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. I

t 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.