The title of this blog is something that really resonated with me when I chatted with Lisa. She talked about the fact that what we invest in is what grows, and we need a diversity of people making those decisions. 

Lisa “had a pretty traditional comfort zone to start with, I mean, I went live on the Gold Coast, went to school on the Gold Coast, went to university, studied Business and Commerce, and started my career at Deloitte as an accountant. And, you know, had a fairly exciting career in my 20s, I went around the world, and I got to meet lots of interesting people and do lots of interesting work”. 

Then things changed when she had her first child “things kind of shifted for me in a way that I probably didn’t necessarily expect. I quickly realized that working around the world for six to eight weeks at a time wasn’t going to work anymore. And that jobs that are extremely intense, like [a] 60 or 80 hour week [became] very, very difficult to maintain.  

“So I got really passionate about what does this mean for women, and the gender investment gap, and the gender gap in general?” 

“Whilst I was building my career, I’ve also been really interested in investment from a young age. So I brought shares at 15 or 16, I bought my first investment property in 19. And then I brought five more investment properties through my 20s.  

“When I first had my children, and I started to realize work is not going to be defined the same for me. First, I tried to make it exactly the same. And that didn’t work. And then I realized, I need leverage for my time, because that’s what I’m short of. So I started to get really passionate about investment, and looking at alternatives and investment, and in particular, looking at investing in businesses. 

“And I started to realize that there was a real language gap. They talk about gender, pay gap, gender, investment gap, those sorts of things, but I felt that there was a really big gender language gap as well. I’d gone into rooms with men that were talking about investing in businesses. And I feel like I’ve had a fairly good background. I’ve studied, I’ve worked in those environments, I should be able to understand.  

“But that wasn’t always the case. So I felt that it was really important to kind of turn up in those environments and participate.” 

Lisa felt that stepping into these environments was out of her comfort zone, but also realised that women being involved in business investment should be very normal! 

Lisa not only stepped out of her comfort zone to participate and learn, she then encouraged other women to join her. There is a “cultural kind of norm around numbers and money not being a woman’s forte.” 

This bothered Lisa, as confusing language aside, investing in business is relatively simple “Do you have something that people want to buy, do more people want to buy it?” is her wonderful summary of the basics. 

And are women great investors?  “You start to realize that actually, when it comes to sharing, networking, connecting, they’re all very, very, strong skills that most women have, regardless of their educational background.” 

Lisa was initially daunted by the challenge of being a business investor in a very masculine world, but continued regardless. She found it hard at times to admit to strangers that she didn’t know things. But she loves learning and research so 18 months later is feeling much more comfortable… so she commenced her next challenge of involving more women! 

Lisa’s why was a real ‘aha’ moment for me: “I feel quite strongly that in the next 10 to 20 years, with the way that we’ve got technology changing, and the way the world’s changing, that we are going to have massive shifts and wealth. And the way that the world will be is going to be a product of who invests. So I do feel like it’s really, really important that it’s a diverse group of people that stand up to be investors, that it’s women, that it’s people of colour, that it’s people from all different backgrounds, and beliefs, so that we actually see capital kind of create the world that majority of people want to live in.” 

Lisa has a pattern of stepping out of her comfort zone, and then making it comfortable by inviting others to join her, and then stepping out again. I must admit after talking to Lisa I want to join her in whatever direction she heads next! 

Lisa did have a fabulous last piece of advice: “We don’t have wait until we are at the top of the mountain, we can have cocktails on the way.” Celebrating the little wins is an important part of making progress. 

Thank you Lisa 

About Lisa:  

Lisa Brincat is a senior Strategy and Change consultant with over 15 years of experience. Lisa has Big4 experience from Deloitte, is a qualified Chartered Accountant, a CAPM Project Manager and a Certified Exponential Organisations Coach.  
 
Her experience spans over Mining, Oil and Gas, Government and FMCG industries. Lisa has worked predominantly with top 500 multinational clients including South32, Rio Tinto, Anglogold Ashanti, BHP Billiton and Johnson and Johnson.  
 
Lisa works with and supports CXO’s and General Managers to design and implement business improvement initiatives.