If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you download it now by clicking on the following link:

Download the report now…

I think you’ll really enjoy it and I only hope you don’t miss the central message which is that achieving success and happiness really can be a very simple process.

The Complication Conspiracy

Make no mistake, there is a conspiracy out there in the world to make everything in life as complicated as possible. And there are good reasons for this:

There are people who believe that if they can make things seem very complicated, this will cause you to feel confused, frustrated and overwhelmed.

This means that they can justify their existence and even sell you stuff; usually complex solutions for supposedly complex problems.

And if you’re not very careful you can also fall into the trap of believing them and starting to believe that everything is far more complicated than it in fact is.

Simplify your life to optimize your life

Have you ever solved a problem and realized that the solution was a lot simpler than you thought it was going to be?

Watch this 1 minute video. It may seem extreme, but I see this kind of thing all the time.

What’s the problem with this scenario? Why do we relate to it so easily yet cringe at the same time?

One thing I can tell you is that everyone loves a refreshing dose of simplicity. If you can break yourself out of the conspiracy and start seeing simple solutions for yourself and for other people, you suddenly will become a very powerful and influential individual.

I’d love to know your thoughts on ‘The Conspiracy of Complication’ and how simplicity can cut instantly through all the surrounding noise to create powerful breakthroughs for people.

What experiences have you had with this? How have you used simplicity, short cuts and clarity to break through personal challenges and help others have ‘Aha’ moments?

Can’t wait to read your comments…

Ed

ps. I’ll be back in touch a little later today to announce a very exciting competition which will also get you practicing ‘The Art of Simplicity’ for yourself!

Becoming Unstuck – The Secret Pathway

If you haven’t read it yet, you can download it by going to our homepage and registering.

I think it’s the most practical and actionable report I’ve given you and I’m convinced that if you implement some of the lessons contained therein, you’ll have some amazing and positive results – Long Term!

If you have read it, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback – Good and Bad…

Best and Warm Wishes

Ed

Understanding how social media works will improve your business effectiveness, and allow you to reach new crowds of people in need of your services.

Stop Making Everything Complicated!

I tend to see my job this way – to explain complicated things in a simple way, so that my clients can break through their barriers and obstacles and get to their goals much faster. Maybe there are areas in your business or in your life where you’re making things far more complicated than they need to be?

People love simple explanations with stories, examples and clear illustrations.

The following videos are produced by an organization called ‘Common Craft’.  They also see their job as ‘helping make things simple for people with easy explanations’. If you’ve struggled with the concepts of Twitter, Social Media, Blogs etc, these videos will give you a clear understanding.

Twitter in Plain English

Twitter Search in Plain English

Social Media in Plain English

Social Networking in Plain English

Blogs in Plain English

How can you use ‘simple’ in your business?

I think if you can communicate to your clients, colleagues, networks of friends and friends of friends in a very simple way:

• what you do
• how it works
• how it can help people
• how amazing you can help them to feel

then you are on a pathway to great success…

Please note, this doesn’t mean you have to ‘dumb down’ or trivialize what you do. It just means seeing things from your client’s perspective and speaking the language they clearly understand.

Summary

By the way, the kinds of videos above cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce – if indeed you can find someone with the right skills to make them for you.

In summary, simple expanations work and simple concepts sell! People don’t tend to buy or sign up for things they don’t understand.

So there’s your job for today.  Make things simple for your clients and everyone you communicate with.

Would love to hear your thoughts below… Ed

He had published an interesting post about leadership with a VERY funny accompanying video.

Anyway, it occurred to me that the guy ironically labeled a “dancing nutter” in this video was very similar to every successful business client I’ve ever met or worked with.

And it’s really the same for any of you who run a business seeking to help other people and improve their life quality.

Why?

Because he creates a success, not by trying to enlist hundreds of followers but by following a simple 2 step process

1. He realizes that all you have to really do is to find one or two ‘clients’ to take a chance on you.

2. You give them a fantastic experience – so good that they want to ‘give you referrals’.

The rest, as you will see, takes care of itself.

This video is fantastic if you meditate on it and understand the deeper lessons.

Enjoy!

Ed

In a close second place, is someone arriving full of positive expectations and stories of success about what you do.

When a client comes in to see you in a positive mindset, full of expectancy, half your job is done. That’s how it feels to me anyway…

The power of testimonials

This is why testimonials are so important. Think about it, when you buy a product or hire a service from someone new, don’t you feel much better if someone has recommended you to the product or service provider?

And if you haven’t had a personal recommendation, don’t you go looking for testimonials from previous clients and customers?

Now there’s an art to choosing the right testimonials to use in your marketing and in using them the right way.

One tip I can give you is to find out what the biggest concern in your prospective client’s mind is, and overcome it. For instance, if you think they might be worried that hypnosis isn’t safe, use a testimonial in which a delighted client explains how safe and comfortable the process felt.

As I suggested in a previous blog post, if you don’t have the testimonials you need from clients yet, then get them from fellow professionals and training instructors.

And the other option is to utilize the testimonials of the rich and famous…

There are plenty of websites and blogs claiming that all kinds of famous people have used hypnosis but the problem for me is that the claims are often anecdotal, very rarely verified or officially sourced.

I wanted to get something together for my coaching clients to help them in their marketing and so what I did was commission a professional researcher to find properly sourced, solid evidence of well-known figures using hypnosis successfully.

Rather than keep this material just for myself and my clients, I decided to share some of it with you today.  Use the link below to download a research document with sourced news stories about nearly 30 successful, well known people who have had positive hypnosis experiences or said positive things about the subject. They include:

• Tiger Woods
• Courtney Love
• Michael Jackson
• Ben Affleck
• Mel Brown from the Spice Girls
• Whoopie Goldberg
• Ewen McGregor
• David Beckham
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Many more from the world of professional sports and entertainment…

This is the raw research document, so feel free to represent it in any way you see fit. Use it in your marketing, on your website, whatever you want to do. I hope it helps

Download The Document Here

Warmly,

Ed Lester

PS I know that some people have an issue with the idea of practitioners using personal testimonials. I think this is completely flawed thinking and not helpful to people looking to build successful marketing campaigns. But that’s another story for another day!

Getting good search engine results for your website can take a very long time.  One way to get listed much more quickly near the top of Google’s listings is by registering with the Google Local Business Center.

You can go there right now and enter your business details easily:

Go To Google Local Business Center

Within a couple of short weeks, you should find yourself much more visible in the search engines for many of your chosen keywords.

This also adds you automatically to Google Maps so that potential clients can find your services by searching for you geographically.

Start 2010 With A Search Engine Results Boost!

The key to getting high up in the Google Local Business Center search results and getting lots of FREE traffic, is to give as much information as you can when you sign up.  Make sure you add lots of information about your practice, clinic or business, your opening hours, address, some images, logo etc.  The more information you give the better results you will get

If you haven’t already registered with this service I highly recommend that you do so straightaway. It takes a while to become visible so if you do it today you will be getting free website traffic and new clients by early 2010!

On that note, I’d just like to wish you all the very best for the festive season and for 2010. It’s been a great pleasure and a privilege to learn, share and get to know so many of you!

Go To Google Local Business Center

If this is you, then consider this a wake up call.  Missing the opportunity to have your photo on your website is the equivalent of running a convenience store and hiding behind the counter every time a customer walks in.

You must never use a website as an excuse to hide yourself.  Your face offers your site visitors all of the benefits of dealing with a real person.  It is a very powerful form of connection, and not putting into practice this basic online principle will severely impede your chances of turning web visitors into clients.

When choosing that all important image of yourself to use on your website, here are some important points to consider:

• Your photo should make a connection with potential clients.  It should be authentic and show the ‘real you’ while maintaining your own brand of professionalism.
• Think about the sorts of qualities you want to portray as someone who helps others – for example friendly, approachable, competent, intelligent, kind and happy .
• Make sure it is a recent photo.  Yes, you want to appear at your best but also need to maintain your integrity.  That photo from the 1980s might make you feel younger, but it’s not exactly an accurate portrait of who you are now.  You also don’t want to appear dated.
• The photo itself should be of good quality – not grainy, out of focus, poorly edited or proportioned.
• Consider using the services of a professional photographer.  They will be able to put you at your ease and take a range of shots, and be able to edit or tweak your photo afterwards.
• Get a third party opinion of which is the best shot to use.  It’s often really hard to be objective about your own appearance.
• Once you have your chosen image, crop it to focus mainly on your face, which is the most expressive part of you and the part that potential clients will be interested in.

I’ve been speaking to dozens of hypnotherapists over the last couple of weeks, and working hard to help them overcome their current constraints and obstacles to achieve success in their practices.

Two of the most pressing and urgent problems in our profession are:

1. Practitioners not getting enough client enquiries and struggling to fill the diary

2. Practitioners not getting enough of the kind of clients they really enjoy working with and can really connect with to achieve the best results

Having spent so much time helping hypnotherapists with their personal action plans, I can now tell you categorically where the simple answer lies for 99% of you.

IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE AND GET BETTER AT ONLINE MARKETING!

I’m absolutely serious here guys, and I hope you don’t mind me being frank and honest with you. Most of your websites are a long way from achieving the quality and impact that they easily could.

Once again, I think it is symptomatic that those of us in the business of helping others so often fall short in selling ourselves and our services, and nowhere am I seeing this more clearly than in online marketing.

Let’s get something very clear here. The internet represents the ‘Gold Rush’ of our time. The statistics are absolutely frightening. Every day, a higher percentage of people are making the internet their primary research tool to find help for their problems.

This represents a fantastic opportunity for you to quickly find more ideal clients for your practice than you could ever handle. If you’ve recently found new client enquiries dwindling with no apparent explanation, then you need to look at your online efforts very closely, because:

Your competition is getting smarter and the chances are that the clients who would once have found you in the Yellow Pages book, are now busy signing up online with Toastmasters or Weight Watchers. Even your local medical practices are starting to get a lot cuter online.

A lot of you guys seem to be in denial about just how serious this problem is going to become if you don’t take action very quickly.

Here Is the Good News

There is still a huge opportunity for you online, and will be for a long time to come. It is by far the easiest way for you to quickly build your practice in the way you have always wanted to.

Online advertising is very cheap and measurable. This means that for the thousands of dollars you used to spend on ‘hit and hope’ ad campaigns in the Yellow Pages or on leaflet drops, can now be used for laser-focused online ad campaigns that reach the exact people you can help the most.

There is far less competition online, because many people are making the same mistakes as you and failing to capitalize on the opportunity. This means that your online competition is not very strong. You don’t actually need to become world class at online marketing. You just need to get 20% or 30% better than you are right now in order to fill your client diary rapidly.

There are low barriers to entry. If you wanted to build a successful retail business in your local city center, it would cost you an absolute fortune. However, building a website and successfully advertising it online is relatively cheap. Competing with the big boys is far more achievable online than it ever was offline.

Like I said, as a hypnotherapist, the internet gives you the practice building opportunity of the milenium, but you have got to act right now, or you will keep putting it off and over time it will just slip away, like sand through your fingers.

Here are the 7 fundamental steps you need to take

1. Have control of your website/s

Are you able to go into your website right now and make changes? Could you add some content or images, update your contact information or change headlines?

If the answer is no, you are putting yourself at a serious disadvantage. Unquestionably, you MUST ensure that your website is either a blog structure or a CMS (Content Management System), and that you are regularly updating it, adding new content, optimising for maximum client enquiries and generally keeping the content fresh and dynamic.

2. Have a clear goal for your website/s

What do you actually want people on your website to DO? It seems like an obvious question, but it’s one that most people never ask themselves.

I have one goal for people who land on my hypnotherapy website, and that is for them to get in touch with a question or to request a brochure. For that reason, every call to action (be it a text link, or a big shiny graphical button) recommends the site visitor to do just that.

There are many ways to bring more of the right kind of visitors to your website, all easily learned. However, if your website is not optimised for conversion (ie getting the visitor to take the next step), then simply bringing in more visitors is a waste of time.

3. Your site must look, communicate and feel FANTASTIC

Back to the metaphor of the successful retail business. How would you feel if you walked into a store and you couldn’t find anything, the store was messy and dirty, the staff appeared to be in hiding and when you could find an assistant, they were unhelpful and couldn’t answer your questions? That’s right, you wouldn’t stay in there for 5 minutes.

The average web visitor won’t stay on a low quality website for more than 5 seconds.

I’m not suggesting here that you need to spend a fortune on fancy graphics or gimmicks, in fact quite the opposite – simple is often better online but professional is a must.

4. Make sure people can find you

Again, if you were a retail store, it wouldn’t matter how wonderful the store was, if you were located in an obscure back street that no one could find, you would never sell a thing.

Clearly you need to get your website perfect in terms of its potential to convert visitors into client enquiries as a first priority, but then the big question is:

How are those people actually going to find you?

There are dozens and dozens of ways that you can get visitors to your website. Think about the ways that you find different websites when you are searching online. Some of the most successful approaches are:

• SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation). This means getting your website optimised for maximum search engine success.
• PPC (or Pay-Per-Click advertising). This involves getting your ad seen next to the main search engine results.
• Advertising your services on other people’s websites
• Posting in blogs and forums
• Writing expert articles on third party websites
• Online press releases
• Etc etc

Any combination of the above can propel your practice to higher levels of success. Pay-per-click advertising for instance can, by itself, create a successful business in no time at all.

6. Make your website the perfect meeting point between you and your potential clients

I’d like you to imagine two circles. One represents you (your experience, training, beliefs etc). The second circle represents your potential client (their problems, goals, values etc).

Now imagine the point at which these two circles overlap – the meeting point between everything that your client wants and needs to improve their life, and everything that you bring to the table that can help them get there.

Your website and your marketing should be a clear representation of that meeting point or ‘sweet spot’ where the two circles overlap. I strongly suggest you enlist the help of a friend or fellow professional to go through your website with the mindset of being your client. Are you clearly answering all of their potential questions? If not, it’s time to get to work and start making improvements.

When you engage with your potential clients in this professional yet intimate way, you will create incredibly powerful rapport with them, and your results will improve dramatically.

7. Establish trust with your potential clients

Think about businesses that you trust, and websites that you feel secure in buying from.

What is it that makes you trust those people? Two of the most important things are honesty and openness. I am amazed by how many hypnotherapy websites I have visited recently which do not have a photo of the hypnotherapist clearly displayed.

This is a big mistake! Your visitors are looking for help and a powerful connection. The easiest way you can achieve this is by speaking to them as yourself, and in a way that clearly articulates that you understand where they are at and that you are able to help them.

Another thing that will help you greatly is powerful testimonials. I know that for some practitioners, using client testimonials is an ethical challenge, however there are many other ways you can achieve the same result. Something I find to be extremely powerful, yet nobody ever teaches it, is to secure testimonials from fellow practitioners, even from your original training instructors.

The way forward

Ultimately, you are in a position to address these 7 steps right now, and if you get this right, you will rapidly increase your enquiries and will see more and more of the type of clients and issues that you passionately enjoy working with. This means that your revenues will explode, you will get a lot more enjoyment from what you are doing, and your professional energy levels will be sky high.

All of this means that you could soon be running the hypnotherapy practice that you always dreamed of, helping literally hundreds of clients to make powerful changes and overcome their problems. You will then be able to use your website in other ways, and build countless opportunities in the future such as selling physical products and CDs, doing more group and corporate work – the possibilities are endless.

If all of this just feels too difficult or overwhelming, then please just take my word for it – it needn’t be. One step at a time is fine. An object in motion is on its way towards its target. You just need to get moving.

One other thing. I have never had problems with online success. I have always been more successful than others in my local vicinity, and some of my hypnotherapy and life coaching websites have been amongst the busiest in the world.

However, I am far from being a technical person. Quite the opposite! The reason I am telling you this is that I don’t want you to use the excuse of not being ‘technical’; none of that stuff really matters. At the end of the day, you can do what I always do – ask your 12 year old nephew to help you.

Here’s to your future success, and please don’t let the Online Gold Rush pass you by!

Ed Lester

PS I know I can only help you so much through my email and blog tips and advice. However, I’d love to work with you personally to help you build the hypnotherapy business of your dreams. If you think that the ideas and guidance on this blog and in The Hypnotherapy Report have been useful then I want you to understand that it is just the starter. What I’m offering in my private training and coaching program is going to be the full 7 Course Celebrity Banquet!

We still have a few places left in the Elite Hypnotherapy Coaching Club. These places will not be available for long, and because of the enormous time commitment myself and my team are making to this program, once we get to 15 members, the doors definitely have to close.

So seriously, if you need help getting to the next stage, don’t delay. You owe it to yourself and to your future clients to break through into the 5% who truly understand how to market a hypnotherapy practice online.

Becoming super successful online is one of the key components of the program. That is why I chose to include a free professional website as part of the package you will receive. All in all, we are offering over $4000 worth of training, personal consultations and other materials, for a ridiculously low figure, but only for this small pilot group.

Over the course of the next few weeks you will learn how to build a powerful online presence for your practice and to achieve high levels of personal success and respect by dramatically improving your website and web marketing.

To read more about what’s on offer and to secure one of the remaining spots, go to the following link:

HOW TO JOIN THE ELITE HYPNOTHERAPY COACHING CLUB

And if you have any questions about the program – how it works, what it includes etc – please don’t hesitate to contact us through this website.

Here is the basic idea behind The Elite Hypnotherapy Coaching Club

I have broken the goals down into 3 steps. This is what I have planned for you.

Step 1 – Revenues – Get your marketing and business skills drastically improved so that you have more client enquiries and bookings than you can possibly handle. Within weeks, it’s my intention that you will be enjoying higher practice revenues than ever before.

Step 2 – Enjoyment – Start building your strengths and specialisms so that you are seeing more and more of the clients you passionately enjoy working with. This is when you start to enjoy your work more than you ever thought possible.

Step 3 – Sustainability – Making sure that your practice is set up for long term sustainable success. Most hypnotherapy businesses are simply “promotions” based. In other words, when the advertising stops, so do the client bookings. I want so much more than this for you guys. I want you to have more referrals and more revenue streams than you know what to do with.

HOW TO JOIN THE ELITE HYPNOTHERAPY COACHING CLUB

What do you actually get when you sign up for the coaching club?

A New Website

For a start you get a professional website which is worth considerably more than the cost of the program. This website (or blog) will be built for maximum success.

Most of you who I’ve spoken to in the last few weeks are struggling to get as many clients from online marketing as you’d like. This is easily fixed. The first priority is getting a website that draws in your ideal client and converts effortlessly into paying clients for you.

There are many other critical reasons why you should create a powerful web presence for yourself – More enquiries, more clients, more opportunities for training work and countless other benefits.

I understand what it takes to create a successful website that will give you a big competitive advantage in your local area and this is why I’ve added this service as part of the package.

Intensive Live Business and Marketing Training

Practice building skills are key to short and long term success and most hypnotherapy schools just don’t understand what it takes to achieve this. I am shocked at how many of you don’t have the necessary business and marketing knowledge. It honestly doesn’t take that long to learn.

The live training will be conducted by online video starting in just over a week’s time. You don’t need to watch it live. If you can’t make the live broadcasts you will simply be able to
watch them later on at your own leisure.

3 X 45 Minute One-on-one Personal Phone Consultations

I will personally coach and support you on these 3 calls to make sure that everything you are learning in the course is being correctly applied to your hypnotherapy business. This will be personal attention and focus on your success like nothing before. If you think you need a more powerful business and marketing plan with simple actionable steps to move you forward then this is what you’ve been waiting for…

Imagine having a simple roadmap leading from where you are now to your ideal practice and lifestyle. Imagine knowing at any time, exactly what the next step is and having the skills and resources to make it happen.

Professional Life Coaching Training

This is really a bonus aspect of the program but I’ve included it for very good reasons. Most hypnotherapists I’ve coached have problems knowing what to do with clients after just 3 or 4 sessions. A life coaching framework overcomes this and gives you so many options, not just with one-on-one client work but also in offering corporate and group training workshops.

This training course will give you a whole new set of tools for your professional toolkit.

I’d love to have you join the coaching club!

I hope this helps answer some of your questions regarding whether the Elite Hypnotherapy Coaching Club is for you.

If you have any other questions I’d love to hear from you. Just get in touch via the contact page of this site.

There are still some places left on this program but there won’t be for long. As a pilot program it is being offered at a fraction of its true value. And don’t forget, I’m offering a rock solid personal guarantee so that you can join without taking on any of the risk.

If you have any doubt as to my intentions in making this offer, let me be very clear what they are…

To help you become wildly successful and build the practice of your dreams. Simple as that.

If you need some help and support in getting your hypnotherapy business to the next level then you owe it to yourself to take a closer look. You really don’t want to miss out on this.

HOW TO JOIN THE ELITE HYPNOTHERAPY COACHING CLUB

Do you sometimes feel that you’re selling yourself a little short or that there must be more success and fulfillment right under your nose?

If you worry about these things or if you spend significant time worrying about:

• Whether you’re doing it right
• Whether you have enough knowledge and skills
• What your clients think about you
• How to explain things properly
• What you are going to do next

then the chances are you are just not playing to your strengths.

When you learn to really play to your strengths, everything starts to change.

• You look forward to your work day with renewed passion.
• You start to feel more confident in your abilities than ever before.
• You start getting too many enquiries and new clients to handle.
• You spend far more of your time in amazing flow states where you just know you’re performing at your absolute potential

You see, it’s just way too easy to set things up in the wrong way.

To play the game to somebody else’s rules!
When you really work out what you are supposed to be great at, and when you really figure out the right way to do things for YOU, then amazing improvements take place and life, work and everything become a whole lot easier.

The key to finding your true strengths and potential lies in clues from your past. Consider the following:

• What was the most enjoyable day at work you had in the last few months?
• What are the achievements in your life that you are most proud of? (go all the way back, not just recent)
• When did you last find yourself in a flow state or “in the highest performance zone” ?
• What kind of ideas or possibilities get you so excited that they keep you up at night or wake you in the morning?
• What do you wish you could do? (That maybe not everyone would wish for)
• What kind of clients do you love working with?
• What kinds of issues or goals do you love working with?

The biggest tragedy I see on a daily basis is practitioners who have things set up all wrong for themselves and are missing opportunities to truly self-actualize.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the famous rock/pop musician Phil Collins…

Was Phil fully playing to his strengths when he was the drummer in the band Genesis and hardly anyone from the general public could tell you his name?

What about when he became the lead singer and then went on to a solo career where he sold 150 million records, won seven Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and two Golden Globes?

Benjamin Franklin famously said:

“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”

Are you currently hiding in the shade when your true place is out thriving in the sunshine? How much more are you capable of than you are currently achieving?

I bet it’s a whole lot more than you’re currently settling for!

Please do share your feedback below. It will help you to crystalize your thoughts and where you’re at and will be of great value to all of us.