Doubt Is A Hobby with Fran Gallaher

EPISODE 90

Alex Cullimore: Hello, Cristina. 

Cristina Amigoni: Hello. What intuition are you inspired by right now? 

Alex Cullimore: Ooh! So many things. One thing I'm struck by is that we just had a wonderful conversation with Fran Gallagher, who talks a lot about intuition and getting in touch with essentially what sometimes sounds like the irrational nonsensical portions of our Lives where we feel like there's not necessarily order or it's just led by feelings, which all of these things that tend to be such massive taboos in the corporate world and yet end up coming in handy all the time. And so, I'm left with this this curiosity about we try and make things so logical. And it seems if you back out for a second, you couldn't possibly approach life just logically. The chances of – first of all, humanity as a whole, knowing enough, much less you having access to whatever that is to be able to try and logically make your way through everything that will happen in life. That's the order. 

Cristina Amigoni: Definitely is. 

Alex Cullimore: But we still get through life. So, we end up counting on things like intuition, I think. And that's where I'm really especially thinking currently. I don't know. What are you thinking about? 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, I was thinking about that. As we were talking with Fran, I couldn't stop but wonder or realize at least that if we didn't follow our intuition, if we didn't follow the non-rational part of our humanness, we would probably still be living in caves or maybe not even that. Even caves would be an upgrade. Because it's simple. Like, all these comforts and all these evolution of humanity that we've really seen had to be somebody having an intuitive idea and going for it. There's no written anywhere that you had to build houses with heat and running water. Somebody just figured out like, "Oh, what if we tried that?"

Alex Cullimore: Yeah. I mean, intuitions for things even like we talked about even on the episode, like migrations. It gave us an intuition. Or just by error or something, some part of a species started wandering more north or more south at a certain time of year, which at point this becomes more advantageous. Now, that's the one taking over. Now it's those intuitions and those small cues and the little things that we end up listening to end up making a huge difference. And I think we make the mistake of trying to quantify them and losing some of the potential.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, definitely agreed. Very good episodes with some really funny stories about how intuitions have come into play and the power. Just the power of how do you recognize with your intuition? And what do you do with it? 

Alex Cullimore: Yeah. Please enjoy this conversation with Fran Gallaher.

Cristina Amigoni: Enjoy. 

Alex Cullimore: Welcome to Uncover the Human where every conversation revolves around enhancing all the connections in our lives. 

Cristina Amigoni: Whether that's with our families, co-workers or even ourselves. 

Alex Cullimore: When we can be our authentic selves, magic happens.

Cristina Amigoni: This is Cristina Amigoni. 

Alex Cullimore: And this is Alex Cullimore. Let’s dive in

Cristina Amigoni: Let’s dive in. 

“Authenticity means freedom.”

“Authenticity means going with your gut.”

“Authenticity is bringing 100% of yourself not just the parts you think people want to see, but all of you.”

“Being authentic means that you have integrity to yourself.”

“It's the way our intuition is whispering something deep-rooted and true.”

“Authenticity is when you truly know yourself. You remember and connect to who you were before others told you who you should be.”

“It's transparency, relatability. No frills. No makeup. Just being.”

Alex Cullimore: Welcome back to this episode of Uncover the Human. We are joined today with our guest, Fran Gallaher. Welcome, Fran. 

Fran Gallaher: Thank you so much, Alex and Cristina. Thank you for having me.

Cristina Amigoni: Welcome.

Alex Cullimore: We're very excited to have you on. For those who don't know, do you want to tell us a little bit about your story and your background? 

Fran Gallaher: Well, it starts with the fact that I was born with the ability to see dead people. Not like in the movie. They're don't have gore. but I saw beings that other people didn't see. And I don't remember the time when I discovered that other people didn't see them. I just knew that other people didn't. And I was raised in a household with abuse. There was abuse and neglect. And so, I was not allowed to ask questions. It occurred to me earlier this year that something powerful has to happen to have a little kid not ask questions. But I was very silent. And because I couldn't ask questions, I couldn't invite an adult in and therefore have the adult tell me that those people weren't there. I think the neglect was wonderful. And just to explain a little more about the neglect. My brother and I were put in a playroom for most of the hours of the day with little interaction with adults. And our older siblings were all in school. The one saving grace was that, at night, at the dinner table, we were all expected to talk about our day. And my dad just thought I had a wonderful imagination. And he was entertained by my stories. But I could see into worlds. I could see into other people's lives. And I had no words for what you call that. I didn't know what that was. I didn't know that other people wouldn't understand. As I grew up, I decided that the best defense in my family was to learn not to have feelings. I attempted to stuff my emotions. And I fell in love with logic, and math and science. And by the time I was about 13, I was a skeptic, which sounds insane. But I think I compartmentalized myself. And I had this skeptical logical scientific person who was a fan of Spock on Star Trek and the intuitive person. And I didn't know what word that was. I actually grew up thinking I was stupid. I had a relative, a family member, who told me I was stupid regularly. It took me a while to have those memories and figure out where that message came from. But I thought I was bad at math, because I was educated in a Catholic school and the nuns wanted me to show my work. And it took a while for me to remember that I used to just come up with the answer. As I got older, I had this dual life where I had a mentor who was teaching me about metaphysics at the same time that I wanted to go to medical school. All that got blown out of the water. I got pregnant and then I got married. And it was a while before I was forced by my life to realize that until I went back and got that intuitive part of myself and rehabilitated my abilities to be in touch with my emotions. That until I did that, I wouldn't be whole or authentic. And so, I've discovered that the path to develop intuition for our decision making, that path leads to our most authentic self.

Alex Cullimore: That's awesome. I love the idea of following intuition as a mechanism for creating that authenticity and understanding that authenticity. Would you expand on that a little bit? What have you learned about developing intuition and following it? 

Fran Gallaher: That if we don't, we will feel like frauds. We will suffer from the imposter syndrome. Because our society encourages us to live in our heads and to use what – Two authors, Les Fehmi. And I can't remember the other guy's name. But they wrote Open-Focus Brain. And what they're saying is that we use closed-focus to see little words and numbers on pieces of paper. And we develop closed-focus to ignore the fact that recess is the most fun time of the school day. And we ignore the fact that it's lovely outside. We're using closed-focus. But too much closed-focus, these authors argue, produces anxiety, and I'm going to say a feeling of dissatisfaction and disconnection. And so, they teach this open-focus method, which is what I use in corporate settings to – what I'm really doing is teaching guided visualization a form of meditation. But I call it a focusing exercise. And that's how I invite corporate-minded people into this world. May I do a quick focusing exercise with you guys, Alex and Cristina? 

Alex Cullimore: Sounds great. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Let's do it. 

Fran Gallaher: All right. I have to issue a caution to begin with, is that I'm going to have you do an exercise so that you can feel the movement from what is called closed-focus to open-focus. The exercise, it doesn't matter whether you do it well or not. I just want you to do the exercise. And for those perfectionists who might hear that, that's why I issue this warning. I want you to close your eyes wherever you are and visualize the room you are in. And you're going to visualize the occupied space. It's also called positive space by architects and designers, this space that is taken up by furniture, by the walls, by the floor, the ceiling and any other bodies or objects in the room. That's all what is called positive space. It's occupied space. And now you're going to switch in a moment I want you to notice your temples, your scalp, your jaw and muscles around your eyes as you become aware of any windows or doors. And move outside of the room through the air, through the negative space, the unoccupied space, out into the larger building, your home, wherever you are. Out into the midday or whatever time of day sky. And you can go out as far as you want. And as you do, feel, again, the areas around your temples, your eyes, your jaw and give yourself the space you need right now. So, that might be a bubble that is just outside the building you are in. Or it might be a very expanded bubble that goes all the way out to the edges of the cosmos. But just imagine that this is your space in which to breathe, to be. You might feel the quiet beneath everything. The timelessness. And you can use this technique to develop your meditation practice. Let all of that go. And simply by bringing your focus back, you will come back. Bringing your focus back to your physical body. And if you went all the way out to the edge of the cosmos, you might need to orient to our star, the sun, our solar system, planet Earth, your hemisphere, your continent, your country, your state or province, your town. And then finding the building you are in. Finding the room you are in. Finding your body. Fully inhabit your body, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. And then take a couple of deep breaths. Open your eyes. Return to the room feeling relaxed, refreshed and ready to go on with your day. Did you feel that transition from closed-focus to open-focus? 

Cristina Amigoni: Definitely.

Alex Cullimore: Yeah. Yeah, that's wild. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, it is wild.

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. Yeah, and the authors talk about how, if we don't routinely open our focus through our day, we're going to develop anxiety, depression, or worse, we can end up with health effects. I think that a lot of those of us in the world of tech – I used to be a technical writer. I wrote step-by-step users' guides for hardware and software programs. And I would learn to routinely look out the window during the day so that my eyes would have a chance to focus far away instead of just in front of me. That was maybe an early version of open-focus. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, that's very powerful, for sure. 

Fran Gallaher: Oh, good. Good. And I love doing it with teams in a corporate setting because it transcends the setting. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. Yeah, and we tend to be so close-focused on a lot of the things we do. And especially in work, we see it in the work that we do because we're, I think, constantly asking people to look up from what their problem, their team, their work, their project, the task of the moment is. And kind of like step back and kind of look at the whole picture and figure out how it connects to everything. This really reminded me of that.

Fran Gallaher: Oh, good. Yes. I'm glad you brought that up. It is that moment of objectivity that I have decided is really enlightenment. Maybe I will become enlightened in this lifetime. Who knows? But for me, simply allowing myself to move into that observer state before I dive in with my words or my actions. But just to observe, it has changed my life. 

Alex Cullimore: That's incredibly mentally clearing. I feel like it's so easy to get trapped into some tunnel vision or just habituated to, "Hey, we're in the workplace. And this is what I do at work. These are the people I talk to. This is the project I'm on. This is –" or whatever. It's very easy. And it doesn't have to just be work. It could be at home. We can be very just attached to our surroundings. I liked how you're describing some of the positive space things that are occupying that space. I think it becomes such heavy influences. And when you force yourself to take that perspective, it's very clearing. It's very mentally freeing to give yourself some perspective. It is a lot easier to face just even the tasks you have in front of you, which are kind of back to the closed-focus, but totally different approach to it.

Fran Gallaher: Yes. Yes. And you can see how we would miss the forest for the trees so to speak. Being able to be aware of the bigger picture now and then throughout the day. It's interesting, if I may say, that we are recording this on Halloween. 

Cristina Amigoni: Oh, yeah. Yes. 

Fran Gallaher: I wanted to just say a few words about Halloween. What it is actually was at one time in medieval, the times in Northern Europe, Ireland, England, Scotland, it was considered the doorway – when the doorway between the two worlds, the physical and the non-physical, opens the most is this holiday. And so, the dead were said to walk the earth. And there was a prayer that these grown men would say, "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, oh, Lord, protect us." Being aware of the other side in whatever way you can be. Maybe you just think about your loved ones who may have passed on. And be aware that if you think of them, that's real. There can be a real connection there between you and your memories of them. And you might be calling to you, if you believe this, their spirit on the other side. And you might just have a moment. I used to be able to smell my dad's presence because he had a particular scent. And he, at one time, smoked pipes or cigars. He comes to me with tobacco smell. He hasn't done that for a long time. But it used to be more prominent. And then my mother, after she passed away, her favorite flower was lily of the valley. And so, when she would connect, I would smell lily of the valley. Just being aware of your loved ones is one way. To be aware of that bigger picture, that there's something besides just the physical. And then being aware of the possibility for magic, or the unseen, or miracles being open to that in our lives. One thing that's really popular among people I know is manifesting parking spaces. I don't know if you guys know about that. But you can picture your parking spot. You can ask the gods or angels to help you with your parking spot. You can try cursing. But that has never worked for me. 

Cristina Amigoni: Cursing is definitely not. 

Fran Gallaher: I wanted to pick up something else, if I may. And you're probably not going to believe that I was silent as a child. I'm making up for it now. But what ended up happening for me is, as I said, I worked as a technical writer. And I did a little bit of technical marketing. And I started thinking that some of the things I had been learning about spirituality and intuition, that that could be taught in the same step-by-step manner. I started a meditation group. And the group stayed together. We turned it into spiritual study. And the group was together for about a year and a half. And then it disbanded. And one of the men in the group, he called me up and said, "My dad and I have created an Institute. And within it, we've created something called the Program and Intuition. Would you like to be a faculty member?" Well, it was busy writing a novel. And I was practicing saying no to everything so I could finish the novel. And I even practiced saying no in the mirror. I said no. And I regretted it. I finished the novel. I didn't get it published. But he came back to me a year later and asked me again. And it turned out that his father was a big-name consultant to the healthcare industry. And he and others in the healthcare industry called themselves healthcare futurists. Because they would be predicting the direction that healthcare would take. For instance, whether to open an inpatient clinic. I mean, an inpatient hospital. Or an outpatient clinic. That would be part of being a healthcare futurist. And also, to Institute change. I don't know how successful they were. But instituting change in healthcare. But it was called the Kaiser Institute from Kaiser Consulting out of Brighton, Colorado. And they created something called the Program in Intuition. And that was a high-end program designed to teach physicians, nurse administrators, administrators and business leaders’ intuition. I got to teach the head of the VA, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the president of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and on and on. And I had this place in the world where I was able to influence leaders. And it was amazing and wonderful. I'm afraid I did not have business skills. So, I did not cultivate those connections. And now I'm so excited to be here with you guys because I'm hoping this will allow me the opportunity to, again, work with leaders in business and tech especially.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, that's wonderful? What have you found with working with them? What have you found kind of harvesting their intuition? How did that help in who they were as leaders and their organizations? 

Fran Gallaher: It opens them up to the skills they already have that they are often afraid to use. Because, in my experience the, intuition runs on the same circuits that the emotions run on. If you recall, I said I had shut down my emotions. I attempted to be emotionless. It doesn't work, everybody. 

Alex Cullimore: What was that, Alex? 

Cristina Amigoni: I know. 

Fran Gallaher: What was that, Alex? 

Alex Cullimore: Spoiler alert. 

Cristina Amigoni: Doesn't work. 

Fran Gallaher: Yes. Once you start to accept your emotions. I'm also a student of the Ridhwan School out of Berkeley, California and Boulder, Colorado, of course. The only place else they should be is Austin, Texas. But we won't talk about that. But what I've learned through the school is that all the emotions are meant to arise, peak and then dissipate and leave behind energy for either peace and acceptance or for taking action. And where we got stuck, us humans, is that we experienced emotions as children when we were unable to inhibit the expression of the emotion. We might fling ourselves on the ground, or scream or yell, or kick, or run away, or whatever marvelous things we did, or we're allowed to do, because I wasn't allowed to do those marvelous things. But in any case, we learn that our emotion is our private experience. And we can sit with our emotion. It's going to take a little disconnecting from expressing our emotion. But we can sit with it and we can then access the energy beneath it. And the energy beneath the emotions is so powerful. If you go get a beer, you don't ask for just the foam. And you're not going to access the beer with just the liquid. You want the foam, too. The foam is the emotion. And the liquid is the energy beneath the emotion. And once we start to get clued into this, we are going to be clued into our own life force, the energy of our life force. And then we're going to be able to read a room better because we're going to be in touch with everybody else's life force in the room. I could go on and on. But that's where I am right now. 

Alex Cullimore: I love the idea about using intuition, especially in leadership. And it sounds like you've been developing some step-by-step – helping steps, I guess, to allow people to access their own. What are some things you've found to help people understand intuition and get into their own? 

Fran Gallaher: Thank you for asking that. The first is that intuition is not just some woo-woo thing. It is part of how our minds work. Our minds have at least two ways of working. One is logical and sequential. A leads to B leads to C. If I drive away from the house, I might think, "Did I leave the dog in? Did I turn off the lights? Do I have my cellphone?" That would be logical. If I drive away from the house and I go, "Oh! I forgot to bring the dog in." That's intuition. Intuition is the aha moment. You don't have to be special to have intuition. You already have it. There's four people who don't have intuition, and one of them is my ex-husband. And they are people who are not in touch with their emotions. I hope that joke's okay.

Alex Cullimore: That's very good. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, it's very good. 

Fran Gallaher: If you can be in touch with your feelings, then you can be in touch with your emotions. Now, of course, in the corporate world, being in touch with your feelings is not something you want to broadcast. After I teach that the emotions run – I'm sorry. The intuition runs on the same circuits as the emotions. I also teach people, "Please, please, don't say you have a feeling." Unless you are a very successful man, especially a white man, you might be able to lead with something about your gut feeling. And you have to be very successful to do that. But the rest of us mere mortals, you might want to say, "My sense is –" Or, "The question comes –" Or, "The question I'm considering –" Those are ways to bring in the intuition without sounding like you're a sissy. 

Alex Cullimore: Sissy. 

Cristina Amigoni: So many layers to unpack our humanity. Leave the human here. And here's how to not be human so that you're going to be accepted as a human in a group of humans. 

Fran Gallaher: Right. Right. 

Alex Cullimore: Right. Done it to ourselves on this one. 

Fran Gallaher: Yes. I teach intuition then after I've established a couple of things with three prompts. And the first prompt is what do I have energy for? And this is physical energy. The way I teach it is if you consider, on the way home from work today, or if you're working from home, if you're considering what errands you may or may not run. You want to notice, if you feel like you have physical energy, to stop at the dry cleaners, or to run to the grocery store, or whatever it might be. And when you access this physical feeling of whether you have energy for it or not, you're actually accessing a kind of bestial wisdom that we have. It's the same wisdom that lets animals go to high ground when there's going to be a tsunami or an earthquake. It's the same thing that causes the migration of species or whatever. It's not as if a particular species has a conference in Zurich and they decide when and where they're going to migrate and what path they're going to use. And they connect with the airspaces above various other cities and they figure out their migration pattern. No. They simply begin their migration at a certain point. I'm really glad I'm entertaining you guys. When we access that physical feeling, we can access whether or not we need to be in the room, for instance. You might have a feeling that you got to get out. Or you might have a feeling call so and so. That's all the intuition. Now, intuition doesn't act outside of logic. The example I use about combining intuition and logic is that you might have the intuition when you hear about a medication that you need to take that medication. You talk to your doctor. Your doctor might agree. And then you would follow the directions on the bottle. We're talking about combining the right brain and the left brain. We're talking about combining linear sequential reasoning and intuition, which is quantum. We talked earlier about linear sequential, A, B, C, or 1, 2, 3. Intuition, being quantum, can jump to Q, or jump to 26. And we use both. The second prompt that I used to teach intuition is what is trying to happen here? Let's say you walk into a room and you just pause for a moment and you get a feeling of – my favorite term is the emotional substrate of the room. You're going to feel – unless you're just not in touch with your feelings at all. You're going to feel whether there's tension in the room. Whether there's a bright open feeling. Sometimes we characterize it as whether the boss is in a good mood or a bad mood. 

Cristina Amigoni: That will change the energy in the room pretty quickly.

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. Yes, it will. We can say, "What is trying to happen here?" How many of us have been in a meeting in the corporate space where Bob Smith is conducting the meeting and you are hoping that nobody asks Bob Smith a question? 

Cristina Amigoni: Many times. 

Fran Gallaher: Because if somebody asks Bob Smith a question, it's going to become the Bob Smith show. And so, everybody's hoping that you just get the information about when the project starts, when we have to start on it? What's our goal? And somebody says, "Why do you think that is?" Or, "How do you feel about this project?" And you just go, "Oh, my God." Because now Bob Smith is going to take over. If you feel into the room and you say, "What is trying to happen here?" And you feel that Bob Smith is ready to just – just the slightest bit of encouragement. And you withhold that encouragement. You are withholding your energy from this whole nonsense. And you won't contribute to any negative outcome that might be happening from the energy, the existence of humans in the room. We start to learn where to give our energy to something and where not to give our energy to something. What does this sound like so far to you guys? 

Cristina Amigoni: I think it makes perfect sense. And especially as coaching, one of the things that we focus on, not just in a coaching session, but in pretty much any conversation, is listen for the energy instead of just listening for the words. And depending on the energy, we tend to navigate what do we bring up? What questions do we ask? Maybe we come in with a set agenda, but then we keep it fluid based on the energy in the room. And so, we'll know like, "Nope, we're not going to talk about that today. That's not going to go well. Let's not ask Bob that question. Today is not the day." Or maybe we challenge the room because we feel that the energy can sustain that, that the people are bringing in. 

Fran Gallaher: Oh, that's beautiful. Yes, that's beautifully put, Cristina. 

Alex Cullimore: It's definitely just a great way of cutting through what could otherwise just be – And especially, we do some change management work stuff here and there. And that's one of the things that really helps with, is listening for the energy for like when people are saying the right things, but they're clearly not on board. Or when they're like just nodding or turning away from the camera and you just – You listen for that instead of for the, "Oh, yeah, my boss is in the room. So, I'm going to agree that, yes, this is an important change. And of course, I'll make the changes. That will happen. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes." And then leave the meeting and do none of that. Listening to this intuition and following where people are actually at has been a great way of cutting through just whatever top layer is being sent between people.

Fran Gallaher: Yes. The third prompt that I use is, if I take action, with what intention and what purpose? I have a retired ER physician, emergency physician, who I've worked with. And I remember one time saying to him, "Do you ever want to say to somebody who presents in the ER, "What did you think was going to happen?" And he said, "Oh, I say it." 

Cristina Amigoni: I would like to say that a few times over, especially with my family. But I refrained. 

Fran Gallaher: Yes. The other thing that I teach that – Well, there's all kinds of marvelous things that I teach about intuition, because it's a joy to me to help people access their humanity. Because I don't believe that God put us here to blunder around. That we have access to this world of connection, and information and insight. One of the ways that I teach intuition is for people to get in touch with their inner senses. When we did that focusing exercise, you guys literally used inner vision to conceive of the room in your own mind. To recreate the room in your mind. Most of us nowadays have really strongly developed visual sense because our world is so visual, with computers, and television and phones. And so, fewer and fewer people will not be able to mentally picture something. But that's just one of the inner senses. You can have all of the inner senses. The first person to teach me that was Jean Houston, who is an anthropologist, who was the heir apparent to – Oh! The guy who wrote Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell. She was the heir apparent to Joseph Campbell. And the protege of Margaret Mead. And you might remember Jean Houston's name, because she consulted to the Clinton White House. And the press got a hold of it and said that Hillary Clinton was consulting a psychic. That was the end of that. But Jean Houston said all of the geniuses of the 20th century had one or more of the inner senses. If you read anything about Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein did not figure everything out mathematically. He sat and did what he called thought experiments, where he imagined writing a light beam through the universe and saw what would happen. And then applied mathematics to describe what he saw. People love to pretend that our technology and science involves only logic. It doesn't. It doesn't. There is the famous story of the guy who I wish I remembered his name. And it's French. So, thank God, I don't. Because I'd mispronounce it, I'm sure. But he was the first person to propose the shape of the carbon molecule. That it was in a ring. And the reason that he was able to picture that was because he took a nap one day and he dreamed of a snake biting its tail. And he had been trying to figure out what pattern these atoms formed to form the molecule. And that was his aha moment. The other thing that I teach is that intuition is not rational. If you're walking down the street and you suddenly get the explain that you should be on the other side of the street, you better cross over because there will be no rational explanation for it until the Wile Coyote anvil drops and you were in the wrong place. When we expect the intuition to be rational, we go nowhere. You may want to say in a meeting, "My sense is that we should try this. And I really can't explain why. But I think we should just give it a shot." And then you might have doubters. But once you have shown that your ideas are worthwhile, you will be listened to, believe me.

Cristina Amigoni: Sometimes. We've had moments in past lives where we've used the intuition, read the energy in the room, to predict project delays and issues that would happen two or three months down the line and have been met with, "That's impossible. How could you possibly know that?" Well, two three months down the line, the projects would be stalled. Yes, even after many, many times of doing that over and over, I was still met with the skepticism of like, "How could you possibly know this early in the project?" And I'm like, "Okay. Let's go through this. We're going to get to the same end." 

Fran Gallaher: I love it. And that's where we want – it's not a bad idea to bring in an intuitive guru, to be honest. Because then people follow that person's words. You might become the intuitive guru. I like to tell a story when I was part of the program and intuition. I was one of the few faculty members who had corporate experience. People were tended to be more comfortable with me because I didn't always present initially as woo as others. And the founder's son would often arrange for me to meet someone. And I would know that I had to be impressive right out of the shoot. And so, I met this one man one time. And the first thing that happened was I was flooded with the taste the smell, the feel, the sight, the Knowing of Bazooka bubble gum. And I was blonde at the time. And I really didn't want to bring up Bazooka bubble gum right away with this client. But when I'm flooded with something, I can't not address it. After a few moments, just a minute or two into this session I said, "Why would I be tasting, and smelling, and seeing Bazooka bubble gum?" And the client said, "Oh, because we have bowls of Bazooka bubble gum on the table for all of our executive team meetings." And I said, "Who chose Bazooka bubble gum as opposed to Double Bubble?" And the person named someone. And I was flooded with the knowledge that that person had come up with a fraud and embezzlement scheme, and that they were conducting themselves in a way that was sexually inappropriate in the workplace. And I told the CEO to consult the cellphone records of this person and they would uncover this plot. And that's exactly what they did. And they uncovered that plot. That person was my client for many years. 

Cristina Amigoni: That's incredible. 

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. And it is. And I wish that I could be incredible within a moment or two every time. But I am a lot. Let's just put it that way. Because we have to convince people, right? 

Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely do. 

Alex Cullimore: Yeah, there's a delicate way of building that trust. Like Cristina's example of being able to predict project issues early on is based on experience intuition, the understanding that is a risk now. But telling people that who can't see the nine steps ahead and then aren't willing to, it definitely presents a challenge where the intuition clearly provides wonderful information for great decisions. It's sometimes difficult to allow other people in to connect to it, especially if they're closed off from their own. I'm curious what you've dealt with, Fran, and how you've approached some of those situations where you feel like you either need help or would like help so that people can access and understand and be on the same page? 

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. Well, can I use bad language on this podcast? 

Alex Cullimore: Please do.

Fran Gallaher: Sometimes I just have to shut the fuck up. That I think happens to all of us. If there is listening for what we have to say, then I can speak into the listening. One of the things I do when I speak for organizations is I say at the end, "You will notice that I have not been consulting notes. And I speak into your listening. And you guys gave me really good listening. So, thank you." And if there's no listening for our words, then it's time to shut the fuck up. That's one of the reasons I do feel a little bit like a performing monkey or something, because I often want to lead with an Insight with someone so that they know what I'm talking about and I have them. I can do that as a coach. But I might not have been able to do that in as an employee. Or actually I was not an employee. Usually, I was a contractor. But I remember being on a project that had a big fanfare. This woman was making her big move to move up in the corporate ladder. And she announced a project. At the time I was working as a proposal writer. And I knew it was never going to happen. But I didn't say it. I just watched as it went downhill. 

Cristina Amigoni: And I would say that's probably one of the hardest things, is when you see it and you're like, "I see the iceberg. I see you hitting it. And I'm still going to have to watch you do it." 

Fran Gallaher: Yes. Yes.

Cristina Amigoni: And there it is.

Fran Gallaher: Yes. One of the things I also teach with intuition – and you and your listeners just got my course, Trust Your Gut, the highlights of it. But another thing I teach is that doubt is a hobby. If you want to doubt your intuition, you will have plenty of fun. You can doubt your intuition as a separate hobby and get super good at it and it will do you no good whatsoever. 

Cristina Amigoni: We might have just found the title for the podcast. 

Fran Gallaher: Oh, there you go.

Alex Cullimore: I love it. I love it. 

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. I have been blessed with guide. And I hope it's safe for me to now say that. By now, I'm capable of logic and I'm capable of intuition. But one time, I had a – I met this woman. She was a grandmother. And I met her with her grandchild. And she looked like a grandmother. She had silver wireframed glasses. Silver hair in a bun. A white eyelet blouse. A denim long skirt with socks and Birkenstocks. So, she looked definitely like a grandma. Now, I'm a grandma. But I hope I don't quite look definitely like a grandma. But in any case, I met her with her grandson. But then later, she came to see me. And I had this guide came in. And he was very effeminate and very loud. And he was teasing me. And he said, "This is coming into my consciousness. Not into the room. This is a non-physical being." And he said, "Tell her to go ahead with the threesome." And I'm like, "No. I'm not going to say that." And he's bugging me. He's like teasing me and being very effeminate and saying, "No. No. Tell her. Tell her to go ahead with the threesome." I realized that I could say there is a guy here who says that you should go ahead with the threesome. And she said, "Oh, good." She said, "They've been asking me for months. I don't think anyone will know that I did it. And, thank you." Sometimes we have to say something that will seem counter-intuitive when we're being intuitive. 

Alex Cullimore: Corporate fraud and threesomes. Single spectrum. 

Fran Gallaher: All while chewing Bazooka bubble gum. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. I'm wondering, I'm in this like split moment of do I want to know what your intuition is saying about me? Or do I not want to know? 

Fran Gallaher: Oh! Well, are you giving me permission? 

Cristina Amigoni: Sure. Let's do it. 

Fran Gallaher: I just feel like you are on such an ascending path. I think I don't know the full scope of what you guys do. I'd love to know more. But I think what you're doing is ground-breaking. And I think you, Cristina, you feel like, at last, there's room for your heart in your work. 

Cristina Amigoni: I would say that's – I feel exactly that way. And I'm glad to hear that it's an ascending path, because I would like it to be in that direction. Not the crash and burn direction. 

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. 

Alex Cullimore: The slow. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. The slow dying, or fast dying piece. But, yeah. I think a lot of what we have created and what we're doing, it's probably, in this sense, intuition-based. We kind of tease that we come up with these ideas and theories that we will stand on our soapbox for. And then one or two or three months later, sometime sooner, somebody like HBR, Harvard Business Review, or McKinsey, will publish an article that proves exactly what we've been saying. And like, "Oh, thank you for the research." 

Fran Gallaher: Yeah. That's something that I always wanted a business partner or a speaking partner who would be able to rattle off the study out of the ‘University of Whoosywhatsy’ that shows that nine out of 10 CEOs have powerful visual inner vision, or whatever. I've never been able to rattle that stuff off because it's exactly what you say, Cristina. For me, it's proof after the fact. I already know. And I think that a lot of my clients already use their intuition. And what I help them do is recognize how they are using it. When and where they are using it? And to follow the feedback loop. Just to set up a feedback loop. Notice when you get an intuitive hit. And then notice what happens whether it's right or not. Unfortunately, it's not going to always be right. Because what we are sensing, the bigger picture is possibilities, which is enormous. Within that are probabilities. And within that are potentials. And we don't know how potent a situation is. How likely those potentials will express? Every once in a while, I'm dreadfully, dreadfully wronged, because I will see that – And I'm largely visual. But I have all the inner senses. But I will see, for instance, that someone's going to get the job. And then they don't get the job. And I have my – what I jokingly call my psychic friends network, where I have other people who I might check an intuition with. Yesterday, I had an encounter with someone where I was giving them intuitive information. And it was, I have to say, pretty extraordinary. But my friend was there and could corroborate both the logic, "Yes, this opportunity does exist." And the intuition. It's so fun. I really think we need to have our own psychic friends network where we have people we can bounce ideas off of. One friend of mine who was part of my psychic friends network, she called me one time and she said, "I've interviewed for a job, and I get an intuition that makes no sense. And I wanted to have you look at the job situation and tell me what you get." And I looked at it and I said, "You're not going to get the job except you're going to get the job." And she said, "Yeah, that's what I get." And so, what happened was she got turned down for the job. Two weeks later, they called her up and they offered her the job. And what the story behind it was that they had interviewed a number of candidates. She was, according to them, second best. They gave the job to someone. That person was in the job for less than two weeks. And they said, "You know what? I'm not the person for this job. But I think I should do this other job for you. And I think that you should hire so and so." And she got the job. We've got to keep in mind that the intuition is by its very definition not rational. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, that's incredible. I love all these stories. 

Fran Gallaher: Thank you. 

Cristina Amigoni: They make it for the human experience, because we're not robots. We're not human doings. We're human beings. And so, there's all this other stuff besides the rational logic that makes us humans. 

Fran Gallaher: And sometimes we are unable to really grasp our greatest strengths, which might be things that are difficult to measure, like charisma, or authority, inner authority, the ability to be a leader. A long, long, long ago, I was put on a jury. And it was a time in my life where I was trying to shut up. And I was uncertain about where I was headed in my life. And I just decided I'm not going to take responsibility. I'm not going to say anything in this jury room. And the judge gave us a box of donuts. This was a long time ago. And I don't think they do that anymore. And said, "Figure out who is going to be the foreman." They also maybe say a foreperson, I don't know. 

Cristina Amigoni: Hopefully.

Fran Gallaher: Yes. And I said something about liking donuts. This was before I became gluten-free. And this other woman said that she preferred potato chips. That was all that was said in the jury room. No one discussed the case who was going to be the foreperson. Nothing happened. And I decided I was not going to lead the charge. I was going to leave it alone. The judge comes back and says, "Who is the foreman?" And the woman who I had the exchange with who said she liked potato chips, she said, "She is our foreperson." Meaning, me. I wasn't even trying to step into a leadership role, and there I was. For those of you listening to this who are trying to grasp how did you get in the leadership role that you're in, there could be soul agreements that lead you to take responsibility in all kinds of situations. That your logical rational self may not agree with, but is part of your soul agreement. 

Cristina Amigoni: That's great.

Alex Cullimore: I like the term soul agreement. 

Fran Gallaher: Yeah, soul covenant, soul purpose, those are all about the same idea that we can feel it sometimes. If you're in the pool and you can feel the bottom of the pool with your toes, that's sort of like there's a feeling that there's some kind of a structure to our lives that we don't always understand. And I think opening to the spiritual opening to meditation and intuition lets us feel the bottom of the pool. Begin to understand the structure that underlies who we are and what we're about. Why we have the gifts we have? 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, it's so very true. We have a couple of last questions for you, Fran. 

Fran Gallaher: Yay! 

Cristina Amigoni: One is what does authenticity mean to you? 

Fran Gallaher: For me, it's that I'm aware of my inner world and what I am feeling. I'm aware of the purpose behind me that comes from my soul. And I'm in alignment with the expression that I bring to my interactions. Now, it doesn't mean that I'm going to express everything. It just means that I'm aware of it. I remember one of my sons got himself into trouble by taking his friend's brother's schizophrenia medication. And he ended up with a terrible reaction. And I don't remember what it's called. But it's involuntary movement of the head, and neck, and jaw. And I had to take him to the ER. And then I had to take him home, put him to bed, and go teach a yoga class. And I was crying through part of the yoga class. I had tears streaming down my face. But people didn't notice because I was teaching my yoga class. And so, I did both. I felt my own upset, my feelings, and I did my job. I think that's authenticity. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, powerful definition. And our last question is where can people find you? 

Fran Gallaher: Well, my website is reallyflourish.com. And my email is fran@reallyflourish.com. And I'd love to hear from people. I am available for speaking, for leadership development, for coaching, especially those who want to be on a path to the c-suite. I assist my clients with moving upward. Because you fought it long enough.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Yes. That's a very good way to put it. Great.

Fran Gallaher: Yes. Thank you so much. 

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, thank you, Fran, for the wonderful conversation. 

Alex Cullimore: Thank you very much, Fran. 

Fran Gallaher: Thank you, Cristina and Alex. I am so delighted. And thank you to all your listeners. Thanks in advance for connecting with me. 

Cristina Amigoni: Thank you. 

Cristina Amigoni: Thank you for listening to Uncover the Human, a Siamo podcast. 

Alex Cullimore: Special thanks to our podcast operations wizard, Jake Lara; and our score creator, Rachel Sherwood. 

Cristina Amigoni: If you have enjoyed this episode, please share, review and subscribe. You can find our episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Alex Cullimore: We would love to hear from you with feedback, topic ideas or questions. You can reach us at podcast wearesiamo.com, or at our website, wearesiamo.com, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. We Are Siamo is spelled W-E A-R-E S-I-A-M-O.

Cristina Amigoni: Until next time, listen to yourself, listen to others and always uncover the human.