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This is a quick announcement to let you know that we are doing something different in the coming 5 days: There are 5 interviews coming your way. They are all about PMP Exam Coaching.

If you have listened to The PM Podcast for a while, then you know that the podcast here is a labor of love and my way of giving back to the project management community. My bills, my rent and my food on the other hand are all paid for by my recorded PMP exam preparation courses.

And the word “recorded” is key here because we have decided that now is the time for our company to start offering live, virtual PMP exam coaching where a live coach works one-on-one with a student to propel him or her to the PMP exam. You can find the details about this new coaching program at http://www.pm-prepcast.com/coaching.

And to mark the launch of our new coaching program we are releasing 5 interviews that look at exam coaching here on the podcast. But don’t worry… these 5 interviews are not just pure infomercials for our new coaching offer. Yes, the interviews are meant to promote the program, but each of these 5 interviews is primarily focused at helping PMP exam students on their journey to the exam.

In these interviews we look at the 7 most urgent questions that every PMP exam student asks and how a coach in a would answer them. We discuss how you can pick yourself up after a failed PMP exam and how a coach can assist you here. And I also interviewed 3 students who have worked with a PMP exam coach in the past. We learn about their journey, their exam troubles and how their coach helped them get across the finish line.

In each interview, you will find tips and tricks and also recommendations for those who are currently preparing for their PMP exam.

This means that if you are currently preparing for the PMP exam (even if you know that you don’t want to use a coach) listen to these interviews to learn about problem areas that other students have faced and how they have been overcome.

And if you are not preparing for the PMP then please recommend these 5 interviews to any colleagues you may have who are currently studying for their PMP certification.

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This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam:

Did you know that The PM Podcast started out as (and still is) a precious hobby of mine and that I took what I learned about podcasting from this show here and created a video podcast that helps you prepare for the PMP Exam?

Of course you do! Because I talk about it all the time.

And so today we are doing a bit of a crossover between those two podcasts with this interview that features Jonathan Hebert (linkedin.com/pub/jonathan-hebert-pmp/1/247/71/en). Jonathan is not only a PMP exam student of mine, he was also the senior project manager of updating my PMP prep podcast to the most recent version.

And in this “lessons learned” interview you are going to hear him talk about his journey to becoming PMP certified from start to finish.

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This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:

In this special episode we introduce you to Mark Phillipy who is the host of The Sensible Project Manager Podcast). Mark invited myself and Kevin Reilly to the program to discuss all eight PMI certification exams.

Here is what Mark wrote about this discussion:

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has seven certifications for project managers and one for business analysts. Cornelius Fichtner and Kevin Reilly join Mark to discuss these certifications and end up providing details about each certification.

This episode was a recording of #PMHangout 40 which was held as part of the Sensible Project Manager Hangout Community hosted on Google+ Hangouts On-Air.

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This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam:

According to a study published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, leaders who make mistakes are seen as less competent, less desirable to work for and less effective than leaders who do not. However, in a complex business world, mistakes are unavoidable. What separates us project managers from everyone else is that we often aren’t afraid to make mistakes, are resilient and know how to rebound from them. But how?

Carla Fair-Wright (Optimal Consulting - www.opc-houston.com) is a long-time listener of The PM Podcast. She got in touch with me and asked if her presentation, "How to Recover from Mistakes and Keep the Project Moving" might be a good fit for us. Of course it is. In our interview she explains five of the top ten most common mistakes project managers make and how to avoid them.

We’ll discuss techniques from positive psychology and competitive sports that focus on how to quickly rebound from mistakes and, how to cultivate and use a strategic system for mitigating them. You will also learn how to manage your own reaction along with the loss of trust or damage to one’s reputation that can happen.