I started this job without even knowing it. While we were walking on the streets of Rome, Marco told me he wanted to change everything in his life. I decided to help him find the right person to do that, until one day, in front of a cup of take-away coffee, he told me that I was the right person. The first thing I did was laugh. I was a 26-year-old press office and I had too many things to learn ahead of me. “Whatever you will not be able to do alone, I will do with you and, if things go south, we will go back the way we came from together. I trust you.” These were his words.
The most beautiful statement ever. It was 2011.

I began on my own, even though Claudia has always been by my side: even if she didn’t know what she wanted to do at the time, luckily, she never left me. I don’t know what I would do without her: she is the water to my fire; all I need is one look from her to calm down. She has many skills, but the most important one is her precision. Closely second comes her fairness. Third, her honesty.

At the end of a Festival in Florence, Francesca’s mother came to me and said: “She needs you”. When I first met her, Francesca had just won X Factor and was just a child. I had just started my journey with Marco and I didn’t know whether I was going to be able to help her or not. However, that night outside the hotel everything was suddenly clear: she needed someone to help her believe in her abilities. Now she is a brave, successful and curious woman. We travelled together from Sanremo to Stockholm, with our camping tent and without degrees of separation. We get excited together, we live and breathe music, trying to put experimentation always ahead of everything else.

One day Marco told me: “I found your assistant; you can’t keep on working like this.” When I asked him how he managed to find her, he told me that he met her while eating lunch in a bar in Milan: she was working as a waitress there. Marco heard her talking in perfect English with some clients and asked her for her contacts. Marta wrote to me the next day: it was her last day as a waitress. If Marco hadn’t been there for lunch that day, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Educated, profound, loyal. Smart.

The path with Alessandro was more complicated. Many years ago, while we were sitting inside a theatre between breaks, he asked me if I had ever thought about working with somebody outside of the music business. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing: truth be told, I had never thought about that, but, if I had to choose, he was the most interesting talent outside of the music area. We lost contact for a while, until one day we met in a bar in Milan. I told him the truth: “Ale, you are a rockstar, and I see you up there… right now, we are down here”.
It is hard to make people laugh with brilliance.

I decided to hire Valentina despite the Xena haircut with which she came to the interview. After years spent as a designer for a very important fashion brand, she decided to change her destiny. The simple fact that she was deciding to risk everything with the rest of our team, had me convinced already. See her on the job makes me prouder every day. I don’t think it is possible to describe her: a colorful mess full of life, you cannot ignore her when she walks inside a room. Creative, determined, resourceful.

I saw one of their performances on Youtube. Måneskin: four beautiful souls, full of talent, each one of them in a different way. They dragged me into their dimension every time I was with them, constantly teaching me the art of youth and freedom. We spent four wonderful years together and it was a great journey to build the future through their eyes.

Having Francesca with us is the biggest gift we could ever receive. Called “La Maffi”, she is loyal, cheerful and always coherent in everything she does and says. “Being Maffetti” has become a must: she always manages to lock herself outside her home, the keys left on the table, and laugh about it until tears come spilling out of her eyes. Knowing she is with us makes me calm and gives me the strength to dream a bit harder, because Francesca is never afraid of falling down. Handling all the communication of each one of our artists and projects is not a skill, it is a superpower. She is the color we were missing in our rainbow.

I met Antonio at the Italian headquarters of Sony Music. We were introduced, and I recall he didn’t speak much: he looked down and smiled a half smile. I remember thinking: “What does he have inside his eyes that I can’t read?” And then we met a bunch of times outside my offices: lunches, coffees, a lot of projects shared and discussed. Until one day we decided to take all our notes and transform them into something real. To begin this journey together: soon we will have many more things to tell.

Finding Valeria was not easy. I needed someone who support me, who was between me, Valentina and Francesca. Who could intercept my follies, could pass them down to the rest of the team and team up with Valentina and Francesca. Inside LaTarma Management she is the business development manager, but she’s not simply that, just like having only one role is not the standard for any of the girls. She is incredibly professional, complete and competent. When you look her in the eyes, you instantly think that you can trust her. And it’s truly like that: when she is following a project, I know that I don’t have to worry. I take comfort in having her with me because I know that she’s never afraid of telling the truth and of expressing her opinion: no matter how against the flow it may be, she’ll always be honest.