Session #23: Zoilita Grant’s Story

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Imagine building a more successful hypnosis business just in the next 10 days. To learn how, please visit work smart hypnosis.com and take the 10 day Hypnosis Business challenge. Yours free today. 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. Here we go with session number 23 featuring Zita Grant. This is fantastic. I first got to meet Zita, actually this, this year at, uh, Hypno Thoughts Live and then got to sit down with her again. Attended, uh, two Fantastic workshops with her at the MidAmerica Hypnosis Conference, which is where this program you’re about to listen to was recorded.

We got to sit down for about 15 minutes and. Fantastic conversation just about a number of things, her approach with hypnotism, her approach with coaching, as well as a little bit more detail about, well, let’s put it simply, the adventure she’s gone through in the last couple of years in the state of Colorado.

Just a very interesting story in terms of overcoming challenges, rebuilding a business, and rethinking the way it is that we help people within this profession and specifically within these tools. So here we go. Session 23, Zoe to Grant.

So when I was a teenager, I weighed 285 pounds and I discovered hypnosis. I discovered hypnosis through books. I went to the library of the University of California, cuz I lived in Berkeley at the time, and I checked out. Every single book on hypnosis. And I read all of those books and I was able with the techniques of self hypnosis to take off 155 pounds in a year.

Wow. And that allowed me to go to college at a normal rate, which had a profound influence on my life. Yeah, Yeah. So then what was that process then from there? To everything you’re doing now. That’s a very big question. I know , but what, what directions, what steps did you take to first begin this career?

When I went to college, I graduated with two degrees. One degree was in anthropology cuz I wanted to be the new Margaret, me and the other degree was in clinical psychology cuz in case Margaret, me didn’t work out. I wanted to be the new Sigma Freud. But I always loved hypnosis, and even though I went to graduate school and got degrees and became a marriage and family therapist and a licensed social worker for a period of time, I loved hypnosis.

I found that the hypnosis that I took in college was very, very minimal. It was just very much focused on one type of hypnosis, ericsonian, mm-hmm. . And there was very, Tools and techniques in that. It was probably mainly lecture that I went through in that class. So after I got out of college and had some kids and then got to the point where I was ready to return to work again, I knew I wanted to get into hypnotherapy, so I took hypnotherapy training.

The first training I went to was alchemical hypnotherapy, which is very, very good kind of hypnosis, but it’s only a slim. Slice of the hypnosis pie. And so after that I actually attended two other hypnotherapy schools to allow myself to feel well rounded in the field. Mm-hmm. , I continued to be a hypnotherapist until about 2008, and then at that point, you know, through various circumstances in my life, I left the field of hypnotherapy and moved into coaching, became a life and business coach, but I never forgot about hypnosis.

And over the last four or five years, I have introduced hypnosis into my life and business coaching program. I call it hypnotic coaching, and I find it to be extremely successful. And I’d love to have you on another time to spend some time talking. The life events you just alluded to. Uh, but I’d love to ask this bigger picture question for a moment.

The condensed version would be perhaps that there were some challenges that you found that you were put up against, and then letting that become an opportunity rather than a setback is basically, That’s probably the shortest way we can sum up the story. That’s the story of my life. Yeah. is to look at any kind of experiences as an opportunity for growth and develop.

Yeah. So then the format of what you’re doing these days, I know you’re doing the group business classes and a coaching format. Mm-hmm. . Are you also working with people one on one? I do. I work with people as private clients. I call what I do hypnotic coaching. It has the tools and techniques of coaching with the power and the punch of hypnosis, , and how much.

Class, would you say, or working with clients as well, has the format of, let’s say, a traditional hypnotic session of any, My sessions are about 45 minutes in length, because if you’re not doing therapy, if you’re just using hypnosis to reinforce goals, that’s plenty of time to work in. Mm-hmm. , I divide the session into, 50 50.

So half of the time is spent doing coaching and half of the time is spent in hypnosis. Excellent, excellent. And um, how was it you arrived as that, as that being the niche these days? Uh, I find that coaching has a tremendous appeal for the general public. Mm-hmm. . I find that when, um, when I talk to people about doing coaching as opposed to doing hypnotherapy, that people are very receptive to the idea of having a coach.

In fact, a coach is a little bit like a status symbol these days. , you have your own coach. It’s like a personal trainer for your. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So let’s rewind things back a little bit, that you were in private practice as a hypnotherapist working with clients, and I know you have a lot of ex experience in history working with children as well.

Mm-hmm. , during those years, what percentage would you say was with children From about, I would say 1995 to 2000 and. 50% of my clientele was under the age of 18. Mm-hmm. , That was primarily children that had a d d learning disabilities. And then some of the general issues of childhood, like bedwetting and thumb sucking and nail biting.

I became very expert in working with those areas. Yeah. Yeah. And I actually had the good fortune this morning to spend some time in your hypnosis for a D workshop and, uh, Excellent. And probably plan on leaving here with that program as well. Thank you so much. And what I found to be interesting about that is, You know it, it’s an interesting trend that we see sometimes in hypnosis.

A person will just release a product that they’ve sat and typed out a bunch of scripts to, But what I found really interesting about that program was the amount of research that would into it, the amount of experience that was layered into it as well. As well as also highlighting how these are people that have, You know, let’s, let’s call them as strengths more than weaknesses.

There are certain things they do better rather than these are the things they don’t do as well. You know, that is the approach that I like to take to a d d, that this is a special type of learning. That these people, people that have a d, d are not defective or somehow mismatch for society. They’re people that have specialized learning needs.

In fact, I designed a complete curriculum for children starting at the third grade and going all the way through high school, and one of the sections is called Discovering Genius. Hmm. And that’s the middle school section. And middle school is a very critical time for kids that have a d d because this is a time period where their peers are noticing that they process information differently.

Sometimes bullying happens for a d d kids at that time, and so creating a series of classes that allowed them to find their sense of genius. Mm-hmm. and to own. Was so empowering for them. Yeah. And I can see that as being a very, very effective way of working really with, uh, basically any situation we’d find ourselves falling into.

Um, to focus more on the benefits, focus more on the strengths, and to harness those and pull those in, you know, click and drag, copy and paste within the mind. Definitely. Yeah. In fact, that is one of the innovations that happened in psychology in the early 1990s for years. Psychology said, Focus on your weaknesses.

And then in 1990, the positive psychology movement came, and the positive Psychology Movement said, Wait, you have it all wrong. If you focus on your weaknesses, you get weaker. Mm-hmm. . So what you want to do is identify your signature strength. and lean into your strengths, and as you lean into your strengths, your weaknesses actually get better.

Hmm. Which might be a nice transition that there’s a phrase you use and correct me on it. You said you’re a bit of a rebel. I am a definite rebel. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, do you have a couple of moments? Sure. Tell us a little bit more then. The life events that came about in the last couple of years that brought you to where you are now then?

Cause I think it’s just a, it’s a fabulous story of. Taking that as an opportunity and letting that become a strength rather than a weakness? Well, I practice hypnotherapy in Colorado and in Colorado. People that that are hypnotist or hypnotherapist have to practice as registered psychotherapist. And because I have strong will and innovative ideas, I ran into some challenges with the state.

In fact, the state ced me for allowing. Some of my private clients to become students in my hypnotherapy school. That was the beginning of my challenges with the state. Mm-hmm. that went on for about three years of being investigated. At the end of that time, I was deemed to be guilty and received a, a punishment from the state.

That was a punishment that was completely outrageous. They said that I had to hire a psychologist for two years to monitor my cases at my expense, that I had to take 30 units of continuing education to teach me proper client therapist relations. And then the third point, which was. The straw that broke the camels back was I was supposed to give my clients a letter that said, Your therapist no longer, You no longer have confidentiality because your therapist has been deemed to be incapable, incompetent, or potential danger to the public.

And just to jump in, just so people’s imaginations aren’t wandering to dark places. The basic challenge was that in Colorado there’s a requirement from if someone is a client, there’s a timeframe that should be followed until they can take a class as a student. Two years. Two years. Yeah, two years. Right.

And these people had entered my hypnotherapy school about 18 months after they finished therapy. Yeah. So it was like just a few months. Difference. Right. And I wanted to qualify that and clarify that just for the purposes of people’s imaginations. Can Sure. Wander when we start to say problems with the state

Yes, definitely. Yeah. But the good news is that, you know, over the course of time I. Was helpful in inventing a new profession, which is called hypnotic coaching. Yes, there’s other people that do it, but I really developed it so that it’s got concrete tools and techniques very different than therapy, appeals to a new clientele.

Mm-hmm. , my coaching clients wouldn’t think of going to therapy. They would not go to a hypnotherapist because they don’t identify they have problems. They’re looking for solutions. Right. And I, I’d share that from the perspective of I’m in business as a full-time hypnotist and because I’m also known for having a product around business, I get clients that will make that connection on their own yet to be there presenting that specific challenge.

It’s true, it does open up an entire different part of the business that’s not so much. I wanna make this thing happen. Let’s use coaching techniques to go at this instead. It’s very much business focused and the, the series of workshops that you do with people lunchtime. So again, it’s so towards the end of the story, and correct me, basically the challenge in Colorado was that they were arguing, That hypnosis is either psychotherapy or stage entertainment.

That’s exactly it. In fact, the state actually filed a lawsuit against me to prohibit me from using the word hypnosis, and the lawsuit took three years, ended up costing me $23,000, but I won the law. Suit and in winning the lawsuit, I opened the door for much more freedom in my state for hypnosis, but also in the country.

That’s amazing because that piece of law, somewhat the, the head of the hypnosis union in Nevada that is working on the freedom of practicing told me he used my case as part of information to put forth their. . So that was a very positive thing. So then let me ask you this, asking a massive question without any preparation, , If we have to redefine the role of the hypnotist and our modern society, what would you state that is?

I, I, I like to see hypnosis taken out of its current boxes. Mm-hmm. of hypnotism and hypnotherapy. I like opening it into education, into coaching, into many other areas. When we talk about hypnosis, we’re talking about a modality that 90% of the population easily learn. We’re talking about the capacity to expand the potential of the human mind so that people can be able to get real outcomes that make them happier and more satisfied.

So then expanding that beyond, you know, many of the organizations are very focused on. We’re gonna give you strategies to solve this problem or this problem or this problem. But again, kind of going back to where we started this conversation, into using this as a process for that peak performance, using this as a process to harness our best skills, our best strategies, and focus in a more solution oriented process that way.

I, I totally agree with you. I think one of the differences in how I work as opposed to how many hypnotists work is I always work from the present to the future. Mm-hmm. , I very rarely deal with the past. And working from the present to the future allows you to really solidify those outcomes that a people are looking for, and to tailor make programs designed for people.

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