5 Interview Questions you Must ASK In 2024Welcome to another podcast episode with Paula Maidens. The host, Paula Maidens discusses the importance of strategic hiring in the new year and shares five strategic interview questions to ensure you make the right choices for your team.Highlights of this episode:The threefold purpose of an interview and why this needs to be kept front of mind when structuring and executing your interviewWhy strategic interview questions are needed to gain valuable insights you don’t want to missThe importance of starting with an easy, familiar question to help both parties ease into the conversation.Understanding the candidate's grasp of the role and their research into the company and why this is a valuable insight you don’t want to miss.How certain questions will allow for a deeper understanding of the candidate's time management approach, preferences, and compatibility with the role.How to understand a candidate's expectations from a managerial perspective and why you don’t want to miss this at the interview.In this episode, Paula encourages essential business owners, CEOs and key decision makers to focus on the quality of interview questions for successful hires, invites listeners to share and highlight hiring goals for 2024, and promises to return with a new episode next week.LINKS:Grab my top 12 Essential Interview Questions to help you interview effectively to make sure you are always making confident hiring decisions! Want to chat to Paula to explore working together?Book a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with me: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

Profit Profit Profit : How to get more of it in 2024Welcome to 2024 with our first Big Dreams Great Team® podcast episode for the new year! In this episode, Paula is joined by her guest, Laura O’Hagan, a profit and growth consultant who helps business owners pay themselves more. Laura specialises in the health, beauty, and professional services industries.The focus of this episode is all about: Profit. Answering questions such as why profit is often overlooked in favour of sales or revenue. Laura and Paula discuss reasons behind the lack of emphasis on profit in business conversations and why it is critical to both growth and sustainability. Dive in to this episode to hear: Misconceptions that revenue equals success and how this overshadows the importance of profitability.Strategies to improve business profitability by optimising finances and expenses.The significance of examining the formula of revenue minus profit minus owner's compensation to identify expenses and optimise spending.The importance of examining expenses, reevaluating service offerings, and considering pricing structures to ensure profitability.How to assessing expenses categorically, separating profit-generating costs, necessary expenses, and potential wasteful spending. Reviewing expenses regularly helps eliminate duplications and unnecessary costs.Practical advice and tools to help business owners better understand their financial landscape and make informed decisions.Paula and Laura highlight the importance of these strategies in driving businesses towards enhanced profitability for this year and future years.  They also discuss empowering business owners to reconsider their compensation models for sustainable growth.Tune in and enjoy the new learnings this new year!LAURA’S LINKS: LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/laura-o-hagan-a55ba23INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/laurajohagan/FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/LauraOHaganCoachWebsite: https://laurajohagan.com/Download Laura’s Profit Benchmarks https://laurajohagan.com/benchmarks/PAULA LINKS:Chat to Paula about working together via a Dream Team Discovery CallWebsite:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

Part 3- Hire Smarter Summer Series - Profitable Onboarding Welcome to the final episode of the Hire Smarter Mini-Series with Paula Maidens. The host, Paula has shared invaluable insights in this three-part series to help you make confident and informed hiring decisions. In part one, Paula covered the common mistakes to avoid when hiring and in part two, Paula emphasised the significance of getting clear on the qualities and behaviors you desire in a candidate.In this episode called "Profitable Onboarding," Paula explores the often overlooked aspect of onboarding as a strategic investment rather than just an expense. She delves into the importance of viewing new hires as contributors to scaling your service-based business profitably.Highlights of this episode:The shift from viewing hiring as an expense to understanding it as a strategic investment in scaling your business.Strategies to ensure a quick return on your hiring investment by setting clear expectations from day one.Exploring key elements—training, information, expectations, and corrective conversations—for a profitable onboarding process.The significance of setting specific expectations to guide new hires effectively during their initial month and how this impacts how fast they get up to speed.Embracing transparent discussions to guide new hires back on track, ensuring continuous improvement.Paula also shares a glimpse of the 2024 Hiring Mastery Bootcamp, which offers a comprehensive guide for successful hiring and your opportunity to get access to exclusive waitlist perks.This episode emphasises the significance of establishing the right expectations, providing comprehensive training, and maintaining open dialogue and by doing so, your business can set new hires up for success from day one. This entire Hire Smarter Mini Series has focused on empowering you, as the CEO of your business to hire strategically, emphasising the importance of clarity, preparation, and structured onboarding for successful and effective team integration.LINKS:Join the Hiring Mastery Bootcamp for exclusive waitlist bonuses here.Want to chat to Paula to explore working together?Book a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with me: Website: www.paulamaidens.com Instagram: @paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

Episode 108 - How to Decide Your Top 5 Qualities To Only Hire RockstarsIn Part 2 of the Hire Smarter Mini-Series, the host Paula Maidens, focuses on achieving clarity before embarking on the hiring process and the significance of understanding five key aspects before getting started on your hiring process.Paula highlights the tendency to overlook these crucial clarity aspects during what’s  often a busy and stressful hiring process, however mapping out these details increases the likelihood of hiring the right candidate while reducing the chances of making a hiring mistake.Paula’s focus in this episode revolves around the critical yet often overlooked aspect of hiring—hiring for the specific characteristics or behaviours that a candidate brings to your workplace. These elements are often overshadowed by an emphasis on skills and experience which can lead to hiring someone who doesn’t feel like they are a fit for your team.Highlights of this episode:5 critical aspects that need clarity for successful hiring.How clarity maximises your chances of hiring the right candidate while minimising the risk of hiring the wrong one.Common misconceptions and pitfalls that are typically associated with the hiring process.Why getting  a comprehensive understanding of an individual's work style beyond their resume is essential to their successAligning the working methods of the new team member with the preferences and comfort of the CEO or leader in a business as well as the team as a whole.The significance of communication methods and how different individuals prefer various modes of communication.This episode focuses on the importance of you as the CEO,understanding your own needs, preferences, and work style, and how to translate these into specific hiring criteria and expectations for potential hires to ensure a better fit within your business.  Paula also touches upon the diversity of preferences regarding communication methods and tools, highlighting that what works for one person or business might not suit another. Part 3 of the Hire Smarter Mini Series will be released next week with a topic of Profitable Onboarding LINKS:Download the Top 15 Hiring Qualities for  Service-Based Businesses Guide here that was discussed in this podcast episodeWant to chat to Paula to explore working together?Book a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with Paula: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

Episode 107 - The Reasons Most People Hire Wrong (and How to Avoid That For Good)In this first episode of the Hire Smarter Mini-Series, hosted by Paula Maidens, the focus is on equipping CEOs with the knowledge and strategies needed to make great hiring decisions, ultimately leading to profitable scaling for service-based businesses. Paula dives into the reasons most people hire wrong (and how to avoid that for good) and shares the inherent challenges of the hiring process, its potential for stress and overwhelm, especially when you as the CEO are already juggling multiple responsibilities. The episode begins by addressing the common but not often talked about mistake of having an external focus when hiring, and explains how to shift your perspective to consider who you need to BE to attract the right person. The importance of adopting a solid, objective hiring process is highlighted, emphasizing your role as CEO to setting up scaffolding as your foundation for success.Paula discusses avoiding emotional hiring decisions, which often lead to suboptimal choices including such as hiring friends or making decisions based on initial impressions. Paula shares her own personal experiences to underscore the significance of learning from (or better still avoiding!) emotional hiring mistakes. The episode concludes by exploring the pitfalls of hiring from a place of uncertainty, stressing the need for absolute clarity on the type of person required and the role they'll play in the business. Paula draws parallels with intentional dating, emphasising that hiring without clarity is akin to a trial-and-error approach.Highlights of this episode:Challenges of the hiring process and the need for preparation.Mistake 1: External focus – Shifting perspective to who you as the CEO need to be.Importance of a solid, objective hiring process for support and success.Mistake 2: Emotional hiring decisions – Avoiding choices influenced by emotions and how to make sure you stay objective.Learning from personal hiring mistakes and the impact on business momentum.Pitfalls of hiring from uncertainty and the necessity of clarity for success.Encouragement to believe in the possibility of finding the right hire.Preview of upcoming episodes on qualities to look for and onboarding strategies.This episode of the Hire Smarter Mini-Series, Paula Maidens guides CEOs through the intricacies of avoiding the common mistakes that most people make when hiring to ensure you make effective hiring decisions so that you can profitably scale your service-based businesses. Paula addresses the challenges of hiring, emphasising the importance of preparation and the need for you as the business owner to shift into ‘CEO mode’ to focus on your powerful role in the hiring process, so that you can support yourself to success.Part 2 of the Hire Smarter Mini Series will be released next week with a topic of How to Decide Your Top 5 Qualities To Only Hire RockstarsLINKS:Want to chat to Paula to explore working together?Book a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with me: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

Episode #106 - My 3 TOP CLIENT LESSONS FROM 2023As Paula shifts into reflection mode for 2023, she shares in this episode three common lessons that emerged across her clients throughout the year. You’ll be able to listen and reflect on your own leadership and take nuggets of wisdom for yourself into 2024.You’ll hear about:The Need for Clarity Paula shares instances where clients faced challenges due to lack of clarity.  She discusses the importance of clear, detailed instructions to ensure desired outcomes and shares situations where being specific and considering potential obstacles in the process helped her clientsThe Importance of Holding High ExpectationsPaula shares the significance of articulating and reinforcing high expectations and how consistent communication about expectations leads to improved outcomes and how this applies to both hiring and maintaining high performance standards.Slowing Down This lesson is all about taking time to react and respond, avoiding impulsive reaction to , allow space for thoughtful consideration.Tune in to hear these lessons, case studies from clients and encouragement to reflect on how you’ve handled various situations in 2023 and how you can improve your leadership style in 2024.MORE INFO Email us at paula (@) paulamaidens.com for more information about the Elevate Group Mentoring Program. LINKS to Connect With Paula: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams FREE Dream Team Discovery Call: https://bookme.name/PaulaMaidensConsulting/45-minute-discovery-call

Episode #105 - 5 Questions to Ask Each Of Your Team Before The End Of The YearWith the holiday season looming, you're probably juggling year-end tasks and eagerly awaiting that well-deserved Christmas break. But before you shift into relaxation mode, I have a fantastic opportunity for you to consider to maximise your team's potential for a strong 2024. It's not about taking massive or exhausting steps; it's about taking small, impactful actions that can elevate your current team and set the stage for an even better year ahead.And that is… to hold an end-of-year catch-up with your team.This is one of the simplest yet highly effective things you can do to maximise each individual's potential to kick off 2024 in the best way possible.In this episode, I share how to have this conversation and provide you with a series of strategic and powerful questions designed to stimulate thoughtful responses and provide insights that will help both you and your team plan for a successful 2024.Dive in to learn: Learn how you can take simple, impactful actions to boost your team's potential.Find out the 5 questions you need to ask to positively boost your business in your team’s mind AND give you valuable insights and information to plan for a more powerful team in 2024. How these conversations can enhance your team's loyalty, motivation, and growthThe importance of showing gratitude to your teamYou’ll learn how to combine the two actions of – asking the questions and expressing gratitude – to create a lasting positive impression on your team as they head into their holiday break and begin their new year with reflection and goal setting.Tune in, enjoy and set yourself up for a productive and successful 2024 for you and your team!MORE INFO Email us at paula (@) paulamaidens.com for more information about the Elevate Group Mentoring Program that "gently" kicks off in late November 2023LINKS to Connect with Paula: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams Book a FREE Dream Team Discovery Call HERE

In this episode of the Big Dreams Great Teams™, I am joined by Bonny Marsh, a multi-passionate entrepreneur, the co-founder of Truii, a Brisbane-based technology and consulting company that creates data-driven web applications. She is also a Speech Pathologist, Mother of four, and mentor to mothers. Bonny runs her business with a family first ethos and a commitment to clear and concise structures and processes for her employees . This episode underscores the importance of clear communication, setting expectations, and establishing a strong foundation. Today, we discuss Bonny’s experience of running their team of 12 staff,  their family friendly ethos and the various evolutions and challenges they’ve faced growing to a million plus revenue business - that is continuing to grow rapidly.Dive in to hear about: The importance of specificity and structuring for Success: Ensuring your business is built on a solid foundation with well-structured processes and systems to support its growth.Scaling Challenges: Why what worked as a team of 3 won’t work at 10+ and why.Embracing Your Vision: Trust in your unique vision for your business, even if it means challenging conventional norms.Cultural Change and Flexibility: How they implemented a 4 day work week, with an innovative move to a hybrid work model with success.Love in Leadership: Bonny discusses the transformative power of love in leadership and its role in creating a thriving team and setting an example for clients.Plus we cover why Bonny felt it was necessary to get HR/ Leadership support & what impact it had on the business and what immediate solutions the support has brought about. Tune in and enjoy this thought-provoking episode.LINKS:Book a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with Bonny:Instagram Handle - https://www.instagram.com/themothersway_org/Website - https://truii.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonny-marsh-truii/Connect with me: Website: www.paulamaidens.com Instagram: @paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

In this episode of the Big Dreams Great Teams™, Paula shares the 7 REAL Truths that consistently emerge when she’s coaching her private clients towards growth, team efficiencies and effective leadership. These truths comprised from her 17 years of industry experience and they are jam-packed full of practical ideas and solutions for you on your leadership journeyDive in to hear how: Good People Aren't Hard to Find:  Discover what normally goes wrong in attracting applicants and the art of crafting job advertisements that resonate with top talent and the importance of effective communication to the ‘right’ potential team members.More Expensive Isn't Always Better: Explore why higher prices don't always equate to better value and how to make hiring decisions based on what truly matters.To Publish or Not to Publish Salaries: Delve into the debate of disclosing salary ranges in job postings and the benefits of maintaining flexibility.Making Effort Isn't Making It Too Hard: Understand the critical concept of upfront application questions and how they set expectations for the candidates and why it's crucial to attract individuals willing to make an effort.Miscommunication, Not Malice: Most performance issues are rooted in miscommunication or misunderstanding. Navigating this difference effectively means careful stepping.Embracing Mistakes: Mistakes are your business's way of telling you something needs to be fixed and they are opportunities for growth. We discuss how to identify the root causes of errors and leverage them to enhance your business.Dealing with Letdowns: We discuss the emotional rollercoaster of a team member leaving your company and how it can be a blessing in disguise and with lessons to learn from these experiences.Plus we cover the Power of a Confidant in the context of what conversations are and aren’t appropriate to have with your team members and how an objective and experienced advisor can be a powerful scaffolding piece to support you to show up as as an effective leader. Tune in and enjoy this thought-provoking episode!LINKS:Book a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with me: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams 

In this episode of Big Dreams Great Teams™, we dive into the vital distinction between Expectations and Inspections. High expectations are common, but true success lies in actively Inspecting and monitoring progress, because as the saying goes “You get what you INSPECT not what you EXPECT”.I talk about how business owners and entrepreneurs who are high performers often reach unconscious competence and in turn, when delegating tasks they often overlook the INSPECT part of setting and getting their EXPECTATIONS met. I also discuss how you shouldn’t be afraid of having high expectations as high-performing individuals will thrive when striving for lofty goals. This episode explains how focusing on clear Inspection and effective monitoring your team members will meet your expectations and achieve success and personal satisfaction. Listen in to this very practical episode packed with examples for your solutions for implementing “Inspection Points” such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure your high expectations get consistently met.LINKS:Fundamentals of Leadership short courseBook a Dream Team Discovery CallConnect with me: Website:www.paulamaidens.com Instagram:@paulamaidensconsultingFacebook: @paulamaidensbuildingawesometeams