In this episode of Five Minute Friday, host Lewis AI interviews Australian entrepreneur and magazine founder Lisa Messenger. Lewis recounts how he discovered Lisa’s work on Instagram and was impressed by the design and reach of her publication, The Collective, which now enjoys global distribution in airports, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstores, both in print and digital formats. The conversation pivots to deeper themes: the importance of uncovering one’s purpose or “why,” cultivating an insatiable self‑belief (especially for introverts who must step onto the speaking circuit), and the practice of failing fast by pre‑selling ideas before they are built. Lisa shares insights from years of therapy and personal development about recognizing and dismantling limiting beliefs handed down through generations. She emphasizes aligning every deal with her core values and a mission to empower others, constantly asking herself why she does what she does. Throughout, she offers practical tips on networking, rapid iteration, and maintaining humility while scaling a business.
Chapters
This is Five Minute Friday. I have a very special guest today. Her name is Lisa Messenger. And I found out about Lisa on Instagram probably, like, I don't know, six to seven months ago, maybe even a year ago, because I was doing research for a magazine that I was doing and I saw how incredibly talented she was and how beautiful her design was for a magazine that she has called the Collective. And I'm so impressed with what she's created. She's going to tell you all the numbers she's created, how she's got distribution throughout these airports and Barnes & Noble and bookstores, and she's got global distribution, how she's crushing it both print magazine and digital magazine, and how she built a business as an entrepreneur in Australia to bring it to the big dogs here in the US. Her whole story or journey of building this from scratch with just just an idea and a dream, having zero clue of what she was doing. I think you guys are going to get really inspired by this. So make sure to share this with your friends.
I think for me, it's all about really feeling deeply into what your purpose is or what your why is, you know? And I think that's the best place to start because, you know, once you, once you understand that everything, the sort of serendipity and the synchronicity, it all starts to kind of fall into place. And then the other thing is, you know, you've got to have an insatiable self-belief because if you don't believe in no one else will, you know, because as you keep, I love that you're a hustler as well, 'cause I'm a serious hustler. You've gotta be out there and, you know, I'm probably, it's so weird, pardon me, for anyone who knows me, they would say, I'm an extra, from an external perspective, they'd say I'm an extrovert. I'm actually quite introverted. Like, I love being home on my couch or going for a run or, you know, I'm, or being in the outdoors and kind of just being with a really close group of friends. That's kind of me. And yet now my life is, you know, being on the speaking circuit three or four times a week and like being out there and being really vocal about everything and kind of putting my life on a platter. And that is not my natural state. But I've learnt that, well, I'm not going to make a difference or do anything great in this world by not putting myself out there. And so I do that. And then the other thing is, you know, to fail fast. I mean, as we were talking about before, I think People get so caught up in limiting beliefs and I think, I mean, I've done years of therapy and reading and all sorts of things. So I kind of can talk a lot about that, but we all have these limiting beliefs that are handed from generation to generation or things that have happened in our childhood and whatever else. And so I think the sooner people get comfortable and have a true understanding of what holds them back and why and all of that kind of thing, then all that sort of starts to fall away and life becomes much more more seamless and in flow. So I think, you know, it's all about then, you know, once you realize what your purpose is or what you're wanting to do, don't worry so much about the money. Like actually just go out and pre-sale and, you know, there's plenty of money and there's so much abundance out there and start to tell people about your vision and people will start to come to you and, you know, provide you with money and think about what, you know, what's your currency and what tangible, saleable assets have you got, you know, is it your, intellectual property or is it whatever it happens to be? I mean there are things that you can sell before you actually have to make them. I mean I fail at least 20 times a day now, like quite seriously and I love it because what I mean by that is they're just small quick failures and it's because I'm well networked now, I've got some great contacts. I've been building that up over many, many years that I can ping an email off to someone in HR or a marketing director or a big corporate and I can say, hey, I've got this idea It might be for an event or it might be for a new product or it might be for all sorts of other things. And they can quickly come back to me and say, no, that's not going to work or, you know, or I can, then I can iterate or pivot or change or whatever, but I'm going to presell the idea and before I actually make it, essentially. So I think they're kind of some of the tips. And the one question I ask myself every single day without fail is why? Why am I doing this? Because I think as well, once you start to have a level of success and and if my life were a book, and it is now turning into several very good books. But I mean, I would say I'm on chapter one, page one, paragraph one, really. I have so much more to do. And so there's that fine line all the time of not letting your ego get in the way of the bigger picture. And so whilst extraordinary things are happening and amazing opportunities are opening up for me every single day, I go, why am I doing this? And the reason I'm doing this is to help other people and empower them. So I go, that's what I'm doing. And does everything I'm doing fall into line with that? And do the people that I'm doing deals with share similar values and beliefs? And if so, then yep, let's move forward.
