Session #399: Ongoing Hypnosis Clients

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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 399. Ongoing hypnosis clients. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast with Jason Linett, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business success. Here’s your host, Jason Linett. Welcome back to the program. And this week’s episode was inspired by a conversation that.

Over inside of our free online work, Smartt Hypnosis Community, which if you’re not yet a member of that, head over to the show notes of this [email protected] and you’ll see exactly how to join that. And the conversation is one that’s actually popped up many times over in various classes that I’ve taught, conversations I’ve been a part of at various conventions.

Pretty certain this topic has also popped up in that free community as well, which basically is, does anyone have a strategy for hypnosis clients that want something to be a little bit more ongoing? And inside of this week’s episode, I’m gonna share with you some specific thoughts about how to do it, how not to do it, how to have a rigid protocol for it, and perhaps when to be completely flexible on it.

We’re gonna spend maybe about, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. On this topic because my whole idea here is to give you some of the strategies that I’ve found to be effective, some of the ones that I’ve found to not quite work. And this way you can make the best decisions for yourself if having a successful hypnosis business is your goal.

What I would recommend is right now head over to hypnotic business systems.com. This program is the all Access training to my Hypnosis business training library, and the benefit for. is that over the years, this program has improved in a rather interesting way. It used to be, tell you what to do. Then it became, show you how to do it.

And since I closed the business that ran for a dozen years in Virginia and migrated everything that I now do online, which we cover both online and in person inside of hypnotic business systems, well the benefit for you is that I was able to pull the actual strategies and working campaigns that were keeping that business running so strong.

And turn them into Done For You marketing material inside of the Hypnotic Business Systems program. As we like to say, guessing sucks, model what actually works. Check that out. Watch the full tour, and join [email protected]. And with that, let’s dive directly into this week’s episode. Here we go.

Session number 390. Ongoing hypnosis clients.

So now let’s talk about ongoing hypnosis clients, and let me give you the roadmap of what I’m about to share with you as is my style. Sometimes here I’ve got six words in front of me, and here’s sort of my checklist of what I’m about to talk about, and only six words. Brief ego overload, extend. options.

Flexible, and I’ll break this all down based on these six words because let’s kick off with brief. I am somebody who is of the firm opinion. that hypnosis is a brief intervention process, which then activates a change. So take note before anybody goes off the rails here. Then now makes the assumption based on this episode that, oh, you’re hooking them in for life and telling them they have to become lifelong dependence of yours.

Um, no. The majority of people who I’ve worked with over the years, we’ve met a few times. And that’s it. Yet, as we have that momentum already in process, clearly there’s sometimes that there’s a benefit of continuing on. So that’s brief. Let’s now talk about the second word. Ego because you’re gonna hear a ton of egotistical opinions about this topic.

And I mean that honestly in both directions. There are some who won’t take on a client unless it becomes a six or 12 month commitment, and sometimes that is like trying to do a full root canal when all someone needs is a tooth. . You know, sometimes the issue is just a simple issue, and I’d also be the one to point out that we don’t always have to go in this direction of the entire backstory.

You know, it’s where you could have had the most difficult upbringing. and that can still be a factor in your life. Yet that can detach from the reasons why you have fill in the blank. Unwanted habit, the same way into the problem can often become the same way out of the problem. And this is where if you need help thinking of hypnosis and that perspective, check out hypnotic workers.com.

So with ego, there are some. Want to get paid for a but ton of sessions, which is a specific metric number, I believe. Uh, and there’s some who are of the ego that if you can’t get the result in one session, you’re doing something wrong. As someone who has seen thousands of clients and interacts with. , all of this community.

I would say that you’re gonna hear two extremes of perspectives. Both of them are tainted with a ton of ego and realize that you always have the opportunity to make the best decisions for yourself. Again, my opinion in most cases here, the modifying word, in most cases, we begin with a brief process. If that’s all we need, fantastic.

If there’s value and additional work, that’s always an option. And I say this because this is where. Comes into play here because if you’re trying to really enforce the, this is the only way, it’s really not quite working in a client centered approach, and to kick this episode off properly, let me also just mention that again, I’ve got people who I’ve seen three or four times, maybe even once, and they’re raving fans.

I also have people that I might have seen over the years, 20 plus times. And let’s be clear, it’s not one of these days it’s gonna work. Keep coming back. We’ll try it again. No, it’s that there is a benefit of continuing the story and by letting go of the old problem, it activated a new pathway moving forward.

And they saw. Having me on their side was a faster way to keep that consistency going. So again, I’m always looking for ways to build independence within my clients, and I can honestly probably count over these years since I started seeing clients in the early two thousands. I mean, there’s probably less than 30.

people. That really became an ongoing sort of a, uh, relationship type thing over time. So from brief to ego, let’s now talk about overload because my whole goal of this week’s episode is better options, better strategies, better awareness that this is a direction that you could go. Here’s what I don’t recommend.

Well, I tell you what, we could work together just once, and that would be this price. We could work together four times and that would be this price, although some people feel they need more support. And we could do 12 sessions, and that would be that price. Or if you wanna see me every other week for the next year, that’s 26 appointments.

And for that it would be this price. What do you wanna do? And this person doesn’t yet know what the process is, and it’s not the criteria that they’re making their decisions based. . Yeah. So that’s what I mean by overload. I’ve gotta say, if I can step up on a soapbox here, the firm opinion I am gonna plant is start with brief.

Because if that’s all that needs to be there, and brief could be as many as you know, rough numbers, five, six, even 10, uh, but start with the idea of it’s a brief journey because if you’re trying to give all these options at the. You’ve got someone who is not yet qualified to make the best decision for themselves or isn’t yet thinking in terms of what’s the next step of this, which brings to point number four, extent.

This officially is my opinion on this. If I can really, again, plant a flag on this one, that if it is gonna become an ongoing kind of relationship, something. Uh, and here’s a mixture of different things that have happened over the years. This is a preview of flexible. Uh, here’s the person who just based on their schedule said, I want to pay you this much a month, and, uh, we’ll just have the agreement that I’ll have access to your calendar and I’ll schedule it about a week in advance, which with the military background that he had, that was the viable way to do it.

Here’s the person who knew the exact time, uh, first Wednesday of the month, this specific time. Let me just get on your calendar automatically for that and just, I’m gonna own that. And we created an option that if you ever needed to schedule it or move it around, that was always the option. But the key here is the word extend, point number four here.

It’s that I’m looking for that place toward the end of the brief series that we’ve established to, let’s say, kickstart the working relationship to. in most cases in your opinion, may be different. I kind of want it to be something that’s a bit more organic. I don’t want it to naturally be the default because there are certain ways of telling the story of change that it’s the, I went through this brief thing and now it’s done and I kind of want them to have that story.

It’s where if I see that there’s a benefit of extending the work, and some of you have heard me teach this specific strategy before. . You know what? It’s amazing how in the short amount of time you’ve been able to this result, that result and that result. Do you mind if I share a quick thought though?

Okay. It’s that you keep also mentioning other thing and because other things seems to be an issue, you’ve got some options here. Option one is that I taught you that self-hypnosis strategy and you can now start to apply that self-hypnosis method Specific to that other thing that you’ve brought up several times.

Or, you know what? We know how to work with each other. And I’m looking at my calendar right now. It’s Thursday at two o’clock is when we’ve been meeting. Uh, tell you what, I could schedule you again like three weeks from now. Same time on the Thursday this date. Would that be a match? Okay. And, and let’s do this.

What we’ll do is we’ll schedule that now, and if you get to that point and you see that you still need some support with, uh, that specific. , you’re already on the calendar and my schedule usually fills up a bit in advance. Or option two, you know, between now and then. If you make use of the self-hypnosis and you resolve that issue on your own, you know, just gimme like 48 hours notice.

Go in, cancel that appointment. Give me an update because I’d love to hear what you’ve done on your own. You know, if we need it, we’ve got it. If you take care of it on your own, we’ll just clear it away. No problem. Just, you know, gimme the two days notice. Sound good? And. being the person who tries to avoid the two bold statement.

Uh, that is a strategy that I have done hundreds of times over the years, and I could probably count on one hand the number of times the person actually ended up canceling that appointment. Why? Because there was this awareness that, hey, here’s this other part of this that could also use some benefit. to be transparent, I created a roadmap where they could then take care of that on their own.

But if there was additional need for support, Hey, I’m here. We know how to work with each other. And again, it was so rare that someone would then cancel that appointment. Now this is where, and that’s my go-to strategy for extending, if there’s ever a value of doing that. And uh, for those of you that have gone through trainings with.

insight and also have access to hypnotic business systems. My client forms, uh, that I use with my clients very clearly spell out, you know, here’s the initial investment and then here’s what it looks like to then continue onward. Which brings us to point number five. Options. Options. I tend to be someone who, let’s go Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, nlp, hypnotic language patterns, whatever place you wanna give credit to this, a bit of a listing pattern.

which would be, and let’s just use rough numbers here as I actually open up my phone so I don’t screw these numbers up as I say them out loud. Uh, and I’ll give you an idea as to the style of what I’ve found to be effective, not just in my business over the years. The numbers may be different now, but also this is something that I’ve shared with many others too, and they’ve tested as well.

Let’s assume for a moment, just for the ease of round numbers that, uh, an initial. Series of appointments with a client was 650. Hey, we start with a plan of three sessions. If that’s all we need, fantastic. If there’s value and more, that’s always an option. My goal is always to give you the most effective process in the most efficient use of your time.

And, uh, for that program of three sessions, that’s 650. and then what I would have if you divide it out that roughly comes to like 217 per session is, and I don’t make this a thing even in the initial call. Again, don’t overload. People sell the initial step first. What it becomes is in my office forms, it says, and those of you who have hypnotic business systems, see this inside of the paperless forms section of that training program is that I would have two options mentioned inside of my.

And as an example of this, this is not a hard rule, but here’s a rough example of what it could be, is that additional sessions, if they decide to continue on, are available at a reduced price of 200 per session, or most people would prepay an additional three for just five. and it becomes a slightly reduced rate because here’s the amount of effort it takes at the beginning, and then there’s a slightly more incentivized option, and I would rather collect the five than the two.

And that’s like the only bit of persuasion that’s part of the strategy, which then becomes options. Do you want to just do the one or the prepay of another three? And again, majority of the time they pick the different options there. . What I would suggest though, quick side note would be that if you ever make the process about the money, the entire process becomes about the money.

And it’s just, those are your options, you know, and that’s only a suggestion, that’s only a recommendation. You can modify that in the ways that you like. Uh, but I tend to like having, here’s the initial program and then here’s what it would be for one more, or here’s what it would be for two or three perhaps.

When I say flexible though is the final point here. We could also trade out the word flexible, perhaps for the word organic, because after the first extension, that’s where we’re gonna kind of get the idea, is if this is gonna become a bit of an ongoing thing to which in that situation, I don’t tend to be someone that will get into haggling, especially for client sessions yet.

Um, the value of asking a question. to get the thinking going in a new direction. Hey, you know what? It seems like this is, you know, clearly really helping you, and would something a bit more ongoing be a benefit? And that’s a question I’ve only had to very rarely ask when it was the right situation to do some sort of long-term extension.

Because again, continuing on being a resource along this journey in a hypnotic and coaching context. Uh, that’s where just become a matter of, let’s figure this out. And I will tell you, this is a personal opinion. Your mileage may vary. Whenever I tried to make this into a more formal thing, it didn’t quite bring in the clients that I wanted it to keep around.

When I let it instead organically sort of develop into something that would happen on its own, it’s where it was. A gorgeous situation and we were both looking forward to that session where perhaps, you know what, here’s what the rate typically is for like the three, and it seems we’re kind of meeting every month anyway.

Uh, would you be interested in kind of looking at what an option would be? Just a, you know, make a single payment or maybe two monthly chunks and have something with me like every other. This year or every month this year, what would work best for you? And again, if there’s one takeaway from this episode, let it be that question of what would work best for you.

And again, to recap, I really share this because if it was ever this bigger, ongoing annual program and the person wasn’t yet, let’s say in rapport fully with me, with hypnosis, or even the revelation that we probably didn’t need that much work. This is where, again, to walk through this, start with something that’s brief.

Don’t let your, or especially more so other people’s egos get in the way of both you and your client’s success. Do not overload people with way too many options before they’re qualified to make a. , and again, go back and rewind it. You’ve got my exact language that I’ve tested and proven not just in my business, but in many other hypnotic businesses around the world of how to extend the process.

I am a fan of that slightly, not significantly, but slightly reduced thing that then shows up with some options. And again, the biggest recommendation, be flexible because if I’m going into every client session with this expectation that now I need to upsell them into something. It was not the right strategy.

It was also not keeping around the people that really were a fit for this kind of work, in my honest opinion. Instead, let it be flexibly organic. And that’s my strategy for ongoing hypnosis clients.

Jason Lenette here once again, and as always, thank you so much for interacting with this program, leaving your reviews online, and sharing it in your ongoing conversations inside of our hypnotic industry. You can check out all the details and show [email protected] and for more like this, if you want to build a successful, thriving hypnotic.

Check out hypnotic business systems.com. There’s a full tour on that page showing you the inside of exactly what roadmaps you can use to build your own thriving hypnotic business. And if I can point out my favorite part of this hypnotic business systems.com page, it’s the fact that like 90% of that webpage.

Are other hypnotists around the world, some of them faces that you might recognize talking about the success that they’ve had with this program? Check it out. Join today, hypnotic business systems.com. Thanks for listening to the Work Smartt Hypnosis podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.