John Corcoran: 12:30
So I would.
Alexandra Kaplan: 12:31
With my kids. So that was a trade off that I wasn’t willing to commit to.
John Corcoran: 12:36
Yeah, yeah. You realize these things often after you get into them, don’t you? You know, like. Wait a second. The peak time is like 4 to 8 pm. It’s when my kids are off from school. I need to not be working then.
Alexandra Kaplan: 12:49
Exactly. You need it. You need a life-work balance. And at that moment, you’re really raising your kids. They’re really little.
They’re wondering, where is mommy? Why is she helping me with my bath or my dinner? So I was like, this is not I don’t want this. I don’t want to. I wasn’t used to babysitters when I was young, you know, even though I live in Venezuela and we had a housekeeper full time, as everybody else had more.
My parents were doctors that were almost never there. I needed a housekeeper, but I wasn’t used to nannies. So I was like, I don’t think that’s something that I want to do. So my husband works in the courthouses, right? And he said, why don’t you apply to be a court certified interpreter?
I’ve met them. They’re social, they’re outgoing, they’re Latin, they’re chatty all day long. You know, you can only interpret for 20 minutes and go back to this back room. Do whatever you want, your business, whatever ideas you want. I was like, wow, that seems so nice.
John Corcoran: 13:43
And you have.
Alexandra Kaplan: 13:44
Vacation time, and we can split the benefits. So it sounded perfect.
John Corcoran: 13:48
It is better. Yeah. I’ve been in courthouses before where there’ve been interpreters. They do. They come in 15, 20 minutes and then they’re gone. They can go hang out. They wait.
John Corcoran: 13:57
Yeah. And then I was like thinking, yes, but what if there’s a murder trial, can I or a rape case, like, can I actually interpret then this is it’s going to affect me anyways. But I was like I’ll figure it out later. Like maybe I can ask an interpreter, hey, can we switch? Like I can do that easily. You never know. Anyways, I decided to do it, you know, very impulsively. Like. Yeah, sure. Like apply. And it was fascinating.
After that, I met a friend and she’s like, why don’t you, if you want to start, you know, not as a court interpreter, but if you want to start as an interpreter here, just apply to this, you know, company. I applied not knowing almost anything. Like I was like, let me just apply and show up and how can I help you? It was actually in a hospital and it was an injured worker. They didn’t need a certified interpreter, which they should have, but there was a qualified interpreter, which I was like, just not much experience just going to school, taking courses.
And it was fascinating to me that I was helping this individual who just had an accident, a terrible act, not just he had an accident, which is terrible at the workplace, and he needed somebody to convey his ideas, feelings and all of that. And I was thinking, wow, the doctor is getting it from me. It’s not getting it from him. Like how exact I have to be, how accurate and how I cannot miss anything because it could impact him so much. It’s his case.
Alexandra Kaplan: 15:19
And then I just became fascinated to follow all his cases. So then the workers come. This was a worker’s comp. So a worker’s comp, a nurse case manager, is the one that will direct the injured worker to the different or make the appointments. Right.
Like where should you go to see a surgeon, a plastic surgeon? Or should you go to therapy or rehab, whatever it is. So, you know, we would get along and she would see my work and she would be like, hey, can I get you to come to every single of his appointments? I was like, yes, I would love that. I would love, love to hear what doctors have to say.
And I would go to UCI and I would go to Children’s Hospital and I would go to UCLA, like all the big hospitals, big, big doctors, you know, for years experience and me just knowing all the information, you know, we know the case and we know the diagnosis and the follow up. It just seemed fascinating to me.
John Corcoran: 16:12
And how did you make this shift from interpreting yourself to starting to hire other people and shifting the work off of your plate to others? Because that’s not an easy one. A lot of people struggle with that.
Alexandra Kaplan: 16:25
Right? So I wasn’t thinking about anything, to be honest with you. I just wanted more. I wanted more knowledge. I wanted more experience.
I wanted to get out there and just go to all these doctors. At one time, I went to a very fascinating appointment where somebody crossed his fingers. So they were trying to see how they would transplant his toes to his fingers.
John Corcoran: 16:48
I was like.
Alexandra Kaplan: 16:50
Yeah, but still, it’s fascinating that that’s a possibility.
John Corcoran: 16:54
Wow. And this is the one.
Alexandra Kaplan: 16:57
Doctor that can do it here. So can you imagine having that opportunity to experience that anyways? So that nurse case manager I think she was impressed, you know, that, you know whatever. Like I was kind and I really cared too you know to stay even longer to talk about the appointment really afterwards when we head out. So she asked me, she said, do you happen to have any Japanese interpreter?
I actually need it for like two weeks. Like in two days, like, is that possible? Or I should have called the company who hired you because I didn’t have, I mean, I was the sole proprietor. I had my own company name, but it wasn’t who was providing the assignments. So I said, let me try, let me try.
So I just, you know, I said, yes, yes, I can. And I started to text everyone and find. So I found her one and she was very impressed. She’s like, you got a very good Japanese interpreter. I was like, okay, I guess I can do this.
And after her, she told other nurse case managers. So they were contacting me saying, do you happen to have an order? Do you happen to have Spanish? But of course. And it’s just like me literally on the iPhone just running my business.
And then I was like, but wait, I need to also go to these other cases. So I would tell the nurse case manager, hey, I can do some, but not all. Oh, it’s okay, just send somebody. Alex. So that’s how it started.
John Corcoran: 18:16
So you just gradually, bit by bit, manage your own caseload while also getting these other referrals and referring them to other interpreters.
Alexandra Kaplan: 18:25
Yeah, correct. so at what point I would just see like I cannot be interpreting and I really have to focus and be present and worry about another interpreter that possibly is late. Like, I cannot do that.
John Corcoran: 18:38
Were you there for a moment? Was there a point where you realized, I can’t do this myself anymore, and I need to just do it full time or I can’t interpret myself anymore. I need to just be working on the business myself.
Alexandra Kaplan: 18:52
Yeah, definitely. So I was at an appointment waiting for the doctor to come in. So we were just like the patient, and I kind of like the door open waiting. And I just see messages and messages and messages and I’m like, what is going on? I was like, oh, excuse me, because still the doctor wasn’t there. So I was talking and the interpreter was late and the company was complaining. I was like, this is it, this is it. I literally like answering them.
John Corcoran: 19:19
Phone costs you more money by doing the interpreting work and missing the other opportunities.
Alexandra Kaplan: 19:25
And reputation like it was my reputation. Like what? I can’t. I should answer the phone or somebody should answer the phone and this should be solved. If it is not this interpreter or somebody else has to cover. Like it cannot be somebody going to miss their appointment because of one interpreter that anything can happen, right?
John Corcoran: 19:40
Right.
Alexandra Kaplan: 19:40
Traffic accident. You know somebody, he hit somebody or crashed somebody. Anyways, so I decided to hire someone, which, you know, it’s not easy. Like trying different people, like who can assist me and who can help me. And then after that, after training people, I said, you know what, I should hire more. So I was stepping out of the medical interpretation and more into the court one, but I would have somebody answering my phone calls and scheduling appointments and I felt more at ease.
John Corcoran: 20:14
Yeah. So basically hiring someone to schedule these different appointments and kind of like keep track of all the different interpreters and the clients and things like that.
Alexandra Kaplan: 20:21
Right. Because it’s not easy. Like you said before, they’re freelancers.
Alexandra Kaplan: 20:25
Yeah. So everybody has their own schedule. Everybody’s like they’re their own company. So yes, they do care to have a good reputation. But not everyone is like that.
John Corcoran: 20:32
So yeah.
Alexandra Kaplan: 20:33
Have to really weed through, you know, all the good interpreters, bad interpreters, even though when you know that they’re referred, sometimes they, you.
John Corcoran: 20:41
Know. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 20:42
Like, do you have any tips or tricks for how to determine if someone’s going to be dependable and reliable when you are counting on them?
Alexandra Kaplan: 20:52
I would for sure, because I am an interpreter and I have a community of interpreters. I do ask around, you know, and I am part of many groups on Facebook, LinkedIn. So you, you, you know, you would.
John Corcoran: 21:05
Ask around.
Alexandra Kaplan: 21:05
You ask around.
John Corcoran: 21:07
And
Alexandra Kaplan: 21:07
You see their comments and you see how on point they are and you see how much they care, not bash other ones. You see how they, you know, they’re another league. They’re not the same as everybody bashing everything and everyone and being negative. So I just ask, yeah, I ask around.
John Corcoran: 21:23
And so You start staffing these up, you start hiring other people. Oh, I know what I was going to ask you about how you mentioned a Japanese interpreter. I assume you don’t speak Japanese. How do you ensure quality and with your reputation on the line in providing interpreting services for languages where you don’t even speak the language? Like how do you ensure that accuracy?
How do you ensure that? I mean, you can ensure that they’re punctual and on time, but, you know, how do you, as a business owner, oversee that process when someone else is interpreting a language that you don’t speak?
Alexandra Kaplan: 21:59
So we do require them to be certified, which means they’re already trained. They’re already doing continued education every year. We also ask them for their resume. Right. We ask them for all the documents, the necessary documents that they’re part of the United States.
So you know that they’re legal and you ask around to you ask around and you say, hey, have you heard about this interpreter? Yes, I was doing some simultaneous interpreting with him his grade or somebody would say, no, he’s not professional. He’s always late. It’s basically, you know, finding out through all your community how this person is. If you really want to match it with a great client of yours, you have to be very careful. And you also have an intake with him and with the, you know, with the interpreter, either female or male. You, you know, you have a conversation and say, hey, this is what I’m expecting.
John Corcoran: 22:55
Yeah. How as you built this team, this community of like, interpreters who are all, by the way, they’re not under one roof. They’re going to different assignments, going to court, going to, you know, hospitals. What have been some of the challenges around building, you know, a community, a culture keeping all these different interpreters happy, happy. How did you manage all that?
Alexandra Kaplan: 23:20
It is tough because as you said, not only you have to keep them happy and have a relationship with them, but also you have to have a relationship with the nurse case managers and with the attorneys and with the VP’s and CEO’s of different organizations, or somebody who’s from a school. Right. Because we also do, we also send interpreters or somebody from the city hall. So you have to keep both parties happy. And it’s challenging.
It’s very challenging. But we try to always remain professional at all times. Like if you know how humans are humans and one day they will be in a bad mood and they would be like, what’s going on? You sent me to two different assignments. Well, yes, you should look at your schedule.
I mean, you saw one is at two, one is at six. Hey, it’s also for you to do, you know, ways and see how long it’s going to take from 1 to 1. Yeah. Like, sometimes it’s interesting because they’re humans, but they also, like you said, they’re freelancers or companies. They should notice.
Right. Well but one was three hours. So at times there’s challenging events that occur that, hey, this is you said that it was two hours and it’s going past two hours. Simply, a phone call will help you tell us. We talk to our client and we say, hey, you only reserved two hours.
This is a problem. He has to head to another one. So we try to always be very extremely professional in understanding both. Never get upset that I tell that to my staff. We’re always going to, you know, be on good terms with everyone no matter what, almost no matter what.
Sometimes it’s hard. You do delineate at times you have boundaries, obviously. Like if an interpreter says, you know, on the contract it says 20 miles, I would pay 20 miles only. And the interpreter is like, well, but I was at my grandma’s house in Riverside and it actually was 50 miles, so you should pay me 50. Okay.
The contract says 20. So you know that at that moment you have to go and direct them to what were the terms and conditions that you had at the beginning. So once that there’s that understanding and they know that they’re going to get paid on time, which we always do, that they know that we’re, you know, we’re serious about their job, and we value them. I think that’s just the word value. When you value somebody else’s time and expertise, I think they start, you know, looking up to you and knowing that you’re reputable.
John Corcoran: 25:34
Yeah. Take me back to March of 2020. Covid hits. And you at this point are doing work in courthouses, which many courthouses shut down or went to zoom. And then hospitals, of course, went crazy in a different direction. What was that like for you? What was going through your mind in the early weeks of that experience?
Alexandra Kaplan: 25:55
Yeah, that was a very tough time because a lot of interpreters would say, I’m not going. And, you know, you start getting messages. I’m staying at home. I am very scared. But I would still get messages from companies saying, we need an interpreter for the E.R., we need an interpreter for the ICU.
We need somebody who’s an injured worker every five weeks. They have to go back to their follow up doctor or the primary doctor. So yeah, nobody told them, hey, it’s Covid, you don’t have to. Nobody said that. So they still have to go.
And a lot of doctors still were working through this. Courthouses. Yeah. There was one time. And you remember that period of time that nothing was happening.
But then everything was remote. So there was a challenge of how do we teach our own interpreters how to connect remotely? Me, I can just watch videos and just start doing it, but I’m not them. They have fear. So we had to get on the phone and say this, you know, pretend that we were doing an interpretation and this is how you do it.
You switch this button, you switch the other one, you know, on mute, mute. Believe it or not, we had to go through the, you know, those basics.
John Corcoran: 27:03
Of teaching. Then how to use zoom basically, right? Yeah.
Alexandra Kaplan: 27:05
Because a lot of them were like, I am not doing it. I am not. I don’t know how to interpret on the phone when some of them are not. Some of them didn’t want to do it. Some of them had losses, you know that or people in the hospital. So I was pretty much operating myself, to be honest with you.
Me? And like very few interpreters who were agreeing to go. And I, myself, didn’t have so much fear. Obviously, I don’t want to be contagious, but I was like, look, there’s stuff I start wearing all the protective equipment, and that’s all I can do. You know, the best face mask, the best, the best gloves. You know how you remember.
John Corcoran: 27:38
So at that point, had you stepped out of interpreting and you had to step back into interpreting?
Alexandra Kaplan: 27:45
Yeah, that’s a good point. Yes. At that point I was like, okay, no time to think about being the CEO. I am now back in the field and I’m back in. I’m back there helping. I really felt that I was one of those important members of the medical team.
Like, if I’m not there, who’s going to do it? People weren’t going to Santa Barbara. I was heading to Santa Barbara from LA. I was heading to Palm Springs. Riverside. I was doing it all because I felt if nobody’s doing it, who’s doing it?
John Corcoran: 28:13
Yeah.
Alexandra Kaplan: 28:14
So I decided to do that. And then possibly I can’t remember the exact time, but 2 or 3 months. Then when the courthouses decide to do hearings remotely, I’ll figure it out. I said, I’m going to figure it out. And that’s when I taught my staff. But it was, yeah, challenging as it was for everyone. But we continue. We never stop, not even once.
John Corcoran: 28:34
So so, you know, of course, the Covid pandemic kind of started in Seattle. Then it was in the Bay area and then New York and LA and everything. Was your family scared at all for you? As you know, in the first couple of months of the pandemic, as you were going from hospital to hospital, even if you were wearing, you know, PPE?
Alexandra Kaplan: 28:55
I don’t think so. I don’t think my husband, my husband was, believe it or not, a lot of people in court, they kept on going. And that was one my husband made for a very, very few days. He did not go somewhere. He was like, oh, we’re all here. He was wearing everything too. So he’s going to lock up. Like, what more germs you can find.
John Corcoran: 29:14
In the bathroom.
Alexandra Kaplan: 29:15
So. And my dad is a doctor, he would do almost anything to get out there. So I just felt that it was very important for me to show up. I turned that off of the contagious part. I mean, I don’t want to say it too loud, but I haven’t gotten Covid yet, so.
John Corcoran: 29:30
Wow, that’s impressive then. And how long did it take for your team, the translators, to start coming back?
Alexandra Kaplan: 29:38
A long time.
John Corcoran: 29:39
A long time.
Alexandra Kaplan: 29:41
Six, seven, eight months.
John Corcoran: 29:42
Nine months.
Alexandra Kaplan: 29:43
I was getting a little bit more and more and more. A lot of them. I mean, it was so sad. One day there was one interpreter of mine that we used to text all the time. I think she’s from Santa Barbara, and she wasn’t answering me. And then her daughter, her daughter answered me and she says she’s no longer alive. She likes it.
John Corcoran: 30:01
Had.
Alexandra Kaplan: 30:01
Covid. That was one of the saddest moments because.
John Corcoran: 30:04
I was like, wow.
Alexandra Kaplan: 30:05
Yeah. Because everything was done through text or calls.
John Corcoran: 30:07
Yeah. You know.
Alexandra Kaplan: 30:08
More texts than anything. So to receive that was very hard for me. But yeah, interpreters starting, you know, slowly to do it and then. No way. There’s something in workers comp called settlement documents that after like the period of time they’re offered a settlement.
Right. It could be two different types of settlement, but we have to go in person with them and review the documents, like site translation. Right. Did you read it? And they kept on coming, and nobody wanted to go.
I mean, those are for court interpreters. And I’ll be like, I’m going. But yeah, it was hard. Like, I was going to go, I wasn’t going to go inside of somebody’s house not knowing how, you know, how they clean it and sterilize it. So I’m more comfortable outdoors.
So I’ll be like, can we do it outdoors? Can we do it, you know, more than six feet away? And obviously I would make sure not to shake hands or the pen. Remember only your pen. Yeah, but it’s still it’s still a hard time, but we survived.
John Corcoran: 31:09
I wanted to ask you about, you know, during this period of time. So you kind of get the, the, the company is kind of up and, and you kind of get, get the, the translators are coming back into the business. And then 2022, I believe it was the end of 2022 when ChatGPT came out. And we have AI and stuff like that. What are your thoughts on new technologies? Do you see that as a threat to your industry? Does it worry you?
Alexandra Kaplan: 31:39
It doesn’t worry me. I mean, it has come up in so many of, you know, EO talks or my forum talking about it. It doesn’t worry me yet, right? Obviously I do both interpretation and translation. I could see it more on the translation side, but not on the interpretation which is oral, right?
It’s like my husband says, like the day that you will be replaced, I will be replaced. The judge will be replaced. The bailiff will be replaced. I mean, nobody’s going to be there. Like we’re all going to be I if I’m going.
John Corcoran: 32:15
To replace.
Alexandra Kaplan: 32:16
Trust me, I’m an attorney also.
John Corcoran: 32:18
So yeah.
Alexandra Kaplan: 32:19
I feel that with medical and legal issues there’s still that component of let’s have a human interpreter here. We still care about the translation part. It could be that if immigration doesn’t request certified documents, it could be that people just, you know, believe that they’re bilingual by doing Duolingo and just yeah, using Google Translate, which is a danger. But as we know, it’s not perfect. And there’s still a human reviewing it.
And it’s the same as attorneys. You’re not going to draft a contract and say, hey attorney, can you just read it over? Just tell me that it’s no, the attorney wants to draft it themselves. The same with the translator. I don’t want your project.
I want to start from scratch and know that it has my signature, right? I’m an artist, so if it is in ten years, if it is in 15 years, we’ll see. But as of now, we still need that human translator or human component. You know, that we need to be there for the nuances, for the idiomatic expressions, for the some people slur words, some people talk really fast. So, you know, there’s still that glitch.
John Corcoran: 33:29
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, this has been great. Alexandra, I want to wrap up with the last question that I was asked, which is my gratitude question. I’m a big fan of practicing gratitude and also giving my guests a little bit of a space here at the end, here to acknowledge any peers, contemporaries, mentors who’ve helped you in your journey. Who would you want to acknowledge?
Alexandra Kaplan: 33:50
So I have my, my, the members of my forum from the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, which is called EO. That’s how we know each other. They’ve been really solid and supportive, been there for three years and critical three years. You know, when you scale it, it takes on a different level of effort. Right.
So there also I’ve gotten mentors through EO. So that’s Josh. Right now Josh Levine and I also have Frank Nesenoff who’s another one of my mentors. And you know, I use a lot of the tax money and I use a lot of SBDC. Nobody knows.
You should know, you’re an entrepreneur. You should go to SBDC or also score. So those are organizations that are free to use free help. I also took a Goldman Sachs course on 10,000 small businesses. Great that anybody should know about that.
John Corcoran: 34:47
And then my business partner Jeremy did it. Yeah it’s a great program.
Alexandra Kaplan: 34:51
It’s a great program. Well, I also took the Latin Business Action Network, the one from Stanford.
John Corcoran: 34:56
It’s also a great resource.
Alexandra Kaplan: 34:58
So I’m very, very grateful that I got myself to, you know, to be signed up and finish those courses.
John Corcoran: 35:05
Yeah. You are a true grad student, as they say.
Alexandra Kaplan: 35:08
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 35:09
Not a graduate student. A graduate. Keep on doing it. Keep on doing.
Alexandra Kaplan: 35:12
It.
John Corcoran: 35:12
I am too. Guilty as charged. I’ve done all kinds of programs as well.
Alexandra Kaplan: 35:15
So that’s how we got to do it. That’s how we grow. I don’t know, you gotta.
John Corcoran: 35:19
You gotta remain. You gotta remain top of your game. And you gotta constantly be educating yourself and learning new, new things. So I think that’s great. Yeah. It’s true. Alexander, where can people go to learn more about you and connect with you?
Alexandra Kaplan: 35:32
Yes. So they can go to our website, w-w-w.Kaplan with a K. kaplaninterpreting.com. And we are on Instagram, TikTok , and LinkedIn. And that’s it.
John Corcoran: 35:45
Awesome. Awesome. Thanks so much.
Alexandra Kaplan: 35:46
Thank you, John.
Outro: 35:50
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.