Here’s the full transcript of hypnotising speaker Aaron Calvert‘s chat with Jane Farnham of Great British Speakers:
00:00:08:04 – 00:00:31:04
Jane Farnham
Hi, I’m Jane Farnham from Great British Speakers, and I’m here today chatting to the amazing hypnotising speaker, Aaron Calvert. Now, as a quick way of introduction, Aaron is pretty much unique in that he can provide stunning interactive live shows and, being a qualified doctor, integrate your key messages with what you might consider to be, well, conventional keynote speaking. So, first of all, Aaron, thank you for joining us.
00:00:31:26 – 00:00:32:06
Aaron Calvert
Thanks for having me.
00:00:32:38 – 00:00:35:25
Jane Farnham
Well, tell me a little bit about your earlier life and background.
00:00:36:30 – 00:00:57:09
Aaron Calvert
Yeah, well, I guess a varied background certainly kind of sums up my past for sure. So, you know, I was born and raised in Manchester, so and, you know, obviously got that Northwestern tang, but not not really as much anymore. My voice has sort of softened through the years of living in Nottingham, and London and New York for periods of time.
00:00:57:09 – 00:01:15:10
Aaron Calvert
And of course, being on the stage, you know, a lot of Southerners like to like to hear that sort of softer northern voice so that they don’t feel like they’re going to get mugged when they come onto the stage, or certainly that’s sometimes how you may feel with a strong northern accent. But I yeah, I kind of have a really varied past.
00:01:15:10 – 00:01:39:49
Aaron Calvert
So I started performing when I was about eight years old. I was really into magic at the time, which was, you know, that that sort of sense of wonder and everything that goes with that as an eight year old of being able to varnish a coin and and all those classic tricks. But, you know, for me, it was never about like the trick or it was never about kind of really like knowing a secret that no one else knew.
00:01:39:49 – 00:01:58:39
Aaron Calvert
It was about sharing this amazing sense of wonder that happens when you show someone magic and you experience something that you can’t explain. But I think I kind of became a little bit disgruntled with it in that I knew the secret. And so therefore it was a little bit more boring, if that makes sense to me. So when I was about 12 or 13, that kind of took a sidestep.
00:01:58:39 – 00:02:18:34
Aaron Calvert
And at the time I was at grammar school and I’ve always been great with people, I’ve always been very personable, I’ve always been very confident, naturally kind of assumes leadership positions. So I would lead the classes, would lead sort of everything around there. And it was it was always good fun and I was also very academic. And I found a love of learning.
00:02:18:34 – 00:02:41:06
Aaron Calvert
I found a love of academia really at Urmston Grammar and from there the logical choice at a grammar school for us was If you are smart and you did like people and you did well in science, you became a doctor. And I think that combined with the idea of watching House MD at the time was what really sold me on the idea of becoming a doctor and pursuing that kind of course.
00:02:41:40 – 00:03:04:40
Aaron Calvert
And what’s amazing is at that same time, at that pivotal moment as you sort of leave sixth form and go to university, I actually started working in the States on one of the summer camps and they asked me to come over and teach basically magic. And at the time I was doing more kind of mind reading and hypnosis and starting to experiment with kind of the power of the mind, which is which is what kind of my whole interest is kind of grown out of.
00:03:05:09 – 00:03:22:55
Aaron Calvert
And so we went over there and I found whilst I was there, a new love, not only a love of academia, but this love of performing, of bringing joy to people, of being on stage and really showcasing what the human mind can do. And from there I went through med school. I was performing stage shows at all the same time.
00:03:22:55 – 00:03:39:18
Aaron Calvert
I grew a business of performing for corporate clients, and then eventually when I started working as a doctor, I decided that I was going to take a leap of faith and had some amazing opportunities with Channel Four and Warner Brothers TV and things like that. But I decided actually I was going to leave that behind and go full time into performing.
00:03:39:18 – 00:03:44:09
Aaron Calvert
And yeah, doing PR and TV and all the bits that come with that.
00:03:44:47 – 00:03:47:34
Jane Farnham
So how long ago did you give up being a doctor?
00:03:49:10 – 00:04:10:12
Aaron Calvert
So that was so I finally finished working seven years ago. So seven years ago I was doing this full time. But you know, performing and working, that’s been for more than oh gosh, more than a decade, really a lot longer than that, maybe, 12 to 15 years. And that’s kind of, you know, that’s built around and it’s been taking on different angles.
00:04:10:12 – 00:04:31:19
Aaron Calvert
It was theatre shows and corporate events and then more speaking and training that’s kind of come out of there as well. And, you know, it’s been it’s been great. I mean, the problem was what I had in the end was kind of two full time job. So as a doctor and there was performing these events and shows and consulting for TV and all of the elements that come in there and it just just didn’t really gel together.
00:04:31:19 – 00:04:42:42
Aaron Calvert
You know, someone comes in with a heart attack at 5 p.m. on a Friday night. I needed to be on stage at seven. It wasn’t like, Oh, sorry, can you just hold them? I’m just going to go and jump on stage. I’ll be back about sort of half nine. It just didn’t really work together. So.
00:04:43:14 – 00:04:46:33
Jane Farnham
So. So do you miss it? Oh.
00:04:47:07 – 00:05:04:37
Aaron Calvert
I certainly miss the stories. I think, you know, you you know, you work in the industry, there’s always funny stories that come out of it. And that’s what I miss. I miss the people, I miss the stories. I miss the camaraderie sometimes as a performer. But it can be very isolated, actually. And that’s something that I’ve tried to get around.
00:05:04:37 – 00:05:17:58
Aaron Calvert
I always try and surround myself with very creative people, and we’re working on joint projects together so that you don’t get that kind of, you know, sat at your desk on your own day after day, and then you go out and perform and you’re driving all over the country on your own. You know, it can be it can be quite isolating.
00:05:17:58 – 00:05:42:09
Aaron Calvert
So I always want to create this culture of, you know, togetherness. And you’re often more creative when you’re when you’re driving towards a goal together. But yeah, I mean, I still do clinical hypnotherapy, so I still get that kind of aspect of helping and supporting people, which is why I went into medicine in the first place. So yeah, I don’t necessarily miss the whole job and not having no leave and working many, many night shifts.
00:05:42:09 – 00:05:44:24
Aaron Calvert
But yeah, I certainly miss the people and the stories.
00:05:45:09 – 00:05:48:30
Jane Farnham
So what fascinates you the most about the human mind?
00:05:49:53 – 00:06:11:16
Aaron Calvert
I think for me it’s the fact that most people underestimate what they are capable of. I mean, you know, there’s that old cliche of the, you know, the most powerful computer in the world is your mind. And it is when you think about what’s happening now, even as you watch this video and as we talk, you know, consciously aware of everything around your surroundings, you’re probably looking out for the emails.
00:06:11:16 – 00:06:31:48
Aaron Calvert
You’re waiting for that Amazon delivery to come through the door. Your breathing, your heart is pumping, you’re sat with your posture, you’re concentrating, you’re taking in information. The brain is completing all of that within seconds. And it’s amazing. And what amazes me is actually some you know, we often underestimate ourselves. We often think that we can’t do things or that things are going to be difficult.
00:06:31:48 – 00:06:53:15
Aaron Calvert
But actually, when we put our minds to it, we’re capable of much more than we ever could have imagined. And we’ve all heard the stories of, you know, mums lifting cars off their children when they’ve been in a car accident, things like that. But these stories fascinate me about actually what is the human mind capable of in terms of focus, but also what is the human body capable of when, when it needs to be?
00:06:53:15 – 00:07:08:36
Aaron Calvert
And that’s kind of, I guess, what led me down that route of science and medicine was that idea of we are capable of more and I’d love to showcase and help people realize that we are really capable of much more.
00:07:09:09 – 00:07:23:38
Jane Farnham
So when did your stage show that you started doing when you were working as a doctor, when did that more. Yeah, sort of merge into a more and evolve more into a corporate style gig. When did that happen?
.
00:07:24:07 – 00:07:47:00
Aaron Calvert
So I think so, yeah. So I started performing the stage shows in medical school and somehow I managed to fit in both med school, a social life and performing shows, to theaters around the country, which which seems mental now. But and I, you know, these were public shows. These weren’t shows for students. These were shows in theaters. There were 300, 400 seat theaters.
00:07:47:00 – 00:08:23:25
Aaron Calvert
I would go to Derby, Nottingham, Manchester, you know, all over the country to do these shows. And often people will come who are working in, you know, companies. And then they would go, Oh, you know what? We need someone for the Christmas party. Let’s kind of reach out to the guy that we saw in the theater. And so corporate inquiries started to come in and that was kind of a different ballgame because, you know, what you’ve got is a different kind of market there because the theater shows people are coming to see you, for a corporate event, that they’re probably to see the friends and have a few drinks and catch up or they’re there because
00:08:23:25 – 00:08:45:32
Aaron Calvert
they have to be there. So you kind of got this different market and what it took me a few years to kind of master was that ability to draw everybody in is to get everybody’s attention in that room. And then from there the idea of kind of entertainment in a corporate room and making sure that, you know, you’re you’re bringing up the CEO, but they’re not going to be embarrassed by anything that happens. You don’t going to be revealing any deep, dark secrets or anything.
00:08:45:32 – 00:09:07:10
Aaron Calvert
to all of these employees and things like that. So, you know, it’s finding the right material. And what started to happen was because of that element of, you know, and I openly talk about being a doctor on stage and things like that. And that is a natural position of leadership. And the whole idea of the mind reading and hypnosis shows, as I’m suggesting throughout the show, I’m influencing people’s decision, we’re influencing an outcome.
00:09:07:10 – 00:09:17:03
Aaron Calvert
Obviously, that kind of ties very well in psychologically with what company direction and messaging is all about and instilling that excitement with the employees. So we start.
00:09:17:09 – 00:09:25:17
Jane Farnham
How do you integrate the sort of client’s message into an entertainment show? How, what’s that look like?
.
00:09:25:39 – 00:09:39:03
Aaron Calvert
So in the first instance, that’s exactly what started to happen. So the clients would go, “We want to excite our team, so we want to book entertainment, want to make something that’s going to make them go, Oh my God, that was the best thing we’ve ever seen”. And remember that event and be talking about that event come the time on Monday.
00:09:39:25 – 00:09:59:22
Aaron Calvert
And then corporate clients started to go, “Great. So actually we got the company message of togetherness. Can you do something that is is focused around that?” I mean, we create one act in the show that’s all about togetherness. So it might be getting five people up on stage that all make different decisions. That all seem completely independent, but actually results in one outcome.
00:09:59:33 – 00:10:18:01
Aaron Calvert
And it’s about how we can work together as a team. And the more we do that, the quicker we get to that goal, the more effective that goal is. And that togetherness, that bonding moment is created in that moment on stage. And you get this amazing reveal which people remember. Because when we watch stuff that excites us, that that’s what we remember, right?
00:10:18:25 – 00:10:36:28
Aaron Calvert
And then that sort of started to transform to not being part of the entertainment, but then starting quite starting to go, we’ve actually got a message. Can you deliver it in an engaging way that isn’t classical speaking, which is, you know, the 90 PowerPoint presentations they’re going to watch with old blokes going
.
00:10:36:32 – 00:10:37:58
Jane Farnham
Death by PowerPoint
.
00:10:37:58 – 00:10:48:57
Aaron Calvert
“As you can see on the financial results from this year that we’ve done very well”. People don’t want that. But, you know, they are essential sometimes to the day’s events.
00:10:49:15 – 00:11:02:20
Jane Farnham
But it sounds like what you do Aaron is much more interactive. So you’re getting involved and getting into the crowd and getting some of them up and and just making it feel very fun and natural and engaging.
.
00:11:02:31 – 00:11:29:33
Aaron Calvert
That’s absolutely the key. So so what happened was they wanted me in there right in the middle of the day to re-energize the audience, but also to give me, you know, probably maybe one of the most impulsive messages of the day, depending on what the client is or where the schedule is, because the clients know that they are going to their employees or their delegates are going to remember that message, because that moment of reveal or that moment of interactivity is what they’re going to remember and engage with.
00:11:29:51 – 00:11:56:31
Aaron Calvert
So I started to structure things that were more appropriate for clients’ needs. So, you know, we had a client who wanted to look at how they could form better trusting relationships from with with clients from the get go. So I created this idea of using all of my skills in, you know, psychology and understanding. You know, when I go out on stage, I need to make a good first impressions of 1500 people, 2000 people, 300 people, whatever it may be, for the audience.
00:11:56:45 – 00:12:14:24
Aaron Calvert
So they trust me immediately and get onboard with the show. So how does that translate when we talk about clients? How can you make the perfect impressions so that your clients instantly trust you? They believe you. They want to do business with you, they like you, which is important as well. I don’t mean they want to go to the pub with you and have a drink on a Friday night.
00:12:14:24 – 00:12:41:02
Aaron Calvert
I mean, they want to do business with you and, and all of that psychology is what I use on stage. It’s what I use in sales. Obviously, I’m a salesman promoting myself as, as the product. And, and so it’s translating that to an audience whereby they can do things that aren’t underhanded. It’s just looking at psychological approaches and training them to make the greatest first impression and wrapping all of that in a state of where I can bring up somebody in their pocket.
00:12:41:20 – 00:12:58:30
Aaron Calvert
And what I’m demonstrating is that there’s this trust between us that’s allowed me to get into your personal space and let me take the watch off your wrist or the phone out your pocket. And, you know, and that’s what’s fascinating. People see it and react and they’re like, “Oh my God, how’s that happen?” But it’s because that rapport is instantly there.
00:12:58:46 – 00:13:15:57
Aaron Calvert
That’s allowed me to do it. Now, translate that into a business world. We’re not talking about picking pockets, obviously. What we’re talking about is making relationships where the person trusts you absolutely. Which which is a great place to be with clients. And that’s kind of evolved over the years with client requests coming in. And some of those have become more talks.
00:13:15:57 – 00:13:22:24
Aaron Calvert
I’ve got sort of pre-prepared and some of them are bespoke where a client goes, “We want to do something that’s all around learning.”
.
00:13:22:44 – 00:14:07:39
Jane Farnham
Yeah, let’s explain that process a little bit, because those who may be thinking about booking a speaker right now, watching this, just to let you know that we will obviously you will make contact with us. We will provide suggestions based on your brief and then obviously, once the speaker is chosen, we get on a briefing call with the speaker. So in this case, with Aaron and myself and the client and we really work on what the message is, how it should be delivered. So, you know, what I’m saying, I suppose, is that the client has full control throughout the process to ensure that the message is that you deliver is the right one to suit that particular event. And we’ve had experience of that, haven’t we?
.
00:14:08:06 – 00:14:38:07
Aaron Calvert
Yeah, 100%. So you know that there are talks. I use the psychology of body language, mind, a mindful talk, the suggestion of sales, how you can use suggestion to help improve sales and results. But obviously there are more bespoke ones where a client may go, “Great. We want to talk to our audience that’s all focused on learning. How can we help leaders, how can we help managers, how can we help senior leadership teams inspire their teams to drive?
00:14:38:07 – 00:14:55:35
Aaron Calvert
Learning to excite them into learning”. And so, you know, it starts with how long is it going to be? 30 minutes, 45 minutes. Great. What is the focus. Well it’s on inspiring people, on how to learn so that for me breaks down as, well, first of all, I’m going to talk about how we learn. So let’s understand exactly how as human beings we learn.
00:14:56:04 – 00:15:13:37
Aaron Calvert
How does that translate to then actually putting that into action? So what does that mean? If we can get people to learn, what can they do with that? And lastly, how do we excite people and make them learn? So we’ve got sort of a three flow structure and then part of that is the sort of science and the psychology and the behavioral aspects that will go into that in sort of the presentation.
00:15:13:53 – 00:15:34:33
Aaron Calvert
But that presentation is wrapped into a demonstration. So if we talk about learning in a bit more detail. So one of the things I did was talk about how we are creatures of habit, we form patterns and if we can get into good behavioural patterns to learn, then we can, then we are open to learn more regularly. And so we’ll start to pick up, you know, do those brain exercises more regularly.
00:15:34:33 – 00:16:06:55
Aaron Calvert
So I talk about patterns and how we become predictable in that and demonstrated, how I can bring someone up and have them make random decisions. But all of those decisions are already predictive. I knew what they do because people fall into patterns. And when we talk about that, we then extrapolate that in actually what does that mean in the workplace and learning and how can we get people to adopt new healthy behaviours within the workplace that is constructive to to building, building on the company, expanding growth, learning any of those outcomes that kind of go in, and then all of them always end up with something big.
00:16:06:55 – 00:16:24:46
Aaron Calvert
So that big message is wrapped in this big reveal or a big result where, you know, it’s been coming all along, but the audience haven’t necessarily put the pieces together. And when they do, there’s this kind of, you know, there’s this sort of sort of not a slap in the face moment, but it hits you like, you know, like a ton of bricks.
00:16:24:46 – 00:16:31:25
Aaron Calvert
Suddenly everything that they’ve been talking about, slots into place. And I think that’s the moment that most people take away is, you know, this.
.
00:16:31:25 – 00:16:45:12
Jane Farnham
Is the moment that everybody wants when they go to these events, they want that powerful message delivered in a really powerful way. So what makes you, what excites you the most about speaking and performing finally?
…
.
00:16:46:21 – 00:17:06:01
Aaron Calvert
So. So I think I think it’s twofold. So first of all, I genuinely I enjoy learning. I am a massive advocate. I think we should constantly challenge ourselves, we should constantly be learning. That’s why I love performing because particularly the mind reading and hypnosis, I’m bringing people up on stage. I have no idea how they’re going to react. I don’t necessarily know what kind of tales they’re going to give me or anything like that.
00:17:06:01 – 00:17:29:54
Aaron Calvert
So I’m learning about them in real time and that’s what I love, is that different approach because it constantly challenges myself. And so I love from a performing aspect is delivering this state of wonder that almost takes you back to kind of like a childhood sense of wonder that we sometimes lose as adults. And suddenly there’s this moment where everything falls into place, into place, and they know like, you know, they’re going to remember that.
00:17:29:54 – 00:17:43:53
Aaron Calvert
They’re going to tell this story to their friends, they’re going to tell this story to their work colleagues. They’re going to tell the story in ten years time when they go, “oh, do you remember that guy that the number at the end was was the date? And what was that? Wow.” Like, they always struggle to explain it because it feels like that.
00:17:44:13 – 00:18:06:32
Aaron Calvert
But from the talking aspect, because I love learning, I love passing on those messages. And it’s great to hear from clients or hear from attendees when they message me and go, “I’ve just done that thing that we talked about. So, you know, if you put it into perspective, like making the relationships, I’ve literally just met a client, I put everything into action that you set on stage and honestly, the clients are eating out of the palm of my hand”, which is great.
00:18:06:32 – 00:18:29:38
Aaron Calvert
That’s why you want them to be. And, and seeing people put into place and put into action the things I’m teaching or talking about or training and hearing how it might, you know, this is a bold statement, but transform the workplace, particularly when you’re working with senior leaders on culture, for instance, how it has shifted and it’s had an impact and it extends beyond any element of entertainment, extends beyond the 30 minute talk.
00:18:29:51 – 00:18:32:33
Aaron Calvert
It’s actually had an impact. That’s what really excites me.
.
00:18:33:01 – 00:18:39:27
Jane Farnham
Seeing some real tangible results as well. Well, Aaron, it’s been absolutely brilliant chatting to you today. Thank you so much for joining us.
.
00:18:39:46 – 00:18:40:31
Aaron Calvert
Thanks for having me on.
.
00:18:40:51 – 00:19:01:04
Jane Farnham
Oh, no, you’re welcome. Now, if you’d like a really interactive entity winning a powerful speech, or a brilliant hypnotising speaker, then do contact us. If you’d like to book. I would simply contact myself or Steve at Great British Speakers on 01753439289 or you can email bookings at bookings@greatbritishtalent.com. Thanks for joining us.
Aaron Calvert hypnotist speaker at Great British Speakers
