Brand the Interpreter

A lot of interpreters are told to “network more” or “find a niche,” but nobody explains what that looks like on Tuesday morning when you need work on the calendar. We sit down with Jeremy Gerin, a French-English translator and interpreter based in Charleston, South Carolina, to get specific about how opportunity is actually built, especially when your career path has twists, restarts, and unexpected advantages.

Jeremy shares how a background in sales became the engine behind a thriving language services practice, from crafting a clear pitch to doing the unglamorous work of follow-up. We talk about how he landed recurring virtual court interpreting work across multiple states without ever stepping inside a courthouse, what he tracked, who he contacted, and why being easy to work with can matter as much as credentials. We also dig into cross-border realities: how different systems shape your options, why Canada’s bilingual requirements can support higher French interpreting rates, and how language access becomes a real budget line item in conferences and institutions.

We close with the questions every working interpreter is feeling: how to communicate value when cheaper providers undercut pricing, where AI may pressure the industry, and why preparation remains the most reliable competitive edge in conference interpreting. If you’re building a freelance interpreter business, exploring remote interpreting, or trying to grow from translation into interpreting, you’ll leave with a practical playbook you can use right away.

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A speaker’s mic cuts out, the Wi‑Fi stutters, and you’re still expected to deliver clean, confident interpreting. That pressure is real, and it’s exactly why we invited Dr. Bernard Song to the show. He’s a conference interpreter with 25 years in the booth, a PhD in computer engineering, and the founder of GreenTerp Technologies, which means he can talk about interpreting craft and interpreting tech without guessing. 

We dig into the unglamorous problem that ruins performance fastest: audio quality. Dr. Song breaks down how automatic speech recognition (ASR) and computer-assisted interpreting (CAI) can act like a safety belt when the floor is messy, speakers talk at “uninterpretable” speed, or numbers and key terms get lost in distortion. We’re honest about the downside too: live captions can trigger instant cognitive overload and split attention. The takeaway is not “use tools everywhere,” but “train enough to control them,” including knowing when to glance at the transcript and when to ignore it so you keep tone, spirit, and meaning intact. 

We also zoom out to the bigger shift after COVID and the rise of AI translation in the private market. Some “just in case” assignments may move to AI, but high-stakes communication, trust, confidentiality, and human judgment remain non-negotiable. Dr. Song shares concrete, low-risk ways to practice at home, record your work, get feedback, and experiment with tools like TerpMate and GD Booth, including options designed for offline use to reduce privacy concerns. 

If you’re an interpreter trying to stay employable without losing what makes you human, listen through to the end, then subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the one tool or skill you want to strengthen next.

EPISODE RESOURCES
AIIC Interpretation Checklist
SAFE AI: Guidance on AI and Interpreting Services
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A childhood spent among Greek, Turkish, and Jewish neighbors can turn language into a way of being. That spirit runs through a candid, wide‑ranging conversation with conference interpreter, researcher, and choir singer Dr. Ozum Arzik Erzurumlu, whose path stretches from lyric notebooks and full‑immersion schooling to live broadcasts of U.S. presidents. We open the booth door on the realities of crisis coverage, the relay chains that kept news flowing during the Arab Spring, and the home‑built audio hacks that made phone interpreting viable when seconds mattered.

We dig into the engine room of performance: preparation that goes beyond collecting terms to truly owning them, learning a speaker’s discourse so style carries meaning, and the post‑assignment review that separates solid from exceptional. Dr. Arzik Erzurumlu shares evidence‑based ways to protect the person behind the mic—growth mindset, positive psychology, pre‑briefs, and rituals that help interpreters shed vicarious trauma after war speeches and emotionally charged testimonies. The message is practical and humane: accuracy and well‑being can coexist, if we plan for both.

Then we follow Alice down the rabbit hole into remote platforms and AI. Drawing on interviews with 26 freelancers, Dr. Arzik Erzurumlu maps what changed when booths became browsers: the gains in reach for those who were proactive, the loss of room intelligence and human touch, and the surprising habits interpreters wanted to keep. We tackle “tech without panic,” showing how tools like ChatGPT and Notebook LM can accelerate prep while the irreplaceably human skills—reading the room, catching irony, matching tone—remain the profession’s edge. We also challenge the myth of invisibility: stay neutral on the mic, but step forward outside it to explain your value, ethics, and craft.

If you care about where interpreting is headed—reputation over rush, visibility without bias, and smart use of technology—this conversation offers both a compass and a toolkit. Listen, share with a colleague, and leave a review so more practitioners can find it. Subscribe for more deep dives into the craft and evolution of interpreting.
Ozum Arzik-Erzurumlu, PhD, is a full-time faculty member in the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research spans multiple dimensions of interpreting, including conference interpreting, the sociology of interpreting, interpreting technology, interpreter training, and the history of interpreting. Her work has been published in several leading journals, including Translation and Interpreting Studies and Interpreting. A professional conference interpreter, she works with Turkish (A), English (B), and Spanish (C) and has interpreted for U.S. presidents on behalf of various Turkish broadcasters since 2006. She is an active member of the Turkish Conference Interpreters’ Association, a researcher with the GenTech international research network, and a board member of Encounters in Translation. NEW BOOK: Reimagining Conference Interpreting in the Age of AI (Routledge, 2026) will be out on May 27, 2026!
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What do you do when the work that once felt like a calling starts to drain you dry? I sit down with Heidi Leal to follow a courageous pivot from school counseling into professional interpreting, a shift sparked by a year of volunteering in Guatemala that reignited her sense of service and clarified a new path forward. From triage rooms and field clinics to certification exams and first contracts, this story blends heart and hard-won tactics you can use if you’re craving more autonomy in your career.

Heidi walks us through completing a 40-hour medical interpreting program, earning CHI certification, and navigating the first agency roles that built fluency and confidence. Then we get real about the industry: restrictions on working abroad, rate disparities tied to geography, and what it takes to identify partners who actually respect interpreters. That inflection point leads to a smarter strategy, niching into mental health interpreting where her counseling background becomes a true asset, and shifting focus toward direct clients for better alignment, pay, and professional control.

Along the way, we talk about marketing yourself without feeling salesy, rewriting a LinkedIn profile to speak to buyer needs, and the difference between bragging and positioning. If you’ve ever wondered whether your past experience can power a new specialty, or how to move beyond LSP dependence without burning bridges, this conversation offers a grounded blueprint. We close with practical steps: build your network, find mentors, invest in training, and treat autonomy like a skill you practice every day.

If this journey resonates, help us grow the Brand the Interpreter community, subscribe, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share this episode with someone who’s ready for their next chapter.
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A trilingual childhood, a summer camp “gig” for a few bucks, and then a single moment that changed everything: the mic flipped on, and Alain Breton realized interpreting had a name and a future. I sit down with Alain to unpack how a life steeped in French, Spanish, and English turned into a craft built on meaning, nerve, and an appetite for challenge.

The heart of our conversation is depth. Not age. Depth. Alain makes the case that great interpreters aren’t just fluent; they’re world-literate. Travel, odd jobs, and real-world stumbles add weight to your mental toolbox so you can keep sense intact when speakers sprint, pivot, or argue in real time. That’s why he loves parliamentary debates: no slides, no prep, just rapid exchanges where meaning is your only compass. We also get into flow state—how interest plus difficulty locks attention and lifts performance—and why following your curiosity matters as much as mastering terminology.

We don’t shy away from the hard rooms. Alain shares the emotional cost of interpreting top-secret briefings about child exploitation and how visualization, so helpful in clear storytelling, can also intensify trauma. He walks us through practical ways to reset: mental anchors in the moment, then intentional decompression afterward. Pro wrestling is his palate cleanser, a reminder that it’s okay to choose something playful and harmless to break the loop.

You’ll leave with three habits to level up: record yourself and review five minutes at a time, study seasoned interpreters to see how they keep coherence under stress, and build a richer life so your understanding runs deeper than any glossary. We also spotlight Found in Interpretation, Alain’s podcast co-hosted with Brian Bickford, which brings voices from parliaments to refugee camps and expands how we think about this profession.

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Found in Interpretation
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