Does “Fake it till you make it” work? It certainly did for Creative Words. Learn the story behind the successful Italian LSP in this interview with its founder — Diego Cresceri.
Welcome to our new series called “How I Started”, where we will focus on founders of different localization businesses.
In this episode, Diego tells us his story:
- How Diego grew up, his experiences and the first localization job he had
- Transition from translator to entrepreneur
- How Creative Words was started
- Why he focuses on Italian localization
- Creative Words ethics and culture
- Views on social media as a key to success
Andrej Zito
So Diego, thank you for coming to the podcast. I would actually start by asking… How do you remember yourself growing up in Italy? So are… First of all, are you Italian?
Diego Cresceri
I’m Italian, I’m from Italy, always stayed here, but from a small period, I was in the US for university. It was in Tennessee. Other than that. And I said no, well, I was in Germany as well. I have forgotten about it. So yeah, I grew up in Italy. And so I spend my 40 years for the one year in Italy. I had a very, very pleasant childhood. I basically used to go to my grandparents house in the countryside. Every weekend until I was 15. So I did everything I could there, like everything to restaurants, many adventures with my cousins and my brother. So it was a great childhood. And I wish my children could have that as well. This is why they need the country. Like they can have the tree houses. They can do many adventures, go to the river, basically disappear for the afternoon. I don’t even know where they are. But they’re safe. Because there’s nothing about the Buffalo Wild Animals. Wild boars.
Andrej Zito
Do you think it’s important for people or for kids to escape from the, from the digital sources these days? Or…
Diego Cresceri
Is tought. Well, in this very moment, my kid will be watching YouTube somewhere. So yeah, I think it’s really important. It’s difficult because they really cannot focus on one single activity for more than three minutes, I guess. So they need to have to be stimulated all the time with something. So I think digital devices help a lot with that it can change in skip them. Go from Nintendo, the YouTube and mobile. I hate that. Honestly. I really enjoy more when they’re outside playing with friends. Or sometimes even where they’re outside the just use their mobile phone. They don’t talk. So no, it’s very important for them to escape this to digital work. At the same time. I think they’re smarter than we were. I was much younger than they they are much smarter. So I will send my seven year old boy to fix the TV for my neighbor. Which I couldn’t do when I was seven. So who does matter? They can find any information, whatever they want.
Andrej Zito
Did you even have a TV when you were growing up?
Diego Cresceri
TV borrowed some? You will just hate him work again. Now it’s much more complicated. But really, that’s smart. TVs. I did have a TV whether or not well we had probably four channels that we would watch. And that was it like you see cartoons for one hour and that’s it. And then we’ll just study we then go outside Now it’s much more difficult.
Andrej Zito
Would you would you say that you came from middle class?
Diego Cresceri
Probably? Yeah. My my debt work my mother was was not working when I was before I was 15, I think. Yeah, but we were okay. We will, they would probably spend less money than I spend on my kids. Because in other words has changed, right? So we would go to the restaurant, for instance, for three times a year. Now we go every week, this has changed a lot. So they would expect that I was not expecting the same money. I was, yeah. Yeah, that’s called middle class.
Andrej Zito
Do you think that you were smart as a kid, like, were there any indications that you might end up where you are right now, or hindsight,
Diego Cresceri
when the only thing I can think of is I used to have a very good memory. So I would not study at all. Just listen with one ear, the lesson and they will learn with that. So that’s the only indicator. My memory is getting worse at the moment. So I don’t remember anything else? No, I was actually just as old kids probably was not paying too much attention at school. But at the same time, we’ll listen. And I was lucky enough to have a good memory and remember things without studying. My teachers will always say, he’s not applying is not working hard. But it’s good. You could be better. The sentence was always you could be better. doesn’t study.
Andrej Zito
Right. So it can always be better, right?
Diego Cresceri
But I think I remember one of the things I will say to my parents when I was not doing anything to help them home, I will tell them, I’m not gonna have to learn to do things at home, because one day I will pay someone to do that. For me. That was the biggest indicator. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I guess.
Andrej Zito
Do you think like that comes from just being smarter, like, okay, maybe I’m not the best at doing it. But I’m going to find people and maybe help them do it better than me? Or is it really about? Let’s call it laziness? Exactly. Here?
Diego Cresceri
I think it’s both. I think it’s both. It’s not that they’re not doing things at the moment, but doing stuff. Right. But they find more pleasure in teaching people to do things other than that doesn’t myself. I would say…
Andrej Zito
that that’s an interesting point. So do you think that we can actually teach people something that we’re not the best at?
Diego Cresceri
I think so. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We can teach the approach. We can teach people to learn, which is really important. So they learn how to learn better.
Andrej Zito
How are you at high school? Because to me, like high school is slightly different. And that the question is,
Diego Cresceri
no, absolutely not the but I was lucky because it was like, crazy in high school, was the best moment of my life, marriage life and say, yeah, as I said, I chose my high school because it was the only one where you could do school trips abroad. That’s the only reason why I ended up being a linguist by education, I guess. Because I was the only one and after a couple of years, both schools would do complaints about as well. But yeah, that’s the reason why I chose that. And so I had a lot of fun. Many girlfriends, many tweets, many good memories. Okay, so
Andrej Zito
you’re the popular popular guy, right?
Diego Cresceri
I was, I was Yeah, I suppose I can complain about that.
Andrej Zito
Do you remember like what?
Diego Cresceri
It was also kind of bad guy. I was always sitting in the back.
Andrej Zito
Right? Right. Right. Right. I think that’s that’s kind of interesting. I had this theory like the students who are trying to be the A students, you know, always try to nail everything study too much. I feel like they’re the ones who in the internal to work for the bad guys who, if they don’t turn into doing drugs, they become entrepreneurs. Like, like, do you see like, like, like the nerdy
Andrej Zito
types? Like they’re more
Andrej Zito
prone to like receiving instructions and following someone? Well, the bad guys, they just want to do things on their own. Do you think there’s like some relationship between
Diego Cresceri
if I think about my school colleagues, that might be true. At the end, the nerdy guy, guys or girls, because it was just for guys subtle plus of 30 If they ended up being be then doing something else and working for someone else. So this might be a coalition. It’s not proved by science, but it might be one by by, by the way, all my former colleagues in high school now hate me, because my grades at the end were very high. Because I was lucky at the exam final exam. And so I have very, I always
Andrej Zito
was there something that was maybe missing for you, as a teenager, like in your life? Or were you really that super lucky kid?
Diego Cresceri
I think it was more distant, the lucky one. Like, well, we would not, as I said, my parents would not spend fortunes on like clothes, some or vacations, even. But I felt like I had so much fun that we can with my cousins, that we did not complain. And they played all kinds of sports. So I would do anything I wanted. After I was 14, my team just forgot I was with them. And they could do whatever I wanted. Still alive. So I think that loss somewhere with some, if anything, so I’m still here. I think they are now proud of the fact that they’re here. Yeah, they never went to those meetings with the teachers at high school. Never. I think my bad dad doesn’t even know where I went was. No, no, I’m not kidding. I’m not kidding.
Andrej Zito
So it means that your parents like didn’t have any expectations from you when it comes to studying because for me, it was quite opposite. Like my mom was always like, you need to get a,
Diego Cresceri
a grades. No, no, no, the my mom, my parents didn’t care. My My father didn’t care. My mom did care a lot. So it means that we are still one other than 10 at university. So I have two degrees. The first one, I got one in seven. And she told me, why didn’t you get the 10? And the second one, I get 110. And you could do better? That’s that. That is she said, how do you mention like you get mentioned up loud there? I don’t know. So you get loud. After you know, the highest grade, the still, something more you can get? I think it’s louder, leaving it louder. She was complaining about that. So she was never satisfied this, right? Because as I said, I could do better, would always do better.
Andrej Zito
How did you go from studying linguistics to creative words? Did you start a company straight out of the school? Or did you have some jobs
Diego Cresceri
before I was working in a bar. And one of my friends she overheard a conversation at air dusters, where someone was looking for a translator in a company. And it was in my in the city where I grew up, which is more than one. So I had no idea that there was a station company there. So I applied, I got to the field. I sucked and then flew. So I wasn’t hired. And after a couple of months, I sent a follow up email. I convinced them to hire me. That happened before I graduated. So I started as a translator there, in my own town was really lucky, like, maybe too much. Then I became a project manager, same company. And after only three years, I became a partner of the company. Because again, I was lucky because the former partner left. And the owner and the founder asked me do you want to be my partner in this? Yes. So I quickly photocopied my ID and that became my partner. mother of two hours. I was an entrepreneur. Again, I was both a mix of luckiness and luck and craziness.
Andrej Zito
How long did you stay with the company as a partner?
Diego Cresceri
I stayed almost 12 years. Oh, let’s see. In the meanwhile, we move to Yeah, in Italy. We’re not used to change jobs. So often, I would say and there are not many there were not many opportunities. Now there are more I think, and I was in the small town. So again, it was too lucky to to leave that company. But then we moved to general with the same company. And then I left him doesn’t 16 So during, again, I’ve been lucky, I’ve been lucky to find a job by being public good in keeping the job in becoming a partner in making the company go. And then the moment came where I needed to.
Andrej Zito
Yeah, let’s talk about that. Do you remember the first time it crossed your mind? Like you want to do something on your own?
Diego Cresceri
Well, yes, absolutely. I think it was made the six dozen. I remember the moment very well, okay. What inspired it was a discussion I had with the the founder and owner of the company, she was the majority stakeholder of the company, and the founder and CEO who reached a point where we could not get along too well together. But something happened the very same day, the very day that convinced me that I should start something else. And on the Monday, I was already thinking how to do that. And it wasn’t me and I open, I found the 20 words in November,
Andrej Zito
I think you mentioned that you had like some differences. And then I think you mentioned that also, something else happened
Diego Cresceri
was a discussion of the meeting we had with one of our customers. So we had two customer or a customer visiting us for two days. And we had a discussion around that after the meeting. And so I decided to leave. I won’t say anything else. But it was probably the right time for me. And, you know, for the good of the company that was leaving, they think it’s good
Andrej Zito
that they left? So did you decide to start creating words with any clients? Or did you just start a company without anything? And let’s build it from nothing?
Diego Cresceri
I built it from nothing, actually, because I signed them. noncompetition agreement, of course. So creative voice. I chose the name because there was I wanted to focus on creative translations, and especially communication companies, communication agencies. So that was the only, I would say the only industry that was not covered by the previous company. So my intention was to focus on that, it never really happened. That was the intention, at least. So it was basically from scratch. And I remember the first job I got was from a friend of mine, worked in a company and needed to translate an agreement. But it happened like after three months. So I was basically staying there in the office alone, thinking, sending cold emails to people and cold messages on LinkedIn and getting harsh lessons from doing that as feedback as well. And then I think it may I landed the first job from animals.
Andrej Zito
Is that something that you were happy about at that point, to getting work from llv? Or did you always think that the strategy should be like we need direct clients?
Diego Cresceri
What the strategy was that, but that point in time, I was cashless, so I already use that job. And it was a huge one. And so it really helped me a lot. I mean, a huge source of posterity job we posted if we had 1000 words in a weekend. So in other crazy thing that I did, I accepted. And after that we got many, many other batches of that particular job. And we started building a structure as well the company I hired the project manager in August. So for two months, I did it by myself with a couple of friends. And so I hired Francesca, I think you know her in August, and then I left for two weeks holidays is Adina and after like three days she was in the company. And then that’s where we started building because otherwise it was just a one man company working alone on my own in a very big office, empty office.
Andrej Zito
So you started with the renting the office is
Diego Cresceri
started with renting an office of course and we’d all differ the desks and two computers was like office in 10 different rooms. So it was huge because that create objectives. And we left that office at some point as well already. So after one year and a half we left him because it was becoming too small format for us. So we are in a much bigger one. I started with big ideas. You know I want to do that As a company, rather than being like freelance, so I think desks for more than 12 people. I had the meeting room I had the gym as well as the room with the gym. I had the kitchen. Yeah, I want to add a company. So I did the things not in the right order, or most of the products, I would say. But it worked out.
Andrej Zito
Right. Would you do things differently this time? Like if you were starting the company? No, no, absolutely.
Diego Cresceri
I think you I read somewhere that you pretend you’re rich. Even before you are not that rich now, but I was pretending I at the company even before having one. Right, I guess. So now I will do the same mistakes again. Let’s say sort of fake it
Andrej Zito
till you make it right.
Diego Cresceri
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I knew how to communicate my company out to, to fake it and structure a team. So I knew how to do that. Because I worked with DMC the other company. So it worked. It worked. Now, some of my customers will listen to this conversation and fire me probably. But yeah, I was faking the end of 2017. I was basically faking.
Andrej Zito
Right, right, right. Okay,
Diego Cresceri
you know, at the at the beginning, I would do the project manager. To do translation, I will do the proofreading, I will do everything like ISO compliant myself on what should I do? I couldn’t actually get in touch with clients and freelancers, with translators, for my colleagues. So I was starting from scratch.
Andrej Zito
Did you ever think about the competition in the early days, other than your ex company so that you don’t compete with them? But
Diego Cresceri
Well, again, you’ve the market, but my former company was focusing mostly on mlvs. So I knew that market. I didn’t know the market. I was trying to target the communications agency. No idea. And so what I did is just looking for websites and Semco Nicodemus, I actually got to be the doing that. So just, you know, if you sent 1000, in less than reply, I got that. So now, I didn’t do any any search, actually, anything on competition. And again, I was not really active in the industry back then. So I didn’t know so many companies would only know my former company and a couple of other local companies, big names, maybe they would know that, but I couldn’t get in touch with them. So and then I started building my own network. That played because they think they started to go into events. So back in June 2017, I was still alone in the company. And they closed the office for three days, I went to block word Barcelona, and I made some good friends, the South couple of technologies that then use that facility at FIU and then I went to an event are for project managers and you know, NetFlow started building up, it’s quite big at the moment.
Andrej Zito
Why are you only focusing on Italian, especially now that your network is so big? Like, is this something that you want to be long term focusing on? Or is it just until the right time when you’re going to
Diego Cresceri
I changed so many strategies, the system since they found it quickly, it was so the idea at the beginning was, as I said, communication companies, agencies, then we had a customer back video company that was great in terms of relationship and they’ve just turned to us to single language vendors. And the relationship was so good. Everything was not not not necessarily the way because it was standard but their relationship and the things I was learning with that customer was so great that I thought let’s focus on those customers where you can really be the relationship and from my experience that that kind of customer that kind of relationship you could don’t expect from you know, direct customers and so buyers my dad as I said, I got this big job from an MFT and changed and then you know, word of mouth we started working with other families as well that did not pictured women stopped like was not valid anymore. So we started with more and more movies and then I got into Leia so starting with this as well of Italian fam I think we have some customers where we offer more languages. But I see that it is so much so much pressure on Giada, our community manager and with our quality that can deliver and we project managers, it’s I mean, doesn’t even work out too much for us at the moment. So I decided we should focus on Italian because then I think we are really strong, that we have an in house team of linguists, we have strong quality procedures. So I thought let’s do today normally. And the last time this decision was sent was in, it’s going to be event a couple of months ago. And then I came back from that event, and they’ve got an offer to take part in an RFP for 58 languages. So it was confused like that, because it was, of course, a very good opportunity. And but I decided to stick to it, and I declined that offer. So the short answer will be valued is what we do best. And they think there are customers out there that want to to SMBs rather than a novice. If you know, some Tell me. We do have a couple of customers where we do only Italian and add customers to that because it’s for buyers. And again, the relationship is great, is totally different.
Andrej Zito
When we come back in just a moment, find out how Diego thinks about building culture at Creative words, how he feels about being the only optimist in the company, and why you should be active on social media. Stay with us, I’m Andrej and you’re listening to the localization podcast. Support for this podcast comes from localization Academy, the smarter way to find and hire junior project managers. If you’re a data driven LSP, you need a partner who can provide you with the right data. Localization Academy organizes boot camps that enable you to see how your candidates think, learn and perform before you make a decision. Hire project managers based on how they manage projects, find out more at localization academy.com/companies.
Andrej Zito
One thing that I’m wondering about is the whole thing about culture. When you started the company, did you have something like values of the company and culture in line? Or was it all just organic?
Diego Cresceri
Maybe you can cut it? Let’s see what goes out of my mouth, I did have a very clear idea of what company did not want to ask, okay, what kinds of relationships that I didn’t want to have in my company, kind of relationships with colleagues, between colleagues. So I had a clear mind idea about that. So I basically wanted my company to be the controlling of the previous one. So that that would be the starting idea. And then yeah, I think we have one life to live. And I want to have fun. And I’m still having a lot of fun. And they want people to enjoy the time they spend in the office and the time they spend working. So I will basically be the one like doing tweaks in the company and doing things to keep them happy. And maybe as long as they I met. I have fun. I will do brands all the time. I will keep them distract them all the time. While they work. I think yeah, as I said we spent at least nine to 10 hours in the office is no no sense of being just working and working and working. So I was lucky enough to find people that, you know, thinks the same probably. And I think when you have a non toxic environment that toxic people will just, you know, stay away or be kicked out in organic way from the company. In any case. So but again, I’ve been lucky, I guess. I think we have a great corporate corporate culture now. Shared values. We enjoy the time in the office as well. These are not clear ideas yet only a negative. Clear. Right, right. Right. Right. Negative models as well.
Andrej Zito
Do you think that if new people come to the company, they can affect the future of the culture, like each person brings something on their own?
Diego Cresceri
Why think so? Yeah. And I would like to hear that as well to encourage that. I mean, they can add things to the overall company culture. But again, I see if some Well, we tried to do interviews to understand their values and everything. But if a toxic people joins the company, he or she will easily be kicked out of the company. Not by me, necessarily, but you believe there’s no competition between colleagues and your friends and f1 friends, not just on the surface, it’s pretty good. So yeah, they, I wish the new people will be new values, but they will be in line with ours.
Andrej Zito
So one of the things about the people so we kind of like, have this as a running joke with with with Daniela is that you’re the only optimist in the company. Is that true?
Diego Cresceri
I’m the biggest optimist in the company, not the only one. Okay, hopefully, there’s a bunch of them, like, probably 20% of them. But I’m the biggest optimist, of course. And I think that’s that’s obviously be. Yeah, she’s the she’s not that serious. Well, she is. But she, I need someone you know, to check on my crazy. That’s good. There’s a good balance. I’m very much optimist. In any case.
Andrej Zito
Have you ever dropped a client to maybe similar reasons like when you would drop an employee, like it wasn’t working out or it was a toxic relationship?
Diego Cresceri
During the climb? I think it was 2019. That customer was one of my first customers as well just want to talk with me. It just just wanted me to manage these projects. We’ll call a chest candle, other project managers like secretaries just because they were women. I ever went there. It was crazy. And I didn’t drop the customer. I wish I did. I think they got lost somewhere. I mean, my contact was then promoted to another position. They go, they’ve got lost in any case, but I wish I took the decision to block them. I think that would be consistent with my abs. But I didn’t because back then it was a tough moment, the company may put on the phone, we’ll see them wearing but I should have done that was respectful of any one other than myself. It’s a big regret that that they have. And I think no matter they need for cash. Now I will take the decision to fire them back straightaway. And then we’ll do so something similar happens. I think that’s important in the eyes of the influence as well. So it’s a big worldwide for that I
Andrej Zito
have. Another thing that I’ve recently noticed is that you started another company, which is related to AI. It’s creative AI, I believe, are you building something like Virgin, creative, anything.
Diego Cresceri
That was not the idea. The idea was to leverage the network of my network, basically, but also the network and customers for creating words. I’m not that creative that the names of my companies suggest. It’s fun, because when I started with the words, I even checked on whether there was a similar company somewhere in the world. And I found out three years later that there was one in Benjamin Bloom translations after three years. So and when I created the logo for the second company, I found that that was the same as it was the same company that I knew, of course, after we built the webpage. And so yeah, the the idea of VT VI was to leverage on my network. We your first data for AI, what are the AI? And so there are many clients of creating words that are looking for that. So it’s different company structure, different partners in the company. But they still wanting to have a connection between the two. So that was the idea of not building an empire like searching. But let’s see what happens. It’s difficult to choose a name for your company. By the way. I remember that when I start when I quit, right. That’s the elf word that when I was creating creating words, it is difficult. So we went forward with UBI
Andrej Zito
So speaking about your network and your social media presence, like do you see, let’s say ROI too much? No. Do you see ROI on that, because sometimes I’m wondering if the people, let’s say on the top, or like in charge of companies, like how much time they spent on, let’s say, building their presence, or, say promoting the company or sharing content, or creating giving value to other people like for free on social media, versus actually running the company.
Diego Cresceri
That’s a good one. Well, the first, I was mentioning before them earlier that this was the son hired was Francesca, doing project management, I actually had an intern for marketing. And it was in February. So I had no client, no structure, no income, had nothing. But the internet for marketing, because I really think that’s really important. So I invested everything from marketing from from the start. And on building my own network, I believe I spend at least one hour on LinkedIn every day, some point, maybe not like one hour from start to finish. But probably more than that, as well. I think it’s really important. And I always tell my colleagues, companies like sizes mine, to invest time in this is a huge ROI. It’s not like it says that it’s evident, very clear. But all the customers are basically are came to me, because they knew me, because they know Keemstar presence on social media. And even our biggest customer, they checked on us at least they don’t didn’t find us on social media, they checked on us there. And they are they appreciated, they told us they appreciated the fact that we share content, and we are active in industry, and do stuff. So I asked my employees to do the same. And you know that when a lot of social media activity as well, I’m not the owner of the company that says the US employees not to spend time on social media, it’s for the country, they need to be there than to check on them to learn. And I learned so much from my feet. So I’m a big fan of social media.
Andrej Zito
I don’t suppose that you are struggling with this, because I just feel that you just do things and whatever happens, it will be fine. But what would you what would you tell the people who have fear of posting something on social media? That that feel like like, am I posting the right thing, or people are not going to like this
Diego Cresceri
to learning journey forever one, we started with posting like aphorisms, we started with the end, it didn’t work, didn’t work. But we, you know, we started from there that we changed, we did new things, because these graphics, with its statistics, we need everything. And it’s a learning journey, I mean, just start and do that there are things from a technical point of view that don’t suggest doing, like, sharing content for someone else directly, because they will not really push those posts. If you don’t add anything to the conversation. Other than that, I would say just find your style, we don’t need to do the same things. Follow what other people are doing, but try to find your own way of doing things the way you do. I mean, you do very specific and very, you have a very clear way of communicating which is yours. I mean, so I will suggest people to find their own style and, and you know, some tests, some A B testing, try new things and don’t get discouraged and you if you find your own way of communicating. I think it’s good. Of course you need to provide value not just promoting yourself over and over again, right. Which is something I see STFC many companies are doing. Like always selling and selling selling I think it’s not about selling it’s about giving values that give some values creativity does not mean so yeah. Just do it and find your channel as well. Maybe you’re more for Eastern modern addicted, Facebook, depending whether you are freelance or not. So be aware your customers style, I would say and jump start doing that.
Andrej Zito
You mentioned the learning part. Where do you learn what you do? Or is it mostly for you just try whatever and see see what brings results or do you like read books or watch videos?
Diego Cresceri
I do a lot of things. So if we talk about communication, I went Some some books, some posts, maybe more than books, or some ebooks, maybe I saw some videos, I attended a couple of masters as well, where communication was part of the topics that were covered. And then I learned from my LinkedIn feed all the time. And then I, I just go into things my own way. I don’t do that in the most public typical way. But it’s my own way of doing things after I explored what’s out there, let’s say,
Andrej Zito
Do you have any entrepreneurship, let’s say role models, like someone who you follow, like,
Diego Cresceri
religiously, I don’t have time for that. I mean, I get inspired for many entrepreneurs. Like, let’s talk about charities, or the way out the truth people what they communicate about, about our will to the employees. So I get inspired, I really don’t have a model. I used to have that negative portal that I was mentioning before. That was important for me. Yeah, there are many, many cool intrapreneurs out there. See co founders my own way. It probably was inspired by someone by the continuum names.
Andrej Zito
I normally ask this for, let’s say the standard podcast interviews. But this question, I guess it’s notorious. What do you think is wrong with our industry?
Diego Cresceri
Probably the fact that we are not able to communicate our value to the customers, the buyers of new services, I think that’s the major problem we have at the moment. Other than that, I love our industry. So nothing bad can say nothing negative. But yeah, we should improve that we should be able to get more money for the big companies that are making a lot of money out of our services as well.
Andrej Zito
How would you communicate the value of localization, the clients,
Diego Cresceri
Western, depending on how the customer what they offer, if they sell a product, if they want to go to a new market, it’s a very difficult conversation about the ROI of internationalization or having a localized website, for instance, I just posted today in Africa, we all heard about the fact that if you want to come to Italy, there’s no way you can you can avoid localizing websites into Italian because we suck at English. And you suck that soon. I mean, I think we are like, among the last chart of
Andrej Zito
I think Spain is the worst in Europe. If I’m not mistaking, oh, we should be probably not far away.
Diego Cresceri
No, no, no, I mean, we suck so we don’t trust. Well, that is in every country will say. So we pretend we know English, but we don’t trust English website because they don’t understand them. So. Yeah, so it’s basically about making a Think of how many opportunities keys they lose. If they don’t localize these specific tracks as well, we are starting to communicate that along these lines with customers, since we are you know, trying to attract customers into Target. They’re starting to do that. But it’s not it’s not easy. Of course, as we all know, it’s just an afterthought. Globalization is not something that you think from the product design, or is just an afterthought. So it’s difficult in Italy, with Italian customers, I don’t like Italian customers, because everybody will be able to do positions. I think it might have been at a conference as well. But in Italy, is you have spent two weeks in England when you were 17. Then you are translating? Of course, that’s not the reality.
Andrej Zito
Is there anything I should have asked you, but I didn’t.
Diego Cresceri
How do you turn from being a translator to be enterpreneur? Like, I started, I get the translation studies. That’s all I did, since I was 14. And then now I manage a company of 15 people and I created the second company. So I had this intrapreneur mind. The bad I needed to develop the skills. So I studied the Master, the Master in business management, otherwise, I will not be here probably talking. I think that the stuff that our industry is missing. There are many companies that have been created by translators. But I think if you want to grow the you need to also learn some new things right? Not just kills some new notions as well, about how to manage a business, how to look at your balance sheet, up to maybe plan, like your assets or things like that you don’t really learn by starting position to manage people as well, and you know how to manage people is not something that you learn at school. So I, I cannot count the courses that the classes they attended people management, HR, economics, and this kind of stuff. I think that saved my life. I mean, I would not be here, probably without those. Plus,
Andrej Zito
I think the reason why I didn’t ask that is because, and you were mentioning that you sort of like gradually grew into the partnership role, right? I think that’s what, so that’s why I maybe assume that you got most of your learning, like on the job, right, as you got promoted to being a partner, right? Don’t you? Don’t you think that you learned the best by doing something? Or did you not have any, let’s say, mentorship, when you were promoted to the role of being a
Diego Cresceri
tough question, I believe in learning by doing? Absolutely. So I learned some of the things that I didn’t know what I was battling in the other company. But then we needed a more solid structure in that company. So I was there when I did this master in Business Administration, because we needed that. It was 2010, after the crisis of the present date, so we were basically going bust. So we had to reorganize the staff and customer base balance sheet as well. So I think it was useful to know that the company was more managed in a more professional, it’s not the right word. But I don’t I don’t know the board in English, I mean, does not really managed as it should be, because it was getting bigger and bigger. So we needed more structure and more solid backgrounds as well in administration say General. Also the that I learned by studying rather than by doing because it was not there. So but I learned maybe they have to put people to put customers vacation there, but not have to be the manager, the Manage company. I didn’t know anything about the balance sheet, for instance, how to check on margin screen, see the never any system to do that. And I created that as well, because there was a need. Before that we had the money at the end of the proceeds. Effectively, we changed the company structure as well. It was basically with our company we created as a limited liability company. So that was kind of development that I enforced
Andrej Zito
by studying Diego. Well, thank you very much for for your one hour with me if you could, I don’t know. Share your final words to everyone in the industry, maybe as the as the new president of E Lake.
Diego Cresceri
You don’t care about that I will only say don’t be shy. I’m shy. But I try not to be think you can see many returns in being exposed in our industry. It’s a very nice industry to be in and many people are willing to help you as well. So don’t be shy of asking. Don’t be shy of getting exposed and get in touch with people. I really didn’t do that in the past. But whenever I need something I just ask. And usually I get positive replies. So that would be my only suggestion to the people. All right,
Andrej Zito
Diego. Thank you very much.
