You were a smoker yourself. Then you stopped smoking. How was it? Was your method born from your personal experience?
Wald: I certainly was a smoker; I was puffing my way through as many as 40 cigarettes a day for over 15 years. In fact, my smoking helped me a lot. I can tell you now that if I had never smoked I would never have been able to fully understand the smoking trap and been able to develop the EasyStop Method.

My first stop smoking attempt like most smokers who try "cold Turkey" resulted in disaster. Shaking hands, mood swings, anger and arguments with loved ones, sneaking the odd cigarette, the endless cravings and the awful feeling of just knowing that I could not do it.

And at the time I was a competitive athlete. I knew smoking was potentially harmful to me and I was extremely disciplined in my eating and my work out routines. I found it personally alarming that smoking had such a hold over me when I had such control in other areas of my life. In fact, it fascinated me and the more I became fascinated the deeper I started to analyse what was really happening. Then I was hooked. Hooked on finding the way out.

How did you work it out?
Wald: The method itself was quite simply born by logging the pattern of my own personal experiences both physical and psychological whilst I was trying to stop and inventing tools, techniques and processes that served to create a change in perception. Every time I hit a barrier or came up against a hurdle, I developed a technique to get over it or around it.

It involved reading many books, papers and past studies on smoking. Studying many disciplines of behaviour modification, hypnosis, NLP and aversion therapy and once I had stopped my self interviewing and working with many other smokers.

When all these techniques are put together in the right order and you learn how to leverage your desire and commitment then stopping smoking is easy.

How did you realise that stopping smoking is not a matter of willpower?
Wald: It was clear to me from the start that stopping smoking was not a matter of willpower, much more a matter of desire and belief. For example I spend 2-3 hours per day in the gym up to 4 or 5 times per week, every week. Some people say to me it must take will power to do this, and for them they are right. But I love going to the gym, keeping fit, meeting my friends and for me my desire to keep doing this is very high and my belief that this is good for my body is very strong so I do not need any willpower. Why would I need will power? If someone wanted to stop smoking with the same level of desire and determination with a strong level of belief they would not need willpower either.

Someone once told me that willpower is a name that we give to explain in advance something that we already know will be difficult for us to achieve and provides the necessary escape route and excuses to cover our imminent failure.

What other improvements in life can be given by your way of facing habits and limiting beliefs?
Wald: The methods create a positive and permanent change in a person’s behaviour. The list of applications is endless and spans many sectors in addition to the health and fitness sector.

EasyStop already has a powerful weight loss program which transforms the way that our clients think and feel about their food and their eating. Other opportunities for dealing with habits, fears, confidence, public speaking and so many more areas can be applied by using the core principles that underpin the successful method.

Can you tell something more about your company Easy Stop?
Wald: Certainly, EasyStop is a network of professional consultants. Each Consultant has been personally trained by me to deliver the EasyStop Stop Smoking method to clients either on a 1-1 or small group basis. The Consultants are like coaches who lead smokers through the EasyStop Method providing the support and guidance smokers need which allows them to stop smoking easily.

Currently there are more than 65 trained consultants who operate across three continents. We expect this number to continue to rise over the coming years.

Can you estimate how many smokers roughly quitted smoking through your company?
Wald: I have personally delivered the stop smoking method to groups as large as 100 people at a time and with 65 trained consultants, I would estimate that the EasyStop method has helped over 30,000 smokers to quit the habit.