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I'm involved in some big exciting new projects on the social media side of Xero. Been doing this for about four months. 

Why? I was doing all kinds of weird stuff on social media for fun. I got a bank to give me baby goats to play with. I organised a massive dog walking event called The Big Dog Walk with Lots of Dogs. Xero quickly spotted that I had the knack and invited me to join this team. 

Tell us about your creative work when you’re NOT doing your day job? 

I do stand-up comedy most nights of the week, I write funny articles for some websites, I make random videos parodying Australian beauty bloggers. I produce a live storytelling podcast in both Wellington and Auckland called The Watercooler. I also host both of those shows. I co-produce a live comedy-dance-burlesque-drag-whatever-it-is show called Lip Sync Battles. I do heaps of stuff. (Lip Sync Battles will have a one night only show at San Fran in WLG. May 2nd) 

How do you manage juggling both?

I don’t manage juggling both. I'm a horrible mess most of the time and it's slowly killing me. I don't sleep. I have like five cans of sugar free V a day. I wear a lot of makeup. I get anxiety when I look at the messages I have on my phone. I fly between Wellington and Auckland constantly. I don't have any social life. I just constantly work. I haven’t seen Sam in three weeks and we live in the same city. He is also just as busy as me which is insane. I get up in the morning and go to Xero and go hard at this job then I go the gym, get home, open up my other laptop and work until about 8pm on other projects. Then I go and do a show. Then I come home and finish off as many emails as I can. Then I get up and do it all over again. I hate talking about it as it makes me sound like an angry bitch but I do all of this because I want to. I'm exactly where I want to be. 

Tell us about your creative background.

I woke up one morning when I was about 7-years-old and realised I was a creative. I hated realising this as it also meant I was born to be broke and never be very stable so I denied this basically my whole life. I got to be 23 and nearly died of boredom working at an insurance company so marched down to an open mic and became a stand-up comedian. 

What has inspired you? Who or what keeps you going?

Inspired me to do stand up? You have to do the thing in the back of your head. Everyone has a thing in the back of their head that they really want to do with their life. A lot of people will ignore it because they think they can't or they’ll fail or they’ll be broke. I ignored it originally and then realised that I'd rather fail and humiliate myself and be broke than keep lying to myself about what I actually needed to just go off and f**king start. I'm not broke at all. That's a myth. 

Would you like your creative work to be full-time?

I basically do creative work full time. I'm very happy with what I am doing. It all merges together. Considering it was just two years ago that I was doing nothing and worked in a dirty insurance call centre, now I’m creating full time and getting paid for it. Just because I'm not on TV it doesn't mean I'm not using the creative part of my brain. I'm here to create and to have ideas that are different and off the grid so I get to do different types of creating at different parts of the day. 

What would help you achieve this?

Keep on working extremely hard. Don’t quit. Don’t be scared. Fail fast, start back up even faster.  

If you had the chance to start your creative career or path again, what would you do differently?

NOTHING AT ALL. 

What advice would you give to someone pursuing a similar creative career or pathway?

Don't ask for advice, you're just procrastinating. Go and try out your thing that you want advice on and if you learn the hard way well then you'll know. If someone gives you feedback take it. But make sure you're getting it from the right person. Get rid of your ego and let people help you get better at what you're doing as you're never going to be at a point where there is nothing you can improve. No one ever will be at that point for anything so let people help you improve at every stage of the game. But stop using 'asking for advice' as a way of delaying actually going and doing the thing. 

Tell us about your recent or upcoming creative projects.

BRINESTORM - My brain is a different one to the normal one and everything is ridiculous and funny. Chat. I just yarn hard out for ages about heaps. 

What’s your big idea for 2016?

The big helicopter flight with lots of helicopters. 

• Alice Brine performs her show Brinestorm at Bats in Wellington April 26–30, and at Basement in Auckland May 10-14 as part of the 2016 NZ International Comedy Festival.