Messenger Of
The Gods
An exclusive interview with
Lisa Messenger
Kate Stone
There aren’t many people who are lucky enough
to answer, when you ask them the question ‘who
would you most like to interview - alive or dead?’
with the words:
heading for a very long afternoon nap.
“Richard Branson - ummm, tick! Martha Stewart well, I guess she’s a tick too...”
The rest, as they say, is magazine history. On the
4th of March last year, the Renegade Collective
hit newstands with a pretty loud bang. It wasn’t
glossy. It wasn’t airbrushed. It had swirly writing
on the cover, and a massive online presence
called the Collective Hub. It was a magazine, sure
- but then again, it was something entirely new. It
was a zineaverse, and immediately, it caught the
imaginations of the Australian consumer public.
This would be really, really annoying but for one
thing.
I’m talking to Lisa Messenger, and trying to be
annoyed at someone you happen to think is
pretty damn amazing is actually quite hard.
Imagine it’s 2001. You’ve decided to start a fairly
risky new business, based on sponsorship, and
just to make things extra tricky for yourself,
you decide to launch it straight after 9/11.
People aren’t too keen on giving out cash to
a entrepreneurial venture they don’t really
understand. But does that deter you? No. Turn
around to 2013, and The Messenger Group is a
content creation, branding, design and marketing
solutions one-stop shop.
But that’s not enough. Things in traditional
publishing are looking a bit well... stale. There are
magazines going under literally by the dozen, and
the industry is at, if not a standstill, then certainly
Perhaps what’s needed is an alarm clock of sorts
to wake things up a little bit?
This has to be put down in part to the incredible
power of Lisa’s own personal magnetism, because
she is a one-woman rock show. I have never
seen people respond to someone outside of
‘celebrities’ in the traditional sense (although I
am not sure that meaning exists anymore) the
way they do to Lisa. And I understand it, because
you know what? She is genuinely, tremendously
likeable.
This past year has seen Brand Messenger go
from strength to stength - both personally and
professionally. Followers of her social media
adventures will know that her now fiance Jack
Delosa, head of private business education
I would have loved to have a conversation with Nelson Mandela... So extraordinary –
to be in prison for as long as he was and maintain his positive attitude towards other
human beings.