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Don't take it personally, says Adam
Thread poster: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:20
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Aug 27, 2023

Adam Savage's advice to beginner freelancers: don't take it personally if the client doesn't understand why your service is so expensive... and don't try to explain it to him either:

https://youtu.be/enVjStoLJK8?t=156

[Edited at 2023-08-27 15:49 GMT]

Christopher Schröder
Philip Lees
 
Ana Cuesta
Ana Cuesta  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 10:20
Member
English to Spanish
Yes and no Aug 27, 2023

Don’t take it personally… for sure. Don’t try to explain… well, I would say don’t try to justify yourself, and don’t overexplain, but some amount of client education could be what we need right now. If we want to be perceived as experts offering high-value services, we’ll have to do that pitch ourselves.

Laurent Di Raimondo
Joshua Parker
Becca Resnik
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Christopher Schröder
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
Philip Lees
 
Laurent Di Raimondo
Laurent Di Raimondo  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:20
English to French
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Undeniably the least communicative profession for communicators... Aug 27, 2023

Ana Cuesta wrote:

Don’t take it personally… for sure. Don’t try to explain… well, I would say don’t try to justify yourself, and don’t overexplain, but some amount of client education could be what we need right now. If we want to be perceived as experts offering high-value services, we’ll have to do that pitch ourselves.


I do concur. I simply would add that out of many professions over the world, translation suffers a blatant lack of communication.

As communicators, translators still remain one of the more seclusive and unknown profession and, at the same time, the least communicative one as well.

I find it rather strange coming from professionals exercising around the communication industry, isn't it?

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Ana Cuesta
Christopher Schröder
expressisverbis
 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 11:20
Greek to English
Picasso Aug 28, 2023

There's a story, probably apocryphal, about Picasso meeting a woman who asked him to to do a drawing of her.

Picasso quickly produced a sketch and she was very impressed.

"That's amazing!" she said. "It looks just like me. How much does this cost?"

"The price is $10,000," Picasso said.

"What? Why is it so expensive. It only took you a few minutes."

"No madam. It took me my whole life."

Laurent Di Raimondo
Juno Bos
Barbara Carrara
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Martin Herlihy
expressisverbis
Maria G. Grassi, MA AITI
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:20
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Who? Aug 28, 2023

Samuel Murray wrote:

Adam Savage's advice to beginner freelancers: don't take it personally if the client doesn't understand why your service is so expensive... and don't try to explain it to him either:

https://youtu.be/enVjStoLJK8?t=156

[Edited at 2023-08-27 15:49 GMT]


I can't take this Adam guy sitting in his expensively equipped den/workshop and I have no idea what he's talking about or who he is. He has an abrasive way of talking. Seems very agitated. Maybe on speed or something.

FWIW I have no problems communicating with my clients and/or explaining to them the value of what I do. They know.

[Edited at 2023-08-28 09:04 GMT]

Tony Keily
 


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