Introduction

Pierpaolo Barresi shares how he’s always dreamed of creating something significant. He founded Yobi Scribes, an Italian company that uses creativity, art, games, and communal enjoyment to help achieve business objectives.

Sponsored by Concepts

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Running Order

• Intro
• Welcome
• Who is Pierpaolo Barresi?
• Pierpaolo's Origin Story
• Pierpaolo's current work
• Sponsor: Concepts
• Tips
• Tools
• Where to find Pierpaolo
• Outro

Links

Amazon affiliate links support the Sketchnote Army Podcast.

• Yobi Scribes Website
• Pierpaolo on LinkedIn
• Pierpaolo on Instagram

Tools

Amazon affiliate links support the Sketchnote Army Podcast.

• Uni-posca Markers
• GROG Markers
• iPad
• Wacom Tablet
• Adobe Illustrator

Tips

1. Have fun.
2. Do what you know.
3. Give thanks.

Credits

• Producer: Alec Pulianas
• Shownotes and transcripts: Esther Odoro
• Theme music: Jon Schiedermayer

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Episode Transcript

Mike Rohde: Hey everyone, it's Mike, and I'm here with my friend Pierpaolo Barresi. Pierpaolo, how are you doing today? It's so good to have you.

Pierpaolo Barresi: Yeah, nice to meet you, all the people. Nice to meet you again, Mike. Super nice, sunny day in Bologna. So I smile more than rainy days.

MR: I can relate to that. Living in Milwaukee, we're in the middle of a snowstorm now. So hopefully, I'll be happy after I'm done shoveling today. We'll see. Anyway, well, so Pierpaolo is one of the principal creators of Yobi Scribes. We've continually bumped into each other all over the internet and through friends like Mauro Toselli, and it just seemed like it was time to have Pierpaolo on the show and learn his story and hear what he does and all those things. So, Pierpaolo, let's start with who you are and what you do.

PB: Yeah. I am a South Italy guy. I started from the bottom, from the very bottom of Italy. I'm a young boy now. I am more or less 40 years old, and I'm the creative director of Yobi Scribes. Yobi Scribes is a creative crew of artists, designers, scribers, sketchers, knowledge workers, a lot of competence and super nice people is in Yobi. And we are in Italy active, from more or less 10 years.

I started as a self-employed, just me. But my idea from when I was a young boy is to create something bigger, is to share with the others. If you ask me, which is your art? My art, my talent is to connect people and to create things together. So this is my short story.

MR: Great. And so, it sounds like you have quite a variety of skills that you offer to companies and individuals, one of which is scribing, right? Like graphic recording, graphic facilitation, sketchnoting, but it sounds like even more than that. Tell me a little bit more about what Yobi Scribes does, and then also where does this name Yobi come from? What does it mean?

PB: There is an interesting story behind the name Yobi. As Yobi Scribes team, we do mainly scribes and graphic recording, is our core business. The machine is moved by the scribes. We also do graphic design, illustration for internal companies. So we work mainly with the internal part of the companies. We also do videos. We do also some facilitation and creative skill boosters. We love to call this in this way.

We try to connect objective with creativity, reaching objective through creativity, through art, through games, through having fun together. So scribing is the last part in some way because everything comes and join into the scribes, but we try to support and help the company in a bigger way.

MR: That's really cool. So the name Yobi, what's the significance of that name?

PB: Yobi comes from stupid research on Google Maps. We were looking for a short name that was memorable, that was connected with our background. Two of the founders have a huge important hip-hop and graffiti background. So we come from this kind of mood and field. And Yobi, "Yo" is one of the--is like Ciao in Italian. "Yo" is for the black people and also the Italian people in the U.S. say "Yo."

We find that this national park in Papua New Guinea close to New Zealand, just moving the mouse around Google Maps like that looking for a name. And when we see this name, we say, "Whoa, this is the name." We found that the next step is to have a company journey altogether in Yobi, it's not so close to Italy, but one day it is in our objective.

MR: So it is an actual place then in Papua New Guinea sounds like?

PB: Yes. Yes.

MR: Interesting.

PB: I think it's a gross place. It is not the beautiful place over there. If you look on Google Maps, it is not the best place of the region of the nation.

MR: Sure.

PB: Sometimes people tag Yobi on Instagram from the place, and we see the stories. It is the end of arrival. Just not so beautiful. But for us, it's wonderful.

MR: Interesting, interesting. So, I have a funny little story about Google Maps, if you'd like to hear it.

PB: Yes. I want to hear it.

MR: So my son, now he's 21, but when he was a little boy when he was, I dunno, eight or nine years old, we had set up a computer for him to play games on Thomas The Train games and such. One of the games he wanted to always play was Google Maps. At the time, they had an application that you could search around the world. It started with a globe, and you would zoom in. He sat behind me in my office at the time I sat on the other side.

He was home from school one day, and I hear him going, "Woo, woo woo." And I'm like, "What are you doing, Nathan?" I turned around and he said, "I'm playing Google Maps." And you just see this globe floating in space. He thought that was the funniest thing, was to make this the earth shake, like, you know, like crazy. So that was pretty funny.

PB: We played the same game.

MR: Really? Yeah, exactly. That's how you ended up with the name. That's great.

PB: Yes. So the names come from this creative research.

MR: Yeah, exactly. That's great. That totally fits with your whole way of being, right? So that makes total sense. So with Yobi Scribes, tell me how you got to that place. Now, you're doing this thing. How did you end up there? Where did you grow up? Did you grow up in Bologna or have you travelled? Were there things that happened that sort of directed you bit by bit toward the life that you have now? I would love to hear that story.

PB: Super. I born, as I told you, in South Italy in a small town close to the sea--in front of the sea. I studied at Classic Lyceum for my high school. Then I moved to Naples. It's a longer travel story. Then I moved to Naples to study law. I studied two years law. Then I recognized that not mine, and I changed and move from Naples to Bologna.

MR: Okay.

PB: In Bologna, I start to study anthropology. And after my degree in anthropology, I was a little bit, "Oh, what I have to do now? I want to do graphics. I want to do something with my hands. I want to create using my mind and my hands together. Not only my mind or not only my hands." And I decided to start a career as a graphic designer. Starting also in this case, from the bottom, making flyers for my friends.

My friend was a musician, was an artist. I am not able to play nothing. So I start to make graphics for them using my background as a graffiti writer, as a drawer, not illustrator. I don't want to say illustrator. After that, I study in this school, and from this school I win master degree in a school in Milan, the science school in Milan. And I move from Bologna to Milan.

In Milan in this master's, a person that already knows graphic facilitation, scribes, my mentor comes to run a workshop, and I immediately fall in love with him and with the methodology. Also, because the only things that helped me in my studies, in my career as a student was to sketching things. I already studied working and thinking with the sketching.

My graffiti background also helps me to understand immediately the power of graphic recording and graphic facilitation. Because when you make graffiti and especially illegally, you have the same splitting of your brain like when you do scribing. With a left part, you draw and see the space and the flow. With the right parts, you pay attention. In one case, don't be captured. In the other case, listen to the other, but it's the same splitting.

MR: Wow. Well, it sounds like you almost gathered all these parts, right? And also, interesting that you went all the way from the toe of Italy all the way up to the very top of the boot, right? So from the bottom to the top in a sense.

PB: Yes.

MR: And then, you know learning about law for two years and all these other experiences, anthropology, which it's interesting there's some ties between anthropology and user experience design as well, because you're, you know, observing people and how they act in a natural environment to learn how to improve, you know, the design of the thing that they're going to use, right? So all I would imagine all these things maybe are helpful for you and the work that you do. Would that be true?

PB: Absolutely, yes. When I was in my career as a student, I can recognize this can help me, or I was young to recognize. But now, I really use and I'm great to myself to make anthropology, but also law, also Classical Lyceum are things that have opened my mind, especially in the relation with the clients, especially in the understanding the clients is super important for our career, for my career now and for our career. I talk as a Yobi as a group, so I will speak us together sometimes. Just to finish the story of my--

MR: Yeah, please.

PB: I will jump into this field. The person that comes in the workshop ask for a guy to make an internship with him. So I move back in less than one year from Milan again to Bologna. And I stay one year and a half in the studio looking, listening, as a sponge, I try to catch more things and more information for myself. And after this period, I start my self-career honored only by me. Is like a fiscal number, personal fiscal number. I made eight years alone. After eight years the first that joined Yobi was Monica. And now we are four people in the studio.

MR: Wow. Wow. So you sort of, you know, live the life for eight years doing it yourself and probably saw all the places like, "Man, I wish I had someone else who could do--who thought like this, or who could spread the load a little bit." Probably all those things, right? I'm really curious what role do you play now. Obviously, you do scribing still, 'cause there's only four of you. You probably have to, but who does like the company management and those things?

Is it spread across the four of you? Is that something that you focus on? Or are there a few people that do sort of the--you know, you have to get the customers and you have to book them and the invoicing and the paperwork and taxes and all that stuff, which unfortunately comes with the whole story of being a business. Who sort of manages all those things?

PB: Me.

MR: Okay.

PB: I'm just joking, but yes. The thing is in this period, in the last two years, my professional life is changing from a creative life to a manager life. But it's a process of killing ego first. Because if you want to grow up, you have to kill your ego, and you have to trust the people that can speak for you, work for you and make things how you imagine.

My idea is, don't create copy of me, but to have people that can add value and to pass the logistic way of my idea to my team. But in this moment, I'm looking to a lot of things. There is Monica that is helping and looking for me in into the art direction part, into the creative part. She's more focused on it. And also, she's focused on the video editing, video scribing part. But the administration is in charge of me for now.

My idea is to delegate as more I can. A little to come back to be more creative, the more practice, because I want to do scribes a lot, and again and again. It's really my passion. When I make scribe it is like a happy crying, and I feel some light hits me. I feel scribing is my thing. But my thing is also, as I told you, organize, manage people, and try to create new things together, not only with my hands, but with my vision. Yes.

MR: Yeah. Well, I could see some advantages in a company like that where if you have three other people who could do scribing and different skills, they each bring their own perspective. It makes you a stronger company, right, because you now have three different ways, like, oh you like the way Monica does it, she could take that job, or so and so could take this other job because their skills are really good at that thing, right?

So you diversify, I suppose. Then the next thing for you maybe is now that you've internalized all the running of the company, you know what you need. Now you can hire an administrator, you know, to do certain things, to free you up to do that creative stuff. So maybe the fifth person isn't a creative person, but maybe an administrator who does sort of the things that take you away from the creative work, right?

PB: Yeah. The next step is to hire an administrator. I think just to have a complete view of my idea is when you want to grow up, the two processes are making people happy. So simply paying the right fee for them to be happy and also killing your ego. I killed my ego so now we are just growing.

We have Monica as creative director and our director, we have a copywriter. We have a young illustrator that she's learning scribing and she's trying to learn as much as possible visual methodologies. The next step is to hire an administration. Step by step. We don't want to scale up too fast because we want to do the things in the natural flow.

MR: Yeah. I think following an organic path makes sense in this case. And it's really interesting too, because remember in your origin story you said that you were just like this new person you hired trying to absorb as much as possible and learn, right? So maybe that person in the future, at some point, maybe they start their own Yobi Scribes, right? Like, you'd never know. Right. But you're sort of following the cycle. The cycle that you went through is now the cycle that your team is learning through as well, which is really cool.

PB: Yeah. And also, I think we, as scribers, as graphic facilitators, as graphic recorders, are really lucky people. We have the possibility to learn a lot from big companies, from open-minded people. So, one of my goal life, the first is to share what I learn with the others is. To pass my competence to some other one, to create more and more and more visual communication for the world, for the people. I really believe, and I really, truly believe in the methodology. So for me, it's super important to have an Infiniti loop.

MR: Yeah, exactly. You become--

PB: To grow all together.

MR: Yeah. And then you become Obi-Wan Pierpaolo, right? So you become the old master teaching the Padawan, right?

PB: No. No, no, no. It is not in my objective to be the Obi-Wan.

MR: That's funny.

PB: We just want to make beautiful and useful things for the others.

MR: That's good. That's good. So we've talked about who you are, what you do, your company, how you got here. Can you talk about a recent project that you're excited about that you can tell us about and what that looked like? What did you do? Were there videos or other components outside of the scribing that were part of it, and how does that look when you deliver it to the customer?

PB: Okay. One of the last projects of the year 2023 was a video we created for small company that produce sustainable energy. And they asked us to create some story that could be catchy for different age of target. We tried to do old 90-style cartoon. We work a lot on this and we were really happy of the results. The client was really happy of the results. Now in the New Year, in this year, we are starting to work a lot to keeping notes and keeping trace of their work with sketching and with pencil and not with the digital tools.

And also, we are working with several university on this field. And this is another part of Yobi that me and also my team like a lot to help the young people to try to make in their mind there is a possibility. "There is another possibility for me, and this could be a new way for me." We love to see the eyes shining in the young generation, and that fills our heart and our mind.

MR: That's really cool.

PB: As scribes with restarted normally. Also, in digital, but also in a handmade version. And we will go in Sofia in February to follow the next Sofia event that will be about limitless. So we move also in Europe in this year. We are trying to cover Italy as much as possible. One of our objectives is to be the best, the number one company that do this in Italy, step by step. But also, we are looking to Europe.

MR: Yeah. There's certainly opportunity for sure. That's really great. So you've talked about a project. Now I would love to hear, shifting, what kind of tools do you and your company like to use? I have my guesses, but it's always interesting to hear, especially if there's some unusual tools that you use. And let's start with analog first and then digital second. If indeed, you still use analog tools as part of your process.

PB: Okay. The best tool we use--I can say the product name.

MR: Yes, please. Please.

PB: Yes. Okay. We use mainly Uni-Posca's and GROG tools. The GROG are graffiti markers. The one that drips also when you see in the city, some drip text is made with this kind of marker like a mop. And these ones are the best one for us. They are acrylic colors. They feel on a lot of surfaces. That's the reason we love this one because with these two kinds of markers, we are sure the surface will be covered with the right color in the right way. Almost always.

But we try a lot of markers. We come from a world, as I mentioned before graffiti that mix technology and techniques like spry, rolls, paints. We try to use different tools, but it depends by the project. For the digital obviously, normal ones are Procreate and iPad. But also, we love to use a still Illustrator, like all designers.

MR: Right, yeah. Yeah. So that would be on the computer. Do you use something like a Wacom tablet with a pen or just the mouse?

PB: Yes. We have two Wacom tablets in the studio and several iPads for the live scribes or for some small projects. It depends. When we have to print, we normally use Illustrator and Wacom. If we have to create and produce something for the web, we go directly on Procreate.

Also, for the animation, the world is changing because Adobe is not the--yes, it's still the best, but a lot of competitors of Adobe is still trying to do something easier than use the software of Adobe. Procreate is growing with the animation parts, and we put use both Adobe and Procreate to create a short animation. Maybe we animate in Procreate and then edit in Premier to have a more professional editing. It depends on project by project.

MR: Yeah. It's always good to have more tools, right? Because then you can choose the tool that's right for the job.

PB: Yes. And we--yeah. No, sorry.

MR: Yeah. Otherwise, you know--I mean, sometimes you get interesting results by using the wrong tool for the job. I've seen that happen where because you use the wrong tool for the job 'cause that's what I have, it produces a really interesting output, which actually you might come to like, right? I don't know. I can't think of an example, but I know I've had that happen where I just grab the pen that's available to me and think, "Well, this is not the right pen, but that looks really interesting." And you kind of go with it, right?

PB: Yeah. And you open an open door with me because I think there is no wrong way to create. The only way to create is experiment. Is mixing technology, techniques. Especially in this era, if you want to create something new, you have to mix, you have to experiment, you have to try to find something new. Is not so easy finding something new. But if you experiment, you can try to also to put yourself out in a different way. If we use the same brush, all the scribes, we use the same brush in Procreate, all the scribes will be more or less the same. If you try to experiment and to put yourself experimenting, trying, having fun on what you do, the difference comes out.

MR: Yeah. This is an interesting--now that you talk about this, this brings up a thought that I've had, and I don't think I've talked much about it, is that the tool you use can change the output of the way you work, right? So when I use a brush pen, it changes the way I work. You wouldn't think so.

You would think, I mean, still there's the Mike Rohde personality is coming out of it, but it gets expressed in a little bit different way when I'm using a brush than when I'm, say using, you know, something like a big Neuland fat marker with a--you know, like the output, it changes the way I work.

And it's interesting that we don't often think about that. We just think, well, tools are just interchangeable. But I think in a lot of ways, the kind of tool can sort of shape the output to some degree. Maybe not completely, but have you found that as well?

And I think that might be an opportunity, while we're talking about tools, is to maybe use intentionally--what if the experiment is to intentionally use the wrong tool and get frustrated, but then find the unique, like, "Wow, that's really--for 80 percent of what I wanted, it didn't work for that 20 percent, that's really cool. Maybe I can use that in a future project, right?

I usually do that, right? I'm fooling around and I discover something and I try to remember to use that in some way or find a way I can use that kind of mistake as an intentional thing. Has that happened with your team as well?

PB: Yes. We think nothing go into the trash. When you do something, you get some experience and maybe you will not use this experience for years and years and years, but when you need this, you already know. If you have a lot of space in your head and you feel it, when you need something, you immediately remind what you need.

We have also to play, to use our mind as a computer. Some information you have to delete, some information you have to keep. And this kind of information is what can help you to grow and to make new things, beautiful things, useful things.

MR: Excellent. Excellent. Well, that's good to hear. Sounds like we're on the same page. Let's shift now to tips. I warned you a little bit ahead of time. So the way I frame this is I say, imagine someone's listening or watching us, and they're a visual thinker of some kind, but they feel maybe they're in a rut or they just need some inspiration, or it's a gray day, right, and you just don't feel it. What would be something you would tell that person that would encourage them? And I frame it as three tips. They can be practical or whatever you like.

PB: I think I will give three mindset tricks because for us, it is more important the mind than the end. Especially in our work. First of all, have fun as you write in your book. If you don't have fun, you can do this kind of job, this kind of work is not your field. You have to think positively every time and try to play with yourself, especially when you listen and you have to synthesize in real-time. If you don't have fun, you can create nothing.

The second thing is do what you know. We are professionals. A lot of clients for our point of view, but in general, for our experience, try to guide you but is not correct, is you have to guide the client because you are a specialist. We are specialists in this field, and is not to be super egocentric, but is true. If you want to have the best result from us, you have to trust us.

And doing what, you know, is the only way to make yourself sure and be specified as a sure person, as a professional person. So the focus is, "I am good on that and I do that," and try to implement and grow up on what you love what is the obsession of your life.

And the third thing I can say as a trick is to give thanks. As I mentioned before, we are super, super lucky. I had the possibility to meet super HR manager, super people manager, marketing manager of big brands. We have to steal from them and to report to our community.

And doing this is giving thanks because we have this good possibility to have an impact. We have an impact during our scribing session because the responsibility is huge. We can evidence the difference or eliminate some difference. We have to be really responsible when we do scribe, but the same responsibility is to what we learn in the big companies is to pass to the community where we live.

MR: Very cool.

PB: Thank you.

MR: Well, it's always good. I love this part of it. You may or may not know that at the end of the season, we gather all the tips together and we make them into an episode at the end. One of my favorite ones, one of many people's favorite shows, is those tips all merged together because you get 60 minutes or something of inspiration from all the guests. So it'll be exciting to include these in the session, in that episode. So thank you for sharing those with us.

PB: Super. Super. Thank you for having me with you this afternoon in Italy.

MR: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the last thing that we can talk about is how do people find Yobi Scribes. Is there a website, social media? What's the best way to see your work? And then also to reach out to you? Which may be is the same thing.

PB: Okay. I think the best social media to see our work is LinkedIn.

MR: Really. Okay, cool.

PB: Yes, we use a lot LinkedIn. Also to create relationships with our clients also to find new potential clients. But is the place where we publish more scribing, the more part of the job. If you want to see illustrations and other stuff, also like videos and promo of our company, Instagram, and it's @yobiscribes. But if you want to see scribes and works, LinkedIn is the best page because it is the one that we use more with post and creating pools. We use a lot of our LinkedIn page also because our bios are on LinkedIn.

MR: Got it.

PB: Our target is over there.

MR: Yeah. It does make sense. It's interesting that you've mentioned that, that I've noticed probably in the last--I guess maybe starting with the pandemic, that there's a lot more visual thinkers on LinkedIn. And I was asking someone, a guest, a few seasons ago, who is a specialist in LinkedIn. I said, "Is it like a trend or is it just me and the algorithm is showing me what I want to see?"

And she said, "No, it actually is a trend that there's visual thinkers that are going on LinkedIn and sharing their work because it's an interesting platform. Lots of engagement, a really different type of you know, potential clients or people there." So that's really a fascinating shift.

Of course, you know, Instagram is natural, right? It's designed around visuals. Although Instagram is in a strange place where they don't know what they wanna be. The static picture is sort of getting overshadowed by the Reels and, you know, there's so much going on there, it's hard to know what the focus is. Whereas LinkedIn is where relatively stable and a lot of opportunities. So I think there's, you know, a visual aspect..

PB: Yeah. If I can give you a numeric data is from Instagram, we have the page from eight, nine years, we catch and collect three clients, From LinkedIn. In last year, five, six years that we have the LinkedIn page, company page, the 50 percent of our clients comes from LinkedIn.

MR: Wow. Wow. And I suppose word of mouth, which is probably the best type of new clients acquisition is happening there.

PB: The other 50 percent.

MR: Yeah. But that probably supports it, right? Because someone says, "Oh, you need to work with Yobi Scribes, go look at their LinkedIn page." So now it becomes a reference, right? And then you can see who else did Yobi Scribes work with, then you have validation.

PB: And also there is an empty space. In Italy, there are several companies that do scribes and this kind of thing. We are thinking also to implement our YouTube channel, because also over there especially in Italy, there's not a voice. There's not a company, a person that is doing this in a strong way.

In Germany, there is Benjamin. But here that channel with tips and tricks--in Italy, there's not a social communication about scribes, about graphic facilitation, about sketch noting. So we are trying positioning ourself also in this social way. We love to work and to make job done and not to be posting and social media manager, but it's not possible to live in this era without posting on social media.

MR: Yeah, that's true. And it seems to me like probably, you started to identify that each social media sort of has its benefits and also, it's often not the same audience. I've noticed that with the podcast. So the podcast has existed since 2016, the audio version. I think two years ago, I started experimenting with posting these recordings as videos on YouTube. And it's a completely different audience.

So if you think of it that way, if you've got the capacity to do LinkedIn and Instagram and YouTube and whatever other platforms, you're actually diversifying in a lot of ways because the people that see you in one place don't necessarily see you in that other place. And so, it's actually expansion in that sense.

PB: Yes. Also, you have to remain under an umbrella, but the tone of voice is also different. It's not only the target, but how you have to catch, engage, connect, attract this target is three levels of three different communication.

MR: Yeah. You have to tailor to that.

PB: We have hired a copywriter.

MR: Smart move.

PB: Yes.

MR: Well, Pierpaulo, this has been really excellent. I've learned a lot from you. And of course, we'll reach out and get us links for all the things, all the places we can send people to. We like to do show notes with details. Thank you so much for the work you're doing in Italy. Thank you for being such a great person and seeking to find people to work with you and to represent our community in such a positive way. I'm so encouraged, and I just wanted to let you know, I appreciate you. Thank you.

PB: Thank you, Mike. It was a super pleasure for me to be here with you. Hope to meet you in person as soon as possible.

MR: Yeah. I think I need to do an Italian trip. Of course, my wife will kill me if I don't bring her along. So maybe we bring the whole family. That would be fun. So when that happens, we'll of course, let you guys know.

PB: And you'll be our guest in Bologna.

MR: Oh, that would be great.

PB: You can come in our studio.

MR: Maybe we need an Italian tour all the way from Milan down. So, we'll see.

PB: Yeah. I have to be your fifth runner.

MR: Sounds good. Well, for anyone who's--

PB: Good luck with that.

MR: Thank you. And for everybody who's watching or listening, it's another episode of the Sketchnote Army Podcast. Until the next episode, talk to you soon. Ciao.

PB: Ciao.