Craig,

I rented your Video from World Hypnosis Day from the NGH catalog. I couldn’t believe they only gave you 50 minutes, definitely not enough time!     I am implementing a 2 step lead generation system for my site. But you never got a chance to describe what a “System” would look like.

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Most Burning Question:

I am giving a 10 minute presentation to my new BNI group this Tuesday. It is incredibly important to me to wow them. I have already set up a volunteer for a demonstration which I am very comfortable giving, but I’m not sure what to do. I have some ideas, but I thought yours might be better!

I want to educate folks on the myths and misconceptions of hypnosis, of course, but I also want to visually demonstrate the hypnotic experience. I have hypnotized my groups before, but I find that they get very sleepy and quiet and that’s not the kind of energy I want to leave them with. I want them excited an talking about hypnosis and what’s possible. Also, I am a big EFT person so I don’t want to leave that aspect out.

I want to incorporate all these things and I only have 10 minutes to do it! Oh yeah, and I’d like to do an indirect suggestion about giving me referrals, too! Any ideas of any of this???

You are trying to do too much. Even if you had an hour it would be too much.

Always follow the KISS rule. (Keep It Simple) And think of what Stephen Covey said in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People… “Begin with the end in mind”

So… what do you want to accomplish with this talk? Me, I always think in terms of

Here is what I want to accomplish with any talk I do… I want to add qualified prospects to my list so I can follow up with, build a relationship with them, and by building the relationship I increase my business. Or…

I want to find JV (Joint Venture) partners and add them to my list, so I can follow up, build a relationship and increase my business.

Do you detect a common objective?

If you think of speaking as another media to reach your target audience (your market), then the ideal outcome is to convert the audience into either hot-leads for you list, or to convert them to a sale.

The more effective strategy (unless you are a master of platform selling) is to use your time in front of the audience to find either people who may want to pay you for your services (prospects) or to find people who can help you find prospects (joint venture partners).

In this case, it would seem that find JV partners would be your desired outcome.

Now, with that in mind… I would structure the entire 10 minutes to help me achieve this goal.

BUT… you can’t do it from the point of view that they are there to help you. It has to come from the point of view of how partnering with you will help their business. In other words, you will need to answer the question of What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) for each of the business owners in the room with you.

Example: the Dentist in the room can benefit by referring phobics to you to make it easier to work on their teeth

Example: the Doctor in the room can refer the stop smoking patients to you who can’t quit on their own.

Example: The spa owner can refer clients who they notice are too stressed out to enjoy their spa experience.

And you want to show PROOF ELEMENTS of how this type of thing has helped other business owners.

I’ve written extensively about the importance of Proof Elements in your marketing, it is the single most important element.

If you want to do a demo etc. I would suggest that you have an ‘open house’ scheduled within 10 days of your talk and invite everyone at the talk to come learn more about how hypnosis works and how referring clients can help their business.

Then close your talk with an offer that gives something of value (related to your theme) in exchange for contact info. Those who request the offer will be your list of people raising their hand and saying “I’m interested”.

Follow up IMMEDIATELY. And follow up more than once in different ways (email, thank you card, letter, phone, fax, etc.)

Key Point: In a 50 minute talk, all I can hope to achieve is to show my audience an idea that can help them and make their business better/easier/profitable/etc.

I can’t possibly educate them on everything I know. But if the idea is compelling enough they will want to know more, and they will want to do business with me.

In 10 minutes, you have 1/5 the time so you need to be tight on ONE idea and get it across fast and powerfully.

I suggest you get a copy of my talk at the NGH last year and model the structure I used. It was called “How to Effortlessly Attract More Clients”

(I’ll be doing two workshops this year at the NGH, both on marketing, both on Friday Aug 8.)

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Most Burning Question:

I am thinking about writing a book to help me get more clients for my hypnosis business. Is this a good idea? What do I need to know before I start?

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Today I received alerts on multiple stories about weight loss scams, and Hypnosis has been mentioned in every one of the stories.

As my friend Mark Cunningham would say… this is a BAD Thing.

However, as Sir Winston Churchill put it:

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Most Burning Question: I am just starting out and have no money to market.  Advertising in the one newspaper is very expensive. Thank you for your information.

I understand how it is to not have much money to market.  And it’s also important you understand that marketing is essential to your business.

As far as business goes, you are not a hypnotist.  You are a marketer of hypnosis services.  This is a very important distinction.

You’ll need at least a little bit of money, if for nothing else than photocopies and business cards.

When you have little money and a lot of time, you’ll need to put that time to use in personally getting your message out.

Lot’s of people don’t like this option but it gets results.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Print up a business card and a flyer explaining about the truths and myths of hypnosis. Also what the benefits are. Make sure to have a paragraph about you and your services and how they can hire your services.

2. Get a small clip on badge with your name on it and the word ‘Hypnotist’ under it.  Or you could put ‘Hypnosis Expert’ or even your specialty ‘Weight Loss Expert’.

3. Take these materials and go out into your local community to meet people one-on-one and give it to them.  Start with all the businesses in a 1-mile radius.  Tell them you have opened a new practice, this is what you do for people, and can you leave your materials there.

This is mostly about getting to know them so they know about you.  Small businesses are most understanding about how hard it can be to get started one a shoestring budget.

4. Go out into the community and meet the people who live there.  You can go door-to-door and tell them the same thing. "Hi, I’m a hypnotist and I’ve just opened a new practice.  This is what I do.  Do you know of anyone who might benefit from my services?"

You can give them an introductory offer.  A free stress release session etc.  Leave them with a coupon or flyer with the offer.

Since women are a big target market for hypnotists, you’ll likely encounter a lot of stay at home mom’s so this is actually an effective way to reach qualified prospects.

5. Send Thank You cards to anyone who provides you a referral. No one does this so you’ll stand out and they will refer again.

6. Find local street fairs, business expos, flea markets etc. and set up a table.  Do 5 minute stress buster sessions as a demo. Be sure to collect contact info of anyone who expresses interest and follow up with at least 3 postcards or letters.

7. I’m not a huge fan of flyers, but when you don’t have money and you have time they can bring in clients.  Find everywhere that allows you to post flyers free and put them up.  Plaster the town or at least a 5 to 10 mile radius.  Coffee shops, bookstores, the library, etc.

Use bright colors like Yellow or Orange to make your flyer stand out.  Also a big bold headline like STOP SMOKING NOW – FIND OUT HOW or LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIETING.

Some cities have flyering services that will do this for you for about $50.  In my mind it’s worth the money since they know where they are allowed to put up flyers.

8. You can do like the nightclub people and put small postcard size flyers on cars at your local mall, workout gym, or grocery store.  You can also do this in your neighborhood.  Be sure not to do this when the cars are wet.

9. Give Talks!  Do a talk on the mental aspect of weight loss at local gyms or YMCA.  You can also check with any local hospital about doing talks on Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Pain Management Without Drugs.

Other places always looking for interesting talks are Kiwanis, Rotary, Lion’s Clubs  and other service organizations.  Also if you have a local college you can find student organizations who will sponsor a talk.

10. TRACK EVERYTHING!  You want to eliminate or change what isn’t working right away and spend your time on what is working.  Keep a spread sheet and track every single person that comes to you as to what they saw or who referred them to come to your office.

That should get you started and keep you busy.

When you start making money, check back with me.  I’m setting up coaching programs for professional hypnotists to help them at least double their cash flow in the next year.

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