Leadership coach Amy Krymkowski fell in love with coaching through her work in HR. After observing a coach in action, she found the approach so spacious and like nothing else. "I was in awe with how much progress and awareness came from listening, silence, and creating space through inquiry," she says.

She declared coaching as her primary profession, certified, and joined an outplacement firm as a full-time job search coach before founding her own firm: Better Path Coaching, guiding professionals and leaders through career transformations and transitions in holistic ways. From her Milwaukee, Wi. base she's stayed in love with coaching ever since and all it brings.

While coaching and transformation is what she brings her clients, silence and a practice with observing silence is part of Coach Amy's self care and flow.

In our interview, we hear of her retreats, training, and her discovery on what changes within her, simply from creating space for something no money can buy: quiet, and time to just "be" and think.

You can find Coach Amy on LinkedIn here and Better Path Coaching here.

Your show host, Debbi Gardiner McCullough, is a communications coach for Google PMs through Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here. Join her active listening and communications workshops on Maven here and here, with a new Listen Like a Boss coming soon.

Last Friday, January 16, I heard from the assessors at the International Coaching Federation that I passed their famously difficult and evasive Master Certified Coaching Performance Evaluation.

I've still the Coach Knowledge Assessment (CKA), a four-hour exam to go, before I get to join the 4% of MCC coaches globally, a rare group of around 2,240 coaches within 56,000 ICF credential-holders worldwide.

But the hardest part (the performance evaluation) is now behind me.

I was amazed and cried a lot when I read I’d passed and wrote on what's coming up for me on my Substack here. This is my immigrant dream coming true.

Over winter break, (having submitted my MCC submission in September) I convinced myself I’d need to resubmit multiple times, like many coaches do. I still can't believe I passed with my first shot.

Curiosity, presence, and determination helped me the most, along with the accountability this podcast, Competency No 5 brought. [So, thank you for bearing with me!]

In this week's episode, we welcome back MCC Coach Ben Dooley, one of two MCC coaches who mentored me. Ben tells us what that CKA is all about and how to pass it. I've since booked my CKA exam for early February.

Reach out to MCC Coach Ben Dooley via his website, here.

Your show host, Debbi Gardiner McCullough, is a communications coach for Google PMs through Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here. Join her workshops on Maven here and here.

When Karen Canham struggled with anorexia, her body felt numb. In fact, she couldn't access her body mentally at all, because the eating disorder stemmed from trauma.

Through therapy and recovery, she came out the other side, learned yoga, how to regulate, and reconnect with her body after years of disconnection. Yoga taught her presence. Breath taught her patience.

And after years in the corporate world, her new journey began: Teaching others how to move beneath perfectionism and performance and return to themselves; not through hacks. More so daily practices helping us regulate our nervous system and lead with presence, clear communications, while inviting safety for others to do the same.

In this interview, we experience that shift live time through inquiry and candid sharing. The shift feels unmistakable. Learn from a somatic and wellness coach stories of bravery, presence, and the powerful shifts on what we see before us when we pause, notice, and anchor in our conversation and bodies.

You can find Coach Karen on LinkedIn here and visit KarenAnnWellness here.

Your show host, Debbi Gardiner McCullough, is a communications coach for Google PMs through Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here. Join her workshops on Maven here and here.

In our final episode for 2025, First Year Harvard student Nicholas McCullough shares how he maintained presence, calm, stoicism, and all those great things amidst a pressured first semester at Harvard University as a footballer and Economics student. He and other student athletes averaged 65+ hour weeks.

In this interview, Nicholas (my oldest son) shares the power of camaraderie with his fellow Harvard athletes (his fellow footballers and other athletes across campus). He shares the importance of managing our time well, choosing quiet places to focus, and managing others' expectations of us when time affluence becomes low.

And we hear of the gifts and opportunities of taking a chance and moving far away from all we know to pursue our dreams. There's some real excitement that comes from being truly anonymous and having no history whatsoever, aside from the new story we create.

My dear listeners of this small but growing show, thank you for following me. This is our last episode until the New Year. Happy Holidays. May you rest, be calm, and merry.

If you're a coach following my documentary on my MCC submission efforts, until I hear otherwise, the ICF will alert me of my pass or fail January 15. I have an essay to write and read on how daunting that feels.

If you'd like to follow Nicholas and support him in his endeavors, you can find his LinkedIn profile here.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Google PMs through Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here.

A simple daily flow of coaching questions helps me feel happier, but also more focused, ambitious, and committed to my work and life goals.

My goals typically seem to come true, in part of this vital practice grounded in maintaining presence in the wake of not knowing. And slowing down long enough to see all that's going great, right now, without wanting nor needing to change a thing.

You can read my Substack post on how and why I pause to applause here.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Google PMs through Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here.

When customer operations manager Jeanette Bernard lost her husband Matt four years ago, the flippant comments from others on her need to rebound fast upset her as much as the grief.

“People would say: You’ll be back out there in a couple of months. You’ll be fine,” she recalls of awful comments at her husband’s funeral. “I was so mad. I will never forget Matt. Nor does he want me to.”

Now four years later, and the anniversary of Matt’s death on Thanksgiving week, Jeanette still communicates with her childhood sweetheart in her own special way. She finds talking with him, asking for signs of his presence, and remembering him coming to her in her dreams (and one very powerful time when awake) helps her feel comforted. She still feels his presence and his love. And keeping connected with him also helps her function at work and in life.

In a touching episode, we hear Jeanette’s encounters with seeing her husband, how she asks for signs, and how those signs appear, often within 1-2 days. We hear on this upcoming Thanksgiving week her appeal to us all to continue communicating with those we love who have passed away. “They want to hear from us. They want us to remember them,” she says. “So talk to them.”

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here.

Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here.

Chapter 5 of the Harvard Mum essay project documents the truer reality of Harvard life now 2.5 months have passed, the pressure has raised, and athletes and scholars (like my son) must juggle robust commitments to their sport and studies.

There's also the inevitable pressure of being an eighteen-nineteen year-old student, often far from home, and admitted into the world's most revered university.

Read from my essay on Substack.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn.

Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here.

The holidays can stretch too many of us bringing heightened stress and surface-level conversations, even with those we love. Paris, France-based Coach Marie-Louise Pereira knows how to bring coaching skills and Competency No 5 (maintaining presence) into our daily flow and to our relationships with those we love.

In a lovely conversation with a dear friend and peer coach, we unpack how we use our active listening skills and clear boundary setting (and even our ability to say 'no' vs 'yes' to things that drain us) to stay calm, even amidst the holidays.

If you find the skills and tips from one New Zealand coach and one Parisian coach help you, please forward this episode on to another person needing more calm, flow, and fewer disconnects with those they care for.

You can find Marie-Louise on LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here. Blank page to Byline, write your annual review like a global business reporter, her newest writing workshop is on Luma, click here.