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The Best You: A Coaching Podcast with Gary Gillan

The Best You: A Coaching Podcast with Gary Gillan

Hosted by Gary Gillan

BusinessEducationScienceInterviews guests

Episodes

178

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Feeling stuck, or unsure how to move forward in your career and your life? Here's the truth: you are the best person in the entire world at being you, even if you don't quite believe that yet. The Best You: A Coaching Podcast with Gary Gillan helps you build self-awareness, confidence, and lasting change through practical coaching you can use the same day. Every week, you'll get one of two things: Solo episodes. Gary takes one personal development topic and works through a clear framework with a question or exercise to try before the next episode. The Best You Interview Series: Personal Growth Through Real Conversations. Honest, unscripted conversations with founders, clinicians, coaches, and everyday people about what they've learned, and what you can take from it. Hosted by ICF-credentialed coach Gary Gillan, this is personal growth that's insightful, practical, and delivered with a wee bit of humour. New episodes every week. Follow now, start with the latest episode, and learn more at garygillan.com.

Listen to episodes

60 recent
October 27, 202645 min

How to Speak Under Pressure with Helen von Dadelszen

Send us Fan Mail Shaking hands, a racing heart, and a voice that suddenly sounds 85 years old. Every brilliant expert has felt their body take over just as it was their turn to speak. In this episode, author, facilitator and voice coach Helen von Dadelszen explains why those reactions are a normal part of being human and not a signal to stop. Helen shares the practical tools she uses to help capable people stop holding back. Helen firmly believes that confidence comes from action, not from waiting to feel ready. Perfect for : Professionals, leaders and subject matter experts who know their stuff but hold back in meetings, interviews, presentations or hard conversations. Your transformation : → Use the physiological sigh to tell your brain you’re safe in under a minute → Burn off adrenaline shakes with one simple muscle technique → Turn the spotlight onto your audience when the pressure builds mid-talk → Grow your comfort zone with the smallest courageous action, then celebrate it → Rewrite the story you tell yourself with one powerful three-letter word #Coaching #InterviewSeries #PublicSpeaking #CommunicationSkills #Confidence #Leadership #CourageousAction Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

October 26, 202611 min

Learned Helplessness: Why We Stop Asking

Send us Fan Mail How many things have you stopped asking for because you ‘already know’ the answer? Here’s the kicker - do you actually know, or have you just decided, based on what happened last time? It’s very important to appreciate that how it was isn’t how it is. And that should bring hope for a different outcome this time around. If you spend time considering (and collective evidence on) what’s changed since last time, you can approach the conversation from a position of certainty and conviction - as opposed to defaulted helplessness. Let me know one thing you’ve stopped asking for. #Coaching #LearnedHelplessness #Assumptions #Hope #GrowthMindset #Leadership ------------------------- This kind of clarity doesn't happen by accident - it's a skill you can build. If you're ready to stop spinning and start moving, let's talk. Book a free 30-min call: garygillan.com Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

October 19, 202616 min

Changing Your Mind: Weakness or Superpower?

Send us Fan Mail What’s your relationship with changing your mind? How do you view others who change their mind? Is it a sign of weakness or a superpower? For me, it comes down to one question: are you changing your mind because you learned something, or because it got uncomfortable? One is growth. The other is avoidance. And if you’re really honest, you’ll know which is which. My life mantra is that ‘people can put up with anything, as long as they know’. Treat them like mushrooms and you’ll get what you get. Think about a recent time when you did or didn’t change your mind. And whether it was through growth or avoidance. #Coaching #DecisionMaking #Leadership #SelfAwareness #GrowthMindset #ChangingYourMind ------------------------- This kind of clarity doesn't happen by accident - it's a skill you can build. If you're ready to stop spinning and start moving, let's talk. Book a free 30-min call: garygillan.com Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

October 13, 202645 min

How to Connect With Your Spirit Guide with Cindy Anderson

Send us Fan Mail Finishing your life checklist doesn't come with a happiness trophy. Cindy Anderson built the life her parents and teachers mapped out for her. Good education, good job, the house in the suburbs. In her mid-forties she realized it wasn't the life she came here to live. Then one question from a friend changed everything, and today she teaches busy, ambitious women to tell real inner guidance from fear wearing a clever disguise. Perfect For : Successful women who have built a good life but sense something is missing. Anyone who has been sitting on a big decision for months or years, and curious skeptics who want spirituality without the dogma. Your Transformation : Understanding advice from the people who love you always comes with their biases Utilizing the STAR method for separating your guide's voice from your monkey mind Your body is the antenna - and it can't lie Confidence in a decision drives most of the outcome Who do you speak with when you need some guidance or support?? #Coaching #InterviewSeries #SelfTrust #InnerGuidance #Intuition #PersonalGrowth --------------- Ready to elevate your life or business? Connect with me for coaching, speaking, education, or business consulting support. Book a free 30-minute call now at garygillan.com Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

October 9, 202611 min

It Depends On Who It Is

Send us Fan Mail How would the people in your life describe you? Would they all describe the same person? For most of us, it depends who it is. Some will get your absolute best, and others not so much. For me, our actions and behaviours are anchored in the following: Status: performing for people we think can do something for us Approval: we want certain people to like us Comfort: the people closest to us will forgive us Energy: we ration it Habit: it’s conditioned into us through experience and repetition Have you ever experienced this: the people we want to impress get our warmth, our attention, and our follow-through. And the people closest to us get whatever’s left in the tank at the end of the day. I want to be very clear - this isn’t about adopting appropriate styles. Changing your style is fine. Changing your standards based on who you think is worth it? That needs a wee bit of looking at. As in, what are you doing if that’s what you’re doing? #Coaching #SelfAwareness #Authenticity #Leadership #Relationships #PersonalGrowth ------------------------- This kind of clarity doesn't happen by accident - it's a skill you can build. If you're ready to stop spinning and start moving, let's talk. Book a free 30-min call: garygillan.com Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

October 2, 202614 min

Stop Calling it Luck

Send us Fan Mail How much of your life is down to coincidence versus consequence? Truly, how much did you do, or not do, to get you here? Much of where you are comes down to: Action - and inaction Effort and concentration Distraction management Your network Patience and perseverance Your ability to pivot and course correct If most of where you're at is consequence, most of where you're going is too. Make sure it works for you. #Coaching #Coincidence #Consequence #Intention #Perseverance #PersonalGrowth Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

September 25, 202613 min

Are You Adding Value?

Send us Fan Mail You love being busy working on meaningful stuff. Then over time you sense your energy dipping - maybe even tanking. You can look at contributory factors like your sleep, the weather, the news. But what if it's something else? What if it’s that you've stopped feeling like you're adding value? This one takes brutal honesty: you need to ask yourself how true your feeling is - is it provable or a story you've made up in your head? For me, value has 3 major buckets: Value I want to add (intrinsic motivation) Value I used to add (comparative) Value I'm expected to add (extrinsic motivation) Try this: rate the value you're adding at work, at home, and in one other area of your life. Then look at your lowest score and determine the evidence you have to support it. Then take one action step to move closer to adding the value you want. #Coaching #AddingValue #SelfAwareness #Motivation #Leadership Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

September 19, 202618 min

How to Listen Better

Send us Fan Mail Would you say you’re a good listener? Be honest. Most of us think we're good listeners yet few will check to see whether it’s true or not. And then there’s the different types and styles of listening accompanied by the depth to which you are able to listen in and of a moment. There’s a lot to this, isn’t there? Give this a go: think of the last conversation where you know, not think, you weren't really listening. Write down why. What got in the way of your optimum conditions for listening? Now flip it - remember the last time someone clearly wasn't listening to you. Didn't feel great, did it? So, the question isn't whether you're a ‘good listener’ - it's whether you're building that skill alongside your own growth or not. What's getting in the way of your best listening this week? #Coaching #Listening #Leadership #Communication #SelfAwareness Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

September 14, 202643 min

The Truth About OCD with Merrisa Little

Send us Fan Mail Many people think obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is about washing hands and organizing things. It's not. In this episode, I sit down with Merissa Little, founder and clinical director of OCD North, to unpack what OCD actually is, why it's so often misdiagnosed as anxiety, and how exposure and response prevention (ERP) helps people take their lives back. This is one of the most eye-opening conversations I've had on the show. Perfect for : Anyone who's ever dismissed OCD as a personality quirk, parents supporting a child through it, or leaders and coaches who want a sharper lens on how fear quietly shapes behaviour. Your transformation: Learn why OCD is a 'diagnosis of exclusion' and how it's distinguished from anxiety in just a few simple questions Understand egodystonic intrusive thoughts - why the scariest, most shame-inducing thoughts are often the clearest sign it's OCD, not character Discover why silence is the biggest barrier to recovery, and why reaching out is the hardest and most important exposure of all Hear where the line sits between healthy superstition and compulsion, and how to tell the difference in your own habits What would it take for you to have an open conversation about the thoughts you're most afraid to say out loud? You can see more from Merrisa here: Website: OCD North LinkedIn: Merrisa Little Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

September 13, 202613 min

5 Steps to Freedom

Send us Fan Mail What does freedom mean to you? And how free would you say you are in all areas of your life? Not philosophically - in your job, your time, your health, your relationships, right now, today. Many people never take the time to stop and consider this. Instead, the typical default is to live within whatever got built around them - some of it chosen, some imposed, and most of it drifted into. I have to tell you that a lot of it isn't imposed on you. You signed up for pieces of it yourself, consciously or subconsciously. Try this: pick one area of your life and write out how free you feel in it. Then follow the 5-step process I describe in the podcast Let me know which area you'll audit first. #Coaching #Freedom #SelfAwareness #Accountability #PersonalGrowth #Leadership Gary's Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

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