Episode 20: Creating Professional Partnerships With Corinne McKay

In today’s episode, we’re talking with our friend and colleague Corinne McKay about creating professional partnerships with colleagues. Many of you have surely heard of Corinne, but if you haven’t, here’s a quick introduction:

Corinne McKay is an ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified French interpreter based in Boulder, Colorado. She has been a full-time freelancer since 2002, and since 2005 has written books and taught courses for other freelance translators in addition to her own translation and interpreting work. Corinne's book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator has sold over 12,000 copies and is a go-to reference for freelancers and for university-level translation and interpreting programs.

After serving for seven years on the Board of the American Translators Association, including as ATA president from 2017-2019, Corinne now focuses on her own work, translating in the areas of international development, corporate communications, and non-fiction books, and interpreting in the Colorado courts and for private law firms. Together with Eve Bodeux, Corinne also co-hosts the podcast Speaking of Translation.

Here is a summary of our conversation with Corinne:

• How and when she started her freelance translation career

• How her typical workday looked before the COVID-19 pandemic, how it looks now, and how her daily routine has changed and evolved over the years

• What smart habits have been crucial in her career

• How to determine the types of professional partnerships you want to create/build

• Whether or not to create some structure around the partnership

• How to make sure that the partnership is a mutually beneficial relationship

• What habits are important for keeping partnerships going and making them successful

• How to know if/when it's time to end a partnership

• Corinne’s advice for freelance translators who want to build partnerships with colleagues

books and resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Corinne McKay’s blog and online training platform Training for Translators

• Corinne McKay’s Twitter account

• How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator by Corinne McKay

• Speaking of Translation: podcast by Corinne McKay and Eve Bodeux

• Madalena’s blog post: “How to Care for the Health of Your Translation or Interpreting Business during the COVID-19 Pandemic”

• Global Reads Book Club for Translators by Eve Bodeux

• Interpretrain: online interpreter training platform

• The Translator: A Novel by Nina Schuyler

• Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel

• Pesquisa FAPESP in Portuguese and English

• Maintaining Your Second Language by Eve Bodeux

• You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

• HabitShare app

• Gemini app

“We’re in this job because we like to help people and solve problems. If working with other people could help you help more people and solve more problems, then it’s a good way to push your comfort zone.”

— Corinne McKay

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