We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fabiana Elisa Martínez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fabiana Elisa below.

Fabiana Elisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

My parents taught me even before I was able to articulate words that every action implies a consequence and that our behavior can modify the world dramatically. In their innate wisdom, of which they possibly were not aware, they were strict but let me be free. They let me learn from my mistakes, they showed me the importance of being patient and consistent, and the immense value of delaying an immediate pleasure and waiting for a greater reward. They were not controlling at all about what books I read. They understood the true depth of the fact that when a child is mesmerized by a book, it is because he or she is ready to process its message. My parents taught me words in many languages and emphasized the relativity of geographical boundaries. They showed me that being alone did not mean being lonely and that following the herd was not mandatory and most of the time not advisable. They taught me that parents are not perfect, but love and gratitude are.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From a very young age, I was fascinated by languages. I grew up in a bilingual family, Spanish at home and Galician at my grandparents’ house. but wasn’t conscious of that fact until I was around six years old. I started learning English in kindergarten. I cannot remember a day in which I didn’t try to understand the world through words and eventually literature. I was fortunate to follow my passion in college, I got a degree in Linguistics and World Literature. And then, the first miracle happened because one of my Ancient Greek professors invited me to join a language school she was founding. Who could think that translating Homer and Plato would lead me to become a language teacher for the ex-pats that were coming to a booming economy in Argentina in the 90s? That is how I met my first American friends and started working with them, first as their Spanish teacher and, later, as a friend. I developed my own teaching method, based on all those hours spent in college understanding the difficulties and the immense beauty of Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, the promising Argentinean economy of the 90s turned into a chaotic debacle at the end of 2001. We lost two-thirds of all our savings and couldn’t take the rest from the banks. What remained of our money suffered the impact of a deep devaluation over the beginning of 2002.

At that point, my whole family, parents, brother, and grandparents, decided to move to Spain. I could have done the same, I had all my papers to move to Europe without a problem. Nevertheless, I was in love with the American way of thinking, and I felt like an American in my heart. So, thanks to the immense generosity of one of my former students who had lived in Argentina and had mastered my language, I came to Dallas. My friend offered me the legal and living advice I needed to come to America and bring my language company. I started my life in Dallas with three suitcases, a desktop computer, and a company on paper that had to produce income immediately. When people express doubts about the American dream, I become very adamant: I am a speck of the American dream and an example of the opportunities America has to offer to all its immigrants.

At the end of 2002 Talk-Active LLC, my language service company, was officially born in America. It grew slowly but steadily. My first clients were individuals who wanted to learn Spanish or improve their level of the language either for work or personal reasons. Since then, I have been teaching professionals in need of language instruction mainly for business reasons. Among my students are lawyers, doctors, health care professionals, business owners, college professors, and real estate developers. I also taught a class at SMU for bilingual teachers and a class at UT Arlington for bilingual students, these positions would not have been offered to me if both universities had not worked with Talk-Active before.

Not long after my arrival, I also started working with a new museum that opened its doors in February 2003, The Madi Museum of Geometric Art, for which Talk-Active provided translation and interpretation services in Spanish, French, and Italian. This experience opened the door for many other fruitful relationships with museums and art institutions.

We presently offer language classes but also quality translation work for companies and many core institutions in Dallas and around the country. We are very proud of having helped many museums and art venues to offer bilingual materials to their visitors, from the DMA to the Meadows, to the Holocaust Museum. At this moment, the epitome of my professional life as an interpreter has been assisting President George W. Bush and Laura Bush during the first years of the Bush Center. I became the interpreter of the man who was the President when I arrived in Dallas with my three suitcases, no money, and a dream. This is why I love this country and every person who helped me get to where I am.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

There are multiple elements and a hint of mystery that conform to the success of a business. Among those elements is, without doubt, a conviction that all clients deserve only the best possible product. Whether a client needs a short translation for a personal project or a full brochure that thousands of people will read, our translation should be of the utmost quality. All clients also deserve respect. A service company like Talk-Active shows that respect by delivering lessons, translation, interpretation, or voice-over services in a timely and efficient manner. Fulfilling all promises made to a client and creating a sense of trust and reliability are seals of confidence very difficult to break. Happy clients bring more clients and satisfied students show their success as they work and encourage new students to start their postponed dreams. Every company or cultural institution that receives a product from us that creates even more value for their own clients or visitors, becomes a loyal friend that will refer others to us. Word of mouth is a magical powder trail that once ignited can bring immense success, but before that, we have to create or teach the words that will ignite that fuse.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I remember my first months in Dallas, not a lot of money (very little by the way), and only one busy friend who did his best but was attending to his own new business. I remember having to take every single step of my new life in a second language and making a company work. Some people assert that entrepreneurs are brave. Sometimes the real strength comes from the fact that there are not many options, and the determination that failure is definitely not one of them. Every success that I achieved through my company and personally felt huge in those first months in America, from opening a business bank account to renting my first apartment. But I also remember how generous people in Dallas were, how they accepted me with open arms. People here care about what you can offer, how hard you can work, and how committed you are. Once they trust a company, once you prove to them that your business means to deliver what it promotes, Texans are the most generous people on this planet. I was concerned in the beginning about having an accent, about not speaking English absolutely perfectly. Then I realized, it is not about how close to perfection you might be, it is about how much you and your business want to take responsibility and contribute to a better society. This is the beauty of America, you do your best and you are part of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.talk-activellc.com
• Instagram: @fabielisam – @12randomwords – @spanish360withfabiana
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkactivellc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabiana-elisa-mart%C3%ADnez-1461a8a2/
• Twitter: @FabielisaAuthor @spanish360withfabiana

Image Credits
Main picture credit: Kris Hundt Picture showing two books on couch: April Barnes Picture with Presiden Bush: Grant Miller All other pictures: Fabiana Martínez