PAUL McKenna has come a long way since he started out with a hypnotism show in pubs and clubs around the country.

Thirty years on he is one of the most respected life coaches on both sides of the Atlantic and next week he will be in Manchester to share some of his experience with an audience at the Royal Northern College of Music.

The show - Three Things That will Change Your Destiny - will see Paul encouraging his audience to feel better about their lives.

“It’s not a lecture,” he said. “I look at it more as a life changing, interactive evening. Everyone should leave more optimistic, more confident, more motivated and feeling better about their lives.

“Rather than doing it one-to-one with people, I like doing it with big groups now. I think I’m getting the hang of it after 30 years.”

Paul was a regular face on our TV screens in the late 1990s and early 2000s but moved to America 12 years ago.

In that time he has helped people from all walks of life change their lives for the better.

“I had 10 glorious years in America and then I got married,” he said. “It is very hard to make real friends in LA so we moved back to the UK even though we still regularly visit the States.”

Paul has been giving sold-out shows in London but this is the first time he will have travelled outside the capital.

“It’s not a therapy event. I like to think of it as an education change event,” he said. “There is a core fanbase of people who like whatever I seem to do but there are also people who come along and are sceptical and go away uplifted.

“What I talk about works for nearly everyone, every time. That’s why I’m confident bringing it on the road. Years ago I wouldn’t have know how to do this.

“In effect I’m showing people how they can reprogramme their minds to make them feel better. I want to show that success and happiness are not accidents that happen randomly to some and not others.”

Paul spends a lot of his time sharing his concepts with others and has trained around 100,000 people to be life coaches or therapists around the world. He also works closely with members of the medical profession dealing with those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, particularly military and former military personnel.

“It is true that anyone can set themselves up as a life coach,” he said. “Originally it was limited to ex-athletes of CEOs who would become motivational speakers but there are a lot of people who have a natural predisposition to lift other people. Just like there are good and bad accountants, there are good and bad coaches out there.”

Paul says his greatest reward comes from hearing personal stories about how he has changed someone’s life for the better either through one of his talks, a one-to-one session or through his books and social media.

“That just makes my day,” he said.

Paul McKenna, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, Wednesday, February 20. Details from www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk