by Celeste Hackett
Here I sit looking at this page. I’ve been looking at it for about 15 minutes. How do you end a series of articles that have been a sort of diary of one of my life’s greatest periods? During these articles, 3 years worth, I grew from just barely wet behind the ears as a hypnotist to a hypnotist who would be considered by many to be in the top one percent of the profession.
Mostly, in the articles from this “Frugal” series I’ve given the low-down, stone-cold bare-naked, facts as I saw them, of starting out as a hypnotist with only a little money, a sense of adventure and a lot of guts. This series was written because it was the stuff I wished I could’ve read about before starting my hypnosis business myself. The information has been practical, but running in parallel was a whole other side of my business that I wanted to tell but didn’t have time to.
Regretfully, I never got to write about all the awesome changes my clients made and what it was like to travel with them through the highs and lows to get to their success. I never got to show the face of synchronicity and how it actively smiled at me peeping from behind the weirdest places during these three years, or how sweetly and how often I worked cloaked in utter gratefulness. 5 people writing constantly couldn’t have written all the amazing and awesome stories I got to participate in or witness since January first 2006 when I first opened my apartment door and called my spare room, Family First Hypnosis.
The wonderful montage of experiences called me gently back to a solemn prayer I prayed out on the front sidewalk under the moon when I was 13. “Please God, Please, just let me live an interesting life!” I remember sensing how utterly uneventful the daily lives of the average person was, and I could see how unhappy and tired everyone was. I rememberd feeling down right scared. What if I grew up to live with that dead end look in my face? I remember getting this especially desperate feeling after a long day at school watching the miserableness of my teachers and the daily grind of my mother cooking, cleaning, mending and watching soaps.
It was then that I whispered my prayer with such great intensity that I knew God had to hear me and the stars did twinkle in response and the wind did whisper. I remember it all clearly.
I became a radio announcer, had several failed attempts at romantic happiness, married my soul-mate, traveled to several other countries and then became a hypnotist. Thinking back, I can see how so many experiences over my entire life prepared me to be the unflinching, nonjudgmental and understanding person I needed to be to persevere and be helpful in this career path. Amazing how God has a plan. All those years I just thought I couldn’t settle down, but it seems I HAD to have these experiences to be able to do this. Maybe that is why most hypnotists are well over 40 when they are drawn to this work.
So, what will I do now that there will be no more “Frugal but Professional Practice”? The answer is, a whole OTHER column. Next quarter look for it with the title: In Practice or Hypno-girl to the Rescue! I couldn’t decide if I should sound more professional (In Practice) or fun (Hypno-Girl to the Rescue). I’m a Gemini so I just mixed professional and fun together. Let’s see if Cal Banyan goes for it.
In the new column, I’d like to write about anything I fancy in the realm of hypnosis. The “Frugal” series was important, but this one is going to give me more ideas for articles about all aspects of hypnosis. I’m really excited about it.
I want to take a moment to thank you for your patronage and also would like to extend an invitation to you to contact me if you ever have any questions about anything I have written about or will write about. Also, I’d love to hear your ideas for upcoming articles that I’ll be writing.
By the way in keeping with the disclosure about the money I make as a hypnotist, I just wanted to let you know that this year got off to a better start than the year ended. January: $4622.00, February: $5732, and March: $6305.
Also, I just have a great feeling about this year. I think it’s going to be a great one for Family First Hypnosis and for my school Dallas Hypnosis Career Training. We are working on the url for the school and we already have students lined up for our June class, but there is always room for more (hint hint).
Well, that’s about it for the last installment for this series of articles. I hope you’ll check out the new series and if you know of anyone just getting started, tell them to begin reading with the first article of the frugality series and also to check out the archives of Cal Banyan’s WebTV show. He and I did several episodes together on how to start small and grow you hypnosis business on a shoestring. Most of the tips are pretty timeless or, at least should be helpful for some time into the future.
