NOTE: This transcript has not yet been proofed read and may contain typos. It will be updated as soon as proof reading is complete.
Cal: Hello everybody Cal Banyan [SP] here, back with Cal Banyan's Hypnosis Etcetera and once again I have a co-host Erika Flint. We're going to be talking about what role does becoming a teacher or becoming a trainer have to do with your own personal development, not just personal development but professional development. How does that make you a better hypnotist, consulting hypnotist or hypnotherapist? Now, let me introduce you to Erika Flint. Erika Flint is a brilliant gal. She has spent a decade as a software engineer, as a professional problem solver, just a very brilliant lady who's really helping me out with some of our technical stuff and just coming up with good ideas about hypnosis and the profession for these podcasts.
She runs a group on Our Hypno Space about marketing. She's a testimonial of having herself gone from just starting the profession to have went full-time in the profession in less than a year and a big part of that was her marketing efforts online. Let's see what else. She originally was trained to kind of normal hypnosis training locally. Then, decided that it really didn't give her everything she needed. She got her hands on our 5-PATH 2.0 DVD set and wow! Everything clicked. She started clicking, her practice started taking off, then she went on and got live training through the Week of Power. Now, she's our newest hypnosis trainer, certifying people very soon in Bellingham, Washington. How are you doing, Erika?
Erika: I'm doing great Cal, thank you. Yes, very soon, this week as a matter of fact. I'm really excited about teaching this class, a certification course. Now, let me tell everybody about you. Cal Banyan is the hypnosis celebrity and not just because of all of these wonderful podcasts that he does. He's really the authority on hypnosis. He's won nearly every award in the profession. He's appeared on both television and radio. He's the author of one of my favorite books, ''The Secret Language of Feelings.'' I give it to nearly all of my clients and they love it too. He's the trainer of some of the best in the profession.
He's still training. He's still speaking. He's still doing these podcasts. He's still just doing all sorts of great work. I am really honored to be working with him on a regular basis, doing these podcasts and just in general. He's had a profound effect on my business because initially, just to kind of expound on what Cal was saying earlier, once I took the 5-PATH training I felt like I could see and help any client that walked in the door. I had a system. I had a method. I had an idea. I can help you. I believed it from deep down inside my heart. I believed I could help everybody that came in the door and I still do. It's just wonderful to do this work. So thank you Cal for having me here today.
Cal: You are so welcome. Hey! I love this topic, I have lived this topic all my life and it is the value of teaching, so please kick it off.
Erika: All right. So as I was getting prepared to start doing certification training, I really started getting things at an even deeper level. This probably happens to you guys like when you read a book again or you learn your training again or you read things over and over again, you get things at an even deeper level. I've been teaching for quite sometime on different topics in hypnosis, from self hypnosis to hypnosis for healthy sleep, that type of a thing. So I really wanted to talk more about how it not only helps you and your community and helping your business but it helps you professionally.
I can speak from experience here, teaching things about hypnosis to the community helps me become a better hypnotist. It helps me connect with my community. I can understand, listen and hear the questions that they have. I am seen as a community leader, going out and giving talks to the community. So let me just back up for just a second because I want to tell you what I'm talking about here.
Being a hypnosis educator or instructor in your community, this is teaching community classes. I teach classes here in the community at, it's called the Co-Op [SP]. But there's other places you could teach community classes too, the library, you could teach a class to businesses. I've been asked to speak at businesses on hypnosis and stress relief, that's a good one. You can be a hypnosis educator just by blogging, just by doing great hypnosis education content like what we're doing here right now in this video content.
You could do something for your clients. You could do it for other hypnotists. Also, email marketing. Those are the types of things that I am talking about. It helps you grow as a hypnotist because you need to start thinking about not only absorbing the information and how you can help your clients, but also, okay so now how do I teach this to people? Isn't that right, Cal?
Cal: Yeah. I'm writing down some ideas, as you're talking, I want to cover. Why does this work? You have to be doubly prepared for teaching, even more so than when you're actually doing it. One of the things that I really drive home with my advanced students is how important it is to know the fundamentals because when things break down, it's often a crack in the fundamentals. I'm going to be teaching a two day post-convention course on age aggression.
I'm going to spend the first half of the first day making sure that everybody really knows how to hypnotize, get somnambulism, and deepen and test because everything else, if I just get into age aggression work, it's like giving them the icing to the cake without having the cake. So you're absolutely right. I really think that a mastery of anything is this integrating, in almost a generic level, the understanding of the principles of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Please continue.
Erika: Okay. I really like what you just said, Cal. I think true, deep integration of the principles, you cannot read it in a book. You have to learn it somehow, right? Then, you have to live it. You have to go into the real world. You have to use it with your clients. The integration doesn't happen by osmosis, right? You can't just read it and know what we're talking about here. You actually have to go and practice it. That's how you get it at a deeper level and then it becomes part of who you are. It's almost just natural, right?
Cal: Right. We move from this idea of fundamentals into principles. By fundamentals, I mean what is hypnosis? What is the conscious mind, subconscious mind, unconscious mind? What is the structure of behavior? X happens, you give it meaning, then, that generates an emotion. Then, that generates a feeling in the body. Then, that motivates further behavior and so you get these really fundamentals down and you transform them into principles. Why does the hypnosis work? And what are we trying to accomplish at each phase? Because we have the basics and the principles at a level to where we can teach it and that we are living it. Then, we just become this super confident and competent hypnosis professional, right?
Erika: Right. I love that. As you were talking about that, what kind of came to mind is that's when you can give your students the ''aha'' moment, right? That's when you are really living and breathing this. You've got the fundamentals and you are able to communicate it to other people in a particular way that makes sense to them. That's when the light bulb goes on, then, they get it too. That's really exciting when that happens.
Cal: Yeah. We are going to talk about this in a future episode, just to give you a little bit of the sneak peek. We're going to be talking about having confidence in clients, to help them change. But this having confidence because you're doing it. You're teaching it. You've got the basics. You've got the fundamentals. You've got the principles. You're integrating at this and that deep understanding, that can only come from teaching. I don't know why it is but it only comes from standing in front of a group and teaching it, radiates out into your ability to be a better hypnotic change agent with your clients.
I want to say, another thing I was thinking about is that when you are talking and you really understand the fundamentals and you really understand the principles, then what's going to happen is when you stand up in front of that classroom and people ask you questions, they're going to ask you questions about things you never even thought of. You don't have to stammer, wonder and have to call somebody else, you just apply that question to the principles. That's one thing about 5-PATH, is it's not just technique oriented. It has an underlying fundamental principle of why we do what we do, so we can just say, "Okay, that question, how does it work against these principles?" And you can get a principled answer. Good, please proceed.
Erika: Yeah. That's right and that's what I sort of love about 5-PATH because I really did get the principles. I got the fundamentals. It makes sense to me so that I feel confident seeing any client, for any reason, for the most part. All right, so why would you want to do this, right? Cal, you said something about when you're explaining, when you're teaching it to somebody, you do get it at a deeper level. I think part of that is you're almost taking a step back from a different perspective and saying, "Okay. Well, you're questioning how you learned it, how it makes sense to you and if you try explain that to somebody, then that's when you get an even deeper layer of understanding."
But moving beyond helping you grow as a hypnotist, there's other reasons why you want to be an educator. One of them, you can get free advertising for you and your business. Every time I go out into the community and give a talk, every time that I go somewhere, I give a talk, I teach a class at my business or anything like that, I'm always attracting in new people, new clients. I give them my business card whenever I go, of course. It's just a way for you to bring in more business. For example, some of the classes that I teach in the community, they are advertised for me. So all I have to do is show up and teach the class and that's kind of nice. The other classes I teach, I have to advertise on my own. So that's not free. But for the most you can get some free advertising, even if it's a [inaudible 00:10:56] launch at an office or something like that.
Cal: Yeah. When I think about teaching I think about, "Oh, teaching my seven-day course or teaching my ten-day course." But there's a gazillion smaller classes you can teach, like a self-hypnosis course or visualization course and these kind of things. I think that's also what you're talking about, right?
Erika: Absolutely, and that's what I would recommend. It's certainly easier. You know, some of the certification courses, like the one that I'm teaching soon, it's 80 hours of class time. It's 10 days, eight hours of teaching time at least. That's all I have to prepare for. You could, however on the other hand, teach a self-hypnosis class in a couple of hours. You could teach healthy sleep. You could teach stress. Stress is a really good one; stress relief. And you could do that in a 90 minute class, is what I recommend. So yeah, you could start a little smaller, right? That's a lot easier.
Cal: What I really like about this approach as one of the benefits of teaching is that it's marketing. Put yourself in the potential client's place and they're looking at maybe online or they're looking in, if anybody still uses them, the Yellow Pages or other directory. They say, ''Okay. There's these three or four hypnosis professionals in my area but this one is a teacher. This one's an instructor. This one has a podcast or writes articles, teaches and speaks.'' Wow! Then, that really positions you as the expert, the master. The other name for teacher is master.
Do you want to have sessions from the master or the student? I've got a teacher certification course coming up. We call them CPHIs, Certified Professional Hypnosis Instructors. That's what Erika is. That's why she can teach my courses. I had this one guy email me, ''Can I take the course just so I can have the certificate hanging on the wall?'' I specifically don't teach people when all they want to do is hang that certificate on the wall but it shows the power of that credential. If you took the course and just became the master, the instructor, then that positions you against so much of your competition, right Erika?
Erika: Yeah. Absolutely and I also like how you are really proving to everyone in your community that you're living and breathing this. You're not just quietly seeing clients off in your office. You are out there. You're teaching. You're speaking. You're writing articles. You're doing all of these stuff. You're really living and breathing it. One thing that I have done that works really well is clients will come in and say, ''Oh, you know, I wish my sister would come in.'' Or fill in the blank there. So one thing I tell them is, ''Hey, why don't you come to one of my classes? She can get an opportunity to meet me, feel more confident coming in.'' So a lot of times people will come and meet me, take one of my classes and then they'll sign up for sessions, for example. It's a way for you to be visible and out there for the community in yet another way, right?
Cal: Absolutely. This whole thing, for me, enrichens my experience as a hypnosis professional. This is all I do. I've been full-time since 1996. And you know what? Being a teacher, be it teaching a self-hypnosis class, how to sleep class, sports improvement class or my favorite class, the 10 day certification course, what it does is it adds a variety to my day. I don't care how much you love seeing clients. What's going to happen is the brain loves variety and new challenges. To step up to being a trainer, it is just absolutely one of the things you can do the most to enrichen yourself and to cause self growth in the profession. Please, continue.
Erika: Yeah. Absolutely Cal because that is really important. At least for me, when I'm teaching a class, like I teach classes on Tuesday nights in general. So that day I'll see less clients that day, for example. Then, I might take an hour off in the the week to prepare for that, so I'm balanced. I am balancing my personal time, my professional time I should say, between teaching and seeing clients. It makes seeing the clients better. It makes teaching students better because I'm not doing the exact same thing all of the time. It makes me a better hypnotist and then I get to take all of the learning from my clients. I get to integrate that into what I'm teaching. So it's a perfect balance of everything.
I think you mentioned this. It establishes yourself as an authority in your area, right? People start hearing your name and then, ''Oh I heard about you. A neighbor told me about the class you taught. Your name sounds familiar.'' You start putting yourself out there, teaching these types of classes and just making yourself more visible, then, you are going to be able to attract more clients and attract more people because people just know of you, right?
Cal: Absolutely, I agree. I'm going to add one more thing. Is that the last thing on your list?
Erika: Yeah.
Cal: Okay. Now, guess what? We are professionals. We are helping professionals. The work we do is every bit as important as a work that the lawyer does, every bit is important as a counselor, every bit is important as the nurse, the doctor, the social worker or the psychologist. You deserve to make a professional income. And one of the ways to do that, of course, is sessions. But the other thing is training. When you have got the experience base that is needed to become a teacher, then, what you want to do is think about the business. Also, let's say it costs $2,000, $3,000 to get your credential as a teacher and it takes the time. It takes the effort but guess what? If you teach just two people in the coming year, you've made your money back plus some.
I just wrote this up and sent it to our group on 5-PATH. Let's just say, for numbers sake, it costs you $2,000 for the credential. You became a teacher and then, you taught someone to do what you do. Guess what? You've got your money back. If you teach one more person, you have doubled your money. If you teach another person, you've tripled your money. How many deals is there like that out there? If you teach four people you've quadrupled your money. How many deals are there out there like that? And here is another one, a word you've probably never even heard; quintupled, fivefold increase of your investment. Quintupled, that's a word you've probably never said, why? Because deals like that are just nonexistent.
So five people in a whole year and you've quintupled your income. What if you did ten? Okay, 10 times $2,000 is $20,000. For some people who have not yet made that leap from part time to full-time, that extra $20,000 a year will be significant enough to make you make that leap. Or maybe you have to do 20 people in a whole year, two classes of ten people each, 20 people, $40,000. It's been many many years that I've taught as many as 100 people in a year. Now, I have trainers that train people like that. So the 5-PATH and the Banyan Systems are going out in this way throughout the profession, lifting the profession.
Think about the power of that personally, that Erika's talked about. Professional development wise, that Erika's been talking about and then also financially. It is probably the one thing you can do. The best investment you can make in yourself is to become an instructor. So work to get that instruction, get that experience base, whatever that's required of you, and then the work to become a trainer. Enjoy that growth experience that it is personally, professionally and financially. All right, go ahead and wrap it up.
Erika: Thanks, Cal. It really will enrich your professional experience as a hypnotist. That's what it's for me, certainly. So yeah, I definitely recommend teaching, educating, instructing as much as you can. So I'm Erika Flint. Thank you for joining us here today. You can find me at erikaflint.com or cascadehypnosiscenter.com or online at Our Hypno Space. I'm leading the marketing hypnosing group. So I hope to see you there and thank you for joining.
Cal: Thank you, Erika. It's a blessing to have you as part of the show. All you folks out there, I want to see you on Our Hypno Space. I want to see you on facebook.com/hypnosisetc and of course, I definitely want to see you in class. Our next class coming up is February 23 to March 6 with the weekend in the middle off. Then, we've got a Week of Power for you advanced people and it is from May 3 to the 9th. If you're not sure which course is right for you, give us a call and we'll help you pick the right one for you. If you're watching this video weeks, months, years after this, you can always get our current schedule on calbanyan.com. All right, love you guys, see you. Cal Banyan signing out.