OCTOBER 2026

OCTOBER 2026

5 Microns

WITH LISA MESSENGER

Who is Lisa Messenger?

I’m an entrepreneur, author, storyteller, mother, eternal optimist and deeply curious human. I’ve been in business for 25 years and have reinvented myself more times than I can count -from publishing books and magazines to retreats, technology, AI, speaking and now fiction.

But underneath all of those titles, I think I’m simply someone who is endlessly
fascinated by what’s possible. I love creating things that didn’t exist before, bringing people together and hopefully giving others the courage to back themselves and create lives that feel like their own.

Your mantra has always been “anything is possible”, and you call yourself the queen of reinvention. Where did that belief come from, and what would you say to women who feel stuck in their lives right now?

I don’t think I was born believing anything was possible. I think I built that belief by collecting evidence.

Every time I did something I wasn’t qualified for, ready for, or entirely sure I could pull off - and somehow found a way - I added another little piece of evidence.

I launched a magazine with no publishing experience. Took it to 37 countries. Wrote dozens of books. Built businesses, closed businesses, started again. Went through years of IVF and eventually became a mother through surrogacy. And there have been plenty of spectacular failures and wrong turns in between.

That’s why I think reinvention is less about having some enormous burst of courage and more about movement. If you feel stuck, don’t try to figure out your entire life. Take one tiny step towards something that makes you curious or makes you feel alive.

You don’t find out who you are by standing still.

Your son, Hugo arrived after eight years and 18 rounds of IVF, and now you’re expecting a baby girl via surrogate in a couple of months. How are you feeling about becoming a parent again, and how has this journey compared with the road to Hugo?

Completely overwhelmed with gratitude.

Hugo came after eight years of trying to become a mum, and our baby girl has been another extraordinary journey. When you’ve wanted something for that long, and had so many moments when you genuinely didn’t know whether it would ever happen, you don’t take any of it for granted.

The second time feels different because Hugo has already shown me what motherhood is. I know the chaos now. I know the exhaustion. But I also know the indescribable love and joy that are coming.

Watching him become a big brother is something I can barely think about without getting emotional. Our little girl, Indi, is already so incredibly loved. After such a long road to build our family, the fact that we are about to become a family of four feels completely surreal.

Founder, author, app builder, speaker, mother, TV host, AI strategist and prompt engineer - it’s a very full life. What does balance look like for you when you’re following so many passions and pursuits at once?

I don’t believe in balance in the traditional sense. I think life happens in seasons.

Sometimes I’m writing intensely. Sometimes I’m launching something. Sometimes I’m completely immersed in motherhood. Sometimes I want to disappear into the garden with Hugo and the chickens and forget that email exists.

I’ve stopped expecting every part of my life to receive an equal amount of attention every day. That expectation just creates guilt.

What I care about now is whether my life feels alive and intentional. I’m also ruthless about asking: does this actually need me? Can I delegate it, automate it, eliminate it or do it differently?

I love a full life. I just don’t want a life that’s full of things I don’t actually care about.

You launched ‘Collective Hub’ with no media background, then closed the print edition very publicly in 2018. What did that experience teach you that it succeeding never could?

Everything.

Collective Hub became this extraordinary global success story. We launched in Australia and ultimately distributed into 37 countries. From the outside it looked incredible - and so much of it was.

But closing the print magazine taught me that success and sustainability are not the same thing.

It taught me to stop holding onto something simply because the world thought it looked successful. It taught me that an identity isn’t a business model. And it taught me that ending something is not necessarily failure.

Sometimes the bravest entrepreneurial decision is not starting. It’s stopping.

Closing the magazine stripped away a huge part of my identity at the time, but it also gave me enormous freedom. I realised I could build something, love it fiercely, let it go and still be me.

That lesson has probably made every reinvention since possible.

You’ve been sober for more than 20 years and talk about it openly. How has that clarity shaped the way you show up as a founder, a mother and a friend?

Getting sober was one of the most defining decisions of my life.

I stopped drinking in November 2004, so it’s been more than 20 years now. And while sobriety is obviously about not drinking, for me it became about something much bigger: learning to be completely present in my own life.

There’s nowhere to hide. You feel everything. You have to learn yourself.

That clarity has shaped everything - how I make decisions, how I work, the relationships I choose, how I deal with difficult moments and now, most importantly, how I show up as a mum.

It has also taught me that the life you want is often built through thousands of seemingly small choices. One decision can quietly change the trajectory of everything.

After 40 non-fiction books, you’ve written your first novel, Matchstick. How did writing fiction compare with writing non-fiction, and what surprised you most along the way?

Fiction completely humbled me!

I went into Matchstick having written more than 40 books and thinking, how different can this possibly be? The answer: VERY.

With non-fiction, I know my voice. I know how to take an idea, interrogate it, tell stories around it and turn it into something useful.

Fiction required me to surrender control in a completely different way. Suddenly there were characters who needed their own motivations, histories, contradictions and secrets. There was pacing, tension, dialogue, structure — and every tiny detail mattered.

I rewrote and edited Matchstick dozens of times. It was obsessive and at times completely maddening, but I loved it.

The biggest surprise was how real the characters became to me. They stopped feeling like people I had invented and started feeling like people whose stories I was responsible for telling properly.

And now I’m hooked. I’m already writing the next one.

How has your style changed from the boardroom and the keynote stage to Byron mum life? What do you reach for when you want to feel most like yourself?

I think I’ve become much less interested in what I’m “supposed” to wear.

I’ve always loved fashion and beautiful things, but these days I want clothes to feel effortless and a little unexpected. Byron life has definitely softened me - there’s a lot more linen, oversized shirts, beautiful dresses, bare feet and things I can actually move in.

But I still love contrast. Something beautifully tailored with something completely relaxed. Feminine with a little edge. High design without feeling too perfect.

Ultimately, I feel most like myself when I’m comfortable, slightly undone and wearing something that has personality rather than something that simply looks “appropriate”.

Collective Retreat is all white linen, Moroccan rugs and cosy corners. What makes a space, or a wardrobe, feel like home to you?

Texture, warmth and imperfection.

I love white and natural materials, timber, linen, beautiful old rugs, books, objects with stories, oversized cushions and spaces that invite you to curl up and stay
awhile.

I don’t like anything that feels overly styled or precious. The most beautiful homes, to me, feel lived in. There might be toys somewhere they shouldn’t be, a pile of books on a table, flowers from the garden, people sitting around talking far longer than they intended.

I think wardrobes are the same. The things I keep reaching for are pieces that feel good on my body and somehow carry memories with them.

Home isn’t perfection. It’s the feeling that you can exhale.

What’s still on your list of possibilities?

Everything!

That’s the beautiful thing - the more I do, the more curious I become.

Right now, I’m fascinated by the intersection between humanity and AI, and what becomes more important about being human as technology gets exponentially better. I want to keep writing fiction. I want to write books that ask bigger questions. I want to keep building businesses and creating extraordinary experiences and bringing interesting people together.

And personally, I’m about to have a baby girl, we’ve just bought a home in the hinterland, and I’m dreaming about chickens and gardens and animals and creating this beautiful, slightly wild childhood for our kids.

I also want to travel slowly as a family, live in other parts of the world for stretches of time, keep learning things I know absolutely nothing about and continue putting myself in rooms where I’m the beginner.

I don’t know exactly what the next decade looks like.

And that excites me enormously.

Because if there’s one thing I know after all these years, it’s that the best things in my life have rarely come from following the plan.

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Quick Fire Questions

What’s on your Bedside table right now?  A printed out version of Matchstick for a final physical read.

What are you currently bingeing on TV? The Gentlemen

Are you a Sunrise or sunset girl?  Sunset

Green smoothie or iced latte?  Both

Boxing gloves or yoga mat?  Boxing gloves

Wardrobe essential?  Sneakers

Favourite Iris and Wool piece?  Classic Cardigan in biscuit

The best thing you’ve ever asked AI to do? Solve big world problems.

Biggest lesson Hugo has taught you?  Patience and play.

A common misconception about you?  I know what I’m doing.

Luxury is…  time to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want.

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