Julia Ewert is a published author, LinkedIn Learning sales instructor and one of Australia's leading sales strategists and professional negotiators. She teaches the Infinite Sales System and helps companies build repeatable sales systems that lift conversions without pressure or discounting, and she has worked with our team at Smartfix.

In this episode, Julia and I talk about why so many business owners say they don't do sales, where the stigma comes from, and why a dishonest tradie says more about that person than it does about sales. We get into price objections, "I need to speak to my partner", and why the fortune really is in the follow-up.

Full write-up, links and transcript: [episode page link, add once the page is live]

We also cover how to ask permission to call back, why open questions help you recommend the right fix, why a confused mind always says no when a quote has too many options, and whether you should give the price on the spot.

Julia shares how she tests salespeople in an interview, why sales training without a process is a band-aid on a severed limb, how she wrote her book From Pitch to Profit in five weeks by speaking it, and how 37 follow-ups over 3 years and 4 months won her Crown as a client.

A practical conversation for anyone who quotes jobs for a living.

Connect with Julia Ewert:

Website: https://juliaewert.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaewert-sales-strategist-professional-negotiator/

The Donut Card (newsletter): https://juliaewert.com/donutcard/

The Infinite Sales System: https://juliaewert.com/infinite-sales-system/

From Pitch to Profit: https://juliaewert.com/book/

What does time in the AFL teach you that has nothing to do with football?

In Episode 26 of Unlocking Business, I sit down with Jacob Blight, founder of BLYT Development. Jacob grew up in country Western Australia with no one around who had made it to the AFL. He was drafted by Richmond in the 2024 mid-season draft at 22, found out on a Wednesday night and flew out the next day. After being cut, he started a business built around a gap he saw in youth sport. Kids are taught skills and drills constantly, but very little about the mindset, character and habits that decide whether they make it or fall away.

We talk about how someone actually gets from a country town into the AFL, the odds of getting drafted, why the average career is only a few years, and why so few players have a plan B. Jacob explains why he sees a second pursuit as good for both wellbeing and performance, and what happened when he was all in on one thing in year 12.

We also get into how BLYT Development works, why the parents are the buyers even though the kids are the audience, why he now requires a parent on the call for anyone under 18, and how he changed his offer several times in his first year. Along the way we cover coaching and credibility, personal branding, discipline versus motivation, setting short, medium and long term goals, and why self-belief is your superpower.

A good one for anyone building a business around their own story, and anyone who has had to start again.

If you market to everyone, are you an expert to no one?

In Episode 25 of Unlocking Business, I sit down with Tracy Fryer, owner of Design Studio Perth, a branding strategist and the host of the Real Biz Life Chronicles podcast, where she has now recorded more than 150 conversations with business owners. Tracy usually sits on the other side of the microphone, so it was great to have her in the guest seat.

We start with what most business owners get wrong about branding, why brand is the foundation and marketing is the house that sits on top of it, and why everything at Design Studio Perth is built around one ideal client she calls Steve. We get into how narrow that client really needs to be, what happened when Smartfix spread across fifteen other trades, and why so many trade business websites, vans and taglines end up looking exactly the same.

From there we talk about how long a rebrand really takes, why changing your logo colour is rarely the answer, and how lead magnets, a proper CRM and a simple newsletter turn a website into a lead generation machine. We also get into personal branding, why I wish I had started mine earlier, posting content that is not perfect, staying human in a world of AI, and whether you really need a business coach.

Tracy finishes with the biggest lessons she has taken from 150 conversations, including knowing your numbers and celebrating the wins. A practical one for any trade or service business owner who wants to stand out instead of blend in.