Welcome to the Everyday PM Podcasts, the podcast where we
discuss project management principles for your everyday
life. My name is Anne Campia, I'm the
host and founder of the Everyday PM, and I'm so excited to
welcome our very special guest, Rachel Losser, who is the
founder and managing partner over at Losser Consulting
Solutions. We're going to get into exactly
what you do there, but I know it is project management driven and
I don't want to give away any of the questions I have for you
today. So Rachel, welcome to the
podcast. And for those who have not met
you yet, please take a brief moment to introduce yourself to
our audience. OK, yes, and thank you.
Hello. Thank you so much for having me
again. So excited to be here.
And you know, we've been going back and forth, so I'm so
excited we can make this happen. So I've been doing project
management my entire career. I've worked in a lot of
different segments and industries, worked with a lot of
different teams, and really that was kind of the driving force
behind wanting to start the company in the 1st place is I
have this wealth of experience and every time I walk into a
room of project managers, it seems like there were still
basic things or think things that I consider to be very
intuitive that weren't always happening.
So I just kind of implemented and took from my career and
started the firm and it's been really great.
So we do project management kind of across the board in a lot of
different scale, but primarily working with large corporations
for like big mission critical projects.
I I can't wait to dig in there. You're the absolute perfect fit
for our audience and I'm very grateful for your time.
Today we're going to talk about cutting through the fluff.
And I know your team, especially on it's, it's definitely
publicized on your website as well, but you, you call
yourselves the get Shit done group.
And I love that about you and, and the group that you have
there in terms of just a very real way of saying that's what
we do as project managers, right?
So it's super refreshing to hear that in terms of, you know, we
always hear the corporate jargon of like, I don't know how we're
described where the project management service, a group or
agency or the project management office, but the get shit done
group, I freaking love that. So can you walk us through what
this philosophy actually looks like in practice?
I mean, and start with, how did you even come up with it?
Yeah, I mean, I kind of love get shit done because that's kind of
my personality. I'm very like impatient when it
comes to results and getting things done and, you know,
waiting for things to happen. I think that's why I've really
loved having our own firm, our own organization, because we can
just move as fast as we want to. So that's been really, really
nice and positive when it comes to getting shit done.
To me, it's less project management and what we've kind
of been referring to as total project delivery.
So it's more than just managing the project.
It's really like rolling up your sleeves and doing whatever it's
going to take to get the project over the finish line.
And you know, when it comes to doing that in practice, that can
be a variety of different things, you know, when it's
actually being implemented. But my favorite thing to say
that we don't do as part of kind of get shit done mentality is we
don't do death by PowerPoint. Like if you're going to, if
we're going to share slides, you know, those are kind of a
standard part of projects and updates and things like that.
But if we're going to share slides, it's going to just be
the information that you need and it's going to be pretty
straightforward. We don't need to like write up
novel, you know, on the slides kind of thing.
So those are just like it's just little, it's little things in
what we do that I think help kind of stack up and make the
impact. Rachel's funny because I think
it's a total giveaway of what generation you grew up in, in
terms of project management. Because I heard if you use
PowerPoint deck now, then people automatically know what PM
generation age you kind of fall into where I've been told I need
to start calling it slides or slide decks or something like
that. So it's funny that you, you, you
call out, you know, death by PowerPoint and you really get
through in terms of what we do as project managers.
So I'm curious in terms of, and I warned you that I would
probably divert from what I sent you in terms of our outline.
But you know, the fact that you're a female project manager
who has decided to kind of go off on your own, create this
consulting firm, it is highly commendable, especially for
somebody like me who sits in a very similar role as a female in
project management. So why don't we just take a step
back? What led you to wanting to do
this on your own instead of, you know, kind of joining corporate
America? Yeah, thank you.
I mean, I did, I spent a lot of time in corporate America and I,
I honestly fell in love with consulting from just kind of
doing a small consulting project kind of before I started the
firm. And I really fell in love with
the difference in the power dynamic as sort of being like a
citizen project manager in a company versus being sort of the
expert that got called upon to help solve this problem.
And some of the things that I really love about it is, you
know, as a citizen project manager, I was spent a lot of
time sort of building business cases and trying to convince
people that the projects actually have to even happen in
the 1st place versus as a consultant most of the time that
all that decision has been made. And sometimes, you know, I'm
walking and there's two years of thinking about it to the moment
that they've actually decided to pull the trigger and do the
project. So I've loved it from the sense
that, you know, we can really just kind of run and help drive
results and help, yeah, get shit done, if you will, you know, So
I really loved that side of it. That's awesome.
I love that. Thank you for sharing that.
I was, I was genuinely curious and also like I said, in
admiration of what you do. So can, can you share an, a
specific example that your firm has worked on?
Maybe it's a project or an experience where you had to cut
through the fluff and basically drag a mission critical project
across the finish line, because it sounds like that's ultimately
where you come in. Yeah, I jokingly say that I get
called into a lot of like SOS cases, if you will, where
there's already been some work that's done and they can't
really find their way out of it. And they, you know, through my
network or just through other work that we've done, you know,
I might get tapped on the shoulder of someone on my team
to go help save the situation. And that is the number one
instance I'll say of cut the fluff because I don't have time
nor does the client for me to sit there and go back through
all of the history. I have to be have a really,
really discerning eye to what is important.
What do I need to dig into? What do I need to just say the
past is the past and kind of let that go.
So that's kind of cutting through the fluff for me.
And then same thing when it comes to cutting through the
fluff of a client. Oftentimes, you know, everyone I
think is guilty of this, that your own situation feels very
complex and feels really complicated.
And it can be hard to imagine that someone could come in and
just completely simplify, you know, something that you're
working on. So I think a good example of
this is we have a client where the project managers are
responsible for a lot of the work being divvied out and they
really couldn't get to a reasonable list of, of
departments and request types, you know, to even like start the
conversation and get that process up and running.
And it just took a couple calls of us sitting down and digging
into it and explaining or, you know, sharing our philosophy
about why it is. And we seriously, I mean, we
took, we, they had spent probably a year and a half
trying to figure this out and had a list of like 50 request
types. And after a couple calls with
us, we got it done to like, you know, a core 7 or 8.
And then like this, there's like a second step of triage to get
like the other details they were looking for, you know?
And that's what I mean when it's like, cut through the fluff,
just simplify it and try to put some strict structure and
systems you know in place for even just the way you think
about doing things. Gosh, it's just, yes, that's
such a great example of where the kind of the people side of
the business and the technology side of the business kind of
merge. And then it becomes this maybe
ambiguous grey space that people, once you're kind of in
there and in the way that you're describing it, it just becomes,
I don't even know what the right word is insurmountable sometimes
because it has kind of compounded into this big thing
that you can't figure out what direction to go in.
And the way that you described it was was really well said in
terms of just wade through and get through back to the point of
the core of what the project was supposed to be, right?
And it sounds that easy. But of course that's the reason
why you're consulting firm exist, I'm sure is because a lot
of organizations find themselves in that place where they've kind
of essentially lost control and let the fluff kind of take over
the project. So let's talk a little bit about
building processes that scale because you know, we're talking
about example where you have the people side of the business and
the technology side and where consultants can come in and
literally clear out some of that fluff that's come in.
So in terms of an example of building processes at scale, how
are you helping organizations do that?
Do you have an example where you've really helped somebody in
that space as well as, you know, problem solving kind of maybe
there's a framework or something that you can share with us that
you've used to help organizations even after you're
done with the work that you've you've come in to do?
Yeah, I mean definitely when it comes to building processes that
scale, First off, I'll say we're doing it for ourselves.
So we're kind of living and testing things out in our own
firm and we've only, you know, we're we're coming up on the two
year mark pretty soon. But just in terms of, you know,
thank you, thank you. But just in terms of being able
to test things out ourselves, you know, I think it really
helps to have a team that lives and practices what we preach
when it comes to actually creating scalability for
organizations that we work with. We're always thinking about how
do we marry up processes and enabling tools and making sure
that they're both in harmony and sustainable and really thinking
a lot about, you know, I would say like a lot of traditional
process folks will just say, hey, this is the process, this
is what you have to follow kind of sign seal delivered.
And we really take a different approach to say, what is the
history here? How do these people normally
interact? What is everyone's skill level?
You know, there's like so many considerations that go into
building something that is scalable and something that can
be maintained. So, you know, we're thinking
about how do we get, you know, some kind of processes and
structure in place? And then we're also thinking
about, OK, if they were two 3X or 5X, you know, go through the
thought exercise, would this still be something that's
feasible? Is this still how I would do the
setup? You know, and so it just takes
being really thoughtful and intentional upfront to be able
to go forth and kind of put in the scalable systems that you
want. And often times people want to
skip that step and just go right to doing something cool or, you
know, making an improvement. And so there's always, I think,
a little bit of a balance of how do I make a quick improvement
now, but then how do I set myself up for success in the
long term. And and what I love about what
you said is you are looking at it really as an integrated
concept, right? And that every situation you're
brought into is, is different and unique in its own way.
So a lot of these larger consulting firms, they come in
and they have a prescribed methodology or framework and
say, this is what we do. And they do that over and over
and over again, where it sounds like you come in with that
intention to learn what's going on, understand that it's going
to be unique in that situation. And I think that's, that's
awesome because a lot of consulting firms don't do that.
They don't take the people side, the tech side and whatever other
elements exist within the organization and, and look at
them. They typically look at them in
isolation of each other or they only look at one part, whether
it's the people side, the change management side, or the tech
side. And it sounds like you do it all
and you kind of come in there with that that frame of mind.
100% thank you for noticing and for saying that.
And I cannot tell you the amount of times I have come in to help
clean up whatever copy paste activity happened from another
Consulting Group. Like there's a difference
between applying what I would consider to be kind of a tool
kit, you know, and and bringing our tool kit with us and
learnings from one organization to another versus kind of just
blatant copy paste. I'm going to ignore any
tailoring or anything that's specific to the nuance of that
organization. You know, if you want to be
successful and if you want to do right by that group, you have to
take it all into account. That's that's beautiful.
Have you and you don't have to give away any identifiable
information. You don't even have to answer
this because this is just a question just came up in my
mind. Is it sounds like just like a
doctor comes in and prescribes their patient, right.
Every patient's unique. Have you had a situation you've
been asked to come into and said, I don't know.
I don't know that I have a solution for this, This is not
going to work. Has there been anything that
you've looked at and said? I just, you guys have tangled
yourself so much so that I don't even know what to prescribe
first. Well, what I will say is we're
pretty selective about what clients we choose to work with.
There's a lot of lower cost, you know, consultants all over the
place that can help organizations.
We're not going to be the Super high volume, you know, kind of
like I was saying, kind of copy paste house.
So because of that, we're very, very selective in who we choose
to work with. And so I wouldn't say there's
ever been sort of an unsolvable problem, if you will, but
there's definitely been clients where I just don't think their
mindset is right to work with us and they think that they're
ready for the change. But maybe we start a little bit
down that path or, you know, we start to ask questions about
what it would look like to work together and they're just not
really ready to hear expertise or be a part of the solution
together. So yeah, there's definitely been
times where I say not every client is for us and that is
completely OK. That totally makes sense.
Thank you for sharing that. And are there any, I hate using
the word mistakes, but perhaps that's the best word here.
But are there any common trends or mistakes that you've seen in
terms of companies, organizations that have tried to
build processes at scale? And what are you picking up on
in terms of the the clients that you have worked with so far?
Yeah, I would echo that. I would hate to call it a
mistake because I just feel like there's common challenges that
everyone is struggling with and everyone's navigating it as best
they can. I think I would say some common,
you know, mistakes or things that could happen that send
folks down the wrong path is not being intentional and thoughtful
about, you know, who they're choosing to work with or what
tools they're choosing to work with.
I think a common, really common example that we come across is
some executive three years ago sat in a sales pitch and thought
that this tool was really flashy.
And, you know, they've been making it work.
You know, they implemented it. They've been making it work for
a while. And then we're being brought in
sort of, you know, a couple years later and everybody's
saying, I don't really know why we did this.
It hasn't really been working for us.
Maybe we want to look at something else, you know, So I
definitely would say as much as it's, it can be difficult, you
know, try to avoid the flashy sales pitch and, you know,
really think about what you what you need out of a tool.
Another, you know, common mistake I think is there is
definitely sometimes a philosophy that if I hire a
consultant, they're just going to come in and fix everything
for me and I don't need to do anything right.
And especially when it comes to building processes there, there
really is no substitute. You know, I'm kind of talking to
department heads, I'm talking to founders, I'm talking to
executives. Like the ownership still is
going to lie with you. Now, my team operates with a
very high degree of accountability, and we are happy
to make a lot of decisions. But at the end of the day, you
know, this is your process, it's your thing that we're
implementing, you know, and there's really no shortcut to
just being involved in kind of doing the work with us.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's awesome.
And, and you know, when I look across the, the plethora of
services that loss or consulting solutions provides for
organizations, I mean, you're, it's across the board, you know,
it's not just project management, but it's areas that
we touch as project managers, right?
So obviously I didn't bring you on to do a pitch of the firm.
I would love to highlight what you guys do there because there
are, like you mentioned, project management consulting solutions
out there. But can you talk a little bit
about some of your, your favorite services that you guys
provide? Or maybe there's a use case that
you would be willing to share in terms of success?
Yeah. You know, I feel like a lot of
the services that we offer are kind of all saying the same
thing in different ways, which is like creating structure and
accountability. And genuinely, even though we
are doing all these things, like my favorite thing is still just
kind of true project management and running projects.
So I would say when it comes to creating accountability in a
project or a project management office or any kind of business
transformation, that's probably my favorite just because there's
so many different ways that you can do it.
There's so many people that are usually involved.
I just really enjoy those kind of big messy projects, if you
will, that get, you know, kind of complicated and there's a lot
of stakeholders involved. Like I just that's my happy
place. I really like it and my team has
grown to appreciate it as well. Though I guess kind of going
back to the other question you just asked to another common
mistake or the thing that I see really commonly is trying to out
hire or like implement new tools to go around kind of poor
performers or bad processes. Yeah, you know, and I see that
all the time too when I'm creating a new project, you
know, set up or putting some kind of new structure in place.
Really, most problems get solved pretty quickly by just being
really clear on expectations and holding everyone accountable.
And that actually actually usually starts with us.
If we are accountable and we do all the things we say we're
going to do, and we set up the project and send the meeting
notes and set up the action tracker and like all the kind of
nitty gritty of running a project, it just makes it easier
to hold everyone accountable. I love that, I love that and and
and back to you know, I could truly feel the passion in terms
of what you you as an individual enjoy doing it.
It really does take Rachel. It takes like a certain.
Personality type to really love what we do as project managers.
I'll put that out there and I can, I can feel it as you're
describing what you love doing as part of your role at the
firm. So 2026, you're going on your
two year anniversary. What are the things you're
looking forward to as an individual, as a project
manager? As the founder of Lost Their
consulting solutions, What's in store for you this year?
Yeah, I'm super excited about everything that's in our
pipeline in terms of projects. Like I'm really ready to kind of
like sink, sink my teeth into something else.
We have a ton of other things that we're doing that are sort
of auxiliary to our project management.
Like we're talking internally about so many things.
We want to host a conference. We want to set up some kind of
knowledge community. We know for sure we're launching
our own podcast. I'm really excited about that.
I'll, I'll keep you in the loop on the details of that.
But we know our first episode is going to come out this spring.
So we just have a lot of other things cooking on our end, and
we're super excited to just be able to take some of the
learnings and kind of share some of that.
And if you don't work with us directly, that you still get a
chance to kind of benefit from a lot of our expertise.
And right now, we're primarily focused on working with
organizations, but it would be nice to be able to put some
things out for individual project management contributors
just to be able to soak it in. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
That's the beauty of our community is, is the sharing and
the knowledge and just the conversations, right, The battle
stories we get to share and that sort of thing.
I was. Just gonna say that more
stories. Yes, yes, exactly.
I'm looking forward to your podcast because I'm hoping that
you'll be able to highlight some of those that you see as part of
your journey through the consulting pathway for project
management. So, Rachel, any last parting
thoughts in terms of anything you want to impart on the
everyday PM community? Again, it's been an honor and a
privilege to have you on here as our guest and a lot of fun as
well. Thank you so, so much.
I really appreciate it. I would say the one thing that I
want to impart is you could be working on something as an
official project manager or not. And things could be as simple of
a project as you know, we just need to implement some of this
small thing or you know, work on this little task and that is
still important. Or you could be working on
something really big and mission critical.
Like, for instance, we have one where if we don't hit the end of
the timeline time, the company's gonna have to pay millions of
dollars in fines every month. Oh boy.
Right. And so you get projects that are
all over the spectrum. You get kind of titles that are
all over the spectrum. But at the end of the day, I
guess if I could impart one thing is that just sharpen your
skills and, you know, create those frameworks for yourself
that, you know, you're able to succeed and deliver results and
operate with a high degree of accountability for yourself.
And if you can position yourself as a problem solver and somebody
who has the scope and everything wrangled, then you're gonna set
yourself up to be successful. Awesome, awesome.
Thank you so much for those words.
And if folks wanna continue the conversation with you, where's
the best place to find you online?
Yeah, please feel free to reach out to us through our website,
lossorconsultingsolutions.com. Also, you could connect with me
on LinkedIn and we also have a presence on Instagram and
TikTok, so lots of different ways you can connect with us.
Well, as soon as we, you know, end the recording today, I'm
going to get on there, do all the follows, likes and all the
things that I need to do to make sure I stay in touch with you as
well. I'm looking forward to your
podcast and all the other things that your group is doing in
2026. And make sure that you also
follow the everyday PM podcasts like and subscribe to this.
You can find us on all of your podcasting platforms.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn as well, and I'll drop
all the appropriate links in the description of this podcast
episode. So Rachel, again, thank you for
giving of your time and your expertise.
This has been a such a fun conversation and I look forward
to what's in store for you and the consulting firm in the
future. So thank you again.
Thank you so much. That will do it for Rachel and I
in this installment of the Everyday PM Podcast.
And until next time, take care.