boy Lackey who back almost a boy oh
shoot this isn’t English right all right
let me let me put that into Google
Translate hang on okay what’s the circle
I like to be with you that’s weird why
would I come and see you let me tell you
Google Translate don’t use it in
important situations or for your Spanish
homework sometimes it doesn’t work I
built my business out of the ability to
understand what someone is trying to say
in one culture and what the other person
needs to hear in another culture through
translation translating words
translating linguistic situations
translating cultural differences but
most importantly translating nuances
different nuances in business I want to
challenge everybody because there’s
probably some students here thinking can
I go into business for myself should I
go work for someone yeah we all have
something that we’re really really good
at and we don’t even realize it it’s
something that’s part of our lives and
who knows maybe we do it better than
anyone and we can make a career out of
it so I’m gonna tell you a little bit of
ice about my story and how I I came to
to own my own company so I grew up in
central New Jersey in a bilingual
household my mom was from Ecuador she
came to the US when she was about 20 she
spoke English but you know she didn’t
really use it all the time until until
she moved here my dad’s American so from
the time I was born I was spoken to in
both languages all the time Spanish
English Spanish English I started I
think in both languages and I became
like the household translator between
relatives then to people in the outside
world then it was cultural differences I
had to really explain certain things to
my mom like that’s not how we do things
here
you know you got to work with me best
story is I I bring home a permission
slip we had this big cross-country
basketball travel trip and I bring home
this big permission slip it’s all this
legalese and places to sign and things
like that she says a Unitarian and she
looks at it she’s like oh why I cannot
just go to the coach and say she can go
I was like oh you gotta sign this thing
my dad was on a business trip was like
you gotta sign this thing or I can’t go
like they didn’t have permission slips
in Ecuador in the 50s I get it but you
got to work with me so all my life it
was those cultural differences language
than those situations and that doesn’t
work there that doesn’t work here that
works there that works here so I knew I
had something different I knew I had the
language skills and the cultural
bridging of those those two gaps so I go
to grad school and I say all right I’m
gonna use my languages in some way so I
come out I start working for a company
big global company and I start realizing
there’s this whole business where
there’s investors on Wall Street and
there’s companies in Latin America that
are trying to tap that capital
there’s CEOs that are coming to New York
and you know there’s they speak English
but it’s never perfect and these
investors they’re demanding a certain
behavior or performance or words
information so I worked for this company
and one of my first experiences is my
clients that’s me in the back with the
short hair and the round face 20 years
ago I’m at the New York Stock Exchange
with the client and they grab me they
say go you have to translate for him he
doesn’t speak any English so there I am
I’m one that I didn’t even have time to
tell my family that I was gonna ring
that couldn’t be on the bell there’s
millions of people watching this on TV
so I
was hooked I was like this I can do this
I can definitely do this I can help
these guys so working for this big
global company I realized they didn’t
care about Latin America they were
worried about the u.s. there was
companies coming out like Amazon right
so they were worried about that market
there were companies in Europe that were
so much bigger they didn’t care about
Latin America so what I do is you know
what I can do this on my own so I
partnered with someone who’s just like
me
an American girl grew up in a
spanish-speaking household with a
business degree and nothing to lose and
we started this company 20 years ago
so we start I advise and since then
we’ve worked with dozens and dozens of
CEOs helping them to communicate to Wall
Street in English with all those nuances
with all the accounting differences the
legal differences but then there’s a but
the cultural differences are huge so the
translating has been all has always been
easy for me but let me tell you in
Mexico they love using figures of speech
all the time these figures is featured
imagine translating some figures of
speech let me give you some examples so
I’m in a I’m in a meeting with between a
CEO of one of the biggest companies in
Mexico and a fund manager with a hundred
billion dollars in assets to met to
invest and he asked what’s gonna happen
to NAFTA with the NAFTA renegotiation
and he says CEO says well let’s see
which side the Iguana chews on I’m sorry
what what he’s really trying to say is
well let’s see where the problem stems
from so I have to you know okay this is
what he was trying to or they say wow
you think doing great how are you gonna
grow 20% again next year he says I will
we can not sleep on the flowers we can’t
rest on our laurels right or the
one is they say well wow you’re gonna
expand for this new market like how do
you know you’re gonna do so well in this
new in this new market
well they say well the parrot is green
where ever it is like oh my gosh I can’t
it’s so fun but doesn’t you know those
are the those are the fun parts about
the about the business the cultural
difference is I’ll go back to my title
slide the cultural differences are also
there for sure you know you you Wall
Street investors that are demanding
transparency and openness and how are
you gonna make money and you have CEOs
who look they’ve been spending their
career building a business maybe they’re
maybe they’re a coke bottle or maybe
they have an oil company there are oil
guys right or and they come here and
they really have to adapt or they’re not
going to get the capital they’re not
gonna raise the funds to build a new
plant to hire more people to contribute
to those societies so I really feel like
the importance of the translation the
importance of the cultural bridging
we’ve helped a lot of companies raise
money and give back and it’s it’s built
in five it’s built a better future for
you know I if you recall the picture the
shelby face with the short hair I was so
happy to recently I rang the bell I rang
the bell for for my own company so that
that meant so much and and I think it
speaks to if you do have this one skill
that you’re so good at if you have this
one thing that you can do better that
little voice in your head is like I know
I could do this better than my boss I
know I I have an idea that they’re not
using they’re not doing it you know
maybe entrepreneurship is the way to go
I strongly encourage it I encourage it
for our girls out there and you know I’m
a working mom I love what I do and I
hope I hope I can inspire you to to be
an entrepreneur so thank you [Applause]
shoot this isn’t English right all right
let me let me put that into Google
Translate hang on okay what’s the circle
I like to be with you that’s weird why
would I come and see you let me tell you
Google Translate don’t use it in
important situations or for your Spanish
homework sometimes it doesn’t work I
built my business out of the ability to
understand what someone is trying to say
in one culture and what the other person
needs to hear in another culture through
translation translating words
translating linguistic situations
translating cultural differences but
most importantly translating nuances
different nuances in business I want to
challenge everybody because there’s
probably some students here thinking can
I go into business for myself should I
go work for someone yeah we all have
something that we’re really really good
at and we don’t even realize it it’s
something that’s part of our lives and
who knows maybe we do it better than
anyone and we can make a career out of
it so I’m gonna tell you a little bit of
ice about my story and how I I came to
to own my own company so I grew up in
central New Jersey in a bilingual
household my mom was from Ecuador she
came to the US when she was about 20 she
spoke English but you know she didn’t
really use it all the time until until
she moved here my dad’s American so from
the time I was born I was spoken to in
both languages all the time Spanish
English Spanish English I started I
think in both languages and I became
like the household translator between
relatives then to people in the outside
world then it was cultural differences I
had to really explain certain things to
my mom like that’s not how we do things
here
you know you got to work with me best
story is I I bring home a permission
slip we had this big cross-country
basketball travel trip and I bring home
this big permission slip it’s all this
legalese and places to sign and things
like that she says a Unitarian and she
looks at it she’s like oh why I cannot
just go to the coach and say she can go
I was like oh you gotta sign this thing
my dad was on a business trip was like
you gotta sign this thing or I can’t go
like they didn’t have permission slips
in Ecuador in the 50s I get it but you
got to work with me so all my life it
was those cultural differences language
than those situations and that doesn’t
work there that doesn’t work here that
works there that works here so I knew I
had something different I knew I had the
language skills and the cultural
bridging of those those two gaps so I go
to grad school and I say all right I’m
gonna use my languages in some way so I
come out I start working for a company
big global company and I start realizing
there’s this whole business where
there’s investors on Wall Street and
there’s companies in Latin America that
are trying to tap that capital
there’s CEOs that are coming to New York
and you know there’s they speak English
but it’s never perfect and these
investors they’re demanding a certain
behavior or performance or words
information so I worked for this company
and one of my first experiences is my
clients that’s me in the back with the
short hair and the round face 20 years
ago I’m at the New York Stock Exchange
with the client and they grab me they
say go you have to translate for him he
doesn’t speak any English so there I am
I’m one that I didn’t even have time to
tell my family that I was gonna ring
that couldn’t be on the bell there’s
millions of people watching this on TV
so I
was hooked I was like this I can do this
I can definitely do this I can help
these guys so working for this big
global company I realized they didn’t
care about Latin America they were
worried about the u.s. there was
companies coming out like Amazon right
so they were worried about that market
there were companies in Europe that were
so much bigger they didn’t care about
Latin America so what I do is you know
what I can do this on my own so I
partnered with someone who’s just like
me
an American girl grew up in a
spanish-speaking household with a
business degree and nothing to lose and
we started this company 20 years ago
so we start I advise and since then
we’ve worked with dozens and dozens of
CEOs helping them to communicate to Wall
Street in English with all those nuances
with all the accounting differences the
legal differences but then there’s a but
the cultural differences are huge so the
translating has been all has always been
easy for me but let me tell you in
Mexico they love using figures of speech
all the time these figures is featured
imagine translating some figures of
speech let me give you some examples so
I’m in a I’m in a meeting with between a
CEO of one of the biggest companies in
Mexico and a fund manager with a hundred
billion dollars in assets to met to
invest and he asked what’s gonna happen
to NAFTA with the NAFTA renegotiation
and he says CEO says well let’s see
which side the Iguana chews on I’m sorry
what what he’s really trying to say is
well let’s see where the problem stems
from so I have to you know okay this is
what he was trying to or they say wow
you think doing great how are you gonna
grow 20% again next year he says I will
we can not sleep on the flowers we can’t
rest on our laurels right or the
one is they say well wow you’re gonna
expand for this new market like how do
you know you’re gonna do so well in this
new in this new market
well they say well the parrot is green
where ever it is like oh my gosh I can’t
it’s so fun but doesn’t you know those
are the those are the fun parts about
the about the business the cultural
difference is I’ll go back to my title
slide the cultural differences are also
there for sure you know you you Wall
Street investors that are demanding
transparency and openness and how are
you gonna make money and you have CEOs
who look they’ve been spending their
career building a business maybe they’re
maybe they’re a coke bottle or maybe
they have an oil company there are oil
guys right or and they come here and
they really have to adapt or they’re not
going to get the capital they’re not
gonna raise the funds to build a new
plant to hire more people to contribute
to those societies so I really feel like
the importance of the translation the
importance of the cultural bridging
we’ve helped a lot of companies raise
money and give back and it’s it’s built
in five it’s built a better future for
you know I if you recall the picture the
shelby face with the short hair I was so
happy to recently I rang the bell I rang
the bell for for my own company so that
that meant so much and and I think it
speaks to if you do have this one skill
that you’re so good at if you have this
one thing that you can do better that
little voice in your head is like I know
I could do this better than my boss I
know I I have an idea that they’re not
using they’re not doing it you know
maybe entrepreneurship is the way to go
I strongly encourage it I encourage it
for our girls out there and you know I’m
a working mom I love what I do and I
hope I hope I can inspire you to to be
an entrepreneur so thank you [Applause]
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