Construction Hot Takes

Hosted by Adam Cooper, CEO of Ascent Consulting, alongside Senior Consultants Gregory Gorman and Jeff Robertson, Construction Hot Takes show dives into the gritty, unfiltered realities of building a profitable construction company. With nearly 100 years of combined experience, they’ve been there—from carrying gear on job sites to leading Ascent, a consulting powerhouse that exclusively serves construction companies across North America.Each episode is packed with insights, strategies, and insider knowledge from the industry’s top consulting firm for contractors. Discover what big national contractors know about growing a business, get actionable advice on boosting efficiency, and learn how to supercharge your project pipeline. Tune in, get inspired, and gain the knowledge to take your construction business to the next level.

Construction Hot Takes is a business podcast hosted by Ascent Consulting, with 62 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Ascent Consulting hosts Construction Hot Takes, a business show with 62 episodes published.

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  Episode #62

  Is Buyout Just a Nicer Word for Shorting Your Subs?

  Oct 1, 202611 min

  Is buyout just a nicer word for shorting your subs? Sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be. Buying the work competitively is the job, and it crosses a line when a GC takes a project without enough money in it and pushes the shortfall down to the trades. If you are a subcontractor who has watched a buyout call land on your margin, or a project manager handed a fee that you cannot see a path to, this is the conversation both sides usually have separately. In this episode, Greg Gorman, Adam Cooper, and Jeff Robertson react to the comments a clip on bidding drew, take the sub's side and the GC's side honestly, and get into contingency, scope, and why the worst job on your books is often the one you won and should not have. Here is the TikTok video source for the comments: ‘Buyout and the Subs’: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes/video/7664578504482163981 Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/ Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction & General Conditions Budgeting 01:46 - Reading Online Comments on Buyout Strategies 03:12 - Strategic Budgeting & Subcontractor Margins 06:50 - Market Dynamics & Sustainable Bidding Practices 03:26 - Closing Remarks & Producer Summary Markup and Margin: The Math Matters: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/markup-and-margin For strategic business planning and margin discipline: https://ascentconsults.com/strategic-business-planning/ Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34// Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes #Construction #Preconstruction #Subcontractors

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  Episode #61

  Whose Fault Is a $25M Overrun, Estimating or Engineering?

  Sep 11, 20267 min

  How do you lose $25 million on one job? By building exactly to the construction spec while a second engineering spec, signed off by your own leadership, sat unread until the systems were turned on. If you run design-build work, sit between an engineering department and an estimating department, or have ever assumed someone upstream read the owner's performance criteria, this is the failure that nobody catches on a walkthrough. In this episode, Adam Cooper walks through the job with Greg Gorman and Jeff Robertson, answers the comments it drew, including whether submittals should have caught it and whether the estimator deserves the blame, and gets into what it actually cost the people involved. Here is the TikTok video source for the comments: ‘$25M Spec Miss’: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes/video/7657698121111129358 Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/ Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open and Episode Introduction 00:24 – The Specification Mistake That Cost $25 Million 02:02 – How Did the Error Escape the Submittal Process? 04:33 – Why Didn’t the Owner Catch It Earlier? 05:47 – Was It Really the Estimator’s Fault? 5 Reasons Construction Projects Fail: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/5-reasons-construction-projects-fail For operational assessments and process review: https://ascentconsults.com/ops_assessment/ Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34/ Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes #Construction #DesignBuild #ConstructionManagement

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  Episode #60

  Will AI Replace Your Superintendent?

  Sep 4, 202613 min

  Will AI replace the superintendent who won't use it? Not completely, but it could help your most experienced employees perform better and share their knowledge. A superintendent who knows how to build keeps the job. The one who also uses these tools gets better information can make the same calls sooner. If you run the field and have been told AI is coming for the trailer, or you are deciding whether to put these tools in front of your supers at all, the hosts do not agree with each other here and that is the useful part. In this episode, Greg Gorman, Adam Cooper, and Jeff Robertson work through this issue, sort out where the tools genuinely help when expert judgment does not transfer, and get into what happens to institutional knowledge as the most experienced people age out. Here is the LinkedIn video source for the comments: ‘AI and the Superintendent’: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7483899974649409536/ Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/ Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open and Episode Introduction 00:45 – Will AI-Savvy Superintendents Replace Those Who Aren’t? 02:54 – Balancing Human Expertise and AI 07:50 – Judgment, Paperwork, and Better Decisions 11:39 – Agentic AI vs. Basic Automation Procore Isn't Broken, It's Just Not Built Around You Yet: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/procore-isnt-broken-its-just-not-built-around-you-yet For AI in construction, in firms with clean data and disciplined process: https://ascentconsults.com/ai-for-construction-companies/ Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34/ Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes #Construction #AIinConstruction #Superintendents

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  Episode #59

  Job Costing Fundamentals: Are You Actually Making Money on Each Job?

  Aug 27, 202625 min

  You can feel the money moving. You can't tell if any single job is making it. In this episode, Greg Gorman breaks down job cost management and why hidden jobs that quietly bleed can still occur in a profitable company. Plus the three fundamentals that make job costing work and why you can still save a job at 40 to 50 percent complete (but rarely at 75). Chapters: 00:00 - Why job cost management is a top priority 02:13 - How does company profit hide a bleeding job? 03:45 - What actually counts as a job cost? 09:54 - The three fundamentals of job costing 15:51 - How do you catch profit fade in time? 19:42 - Why acting at 40-50% beats a locked-in loss For fractional CFO support: https://ascentconsults.com/fractional-cfo/ The operator's playbook for scaling construction: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/ Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-mba-115ba34/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes #Construction #JobCosting #ConstructionFinance

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  Episode #58

  Your Data is All There. Why Can't You See It in One Place?

  Aug 13, 202625 min

  In this episode, Adam Cooper and Jeff Robertson break down how contractors go from siloed systems to one source of truth for their data, why Procore is built for projects (not company management), and the three ways to actually connect your stack. Including: Off-the-shelf connectors, custom middleware, and a data lake, plus where AI is heading over the next 12 to 24 months. Chapters: 00:00 - The 300-job treasure hunt 03:35 - Why don't your systems talk to each other? 05:54 - What is a data lake, really? 08:03 - Connectors vs. custom middleware 16:08 - Where is AI taking system integration? 19:33 - How contractors end up with a messy tech stack See if your data's ready for AI: https://ascentconsults.com/get-your-ai-score-card A helping hand with AI in construction: https://ascentconsults.com/ai-for-construction-companies/ Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ Follow Ascent Consulting on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes This week, try to build one company-level view of your active jobs. Where it breaks is where your systems aren't connected. #Construction #ConstructionTech #ConstructionAI

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