The Strategic Translator: Why Great Marketers Speak More Than One Language
When I started my corporate career, I failed at this more times than I care to admit. I was so focused on proving the value of marketing, on teaching people what great marketing looked like, that I forgot something fundamental: different audiences speak different languages.
One of my first big flops was at the opening presentation for one of my hotels in Rome. I had poured everything into the launch strategy. I knew it inside out. I was passionate, proud, and ready to present. The room? The hotel’s investors. They weren’t marketers. They were investors focused on risk, ROI, and timelines. Five minutes in, my boss had to jump in and reframe everything I was saying. I’d completely missed the tone, the angle, the audience. I was there to build confidence and show results, not give a marketing masterclass. That experience shook me and taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my career.
Not long after, I found myself on the opposite side of the equation. This time, with a group of luxury resort owners in Greece. People who were born into the world of high-end hospitality. Their expectations came from instinct, not spreadsheets. They didn’t articulate strategy—they lived luxury. The company I was working for struggled to understand them. But I listened. I researched where they came from, how they spoke, what they wore, what references they used. I decoded their vision. And then I did the hard part: I translated that back into the company’s language. I reframed standards, adjusted brand frameworks, and found a path that honored both their expectations and the corporate infrastructure. That experience taught me how powerful strategic translation can be and how essential it is to earning trust on both sides.
And that’s still what I do today at Everything Now.
Because marketing isn’t just about creating buzz. It’s about building bridges between creatives and commercial teams, between investors and operators, between visionaries and systems.
So how do you get better at this?
Here are a few things that help me every day:
1. Know your audience deeply
Before any meeting, I ask myself: Who’s in the room? What do they value? What are they worried about? Then I adapt. Data, tone, format, it all changes depending on who’s listening.
2. Don’t teach. Translate
Not everyone needs or wants to understand marketing mechanics. Your job is to translate outcomes, not processes. Focus on what it means for them.
3. Speak their language
For owners, that might mean ROI and market share. For creatives, it’s tone, vision, and emotional impact. For ops? Guest satisfaction and systems. Marketing should connect all of them.
4. Build trust first
People listen when they trust you. That doesn’t come from having the best slides. It comes from consistently showing you understand the big picture and can deliver results.
5. Listen more than you speak
The best insights often come from what’s not being said. Read the room. Ask questions. Observe. Then adjust how you show up.
