Читать книгу Life & Love - Lisa Messenger - Страница 8

If you didn’t know already, you will learn over the next few chapters that I am all about transparency. I am an open book (literally. You’re on page 16 of it). So before we get into the nitty gritty topics of Life & Love, I wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at our cover shoot. Because, well, it was hilarious. You see that glossy, glowing, glamorous photograph of me on the front cover? I don’t wake up every morning and climb out of bed looking like that. Being daring and disruptive, I seem to attract a certain kind of madness wherever I go, so transforming me into a cover star was, as always, a fun and crazy journey. Oh, where to begin?

As with my first book in this series, Daring & Disruptive, I did think twice about splashing my face across so many pages (me, me, me?) but I’m a visual person and the thought of a book full of black font on white paper really didn’t excite me. Plus, although I’m not a prima donna, I wanted an excuse to dress up as a princess for the day, hang out with my friends in a park, frolic in the grass and generally muck around, all under the guise of work!

Unfortunately my choice of location – Sydney’s Centennial Park because I love nature, fresh air and earthiness – isn’t exactly convenient for a photo shoot. Think about it: no power plugs for the photographer’s equipment, no mirrors for hair and make-up, a lot of people everywhere, a flock of geese who made a bee-line for me and a hundred outside factors that we couldn’t control, from weather worries to bats pooing on my dress.

Yes, this happened. I was posing on a bridge, looked up, and a whole colony decided to bomb me. Not ideal when the designer dress in question is borrowed…

I should probably pretend that everything went smoothly to plan, a seamless, flawless operation. But I’m not about smoke and mirrors, and I’m happy for you to laugh at my mishaps. (Side note: to my wonderful crew, Scott my photographer, Lydia my stylist, Lei my make-up artist and their assistants, your staying power, resilience, capability and sense of humour are astounding and you could bring calmness to a cyclone.)

Let’s just say I lived up to the title Daring & Disruptive when we descended on the park that Saturday. From my choice of ‘changing room’ (the side of the road, next to a 12-man cricket team and a bunch of their friends, who definitely got more than an eyeful) to my dog Benny coming over all fame-hungry and refusing to get out of any of the shots (after jumping into the muddy lake so he walked out looking like he had long black socks on – I’m so pleased I spent so long preening him to within an inch of his life beforehand).

What you can’t see is that many of the dresses, which were too big for me, are held together at the back by rubber bands from our sushi lunch order and oversized bulldog clips. Also the horse you’ll see later on. Well, it seemed like such a good idea to shoot myself resplendent on a horse – my first-ever job was as a horse riding instructor and I grew up in the country riding every day, so it was a poetic nod to my past. Unfortunately, the horse we borrowed was a little feisty. I was also wearing a giant tulle skirt, had a broken toe (that’s a story for later) and had failed to mention I hadn’t actually been on a (non-trail ride) horse for about 10 years. My favourite photo of the shoot is my crew cowering behind a nearby Mercedes Benz, which I was lucky I didn’t land on and go through the windscreen, quite frankly, as I tried to cling to a “hangry” horse (apparently he missed lunch) that was bucking and running in circles. Said horse also had a role in The Great Gatsby. I bet it was better behaved for Baz Luhrmann.

But do you know what? Despite the chaos, despite indecently exposing myself to a sports team, getting pooped on by wildlife and remembering why you should never work with animals, I wouldn’t change anything about this shoot. I wanted to be photographed on a backdrop that reflected who I am, and that’s certainly what I got. I am fun, chaotic, spontaneous, unexpected, full of surprises and just a little bit wild sometimes. In business, people can become so confined by how they should behave, by how events should roll out. But there is no point writing an entire book about being the fullest, bravest, biggest version of yourself, and then having a photo shoot in a white-walled studio because it’s ‘safer’.

From my refusal to wear high heels (that damn broken toe), to my fabulous book editor Amy and her boyfriend arriving on their skateboards after getting utterly lost trying to follow my directions (I may be a little directionally challenged), the entire day was a true, authentic reflection of how I like to work and live – outside the box, against the grain, with lots of spontaneous fun that follows the road less travelled. It could have all gone horrendously wrong, but was somehow okay. More than okay. Wonderful. Hilarious. Unforgettable for so many reasons – but much more on that later. I always say that when things don’t go to plan you have two choices – to freak out or to choose to look on the bright side, laugh at yourself and make the best of it. With every f**k up, I’d look at my editor and mouth her way “for the book”, as she took notes on her iPhone, which at one point read, “bat poo, mad horse, boob flash”.

During that entire day, even though I got changed 13 times, I never once looked in a mirror (we were in a park, I couldn’t). But I didn’t need to. I trusted my team completely and used their faces, their reactions and their emotions as my reflection. They all spent the entire day laughing – uncontrollably – and that was all I needed to see. So when you look at the pictures in this book (sorry if you get bored of my face) and are tempted to think that I’m perfect, that I spend my weekends wafting around beautifully in a forest, then just think outside the borders of the picture. There is probably a bat about to poop on my shoulder.

But I will wipe it off, laugh it off and carry on smiling. You should too.

Now, let’s talk Life & Love…