Interview with Tim Brownson

What is NLP and how can NLP help people?

NLP stands for Neurolinguistic Programming and it is really a blanket term for a lot of process, techniques and ideas.

It was co-developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the mid 70’s when the two met at Santa Cruz University in California. Grinder was an assistant professor in linguistics and Bandler was studying for his Masters in computer science. Bandler and Grinder modeled the leading players of the time in their various therapeutic fields. World renowned gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, brilliant family therapist Virginia Satir and world leading psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, Milton H Erickson. They wanted to know if they copied them, if they could achieve the same results, and they got very, very close.

Since then it has evolved in a number of different ways and whole books have been written just on certain areas, so it's outside my remit to explain it here. All I will say is that it can help people make rapid beneficial change in certain areas or their lives. For instance, I can usually help somebody remove phobias within about 40 minutes in about 75% of cases.

I really like NLP for the language side of things. It allows me to use language in very different ways i.e. artfully vague (think horoscopes, fortune tellers and political spin doctors) and also very specifically to help clients see things from a new perspective.

My advice would be for anybody interested is to read up on it and make your own mind up.

You have included hundreds of free articles on your blog. Do you wish you'd presented your content in a different format?

Not really. My desire is to get material out there for people to benefit from, not to try and market it to death to make cash. I do want to make a good living, but that has to come as a byproduct of adding value and helping people. My next book 'How To Be Rich and Happy' which I am co-authoring will be a different beast though. That has taken us years to assemble and will probably run close to $100!

You offer a money back guarantee on the hardcover of 'Don't ask stupid questions.' Has anyone taken you up on this?

No they haven't. I did have one person return the ebook and say they thought they were buying the hardcover though. On questioning they didn't want the hardcover so I guess I got ripped off! It's no big deal though, stuff like that will always happen.

You are known as being a pretty awesome life coach. What tips do you have for getting your clients to listen to you?

Thanks a lot! Usually I don't need any because they don't contact me if they don't want to listen to me. Having said that, it is usually me doing the listening. My job is to ask great questions and hopefully help the clients come to their own conclusions. Of course it doesn't always work like that, but that is the game plan. If a client simply wouldn't listen then I guess I would fire them! It's never happened though. I have fired clients, but not because they didn't listen to me.

Do you have any tips for life coaches on twitter?

It seems to me too many are just there for business. I am there for fun and if I get some clients, brilliant that's a bonus. Also, most life coaches have a tendency to take themselves too seriously even on Twitter. Life's meant to be fun imho. I take my job seriously, but that doesn't mean I can't have a laugh at the same time. I only get hired by people with a similar mindset so it works out cool. Not sure if I answered the Twitter question there!

Is it more difficult offering the coaching face to face?

It's easier in my opinion. On the phone I'm getting no visual feedback. When I work face-to-face I can read body language and do certain processes that can't be used over the phone. Having said that, face-to-face probably requires more concentration and is more tiring.

Do many people take you up on your risk free consulting offers?

If you mean, do the first session and the decide whether to pay me, yes. In fact probably 85% or more,. I like it too because it lets people experience coaching and working with me, without the financial commitment up front. I have probably had over 100 clients that have done it and less than 10 went on to the next session