Episode 28: Dealing With and Overcoming Serious Illness With Meghan Konkol

We hope you enjoyed our previous episode, marking our first podcastiversary, and we would like to thank you for your support and interest in our podcast. Our goal has always been to share tips and resources for our colleagues who are on the same journey as we are: creating better, smarter habits to find clarity and boundaries between work and personal life. We are so thankful to you for listening and engaging with us online!

And we cannot wait to see what this next year of podcasting will bring. You can definitely count on exciting new guests and interesting topics related to smart habits.

Speaking of… we have a very special guest with us for this episode. As many of you may know, October is international breast cancer awareness month. So, it seemed like the perfect time for a very important conversation: dealing with (and overcoming) serious illness, as well as some smart habits that can be helpful if you or someone you know is dealing with something similar right now (or in the future).

We are very grateful to our colleague and friend, Meghan Konkol, for discussing this important topic with us.

Meghan is a freelance ATA-certified French to English translator specializing in marketing and communications, human resources, and international development. She has a master’s degree in French to English translation from UW Milwaukee. Prior to starting her freelance business, she worked in-house at a global language services provider as a project manager and French quality manager. Today, Meghan especially enjoys working with NGOs in Sub-saharan Africa and immigrants from this region who are relocating to the United States. She currently serves as a Director on the ATA Board of Directors and leads ATA’s School Outreach Program.

Here’s a summary of our conversation with Meghan:

How and when she started her freelance translation career
What her typical work day looks like and what changes she made because of the COVID-19 pandemic
How she protects the boundaries between her work and personal life
What smart habits have been crucial in her career
How her battle with breast cancer affected her work/life priorities
What role her support system played in the process
What habits she has found most helpful during her battle with cancer and what continues to be important for her, now that she is cancer-free
Her advice for other freelancers who are in a similar situation or would like to take some preventative steps
What you can do if you would like to help someone you know who is battling cancer, or if you would like to support breast cancer organizations

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

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