16: Sports Translator and YouTuber Adrian Probst of Freelanceverse

In this episode Sonia chats to Adrian Probst, a freelance translator and YouTuber at Freelanceverse where he discusses the ins and out of life as a freelance translator

This week I sit down with Swiss translator Adrian Probst who has 10 years’ experience in the industry, specialising in sports translation and working also on the multilingual communication at the Winter Olympics and World Cup events.

What started as a test to see if he could generate inbound translation leads has become a successful YouTube channel with 38,000 subscribers where he talks about the life of a freelance translator, from where to source work and which tech he uses all the way through managing projects and taxes and of course answering viewer questions.

Key Takeaways

Swiss German is a spoken language: while widely spoken in the German part of Switzerland, it has no written rules and people can spell it differently.
He translates into German as well as Swiss German: when clients request a translation into Swiss German, he checks whether they mean German for a Swiss audience or actual Swiss German.
Translation work as a student: he started translating during his masters degree as a flexible way of income, earning a well-known business as one of his first clients.
Specialisation: initially he specialised in technical translations but realised that those with a more specialised degree have a competitive advantage. He mentions the legal and medical sectors as similar fields where professionals who become translators have a huge advantage. In the meantime he specialised in sports translations, a niche that is close to him and were this imbalance is felt less.
YouTube and Freelanceverse: born as a marketing tool for his business, it has made it known and recognisable in the industry and now at times he get recommended by people he doesn’t know, but they know him from his channel.

About Adrian Probst and Freelanceverse

Adrian is a professional translator in the sports industry working from English and French into (Swiss) German. He regularly works with ecommerce businesses as well as translating some of coverage for the Olympics, Winter Olympics and World Cup.

Six years ago he launched his YouTube channel Freelanceverse where he regularly posts content about working as a freelance translator. His channel has become a powerful source of inbound leads for him

Connect with Adrian

Website: https://adrianprobst.com/

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Freelanceverse/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianprobst-freelanceverse

About Sonia Kampshoff

Sonia is an experienced, multilingual digital marketing consultant focusing on Google Ads and advertising on social media. She works with small and medium-sized companies and agencies across ecommerce and lead generation accounts, supporting them from strategy and planning all the way through optimisation and management.

Languages are integral to her identity and career, so much so that in September 2025 she created and hosts this podcast, telling stories of people who merge their language skills with the work they do – and inspiring many more to learn languages and build a career on these valuable soft skills.