Session #33: Getting Started with Racquel Knight

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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 33. Getting started with R Hell Night. 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, and I hope your new year is going just as well as mine is.

This is session number three, a conversation with Ra Hill Night. Now, chances are most of you are not aware of Ra Hill, but I’m actually very well aware of her as she actually took my certification class going on about a year and a half ago. And specifically, I wanted to have this conversation with Raquel and share it with the listeners of this program just because I know that many of you.

There are not yet full-time working pros and specifically to hear the journey that Raquel has been on in terms of launching her business, in terms of getting some just absolutely wonderful media coverage and just getting a lot of respect in her local community at a rapid, rapid pace. I mean, the phone is ringing.

She’s got a great office space, uh, wonderful coverage in the Baltimore Sun in the area where she’s located, and I think that’s Phenomen. And it all comes down to one simple concept. Taking action. Taking action. Her website is hypnosis columbia.com. I’ll link to that into the show notes. Let’s jump right in.

Session number 33. Getting started with Raquel night.

What was your first introduction to hypnosis? Oh my goodness. You know, my memory, um, takes me. To a time when my brother and I were playing and I think we were playing with , with uh, something hanging. It might have been a watch, something so that we were pretending to hypnotize each other and look into my eyes or look, you know, watch the watch

And that’s my very first memory of us just as kids playing around. And I don’t remember, recall how old I was. I wanna say anywhere between eight and 12 . I don’t think we took it very seriously. We just thought it was. And then, um, as I got older, um, I was always interested in the mind and, and how it works.

And discovered, actually had my own hy the therapy hit. She called herself a hit therapist session, uh, about four years ago. And I was again intrigued by how the process was very effective. Well, I, that was my first experience with it, and I was just so happy at how effective it was for my goals at that time.

And you had a couple of interesting goals. I think one of them was a fear of heights, Correct. Or fear of flying, or No, it was specifically, Uh, yeah. You mean? Oh yeah. I went, I went, um, my, one of my experiences was public speak. Uh, I was giving speeches. I had a big one, and I, and I knew the information. I just didn’t wanna get up there and, and have, Tongue stick to the top of my mouth or something,

And so I did it, did it for public speaking and I also did it for bucket list jumping out of an airplane. And so two items of fear . So, and they were, it worked fabulously and, And I was convinced. Yeah, yeah. Now you got into this from an entirely different career before. What is it that you were doing before?

What you’re doing? Ooh, what was I doing before? Well, I did a lot of government, um, translations and analysis of information. Essentially, I was a government for the linguist for the government. Had a 20 year career in the Air Force, and then, uh, I was just a contractor or contractor rather for a, um, agency.

Local agencies for another almost seven years. So a year and a half ago is when I, they decided to, to do a lot of cutting back and wiped out half of my contract and, and I, without a job at that time. So I went from having a lifetime of a government military type background to having time on my hands and essentially without work and.

Inventory. What did I really like to do and what can I do and what do I wanna do? And I would’ve never guessed, and I would be a consulting hypnotist 15 years ago or 10 years ago, but I realized that this was something that I could do. I thought about I, well, I actually returned the school eventually for coaching and then return also, uh, re-enrolled in my master’s program at Loyola for, um, counseling.

And I really found that all those were great areas and I’m learning. I learned a lot. I really like the coaching one on one. I have experience with that years of helping people in health, uh, groups, uh, group work, self-help groups, and I’ve created a couple of my own. And so I, I like the one on one work and watching people transform and helping them solve problems and feel better about themselves.

And it just said, notes has made. And once I started throwing myself into it, I found like, um, even to, to this day, I can’t seem to take my mind off of it. , and, and it’s my passion, , it’s come to be where, what started off seem to be a survival, a place for survival. Um, I needed a position, I needed a job, and I knew, knew I could be good at it, to focusing more on the client and, and helping people.

Solve problems and feel better again. I don’t know if that’s answered your question. Yeah, absolutely. And I asked question . You did fantastic. Fantastic. And what’s interesting is the pace at which you’ve now jumped into all this, and that’s specifically why I wanted to have this chat with here over the phone, uh, that to jump into it.

And in the course of really at this point, just a little over a year, you’ve moved into your own space. You’ve got, uh, an amazing coverage in a local paper. So let me ask you from the bigger perspective first. Mm-hmm. , what do you feel is the one thing that you’ve done right. In terms of jumping in and making this happen for yourself?

Yeah, that’s a really good question, Jason. The one thing I feel I’ve done right is, um, I’ve had a vision and I’ve stuck towards that vision and that sounds kind of, that just came out on my mouth that it wasn’t really preparing for that , but part of it is really. What is focusing on what I can do and, and focusing on making it happen and allowing myself to make mistakes and, and not focusing on the mistakes and learning from them and getting up and just continuing on and knowing I have an awesome network.

Is not quite the word aligns with a lot of different people in the area. Yes. Given 100% and more, I mean, I, I don’t have any excuses. I’m not allowing myself to have excuse. I guess that’s, and that’s, that’s one of those things that as I, as I talk to others there, there’s different ways we get into this.

And admittedly, you began in a temporary space, correct? Correct. Yes. Tell us about that. That was like a wellness center? It was a wellness center. It was, it was a nice, um, it was a doctor’s office. It was a, a holistic doctor’s office. She was wonderful. The office space was geared towards, well, she had her medical practice there, and then there was also, I don’t.

How many holistic practitioners that, uh, several dozen of them that shared spaces there, cuz there were about eight offices there, one, one or two of them for the medical aspect. And the rest of us were considered holistic practitioners in that time. It, I, I liked the fact that it was less than a half mile for my house

So that played why? That really well. Uh, and the space. The space was awesome. It was by the hour. So it was wonderful that, you know, if I only initially, when I started seeing clients, I was only seeing, well, I, I saw my first client, like my first week, and then my second client my second week. And I’m bragging, of course, , cause I can

Um, no, I’m not really bragging, it’s just how it happened. So I immediately, that was really the best place for me because I, I could, Grow into my goals and my goals were to, to see, have a full load of clients and, um, help as many people as I can. And what started off as maybe five hours a month. Eventually I, by I guess about June of last year, I was in, my rent was getting up too, about as much as I would probably pay.

In, uh, having my own place. So that was a, that was a turning point for me. And I didn’t know, you know, if I was gonna continue to have, uh, as many clients and as I had in, was it June, Around June time. But I took the funds and I, and I remember a couple of things that you actually said in, in the past and, and other people said, So I, I maybe shouldn’t really say plunge.

It’s a wrong, it’s a wrong metaphor. But at the same time, it felt like it because it was a, felt like. Fearful yet fearless thing, to do my fine. You’re right. Cuz that that moment of looking at a temporary space that suddenly you were paying on a temporary basis, if I’m remembering right, and to discover as you just said, that that rent could also be going somewhere else to then have the space all the time.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And I was deciding. And I wanted, I wanted a space that I could decorate my own, you know, make it, um, more geared towards my client and the space that I was sharing didn’t have that aspect to it. It was, uh, I didn’t have the furniture I needed, et cetera. So I need, I really wanted a space that I could gear towards my clients, and it played out very, very well when I, um, I moved into my place in downtown Columbia in August.

And I realized everybody was gonna be, well. A lot of people were out on vacation, so I was like a deer in headlights when it, it just for a little while when I realized, What the heck, what am I doing? And then I realized, okay, well this just means I gotta get to work here. I gotta get to work there. And mm-hmm.

um, take a, take a breather. It’s all gonna work out. And, and that’s one of my attitudes too, is that it is all gonna work out. And, and that sounds kind of like trivial, trite, People say that all the time, but that was essential for me to realize that just focus on doing the next right thing for my, my business and for my client.

And it will, and it has. Um, what’s that phrase? I mean, we can get into whole law of attraction. Law of abundance thing. Simple, Simple common sense to say the phone isn’t ringing right now. What can I be doing to make the phone ring? Right, exactly. Oh, and then that’s when I realized, you know what? I’m right next.

Sitting right next door, situated right next door to the Chamber of Commerce. And that’s when I, um, once things, once the office got in place and, and I was comfortable and I, I wasn’t seeing clients that just wasn’t seeing as many clients my first month that after I moved in, I reached out to the Chamber of Commerce.

I mean, I drove by their building every morning and I had no excuse and I found out that , this was something that I was gonna work for me, was gonna, uh, was gonna play out very well. So then I had my, um, one thing that I did do that I think played out very well for the business and as well for my clients, is I did join the Chamber of Commerce and then, and consequently they gave me all the, the addresses of all the local media, even beyond this local area.

And I shot out press releases and it, and invitations to my grand opening relocation ceremony. So one thing I did do that I think was really I laugh at now is, or smile at, is that I sent out a personal letter towards the end when I wasn’t getting very, when I received just a, a smaller response than I had anticipated from the media in the.

Because I shot out, you know, I sent it to about, you know, six or 70 different individuals or maybe even more, or, you know, uh, outlets. I sent a little blurb about myself just in the email, and that’s when I think. Once I did that, instead of it being standard, you know, media press release and being sort of, I don’t know, medicinal or maybe not as personal.

So yeah, when I sent out the personal email, said, Hey guys, just, I’m gonna tell you a little bit about myself. I’m a tiny brief paragraph biography about myself, how I took the leap from being a, a linguist for the, for the military and the government, and then linguist, analyst, and then a hypnotist. Now I’m helping people do this, blah, blah, blah.

And, and I remember I was snuggling when I did it. I said, Oh, and it’s a typical Phoenix story, . And I laughed because for some reason, shortly thereafter after I sent. One email within. A couple of hours. I got a response from the individual that did the interview. Um, Nice. A young man, uh, reporter, I say he is young man.

Anyone under the 30 to me is young . And when he, we did, we did the article, um, he was awesome and he, he was a truly a part of the huge transition I think for people in Columbia learning and knowing that there’s an option out, out there to help them to, uh, make changes in their. And just to clarify, we’re talking the Baltimore Sun here, correct?

They’re talking the Baltimore Sun. Yeah, yeah. Which is the major newspaper in your area. Yeah, it is. Absolutely. Yeah. So not to, Not to downplay it. I mean, this is the big get. This is the big thing. And specifically, just to reiterate the story, would you say it was a difficult strategy or just choosing to sit down and finally do the strategy that made it happen?

The strategy for the newspaper? Yes. Well, you know, it was, it was a strategy. It was a simple strategy. It was a strategy that was a part of the package. Actually, sometimes things are said to me. Mm-hmm. and the Chamber of Commerce had a nice, wonderful package that they provided a checklist and said, Here’s what we recommend that you do.

And one of ’em was, Send out a press release to all these agencies and individuals who we know we’ve worked with in the past who handle the media and aspect of, you know, these ribbon cuttings. And so that’s what I did. I followed that and then I also threw in my, I feel that at the time I was through in my own personal touch, which, you know, sometimes when we get in my past, in my experience, I, I’ll tend to want.

Get something done and do it right and I’ll, I’ll leave out the personal touches. I think that personal touch, yes, it was important. And did it come easy? I think so. It sort of fell in, kind of fell into place, I mean, Yeah, I, I knew that the strategy was, one of ’em was talk, you know, not only do I talk to the different big, you know, networking organizations like bni, but I contact the Chamber of Commerce and that was just a strategy that I finally, Put into place when I decided to do that.

And then they, they decided to do the article when the reporter from the Baltimore Sun decided to do the article. There. It was a combination of simple, just taking action and, um, I guess, uh, Ki I don’t know. I’m just, I maybe, you know what I mean? No, that’s great. That’s great. No, cuz I chair, uh, I’ll leave out the name, but a mutual friend and I were trading, uh, emails just this morning.

Mm-hmm. . And it just came down to he sends out a regular newsletter and reformatted that newsletter in a way that it no longer looks like a newsletter. It now looks like a personal email. Uhhuh . By doing that, discovering that the people opening it up jumped up exponentially by doing that, to which still the little side note was he was still starting off his email with a little graphic.

Mm-hmm. , which then when you look at it on the display of like a smartphone, it showed a bunch of HTML code as what the first sentence was. And then I was sharing the trick of. Like any good press release, uh, is kind of how you write an email that the headline should grab their attention. The first sentence should grab their attention.

Mm-hmm. and that way that first sentence of text shows up in the actual email display. Right. And it’s specifically what you just said, that personal touch that it, it’s kind of a funny thing that even if we want to talk advertising for. You know, some of the big three of the smoking, the stress, the weight loss, we’re kind of conditioned to see a whole bunch of that stuff and just ignore it.

Mm-hmm. , we have DVRs where we flip through commercials, we watch a video online, and here’s the advertisement. We’re just waiting for that five second countdown to click past the ad without even considering what the ad is and when something suddenly shows up, which is exactly what you did. Which is personal, which is, Hey, this is who I am, this is what I do.

That’s as you found, that’s where you get the best response. Well, it was definitely, um, Uh, something that I, I said, well, it was part strategic because it’s like, okay, well they’re not responding to this, so lemme throw little bit . Okay? I’m gonna tell you a little bit about myself, you know, a little bit more in a personal, in in the actual text of my, instead of them receiving just a press release, which is kind of, and really.

Maybe not that big of a deal. And, and part of me, I, I’m serious, Jason, and I was typing this up and going, Oh, laughing, chuckling. Because even though I think it is, you know, in my mind I, it’s, uh, I recovered it. It felt like a huge, you know, losing your job after being employed in one, one perfection for almost 30 years.

It felt like a huge, huge, um, letdown at. Anybody can relate to that. Well, most people can. I can’t assume everybody can’t. So the fact that I was transitioning in up and, and, and, and I was going up, up, up, and I just like, I’m gonna just tell them it’s a typical Phoenix story. And part of me was really, um, you know, reaching.

And then the other part was, you know what, maybe this is really how we’re gonna get the information out there and do what I can. I don’t know if that’s, you know, that that was the appeal, but it seemed to be, you know, What made the difference? Well, it’s that personal touch as opposed to just this person in this role, which is how even the headline of it is bringing your language background into this career.

Yeah. And he brought that to my attention. There is a huge link there really is. I, I’m still discovering it how, you know, I was been interested in linguistics. I was gonna be a major in linguistics and college when, you know, centuries. Well, you know, when I was a kid and, and I just got put off by the fact that it didn’t seem to be what my parents wanted.

It didn’t seem to be what, to make a way to make money. But the linguistics aspect, and I’m, I’m really starting to take off into the neurolinguistic area too. At least my, my drive and my passion is, Pulling me that way. So the linguistic aspect is, is still very interesting to me. So the article itself has, did propel me into, well, contributed to my moving towards that, discovering more about, you know, myself and the linguistic aspect of the, uh, fyp, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s that aspect of just modeling what you were already doing and going, Oh, that’s, that’s how it’s. Yeah. Yeah. I, I don’t know. I’m, as soon as I think I have it figured out, , something else comes along and, and pulls me in, in, in a direction of trying to figure that part out. . Yeah. So let me ask you this, Uh, of the clients you’re seeing these days, what do you tend to be working with the most?

Well, I’m gonna say, I would say weight reduction, but I would say weight reduction with a lot of self-worth issues. Yes. Got it. And how are most of these people finding you at this point? How are most of these people finding me? They like me. . There you go, . I mean, how are they discovering that your business exists?

Let me, I’m sorry, what you were saying, Um, sort of my, my brain went to one thing first. You know what? I think most of ’em are finding me out the, the internet and some of ’em are still finding me out. I still have a string in print. Mm-hmm. DWA Magazine I used to utilize until they went out of business.

And that all, it’s amazing. Like the hard copies are not in vogue so much anymore. But, um, that was one aspect that. Primarily the internet, my website. Yes. And just to be blunt, it’s a, uh, GoDaddy website on the GoDaddy hosting, Right. Um, it’s GoDaddy and it’s, um, we. . Okay. Oh yeah, that’s right. You’ve updated it since then.

Got it open here. Very nice. And let’s kind of wrap things up, perhaps. I know you’ve had some really interesting client stories, uh, since jumping into this. Uh, just, you know, in the ways that we can make the story appropriate to share without giving too much away mm-hmm. , uh, what would you say have been one of those triumphs that you’ve had so far that’s just really encouraged you to, to keep going?

Well, a number of things come to mind. I keep going back to my first or second client. I can’t remember if she was my first one, I guess if I pulled the information, if I’d figure it out. But first, second client, first couple weeks of, of training, I had been to your training, um, graduated and I think I saw her within the first week.

And I saw her for, um, what she said was a snake phobia. And I saw her for two sessions and. I was terrified, . I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but I, I knew enough that I was confident that I was gonna help. Probably and, and I, and the words of mentors and instructors repeatedly came to my mind that you can do this, you can do this.

And sure enough, after two sessions, I actually, um, had learned age regression before I actually became certified hypnotist. So, um, I, I did an affect bridge with her for the feelings and, um, reworks, her internalization of messages she received is, uh, but appeared to be at a time in. Her mom was afraid of snakes and cetera.

Anyway, so long story short that to this day, she, uh, she had identified at that point as had me in a phobia of snakes having anxiety. And I recently touched base with her and she has a snake at home now, . Wow. And she, um, she go into pet stores and she’s breathing easier and she’s enjoying her life. And that’s where my mind goes.

And I saw, like I said, for two sessions, I don’t really see too many clients for two sessions anymore. And that to me, I, it just, it just warms my heart that you know that this woman, that I helped this woman to change her life. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.

Hey, it’s Jason Lenette here, and just one more quick thing. Have you ever heard the phrase, I felt relaxed, but I don’t know if I was hypnotized? Well, if you’ve heard that statement before, what it basically means is that one of the most important ingredients of your hypnotic session or demonstration simply wasn’t there.

If your participant or your client leaves without the conviction and belief that they really experienced a state of hypnosis, one of the most important and essential ingredients again, just wasn’t there. And what I’ve done for you is I’ve put together some real world tested strategies, powerful proven strategies, things that I make use of before, during, and after my hypnosis sessions that help me to build greater conviction.

Increase the belief in the process and by accident, turn my clients into raving fans of their experience. It’s all put together for you in a program I call hypnotized with conviction. Several different strategies, again, before, during, and after your session or even demonstration that I know we’re gonna change the way that you do hypnosis.

Whether you’re a hypnotherapist or a stage hypnotist, these techniques are for you. Check it out online today, hypnotize with conviction.com.