Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.
This is the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast, session number 434. Where have you been? With Dan Candell and Jason Linett. 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. On February 15, 2024, session number 433 of this podcast came out. Appropriately titled Paul Ramsay didn’t die and stage hypnosis reignited. That was at the time of this episode releasing which by the way, happy 4th of July to everybody here in the United States. But then again, it’s still the 4th of July everywhere else as well. But it has officially been 140 days since the last episode of this Work Smart Hypnosis podcast came out. We’ve never taken that kind of a pause before. There’s been the occasional missed week.
We’ve pulled off the occasional encore episode, which is the official behind the scenes of, hey, we didn’t have an episode this week. Let’s just replay an old one. And, well, there’s a conversation that I invited a friend to have, and we decided right away, as I said, do you want to record a conversation that neither of us is ready to have and make it the comeback episode of the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast on Thursday, July 4, 2024? And, well, we’re about to dive into that conversation. The team that edits my podcast, incredible people over there. I’ve told them in advance, crop the beginning, crop the end, remove nothing. So let’s go there. Here we go. This is session number 434. Where have you been? With Dan Candell and Jason Linett. That’s me. So, hey, Dan Candell, where have you been?
Hey, Jason. Linett. I have been up a creek without a paddle, my friend. I have not been. Okay.
I thought I saw you there.
Yeah, I saw you in the deep end. You came with me.
Yeah, pretty much.
Remember that trip?
I do. And just for timestamp here, we’re recording right now. It’s Friday, June 28. This is going to be the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast that comes out. Happy 4th of July, Dan, is it a little too much that we’re talking about this on Independence Day? Too soon? Okay, let’s.
This is the perfect time. Jason.
Let’s dive in. And just for full disclosure, I’m going to put a bit of a quick intro to this week’s episode. The previous episode, oh, wow, this is good. Was the one I did with Paul Ramsay, aptly titled Paul Ramsay didn’t die. And then I disappeared on this podcast for roughly what is it now, about four months, four and a half months, really, at this point. But let’s. Let’s dive in here. How have you been?
What’s new, Jason? Oh, my gosh. So, first and foremost, I went and had Christmas dinner with you and with your.
That’s where this all came from.
That’s where all it came from. And it was my fault.
And I hope you’re happy.
Do we tell the story of what my son said to you?
Oh, my gosh.
Do we go there?
We do go there? We do go.
This is a great place. We had a puppy, still have her, named Pepper. She’s older now. She’s a Rhodesian Richback, which is the type of dog that was bred to hunt lions in Africa, and pepper does not. And she was a puppy at the time. And I, you had come into town and brought your dog Cooper, and this was the greeting, I think, on Christmas eve, which is when you came by just to check in, and Max, who was at the time, ten years old, comes running over. Big smile. Your dog tried to rape my dog, Jason.
My jaw dropped and hit the floor, like, well, we’re going to take Cooper back now. See you guys tomorrow. Oh, my gosh. But, you know, Jason, we, my fiance at the time, he and I met you for Christmas and met your family for Christmas. You were so generous to have us over and so appreciate it. And December 27, I got a phone call from a family member of mine that said, hey, Dan, your mom last night, fella, and broke her femur and had to have emergency surgery. You need to come home. And so I threw my dog in the car and Ernesto in the car, and we drove. We drove straight home. And by that time, mom was in a rehab facility and she was. She had dementia, but it had just gone downhill from there.
And now she’s a permanent resident in the nursing home. And long story short, a week ago, she just had a pulmonary embolism. And we almost lost my mom. And there’s just a constant battle now with a family member that just is not functional and is trying to get mom back and is trying and is doing some not great things. And it’s, you know, many of us have these things that happen. They’re just never really talked about. And that. But that was. That was me. And that whole thing initiated, I would say that was your fault. All that stuff that happened was your fault. And then right after I left your house, you had some stuff that happened.
Just so we bring everybody in. Like, this is our humor.
Yeah.
So we’re not really mad at each other.
Jason and I are bff’s.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it is each other’s fault, but still.
It is.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So then I left your house, and then stuff went down for you. What happened with you?
That the short version of the story is that after about 15 years together, my wife and I decided that we would better parents to our kids if we weren’t married anymore. And that had been kind of rumbling. There had been typical issues that any couple would have over the years, and then it was actually officially beginning when you were in town. So I’m noticing a trend here once again. When were doing the ICBCH winter hypnosis conference, and it was somehow both the perfect timing because I was tied up with this conference, Richard Nongard and I were putting that on.
We had about 100 plus people for that event, and I was already at the hotel for that event anyway, so it was in one part, the perfect timing for things to officially begin the breaking off, but also, at the same time, the worst possible time for things to begin the breaking off of things, because I was there. And thankfully, years of doing a, of all things, a magic show at a theme park did instill with me the ability to go on autopilot and do the things that I was obligated to do for the conference. Though, also, it was great that you were there, and of course, Richard was there and many others and a few moments that, because it was so fresh having to just go, I’m going to go up to my room for, like, 2 hours, and I’ll be back later.
I’m fine. Just. I’m gonna go away. And not.
Not people. You’re not gonna be.
Yeah, not people. Not people.
Two people, yo. Yeah. And Jason, when there was this moment, someone came up to me and said, is Jjason okay? And I’m like, yeah, he’s fine. Why? Well, he seems a little distant. And someone said that to me. And I had gone up to my room to grab some stuff, and I was coming back to the elevator on my floor, and I had just read a text. You had sent a group text to some people that said something to the effect of, hey, if I seem a little off this weekend, it’s because I’m going through a separation. And I thought it was a joke. And I’m like, oh, this is like, this is classic Jason. And you get off the elevator, and I saw your face, and I’m like, this is not a joke. And I’m like, Jason, are you okay?
And you’re like, I’ll be okay. I’ll be okay. And I’m like, oh, this is real. This is real. And just know, Jason, in that moment, like, so many people love you, loved you. They still do, but loved you, cared about you.
I like that you said it first, and then you corrected it to be past tense.
Well, after that, I had gone down to the lobby, and there were about five of us who had. Or three of us. I’m sorry, three of us who had, like, joined together that you had texted, and one of which is another colleague who lost her son and then went through a divorce. Another one was another colleague who went through a breakup because of some other personal issues. And I don’t know how public he is, so I don’t want to talk about his issues here.
But his name rhymes with.
And then my issues with my. My mom. And then my dad had just died two years ago. So you came down to the conversation when one of our friends is saying, well, you know, I got a separation two years ago because this and that. And then another colleague said, well, then my son died, then I got a divorce. And I said, then my dad died. Now my mom’s in a. In a. Basically a cognitive impairment institution.
And then I laid my cards on the table.
Yep.
Yeah.
And we said, jason, it could be worse.
It could be context. Everybody listening to this. It’s that I sent Dan a text message. This would have been. When was that? That was earlier this week. That was the message. Hey, I haven’t been doing the podcast since February 15. Do you and I need to connect and record a conversation that neither of us is ready to have and make it the comeback episode on July 4.
Yeah, yeah.
And so here’s a question that I want to kind of bring into this, which is that, you know, any specific moment like these, and whether it’s the minor disagreement, whether it’s even the little things in life that happen, such as, hey, I had this doctor’s appointment, and I go and they go, no, no. That’s next week. Or the surprise bill that arrives from the. The IR’s, which is always a nice little love letter. One of the things that this really helped to amplify for me was that of, where do you put those priorities, that process what’s going on, deal with what’s going on. And at the same time, which now I’ll officially say it here, was where I reached out to Doc Tracy, Nancy from the bank, and, hey, Doctor Tracy Riley, I know you have people on your staff.
I’m not going to work with you because I know you. However, here’s the whole story. Who do you recommend? And I’ve been working with a counselor in her office weekly ever since then. So kind of related to this transition here, you had some priorities to kind of shift around.
Yes.
Yeah. Which one of them was, correct me on this, like, moving the wedding to be earlier?
Yes. So my fiance and I had planned on getting married in 2025, and we. His mom texted us one day and said, hey, I think I want to come back because she lives in Venezuela. So she said, I think I want to come back in April. And I said, hey, why don’t we move up the wedding so my mom can be there and your mom can be there, so my mom can still enjoy it, and she’s still cognitively. A little bit cognitively aware. And then we planned a wedding that would take most people two years to plan. We planned it in two months.
It’s a very dead Candel statement.
You just went there. Well, and it was a Harry Potter themed wedding. And double down.
That’s a very damn candel.
And by the way, I was gonna hire Professor Sprout, Miriam Margulies to give, like, a wedding toas and that bitch. A week before I was about to hire her, she comes. There’s a video of her saying on a talk show, oh, I can’t believe that people still love Harry Potter. Because let me tell you, people have Harry Potter themed weddings. And I think that’s just vile and disgusting. So I heard that. I’m like, absolutely not. Like, no, but I have to say, like, it was Jason. It was the most magical, special day, having my mom there. She looked gorgeous. The every. Ernesto, who’s now my husband, Ernesto, got Harry Potter wands for everybody. And even the venue said, we have never seen a wedding like this. And. And it’s a professional wedding venue. And it was so special. It was so magical.
Jason, you were invited. You didn’t go, but that’s okay. Won’t hold that against you. I just have your little. You had some things going on. You had some life stuff happened. But, yeah. So we had to kind of rearrange some priorities and what are some things that you had to kind of go through? And because we’re in. And just full disclosure, we’re both still going through this. This is not something that we are out of the woods. We are both still going through stuff.
This morning, were supposed to record today at 930. And then all of a sudden, we officially have the paperwork in order. So, like, this is the morning. It’s not finalized yet, but this is the morning that I go, hey, I have to go take these documents over to the UPS store where there’s a notary and sign in front of somebody. So, like, as officially, as of now, the paperwork’s all signed. It’s just a matter of now the state of Florida processing things. I’ll leave out the anecdote. No, now I’m saying it. Someone goes, why does it take so long in Florida? I mean, I’m here in Nevada, it only takes three days. And I just had to go. Just say that again out loud and just listen to what you said. Oh, yeah. Vegas.
Well, to your point, jason, I’m filing for the court for guardianship and conservatorship over my mom again, just because another family member is just being very difficult and not able to function. And so we filed, like, over a month ago, and this has been a battle that’s been going on for the past, like, four months, and we still are waiting to hear back from the court, even though we filed all the right paperwork and everything like that. It should be simple, but it’s not. It’s not a simple process, unfortunately. So you and I both have court things going on. Congratulations.
I’m in Florida, where there’s no laws.
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
On that note, no, your decisions to make, it’s that one of the priorities right away was that. And this is where there was a bit of a shift. This. And for everybody listening to this, the reason why is like, let’s have this conversation, let’s make this recording that you don’t have to have everything perfectly dialed in to be out there working and serving your clients and teaching others. And, you know, these are often those stories that I’m about to hear my own voice here. These are the stories that are often nothing said or kind of glossed over. And the opposite of this is I brought in my entire team. My other company, work smart hypnosis, is separate from my marketing consulting company, Attract Presold Clients.
And I brought them all into town here to Florida, from up in Alberta, up in Calgary, up in Canada, and brought them in from Washington state, Utah, and Michigan. And were all attending a big marketing conference. And like, they were all cracking up around me because I said, here’s the marketing event, big conference drinking game. Whenever someone says, is it okay if I get vulnerable? Phrase number one, no, they’re not. And two, you kind of just ruined it by going, can I get vulnerable? It’s like, just tell the story. Just jump into it. No, but the priorities was that I’ve got my clients that I’m working with, I’ve got my business that I’m continuously running. I’ve got my children, I’ve got my parents down here in Florida, too.
So the priority right away was to go, how do I keep things running at the same or near quality and capacity they were before? And there was one decision, so that included moving out of the house. The house actually officially closes for sale on Monday. Which one silver lining in all of this, which is probably not revealing anything too personal, was it’s in the right part of Orlando that basically doubled in value in just three years.
And by the way, my best friend is moving down there today. They just. They’re in.
They bought the wrong house.
Well, no, actually, I sent them the listing to your house, and she said, great house, great place, but they’re renting. And she was like, I looked at how much they bought the house for. She goes, how much did that increase? I’m like, I know. So good on you.
That was very nice. That was very nice. But yeah, it was. Priorities of, I found a rental house that was only about 3 miles down the road and very rapidly got the kids’ bedrooms ready. So it’s a three bedroom house. The kids’ bedrooms were established right away. I did not really want to have my home office in my bedroom. But, Dan, it’s one of those bedrooms that when you walk in, there’s like the seating area and then a small archway, and now you’re in the bedroom. So, like, where I’m sitting right now, I can’t see my bed unless I lean really far back. And I’m okay with that.
Your whole setup, Jason, looks almost identical to what it was before. And in fact, I think it looks better than what it did before. But if you didn’t know, I don’t think you could really tell. So good on you.
Thank you. Thank you. Still playing with sound here, though. No, but the priorities were, I think, of the simple correlation of the kid with the balloon. You know, it’s not one that’s filled up with helium, but you’re bouncing it and keeping it up in the air. And it was that there were a lot of things that had to stay up in the air. There are a lot of things that had to keep going, and a lot of things that had to be the priority there. And especially having a spot for my kids where they were comfortable and being able to continuously run the business. And one other pivot in this was at one point, you know, I said to the team that, you know, we send out regular emails.
And the story around being in Orlando and being with family has been a big part of what I talk about. And the first draft was, everything is business as usual just now. The stories are me and the kids, right? And that did not feel right. And thankfully, that was a day where my soon to be ex reached out and said, I think we should post something on Facebook. And my response was, yes, let’s do this, though. You write a draft, I write a draft. We then see them, and then we post at the same time. I post with a photo of me and the kids. You post with a photo of you and the kids. And at that point, then the story was known.
And that’s where, you know, a big part of my audience now are those entrepreneurs that are either stalling and not quite starting up to the full capacity, because really, it’s nothing. The marketing strategies, it’s the stories that they’re telling themselves, or they’re the people who are a lot of this audience with work, smart hypnosis, the people who, they are successful at what they do, and yet they’re burning the candle at both ends. They’re burning themselves out, working in the style of, that’s how it’s always been done, which, no, it hasn’t. And it’s that, again, growing out of that current story and shifting that perspective. And it’s where, you know, we set some rules, which was that we never talk about this theme. There’s never any moment of pointing any blame, whether it’s personal or external, in either direction.
And it’s instead telling the story of like here is, well, it’s a friend of mine who one time said, never take advantage of people. Absolutely take advantage of an opportunity.
Right?
And having the story of here’s what’s going on right now, here’s where the focus has to be, and along that way, sharing what’s appropriate storytelling in business. And I’ve got permission to give this little quick anecdote here, which involves my parents, that I would often say that one of the reasons that we moved down to Florida was that it made it a lot easier to help support my parents in their retirement. And that’s usually the only sentence that I say out loud about it. And those of you listening all of a sudden now have different thoughts and expectations as to what that might mean. And I one time paused a moment and went, what did you just hear me say? And they go, oh, you bought your parents a house that’s a whole lot nicer.
No, I had better income and better savings than they did, so I co signed on the mortgage and got their interest rate cut in half, and I paid their hoa fees.
Well, Jason, you talk about. You talk about opportunities and taking situations and making up opportunities. Well, I posted a post on Instagram about what was happening with my mom, and I said I had all these plans to launch my community and all these plans to grow this part of my business. And then my mom got really sick, so I shared that on Instagram, and that Instagram post, in 24 hours, got about 500 likes and about 100 comments.
I have never been more viral than this as well. Don’t want to have these moments often.
You don’t.
Yeah, the team was like, this is. We’re getting such great traction on this post. I go, stop, just stop.
But here’s what happened. I have a messenger bot that I forgot to deactivate for that post. So everybody that liked and commented on that post, they got an automated message. Hi, can you please tell me more about your anxiety so I can send one of my team members to help you?
Dan, what was the conversion rate?
Awful.
Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, you deserve that.
Another. Another hypnotist actually sent me a private message saying, you might want to disable your Autobot on. In the DM’s. On your Instagram post about your mom, it comes off a little scammy and slimy. I’m like, oh, my God. So, hey, I promise I wasn’t taking advantage of it. I wasn’t taking advantage of her. I just totally forgot to disable that stupid little piece of code in the messenger bot. My bad, my bad. But, Jason, through this, though, you know.
What did you make the promo code?
Pulmonary embolism? No. Wow, that’s awful. Please edit that out. I know you’re not. I know you’re not going.
Speaking of that, you know, these are. I forget who it was that I heard say this one time, and it wasn’t in the hypnosis profession, about. They were in more of a different therapeutic space. And it was this. Well, I work with things that are. I forget the terminology that I used, but the phrase was, I do not work with any current, unresolved issues. And I just had to pause and go, it was a small enough group that this wasn’t disruptive. And I go, I need to ask a question, like, how is life not a current, unresolved issue?
So we’ve been, both of us, keeping our own businesses running throughout all of this, and imagine you know, it may look a bit different than what it normally is, but, like, what’s your plan for keeping your business running as you’re still in this role of caretaker for mom and also, you know, officially filing the documentation to be now that role?
So it’s really interesting because the. The day she was rushed to the hospital and how this happened was. It was last Thursday. I was walking into the nursing home where she is to go visit her because I’m with her almost every single day, bringing her daily dunkin donuts, painting her nails, making. Bringing her treats, and making sure she has, like, a familiar face and she’s well taken care of. So on my way up there, and I’m walking into the nursing home, they call me as I’m walking in, they say, dan, something’s wrong with your mom. You need to get up here now. And we have to send her to the hospital. So I went with her. She was rushed to the ER, and this was at 3:15 pm. We got to the hospital. I had a client in my office at 04:00 p.m.
Who drove 7 hours from New Jersey to have a session with me. 7 hours. So I now had to call that client after she just checked into her hotel and tell her, I’m sorry, I cannot see you after she just drove 7 hours. And thankfully, the client understood. I was with my mom all night long. And then I called one of my mom’s friends the next day, and I said, hey, can you just spot me for maybe like, 4 hours? I got to go work with this client. I called the client. She was very understanding. I did a three and a half hour session with her in my office and then went back to the hospital and. But sometimes we have to make space because we still have to do what we need to do to live. And through that whole.
My mom was in the hospital for almost a week, and through that week, I realized that if I stayed there in the hospital with her, I wasn’t able to best serve her, and I wasn’t able to serve myself. And what happens is we need to do what’s familiar to us. That’s not trauma, because our. I do a lot of work with anxiety and a lot of work with trauma and stress and overwhelm. And what I’ve noticed is that state of mind tends to become familiar and not comfortable but familiar. So we need to do things that are better familiar so that way we don’t get caught in this space of, like, walking on eggshells. Brace for impact. Waiting for the next shoe to drop. So here’s where my business is going.
I have been in the state of resistance, and, Jason, I am talking about this openly at Hypnothoughts live, coming up as well. I launched a group when my dad, as my, when my dad was passing away two years ago, and I was doing the high ticket group hypnosis programs, and it worked really well until it didn’t.
Yeah.
And what happened is I hired too fast. So two years ago, when my dad was dying, I set out the intention of, I can’t see individual clients, like 6810 a day anymore. I need to do more group stuff. I want to do more group stuff put together, like the high ticket funnel again, right out of the gate. I sent two emails and made, like, $50,000 after sending two emails of getting people into my group. And then I’m like, oh, this is great. I’m going to hire a salesperson. I’m going to hire an email copywriter. My email copywriter. I was paying $4,000 a month to my salesperson. I was paying this amount of money, this many thousand dollars, this many thousand dollars. And it was thousands and thousands of dollars a month that I was paying to people that I wasn’t ready to pay yet.
So I set an intention to hire a team that would become my family. And that royally effed me, because as soon as I found the team that became like family to me and it wasn’t working, it became almost impossible to let them go, because then I felt like I was taking care of them and I was trying to find other roles for them and trying to find ways to work it out. And I was paying them before I was paying me, and it just, it couldn’t keep going like that.
Yeah.
So now where we’re going, Jason, this is where I’m like, my big thing is community. And the high ticket stuff still works. I still do some of it, but what I’m building now, I actually just launched today and got two people into it, which is basically my high ticket program, but we’re doing it as a community now. It’s called the unfuck your mind collective.
Nice.
And it’s not going to resonate with everyone.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, but that’s what I want. And I’m selling it with a Google Doc. No sales page. I’m selling as a Google Doc. And Jason, it’s fricking working.
Yeah.
And this is what really resonates with me. But in order to do that. I had to let go of not just people, but I had to let go of the connection that I had to some of the other things that had worked that stopped working.
Well, the phrase that you used earlier is the one that I keep using, too. And, oh, this just expands beyond this conversation of certain things work until they don’t.
Right.
And like right now, you know, were having this conversation right before we hit record that it’s not that things are broken, it’s that the audiences around the world have become more sophisticated.
Exactly.
And they have better information. There were so many people who called me even last year, names that I won’t mention, of course, in this program. But it was that, hey, I used to be able to just send out some emails and just fill up a class, and now I’m really fighting for it. What are you doing? It’s like, well, again, certain things work until they don’t. And in one scenario it was like, hey, all you’re doing is just sending out this buy my thing. Buy my thing. And it’s where we have these constant conversations. And I did the same thing you did. That’s my story last year of let’s bring on all these people. And then we kind of sanded it down to the essentials. So there’s six additional people that are full time on attract presold clients.
One of them officially kind of is on the fence between that and this group Work Smart Hypnosis. Yet it was this moment that I had to just kind of have. We had a team meeting and I just had to go. This is the official meeting where I say, no one here is getting fired. If anything, this is the core team that you all will eventually morph into management roles.
Yep.
So anything we hire additionally will be people under you. But is this the moment where I talk about the fact that in college she doesn’t listen to this podcast?
Talk about it.
Talk about it. Here’s the relationship that I think I was inside of maybe three months longer than I should have because I was realizing I don’t know how to break up with somebody.
Right.
And then that was the revelation last year to go, oh, wait, here’s this person. That and the scenario of firing someone in a blaze of glory that was well deserved was, hey, let’s talk about your performance. This was not the girlfriend. This was the only.
You talked to your girlfriend that way. Good on you, my friend.
You know, I’m just saying, got to hit those KPI’s. So, key performance indicators. No, it was that, hey, we met together to have this conversation specifically around what can be done to bring you back to the level you were performing before. And then three weeks later, you did none of it. And you broke one of our principal rules, which is we do not talk shit directly about competitors. And the quote was there on recording, on Zoom recording backed up in Vimeo. Transcribed by aih oh, blank. Blank’s program is absolute garbage. You don’t want to buy that. And I went, you see that? That’s why you can’t log into your email anymore.
So she was the one that was talking smack about me.
Okay, well, you know what you did, you know what you said. And sometimes you have to deal with the consequences in life, Dan.
Happens.
I’m just saying.
Happy pride.
Wow.
You know, I know you’re not going to edit any of this out, but there have no.
I’m ready to tell the editors. I’m like, crop the beginning, crop the end. Leave it all exactly as it is.
Yep.
Although, I mean, it’s where there is this bounce you said about where we put our focus, and, like, that’s where from day one, mine was, okay, I’m gonna be eating right. I’m gonna be going to the gym. I’m gonna be spending the time with the kids. It’s gonna be, if anyone wants to cry your frickin eyes out of, go to what used to be HBO Max and is now, of course, just called Max because they wanted to shorten the name. We’ll leave out the story of what Peacock’s brand. I know, yeah. But there’s the transition to now talk about Billy Crystal. But this is on the platform formerly known as HBO Max, that now we all have to say that it’s like X, formally known as Twitter. Still saying Twitter. Just freaking go back to Twitter. We’re not going to dead name Twitter.
Anyway, so Billy Crystal, 700 Sundays, it was one part stand up comedy, one part one man show, and it’s an incredible storyteller. And it wasn’t the angle that my father, from his perspective, it wasn’t the angle that my father was so busy that I only got to spend time with him once a week. It was instead the story of how my father knew that based on his management career in music. Go see this thing. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s incredible. Yet it was that he made those Sundays count, and the number may have been off, but he goes, roughly, I got to spend 700 Sundays with my father. And just, there’s the tears. And it was okay, so it’s going to be less quantity time with my kids.
But now let’s make this about more quality time and kind of shifting that focus. And the same. And same is true in terms of. It really informed the types of clients that I still continue to work with. Personal change clients one to one, and just where that focus ought to be. And at one point, the house that I’m now living in, at least I’m here until the end of April 2025. And it’s a. It’s a live in closet. It’s not a walk in closet. It’s massive, and there’s a window, and it’s decent enough yet. I walked in one day and just saw the closet. Like, there were still boxes in there. There was still stuff on the floor. And it’s just like, nope. I’m blocked off this time on a weekend. And just dug into that closet, got it organized.
It’s the classic phrase, the way you are one place is the way you are somewhere else. So keeping as much of a state of normalcy as possible throughout.
Well, this is where, when my dad passed away, there were these four things that I learned, and if I didn’t go through that, then I would not be able to be as level headed as I am with my mom now and with other family members. And also, it changed the way I work with my clients. The four concepts are acceptance, trust, patience, and letting go. And really embracing those four concepts as. As not just mindsets, but life principles to live by. And some days I’m like, okay, Dan, like, today is it. Today’s a patience day. You got to practice restraint. Like, okay, Dan, today is trust. You got to trust in the process and trust that good things are going to take time. Okay, Dante, it’s acceptance. Like, you got to accept that there’s.
You know, there’s going to be really good moments, and there’s going to be not so good moments. And, okay, Dan, we gotta let go of, like, that conversation you just had with somebody. And this is what I’m teaching my clients as well. And, Jason, I hear you taking notes, so you can. You can totally, literally, I hear everybody taking out their notebook and their pen and writing this down. Acceptance, trust, patience, letting go.
Can we add a fifth one?
Yeah. Yeah.
Boundaries.
Exactly. Yes. Yes. Damn you, Jason. You always know I’m taking notes.
That’s how you work smart.
Oh.
Boom.
Oh, my gosh. You just had to drop that in there.
Better than market smart. Do we finally tell the story? We leave out the other third party?
Yeah, we do tell the story, Dan.
I’ll tell my version of it. Dan was going to launch a hypnosis program specifically around business training, and it was going to be called Market Smart Hypnosis. I still have the business cards we’ll leave out. I have the business card you made. Me, too. And we’ll put that in the show notes. You got to see this. Worksmarthypnosis.com/434. There’s the podcast plug. No, but it was that someone said to Dan, oh, that’s a horrible idea. No one ever buys.
That will never work.
That’ll never work. And then, completely unknown to me, I pop up probably a couple of months later, and it was one of work smart hypnosis.
Yep. And I looked at you and I goes, you bastard. Jason, I thought for years, this week.
Is actually officially the week we’re recording, I believe is actually officially ten years running.
Yeah, because you know what it was?
It’ll never work.
And it happened right around the time of another hypnosis conference that happens around this time of year. And it rhymes with no nevermind. But, Jason, for those who don’t get.
The joke I’m making here, it’s like, I’m going to tell a story about a friend of mine. I’m not going to say who it is, but his name rhymes with Dan Candell. No, that’s too obvious. Let’s say it’s Dan C. Now, you might be able to guess that it’s de Candell. Let’s go with that.
So it’s anonymous, but this is Jason. I for years, I thought you had a bug on my phone, because I would think of something, and then you’d be five fricking steps ahead of me. And you’ve already launched the podcast, the video series, the product, the low ticket, the high ticket. And I’m like, this bastard. Like, I literally just thinking about this, and I just would open up my laptop and do do do. And then, nope, here comes an email from Jason. You already did it. And I’m like, oh, my God.
But that’s the day you sat down and went, how do I take this man down? And you wrote on your calendar, December 25, 2023.
Destruction of Jason Linett.
I’m halfway through rewatching the musical movie of mean girls. That’s when you opened up the burn book.
But you know what?
Said I was a fuggly cow and you just started writing.
Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s never gonna happen.
It absolutely has happened. But Jason, well, has there been a moment throughout this where you just had to just step away.
Oh, yeah. Yes. There’s been several moments, and I remind myself, pump the break cupcake. Like, that’s my power phrase. Pump the break cupcake. And for those of you who don’t know, I opened up for, like, a hot second, a clothing brand a few years ago called stay sexy, cupcake. But there have been times I had to pull away. And, you know, it’s the type of thing where you think people are going to notice, but they really don’t as much as you were hoping they would. Like. I thought, oh, I’m gonna pull away. I’m gonna stop posting content. I’m not gonna post as much on Facebook. I’m not gonna post as much on TikTok. And people didn’t care. Didn’t care. They notice. I mean, I would say it’s more.
That they didn’t notice as opposed to they didn’t care.
Thank you for reframing that. I really appreciate that. Makes me feel better about myself.
No, I have to hit that a lot with people who are terrified of, you know, not to suddenly, let’s pivot into marketing advice. No, but there’s so many people who are terrified of, quote, getting it wrong.
Right.
And what I have to say is, like, worst case scenario, they just ignore you because it doesn’t grab their attention. If your email subject headline sucks, if your social media content, the opening hook doesn’t grab their attention and they don’t bother watching, people are not going to show up to your house with torches and pitchforks and demand blood.
Well, I.
It’s a weird statement, but I would rather people be ignored than be completely invisible. And it’s sometimes the willingness to put something out there when it might feel like no one else is paying attention. That being said, the very first time, it was a Friday morning, and there wasn’t yet a podcast that released on Thursday. And I got, like a dozen emails. It’s the. Okay, they’re paying attention.
Well, I was about to say people probably send them to you because I wondered, too. I wondered, like, has Jason stopped doing the podcast? And. And then I looked. I’m like, oh, yeah, he has. And I didn’t ask you about it because I knew you were going through some stuff. You know, I was going through some stuff and. But this is all people listening to. This is also another note. We all go through stuff. And if you’re going through something similar to this or you have gone through something similar to this, it’s okay. To step back. Sometimes there’s also not one right way or wrong way to deal with it. We all have our own ways of working through things, but just staying connected like this and staying connected like, there’s a reason why Jason and I are doing this now.
And it’s because we’re close and we stay connected and we talk one another through things. There’s been many times Jason has talked me off a ledge. There’s been some times I’ve talked Jason off a ledge and just to have that connection with people figuratively.
Although, then again, I’m about to tell the story I didn’t think I was going to tell.
So I think you should tell that story because I think, and full disclosure, I’m also going to therapy. I’m seeing a therapist. There are some times where I was having some pretty dark thoughts, and even though I know and do dark thought work with people, there was a time where I had to really work through some of these things. And, Jason, I know you had an experience like that, too, that prompted a really smart action on your behalf.
Yeah. Which in full respect to those who are not on the recording and not just one individual, it was a week where it was a lot, and it was like so many things that piled up and one thing after another. And sometimes it’s hard to defend yourself to a person who’s holding on to a perception that is not the full story. And this is not just one individual. And I’ve been guilty of, you know, making that kind of judgment of, yes, I’m going to sidebar and tell a story about David Snyder, which was a time that I was hosting an event with him, brought him into Virginia, and he was doing a whole thing on conversational hypnosis. And I love the man.
And this was my favorite moment ever because he, I would very cautiously give the disclaimer to this that I go, I think it was a time where he said something and the perception of it was worse than what it was actually meant, but it was that, well, in that type of situation, men think in cause and effect relationships and women speak in complex equivalence relationships. Well, because that happened. That happened versus the complex equivalents. Well, the fact that you did that means this. And, oh, man, it split the room. The class derailed for only about ten minutes, and then everything was back on track. And there’s a moment where I believe he turned to me and he goes, Jason, what’s your take on this? And I go, no, no. You dug this hole. You get yourself out of it.
No, but it was kind of. And we all can be guilty of that. Of the reason why you did this is because of that. And in the words of Roy Hunter, when you go into a scenario with a preconceived notion, you still have to accept a 50 chance you’re wrong. And so it was a week. Do you hear how I’m just going around the whole topic here?
Just say it. It’s okay. People will respect you for it.
Yeah, but it was a whole week where just. It was too many things. And the official statement was, it was not. The action was a thought that was way too near an action, which was, it’s a scenario where the only way to ever get the last word would be that this is what I would write in a suicide note. And immediately, there was the snap in my brain to go, nope.
Yeah.
Nope. Nope. Too close. I’m not doing that. Not worth it. Nope. But I made a phone call. The immediate recommendation was, hey, call this local hospital. And I admitted myself for a 24 hours stay into a psychiatric hospital. And it was an interesting experience. The thing I should probably not say out loud, though, I’m okay saying out loud. Perspective change a lot of things, which is, I was there, and it’s a slow process to be admitted. There’s a moment where they said, well, you know, since you’re now here. And the moment I walked in the door, immediately, it’s like, I’m fine. I didn’t need to come here, but I’m glad I did. And then short version of it was, well, now that you’re here, though, you have to sign either this set of paperwork or that set of paperwork.
This one you can leave in 24 hours. This one you might be able to leave in five or six days. So it’s the red pale blue pill, bowman, and matrix. Like, well, okay, I’m here now. And hearing what was also being admitted at the time was, I’ve got to say, the worst thing I can say out loud is the ultimate of first world problems, of, here’s the person who was clearly having some sort of major break, and the police were having to drag him in. There was a moment where they said, well, here’s the area that you’re going to go to. You’ll spend the night there, and you’ll meet with a doctor today. You’ll meet with the doctor tomorrow right before you’re discharged. But this is the area where it’s more of the self admitted type scenario.
But that was not what was in the lobby during the admission period. And there was a moment where they said, well, Jason, we’re going to have you go to this area. You’ll have your own room. It’s pretty relaxed there. Go to the group meetings that could happen in the morning and then the afternoon, and then around 01:00 is when you can leave. And I mean, just to keep it simple, some very serious things around. And it was a moment of just by perspective, it’s the, I’m okay. These things that are stressful are only temporary. All of this will pass. And there was a moment that. And once the staff in that area kind of got the full story, they go, oh, yeah, we get this, like once every three or four months.
You probably didn’t need to come in, but it’s good that you did, and you’re here, and you’ll leave tomorrow around the same time you came in, just because that’s what the policy is. There was a moment where they were having an issue with another patient who was there. And it’s the whole issue was the doctor wouldn’t give them a second opinion to administer a specific thing for this other person. And I’m there off to the side going, go back and say it this way. So I’m coaching linguistics. They’re like, he said yes, right away, and he signed the paperwork. How did you do that? So then, I shouldn’t say this out loud. I didn’t name the hospital. So let’s go there.
I’m then in the nurse’s meeting room, basically drinking a diet Pepsi with them, chatting, which again, it was a reset moment of, you know, and there was an official diagnosis of, hey, this was passive suicidal ideation. So active is, I’m going to do it passive as you’re thinking about the things around it. And I knew the moment I walked in the door, it’s like, no, I’m fine. We met with the counselor that I was seeing at the time. She goes, yeah, if you had been able to catch me that day, you probably wouldn’t have gone. Probably didn’t need to, but you did the right thing.
You did. And you know what, Jason? I’m proud of you. I know so many people listening to this are proud of you and also for talking about it. I remember sitting down with you at a table outside in Orlando and saying, Jason, there are going to be some really difficult things I think you’re going to need to talk about. And it’s going to. I think it’s really going to help you help so many other people. And I’m not saying you checked yourself into a hospital to sell a program.
So the promo code. Never mind. There’s a real joke behind that. Not to deflect away, but there’s a time where Kevin Cole. I love the man.
I love Kevin.
Said something that was positive yet critical about a thing I posted online. And I go, oh, no problem. By the way, everybody, Kevin Cole. All caps, no space in the middle is promo. Cook takes off 15% between now and the end of the month. So there’s a history behind this ongoing joke that Dan and I were saying that you were.
Well, what you’re saying thoughtful things. I was interrupting. What you’re doing, talking about this is so courageous, and I don’t want to oversight this, because this is something that so many people deal with, Jason, and they don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to go, and then they feel ashamed asking for help or reaching out to someone. And just know that these are options that you have available to you, and it’s a sign of strength. It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength to reach out, to ask for help, to just make sure that you get it properly evaluated. And, Jason, again, I’m so proud of you, dude.
I really congratulate you on pulling up the strength to do that and to talk about it, because I know weren’t planning on talking about this today, but I’m really happy for you. I’m proud of you, and I know so many other people are doing.
Thank you for that. Yeah. Behind the scenes, Dan and I had a document that we started here, which. There’s the part at the top in red. Here are the things we do talk about. Here’s the things we don’t talk about, necessarily. We only have, like, maybe five sentence beyond that as to what are some of the prompts? And one of them was in red. I will bring up the psychiatric hospital if it feels uncontexted. And the place that a lot of our clients are, they’ve gone as far as they can on their own, and they don’t feel like there’s any other options.
Exactly.
And for them to realize that it’s a position of strength. Oh, let me just tell the story in the right context and watch this one. A family member of mine. See how I can do that, too. Was the one. This would have been, like, ten. Oh, this would have been, like, 14 years ago, when all I was doing at the time was Virginia hypnosis. There was no work smart hypnosis. There was no training company. I had just begun to pull back from doing all the touring and doing the stage hypnosis for schools. And I was kind of into, like, maybe three years, four years into the running of Virginia hypnosis at the time, seeing like 25 to 35 clients a week. And over Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, Jason, there’s really enough crazy people in the world to keep you in business. Which. Hold my earrings.
Let me go there for a quick moment. Here’s what I did not say out loud. This was the family member who has some very clear health issues that need to be addressed, the majority of which are a response to, let’s say, nurture versus nature, and, quote, won’t go to doctors because those people are crooked. Does a lot of external blame is the key point of the personality. And it’s a family member who one time I had to say, you know, when you talk that way, it was funny when it was all in the family, and it was Carol O’Connor as Archie bunker, and it was funny. And if you talk that way, here are these. Here’s this little girl that’s about to be born, and you will never be in her life. Cut out the racist b’s, and it’s the 21st century catch up.
And that was a pivot. That was not the Thanksgiving dinner, by the way, but it was. I have all of this in my head to go. I could point a finger back. It’s like, no. Instead it was the passive finger point. Well, the way that I look at it is the people who I’m working with are some of the smartest and strongest people I have ever met. And it’s not just because they’re paying my bills. It’s because they’re the people who have looked at their lives and said, you know what? Something’s not going right. And I don’t yet have the skill set on my own to address it. I’m going to reach out to someone else to get help. Exactly the same as tomorrow. There’s a three step journey of movers that start at, house number one, load boxes, house number two.
Then there’s a lot of stuff in storage in my garage, which officially becomes my garage tomorrow afternoon. And then other stuff goes into a storage unit. And I used to have this habit of picking up things and hurting my back because I’m clumsy. And it’s like, hey, this is the family part. Job creator. I’m gonna hire these two movers to help out. No, but it’s that. Back to thanksgiving. Here’s these people who have recognized that they don’t yet have the full capabilities to address something, and they’re reaching out for help. That’s a position of strength, right? And it was not meant to be a jab. It was definitely absorbed as one. It wasn’t a confrontational argument.
But I could see that the passive part of what I was intending to say was clearly heard of, and to some credit, first pat on the back in the entire recording, they started to change some things in their own life and take ownership of things. So, yeah, it’s that position of strength. And no, this episode was not meant to be the okay if I get vulnerable for a few moments. Yet as I made the decision, as I looked at the calendar and saw, wait a minute, 4 July, it’s a Thursday. And I had messaged a friend to go, who should I have on the podcast? And even as I was typing, it immediately was, let me do this with Dan. And that’s where the message then I appreciate it came from. So here’s the question, though, to kind of bring us forward.
Hey, Dan, what’s next?
So I am so looking forward to growing my community and already, like, getting two people into it. I know this is what my next thing is going to be, and I know it’s going to evolve as well. And just having. So I look for things that are full body. Yes. And when I was creating this, like, doc of, okay, what’s my, like, what’s my, what’s next going to be? And I looked at it, and I’m like, I, and I was talking to one of my marketing partners, and I’m like, I really wish we could just call this the unfuck your mind collective, and, like, unfuck your mind, uplift your life. And he’s like, why can’t you? And I said, well, that’s going to offend people. And he goes, so. And I said, you know what? You are right.
And it’s all about, like, embracing your inner badass. And it’s using these principles, Jason, of when you go through shit in your life, you know what you learn from it. You pick up, you take those lessons, you move on instead of staying stuck in it instead of sabotaging ourselves. And I know that’s what, what you do as well. And I had to reframe my position to be, in addition to this program leader, to also be a content creator. And I’ll say most of the people who have joined my program, not just who are joining my collective, but who are joining my other programs as well, they have been following me for a long time. They’ve seen my videos on YouTube. They have digested my content, and they say, you resonate with me. And I just today talked to. Talked to a guy, right.
Actually, right before we logged on, who’s like, Dan, I want to join your collective. I attended your masterclass about imposter syndrome, and he said, I realized I had imposter syndrome after watching Drew Paul’s drag race a couple of years ago. I’m like, yes, my people.
Because he’s not a drag queen.
Yeah. Okay.
Do you know this moment?
No.
Oh, we have to link to it in the show notes. If you see the moment in real time where Jimmy Fallon suddenly realizes, oh, shit, I’m about to get canceled because he’s interviewing RuPaul and says, well, you’re a drag queen. No, I’m not. I’m not a drag queen. I’m the queen of drag.
Yes. Yes, I do. Yes. Please put that in the show notes.
Absolutely. It’s. It.
So that’s. That’s what’s. That’s what’s next for me. And it really is just doing what I want instead of doing what everybody else expects of me. And that’s why I had to make some really difficult decisions to let some of my team members go, because I need to take care of me now, and I need to take care of my mom, and I want to, and I get to. And I talk about this all the time. This is what I learned through my dad. Have to choose to get to. And I am in the get to phase where I am producing what I feel like. I get to do what I want to do because of the choices that I’m making. And I know it’s not going to resonate with anyone or with everyone. And I.
In fact, I know that there are probably more people it’s not going to resonate then will resonate with, but that’s okay, because those are the people that you want in your circle. Those are the people you want in your life, the people that resonate with you authentically. So what’s your. What’s next?
You were there in 2022. It was the funnel hacking live in Orlando, and it was Marcus Lemonis.
Yes.
Who, surprisingly, it became. Yes, he did a magic trick, but also it became this beautiful hypnotic moment of going inside, tracking your own narrative. And it was like, one step away. I think it was from Napoleon Hill outwitting the devil. And it was a variation of it that he did, basically as a hypnotic induction for the group of. What is it? You would write for your own eulogy. And what in the phrase then became in his delivery of it, what is it that you want to be the narrative that people are saying long after you’re gone? And let me sidebar for a quick moment. Yes, I told the story of passive ideation. I’m fine. I’m fine. Excuse me, but I found it. But I found this back in March that I was trying to find something on my computer.
I was taking notes on an iPad during that event, and I wrote down the phrase, be the person who believes in other people’s potential, even when they don’t yet believe it themselves.
Yeah.
And there’s this sort of shift that I had in the last couple of months that for any audience you speak to, there’s three audiences. Audience number one. I call these people the elevated people, and they’re the ones that are ready to do something. They’re holding themselves accountable. They’re the past, sort of the traditional, let’s refer to it as the grief cycle, but they’re past that cycle of external blame lashing out, and they’re reaching that place of, no, it’s me. As Taylor Swift would say, hi, it’s me. I’m probably. It’s me, Travis. Better not hurt her anyway. So. No, but it’s that phrase. And it’s this elevated audience. And then I hate this other term that I use to describe the opposite end of that.
And it’s the people that are the ditch people, and it’s the people that are currently in their own story in the ditch. And here’s the part that is the softener on it, consciously making the decision to filter everything in their life as the rationalization as to not only why they’re in the ditch, but why they belong in the ditch. And then there’s an audience in the middle. That’s whether it’s me, whether it’s you, whether it’s anyone else out there who’s stepping into this role of facilitating change in whatever form, whether it’s personal change, whether it’s business change. But there’s that audience who’s waiting for that spark to basically move forward and related to what you just said there. It’s this ownership as to how I don’t need to point a finger at, quote, the ditch people.
I don’t need to be the person who makes fun of them. You and I were in the audience at the same event when another speaker was up there, and it was the classic archetype of, I’m gonna yell at the audience because you’re all afraid and like, you and I just don’t respond to that. Just, we’re cynical bastards. When that pops up, it’s like, really? No, no, just shut up.
No, but it was that ownership of if I can be the person, and this goes along with exactly what you just talked about, to be that person who embodies what that elevated audience wants, that audience in the middle that I’ve intentionally not given a name to, that they’re brushing off the dirt from the ditch and they just need that one little nudge in the right direction to realize that I don’t have to live that way. And if more power to them here. If what I’ve put out there is content, if what I’ve said and anything that I’ve put out there is poking at, quote, the ditch people, it, either one helps them to further ratify their own beliefs.
And if they are comfortable with that, and if that’s what they truly, consciously or unconsciously want, I’ve helped them to amplify their own belief systems by way of the common shared enemy, and I’m okay with that. If it’s me versus it poked at them, it might have kept them up that night. And in the morning they woke up and they realized they couldn’t get back in that ditch. They were there before.
Right.
So it’s, you know, the Dan Kennedy version of what you and I have just been saying now for the last eight minutes was, if it gets to be noon and you haven’t yet offended somebody, you’re not working hard enough, which. No, instead it’s this willingness that you can’t be everything to everybody.
Right.
And it’s where you had those four points. I added boundaries. And sometimes it is the I’m just not going to make this person happy with this. And sometimes it is the, I don’t need to be a part of that. It’s a good friend that sent me a question. Hey, we need to talk about this event next year. And I went, no, I’m going to. I’ll be a part of it, but I’m not planning it. I’m part with one third of Htlive365. And, you know, that’s a project with Scott Sandlin, Stephanie Sciba. And there’s a moment where, and this is not too personal. Hey, can we talk about doing some ads for bringing people to the conference? And I responded in a very polite way, just directly going, I think based on everything that’s going on right now, it’s going to be great.
If I can just put my head down and focus only on Htlive365. But tell me what you’re looking to do. I can help you connect with somebody who can help with that.
Right.
And I got this beautiful response from Scott, which was paraphrased, because it’s not in front of me, you asshole. You’re out. No paraphrase. It was. That was probably the cleanest setting of boundaries that I’ve ever seen someone do, and I respect that. Thank you. Let’s rock out this Htlive360 project. So it’s kind of hitting the button of the reset and kind of the same narrative around a bunch of things, that things cannot be the same, but they can be stronger.
I love that. I love that 100%. And if you take anything away, people listening. If you take anything away, take that away and that. I’m not going to end this for you, Jason, but that would be a great place to end.
Well, here’s how I’m going to end it. Hey, Dan. Thank you.
Thank you, Jason.
Hey, it’s Jason. Linett. And one more thing. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast at www.worksmarthypnosis.com.
