What I Learned from Co-Founding a Professional Association for Stage Hypnotists

In October 2023, alongside six other professional stage hypnotists, I co-founded the International Stage Hypnotists' Association (ISHA). Our vision was to advance the profession of stage hypnotism and foster a sense of community among our peers. Founding a professional association seemed like the right step toward legitimizing our craft, creating opportunities for professional development, and nurturing a network where stage hypnotists could collaborate, share insights, and grow together.

But the journey of building ISHA wasn't without its challenges and eye-opening lessons, and in August of 2024 I resigned from the organization. Here’s what I learned from this experience.
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How the 80/20 Rule Can Help You Achieve Excellence as an Entertainment Hypnotist

As an entertainment hypnotist, the pursuit of excellence in performance, audience engagement, and business success is a never-ending journey. But what if there were a way to simplify that journey, allowing you to focus on what truly matters and maximize your impact? Enter the 80/20 rule, also known as Pareto's Principle, a concept that can transform how you approach your work.
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The Three Pillars of Success for Stage Hypnotists

Success as a stage hypnotist requires more than just knowing how to hypnotize people. In a profession where creativity, business acumen, and mental resilience intersect, there are three foundational pillars that define the path to excellence.
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Stand Out, or Stand Still.

When the bookings aren’t coming as expected, many hypnotists naturally gravitate towards the notion that enhanced marketing strategies are the silver bullet. They imagine that a better sales page, a burgeoning social media following, or the aid of a savvy agent might be the key to unlocking a flood of bookings. However, this perspective overlooks a fundamental aspect of any performance art: the uniqueness and quality of the product or service itself.
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Are You a Professional or a Hobbyist? The Differences are Important.

I think one of the major reasons that we haven't advanced as a profession is that many hypnotists don't understand what it really means to be a professional. The defining differences between a professional and a hobbyist often come down to several key factors, including mindset, commitment, skill level, financial motivation, and approach to your craft. Understanding these differences can help clarify what it means to be truly professional in any field, including hypnotism. Here’s a breakdown of the defining characteristics that separate a professional from a hobbyist.
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The Hypnosis Profession is Cannibalizing Itself

hypnosis profession

Hypnotism is a profession that has existed for over a century, though it has never achieved significant size or mainstream status. The hypnosis profession has grown over time, and today there are many professionals worldwide who offer services to people who need them. The majority of hypnotists offer consulting services for issues of personal development, wellness, and health, but there are also hypnotists who entertain with hypnosis. There is a disturbing trend happening within the industry, and it's something that concerns me greatly. Hypnotism is cannibalizing itself, and it's time to talk about it.

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Learn to Hypnotize, Change Your Life

Have you thought about getting into stage hypnotism?  What would you leave behind in order to fulfill that desire?  If you had told me when I was 18 years old that one day I would learn to hypnotize people and make a career of it, I would have laughed at you.  Well, I'm not laughing now.

In this video, I tell my story of how I came to hypnotism as a career.

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Your Long Demonstration

Let's clarify "long demonstration" to mean any presentation you give that is longer than 30 minutes.  You might be a guest speaker at a psychology class, or presenting at a MeetUp group.  In a long demonstration, you are the invited speaker, and you will be holding the group's attention for the majority of the meeting.  The outline that follows is organized so that you will both entertain and educate your audience.

Start with a Pre-Talk

  • Show them you are knowledgeable.
    • Share some of the facts and the science behind hypnosis.
    • Tell them about what you've done in the world of hypnotism.
  • Show them you are trustworthy.
    • Talk about what you love about the work you do.
    • Use humor to deflect their fears about hypnosis.
  • Dangle the carrot.
    • Present a clear reward they would get from experiencing hypnosis today.

II.  Warm up their brains with an exercise.

  • Whole group is best.  Less pressure on individuals, yet more peer pressure to participate if everyone is involved.
    • The "magnetic fingers" suggestibility test is great for this.
    • Do not frame it as a test!
      • People fear failing tests.  Frame it as an exercise, and craft language that everybody has some level of suggestibility.
  • Use your observational skills.
    • This is not something to just go through routinely.  You are working the crowd and looking for higher suggestibility candidates.

III.  Select a working group of volunteers.

  • Use the "arms rising and falling" or the Hand Clasp method.
  • You can even use BOTH methods, if you have time.
  • If you have GREAT subjects, take advantage of it and convert the suggestibility tests into inductions, which lets you transition into your main demonstration.

IV.  Give your main demonstration.

  • This is where it really gets fun!
    • By now you should have some sense of who your best potential subjects are.
  • Induce and deepen, then demonstrate some simple hypnotic phenomena that work them through the stages of depth.
  • Finish with a Gift
    • Give your volunteers a pleasing experience to end on.  They deserve it for volunteering, and it makes you look great with the rest of the audience.

V.  Q & A

  • Take questions from the audience, help them better understand what they saw.
    • You can quickly re-induce with your best subject to demonstrate something, if an audience member asks a question that would benefit from that.
      • This also makes you look impressive, when you quickly re-induce someone, looking so casual as you do it.
  • Finish with a Call to Action
    • Make an offer to them, that they can take action on, which will connect you to them after the presentation.
    • Free consultation, free hypnosis audio download, etc.
      • This gives you a way to fully cultivate the lead, by getting an email or having a conversation in which you can close with them.

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Own a Hypnosis Business? Don’t Sell Hypnosis

Hypnosis business advice

I was recently at a cookout at a colleague's home, and everybody there was a hypnotist.  My colleague had purposefully invited only hypnosis business owners for this particular event, as a way to build some new friendships and bring like-minded people together.  A few of the people there were newly certified hypnotists, people who had gotten their certification within the past six months.  Others, like myself, had been practicing for a decade or more. It was a nice mix of people from different backgrounds and experience levels who all wanted to do good things and create successful practices.
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