Have you ever been on a roller coaster? The thing with roller coasters is the multitude of emotional experiences they provide and how very quickly you can move from one emotion into another. This is perhaps one of the analogies I could use to describe the experiences I had as a result of training in NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Trainers Training with Inner Compass.
My journey began in the Summer of 2005. I had heard of Inner Compass through a friend who had told me “there’s this bloke called Andy Harrington whose got a bigger fire walk than Tony Robbins.” Not many people can claim to having anything bigger than Tony Robbins, after all, he’s a big guy, so intrigued, I looked him up on the internet and signed up for a free NLP event with his company Inner Compass.
I was impressed with the free event. Harrington used clean stage anchors and a lot of suggestive language when selling his product and I admired the certainty with which he did it. I wasn’t there though, to get roped into a “breakthough” weekend. I was there to sign up for NLP training. So at the end of the event I went up to him to ask him about it.
It seemed he’d over estimated his own sales skills. After 10 minutes of trying to convince me that I’d learn more about NLP after I’d signed up for his “breakthrough weekend,” I walked out.
I had a call from one of his sales guys within a couple of days. It took him a further 2 phone calls and around an hour and 15 minutes of discussion about why their NLP was better that the McKenna/ Bandler training to convince me to part with a couple of thousand pounds.
Was it well spent? Well I think that there are trainings that probably matched up to their standard of training for maybe a grand less, but with Inner Compass you wasn’t just buying the NLP knowledge, you were buying into the whole showbiz experience, the hugs with smelly strangers, to be part of “their family” and part of the magic.
And mostly it was a magical experience. I learnt a lot and felt comfortable and confident about what I had learned. I made many wonderful friends and even worked through some of my own bad stuff that I’d been holding onto. I had gone there with the intention of getting the qualifications so that I could expand my hypnotherapy business. I ended up deciding that my vocation was being up there on stage, teaching the stuff instead. Trust me, this wasn’t a whimsical decision, I used to love being on stage as a child and had for the past 4 years been taking exams in musical theatre. I am passionate about Hypnotherapy and NLP and I rather like money too. So it seemed like the right way forward.
Generally unconventional, I then didn’t follow the Master Practitioner, Trainers Training route due to a singing exam that fell at the same time as the next scheduled Master Practitioner training with Inner Compass. This meant that I would do Trainers Training first, followed by Master Practitioner and then The 8 hour exam to pass Trainers Training. And that’s exactly the way it happened. I surprised myself on Trainers Training by keeping up with the majority of other delegates who were already Master Practitioners, and I think I surprised some of them too.
Master Practitioner was less engaging, perhaps because some of the cracks in Inner Compass as a company, were beginning to show, or perhaps because Trainers Training had been so tough, that Master Practitioner at times verged on too easy. Still travelling into central London for 12 long days solid was exhausting in itself, and the very next day after it finished, was the 8 hour Trainers Training exam. Which I completed in 4 hours.
Overall I’m glad of the experience I had, I’m glad it was with Inner Compass. At the end of every course, there was always a sense of nostalgia as we all said goodbye to each other. Such a shame that now we are saying goodbye to an institution of such great love and magic forever.
Welcome to People Building, a self development company dedicated to inspiring growth, progression and better results in your life. It is our privilege to present to you authentic NLP and Hypnosis training at NLP Practitioner Level, NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapy Diploma, for those in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. We will never cease to evolve, and it gives me great pleasure, to invite you with us on this epic adventure.
www.peoplebuilding.co.uk
Who Will Fill The Inner Compass Receivership Gap?
As an ex- student of Inner Compass NLP trainings, I was as surprised as everyone to discover that the company had gone into receivership. So surprised in fact, that I checked it was true on the Companies House website.
It seemed such a sad surprise, only 12 months previously I had spent 17 days with Andy Harrington and Topher Morrison, completing my trainers training qualification which would allow me to teach NLP Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioner courses of my own, both of which I had previously passed with Inner Compass. And yes, it does now seem, as I remember my Master Practitioner training, that perhaps the cracks were already beginning to show. Yet the courses were becoming busier and certainly all of the delegates who had noticed a change in Harrington’s attitude put it down to the increasing pressure he must have been under. Little did we know.
The news was broken to the Inner Compass fan base in the strangest possible way. Generally people heard through the grape vine. I found out when I called up the company and asked to speak to one of the key team members, only to be told that they had been “let go.” Knowing that something really wasn’t right, I questioned further, only to discover that most of the familiar faces had been “let go” in an effort to save the company, but was told it was very much business as usual. Later, emails were sent around and the gossips got going. I’m certainly not ashamed to admit I was one of them. I can only compare the atmosphere amongst the “fans” to that of driving past the scene of a horrific accident on the motorway. You can’t help but look and wonder at what must have happened.
I guess the thing was, that outwardly, Inner Compass appeared so very successful. Having now had the experience of starting up an NLP training school, I can tell you that simply offering a free event isn’t enough, that in itself doesn’t get sell trainings, it takes much more than that. And Inner Compass seemed to have acquired the winning formula. Having around 100 delegates at each free event became the norm. So how could this great success suddenly crash in such a big way? The truth is, I don’t know the real reasons why. Like anyone else who knew about what had happened, I heard the rumours, but having never heard Harrington speak about the incident directly, what I have heard is only hearsay.
Is it right then, that I should capitalise on his misfortune by promoting my own training in an article written about the Inner Compass crash? Probably not when you look at it that way, but I remember Harrington once saying that he hoped we (the delegates) would one day set up training schools good enough to compete with his own. That this would be the greatest gift, to prove how well he had trained us, and it would encourage him to grow, by having some decent competition.
Andy wasn’t a friend of mine, and to be honest, there were times when I thought he behaved quite arrogantly, but he was an awesome trainer. The Inner Compass team were the kind of team I aspire to be part of myself. So, my invitation to Andy would be this. Set yourself up a training school good enough to compete with mine, to prove how good a trainer you created, and to give me some decent competition. And don’t leave it too long.
Welcome to People Building, a self development company dedicated to inspiring growth, progression and better results in your life. It is our privilege to present to you authentic NLP and Hypnosis training at NLP Practitioner Level, NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapy Diploma, for those in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. We will never cease to evolve, and it gives me great pleasure, to invite you with us on this epic adventure.
www.peoplebuilding.co.uk
The People Building Answer To Fire Your Desire
Well in truth People Building have yet to decide upon an answer to Inner Compasses weekend event “Fire your Desire” which involved using NLP and Goal setting techniques to help people overcome limits within their own lives. Part of this motivational weekend, included a fire walk, which most participants took part in, along with other mind power utilising techniques that would make any health and safety representative loose sleep for a month.
So what will the People Building answer to this missing event be? Well it is likely to include a firewalk, NLP, Hypnosis, Goal setting, and all of the usual techniques required for a motivational weekend, but the difference will be in the delivery. For a start, the trainer at People Building is female. Already a big difference. But seriously the biggest difference will be the sales pitches. Of course we want you to learn the most excellent skills that are NLP and Hypnotherapy, but we only want the most motivated people to attend our courses as we have found that the most motivated people make the best therapists and practitioners.
As a graduate of the Inner Compass trainings, it never ceased to amaze me at how forthright and persistent the Inner Compass sales team were. In fact, at the end of completing NLP Trainers Training, I was invited to join the Master Trainer Development program. The cost of which could be compared to the price of a brand new car. In fact, I am certain that many cars are cheaper than the Master Trainer program that was being offered. Due to the fact the the monthly instalments would be more than my mortgage, I put off the offer for the time being. I received at least 3 phone calls over the coming months from keen sales people, attempting to get their commission from selling NLP Master Trainer to me. I kept putting it off and instead dreaming of the day when I might actually have that kind of money to spare each month.
Sometime later, I found out that Inner Compass had gone into receivership. I don’t know how many of the people that signed up to Master Trainer lost their money, nor how much they have each lost. They may be able to claw some of it back from the creditors. I suppose, they also may not.
Maybe it’s my slightly cynical side that prevented me from having that much faith in handing a huge sum of money over to a training company, and maybe it was the pushy sales. Either way, pushy sales are not the People Building style. We’re confident you’ll do our NLP and Hypnotherapy training, not because we badger you to do so, but because you will believe in the value of doing so.
Welcome to People Building it is our privilege to present to you authentic NLP and Hypnosis training at NLP Practitioner Level, NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapy Diploma, for those in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. www.peoplebuilding.co.uk
