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 insigh...

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 wi...

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; ...

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 ...

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, managi...

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 hi...

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, h...

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 ke...

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 sel...

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...

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 t...

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 comp...

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, B...

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 ...

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 brai...

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...

“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 spe...

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 po...

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 conf...

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 ...