Bridging Cultures: How Theresa Slater Transformed Interpreting Services
Theresa Slater, the president of Empire Interpreting Services, shares her inspiring entrepreneurial journey in this podcast. She emphasizes the importance of resilience and determination, drawing on personal experiences that shaped her path from challenging beginnings to building a successful business with over 300 interpreters. Throughout the conversation, Theresa discusses the significance of trusting one's instincts and seizing opportunities, illustrating how a pivotal government contract transformed her company. She reflects on the challenges of navigating the interpreting industry and the value of providing quality services to the underserved Deaf community. Listeners are encouraged to recognize that success can take many forms, and with persistence and courage, anyone can overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.
Theresa Slater, the president and founder of Empire Interpreting Services, shares her remarkable entrepreneurial journey, highlighting resilience, instinct, and the importance of seizing opportunities. Slater's story is not just about building a successful business; it's a narrative of overcoming personal challenges, including her unconventional upbringing and the struggles of starting a business without traditional education. She reflects on pivotal moments, such as receiving encouragement from her father to pursue her dreams and how the advice, 'this too shall pass,' has guided her through tough times. Slater's insights on the imposter syndrome that many entrepreneurs face resonate deeply as she recounts how self-doubt and societal expectations initially hindered her path.
As the conversation progresses, Slater delves into the specifics of her business's growth, including the transition from sign language interpreting to offering a wide range of spoken language services. She emphasizes the significance of cultural understanding in business and how her journey in the interpreting world has shaped her perspective on communication and community. Slater also discusses the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and her determination to avoid layoffs, showcasing her commitment to her team and her business's values. Her candid reflections on personal sacrifices during this time reveal the difficult decisions entrepreneurs often face in the pursuit of stability and growth.
The episode culminates in a discussion about Slater's new book, 'The Language of an Interpreter's Entrepreneurial Journey,' an autobiography that aims to inspire others by detailing her life's lessons and the importance of trusting one's instincts. Listeners are left empowered, encouraged to embrace their unique journeys and understand that success can be defined in myriad ways, not just through business ownership. Slater's story serves as a beacon of hope for aspiring entrepreneurs, reinforcing that perseverance, adaptability, and a strong sense of purpose are key to navigating life and business.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Empire Interpreting Services
- American Express
Transcript
My guest today is Teresa Slater.
Host:She is the president of Empire Interpreting Services, which she founded in 20.
Host: In: Host:A speaker, author and advisor to new and entrepreneurs, Slater's love for business delves and drives her on her path.
Host:Her new book, the Language of an Interpreter's Entrepreneurial Journey is an autobiography on how to or how not to guide for entrepreneurs.
Host:Learn more by listening to this podcast today.
Host:We welcome her to the show.
Host:Well, Teresa, how are you doing?
Host:Welcome to the podcast today.
Teresa Slater:Good morning.
Teresa Slater:Thank you for inviting me.
Teresa Slater:I'm excited to be here.
Host:Oh, it's my pleasure.
Host:I'm looking forward to this conversation.
Host:What you do is rather interesting, so I'm sure my audience will, will gain a lot of insights from our conversation today.
Host:Hopefully, if not, well, just it'll be 30 minutes at the.
Host:No, I'm sure it'll be great.
Host:So I love to ask my guest this question.
Host:What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Teresa Slater:I think in life, the best piece of advice I've ever received was from my mother who used to always say, this too shall pass.
Host:Mm.
Host:I use that a lot when I was in school.
Teresa Slater:I think you need to know in life and in business that you get stuck in a situation that emotionally, mentally and physically, you have to put it in perspective that this too shall pass.
Host:Yes, it's come along quite, quite useful for me in my life.
Host:So especially during those very difficult times where it's like, this is the worst possible time of my life.
Host:And somebody always reminded me, this too shall pass.
Host:So I love that.
Host:I'm always curious about people like yourself who were successful and achieved a level of success.
Host:Who were some people in your life who served to either be an inspiration to you or a mentor for you along your journey?
Teresa Slater:Again, it would be a parent, definitely my dad.
Teresa Slater:When I was first contemplating opening a business or he was kind of pushing me, I said, you know, Dad, I left home at 15.
Teresa Slater:What do I know?
Teresa Slater:I have a kid who learned by street smarts.
Teresa Slater:Who am I to open a business?
Teresa Slater:People won't like me.
Teresa Slater:They're not going to like the competition.
Teresa Slater:And he said, stop.
Teresa Slater:Quit being a little girl about it and be a businesswoman.
Host:Oh, I love that.
Teresa Slater:And he said, you know, little girls want everyone to look like them.
Teresa Slater:They want to be patted on the head and told they're doing a good job or good thing.
Teresa Slater:You said business.
Teresa Slater:Women change the world.
Teresa Slater:Little girls don't.
Host:Ooh, I like that.
Host:Another great quote.
Teresa Slater:A family of quoters.
Host:There you go.
Host:Just like Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan, lots of quotes.
Teresa Slater:That's right.
Teresa Slater:That's right.
Host:You know, you mentioned starting a business.
Host:I'm curious for you, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early days of your business and how did you overcome them?
Teresa Slater:I think, you know, the whole imposter syndrome, it's a term that gets thrown around a lot.
Teresa Slater:But it was definitely true with me.
Teresa Slater:I didn't receive my education in a traditional way.
Teresa Slater:I was on my own as a teenager for many years.
Teresa Slater:I felt like the non traditional ways that I achieved my education and became an interpreter was not, you know, was it really good enough?
Teresa Slater:And then, you know, who was say that I could start a business?
Teresa Slater:So a lot of personal mental things and then there were things like getting startup money.
Teresa Slater:They wanted my husband and my husband at the time to come in and sign for thousand dollar loan.
Teresa Slater:It was.
Teresa Slater:Those are some of the things that like pushed me back and that were the real stumbling blocks.
Teresa Slater:And I think sometimes we get in our own way, in our own head about what we can and what we can't achieve.
Host:So as you face those obstacles, what, how did you overcome some of those?
Host:Because those are things that you have to find a way around or to navigate.
Host:How did you, especially with the loan thing, I mean, how did you.
Host:How'd that work out?
Teresa Slater:Well, actually I only needed $5,000 was all I wanted at the time.
Teresa Slater:American Express had sent me a little notice that they were giving out $5,000 lines of credits to new businesses.
Teresa Slater:And it was like a checkbook that they sent out.
Teresa Slater:I was like, I thought I had just arrived because I even had an American Express.
Teresa Slater:But now they were offering me startup.
Teresa Slater:So that's how the business.
Teresa Slater:And so in that sense, as far as what I physically needed to start the business.
Teresa Slater:And I started out of my home, that, that was the venue that I went to after the situation at the bank.
Teresa Slater:But I think it was.
Teresa Slater:I actually was exposed to sign language by, in my church by a pastor who was pastor for the deaf, the deaf people that came in one Sunday and they signed a song and I got very intrigued and very interested and I started taking sign language classes and eventually went to college to become a sign language interpreter.
Teresa Slater:But I always had it in the back of my mind that this is what I was destined to do, this is what I was supposed to do.
Teresa Slater:So it's a big responsibility and A privilege, but it's something that keeps pushing you forward.
Teresa Slater:Or at least it did me.
Host:I always have a special place in my heart for people who sign, because I met my wife when I was in seminary because she was taking sign language, and so that's how we actually met.
Host:So I always have a unique place in my heart for people who sign.
Teresa Slater:Yeah, it's a beautiful language.
Teresa Slater:It's hard not to fall in love with it.
Host:It is.
Host:And I also found that when I was going to seminary, they were the most welcoming group of people when I walked in.
Host:And it was just so nice because they just accepted you and weren't judgmental.
Host:So it was just neat to be in their midst.
Teresa Slater:It's interesting, you know, I've learned through my studies that entrance to different cultures starts with you learning or accepting their language.
Teresa Slater:And in the beginning, my business was just sign language interpreting, but now we offer over 200 spoken language interpreters, and it really runs across the board that that is an entrance to being accepted into someone's culture.
Teresa Slater:You know, you and I were talking in the beginning about me living in the middle of Philadelphia.
Teresa Slater:It's a different culture being in the city than it is in the suburbs.
Teresa Slater:And when I moved here, I learned it's a different language, it's different traditions, it's a different life.
Teresa Slater:And you have to become part of it and accept it in order to be accepted.
Host:Most definitely.
Host:And you have to.
Host:You have to learn the lingo.
Host:When I moved to Milwaukee, for example, I had to learn what a bubbler was.
Host:Had never heard of a bubbler, which is just a waterfall for those who are not from Milwaukee.
Host:But, yeah, you had to learn to fit in.
Host:You had to take the time to be curious and.
Host:And to be a detective, to figure out what is the culture around you, what's the pace around you, and how do you.
Host:How do you adapt it?
Host:I had to change sports teams.
Host:Has I couldn't walk around with my Steelers hat on in Philadelphia?
Host:Probably.
Teresa Slater:No.
Teresa Slater:When I moved here from New York, my son warned me, your Giants paraphernalia and all of your Yankees, you better keep it in the closet, because Philadelphians are serious.
Teresa Slater:So now I have my Eagles gear.
Host:There you go.
Host:Right.
Host:I love that.
Teresa Slater:And I know what.
Teresa Slater:I know what a genre is.
Teresa Slater:So, yeah, I've learned.
Teresa Slater:Learn to adapt.
Host:You learn to adapt.
Host:I'm curious.
Host:I really want to have you because you have a new book out.
Host:What inspired you to write the Language of Success and Interpreter's Entrepreneurial Journey?
Teresa Slater:You know, all my life I've had people say to me, after they get to know me a little bit, your life is so amazing, you should write a book.
Teresa Slater:And all my life I thought, my life is such a mess that these people want to rubberneck and find out how I got from A to B to Z.
Teresa Slater:So just because I have a different, different journey.
Teresa Slater:But when I moved to Philadelphia, I joined the Union League, which is a private, I think it's one of the biggest, oldest in the country.
Teresa Slater:And I joined a lot of the business clubs and at one of the business clubs, I was asked to speak.
Teresa Slater:They asked people to speak about their industry.
Teresa Slater:And for the first time ever, I really was honest about my background.
Teresa Slater:I guess it just gets to the age where like, they're going to love me or hate me, I'm not going to gloss over this, I'm going to tell the truth.
Teresa Slater:And the response was overwhelmingly supportive.
Teresa Slater:And in the audience, there was a book editor who came up to me and said, you should write a book.
Teresa Slater:And it's the first time I thought, well, maybe people aren't just wanting to see what a train wreck I was and that they actually would like to understand how I got from a 15 year old on her own to business owner.
Teresa Slater:So with her help over a couple of years, I wrote the book.
Host:Wow, that's so neat.
Host:I've written a book myself.
Host:I'm curious for you, what were some of the challenges you faced in writing this book and how did you overcome those?
Teresa Slater:I think the biggest challenge was I was not expecting the time that it would take to write a book.
Teresa Slater:And I love to write and I've written all my life.
Teresa Slater:My son writes books.
Teresa Slater:I had a grandmother who wrote, I'm like, okay, so every Saturday and Sunday I'll write for like six hours.
Teresa Slater:And I found out you just don't sit down and force yourself to write or be creative in that time block.
Teresa Slater:So that was a real struggle for me.
Teresa Slater:I found.
Teresa Slater:I don't know how you felt when you were writing, but I couldn't get more than three hours.
Teresa Slater:I was just, my brain was fried.
Host:You're right.
Host:I used to go to Starbucks and I would go, after I dropped my kid off at school, I'd get my favorite Starbucks drink, either pumpkin spice latte or cinnamon jolte latte.
Host:And I would put on my headphones and I would play the same song every single day.
Host:It was running on a loop, so I'd have to worry about singing it, but it blocked out everything else.
Host:And I would sit down and I would Try to knock out two and a half hours.
Host:And you're right, I'd walk away just completely exhausted for the rest of the day.
Teresa Slater: s and Apple playlist at least: Teresa Slater:Like you said, same thing over and over so that you can just keep writing.
Teresa Slater:It's, it's another interesting, interesting point you bring up about writing.
Teresa Slater:You can't put in like, you know, I run a lot and I can't put in my Run playlist or I can't put in something.
Teresa Slater:You've got to have that playlist that lets you still be creative and have that in the background.
Teresa Slater:So I'm interested.
Teresa Slater:What was your playlist or what was.
Teresa Slater:What did you listen to?
Host:So it's going to sound really crazy because it's probably.
Host:It was.
Host:I was writing a Christian book, but it was not a Christian song.
Host:So it was, it was a song by Chain Smokers and it just had, it just had a tune that was just repetitive and it just, I just played over and over again because I could ignore it.
Host:There weren't a lot of words to it that were meaningful.
Host:So I just, I just looped it over and over again and I could just sit down and didn't think about it.
Host:And it just blocked everything else out.
Host:So, yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was productive.
Host:It took me a while, but I got it done.
Host:And then it was like, then came the hard part of, I'm done with it now.
Host:I didn't trust it.
Host:It's like, do I really want to share this much and you allow autobiography about you?
Host:I was like, do I want to share this much about me?
Host:Do I want people knowing this story?
Host:Am I being too transparent?
Host:Am I not being transparent enough?
Host:You know, so all those questions run through your mind as you get a book out, especially when it has so much of you in it.
Teresa Slater:Yeah, it's.
Teresa Slater:It's such a great point because I felt like against my editor's advice, I felt like I had to start at 15.
Teresa Slater:That's where my journey started.
Teresa Slater:Because what happened, me being on my own in those teenage years and all those life of minimum wage jobs for so long is what really formed me and really built the business model that I use for my business today.
Teresa Slater:Needed to be told.
Teresa Slater:But then I found out afterwards, one of my fears came true.
Teresa Slater:And that is people know too much about you.
Host:Right.
Teresa Slater:And then you can sometimes you get some creepy things that are said to you.
Teresa Slater:Like, I read your book.
Host:Yeah.
Teresa Slater:And you're like, oh, God, what are they referring to what part of the book?
Host:Right, Exactly.
Host:So.
Host:No, that's.
Host:That's so key.
Host:You know, I looked at your book and I spent some time with it, and I.
Host:And I kind of ran across.
Host:There are some key themes and lessons in your book.
Host:I think the one.
Host:One that kind of sticks out to me right away was resilience and determination.
Host:You know, you talk about in your.
Host:In your journey from a challenging upbringing to building a successful business, you know, the importance of.
Host:You talk about resilience a lot.
Host:Kind of share with us a little bit of that key lesson you wanted to bring out in the book.
Teresa Slater:I think it kind of goes back to this too shall pass.
Teresa Slater:I've gone through things in my life now.
Teresa Slater:I've had journeys with cancer, I've had journeys with abuse, other things.
Teresa Slater:And people say, you know, how did you get through this?
Teresa Slater:Oh, you're so courageous.
Teresa Slater:You're so, you know, you're really not.
Teresa Slater:You put one foot in front of the other.
Teresa Slater:You don't have a choice.
Teresa Slater:I mean, I guess you could curl up and die, but I had my first child at 19, so I was a very young mother, and I had a child support.
Teresa Slater:And before that, I had to put food in my mouth and a roof over my head.
Teresa Slater:And my dad used to say, hunger is a great motivator.
Teresa Slater:And it is.
Teresa Slater:I mean, I think sometimes in life we take that away from our kids and our younger generation of that motivation of hunger.
Teresa Slater:And how are you going to feed yourself?
Teresa Slater:How are you going to pay your bills?
Teresa Slater:I think you just keep moving forward.
Teresa Slater:I don't know how else to describe it, except that I never knew that I had an option to just stop and give up.
Host:That makes sense.
Host:You also emphasize in your book the value of trusting your instincts and seizing opportunities.
Host:Tell us a little bit about that as a.
Host:Because I think what separates ordinary people, I would say, from entrepreneurs is that idea of intuition and opportunity.
Teresa Slater:I think you have to be very gutsy to seize opportunities sometimes.
Teresa Slater:Probably the biggest pivotal point in my business was when I bid on a large government contract and I actually didn't go after it.
Teresa Slater:I had someone call me and say, we've been using your services.
Teresa Slater:There's this big RFP out.
Teresa Slater:Why aren't you bidding on it?
Teresa Slater:We were hoping that you would bid on it, and it was due in three days.
Teresa Slater:I was like, on my computer as I'm talking to them, looking up rfp.
Teresa Slater:I had no idea what it even was.
Teresa Slater:I'm like, oh, I can do this.
Teresa Slater:Well, three days Later, I lived in my office for three days.
Teresa Slater:I had to call my accountant and attorney and insurance broker and get all the help I could.
Teresa Slater:But I put it out there, and it changed my life.
Teresa Slater:It changed my business, because I was awarded the contract.
Teresa Slater:And then I'm like, I can do this.
Teresa Slater:And then I've been on more and more contracts.
Teresa Slater:I was no longer this little business of just my bookkeeper.
Teresa Slater:I was hiring more and more people and growing.
Teresa Slater:So I think it becomes almost addictive.
Teresa Slater:You're like, okay, where's the next opportunity?
Teresa Slater:Is it over here?
Teresa Slater:Is it over here?
Teresa Slater:What am I going to do?
Teresa Slater:And I think listening to your gut is so important.
Teresa Slater:The times that I made huge mistakes in my personal and business life was when I didn't listen to my gut, I didn't listen to red flags.
Teresa Slater:Um, so I think that's one piece of advice I tell other entrepreneurs that are starting out when they say, you know, what can you tell me?
Teresa Slater:And, like, you've got to not care what other people think.
Teresa Slater:Number one, you've got to want to be respected.
Teresa Slater:Don't worry about being liked as much as being respected, and just trust your gut.
Host:I love this quote that's in your book.
Host:Success is not built on.
Host:Success is built on failure is built on frustration.
Host:Sometimes it's built on catastrophe.
Host:So how do you.
Host:How did you learn from struggles in your life and your business to kind of build on that to the next thing you're working on?
Teresa Slater:I'm sorry, could you say that last part again, Keith?
Host:How did you use the struggles that you ran across in business to empower you to.
Host:To the next.
Host:Next level?
Teresa Slater:Struggling through things like Covid comes to mind right away.
Teresa Slater:When Covid hit, I was determined that I was not going to lay people off.
Teresa Slater:And through that struggle, I had to give up some.
Teresa Slater:Some things that were really important to me.
Teresa Slater:And the one thing that I had was I had.
Teresa Slater:I had bought a small condo townhouse type thing in North Carolina near my son, his family there.
Teresa Slater:And it was really precious to me because it allowed me to be there with them.
Teresa Slater:But I had.
Teresa Slater:It was an asset.
Teresa Slater:I knew that if I sold that, I could get through at least a year of payroll.
Teresa Slater:And I did.
Teresa Slater:And it made me feel like a failure, honestly, because it made me feel like a failure to my family.
Teresa Slater:It made me feel like maybe I'd done the wrong thing and I should have just let people get unemployment trying to do the right thing.
Teresa Slater:That was, like, such a big struggle for me during that time.
Teresa Slater:And I had A lot of self doubt.
Teresa Slater:But on the other side of that, I found that I found I could look at myself in a mirror.
Teresa Slater:I felt better about the business.
Teresa Slater:My employees were incredibly loyal and stuck by me.
Teresa Slater:And ironically, you know, we can't look into the future.
Teresa Slater:Only God knows that.
Teresa Slater:But ironically, my son and daughter in law ended up moving into a better place, a lovely place.
Teresa Slater:They're still in North Carolina, but it kind of would.
Teresa Slater:I would have been selling it anyway.
Teresa Slater:So I think through struggles you learn sometimes the thing that you're struggling with the most and you feel the worst about it just turns out to be almost the moot point.
Host:I love that.
Host:What a neat story.
Host:What lessons do you hope readers take from picking up your book?
Teresa Slater:I hope that my number one hope is that they realize that when you start from minus zero, which is where I felt like I was started, that you can be successful and it doesn't have to mean you own a business and you have dozens of people working for you.
Teresa Slater:It doesn't.
Teresa Slater:It can be whatever success is to you, whether it's finding that great job, whether it's getting a college education or high school education, or finding that right partner in life, or finding what's truly meaningful and what your purpose is.
Host:I love that we all have our favorite parts of our, of our writing, of our books.
Host:So what's your favorite chapter or your favorite section of your book and why?
Teresa Slater:I think my favorite chapter in the book is when I interpreted for Marcus, who was a football player at a college.
Teresa Slater:It was a big phys.
Teresa Slater:It is a big phys ed college in upstate New York City, Cortland.
Teresa Slater:And I think it's my favorite because it was so much fun.
Teresa Slater:I literally cried when he left college because I just had so much fun and I learned.
Teresa Slater:So it was something so foreign and so different to me that when I got the call that you have a deaf football player and what interpret I was thinking, you know, interpret his classes.
Teresa Slater:But he was a starter.
Teresa Slater:He was an all American.
Teresa Slater:He had choices.
Teresa Slater:He could have been basketball, baseball or football.
Teresa Slater:And he chose football.
Teresa Slater:And it meant that he needed an interpreter for all his practices, all his workouts, all the reviews of the plays on the field, all the trips that they took.
Teresa Slater:I was there with him all the time.
Teresa Slater:And he was just funny, sweet, great kid and, and everybody loved him on the team.
Teresa Slater:And I learned so much about sports in general and I just gained this huge respect.
Teresa Slater:And they were wonderful to me.
Teresa Slater:They treated me so well.
Teresa Slater:I was the mother and wife who every time Football came on.
Teresa Slater:I was like, oh my God, please.
Teresa Slater:And I'd walk out of the room.
Teresa Slater:And then I became like, I literally took my son's third grade, like third grade library book about the basics of football.
Teresa Slater:I didn't know what a touchdown.
Teresa Slater:I knew a touchdown.
Teresa Slater:I don't think I knew what a field goal was, much less anything else.
Teresa Slater:And I was there front and center and learning and learning and learning about, about football.
Teresa Slater:And so that was a great few years.
Host:So now you can, you can tell us what a cover six is.
Teresa Slater:I can.
Host:That's so funny.
Teresa Slater:And I love, to this day, I love it.
Teresa Slater:And my sons are growing and I'm no longer married.
Teresa Slater:But I, I will go, I will go anywhere to sit with, watch football because I just, I, I just love it so much.
Teresa Slater:I don't even care who's playing it.
Teresa Slater:I mean, I love the Eagles now.
Host:But that's so good.
Host:So tell us what your, what's your personal goals going forward and you're in professionally, what do you.
Host:What's got coming up on the horizon?
Teresa Slater:Gosh, personally, I'm hoping that I can start working less and travel more.
Teresa Slater:That's something that I really wanted to do.
Teresa Slater:We just hired another staff to help take some of things up my plate.
Teresa Slater:I'm hoping to.
Teresa Slater:I ran my first and maybe last half marathon a couple years ago, but I love the progress or process of it.
Teresa Slater:And my son, my youngest son that lives here, he runs ultras, so he's very encouraging.
Teresa Slater:So I'm hoping to maybe someday net run maybe at least another half marathon and just kind of.
Teresa Slater:I love going to the gym and I love having that empowerment of being physically fit.
Teresa Slater:So that's important to me.
Teresa Slater:I want to spend definitely more time with my family.
Teresa Slater:And I think professionally, you know, I, I see a bright future for the language service providing industry.
Teresa Slater:I know a lot of people were like, oh, AI is coming.
Teresa Slater:It's going to take over.
Teresa Slater:But it is really enhanced what we do.
Teresa Slater:The more I learned about it and the more we use it, it really doesn't take away from what we do.
Teresa Slater:So I'm excited to see where that goes and just growing the business bigger and bigger and serving more and more, especially in the deaf community, as you were talking about, it's a very underserved community.
Teresa Slater:When the pastor for the deaf came to our church, one of the things that really struck me and is still true is that one of the places the ADHEs and there are over 25 million deaf people in the United States and that use sign language.
Teresa Slater:And very, very few, like, less than 2% of churches offer interpreters for them.
Teresa Slater:So that's also kind of something that's on my heart, and hopefully that changes.
Host:I.
Host:I'm curious.
Host:We have a deaf congregation here that's an older congregation, and they're struggling because they don't have young people coming to church.
Host:And they.
Host:They're like, they tell me that young people don't want.
Host:Don't want to associate with them.
Host:Are you seeing that there is a separation in age by maybe younger deaf versus older deaf, like in their 70s?
Teresa Slater:I think part of that's linguistic, actually, because older deaf are using more of a pure form of asl, where the younger kids have grown up with the Internet, they've been on the Internet, they tend to be more.
Teresa Slater:I don't want to say signed English, but more of a transliteration.
Teresa Slater:There's a difference between that peer asl, it's been used, and more of an English on the hands.
Teresa Slater:I don't.
Teresa Slater:As far as the church goes, though, I don't see a generational.
Teresa Slater:I see that the younger generation needs to be bought into the social aspect of church.
Teresa Slater:So not just having interpreters in front the platform on Sunday morning, but what about the youth groups?
Teresa Slater:What about the pickup basketball games?
Teresa Slater:What about the things that your youth leader is doing and making sure there's interpreters there for those things?
Teresa Slater:Another thing is transportation.
Teresa Slater:Economically, a deaf community has had a difficult time because of the language barrier.
Teresa Slater:And so I was in a deaf ministry where we constantly had buses going back and forth to pick kids up.
Teresa Slater:Sometimes they had to go an hour each way.
Teresa Slater:But where I was was pretty rural.
Teresa Slater:But I think bringing.
Teresa Slater:Bringing the kids in that way.
Host:That makes sense.
Host:Yeah, that's very good.
Host:So here's my other favorite question.
Host:Ask my guest.
Host:What do you want your legacy to be?
Teresa Slater:I want my legacy to be that I raised the bar for as far as my business.
Teresa Slater:I want it to be that I raise the bar for what interpreting services are.
Teresa Slater:And I think we really did that because in the beginning, interpreters weren't vetted very well.
Teresa Slater:And we make it very difficult for interpreters to become part of our roster.
Teresa Slater:We do background checks on people, everything from health screenings to making sure that they haven't committed a crime or they're not on the sex offender registry, that they've got the skill set and the formal education that they need.
Teresa Slater:And that forced my competitors to do the start to do the same because we were getting customers because of that vetting.
Teresa Slater:So I feel like we've raised the bar on the professionalism in the field and that the second thing is that I want my legacy to be that the people that work for me find that they had a better place to work, that I paid them better, that I let them have time off to be with their kids, that I made it a nicer working environment for them.
Host:That's really neat.
Host:Where can people find your book the Language of Success and Interpreters, Entrepreneurials Journey.
Teresa Slater:So you can find Contact Me.
Teresa Slater:Probably the best place is the website, which is empire interpreting.com the book is on Amazon.
Teresa Slater:It's also on the front page of the website, of course.
Teresa Slater:And then I'm on all the social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn is a great place to connect.
Host:Great.
Host:Anything you want to leave with the audience.
Host:Kind of.
Host:As a key takeaway from our conversation today.
Teresa Slater:It'S actually been a great conversation.
Teresa Slater:Thank you so much for making it so enjoyable.
Teresa Slater:I hope that the takeaway for people today is that regardless of what's put in front of you in life, it can climb over it.
Teresa Slater:There is another side to it, whether it's business or personal, and that they can be a success whatever their success is.
Host:Well, thank you for what you do.
Host:What you do is so valuable and so important to, you know, bridging a gap between sometimes very different worlds.
Host:I mean, when I work with the deaf community, they.
Host:They're very not trusting of hearing people and I think we probably give them reason to be suspicious.
Host:So I.
Host:I'm thankful for people like you who come and bridge that gap of communication between us.
Host:So blessings on your book and on your work and thank you for what you do and thank you for being a guest on the show.
Teresa Slater:Thank you, Keith.
Teresa Slater:Thank you so much for having me.
Teresa Slater:It was great.
