The Atomic Construction Podcast

How to Stop Losing Money in Your Construction Business

Every job turns into change orders, RFIs, and finger pointing. Not because people are bad at their jobs. Because nobody built a team in the first place.

On this episode of the Atomic Construction Pod, I sit down with Jessica Belsky and Belma McCaffrey, cofounders of Proactive Conversations. We talk about why hard conversations need to happen every day on the job, why middle managers are the backbone of every company, and what it would take to build a project the Honest Builder way.

Chapters:
0:00 The High Cost of Workplace Conflict
0:36 Meet the Founders of Proactive Conversations
2:32 Why We Are All Bad at Hard Conversations
5:04 Finding the Right Advocates in Construction
10:33 Why We Are Betting on the Trades
21:57 The Myth of the Construction Team

Comment below: what’s one conversation on your job site that should’ve happened and didn’t?

All Things "The Honest Builder"
🌐 https://thehonestbuilder.io/

Connect with Proactive Conversations: 
🌐 https://www.proactiveconversations.com/

Want to be a guest on the Podcast? 
Email [email protected]

#construction #constructionpodcast #leadership #contractor #TheHonestBuilder

Leadership is getting your people where they need to be without them knowing you got them there.

Jason Murphy gave Walgreens 17 years. At 38, they called him in and told him they didn’t need him anymore.

Today he runs a lawn care company, a fencing company, and a Christmas light business. And he says he wishes they’d fired him on day one.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro to Jason Murphy
00:57 From Corporate To Lawn Care
02:22 Cut Loose By Corporate
03:25 Should You Start A Business?
04:33 The Dark Side of Ownership
05:50 What Keeps Jason Going
06:30 Raising Kids Who Earn It
07:30 Leadership Starts with Empathy
08:49 The Legacy Question
10:40 Why You Need A Coach
12:06 Know Your Numbers
12:57 Inside The Honest Builder
16:02 Value First Pricing
18:16 Givers, Not Takers
20:49 How To Win Commercial Work
24:04 Lightning Round


If you’re stuck in the golden handcuffs wondering if you should bet on yourself, watch this one.

Connect with Jason ⤵️
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-murphy-8ab25222b/?isSelfProfile=false

✉️[email protected]

All Things "The Honest Builder"
🌐https://thehonestbuilder.io/

Want to be a guest on the Podcast? 
Email [email protected]

In this episode of the Atomic Construction Podcast, Kevin Hohe sits down with Josh Vitale, construction executive and founder of Project Built, a 501(c)(3) on one clear mission: to improve the total wellbeing of those who carry the greatest weight.

Josh shares his resurrection story; from alcoholism, divorce, and waking up in solitary confinement in Wyoming, to leading large transmission and distribution teams and building the Built Standard: 3 pillars, 12 domains, 144 indicators for what it takes to have a holistically well workforce.

We dig into good blue-collar leadership in practice: how to support your team, spot struggle early, create psychological safety without going soft, and build from the inside so your company can actually scale. Josh also breaks down Recharge Rooms for first responders and how the same recovery model applies to crews in the trades.

If you're a contractor or trade owner who wants to grow beyond working in the field, this is how people-first leadership turns into retention, culture, and growth.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Josh's rock bottom to industry leader story
• Why high-stress, high-impact workers burn out
• What a holistically well workforce actually looks like
• The Built Standard framework for owners
• How supporting your staff helps you scale a blue collar business

🎙️ Atomic Construction is a weekly podcast for contractors and trade business owners about hiring, sales, culture, money, and ownership.

👉 Subscribe for new episodes every week with owners and operators in the trades.

Connect with Josh Vitale: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-vitale-vitalchemy/?isSelfProfile=false

Checkout Project Built: https://getbuilt.org/

When a construction client stops paying, the whole company can go down with it. On this episode of the Atomic Construction Podcast, former Air Force B1 crew chief Cory Aspell shares how one unpaid client led the owner of a utility scale solar startup to fire the entire company in one day. The VP, the project managers, the laborers. Everyone.

Cory was the director of construction at that company. Today he leads the self perform group at Sante Group, building utility scale and community solar projects, while growing his own construction photography business on the side.

We talk about construction leadership, how to build a crew that follows you from job to job, what leading from the front looks like on a jobsite, and why so many construction companies preach culture but never live it.

If you run crews, manage projects, or own a construction business, this one hits close to home.

Drop a comment: has a client ever stopped paying you? What did you do?

Know a project manager or business development lead who needs real jobsite photos?  

Connect with Cory

🖇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-aspell-0127901a7/
🌐https://www.sante-group.com/about-us


Chapters

00:00 Fired in one day / intro
00:42 From B1 crew chief to construction
01:40 Betting on a startup
02:00 When the client stopped paying
02:47 Starting over at Sante Group
03:39 The photo that started a business
09:45 Why his crew follows him into the fire
12:52 The plan to go all in on his side business
15:31 How his photography service works
18:49 What good leadership really means
20:08 Why most companies fake their culture
21:30 What the military got wrong
24:34 A Tribute to his Family

#constructionpodcast #constructionleadership #contractors #constructionbusiness #solarconstruction

Chuck Mazzanti sells construction insurance and tells contractors to stop shopping it on price. His reason is simple. The two thousand dollars you save at renewal is the same two thousand that buys the coverage gap that kills you when you file a claim.

If you run a construction company, your workers comp premium is not a fixed cost. Your experience mod controls it. Move that number from 0.99 to 1.01 and you can lose a contractor credit worth 30 percent. On a 100,000 dollar premium that is 30,000 dollars in one year, and in some states a mod over 1.0 can keep you from getting work at all.

Chuck works at Christensen Group Insurance, a 100 percent employee owned agency with a heavy construction book. He sits on the CFMA membership committee and is stepping into a VP role with the Illinois ESOP Association. He also says he hates the product he sells, which is why this conversation is worth your time.

ABOUT CHUCK
Chuck Mazzanti is a founding member of The Honest Builder and a construction insurance advisor at Christensen Group Insurance, a 100 percent employee owned agency serving contractors nationally. He hosts the Construction ESOP Collective, a podcast about contractors who sold their companies to their own employees.

CONNECT WITH CHUCK
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-mazzanti/
Christensen Group: https://www.christensengroup.com/team/chuck-mazzanti
Construction ESOP Collective:https://www.constructionesopcollective.com/about

ABOUT THE SHOW
Atomic Construction is the podcast for people who actually build things. Kevin Hohe sits down with contractors, trade business owners, and the people running crews to talk about hiring, sales, culture, money, and ownership. The stuff nobody teaches you and most people learn the hard way. No guru advice. Nobody selling you a course.

Hosted by Kevin Hohe, founder of Complete Fence and Ivory Impact.

🎙️Want to be a guest? Email [email protected]

In this episode, Kevin sits down with Adam of Builders of Authority, a St. Louis digital marketing agency with 44 employees and about 100 contracting clients across the country. Contractor marketing is where most home services businesses burn money they never get back. Adam built 200 lead generation websites, ranked them, rented the leads to trades businesses, then used one of those sites to start an auto glass company he sold in 2025. He has never replaced a windshield.

We get into SEO for contractors, Google Business Profile, paid ads, and the uncomfortable truth about branding versus craftsmanship. Adam also walks through the free stuff every solo operator should be doing before spending a dollar on an agency. If you are under $500K a year, that section alone is worth the watch.

Adam McChesney info:
🌐https://adammcchesney.com/
🎙️https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/builders-of-authority/id1610240971
◆ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-mcchesney-b21b1256/
📲https://facebook.com/adam.mcchesney.3
✔️instagram.com/adamlmcchesney?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Complete Fence and everything else Kevin is building:
🎙️https://theatomicconstructionpodcast.buzzsprout.com
🌐https://ivoryimpact.com
📲https://www.instagram.com/khohe414/

If you are a contractor sitting on a phone that keeps ringing and going unanswered, or you are the guy who refuses to post, drop a comment and tell me which one you are. I read them and I answer them.

📩 Want to be a guest on the podcast? Email [email protected] 

Kevin talks to leadership coach and entrepreneur Darin Newbold about some of the best ways to help entrepreneurs who may be struggling to get to the next level!

Darin's earlier appearance on the Better Questions podcast - https://betterquestionspod.buzzsprout.com/2569355/episodes/18436393-can-you-find-yourself-as-you-break-yourself-with-darin-newbold

Darin's website - https://yourboldsolutions.com/

Atomic Construction website - https://www.ivoryimpact.com/atomic-construction

Find the Atomic Construction Podcast on your favorite streaming site - https://linktr.ee/AtomicConstructionPod

Kevin talks to industry legend Herb Sargent about a variety of topics, including AI, Millennials, and the legacy he hopes he's leaving!

Herb's website - https://sargent.us

Atomic Construction website - https://www.ivoryimpact.com/atomic-construction

Find the Atomic Construction Podcast on your favorite streaming site - https://linktr.ee/AtomicConstructionPod

Kevin talks to entrepreneur Jack Ziskind about his journey from college student to the merchandise industry.

Find out more about Jack's company - https://promoshopinc.com/

Atomic Construction website - https://www.ivoryimpact.com/atomic-construction

Find the Atomic Construction Podcast on your favorite streaming site - https://linktr.ee/AtomicConstructionPod

Kevin Hohe talks to Greg Horton from Lonewolf Workforce about his journey from real estate to his own business, recruiting for the trades, at Lonewolf Workforce.

Greg's website - https://lonewolfworkforce.com/

Atomic Construction website - https://www.ivoryimpact.com/atomic-construction