Hypotential Unlocking Business

In this episode, Kane sits down with Luke Randazzo, Director at Burgess Rawson, one of WA's leading commercial real estate agencies. Luke has brokered over $450 million in transactions and is one of the youngest shareholders in the business.

Luke and Kane get into the real stuff: what the new negative gearing and capital gains tax changes mean for investors, why commercial property is now wide open while residential has been shut down for investors, the difference between office, retail and industrial assets, how self-managed super funds can be used to buy commercial property, the risks of long...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Aisha Derrick, Brand and Marketing Manager at Smartfix and co-owner of Hypotential, for a practical conversation about what actually works when it comes to marketing a residential trade business.

Aisha has spent four years shaping Smartfix's branding, advertising and customer experience, and in this episode she breaks it all down for trades business owners at every stage. They cover the biggest mistakes small budget businesses make, why branding and advertising are not the same thing, how to stand out in a market where everyone says the same thing, the role...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Dan Steed, a commercial and mortgage broker operating under Fundd, who spent over a decade in senior roles at Barclays and Lloyds in the UK before moving to Australia and becoming one of Western Australia's top performing bankers at Westpac. In the financial year ending 2026, Dan settled $552 million in new lending.

Dan and Kane get into the real stuff: why you should never go direct to a bank, the difference between residential and commercial lending, how to use your home equity to grow a business, the self-managed super fund rule...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Isabelle Charter, Head of Venture Studios at BetterLabs and CEO of Town Square, who has spent nearly two decades building, scaling and investing in startups across Australia and beyond.

Isabelle previously built and exited Drip, Australia's first investing app for under 18s, and now leads BetterLabs, the strategic innovation arm of RAC, where she builds and funds new companies from concept to scale.

She and Kane get into what it actually takes to turn an idea into a business, why most founders overbuild before validating, how to fail...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Louis, founder of WestOz Trades, one of Perth's leading residential and commercial air conditioning businesses. Kane and Louis have known each other for 17 years, going back to their apprenticeship days, and this one has the easy honesty of two mates who have both been through the wringer building a trades business from scratch.

Louis runs a team of around 22 staff across the office and road, with a reputation built on premium service, nearly 1000 Google reviews, and a loyal property management client base. He and Kane get into the real stuff...

In this episode, Kane sits down with AJ from Team Ecto, his personal trainer of five years, for a wide-ranging conversation about what actually works when it comes to health, fitness and nutrition for busy people.

AJ has been in the industry for 12 years and works primarily with business owners and time-poor people who are trying to improve their health without overhauling their entire life. He and Kane get into the real stuff: why nutrition is harder than training, how fad diets and influencer misinformation are making things worse, the 80/20 rule for sustainable results, sleep, routine, intermittent...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Sarah, co-founder of Typeset, a Perth-based content and writing business, for a wide-ranging conversation about what actually works when it comes to marketing, storytelling and content strategy for business owners.

Sarah has a background in software development, enterprise sales and writing, and has spent over two decades helping businesses communicate more clearly and build content that works as a long term asset. She and Kane get into the real stuff: why storytelling matters more than most people realise, how AI has changed the content industry and what businesses should actually...

In this episode, Kane sits down with his brother Fin, Head of Installations at Smartfix, for an honest look back at eight years of building a business together from the ground up.

Fin joined Smartfix as a fourth year apprentice and has worked his way through every corner of the business, from installer to managing a team of over 35 people on the road. He and Kane get into the real stuff: what the early days actually looked like, the challenges of working with family, the period where Smartfix scaled fast to 150 staff and $30 million in revenue before...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Angelo, owner of Toptech Electrical, for an honest conversation about what the first couple of years of running a solo electrical business actually looks like.

Angelo started Toptech Electrical in June 2024 after working at Smartfix, and has been building his client base from the ground up through Facebook community pages, school maintenance contracts and referrals. He and Kane get into the real stuff: the moment that pushed Angelo to go out on his own, why he hired an apprentice first and what he wishes he had done differently, the challenge...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Rhys, founder of Oceania Plumbing and Gas, for a straight-talking conversation about what it actually takes to build a trades business from the ground up.

Rhys started his business in 2019, living at home with mum and dad, just as Covid hit. Three months of uncertainty quickly turned into one of the busiest periods he'd ever seen, and from there he scaled to six vehicles and a growing team. He and Kane get into the real stuff: hiring tradies vs apprentices, keeping staff long term, building systems when everything is chaos...

In this episode, Kane sits down with Jevyn from Men's Talk, a men's health promotion charity based in Western Australia, for a raw and eye-opening conversation about the mental health crisis quietly affecting men across Australia.

They cover the alarming suicide statistics (7 men die every day in Australia), the role isolation, divorce and job loss play as warning signs, why tradies are 9 times more likely to die by suicide than from a workplace accident, and how Men's Talk is doing things differently with non-clinical drop-in centres, free mentoring programs and their one-of-a-kind mobile outreach van "Monty the...

Mitch Suleau moved from Tasmania to Perth two years ago with a carpenter's ticket and nothing else. He started MBS Building Company anyway and is still figuring it out the right way.

Kane and Mitch get into what the early years of a trade business actually look like. Why you have no idea what you want until you are almost there. Why hiring a tradesman as your first employee beats bringing on an apprentice. How to find work through referrals and social media before spending on advertising. What it takes to build a reputation fast in a...

Steve started E-Maintain two years ago with zero residential experience. He is still on the tools, has three staff, and is building something the right way without burning through a Google ads budget to do it.

Kane and Steve cover the real story of starting a small electrical business in Perth with no residential background and figuring it out on the fly. They get into hiring your first apprentice vs your first sparky and why most people get that wrong, how to build consistent work through property managers and commercial relationships instead of chasing leads, why a...

Most trade business owners think hiring more people will fix their problems. It does not. It exposes them. And the cost of getting it wrong is bigger than most realise.

Kane Tyler Smith and Anthony Lawler from Nimbus Tech break down what actually happens when a trade business grows without the right processes and structure in place. This is a conversation about the chaos phase of scaling, why profit drops as revenue grows, and what needs to be sorted before you even think about hiring your next person.

If your business feels like it runs...

Kane Tyler Smith started Smartfix in 2018 with one ute and zero business training. It grew to 140 staff and $30 million before a near-miss that almost took everything.

In this episode, Kane and Aisha break down the real story behind building Smartfix from the ground up. How they handled Google reviews from day one, why staff retention was always a core value, what scaling too fast actually looks like from the inside, and why trade business coaching in Perth barely existed when they needed it most.

If you are running a trade business in Australia and want...

Kane Tyler Smith built Smartfix from one ute in 2018 to over $30 million a year and 130 staff. What most people never saw was how messy that actually was.

This is the intro episode of Unlocking Business: Hypotential. Kane breaks down who he is, why he built Hypotential, and the gap he kept seeing in the trade industry. Most tradies are excellent at their trade. Nobody teaches them how to run a business. That is what this podcast is here to fix. Real conversations, real operators, real situations from inside a trade business.

If your business relies...