Advertise on podcast: Expertly Said

Knowing what you want to communicate is easy enough. Understanding exactly what your audience needs to hear is the harder part.  Carleigh Kmetz is Associate Director, Business Unit Communications & Public Affairs, Dermatology at AbbVie. She has built a storytelling career in healthcare, with a passion for elevating patient voices and more than 10 years of experience across internal communications, crisis management, executive comms, corporate social responsibility, and influencer strategy.  In this episode, Carleigh joins Kristen to discuss the role of emotional intelligence in communication and how she practices empathy with the patients that comprise her audience.

Why does so much corporate communication come across as vague, predictable, and impersonal? Micki Pflug Mounce is the Communications Lead for the US Plasma Services Business at Takeda, where she develops and executes external and internal communications for the Plasma-Derived Therapies division. She started her career as a travel writer, ghostwrote more than 100 textbooks spanning kindergarten through college, and founded a memoir-writing company called Biographies Inc. before spending the last 15 years in health, tech, and pharma. She's also Vice President of the Board of Trustees for the Fremont County District Library. In this episode, Micki joins Kristen to make the case that corporate communications do not need to feel impersonal. Relatability, transparency, and authenticity are essential, even in highly regulated industries.

Working in marketing or communications means accepting that your name might never appear on the work you’re responsible for creating. Laura Lampa, Associate Director of R&D Site Communications at AbbVie and founder of LML StoryLab Consulting, began her career as a microbiologist before realizing her real passion was communicating complex science. Across roles at Monsanto, Kaiser Permanente, AgraQuest, Bayer Crop Science, Ginkgo Bioworks, and now AbbVie, she has spent more than a decade helping mission-driven organizations clarify their value and convey dense science through stories that are accessible to audiences.  In this episode, Laura joins Kristen to talk about why she loves the work of helping brands and experts step into the spotlight.

What separates good communication from communication that actually connects? Jay Sullivan is a consultant at Exec|Comm, where he leads the firm’s law firm group and previously served as managing partner. He is also the award-winning author of Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond, with a second edition arriving in October 2026. In this episode, Jay joins Kristen to talk about communicating more effectively, from focusing less on what you want to say and more on what your audience needs, to listening well, building stronger relationships, and slowing down enough to think critically.

When was the last time you allowed yourself to pause, rather than rushing to provide an immediate response or solution?  Kristin Graham is the founder of Unlock the Brain and the host of the podcast Fewer Things Better. After a career in journalism and more than two decades leading culture and communications at companies like Amazon and Expedia, she realized the most interesting story she could tell was the one happening inside people's heads. Now, she translates neuroscience into practical, clear, immediately useful insights. Her specialty is finding the smallest shift that creates the most momentum and making it feel obvious in hindsight. In this episode, Kristin joins Kristen to explore the art of doing fewer things better: why the intentional pause is a neurological superpower, how slowing down leads to deeper understanding, and what it takes to trade the cake-eating contest of corporate ambition for slow productivity, good sleep, and more room for fun.

Every message that lands starts with the communicator listening closely enough to understand the people they are trying to reach.  Jennifer Gremmels is a communications leader with deep experience across internal and external communications, change management, media relations, and crisis communications. She currently serves as Director of Regulatory Communications at AbbVie, where she leads a team focused on regulatory communications and change management, partnering with senior leaders to support enterprise growth, engagement, and operational excellence.  In this episode, Jennifer joins Kristen to talk about why she views active listening as a deliberate leadership behavior.  Note: Jennifer's comments in this episode are her own and do not reflect those of her employer.

Ever finish a meeting, read an email, or watch a presentation and walk away genuinely unsure what the person was trying to say? Joel Schwartzberg is a workplace communications coach, speaker, and speechwriter who helps professionals simplify and sharpen their points to make their words matter. A former speechwriter and national champion public speaker, Joel now coaches clients across healthcare, financial services, biopharmaceutical science, cybersecurity, nonprofit advocacy, national defense, animal welfare, and social justice. He's the author of the best-selling second edition of Get to the Point! Simplify, Sharpen, and Sell Your Message, and has contributed to publications such as Harvard Business Review and Inc. In this episode, Joel joins Kristen to unpack what a point actually is (and isn't) and share two simple tests anyone can use to determine whether or not they have a point.

A clear value proposition makes all downstream marketing and content initiatives easier.  Maria Elena Cruz Lopez is the Director of Digital Marketing at Harvard Business School, where she helps shape the digital experience for HBS audiences—students, alumni, and the broader business community—and works with marketers across the school to sharpen how they engage and measure digital efforts. She brings over a decade of experience building and scaling data-driven digital strategies, with earlier stops at MIT, Elsevier, and in book publishing.  In this episode, Maria joins Kristen to discuss the work behind crafting a winning value proposition.

Right now, the person writing about your industry at 2 a.m. on Reddit may be more visible in AI search results than your brand.  Jonathan Ernst, Deputy Director of Strategic and Digital Communications at Bayer, is a storyteller at heart and an architect of brand authority by experience. Over 14 years, he's navigated the evolution of digital connection from the rise of social media to the current frontier of AI—building the bridge between traditional narrative and emerging technology. In this episode, Jonathan joins Kristen to unpack how to stay visible and credible when AI decides what your audience sees and why your website has become your most important communications tool.

How do you lead people toward a future you can’t fully see yet? Jenn Azar is CEO of Stellix, a company that helps life sciences manufacturers build the digital foundation and operating models needed to apply AI in ways that improve real-world performance. With more than two decades of leadership experience, she’s known for turning vision into reality and building purpose-driven teams.  In this episode, Jenn joins Kristen to talk about communicating the future: how leaders bring teams, and entire ecosystems, along through continuous change in the AI economy.

How do you build trust in the age of AI? Lead with originality and authenticity.  Justin Vajko’s mission is to give a voice to 10,000 entrepreneurs who deserve it. Founder of Dialog Video Marketing, he developed the Content Buddy System, which helps even the busiest B2B entrepreneurs produce thoughtful short videos that build trust with buyers online. He now teaches that same system on podcasts and stages around the world. In this episode, Justin joins Kristen to discuss trust in the age of AI and how to create content that stands apart from “AI slop.”

Sometimes, the most effective leaders are the ones who are willing to say, “I don’t know.”  As Executive Director of Global Medical Excellence at ITF Therapeutics, Mary Jane Salinas, PharmD, provides strategic leadership across scientific communications, publications strategy, and medical affairs, partnering with cross-functional and global teams to ensure that science is communicated with clarity, rigor, and alignment at every level. In this episode, Mary Jane joins Kristen to talk about why admitting what you don't know is one of the most powerful starting points in science communication.

When your audience has less than a minute to spare, less is almost always more. Sean Sheffler-Collins, PhD, is Director of Global Scientific Communications and Content at Astellas Pharma. A global medical affairs professional with 14+ years of medical communications experience, Sean leads integrated, omnichannel scientific content strategy across therapeutic areas and the product life cycle. Before moving into communications, he researched the molecular mechanisms of synapse formation and earned a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, Sean joins Kristen to discuss how to create marketing and communications content that earns healthcare providers’ attention.

If you’re using AI primarily to write a little faster, polish a little tighter, or summarize a little smarter, you could be missing out on a major opportunity.  Dan Gaynor is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and founder of Kelp—now Signal AI—a company whose data analytics platform helps enterprises to better understand where their reputation stands and how to strengthen it. In this episode, Dan joins Kristen to talk about the journey from speechwriting at USAID to selling shoes at Nike to building an AI company before ChatGPT was publicly released—and how marketing and comms pros can move past surface-level prompting to use AI as a real strategic tool.

How might your approach to pharma communications shift if you suddenly found yourself on the patient side? Sara Noonan has dedicated nearly two decades to building patient communications in rare disease and oncology,  holding roles as the Senior Director of Product and Pipeline Communications for Servier Pharmaceuticals and Director of Public Relations and Investor Relations in the oncology business unit at Takeda. In this episode, Sara joins Kristen to reflect on how becoming a rare disease patient herself has reshaped her thinking about patient education, advocacy, and what it really means to be "patient-centered."