A behind-the-scenes founder conversation on hiring, rebuilding culture, and stepping into leadership.

Scaling a service-based business means growing more than just revenue — it means carrying the weight of people, culture, and the leadership decisions that come with growth.

In this episode of The Big Dreams Great Teams Podcast, Paula Maidens is joined by entrepreneur Winnie Wu for an honest, behind-the-scenes conversation about what it really takes to scale people-led businesses — especially through the messy middle of growth.

Winnie has built and leads three service-based businesses, including two clinics and a coaching practice, in an industry where people are the business. In this conversation, she shares openly about an 18-month rebuild that required hiring eight practitioners in just a few weeks, navigating a toxic culture, and redefining her role as the business evolved.

Together, Paula and Winnie explore the reality of leadership at scale — the emotional load founders carry, the difference between managing and leading, and why growth eventually demands a shift in how you show up in your business.

This is not a highlight-reel conversation. It’s a grounded, reflective discussion for business owners who are already in it — growing teams, feeling the weight of responsibility, and questioning what needs to change as their business scales.

In this episode, we explore:

• What scaling teams actually looks like in a service-based business
• Hiring under pressure — including hiring eight people in a matter of weeks
• Rebuilding culture after disruption or rapid growth
• The difference between managing people and leading a growing business
• How leadership needs to evolve as team size and complexity increase
• Why generic growth advice often breaks down in people-led businesses

About the Guest: Winnie Wu

Winnie Wu is a leading voice in women’s health and private practice innovation. She is the founder of Movement Laboratory and Papaya Clinic, two highly regarded health clinics based in Sydney, and the creator of The Clinic Project, where she mentors clinic owners to build profitable, team-led practices.

With a background in physiotherapy and a passion for challenging traditional healthcare models, Winnie blends clinical expertise, business strategy, and leadership insight. She has mentored over 100 clinics across Australia, Canada, and Singapore and was named Mentor of the Year by the Australian Physiotherapy Association.

Connect with Winnie:

Website: https://www.theclinicproject.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclinicproject/

A note from Paula

If this conversation has you reflecting on your leadership role, team structure, or the weight you’re carrying as your business grows, this is exactly the work I support business owners with — through private strategic coaching and in-person leadership development days.

You can learn more about working with me at https://paulamaidens.com.

Connect with Paula:
Paula Maidens is a Hiring & Team Strategist who helps service-based businesses solve people chaos by connecting people decisions to profit outcomes.

Website:https://paulamaidens.com/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/paulamaidensconsulting/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulamaidens/

When good people still need too much of you, the issue is rarely capability. It’s clarity.

Most business owners don’t think they have a “bad team.”
They like their people. They see potential. They know everyone’s trying.

And yet, the questions keep coming.
The mental load doesn’t shift.
Holidays still involve Slack, texts, and “just checking” messages.

This episode speaks to that uncomfortable middle ground — where the team is good, but the business still leans too heavily on the business owner to think, decide, and catch things.

In this solo episode, Paula reframes a common frustration: when a business feels overly dependent on you, it’s rarely a motivation or performance issue. It’s usually a process gap that’s quietly pulling you back into the centre.

Drawing on lived experience — including lessons from her own studio days — Paula unpacks the difference between buffering problems and actually solving them. And why blaming people keeps business owners stuck, while examining processes creates relief for everyone involved.

This isn’t about pushing people harder or expecting more initiative.
It’s about building a business that doesn’t rely on any one person carrying all the thinking.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why “my team is good, but…” is often a process signal
• How missing processes quietly keep business owners as the bottleneck
• The hidden cost of buffering problems instead of fixing them
• Why clarity reduces emotional load for both leaders and teams
• How processes create safety, confidence, and consistency
• The connection between process gaps and profit leaks
• What really changes when leaders blame the process first

A note from Paula

If this episode has landed, it’s likely because you recognise the weight you’re carrying — not because your team isn’t capable, but because too much still funnels back to you.

This is the kind of work I support business owners with in private strategic sessions and in-person leadership days. It’s quiet, practical, and grounded in the reality of running a people-led business — not theory.

If you’re feeling ready to step back and look at what’s actually holding the load in your business, you can explore working together via my website.

Connect with Paula

Paula Maidens is a Hiring & Team Strategist who helps service-based businesses solve people chaos by connecting people decisions to profit outcomes.

Website: https://paulamaidens.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulamaidensconsulting/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulamaidens/

Sixteen years in, Paula’s not romanticising it. She’s naming what it actually takes to build a business that lasts — and what it costs when the business accidentally becomes another version of a corporate job.

This episode is a reflection on identity upgrades, hiring decisions, and the quiet pressure business owners carry when the team, the clients, and the profit all sit on their shoulders. It’s also a reminder that growth doesn’t just ask for more ambition. It asks for better structure.

Paula shares the lessons she learned through three businesses, hiring 50+ people, interviewing thousands of candidates, and seeing behind the scenes in more than 100 businesses. Some are hard-earned. Some are relieving. All of them point back to the same truth: the way you build your business shapes the way you live your life.

Episode summary

This episode isn’t about motivation. It’s about the patterns that repeat when a business owner is capable enough to hold everything… until it stops being sustainable.

Paula unpacks the subtle traps that create people chaos, resentment, and constant “busy” — even when the business is doing well. She talks about what changes when systems hold the business up instead of individuals, when expectations are specific, and when hiring decisions are treated like profit decisions.

It’s a grounded look at the trade-offs business owners make over time — and what becomes possible when the business is built to support the person leading it.

In this episode, we explore:

• The moment a “dream business” starts feeling like a recreated corporate job
• When flexibility turns into resentment — and why it happens quietly
• The risk of building a business that relies on one great person to stay standing
• How systems create freedom, confidence, and sustainability over the long term
• Why high-capacity business owners get trapped by “just because I can…”
• The difference between an always-improving culture and perfection-driven paralysis
• How clarity and specificity change performance, ownership, and results
• Why people decisions are profit decisions — and what that means in real life
• The hidden cost of doing everything, even when you’re capable of it

A note from Paula

February 26 marks 16 years since I started my first business, and this one felt important to record.

If parts of this episode landed because they’re describing your current season — the busy, the weight, the sense that you’re carrying too much — you’re not alone in that.

If you’re wanting more clarity and structure around your team, your leadership, and what the next season of your business could feel like, my Strategic Deep Dive sessions are one way we can work together. It’s focused, practical support around your people decisions so the business starts supporting you properly again.

Connect with Paula

Paula Maidens is a Hiring & Team Strategist who helps service-based businesses solve people chaos by connecting people decisions to profit outcomes.

Website: https://paulamaidens.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulamaidensconsulting/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulamaidens/