Greater than 4 minutes, my friend!

This is going to sound crazy, but I have never met another translator in real life.

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I know! It sounds insane because I’m doing so much online marketing that me being friends with other translators in real life almost seems warranted.

But it’s not the case for me, sorry.

I might have excelled at digital marketing and social networking, but offline networking is still an unknown territory for me.

That territory is weird and scary!

I mean, do I have to go outside of my house and actually meet people of my profession?

No way, José!

I’d rather stay at home and keep crushing it online.

I mean it’s cool that people can go to all those awesome conferences and meetups, but I’m just not that kind of person.

I’m an introvert.

I’m shy.

My ideal vacation? Staying at home doing nothing.

I have no idea how to talk to strangers or what those conversations should even be about.

Does that make sense?

Does that sound familiar to you?

Because I feel like I’m not the only one with this kind of “mindset”.

It’s funny how easy it was for me label myself as an “introvert” or “a shy person”.

But how do I know this for sure?

More importantly, why did I even decide that I’m an introvert?

I really tried to analyze that and all I can say is that no one ever told that to me.

In the eyes of my friends and people who know me very well in real life I’m pretty much the opposite of those things.

I love people, I really do.

And I especially love the people of my profession because we have such diverse backgrounds and experiences.

We come from so many different cultures.

We all have different approaches to our lives and businesses.

We have so many awesome stories to tell.

I certainly have a few. 🙂

So, why am I really blocking myself from truly embracing the awesomeness of those digital personalities I know from Twitter, Facebook and The Open Mic?

Why won’t I just take it to the next level and meet all those cool people offline?

The answer is: I don’t know.

But I DO know that I want to change it.

I DO know that I want to meet more people.

I DO know that I want to have real-life conversations with other amazing and inspiring friends and colleagues.

And I thought really long and hard on how to make it possible in real life, but in a new and meaningful way.

While still staying close to my house (I know, we have a very strong bond) and without spending thousands of dollars on flight tickets and visas (I love you Europe and US, but those flight tickets are too damn expensive for me, especially now, when I’m building a startup company).

And this is what I’ve come up with:

I got to tell you this: shooting this video was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I think Elena feels the same. 🙂

We did about 20+ takes before we were finally happy with the end result.

And even after that it still looks kind of strange and weird and makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

But there’s one thing I’ve learnt about business in the past few years:

[clickToTweet tweet=”Magic things happen when you leave your comfort zone.” quote=”Magic things happen when you leave your comfort zone.”]

Yes, it looks and sounds weird, but for some reason I love this idea.

I love the idea of being able to meet and talk and see people of my industry without leaving my house or travelling.

Pardon my, French, but I think that #BlabbingTranslators have every chance of ending up being labeled as:

It’s original. It’s fresh. It’s different.

That’s why when I offered Lena to be a co-host she was super excited.

We did a couple of tests and I gotta tell you that it’s true. It is FUCKING AWESOME!

Here’s an example of one of our recent blabs (that one was in Russian language).

So, Lena and I figured, why not bring this to our English-speaking readers?

And, so we started working on designing a website, reaching out to people and making everything we can to make this idea come true.

After a couple months of careful planning we can finally unveil #BlabbingTranslators – the first live talk show about translation and translators.

Here’s an official website with more detailed information about the project: http://blabbingtranslators.com

By the way, I really encourage you to check it out and subscribe to our mailing list so you won’t miss a thing.

Basically, every Wednesday, starting on February 17 Elena and I will be inviting and interviewing interesting people from the world of translation.

We’ll talk about all sort of stuff, but the main idea is to give us an opportunity to network, share and find inspiration.

Think about it as a digital equivalent of going for a coffee with your best friend.

Only in this case your best friend also has the same profession as you do and understands you and your professional pains and challenges like no one else.

I firmly believe that this fun little project can bring a lot of value and we want you to be a part of this amazing experience.

You can go to our website and subscribe.

And of course you’ll be able to join us when we’re going live.

Blab.im offers some incredible tools for staying engaged: you can leave comments, share our blabs on Twitter and Facebook, ask questions and even call us .

So, what do you think?

Does the world need #BlabbingTranslators, do you believe in this project?

Let us know what you think in the comments and, please share this post, share the video and spread the word!

The more people know about it the more fun it will be when it goes live on February 17.

[clickToTweet tweet=”You got to see this! The first live talk show about translators: http://blabbingtranslators.com.” quote=”You got to see this! The first live talk show about translation and translators: http://blabbingtranslators.com”]