Lexine Ménard, femme d'affaire d'Embrun, nous parle de sont parcours entrepreneurial. Dans l'épisode d'aujourd'hui, on s'parle de la réalité d'être non seulement une femme en entreprenariat, mais d'être une JEUNE femme entrepreneure !
Lexine, F-O qu'on s'parle de l'entrepreneuriat au féminin !
Lexine est une jeune femme entrepreneur franco-ontarienne d'Embrun, dans l'Est ontarien. Elle a fondé sa première entreprise, Lexine Photographie, à l'âge de 17 ans et a depuis continué à croitre dans le monde entrepreneurial. À l'âge de 23 ans elle a maintenant trois entreprises : Lexine photographie, LexiBooth et une entreprise de beignets fait maison nommée Gazoo's Donuts. En 2020, elle a aussi acheté son premier studio de photographie. Lexine a aussi une grande passion pour la formation et l'animation de conférences en entrepreneurship. Lexine est un modèle accessible pour toutes les jeunes femmes entrepreneures d'aujourd'hui !
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00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, I am Camille Sigouin, co-host of the podcast and I am Danielle Roy, the other host with Camille.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: I wanted to say a big thank you for being with us for the next 30 minutes.
00:00:14
Speaker 3: Thank you for participating in the first official podcast of the Assembly of the Francophonie in Ontario, AFO.
00:00:20
Speaker 1: In this podcast, we have discussions with influential people and accessible models in the Franco-Ontarian community. This first season is funded by the Ottawa Bilingual program of ACFO Ottawa. It is a micro-grants program that supports the community in the creation of new bilingualism projects.
00:00:42
Speaker 2: Today, we talked with Léxine Ménard, who is also known as LexiBooth, Lexine Photographie, Gazou donuts, we can go on for days. Lexine came to talk to us about female entrepreneurship, all that it means to a young woman entrepreneur.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: Today we were told about her thinking processes, how she approaches her clients, the challenges that she has already overcome because she is a young woman. It really was an inspiring conversation for me. These are things that, as a young woman, we don't realize all the time that we live at the same time but we live it all the time, so that it was really interesting for me to have a discussion with her and I I'm sure for Camille too, I can't wait to share it with you. Good listening !
00:01:29
Speaker 1: Good podcast everyone!
00:01:39
Speaker 1: Hello Léxine! How are you today ?
00:01:45
Speaker 1: I’m good, how are you?
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us for episode 3 of the AFO podcast.
00:01:51
Speaker 3: Léxine, we need to talk about female entrepreneurship.
00:01:57
Speaker 1: Tell us a bit about yourself Lexine, tell us about your background, your experiences, your expertise, your businesses ...
00:02:09
Speaker 2: It's always a little weird talking about what I do because sometimes I don't know it myself. haha
00:02:15
Speaker 3: Most people see me as Léxine the photographer. So I really started in high school, I was in grade 11 and they needed someone to photograph the yearbook, and I was like "wow a great excuse to go talk to the handsome boys", not necessarily . I really liked having a camera in my hands and meeting new people. It was really perfect for me. Since then, it really has snowballed and I am now a full time photographer. The amount of people in the bank who ask me "Oh yeah? You do that like a job? For real? Like not like a hobby?" and I must answer them as yes and it is going well so far.
00:02:35
Speaker 1: To give a bit of context on my business, in 2018 I was still at university so I had started my Bacc, and I was starting to be bored in my studies and my exams. So I did some research on photo booths because I thought they were really cool. I thought if anyone else could do it, that I was going to find a way to do it even cooler.
00:02:46
Speaker 1: So I did my research, I bought a photo booth, and I started very originally my business with the name LexiBooth. Because I like my name very much.
00:03:01
Speaker 1: Then that too had a snowball effect. I had one and then in 6 months I bought 2, after another three I bought 3 and we had reached 5 photobooth at LexiBooth when COVID hit. It really has become a business on its own.
00:03:01
Speaker 1: And now the last one, we can say that was ultra temporary, maybe event- driven one day, it's the Gazoo Donut which is appreciated by the name of my father. Everyone calls my daddy Gazoo. So I'm Gazou’s daughter if you walk around the village of Embrun and the world will understand strangely right away.
00:03:01
Speaker 1: He liked Donuts and at one point I said we should buy ourselves a machine. So I researched for 20 minutes and bought one from Hungary. Not recommended to everyone. To then make it in my cellar for a few months and then when the pandemic hit I thought, what is the answer to happiness in quarantine, when you are alone at home and had donuts on your doorstep. So we started making donuts for a few months when everyone was really busy. It was our way of bringing something fun to people. There are people who were waiting for us with a beer when we made our deliveries.
00:05:11
Speaker 1: That's kind of what's going on in my life.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: Just because you mentioned it we might start with this question, the fun of 2020, COVID, everyone's favorite pandemic. I know you are known a little bit, I saw that you won prizes and all. You are known to be an event, wedding and conference photographers and all that. Being an event person myself, I am aware that the events world has been turned upside down. How did that affect all of this? How are you dealing with the repercussions?
00:06:11
Speaker 1: What's really funny? Is it that the pandemic struck in March? I was just in the South for a wedding. So I had a contract with an extraordinary couple and we had Justin Trudeau's order to stay in Canada otherwise there was a risk of not taking a plane back home. I said, you know what, I have a couple waiting for me down south for their weddings and there's no way I was going to leave them alone with no photos. So when it hit, I was on a plane with like 6 people in a 350 seat plane.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: It's not something we put everywhere because it was frowned upon. But in my case it was a professional case and I said I was going to be there for them. We were lucky because we had to leave in a few days to catch the last plane that landed in Montreal. I am very lucky to have come back otherwise I would have been much darker.
00:07:15
Speaker 1: When we came back we really saw the repercussions and I started to get messages from my couples, like overnight full of questions like "what are we doing? You must know? " and I always told people to do what made them feel good. There were people who preferred to push back and people who preferred to wait and see what would happen. It was really a great lesson, you really see the priorities of people in the industry. Yes the couple had me as suppliers but in events there are plenty of suppliers that you have to manage. You really saw everyone panicking and didn't know where to go. Everyone should take care of themselves. The couples had to cancel because they couldn't imagine getting married under conditions like that. But the suppliers panicked since they lost their entire contract overnight.
00:07:15
Speaker 1: What I did was calculated all my expenses to survive like on Kraft Dinner for two years. If I have enough money to pay for my house, electricity and kraft dinner every day, I'll be okay. Other than that I wanted to offer as much flexibility as possible to my clients because I couldn't imagine myself in their shoes. It's such an important event for people, it's not their fault that they had to cancel. I told my clients tell me what you prefer and we'll work it out. From a business point of view I really learned what my values are. We must not forget that our customers are people like us. It's difficult sometimes but I try as much as possible to have an easy, flexible and accessible approach. I was still lucky on the photography side because many people decided to take the advantage of not having to invite 13 million people and to have a private ceremony while respecting social distancing. They called me saying "Yes, Léxine, we no longer have to invite the uncle we don't want to have!". Weddings of 300 people who went down to 50 very quickly.
00:10:43
Speaker 3: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
00:10:46
Speaker 1: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! With a list of 800 people overnight. Ha ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha !
00:10:58
Speaker 1: So there are several people who pushed forward with their marriage anyway, but for others it was really a disadvantage. Then a good side of my job is that photography is really even more essential when you want to share moments with people who weren't there. Many have pushed back, it's true. But I was lucky anyway. I have a little couple when we were just, me, my boyfriend and we went up a mountain and they got married alone. They decided to go ahead and they used me as a witness. I have witnessed three couples this year. Because I was alone with them.
00:11:43
Speaker 1: It's really intimate as an experience, as really special. You do like wow is that’s my job? It's not really what being a photographer is, but that's okay. I was still lucky to have had the chance to experience many very intimate weddings and events.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: Photobooth side, for example, we were less lucky. This was supposed to be our biggest year, we had like 250 contracts within like 6 months. We only did 3 of the 250 contracts. It was a little safer because we had such a great team, we were good people. It took us two years to build the business to this point. I try not to think too much about the negative. I focus on the fact that one day everything will come back and people will want to come together more than ever. Honestly, I have stopped putting energy into LexiBooth for now. It is a business that will be on hold until the pandemic is over.
00:13:13
Speaker 3: Yes that's it because a photo booth is not a single person who will take a photo. It's groups of 10 people who jump on each other and create memories.
00:13:28
Speaker 1: We did have a few face-to-face events where people had remained in their bubbles. There were even people taking pictures with masks. It sounded very COVID. But the reality is that there were rentals that prevented our services, they said no way that you bring a photo booth here because it can encourage people to stick together more. It was another little stick in the wheels. There were virtual photo booths that came out, but it was not the same. So that hit her harder.
00:13:28
Speaker 1: But as I tell the world that's why we got government help. There have been some great initiatives in the region to give funds to small businesses. I also had a super nice scholarship for women entrepreneurs. They started this scholarship because they noticed that women entrepreneurs were the most affected by the impacts of COVID because they had to stay at home with the children. They had found according to statistics that in the majority of families, men left the house to work and women stayed. So if it was a female entrepreneur it struck her even more because they could not put emphasis in their business. So he gave this fund to companies that were owned by more than 50% by a woman.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: It's super interesting, I didn't know there had been this.
00:14:47
Speaker 1: Yes it was really not well published. People are very afraid to apply for funds because they think there will be a catch. You just have to be very honest. If he doesn't want to give you money he isn't going to give it. It is not serious. I have been able to help a few people apply for funds like this.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: I think it's so important to focus on women entrepreneurs because I think it's something that is growing. It is women who decide to go into entrepreneurship alone and do things their own way. It's crazy to think that when we talk about entrepreneurship and business, it really hasn't been that long since women stayed at home to take care of children and that was the role of women. I admire that Léxine so much, I see you going and I saw one of your post on instagram and I sent a screen shot to Camille and I said "Well, we are not doing enough".
00:17:30
Speaker 2: We are there watching television with our glass of wine and pizza.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: Sometimes I would trade for this lifestyle too!
00:17:56
Speaker 3: When I saw that you were going back to school I said to myself, the girl in business 3, how are you going to do that? Are you sleeping?
00:18:18
Speaker 1: Thank you! But honestly when COVID hit, I only had one class in March and didn't have to take my final exam. I told myself that for the first time in my life I will have access to my virtual education and I will have time to finish my studies since I had less contracts. I had already done 2 1/2 of my Bacc. My initial life plan was to go to college and become a kindergarten teacher. This is why I like to take pictures of families. I often have more fun than the children. I sleep very well after my sessions with children because I run everywhere.
00:18:18
Speaker 1: My mom was a high school teacher for 30 years, so it was natural for me to do that. However in my second year of university I did photo editing in all of my classes. I had a lot of people wondering like "why is there a baby on your screen during statistics class? I don't understand." So in my explanation I often gave my business cards to my classmates. I had several contracts from my former classmates like this.
00:18:18
Speaker 1: So after two and a half years I decided that my dream was to have at least one wedding in the south. So I did a promotion at the Ottawa Wedding Show saying that if the couple bought my ticket, I would take their photos for free. I ended up booking 4 weddings in the south in 4 months like this. It really helped build my portfolio because I was still just starting out. So I made 4 weddings in the south in 4 months and I had to make the decision to quit school and really put my focus on my business. I did as many online classes as possible to get ahead but eventually I had done everything. I also had 50 marriage contracts that year so I knew the business was going well. All the contracts were in September and October and I could not see myself managing full time classes with 50 marriage contracts at the same time.
00:22:56
Speaker 1: I had done my research and you remain students at the university if you take a course every 2 years so I took a course to keep my status as a student. When COVID arrived I thought to myself that this was the perfect opportunity to finish my baccalaureate since everything will be online. My life will still be calm because I am not full of contracts, nothing is an obstacle.
00:23:02
Speaker 1: That's not exactly what happened. We were very lucky that life started again and I got school contracts. It was absolutely amazing. It took a little more of my time than expected but it worked anyway.
00:23:52
Speaker 1: I've always said that when life gives you opportunities, like a building for sale on a street corner, you say yes, and then you figure out how you're going to do it. Because if you don't say yes, someone else will. Say yes and then if it goes wrong you will have learned something.
00:24:13
Speaker 3: Because you started off, we're going to tell each other real things, we're pretty much the same age. You are a young woman entrepreneur and you already have a lot of notoriety in your region and also in Ontario. You could start any business and people will automatically take you seriously. How did you acquire this notoriety? How did you manage to get taken seriously as a young woman?
00:24:55
Speaker 2: No, that's the right words Cam, Young female entrepreneurs have a hard time being taken seriously. Sad to say but it's true.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: I'm still working pretty hard. I still have a lot of work to do. As a woman you unfortunately always have work to do. Sad to say and it's not something you want to mention all the time because you don't want to be the person who complains all the time. But it's very, very real. When I started I didn't go to the community because I was afraid that people wouldn't take me seriously. My first year in business was in my 12th grade and I was doing all of my advertising on Kijiji. Not recommended for everyone. A weird little world Kijiji. It really allowed me to build my portfolio during this time. This allowed people in the community to see that there are outsiders who trust me so we can probably trust her. The community is very strong here and also very small, people talk to each other and talk to each other a lot. It was therefore very important that from the first day I was above and beyond people's expectations. Even if sometimes it didn't appeal to me. That's what snowballed because no one could say I was giving bad service. Even though my photos weren't the best at first, people kept coming back because I was giving good service. It's normal for any job you get better every year.
00:27:40
Speaker 3: The first wedding I had I had never been to a wedding in my life. I arrived with a camera and a lense and did my best. I was trying to see what is important for them to capture the important moments. I had to stay 14 hours. I don't do this anymore, nobody needs pictures for 14 hours. The second wedding I did had a Super Mario Brothers theme. I thought all weddings were going to have themes like this. They were so cool! People are all very different! But you have to constantly prove yourself. But the most important thing in business in the world is to put your customers first. The minute you put the happiness of your business before the happiness of your customers, it won't work anymore. This is how businesses close their doors.
00:29:44
Speaker 2: So far, what's your biggest challenge? and what is the advice you would give to another young entrepreneur?
00:30:15
Speaker 3: I would say it was an experience that I had, it has not really been a long time since this had happened to me but it definitely was my bigger problem. I am 5 foot 3, I speak like I'm hyper on sugar 24/7, I have big eyes and I am very expressive. So when you meet me, sometimes it's hard to take me seriously, despite everything. My first contracts that I signed I was 17, they asked me "How old are you?" and I said 17 years old, and they said "I don’t want to sign. you're too young, there's no way you can be a professional at your age." Age means nothing, there is the biggest trend in the world right now from young influencer entrepreneurs with social media, it's fashionable. Today I went to sign papers at a bank to finalize the purchase of my second property and she asked again if my mother was coming to sign the papers with me. I was like no. Let's see. To be a young woman with a lot of energy. it's hard to get yourself taken seriously, you always have to prove yourself constantly. It's always a challenge for me and I think it always will be.
00:30:18
Speaker 1: It's about trusting my own way no matter who I'm talking to. The number of people who come to me and say "yes you know photography there, it's not going to be for the rest of your life. Maybe you should focus on your priorities as a woman like having a family" . This just happened to me very recently from another photographer in the community that I went to see for advice and they said maybe as a woman I shouldn't be a professional and that I should focus on my career as a woman because women shouldn't necessarily be entrepreneurs.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: There are two ways to take this, I can say yes it's true I should rethink my life or I can say, watch me do it. Women can do anything that men can do. A person's gender doesn't mean anything. We're all smart and capable so if I had to say to a woman entrepreneur who wants to go all out, it's something that fascinates me enormously. Our greatest fear is; what if that doesn't work. We rarely think about what could go really well. I think that's really the difference between people who take risks and those who don't. We put so much emphasis on the negative that we forget all the things that could be super cool! I say all the time Just do it! Stop overthinking it and start! Even if it doesn't work you can say that you tried. Any entrepreneur will tell you that they have failed a few times and if they haven't failed they have a lot to learn. I listen to a lot of entrepreneur podcasts that show me that everyone makes mistakes and you can learn from other people's mistakes too. Everyone is human. And we are really blessed in Canada, even in a pandemic. It's a perfect time to try.
00:31:20
Speaker 2: From one young professional to another, seeing someone like you who is really active on social media and pushing for it is really inspiring. I find you very brave. I can't wait to see the next thing you do.
00:34:34
Speaker 2: You said it's important to stay true to who you are and I find that super important. You don't have to be boring to be professional and taken seriously. I think that more and more, the line of what is professional evolves. One day I was told that I shouldn't wear red lipstick in a professional environment because it brings too much attention to your lips. These are comments that we hear so often that it is as if we no longer notice them.
00:34:34
Speaker 2: I was in a professional meeting recently and we were talking about a long term project. The person asked me "how old are you?" so I answered 24 years old, and the person answered me saying "oh 24 years old, hmm, do you want kids?", and I said yes possibly but I found that so weird talking points, then he said "yes but you know it's because it's a hindrance, it's a long term project". My reaction immediately was to justify myself and reassure him that it wouldn't be a problem.
00:34:58
Speaker 1: Yes it's an automatic reaction! This is not the right reaction to have but we do it all the time! The reaction should be "my personal life is not about you".
00:35:10
Speaker 2: It's such a personal choice. Why would your personal choice to have children affect your performance as a professional? There are business women who are extraordinary and they have 4 children at home! and they are fantastic mothers too! Being a mother does not take away your talent or your skills.
00:38:48
Speaker 3: We could talk about it for a long time, but we're running out of time! Thank you very much Léxine for joining us on our podcast! If people want to follow you on social media, what platforms are you on?
00:39:00
Speaker 3: My photography page and my personal page on instagram!
00:39:28
Speaker 2: Don't forget to follow AFO on their platform too so @monassemblee on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
00:39:39
Speaker 1: Thank you again Léxine and in the next episode we will talk about living in the French-speaking world with a handicap. Thank you everybody !