The Easy Way to Quit Smoking featuring Natalie Clays with Allen Carr’s EasyWay

00:00:00 Small Business Origins Podcast with John Kelley and Natalie Clays

[00:00:00] Intro: Tell me your story. Tell me your story.

[00:00:02] John Kelley: How did it all start? Do you remember?

[00:00:04] Intro: Oh, I know what happened. How did it stop? You're now tuned into the Small Business Origins podcast. I love an origin story. Each week, we dive into the real stories of entrepreneurs and businesses from across the nation.

[00:00:16] Natalie Clays: Louisian, what's his origin story?

[00:00:18] Intro: Who started with just an idea and are now making waves. I told this was a good idea. This is Small Business Origins.

00:00:31 Interview with Natalie Clays from Allen Carr's Easyway

[00:00:31] John Kelley: Yeah. What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Small Business Origins. You're tuned in to our nationwide search for entrepreneurs that have a story to tell. And joining us virtually in the studio is an entrepreneur that wants to do just that.

[00:00:45] John Kelley: All the way from Longmont, Colorado. We have Natalie Clays with Allen Carr's easy way. Natalie, welcome to the show.

[00:00:52] Natalie Clays: Hi, John. Thank you so much for having me. Good to be here.

[00:00:55] John Kelley: It is a pleasure of ours as always. Now you're currently in Colorado, but the company is based both here and in the UK where it was founded. And I think you said you actually run, like, 4 different countries under your franchise?

00:01:08 Exploring Global Reach and Entrepreneurial Stories with Natalie Clays

[00:01:08] Natalie Clays: Yeah. Well, we're actually in about 50 countries globally. So it began in London and the UK. We're now in about 50 countries, but I personally look after, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. So Pretty busy.

[00:01:22] John Kelley: Yeah. See, I added whenever we rebranded and became small business origins. I added in that nationwide search where we were really trying to go side of just Tomball, Texas where we're from or Houston and get in touch with entrepreneurs from across the country. But I've been telling people these past few episodes. It's like we're going worldwide because we're having companies that are based in Canada, Australia, and then now with you being, you know, the parent company being located in 50 different countries.

[00:01:51] John Kelley: It is insane the reach that we have, and I'm so excited every single week to talk to another entrepreneur that's from a different part of our country or a different part of the world. The stories are amazing, and that's what we're all about here. But before we hop into that stuff, we start out every single episode with an icebreaker question. So today's icebreaker question is, if you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you wanna be?

00:02:13 Discussion on Weather Preferences and Locations

[00:02:13] Natalie Clays: Oh, goodness me. I wasn't even prepared for this. That's the fact oh, goodness me. Where would I be right now?

[00:02:31] John Kelley: Honestly, I'd rather be anywhere else because I hate the cold. Oh. So I am not a fan of the cold. Now I like it cold. Don't get me wrong.

[00:02:38] John Kelley: But I'm talking fifties or sixties, no wind, the sun's out. Like, I'm that prima donna cold. I like it where I can put a nice little light hoodie on and feel comfortable no matter where I'm at. But right now, because we've been dealing with the cold for so long because we're in our winter months, I would love to be somewhere that's tropical, has nice warm weather. My wife looked up on, the weather app yesterday.

[00:03:01] John Kelley: Cancun was, like, 84 and sunny, and that sounds like the place I wanna be. Beachside, pool doing anything else but living through the cold and rain that we have. I don't mind the cold. I just don't like it when it's accompanied by the nasty rain and weather that we're having. And I'll tell you, Fort Worth, Dallas, I know we were talking preshow.

[00:03:20] John Kelley: You said you had a trip planned there, this weekend. You know? And for our listeners, I mean, right now, it's February 1st. So we're recording in February, so people are I don't want people to think, like, man, they're in in Houston, and it's nice weather right now when they're listening to this later. No.

[00:03:34] John Kelley: We are in the middle of that February funk that we had, and it's gross, and I just wanna be by a beach or by a pool.

[00:03:42] Natalie Clays: Well, I'm gonna tell you something. I actually moved here from Australia, and I was in Sydney. And we were used we didn't have winter in Sydney. It doesn't exist. And I've actually chosen to come from, you know, beachside warm weather to the cold and snowy Colorado.

[00:03:57] Natalie Clays: So I'm kind of very happy to be here right now. I look out the window and it's actually sunny. So it's bitingly cold, but it's blue skies, sunshine, Snow on the mountain. So I'm pretty happy being here right now, actually.

[00:04:10] John Kelley: Yeah. I mean, it's a recent decision you've made. And I'll tell you, I have not been to Colorado. I have seen photos. Oh.

[00:04:16] John Kelley: I know people who have been based in Colorado that I've worked with, people who friends of mine that have visited or been based there or lived there, and it looks beautiful, amazing. I absolutely want to go door the cold on a day you're having, like, now where you've got snow and it's chilly and, those beautiful mountains are behind you, you know, that kind of stuff. I just don't wanna be here in the crappy rain and weather. That's my big thing.

[00:04:40] Natalie Clays: Well, I mean, I gotta say when it when it's, when it's, you know, flowing a blizzard out there or it's it and it's Snowing sideways and it's windy. I'm inclined to stay home. But when it's, blue sky, sunny, snowy, it's pretty stunning, pretty fabulous.

00:04:55 Natalie Clays' Journey with Alan Carr's Easyway

[00:04:55] John Kelley: Absolutely. Well, we're here to talk about you, where you came from, and how you got into entrepreneurship and what you're doing with Alan Carr's easy way. So let's let's hop into the personal stuff. What's your origin story?

[00:05:08] Natalie Clays: Gosh. Okay. Thank you for asking. Well, Alan called CZ Way is it's a method of stopping smoking and and drinking alcohol. And I started out by I was a smoker.

[00:05:19] Natalie Clays: I was a smoker, started 15 years old, did it for 20 years, got very good at it. But like every smoker, always had that plan to stop doing it And had repeated attempts, failed every time. A day and a half was about my best effort. And so I tried for years years years to stop smoking and, just as you know, I kind of felt I was a fairly sort of strong, confident person, but I I couldn't do it. I I couldn't do it.

[00:05:49] Natalie Clays: I struggled enormously. I tried all the usual methods. I tried the patches, the gum, the sprays, the hypnotherapy, the You name it. I did it. And then I heard about this a guy called Alan Carr.

[00:06:01] Natalie Clays: And, so at the time, I was living in Sydney, Australia, and I heard about this method called Alan Carz Easyway, which in itself I thought is ludicrous. But, you know, I had tried at this point, I was 35, and I'd smoked for 20 years. I tried every method imaginable to stop. Yeah. You had smoke breaks.

[00:06:42] Natalie Clays: And by the end of it, you smoke your final cigarette. And I walked away kind of thinking and there was a lot of talking but not the scary stuff that I'd heard before but it was challenging what we think we know about smoking and really kind of Changing how you think about it. Anyway, I walked away that day, 21st June 2003. To be honest, John, between you and me and any of the listeners, I I didn't think it would work. You know?

[00:07:09] Natalie Clays: I mean, I went there with the best of course. Why would it? Nothing else had worked. Everything else had been a disaster. Why was this any different?

[00:07:15] Natalie Clays: But I was kind of in my wit's end and was willing to willing to be open about it and give it a go. I left that day, and still really not not sure. Not, you know, no big epiphany, no revelation, no hallelujah. Just kind of, we'll see how we go. We'll see what happens.

[00:07:34] Natalie Clays: And then nothing happened. I just didn't smoke. I didn't smoke. I Just had no urge or desire or no reason to smoke. So it it it it kind of like worked without me even really Understanding why it had worked.

[00:07:51] Natalie Clays: I mean, obviously, I know that now many years later, but at the time, it was the information they gave me just took away It it took away any reason to smoke. So it it didn't focus on why I shouldn't because I knew that. Every smoker knows that. But all the reasons and excuses that I'd clung onto to continue doing it, it kinda crushed them all, and you're left with absolutely no Reason to want to smoke. And it on it truly hand on heart was easy.

[00:08:20] Natalie Clays: It was stupidly easy. And, I went home, carried on with my life as normal, just really just not interested in smoking. Just it was done. And even though I, you know, at the time, Quite a few of my friends were still smokers, and I'd still hang out with them and I'd still have a drink with them, but I just wasn't bothered. I wasn't interested.

[00:08:40] Natalie Clays: And I think it probably took a few months for it to really sink in. Like, goodness. Yes. That was just it was so easy. It was so easy.

[00:08:48] Natalie Clays: And I think a few months later, I just thought, gosh. I could do this. Like, this is something I would love to get involved in. And that was that. I contacted our head office in London.

[00:09:00] Natalie Clays: I said, how can I how can I help? How can I spread the word? How can I Help other people experience what I've just just had? And, a few months later, I bought myself a franchise and I'd set up an well, it Took me a pretty, like, a year or so to train, but then I started running seminars in Sydney in, Australia, and that then expanded to, other Cities in Australia, then it became the whole of Australia, then it became New Zealand, and then another story further down the track is me coming to America. So, You know, I don't know if you remember that Victor Kayam advert.

[00:09:36] Natalie Clays: You know, liked it so much I bought the company. It was a bit like that. Yeah. I was so I was so blown away by how easy it was. I just I wanted to get involved.

[00:09:47] Natalie Clays: And that was yeah. I I joined the company in, December 2004. I run my first seminar in the 2,005. Now it's what is it? 1st Feb 23, and I'm still there.

00:10:03 Discussion on addiction, smoking, and the challenges of quitting

[00:10:03] Natalie Clays: So feel very, very, Blessed, privileged, honored, and still excited as as day 1, you know.

[00:10:11] John Kelley: Yeah. I I think this is something going to what you touched on. I think this is something that people who don't smoke or drink, they kind of struggle to understand that it's It's almost like we've trained ourselves, and I guess neurologically, we really have to be dependent on these things. And at some point in time when you're there, you can tell us every single logical thing that makes sense as to why we shouldn't drink, why we shouldn't smoke, whatever the case may be, and and it's truth. Like, everything you're saying is absolutely true.

[00:10:43] John Kelley: Like, we know we have had enough money spent on advertising against tobacco companies to know every single risk of smoking and every single not even a risk, but everything that smoking causes. Yet when you tell them, hey, this is bad, this is bad, you need to quit because of this or quit because of that. All it does is drive them to wanna have another cigarette or drive them to wanna have another drink.

[00:11:08] John Kelley: And people don't understand that the normal ways of, hey. That's bad. Stop doing it. Doesn't work both on the principle, I think, of being addicted as well as going to the principles of, like, you know, games people play by doctor Eric Berne, where it's adult, parent, and child. And it's like you're trying to be a parent to me by giving me these things that I already know, and it's almost out of spite, which is childlike, that I'm gonna say, well, I know that you're right, but you're trying to tell me as a parent, so now I'm gonna be a child and do it anyway.

[00:11:42] Natalie Clays: It's addiction. You know, pure and simple drug addiction, and You're absolutely spot on. The messages that tell people smokers are not idiots. I wasn't stupid. I knew the bad stuff, but it didn't it didn't take away this this compulsion to want to do it, and that's addiction.

[00:11:58] Natalie Clays: The very nature of addiction is it denies any choice. So none of us are doing that a choice. We're doing it because we're addicted to this drug. But the messages telling you how bad it is, they have the opposite effect. You ask and anybody out there listening, the the the first thing When people tell you how bad it is and try and scare you into stopping, first thing you do, you reach for a smoke or a vape or, you know, it it it has the opposite effect because they're using They're trying to scare us into stopping, and that makes you feel worried, anxious, stressed.

[00:12:26] Natalie Clays: First thing you do As a smoker or a vaper, when you feel worried, anxious, stressed, reach for a smoke, reach for a vape. So the typical message sent out by society about using scare tactics have the opposite effect.

[00:12:40] John Kelley: Yeah. And I'll tell you, that's the craziest thing that I learned in my marketing class was that the surgeon general's warning on cigarettes that we have here in America actually entices the same part of the brain that smoking a cigarette does. So quite literally, what you're saying is 100% factual on a an MRI based study that says when you just see those warnings, that enough is right there trigger triggering that part of your brain that says, oh, yeah. Cigarettes. Man, I love the nicotine.

[00:13:17] John Kelley: I love that hit. And then you get that feeling, and then it just makes you wanna buy it more. I mean, exactly what you're saying is true that it literally the scare tactic that's supposed to steer you away from it, steers you right to it and makes you want it because those pleasure sensors in our brain light up under an MRI and say, oh, yeah. Cigarettes. Love them.

[00:13:37] John Kelley: Let me get them.

[00:13:38] Natalie Clays: Yeah. And what and those those scare tactics create, You know, they also create anxiety. So, subconsciously, they create anxiety. And if you're a smoker, you feel anxious, You believe a cigarette's gonna help with your anxiety and that's what you reach for. I mean, the the truth is it doesn't help with anxiety.

[00:13:54] Natalie Clays: It causes anxiety. But smokers Sure. We don't we as smokers, we don't know that. We we believe it helps us. So that those those campaigns, using scare tactics and horrible graphic images have the opposite effect.

[00:14:09] Natalie Clays: It's heartbreaking to see, but, You know, addiction is an insidious insidious problem. And I guess the beauty of Alan Carr's method is It it doesn't bang on about the bad stuff that we already know. It kinda says, well, hang on a minute. What's the good stuff? What's this good stuff and is it really good stuff?

[00:14:28] Natalie Clays: And we It kinda breaks it down and and you're left with no reason to smoke. So it's None of it's about fear, scare tactics or fear. It's about, well, what's this perceived good stuff? Let's break it down. Let's look at it a bit closer.

[00:14:44] Natalie Clays: And is it really, you know, as good as it's cracked up to be? But at the end of it, you're just left with you've got you've had every argument Every argument taken away, every reason to smoke removed, every excuse that we cling on to as addicts Crushed and you're left with nothing. You're left with there's just no reason to smoke anymore. There's no reason to. And that's when it becomes easy.

[00:15:08] Natalie Clays: So it's it really is a psychological, you know, the I think another thing out there in in the industry that makes it difficult for people to grasp is that Most of these most methods focus on this the physical addiction to the drug nicotine. Well, that part's only 1%. This addiction is 99% psychological, 1% physical. So you can stick a patch on your arm. You can pop a pill.

[00:15:31] Natalie Clays: You can take a lozenge or a gum or a spray Or a vape, but they all only address the physical addiction to the drug. So they're trying to target, like, a 1% of the problem. That's why they don't work. You gotta target the 99% of the problem, which is this headspace, this belief that I enjoy it, this belief, It relaxes me. This belief, it relieves stress.

[00:15:50] Natalie Clays: This belief it's my friend. And so that's the big problem to to sort of address is is recognizing it's a psychological addiction And you have to change that and see it from a different perspective to really kind of, to get free of it.

[00:16:08] John Kelley: Yeah. I can tell you I'm not speaking from experience on the smoker side. I've I've never been a smoker per se. I am one that occasionally while I was drinking, I may have lit a cigarette and smoked 1, but I a on this podcast episode. But, occasionally, I'll smoke a cigar, but I don't consider myself addicted to, you know, cigarettes or cigars.

[00:16:40] John Kelley: I mean, all of my experience with addiction comes from my mother who, like you, at 12 years old, started smoking.

[00:16:47] John Kelley: And, like you, was extremely good at it. And I'm talking at least 2, usually 3 packs per day. And she was on, you know, Pall Mall's and Merit 100 before they kinda got too expensive for her to be able to afford, and I was just always surrounded by the secondhand smoke. So, honestly, cigarettes were a huge turnoff for me. I didn't like them because I hated the secondhand smoke.

[00:17:13] John Kelley: So I never wanted to take part in it, but I watched her struggle. And I watched her use the patches. I watched her use before vapes were a big thing. It was true ecigarettes, which were USB powered. They look like cigarettes.

00:17:26 Understanding Alan Carr's method for smoking cessation

[00:17:26] John Kelley: They plugged into your computer and charged. And then, you know, they they would just be like a a single use disposable type thing that tasted like a a cigarette and gave you that nicotine hit, and then you would put it down. I bought one of those out of desperation trying to get her to stop smoking, because eventually what I knew was going to happen occurred, and she got diagnosed with emphysema, COPD, And then what wound up actually killing her was the double pneumonia she had along with the COPD and emphysema. So her lungs were already trashed, And then on top of that, she had double pneumonia because she would get pneumonia all the time, from smoking. And it was just that was the truth.

[00:18:07] John Kelley: No matter how much I begged and pleaded and griped as her child wanting her to stop, it just would never stop even with all these other things. And that is one thing I loved about looking at your website prior to you coming on the show was it Nothing on there said smoking is bad. It's going to kill you. You need to stop or anything else. It said, we're here to help you with these addictions, and we have an easier way for you to do it.

[00:18:34] John Kelley: And then mentioned, like I said earlier, it's brainpower, not willpower. You know? So I will say it's kind of vague for me to understand exactly what you do, so I definitely want you to break that down for me if you don't mind. But It does seem like it's from more of a positive end of the spectrum, which I think would, in theory, have a better, reaction from that. And then, obviously, you've been through it, so you already know it's not a theory for you.

[00:18:58] John Kelley: It's a truth that attacking it from this positive perspective really helps. So what do I expect that first day that I'm where you were. I walk in and I say, I've got this addiction. I wanna get rid of it. What do I expect when I show up for this seminar?

[00:19:11] Natalie Clays: Okay. Gosh. Well, firstly, I'm I'm so sorry to hear about your your mom. I mean, it breaks my heart to see people go too early through this A horrible addiction. Okay.

[00:19:21] Natalie Clays: Alan Carr's method. It's always a difficult one to explain because it is so very, very different. This fear and anxiety that smokers have is kind of driven by smoking. So nonsmokers don't have it. It's caused by smoking, not relieved by it.

[00:19:38] Natalie Clays: So when I walked into that seminar and I I mean, I now run the seminars. I've been doing the seminars myself as a As a coach or teacher for 5th let's say 15 years or maybe could even be 17, I'd lose track. Everybody walks in that room pretty terrified. You know what? They think they're giving up their friends.

[00:19:56] Natalie Clays: They think they're giving up their pleasure, their crutch, their prop, their reward. Their this is this We talk about smoking. So at no point do we talk about the bad stuff. There's no horrible images because every smoker has seen it. And like your mom and like me, We we we don't wanna know.

[00:20:22] Natalie Clays: Not interested. We're gonna close our minds to that because we're not idiots. We know the bad stuff. So that's gone. We're not talking bad stuff.

[00:20:29] Natalie Clays: We're gonna talk about what's this good stuff and I'll give you an example. The perceived good stuff about smoking is that It relaxes me. It relieves stress, helps me concentrate, relieves boredom. I enjoy it with a drink. It's time out.

[00:20:43] Natalie Clays: It's a break. It's social. It's habit. All these different reasons that smokers give to justify or rationalize the addiction. And what we do Is we break those down and we actually prove that smoking does the opposite.

[00:20:57] Natalie Clays: It creates stress. It creates anxiety. It Prevents you from being able to concentrate because you're so distracted in withdrawal. And so the reality of smoking is What the manufacturers in the industry claim it does, the opposite is the truth. It actually creates stress, anxiety, boredom, can't concentrate, Feel uncomfortable, feel empty, feel insecure.

[00:21:19] Natalie Clays: So what you're this takes a 6 a house to get to this by the way, but what you're In a in a nutshell, what you're basically saying is you smoke to feel like a nonsmoker. You smoke to relieve the discomfort and aggravation of being in withdrawal. So if you think about the flat line that's normal, When you go into withdrawal of nicotine, you go below normal. So if you're normal, let's say your normal is a 100%, when you withdraw from the drug nicotine, You go below a 100%, and and which nonsmokers don't have. When you light up a cigarette and you replace you top up the drug levels of nicotine and you get that boost Back to normal again.

[00:21:59] Natalie Clays: Well, you're already back to normal, but as a smoker, we call that pleasure, satisfaction, relief, enjoyment, stress relief. So what we're really saying is you make yourself uncomfortable in withdrawal than to relieve the discomfort to try and feel like a normal nonsmoker again. So all the bad stuff that we get is real and all the good stuff doesn't exist. Now, of course, that's me telling you it in, like, you know, 30 seconds. In reality, it takes 6 hours to be a lot more convincing than that, but it's really about exposing the truth.

[00:22:30] Natalie Clays: It's about seeing smoking or vaping or any drug As a confidence trick, we're led to believe that there's all this, you know, this this this these positives to it. And what we're really saying is they don't exist. It's BS. It's a it's a scam. It's a confidence trick that we got conned with.

[00:22:46] Natalie Clays: And what Alan's method Alan Carr's method is doing is actually showing you the truth about it So you see it differently. You realize you've been mugged, you've been had, and you're left with, like, why would I wanna do that? So what it does is There's no sense of giving up. See, if you stick a patch on your arm, you still believe you're giving something up. So you're then stopping not because you want to because you feel you should.

[00:23:09] Natalie Clays: This is seeing smoking from a different perspective or vaping or alcohol from a different perspective So that you actually have no desire to want to do it because you realize there's just no point and that it was something of a, like I said, like a a scam, a confidence trick. I said, it takes 6 hours to really explain it thoroughly, but it's it's fascinating stuff. Like I said, there's there's not Not once do we talk about, you know, the bad stuff, but we're really showing you that the good stuff doesn't exist and that you're spending your money and Ruining your life and being slavery. You know, you're a slave to a drug, but you get nothing in return. So there really is nothing to give up.

[00:23:51] Natalie Clays: And you're basically just trying to get back to the normal that you were when you were a nonsmoker. Does that kind of

[00:23:58] Intro: So does this say

00:24:00 Exploring a Program to Help Quit Smoking

[00:24:00] John Kelley: Yeah. No. Absolutely. It just opens up so many questions in my mind. Is this a one time thing where I come to this seminar, or is this a program that extends a certain period of time or is it a lifetime deal?

[00:24:14] Natalie Clays: Yeah. Good question. So it starts with the very first session which is about 6 hours and that's with facilitator, someone like myself. Oh, every one of us was a client. There's nobody can do this job.

[00:24:24] Natalie Clays: Unless you've been there with your smoker's hat on, you cannot possibly relate understand. So we were all smokers ourselves. We all stopped this way. First seminar is 6 hours. You smoke all the way through.

[00:24:36] Natalie Clays: You have your final cigarette. You leave. Most people arrive feeling petrified, and most people leave looking seriously happy, relieved, excited. It's just so I said it's positive, inspiring, uplifting. You leave as a nonsmoker.

[00:24:51] Natalie Clays: For the majority people, that's it. You're done. But some people need more than one session, so we offer free support sessions, and we offer a money back guarantee. I think we're the only people who do that and we do it because we're that confident. And the way and the way the guarantee So session number 1 is 6 hours.

[00:25:11] Natalie Clays: Session number 2, if you need it, is about 3 hours. Session number 3, about 3 hours. If you do the full program of all 3 different sessions in 3 months and you still choose to smoke or vape or drink alcohol, we give you money back. We've had the offer in play. We've been we the company started in, 1983, And we've had that, money back guarantee from the very beginning.

[00:25:39] Natalie Clays: And, you know, if it didn't work, we couldn't afford to do that. So that's how I mean, the reason we do it, John, it's not it's not really about it's so that people will try it and know that it's risk free thinking, well, I've got nothing to lose by giving it a go and hearing what they have to say because the worst that happens is I waste some time, I get my money back. And that's really why Alan started it was wasn't so much about getting a refund. It's about saying you've got nothing to lose by Coming in here what we have to say. I mean, over the years, I've had clients who've come, who've categorically said, I do not wanna stop smoking.

[00:26:17] Natalie Clays: I love it. I don't wanna stop. And I said, well, why are you here? Well, my husband booked me in, but I don't wanna be here. And I give them the opportunity to leave and say, well, refund you if you wanna get they say, no.

[00:26:27] Natalie Clays: No. I'll I'll stay and see what you what it's about. And then 6 hours later, they've heard stuff they hadn't even considered or thought about, and they've had such A shift or such a change in their thinking, their perception that so it's kinda like they they don't know what they don't know. So they think they love smoking. They think they enjoy smoking.

[00:26:49] Natalie Clays: They think it has all these, you know, upsides. But 6 hours later when they've actually heard it from a very different perspective. It's like, wow. I just didn't see it that way. So you almost have to it's getting you gotta get people in the room in the first place to even be open to hearing what you're gonna say and that's, you know, the money back guarantee kind of Encourages people to, you know, give it a go even no no no matter how skeptical they are, no matter how much they say, well, I don't I'm not really ready.

[00:27:18] Natalie Clays: It's not the right time. I love it. We We say, come and hear what we have to say.

[00:27:23] John Kelley: Yeah. And it's amazing that you started that way of walking in thinking This isn't gonna work. I'm just here going through the motions so that I can say that I've tried. And then as soon as I'm done, I'm gonna get out of here and smoke another one on the way home. Yeah.

[00:27:36] John Kelley: I mean, I'm not to have that happen.

00:27:38 Natalie Clays on Smoking Cessation and Alcohol Reduction Programs

[00:27:38] Natalie Clays: Yeah. I mean, look, I didn't go there thinking I want my money back, but I went there skeptical and very doubtful that it would work. I didn't think it would work. I because nothing else had. And every previous attempt had been horrendous, had been awful, And I I went there highly doubtful, really not expecting it to work.

[00:28:01] Natalie Clays: So this is the last job on the planet I thought I'd ever be doing. You know? I I I really had no it's crazy. But it just I sat there for 6 hours and I listened, and I smoked all the way through till the very, very last drop. I carried on smoking.

[00:28:17] Natalie Clays: And then when I was done, It's just like you just couldn't quite bring yourself to smoke anymore. I could think about it, think she'll have one. It's like, Yeah. No. I don't think so.

[00:28:29] Natalie Clays: And you just couldn't bring yourself to want to smoke anymore afterwards. So but, yeah, I was very I was very skeptical and And, I wouldn't say suspicious because I I did actually have a friend who'd done it and she was raving about it, but I was I didn't believe It would work. And I think I also thought, well, even if it does work, it won't be forever. It'll just be for, you know, to, like, basically go out with my friends and Get on the beers and then it'll be all, you know, over. And it wasn't.

[00:28:59] Natalie Clays: It just wasn't. It just got easier. It got better. My life has changed drastically. It's taken me around the world.

[00:29:05] Natalie Clays: I now live in fabulous Colorado. You know, my work has brought me here. Yeah. So I was one of those very, skeptical doubtful clients who totally didn't think it would work and, Yeah. Best thing I ever did.

[00:29:21] Natalie Clays: Life changing.

[00:29:22] John Kelley: So as a potential client, you know, how do I know where the nearest Allen car is that I can get in touch with, or are y'all available? You know, what does your clientele look like? Are you available to anyone, anywhere, or where are you located mostly?

[00:29:39] Natalie Clays: The, yeah. So, we we're we're available to anybody everywhere, anybody whether they smoke, vape, drink alcohol. With the with the live seminars, we do we do them in person, but we also do by Zoom. So, I've been trying to take off every US state. So we've had clients in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, not to mention, you know, the places well, This weekend, I'm in Dallas.

[00:30:02] Natalie Clays: So whether it's in the room or by Zoom, you can access it from anywhere, everywhere. So, this Saturday, we're I'm personally going to be in Dallas, but tomorrow, we have one by Zoom, this weekend by Zoom. So it's really all you need really is a laptop, you know, Internet, camera, open mind, packet of smokes.

[00:30:28] John Kelley: For most things these days, that's definitely the way it's going. Do you feel like there's any difference in the treatment yourself as far as being in person or on Zoom? Like, do you think it maybe wouldn't have worked for you if it was remote and you needed to go in person yourself?

[00:30:43] Natalie Clays: No. Because when I did this when I did the smoking one, it was so long ago. Zoom wasn't even a thing. Right. And so I didn't have the option back then.

[00:30:52] Natalie Clays: It it was The only choice was in person, so I did that. But I've since done the alcohol one by Zoom. I don't drink anymore. It's nearly 3 years. And ask any of my friends.

[00:31:05] Natalie Clays: I never ever ever thought I would be a non drinker. So the Zoom alcohol seminar just had the same effect on me and and, yes, nearly 3 years. I can honestly hand on heart say I don't miss it, that I don't want it. Again, life is so much better without it. So the the difference really with InTheRoom and Zoom is you get the the program's identical.

[00:31:30] Natalie Clays: I mean, the only difference is we can Hug in the room. I can give you a hug at the end when you say happy that you wanna say thank you with a big hug, and that's the main difference. There's a little there's a slightly different energy when you're in the same room, but the results, which is what people want or need, are the same whether it's, You know, in with me in the room or, or by Zoom.

[00:31:52] John Kelley: So can we discuss pricing at all, how much it costs to attend this?

00:31:56 Interview with Natalie Clays about Allen Carr's Easyway

[00:31:56] Natalie Clays: Yeah. It depends that does change a little bit by location. A bit it because New York is, very expensive to put a seminar on. In New York and Los Angeles, we charge 595 a person, money back guarantee. In the other states at the moment, it's 495 a person, money back guarantee.

[00:32:21] Natalie Clays: Zoom's a little bit cheaper at 4.50, but all those prices include unlimited support sessions for the 1st 3 months. So if you need one session, it's 4:50 by Zoom, 4:95 in the room. If you need 10 sessions in 3 months, it's the same price. The goal is to get you to where you need to get to. Yeah.

[00:32:41] Natalie Clays: And and that includes, yeah, that, 3 month money back guarantee as well.

[00:32:47] John Kelley: So this is kinda like having a life coach, essentially. It it's someone who is a little more equipped as far as there's a presentation, there's information, there's methods, that kind of thing. But this is someone who's kind of like maybe an accountability partner for you in the effect that you can go to these classes several times and meet with an unlimited amount of people depending on who's in that room with you.

[00:33:10] Natalie Clays: Well, we tend to everybody tends to go As an individual and not so much worry about what anybody else is doing in that room. We say to them, this is about you, not about the person next to you or anybody else, not about your friends or your partner, Just About You. So

[00:33:25] John Kelley: Got it.

[00:33:27] Natalie Clays: What what what they have got though is then connection to someone like me or one of our other Facilitators that they then have, unlimited contact with if they need any support at all. So we you know, we're we're here for them if they need to email, to phone, to do a a Zoom chat, whatever. That we're and and and the big difference is I always use this example of, you know, the biggest laser. We have it in Australia as well, and I'm pretty sure it was Juliet Michaels over here. I think she's absolutely fantastic, but she's probably never been overweight.

[00:34:05] Natalie Clays: Yeah. So I'm not I'm assuming that. I don't know that. But the the one we had in Australia called Michelle Bridges, she's never been overweight. So she's telling a bunch of people who've got an eating issue what to do.

[00:34:16] Natalie Clays: Now they know that. The difference with this is every one of us Has been a smoker or a vaper or a drinker. So we're not telling you what we think you should do. We're talking about it from our first hand personal That that advice or support is so real because we've every one of us has been there. And in fact, you can't qualify As a facilitator, unless you've actually had that addiction yourself and got free of it, we wouldn't actually take anybody on who hadn't been in that place.

[00:34:54] Natalie Clays: That's, you know, the number one criteria about being involved or presenting is you have to have had the problem and been there. So

[00:35:01] John Kelley: That's my personal struggle is with weight, you know, myself. And it's like, I I a 100% agree with you That is so hard when I see these personal trainers and these people that are telling you how to lose weight and how to get to where they are. And it's like, but where have you been? If you've always had a fast metabolism and you've always worked out since a young age, Wow. The head start you've gotten.

[00:35:27] John Kelley: It must have been nice. It's like I wanna talk to that guy who's been the weight that I am. I wanna talk to that person who is losing that weight, who went through that that process, whether they're in the middle of it or at the end of it. And now they feel good. They look good.

[00:35:43] John Kelley: They're happy. They've down to their goal weight. I wanna speak to someone who's been there because you're right. I can't imagine a smoker or a drinker listening to someone who has never smoked and never drank. Tell them all of this information and then just take that and go, you know what?

[00:36:00] John Kelley: This is great. Yeah. They're right. I I feel like they would immediately discount them and then walk out the door, have a drink, smoke a cigarette, whatever the case may be, versus listening to someone who says, hey. I've been there.

[00:36:11] John Kelley: I know exactly what you're going through. I knew I knew that feeling that you're feeling now sitting in class when I walked through the through the door my very first time. So I I think that's very important that no one in your organization can say, yeah. I've never smoked or drank, but, you know, here's here's the way to do it. This works.

[00:36:28] Natalie Clays: Yeah. It's it's, Yeah. It's an absolute it's a must have. We wouldn't even we wouldn't have anybody doing it who hadn't been there. I mean, when I walked in that door, 21st June 2 I remember it so clearly, 2003.

[00:36:40] Natalie Clays: I can honestly say I was terrified. And I know if there's anybody listening who's a smoker, they can relate to that. I was terrified. I was terrified of life without cigarettes because it it's like how will I cope? How will I function?

[00:36:52] Natalie Clays: I kind of thought I'd be forever deprived and miserable, Forever craving it, forever missing out, forever suffering, struggling. So you it's just the worst feeling. You you go into it, a, expecting to fail, but thinking, but even if it works, life is gonna be so rubbish without my, you know, my friend. And It it it does that what's that saying between a rock and a hard place? It's like, well, if I keep on smoking, it's gonna kill me.

[00:37:20] Natalie Clays: If I stop smoking, I'm gonna be so miserable anyway. And Alan Carr's method was kind of like this lifeline of saying, actually, you can stop, and it doesn't have to be miserable. And you can be Much, much, much happier as a nonsmoker and not miss it and not crave it and not feel, that you've given anything up, But actually just feel free of a drug that you've been a slave to that, let's be honest, has controlled your life. Yeah. And so I think that was what was so inspiring about it.

[00:37:51] Natalie Clays: It was like I'd never really heard it that way before. Every other approach was about, well, you know, it's gonna be really hard, isn't it? And you're probably gonna fail and you're gonna be so miserable. Who wants to go in for that? This was like, well, actually, guys, it's gonna be so easy.

[00:38:06] Natalie Clays: You're gonna feel great. You're gonna be so glad you did this. It's gonna be completely life changing, And you'll never miss it or once it again. How cool is that?

[00:38:15] John Kelley: So are y'all on social media at all, like, dripping out any knowledge or truth bombs in between the seminars?

[00:38:21] Natalie Clays: Yes. We are. I because I've got 4 countries. I've got 4 sites. But if we're in America, it's, On Facebook, we are, Allen Carr USA.

[00:38:34] Natalie Clays: Our website is, And, of course, the spelling's a bit weird. A, double l, e n c a, double r. So it's Alan Carr USA on Facebook. Alan Carr on Instagram, Alan Carr on Twitter. The website is usa dotallencarr.com.

00:38:38 Interview with Natalie Clays about Allen Carr, the easy way to quit smoking

[00:38:34] Natalie Clays: Our website is, And, of course, the spelling's a bit weird. A, double l, e n c a, double r. So it's Alan Carr USA on Facebook. Alan Carr on Instagram, Alan Carr on Twitter. The website is usa dotallencarr.com.

[00:38:58] Natalie Clays: So we're we're, yeah, we're out there and we're we're we're Hosting regularly, and, we also send, you know, hopefully, positive, inspiration to our to our subscribers. So you can On the website, you can sign up to the mailing list and, you know, hear what we have to say and hear how we're sort of talking to see if it feels like the right thing for you.

[00:39:21] John Kelley: Perfect. Do y'all offer any type of specials at all ever?

[00:39:26] Natalie Clays: We do, actually. Yeah. In fact, you know, it's funny you say that. I I was only talking earlier about we should do a Valentine's special. So, let's put it out there now.

[00:39:37] Natalie Clays: Let's put it out there for your listeners. Bring bring your loved one. Let's say bring your loved one half price. Is that a good deal?

[00:39:44] John Kelley: Oh, man. That's a killer deal. I like it. We're definitely gonna have to rush this episode out so that we can mention that on there and get that discount for our listeners. I think it's a great thing.

[00:39:55] John Kelley: I mean, you know, as someone who's lost my mother at an early age because of smoking, it is absolutely something I wish that would have been available to her. I mean, it was available to her back then. I wish that she would have known about it and tried it because she had tried so many things, including being in the hospital for weeks at a time, which you would think would give you a nice enough break that you could, you know, come back out and say, you know what? I don't wanna do that again, and I've already been this long without it. Let me just keep going, but the determination to pick up that pack of cigarettes again was always stronger than the willpower to just step away.

[00:40:31] Natalie Clays: Can I just add to that? What you've just said about your mother in hospital totally confirms my point. The addiction is psychological, not physical. Because if if she's been in the hospital that period of time, there's no nicotine left in the bloodstream. Nicotine's gone.

[00:40:45] Natalie Clays: It just totally confirms that when we say it's a mental or a psychological addiction that just that that proves it. There's no nicotine left in her body at that stage, but she's still Craving or desiring a cigarette because of her beliefs around it.

[00:41:00] John Kelley: Exactly. Well, this has been a great interview. I hope that our listeners, if they are struggling with this And this is something they want help with. I'm hoping that they will reach out to you and check out what you have going on because it does seem like something That is it could be so beneficial for somebody in their life right now. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing all this information about Alan Carr, the easy way, and your personal experience with it.

[00:41:25] Natalie Clays: Thank you so much for having me. I've loved being on the show and, yeah. I hope I I hope we can help some of your listeners to get free from From, their, addiction issues. Hope to hear from them.

[00:41:37] John Kelley: Absolutely. Well, that's it, listeners. Another episode, another week, And another awesome entrepreneur with a great product. I mean, who doesn't want to quit smoking? I think most smokers would probably, If they really thought long and hard about it, I would say that they do wish they could just get rid of that habit, and they feel like it's an impossible task.

[00:41:55] John Kelley: So if you're feeling that way, Even if you think that it's not gonna work just like our guest today, walk in, open up your mind, take a listen, see if it works for you, And then hopefully move on with your life without smoking anymore. I appreciate y'all tuning in every single week listening to these episodes. Please head over to www. Smallbusinessorigin.com to find out more about our guest and this company. You could find everything in the show notes, of course, just like every single episode that we release, so please click those links down there.

[00:42:25] John Kelley: Take a look around, see what works for you. But that's it for us. We will see you on the next episode. And as always, stay beefy, my friends.

[00:42:35] Intro: Thanks for listening to another episode of small business origins.

[00:42:38] John Kelley: I love an origin story.

[00:42:40] Intro: If you like what you just heard, leave us a review. Subscribe and share with a friend.

[00:42:45] Natalie Clays: Guys, check this out.

[00:42:46] Intro: They're gonna love it. You're gonna love it.