Lisa Messenger

The session

Premium47 min

Fireside Chat

Lisa Messenger: pre-sell it, value stack it, then build it

What Lisa teaches

1. Sell the idea before you build it, then underwrite the build

   Lisa calls it selling vaporware. She comes up with a concept, pre-sells it, and only creates it once the market has shown it will eat it up. She has done this with all 40 of her books and with the magazine itself, which gave her both confidence and speed to market. She has never borrowed money for a business in 23 years.

   From Lisa Messenger: pre-sell it, value stack it, then build it →

2. Value stack one big sponsor instead of selling small ads

   The industry model was a flat ad on a page for $10,000. The first issue of Collective Hub cost $350,000, so she would have needed 35 pre-sold ads just to break even. Instead she asked CommBank's CMO Andy Lark for $200,000 and stacked physical copies, advertorial, editorial, speaking and written articles on top, roughly $600,000 of value for his $200,000. It was sponsorship and advertising dollars, not a loan.

   From Lisa Messenger: pre-sell it, value stack it, then build it →

3. Make 79 calls and stalk the one person who fits your thesis

   Lisa made around 79 phone calls before she got to Andy Lark, chosen because people told her he loved entrepreneurs and still liked print. She chased him for about three months through multiple angles, then sent a tweet at 10pm and got a 2pm meeting the next day. She almost did not go. Go to the knife-edge meeting.

   From Lisa Messenger: pre-sell it, value stack it, then build it →

4. Treat a saturated market as proof of appetite

   There were already 5,500 print magazines and everyone told her print was dead or dying. Lisa's read was the opposite: if a market is saturated, there is demand. She looked for the model that no one in the category was running rather than a category no one was in.

   From Lisa Messenger: pre-sell it, value stack it, then build it →