Conversation with Global Marketer Expat Wendy Pease

In this episode, the Owner of Rapport International and author of Global Marketing, Wendy Pease exposes the hidden fear in global businesses, gives new meaning to what it means to be a translator, and how online daydreaming should be a coined term and path towards finding your purpose dream life.

Wendy MacKenzie Pease is the owner and president of Rapport International, a metro-west Boston translation and interpretation services company specializing in marketing, legal, and medical/life sciences translation. Throughout her career, she has worked with hundreds of companies to help them communicate across more than 200 languages and cultures.

Wendy is a creative entrepreneur with an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BA in Foreign Service & International Politics from Penn State. Her expertise in international relations grew from working in several international and global marketing roles and spending years living abroad. 

Wendy is a frequent speaker, writer, blogger, trainer, advisor, master networker, and avid world traveler.  She hosts the Global Marketing Show podcast, which features experts on opportunities and challenges in increasing multilingual lead gen and revenue.

Author Wendy Pease Books
https://wendypease.com/books/

Rapport International
https://www.rapporttranslations.com/

Transcript

[00:02:54] Nyra: Wendy. Tell us, how did you become an expert? Tell us, tell us your migration story. 

[00:03:02] Wendy: So mine started really young. When I was in first grade, my father took a job at the Rockefeller foundation where he actually worked with Norman Borlaug on the green revolution, and he won the Nobel peace prize for the advances in agriculture. So I went to school and a half Spanish, half English speaking school, and first and second grade, and then we moved to the Philippines and then we moved to Taiwan.

[00:03:34] So my ex-pat experience started really young and just feeling weird when I came back to the United States or different, or just the exposure to what we had seen and what was going on here. But it gave me a lifetime love of travel and languages and culture 

[00:03:53] Nyra: That is amazing that, I mean, at first grade, which is the, probably the prime age to learn [00:04:00] any language to be exposed to any culture. I think it's really, really interesting that you have. That you have started at such a young age that your parents were the expats. So you would consider yourself a third culture kid. Would you? 

[00:04:15] Wendy: Yes. Yes I would. Yeah. And what was interesting too is at that time, a lot of the people from the U S that were living internationally were. Military. But my dad was in international agriculture. So the places that we went to, where the real farming communities are way out there. So there wasn't other Americans that we were hanging out with. It was really an international crowd. So yeah, it was interesting. And agriculture is so, I mean, it's one of those things that.

[00:04:44] Nyra: I  know in my direct circle, we don't talk about enough, but I've had some pretty small, interesting experiences when it comes to agriculture. Being in Kenya and talking with a few people, trying to figure out how to grow service things in a very different type of way in a certain area that may not have the necessary soil just yet. Or, or what have you, I mean, it, it was just, just having that conversation, like how important it is for certain area, how agriculture is like, can in some ways define the survival of an area. 

[00:05:20] Wendy: Oh yes. And the nutrition of an area. How, yeah. There And what crops are grown and that can define an area. Yeah, so it was very different. My dad did research on corn in Mexico, on mung beans in Taiwan and in rice, in the Philippines. And so I've always kind of been interested in agriculture. So in clubhouse a couple weeks ago, we did a room on, I, I do a Friday morning room at 9:00 AM, East coast time, two o'clock London time about global business and one week the topic was sustainable agriculture. We've got a [00:06:00] really big room and people stayed and wanted to talk about it. And it was so interesting because you had the predictable view of ag, sustainable agriculture, you know, really buy local, eat local and do all that.

[00:06:13] But you know, as Americans, we want to be able to buy our blueberries in, you know, October or december and our mangoes right. And so there was a gentleman on there that was talking about that, about how you connect local farmers with distribution and treat the farmers well and on the distribution, the packaging and shipping companies can do a lot to clean up oceans. So there's this cycle of, yeah, you may be using energy to transport the food, but what can you do for something else to help clean up? And so it was a really fascinating discussion that takes more of a global view rather than just the eat local, which can get difficult if you live in a climate where things don't grow for many months of the year, like I do.

[00:07:07] Nyra: Right. Did you happen to attend the world fair in Milan in 2015, which the theme was about food sustainability. 

[00:07:16] Wendy: I didn't, I didn't, that would have been fascinating. I did get to pass through and I have to say a lot of those installations from the different countries were really, really super interesting. Please don't have me do a paper right now because I could not tell you.

[00:07:34] Nyra: I was overwhelming a lot, a lot, a lot of information. Oh my gosh. And we went early on. It started when it just becomes like a six month thing. So there was some you know countries that were still finalizing their installation, which are like amazing to look at actually. And, but I did get to go to many and it was just absolutely so fascinating.

[00:08:00] [00:07:59] You know, what each country is doing towards know food sustainability, because there's a lot of people on the planet and you know, Trying to meet the demand is becoming more and more of an issue. But, but also looking at water like water, you know,  was another one, you know? So I, I just thought I'd mentioned that, you know, it just wondered, but I'm sure you probably did not need to be there because you already in the mix and in the conversation, and this is what you do, but I want to, I want to, I want to kind of go.

[00:08:40]Wendy:  One final thought. There's an associate of mine. That's working on a nonprofit to help with malnutrition. And I think it's Subsaharan Africa and they found, and they were trying to figure out how to get vitamin B out to people and what they found out that was that bullion was frequently used there. And so one of the big food manufacturers figured out they could add the B vitamin complex into the bullion, and that would be a natural way to distribute it. That would, could. Eliminate some of the malnutrition that they had. So thinking about like, if, if you thought, Oh, we're gonna, you know, send vitamin B vitamin D vitamin BS into this area and just, you've got distribution, you've got, you know, will the culture, will people take vitamins if you know, but if

[00:09:28] Nyra:  you could just, integrate it right to what they're already using. That is smart. 

[00:09:34] Wendy: Yeah. And so we were we were actually talking to them about translation and how do you communicate, why you'd buy this bullion, over others? It was real interesting. 

[00:09:45] Nyra: That is very interesting. Move me through your adulthood, maybe teen to adulthood as to how this global or this expatriate third culture kid experience is now. Taking form for you. 

[00:10:00] [00:10:00] Wendy: Sure. I went to Penn state for my undergrad degree and there I majored in foreign service and international politics. And around that time, when I was looking at college, I mentioned to my dad that, Oh, you know, I'd like to be an interpreter. And he said, you know what, go specialize in a subject matter and then become bilingual. And so I went and specialized in an area and I thought I'd go to law school. And when I graduated, I thought, Oh, should I move to Europe or California? Cause mostly far away from Pennsylvania and, you know, find places to live. So I have been moved out to California and started and entered sales and realized that I really enjoyed sales and business.

[00:10:47] And. Didn't want to go to law school. And when I was out there, I, I figured out I, I started a company and I knew how to run a small company, but I really wanted to learn how to grow a big company and I'd always want an advanced degree. So then I went on to Get my MBA. So I always had this, I want to do something foreign, something international. And after I got my MBA, I learned, I went off to work for some companies, some international companies. I worked in global marketing and global business development. And then. Happened. I got laid off on both maternity leaves, which sucked, but I landed where I am now because I said, you know, I don't want to work for a company anymore while I'm raising kids.

[00:11:29] I want to have the flexibility of having my own business. So I started daydreaming online and came across this little translation and interpretation. Company for sale. 

[00:11:40] Nyra: I, I so love that term, daydreaming online. Like I've never heard that before. Whoever's listening to this day, dream on a blog or a book or something. I don't know what it is, but that is a coined term by [00:12:00] Wendy, Day dream online. 

[00:12:04] Wendy: Well, when you daydream, you know, you're in your head, I know me and my day just, I'm just sitting there like people are like, are you here? No, I'm not here. Leave me where I am in my mind. And that's where I'd like to stay, you know? And then, but to be online, that's like, I, I see that as like going down the rabbit hole, trying to, you know, especially YouTube. Me and YouTube, we have a very beautiful love affair. We really do dream online. That's like the marrying of very two different conscious States. Oh my gosh. Okay. I just thought I'd just, I just slipped that in.

[00:12:44] Nyra: I know I love it. When I think my kids call it, Wendy, speak

[00:12:48] Wendy: Then you added me to note to go. Up up and down on that, stay left, stay left. Go ahead. 

[00:12:59] Nyra: I love it. I love it.

[00:13:01]Wendy:  But yeah, daydreaming is sitting here and thinking about, yeah, I'd like to be a business owner and coming up blank on what to start. So I went online and I was, I was like buy a business, you know, so I could daydream about what businesses were for sale and what I could buy , if you google buy a business. You can dream online. All you want about which company you could own. Right? Right. Okay. So made it happen my daydream became a reality and I bought rapport international, and now I am connected to people all over the world, all different cultures, all different languages. And I love it.

[00:13:48] Nyra: And that is amazing. So somehow you circled back to language. Would you say that your background, did they know when you were applying for these global businesses that you're, [00:14:00] that you were third culture kid, did that it somehow puts you at the top of the pile or something or give you some sort of I don't know some, a leg up.

[00:14:08] Wendy: It may have. Yeah, because when you've had some sort of international exposure, but I think it was really combined with the marketing experience that I had had. It's almost a chicken or an egg Circle on that discussion because I run the global marketing show podcast. And the people that I interviewed that are in global marketing, I'm shocked at how many people have had early exposure or some sort, usually early exposure before they're willing to get into international or global.

[00:14:45] And. If you've had that early exposure, then you're open to doing global marketing. Like I can't see somebody applying for a global marketing role unless they've had some international experience. Right. And that's what I love about your podcast is that so many Americans are, you know, I say Americans, but I really mean people from the United States because Americans can include all North and South America, but so many. People from the United States are just afraid of going outside the borders. They're afraid of language or cultures. And by you having conversations with ex-pats again and again, it's going to come up that, you know, I'm a better person I've had, you know, like if I just talk about me, I'm a better person.

[00:15:33] I'm more curious, I'm more open to new ideas. I want to have be around people that have had different experiences or look different from me. And so. You know, what happens first, you get a global marketing role or do you have to have that experience or did you have a childhood experience that made you open to having global marketing?

[00:15:53] Nyra: Right, right. And so, you know, and, and I often talk about the pioneer. Within a lot of [00:16:00] people, like sometimes you'd have to be the pioneer. You have to ignite the pioneer within you, because you might be the first in your family. You might be the first in your community. You know, you, you you're the first to yourself already, you know? So I so agree with what you just said. And I so appreciate the understanding of, you know, The intention behind, especially my podcasts, but just the work of what I think is very, is, is talked about very little about the work that experts do out in the world who it is just not documented enough.

[00:16:33] Wendy: Yeah. It's real interesting that you say that. It reminds me of a very dear friend of mine from business school. And I went up in New Hampshire where, you know, the majority were white and this friend happens to be black and in the beginning of school, we were at a cocktail party and started chatting. And I, you know, she was another student. I was just interested in talking to her. We were standing next to each other and it took years for us to get to the point of having a conversation. But she said, you know, I couldn't understand why you were talking to me because here I am a black person up here, around there.

[00:17:11] And to me, it was just so shocking that she kind of had that feeling. But because of my international experience, it's, it's wanting to talk to people no matter what they look like. You know, so I think people who it's either that or that when I was in Taiwan, I was the only blonde haired kid in the farming, small hand, a small farming town. And so a lot of people would come over and try to touch my hair or my brother's hair, because we were in minority, it's the combination of being drawn, but also [00:18:00] knowing what it's like to be a minority in a situation. So it was just an interesting conversation that I had with her years later, once we gained trust on that.

[00:18:09] Nyra: But I think you're absolutely right. That people that have had these experience can be a passport to open up the world. Absolutely. So you were about to talk when we were about to move into language, which I'm really interested, but before we get into that, So you've had these global experiences. Then you started you, you daydream online.

[00:18:29] I'm never going to think that by the way, and you opened up or started your actual business, which is called, is it Boston translation services? Is that the one that you started?

[00:18:42] Wendy:  It's rapport international. Am I daydreaming online actually led me to this woman who was selling her company. She had started in 1987 and I was daydreaming online in 2004. And so that was the year that I bought the company. Rapportinternational. And then six years ago we acquired another company in Nebraska and rolled them up together. So daydreaming can come true. 

[00:19:10] Nyra: Absolutely living the dream, living the dream. Oh my goodness. That's awesome. Does is a company allow you, I shouldn't say allow you, but do you get to travel? Do you have to travel or is it something that you can just do from the comfort of your, I mean, I know you said that one of the incentives of starting your business was so that you did not feel like you were confined or be put off being, let go, because you were having a child, you know what I'm saying? You know, motherhood, you know that, which is a whole another podcast discussion all together, right? Yeah. So you've made your way, and I think that's the real point there is that you've carved out a way for yourself that obviously has [00:20:00] been working for you if you've been in business for 17 and a half years.

[00:20:02] So tell me about your business. Tell me, you know, from the start to, you know What you've discovered about yourself as a female entrepreneur as , this person with this ex-pat expatriate experience, how did it all kind of intertwine? Tell me when all the roads started to merge for you. 

[00:20:26] Wendy: It's you know, I finally looked, I was probably about five or seven years into owning my company and I looked back and I started laughing and I. I'm like, I ended up where I set out to be in high school and college. I mean, I told my dad, I wanted to be an interpreter. I thought about law school, but decided I liked business better. I love business. I love languages and culture. And so here I am leading a company that brings that to me every day. So I love where I landed.

[00:20:59]As for my travel, I don't. I didn't want a job where I had to travel when I was raising my kids, because I wanted to be there for them. You get such a few years to really raise them and be involved with them. And so I ran my company so I could do that. And as I started hiring, I hired a lot of women who had stayed home to raise their kids and wanted something flexible. So we've worked virtually for the whole time I've owned the company. So going into this past year where you couldn't work virtually We're we didn't miss a beat. You know, I did with traveling, I took my kids on a international vacation every year. And they have been so thankful for it because it's given them a new appreciation for people around the world.

[00:21:44] It's given them an open an openness to people that they wouldn't have if they had grown up just in their town or just going to the same place for vacation. So they have both. You know, as teenage boys express their appreciation to me. So my [00:22:00] exciting news is dirt. My COVID project was to write a book called the language of global marketing translate your domestic strategies into international sales and profits.

[00:22:16] So the reason is. So often I find us companies are doing work internationally. And if you dig a little deeper, they're only doing business in English speaking countries, but the potential to go to other countries that don't speak English is huge. Oh, wow. I, you know, I, that's interesting how they just choose English speaking countries or countries that have that dual language, but English is a strong.

[00:22:46] When they are strong language. Wow. That's that's Hm. I had different two, a couple of feelings about that, but I don't want to say them here.

[00:23:08] well, I mean, I just feel like there's, there's an arrogance to that. Decision-making, it's a fear. It's a fear speak on that. It's a fear that I'm not going to know how to communicate. I don't understand the culture. And so if I can't, if I can't communicate, how am I going to do business there? So it's the same thing.

[00:23:33] Think about if you're a marketing person and you get a website or a brochure done, you know how to check it to make sure it's accurate. So people who don't speak the language think that. They're not going to be able to communicate And so they, they just avoid it. But what happens is if all the countries are going to the only opening up internationally in the countries that speak English, you've got much higher competition, you're [00:24:00] better off researching which companies have a good market system for you, regulatory legal, you know, openness You know, affordable, they have, you know, spare money to buy what you want.

[00:24:11] They want your products. And then you return on your translation investment is much higher. So there is right. Yeah. So I've really noticed that's a fear. So that's what the book exactly talks about is where's the opportunity, which countries are growing and has disposable income. How do you think about doing this and how do you use translation? Or if you need to do a quick phone call, there's telephone, interpreting what materials do you need to get translated? How you can leverage SEO to bring business into your website and sell right from here, 

[00:24:51] Nyra: right? Oh my gosh. That's and that's valuable information, especially in this climate and the way technology has really been dictating how we connect with one another, because everything you said, the number one word that just came up for me was. The  fear of connecting, how do I connect with this person or this country? You know, how do we do that? And you've chosen a language and you use it many different ways. You do translation. You said you hire mothers or women who work from, can work from home and have flexibility. Are they translators?

[00:25:31] Wendy: Oh, okay. So these are my staff members who work doing project management and marketing and interpreter scheduling and operations and, and all that. So they're actually doing the office functions. Now our translators and linguists. Are highly screened, highly professional people. Cause we really specialize in high-quality language services. They are all over the world and they're independent contractors because we provide services in 200 [00:26:00] languages. And then we do linguistic matchmaking, which means once we assign the person, they have to have not only fully, almost native skills in the two languages, they only translate into their native language and they have to have subject matter expertise.

[00:26:20] If you need a marketing translation done, that's going to be a different person than who does your patent translation, even if they're both Spanish projects. 

[00:26:30] Nyra: Got it. Wow. And is that a hard find? 

[00:26:36] Wendy: Yes. It's a hard find.

[00:26:38] Nyra:  It sounds like a hard find, but that's, it's so interesting that that's what's it's needed. It's required. It's  a position that most really, you just hear translation when people hear be a translator, they think, Oh, UN (word not clear)in somebody who's listening through an ear piece, or you're walking with a business person who doesn't speak a lick of whatever the language is. And you're just.

[00:27:03] You're just being the go-between the language mediator. Right. And yeah, it's far more intricate than that. You clearly just stated it. I'm so glad that you wrote this book because I just talking with you is insightful. I would imagine I'm going to get this book. Everybody should get this book to, if you have a business to start thinking about your business more globally, and I’m, assuming that your book will address a lot of the questions that they have and questions. They never even thought of asking. Cause I know, I didn't even think you answered a few of them. Let me just tell you right now. I was like, all right. Oh right. Every time I'm like, Oh, right. Okay. 

[00:27:45] Wendy: So you can, you can find the book on Amazon or Barnes and noble or good reads or your Kindle. So you can find it it's for sale. It's up there. The yeah. And the other thing about who you can do, translation, [00:28:00] who can do your translations and how qualified they are. There's a whole chapter in the book that covers that, you know, cause people will say, Oh, my distributor offered, or I've got this bilingual person in my office that could do it. Or, you know, I know. Jose down the street that speaks Spanish, he could do it. And so I go into the pluses and minuses and even cover machine translation or Google translate where you can use that. 

[00:28:24] Nyra: I've used. I've what I have. I think it's Microsoft translator app. And let me tell you, I was so happy to have it when I was living in China. Cause I did not speak a lick of chinese at all. And I was struggling that first two months, living there until I started taking Mandarin classes. And so now, you know, I have an app you know, right now set being so I'm self-taught, but I took formalized classes and I look forward to after the, you know, post COVID to continue my studies, because I want to be very fluent. So I'm learning how to read, write, and speak in Mandarin. And let me tell you, that's a language that is not easy to learn.(speaking in mandarin). 

[00:29:11] Wendy: Hats off to you for learning it because, you know, just at least knowing some of the language, you know, you can connect so much more with people and it gives you a different way of thinking. 

[00:29:21] Nyra: Yes, it does. And that's a great comment. Yeah. Let's segue right into how language talk more deeply about how language has really been transforming, not so much in your business, but just in your personal life. How many languages do you speak? Do you speak another language? 

[00:29:36]Wendy: I speak some Spanish, French and Italian but  they get better if I am in the countries and I'm actually speaking. But you know, if you're not around using it all the time and all the linguists that we work with are so fully bilingual, we just go into English. 

[00:29:52] Nyra: Right. Can you think of something that you as a person where your experience as an ex-pat [00:30:00] has really have come in handy?

[00:30:05] Wendy: Yeah. I mean I'm to Spanish speaking people. So I think back in high school too, when there was a new kid put in our class and he didn't speak English at all, and somebody was telling him to get out of their seat and he didn't understand what was going on and, you know, the Kid was getting mad at him cause he was in his seat. And I thought I thought, Oh, you know, if I just tell him that if I just serve as an interpreter right now, then I can tell him that all he needs to do is move to another seat. So I kind of became his cultural transition right there and helping to get him into the class and understand what's going on.

[00:30:46] Another thing that I work as a kind of a cultural transition is a fantastic organization called  soccer without borders, and they started internationally to help get kids to play soccer and not only was it giving them the ability to have soccer teams and balls and some coaching, they put an emphasis on schooling and teamwork and development and support, and really focusing on the communities that go into lower income.

[00:31:18] So a few years back, I started volunteering as a driver cause a lot of the cause they opened up an  group in Boston and they had a bunch of kids that came from a lot of Spanish speaking families where their parents didn't speak English and the kids might be struggling in school. And they had no place to get involved with the local teams and play soccer. And so here they could come join a community. It was a multicultural community. There were the coaches were volunteers , and then they asked for volunteers to drive them to the games. And so they'd [00:32:00] be playing against other teams where they'd have parents along the whole, other side of the field, cheering on their team and the soccer without borders kids, their parents were, you know, the new immigrants that were working two jobs and couldn't.

[00:32:12] Come watch or didn't have cars to drive out. And so I got involved with that and sometimes I ended up talking to some of the kids that didn't speak English, so I could speak Spanish with them. You know, one time I had a mother drive with me to an event and she only spoke Spanish. So it was so much fun because I taught her some English and then we could talk in Spanish. So there's a lot of times where I can see, you know, there was another time where I was in California and there was a guy there that spoke Italian and he was at a coffee shop and he was asking for Zuccaro Zuccaro and the woman behind the counter didn't know what he meant. And I'm like he'd like sugar.

[00:32:50] And so there's, you know, so many times where I can just with my, you know, basic skills of, of language step in and help people communicate. 

[00:32:58] Nyra: Have you ever had to debunk a myth, an ex-pat myth with anyone who obviously has not been an ex-pat? 

[00:33:07] Wendy: You know, there's one that's going around a lot now. About the Chinese, the Chinese, they're trying to take over the world and watch out for them. You can't trust them and watch out for the Chinese. And my mom did a Fulbright, you know, we lived in Taiwan and then my mom did a Fulbright scholarship over in China. And I went to visit her when she was there. And I love the Chinese people. I love being in China, such a fun sense of humor. Even if you're not speaking the language, such an advanced society.

[00:33:42] I mean, comparing the number of people that they move around and their logistics. Sums their airports. 

[00:33:50] Nyra: You know, I lived there for two years. Mind you.

[00:33:55]Wendy:  I thought you did. Yeah. Cause you said when you were in China. Yeah. [00:34:00] So I just, it really hurts me to see people be so afraid of going to China or to even think about exporting to China because you know, our economy could do so well. If people read my book and then started exporting to China, 

[00:34:18] Nyra: well, you know, there's certain things they just do very well.