The Sage Sayers

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 [email protected] 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. 

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.