What You Know is More Valuable Than You Think

Lisa Johnson is a powerhouse in the world of online business, known for her ability to turn knowledge into income. However, her journey to success has been anything but straightforward.

Lisa’s path to entrepreneurship wasn’t planned from the start. Growing up, she faced financial struggles, and a significant part of her early adult life was spent battling a negative money mindset. She was raised to believe that wealthy people were bad, a view shaped by bullying from wealthier children at school. When she started trying to make money herself, it had an impact because she found herself holding back. She didn’t want to become “one of those kinds of people”.

After doing a lot of mindset work, Lisa began to make money very quickly. She was 40 when she started, but before then, she had been £35,000 in debt. “I always had nothing, always trying to make ends meet,” she says. At the time, she had a wedding planning business and admits to making every mistake possible. She read every book she could get her hands on and attended every free webinar in an effort to turn things around. Eventually, she began to make a decent amount

of money, and people started asking how she’d done it. That’s when she realised she was really good at teaching business in a way that didn’t use jargon or overwhelm people.

In her first year of business, Lisa made £220,000 working 80-hour weeks. Although the money was coming in, she was exhausted, as it was all one-to-one work, she was trading time for money. That’s when she began researching passive income streams. She learned about everything from cryptocurrency and app development to affiliate marketing and online courses, and began incorporating these streams into her own business.

By the end of her second year, Lisa was working around 30 hours a month and making over £1 million. She found that affiliate marketing worked best for her and believes everyone has something they can sell. She often reminds people that “your knowledge isn’t common knowledge”, and shares examples of how one of her clients made thousands from a hula hooping membership. For Lisa, you don’t need a big, complex idea, you just need to be passionate about it.

She’s quick to point out that there’s no such thing as getting rich quickly. She often speaks out about some of the biggest scams circulating at the moment, including pyramid schemes, and encourages people to watch out for red flags. Lisa is clear that you’re not going to make money in six weeks; it’s going to take a year or more. She believes that people who are doing things properly won’t shy away from sharing their annual accounts, and that places like Companies House don’t always reflect what’s really going on behind the scenes.

Lisa has featured in Forbes multiple times for her openness about business challenges and failures, which she always tries to turn into learning opportunities. She believes people want to feel like they’re not alone, and says one of the best things she’s done to get PR is simply to be honest about what it really takes to build a business.

Integrity is one of Lisa’s core business values. When discussing how ethics can sometimes hinder results, she explains that being transparent can make it harder to sell, because it’s easier to make money by promising the world. For her, though, it’s about what success means to you. It isn’t just about the money, but also about having a genuinely positive impact on people.

If she could give advice to her younger self, it would be not to care so much about what other people think. She believes this holds so many people back—we do things and worry too much about how we’re perceived. She often reminds herself of the phrase, “If they’re not paying your bills, their opinion doesn’t matter”. She also advises not to take advice from someone whose life or position you wouldn’t want yourself. Being a woman who talks openly about money, Lisa is no stranger to online trolling, but she firmly believes it says more about them than it does about her.

In the UK, she notes, there is still a stigma around conversations about money. She finds it odd that we’ll go to the pub with our girlfriends and talk openly about sex, but nobody wants to discuss their salary. Lisa made a promise to herself that once she started making money, she would talk about it, so people could see what’s possible.

Lisa’s first book was a Sunday Times bestseller, something she celebrates, though she admits she has more to say now. She was in a very different place when she wrote it. Having made around £22 million in recent years, she acknowledges that money alone doesn’t make you happy, and her second book will explore what happiness really is.

You can find out more about Lisa and follow her on Instagram at @lisajohnsonstrategist.