From Olympic champ to serial entrepreneur: Melissa Wu shares her story

From teenage diving prodigy to Olympic medalist and now multiple business owner, Melissa Wu continues to impress with her grit, determination and stamina over her 21-year sporting career. She joined editors Cec Busby and Adam Bub on the First Act podcast to share some tidbits from her awe-inspiring journey from diving champ to serial entrepreneur.

Most Aussies recognise Melissa Wu from her ‘first act’ as an elite Olympic diver – she captured the nation’s heart when she earned her first Commonwealth Games silver medal at the tender age of 13, going on to become one of Australia’s most decorated diving athletes. After a lifelong commitment to her incredible sporting career, Melissa has expanded her horizons to become a triple business owner, all of which she runs while continuing to train towards the next World Championships and Commonwealth Games coming up this year.

For Melissa, juggling training and business is all in a day’s work; she co-owns strength and weightlifting club HrdKAW Strength and the Australian Diving Academy. She also heads up her own activewear company, Havok Athletic.

Images via Instagram: @melissapaigewu

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Melissa must be exhausted whilst working so hard, but she looks at it differently, revealing that she enjoys the sense of balance her businesses have brought to her life.

“The more I look into other opportunities in areas outside of diving, the more I create this nice life balance,” Melissa says. “I’ve always known that diving won’t last forever; you’ve got to have a backup plan.

“Being in sport for so long, I’ve naturally fallen into that niche in my businesses. My first business is HrdKAW Strength, which I co-own with my brother – it’s a strength and conditioning business and weightlifting club. I’ve really enjoyed being a part of that and growing our first business – it’s our baby. After that, I developed the Australian Diving Academy with my business partner (and fellow Olympic diver) Kevin Chavez, whom I was coaching with in the New South Wales Institute of Sport.

“Havok Athletic I created for athletes. I’m an athlete, and I’ve been wearing activewear my whole life. A lot of people don’t know that in diving, 50 per cent of our training is on trampolines and into foam pits. This type of activity requires a large range of motion – you’ve got to be quite flexible to get into these tight little positions. That’s why I need activewear – I can do all the things I do in diving, just not in the water.

“I found a gap in the market here, and I was buying a fair amount of stuff from overseas,” says Melissa. “So I developed Havok Athletic and started creating clothes that were good for me, but also good for weightlifting and CrossFit, which I’ve also dabbled in a fair bit in the past few years.

“I’ve stuck to that niche of diving, CrossFit and power weightlifting, and I’ve been growing the business in that space. It’s a space that I’ll be in in the future, so it’s been really good in terms of looking at where I’m going to be in the future and networking more in that space.”

Listen to Melissa Wu on the First Act podcast:

Doing business with family

While plenty of advisors will tell you that it’s a bad idea to go into business with family members, Melissa insists she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There are definitely benefits,” Melissa admits. “I’ve read many things that say ‘don’t go into business with family’, but my family has always been very close. I just know that my family always has my back, and I’ve always got theirs, and there’s no one I would prefer to go into business with. At the end of the day, no matter what happens, I know that we’re always there for each other.

“We do have our challenges – we argue or we disagree because we are very passionate about what we do. But I think challenges are good, and they help us become better people and better business owners. We all band together, and that’s what family is. I’m so lucky that I can work with my family and have that kind of relationship in our business.”

Sadly, Melissa’s sister Kirsten lost her life to suicide in 2014, but that hasn’t stopped the Wu family from keeping her involved in their business endeavours. The HrdKAW (rather than ‘hardcore’) brand name is a cherished reminder of her.

“The K-A-W is my sister Kirsten’s initials – Kirsten Amelia Wu,” Melissa reveals. “She joked that she would have a bakery one day called Hardcore Cakes, and she wanted ‘hardKAW’ as a number plate. So we stole that from her. It was a nice way for us to always keep her in our thoughts and as part of our business. It was our way of honouring her, and we thought it was a really appropriate name for a gym. It’s just our way of keeping her close to us and helping to remind us of what we want – helping other people, living every day to the fullest and not having any regrets.”

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Developing a winning mindset

You don’t get far in sports or business without a winning mindset. While Melissa credits her competitive sporting background for helping her to build her resilience, she says that a winning attitude is something anyone can develop with perseverance.

“I think the biggest thing with mindset is that it’s not something you learn, and then it’s a skill you’ve just got,” says Melissa. “It’s something you have to work at and keep working at it. The more you improve it, the more you grow. I aim to be continually growing and learning more about myself, not just as an athlete, but as a person. And the more I do that, the more I pick up these things that help with mindset.

“I knew as a young athlete that mindset was one of the biggest things holding me back from doing well for so long. So I worked hard at it, and the more I did, the more I found all these other ways I could improve. It’s something that you can’t just develop overnight.”

When met with the inevitable hurdles or setbacks of life and business, Melissa says to remember that challenges are essential for growth.

“The more you have to go through, the more you grow and learn from it,” she says. “Having gone through so many disappointments in life, I’ve learned a lot, which has helped create a mindset now that I know I can overcome future challenges.”

Melissa Wu shared plenty more insight in this First Act episode, including her thoughts on the prevalence of bullying in sports, as well as sharing how the devastating loss of her sister to suicide affected her career and family. Listen to the full podcast now.

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