She may have burned herself out in her 20s, but Lisa Tse isn’t exactly taking it easy these days. The top businesswoman and founder of exclusive members club, The Sorority, explains how her focus is now helping other women succeed.
It’s pop princesses and rock royalty that usually burn out in their 20s. Yet Lisa Tse is neither.
Sure, the 32-year-old is a creative, having studied design at Central St Martins and worked successfully in the area since graduating with a Masters seven years ago. But it was her journey to become one of the UK’s most well-connected businesswomen that would nearly prove her downfall.
Meet the Devonian, born and raised in Britain by her Chinese parents, both of who emigrated from Hong Kong in the 1960s, and ‘excess’ hardly springs to mind. With her first baby due at any moment, she confides she’s had an easy pregnancy, laughing: "But then medically speaking, I’m very straight forward. I don’t smoke or drink, I’ve never much liked the taste of it. I’d rather have a green tea."
It’s excess of another kind that almost proved her downfall three years ago. Always ambitious, Tse (pronounced ‘see’) was a ‘typical’ Chinese student growing up: "Straight As, top of my class." Even up to age 15, she was happy to fulfil her family’s doctor ambitions for her. That is, until she realised she didn’t have the stomach for it and discovered her creative passion.
At Art College, while other students concentrated solely on art, Tse got her high from bringing the creative and corporate world together. It was no surprise then that at age 26, six months after finishing her study, and with a raft of awards under her belt, she launched her own design business, Lisa Tse Ltd.
“By 29, I felt 50. All these opportunities were coming up and I was just so exhausted”
Even today, her USP is the same. She and her team of 15 help clients boost their business by bringing creativity to their brand strategy, corporate literature, events, press packs and websites. By 28 though, she wasn’t just running this. Having founded Opus Artz, a digital art company with her doctor/designer husband, that too was outperforming all expectations, with large contracts and clients including Sony.
“At 29, I felt 50,” she admits. “All these opportunities were coming up and I was just so exhausted. I remember asking myself ‘When was I last really relaxed and feeling energetic and bouncing up each day?’”
She had two big realisations. The first was that her approach to life - the positivity, the go-with-the-flow attitude - hadn’t prepared her for the flip side of this. “If something comes to me, I will embrace it,” she explains. The problem was, with success and global clients coming thick and fast, she was embracing everything.
The other realisation was that she wasn’t taking care of herself properly. “Before, I rarely did any exercise because I had no time. I was just running around. But if you spend just 20 per cent of your time looking after yourself, then why would you expect your body and health to play along?” she asks. She hired a nutritionist, a personal trainer and started to turn her life around.
Funnily enough, her near burnout would be the inspiration behind a third business. Mindful of her own business tribulations, she began tuning into those of her clients, many of who were businesswomen that had quit one successful career to follow their true passion.
These women, she realised, often had the same concerns. “Women are very bad at admitting when they need help. We generally like to try and get on with it without moaning or whining. We also tend to be our own worst critic, we’re very hard on ourselves.”
With a good understanding of how difficult and isolating business can be, Tse began linking them up. “I remember them wondering why I was helping, even though it was no real effort on my part. If their business could be helped to succeed with just a phone call from me, why wouldn’t I?”
Suddenly seeing these women move forward with confidence and success, thanks to the network she’d helped create, was giving Tse the biggest high of all. That was when the idea for The Sorority struck. “It started as a hobby but, as with anything I do, it didn’t stay that way for long,” she laughs.
Her vision was to bring together a group of enterprising women to mutually inspire each other. But with interest from clients, the media and other women professionals proving overwhelming, the concept soon grew out of all proportion. Last year, the BBC covered its launch, with The Telegraph and Evening Standard also publishing large features.
“Women are very bad at admitting when they need help. We try and get on with it without moaning or whining”
Today, The Sorority is a members club with the same aim and costs £1,000 to join. It has three main types of members. The ‘Making Early Waves’ members are women doing outstanding things in their lives, regardless of their age or career. The ‘Established & Thriving’ members are women who have achieved success over the years but are looking to get to the next level. And the ‘Experienced Guides’ members are women at the top of their game who want to give back, either with advice or support.
"We always look at what our members can give and gain, it has to be a balance of both," says Tse. "For those that can’t give because they’re not at the right point in their life, it might be later that they can. But we also have a tremendous number of women who join because they’re so keen to give back and meet other like-minded women."
Perhaps it’s the maternal instinct kicking in, but Tse insists that, thanks to the work she’s put in at her creative companies, and the strong teams now in place there, The Sorority is her main focus for the foreseeable future. "I want to dedicate at least a decade to it," she insists, "and create something that is influential for a lot of women everywhere."
Find out more about The Sorority and Lisa Tse Ltd.
By Barbara Walshe
