my lease is only active for another about two years at this point. Uh, so look at it in terms of what is the commitment that you are ready to.

Now admittedly back to the original office space in Old Town, understand that there’s gonna be some communication that has to be had in talking with that person who owns that office space and it is theirs to rent to you. So specifically, they wanted to see a proof of income. So that’s where having some sort of business plan as you’ve learned how to create in this program is gonna be helpful to you.

That’s where maybe having some other experiences coming in may be of value to you. Now remember that when I signed my lease in the other space, I already had a subletter that took care of half of the rent that was possible to have there. Also, I already had a full-time business. Doing stage hypnosis. So I actually showed the owner of that space, or at least the property management company, here’s the math, and you’ve got the spreadsheet in your resources that I used to actually demonstrate that I only had to book two clients a month to really pay for the office space.

And already I had a waiting list of people ready to work with me. So that was a non-issue. By the time I moved here, I mean, I had multiple years tax records. It was a non-issue. So understand that could be not absolutely, that could be a potential challenge of signing a big office space lease such as this.

That being said, private coaching students of mine, uh, have found office spaces that are entirely their room with a shared lobby. $200 a month. Granted in other markets, here’s a local student of mine in a local area that she’s paying, I think only about $400. So in Old Town I was paying about 1500. Over here, I’m paying about 2000, which again, look at it from the perspective of only ever upgrade when your business has reached that threshold where the additional rent, the additional monthly expense is a non-issue.

When I moved from Old Town to this office location, I’m pointing it is that direction, but it is about six miles away from here. I only moved at a place where maintaining everything I was doing over there, I could’ve moved it to this office space. And even if I did nothing new, you know, yes, I would’ve had a higher monthly expense, but it really wouldn’t have mattered.

But what this space gained me and what you’re gonna see as soon as we go inside is now I’ve got a class. Now the cool thing about this office space is that there are no other offices along this pathway that also see clients, which means I’ve got, I won’t do a pen cuz I’m just out here by myself on the weekend, but there’s about maybe 50 parking spots.

That are within walking distance with no traffic to my office here. Uh, as a side note, I’m parked here just for the bragging rights of yet. The car says VA hip. No, it’s not absolutely necessary. Um, but I typically do park off to the side that way my clients do have a front entry parking space right up front.

Um, you will take note that I am ground level. This is where, just as a precursor to looking at office space. Admittedly, while I’ve done a ton of training in hypnotic pain relief, and it’s a specific niche market that I did explore heavily while I was in networking groups, it is a small minority of the clients that I tend to work with.

So really it’s not so much of an issue. Even if my office space was, you know, one or two stories, Though if that was a big component of what you did, that’s where that could have been a potential challenge. Likewise, as a reference point here is, um, Jennifer, who is a massage therapist that rented office space from me in the old space, that she was someone who did work with a lot of people who did have injuries.

So she’s somebody that she took over the lease at the old space when I left. And when she was there, that was her location for a ground floor, but she does operate up multiple offices. So in another location, she was several stories up. My speech is now slurring because now my tongue is cold. So we’re gonna wander inside in a few moments.

The main point of view that I want to give you before we jump inside is that this is a place to not break the. Unless it’s the time to do so. You know, I do know of someone who did go against my advice and he signed a big, big lease before, really. He already had an established business, and that was a big part of the reason why he actually, luckily he had a landlord, um, that was flexible.

You know, uh, I can tell you now in full respect to the owner of my space. The guy who owns my space, if I suddenly flad out, I would end up in court just because he is a very serious business person. Um, there’ve been no conflicts between the two of us, but he runs a business, I gotta say it. He runs a business in a way that, the way you should run a business, when this other individual I’m referring to signed a lease that really he should never have signed.

And I had a copy of it. Well, I had a copy of it on my computer and I’m looking at it and going, You can’t afford this yet. Don’t do this yet, down the road, you know, Oh, but this is the perfect space. This is wonderful. He wasn’t ready for it. He didn’t have an existing business. So no, when to grow. Grow when your business is busting at the seams and it’s time to move on to something else.

So one other point. I am back here by myself. It is only me back here in my other office. It was a tall 18 story building. Two through 18 were all condos and the ground floor were all office suites. So it was me. It was a property management company. It was actually my property management company, which made getting things repaired really easy.

Hey, that’s a nice benefit by the way of rent. Uh, when something breaks, it’s not my expense. Uh, I had a fluorescent light box suddenly, um, die, and I gotta send an email. Hey, Dino, fix this. And he did. Uh, we had a massive water leak last year, Thanksgiving. Luckily it was the week of Thanksgiving, so I wasn’t here.

I didn’t have to reschedule clients, but that wasn’t my issue. Even better. This is technically a condo, so it wasn’t even the owner’s issue. The condo association did a wonderful job. I’m standing in the, in the lobby of my office with the, uh, condo association, uh, you know, staff going, Wow, this looks pretty bad.

Take care of it. See you in five days. And they did everything. That’s one of those side benefits of renting. Um, it’s like renting an apartment. You know, when I lived downtown Baltimore, I was in an apartment and suddenly the dishwasher broke. I called down to the front desk. Within three days, I had a brand new dishwasher.

Meanwhile, at my home that we bought, The bathtub was leaking $6,000 out of our savings account. Later we got a new bathtub. So again, don’t break the bank in this category. So over at the other space, that was location, me, property management lawyers. There was a dentist, there was a group of psychologists.

There was a, uh, reading, uh, improvement organization for children. Really, really cool place to be. Admittedly, uh, I did have some referral streams coming from the people down the hall from me. Not enough that it made sense to stay there long term because again, my goals were having a training classroom, and that’s really what helped to grow by moving here.

Um, so in that environ. You know, I’ll shorten the story here, but there’s an experience that I had where it could have become uncomfortable. Um, I’ll, I’ll give you the story here. I still can feel my hands . Uh, it’s the experience where I had a client who is coming in, I’ll soften the story, issues with a specific substance, and it became clear that, uh, she was under the influence of the substance in my office.

She drove to my office. So it’s a scenario that I went, Hey, let’s chat about something. Follow me outside. It’s really nice outside. And once we were out of my space, that’s where I did as respectfully and as politely as I can inform this person that she either needed to call someone to come get her or call a taxi.

And if she got into her car, I’d be the first to call the police on her because as I said it, you’re in my neighborhood. And I’m not gonna have you hurt somebody leaving my office, which admittedly, um, sounds like a gutsy thing to do. And it was. But I did it when we were not behind closed doors in my office and there was a lobby with security within reach.

Um, admittedly I knew in this scenario is probably gonna be safe. So that’s something that would be a little different here because I’m here by. So not to make it a gender biased, possibly sexist statement, but be aware of where you would feel comfortable having your office. You know, um, if I was, I won’t filter it.

If I was a woman, I probably, uh, would think about an office space a little bit differently in a space like this. Likewise, likewise, we’ll chat about, we’ll chat about home offices once we’re inside. Um, You know, I know of people who do sessions in their home and they’re a little bit cautious about what specific types of clients they accept.

You know, that’s where it’s gonna be some sort of specific consideration. Likewise as well, You know, again, I’m here by myself, so that is a small risk and knocking on. Whatever material this is, uh, I’ve never had an issue and the way that I operate things, I probably will never have an issue. So be aware of safety similar to that.

This is a very, very safe neighborhood. Um, I’m in a location. I’m right nearby. A couple of schools, a fire station, as you heard a few moments ago and attached to that, this is a nice little residential. It’s a relatively safe area. You know, parts of Old Town Alexandria. Parts were really, really safe in parts.

You didn’t wanna be walking around late at night to say it politely. So it’s where you wanna make sure your office space, if you are going to sign a lease or even doing a temporary space as we’ll talk about in a few moments. It’s where if you’re looking from those perspectives, be aware of what the feel is.

Of your actual office? Um, I’ve got a student of mine who actually rented an office space in a location that was very, very, very, very, very cheap for him. And when I saw pictures, I saw why, And he have the unfortunate experience where a client drove to his office, Yeah, I’m not gonna go here and then kept going.

Likewise, I’ve got another student who actually is in downtown b. Who is operating a home office and really the way he’s got it set up, he actually does have a private parking spot and he makes sure that spot is open for that individual. That’s also part of the reason I left Old Town. Uh, we had commercial parking out front, which they slowly.

Closed down and sold to the residents of the condo building. So parking is gonna be a consideration. Uh, the appearance is gonna be a consideration. Noise may be a possible consideration as well. And yes, as hypnotist, we can utilize the sounds around us. However, realize that again, there’s gonna be clear limitations.

Remember I mentioned a few moments ago I had to find a temporary office space. There was a point in time where they were repairing the balconies of the condo building where my office was located. And out of my corner office window, I had Jack hammers generators, and about a dozen guys yelling each other in three different languages for the span of a.

While they did these repairs, and it’s a moment where I did move over to a temporary space, a temporary space, which by the way, I have now placed several of my hypnosis training students. I continuously send this location and I’ll show you some information on it in a few moments, cuz chances are there’s something like that nearby you.

And the cool thing about that was the owner of my space actually paid for the rent in that temporary space for a month. I’m looking through my notes here. Everything else we’re gonna cover.

Jason Lenette here again, and as always, thank you so much for sharing this content online, for liking it, for leaving your feedback, whether it’s on Facebook or leaving your reviews over on iTunes. And once again, let’s help you to grow your hypnosis business head over to. Hypnotic business systems.com and for just $47 a month, you can get instant access to my entire hypnosis business training library.

Cancel any time though people have a tendency to stick around as there’s hundreds of hours of content in there. Plus something done for you marketing campaigns. Check it out, hypnotic business systems.com. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.