Lisa O'Neill is as passionate about living in Levin as she is as about speaking on the world's stages.
Lisa O'Neill is as passionate about living in Levin as she is as about speaking on the world's stages.
Passionate Levinite Lisa O’Neill, who freely admits she is obsessed with people, is like a rainbow whirlwind blowing around the room. As an extrovert she is bubbly to the core and her passion for energy only makes this more poignant.
She is brimming with ideas, tips and information to try and help anyone who wonders wherever their energy could have gone.
On the back of her latest (her seventh) book: Energy, get it, guard it, give it, she writes: “You were looking around for something to improve your life and BOOM, I show up!”
She is a well-travelled motivational speaker, who is in great demand - she is fully booked until at least the end of the year. And the bigger the audience the better - “5000 people, no problem,” she told the Horowhenua Chronicle.
This is who she is and that action-packed lifestyle can lead to issues, she discovered years ago.
“You need to take responsibility for your own energy and many people pay little or no attention to emotional and mental energy. In theory we all know we need more sleep, and we need to eat our veges, but emotional and mental issues are on the backburner for most people.”
Born in Palmerston North, Lisa has lived in Levin since she was 2, and raised a family here, started businesses, and has recently entered her sixth decade. She still has an action-packed life, but has learned to look after herself better over the years.
“I went to Parsons Avenue Kindy, Fairfield School and Horowhenua College,” she proudly rattles off. “And I married the boy next door.”
After high school, she ventured into the fashion industry as a graphic designer and worked locally designing packaging for a while. That led to jobs in fashion and meant a lot of travel for work.
“I always loved coming home to Levin.”
Lisa O'Neill's new book.
As well as her business, travel, website and online seminars, she is a mum to four kids.
“I wanted my kids to grow up in a small town. In Levin you have the ability to relate to all kinds of people. We have such diversity here and it is wonderful to see the diversity right around you.
“It was wonderful to see my children grow up being able to see their grandparents every day. They were and still are close by.”
She takes great pains to point out that where you live or where you are from is not the important thing for either your life or your career. It is what you decide to do with your life that will make the difference.
“Most people assume I am from Auckland and are often surprised I hail proudly from a small town.”
She says the fashion job got her involved in running events and that aspect of her job grew steadliy. She found she loved it.
Her fashion expertise led to her being the fashion editor for Women’s Weekly for four years. Fancying being on TV, she rang the Avalon studios one day and said she had an idea for a fashion show. “They just said, yeah sure, come on in. Live TV is the most exciting thing for an extrovert like me.”
She was fashion ambassador for Farmers for a while, helping them to raise funds for Plunket.
She also led a global online business school for five years with 280 students from around the world until late last year.
She says often people tell her they believe she is lucky to be doing what she loves. Really, is her response? She doesn’t think so - about the luck part that is.
“Lucky has nothing to do with it. I watch the world around me all the time and grab an opportunity when I see it. "
“I got sick of it. I discovered that if you want to make your life better, you need to change your life, changing just clothes does not work.”
So she decided to embark on a career path that would help people be better. That meant organising conferences, setting up leadership programmes, including some for self-employed people.
“I am obsessed with people and personal development.”
She started writing in 2014 and published her first two books through Penguin.
“The first one was an instructional fashion book.”
“We should be much more discerning [as] to who our friends are. Why put up with people you do not like, who criticise you and make you feel small?
Lisa O'Neill is the author of seven books.
“Why live in a house you do not like? Make your life the way you want it to be,” is her advice.
For her, that includes realising what your favourite place is: the forest, the beach, the library.
An honest assessment of herself leads to the outrageous statement that she believes she is totally unemployable. Yet she is as busy as a top-10 CEO with her own business.
“I am impulsive, independent and do not like to be told what to do,” she explains.
Her passion for public speaking did not fall out of the sky.
“I always enjoyed speaking. I was on the debating team at Horowhenua College and competed in speech competitions as a teenager. Standing in front of an audience of 5000 is really exciting; I love it.”
Even during the global pandemic, she managed to amass an audience, online, as many as 500, though she said she is more than happy to be able to do her job in person, rather than via a screen.
Enough businesses are still investing in their people and that keeps her busy too.
“Many find it hard to get good people these days.”
She said there is no need to be or even feel limited by your location.
“You can do anything, look for opportunities around you. There are plenty of admirable people in Horowhenua. Look at businesses like Lewis Farms, Genoese Pesto, Woodys, Wayne Bishop, or Canvasland. That is all right here in Horowhenua.”
She loves her small town and regrets the bad rap we are getting.
“We have everything we need, and the climate is amazing. And bigger places like Palmerston North and Wellington are not that far away.”
In her latest book she advises selfishness – as in, be more like you, rather than be what other people want you to be – as an answer to the exhaustion, tiredness, feeling depleted just trying to survive, many are feeling.
“Emotional energy is about inspiration; guarding this means boundaries are needed and giving emotional energy is all about enthusiasm.”
