Lisa Messenger Inspires Central Coast Women to ‘Ignite Potential’
On Wednesday, twenty lucky local women gathered at The Cottage in Terrigal for an exciting workshop with the inspirational Lisa Messenger.
Hosted by Nirvana Wellness Retreats and Belle Escapes Central Coast, the retreat-turned-conference brought together business owners and entrepreneurs in an intimate setting, with a focus on motivational planning, goal-setting and mindset in both business and life.
If you haven’t heard of her before, Lisa Messenger is a founder and CEO of several brands and companies including Collective Hub, her international multimedia business and lifestyle platform. She is the queen of diversification when it comes to her personal brand and has authored over 16 books. She has also spoken across the world at conferences and events, and ‘ignited the human potential’ of 1000s of business owners and entrepreneurs along the way.
Lisa’s life mission is to challenge both individuals and businesses to think differently, leave their comfort zones and consider that there is more than one way to do anything. She passionately encourages living life to its absolute fullest through creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, building a growing community of life-minded people who want to change the world.
Words by Jacqueline O’Neill, Photography by Josef Nalevansky
The Morning – Up Close & Personal
As guests arrived, we quietly mingled and were treated to a calming cup of tea courtesy of fellow attendee, Naomi Whitfield of iKOU. Hosts Cherie Brough (Nirvana Wellness Retreats) and Cathy Baker (Belle Escapes, Belle Property) then greeted the group. Cherie took us through some breathing exercises to set our intentions for the day and our incessantly buzzing phones were all either silenced or switched to airplane mode. The set up was intimate and unconventional as we all sat in what resembled a women’s circle, nestled into comfy couches, pens and paper at the ready and settled in to learn.
Lisa kicked off the day by giving us insights into her business journey that you simply can’t find online – we heard of her failures and struggles in detail. She communicated these with such candour and authenticity that the space around us seemed to open right up. From her admission that her first business grew far too quickly, without the right systems and structures in place, to the confession that closing the Collective Hub magazine was equally as great as launching it, Lisa’s delivery was refreshingly honest at a time where many business owners are still reeling from a difficult few years.
Guests then learnt how to mindset flip, which is basically trying to find the positives in seemingly negative situations. We discussed how important it is to have a well-honed ‘purpose’ – Lisa’s is to “ignite human potential” – and how important it is to focus on that purpose when making business and life decisions. Cue giant pieces of art paper and plenty of mind maps, ideas and vision boarding – where we broke our lives down into their many facets, turned these into ‘bubbles’ and set clear goals of the things that we wanted to achieve – and most importantly, by when.
Guided by Lisa, we set our intentions for 2022
The Lunch – Nourished and Nurtured
After a morning of hungry work, guests were treated to a divine spread of contemporary and holistic whole foods, expertly prepared by professional chef and food alchemist, Shakti Grace of Nourished + Nurtured – but not before some more deep breathing. Shakti then blessed our food, also giving it (and us) the once over with a tuning fork set at a frequency of 528Hz. Whilst this might sound a little ‘woo-woo’ to some, the lunchtime vibe was calm, relaxed and wholesome – a nice contrast to many of our usual routines (either shovelling in a meal at a desk, or for some of the ladies, balancing a smoothie in one arm and a child in the other).
Lunch was the perfect opportunity to unwind and connect with like-minded women
The Afternoon – Setting Intentions
Once our bellies were full, we sat back down to work, sharing our (measurable and attainable) goals and dreams with Lisa and the group. We chatted about potential ‘blockages’ and how to deal with them – for the record, the answer is usually trusting ourselves or setting boundaries (or both). We laughed a lot, cried a little, and got really damn honest with ourselves and each other.
We learnt the importance of trusting our gut, but also the importance of balancing both passion and commercial reality in business. As the day drew to a close, every woman in the room was clearly reinvigorated and inspired. We have a sneaking suspicion that anyone who has ever spent a day with Lisa would understand the feeling well.
The Central Coast Life & Style team would like to extend a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Lisa, Cherie and Cathy for coming together to deliver such an incredible event. Thank you also to Shakti from Nurtured + Nourished and the team from Like Minds Avoca for looking after us on site, too.
Smiles all around
Want to be part of the next event?
In May, Nirvana Wellness Retreats and Belle Escapes Central Coast will be hosting another event, this time on ‘The Sweetness of Eating Well’ with Olivia Kaplan. To book, click here. To stay up-to-date, you can also follow Nirvana Wellness Retreats on socials. Updates will also be posted via the Central Coast Life & Style Instagram.
