Cal Banyan: Hello everybody, Cal Banyan here. Cal Banyan's Hypnosis, Etc. And I am back with Erika Flint. We were just talking about this. And I said you should make the bold statement, but, now all of a sudden I feel like making a bold statement. This episode is going to be about hypnopreneurism. Hypnopreneurism, it's time to start looking at the hypnopreneur. Let's start looking at hypnosis as a valid business opportunity. Now let me introduce you to Erika. I am so excited... I am still coming off the high of recording episode 400. This is 401 and we had Celeste Hackett, we had Brenda, we had Erika and myself and we gave out some golden nuggets. If you did not see that, go there now, I would put a link below, go there and watch 400. And now, Erika, she is our newest co-host and you know what? She is a true up-and-comer in the profession. She wants full time in the profession, in about a year, and she replaced another very lucrative computer oriented income with her hypnosis income allowing her to do that. And she's spoken at the NGH convention. She's a true believer in 5-PATH. She's a new CPHI, which is Certified Professional Hypnosis Instructor, which means she teaches all my courses, the NGH Banyan Hypnosis Certification Super Course and also, she can teach the Week of Power. She writes for the E-Zine at Hypnosis.org and guess what? She is coming to us from Bellingham, Washington. How are you doing, Erika?
Erika Flint: I am doing great, Cal, and you know it is so great to be here today. That was so much fun with Episode number 400 with Brenda and Celeste. I am kind of on a high from that too. So, it's just great to be here. Now, let me tell everybody about you, Cal. So Cal is the hypnosis celebrity, because of his fame in the profession and not just because of all of these wonderful episodes. Number 401 here we are at today. I can hardly believe you've done this many Cal. I feel honored to be part of this one but, Cal is also the hypnosis celebrity and authority because he’s received almost every single recognition and award in the profession, which is remarkable. He's also appeared on television and radio. He's the author of one of my favorite books, The Secret Language of Feelings. And he is also still teaching and training and doing all of this wonderful Podcasts every week. Cal, there are just so many wonderful things to say about you but let's get started on the Podcast today. So what exactly is a hypnopreneur?
Cal Banyan: Thank you Erika. I want to... this really... I've had this idea for a number of years. I've had the domain name hypnopreneur.com in case you’re wondering how to accurately spell that, it's H-Y-P-N-O-P-R-E-N-E-U-R.com, Hypnopreneur. Finally, at the convention this year, I said, "you know what, I need to move forward on this. It's the whole idea of we've got to start looking at hypnotism, consultant hypnotism, or hypnotherapist, whatever you want to call yourself, as a legitimate business opportunity. That, if you treat this like a business, it can be not only be one of the most fulfilling and exciting businesses you can be in, but, it can be very lucrative. You treat it like a hobby and it would be a hobby and it would cost you money. But, you treat it like a profession, as a business, and you can live very well. You can have a great income. What do you think of that Erika?
Erika Flint: I think that’s so true. One thing that stands out to me, Cal, is that you know what, your clients need you to run this as a business, right? If you want to do really great work, you got to look at the business side of things so that you can stay in business, so that you can do great work, so that you can focus on the core services that you are providing to your clients. Which is, in some cases like, saying, clients creating products etc., creating great content like this or maybe magazine articles or online articles type of thing, but, it is so critical to treat your profession as a business in order to help your clients as much as possible. So, I totally agree with that. What kind of advice do you have for getting started with that Cal?
Cal Banyan: Well, first, let's understand the term. So, obviously hypno comes from hypnosis and the preneur comes from entrepreneur. And it is a word that's derived from the French and it really means a person who builds a business. Someone who is a business builder or even a business expander. So I want you to think about... as you’re kind of thinking about this idea, is that you as a hypnopreneur is someone that... yes, you are confident and competent and skilled hypnotist, who is able to help people, but you’re also building a business and really, to have that kind of mentality. That's really what caused me to shift into the idea of creating 5-PATH because I read that book you've heard me talk about it before, the E-Myth. It has to do with the entrepreneurial map and they talk about what it takes to really build a business and the idea of working with a system, which caused me to put together 5-PATH, which is the universal hypnotherapy system. How about that Erika, I hear you've been doing some research on the topic?
Erika Flint: Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, and for me, definitely, it's all about... you really have to be thinking about this. You don't have to do to much planning, alright? Because sometimes, it's easy to get overwhelmed with all the things you think you have to be doing but the reality is you've got to just, first of all, keep going, make a plan and you've got to do some research and put some stuff out there. I am going to think the expectation, of course, these days, you need to have a website, a professional looking kind of website so when we’re thinking about building a business, people expect... there's some expectation. They expect you to have a phone number. They expect you to have some type of office somewhere, unless you do that kind of go out to your clients then that can kind of work, I think, for some people. But really there are some expectations. So, understanding what the expectations are, having a good looking website, and some of those other things or the... the places where I started. Especially since your website can kind of be your calling card right? And people can go out there and take a look at you before they meet you in person or before they come to your office to see if you are the type of person that they want to work with. What do you think about that?
Cal Banyan: As you're talking about it, I am thinking, you kind of had to make the same transformation I did. For me, I was living in the world of psychotherapy and I was not entrepreneurial at all. I've studied psychology and I had worked for the state... or for the county... or I was employed by Lutheran Social Services doing family therapy. And then when I decided to become a hypnotist, I had to learn all these business stuff and to expect an attitude of entrepreneurialism. And you had to do that too, cause you came from the world of being employed in the world of computers and problem solving and that kind of thing and you had to make that leap also, is that right?
Erika Flint: Oh, absolutely. I worked for a company that was like 400 thousand employees. I mean we're talking huge company, corporate American. Everybody had their different responsibilities, right? I had you know what I was responsible for and I did it very well and I knew who to go to when it was outside the scope of the work that I did. There were very talented people all around me, right? So what I did for this business was try to do the same thing, except it's all on me, right? Everything is up to me. I'm... the buck stops here type of thing, right? So if I don't like something on my website or if I don't like the way something turned out, I change ir, I do something about it. There's nobody else there that's going to do it. I'll ask for opinions and being on this Podcast, going to the convention and some of these things have really helped me grow and have some really trusted colleagues. It's just so amazing to have trusted colleagues that you can say “hey, what do you think about this?" Because you need to get... you don't want to be the lone hypnotist. I know we’ve talked about that before Cal and I did not want to be the lone hypnotist so immediately I started growing my network. So that was something that I did certainly. And you’re right, I had to go from corporate to owning my own business and there were a lot of changes there.
Cal Banyan: And, so we go from wearing the one hat, to wearing many hats right?
Erika Flint: Absolutely and there are very many hats. But, I’ll tell you something. One thing that I've learned is, I don't... I know which hats I don't want to wear. There are some things that I know are better for somebody else to do. So let's just say for taxes for example, that's kind of an easy example. I am not going to do my own taxes. It's so much better for me to pay somebody to do that so that I can spend more of my time doing what I love and doing what I'm best at, which is hypnosis. And pay them to do their job and they probably get me more money anyway.
Cal Banyan: Yeah. As you’re talking, I am writing down some notes here. So many hats, you've got to be... and to me, that's one of the things that I really really like about what I do. I love doing hypnosis and I love helping people with hypnotherapy and 5-PATH and 7-PATH, but if I did that 40 hours a week, I would go from I love hypnosis to I hate hypnosis, because it is just too much of a good thing. And being able to go and wear my many hats, so yes I can be the technician or the hypnotist. I can also be the person who is the marketer. I can be the person who is doing project management, as I have different projects that might be, getting ready to speak at the convention or creating a Podcast video like this or creating a training item like a book, an audio or video program, and then doing marketing. That is actually something...
Erika Flint: I completely agree with you. If I did hypnosis 40 hours a week with my clients, it could be tiring for you to do that. I do appreciate and enjoy the time when I get to come back to the office and... part of my job, I would say kind of a larger hat and it includes a lot of the things that you just talked about... is the content creator. So that's how I think of it. I'm creating content for hypnosis.org. I'm creating content for my website. I'm creating content for my email list that go out. I'm creating content for all sorts of different things for products, for example, right? Or something else that you’re doing so that's a big part of what I do and then marketing of course. I've spent a lot of time marketing my business. That's a big part of it. And those things really balance out the other work and I think that’s really important. So when you are able to do that and you can spend some time doing one part of the business and sometime doing another part of the business, I really enjoy that, having all of these different roles. So I completely agree with you on that. That's really important to keep in mind, you can't just focus 100% on one area of it, right?
Cal Banyan: Exactly, and in episode 400 one of the theme was stepping up, getting outside of your comfort zone. And, becoming the hypnopreneur... at first, getting out of your comfort zone is becoming a confident and competent hypnotist. Getting the right training, getting the right support, reviewing your materials, getting the training materials and then it goes into, okay, I am ready to start seeing clients. Then you’ve got to do, well, how do I get clients? You have to become the marketer and then you have to get out of your comfort zone and maybe do some type of administrative type things like... gee, do I need a business license where I am at and do I have to have insurance? And, so you just grow, grow, grow. Did you experience that?
Erika Flint: Oh, absolutely and certainly there are some things that you need to do sooner rather than later and in a particular order but, that’s what's nice about having colleagues, right? That you can say, “hey, what's the best liability insurance provider†or that type of a thing. That you can get feedback from other people but there's definitely a lot to do. For me, I had to basically learn that I can't do it all at once. Once I started doing hypnosis, I got so excited, I loved it, and I just wanted to race forward like sprint as fast as possible to get going, to get everything set up and ready to go but I had to kind of... I realized that you really can't learn everything all at once and you can't get everything done all at once. And it’s just impossible. One that I've learned is there's no end to my to-do list. There's always things to do. And on the one hand, that's kind of nice because then I can kind of pick and choose, okay, it's about prioritization. So, there are some things that have been on my to-do list and then it becomes obvious that they need to get done sooner rather than later. And that's what I do. There're always stuff to do. I enjoy doing all of it. I enjoy balancing it out and I am just really happy with all of this.
Cal Banyan: Yeah, as you’re talking about this, a couple of things are coming to mind. And that is, when I first met you, which was at the NGH convention before this last NGH convention, I was impressed with you, you’re smart. I think you were... I saw that you were really... I felt like you were ready to start stepping out and stepping up. What do you think of that?
Erika Flint: Yeah, that's true. Because I remember you’d asked if some people wanted to contribute to hypnosis.org and I had just started. I've just gotten started but you know what I said, "I think that even though I am just getting started as a hypnotist, I think I can still contribute." So, I put myself out there. I set a goal for myself. I set a deadline and I made myself do it and it was great. It was a great sense of accomplishment. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.
Cal Banyan: You are very welcome. So one thing I was thinking about is... one of the things I have on my list is networking. And you've been really good at networking. You've utilized both the National Hypnotist Convention. You've used our 5-PATHer’s dinner that's where I met you, which is every first... every Thursday night at the National Guild of Hypnotists. And you used the 5-PATH group... you’ve just been an expert networker utilizing those kinds of things that we offer you and all of our 5-PATHers.
Erika Flint: Absolutely, you got to show up and you got to pay attention to what's going on around you. I mean, I had so much success in my life just by taking a moment to read. Kind of hey, what's going on, what's offered, what things are available and how can I take advantage of it. I mean, if somebody is setting up a great resource for you, go take advantage of it. Put yourself out there. Another thing that I did was I... there was no NGH group here in Bellingham. So I started that. I'm the president of that group here in Bellingham. So, I’ve gotten to some other hypnotists in the area around. You got to take advantage of the things that are already there and if there's not something there, get something started. Because everybody that's in that group is very happy that we started this organization locally. Just... everything doesn't work out but you just put yourself out there and good things will happen.
Cal Banyan: Exactly. One of the things we just started doing, is this... we have a new hypnotherapist. We are true believers in going from classroom to clients. And Kelly’s just graduated the course, we've invited her to work at our center and then, what we do is... Maureen is going to spend some time with each new one of our hypnotherapist and teach them how to answer the phone and do things like that. And, probably one of the absolute most popular training items that we have is the video series called, The Business Start Up Pack. We’re now on version 2.0 and now what I said was... “Maureen you’re gonna be doing this, this, this... one on one work with Kelly anyway.†Let's record it and because so many of our hypnotist, in their heart and souls, they’re helpers, but they’re not business people and they don't know how to book appointments. We've now... we are in the process, hopefully, in a week or two, we're going to have The Business Start Up Pack 2.1, which is going to add three CD's, three audio's of Maureen taking this new hypnotist from classroom and giving her the business end of the deal. I've already spent ten days teaching her how to do the hypnotherapy in class. Now, Maureen's gonna to teach her that other hat about how to set up your office and then how to make appointments. And she even does... part of the thing we've been requested most is, we want some role play. So, I think there’s two meetings where they just do role play. So it's going to be absolutely fantastic. What do you think of that?
Erika Flint: I think that's amazing because I got that start up pack when I first started and that's exactly one of the keys to my success getting started, because if you can answer the phone appropriately and book clients, I would say... most of the people that call me I am able to get in my door and see as a client, right? But you’ve to know how to do that appropriately, and so that, The Business Start Up Pack 2.0 was the one that I used and it was very helpful for me. You can't... I mean, you can be the best hypnotist in the world but if you don't have any clients that's not really going to help anybody, right? You've got to get those people in the door and you don't have to know how to do everything, right? Listen to the experts, Maureen is an expert at this. I love sitting down and talking with her about little things that are going on. She always has such great answers. I think this is a great idea that you guys are doing this. One of the things that I see and hear from people... that tell me about hypnosis and trying to do this is... they don't know how to get started. They got their training but they don't know how to get started, right? And so there's a couple of things that they certainly should learn how to do and one of them definitely is you got to learn how to answer that phone and bring clients in, right?
Cal Banyan: Beautiful and as hypnopreneurs, some of us, we would like to move beyond being just the... and there is nothing with being the hypnotist in the hypnosis office. I don't like the idea of being the lone hypnotist. You can be like Erika or Celeste who have their own offices but they’re highly networked. So they don't feel alone and they’re not alone. But, then some of us, like me, I wanted to have a hypnosis center. And with the business start up pack, you can both get yourself going with the center, know how to set it up, and you have a marketing plan and then you can let Maureen... if you decide to start having staff, let Maureen train the staff on how to answer the phone and that kind of thing. For years and years, we had a receptionist that did all the booking. Now you can just let Maureen teach them by playing the audios. Okay, I don't want to turn this into an infomercial. It's just something that popped in my head about the business start up pack. As I am talking about it, I am thinking this Podcast is going to be posted in about ten days. It's going to be my goal to get that package finished so that... maybe we can do some kind of special offer on it or something when this Podcast is released. If not, it would be shortly after. Alright, why don't you wrap it up, Erika?
Erika Flint: Alright, well, thank you, Cal for having me here today for episode number 401. I am really happy to be here and if you want to be a hypno-entrepreneur, you can do that and this episode will help. Cal's got another 400 free episodes out there on hypnosis, on learning about hypnosis. And so, we really hope that you come back and enjoy watching us here, just as much as we enjoyed sharing this information with you. Thank you.
Cal Banyan: Awesome, alright you guys, I am going to wrap it up here really quick. I want to see you in class. I know you guys would be watching this a week from now, a month from now, a year from now, maybe even five years from now. Go to calbanyan.com and check my training schedule. And, for those of you who are watching as it just comes out, I've got classes coming up starting October 13th, NGH approved certification super course, ten-day course here at our center. Same thing in March, starting on March 2nd 2015. Once again NGH approved Banyan Hypnosis Certification Super Course. It's ten days here at our center. And we've just scheduled our Week of Power. It's a seven day course, advanced course for people who are already certified and that's going to be May 3rd, seven days. Alright, that's it. We’ll see you in class. We'll see you at the convention. We'll see you at solid gold. No solid gold this weekend, I mean this year... I mean in 2015 because there’s a slight change on that because they’re doing a lot of extra planning for the National Guild of Hypnotists 65th year. It's going to be a big convention. See you there. Alright, Cal Banyan, signing off.
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