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 expect. The concept of work/life clarity was what brought us together as co-hosts of Smart Habits for Translators, and it’s a topic we've addressed...

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 alert—there’s no drama, and we’re still great friends!) and how you can continue to listen to our previous episodes after January 2024. We decided to...

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 interpreters tend to talk about our professions and the value we offer, but it's just as vital to understanding what our clients’ experiences and...

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 to this topic to talk about the things that help us stay productive and avoid stress and overwhelm. Tune in to hear our conversation on: - How...

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 summer and brought along some work with you. You may have heard this referred to as a working vacation, or a “workcation.” And we found the...

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. But saying “no” is essential to running your business with less stress and more time for what you really want to work on with the clients you...

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 discuss ways to build and maintain your professional network, especially when you work in a less common language pair. We know our listeners based...

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 goes into conveying a message from one language to another. Our jobs require creativity and curiosity, so we're very excited to bring a special...

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 perfect guest to share insights with us about working and thriving in the premium market! We’re excited to welcome our colleague and friend, Michael...

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. That's why we're excited to be joined this month by a guest who can talk to us more about the legal aspects of running a freelance translation...

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’re very happy to welcome a guest who takes continuing professional development (CPD) very seriously and openly shares her CPD journey on...

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 smart habits related to kicking off and wrapping up your workweek. Tune in to hear our conversation on our: • Why it’s important to kick off and...

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 objectives next year is to take a certification exam or translation test, we think you’ll find this episode useful. Several listeners asked us for...

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, Jamie Hartz and Nathalie Reis, who are here to chat with us about translation collectives. Jamie Hartz is an ATA-certified Spanish to English...

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. That’s why we invited a colleague who we think has great insights to share on this topic to join this conversation, and we’re excited to hear her...

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 retreat with some tips and wisdom on how to set reasonable and realistic goals for the new year, and then we’ll focus on discussing our business...

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 diversified her business within a very niche specialization. In fact, her success in this area has even earned her the nickname “Trash Girl,” believe it...

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 speaker who we all enjoyed. It’s never easy to find uninterrupted time to sit down and review how various areas of your business are going and what...

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 action plan for 2023 to keep working toward your goals and let go of what's not working for you, we hope you'll join us! Susie will kick off our...

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 various courses she teaches and her blog, and we’re sure that she has a lot to share on today’s topic: negotiating with clients. Susie Jackson is...

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 podcast! That's why we thought we should dedicate an entire episode to this topic. Tune in to hear our conversation about some of our favorite books...

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 systems in check by using tools that help you stay organized and follow through on your projects and communications is vital to the overall health of...

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 has grown and diversified her business during that time. We enjoyed hearing from her about ways to grow a sustainable business while doing what...

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 profession. We always enjoy following her work and are in awe of how she handles all her projects and responsibilities. We know she has a lot to share...