Fear can cripple a person and their potential for success. With hypnosis and hypnotherapy, you can rewire your subconscious and unleash the better you. In this episode, Victoria Wieck sits down for a discussion with hypnotherapist, life coach and author Victoria Gallagher as they talk about hypnosis and rewiring your mind. Listen as they discuss how hypnotherapy works on the subconscious and how you can use it to grow as a person and as an entrepreneur. Learn more about mindfulness techniques and the subconscious by tuning in.
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Hypnosis: Towards A Better You With Victoria Gallagher
Welcome to another episode of the show. I know nothing about hypnosis other than what I see on TV or occasionally, there will be some news coverage on that. I’m super excited for my own adventure into a world that could unlock many things that I’ve always been curious about, some things about myself, and other things around the world.
If you’re into hypnosis or you’re interested in learning anything about that, I have the very best expert authority on this subject. Her name is Victoria Gallagher. She is an internationally acclaimed author, keynote speaker, podcaster and so much more. Before I get into all of her bio, I’d rather have her tell you her story. Without further ado, I’d like to welcome Victoria. Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Victoria. You have a lovely name, by the way. Thank you for having me on the show. It is such a pleasure and privilege to get to speak to you and your audience, especially somebody who is genuinely curious about this topic. For me, I’ve been doing this for many years. I was at a convention with about 700 hypnotists. We all know this topic very deeply and intimately. Every time I talk about it, it always seems like that law of familiarity. It always seems like I’m telling something that I’ve told over and over again. It’s nice to talk to somebody that doesn’t know this stuff. I can feel like I’m imparting some wisdom and some value.
You told me that your audience are people who are in a position where they’re making a lot of money. They want to break free and become their own boss, their own entrepreneur and create their own business. I also feel like I’m pretty expertly positioned in that as an authority. As somebody who was in that role years ago, I had fallen into a little bit of anxiety, depression and feeling stuck as a six-figure earner and as a financial consultant. I’d been doing that and following along in my parents’ footsteps. It was something that I loved when I loved it. I was passionate about it when I was passionate about it.
I won all the awards. I got the corner office. I was married, had a nice car and nice income, everything that you could want at the early age of my mid to late-twenties but I wasn’t happy and satisfied. I thought that once I got to this point, I would have it all. I’d be happy. I was well on my way to creating a great retirement nest egg. I had a plan. I knew exactly what I was going to do but I realized that I wasn’t satisfied with that.
I went and took some personal development seminars and started getting in touch with, what do I want? What are my desires? Why am I feeling this way? I realized that if I could be doing anything that I wanted, it would be to help other people to empower them to have everything that they want. It required like, “How do I do that? How do I empower other people to live their dreams and go after the big things?” When I say the big things, I mean the things that you’re even afraid to write down and that you won’t tell anybody that you want because you have no idea how you’re going to make that a reality.
Most people won’t write down what they really want because they don’t understand how to make that happen. The reason they don’t understand how to make that happen is because it’s not the conscious mind’s job to make that happen. We’re going to be getting into the whole premise of hypnosis, that relationship between the conscious and the subconscious. Long story short, I stumbled upon hypnosis and made these hypnosis recordings as my way and contribution to helping people get on their path to make their dreams a reality.
I didn’t have the luxury of waiting to make my small business a success. As I was getting my business underway, opening an office, getting my business license, and going about doing all of these things, my branch manager where I was a financial consultant caught on to what I was doing. He called me into his office one day and said, “You can’t do both. You have to make a decision.” As I was saying, I’m just getting my business license and opening my office. It’s not like I’m making any money at my new business at all. Here I am making a six-figure income and I’ve got to make a decision.
I already took out a lease on my new office. I already took out ads in the Yellow Pages. That’s dating myself. I already took out ads in these little spiritual New Age Magazines, advertising myself. I already had all of these new expenses that were coming to me in short order. I said, “It’s time to put this to work and see if these manifesting powers can manifest a new business.” I quit. More than leaving a six-figure a year income, I also had two years of unvested stock that I had been putting 25% of my income into. I lost that as well. Years went by, I ended up facing that worst fear that I would run out of money and I would go broke, and I did.
Facing that and feeling like a complete failure, I was able to turn that around and turn my new business in pretty short order into a six-figure business, make back all my money, and move into higher heights and greater success doing what I love. It wasn’t like the White Picket Fence story of being able to be like, “We’re going to shut the door here and open the door here.” It was messy. It’s part of living the dream. I don’t know any other highly successful person who’s gone to the heights of success without going through some turmoil. That’s what a lot of people fear. The fact of the matter is you may go through that.
I don’t know how much my audience knows about hypnosis. I agree with you about everything you said which is fear is real. A lot of people fear losing the job, reputation, opportunity cost, failure. All these things are coming to your mind. It inhibits your ability to think clearly with clarity because you’re afraid. The higher the pay, the more you think you have to lose. I agree with you also about some failures. In fact, my whole motto is “No rain, no rainbow.” Embracing potential failures is part of your journey because, without failure, you won’t have success. It’s the way life works.
I do want to focus on, what is hypnosis? How does it work? How does it help you overcome those fears? How does that help you financially benefit from this when you come to those moments where you feel like, “This is it,” or you feel like you’re going bankrupt? A lot of times we get bad orders or make bad decisions. Sometimes we make a good decision and it doesn’t turn outright. Did you discover this or did you have to go to formal training on hypnosis?
No highly successful person has gone to the heights of success without going through some kind of turmoil.
Let’s take them one at a time. First of all, what is hypnosis? Hypnosis is a heightened state of suggestibility. When I say suggestible, it means that when I tell you that you’re on the way to success and open to receiving abundance, those are suggestions. When I give you those suggestions, being in a heightened state of receptivity means that your mind is open to receiving those. Ordinarily, our subconscious minds are not open. They’re not receiving the information that we want to give them.
You are not receiving information as openly. Is that because we’re conditioned to listen to other things or is it human physiology?
It’s conditioning. You have your conscious mind and subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is where all of your programming, beliefs and paradigms are. It’s your emotional mind. It’s where the part of you who’s watching a movie and you’re reacting to that or you’re reacting to traffic. It’s the emotional mind. It’s the part of you that is responsible for all of your bodily functions, keeping your heart beating, and all of that.
It has some very important functions, all of your long-term memory. The reason why it doesn’t receive that information very easily and why you can’t just tell yourself, “I enjoy eating celery every day for the rest of my life,” or some ridiculous suggestion like that, is it doesn’t match up with what’s already there. It does a wonderful job at continuing to keep everything the same in homeostasis. The reason why it wants to keep everything in homeostasis is if things change, theoretically, anything that change goes against what’s already in place. It feels like it could die. Its main job is to keep you secure, safe, out of trouble, and keep all of this functionality working.
It keeps a wall up for that information to get in. I’ll tell you a little bit about how you can get into the subconscious mind. When you go into the subconscious mind and you pass the gatekeeper that keeps everything closed, you can go into those old programs and conditions and rewire the conditioning that’s already there.
The reason that we get this conditioning in the first place is up until we’re about six years old, we have no conscious mind. Our conscious mind is the part of us that’s more rational, logical and intellectual critical thinking. This is the tool that we use that’s in touch with all of our five senses. When you’re seeing something and you’re making pictures, you see that through your conscious intellect, through the conscious mind. When you’re hearing something, you’re hearing that through your conscious mind. Any information you’re taking in comes in through those five senses into your conscious mind.
You’re making decisions about that information as it comes in. This is correct or incorrect and matching it with what you already know. When you’re 0 to 6 and your mom and dad are chatting away and talking about, “You have to work hard. We don’t have enough money. You can’t afford it. You’re not good and important enough. Don’t do that. Stay away from that. This is never going to work,” the 50,000 thoughts that are going through a person’s mind that they chat about on autopilot all day long in front of the children, all of that stuff gets absorbed. Children are like sponges. They’re absorbing that with no filters. They believe every single thing that’s taught to them because they have no ability to reason.
By the time you’re six years old, your brain is mostly formed of negative input. Parents, teachers and kids are well-intentioned but they don’t always say things that are going to be in your best interest and work for you when you’re an adult. You’re wanting to get out in the world and make something of yourself. All of that information gets into the programming of the subconscious mind. We then watched the news. We listened to conversations with our friends. We have life experiences and we fail. All of that negative data gets in.
That gives you an idea of where all of that negative programming comes from. We have positive programming as well. The part of us that’s stuck and afraid, that isn’t making as much money as we want to make, that isn’t as successful as we want to be, that isn’t attracting the relationships, that is not being able to lose weight or take on that healthy behavior, we can change that part of us in the subconscious mind. The way that we change that is through hypnosis.
Hypnosis is a heightened state of suggestibility. You don’t have to formally go into hypnosis in order to change these things. You can change these things in other ways through other heightened emotional experiences, repetition, habits, and all of these other mechanisms. What hypnosis does is it takes you into a relaxed state. You do that by sweet-talking the critical factor of the mind. There’s this part of the mind that blocks that misinformation from getting through. Anything that’s not matched up with what you already believe, it’s going to dismiss that information.
This critical factor, if you get your mind into a very relaxed state, is going to soften that part of the mind. It’s going to relax and put it into a sleep-like state. When that happens, the subconscious mind is open. It will allow whatever suggestions to come in that you say can come in. It’s something to understand that you will only allow suggestions, which you want to come in.
Your conscious mind is still involved in the process. Even though it looks like a person that’s completely zoned out and asleep, they’re not actually in sleep. You’re still very aware of what the hypnotist is telling you. You’re simply in a state where you’re like, “I am ready to make more money and increase my bank account.” You can feel it and feel good about it. You’re visualizing and seeing it. It’s going into the subconscious mind.
You can only really get access to your subconscious when the mind is relaxed, calm, and open.
The reason why this works so well is because when these programs go into the subconscious mind, which is the opposite of the conscious mind, it has no ability to reason and reject the suggestions. It only knows how to accept and obey what is being commanded to do once you get access to it. You can only get access to it when the mind is relaxed, calmed and open. That’s essentially how hypnosis works.
How does hypnosis relate to a path to financial freedom that’s different from other methods of positive thinking? I have a lot of mindset coaches and people who teach you how to get rid of the negativity and come up with a path that you can work with. In terms of your Law of Attraction, and also I see that you touched on some of that already with visualization. I design jewelry for a living so I’m a very visual person. That works for me, but how do we use hypnosis and the power of the mind effectively? Is that something that most people can teach themselves how to do or do you need a hypnotist to help you get to that state?
There are a couple of questions there. How can it help you with finances different from normal positive thinking? With normal positive thinking, you’re doing a conscious level of mind. It’s hitting a wall. Those suggestions might make you feel good temporarily but they’re about the same as willpower and it seldom lasts. It’s not going to be effective for the long-term and permanently change the programming in the subconscious mind.
Hypnosis is going to go directly through that wall, get into the programming and change neural pathways that are causing you to take unfruitful actions. When it comes down to it, nothing’s going to happen unless you take an action. You’re either taking actions that are sabotaging or getting you closer to what you want.
Sometimes we don’t know what those actions are. Sometimes we are fooled by the actions that are given to us by our subconscious mind and it will continue to tell us to do things that are not even in our behavior. Unless we change the route programming to one of success, from one of being stuck or failure, we’re going to continue to do the same thing because that’s all the subconscious mind knows how to do. It’s programmed to keep you stuck and keep you in lack because it’s those things that are protecting you. Hypnosis will rewire that thought process and cause you to take different actions so that you’re going to be more fruitful.
Can anybody do this? Yes, anybody can do it. There are certification training and courses. I’m a trained hypnotist. I’ve been trained since 1999 when I got certified. It’s the same way that some people have a hard time coaching themselves and being objective with themselves, especially because of the fact that you need to be in a conscious state of mind to know what suggestions to give yourself and all of that.
That’s why the next level is from having an actual live in-person hypnotist. It would be maybe to listen to guided hypnosis because it is similar to guided meditation. It can guide you into that state to open your mind and allow the suggestions to come in and then wake you back up with the instructions for waking or letting you drift off to sleep after the programming is complete.
You can do it yourself but it’s much more effective if you have somebody that’s trained and know what to say as well. That could be tricky because there are lots of different rules of the way to speak to the subconscious mind that a lot of people aren’t in touch with because they don’t have that vocabulary day in and day out. Also knowing what to say and what not to say is another reason why it’s more effective with a trained hypnotist.
Tell me about the Law of Attraction. How does that work in hypnosis?
Law of Attraction is essentially like attracts like. Like energy attracts like energy. Another way of stating the Law of Attraction is whatever you focus your attention, energy and awareness on, it’s what you’re going to attract. It’s a special way of thinking and getting into alignment with what it is that you want to attract in your life.
In my book, I talk about the eight manifesting conditions that all need to be in alignment with creating your desire. It starts with having a very specific desire to focus on as a starting ground. A lot of people, especially creative entrepreneurial types, want to start a business, and one day want to write a book, and the next day want to start an arts and crafts store. We have multi-talents. It can be easy to get distracted and unfocused. Focusing on too many things is not focusing on anything at all.
Law of Attraction is about understanding that all of your thoughts, energy and attention is focused on this one outcome. You’re going to be drawn into that. You’re going to draw in people, circumstances, and more like-thinking. You’re going to feel like it. You’re going to create the results that are in alignment with all of that thinking and way of being.
Knowing what to say and what not to say is one reason why hypnosis is more effective with a trained hypnotist.
That’s interesting because a lot of the things that you are talking about are things that I’ve done. That’s something I try to get my people to do, but it’s hard for a lot of people to focus on one thing because about 70% of our audience are entrepreneurs that are doing six figures or more. They’re constantly coming out with 40 new ideas. We do product launches every week. They tend to overwork. These are control freaks. What happens is you only have so many hours a day. That means you have to learn how to use your time productively.
We have given up our 9:00 to 5:00, 40-hour a week job to work for ourselves and work 80 hours a week.
I do quite a bit of coaching and a lot of keynotes speaking on that one thing because, with my own business, I refuse to work those hours. A lot of people quit their jobs for emotional and financial freedom and they find out that they’re stressed out working twice as many hours as when they used to work the long hours for half the pay. That’s very stressful for a lot of people.
Thank you so much for sharing a lot about hypnosis but when I listened to you talking about how hypnosis works, I feel like it also will help you. I’m a huge believer in living a balanced life. Without health, you don’t have wealth and without quality personal relationships, all of the financial gains are meaningless.
I feel like when you get into that heightened subconscious state of suggestion, I have to think that that positively impacts all the other parts of your life. A lot of people come into the world of business with something or some set of circumstances. My parents were well-meaning. They worry about me all the time but they would say things like, “You should stick with the job because people don’t make any money.”
My parents used to always tell me, because I used to want to paint, that artists never ever made any money until they die. When I wanted to do my jewelry business, it’s the same thing. It’s like, “You’re going to fail. Stick with the job.” Even though they care for you and mean well, they’re not saying, “You’re not going to succeed because you’re stupid. The odds are against you.” If it’s coming from your parents who’ve sacrificed everything in their lives for you, you’re like, “They must be right.”
Your parents are some of the greatest hypnotists in the world because what makes a great hypnotist is somebody that has authority, you trust, you’re in good rapport with, and you believe. Those are a few of the things that make a great hypnotist. When a doctor gives your prognosis about how much time you will have left, people tend to live that out. They live that out not necessarily because that’s how much time they would have had, but the subconscious mind takes that in.
There are those special times where your guard is down because you’re listening to somebody who you believe and trust know the truth. That is a very legitimate thing that our parents can hypnotize us with good intentions. They want what’s best for us. They’re looking out for us but it’s not always best for somebody who wants to be a successful entrepreneur.
My belief is that if you do the 80/20 rule, if you do what 80% of the people do, you’re going to end up like those 80% of people. If you want to be different or you want a unique opportunity, you do need to find your own uniqueness. A lot of times, without outside help, it’s hard for people to come up with their own courage and have that unshakable belief system that they can succeed.
In business, if you stick with something and you believe in something and grind that out, eventually, you will find a way. If you look at all the people that’s made an impact in our lives like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Michael Dell, all these people are dropouts. They found the extra factor and I don’t know if that’s with hypnosis. If you stick to believing it, you need a lot more things than just belief. I do think that what you are teaching and sharing your knowledge is improving your quality of life in many facets.
It goes back to what you were saying about balance. Hypnosis can help you to be balanced. That was one of the things that part of my story when I did go into those dark times. Here’s what happened that got me back. I know exactly what those entrepreneurs that work sixteen-hour days feel like because that’s exactly what I was doing. I didn’t take time to program my mind. I wasn’t taking my own medicine. Here I was totally committed to helping other people to change with the power of hypnosis, staying up until midnight making this hypnosis, recording, and working on my website. I’m staying up until midnight in my office eating crackers and cookies, zoning out and getting up at 6:00 in the morning to do it all again.
There was no time to go and do all the things. I ended up where I was and finally, it hit me. It’s like, “What am I doing? I should be listening to this stuff.” As soon as I did and decided to create that time for myself to exercise my mind, that’s when everything started to shift. It is true. You have to have that balance otherwise, you will burn yourself out. Something will happen and you’re not going to be happy because your family is not going to be happy. You’re not going to be happy with your health. Something’s going to fall apart. It’s not a recipe for long-term success, maybe short-term success.
It’s not sustainable if you don’t have that. How do people get ahold of you to learn more about this fascinating subject and if they want to take this further?
Like every other entrepreneur having multiple talents and desires, I too have that. I used to have 30 different websites that I would give you. They’re still out there but I put everything onto one website and it’s my name, VictoriaMGallagher.com. There you’re going to find a lot of free tools that you can download, free eBooks and my free app, HypnoCloud. You’ll get access to my books, my courses, where I might be speaking and things like that. If you want to reach out to me, I have contact information there so that’s the place.
Focusing on too many things is not focusing on anything at all.
Thank you so much for coming on the show and explaining a little about hypnosis. It’s a fascinating subject. One of my favorite shows in the whole wide world is Snapped on Oxygen. It’s a lot about crime shows. I see the power of hypnosis in solving crimes and all of that. That was my initial attraction. I was wondering, how does that translate into financial freedom? I can see how if you understand your true desires, unlock your potential, and are able to shut out the negativity that’s been in your system. Some people have had that since they were very young.
One of the girls that I coached says she ran away when she was fifteen years old or something. She’s been on her own all that time. Her mother told her, “You weren’t putting enough to go get anything. Just be a secretary. You’re never going to make any money or find a new man.” By the time I ran into her, she was making over seven-figure income and she was still saying every day, “I had a great year.” It was a fluke year. Instead of thinking like, “I can take it to eight figures.” This woman worked seven days a week nonstop. The power of that conditioning could be very powerful, even when you are successful. You’re always doubting yourself and that’s sad.
I applaud you for helping people live a healthier, cleaner and happier life because that’s what we all want. Entrepreneurs are crazy people but good-hearted. I do hear you on the 30 websites. It’s funny because I’ve been doing a lot of mentorships. I’m the Codirector of the Global Society for Female Entrepreneurs. The first thing I see with entrepreneurs is, “I have two websites. I have two businesses I decided to combine.” The business name would be halfway between that one and this one. You’re not catering to anybody because one could be a restaurant and the other could be beauty. You’re like, “They don’t go together. Why are you going to find a name that will hit both because it’s not going to be?”
I have one of my students who had ten websites. I asked her, “What are you doing?” She goes, “I don’t know. I wish I had thought about this because I have six million viewers on my YouTube but they are spread over ten channels instead of the one.” It makes a huge difference but when you said 30, I was laughing because it is so true.
They’re all under the umbrella of personal development someway somehow. They’re all about self-help. I was doing all these little miniature websites to attract good luck and various different meditation, magnetism, thoughts to money and all of these things. One day I realized that this isn’t serving anyone.
When you were talking about hypnosis, you were talking about your background story and everything. You’re very passionate about what you know, what you share and who you serve. When you’re that passionate about something, it’s very easy to think, “I want to help this person do this and do exactly that and not more.” You end up with a website that you think would be surgically targeted to that person. The next day, you’re like, “That person knows how to meditate. She’s going to need X too.” It’s very easy. I see that whole pattern all the time and it’s a great thing. Eventually, all of that it’s going to pay off.
I thank you so much for coming in. I hope no one’s offended by this because some of you know who I’m talking about. There are many people who are doing mid to high six-figures. They’ve been doing it for many years but they’re grinding it out, day in and day out. It’s not easy. Sometimes, you can only work so many days and so hard. At some point, you’re going to need to find a way to do it easier, faster and more. Hypnosis could get you there. Thank you so much for coming in. Until next time. Stay healthy and stay wealthy. Talk to you soon.
Important Links
- Victoria Gallagher
- HypnoCloud
- Global Society for Female Entrepreneurs
- https://MeditationMagnetism.com/optin-25154474
About Victoria Gallagher
Victoria Gallagher is a worldwide leader in Hypnotherapy, a best-selling author, international speaker, life success coach, and renowned authority on the Law of Attraction.
She has dedicated her life to empowering people all over the world to successfully live a life of liberty, aligned with their dreams through her effective meditative recordings and online courses.
As a tireless personal growth enthusiast herself, Victoria hosts the popular Law of Attraction show The Power of Your Mind podcast featuring industry experts.
The Power of Your Mind is a self-help podcast helping listeners unleash the power of their mind.
Victoria Gallagher shares over 20 years of wisdom and techniques in hypnotherapy, Law of Attraction, visualization, NLP, meditation, personal growth, positive affirmations and other effective methods to help listeners tap into the great power which resides in their mind, and become the best version of themselves.