Lisa Messenger Talks All things Women in Business
“Not once in over 17 years of having my own businesses have I felt less than for being a woman. Believe in yourself, harness the right mindset, care little about what others think and truly anything is possible.” - Lisa Messenger, Collective Hub Founder and CEO
This International Women’s Day, we are celebrating inspirational women who are empowering others, striving for change, and advocating for equality.
Lisa Messenger
Best-selling author, inspirational speaker and founder of Collective Hub - a publication with a fresh perspective, Lisa Messenger is aiming high and working damn hard to get there. She gives a voice to people who are making strides towards changing the world, and challenges people to think differently.
We spoke to Lisa about her experience in starting a business, the people who have inspired her journey, and her new book Work from Wherever, which explores creating balance in business.
1. How do you hope to empower women through Collective Hub?
Telling real stories of inspirational people from all sorts of geographic locations, traversing industry vertical, race, gender and everything else. We not only share these stories but in doing so, give voice to so many incredible entrepreneurs, start ups, small businesses, creatives, intrapreneurs and fabulous people and brands on this planet doing amazing things. It’s one hell of an incredible journey. I still pinch myself every day.
2. Why do you believe is it so important to have women in leadership positions?It’s incredible to have share of voice across women and men. Diversity is key. Not once in over 17 years of having my own businesses have I felt less than for being a woman. Believe in yourself, harness the right mindset, care little about what others think and truly anything is possible.
3. Who is an inspirational woman you look up to and why?
We’ve done over 6,000 stories across the print magazine and online in the past almost six years, so it is tricky to narrow it down to one person. Rather I like to say it’s the incredible courageous start ups, entrepreneurs and small business owners that are out there giving it a go. Having your own business is probably the scariest thing you’ll ever do, but at the same time by far the most fun, free and liberating. Right now I’m just loving my great friend Sarah Holloway who has such a great podcast – Seize the Yay. She is really kicking goals and giving voice to so many others.
“I really believe we can create brilliant, full, joyous lives AND run sustainable businesses that can create positive change in the world. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
4. How do you think we can create balance in business to create a better world?
Well my next book out this July is called Work from Wherever and it explores many of these themes. For 17 years whilst I had freedom to a degree – I still had a fixed office and a lot of full time staff for the majority of that time. I was always busy but not necessarily creative or in my genius zone all the time as so much of it was spent managing staff. With a new decentralised way of working I have more going on than ever, but my output and that of my team is 10 X! I really believe we can create brilliant, full, joyous lives AND run sustainable businesses that can create positive change in the world. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. It’s really all about finding your purpose (the title of my 2017 book), having not negotiables and doing life on your terms. There is just so much opportunity to do good stuff in this world and make a lasting difference and have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.
