054: Building a Culture of Trust with Your Team and Audience with Dr. Laura Gallaher

When you’re in a group dynamic, whether it’s during a presentation or at work with your team, how can you build real and deep trust and connection?

It may seem like this could take days, weeks, or even months or years.

But, during a recent workshop I attended that was facilitated by today’s guest, I personally experienced a profound sense of connection with a group of strangers in a matter of 20 minutes. A connection deeper than one I’ve felt with people I’ve known for years.

How did this happen? My guest Dr. Laura Gallaher is on the podcast to talk about radical communication and the transformational change in people and culture that emerges from it.

The specific techniques we discuss are ones you can use in one-on-one conversations, when you’re facilitating workshops, and with your team.

About My Guest: Dr. Laura Gallaher is an Organizational Psychologist, Executive Coach, and Licensed Human Element Practitioner. Laura’s company, Gallaher Edge, works with executives who want an edge over their competition by looking inward, and pushing past the edge of their comfort zone in order to increase their awareness, alignment, and accountability. She helps executive teams have conversations they didn’t even know they needed to have. Organizations are just people. Gallaher Edge helps executives learn what it takes to be more profitable by truly putting people first. She began her career at NASA Kennedy Space Center. After the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry in 2003, killing everybody aboard, Kennedy Space Center hired Laura and a team of organizational psychologists to change the cultural influences that were deemed to play a role in the tragedy. She worked for 8 years with NASA to positively influence culture, develop leadership capacity, and improve organizational performance at Kennedy Space Center.

The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox.

Highlights:

• The three ways we are destroying trust in the workplace
• How choosing to be more open and honest with yourself will allow you to be more open and honest with your peers
• How to recognize defense mechanisms and what to do instead in order to facilitate a productive conversation
• Why creating a culture of psychological safety allows for stronger teams
• Why feedback is critical among teams to produce higher quality products and catch potential mistakes
• The importance of self accountability and why it is a choice we make
• The beautiful thing that happens when you are vulnerable
• How to apply these techniques at your next speaking engagement or workshop to create trust and connection with your audience

Links:

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/54

Visit Laura’s website at http://www.gallaheredge.com/

Laura’s podcast “Unlock Your Potential”

Join the free Speaking Your Brand community at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/join/ or text the word SPEAKING to 444-999.

Say hi to me on Twitter @CarolMorganCox

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Become Bookable Live Online Workshop - April 15, 2026
If you want to speak more but you’re not sure where to start or your efforts haven’t produced the results you want, I’m hosting a live online workshop called “Become Bookable: How to Get Speaking Invitations” on Wednesday, April 15th.

A lot of brilliant women assume they just need to pitch themselves more. But the real reason speakers get invited isn’t because they pitch harder — it’s because they’re positioned as bookable.

In this 3-hour interactive workshop live on Zoom, I’ll show you how speakers actually get invited — and help you clarify the positioning that makes event organizers say yes.

As a podcast listener, use the coupon code “Podcast100” to save $100 on your registration.

Learn more and register at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/bookable