The Book Review: Risk & Resilience by Lisa Messenger

13 Aug The Book Review: Risk & Resilience by Lisa Messenger

Posted at 08:00h in The Book Review by Empower House

Title: Risk & Resilience

Author: Lisa Messenger

From the back cover: WHAT DOES IT REALLY TAKE TO SURVIVE THE START-UP SCENE? WHY DO SOME VENTURES THRIVE WHILE OTHERS CRUMBLE? HOW DOES A BRAND THE WORLD LOVES END UP IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES? COULD IT HAPPEN TO YOU… AND WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

As the founder of Collective Hub, a multimedia platform that helps people unleash their full potential, best-selling author Lisa Messenger has helped millions of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, though-leaders, game-changers, and style-makers turn their passions into profit. That’s only one side of the story…

In her latest book, Lisa reveals the tough lessons she learnt during the hardest 18 months of her entrepreneurial journey, when scaling too quickly, hiring without strategy and trying to please everyone almost turned her dream into a disaster. And, the courageous steps she took to survive, thrive and prosper afterwards.

Written in real-time, with intimate diary entries and insights from business experts, learn how to future-proof your start-up, how to step into your ‘genius zone’ and why pivoting can be the most powerful business strategy.

SOMETIMES, YOU’VE GOT TO BREAK SOMETHING YOU LOVE TO REMAKE IT.

About the book:

Lisa Messenger writes her books as she’s living and breathing the situation, so while you’re reading you get an intimate experience of the throws of her journey, as if you were right there next to her. In the first chapter of Risk & Resilience, Lisa talks about sitting down at dinner with Sophia Amoruso, who had just announced the closure and bankruptcy of her company NastyGal. Lisa says “When I heard the sad announcement about Nast Gal, I remember feeling a surge of empathy and also admiration for Sophia, an amazing business role model. I also remember thinking, ‘Thank goodness I’m not there! I don’t know how I’d cope if I was in that terrible situation. Wasn’t it a US$200million business? How does it go from hero to zero?”

Reflecting, Lisa admits that her head was buried in the sand, while Collective Hub wasn’t facing bankruptcy, it was all about to come to a head and was more like Nasty Gal than she cared to admit. The next week Collective Hub’s CFO, who Lisa says had started in the middle of a ‘shit-storm’, served her with a cold dose of reality – make some major changes now or Collective Hub will fall over in the next three months.

Risk & Resilience is a fascinating account of what really went on behind the scenes, how the company and community had grown so quickly (but how this wasn’t necessarily the issue!), the dangers of trying to please everyone, seeing the warning signs early, knowing when to pivot, the importance and delicacy of company culture, making tough calls, diversifying, staying true to the heart of the business, and the importance of staying healthy and positive through it all – tough times may mean the business needs to change from how you originally envisioned it, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road. Lisa talks openly about the decisions that were made, who she went to for help, the process behind preparing a business for sale or investment, only saying yes to the right buyer and never being driven by desperation.

The book is dotted with interviews with other entrepreneurs, quotes from Lisa and various other personalities, check lists and guides – which really lends to the feeling that you’re reading Lisa’s personal journal. Lisa lives up to her promise to ‘live out loud’ in Risk & Resilience, sharing her most vulnerable moments, personal challenges and heartbreaks, all the while telling us ‘Anything really is possible… But I do want to save you from making the same mistakes I did.’

About the author: Lisa Messenger is the Founder and CEO of Collective Hub, international speaker, best-selling author, serial entrepreneur, and travel enthusiast. In 2013 she launched Collective Hub as a print magazine, which has since grown into an international multimedia business and lifestyle platform. The company serves to ‘ignite human potential’ through print, digital, events, and co-working spaces.

Speaking for some of the worlds largest brands including Telstra, Facebook, Commonwealth Bank, and Estee Lauder, Lisa has also headlined major events such as Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, National Achievers Conference, Adelaide Fashion Festival and closed the Mercedes Benz Sydney Fashion Week. Lisa co-chaired the Virgin Way panel with Sir Richard Branson in 2016, and in 2017 she was invited to speak at the esteemed global media conference FIPP in London.

Not only has Lisa authored and co-authored 16 books, her publishing experience has seen her produce over 400 custom-published books. Lisa regularly contributes to digital publication Huffington Post, and has been featured on Forbes as well as other print media including Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, and Sunday Life. She was also featured on the covers of The Weekly Review, Australian Natural Health, Boss, and Acuity.

Here is a list of Lisa’s recent books;

And the fabulous journals available;