Marketing mindset master class on Thursday

This Thursday (March 19), I’m teaching a two-hour master class; Get out of your own way: Overcoming the mental roadblocks that hold back your marketing. Registration is $75 and includes the recording. I developed this class after numerous students told me:

• “I get fired up about marketing, then I rapidly lose steam when it feels like people aren’t responding”
• “I’ve taken a zillion marketing classes. I know what to do. I just can’t make myself do it.”
• “It’s really hard to market when it feels like no one is finding good work in this economy”

We’ll dissect these, and other self-sabotaging things we tell ourselves when it comes to marketing, and identify better ways forward. Registration includes the recording.

Roundup: My headsets, headphones, and microphones

Headsets and headphones are a reality of the Zoom/Spotify/podcast/YouTube era! Especially if you interpret/teach/present online, it’s important to have the right audio equipment for the task. And even if you’re just listening to webinars or podcasts, you want to protect your hearing, stay comfortable, and have the sound be pleasant to listen to.

As someone who does all of the things listed above, I have a pretty big equipment inventory: three interpreting headsets, a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, a pair of basic wired earbuds, a pair of bone-conducting headphones, and a podcast microphone. I’m sure that some of you have even more and better collections than this; feel free to hit Reply and give me your own recommendations.

My interpreting headsets

My most mission-critical equipment is my interpreting headsets. I interpreted about 180 days (half court, half conference) in 2025, and the bulk of that was remote, so I spend a lot of time wearing a headset.

First consideration: headset, or headphones plus standalone microphone? A lot of interpreters strongly prefer headphones plus a standalone microphone, and it’s true that very few headset microphones can match the quality of a standalone microphone. My issue is that I move around too much. I use a criss-cross chair (just Google what that is if you’ve never seen one) because I like to change positions, sit with my legs crossed, sit backwards, sometimes I stand up, or even kneel on the floor and lean over the back of the chair. None of that would work with a standalone microphone.

Next consideration: your head. There will be headsets that other people rave about, or that you even objective would love to love, but they just don’t work with your head. This is me and Jabra headsets. One of my interpreting clients bought all of their employees Jabra headsets during COVID, and I love the sound quality from them. However when I bought myself a Jabra Evolve 40, something about the earpieces felt like pleather muffins strapped to my head. I honestly hated how it felt and I returned it.

My collection: I have three interpreting headsets; my primary one, a backup to that one (so that we don’t have a single point of failure), and a spare for home (I work at an office outside my house) and traveling. They are:

1. My everyday interpreting headset, the Audio-Technica ATHGDL3BK. That’s kind of a mouthful , but it’s a headset style that I would recommend: an open-back gaming headset. Open-back means that the earphones are covered with mesh, not solid material, so that you can hear yourself talking without either shouting or half-removing one of the earphones (both are habits you want to avoid), and gaming headsets are designed to be worn for long periods of time, so they’re generally very comfortable. I really love this headset, and I get lots of compliments on its sound quality. I paid $139 for this headset and I haven’t had any durability issues after almost two years. The only downside of this headset: because of the over-the-ear headphone design, it’s huge, and not very packable unless you put it in the original box, which is about the size of a shoebox. Not something I want to take with me on a trip, for example.
2. My other two headsets are the Sennheiser SC60 and the Sennheiser SC75, which are what I would recommend buying if you just want a basic headset for things like webinars and online meetings. They’re small and light, and have a flip-up microphone, which my Audio-Technica does not. Also, they’re really inexpensive. I paid $40 for the SC60, and $60 for the SC75 which has slightly more features, like an adapter to use it with either USB or your audio jack. These headsets fold up very small, so I have one as a backup in my office, and one that I keep at home and take on trips. I’m a big fan of these headsets, they’re just slightly less comfortable and tend to shift around more, because the earphones sit on top of your ears rather than going over them. But if you just want to buy a decent headset without analysis paralysis, get one of these.

My wireless headphones

I have two pairs of wireless headphones that I use for different purposes:

1. The Bose QuietComfort noise-cancelling headphones. Aaaahhhh, for when you just want to shut out the world (which is a lot of the time, these days!). These babies are expensive, with a list price around $360, but I bought a factory-refurbished pair on Ebay for $195 a year ago, and they work just like new. To be accurate, these can also be used in wired mode, but they come with an audio jack cord only, which isn’t a ton of use on a phone these days. I use them on buses, airplanes, and when I do over-the-phone interpreting. The microphone quality isn’t stellar, but it’s acceptable; I’ve never had anyone complain about the sound quality when I use them for phone interpreting. And when you have them in high noise-cancelling mode, like on an airplane, you hear almost nothing around you, which I love
2. The Shokz OpenRun bone-conducting headphones. I bought these during COVID and can’t remember how much I paid, but the current list price is $125. Bone-conducing headphones (on a headband that goes around, not in, your ears) are a little weird the first time you use them, but they accomplish the opposite of noise-cancelling headphones: you hear everything around you. I use them for lots of things: when I’m outside and I want to hear what’s going on around me, when I’m in my house but I don’t want to seem antisocial (this was the case during the COVID lockdowns, where I would listen to hours of podcasts while hanging out with my family), or when I’m doing something like lifting weights where I don’t want do deal with a cord but I also don’t want to be sweating inside my Bose headphones.

My standalone microphone

If you want really, really crisp audio, there’s nothing like a high-quality standalone microphone. When I started the Training for Translators podcast, my interpreting buddy Amélie Roy suggested the Shure MV7+, which I purchased and have been very happy with. It’s not cheap: I paid around $300 and it doesn’t come with a stand, so you’re going to spend some money on that as well.

With standalone microphones, you’re always balancing various factors. In my experience, to really get that “radio announcer” sound, you have to put the microphone very close to your mouth. In a couple of tutorials that I watched, the suggestion was to position the microphone about one fist-width from your mouth, which is probably like four inches? Really close, which means that the sound is crisp and rich with no echo, but it picks up every single breathing and swallowing noise. Due to too many years doing intense vinyasa yoga classes, I breathe very heavily and audibly, so I have to edit those sounds out of all the recordings that I make with this microphone.

An easy first step if you use Audacity is to set up what’s called a noise gate, meaning that everything below a certain decibel level is automatically deleted. This saves me a ton of time when editing my podcast. In my version of Audacity, it’s Select All>Effect>Noise removal>Noise Gate, and I generally set it to 25 decibels.

A few other considerations:

• If you use your headsets for listening to live audio (where unexpected things can happen), look for a feature called acoustic shock protection. This automatically limits the headset’s volume to a certain decibel level (most headsets designed for children have this feature), for example if there’s a sudden, loud feedback sound, or if someone taps a microphone to see if it’s on.
• If you use your headsets for interpreting or presenting, you want to make sure that you can hear yourself talking without raising your voice. Interpreting is really taxing on your hearing and your voice, so you want to protect both of those as much as you can. I also find that when I’m interpreting for a really challenging speaker, it helps my own stress level to lower my voice rather than raising it. This is why I prefer an open-back headset. But at least don’t use a noise-cancelling headset to interpret, because you’re likely to end up talking too loudly so that you can hear your own voice.
• In my opinion, the bigger danger with remote interpreting isn’t so much sudden acoustic shock, but chronic exposure to not-great audio, where the only thing you can do is turn up your volume to get more of what you want to hear, which also means that you get the echo, static, etc. This is a constant struggle, and I really wish that more clients were willing to tell their speakers and meeting participants, if you want to be interpreted, you have to wear a headset. Particularly if you have a full-time interpreting job, this is definitely something to pay attention to.

I hope these tips are helpful if you’re thinking about your own audio-related topics!

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Two habits of successful freelancers

Amid the chaos that is the world right now, it’s easy to focus on the negatives, particularly in our freelance worlds. Each hesitant peek at LinkedIn reveals more people complaining about AI; more people complaining about the people who complain about AI; more people leaving the language professions, you know the drill.

But what about the opposite? Lately, I’ve been doing some speaking engagements where I’ve talked to a number of freelancers who are doing well, and even really well. Like “best year in 15 years of freelancing” kind of thing. Obviously, success is made of many factors, and success is made of a lot of grunt work that no one sees. But I’ve zeroed in on two habits that I think successful freelancers have in common right now, and I think these can be helpful to all of us!

Habit #1: They place the responsibility on themselves, rather than blaming “market forces”

Admittedly, there are plenty of market forces to blame right now: AI, corporate budgets being slashed to make room for yet more AI, the collapse of USAID, more offshoring of work to low-wage countries, multiple wars on multiple continents…it’s not hard to find a villain if you want to.

However, I find that successful freelancers have one outlook in common: While they may lament the state of the world, the economy, the language business, the freelance market, they see themselves as ultimately responsible for their freelance success. They’re a lot more likely to say, “I saw some scary indicators in my own business two years ago, so I started thinking, where am I going from here? Where’s the intersection between what I like doing and am good at, and what clients are still willing and able to pay well for?”

Contrast this with what I hear from a lot of struggling freelancers, and by this I mean absolutely no shame or judgment, just data. “For 10 years, I made 75% of my income from three agencies. In the past two years, one went out of business, one sends mostly minimum charge jobs, and one has switched entirely to MTPE at an hourly rate that’s about half of what I used to make per-word as a translator. So my income is down by 60% and I don’t see things changing.” This may be objectively true, but the issue is the mindset: seeing yourself as a passenger rather than the pilot.

While you alone are certainly not going to change the market forces that shape our work, and “toxic positivity” (believing that everything will be fine, even in the face of evidence to the contrary) isn’t the answer, you can work on reframing. Given these changes in the market that I’m really not thrilled with, what’s my role in the language business now? Do I want to keep freelancing? If so, what kinds of clients have work that I enjoy and am good at, and have the budget to pay someone consultant-level money rather than Fiverr-level money?

Habit #2: They’re sweating the small stuff and pursuing every single lead

This week, I posted on LinkedIn about how to create a company page for your freelance business, to make your Experience section look more professional. In my experience, this is the kind of thing that successful freelancers will jump on (“Oooh! An easy way to make me look more like a business and less like a gig worker!”), whereas struggling freelancers (again, no criticism, just data) are more inclined to say, tons of freelancers use Hotmail; tons of freelancers don’t have a website; I think clients don’t really notice or care; all of that takes time and costs money that I don’t have.

Likewise, I find that successful freelancers right now are pursuing every single lead that looks promising, even if it seems unlikely to pan out. I recently talked to someone who nudged a dormant client that they hadn’t worked with in six years. The person remembered them and wanted to revive the relationship. Another freelancer told me that their agency client lost a large government contract, so they immediately started combing the internet to find out who won it; they found that agency, applied to them, and are now working for them. Another person told me that they wanted to attend an expensive medical conference, but the registration fee wasn’t in their budget. They noticed that one of their direct clients was a sponsor, so they asked whether that client had any free passes to the conference (they did!).

Another decided to start pursuing consecutive interpreting classes because a number of clients have asked for it.

These examples are specific: you don’t have to follow them exactly. The goal is to show you the mental habits of successful freelancers, thinking, “How can I acknowledge this issue and try to find a solution,” rather than, “Oh well, that’s definitely not going to work out.”

I hope these tips are helpful! Have a great week!

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This month’s master class is next Thursday! Get out of your own way: Overcoming the mental roadblocks that hold back your marketing. Registration is $75 and includes the recording. This is your master class, if you find yourself…sabotaging your marketing efforts before you start (“Because it won’t work anyway”). Doubting your own abilities (“Surely clients want someone with more experience than I have”). Blaming market conditions (“No one is finding good work in this economy”) instead of accepting market realities for what they are and then finding profitable pathways for yourself. I hope to see you there! In this two-hour session, I’ll talk about the most common obstacles that we put in our own way, and how to think more constructively.

To get our weekly posts directly in your inbox, sign up for the Training for Translators mailing list!

Upcoming master class!

March Marketing Madness is off and running with 100+ participants; if you’re itching to sign up and you don’t mind playing catch-up with the first three days, you can still join the group ($99).

Next up: this month’s master class is Get out of your own way: Overcoming the mental roadblocks that hold back your marketing. Registration is $75 and the live session is on March 19 (registration includes the recording). If you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or resistant to marketing your freelance business (even when you know you should, or when your business is really struggling), this two-hour master class will help you dig into the why and how of creating a new marketing routine.

What’s the perfect LinkedIn headline?

Well, that’s a trick question, because there is no perfect LinkedIn headline! But those 220 characters sure can cause us a lot of angst and stress!

I’ve been thinking and talking a lot about LinkedIn lately (shoutout to the Northeast Ohio Translators Association and Kent State University for inviting me to speak to their members and students in person a couple of weeks ago!), and here are a few tips:

• Most importantly, inhale, exhale, and just write something that represents you and tells potential clients what you do. You can change your LinkedIn headline as often as you want, and it’s really not something to lose sleep over.
• The only thing I’m begging you not to do: please, no generic headlines that are pretty much useless to potential clients. “Freelance translator.” “EU conference interpreter.” “Crossing language barriers.” At least give us your language pairs! Other than that, you can write whatever you want!
• When you comment on someone else’s LinkedIn post (a strategy I would highly recommend if you’re looking for clients, something I talked about in this article), only the first 70-75 characters of your headline will be displayed. Don’t let this hold you back, but make sure the important stuff is at the front.

Direct, Descriptive, or Hybrid

When it comes down to it, you have three options for a LinkedIn headline. Let’s look at how the same freelancer, an English to Spanish translator specializing in international development, might word them:

1. Direct: “English to Spanish translator specializing in international development.” Short, sweet, we get the point, and it’s search-friendly.
2. Descriptive: “I help entities in the international development sector communicate more effectively, increase stakeholder engagement, and attract more funding through high-quality English to Spanish translations.” That’s pretty long (168 characters), but it’s more descriptive, although the language pairs would be cut off on a comment.
3. Hybrid: “English to Spanish translator for the international development sector | I help NGOs communicate more effectively between English and Spanish.” Personally I like this one the best!

Obviously this exercise gets harder when you do multiple things. I do three things (interpret, translate, write/teach), so I’ve struggled to create a headline that I really love and that looks good when I comment on someone else’s post. But I think that this framework (direct, descriptive, hybrid) can be a helpful starting point!

Have a great week!