Erwin Wils is the “Mindset Coach and Business Strategist” at Millionaire Life Strategy. He “empowers tech experts to boost their business and themselves.”
Likewise, Erwin Wils wants to “transform them into the person that achieves their ambitions, goals, and beyond.” He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering as well.
Erwin Wils is also a “certified professional hypnotherapist” and “master SoulKey therapist.”
Also, Erwin Wils is a trained EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy) practitioner.
For over 25 years, Erwin Wils has helped “show the tech-geeks, nerds, and other left-brained technical experts how they can use their expertise to make a positive impact in the world and make a good living doing it.”
After earning his MS, Erwin Wils “rolled into the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) world.” He stayed in that field for 20 years, “serving in several roles within 5 different companies.”
In 2014, Erwin Wils became “interested in changing people’s mindsets and lives.” He “changed my focus towards people,” and he “truly found my purpose.”
Erwin Wils loves “to help people; not by telling them what to do, but in a coaching way.” He also has “deep respect for women” in engineering, because they used to be rare.
Check out more interviews with mindset coaches here.
I love to help people; not by telling them what to do, but in a coaching way.
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Erwin Wils: Sure! When I graduated back in ’96 as a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. I rolled into the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) world and stayed in that branch for about 20 years, serving in several roles within 5 different companies. I always thought that optimizing processes was my added value, until I got interested in changing people’s mindsets and lives in 2014.
You can optimize a process and have all the numbers and figures to support that, but if the people that are using the process don’t change, the process itself won’t change. I changed my focus towards people, started hypnotherapy training, and truly found my purpose: my added value to this world.
I love to help people; not by telling them what to do, but in a coaching way. I need a challenge in my work. Since every single person is unique, each new client is a new challenge for me. I’m now optimizing the most complex processes, those of the internal human being. Fun fact: the first manager I had, was a woman who had worked her way up in a men’s world: the engineering world. At another company, we had a female director that was responsible for the BeNeLux region (I was working in the Netherlands part). The rest were all men. I have deep respect for women who do that — especially back in those days. Today, it’s not uncommon to see a female in engineering, but back then, it was a rarity and I still admire them for it.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Erwin Wils: Let me tell you one that happened when I started my entrepreneurial career. In October 2017 I met a business coach from the USA (born Canadian) and he inspired me to take my business globally. Since I was already doing an advanced Hypnotherapy program online in English, I thought to myself, “Why limit myself to the Netherlands?” I jumped on this train, a month later I was interviewed on stage in front of 2,500 millionaires and other entrepreneurs from 71 countries and met several celebrities backstage. In meeting them, and realizing they’re “just human” like you and me, with all their own challenges and struggles, it definitely impacted some of my beliefs. I remember one of them went from “I will never be able to achieve that” to “when they can do it, why shouldn’t I be able to do that?” You just have to put in the work and be fully committed. And that’s one of the things I help my clients with.
You have to be able to improvise, be creative and adapt to the circumstances.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Erwin Wils: Well, during one of my early hypnotherapy sessions (I was still in training), I used an arm levitation as a trance test. An arm levitation means you ask the subconscious mind to raise one of the arms. When it does, it is a confirmation that your client is in trance. We were told that a trance test was used for the client to experience whether s/he was definitely in trance, but to be honest, for the hypnotherapist it is also great to see it happening (thus knowing your client is in trance). So, the hand and arm raised from my client’s leg, only to go sideways. And I was shocked? What happened here? That wasn’t how it was supposed to go! A little panic got into me, but I just went on. The arm went all the way sideways and when it had turned 90 degrees from the beginning position (being right in front of my client), it went straight up! At that time, I just thought “Okay, that’s also a possibility” and I continued the session. After reviewing what happened (and having similar experiences later on), I learned some beautiful lessons:
- As a hypnotherapist, you don’t control the client. The subconscious mind itself chooses how to react/interpret your questions and/or assignments.
- Nothing will go “by the book” or how you have been thought. You have to be able to improvise, be creative and adapt to the circumstances.
- When the feedback you’re getting isn’t the result you wanted to see, keep adjusting your own behavior until you see the desired result.
- If there is one thing I know for sure, is that each session will go differently than planned.
And those are not only valid during a session, they also apply when doing business.
Jerome Knyszewski: Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
Erwin Wils: One of them is “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, as long as you know you gave it everything you had.” As a teenager, I competed in judo. At my high time, I trained 20 hours a week. I am a very competitive person, yet I don’t mind losing. As long as I can look myself in the mirror and know by heart that I gave it all I had at that moment, I had peace with that. Then I knew, it just wasn’t my moment, but I also knew my moment was coming because I was training for it. This quote taught me to keep a positive mindset. Never focus on the failures, just accept the situation as is and learn from it. Over time this quote thought me that the only person I have to answer to is myself. As long as I know I did the best I could at that moment, negative comments bother me much less. And in case I get it, I use it to review my actions and improve myself.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.
Erwin Wils: Of course! The first tip I would like to mention, is to “lose the female.” I don’t mean lose your femininity. Please, cherish that! I mean the actual word. Don’t call yourself a “female founder,” “female speaker,” “female entrepreneur,” “female coach.” Lose the “female” part. Just for fun, go to LinkedIn, put “female” in the search bar and see how many women have added “female” to their title. You’ll be shocked. In my opinion it doesn’t add any value to it, as a matter of fact, it almost diminishes your title. We never add the male variant, so why would you? In order to be considered equal, lose the “female” and own your role “Coach.” “Speaker.” “Entrepreneur.”
The second tip I would like to share is that it’s not about you! It is about the value you add to the lives of your clients. These are the results you deliver that your clients are looking for. When I started as an entrepreneur, I had some discussions of what to charge for a session. Some fellow hypnotherapists felt they couldn’t charge as much as 150 Euros for a session that might only take an hour, because “who is going to pay me 150 Euros for an hour work?”. Then I replied that when you go out for dinner with your partner, you’re spending easily 50–100 Euros. How long will you benefit from that? When buying a jeans brand, or quality shoes, prices start at 100–150 Euros. How long will those last? And they had the skills and toolset to release someone from a mental challenge that has been bothering them for 5, 10, 15 years, maybe longer, in one session. How much is that worth for them? So, remember it is not about you, it is about the positive impact you make in the lives of your clients. Just become the best person that can deliver the results they are looking for.
The third tip is to allow yourself to make mistakes. When you do everything right the first time, you’re actually doing things you already knew how to do. When you get out of your comfort zone and start doing things for the very first time, you’re bound to make mistakes. That’s part of your learning curve; that’s how you grow. And remember, you already made a lot of mistakes in the past and those didn’t stop you to start standing up when you were a toddler, to start walking when you were a year old, to learn how to read, or tie your shoe. Making mistakes is the fastest way to learn and grow as a person.
The fourth tip is to embrace your inner strengths and powers. When you love to visualize about your future, please do so, and focus on the feelings and emotions you experience. How do you feel when your visualization will be reality, how will you be as a person? The answers to those questions will tell your subconscious mind what you actually want to achieve and will help you take the right steps towards your goals. This is a great tool to align your subconscious with your goals and vision.
The fifth and final tip is to surround yourself with people that elevate you. Like Einstein said, if you keep doing the same things, you will get the same results. By changing your environment, you will change yourself, thus your results. Find other entrepreneurs, become inspired by reading books, follow trainings, join a mastermind, connect with positive people and best of all, take a coach. Remember, not a single top athlete has reached the number 1 position of the world without a coach, why should that be different in business?
How do you feel when your visualization will be reality, how will you be as a person?
Jerome Knyszewski: We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Erwin Wils: I would love to meet Oprah, because I think I can learn a lot from her, she has a lot of wisdom to share. She is a true inspiration for all women out there.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow your work online?
Erwin Wils: They can connect with me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/erwin-wils/) or follow my website My company is also present on Facebook and Instagram, enough ways to follow my work and be inspired.
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
