Project Initiation Done Right – Lessons from PrettyLittleThing’s Rebrand

Beauty Bakerie closed in 2024 with a public letter about faith and personal growth. The trade press told a different story — VC pressure, a funding pullback, and a category that caught up to the brand's differentiation. Tiffany breaks down why a mismatched public narrative and real narrative means nobody — not the market, not the next founder, not even the founder herself — gets the benefit of an honest retrospective. Plus: succession planning, single-founder brand risk, and what happened when the company was quietly acquired months later.

Ami Colé launched at 270 Sephora doors and grew to 600 in sixteen months — then shut its doors in 2025 anyway. In the series premiere of The Retro, Tiffany breaks down founder Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye's closure through a project management lens: stakeholder misalignment, unmanaged scope expansion, and a funding environment with a single point of failure. Then, a comparison that changes the whole conversation — Phia, the AI shopping app from Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, raised $43.5M in under a year on a cap table full of celebrities. And Emma Grede's own on-record comments about passing on investing in Ami Colé — before hiring its founder at SKIMS four years later. Capital access is a resource-planning input. This episode asks who actually gets to plan on it.

What if the most powerful tool in your project management toolkit isn't a software, a template, or a certification — it's a question? In this 15-minute sprint episode, host Tiffany introduces the Socratic Method and breaks down exactly how to use it on your projects, in your stakeholder meetings, and with your team — starting today. If you've ever walked out of a meeting feeling like nobody listened, or watched a project spiral because stakeholders couldn't align, this episode is going to shift how you operate. In this episode, you'll learn: What the Socratic Method actually is and why it works in high-stakes project environments How to use strategic questioning to shut down scope creep without creating conflict The exact question to ask a resistant stakeholder that gets them to buy in — on their own terms How to separate fact from assumption when your team is stuck in problem-solving mode This isn't theory. Tiffany walks through a real client scenario where asking the right question changed the outcome of an entire project. If this episode resonated, share it with a PM in your network who needs to hear it — and follow @project43consulting on Instagram for more tools, frameworks, and real talk about what project management actually looks like in the field.

Thinking about transitioning into project management? Before you enroll in another course or sign up for a certification exam, listen to this first. In this 15-minute sprint episode, host Tiffany breaks down the real truth about breaking into project management — the stuff that doesn't show up in study guides or job descriptions. Whether you're leaving corporate, pivoting from marketing, operations, education, or creative work, the experience you already have is more valuable than you think. You just need to know how to position it. In this episode, you'll learn: Why the shift from "doer" to "orchestrator" is the hardest — and most important — mindset change in your PM journey How to translate your existing experience into language that hiring managers actually respond to The one tool you should know before you start applying Why jumping straight to the PMP exam could slow you down instead of speed you up This episode is for the career pivoter who is tired of being told they're not qualified. You've been managing projects. It's time to get paid for it. Follow Tiffany on Instagram @project43consulting for PM tips, behind-the-scenes consulting content, and resources to help you make the pivot with confidence.

In this episode, Tiffany from Project 43 Consulting reflects on her journey through 2025 and sets her intentions for 2026. She shares her transition from contract work to becoming a full-time employee, highlighting the challenges and triumphs she faced along the way. Tiffany expresses her excitement about building a team and creating a staffing agency aimed at helping Black women find job opportunities across various industries. She emphasizes the importance of mentorship and her desire to support others in their career journeys.