Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this translator training video module. Within this training module, we re going to teach you how to use psychology of influence and persuasion in your translation career or agency to help grow your business or career. And basically, what we re going to focus on here is the power of authority. Now, authority is basically a psychological principle that if somebody is looking at hiring a translator and there s two translators with the same level of experience, maybe they both hold a designation or translation certification and everything else is equal, they re more likely to choose one with a bit more authority, a bit more of an expert status in the industry because it shows they re more dedicated in the industry. It hints at having more experience, more specialized knowledge, and it s just going to help you get more clients and keep them if you have more authority and expertise in the industry. Now, this might seem kind of obvious. What s not obvious are the practical ways to boost your authority very quickly. So that s what we re going to provide here today in this video. So the first tip is to have the highest pedigree clients possible as testimonials for your translation business or your translation career. And the way to do this, there s a few different ways. One, you can target those companies and apply for them directly obviously. That s one way to attract them and get them as clients and have experience working for them. Another way is to say that 50% of your rate will be cut off for the first project you work on for this very respected organization that might usually hire professionals that are more experienced than you or more qualified. What you could say is I ll work at 50% of my normal rate for this first job for the first 100 hours. After that, I hope I ve proved that I m so valuable to your team, you ll keep on using me at my normal rate. And then the third way that I ve seen translators get great experience at high pedigree clients is that they go to somebody and actually work on a small well-defined project for free, show they did a great job, they re very timely and got it done quickly and then work on more projects after that and it raises their pedigree and authority in the industry. Another way to raise your authority is to earn a designation or certification program such as a Certified Translation Professional Program. Make sure after you complete it, you add it to your resume, you add some bullet points on your resume of what it means to complete it and you can even add the CTP logo on your resume, your bio website on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.com and that can link back to the CTP page which describes the rigorous test and what s required to complete the program so potential employers can see exactly what s required and how hard it was to complete. Another thing that can help grow your authority in the industry is to write a book. Most translators eventually specialize within specific areas such as law, engineering, business and you could write a couple different types of books on the translation business in that area. For example, you could say how to hire the right translator for your business project so that business owners and people that haven t hired translators before could read your book about hiring translators and get a ton of great guidance. They re probably more likely then to consider hiring you as they see that you re the author, you know, if you serve their language pair they re looking for, they re more likely to hire you. You can also write a book on maybe the translation of kind of tricky words or slang within business or law or medicine or engineering or whatever area you specialize in and publish that as an industry resource so people will go and come to you as an expert and they ll say, Oh, I saw these but I need help with this other project and then they might hire you and work with you in that specialty area. So that can be a great way to quickly build your authority writing a book. Another thing you can do that s sometimes easier to do before you write the book is write white papers and articles on your subject area, specifically your specialty area such as business, engineering, medicine. Write as many helpful articles as you can on how to select a medical translator or how to evaluate or what interview questions to use while interviewing a medical translator, etc. And that way you ll be seen as a resource to the industry and leads will come to you whether it s for jobs, projects, or new clients for your translation agency. The last tip here is that scientific studies have shown that we see people as more authoritative when they re dressed more formally. For example, if I was wearing a t-shirt right now, I d be seen as less formal. If I was wearing a tuxedo or a suit with a tie, I d be seen as more formal. And the more formally you dress, the more authoritative you ll come off as. So a great tip is that at least on your website, if not in your everyday work, you should have a full suit and tie on or business formal dress in your pictures. You want to be personal and look friendly in them and not overly formal. But you don t want to be dressed formally so people take you seriously and know you re a serious professional who s well-established in your field. So I hope all these tips give you really practical applications on how to be more authoritative and more of an expert in the translation industry. Good luck and thank you for joining translatortraining.com. Transcription by CastingWords