Fred Roed.

Founder and CEO of Heavy Chef, a platform for entrepreneurs. Writer. Presenter. Speaker. Father of three. Living the #entrepreneurlife. Winner of the 2015 IAB Bookmarks Award for "Best Individual Contribution to the Digital Industry". Listed as one of Fast Company's Top 100 Creative People in Business. Author of 'Heavy Chef Guide To Starting A Business In South Africa'. My name means ‘peace’ in Danish.

Five Lessons In Sales

Five Lessons In Sales

We had our September Heavy Chef entrepreneur event this past week. It was a cracker. Jason Luboyera and Landie Stevens fielded a series of tough questions from a packed crowd at Workshop17. Our MC Zinhle Novazi, who is also a Director at the Heavy Chef Foundation*, was pure power keeping the evening’s conversations flowing.

After a month of focusing on selling stuff, here are my five top takeaways from all our interviews and research, including this week’s entrepreneur event focusing on sales and targeting.


One: Selling Is Believing.

If we’re selling stuff, whether a small trinket to a flea market patron or a big service to a big company, we have to believe in our offering. If we don’t, why should anyone else?

Two: Selling Is Service.

Henry Ford said it 100 years ago, if you want to sell, serve. Service was the key to Ford back then. Service is the key to successful companies right now.

Three: Selling Is Systems.

There are so many tools that are designed to help us. From CRM systems like Hubspot and Salesforce, to social systems like LinkedIn and Slack. Our businesses need systems. Every person within a company has to adhere to these systems and keep them current.

Four: Selling Is Personal.

We can have the best company with the best offering, but we will likely lose the deal if our customer or client doesn’t feel an intimate connection with us. In an increasingly digital world (and maybe because of it), there is almost always an emotional factor in buying behaviour.

Five: Selling Is Knowledge.

This was reiterated at September’s Heavy Chef event by both of our speakers. Jason’s words were “become a student”. The more information we have about clients, our customers, their world and their problems, the more power we have to sell.


The month of September 2022 was an amazing experience for the HC crew - particularly engaging with such a fantastic array of sales superheroes over the past month.

Looking forward, October is upon us and we’re turning our lens to ‘values’.

Our next entrepreneur gathering is at Workshop17 Kloof on October the 20th.

The event is Values-Based Business and we’re hosting Robyn Smith, founder of Faithful to Nature, and Khanya Ncumisa, founder of Matawi. Tickets are already flying, so be quick for this one. Book here.

Until then, sell well, move well, aaaand rest well.

It Is No Longer Just Good Enough To Be Just Good Enough

It Is No Longer Just Good Enough To Be Just Good Enough

It's Time To Get 'Out There'

It's Time To Get 'Out There'