by Celeste Hackett
- I’ve Changed My Mind, I like Stinky Dogs
- Just Get Off Your Lazy Butt and Help People
- McHyp-Donalds Now Hiring
- Who Says You Have to Charge Money?
- Hypnosis Is Crap! Or is it the Hypnotist?
- If You Don’t buy this you’re Plain Crazy
- The Low Down on the Dollars and Cents
- The Truth is the World Needs You
- Something Kind of Neat for Free
I’ve Changed My Mind, I like Stinky Dogs
In my last article I shared my thoughts about what would make or break a home hypnosis practice. This is a favorite topic of mine since I work from a teeny apartment in Dallas, Texas. Last quarter, I said maybe you should NOT consider working from home for various reasons such as if you have a noisy, overly fragrant pet or if you have a house stuffed with knick knacks etc. But as the weeks went by I’ve thought about what I wrote and I must say that I know if the only way I could do hypnosis was under less than ideal conditions, come hell or high water (or pet) I would do it. (Actually, I am doing that!) I’d figure out a way to offer hypnosis somehow, because this work is just too important. Look at the times we live in. How can we keep our special brand of help away from people? We know how to help them and if we just support one person in healing, the world will be a little better.
It’s amazing to me how so many people get hypnosis training and then do nothing with it. I have been REALLY thinking about that a lot lately. Each time I hear a news story filled with pain, or when I hear of someone’s desperation in passing conversations, I begin to wonder where all my classmates who trained with me are. Why aren’t they out there helping the world? They know the real and true probable cause of and help for the problems in our world. I remember how it was on their hearts to be a healer in our profession. I saw the sincerity in their faces. I know I was not mistaken.
Just Get Off Your Lazy Butt and Help People
I suppose that if I tracked down these former colleagues, I would find a myriad of reasons why they are doing something else. For some they believed they just couldn’t make enough money at it. For others they gave up when it seemed they didn’t have the courage to call themselves a hypnotist, or do a session in which they actually charge for it. I’ve heard of others who just kept trying to get results with training that is, unfortunately weak, at best. Some of these became discouraged and began looking for a better way to become healers. Maybe these are the reasons or maybe there are others, but, to me, it all boils down to a basic two causes that encompasses all of those others and it is that they simply (1) didn’t begin, or (2) don’t stick with the work and grow from where they are.
Over the past month I have received calls from three different hypnotists who have gotten training and would love to turn what they’ve learned into a living, but are at a loss as to how to do that. Each one of them dreams of being a person who has an active hand in changing the human condition of suffering through the fascinating key of the subconscious mind. Remembering back to several fellow students I have known that have given up or have allowed their tools to fade away, I decided to invite these just- trained hypnotists over to my very humble office to see for themselves that they CAN make a living and really make a difference in so many lives if they will just begin where they are and commit to continued growth.
McHyp-Donalds Now Hiring
Over coffee with these potential fellow professionals, the first thing that became apparent was that they had a lot of heart for the work, but had very little practical experience. In essence they were asking the question, “I got my training, now what?” It would be nice if you could go to the corner hypnosis store and fill out an application and get a job as a hypnotist, wouldn’t it? The truth is, sometimes if you look around you can do that. If you are lucky you can find a place to get practical hands-on experience. Most places who are hiring hypnotists, unfortunately, deal primarily in direct suggestion, from what I have seen, and do not even concern themselves with testing for somnambulism or doing convincers.
Having said that, at least if you work for someone else you will get practice learning to listen to your clients, build rapport and manage your time. Plus you get pretty darn good at direct suggestion. At least as good as your original training or ongoing training allows. But if you really want to make money you will become dissatisfied and if you really want to see permanent results you will become dismayed. I know because I have been there and done that.
I expected my visiting hypnotists-to-be to stay with me only a couple of hours. I showed them how I get my phone to ring, how I present myself professionally on the internet, and on the phone so that once my clients realize they are coming into an apartment they feel confident enough to ring the doorbell. I talked to them about paperwork, insurance, ongoing training I thought would be helpful, and I did a short session demonstrating an instant induction, testing and convincing. Six hours later they were still hanging around. They really want to be hypnotists. Here are some of the other things I suggested to them.
Who Says You Have to Charge Money?
If you can’t make enough money right away as a hypnotist to do it full time- then do it part time and grow from there. If you’re afraid or confused, work on own your issues with a good hypnotist, with meditation, or self-hypnosis. If you are afraid of charging money for your session because you just don’t feel like a hypnotist yet- then start very small and consider doing the work for free for a short time. You can gain confidence that way.
Yes, I said free. (I know this is not a popular opinion, but read on.) Even if you only get one person, your confidence will soar once you make one person smile and teach that person how to help themselves. Before I started charging $100 dollars per session, I put up flyers at the apartment complex mail box bulletin board and offered all my services for free. That was only one year ago.
I felt kind of embarrassed giving away free sessions. My training taught that doing free work would not get good results, and that is partially true, but I did get some nice results and I got practice hypnotizing without the pressure of being perfect and getting perfect results. When people got better my heart would just sing and even the ones that didn’t do well had to admit that the time relaxing was wonderful for them. In this way, I do believe it is okay to practice at a practice for a little while if you need to. For me, it worked anyway!
Hypnosis is Crap! Or is it the Hypnotist?
Whether you work for free, or charge, just start seeing clients. As you are seeing your clients, make sure you assess your training. That’s right, AS you are seeing clients assess your understanding of hypnosis and technique. Some of the questions you need answers to are: Do you KNOW for SURE when your clients are in somnambulism? HOW do you know? Do you know how to do a covert test to make sure? Do you know how to convince clients they are in hypnosis? Are you doing that EVERY session? Do you use Age Regression or uncovering techniques AND do the ones you use really work? Do you understand how distracting from bad feelings causes problems for your client? Do you have an effective means of helping your clients deal with such feelings such as fear, anger and guilt other than direct suggestion?
If you can not answer these questions find the answers, but don’t stop hypnotizing. Use what you have where you are and grow from there. Then make a real commitment to finding who the best hypnotist trainers are and figure out a way to learn from them. As for me, once I began to implement what Cal Banyan teaches I have had the most gratifying results yet with my clients. Really amazing results the kind that I have always wanted.
Not only does Cal teach how to use the very best known hypnotic techniques, he also teaches you when and how to use them correctly, so you get incredible results even if you don’t always do everything perfectly. Isn’t that crazy? It’s the truth! Oh, and you won’t BE perfect. Just keep seeing clients asking questions and refining your sessions. And soon enough you will be like me, shaking your head and wondering if you are hearing right, that your client is indeed better, even happy, wiggling in the chair, excited and more in love with hypnosis then you are! This job ain’t just for the money I tell ya!
If You Don’t Buy this you are Plain Crazy
Sooner or later, if you are seeing clients for free you do need to set a date as to when you will start charging. Charging will bring you far better results. It WAY did for me. Get ready for that date. I chose the first day of 2006. I got listed in the phone book, got insurance, got my website up and running, and bought, studied and employed everything in Maureen Banyan’s Business Start up Pack. It is so inexpensive! (Get your copy before she realizes it is worth so much more!) Probably what I like about The Business Start up Pack the most is you don’t have to be a CEO or have a mega-brain for business to understand what she says to do! It is so easy.
Once I employed Maureen’s time-tested ideas, I immediately reaped rewards in terms of organization, confidence and most important dollars! Yes Immediately. This is no exaggeration. I began signing up clients for multiple sessions on the phone AND they showed up and paid me in full! Glory Halleluiah, what a day that was!
The Low Down on the Dollars and Cents
Speaking of dollars, I’d like to show you how quickly financial results can come if you start where you are and make a commitment to ongoing training and refining. Family First Hypnosisopened its apartment door on the first of this year. Here is the approximate breakdown in income and expenses since the start of the year:
- January-$1700.00
- February- $2000.00
- March – $1530.00
- April – $2000.00
- May – $3200.00
- June – $4400.00
I am now turning away clients or setting up appointments weeks away. Because of this I am also considering raising my fee.
Monthly Business Budget for 2006
-
Online Supervision Monthly with Calvin Banyan 95.00
(This cost no longer applies-online supervision stopped) -
Dallas Yellow Pages Monthly 35.00
(This is now $28.50) -
Online smart pages Monthly 10.00
(This is now $20.00)
(I also am testing magicyellow for three months at $264. After that, if I like them and I do, I’ll pay $63.00 per month) -
Domain name Yearly 19.95
-
Web Hosting Quarterly 105.00
-
Vital (Dial Pay) Monthly 9.95 for accepting visa
-
Vital (Dial Pay) per transaction 2.4 % +.40Cents
-
NGH dues (guild) Yearly 198.00
-
NFH dues (union) Yearly 180.00
-
Malpractice insurance Yearly 116.00
-
Adwords Monthly 30.00
(No longer applies. I dropped this)
Regular Total approximate costs to run this business (costs in black):
(These numbers reflect the original costs before changes made in red)
3098. 95—————- Yearly
258.74—————–Monthly
Over these 6 months I’ve also recently purchased additional ongoing training materials (I have a bit of an addiction to education and did not necessarily need this purchase), placed an ad on an additional on-line yellow pages-like website and made updates to my website at a cost of about $1500.00.
The jump in income in May and June I attribute to being listed on Cal Banyan’s website, two new on-line yellow pages, magicyellow, and citysearch, and search engines beginning to find my website more and more which happens with time. Almost every caller says they found me on the internet.
Irregular expenditures:
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DVD’s
-
DVD envelopes
-
CD’s
-
Printer Ink Cartridges
-
Printer Paper
-
Printing fees for Pamphlets and cards
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Copy fees for Client forms
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Manila folders
-
7th Path books
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Secret Lang of Feelings books
-
Hanging folders
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Binders
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Tape, pens
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Paper clips
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Staples
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Website updates-see bulleted in red above
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Drinking water
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Gas for travel to pass out brochures etc.
(I only did this two times didn’t pay off as much as efforts on-line such as having a good website with lots of content, and listing on on-line yellow pages etc.)
The Truth is the World Needs You
So to wrap up, don’t just wish you were a hypnotist be one. Make a decision right now to get started where you are however you can. The world needs you. You are an important part of the healing of humanity. You are good enough to help someone as you are, and where you are. You have the key. Please, oh please don’t fade away! The more hypnotists we have, the more people will know about the mind and its beautiful power for goodness.
The more we as a world know we control our happiness, the more joy we will actually live, move and have our being in. It is possible. It isn’t a dream! But you have to get to work because it will take effort. You were led to the secret. Don’t bury it away. Don’t think it was all a fanciful dream. What you learned was a significant part of the truth of our power as human beings to make love, peace, and joy in the very world we live in. (Later I hope to see my dream come true that we will all be hypnotists, or at least there will be a hypnotist in every family.)
Something Kind of Neat for Free
A man called me about getting hypnotized for stopping smoking. After asking a few questions about his habit, I asked him “Are you really ready to quit smoking?”
He said, “Yes, but it shouldn’t be hard. This is hypnosis right?”
“Yes”, I replied, “This is hypnosis, but hypnosis isn’t magic.”
He was silent for a moment and said, “I don’t understand.”
How do you handle a client like this?
The following simple story may be useful in helping someone understand their responsibility, and can be abbreviated and told in conversation, during demonstrations or presentations or while your client is in hypnosis to help them get motivated to make changes for any issue where their efforts are necessary.
The Potter
by Celeste Hackett, CH
There was once a boy who wanted to be a Potter. But the more he sat on his bed in his room no pots appeared. He said, “I want to be a Potter” to everyone he met, and to those closest to him he confided, “I am now ready to be a Potter”. Then he went fishing, but no pots appeared. He was sad because he really wanted to be a Potter, so he ate dinner and waited even longer, but there were no pots even though his heart burned because he really wanted to be a Potter.
Finally, he got an idea to ask someone who was a Potter to help him to make a pot. So he found the best Potter in the land and he said, “I am here to be a Potter. I want to make my first pot. How do I do that?”
The Potter looked up from his hard work. His hands were all dirty, and his face covered in sweat. After a moment he said quietly, “You say you want to be a Potter, but I know that is not true. In fact, there is no way that you will be a Potter.”
Well the boy couldn’t believe his ears and was very dismayed and then he became very angry and he said, “Yes I do want to be a Potter! What gives you the right to say such a thing to me?”
The Potter said, “Well, I will ask you one question and you will see that I am right. You will see how I know you are not going to be a Potter.”
“What is it?” said the boy?
The Potter took a deep breath, looked at the boys hands, then looked him square in the eye, and asked, “Where is your clay?”
You see if you want to be molded into something you have to bring something to the table to work with. Bring all of your will power, all of your effort, all of your resolve, your desire to reach your goal and as much determination as you can muster. A good hypnotist can help you when you do that, just like a good potter can take a boy with clay and show him how to make it into a pot.
You are completely adorable. Thank you for reading! Comments and questions can be extended to Celeste Hackett by using our Contact Form and selecting to send e-mail to “E-Zine & Article Writers”.
