Elvis will I suspect be remembered as one of the great singer songwriters along with David Bowie and a few others from the golden era of 60s and 70s. He has written countless songs and has the skill to create memorable musical hooks with thought provoking lyrics. He also has a great sense of humour memorably appearing on “Frasier” as a busker and was host on the excellent Canadian Spectacle TV show which had all manner of great hosts including Bono, Richard Thompson and Bruce Springsteen among many others. His father was an experience jazz musician and Elvis clearly has a great love and knowledge of music. It’s easy to forget just how many excellent songs he has written over the decades. He has also had some excellent collaborations with other super writers and musicians including Alan Toussaint and Bert Bacharach.

Last night I saw him play in Manchester as part of “The Revolver Tour” show. He played for two and a half hours and a great number of the chosen songs were decided by audience members spinning the wheel of songs. This was much like old fashioned music hall entertainment and Elvis was clearly enjoying himself. I have seen many gigs over the decades and this was one of the best, a master class in entertainment and holding audience attention. In the ear of X Factor and such shows it’s great to see examples of singer songwriters maintaining audience interest for decades and still displaying great create skills in songwriting and performance.

Facebook is a business
Facebook of course is a major player in social networking and a business. All businesses need income streams. Like many people I use FB for a number of different reasons. I am however acutely aware that the FB customer is the advertiser, NOT the end user. The advertisers generate income for the business. Today I read this BBC report online which I thought was very interesting and also pretty inevitable.

Facebook has started testing a system that lets users pay to highlight or promote posts. By paying a small fee users can ensure that information they post on the social network is more visible to friends, family and colleagues. The tests are being carried out among the social network's users in New Zealand. Facebook said the goal was to see if users were interested in paying to flag up their information. The tests of the "pay to promote" system were discovered by a Facebook user in Whangarei, reported New Zealand's news magazine Stuff. At first, said Stuff, the user thought the offer to pay to promote a post was a con trick.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to the BBC the offer was genuine.

"We're constantly testing new features across the site," said the spokesperson. "This particular test is simply to gauge people's interest in this method of sharing with their friends."
Different methods of highlighting posts were being tested, said the spokesperson. These would see a range of charges being levied to make posts more visible. Comments on the tests suggest the highest price being charged was £1.25 ($2) while others cost 25p or 50p.”

Hysterically many FB users are outraged when they discover FB decides to change its format. They forget FB is a business and a business that is about to float on Wall Street!

The Independent newspaper in the UK reported

The “highlight” option, which pops up beside the “Like” button, guarantees that a promoted post will appear higher in news feeds, stay visible for longer and appear to more friends.
Response to the “pay-for-popularity” offer, which comes days before Facebook's Wall Street flotation, expected to value the social network at up to $96 billion, was mixed.
Users feared that it could undermine the site’s news feed’s sorting algorithm, designed to spread posts from friends that have received genuine “likes” and “comments”. Promoted posts could result in a deluge of unwanted commercial spam messages.

Anything you say can be taken down and used against you…

FB like Twitter is a medium which is very popular in recent years. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been reported as saying that the focus for FB as a business is to focus on mobile communication use of FB. In this era of 3G, IPhones and Galaxy phones it’s clear that mobile communications are big business. Often people will be texting, taking photos and posting to FB, without a second (or maybe first?) thought. This can create all manner of ill-considered posts. I remember talking to a colleague about one “NLP Master Trainer” who was endlessly posting about her fraught love life on FB.

Other examples of ill-considered posts are when a group of people become very excited online and post a series of comments that can look totally bizarre. Now I personally have no problems with eccentric views, BUT often some groups post comments which are totally incongruent with what they are trying to present either personally or as a business and they can unintentionally create a really odd image for themselves.

Group thought, no thought?

FB and many similar online forums can encourage a group type mentality where people forget to use individual discrimination. This is evident in lots of forums where people actually become quite delusional in their behaviours. I have previously blogged about the new breed of marketing gurus, but there are many other examples of group thinking where people engage in behaviours that ultimately create big problems for themselves and others. Once again the nature of this new medium of “instant communication” can result in acting in haste, but repenting at leisure…

Robert Anton Wilson, Amazon and product income from products
The last decade has seen the passing of a number of notable figures in the world of personal change. This included Robert Anton Wilson among others. Robert Anton Wilson is a very established author and has co presented with Richard Bandler. In his last few months there was a public appeal for donations to help him as he was apparently in financial dire straits. I was happy to contribute as I had enjoyed his material, but it did make me wonder about how such an established figure could be apparently so financially disadvantaged.
Years ago I had lunch with a respected writer who had two published books. During the conversation he told me about the total income for the writing which I thought was the royalties for each quarter. I was quite shocked when he told me that this was for a five year period! My point is that authors as well as presenters often don’t make the kind of income many of us might imagine. Paul McKenna has written some bestselling books, but he is the exception to the rule and of course he had an extensive career prior to being involved in the world of NLP. Others who have tried to emulate his style almost to the point of blatant plagiarism have not had such success in the marketplace.
Online major stores like Amazon will frequently carry literally just a couple of copies of a DVD or CD from a trainer or practitioner. This is far less than many people might imagine. In 2007 I told a well-known USA NLP trainer that to date I had sold over 2000 copies of my “Adventures of Well Being Now” CD and he was amazed by this sales figure. That particular CD was a good income generator sold at full price at £18, but of course the trade figure is far less. I ran an initial pressing of 1000 glass mastered CDs of this title which at that time cost me around one pound sterling per CD. Of course this kind of volume pressing is always a gamble. Some titles just don’t sell in the anticipated quantities and I know of one NLPer who had an attic full of his “instant confidence products” that he couldn’t shift. Even though he couldn’t sell them he actually then thought he could set up an affiliate sales programme for others to sell this product! Needless to say there were no takers for his offer! Of course if you produce products of real quality that people want then the margin even to trade can be great and products sell well at events. I know of one training where they sold £70,000 worth of products in just a few days…

Building a private practice
I regularly get asked about how to build a private therapy practice. NLP and personal development training courses don’t in my experience teach the business skills needed for this. Some people have noticed this gap and have set up businesses offering “business and marketing coaching” The problem with many such offerings is that these self-proclaimed “gurus” have very little or no experience themselves. Often the subsequent boot camps and super conferences don’t equip the practitioner with the necessary skills to build and generate a client base to provide regular income. It takes time to build any kind of holistic or therapeutic practice. It’s also important to build a reputation that consistently generates client interest. A great deal of building a successful business is being aware of customer needs and paying attention to potential opportunities. It’s also important to have multiple sources of income and the most successful people I know who see private clients, also have products and/or run trainings. They also don’t over promise what they can deliver and behave ethically in business when working with others.

Training scenarios and feeling like a penguin
Some people think that running trainings is a great way to become wealthy. One NLP student from Sheffield decided that he was going to become an NLP trainer after doing his practitioner and master practitioner courses. He was financially stretched but thought he could put the whole cost of the training (around 4.5k with travel and accommodation) on his visa card. I strongly suggested he wait until he was in a more financially secure position and that IMO the market was changing with a decline in interest. He went ahead and travelled to the USA to get his certificate, but never ran a single course. Often when people attend courses they see a room full of delegates and think “Wow, I could earn a great living doing this.” What they don’t always appreciate is that there can be a big marketing cost to generating an audience and there are many hidden costs in putting on an event. To quote a famous line from Blackadder “I feel like a penguin, everywhere I look there’s a bill in front of me!” Some promoters of events can be wildly optimistic in their business expectations and many in NLP will know that in recent years one of the biggest London based companies went into liquidation. The company was quickly phoenixed and is still running events with new terms and conditions, which I always advise people to read before booking. When I ran NLP courses a reasonable hotel would typically cost £500 a day and then of course there were marketing costs, refreshments and of course in the case of some NLP events, the certificate cost of $200 per delegate. This is no small sum as a percentage of the overall seminar price. Many trainers realise that if they worked out the actual costs the hourly rate they were paying themselves would be quite a shock.

It’s all about timing…
Many who attend large NLP training events don’t realise that in many cases assistants are only paid lunch expenses. This is a great way to gain experience of NLP, but some individuals spend literally months assisting on other’s courses and find themselves financially in a pretty vulnerable state. There are only certain times of year in the UK which works for running events and if you are helping out on other’s events you can’t run your own events at the same time. I have talked about this before and of course if someone becomes known primarily as “an assistant” to other trainers then they are essentially always “the magician’s assistant, never the magician” When I ran trainings in Leeds I often brought in some established trainers including Frank Farrelly, Doug O Brien, Andrew T Austin and John LaValle (Richard Bandler’s co trainer) This meant a big financial commitment and to my surprise many NLP assistants in London would not be able to afford attending some of these events even at a heavily discounted rate. All of this shows that there is a big difference between the myth of what is presented online and in many trainings and the reality of what mostly occurs. Of course there are exceptions and those who make a reasonable living from personal development and/or NLP tend to see private clients as well as running trainings. The successful ones value their time and focus on building their own reputation rather than simply become solely affiliate salespeople for other trainers. Making this transition is all about timing…

All you need is Facebook, Facebook is all you need? Eh, no it's not!
Some in the world of NLP have become champions for Facebook and market relentlessly online on Facebook. Yes FB is a great social medium, BUT it’s not the sole solution for marketing a business and of course the customers for FB are the advertisers, NOT the users. Also let’s remember that the content posted is then owned by FB, even if you close the account. It seems that many in the world of personal development are constantly looking for a quick fix and every month I receive endless e-mails about boot camps, 6 figure income courses and the dreadful “free reports” which are used to build lists of clients. The problem is that in many cases the courses and products are the same material recycled over and over and often not done in a very good way. Some NLPers have endless FB pages blasting out the same message and the ad copy gets ever more desperate and exaggerated. The reality is that social networks like FB and Twitter are useful, BUT building a business requires work and application.

Advertising, academic associations and other matters
Just as with every business the people with the original creative ideas coupled with successful marketing are the ones that do best. The “tribute bands” are imitations of the real thing and when the market is flooded with these then the potential customer base is massively reduced. Also in many instances if a person does not invest in good quality training venues, materials and brand image, customers will stay away. I have often blogged about this lazy attitude to business and in these times such folks are finding that the public vote with their feet. Many established NLP presenters still draw attendees to events, but from what I can see the demand is not what it once was. The biggest numbers in the UK for NLP events were when Paul McKenna was presenting in London and it’s hard to know how many came to those events for “NLP” and how many came for “the nice guy off the TV” I remember talking to one very well know NLP author in recent times who commented that in the 1980s she had to “drag people along to seminars” as many were not really that interested! Speakers like Tony Robbins have done well, and continue to be held in high regard by followers. Years ago I stayed with a couple in Silicon Valley who had spent tens of thousands on such seminars, but were themselves financially broke and unable to make their business profitable. They could repeat inspirational quotes, get into “peak states” BUT couldn’t generate income or customers.
A recent TV programme on money came to the same conclusion. Many people regularly attend motivational events with the hope that just like buying a lottery ticket they will end up transforming their financial situation, but few achieve making this happen in real life. Of course in the world of NLP and personal development people will pay all kinds of prices for events and products. When a group of people each pay £12,000 or more for a 3 -4 day event then that’s great income for a trainer. When workshops are framed as “educational” and “academic”, they create the impression of being learning opportunities in an academic sense. Here’s an example of advertising copy – “The mastery university is two weeks of total immersion to create life experienced on your terms.” Certificates are inevitably presented as “qualifications” and sometimes described in the following way – “This is an internationally recognised certificate for the advanced use of NLP” Of course the actual “recognition” is by the issuing body! Of course good luck to those who can get such income. It’s not what I would choose to do but people spend money on all manner of pursuits. Sometimes these big ticket prices backfire and I heard of one trainer who was sued for a six figure sum having “guaranteed coaching success”, ouch!

Final thoughts
The world of NLP and personal development is no different to other businesses. Having a great product or idea is not enough; you have to have a delivery mechanism to create a customer base. The secret is to then maintain and build this base. My observations are that in these tougher economic times customers are looking for more for their money and are more discriminating in their purchases. Business owners who have not built a clear and recognizable identity will my view have a hard time surviving. Even though some trainings and products may not always be to my personal taste, I salute anyone who has creative ideas, professional standards and a good work ethic.

Michael Grinder sat in on my first session and this sparked a few wonderful animated conversations over the next 48 hours. Michael (brother of John Grinder) has an extensive background of working in both the educational and corporate sectors. His observations and feedback were so useful that I audio recorded our second conversation! Michael has literally decades of training and teaching experience and it’s rare for me to enjoy discussions as much as I did. I’m always on the lookout for specialists in communication and very often the most casual of conversations can spark a whole new way of thinking.

I really enjoyed meeting Mayca and Eduardo and everyone who attended the conference. On the second evening the organizers hired a bus and transported 60 people to a hotel dinner. In Spain eating times can be very different to the UK and we didn’t begin eating until almost 11pm! By 12.30 am the group was on the dance floor, but I had to retire to bed knowing that I had a breakfast meeting with Michael and a plane to catch soon after. I would love to return to Spain to run some longer more in depth PCW events.

 Today I'm going to do a series of exercises I have never done before, so we'll see what happens...

Also let’s remember that VAT is now 20% and VAT of course is one of those subliminal taxes that increase monthly overheads. I am constantly amazed at the cost of living and now spend almost £80 in filling up my car and supermarket shops seem far higher than before. In Leeds city centre it’s clear that some businesses are thriving and some are in serious decline.  So before you think “Blimey why am I reading this depressing blog” let’s remember that  it’s not all doom and gloom, niche brands and services are doing extremely well and Apple among many other companies are recording record profits. In contrast Sony is recording record losses and massive job cuts.

This is certainly a time for smart strategic thinking in business and brand positioning. Companies who have built a good brand image over a period of time continue to do well, while others struggle in these tougher economic times. A few years ago I gave some consultancy advice to two retail operations in Leeds. Both were facing some real financial challenges. One is now doing amazingly well with great online sales and opening more stores while the other has not paid attention to its online business and despite talking a good game has failed to attract new customers. In retail the physical location of a store is crucial and while the former is in the heart of the busy part of Leeds where people are used to spending money, the latter is in a declining part of the city. Instead of offsetting this disadvantage by growing their online business, they literally abandoned this medium not realizing that it could have been a key ingredient in regenerating their fortunes. The first company sought out and took on good advice, the second company insisted they knew best and refused to hear any advice that did not fit with their preconceptions!

Smart businesses realise that they need to work harder and smarter in these times and the ones who adopt this work ethic will survive. In contrast the ones that lack creativity and don’t explore how to adapt to these changing times will inevitably fail. In the centre of Leeds, well known stores like Virgin, Woolworths and Borders have already gone and I suspect others like HMV will follow in due course. It’s not enough to have a physical store; online delivery systems to reach a more global audience provide a much better chance of building a business. I have purposefully moved my own business interests from local to national to international, which means a great deal more travel. The interest is wholly in the Provocative Change Works material which I have been developing since 2006.  Part of the reason for this interest is that PCW is extremely well road tested and works equally well in different countries and demographic groups. I suspect some people would be surprised at how many hours I work in building and maintaining my training and therapy businesses. For every hour of training and therapy there is a great deal  of preparation and of course with running ten websites these also all need attention. This is also why I hire in the best web guys and technical support, in these ventures.

I have often blogged about the myth of “instant success” and “single fix solutions” for business. I have especially been critical of ad copy that over promises and sometimes appears to be misleading and at times a total fabrication!  It seems that some people’s idea of marketing is to make ever more desperate claims often without any supporting evidence. Recently online I saw the extraordinary claim that “Bill Gates was raving about NLP” I thought “Blimey I have never heard anything about Bill even being aware of NLP, never mind raving about it” and started to ask around if anyone could cite any evidence for this. Despite asking online in a number of different places and in talking to a number of very well-known people in the field, not a single person can cite any evidence for this claim…My point is that when businesses make claims without foundation (I remain open minded about the Gates claim at this point in time) then these businesses run the danger of not being taken seriously by potential customers.  For all the talk of excellence, amazingly some NLP businesses pay scant attention to their online presence. As well as making unsubstantiated claims many don’t update site information and content. At least one company has not changed a “news item” for over 3 years! This IMO shows that many such businesses although talking about flexibility and business strategy, often demonstrate the exact opposite in real like! In NLP there is a lot of talk about modeling, which some may think of as simply copying others. Often existing ideas are hijacked and dressed up as new opportunities and those in the world of NLP will testify to this happening on a regular basis despite the claim that this field promotes creativity.

Smart business owners pay careful attention to business trends and especially the buying habits of their customers. My observations are that in all areas of life customers are more discriminating with their spending choices. This means that business owners need to be more competitive and offer great value for money. When people have less disposable income they think more about what they are getting for the money they spend. Interestingly many niche high end brands are doing extremely well.  These business concerns appreciate the importance of long term business strategy and maintaining a consistent business message that meets with public approval. I often blog about the nonsense proclaimed online by “marketing gurus” who talk about instant results, without any real work and endless suggestions of “buy my secrets of success product and watch sales soar” style nonsense. The reason for this is that it’s delusional and lazy thinking and doesn’t translate into business success either financial or creative.  As someone whose background is in sales and marketing where I was paid on results I find this kind of behaviour little more than attempts to scam the public. My business background included negotiating a number of million pound sales agreements and running some substantial companies.  I would start work at 7am and often not get home until 7pm as that’s what was needed in that particular business.

Successful business owners are relentless in their business pursuits and have a very strong work ethic.  UK business went into serious decline since 2008 and the politicians don’t seem to be helping rectify this in recent times. Amazingly George Osbourne has been chancellor now for seven full economic quarters and in four of them the British economy has actually shrunk! That having said my belief is that those with creative skills, genuine marketing awareness and a dedication to quality will continue to thrive. There has never been a more important time to pay careful attention to how you conduct your business and how you do business with others. Good and mutually productive business partnerships are also more important now than ever.  I have learned to seek out smart partners who share similar business values. These kinds of relationships are both financially and creatively rewarding and it’s a real pleasure to know and work with such people. It’s also equally smart to disassociate from concerns that don’t hold the same values or have the same work ethic. I have done this a few times over the years and never regretted such departures. My belief is that these tougher times will raise quality standards and I for one welcome such an outcome.

Another mistake is to think of “provocative” as “comedic” or “humorous” Yes there can be a lot of humour in Provocative Therapy and Provocative Change Works, BUT the intention of both approaches is not to be “comedic” or funny.  Both approaches use a great deal of improvisation and one of the golden rules of improvisation is “Don’t try to be funny”  Just as there are literally thousands of individuals trying to earn a living as therapists and practitioners, there are equal numbers trying to be stand-up comedians. In both instances few manage to realise their intended professions. Both professions also require a great deal of skill and application. Stand-up comedians spend years developing their craft and the best presenters have great observational skills, creative thinking and excellent timing. I recommend studying comics such as Stephen Wright, Steve Martin and Eddie Izzard, for lessons in timing and observational skills. A Provocative Therapist and a PCW practitioner have many of skills these stand-up comedians have, but their role is not simply to entertain, even if the client finds the sessions engaging and entertaining.

I developed the Provocative Icon system to teach many of the provocative stances I detail in Provocative Change Works. The icons teach the practitioner a great deal of flexibility in their communications. This is a far cry from the stereotypical “logical, digital, sequential” way of working found in my talk therapy and psychological approaches. Frank Farrelly was in my view light years ahead of his time in creating Provocative Therapy in the 1960s and interestingly I have only seen a few people who understand and can use Provocative Therapy, all of which are women and either in Germany or Austria. In each case they are very quick witted, have excellent timing and great observational skills. The manner of the therapist or practitioner is as important as what they say or do. The side product of humour often occurs when the client makes outrageous exaggerations while remaining in a quite neutral state, but crucially is not trying “to be outrageous” The practitioner’s role is to provoke new ways of thinking and feeling by adopting very specific stances during the interactions. The skill is knowing how to work in the here and now and only responding to what the client feeds back verbally and non-verbally.

Next month I am teaching a PCW skills development day for those who have some PCW or AFPT approved training. This will be a great opportunity to work in a small group setting and discover more about the real potential with “provocative” style communications. See http://www.nickkemp.com/spartcart/product/provocative-change-works-skills-development-day-may-27th.htm

I first became interested in hypnosis in the 1990s and many of the books I bought are now out of print and a great deal of audio material and DVDs are quite tough to find as well. I was and still am fascinated by how language can generate different kinds of states. This was of course before the explosion of NLP trainings in the UK, where suddenly a whole new breed of folks started calling themselves “hypnotists”. There was also an unfortunate outbreak of “street hypnotists” roaming the UK in the hope of finding suggestible subjects. Personally I have never been a fan of either street or stage hypnosis, but have been interested in how these skills can be used to help people with genuine problems rather than simply for entertainment purposes. There’s nothing wrong with the entertainment aspect, but in most cases I find it a bit crass and lacking any real sophistication or elegance!
I was (and still am) especially interested in Milton Erickson and his work and continue to work my way through a stack of Erickson’s books. I also came across Stephen Brooks (an English Ericksonian trainer) who also is very skilled and works with real precision. Of course the co-creators of NLP were very interested in Milton’s work and Milton was also interested in Frank Farrelly’s work, although Frank only ever managed to speak to Betty Erickson. Many have described Frank as “hypnotic” although he generally denies this and still regards hypnosis as a bit like getting people to cluck like chickens! In early 2002 I also discovered Dave Dobson and Bill O Hanlon. I love Dobson’s Fun Shop audio series, Beach Trip induction as well as O Hanlon’s excellent book “Taproots”.  Around this time I also heard about this trainer in New York called Doug O Brien. Little did I know that we would become first friends as well as co trainers. Interestingly my observations are that the best hypnotists also regularly see clients and I think running a private practice is the best way to develop hypnosis and other useful skills.

So, what makes a great hypnotist?

The best hypnotists have a great command of language, excellent tonality and superb creative skills. Two of these elements will help to make an “ok” hypnotist, but not what I would consider to be a great one.  I have heard lots of hypnosis audio products but very few incorporate these three key elements. Some hypnotists can have a good awareness of language but not a great sense of rhythm and tonality. Often people attempt to be a karaoke version of Milton Erickson which of course doesn’t sound that great! Others have good tonality but the inductions are often not that creative or interesting. The worst tonality is when presenters suddenly sound like Dracula rising from the grave, always predictably starting any induction with the word “Now…” in a drawn out fashion. Personally this kind of response makes me want to grab and wooden stake and do the right thing for the benefit of humankind. In recent times I was asked to present to “The James Braid Society” in London. The hosts mentioned that they had one NLP and hypnosis trainer as a guest that they described as the worst presenter ever! He must have created a real impression because a number of different people commented “He tried to teach us basic hypnosis, while insisting that it was advanced and new material!” The audience was pretty savvy about hypnosis and the name of the group should have provided a clue that the expectation would be for some medium to advanced material rather than an introductory evening! I mention this because often some trainers can believe that a few training events equip them to teach long standing hypnotherapists what they regard as “groundbreaking material” which is actually pretty basic to the hypnotically educated.

Hypnosis comes in many forms and of course all forms of communications are essentially forms or hypnosis or “getting and directing attention” so we could legitimately call any form of influence “hypnosis.” The suggestive patterns used in Ericksonian hypnosis are the exact same patterns I use to teach sales teams. The secret of course is to make everything sound conversational and flow effortlessly. Surprisingly few people in my view achieve this and even many well-known trainers in my view fall short of the mark.

Learning the skills to create a great induction

I started creating hypnosis products in 2000 and was very pleased to be approached by Anglo American Books and Crown House publishing to distribute my products internationally. Many of these products including “The Adventures of Well Being Now” sold thousands of copies worldwide and received some great reviews. My biggest learning curve was in my own recording studio where I was able to listen back to different takes. I really began to appreciate how important it is to be precise in delivery. I would advise anyone wanting to develop these skills to practice in this way and regardless of what is presented in ad copy, real skill development takes time and application. The few really good hypnotists I have come across are often musicians as well and have a natural sense of rhythm. All hypnosis is about getting and directing a person’s attention. All hypnosis is creating trance states and all hypnosis involves trance work. I recommend writing inductions and then refining the content until the whole piece flows with ease. Although hypnosis patterns are taught in many NLP courses I continue to be amazed by how poor a lot of the results actually are! Of course everybody has to start somewhere but it seems that some people think they can present themselves as a “hypnotist” or now “master hypnotist” with a few weeks’ training!

The best products and presenters have spent time developing their craft. Between 2003 and 2004 I agreed to produce some longstanding NLP trainers in my studio. Most found it difficult to maintain sufficient concentration during the recording process as they were not used to working in this manner. The key to developing skills is practice, practice and practice. I am lucky to work with hundreds of live clients each year and of course I use some hypnosis and metaphor exploration with the PCW model. In recent times I deleted a bunch of old products I featured on. They still sold well online but I didn’t feel the quality was up to standard and I’m very fussy about giving people good value for money. I also always ensure that there are free downloads in the store on this site for anyone interested in using hypnosis for relaxation.

The use of music and recording inductions, common mistakes people make

When I first discovered NLP I along with many other people bought lots of products. Some were pretty good for the time, but some had terrible production. When I mean “terrible” I mean almost unlistenable! A common mistake back then in recording to cassette was a hideous amount of tape hiss. Another mistake is to add music that is totally incongruent with the spoken content. I remember one product where the mix and the music were so bad I started to get a headache within minutes of listening! I wrote and produced all my own music and also am pleased with some pieces I wrote with Doug O Brien that can be found in my store. Doug is an excellent musician and has a great ear for what works best. Of course many NLP folks reference Richard Bandler for great hypnosis, but personally I have found his material hugely variable, but there are a few perhaps less well known products well worth checking out. I especially recommend his content on the “Hypnosis in Munich” audio set. A common mistake for some people creating products is not to pace the material particularly well. Often the flow is not great and there’s not enough dynamic range. The best inductions grab your attention and take you into another world. I’m also not a fan of long inductions and when I see clients I rarely do more than 10 minutes hypnosis work at any one time. The ability to edit is crucial in creating excellent inductions and myself and Doug O Brien teach this skill on our “Stories from the Outside Inn> courses in the UK and USA. See www.storiesfromtheoutsideinn.com

Technology has moved on in recent years and there really is no excuse for not creating a good recording. Sony makes a number of really good recording devices, namely the M10, PCM D50 and for the wealthy the king of devices the PCM D1. When recording it’s important to ensure that the sound levels are correct and there is no unnecessary background noise. Recording programmes like Audition are excellent for ensuring that all final products are recorded to the highest sonic standards. It’s always worth getting the best equipment you can for recording audio and video and many make the mistake of cutting corners and this shows in the final product. Some very well-known trainers have produced some products that with a bit more care could be so much better. If you haven’t figured out already I am very picky about what I recommend, but what follows are some must have products for any serious hypnotist. I would add my own Human Alchemy products to this list, again found in the online store on this site.

Recommended products

Here are some of my favorite products that I recommend to students -
My Voice will go with you – Erickson and Rossi (book)
Taproots – Bill O Hanlon (book)
The Beach Trip – Dave Dobson (audio)
Indirect Hypnosis – Stephen Brooks
Ericksonian Language Patterns – Doug O Brien (audio set)
Hypnosis in Munich – Richard Bandler (audio)

My own Background in NLP

Many people will know I came across NLP in the 1990s, taught certificated SNLP courses for a number of years before then moving to become an advisory board member for ANLP and focusing on my own PCW work. My interest in NLP led me to set up www.nlpmp3.com which offers free information and interviews from NLP trainers from all schools of NLP. This project gave me excellent access to a wide range of NLP trainers and I still keep good contact with many of these folks. I also still teach my own PCW work on some NLP Master Prac programs on request. Let me also make it clear that the core elements of NLP modeled from a number of excellent therapists are in my opinion extremely useful and can be used to really help people. What I am referring to here is the apparent demise of the popularity of NLP among the public at large. Of course all talk therapy approaches and other forms of communication rise and fall in popularity, but it seems to me that NLP has peaked in terms of interest.

Tougher economic times

Unsurprisingly many standard NLP trainings have less people attending in these tougher economic times, but it seems that this is not the only factor causing this downturn. The main online forums have either closed or slowed down to almost a standstill. Of course we have to remind ourselves that with the advent of LinkedIn, Facebook and other such groups there is an overall decline in the old newsgroups. However even bearing this in mind there seems to be an increasing disinterest even from the traditional hardcore online posters who used to spend hours online! I noticed that almost all online groups had exactly the same characters posting online. Similarly there seemed to be a core of people who attended NLP events around the world usually supporting their favorite trainer. I have blogged previously about the “fan worship” aspect of NLP which has been a two edged sword for the field. On the one hand celebrities such as Paul McKenna have massively increased awareness of this approach, but in many instances some other trainers have positioned themselves more like gurus with enthusiastic “followers”. Again there’s nothing wrong with enthusiasm, but often in my view a little less whooping and a bit more questioning would be more productive.

When NLPers lose it online, not a great advert for state control!

Another reason for the demise in online interest for NLP is that some NLP posters seem incapable of behaving in a reasonable manner on forums. One person that was so abusive online that he was thrown off a number of newsgroups for insulting other trainers. He became hyperactive endlessly posting endless comments. This lack of attention to basic detail is evident in other areas of online communication, where site owners make huge claims for their skills while at the same time don’t pay good attention to their online site presence. If NLP is really about modeling then some trainers and “marketing gurus” may find some benefit in talking to those professionals who work in sales and marketing and who are judged on actual measurable results! The internet has been a great place for information, but the downside is that suddenly everyone sees themselves as an expert which again is confusing for customers interested in exploring NLP.  With the advent of eBooks many NLPers also now frequently describe themselves as “authors” “best-selling authors” (I could ask a Meta model question here…) and “psychology consultants!” The oldest online forum for NLP is alt.psychology.nlp known by many as “the biker bar for nlp” That forum died a death when obsessive posters decided to flood the forum with venomous and daft comments about other trainers. Many even admitted they had no interest in NLP; it was just a place for them to vent their frustrations. I had one anonymous character post up to 200 comments in a few weeks about myself! These were removed by Google’s legal team for defamation of character. The public understandably vote with their feet when online groups are either ludicrously over moderated or are just unpleasant places to visit. NLP has a history of territorial battles, legal disputes and online spats. It seems that in many cases NLP courses are seen simply as a means to get rich quick, again a real turn off for potential customers.

Saturating the market

Abusive behaviour is not the only turn off for potential customers. The market has also been saturated with endless “free reports” and relentless squeeze style marketing ads to attempt to sell NLP seminar places and products to the public. A well-known NLP training company has literally flooded many online sites like www.youtube.com and Facebook with video clips and “fan pages” but my impression is that there is less enthusiasm for the field in these times. Let me also make it clear that I am a fan of using video to communicate, but this kind of overkill is a great way to lose customer interest. Of course “less” enthusiasm does not mean “no enthusiasm” and there are still some trainers who running smaller more skills based events and doing good work. I have always been a fan of smaller skills based events where the trainers can count the number of people in the room and respond to questions about the material. It seems to me that standard courses have been most affected, but more niche events are doing far better. I also noticed that the larger events which were once quite electric and dynamic seemed to after a few years become a bit more lack luster. On one London event a well know NLP trainer enthusiastically asked the question (as he had done many times before on such events) “Who here wants to feel great?” and there was a deafening silence…I thought “Oh dear, what’s going on here?” This was on day 7 of a 9 day event, so the two presenters had at this point in time a very long time to pace and lead the group!

I continued to notice that audiences were changing on these large trainings and numbers began to drop significantly. The same well known celebrity withdrew from standard NLP trainings and numbers dropped by a huge percentage overnight, which suggests to me that the interest was more for “the guy they saw on TV” than “NLP” I am of course mostly referring to the UK and what I see online. In contrast when I was in Japan there seemed to be a healthy NLP market but the standard and training formats are very different from the fast track courses in the UK and parts of USA. Some well-known overseas NLP conferences have had significantly dwindling numbers. NLPers are great at talking things up, but often not so great at creating new strategies for marketing!

Reality sets in when the myth doesn’t match reality

The financial downturn is definitely a factor in the downturn in NLP interest, but also in my view the field has been over hyped especially in the UK and many who hoped to earn a living from NLP have come down to earth with a bump. One of the problems NLP has as an image is that there are no uniform standards, so it’s confusing from a customer perspective when “NLP” can mean almost anything, with on the one extreme folks suggesting everything needs to have academic accreditation and then at the other extreme all learning’s are “unconsciously installed” I’m not a fan of either suggestion and far prefer to focus on evidence for what works in a real life measurable context. As I have often blogged building any business takes time and application and all too often neither is promoted on training events. One of the biggest NLP training companies in the UK went quietly into liquidation without changing its website and few questioned why a company that couldn’t maintain good business would still be promoting business advice for others! Another factor is the high price for many events. A practitioner training that used to cost hundreds, can how cost 2k+ and that’s before you factor in accommodation and travel. Also many people are finally realizing that an NLP certification is not a qualification and not seen as having any value in most instances outside the body that issued it! Back in 2005 if I added an audio interview of Richard Bandler online, the site would have extraordinary traffic. These days such trainers have material all over the net, so the scarcity factor is no longer there in the same way. This in my view is another factor that has contributed to the decline in interest.

Some workshop attendees behave like cub scouts wanting to collect “all the badges”- practitioner, master practitioner, trainer, master trainer! Of course often the workshop material is (and this is being polite) “very similar” but the illusion is that the more certificates a person collects, “the more qualified” the person becomes. My impression is that in many instances NLP trainers are simply recycling material without asking any real questions. Often with the accelerated events attendees don’t have enough fly time to integrate the skills and often people are not taught to question the process but simply to learn a series of techniques. All too often NLP then becomes (and yes I know I have mentioned this in previous blog posts) “NLP Aerobics” where people simply go through the motions. Fortunately there are some notable exceptions but these are pretty rare. I titled this blog “The demise of NLP”. Perhaps “The demise of NLP as we have known it” would be more accurate? The core skills in NLP can be used to great effect, but many students never get to fully realise the potential from such tools, unless they put in the relevant time and energy. In these changing economic times customers are more discriminating and a few lines of hyped ad copy doesn’t have the same effect.  The smart NLP trainers have positioned themselves in a manner where they are offering good quality trainings which of course build business reputations. I’m happy to work with such individuals and in all cases such folks have a healthy sense of humour and really care about what they deliver.

The hope for new innovation and creative thinking

My sincere hope is that people will demand higher standards from trainers and seek out new and more creative ways to use these skills. I’m all for discussion and debate and I think it’s useful for people to agree to disagree as this fosters new thinking and new ideas. I cringe at some of the products I co created many years ago and some of the posts I made online a decade ago. I have deleted many of these old products as my own quality standards are much higher! These days I am also much more focused on what works rather than what is presented in ad copy. There have definitely been many cases of “emperor’s new clothes” in NLP over the years, but fortunately although the old nlp market is in decline, a new more realistic and creative market is emerging. The new “Innovations in NLP” book is a refreshing sign of collaboration all too rare in the field these days. When people continue to use good discrimination, explore sensible research and realise nobody single handedly “created nlp” or “owns nlp” then there is still some hope for the field!

Stop Press

This blog post seems to have stirred a great number of people to action on Facebook and other mediums which in my view is a good sign. Such discussions provide some hope for the field and move us beyond the nionsense of personal bickering and flogging courses and events to thinking more about how these tools can actually help people.

http://www.provocativechangeworks.com/the_difference_between_PCW_and_PT.php

Provocative Change Works is not about comedy, being “outrageous” or any form of posturing. In PCW the practitioner adopts a series of stances to produce client change. Sometimes this is done in an exaggerated manner, but just as with improvisation the practitioner doesn’t seek “to be funny.”I have only met a few people who can work with great skills using provocation and all of these have trained with Frank for a number of years. In PCW the practitioner needs to retain excellent state control while adopting these provocative stances. This is done in an improvised manner and the practitioner only responds to what the client expresses verbally and non-verbally. This is a very different way of working and a far cry from many of the logical digital sequential approaches found in some personal development approaches. Next year I will be teaching what I have termed “Level 2” trainings which incorporate using these provocative stances with hypnosis and time framing outcomes for the client. To date I have only taught level 1 material in the UK and overseas. The more in depth level 2 and ultimately level 3 trainings will be first taught in Japan.

The level 2 and level 3 trainings include deconstructing previous sessions shown on video as well as case studies and other explorations. These provocative stances and hypnosis combinations create a powerful medium for change and can be used in any communication context, therapeutic or business. The Japanese trainings are for the medical community and I look forward to returning to Tokyo and Hiroshima to present this work. I am also keen to develop this work and will be running practice groups for existing students who have attended PCW courses. The first of these is next month in the UK, see http://www.nickkemp.com/spartcart/product/provocative-change-works-skills-development-day-may-27th.htm