From Writing to Consulting: Freelance Success and Giving Back with Mara Shorr

How can you turn your creative passion into a thriving freelance business and still give back?

In this episode host Ashley Cisneros Mejia sits down with long-time friend and expert consultant Mara Shorr to explore the intersection of journalism, business, and advocacy. Mara shares tactical tips for freelancers ready to expand their business, including how to hire your first virtual assistant or contractor and why documenting systems is key to scaling.

But it’s not all business—Mara opens up about her inspiring advocacy work as a foster mom, guardian ad litem, and foster dog caretaker. Learn how her journalism roots shaped her success and discover actionable strategies to grow your freelance career while staying true to your values.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to create systems to streamline your freelance business.
• The first steps to take when hiring your first team member or virtual assistant.
• Why documenting your processes can make or break your business growth.
• How to use writing and communication skills to create impactful client content.
• Insights into incorporating your professional skills into meaningful advocacy work.

ABOUT MARA SHORR
Mara Shorr is an expert consultant and international speaker with nearly 15 years of experience helping businesses in the aesthetic and healthcare industries achieve operational and financial success. A passionate advocate for people and animals, Mara combines her background in journalism, communications, and systems management with her dedication to fostering, mentoring, and driving meaningful change. Follow Mara on Instagram at @MaraShorr and @MaraAdvocates.

TOOLS MARA MENTIONS

ChatGPT 

Loom 

Calendly 

Canva

Full Show Notes Here

Chapters

• 1:17 Introduction to Mara Shorr
• 4:09 Mara’s journey from journalism to consulting in the aesthetic industry
• 8:02 How Mara’s writing background shapes her consulting approach
• 10:11 The importance of asking the right questions
• 13:56 Mara’s biggest lessons in business
• 16:09 The importance of systems and tools for scaling a freelance business
• 21:04 Mara’s top tools for freelancers
• 27:07 Tips for getting into public speaking for business development
• 32:03 Tips for hiring your first team member and writing a job description
• 35:25 Mara’s advocacy work as a foster mom for dogs and kids and guardian ad litem
• 39:45 How grief led Mara to turn love into action through fostering and advocacy.

Transcript

Mara Shorr: 0:00

Write the job description. That job description is going to help you decide what it is that you're looking for. It's going to make you as that business owner be crystal clear as far as this is what I want to give up and this is what I don't want to give up. That job description is going to help you make a lot of business decisions.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 0:21

Welcome to Talk Freelance To Me, the podcast for women freelance writers, 1099 independent contractors, and solopreneurs. I'm your host, Ashley Cisneros Mejia. For more than 20 years, I've worked as a journalist and freelance writer. Today, as a mom of three kids, I'm passionate about helping other women leverage the freedom that freelance offers. On Talk Freelance To Me, we're all about the business of freelancing. If you want to learn how to monetize your talents, make money on your own terms, and design a flexible work life that actually works for you. This show is for you before we get started. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite social media platforms, review us on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. And don't forget to share this episode with a friend. Visit our website at talkfreelancetome. com for free resources. Join our email list to be the first to know about our latest offers. I'm beyond excited to introduce you to one of my favorite people. My friend Mara Shore and I met when we were entering our first chapters in our entrepreneurial journey. Mara is an expert consultant. In the business and healthcare space, specifically in aesthetics. So think plastic surgeons, med spas, really exciting and interesting clients that she has. For nearly 15 years, she has helped different practices all over North America with their operations, their administrative programs, their employee and recruitment needs. To help them really boost their profitability and enhance their bottom line. Her award winning techniques have led her teams to win prestigious awards and lots of them within her field. She's also served as an editorial board member for industry publications, and she even authored a chapter in a textbook about business. In this episode, Mara shares some really tactical advice when it comes to implementing systems and thinking about the first steps when you're considering hiring a contractor or a VA in your freelance business. We also talk about her inspiring advocacy work, both in fostering animals, specifically dogs, and also being a advocate for children in the guardian ad Program and also being a foster parent. Here's my conversation with Mara I am so delighted to introduce to you someone that I first of all love That I've known for like almost 15 years, who I am continuously inspired by both professionally and personally, the amazing Mara Shor. Mara, thank you for being here on the show.

Mara Shorr: 3:09

Thank you so much. It's wild that we really have, we've known each other. There's so many different lifetimes together of different versions of ourselves, of just like personally and professionally. And those are the extra fun friends that you get to see the different versions of you with, right? And you get to see different versions of them and the ones that we just, we get to cheer each other on through each and every version.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 3:37

I love that idea of lifetimes, because sometimes I feel that way, and I'm sure you do too, you do a lot of stuff, but sometimes I feel, gosh, I am, I've lived like four times, like, I'm so tired of all, of all of this, from all of the adventures and stuff, but it is so cool to reflect on it. We met, gosh, it must have been 2010 ish, 2011 ish, I feel like, through a women's group, and at that point, you, I think we're doing, you were like head of marketing at a theater. In town, right? I think that's you. I was a director. Yeah,

Mara Shorr: 4:09

I was. It could have been either one of those lifetimes. I've had several. So because I started out. In the development department, i. e. fundraising with WMFE, which was at that point both NPR and PBS, and so they've since, and here in Central Florida, so they've since changed over, they're no longer PBS station, they are an NPR station, and so they're now Central Florida Public Media, but I was, started out in fundraising doing several different things in their development department, and then You and I are going, wait, which lifetime was it?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 4:46

They blend together a little.

Mara Shorr: 4:47

We really, they do and we do. And the director of development for Enzian Theatre and the Florida Film Festival. And so I think that may have been the lifetime. That we met because I would then go on to go out on my own and have a community relations and PR and fundraising consulting business. And you had recently gone out on your own. You and I have always been within a step or two of each other in either direction.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 5:18

Yes.

Mara Shorr: 5:18

Thanks. That's where I will never not say to people that you really, having strong, confident women that you love and support and that love and support you makes all the difference because you and I, so many rounds, have said, hey, you've done this before, how did you handle this situation, that situation, and, well, you've gone out on your own, well, you've gone out on your own, well, You've done this freelance project. Well, you started a podcast. Well, you had a business partner and then didn't. And then I had a business partner and then didn't. We've done so many different versions of that, that I think to lean on each other has been so key throughout the years.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 5:57

Oh, I love it so much. And I appreciate you so much throughout this journey, these lifetimes, and one of the things I think our audience will be really, we'll love is the fact that you studied journalism, that you are a writer. You do so many things. You're this expert consultant in the business sector. And healthcare in this specific aesthetics world, which is so cool. You're always on the jet somewhere going to like a cool international conference and you're keynoting, you're training, you're doing so many cool things. Let's take a step back and talk about like this foundation. You've always been a communicator. You've always been a writer and it's so interesting to see how you've leveraged that foundation. Yeah. In all of these new facets, these new chapters, tell us how you got into this space, like what was the journey like to get to this consultant chapter that you're in now?

Mara Shorr: 6:51

Yeah, so I've always had a passion for the written word, always. I was that kid that wrote and self published books, right? Like the pop ups that you would cut the two strips into pieces of paper and then make your own pop up books. I was that goofy, geeky kid. I was the high schooler that was happier with the friends in journalism and on our high school newspaper and happier hanging out with the news. High school newspaper kids than anything else and went on to have a journalism major. I was a journalism and communications major and I had an advertising minor and a PR concentration. And so for those of you that are ever looking for a great school in communications, I always We'll shout from the rooftops the name for Central Michigan University. Their program was second to none and still in my heart always will be. And the amount of classes that I took on AP style where I still maintain that there doesn't need to be a comma after the last item in a list, right? Um, I will, I will go to that for that. But I will say that having a journalism background has taught me so much, even though I am not a newspaper writer or a blog writer by trade, right? And so it, I think really has taught me the art of communication. It's taught me the art of the written word and how to be well spoken, both whether that's verbally, whether that's in writing, whether that's in front of people. And for me, I would even go on to, after. Working at the radio station and after working and having the Florida Film Festival and my own business and going on to become a partner in another consulting company with a family member for about a decade and to now where I am now and consulting and I, Consult with cosmetic and aesthetic practices, i. e. plastic surgeons, board certified plastic surgeons and med spas, and I love it so much, but I'm still writing for industry publications. I have an article due this week, right? I just haven't checked the topic. So don't I still all these years late all these years later will write for industry publications. Even if it's just an article a month here and there or putting something on somebody else's blog, it's still for me a passion. True and true. And I think there is nothing like a journalism degree to give you a foundation for almost any other job that you have.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 9:28

I love that so much because there's so many, there's been this discourse, I think just about higher education in general, like in terms of what are you majoring in? Is it, is there ROI, right? Like, should you do journalism because you love writing or should you do something like engineering that pays well? And maybe, you know, you could argue that the market has more demand for it. But I love what you're saying on just like this, the transferable skills, the ability to ask questions, the ability to research well, to be able to be objective and find out facts and be detail oriented to make sure you don't make a mistake. Like those are like core professional skills that I feel like you really can apply to other industries. And Ashley, I love

Mara Shorr: 10:13

that you have said the one in particular is to ask questions because I so deeply want to blame the fact that I, I love asking questions. I find. I always want my knowledge just to continue to increase. I want to be satisfied with the answers. I truly think that that is a journalist thing. It's a journalism thing. We're constantly doing this and I joke that on my grave one day, and I have no reason to think that's going to be anytime soon, I'm going to But I joke with my colleague, Amy, all the time. And I said, on my grave one day, it's going to say, but wait, I have one more question. Hold on. I have one more question. If we're doing a software demo, I have one more question. If I'm, we're doing, I interview for my clients all the time. I do a lot of hiring for my plastic surgery clients, and I'm constantly followups. So. I love that you even included something I hadn't thought of as, let's blame it on the journalism to agree.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 11:16

But I love it too. And I'm thinking about you and like, you are one of the most well network women that I know, like in my network, like, you know, a ton of people all over the world. And I think also like that, that curiosity and that being interested in other people and asking them questions. And And really like caring to hear the response. I feel like that's something everybody loves, like well networked people, people who are able to like make a connection. They are asking questions and really finding synergy and connecting in a, in a great way. And I feel like you're a master at that. And I'm, I'm seeing that as like a, a through line too. Was it just like, yeah, like your ability to really make people feel heard. And I'm sure that that has to be a factor in your success in consulting is that your clients trust you and you're asking those questions. So they know that you're listening and you're caring and you're making connections. And I think that's a good lesson for all of us to ask questions, ask good questions, good questions, ask

Mara Shorr: 12:20

the follow up questions. And the thing that they teach you to in journalism school is about, do you have the quote? Right. Do you have that quote that you need and. If you don't get the answer that you want the first time and you're not, or if you're not satisfied with that answer, ask the question again in a different way and sometimes it's really coming in handy, not that I'm looking for the quote anymore, right, in the majority of what I do, but if I'm not satisfied with the answer, if I don't feel that that question was answered to its fullest extent or if there's more follow up, I ask it again in a different way. Okay. And just to get clarifications, I think that really does come from just training upon training upon training when it comes to journalism.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 13:08

That is so cool, Mara. And you described a little bit when you were talking about kind of your journey that you have done. I feel like you have done it all. You've worked in. Organizations and big organizations with lots of different departments. You did the solopreneur thing. A lot of our listeners are solopreneurs and they offer a service, whether it's writing like freelance or some of them maybe do consulting like you're doing. Um, and then you've had a business partner, you've hired people for yourself and you've hired people for your clients. You've done a lot when you first started in this entrepreneurship space, which can be wild, like the wild, wild West. Oh my gosh. Yes. What challenges did you face early on? What are the biggest lessons that you've learned from being your own boss?

Mara Shorr: 13:56

So I think for me, I was, I was much younger at that point when I started that, right? Age did not stop me. So I was in my mid to late twenties, depending on when I was 26, 27 years old, if that, and I think that people tend to underestimate youth. I think especially much more 15 plus years ago. I had to work a lot harder to prove myself and I had always looked young. Now, I like to think I still look young, also in the cosmetic industry. So let's be honest, that's also very intentional. Um, you know, and maybe some use of Botox. Not maybe, definitely use of Botox. I will show this on every stage and podcast. Let's just own it. But, so I think I did. I had to work harder and there seemed to be a disconnect because the words that came out of my mouth showed maturity, but Visually, it just nothing was matching, right? So there was that I had to, I had to work harder, I think, than somebody else would have, but I will say too, that figuring out the systems that go into starting your own business, right? We did not have Instagram did not exist then. And therefore neither did Tik TOK or Snapchat. I will say that. MySpace existed, but we weren't sharing. Now we're really dating ourselves. We were, I know. We weren't sharing. Facebook did exist, but people weren't, it was really just to connect in like a person to person. It was not so businesses could connect with people. There wasn't, The influencers weren't a thing at that point. And so there wasn't the amount of knowledge out there, right? I don't know that Etsy existed to go and download spreadsheets and things like that. So I remember when it came time to send out my first invoice and thinking, huh, how am I going to do this? And I remember going, Ashley, I phoned a friend and. You know, and you, you sent me an Excel spreadsheet template for, for my very first invoice. And because they, it was, it did not exist the same way that it does now, as far as how we communicate electronically and, and do those things and setting up the same systems. So I think for me, that was definitely one of the harder parts. And even now, when I watch. My clients that go on to open up their own businesses and their own practices, setting up systems. It's one of the hardest parts. And I think that part of what makes me really great at what I do is I know what that's like. And I've been there and When my clients first set up, they're first a solopreneur, and they go on to hire staff, of course. You know, the doctors go on to hire staff, but when they first start, it's just them. They're everything. And so I really relate to that. So I think that was one of the hardest parts when I first started was thinking on the business side, because the consulting services and the writing services, when you're your own business, just aren't enough. I never had the same issues as far as staying focused on the task that other people did. So for me, I'm always able to balance a schedule. And so for me, it's not a matter of, Oh no, how do I get my client work done? And I do the same ways if I was in office, that's how I just, I make sure it's all done. So that was a real hardship for me.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 17:32

I love how you mentioned systems because I think that so it can be, you know, exhilarating to grow to grow fast. So when you're a solopreneur, as you mentioned, like you are doing everything, you're taking out the trash, you're doing the actual work, you're invoicing for it. You're doing, you know, your, your taxes and are working with like a CP you are doing everything. And when you grow and you realize that you need help, usually it's because there's client work, like you mentioned, getting your work done, figuring out how to get the work done that you get paid for. And so it can be hard to take that discipline, to take a step back, to actually document, okay, how do we do what we do? And I love that you mentioned that because that's something that when I had a marketing agency with my business partner at the time, we did not, we grew really, really fast, which was. exciting and was a blessing was awesome, but we were just literally lying by the seat of our pants. And so then when it came time to train, you know, we were like, ah, um, how do we do this? Can you just learn by osmosis? You know, like, what do you mean? Like, can you do it? Right. And it's like, No, of course they can't just do it, Ashley, like you have to teach them. And it's like, okay, well, where do you start? You have to like have some SOPs. You have to document what, how do we do what we do? So people, Mara just dropped a huge gem. You don't have systems that you have not identified that documented that, like, please put that on your list. Because I

Mara Shorr: 19:02

would say yes, and do it. If you ever plan on hiring people, do it. And sometimes I think we don't plan on hiring somebody until we hire them, like until you either cross this perfect person, or you're like, I need somebody and I need somebody now and then several weeks later, hopefully, right? You find somebody. when you're training that first person, do it then, right? So don't wait until you're five people deep or 10 people deep. So if you're purely, if you're, if you're a freelancer, if you're a one human operation, then Okay, we'll give you a pass, right, Ashley? And I will give you a pass now. If you don't plan on remaining a one human operation, then you do, you need to start documenting everything and have that, that system in place and something that is able to scale so that if you're only ever keeping everything in your, all your to do lists, and for example, like your email, you know, in your inbox, like that's not sustainable once you have any other human helping you. Okay. Where if you're the person that's helping the other person grow, so if you're freelancing for another company, and they say, oh, I just keep everything in my email or on my phone, it doesn't work.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 20:20

Yeah, yeah. I love this so much, Mara. Like, I've heard of different tools, like I'm thinking, like now because of AI and chat GPT, like I know there's, Programs where you could like record yourself doing whatever you do. And sometimes it will even create some kind of outline. Are there tools that you can recommend? Maybe something that's cost effective or like, if someone's listening to this and they're thinking, okay, yeah, I probably should do this. Even on the scale of where they are, maybe they're not ready to, maybe they're just hiring, thinking about hiring their first virtual assistant to help them. What's an easy way for like a freelancer to do something like this to start documenting?

Mara Shorr: 21:01

So I would say I can give two tools and even using them together, right? So one, of course, we all preach about ChatGPT. Yeah. Um, so make sure you have the ChatGPT app on your phone and then, and have it like bookmarked on your computer. And then the other one is Loom. And so for those of you that don't use Loom, it basically does it. It's like if you were to record yourself on Zoom just doing what, you know, doing a screen share, but it's, it's not meant for meetings. It's really meant to record what you're doing on your screen. So you can then, a couple different components with, with using those tools. Number one. If you're using Loom to say, this is how you can find the report. You go, you open up your computer, you log, you log in, you go to the screen, you go to the screen and say it verbally, say out loud. Then you want to go to this dropdown. Then you want to go to this dropdown and record yourself. And that will give you, so say it's a three minute video or it's a five minute video. Keep them short and sweet. Don't do an hour long. At a time, but for every processor protocol or thing, do one go ahead. Save those videos so that a you have you have a place that you have these videos saved. So if somebody does better by learning visually that the person that you're teaching, they can actually go in and you've already done this. You've already done this. Created these videos. But one thing that I did the other day for a client is I had a colleague of mine Recorded these couple of videos on loom and then I they have a transcribe button. So I hit transcribe and Copied from copied the transcription into chat chat gpt and said make a protocol out of this And so I didn't have to go in and dictate anything. I didn't have to Listen and relisten. I didn't have to go in and edit and proofread the transcription myself. It did. The only thing I did was go in and take a couple screenshots, add it into a word doc and boom, it's saved. They now have step by step instructions of how to pull a certain report that they needed. And I can't tell you how many Processes and protocols. I've just said to chat GPT. I need a process for this and you get as granular as you can and that gets you like 75 percent of the way there. It's not going to get you 100 percent of the way there. So you still have to go in and customize it. But I've used chat GPT and loom so many times.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 23:32

This is amazing. Guys, I hope you listening out there realize that you've just witnessed gold. Um, you have to know,

Mara Shorr: 23:41

I say you have to make sure you're an expert in what you're doing, but it's going to save the time that it would take you to get that knowledge out of your brain and send those. beautiful fingers across the keyboard and brain dump it, right? And then if you get sidetracked and the dog has to go out mid process or protocol that you're writing, right? So, um, that's where I say it's going to save you that manual time, but you have to know enough and be that expert in your field to go in and say, Is this really what would happen? Think through the process and protocol. No, I want to, I want to add these three steps here. I want to add this thing here. So you need to know that it's correct, but, um, yeah, we don't need to be doing it manually because there's more than enough other things you need to do manually.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 24:28

Amen. Oh my gosh, it's like a whole new world. When you were talking about you don't need to dictate, like, I remember doing interviews with people, like, writing, literally, and dictate. And, I mean, it's just mind blowing, now, that, it's so interesting. There's all these tools that will do it for you guys. Really, we have no excuse now. Like, no, that it will get you 75 percent of the way, you know, then you can do the other 25.

Mara Shorr: 24:54

And the other one I want to toss in for anybody that's not using Calendly, or some sort of scheduling tool to chat like we should not be Oh, are you available on Wednesday? I can't do Wednesday, but I could do Thursday. Can you do Thursday at 10? Oh, no, I'm not free till after 2. No. You have to prove my life, right? I was free three days ago when you said that, you know, and now I'm not free anymore. So, so use a scheduling tool to schedule all of your meetings. And I love Calendly. It actually, we talk about freelancing world. It can check multiple calendars. So it can check my Gmail. It can check I freelance. Um, I'm not freelance, but I really am an independent contractor with a consulting company called Princeton Anderson Consulting. So it checks that calendar and it checks any, it can check as many calendars as you want it to so that. You don't have to go in and do all of that manually, and it makes the process so much quicker. I have my clients, hirees, and candidates for jobs. I have them schedule their interviews there. It's just the way to go. So I like Calendly. It has a free version. There's a paid version. I get paid nothing from any of these. I think M365 as a scheduling tool. I just don't know that it will speak to multiple calendars. So that's what I like about Calendly.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 26:18

So good and guys will i'll include these awesome tools in the show notes If you don't remember and you can thank mara mara, maybe you should go get an affiliate link Super helpful, right? Yes I love it. I love it so one of the things that I loved when I follow your instagram I follow you on social media is to see where is Mara today because you Speak at so many amazing conferences for your industry And I feel like I've seen you like keynote so many times now, and that's amazing. Can you tell us about how you use your writing and your communications background to really create speeches that are going to resonate with different audiences? Can you give us maybe some tips if we want to write speeches or kind of get into that as a service?

Mara Shorr: 27:07

Yeah, so I think that number one, knowing your topic, right, knowing that topic. And I think writing speeches and writing lectures for yourself is very different than doing it for other people. I know, I know my subject matter inside and out. So when I give and somebody says, Oh, can you. Give a 15 minute talk on, I'm like, Oh, that's easy. I could talk for 15 minutes about processes and protocols. So for me, I only speak about what I know to myself. I'm an expert in right. And I think that's not being cocky. It's just being confident as women, especially we need to get over this. Oh, but somebody else can do it better. No, we. We are experts in our subject matter, and we need to own that. So, I'm also a big fan of collaboration over competition. So for me, it's not this person does this better than me, and that it, so I should, I should stay small and quiet. I learned to get over that a long time ago. But I will say that when you are comfortable in your subject matter, it's not like when you're assigned a random speech in speech class. Right. You had to put a topic on something that you knew nothing about, so you have to memorize the facts as well as memorize giving this presentation. So for me, it's also knowing my presentation style, to be honest, and, and owning it. So there are people that get up and they give a really great, serious, serious talk. I would rather get up there and add humor and it be more lighthearted. I love to give real life examples and not everything involves a joke because there's certain topics that don't involve a joke and there's certain times that they're You know, a topic that they're really a joke. There is no place for but I have to know and I always come up with examples as well. Right. I love to give examples of things in my talk. So it's real and it's true to life. And I think that at the end of every talk, you should always have that call to action and you should always make sure that the audience knows how to how to find you and where to find you at the end because otherwise you're just. leaving everyone hanging. So that's where I would say, really, those are my top tips for when it comes to speaking. And the rest, look, if you're not a designer, A, I also love Canva. Um, so design for non designers. I'm not a graphic designer at all. And we actually, I do a lot with, with Vanessa, who I know you had had a previous podcast episode. You and I geek out over at Vanessa's. Yeah, you

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 29:43

introduced me to Vanessa. Thank you. She's just amazing. She is.

Mara Shorr: 29:46

She's also so incredibly brilliant. But when you are, when you know what you're not, i. e. graphic designer, then if you say, look, you know, I need somebody else to design my slides, that's okay too, right? Like don't try and be everything. But I truly think that when you know your topic. That's going to make all the difference. So it's, it's taken me far and I use conferences and lectures and speaking and public speaking. I use it to leverage my message if it's a message that I really want to get across. And I've also used it as business development. So I think that's something that we all need to remember that it's a great business development tool.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 30:26

This is so, so helpful. I think a lot of people are gonna, even thinking about themselves as you know, writers or editors in a certain industry, thinking about, maybe they've never thought about being a speaker, but talk about having expertise in a certain vertical. A lot of the writers that I've talked to, they write about a specific niche. And they know everything there is to know about whatever that topic is. And what a cool way to think about developing their business in marketing their services. That's very cool.

Mara Shorr: 30:58

I've also gotten. very niche on where I speak and why. And so for me, there are certain conferences that I go, well, for my goal is business development, but there aren't people that are going to be attending that conference that are going to be my target audience. I don't need to be everywhere all the time. And I don't need to travel all across the continent. If I don't think that, It's going to make sense from a business development perspective, or if it makes sense from a vendor relations perspective. So for me, it has to meet one of those two criteria.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 31:31

That makes a lot of sense. I appreciate that. Earlier you were mentioning expanding your team and training and I know that you do a lot of interviews and help with the recruitment process for your clients. Can you talk about if a freelancer is listening is ready to expand their team for the first time and they're nervous about that because is. They've all done it all themselves this whole time. What are some of the first things that a freelance business owner should consider when they're ready to hire someone?

Mara Shorr: 32:03

Write the job description. Because number one, you're going to need it to post on Indeed or LinkedIn or whatever, right? So you're going to physically need that document anyway, but that job description is going to help you decide what it is that you're looking for. And it's going to make you as that business owner be crystal clear as far as this is what I want to give up and this is what I don't want to give up. These are my non negotiables and these are the negotiables. And I think especially when you hire for the first time, you need to be very, very aware of what that is. And it's, there's a lot of things you may not have thought of before. And Also in that job description, when it comes time to post, you start thinking of, well, do I want somebody full time or part time? Am I going to be able to afford benefits or not? And if not, what am I going to do? Can I, do I offer a stipend? Do I hire another freelancer? So you have two freelancers. Is that a service that maybe once you look at it, you can, maybe I don't need filler. Maybe I need a billing company, right? I don't need a bookkeeper. Maybe I need to just hire a bookkeeping service. And so that job description is going to help you make a lot of business decisions, not just be something that you slap on a job word.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 33:22

Oh my goodness. This is gold too, because I feel like I've seen. People do it

Mara Shorr: 33:27

backwards. And your employee handbook, which You don't need an employee handbook when you're one person. Just be a good human, govern yourself accordingly. When you have your very first employee is when you should have an employee handbook, because that's also going to give all the rules and regs and guidelines of what's okay with your company that as a freelancer, you didn't need all of that. Because again, be a good human, govern yourself accordingly. And all the details are in the contracts that you have with your current clients. And we're just going to assume That everybody knows as a freelancer, you should have a contract with all of your clients. We've all made that mistake at one point or another. Oh gosh, yes. You're not alone. If you've, if you are doing it now and just know if you haven't been burned yet, good. I'm proud of you. I'm glad. It's probably a, yeah, I always have contracts.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 34:20

So good. So good. Another fantastic reminder. Mara, you've you're amazing. You're amazing. We've talked a lot about business and on the onset, I was sharing how inspired I am from you personally, because you are a person who, gosh, when it comes to talking the talk, walking the walk about things that you care about, your passions really exuding love in making love a verb, not just this fluffy concept, but the compassion and care that you have for animals and for people. I mean, it's a whole nother world. So you've fostered dogs for years and years and years. In the last several years, you've also been a foster parent, foster mom. You advocate for children as a guardian ad litem. I want to talk about all this. Let's talk about the pups first, because I think that was How did you become a dog mom and how did you enter this world where you have taken in so many cute, beautiful animals along the way in your journey?

Mara Shorr: 35:23

Yes. Okay. We've always, always grown up with animals. So for me, that was like the non negotiable in my world as soon as I graduated college because I always grew up with, with animals. And it's so funny to look back on my childhood at what I thought was totally normal to have a dog. You know, several dogs and guinea pigs and rabbits and birds and turtles and fish and like the wild rabbit that had to come live inside and like all of that. And I thought this was what everybody did, right? Like, I thought this was normal. Thank you, Mom, by the way, if you're listening, for making me think that this is very normal growing up. But apparently not everybody had like 10 to 12 animals at a time. Had their own zoo. Right, their own zoo. Um, but because, so there we are. And I joke that I'm very much like my mom was when she was my age, right? And so I joke that I'm like that version of her. So we grew up fostering through German Shepherd Rescue up in Pennsylvania. And so for me, that was just something that. we did for several years when I was, when I was younger. And so now it was my, my COVID hobby, right? So when by fall of 2020, we had newly adopted our puppy, Vincenzo Moish, sure similar, IKA Vinny, right? And so, yeah, good old Vinny, who's now four and a half. But we'd adopted Vinny and we knew that eventually we'd want another dog, but we weren't quite sure when we were going to adopt another dog. And so I said to my husband, what do you think about fostering puppies? Like it was COVID, we were stuck at home, inside, all the time. Um, Forever and everybody was on zoom. We had happy hours on zoom and we had meetings on zoom and we did podcasts on zoom and classes on zoom and meetings on zoom and it was, I was done. I was like, I could not have one more zoom hobby. I need something that's done in front of a screen. And so we joke and we're like, well, if we had to, Be essentially almost in like a lockdown, right? During COVID, isn't it better to be in lockdown with a puppy than a lockdown without a puppy? Like we were home all day, every day, we went nowhere. And so we started one dog at a time and we've only ever really fostered one dog at a time and we've done, you know, one at a time, 35 different dogs. 35! Yeah, so we went from keeping puppies for weeks until they were adapted and sometimes another foster with the rescue said, hey, I'm going away this weekend, would you mind? hanging on to my dog for a couple days or the weekend. I'm like, absolutely sure. So, you know, we, we don't have anyone. And my friend described how we did this to her son, who was only a couple years old at the time. And she described it to Thomas as the Vinnie hotel, right? Her son was only a couple of years old. So she's like, how do I describe this? She's like, it's like a hotel. So yeah, so we've, we've currently had our foster for a very long time. Sweet Scooby. Still looking for a home. He's been with us for 13 months. He wears a belly band. He is special needs and had, had had injuries when he was a much younger dude. So Scoops has been with us for a while, but we call his belly bands pants. And I say, he's got a great collection of pants. The ones that are printed like jeans, I call them his jorts. So if you're interested in a special needs bully boy that wears jorts. My husband tells me that the selling point. is not all of his pants. He comes with so many pairs of pants. His accessories. Right. He's like, babe, that's not a selling point for this dog to get adopted. But, If you're out there, human, that works from home and is freelancing and loves a good special. Hey, this

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 39:08

is a good audience, right?

Mara Shorr: 39:10

I may not pitch my other services, but I'm going to pitch the heck out of Scooby. I love that. On my Instagram. So Scooby with Little Rascals Rescue. But anyway, so with that, that's how we got into fostering dogs. And I joke that it's like the weirdest MLM scheme is that once you start fostering, you convince your other. friends to foster dogs too. And then they convince their friends to foster. So that's my version of a multi level marketing scheme is like, I will, I will go on, on that one. So the other part, which is, you know, the, the pivot here is that back in 2019, My younger brother had lost his, his battle with drug use, and so he had been addicted for a very, very long time, probably close to 15 years, and so he passed away in February of 2019, and then my grandmother, who I was also her, her power of attorney, I was her healthcare surrogate, I always used to say that anybody that ever heard me talk about life, heard BAPJA other than my husband, He had like the biggest piece of my heart. And so when she passed, it was literally February 29th of 2020. So like she passes and then we had her memorial two weeks later and then the entire world shut down. And I sat at home with all this grief. Also why we adopted a puppy. Yeah. So with that, as. As time went on and I was starting, I'd been healing more from the grief, I was talking with one of my very best friends who had been sitting on the board of Legal Aid Society with the Orange County Bar Association. And so she said, have you ever thought about serving in the Garnied Ad Litem program? So in Orange County, Florida, you need to be a lawyer to be on the GAL program. Would they have created a sub program under this called Volunteer Advocates for Children, similar to like what a CASA would be in other counties in other states. Um, CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. And so, I was like, what do I know? I don't know anything about foster care. I'm not aware. And I don't have kids. So, I know nothing about this, and she said, between your brother, so between Jordan and between Babja, you are more equipped than you really think you are. Have a conversation with the volunteer coordinator, and I did, and of course, another question and another question and another question, right? She always jokes, she's like, Come to me with your questions. But I went on to, to get the certification for the advocate, for the advocacy program. The day of my background check and my fingerprinting, I was assigned to a kiddo that, that very day was coming into care. And we joke that it was basically meant to be, and our families have, years later, almost merged into one blended modern family. And so that little girl was then eight years old. She's now 11. And so our family is very much, I talk with her caregiver who has since adopted her. Almost daily, if not every other day, and I'm going to go see her play at the Shakespeare theater camp tomorrow. So we, however, would find out that her cousin was also in foster care. Both of her cousins had been, and the older of the two girls had already aged out of foster care at that point, but the other was 16, about to turn 17 and living in a group home. And I would go on to become a teacher. the teenager's advocate. And when that was no longer working out with her placements, um, yada, yada, yada, right? There's always a good Seinfeld style, yada, yada, yada with the ellipses. So she came to live with us. And so Hayden was 17. So I say that some people get their They're kiddos when they're like fresh new babies and I got mine when she was 17 with multiple tattoos Like that's how mine came to live with us And so she lived with my husband and I for a year and I since launched she has her apartment She's taking college classes at this point She has two two cats and a kitten one of the cats was a stray that gave birth in her bathroom sink Which is how she ended up with three That beautiful little baby kitten was a surprise to all of us. It's, it's very much something that I am incredibly passionate about. And I still advocate for kids dealing with the system and the Department of Children and Families and dealing with that system because it is a mess of a system and I constantly I'm looking for new ways to take my ideas into action, which is where I created a whole separate Instagram account around that. And I'm now exploring how else I can help and support families that are dealing with similar issues. So we are not looking to have anyone else. I told I tell my husband that. My goal is that none of my other interests or my other passions will come live with us. And I have made that promise to him that none of my other passions in life will come live with us. So I'm trying to keep that promise because we still have Scooby here and Hayden is very much still a part of our world. So I just say she's my, she's my teenager. She's 19 years old now and see her. on average once a week. Sometimes it's twice, sometimes it's every other week, but we are well all in that same orbit. I think it's, it's something that I'm passionate about and I've used and I'm using all of my skills, whether it's presenting, whether it's public speaking, whether it's writing when it comes to social media posts, whether it is how can I do more using all of those things that I've learned in journalism, including Asking the tough questions. You want to talk about a place where you need to ask more questions. It's the foster care system. Like we need to be asking questions all the time. And so I know it drives everybody bananas that works with me, caseworkers included, right? But it's always one more question, one more question. So if you've ever, if anybody listening has ever thought about becoming an advocate, that really is a big deal. beautiful, yet heartbreaking way to help.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 45:30

Wow, Mara. I am just, like, there are no words, right? Like, that is the ultimate level, I think, of getting involved and making an impact. You know, there's lots of ways that That we as people, when we're touched by an issue, a cause, sometimes we might volunteer, we might donate blood, our checkbook, we might, you know, help with an event, but for you literally opening your home. Your family, um, that is, that's huge. Like, I don't know how, how much more you could give. What, give a kidney maybe? Don't do that. But

Mara Shorr: 46:09

right now, luckily, no one in our crew currently needs a kidney. So we are set. Um, no, don't ask me for any organs. Um, I mean, The, you know, the teenager has borrowed my car, but that's as far as we've gotten to requiring the kidney. I've

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 46:26

heard that foster parenting is so hard. How did this, how has that impacted your life? How has this changed you? Has it changed you? What have you learned from this? I

Mara Shorr: 46:38

think I can't not change you in, in one way or the other. And I, I see so much of where things could have taken such a different turn, right? And in each of the lives of the kids that I've advocated for, and I don't say that it's because I personally stepped in. I often say this and not to be self deprecating or looking for praise, but I say, I am not special. Right. And when I say I am not special, I don't mean this in a, let me get down on my way on myself way. I mean, I don't possess skills that other people like don't possess, right? It's not that I, I don't possess, yeah, I don't possess any skills that other people don't. It's not that I possess this magical thing, right? I have the ability to ask questions and the ability to have compassion for others and want to make the world a better place. And like, those are just. Those are the skill sets that you need for this, right? And maybe just submit a report here and there. There's nothing about that says only Mara can do this, right? So many people can. And I think we often think, Oh, I can't do that because I could never do that because, but everybody can help in some way. And I will say that I wouldn't be able to do an advocate. The way that I do, if there weren't other people coming alongside me, doing the one offs and doing, I wouldn't be able to go and drop off an entire car of suitcases to the only county run group home if other people didn't say, I can't necessarily have somebody come live with me as a foster parent right now, but I can give you my suitcase. So. So that's where there's really such a, I think a disconnect sometimes people think like, oh, it's just a one off, right? It's yes, please do that, right? And it's, it's so incredibly helpful just even if that's, if that's what people have the capacity to do, because there's so much of a gap between donating money and having somebody come live with you, right? And it's, it's not. Easy. I will not say that it was easy. It was not easy for any of us. It was not easy for myself. It was not easy for my husband. It wasn't easy for Hayden. And there's a saying that when it comes to especially dealing with, with kids that have been through the foster care system and those that have been in it for so long, that it's like When you've been in the cold and you've been in the freezing cold for so long, even lukewarm feels like burning hot and that so much was true where it had been so long since she was in a loving home that it had been years since she was in like an actual home home where she was loved and appreciated that it often sometimes would feel like it was too much. And so the behavior we all had to figure out, and I call them trauma landmines, right? I would say or do something, or she would say or do something, and then the other would react, and we'd go, wait a minute, what is this? Why are you reacting that way? Why are you reacting that way? But it really, we had to figure it out. And I think no differently than, I would, I assume, because we don't have, we never had bio kits of our own, right?, when your own biological child goes through as they get older and the relationship that they need is different than the one that they needed a couple years before, right? There's different levels of attachment, different ways of attachment. And so knowing how to roll with those punches. Now it's, we do doctor's appointments together. We're helping her furnish her first apartment. There's a lot of hand me downs. She says she goes, her aesthetic is free 99, you know, and a lot of like Taylor Swift memes back and forth. So that's where we are. But yes, so I, but I will say everyone can help in some way, right? Everyone can help in some way.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 50:44

Yeah. Gosh, that's a huge, what an example. What a beautiful way when you were talking about like your grief that you had with losing your brother and your grandmother. Um, You know, they say like grief is love that has nowhere to go, and you have taken that love, and it's overflown, and look what you've created, like look at the impact where you've taken this grief, and you've allowed it to go. To give life in other ways, to start other things, to make an impact in 35 dogs and in the lives of these young people and in Hayden's life and the ripple effect it's going to have as she continues to navigate, you know, being a young adult and starting her life. Um, and it's going to be, you know, from, from you. from Mara. Like that's, that's a huge, what a legacy and what an inspiring way and a challenge maybe to those of us listening to really think about what we can do to ask ourselves more questions. And instead of saying, Oh, I can't, what can we do? Like you mentioned that there's a, there's that large gap and there's lots of, you know, little points,

Mara Shorr: 51:58

right? I would love that anyone that has any questions about Anything that we talked about, right? Um, I have two Instagram accounts. One is simply at Mara Shore. So that tends to be more all of my daily life. So whether it's the business side or the dogs, some of what I do when it comes to advocating with foster care, but that's like the, all of the, all of life. And then I created a separate account just for advocacy, which is at Mara advocates. So. I would love anybody to reach out if you have any questions about anything that we talked about. I'm always here to say, absolutely, let's chat more. And yeah, if I can offer you a piece of advice or something, anything, I'm here for it. I think we all do this together and it's collaboration all the way. I love a good collaboration.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 52:47

Same. Thank you, Mara, for everything, for your friendship, for sharing space with us today, for inspiring the audience, for everything that you do to make an impact in the professional world, in the lives of so many. You rock. And I just want to thank you for your time today. Thank you. Thank you. Sending so much love your way. Thank you. And with that, we've come to the end of another episode. Please make sure you hit subscribe and give me a 5 star review on Apple. Check out the show notes and grab my free Niches Get Riches freelance writing worksheet to brainstorm the best niches for your writing business. Until next time, this is Ashley Cisneros Mejia. Don't forget, we all get this Don't constrain yourself to a box that you were never meant to fit in. It is your right to profit from your own creative gifts. Our music was composed by Donna Raphael of World Instrumentals. Talk Freelance to Me is a product of Fenix Creative Studio.