Session #241: Ten Years of Professional Hypnosis

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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 241. 10 years of professional hypnosis. 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 to the program.

It’s Jason Lynette here with a bit. Interesting session this week, breaking away from some of the recent interviews to actually go a little bit deeper dive in terms of the structure of my business and how it is not only do I work with clients, but also the structure of how things continue to grow year after year that we find.

Hey, Jason. Hey Jason. I’m in here too. Oh, hey, Richard. Hey, buddy. It’s been a while. We haven’t chatted for a long time. Ladies and gentlemen, Richard Cole, everybody pause for applause. That hypnotist guy. That’s hous guy. Yeah. Which, um, are you recording this for one of your podcasts? I sure hope I am. If not, Oh, if not, Renee Klein’s gonna have to come on a week early.

But hey, Renee Klein’s gonna be on the podcast next week, and that’s gonna be a really good one. Ah, very cool. I hope I’m record tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM cuz he’s in Germany. Hey, let’s catch everybody up if you’ve tracked some things over the years back, episode number 100, which was only hundred and 41 episodes ago was when actually, uh, Richard Cole had said to me years ago, Hey, when you get to episode 100, let me interview.

And he did, and I will call it out politely. I’ve been here kind of racking my brain about this week’s episode because I wanted to do a little bit of a milestone one, and it just made perfect sense to bring Richard on board though briefly, for those that don’t yet know you, could you introduce yourself?

So they do. Okay, Well, I’m Richard Cole, that hip to guy, and been performing for a long time, and I live up in, uh, Canada. Nice. Beautiful part of Canada, in Ontario. And yeah, we’ve, you and I have been friends for a long time and I just thought I would give you a call today to see how things are going, and now you’re.

Doing one of your podcast things. That’s outstanding, man. It’s, it’s How We Roll, which if you go back to that episode and even something I posted online, and I’ll find the image and stick it in the show notes too, that about the time that I’d officially left the job working in theater, this would be creepy without the context.

Somebody swiped a photo of mine from the internet and put fancy text on top of it and send it to me as a postcard. And that was Richard that I had posted in inside of what was stage hypnosis forum.com. That I quit my job in this month to go full time as a hypnotist and haven’t looked back, which was a really nice gesture and we got to hang out and kind of celebrate that a while ago too, which, uh, I’d share something that’s kind of motivating.

This week’s episode. This is launching on November 7th, 2019, however, Officially the Jason Lynette Group, llc. The structure that is my business was officially formed on November 5th, 2009. So we can technically, I’m gonna say technically, and I’ll modify that here in a bit, but technically now claim 10 years of professional hypnosis.

Thus the, uh, title of this episode, 10 years of Professional Hypnosis. 10 years, man. That’s amazing. No, uh, and when did you say November 5th? Yeah, November 5th. Although I was almost cautious about making a big deal about this because for those that have been around me before, I actually started in Maryland and there’s a little bit of a bending appropriately of the timeline because I was doing part-time stage hypnosis.

That’s what I began with in, uh, like late 2016, early 2017. And, you know, part of that story was setting. Five year transition plan to leave the stage management job in theater. And then go full time into hypnosis, cuz that was where the passion was. But the realization was that one, I was disliking my life in that old career.

And also two, the part-time job was earning a lot more than the full-time job and it was kind of a no brainer to, to make that leap. So technically we’re like 12 years, 13 years plus full-time to really track it. But according to the piece of paper from the state of Virginia, Woohoo. 10 years and two days as of the release of this episode.

Well, there it is. I mean, that’s a significant date right there. Definitely. Yeah. Which I thought to kind of have a conversation with you as we’d reached out to each other in terms of just some different mindsets, different ways of looking at things, that there’s a catch phrase I have been using with my clients that you do something a couple of thousand times, you start to kind of figure it out.

And in terms of streamlining, We do things now, I wanted to bounce this thing off of you first, that I know you’ve had a career where at one point you had the office seeing clients at one point, you know, continuing full time with the stage hypnosis at one point, kind of stepping away from it, and if I’m correct on this, moving back into it even further once again, right.

Yeah, I did. I initially, I had, I had a goal in mind. Like I, I wanted to do the stage hypnosis stuff and retire off, out of stage hip hypnosis after 20 years. And so I did, I did the therapy for a while because I live in Canada. Winters can be, winters can be pretty harsh sometimes. So I opened up a hypnotherapy practice.

Actually. I decided I was gonna open up a hip therapy practice. Funny story, which I might have told you, but I’ll tell you again. When I was on my way to do a show in London, Ontario, it was for a high school and it was a February day, and it was a nice, beautiful drive and it sun was shining. Kind of warm outside and I went to bed and my show was in the morning and I woke up and there’s like three feet of snow and it’s snowing sideways.

So, So the school got canceled. School show got, well, school got canceled, so the show got canceled. So on my way driving home, I said, Okay, I gotta figure out a way to, to make some, make some income. Knowing what I. Like, I know how to hypnotize people and we can help people. And so that’s when I put the therapy side together, the office together, and then.

The stage hypnosis side got going busy again. It got going so busy I couldn’t, you know, I couldn’t be as dedicated to my, my clients as I wanted to. So I closed that shop up and went full time with the hypnosis. And as I approached the retirement, the 20 year mark I had set for myself, I started, you know, Reinvestigating working with clients and doing sports performance therapy type.

And then a famous hypnotist up in Canada. He decided he was gonna retire before me because he’s older than me, which we’re not gonna say who that was, but it rhymes with Mike Mand. Yes, Yes. . So, so, so he says, he says to me, you know, uh, you can’t retire Rich because I’m gonna retire first. And so he would send me some shows, and so I’m kind of back in ip, know his business again.

Yeah, I love that because it kind of brings to mind one of the, the things I had kind of taken a note on just terms of looking at over the years that, you know, I’d phrase it as, let the niche find. , which is that this is one of those analysis paralysis moments for I, for many people that I meet who are just getting started about what do I focus on?

What’s the one thing that I do? Mm-hmm. . And it’s where, I mean, even my goals over time began to shift. You know, my make or break moment was a bit of an away from strategy. I forget if I’ve ever actually talked about this, but doing a lot of local programs. I was getting so many requests for people to work with me, and at the time I was traveling so much doing all these school programs back like 2007, 2008, that I was referring out.

You know what I mean when I say that some people are in business in spite of their efforts. Yeah. What I’m getting at is I was sending all these referrals and the damn people weren’t following up. Mm-hmm. , so that’s where the thought was. Maybe if I open up an office for like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I’m working schools like Thursdays and Fridays, sometimes Saturday.

You know, that could be something local and maybe cut Chattanooga, Tennessee outta the tour schedule and drive less. And the original thought was, if these people won’t respond, I can see them. And the original thought was, again, something part-time, and now it’s practically all that I do the same as you know.

Here is a moment going, we’ll leave out the category. Here’s one specific thing I wanted to work on more. And instead, here’s what was coming to me, here’s what I was finding. I was pretty good at helping people to release those issues. So kind of going into it, this is, this is why when I do my work Smart Hypnosis live class, like one of the first things I do is kind of tell the story of everything from.

You know, shows in a bar to stage hypnosis in a school to corporate program to wellness programs, to back in the day, the home hypnosis weight loss party, like a tupper event, into working one to one with clients. And now some of the speaking I do in business. And I, and I tell that story not to say, Here’s the impressive resume.

It’s instead to say, Look, there’s so many directions this can. I was the smart Alex stage hypnotist and Sean Michael Andrew’s hypnotherapy training going, I don’t wanna do this therapy crap, I just wanna put letters after my name so I can charge more for my shows. And clearly that worked out in the direction that I had planned.

So , it’s like, yeah. It’s like what you say, you know, Let your niche find you. And analysis paralysis. Some people, some people, they can’t see the, They can’t see the tree for the forest. Mm-hmm. . Cause they’re looking at the forest. Right. Normally people would say you can’t see the forest for the trees, but sometimes.

Sometimes the, the niche, like where you, where you’re going, where you should go, where is, is like staring you right in the face, but you’re like, however you are, you’re like, No, it can’t be that. It can’t be that. Even though it’s, it’s an easy niche to get or an easy market to work. I, it can’t be that easy.

Some people don’t. In, in business, I believe some people don’t believe it can be that. Well, I tend to find it’s as soon as you embrace that, it could be easy. That if we keep labeling it as being hard or really the old lesson of trying to be too many things to too many people that, you know, I, I define everything in the business nowadays around two different images.

One is an old timey wagon wheel with the, you know, center hub in the middle and the spokes going out to the outer wheel. And, and the message of that is define your hub. What is the main way that you’re gonna communicate with people around you? And then from those individual spokes going out, those are those laser focused messages.

So, you know, as much as some people talk about, find that specific niche, I can have several of them. I, you know, I, I’m doing, and this is a theme we can talk about too, which I know from a familiar magic background that rather than doing everything okay instead to do a few things exceptionally. , but that ability that I can now build that sort of rule in my universe that these are the things that I’m gonna work best with right now and that’s what I’m gonna focus on.

And anything outside of that, I’m gonna find the way to respectfully say no to. Sure. And is it okay to say no? I think it’s empowering to say no, and it’s an even better service sometimes. To say no. And there there’s certain, I’d say personality traits of mine that could be labeled as a negative, but they’re working exceptionally well for me, so I’m keeping them up that I can be, let’s call it selectively impatient.

And what I, what I mean by that is perhaps I’m in the Washington DC metro area and you know, major government contractors, military personnel, and service around. And maybe here’s the student who calls up to say, Hey, you should do a program with this government agency. They can really use what you do. And my first thought is as noble and as wonderful as that could be.

I’m filling the office in terms of my clients, my classes are filling up. The things that I’m purposefully interested in right now are going well, and it’s where my response is. That’s a great idea. What could I do to support you in doing that for your business? Just cuz the idea of slow rolling contracts and red tape and bureaucracy just to go, Yeah, I’ve got the momentum going right now.

That’s what I’m fascinated. And, you know, to, to build something from scratch where, oh, who wasn’t? I need to have this guy on the podcast too sometimes soon. Cuz he was a major inspiration early on. Keith Livingston out of Seattle, I heard him one, one time say, I don’t like being in the community where people tell me that the things that I’m doing that work don’t work.

And I love that as a phrase of having to fight that battle. This is why from day one, you know, 10 years running, Virginia Hypnosis was built. To be going after people who had purposefully made the decision that they want to do hypnosis, and then through their research they were finding me. So I didn’t wanna live in a world of, I’m not gonna make you bark like a dog or collect like a chicken.

I want the people that I can drop that statement to and they laugh at the silliness of that idea rather than, you know, the phone call that would come in in the early days before I refined. That, Oh, can I bring a friend? So I know you don’t do anything during the session, which the bigger conversation there is in terms of what a pre-talk would naturally satisfy.

So by defining who that ideal client was from day one, that created that world, which again, respectful impatience that, you know, I can say no to that project because here are the things that I’m interested in. Or even better, here’s the other projects that I’m currently building that’ll launch in, you know, two or three months time and to do something brand new on a whim, you know, it would be a complete distraction and push that deadline out even further, perhaps.

Yeah. Can you, can you just go back and tell me, you said something really cool, more effective, doing a few things really well. So let’s go back to a early story as the teenager doing close up magic in restaurants. Paying my way through college doing that. Mm-hmm. , which would be that, you know, at one point, having the hobby of doing magic tricks, which a lot of us actually oddly enough, have that as part of our backstory.

You know, at one point I kind of compiled this sort of strolling magician list of all the different tricks I could do and had all these various routines and compiled like this spreadsheet back in the day of like 80 or 90 things, and eventually realizing, you know what, if I’m only gonna be entertaining these people for perhaps like 10 minutes tops, and it’s a different table every time I go over to the spot and do it, I don’t need 90 things.

Do you know who Marvin Roy was or is? Yep. Yeah. Marvin Roy, I believe. Mr. Electric. And you can find video clips of him on YouTube. And now that I’ve said it, my amazing team of podcast editors are probably gonna put him in the show notes that I believe. I don’t know if this is true. Do you know this? I think he was on Ed Sullivan more than anyone else.

Uh, got me. It sounds like it’s true. So let’s stick with it. But basically he was a magician and his act was he would light up light bulbs with his bare hands and it was the same thing over and over. He would, and it was all choreographed music. And then he would do it with a big, like, uh, lighthouse, uh, lantern bulb.

And it was amazing. And basically that 15, 16 minute act, that’s what he toured the world. And he did that one thing exceptionally well. So this kind of helped to refine, I’d say, in the last 10 years of, you know, not just doing the work, but also continuing to improve things. Going to trainings, you know, looking at how I’m basically, now in terms of the, the hypnotherapy side of things, basically running, let’s call the same 15 to 20 routines, if even.

And it’s a matter of looking at, This is what changed my trainings, looking at every strategy as being universal in structure and asking the question of, Well, how do I bend this tool to work for that specific issue? Rather than where, again, a lot of new hypnotists find themselves in that fear of, I don’t know what to do with this issue.

Instead, looking at it contextually, what is this like, and what do I already have in my toolkit that I can use to address this specific? . Right. Do you, um, do you think, see things have changed over the, the 10 years that you’ve been doing this? I mean, that’s a decade, man. That’s like, Oh, now it feels awful.

Oh, I, I love the, I love the intentional, vague language. Do you see things have changed and now we find ? What, what? See, that’s, that’s just how good I am. I know, right. That’s why you’re not just any hypnotist guy, but you’re that hypnotist guy. I’m that hypnotist guy. . Okay. No names. But how many websites have you seen that on since you did that?

Uh, okay. No, no. Did the few It happens. This is where the only competitive mindset I have in Virginia Hypnosis is, yes, I am squatting on all the iterations of Virginia hypnosis.com. I don’t want you having, and that’s fair. The same as I do have work Smarter hypnosis dot. But anyone wants to drop eight bucks.

I don’t have work. Smartest hypnosis.com. So, um, go for it. Now that I’ve said that Ken Guta is turning that into button. Just, just one. Yeah, just one sec. Jason. Sorry about this. I am just booking work. Smartest ? No. Okay. Done. Smartest. Where were we? I’d say one of the bigger things, and this is might be only in the last three.

I, I’ve always lived by the phrase that just because you can doesn’t mean you should. So you know, that kind of addresses a lot of the ethics and safety of working with individual clients as a hypnotist. So that someone calls in with something deeply medical and something that’s ongoing. And yes, there would be perhaps the option of the medical referral, but I’m always looking at, you know, as Dan Kendel would say, to be the advocate for the client that if there’s a more appropriate route, I’m not going to hesitate to send them in that direction.

You know, in terms of different business projects. Hey, you should do this. And again, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Part of my theater career began with sound design, which back in 1998, I learned how to use Cool Edit Pro 2000, which was then repurchase many times over, and now is Adobe Audition, that piece of software, and I know how to do all the sound editing, but it’s a better use of my time.

That as soon as you and I wrap this up, it’s gonna automatically save the Dropbox and then people more talented than me are gonna make it sound a whole lot better. Hey, Kate and your podcast editing team put your, uh, company in the show notes. There’s a test to see if they heard that . So to hand things off, the, the biggest thing I’d say, and this has been that theme I’d say for three years now, of it takes the same effort to sell one thing as it does something else.

Whoa, what’s that mean? Which, It, it’s all energy, it’s all effort, and even if it’s in terms of. Training somebody. I was on a Facebook chat with someone this morning, which we just added like five new hours of session demos into hypnotic workers. And the fact that I said, Yeah, give me video screenshots with the title words on these seven videos.

And Chris, my editor, just nailed it on the first hit because she’s been doing that for me for five years. I didn’t have to train that task. But this is, This was a decision point with the recent move of the office that the layout of the office, when you first walk in, there’s immediately a room to the left, which wasn’t there before.

But with the build out that we did, we put an extra room there, an extra practitioner room with the big chair, the client chair, the practitioner set up. Then the video production room, which is where I’m recording right now and where I spend most of my time. And then in the. Is the room where I see clients, which is a double recliner cuz I’m now seeing a lot more couples for stop smoking, which is fun dynamic.

And then the classroom kitchen at two bathrooms and so forth. So in, in the course of the move, this space was kind of built out as if I could bring on an additional hypnotist and to look at, here are some projects which I’m kind of quiet about because they’re still in buildout and I’m still figuring out what I want to do with it.

Here are some projects that are sort of slated to launch in January as of. And the same effort it would take to increase the marketing load, to bring in more calls, more quality connections, revisit the networking, even hire someone to go out and do those things. The same mental effort it takes to do that is the same effort to launch this brand new segment of the business.

And this is where we sometimes have to ask ourselves, what part can we scale? I mean, and I’d be, I’d be bold to say some numbers here that when I had someone else working for me a few times over the. I could track several thousand dollars of income from someone being in that room and seeing clients, and here was my percentage of that as the business owner.

But then again, to look at something that’s gonna go out to another global digital audience around the world, and the real intention this is, this could have bigger impact than just the one to one. That’s where that focus ought to be. That it takes the same effort to build the systems, to build out a staff and a team on the local business, the brick and mortar side, which is limited by.

Limited by space as opposed to I can put the same mental energy now into building something that can go bigger. So this is, this is one of those things that I’d say this hit in like 2011 when I was at marketing conventions and I was hearing people having conversations about millions of dollars of transactions versus hypnosis conventions, which is that, Oh, I could never charge more than this rate for my sessions.

And not just to look at it from the financial side, but also what is the reach, what is the scalability of a bigger audience? I think that word too, scale and scalability in, in like a decade ago, I wouldn’t hear it as much as I do now. And are you, you’re finding that as well? You know, like once you, once you have a system in place, once you figure something out, the next step is to.

Figure out how to scale it, how to make it bigger. Well, you know, back in the best selling book work Smart business, uh, , No, I quoted, and I forget whose line it was, that it was, it came from Vaudeville theater. The amateur changes their act, the professional changes their audience. Yeah, and again, back to the statement we talked about before, about more effective, doing a few things really well.

The whole work smart hypnosis thing came about in one part, is an inspiration from Michael Elner, who actually, it turns out plagiarized a quote from Scott Sandlin. So thanks Scott. Learned from people who disagree with each. That I was originally trained. This is not Sean Michael Andrews, but I was originally trained in a bit of a hypnosis bubble.

This is the one model of work. If you don’t do this, that’s not going to work. And that crap dried it out really quickly. And then from there, looking at how I had the meetup group that I was running to have a local community. And looking out, and many of these folks are my friends. I’m gonna see, I’d say maybe half of them in two weeks when I’ve got David Snyder coming to town in the DC area cuz they’re attending that event where I was running the meet up, but I had the same audience every week.

So the combination of expanding that knowledge of the community, And you know, whether they’re a member of this group or that group or that other group no longer mattered. Did they have good information? Were they making a difference in this profession? And those are the people such as yourself, my friend, who who were then invited to be on the podcast and, and you know, that combination of the frustration of the same audience.

That now we can boast the numbers of more than 500,000 downloads in more than 80 countries, and the numbers keep growing in terms of podcast interaction, which not just for the sake of the size of a building, I, I wouldn’t have that size group in front of me day to day doing what I had done when I got started.

I think that having a variety of ideologies as. It stimulates creativity. Like for me, I do a lot of skits. I create a lot of my own skits, and it’s having a variety of friends that I have that I can, I can say, I’m thinking of doing something with, uh, giant yellow banana and, and just bouncing. Bouncing the ideas back and forth with my friends and who have different ideas and, and different thoughts on what’s funny.

You know, for a comedy show, it keeps me interested in what I do. And if we surround, I think if we surround ourself with people who are only ever gonna say good things about you, like if you have a tribe that that. Is only only saying how awesome you are, how great you are, how you’re the best at this, and you are awesome.

It really, that that tribe, that group envelopes you so much that you can’t really grow anymore. Yeah. Now, let me ask you this. How do you go about, what’s the motivation for you for creating a new routine? For me, quite honestly, I, I like, I like the. Unknown aspect of doing a show sometimes. Mm-hmm. , I have my, I have my routines, my tried and true routines that I do, but I always, and I got this from standup comedy, I always try to do something new in a show to keep me on my toes.

Right to keep me thinking, keep my mind going. I don’t want to just fax in a performance. Wow. Oh, oh. I dated my stuff right there, didn’t I? In case that wasn’t heard. Richard doesn’t wanna fax in the performance have you’ve seen the thing online about, Hey, I can’t fax you from where I am. Where are you? I’m in 2019.

Now that you’ve said that, I’ve just now realized it’s been 18 months since I received a fax on my eFax. So they get rid of that. And Richard, you just saved me 15 bucks a month. Thank you. There you go. Glad I could help. No, I, This is, this is a topic, this is one of those things that, you know, I, I find the, the whole shape of this podcast that’s developed over the years is that it’s working.

If it’s the conversation that I genuinely want to have. And the audience happens to get to hear it, you know, So it’s where I, I, I called it out and there was a fun moment where someone had reached out to say, and, and she didn’t know, you know, to go, Hey, can I come on your podcast and promote my class?

Which is like when my brain shuts off and go, No, because that’s not what this is. Yeah. Then I saw her speak and I was like, I’m sorry, you’re amazing. Are you free next week? And it was a great episode. Good. Like guessing and ended positively. But where again, you know, not just for the sake of. The promotion of something.

But I, I tend to find this is a through line from those people that I see as being extremely effective. You know, my branding of the hypnotic worker, the one who’s actually doing the work, the willingness to go in and not have all the answers right away. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. That almost like an improv game. I’ve heard this from several folks I’ve had conversations with here that I’ve decided I’m gonna use this technique and I have to find a way to motivate.

I can, I can reveal a moment. I think this is like 2014, where I was realizing in a workshop I was teaching arm levitation as hypnotic phenomenon. But my biggest gripe is people teaching things that they don’t actually do with clients. You know, not as in, Oh, the students love this in my workshops. I’m like, No, sh, teach me the stuff you’re actually doing.

And I caught myself in that moment going, Wait a minute, I’m doing something that I don’t actually do with. And the rule for like a month was, no matter what they were in for session one, I was gonna make their arm float, but I had to find a reason to motivate it. , how did that work out for you? It created a different approach to parts therapy, which is now like my go-to method.

If I find there’s some sort of, you know, inter conflict type setup. So the willingness to experiment, not for the sake of, you know, hey, I need to publish a new thing, which is only in recent years that I finally went, Oh, here’s videos of me doing this thing. You know? But instead out of the curiosity to go, if this is in our vernacular as as hypnotists, it has some quality and I need to find a better way to use it rather.

Hey, let’s do a demo. Hey, look, Richard’s arms floating. Cool, and scene . Instead, find the motivation as to, well, why is it floating? What’s the benefit of doing that? Which briefly, it was easier to make both arms float than just one. Because now you can play the two of them off of each other. I don’t know which arm is gonna begin to lift and rise first as soon as they were up in the air.

There’s one time where by accident, the client’s hands rotated and he goes, Whoa. And I go, That’s right, as we do, Describe that. What just happened? And he goes, I could feel the energy pulling them together and I’m just modifying after him to go. That’s right. And now feel that sensation as they start to draw closer and closer together.

And I’m looking at his hands moving toward each other in this double armed flotation and realizing, Oh wait, he’s in perfect position now for the classic, you know, hand lock suggestibility test. Try to separate them. They squeeze even tighter. And basically linking that one hand is the motivating part.

One hand is the conflicting part. As they meet, feel them, you know, creating that balance and harmony and then motivating every step of the journey. And as soon as you know, this resolution is created, notice how easily those hands can separate and it’s interest. It’s interesting that, that you’re talking about, uh, coming up with something that you, you, you want to incorporate.

Finding the right spot. For it, uh, being motivated to, to incorporate it, It sounds like, um, a different approach to learning or, uh, is, is that about right? Well, I mean it’s where looking at the content of the class is not always the content of the class. But I wanna bring that, Let’s come put a pen in that.

I wanna come back to you on this. I just ask you, cuz I know that you know the majority of people who listen to this are more on the hypnotherapy side of things, though a lot of them have the background in stage hypnosis, and indeed a lot of them are stage hypnotists. So I’d ask you, Richard, you use music in your show, right?

I do, yes. Have you ever done this? Have you ever just put something on the music list? And didn’t have a plan as to what to do with it. You just knew that one day you were gonna do something with it. You, I, I have, I have, Yeah. It, it’s a song that I hear . Um, and you know what? I’ll, I’ll, I’ll say it. It’s, um, Closer Together by the Box.

It’s a Canadian band out of Montreal. And I heard it on the radio and I used to hear it as a, as a kid. And I thought to myself, Man, I gotta, I gotta figure out a spot to put this, put this in. So during the show, as the show’s going on, I don’t have a ski for it, but if people are coming up, I’ll put that song on, or a part of that song on as, as people are coming up.

Or I’ll use that song somewhere in a show where it’s. Necessarily important, and it’s not necessarily background music. It’s just there so that when that moment comes where I realize that people are gonna become magnetic and they’re gonna stick to each other, , that’s the song for the, the, the song Closer Together.

Nice is the song for the Magnetic people ski in my. Which of course we need to bring it back to 1984 with Ghostbusters , the scene where they go into the firehouse, and I think it’s Dan Aros character who goes and sees the fire pole and goes. We’re keeping this , I mean, back, back when I was doing stage, which I’ve, I could say I’ve re retired myself from working schools, but then again, look at your record and yeah, we’ll see what it happens next, which is always the theme of it.

No, but I’d say that here’s the moment where by accident, the classic, it’s getting cold. Grab onto the person next to you. and the person at the far left accidentally grabs me and I look surprised and I lose my composure and laughter and it’s one of the biggest moments of the program. And wouldn’t you believe the luck, Richard?

Every time I did a program after that, the big guy at the end of the row on the left, always by accident grabbed me. And I always looked surprised and I always lost my composure and lost myself and laughter. And it was the biggest hit of the moment of the, of the program, uh, where that stays in. I know, right?

He’s like, How do I make this happen on purpose? Which was a, to my friend up in Canada, it was a hockey hip check. So the guy knew that I was on the other side of him and always there it is, casting to make sure that the big guy was at the end of the row cuz it just wasn’t as funny when it was the petite little girl grabbing me when it was the big honking guy, grabbing little five foot for me.

Then it worked the same as, you know, working with clients, they will reach certain epiphanies. They will make certain discoveries in the process. and then to reverse engineer. Okay, how do I get there on purpose with someone? A as the, As the hypnotist. Yeah. My friend, I was just thinking of this, my friend Chris, he’s out of Ottawa, he’s a magician and I was working with him on a show and he does the linking ring routine and so he, he takes off one of the rings.

And he says this is the first ring. Then he takes off the second ring and he says, This is the second ring. This is the third ring. This is the fourth ring. And just as he pulled off the fourth ring where we were performing, they had this, this like giant clock and it goes off. Bing and he goes, And that’s the fifth ring.

The audience loses it. It was just hilarious. And he looks at me and I look at him, and that’s in the show . Nice, but, and sometimes it was that one moment, that one moment of perfection that just worked perfectly. And we tried to time the show so it would happen every. And it didn’t, We couldn’t get it just perfect.

It was just that one time where it worked perfect and everything worked together. And I think that’s similar too, when, as a, as a hypnotist, when you’re working with some clients, you don’t have to throw everything at them. You just, just find that one that’s gonna work perfect. And, and get the great results by using the, the one, the one thing then, right?

Well, you brought up the different approach to learning, and this is where, you know, I’ve, I, I’ve said this, and this is not for the sake of, you know, hyping anything that I do, but it’s where I’m gonna have people on the podcast that. I want to have conversations with them. I do. I, I took a break from this for a while as I was building out some other things, but kind of ramping back up the rhythm of having guest training events coming into the area.

We had Bob Burns earlier in the year. David Snyder’s gonna be here in a couple of weeks, but I. Betcha by the time this launches that’ll have sold out, but still, hey David Schneider dc.com if there’s space available. But to look at how going to specific trainings that I keep up, the rhythm of education. I forget the exact reference, but it was one of the Scott Sandler episodes from like two years ago where he kind of called out the fact that I was one of the few presenters at Hypno Thoughts that.

Doing my own pre or post, you know, extra sale workshop, but also paying to attend other people’s events. I think I may have indirectly freaked out a former student of mine, cuz I signed up for her event this year. I was like, No, I think you do this thing better than I do. So that’s, I’m gonna be in the room watching.

But I, I’d say, you know, and this is one of those things that for the student looking to learn, you know, I, I, I went back to Michael Elner. Michael would teach techniques, Michael would teach methods yet to have really spent time with him in the brief bit of time. I did get with him before he sadly passed away last year.

He was getting the results because you were in the room with him. He created the environment that just, it was no longer a serious issue. You were laughing at the problem and definitely getting the appropriate change methods in work. And I, I think of the session that I did this morning, and you know, here’s to generalize it for obvious reasons.

Here’s the whole history of why she’s coming in and everything that’s going on and just, we were treating it with respect of course, but along the way, just kind of breaking apart the reality structure, which is not. You know, this, this is why I’m, you know, publishing more of the, here’s my intake process, you know, step by step of everything I did with the client in the room.

And there’s the session where it reiterates back. But to recognize it’s about creating the environment, which even for, for learning, you know, look at not just what are the techniques that they’re doing, but what’s kind of the bigger picture perspective of what’s going. That there’s a, there’s a meta level of that learning now that, you know, even in the marketing trainings that I’ve gone through, yes, they’re teaching how to optimize your webinars and get more attendance, but at the end of the day, here’s how they’re crafting that relationship with the audience.

Here’s how they’re creating an amazing culture. Well, let’s call out friends of ours that, yes, Chris Thompson and Mike Mandel are doing paid advertisement for their online stuff. Clearly they are. Yet, at the same time, it’s that amazing community that you’re joining. Which is why that’s really growing.

Just the paid stuff helps to bring more people into it. The same way that I keep getting the question of, Hey, I keep seeing your face on like Huffington Post and Words With Friends, and I, I do the same thing too, and yet it’s this community of people who are looking at a greater flexibility. So it’s not just because I gave Facebook 60 cents for that, click it, it’s really the bigger picture of what’s underneath that, that that keeps that growth going.

So, It’s where nowadays, if I’m looking at a convention schedule, yes, I might be interested in the actual content the person is teaching, but really more so the context of what actually are they creating? What’s the attitude, what’s the demeanor, what’s the personality, what’s the relationship? And that’s really where that, where that ultimate learning comes from.

Awesome. I, I, I think relationships are I important in, in, well, we know about rapport and, and developing relationships with whatever you’re doing. You know, whether it’s marketing or sales or media. Like I’ll see some, some advertising and, and, You know, I, I, you just get that feeling right away that, I don’t know if this is right for me.

I just don’t think it’s right for me. I was on a, I was on a, a call recently for something and the person that I was talking to, I just didn’t get a, a vibe that we would be able to work together in the mentoring aspects of, of this, this program that they were offering. Yeah, so building, I mean, sometimes, sometimes it is the right words.

I think we, we talked about this before we hit the button and pretended that you weren’t there and then jumped in 12 seconds later. Uh, you like how that worked? Uh, no. It was the person I saw this morning that she, yes, she was a referral. Yet she said within the fir first 15 seconds of talking to you. I knew I was gonna work with you and then she dropped the statement.

Yeah, so you should have charged more. I’m like, Ah. It’s the same rate. No be and all. All it was was that I positioned how the call was going to go. Yeah. Great. I’ve got the notes here that you filled on the website, so we’ll chat a little bit, first of all, about what your goals are. We’ll talk about hypnosis, what it is and what it isn’t, and then of course, if I think I can help you out, I’ll explain how we can get.

Sound good. And she goes, I was in a state of overwhelm dialing you and reaching out to you that I didn’t know what questions to ask. I had never done this before. I didn’t know what was gonna happen, but in one sentence, I just set the frame for here’s how we do this, and she just goes, In that moment, I knew I’m gonna work with this.

Which it’s not just the scripting out of that phrase, it’s just from my perspective. Well, what else would you do ? The way that, you know, early on, I, I was trained originally in a lot of absolutes that if they call you and ask how many sessions and how much, oh, they’re just price shopping. They’re just looking for something that’s not gonna work to validate their own secondary gain and um, no.

That’s crap. , what else would you ask? So rather than engage in that dialogue, I just simply set the frame at the beginning of the call. Here’s what we’re gonna talk about, here’s what also we’re going to discuss. And if I think I can help you out, I’ll explain how we can get started. Makes sense. Which of course it does, you know?

So by having that just, you know, relationship and actually, what’s the phrase? Uh, actually listening , that goes a long way. I’m sorry, I was listening to you and the whole time I was listening to you, I thought like 10 years you’ve been doing this. How do you, how do you like balance, balance your time with all the stuff that you’re doing, Jason, I mean, you got, you got podcasts, you got training, you got clients, you got travel and, and you got a family.

Well also have to include randomly getting on a train and meeting up with you in Philadelphia to go see word out in an opera. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah, that was awesome. That was awesome. I’ve got my, I sent you the picture, I’ve got the mug here. Uh, , No, I’d say it’s where I, I actually talked about this in a little bit more detail in an episode a couple of weeks ago, which, you know, the sort of mindset was, and this is maybe some of the Thea theatrical background of becoming a sucker for the fact that in certain stories they set rules of the universe.

You know that here’s what the characters do, here’s what this person is for and against and, and the biggest. Ability to take control of my time was that willingness to set aside things that were working to build things that, again, back to scalability could reach a bigger and better audience in the future.

So early on, you know, there was a moment where Michelle was pregnant with Claire. And she was commuting long hours for a job in Washington DC and my honest statement was, Hey, I’m young. I’m new at this. I can burn out now. , which was the, the, the joking phrase to go, Let me see 30 or 40 clients a week. So when baby is born, I can take the month off and it’s a non-issue.

So there are moments of purposefully buckling down and putting massive, ridiculous effort into something, which I do a lot less of that nowadays cuz again, this is the benefit of multiple pieces that are running, you know, still seeing about maybe 12 to 15 clients a week. This week it’s 14. As I’m looking at the calendar, that’s still open on my screen, which is the max 15 or so is the max that I wanna see.

Cuz the phrase became, as you mentioned, clearly seeing hypnosis clients. Is not the only hypnosis thing that I’m doing mm-hmm. , but to, to, to draw out that schedule and just be aware that, okay, so these are the blocks that I see clients. That someone goes, Well, what do you have? Like a two 30? I go, Well, I do either a one o’clock or a four o’clock in the afternoon.

Well, two thirty’s best. Well, the way the schedule’s set up, we only do a one or a four. And yes, there’s some moments where I do break away from that, but that willingness that yes, I am charging a bit of a premium for the, you know, hypnosis services these days. Mm-hmm. , but the willingness to go into my schedule and block off a chunk of time.

Because that’s what I’m gonna be, you know, doing something like this. That’s what I’m gonna be, you know, leaving the office because there’s, in a couple of weeks time the Thanksgiving lunch at our kids’ school and we get to go have lunch with both kids at school, which I’m just not working the middle chunk of the day cuz the new office is only three minutes down the road from home in school.

So, And also at the same time, you know, here are various days the kids have off and blocking that time off. So it’s the willingness to turn off the time, I think is that biggest aspect of one, just the, you know, the mental balance of things as well as the professional business growth. The, the line from ETH revisited that, uh, working on your business, not just in your business.

And you know, I’d say, and this was something I did have to go, this wasn’t meant to ever be secret. It was just something I didn’t wanna make a big deal around. But basically earlier in October, two family members who had to go through medical procedures and what was supposed to be three days off.

Rapidly turned into 10 days off. And it was a nice, it was, it was not a nice moment cuz it wasn’t great. Everyone’s on the other side of it now and doing much better. And I had to comment publicly at one point because there were some statements that were made about how I didn’t respond to someone. It took five days rather than one day, which life happens and Yeah.

You know, but looking at how the ability that so many parts of the business were up and running, I, I found it to be a moment that I just was honest with. You know, I reached out to one client to say, and he actually had expressed the concern I, I booked with him before I went to Australia. And he goes, Is this something you do often?

Is this something we’re gonna have to work around? And I go, Well after this there’s one trip to Chicago and then there’s nothing travel until February when I’m back in Vegas for the winter conference. And that helped him feel comfortable cause that was a concern. So of course he was the guy I had to call to.

Hey, can we push your next session to be three weeks from now, ? Yeah. Which, just to call it out, Here’s where I am, here’s what my father’s going through. Here’s what they’re about to do for it. I’m sorry. I know this was a concern of yours. You had paid for a four session program. Would it be okay if I just gave you two extra sessions?

And he was great by going, That wasn’t necessary, but yes, absolutely. I’ll take that . So I think I, I think too that, that, from what you’re saying, it’s, it’s how you prioritize things in your life. Is, is is how you can accomplish having a, a balance between a balance of your time, I guess? Well, I’d say too, I mean, given some of the, you know, things that kind of shook down the last couple of months, and some of it was planned, some of it was emergency.

And just to call it out, this is a time thing that, here’s something that I’ve been building. It sip out maybe three quarters of the way done, and that was supposed to come out about two weeks ago. But basically as I saw some of the momentum of other things going on, on a personal level, just to go. Yeah, January’s good, you know, and it just, I created the deadline the same way that the story I’m about to share is like, this is the ultimate and first world problems that the coaching I was getting in terms of publishing my book was contradicting the coaching I was getting for doing my TEDx talk.

The TEDx people shorten your stories, get to your point, teach your content. The book Writing Coach expand your stories. Tell, Teach through metaphor. And I’m like, this is no, no. And I moved the book at that time, similar pattern from October to be January instead. So it’s that willingness that, you know, as we’re our own bosses, if we want to change that deadline, sometimes it’s okay to just kind of relax and go, Oh, I invented this.

I can change it too. You know, Melissa Tears is uh, quote about all this shit’s made up. Well, it’s something that I’m making up right now. And I can make it up a few months later down the road, which then allowed me to go into the calendar and realize here’s a bunch of, you know, downtime that I’m setting aside November, December, which will then be right in line for, you know, other things that are launching.

That’s that, It’s that biggest thing though. Again, recognizing that time is an asset. Time is a tool. Yeah. And it’s, it’s how we make use of it if we wait for it to happen. Do I, do I have it here? We’ll put the picture in the show notes. There’s a meme that popped up. The other day and I had to save it. That a, Here we go.

Adulthood is saying quote, but after this week, things will slow down a bit. End quote, over and over until you. Sad but true, right? Yeah. Or let’s, let’s simplify it with Gilda Radner just goes to show you, It’s always something . So just a couple more questions. What would you say is your biggest lessons that you’ve learned in the past 10 years?

I, I’d say that you get to do it the way you want to do it. That you know, again, there’s a lot of advice out there. There’s a lot of well-meaning, thoughts, and, and again, just like time, it’s a matter of what your passion is, what you’re focused on, and what you want to do. And I’d say too, and you know, talking about media, that I heard this over and over and it finally clicked a few years back, what it meant that in the 21st century, you are a media company first that happens to produce products and services.

So the willingness that, you know, yes, let, let’s call it out. There are illegal file sharing sites on the web, and one specific program keeps popping up on these dating websites, which is not my market. So on one side, I could be angry that, you know, they’re illegally downloading my content that’s behind a paywall.

On the other side, I’m realizing these are not the people who would buy it anyway. So, um, yeah, it’s like, what was it in 2004? My car got broken into and I had two of those big, Let’s date the story. Case Logic, CDs. Of like, Oh wow. The big zip up cases that would hold 300 CDs. Yep. One of them was like, you know, every style of music I, I had listened to everything and then the other one was owned by a theater company I was working at, and it was all like musical theater and alphabet order, and he didn’t steal the one that was like rap, rock alternative, everything from like Snoop Dog to Green Day.

No, he left that one in the car. He took the one that we opened it up. It was, I. Annie, Annie gets your gun , which the police caught the guy under a tree looking through the content. And I had to think, I wish this guy, when he opened it up and saw just 350 musical theater albums went Yes, . As if that’s what he wanted.

How the hell did we get on this one? Richard? Uh, . Ah, That’s what happens when you and I talk now. We squirrel. We just get on. No, but that to, to look at, you know, again, it’s what you want to focus on. And you have that right where nowadays the biggest shift that I’ve got, Richard non guard has the line about, I’m only gonna work with those people I know I can be successful with.

And my addition to that is I’m only gonna work with those people that I know I can be successful with. And I’m excited to get in the car after the kids get on the school bus and drive to the office and meet. That if, sure, if those things are not lining up, something’s not clicking, and it’s that willingness, again, something we started talking about to say no, here’s, here was a very specific, medically related call that I got, which was come to my retirement community and work with me on this and I’m, I’m having to talk logistics to go, Well, first of all, I’d have to inappropriately pretend I was family because if I’m coming in as another service provider, there’s gonna be some concern on that.

You’re three hours down the road and just out of respect for my time, here’s what that entail. But I know a former doctor who’s retired who does hypnosis. And might be able to be a fit with you once you get home. Cuz it was a temporary stay thing. Please call them. I want you. It’s like I, and I just had to say I’m referring to them because I think they can do it better.

The same way that, you know, I’ve pivoted a number of my programs that I would do for schools to someone else and we want you. And I go, I’m sending him because I think he does a better. And they hear that and it’s just, it’s genuinely true because that’s not my passion right now. And they go, Oh, great.

It’s like, well, if I needed to hire someone for entertainment for this type of program, he’s the first one that I would call. You know, it’s someone that we go back a number of years and have that relationship and I’ve seen his program and went, Oh, that’s good. Oh, that’s a cool nuance. So that willingness that, again, the phrase I’ve said before, the more we’re all successful, the more we’re all successful.

That it’s not about being the, you know, head dog at the top of the pile and going, Look how great I am instead. Look what we all can do if your life’s not fun. You need to figure out how to change it to make it fun. And you know, a friend of mine one time advertised that, I forget the statistic, but what was it now with 47% more fun.

I think so , if you didn’t pick it up, Richard, one time for his website, did a, did an update. And like one of the little headlines was, what was it, like 72% funnier . Yeah. Yeah. Now what? And, and I’ve also played around with, uh, other stuff like now with 10% more bananas, , and it’s just, uh, which, which should be the criteria of course, when hiring.

Well, let’s call it out any hypnotic service because the number of other hypnosis trainers who now have to provide snacks and bananas to their students during class because they were like at conventions going, Jason has like a big pile of snacks in his room and this person has nothing. To which to call it out.

The event I’m hosting in a couple of weeks, we’re actually negotiating. Cause I’m like, Yes, I know it’s your event and you put out a lot of chocolate. But it’s also the event that my company is hosting and just my people are used to the fact that I’m gonna put out this stuff. Can we do both? Which again, if these are the biggest conversations we have to have in life for clearly doing.

All right. I, I, I bounced that one back to you cuz you’ve been at this quite some time. What would you say has been to kind of tie it all together, that biggest perceptual shift since getting started versus where you are? I would say the biggest shift that I’ve noticed in this business, in my business is called Maturing.

Mm-hmm. . It’s maturing In my business, there’s stuff, when I started out, I had no idea what was out there and what was available that I could have taken advantage of because I wasn’t mature in the business. I wasn’t at that stage. In business development where it made sense to me. And as I’ve, as I’ve come through the years, I see that those tools, those tools, those people, they begin to present themselves even though they’ve been there the whole time.

It’s only now at this stage in my maturing level in the business that I’m able to see that I need, I need the, the PR rep. Mm-hmm. , I, I need the, the video guys. Yeah. I, I need the, the next thing, and I’m almost certain, Jason, that I still don’t know what’s coming in the next 10 years. And that’s the fun of it all now.

Yep. Yep. That’s what gets me up in the morning. Oh, what’s today gonna bring? I forget. And we’ll kind of tie it together. Technically, I guess I’m the one being interviewed on this one, so usually I tell the guest, and for those that listen to this, you’ll now know my formula. I tell people as soon as we start recording, I’m gonna ask you a question, and as soon as I ask it, I’m gonna hit the button and start recording.

Cause I like to give you the first word and then towards the end of it, I’m gonna ask you a meaningful question, which you’ll answer, and then there’s going to be an awkward silence. And that’s where I’m stopping the recording, cuz I like to give you the last word. So before I steal the last word, , Richard, any, Well, let’s, let’s mention you.

Where can people check out you online? How can they get in touch with you? Oh, uh, yeah, they can find out about me. My websites Triple w dot that hip and test guide.com. Yeah. If you’re ever in, in Canada, you know, message me or Ontario. I’m not that far away from Toronto. I’m also not that far away from Ottawa.

Yeah. And and I’m a pretty cool guy to talk to too, I think. And what’s your fax number? My fax number, . Funny story. I really could give it to you because they still have one of them. Same here. Yeah, it’s a toll-free number and that’s why it’s 15 bucks a month that I’ve paid for, for 18 months. But we are shutting that thing down this week.

No, no, I hear the final story. I. I’ll generalize it just cuz otherwise it gets caught up in the details. But it’s about an actress that she was one of these people that she was on stage, she was in movies in the early 1950s and sixties and then kind of disappeared, kind of stepped away from the career for a while and then kind of resurfaced out of nowhere in her early seventies as just a prominent.

In a Disney movie. And you know, one of the, one of the characters in the movie, which suddenly it was the whole on one side, Oh, she’s still alive. Which is always a nice little nudge, but also surprise. What’s that? Uh, a nice little surprise. Yeah, exactly. But also just now, suddenly there was a renaissance of her career.

And there was an amazing interview where the question was, What do you have lined up after this? And she like, she’s in her late eighties as they’re asking this in the interview, is clearly the Disney movie is a huge hit and now getting more roles and such. And the response was kind of one that stuck with me as I read the interview about, I have nothing lined up after this.

I don’t know if this is the last thing that I’m about to do, and I also don’t know if this is the start of something much bigger. And you know what? That’s about the most exciting place I can be right now. Jason, Lynette here once again, and as always, thank you so. So much for interacting with this program, leaving your reviews online, and using this as a resource in our amazing hypnotic community to look more at growing your own thriving hypnotic business.

Of course, check out hypnotic business systems.com now available as an all access pass to learn the systems that I’ve used to build multiple successful hypnosis businesses. It features step by step tutorials done for you marketing campaigns. Plus a thriving active hypnotic business community that’s there to support you.

Check it out. Get instant access today [email protected]. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.