MindSet
Most people are running on limits they never consciously agreed to. MindSet does not argue that point. It demonstrates it, on the people in the room, and then hands them what to do with it.
MindSet is the session this site was built around. It is a keynote about the subconscious: the assumptions people carry without examining, the ceiling they have quietly accepted, and how much of that is genuinely fixed.
Rather than describing how suggestible a confident room really is, the session demonstrates it, using hypnosis, on volunteers from the audience. This is not a hypnosis show. The hypnosis is the proof, not the product. What matters is the moment a room watches a colleague do something they were certain was beyond them, and works out what that implies about their own certainties.
How it came about
After years performing internationally, from Sydney to Las Vegas, Phoenix was booked by a Sydney technology start-up to bring a hypnosis show into their office for about forty staff. It was meant to be a fun afternoon. What the client took away from it was something else entirely, and what they had asked for before the booking was the part that had nothing to do with the entertainment: the demonstration of what people are capable of when the limit is removed.
MindSet is what that became. Same mechanism, different purpose, built for a conference stage rather than an office floor.
What that first client had specifically asked to see was the inductions, the point at which a volunteer transitions into the trance state. Keynote sessions using hypnosis had already been delivered for larger corporate audiences, so what was built for that office floor was a deliberate hybrid: part performance, part keynote talk, and part information session on the power of the subconscious, demonstrated live as it was explained.
Thank you again for last night! It was so much fun, and informative! The staff is still talking about it!!
A week later a second Sydney start-up made contact, having heard about the first, and booked it for a group of 25 attendees. That is still the smallest audience the session is built for.
What happens in the room
The demonstrations carry the argument. In one, participants find they cannot stand up from their chairs, which moves a limiting belief out of the category of things a speaker talks about and into something the room has just watched happen. Several others follow across the hour, each with the lesson that belongs to it rather than left as spectacle.
That is the whole design. Nothing in the session asks the audience to accept a claim about the subconscious second hand, because the claim is made in front of them, on people they work with.
What it leaves behind
- A room that has just watched, first hand, how quickly a confident mind can be moved.
- The distinction between a limit that is real and a limit that has simply never been tested.
- A shared reference point the group keeps using afterwards.
Phoenix was great to work with and very easy to get aligned and organised before and during the event. We were very pleased and really enjoyed Phoenix's presentation as audience members ourselves.
Thank you for everything Phoenix. Everyone absolutely loved it, well done!
Sub-topics are available, so the keynote can be angled toward what the conference theme needs.
Fitting it into your programme
MindSet suits a team building day, a corporate training day, or the slot on an event programme where the brief is an inspirational talk. What it asks of the venue is a performance space sized to your group, and no smaller than 5m x 3m.
Content is shaped around your objectives and your industry before the day. For anyone in the audience who is uncertain about taking part, there is a short informative video clip explaining what the demonstration actually involves, which is there to answer the obvious questions and settle any nerves or apprehensions.
- Format
- Keynote with live demonstration
- Length
- 1 hour
- Room size
- From 25 people, no upper limit
- Variants
- Sub-topics available
See also the Body Language and Rapport keynote, which is the practical counterpart for sales and leadership groups.
Common questions
How long is MindSet, and what does it need from the venue?
One hour, delivered as a keynote with a live demonstration rather than as a workshop. What it needs from the room is a performance space sized to your group, and no smaller than 5m x 3m.
How big does the audience need to be?
From 25 people, with no upper limit. The second company ever to book it had a group of 25, and the session works from there up to a full conference hall.
How much does the audience have to take part?
The live demonstration runs on volunteers from the audience, not on everyone in the room. For everybody else the value is in watching a colleague do something they were certain was beyond them, and working out what that implies about their own certainties.
Is this a show or a keynote?
A keynote. The demonstration is the proof, not the product. What the session is built around is the moment a room sees how quickly a confident mind can be moved, and what the audience decides to do with that afterwards.
What about attendees who are nervous about taking part?
Taking part is voluntary. The demonstration runs on volunteers from the audience, not on everyone in the room, so nobody takes part without volunteering. A volunteer is asked to take part in the demonstrations themselves, such as finding they cannot stand up from their chair. There is also a short informative video clip explaining what the demonstration actually involves, which is there to answer the obvious questions and settle any nerves or apprehensions before the session.
Can it be angled to our conference theme?
Yes. Sub-topics are available, so the keynote can be angled toward what the conference theme needs, and the content is shaped around your objectives and your industry before the day.
Other sessions
- Mind Hacker. Security awareness keynote, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Body Language & Rapport. Keynote, up to 1 hour.
- Memory Techniques. Workshop, 1 hour.
Looking for the session people talk about afterwards?
Tell Phoenix about the audience, the outcome you need and the date. You will get a straight recommendation on which session fits, usually within one business day.