Session #298: Nanci Adair on Artistic Recovery and Independence

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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 298. Nancy Adaire on Artistic Recovery and Independence. 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. So I’ll let you know in advance the way that this conversation you’re about to listen to begins.

Kind of changes my perspective on a lot of hypnosis that of sweeping people into an experience and then letting it be a surprise that they’ve already arrived at their destination. So often to see our clients as their end goal and then bring them along for the ride being the dynamic, the sort of mindset behind the work that I do, though it’s an interesting chance encounter where her father learned a bit of hypnosis and made a bit of a challenge offer.

Hey, it actually worked, which then becomes this incredible journey where Nancy Ader, who you’re about to meet, who lives up in Maine, having the opportunity to then go off on her own and really take charge of her own independence, her own education, and then eventually into licensing, and then kind of opening up even further now into a world that also includes hypnosis.

So especially for those of you that are out there, and I know it’s a good chunk of the audience, Who may be inside of the medical model, may be inside of the insurance model. You’re gonna hear a slightly different take on things in this week’s. In terms of looking at what happens when we start to quote, run our own show, what happens when we start to get a little bit picky in terms of what specific clients we choose to work with?

That a journey of art, education and dealing with issues around family and addiction, and starting to inform a career, truly helping others as a licensed psychotherapist, as a hypnotist, as a coach. and eventually we’re. Now, it’s not about the letters before or after the name, and as Nancy shares in this episode, there’s a bunch possibly on either side of that, but it’s instead about creating that organic experience with our client to best serve them, and also identifying along the way that as we start to let it become, Our own business and not just our own practice, which is a really cool part of this conversation.

We get to become respectfully picky about the people that we know we can help the best and let that truly become the focus of what we do. Now as a bit of a preview, Nancy and I recorded this episode number 298 that you’re about to listen to, and then you’re gonna hear from her once again because we turned the tables because she was the one who suggested, and there were a lot of likes and comments that followed.

That coming up very soon, episode number 300 of the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast. We flip the tables and she interviews me. So we actually recorded this conversation first to kind of warm up, but it’s, it’s incredible. Just some amazing insights and nuances and especially for those that are looking at going out on your own.

Listen to her incredible story, hear the possibilities, and realize you’re just a few steps away from doing something. Absolutely incredible. In the conversation, she talks about work smart hypnosis live, which she was coming into this event. This is what’s cool about the hypnosis trainings that I now offer, that as a result of having this work smart hypnosis community, about half of the people who come into the trainings that I offer.

Are brand new to hypnosis. It’s their first entry point. And then the other half of the people are folks like Nancy who are coming in with substantial training and are looking at how do they address the models differently? How do they start to attract the business, the clientele that they want to work with?

How do they better systematize the efforts? So it’s no longer the rigid scripts or protocols. It is as was Nancy’s background, this more artistically. Creative and flexible process, which builds unstoppable confidence in the practitioner, and you’re in good time because if you head over to work smart hypnosis live.com, that’s where you’ll see the next live and online training is happening very soon.

If you’re listening to this in Time, that’s launching December 1st. If you’re listening to this, well after the fact, as I know the podcast, get even more downloads over their longevity of episodes, not to worry, still go to the same website. Work Smart hypnosis live.com. That’s where you could find the upcoming training opportunities.

The one coming up in December is a special one cuz just like the one that Nancy attended. I’m co-training with Richard Non guard, so you’re getting my work Smart principles as well as Richard’s background, very similar to Nancy of coming from the licensed mental health world to then going full-time solo on their own.

So I know that’s a big part of the chunk of our audience. That are already signing up for this rapidly filling work, smart hypnosis live training. So once again, check out that website, work Smart hypnosis live.com. There’s early discounts based on how soon you sign up, and chances are check the footer.

There might be a sexy promo code as we often offer to make it even easier to get started. And with that, let’s jump directly into this week session. Here we go, episode number 298. Nancy a. On artistic recovery and independence. I believe that it was when I was 16 years old and my father was studying psychology in a master’s program at Fordham University, and he told me that he could hypnotize me to believe that I could not take my hand off the table.

So we were standing in our kitchen and I took the contest basically and said, No way. And especially like I had all these thoughts that hypnosis would be like putting you to sleep, you know all that. And he just talked to me while I was standing. Perfectly alert. Eyes wide open in the kitchen and I put my hand on the table as instructed.

He talks some more and then he said, Go ahead and try and remove the hand. And I thought, Sure, I could take it away. And the thing was stuck to the table and I was really upset. Jason, there’s a lot you don’t know the backstory of my relationship with my, with my dad, which one of really feeling very controlled.

And so I was not pleased, , and he told me that if I believed that I could remove my hand, I could mm-hmm. And I lifted it up and I was like, What just happened? What I love about that is first of all, you’ve, you’ve gone through some of my training and that kind of completely interrupts everything I say about hypnotic phenomenon.

So thank you for that . No. Which is to say that most magic trick. You know, have a bit of a surprise ending. So the old thing about the magician doesn’t repeat the trick is not just because you might figure it out, it’s because in the performance of it, most magic effects and with a surprise. So go to Vegas when he is back doing the show, once again, David Copperfield is tied up in a bag, put in a box, and he has to escape before it drops under the spikes on fire.

You know, like you do. And clearly he doesn’t get out in time. And then he’s blowing a whistle in the back of the audience. So how would you watch the trick the second time around? You’d have your head spun around looking towards the back of the audience going, Oh, there he is, and then he blows the whistle.

But I love Nancy. What I love about that story is it was completely set up ahead of time. Here’s what’s gonna happen. How? How do you think that maybe changed the experience for you now that you kind of know what you know around those technique? I’ve been thinking about this because part of me is suspect of my own motivation to become a hypnotist.

Yeah. That is it. One of wanting control. Mm-hmm. and what I’m saying to my clients and I truly believe. Is the hypnotist is not in control. This is all about helping you have greater mastery and control over behaviors that you want to increase and those that you wanna decrease or take out of your life entirely.

So I’m not really sure that, I think the, the beginning, the root of it was wanting control over somebody that had clearly had control over me. And I was a very, um, quit high school at 16. Mm-hmm. . I moved away from our family home, was in Connecticut, and I moved to Vermont and started working and you know, went to community college at night and got a G E D.

You know, I’m someone with a master’s degree, , well, you know, the usual route. Yeah, exactly, Exactly. Which I wanna go back to that moment. We kind of dance around a bit in terms of topics here that I love that premise of not in control, helping someone to get back in control and I’ve, I’ve found, at least in terms of my internal dialogue, that if we take some of the common colloquial things that we would say is hypnotist and somehow modify a few words, it kind of informs us where the process ought to go.

I absolutely agree that all hypnosis is self hypnosis. I think. Becomes more effective if we throw an extra word on there. That would be that all hypnosis is self hyp. Eventually. Mm. That, that clearly it has to begin as it was in that situation. You and your father were here. He was just doing a demonstration from something he had learned where clearly he was guiding the process at the beginning, and then it became that sort of symbiotic experience at the end of that.

What, what, what are your thoughts on that? Oh, I absolutely agree. And in fact, in your training, you really do tell all of us that this is about following simple instructions. Mm-hmm. . You know, And yes. Which, uh, to give credit, that was a sentence I completely modeled accidentally or stolen, uh, from Melissa, Tier , Melissa tier’s, Art of hypno, uh, no Melissa tier integrative hypnosis that I love that premise of its process of following some simple instructions.

Your mind and body already know what to do. So, so let’s go back to your story though, in terms of there you were kind of taking leadership of your own life and your own education. So getting the G E D from community college, what were those next steps, which then eventually led to the master’s degree?

Actually, there were two separate things. Yeah. The g e D wasn’t at the community college. It was at some school. You know, you had to sign up and apply and go take your G e D. It’s a graduate. Educate, Uh, not education. I don’t even know what it, it stands for. Yeah. In fact, I’m getting caught up in like, what does that stand for?

But anyway, it’s a high school diploma is what it is without finishing high school. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And so my mom passed away when I was 16 and I was then looking at being home alone with this very alcoholic father. And I left school, as I said, and I left to live in an apartment with a girlfriend. That was a year older, 17.

We didn’t know even how to do laundry, and so I went, I got my G E D, and then I went. Took these college courses at night and I ended up transferring into college at 17, a year later with nine transfer credits, college credit, and I’m, you know, a 17 year old with A G E D and like I said, nine college credits.

And then I stayed at that school, Long Island University for four years, graduated Kum LA with a bachelor. In art education and a minor in psychology. And then I went on to get a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Leslie University in Massachusetts. Yeah, and I’ve done a number of other certification programs, including the hypnosis that I like to say I have an alphabet soup after my name, , and actually even a few letters before my name because I am an ordained interfaith minister, so I have the r v in front of my name.

Wait, I wanna go to that. So, majoring in art education, the minor in psychology? Mm-hmm. . Was there something that. When we look at that art side of things, cuz something artistic was part of my background too. Was there a previous route that you were looking to go? Or was it something you were looking to obtain from that?

Or was it just a fascination, let’s say? Actually it was, I thought that I was gonna go into art therapy. Mm-hmm. , when I decided on my major in art education, I did already have an interest in psychology. Yes. However, I’m 64 now, so looking back, I, I knew that I loved art from a very young age, and I wanted to be an artist.

And same dad, you know, really supported me with the finest materials and teachers. And when it came to college, he said, Okay, now what are you gonna do to make a. and it was as if you couldn’t and wouldn’t succeed making a living in the arts themselves. So I’ve now full circle. I am an artist. I love the arts.

I do illustration, which I’ve always done since before that age of 16, and I also do fiber arts right now. I find that I’ve found an artistic voice in doing a series. Art quilts that are, I called the series Comfort Her, It’s Comfort spelled with a capital C, and then the H eer on the end is capitalized as well.

So there, it’s a human engagement and resiliency project. Oh, wow. And they’re all, there’re a series of seven quilts that are all quilts to empower people who have been abused or survived. Abused. That. That’s incredible. Is that something that you’ve been. Sort of working through presenting for a while or is that something new?

It’s relatively new. It’s just a few years in the making, and I’m hoping to exhibit in 2023 that, you know, , like I am a planner, , I’ve got goals and I’ve got the, uh, quilt that I’m working on right now, which is Seeing the Unseen is the title of it. And it’s, uh, an owl in flight in the woods, and the owl is what I call illustrated with thread.

So it’s all black thread on white cotton, and then it will be applicated to the finished quilt That is all made with. Mostly boutique fabrics in, in very dense color. Yeah. So, so I, I love that aspect where, here we are on a hypnosis podcast, and now we’re talking about this artistic quilting, quilting therapeutic project, which again, is exactly where we plan to go inside of this though though, I, I look at that ability to, you know, sort of transcend a message through an image.

And that background in terms of the art education, how, how would you say that’s informed the work that you do nowadays working one to one with clients? Well, I work predominantly with clients who are either entering recovery from addiction or maintaining that recovery, and I have found that more than, Probably much more than half, like 80% of my clients are artists.

Mm-hmm. , they have a true creative expression that once they’ve found their way into recovery, it’s almost like rediscovering that creative ability. Yeah. And I’m talking across the board, like writers and singers and songwriter and fine artists, and. Oh, I have one client who’s a master at making costumes, particularly hats,

Yeah. You know, it’s just wild. Yeah. So to look at how we’re able to attract that audience. So then in terms of that art, so there’s an artistic through line, we’ve got that. Is that informing how you actually work with them then? Absolutely because I’m working with bringing that creative process forward.

Mm-hmm. , you know, and really building confidence. A lot of people that have been like, I’m thinking of a few different clients and I won’t get into too many specifics cuz of the confidentiality. However, they’re very successful in business and they’re transition. Much like myself, you know, to let go of working tremendous hours in order to have time to invest in their creative pursuits.

Yeah. Yeah. What, what I really wanna expand on here though, is that you mentioned that it’s working with people who are either. Entering recovery or maintaining recovery. So in that situation, are you sort of the, I I wanna use the word guide, the guide of their actual recovery, getting free of addiction process?

Or are you there as a supplement, would you say? No, very much. A guide. Yeah. How so? How would you describe that? It’s about what that requires. To obtain freedom. Mm-hmm. from addiction and to maintain it. There’s so many parts of that process, including the All right. So some of the misnomers in the recovery community.

Yeah. For one is this whole idea of powerlessness, . And that is a full circle to where we started in this conversation as well. You know, do I have the control? Do I not have the control? Do I have the power? Do I not have the power? The first step in 12 step programs based on Alcoholics Anonymous does not read.

I admit, I’m powerless. It actually reads, We admitted we were powerless. It’s we, you know, plural, past tense, were powerless and that our lives had become unmanageable. Mm-hmm. . So I believe wholeheartedly that those recovery steps and my work with people and guiding them toward freedom from addiction is all about empowerment.

Yes. Which, let’s look at that because let me go off on a quick rant before I even ask the question. , no, and, and I’d say it’s that, and I, you know, I had been guilty of this previously before getting appropriately corrected or smacked in the right direction, which is that, and let’s draw a few correlations here, that here’s one part of the community that says, Oh yeah, but that’s not good for people cuz it’s driving them to admit that they still have a problem, even though they’re now sober of it, which I’d even throw into the same category.

Oh, let’s go here. People who would criticize the Tony Robbins event, even though they’ve actually never sat in the room or watched any of the content. People who would be critical about the folks that have put out thousands of hypnosis audio programs, selling them for $27, going, Oh, they’re cheapening the profession, when really they haven’t even listened to the singular one, which of course naturally goes back to the people protesting Monte Python, Life obrien, who did not even see the.

Like I said, the longer we hang out, the more specific the references get. So more specifically, here’s the bit around, yes, but I think it’s bad for these people to have to say I’m an alcoholic, even though they’re not drinking anymore. What knowledge do you think is missing from that judgment or what needs to be modified in that conversation?

Would you say? The affirmation. Not drinking for an alcoholic is about personal empowerment. Yes. It’s about making the choice not to put a lethal substance in your body. Yeah, and just the way you’ve talked about turning down the dial on one behavior and up scaling the investment in drinking water or eating foods that are nutritionally healthy for you.

You know, there’s nothing of. Value in the substance of alcohol. Mm-hmm. . So back to control. It’s that mindset of shifting the control back to the individual as opposed to this other thing that used to have that control. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing that used to have the control is still within your mind.

Mm-hmm. . Right. I mean, there’s no ENT being that takes control over the body. I, I say that and I immediately come back to one of my early, early experiences in the field of substance abuse where I was working with a woman from Africa who did not speak English, and we had an interpreter working with us while I was doing the counseling, and she said that she had.

A demonn inside her and the demonn was thirsty . So there are a lot of people in. 12 step recovery communities that talk about their alcoholism or their addiction as if it were a third person or another entity taking over. Yeah. So then in terms of the process, what strategies to put it into a hypnosis context cuz round out the rest of the story from the master’s degree, what did that then lead you into first in terms of a career?

So I have been, I am still a psychotherapist. I’m still licensed in the state of Maine, and I have been doing some form of counseling since I was 17 years old. Mm-hmm. , and like I said, I’m 64, so there’s a lot of experience there. . Yeah. So then into that transition, what were your steps in terms of, let’s say, getting up and running and actually starting to work with.

Well, let’s see. I had 20 years in private practice. I worked for a community substance abuse. Program before I went off on my own, kind of got my wings, so to speak. And then I worked for myself for 20 years. I actually, I’m also a certified coach with the International Coach Federation, and I began life coaching back in like 2000, the year 2000.

And another tragedy came into my life when my spouse. Took his own life in 2002, and I found myself with our five year old as a full-time single parent, and I went back to work for a hospital as a substance abuse counselor. I did not feel it was ethically the right thing to do to maintain a private practice when I was in the shape that I was in emotionally.

And so I went to work for this hospital, Mercy Hospital, and I worked for them for 13 years. I think that was about 12 years longer than it needed to be. . . I always missed being in business for my, myself and I, I was. I believe mistakenly holding onto the financial security of a regular job, paycheck, benefits, et cetera.

I, I think that’s an interesting conversation and clearly I’ll, I’ll leave the names out of it, but there are some top people in the profession who also have the other titles of being either psychologist, psychotherapist that here’s a window of time that. Decided to shutter their practice, that solo entity on their own to then basically quote, take a job somewhere else.

And I, and I think that’s, you know, an incredibly noble position at times to go, I’m not in a place where I can be the person to be running the show myself that here’s a specific time where, let me. Show up. I had an employee at one point here at Virginia Hypnosis that the situation was to say it simply, there was a lot of personal stuff going on behind the scenes and for that window of time to kind of offer to somebody, you’re gonna show up, you’re gonna have the, the sort of intake call from notes from the call, and you’re gonna work with them.

And then everything else I will manage. And that’s, that’s a bit of a rarity, especially in the hypnotic profession. I’d say that’s more so the norm in, in the counseling world. Would you. I lost track of the question. expertly done no where? Where we would find that. It’s rare to be in that situation, let’s say as the hypnotist, where it’s just show up and here are your people as opposed to in a larger group practice.

There’s now an assignment as to here’s who you’re gonna see today. Right. And right. And I, I really did, I brought all my expertise and I was able to put my personal life, uh, leave it at the door when I walked in to work at the hospital. Mm-hmm. . And that’s part of why I’m saying like, I think that I stayed there 12 years longer than I needed to, and I learned a tremendous amount that I’ve now put into, you know, a six figure private practice.

Yeah. Let, let’s talk about that. What would you say have, were those takeaway. Well, you know, one of the things, , before I even go to the takeaways, when I just said a six figure private practice, I’ve, for the number of years that I’ve been returned to business for myself, I always say it’s my business rather than my practice.

Yes. Cause I’ve had plenty of practice . So, uh, so part of the takeaways were about the discipline of running a business for yourself That I don’t think I had. As concretely when I did my first stint on what I will call private practice. Yeah. Uh, even though it was 20 years, I’ve done so much more in the last, let’s see, it was 2000.

14 that the hospital actually closed the recovery center that I worked for. Mm-hmm. , so many of my colleagues went to work for other agencies. I took it as an opportunity. Yeah. So then that opportunity, and I love what you said about having to clarify that as to, it was a practice, but really at the end of the day, it’s a business, and this is not a job at the age, but 64 years, you probably figured a lot of it out.

One of these days we’re gonna get it right. But that’s where, you know, even recently you took a class that I did with Richard and myself for the online training event. Would you say the takeaways from being the employee up until now, what? What are some of those takeaways that really stood out then? You know, I like, I really love being able to choose who I work with.

Yeah. And you know, that was never the case when working in the hospital. I also really understand that I love this population and so working privately and exploring. Hypnosis, I still maintain my dedication to living clean and sober. Mm-hmm. . And that it’s a life second to none. And most of the people that I work with are my favorite people.

Yeah. Uh, because they’re so creative. Because they have a greater than average intelligence and a true sensitivity to the world around them, which is really the setup for addiction. . Yeah. It’s like you need some escape. You need something to take the edge off of that. Being able to see the world so clearly and have such compassion and, and then the passion for creative.

Pursuits so well then in the shape of nearly 300 episodes here, this podcast, Let me ask the ultimate and leading questions that I probably already know the answer to, but I think a lot of the people in the audience need to hear the fact that you got to choose the people that you work with, and it’s a group that you say you love the population.

Do you think that has helped you to be more effective in the work that you do? Absolutely, and I think any of us, when we love the people we work with are more successful. Right. I, I mean, I read an affirmation, it’s called I Love Myself, therefore by Louise Hayes. Yeah. And in it, there’s a section about work that says, I love myself, therefore I work at.

A job that uses my unique talents and creativity. And I work for people that I love, that love me, and I make a good income . And I was like, I remember when I first read that and I was working for the hospital and I was feeling like I was underpaid and overworked and. Did love the people I worked with, but not all of them, you know, and, uh, and I was really sure that they did not love me and, you know, there was just a, and I, I wasn’t making, I was making enough money to get by as a single parent.

It really wasn’t the kind of income that I wanted to earn, nor did I feel like it was the income that I had earned. Yeah. In terms of the level of experience. So, no, I love that aspect of the fact that you’re excited to go in and I think this is really the one of the core messages to come out of this conversation so far that, you know, not just from that perception of how we change the dialogue around control and hypnosis and what it actually means.

In terms of a person coming out of addiction, but the awareness that, as you’ve said, it’s that, yes, it’s your private practice, but at the end of the day, it’s your business and we’re gonna be more effective helping those people that we are passionate about helping. This is that constant dialogue in so many of the groups.

You know, I, I had someone who, and I’ll generalize this for obvious purposes though, anybody who’s in the public works smart hypnosis community, they saw the thread where it was a man reaching out for a very sensitive issue. And clearly she is a female practitioner, did not feel comfortable taking that on.

And the answer could be we don’t have to be a match for everybody. And to simply say, And even as qualified as I may, and I’ll, I’ll, I’ll soften this as I may seem to be as confident as I may seem to be in what I do. A lot of that comes around to the fact that even last week Friday, ultimate referral coming in, incredible resource coming in and even for that person, You know what?

I don’t think I’m qualified to help you with that. Here’s someone who I think is, Let me make sure they’re available before I make the connect. Yeah. Yeah. So then from that success, do you have those people reaching out to you at times that are not perhaps a match for what it is that you feel is now your specialty?

You know, I, I watch, but what I, I’m a firm believer in the law of attraction and it just seems that the clearer I get about who I wanna walk work with, that’s who’s walks in my. They don’t walk in my door anymore. That’s why I just tripped up on that cuz I’m doing everything remotely. . And it, it’s true.

It’s, it’s just fascinating to me to watch that happen. So, Which I love that as the, I love that as the idea that, you know, yes it is putting the energy out to the world. My little riff on that is to go yes, but you still have to let the universe know that you’re there. Mm-hmm. . So back a few months ago, even before we launched, everything that’s.

The Jason lynette.com website, Everything new with the other podcast. Now, Hypnotic Language Hacks. We just made one change on the homepage of Virginia Hypnosis, which is that I swapped the prominent positioning of two different things. I put weight loss on a dropdown menu as opposed to the feature, and we put business confidence as one of the main hits on the page.

And sure enough, the two big things that I focus on are really three of including hypnosis training, stop smoking, and business confidence. And that’s practically all that calls me, unless it’s the rarity, which usually is thankfully by way of referral. So let, let’s talk then about what it is that you’re doing that is helping to drive this six figure business slash practice.

What? What’s working now? Well, , I feel like I am in a state of transition. Yes. Again, and, and it’s partly due to getting the certification in hypnosis. And it’s more than that though. And it, it’s really a time when I wanna Thank you. Adjacent because I feel that as a result of the certification, it’s not more letters after my name, God only knows I don’t need those

Can I I pause you a quick second though, which thank you for that. But there’s a, there’s a fun dialogue. That one of my favorite people in the world is Stephanie Cheba, who is the admin behind, uh, sorry, not admin Wizard, behind the curtain of most of this profession. With Richard non guard, with David Snyder, with one third partner now of hypno thoughts and, and we have an ongoing.

Gag behind the scenes, which is that, you know, I collect the data and then for the I C B C A students, I send over the information. She creates those documents, I create my own work smart hypnosis documents and the constant gag. And those of you out there who, you know who I’m talking about now, sorry, would be, here’s the name, followed by 18 letters.

The response is always, what is it with these people, , Right. The the biggest names in the world. Don’t put the letters after their name. Be be your own brand. Right? Right. Sorry, you, you were sharing and in fact, the biggest, the biggest people and the names don’t even put their full name. Yeah. You look at it, the Oprah , you know, well with the name like that.

Then she wins . Yeah. J low. Exactly. You could go on. Right. It’s like they don’t even need a last name. Yeah. Yeah. Once the brand is really formed. Well, you were saying, you were saying about making that transition from the hypnosis training to to where are things at now? To where right now, what I’m most excited about doing, I want out from under the insurance racket completely.

Yeah. And where I say I have a six figure business in doing psychotherapy, I am also we to. Insurance companies, and part of what that limits me is not only. Pricing that the license ensures me with the company. Right? Yes. There’s that part, but there’s also, there are regulations about, even through telehealth, I can work with people who.

Are in the state I’m licensed in. Oh, wow. So where I started to do quite a bit of travel in the last several years and Covid put a, you know, a stop to that in 2020. But I really hope to return to it and maybe even retire in a, um, expat community, maybe sooner than later, depending on some things right now.

But I want that freedom not only to. Make the income that I desire to make, I want the freedom of doing my work from anywhere. You just hit upon something that I think is a major takeaway, which is not, let’s not turn this into, let’s bash the, uh, insurance model. Mm-hmm. , I, I look at, here’s a dentist who’s in my office park, or even the dentist that.

I go to and to find out, there are two physical locations. I live in Burke, Virginia, and which is somewhere between Springfield and Fairfax, this little sliver of land. And then the office is over here in Springfield and which is only a five minute drive. So very, very short. And there’s parts of Burke that go further out almost to Fairfax, Virginia.

We’ll skip the geography lesson here, but what I’m getting at is that the dentist that I go to has two practices. Within the same physical distance. And I had to ask, why is it that you’re bouncing? And the answer was, we are moving the entire staff from one office to the other because of the very specific insurance regulation where they’ve hit a cap with that one location in Springfield.

So by opening up a second location, it’s actually worth it to own two of every piece of equip. Pay for two mortgages to have the different spaces. So because the insurances they’re advertising, I, I didn’t know that aspect though, that even though it’s online, where now suddenly we’re in that wild west of anybody and everybody that still it has to stay within the same state for the actual payments.

So looking at the limitations of that insurance model and what that basically blocks you from doing now that it’s the goal of moving away from that, what are the action steps that you’re taking to now build, let’s say your own, your own entire self-standing practice? Well, the actions are not, Unlike actions that I have taken before to build and bring on coaching clients.

However, right now it’s working. Mm-hmm. and what I think has changed is I love that is my confidence. Yeah, so I’ve taken on two new coaching clients in the last week. They have prepaid me for three month packages, and it’s just a matter of changing my confidence. They are still looking up counselors in my area.

And what’s opened up is a conversation. First of all, I’m following your velvet rope strategy, and they’re going to my website, and then they’re asking questions like, What is the difference between coaching and counseling? What is the difference? If I want to do hypnosis, I’m like, Yeah. I’m like, Here it is.

And then they decide, Oh, that sounds like the best fit. I don’t give them the option of coming in as a counseling client any longer. Yes. And part of that is the confidence that I’ve built in. Your training, and I mean business training as well as hypnosis training. It’s also the fact of the confidence of having a six-figure business, of having 30 clients a week.

That’s actually more than I want to be working with. Mm-hmm. . So if I’m gonna change that, I need to. Charge greater prices so that, you know, it becomes that smaller funnel, which thank you for that. And what I, what I love about that though is that it reiterates two points that I’ve been making for years, that, you know, the quality of our income is directly proportionate to the quality of the service, the quality of the onboarding experience.

So the pathway into the business where you talked about velvet rope, which I teach, but then also the confidence of the person asking for the. And that is, we are congruent with that messaging, and we know that’s what we’re worth. You know, I, I’ve made a similar change recently in the last year too, to go, you know, well, a friend of mine says, Is it a matter of changing the number of hours or changing your clientele?

I’ve made a very clear shift in terms of what I need to be doing to draw in the ideal clientele that I wanted to bring in. But, uh, what would you say really helped to boost that confidence then of recognizing that worth and recognizing that? The second point of that though was that, You know, comfort can be the biggest danger to someone’s business, Right?

That it would’ve been so easy to go, You know what, I’m seeing 30 people a week. It’s clearly working and let me just keep this up. But there was a drive, there was this transition to go, I can do it differently now. Well, and the true, when you say drive, it’s the desire to work from anywhere. Yes. To have the freedom to do exactly what I want, Choosing.

I mean, I have been for quite some time choosing the clients that I wanna work with. Having fun at doing what? Yeah, I do for what I call it work, but it’s so easy and it’s so delightful that it’s hard to call it work sometimes. Nice. Is there, is there a story that stands out of, you know, a specific experience, let’s say, with a client that really emulates, you know, what that drive is to work with this popul?

Yes, I think so. And she’s given me a, a video testimonial on my website, so I’m not concerned about really featuring her. Mm-hmm. , But she came to me again, one of these people that’s so talented and as a singer songwriter, she’s produced five albums. . And I remember the time that she gave me one album the first time she gave me an album, a cd, right?

Uh, let’s catch up Nancy with the 21st Century . Um, and I put it in my car. I went somewhere. I stopped. I. Did some shopping. I got back in the car, I drove away. I thought that I was listening to the radio. When I realized that the next song sounded just like the one that played before , and I was listening to her CD and just incredible.

This gal was working as a high level executive in the nursing home industry and with Covid, if you can imagine her territory. Was New York City. Yeah. And Long Island, New York. Mm-hmm. . And, you know, I, I just had so much joy doing what I do and helping her with her nervous system, literally through hypnosis and through visualization and affirmation and, you know, Our work is why I choose that example is that not only is she making beautiful music, right, and her guitar was leaning against the wall when we started working together, and not only is she making beautiful music again and working on a another cd, another collection of recordings, it’s that she’s enjoying life so much more fully.

And the relationships in her life. And it really brings together how I work as a coach with the hypnotic skills, many of which I realized that I’d been using already. Maybe not in exactly the same format, but all of the visualization and the stress management tools that I’ve been working with for decades just all come into play with coaching someone.

As a counselor and I almost said former counselor, so it’s very exciting. . It’s working. , my own hypnosis of me. What? What I love about that is that highlights one of my favorite things about teaching hypnosis, which is that people go, Oh, I’ve already been doing this. Now I get to do it on purpose. Yeah.

where can people track you down? How can they best? At my website is nancy dare.com, so they just have to remember that I’m a little bit different. And spell my name Nancy, with an I. Nice, nice. And any final thoughts for the listeners out there? I really want people to take away from this episode the idea that you are in charge.

Mm-hmm. not only in control, but in charge of crafting the life that you want. It is your canvas. And you paint on it the life that you wanna live. Jason Lynette here once again, and as always, thank you so much for subscribing to the program, for leaving your reviews online and letting this be a part of the ongoing professional dialogue in our community.

If you head over to the show [email protected], that’s where you can see exactly how to get in contact with Nancy and possibly. Work with her or learn from her along the way. And while you’re there too, check out work Smart hypnosis live.com. The next event is kicking off December 1st, both live and online.

It’s a hybrid training where you’re interacting with the educational materials in advance and then joining together for the live real time online components to further sharpen those skills. This is a training. That has launched professionals in our age of seeing clients online. It kind of makes sense to advance your training in an online format as well, and build a network with practitioners all around the world.

And as a bonus, I’m sharing the stage in this next event with Dr. Richard non guard. So check it out. Join us now. Secure your spot at Work Smart Hypnosis. Dot com. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.