Linran YU
Partnerships Introductions that turn into meetings Marketing Websites, social, campaigns, events Interpreting English ⇄ Mandarin, in person Training Your team, taught to run it

Los Angeles, California

Notes from the work

Partnerships, marketing, interpreting. Notes from the work, newest first.

A fountain pen resting on a sheet of handwritten paper A Lock Is Not Loyalty A partnership held by a contract lasts as long as the contract. A partnership held by value lasts as long as the value. A black rotary telephone on a polished wooden table Every List Has a Bottom A list has a size. You find out by reaching the end of it. A row of wooden chairs lined up beside a window Good Friction, Bad Friction The best rule is the one nobody has to read. A card terminal with a long blank receipt curling out of it A Free Event Should Not Have a Payment Button When someone says yes to a free thing, let that yes finish before you ask for anything else. A wooden wall shelf holding a few small objects When Your Product Is the First Thing They Have Ever Sold A shop that has never sold anything does not need a pitch. It needs to know how this works. The bright concourse of a convention center before the doors open A Trade Show Is Three Weeks, Not Three Days The floor is where you meet people. The work is before and after. Bars of soap arranged by color on a shop shelf Before You Hire a Rep, Walk Into Three Stores Yourself The script you hand a rep has to come from somewhere. Two people at a pale table going through a printed document, pen in hand You Have to Be Able to Say It Out Loud A tool can write the analysis. It cannot answer the question that follows. A small gift wrapped in grey paper, tied with ribbon and dried flowers Buy the Best in a Small Category Your budget decides the category. It should not decide the tier. An empty meeting room with a long table and leather chairs, in daylight Assume You Are Understood In a room with two languages, more people understand than you think. A plain paper cup with a lid, alone on a white surface Hand It Over in a Cup The work is the coffee. How it reaches the client is the cup. A white round table with a chair on each side, facing each other Being Straight Is Also a Test What people do with your honesty tells you what kind of partner they will be. A sunlit white wall with an open doorway, its shutter folded back Don’t Intimidate Yourself The shop was never the barrier. A sheet of paper passed from one hand to another The Handover Point What it means to finish a piece of work, and how to tell when you have. Two people talking at a long pale table by a window At Some Point, Stop Interpreting A rehearsed introduction should be said by one person, not relayed by two. Five cards numbered one to five, in a row on a pale wall The Order Only Exists in Your Head Three options when work is not being done your way, and the one that is not an option. Two people at a pale table, one hand raised mid-sentence beside a cup A Business Grows at the Speed Its Owner Can Hear Why the same suggestion is adopted in one shop and resented in the next. A loupe, a pair of tweezers and a single green stone on a pale surface The Cost of Being Clever Five small maneuvers from one jeweler, and the customer they cost. A small bright shop: clothes on a rail, plants and daylight from the window It Costs Them Nothing What a free venue actually costs, and who quietly paid for it. Two glasses of water standing side by side on a table Everyone Has Read the Same Book Why negotiation tactics now tell the other side more about you than about the deal. Two house numbers side by side on a sunlit wall: an old carved 32 and a newer enamel 32 Someone Else Is Open at Your Old Address What happens when a domain lapses, and the one thing to do first. Two people facing each other across a small table by a bright window Talk to Them, Not to Me Where you look decides who the room thinks you are speaking to. A bright shop shelf: plain amber jars, small lamps and a trailing plant against a white wall Nobody Adopts What Cannot Be Bought Why the obvious customers turned down a good product, and what it took to fix it. A plain kraft cardboard box on a bright white surface A Small Yes Is Not an Opening What happens when a discount turns into a sales tactic. An open printed planner on a bright desk, its fields and columns laid out, with a pen and paper clips beside it The Details Are the Proposal Who brings what, who pays, what time you arrive, and why saying all of it in the first message is not pushy. A wooden abacus with colored beads on a white ground A Deal Nobody Can Count How to recognize a partnership worth turning down, and how to turn it down well. Bright shop shelving, boxed products in rows behind hand-written shelf labels The Shelf Is Still Your Job A shop can give you the space. Nothing in that says anybody is going to sell it. People browsing a small outdoor market stall in bright daylight The Advantage of Being Small How a two-person company gets a large organization to say yes. A sunlit street of small pastel shopfronts with plants along the doorways Who Is Standing Next to Your Customer The partners nobody in your category has thought to ask. A printed city map, districts and water drawn in different colors What an Interpreter Brings to the Room Notes, interruptions, and saying out loud that you got it wrong. A white rotary telephone on a pale marble surface The Partner Should Only Meet You Once What happens when two people from the same team call the same company. A shared lunch table seen from above, several people eating together The Most Dangerous Word in a Second Language Interpreting is not about words. It is about what the room believes when everyone stands up. Two pairs of hands holding cups across a white table Every Partnership Needs Two Reasons Yours is obvious to you. Theirs is the one you have to find, and it is often not a trade at all. One person handing a sheet of paper to another in front of a bright window A No That Comes With a Name The most useful reply to an outreach message is often a referral. A no with a name attached is not a rejection — it is a shortcut given to you by someone who knows the terrain. A bright room of chairs and plants, set up and waiting for people to arrive The Room Is the Campaign Two ways to run an event in person, and what makes either one work. An in-person event gives you what no ad can: for a few minutes you have someone’s whole attention. A flower shop front in daylight, plants spilling out around the open door The Photos on Your Website Tell People the Date A visitor lands on your site in December and the banner is a summer picnic. Nothing is wrong with the photograph — but it has already said something: nobody has been here in a while. Two front doors side by side on the same building, one black and one wood Segmenting a Market Starts With Why People Buy Most businesses have two or three customers, and one offer cannot reach all of them. Segmentation is usually taught as age, income and zip code — for a small business that is the least useful cut. A hand writing in a notebook with a red pencil in bright daylight A Blog Is the Inside Knowledge You Choose to Share Every business owner carries knowledge that took years to earn, and almost none of it is written down. A blog is where that knowledge stops disappearing and starts reaching the people who would buy from you. A small kraft gift box passing from one pair of hands to another How to Choose a Prize A prize does several jobs at once. It decides how many people enter, it tells everyone what your product is worth, and it decides who comes through the door. Instant photo prints spread out on a bright white surface How to Run an Online Contest What to ask for, what to give away, and what to do when it ends. Most contests put every ounce of thought into the prize and none into the entry form — and the entry step is the only part that reaches anyone who is not already following you. A hand holding a fistful of orange raffle tickets Everybody Wins a Prize Some raffles create one happy person and a hundred quiet disappointments, and that feeling sticks to the brand that ran it. Here is a different design: everyone wins, and the spin only decides which prize you get. Three blank yellow sticky notes on a white wall You Win the Answers A raffle where everyone wins costs you a box of small gifts. What it buys is the kind of customer survey a company would otherwise hire a research firm to run. Two hands photographing a cup of coffee with a phone on a bright table Which Social Media Platform Actually Fits Your Business You don't need to be everywhere. One platform done well beats five done tiredly — here is how to pick the one. Two armchairs and a small table in a quiet room full of afternoon sunlight From a name on a list to a meeting on the calendar A partnership starts as a name. The distance between that name and a meeting on the calendar is where the work happens, and almost none of it is charm. An open notebook and pencil on a light desk What changes when the interpreter sits beside you A booth is for conferences. For a negotiation, a factory floor or a parent meeting, sitting at the table is the job.