Episode 88: Smart Habits for Better Work/Life Clarity—Our Last Episode! In this last episode of our podcast, we’re touching on the topic that started Smart Habits for Translators more than four years ago—work/life clarity! If you missed the news, check out our previous episode where we explain why our podcast is coming to an end and what you can ex…

Episode 87: Smart Habits for Building and Changing Habits In this last episode of 2023, we’re sharing some important news about our podcast. After four years of producing Smart Habits for Translators, we’ve decided it’s time to wrap up the podcast, so this will be our second-to-last episode. Tune in to hear the reasons for our decision (spoiler ale…

Episode 86: Smart Habits for Business Storytelling with Joachim Lepine and Ann Marie Boulanger Have you ever thought about how the art of business storytelling can be helpful in your business? It's not just about clear communication to market your services or network with others. Not only is it important to be aware of how we translators and interp…

Episode 85: Smart Habits for Time Management When you wear multiple hats, it can be challenging to manage your time, prioritize tasks, and focus on what’s important. If this sounds familiar, we feel your pain! We have shared our approach to time management and setting priorities in previous episodes, but we thought we'd dedicate an entire episode t…

Episode 84: Smart Habits for Taking a Workcation with Corinne McKay We are excited to be back after our summer hiatus from the podcast, refreshed and recharged to bring you all new episodes and guests. Speaking of guests… today’s episode is one we are very excited to be bringing to you, and it might be fresh on your mind if you took a vacation this…

Episode 83: Smart Habits for Saying “No” with Dagmar and Judy Jenner Today’s episode is one you may not be expecting… or maybe if you’ve been a long-time Smart Habits listener, you understand how it aligns with what we discuss here on the podcast. Saying “no” and doing it with confidence can be difficult in any area of life, especially in business.…

Episode 82: Smart Habits for Building and Maximizing Your Network with Alicja Tokarska and Ania Marchwiak We often discuss the importance of building and maintaining your professional network, and we’re sure you’ve heard this advice many times before. But what does it mean in practice? Alicja Tokarska and Ania Marchwiak joined us recently to discus…

Episode 81: Smart Habits for Cultivating Creativity with Mireya Perez Today’s topic may seem unexpected, but we're sure it will spark some ideas for you, just as it did for us. If you ask a translator or an interpreter what they like the most about their work, many will say they love learning new things every day and enjoy the creative process that…

Episode 80: Smart Habits for Thriving in the Premium Market with Michael Schubert If you’ve ever heard a colleague mention working in the “premium market,” you may have thought, “Hmm… how do I tap into that area of the market?” After all, who doesn’t want to work for clients who value our work and pay premium rates, right?! Well… we’ve found the pe…

Episode 79: Smart Legal Habits for Translators with Nicole Fenwick Legal protection is a must for any freelance translator. And we all know how vital it is to get this part right! But it can be overwhelming, time-consuming, and nerve-racking if we don’t know where to start or feel unsure of the legal protections we have (or should have) in place. T…

Episode 78: Smart Habits for Continuing Your Professional Development with Eman Abdo We know the beginning of the year is the time when many people set their intentions and aspirations for the year, and this often includes training and development goals. So, we thought we should dedicate our first episode of the year to professional development. We…

Episode 77: Smart Habits for Kicking Off and Wrapping Up Your Week In June 2020 (wow, time flies!), we released an episode on delineating your workday in which we talked about some things we like to do at the beginning and end of a workday. So, for our last episode of 2022, we thought it would be good to do a follow-up episode to talk about some sm…

Episode 76: Smart Habits for Preparing for an Exam or Test December is certainly a busy season for most of us, with so much work to wrap up before the holidays and so many personal and family commitments. It’s also a time when we reflect on the accomplishments we made this year and what goals we’d like to set for the coming year. If one of your obj…

Episode 75: Smart Habits for Forming and Maintaining a Translator Collective Today, we’re thrilled to share with you a concept that we know is something our colleagues are interested in. In fact, we have not only one guest, but two here to tell us more about it! We’re excited to be sharing the microphones today with our colleagues and friends, Jami…

Episode 74: Smart Habits for Your Social Media Presence with Kelsey Frick In our latest episode, we’re talking about some smart habits related to developing and maintaining a social media presence for your business. Besides coming up with ideas for content, it can be hard to stay consistent when it comes to marketing your business on social media. …

Episode 73: Smart Habits for Setting Boundaries in Your Business Before we jump into the topic of Episode 73, we want to remind you about our next quarterly virtual business retreat, which will be on December 14. We’re excited that our colleague and podcast guest Dorothee Racette has agreed to be our guest speaker this time! She will kick off our r…

Episode 72: Smart Habits for Diversifying in a Niche Specialization with Abigail Dahlberg Today, we’re really excited to be joined by a colleague we both admire very much. She is a translator, content writer, mom, and expert in environmental issues and sustainability. She has been working as a translator for over 20 years and has grown and diversif…

Episode 71: Smart Habits for Attending In-Person Conferences We’re recording this episode a week after our quarterly virtual business retreat, and we wanted to thank all of our colleagues who participated. We’ve been holding these quarterly business retreats for over a year now, and this was our best one yet—we had great conversations and a guest s…

Episode 70: Our Favorite Podcasts About Habits Before we dive into this episode, we have some news to share! We are excited to announce that Susie Jackson, our guest from Episode 69 on Smart Habits for Negotiating with Clients, will be a guest speaker at our upcoming virtual business retreat on September 20, 2022. So, if you need help making an act…

Episode 69: Smart Habits for Negotiating with Clients with Susie Jackson In today’s episode, we’re happy to welcome back a colleague who joined us on the podcast two years ago! She is a translator and a mentor for freelancers who need help figuring out their pricing and getting their business finances in order. We love learning from her through the…

Episode 68: Our Favorite Books About Habits In this episode, we’re chatting about what is probably our favorite topic ever—books! And not just any books… but our favorite books about habits. It’s no secret that we love reading about smart habits and discussing how to adopt them in our businesses and personal lives—so much so that we started this po…

Episode 67: Tools for Organization and Follow-Through As professional translators and business owners, we have to stay organized to make sure our businesses run efficiently. And there are so many things that can be organized: finances, client projects and information, plans for our business, marketing campaigns, and so much more. Keeping your syste…

Episode 66: Smart Habits for Maintaining a Sustainable Business with Rafa Lombardino We are excited to welcome a wonderful colleague to join us in today's episode. She is a translator, teacher, fellow podcaster, and expert on audiovisual translation and tools and technology for translators. She has been working as a translator for over 20 years and…

Episode 65: Smart Habits for Overcoming an All-or-Nothing Mindset with Nora Díaz In today’s episode, we are joined by a colleague who is an expert on tools and technology for translators and interpreters. She is one of the organizers of the popular Innovation in Translation and Innovation in Interpreting Summits, and she is very active in our profe…

Episode 64: Smart Habits for Overcoming Limiting Beliefs In this episode, we are having a conversation about limiting beliefs—what they are, how they can affect the work that we do as translators and interpreters, and how to challenge or overcome them. Limiting beliefs are like deeply ingrained stories we tell ourselves about why we can or can't ma…

Episode 63: Smart Habits for Aligning Your Business With Your Values and Goals with Marina Ilari In today’s episode, we’re joined by a colleague, fellow podcaster, and fellow working parent, who will help us explore the topic of staying organized and focused when you have a lot on your plate. So many of us can relate to the feeling of being overwhe…

Episode 62: Smart Habits for Following Up With Clients It’s been said many times that it’s easier (and less expensive) to retain clients than it is to find new ones. But we know of so many freelance translators and interpreters who say that following up with clients is just really hard for them. They don’t want to bother anyone or come across as an…

Episode 61: Smart Habits for Drumming Up New Business with Melanie Padgett Powers So many of us have experienced the ups and downs of freelancing, which have felt magnified over the last two years as a result of the pandemic. We’ve heard from many of you that you’d like more ideas for ways to grow your business and get more recurring work from clie…

Smart Habits for Taking Time Off We all know that time off is important, yet it’s not something independent translators and interpreters allow themselves to do very often—or consistently. Freelancers often feel guilty about taking time off because they feel like they’re neglecting their businesses. • “What if an important client needs something?” •…

Smart Habits for Maintaining Your Website Maintaining a website is something so many freelancers find overwhelming. We get it. There’s a lot to think about, which can leave you feeling like you don't know where to start. Our goal with this episode is to dispel the myth that maintaining your website is as tedious, hard, or time-consuming as so many …

Smart Habits for Caring for Growing Your Online Network We all hear about the importance of having a strong network for our business. And in some of our previous episodes, we've talked about ways to network at in-person events. Today, we thought it would be great to chat about growing your network online and some dos and don’ts that we personally s…

Smart Habits for Caring for Managing Your Inbox Having a freelance translation or interpreting business means that you depend quite a bit on your email inbox. At least, we know we do! You probably correspond with most of your clients via email, as well as colleagues and others who need to reach you or send you important information. But it’s really…

Smart Habits for Caring for Your Mental Health with Dr. Elizabeth Miller There is a lot of responsibility and uncertainty that comes with being a freelancer and a small business owner. Many of us often struggle with feelings of overwhelm and anxiety, and the pandemic has certainly exacerbated this to such an extent that some people could barely fun…

Today’s episode is all about the importance of checking and improving our work as translators. We all know that this is a crucial step in maintaining the high quality of our work. But not all of us enjoy the editing and proofreading step or have a systematic and efficient approach to the process. So, we invited two of our colleagues, Eve Bodeux and…

In today’s episode, we have a thought-provoking conversation about the importance of treating your translation or interpreting business as a business—in particular, thinking like a business owner. This sounds like such a simple thing, but many freelance translators and interpreters fail to do this and consider themselves “just freelancers.” This mi…

Today, we want to share an important discussion that we don’t tend to hear a lot of honest conversations about, at least not in a public forum. Freelancers and business owners know that the feast and famine cycle can really take a toll, especially if you’re unprepared to handle times of famine. If you’ve ever been in the middle of a famine in your …

This 52nd episode of Smart Habits for Translators marks the second anniversary of our podcast! It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since we launched Smart Habits for Translators. More than ever, we are grateful to you all, our listeners and colleagues, and it makes us so happy to hear that you enjoy our episodes! Last year, we celebrated …

Surprise! This is another joint episode of Smart Habits for Translators and Speaking of Translation. Corinne McKay and Eve Bodeux, co-hosts of the legendary Speaking of Translation podcast, recently announced, after 13 years they pressed pause on their podcast, but all of their past episodes are still there. We have already recorded two joint episo…

In this episode, we’re piggybacking on the topic of Episode 49 about conducting a business audit. Before you start reviewing the different areas of your business and identifying or updating your business goals, it’s important to keep in mind what your vision is for your business. As we said in Episode 49, we want you to put your CEO hat on and thin…

We often talk about small business owners, in particular freelancers, having to wear many hats: we’re our own boss, bookkeeper, marketing team, tech support person, administrative assistant, and more! But how often do you really sit down and think about all these areas of your business? In this episode of Smart Habits for Translators, we are having…

We all know that first impressions count, and this applies to all interactions you have with other people–both online and in person. When you run your own business, it’s even more important that you come across as a reliable, trustworthy professional, someone who clients and colleagues can trust and value. After all, this is how we often choose ser…

As most translators (and many interpreters) work remotely, it’s important to think about how we can reach and engage with our clients from a distance. With technology at our fingertips, there’s no excuse for not engaging with our clients online. And yet… it can feel overwhelming, intimidating, and for some, even anxiety-inducing. We don’t say this …

Having a freelance business means that you’re always looking for new clients. Even if you have some regular clients, all freelance translators and interpreters should be planning ahead and marketing their services or responding to inquiries from potential new clients. But just as you’re not always the right fit for a particular project or client, t…

We’ve all heard how important it is to specialize as professional translators and interpreters. But not everyone agrees with this. There are many who believe that specializing is not necessary and that you can get enough work as a generalist to make a good living. We’re not here to argue that you can’t, of course, but we do feel that specializing i…

While it’s definitely important to master your craft and hone your skills, we also think that offering more than one type of service or working with various types of clients can be a safeguard for your business. After all, you never know when things might shift, and when they do, it tends to happen when you least expect it. Or maybe you’re just rea…

In this episode, we’re sharing a conversation about finding mentors and surrounding yourself with people who encourage you and push you to be better at your craft. This can feel like a difficult thing to do, especially in a profession where we are used to working alone and behind the scenes. It can be especially daunting if you’re a new translator …

In this episode, we’re having a conversation about finding time for unpaid work and projects. You know, those things we truly enjoy doing—whether for our own development or personal fulfillment or as a volunteer in an organization—but that can be difficult to make time for during busy days filled with paid work. Like most of our translator and inte…

Today’s episode is all about using technology in your work. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Even though many translators and interpreters like putting pen to paper, we depend on technology and tools to make us more productive and maintain our work's high quality. This is also a controversial topic, especially the debate surrounding the advances in…

Managing finances is one area of business that all freelancers and small business owners have to deal with on a regular basis, and translators and interpreters are no exception. Owning a small business often means that you wear many hats, and, let’s face it, the role of CFO, or Chief Financial Officer, is one that a lot of us struggle with or even …

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about the mindset shift and strategies that are necessary when you’re ready to take your freelance translation or interpreting business to the next level. Whether you aspire to make more money as a freelancer or you simply want to reach the stage where you’re only working on ideal projects for ideal clients at ideal r…