Contracts & Agreements: Unveiling the Legal Side of Business with Shahara Wright

Roberto Candelaria (Episode Intro) : Hey Are Roberto here and listen, welcome back to the show. So today we’re going to be having a conversation with one of my best friends and also happens to be my attorney. And I think it’s kind of weird for people to be like, Oh my god, your attorney is one of your best friends. But let me tell you Shahara has been an attorney for about 25 years. And she’s a business law attorney and business strategist who loves working with coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, as well as businesses like in that one to $10 million range and been in business for about 25 years. She has seen it all. And so her counsel, her guidance is able to work with small and midsize companies to not only build the business strategies, but the legal strategies. You need to protect your business and protect your brand. So you all it’s going to be a great conversation plus your notepad I’m sure Shahar has got a nugget or two for us. And this is one in a series of interviews that was pre recorded a few months ago that we’re just going to say it’s from the vault as we pull it out. So get your pen get ready to meet my friend Shahar. Right.

Show Intro : Welcome to the Relationships Make Money podcast where it’s all about the people, partners and profits. Each week we’ll explore conversations around partnerships, leadership, our thoughts and profits. And now your host Roberto Candelaria.

Roberto Candelaria : Alright, Shahara So listen, some people may know that we known each other for a hot minute, and others may not. But they about to figure it out, because they’re gonna see that like, this interview may go a little bit different than most it may have a little up down all around, it may have a few inside jokes. It may not. I mean, like, I really don’t know where this is gonna go today. But what we do know is that if Listen, y’all if you are a business owner, if you’re a coach, if you’re a community leader in if you’re just like, hello in business, and like you’re trying to figure out what to do with your life in terms of your contacts, your agreements. And I should say contracts, not contacts, but you know, getting your legal life together and figuring out like, when do I need a contract? When do I need an agreement? Like, what’s the difference between the two, then today’s episode is definitely for you. So I guess let’s start at the beginning. But not the very beginning. Like let’s start with like, you know, you’ve been a licensed attorney for about 20 years. And so what actually led you to the law? Or did the law find you?

Shahara Wright : Oh, wow. So I always seem weird when I say this story, but actually, I have a classic tale, but not so classic tale, which is one my mom was just like, you know, you’d like to argue so you should be an attorney. Right? Like so most attorneys kind of hear that from somebody in their family that they like to argue, but my mom told me that when I was really young, like I was eight and so it kind of stuck with me. Of course, like most eight year olds, I had other dreams of being a ballerina, Princess, you know, a doctor, all those kinds of things, but the only one that stuck was being a lawyer. And so yeah, that’s that’s the, that’s it.

RobertoRoberto Candelaria : I can tell ya, she likes to argue and she often wins. And so like, so from that eight year old self and being like, okay, Mom said, like, you’d like to argue and you like, you know, like, like, where did that go? Like, how did you actually end up like, at law school? Like, like, how did you end up there,

Shahara Wright : my mom had a friend who I’m still who I consider my mentor in law, who allowed me to work in his office. He’s a lawyer and allowed me to work in his office when I was in high school. So I worked in his office, you know, kind of a secretary of terrible secretary, but when then then this. And then I went to college, knowing that I was planning on going to law school, and plus, if anybody knows me knows, I don’t do math. And so I was looking for, you know, a major that didn’t require me to have a lot of math, and that was sociology. That was the least amount of math I had to take was the sociology major. So that’s what I picked. But I knew I was going to law school. So when I came out, you know, my last year of college, I was applying to law schools. I got into all the law schools, but only two gave me scholarships. So one was Alberni and last school in Albany, New York, and the other one was Texas Tech in Lubbock. Texas Tech was a full scholarship and less snow. So I went to Texas Tech y’all see how I make my decisions in life is really that way.

Roberto Candelaria : Listen, she went to tortilla Tech because there was no snow. And listen, y’all Texas people y’all gonna get that like everybody else y’all gonna be like, Why is he calling to attack but Texas people y’all will get it? Yeah, we’ll get it. It’s okay. And you know, I I’m the same way like being from the south we dislike now. Like, when people talk about living up north, and I know there’s people that listen to this that are up north. I’m just like, Y’all live there on purpose. Like, it’s, it’s like it’s cold. And I know y’all say the same thing about us. Yeah, like, Y’all live in Texas. It’s like 110 degrees, like y’all over there on purpose. So like, listen, we all pick our battles, we pick our battles. And so you go to law school, and like you’ve been practicing now, like, over 20 years and like, on this journey of being an attorney, like, Did you always know that it was going to be like small business and nonprofit law? Like, like, did you just know, like, like, what led you there?

Shahara Wright : No, I when I was in law school, when I went to law school, I initially thought I was going to do criminal law that was in my head, I thought I was going to be a prosecutor. And and when you’re in law school, you have like the series of required courses that you have to take in your first year. And then your second year, you have some in your third year, you have a few few lessons, you can do more electives. But in my second year, I took a course called business entities and I honestly just fell in love with with it, you know, the teacher was cool, but I really just liked the nuance of business, the nuance of all the different things that we you know, we’re learning about, and I didn’t feel that way when I took criminal law my first year. So I really enjoyed it. And I just said to myself, this is really what I want to do. So I thought, when I came out of law school, that I would be working for a corporation, I wanted to go in house at a large corporation. And I applied to every possible job there was and could not get a job, just couldn’t even get my toe in the door, much less a foot. And so I really had the option, I think I worked for a family law attorney, which I knew I didn’t want to do family law did that for nine months, I was terrible at it. And I hated it. I went back to work for my mentor that I told you guys about just a moment ago, worked for him for a little while he’s a general practitioner did a bunch of different things. But I just knew that, you know, business was for me. And so I started my own practice. And, you know, that’s where I’m still doing.

Roberto Candelaria : And, you know, I think that like, you know, we’re going to talk about, like I said, at the beginning, like, you know, contracts and agreements, and what’s important, you know, to small businesses, but you said something that I think it’s equally as important to touch on here is that, you know, 20 years ago, coming out of law school that you know, as a woman, as a black woman, you were applying to all these major law firms to major corporations, you just like, they’re like, Nah, like, like, like human coming in here. And so, you know, as a black woman 20 years ago to be like, I’m gonna pave my own way. Like that type of leadership 20 years ago, like, that was really unheard of at the time.

Shahara Wright : Yeah, but I didn’t if you would have asked me, then it wouldn’t have been leadership, that would have been the word I used. Because it wasn’t that for me, you know, it was back then it was it’s I gotta eat. Yes, it was survival. Yes. And so that was what was on my mind. I, you know, I was raised in a single parent household, and I think my mom, you know, work and hustled to make sure that she, you know, made ends meet and did what she had to do. And so that was to me was like, Well, hell, I got my license, you know, I can, I can practice. I passed the bar. So then, you know, there’s nothing stopping me from going out there and earning a living that really was just the thought that I had at the moment.

Roberto Candelaria : Yeah. So I mean, my guess is, like, so many of us, you probably made some mistakes along the way. And I chuckled, because, you know, gosh, this this, I say, game and journey of entrepreneurship, because I say anybody that has done it perfect, like, they ain’t really in business, because Oh, either they Jesus or their line. And, you know, like, I got my guess which one and so, you know, working with so many different entrepreneurs, you know, you and I met around 2015 at a networking event. And, you know, over the past seven years now, we’ve had the opportunity to work together to develop a friendship to, to coach each other and to work in different businesses together. And, you know, through that I’ve had the opportunity to see you literally work with businesses that are true napkin ideas, and I would say some of them didn’t even made it to the napkin yet, like they in somebody’s brain and it ain’t even made it out into the pen to the tip of the pen onto the napkin yet to working with eight figure brands and everything in between. And when you’re thinking about companies that are like, you know, on the tip of the pen about to hit the napkin all the way to eight figure brands, there’s some similarities that just hit all businesses. And so I think let’s start, you know, this conversation with like, you know, what’s the difference? Or is there a difference between an agreement in a contract?

Shahara Wright : I’m not really, um, you know, basically a contract is an agreement, um, you know, kind of the Law School definition is just a set of promises. And that’s really what it is. So there isn’t really a difference between an agreement, you know, and a contract.

Roberto Candelaria : Yeah. And, and the reason that I wanted to ask, the question is, you know, I think that, you know, so many people, and especially, you know, heart based entrepreneurs, and, you know, my creatives, I love my creatives, like, people be like, well, they made me an agreement. And I was like, well, where’s your sign? Well, they made me an agreement. And I was like, but but where? You know, and, and so, like, I guess, could you give the definition of what an agreement or what a contract is? And, you know, maybe not even the the legal agreement, you know, definition per se, but like, in terms of like, for the sake of the rest of conversation today, like, what would be a definition that we could use to play with today?

Shahara Wright : So I mean, it’s, like I said, it’s a set of promises. It’s a set of promises by both people parties, or however many people are involved in it in the agreement to do something, right. So when you have this set of promises you promise to, I’m just going to use I’m promised to be on this podcast. And as part of my finger promise to me is to have me on the podcast and record me, right. Like, these are the promises. And so the question is, now that we have this promise, that creates what we call a duty, and the duty is the responsibility for me to show up and be on the podcast and your duty to actually record the podcast and have me on it. And then when we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, that’s called a breach. And that means that now people are mad, and you can sue someone and all those kinds of things. Now, there’s a lot in between that sandwich, right? But that’s basically what a contract is. It’s a set of promises, I promise to do something, you promise to do something. This is what you get for that promise. And, you know, we’re going to hold each other accountable to that.

Roberto Candelaria : I love how simple that is. And tell me why when you said, like, you promised to record me on this, like, tell me why I looked up at the zoom thing to make sure that the light was on. Guys seriously, like, looked up your I was like, is the light on? It was the whole thing for half a minute. And so, you know, we work with, you know, a lot of coaches, consultants, and you know, different types of entrepreneurs, some ecommerce stuff. But, you know, when you think about coaches, consultants, and you know, entrepreneurs, like, what are a few types of the contracts or agreements that coaches and business owners should have, like, if you were to think like, Hey, these are the top two or three that, you know, every business should have, because let’s be real, y’all. Some of y’all, like y’all got a post it note with with stuff and being like, this is my agreement.

Shahara Wright : So you definitely should have what we call a service agreement, especially for service providers, you’ve definitely need to have an agreement that spells out the roles and responsibilities of the clients and your roles and responsibilities in terms of what to expect. And I don’t mean that it has to kind of detail you know, the day to day and everything you’re going to do and what time you’re going to do stuff. But generally, you know, this is the service that we’re going to provide. This is what you should expect. This is what we expect from you. And those kinds of things should be there. So I think having a service agreement is a must really for for business owners, who especially if service based business owners, I think for creatives, for those of you that use are not just creatives. I mean, I think coaching agreements, and all those kinds of things, especially those that do a lot of social media, do a lot of graphics, hire people to do graphics and things like that. Having releases where those graphics are very important. It’s very important. Making sure that you control the graphics that you have. So you get releases from the people that create them. If you’re doing videos, those kinds of things, those copyright releases so that you can own it is very important. And then I think also, which Tim, which people have but they tend not to understand is your website privacy policies. A lot of business owners really don’t understand what that is and what it means. They just kind of take it from one place and pop it up on their other. I mean, I’ve seen on other people’s websites that they have names of other businesses on their own website policies. So that’s alright important and the reason why websites policies are really important, especially in the United States, and I know everybody has GDPR on the brain, but that’s if you’re, you know, selling in Europe and in, in the UK, but the US doesn’t really have like one set of privacy laws. So all the states now are starting to put in their own privacy laws. And if you can imagine having 50 states worth of, you know, privacy laws and all the differences and how they act, how difficult and complicated, complicated that can be, on top of some piecemeal federal federal laws, that can be really hard. So you want to have to make sure that you have privacy policies that you understand what they are, what they do, it’s a, it is a contract between you and the user, about how you’re going to utilize personal information. And states now are starting to prosecute businesses for misusing information. So those would be the three that I’d say, you know, all businesses, but businesses and coaches and consultants definitely should have.

Roberto Candelaria : Awesome. And I will add one more as a mistake that I made early in business, which is an independent contractor agreement. And, and that was like the early on, like I was, you know, had contractors working with us. And, you know, like, we just didn’t have a clear scope of work, and I was paying them. And they was just like, what we agreed on, aka what I thought we agreed on. And what they thought we agreed on, were two different things when I thought they were being paid when they thought they were being paid what I thought they were doing what they thought they were doing, like, Y’all independent contractors, agreements would have saved us so much time, so many headaches. And so I would add an independent contractor agreement, if you’re working with contractors in your business, could just save you so much time and money and headaches and all that type of stuff. But I want to hit on something you said which is, you know, some people just want to copy and paste their business. Like, and, you know, they feel that, like, you know, I think you said like, they just go to other places, but I’ve seen in, you know, different social media sites that people just like, Oh, I’m gonna go to this coaches site, or this influencer site or this person site and just go and copy and paste their web policies or their Terms of Use, or their, you know, privacy this because, look, if they’re that big, they probably got their ish figured out. So Can Can you talk about just like, you know, people that just like, I’m going to Uncle google it over here. And like, the some of these people, you know, that just because they’re big, like they made better than me that they actually got, you know, documents drafted by an attorney or whatever?

Shahara Wright : Sure. Yeah. You know, I think really, the biggest issue for me is one, when you just copy and paste someone else’s, you don’t know what it says, right? Like, you just change the names. And you don’t know what it says. And so you have something on your website that even you don’t understand. So I think that that’s a problem. The second thing I would say to that is that their business may operate differently from your business. So the point of the privacy policy is to protect people’s what they call personal identifying information, PII, right, so you know, write that down. And so to protect that information, to make sure that the information isn’t sold, how you use it, who gets it, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so, I heard this quote, that you don’t just, you know, collect, you know, information, right? You don’t just store it, right? It moves people, it moves throughout the company. So, yes, you say, Well, I don’t really collect all of this information. I don’t collect credit cards, you know, I do it through Paypal or whatever else. Well, that’s you collecting, right? Even though PayPal is storing it, you may not see the credit card itself, but you are the one that’s collecting it right. And so in Paypal, they will have requirements for your usage that you have a privacy policy and that you use utilize the the that information properly, right, because they expect you obviously and if there’s a breach on PayPal, then you are affected as well, and your clients are affected as well. So you must have your own policy to on top of that, you know, if you’re collecting emails, and you say, Well, you know, I’m just collecting emails, well, if you have independent contractors, you have other people accessing those emails, you have people have access to your customer lists and all that kind of stuff. Then you have their personal identifying information, which is an email address, and other people have access to it. So how are you protecting their information? So So, you know, these are things, that seems simple, right. But also if you get hacked, if something happens, and their personal identifying information gets out, that can affect you, if you’re selling and you know, we have a lot of people here that do affiliate marketing, and so you’re selling other people’s things other people are collecting it, it affects you. So to think that you because you’re a small business and that nobody cares, that is just not true anymore. There are laws that are coming in place that are expected for people that are collecting personal information, big and small companies to be responsible and protect that information. And if I no longer want to be on your list, just me hitting unsubscribe is not sufficient anymore. I can call you and say I want you to delete everything you have about me, that’s in some of these state laws that I say I wanted to delete everything you have about me. And that means you got to go through your system and delete everything that you have about that person. So you need to understand what’s in these privacy policies because of your privacy policy says you can and we’ll do that. And then you don’t have a way to do that, then what are we back to a breach, right? The set of promises that you’ve already broken that you didn’t even know that you had because you copied and pasted someone else’s contract. So that is really why you shouldn’t be just taking something from one set website to another without reading it, understanding it and knowing if it applies to you.

Roberto Candelaria : Yeah, that’s a great explanation, you know, and it is I mean, it’s really as simple from you know, like, me making it Uber Simple, right? Like, going back to the podcast example, you gave us like, Hey, if you say like, you’re going to have me here, like that, you’re going to show up, I’m going to show up, and we’re going to hit record, that when people copy and paste, they don’t even know who’s showing up and when, basically, and so, I mean, it sounds like that these laws are changing all the time, and that we don’t even know that they’re changing. Yes, it sounds like that’s what’s going on. Right?

Shahara Wright : Yes. So especially in the US, it is kind of a hodgepodge, um, situation with privacy laws there several different federal laws that are out there, you’ve got HIPAA, you got the FTC, you’ve got a couple of other federal laws that kind of have some privacy things within it, that are there. But we don’t have like one comprehensive, you know, privacy law, like the European Union did several years ago that everybody kind of went y2k Crazy, if you’re too young for that, sorry, but um, you know, you know, they went crazy over the GDPR. But we don’t have anything like that. So what states are doing is they’re starting to implement these things. And so it started with California, as it always does. And it’s starting to trickle down to other states. And there’s like five other states that have enacted their own privacy laws, and they don’t all look the same, and they don’t all sound the same, and they don’t all apply the same way. So it’s very difficult, obviously, to kind of figure all of that out, because it’s constantly that landscape is constantly changing. And as technology moves at the speed of light, and the law moves at the speed of a snail, you’re gonna constantly see changes, especially in this area.

Roberto Candelaria : Yeah, and, you know, with technology moving so fast, you know, one of the things that, you know, you and I have talked about many times over the years, and you know, and even just personally, like, you know, back in 2015, when we first met, you know, and y’all listening, you know, message me, send me a DM on Instagram, let me know if this is you, like, um, don’t worry, I’m not going to watch you. But like, tell me what you think about this is like, you know, it seems that many entrepreneurs, especially, you know, coaches consultants, like when it comes to getting going in business, that you know, legal matters are not always the first thing that people think about and so when it comes to like, the independent contractor agreements and services agreements and and coaching agreements, you know, they’re not the first things that we always think about it’s the UI let’s get a logo let’s get a website let’s you know, go do all these pretty things that you know we think are like the quote unquote, business and that when later on down the line and usually when it’s Oh, crap happens, like, we’ll go get some sort of legal help or legal counsel once the it’s hit the fan is usually when attorneys hear from us and I don’t know if any of y’all can I relate to that, or if that’s been your process, but, you know, 13 years working with coaches and entrepreneurs, I can tell you that it’s a large percentage of them. And so if that’s you, don’t feel bad, you’re not alone, I’ll just just say that. And so, with that being, you know, so many people Shahara that I’ve talked to that, you know, you’ve now seen with over 20 years in law, and you know, people just feeling like, I can’t keep up, like, they just feel overwhelmed. Like, I know that you’re getting ready to launch something called contracts done, right, that allows, you know, coaches, consultants, small business owners to be able to have access to these documents, these agreements, these contracts, you know, drafted by an attorney, aka, yourself, and other attorneys that you work with to be able to have these privacy policies, independent contractor agreements, other documents that make them accessible to coaches, to other, you know, business leaders, but like, what actually made you go down that path? You know, after 20 years in law? I mean, don’t say me?

Shahara Wright : Well, you know, you’re part of this story, I don’t know why you why you’re trying to extract yourself from it. So I had a lot of people over the 20 years asked me for forms, and I always said, No, because I just was under the belief. And I still have this belief, to some degree, that contracts are custom. They, you can’t really template it like a dress, right? And you go to like Ross and you, you know, put on a dress, and you know, it’s the size nine, but the size nine, you know, may fit, you know, want you one way in one place, and another way in a different place. And so, you know, you just kind of go on with this one sighs Well, I don’t feel like contracts are that way they really are. Regarding, you know, your particular business, how you do business, how it works for you, your particular state. And so I really could not just find a way to do a contract that was kind of a one size fit all kind of thing. I really had a hard time doing that. And so as I’ve gotten older and wiser, I have, you know, realize that a lot of the ways obviously, when I’m drafting, I’m starting from a base, I’m starting from a template, I’ve created some of my own, that I’ve had and use others and kind of bond from there. And instead, okay, these are some base that I’ve always used. And I can always, you know, kind of go from that. So, um, Roberto, and I had a conversation. I don’t know, what was it three, four years ago. Now? It’s been been a long time at this point. Um—

Roberto Candelaria : Yeah, it was a hot minute, because it was it was yes. Puppet to report. I mean, it was, yeah, I will say this, we’re recording this sometime, you know, right around August 2022. And this conversation was before the start of the pandemic. So like, we—Yeah, it’s been three, four years.

Shahara Wright : Yeah, it was either I think it was 2018 or 2019. I’m not sure when exactly, we had the conversation. And we were talking about, you know, me getting my life together. Um, as you know, if you’ve had a chance to talk to Roberto, that’s usually a cop, he usually end up having. And so I, you know, this con, this concept of creating templated contracts coming back up, and I said, let me see if I can find a way to do this, that I would be satisfied that somebody could use it. Because my worry is that people would take it, and then you know, make it worse for themselves and not be able to use it. And so we really talked about how to make that happen. And so I just went back to my base, and said, Okay, these are the base contracts that I have, these are the ones that I use, these are the templates that I use, these are ones I build upon. And I think that, you know, I made them in a way that are simply simple enough that people can understand them and utilize them in, you know, their everyday lives, so to speak. And then I also know, and I’ll tell you guys, like I’m not cheap anymore, you know, saying there used to be a time when I first came out of law school, I charge $75 An hour I’m way past that, right. So I know how expensive it is to have a custom contract drift drafted by an attorney, how much time that takes and how hard that can be for people that are just starting out and so I wanted to be able to do something for people that are in that place but also be protected. So that is my long story about contracts downright.

Roberto Candelaria : I love that you decided to like I’m not cheap. Yeah, and you know, and y’all and it was it was really a conversation around like, how do we you know, Shahara and I have A common love around entrepreneurship and just really this opportunity that really is this American dream, especially for communities of color, people of color to, really, for the next generations of us to do better than really like, are the literally the people that came before us to have ever done, you know, Shahara. And I can tell you that I believe that for both of us, we’ve created more revenue than, you know, the people that came before us have, and it’s so crazy to think that we’ve been able to do that and to give back to our families and to create new possibility for those that will come after us whether that is, you know, children and the case of Shahara, her two sons, or, you know, for Warren and I, our nieces, and you know, to be able to be that example. And so to create that is just so awesome. And so, in the shownotes, they’ll be you know, you’ll be able to go to contracts done right.com And have a coupon code to be able to get some discounts and stuff over there. But one last question is we had out today Shahara actually, two more, if someone’s not in a place that, you know, they can head over to the contract. It’s done right, and, you know, get something there yet. Like, if they’re like, Hey, I like need to do this on my own right now. What are three core things people should have in a contract.

Shahara Wright : So this is gonna sound really simplistic, but it actually is a problem when I see people draft their own contracts. So my bias is gonna show but I just I see these issues. And so these are things that I want you to know, it’s one thing to know who the parties are, right? Right, know who is a part of the contract. So many times, I have found people come to me and they want to enforce a contract, they want to sue, they want to send a demand letter, and the name on the contract is not who they were actually dealing with. And so that’s a problem. Sometimes, you know, it’s the name of the company, but the company isn’t really the right company, because you know, they were using a DBA and not the actual, you know, name of the corporate name, sometimes there was an individual, but they had some weird company, and they didn’t know what the company is. So knowing who you’re dealing with, is really the most one of the most important things and having the right names on the contracts, who’s responsible for that, remember who the who the promises are made to, and who were going to be responsible for holding those promises, that’s something important to have. Number two would be payment. And I don’t mean just like you owe me $1,000, and you got to pay me $1,000, right, that’s simple. But a lot of arguments come over when that $1,000 was supposed to be paid, how that $1,000 was supposed to be paid. Those kinds of things. And so if you have, you know, something where you know, it’s $1,000, and you got to pay it via this vehicle at this particular time before you know, services start or this much down, and then that one, you need to explain that. Because I tell people all the time, people will fight over $5 If you think for any reason that that portion of your contract does not need to be clearly spelled out. And in very basic terms, you need, you know, you need to make sure that you do that, because people will argue about $5. And so anything more than that, you know, you’re gonna have an argument on your hands. And then last but not least, termination. I think this is one of the most important parts of a contract is your termination and how do you get out of a contract. A lot of times with small business owners, they want to have like, you can’t ever cancel, you know, no termination, or they go to the extreme, it’s like, you can just cancel whenever you want. And so and then they get mad when people cancel. So I think having a really clear termination policy, make sure if you really are month to month, and people really can cancel whenever they want, then you need to ensure that your payment systems are set up to that way. So that you know, okay, they paid you $5,000 For a year contract, but then you saying they can cancel whenever they want, well, they’re gonna want some of that $5,000 back. So you need to figure out like how that works. Um, if you’re going to have like a no cancellation policy, you need to give some people room about when they can cancel when they can change their mind when they can get their money back. Because that causes anger that causes chargebacks that causes problems. And so you need to be able to give people a way to exit the contract not just for your clients but for you as well. Because you may realize you don’t like them. And so therefore, you know, you want to get rid of them. So you need to Have an out. And so those would be my top three things.

Roberto Candelaria : I’m gonna add one more. And, again, y’all this is from a mistake that I made. You know, if you notice, like, we went over here saying, like, especially and I’m not saying, These are the things I learned from my business biggest successes in business, like, these are the things I learned from failures. Make sure whoever signed the contract is actually an authorized signature, like authorized to actually sign it. So y’all, I did a deal. Like when I first started in business, and the person that signed it wasn’t authorized to sign it. So I had those things that Shahara said, but then I couldn’t get paid because the person wasn’t actually to sign on behalf of the company. So yeah, just just make sure that they authorized to sign the contract, too. So that was a very expensive lesson learned. And so again, learn from that. Okay, so last question here, as we head out is this is, I know that you love small business, I also know that you love being a mom. And so for the moms listening, and you know, everybody else do but for the moms listening, for the moms out there doing business, like what would you say to them about being a mom and doing business and keeping going?

Shahara Wright : It’s hard, y’all, it’s hard. It’s really hard. And it’s hard, really, to balance, um, where you need to spend your time and how you need to spend your time. I know that all the moms out there experience mom guilt to some, you know, degree or you know, at any particular time, and it kind of comes in waves. But I think really what has helped me and that’s not to say that I’m perfect, but I guess that it’s helped is really kind of choosing what kind of mom I want to be in when, you know, I tell the story all the time that when I came out of law school, we had to take what we call continuing legal education. And there’s like some beginning, continuing legal education that all you know, new attorneys have to take, you have to take this class and one I took one and I this lawyer came in was a very prominent attorney in Houston at the time. And he was talking about his relationship with his son, I honestly don’t remember what else we talked about at the Cle. This is the only thing that has stuck with me over the 2023 years. But he was talking about his relationship with his son and I had a young son at the time. And so he was saying how he really had a lot of regrets and that his son was, you know, still angry with him for missing out on a lot of different things in his life. And so even though his son now is a grown was a grown man, that they still had some issues because of how much time he missed away from his time because he was building his practice and you know, in doing this thing, and so I remember that that stuck with me. And the thing that I said to myself was that I never wanted my kids to feel like I wasn’t there for them that I wasn’t present in their lives that you know, I was a mom. Now I may have taken that a little bit to the extreme to where I was like, so present with them that wasn’t printed with my business, and maybe could have made a little bit more money if had been a little less bad, more and more balanced. But, you know, I tell people, my oldest, my eldest son can argue with me about a lot of things. He can be mad at me about a lot of stuff, but he can’t ever say that wasn’t there for him. I was at the soccer games, I was on the PTO. I was doing all the things. And so I feel that way. And now with my, my younger son, he’s still I’m still there, but I we just had a conversation the other day and I said, Listen, mommy’s trying to build her business Mommy wants to do more. And I really want to, you know, make more money and I want to build a bigger business and so I can’t do the things for you that I used to do in baby you he’s 14 now. So you know, he’s he’s got time to take care of himself, but I can’t do all those things. And so I need you to understand and I need you to help me out. And he was understanding and so I think just those two extremes, right, of being able to say where you are now and being able to have your kids as a part of that and understand that I think makes the difference mommy guilt will still be there. But I think for us women we have to find what drives us and what we want in life and not drive drown ourselves in our kids to the extent that we forget about that we’re that we’re women and that we have you know, goals and dreams ourselves. So that’s it I was really long sorry.

Roberto Candelaria : No, it’s good. It’s good. You heard that remember your goals remember your dreams and it’s been awesome to see you do that because well I don’t know when this is actually going to air but you know, as a woman as a single mom, you know raising your child out as of well the recording of this which we already told y’all is around August 2022 already hit six figures this year as a single mom and got your kid off to high school in one piece alive like you out there crushing it. So, y’all thank y’all for joining us for the episode. Be sure to catch the website the show notes. As always, hit me up in the DMS and we will chat with y’all soon.

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