Today we’d like to introduce you to Marjorie Preston.
Hi Marjorie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m originally from Bowling Green, Ohio. Through the National Student Exchange (NSE) program, I studied for a year in New York City. So, my degree is from Bowling Green State University, and I completed my junior year at Hunter College through the NSE program.
After college graduation, I moved back to NYC for another seven years. I lived and worked in Manhattan for a variety of companies and fields. I worked in advertising, media training, corporate communications, and public relations.
I always kept up my sideline in aquatics as well. I lifeguarded and taught children to swim in Ohio, the summer after graduation at a summer camp in New Jersey, and at locations all over New York City including two different YMCAs, rooftop pools, and a pool in the basement of a church.
One of the companies I worked for in New York was Newsweek, where I worked for three years in the corporate communications department. I enjoyed the work, and management at Newsweek in the late 90s even supported me using their contact lists and even their fax machines to start doing some sideline work in my free time. It was amazingly supportive. At Newsweek, I met some of the smartest and funniest people I have ever worked with.
When my husband and I decided to move back to Ohio (he’s from Akron), we chose Cleveland. When I first came to Cleveland, I worked in aquatics while I built up the PR business. For the first couple of years, I built up my own business, Marjorie Preston Public Relations.
I had a thirty-year career teaching swimming lessons, and have done lifeguarding for seventeen of those years. I don’t teach swimming lessons now due to the pandemic, except to help my own kids (it was overdue). But it has been a reliable sideline.
I’ve lived in Cleveland now for twenty years and I’ve never had a full-time job! The low cost of living has definitely allowed us to raise our kids on one my husband’s income and the gig work and part-time work that I do is not as consistent, but it helps.
I have been the public relations person for Dobama Theatre, done ad sales for Cool Cleveland, asked questions about park users for the Cleveland Metroparks, and employed by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry where I ghostwrote a column for a year. For seven years, I worked for the Sun Newspapers as a theater critic, and I’ve done all sorts of other things including standardized patient work, murder mystery acting, and costumed character work. Currently, I spend a few hours a week conducting surveys for a company out of Solon.
My recent PR work includes helping a local provider of educational materials to edit her reading materials for kids, helping a local author with the local press release for her book launch, and serving on the board of CDPUG, where I learned how to use PowerPoint to give a presentation about myself!
One thing I did as a pandemic pivot was to put out a book entirely made of Ohio jokes at the end of 2020. I had it printed in Cleveland and I recorded an audiobook version in Columbus. My nephew was my producer! The paperback is available exclusively through my website or through independent book shops in Ohio only. It seemed like a good time for it. Everyone was stuck at home and needed a laugh. Of course, I did the PR for the book and received coverage in the Sun Newspapers, Cool Cleveland, and my hometown paper! I have done a few author events: in the Dayton area, several appearances on the east side of Cleveland, and I have a March event planned at the Winchester in Lakewood. The book has helped me to keep my social media presence current!
I have been doing improv comedy for over 10 years and taken a metric ton of improv workshops. My improv group, Angry Ladies of Improv, performed on a bill out of Chicago during the pandemic via Zoom, and pre-pandemic, I taught a basic improv class a couple of times at Notre Dame, filling in for one of the professors. I have also performed stand-up and sketch. I also enjoy karaoke, I am a yellow belt in shorei ryu karate, and took two years of tap dance classes via Zoom during the pandemic.
I appreciate that the relatively lower cost of living in Cleveland has allowed us to be confident in raising two kids and that the city offers them lots of opportunities.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was fortunate to come from a white family and to college-educated parents. I own that privilege. Even our own kids will not have as smooth a road as we did because of the high costs of college now.
My daughter actually started in the CCP program in seventh grade, she takes a college course every semester. It’s possible that when she graduates from high school, she will already have an Associate of Arts. There are ways to get an education now, including employer-sponsored college, but it’s four or five times as expensive as when we went, and the wages aren’t keeping up. So, my husband and I feel very fortunate that even though we came out of college in a recession, it was paid for and it was considerably less expensive than it is today.
I have to say that the National Student Exchange really smoothed the way for my transition to New York City and for me to get perspective outside of my college town. I would advise that high school and college students really look into this program, or something like it, because it allowed me to make that perspective shift and to learn a lot about myself outside of my hometown environment.
When we moved back to Ohio, we were a two-income, professional, college-educated couple who could not afford to live in New York City any longer! And that was what finally drove us to move back to Ohio and CHOOSE Cleveland. So, I hope that we see a real shift toward livable wages. Because they weren’t livable anymore in New York, and we had to find a place where we could save for retirement in a more meaningful way. When an area of the country becomes too expensive for the average person to live there, they will find another place to live!
The pandemic itself really challenged us as a couple and as parents, but it underscored our foresight in buying a smaller home and having one dedicated caretaker parent for the kids (me). I know that it was very hard for two-income families to make it work during the pandemic because something had to give. I think that as a country, we can do better for our working parents. We are so behind in helping with paternal leave and childcare. Hopefully, the pandemic will shine a light.
And since we are raising two neurodivergent kids, they have taught me a whole lot of strategies and given me a lot of insight that I did not have before having kids. The main takeaways being that connection is key and that sometimes with behavior, it’s not a won’t but a can’t. And to come in with patience, or press pause, so that you can respond instead of react!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Marjorie Preston Public Relations specializes in small businesses, nonprofits, and arts clients. In the proofreading and editing arena, I have worked on things like a press release for a one-woman show, writing a bio for a standup comic, or reading through a twenty-page paper to make sure that proper style is consistent, every T is crossed and every I is dotted.
I enjoy public relations pushes where I promote an event or a new product to local Cleveland media. I create custom media lists and original press releases, and you deal directly with the president of the company. Most recently, I have handled local press outreach for a new author’s book launch, where she was featured in at least three online publications as a result of our work.
My kids always come first, but I do not overcommit and I make time to make it work. I work at reasonable rates with efficiency and accuracy. I have never advertised my business!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Trust your gut. Get some perspective. Assume the best of people. Be vulnerable. Have fun. Maintain strong connections with others.
Contact Info:
- Email: marjorie@marjoriepreston.com
- Website: www.marjoriepreston.com
Image Credits
Marjorie J. Preston
Liam Preston
