How to Make a Major Life-Changing Shift from Stuck to Unstoppable
Are you ready for a life-shift? Bridget Pilloud went from stuck and out of balance - overworking, terrible relationship, and stressed out to the max - to being unstoppable.
Bridget spent 15 years in product development and strategic marketing management before realizing her passion for helping others create a life-shift. She uses her intuition, critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence to empower people to enact positive change. Her life's mission is to help others shape their lives in ways that are meaningful and useful to them.
Check out my interview with this inspiring woman and learn more about the best way to make a major life shift so you can also enjoy the fruits of being aligned to your high purpose.
Enjoy!
1. Hi Bridget, would you briefly discuss the circumstances that led you to your own personal life-shift?
It’s an extremely long story. I gave up my dreams when I was 20, because I had an unplanned pregnancy with this new little baby to raise, and a big fear that I would never amount to anything.
I worked my way up the corporate ladder until I had a well-paying, important job. I was in a terrible relationship (the kind that when we split up, every one of my family members and friends said, “Oh thank God, we never liked him.”).
I worked long hours, rarely spent quality time with my kids, and was an emotional mess. I couldn't figure out why my life looked so great from the outside, but I was so unhappy on the inside.
I wish I could say that I had the bravery and foresight to leave it all behind and positively make change happen.
I didn’t. Life had to happen to me.
I did have a few intense intuitive moments during the last few years of my corporate career. I remember sitting in my living room and saying, “God, I am not the right person for that. There’s no way I’m doing that. Stop with the psychic stuff.”
Life sent me messages in more and more ridiculous packaging, until I had no choice but to learn about who I was, what I liked and what I was here for. My partner and I split up. I was laid off at my job.
It wasn’t pretty. I didn’t do it all perfectly. It was completely messy.
But, through a lot of experimentation and validation, and quite a few pushes from the divine, I learned about myself and my life, and I found myself in love with myself. And then I found the love of my life.
And then a dog talked to me.
And over time, I realized that I wasn’t crazy. I validated my work. I became a pet psychic. And then I realized that the biggest problems pets have are caused by people, so I started doing intuitive work with people.
I’ve always been the kind of person who is a good listener, a down-to-earth problem solver and someone who can be discerning without being judgmental. So, I combined these strong people skills with my intuitive skills and became a life-shifter.
I’ve been life-shifting since 2009.
2. In your previous work, you were in product development and strategic marketing management. How would you say this previous experience helps you with what you do today?
I would have answered this question very differently a year or two ago. I would have talked about strategy, and business models and marketing.
At the heart of it, I think my career in corporate America helps me in two important ways.
First, I look at everything as a process, a spectrum of experience, temporary circumstances. I spent a lot of time helping products go from conception to use. So, when a person wants to make a change in their lives, I’m very good at helping him or her identify where they are in their lives, and where they think they want to go. That’s just from watching the messiness of creation. I understand the value of obstacles.
And secondly, having worked with the heads of conglomerates and banking systems, and other people in high places, I know that at our cores, we are all people who are trying to be happy, working at getting through life, struggling in spots, succeeding in others, feeling or not feeling our way through life.
The idea of a social hierarchy or even a soulful hierarchy is gone. There aren’t old souls and new souls. There aren’t people who are better than others. In leadership and service, one is not a higher calling than the other. We all have roles to play, many of which are of our own choosing.
This insight takes the false perception of hierarchy out of the equation. I don’t relate to people differently because they have a good title or no title, because they are rich or poor, smart or less smart. All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.
3. Have you always been intuitive? Do you feel you have a gift for reading people and knowing how to help them?
Yes. I’ve always been intuitive. We’ve all always been intuitive. It’s like saying, “Have you always been breathing?” or “Have you always been able to smell?” Yes. Of course.
Yes. I have a huge gift for understanding the energy of people and knowing how to help them. And I think my favorite gift is taking the intangible and making it tangible.
I like to say, “Here’s where your problem is, energetically/emotionally, and here’s how to play with that in your real life.”
A couple of years ago, I was working with a client who is very successful in her career. And she suffers from a debilitating need for people to like her. She knows this. She was surprised that I could see that because she does such a great job of covering it up. She didn’t know how to change it.
We talked about the gift of allowing others to form their own opinion of her. And I gave her the homework of giving this gift in low-risk, low-reward situations. Letting the barista have her own opinion of her. Letting the grocery clerk have his own opinion. Not controlling situations from the get-go, but pausing and observing. We can’t control situations anyway. But we can make the social situation match our inner need.
She came back a few months later, a different person. She tried it in small, temporary relationships first, and then she moved up to bigger ones. Once she saw that she could give the gift of that, letting go of the fear that people won’t like her, it went away.
That “making the emotional things tangible”, that’s what I’m very, very good at.
4. What's your best advice for people who desire a major life shift?
Trade judgment for discernment. Observe your behavior for a long time before you try to change it. Find the need that the behavior is helping. Find a more healthy way to meet that need. In time, you’ll change. And if you’re observing this change, you’ll see it, and know.
Understand that we all, on some level, remember our perfect selves, and feel shame for being the limited beings we are. Being limited is not the same as being broken. You’re not junk. You’re a tiny piece of divinity, put in a limited situation to do good work.
5. Who are your typical clients? Do you find people looking for anything in particular?
My clients tend to be people who are very successful in some aspects of their lives, and not so great at others. They tend to be at a crossroads where they just can’t accommodate something anymore. They tend to be people who are trying to move forward, who are very motivated, and something needs to click for them. They’re looking for a key, or a set of keys.
6. You help people to align physically, spiritually, and cognitively. Do you think that of these three aspects one is more important and integral than the others? Or are they really all necessary and interconnected some way?
They are all important and integral. They are three ways of experiencing this thing called life: the mind, the body and the spirit. As humans, we learn to pick the mind as the most important aspect. We value smart people. And of course, we love our athletes. The spirit is a sticky subject. It’s so important to be spiritually well, but it’s the least clear thing to do. We have to feel our way there.
7. What would you say is the best part about being an intuitive consultant?
Watching people experience happiness and freedom.
8. As far as growing your own business, how do you market yourself and your ventures?
I write a lot. I’ve spent a long time trying to brand myself, and now I am at the point where I’m not trying at all. What you see is what you get. And I’m finding that people are responding so positively to this.
Most of my clients find me by word of mouth. So, I don’t really think I market at all anymore. I am going to start sharing my philosophies more, but as experiments and ideas, and only in a limited way as products.
Hustle is over-rated.
9. If you had unlimited funding tomorrow, what would you do differently in regards to your current business?
I’d create a retreat house, a quiet place where someone can spend 4 or 5 days getting their needs met without having to do anything but show up. I’d let people use it for free.
I’d fund the work of others. I’d become a spiritual adventure capitalist.
I would definitely spend money on having an organization that shared the intuitive tools and ideas that I’ve discovered.
10. Do you have a favorite work moment that you can publicly share?
Yes. I have had several clients say, “You just got me through something I’ve been struggling with for decades”. It feels so good to watch them put the burdens down.
11. What one piece of advice would you give to other people who maybe are not feeling so positive about themselves or their lives right now?
I’d tell them a story. I’d say that one time I was dealing with a very hateful, angry man who liked to whip horses. And I asked God, “You have people you like better than others, right?” And God said, “I love everyone more than you could ever comprehend. So it doesn’t matter if I love people more or less, or in different ways, because it’s all more than you could ever imagine.”
The world is not falling apart because of you. And the world needs you. And you are loved. And your work is supported.
(PS- it doesn’t matter if your spiritual reality includes an anthropomorphic conceptual understanding of the divine. The universe, all that is, all that happens, it’s moving towards love. You are loved. You are important.)
12. Lastly, what is next for you? Do you have any plans for the future with your business?
My current experiment is called 90 Days to Hot. I’m spending 90 days trying different things to see how they help my body to feel happy, healthy and hot. I’m curious to see how my body responds to changes in diet and exercise, to a tattoo, to a Brazilian wax, all that stuff. I want to explore feminine power, and the mixed messages we get from society. I want to find the truth and beauty.
I’m also going to Minneapolis to teach a workshop on May 4th called “Write your Way In”. This workshop uses interactive games and writing exercises to help people learn to use and trust their intuition.
And I’m starting a group called “The Wave”. It’s version 3.0 of my Intention Circle, a 9-week experience that brings people from intention idea to completion, on a physical, mental and spiritually integrated path.
Finally, this year is all about growing my business and my platform locally. My beautiful city, Portland Oregon, needs help from me. I’m here for them.
Thank You
Bridget Pilloud is a professional intuitive and a practicing human. Founder of the Intuitive Bridge, you can find her at intuitivebridge.com, where she’s currently sharing her new experiment: 90 days to Hot. You can also find her on Twitter at @intuitivebridge
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
