Welcome to another fascinating episode of Resilient Entrepreneurs, the podcast that explores the stories and strategies behind successful entrepreneurs in the hope that something you hear will leave your business a little richer. We're your hosts, Vicki and Laura and today we're excited to introduce hypnotherapist, author and an intuitive reader from Ashland, Oregon, Jill K. Thomas.
Jill's books are The High Income Healer, Tales from the Trance, Feed your Real Hunger, and for the past 18 years has been practising hypnotherapy. Now, if you've ever struggled to overcome the personal obstacles that keep you from realising your personal, professional, or financial goals and dreams, lean in into this episode. Welcome, Jill, it is so good to have you on the show today.
Well, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here and I love that you enunciated the K in the Jill K. Thomas, because there is another author named Jill Thomas, who wrote books on Japanese and obviously quite a different topic so glad to hear you say that very well. Thank you for that, Vicki. It's so much fun.
You're very welcome. Got to get the name right at the very least.
Absolutely.
I definitely appreciate that as a Laura Bell, it's quite a common name too and there are other Laura Bellâs in Bermuda where I'm from. So I've been using my middle name Ann just to differentiate myself, just a little bit.
Seriously. Did you buy the domain? Did you buy the domain?
I did! I did! I own lauraannbell.com. Yes, I did, check me out, I have my website.
You know if I can say one thing to entrepreneurs right away, anybody who's a solopreneur and where your business is you, please go to GoDaddy or wherever you buy domains and try to get your name, try to get your name before it's gone. That way, you're gonna keep some stripper or some nude shot person from buying it and trust me do that right now, right now! Just pause this and do it right now! Just saying.
The best advice ever given on this podcast is right there. Go buy your domain!. And that is great advice, thanks.
Tell us a little bit Jill about your context of you growing up. You're doing hypnotherapy, this is what you do, this is fascinating. We haven't spoken to someone like you before so we're really excited about this conversation but we need to know a little bit about your background. So tell me, was this something you recognised in yourself from very young? What was your childhood like?
I didn't have a great childhood. Sadly I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this. I grew up in a house with a lot of violence, a lot of abuse, a lot of anger and my mother has agoraphobia and she also has acute anxiety disorder, lots and lots of anxiety. So as a kid, I was trying to figure out how to fix mom, so that I could be happier and that so that I could be safer. So here I am a little kid trying to fix all the grown ups in my world and on an unconscious level I was actually practising being a hypnotherapist even before I knew what that was - because I was trying to have conversations trying to solve, I was actually going to the library at 10 years old, grabbing books on anxiety so I can understand it. So in a way I was training way before it became a thing in my life but when I really got excited about hypnotherapy specifically was when I went to a grad night in high school. We had Marshall Silver, he is a famous hypnotist, he did a stage show where he made the most popular kids in school do a lot of crazy things on stage and I'm like, I want in, I want in. I want to learn that. Because to me it was magic, because I didn't understand how it worked. And then when you learn it, you're like, it's not magic, itâs still cool, that's really really cool but it wasn't magic, but it was really neat to watch. That's where it got exciting to me because then I could see the conversation piece that I always love doing, I was always the girlfriend people would go to with problems and the âlet's fix it.â So instead of just talking now we can fix it at the same time with this tool called hypnotherapy, which is really not that different from meditation quite frankly, I know somebody's gonna yell at the computer saying no, no, it's entirely different - no It's kind of the same thing. Just saying, just saying!
So then Jill, how did you join this talent, this incredible talent that clearly came quite naturally to you and you were deeply inquisitive about, to turn that into a business.
Well, it started off with not turning it into business. It started off with doing that as a side hustle, itâs for fun, right? So I hypnotised all my friends to lose weight, I hypnotised all of them to get better golf games, oh, you're afraid of something, come on over, right? And then somebody says, you know, people will give you money for that. I'm like, Whoa, I love money. Love money, money is a good thing. And if I have money to do what I do, then I can offer it to more people. And really the first few years I did it, it was just for fun but I got better at it before I was charging people. So in a way, it was like, it was almost like an internship. I was doing it for free for fun and then I got really good at it to the point before I was having to collect money, and being in integrity with that, and when I turned it into business, but the time I actually did turn into a business I was really, really good. Really good.
Yeah, that's the best way to get into something like that is to do it for free. Give it away. We believe that we preach that too. If you have a talent, give it away as much as you can. And then the success will just flow because you're right, the person will just unlock that information for you, Hey, did you know you can get paid to do this? Oh, really? Okay.
Really? I love money.
I got the flow down, right. Because when you go to school as a hypnotherapist, anybody who's listening whoâs interested in this, they sell you a script book, they teach you how to do it, and they sell you a script book and they say, Hey, do this with clients, it's gonna work every time. It doesn't work every time right? The script book was written by somebody who has never worked with somebody who's morbidly obese and is eating because they're emotionally upset. Right? So getting to practise that before there's money involved was actually really, really helpful because I could realise, okay, well, that doesn't work, well this does work. And I could do that in a safe space where there weren't people judging me because theyâd paid me $100 an hour, and I didn't really help them with their problem.
Yeah, is there a big difference between hypnotherapy and counselling? Is there a little bit of a crossover between the two?
There's quite a bit of a crossover between the two. I actually refer a lot of people to counsellors because if they have a genuine mental illness, like bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, that's really out of scope for what I do. Also, if somebody comes to me and they're hypnotised, particularly with, when people have these memories, like repressed memories, you'd be surprised how often these repressed memories are actually sexual violation. So we bury it, right, I'm not necessarily the right person to talk to if you want to talk about that rape that happened when you were 16 on a date. So when we bring those things up, or if they come up, I generally will refer them out to a counsellor. And sometimes we'll work together, the counsellor works on the talkie talkie part and I work on making it so the person is comfortable getting in a car again. That's the feeling, because the mind and the feeling is what goes together. So they're imagining going on a date, and then they're feeling that physical anxiety, we can do that with hypnotherapy, we actually detach that reaction so that they can get into the car, use their logical mind to determine if they're safe, and still not have a panic attack on a first date with a new person, if that makes sense.
Makes a lot of sense. Is there anything that you cannot hypnotherapise away? I'm sure that's a word I just made up, but you know what I meant.
Yeah, it was a very good question. There are quite a few things that I would rather see a psychotherapist for, or psychiatrist. I can't think of anything specifically where I wouldn't be helped. I would say that there are people who do alien abduction issues. I don't do them because I'm not, Iâve just seen so little of it that I would rather them go to somebody who specialises in it because they can help with that repressed memory and also to detach the fear, because that's so specialised. But I would say certain things that are really highly specialised like that, going to a hypnotherapist who specialises in it would be a good option.
The other one, there is one thing that comes to mind though that hypnotherapy doesn't seem to work that well for, although having said that there's always somebody who says they're really good at it, it would be OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder seems to be and I've tried, Iâve tried working with people just to see if I could really help them as an experiment, for free of course, and just moderate results at best, but it wasn't really a homerun. So it does seem like there may be something with that, that's a little bit physical.
Interesting, interesting. I'm sure some people listening are going to wonder, how do you take something like hypnotherapy and make a business out of it? So tell us a bit about creating the business side of what you do?
Well, the first thing you have to do is you have to figure out what the laws are in your community. So in my particular community at the time, I was in the state of California, I knew that I was allowed to call myself a hypnotherapist, in some states you have to call yourself a hypnotist, not hypnotherapist, which hypnotist typically refers to stage shows, but the counsellors (meaning the psychotherapists) have lobbied the state to say, hey hypnotherapists aren't really therapists, there's confusion there, they have to call themselves a hypnotist. You have to find out what the law is in your particular state. Also in the state of California, because what I do skates on the edge of counselling, I do most of us need to become a member of the clergy. So I am technically Reverend Jill Thomas, because I do offer spiritual advice and counselling. But the basic thing just applies to any business. So you go and get a business licence, you check the domain to make sure that it's not taken. Apply for the $15, I think it was $20 fictitious business name business and if you're in a state where you can do an LLC, inexpensively Limited Liability Corporation, I would recommend that, but talk to a lawyer obviously, they know that better than I do. And it's kind of just the same process as any business and then you work on, set up a Yelp account, you set up a Google account, then you beg everyone you've ever given a free session to, to give you a review. That's where you start.
Is that your primary marketing strategy?
It was in the beginning because it was all word of mouth, right. And then I put a few ads in and I will tell you in the beginning, sadly, I know a lot of people listening have had this experience, I wasted a lot of money on things that didn't do anything. And there is something worse than putting an ad in and having nobody call, it's putting an ad in the paper and having lots of people call trying to sell you something and wasting your time, right. We've all unfortunately, a lot of us have had that experience and you had to pay for that privilege, right? Usually not a small amount. So I would tell anybody in this situation, experiment with things that don't cost a lot. I will tell you that an ad that produced and has consistently produced the best business was just some $30 ad I put in the Sierra Club newsletter, right? That comes out every other month. And every time I put it in, I get a customer or two and it was cheap and it's basically a donation to the Sierra Club, which is an environmental organisation, but just a tiny little 10 word ad was awesome.
Isn't that interesting? So you're tapping into your market and seeing where people are, staying local sometimes. Yeah.
And just not spending a lot of money to figure out what resonates, right? Because if you're gonna experiment, try to do it on the cheap, everything's an experiment in the beginning. Are people really going to be interested in this? Or who's going to be interested in trying to figure out, am I going to resonate more with 30 to 50 year old women? Or am I going to resonate with men? What's my sweet spot and you just don't want to waste a ton of your vital cashflow resources in the beginning on experimenting, try to make these ads small, try to do things on the cheap as much as you can, while you're figuring out how that works.
Yeah, and it's a good tip on email marketing, I think that's such an overlooked aspect of marketing. You can have your own email list that you regularly send stuff to, but also you can tap into other people's newsletters, there's always communities that send out newsletters and different organisations and so look at that in your local area. That's just good advice for any startup small business owner, to just tap into those resources. They're there and like you said, usually quite cheap, sometimes just free, especially if you can give something back, so free first 15 minute consultation, or if you can offer something that's a bit of a give, it's even more likely to get free into somebody's newsletter. So great tip for everybody out there.
Laura I love what you just said about the newsletters because I'm a writer, so I have no trouble writing more content than anybody could ever want to read, but people don't necessarily like to write. So sometimes if youâd be willing to put you as a guest blogger, right. And that can be free if you're willing to write a 300-400 word article on I don't know, I think the article that did the best, the one that went viral that is still by far, my most popular article was like Nine Ways to Know If You Were An Alien in a Past Life, and I wrote it thinking, this is garbage, who's gonna read this? Still, by far, itâs the most popular blog I've ever written, but people will take these little articles if you'll write them for them, and let you be a guest blogger, and a lot of times you don't have to pay for that. It's not a sponsorship, as long as it's not pitchy, I'm not pitching anything. I don't care if you like it, great call me. If you don't, I don't care if it was free, right? If you don't, it was free. But as long as it's not pitchy, you can often be a guest blogger on people's newsletters.
Yeah, that's such great advice. And speaking about writing, you've written three books. Which is wild! So tell us a little bit about the process of that because we know a lot of people listening want to write a book, have a book inside of them, it's on their bucket list, or to do, on the back shelf somewhere. The process of it is daunting for most people.
Okay. Yeah. I was referred to as being pregnant with the book because what'll happen is, it'll start to wake you up at night. Come on write that thing about that dog with that guy. Okay, fine, but can we please wait until nine o'clock in the morning because I'm asleep here. That's what happens, you start to get these birth pains. I will tell you the best way to do it is not to overthink it. Everybody always over thinks it, they try to do a big, massive outline, they get an editor, they do market research. Honestly, especially for people like me, most books do not make a lot of money for the author, most books really don't, so don't overthink it. Start with what you want to write. When I wrote my books, I always tried to do 650 words a day, which is for me, about 30 minutes of writing and so I would put on like Chopin and Iâd have my cat in the lap and I would say 45 minutes leave me alone, don't bother me and type type type, type type type, and not hit the backspace button because as soon as you hit that backspace button now you're editing it. You're going out of your creative mind and into your editor mind, the critical mind that says, hey, the commaâs not in the right spot. Okay, well it's not right? You can pay somebody to fix that. Don't worry about it. Just write, write, write, let it be a stream of consciousness. Don't try to do six hours at a time, a lot of people will say I'm gonna write it this weekend, I'm gonna do this. Don't do that to yourself. Just 45 minutes, focus. That's it. That's about 600-700 words. So if you do that every single day for 100 days, you'll have a book, because that's 65,000 words which is about 155 pages, roughly. So I always tell people, if you're pregnant with a book, start writing it because things like the book get me on podcasts just like this, they get my name out there, have I sold a million copies? Not yet, right? Of any of them? Not yet. But I get a lot of clients from those books. And it's almost like running a marathon, it's something that no one can ever take away from you, it's an accomplishment that I did and I only had to do it once. Maybe I still have to do some Amazon ads, whatever but it's done and it's an accomplishment that can't go anywhere. And it's always going to be author of the book, author of the three books, author of there's a fourth one that I took off because it needs more work, it wasn't my best work, but whatever. Author of all that stuff is always gonna be associated with my name.
So Jill, are you pregnant again?
I am oh my god. I'm like, Dude, can I just have a little bit of a break because the other one just came out in January. The book is on overspending, it's not just overspending, it's our overconsumption, conscious overspending, our emotional eating and emotional spending are basically the same problem. But also the way we as consumers overconsume, the little plastic wrappings on everything that we eat, a lot of the things that we do, over consumption in general. And I think it's part of our culture here in this country, more food, more eating, more buying, more having, but as the economy starts to slide into what I believe is coming is a recession, is that we're going to be needing more of those coins and less of that stuff. And so that's where the book is right now, but yeah, I am pregnant again.
Congratulations.
Yeah, it's gonna take a while. It's a lot of work. It is a lot of work.
I want to know more. So why is this a topic that you feel the need to write about? What is it about overconsumption, what's your point of topic on this?
Emotional eating and emotional spending are really the same problem. So when I'm working with people on weight loss, what I noticed is that they almost all had money problems too. And they were just using food and money and shopping as a way of changing how they felt. So when you're healing one problem, you may not necessarily be healing the other problem. So the topic of this book, in process, is about how do you heal both of those at the same time and get to the root and deal with not allowing myself to feel how I feel, or live my life or experience life without stuffing it down with food, or shoes, or any of the emotional things that we do online, and online shopping made it a lot easier. And that book has been in the works for about 10 years, because I really wanted to do it with the weight loss book that I wrote, but I kind of just wanted to focus on weight loss for that one. The other thing I want to include in there is things about even when we die, when we die our bodies, we burn them up, right? There's this company in Washington that's now doing composting of the human body, which I think is the coolest thing and I want to talk to her and see if I can interview the person who started that company and make it a chapter in the book. But that's where that comes from, yeah.
That's mind blowing. So I wonder if the reverse is true. Let me know if this is outside of the scope of what you're talking about., but for someone who is always tight with money or there's never enough money, and they're very restrictive with their diet.
That makes a lot of sense, I wouldn't necessarily see that person as a client, because that frugalness would probably keep them from coming in, right? Because then they'd have to pay me - but that does make sense.
I know that when you're thinking about, and I've worked with clients on this issue with the flow of money, when you think of money as not a good thing, or is something to hold on to or to be fearful of, you're putting a stop on it, the flow of money, money comes and goes, it's like blood, it's part of life. And the ebb and flow of money, when you allow it to ebb and flow naturally on its own without holding on so tightly. I mean, I may be putting money in the bank and saving it for some TLT, bonds, some long term bonds, but that doesn't mean I don't see it as being in flow. And certainly if I really want something I'll go buy it or find a way to make it happen. But that's how you have to be when it comes to money, think of it as an ebb and a flow rather than even when there's restriction, try not to think of it as restriction, think of it as OK, I'm choosing not to purchase that at this time. Or I'm choosing to shift my energy into different ways. Even if it's just, I want it and unfortunately I just have to spend my money on food and not shoes, try to shift that mindset so you're thinking about it that way, rather than thinking about, Oh, I can't, I don't have, because then you're putting more âI don'tâ, âI can'tâ and âI don't haveâ in your mindset and bring in more of that energy.
Yeah, I hear that. We've been talking a bit this year about a looming recession, and what that's gonna look like, and our mindset as entrepreneurs and people that talk to entrepreneurs every week, we see it as a time for creativity. Because when you look back in history, every major depression, recession, tight economy is when creativity spikes high. Because the thing that entrepreneurs have, the magic secret sauce is that we see a need and we fill that need. And often it's a need we have or something that has been annoying us or bugging us or just in our sphere, so that thing needs to be fixed. And entrepreneurs, this is the time to fix it, this is the time to get creative. And whether that's, you have a job, but you want to start a side hustle on this thing, or you've already got one thing going and you see another path that is needed to go down that path, this is the time to really get creative and fix things. Because every business that does that, that has that mindset in a tough economy is the ones that succeed after it because they're on the growth stage where everyone else is getting tight, pulling in and we're marketers, so we know that the marketing budget gets laid back real quick. That's the first thing most people pull back and it's the biggest mistake most businesses make because all of a sudden they're not the squeaky wheel, they're not getting the oil, somebody else who still is plugging away and doing things on the cheap, like you said, getting in those newsletters or doing that social media, or doing the thing just to keep themselves out there, they're building and growing while everyone else is hiding away. What's that Warren Buffett quote? Vicki, do you recall what I'm talking about where he says whenâŚ
Everyone zigs? You zag.
There's that one. But there's something similar to that. When everyone is being tight with their money you spend and when everyone starts spending, you start pulling back.
Yeah. Warren Buffett. Yeah, investment!
I butchered it, I butchered it,
I love it. I think of people going through this right now, because I do see the recession coming and if you can start a business right now and get it going and get it moving now, imagine how much better it's going to be growing when things really are growing. So if you can figure out how to do this, with a few coins, if you can figure out how to do it using creative mindsets, you're going to be in such a better position. This is actually when my business really took off, was in the last dumpster fire recession that we had because I had to learn how to advertise on the cheap, how to be more creative, how to expand my offering so that I always had something that everyone could afford. That's something that's especially for a business like mine, try to find something that you can offer to customers that everybody could afford at any price point so that people aren't going to your website and saying oh, you charge $100 /hour, that's not available to me right now. But people go to my website and they see that and they go well, yeah, but maybe I could buy a book. Or maybe I could go to one of her online training programs or something like that. If you have an inexpensive offering that you can give to everyone, that's really the way to go. But I love what you just said because there's so many opportunities in this kind of a situation because a lot of people are just going to tap out. And so your competition is going to tap out or the people who were stuck with âthis is the way it's always been, this is the way we've always done itâ. That is so wrong and so limiting! Looking at where the market is going and figuring out how to do it.
I had a friend who had a restaurant during the cough, we'll just call it the cough, and he was seeing what was happening and started to change his menu before everything closed down to make bigger meals that people could just take it home, because he knew that was what was going to end up happening and he took the beef off his menu and started just having chicken because it was cheaper. And he knew that people were going to want that. So start to look at where's the ball going? And how can I get ahead of what's happening and sometimes it's going to mean holding coins, sometimes it's going to mean just shifting your marketing to things that don't cost a lot, figuring out ways to work together with other entrepreneurs and borrowing their newsletter list and doing group events. Group events is a great one because when I do a group event, I can charge like $15 bucks for it and get 25 people in and make more than if I did a private session. And all of these people got to have the benefit, just like a group exercise class, they got to exercise but they didn't have to hire the personal trainer. And that's really what I think is key with entrepreneurs is using that creative stuff. And I love how you just said that it was perfect. So, good job!
So, Jill, what's your favourite thing about being an entrepreneur?
Oh my god. Okay, so I'll give you a quick story. In San Diego there's something called the San Diego County Fair and around the Fourth of July, there's Monster Truck jumping and I love it. The inner redneck in me loves watching monster trucks jumping at the Del Mar Fair, usually with a very big cinnamon roll with lots of whipped cream and cherries, love that!. But I can do that on a Thursday at noon, when all my friends who have job jobs are in their cubicles selling their stuff and I'm just watching the monster trucks, eating my cherries and just loving it. But I might work later. That's what I would say is the most fun thing about being an entrepreneur, not to quote pretty women, not to quote a prostitute but I will, I say who, I say when and I say how much and most importantly, I say when and that's one of the most important things for me personally, because I don't mind working at 11:30 at night, but if I want to watch monster truck jumping on a Thursday, or Collective Soul at the Del Mar fairground on a Wednesday, I can do that. And I love that. I love that about being an entrepreneur.
Jill, you're hilarious, I just adore you.
I love that I'm the only person that can fire me. Love that too!
Oh, that's so good. The only person that could⌠Some days I want to fire myself!
Totally!
So speaking of firing yourself, have you ever... in this journey gone âOkay, that's it. I just want to quit? I can't do thisâ. Tell us about that.
Every July! No. Every July it gets a little slow and every year I go through this right in July I go âOh my god, this is hard, nobodyâs callingâ, because usually July is slower, I have less clients, maybe I have eight or nine in a month rather than the 30 or 35 I normally have. And every July I go, âoh my god, I think it's done. I think it's just not gonna happen anymoreâ. And I have to remind myself this happens every July and so I sit down and I start writing my marketing stuff for the year. Honestly, if you've read a blog or newsletter by me, most of the time it was written either in July or December because that's what July and December are for me. These are newsletters and marketing writing content months is what they are now. But yeah, no, I have every year, every year, absolutely and for that reason.
I say I can still relate to that. Because in my business too July goes so quiet. And you're like, âwhere's everybody? What's happening? Have they found other designers, they don't want to work with me anymore.â
Are they coming back?
Itâs just a holiday, relax! Itâs summer, they're at the beach, they're getting the sun, they're outside, they don't want to work. And it's so funny because it's so true. And that's a really good thing to understand about entrepreneurship is that there are going to be months that are going to be different than others and when you're ready to take the leap, perhaps you're working a nine to five and you're like, I want to get into this entrepreneurship thing, you have to understand that there are definitely cycles in business. And there's definitely that roller coaster and there'll be some months where there'll be very little and clients will all go on holiday at the same time and you just kind of have to prepare for that. And then with experience, you just kind of learn that, okay, this is normal so this is what I'm going to do during those months. Vicki and I will often do strategy, we'll say Okay, it's time to buckle down. Let's work on our strategy for the next six months. What does the next year look like? Because, it gets quiet and it's good to know that's really a good thing to understand. So anybody out there that's thinking about it, you got to save a little extra in May and June to prepare for July.
And then you just find something else to do to build. And then I think if you spend July building, August looks better, September looks better, then everyone's back in the flow by October and grinding out that last quarter of the year.
Love it, love it, love it. And honestly, when I started putting my mindset to Okay, July I'm going to be writing newsletters, I am happy not to write a newsletter. I'm happy not to write a single newsletter in July if all the customers show up. Yeah, they usually don't though. But that's okay. You know, December too, actually. December can be hit and miss. Sometimes it can be really busy and sometimes we are really slow but I plan on writing content in December usually.
All right so for all you Aussies out there listening to this podcast, Jill K Thomas is your hypnotherapist that we will be directing you to, July is not summer in Australia, in fact it is winter when everybody is home, Jill works remotely, entirely remotely. So Jill, you might have to be careful what you wish for, is all I'm gonna say, be careful what you wish for.
I accept that. Alright!
That's good advice to start thinking more global and less local, you got to realise that our summer in this hemisphere is very different from the southern hemisphere. So when things slow down here, maybe they're speeding up down there. So how do you reach a bigger audience? How do you expand into Australia? Maybe there's just a Facebook ad you need to run in Australia as your location, because you work remotely Jill, I think that's important to talk about because most people would think you would come to a hypnotherapist and need to be in person, I need to sit down and lay on your couch while you're talking me through this past life regression or whatever the thing is they're coming for, but you actually work remotely, which I find really interesting. So tell us why that works for you?
Well because it works well for the client, right. The client can have their cat on them, they're on their couch, they've got their doggies, their kids are in the next room, so theyâre not having to worry about them setting fire to the house when they go over to my office, they didn't have to get in traffic, they didn't have to try and find a parking spot, they didn't have to show up 10 minutes late and then need to go to the bathroom. None of that is true when you're doing a zoom call.
I started doing remote because when the first book came out I started getting a lot of clients from England. For some reason my weight loss book, I think it was because Paul McKenna is a famous hypnotist in England, wrote a book on weight loss that came out about the same time as mine did, so I started getting a lot of clients from England. And so I had to do it remote and then I just discovered it was so much better for them and for me, it was better all around. People are more relaxed in their own space, they are much more inclined to tell you the truth when they're in their own space because they're not thinking about âwhat is she thinking of me?â âIs she the same political party that I am?â, I don't care. I'm not affiliated with any political party. But when they're in their own space, they're acting like themselves, there's a higher level of honesty that happens too, and everybody seems to think that they need to come in but it's not really true. You actually get more out of it when you do it from your own space. And actually, it's easier to hypnotise a person in their own environment and it works perfectly well, because I don't touch people, for what I do, I'm not a massage therapist, I don't touch anyone. So it's all remote and it works really well - I also do psychic readings and for the psychic readings it is 100% better reading when it's remote. Far better. Absolutely.
Wow. Isn't that fascinating? Why? Why is it better for the psychic readings? Iâm just curious,
It's easier to tune in to them when they're not in front of me for some reason. I'm also not getting through the fluff of their.. everybody puts up a persona, right? We want people to think certain things about us, itâs our impression management. But when they're just on via zoom, they're in their own space, when I'm tuning into them, they're feeling like them in their own environment, and then it's actually easier to tune into their spirit guides that way. I can't necessarily tell you why but also if they're anxious, which a lot of people are if they've never done a psychic reading and they're afraid âoh my god, is she going to tell me that my dog's gonna die?â No, I'm not. I'm not telling you that because it's not happening, your dogâs not gonna die, it's gonna live forever. They might be nervous about that and I can pick up on that anxiety and I sort of have to wade through that water to get to the essence of their soul to get the message that their spirit guides want them to have. And that doesn't happen as much when they're via zoom. So I can know that they're anxious and know that I'm not going to have to be careful with my words, but I'm not going to get overwhelmed by that feeling as much when it's remote.
Jill, you talked about hypnotherapy being very much a trained skill. Yeah. I suspect that psychic readings is not so trained, itâs more intuitive?
No, I took a lot of classes for that. I have always been intuitive, I've always been able to see and hear spirit guides. But before I started taking training, and I'm sure other psychics will probably tell you the same thing, before I started taking training, a lot of the information I would get would be random. So if you were sitting in front of me, I might be getting a little random bits, I can see a new car that you're going to buy, I can see a job they're gonna get, I can see that you're moving to this place, I can see that you know⌠but you might be wanting to know, should I be dating Bob or Bill?
When I started taking classes, I got better at tuning into what the client was wanting to know, rather than what I was getting, random bits of information, maybe you're not interested in the job. Maybe you just want to know about these two guys that you're dating and which one's better for me? And sometimes the answer is that neither of them is any good, and keep looking, right. But that I did take maybe like a three year program to learn how to get better at it. And the big part of a three year program was really practising. I was in a safe environment, knowing if I was getting it wrong or not.
I'll give you a quick example. I was practising mediumship and this person was asking me about their soulmate. And I'm like, they're gorgeous, they've got black hair, blue eyes and really gorgeous, he's just so cute. And the lady was like, you know I'm a lesbian so my soulmate is not going to be a dude. And it was good for me to say Okay, let's tune in, how is the energy different? And I started realising, okay, I was still getting, I'm still getting a person, I was like, oh, there's like a feminine edge to it. Oh, no, no, I understand. What does it feel like when I'm tuning into somebody who's a very masculine lesbian, now I have a sense of what that's like. So I can give a better, more accurate, reading the next time that person comes to me. So that was really, really helpful. But yeah, I had a lot of practice and a lot of training, those trainings for psychic readings is a little bit harder to find, I will tell you.
I can imagine and also you still need to have that inherent, are you going to tell me that every one of us can connect with spirits with anyone else?
I think everyone else can. But it's just like playing the piano, right? Everyone can play the piano but it doesn't mean everybody's going to be Chopin, right? Some people are going to be better at doing it well than others but I think everyone can do it, everybody does have intuitive messages, both of you guys do I'm sure, your driving, someplace feels better than another, maybe I feel like I should go left here instead of right here and then you find out later there was an accident. That doesn't take any training, that's just part of your natural intuition. Particularly if either one of you have children, you're always gonna know if your kids are up to no good, I'm just saying, you're gonna be able to feel that. But to be able to get to where you could do a reading for a client that would take practice. Also, there are a lot of people who say, Well, I didn't have to have any practice it came to me naturally. And there's nothing wrong with that, I have a natural skill too, but to be able to get who's not your client, who's not the right person, sometimes people come in for readings who are genuinely mentally ill and really should be seeing a psychotherapist instead. Being able to tune in and understand when this person really needs some genuine mental health and they're just trying to get cheap mental health with a psychic reading, have somebody tell them everything's gonna be okay, you are loved. Because most of the time, honestly, what most people really just want to know is that they are loved, that they're valued, that they're cared about, and honestly as a psychic when you start by conveying that to the person, that's the most important message that you could ever give because everybody seems to forget that they're important, that they're loved, particularly when the world hands you lots of not nice things all at once, itâs easy to say God doesn't love me anymore. No, that's not how it works. God loves you.
Oh my gosh, I'm just thinking here, I'm curious, how do you protect your energy because you deal with a lot of energy and a lot of input? How do you just take care of âyouâ? What's your routine for taking care of yourself?
In between sessions, I do have a little ritual, I smudge the room in between sessions to scatter other people's energy because it's not just about me, it's also about disconnecting so that I'm not giving Janie's information to John. So I have to disconnect and send their spirit guides on the way, thank you, thank you for sharing, next! But that is actually a lot easier with Zoom I will tell you, their energy is not as in my space when they're not in front of me. So I would say if you're concerned about protecting your energy, doing it virtually is really the way to go. It's really rare for anything to stick around and if it does, I just do extra smudging in it. Okay, thanks for sharing but time to move on, guys out scoot, scoot scoot. And I've been doing this long enough so that they don't.. that doesn't really happen as much to me. But I understand people's concerns because they're always afraid that they're going to be tapping into something dark. But that's kind of unusual, because keep in mind, in my own spirit guides are the gatekeepers too - okay, this dark thing, the shadows thing that the client needs to work on is usually that dark energy, itâs usually their own shadow self, their own negative things, a lot of times, especially if the person had ever been a drug addict, that shadow will actually look to me, it looks like the Grim Reaper sometimes, but it really is just a drug addiction that they're not managing. And so for me, it's helpful to see that so I can hand them that information, Hey, I know that there may be some experimenting, it's time to start to look for a way to heal that because it's not helping you and your guides really want you to let that go so that you can move on to the next amazing thing that's been waiting in the wings for you. But yeah, it's not as scary as you might think.
Fascinating. Jill, what is your proudest moment? In business, or in life?
Oh, that's a good one. Ah, probably that third book. That third book was the one, I self published the third book, because the second book which had a publisher, it does have publishers, Ozark Mountain publishing published my second book, Tales from the Trance, which I love, I'm grateful for that. But I will tell you that as an entrepreneur, I'm also a bit of a control freak and I realised that having a publisher wasn't as ideal for me, because I couldn't say when it was published, I couldn't say what the cover was, I couldn't say what the title was, I didn't have a lot of say, and I want to have a lot of say. So that third book, the cover was beautiful, the title was beautiful, I love the typesetting. To me, that was probably my proudest moment because I gave birth to this thing and I feel like it's just perfect and I'm excited about it. And I wasn't necessarily sure that I was as excited about the first two books because I feel like there was other hands adjusting it and making changes and the finished product wasn't necessarily as amazing as I wanted it to be. But with this third one, I felt like it was really amazing. So yeah, that's it.
And we should remind people that they can get it on Amazon.
Absolutely! I would encourage that, because they're great books! Particularly the third one.
So what is your third one? Is that the High Income Healer?
The High Income Healer! Yeah, we've spent a lot, everybody thinks the title would just come to you but we spent a lot of time fussing with the title, especially the word healer, because healers a little triggering. A lot of people don't think of themselves as healers but the high income person who does intuitive energy as part of their work didn't really resonate very well. So I had to encapsulate into one word so we settled on a healer. But yes, that's where I explain, start to finish, how to get into the mindset of creating a healing art business because people who use their intuition in their business, like I do, have a little bit different concerns than most people. And honestly, just like myself, the energy and the thought process around being a business owner is very different than being an employee and you have to learn how to do both well. I will tell you, starting a business made me a far better employee because I started to realise that every little thing had a cost to it and I started to appreciate my boss a lot more because in the past, I would think holidays, Iâm entitled to that. Sick pay, Iâm entitled to all of that and I saw those as entitlements, things I was entitled to, but now I can see, they each have a cost. My boss worked on Christmas and New Year's because there was work to be done. And I didn't, I had that time off and I was getting paid and they weren't. And I in the past, I might have resented it, how an employer would make more money than I would but now I can see, okay, they're taking the lion's share of the risk. And they're also, they should take the lion's share of rewards, too. There's just definitely a different mindset and that book gets into how to shift that mindset so you can be successful.
Yeah, successful in the healing space, too. Because, yeah, I think it such a giving space, I think healers naturally have that, that give in them because they want to help, they want to heal, they want to make people better. And it's really hard to marry that with business and understanding your own economics and how to be financially stable yourself and why you need to be, right? Because I think some people just want to constantly give but if you don't have enough to sustain yourself, that canât continue, right.
As you know, I always tell people, I always tell people, when you're starting this kind of business, think about it in terms of.. I'm accepting money for my services, so that I can do this from a nice safe place so that I can have a nice car so I'm not worried about putting food on the table and the universe does require an exchange. When somebody brings a problem to me and says, How do I fix this? The universe requires an offering, right? Even when you go to church or temple, you're giving an offering, I bring my problems to this sacred space and there's an offering, whatever you put a couple bucks in the bucket right? To have spirits help change that problem into something lighter and more beautiful. So the universe does require that, so not charging for your services is really not beneficial to the customer either because they need to have a little bit of skin in the game. Part of being in a space of love is saying, I charge for my services, I have to accept payment for my services.
I'll give you a quick example. I go on hikes a lot, I like to go hiking and sometimes I'll go on these meetup hikes and people come up to me and want to tell me all their, Oh, my God, you're a hypnotherapist I've got this problem. And I have to stop them and say, here, here's my card, I do this for a living, book an appointment, because the space that we're in, it's not really appropriate to be talking about how their husband's cheating on them around other people, they're not really going to get the healing that they would get by making an appointment. But also, I'm there to hike, I'm off, I'm off, right? I'd be happy to tell you about it. And I'm happy to tell you how to make an appointment and how it can help you. But when we're talking about what the problem really is that needs to be done in sacred space, where sacred space has been declared, and where the session, the conversation gets to be about you and nobody's listening. Does that make sense?
Makes so much sense and that boundary is so clear when you do that, when you say that.
A stop sign, a business card is a stop sign. Anybody who has a business right now and people are coming up to you constantly and telling you all of their problems, get a business card and start playing with, Hey, this is what I do for a living, it's not really appropriate for us to be talking about this at the grocery store in line with all these people, who may not be emotionally equipped to hear your problems, I mean, that's important to say to people, right? So make an appointment, bam, they may not do it, but at least you've said, here's a stop sign, I get paid for my services, you wouldn't go up to a doctor that you met in a grocery store and tell them all of your problems and ask for their advice for free. You wouldn't expect to do that. People need to learn how to set a boundary when it comes to that, in a kind and respectful way.
I love that, a business card is a stop sign.
Yes, it is. Stop and make an appointment.
Definitely respect and respect. And people need to remember to respect professionals, because you are professional in what you do.
It starts with us though, demanding that respect too, quite frankly.
100%. So we have to ask you one final question, because we ask all of our guests this question - weâre on Resilient Entrepreneurs, so we must ask you, what does the word resilience mean to you?
I would say the ability to pivot. As an entrepreneur you have to learn how to say oh my gosh, there's no customers buying this product, maybe I should pivot and offer something that more people are interested in, the ability to make adjustments and changes when you need to, but also not seeing, like we talked about in July, not seeing the July slowdown is an indication that you're supposed to stop, oh, my God, God doesn't want me to do this business because she hasn't sent me any clients. Right? That's not what it means. It means maybe you need to make some adjustments to your messaging, maybe you need to do 10 times as much messaging as you're actually doing, which is, quite frankly, usually what's going on. Or maybe you need to adjust your prices. Or maybe what you're doing isn't resonating with the public or maybe the public who wants your message isn't able to find it, there's usually something you need to do. But resilience really means just the ability to understand that there's more going on here and saying, Look, I'm not stopping because the indications are that it's not working, I'm just going to make adjustments to figure out what does work.
Yeah, and maybe it's not personal.
It's never personal. It's never personal. But I know we always think it is though, right? Because it's, the only person we can change in the story is us. So it must be me. We don't love me. It's not true. It's not true. It just means that maybe they're not getting the right message.
Ah, such great sage, perfect advice to end on, to pivot when we need to be open. And this has been a very open minded conversation, and I wasn't sure what to expect when you came on the show, and I didn't know how this conversation was gonna go. And I think it's just been so full of incredible advice about leaning into our own intuition and creating those boundaries and business, I think it's so key. Not taking things personal, but being always open to the world and everything that is out there. And it's been amazing. So if anybody wants to book a session, hypnotherapy, there's Jill K Thomas, we will of course include your information in the show notes where people can find you and she works remotely. So anybody anywhere in the world, you can make sure she's awake because timezone, timezone issues. But absolutely, it's been incredible. Thank you so much, Jill, we really, really appreciate your time today. This was such an awesome, enlightening conversation.
Thanks for having me. And thanks for what you guys do because what you guys do is so important. It really is the age of the entrepreneur right now, especially if we start to head into an economic dumpster fire which is what I think we're doing. Everybody, everybody needs to have a side hustle because your boss should not be the only reason you get food on your table. You have to be able to make it yourself, even if you're doing that while you're doing a job. It really is the age of the entrepreneur so I'm really glad you're doing this.
Your fabulous Jill!. Thank you.
Thanks so much, guys. Thanks, take care. Appreciate you guys!
