Business, sobriety and travel with Lisa Messenger

Lisa’s Bio

Lisa Messenger is the vibrant, game-changing founder and CEO of Collective Hub. She launched Collective Hub as a print magazine in 2013 with no experience, in an industry that people said was either dead or dying. Over the next five years, Collective Hub grew into an international multimedia business and lifestyle platform with multiple verticals across print, digital, events and co-working space – all of which served to ignite human potential. For more than 17 years in her own business, Lisa has inspired game-changers, thought-leaders, style-makers, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs across the world. An international speaker and best-selling author, she is an authority on disruption in both the corporate sector and the start-up scene. 

Lisa’s experience in publishing has seen her produce over 400 custom-published books for companies and individuals as well as having authored and co-authored 26 herself. Most notably, Lisa chartered her ride to success post launch of Collective Hub documenting the journey and all its lessons in real time with her best-selling book Daring & Disruptive: Unleashing the Entreprenaur and its sequels, which include Life & Love: Creating the Dream, Money & Mindfulness: Living in Abundance, Break-ups & Breakthroughs: Turning an Ending Into a New Beginning; Purpose, Find your Why and the How Will Look After Itself; and Risk & Resilience: Breaking and Remaking a Brand. 

With fans including Sir Richard Branson and New Your Times best-selling author Bradley Trevor Greive and a social media following of more than 800,000 across her Collective Hub and personal platforms, Lisa’s vision is to build a community of like-minded people who want to change the world. 

In between being a serial entrepreneur, investor and avid traveller, she loves nothing more than being at home with her dog, Benny, gardening and collecting as many indoor plants as humanly possible. 

Transcript

Lisa Messenger is a speaker, author and founder of The Collective Hub magazine. In today’s episode I chat to her about all things business and life. We talk about travel, her journey to sobriety, hanging out with Richard Branson and her advice for building an incredible and exciting business. There is so much wisdom, fun and honesty in this episode, so make sure you hang around.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing, and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips, and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host: me! I’m Clare Wood, I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality tv addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right in to today’s episode.

If you’re a fan of Lisa Messenger, you’ll know that she is the queen of inspirational quotes. I’ve paired up with designer Cass Deller, to have some of her best quotes designed in a beautiful format that you can print out and put up in your home or office to keep you motivated throughout the day. If you’d like to get a copy make sure you check out the show notes for today’s episode at clarewood.com.au/podcast/episode17.

I am so excited to have today’s guest, we have joining us today, Lisa Messenger.

LISA:

Thank you, I’m excited to be here. From Sydney to Brisbane where I’ve just been for the last two weekends, in and out.

CLARE:

Lisa has the most amazing life. She loves to travel, and she’s just been telling me she’s been in Byron, in Brisbane, in Tokyo, within the last week or so.

LISA:

It was a week, with crazy flights in between. But, you know, I love getting out and about and seeing lots of people.

CLARE:

Exciting! Anyone who is listening who doesn’t know who Lisa is, Lisa is the founder of The Collective Hub, a print magazine that is no longer in regular print. Do you want to give us a quick background as to why it is no longer on a regular print cycle?

What is happening with The Collective Hub?

LISA:

I feel like I’m confusing people because I have a little issue in front of me, that came out last Monday. And I think this is sometimes, a little bit of a problem for people who start a business and then morph and pivot. So, how far back do you want me to go with that journey?

CLARE:

When I heard that Collective Hub was finishing up, I went through a mourning period and I’m sure lots of entrepreneurs did, and it felt like it was the one publication made for small business owners. So I think you might have been pressured into doing some more. We were all like “no, one more!” and it’s been two extra editions that you’ve done since then.

LISA:

So yeah, I started Collective Hub, and this is good for anyone who with a big dream because it isn’t until you step into it, that it… but my partner says, but you chose this, and I’m like oh my gosh, so rewind to 2012 I come up with an idea for a print magazine, because as an entrepreneur and having so many friends as entrepreneurs, there wasn’t anything out there telling the story behind the story, the grit and the raw and real and attainable and relatable, and I was like, I don’t know how to do a print magazine, I’ve never worked in media, I’ve never worked in print magazines, so what a great place to start! So I started! But at the time I had 3 staff, and I’d had my businesses for 11 years, and suddenly I stepped into this thing that was, finally something worked, an 11 year overnight success and almost overnight, Collective Hub print magazine was in 37 countries and it was enormous. It’s interesting because so many people relate to this, I started as a creative and a visionary with a bloody big idea, but stepping into that reality I didn’t know what to prepare for, and you don’t really know it until you are there. So suddenly, it was all about systems, processes, IT, HR and legal, it was a lot, and haemorrhaging cash and being in survival mode and so, probably the first 3 years, were amazing and then end of 2016 -17 became really hard, and all about money, and feeding the beast. So I decided 52 issues in to break it all and again I’m sorry, because I know so many loved it and I’ve never been part of something so huge, we had over 800,000 across our social media channels, we had a couple million around the world loving it. But I was like OMG, who am I to break it, but, as it turns out the message of breaking it is almost as important as the message of making it. I think we have to remember what our purpose is, what our why is, and how can we best serve, and when that is no longer a reality, then the best thing is to not struggle through… oh makes me choke up just thinking about it… and keep trying to make it work, to then break it.

The reason I bought out a couple of bespoke issues is, when I broke it at issue 52 in April 2018, my Art Director and Editor were like, you know we have an entire issue 53 done which we didn’t go to print on, so that meant that we had commissioned every single article, 146 pages of content, was commissioned and designed and paid for, so once I’d had time to breath, it wasn’t the print mag that made me go under it was the digital, that I knew little about, it was like here we go, let’s bring one back. That is sometimes tricky and confusing, and whilst people have been excited and grateful, it does leave market confusion as to whether we are here or not here. Basically what I’ve said is I would do them when I have spare cash, because it’s expensive, and whenever people want to buy it. Who knows when the next will be.

CLARE:

I know I’m not your whole target market, but I love it when you announce that this issue is coming out, it’s like a bonus. Collective Hub is gone, but if one lands, it’s a bonus, if and when it does happen.

You have achieved so much in your business journey, obviously Collective Hub is one part of it. You’re also an author and a string of other accomplishments, of everything you’ve done, what are you proudest of?

Lisa’s proudest moment in business

LISA:

The thing about that question that’s interesting is, the first 11 years of my business, I over serviced and was everything to everyone and was fumbling along to everyone’s expectations, and it was once every 6 months that something exciting would happen, or maybe a little more, but you get the gist, and then with Collective Hub, it was like every 6mins something exciting happened but in equal measure every 6mins something disastrous was happening. I suppose what I’m most proud of is having the courage to start Collective Hub in 2013, when I had never worked in media and magazines, and I went into a highly saturated industry, I was incredibly naive, I had no idea what I was doing, so what I would say is having the courage to start. It was the first time in my life that I believed with every cell in my body that I wanted to do something for entrepreneurs to inspire and educate and show the story behind the story and prove that anything is possible and make it real and attainable and all that kind of thing. So, having the courage to start it was my most proud moment and everything that followed. The lesson is, I often question now, will those 11 years prior to launching Collective Hub and having my own business, how many times did I almost start something and just no quite have the courage, and could I have had something equally or more successful as Collective, if I had just had the courage. The big message is, have the courage to start. I truly believe that if you know what your purpose is, and you feel it with every cell of your body, the how has a way of working itself out, so just start!

CLARE:

And don’t listen to what other people say necessarily, well intentioned people, people are trying to protect you, they don’t want you to fall on your face and not have it work, and maybe it won’t, but at least if you give it a try, then you know right? As compared to spending your whole life wondering.

How to have courage 

LISA:

Yes, and I want to address that as well, because when you want to start something there are well intentioned people and also nay-sayers and it’s important to remember that everyone is human and people, whether they know it or not, are conscious of it or not, have their own agendas. So, while I’m all about reciprocity and abundance and I’m the ultimate over-sharer, I’m also very careful and conscious about who I share things with. Some people might be like, “you shouldn’t do that because…” so lots of reasons why you shouldn’t. You then need to question is that just a mirror of what is going on for them, or is it something real. Because people have so much stuff going on they might feel a whole lot of reactions, like jealousy or I can’t do that, or my self-worth is low and they’ll project that onto you. So careful about a) who the people I share ideas with and b) this is the feedback that I’m looking for and open to. Then I try and take it on, has this person got experience, and experience on this topic, have they run a business in this area, have they got something that they can contribute and do they have real life experience, and therefore is their commentary real and valid. I’m careful about who I listen to, because there is a zillion people to tell you why you shouldn’t do something. I’m careful about who I give information to because in my experience if you are truly a great entrepreneur and step into something really big, most people won’t back you, you have to have this unwavering innate self-belief.

CLARE:

And get back up when you fall over as well, because you will try things and everything is not going to work. Even if you are like “this is the best thing ever”. I wanted to run a retreat at the beginning of this year and I was thinking “this is going to be incredible” and I went for it, and I put it out there, I did amazing marketing on it, and it just didn’t work and that’s ok as well. And to your point, I’m really proud of myself for taking that leap even when everything was saying don’t do it, so at least I can say I tried. And I’m going to do it again and it’s going to work.

LISA:

On that point, something really important, since I broke Collective Hub, is that not a day has gone by where I’m not trying to step into another iteration of my purpose or of Collective Hub’s purpose to ignite human potential, but it means I’m failing every day in some way, because I’m trying and testing things, and having stepped into something so enormous, it’s been tricky to replicate that or find something that can channel something that big. So the thing is, if you truly know your purpose, every day you have to try something different and it could be, that you try a retreat or a workshop or record a digital masterclass or a podcast, or another multitude of platform manifestations to realise your purpose, but in doing that and trying all the time, you know I’ve failed at least 10 times a day, if you went to social media you’ll see I’ve announced “we’re going to do this” and then you never hear about it again so ok, that failed. But I fail often and fail fast and then I get up and when you fail that often, something is bound to work, so keep trying and morphing and changing, and that is all you have to do all the time. 

CLARE:

Yep, great advice!

LISA:

Like your retreat, I get it right. I’ve done so many things like that. It’s like “let’s do this, it’s going to be amazing” and then nothing. You have to keep trying and be like Teflon, I don’t care that that didn’t work, just let it slide, let it slide.

CLARE:

Absolutely, I love that, fail fast then dust yourself off and get back up again.

So I would love to know, who are your mentors that you look up to?

Who are Lisa’s mentors?

LISA:

So many people ask me about this, who is my mentor, and I always laugh because, and again this might be a bit counter-intuitive, but I don’t have one mentor, and actually I’ve never had one mentor. I think it’s important to find what works for you and what works for me is that it’s very rare that one person will be able to have the experience that you require across every facet of your life and your business and so for me, I have a number of different mentors and people who support me through my journey. I have a guy called Geoff, who is the most ball-breaking guy I’ve ever come across so when I’m in a crisis or something really tough in business that’s hitting me, I’ll call Geoff and in 1 minute, he’s like boom, boom, boom, and he would have had something so much worse happen a day before or an hour before and so, he’ll just put whatever existential crisis I’m having, he’ll put it into perspective. Then I have guy called Raj who is the complete opposite of Geoff and he is based in Kunar in India and he has lived in a cult or commune for the past 36 years and so when I’m having a spiritual meltdown, and need someone to ground me and make me relax and realise we are all one, I will call Raj and he will be like “you are exactly where you need to be”. So, I’ve got a whole lot of people, then I have extraordinary women in my life who sometimes I just sit in their beautiful feminine goddess energy, which is a completely different thing. So my belief, which is contrary to what people think, is that I have gathered and synthesised a whole lot of different mentors and coaches, spiritual and business leaders, who I call on when I need to call on. For me, I found that’s the most important thing, because having one person it would be very unusual for them to have experienced the multitude of things that will come at you in your life.

CLARE:

Definitely! I’m a business coach myself, and people are often surprised when I refer on, if I think there is someone who can better serve them in that space. I’m a big believer too that someone might not be the right fit for you at different stages at your life. So someone can serve you really well for a period of your life, might not be the best mentor/coach in another phase of your life. Let’s face it, we are constantly evolving right.

LISA:

Yes, the business coach one is interesting because you being that is perfect because I’m sure if someone says I want to hit fitness or health goals, and that’s not your specialty, you can guide them through all aspects, you’re still giving that advice and steering them in the right direction and you’re the one constant. I applaud this.

CLARE:

I genuinely believe in what you said though that different people will serve you in different ways and I know myself, I have different people when I have different things, sometimes you need a warm hug and sometimes you need a slap in the face. And different people help in different ways.

To carry on from that are you in a membership or have you been part of a mastermind or again is that something you haven’t had a specific group you’ve worked with.

LISA:

Memberships I love. Actually when I launched Collective Hub, I was part of EO (Entrepreneurs Organisation) globally and that was one of the most phenomenal extraordinary times of my life, and what I loved about that was bringing together all different people from different industry verticals which had exclusivity, so you were never competing with someone in your pond. But I loved that I got involved globally in different conferences that they had called International Universities. Actually in 2010 or 2011, I went to Amsterdam for an EO universities conference, and it was one of the most phenomenal conferences of my life, and it was interesting as a potential business owner or business owner, you look for opportunities and ideas, and they are everywhere if you are open to them, and I met a guy from Amsterdam called Phil and he had an umbrella company, and we can all agree that umbrella companies have nothing to do with print magazine, so I’m always looking outside for inspiration. I remember Phil saying to me that he was distributed in 20 something countries, and I thought “how”? From my previous 11 years of having my own businesses I’d never been courageous enough to be global, beyond Australia, and so I met this guy who had an umbrella company in a 3min conversation and I was like how, and he said I went to a distributor called Fritz and I went and found these people who could distribute my umbrellas into different countries, and I was like OMG, so when I launched Collective Hub, I googled who would be the global distributor or peak body for global distribution of magazines and I found out there was a conference in Toronto in Canada, so I got my ass on a plane, 8 months within the inception of Collective, and I did 13 global distribution deals in one day because I was courageous enough to get on a plane and hustle my ass off. It was one of those conferences where every half an hour you have a meeting, and that all started from belonging to a membership organisation. So I really do believe strongly about the power of community, conversation, connection, pulling different ideas outside of your industry and being open to opportunities everywhere. I’m big on the collective, a collective.

CLARE:

Maybe there is something in this!

LISA:

There is definitely something in this. What’s the 2.0, I think there is definitely something in this for the Collective Hub, because it is such a huge community and that’s what I tried to do with the magazine at its peak, but I just didn’t have the time or space to really manifest it and make it happen.. don’t worry, tick tick ticking away.. because I love that model.

CLARE:

Watch this space!

LISA:

Yes, for anyone listening that wants to help me start that then reach on out!

CLARE:

Now I’m going to take a bit of a pivot here, away from business, because another big thing both you and I love is travel. Pre-kids I used to travel a lot and I’ve got some pretty funny stories from those days, so I’d love to know what is your craziest story from the road?

Lisa’s craziest travel story

LISA:

My craziest story from the road, I actually wrote about this in print 4 or something of the print magazine, but I have so many crazy stories when you travel as much as me, there are stories everywhere. But I was in Rome for a conference and meant to be flying to New York and this was a time when I was going to the Toronto thing, but in for Rome for a Global Publishers Conference, but anyway, the plane got re-directed and I ended up in Ireland, it was crazy, and I had this night, everyone was irate, we are in Dublin instead of New York and we had to stay a night and there was this group of irate people and then a group of people who were taking it as a fun experience and I made great friends out of it, and great content, and when you travel all crazy things happen. Missing flights, and my partner is the most dis-organised person when we travel so we are always having lots of crazy things happen.

CLARE:

I think I want to write a book one day, all the crazy things that happen, because people are like, that did not happen to you, and I’m like yes it did!

LISA:

I feel like I could do an hour on this!

CLARE:

Maybe you could write a book on your crazy travel stories and I might do one as well and we can swap notes.

Now, you’ve spoken publicly about your journey to sobriety, so I’d love to learn a bit more about how you came to that point where you didn’t drink anymore?

The journey to sobriety

LISA:

It was the 8th November 2004, and people are like “wow you know the date” and I’m like “yes I do”, so I’m coming up to my 15year anniversary of being sober, and the interesting thing about that is, again, listen to the similarities and not the differences in what I’m going to say, but I was using alcohol and drinking as a crutch for so many years, using it to self-sabotage and keep myself small and escaping. I hadn’t really stepped into who I was, I was living according to others expectations and that was a sad and unfortunate place for me to be and a lot of people relate to that, not necessarily about alcohol and drinking, but self-sabotaging and keeping themselves small in other ways, and so it got pretty ugly for me, and I alienated extraordinary people in my life and I hit rock bottom and spent my 20’s quite suicidal and 8th November 2004 I had a pretty horrible incident and it’s a date that I hold dear to me and I’ll never forget, and never forget what happened, although I won’t talk about it right now. I’m extraordinarily grateful because hitting rock bottom was the best place I could have ever been, because it only had two ways to go, one was not pretty and one was get your freaking ass off the floor and find a way to get through this and live your best life. So I got myself off to AA and before that I was so embarrassed, people that do that must be horrible drunks and I had so much judgment around it, but those rooms were some of the most humbling and beautiful places I’ve ever been and such a cross section of society and I’m ever grateful for that, and I made a decision from there that I would choose joy and happiness and do the work to live my best life, so it’s such an important message for me, not just the drinking, whatever people are using to hold themselves back or keep themselves small, it’s about having the courage to recognise it and put in the work. And then, I’m living testament of that, if you knew the hideous position I had got myself into before that date, and what has happened as result since then, I think it’s testament that truly anything is possible, and I’m a big advocate of having the courage to see where you are going off track and what is not serving you and working on yourself and putting the tools in place to move forward.

CLARE:

Wow, I think that the fact that you share this story so openly help so many other people too, to your point can hear the similarities and look and see if there are areas in their life whether it’s alcohol or something else.  And you can make a change right, at any point in your life.

LISA:

100%. My life was a train crash, it really was. Just binge drinking and out of control and desperately unhappy, isolated and lonely, but really what that was, when I look at it now, it was quite beautiful, I was just looking to blossom to turn into who I was but didn’t know how, so it was much easier to stay around people who were drinking and having fun, and so when I was courageous enough to get out of that I was like “wow, this is life, this is amazing”. I mean it’s not always amazing, but you have to put down the alcohol and do the work right.

CLARE:

Exactly, this might be the answer to the next question. What was the best decision you’ve ever made for your business?

LISA:

Best decision I’ve ever made for my business… so many! Having businesses for 18 years, I’ve made a number of decisions so if I go through it in chronological order and think about it I think more often than not they’ll be the hardest times and the most adversity that propelled me forward into my best life and the best thing for my business. Giving up drinking, in 2004, putting down the alcohol and putting in the work resulted in extraordinary clarity and ability to move forward and step into what has become an extraordinary life, so that’s number 1 from a personal perspective that really impacted my business life. Number 2 really always looking at other industries other than the one I’m entering at the time and questioning why, and how. I’m a seeker, so I’m looking, is there a better/different way of doing something, how can I do differently in a really saturated industry and buck the status quo and do it in a different way. That’s important. Having the courage to start, we talked about that before, anything I’ve been passionate about, it’s excruciating at the time, I don’t want to step over that threshold because of the fear of failure, but the fear of success and not knowing what to do with that. Also one of the most courageous decisions was breaking Collective Hub when it wasn’t serving either me or the community anymore, and being in constant survival mode and haemorrhaging cash, wasn’t a place which I could serve at all. Making a courageous decision to let staff go and do that with dignity and grace after never having let anyone go in the first 17 years of business. And having the courage to realise, bricks and mortar office was no longer serving us and what would that look like, if I was courageous enough to break the traditional way of working and decentralising and that’s got to do with stripping back ego and what success looks like from an external validation perspective. Being not embarrassed and strong enough in myself, it’s been 11 years, and people ask “where do you work from” and “how many staff do you have” and I say 3 and be embarrassed and then it was a big thing of bravado saying “I’ve got all these staff and a big office” and now when people ask, I say “Anywhere, from home or coffee shop” and being comfortable with that and knowing that my businesses are bigger and more global than ever, and it’s actually a more clever way to work and more productive. So they are some snapshots to some of my more courageous decisions which are often unexpected.

CLARE:

And I know I read your book which is ‘Work from Wherever’. Anyone listening, wondering how you could possibly run a business, check out this book because you’ve actually got some really practical advice, and stories from people you’ve met on the road, and I was inspired… and wondering how it works with children and childcare and school, and thinking that it’s maybe not for this chapter of my life, but I loved it, and anyone listening who wants to do the same should check it out.

Now Lisa, you rub shoulders with some well-known names, just on the Collective Hub covers and through the magazine you’ve met incredible people, what advice do you have for working with and connecting with ‘famous people’.

How to ‘work with’ famous people

LISA:

This is a really good question, because at Collective Hub the people we had throughout the last six years, have been quite extraordinary, but I’m going to fill you in on a little secret, success breeds success, I think, so when I launched in 2013, I was like who do I know who is kinda famous and cool and represents everything that collective is about, so number 1 was an obvious choice for me, Lorna Jane Clarkson, who is one of my best friends and she epitomises everything Collective stands for. Number 2 I put Mia Freedman on because she had edited Cleo and Dolly, and Cosmo and she had come out quite openly about not loving print anymore, and I went to school with Mia so I thought this is going to be very controversial and get some attention. And number 3 was Layne Beachly and her husband from INXS Kurt Pengilly. Then I ran out of famous friends! So it wasn’t a good strategy! Then I was about to get on a plane to Toronto to do this Global Distribution Conference to try and do distribution deals, and I thought I need someone internationally recognisable on the cover to get people to take notice of me and take me seriously, Ollie Lingard a Danish Eyewear Brand had advertised with me in my print issue 2 and 3 and I noticed that they had Helena Christensen as their ambassador, so I said to them, do you have any out-takes from Helena that I could use for a cover, and unbeknown to me, that was gold to them because they pay a lot of money for their ambassador and their jewellery displayed on the a cover of a global magazine cover. But it was great for me, great for them, great value exchange. So I was able to get on a plane with an internationally renowned cover star Helena Christensen, and that’s largely how I did 13 distribution deals in Toronto. Then once we had Helena Christensen other people started taking notice around the world, then I started to realise, there’s actual talent management agencies in LA, and I can’t even tell you how naive I was, so I started connecting with them,  and then we started getting bigger names and then we got Ryan Gosling, and then the world opened up to me. I always have an issue with having big names, because the magazine was started for regular entrepreneurs and inspiring regular people, but something I learnt from that is you kind of need to play the game as well. In newsagencies, if you look at Marie Claire and Harpers, they have big name celebrities on them, so it’s like ok, if people don’t know what Collective Hub is, I need to look like the other magazines, so every single month, 3,506 newsagencies in Australia, every Qantas, Virgin and Singapore airport lounge, then 37 countries, there we were sitting between Harpers and Marie Claire and all the biggest titles on the planet. I think when you start a business it’s a dance, what’s in it for you and what’s in it for me. And then the dance starts to shift and people are like, you’ve had Ryan Gosling, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Richard Branson, yeah I’ve had some pretty phenomenal people and that opened doors and I’ve met some pretty unbelievable people and there is not a day that goes by where I’m not extremely grateful and humble because I remember where I came from and how desperate I was and how much of rock bottom I was. I guess testament again, anything is truly possible.

CLARE:

I think that it starts with starting somewhere and people know people and do you have any tips about if you want to connect with someone well-known, how to act around them and be around them?

LISA:

Yes I do! I think people often get it wrong and are like I want to meet blah blah blah, and that’s a great aspiration to have, put it on your vision board, journal it, I’m very big on manifestation, you’ve got to put in the work, you’re not going to go from here to here, and I really believe in a two-way energy exchange, and I also believe in old school. What I would do is, that person, you start recognising things about them, like if they have just won an award, I am big on handwritten note, send it to them, congratulate them on the award. If you have a product, send it to them, so I would say you were into this… this product might help you too. So start to build a relationship slowly and make it all about them. What can you do for them and support them, noticing things they’ve done. It’s a slow build… or stalk them. So if they love to play golf, I might just go play golf today. There are many different ways, but at the core is all about relationships. I will use an example because it’s quite well known now that I’ve done a lot with Richard Branson, so that story is quite important, I read Richard’s first book, 20 odd years ago when he put that out, and I had really looked up to Richard for at least 20 years, probably longer, and in 2014 I was invited to go to Nekker Island, his private island in the British Virgin Islands and I was invited to go with 27 other entrepreneurs and I couldn’t believe it. This man I’ve read everything about. I got there, and over 4 days I felt a relationship with him and I watched other people with him and they were like I, I, I and I just asked a lot of questions and listened and we got an opportunity to pitch to Rich and the majority of people did a hard sell, Richard “I want to re-brand my whole company Virgin” or “Richard I want…” and it was a lot of pull, pull, pull, energetically and I’m a big believer in building relationships slowly and steadily and making it easy for people to say yes. SO I said to him “Richard, can I send you a box of magazine to Nekker every month” and he said “Yes, of course”  and that is all I asked of him on that trip. And because the magazine was landing on the island every month, all his staff were reading it, people who go to the island, Beyonce, and all sorts of other people I knew they were reading it. And such an easy way for him to say yes. So when I wrote my second book in the series, “Life and Love” and I called Richard’s PA and asked if Richard would consider writing a testimonial for the front cover of my book, and because she’d been receiving the magazine and Richard had been reading the magazine, and I wrote part of that book while on Nekker, Richard wrote me this amazing testimonial. So the magazine keeps going to the island, and I made touch points, giving, giving, giving, then Richard was coming to Australia in 2016 to speak at the World Business Forum, and I saw he was coming, so I contacted Helen (his PA) and said “Hey, could I shoot Richard for a cover while he is here?” and then what happened was pretty phenomenal, she said “Absolutely, and would you consider co-chairing the Virgin Way Conference for all our Virgin companies with Richard at the Art Gallery of NSW?” And I was like, let me check my calendar, yes I think I’m free. So we spent about 3 hours on stage together, I was meant to shoot him for the cover across the road, in the botanic gardens in Sydney, but Helen and Richard were like “We don’t have time, would you come up to Make Peace Island, his other private island on the Noosa River, on the weekend and shoot him up there?” So I ended up spending a weekend up there with him, helped him get into a mermaid suit because he was doing a shoot for World Oceans Day and our relationship just blossomed. In November this year, he’s back in Australia and I’m on stage with him in Sydney and Brisbane for Success Resources Australia so to answer that question, everything is about relationships. Everything at the start is about what can I do for you, and make it easy for you to say yes, and then don’t expect an overnight win. It’s about relationships and nurturing.

CLARE:

I love that, great advice!

LISA:

It’s a good story, and an important one, it didn’t happen overnight.

CLARE:

My last question is, you mentioned vision boards before, do you actually have a vision board? And if so, what is the biggest thing on your vision board that you haven’t yet achieved.

What is on Lisa Messenger’s vision board that is yet to be achieved

LISA:

I do, I have so many things and many rituals and routines, some of them daily, I do mind maps. I carry around a big chunky notepad, so every day I draw a circle in the middle and write in that Lisa Messenger or Collective Hub, and then drawing spirals off it, like books, magazines, workshops, whatever the things are I’m creating daily, I’m a visual person. Then, on New Years Day religiously I write what are my visions of my goals from the top level leaving it quite open rather than attaching specific outcomes like what do I want from a health perspective, family, relationships, relationship with my love perspective, business, spiritually, travel etc. Then that gives me something to create a visual, a vision board and I tear out magazines and things, and create that. Then that gives me something to be accountable for the following year. Then in January I check back in and go “oh yeah, that’s what I’ve achieved” or “that came out differently” but I truly believe when you set those daily and yearly rituals and routines around manifestations and visioning, and journaling or drawing or whatever it is, those things really come to fruition. There’s nothing at the moment I haven’t achieved and it’s a fluid in-progress kind of a thing. Also, I’m in a funny phase at the moment about what is the next manifestation. I’ve done a very big iteration in my life with Collective Hub, and now it’s time to go even bigger, but I’m in my own time and space at the moment to work out what that next manifestation is. In terms of my overarching vision it’s around knowing unequivocally, in every cell in my body what is my purpose, to be an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs and living my life out loud and anything is possible, and Collective Hub to ignite human potential, and sometimes sitting with that and surrendering and detaching is the most powerful thing you can do and not try to control the outcome, so I’m just open to whatever that becomes.

CLARE:

Wow, that’s cool. So you don’t have any one big thing you are chasing at the moment, it’s such a cool place to be, it’s almost like you’ve got a blank canvas in front of you.

LISA:

It’s interesting, I’m purposefully not trying to create a singular thing, because if I had of said I want to start a magazine specifically, it would have been limiting, but when you go above that and this is my purpose, then the manifestation of that is print magazine, digital events, and then all the tentacles that come of that, so I try not to limit that outcome and go with the big purpose and vision and that’s difficult for some people to detach from the outcome and surrender but I just trust and energetically put it out to the universe, I believe it so strongly that my purpose is there, that something much bigger than something I can put to paper or envision is going to transpire. Does that make sense?

CLARE:

So you’re open to whatever is next, and once that becomes clear then you know you can create it because you’ve done it before.

LISA:

Yeah, I have absolutely no question that I can create it, because I know once you’re in it, the serendipity of it, it will suddenly appear. So it’s quite counter-intuitive to people, and they are like right, I am going to create a water jug or whatever they are doing, and I think what are you doing, it’s not about the water jug! I think why wouldn’t you create something amazing to drink from, then it can be a water jug or a glass or you know what I mean.

CLARE:

I definitely do. And I had a hard knock lesson this year because, I wanted to sell our house this year, in Sydney, and I set the number I was chasing and so excited and I saw it but it didn’t happen right, we didn’t get the price we wanted, and I was like I’ve thrown everything at this and I believe in manifestation so why didn’t it work, and to your point, I was so focused on a number, I was missing the point and what I was trying to achieve was financial freedom and that has come about in a different way. So it’s funny how when you let go, it’s not specifically about a thing or in my case a number, it’s about what were you chasing and trying to achieve. And you’ve got your clear vision of what you are trying to do, but what that looks like isn’t super clear yet.

LISA:

I love what you just said, if people just rise above the thing, like for you it was financial freedom, I think that’s so powerful.

CLARE:

It was such a massive learning for me, thinking WHY is it not working it always does, but you don’t chase the number, that’s never what it was about. So when people talk to me about manifestations, I go sometimes, what you think you want, isn’t really what you want, if there is something higher than that’s what it is you are after. And I believe it’s a perfect art, if you want something enough it will come to you, but maybe not in the way or the time you thought it would, but it will.

LISA:

Yeah and that’s the detachment, holding onto the feeling rather than the thing.

CLARE:

Well that’s all the questions I had for today, I am super grateful for you being so honest and sharing with us so openly about your journey, I know I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure the listeners have as well. If anyone wants to get in touch with Lisa, I will be putting her contact details in the show notes, so you can stay across her journey and find out what the next big thing is for Lisa Messenger and the Collective Hub, so make sure you check out the show notes at clarewood.com.au/podcast.

Thanks so much for joining us Lisa!

LISA:

Thanks Clare!

CLARE:

Thank you so much for joining me today, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes, and I’d be so grateful for a review on apple podcast! If you’d like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump over to clarewood.com.au/podcast and remember that Clare is spelled CLARE, have a wonderful week and look forward to chatting to you again soon!