In recent months I have been doing some mentoring via the UK Chartered Institute of Linguists and have also been a guest interviewee during a UK Civil Service Languages Network online session.
Despite going into these activities with altruistic motives, I find that talking about my professional experiences with those who work in very different fields is often of benefit to me too. In encouraging young people to work on their careers, their businesses, their brands, I come away inspired to do more to develop my own. I’ve been doing what I do for a long time now, but I am still passionate about translation, communications, and motorsport, and so it is that I continue to focus on building my skillset, knowledge, and ability in these areas. It’s importance to ‘practice what you preach’ after all – you can’t exactly propose strategies to young professionals if you’re not prepared to explore and experiment with them for yourself!
Over the last couple of years or so, I have come to adopt a quality over quantity approach to my work and the projects I accept. I have gradually been able to move away from ‘filler’ jobs and can instead focus solely on work that interests me and falls within my specialist fields. Probably 80% of my work is now motorcycle/comms/translation specific, with fashion and travel/tourism accounting for maybe 10%, and miscellaneous projects making up the rest. And that suits me just fine. I know my market, and it knows (and trusts) me. There is enough variety to keep things interesting and keep me engaged, and my clients know that they are benefitting from my sector-specific expertise and experience – a clear win-win situation!
This year sees me collaborating with more motorcycle race teams than ever before. This boost is largely down to positive word of mouth within the industry, for which I am extremely grateful of course. But I also acknowledge that I have essentially created this situation for myself, working hard and developing my specialisms to the extent that I now believe I probably am ‘the best person for the job’ in many cases (in my niche field I hasten to add!). I believe in my abilities and, in doing so, clients can feel confident in entrusting me with their projects. A definite win-win I’d say.
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