Beyond Translation: What International Expansion Really Demands of Marketing

Angela Tricoli: Foreign.

Rob Carroll: Building a great B2B go to market engine starts with understanding what works and evolving it. I'm your host Rob Carroll and this is a go to market perspective where marketing and sales leaders share how they're transforming their organizations, foundational best practices, smart trade offs and practical AI delivering value and scale. Today, every growing B2B company will eventually reach a stage where they have to consider international expansion. It could be a US born startup eyeing other countries or a non US tech company trying to crack the American market. And spoiler alert, translating your website and hosting a few local events is not a go to market strategy. My guest today is Angela Tricoli, head of marketing at Revcore and soon to be published author of a book that aims to help marketers navigate some of the most common traps they tend to fall into. Angela has spent years as an American marketing leader working for companies headquartered outside the US that has helped organizations navigate expansion across borders in both directions. Angela, welcome to the show.

Angela Tricoli: Thanks. Great to be here.

Rob Carroll: Why don't we get started by just providing a little bit of background and you know, share some of that international experience that you've had.

Angela Tricoli: I'll be honest, it's something that I kind of fell into to provide some, some context. I'm a bit of a Francophile. I had a CMO that I'd worked with previously who knew this about me. So he called me, I want to say it was in the middle of the pandemic and he said, do you want to work for a company based out of Paris? I think I said to him, say less. I did not overthink it. I was so excited. There was something very glamorous, at least it felt to me at the time about working, uh, for a company based abroad. What I ultimately found though is that marketing for an organization not based where you live is, is very different. And it really opened my eyes to how global marketing is, is truly just so different from marketing in your home country, your home area, um, how teams operate, how decisions get made, how markets behave. And frankly, later, when I had the opportunity to join a Berlin based company, what drew me back this time was not the prospect of again traveling overseas to Europe, but rather helping to manage this complexity of international expansion and international go to market. That challenge is what really got me excited and what brought me back to it.

Rob Carroll: Is the German based company where you're based in the US and they're in Germany now.

Angela Tricoli: Yes. And it's actually the company that I was with previously. So I'm now again working for a US based company. Uh, I think for me, especially with a young one at home, I kind of have to take turns. Right. Every other company is going to be maybe based not in the United States, because it's a, it's a lot, it's more than you might expect. Um, in terms of just travel, the cultural shift and the hours that you have to keep. It is, it's not as glamorous as I expected it would be.

Rob Carroll: Well, nothing ever is, I imagine. But. So you've had both perspectives. So how do you describe the difference between being a US Based marketer working for a non US headquarter company versus being a non US based marketer working for a US Based company? Have you sensed a difference in just the overall cultures or operating models for those different types of scenarios?

Angela Tricoli: Yeah, I think that at least from my own experience, the likelihood of being a US based marketer working for an internationally based company is, is maybe more common. But what I will say is that at least including my peers, what I found is there's this common expectation that you somehow represent your market, especially if you are the marketer that's based in that other country, which I think we can agree is kind of ridiculous, especially when you're marketing to maybe a target market that is not who you are as an individual. I've certainly fallen into that box of, uh, where I had to somehow know what the US market represented holistically and no single person can really do that. So that is one of those expectations that you kind of have to either be really upfront about or just expect, uh, on your side and be open to that type of, um, dynamic. I think what's also very challenging is you have to be the voice of that region in leadership conversations. Right. So you're not only, let's say, as a product marketer or as a digital marketer, having to be the voice for your decisions and your strategy, but you're also having to make the case for why in that region that strategy makes sense. And it's hard, especially when you're not based in or very near the home office. Right. Because you don't have that proximity to leadership or to decision making. I definitely felt that struggle, right. Where you're missing the hallway conversations, you're missing being in the room where it happens. Right. And I would say there was a little bit of a positive shift during COVID ironically, because everyone was not in the office. The openness of having somebody work from another country has stuck around because people have recognized, oh, there's great talent everywhere. Let's tap into that. But if you're not a short flight even or a short drive away, that lack of proximity to the leadership team can slow things down for you and it makes it difficult for you to advocate for what you're doing. So I would say be ready for that. Know that you're going to be expected to advocate and you'll probably have to, not literally, but figuratively, shout a little louder that they can hear you over there. Right. And you'll have to come with more evidence because they expect you to. They're not just going to take it for granted. They're going to expect you to know the market, but they're going to expect you to prove it anyways.

Rob Carroll: You're not just a marketer, you're also someone who's on the hook to educate the rest of the organization on that market.

Angela Tricoli: Right.

Rob Carroll: Makes it a very interesting role, but also that much more challenging, I'm sure.

Angela Tricoli: Exactly. Yeah.

Rob Carroll: Going back to the challenge of, you know, the remoteness of it. It's, it's one thing even during the uh, pandemic where okay, everyone's remot remote, but a time zone challenge, you kind of sense that wherever the leadership team is is the time zone that matters and everyone else adjusts that.

Angela Tricoli: That is fair. I would say I've been lucky to work for companies that don't expect me to work at 3am but they're definitely expecting me to be presenting to the board at six. And if you're not ready for that, then you're not going to be able to influence the decisions. I think that's really where the trade off happens. Right. And you have to make that choice. That's your boundary that you have to set. Are you willing to join the meeting at 6am so that you can advocate for your strategic choices and move something forward for you. Do you have the conviction to do that? Is it worth it or is it not? I mean I would never advise someone to upend their entire lifestyle, but you have to understand that if you make the choice not to, there's probably going to be implications in terms of career growth if you choose to work for a company that is based somewhere else.

Rob Carroll: Right. Which makes all the sense in the world and it's, it is a uh, trade off, but it's an investment also.

Angela Tricoli: It is, yes. 100.

Rob Carroll: You're mentioning that, you know, the, some organization you work for where you'd be the sole marketer in the local region and obviously a larger scale company may have teams or even offices in these other regions.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah.

Rob Carroll: What are some of the cultural misunderstandings that often show up? You're an American in Paris, um, call out to George Gershwin. But if you're um, you're of the nationality of the headquarter company, you just happen to be in region, it's different than if you are a local national for an office or a region and you're dealing with a different culture, home office. What are some of those challenges that you've either witnessed or that you're just familiar with?

Angela Tricoli: I think the most common challenge is assuming that markets are more similar than they really are. Right. And I would say this probably spans B2C and B2B. But with our economy today as our B2C economy today being so heavily influenced by social media, I would argue it's harder in B2B. The market dynamics are so different and it comes across through everything from political orientation to different tariff strategies that those nations might have to the makeup of economic brackets. I mean they're even comparing France to Spain to Italy to Greece. They are night and day culturally. And so if your messaging feels really generic and doesn't reflect local business priorities, that's going to be really difficult for you. If you're over estimating your brand awareness or credibility, if you're expecting that that will transfer, that that's going to hurt you. Right. There are maybe analogies of like, oh, we're the X, uh, we're the, we're the BMW of this industry. Well, maybe not, maybe that works for you in Germany, but it doesn't work for you in uh, the Middle East. Right. Or in apac. So, so you really have to make sure that you are tapping in to the cultural identity of that specific region, that specific country. And you also have to tap into the sales motions of those countries. You know, it's truly down to like how do they purchase, what is the expectation, how do you build relationships and then working that back to how you market to them. And I think a lot of companies who maybe haven't experienced it or haven't gotten that guidance, they tried to go in to the US for example. Actually there's in, in my book, there's an example of a Dutch company, very well respected, uh, trying to get into the US market. They're like, we're ready. And they essentially just, you know, carbon copied their model that had worked so well for them in Europe and tried to deploy it in the United States. Messaging, relationships, expectations of how the pipeline would, would grow. And it failed because they, they didn't have the network, they didn't have the customer proof points already locked in. They had assumed that the US Would be the same. I'm telling you now, it's just not. So spoiler alert. Yeah, spoiler alert. It's different. Um, and so I think that's where, you know, there's, there's cultural misunderstandings that, man, they cross every level of an organization, but you feel it in the marketing the most.

Rob Carroll: So we had a little fun with the title of the episode starting, uh, with beyond translation, kind of implying that there are leaders out there that actually think if they simply translate their website into local language and their content, bam, suddenly they're going to be very.

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Rob Carroll: very relevant in a new market. Kind of similar to your Dutch example of copy copy paste. And why, why isn't it working? What other experiences do you have with that oversimplification? Do you, do you feel that's an exception or a rule in terms expectations,

Angela Tricoli: Uh, I would say so far it's been a rule. I wish it wasn't. I frankly, I wish it was that easy that you could just translate it and you're like, I'm done. It would, it would make everyone's lives a lot easier. Even if it was something, oh, I'll translate the website and then also swap in a few local cultural references and suddenly we will be relevant. Even that is just, it's not how it Works. An example, the Chevy Nova case M. Right. So Chevy had made a car called the Chevy Nova that had really been successful in the United States. And they're like, let's take it to Latam. And it was a complete failure. Admittedly. One of the biggest reasons it's called a failure, um, and why we reference it in marketing is because Nova in Spanish literally translates to doesn't go, which is, uh, as you might imagine, not ideal for a car. And so it was a, it was a bit of a mistake on many levels, but they just assumed that it's successful here. Let's just, you know, land and expand. And it, it really doesn't work that way. Even literal translation M is not going to work for you. Even if everything else was the same in that market, the translation itself has to be contextualized. And so I think it's, it's funny because we assume that that language change, even in and of itself could be enough. But even that is not enough.

Rob Carroll: Your brand identity may need to evolve to be a global identity as opposed to original identity.

Angela Tricoli: Exactly, exactly.

Rob Carroll: So flip it on the other side. And what are some examples of international expansion that's actually worked well? You know, what's an example of someone that just did it?

Angela Tricoli: Right. I worked for an organization that I actually think did a fantastic job. And the results, I would say proved that point. They didn't start with a big launch. They didn't show up in the US and say, we're here, you're welcome. They started by sending just a few folks to trade shows to scope out the competition, learn a little bit more about the US So this is a company that was based in Europe trying to come to the US and they did that for about a year. Really just like boots on the ground. Let's tease this out. Let's see how other competitors are operating here and how clients talk to us. And let's see what works. They tested messaging in real conversations. So before going digital in the US they had these one to ones to really test out their messaging. And they were able to grow a small but notable client base in the United States that were kind of willing to take a risk on a company, uh, that didn't have the infrastructure here yet, but had a great product and they liked the story. And so they built those relationships and they were really intentional about doing that. And then they also thought about what sell city are we going to set up shopping? They really got down to that level of specificity. And they started with a small space. They started with this like little garage that maybe, you know, a couple of leaders were working out of before growing and growing and growing into a large office space. So they gave themselves the time and the physical and emotional space to kind of get things right and get things wrong. And, and the reason that I think that this was so critical is because they were able to do it without this massive cash outflow. So they were able to um, kind of make the mistakes before it was really expensive and before it would cost them brand equity too. Right. If you just make a big splash and you fail, people remember. And so I think it was, it was so critical and they have steadily grown. I'm actually, you know, I don't work there anymore, but I'm still impressed by how well they've really maintained that momentum because they, they took that crawl, walk, run approach and it, it served them very well.

Rob Carroll: No, that's great. And I love the time aspect and that's kind of like going to my next question. It's. So when companies, let's say in the US are expanding beyond, where do they most often under invest? So is it, is it people, is it presence or is it patience?

Angela Tricoli: All of the above. But I would say one thing that you didn't mention and it's the first thing is information market research, which arguably you could say is maybe patience. Patience to collect the information, the insights. You know, every single trip you take without having boots, like you know, whole office in that country, that's a data point. Every pitch you give is a data point. Every conversation you have is a data point. It's worth taking the time to collect that uh, information, those insights, how it affects your organization, how you might then make decisions down the line before you then invest in the people and in the presence. I would say the other under investment is definitely the people and marketing in particular, there's I think this expectation that you only need sales to be local. But that could not be farther from the truth. Or you need one marketer and they can handle it. Again, could not be farther from the truth. If you are going to stand up, uh, a, ah, presence in a country, you really have to look at it like you are launching another company in that country. And what does it take to launch that company? It takes hr, it takes marketing, it takes it, it takes operations, it takes sales, it takes finance that are dedicated to, to serving that region and doing it really, really well. When you shortchange that and you assume that you can, you know, bootstrap it a little bit, it generally does not work out. And you're not able to really attract top talent or top clients. They expect that type of presence as well. So I would say number one, information. Number two, the people.

Rob Carroll: Yeah. And like so going back to the information. So the other side of that coins obviously. I couldn't agree more that you better have done your research and understand your market. Crawl, walk, run is always a good way to test the water, see what's working, reinvest, grow.

Angela Tricoli: Yep.

Rob Carroll: But where do you hit that stage of analysis paralysis where now you have to, at some point you have to jump in and so what's, what's the turning point between you learned as much as you can learn, but just like anything else, sometimes you have to try to learn some more. So when do you actually start seeing that real commitment like hiring those local teams or opening an office or whatnot? Like what, what is that evolution from? I have insight, but now I have. The only way I'm going to actually know is to do.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah, now I have to scale it, Now I have to commit, I would say when the small scale activity starts to generate a pattern of outcomes. So when it starts to become a little bit more predictable, you've got not one or two wins, you maybe have six customers who've signed up with you. The messaging is resonating. You feel like you're uh, about to hit that stride and you're seeing again pattern and predictability. Invest. Maybe don't, you know, rent out a whole skyscraper, but start to hire locally, build those programs out, start putting the infrastructure in place. And this is where I would reflect on the crossing the chasm concept where it's like you've already, you've got those early adopters, you're starting to progress, you want to really grow and scale your business there and you've, you've seen the patterns. Do it right because next group, the next cohort of customers that you want to court, they will expect the infrastructure. Now you need to prove that you've got the support that the tech, uh, the operations to really be their partner. And so that's when you invest.

Rob Carroll: So in your book you discuss what a leadership team's checklist should include before they decide they're ready to expand internationally. So what are some of those key steps or checkboxes that CEOs executive teams, boards should be taking that are uh, maybe not happening enough out there.

Angela Tricoli: I will admit this list is not exhaustive, but at a high level, validate the demand, make sure you have a clear use case for that market. Do not treat international expansion like a Shiny object. Right. Everyone else is expanding. I must do that as well. If there's not a clear use case for your product in that market. Pause. Make sure that you have localized messaging, which means not just translation, but contextualized for that market, and proof points. You've already locked in a few customers that are willing to vouch for you. Then set, uh, realistic timelines and expectations. Realistic. Don't expect that in three to six months you're going to get featured, you know, at some trade show on the keynote stage. No one knows who you are, so chill out. Um, and then make sure that you have operational readiness to support that market. So that's where that last thing is. Like, you've got the predictability. Now we're going to really prove that we can operate here. Customers are going to expect that. And so having that plan in mind of how you're going to support them from a customer support perspective and an IT perspective, it's important. Like, you don't have to have it done, but at least have the plan. And then I would say once you've put those five steps together, it's just five, five things. Right. It's not huge, but at least do that. And then say, okay, we're ready to expand internationally. But if you can't figure. If you can't answer those five questions, you are getting ahead of yourself. And you need to take a beat and really think long and hard about whether you want to spend the money. Because in the end, you can spend a lot of money expanding internationally and get nothing for it.

Rob Carroll: Right. When maybe it doesn't make sense to go expand into this market directly. M. There's the other option of going through channels.

Angela Tricoli: Yes.

Rob Carroll: So I'd love to get you. And I've worked for some companies that. That was their entry point was through partners, whether it's system integrators or cars or just technical partnerships with local. So what, what are your. What's your advice there? When. And you might do both. So I'd love to, like, what are, what are some of those litmus test questions that you should ask of whether you should go via partnerships direct or both?

Angela Tricoli: Yeah, both is always great. Don't do both at once. I think it depends on what, uh, global relationships you already have. If you have global relationships with partners, and maybe you only have a contract with them in, say, Portugal, but they have offices in Canada. Ask for the connection and look for opportunities to land and expand within those channel partnerships. Right. Establish the reseller agreement in Canada. Use them as a mechanism to Build credibility. Get those market insights before you invest. So I would say if you're in

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Angela Tricoli: are already pretty strong for you. They're not hyper regionalized, they're actually quite expansive and definitely tap into that first. It is the cheapest, fastest way to build credibility in those regions before you make the big investment. Now I would argue not everyone has those great channel partnerships, so if you don't, then you probably need to start with your own boots on the ground at um, the trade shows in order to get their attention. Right. They may not actually talk to you until you've established a U.S. presence because they expect that they need that. So I would say the answer is it depends. But the depends is an easy one. Do you already have them in your region and you can actually tap into their global network? Or do you need to prove yourself a little bit first?

Rob Carroll: From a leadership standpoint of doing your research and understanding how these markets work and how people buy. Your marketing investment could be product marketing and sales, partnership.

Angela Tricoli: Yes.

Rob Carroll: Investments versus field marketing and demand gen and brand investments. So it's, it's a real interesting thing. And it goes back to your very oft reiterated point. Do your research understand the market, which is uh, I think it could not be repeated enough.

Angela Tricoli: But it would shock you how much you have to remind folks, especially when they see this idea of international expansion as this gold cup. Right. We did it? We expanded internationally. And it feels validating for you as a brand. But don't let the shininess disguise the fact that it's expensive and can cost your brand.

Rob Carroll: Right. It's like you're a 10 million ARR company and you're very well. If you expand into Europe, it could be 20 million in a year. It's like, well, forget about how much you're investing in there. And to your earlier point, yeah, they don't know who you are. They don't care who you are. Make them care. That takes time.

Angela Tricoli: Exactly.

Rob Carroll: Okay, let's say we have leadership on board saying this X market is, uh, we've done our research, we feel it's time to expand, it's go time. Now it's execution. And so when we talk about execution and uh, go to market strategy, you're talking about sales and marketing alignment.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah.

Rob Carroll: So what are some of those foundational prerequisites that the CMO and CRO, for example, need to agree upon to actually say we're ready to go? What are, what's some of the, uh, upfront work from an execution standpoint that these functional leaders now need to agree on to make sure this is all working? And I should throw in product leadership too, because there's going to be some level of product readiness depending on what you're selling to be happened to. Whether it's translating into a local language or just metric system. There's like a hundred things that could.

Angela Tricoli: No, exactly. Or even I would say the technology partner ecosystem in those regions might be different depending on the industry that you're in or the type of product that

Rob Carroll: you deliver, Privacy laws and other things that.

Angela Tricoli: Huge implications, huge implications. And that comes back to like, understand the market you're going into. Not just, you know, at a very surface level, but what is the regulatory environment, what is the political environment? What is the buying environment? To answer the question, I would say, especially when talking to the cfo, be really clear about the investment and don't shortchange it. I know I've said that already, but it's. You can pour, I'm gonna make up a number $7 million into something, or let's make it even less scary, $70,000 into something and get nothing. Or you can pour 100,000 and it unlocks. So be really, really clear what that unlock minimum threshold is to be successful and make sure that you are really all in. If you don't have that very clear alignment with your leadership from the onset and the commitment, the risk you run is you and your mind know exactly who you have to hire, where they have to be located, how long it's going to take. If they pull the plug on your budget and you're halfway done because you didn't align with them and they're getting a little bit scared about the cash outflow, then it was all for nothing.

Rob Carroll: Right?

Angela Tricoli: Right. So it sometimes feels, again, exciting. I got the green light. Let's just do this thing. Take a beat. Are we all on the same page of uh, how much we're going to have to invest and how long it's going to take to be successful? Sometimes that conversation is not the CRO, sometimes that's the cmo. Because the leadership expects this is going to be a marketing LED thing. Right. They might still not understand how operationally challenging this is. So you as a CMO need to be asking exactly those questions that you asked. Right? Like how is this changing the product, how is this changing our security, you know, uh, SLAs, how is this changing our data protection and our data storage? There's so many things you as a marketer are going to have to ask that not because you own it, but because if you don't ask it, you will be the one left holding it back.

Rob Carroll: Going back to expectation setting and time to ROI and break even. What, in your experience as you've expanded out, how do you set expectations at the leadership and board level? Like what is the investment to pay back? Timing that you know? And again, this is a very tough question because every business is going to be very different, but it's less so what are the actual numbers more so what's the process to getting them there? How do you advise marketing leaders to set those expectations with the board so you don't get your funding pulled halfway through because they thought it would be quicker, right?

Angela Tricoli: Yes. So similar to how I mentioned earlier that when you are expanding internationally, it's not just like I'm spinning up a satellite office, it's like I'm launching another business in that country. Look at your marketing the same way. If you would build a marketing strategy with events, partnerships, you've got revenue marketing, you've got analyst relations, you've got product, product marketing, everything. You've got a team that supports that, a, uh, budget that supports that, and a timeline for what it's going to take to execute and deliver specific outcomes. Do the same thing for that market as, uh, if you are launching a new marketing department in that market. So start there, overlay it with your existing strategy and say, okay, I Don't want to be greedy. What are the things that might cross over? Arguably you could say maybe analyst relations because our top analysts are global. The relationships are going to be the same. The reports are global. Okay, that's what I could check. I don't need another one of those. I might only need 50% more partner marketing because some of these relationships are going to be at a global SI level. Some of them are regional. Okay, so you can start walking it back. But start with you don't have a team. You are starting something new, then tighten it. And I would say if you go from that direction, you are going to be able to set a much more comfortable and realistic budget, team strategic plan and timeline for yourself than if you try to take your existing and figure out what of these Can I expand into another market? I know that sounds like isn't it just 6 and 1/2 a dozen in the other. It's not. You will miss things. And so I would recommend starting big and paring it down and remind them that this is not just about running a few events locally, supporting sales on pitch decks or translating content. It is about having a marketing engine that is fueling revenue growth for the company in that region. Entire outcomes to that too. We are driving revenue growth for this region. That is the purpose of this team, this function.

Rob Carroll: I think that's terrific advice. Just modeling saying let's pretend this expanded region we're trying to get into is. Is a new market. It's a new company.

Angela Tricoli: Yes.

Rob Carroll: And what would it take to actually launch a company to sell our product in this market and then oh, but it's not a new company. There's some, there's some shared resources that would work. And actually walking through with leadership saying this is where it logically can apply versus to not have a product marketer or a comms person that's has a regional experience is a risk. So that we might want to invest 0.5 headcount or 1 headcount for this type of thing. And maybe it's through agencies or maybe it's through. That's the how can you figure it out. But you're actually showing the gaps you have in skills and also bandwidth. Like being a product marketing leader for the last many years. There's always more work than there is bandwidth. So you're now expanding and expecting, let's say your product marketers or your field marketers or whatever to just add this to their plate when they're already having to remove things from their plate. So just being really honest of if we take maybe these existing resources can skill wise, aptitude wise help, but something else will have to be deprioritized and have that level of conversation too.

Angela Tricoli: Exactly right. And it takes a little bit more time, but in the end it's worth it to make sure that you're not selling yourself short or putting your team on a fast path to burnout. Right? No one wants that. That's the one common thread across all these regions. No one wants their team to be unhappy. So as a leader, no matter where you're based, if you think you're going to do a lot more with the same team, be prepared to lose some people on that team. And that's why I think this is a great way to protect talent and protect the company's interests.

Rob Carroll: So now I'm going to put on my investor hat and I'll, and I'm gonna refute everything you just said by saying we have AI now, uh, you don't have to worry about any of this because you can do three times as much work with no extra resources because we have AI. So I'm being, uh, I know I'm being goofy, but reality is there is an expectation for everyone. It's not, it's not a company by company thing. There's not a company out there that's not feeling legitimate pressure, and I call it legitimate because there are efficiencies that can be gained with AI. There are risks that can be, uh, introduced by relying too heavily on AI. So let's talk about where AI as it sits today in early 2026, where can AI help with international expansion? Where are some innovations that make sense for it to help? But I've not really heard much about that use case, quite honestly. You hear about content, you hear, um, about process optimization. Uh, I don't hear about international globalization.

Angela Tricoli: Uh, so I'm right there with you. I'm sure you can, you can guess my answer based on how I've already been talking about what it takes to be successful when expanding internationally. Relationships, listening boots on the ground. Those are things that by definition AI is not replicating and would, would struggle to do. Right. It certainly can help on, on the edge cases like content synthesizing that research and helping you to uncover trends in one direction or another that might steer your decision making. So it's, it's very good at kind of analyzing that input, but it can't go collect it for you. Right? It's not going to go do that. Not yet. You know, I think that once you've Done the hard part. Once you've understood the market, you've built the relationships, you're getting the positioning right, and you ideally have messaging guides that will be more regionally contextualized, region specific. Then it can probably scale some of that. You might not need as many copywriters. You might need one that's kind of overseeing it. You might be able to tap different members of the team just to sanity check. Like, does this joke hit in Spain like it hits in Canada? Right. The answer might be yes. The answer might be no. That's, um, where you, you could probably use AI. But look, I mean, from a personal side, you know, I have family in Mexico, Venezuela, Spain. Uh, the language is different and you're probably thinking it's Spanish. It is, but the language is different. Having the cultural understanding and, and living it is still always going to be important in order to really meet your market where they are. And AI does not do that well. So I think it's important that, uh, you know, we understand the limitations that it still has.

Rob Carroll: So AI hasn't necessarily figured out nuance yet.

Angela Tricoli: It does not, it does not understand nuance.

Rob Carroll: But what I do expect, though, as you kind of come back to, I do expect it can play a pretty valuable role in accelerating that research and discovery phase.

Angela Tricoli: Absolutely. And what I, you know, what I think is nice, and I think it's still a growing application of AI, but, uh, breaking down the language barrier internally. So maybe you're not using it to sell in or using it for finished marketing materials because that needs to be more polished. But, uh, let's say I'm in the US and I've got to have a team with folks that are in Ireland, in Greece and in Dubai and in Mexico, let's just say, which is not an uncommon situation. And not everyone is fluent in all of those languages. And some of them are like, English is a, you know, we're proficient, but maybe not professionally. Um, and they don't have to be because they're focused on grace. Real time voice translation really helps to accelerate those conversations. I think that, uh, the more that folks can kind of use, whether it's Microsoft or other tools, there's a lot of tools that, that can do that now in meetings that really helps break down those language barriers and helps to accelerate decision making because people understand what's happening. You can have faster feedback loops, you can maybe do a faster first draft of content because, um, AI does translate things pretty well. Or it might clean up coffee if it was written by someone who's Not a native speaker to that language. AI can kind of find some of those like, oh, that's not the right way you'd do that. You'd say that, you'd spell it. So that's nice. Right. I think it can help bring confidence to those teams. M. Those are again pretty edge cases and it's more around how you engage with your colleagues and less about how you go to market.

Rob Carroll: Going back to crawl, walk, run. I think, yes, I think there would be significant value in allowing the experts on the ground, in region to be able to collaborate and communicate as confidently as their, let's say their English speaking, native speaking peers. So everyone's on the same page and their expertise can truly be heard through this Rosetta Stone translation AI could provide. I think it's a great example of how AI could really add uh, value today.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah.

Rob Carroll: M. What would your dream be like? Because obviously AI is every three months there's a new massive innovation and transformation and how trustworthy and impactful it can be. What's your dream of like just through all your experiences, um, of managing global go to market. Where would you like to see the AI improvements, uh, coming next for international

Angela Tricoli: expansion or just in general for international expansion?

Rob Carroll: Specifically international. But hey, feel free to throw in any of wish list.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah. You know, I think it would be incredible to have a tool that asked you the right questions. Right. And was able to synthesize those responses that maybe you even articulate. Right. It's, it's a large language model, you're talking to it and it's able to quickly connect the dots or identify the gaps at an a global level.

Rob Carroll: Mhm.

Angela Tricoli: Right. And take the first pass of translating content that is on brand, on narrative in seconds. So we know that, or at least I believe I should say that AI doesn't inherently understand nuance, but it would be incredible if you could train a model that could take your nuance, could ask you to help it and then could translate that into something meaningful. So it's truly that human in the loop, the interaction where it's not creating the evidence or collecting the insights, but it's synthesizing it so quickly and with such great context that it's able to deliver output faster and better than a human brain could ever do. I think that would be amazing.

Rob Carroll: Yeah. And I think we're on our way because you know, you have a lot of digital twins and you know, I got my own digital twin on my website, trained on my content and my voice and like global is the more context and input you provide from experts and locals and Persona research and voice of customer, the smarter and more nuanced it will become. So I think it's more of a, the AI is probably more of a learning how to train it versus can the AI do it?

Angela Tricoli: Oh, I agree. I think it just hasn't been a prioritized use case. But we got to battle it. I think that's our next step.

Rob Carroll: I think that sounds great. So as we're, as we're wrapping, um, what's some advice you would give to some marketers that are considering roles? Call it the non HQ region, you know, at a, at a regional office, um, whether it's a US company abroad or vice versa. What are some of the things that you consider earlier stage, uh, or earlier career marketers when they're considering those types of roles?

Angela Tricoli: Yeah, it's not glamorous. I would say be prepared for the early morning phone calls, the late night. I think on the bright side, for me, I had already worked for a global team. I actually led global product launches at Hewlett Packard for some time. And so I had done um, the 9PMs and the 3am calls from Shanghai when something broke. So I kind of already, I already knew what it felt like and I was at least walking in with eyes wide open from that perspective. But be prepared for that. Um, it is not a 9 to 5. Be prepared for the travel if you want to have influence over those decisions that are going to drive go to market strategy. Be prepared for the culture shift. I was, I was warned that there's a pretty significant culture difference between the U.S. and France, the U.S. and Germany, the U.S. and Philadelphia. Right. It's very true. And it's actually um, sometimes a little bit more jarring than you might realize. And you don't know how you as an American are going to be perceived. So be prepared for that. And I would say give yourself grace. Ask for grace. Yeah, the advice would be less about the work, more about just knowing yourself and feeling that you're going to be ready to jump into the.

Narrator: This.

Angela Tricoli: Like I said, I take breaks. International us. International US. Because it's um, it's a lot.

Rob Carroll: That's great advice and I think it's um, giving yourself grace no matter what roles you're taking on or challenges is something we need to teach early career folks to do. Because you don't learn if you don't make mistakes, but you still want to try.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah, exactly.

Rob Carroll: So, um, I, I love to wrap up, I'd love to learn a little Bit more about your upcoming book. When's it going to be available? What's it called? If you've got a name yet, yes.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah. So, um, it is launching in early summer. And uh, the book is called the Common Marketing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them. So the book is really centered around, again, those pitfalls. It's funny, when I first started writing it, the subtitle was Marketing Mistakes. And I realized they're not mistakes. They really are these traps that you don't always see coming because the environment can be so messy and fast and unclear. And it's hard when you're in it to really see the forest through the trees. And so the goal is to help expose and help marketing leaders really diagnose what's happening and get out of that trap. I actually interviewed, interviewed over two dozen CMOs, um, pulled a bunch of real world examples from successful and unsuccessful businesses. Even ones like Twitter, Google, like they don't always hit it out of the park, but it's also shaped by what I've seen and I've experienced. So it's really been a labor of love and I'm hoping that it is helpful for up and coming marketing leaders, maybe cathartic for existing marketing leaders. Read it over a glass of wine and just laugh. Oh, man. Yeah, I've done that before.

Rob Carroll: That should be the, uh, tagline, um, right. It's not just you.

Angela Tricoli: Yeah, it's not just you. The interviews were definitely, I think, therapy sessions just as much as they were interviews for these guys. So yeah, man, I've loved it and I'm excited to get it into folks hands.

Rob Carroll: That's awesome. Well, I'm really excited to see it and please follow Angela on LinkedIn so you can, uh, hear when it's available. But Angela, this was a lot of fun, a great topic. I really appreciate you joining me today.

Angela Tricoli: Thank you so much for having me. I had a great time.

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