I’ll be in Miami at the ATA conference for the rest of the week, so in the meantime, here’s the fifth episode of In the Balance, the work-life balance video series that I host for the Standing Out Facebook group. This episode focuses on taking the lessons you learn from your non-work interests and applying them to your work life. Because my non-work interests are very important to me, I’ve found over the years that my “hobbies” aren’t just a way to have fun or occupy my free time; they actually teach me a lot about being a translator and running my own business. Enjoy! And then add your own “crossover lessons” in the comments!
Videos
In the Balance: dealing with low moments
As freelancers, no matter how hard we try to stay upbeat, focus on the positive and manage our work and non-work lives carefully, low moments happen. In Episode Four of In the Balance, I talk about how to create a low-moment survival kit so that you can deal with feeling overwhelmed, getting negative feedback from a client, or obsessively worrying about things that are out of your control. Feel free to contribute your own low-moment survival strategy in the comments! And if you’d like to watch the In the Balance episodes right when they come out (every other Friday), you can join the Standing Out private Facebook group.
Videos: In the Balance
Since the beginning of September, I’ve been doing a video series called In the Balance for Andrew Morris’ Facebook group, Standing Out. The series focuses on work-life balance issues that translators, and freelancers in general, face. It’s been a lot of fun to create the (very basic; I’m not much of an a/v person!) videos, and especially fun to read the discussions about work-life topics.
I’ve decided to start cross-posting the In the Balance videos here, with a one-episode delay. I’ll kick things off with the first three videos (episode four, “dealing with low moments,” comes out on Standing Out tomorrow), and from now on I’ll post a new one every two weeks. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think about these topics as well! If you watch until the end of the video, there’s an audience participation component in each one.
In the Balance, Episode 1: Work/life balance and what it means to you to be alive
In the Balance, Episode 2: I can’t, versus I choose not to
In the Balance, Episode 3: Creating positive habits
Video: using the carrot, the stick or the temptation bundle to reach your freelance goals
If you have the drive and discipline to launch your freelance business, you have the drive and discipline to improve your freelance business, but we all struggle to force ourselves to work on those improvements incrementally (or at least I do!). In this video I talk about three approaches you might try: the carrot, the stick or the temptation bundle. If you really want to geek out on temptation bundling, you can listen to this episode of Freakonomics Radio.
Video: translating for individual clients
I do a pretty brisk business translating for individual clients (anything from birth certificates through self-published books). It’s a niche that many agencies and freelancers avoid, so it can be a good niche to address if you’re interested. In this six-minute video, I give you some thoughts on what’s appealing about the individual-client market and how to dive in if you’d like to.