This episode of Small Business Origins features Natalie Clays, a franchise owner of Allen Carr's Easyway. Allen Carr's Easyway is an international company that provides seminars and programs to help people quit addictions like smoking, alcohol, and more.

Natalie shares her personal story of being a longtime smoker who struggled unsuccessfully to quit until she tried the Allen Carr method. She explains how the Allen Carr approach focuses on reframing your psychological perspective on smoking rather than using scare tactics. Natalie outlines what to expect at one of their seminars, why having facilitators who have personal experience with addiction is so important, and how the program gave her a "lifeline" to be free of cigarettes easily and happily.

Key Discussion Points:

- Natalie's 20-year struggle with smoking addiction and failed quit attempts before Allen Carr

- How Allen Carr's approach avoids scare tactics and reframes your psychological perspective

- What to expect at one of their 6-hour seminars and follow-up support offered

- Importance of facilitators having personal experience with smoking addiction

- How the program provided Natalie an easy, happy way to quit after feeling terrified about life without cigarettes

Guest Bio:

Natalie Clays is a franchise owner of Allen Carr's Easyway across 4 countries - USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She struggled with a 20-year smoking addiction herself until having an "easy" breakthrough quitting experience at an Allen Carr seminar in 2003. Natalie was so impacted she decided to join the company herself to help others quit smoking. She has now facilitated Allen Carr seminars for over 15 years.

Company Bio:

Allen Carr's Easyway was founded in London in 1983 and now operates across over 50 countries worldwide. Their mission is to help free people from addictions like smoking, vaping, alcohol and more through a non-scare-tactics, psychological reframing approach perfected by founder Allen Carr. The program's centerpiece is a 6-hour, in-person or virtual seminar led by facilitators with personal addiction experience. Allen Carr's Easyway also offers unlimited follow-up support, online content and a money-back satisfaction guarantee.

Key Quotes:

"This addiction is 99% psychological, 1% physical. So you can stick a patch on your arm. You can pop a pill. 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." (00:15:31)

"When you withdraw from the drug nicotine, you go below a 100%, 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)

"I was terrified. I was terrified of life without cigarettes because it it's like how will I cope? How will I function? I kind of thought I'd be forever deprived and miserable." (00:36:52)

Links Mentioned:

Allen Carr's Easy Way Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Natalie Clay's LinkedIn

Beefy Marketing

Wingman

John Kelley's Links

Small Business Origins Online

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

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

[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.

[00:00:55] 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?

[00:01:22] 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.

[00:02:31] 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.

[00:03:01] 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.

[00:03:34] 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.

[00:03:57] 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.

[00:04:16] 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.

[00:05:08] 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.

[00:05:49] 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.

[00:06:42] 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?

[00:07:15] 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.

[00:07:51] 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.

[00:08:40] 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.

[00:09:00] 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.

[00:09:47] 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.

[00:10:11] 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.

[00:11:08] 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.

[00:11:58] 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.

[00:12:40] 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.

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

[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.

[00:14:28] 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.

[00:15:08] 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.

[00:15:50] 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.

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

[00:17:13] 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.

[00:18:07] 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.

[00:18:58] 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?

[00:19:21] 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.

[00:19:56] 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.

[00:20:29] 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.

[00:20:57] 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.

[00:21:59] 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.

[00:22:46] 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.

[00:23:51] 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

[00:24:14] 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.

[00:24:36] 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.

[00:25:11] 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.

[00:26:17] 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.

[00:26:49] 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.

[00:27:23] 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.

[00:28:01] 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.

[00:28:29] 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.

[00:29:05] 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.

[00:29:22] 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?

[00:30:02] 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.

[00:30:43] 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.

[00:31:05] 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.

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

[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.

[00:32:47] 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.

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

[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.

[00:34:54] 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

[00:35:27] 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.

[00:36:00] 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.

[00:36:28] 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.

[00:36:52] 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.

[00:37:51] 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.

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

[00:38:34] 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.

[00:39:26] 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.

[00:39:44] 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.

[00:40:31] 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.

[00:41:00] 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.

[00:41:37] 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.

[00:42:25] 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.

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

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