Last night was our second hypnotherapist peer support group of the year, and though it did not really feel much like Summer outside, our Summer meeting had us basking in sunshine in a wide number of ways. We welcomed bestselling author, international speaker, coach and former Phantom of the Opera to Bournemouth. I said it more than once last night, Richard’s rise to fame over the past decade in his chosen field has been a pleasure to watch and I have seen pictures of him speaking at the Sydney Opera House, on board the QE2 and to packed out audiences around the world, often backed and supported by teams of musicians, so it was a real coup to be able to twist his arm to come and speak to a bunch of hypnotherapists during half term week here in Bournemouth.

For those present on the evening, it was thoroughly enjoyable, inspiring and energised.

One of the key themes of Richard’s presentation was about stepping up from good and moving towards being extraordinary. He spoke about how we all ‘show up’ each day within each of the roles we have in our lives and making an impact, he spoke about disrupting, provoking and challenging what has become normalised in our life, and he talked about how we engage, connect and collaborate. He did so while demonstrating all of those things at the same time; he showed up with major intentions, fully energised and present for his audience, he made an impact and provoked us (more on that shortly) and he connected with us, engaged us and absolutely collaborated, as you’ll see…

We sang as a group, and I know many of you reading this might think some of the same things that many in our group initially thought when asked to do so last night “uugghh, I hate singing, I can’t sing, I don’t want to, I am uncomfortable, think I’ll go and eat worms…” etc. We sang as a group, then we assessed what we did and we sang again, and we sang better. Some even got up and sang their hearts out solo, and it was really lovely to watch. We upgraded as a group right there and then. Richard spoke about simple upgrades we can all make and illustrated beautifully how the seemingly smallest of definite action can make such powerful changes in life, and his quote really resonated with me;

“Dare to begin before you are ready.”

I loved the way he brought together his loves and passions to deliver a very congruent message. He used his experience and love of music and singing, and it provided the evening with a metaphor – singing on the night represented any kind of change that we wanted in our lives and Richard then offered up his ‘performance map’ for how to make change simpler and more effective by examining the spaces we exist in, our actions, our skills, how we think and what our identity is in relation to that change….. And boy did a quote he offered up ring true with me last night. Richard quoted Robert Dolts, referring to the logical levels within NLP, who said:

“The higher the level you are prepared to make the change, the more sustainable the change is.”

As we spoke about our identity, while discussing the kinds of changes we wanted to make in our own lives, it enabled me to really be sure of some changes I am currently making in my life and that is being action this very day. I love how that happens in these fields. I love how properly engaging with someone speaking can have such a profound effect on the direction our lives take.

The evening was packed with much more too.

Richard presents like a performer, he articulates beautifully, has a very endearing manner and delivers his message wonderfully. The feedback from the group at the end of the evening in the bar was unanimously glowing and full of praise.

You can go and read more about Richard and his work at his website here: Richard Tyler The Possibility Architect and do go and grab a copy of his recent bestselling book Jolt.

It was a real privilege to watch Richard, connect with him again and get to spend some time in his company. A massive thanks to him and everyone who was in attendance last night. I learn so much from these events. Although I study hard, with regularity, and I read, and I actively research, I do continue to gain so much from watching other experts and connecting with my professional peers. For me, such continued commitment, such as that displayed by those present last night is one way of upgrading yourself from ordinary to extraordinary, especially if you are a hypnotherapist.

It is always great to be surrounded by my professional peers, catch up, share ideas, have some fun and I feel inspired this morning, that’s for sure.

In September we welcome Anthony Jacquin as our speaker, I can’t wait.