The Project Management Show Podcast

In episode 26 of The Project Management Show, we are honored to be joined LT Lawrence Yatch, a Navy Seal, now retired.  Larry is the CEO and Founder of Sealed Mindset and Creator of the Exceptional Team Formula, a FORMULA that Navy SEALs have been using for decades in some of the world’s worst places to operate exceptional teams.  Larry also discusses how he has adapted these principles into his own personal work/life balance.

Larry has been honored with the ‘Combat V’ for Valor in Battle “above and beyond the call of duty,”

The Achievement Medal for Innovation in Navy SEAL combat tactics;

The Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal;

and the Humanitarian Service Medal for relief efforts in East Timor and Sri Lanka.

Larry has been recognized as a (Real) Power 50 Award winner by Minneapolis Business Magazine for his team performance planning strategies for turbo-charging teams to speed success. 

And after 8 years of teaching innovative team optimization strategies to senior executives and managers at multi-million and billion dollar companies and also coaching high performing CEOs in the same, Larry has now bottled his Exceptional Team FORMULA in a planning software and training program to bring the Expert Navy SEAL Tactical Planner to YOUR teams.

Larry has provided a special offer to PM Show listeners for a free 30-minute strategy session.  Please go to:

In episode 24 of the Project Management Show, Mike Parker of CEO of Blackrock Resources, talked about all of the career opportunities in project management, and this episode we are excited to have Greta Blash discuss some of the training and certifications that can help you to achieve your professional development goals and better position yourself to land one of those opportunities Mike mentioned.

Greta Blash is Co-founder of Facilitated Methods and is a Project manager instructor at the University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education.

Greta has extensive experience as an executive and consulting IT professional, both domestically and internationally. Her areas of experience include program management, project management, agile/adaptive development, business analysis, customer relationship management, and business intelligence.

In addition to her PMP certification, she also holds an agile certification (PMI-ACP) and business analysis (PMI-PBA) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Greta has taught project management, business analysis and agile foundation and certification courses worldwide for the last ten years. She has also published numerous articles and blogs on these topics, as well as a global team participant in the creation of “What’s New in PMBOK® 6th Edition – An In-Depth Comparison.”

She is a frequent presenter at various PMI and IIBA meetings and conferences at the local, regional and global level.  She has been recognized as an SME and reviewer of the new Business Analysis Standard from PMI, and also as a reviewer of the new 6th edition of PMBOK Guide, the new 4th edition of the Program Management Guide.  She most recently has been selected as a contributor to the PMI’s new Benefits Realization Practice Guide.

Episode 024 of The Project Management Show features Michael Parker, Founder and President of BlackRock Resources, discussing career opportunities available today in project management.  Do you really need a PMP?  Mike discusses what companies are looking for in hiring project management professionals and the salary ranges associated with different positions.

BlackRock Resources, specializes in providing professional staffing and consulting services to the domestic energy industry (oil, gas, nuclear, and renewable energy). 

Mike has over 15 years of staffing and consulting industry experience, and a successful track record in recruiting and placement of project management professionals in both large companies and start-up firms during his career. 

Episode 023 of The Project Management Show features Chris Baddeley, a marketing and customer experience professional with a broad-based background in the financial services industry.

Chris has led national marketing projects for Citibank's US Consumer Bank, and for the wholesale and correspondent mortgage divisions of GMAC-RFC. He spent the last five years as the director of customer experience for Ditech Financial LLC, where he led the redesign of consumer-facing digital platforms during a period of rapid portfolio growth.

Chris grew up in New Hampshire and holds a BS in business from Eastern Illinois University and an MBA in Marketing from Loyola University Chicago.  Chris and his wife are the parents of two grown sons and reside in the Twin Cities.

Episode 022 of The Project Management Show features Lonnie Pacelli, a business and autism awareness author with over 30 years business experience at Accenture, Microsoft, and his consultancy Consetta Group.  Lonnie is the author of five hardcopy books and over 30 e-books on topics of leadership, project management, and autism awareness.   Lonnie is committed to helping current and future leaders and project managers be more effective in their walk and help them learn from both his successes and, more importantly, his failures.

Episode 021 of The Project Management Show features Kendall Kunz, an American businessman, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Forms On Fire and has served as its CEO since its foundation in 2011. 

In this episode, Kendall shares his passion for early stage software companies and overcoming the project and product management challenges they face by using the principles from The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses and specifically Minimum Viable Product (MVP), developed by Eric Ries.

Episode 020 of The Project Management Show features Jennifer Kahnweiler, Ph.D., a global speaker and bestselling author based in Atlanta, GA. She is hailed as the “Champion of Introverts.” Her books include The Genius of Opposites, Quiet Influence, and The Introverted Leader, and have been translated into 15 languages. 

In this episode, Jennifer draws upon stories and research to demonstrate how introverts can succeed as leaders and work with, not against, who they are. You will learn about the characteristics of introverts and how to use the 4 P’s Process (Prepare, Presence, Push, and Practice) to lead from a position of strength to take immediate action steps that get results.  Jennifer also helps the extroverts understand team members that are introverts so that everyone can play to their strengths.

Episode 018 of The Project Management Show features Chris Rhodes of Project Execution 4 U, providing insight into what you should consider when implementing a cost estimating solution.  One solution to consider is PE4U's Janus and Chris touches on what Janus has to offer.

Episode 017 of The Project Management Show features Orlando Villella, a proven project controls manager with excellent insight into effective team building, and other soft skills that serve as the intangibles needed to successfully execute projects.

Episode 016 of The Project Management Show features Eric Engel, a project management consultant with Capgemini.  In this episode, Eric presents his lessons learned, as well as tips for ways for project managers to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Eric specializes performing systems implementations, developing large-scale program level policies and procedures, facilitation, training and system support.   He has served over 20 Fortune 1000 clients across aerospace & defense, utilities, hi-tech, automotive, oil & gas, real estate and biotech industries.

Episode 015 of The Project Management Show features Tom Polen, a Solutions Architect for Deltek who specializes in risk management and the tools of the trade.

Tom has scoped, designed, developed, and implemented Project Planning Systems in the telecommunications, transportation, insurance, and defense industries. Tom’s mission is to help the field of Project Management to focus on analysis, rather than the development of data and information used to support analysis.

Episode 014 of The Project Management Show features Thomas Luke Jarocki, Managing Director of consulting and training for Emergence One International. Thomas is an internationally recognized expert, author, and thought-leader when it comes to integrating project management expertise with organizational change management proficiency. Thomas has logged nearly 25,000 hours working with various project teams across the United States, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. His influential, practical approaches to managing people, projects, and change have been recognized and embraced by corporate leaders, professional organizations (such as PMI), government agencies, and both project and change management professionals.

Thomas was the lead architect of the innovative “E1 Method for Change Leadership and Project Execution” which incorporates organizational change and behavioral science components into the project planning, execution, and continuous improvements life cycles. In addition, Mr. Jarocki has several seminars and professional development workshop that are sponsored and promoted by the PMI (Project Management Institute) and are offered at various venues across the globe.

Thomas holds an advanced degree in organizational behavior from Columbia University and served on the faculty of the University of Maryland. Clients have included Apple, Motorola, Chevron, McDonalds, HP, McKesson, Plantronics, Cisco, DIRECTV, PepsiCo, and Microsoft.

Episode 013 of The Project Management Show features Greg Githens, one of PMI’s most senior and popular instructors, bringing a pragmatic approach and enthusiastic style to his students and audiences.  

He specializes in strategic program management issues; strategic thinking, strategic initiatives, program management, and customer-driven innovation. In taking his courses, you’ll learn that “the most important tool is the one between your ears.” You’ll learn why experts approach problem solving differently than do novices. Greg challenges all of his students to absorb the material and make a productive difference to their organizations.  

Greg is the co-author of Successful Project Management (4th edition), a senior contributing editor to Visions magazine, a blogger, the author of 50 articles on improving organizational performance, and he has been a featured speaker at PMI congresses, PMI chapters, The Management Roundtable, and elsewhere.

He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Bowling Green State University (USA) and a master’s degree from Miami University (USA). He holds the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification.

Episode 012 of The Project Management Show features Kurt Knapton, a visionary leader who turns innovative thinking into results. As President and CEO of Research Now, Kurt helped establish and scale the world’s leading digital data-collection company serving the market research industry. Annually the company executes over 40,000 projects and generates more than $300 Million of global revenue.

Prior to joining Research Now, Kurt spent a decade leading projects as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture, specializing in business and technology strategy and execution. Kurt has served more than 20 “Fortune 1000” clients with business improvement analysis and advice.

Kurt earned his MBA degree from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck Graduate School of Business and was an Honors Program graduate at Baylor University, where he holds a BBA in Management and Information Systems.

Kurt is currently a board member of Research Now and active as a “social entrepreneur” who is passionate about improving the lives of children in developing countries through holistic micro-finance, educational, and orphan sponsorship programs.

Episode 010 of the Project Management show features Peter Taylor, author of The Lazy Project Manager. He offers tips on how to ‘work smarter and not harder’ and to still gain success in the battle of the work/life balance.

About Peter: Peter is a PMO expert currently leading a Global PMO, with 200 project managers acting as custodians for nearly 5,000 projects around the  world, for Kronos Inc. – a billion dollar software organization delivering Workforce Management Solutions.

Peter Taylor is also the author of the number 1 bestselling project management book ‘The Lazy Project Manager’, along with many other books on project leadership, PMO development, project marketing, project challenges and executive sponsorship.

In the last 4 years he has delivered over 200 lectures around the world in over 25 countries and has been described as ‘perhaps the most entertaining and inspiring speaker in the project management world today’.

His mission is to teach as many people as possible that it is achievable to ‘work smarter and not harder’ and to still gain success in the battle of the work/life balance.

Episode 009 of The Project Management Show features Rich Maltzman as he talks with Scotty Bud Melvin about thinking beyond the project end date and managing projects that will have a lasting impact. Informative and entertaining.

About Rich: Rich Maltzman PMP, has had a distinguished career in project management and is the co-author of two books – Green Project Management (CRC Press, ©2010, Cleland Award Winner) with David Shirley, PMP, and Project Workflow Management with Dan Epstein, in 2014.  A new book, “Driving Sustainability Success in Projects, Programs and Portfolios”, published in October 2015 by CRC Press.

An engineer since 1978 and a project management supervisor since 1988, including a two-year assignment in the Netherlands in which he built a team of PMs overseeing deployments of telecom networks in Europe and the Middle East. His project work has been diverse, including projects such as the successful deployment of the entire video and telecom infrastructure for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, and the 2006 integration of the program management offices (PMOs) of two large merging corporations. As a second, but intertwined career, Rich has also focused on consulting and teaching, having developed curricula and/or taught at:  Boston University, Merrimack College, Northern Essex Community College, University of Massachusetts– Boston, Clark University, Benedictine University’s Asia Institute

Rich has also professionally developed project management professional (PMP®) exam prep courseware, including exams and books. He even edited and was “the voice” for a set of eight audio CDs—a major part of a PMP prep course for an international company, for whom he has also facilitated PMP exam study groups. Rich was selected for the modeling team for the fourth edition of the PMBOK® Guide published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and contributed to the chapters on quality and risk in both the 4th and 5th Edition. Rich has written and presented papers at international conferences of PMI and IPMA (International Project Management Association), and the Conference Board in South Africa, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Mexico City and at PMI Congresses in North America.  He also presented, on request of the Government of Malaysia, at their Green Technology conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2013.

Rich’s educational background includes a BSEE from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, and an MSIE from Purdue University. In addition, Rich has a mini-MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton 2 School and a master’s certificate in international business management granted jointly from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and INSEAD of France.  Rich received his PMP in 2000 and was certified by Change Catalysts as a CQ Certified Change Management Professional in 2015.

Rich blogs regularly at earthpm.com and at “People, Planet, Profits, and Projects”, a segment on projectmanagement.com.

Episode 008 of the Project Management show features Lynda Gauthier providing insight on starting a project controls organization from scratch.

About Lynda: Lynda is a finance and project management professional with 20 years of experience with science and engineering development projects.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Accountancy from Western Michigan University, is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).   Currently, Lynda manages cost, scope, schedule and risk for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB, pronounced F-RIB) project. The $730M FRIB project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) and operated by Michigan State University (MSU). Lynda is a member of the National Laboratories Project Controls community and frequently represents FRIB and MSU while reviewing other large DOE-SC funded science projects.

Like the Great Oz, Dr. Dan Patterson PMP has been the man behind the curtain creating leading project management tools for over 20 years.

About Dan: A globally recognized project analytics thought leader and software entrepreneur, Dan has  several highly successful Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software companies under his belt (most recently Acumen), Dan has a unique combination of solution innovation combined with extensive commercial & technical project management experience including advanced scheduling, risk management, project analytics & artificial intelligence. This experience has been used to lead multiple successful software company start-ups with Dan being a true visionary & renowned marketeer.

Episode 008 of the Project Management show features Elizabeth Harrin MA, FAPM, MBCS, the author of three books about project management: Shortcuts to Success: Project Management in the Real World (which was a finalist in the Management Book of the Year Awards 2014).

About Elizabeth: Elizabeth is the award-winning blogger behind A Girl’s Guide to Project Management, a specialist blog aimed at helping project managers communicate more effectively. She is widely published on project management topics and has contributed to numerous websites and magazines.
She is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management and a member of PMI.

Episode 004 of the Project Management Show features David Pells, PMI Fellow and one of the foremost authorities in the field of project management, who shares with us his experiences as a pioneer in global project management.

Episode 005 of the Project Management show features Joe McMullin, Project Manager for the DKIST project. I have been fortunate enough to work on ATST/DKIST since 2006. After listening to Joe's podcast it will be easy for everyone to understand why I enjoy what I do so much. Very cool project working with the best people in the business!

About Joe: Joe is the Project Manager for the multi-decade, $350M Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST)

Joe earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1994 (in physics and chemistry of nearby star forming regions). Since then, his career has been dedicated to the development and enhancement of new astronomical facilities. He worked at Steward Observatory on the commissioning of the Heinrich Hertz Telescope. Joe worked at NRAO for 14 years, where he first went astray from science and into science management, supporting and then leading the effort to develop a data analysis package for NRAO instruments. While at NRAO, he moved to Chile to lead the Assembly, Integration and Verification effort for ALMA and then lead the commissioning effort for the (then) EVLA (now the JVLA) and its early operations. In 2011 Joe became the Project Manager for DKIST which will be the world’s largest solar telescope upon completion.