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How I Built My Small Business
Alexandra Janelli - The Life-Changing Power of HYPNOTHERAPY: What Celebrities and CEOs Know That You Don’t
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- [00:00]
Alexandra Janelli
Don't stress over the grades. Don't stress over the A's or the B's, or having to finish college on the right timeline and scale. It's okay if you're not the best in the class that each of our skills come from. Like really a different place. I wish I had known back then.
- [00:27]
Ann McEntee
Welcome to How I Built My Small Business. I'm your host, Ann McEntee, and today we're joined by Alexandra Janelli, a leading hypnotherapist and founder of Modern Sanctuary, an alternative beauty and wellness spa and winner of Philadelphia Magazine's 2024 Best of Philly. Alexandra is also the founder of MyBurbal, a transformative app designed to help users overcome stress and anxiety, sleep issues and other personal challenges through tailored guided visualizations and meditations. As a premier hypnotherapist, Alexandra has guided Academy Award nominated actors, renowned photographers, singers and CEOs toward meaningful transformation. Her work has been featured in top publications like the New York Times, Elle Magazine, Oprah Magazine, Men's Fitness, and Forbes. You can find a link through to her business in the episode's description. We have an incredible lineup of guests coming your way, so don't forget to hit the subscribe button and stay tuned. Upcoming episodes feature the founder of a boutique surf resort, the creative force behind a local improv pop up, a doctor of clinical nutrition, and an outdoor enthusiast who launched an adventure travel company for teens. Each guest brings inspiring stories and valuable expertise. My hope is that you'll not only be entertained, but also gain fresh insights and ideas. Let's dive in.
- [02:16]
Unknown
Thank you to our listeners for being here today. Alexandra, thanks for coming on the show.
- [02:21]
Alexandra Janelli
I am so happy to be here. Thrilled to chat.
- [02:24]
Unknown
So what can you tell us about hypnotherapy? Like, how does this differ from hypnosis as entertainment?
- [02:34]
Alexandra Janelli
It's such a good question and it's one of my biggest things that I like to share with about hypnosis because I think there is a stigma around it. I think we've all seen the movies. I know it's in cartoons. You know, someone getting hypnotized and walking around quacking like a duck. They do both exist. But I will tell you, what happens on stage is very different than what happens in my office. Some people are very disappointed when I say that and some people are very thrilled to hear that. So they do run a similar line. But a lot of hypnosis, at least what we're going to talk about today, is really about a deep state of relaxation with an acute focus. If you can fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning, you actually go through the hypnotic state. So it's a very familiar state. People just might not be able to right away identify. Oh, that's the hypnotic state.
- [03:27]
Unknown
So how do you get into the hypnotic state? And can you tell us a little bit more about what this state is?
- [03:34]
Alexandra Janelli
So hypnosis is the state between awake and sleep, like I'd mentioned. And I think to understand hypnosis is to really start with the theory of the mind, right? So we have two parts to our mind. There's the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is where all of our behaviors are born, our reactions, our coping mechanisms. The conscious mind is all our willpower. Deductive reasoning, our logic. It's what we use like 90% of the day, but it only accounts for about 10%. And that's where the subconscious comes into play, Right? It's all sort of below this really critical layer of, like, logical thinking. So from the moment that you're born until today, everything is learned through association, right? So if you have a fear of dogs, let's say you get bit by a dog as a child and you develop a fear of dogs, you've created an association on the subconscious level that dogs are scary, right? And so when you see one, your subconscious is going to react with that fearful protective mechanism, even though the logical mind's going to kick in to go, wait, it's fine, it's a small dog, it's behind a fence. You know, it's going to come up with reasons that you don't have to feel that way. And so what hypnosis does is we're helping take you from that awake, very aware state into a much more relaxed and focused state. Meaning. Right. Like when you're aware and you're fully awake, you have a very large scope of focus. You can take in different sights, sound, taste, smells. But when you go into the hypnotic state, that scope of focus becomes incredibly narrowed in. And you're so acutely focused on what's being talked about that that's where your focus goes. You actually go into this state when you're watching movies. You go into it when you're reading a book. Some people, when they're driving, you go into that highway. Hypnosis, right? You're not really thinking about, am I pushing the gas or am I pushing the brake? You're just sort of doing these things and being aware of the cars to your left and your right and in front of you. So it's actually a very familiar state. You're not under anyone's control or anything like that either.
- [05:46]
Unknown
So are you talking about the difference between, like, beta waves and alpha waves and theta waves?
- [05:55]
Alexandra Janelli
Absolutely. So as you go from the awake conscious state down into the subconscious states, and then eventually asleep, you are moving through those different brain wavelengths. And so my private practice is called theta spring hypnosis because. Right. Like that is that nice deep hypnotic theta wave that we're looking for. Now, all of those different depths are different, like, forms of the hypnotic state. And you know, you can use each state for a different thing. Right. Like alpha waves. You know, I might want someone in a lighter state where they have a little bit more sensation. As you go into the theta states, there's almost this disconnect from the mind and the body. So it's sort of like you're free floating, your body's deeply relaxed, and they all have different purposes, which is sort of interesting too.
- [06:43]
Unknown
So when you are in that theta state, is there still any awareness?
- [06:49]
Alexandra Janelli
Yes.
- [06:49]
Unknown
Or are you already dreaming?
- [06:51]
Alexandra Janelli
No. So you're still aware. Right. There's actually one more state just below that where they can actually get you into a very, very deep hypnotic state to do surgery, where you've really left the body, you've disassociated from pain. And then there's the sleep state. And that's where you get into the unconscious mind. But you are aware. Right. So you know when you're just about to fall asleep, if you heard someone open your door, you're gonna hear it and you're gonna like, wake up and go, what was that? Same thing happens in the hypnotic state. If I said to you, you know, take off all your clothes and go run around the office on some subconscious level. Right. You'd have to want to do that or have like a desire to do that. You wouldn't just do it. Cause I told you to. There has to be a want or a desire to do something like that. Or even if it comes from a fear place.
- [07:44]
Unknown
What can you tell us about the science behind what happens during a session? So you get somebody into this deep state of relaxation where they're halfway between awake and asleep. How does the hypnotherapy work in the brain?
- [08:00]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah, it's a great question. So when I run a session with clients, the first step is to always understand what brings you in today. Right. My job is to understand a client fully in context. And that means one what's going on? Right. How can I help you? Maybe they say that they're coming in for sleep. Wonderful. We have a baseline. The other question is why now? Right. There is something that has caused them to want to take care of this now. Right. Whether it's, oh, well, I've been having a hard time sleeping, or I just lost my job, and I've been having a lot of anxiety around that. And so you're kind of trying to understand what the urge urgency is. Right. Some people, it's, you know, my significant other or my spouse is really upset that I smoke, and that's why I'm here. Those are a little trickier for me. Just because they have to have that internal desire to quit smoking, that doesn't mean it's impossible. But understanding context is really important. So, for example, someone comes and they're like, I really want to quit smoking. I feel like I'm ready. I have this really bad relationship with it. My next step is to understand that relationship with cigarettes. In order to have a successful hypnosis session, I'm trying to understand the client's words, their terminology, what things you can watch their body get triggered by. Right. You can sort of tell when someone gets uncomfortable. They maybe start fidgeting or moving a bunch. I'm looking for tone of words. Are they speaking in metaphor or are they speaking much more directly? All of these are things that I as the hypnotherapist and taking in. So that when we get to the point after we've talked and we've created goals of here's where I'm at and here's where I want to go, I can then understand how to phrase what are called hypnotic suggestions. And hypnotic suggestions are, once you're in that hypnotic, or let's call it the subconscious state, I can go in to start negotiating Now. Interestingly enough, hypnosis and meditation are very similar in a lot of ways in terms of how we get you into that subconscious state. So hypnosis and meditation run a very parallel line into the point where we go to the hypnotic suggestion portion. Meditation will leave you to extrapolate. Hypnosis is going to go in to provide hypnotic suggestions of how things can be right. So if we go back to the theory of the mind that we talked about earlier, of how associations are created, I'm going in to go, okay, so you want to break this association with cigarettes. And I'll start with where they're at and how things can be right. And this is why it's so important, is that we're trading. Right. It's almost like a scale I'm taking away your current association with it and giving you an option for a new one. The mind has to like it, right? And it has to resonate with the client. So if I was like, oh, you're gonna feel so free and fluffy, and they're like, I would never use those words. That's a really weird way to phrase it. They're gonna reject that suggestion because it just doesn't hit on the emotional level. And so that's why the terminology and words are really important, because you're trying to negotiate, right? It's like you have to want the negotiation. That has to sound good to take it.
- [11:24]
Unknown
It makes a lot of sense. It's fascinating to hear you describe it. I heard you mention smoking as a possible use case. What are some of the other best use cases for hypnotherapy? And can you also tell us what it cannot do?
- [11:40]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah. These are really good questions because for me, I am not a licensed therapist. I am not a medical professional. I really work within a scope of practice for self improvement that there are times, however, that I might work with a medical professional or a licensed professional for things like depression. So where does that leave us? I can work. Things that I've worked on are anxiety, stress management, nail biting, hair pulling, finger picking, fear of flying, fears, phobias, smoking cessation, weight release, and I call it weight release because you didn't lose it, you don't want it back. Manifestation, right? Anytime there's a behavior that occurs, a user or a patient is going, I don't want to feel this way. Why am I like this? Usually you're looking for, what is that behavior? Why is it a problem? And you can go in and negotiate. So it really has a full scope of where it can be applied. However, it depends on where you're looking in that scope of where someone who's not licensed can do it. There are plenty of licensed therapists that also are trained in hypnosis, though I can easily fill in for all of it. I say if there's an association, there's probably a way to shift it on that subconscious level.
- [12:59]
Unknown
Can hypnotherapy help with chronic pain or physical conditions?
- [13:04]
Alexandra Janelli
It's a great question. There is a level, right? So when we look at pain, it's really interesting because pain is your body's way of talking to you. It's your body's way of saying, hey, something's not right. And so there is a point where hypnosis can help. And then there's a point where we don't really want to ignore that trigger. But what I tell people is when you're having pain, it can cause significant stress and it can therefore influence the perceived pain levels. And when you have increased perceived pain, it feels worse. And that's where hypnosis can help, meditation can help. There's a whole slew of things that subconscious work that we can take down the perceived pain or the anxiety around the pain, the worry around the pain, so that it can be lessened. And when you lessen pain and stress, the healing processes can increase. There's been lots of studies that have been done post surgery of people using hypnosis and meditation and realizing that the healing is significantly faster because the stress levels are lower and those processes are not inhibited by stress.
- [14:13]
Unknown
Yeah, I believe it. I. I believe stress is probably the number one cause of all illness in the world.
- [14:19]
Alexandra Janelli
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, when you think about the body, it's really interesting, right? Because when we can't fight or flight, we hold it in. And you're going to notice people who have anything from jaw clenching, finger picking, you know, so many different experiences. I had one client who was like, I just have this lower back pain now. He'd been to a doctor, no slipped discs, nothing there. We did some hypnosis around some other stuff, but it turned out a lot of his pain that he was experiencing was just stuck tension from carrying a lot of guilt from his past with him. So the stomach, interestingly enough, in lower back, you know, we look at different body syndromes and it's like, where are your symptoms that have no medical reason to be there presenting? And you know, the stomach and lower back does represent. It's an, It's a line to look down. It's not always finitely true, but guilt and frustration. And so it's like, tell me more about that. So, you know, it's really. It's always interesting to listen to the body and the cues that it's giving you and to really, again, build that picture. The goal is to build that picture of the person in context. It's like, wow, that really makes sense given what you're sharing and given what you're telling me. The second thing that's always important is to try to go from the presenting problem. Right. I can't sleep. It's never about sleep. That's the presenting issue. To be able to ask a line of questions, to get really deep into the. What is the underlying association there. You know, it's like, okay, so maybe I'm not sleeping because I'm really stressed out. Well, what's causing you stress? Right? And they're like, well, I'm really stressed out because I just went through a breakup. Okay, well tell me what's stressful about the breakup. It's like I feel rejected. Tell me, where does that come from? Right. So you keep digging down to get deeper and deeper and it's like, okay, this is where we want to work. Because again, you're trying to get those roots out. Yes, to plant a new seed, the root. And that's why I like the context. Right. Because if I go, you're gonna have great night's sleep tonight. You might, but you're not, it's gonna come back because again, you haven't pulled the roots out.
- [16:26]
Unknown
So with something like sleep due to stress due to some other deeper root cause, how many sessions can it realistically take for somebody to feel healed?
- [16:39]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah, so I always say healed. To feel healed is an interesting statement, right, because it really depends on the definition of healed. But when users in with a presenting issue, right, Like I never know. I always have the commonalities of like what I've seen, but I've, I've never ceased to be amazed. Sometimes things that I think won't clear up right away. And maybe you're going to take, you know, a series of sessions, anywhere from like three to six. It's like in one. All of a sudden it's like one and done. So it's sort of amazing. Personally, the reason I ended up getting into hypnotherapy is 14 years ago was that I was an avid finger picker. It started when I was really young and it just continued, it was terrible through my childhood. Got really worse during high school and college. And then I had been seeing therapists and they're like, we think you have ocd. We want to put you on a high dose medication. I was like, that's just not the route I want to go. I am certainly not one who's opposed to medication. If it helps, then why not? But it was just didn't feel like the right thing at the time. And I ended up seeing a hypnotherapist on a total lark. Someone was like, oh, have you ever tried hypnotherapy? And I was like, no, should I? That's crazy. Yeah, I'm going to try it. I went in very open minded and within one session, I kid you not, I stopped. And this was a habit that I'd been doing my whole life. I was blown away and I, I to this day I went back to the same hypnotherapist who became my mentor. And it was just so life changing. I went back for what I now describe as, you know, just sort of fear. I was living sort of in this fear bubble of like, if I do this, what are all the ramifications? And just started living more freely and taking, you know, not a lot of risk, but doing normal things, that it's like, no, I actually want to do this. And that sounds exciting and it was really freeing. And it's just something just like, it feels like nothing changes, but everything changed. It's like this whole new lens.
- [18:42]
Unknown
It's incredible. And if you can remember anything from that session, what would you say was the suggestion? So how was it so effective?
- [18:54]
Alexandra Janelli
You know, the session? So first, the first session I remember really going, just. It was a lot of like testing, right? Like, if I look back with my sort of scoped eye, from a hypnotherapist point of view, right. The first part is really just testing what worked for me, right? Where do I fall in terms of am I a metaphorical learner? Am I a direct learner? There are things that we as hypnotherapists look for as you go into the hypnotic state. So he's testing how the rapport is, right? Am I following command? Am I doing what's being asked? How am I respond? Am I relaxing as we go through it? So I remember him doing like a hand levitation, which is where you put your hand out or your elbow on a table, palm flat. And it's sort of like I want you to think about with your eyes closed, a string on the back of your hand pulling up and up and up and up and again. You're like, this is weird. Until all of a sudden your hand is like moving up without you, like thinking about it. And you're like, okay, wow. Mind body connection, right? Your mind is thinking about the string and the hands responding. I remember also he regressed me back to a point where he's like, I want you to go back to the earliest memory of when this started. And interestingly enough, right, your mind, as we've all seen in the Disney movie about emotions. He regressed me back to a memory that was accessible. It was not a logical one I would have recalled, but I remember being a very little girl in my grandparents living room and I remember looking at the carpet and it was the same carpet that I had in college. And I just never really. I knew where it came from, but I was like, I Don't. I don't. Had no significance to me. But I remember being on that carpet and being very upset because I didn't know where anybody was. And that's where the anxiety started from. It was like a core emotion that started of like, that pinpointed the beginning of it. Now, what's amazing in hypnosis is that he was able to go, well, where is everybody? Right? He challenged the fact that my mind had taken in as truth was that like I was abandoned or whatever it might have been. And I was like, oh, they're just in the kitchen. Okay. And reframed it so that, that my mind didn't have to sort of see it as a terror, but just, oh, okay, they're there, I'm fine. And it was almost like a domino effect of it, like just released all this stuff. But I also remember it was like anytime my hand comes up to my mouth or my fingers go to pick my cuticles or what have you, I hear no. And it was almost like this jarring effect. So that anytime I like, I would go to do that, there would be this almost like little panic that would cause the leg trigger. It's like, I don't do that anymore kind of thing. And it just stopped. It was sort of wild. I mean, you don't think it's possible when you've been doing it for so long. And I think that's part of what is so cool about this profession. Now, I certainly don't want to sell this as like, it's 100% guaranteed. It's a magic bullet, like silver bullet. But I've seen so many amazing things that happen in my office where it's just so you become not confident, right. That you can change and then you realize, wow, I can. I just have to know what I want. And I have to like, find the ways that it can work to do that.
- [22:22]
Unknown
The mind and the body are incredible.
- [22:25]
Alexandra Janelli
Unbelievable. It's a wonderful system and yet can be so toxic.
- [22:31]
Unknown
But hearing you tell your story was reminding me of emdr. I don't know if you've ever tried emdr.
- [22:37]
Alexandra Janelli
I haven't yet, but I've heard it's very similar.
- [22:39]
Unknown
It sounds like it. And I've done EMDR once before, and the amount of progress I was able to make in a 15 minute session was mind blowing to me. So, yes, all of this, I think it's like what you're saying if you're open, right? And if you've also been doing a little bit of research to understand how the Subconscious works and how you can really choose sometimes your future.
- [23:03]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah. And it's hard again, Right. Like, people are like, I can't change. But you're really working that logical willpower alone, you're working with 10% of the mind against these associations that have been built for so long. So it's hard to do that. And it's. Sometimes I even have a hard time doing guided visualizations to myself. Right. It's sometimes easier when you find someone. But now this gets into a couple of the key things. If you want to work with a hypnotherapist or anyone, even an EMDR specialist. Right. Therapist, you have to trust them. Right. Like, if you don't trust them, you're not going to allow yourself to go into these unknown states because what the mind, the subconscious mind hates the most. Right. Remember, everything's built on association. If you don't know them or you don't trust them, the unknown's frightening because it can't categorize it. And so, you know, I can tell when a client and I just aren't having a rapport. You'll notice in the hypnotic state, the body does amazing things when you're relaxing. Right. One, you can see the client sort of turn away. Right. Have you ever been talking to someone and you're just not vibing with them and, like, you just sense their body language turning away from you, from you? The same thing can happen and you can gain it back, but, you know, it's. You have to be aware that it's not working in that way. Or there's some block and you can ask directly to go, what is the block? Tell me about it.
- [24:30]
Unknown
How do you handle, I mean, beyond asking questions about what is the block? Like, how do you handle people who may be skeptical or they're resistant or they're just nervous about the process altogether?
- [24:43]
Alexandra Janelli
Of course, I would say 90% of the clients that I work with come in and have never done hypnosis. And so the first step is always going, let me tell you what to expect. I like to set up expectations very clearly from the beginning of how the session's going to flow. That before we do hypnosis, I'm going to tell them all about what happens, that if they want to record the hypnosis portion, they're welcome to that. You know, I typically don't have them talk. If they do, they're going to remember it. Right. Like, it's not stage hypnosis, but you should be skeptical. Right. Like, I. I think that's a Great thing, right? Don't just jump into something without having a little bit of, like, tell me about it. Because if, for your association speaking right there, that I've seen stage shows, I've seen the movies, right? Tell me I'm wrong if you want me to go into that state with you. So there's a level of reassurance. Now, again, as you're working with a client, again, if they've never done it, it's perfectly normal for them to, like, have a little bit of a block at first. And again, that's just showing them, you know, it's like, well, let's do some hypnosis, right? Like, one of my favorite things is you can do, you know what I call the lemon test? And it's not a pass fail. It's just, I'm testing a client, right? Or it's, I have them close their eyes and I guide them through walking into their kitchen and finding where they would keep a lemon and a cutting board. And what you do is you have them cut the lemon in half and bring that lemon up to the. To the mouth and take a bite of it. Now, interestingly enough, what's funny is, right, the mind is focused. They're focusing on something they've seen before. They remember what. We all know what a lemon tastes like. A certain type of person will start to have their mouth salivate. You'll get like a tightness in the jaw, or they'll begin to salivate. Some people won't, and that's totally fine. But again, most people do, and it's like, oh. And I'm like, there's no lemon here, right? So that's hypnosis, is that I'm giving you a cue. You're having a response, and we create that. So these are the things where it's like, I want to make people comfortable, right? And even as they're going into the hypnotic state, reassurance is great. Or there's things that I'll point out to them as we go through it where it's like, listen, you might notice like a. The first stage is going into the hypnotic states. The eyes wobble up and down. Most people don't notice it's happening when it's happening. But if you point it out to them, I'm like, you might notice this wobble of the eyes moving up and down. And they'll nod their head and it's like. And that's just showing me that you're already in a light hypnotic state, right? And that's the way of that just sort of going, look, you're doing great. Right? And that's like, just keep doing what you're doing, and we'll just keep going deeper and deeper. And just because people don't want to feel like they're not in control of the process, I think that's by far the most frightening.
- [27:38]
Unknown
Yeah, I can see that. And I can imagine that. Especially given that most people's exposure to hypnosis is like, what you're saying, TV shows on stage where people are doing maybe things that they don't want to be doing, and it feels creepy. This doesn't sound like that at all.
- [27:54]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah, no, it's not like that. Again, like, I'm a very reputable person. I read body language extraordinarily well. I'm pretty, like, intuitive. It's interesting because you can tell, especially if someone is in the hypnotic state. I can tell you when I was doing hypnosis personally, and I see I've seen this before with my clients too. But for me, my hypnotherapist had asked me a question. And I remember, I don't remember until he pointed it out, that I was tapping my fingers on the desk. Like, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And he asked me, it's like, I want you to draw your attention to your hands. What's going on? And I was like, I don't want to talk about it. And he's like, okay. So I was not noticed, totally aware that I was tapping my fingers, but my body was talking. And that's what we call an adverse reaction, right? Is that a suggestion is given and the body responds. Right. It's the same thing as flinching, right? Your body is replying, responding before your mouth does. And therefore, I might notice, as a client is in the hypnotic state, and I might provide a suggestion that doesn't resonate with them. You might see their face sort of squinch up a little. You might notice their foot begin to tap a bit or move. You might notice the breathing pattern change. Because when you're in the hypnotic state, it's a very shallow, light breath. So interestingly enough, the breathing pattern when you're awake, right, is a normal breath. As you go into the hypnotic states, they get shallower and shallower. It almost feels like you're not breathing. And then when you go into the sleep state, it becomes like a rolling breath. So these are all, like, very cool cues that we look for. Like, the skin becomes very smooth and flush, the jaw relaxes. The body gets heavy, heavy, heavy. So it's such a fascinating experience to not only watch, but also be part of, because for the user, it's very relaxing. And again, it's not that you're not aware of anything. You're just choosing to focus your direction on what is being talked about.
- [30:03]
Unknown
It sounds like an incredible practice to also just help people with changing their lives in the direction that they want to. Okay, so you do one on one sessions, but then you also have Modern Sanctuary and then you also have the Burbl app.
- [30:19]
Alexandra Janelli
That's right, yes. So healing my journey really started with my private practice. I've been doing that since 2010. It is a passion of mine. And I had realized that while my private practice is wonderful, I just knew I wanted to reach more people and I knew that not everyone can afford hypnotherapy. It's not covered by insurance, so how would I do that? And I had started, back in 2015, an app. I actually paused development on it until three years ago, and we really started developing it. But that's what has recently become verbal. We'll come back into that. But Modern Sanctuary is the spa that I started where we had all different types of holistic practices all in one space. So that if hypnotherapy didn't work, we had acupuncture. If acupuncture didn't work, we had Reiki. We had so many different treatments as well.
- [31:10]
Unknown
So Modern Sanctuary started before the Burbl app or after?
- [31:14]
Alexandra Janelli
Before. So funny enough, it went private practice. I started the app and then stopped. It jumped into Modern Sanctuary. And that was from 2016 until today, both New York mostly and then Philadelphia.
- [31:31]
Unknown
And I think I just saw that you won Philadelphia Magazine's 2024 Best of Philly. Is that right?
- [31:37]
Alexandra Janelli
We did. Yep, we did. So very exciting stuff. And then Burbl has been in tandem with so since I started development in verbal 2022.
- [31:48]
Unknown
So I'd love to hear a little bit about both of these entrepreneurial journeys because they're pretty different from each other.
- [31:54]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah.
- [31:55]
Unknown
So how was. Let's do Modern Sanctuary first, How was Modern Sanctuary set up?
- [32:00]
Alexandra Janelli
Okay, so Modern. When I started Modern, I actually was working at a spa or wellness center. And it. I ended up taking over the lease there and then creating my own sort of experience. It was a sole proprietor llc. I had the vision, the original goal was to create a Himalayan salt room with one or two practitioner rooms. And it just so turned out that the space that I was in and working out of with a whole team of practitioners the guy was like, I'm not renewing the lease. Maybe you want to take it over and put the Himalayan Salt Room here. And I was like, interesting. Lo and behold, turns out when you have a dream and a deep desire, you can make anything happen. So that was where Modern Sanctuary was born, was in New York City the day after the election in 2016. It was really all about doing wellness differently. It was about dark black walls and crocodile wallpaper playing on the idea of sensory deprivation. Right. That instead of it feeling light and bright, that you were coming into a dark room to take away all that stimulus to feel relaxed. It was about having the waiting room look like a living room. You literally walked off into, like, a living room style waiting room. Because I wanted people to feel like they were stepping into someone's home. And those were sort of the goals, like creating this. You know, you can do anything from med spa services all the way to crystal chakra balancing and neuroplasticity treatments and stuff like that. So it was pretty wild.
- [33:37]
Unknown
How many rooms is this? Like, how big is the facility? Yeah.
- [33:42]
Alexandra Janelli
So the New York location was 16 treatment rooms and a huge Himalayan Salt room.
- [33:47]
Unknown
Oh, my gosh, it was huge.
- [33:49]
Alexandra Janelli
It was 5,000 square feet of space. An outrageous, like, rent, because, of course, you're in New York. We were not even ground floor. Rent was like, above $25,000 a month, not including expenses. So that was only in New York. Right. So what was interesting is after Covid, we just knew we weren't going to recoup. And so we decided in 2022 to close. But knowing what I knew from the New York location, it was really looking again at the numbers. Right? Numbers don't lie. Of what was working, what wasn't. Because we were also a rental facility. So, you know, we were kind of like a wework of wellness where people rented with us. And so I knew that I didn't want to be a landlord again. I looked at the numbers of what services were doing really well, and then also what the benefit of the other ones were. Right. I was never getting into salt again. That's a whole nother probably podcast and conversation. But there were certain things that I did want to keep, like our crystal bed, which is a marketing staple. Like, it always looks great in ads, and it's a great draw for people to come in and be known for. But then we really stuck with like, lymphatic drainage, massages, facials, infrared sauna, those sort of like really key treatments.
- [35:05]
Unknown
So then the idea to restart developing the burbl app came back into play. What has that journey been like going from idea to the app actually being available in the store?
- [35:20]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah. So this has been, I would say, modern. There was a very steep learning curve at the beginning because, whoa, did I get in over my head. Verbal has been really neat because I'm back on a learning curve of things that, like, I know nothing about. So during the pandemic, I realized it was time to bring that back on to the platform to find someone to develop it with. And interestingly enough, I just moved to Philly, so I didn't really know anyone. I just had a kid. I was locked in my house and was like, I need to do something. I need to do something because I can't run the spa. And I'm tired of, like, trying to figure out loans and all that craziness. But I ended up posting on nextdoor app and about being like, does anyone interested in, like, developing an app with me? It's funny because my business partner, Daniel, was like, I'm never on that thing. Are you sure that's where we met? I'm like, it's a hundred percent where we met. We talked to. He was like, this sounds interesting. Let's chat. And we just went back and forth going over what the idea was, and he's like, let's do it now. Unbeknownst to me, I didn't realize what his background was in technology and development, and he was like, I love this idea. My business partner and my other business partner and I want to do this with you. So the three of us over the last three years have taken so much time to really outline the user experience, what the app is. And I will tell you, as we went through the user experience, it was so daunting. Like, I. Three years sounds like a long time to develop, like, what seems to be a very simple app. But it was so interesting to go through the mind of what happens in development of. Oh, yeah, there's no button to do that. We forgot that. Oh, man, we got to go back in and do that. Right? You. You don't think about when you send a text message through your phone. Right. What happens to the text box as you type? Does it just keep typing and the text box doesn't get bigger, or does the text box expand? Right. There are these little things that you're like, I have no idea. Turns out the text box, when you're texting on Apple, on an iPhone, it expands upward. But I'm like, whoa, we didn't even think of that. So it's all these things that when they develop, they have. We need to know. So we've gone through that, we've gone through the patent process, we've rebranded, like, color scheme wise, website development wise. All of it just being done by Daniel, myself, Bill, and the team that's making the app. So it's been a really cool learning curve in terms of you gotta be open to it because it's a frustrating process at times.
- [37:59]
Unknown
And what did it take for you to finally launch?
- [38:03]
Alexandra Janelli
Yeah. So I had to put my perfectionist it's not good enough quality to the side because I think what I realized was the app will always be in development. Right. Just as we as humans are always in development. Yes. Maybe there's one or two things that can always be improved upon, but you had to get it to a place where the first step being the, like, minimum viable product. Right. It's like we had to keep stopping. Let's add this and let's add this. We had to go, let's just launch and see if people even want this to begin with. And that's sort of where we're at. We launched with a great product. It's super interesting. And for your listeners, burbl is it's not a hypnosis app. It's a guided visualization app that takes into account, like, several different modalities of the subconscious mind. But what's really unique about it is it's a choose your own adventure platform, meaning we give you the ability to create your own session. Right. From whatever you want to work on, whether it's smoking or manifestation. Finding love, you're going to find that treatment that's perfect for you. And then, you know, the most important part is how you get into the relaxed state. And so you're going to be able to choose your adventure of, I want to go to the beach, and then I want to watch clouds, and then I want to float in a river. And you can then pick the music you want in the background and how you want to end it. Whether it's, you know, falling asleep, waking up, or just relaxing for, like, 10 minutes. The background, what's happening is we're toggling together all these components and creating your unique experience. No session is ever the same unless you save it, but it's always going to be different. And we wanted that to be the case because I love apps like Calm and Headspace, but I found I'm like, I can't find what I'm looking for. I don't even know what I'M looking for sometimes. And it's just we wanted you to be able to build your own experience.
- [40:02]
Unknown
It's a very interesting concept. I gave it a try and I was having trouble sleeping and I can say with certainty that it definitely helped me go to sleep.
- [40:13]
Alexandra Janelli
Love that.
- [40:14]
Unknown
I don't know at what point it did, so I'm curious if it was while there was speaking taking place or if it was while the beats were happening in the background. I don't know, but it was effective.
- [40:28]
Alexandra Janelli
It was probably all of it. It all worked, right? It's all cumulative and I think that's the exciting part of it. And again, those binaural beats that we put into them, they're really helping and train the mind. As you talked about with the alpha waves, beta waves, theta waves. So it's all very meticulous, curated and put together.
- [40:45]
Unknown
So with burbl, what are you hoping to achieve?
- [40:49]
Alexandra Janelli
My goal is one to raise awareness that there are tools out there that people can use. I think what's important for me, for people to understand about Burbl is I love meditation. And again, this is not a knock on that, but I think there's a way that, you know, apps can get you into a really calm place and feeling calm is wonderful. Like, like, that's great. We're looking to take it the next step further where it's like, we're not just helping you get calm, we're helping you change. And that's where putting those suggestions in the recordings, it's really going to help. Right? We're helping you work on and treat anxiety. Right? Or dating or you're feeling not good enough. We're helping, like, shift that by providing those suggestions and other subconscious techniques and tools as well. So we're looking to just take you past the state of calm into that real manifestation of change in your life.
- [41:46]
Unknown
Do you see hypnotherapy becoming more commonplace? So what do you see as the future of hypnotherapy?
- [41:55]
Alexandra Janelli
It has been my mission from when I started in 2010 to make hypnotherapy come to the forefront as a real powerful tool that is accessible to people. I can tell you from when I started in 2010 there, of course there's lots of hypnotists out there, but I, you know, right as I started getting going, there was lots of news articles that were coming out. You saw it in the papers. More. Olivia Munn was noted as being someone who was using it for one of her roles. And that's when I started Getting more and more press requests. And that's when I started seeing more and more celebrities, interestingly enough, in my practice and top level CEOs and musicians and you know, I think you're always going to see it sort of in the mainstream first and then it's going to trickle into like everybody else sort of wanting to try it. So I think it's on its way up there. You're seeing hospitals, right? You have the Mayo Clinic, the Children's Hospital, Philadelphia, Mount Sinai. They have dedicated programs for hypnosis and hypnotherapy, which is really amazing. So again, if we look back, you know, 15 years ago to acupuncture when everyone's like, oh this is crazy, but now it's, it's totally, it's in hospitals, you see it everywhere, it's normalized. I'm hoping the same thing will happen as well.
- [43:12]
Unknown
I think that it will. I mean I am deeply down that path right now just with my own self healing. Just. I've been reading Joe Dispenza. My sister is an integrative physician. She's teaching me so much and just understanding again what the possibilities are for yourself.
- [43:32]
Alexandra Janelli
Yes, yes.
- [43:33]
Unknown
And how openness can really be a powerful tool.
- [43:39]
Alexandra Janelli
It's also important. One of the things is to share with people. If you are going to be looking for a hypnotist or hypnotherapist, there's a couple things you should look for. One, ask about their training because there's several different types of trainings people can have. Sometimes people are like, oh, I know hypnosis. And I took a week long class and I was certified by, I mean certifications right now are kind of like, I mean people are just like tossing out papers. So you know, know where those certifications come from. How long did they study hypnosis? There's one thing to know how to hypnotize someone and then there's what you do with them while in the hypnotic state. So I know the school I went to, the Hypnosis Motivational Institute has one of the only accredited programs out there. So they have a resource where you can actually go look up where their grads are located to find someone in your area. I really, they're f. Fabulous program. It's usually like a year long program too. So it's not just let me get you into the hypnotic state and tell you what to do, but it really goes through. Like how do you handle when someone's like in trauma or how do you handle all of these things that are Happening and really making sure you do it ethically and morally and all that stuff too.
- [44:54]
Unknown
And also just knowing how one match may not be the right fit for one person, but it is for another person.
- [45:01]
Alexandra Janelli
Absolutely.
- [45:02]
Unknown
Finding the right practitioner. Yeah. So I just have a couple questions for you remaining. The first is just what advice would you give to anyone who is aspiring to be an entrepreneur?
- [45:14]
Alexandra Janelli
I think it is such an exciting time for entrepreneurship. My first advice is trust your gut. If you have a vision, like, listen, someone created the pet rock, right? Like, if someone told me that that was going to be a gangbuster thing, like, that's crazy. But trust your intuition. Everything can be made into a business. Everything and anything. You just have to believe that. The second is do your research, but also, more importantly, have a marketing plan. That has been the biggest hurdle is marketing. I've seen a lot of people that I've mentored go in and go, well, I have a really great product. It's just going to go gangbusters. And you're like, like, no, it might like if you're really, really, really lucky, but having a solid marketing plan and budget for it, and maybe not even a budget, you might be able to do a lot of it on your own and, you know, time and research. But marketing, it's all about, especially with the competitive edge of that people have nowadays is have a solid marketing plan with it. Because an idea is an idea is an idea, but it's how do you get it to the people that want it?
- [46:25]
Unknown
That's right. There's a lot of noise out there.
- [46:27]
Alexandra Janelli
There's a lot of noise. There's a lot of noise.
- [46:29]
Unknown
You've got to stand out somehow.
- [46:31]
Alexandra Janelli
Yes, exactly.
- [46:33]
Unknown
So for a final question, if you could go back and speak with yourself when you were in your early 20s, what life wisdom would you give yourself?
- [46:43]
Alexandra Janelli
It's a really good question. I would go back and probably tell myself, don't stress over the grades, don't stress over the A's or the B's, or having to finish like college on the right timeline and scale. It's okay if you're not like the best in the class, that each of our skills come from like really a different place. I wish I had known back then that my superpower is I'm a creative, right. And I'm a solution finder. If I had that sort of nurtured from a younger age, I think that life would have felt a little bit easier and maybe I wouldn't have sweated so much in the competitive environments that I was in for sure. And that would have really bred a lot more ability to learn without fear and phobia in my mind.
- [47:32]
Unknown
It's great advice and I think a lot of people in their early 20s are just doing what they think they're supposed to do.
- [47:39]
Alexandra Janelli
Of course. I mean, that's what we've been indoctrinated to do, right? It's get good grades, go to college, do this, you know, get the job and. And that works, right? Like I can tell you, my husband's a doctor. You know, there's a path if you want that. But if you're not feeling like the conventional path is working for you, there's a million other pathways out there and finding people to mentor you would be another one. Find mentors. Even if it's not like an official mentorship, just finding people that can like inspire you on the daily has been life changing.
- [48:14]
Unknown
I am so thankful for having you come on the show.
- [48:18]
Alexandra Janelli
Me too. This has been really nice. I hope it comes through that. I just love talking about what I do and sharing about it. So thank you. Anne.
- [48:28]
Ann McEntee
Today's Key Takeaways your subconscious mind is a wellspring of creativity, potential and healing. Whether through hypnotherapy, meditation or guided visualization, cultivating this skill of tapping into your subconscious mind can enhance personal growth, problem solving and creativity. Start small and dream big. Alexandra's journey with modern sanctuary started with a single vision for a Himalayan salt room, but her ambition and adaptability turned it into a 5,000 square foot wellness center. Start with what you have and allow your vision to evolve as opportunities arise. Adapt to changing circumstances. Flexibility in business ensures sustainability, especially during challenging times. Identify what makes your business stand out and lean into it to attract your ideal audience. Know your numbers, analyze the performance of each service or product you offer and use these data driven insights to cut inefficiencies and focus on profitable areas. Be open to collaborating with people who bring different skills and perspectives to your business. Choose progress over perfection. Let go of perfectionism to get your minimum viable product into the market. Remember, your product will always evolve and the best feedback often comes after launch. Understand the importance of marketing, even if it's grassroots or low budget, or maybe even free. Invest time and energy into reaching your audience effectively. Don't know how to do something great? It's time to learn. Always seek growth opportunities, even if they require stepping outside of your comfort zone. And lastly, when you have a dream and a deep desire, you can make anything happen. That's it for today. I release episodes once a week. So come back and check it out. Have a great day.