What if the reason your project management job search is stalling has nothing to do with your skills? On average, about 300 people apply to a single opening, and the odds of being the one who gets the offer are slim. In that market, strong project leadership isn't enough. Landing a six-figure project management role takes the same things that make projects succeed: clear decision making, a targeted strategy, and the ability to read how an organization really works.

In this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kate and Kim talk with Mukhtar Kadiri, PMP, a project management career coach and recruiter with more than 15 years on both sides of the hiring table. Mukhtar helps project managers land roles in the $100,000 to $300,000 range and shares his insights with a LinkedIn community of more than 70,000 project professionals. His hard-won business lesson sets the tone. Early in his consulting career, he was called into an office and given a verbal beating by a stakeholder who sat nowhere near the top of the org chart. She turned out to be one of the most powerful people on the project. Once he won her over, she became his biggest champion, a mentor, and a lifelong friend, and he has looked past the official org chart ever since. As Kim puts it: "There's the one on paper and there's the one that really gets things done."

From there, the conversation turns to bias in hiring and then to the heart of the episode: the first two steps of Mukhtar's job search framework, clarity and positioning.

Grab a drink and join us.

"The purpose of the resume is to sell you to the gatekeeper so that you can get through the door, right?" — Mukhtar Kadiri

"And it's not that you as a project manager aren't good enough. It's that job hunting is a different skill than doing the job and getting another certificate that proves you know how to do the job is not going to help you get a job." — Kate Anderson

"And not just what is the problem they're trying to solve, but how are you the best person to try to solve this?" — Kim Essendrup

"So don't wait for the perfect match because sometimes people don't exactly know what they want or they're not good at documenting it." — Kim Essendrup

"Because I know the fear is that I don't want to miss out on opportunities, but when you actually do target and when you focus, you actually get more opportunity because your branding, so to speak, is more potent." — Mukhtar Kadiri

1. The shadow org chart. Influence often sits with people who have no formal authority, so map the real power structure, not only the official hierarchy.

2. The five-step job search framework. The steps are clarity, positioning, the hidden job market, interviewing, and negotiation.

3. The 75% match rule. Job descriptions are wish lists, so target roles where you meet roughly 75% or more of the criteria. Below that is a poor use of time; near 100% can read as overqualified.

4. Pain-point mapping. Distill a role into its top 3–5 pain points, map one skill to each, and back each skill with quantified evidence.

5. The four-person outreach strategy. Email the recruiter, the hiring manager, a peer, and a leader. Follow up twice, since most responses arrive after the second follow-up.

The episode closes with Mukhtar's toast to finding what you want in your career, whether that's a new job, the next level, or peace and sanity in your current role. It's a reminder that a job search is a project in its own right, and it deserves the same strategy you'd bring to any other.

• Mukhtar Kadiri on Substack: https://substack.com/@mukhtarkay

• Mukhtar Kadiri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-kadiri/

• Email-finding tools mentioned:

• • Lusha

  • Hunter

  • Apollo.io

  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator

• PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership

• PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

Why "over-communicating" isn't about saying more — it's about knowing exactly what your stakeholders need to hear, and when.

What happens when a project manager goes silent? According to this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, nothing good. Left in an information vacuum, stakeholders don't assume the best — they assume the worst. That single insight sits at the center of a conversation about project leadership, stakeholder communication, and the quiet skill that separates good project managers from great ones: knowing exactly what to say, to whom, and when. If you've ever been accused of "running dark" on a project, or been told to simply "communicate more" without any idea what that actually means, this episode is for you.

Kate and Kim open up about their own early missteps as project managers — Kim recalling a boss who relentlessly demanded he "over communicate" without explaining what that looked like in practice, and Kate admitting that while she never struggled to talk to her own team, she took years to learn how to communicate effectively up and out to executives and sponsors. Their honest, back-and-forth storytelling style — equal parts practical and funny — turns what could be a dry topic into a genuinely useful conversation about project delivery and leadership communication.

Grab a drink and join us.

"The human brain is not nice. It takes lots of therapy and or meditation to tell yourself nice stories... if you're in an information vacuum, because our brain wants to protect us from bad things happening." — Kate Anderson

"Data is meaningless without context and contrast." — Tim Creasy (as quoted by Kim)

"It's not that it's meaningless. It's that it's vulnerable to misinterpretation without context and contrast." — Kate

1. The information vacuum effect — In the absence of updates, stakeholders default to negative assumptions rather than neutral or positive ones.
2. Communication baseline calibration — New project managers often start with a communication baseline that is far lower than stakeholders actually need.
3. Bottom-line-up-front (BLUF) messaging — Lead with the specific action or decision needed, then follow with supporting context.
4. Self-service reporting channels — Creating an always-available update source (chat channel, dashboard, bulletin) reduces stakeholder anxiety and unplanned interruptions.
5. Narrative ownership in project leadership — Framing project updates as a story you control, rather than a list of data points, shapes how stakeholders perceive project health.

The episode's real throughline is ownership: the best project managers don't just report facts, they own the narrative of their work. As Kate puts it, data without context and contrast is vulnerable to misinterpretation — and if you don't tell the story of your project, someone else's imagination will tell it for you.

• PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership

• PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

• Get the Audience Persona Worksheet at: pmhappyhour.com/resources

• PMHH Episode 091: The Perfect Status Report

• PMHH Epsiode 131: Listen to Don't Be the PM Everybody Hates with Rachel Losser

• Got your communication conundrum? 📧 Email us at social@pmhappyhour.com — you might just hear it (and the answer) on a future episode.

Projects rarely fail from a lack of templates — they fail because of people. Author Dawn Mahan reveals the animal avatars that help you spot the cheerleader, the finicky fan, and the saboteur before one of them bites you in the ankle.

Why do projects really fail? Not, as guest Dawn Mahan argues, from a shortage of templates or Gantt charts — but from the people around them. In this episode, Kim and Kate dig into the human side of project delivery: the stakeholders who love your project, the ones who quietly want it dead, and the "style under stress" that surfaces when the pressure cooker of Projectland heats up. If you've ever been blindsided by a saboteur or tripped up by an over-eager cheerleader, this conversation on stakeholder management, risk, and project leadership is for you.

Kim and Kate welcome Dawn Mahan, author of the bestselling Meet the Players in Project Land and co-editor of Project Land Goes to the Movies: 22 Blockbuster Strategies for Project Success. Dawn's premise is refreshingly human: projects rarely fail because the paperwork is wrong — they fail because the people involved aren't set up for success. Using animal avatars to make stakeholder behavior easier, and safer, to talk about, she gives project managers and leaders a practical vocabulary for the messy, political, feelings-driven reality of getting work done inside real organizations.

Grab a drink and join us.

Quotes from the Episode

1. The three stakeholder archetypes — the cheerleader (happy dog), the finicky fan (flamingo), and the saboteur (snake), and how each one engages with or endangers a project.
2. "Style under stress" — how both stakeholder and team behavior shifts under pressure, and why leaders should plan for those reactions in advance.
3. Stakeholder analysis as a scheduled activity — running it privately with the sponsor, casting a wide net, documenting decisions, and coding the stakeholder register discreetly.
4. The "Feel" question — asking "How do you feel about this?" instead of "What do you think?" to surface fear and identify project risk early.
5. Managing cheerleaders with soundbites — the Stakeholder Gabby lesson on why enthusiastic champions can accidentally become saboteurs, and how to channel their energy constructively.

Perhaps the most human insight of the episode is Dawn's reminder that any of us can sabotage our own projects. Sabotage isn't always evil; more often it's fear, miscommunication, or a stakeholder who simply doesn't understand how Projectland works. The leadership question worth sitting with: who on your project is operating from fear right now — and what could you do to change that?

• PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership
• PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

Your worst project management habit might also be your superpower — the trick is knowing which one you're wielding, and when.

What actually separates a great project manager from the one everyone dreads seeing on their calendar? It's rarely a certification or a prettier Gantt chart — it's behavior. This episode of Project Management Happy Hour digs into project leadership, accountability, team dynamics, and the everyday habits that quietly undermine project delivery. The uncomfortable truth running through the whole conversation: our worst project management habits are usually just our genuine strengths turned all the way up, with no dial to turn them back down.

Kate and Kim are joined by Rachel Losser, founder and managing partner of Losser Consulting Solutions, a delivery-focused firm known for its get-stuff-done philosophy. Together they walk through five "bad PM personas" — the versions of ourselves that colleagues quietly avoid — and, crucially, the more skilled counterpart each one can grow into. Rachel sets the tone early with a bit of grace: we're talking about these "with love and reverence," because everybody starts somewhere and most of us have been every one of them at some point.

The practical throughline is nuance. Every strength becomes a liability when it's your only mode. Great PMs read the moment: when to slow down and build consensus, and when to say "we're going this way." They tell hard truths early, manage handoffs rather than just dates, and treat relationships and communication as the real currency of the job. As Kate puts it, the only way out of a struggling project is through it — not around the color of the status.

Which persona are you under stress? That self-awareness, the hosts suggest, is where better project leadership actually begins.

Grab a drink and join us.

Quotes from the Episode

1. Every PM strength has a shadow. Each of the five personas is a positive skill (documenting, reporting, follow-through, decisiveness, convening) overused into a liability.
2. Report status honestly, then own the path back to green. Transparent "highlighter green" reporting builds credibility; greenwashing destroys it.
3. Accountability beats date-moving. A Task Master probes why a deadline slipped and what will change, instead of silently updating the due date.
4. Directive leadership works only in moderation. The Hammer is effective in a crisis precisely because they aren't operating at full intensity all the time.
5. Every meeting needs a goal and buy-in. Confirming the objective at the top of a call is how you avoid becoming the Meeting Vampire.

Rachel's toast says it best: this is often a thankless job of late nights and "adult babysitting." But the difference between a PM everyone avoids and one everyone wants on their project usually isn't talent — it's the self-awareness to know which persona you default to under stress, and the discipline to reach for its better half instead. Which of the five is your worst habit — and what would its superpower version look like?

• PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership
• PM Happy Hour Facebook Page
• Losser Consulting Solutions — Rachel Losser's firm
• Big Project Energy with Rachel Losser
• Rachel Losser on LinkedIn
• Losser Consulting Solutions on LinkedIn
• Rachel Losser on Instagram: @losserconsultingsolutions
• Rachel Losser on TikTok: @losserconsultingsolutions

Why do perfectly logical, well-researched project plans still fail to win people over? It's one of the most frustrating forms of project failure—not a broken schedule or a blown budget, but a smart solution that nobody trusts. Kim and Kate dig into that exact problem, exploring decision-making, risk management, and team performance through the lens of one hard-earned leadership lesson: being right is not enough. If you've ever done everything "to the T" and still hit resistance, this conversation is for you.

In this episode, Kim and Kate welcome Noel Nicole Ransom—VP of Implementation, PMP, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, educator, speaker, and founder of Sigma Certify—for a wide-ranging conversation about project leadership and career advancement. Noel has led complex enterprise implementations, organizational change efforts, and strategic transformation initiatives, and now coaches professionals on bridging the gap between certification and real influence. The topic matters because so many capable project managers get stuck being seen as schedule-checkers rather than leaders, and that perception ceiling caps both their impact and their careers.

This episode explores the throughline that credibility, not correctness, is what actually moves projects forward. Noel explains that organizations run on trust rather than logic, which means a technically perfect plan can still stall if people don't feel included in how it was built. From there, the conversation moves into what Noel calls the shift from "note takers" to "progress makers" — PMs who stop documenting problems and start solving them. She offers a simple framework for unresolved roadblocks: everyone needs an owner, an action, and a date, or it can't actually be managed. The discussion also covers how to work with resistant stakeholders by treating pushback as concern rather than defiance and how leadership conversations require starting with understanding before persuasion, since executives are rarely trying to win an argument—they're trying to get to clarity.

1. Treat every unresolved roadblock as incomplete until it has an owner, an action, and a date—vague status updates don't count as progress.
   
   
2. When a stakeholder resists, get curious about the underlying concern instead of pushing harder on your rationale; questions like, "What concerns do you have?" or, "What are you seeing that we're not?" tend to open doors that arguments close.
   
   
3. When bringing ideas to leadership, come with a rough draft or "prototype" rather than an open-ended question—it invites collaboration instead of putting the entire burden of thinking on the other person.
   
   
4. Resist the instinct to arrive with every answer buttoned up; asking thoughtful questions early, framed the right way, builds far more trust than appearing to have it all figured out.

Closing Reflection

The project managers who build lasting influence aren't the ones with the most airtight plans—they're the ones who build trust one honest conversation at a time. Curiosity over certainty, progress over perfection, and quiet obstacle-removal over box-checking.

• PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership
• PM Happy Hour Facebook Page
• Noel Nicole Ransom's website: noelnicole.com
• Noel on LinkedIn
• Sigma Certify
• Book: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

Ever worked on a project that felt like a complete disaster... only for leadership to call it a huge success?

In Part 2 of our Mr. Beast series, Kim and Kate dig into the reported chaos behind Beast Games—from weather disasters and safety concerns to unhappy contestants, lawsuits, and production challenges. But here's the twist: despite all the problems, does the sponsor spin it as a win? If they did - would they be 'right?'

This episode explores project sponsors, stakeholder management, risk management, and one uncomfortable truth many project managers eventually learn: success is often defined by the people funding the project—not the people doing the work.

Kim and Kate unpack what happens when ambitious goals collide with reality, why sponsors often see projects differently than project managers, and why writing your own project post-mortem may be one of the most important leadership skills you can develop.

Grab a drink and join us.

Quotes from the Episode

"Imagine that guy pouring down rain. He's in ankle deep water holding a 240 volt line over his head thinking, well, at least I'm getting paid for this." — Kate

"Watch out for fixes that move the problem instead of solving it." — Kim

Practical Takeaways

1. When project scope or scale increases dramatically, bring in people who have experience operating at that level.

2. Challenge proposed solutions by asking whether they solve the root cause or simply move the problem elsewhere.

3. Escalate business-level risks back to leadership when leadership made the decision to accept those risks.

4. Build post-mortems that document both successes and failures—not just one side of the story.

5. Tailor project communication to sponsor priorities while still surfacing risks clearly and consistently.

Closing Reflection

A project can be operationally messy and still be considered a success by its sponsors. The question isn't just whether a project succeeded—but whose definition of success ultimately mattered.

🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned

• PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership

• PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

• Folding Ideas — Why Was I Invited to Beast Studios?

• Rolling Stone article by Stephen Essarch: A Fyre Fest Feeling Inside the Chaos of Mr. Beast's New Reality Show

• KSNV article by Minx and Lau: Las Vegas Staff Say Mr. Beast Should Be Blacklisted, Cite OSHA, Medics Set for Failure

Ever worked with a stakeholder who changes direction faster than your project plan can keep up? Then this episode may feel a little too familiar.

Kim and Kate dive into the rise of Mr. Beast and the making of Beast Games through a project management lens—not to critique content creation, but to examine what happens when vision outpaces execution. From sponsor behavior and scaling challenges to agile gone sideways, they unpack the risks of massive ambition without the systems to support it.

If you've ever managed shifting priorities, difficult stakeholders, or a project that seemed to grow by the hour, this conversation will hit home. Grab a drink and join us for a fascinating look at project sponsors, leadership, and what real-world project management can learn from internet-scale production.

🎙️ Spicy Quotes from the Episode

"Those poor people. Those poor people. I feel so bad." — Kate

"This has to be a textbook case of the absolute worst project sponsor I have ever seen." — Kim

Key Concepts & Takeaways

The Sponsor Shapes the Project
Kate frames Mr. Beast not as a creator but as a project sponsor. Great sponsors create alignment; difficult ones can unintentionally create chaos, rework, and burnout.

Scale Changes Everything
What works at small scale may not work as it scales up - in this case, scaling from Youtube videos to a massive $100m production involving thousands of participants and multiple organizations. Scaling requires stronger processes, decision making, and management support - not just bigger budgets.

Empathy Matters in Project Management
Kate repeatedly returns to the human side of projects: behind every schedule slip or scope change are real people doing the work.

Practical Takeaways

• Evaluate sponsor behavior early, not just project requirements.

• Reassess processes when projects scale dramatically.

• Governance doesn't slow decisions - it can help speed them and ensure your project can effectively absorb changing priorities.

• Consider the human impact of ambitious timelines and scope changes.

• Distinguish between innovation and avoidable chaos.

🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned

• Folding Ideas video: "Why Was I Invited to Beast Studios?" (https://youtu.be/0dwagg5wYY4?si=wNMmjhncv06AqUul)

• Project Management Happy Hour Website

• PM Happy Hour Membership