 Hi everyone! How's it going? Today I wanted to talk to you about something that you're probably doing wrong and that you should probably correct as soon as you can. But just to notice, I think every video I have this bookcase keeps getting messier and messier. Anyway, I've mentioned this before sort of. So what I've mentioned before is that if you're a freelance translator, no one you talk to will need freelance translation. There's very little chance you'll go to a networking event or you'll be at some party or some whatever, and you say, I do English to Spanish translations and the person you're talking to, you know, you meet some lawyer guy and at this networking event and it'll be like, oh yes, we're looking for someone to do English to Spanish translations. Let me contact you in the morning. No, that usually doesn't happen. What will happen is this lawyer guy that you talk to doesn't need anything done, but two weeks down the line, he'll be at a bar with some college buddies of his and his friend Gary will need these translations done. And so you want to stay top of mind in case they need the translations done. And so a lot of networking is this is sort of trying to stay top of mind. So when people, anyone you talk to in the future meets anyone who needs your service, they know to refer you. And because otherwise, if you're just trying to deal with the people you meet face to face, it's going to take a lot longer. So that's all fine and well. But here's the problem. Two weeks down the line, this lawyer guy that you met is chatting with his college buddy, Gary, I think his name was, they're chatting over beers and talking about stuff. They're talking about that trip they took to New Orleans and how trash they got that time in college and whatever, whatever. And then Gary will say something like say, oh, by the way, I'm taking this other trip soon to Costa Rica. It's going to be awesome. I'm going to be drinking lots of rum. I'm going to be like hanging out on the beach and stuff like that. We're like, dude, that's awesome. Why are you going to Costa Rica? And be like, oh, me and Ralphie, you know, we're thinking of opening up a branch in Latin America. And so we want to, you know, we're attending this trade fair anyway, and we want to see what we can do if we can expand something in Latin America. I think it'll be fun. I think it'll, you know, it'll be interesting. Oh, cool. Yeah, Latin America is awesome. And I traveled to Costa Rica once. It was cool. I went to a Renault volcano, something like that. And then the conversation will move on and that's it. Now, Gary, this guy who's moving his business and trying to expand to Latin America, he'll, he's going to have to translate a whole bunch of stuff into Spanish, his pamphlet, his brochures, his website is, I don't know, you know, a whole bunch of stuff, but it'll never come across in conversation. Why would it? These guys are two college buddies shooting the breeze, talking about this, that and the other. And Gary is not going to say, Hey, you, you're a lawyer have nothing to do with translations at all. Do you know a good translator? No, but this is when what you say to this lawyer guy can really help. And what you want to do is set off triggering words, something that when they hear it, it triggers the image of your face in their mind. And you want to figure out those trigger words. So let's say you do English to Spanish translations and you tell them, you say, look, I've been helping a lot with people who've been expanding to Latin America because, you know, there's a lot to deal with. And you have to have everything that you own translated. Plus you usually need something else translated, just explaining what your general business is because they don't know it there. And some things need to be changed because the legality is here and there. So anyway, that's what I usually help out a lot with, you know, and that's, that's my bread and butter. I help out with a bunch of small businesses or, you know, people that are expanding to Latin America. Suddenly, and this lawyer guy is talking to his friend Gary, expanding to Latin America. And he gets to that point. He's like, yeah, we're thinking of expanding there. There's all these things we have to do. You know, we need to figure it out, but it should be cool. Then the lawyer guy you talk to at this point can say, oh, wait, I think I know someone who can help out with that. Let me put you in touch because he said this is what he works on and he seems to know his stuff. So let me put you two in touch. Suddenly, there you can get your business. But you see what I mean, the word translation never even comes up in this conversation, but the expansion into Latin America does, and that's the triggering event. That's the triggering moment where the lawyer suddenly thinks about you. By the way, my example has to do with freelance translation, but this works for anyone. If you're a graphic designer, it's the same thing. No one's going around telling their friends, like, do you know a good graphic designer? I really need a good graphic design. I mean, it might happen, but it won't. What will happen is they'll be complaining to their friends saying like, oh, I just spent two hours on the phone with GoDaddy and, oh man, I can't get anything to work on the website. I mean, it's just such a mess. Well, if you're a graphic designer, maybe a lot of what you do is just make sure your clients have a nice, clean website with no bugs here and there that they don't know about in the back end or in the code or something like that. So you can, when you meet people, instead of saying, I'm a graphic designer, that's what I do. You can say, I help a lot of people because people, especially with their small businesses, you know, they keep adding or taking away from the website that it becomes a mess. So I just go there, make sure they have a good, clean, quick website that works on all platforms and they don't have to worry about it and can get on with their business. Then at this point, when Gary's complaining about how much time he spends on GoDaddy, then his friend, the lawyer guy or whoever, can tell him, oh wait, I think I know someone who can help out with that. You need to make it so your face, what you do is triggered in their mind right away. So how do you go about this? Well, there are various ways to go about it. The ideal would be to look at your past clients, your past 10 clients and see what patterns you can find. Another example, let's say you are an English to French translator, you're in Paris, and you look at your last 10 translations and seven or eight of them have been translations of, I don't know, birth certificates and driver's licenses. That basically means that a lot of people have probably been moving to your city, let's say to Paris, and they need all their stuff translated because they have an American driver's license, they have a birth certificate from some other country, they have and they need all this translated, they have report cards from other schools or whatever it might be, stuff that they need translated for when they move in. So this means when you're at these network events, you don't say I'm an English to French translator, or you can mention that obviously, but then you say I deal mainly with people who are first coming here into France, into Paris, or wherever it might be. And I'm one of the first stops that they make because when they first come, they have to get a new apartment, they have to get a new driver's license, they have to enter the schools and have all this paperwork done and it needs to be translated and dealt with correctly. And so I'm usually one of the first stops because I can really help out with that. That's the ideal situation. If you can look at your past clients, find a pattern and then you can find the triggering moment, the triggering aspect of your business. If not, try to find out what your ideal client would be. If you're into medical translations and you want to do more medical translations and that's what you're building up upon, then that's what you should be looking into. But no one, when they talk to someone who's in the medical field to the researcher, it's not going to come up that they need translations. So you need to say something like, yeah, a lot of people, they need international patents or they need their patent to work in Russia or in China or something like that. And so I've been helping a lot with that. It's really interesting. I've been dealing with these different countries and I'm trying to translate into that language or something like that. Then right away, if someone's talking to someone who does a research and they're complaining about their patent, they're like, yeah, we're trying to expand internationally, but it's crazy with this patent stuff. You can be like, oh, I think I know someone I can put you in touch with. Try to find these triggering moments so you can stay top of mind. These things that trigger the image of your face in other people's minds and then you can get more business. And by the way, if you're smart and lucky, you can really make this work for you. Let's take, for example, the one I said before, you're an English to French translator in Paris and you're helping out with people's report cards with their driver's license and stuff like that being translated. The fact is, you might get a call from someone and they say, yeah, I need a new driver's license here. And then you can say, oh, I do translations of driver's license from English to French. Does that work? They'll be like, yeah, okay, yeah, I guess. But then you might be like, well, do you need a notarized? They'll be like, I don't know. They'll be like, do you need your birth certificate translated? Well, I don't know. And if you're smart and lucky because you find yourself in that situation, you can tell them, well, so what are you doing? They're like, I have a Canadian citizenship and driver's license and I just moved here to Paris. I'm trying to get a new driver's license. They're like, okay, I know exactly what you need. You need your birth certificate translated, you need your driver's license translated and notarized and you need to fill out form 58229, something like that. And if you're smart again, you can kind of make it into a business, be like, look, you can find form 58229 at whatever thing. And then I can, and if you send me your stuff, I can translate it and notarize it, then send it all to me and, you know, and I can have it mailed, I can make sure everything is correct and have it mailed off. Suddenly, what you're providing is not just a translation, but it's a whole service, it's whole package service. And obviously, if you do something like that, you can charge more for it. You know, you can say, we charge or I charge X amount for this whole service. And, you know, and then we send it off, I give you the receipt and you, you know, that in two weeks, you'll be receiving your driver's license. That's it. That's all you have to do. You know, just give it to me and I take care of the whole process. And you don't even have to say what the steps, you know, you say, I take care of the whole process and you should be getting your driver's license within two to three weeks. If you know that that's how the process works in your town and you can handle that stuff, then you have a whole business unto itself and that really changes the game. So anyway, try to make this work for you. Try to make these triggering moments, these triggering events work for you because no one's going to be shooting the breeze with their friend at the bar and suddenly someone says, oh, do you know a good freelance translator? Or do you know a good graphic designer? Do you know a good lead generator? Do you know something like that? No, whatever you offer is part of some other business. It's part of something else going on in their business or in their life. And try to figure out what that is so that you can be top of mind at the right moments in the future for your future times. That's it. I hope you found this useful and I hope you're able to use it in the future. If you do find this video useful, please click thumbs up. It's a great way for me to know what works and what doesn't. And don't forget to subscribe so you get more videos about freelancing, about freelance translation and stuff like that right set directly to your YouTube account. And otherwise, I'll see you in the next video. Thanks. Bye.