Nataly Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Zappi, Harvard Business Review Contributor, and author of “Take Your Company Global” will not need much of an introduction to the Women in Localization community. She has inspired many over the years with her insightful take on all things language, localization, and global business. Here Karen Tkaczyk interviews her.
Karen Tkaczyk: For readers who don’t know your background, let’s frame things. Where did you come from, and what were your early influences? Have you had an interest in language and culture from an early age?
Nataly Kelly: I’m from a rural community in central Illinois called Mason City. Not Mason City, Iowa, which by comparison is a metropolis. My tiny hometown has only 2500 residents, but I have deep roots there, so it’s special to me. When I walk through our little local cemetery I can see at least six generations buried there.
My earliest memory is of sitting in a shopping cart trying to speak to my mom and aunt, and the two of them not understanding what I was trying to say. I was trying to say we had been at the same grocery store before. I recognized it and wanted to communicate this, but my language ability stopped me. They chuckled at me, trying to babble at them, and kept shopping. It was so frustrating! I must have been around two years old, but I remember it vividly.
When I was three, I began taking piano lessons from a Korean woman named Helen Kim. She taught me not only how to play piano, but taught me about her culture and also taught me to sing in several other languages. She was a very important mentor for me growing up.
As I got older, I started writing to pen pals around the world. In high school, I was thrilled to study Spanish and plunged headfirst into languages, which was both challenging and fun. In college, I went wild with my version of “partying” – I spent three semesters in Ecuador and a month in Mexico and took every language course I could fit in.
Karen: Linguists gone wild. 😊 Your career is, in my opinion, an unusually strong model of continually moving onwards and upwards. Has that always been a plan that you had, or have you found yourself moving naturally and organically from one position to the next? Or perhaps have you experienced both at different times of life?
Nataly: Well, my career began with failure! And I think getting early experience with failure helps toughen you up when you’re younger.
Thanks to Mrs. Kim and a family full of artists and musicians who encouraged me, I won a piano scholarship to attend college. I started out as a music composition major and a Spanish major. One day, my advisor told me she didn’t think I had the passion for music to make a career out of it. She felt Spanish and international business were my true interests and where more career opportunities existed.
At first, I was very hurt by this feedback! I felt I was a total failure. My older sister had made a career in music. How could I miss the mark? But she was totally right. When music was a job for me, it was not fun anymore. Deprived of joy. It was a painful lesson but hearing it sure forced me to focus!
After that, I never had any real long-term plan for my career other than I knew it needed to be related to my core passion for international communication. I basically just have kept following my passions and letting my heart tell me where to go ever since, based on the problems I’m passionate about solving and the people I wanted to work with.
When I wanted to move into web apps and marketing technology, it was a strategic pivot in my career. Prior to this, I had always worked in services businesses. Most of my friends worked in technology, and I was an early adopter of the Internet, blogging, social media, and content marketing. I enjoyed building websites and all things related to digital marketing.
I learned about working in tech start-ups and the software as a service (SaaS) model and loved it. I’ve now worked in four different B2B SaaS companies in MarTech, and it’s a space I really love. I also decided after leaving HubSpot that I wanted to move back into a marketing leadership role again, but ideally at a global company, which is where I am with Zappi today.
Karen: What drives your continued passion and curiosity, especially after achieving so much?
Nataly: Well, I don’t think I have achieved all that much. I haven’t changed the world or cured any disease or anything that impressive. My achievements are different from those of others but not necessarily any better.
I love seeing what others are good at that I am not and learning from them. The list of things I’m terrible at is quite long! And the list of things I’m good at is quite short. I just tend to focus on the shortlist — because that’s what I enjoy and where I know I can deliver value.
What drives me is making an impact, particularly when it helps others succeed. What I love about working in business is that the results and the impact are quantifiable: you’re adding customers, hiring and retaining employees, growing the value of a business. That’s incredibly gratifying because you can measure the results and see if you’re accomplishing what you set out to achieve!
Karen: Women in Localization’s mission includes mentoring and fostering the next generation. You and I both have daughters, and we have connected over enjoying seeing them grow into new adventures. You are very public about how much your daughters inspire you. What has been your approach to mentoring and inspiring the next generation in the workplace?
Nataly: I have loved seeing our daughters growing up, Karen, and I have learned a lot from you along the way! You must be such a proud mom. I aspire, just like you do, to be a good role model for my daughters and many other women working in tech and business.
I have mentored many young women and early career professionals over the years. The advice I give is often the same and boils down to a few key points:
- Be yourself… but also seek to know yourself. Often, people are not very self-aware. It’s important to ask for feedback so you can understand how you’re perceived by others, what you can work on, and how you can grow. Don’t be afraid of following your passions because they make you special and different from others. They are your differentiation!
- Assume all feedback is valid in some way. If you do this, it forces you to approach things in a collaborative and empathetic way, fostering teamwork. I’m not suggesting anyone absorb hurtful feedback or take it as gospel, but rather, that we assume it comes from a perspective that has a validity of some sort and should at least be considered. I think that’s vital to showing respect for diverse viewpoints.
- Lean into your strengths. I believe everyone has superpowers, but we aren’t always aware of them. I remember one industry colleague, Renato Beninatto, told me in my 20s that he had never met anyone who could write as fast as I could with high quality. I knew I enjoyed writing. But I didn’t know until he said this that writing speed and quality combined were a superpower, let alone one I possessed.
- Don’t obsess about weaknesses. One of my mentees told me she was shocked that I candidly share things I’m not good at in passing and don’t seem bothered by them. I told her I have to be honest about where I need help so I can ask for it. I also think that, as a society, we focus far too much on what’s wrong than what’s right in most aspects of our lives. Focusing on positives is important to keep morale high, including your own! Acknowledge weaknesses, but don’t fixate on them.
- Avoid comparisons with others. This is tough for a generation that is always on social media. The only person I want to compare myself with is either a past version of myself or a future one I am growing and evolving into.
Karen: Great insights. What advice would you give younger women in localization, specifically, trying to establish themselves in the mid-2020s?
Nataly: All of the above! Plus, don’t be afraid to have a passion that is tangential to localization. The combo is often what makes you an even more desirable candidate for a given role! That is one core reason my career has evolved in the directions it has. I’m as passionate about international growth and marketing as I am about localization.
Many people in localization are incredibly talented and versatile and could run circles around their peers in other functions. Localization is hyper-complex and nuanced but also strategic. Assume that if you can learn localization, you can learn pretty much anything else that may interest you in business! Don’t let the localization “label” ever limit your own vision of what you can achieve. Stretch into new areas and know you can succeed within multiple domains.
Karen: And how about a ‘dream’ question to close us out? In an imaginary world, if you could move somewhere, immerse yourself in the culture, and learn a new language for a year, where would it be?
Nataly: Ooooh, too many choices! I think I would have to pick Korea in honor of my beloved Mrs. Kim. I’ve enjoyed learning Spanish in Ecuador and Irish Gaelic living in Ireland. But Korean is a language I haven’t studied yet, and the country is totally new to me. But again… do I really have to pick just one?
Karen: If you enjoyed this, then I recommend that you subscribe to Nataly’s newsletter, Making Global Work. Her authentic voice shines through each week.