Episode Summary

There is a moment in almost every purpose journey when you realise that the direction you feel drawn toward makes no sense on paper. It does not match your childhood conditioning or the career path you once imagined or the expectations you absorbed from the people around you. And yet, something in you knows it is the next true step.

In this episode I sit down with NLP pioneer Fran Burgess, who grew up in a deeply scientific family and was expected to follow a familiar, logical route into the world of academia. Instead, she found herself pulled toward the study of people, perception and meaning, which eventually led her to become one of the most respected figures in NLP modelling and therapeutic transformation.

Fran shares how curiosity became her compass, how intuition gently challenged her early assumptions and how spirit began to weave itself quietly into her work long before she fully recognised it. We explore the difference between a life shaped by expectation and a life shaped by inner truth, and how purpose often grows slowly, revealing itself through lived experience rather than a single defining moment.

Inside this conversation we explore:

• The expectations that shaped Fran’s early life and the moment she realised her true path lay elsewhere

• How curiosity opened the doorway to NLP, human modelling and a deeper understanding of behaviour

• The gradual and powerful emergence of spirit within her work

• Why purpose is rarely linear and instead unfolds through resonance, experience and intuition

• What it feels like to follow a call that does not look sensible to others but feels unmistakably right to you

This episode is perfect for anyone who senses they are being guided somewhere new and needs reassurance that purpose often arrives quietly, grows slowly and becomes clearest when we stop trying to control it.

Listen Now

Press play to hear how Fran followed the call that made little sense to the outside world yet became the truest foundation of her life’s work.

Connect with Lisa Birtles:
Website: lisabirtles.com
Instagram: @lisabthecoach

Buy Fran's Books on Amazon:

The Bumper Book of Modelling by Fran Burgess;

https://amzn.eu/d/3KHnoRR