Mariia Lobachova from @ManageMeHard | TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT | PMP | LEVELLING UP AS A PRO

🎙 Welcome to the Women Who Tech show!

In the 11-th episode, I sit down with ⁠Mariia Lobachova⁠, Technical project manager, mentor and creator of @ManageMeHard channel for PMs to talk modern work — myths of project manager role, American and German work culture and the backstage of content creation.

🔹 Turn up the volume if you are interested in navigating tech in Germany, building credibility as a woman professional, and sharing knowledge through content creation.

🔥 We dive into:
00:00 Intro
01:35 Technical project manager role and common misconceptions
20:46 Work culture in Germany and the U.S.
22:16 Navigating expat life in Berlin, Germany
25:28 PMP certification and exam
28:05 Mentorship in project management that Mariia offers
31:57 Building a YouTube community
35:07 Content creation workflow
46:49 Standing out in PM

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For mentoring inquiries ⬇️
Mariia: contactmanagemehard@gmail.com
Lisa: burdenuk.liza@gmail.com

hi there This is the woman who tech broadcast It’s another exciting episode and uh I’m Lisa your permanent host Today we’re going to uh speak about the technical project management and content creation on YouTube Since we having such an awesome cast Maria Lovachova who is technical project manager mentor and content creator Hi Maria how is it going Hi Lisa thank you so much for amazing intro for having me today Yeah today going well You know Berlin as always in Berlin gloomy cold rainy But I hope this podcast will improve my Yeah you see you just said about the gloomy Berlin and Asan in my neighborhood at least heard you and wanted to warm up our conversation like you Anyway full disclosure that we actually met at the Ukrainian uh meetup The meet up Uh I think it’s like yeah job hunting people who are looking for a job and different tips and tricks How can you find a job in Berlin what you need to take into account because Ukrainian market the Ukrainian job search strategies are way too different from German ones Of course Of course And and it was an awesome meet up and we just uh we talked to each other and discovered that both of us are content creators I’m doing podcast as you know and Maria has a YouTube channel and does the content creation for it and both of us are specialists in certain areas and I’ve been so keen to to learn how’s your ordinary day as a technical project manager look like Yeah Well as a project manager I don’t have an ordinary day likely on or unfortunately but it’s always fun It’s often rather hectic you know with a lot of talking and writing For example currently I’m working in a company and I’m the only project manager there plus three product managers And my day often contains team sync conduction gathering requirements for new initiatives uh updating business on statuses preparing reports even sometimes performing acceptance testing coordinating releases adjusting plans according to like what has been done according to new findings and yeah sometimes I also help with the interview process So yeah as you can see the schedule of the day can be quite diverse It’s very interesting that many people whom I ask the same question answered that way that there is no ordinary day every day is full of some new surprises diverse task maybe the frame can be same you have the stand up you have many meetings I’ve been working with the project management managers a few times but on mostly on a setup when you have the the project uh of software development from scratch or rather from the or if when uh there is a need and the task to develop a certain functionality to the existing and successful product If you could also tell us like what’s the ordinary case study or case uh use case for technical project management as there is not only project management part but also technical part which means I guess you work with the engineers quite uh tightly Yes indeed like the difference between just project manager and technical project manager is project manager answers questions like when it will be ready and what resources do we need whether technical project manager works also on how we are going to do that so I’m deeply involved into technical discussions with the dev team to help them understand like business requirements better and on the other hand uh to calibrate on how it should be implemented on the technical side like I Never I’m never a decision maker maker tech wise but I’m always involved in discussions and facilitations and I also can translate technical approach we’ve chosen to the business team in in more understandable way our product functions from the inside right that’s the secret ingredient of the technical project management and uh uh how did you uh learn uh and get into the kingdom of the technical knowledge of development And did you have the proper education Yeah that’s a interesting question I started actually as a developer and yeah indeed I actually have a bachelor’s degree in computer science I’ve studied program engineering and this journey of being programmer uh started in a very in a very trivial way As a kid I played computer games a lot and I wanted to become a game creator as any as any true gamer Yes and I worked for almost two years as a programmer Slowly I realized I’m not interested in it anymore in reading tech books in my spare time Uh I simply don’t want to work on improving my tech skills anymore to become you know a senior architect And this is why I started to explore other positions within the IT sector and why I became attracted to the project management is because here both like soft and hard skills are important and to be a great project manager you need to work on yourself a lot actually like it’s organization negotiation time management emotional intelligence being aware of your own triggers and improving this brings a lot of benefits outside of work So by becoming a better professional you are actually becoming a better uh person And I I think it’s uh the beauty of project management Oh wow So well said and I can relate to this I’m also having a bachelor in computer science and and it’s so funny because I think like I don’t remember I know the majority of things that I learned in my time but the uh the part that uh it connects uh design and development and product management really helped me a lot to find common language with engineers Yeah Every time when we approaching also the ideation the evaluation risk assessment and so on and that’s that’s super cool uh the I think as as product management and project management gives you the this diversity of soft skills polishment same design does and I think I can test say about the product design that the better you are getting at presentation at clarity of your thoughts the more interesting you become as a person Yeah definitely And also the problem solving skills I think uh the way you are getting used to resolving different like blockers and problems as a project manager It’s like after that all problems in life they’re like easy I can do that Right Right If I if I read like I know some tech book once and then I I did the whole PM book then I I can solve anything in my life or something Yeah Although solving is definitely on a very high level for many people in tech Now I’m super interesting from your perspective what’s the main difference difference difference between product management and project management and of course if you ever have any nice encounters with product managers Yeah like you I had a lot of great uh colleagues on the product management side So I’ve learned a lot from them but indeed those are two way to different positions like product management is about like answering what and why It’s like uh what what we are building and why our users need it and why they will use it how this solve problems of our users of our customers Whether project management is about like how and when and um it’s making sure that the thing gets built on time on a budget and with the right process and that it’s actually it meets the project goal which is also very important because like project can be built under budget and within time frame but doesn’t meet the project goal at all So like um say product manager says let’s build this thing and project manager answers like yeah cool it will be done then and this is the steps we will take to do it M nice Yeah And then my um experience just to collaborate closely but sometimes for small projects it can be one person who uh does like uh two roles at the same time but I think it doesn’t work for big projects because it’s too much pressure tasks communication As a project manager you need to work on plan on strategy As a product manager you need to do researches and interviews and it’s like really complicated to do both at the same time Absolutely It’s very much complicated cuz uh yeah you’re juggling not only the project plan deadlines iterations As a product manager you also do the whole product vision and strategy and a lot a lot of negotiations and sometimes even uh playing it uh politically in the right way I guess that also happens for the project managers cuz it’s like many stakeholders involved and in your experience would there be the dedicated project managers and product managers to discerning the project Is that a common practice even Yeah Um it’s a common practice at least in my experience Let me think it’s like it depends on the company setup but in the company I’m currently working in there are product managers dedicated to a big products So we work together with them on deliverables for those big projects but there are also small initiatives or like smaller projects and this is where I can step in as a project manager and at the same time as a product manager to uh get the requirements create documentation uh align with business so it’s a combination Uh yeah of course very fascinated and I think it’s a lot of work I want to get in uh into uh the phases of uh project management uh practicing I think this is some uh chapter that um I I used to interact with more more common and now it’s gone and I’m I’m curious what are the project faces and common project management practices for each in order to to make this project successful team stakeholders happy as much as possible and also not to go insane for project manager Yeah Well uh there are five phases which are a common one initiation uh planning and execution monitoring uh controlling and closing or completion I don’t remember but I think for me as for project manager initiation and closing are the most um stressful ones initiation you’re starting from a business case from a small document it can be like two pages describing like why we are doing this project and who our users and then you need to shape from this document the actual plan the actual requirements set up a governance uh like assemble a team So basically prepare everything to kick off the project and key to its success before like starting the execution is to gather as many requirements as needed to build a solid um architecture from the beginning because often in agile there is a common misconception that agile projects can start like from the business case like we have nothing first sprint here is the team go build Like in a game you have a target resources just go Yeah Yeah You will figure out later but actually agile is about adjusting along the way according to new findings maybe market change but it’s not about starting without the plan So I would say key success for a project is well prepared plan during the initiation phase well gathered requirements during the initiation phase So basically the whole journey starts from the beginning from the planning and this is the key the way how we got into the phase into the project five phases that’s what you can overview as a project manager does it help you a lot in your daily routine professional life to have this skeleton this mapping of what usually is going on what’s the project life cycle is to understand where you are and what is the right move It brings clarity not only to me but also for all the participants involved in the project because it gives people uh clear understanding what goes next what we do now what is the outcome what is the artic art artifact of initiation what’s the artifact of planning and for people it’s easier to understand where we are now and what is needed from everyone so yeah I find it extremely useful and usually before the beginning of every project I feel like even when we have like just a business case I try to convey the information so here is our plan here are our steps we need to collect this we need to talk about that we need to do the discovery for this so like uh I try to give like from the very beginning for people a guideline a map here are our steps and what we need to do nice and would you use the professional jargon or the professional terms for it like it’s our initiation phase or would you rather describe what the whole thing is about right now Yeah it’s better to describe what we are doing right now why we are doing this If I say “Okay guys we are on the initiation phase Nobody will understand me.” They’re like “Okay.” Yeah Yeah It’s like “What what do we initiate?” Now silly question but um it’s it also connects uh to the problematic of um common language as you know developers could use some jargon designers as well And when you’re talking to a team it’s it’s better to talk as humans like in a in a professionally but well understanding terms So yeah Okay Uh I really love to hear about the miscon misconceptions about your work as as a project manager Uh uh there was a very cool episode on your YouTube channel which is called manage me hard I have watched the whole episode Mhm What are these common things that people get about the project management wrong And is there a magic pill that can fix everything about fixing everything That’s a good point Yeah Uh that made me think that exactly Uh a lot of people think that uh if we have a really good professional responsible project manager everything will go smoothly no surprises no blockers But it’s actually not quite true PM is just like one person and they can’t they manage P but they cannot remove it completely right they reduce surprises but they can’t uh predict everything and for example if there is a perfect project manager but toxic corporate culture or if the team is immature project manager can try to do something about it but he or she should not be done with a person who does the improvement of the process or skills I will make maybe an example I worked on project uh where during the year 10 people were changed 10 developers and it was a team of 10 people so and they were changed without me asking about it so I was notified one or two weeks before so hey Maria in two weeks you will not have this developer we will find someone else in one year our project looked like Frankenstein because we buil like because it was built by different people in different times so Even though I tried to do the um on boarding phase as smooth as smooth as possible you can’t do actually much if like the top management uh doesn’t help you Let’s say yeah The next misconception project managers do nothing just talk Basically that’s that’s by talking this is what we need to do to gather requirements to collect the information to prepare planning to um uh update statuses to see if project is on track This is actually the way of exchanging information right but like this communication results into different artifacts like documents uh tickets plans changed etc So yeah that’s common misconception Well I had the uh a combination of misconceptions applied to me Right now I’m 30 years old but when I started as a manager I was uh 24 A young woman project manager So people think you just started to work as a project manager to do nothing you know or just to be well paid and be well paid and and do nothing So I it’s a bit complicated of course when you start to work in a company and you already feel towards you So some people applied some stereotypes and you need to earn the trust their respect by doing your job not just well but super well to outperform to bring a lot of value to make people see that you actually are use you are useful here uh and you’re not just being paid for going to the office and drinking coffee Absolutely And you basically just repeated the thought from uh many researchers and from gender studies which say that yeah in order to uh to be visible and competitive with with men uh in the uh in the view of in the public view very often uh women professions should not only be professional right but also outperform be on alert and predict things and be super proactive in the right way It might be quite challenging and I but also exhausting cuz I also tried that myself and um there are certain things that you can resolve by that but there are also company culture as you also mentioned they just not is not willing to see uh young women in in that way if you feel stuck as as a young woman it’s very wise very important to understand which bottles to keep on uh tackling and just to step out I would advise is to directly approach person if there was an appropriate joke on comment tone of voice and ask not to do that anymore or ask why it’s happening People are testing your boundaries If they see they can behave like that and you do nothing they will continue So it’s better to work with these situations right on the beginning All right All right Yeah that sounds very good to have a clear and healthy boundary and people going to learn to respect them that way you mentioned that you also changed the country that you used to live So relocation from Ukraine to Berlin where we are now is it’s a big uh and big change in life and I want to ask you in here how’s how is it going for you as an expert What are the common challenges that you that you faced Well definitely my work style has changed and especially work life balance in Berlin there is a strong uh work life balance culture people respect boundaries No late night Slack messages or or calls So like before 6 or sorry after 6 no work usually unless uh there are some exceptions Also I change the way I communicate It’s more diplomatic now because our office very diverse culture wise and we Ukrainians are very direct and straightforward Yes our communication and the Europeans can think we are ever g rude so we have to adjust I recall people in cave tend to share a lot of personal details about kids their spouses Here people um are more preserved and I prefer that more So work is for work Of course we share some details like my kid went to a kindergarten first day it went well but no too private personal details about problems about health issues Yeah which also sounds to me as a holding the clear boundaries and not crossing them which is for uh our European colleagues by default something that I also personally enjoy it It it it’s cool like to ask how how is it going on a one-on-one call I know somebody would share that ah yeah I just had a a nice vacation It was a cool journey Uh not not too specific to not overwhelming and not too private And uh that that’s also fine uh until you become friends and then it’s extra you as a with the colleagues agree yeah it’s a it’s a a nice difference I know that you also work with Americans and and now the new scene the European scene from your perspective and your experience with the working with founders and business owners and colleagues from there how different this the culture of two are and how did you feel in both of them as a Ukrainian Oh well there is you know a stereotype that people in uh Europe they lazy and they don’t work as hard as Americans Well that’s not true There are a lot of workaholics but maybe for a lot of Americans work is often in the first place At least what I noticed from my colleagues and Europeans more about balance Today for example work is most important So it’s first place but tomorrow I have fever I take sick leave and I make myself as the first priority Well with Europeans I also I’ve never seen people writing I’m on by vacation but reach me out anytime if you have any question Well I saw that only from maybe se C level from my America American colleagues I saw that quite often from any employee like I’m on sick cliff I’m on vacation that’s my number that’s my mail reach me out anytime Yeah So American people are open to the situations where they are needed even while holidays and Europeans are not which is also something that I personally relate cuz we work hard and it’s also important to rest well rest hard that would that would restore us and our energy so makes sense Um and with the expert life how did you perceive Berlin and how’s it going Any certain things that you would like would love to mention there Yeah Well in 3 years I think I already faced any situation you could imagine in Berlin I even forgot my keys twice So I had to call specific specific service so they can open my door with a plastic thing for €200 Gosh Gosh Yeah uh but at least they’re fast What bothers me still in Germany and I won’t be unique here is bureaucracy and how everything takes a lot of time So I got used to the fact that in Ukraine you order something and it can be delivered the very next day Whether here it’s like several days the parcel can be given to some neighbors or you need to look for it for so long It’s not about even ordering something It’s about any service It takes time to find an apartment to find a job and I had to I had hard times to get used to that because for example when I was looking for a job and I was waiting for two weeks for a feedback on interview or on my request I started to question you know my self-worth and my professionalism So I thought that the time it takes for the company to respond has not something to do with me but it’s not It’s just everything takes long here longer here because the process is slow well thought decisions Uh no rush and it’s not because of me it’s because this is how things work here Another aspect of uh I guess mostly German culture and how things uh are quick or rather slow in here And I remember it the quote from a Ukrainian recruiter that we met at the same very vividly She said “Yeah I’ve I joined the company and was assigned one open position which was not closed for last 9 months and it took me another 3 months to close it and it was all right for them I saw that sometimes the role for which uh a certain person is search searched for can be split among other colleagues or just kind of covered in a different way while the need is still there and and they still looking for it for the person So and also there might be no reply in summertime where people are on vacations or in the public holidays And I guess you all know about it but for me it was a surprise because back in Ukraine I could have gotten the new position in two three four weeks not months Yeah Yeah It’s way too different It’s way different Yeah Cultural aspect and the job search job market aspect All right Thank you so much for for sharing that I think we we all know that the expert life is not easy especially the first year here in Berlin in Germany in general I want to also ask you the question that was on my mind for a while now There on linkadine you have the PMP certification label and I noticed that quite uh some project managers uh have that too They have a goal to get one and uh I’m wondering why it’s so important the PMP certification how that influences professional life of project manager and like for you personally what that means First is the only globally recognized certification in project management on that scale So when you say that you have a PMP certification it’s like everyone understand that you know what you’re doing that you have experience and you follow best practices because exam is um truly practical You can’t even pass it without experience So you need to apply and you need to prove that you already uh delivered as a project manager uh several projects within the 3 years at least time frame So yeah that’s what I like about it and I’m actually confident that in any profession if you want to achieve a certain level you must know best practices of your field and then when you know them you can decide whether to use them all or not but at least you need to be uh aware and for my career like since currently I’m working in a small company and it’s not like a company who implements uh projects for some clients It’s just internal products I think that the certification give me open future opportunities in case I want to unlock some roles which require paint certification and I saw in Germany it’s quite often a requirement for senior positions for program manager positions It gives also credibility to me and it gives me confidence I can actually you know speak a real project management project manager language with with this certification because I’ve been studying for that four months and I passed a lot of simulation tests and I answered almost 1,000 simulate simulation questions So it was quite a wild wild ride to get prepared but it also made me understand uh really great project management concepts That sounds great It reminds me like the in in parallel universe I guess that’s how many questions the future drivers would answer in order to get the uh the exam right and their driver license and and PMP certification also sounds like a huge uh content that you got help to understand awesome and I guess as much as PMP certification gives boost to project manager’s career the mentorship sessions also do so I know that you proposed the mentorship to other people interested Ed in that Could you tell us who’s whose people this consitations are for and what commonly one can get out of them I didn’t have a chance yet to work with many requests by now because I haven’t been actually vocal enough about uh the service I offer and provide So people who requested consultations from me they actually found me via my YouTube channel or via my LinkedIn So I provide the service from consultations I already conducted There were requests like um CV review and mock interview to prepare for the real interview because you know when you’re asked questions on the interview you might answer something in not in the best way So I help to overcome the fear and I help to highlight a strength of a specialist in the answer mostly also because uh I am interviewer myself I conduct interviews often in the current company and I did it in previous companies Uh I’m know from the practical experience what people do and answer in the wrong way So I can correct that Also there were like a couple of requests to help with the current project like to analyze like situation the person is in and help to advise like what is the best uh uh decision in this situation person in yeah there was the last request about project management in general So person is not project manager but she was thinking about switching and wanted to ask me general questions So it was open discussion about project management what is needed what are the challenges So yeah um I truly believe that my nine year experience in it as a developer as a scrum master and a project manager manager will be beneficial for job seekers and for project managers who already working So I would love to be a mentor for someone not just one meeting but build together a career strategy or to help to be help with some new project or current project in the series of meetings where we build a plan build a release strategy So yeah I’m looking I’m thinking nowadays how I can convey this information to people that that’s my service Please reach me out if you’re interested I might use the um the service Yeah there are a few of them One of them ADP ADP list platform uh which also can can find me there SH I think it’s a new the new project of uh is out there Uh that now also lets the mentees in mentors are also welcome are your consultations um are being booked mostly on a personal connection Yes on a personal connection I did create my mentor sash account but I still need to post it on LinkedIn So I need to make people know that here here I am Here’s my service Please reach out So yeah Yeah That you’re available for the Yeah exactly uh building also a long-term relationship because I really love what you said mentorship can really uh blossom for both of of the parties when it’s not only just a one-time consultation uh rather the long-term relationship and you can support the person and be and take them by the hand metaphorically speaking and and supported uh through the whole uh complex things in project management So that’s why if you uh are a project manager or considering to step into that field feel free to reach out to Maria We are going to include all the links uh under the episode description Thank you so much Awesome And we just mentioned your YouTube channel manage me hard YouTube channel that is all about uh project management working in tech um certain uh common things and tendencies that we have there Uh I’m already a fan of it I’m already uh watching uh the last episodes with with the my eyes open It’s a YouTube channel uh held in Ukrainian We manage been I’ve been wondering first of all about the name I think the channel name strikes as a provoking and unusual and uh how did you arrive at that name Yeah Yeah It’s it is a bit provocative It relates to my professional realization that I had that kindness and friendliness are al sometimes mistaken for weakness especially when you’re a woman and I noticed that in some situations people take you seriously only when you communicate in more direct and tough way the name is related to how my mindset got shifted from oh I will be nice I will explain everything in a friendly way and everyone will listen to me But unfortunately this is not how it works So sometimes you just need to be uh quite straightforward Okay When you when you said that I actually can recall now a cool meme in Instagram cuz I’m in cuz I’m Yeah in my 30s I do use Instagram and and and memes are the other language Uh and it’s it uh and I think it was actually a cool real a young lady just a young movement professional explain how a junior technical project manager going to respond when something to developers when they they like can we do this please and then the middle one is like we need that and that and that for this time let’s roll out and then the senior one is like I need this and this and maybe even with a more harsh words and then engineers are quite responsive to to this confidence and and straightforwardness and and when you know what what you need from them very clearly Yeah I think I think it is applicable for any professional who is going from junior to like middle and senior position So you are just evolving in the beginning you are like trying to be you know nice and simple but then you just uh do your job at the time Yeah Yeah You just do your job and uh and you you can be more assertive you just assert you know what what is needed and it’s for the benefit of the whole project and team Yeah exactly Nice Yeah So um the name is super unusual and very catchy I guess maybe when you say I’m having the channel this is the name uh people can memorize it And tell us also what the whole channel is for Who who’s your audience and how did the whole thing happened Mhm that uh you started to be a content creator and produce all those wonderful videos Yeah Um yeah my channel is for project managers with or without experience who is looking for real practical tips So it’s not just project management you know basics or theory It’s literally what to do in different situations and what not to do It’s like what to do during releases retrospectives meetings job search what to do to become a good project manager or how to avoid being bad project manager So I try to just assemble all my experience and situations and feeling into videos to bring value to people so they can avoid making the same mistakes or they can uh find an answer in the question they’re looking for via YouTube the stories I had in my plans to be more present on the internet and build my professional image and I was thinking about LinkedIn Instagram but nowadays there are so many uh creators who use link in and Instagram and produce a lot of text a lot of posts and I think it’s really right now hard to stand out in writing especially with the era of AI it feels like a lot of people use uh like CH GPT to write their texts and they sometimes are losing their authenticity and uniqueness because it’s like you’re reading sometimes similar texts Um so I decided on the other hand video is amazing way to engage people not just by text by visuals by motions by the way I speak So therefore even though YouTube requires eight skills you know it requires text writing it requires video creation light setup um acting even optimization So like YouTube requires a lot of skills but I find it a much easier way to convey the information I want to convey So with text it would be harder and those articles would be really long you know so nobody would read them So I think with video you can put a video on a play dishes or do something else and you can listen to it So you can utilize it in the way you want You can watch it or listen to it Absolutely It’s just a medium that catches the attention and that can that you can you can consume while doing anything same podcast same YouTube videos and within within kitine uh I also noticed that a lot that people started to use jubet quite thoroughly and it’s not only just like to phrase one particular thought or passage but rather for the whole text and now when I’m scrolling the linkadine and recognize the the text that is being written not by chubby because I’m more emotional and more down to earth and imperfect colloquial you know like written in the way you would speak in real life Yeah absolutely And then it’s so refreshing then actually that’s something that you you can you you want to read through cuz it’s real person who wrote that and same with the YouTube channel I think it’s very much enjoyable when uh you see the the person face this is how he or she speaks You just mentioned that right being a YouTuber means to juggle many tasks and apply many skills Maybe you can also tell us a bit about your behind the curtain process How do you come up with the text that you want to say with the idea How do you record the video and so on I think maybe for somebody who’s also considering the YouTube uh channel or any other medium those tips might be quite helpful Yeah that’s a long process actually video creation thankfully right now I uh I’m outsourcing the video editing I don’t do it by myself but the rest text scenario video recording I do by myself and it requires for me around 10 hours to write text to record to then watch everything to cut unnecessary thing and then to write description for YouTube look for right text for YouTube for right name for YouTube uh think about Zambail it also it takes quite a lot of time Yeah And think about the text for linkadin So al also like often when I sit down to write a scenario or text for link in like the post for linkadin I sometimes cannot come up with right words so I have to postpone it How I’m looking for ideas I basically have a excel sheet where I collect any topics I would like to discuss to to share and when it’s the day when I need to prepare something I’m looking for the most useful topic on one hand and on other hand the topic that I have let’s say I have um desire to speak about right now because if I don’t have inspiration to write a text to write scenario the the scenario won’t be written so Yeah that’s about it that there are so many different things to that content creators should think about in ahead and get prepared and what you just said like uh it’s is also very very important insight that maybe if you sit in front of your camera you have your scenario the idea but you actually do not feel like uh talking and maybe something’s going on on your mind or uh or it you’re just exhausting then it’s better not to do so right now not to force yourself into talking and doing the cutic creation Of course when I start for example writing scenario and it’s been 2 hours and I still cannot come up with the right sentences or I don’t even know the structure of the topic like what I want to talk about I’m like just okay not today So that’s why that’s a tricky point of uh YouTube because algorithms they when you’re on a schedule like when you post once per two weeks per one week but sometimes you just simply don’t have an inspiration and you don’t want to create some shitty video with the sentences you don’t know how to pronounce So that’s the tricky part of any content creation of LinkedIn as well Linken also likes a consistency and sometimes you’re just not in the mood We don’t have inspiration to come up with right words and yeah that’s difficulty Yeah Then you have to compromise with the please in YouTube algorithms It just uh yeah doesn’t go in a creative flow and it’s fine I’m I’m super curious about what’s up with the modern algorithms on YouTube How do you learn about them and how do you try to keep up with such a drastic change with the this uh demand of the commitment and consistency Yeah the tricky part of the algorithms is that nobody actually know how they work 100% So if you listen to different specialists on YouTube about YouTube algorithms they want might say different things One person say okay don’t post shorts it kills algorithm Another person says that’s the best for algorithms Post shorts and you will be on the top of the channels all the time So yeah the tricky point is when you think you found out some useful information you then uh read something else from different specialist and it’s completely opposite So the complexity is to find what works for your channel It might be shorts it might be not shorts it might be provocative names it might be more uh I don’t know dry names and not not so like clickbait So that’s the the tricky part And also like some specialists say if you don’t get enough views within first 24 hours your video will not be taken by algorithms But I saw so many times that my video can be unwatched almost for 3 days for 4 days and then on fifth day impressions grow up So like algorithms start to show my video more often So yeah to answer your question how do you keep up with algorithms I don’t because it’s simply you just try things if they work for you continue If not then okay I see it’s quite more complex than I thought I actually didn’t know that uh you know there is yeah there are different recommendations and that’s actually the uh the truth is that you got to find what works for your channel specifically I also noticed that it’s quite uh unpredictable Mhm When I post YouTube short and the whole episode sometimes the shorts going to be with low impressions and with the low views and then on another day something happened Maybe somebody liked or watch it till the end You cannot predict that and it gives you unsatisfying feeling of not being able to influence that mindfully Mhm Do do you get this one or are you like totally chill No unfortunately I’m not chill because I spend a lot of time in video creation and since recently algorithms are not nice to me because I had one month and a half break So somehow they now show my videos mostly to Germany But I post on Ukrainian I already like started to post videos under VPN with Ukraine location but it’s still not fixed It’s been seven videos since I posted when I discovered this issue and it was not fixed yet YouTube is a mystery like Pandora box right I also feel so but nevertheless uh the manage me heart channel is getting more and more views and followers Last time I I saw it it was just more more than 200 and you still rolling I think it’s yeah it’s gonna it’s gonna skyrocket because the content you post is very much enjoyable and and insightful Thank you so much Sure I’ve been wondering also if if you have reflected on how can you as and your channel stand out among so many other YouTube channels cuz right now nothing is new There might be many channels about project management too Mhm Yeah Yeah you’re right uh I’ve tried to find a channel uh which is practically based on tips and guides uh and I couldn’t on Ukrainian mostly what I found is people talking about more like theory basics how this work how that work but like you can find a lot of that on Udemy or on the internet so what I want to build there is nothing like that on YouTube so like uh there is no there is not a high competition I would say There are channels for project managers but not in the way I envision it So that helps right It means that what you got there is quite unique is the person talking about real experience and hardships I also plan maybe in future when I have uh more viewers more subscribers I would like to like uh create some kind of um community So I would like to go online with them and have some kind of online session dedicated to specific topic where in 20 minutes I talk about something and then we can communicate uh based on the topic so they can ask questions I can answer them Yeah And it will be truly free It’s actually I really have this idea in my mind to build a community of people who are really interested in project management Oh nice This is a great mission 200 or 300 subscribers It’s already a small circle of subs of of the community It’s not a lot but people might be quite uh dedicated passionate about the project management and uh even such live episode would be appreciate you And for everybody who listens or us right now you also have a chance to get into the Marius community even before it is getting viral And anything you also want to uh mention in front of uh our our audience Yeah I would like to mention for beginners for junior project managers or who are thinking to start in this uh direction to not to be afraid to ask questions and to make mistakes otherwise you will never overcome the rookie phase And also books and courses about project management they are valuable but getting the real experience from practice it’s not comparable So do whatever you want but find a company where you can complete a full project from the beginning to the completion by yourself and this is how you will become a better project manager Well said There are no wrong and silly questions So uh I’m going to all include all the links to Maria’s mentorship profile the YouTube channel in the episode description and uh that might be just the beginning of your sailing journey to the uh project management Let us also know what you think Thank you so much Maria It was an awesome talk Thank you for asking right questions I had truly pleasure answering them and some questions made me even think about uh my real opinion on some subjects That’s so awesome I I feel that we also had quite a candid conversation and it’s so cool that we can share hardships and ups and downs and success and aspirations like you have with YouTube channel and video mentorship So uh for everybody keep on dreaming and moving towards your dream and uh we’re going to hear each other next time in the next episode Till then enjoy this one Let us know what you think Any comment and sharing is appreciated