A Sit Down with Best-Selling Author Erika Flint

 

In this episode Dr. Angela talks with Best Selling author, Erika Flint about her experience writing her first and second book. Erika shares how her books have changed her business for the better by increasing her reach and her revenue.

 

 

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Podcast: Download (38:35, 37MB)

 

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In this episode you will learn:

• 3:00 Does author funded publishing work?
• 6:41 How to write a book that makes a difference.
• 8:00 Why is balance in writing important?
• 9:40 Will there ever be time to write?
• 13:00 How can a book help grow your business?
• 18:40 Can an online course help grow your business?
• 20:12 How a book increases revenue.
• 23:00 Will a second book help your business?
• 25:20 How Erika’s book helps her clients.
• 32:00 Will a book improve your business long term?
• 35:30 An author’s advice for someone thinking of writing a book that makes a difference.

 

Learn more about author and hypnotherapist Erika Flint

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Full Episode Transcript:

A: Hey there. Thanks for joining us. I’m Dr. Angela Lauria, the Author Incubator, and we’re here today for one of our featured author success stories. And today’s author is two-time best selling author Erica Flint. Erica, welcome. Thank you. So what we’re going to talk about today is how you can take a local business, maybe it’s a medical practice, a therapy practice and alternative medicine or functional medicine office, in Erica’s case, a hypnotherapy practice that is working at the local level. And how do you use a book to leverage that into clients that aren’t based in geography that aren’t necessarily local. And that could even be international as has happened with Erica so we’re going to talk about her two books how her business has changed, and how her books have influenced her ability to help more people. Both through her books, and through products and services that she and her company offer. So Erica, thanks for joining us for this conversation. It’s great to be here. It’s just so fun. Awesome. And I should say, this is not our normal castle, you play some time at the regular castle, the other castle. This is our other castle. We call this the author castle, Scotland. So we’ve got a crackling fire here. And it’s nice to be sitting with you fireside on a foggy night. And I want to get started by talking about where you were before we met. When did you get the idea for a book? Did you try to write it on your own? Tell me before we started working together, what was going on in your business and with your book idea?

 

E: Well, what what had happened was my business was growing really quickly. And I was really happy about that because what I was doing with clients was different. So it’s helping them lose weight in a different way than what other people were doing. And so what was happening is my business was getting really busy and what I wanted to do was just help more people because the message that I wanted to share with people I didn’t see in the marketplace anywhere. And so it really is a message of hope to help more people grow my business, get this information out there, so people didn’t have to suffer nearly as much anymore.

 

A: So you were thinking, How can I multiply myself as an AI reach more people? I’m seeing the effects. Yeah, on my clients, you had clients that were losing weight feeling better, I posit or losing weight in a way that was easy for them, like lasting weight loss along the struggle. Yeah, it wasn’t, they weren’t struggling with it so much anymore. It was freeing them so much peace and happiness in their life. That’s really rewarding work. But then I thought, Oh my gosh, I’ve got to get this information out there to more people. And so I started looking to write a book. I knew I wanted to write a book. I get a lot of information from books, I love reading books, you know, getting information, a lot of ways that books are really valuable. I love having something in my hand to refer back to. So I really wanted to create something like that. So started looking around and talking to people. And I decided, well, I’m just gonna write a book. And I actually signed up with a different company to write a book because I didn’t really know what I was doing. I knew I wanted to write a book. So I just kind of did some

 

A: Google like write a book. Who do I read a book with? Yeah,

 

E: yeah, basically. And so I knew that there were some other kind of publishers out there. So I did sign up with another company. But what happened was, it was not at all what I was thinking it was going to be, I was hoping to get a little more guidance on how to actually write the book. And this company ended up kind of being like a more like a print shop, I guess maybe a better word for it. But right.

 

A: I mean, it’s, I mean, it’s most publishers aren’t helping you to write your book, right? People work with editors, people work with book coaches, but especially when you’re when it’s an author, funded publisher. And, you know, I know the one you signed up with is like very well known, but it’s actually run by an even more, a bigger company that runs like all of these author funded publishers. Usually they take your money happily. And then when you give them a manuscript, they will happily print it. And they’ll make it an ebook. It’s not just printing, like, and they do a great job once you hand them the manuscript, but they’re not saying whether it’s going to help your business. They’re not saying if it’s good or bad, like, all they’re doing is they’re printing what you give them. They’re publishing it, they’re distributing it, that is their job, right? The one thing I don’t like about a lot of those companies is they will charge you, but then they also will take a percentage of your revenue, which is tricky, like, so normally a traditional publisher won’t charge you but they take 90% of your revenue. So that Oh, right. That’s how you’re paying them. A lot of times of author funded publishers, you’ll pay them five grand, sometimes as little as 1500, sometimes as much as 10,000. And then they’ll take 20% or 15% of your revenue on top of it. So but they’re not, they didn’t you may not have known But they didn’t promise to help you write the book.

 

E: That wasn’t my goal. I really wasn’t hoping to write a book really for the money aspect as much as I was wanting to get the information out there, right, right in a way that was really, really effective for people. So that’s where I really felt like something was missing. Because once I signed up, I thought, Well, how do I actually make this most effective, I don’t want to go to all this trouble with all of this work, and then write something that is not very good, like I was, I’m an expert in what I do. But I’m not an expert in writing books. So I wanted to find the best because I was really excited about this message. So I wanted to, you know, I’m gonna hire somebody to help me figure out how to write a book that really does make that difference.

 

A: So after you signed up, did you try to write it on your own, I reviewed some of the material and I talked with the person afterwards and I kind of signed up just like I’m just doing this right I’m just really wanted to I got inspired or just signed up. didn’t put as much thought perhaps in it ahead of time. I was talking to a friend of mine. And um, so I did, I did go through the first month of it and realize it’s really not for me, it’s not the guy who said I wanted it’s very, very much

 

E: what it didn’t resonate with me at all. And it’s a lot of self study rightnhere. And it was exclusively somebody actually. Yeah. And so there was nobody for me really to ask questions of or really kind of get the behind the scenes look at what how it really works. And then I was talking to a friend of mine, and that’s when I got referred really to you because she had had a friend who wrote a book with you. And I got really interested in that whole process because it seems so much more like what I was actually looking for. I didn’t know what at the time what I was looking for. Right? Like I know when I say it, yeah, right, right.

 

E: So you want a book because you want to reach more people you sign up with one company and it’s that a couple months pass right it’s not happening, right? I just did. It wasn’t didn’t work for me at all. So you’re like, I’m gonna solve this problem. This is why this is why you’re so successful, like it was gonna be successful one way or another, you were like, I’m gonna figure out how to do this right? You join our program, and our program is not like most the way most people write their books. So it’s very different. So tell me your experience in the program with writing your book, what were some of your favorite parts? What were the things that maybe you would change?

 

E: Well, I think it was exactly what I was looking for. Because like I said, I felt really secure in my in the content and wanting to share it, but I didn’t really know how to turn that into kind of, it’s kind of like a diamond in the rough type of thing, right? I didn’t really know how to make it shine. And that’s really what I felt like I got a lot out of the program because it helped me to learn how to write a book that really did make a difference, as opposed to just like putting a bunch of words on a page, or telling a story or that type of a thing. The other thing that I really appreciated about the process was the process itself made it so easy for me to actually write a book I made couldn’t believe how easy it was to focus on those particular things that we focus on right, the right reader. And the inline isn’t the some of those, like very specific components of the process just made everything so much easier. And the really cool part about some of those things is there’s definitely an overlap with what I do in hypnosis that really, you know, focusing on those things that you want and really thinking about things like left brain style, heart centered type approach to things first, and then using the right brain to kind of categorize Hmm, so the creative part and the intellectual.

 

E: Yes, integrating both Yes, yeah. Because I think a lot of times what people do is, you either find someone who’s like, super spiritual and in tune and we’re gonna meditate and we’re gonna think about our book, and we’re gonna let book ideas come to us. Great, and it’s really fun, but you don’t end up with a book. And then you have people who will be like, okay, here’s what you need to do paragraph one, actually, there’s one program where you can write a book in a weekend. They just give you templates. And you just fill in the blank. So all the sentences are written. And instead of like weight loss, you could substitute, like stop smoking. Like Mad Libs. Right? So it’s like you could be, you can leave in the book. Okay. And so but I think it has to be both like you have to be writing from your heart and you have to have the dreamy creative piece and you just kind of like, sit down and write the damn book.

 

E: It’s the perfect balance of both of them. And you really do that’s why we have less why we talk about having that left brain, right brain type thing. So having that perfect balance of creativity and love and then like the logical side of it, okay, let’s actually get it out there and stop messing with it and get it out to the people so that they can benefit from it.

A: So one of the things that I think a lot of people who have a busy business, we have a lot of functional medicine, doctors, therapists, we have a few hypnotherapist. One of the things I think they’re thinking is when my practice comes down, I’ll carve out some time to write. So tell me how did you get your practice to come down well You’re ready, you’re.

 

E: You know, I, I didn’t really want it to calm down, I guess. And you’re right. That’s the thought it’s like, oh, well, I won’t be as busy because I’m going to finish this project, or I have this website update, or I have this other thing in my business, and I’ll get to it. And that just, you know, that was one of the business lessons that I’ve learned over time. It’s just, it never happens. It’s never gonna slow down. It’s never and that’s, I mean, it’s a good problem to have really, I mean, you don’t want the opposite really, right. So I’m not busy enough, and I have nothing to do. So really, I just have to make it work. I just did it, you know, so I would, I would do my regular office during the day, I see clients and I go home and write at night. And I would just punch it out. And I was so inspired, because I could really see that end result. So starting from the beginning like this is going to work I really it really meant something to me the whole process and how it was working and I was just it was fun. For me, so I could just sit down and write and just get out, right? Yeah.

 

A: So this is one of the big keys to I think is like, if you do all the setup work, when you go to write, you’re just writing you’re not like thinking, doing research, interviewing people deciding what to write coming up with new ideas, you just like typing. And did you find you generally rate a couple hours at a time? Or were you more of what we call a burster? Would you write like, for 12 hours straight, and then not write for a couple days? I would,

 

E: I was more of a kind of both depending on my schedule. I think you’re exactly right. Because of the way that we set it up ahead of time. You know, like, do the planning ahead of time I made the actual writing part was actually really, yeah, the writing part actually, was really surprising. The marathon writing part was gonna be the hardest was actually the easy part. Because I knew other stuff. So I just had to have it planned out. So once it was mapped out in my head, then I just knew what I was supposed to write that day, I kind of I had the timeframe, and so I just had to Just type it out and get it out. And part of it too for me. Because I didn’t have to have it perfect that first time because I knew that I had. I had a really great editor, but I also knew that I didn’t have to have the whole thing done exactly right that very first time. So that kind of gave me a little bit of freedom to just get all that stuff out and you can kind of perfect a massage.

 

A: Yeah. So took you about to get the first book done from the time you signed up with me about three months to get the book out. And then from then it was almost a year till I got into stores. I know recently. Yeah. Yeah. You got picked up by your publisher. Your book is in bookstores. Have you actually been able to walk into a bookstore and hold your book?

 

E: No, no, because I actually left you are here. Yeah, so I haven’t yet

 

A: you had your second book launch and then you came to Scotland. Okay. At some point, very soon, you’re gonna be able to go into a bookstore and hold your book. Tell me what that means to you. And then I want to go back and talk through that year. From when your ebook was out before it was able to get into bookstores, how you’ve been using your book in your

business?

 

E: Oh, yeah, there’s been lots of fun stories there. So as far as going into a bookstore and seeing my book there, it really does mean a lot to me for a couple reasons. One, just a personal reason just to just be me. Yeah, I’d like to be able to see the book there. And it’s an accomplishment, it’s a huge accomplishment, actually, to have a book written. But another aspect of this that is really important to me and to my profession is that to a large extent, hypnosis is is misunderstood. And some people don’t think that it’s really a legitimate way to help people. They really see hypnosis as stage hypnosis or the pocket watch or you know what you see in Hollywood or television. So, to me, this is really important for my profession as a whole to have this book out there in bookstores, that’s basically stating, look, Hypnosis is a valid way to help people develop weight, help people lose weight, that’s what my books are about, is evaluating people with all sorts of things. So this is really I think, helping people in general the profession for other people to take a second Look at hypnosis to help them achieve things where in the past, they might not have been able to achieve them before. So it’s kind of moving the profession forward to some extent. And there’s a lot of hypnotist out there that have great books. I’m not the first one, I’m a only one. But you know, the more that are out there, the more people see that hypnosis is in the bookstore and people are getting results with it, the more you’ll have that kind of like that threshold of momentum and more people will start turning to it.

 

A: Love that. Totally love that. And you mentioned your books. We’ll talk about your second book shortly. But both of them are about weight hypnosis for weight loss. You have a practice where you focus on hypnosis for weight loss. Why of all the things that hypnosis Can I think, you know, I use hypnosis this year for trauma recovery from a car accident. So of all of the things that hypnosis can do. Why do you think weight loss is the one that you focus so much? Not all of your energy, right, so much of your energy?

 

E: Well, I think for a couple reasons. One, it was something that I struggled with at one point in my life and so it was a painful experience to not feel good about. My body and not have the clothes fit and not feel like it’s too warm. And you know, this is uncomfortable that was uncomfortable. So it’s not the clothes. It’s me like, I don’t feel comfortable in my own body. And that’s a painful experience because you can’t really get out of it. You’re in your body. Right? Right. And so I know what that feels like, I wonder what it feels like to not be, like, not be picked, right to like, not be the one that somebody picks right? So it’s like, it hurts when that type of thing. And did hypnosis help you with that with you? Yeah, hypnosis.

 

E: So this is really the the interesting part about hypnosis. It’s not really about helping people lose weight as much as it is about going after what we call root cause, which is why are people doing things that they know they should be doing is a big part of the hypnosis. It’s like they know they shouldn’t be eating the ice cream, but then they do. They know they shouldn’t be smoking the cigarettes, but they do well, they don’t. cigarettes are kind of a different story. But at any rate, they’re doing something that they don’t really want to be doing and they do it anyway. So why is that there’s always something else deeper going on. And so that’s what hypnosis is really about. It’s address. seeing some of those feelings underneath some emotional components. I’m not good enough. I’m not lovable. I was abandoned. I grew up in an alcoholic family, I was abused, what’s wrong with me. And some of these feelings get suppressed to some extent. And then people aren’t addressing them. You’re just trying to go to work the next day and drive your car to the grocery store. And it’s painful and they tried to address them perhaps in the past, but it hasn’t been effective. So there’s like, No, I don’t talk about that anymore. I just don’t do that. That behind me. Yeah, yeah, but it’s still impacting them. It’s impacting them in the way that they do things like they’ll come home from work with every intention of coming home and having a good evening cooking healthy dinner, but then they don’t they end up in the drive thru on the way home again, they’re like, they don’t even remember how they got there. They’re like I was planning on cooking a healthy dinner here. I’m at the drive thru again, how did that happen? So there’s something deeper going on there. So it was a personal reason. First of all, sir, I really love helping people that feel foolish. shamed or feel bad, low self esteem, low self confidence, that type of a thing. But the other reason is it turned out because of my experience of just really, really good at helping people in that way. And I found some there’s some great hypnosis techniques out there. But I added all of this really cool stuff and put things together in such a way that is really effective for people. And there’s so much need so many people that can benefit from eating in a healthier way. So they don’t feel bad about themselves every single day. Right?

 

A: Yeah. So how over the last year has being an author being a best selling author, how has it changed your business has increased leads? Is it that you hear from people that have read your book, has it changed? The offerings, the service offerings you provide? What’s it changes all of the advice?

 

E: Yeah, so I’m a lot busier than I was before, even when I was busy, but I’m even busier now. I do get emails from people that I haven’t met yet who’ve read the book and some things Thank you for writing the book meant something to me, this really helps me this particular aspect of the book helped me in a particular way. My business is a lot busier, that’s for sure. Do you work with people that aren’t local? I do. I work with people remotely in a variety of different ways. Sometimes people can fly in to see me as well, depending on their level of comfort and what’s going on with them. So we come up with something that that is the best for them. But yeah, I do work with people remotely. I had a live event earlier this year, which was really incredible for people to come to this live event. And it was based on my book. And so that was a lot of fun because it created a lot of community and hold and kind of, like I said, just getting the word out there that this is a really good technique and a healthy, holistic way to really help people lose weight in addition to some other things, too.

 

E: Of course, I want to talk about that event because you did something kind of cool there. You actually recorded the event and created a digital training program right for your course. Right and that was It was really cool. I probably I mean, that was part of me continuing to work with you figuring out how important it was to do that. So I had the event, I recorded it. And I had wanted to record me teaching this material so that it would be easier for my clients. Once I learned that they were reading the book, you know, ahead of time before even coming to see me. I was getting faster results by working with them. So then I realized I wanted to have it recorded, but the issue was that, you know, a recording something live the energy is just so, so much better. And so I decided that I wanted to do a live that was recorded. And so you actually and people paid to be there. Yeah, people paid to be there, right. So you actually basically got paid to create a product that you can resell. Right, right.

 

E: And they got a lot out of it too. And so it’s just been a great experience. Because all the way around. It’s really about figuring out how to help people in a better and better way that’s more effective for them and now they have a book and they have videos that they can watch on their own for continued support. They’re like on their own What? You know, what was that all about? And watch the video again, read the book again, read the chapter again. So yeah, it’s just a really awesome way to help you.

 

A: That’s awesome. Let’s talk about revenue. Has your revenue increased over the past year? It has, I think you’re the structure of the program change, like how you sell?

 

E: Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about? Yeah, so the first month, when my first book came out, which was last July, my business doubled that month. So I actually have, you know, twice, and which was really interesting, because I wasn’t even in the office nearly as much. So it’s kind of fascinating to me, I’m like actually seeing fewer clients and making more money. Which is really important to me, because as I continue along, wanting to get this message of hope out there, like there’s a better way, there’s a different way, there’s a better way, and it’s all in here. You don’t have to buy anything out there. There’s no pills today. There’s no special foods to eat that you have to go to some store, right? So once more of that message gets out there more and more people are going to be helped. So I want to be able to make, you know, spend more of my time creating these things are going to help people in a bigger way.

 

A:And I know having a local business and having an impact in your communities important, how have you balanced having an impact locally, with also more people coming to you from around the country around the world? Or at the very least Canada, your neighbors, more people trying to come to you? How do you balance your commitment locally to beyond?

 

E: Yeah, that’s a good question. You know, I love where I live. And I think community and serving locally is so important to me. I’ve always been a local business and I want to remain being a local business and serve my local community. And there’s something really important about just being part of Rei live, right. And so that’s always been really important to me. I don’t think that will ever change. It’s just now that I’m working on a global scale. I think my Local audiences super excited for me, they’re even more excited to be part of what I’m doing because they’re like, Whoa, why don’t you do some like free workshops. I do free stuff in the community. I do stuff. I do some free talks, I do some really low cost talks for people to help him with hypnosis, I, you know, I donate my time, I give away some hypnosis material from time to time. So just whatever I think is gonna be most helpful.

 

A: What I love about this is because you’re, you’ve structured your business in a way that you have more revenue and more time. That also means you have more time to give back to the community in ways that that’s exactly what it means. And so that’s exactly the way that I look at everything I do as far as the revenue like what can this allow me to do?

 

E: It’s never it’s never about money in the bank. Like if that’s not anything sitting there, No, never. It’s more about you know, what can I do with this money really to help more people so it’s like another book or training video program or reaching a larger audience using all sorts of great cool things that I want to be able to do.

 

A: So you wrote another book about a year after your first book came out, you went for book number two, talk about why you felt like you needed another book or one in another book. Why a second book?

 

E: Well, the first book was called reprogram your weight. And the first book is a really hopeful message filled with client stories. So this is kind of my my idea of, hey, this hypnosis really works. And if you’re struggling, if you’re suffering to lose weight, right, having a hard time losing weight, then really get this book and you’ll know there’s gonna be some stories in there that really resonate with you, where you feel like that’s me. She’s talking about me, right? And so that’s when a lot of people would connect with me through that book, like, Wow, he wrote that book for me. Right, the second books a little bit different. It’s 31 tools to lose weight, lasting weight loss with hypnosis without the struggle. So it’s really kind of where the rubber meets the road.

 

A: Can people do hypnosis They’re like, can they get the book and do?

 

E: It comes actually part of the book is hypnosis downloads that come with it? Yeah, yeah. So it’s definitely something that they can do on their own.

 

A: Yeah. Yeah. And what do you think is the difference between is, is that self hypnosis?

 

E: Mm hmm. What do you think is the difference between self hypnosis and working with therapists? Well, I think the primary difference is just like anything that we hire professional for, you know, so like you could decide. And I love this analogy, because I hate painting. But if I wanted to paint my house, I could, I could paint my house, I could go buy the paint, and I’m sure it would take me 10 years to paint my house, buy the wrong kind of paint, right, right. And in two years,or I could just hire somebody to paint my house a weekend. Mm hmm. And get much faster results and probably get there, get there a lot faster, and it would be less stressful and painful. You know, Hypnosis is a normal and natural state of mind. So we all have access to do this all around. It’s just when you’re working with a professional, especially somebody who knows what they’re doing understands the common issues and really what’s going on there, then they can help you get you know, especially if you’ve been struggling for so long. In a single session of hypnosis, you can feel 6050 60% better. Whenever people walk into my office saying, Oh my gosh, I haven’t felt this good in years. Like, I don’t even remember what this felt like.

 

A: Do you have a favorite client story? Somebody who, over the last year you’ve impacted that, you know, they’re changed forever.

 

E: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I had a client not too long ago. And she started moving her hand. And she came to me for such a I mean, I can’t really say her loves which is such a really, really sad story. And suddenly, what’s happening she’s like I’m surfing. Said I used to surf. I used to surf when I was little, and I totally forgot about she’s been through so much like trauma in her life that she Forgot about how much you used to love doing this. And I’ve talked with her recently, it’s changed everything for her. She’s reconnected with old friends that she just she just kind of forgot about, like her life took this really weird trajectory after an accident. And she just she never got back. It’s just like this really sad detour. And so one session of hypnosis, she remembered as kind of like, let’s return back to that starting place and start all over again. And she’s losing a bunch of weight. She’s traveling. She’s just like, she’s reconnected with her family. But now she’s also reconnecting with her kids too. I mean, it’s a really cool story.

 

A: Like it’s about weight loss. Yeah, it seems like it’s about that’s the presenting issue. And that’s what’s painful. It is painful. They do need to lose weight. Most of them you know, self described, I need to lose weight. I don’t feel good in my body. I feel heavy. I can’t sleep at night. I’m not you know, that type of thing. Yeah, right. Yeah. But then when we get down to it, it’s not just about the weight loss because what will happen you know, to lose weight healthy, you know, it’s a couple pounds. A week. So somebody who needs to lose 100 pounds is going to be, you know, a year at least. But with hypnosis, they start feeling better after the first session, because we get rid of that emotional baggage really feel lighter, emotionally, right? And then they’re not eating the old way. So they don’t have the continued heaviness of Oh, geez, I did it again, right, I ate all that. And then you’re gonna punish yourself by eating even more.

 

E: Exactly, yeah. So they start feeling emotionally lighter and physically lighter to right away. That’s why you know, my second book is called Lighter. The whole point is like, start feeling lighter emotionally and your physical body wants to catch up to lose weight, and love that

 

A: really magical process. So there’s one other aspect of your business that sort of evolved over the last year, which is actually training right, other hypnotherapist I wanted you to share about how the book influenced that because I think the influx of leads one of the big questions that I heard the most from you this year is like what do I do with all this business? Right? Like there’s only so much of me to go around and I would like to sometimes My family and write it out, you know?

 

E: Right. Yeah, yeah when we have it in Bellingham, but yeah, it is so exciting to have, like I said, the legitimacy of my profession is really fantastic. But I don’t, I want to make sure that every person is being served in the proper way. So that was very important to me. And what I realized I’ve been training for a couple of years now, but it really took off after I wrote the book, because there’s a lot of trainers out there. And a lot of hypnotist don’t understand, you know, they don’t know exactly how to train with, right? Well, you know, then I have a book and all of a sudden, this was one of the things that came out that I started noticing after my first book. People wanted to train with me, right? Because they could see that I’m writing a book, I have a very busy practice, you know, successful and so they wanted to train with me. And you know, they didn’t probably even care exactly which method of hypnosis I was teaching. They just knew that I was successfully like the result.

 

They were the results. So they wanted to work with me, right. And so it’s important to me to continue training because that’s really having to reach more people, you know, I have to have kind of both things in place I can have the books and help the end user because the books are really written for the consumers are not written for the the want to be hypnotists they’re really written for the end user who’s sitting there struggling and suffering with the extra weight. Right. And the training is for somebody who wants to be hypnotist. So I need both because I need other people to help with this. Yeah, yeah.

 

A: What do you think makes a good hypnotist?

 

E: Well, jeez, that’s a great question.

 

A; What do you look for in your in students who come to you that would make you think, Oh, I’d send them clients? Like, I’d be happy to pass on a client?

 

E: Um, yeah, I think a couple of things. Most important thing to me is they have to, they really have to have their heart in the right place. Because it’s hard work is really hard because you’re helping people with very painful situations. It’s not something super easy, like, oh, we’ll just switch to chocolate ice cream and then you won’t need as much I mean, it’s not it’s not margarine or butter. Right, right. It’s not fixes like that. It’s it’s helping somebody be okay. about, you know, something terrible that happened about accident or sexual abuse or emotional abuse or something like that it’s helping clients move through those processes and kind of releasing that negative energy that’s really holding them back and holding their physical body back a lot of times, so much stress and tension in their body is causing them all sorts of physical problems. They’ve been living with it for so long. They don’t even know it’s there until that hypnosis session, and then it’s gone. Gosh, I can’t believe I even had that there. Right, right. So when I’m looking for hypnotist, I’m looking for somebody who is really have really wants to help people and is willing to stick through some of those challenges. And also willing and curious, you got to be curious, they really have to be curious about the mind, right? Because it’s just fascinating. hypnosis. We’re kind of on the leading edge of consciousness and a thought we really integrate on neuroscience and really cool things that are going on in the brain. And so I think, you know, we get to do some really amazing things, with clients, helping them go beyond what they’ve ever been able to accomplish. For all on their own right? So somebody who’s really curious about how all of that works and has their heart in the right place, anybody can do it.

 

A: Can you tell when somebody calls you and says I’d like to study with you? Can you? You get on the phone with them? Can you tell right away? You can right away?

 

E: Yeah, because a lot of times people will tell me why they’re connecting with me first of all, and sometimes you know, if they just found me, like, in a roundabout way, I’ll ask them what makes you want to be a hypnotist? And you know, all find out? Yeah, if they’re interested in doing it for maybe they’re interested in being a stage hypnotist or maybe they’re interested in doing some other style of hypnosis. That’s not your game. It’s not really my gig. It doesn’t mean you know, there’s fantastic stage hypnotist out there who have a fantastic clinical practice as well, you know, but I didn’t ever Okay, yeah, teach that. So that’s not gonna teach you to do that.

 

A: So you want people to know what they’re getting? Yeah. So have you thought about a third book, do you think?

 

E: Oh yeah. I think there’s tend to be there’s always going to be another book. And the reason is because like I said we are, I really believe that hypnosis is right in that perfect place on the leading edge of consciousness. So as we learn more about what works and how to help people, there’s always going to be more to tell and more techniques that really work and more things to learn and discover and share with people.

 

A: So in one year, how much has your business grown since having a book? Or it’s almost doubled, almost doubled? And can you see out if you are, look, let’s say five years out? Can you see the impact of having a book on your business on your life in a different way now than you had before?

 

E: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Because I really think you know, one of the real drivers for me really is that legitimacy and getting it in to bookstores and getting people to sit down and say when they’re not feeling well, like, they should be feeling better. I did this that or the other, you know, didn’t my doctor said because, you know, you got to follow your doctors telling you right, and it’s not working. I need to go see him, right. I need to go See the images it needs to be just as natural and normal for somebody to think I’m gonna go see the hypnotist because maybe there’s something maybe there’s a disconnect going on here and what we say like in a disconnected between the heart and something going on there, you can’t quite see it. We know it’s there because you’re not getting the results you want, but we don’t know exactly what it is. And that’s what hypnosis kind of pulls the covers back and you get to see Oh, that’s what’s happening. Okay, I get it. Well, let’s just fix it. And then it’s no big deal. You know, the fears gone. That knee jerk reaction, that knee jerk fear that you like, I don’t want to be afraid, but I am. You know,

 

A: What’s the biggest thing you felt like you had to give up with as your businesses grow? Is there anything you miss? Or that part of you is like, I miss the old days when it was just, you know me in a broom closet. Yeah, I guess.

 

E: You know, my life might have been before I did this. I was a software engineer and I worked from home. And so work from home, kind of in my comfy clothes all day long and that was quiet. It was quiet and it was easy. It was comfortable. Some days I missed that quiet, you know? So I have to kind of put that on my calendar now. But I would never trade it in for what I have right now. No way I mean this is just so much more fulfilling like on every level way beyond anything that I ever thought it would be. I didn’t realize like I thought writing a book would be something that I wanted to do I had no idea that it would be like this right is really happy surprise that it would turn into something that is just a such a big part of my life, and really helping me significantly grow my business in the way that I really wanted to grow it and didn’t really know how at the time, right? Yeah.

 

A: So somebody’s thinking, I you know, I may want to write a book, but I’m not sure if it’s gonna help if they’re like, I’m not 100% sure I’m clear on my end. Dia or I haven’t helped. Maybe I haven’t helped enough people if they’re feeling like, I don’t know if I’m ready or not. What’s the advice that you would give them go to hypnotherapy?

 

E: You’re never going to be ready is my answer. Just go do it. You’re never gonna feel ready. I really believe that you know, and I think we kind of have to jump in completely like I call it jumping off the cliff, you just go for it, because it’s going to be so awesome. You know, if you have that feeling inside, like, like, you really want to help Pete that’s what I would say why, you know, why do you want to write a book? First of all, it’s got to be kind of like for the right reasons. You know, from my perspective, as far as the results that you’re going to get. If you believe that you have a message where you can help people go do it for sure. You don’t have to be ready. The process is built into help kind of tease those things out. I wasn’t ready. I had no idea how to write a book. I just knew that I had some stuff going on up here that I wanted to share it with people I don’t think I’m that great of a writer. I just like write it out, put my heart on the paper and people really resonate with it. So

 

A: Your second book I think you wrote in like three days.

 

E: I did. That was awesome. Yeah, that was even easier because I was familiar with the process and I wasn’t worried about it at all. Mm hmm. You know, so then I just just punched it out. Yeah, it was really awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.

 

A: Well, if you are thinking about writing a book, if you have maybe a local business and you’re thinking about can kind of book help me take my local business to the next level, to reach out beyond my shores. You can go to the author incubator.com slash apply. And you’ll learn more about our process through the application process. I do want to congratulate Erika on being one of our authors of the year congrats on that.