The Sage Sayers

When Harvard University first year student Jonathan Rubin first launched NextTier Athletes five months ago, he did not anticipate the business reaching five figures monthly so soon from launch. The consulting business, helping high-school top athletes get the inside edge from current Ivy League athletes, took off fast. "We had an idea. We knew time was limited, and we had to capitalize on it," Jonathan says. From Harvard Square, we sit with Jonathan and his executives Jordan Gonzalez and Nicholas McCullough on their early launch, success, and the power of a personal brand. We also get an interesting take from teen entrepreneurs on confidence, and how to block out the inevitable fear when doing something big (and bold) like introducing yourself to powerful coaches, pitching yourself to parents, and launching a first venture. You can read more about NextTier Athletes here and hire them to help your high school athlete get to an Ivy League college. Debbi McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian. She is certified with the International Coaching Federation as a Master Certified Coach, in the top 4% globally, and a communications thought partner to Fortune 500/100 leaders. Find her on LinkedIn.  Book her for a consult. Train your teams with her on Maven. 

We hear the need for brevity to hook and engage our audiences. What if we're so brief, we struggle to expand or stretch beyond one sentence?Reading from Substack: How we can expand on our ideas and offerings to the world in interesting ways, and without sounding annoyingly "braggish." Tips, tactics, and analysis on the cultural and humility barriers that might be getting in our way. You can read along to this reading here. Debbi McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and is certified with the International Coaching Federation as a Master Certified Coach, in the top 4% globally. She's a communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Book her for a consult on the communication challenge irking you most. 

If you seek motivation to use LinkedIn more liberally and well, start listening to and following LinkedIn Coach Ashi Chopra. She's a Mumbai-based entrepreneur who loves to help women (especially) tell their stories on LinkedIn, the world's largest social media site for business professionals. We hear from Ashi on the missed opportunities of engaging on LinkedIn and that telling our audiences what does not work and what does work becomes vital. If we share only the highlights then nobody learns how we navigate our challenges, nor how we talked ourselves back into success. You can find Ashi on LinkedIn here. You can enjoy our interview on YouTube here. Debbi McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and serves as a Master Certified Coach and communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Book her for a consult on the communication challenge irking you most. 

We spotlight a revered and favorite MCC coach, Master Coach Trainer & Author Dr. Marcia Reynolds, who has worked in 47 countries and reached over 100k people. Dr. Reynolds comes to us weeks after her Second Edition release of "Coach the Person, Not the Problem," already an Amazon bestseller. We learn communications and listening approaches and habits leaders and coaches can emulate right away. Coach slowly to ensure you (and they) understand their problem. (You don't always know right away.) Be curious (super curious).  Show that you understand to develop and retain their trust. Know when to give them space and be silent. And then...Move to the challenges, which many of us rush to first. (Resist!)  We also hear about what it truly entails to write a Second Edition of an already bestselling and revered book. (It's a lot, Marcia notes, but also rewarding and exciting, because much has changed with coaching and her views on coaching within six years.)Find Dr. Reynold's popular and infamous book on Amazon here: https://shorturl.at/LVlsE

“There’s always a gap of what men can read, understand, and put into practice with supporting the women in their lives through menopause.” So says British author and photographer, Simon Salt, who is working on a beautiful guide, the “Quiet Transition” to help men and women ride the perfect storm of menopause. He reasons: Men are fixers. We are solution finders. ”Problem is with menopause, there’s nothing to fix, because nothing is broken.” Also, of the 80 or so symptoms women may experience in perimenopause and menopause, each woman's experience is totally different, and many don't know what to expect.“We want to hear less score keeping,  more understanding, and that "we are" vs. "I am" going through menopause. That's what this guide is about."You can follow Simon Salt and the Quiet Transition on Substack and his other books published on Amazon. Debbi McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and serves as a Master Certified Coach and communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Book her for a consult on the communication challenge irking you most. 

We turn the spotlight this week on Dr. Haru Yamada, a sociolinguist, listening intelligence researcher, and author of “KIKU: The Japanese Art of Good Listening” to discover just how we do listen? Also, why performative skills like speaking, presenting, and offering ideas can overshadow (in many cultures) the often under-tapped skills of listening, both for receiving information and strengthening relationships.  We hear Dr. Yamada's approach to listening, which includes listening with our heart and of the Japanese concept of “kiku,” a deep, empathetic form of listening to communicate, connect, and become more present and understanding in our interactions. Japanese language teaches us a lot about listening, Haru reminds us. The kanji character for "to listen" (kiku, 聴) has "fourteen hearts" and is composed of an ear (耳), the number ten (十), an eye (目), and a heart (心) on the bottom, symbolizing deep, empathetic listening. You can find Dr. Haru Yamada on LinkedIn. And follow her Substack. Her book’s now in paperback as well on Amazon. Debbi McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and serves as a Master Certified Coach and communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Book her for a consult on small talk, job interviews, or the communication challenge irking you most. Join her next active listening workshop for leaders: Listen Like a Boss. 

Like many effervescent people, Ohio-based Austin Sussel has little trouble connecting even with strangers, and even at work. He got great at it, actually, as an international account manager of Fortune 100/500s. But even Austin struggles at times when the connection's not there. Or worse, the receiver of your attempts to converse stone walls you.  "In those moments, sales leaders told me I ought to compliment them on their shoes they're wearing," he laughs."But I find what works best is simply asking about their day--or what's happening next." The key, he says: "Be curious. Be kind. And keep it short, simple, and about them."Learn tips and tactics on listening and human connection from two conversationalists who love it. Also hear about active listening and comfort with pause and silence in conversation, especially what I learned from certifying as a Master Certified Coach last week, something Austin asks me about. (Because he's curious, and that kind of friend.)You can reach out to Austin Sussel on LinkedIn here. Debbi McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and serves as a Master Certified Coach and communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Book her for a consult on small talk, job interviews, or the communication challenge irking you most. Join her next active listening workshop for leaders: Listen Like a Boss. 

We're welcoming back to the show Harvard student athlete, Nick McCullough, now on his second semester at Harvard as an Econ student and defensive tackle player for the Harvard Crimson football team. [Listener note: Nick is also my oldest son.] We hear from an 18-year-old first-year student and footballer all about networking and what that means at Harvard: Getting in with people you like and want to grow with for your "block" (the dormitory wing for your second year).  Making connections for internships and your hopeful work, after the studies are done. And building trust, and camaraderie, important especially for student athletes at Harvard who can pull 60-70-hour weeks when the sport season is underway. The friendships formed help support and pull you through. Follow our first Sage Sayers interview on Nick's communications strategy (from age 15) which helped him find his way to Harvard. And you can follow or support Nick on LinkedIn here. D G McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and taught business communications and journalism at UNC Chapel Hill. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s, including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Or book her for a consult on your communications challenges bothering you the most. 

Happy New Year, dear Sage Sayers listeners. Welcome back. 2026, Year of the Fire Horse, will be awesome. If you're stuck on how to approach goals this year, or even to bother with them, British tech marketer and coach, Malvika Joshi, joins me for episode 1, season 5, with her approach, and how to communicate goals (to ourselves, and others.)(Popular data tells us 80-90% of professionals abandon their resolutions, and usually by mid-January, highlighting the need for clear plans, new approaches, and accountability.)  Malvika likes to see her goals compound interest over time and to let curiosity vs strict structure lead the way. She creates themes to her goals, like health and growth, and pledges daily write ups on her progress. So far, two weeks in, she's maintained this flow. Public building of goals is another strategy, one I've played with on LinkedIn, which helps with accountability and brings interesting opportunities with communicating our success and failures. If you’d like to find Coach Malvika, reach out to her on LInkedIn. D G McCullough has written for the Economist, FT, and Guardian and taught business communications and journalism at UNC Chapel Hill. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders at Fortune 500s/100s, including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Or book her for a consult on your communications challenges bothering you the most. 

Patty McGee never cared for how grammar was taught to her at school. “It was always so strict, rigid, and not interesting at all.” After years as a teacher, Patty pledged to make grammar interesting for the kids she taught at school. From seeing such great results and children loving her approach, she co-wrote a book on grammar, one which we can appreciate as business communicators too. In our interview, we hear of Patty’s new love for grammar, her book-writing process, and insights into the rules which make many of us feel stuck (like capitals or lowercase after a colon). Also hear her guidance on the em-dash, which AI tools love, and with that, make the punctuation mark (alas) less popular. You can find Not Your Granny’s Grammar: An Innovative Approach to Meaningful and Engaging Grammar Instruction here. Please follow Patty McGee on LinkedIn here. D G McCullough has written for the Economist, FT of London, and the Economist and taught communications and journalism at UNC Chapel Hill. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders at Fortune 100s, including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Join her workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss. Or book her for a consult on your bio, one-liner, and work story. Note to my dear Listeners: This is the last episode of the Sage Sayers for 2025. Thank you for enjoying this podcast with me. We resume our show first Friday of January. 

Co-Founder of Female Mavericks, Advisor, Coach and Cheerleader to Solopreneurs Beth Mazza joined the Sage Sayers the week before Thanksgiving, and I'm so glad she joined our show. Our paths crossed from her intriguing LinkedIn post which highlighted that AI searches of images of female founders often yielded images of men. As a mother of three daughters and whose two exits as an entrepreneur totaled 7+ figures, Beth felt angered, and then intrigued and empowered to share the findings with many. Her post yielded amazing responses, mine was one, and a connection formed. I too had found AI yielding sexist responses for headings for my writings, and more women founders want to speak out. In our lovely ad hoc interview, we hear about Beth's love for entrepreneurship, motherhood, her 2026 book release ("Entrepreneur Like a Mother) and Female Mavericks, a program helping women entrepreneurs scale their business, launching March 2026. We hear too of her love for writing and uplifting messages that will inspire you to found your own venture or continue to build the one you've begun. You can find Beth Mazza on LinkedIn here and visit Female Mavericks here. D G McCullough has written for the Economist, FT of London, and the Economist and taught communications and journalism at UNC Chapel Hill. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders at Fortune 100s, including Google. Find her on LinkedIn.  Join her workshops on Maven, Brag Anyway, and Listen Like a Boss. Or book her for a consult on your bio, one-liner, and work story. 

Award-winning author, speaker, and CEO advisor Leslie Grandy guides teams, companies, and product leaders to leverage their creative thinking to elevate their organizations. She's worked across the entertainment, retail, and IT industries for the big giants whose names you'd know (including Amazon, Oracle, and Apple.) Although her book, "Creative Velocity," encourages us to harness our creativity, Leslie herself felt highly uncreative growing up. She knew she was great at other things; but creativity felt something outside of her realm, which in part inspired her book.  In our lively interview, we hear of Leslie's first published work through Wiley (2025) and how that evolved vs the popular route of self publishing. We learn of the serendipity of her careers which started in Hollywood and her leadership style which includes that enviable hybrid of kind, but firm, direct, but spacious. I enjoyed hearing of the ebbs and flow in Leslie's career and the serendipity within. Also, how she found the Sage approach and the creative approach along the way. You can find Leslie on LinkedIn and find Creative Velocity here, which will be a great read to add to our must reads by the end of the year. D G McCullough has written 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. 

Not often do I meet a fellow writer, entrepreneur, and problem solver like Content Creation Coach Cynthia Trevino. We met via LinkedIn after she liked something wild I put out there (a hype video for a workshop). I noticed her pithy, powerful title and headline she'd wisely crafted and invited her in for a chat. I love that Cynthia has reinvented, started out as an entrepreneur after being laid off, and before YouTube or TikTok to guide us on how to market ourselves. She figured things out through experimenting, making mistakes, and rebounding. Today she helps women 50+ years and over with their brand, gently coaching them to avoid the vague and broad, a common misstep for all of us, because it feels safe, and because it feels inclusive. It is; and it is not. Vagueness and broadness anchor us within the sea of sameness, especially now with epic wild times and corporate upsets and a larger pool of job seekers and hustlers looking to replace lost clients with new ones. You'll hear from two older writers and how we're working to keep our own writings fresh, interesting, fun, and (hopefully) impactful for our readers. You can find Cynthia Trevino on LinkedIn (and please appreciate her clear, concise framing there!)D G McCullough has written 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, a self-review writing workshop for the shy and humble and those writing about their year or quarter's work in English, their second language. 

Entrepreneur, almost new dad, and tech leader Steven Puri knows a lot about remote teams and work. He's led remote teams across multiple huge companies (including Fox, DreamWorks, and Sony) for 20 years. He's a daily yogi, an almost new dad, and also launched the Sukha Company helping remote workers focus, finish faster, and feel healthier. We discovered different ways to connect, even when remote, and ways to get meetings finishing on time. We also talked about entrepreneurship, managing our time, and his Sukha Company venture, including how he and his wife came up the great name. Discover tips and tactics from a leader whose found themes and threads in everything he does, so you can do the same. Find more about Steven and the Sukha Company, a company dedicated to helping millions of people improve focus and work-life balance. Connect with Steven via LinkedIn. D G McCullough has written 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 at two time slots this upcoming week. 

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 [email protected] 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. 

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. (He found solace through his own ambitions and his Muslim faith.) 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 this point because my clients kept telling me so. I confirmed the phenomena for sure when I allowed myself recently to feel that intense fear once more, presenting on active listening to a live audience, with a 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 one with deep meaning to me, most of my fears melted away. Reading from my essay on Medium, which you can read with me 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. 

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 captain in the Muskego Warrior’s team  history. He 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. Nicholas 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. (He started his campaign at age 15.)  I promise you’ll learn from him as I do. Listen in, and congratulations again, dear Nicholas. Follow Nicholas via Twitter hereListen to our feature on the gifts of Varsity Football (from the sidelines of the Muskego Warriors) 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. 

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.