Why Some People Get Opportunities

[00:00:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: If you are not getting opportunities, it’s off. Not because you are underqualified, it’s because you are underexposed. Over time, people say you are everywhere. You’re so lucky. You always get these chances. I want you to tell the story how we met from start to finish. Take us back to the night we met.

[00:00:24] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I love that. Come back to the club. Hi, and welcome back to the Happy, healthy Hustle. I’m your host, Dr. Christiana. Today’s episode is about something that changed my life 26 years ago. An ordinary moment that I didn’t ignore that moment led me to meet my husband.

[00:00:48] People often call stories like this, luck. But when I look back, it wasn’t luck. It was visibility, courage, and follow through. In this episode, I share the story of how we met and why the opportunities that change your life. Usually start small in moments that are easy to overlook. If this resonates with you, share this episode with someone who might need the reminder to say yes to a small opportunity and make sure to follow the podcast.

[00:01:19] You don’t miss what’s next. Today’s conversation is about luck, not the fairy dust version, not some people just have it. I mean, the kind of luck that changes your career, your relationships, your entire trajectory, and looks random from the outside. Because what people call luck is often just a moment. You didn’t ignore a conversation, you didn’t avoid a door you walked through before you felt ready.

[00:02:18] Josh Heptig: You want me to share everything? You don’t wanna keep a few things to ourselves. Okay. Well imagine this. So I had been out with some of my buddies at a seventies party dressed in a baby blue laser suit, big Afro gold chains.

[00:02:32] And we were hanging out at a bar after the party and I found myself kind of staring off onto the dance floor. And one of my friends comes over and taps me on the shoulder and says, what are you looking at out there? And I said, I guess I’m looking at that cute blonde lady out there. So he said, well, you better go out there and ask her to dance before I do.

[00:03:53] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Beautiful. I love how you always tell this story. People will hear that and call it luck, but here’s what I hear, it’s a chain of small moves. A decision to approach, a decision to stay in the moment, a decision to try again after something awkward, a decision to follow through, and that’s the part that people miss. They only see the outcome.

[00:04:34] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: But humans don’t choose like spreadsheets. They choose like brains because brains prefer what feels familiar, and that’s why the same names keep coming up. The same people get invited. The same people get referred, not always because they are better. Because their name is easier to recall. That’s what people call luck, but it’s actually recognition.

[00:06:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Most life changing things don’t begin as life changing. They begin as ordinary, and this is the uncomfortable truth that’s also incredibly freeing. If you are not getting opportunities, it’s often not because you are underqualified. It’s because you are underexposed, because no decision maker sits there thinking, Hmm, who is the most talented person I’ve never heard from? They think, who do I already know that could do this?

[00:07:15] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: People who look lucky don’t wait until they feel confident. They don’t wait until the timing feels perfect. They don’t wait until everything is clear. They act while it’s still unclear. They send the message, they raise the hand, they follow up. From the outside, it looks like confidence, but actually from the inside, it’s just motion.

[00:09:15] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Here’s the simplest practice I can give you for the next seven days. Do one presence rep. One message you have been overthinking, one follow up you keep postponing, one contribution you are ready to make, one room you enter on purpose. Because opportunities don’t go to the best kept secret, they go to the most cognitively available option. Luck isn’t random. It is built.