How I Make $9K/Month Teaching Languages To NBA And Premier League Players
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hi! My name is Eva Rosales and I am the Founder of Hyperfluent, which I started 11 years ago. Hyperfluent’s fueling engine is a language learning through passion. By empowering people to build cultural ties with others and an appreciation for cultural diversity, my clients learn that a language is not just learning rules or focusing on grammar but rather a way to create a lifestyle without land or country boundaries.
With Hyperfluent, I focus primarily on language acquisition via personalized consultations in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish.
The range of services in Hyperfluent’s one-stop shop includes tutoring services to get prepared to take international tests such as the TESOL, IELTS, Cambridge, ACT, DALF/DELF, AP, CELI/CELTS in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, medical interpretation and interpretation in the microfinance and humanitarian assistance sectors, as well as translation of printed materials like document and media translation, including but not limited to documentaries, subtitling, brochures, manuals, websites, labels, books, videos, subtitles, and graphic novels.
One of the most popular and beloved services is providing customers, who have to move abroad their job, sessions in the language of their choice as well as security consultations.
This training includes not only what to do when you arrive in a country in terms of documentation in another language but also how to navigate the tedious process of applying for residency in countries such as Germany and Spain. Furthermore, this also encompasses consultations that facilitate learning about cultural differences in body language, clothing, or etiquette in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
This service is extremely popular with NBA players and European, South American, and Asian Premier League soccer players who have and continue to request language training to help them with media coverage and press release conferences. Additionally, Hyperfluent offers curated 1-2 week Immersive Summer Programs to Italy such as its “Mommy and I go to Sicily” – “Mamma vado in Sicilia” and bilingual course immersion sessions to develop bilingual fluency through singing and cooking activities for adults and children.
Last but not least, Hyperfluent offers international organizations, non-profits, universities, travelers, and influencers the opportunity to book Hyperfluent as a Conference speaker, professor, translator, or cultural business trainer to train their staff. With these services, Hyperfluent can have a monthly profit of $9,000-10,000 dollars.
Word of mouth was my most successful marketing technique. One of my friends recommended me to one of her friends who happened to be the personal assistant to a very well-known NBA player.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
When I graduated from the School of Public and International Affairs at Columbia University in 2009 it was still a very difficult time to find a job and many graduates were still experiencing the effects of the Great Recession. I had done my Master's in International Affairs with a concentration in International Security Policy. Funny how we think that by following a very specific path we will be guaranteed financial success.
Growing up my father always wanted one of his three daughters to graduate from an Ivy League. I wanted to make my dad proud and to be the first in our family to graduate from an American Ivy League School. For South Americans, this is like a dream come true, especially for Peruvians. After graduation, I tried to pin down exactly what I should be doing with the rest of my career and decided to take a road trip to California with two of my best friends.
All three of us decided to head to Napa Valley and Sonoma County. In California, I felt so frustrated and disappointed that I could not figure out what my next career step should be. As usual Jen, one of my two friends asked me to think about three things that I was passionate about. I remember heading to a restaurant, taking a napkin, and scribbling down traveling, children, and languages.
At the time, I had already lived in more than ten countries spread across four continents and spoke 5 languages. Then Jen asked me to jot down names and words that tied all of my three passions together. I started jotting down words that described my personality and one of my passions. We decided to head out and do a wine-tasting tour with a limousine service. To be completely honest, I am not sure if it was the wine from Hall Rutherford or the wine from Fleury, Viader, or V Sattui, but by the time I had my seventh or eighth glass, I felt pretty inspired.
Although I remember wearing the biggest sunglasses to cover my face at brunch the next day, I secretly laughed and smirked at the fact that New Year's Eve was the best I had had in years. When we arrived home my napkin was folded in about ten places and had words such as "hyper, polyglot, nomad, polylingual, fluent, etc” in every corner. It was only by seeing the napkin one morning that we realized that we should take the words "hyper" and "fluent" together. Eureka! and THAT is how Hyperfluent came to be.
Soon afterward, I jotted down the services that I would offer through Hyperfluent, including personalized one-on-one courses, cooking sessions in different languages, translating and interpreting services, training sessions for clients who wanted to prepare themselves for interviews in the Spanish, French, Portuguese and English-speaking markets, and tutoring sessions for the TESOL, TOEFL, AP Language Tests and SAT Subject Tests in Italian, French, and Spanish.
Having to pay my loans for graduate school put a damper on my financial capabilities to start my own business at the time, but I focused on staying positive and on the essentials first. These included building a website, which I did on Wordpress, although I knew nothing about how to use Wordpress, business cards, buying a brand new professional camera, and fliers to pass along to some friends.
The first website was more of a blog format, which I had also never worked with before or knew much about. This period was probably the biggest learning experience for me up to that moment.
The most important design process for Hyperfluent was its logo because, for me, it had to capture the vibrant energy of empowering people to learn a new language. That in turn was used for all brand and promotional media material such as the website, business cards, and Instagram posts.
A declension of a verb for the six main pronouns is something most languages share. This became the reason why the business card had this sequence. The voice for your brand is extremely important and has to be seen and felt in cohesion across all your PR material.
Describe the process of launching the business.
As for the official launch, I would say it took me about 2-3 months to conceptualize it.
One of the first investments I made was buying a professional camera so I could take high-quality pictures to display on social media and my website. The latest launch which was a rebranding of the website took place in September 2020. I designed the layout of my website and later asked a web designer to help me make it functional so that I could go live with the new version by October 2020.
Something that I learned from the first website launch in 2011 and the latest launch was that word of mouth was my most successful marketing technique.
One example of this occurred when one of my friends recommended me to one of her friends who happened to be the personal assistant to a very well-known NBA player.
It was through this and similar connections, that I managed to land my most significant clients at the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations, PIMCO, a series of three public and private universities in Peru, and Bloomberg LP.
One of the highlights of using social media that surprised me was how powerful my account on LinkedIn was, which led to me becoming a private tutor to both students studying Indonesian at Yale University and to some of the wealthiest 12-15 families in New York City.
Learn what makes you uncomfortable, and REPEAT. What I learned about myself in 15 years, I could have never learned just from reading books or hearing others tell their own stories.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
The main goal of every personalized consultation is to build a strong rapport with every one of my clients. After working side by side with them, I always ask for feedback in regards to the quality of the consultation as well as if they have any recommendations or leads to friends, family, or colleagues who could be interested in Hyperfluent’s services.
As for bringing clients back, I have been extremely fortunate to have clients who come back on their own. However, I have also thanked my clients by personally sending them thank-you gifts and notes. Lastly, I have created list-serves with my client’s information so that they are also aware of any latest news and updates that are important.
One of the most successful awareness campaigns that I had to promote Hyperfluent was being featured on New York Times bestseller Chris Guillebeau’s Side Hustle School Podcast.
To entice customers to ask for more information regarding sessions I have had contests on Instagram aimed at offering 2-3 sessions for free in a language of their choice.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
At this time my main focus is to collaborate more with different organizations within the Latino community such as Hip Latina and Latinas at Work. I would like to help women with a Latin background whose first language is not English to learn English to seek better opportunities in the United States.
I am also looking forward to expanding my language consulting services to the expat community in Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Germany while working on merchandise as well as video material to facilitate language learning regarding common topics such as the four declensions in German, the conjugation of irregular verbs in Spanish, and the difference between the passe composé (simple past) and the imperfect verb forms in French.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
This venture has taught me so many things.
First and foremost, I have redefined success so that it fits my lifestyle, which is defined by constant learning. This learning has included traveling to new places and learning a new language from scratch and applying for scholarships and fellowships which enabled me to travel to a new country to learn more about a culture’s customs, traditions, and values.
Hyperfluent helped me to meet people from all over the world and work hand in hand with the Ministries of Education of different countries and work on multiple projects such as improving the healthcare system in Mozambique, developing questionnaires to analyze practice differences in nuclear medicine departments in China and Germany, and revising microfinance institutions in Latin America and Brazil, which were seeking a credit rating or a global assessment from institutions such as the European Union and the World Bank.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
My favorite platform to use is Instagram because I have a lot of room for creativity to build a PR strategy set off by vivid photos, which I take for the most part; color coordination patterns to match the logo, valuable recommendations from my clients, where I post contests, and free “Words of the Day”, which consists of a new word in a different language.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Two of my favorite books have been The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Hadish.
I personally always knew I wanted to start my own business and I admired my dad for starting his. Having him as a role model encouraged me to go out on a limb and start something of my own.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Do it. Venture out, learn what makes you uncomfortable, and REPEAT. What I learned about myself in 15 years, I could have never learned just from reading books or hearing others tell their own stories. Sometimes I made mistakes but, in the end, I learned how to be kinder to myself, raise my self-esteem, push myself, and know that I could do anything.
You never know what you are capable of doing until you try to do something that scares you or tests your boundaries. Another piece of advice that I would give is that your level of success is NEVER defined by someone else's idea of success. It is your definition that matters. After all, you're living your life and not someone else’s.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
