Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Hello, welcome to Lang Talent, the podcast where we talk about the future of talent hiring and talent centered organizations. Today we have an episode focused on human centered hiring, language industry careers and purpose driven work with the amazing Martina Russo from the Action Sports Translator. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about Martina. She is a multilingual entrepreneur and outdoor enthusiast and former translator. You've probably seen her images all over LinkedIn, making us all jealous of the amazing work she does. She is the founder and CEO of the Action Sports Translator, the only translation and content agency in the world, specialized exclusively in outdoor and action sports. Under her leadership, the company has grown into a global network of over 700 linguists and copywriters working in more than 50 languages for some of the world's top outdoor brands. With over 15 years of experience in marketing, localization and a passion for meaningful storytelling, Martina combines business strategy with her commitment to the environment. That commitment now includes her role as Vice President of Protect Our Winters Italy. We'll ask her more about that, where she helps drive education, advocacy and collaboration on climate action within the outdoor community. Her work sits in the intersection of language, purpose and industry specific expertise, making her a compelling voice in conversations about hiring, mission driven companies and the evolving future of work in our wonderful language sector. Martina, welcome.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Thank you Eddie for having me and for a great introduction, of course.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: And you know, we cannot get started if we don't ask you about Protect Our Winters Italy. What's that all about? This is outside of what you do at the Action Sports Translator, right?
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Of course, correct. So Protect Our Winters is actually a global organization, nonprofit organization, and they are at the forefront of driving meaningful conversation for, you know, to Protect our planet or winters nature. And this all started back in 2007 when anyone who is familiar with snowboarding will know what I'm talking about. Jeremy Jones, this is the founder and I think still now CEO of a very famous really cool snowboarding company called Jones Snowboard. And he saw very like firsthand how climate change was affecting the very playground, you know, that he was spending time with and upon which his company and the whole industry depends, the other industry depends. So he started this locally in the States and now fast forward to today, it's grown into this global network. We have different chapters, that's how we call them in Europe, including a European one, but also each country, well, not each European country, but many, including Italy, we have our own because each region has their own geographical, so social and cultural challenges. And so every country does every European chapter and global Chapter does their own bit of work to help preserve the environment. So I got involved with them and with multiple chapters, actually initially helping with translation many years ago. And then when there was an opportunity to start the European chapter, the sorry, Italian chapter in 2020, I jumped at the opportunity to help because in Italy, of course, we have the Alps, we have a lot of nature, and unfortunately, culturally we are not maybe as advanced as countries like, I don't know, Germany, Austria and other northern European countries. And so I thought, you know, let me also do my bit. And so now I'm the vice president at Pau, Italy. I am not.
I don't spend a lot of time on the ground in Italy because I don't live in Italy, but I do help in the background. You know, I am connected within the outdoor industry because of my work. So I try to connect, I try to spread the word as much as I can.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: And yeah, and this is great because, you know, as we're looking into your profile and, you know, we'll give the exclusive to those that are listening to the podcast, we're working on a profile of Martina Russo and of course the Action Sports Translator. And what really attracts us to it is the mission driven approach. And even what you're doing outside of the Action Sports Translator is related to that mission that you have, which is amazing. So why don't you tell us a little bit about the Action Sports Translator.
What led you to build a company so focused on a specific lifestyle and industry and how has that specialization shaped your hiring philosophy? So we'll get with the company and then why you hire the people that you hire, given that mission that you have?
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Sure. So, I mean, that's like a Pandora box type of question, but I'll try to keep it concise.
I started as a freelance translator in 2010 when I was still studying university. I was studying translation and interpreting.
And so I was a translator for a long time. And then I ended up starting an agency in SaaS localization, so software as a company helping SaaS companies localize into multiple markets.
And at one point in this was at the very end of 2018, so pretty much December. So let's say like at the beginning of 2019. I am a consumer of outdoor sports brands because, you know, I've been. I started skiing when I was three years old. Then I switched to snowboarding. Never really stopped. So I've been, you know, in the mountains.
I spent a lot of my time in the mountains since I was like a little kid. And then I picked up, you know, Rock climbing when I was an adult and I was running and all these different sports.
And as a consumer, I was appalled at the.
We talk a lot about quality in the translation industry, but if you look at it from like a brand perspective or from a user perspective, what really suffer is the user experience. Right? That's what really matters when we talk about quality. So as a consumer, I'm going onto these websites, I want to buy a pair of climbing shoes. And the experience is so horrible that I thought, wow, like, and I did my research and I saw everywhere I went, even the biggest brands, they had this problem. So there is something that is broken in this industry. And so I thought, you know what, I've got the experience of running, you know, at that point as motor agency, being a translator for so many years. So let me try and do something about this. I didn't even know if I didn't actually have any grand plans for this.
So I thought I'm just gonna set up a website like a one pager and I'm gonna go to a trade show and I'm gonna do a proof of concept. And. And that was. That happened in a span of two weeks, basically. So it was like a very quick idea. And also the reason why I choose the name very descriptive, the action sports translator, is because I didn't really have the time to think about this. I thought I'm just going to put something together very quick, I'm going to do a proof of concept and then if needed I can rebrand. But I never did because that really spoke to people and it was like a very. Somehow ended up being very good branding.
And so my proposition and my mission was to, you know, give consumers in the outdoor sports industry the experience that they are looking for regardless or the of the market. And in order to do that, I knew that we needed, I needed to bring people into my company who not only are professionals at what they do, which, you know, from the translators to the project managers, to whoever works with us, but also they need to understand the world of that sport. And if you think about action sports, you might think that it's a niche, but it's actually a macro niche, let's say, because then if you look at each sports, each other sports, they're all very different. So if you're a surf, I mean, I don't know if you do any sports like outdoor sports yourself, but like if you're a surfer, you know nothing about climbing and vice versa. And then within climbing you've got sport climbing, bouldering, track, Climbing, ice, climb. So you've got like all these little like micro, micro niches.
And so for me, like from the very beginning, it was very important to get people who knew what they're talking about, because when you don't, I don't care how much research you say that you can do, if you don't do the sports, you don't understand the sports, you don't understand the culture. It just is obvious, it's apparent. And then the brand and the copy that you create loses authenticity and then the user can tell. And so that's why I am very mission driven. But also we are extremely strict with the people that we bring onto the company, like when it comes to Cultural Match, basically.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Thank you for sharing because it looks like your mission really drives your hiring philosophy. Now we've mentioned that you have a global network of 700, over 700 linguists and copywriters.
You've tell us a little bit about it as we were speaking. But what qualities do you look for when bringing new linguists, new copywriters to the team into the action?
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Sports translator So I guess what we already just mentioned now, which is that it's really important that somebody is not only an expert at their craft, whether that's native copywriting, transcreation, marketing, translation, localization, blah, blah, blah, whatever, you name it. But also they need to be like, they need to have this firsthand passion for the sports that they want to translate or they want to write about. So even if you, you know, maybe you have been a translator or a writer for the past 20 years, 10 years, and you haven't really done much in the sports world, but every weekend you go and you, I don't know, travel to the mountains and you spend all of your weekend, you know, in the mountains, then that can still be a good match. I mean, we have a process, we will do like run a test to make sure that we are indeed a good fit. But it's really important that you really, and it doesn't need to be that extreme, right? Like you don't have to spend every waking moment of the day in the mountains or in the ocean or whatever, but you need to have a very like in depth understanding of that world of that specific sport. So that's like number one super strict requirement. And that's why also like I, we, I get especially because I'm very active on LinkedIn and I used to be a translator, so I know a lot of people in the translation community and I do get sometimes people reaching out and saying, I Would love to apply, but, you know, I haven't done climbing, but I can't do the research. That's unfortunately not enough. That's our very, like, minimal requirement, is that you have, you know, you know, what it's like to be on the wall, 40 meters off the ground, meters off the ground, and trying to put a rope into the quick draw. You know, you need to understand that feeling to be able to translate for us, if you want to do climbing, then of course, if it's surfing, it's something else.
So that's one thing. And then when it comes to the actual.
So we say like, profession. Like, you need to be a professional in your. In your craft. So you will need to have, you know, qualifications or proven experience. We are not super hung up about you need to have, I don't know, a master's degree or we don't look at qualifications in, like, super, you know, as long as you have some qualifications and proven experience. And then we do a test and we verify that this is actually really group background. Like, what we care about is the results as well.
So that's also really important. And then we put a lot of importance on soft skills, because for us, we're not.
I was a translator for a long time, and I really do not like how a lot of agencies treat translation as a transactional thing. For us, it's really important that somebody has a lot of critical thinking, is not afraid to ask questions, and is not afraid to question, you know, what they're looking at and that to really, like, bring, I don't know, ideas to maybe for improvement. So it's really important for us that everybody, first of all, we give them, of course, the opportunity to work as a team, but also that they feel that they can work as a team and so not just, like, work through a translation or really thinking about what they're doing, but, like, really thinking critically about this, about what they're doing.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Thank you. That gives us a really good idea of how the process evolves once someone gets onto the team. And of course, we realize that the mission and purpose probably show up quite all throughout the hiring process.
And if you can tell us a little bit about how culture and the way you do things shows up in the hiring process.
You mentioned there are some evaluations and things to confirm others. What part of your culture can we see during the hiring process and what does that culture look like once someone gets started at the action sports translator?
[00:13:06] Speaker A: So a distinction here. Are we talking about freelance translators and writers, or are we talking about for example, project managers.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: I think it'd be great if you can give us an impression of all of those.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Of all of those.
Okay. So the process is very different in the sense that of course it's a very different type of scope. However, the concept is similar. So maybe I can take you through a little bit of both. So when it comes to translators and writers, we have a vendor manager. Like actually we have two. One who is like our main vendor manager and she's like amazing. And then we have somebody who also specializes in the APAC region just because it's such a vastly different market. And so we have somebody who's dedicated to that. But our main vendor manager, she's the one who drives the whole operation. It's like a very well oiled machine and we are able to do this at some point scale. Something that I had to learn in the very early stages is that a lot of translators are of course very eager to work right with you, especially if this resonates with them. And so whenever I had, we had to basically build a system. We use a project management software which is just, sorry, one step back. Bear in mind that we are fully remote, right? So we are probably quite different from your traditional translation agency. And all of our processes and operations needs to be varied. Very advanced when it comes to anything digital. Right. So we use project management software for everything, including our vendor management. And this is something that we.
What I like to say is that we leverage technology as much as possible. We leverage a ton of automation, but we never automate relationships. So although, you know, we, we have this like well, old machine. Whenever you will see, you can even like look at our website right now it's join our team. And then there is like a page with a bunch of forms. And so people will be prompted to leave their details in our form. And we have like a form per, you know, per role, let's say. And then all those details get stored into this database. And this database is what allows us to have a lot of like we get thousands of people apply to work with us, which we are super grateful and honored by the way about.
And so we have like this big database and it allows us to be super granular about, you know, we ask people to actually select which sports. So if you look at the form on our website right now, we actually have a list of sports and they're super granular. So people get to pick which sports they actually specialize in and then to add a lot of, you know, information about themselves. So that's the first thing, we are super specific, super granular people get in touch with us and then where we do leverage automation. Again, this is drawing from my experience as a translator for so many years how agencies goes to, they don't like, you know, you send this email and then it's just like a black sort of like it's a void and you know, a black hole. You don't know what happened to it. So I was very adamant that we don't give this experience to our, to the people who apply to work with us. For us it's super important to have a very good experience for everyone who has and like who interacts with us, whether it's a client, it's a freelancer that we work with, it's somebody who applies to work with us.
And obviously we are not perfect. I'm not claiming that we're perfect, we do try our best.
So this is where the automation come into place. Anytime that anyone submits an application, even if, you know, nobody has even looked at it yet, but they will receive an automated email. But we of course make it as human and a human person wrote that text before it gets automated so that everyone gets our knowledge and you know, thank you for getting, for spending your precious time to put your details into our system. So that's the first step. Then we have like a human person who goes through all of the applications and manually decides whether this person is a good match based on the information that they have provided in the form. And then here is where we leverage a ton of automation. Again, we have a very elaborated system where the project, our vendor manager, she basically just need to click a button. But then we have, I don't know, 10, 15 different templates based on what people put into their, into their form. And so we're able to get back to everyone whether it's a yes, it's a no, it's a maybe, maybe we have, we don't have any roles for them right now, so we might get back to them later if that's okay with them. We're going to keep their information on file. So again we don't want people to feel like, okay, they submit something and then poof, nobody knows what happened to that information. Right. So we try to be as transparent as we can. Of course sometimes, you know, we, I don't know, it's not sometimes it might take a longer time than we would like to get back to people, but that's what we really try to strive for.
And then once this, now this is very similar both for The PM role and for the, I mean for the in house roles and the freelancers roles. So that's kind of the same principle.
Now when it comes to the translators or writers, we have tests that we like. If somebody is deemed as could be a good match for that specific, I don't know, account or sports that we are hiring for, then we have very granular and very specific tests for that profile.
One thing that I hated as a translator is that agencies just send you these tests. I remember I once had to do three tests. One was for legal, one was for finance and one was for marketing. And it's just absolutely pointless because you're evaluating me as a translator against, I don't know, a skill set that I don't have. Do you know what I mean? So it was really important for me to make sure that we are evaluating people against the skill set that they say that they excel in. So that's like, and you know, not just the content type but also the sports. So that's again, you can imagine how granular this gets. But again we were able to find a system that allows us to have a lot of these different samples on file and then like mix and match whenever needed. Because you can imagine one person maybe does only, I don't know, only skis, but the other person maybe does trail running and then serves.
So you know, we also, we have to mix and match based on the.
When somebody maybe is better at long form content writing and somebody else is better at ux. So super, super granular. But we don't care how granular we need to get. For us it's really important, the most important thing is that we get the best fit both for the translator and for the client. So that's really important. So after the test we have like our pool of super trusted reviewers.
We are quite strict with the evaluation just because every project that we do is super high profile. So we always want to make sure that we can get the best teams for our clients. And then once they work with us, we try to give them a project as soon as we can. Sometimes it takes a longer time, but we also try to be transparent with that. So we have a page on our website that explains the process. So there is a page called Recruitment FAQs and another one is our recruitment process. And we always add those links to the email so people can go and check.
And then we have multiple systems that when people get in touch with us anyway, I'm not going to go into detail there but we always try to keep on top of this as much as we can. And then when it comes to the in house team, so that project manager, tech localization, engineers, anything in between, then the process is very similar. But of course we don't do a test because it's a completely different scope. We will have multiple interviews and then we might have also a test task just to make sure that those base sort of requirements are met. And then we have like a tryout period. So again, we're not perfect. It's a constant sort of evolving process. But we are always trying to do things as transparently as we can.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: And Martina, it also sounds like a deeper level of sophistication of the craft. And you know, one of the questions that we try to gauge with our guests here at Lang Talent Podcast is the future of work in the language language industry.
And you know, it's changing for some and it seems like this vertical is particularly well equipped to recognize certain preferences, lifestyle preferences, if we might.
How do you think, how have you seen it change for the people that you work with?
Because you've seen it change for yourself. This whole balancing act for some people, like freelance work, even entrepreneurship. And social impact in your case, right? You have social impact and then business. And on all of this, how do you see this whole landscape changing? And I understand this is also another Pandora box question.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Look, I think if we're talking about the landscape changing, we cannot not mention AI, that's like the main driving factor for change at the moment.
Funnily enough, as a company we never really use even machine translation that much.
This year we have started to implement it more just because it's, you know, it's such a huge, if you look at how, you know, machine translation especially has been driving down, I don't know, it's been really like changing the landscape for many, many, many years. And for us this was never a thing that we had to worry about so much because we do very creative work, very specialized.
And so up until late last year, I personally never really got so much into that side of things. Now I see that this is changing, it's changing so fast. And I was just at a conference about the outdoor industry impact on the outdoor industry two days ago and the opening session, this was just talking about the other industry. It wasn't even talking about translation. But I think it's also very relevant for us. He says it's very difficult now to make any long term plans because between now and two years from now the world is upside down. So this is how fast it's Changing. I am personally trying to stay on top of AI developments, understanding what's going on, but it is changing very, very fast. So it's a bit difficult to say how the landscape is changing, will change, what is the future. I find it very difficult at the moment to predict because, you know, between now and today and tomorrow, it's just like everything is changing. Yesterday, I think, or a couple of days ago, Google released this new.
I forgot the name now I think it's called V3O where basically this, you know, movie, I mean, with a prompt you can create a movie now and it looks as realistic as a Hollywood movie. And this is changing from one day to the next. So it's very, very difficult to say. I will admit at some point I felt, I think everybody has felt fear of the unpredictability of the environment.
But then something clicked and I think, again, no idea what's going to happen five years from now, but we as a company are making sure that we stay on top of it and that we understand it. And also that I think everyone is going to be using AI one way or the other, whether they're scared, whether they're not scared. So for us, it's really important that our team in house understand how to use it.
What, you know, not just like having their own, I don't know, ChatGPT, for example, instance, and just going off and just like using it without really like any guidance. So we launched like an AI program internally program just to get everyone on the same page drive that change within the company. And also, obviously AI does have implications on the environment. And so for us, it was really important to also have, you know, our whole, how can I say, sort of section of our, of our process and how we approach AI in the most environmentally friendly way that we can. So I think that's important to mention.
So that, I guess is when I'm thinking, like when I'm thinking about the change in the future of the profession, that's what I think of the most. I don't know if you have any additional context questions on this, of course.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: And really I understand that technology should be an enabler for those that are looking for specific lifestyles. And then certain things, like you said, could be automated. The more creative tasks probably won't be automated. So I seen in a lot of what you're mentioning that that kind of like place where you meet, where you connect your mission with your vision and kind of like what the company is doing, it feels a lot like that concept of ikigai that we talked a lot about in this space as well.
And that concept, for those that are listening, if you've not heard about it before, is this place where what the world is willing to pay you for and what the world needs and what you're good at actually fit in together. And then for someone like you, Martina, and a lot of your linguists and copywriters, probably it's very close to where other types of humans should go. So I also see the fear in the industry, but I also see opportunities to find this ikigai, to find these purpose driven activities and organizations like the Action Sports Translator. And of course this relates to what we started talking about at the very beginning. Right.
It gives you enough energy, I guess, to have this social impact locally. How important is that for the team members that you looked into work with? Is it something that you think about? Is it something that you ask? Especially when we see the connection between sustainability in the world and what we do, is that something that you think about?
[00:27:18] Speaker A: What do you mean? Like when you talk about social impact with the members that we work with, what do you mean more exactly?
[00:27:23] Speaker B: If it's something that you motivate your team members to have a local impact or care about sustainability and have an opinion about it, at least have a stand on things.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: So this is a good question. We are a fully remote and fully distributed company. And so we have people in. We merely are based in Europe and because all of our team members are into some outdoor sports, they sort of naturally or automatically care about, you know, that piece of the industry or the. For example, our operations manager, localization operations manager and head of account, sorry, head of account and localization operations. She is into trail running, into surfing and for example, she has, you know, a lot of.
She doesn't, I don't know, she doesn't like volunteer, for example, or she does. She. I don't know if she's a member of any associations, but she's very mindful with her daily choices, who she shops with and just the way that she moves around the world. And so that's the same thing for all of our members because we can see how the way that we act within society and the things that we do, then they have an impact on the work that we do, the way that we live and the sports that they do in the environment where they are, but also working with the brands that we work with. There is a lot of, there is a lot of work done within sustainability. It's like a huge topic and I'm not allowed to mention Some of the brands that we work with, but if you can think, some of probably the biggest brands that are in the outdoor space that do a lot of work in sustainability, we work with them. And so it's really inspiring to see how they, you know, the projects move forward.
For example, there is also some opportunities to work within translate, to apply our skill set to what they do, you know, put some of our translation skill set into some of the projects that they are running with organizations locally. And so this was something that actually one of our team members was like, hey, this is happening with this brand. Why don't we do something for that? So, you know, that's something that comes from them as well.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: And it's wonderful that it comes out naturally.
It's great to have you in this conversation, Martina. It sounds like we're talking about what the future of war should look like for all of us, independent of what our lifestyle and preferences are. Martina. We have a lot of young professionals, linguists, translators, interpreters. They were very afraid, like you mentioned, and also in other career paths, designers and software developers, et cetera.
What recommendation would you give them? Even if they are not part of the action sports lifestyle, what recommendation would you give them as they look into building their careers, especially in this day and age?
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Yeah, like I said, it's the industry or the, you know, it's changing very fast, but it's not just the translation industry. It's every industry under the sun.
So, you know, and I think for me, I said earlier that when I was, even when I was a translator, and I am, I was an Italian translator and people in the, in the translation industry, and especially in the Italian translation market were always complaining about low rates and, you know, really bad clients and, and all of that.
And while people complained about that, I put my focus into something else. I put my focus into, okay, how do I make sure that I have a good leverage? How do I make sure that my branding stands out, my personal branding? How do I make sure that, you know, I don't waste my energy into complaining, but into levering, leveraging whatever I have at my disposal in this specific moment in time. I never really had to do any machine translation post editing, you know, like in my whatever 10 year career.
Just I did a few projects here and there, but I was able to have very above average rates compared to the vast majority of the Italian translation market. And this is just obviously now the industry is changing a lot, like I said, but still we have a lot of opportunities that the tools and the technology that we have now is different to what I had 15 years ago.
Funnily enough, I think it might be a little bit harder to maybe get into a specific market or the industry barriers to entry are going lower. So that's also a good thing, you know, it's not just a bad thing. It's also a good thing because now the things that you can do that I couldn't do 15 years ago, like, are insane. I had to spend, I don't know, so much time putting like, like learning how to do copywriting because I wanted to create copy for my website and I had no money whatsoever. You know, 15 years ago I was just like trying to save off my savings to, to work off my savings. So now you can do it so easily with AI, for example, but you need to know how to use it. You need to leverage the technology because anyone now can use AI, but I can tell when I'm going through LinkedIn who's using AI and who's using it smartly and who isn't. So that's just like a small example. But you need to learn how to use the technologies at your disposal. Something that I always said is personal branding very important in any age, in any industry.
And then specialization is always good. So that's always, you know, for me, specialization was great both when I was working the SAS localization industry and now that I'm working in the action sports industry. So if you can find something to specialize in, go for it. And also bear in mind that specialization isn't marketing, translation isn't a specialization, legal translation isn't a specialization. You know, it's a broad type of content.
But then your specialization would be, you know, I do, I don't know, legal translation or specific type of legal content for specific type of clients. That's the type of specialization that you want to go for.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Thank you very much, Martina. This has been really insightful. Any final thoughts, comments, concerns, happy thoughts, quotes, inspirational quotes that you might have for us today?
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Oh no, you put me on his thoughts. No, I don't know, it was like really cool to, you know, like to chat about this. This is, I think a great, it's a great time. It's a bit of a scary time for a lot of people in every industry. But, you know, stay positive and try to, you know, again, put your energy towards productive and positive sort of.
Yeah. Things rather than being absorbed too much, especially if you're a translator, you know, hanging out too much with within translation groups or like people very negative for a reason. I completely understand that. But this was the same 15 years ago. Now again, it's a little bit different, but still, you know, just try to put yourself toward a more positive sort of outlook.
And yeah, if you. I'm actually going to do a shameless plug now. If you do, especially if you're a translator and you do specialize in any outdoor sports, feel free to go onto our website and, you know, of course read a little bit about what we do. But also check out the Join our Team page, check out our process and everything. And then if you think that we could be a good match, then feel free to.
Yeah, get in touch.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: That was the perfect plug to end our conversation today. Thank you so much for being with us. And those that have been listening, remember that we just had a conversation with Martina Russo, the founder and CEO of the Action Sports Translator and also vice president of the Protect Our Winters Italy movement, which we talked about how you should never automate your relationships, how the Action Sports Translator organization looks into your mission, into what you actually do to make sure that there is an alignment and we believe a multilingual and the lack talent podcast that this gets you really close to that amazing concept of ikigai.
Until next time, remember, my name is Eddie Arrieta. I'm the CEO here at Multilingual Media and we will continue talking about the future of work and mission driven organizations. Thank you, Martina.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: Thank you.
