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| "My innermost dream is still the same: to be a successful author and to be abundant in all areas; to have the resources to do what you want to, when you want to". |
I have heard many times this joke, that in Canberra practically everyone knows everyone, based on the algorithm that everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows you. Lately, it has been true for me in more than one occasion. For almost two years now, I have been witnessing from distance the makings of Canberra Wise Women, going from strength to strength. Although I have been following Lisa’s story for a while, it was only recently that I came to meet her in person.
The day before the interview, I was having
a walk with one of my best friends and we were discussing our common
disappointment with the high expectations society places on women, particularly
on working mothers. Even more so, we were discussing our frustration with the high
expectations we place on ourselves, striving to be perfect in everything and
brilliantly failing at it. We were also talking about the lack of empathy
witnessed over several incidents and about support, about that good old village
that used to have your back and how women could better support each other.
Coincidentally or not, this was an excellent preamble to interviewing Lisa, who
is a firm believer in bringing people together - to shine a light on their
dreams.
I got a very warm welcome in her house and
what I loved most, from the first moment I stepped inside, was the fact that
she welcomed me straight into the heart of things. My visit was not rehearsed
for, she didn’t dress up especially for me, the house was beautiful and
intimate – a house where people lived, not a house for showing off. A house
filled with love, was my first impression and then I felt at ease. It’s not
always easy, striking a conversation with people I haven’t met before and
interviewing them can be challenging, since I am virtually asking them to open
up to a stranger. Likewise, it can be equally challenging for me to find the
right opening words, right tone or approach.
I furtively thought of the conversation I had with my bestie, when we
were questioning why we sometimes feel that we cannot receive guests without an
immaculate house. Which in my case is impossible, living with two little
tornadoes who like to explore. Understandably,
I instantly loved Lisa for treating me like family, sitting me down for a cuppa
and allowing me to make friends with her adorable dogs. The conversation ensued
naturally and as we went through the questions, I knew I have met another
friend. This is the beauty of the Hat of Many Dreams: I don’t intend to stop
these series any time soon, but I do know that at the end of it all, I will be
so much richer for all the friends I made.
- My first favourite story was Thumbelina. I
liked things that were little, petite – they used to intrigue me. I had lots of
miniature things. I had the family treehouse when I was little, which was a
plastic tree house; it had a little elevator in the middle where you could put
the family into and wind it up, then the top popped up and there was a shelf in
it and it had three rooms, a lounge, a bedroom and a kitchen. There was a mummy,
daddy, their children and a dog... I was around 5 when I got it. I only got rid
of it recently.
My favourite movie has always been “Dirty Dancing”.
I love romance, happy endings; not sad endings.
- When I
was younger, I wanted to be an astronaut. Or an author, which is something I
still want to be. Then later on, I wanted to be a detective.
- In my teens I wanted to be an interior decorator
or an architect. Then I thought about being a journalist. My mother made me change my mind about being
an architect or interior designer; she thought that computers would be doing
all the design work in the future. The more I thought about journalism, I didn’t
think I could go to someone who just been through something really terrible and
make them talk about it. I’m too empathetic for that.
Coming out of high school, I didn’t really
have a big dream. One of my goals was to design and build my own house and to
be an author. I have already done the first, still working on writing a book. I
have a number of partially finished manuscripts.
“Who are you
now”? It’s a question I ask my sitters as a reflection over their path, looking
back to their initial aspirations.
- Who am I now? I usually describe myself as
a business creative and inspirer and a wolf Mumma. I am a mother to three
beautiful German shepherd dogs that look like wolves because of their unique
colour. They are specially bred to be completely black.
- My innermost dream is still the same: to
be a successful author and to be abundant in all areas; to have the resources to
do what you want to, when you want to.
The last few months have been really hard.
We lost Mojo (beloved fur baby) and I
lost my motivation. I really had to find what inspires and motivates me again. I
feel like I have been on this journey for many years, finding what inspires me
and keeps me moving forward. I’m just starting to feel better. I know it’s time
to put all the hours of learning, training and information I’ve been gathering
to use. It’s time to not let it all sit there, it’s time to find my courage and
harness my ambition.
- What really motivates me is the desire to be
better and to inspire others, to inspire myself, to see people becoming the best versions of
themselves. I often say I like to leave places, people and situations better
than I found them.
Where does
Lisa see herself in the next 5 years?
And what would she do with her 15 minutes of fame?
- I am bad at forward planning. When you do coaching,
they do ask that – where do you see yourself? I find it difficult to project.
Ideally, a published author with multiple successful businesses that are making
a positive impact, a difference in peoples’ lives. Having our home and garden the way we want it
to be. To be enjoying our life..
What would she do with her 15 minutes
of fame?
It was a well thought out decision to put my
story forward when founding CWW. I knew that by sharing my story we would gain
media interest, as well connecting with others who were facing challenges and
feeling overwhelmed. I want CWW to get to the point where my story isn’t the
drawcard. I want it to become about all the other stories that we share and the
safe space that we create for people to connect.. My story and journey through
PTSD have been used to create attention, so CWW can grow to something that is
much bigger than me.
Even with my Massage business; I made the
decision early on to not have my name in the business name. I always wanted
Therapy Masters to be bigger than me. There are only so many people that you
can help by yourself. When you have a team, you can help many more people.
- My
first role model was my sister. She was 10 years older than me and she was so
good at everything she did: Dux of her school, state level athlete, smart –
very driven. I don’t do role models now. My perception of role models changed
greatly when my sister fell off the pedestal that I put her on, when I was much
younger. When my sister was in her 20s she started to smoke marijuana – that
didn’t work very well with her biochemistry. By the time she was in her early
30s she had developed an organic psychosis. She was diagnosed with late onset
schizophrenia at the age of 32 and struggled with her mental health for the
next 20 years. She died suddenly in 2013. She used to live here in Canberra, and
was a science teacher. I came to study here in Canberra at ANU, and she was
teaching in Canberra at the time. I was studying Abnormal Psychology when it
became obvious she wasn’t well. There she was - a living, breathing example of
my textbook.
What is
Lisa’s biggest regret?
- I have various regrets but I don’t know if
I have a particular biggest regret. Probably not having high levels of self confidence
and self belief when I started Therapy Masters in 1997. I wish I had trusted
myself and the ideas I had back then. At the time I was concerned about keeping
others happy, keeping myself small and being influenced by people around me. If
I had birthed those initial ideas even10 years ago, I would be leading the way
in various areas now, I believe. It’s so common to doubt yourself when you are
starting out. I guess it’s more about missed opportunities than regret.
Where is Lisa’s
special place?
- I feel happy and at peace here, at
home. We moved here after we had some
horrible things happen to us and this is has been our healing place.
Having
witnessed Canberra Wise Women (CWW)coming to fruition, I wanted to know how Lisa
drew her inspiration in putting it all together.
- I had the idea for a networking group for
years and years, originally the idea was for a business women’s group. Then the more I thought about it, the more I
realised that most business women I know are pretty inspired and motivated,
they are confident because they are doing work they love. It’s the other people
walking around, doubting themselves, being unmotivated, that need to be
inspired. I don’t know how I came up
with the idea for the CWW format – the idea for an interview style event just popped
in to my head, all by itself. It was
very different from what else was out there at the time. It ended up coming together really quickly.
I caught up for dinner with a friend of mine
in September 2015 and I started to share the ideas and projects I was currently
working on with her. She mentioned that her work might be interested in my women’s
networking idea. Then I went to a conference in the October, run by The Women’s
Collective and I left feeling really inspired. Driving home from the conference
it felt like the universe was yelling at me “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time!” I
emailed my friend and asked to chat further about my idea. We met in October 2015
and at the end of the month I found out that I would be able to use the
function space of PWC here in Canberra. The only provision was that I had to hold an event before the end of
year.
I had just 5 weeks to make it all happen.
Through my determination, network and friends we pulled it all together. We designed
our logo in less than 2 weeks, found an interviewer, sourced our first three
guests, started promoting, and put tickets on sale. We had 50 people at our
first event.
- Behind CWW is our personal journey through multiple,
horrible personal and business experiences. We had a long list of incidents occur
in a short amount of time, one after another. My husband and I had a business
targeted for crime. From 2007 to 2010 the business was repeatedly robbed or
vandalised.
It was a chain of events that lasted for
over 3 years – the first one, was a therapist being fraudulent in my massage
business. I had spent the day investigating what had happened at the business
and was looking forward to going home at the end of the day to eat chocolate
and drink wine. But when I got home I found that our home had been burgled – we
had $60,000 worth of belongings stolen. We went on to have 14 incidents at the
store, including 4 armed robberies in the last 12 months it was open. We closed
the business in August 2010.
I went to see ACT Victim Support in early 2011,
expecting to be given a couple of hours of free counselling. I had written out
a long list of everything we have been through and I shared all of it with the
intake officer. Then she said to me “I’ll be back shortly”. It took longer than
I expected but when she came back; she said “I’ve spoken to my supervisor; we
have never had anyone in here with this amount of incidents in such a short
time”. They allocated me 20 hours of counselling.
This was when I started to realise that
maybe we had been through a lot, that maybe I didn’t need to be hard on myself
and that I was coping pretty well, considering all we had been through. I went
on to work with a psychologist specialising in PTSD for 18 months. Because of
my background in health and well-being, I looked at my healing very
holistically. I looked at the emotional, physical and spiritual aspects and I
have done lots and lots of healing work over the last 7 years. What I learned was that being positive, being
inspired and being around like-minded people and letting go of negativity were
critical for my healing.
It is these elements from my healing:
positivity, inspiration, like-minded people that are the cornerstones of what
Canberra Wise Women is about. In short CWW is a platform for positivity.
How much do
you feel you have achieved from the initial purpose you set for yourself and
CWW, to present?
- I know CWW definitely inspires people.
Many people let us know that they leave our events feeling inspired. I know we help others find their
motivation and self belief to get their own projects off the ground. There is a
saying going around at the moment: You can’t be what you can’t see. Part of
what CWW does is shine the light on local role models. If you see someone who
had been going through something horrible, and you see that they have gotten
through it and moved on; it shines the light for you and shows you that you too
can move on from whatever you might be struggling with. That’s part of what we
share through CWW.
There are so many truly amazing and talented
people here in Canberra. Canberra is such a creative, innovative space. I think
there is a real diversity, positivity and brightness here that you don’t get in
many other places. People often come to our events who have these amazing
ideas, they have a deep yearning inside them and they are just too doubtful or
scared to put their idea out there. I feel we create a safe space for people to
tune in and listen to themselves. To really hear that voice that’s screaming –
“it’s time” at you. To know that it’s safe and okay to put their idea out in to
the world.
I know of someone who has been to our events,
who then changed her career path, establishing herself in the fitness industry.
Another friend started Canberra’s first giving circle, “Capital Giving”, a
space that empowers people to be philanthropic in their local community. And
another who has started a creative business, after finally tuning in to her
inner voice. CWW also brings people together and they start beautiful
collaborations and projects together. It’s wonderful to see it all of these
things blooming from our events. I love that CWW was that initial spark, the
introduction space - if you like, for many amazing things that are happening
right now in Canberra.
The numbers to our events dropped over the
winter months last year, which was disappointing for me. It makes you question
what you’re doing. I wondered if it was our change of venue from Barton to the
airport, or because we put on a higher number of events. There are also more
events on now in Canberra and there is more choice for people who want to go
out.
I’m in the process of planning our 2018
program at the moment. I’m looking at offering new events this year. I need to
be the leader in what we are creating and sharing. After being in business for
over 20 years I know we need to reiterate our brand and what we are doing every
18 months or 2 years. CWW’s has just
turned 2 - so it’s time to change.
What is it like, to be a Reiki Master? Does it make Lisa proud to achieve this title?
I haven’t received my Reiki attunements the
same as most people. I’ve always been told that I had Reiki naturally (I am
medically intuitive) and I had a friend who was a Reiki Master offer to provide
my first Reiki attunement in 2006. Some people feel different physically after
being attuned. After my first
attunement, I felt no difference. After my 2nd attunement, in 2011 I
felt quite different. Then with the 3rd and Reiki Master attunements
(also in 2011) I felt no difference again. I am also a Theta practitioner – Theta also uses
universal energy. As part of my healing journey, I booked in for a Theta
session. I loved it and I decided I wanted to complete the training to become a
Theta practitioner. That was in 2013.
With Reiki the energy passes through you to
the person who you are sending the healing energy to. With Theta it’s like you
are a traffic controller - you can direct the energy, and direct it where it
needs to go; it doesn’t need to pass through you, unless you want it to. Both
Reiki and Theta healing energies come directly from Source. When I do an energy
healing, I use a combination of both Reiki and Theta.
Out of all my qualifications, I think I am the
proudest of my massage qualification because they made us work for it! I used
to joke that ANU were very nice and gave me my Bachelor’s degree, while CIT
made me work hard for my Advanced Diploma.
Why does
Lisa like helping people?
- I know from personal experience that
honouring people’s energy and connecting with them helps them find the
positivity and confidence that we all possess. This is the space I come from
when I’m looking to help people – whether that’s a health client, a friend or a
guest at CWW.
- One word to
describe myself?
Depends on the time of the day. Crazed or
Creative. 
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