August' Interview

This month's interview is with Marilyn Devonish, The NeuroSuccess™ Coach, a Business Graduate, who holds a Post Graduate Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma, is a Corporate Trainer, Management Consultant, Prince2 Project Manager and Freelance Writer.  
She is also a Certified Trainer of NLP, Certified Trainer of Time Line Therapy, Certified Trainer of Hypnosis, Certified PhotoReading™ Accelerated Learning Instructor, Archetypal Profiling Coach, Archetypal Branding and Team Dynamics Consultant, Multi-Disciplinary Therapist, Certified Life and Executive Coach, and corporate Mental Health First Aid Trainer. 
She has been a specialist Remote Working Implementation Consultant since 2003, which means going into organisations to design, write, and implement remote working policy and strategy.
She is also a Practitioner in EFT, EmoTrance, DNA Theta Healing, Hawaiian Huna, Access Bars, Access Consciousness, Energetic NLP, Positive EFT, Past Life Regression, Opening the Heart (OTH), Future Life Progression, and Reiki.
In addition, Marilyn is a Freelance Magazine Writer, Keynote Speaker, TV and Radio Media Commentator, and offline and online Workshop Facilitator.  
She has been in the field of personal development since the year 2000 after giving up her Chartered Accountancy studies to become a Coach and Hypnotherapist instead.
Her website: www.tranceformationstm.com
Bookings & Free Consultations: https://bookme.name/marilyndevonish
Instagram : @the_neurosuccess_coach

Questions: 

CF - What inspired you to start your business?

MD - 'Sorting my own problem out. I “accidentally” signed up for a personal development training, I thought I was signing up for a communications skills training. When the course material arrived I realised it was full on personal development; NLP, Hypnosis, Timeline Therapy, and Huna.
I called and said there had been a mistake and that I wanted a refund. Thankfully they didn’t just hand the money back and instead said to attend the training and if I didn’t get massive value by the end I would have my refund. I wasn’t impressed however went along to get my money because it was several thousand pounds. The rest as they say is history.
I was so blown away by the transformation; I went from suicidal to excited about life, and thought how amazing it would be to work with those who actually wanted to resolve their stuff or focus on achieving their goals and dreams'.

CF -  What is one mistake you've made that taught you a valuable lesson?

MD - 'Not following up and not following through with people I’ve met along the way. There are many contacts from the early days where it would have been beneficial to keep in touch and keep tabs. Also letting important paperwork slide and a small thing can then turn into a big deal'.

CF - If you were to start over, what would you do differently from the very beginning?

MD - 'Set up a trademark (I don’t recommend people do this on a whim, nor is the first thing you should do). It is because someone was imitating me, advertising in personal development magazines, using their phone number, and taking the calls when people asked for me, simply saying “Marilyn isn’t available at the moment. How can I help you?” It was wild, so I would have set up a trademark straight out the gate to better prevent someone thinking they could imitate the unique things I had created.
That aside, I would have created a better funnel. I started with a one-off model, where I work with someone for 1-day doing a Breakthrough Session, and that was it, issues resolved. Limiting beliefs sorted. Goals installed in Timeline. Have a fabulous life!  There wasn’t an offer for anything else because it’s a self-contained and impactful process, and, with hindsight there were so many complimentary offers and services that could have been created.  Once I realised I was a content creation machine! 
I would have also kept a better client database from the outset. Back then, 24 years ago, technology wasn’t what it is today, however I could have put them all on a simple spreadsheet.
I have go thousands of pages of glowing client testimonials however I only started collecting them a few years ago, so if I were starting over again, I would definitely do that from day one'.

 CF - What trends should aspiring/established artists managers keep an eye on?

MD - 'Whether people like it or not, AI is coming. Will it will take off as predicted? That is yet to be seen, I do however know of organisations that have coaching bots. They could be a temporary fad, or, as the technology and algorithms get better, it could be a thing. I doubt (and hope) they never replace the power of a one-to-one coaching or therapy session with trained human, and they could nonetheless provide a stop gap and interim option.
I’ve been around long enough to “never say never.” When I was at university, for example, one of my temp jobs was opening envelops at Barclaycard.  There was about 20 of us on the floor at any one time, and we fed the envelopes into a paper cutter machine, then removed the payment slips by hand, separated out the slip from the cheques, and put them into another machine.  I am guessing there aren’t many places on earth where that job still exists, and the machine will be in a museum because the vast majority pay digitally online. I say that to illustrate that the idea of someone getting coaching support from a bot may seem far out in this moment, however the world is changing at an exponential rate'.

CF - Can you describe a typical day in your life as a TranceFormation™ coach?

MD - 'Typically read through client notes if we have done a session or series of sessions before. I highlight the areas I want to check progress on. For example, if I tasked them with introducing a new habit into their day or life, I’ll cycle back at the start of the session to recap and see how they are getting on.
I have been offering online coaching and online therapy since 2005, so I log in to the online virtual coaching room a few minutes before a session so that I’m ready to let the client in. My coaching sessions are 2-hours unless it’s a quick one-off.
Create a few social media posts, perhaps sharing a client testimonial or think piece. If the digital asset doesn’t already exist, I’ll create it.
At the time of answering these questions, I’m launching a couple of new online programs, and creating new content for my Rapid TranceFormation App, so I’ll be doing a few more of the audio recordings and processes. This will also involve choosing the intro and outro music, and mixing the track.
With the new program content, that’s a mix of PowerPoint slides, PDF documents, and setting up the online portal.
If I’m not creating content, I might run a Facebook live.
Answer relevant messages and emails.
I might also write a few ideas for my eNewsletter, so that by the time I sit down to write the next edition, the basic foundation is done and for some of the segments, and I’m filling in the gaps rather than writing from scratch.
I’m also running a series of new remote frequency and Radionics sessions for clients so I will do the Dowsing, and get the next set of frequency programs set up and running.
There is usually a TV break segment in the day. Today it was on old episode of Hart to Hart, and the beginning of Father Dowling because I think it’s a good idea to have a complete break state.
I also start the day with a meditation and physical process. Just a few minutes, however it for me, makes a big difference to the day'.

CF - How do you grow as an entrepreneur? Do you have a mentor? 

MD - 'I am a PhotoReading™ Instructor so I tend a read and research what’s new, emerging, or about ways to improve and enhance what I’m doing. Even though my job is to design and run workshops, I still enjoy attending them.
I also do a fair bit of self-reflection so that I can test hypothesis and don’t get stuck in my ways when there could be an improvement.
Yes. I have a mentor one I speak to one-to-one. I am also part of an online (international) mentoring group where they run monthly group mentoring sessions and have a Facebook community'.

CF - How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?

MD - 'I start the day with a meditation, and spend time doing a couple of processes for the physical body. A few times a week I do a quick 5-minute burst on my exercise cube to start the day. Thinking talking and writing helps me clear my head and clarify ideas and I like to schedule in ‘nothing time’, where there’s no where I need to go, nothing I need to do, and nowhere I need to be. I am also a massive fan of having a Dance Break, and have been prescribing them to clients since October 2000, and using them myself since 1977'.

CF - How do you want to be remembered? What kind of legacy will you leave behind?

MD - 'A futurist and pioneer in the field of human potential and someone who always left the spaces I was in better and more positively enriched and TranceFormed than I found them'.

CF - What was the hardest decision in your business career so far and how did it end up for you? 

MD - 'I could say giving up the chartered accountancy studies to become a coach and hypnotherapist instead, however the by the time the decision was made, it felt like a no-brainer for me, and was probably more confusing for those around me. 
Sometimes bringing things to an end. I had one workshop that I ran every year for 10 years, which has been life-changing over the years for those who attended however we decided to call it day in 2022, and I still find myself remember how much we all enjoyed it'.

CF - How long do you think you will do this profession for?

MD - 'I never imagined I would do 24 years so, so I will continue for as long as I enjoy it and am making a positive difference. If either of those 2 things changes, that’ll be it'
 

Thank you for your time Marilyn, it was great finding out more about your journey.