The Sage Sayers

My guest this week is California, Santa Cruz-based Chris Baker who, a few years ago, became one of the US's 106,000+ cases of newly diagnosed melanomas. Skin cancer, by far the most common form of cancers, impacts twice as many men as women and in Baker's case went on to become Stage Three. His likelihood of becoming one of the 7,000+ people to die from melanoma that year felt high, espe...

My guest this week, Dr. Sergey Sikora, has learned rich life lessons about entrepreneurship from launching five successful ventures, including Releviate Therapeutics. He launched this most recent bio-pharmaceutical company, which develops therapies to target (and relieve) neuropathic pain, right within the thick of the Pandemic—a perfect environment for any startup, he says. This (milestone 10th)...

In this week's Sage Sayer's podcast, we tackle an age-old vocal pattern getting in our way of connecting with and retaining our audience: Flat, lifeless, and monotone vocal delivery. Coach Debbi offers ten coaching and business reporter tips to add warmth, vocal variety, and passion to your next high-stakes presentation.  Visit Hanging Rock Coaching for Coach Debbi's coaching and tr...

My guest this week is Dr. Linda Przybyszewski, a historian and associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. How I came to know Linda’s work is through her beautiful, NY-Times bestselling book: The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish. ( As someone who loves fashion and a daughter of a mother who enjoyed sewing, this book delighted and taught me a lot.)  The...

If excessive filler words take over your presentation, you're signaling to your audience your discomfort, disinterest, and/or that you're not feeling prepared.   In this week's Sage Sayers podcast, Coach Debbi offers five tips to managing verbal filler (words like: “um,” “uh,” “like,” “you know”) so the vocal pattern doesn't overwhelm you—or lose your audience. (Incorporating P...

Singer, song writer, social worker, and activist Emily Cavanagh discovered a gift through COVID: Writing (and gifting) personalized songs to those feeling sad, lost, scared, and isolated. Her initiative: "A Song For You" has now hit 100 songs which go to front-line workers, COVID patients, and their families in hospitals and hospice centers across the US. Famed singers, including Sophie...

This week, we chat with veteran podcaster, Marc Lee, an award-winning  executive producer with IBM.TV and host of multiple podcasts, often back-to-back within the one day. (He's a machine!)  Lee, based in North Carolina, learned some fundamentals of effective audio storytelling through his parents who ran their own radio station during his boyhood.  Lee offers us tips, strategies, and insight...

This week, we interview Carmela O’Flaherty, an executive leadership and business communication coach helping non-native speakers of English thrive within corporate America. Coach Carmela (who's also a classical pianist and linguist) shares her stories and tips on how to stay grounded, calm, and confident, even when the language and customs around you seem new and unfamiliar. 

An epic meltdown amidst a Covid-19 quarantine reminded me of a vital lesson: Always take time to become mindful, no matter how busy and overwhelmed we feel. Not only do we become more grounded and efficient, we perform better—and our life perspective improves, too. 

We all want to captivate our audience; but in meetings, many simply want to feel they're listened to.  In this podcast, Coach Debbi offers tips to listening in ways that others notice — and respond well to. For more insights and tips on business communication or for team or individual coaching and training, visit: Hanging Rock, LLC (hangingrockcoaching.com)

In our debut podcast, we interview Richard (Rick) Phillips, a bestselling sci-fi author, who wrote his first book (The Second Ship) with a publishing via Amazon in 2006. A million of sold copies (and multiple editions)  later, he's also published eight books in the Rho Agenda series. Rick's self taught. His books have sold so well, he's left his day job as a corporate executive and...