Virginie Simon - one with life’s rhythm
“ I don’t want to hide who I am, so I made the decision that clients will come to me because I am different. In Switzerland the type of PR that I do it’s mostly older men doing it.”
Our chat started with that statement and it continued for over an hour: an interview mixed with pure girl talk. It’s very easy to mistake Virginie for a tomboy due to her passion for boxing - she is currently also training to fight officially. However, talking with her I realised how much she is infused with a flowy feminine essence: the kind with healthy boundaries and a loud inner guidance.
VS: “Authenticity is very important to me. I do boxing, I’m a girl, I’m a salsa teacher and I have a PR Strategy company - Simon & Co. I am preparing to fight next year and maybe one day I will have a belt in my room!! I was doing traditional English boxing but one of my coaches told me to switch to kick boxing because I already have good hands so I would “only” need to add the legs - as if that was an easy thing. I think it’s amazing to empower other women and not be scared of who we are. In my case is especially difficult because I am a leader and I own my own company, my assistants are all males, and at the same time I am a woman, I do boxing, I live alone with my dog, and many people looking from outside might think this is not right, it’s a masculine lifestyle. However, the traditional female and male roles and professions are being challenged and there are crossovers. We are shaping the world. I love to travel the world and be able to do that, I do not want to change that about myself. It’s nice to see you also sharing experiences of other women.”
TG: Thank you. Virginie you talk with such passion about boxing that I want to know what boxing is to you?
I started when we met three years ago! That guy Angelo who was running the gym we both used to go to, he invited me to try boxing…. After a few weeks I gave it a try and I am the only one who stayed because all the others got injured. After that I joined a proper boxing club. Everyone who knew me from way before thought I was doing it since I was a child.
How fascinating. I recently realised of myself that I have started collage only recently and yet I feel deep in me that I have always done it, like it’s a true part of me. Perhaps that’s how it feels to us and others when we discover a passion or activity that is deeply connected with us. It has been dormant in us until we activated it.
What do you express of yourself through boxing?
It’s a lot of discipline, which I like. To me it’s a time just for me. In a way it’s like autohypnosis with its repetitive movements during training. To do left-right correctly it’s at least one year of practice. It’s a way to push my boundaries, for it is power, mental strength, and physical strength. As I said there is a lot of discipline, it’s funny because in my life I am all over the place but when I’m there I’m there. Boxing is like an anchor for me. I release all the bad energy and the stress. After a class I’m dead and at the same time have a deep sense of wellbeing, I’m brand new.
I love this because I did kickboxing, and how boxing comes across is usually this super competitive and masculine practice. However I too had a sense of wellbeing in training my body beyond its limits. Today the way you live boxing is for me yoga. Some days it’s a challenge. I am not a person who sits in meditation in silence but during that hour of yoga I train my mind to be in the body, I train myself to be graceful rather than pushing. In yoga I enter a space of dialogue with me.
It’s true what you say, it is a way for me to connect with myself. And really be aware of what are my strengths and what I need to improve. Or maybe it’s about kindness because some days you cannot push for two hours. Also for me it’s about family, I have lots of friends and where I go there it’s very social. We are not fighting everyday nor ending with bleeding faces. You know, it’s like playing chess too because you need to know or foresee the next move of your adversary to make sure for instance if I know I will receive a hook from the right then I can adapt and give a punch first. It’s a strategy game I enjoy very much. It’s a vigorous sport, tough but when you achieve something you feel a great sense of accomplishment.
The same with surfing. It looks so cute when you see hot girls doing it but you are crawling just to go get the wave which you eat before you get to ride, when you get to the ideal spot you are already tired. If you manage to get one wave out of twenty you are happy and this feeling of a few seconds of catching the wave lasts much longer.
And let's not forget you are a salsa teacher…..
I started in 2007 and I don’t know why. I discovered it at the age of 17 and salsa was not a trend at all at the time. Then when I was 18 I took my first plane, I remember I was working for two whole summers just to pay for a flight to Cuba for my 18th birthday. I knew nothing about Cuba. When I came back I decided to take proper salsa lessons in Lausanne because at that point to me salsa was a way of self-expression. It’s the opposite of boxing but they are quite complimentary. In Cuba they have a huge boxing culture and when you box there, you are told to go dance in the evening because it’s all about pasitos and how you move. And I have to say that the trickier part of boxing is not the arms, not the power but moving.
What did you study? How did you become a PR Strategist by profession?
Well, in high school I picked Visual Arts as my main topic because I wanted to be an artist. After that degree I wanted to study more because studying comes easy to me, but a teacher came to me and told me that if I didn’t want to become an art teacher I should not follow that path to end up like a starving artist in Mont Martre.
All my friends were studying Psychology so I decided to follow them in Geneva. I did one year of Psychology because after three months I realised it’s not for me. I was interested in Psychology At Work which has more marketing and communication but I had to finish the three years of Psychology to enter that specific master, I said no I cannot. Patience is not my thing either.
I went to Lausanne to study Sociology and Human Sciences with a minor in Political Sciences. I loved that! Then for a master's degree I signed my curriculum in Geneva for a Master in Communication and in Freiburg for a Master in Journalism and Communication. However, one morning I received an email from my current University saying that there was time until 12 o’ clock today to sign up for a Master in Political Sciences, basically they had changed the entry requirements. So I called my father, it was 11 am, and told him I just read an email I did not see before (my father was not surprised since I never read my emails) and I asked him what I should do since I already paid and pitched my curriculum to two universities…. He asked me: Virginie what is the most challenging master you could do? And I said without any sign of a doubt Political Sciences & International Economy. He said ok then let's do it! And at 11’15 AM I ran to my university office to register for the Master in Political Sciences. I loved this master!!
So during university I worked two jobs in two newspapers, coming from Visual Arts I was also interested in media and the way you promote things. I wanted to be in the field of communication but did not know how specifically. Thanks to these two internships I learned I did not want to be a journalist, it lacked project management.
At last after this degree I became a PR agent, I sent my CV soon after I graduated and got hired by a small agency in Geneva - but I didn’t stay long as they were in crisis. Then I got hired by the Federal Office of Public Health which was also facing a crisis and I was in charge of HIV campaigns, together against the flu, vaccinations etc - sounds familiar? LOL It was the 2009 H1A1 outbreak and they wanted someone who could make their communication to the public not fear-based.
After, I deepened my studies in Marketing Management, and while working for another small agency I studied Strategic Branding in London.
I picked what interested me to make my own curriculum. I always listen to my gut. And every time I took those decisions they were the best ones for me. When I would wake up in the morning and realised I could not work anymore in that company, then I was done and I just said goodbye.
What a powerful story! It shows me how maybe in the moment you take the decision, it does not make sense especially for people around you. I have struggled with making sense for other people all my life and now I am learning to lean more into those decisions that don’t make logical sense.
I think you and I are between two generations and we are less concerned with a nice linear path. I remember going to job interviews where people would tell me my CV did not make sense to them and I told them to me it truly makes sense because I wanted to do something to compliment what I was looking for. Only studying sociology I felt I was turning around in a loop of thoughts I felt the need to break free from and go one step further, always one step further.
Yesterday they did not understand what I did, today it is considered a plus.
So do what you like! I did not know I was going to work in PR, I didn’t even know what is PR… it happened.
Who is Virginie the PR agent and founder of Simon & Co.?
In the UK and the US my job is more defined than in Switzerland, where there is no agreement on the definition of PR. We have many communication agencies but to me communication is just one tool in PR. Public Relations is much more in the sense that our goal is to put our clients in relation with the right person - be it journalists, key opinion leaders, trade unions sometimes, or even politicians - to make sure they get the right support at the right time to reach their goal. It’s strategic in that sense. The goal is really to support them by leveraging different kinds of tools which can be media relations, external/internal communication, maybe influencer marketing to for instance manage a huge crisis, or to improve their reputation. We have a lot of reputation management plans, and to launch a project or product.
Right now I am doing more workshops and trainings. I would say we curate relations more than facebook pages.
Lastly I want to bring attention to your way of working which is through collaborations and partnerships both in Switzerland and outside…
It’s true and it’s strange because when I left the PR agency I was working for they all told me I will never make it, that I am not doing it right, that I will never work with big brands. Well I think the world is changing because even big brands are not seeking huge PR agencies with 12 people working for a time, they are looking for competencies and expertise. And they want to make sure that the person they hire is going to be the same throughout the project. They want to see you as a consultant and don’t want an intern doing the job.
So when I started it was very different for me and I liked that people came to me from the network. When I left the agency I was fed up and did not want to be in that kind of job because I worked every day all day and was paid less than my male colleagues. They told me that what I was doing was too marketing and un truc des filles (a girly thing), as I was leading a campaign project for Diageo company and they are leaders in spirits. But when I left they all came to me. It was just a matter of network and relationships. Basically what I do now with my clients.
What companies are looking for now is people they can trust, who can follow them and tell them what to do. I am highly paid to tell them that what they are doing is wrong if I don’t trust that process, then I give them another plan. I know some people may be scared to lose clients but when they come to me they know I sometimes refuse to take on a project because I don’t think it’s going to work. I can tell them it’s not the right time too as timing is very important. In all this work I want to remain independent, my independence is very important to me and it’s the reason why I have employees. They are people I want to support because they are people who did not fit in the role and don’t come from the communication field. I have no issue telling people “I am a small agency but here’s our competencies, we’re here for you and we don’t take on the work for a competitor”. Brands value that and trust us also because of our partnerships in bigger cities.
The most important and also the most difficult part of having your own company is to surround yourself with the right people. When you start something, it can be big or small it doesn’t matter, when it gets into the public then you are like this light in the middle of the night that attracts thousands of mosquitos… and they all come for you but not because of you but because of their proper interest. So it’s very important to define what you want to reach, your vision, your mission and what your values are. I trust my team and sleep solidly at night! Part of my lifestyle is to be able to physically move for several months in a year. I designed my career and company to be totally location-independent.
You are re-defining for me what small means. What we might perceive as small, as in having a small structure, may actually hold a lot of depth and infinite potential. Like the bag of Mary Poppins! Plus with the partnerships you can expand at need. It’s quite beautiful to see.
What I like about my job right now is that I am attracting what I like because they are choosing me because they know who I am. And at the same time I can do my boxing whenever I want because I am my own manager. I do what I want whenever I want. That is the kind of freedom I need. I am not a slave to my company, my company works for me.
Where others see failures, I know they are my choices.
This is how I would summarise Virginie’s path. And my own. Virginie is a leader in PR strategy and her company has been nominated by the European Business News for BEST PR MARKETING AGENCY in Switzerland, plus won the PR SPECIALIST OF THE YEAR 2020/2021 award granted by the CorporateLiveWire Global Awards.
