Speaker: Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.

So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs: Welcome. Welcome buckle up and let's zoom into the zesty zone of the heart led business show where humor and heart harmoniously hail. Our guest today swings the swag with a hypnotic hat. It's Tom Laessig, not a wizard, but a certified hypnotherapist making miracles with mind mazes. 

And now stay tuned as we delve deeper, driving into this dynamic dream of owning a heartled business that leaves you lighter and loads happier. So folks stick around. We're going to have a hypno hilarious chat with Tom Laessig. Tom, welcome to the show.

Tom Laessig: Hey, Tom, thanks for having me. 

Tom Jackobs: worries. How about that for an intro? You ready for a little humor as well as hypnosis.

Tom Laessig: Yeah, it seems like hypno hypnosis and humor go hand in hand 

Tom Jackobs: if it's on stage.

Tom Laessig: And that's where most people get their viewpoint of what hypnosis is all about. From what they see on stage, from what they see in movies.

Tom Jackobs: Or now on on Instagram or Tik TOK, there's a lot of hypnotherapists that are doing their stage show on video as well. Kind of 

Tom Laessig: Stage shows are funny. They're funny. They're interesting. But you know, when we deal in a clinical sense it's completely different. The people up on stage want to entertain. And they do.

Tom Jackobs: Well, let's talk about that in terms of the business sense then. So what is your definition of a heart led business?

Tom Laessig: Hey, it's a business that, that you enjoy going to. Every morning they, that you enjoy being a part of. And I think that's what I find with with hypnosis. It's very rewarding, especially coming from where I did previously, which I didn't find so rewarding. But hypnosis is it's a thing.

It's a very effective modality that I want to spread the word about and help people because when you work with someone's mindset, You can make really drastic changes in their life. Good, positive changes.

Tom Jackobs: That's amazing. So what did you do before that, and that inspired you to go into a heart led business and specifically hypnotherapy?

Tom Laessig: Yeah. So, so for most of my life, I've been a financial advisor. I grew up in the retirement plan business did investment advising, owned my own business. The business wasn't growing. We were too small to really grow. 

And I had an opportunity to sell it about eight years ago. So I did, I sold it and it was a good move.

I didn't make a whole heck of a lot of money out of it, but now I'm in something that I really enjoy and I really get good satisfaction from helping people.

Tom Jackobs: That's cool.

Tom Laessig: that's where I'm at. 

Tom Jackobs: Did you find that in the financial industry that you were more focused on the profit and that's maybe what caused the disconnect for you.

Tom Laessig: Yeah. Look the truth about the financial businesses. You're going to help someone with their financial plan or whatever, you know, whatever spend they, they, put on you. But the only way you make money is to have so many clients and put them in some type of model that everyone adheres to.

There's no personal service provided. There really, there truly isn't. Unless you're, you know, unless you're a very wealthy investor with lots of capital, lots of money for the investment advisor to invest. And I, that just, yes. Did that bother me? Yes, it bothered I didn't like that.

And I saw it more and more. I saw some investment products that came out that are sold as can't lose investments. And the truth is, yes, they certainly can, they can lose money, but you know, you're not given the full picture. And the other thing, one of the things that always amazed me when I was at, if I go to a party or I meet people, new people, and they ask me what I do, I say, well, I'm an investment advisor. 

That was the end of the conversation. Now, when I tell them I'm a hypnotist, it's, wow, really? And then the questions just start, and then people start thinking about their relatives, even about themselves, about hypnosis can help them because truthfully, they probably didn't know anything about hypnosis, let alone meet a hypnotist.

Tom Jackobs: Yeah. Those preconceived notions of investment, you know, advisor versus hypnotist. I mean, that's completely like

the connotation is, Oh, you're going to try to sell me something if you're an investment advisor. Right. So are you able to then, so as a hypnotherapist, obviously you're working one on one with people. Is that the model that you do?

Tom Laessig: Yes. Mostly one on 

Tom Jackobs: so you can get really in depth with that client versus the thousand plus clients that you had to have as a financial advisor. Is that right?

Tom Laessig: Yeah I learned everything about them. I need to know everything about them, you know, because that's the therapy part of it. And then we work on changing their mindset towards whatever those issues are to release them.

Tom Jackobs: What's the most common thing that people are coming to you for?

Tom Laessig: Well, okay. So stop smoking is very common because I think it's probably the most popular or most well known reason to, to use a hypnotist.

So stop smoking, I get mostly stop smoking. And then it probably goes to weight loss. And then fears, then anxiety. I don't want to forget about golf. I help people with the mental aspect of the golf game.

Some people 

come in for chronic pain. That's the they're the main issues, but you know what? I've gotten a lot of weird issues too. So, but they're the main ones.

Tom Jackobs: What is Thinking about scaling that business, obviously one on one is a lot of time. So on a business perspective, you know, how do you balance the, you know, making a profit by and only being able to work with one person at a time.

Tom Laessig: That I've been struggling with. And a lot of hypnotists will tell you, you need to raise your prices.

I just can't do that. You mentioned, can you do things in a group? Yes, you can do things in a group over Zoom. So I'm working now on a product or a service for smokers, because not everyone is willing to jump into hypnosis.

They want to know what it's about, what it's like, what's it feel like. So I'm working on a on a service now where I'm going to do group sessions. for a very cheap price, which, and if there's enough people, it won't be, it won't be so bad for me. And then if they like it for the typical smoker, if they like it and they, need more help to stop smoking, then we'll do a another group session that'll be more in depth.

So it's more or less a, like a trial period for that first zoom session. And then we'll get into the depths of how to quit smoking. And I'm going to give that, I'm pretty, pretty soon rolling that out.

Tom Jackobs: Okay, well, that, that sounds like a really good program, especially, do you find that you have to, or that you're doing the same thing with different people, like in terms of what they're trying to improve upon or get rid of like all the weight loss people you go through the same kind of routine. So it, it makes?

Tom Laessig: Well, see, weight loss is different because women, and I hate to point them out, but older women, menopausal women have difficulty losing weight and we've got to treat them completely different.

I go through for the weight loss. I go through my journey for weight loss, cause I've lost a significant amount of weight using hypnosis and, you know, it doesn't work for everybody. And so, I don't, it's not always the same. The basics are the same, but I do tailor it to the individual.

Tom Jackobs: Okay what is it about, Like the stop smoking. Cause that's what everybody kind of thinks about with hypnosis. What is it about that particular issue that, that is so prevalent in hypnosis?

Tom Laessig: People that have been smoking started when they're teenagers, almost across the board, no one starts at age 25, age 30. They just don't. They start as teenagers because it's, it's an inclusion thing. It's, they're part of a group. They feel cool about it. And what happens is they get into a routine, a habit, right?

They wake up in the morning, they light up a cigarette. They have a cup of coffee. They light up a cigarette. They jump in their car to go to work. They have a cigarette. They're at work. They need a break. They go out and have a cigarette. It's a habit.

You know, people talk about the nicotine. Yeah.

Nicotine's addictive and all that, but they're not permanently addictive to nicotine. Nicotine leaves your system in 24 to 48 hours. It's, that's not the issue. The issue is that, that repetitive Activity that you have every day and that's what gets lodged in your mind. Just like anything we do. This is a stupid example really. But I blow my nose a lot, right? So I gotta I'm always, my nose is always running. So I go into the bathroom and I reach around in the sink and I pull up a tissue and blow my nose. Well, my wife moved that tissue box from the sink over to the toilet.

So I can't tell you how many times I've gone in there and I reach around for the sink and it's not there. That's what happens with smokers. So what we do in hypnosis is we change their mindset. We get them out of that habit. And it's very effective.

Tom Jackobs: I can imagine, you know, with that habit, it's like I used to smoke early on. And that was definitely it. It was the cup of coffee, the meal waking up, heck, even after going for a run, which didn't make any sense to me. It's, you know, part of that habit, like you said, and it was it was difficult to break, but was ultimately breakable.

Tom Laessig: As they say in the hypnosis world, it becomes an unconscious event.

You don't realize you're doing 

Tom Jackobs: Yeah, exactly. And when you're tapping into the unconscious mind, then you're able to help reprogram that.

Tom Laessig: Yes, exactly.

Tom Jackobs: So how does it work with golfers then in terms of mindset, is it still hypnosis or is it more like, you know, mindset NLP type of programming?

Tom Laessig: It's a little bit of both. There are techniques that golfers should use on the course. Mental techniques. Golfers get angry. Golfers think about that last bad shot that they hit. Right. Golfers are afraid they're gonna miss that three foot putt to win. That's all mental stuff. And I'll talk about those techniques and then as well install those techniques through hypnosis so that they don't think about it so that they play the game in the zone.

Right. Which, what's that mean? What does it mean to play the game in the zone? You're not thinking consciously, right? Subconsciously, everything's working. Your body knows how to hit that ball. It's been doing it for many years. You've practiced enough times. Now the mental aspect takes over. Now you have the confidence.

Now you're always staying positive on the golf course. You keep an even keel. 

You don't think about the bad shot you just hit. You don't think about the great score you're going to have. You got to stay in the present. There's all kinds of techniques in golf.

Tom Jackobs: That totally makes sense. I tried to play golf and yeah, I would need, I would need your services. Cause it's such a frustrating game and get a little ball, 300 yards away.

Tom Laessig: yeah. As another hypnotist always said, I can't make a race car out of a donkey.

Tom Jackobs: True. True.

And like, would you say, like, how much is it a mind game for a lot of these elite golfers?

Tom Laessig: Oh my God. They all see hypnotists. They don't call them hypnotists. They call them a psychiatrist or a psychologist. They don't call them hypnotists, but that's what they are. They're getting into their minds.

Tom Jackobs: So kind of going back into the business side of it what type of challenges, cause obviously going from, you know, investment advising to, you know, a heartled, a truly a heart led business or actually mind led business. What were the challenges that you faced making that transition?

Tom Laessig: The biggest challenge is getting people to use my services. I started with local people. So they come into my office and in this area, I'm outside of Philadelphia. I'm not so sure that hypnosis is looked upon as a modality for people to make changes in their lives. So it's been difficult coming up with a marketing plan that gets people in the door.

Now especially for smoking, I'm spreading my wings to the world.

So we can do things now on Zoom, just like we're doing here, and once someone closes their eyes the hypnosis is exactly the same, whether they're in the office or whether they're remote, like we're doing right now.

So it works either way. So I'm broadening my horizons by going more global.

Tom Jackobs: Well, that's great. What was the shift then in your marketing that finally got people to come in and, or notice you? And in your marketing. 

Tom Laessig: I'm not sure I've reached where I need to be, but I've tried everything between, Google ads. Google my business. I'm working now with Facebook for the global reach.

But mostly I rely on Google searches.

People find me on Google. They find me local on Google.

Tom Jackobs: Oh, that's interesting. And are you're doing the keywords like stop smoking or play better 

Tom Laessig: golf.

Oh yeah, all that SEO stuff. 

Tom Jackobs: Awesome. How about the vaping these days? Like, is that something that you work with people on as well?

Tom Laessig: I don't see enough people on vaping. And the reason I don't see enough people is because there's not enough research out there today that lets people know how dangerous it is. 

Because vaping is obviously bringing in the nicotine into your system, right? Especially with young kids when their brains are developing, nicotine can have a really adverse effect on them.

The adults are a little more difficult because they think they're, you know, they're not smoking, they're vaping. And what happens is that vape doesn't leave their It's always within reach. Some people go to bed with.

Tom Jackobs: Oh my gosh. 

Tom Laessig: It's absurd. Here's what I call it. ready? It's the adult 

Tom Jackobs: Ah. 

Tom Laessig: The vape is the adult binky.

And the truth of the matter is, they're always vaping. At least with cigarettes, it comes with a, you know, with the coffee, or after a meal. Right? There's times. With vaping, it's just I need it, it goes to my mouth. I need it, it goes to my mouth. And all these chemicals go into your lungs. Yeah, nicotine, you have nicotine, sure.

But these chemicals go into your lungs and they're damaging your lungs and it's not good. And there's not enough research out there. I think the tobacco companies are involved in this. They're patting down all the research. Someday it'll come out.

Tom Jackobs: Hopefully soon. I mean, I see people with necklaces with the vape attached to the necklace itself. So you're right. It is totally within reach.

Tom Laessig: Terrible. And it, and the kids are doing it.

Tom Jackobs: Yeah. That's even worse.

Tom Laessig: I coached ice hockey for 30 years. And I went from youth, I coached a little bit of college, and then I went back to youth for a year. And when I went back to that last year of youth hockey, I found out that they were vaping in the locker room and that just destroyed me.

And they actually felt that they played better after they vaped, after they had that nicotine hit. And you know, obviously that's not true. And the parents are pulling their hair out. They don't know what to do.

Tom Jackobs: It's so bad.

Tom Laessig: So I don't see enough vapors. Cause again they don't, vapors don't seem to think they have a problem. 

Tom Jackobs: Or it's not caught to them yet. All right.

So what kind of good surprises have you seen in making that shift to a heart led business?

Tom Laessig: I'm just, I see people, when I see people and they leave, it's, I feel good about it. I feel really good about it. And then they're, you know, they're giving me testimonials and they're telling me how good they feel. And how well they've done it. I go to the golf course and somebody will throw their arm around me and say, Hey, this is Tommy.

He helped me shoot, you know, the best round of my life. Or he helped me win a tournament. And you know, it's just a terrific feeling. 

Tom Jackobs: I bet. Yeah. Helping somebody else. Definitely one of the best feelings in the world.

I can see like in, in your face, you're definitely lighting up when you're talking about the helping of other people and you can really totally see that's awesome. It's really cool. So, Tom, how can people find you or do you have something that I think you gave us a link here.

We'll put that in the show notes for a product that you have for quitting smoking. So any smokers that are actually listening to this podcast or vapers

at that or of that as well.

Definitely take advantage of that download, but how else can people get ahold of you, Tom?

Tom Laessig: So my company is called Achieve Hypnotherapy. So you can go out to my website at achievehypnotherapy.com.

And I have all kinds of stuff on there. I, as I was going through my weight loss, I followed a lot of people, a lot of doctors, and I put a lot of resources up on that website that people would find useful. Doctors that, that, don't rely on medicine.

That are more geared towards eating the food that you eat in order to maintain really good health. And there's a lot of resources on there. They can find me on Facebook Achieve Hypnosis. Tom Laessig one. You gotta learn how to spell my name first. It's Tom, L-A-E-S-S-I-G one. Yeah, so they can reach me that way.

Tom Jackobs: Well, we'll put links to the show notes. So everybody just watch that watch the show notes there and connect to Tom and see what he's doing. I love that you're putting all those resources up there for weight loss as well. That's a, that's very useful for people I'm sure.

Tom Laessig: You know, I get a little down on the doctors, unfortunately, so don't, doctors don't take it personally, but, you know, there's an old way of thinking and the pharmaceuticals have just taken over. And people want to get help by taking a pill or even getting an injection.

And to me, you put chemicals in your body and long term that can cause issues. It can cause problems. So watch what you eat and eat the right foods. Don't eat all that processed food out there, that quick stuff. Cause that's all full of chemicals too. 

Tom Jackobs: gosh. Totally.

Tom Laessig: I drive my wife crazy.

Tom Jackobs: What is it? Eat the rainbow eat until you're satisfied, but not overly full and walk. Be active. Like that's the formula for maintaining it.

Tom Laessig: That's a good formula. 

Tom Jackobs: It's rocket science. Yeah.

Awesome. Well, Tom, thank you so much for being on the show today. Really appreciate your insights into both hypnotherapy, but also the business side of being a heart led business.

That was really insightful and a good chat today.

Tom Laessig: my pleasure.

Tom Jackobs: And for all the listeners out there, please make sure that you go and give us a rating and a review that helps to get the word out so that more people can find us and have a great day and we'll see you on the next episode.

Speaker 2: You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.