Rich Gallagher LMFT is one of the world’s most widely-published experts on communications and conversation skills, and has trained or spoken to over 35,000 people worldwide.
His books have been published in eight languages, including the national bestsellers The Customer Service Survival Kit and What to Say to a Porcupine for the AMACOM imprint of HarperCollins, both national #1 customer service bestsellers and the latter a finalist for 800-CEO-READ’s 2008 Business Book of the Year. He also authored the top 10 career skills title How to Tell Anyone Anything. His latest book Stress-Free Small Talk: How to Master the Art of Conversation and Take Control of Your Social Anxiety is the first-ever book to teach conversation skills for people who suffer from social anxiety disorder.
So what does Rich like to talk about? He is fascinated by human behavior, particularly how we learn to interact with each other. As a college student in the 1970s, he was one of Cornell University’s first dual majors in engineering and psychology, where people joked that he would grow up to build bridges that talked people out of jumping off of them. Later as a software executive, he led teams of people in both software development and customer support, eventually heading call center operations for software firms on both coasts of the US. At one West Coast firm, he was in charge of global support operations as the company grew from a startup to a major NASDAQ firm, while later he led another 24/7 call center operation to near-perfect customer satisfaction ratings and near-zero turnover. (Incidentally, he also likes to talk about baseball, writing and good music.)
Later in life Rich became a practicing psychotherapist, and went on to publish research and teach clinical education on the treatment of anxiety disorders. He has been published or featured in Time Magazine, BusinessWeek, CNN.com, Dale Carnegie training, morning drive radio, and numerous other media outlets. He loves having good conversations with people and teaching others how to do it.