LTL 118: The Business Of Language – An Interview With Lelani Craig Part Two

Welcome to Part Two of my interview with Lelani Craig. If you missed Part One, you can find it here. Lelani is the President of CommGap International Language Services. With more than 25 years of experience in the language industry, she is an accomplished conference interpreter as well as a certified court interpreter. As a result, she is not just an authority on the language of business but knows a thing or two about the business of language.

CommGap is a translation and interpretation company which Lelani started in 2000. CommGap works with more than 200 languages. Additionally, Lelani owns Global 1 Voice, LLC which offers medical interpreter training, language assessment, language classes, and compliance consulting.

Lelani currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Language Companies. She is also one of the organizers of the Silicon Slopes Localization group, a member of the Utah Women Tech Council, and recently organized the Utah Chapter of Women in Localization. In addition, she serves on Advisory Boards for The Global Chamber and Lango, a technology company. As a mentor and speaker for University entrepreneurial programs, Lelani frequently speaks for leadership and mentoring groups.

She received awards from “Count Me In” and American Express in 2004. In 2013, Lelani was selected by Goldman Sachs to participate in their 10,000 Small Businesses Program. In addition, she was chosen by Utah Business Magazine as one of Utah’s 30 Business Women to Watch in 2014. Furthermore, adding to her impressive list of accomplishments, she was awarded Hispanic Business Woman of the Year by the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2017.

Key Takeaways From Part Two

• Traditional marketing doesn’t work in every industry, so always pay attention to client feedback and referral rates
• What additional need does your client have that you can meet
• Make your client look good
• Understand client needs, not just the service they are asking for, but also the one they don’t even know that they need yet
• Don’t dream big; instead, think bigger
• Fear will keep you back if you let it – be open to the possibility of trying to do something that makes you uncomfortable
• Comfort will keep you from pushing yourself, so beware
• Mentoring has a significant impact on your team members
• Growing big and fast isn’t always the right answer for a small business
• Quality is key and growth that damages quality will hurt the company in the long run
• Don’t believe every article you read about entrepreneurs and startups – you can grow a multimillion dollar company without funding

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

The Leader To Leader Podcast Episode 117: The Business Of Language An Interview With Lelani Craig Part One

CommGap International Language Services

Global1Voice

Follow CommGap on LinkedIn

Connect with Lelani on LinkedIn

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