Hale Dwoskin

Most people know of Hale Dwoskin as the author of the Sedona Method book. Maybe you know him in this way; and maybe you know of his other book, Happiness is Free. He's also the voice on the Sedona Method audio course training program.

I worked for Hale for about 16 months. I don't claim to know him as well as some may, but I probably know him better than most.

Naturally people want to know more about those they admire or look up to. And, what I'm going to share here is simply my perspective on a man named Hale Dwoskin.

How I came to know Hale . . .

When my wife and I relocated to Sedona, Arizona, we really didn't know what was in store. I had been self-employed and my wife was finishing school. Due to the stress involved with making ends meet in my business, recognizing the effort involved with starting again from scratch, and being honest with myself that I had some additional lessons to learn in business, I began my job search.

Sedona, Arizona is like most tourist oriented towns I've visited. You meet a lot of over-educated people working tourism related jobs. My initial employment consisted of taping bottles together for a temp agency by day, then doing telemarketing for a local time-share company by night.

Not exactly the picture of "living in paradise".

After applying for numerous jobs, a seemingly perfect opportunity presented itself:

Office Manager for growing and progressive personal development company. Call 928-555-1212.

I was so excited about this perfect position, I hardly slept. I aggressively pursued the job - and later was told that they felt I was over-qualified, but my persistance told them I really wanted to work for the company.

I did.

So I interviewed with Diane - the company's original employee, then later with Hale and wife Amy. They sent me home with a copy of the Sedona Method to listen to. Half way through the material, I knew I loved it and I wanted to work for this company.

First thing, the next Monday, I called to say "I want this job, if you want me." They did.

Sedona Training Associates

I began my work there as the "Office Manager". Fooled by the title, I was essentially "chief receptionist and phone answerer". But that was OK. I was happy.

I immersed myself in the knowledge to be learned; I finished the Sedona Method and went right into listening to all of the other audio material offered. And, I began seeing the results of releasing in my life.

At this point in time it was like fallling in love. Everything was great.

Within just 5 weeks at the company, I was "promoted". I took over processing the Internet orders. And this grew into doing work on the web site, and handling other additional tasks that were previously outsourced to people; people who were paid significantly more. Did I mention my promotion didn't come with a raise?

Oh, well. I was still happy. Now I was doing what I really loved - personal development and computers!

I had also taken over working with the Sedona Method affiliate program. The previous affiliate manager really wasn't into the job. Within the first 6 months, sales tripled. Soon, this program which was producing 10 sales per month was producing 100. At $200 per sale, that's not small change. And I was compensated with . . . a 2% bonus. Well, that was a business lesson learned.

Things were rolling so well, that Hale decided to hire an assistant for me. I was to be freed up to devote 100% of my time to optimizing the Internet marketing aspects of the business. There was even talk - or suggestion - that I was being "groomed" to handle the day-to-day operations so Hale could focus on getting out on the road to promote his Sedona Method book.

Oh, Hale Dwoskin . . .

Having now been with the company for 9 months and having been "promoted" twice, I still was not given a raise. OK. Significant increases in responsibility; proof of actually adding to the bottom-line profits of the business; no raise.

I was having more difficulty releasing this source of irritation away. This all coincided with Hale ramping up promotions for the Sedona Method book. On the one hand, I could appreciate that significant money was being spent to do this. On the other, I felt I deserved some acknowledgement for the contributions I made to the company. And besides, I also have to admit that seeing the amount of money Hale was spending on consultants who contributed little or nothing to the business left me feeling there was, in fact, enough to go around.

I approached both Hale and Amy and received similar responses. In effect, "We haven't taken money out of the business in months for ourselves. We can't afford to do this." Meanwhile, Hale was parading around the country being chauffered from place to place while staying in the finest hotels.

My irritation grew.

Hale Dwoskin is someone who has a knack for overloading and micromanaging his employees. In fact, having worked in the White House Situation Room at the age of 22, it might surprise you to learn that working for Hale was the MOST stressful job I ever had.

Hale would often try to use little psychological tactics - little phrases like "Did you do that task like I asked you too?" He'd often holler out from another room and answer even the most basic of questions - when it was someone else being talked to. My favorite was a deliveryman asking our receptionist "Is this business XYZ?" Any person in the place could have answered the question - and certainly that would include the receptionist - yet, there was Hale hollering from the other room "No, they're next door. This is Sedona Training Associates."

Hale also had an incredible knack for giving you 100 things to do in a day, then when you've completed 99 of them, he'd find the one thing you didn't do. Even though I'm probably 4 or 5 inches taller than Hale, it always made me feel about 2 feet tall. And I think it was intentional.

Hale Dwoskin - Not a Bad Guy

I really had to wonder why the head games were necessary. And I had to wonder why he'd treat his employees the way he did. It surprises most people when I tell them how stressful it was to work for Hale (and I haven't found an employee present or past that doesn't agree). It probably surprises people more when I tell them we NEVER released as a group. One would think a company like this would be very supportive in this way.

Hale is someone I really wanted to like. He's certainly charming and charasmatic, if you ever meet him. He did nice things, here and there, but it often seemed motivated by a desire to be acknowledged. While charming and outgoing on the surface, Hale struck me as very uncomfortable talking about anything but business or the Sedona Method. Almost painfully uncomfortable.