The Sage Sayers: Recent Episodes

Debbi Gardiner McCullough

A weekly podcast on ways to stay calm and compel others as you communicate. Along with executive communications tips and strategies, we interview intriguing individuals who've found the "Sage approach" by finding gifts, opportunities, and knowledge within trying situations. New Zealander show host, Debbi Gardiner McCullough, has written on social and business trends and struggles for the Economist, the Guardian, and Financial Times of London. She's a self-retired college professor of writing, an executive communications and narrative coach. Visit her at: www.hangingrockcoaching.com

My guest this episode is Patrick Chou. His career path has included a PhD from MIT and a thriving Silicon Valley career in the optical telecom business where he understands both the technology and business of pluggable optics. Patrick's also a writer and actor, which helps feed (along with his technology work) a quest to better understand how humans communicate.

In our conversation, we hear of Patrick's career, his choices, his love for acting, and especially improv, which has taught him to ground and worry less, in even the most intense presentations and discussions.

You can find Patrick's IMDB page here, his Substack here ,and his LinkedIn page here.

D G McCullough has written on social trends and struggles for the Economist, FT of London, and the Economist. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a personal branding coach to foreign-born leaders working at Fortune 100s, including Google. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss. And on Luma, From Blank Page to Byline.

One thing I love about being a coach? Meeting other coaches, who are often just the loveliest, upbeat people--and thoughtful too. Coach Neeraj Juneja is a favorite new coaching friend this year who has already taught me so much. For ~20 years, Neeraj has worked at American Express, BCG, NatWest, and Axis Bank and has coached leaders for the last 6+ years at BCG and NatWest.

In our interview (Neeraj in New Delhi, India, me here in Wisconsin, USA), we hear of his eternal optimism, his love for storytelling, and the power of staying upbeat, even during these turbulent times. We hear of the tapestry of his career, which spreads across multiple industries. We hear of Neeraj's pride in his humble roots, coming from a small town in India known for famous sweets and little else, and how well he works as a coach to bring teams and leaders together.

You can find Neeraj on LinkedIn here. Please do book him for executive and team coach work, talent development, or global facilitating. And you can anticipate he'll come back to my show again.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her communications workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss.

My guest this week is John Hopkins University professor Consuelo Amat whose research interests include state repression, armed and unarmed resistance, political violence, and developing civil society in authoritarian regimes, with a focus on Latin America.

In a delightful conversation, a first-time meeting, Consuelo tells us what started her on this path and why she's remained there fascinated and uplifted ever since. We also explore what we (as business leaders and communicators) ought to keep in mind when working with those who emerge from authoritarian regimes. Because their communication challenges and perspectives to simple requests, like asserting themselves or pushing back on dissent, will feel very different (and more alarming) to most.

Read up on Consuelo via her website and you can follow her on LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her upcoming communications workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss.

Requests for updates on our work can startle and befuddle us as communicators. Much pressure exists: We must be brief, clear, and on point with what the requester of information needs and wants. Communications strategy and self awareness on why we feel unconfident in that moment helps.

This week’s episode shares all of that, including a framework for getting in and out of your update in a minute or less, and with reasonable specifics within.

Wanting more tips and strategies on self promotion, brevity, and staying humble and confident? Join my Sept 9-12 Maven workshop, Brag Anyway. Move your one-liner and bios from basic to powerful in 7 hours. Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com for a 50% off discount code. Put “Brag Anyway 50 off” in the subject line.

My guest this week is Jacqueline Freeman, a New Zealander TV industry insider, a media strategist, and the unapologetic voice behind a platform thats rewriting what relevance looks like after 50. After her posts speaking out against ageism went viral, reaching 1 million views (and counting) her podcast interview with the Sage Sayers is her first after many invitations elsewhere. (Lucky us!)

Freeman’s a voice worth listening to. Thousands of people write to her saying they feel heard, stronger from her truth, and that her posts are real.

Her hope: that those 50 and over can sit and stand a little taller, find their place in a job market that discriminates, and go out on their own. Entrepreneurialism empowers, we both agree, and that brings creativity and an entirely different perspective and point of view. We’re not over the hill, yet. We’re doing the best work of our careers.

You can find Jacqueline on LinkedIn here. (Don’t be surprised if she writes back, as she did to me, to accept this interview.)

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her upcoming communications workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss. Her free Lightning Lessons: Be brief with your Brag (Aug 14) and How to feel less awkward with pause in conversation. (Aug 13)

Polly Leung has long loved conversations on finance. She enjoys getting us talking and thinking about our money and planning ahead so we can enjoy our lives when retired, taking that time to travel.

Her lesson on money came from growing up in Hong Kong and then starting over in her teens in California, US, moving here with her mother and siblings—an expensive move, and one that also taught her cultural agility.

In a lovely interview, we hear of Polly’s cultural transition across two continents and a wish that she’d connected with more locals when starting out. We also learn of her fascinating work as an associate director of finance for a leading university, and how we can make small tweaks to how we spend each day to save that nest egg for that rainy day.

Business owner of College Sharks Lee Norwood helps break down the complexities of college admissions for thousands of college students. And she loves the lessons the teens teach her on humility, storytelling, grit, determination--all which they need to enter a college that will take them places.

In a lively, unscripted interview, Lee shares her segue from Pharma to college consulting (which happened with serendipity). She speaks on the challenges for students, which include intense competition and misinformation from scaremongering parents. And we hear of her love for helping teenagers get their hearts and minds in the right place for the otherwise grueling college admissions process.

You can find Lee at College Sharks, recently featured in Forbes, by the way, and on LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her upcoming communications workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss.

A recent live, online workshop I hosted reminded me of the power of grounding in our bodies, one sense at a time—-and with nature, my favorite tool and companion. A documentary essay of my last few hours before going live.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her upcoming workshop on Maven, Brag Like a Boss.

British Marketing and Product GTM Leader, Nirav Patel, rejoins us on the Sage Sayers for an update on his life since our earlier episode.

He’s now a podcaster, like me, five episodes into his show Unwinding Pursuits, and has learned a lot from his rich conversations with his guests. He’s still thriving as a leader and on Father’s Day weekend, reflects on parenting his three daughters and the gifts, opportunities, and knowledge within.

We take a lovely wander down memory lane, two foreign born professionals and parents drawing on our lessons from our own childhoods (Nirav’s from India and the UK and mine from New Zealand, Pakistan, and Brunei where I spent part of my girlhood.)

We agreed that while children are better off in many ways today, much freedom and heightened innovation and creativity came from our youths; making your own fun and games, structuring our own time, without much input from adults at all.

You can find Nirav Patel here on LinkedIn and follow his delightful show Unwinding Pursuits here.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her upcoming workshop on Maven, Brag Like a Boss, and her free Lightning Lesson Brag Anway. Defy your Cultural Norms here.

Experts tell us AI writing adoption's now mainstream with 82% of businesses using AI tools for creating content. Good news for the AI market, now projected to reach a $1.8 trillion global AI market by 2030.

And yet we know AI's not perfect at writing. In fact, partners I team with, like Maven, a popular platform for cohort-based learning where I'm building several communications workshops, discourages course creators to use AI for writing a course design. It reminds us to use AI to brainstorm content ideas, not to write them.

I fully agree, and so does entrepreneur and Carnegie Mellon University professor of entrepreneurship Mark DeSantis. In this week's episode, one of my favorite entrepreneur buddy's back, discussing with me how we use and don't use AI for our writing.

You'll learn some new ways to use AI to help kickstart your writing. And you'll hear some cautionary tales on how the world's most talked-about technology can actually muddy and cloud our written word in ways that don't serve us (nor our readers) well at all.

You can hear our earlier interview from January, another favorite episode here. You can find Mark DeSantis who also consults and teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University here.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her upcoming workshop on Maven, Brag Like a Boss, and her free Lightning Lesson on one-liners here.

My guest this week is Dr. Elise Wilkerson, a culture champion in the workplace, an evaluator, educator, and researcher. Dr. Elise is also a woman eager to share her story with endometriosis, a condition impacting 1:10 women of reproductive age globally—an estimated 190 million.

Its symptoms can cause pain and potential infertility, and yet what Elise, who struggles with endometriosis has found, too few women talk about what this is like, especially the most painful part: the infertility.

In our interview, which we recorded on Mother's Day week, Elise shares her experiences in hopes that other women can feel less alone. We learn about her self advocacy, her struggles with not being able to be a mother, and how faith and hope and love from her husband (and even self love) play a helpful role.

You can reach out to Dr. Elise Wilkerson via LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her workshop on confident storytelling, Brag Like a Boss.

“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” So said Muhammad Ali — the late boxer, social activist, and cultural icon known as The Greatest. He was right. And yet, too many of us shy away from bragging in our self-appraisals and self-assessments. We can default to vague, corporate language, light on specifics. Gems — the crowning achievements — get buried or left out.

I think I know why. Most professionals spend 1–3 hours writing their self-appraisal (McKinsey tells us), but privately many spend beaucoup hours agonizing over it. Why? Fear of disdain from a dismissive boss. Lost confidence from missed promotions. Awkwardness from childhood messages that praised humility and discouraged self-praise.

When coaching, I’ve found a few things that help. For the writing piece, approaching your writing like a journalist works: Capture the win, offer context, and tell a darn good story. That’s what we’re offering in this week’s Sage Sayer’s episode—my gift to the restless and ambitious.

Read my musings this week on Medium or join our conversation on LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her active listening workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss.

You don’t get great at entrepreneurship without being an amazing storyteller. And Mark DeSantis, an entrepreneur whose robotics company was acquired by Kubota Corporation, is truly excellent.

But not everyone embraces the opportunity of storytelling or knows they can bring these skills they use with their kids, those they love, or friends to work. Even fewer realize that storytelling might simply be framing an idea as “our experience.”

Failure to employ this innate skill we all possess is a missed opportunity, especially for leaders, Mark muses in our insightful interview. (And don’t even get him started about his disdain for slide decks, the very death of effective persuasion—and storytelling, in his view.)

You can hear our earlier interview from January, another favorite episode here. You can find Mark DeSantis who also consults and teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University here.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her active listening workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss.

My guest this week is Stephen Lancaster. He’s a vocal artist, baritone, and teacher who has performed song recitals in New York, Paris, Berlin, and Gstaad. Media like Fanfare Magazine describe him as “varied in tone and alive to feeling,” and having invited him to the Sage Sayers, we fully agree.

In our delightful conversation, Stephen, who is also Professor of the Practice at University of Notre Dame, shares his early starts into music (which began from his church). We hear of the confidence that comes from using our voice with ease and the freedom and startling joy from breakthroughs. He even teaches us activities for the days when our voice won’t cooperate, which feels very freeing indeed.

Reach out to Prof. Stephen on LinkedIn or via his website.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Want to listen better and ask better questions? Join her active listening workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss.

Listening well goes beyond silent, bobbing heads and affirming mm-hmm's. If we really want to listen deeply, we must ask powerful questions that invoke and invite reflection, eureka moments, and pause. We've not an exhaustive list here; but in this week's episode I'm offering up my top ten tips to asking questions that help create space, inspire new takes on things, and drive powerful outcomes and deals.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Want to listen better and ask better questions? Join her active listening workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss.

Interrupting others before they’re done with their conversation turn brands us poorly in most situations.

Coaching has shown me just how much I interrupt and for surprising reasons that bring pink to my cheeks. Sometimes it’s arrogance, thinking I’ve a better or grander idea. Sometimes it’s sloppy coaching and a poor habit I’ve cultivated from being super creative with too many ideas. Other times it’s excitement, a genuine want to share and contribute to the cause.

In this week’s podcast, reading from my essay on Medium, I’m sharing the five main reasons I find we interrupt and some active listening tips and hacks to cut back on the habit lest we lose too many friends.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Want to listen better? Join her active listening workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss.

Select Model Management fashion model, Gina Magro, never cared much for fashion growing up. Like your show host, she enjoyed casual clothes and exploring more than prancing. “I placed a lot of value on comfort so I could climb and move with freedom,” she recalls.

Today (with both Select Milan, Paris, and Chicago, and ELITE NYC) she graces runways in international centers in China, Europe, and New York. And having joined our Sage Sayers show last spring in Chicago, her home base, we brought her back to talk more on fashion, ease and flow with our appearances, but also ensuring we pull ourselves together well for the audiences that matter to us the most.

We learn of the power in simple fixes, clothes that feel comfortable but flatter, and the need (at all times) to stay true to ourselves as we figure out our aesthetic, while also honoring how we want and need to be. Executive leadership presence, after all, ties in part to how we appear, feel, and seem.

You can find Gina’s portfolio by clicking here and find her on LinkedIn here. You can reach out to me, your show host, for communications coaching and training via my website or Linkedin. And join me for my first live workshop via Maven Learning in April: Listen Like a Boss.

Two weeks ago, I coached and listened in deeper ways that will stay with me forever. I felt deeply connected to my coachee. And she to me. I slowed things down. As did she. I poured in very little. In fact, I only asked questions. I mirrored back. I got deeply curious. I noticed inconsistencies between her non-verbal cues and her words, but without trying to mold, steer, nor change.

We experienced joy, abandonment, discovery—all through me actively listening. And the entire call, all 38 minutes and 25 seconds of it, focused on what she wanted and needed, not me, and the results and clarity were huge. I never poured in one solution. She had the answers—all of them. By giving her the space, she changed how she related to her business and creativity, even her time, all from what she unearthed with me in under 40 minutes.

Reading from my essay on Medium, I’m exploring what happened in this recorded call, one I can submit to the International Coaching Federation for my mentors to evaluate me as a hopeful, certifying Master Certified Coach. (I’m chronicling this journey in my Competency No 5 podcast. But I wanted to bring this piece of my journey, this breakthrough as an active listener and coach, to my Sage Sayers show. It ties back nicely to effective, stand-out communications.)

I’ve realized from experiencing active listening and coaching flow this deeply, and for the entirety of a call, the empowerment and connection that comes feels extraordinary. Life changing. Emotional. I want you to experience this joy with me, which can change how you relate to others and feel about yourself. And it can help us in business as well.

You can reach out to me, your show host, on all things to do with storytelling, public speaking, branding and positioning via my website or Linkedin. And join me for my first workshop in active listening via Maven Learning this month through my Listen Like a Boss three-hour workshop.

Few LinkedIn bios are as concise as Mark DeSantis whose title alone sits within one word: Entrepreneur. Of course, he is so much more. Mark teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. And his robotics business, Bloomfield Robotics, got on the radar of Kubota Corporation, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of farm machinery, who acquired them. Mark now serves as advisor.

Our ad hoc, unscripted interview started as complete strangers, two professionals with a shared love for brevity and non-fluff communications on the social media platform that scares so many. Hearing Mark’s story inspires me. The posts he and his team created employed basic but powerful storytelling techniques: Showing how their technology changes the lives of farmers. Using the farmers’ own videos. Humanizing the people behind the scenes building the technology, in good times and bad. Resisting calls to action and anything resembling cheesy marketing. Simple, but powerful, and something you can do too.

You can reach out to Mark DeSantis on LinkedIn here. You can reach out to me, your show host, on all things to do with storytelling, public speaking, branding and positioning via my website or Linkedin. Stay tuned for courses on Maven Learning, launching February 2025.

We've oodles of assessments available to understand our strengths; but People Development Strengths Coach Lindsay Moskovitz loves Gallup's Clifton Strengths assessment because the clarity that the report reveals feels pretty "spot on" and profound. She's even built her coaching career around helping teams harness the wisdom from the assessment to ensure they're doing the right work and with the right people.

Having taken the Clifton Strengths assessment for this interview with Lindsay, I'm agreeing 100%. My top five strengths, which include ideation, positivity, and strategy reminded me (how Clifton wrote on them) of my girlhood self. The assessment feels affirming and gives me confidence: I'm on the right path. Nothing in my career is ad hoc. I'm applying my strengths in the perfect way for me and those I serve as a coach. (And all reinventions: journalist to professor, professor to coach, and the entrepreneurship theme throughout all make perfect sense.)

In our New Year's conversation around all this, and on the cusp of Lunar New Year, the year of the wood snake (which is all about creativity, bold moves and more), Lindsay's insights feel super on pointe, hopeful, and just delightful. Super helpful for interviews and any time we're talking about ourselves and our work.

You can find Lindsay on LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, your show host on all things to do with storytelling, overcoming public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on LinkedIn.

I once took a 20+ hour journey from New Zealand to Malaysia at age 11 with minimal assistance aside from a sibling, the occasional airline chaperone, and then my Mum from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. It felt very defining then as it feels today and brings me fodder on how and I why I grew so comfortable speaking with and being around strangers.

I’m reading this week from an essay I enjoyed writing on Medium, inspired purely by the lovely men and women who’ve asked me to coach them on the delightful (but daunting) ebbs and flows of human conversation. Special thanks to Dotun Ayeni, my friend and producer, who always lifts me up as much as he does these episodes. This one might be a favorite for 2024, despite my slightly husky voice from a recovering cold.

You can reach Dotun (and I do recommend him for your podcast production) via LinkedIn or on Twitter @dotmanly. Reach out to me, your show host on all things to do with storytelling, overcoming public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

Many of us listen to eight podcasts a week and three to four million podcasts exist globally (depending on how you define them). I host two bi-weekly podcasts: the Sage Sayers and Competency No 5. Both bring me joy, help me keep my ad hoc presentation skills fresh, and allow me to interview really interesting people—giving them the spotlight.

In this interview with Coach Anita Rodriguez, I field her questions on the process of podcasting now she’s prepping to launch her own. We also hear from my dear friend and my sound producer, Dotun Ayeni, who produces my two podcasts (among many others for his other clients) on what we ought to keep in mind as newbie podcasters.

Listener note: I misspoke. My downloads (per Buzzsprout.com data) are far higher than I thought. Total downloads across two podcasts with almost zero marketing sits around 10,000. That I did not know this data speaks to my scrappiness, which I hope you will forgive!

You can reach Dotun (and I do recommend him for your podcast production —very highly) via LinkedIn or on Twitter @dotmanly. Reach out to Coach Anita Rodriguez via her website and via LinkedIn. Reach out to me, your show host on all things to do with storytelling, overcoming public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

When London-based coaches Malvika Joshi and Amy Outterside went on independent travels, they both struggled reconnecting with friends upon their return. “Many had moved on— and I too had changed,” Joshi recalls. And yet few places to meet like-minded people (beyond pubs) existed, even though London’s huge. With few trusting one another at work either, the idea formed to create a supper club, in a neutral location, and from using coaching, storytelling, and curiosity, get groups to connect and bond over a shared want to learn about shared struggles, whether that’s building confidence or slowing down.

Now on its third gathering, the Coven is on a roll and underway. In our delightful conversation, Coaches Amy and Malvika share their journey as entrepreneurs, marketers, and coaches. We also learn how they get strangers to open up with one another—a gift many business leaders feel lost on how to do—and to bond over self discovery and fabulous food.

You can reach the Coven by clicking here and find Malvika on LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training on public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

LinkedIn boasts over 1 billion users across 200+ countries and 220 million of those exist in the US alone. But many super smart and articulate professionals struggle building their business or brand there. I get to hear all kinds of blockers from my clients: Fear of seeming stupid, fear of hatred or scorn, fear of seeming 'showy' or smart aleck-y, or just making a big mistake.

In our interview, Coach Xhoni, who's based in San Remo, Liguria, Italy, tells us how he's helped 80% of his clients get inquiries within 3 months, build 6-figure incomes, and sign up hundreds of clients. (He ought to know. He has around 38,000 followers and built his entire business through LinkedIn. I've also built my coaching business through LinkedIn from creating and posting weekly self-curated content on the nuanced communication struggles my clients face.)

We share the blockers we hear from our coaching clients and how to navigate them. And the starting point? Quit judging each other. Create quality content. Have more fun.

You can find and book Coach Xhoni on LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training on public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

Almost 50% of U.S. military experience one or more injury each year, according to the Defense Health Agency, and injuries result in 2,000,000 medical encounters annually across military services. The most extreme, deployment-related amputations, are harder to track; but since 2001, the Department of Defense has cared for over 63,000 beneficiaries of some level of limb loss. My guest in this week’s Sage Sayers is Jon Arnold, a San Antonio-based Political Military Affairs Advisor at United States Air Force, who lost his leg when deployed with the U.S. Army and serving in Iraq.

In his brave story, Jon recalls that day, what was on his mind just before the explosion incident which nearly killed him, and his courage as he healed, re-learned to walk, and the mental fitness required to find the gifts and the opportunities within. Because of his injury and the life-changing perspective change that came next, he’s never had a truly bad day since.

Note to our listeners: We prevailed over some audio challenges for this episode. We do plan to re-do.

You can find Jon Arnold on LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training on public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

I hear you, dear friends, coachees, and community. Too many requests upon you. Not enough time to get stuff done. And certainly not enough time for the work that really sets you apart. In this week’s Sage Sayer’s podcast, learn tips and tools to say ‘no’ vs. ‘yes’ to the things that bog you down and get in your way of your greater legacy work and your balance, your happy time—your bliss.

Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training on public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin. Read about Dr. Linda Babcock’s ‘The No Club’ book, and research here. Find Dorie Clark’s ‘The Long Game’ here and hear Dorie and my wonderful Sage Sayers interview (from Season 1) right here.

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How do we build our confidence as leaders when our heritage and lessons from our elders don’t quite align with the confidence we need and see around us?

Marketing consultant, Barbara Reveron, ponders on this idea when reflecting on how her Puerto Rican parents raised her to do well at work. It’s a delightful conversation which chronicles Barbara’s early days growing up in New York, and how far she’s come since.

You can find Barbara on LinkedIn here. (And know she’s coming back to the show; we only touched the surface of what we wanted to chat about!)

Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training on public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

Meetings can drain most of us. New leaders tasked with connecting and growing their teams endure endless 1:1’s with their team and peer leaders. Without blocked off time for thinking and tasking, empty slots on shared calendars attract invitations like mosquitoes at a nudist beach.

Many find that active listening can help; meaning, listening with all of our senses. Removing distractions and resisting the desire to solve or direct. Also, ensuring we give space for others to think, contemplate, and unlock the answers within. In this week’s podcast, consider a handful of questions and approaches to build clarity and potency in every meeting from here on. You can read along to this week’s reading if you wish, via Medium.

Thank you to my brave coachees, many of whom have won new teams to lead and asked for tips on how to feel less drained from meeting everyone. This request for help inspired this podcast and musing.

Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training on public speaking fear, active listening, and reinvention via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

Like most professionals, PTO brings up mixed feelings for NY-based Head of Technical Program Management, Jessica Pelegio: fear of falling back, fear of burdening others, or fear of a deluge of of work when coming back. The Pew Research Center tells us many professionals in the U.S. do not take their full paid time off for these very same reasons,

But last month, Jessica took four whole weeks of PTO—and only good things happened. In our interview we learn how she empowered her team, empowered herself, and with dear friends explored 12 countries. Not only was her team perfectly fine when she returned, they’d missed her and her travels inspired her them to prioritize self care and to do the same.

Follow Jessica on LinkedIn by following this link. Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

Professionals all over wonder how to introduce themselves, especially to new bosses, teams, or a recruiter — even to new friends. Introductions (done well) become conversation starters, build connections, even elevate our personal brand.

But how do we talk about our work — and life — in ways that stand out and align with our personality and values? And what are the bigger blockers getting in our way. I’m D G McCullough, and in this podcast, I hope to find some answers.

Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

When Silicon Valley-based CTO advisor Suhail Syed tells his dear mother back in India about his work helping companies grow business revenue through using products in the cloud, she looks up to the sky. "She's wondering what’s there," Suhail recalls. This sweet story reminds us of the need to clarify any jargon we use and stay audience centered, too. It’s one of many topics we cover in this week’s Sage Sayers episode.

Join us on a wander through Suhail’s early arrival here in the states from India (wet behind the ears) as a younger man and finding his way amidst cultural confusion, new beginnings, and a grit that comes when you’re determined to make things on your own. We share our disdain for jargon and offer some nice alternatives to the popular ones we hear around us.

You can find Suhail Syed on LinkedIn by clicking here. Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training via my website, or find me also on Linkedin.

Fear of public speaking has certainly intensified. I first knew because my clients kept telling me. I knew for sure when I allowed myself recently to feel that intense fear once more, presenting on active listening to a live audience, with story and a live coaching session within.

My essay and musings on being knock-kneed and terrified in front of a live, high-stakes audience and noticing that once I locked into a story, one relevant to my topic and with deep meaning to me, most of my fears melted away.

Reading from my essay on Medium, which you can read with me here.

My guest today is marketer, builder, and innovator Simone Morellato, an Italian born technologist and marketer based in the Bay Area, California. Having long worked as a marketer for some of the world’s largest IT firms, Simone’s become expert at many things: communicating and demystifying tech for high-stakes audiences, launching beautiful products, and building high-performing global teams from the ground up.

He’s also learned to see where processes can get streamlined and as an inventive type, loves to build bots to help those moments. He’s built a handful or so including a bot to streamline repeated customer questions and requests, a resume bot to help job seekers, and one to help make great menu choices at restaurants.

In our interview, we hear more about Simone’s process, the delightful rabbit holes he finds himself in as he builds, and where he learned his love for creating beautiful things (his parents in Italy are shoe artisans). We also touch on ways to make our language bots work with us better, and I plan to bring Simone back to demonstrate with me ways to ask the bots better prompts.

You can find Simone on LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, your show host, for communications coaching and group coaching and training via my website or find me also on Linkedin.

With some bias perhaps, I think Muskego Highschool’s varsity footballer here in Wisconsin, Nicholas McCullough’s, an impressive teen. He’s the youngest caprain in the team’s history, coaches and mentors younger kids on leadership, and is ranked best in his state for his age and position.

The bias comes from him being my son and I’ve brought him to the Sage Sayers this week because he’s pulled off something big we can learn from as business communicators: an invitation (to which he committed) to play football for Harvard University and to study in 2025 quantitative economics.

He got on the radar of all the Ivy’s, received an offer from Cornell University, and communicated with the nation’s best football coaches in person and via Twitter, driving his communications strategy independently at age 17. I promise you’ll learn from him as I do. Listen in, and congratulations again, dear Nicholas.

Follow Nicholas via Twitter here:
https://x.com/NickMccullough0?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

My guest this week is Kenza Fourati, a Tunisian fashion model in New York, U.S. who’s co-launched a shoe business that’s done very well, teaching she and her co-founders many lessons along the way. The business employs local Tunisian shoemakers, helping keep a craft alive, repurposes leather that would otherwise go to waste, and brings comfortable, stylish Mediterranean shoes to customers as far away as New Zealand.

Kenza’s idea came to her amidst pregnancy and motherhood, a perfect opportunity for deep thinking. She’d long wanted to do something good in the fashion industry, one she finds exploits models and factory workers. She also wanted to challenge others’ view on her Tunisian motherland, which many associated with dark things vs. hope, creativity, and beauty.

You can follow Kenza on LinkedIn here. Kenza’s shoe business, Osay, via their beautiful website. Reach out to me, your show host, for communications coaching and group coaching and training via my website or find me also on Linkedin.

Hyacinth Tucker always loved people, enterprise, and community when growing up in Jamaica. Here in the states, she’s found a way to channel that love through her new venture, the Laundry Basket, an on-demand mobile laundry and dry cleaning delivery company in Maryland, U.S. In a short time, she’s scaled, gained a considerable client base, and gained a nod from Martha Stewart’s team for novel eco-friendly laundry solutions.

In our interview, we hear how Hyacinth built her brand the old-fashioned way: getting in front of people, going to events, saying hi and asking how she could help with their laundry needs. It’s work she loves because she’s bringing time affluence to many, even saving marriages.

Want to reach out to Hyacinth? Find her on LinkedIn. Reach out to me, your show host, for communications coaching and group coaching and training via my website or find me also on Linkedin.

I'm still swooning over the delightful Chicagoans I met on a recent April visit. (They're the nicest and most open people ever!) In another ad-hoc interview, we learn from Gina, a fashion model adorned in an $8.5k leather Caroline Herrera gown, on how to focus when on stage. She's also expert on seeming open, calming our mind, and showing neutral but warm facial expressions--all super helpful tactics for us as business presenters.

Reach out to me, your show host, for communications coaching and group coaching via my website or find me also on Linkedin. I'm currently accepting corporate training engagements on active listening, storytelling, and building trust amidst low morale.

My guest this week is product, strategy, and operations leader Nupur Thakur who has spent a greater part of her career ensuring that leaders and customers understand her technology well. In a lovely conversation from her Bay Area, SF base, she unpacks what’s helped her understand her audience and how she breaks down and demystifies technical topics in ways where even the most impatient audiences really get it.

You can reach out to Nupur for speaking engagementsor to connect via LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, your show host, for communications coaching and group coaching via my website or find me also on Linkedin.

John Chang moved to the U.S. from a balmy part of China with one core goal: To perform violin for orchestras. His practicing’s intense and rigorous as are his auditions. We spoke a few days after auditioning for Chicago’s opera where he and other players must perform their excerpts to faceless judges separated from the musician by a black curtain.

Chang tells us of his early years in the U.S., settling in to a new land as a younger student and man, his love for the violin which brings him happiness and calm (he even plays for us some.) And he offers us as business communicators some hacks and tips for staying on course, even when our fear feels intense. Ways exist for us to talk ourselves down.

Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching and trainings via my website.

North Carolina-based executive architect Abhijeet Patil has long led complex hybrid cloud initiatives for Fortune 500s and loved the challenge. A recent self-generated challenge to write in the public space—his “writing spree”— has helped him discover the joy, clarity, and courage that comes from expressing ourselves in the written word. He’s also learned that writing about India, his motherland, and the people he still cares about there brings geographies and hearts closer.

In our interview we hear of Abhijeet’s writing process. His first beautiful essay “About My Father!” chronicles the coaching and leadership his father provided him and took him one hour to write. We hear of his love for two lands: the U.S. and India—and how writing reminds him of what’s most important: family, authenticity, courage, kindness, and love.

Please follow Abhijeet and his writing via Medium, with About My Father here. Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching and trainings via my website.

Jill Staudacher has spent the best part of her career in pharmaceutical sales; but since COVID she’s felt drawn additionally to alternative ways to heal—both herself, her family, and friends as well. In this timely interview, from my Muskego, Wisconsin base, Jill shares her journey into a powerful career selling excellent medicines to finding a growing interest in healing naturally, both remedies and through simple dietary changes. Profound shifts have happened, including improving the vitals and prospects for cancer sufferers.

We conducted this interview on International Women’s Day. So, entrepreneurship, sisterhood, solidarity, and why we must surround ourselves with those who care for and uplift us (as part of our mental and physical health) becomes an additional theme.

If you’d like to reach out to Jill for friendship or guidance, find her on Facebook via Refocus your Health. Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching and trainings via my website.

If you’ve reworked your resume recently via Resume IO, Canva, or (my favorite platform: My Perfect Resume.com) you’ll see the creative challenge in describing our work efforts, skills, and triumphs within a few words. The summary section on Resume IO rations a cruel 200 characters. The work experience for each role? Three bullets, each worth 200 characters each. (That’s about 4 well-margined lines per role.) One recruiter told me they want to read a resume within one minute. Doable for the author? I say so.

But how? We get creative. Stay open. And we trust that less becomes more. We know that the résumé’s a vessel to whet the readers’ appetite. We also learn how to remove the superfluous and retain the substance. Like one dear software developer explained our process as we refined his resume: we find the truth; remove the fluff, and then make the important stuff fit.

That’s what we’re here to co-discover this week; ten quick editing tips to cull your word count and make the important and most defining moments for your personal brand fit. Read from my musing on Medium.

Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching and trainings via my website.

My guest this week has reinvented herself multiple times through multiple life stages—even focuses of her study, career, and the way she chooses to live her life. Her name’s Rebecca, and after several decades in the corporate world—most recently in a high-powered supply chain role—she’s decided to step down, change her focus, and move away from the U.S. to Casablanca, to top things off.

Like others who have created lasting change, Rebecca says the feeling that we need to change is gradual. But when the message becomes clearer, you know the feeling’s not one to ignore. In our interview you’ll hear laughter, some fear, and some realizing that if we’ve reinvented ourselves once, we can do so again—it’s part of the human condition and strength. And as a former medieval history expert, Rebecca reminds us: we can look to history for some beautiful examples.

Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching and trainings via my website.

As we rise closer to the top-tier audiences of the companies where we serve, hooking and compelling our audience in our opening sentences feels vital. I know, because I’ve needed to cut to the chase when interviewing experts and executives for articles I’ve written — or anyone with power and visibility. I find this audience more rushed than rude and often switching from one meeting to the next, which can make them seem impatient, especially if we dilly-dally with what we want to say, why, and why they ought to care.

My coaching clients echo the same and getting quicker and more nimble with leaders becomes the number one request for help, especially now with performance review feedback trickling in. So how do we hook and compel an audience within a minute or less? Here lie a handful of tactics to try out in your next pitch, sales call, job interview, or update. You can read these musings on Medium, too.

Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching and trainings via my website.

Job seekers and those on the rise within their org need data. Numbers and trends within those numbers quantify how we excel at our craft and trade, become proof, and help paint a story — a vision — of success we can bring our future employer or team.

But at least 50% of the coachees I coach struggle here because not enough time has passed to show the results, the project or product got torpedoed (typical in big tech firms), or results from our work remain downright ambiguous.

That’s what we’re unpacking in this week’s Medium post, which you can read here, and what I’m reading for this week’s Sage Sayer’s podcast—our hundredth episode! How to quantify trends, patterns, and successes, when no hard data exists and plugging in some tips and tactics journalists and reporters use, (which I’ve personally used) and which translate beautifully in business.

What a great way to start and kick off 2024. Happy New Year, dear listeners, friends, coachees, and colleagues to come.

Want to work with me or join my podcast(s)? Write to me at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching via my website.

I often get asked how to boost our confidence—a tough question, because so many ways exist! My guest in this week’s Sage Sayer’s podcast shares a passion with me for travel. Her name’s Azra Bandali and she’s ventured to 32 countries, an almost annual practice she started as a girl. Azra feels convinced travel has molded her into the woman she is today.

In our interview, Azra shares her favorite visits (Africa’s amongst them) and the role a self-imposed sabbatical to Hawaii played—something she negotiated with her employer— in navigating burnout and exhaustion during Covid. (She kept her job, by the way; and she’s risen since.)

You can find Azra on LinkedIn and Instagram, and enjoy updates of her travels. (Her #AzrasSabbatical comes also with #KeepingitReal) You can follow me also on LinkedIn and find details on my coaching via my website.

This post becomes the last post for 2023. Thank you for supporting my podcast this year! We did so great and we’re almost at 100 episodes! (Not bad for an immigrant-owned, woman-owned venture and when podcasting’s something I fit around full-time coaching.) I’ve more guests coming in the New Year and will feel inspired for more podcasting after visiting my motherland in New Zealand. Thanks again to Dotun Ayeni for his BEAUTIFUL edits. He adds magic to these captures every time.

bravecommunicators

Many of us dread cold calling and following up with folks, especially when we want or need something from them. Why? Because we can feel (in these delicate moments) that we’re a bother or demanding or even desperate, when none of the above’s normally true.

I’m convinced that our Inner Judge plays a role. Our critical inner voice wants to protect us overall from humiliation, rejection, or loss of reputation to our integrity or personal brand. And yet, if we really need someone to do something for us or seek clarity from our audience, then that follow-up’s pretty vital. (Job seekers, sales people, and journalists must do this all the time.)

That’s this week’s offering: Ways I’ve almost always gotten through to those I’m needing and answer from, the role journalistic language and approaches can play, and some helpful and even fun framings to play with.

Thanks again to Dotun for his gorgeous edits. Thanks to my coachees—especially those putting themselves out there each day while job seeking—for inspiring this episode.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm all about us becoming braver communicators. Find Dotun Ayeni (my highly-talented producer) on Fiverr via his tagline: @titan32

Diwali, an annual Hindu festival of lights, celebrates Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and marks the beginning of the fiscal year in India. For the 17.9 million Indians living overseas, many still celebrate Diwali this month in the countries where they’re based. Madhu Chawla, an Arizona-based Senior Manager at American Express, says Diwali becomes a piece of something you own and hold dear to your heart. And Diwali’s even more powerful when celebrated outside of India because of the deep connection with joy, their culture, and tender memories from the past.

Madhu returns to our show after an earlier interview, which I share here: https://thesagesayers.buzzsprout.com/1526614/12808036. In this week’s episode, hear the gifts and opportunities of India’s festival season, including Diwali, and a call from Madhu for us all to celebrate one another’s culture and traditions, finding the joy and learnings within.

Reach out to Madhu Chawla via LinkedIn by clicking here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm all about us becoming braver communicators.

My guest today wants to share her story (anonymously for her privacy) of two fertility treatments she has undertaken (the second still in progress) and the gifts, the learning, and the opportunities she has found along the way. Her motivation: Wanting to plan ahead to ensure she can have a family, when she’s ready. And she’s part of a larger and growing trend.

World over more women are having fertility treatments through egg retrieval and freezing. The Pew Research Center’s new September survey found 4:10 adults, around 42% of Americans say they’ve used fertility treatments or know someone who has—a 33% uptick from five years ago. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s April 2023 report cites infertility affecting 1:6 people globally.

Our interview shares the thought process, the system and processes, the challenges, but also the joy that comes from self-advocacy and taking charge of what we really want.

Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for group or individual coaching and training on reinventing, communicating, and creating (or reinventing) your personal brand. Follow and connect with me here on LinkedIn and my writing/musings via Medium.

If you're job interviewing, you may feel a bit nervous about the inevitable blips which come up in our work story, especially during turbulent times. I've beaucoup ideas and tactics in this week's podcast episode and in my article on Medium on how to iron out those kinks in confident, non-apologetic ways and in ways which help our personal brand.

A lot of lovely requests for help on this topic from peers and my coachees inspired this week's musings. I'm drawing from my own career transitions when no narrative seemed to thread the changes together (and how I found then shared that narrative). I'm also pulling from job seekers out there right now and what we've co-created and applied. These tips have landed them progress in their search and/or the role of their dreams.

Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for group or individual coaching and training on reinventing, communicating, and creating (or reinventing) your personal brand.

New Zealander Isaac Te Reina, a documentary and film producer and actor who has featured in Avatar returns to the Sage Sayers this week. Together we share tools and techniques for managing the vocal quirks coming up for many of us when under pressure: Verbal filler, speeding, and going on a bit because we struggle to bottom line. It all starts with finding calm and building confidence.

You can hear Isaac and my earlier interview, soon after he featured in Avatar and hear some great insights on staying calm in high-stakes moments—and with high-stakes audiences like David Cameron, by clicking here.

Reach out to Isaac Te Reina about voice coaching and training on Instagram by clicking here. Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for group or individual coaching and training on reinventing, communicating, and creating your personal brand.

Business presenters often inherit slides from another. While some slides feel fantastic and a gift, others can induce dread, worry, and concerns with how to stay engaging vs. boring our audience and diluting or confusing our personal brand. The biggest stressor often comes when the slides belong to a boss, manager, or someone else with power over us. In which case, how do we go ahead with the presentation without offending anyone or falling back?

That’s the communication conundrum I wrote on via Medium this week and read via this week's Sage Sayers podcast episode. Go forth, brave communicators! I promise with these tools I've co-created with clients and tried out myself, you can and will prevail.

Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for group or individual coaching and training on reinventing, communicating, and creating your personal brand.

My guest this week is Kamari Green, a Healthcare Leader + Maternal Mental Health Advocate + Artist, based in North Carolina, USA. Kamari's an interesting story to tell on overcoming and navigating her own health challenges (postpartum depression and depression) in ways which established her career as a healthcare leader. Art, medicine, love, and faith all played a role. Today, Kamari's growing not only as an artist, healthcare leader, but also a keynote speaker where she speaks on mental health topics to audiences in the thousands.

You can follow Kamari on LinkedIn here and see (or purchase) her beautiful art via 983 studio here. Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for group or individual coaching and training on reinventing, communicating, and creating your personal brand.

Despite time pressures — juggling motherhood with a career in journalism and academia, and now coaching and writing — I’ve maintained art most days. Why? Because art and creativity fuel me, bring peace, calm, and powerful guiding ideas. This week’s podcast muses on how I’ve countered judgment and prioritized art — no matter what — and the gifts and opportunities art brings me, which help me at work, too.

You can read my essay in digital content via Medium on how art’s always been one of the three legs of my stool. Join the conversation via LinkedIn here and tell us how you’re keeping your creativity going.

Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for insights on my group coaching and training packages and individual packages on reinventing, promoting, and using your voice through refining the written word.

My guest this week is Sathya Sethuraman, a financial Services and insurance industry strategist and thought leader who's served as a trusted advisor to Fortune 100 global insurance and financial service firms. He finds that insurance provides a safety net for the health and wellbeing of every individual, hence making this industry his home for 20+ years.

In our lively interview, Sathya shares the gifts and opportunities he's found with communicating in a land far away from his Indian motherland. We hear how he's navigated a culture placing a premium on brevity when he loves long-winded delivery, history, and storytelling. We also speak to the gifts that professionals in the U.S. can learn from foreigners (in this case, an Indian and a New Zealander) and the parts of our language and culture we won't give up, no matter what, because we find those approaches benefit us and our audiences.

You can reach Sathya on LinkedIn here. Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for insights on my group coaching and training packages and individual packages on reinventing, promoting, and using your voice through refining the written word.

James Woodruff, District Field Manager at the Federal Aviation Administration, has learned leadership skills so many places: The FAA where he’s served many years. The Navy. And as a high school teacher. And yet his best leadership lessons (he believes) came from a job he landed as a teenager managing the bussers and servers at a thriving country club in his Kansas rural community. Hollywood stars and musicians of the day came there to dance and dine.

In our interview, we hear from James, who’s entering into a leadership training role with the FAA, how clear communication becomes key as we lead. Also, the best lessons and training cam come from the funnest, most nostalgic times of our youth.

You can join the discussion on LinkedIn here, and reach out to James here. Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for insights on my group coaching and training packages and individual packages on reinventing, promoting, and using your voice through refining the written word.

My guest this week is Fernanda Noronha, a multi-cultural finance and strategy leader who's worked with international conglomerates across three countries and two continents for almost two decades. Currently, she helps lead finance at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a Fortune number 38 company in the nutrition, food processing, and commodity industry.

In our interview, we learn about Fernanda's journey from Brazil to Great Chicago, Illinois. We learn how she stayed agile and adaptable in new settings, roles, and cultures, even now speaking to large crowds and mentoring others to feel more comfortable. Any discomfort she first felt with communicating within an American business culture has largely gone.

You can join the discussion on LinkedIn here, and reach out to Fernanda here. Reach out to me, D G McCullough, for insights on my group coaching and training packages and individual packages on reinventing, promoting, and finding your voice through refining the written word.

Interested in more episodes on foreign cultures and business? An earlier interview/episode with Luca Dondi, a cultural leadership coach, on navigating foreign cultures lives here.

Some of the best and the brightest fret about small talk lately and I think I know why. Some started their jobs as remote workers having completed their studies in remote ways. Others must now return to work in the office after years of working from home. Meanwhile, few trust their colleagues and worry they’ll say something that might threaten their livelihood. Overwork breeds fatigue, anxiety, and with that, a loss for words when forced to connect.

But we need not fret when it comes to small talk as some simple tactics can connect us in powerful ways. Reading from this week’s article on Medium, which you can find here. These tips I’ve cultivated over several years from backpacking through Asia solo, moving to new states, continents, and teaching live classes and workshops at universities and corporations.

Connect with me about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm taking bookings for coaching and training workshops to help build confidence, courage, and clarity in our written and spoken word. I'm all about us becoming braver communicators.

Too many bright and gifted professionals worry about their age when it comes to their jobs, their stability, and any risks they’re willing to take in their last decades. I read about this feeling in the business media. I hear about it often when clients request my help with bios, resumes, and LinkedIn profiles. I’m going the other way, especially when it comes to “resume speak” and any narrative on my work and offerings. At age 52, having reinvented a few times across multiple industries and continents, I’m rejecting the word “seasoned” because I find it diminishing.

In this week’s Sage Sayer’s podcast, I’m reading my article published on Medium on why and how words like “seasoned,” “tenured,” or “experienced” can build fixed mindsets within and restrict and exclude us from whatever comes next. You’ll find my article here. Join the conversation on LinkedIn here.

My guest this week is one familiar to me and one I’m excited to introduce to you. His name is Dotun Ayeni. He’s an animal scientist by profession, a sound engineer by passion and works as a business development manager in an Australian lift Manufacturing company in Nigeria, his motherland. Dotun’s also my sound engineer.

I’ve brought Dotun to my show this week because he’s an expert on the spoken word and he’s also part of a larger trend of holding two jobs (or several jobs) vs. one. Like many of my listeners, Dotun’s reinvented himself when and as needed. His sound engineering work came to him when well-paid work as an animal scientist did not.

If you'd like to work with Dotun (and I recommend that you do), find him on Fiverr under Titan32. And here's the first episode he ever edited for me, one of my favorites.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm taking bookings for coaching and training workshops to help build confidence, courage, and clarity in our written and spoken word. I'm all about us becoming braver communicators.

My guest this week is Madhu Chawla. She's a manager of global implementation in global commercial services at American Express and is based out of Phoenix, Az. Madhu's an interesting story to tell about a communication challenge which, for some part of her life, got in her way of confidence and being the thriving professional she always wanted to be. Madhu developed a stutter as a girl which continued through her school and college years and then into her corporate life.

But Madhu never let her stutter, which became more pronounced with strangers and external clients, define how she thought about herself nor how she intended to live her life. Today, Madhu has no stutter at all and her way of navigating this unique communication challenge will inspire other communicators with their own challenges, small or large.

Reach out to Madhu Chawla via LinkedIn by clicking here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm open for hosting training workshops or group coaching geared towards building confidence, courage, and clarity in our written and spoken word. I'm all about us becoming braver communicators.

If leaders have prodded you to add story to otherwise dry and stodgy data and topics, you’re not alone! Many communicators I coach hear this feedback when doing dry-runs on high-stakes presentations and within performance reviews, too. But how do we tell story around numbers? This becomes our theme for this week’s Medium post, which you can find here, and which I read and add to in this week's Sage Sayers podcast.

We have tackled data and storytelling in the past with a delightful interview with Godswill Mhlanga, a finance expert who must make the numbers sound engaging all the time. You can find our interview here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm open for hosting training workshops or group coaching geared towards building confidence, courage, and clarity in our written and spoken word. I'm all about us becoming braver communicators.

My guest this week is Yasna Garcia da Rosa, an executive assistant and ICF-certified coach based in Uruguay who simply loves her job. This feeling becomes rare in today's turbulent economy where many feel despair vs. joy.

Yasna works for a leading pharmaceutical firm and through a recent work trip to Africa felt reminded of her purpose, her passion, and her love for what she does. One of my favorite parts of the interview, which we conducted last month, is Yasna's joy when learning her company chose her to become the ambassador for Uruguay for the program she visited in Africa. I also loved hearing her tips on how we too can find gratitude and joy within every day.

Connect with Yasna Garcia da Rosa via her LinkedIn page, which you can find here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

If you're finding you're more anxious than normal speaking in meetings and/or presenting to higher ups, you're not alone. Communicators all over feel the same and we know why: Many of us have fewer opportunities with our leaders than before; with that, more pressure to be brief, clear, and feel heard. Also, those same leaders we must update or persuade must decide (in many cases) who to let go and who can stay, and that feeling can feel fearful indeed.

I don't have all the answers; but I do have insights. In this week's episode (very low key, recorded from my garden hammock) I'm sharing tips and techniques which have served me and those I coach.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

My guest this week, Bhawna Sharma Puri, is a successful Fintech industry marketing leader and a council board member of California State university. She's also a first generation immigrant, a Silicon Valley philanthropist, an investor, and a Mum to two wonderful little children.

I've brought Bhawna to the Sage Sayers to unpack how to share our accomplishments in non-bragging, comfortable ways. This communication challenge feels tricky for those who've emerged from nations which value humility and now function as professionals elsewhere. As two women who came to the U.S. to pursue our dreams (Bhawna from India and me from New Zealand and Japan prior to the U.S.) we've quite a bit to say!

You can find Bhawna via her LinkedIn page here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

My returning guest this week is Jenn Kho. She's the newly appointed Chicago Sun-Times executive editor, president of the Journalism and Women Symposium, and former managing editor of two global publications with millions of readers: the HuffPost and the Guardian US.

This week, Jenn's back to share what she's learning about herself and her industry through her latest career pivot from consultant to executive editor of one of America's largest daily papers. And she's helping me respond to many requests from the field on how business communicators can learn to think, write, and speak more like a journalist. I can't think of a better person to help me unpack what we journalists do when we're synthesizing vast swathes of information and keeping that copy clear, concise, and compelling.

You can find Jenn Kho via her LinkedIn profile here. You can hear our earlier episode where Jenn shares her absolute passion for journalism here. And Jennifer invites listeners to visit the Chicago Sun-Time’s career page for job openings, which you can find here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/pages/chicago-sun-times-careers-internships

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

My guest this week is Marie-Louise Pereira, a leadership and mental wellness coach based in France. Marie-Louise helps leaders replace stuck, unhappy feelings with a confidence that helps them achieve their dreams, find better balance, and with that, a more fulfilling career.

Marie-Louise and I spoke in the New Year on a problem many of our clients shared: Switching off from work, especially on mandated work break, and then challenging whatever inner critical, old, and fixed cultural mindsets get in our way of relating well with our work. Though we recorded our interview late December, with global news of pivotal leaders like New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern resigning due to burnout, our conversation might spark something new within.

You can find Marie-Louise Pereira through her LinkedIn profile. I've also interviewed Marie-Louise earlier on how she navigated her own burnout, which you can find here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

James Cameron's Avatar: the Way of Water is breaking box office records all over the world. The sci-fi epic just overtook Top Gun Maverick to become 2022's highest grossing international release and sailed past the $1.1 billion mark. Within this phenomena sits Isaac Te Reina, a filmmaker, actor, and writer from New Zealand who stars as the Sea Dragon First Mate in this Avatar epic.

Isaac joined me on the Sage Sayers over the festive break to talk about his soaring filming career and all the gifts, opportunities, and knowledge he's gathered from landing a role within Avatar. His story and insights can uplift actors, entrepreneurs, aspiring leaders and hopeful business communicators all over. Isaac landed this first blockbuster role through drawing from vital qualities many of us aspire towards as communicators, especially with high-stakes audiences, like James Cameron: Courage. Creativity. Play. And most of all: Presence.

You can follow Isaac Te Reina on Instagram here. Contact his agent for acting and other creative opportunities here and find his IMDB page by clicking here. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

My guest this week is Wisconsin-based executive coach Deb Skarda whose brother Rick was murdered on Father’s Day here in the states. In Deb’s own words: “He was unjustly taken by the hand of another.” Deb’s convinced that her life destiny now must make sense of this tragedy.

Her touching post on LinkedIn and other social media asks her audiences to live by her Rick rules, all aligned with this idea of cherishing time with each other over work, money, and not taking the simple things (nor each other) for granted. Hundreds have replied—and many executives, even CEOs.

Our interview helps honor Rick, his legacy, and provides a vital and hopeful perspective during the festive holidays and a turbulent world economy.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

Three or so years ago I entered coaching school to train to become an International Coaching Federation certified coach. This move felt slightly bizarre given I’d never received coaching before nor knew much about the industry. But I had a hunch that my work as a professor of communications and journalism, as a reporter, and as a publicist might blend nicely with coaching, especially if I made communications coaching a niche.

In last week’s Medium post, which I read in this week’s podcast, I’m sharing a big milestone. On the day I wrote this piece, I had coached 3,184 individual paid coaching hours since my training began early September 2019. (The numbers now sit at around 3,210.) This now sets me up to apply to become a Master Certified Coach, a credential that the ICF has granted to few coaches around the world. (You need at least 2,500 individual coaching hours—and a bunch of other stuff—to apply.) This episode chronicles all of the feelings and lessons coming up for me as I celebrate this risky but exciting crossroad in my new reinvent and coaching career.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

Most of us waste a sad amount of time worrying about what others think of us and our words when we post to LinkedIn, the social media platform for professionals with 875 million members worldwide. So, how might we have fun and love playing on LinkedIn vs worry about torpedoing our careers?

In this week’s Sage Sayers episode I’m sharing tips and techniques I’ve cultivated in this global social media space—and with surprising results. Almost all of my business has come from LinkedIn; and now I’m at capacity (almost) with 90 coaching clients. (LinkedIn and how I play on LinkedIn replaces my need to outsource any marketing efforts whatsoever.)

You can read my musings on LinkedIn on Medium by clicking here. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

I’m no expert on work-life balance; but I have found that applying the mental fitness tool of innovation, specifically to how I manage my time, has yielded huge and surprising results. By innovating the flow of my day, i.e. the order in which I go about things, I’ve found more space for art, my writing, exercise—and with that, less stress. (I’ve even improved my blood pressure.)

In this week’s Sage Sayers podcast episode, recording from my Jeep on a rainy Friday, I’m sharing this idea of innovating and staying creative with our day as a way to add in more things we love and better align with our values.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

Around 1.9 million high school players play highschool football in the U.S. Along with thousands of other Wisconsinites, I’m a proud supporter of the Muskego Warriors varsity football team, Wisconsin’s former state champion for three consecutive years. With only one loss so far this season, we’ve a reasonable chance to reclaim that throne.

This week’s Sage Sayers podcast shares a personal story on how football—of all things—has brought me and my family gifts, opportunities, while also teaching and reminding me of the power of a community rallied together. You can check out my TikTok videos I’ve created on my adventures at the Muskego Warriors games here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. Look for my individual and group packaging offerings via the hashtag #bravecommunicators

When England laid their dear queen to rest, they laid to rest a monarch who provided a staple, consistent leadership in my life as a citizen of New Zealand, one of the 54 countries within the coalition of the British commonwealth. This week’s episode shares my memories of my queen—from my young girlhood in rural South Canterbury through to my teens and early 20s before leaving overseas. Also, leadership lessons we can all learn from Queen Elizabeth II in presence, remote leadership, and in communications.

You can find the article: Musings on the Passing of a Monarch, which I published on Medium, by clicking here.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. We’re also live this October with the Write Your Resume Like a Reporter narrative and writing coaching workshop. Find that workshop on LinkedIn under hashtag #bravecommunicators, or enroll by clicking here. Bring a friend!

With the Gallup’s annual State of the Workplace report recording record numbers of disengaged, worried, miserable--even angry employees, no wonder many seek new jobs. But the job interview process can derail the best and the brightest, especially those vague, leading, and often loaded interview questions. In this week's episode, we unpack some of the top interview questions, apply some journalistic and mental fitness tools, and create some strategy so you sail through and land the job of your dreams.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm launching new communications and mental fitness workshops and programs this fall. So, do stay tuned for those releases with the hashtag #bravecommunicators.

My guest this week is Caroline Lindsey who, after years working in advertising and media work, took her passion of cooking, blogging, and food to a whole new level by creating a successful blog, ultimately earning enough to leave her day job. In our interview, Caroline, who’s based in South Carolina, shares what inspired Pinch Me, I’m Eating, how she generated enough readers and traffic to make close to her full-time job’s income, and the life she’s created for herself and her family along the way.

Please visit Caroline’s site, Pinch Me I’m Eating, which will soon include (along with recipes of delicious restaurant food) her journey at culinary school where she’ll formerly train as a chef, something she’s dreamt of doing since a girl.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm launching new communications and mental fitness workshops and programs this fall. So, do stay tuned for those releases with the hashtag #bravecommunicators.

My guest this week is Ambra who (around six months ago, in her early 30s) entered a courageous quest to confirm what she'd long suspected: She has ADHD. In this touching interview, Ambra, an operation manager and journalist based in Germany, shares her story with navigating a complex system, receiving her diagnosis, and dealing with all of the negative and positive emotions coming up along the way.

Ambra also shares the Sage perspective by seeing and finding gifts, opportunities, and knowledge from her challenges. Already, she's becoming an advocate for women and girls with ADHD who often stay undiagnosed for longer periods of time.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm launching new communications and mental fitness workshops and programs this fall. So, do stay tuned for those releases with the hashtag #bravecommunicators.

Over the past five years I've asked at least 3,000 business professionals what worries them the most about their careers. At least half report feeling that ineffective business writing's one of the biggest struggles they face. Now, the written word's resurging as hybrid and remote work means we all must document and report things clearly and methodically to reduce ambiguity and errors.

But how do we become a better writer? I'll offer some tactical tips in this week's Medium post on basic paragraph structure and ways to stay clear and brief. You can start with a few articles here. But in the meantime, here's a whimsical sharing from my study here in Wisconsin on what has helped me become a reasonable writer, something I've done professionally for 35+ years.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges via my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm currently seeking group coaching clients for new launches of new communications and mental fitness workshops and programs. Stay tuned for those releases with the hashtag #bravecommunicators.

Using Positive Intelligence mental fitness techniques to ground, this gentle meditation uses one sense at a time to build peace, calm, and confidence.

Fielding Q&As from prospective clients, CEOS, or investors induces fear and stomach pain in the most confident presenters. For those working to build their courage, the fear of the unknown in these moments can paralyze. But in this week's podcast, we're offering phrases, come backs, and even tweaks to your mindset to help sail through that moment with ease.

We also tackle this week on Medium, three of the more popular myths on Q&As which can induce panic after we pitch or present our ideas. So, take a read and for anyone needing this vital help, please pass it on!

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. I'm currently seeking group coaching clients for new launches of new communications and mental fitness workshops and programs. Stay tuned for those releases with the hashtag #bravecommunicators.

My guest this week is Canadian technologist and adult musician, Sam Chow, who taught himself jazz piano, at aged 33, for the joy—and to show himself: It’s never too late to learn.

In our interview, we hear how COVID-19 inspired Chow along with the empowering metaphors that come from learning something as nuanced and tricky as jazz piano. Chow’s found he’s more nimble and less self critical. He knows: Any mistakes we sense our audience rarely notices—something powerful we can all learn from as communicators.

Follow Sam Chow’s You Tube channel, Midlife Funk, by clicking here. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Know someone feeling immobilized to make brave and lasting life change? Please share this interview to spark something bold and new.

My inner circle knows that my dominant Saboteur — my leader of my inner critics, after the Judge — is the Stickler, who takes order, organization, and perfectionism way too far. While I view the strength of this saboteur as quality, until recently, holding out for actions without flaws has sabotaged any true career growth. (You can learn about your own saboteurs here.)

In this week's highly flawed podcast (due partly to audio issues I self-created by recording at Lake Michigan) I'm offering five techniques I apply to pull myself into action vs. stay paralyzed by fear and self-doubt.

I'm drawing upon skills I gathered as a business reporter, writing and reporting for global media like the Economist and the Guardian, and from three major career transitions I've navigated across two continents and three industries. I've learned a lot about letting go of perfection along the way.

You can read my article on this same topic on Medium, by clicking here. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Know someone dying for life change but unable to act? Please pass on this resource to spark something bold and new.

Most of us want to sound warm but strident, clear on what we want and need, but open to feedback. And yet our writing can give off a cooler, sometimes lofty feeling which can offset our audience. In this podcast, at a time when most company leaders fret about attrition, we explore the delicate art of tone in business writing. (While the tips here tie to writing, many work in business speaking, too.)

Here’s my small but potentially powerful idea: While we have no control over our team's ambitions and wants to leave and move on, we do have control over how we sound and the signals we give our audience. So why not become a little more informed?

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Know a manager who’s hearing feedback on an abrasive or cool communication style? Please share this episode. The article I mentioned on cloaked or camouflaged verbs lives here and on passive voice lives here.

In this week's episode we respond to popular asks for help with building our vocabulary in ways where others notice--but from a love for learning vs. fear of falling back, no longer mattering, or not fitting in. If you're wanting to improve your word choice or even find new ways to use plain words, consider these five coaching steps. An article on Medium offers these same insights and some helpful digital tools, too.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Know someone who's struggling with low vocabulary? Please share this episode.

Around half of Americans, Brits, and Australians are on the hunt for new jobs. Figures are scant elsewhere; but if my coaching base stays reflective of communicators, I'd say those numbers feel about right. But if a job interview awaits us, what myths exist on how we show up as communicators?

In this week's podcast, I debunk the biggest myths I see plaguing communicators starting with this idea that researching about the company becomes the most important task or that researching ought to consume us. Not true. Getting grounded, peaceful, and taking time to truly celebrate our achievements becomes the most vital move. Of course research becomes vital; but keep a cap on things and stay strategic, too.

If you want more tips and techniques on staying calm, centered, and sailing through your next job interview (for an internal or external role) then you may find my article on Medium offers some respite and insight, too.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Know a job seeker? Please forward this episode on to share the love and wisdom.

My guest this week is entrepreneur and coffee e-retailer Brad Peugh who (through the height of the Pandemic) launched his e-retailer selling (what I find to be) the best coffee in America.

Brad's drawing from two major life experiences to launch Peugh's Brews: His time in the Air Force where he learned resilience, problem solving, but also exposure to the world's best coffee and intriguing cultures. He's also leaning in on expert organizational skills he uses daily as a program manager.

Listen in to hear Brad's journey and what he's learned along the way--wisdom you can apply to your own career change and/or venture.

Read up and even order coffee from Peugh's Brews by clicking here. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

With the Great Return underway--and 50% of businesses demanding workers return to the office--politics are running amok. What's the bigger cry for help? Staying calm, focused, and centered when leaders hijack our meetings or presentations (and especially when external parties watch on.)

Fret not. This week's podcast episode offers tried-and-tested tips and techniques which other communicators have found yield positive, uplifting results.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Please share this podcast episode with anyone you know needing/wanting communications help. Let's help humanity by tackling communications, one challenge at a time.

Last month marked my fifth year living in the U.S. midwestern state of Wisconsin, one of America's most frigidly cold states. I’ve found surprising gifts from the long, drawn-out colder temps which can linger through to May. (Last week, we froze for days. Yesterday: snow!)

In this week’s episode, I’m celebrating Wisconsin and what I learned about myself and my situation from a cooler climate. By that, I’m applying the Sage perspective I bring to my life and coaching: finding gifts, opportunities, and even knowledge, within tricky situations.

A few resources enrich this week's podcast including my article on Medium, a documentary I produced on ice fishing for National Public Radio from Wisconsin.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Please share this podcast episode with anyone you know needing/wanting communications help. Let's help humanity by tackling communications, one challenge at a time.

As we transition back to the office, we bring with us our fears and discomfort with public speaking. Having overcome this fear myself, I've a few tips and techniques (which include mental fitness approaches) and ideas I've co-created with coachees/leaders from all over the globe.

Have a listen to this week's podcast and see how differently you feel from taking baby steps each week to get out of your mind, into your body, and keep your audience front of mind. My earlier podcast on not letting our Judge take over in these high-stakes moments might spark something as well.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. Please share this podcast episode with anyone you know needing/wanting communications help. Let's help humanity by tackling communications, one challenge at a time.

In this week’s podcast, we unpack (with the help of my dear coachees) some helpful strategies for the world’s biggest, most looming business communication problems.

I gather (then share) recurring themes and patterns I've noticed from hundreds of individual coaching sessions and the recurring learning: Communication problems become personal problems, but also room for growing confidence — and courage, as you’ll hear today.

Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. And please share this podcast episode with anyone you know needing/wanting some communications help. Let's help humanity by tackling communications, one challenge at a time.

This week, on February 23, many countries, including Canada and the U.S. honored Anti-Bullying Day as a way to stand against bullying. Countries like New Zealand honor Anti-Bullying Day in May and of course more honoring occurs with national bullying prevention month in October here in the states.

As someone who’s been a target of workplace bullying, I’m curious how this phenomena impacts us at work, home, and how we communicate, especially now with workplace bullying on the rise.

With that, I’ve invited to my show Lida Citroen. She’s a Colorado-based speaker and TEDx Speaker, an Executive Coach, author, and LinkedIn Learning Instructor. As part of her work, Lida coaches executives on multiple challenges, including managing and responding to workplace bullying and mobbing.

You can read more about workplace bullying here. Find Lida via her website. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

My guest this week is Coach Deb Skarda, a former critical care nurse, turned corporate pharmaceutical leader, turned leadership consultant and coach.

Deb's successfully navigated three major career changes, most recently leaving a thriving career as a global pharmaceutical leader to launch her own business from Wisconsin as a leadership coach.

Our interview explores how we know when to change careers, how to navigate these times, communicate our narrative with ourselves (and others) and why Deb loves coaching so much.

Reach out to Deb Skarda via her website or via LinkedIn. Connect with me, Coach Debbi McCullough, about your group's communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

Meeting fatigue has leaders all over grappling with sadness, loss, and questions about life. Cognitive overload from staring at screens create other struggles. Communication challenges range from shutting down when faced with ad-hoc questions and fading executive presence. But there's ways to turn the ship around by managing your schedule with love vs. fear.

In this week's podcast, we're unpacking ways to challenge your fixed mindset around saying 'yes' to all meetings using a fun and loving hybrid of communications coaching and mental fitness techniques. You can find the article on Medium here.

Interested in group coaching and training with D G McCullough? Set up some time to share with me your communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

The world never stands still when we lead. Life continues swirling around us and I notice this point when coaching and training leaders on written and oral communications.

They know: to lead well, they must address whatever obstacles prevent them from leading from a clear, compelling place. (I feel so happy and honored to help.) In this ongoing series, I’m sharing the most pressing and/or memorable problems leaders come to me with each month— and how we turn things around.

This episode tackles three big communication challenges: How do I ask about love? (And especially when someone doesn't say "I love you.") How do I manage meetings as a new manager? How do I stand up to a bullying boss? I've published an editorial version of this episode here via Medium.

Interested in group (or individual) coaching with D G McCullough? Set up some time to share with me your communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

In this week's podcast, I take the interviewee vs. interviewer seat. Charles Jett, a Chicago, Il. based career coach, interviews me on PQ Podcast, a weekly podcast exploring the ways that mental fitness (our ability to rebound with a positive vs. negative mindset) helps us in life.

In this interview, Charles asks me how I apply this magical tool to my communications, my life, and my energizing work as a communications coach helping leaders all over the globe to manage their fears and find their own unique, authentic brew of executive presence. The web link for the PQ Podcast and this interview lives here, if you'd like to follow the delightful series after today.

Interested in group (or individual) coaching with D G McCullough? Set up some time to share with me your communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

If you're a reserved or introverted communicator, you may feel you must share your ideas only when (and if) it's fully hatched. Or perhaps you feel less compelled to disrupt or add any more noise because you feel little need to share yourself. Either way, when you know silence doesn't provide the best option, ways exist to speak up in meetings which feel authentic, aligned with your observant personality, and also add value.

In this week's podcast we unpack tips and techniques to honor your excellent listening and observation skills and speak up in interesting and unique ways where you feel truly heard.

Interested in group (or individual) coaching with D G McCullough? Set up some time to share with me your communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

My guest this week is Godswill Mhlanga, a finance and accounting whizz who’s worked in the U.S. and abroad across most industries, and even with Ernst and Young, where he served banking, life sciences, mining, and financial service clients for 10 years.

I’ve brought Godswill to the Sage Sayers today in part for a lovely reunion; he studied at Kenan-Flagler Business School where I taught corporate communications for five years. Godswill also knows how to "speak numbers" in ways where others truly listen.

In this interview, we also learn of Godswill’s life journey from Zimbabwe, Africa to here in the U.S., and the unique challenges immigrant leaders face when sharing our successes and when cultivating our unique blend of executive presence.

Interested in group (or individual) coaching with D G? Let's set up a chat about your communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

A recent poll found over half (specifically 52%) of American workers consider career changes for next year and as January approaches, 44% already plan to make the switch. A sad 14% of Americans feel satisfied with their current job.

From clients and peers working in other global regions, I hear similar numbers all over. For a career transitioner like me who's cheerfully changed industries and careers multiple times, I LOVE data like this as I know: Career change ignites a new sense of purpose, conviction, and a boost not only in salary; but happiness and productivity, too.

But the big question I hear from those I coach is how do you create the vital career change we seek? The bigger question still: Where do you EVEN START when the new that you want remains unclear?

I don't have all the answers; but in this week's podcast, following up on last week's episode on communicating career change, I'm sharing thoughts and strategies I've co-created with coachees. I even share my own transition stories in hopes it helps you feel a little bolder to do it now rather than leaving it on the back burner for yet another year.

You can hire me as a group (or individual) coach and trainer to help tackle your biggest communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website. If you'd like to join the Sage Sayers and share your own career transition, please do! Write to me via LinkedIn or at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com and put "career transition interview" within the subject line.

I've invited back this week Charles Cranston Jett, a certified coach specializing in career management, critical skill development, and career crises to help us answer a popular question with the communicators I coach: How do we tell our career story in clear, compelling ways, and especially when we undergo career change? And how do we find the right career path, anyway?

In this week's episode you'll learn of storytelling techniques to help frame your work, the power of a mosaic (what I'd call a 'narrative thread'), and the role that knowing our joy has on defining our work.

You can find more about Charles and his services here and follow his podcast here. His leadership books are featured on Amazon.

You can hire me as a group (or individual) coach and trainer to help tackle your biggest communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

The DOOM LOOP!: Straight Talk about Job Frustration, Boredom, Career Crises and Tactical Career Decisions from the Doom Loop Creator.

Women entrepreneurs are thriving throughout these singular times and my guest this week, Mimi Pressley, a Florida-based hair and makeup artist, has ideas as to why. [While true data remains scant, women business owner's groups on Facebook have grown from 1,000 members in 2019, to 15,000 members in 2020, to 21,000 today, as one indicator of this trend.]

In our interview, Mimi shares how she's built her freelance hair and makeup artistry practice around a brisk salon job and a young family. [We met at my BFF’s recent wedding where I was matron of honor. Mimi did my makeup and hair in amazing ways, as pictured with this post!]

I also invited Mimi to the Sage Sayers because she possesses excellent communications skills business professionals need to cultivate and grow: How to listen actively, build rapport, trust, find commonality, and encourage our audience to get out of their comfort zone.

Thanks again for your time today, Mimi. You can find more about her services here.

Consider hiring me as a group (or individual) coach and trainer to help tackle your biggest communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

My guest this week is Yug Varma. He’s a San Francisco, Calif-based trained microbiologist and synthetic biologist with a background in organic chemistry. He’s also Co-founder and CEO of a skin microbiome company, Phyla. All of Yug’s work leads towards an impressive goal: To develop the next generation of whole cell therapeutics to treat chronic microbial diseases.

Yug’s kindly joined our show today to share his path as an entrepreneur, his early starts, but also arm us with tips and techniques on grant writing and requesting for funds, even patents. Yug knows this space well. He's successfully applied for three patents, an academic fellowship, and an industry grant, too. And he's negotiated (within the Pandemic) a deal with a leading skincare company to launch a first in-class acne product.

With that, I’d consider him an expert on written persuasion and negotiations and from that, we can learn a lot, especially during these singular times when many are pondering their next move, even their first venture.

Learn more about Phyla and its pain-free acne care brand here. Consider hiring me as a group (or individual) coach and trainer to help tackle your biggest communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

72% of Americans did not take a summer vacation in 2020 and this year (with some small hope) 50% of Americans took a summer vacay while the other 50% did not. Meanwhile, consumer research finds 44% of Americans choose not to use their Paid Time Off.

In this week's episode, we unpack what lies our Judge and other Saboteurs tell us about restoring ourselves through rest, hobbies, and even vacations.

We peak at research to help reframe and communicate to ourselves leisure becomes a boost to our productivity, focus, perspective, and performance, too. We explore ways to counter those Saboteur lies which often interfere with our want and need to rest, no matter how busy and how much guilt your own Judge (and others) might apply.

Whether it's taking a Bollywood dancing class, visiting nature, or reading without agenda, listen to your Sage. Break from work and see what shifts (if any) you feel as a leader and communicator.

Consider hiring me as a group (or individual) coach and trainer to help tackle your biggest communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

My guest this week is Mark Herschberg, an author, public speaker, and an MIT instructor based in New York. Along with teaching at MIT's career success accelerator and serving as a startup CTO, Mark's recently published an excellent resource. It's called the Career Toolkit, a book (and app) helping others develop the skills they need to design and execute their personal plan. All of this to achieve the career they seek and deserve.

In our interview, Mark shares what he's learned about communications from all of his interesting roles, what inspired his Career Toolkit; and how to negotiate during these intriguing times where business rules (and the rules around promotions) have realigned.

This week's episode might enlighten and/or teach you something new on how to ask for what you want (and why).

Learn more about Mark Herschberg and the Career Toolkit.

Consider hiring me as a group (or individual) coach and trainer to help tackle your biggest communication challenges by clicking here. Or, do visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

The mass resignation--millions of workers leaving their jobs in hopes of a better life and purpose--offers us gifts and opportunities as communicators. We can learn something from this global phenomenon, too. In this week's podcast, we explore what I hear and learn from thoughtful and strategic communicators all over the world.

You can read my article on Medium this week on how to craft a compelling branding statement. (Many communicators see these wobbly times as an opportunity for creating a first branding statement (or recasting how a robotic or stale statement looks and sounds. Hint, but no pressure: Now's the time for getting bold!)

And if you're keen to unpack your biggest communication challenge with me (or learn more about branding statements, narrative coaching, or storytelling) do so by clicking here or visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

Many communicators want to uplift and humanize topics through storytelling; but how to do it succinctly and well? This week's podcast shares a tried and tested framework, offers some small best practices, and we demonstrate all of that through telling a wee story of our own.

You can read my related article on storytelling on Medium this week via this link here. And if you're keen to unpack your biggest communication challenge with me (or learn more about storytelling) do so by clicking here or visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

My guest this week is Dublin, Ireland-based Maura Dolan who has spent the large part of her life and career coaching executives to find the calm, clarity, and perspective to lead from an authentic and collaborative place. Maura's just released a lovely book via Amazon, The Collaborative Nature of Coaching: Basic Skills for Managers, Leaders, Life and Executive Coaches. This work compiles all she's learned from the field to help professionals find this same precious wisdom and insight. You can find the book here.

Our interview shares Maura's journey into coaching, her writing process, and why we both feel ( as pals and fellow mental fitness coaches) the way forward for us all becomes growing our self awareness, staying grounded, and communicating and leading from a centered, calm place.

Look for Maura Dolan on LinkedIn here and if you're keen to unpack your biggest communication challenge with me, try me out as a communications coach by clicking here or visit my LinkedIn profile and website.

The Collaborative Nature of Coaching: Basic Skills for Managers, Leaders, Life & Executive Coaches

My guest this week is Dorie Clark, an American author and executive education professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Along with working as a globally recognized communications coach for top-tier corporations, Dorie's also a three-time book author, most recently with: The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World , which releases this month from Harvard Business Review Press.

In our interview, Dorie shares gems from her early starts, what sparked her to leave small-town North Carolina and start a bigger, ambitious life alone. She shares how to create the vital space for long-term growth in our lives and careers by prioritizing how we spend our time and learning how to say no, even to the great opportunities, and even in ways which still serve our audience.

You can pre-order Dorie's book here and download your free Long Game Strategic Thinking Self-Assessment. Visit Dorie's website here.

Find more on Debbi via her website here or book her for a private communications coaching session via Calendly. Group coaching and training sessions on business writing and speaking coming this fall!

My guest this week is Bill Carmody, Head of Coaching for Positive Intelligence, who oversees the application of mental fitness for thousands of coaches worldwide. He also creates and rolls out the business development program where he supports coaches to elevate the business end of their coaching business.

In our interview, Coach Bill reminds us to love vs. resist and fear personal rejection, especially when growing our business. He invites us to find lessons and wisdom from personal rejection and to embrace the learning which comes from each of the 'no's' which lead to the 'yes.'

Bill helps us reframe the inner dialogue many of us feel when sharing our services and products with prospects; and we remember the resounding gift from the Sage perspective: Finding the gift, the knowledge, and the opportunity from life's ongoing setbacks.

Find more on Debbi via her website here or book her for a private session via Calendly. Group coaching sessions on business writing and speaking coming this fall!

Read up on Positive Intelligence here. and if you're a coach, try here for the excellent grant program with applications for Cohort 8 open through Sept. 20.

My guest this week is Parisian and Armenian Coach Marie-Louise Pereira who helps the many coachees she serves all over the globe better understand our values, our purpose and with a vital end goal: To avoid burnout.

With around 75% of US and European professionals reporting feelings of worker burnout, never has it become more pressing to understand the signs--and to use our sense of purpose to help us stay on track, working and living in healthy, meaningful ways.

Coach Pereira shares her first-hand knowledge of burnout and what she loves about serving clients on this important topic.

To learn more about Coach Pereira and ways to reduce stress while improving your performance, visit her LinkedIn profile here.

Want to know more about communications and narrative coaching with Debbi? Find her website here or book her for a private session via Calendly. Group coaching sessions on business writing and speaking coming this fall!

If you're like me, you're often sharing your ideas in a free-flow way wanting to make sense of things as you go. While external processing's lovely for big-idea people, from the field I hear a real appetite for bottom lining big, but not fully-formed key ideas. The need for some structure and brevity feels especially vial in ad hoc situations, like group meetings, and in ways which hook and retain often distracted audiences.

In this week's podcast, consider these tried and tested techniques to share and frame ideas, even rambling ones, in ways where your audience follows, truly listens, and sees the shiny, clearing in the woods, just like you do.

Want to know more about communications and narrative coaching with Debbi? Find her website here or book her for a private taster session via Calendly. Group coaching sessions on business writing and speaking coming this fall!

My guest today is Jayne Willoughby, a professional coach and artist based in rural Alberta, Canada. Jayne's a true Sage Sayer who's found the gifts and opportunities through life's inevitable setbacks. Jayne's cheerfully reinvented herself multiple times across multiple industries including nursing, psychiatry, and now coaching. She's a certified coach focusing on mental fitness and using art, something she's immensely gifted at, to help others find their strength, calm, and purpose.

In our interview with this award-winning artist, we learn the gifts, opportunities, and knowledge Jayne's gathered from her colorful careers. We learn too how she finds creativity becomes a wonderful tool for grounding, finding clarity, purpose--and even improving and maintaining our health.

Interested in working with Jayne? Find her website here. Curious about communications and narrative coaching with Debbi? Find her website here or book her for a private taster session via Calendly.

Performance reviews can trigger angst in all of us — and not surprising really because so much feels at stake. And yet, applying a blend of mental fitness, communications coaching, and journalistic strategy, you’ll find efficiency, clarity, and results. Consider these five approaches to minimize the guess work (and worry) with your next performance review.

Have a communication challenge to tackle with Coach Debbi? Sign up here for a sample session. Visit her on LinkedIn, or via her website.

There's real folly right now in not writing in clear, accessible, and audience-centered ways. Here in the U.S., the home for The Sage Sayers, 30% of workers plan to resign from their jobs and Gallup polls track around 70% feel dejected and not interested in work.

In this week's podcast, I'm sharing tips and techniques for bottom lining key information in your next robust informative message. Whether you're emailing leaders about your stellar performance or alerting a team of a morale boosting initiative, this podcast offers all you need to keep the message crisp, compelling, well structured, and therefore read by many.

Have a communication challenge to tackle with Coach Debbi? Sign up here for a sample session. Her next communication workshop on active listening lives here and then our first narrative coaching workshop here. Or you can visit her website.

If you're like me, you want to share your story willy-nilly without much thought for strategy. But Coach Pam Knox, my guest this week, advises nothing beyond purposeful, strategic storytelling. Unless we have purpose and know our audience, we'll not be targeted, nor will our message resonate, she says.

Coach Pam's a global business strategist, storyteller and communication coach helping her clients confidently leverage their authentic story as an empowering strength. In our interview, we unpack best practices on getting our story across, the role mental fitness plays, and the joy in storytelling, which often starts in our youth.

For more information on Coach Pam Knox, visit her website. To book 1:1 or team communications coaching with me, your show host, try my Calendly link. Or, join my next narrative coaching workshop.

In this week's episode of the Sage Sayers, I’m narrating Chapter One of the Perfect Novel of My Life. This narrative coaching and mental fitness exercise builds discovery of our inherent gifts to the world and the gifts, knowledge, and the opportunities within each challenging situation.

I learned this exercise through the Positive Intelligence mental fitness program under the training and leadership of Coach Shirzad Chamine. I loved the experience so much, I created my own hybrid version combining journalism, narrative coaching, and storytelling.

The result: Self awareness. Storytelling excerpts no marketer can possibly find and confidence. Also, comfort and clarity from knowing the source of our strengths and values and how and where we learned them.

Enjoy Chapter One, based in New Zealand's wilderness and chronicling excerpts of the first five years of life and all that was swirling around me as I grew up.

Have a communication challenge to tackle with Coach Debbi? Sign up here for a sample session. Her next communication workshop on active listening lives here and then our first narrative coaching workshop here. Or you can visit her website.

My guest this week is Colby McCullough, a supply chain expert with a combined 24 years of experience in the aerospace and consumer goods industries. He grew up in New Orleans and holds a BS in Structural Engineering and an MBA in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon.

Colby now directs the supply chain analytics at a large, Mid West consumer goods company where he and his team develop analytical tools and reporting to ensure the supply chain runs most efficiently (a great thing, especially within these disruptive, singular times). Clear, succinct, and compelling communications, a craft we can all continue to refine, becomes essential, he says.

How do I know Colby? Because he’s my dear husband and at his side, I’ve seen his career flourish (and him learning and thriving) from the challenges before him--a true Sage response.

Have a communication challenge to tackle with Coach Debbi? Sign up here for a taster session. Her next communication workshop on active listening lives here and then our first narrative coaching workshop here. Or you can visit her website.

My guest this week is Charles Cranston Jett, a certified coach specializing in career management, critical skill development, and career crises. Charles got here through years of management consulting and executive search experience, especially CEOs and those reporting to CEOs. He also finds calm from lessons and wisdom learned from his former Navy leaders.

Charles reminds us of the power of pivoting, retooling, and reinventing our careers; staying passionate about what we do, and using mental fitness (achieving your full potential from a positive vs. negative mindset) as a vital tool.

You can find more about Charles and his services here and follow his podcast here. His leadership books are featured on Amazon.

You can book me for a complimentary coaching session via my Calendly link. Or, sign up for my latest communications workshop. My goal and gift always: Helping you replace fear and discomfort with courage and joy when communicating with spooky and high-stakes audiences.

The DOOM LOOP!: Straight Talk about Job Frustration, Boredom, Career Crises and Tactical Career Decisions from the Doom Loop Creator.

In this week's podcast, we offer tips and strategies on asking for a raise, promotion, or improved rates and terms with a contract. This podcast provides a revised audio version to Coach Debbi's article on feeling brave as we persuade, published this week on Medium, which you can find here.

Have a communication challenge to tackle with Coach Debbi? Sign up here for a session. Her next communication workshop lives here.

My guest this week is Pastor and Dr. Thomas A DeLoach who captures the hearts of North Carolina's youth through preaching, coaching, and his provocative messages on God and community.

With Father's Day approaching, Pastor DeLoach's beliefs feel extra timely: He wants to raise the standard of character and integrity of our leaders and help young, troubled youth remember the love of God and their community when they feel lost in their ways.

As communicators, we can learn from Pastor DeLoach's integrity, his vision, but also his techniques on finding calm, passion, and center as he shares his views from his Word of Life Church and Ministries in front of audiences of hundreds, even a thousand.

His faith in God, loyalty to his mother, his wife, and determination to reach out to as many people as possible makes him a trail blazer--and an inspiring communicator.

Have a communication challenge to tackle with Coach Debbi? Sign up here for a session. Her communication workshops live here and here. Want to learn more about Pastor DeLoach, his church and ministry? Visit here.

Guenter Schaber wants to transform how salespeople (and entrepreneurs) view their prize. He means: Rather than focus exclusively on the big payout at the end, enjoy the journey along the way. Doing so becomes vital, if you want to feel happy, he says, and will help you become more successful, too.

In this week's podcast, we hear from Guenter, a Munich, Germany-based sales coach, how (and why) we must rebound with positive vs. negative emotions as we persuade others to say 'yes' to our products or services. Guenter believes mental fitness becomes a vital tool for weathering the inevitable rejections and stresses that come from sales. And he thinks we ought to re-frame the idea of "selling" to "sharing," too.

You can hire and find Guenter on LinkedIn. You can book Debbi for a coaching or training session via Calendly, attend her workshops, or share ideas for future episodes at hangingrockmedia@gmail.com.

My guest this week is Peter Khoury, a professional speaker and public speaking coach from the West Bank based in San Francisco. Peter's a great story to tell of a life full of art, priests, and wonder as a boy to his career in engineering, training, and now public speaking and training through his business, Magnetic Speaking.

Peter's a firm believer of learning, growing, and retooling. He offers within this episode great tips on how to sound lively, authentic, and fearless with your next presentation, too.

Visit Debbi's website, book her for a complimentary coaching session on any communication challenge messing with you, or attend her next workshop: Asking powerful questions which yield interesting depth vs. frivolous fluff.

In this week's podcast, we explore how mental fitness through Positive Intelligence (the science and practice of mastering your mind so you can reach your full potential) serves us with high-stakes presentations and messages. Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, becomes a universal problem and no other tool (I've discovered) helps like mental fitness does.

Today's episode (a kick-off in a series on mental fitness and direct communication) shares the Sage perspective and the Sage Empathy power. These two super powers will help you ground, worry less, and deliver your message from a place of love, confidence, and clarity vs. fear-induced worry, self doubt, and panic. Sound familiar? Listen in.

You can learn more about Positive Intelligence here.

Visit Coach Debbi's website here and try her new Hanging Rock workshops:

The Active Listening workshop (Wednesday, May 26 @ 9 a.m., Noon, and 6 p.m. CST).
The Powerful Questions workshop (Wednesday, June 9 @ 9 a.m., Noon, and 6 p.m. CST).

We're going global, helping the world communicate from a brave, compelling, and loving place!

My guest this week is Jennifer Kho, former managing editor for the HuffPost and the Guardian's US edition. She's now president-elect for the Journalism and Women Symposium and senior advisor to leading media outlets including Canary Media and Capital and Main.

Throughout her career, Jennifer's always loved the storytelling and knowledge she gained from reporting and writing stories; now she's equally as passionate about saving journalism (and ensuring its worth saving by solving its diversity and equity issues).

In this interview, we hear of the gifts, the knowledge, and opportunities Jennifer's gathered throughout her career—and how she's found she has the biggest impact as a crusader of journalism not from writing articles, but from the leadership roles coming her way.

To learn more about Jennifer Kho, visit her on LinkedIn. Visit Debbi on LinkedIn , her website, or we encourage you to try her communications workshops here.

My guest this week is Luca Dondi, an executive coach based in Rome, Italy, who has developed an intriguing niche helping executives navigate across cultures.

Luca knows this experience first hand having worked (and studied) in multiple cultures and frequently as a minority both due to his personality, life approach, and nationality.

In this interview, Luca shares his career, life path, and his ability to find the Sage approach when we change jobs and geographies and create other bold and brave life change.

You can learn more about Luca and his coaching services by visiting his website and about my coaching and training by visiting mine or my LinkedIn profile, too.

Note to listeners: This week's podcast is a re-do from an earlier interview because Coach Luca and my Stickler saboteurs surfaced! We realized though (in full Sage mode) we could do better on this vital topic. This version's MUCH better AND we added Bach music.

Most of us want to feel joyous at work and a delightful 2020 book by Marie Kondo, tidying expert and best-selling author, and Scott Sonenshein, an organizational psychologist has loads of timely advice.

In this week’s podcast, I share the core lessons and steps I absorbed from “Joy At Work. Organizing Your Professional Life,” in hopes it sparks joy in your work—both present and future.

For more on Debbi McCullough, her coaching, training services, and upcoming workshops, visit her on LinkedIn or at her website. Her blog on Joy at Work lives here.

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life

My guest this week is Hector Garcia, a citizen of Japan and the author of several beautiful and best-selling books, including Ikigai, the Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life which he co-authored with Francesc Miralles.

In our interview, Hector inspires us how to find and honor our Ikigai, our life's purpose. In doing so, we can better ensure we spend more time doing things we enjoy and that bring us joy and purpose, even during challenging times.

You can learn more about Hector Garcia and his new, upcoming book release by visiting his website. Visit Debbi's website to learn about her training and coaching services by visiting here.

Whether we view failure with fear, shame, or disdain, culturally and generationally we can see many different ways we respond to failure.

Although I've lived and worked within cultures which find failure off-putting and signaling incompetence, I'm working to welcome failure as a vital segue to meaningful growth. (Mental fitness and finding the Sage perspective within setbacks really helps!)

In this personal story, I share an epic career blunder and how it presented gifts, opportunities, and knowledge I'm still benefiting from today. I hope my story helps you feel less mortified when (or if) you next experience a flop at work or within life.

Interested in the Positive Intelligence training program, visit here or hire Debbi as your group or individual PQ Certified Coach. Want to discover Debbi's narrative coaching and executive communication training services? Click here.

My guest this week is Christine Van Der Mark who discovered, a few days after Christmas in 2019, her late husband Shad had committed suicide. He was 41.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked 47, 511 suicide deaths that year; and through COVID-19, experts predict more deaths of despair, especially among middle aged men who remain over three times more likely than women to commit suicide.

In this interview, we hear a young woman's story of shock, grief and anger turn to resilience, resolve, and then openness to true love again. Van Der Mark's hope: Helping others notice when someone you know needs mental support and help. Sharing that grief recovery starts with self love and self care.

In this week's podcast, Coach Debbi offers five tips to warm up the tone of your business writing so that you sound warm, accessible, and open vs. closed off and cool. If you suspect your readers tune you out, let's turn that ship around.

If you're interested in Debbi's narrative coaching and executive communication coaching and training services, click here.

My guest this week is Amy Boettcher, an ICF certified coach and former attorney who practiced divorce law for 18 years and was partner at her Wisconsin-based firm.

Two years ago, after honoring her need for new knowledge, growth, and for change, Amy retrained in an entirely new field: Coaching.

She's since developed an intriguing, purposeful niche serving divorced parents who've found their judgment (and discord) of one another gets in their way of co-parenting their child from this new, often uncomfortable place. The knowledge she gained from coaching training and from her legal practice has uplifted her in ways anyone even contemplating a career/life change, will learn from.

You can reach Amy Boettcher by visiting here. Reach out to Debbi McCullough for her coaching and training services here.

My guest this week is Professor of Theatre at College of William & Mary, Elizabeth Wiley. Prof Wiley's a Midwesterner who's soon to move her side-gig (audiobook narration) to her main gig after many delightful years as a professor. Through COVID-19 and positive changes within theatre, she's realized: Now's the time for creating change.

In our interview, Prof. Wiley (an award-winning narrator) shares her journey from a large Minnesota family to theatre, teaching, and entrepreneurship. And we learn communication tips along the way. Like, noticing when our Judge shows up and hijacks our high-stakes presentations, seeing the value in grounding our bodies, and understanding what vocal patterns, like upspeak and vocal fry, signal to our audiences.

To learn more about Elizabeth Wiley and her narration services, visit Wiley Voice. For info on my coaching and training services and/or a complimentary session, visit Hanging Rock Coaching.

My guest this week is California, Santa Cruz-based Chris Baker who, a few years ago, became one of the US's 106,000+ cases of newly diagnosed melanomas.

Skin cancer, by far the most common form of cancers, impacts twice as many men as women and in Baker's case went on to become Stage Three. His likelihood of becoming one of the 7,000+ people to die from melanoma that year felt high, especially with rates rising rapidly over past decades.

In this moving interview, Baker, a true Sage Sayer, shares how surviving his health ordeal transformed him. And he found the care and love he experienced within his recovery inspired an entirely new career in leadership coaching.

You can reach Coach Chris Baker and his services here. You can book Coach Debbi for a complimentary coaching or training session here.

My guest this week, Dr. Sergey Sikora, has learned rich life lessons about entrepreneurship from launching five successful ventures, including Releviate Therapeutics.

He launched this most recent bio-pharmaceutical company, which develops therapies to target (and relieve) neuropathic pain, right within the thick of the Pandemic—a perfect environment for any startup, he says. This (milestone 10th) episode of the Sage Sayers offers insight into the bravery and agility required for startup owners and business-builders everywhere.

You can learn more about Releviate Therapeutics here. Track down Coach Debbi for a complimentary narrative or executive communications coaching and/or training session by clicking here.

In this week's Sage Sayer's podcast, we tackle an age-old vocal pattern getting in our way of connecting with and retaining our audience: Flat, lifeless, and monotone vocal delivery.

Coach Debbi offers ten coaching and business reporter tips to add warmth, vocal variety, and passion to your next high-stakes presentation. Visit Hanging Rock Coaching for Coach Debbi's coaching and training services or schedule a complimentary coaching session.

My guest this week is Dr. Linda Przybyszewski, a historian and associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. How I came to know Linda’s work is through her beautiful, NY-Times bestselling book: The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish. (As someone who loves fashion and a daughter of a mother who enjoyed sewing, this book delighted and taught me a lot.)

The Lost Art of Dress (published with Basic in 2014) remains relevant. Linda documents the rise of Dress Doctors in the early 20th century and their demise in the 60s. Dress Doctors, Linda explains, were women working as teachers, writers, retailers, and designers who advised women how to dress well, how to choose clothing which suits us at different times of the day, life stages, and ages.

Within our interview, Linda guides us through the thrill of research, dressing well, our heritage, and how to still look (and feel) chic, even when busy and even when working from home. You can read Linda's delightful blogging on fashion via Tumblr and find her book on Amazon here.

Find information on me and my coaching and training services via my website.

Note to my listeners: Please forgive the occasional audio distortion this week as we find our way as a startup podcast.

The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish

If excessive filler words take over your presentation, you're signaling to your audience your discomfort, disinterest, and/or that you're not feeling prepared.

In this week's Sage Sayers podcast, Coach Debbi offers five tips to managing verbal filler (words like: “um,” “uh,” “like,” “you know”) so the vocal pattern doesn't overwhelm you—or lose your audience. (Incorporating PQ reps, a powerful and succinct technique for quieting your Survivor brain and activating your PQ Sage region in your brain, becomes part of this week’s offering. You’ll notice powerful shifts as you present!)

For information on Debbi and her coaching and training services, visit: www.hangingrockcoaching.com Interested in Positive Intelligence? Visit: www.positiveintelligence.com

Singer, song writer, social worker, and activist Emily Cavanagh discovered a gift through COVID: Writing (and gifting) personalized songs to those feeling sad, lost, scared, and isolated.

Her initiative: "A Song For You" has now hit 100 songs which go to front-line workers, COVID patients, and their families in hospitals and hospice centers across the US. Famed singers, including Sophie B Hawkins, have shared and written songs for A Song For You, too.

In this interview, Cavanagh shares how she found social work, activism, and song writing provided the perfect tapestry of her Chicago Irish heritage, passions, and skills. And how grieving for what she lost through COVID inspired her newest passion: "A Song for You."

You can find Emily's music through: www.emilycavanaghmusic.com and www.hereisasongforyou.org becomes live soon.

This week, we chat with veteran podcaster, Marc Lee, an award-winning executive producer with IBM.TV and host of multiple podcasts, often back-to-back within the one day. (He's a machine!)

Lee, based in North Carolina, learned some fundamentals of effective audio storytelling through his parents who ran their own radio station during his boyhood.

Lee offers us tips, strategies, and insight into how to last the homeward stretch, avoid fadeout, and stand out among the 850,000 - 1,175,000 podcasts (depending on the data source) engaging podcast listeners today.

Visit Coach Debbi, your show host, at www.hangingrockcoaching.com or hangingrockmedia@gmail.com and Marc Lee at: https://linktr.ee/leeentertainment62

This week, we interview Carmela O’Flaherty, an executive leadership and business communication coach helping non-native speakers of English thrive within corporate America. Coach Carmela (who's also a classical pianist and linguist) shares her stories and tips on how to stay grounded, calm, and confident, even when the language and customs around you seem new and unfamiliar.

An epic meltdown amidst a Covid-19 quarantine reminded me of a vital lesson: Always take time to become mindful, no matter how busy and overwhelmed we feel. Not only do we become more grounded and efficient, we perform better—and our life perspective improves, too.

We all want to captivate our audience; but in meetings, many simply want to feel they're listened to. In this podcast, Coach Debbi offers tips to listening in ways that others notice—and respond well to.

For more insights and tips on business communication or for team or individual coaching and training, visit: Hanging Rock, LLC (hangingrockcoaching.com)

In our debut podcast, we interview Richard (Rick) Phillips, a bestselling sci-fi author, who wrote his first book (The Second Ship) with a publishing via Amazon in 2006. A million of sold copies (and multiple editions) later, he's also published eight books in the Rho Agenda series. Rick's self taught. His books have sold so well, he's left his day job as a corporate executive and now writes full time.

Our interview:

Explores the gifts, opportunities, and knowledge Rick gathered throughout his first careers (including time serving with the US army) and incorporates into his writing today.
Shares writing and self-publishing tips from a writer who knows the business.
Inspires others to start their own book(s) now, the best time ever, during the Pandemic.