Lisa Messenger - Building, breaking and remaking an empire: The collective journey

Now I’m usually a firm believer in the phrase ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ but Lisa, and the organisation she sits at the helm of, break this mould time and time again – as you’ll have heard from the preview clip at the start of this episode.

She has also co-authored 16 books, in fact this incredible woman can write a book in the time it takes me to think of a decent title. She is also an absolute authority when it comes to the world of start-ups and entrepreneurship.

And I say that, because more than anyone in this space, she absolutely walks her talk.

I’m also lucky enough to call her one of my dearest friends, someone who has celebrated the business wins with me, and poured the tea while I mourned the business, and personal, losses.

Now, I’ve wanted to interview Lisa on this show for a while, but diaries and life got in the way. And actually, now I’m incredibly grateful it took us this long to get this conversation locked in.

If we had managed to sit down a year ago then this conversation would’ve probably been different. We would’ve talked about what it takes to run a media empire (although don’t worry, we do definitely talk about that), we would’ve spoken about the hustle, scaling up and again, we do cover that.

But at this time is Lisa’s journey, having closed her incredibly successful magazine, these insights come with even more richness, because she’s sat with me, looking at this journey with the beauty of hindsight as she asks herself, what’s next?

In this conversation you’ll hear Lisa, with her trademark vulnerability and openness share the lessons she’s learnt at every point along her journey, from her first venture, to her first book, her first big win, her first big loss and the last issue of The Collective:

In particular, the lessons I’ve really drawn from this centre around:

-          Self belief – How to understand the particular value you can bring and having the guts to state that

-          Purpose – unearthing the power that sits behind your bigger ‘why’

-          Hustle – tips for getting the doors to open and putting the right people in the room

-          Getting the easy yes – knowing what it will take to make yes the easiest answer for investors, customers and staff

-          And perhaps most importantly, Walking away – knowing when it’s time to let it all go

And, as you listen to these insights, just know that she’s about to apply these lessons all over again, for her next contribution to helping others realise their potential.

If you get one thing out of this conversation I want it to be this:

It takes great strength and grit to have an idea and stick with it, sometimes against all reason, to make it succeed in the world. But sometimes, it takes even greater strength and courage to know when the time has come to walk away, and just let it burn.

Lisa has taught me, more than anyone else, that our lives are made up of many brilliant and exciting chapters, and that we can’t begin to write the next one, until we are able to put the pen down on the last one.

So this is me and Lisa – sat on her bed, eating blueberries with her dog – talking start ups, opening doors, hustling, purpose, leading when it feels like you haven’t a clue, and how to know when the time has come to walk away.

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