Finding good people is hard. Building a team that actually works together? Even harder.

In this episode of Contractor Evolution, Danny Kerr sits down with bestselling author and organizational health expert Patrick Lencioni to unpack two frameworks that are especially relevant for contractors: The Ideal Team Player and The 6 Types of Working Genius.

The conversation cuts straight to the reality most contractors face: productivity gaps between crews, frustration with “good people” who still aren’t working out, and the constant tension between needing results and wanting a healthy culture. Lencioni’s message is simple—but not easy: great teams are built intentionally, not accidentally.

Here’s a high-level breakdown of the insights contractors can apply right away.

The Foundation: Hire (and Develop) Ideal Team Players

According to Lencioni, the best team players consistently share three virtues:

• Hungry – They work hard, take initiative, and don’t need to be chased.
  
  
• Humble – They’re not ego-driven and put the team ahead of themselves.
  
  
• Smart – Not IQ smart, but people-smart. They understand how their words and actions affect others.
  
  

Miss one of these, and problems show up fast—especially in tight-knit construction teams where trust and execution matter daily.

5 Takeaways Contractors Can Apply Immediately

Values matter more than resumes. 

Skills can be trained, but hunger, humility, and people-smarts are much harder to coach into someone.

Interview for real behavior, not polished answers. 

Ask for specific stories. Dig into past conflicts. Look for self-awareness, not perfection.

Beware the “lovable slacker.” 

Nice, well-liked people who don’t pull their weight quietly drain team morale over time.

Address ego early. 

The “skillful politician” may look productive, but unchecked pride eventually poisons trust and culture.

The right people still need the right seats. 

A strong cultural fit can fail if someone’s role doesn’t match how they’re naturally wired to work.

Why Working Genius Changes the Game

Lencioni also introduces the 6 Types of Working Genius, a practical way to understand how people are naturally energized at work. Every role requires multiple types of work—but no person thrives at all of them.

For contractors, this explains why:

• A great foreman struggles with paperwork
  
  
• A sharp estimator burns out managing people
  
  
• A solid team member underperforms in the wrong role
  
  

When leaders understand both values (Ideal Team Player) and strengths (Working Genius), they stop losing good people to bad role design.

Build the Team Your Business Actually Needs

Strong teams don’t happen by luck. They’re built through clear expectations, honest conversations, and roles that align with how people are wired to contribute.

If you’re tired of carrying underperformers—or worse, burning out your best people—this episode is a must-watch.

👉 Book a complimentary discovery call with Breakthrough Academy to explore how these team-building principles can be applied inside your contracting business and help you scale without the chaos.

If the past year felt like you were constantly “two inches underwater,” you’re not alone. Inside Breakthrough Academy, one issue came up more than any other in 2025 conversations with contractors: cash flow.

In this Contractor Evolution episode, the team tackles real, unfiltered cash-flow questions contractors are asking right now — from forecasting revenue to paying yourself consistently, budgeting for growth, and knowing when you can actually afford to hire.

The through-line is simple but powerful: cash flow problems don’t come from bad luck — they come from missing systems.

Below are the biggest takeaways contractors can apply immediately to stay cash-positive and build a stronger plan for 2026.

Key Cash-Flow Takeaways for Contractors

Track cash forward, not backward

Looking at last month’s numbers isn’t enough. Contractors need 3–6 month cash-flow projections based on cash accounting — when money actually hits and leaves the bank. This visibility gives you time to adjust spending, secure a line of credit before you need it, and avoid surprises.

Get paid ahead of your production costs

Deposits and progress payments should always stay ahead of labor, materials, and subcontractors. If customers aren’t funding the work as it happens, your business is floating jobs with its own cash — a fast way to get squeezed as you grow.

Growth can break your cash flow if you’re not careful

Fast growth, especially in commercial or insurance work with 30–90 day payment terms, can be dangerous. Align your production schedule with your cash-flow projections so you don’t take on more work than the business can realistically float.

Pay yourself a consistent salary

Swinging between big owner draws in good months and nothing in bad months creates stress and hides real business problems. Set a predictable salary and force the business to operate within clear financial constraints — just like it does for every other employee.

Budget backward from profit, not revenue

Revenue looks good on paper, but profit is what keeps the business alive. Start by setting a clear net-profit goal for the year, then build your revenue, variable costs, and fixed expenses backward from that number. Small optimizations — even 1–5% — can dramatically impact profitability.

Job costing is the pulse of your business

Track job costs while projects are still running, not after they’re finished. When you monitor labor, materials, and subs in real time, you can course-correct before profit disappears — and identify which crews, services, or salespeople actually make you money.

Cash Flow Clarity Creates Better Decisions

When contractors understand their cash flow, everything changes — hiring decisions get clearer, growth feels controlled instead of chaotic, and profit stops being an accident.

This episode goes deeper into practical frameworks, budgeting steps, and real-world contractor examples that didn’t make it into this summary.

👉 If cash flow has been holding your business back, book a complimentary discovery call with Breakthrough Academy. We’ll help you turn these insights into a clear plan — so you can stop reacting and start running your business with confidence.

Book an implementation call today.

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If your crews work hard but your margins never seem to move, the problem might not be effort—it might be how you pay people.

In this Contractor Evolution episode, Danny Kerr sits down with Michael Fortinberry, co-founder of Protive, to unpack why traditional hourly pay often caps productivity—and what happens when contractors switch to performance-based incentives instead.

Michael isn’t coming at this from theory. He’s lived it. After years running a large multifamily renovation company, he discovered something that surprised him: his crews had another gear. They just had no reason to use it.

This conversation isn’t about squeezing more out of your people. It’s about aligning incentives so your team wins when your business wins—and eliminating the waste that quietly eats contractor profit every year.

The Big Idea: Incentives (Not Raises) Change Behavior

Hourly pay rewards time, not outcomes. Performance-based pay rewards results.

Michael explains how tying pay directly to labor budgets fundamentally shifts crew behavior. When teams can see the budget, track it in real time, and share in the savings, they naturally move faster, collaborate better, and protect quality, because it’s their money on the line.

And the impact isn’t small.

Depending on the trade, Michael has seen productivity lifts ranging from 8–10% in skilled trades to 15–40% in labor-heavy work like painting, landscaping, and cleaning. That improvement alone can be the difference between scraping by and building a scalable, profitable operation.

Key Takeaways Contractors Can Apply Today

• Your team has more capacity than you think. Most crews aren’t lazy. They’re under-incentivized. When pay is tied to outcomes instead of hours, hidden productivity shows up fast.
  
  
• Transparency beats motivational speeches. If crews can’t see the labor budget, they don’t trust the incentive. Real behavior change only happens when numbers are visible and simple.
  
  
• Frequent bonuses create momentum. Annual or quarterly bonuses don’t move the needle. Weekly or monthly payouts connect effort to reward and build performance “muscle memory.”
  
  
• Quality improves when rework costs the crew. When callbacks eat into future bonuses, teams start holding each other accountable for doing it right the first time.
  
  
• Performance pay requires grown-up operations. You don’t need perfection. But you do need job costing, time tracking, and basic estimating discipline before rolling this out.
  
  

Performance Pay Is More Than Pay Structure: It’s a Cultural Shift

Michael makes it clear: performance-based pay only works if you want a performance-based culture.

That means talking openly about numbers, coaching crews like intrapreneurs, and helping your people get what they want—whether that’s more money, more time, or more control over their future.

When you put your people first, they take care of the customer. And when that happens, margins follow.

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If you’ve felt the rising tension around AI — excitement, uncertainty, maybe even a little fear — you’re not alone. In this week’s Contractor Evolution episode, Danny sits down with entrepreneur and AI strategist Kasim Aslam for one of the most eye-opening conversations we’ve had on what the coming decade means for trades businesses.

Kasim has built and exited multimillion-dollar companies. He spends his time helping leaders understand AI before it steamrolls their industry. His core message for contractors? AI doesn’t eliminate the need for people. It increases the premium on humanity.

This episode isn’t about hype. It’s a practical look at what’s already happening in plumbing, HVAC, and service industries, how private equity is deploying AI today, and where small-to-mid-sized contractors can win while the landscape shifts.

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Why Contractors Should Pay Attention To The Rise of AI

According to Kasim, trades will be one of the last industries fully disrupted by AI, but disruption is coming. From remote-diagnostic plumbing models to rapid knowledge-capture systems that train AI on veteran expertise, the next 5-10 years will change how field work gets done.

But Kasim’s message is clear:

Contractors who double down on real human connection and adopt AI bottom-up — not top-down — will own the next decade.

Key Takeaways You Can Use Right Now

1. Stop chasing what scales. Focus on what can’t be automated.

AI will commoditize anything repeatable. The differentiators that survive?

• A real human answering the phone
  
  
• Remembering customer details
  
  
• Handwritten follow-ups
  
  
• Local presence, relationships, community involvement
  
  

These “non-scalable” actions will buy you time as AI continues to take over other industries that are less reliant on people.

2. AI is already transforming field work

Forward-thinking trades companies (ahem, private equity backed) are giving new technicians camera-equipped workflows while senior experts diagnose remotely.

This boosts productivity today and builds a knowledge library that becomes a competitive advantage tomorrow. While your business may not be ready for this change, you should start thinking about how this new way of doing things will impact you in 5-10 years.

3. Don’t implement AI from the top down. Let your people lead it.

Instead of declaring, “We’re automating this department,” invite your team to identify where AI genuinely helps them.

Give them incentives based on output, not hours, and let them surface the high-leverage use cases.

4. Excellence beats scale. Be the company everyone refuses to leave.

Private equity can outspend you, but they can’t out-care you.

Contractors who build a reputation for service, trust, and real human warmth will own the “upward trending leg of the K-shape economy.”

5. Free yourself for the work that matters — invest your five hours.

Kasim’s challenge is simple: Spend at least five hours a week working ON your business, not just IN it.

Those small, consistent improvements will transform your systems, culture, and valuation long before AI becomes your biggest threat.

Ready to Future-Proof Your Business?

If you want help building systems, empowering your team, and making smart decisions about AI, automation and human resources, book an implementation call with Breakthrough Academy. We’ll show you how these insights apply directly to your business and what to do next.

If you’ve ever felt behind—like you should be reading more books, adopting more software, or learning the next big thing—you’re not alone.

In this Contractor Evolution episode, Danny sits down with author, podcaster, and entrepreneur Pat Flynn to unpack a counterintuitive truth every growth-minded contractor needs to hear:

The key to scaling isn’t learning more. It’s learning less… but better.

Pat’s newest book, Lean Learning, breaks down a practical way to stop drowning in information, focus on what actually matters, and move your business forward with more clarity and less overwhelm. For contractors facing decision fatigue, endless recommendations, and constant pressure to “stay up to date,” this conversation hits home.

Below is a high-level summary and the takeaways you can start applying immediately.

The Big Idea

Most contractors assume that more information = more progress.

More podcasts. More books. More courses. More YouTube tutorials.

But as Pat points out, over-learning creates paralysis. You’re moving… but you’re not moving forward.

His framework replaces “just-in-case learning” (stockpiling info you might need someday) with just-in-time learning: acquiring only the knowledge required for the next immediate step in your business.

It’s simple, freeing, and wildly effective.

Key Takeaways You Can Apply This Week

1. Stop hoarding information; start filtering it.

With unlimited access to content, your job isn’t to consume everything—it’s to block out 95% of it.

Pat recommends choosing a single priority, learning only what’s needed for that, and shelving everything else for later (most of which you’ll never come back to… and won’t need).

2. Craft your “inspiration matrix.”

Pat breaks down four quadrants: passion pursuits, mandatory tasks, recreational outlets, and “junk sparks.”

Most contractors accidentally fill their plate with junk sparks. Random ideas that feel exciting but pull attention away from real priorities. A quick quadrant audit can give you back hours every week.

3. Learn by doing, not by preparing.

Instead of studying everything before taking action, master each step as it becomes relevant.

This is how Pat built his early online business—one tiny step, one tiny skill, at a time.

For contractors, this could mean launching the sales script before the perfect training manual exists, hiring before the onboarding system is fully built, or testing the new service before you create the full marketing plan.

4. Use voluntary forcing functions.

Deadlines create momentum. For example, committing to speak at an event forced Pat to finally master public speaking.

For contractors, this might look like:

• Locking in a go-live date for your new CRM
  
  
• Committing to a trade show to create a deadline for your new brand strategy
  
  
• Booking your leadership retreat to force strategic planning
  
  

The deadline pulls you forward.

5. Review whether to persist or pivot.

Contractors often stick with initiatives, even if they’ve long since lost their relevance to the “why” behind the business.

Pat recommends a recurring Stop-Start-Continue review to make sure your goals still align with your values—and that you’re not grinding away at something you no longer want.

Ready To Build a Business That Grows Without Chaos?

Pat’s framework is powerful—but implementing change inside a contracting company requires structure, accountability, and the right systems.

If you want support applying these principles inside your business, book a complimentary implementation call with Breakthrough Academy. We’ll show you where you’re stuck, what to prioritize next, and how to grow with clarity (not overwhelm).

If you’ve ever lost hours chasing missing info, soothing frustrated clients, or cleaning up an avoidable job-site mistake, you’re not alone. 

In one of our recent Contractor Evolution roundtables, Danny sat down with CompanyCam founder Luke Hansen and Breakthrough Academy Members Blake Butry and Adam Sylvester to unpack a silent profit killer plaguing nearly every contracting business:
poor communication.

From sales-to-production handoff failures to buried client requests to crews operating without context, the cost of miscommunication is massive. And the bigger your team gets, the bigger those cracks become.

This conversation isn’t about being “better at talking.” It’s about redesigning the flow of information so your people stay aligned, your clients stay confident, and your margins stay protected.

Why Communication Breakdown Is The Hidden Cash Flow Killer Nobody Talks About

Most contractors assume their biggest constraints are labor, capacity, or scheduling. But as Luke, Blake, and Adam point out, those issues are often symptoms—not causes.

Underneath them is usually some form of unclear, incomplete, or inconsistent communication.

A missed detail from sales becomes a production problem.

A forgotten client promise becomes a 1-star review.

A lack of expectation setting becomes crew frustration and turnover.

The good news? These problems are fixable—fast—once you install a few simple systems.

4 Communication Fixes That Immediately Improve Construction or Home Services Operations

1. Nail the Sales-To-Production Handoff

This was the unanimous “biggest leverage point” among the panel. When production teams start jobs missing key info, everyone pays for it: your crew, your client, and your bottom line.

Strong handoffs include:

• Clear job scope, materials, and measurements
  
  
• Client expectations captured verbatim
  
  
• Visual documentation (CompanyCam for the win)
  
  
• A 10–15 minute live handoff conversation (NOT just a CRM note)
  
  

When production knows exactly what they’re walking into, frustrations disappear and jobs finish cleaner, faster, and with fewer callbacks.

2. Structure Your Team Communication Rhythm

The highest-performing teams don’t “wing it.” They rely on simple, consistent meeting rhythms that keep everyone aligned.

Examples from the panel:

• Daily 10-minute huddle to review wins, schedule, and roadblocks
  
  
• Weekly GSR (Goal Setting & Review) for accountability and coaching
  
  
• Quarterly reviews to reset focus and recalibrate roles
  
  
• Quick-hit communication codes. For example, Blake’s team uses “L3” (AKA a 90-second ask)
  
  

Structure reduces stress and guesswork. Everyone always knows who to ask for what, when.

3. Use Visual Communication to Remove Ambiguity

CompanyCam’s real-time photos, annotations, and checklists were a recurring theme.

Why it matters:

• Crews know exactly what they’re walking into
  
  
• Clients see what was done, reducing disputes
  
  
• Managers can coach remotely
  
  
• Subtle promises made in sales don’t disappear
  
  

A picture might be worth a thousand words—but a marked-up picture is worth a thousand fewer headaches.

4. Build Roles Around Systems, Not People

To stop every decision from flowing through you, you need:

• A clear org chart
  
  
• Defined roles and outcomes
  
  
• Documented processes
  
  
• People trained to think, not just execute
  
  

Once your team knows how to make decisions without you, your business stops bottlenecking and starts scaling.

Ready to Build a Business That Doesn’t Run on Chaos?

Strong communication isn’t about talking more—it’s about designing your business so information moves cleanly without you in the middle.

If you want help installing these systems, aligning your team, and protecting your margin, book an implementation call with Breakthrough Academy. We’ll walk you through where communication is breaking down in your business and show you exactly how to fix it.

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