Garlic Sauce, Sources Needed & Teens Who Went to a BAD Party
Here's what I need sources for this week. Let's collab!
Has else’s week just been extra extra EXTRA nuts? I would say TGIF regarding tomorrow but this will be a weekend of working (I know, I know). But as always, so grateful for the work. :-) I had a minor outpatient procedure last week and took a day-ish off binging Selling Sunset to recoup and am now playing major catch up.
But I want to get this out before the weekend.
Let’s see, what else is going on? I just finished watching Welcome to Eden on Netflix. It’s a Spanish teen show about a group of Gen Zers who receive random text messages from a stranger inviting them to get on this boat by themselves and go to this island to party and sample a new energy drink. They can’t take their phones but the people who live on the island run a cult and at some point, the kiddos realize that maybe accepting a beach party invite from randos is not a good idea. I also walked around the block yesterday (baby steps), which was SO NEEDED after a week of having to take it easy (WHICH I HATE DOING but doctor’s orders). ;-)
Aside from TV binging and some amazing Mediterranean carryout that involved that garlic sauce that just temporarily destroys your breath but is oh so delicious on everything (if you know, you know) another great about this week is that I had some fantastic lunch & learns. Thank you to all the lovely agencies who I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with. I promise I’m not going to plug these in every single newsletter but we’ll do it this round because I’m so fired up on all the amazing feedback I am receiving from these.
Here’s more of the deal on those opportunities: I meet virtually with entire PR agencies & walk them through everything to know about working with a writer. I talk extensively about how things work on my side with outlets like The New York Times, AARP, Parade, Woman's Day, HuffPo, Entrepreneur, Wired, Glamour, Self, People, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Men’s Journal, Hemispheres, Boston Globe, Mental Floss & beyond), provide tips to help your pitch land in a super crowded inbox, how to make your follow-up really work for you, talk about how to get those experts attached to brands that are so hard to pitch into stories, ways to make your pitch better lead to a story, how to still get into print publications, even though so many outlets are dwindling, go over gift guides, affiliate links, how to throw events people will actually attend and more. I also do a thorough Q&A handling agency questions that pop up from your publicists (you won’t walk away without all your questions answered, I promise). I've had such great feedback from these and have thoroughly enjoyed doing them. I love seeing all the note taking that goes on during these sessions and hearing how they are really making a difference.
A few recent comments:
“Amazing session learning the ins and out of PR best practices to pitch freelancers from @NicolePajer A MUST-DO for PR pros!”
“I wanted to say a personal thank you for your time and the thoughtfulness put into today's conversation. Dozens of useful tips for the whole team!”
“I wanted to send a quick note to thank you for the insightful and fun hour with you on Friday! Everyone enjoyed listening and learning from you and really appreciates all of the expert tips and insight. Thank you for offering this service!”
“Nicole! I can't tell you how amazing today was. You are a wealth of knowledge and cannot thank you enough! I hope more agencies take advantage of these sessions with you. EVERYONE needs to book time with you :)”
“Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today! The team found it incredibly helpful and we are excited to work with you more moving forward.”
“Had the best lunch & learn yesterday with @NicolePajer. So much great insight from a #freelancewriter.”
In addition to helping agencies understand how things work as a writer, it's been great getting to meet new publicists. These are usually an hour long, although I definitely go over if more time is needed and are modeled after talks I've given at universities and panels I've spoken on about these subjects. LMK if you're interested in hearing more. I have some openings coming up.
OK now onto the main event: SOURCES NEEDED (Please respond back to NCPajer@gmail.com if you have someone who is a fit).
Here’s what I’m sourcing for right now:
AARP Bulletin (print)
The New World of Tooth Replacement: Doing a story on the latest and greatest in dental implant technologies with a service sidebar on what to do if you can’t afford a dentist. - Need MDs and dental insurance experts, anyone doing cool things in the dental implant space, products I should know about here.
WebMD
Need an expert on privacy concerns & a clinician to weigh in on a study on the pros and cons of clinical texting.
The study: Hospitals are increasingly replacing pagers with clinical texting systems that allow doctors, nurses and other clinicians to use smartphones to send and receive messages related to patient care while maintaining compliance for privacy and security. A new study from the Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine and Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital is one of the first to describe the clinical texting experiences of hospitalists and nurses, and to consider its effect on inpatient medical team communication. Ultimately, this field of research could impact clinical outcomes, such as patient safety or hospital readmission rates.
Looking for comments on where we're at with clinical texting, the benefits and challenges and concerns and sense of timeline -- when do experts think clinical texting might start to be widely used?
Great Pet Care
Looking for a vet or cat expert for some quotes about the function of cat toe beans.
Looking for a pet nutritionist, vet, or pet lifestyle
blogger for some recipe ideas and quotes for a story on Frozen Dog Treat Recipes to Try at Home
A few pet groomers to talk about the Best Dog Detangler Spray to Help With Mats and Knots
Brookdale’s (The leading senior housing center in North America with 700+ locations) blog
MDs to talk about Mini-Strokes 101
Still need: A few photography experts to weigh in on how to take the perfect camera phone picture
Emmy Magazine
Looking for pitches for upcoming issues. New shows, interesting people in entertainment to profile, anything timely we should know about.
Other pitches: Send me emails on people, places, things I should know about. Always into trend pieces, interesting people to profile and beyond.
A little bit more housekeeping: I’ve had 2 surgeries in the past month (1 unplanned) + my mom in town and we have been in the middle of an unplanned home project that involves electricians and people coming and going so I’ve been a bit behind on pitching. If you’ve sent me something, I promise I’ve looked at it. I have a big stack of things saved to go through when I send out another round of pitches to my editors. I try to write back when I can but don’t have the bandwidth but I do appreciate, read and consider everything everyone sends me - so thanks and keep ‘em coming.
P.S. This was also going on, which was a handful (at least a cute one, right?) And he got so mad about having to wear the cone of shame that he ate my mom’s new underwear when she was visiting. Caught red handed! You can’t make this stuff up! :-)
As always, looking forward to seeing what arrives in my inbox after this round.
<3 Nicole