234 The Power of Hustle to Create the Extraordinary with Lisa Messenger

"From being selfless and doing things with integrity, extraordinary things happen." - Lisa Messenger If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/234 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 234 with Lisa Messenger.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to today's episode. I'm very excited about this, but 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 and Noble and bookstores. And she's got global distribution, how she's crushing it, both print magazine and digital magazine,

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  and how she built the business as an entrepreneur in Australia to bring it to the big dogs here in the US. Her whole story, her journey of building this from scratch with 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. It's lewishowes.com/234. Share it out with your friends who are, want this inspiration. And without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one, the only Lisa Messenger.

• 1:51Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. Very excited about our guest today. Her name is Lisa Messenger. Thanks so much for coming on Lisa.

• 1:59Speaker 01

  Fantastic. It's so great to be here. Thanks for having me.

• 2:01Lewis Howes?

  I'm very excited. You are, I think you're the second or third Aussie who's been on the show. So congratulations for making it on. There's not many of you.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  I'm impressed. Thank you. I feel very special.

• 2:13Lewis Howes?

  Now, I want to read a quick little part of your bio, then talk a little bit more about you. You, uh, you have a new book out called Money and Mindfulness about living in abundance. And you have, uh, you know, you've got this magazine, which is really interesting to me. So I'll talk about that in a second, but you're a vibrant, game-changing CEO and a creative director of The Messenger Group. And as well, you're the editing chief of The Collective Magazine, which is where I found out about you. And it's an entrepreneurial and lifestyle magazine, distributed in more than 37 countries with a mandate to disrupt, challenge, and inspire. In addition, you have worked globally in events, sponsorship, marketing, PR, and publishing.

• 2:53Lewis Howes?

  You've written or co-authored over a dozen books, and your group has published more than 400 books for companies and individuals. So I'm very excited, uh, to connect with you. I think I found out about you probably six or seven months ago. I believe someone tagged a photo of yours of The Collective Magazine on Instagram, and I'm, I'm, uh, an Instagram whore right now, just, uh, loving it. So I'm, I was instantly attracted to the design and the intention of not only the images, but your, your language that you use, whether it's you using yourself or your team, but just the way you guys put out great content. I was really inspired by it. And, uh, I'm inspired by that lifestyle type of message. So thanks for being here,

• 3:37Lewis Howes?

  and I'm excited to kind of dive in to, to learn more about you and how you've become so successful.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Uh, thank you. Well, success. I'm just on the, it's the very beginning of a very, very big vision, but let's see where that goes.

• 3:51Lewis Howes?

  Of course. Now, I'm curious, what, let's start with the magazine. Why did you start? When did you start this magazine? Why did you start it? And did you, and what was your vision for it?

• 4:01Speaker 01

  Uh, so it's a good question, and it's a completely crazy story. So I had been publishing accidentally books for years, and that's because I decided to write a book about 10 years ago on happiness, because I was incredibly unhappy.

• 4:15Lewis Howes?

  Right. We teach what we need to learn.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  Absolutely. It's I went on this kind of, that was kind of the beginning of my quest for kind of self-development. And, you know, I've since trekked the Western Ghats in India and done, you know, raw food vegan communes in Costa Rica and all sorts of crazy things. And, and so I self-published a book about ten years ago on happiness, which was really just a compilation of what, what happiness meant to a whole pile of people in, in my own eternal search for it. And, um, and since then, we've published a lot of books, but they were quite one dimensional. And so about nearly three years ago, I just came up with this idea for, you know, why don't I? I felt like I was living in this bubble and I thought I've got access to all these extraordinary inspirational,

• 5:00Speaker 01

  you know, amazing people, and I wanted to really take that out and give it a bigger voice and platform. And I'd never worked for a magazine and at the time I had three staff all under the age of twenty five, none of whom had worked for a magazine either. And so we had no idea what we're doing at all. And then decided to go into this industry that people said was either dead or dying. So it was a real recipe for disaster. Um, but I knew nothing at the time about the digital landscape. So it was largely born out of naivety. And I think naivety can be a really helpful thing sometimes because, yeah, I didn't, I didn't know what everyone else was saying couldn't be done. And, and it just seemed sort of a logical platform for me.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Had I have known just how big it would get or how hard it would be. And I think that's, you know, the case for many entrepreneurs. It would have maybe been a different story at the time. But my vision was and still remains to, um, you know, to, to tell inspirational stories that are accessible and attainable and relatable. I'd been on the other side of the media for so many years and people would ask me the same old questions and I'd give the same old answers, which was great for our spin and hype. But it didn't really help the reader, I didn't feel. And so I wanted something that would talk about, you know, extraordinary people, but also give the kind of how tos. How did they get there? What were the tough times and what's the real story?

• 6:22Speaker 01

  And so it just um it just took off and and yeah and now it's as you said in thirty seven countries and we've got like about eighteen different revenue streams and but it's all about empowering people to be the very best version of themselves and that is my only mandate and you know, we'll interview anyone as long as they're prepared to be real and authentic and vulnerable and courageous. So, yeah.

• 6:46Lewis Howes?

  I love that. And when did you say you launched it originally?

• 6:49Speaker 01

  So two and a half years ago, it was launched. Um, yeah, and and it's sort of just been growing since then and and it's it's been and continues to be an absolutely crazy journey.

• 7:00Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy. I mean, you have like every celebrity on the cover. I feel like, how do you get all, how do you get them all to to commit to coming on the cover? Are they all custom shoots? Or are they stock images? Or are they the relationships you built up over the years?

• 7:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I knew nothing about anything, like literally, I can't even tell you, even though we'd published a lot of books. I mean, putting books together in comparison to a magazine, and I know you've just written well, and so you will know, and writing it's kind of um a labor in itself, but then really, it's just about editing, proofreading, design and print, and it's relatively um, you know, seamless in comparison to a magazine, which in every issue we have between fifty and ninety-three was our largest um issues, different stories, and I've always said we will never syndicate anything. So every single story in the magazine, we interview other people ourselves. Now, the covers are interesting because the magazine itself is essentially a business and entrepreneurial magazine, but

• 7:57Speaker 01

  in Australia alone, there's over five and a half thousand print magazines. And so I had to play the game a bit. And I always talk to people about, you know, the um finding that fine line between, you know, doing good in the world and having commercial acumen. And it drove me nuts that I decided, yeah. Early on, I decided, well, I kind of have to put celebrities on the cover to be able to get cut through to sit next to the Vogues and the Vanity Fairs and the Tatlers and all the the big guys and to get noticed. And as much as it killed me to put celebs on the cover, because I was like, I just want normal entrepreneurs and extraordinary people on the cover. I knew that I needed to be placed there in newsstand so that people would actually pick it up.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  And I thought, well, if they pick it up and they realise that this magazine is all about inspiration and doing good in the world, then I've kind of done my job. Now, I that's a long way of answering your question, so I'll answer it because it's quite a funny story. The first three issues, I had the um the biggest kind of names that of people that I knew personally in Australia on the covers. And then I thought, well, this is kind of ridiculous because I'm going to run out of friends soon. They're like, well enough now to be on covers. And also, I thought, well, you know, my vision was to take it to the rest of the world. And I thought, well, these people aren't going to make mean anything to anyone in the rest of the world. And so and then I decided after three issues to um to take a punt.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  And I flew to um Toronto, which is where they were having the global, um what was it? The ma- magazine distributors conference essentially. And that's where I did a lot of the deals. And I thought, well, I can't fly over there with these Aussie covers, like no one's going to take me seriously. And I had no idea, like no idea at the time, how to get celebrities or nothing. I'd never been in this world. So I um I noticed in Australia that, you know, a lot of the big brands were, you know, they obviously have celebrity endorsements and they pay them a lot of money to be a part of it. And and I was kind of desperate and it was like two days before we went to print on issue four. And there's a brand called Oli Lingard, which is out of Denmark. And they had Helena Christensen as their um, you know, pinup girl at the time.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  So I contacted them and said, do you have a a shot that's, you know, that you're not using as part of your campaign? And is there any way I can use it for a cover? And they were like, of course, she's wearing a jury, we'd love you to. So I went to the States with this cover with Helena Christian's on it. And then I realized that, you know, people started taking notice and then I just started really forging relationships with publicists in mostly LA and New York, to be honest, and, you know, convincing all of them that we were worthy of, you know, having actual celebrities that wanted to be in the magazine on the covers.

• 10:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  And, um, you know, and then it's, it's complex and, and I mean, this may not mean, mean much to people who are listening, but I always say, you know, don't listen for kind of my world, which is now magazines and entrepreneurialism, but listen to, you know, what's applicable because there's always parallels with whatever anyone's doing.

• 10:57Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  But, um, yeah, so we started, uh, forging these relationships and, you know, bigger and bigger people started saying yes to being interviewed and I think, you know, success builds success and hype builds hype and all that kind of thing and. Yeah. And so, but, but it's complex. You, I mean, I don't know how much you know about all of this. I'm assuming a fair bit, but it's, you know, you get someone to agree to an interview, but then most of the celebrities are shot, um, by, you know, photographers who often have nothing to do with the publicists. And so then you have to contact them separately. And so, yes, a lot of it is, is buying, um, images that, you know, we have exclusive rights for, and then they have to be approved by the celebrities.

• 11:38Lewis Howes?

  It's a process.

• 11:39Speaker 01

  And on and on it goes. Yeah.

• 11:40Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh. I mean.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  It can be like six months, four years.

• 11:43Lewis Howes?

  Oh no, I get it. I mean, just, you know, working with celebrities for my podcast is a lot of work. Just making sure, cause they want to listen to everything, their PR team, their legal team needs to listen to it first before they can say that it'll go live. And it's just like a, you know, I have to edit video and all these other things constantly. It's just a, it can be a hassle sometimes. And I tried to launch.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:04Lewis Howes?

  And I know a little bit about the magazine world, not even a fraction as much as you do, but I tried to launch a digital magazine through iTunes.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:12Lewis Howes?

  Uh, about a year ago and.

• 12:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:15Lewis Howes?

  Just the process, and this isn't even a print magazine. Yours is print and digital, correct?

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 12:21Lewis Howes?

  He was just printing it.

• 12:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I'll talk a bit more about that as well, like why we've got so many different layers now.

• 12:28Lewis Howes?

  So I tried to launch a digital one and I've got three issues that are beautifully designed. I mean, they're incredible looking and I spent a lot of time and money on them, but just the whole landscape of working with iTunes and trying to launch it, it took like three months of technical issues with just launching it that I decided to put it on hold because I've got this book coming out that I was like, I'll do it another time if it makes sense. But essentially, six months of time and energy for not launching something. I learned a lot about the process in that it's extremely complicated and it takes a lot of moving parts.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  There's so many moving parts and you know, for an instant gratification junkie like me who moves very fast, it's kind of like does my head in. Luckily, my team deal with all the data, which I'm hideous at, and I kind of just swan in at the end of the process and say, whoopee. But you know, it's kind of interesting because we got Ryan Gosling for a cover and it was kind of interesting. Once we got him, kind of the world was our oyster and publicists started contacting us, which was interesting. And so, and I think for anyone in business or indeed life, you know, there's all these catalysts and turning points and aha moments, aha moments. And it's just hanging in there long enough and

• 13:43Speaker 01

  also trying to stop and cliche, smell the roses and remember, you know, where we came from and all that kind of thing and go, okay. Because it's tough. Every day is tough, but it's also, you know, it's exciting and it's full of high fuel adrenaline and it's, yeah, it's a big journey.

• 13:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's similar with my podcast. Once I started to get these A-list celebrities or influencers, it became a lot easier to get anyone else I wanted to. And they all, you know, they all agree to come on afterwards. Once they see the reach, once they see who else has been on there, it's just kind of getting those few people early on to believe in what you're creating. And the thing I love about your magazine is it's designed so beautifully and it's so inspiring that who wouldn't want to be on the cover? That's the thing. It's because you do a great job of delivering it so that people can receive it. An inspiring way. It's so lovely. So I'm curious.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you're welcome. I'm curious, what's um, do you have like distribution numbers as well? Cause two and a half years is not that long for a magazine to be out. Can you give numbers on circulation with the print and also digital? And talk about some of the um, the revenue streams that you you bring revenue in from?

• 14:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, so yeah, so we, yeah, let me start with the different revenue streams because I think this is an important one. Um, when I get asked, and you probably get asked this a lot as well. I do a lot of public speaking now and um, and the similar themes in the questions are kind of like, you know, people say to me, where are you going to be in five years? Or, you know, and I'm like, I don't know where I'm going to be in five days. Now, that's not to be, that's not to be facetious or complacent. But what I mean by that is, I think so many people get attached to a specific outcome. Or, you know, they don't surrender to a process. They have, this is what it's going to look like. And they spend, you know, they might write a business plan that's a hundred pages. And it's, it sucks up all their time, energy, money and everything else.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  And then, you know, they're destined for a huge failure if indeed at the end of it all, there's no market. And so what I say is, um, my, what I stand for, my vision is unwavering. And it is absolutely a hundred percent resolute until the day I die. And that is now to be an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs, living my life out loud and showing that anything's possible. And with the collective platform, it's all about um, showcasing inspirational brands and extraordinary individuals. And empowering people to live their best life. So that will never change. But what I really talk to people a lot about is it, the platform now is completely irrelevant. It doesn't really matter if we're delivering a print magazine, if I'm doing a podcast with you,

• 16:17Speaker 01

  if I'm doing a speaking, if I'm writing a book.

• 16:20Lewis Howes?

  Books, digital, yeah.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  You know, yeah, it's um. Social media, we do a lot of events and all that kind of thing. And what I looked at, and I mean, I think again, don't for listeners, don't think about magazine land, but think about how this applies to you. But I looked at the traditional magazine model and luckily, I mean, doing books, I'd never had any advertising dollars in my life. So while traditional magazines were reliant on ad dollars, I was like, ad dollars were just a bonus for me. So from the very start, I thought very differently. And I was like, I just had no expectation about ad dollars. So I came at it from a different angle.

• 16:56Lewis Howes?

  Most people, that's the ninety percent of the income, right?

• 16:59Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. And so like our, we sell a page in the magazine for eight thousand dollars, but um I thought, and you know, a lot of the time you have to discount to five thousand dollars or whatever. And so um, the print magazine in Australia alone costs me three hundred and fifty thousand dollars um, an issue. So each month to put it out. So I was like, well, if we're selling individual ad pages at five to eight grand a page, that's gonna take me a long time. And as you said, when, when you're an unknown, why are the Chanel's and the Nikes and all the big brands of the world even gonna come near us? So I thought about it from a very different perspective to start with. And I went instead to big brands, like big banks and people. And I said,

• 17:39Speaker 01

  I want you to give me fifty thousand dollars a month. So it's kind of like so counterintuitive. But I said, for that, you know, you can have five thousand copies of the magazine that you can use as premiums, incentives, gifts, rewards, get them out to your community. And you know, um

• 17:53Lewis Howes?

  So you're pre-selling.

• 17:55Speaker 01

  I pre-sell, I pre-sell everything. I never ever do anything until I pre-sell.

• 18:01Lewis Howes?

  That's what I preach all the time for entrepreneurs. When you want to create an online course, which I've done many of them, I always say, do a webinar, sell it first, and then if people buy it, then you give it to them in the next couple of weeks, but never spend three to six months developing something unless you know people are gonna buy it.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, and that, uh, we sound like we're from the same

• 18:22Lewis Howes?

  We're from, we're from the different parts of the world, but the same mindset. I love it.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  I love it. Yeah. So, so actually, um, I mean, I, I talk about this in my first book, Daring and Disruptive, but I actually probably knocked on eighty doors and I'm sort of from the Lisa Messenger School of Fail Fast. So that was kind of like not failing fast, but also when you know you're on to a good idea. I just really believed in the magazine so much. And finally, I went to Australia's largest bank and they had a campaign at the time called CAN. It's all about, you know, you can. So I thought, well, they can't possibly say they can't. So that was my irrational logic. And I met with the chief marketing officer after stalking him for about three months. And I said to him, you know, I, I, you know, this is my vision and everything.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  And luckily he was still a big advocate for print and also for entrepreneurs. And so he said, how much do you need? So that first deal, I mean, I had a couple of, you know, indicative pages of what I thought the magazine would look like. And it has iterated many times since then, but um, I just said, look, I need two hundred grand. And it was fifty grand an issue for the first four issues, which just gave me a bit of, um, you know, financial help, but also what it was, was that someone outside of me believed in me. And I was suddenly accountable to someone else and I felt like I really needed to deliver. And so, um, so, you know, that's how it kind of all started. Yeah. But we have many, many different revenue streams now because I realized that, you know,

• 19:51Speaker 01

  we need to be where our readers want at a time they want, you know, in a, in a format they want. And so some people want to come to events and interact with people from the pages of the magazine. Some people want to, you know, go on the website and get their daily feed. Some people want to sit down with a magazine once a month. Some people would just want to scroll through Instagram. So I'm very aware of that. And it's something also that helps us to be an integrated platform to bring, you know, all our partners on board. And yeah, so it's kind of working and we're still keeping our head afloat somehow.

• 20:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's cool. And so what are like the, uh, what are the, maybe the top three to four revenue streams? Maybe the, the main ones that are people know about? And then maybe what are two or three that are like creative, interesting ones that you didn't know were even possible until you started doing it and then you realized, well, that's pretty cool. We're making money there.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  So, I mean, the print magazine is definitely the the leader and, you know, people often say, I mean, it sucks the most money and resources by far. It's the least profitable by far. In fact, it doesn't even make a profit. It makes a loss still two and a half years in. But it's um it's so important because in an age where, you know, there's so much and you will have experienced this, it's hard to get um cut through online because there's so much noise. And so for me, having something physical and tangible, and a lot of what we've done is we do a lot of sampling and um I have three people now who purely work full time

• 21:18Speaker 01

  on non-monetary partnerships. So we look at, you know, what big conferences or events for entrepreneurs and creatives and designers and all that kind of thing can we partner with. And and I realize now that a lot of my um currency is content. So we can do stories on all of these fabulous people as long as it fits with the integrity of the magazine. But in exchange, you know, they can sample magazines, all sorts of different things. So we're always looking at who are like-minded, non-competing partners that we can collaborate with. So the print magazine is definitely, you know, a leader and a really important part for us. Um, events, absolutely. Um, we just did a big one yesterday in Sydney

• 21:56Speaker 01

  and they're good for revenue because now we, you know, get, um, we often do a contrary with a venue. So again, thinking differently and rather than paying for the food and beverage and things, we'll say, well, can you, you know, can you host the event and cover all the food and bev and the venue hire and things? And in exchange, we'll draw a story on you. So that kind of helps. And then we we make money from the the ticket sales. And then now we attract pretty big sponsors to those events as well. So the events are doing really well. And they're also a way for our community to actually, you know, interact.

• 22:29Lewis Howes?

  Come together, yeah.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, online, I definitely think is um where our biggest um share of revenue will come from. Just because there's, you know, no, there's no boundaries in terms of what we can do. Um, pardon me, that's still something that we're, you know, we're working on and trying to figure out. But collectivehub.com is kind of where it's all happening in the moment.

• 22:52Lewis Howes?

  It's beautiful design.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you. Well, as I said, um, whilst whilst really the platforms are all about business and entrepreneurialism. I wanted to, you know, I think it's funny, people kind of a lot of the time think, okay, we're a business magazine. We have to look really dry and boring and, you know, and I just thought, well, I want it to look beautiful and have an incredible design aesthetic and make it um, look like a fashion and design magazine. So it's this kind of weird morph of the two. Yeah. And uh, and my books, I mean, they have just gone nuts. And I think it's because I'm quite, oh, insane. Like, um, I just, I did a pre-launch for Money and Mindfulness, um, which doesn't come out till the first of October.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  And yeah, on day one, we did, I think, sixteen hundred copies just online of our own website. And I love that now because my deputy editor Mel was my first employee um, over ten years ago. And then she went and had kids and came back and she says to me, you know, it's nice having someone who's been around you for that long. Cause she says to me, we have to remember, you know, there were so many years where we would sell maybe three books a month, if that. And so it's, it's really beautiful now. And I think it's because, um, well, you'll see if you, if you read my books. Um, I'm very sort of self-deprecating and I talk a lot about, and which is true. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time.

• 24:15Speaker 01

  And I'm very honest about this is the journey, this how much it costs, this is how I'm doing it, you know. And I think people have kind of gone, oh my God, well, she's just like, kind of a nobody. If she can do it, we can do it too. So I think that's why they, they like it.

• 24:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you have what I call, you know, I talk about in my book, a principle of greatness called hustle. And for me, you're just constantly, you don't know what to do, but you're willing to figure it out. You're willing to dive for what I say the loose balls in life. You know, the athletes on the sports teams, they're always going to have a starting spot or on the team. If they're willing to dive and sacrifice for the ball when everyone else isn't willing to. The coach will always play that player, because those loose balls are what matters the most in every single game when they're close at the end. And it sounds like it sounds like you're willing to pull your neck on the line, sacrifice your your body, your mind, your, you know.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  Not sure about the body thing, yeah, but whatever it takes.

• 25:10Lewis Howes?

  You know, by not by not going, you know, by staying up late some nights and and you know, building relationships, those type of things.

• 25:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:18Lewis Howes?

  And doing whatever it takes. And you you have this art of the hustle that I call, and you go for it. And it's it doesn't have to be perfect. And everything you've done doesn't sound like it's perfect, but it's purposeful. And that has been kind of the guiding light for you.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. I think, yeah, it's you've got to get your hustle on every single day. And sometimes it's tough and you are, you know, paving new ways and doing things differently. And, yeah, it's, yeah, but you just got to do it.

• 25:47Lewis Howes?

  So what are, you know, what's what's bigger right now, the digital circulation or the print circulation? And are you able to share some of those numbers?

• 25:55Speaker 01

  I'm terrible in terms of numbers. That is, I'm not terrible in terms of numbers. I've just written an entire book about numbers. I know all the I know all the sort of top level numbers, but um.

• 26:06Lewis Howes?

  What's the reach for for for both?

• 26:08Speaker 01

  So at the print magazine, we print at the moment 140,000 copies. So it's pretty sizable.

• 26:13Lewis Howes?

  Mostly in Australia, right?

• 26:15Speaker 01

  Most of that is in Australia. And then we ship out to the other regions at the moment from Australia, which is an extraordinarily expensive thing to do.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. So for example, in the US, we're in every single Barnes and Noble store and now all Hudson, yeah, and all Hudson and Hudson News. But the the tricky thing about that is, you know, I'm not on the ground over there. So all the other 36 deals outside of Australia are distribution deals. So, you know, a lot of it is organic growth at the moment. But thanks to you and, you know, many people in the US, we've had. A lot of incredible support, so it's definitely kind of growing over there. And the ideal scenario would be to, you know, move over there for a while and

• 27:00Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 27:00Speaker 01

  actually, you know, print in the US and put some real kind of rigor behind it rather than letting it kind of grow organically. But you can't, you know, you can only take on so many things at once and um, so I've got to kind of maintain focus where I can. But as I said, I will be spending an increasing amount of time in the US. Um, I was there twice, um, two months ago, twice in a month I was in New York and doing lots of stuff over there. So, yeah.

• 27:25Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  It's definitely our, the US is definitely our second market and probably will, you know, in time become our first market.

• 27:32Lewis Howes?

  Right. Well, I'm curious now, two and a half years launching a print magazine, how do you get into Barnes and Noble and Hudson bookstores? And airports, like what's the process for that? Like if someone was launching a magazine, what would you say is the best way to make it happen?

• 27:47Speaker 01

  You get your hustle on.

• 27:48Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Look, I think the thing is, a few things. So, um, in, so I launched in March two thousand and thirteen. And then I think it was October two thousand and thirteen. Um, so the first year I did the magazine bimonthly and then we went monthly. So, um, as I said, you know, on the fourth issue, I, um, flew over. And what I did was before I went to Toronto, I went to the World Magazine Congress in Rome because I thought, okay, and, you know, I, I just did it purely out of naivety for a while. And I thought I better actually go and see if I, if I, um, if I'm on the right track. And it turns out I was, you know, when you start to listen to speakers and you're like, yeah, okay, okay. I'm kind of doing that. And so it was good. But, you know, I'm a big, um, advocate of investing in yourself.

• 28:31Speaker 01

  And it's funny, you put yourself out there and often things that you don't expect to happen, happen. And the first night that I was at that conference, I sat next to this guy Philippe, who was the global syndication manager for the New York Times, which was just the most extraordinary. Contact and it's funny, having published books for so many years, every single author has said to me, I wanna be on the New York Times first seller list, but they have talked about it like it's this unrealistic thing that's sort of on the moon and it's unreachable. And and so what was interesting in meeting Philippe and I was talking to him about our model in the magazine, and he said, look, I love what you do. If you're gonna be in New York,

• 29:10Speaker 01

  um, I'd love to set you up to go and um, sit in on the um, page one editorial meeting, which is extraordinary where the eighteen divisional editors of the New York Times come together every day and talk about what's gonna be on the on page one. And I said to him, well, actually, I'm going straight from Rome to New York in three days' time. So he set that up for me. And um, on the same night in Rome, I met Martha Stewart's vice president, Ruth, and she said, oh, if you're gonna be in New York, you should come into the offices.

• 29:37Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  It was that. So in within three days, I was in New York and on the same day I went in um, I went through the Martha Stewart offices and met all her team and it was the most extraordinary experience. And then Martha ended up, I did an interview with her and she ended up being on our ish issue eight.

• 29:56Lewis Howes?

  Oh my goodness.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Uh, cover, which was amazing. She's phenomenal. And then on the same day, that afternoon, I went and sat in the New York Times um, editorial meeting and the editor of the New York Times sat there and held up the magazine. I couldn't believe it. This is the Helena. This was the Helena Christensen issue, right? And she and they held it up and said, look at this, this little Aussie is doing this thing. Anyway, I went back and was invited back to do that New York Times page one meeting a year later. And I don't know what issue we were on, must have been four plus twelve, I don't know, issue sixteen or seventeen or something. And it was gorgeous. She, they held up the issue again and and everyone like gave me this like um, huge round of applause. I was like, wow, look how far you've come. So

• 30:39Speaker 01

  doesn't really answer your question. My, the answer to that is, I am, I just started putting myself out there and getting in front of the right people. And as I said, I flew to Toronto and um, every year or every two years, I'm not sure. It's called Disrepress. And it's where all the global magazine distributors come together. And I think the majority of um, People who went there, it's one of those things where you have a meeting every half an hour with a different distributor. We managed to set up on day one thirteen meetings with all these distributors. And I took my marketing director Claire over there with me and um. And we kind of were sitting there thinking, well, maybe no one will turn up, you know, where there's little Aussies who know nothing about anything and. All thirteen people turned up to the meetings. I think they were fascinated.

• 31:24Speaker 01

  And I think um and we did thirteen deals with thirteen different distributors from that fair. Um and I think the reason is when you truly believe in something and you speak from the heart and. Um you know, so many people go into meetings and have PowerPoint presentations and speak to the slides and I just speak from my heart and. Tell people what I'm doing and I think, I think they all just were like, whoa, these people have come all the way from Australia and most other people there are like. Big publishers who actually know what they're doing and I think they all just kind of fell in love with it and were like, we'll give you a go and. And also, I've done a lot of, you know, we were talking about pre-selling before, I've done a lot of.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  Um weird deals and it's, I'm constantly, you know, let me give you an example, in Australia. Uh and this happens all over the world, you have to pay, you know, to be ranged in Newport, uh news, sorry, um airport news agencies, you've got to pay a lot of money to, you know. Be in there and have placement and things. And it was something like.

• 32:24Lewis Howes?

  With magazines or books?

• 32:26Speaker 01

  Uh, both.

• 32:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  But depending on countries and um and different outlets and things, but let's just as an example, in Australia. In one news chain alone, you've got to pay about four thousand dollars a week or something ridiculous to be just to have placement in the airports.

• 32:43Lewis Howes?

  You're not even gonna sell enough to make it back, probably.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  Exactly, but the thing is, and they all wanted it upfront and then, you know, you have these Florida selling light walls, you know. And again, you need to pay upfront. And I, so I had to do a lot of um hustle early on and convince these people, cause I knew. I didn't wanna grow really slowly, I wanted to grow, you know, be fast, so, big splash, so. Uh. And so I convinced them that, look, I don't have the money. I mean, I didn't have the money to pay for those things upfront. So I said, I will guarantee you profit, like I will guarantee that I'm gonna pay this on the back of it. And so we need, and so people were like, she is nuts. Okay, we're gonna give her a go. So I got all this amazing placement and then I just had to back it up, you know?

• 33:27Speaker 01

  And that's where social media has been extraordinary. I think people, I'm a big believer, when you give a community uh when you empower a community to feel a sense of belonging, they will do anything to help you. So I've always said whilst I'm the, you know, I'm the only financial um person involved in the collective at the moment. Um. It's, I don't own it. It's the community who owns it. And because I've kind of empowered them to do that and I make it very much about them. They just carry the message for me and they amplify and share the cover and they shout it from the rooftops and they tell their friends and I've never experienced anything like it and I'm just so incredibly grateful every single day.

• 34:08Speaker 01

  But um. So, yeah, I've taken a lot of crazy harebrained risks where I've promised people that I'd pay them like, you know, ass about and somehow it's just worked. But I talk a lot about, I mean, money and mindfulness is really all about those strategies and because I don't know if this is so prevalent in the U S, but I mean, I hear continuously people saying, I can't do this because I don't have enough money. And you know, this um notion of finance and self sabotage and things and fearfulness around it holds so many people back from reaching their full potential and their greatness. And so I kind of write a lot about how there's so many other ways and cash isn't the only currency.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  And there's so many other ways to do deals and that's when business becomes very exciting. And I also believe that um, you know, doing good in the world and having money don't need to be mutually exclusive. And in fact, they go hand in hand and money buys freedom and choice. So I talk a lot about that.

• 35:07Lewis Howes?

  That's great. Yeah, I love it. I feel like you're. My long lost sister, who has the same vision and same, same experiences. And it's interesting, I have some fun facts about you. And maybe, maybe you are my long lost sister is because you were born in central west, New South Wales, is that right?

• 35:24Speaker 01

  Yes, how do you even know that?

• 35:26Lewis Howes?

  Well, I am a quarter Welsh. My grandmother is from Wales and, and I believe my, my name is Welsh, which is Howes. I believe it's from Wales or Scotland or, or, or England, one of those. I've always tried to look back into it and I always see Welsh descendants, so.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Really?

• 35:49Lewis Howes?

  Yes, so we have something in common there. Also, another fun fact I heard about you is that you went to boarding school, is that correct?

• 35:57Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, I did. I was so naughty.

• 36:00Lewis Howes?

  I went to boarding school as well, but, but I begged my parents to send me. They didn't even know about it. I just asked them because I wanted to get out of the house and away from the madness at home.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  At boarding school, how funny, because I actually begged my parents to go as well. Although I'm sure, I think my mother was very happy to see me go. She kind of had my bag packed and waiting at the door for me.

• 36:22Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. I love it.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:25Lewis Howes?

  So I'm curious, to go back into the, to the, the magazine. I'm curious about the digital distribution and how that's been. Do you feel like the digital is more powerful for you because more people are online now? And now with the new stand app, the new news feature, I mean, are you seeing an increase in that or is it more, is it bigger in print?

• 36:46Speaker 01

  So the print sales in terms of the, the actual print magazine. So we sell the physical copies and then we also sell it across, um, uh, Zineo and Mag Shop and Press Reader and the print, physical sales are much higher. However, when we go to our online portal, collectivehub.com, um, the traffic I think is starting to, you know, way exceed the, the circulation of the print magazine, which is really interesting because the print magazines, so I have 23 full-time staff at the moment and we have close to 80 freelance writers that we just pull in from all over the world, depending on, you know, industry and specialization and where they're based and who they can get access to and all that kind of thing.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  Um, and that's been a very specific strategy. Um, but what's interesting about that is, you know, until recently, as I said, the print magazine costs about three hundred fifty thousand Australian dollars and lots to put out and the digital, you know, we've been putting probably, you know, with salaries, et cetera, about twelve thousand dollars a month, yet the advertising across online is starting to exceed, you know, in mag and all that kind of thing. So I've had to really um do a lot of re-education with my team recently, kind of looking at the numbers and crunching and going, this makes no sense. Imagine if we put the same level of resources into

• 38:09Speaker 01

  online, like it would just be insane, I think. So which really, we're really trying to um, you know, I am trying to sort of teach myself, my team are far better at all of the digital stuff than me, but I'm I'm kind of getting there, but I think that's where there's a I think that's where there's an enormous opportunity for us, you know, because well, A, the print magazine comes out once a month, so it's, you know, we try and make all the stories so that they have longevity and, you know, the the mag is very much like a coffee table read and all that kind of thing and people can dip in and dip out and it's kind of timeless. But, you know, with online, we can do, at the moment, we're doing sort of four to eight feeds a day with, you know, content. So it's it's a fair

• 38:52Speaker 01

  bit, but, you know, it's, yeah, there are no boundaries in terms of what we can do online, I think.

• 38:57Lewis Howes?

  I love it. I love it. Well, the thing that's cool about you is, you know, in regards to your your business with the magazine and everything you're doing there and your the book, Money and Mindfulness, you know, the thing I love about it is you essentially said, I have a dream, I have a vision, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make it come true, because you believed in it so much. And you were able to make you were able to make a lot of money from that that belief and that mindset. Uh, can you talk to me a little bit? I want to ask a few more questions, but one of them is about the book. You know, if someone has a dream and Just doesn't even think it's possible because they don't know how to make it happen to start just making a little bit of money, you know, a few thousand dollars a month. But they want to start going after it. They want to start doing something.

• 39:42Lewis Howes?

  I know you cover all this in your book and I want to make sure everyone goes and gets it at collectivehub.com. It's right there on the homepage. You can go check it out right there. I believe that's the link, right?

• 39:52Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, it is. Thank you.

• 39:54Lewis Howes?

  Of course, yeah. What do you think? What would you tell someone? What's the piece of advice to get them started that'll get them a jumpstart before they get the book on what they can do?

• 40:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, 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, you know, that's the best place to start because, you know, 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 yourself, no one else will, you know, because as you keep, I love that you're a hustler as well because I'm a serious hustler. You've got to 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, well, from an external perspective, they'd say I'm

• 40:47Speaker 01

  an extrovert. I'm actually quite introverted. Like, I love, you know, being home on my couch or go for a run or, you know, I'm 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, um, but I've learned 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

• 41:28Speaker 01

  caught up in limiting beliefs. And I think, I mean, I've done years of, you know, therapy and reading and all sorts of things. So I kind of can talk a lot about that. But, you know, We all have these limiting beliefs that are, you know, 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 and all of that kind of thing, then all that sort of starts to fall away and life becomes much more seamless and in flow. So I think, um, you know, it's, 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.

• 42:10Speaker 01

  Like actually just go out and pre-sell and, you know, there's plenty of money and there's so much abundance out there and start to, um, you know, start to tell people about your vision and people will start to come to you and, you know, provide you with money and, and think about what, you know, what's your currency and what tangible, sellable assets have you got, you know, is it your intellectual property or is it, you know, whatever it happens to be. I mean, there are things that you can sell before you actually have to make them. Um, I mean, I fail at least twenty times a day now, like quite seriously. And I, and I love it because what I mean by that is they're just small, quick failures. And it's because I've, I'm well networked now. I've got some great contacts. I've been building that up over many, many years

• 42:55Speaker 01

  that I can, you know, ping an email off to, um, someone in HR or a marketing director at 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, um, they can quickly come back to me and say, no, that's not gonna work or, you know, or I can, then I can iterate or pivot or change or whatever, but I'm gonna pre-sell the idea and before I actually make it essentially. So I think they're kind of some of the tips. Um, 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, you know, if my life were a book and it is now turning into

• 43:39Speaker 01

  several very quickly. But I mean, I would say I'm on, you know, chapter one, page one, paragraph one, really, like I have so much more to do. And so. Um. So there's that fine line all the time of not letting your ego get in the way of, you know, 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 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. Um. Yeah. So so it's just, um, I think it's a lot of self-reflection and really understanding who

• 44:24Speaker 01

  you are and and what your purpose is. And then things just start to happen.

• 44:27Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Um, I've got three final questions. I want to make sure everyone will have this all linked up in the show notes. So I'll tell you guys where to go to get all this information in a few moments, but make sure to follow Alyssa Messenger and at Collective Hub on Instagram. That's where I first found her. Um, and I'll link every I'll link everything up for you guys here in a second. But three final questions. One is, what are you most grateful for in your life recently?

• 44:51Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness. I I have a gratitude diary. And I mean, that in the world I live in now, that sounds so kind of cliche, because so many people have these things, I think. But I'm grateful for so many things. But really, I'm grateful for um, our community, the the people who just carry us along and lift us higher every day and help me to be a better person. So um, that I'm extraordinarily grateful for.

• 45:15Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Um, this these last two questions are something I ask everyone at the end. Uh, one is, if all of your books that you've ever written, uh, all the magazines you've ever published, all the things you ever said online have been erased, and it's the final day for you, and you have a piece of paper, and you get to write down three truths that will be the last three things that you get to share to the world about what you know to be truth about your experience so far. What would you say are your three truths?

• 45:47Speaker 01

  My goodness. Okay, here we go.

• 45:50Lewis Howes?

  Get real, Lisa.

• 45:52Speaker 01

  Um, I would say anything is possible. That I know to be a hundred percent true now, and that um, we are all equal. Um, that's something I know to be sure. And I mean, I could go on and on about why. Um, and I'd say, um,

• 46:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, gosh, you really, I mean, there's so many things, but yeah, what else would I say? There's so many things. You've got me.

• 46:23Lewis Howes?

  So the first one, what was the first one?

• 46:25Speaker 01

  So yeah, what did I say? I said, anything's possible and you know, and that everyone is, everyone is equal. And um, I think, you know, be selfless, I would say, I think from being selfless and doing things with integrity, uh, extraordinary things happen. So I think that's kind of what I know now. It's so easy for us to be selfish and to get caught up in our own, um, particularly in this narcissistic world, like there's so much, but if you can kind of wind it back and think about why are you doing this? And if it's for sort of the greater good and for other people, I think the rewards come back in so many ways.

• 47:05Lewis Howes?

  I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Okay. Well, I have one final question before I ask, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Lisa, for your, your, your passion for living your dreams. And I believe that not enough people have enough passion for their dreams. So I want to acknowledge you for that passion, for the ability to tackle whatever it takes, knowing that you're gonna fail and getting back up every single day, because that is a very scary thing for most people to do, specifically when you have no money coming in. So I want to acknowledge you for your, your joy, your passion for your dream and for being committed to your vision every single day to serve and inspire other people. So thank you for all you do.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 47:53Lewis Howes?

  You're welcome. You're welcome. And I have one final question.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  I'm scared this is gonna be about kangaroos or something crazy or something. I can feel it coming.

• 48:08Lewis Howes?

  It's what's your definition of greatness?

• 48:11Speaker 01

  Oh, my definition of greatness, um, oh, I think, um, my definition of greatness. I think.

• 48:24Speaker 01

  Uh, probably being truly on purpose and being able to live with freedom and choice every single day. So whatever that means to you. Um, people often say to me now, oh, now the collective's had some success. I, you know, I still laugh at that. As I said, at the very beginning, but I, they say to me, when are you going to exit? What's your exit strategy? And I go, well, if someone gave me a hundred million dollars today, I would not sell it for any money in the world. You know, I've spent my entire life searching for what my purpose is, and I finally got it. So yeah, if I had a hundred million dollars, great, but I'd still be just sitting there going, what's my purpose? So I think, you know, having the freedom and

• 49:09Speaker 01

  choice um, to, to do what you want in the world. I think that's, that's greatness and inspiring others. Yeah.

• 49:15Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Lisa Messenger. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  Thank you, Lewis. It's been an absolute pleasure. I loved your fantastic interview. Very easy.

• 49:26Lewis Howes?

  Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

• 49:31Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, guys. This is again, episode number two, three, four. Make sure to share it with your friends, lewishouse.com/234. If you enjoyed this, um, tell a friend. Lisa, it was such a pleasure having her on. Make sure to follow her over on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and check out The Collective, the magazine, because it's an inspiring magazine, and she is just cool, what she's done to build this business from really from scratch and take it, and take it to where it is now. Uh, such an inspiring story. Make sure to check it out. Share this with your friends. Thank you, guys, again, for being here, for showing up each and every week, for listening to this message about greatness, for inspiring yourselves,

• 50:12Lewis Howes?

  and for sharing this with your friends to inspire them as well. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.