Session #41: Joanna Cameron: The Trance Lady

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Get ready to meet the Transla lady. This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 41 with Joanna Cameron. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast with Jason Lynette, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business six. Sets. Here’s your host, Jason Lynette. So have you ever had that experience before that you see somebody and you think you know them and you’re playing the game in your mind of, do I walk over there and perhaps be wrong and look like an idiot?

Or do I go over there and say hello and be right and build a friend? Well, luckily in this situation, the second option is what I took was traveling out to Las Vegas for a training and oddly enough, there on the back of Spirit Airlines don’t fly them. Uh, realizing I’m sitting right behind. Joanna Cameron.

Joanna Cameron. Many of you may know as the transla lady, and oddly enough, it took the two of us who probably live about. I guess 15 miles apart from each other here at Virginia, to have her travel out to Nevada to actually meet each other. The way trainings, the way conventions tend to go. And since then, becoming friends.

Since then connecting. And I think you’re really gonna enjoy some of the insights that Joanne is gonna share here. On the program today specifically, again, the whole concept of taking the accepted format, taking the format that so many of us are trained, and it even ingrained that this is our option and she’s doing incredible work out there in terms of bringing hypnosis to a bigger audience, bringing her skills to, uh, people in such a creative way as well.

Actually, when my students ask me about watching stage hypnosis videos online, I, I point them to, to Joanna’s work, just cuz I think it’s so original. It’s so creative. It’s just simply so funny and so entertaining. She’s got a lot of great training opportunities coming up. I’ll put in the show notes, the link to her website, joanna cameron.com.

In addition to that, I’ll put some YouTube video links as well as, so some really fascinating, uh, opportunities that she’s been creating for herself. So let’s jump right in. This is session number 41 with Joanna Cameron.

I’ve always been a teacher, whether it’s teaching people golf, I’ve just always like to teach. And um, so that is really, I think, what I’m about these days. I mean, some, some of the rest of it is writing. It’s more personal. It’s seeing clients, obviously doing shows, but I’m really interested in, in teaching.

You know, it’s the old adage of you giving a man a fish or teaching a man or a woman how to fish. It’s the same thing. And um, I’m very excited about what’s happening with the enormous expansion of many kinds of spiritual products, including hypnosis. I mean, all of them I believe, are based on energy. But I think at the level of the body, we do a lot of the same things.

We shift the amygdala gland, we, we change the person from one form of functioning to another, but we’re all doing a lot of the same things. But I see it as new learning and that we’ll look back in 200 years and we’ll go, you know, we used to give people pills for anxiety. Can you believe in it? ? You know, I think this, and I think children will be taught in grade school how to meditate.

I think that that is the shift that’s happening. People are realizing that they’re not just human beings and with all the information out there, it’s really rather a stressful world if that’s the way you want to look at it. But when you look upon yourself more as a spiritual being and you can live in the moment, people tend to be much happier and much healthier.

Absolutely, Certainly that is what’s happened to me as over many years, just like yourself. I continue to learn more and more about hypnosis and everything that’s around that, and I am aware of a very large spiritual movement, and I think that you and I are both the same. We are messengers of that and we put out our message in different ways, but that’s what we really do.

So let me kind of kick things off here. What was it that first introduced you to hypnosis? How did you first embark on this journey? Well, it’s interesting question, Jason. You know, our daughter as a fairly young girl, probably seven or eight, was having trouble with test anxiety and I don’t know why, but I told Harvey, uh, husband and I just said, you know, I think she needs to see a hypnotist.

And I don’t really know where that came from, but I, I had the sense that there was something, you know, unconsciously that she needed to deal with. And as little knowledge as I had at that point. It just made sense to me that hypnosis was the way to talk with the unconscious mind. So, you know, one of those amazingly serendipitous occasions happened and I was flying on a plane.

In fact, we all were, we’re going out for our, uh, ski holiday in Utah, and I happened, this was 15, 16, 17 years ago. I happened to be assigned the same. Seat as a Judy Cameron , who was a hip therapist. So we ended up sitting next to each other before I knew it, you know, I had an appointment and so did Chelsea while we were in Utah.

And you know, the results were amazing. It’s like, well, I’m not gonna be, you know, if Chelsea’s gonna be hypnotized, that I’m gonna be hypnotized too in different sessions. And we both had really good outcomes. So that was absolutely pivotal for me. And then I had to find out everything I could about Hyn.

And train with it. And that’s what I did. So that’s really been the beginning for me. And it’s still about, yes, helping people to better their lives and you know, that’s really what I was doing with our daughter. And it’s still really the same thing. Hasn’t really changed. Yeah. Except I, I said I figured out that you can, A lot more people when they’re in groups than one on one is efficient and necessary, but group hypnosis is very, very powerful also.

Yeah. And uh, to even specifically referenced it, you’ve had some interesting stories online of really. And I love this type of thinking that there are certain statements that are folded into our community about that doesn’t work as well, that’s not as powerful. And instead to be asking the questions of how do I make that work better?

How do I make this reach a bigger audience? That you shared a recent story about doing, uh, a fast phobia cure in a group format, which I found to be really. It is really fascinating and I think that when you combine energy from an audience and you have almost a competitive situation, even though people are hypnotized, but it’s the same as.

Bringing people up to make comedy on the stage. There’s an immediacy there and a call to action. In other words, you are one of seven. I’m putting you all over here. You’ve all got your numbers. I’m made a check on you. I don’t really know. Need to know what the phobia is, and they all released. And one of them who had a fear of public speaking, quite one of the most common fears that I come across, you know, she actually came to the stage show and addressed the audience.

You know what I mean? And so there were ways of visibly showing how effective this cure is. And, um, I like you think that the more disassociated we are in, in our ways of doing it, including the fast phobia art model, which I. Pretty well, totally disassociated. In fact, sometimes double dissociated when I’m working with post traumatic stress disorder.

You know, look at yourself in the mirror and then get above your timeline, all this kind of thing. But people can see themselves objectively and in those situations, they learn what they need to learn from the situation, which may be just cycling in their brain, you know, like a dog chasing its tail, but they’re able to break that and move on.

So I think that the fast phobia model, which I teach when I teach stage hypnosis, because we need to have a way of impressing people. We need to have a way of saying, I want to hire him or her. Look at what this person just did. And the fast phobia model is something that’s very easy to do, at least I find it very easy to do, and it’s a very powerful thing to do in a.

I once had a show and it was at down at Norfolk Aquarium. It was sort of like friends of the Aquarium. So I designed a fishy skit. And would you believe that one of these people who was a donator of masses of money, uh, came up to the stage and volunteered, but she also had a fish phobia? That’s interesting.

So I ended up, of course, she had a full ad reaction on stage. I mean, panic, sweating the whole bit. Obviously all eyes were on her. I removed the phobia. There was a restaurant next door. I asked my assistant to go and get me a just a dead fish, . Of course. We then presented this woman on stage with this fish and everybody laughed.

She was fine and it was the highlight of the show. And from then, From that moment a long time ago, I’ve been doing fast phobia on the stage because it’s also very easy. Everybody seems to have a phobia about something or they can find one. It’s easy in a group situation. Anybody got a phobia, You know, it’s easy to set up.

Yeah, and it’s definitely that experience that, I mean, to have these moments on the entertainment side, to have the moments in a stage show that are traditional stage hypnosis, here’s the routine that people are now doing this thing. Here’s the moment of hypnotic phenomenon and something is occurring.

Yet it’s those moments that I’d relate a story of teaching a workshop somewhere, and it was a group of people that hadn’t ever. Experienced hypnotic convincers while they were working as hypnotists. They just hadn’t seen any of that stuff. And that beautiful moment where the room kind of goes quiet in that, okay, this is real type moment.

And to give that experience and especially, I love the story of going and getting the fish. Yes. Yeah. So how much of your time these days is spent, let’s say on the stage hypnosis side, how much time is spent teaching, how much time is spent with working with people? How do you, how do you focus your time these.

Well, yeah, as you know, I’ve, I’ve been active and I feel I’m also a pioneer. I’m always, uh, auditioning, I’m always, uh, looking for tv. I’m always looking for outlets and it does take a lot of time to do all of that. Yes. I’ll be honest with you. So I’ve actually. Performed less, but I performed shows that really matter to me.

I, I had a relationship with the Wounded Warriors. I work for the Army. I’m doing less of the kind of travel that I used to do. I’m not going to be doing high school grad nights this year. I have a book, um, in the works and I’d rather spend my time on that and you only have so much time. So for me, actually less shows, less private parties, those kinds of shows.

Yes, I take the higher paying college jobs and the more prestigious jobs, you know, as I move more towards tv. I’m very interested in doing tv. I’m telegenic, I’m a great interview and you know, I found that to be a very good place for me. Well, yeah, it’s the opportunity again to reach a bigger audience as well.

Always. Always. Yeah. Yes. Although I have to say the joy of private therapy, we’ve all had clients who’ve really done well and we, we have helped them and that is enormously rewarding. I’m working now with a challenged team and, um, working with a team of people because, you know, she is suicidal, but at the same time, to be included in that team and to have a relat.

With her and to see her improve is enormously rewarding. Now I share with you one of the reasons I reached out to you to do this was that looking at some of the conversations we’ve had before, I’ve always said that for stage hypnosis, there’s a benefit to the stage hypnosis program that no other form of demonstration entertainment has.

As a benefit, which is that it’s not just the thing you’re doing on the stage, and especially as we work with maybe a college, maybe a school, or maybe a company or whatever the event would be, it begins to build up this expectation of everything leading up to the event. What’s gonna happen this year?

What do you think’s going to occur leading up to after the program where the entertainment continues, cuz they’re then interacting with those volunteers. It’s everything that’s happened afterwards, and as soon as I said that though, I met you and I heard you talk about how your show is not just what’s happening on the stage, that there’s a whole pre-show, there’s often a whole post experience as well.

Tell me about that. Well, as soon as I get to a college, I always obviously go first and check out the site. I need that visualization. Oftenly. I’m performing in theaters that I’ve performed, uh, many times before, but you know, it’s all of that stuff. I like to get there early and then I found that. The people who really want to be hypnotized always arrive first.

Mm-hmm. , it’s just, and they sit right in the front, . So what I do is I’m continuously hypnotizing people as the audience is arriving. So I tell colleges, you know, I may hypnotize over a hundred people. You know, , while I’m. And when I finish a show, I say, hang about, I’m gonna teach you some things. Um, and anybody want to be hypnotized.

And of course, you know, lots of kids come to the stage again. And, um, I’ve just decided rather like Bruce St. Springsteen, you know, if you’re going to do a show, why not perform for three hours if that’s what we once Yeah. I mean, I love nothing more than a. Good audience. I love the relationship with the audience.

I love having that conversation. So yes, my agent tells, Well, John, John will be there and she’ll be working the halls before the curtain goes up, you know? So everybody has a different way of doing it, and for me, it’s a warm up. You know, I’ve put people through the hoops really before the show even begins.

Then the audience is terribly excited when it begin. And they’ve already seen it. And it’s a very powerful thing. It really is. And you wouldn’t believe how quickly you can hypnotize people. At the end of the show, the show’s over and you say, Well, who’s next? You know? And they all come running up there.

It’s just like that. It’s bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, instant inductions. And I show this, that I have films of it where I just line them up or seek them down and I just, Do you like a, just a hand press or a hand pull, you know, all the way down the line because the expectation is so great. At that point, they’re out.

Oh yes, and I love that. I’m excited in fact talking about it. So I do feel we have the opportunity to really help people understand what hypnosis is, and we could entertain at the same time. And it is a foot in the door that is really palpable and it’s really good. And I have a plan right now. I have a new business that I’m open.

It’s called my hypnotic caddy, cuz my other passion in life is golf. And golf is so fascinating because a thought manifests so quickly in golf. In other words, if you are standing and you are looking at the green and there’s water in between, and if you think about the lake, that’s where the shot is gonna go.

Now at the level of hypnosis that you and I deal. Jason, that’s the way thoughts work. So in order to become a really good hypnotist, it is rather like becoming a really good golfer. You have to be fit and you have to work on your own thoughts and your own ability just to use hypnosis and really focus in the moment.

And to really be so happy in that moment that that happiness and that confidence just brings the audience in, and then you have them in the palm of your hand, and then you have that, what I call continual conversation. Because as soon as you become conscious, In other words, as soon as a conscious mind goes, Oh, should what I do, should I do a hand, Paul, what I do?

That fellow over there on the left, as soon as that voice comes in, you’ve actually lost something. Yes. So it’s like, I’m gonna be obviously watching the masters over the next few days. And this zone, this zone that performers get into, that athletes get into fascinates me. So here’s my goal for the. Um, amazingly I play golf as someone who has connections with the lpga, so I’m gonna get my foot in the door and ask to come and entertain, or at least go to professional golf events where I can actually have a little stand, you know what I mean?

I can be there with all in the tents and everything else and be hypnotizing people and. It’s going to be noticed, Jason. Absolutely, Absolutely. It’s going to be noticed, , and of course there’s lots of brass about it’s ideal for you and I. not too much concrete, you know, so that’s my goal. I want to.

Entertain at the lpga and as soon as I entertain them and as soon as I hypnotize you, and I know those gals are going to say, Joanna, can you help me with this swing change that I’m doing? Because you know, if they tell me exactly what they want to do, it’s not that I’m at that level of golf, but I can help them.

Hypnotically , right? Working with a swing coach to visualize. To have the right thoughts so that they can execute. So that’s my goal. And I, you know, I released one video. I opened this new YouTube site called My Hypnotic Caddy, and amazingly I’ve released one video and I have like 400 subscribers. Mm-hmm.

So that is my goal. I wanna go to the golf course and dress up in my, all my natty little golf outfits, , and be with my camera and talk about. Thoughts and how they manifest and how important as an athlete it is to stay actually in the moment and to stay just with your unconscious mind, just connected with your body and to get into the zone.

So that’s what I’m gonna be doing after . No, I, I point out just to really. The best part of this, just to highlight it, so many of us can fall into that pattern of this is the role of the hypnotist in our society. I’m either sitting here one on one with clients. I may be doing this group program somewhere, or I’m on stage doing this program at just this opportunity to look at it from different perspectives to challenge the.

So easy to produce model that’s out there and even to challenge yourself. How I, I’d share the same experience you mentioned a while ago that you’re not doing the grad parties. I just handed a big chunk of that business off to someone else myself. Just the interest of, Well, yeah, but this is what I wanna focus on right now.

Right? This is the project that I’m excited about right now. I, I date things back to when I left my old career and went full time in hypnosis. The phrase was, Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it The rest of your. And that desire to challenge the model, to test new opportunities and just see what works for you and the play of it too.

Well, yeah, and you know, I mean, I could parlay this into something on the golf channel. Absolutely. I mean, I could take 10 golfers and work with them and hypnotize them and do something like, uh, Justin’s doing with the mba. Yes, that is of extreme interest to me cuz it involves both of, you know, two passions of my in life and I’m gonna make it happen.

Nice. Nice. So tell me about some of the trainings you’ve got coming up. Yes. You know, I launched in Rome last year and we just had the most amazing time outside. Also, I like to train people. In the streets as well, and we’ll do that in Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide. So leaving in a week, I have I think 27, 28 people signed up over three trainings, but I’m still receiving signups.

And you know, I’ve just got this fabulous group of enthusiastic people who I cannot wait to meet and for me to go to Australia and then to on top of it, to be in this extraordinary place with this extraordinary culture and animals and it’s so friendly. But on top of that, to be challenging people and to be really helping them to let go of limiting decisions.

Deal with fear and move on. And my feeling about stage training is this, is that we all get to a certain level of thinking. You and I can immediately talk about dissociation and fast phobia models, and for 99% and a half percent of the world, that means nothing. In fact, for 99% of the world, nobody knows what we’re talking.

So you reach the point that it’s like a big pyramid and you get up there and you realize you are talking to maybe, I don’t know, several thousand people in the world. We’re talking to the same people and they’re attracted to you because that’s the law of attraction. You know, thoughts. People get it. I mean, people understand my thoughts and I understand where they’re coming from, but they take a training because they want to move forward and it may not.

Just like when somebody comes to see you as a hypnotherapist, the presenting issue may not be what you are dealing with, but it’s like a table with three legs or four legs. Once you knock one of those legs are off or the whole table falls and people really come and see me. Because they may not know it, but they’re going to let go of those limiting decisions and beliefs and their life may move on in a totally different direction according to the thoughts that they have, both before the training and after the training.

But what I’m really telling them is I’m going to teach you how to experience the zone and how to have that conversation with. A client or with an audience, I’m gonna teach you that. But first of all, you maybe have to let go of some things. So my reading list is extraordinary for , for for a stage hypnotist, it’s Deepak Choppa, the Spiritual Laws of Success.

I want you to read a childhood book that you really enjoyed and the earliest one other words I want you to get in touch with. Within you that are within your body that are your passions and your unique talents, I want you to get in touch with that. And I’m going to help you do that in a group situation and teach you how to hypnotize at the same time.

And, um, that’s what’s happens in my training. That people do let go and then they leave and they get married, or they make amazing decisions in their lives. And I didn’t really realize it until some time ago that I am a teacher. Yes. And I teach the physical skills, obviously the layout, inductions, all of those things.

But it’s more than that. I’m telling people, Listen, if you start thinking the right thoughts, You can really have anything you want in your life, cuz I absolutely believe that perception is projection and you really cannot see in life anything that’s not within you. That’s what we see is what we create and it’s a really difficult NLP concept to get, but if you really get it, there is no fear

Right, Right. So that’s what I teach. In other words, come to me. Yes, I’m a pioneer. I’m always out there doing daring things, but the only way you’re going to learn out there is to do that, is to just, Justin called it Dare to Fail. I don’t like the word fail. I don’t really ever use it, but I like expect to succeed.

But dare greatly, as Theodore Roosevelt said, and I am one that has dared to extreme, uh, greatly over the last six months. So I do think that that’s what it takes. Cuz in golf sometimes, you know, I will just play from the back tees. I play at a course where, you know, it’s not a very long course, it’s of very generous course.

But if I play from the back tees, then when I go to another course and I play from the women’s tees, then I’m not, I. But guess what? When I play a tournament at our course, I go, Wow, I can really take a shorter shot here. So a lot of it is just simply perception and it’s that way with hypnosis. If you don’t really have the confidence, you are going to show that on stage, and you are certainly gonna show that with your client.

You will get much better results when you are really in tune with it. It’s that simple. It’s an energy flow and it’s beautiful to behold. And I’ve learned a great deal really from all of the trainings I’ve taken because of the people I meet and I met you. Let’s face it, we met on an airplane, . It’s that.

So I do think it’s an integral part of becoming better at what we do. I become better when I teach. You know, I learn from everyone I teach, and it’s very exciting to be able to do this. I mean, I’m living a dream right now. I have to pinch myself. I’m leaving for Australia in 10 days and we’ve rented fabulous apartments and where I’m gonna train in and.

We are going to have so much fun. , thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast and work smart hypnosis.com. Hey, it’s Jason Lynette here with one last Quick favor. Just a quick request if you would head over to the iTunes listing for this program and leave a quick review that is the number one way to help us out, that helps to bump up the download, spread the awareness around this program.

Well simply, it just makes me quite happy. So do us a favor, head over there right away. Just go to work smart hypnosis.com. At the very top of the page, click the iTunes button. That’ll take you right there. Leave your review. Thanks so much.