Contractor Cuts

The 4 Habits Behind Every "Lucky" Contractor

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0:00 | 29:50

Every contractor knows that guy. The one who always seems to land the good jobs, find the right crews, and dodge the disasters. He's "just lucky" — except he's not.

In this episode of Contractor Cuts, Clark and James break down a 10-year study on what actually separates lucky people from unlucky ones — and the 4 habits every "lucky" contractor has in common.

They cover:

  • The newspaper experiment that proves luck isn't random — it's focus
  • Habit #1: Why the guy who hunts down crews at Home Depot always ends up with better labor
  • The networking moves contractors think are silly but quietly fill their pipeline
  • Habit #2: How to tell the difference between trusting your gut and rationalizing laziness
  • Habit #3: Why expecting good fortune is the opposite of woo-woo manifestation
  • Habit #4: How the unluckiest contractors keep repeating the same mistakes — and how to break the cycle
  • The real story of a $400K estimate they were happy to lose

If you've ever felt like the industry is working against you, this is the mindset shift that flips it.

If you're doing $350K–$2M a year in revenue, coaching pays for itself. A 5% efficiency gain alone covers the cost — and that's before we even talk about growth. 

We help contractors stop losing money on crews, change orders, and inefficient operations — and start scaling. 

Ready to have the conversation? Set up a free call at contractorcuts.com

Contractor Cuts is a weekly podcast for contractors who want to build a better business — covering sales, operations, hiring, finances, and everything in between.

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Welcome To The New Studio

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner. And I'm James McConnell. Thank you for joining us again. If you are watching on YouTube, you can see that we're at a new podcast studio, our very own spot. So we have we have moved locations for the third and hopefully final time. So welcome to our new space. So nice. So nice. If you look behind James, there's a lot of whiskey, but it's for safekeeping. It's not for drinking. That sounds fun. All right.

A 10 Year Study On Luck

SPEAKER_00

Well, today's episode, we are talking about luck. What does that mean? What does luck mean? We have uh I heard someone talking about a study and I dove deep into it. And uh we are it was a 10-year study on luck of people that are uh unlucky versus lucky people. We all have that guy in our life that are like, dude, that guy just is always lucky. Anything he touches just happens. Uh, and it's not a matter of being lucky or the person that's hey, I'm just so unlucky. Like everything, if it if something can go wrong, it happens to me, right? And so, what is the difference of lucky versus unlucky? And how do we create a company and a and a lifestyle and a our lives to be more lucky? Uh, this study was a study, a 10-year study of 400 people. Uh, and the whole study was going trying to figure out of those 400 people, 200 said, Hey, I am the most unlucky person on earth. 200 said, I'm just lucky. Everyone thinks I'm lucky. I just, it just so happens everything feels like is lucky in my life. And so he tried to do the research on what's the difference of those two groups. Um, I'm gonna dive in. There's four main principles that came out of it. And what's crazy, it wasn't working harder, it wasn't being more talented, it wasn't being more intelligent, even. It wasn't an IQ thing that that was the difference. There's four principles that he wrote about that came out of this. And so we're gonna talk about those four principles today and how they kind of impact us in the construction world and how we can really grab a hold and learn something from this study and how to make ourselves and our companies more lucky, land better jobs, have better clients, have better crews, and and how do we implement that in the company?

The Newspaper Test And Overfocus

SPEAKER_00

So principle one severed and taxaded rabbits' feet. Each corner of your office, cover all four corners, don't go three corners. Uh one cool part, this is a little story from the research where he started the one of the first things that the and this is a story by a doctor, a research project by Dr. Richmond White Richard Wiseman. Uh, he one of the first things he did, and one of the if you've heard of this study, this is probably the part of it that you've heard. Um, he had of those 400 people, he he gave uh it split them into their two groups. He had um gave them all a newspaper and said, here, take the newspaper, uh, and I want you to count every single photograph that's inside of it. Um unlucky people averaged about two minutes. The lucky people took about it took a few seconds to to count the to finish to get their number, right? Uh and so do we have any data on was this like the Sunday newspaper? I think it was just a standard newspaper. Um because the Sunday newspaper is huge. Well, it took uh on average, it was two minutes to go through the whole thing for the unlucky group. Not the Sunday paper. And it was it was literally seconds for the lucky group to get through it. So of this, uh the the whole trick of this was they said, Hey, I need you to count the photo to if you can get the right number, you're gonna get $100 in the end of this. Uh or something, some some sort of oh, $250 was was the prize. If you if you get it right. It took two minutes for the unlucky group to get to the end, and half were wrong. A lot of them didn't get didn't get the right number. The whole trick to this was on page two, they had a half-page ad that said, Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper on page two. So you're looking at page one, you count those, you flip it over. The lucky people read that ad and saw, oh, it says that there's 43 and I don't have to do anything else. The unlucky people were so focused on just counting the pictures that they missed it altogether and they didn't see the ad because they were so focused on the pictures.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I had a teacher in high school that did this with a test. No. And uh, I think it backfired on him because we all saw it. And so we all turned it in and we all got hundreds. So he he pulled back and we had to retake the test.

SPEAKER_00

Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I was like, bro.

SPEAKER_00

He was like, uh I wanted three of you to find that. Yeah, that's so funny. Uh also halfway through, he hit a second message that said, Stop counting, tell the experimenter. Oh, I'm sorry, it was $100 to win because he said, Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and you win $250. So it goes from $100 to $250. Unlucky people missed that one as well. Uh, still too busy counting photos. Um, same newspaper, same opportunity, different results. It's about focus. It's about being, I'm just trying to get through it. And so we're gonna talk about some of the four main principles that came out of this, but I thought that was a really cool study that kind of starts laying out why and how and and the differences of the two groups. Yeah. All right, so let's go through the principles. I'm gonna skip to the good part.

Principle One Build Chance Opportunities

SPEAKER_00

Number one principle they maximize chance opportunities. Lucky people build and maintain a strong network of luck. Uh, they have a relaxed attitude towards life and are open to new opportunities. Now, the newspaper experiment was one out of 10 years. You're not gonna have a network of luck when looking at a newspaper, but relaxed attitude towards life, open to new experiences. I'm kind of taking everything in. I'm not just focused on executing, but really kind of bigger picture. Um, I think this is a really good one when we start looking at what we're talking about, what we talked about in the last few weeks with when we're talking about estimating leads, the the whole process of intake with the client. The goal isn't, I need to get them an estimate. I need to get the job executed, I need to get out of this house and be done. I need to have the I gave them a kitchen. It's the bigger picture, it's the experience through it. It is what's happening in the margins that I'm that I if I zoomed out a little bit, I can actually shortcut to the end. Um, so maximizing the chance opportunities, that also goes into networking groups, right? How are you trying to network and get out there? Are you putting yourself out there? We we have uh a coaching client that James coaches that, you know, one of the most impressive things when in our first intro when talking to him was he was brand new to his city. Uh he moved there with his wife. He'd never lived there before. Um, and he he's I hope he listens to this and we'll tell him to listen. Uh he got there and we said, okay, so what cruise are you using? Where'd you find your labor? He went to every every supply house, Home Depot, everywhere that he could go and asked, Hey, who's the best? You know, he'd go to Sherman Williams. Hey, who's the best painter that you guys have? Give me a couple names. And he found the right crews. He hunted it down. For a lot of guys, the unlucky guys, they they took the shortest route. They said, Hey, I saw a number on a van, I called it. The guy said they can get there. Great, check the box. I got painters at the house. The difference of those two paint crews that show up are going to be the difference of the quality that you get. And so if I'm going to Sherman Williams, I'm talking to five different paint crews, I'm looking at the the the a lot of them have like a pushboard in the back that you people put cards on. I'm calling through seven. I'm doing the hard work and the margins to create a better crew, a better experience for my clients, a better product that I end with. That's how it's like that guy's just everything happens for him. No, he he did all of the work to find the right setup to do the hard work that doesn't show today. Yeah. Right. And I think that's part of maximizing your chance opportunities. I'm gonna get myself out there. I'm gonna go um, I'm gonna go find uh investors, I'm gonna go talk to homeowners. That we have one client that uh he goes to uh a monthly um mamas and margaritas group that he sponsors. And it's it's like a group of moms that get together and have margaritas. And he does and he's like he goes with his wife sometimes, but they like he goes, talks. It's not dang it.

SPEAKER_01

He's not going to look for say, I got a great idea. How about I get a bunch of mamas and get a bunch of margaritas and just kind of host a little thing and then see, you know, what for networking.

SPEAKER_00

Networking.

SPEAKER_01

No, but again, like Cheryl, you look tired. Is anybody taking care of you today?

SPEAKER_00

You're smart to divorce him.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you haven't divorced him yet. He didn't know what he had in you. I thought you said you had divorced him that you were fed up and were looking looking elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00

But but uh it sounds so like, why would you go to something like he gets so many jobs out of it, so many networking opportunities, so many, hey, you should talk talk to this guy. He's in, you know, I knew him from this thing. Yeah, and and there's those types of like I'm gonna go above and beyond. What's funny is the first time I was visiting him in a city, he was like, I can't do dinner tonight. I'm I've got this group. I was like, what group? And he told me margaritas. Yeah, I was like, really? And he was like, Yeah, I mean, I I I buy the margarita and show up and I sponsor it and I get jobs out of it, and it's great networking in the city. So again, it's how do we create those in the margins of our business to where it's like if we're just head down executing, um, that's a good thing. You have to do that, but to zoom out to 30,000-foot view and be like, okay, I need to lay the path for what I want to happen by next month. I need to not just worry about what's happening today, but I need to, I'm really kind of scaling up and I've got more work next month than I know. I need more crews. And so what crews do I need? I definitely need an uh another trim guy. I definitely need another flooring company. I don't like the flooring guys I I work with right now. So I'm gonna go hunt those down.

SPEAKER_01

I think uh it's it's interesting because there's another, I don't know the I'm not a study guy, but there's like I forget the name of the book. There's this book about ADHD, which a lot of guys in our field are. Yeah. Um, and how it's a I mean, we

Networking In The Margins

SPEAKER_01

we all see it all over Instagram, like, oh, it's my superpower and this and that. There's a lot of evidence to show that there that ADHD was a very like a super important part of early human. Yeah. And being able to, okay, we have this task in front of us and we're going out to do this thing, but uh as you're on your task, oh what is that? I saw movement. Like that's either danger or that's food. And that's like uh really good to be able to, and I think ADH ADHD people have a without even knowing it, have this very active processor always going that is like that's not important, that's not important, that's what is that and it's following those kind of flashes that like when you're reading through the newspaper and have a task at hand, but you're like flip, like oh, interesting. What's that? Oh, I don't have to do 80% of the work that I was about to do. Yeah, great. Like leaning into those inclinations and leaning into those types of things is uh kind of looked at in a like oh, you're being flighty or you're being flaky, and it just doesn't necessarily have to be that you could give yourself to that completely and that's not good. You need to find a way to bring yourself back, but being able to recognize opportunities is a lot about being just open.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. I I agree wh wholly on that. I I think you know, I I don't know if I talked about it when we did that ADHD episode, but like for me, one of the best things that my parents did for me as a kid, I was diagnosed in sixth grade in the early 90s and uh uh or mid-90s. But the my when you were in diapers, uh my parents though, I got on Ritalin as a kid. Um, but I went to a psychologist um uh or a psych psychiatrist and we and worked with her and really learned what being on Ritalin, what what I liked about it and what I did well on it. And through high school, really honed in okay, this is what I can act that way when I'm not on it. I can and I I would identify when I'm starting to look at the other things on the newspaper, right? And and so I really honed the skill of being able to look at stuff and using ADD and my ADHD to look like be distracted and find those things and be able to consciously think, should I follow that path or is that a distraction? Oh, that's interesting. Let me let me go a little bit, or I'm gonna pin in that and I'm gonna do that today at three. But really kind of honing that in, but again, using the ability to be distracted, but also not letting it take me off course. So, anyways, sidetrack, but I think that's part of this. I think that's uh that's a great observation. Rabbit trail, rabbit feet,

ADHD And Seeing Hidden Signals

SPEAKER_00

coincidence?

SPEAKER_01

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00

All right, so number one, maximize chance

Principle Two Trust The Gut

SPEAKER_00

opportunities. Number two, listen to your lucky hunches. Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to their intuition and gut feeling. I think this is this is one that is true, but I think can get you in trouble. I think there's a difference of gut feeling versus what I want to do and self-lack of self-control. And I think people justify the lack of self-control with I'm following my gut. I do it all the time. All the time. On the drive here. Yep. Uh with the Dunkin' Donuts 8, 17 donuts.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't know what number you were gonna go with.

SPEAKER_00

Uh that was the right number. That was good. That was the right number. Uh, clients that give you the bad feeling, uh, but I need this job, but uh, this person's gonna be a problem. Those type of, we you know, the this this crew is not gonna do it. Uh let's uh let's hope that we end this job and that they don't totally screw me on that. Right. Those type of gut feelings that we ignore because it's easier to not listen to them than to ignore them. And the problem is, again, this goes to where it just, it's work. It's not hard work, it's just you gotta grind. Like uh this the crew that stinks, it's if I fired them today, it's gonna cost me probably an extra 500 to a thousand bucks to replace them because I'm gonna pay them something and get the next guys in here to fix what they've done. I'm gonna pull them off. I'm gonna lose a week on the job trying to get another crew in here. The client's gonna be pissed, this crew's gonna be angry at me, and the next crew, I don't know if they're gonna be as good, but I think they're pretty good because I've used them before. I'm just gonna keep these guys out here. Right. And so that amount of work to do that is that I don't have the time for that. And so you just ignore that gut feeling of these guys should be replaced. And then fast forward three weeks, I'm out 10 grand. The client pulled out of the job, I've lost another hundred grand of continuation of the work. Um lawsuits with the crew, lawsuits with the home. Like it spins out, and it's like, man, I'm just so unlucky. Like every crew that I get is bad. It's like, well, you didn't do your research. Yeah. And when you have that gut feeling, you didn't do anything about it. So it's more that type of gut feeling that we're following. We've got, you know, we've got hundreds and hundreds of jobs that that you've done. Maybe you haven't done that many. Maybe you've got 30 jobs you've done as a contractor. Those are all little micro uh uh directors in your brain that it's like, I I that I got screwed that way last time. I remember three years ago. I remember eight years ago that that happened. And that's in your that's in your subconscious in your brain. Yeah. And that's what's building those gut feelings.

SPEAKER_01

The client says the line, and you're like, I know you. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

I've worked with you before. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, I just just I uh thanks for the invoice. If you just break down every material receipt and send those over, that'd be great. Oh boy. All right, so that's number two. Listen to your lucky hunches.

Principle Three Expect Good Fortune

SPEAKER_00

Uh number three, expect good fortune. I think this is a this is a really good one that's overlooked. And sounds like woo-woo. Let's be fair.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. This is let's call a spade a spade and a club a club. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00

Lucky people expect their good luck to continue, attempting to achieve goals, and when changes seem slim or chances seem slim, uh, they persevere in the face of failure. Clutch gene. Uh expecting good fortune is, you know, this isn't a a, what is it? If I think about it long enough, it will happen. Manifestation. It's not this is not a manifestation of the woo-woo that James is talking about. This is I, you know, Brene Brown, if you've ever listened to anything that she's done or read any of her books, uh, she said. BB? Yeah. Oh, oh, BB. You listen to BB? Bebs. Yeah. You follow Bebs? She she said, what you go looking for in this world, you will surely find. And if I'm always, you know, just bad stuff happens, this and that, like that's what's gonna happen. And if it's uh, you know, I'm gonna go for the big job because I think I can handle it. And I'm gonna handle it, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna expect the referral to close. I'm gonna expect, I I I sent out 12 estimates and got zero, it's the 13th one that's gonna land. I gotta go do it. And it's that the the positive, good, uh, good fortune, positive energy, positive mindset of, you know, for in construction specifically, there is name me another uh industry that is so rain and shine seasonal uh uh uh revenue that that's affected. Gutter guards, Christmas lights. Um what I'm saying is uh pumpkin patches. Every single person I coach has had a season of five steps forward, six steps back. Totally. Yeah. And those six steps back, it's like I'm I'm even I feel like worse off than where I was a month ago. Uh, you know, I I have a guy right now that that is struggling. It's like last year he exploded. This year, dead. What's going on? What's happening? Like he couldn't he had too many jobs to deal with last year, and this year he can't land one to save his life. And it's like, what is going on? What's changed? Yeah, and there's so many things that affect that. But the the most important thing in those moments is to say, hey, it's like, let's assess, let's go 30,000 foot few, let's hone in on pricing. Let's look, are you too high? What's going on? How are you loaning? So we're deep diving into every single estimate that he sent out that he didn't land. Uh, the last two episodes of how to build an estimate, how to how to uh really form that friendship, the the relationship with the homeowner going into it before even signing an estimate. Uh, we did those two because of some of these clients that I've been working with. That's like, hey, we need to hone in the front end to really land more, land more clients. But we're going to not just get down and bury our head in the sand and not show up and cut out early and go play video games and get depressed. It's going to be a season that this happens to all of us. What?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, dude, man, it's been a long day. You want to go play video games and get depressed?

SPEAKER_00

I like that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, man. I'll be there. I'll swing by the gas station, grab a couple four locos.

SPEAKER_00

Let's get weird. But you know what I'm saying. Totally. It's a it's it's a mindset of okay, I went backwards. What's next? How do we keep going? Uh it's it's a it's a blip. We're gonna keep next down.

SPEAKER_01

Correct. Next 10 yards. Yes. You know who said it before Brene Burna Brene Brown, though? Who? The Lord. Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door will be opened. I mean, it's all there in the text.

SPEAKER_00

Next week, James is gonna do a breakdown of the Bible for us. Yes. Would you? No. Okay. Maybe maybe I'll talk you next year. Maybe. Uh

Principle Four Turn Losses Into Systems

SPEAKER_00

all right. Number four. Turn bad luck into good. So what does that mean? Lucky people spontaneously imagine how things could have been worse. Um, they don't dwell on ill fortune and they take constructive steps to prevent more bad luck in the future. Uh, job went sideways and you lost 15k. Lucky contractors do a post-mortem and build a system to not lose that job again. Unlucky ones just say that client was crazy and they repeat it. They do it again. Right. It's it's a matter of, you know, I I've said before many times on this podcast, we're not gurus. We're just really good at identifying when we do something wrong how to fix it next time. And so the last 20 years of construction for us has been I've I've scraped my knee up year in and year out, and we've learned don't trip on that. Don't do it that way. If you do it this way, then it happens better. And we've put those systems in place. And so that's what the whole coaching program is is like, hey, don't scrape your knee up on your own. Learn from our mistakes. Let us show you the systems and the reasons behind those and why we do it, how we do it. Yeah. And look at my knees.

SPEAKER_01

Because that that will be the real thing that sticks in your head. If you look at Clark's knees.

SPEAKER_00

I'm sorry, guys. Uh I'll be doing a solo episode next next week. I can't wait to listen. All right. So those are the four, those are the uh four principles. Maximize chance opportunities, listen to your lucky hunches, expect good fortune, turn bad luck into good. And those seem so like, that's it. Yes, that's it. That's the difference of being that lucky person versus versus unlucky. I I think there is there is uh a narrative around just like you are if the shoe fits you, wear it. And if you always think, well, I'm just that way and I'm that, that's what that's what you're gonna be. I would challenge you to 30 days. Try these things, try to have a positive outlook, try to network, try to look for things, try to go the extra mile and do the hard work when it's like, oh, it'd be easier if I just did this. Do the hard work, have some self-control and put in the time in the margins and start listening to your gut and having a positive,

A 400K Estimate That Saved Time

SPEAKER_00

positive outlook on it. Silver linings, silver linings.

SPEAKER_01

You got like because legitimately the other day we had a a large estimate that, and this is kind of uh against what you said, but only a little bit. Because we had a large it was like a $400,000 job. Yeah. And we were doing the uh the review with the client over Zoom, and um her fiance came in on the call. We this is our first time meeting him, and it uh we kind of game planned how we were gonna show the estimate because it was higher than we were expecting, but there was a lot of good reasons why. None of which she told us. It was all just from previous uh projects, understanding the construction and like how it all needed to come together. And so we showed we showed them the scope, and within 30 seconds, this guy was wanting to get off the call, was like taking his hat off, like getting super fidgety, like this is we just might as well, this isn't this isn't gonna we're like, well, I'd love to explain why it's this way. We got the opportunity to do that. We told them, like, hey, if you're wanting to take the roof off of this house and add another story, more than likely we're gonna have to cut into the concrete to do piers, footings, we're gonna have to beef up the walls because it's they're not built to have another house on top of it. Yeah, there's all these things that you weren't accounting for. Your whole master bathroom needs to be redone because we have to take all the walls down and the floors up. So it's adding all this money that you weren't expecting to the job. The they never backed off of being pissed at us the whole call. Yeah. I was like, we haven't exchanged any money. All we've done is spent three hours thinking through this and putting it together and talking to, you know, doing some due diligence already for free because we want to really land this one. Yeah. They were not gonna go with it. They were extremely rude the whole time. And we got off the call and I looked at Sam, I was like, we dodged a bullet. Yeah. We dodged a bullet. Because even if we landed it, that's gonna be a terrible client. That's a terrible client. Yep. They don't respect you, they don't trust you, they have no uh there, there's nothing that they're giving to you that's like, yeah, we're gonna be, we're gonna be good people to work with. Yeah. So the silver lining the whole time is we have a scope that we got to build out. We can use that as a template. We understand our pricing a little bit better in these couple areas. Now we have this new roof line item that we're using, and we're not gonna end up upside down because these people are wanting to take us into litigation because they're just mean.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got a budget of 300. And for you to come in at four is just it's rude. Yeah. It's like I'll quote like the the wrong way to do it, which most guys do because they're so desperate, is all right, we could probably do it for three. Let's just move forward, let's get going. And I'm gonna change order them for a hundred grand throughout the job, and it's gonna end up at four, and they're gonna be even more pissed. Right. And so I think that's good. It's it's that's the turning bad luck into good. Like that wasn't, oh, we miss it. It's like, okay, cool, dodge the bullet, good, keep going. On to the next one. I'd rather not do a job than do a $400,000 job and it suck up the next 12 months of our lives and make zero dollars for us, uh, and and really not allow us to say yes to the next couple of jobs that that that job's taken the place of. So that's great. All right.

Systems Mindset And Coaching Offer

SPEAKER_00

If you want to do, like I think the two to boil this down and to end this episode, the the two things that really change this is number one, some systems in place. Some how do I onboard crews? How do I set tones for clients? How do I, what James just talked about, go through the process to get rid of the ones that aren't going to be good, to really kind of build our luck in the right direction. The other side of this is mindset. Um, you know, turning back look luck into good, expecting good fortune. And a lot of that comes from a secondary person that's A, holding you accountable and B saying, hey, this is normal. Just don't get down on yourself. Or, hey, you're right. You kind of screw that up. How do we fix that? This is what coaching is about. This is what we do on the coaching side is the systems implementation and the and then that and then the consulting side of it of, hey, let's look at why you're doing why why this is happening. Let's deep dive. I've got no emotional connection to you losing this job. I just want this company to do well. And so let's look at that from an outsider's view. And so you get kind of the level-headed um, it's gonna be okay. Let's let's solve it, let's fix it. Uh, and so if you want that, if you want the coaching side of this, if you want to join with us, we'd love to, we'd love to hop on a call, 30-minute call to hear about your company, tell you about what we do and see if we'd be a good fit together. So go to contractorcuts.com or proShruk360.com. If you want software, Pro Shruk360 is a fantastic place to start, even if you're not in coaching. So and head to the website.

SPEAKER_01

We have a store with Rabbit Feet, merch, dream catchers, lucky charms, horseshoes. All right, thanks for joining us. Goodbye. Bye.