Podcast #17 Vanessa Lépine

Recorded at Klara, a great foodcourt with great coffee, yoga and also COMEDY NIGHTS!

Vanessa Lépine

Her fav coffee: actually Vanessa is more of a tea or hot chocolate (with real chocolate) kind of person
Her fav spot in Zürich: Café 1842

Vanessa lives in Zürich but comes from Montréal. She originally moved for love and decided to stay in Switzerland. She felt like she was growing way more over here than being back home in Canada and that’s why she stayed.

She started creating her own Open Mic in the French part of Switzerland and Lausanne especially. At the time, she wanted to improve her French stand-up, the problem was that comedy was happening only once a month which is not enough to improve, so she just created her own thing!

So l’open mic de Lausanne was born and there to test new material for smaller crowds.

Later on, she created le plan comédie, a comedy tour in Switzerland (in Zürich, Lausanne, Basel, Fribourg) with french speaking artists from all over the world (well the french speaking countries).

She quit her Marketing job in May 2019 to dedicate her life to comedy: organizing, managing and performing!

Big news: in January she will start managing a brand new comedy club in Lausanne!

How she got into stand up:

When she was a kid, she had a tape of François Pérusse in her walkman and used to know it by heart.

She was a very shy teenager but used to love dancing and performing, she would express her feelings through dance.

Today she still dances a mix of hip hop & ballet.

Later on at university she also had speaking classes while doing academic competition.

She was also a cheerleader and got a neck injury and couldn’t dance anymore and that’s when she started writing.

Then she had a comedian friend who taught her a few things, like the rule of 3.

And she also used to write a blog about anything and everything using humour.

One day, while watching live comedy, she felt in her gut that she had to be on stage and do that too! In fact she was angry at herself for not doing it already!

So she took a little comedy workshop in Zürich and then started comedy and participated at A LOT of open mics at the beginning.

Her self-care practices:

Therapy and especially Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
When she notices a tornado of thoughts coming she does maths in her head.
Works on self-worth
Journaling and writing, that’s how she expresses her feelings. She starts with ‘the truth is’ or practices The Artist’s Way.
Surrounding herself with the right people (people who can listen but who can tell her the truth too)
She will try her best to eat properly when she doesn’t feel good
Drinking tea
Getting vegan comforting sweaters 😉

The challenges of being self-employed:

Frustration and stress when you don’t have the results you expected like less tickets sold. She shares more on the podcast.

Advices for people starting their own journey as entrepreneurs:

Prioritize
Don’t be mad at yourself if things don’t go so well
Adapt
Trust the right people
Expect some backlash
Don’t make it just about yourself either
Be nice to yourself
Take time to slow down and you will be more productive if you do
She recommends people to quit their jobs if they are thinking about it and to go for it!

Her regular day:

Wakes up and drinks one liter of tea and then starts working but doesn’t have a fixed routine yet.

Whenever she wants to write, she plays a Spotify playlist (usually classical or piano) to put her in the mood to write.

Her favorite Superhero:

Batman

Because he became what he feared: bats + he is doing a lot of good things but not for the recognition.

A question from the Women of Impact podcast :

What’s your super power?

‘Grit cause I don’t quit’

When she says ‘it’s happening, it’s happening and there is no other option!’

Where you can find her online:

vanessalepine.com