What Worked for Me Before Social Media Ever Did
Most advice about getting hypnotherapy clients sounds the same: build a website, post on social media every day, many times a day until your little fingers turn blue, run ads, optimize for Google, create useful content, yada yada. There is nothing wrong with any of that, some of it works but a lot of it is like a shot in the dark. Early in my career, everybody was trying to get attention online, and nothing has changed. The market has simply become a lot more saturated. So what did I do? I went 100% offline. Old school still works, believe it or not.
And ya know what else? Some of the simplest things I did brought me more clients than complicated marketing ever did and I got to enjoy it. Plus I didn’t have to sit all day in front of my computer. The common thread was not selling hypnotherapy. It was showing people how I could make them feel better.
The T-Shirt
I had a T-shirt made that said: I’m a hypnotist. Ask me anything.
Then I wore it to places where people were doing normal things. I wore it to the dog park (I borrowed a friends dog for that). I wore it to the grocery store (the checkout line suddenly got more interesting) and even the laundromat. People asked questions. I answered them. I got a few clients. It was not sophisticated marketing. It was simply curiosity doing the work for me. And at the end of the day, the easiest way to start a conversation is simply to give people permission to ask.
Hypnosis is also naturally interesting. People want to know about it. But a lot of practitioners hide that interesting part behind very formal language. I stopped referring to myself as a ‘Certified Hypnotherapist’ and just called myself a “Hypnotist”, sometimes a ‘Professional Hypnotist’. I’d only mention I was certified if someone asked about my qualifications but most the time they didn’t care. They just wanted me to hypnotize them.
The Postcard
This was probably one of my favorite actual marketing campaigns. I printed really cool postcards with the headline:
“Maybe You Just Need a Trance”
I bought a mailing list, mailed them to women 25-65, specifically, with a printed message in the back along the lines of:
“If you got this in the mail, it probably means you need a break from the never-ending saga of being a woman. Who has time for a vacation? Feel good faster with a quick hypnotic trance. I do house calls.”
It included my contact info, a special rate and a small picture of myself so they could immediately see that I was a woman too. That campaign brought me around twenty clients over the course of a year. Why did it work? Who knows! Maybe it was because I wasn’t asking these ladies to become interested in “hypnotherapy”. I didn’t go into details about how it works, I wasn’t asking them to go to my website and see all my certificates. I was speaking to something they already understood: I’m exhausted. I need a break. I want to feel better. Hypnosis was simply the mechanism.
The calls came in for weeks, even months after the postcards went out. My guess is that the postcard was so cool, it was hard to throw away. It was the kind of card you keep somewhere, like in a drawer, until you need it.
The Seniors
I contacted senior living communities and offered inexpensive group guided-imagery sessions. They’re always looking for interesting stuff for their seniors. The fact that I was certified did actually come in handy here because they take extra precautions. It had to be affordable for them but also make sense for 30 minutes of my time. The arrangement was simple:
$5 per person, minimum group of 30.
I would give the staff a signup sheet and two weeks to organize the group. The session took about thirty minutes but i’d stick around. A lot of seniors in these homes are lonely so I’d talk to them, do my best to brighten up their day. It became incredibly popular and eventually turned into ongoing work. Sadly I stopped because as time passed, so did my group and although there were always new members, I couldn’t handle the ongoing loss. But the residents loved the experience, and I loved working with them. Again, I was not trying to persuade people that they needed a hypnotherapist. I was offering something immediately understandable: Relaxation. Imagination. Connection. Feeling good for half an hour.
Free Self-Hypnosis at the Beach
My favorite experiment was probably Self-Hypnosis at the Beach.
I ran small free groups in Santa Monica and Malibu where I taught people basic self-hypnosis. There was no cost involved but if they wanted to Cashapp a tip or donation, I would gratefully accept. People got to experience something useful before ever being asked to buy anything. It didn’t bring me clients right away but after 6 months, the group got bigger and people in the area started to recognize my face. I mixed in guided imagery and from time to time, I’d do some fun stuff like Magnetic Fingers just for shits and giggles. A few eventually became private clients but it took some time. I was doing something that I would normally do for myself anyway. Going to Malibu, hypnotizing myself was one of my favorite things to do! I was going to do it anyway so why not ask people to join me? And this is something I think practitioners sometimes forget:
Giving someone a fun and useful experience can be far more persuasive than explaining how it works for twenty minutes.
The Lesson I Kept Learning
I have rarely marketed myself by leading with:
I am a hypnotherapist and here is why you should hire me
Of course credentials matter. People want to know that you are trained, qualified, and professional. But that usually is not why they choose to work with you. People are thinking:
-Can you help me sleep?
-Can you help me stop feeling overwhelmed?
-Can you help me feel confident?
-Can you help me stop doing this thing I hate doing?
-Can you help me feel better?
They don’t care so much about how or the method or your credentials once they understand the that you can help them. That is why the positioning that always worked best for me was essentially:
I can help you feel better.
Oh, and by the way, I’m certified to do this… (if they asked).
What This Means for Practitioners Today
You do not have to recreate my postcards or wear a hypnotist T-shirt to the laundromat.
The larger lesson is to stop assuming that marketing has to look like marketing. Just get out there! Find your hustle spirit and hit the pavement once or twice a week. Social Media is mostly bullshit. I mean, yeah, some of it might work but you’re not going to really connect with clients if you’re only depending on Instagram or TikTok.
You don’t have to make Old-school, IRL engagement your only ‘marketing’ tactic but give it a shot. Think of it like little experiments or adventures. You never know what’s going to happen. Plus it sure beats the hell out of sitting in front of your computer posting all kinds of stuff that most people are going to scroll past anyway.
Ask yourself:
Where are the people I want to help already spending time?
What are they already complaining about?
What kind of small free experience could I offer that lets them feel the value of the work?
Could you teach a twenty-minute relaxation session at a coworking space?
or team up with a fitness trainer around performance?
or give a short stress-reset session to local business owners?
The Best Marketing Rarely Felt Like Marketing
The best marketing I ever did rarely felt like marketing. It felt like creating an opportunity for someone to experience something good. Once people understand how you can make their life better, the title matters a lot less. They do not need to become fascinated by hypnotherapy. They need to know that you can help them with something they care about. Creativity still matters because attention is expensive.
But human curiosity is still free.