Smart Habits for Translators

In today’s episode, we’re having a conversation on the topic that we briefly discussed in several previous episodes and that many of our listeners often ask about: being a parent and a freelancer.

Those of us who have kids know that parenting is a full-time job. But running your own freelance business can also take a lot of time and energy. So, how do you combine the two without crashing and burning in the process? We don’t have all the answers, but we’ll share our experience and what has worked for us.

Here’s a summary of our conversation:

• How old our kids are and how old they were when we started freelancing

• What we did to prepare and set ourselves up for success in that first year with a baby, how much time off we took before and after birth, and how we transitioned back to work after that

• How we manage to take care of our kids and run a freelance business, whether we have help, and how our typical day looks, considering our family’s schedule and needs as well as our work and other commitments

• How we prepare for and deal with sick days, half-days at school, school holidays, and emergencies

• How we handle long holidays and extended periods of time when our kids have to stay home while we work

• Our tips for overcoming family vs work guilt

• What our kids say about our work as translators and what they think we do all day

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Our on-demand webinar Smart Habits for Marketing Your Business in Unexpected Ways (Don't forget to use the code SMARTHABITS at checkout for $10 off!)

• Madalena’s course with Training for Translators: Copywriting for Translators: Identifying and Targeting Your Copywriting Market

• Madalena’s T&I Website Blueprint course

• ATA’s virtual workshop “Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References” (in Russian; March 13, 2021)

• Episode 7: Overcoming Family vs. Work Guilt

• Outschool: Virtual classes for kids

• Podcast episode by Speaking of Translation: Self-care and mental health in the pandemic

• The app we use for meditation: Calm

• Elizabeth Gilbert on distinguishing between hobbies, jobs, careers, and vocation

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/38

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about one of the most important tasks in our workflow. Whether you’re a translator, an interpreter, a copywriter, or if you offer any other language-related services, you have to do your fair share of research. In fact, when we don’t do our research, it shows in the final product.

So, today we’ve invited a colleague to join us. She really impressed us at the last two ATA conferences with her knowledge and smart tips on improving your online research.

Elizabeth Adams graduated with a degree in Russian in 1998 and moved to Moscow. It was an interesting time and place to be looking for work as a translator, and she ended up translating and editing for a wide range of companies, reading constantly, and learning on the job. Twenty-two years and three children later, her translation business focuses on plain English translations of Russian legal texts, from laws and court rulings to contracts and discovery documents.

Here’s a summary of our conversation with Elizabeth:

How and when Elizabeth started her freelance translation career, how it has evolved over time

What her typical workday looks like and what changes she had to make due to the COVID-19 pandemic

What smart habits help Elizabeth draw boundaries between work and personal life

What other smart habits have been helpful in her career

How to ask clients the right questions when it comes to the research you need to do for a translation

What steps translators should take when it comes to analyzing our translation projects to guide our research strategy better

How to decide what tools and resources to use for our research

What to do if you lack the time to conduct proper research for your translation projects

Elizabeth’s tips, tricks, and favorite tools for better online research

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

Elizabeth’s website

Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn, Twitter, and ProZ

How to set up a Google alert

PerfectIt: editing and proofreading tool

WordRake: editing for clarity

Copernic: desktop search solution

Join our email list to receive a free guide from Elizabeth Adams: “Search Tips for Translators”

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/37

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about something that, as freelancers, we all aspire to achieve: building lasting relationships with our clients and leveraging those relationships to build our referral networks.

To discuss this topic, we invited a special guest to join us. She’s not a translator or an interpreter, but she works in a creative field, and we think it’s extremely valuable to look outside our profession and see what other freelancers are doing so we can learn from their approach.

We’re excited to welcome Amanda Calvin, an experienced graphic designer and business owner.

We have experienced Amanda’s work firsthand (she designed our podcast logo for us!) and have been impressed with her thorough and positive approach.

We know you'll learn some great tips from Amanda that will help you create positive experiences for clients so they’re eager to come back and refer other translation and interpreting clients to you!

Here’s what we talked about:

• • What services Amanda offers, what kind of clients she works with, and what her typical workday looks like

• How she started her freelance business and how her career has evolved

• What her client onboarding process looks like and how she builds her clients’ trust in her expertise and the solutions she offers

• What she does to understand her clients’ needs and priorities and how she creates an ongoing dialogue with them

• How she set up her project delivery process and what she does to invite clients to share feedback on their experience working with her

• How she expands her client network through referrals

• How she protects her boundaries between work and personal life

• What smart habits have been crucial in her career

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• • Amanda’s website: A.Calvin Design and her design services for translators and interpreters

• Connect with Amanda Calvin on Twitter and LinkedIn

• Motion graphics developed for American Translators Association in honor of International Translation Day in 2019 and 2020

• ODISTAR Desktop Vacuum Cleaner

• The Secret Rooms: A True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret by Catherine Bailey

• Join our email list to receive Amanda’s e-book called “Designing for Your Business (A Guide for Non-Designers)”

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/36

This episode is another collaboration with our colleagues Corinne McKay and Eve Bodeux, co-hosts of the popular podcast, Speaking of Translation.

We’ve already had the pleasure of speaking with them before—Corinne was our guest in Episode 20 and shared about creating professional partnerships, Eve joined us in Episode 30 to talk about maintaining your second language, and we discussed handling the winter holidays with Corinne and Eve in Episode 29.

In this episode, we invited them to discuss a topic that many of us often struggle with: maintaining healthy boundaries between work and personal life.

Here’s what we talked about:

How we manage difficult situations that arise in our professional lives, specifically paid work and interactions with clients: late payments, low offers, lack of communication, or negative feedback

Our thoughts on managing difficult situations in volunteer settings

What we do to maintain calm and not let difficult situations affect our self-confidence or spill over into our personal lives

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

Speaking of Translation podcast

Eve Bodeux’s website and Global Reads Book Club

Corinne McKay’s website and Training for Translators courses

Madalena’s course for Training for Translators: The T&I Professional’s Online Presence Roadmap

ATA62 Call for Proposals

Translation Scammers Directory

Madalena’s blog posts: Three Ways to Follow Up with Clients on Overdue Payments and Five Ways to Ensure Clients Pay on Time

Corinne’s blog post: Five Ways to Minimize the Risk of Not Getting Paid

Ed Gandia’s podcast and blog

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/35

In this episode, we invited a special guest who’s not only a fellow translator but is also qualified to share exercise-related advice!

Eva Stabenow is an ATA-certified English<>German translator focused on translating, writing, and adapting consumer-facing medical and health content. She holds a graduate degree in Conference Interpreting and has served the American Translators Association in various roles ranging from division administrator to mentor to certification exam grader. She is also a past president of the Southeast Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association.

If you’re an ATA member, you may also know Eva from attending the Mindful Movement sessions during the Annual ATA conference or from her presentations on healthy desk habits and “movement snacks.” Eva was also was a guest on the Speaking of Translation podcast in 2019. Look for the episode entitled “Staying Healthy When You Work at a Desk All Day.”

Eva is a comprehensively trained, nationally certified Pilates teacher for fitness, rehabilitation, and neurological conditions. In 2018, she opened Sunroom Pilates, where she teaches group classes and 1-on-1 sessions to help others move better, feel better and live better. Since the pandemic, she has offered daily online classes to build not only sustainable health and fitness while having fun, but also create a sense of community. In addition to fitness-based Pilates classes, Sunroom Pilates offers affordable 30-minute classes in Back Care, Mindful Movement, Balance and Functional Mobility.

Here’s a summary of our conversation with Eva:

• How and when she started her freelance translation career, how it has evolved over time, and how she started teaching Pilates

• What her typical workday looks like, managing both her translation business and Pilates studio

• What smart habits help Eva draw boundaries between work and personal life

• What smart habits have been crucial in her career

• What aches and strains are common for translators and how to avoid or prevent them

• How to consistently make time for healthy movement during the workday

• How to consistently care for ourselves without feeling guilty about what we “ought to be doing” instead

• Tips for freelancer parents who may struggle to find time for exercise and self-care

• What “movement snacks” translators should consistently do each day

• Our webinar on marketing in unexpected ways on January 22, 2021 (join our email list below to get a discount code!)

• Eva’s translation business: Wordplay Translations

• Eva’s Pilates studio: Sunroom Pilates

o Follow Sunroom Pilates on Facebook and Instagram

o Schedule Pilates classes with Eva

• Eva’s interview on the Speaking of Translation podcast: “Staying Healthy When You Work at a Desk All Day”

• Our popular Episode 6: Healthy Exercise and Nutrition Habits for Translators

• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

• Overball: Pilates exercise ball

• Plexus Chirp Wheel

• Our email subscribers will receive Eva’s downloadable PDF with some sample exercises and a code for a free online class with her

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/34

It’s very common at the end of a calendar year to analyze how things went and what you would like to do differently in the coming year. So, we thought it appropriate to talk about productivity, organization, time management, and priorities for this last episode of the year.

We’re excited to welcome a very special guest, colleague and fellow translator Dorothee Racette.

Dorothee is a Certified Translator and a Certified Productivity Coach.

She brings together her expertise from decades of working as a freelance translator with her experience as a certified productivity coach. She specializes in helping clients move out of procrastination to maximize their business potential and live a more enjoyable life.

Dorothee served in leadership roles within ATA for 17 years, including as ATA President from 2011 to 2013. She started her own productivity consulting firm, Take Back My Day, in 2014 to explore methods for improving creativity and workflow. She now divides her time between coaching, translating and teaching. Her book, Complete What You Started, is coming out soon.

Here’s a summary of our conversation with Dorothee:

• How and when she started her freelance translation career and how it has evolved over time

• What her typical workday looks like

• What smart habits help her draw boundaries between work and personal life

• What advice she'd offer to fellow freelancers who struggle with overwhelm and productivity

• How to set priorities when you have a lot on your plate and how to balance paid work, volunteer work, and any other responsibilities you have

• What smart habits can help you keep your physical and digital workspace organized

• How to deal with projects that you didn’t manage to accomplish this year and how to set realistic goals for the new year

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Our webinar on marketing in unexpected ways on January 22, 2021 (join our email list below to get a discount code!)

• Dorothee’s productivity coaching business and blog: Take Back My Day

• ATA 61st Annual Conference where Dorothee presented “Freelancing in a World of Distractions” (conference attendees have access to all the session recordings for at least 6 months)

• ATA’s Mastermind Program

• Dorothee’s webinar for ATA: “Managing the Stages of Your Small Business”

• Dorothee’s interview on the Marketing Tips for Translators podcast: How to Conquer Distractions and Move Your Freelance Business Forward

• Password managers: 1Password and LastPass

• How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job by Sally Helgesen

• Speaking American: How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk: A Visual Guide by Josh Katz

• The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

• Dorothee’s course in early 2021 with Training for Translators: Complete What You Started: A 2021 Kick-Off Challenge

• Join our email list to get Dorothee’s downloadable productivity checklist for long-term business health!

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/33

If you listened to our popular episode on conference habits (Episode 3 at the very beginning of our podcasting journey), you may remember that we mentioned a book called The Introvert’s Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone. We both really enjoyed this book and often recommend it to friends and colleagues who may struggle with introvert tendencies.

Now, in Episode 32, we’re excited to welcome a special guest: the author of The Introvert’s Edge, Matthew Pollard.

Matthew Pollard is responsible for five multi-million-dollar business success stories, all before the age of 30. His humble beginnings, the adversities he faced, and his epic rise to success show that anyone, with the right motivation and the right strategies, can achieve anything they set their mind to.

Today, Forbes calls him “the real deal,” Global Gurus lists him as a Top 30 Sales Professional, Top Sales World Magazine named him a Top 50 Speaker, and BigSpeak lists him as an international Top 10 Sales Trainer. He’s also the bestselling author of The Introvert’s Edge, which hit the Amazon charts as the 8th Most-Sold Book of the Week, appears on HubSpot’s list of the “Most Highly-Rated Sales Books of All Time,” and was selected by BookAuthority as the #2 “Best Introvert Book of All Time.”

His soon-to-be-released second book, The Introvert’s Edge to Networking, has already received endorsements from Harvard, Princeton, Neil Patel, Michael Gerber, Dr. Ivan Misner, and Marshall Goldsmith.

Here’s a summary of our conversation with Matthew:

His journey from daily rejection as a young salesperson to being the #1 salesperson at the company and then becoming an internationally-recognized consultant and entrepreneur

What smart habits have been crucial in his career

How his first book, The Introvert’s Edge, came to be and what he'd advise introverts to implement today

How storytelling can help you connect with potential customers

How introverts can learn to sell well

What you can do to keep impostor syndrome at bay

How introverted freelancers can connect with clients, gain their trust, and ask the right questions, especially these days when we have had to shift to mostly online interactions due to the pandemic

How many languages The Introvert’s Edge has been translated into and how a translator helped get his book published in Vietnamese

What smart habits help Matthew prevent overwhelm and draw boundaries between work and personal life

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

Our webinar on marketing in unexpected ways on January 22, 2021 (join our email list below to get a discount code!)

More about Matthew Pollard and discover how to differentiate yourself from your competition and craft a unified message that intrigues potential clients to want to know more

Matthew’s books: The Introvert’s Edge and The Introvert’s Edge to Networking

The first chapter of The Introvert’s Edge (free)

The first chapter of the Introvert’s Edge to Networking (free)

NaturalReader: Text-to-Speech

How to Use the iPhone Text-to-Speech Feature

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/32

We all know that marketing is necessary to run any business well. And while sometimes marketing can feel tedious or overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can very much create some good habits around marketing your business that will leave you feeling more in control of the future of your business and with more work/life clarity.

In this episode, we're sharing about something that has worked well for us and that, we hope, will be helpful to you: smart habits for marketing in unexpected ways. Be sure to stay tuned until the end of this episode. We’re announcing a new project we’ve been working on that is related to this topic and that you can take part in, too!

Here’s what we cover in this episode:

• Our thoughts and personal experiences related to marketing our services

• Some places and opportunities where you might have a chance to talk about your services and connect with potential clients:

o Interactions with people in specific groups or communities you belong to, like school parent groups, sports and hobbies, church groups, community volunteer meet-ups, etc.

o Online events and informal meetings, including those held by non-T&I associations

o Various forums and social media groups, both related to our profession and to your own special interests

o Facebook Groups, LinkedIn InMail and Groups, Twitter, and Instagram

o Places where people often look for information or advice, like Google, Yelp, and Nextdoor

o Comments that you leave on other people’s/client’s blog posts or social media posts

o Conversations with and referrals from colleagues

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Our webinar on marketing in unexpected ways on January 22, 2021 ((join our email list to get a discount code!): https://www.madalenazampaulo.com/products/smart-habits-for-marketing-your-business-in-unexpected-ways

• Madalena’s blog post: “Should I Market My Translation or Interpreting Services on Social Media?”

• Madalena’s blog post: “These Simple Tweaks to Your LinkedIn Settings Could Help You Get More Translation or Interpreting Work”

• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

• Global Reads Book Club, hosted by Eve Bodeux

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/31

In today’s episode we’re excited to welcome our friend and colleague, Eve Bodeux.

Eve Lindemuth Bodeux is a 20+-year veteran of the language services industry and has worn many hats. She is an ATA-certified French to English translator focusing on the translation of corporate communications, market research and international development content. She is also the owner of Bodeux International LLC, offering multilingual project management to clients worldwide.

Eve is co-host of the long-running Speaking of Translation podcast and author of Maintaining Your Second Language: practical and productive strategies for translators, teachers, interpreters and other language lovers. She sponsors an online book club for translators called the Global Reads Book Club that focuses on books in translation. She is currently serving a term on the Board of Directors of the American Translators Association through 2021.

Here’s what we talked about with Eve:

• How to consistently work on maintaining your second-language skills

• How to make language practice fun

• How to get out of a "rut" when it comes to improving/maintaining your second language

• What strategies you can use when raising bilingual kids

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Eve Bodeux’s website and Twitter account

• Eve’s Global Reads Book Club

• Speaking of Translation podcast

• Speaking of Translation episodes: “Maintaining your second (third, etc.) language” and “Raising bilingual children”

• Maintaining Your Second Language by Eve Bodeux:

o Purchase Eve's book on Apple Books

o Purchase Eve's book Amazon (Kindle or print)

o Purchase Eve's book directly from her by contacting her at [email protected]

• American Translators Association (ATA)

• Eve’s interview with English into Italian translator and author Jenny McPhee

• Eve’s interview with Nina Schuyler, the author of The Translator: A Novel

• Marleen Seegers of 2 Seas Agency interviews Eve on the Make Books Travel podcast

• Bose SoundLink around-ear wireless headphones II

• WONDERBOOM portable waterproof bluetooth speaker

• Asana

• Selfie ring light with an extendable tripod stand and flexible phone holder

• Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story by Bess Kalb

• Organized Enough: The Anti-Perfectionist's Guide to Getting—and Staying—Organized by Amanda Sullivan

• Watching You: A Novel by Lisa Jewell

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/30

We are excited to announce this special joint episode with our colleagues, friends, and superstar-podcasters Corinne McKay and Eve Bodeux!

Corinne and Eve are co-hosts of the popular podcast, Speaking of Translation, which we have both been enjoying since before we even thought about launching our own.

When Corinne and Eve asked if we would like to record a collaborative episode together, we didn't even hesitate to say yes. These ladies are wonderful to talk to, and we highly recommend that you subscribe to their podcast!

Since we only have a few weeks left until the end of the year, we thought it would be a good idea to discuss a topic that is, or soon will be, on all of our minds: how to handle the winter holidays as a freelancer.

Here’s what we talked about:

• How we usually handle the end-of-year holidays, specifically Christmas and New Year’s Eve

• What ideas we have for beginning freelance translators and how they might use the holidays to their advantage

• How we determine when we need to take some time off and how we make sure we don’t sneak off to work a little bit now and then

• What we send clients and colleagues as holiday gifts

• How we let our clients and colleagues know about our time off and what we do to prepare for this break

• What ideas we have for post-holiday marketing

• How we like to wrap up the year and get ready for the new one

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Speaking of Translation podcast

• Eve Bodeux’s website and Global Reads book club

• Corinne McKay’s website and Training for Translators courses

• Madalena’s T&I Website Blueprint Course

• ATA61 virtual conference

• ATA Back to Business Basics webinar: Handling the Holidays as a Freelancer

• BoxFox

• Zazzle

• Asana

• Todoist

For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/29