As far as special visitors to Newstead Studios go…as a small business owner, few strike a chord like Lisa Messenger. In fact, 18 months ago when Newstead Studios was just a twinkle in our eye, it was a particular article in Collective Hub, the magazine Lisa founded and edited, that prompted me to swallow the fear and take the leap into small business ownership. Fast forward to last month and cue total awe and admiration as Lisa hosted a full day immersive workshop in the very space she inspired me to create.
Five years and 52 issues in, Lisa made the courageous decision to discontinue the Collective Hub print magazine in order to refocus and evolve into the next iteration. We had the pleasure of sitting down with the ‘entrepreneur for entrepreneurs’ to delve deep into what brought her to the decision, how she survived the ensuing challenges and why we should all prepare our businesses to pivot resiliently.
You didn’t become one of Australia’s most game-changing, thought-leading risk-taking entrepreneurs overnight – talk us through the baby steps and the major milestones.
Such a long journey. I stared my first business 22 October 2001 – so 17 years ago. I spent the first 11 years overserving and undercharging and being everything to everyone. It was fun but I really didn’t have any great systems and processes and hadn’t truly stepped into my true purpose.
In 2012 I came up with the idea for Collective Hub which was born out of a hunger to know more about the “behind the scenes” of business. The stuff people weren’t really talking about and certainly wasn’t being shared in the media. I wanted to give voice to many entrepreneurs and start ups and also inspire others by telling the truth about entrepreneurship – the good, the bad, the ugly. Suddenly there was something physical and tangible and attainable and relatable. And within 18 months the print magazine was in 37 countries.
I’ve written six books in the past five years literally detailing the journey in real time day by day – so there are 1248 pages on exactly the steps I’ve taken in those. (shop here)
You recently experienced what you’ve described as the hardest period of your entrepreneurial journey. Can you share some of these challenges with us, how you survived them and what you learned?
Collective Hub grew from three staff to 32 in a few short years. Whilst our print, digital and events properties were growing at warp speed, I hadn’t implemented the systems and processes to keep up with the growth so we became very inefficient with a huge cost base very quickly and I went from being the creative and loving life to being cash poor and in constant survival mode.
For a creative who loves to move forward it wasn’t fun. But I’m so grateful for having been there so that I can share the lessons with other entrepreneurs about what not to do. What I would say is bigger isn’t better. Have a flexible cost base depending on growth. Outsource as much as possible. Hire specialists not generalists. Have a great 2IC / right hand data driven person. Data is EVERYTHING!!! I suggest reading my latest book Risk & Resilience which charts the whole hairy process.
I am so pleased to be out the other side and am feeling stronger and more on purpose than ever. But that last 18 months is certainly something I never want to repeat. As a creative, everything is now about budgets, data, project by project, KPI’s.
Let’s talk about pivoting (who better to comment than the pivot queen?) What does it mean and why it so…pivotal?
With ever moving markets, technologies and demands, being able to pivot, morph, iterate and change constantly is an absolute imperative. If you start with a clear purpose (for Collective Hub it is three words – Igniting Human Potential – then the delivery mechanism becomes irrelevant – be it a print magazine, a book, a website, EDM, social media, speaking gig, workshop etc etc). This is the beauty of starting with your “why” and then building an ever-evolving ecosystem around it. Watch this space – I think a big tech play is on the horizon but for now I’m just having fun.
You’ve just released you 24th book, Risk & Resilience. Who is this book for and what can we take away from it?
Ha – well I have written 24 books but no one read the first 18…. Risk & Resilience is really about what not to do as a high growth start up. Its extraordinary what can happen when you step courageously into your wildest dreams BUT you have to be prepared for that growth with systems, strategies and daily data feeds. This book goes into gritty detail about how I very nearly lost it all and how I climbed back out. I’m still here to live the tale and stay on purpose and mission. But it got very close to all going under.
Your work is incredibly varied – which part gives you the most satisfaction?
I LOVE connecting in person with our community and entrepreneurs. Over the past five years I got very little chance to do that (other than at scale) but this past six months I’ve done over 40 speaking gigs to smaller groups particularly in rural and remote Australia – this has brought me so much joy. Because no longer is geography prohibitive to being an entrepreneur so I really want to spread that message and empower people. I LOVE writing my books and I love coming up with new ideas.
Collective Hub print magazine is making a comeback and you should hear the collective cheer from your readers! What can we look forward to with this revival?
Hmmmm…. Well this has been incorrectly reported. We’re bringing back ONE issue only at this stage on 29th November as it was already commissioned and fully paid for. So – when I had the chance to breath and look at all our numbers and get intimate with the data again – I thought – well an entire issue is sitting there ready to go – I LOVE the print mag practically more than any other part of the biz, our community loves it and our distributors and retailers have said ANYTIME we want to bring out a “one shot” they will welcome us with open arms. So lets see – one issue is coming back. We’ll see what happens from there xx
Who in the creative or business world inspires you?
So many people. At the moment I’m really inspired by musicians.
Work life balance or blend? And how?
Definitely blend. Having not negotiables. Like I don’t start “work” until 10am. Before that its centreing myself – exercise, education, healthy eating, mediation, journaling. All calming grounding stuff about feeding my mind and soul before I get “busy” reacting to the world.
Finally, what’s next for Lisa Messenger?
Lets see. Right now – a bit more me time. For the first time in 17 years I’m taking all of December and January off…. Its only when we allow stillness that our best ideas come. I’m also starting to tinker around quite seriously with a big tech play. This means immersing myself in techy education so I’m spending a lot of time with developers and coders and learning the intricacies of that world. Watch this space. I’m rather quickly turning a bit “geek chic”…
Need more Lisa in your life? Catch her here:
lisamessenger.com
collectivehub.com
@lisamessenger
@collectivehub
