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[Music] hello and welcome back to another episode of school days where we go behind the scenes with creators and get their creative process and we also learn a few things in the tutorial but today I have a special guest we're here with my girl no lemon Dez hey girl are you doing I'm doing well how are you I'm good we're so excited I know you're dialing in from Punta del Este Uruguay so how things been like there on the ground like what coated they're getting better we've had less than a thousand cases still today in three months we didn't have a mandatory quarantine but people have really been observing isolation and wearing masks and being really careful we're now being praised some people are calling us the New Zealand of Latin America so I'm really proud of the way things have been handled here but for those who are tuning in now Lola you know she's been describing you know that she's now living in a way but is very accomplished free nurse journalist so she has bylines on like most magazines that you're gonna pick up in lots of different sectors so from sustainability to travel to entrepreneurship you know focusing really on people of color and the list is endless and me was to say travel and some of these publications like CNN himself folders Lonely Planet I mean I could probably sit here just getting to the list your publications that you've been featured in but you know the one thing that I'm impressed with is that the your acceptance rate whenever you do pitch publications it's 35% where the industry standard is 12 I mean tell me about that like what what what is the sauce you've got and can I get a bit of that I get outside all the time and it really comes down to this is my job if I don't pitch I don't land stories I don't get paid I don't eat so I think a lot of feelings writers don't do this full-time so they might not be generating as many pitches that I do which I'll get into into the presentation how many pictures I think you should do when you're just starting out but I spend 50 to 100 pitches a month and during coronavirus I've had to double that and it hasn't been easy my pitch acceptance rate right now is not 35% but right now I am just grabbing for whatever I can get that is a testament to you like being like hustling honestly hustling and in really just showing like your expertise in the industry that you work in so in fact that you can even get work during the time when so many people are struggling to find work and especially you know as a journalist as a freelance journalist I mean so what has that been like kind of as you've moved from maybe having a much higher pitch submission rate to now having a bit of you know just lower let's say a lower pitch submission very good um you know what are some of the things you're finding that you're having to do differently right so my main focus is travel I've been travelling for five years so tourism is the bread and butter of everything I do both personally and professionally it's the majority the articles when pitching are usually focused on the culture the food the people or the destination and I've spent time in I started to see a lack of interest in travel stories all the way back in February especially focusing around Southeast Asia where I spent four years so it's very to see editors say you know we're not really gonna be publishing guides about that region while we figure out what's happening fast forward to May this is happening all over the world so travel writing has changed drastically now I've had to pivot I've been pitching things that are travel adjacent so I wrote about when we started to have nightly applause here in Uruguay and I talked about other countries that are doing that I just had a piece published today on CNN about the largest flora and fauna on earth so there's a Travel fundamental part to that right that you could travel to see these creatures but for now you can learn about them online I've done my fair share and virtual travel pieces I did a virtual street art tour for budget travel but that's probably making up about 20% of my workload right now I've had a pivot end to other fields I've never written about healthcare but I had people in my community that are working on the front lines as trauma nurses anesthesiologists so I tapped into them to see if they would want to share those stories and they all said yes I started to pitch that out to publication so I've been writing quite a few pieces for the self what it's like Q&A series where I've talked not just to medical professionals I also interviewed a long-distance couple I interviewed a grocery store worker I interviewed a paramedic I interviewed someone who is a distiller and now instead of distilling vodka they're making hand sanitizer for free for their community so just trying to pivot which I think it's a critical part of being a successful journalist that you have to always be an expert in the topic you're pitching and if you're not an expert you don't have to let other voices shine through I have no business telling anybody what to do about coronavirus I do not have a health background but I can enter the people who are experts in this field and you can share advice and help them get that out there in the world by working with publications like self or L feel like this time we've been learning so many new skills and for many people pitching might be a new skill that they're going to learn and I think you are just such a great resource for that you know with not just your high acceptance rate but I think your voice because you have such a unique voice so I can't write into things and I would love people to be able to learn from you so I want to preface it by saying that even though now isn't a great time to be sending pitches and getting acceptance rates it's a really good chance to work on your craft all right I'm gonna show you the structure of a pitch but I can't come up with your ideas so now is the time that you can start to be you know focusing on what it is you want to write about what kind of ideas you think are worthy being published and then focus on how to write a pitch start looking for those contacts I was still pitching actively you could absolutely be pitching right now if you're new to this and a little bit hesitant it's fine to take the time to learn the skill before you actively start participating so on that note let's jump right in right so this is the basics of pitching publications ulanda already gave me a great introduction but as she said I'm a self-taught independent journalist this week I've had articles published on scene and himself and I work with many other digital and print publications I write about travel sustainability culture social justice and many other topics I'm often complimented on my pitching profits zeal under said my equipment rates usually around 35% this has changed during coronavirus but I'm not worried it'll get back up there once things have calmed down a bit I usually spend 52 pitch 50 to 100 pitches a month about half of those are recycled ideas meaning I've already sent the pitch to one publication they've rejected it or not responded and then I recycle it and send it to another publication the other half are new ideas that I've developed that month with the initial publication in mind if you're just getting into this I recommend starting with 3 to 5 pitches a week it can take some time to come up with the idea and do the research and we formulate your pitch into a place where it's ready to be sent to editors I want to say that this is my experience and what I have found to be the best pitching practices in the last four years working as a freelance journalist it is not the be-all end-all many other people have other tips they use and use other formulas they've had other success using different kinds of communication tools but this is what works for me there are a few different types of pitches that you should be aware of these you want to make it clear from the start what it is you want to write are you doing a feature is it an interview is it a how-to a profile a roundup or a service piece evergreen pictures are stories that are not linked to the news cycle so they're always going to be relevant they're not linked to a holiday or that's currently happening like coronavirus timely news hooks are things that might be in demand so they are related to a new book release an upcoming holiday world endangered animal day or something like that they're going to be more competitive to place so you might want to start with evergreen pitches and I'm also an sas so I write personal narratives about my own lived experiences often tied into the new cycle and the best advice I've ever received about pitching and writing personal narratives that they should not be a page from your diary you need to let the reader see themselves in your prose so before you even get started you need to think of your idea is pitch worthy a lot of pitches are going to be sparked from your lived experiences and your expertise but you need to make sure there's an actual story there that we're going to engage readers you need to find an angle that hasn't been reported on within the story a reader needs to be able to learn or being ordained once you have your you need to think about what publication it could be a good fit for the first thing to do and I forget this sometimes and I think I have a really unique idea is to make sure the publication hasn't already covered it there gonna be a lot of times where you're gonna think you have an idea that no one else has ever had and you might pitch it to the location and the very next day they might publish something they didn't steal your idea right it's very possible to other people are thinking of something similar now let's say you have your topic in mind for instance street art in virtual street art if you see that the publication is already covered a general street art guide you want to spin the angle there's something I've done recently after I noticed that a publication I wanted to write for already published a virtual street art guide I thought well what if we focus on one particular famous artist someone like thanks Pete or if you wanted to go see the work of art you might be lining down the street for hours just to get a look at the painting virtually you can get a front row row front row seat to that painting at any time right so hone in your idea and make it specific you want to become familiar with the publication's coverage and tone to make sure your idea is relevant you don't want to pitch a very female centric concept to Amend publication you don't want to pitch something that isn't is travel related to a publication that never covers travel to become aware of what they cover before you send your pitch and then you need to figure out who to pitch which we'll get into later how to find contacts but you can't just send your pitch to any editor at a publication everyone has a job right they're working on specific desks which means the section of the magazine or paper they're working on so it could be the sports desk the art desk the culture desk you want to find the right contact for the vertical you're trying to pitch another thing which is an excellent resource the publications media cut this is traditionally what's used by advertisers to gauge the value of placing an ad but within this media kit you'll find demographics about their consumers which is going to make it clear to see if your story it would be a fit for that readership along those lines a lot of publications also publish style guides and pitching guides you see these often and calls for pitches or they might even be on the contact us page of a website with you want to read these very carefully because the editor is giving you a golden ticket to exactly what they're looking for and exactly the kind of correspondents day when I have with freelance writers to be sure to make note of the tone the style what kind of pictures they absolutely are not looking for and a golden nugget to keep an eye out for is that many of these guidelines will use a specific keyword they want writers to use in the subject line and it's often something strange like banana and editors use this to know that you have read the found ID and you are prepared to write an article to their tone within your pitch you also want to find related and relevant stories to reference from the website everybody wants SEO not just bloggers so you want to be able to show that you can back link to other post from that publication that are relevant so I try to include one or two in my pitch and also make note of who your sources would be are you gonna be talking to mental health representatives are going to be talking to tourism boards who's going to be giving you the information that you're presenting are you going to be crediting certain studies now where is information coming from your editor wants to know that from the get-go to know that you're going to be reporting on something properly okay so everybody wants to know where to find contacts I know so many people don't like Twitter but let me tell you I only use it to find editor contacts most editors are on Twitter they use it to tweet out their stories to the portlet publications but also to find writers so these are some of my top tips of how to use Twitter at the freelance journalist to find work and also to let editors find you so a call for pitch pitches is when an editor needs a certain specific story and they're letting people know my inbox is open maybe they're looking for stories of traveling across northern Africa maybe they want to know Renaissance pieces from the middle or middle age piece as you know from Europe and how that affects culture today it could be anything especially during times like now coronavirus I think it's really important to respond to culture pitches in a timely manner that's public information everyone's seeing it at the same time if you send in a pitch one or two days later probably just gonna get deleted right because this person's inbox is gonna be flooded immediately once they post that so time is of the essence don't rush make sure your picture than a good place before you send it but don't allow the gap on these kind of things so editors also have their role and email address in the Twitter BIOS usually and once you know the way a publication's email configure is configurated you can essentially pitch any editor if you know their first name and their last name maybe its first initial last name at publication comm maybe its first name underscore last name publication com but once you have that structure and you know editor names you can play around with that until you get the right email address let's say you have no idea what editor to pitch you can go into the search bar in Twitter and search for instance refinery29 editor and then Twitter is going to pull for you any bio that has refinery29 and editor in it and then you'll have a list of potential editors that you could pitch another great resource is to look at who writers are following on Twitter I follow on sallows and editors on Twitter and I keep a private list of those editors to myself that I then go through to look for calls for pitches however you could easily go into my Twitter and see who I'm following and just start following every editor that I'm following there are also public twitter less now some editors that told me they don't love these because they don't want to be doxed which it's hurt has happened I have a public Twitter list which can be of great help is to the list of bi POC editors and I think they're close to around 300 right now so you should definitely follow all those editors on Twitter and the last thing to keep in mind with Twitter is add your by length to your Twitter bio my instead is letting a writer for CNN have posts and other publications and then have a pin tweet listening again the publication's that you write and having a link to your portfolio you can also join Facebook groups for journalists which have many calls to pitches and editor contacts and sign up for newsletters that round up these calls for pitches some page services include study hall and opportunities of the week I also retweet calls for pitches as often as I can so you can follow me on Twitter at Lola Anna Mendez now let's get into the pitch the most important thing to start with is your subject line this is how you're gonna peg the story you know hook the editor so your suggested headline should be crafted to fit the style of the publication so make noticed do they use uppercase or not throughout and include that as your subject before you have the headline you should write writer pitch this way the editor knows and it's not a pitch from a publicist and it's not a junk email if you're writing something that's really urgent you can put timely but me mindful opus timely means something that you need a response for in the next 24 to 48 hours you should also include in the body of the email your time frame for when you're gonna have to move on to another publication if you don't hear back back to those networking groups that we were mentioning about such a study hall or different Facebook groups if you're in the same group you can utilize that connection and write study hall write or pitch an example that you can find here at the bottom is kind of the way that I format I headlines an example you can find at the bottom is the way that I format my subject lines so let's get into pitch basics you should not be using your blog email to pitch publications personal bloggers aren't journalists you don't want to get turned away from an editor just because they see your emailing from your blog name such as line lola atmospherically sitcom I send my pitches from Lola and Mendes at gmail.com remember pitches aren't stuff you cover letters in fact they're actually a writing sample you want to present your idea in a casual yet professional manner you don't need to say dear mr. Mendez or dear whoever it may concern you can just say hey Lola hi Lola you want to be concise and conversational you're gonna be polite but not a pushover you need to show that you're confident in your idea don't use words like I just wanted to see if you like this be assertive your pitch needs to be short editors are getting hundreds of the other day and you don't want to lose their attention I think it's the best to keep your pitch under 300 to 200 words after you've written your pitch you have to spellcheck it you will have so many type of that you don't even notice I am super guilty of this I also suggest reading your pitch out loud for flow before thinning now when we comes to formatting the pitch in the first paragraph you want to introduce the idea right if you're doing a simultaneous pitch for something timely like we were just discussing you need to let the editor know that right away you don't want to waste our time if you're sending the pitch to multiple publications and one publication that's already accepted it your pitch is an elevator speech you need to always cover the who what when where and why of what it is that you want to write so you should start with a story idea and desired vertical so you want to ask them would you be interested in wah-wah-wah-wah reported narrative essay article about this for that vertical this shows that you're familiar with the publication and also that you know what types of stories to editor work fast the next section should be a few two sentences about the story this is called the Len you also need to include a sentence about your plan for sources and research if it's relevant if you're pitching something that the hybrid reported and they're at at East you need to make it clear how you're gonna use your lived experiences to support article something I always like to do access you with travel stories if to mention that I have original photos available for an additional fee you should save your credentials for the end this is how when you will show why you're the best writer for the story you should include links never attachments to three relevant clips your portfolio and information on the beats you typically cover I always say I'm a freelance writer with work published in let's say CNN Rio digest and Parade magazine my portfolio can be seen here which is linked out I usually write about culture sustainability social issues etc your pitch is a sale so you need to close it like one thank the editor for their time and their consideration and leave a call for action something like I look forward to your feedback and then your professional email signature is key again what we're talking about before you want that editor to be able to find your information easily so I have underneath my name a link to my portfolio and all my social media handles my skype in my email ok this isn't a big undertaking for a lot of writers but you need to have a portfolio you can use plenty of free resources such as muck rack or contantly where all you have to do is plug in the URL of your story and it populates it into a portfolio for you constantly it's also a great way to find the editor it's because editors view that you look for writers I personally use my crack constantly and trap me dia as well as having my own personal portfolio with muck crack and constantly you can organize them I organized organized muck rack by publication date so I keep my most recent article at the top but constantly I organize it by my product clips so I keep my print clips at the top and then my biggest publications at the top that's what I want an editor to see first on my own portfolio website I used my name Lola and min dance a lot of people add in writer or journalist and get a little bit creative with that but keep it simple and again don't use a blog name make it your name you want to be easily google-able on your portfolio you should have an about page which shared some information about who you are and what your experiences are you can see an example of mine to the right of the screen here and you want your contact details to be easy to find I have all my social media icons and an email icon at the top of my website which is available on all the different pages and then I have a drop-down for each of my main beats which highlights my talked stories that talk about social justice sustainability of tourism health and wellness food and drink and also personal narratives so you've sent the pitch but you didn't hear back don't give up in this industry you have to follow up on pitches when you do this forwarded the email and edit the subject line so instead of having forward delete that and just type in follow-up slash the subject line you had before which is writer hich and your headline I such a falling up three times before moving on to a new publication many of my Commission's come from my first or second follow-up not my initial pitch for something most timely like these times during coronavirus I've been following up every three days so it's something that's evergreen and doesn't need to be published in a timely manner I follow up weekly I get asked a lot about what you should include in follow-ups and I think we overthink this my follow-up is super simple I say I'm checking in do you want this story please let me know either way the next thing that you have to do is track your pitches so many writers that I know just in their pitch it out and wait for responses I did this for the first year and a half and lost so many opportunities because I had no idea what I had sent where when I had sent it and who I had sent it to so now I use a tracking document with Excel which is super simple you can see an example at the bottom here and I am meticulous about updating this I update my pitching doc after every email that I send and you can see here it's just simply organized by publication pitch I use the subject of my email because I can then quickly plug that into my email to find the last correspondence the date I sent the pitch the first follow up second pull up third follow up the status result in any notes I whenever I get rejected I like to make a note of why it was rejected because it helps me when I want to pitch the editor again something else if they said they really don't want personal essays well I won't pitch them a personal essay again but I'm not going to remember that for every email I sent so this note section is a huge part of my success rate all right that is my introduction to the basics of pitching publications I do offer a one-hour consultation service within this opportunity you'll be added to my Facebook community where writers share calls for pitches there's a document over 300 editorial contacts and we brain from pitching ideas together with this tool I truly believe you can easily earn back there's two hundred dollars you invested in the consultation service before we have our meeting I will ask you to send drafts of one two three pitches for me to edit so I will actually go through your pitches with you and edit them to show you the way that I would send that particular pitch in addition you can send three to five other ideas that you'd like to brainstorm for future pitches if you're not ready to draft pitches don't worry we can we can take it from step one and I can share example successful pitches with you before our call other things that we can discuss our pillows for accepting pitches for instance I have five pillars that I rely on before I say yes to an assignment how to negotiate fair rates to try an extremely passionate about getting past rejection and seeing it as an opportunity as I say when one door closes another door opens where to find sources how to improve your pitches and crystallize your story ideas and anything else that you might need to enhance your journalism career well I hope to get to work with you soon oh my goodness Lola you were dropping gems girl so many things there like it was just I love how you were straight to the point and you really got to the heart of the matter with lots of different takeaways I think that the audience can really get ok we get quite a few different people watching the program so I'm sure those that are tuning in you might be content creators or bloggers in aspiring to write in different publications on Lola one thing you really did point it out like just specifically even with the email address is making sure that you have separate identities because identity as a content creator blogger potentially is quite different from that of a freelance journalist and they of course they do like in like on our perspective from Oh Mona with the world that we work in you know we'll get commissions from publications but then we have completely separate work you know as content creators working with brands so it's quite it is quite different sometimes those worlds do kind of kind of get mixed in mom a little bit but I like that you really do focus on trying to separate those especially when it comes to talking to editors and establishing those relationships you know why why do you feel like that is so so important there's a major difference between blogging and journalism that when you have a personal blog it's your voice and your tone and your experiences with the style that you want when you're writing for a publication you have to adhere to the way they want the story to be told so I'm using like 25 different tones and voices any given week right of course the publication reaches out to you through your blog email they're contacting you because they want your voice and your story right and they'll let you know how you need to tailor that to be a fit for their audience but if you're sending a cold pitch an editor might assume oh this person the blogger they have no idea how to change their voice to fit my publication so you want to skip that you don't want to have to go through that and lose an opportunity because of an assumption that someone might be making that is the key reason why I suggested I'm a blogger and journalist myself love blogger if I'm not hating on bloggers if in any kind of way but they are different fields and I think is so important to recognize that you know in terms of those that might necessarily not be writing but they might be photojournalist or they might be video journalists would you say that the pitch would be quite different or any I mean it would there be any major changes and the type of format that you would have I do sell photos often to go with my stories but I haven't ever pitched me that's just a straight photo essay but I have seen calls for pitches typically for that I would think you would probably want to include a link to a contact sheet you know small low res icons or the photos people to be including you never want to submit anyone your high res photos until you have a contract because you never know how they might misuse those right but I think within pitching guidelines they'll be specific requests for photo essays I see that a lot like I know NatGeo they do photo essays and a scene and travel is really interested in getting more video essays so I would pay attention to the way they want to receive pitches and you'll learn from it I mean I've learned how to craft a pitch after four years of sending some really crappy pitches you know and then so your first pitch isn't gonna be great unless you you know really pay attention to guidelines like this and really hone in on your craft you might have success from the start but if you just do whatever feels right it's probably gonna be a mess until you figure out the business aspect of it I see some of my first pitches and just like how did anyone hire me to write that and I'm always learning I have some friends that will edit pitches for me still you know especially if I'm sending a pitch to an editor they work with often and they know the way to editor like to communicate they might have some small changes that could land me that assignment you know process other than everything in life do you feel like in terms of on both sides as a blogger and as a journalist people like your work in either sector has influenced the other for sure I've definitely had publications reach out to me after reading my blog wanting me to write about specific issues there and on my blog is where I have a chance to really let my voice shine you know I try to write responsible travel guides for every place I've been to and I sometimes use an example for the kind of things that could write I've been doing for the last year most of my press trips I've been doing have been for journalism but my experience with questions started as a blogger right and having those experiences made me learn the way that people the expectations that PR has the expectation that tourism boards have to be completely transparent my background is in PR so I definitely think I have an advantage over some of my peers for understanding the way public relations work I also think that's why I'm meticulous about my database why I'm fearless about rejection and why I can do multiple ideation in any given day because that's really what I was taught to do it took me a long time transition into journalism I thought I didn't go to journalism school I have no experience in this I have no right to be a journalist but my first internship and I was having team with the LA Times metro mix and then I went on to write for The Young and the Restless for CBS when I was 17 years old but so jaded I had no idea how cool that was but writing was at the beginning of my career and when you work in PR and marketing you're writing press releases you're writing pitches you're writing media alerts you're writing um press materials all day so I was writing constantly throughout my career but in a much more structured professional way so getting to break that down into journalism and having a more conversational tone but took me a few years to really get used to but now I feel like I'm in a comfortable place of it but leaning on that corporate background experience I think helps me keep things tight and to the point and then also adding in my own kind of personal prose that makes a peace of mind you know I completely forgot the Ebert or the really Restless at such a young age it must have been like an iconic kind of job seriously it was so wild it was 2007 there were not a lot of blogs out and all soap-opera they were launching a fashion magazine so they decided to make a real fashion magazine with a blog and this is like I don't even if it was on WordPress but it was it looks like the most basic WordPress you could've ever seen I'm pretty sure with a burgundy background and I was the team was so small I was working with an editor who came from the Rolling Stones Peter McClain Elizabeth Stewart who is one of the top fashion stylists and at the time her existent was George Kotsiopoulos who now has his own show don't want me news so it's the three of them and me was 17 years old from Kansas I had no business being there but I loved fashion though in fashion school and I think that kind of that naive and that hunger for it is what landed me there and that was actually a paid internship which was like unheard of in 2007 and our first cover shoot was like Katy Perry the day I kissed the girl at number one on top 40 and I remember I had to go to the Chanel store to get a different dress she wanted to wear and it was just all so surreal and I'm super glad to be out of fashion and celebrity but you know I have to have to give thanks and praise those experiences because they all led to wearing him today an incredible story and even though you don't necessarily work in fashion I'm gonna quote now I think all of that experience as yeah it's just really impacted you such a unique way that mentality of leaning into your lived experiences is so important and that that's how I became a travel writer so I had been traveling for probably a year and a half and I for the first year and a half I was teaching English in Spain which I regret and I don't think anybody should be an English teacher if they do not have an education in teaching and I was doing some PR stuff on the side it was really difficult to be in Spain doing PR for people in the US I couldn't meet with editor that a different time zone and I was focusing on charities and sustainable project products and just wasn't working out and I kind of I stepped away for a man and then I was in a Facebook group and this girl her name is Alex from travel fashion girl was like I'm looking for writers - right packing guides for different cities and I was like how I been to all those cities yeah I've heard I worked in fashion I packed to go to those places do this and I sent in probably like a long cover letter and a resume as if I was applying for a job not a freelance writer and I got it and my first article I wrote in that time right so this is after the LA day spot my first travel article was what to pack - where to rely and it came out in November 2016 and you know I look back on that and I made 5 cents a word and I was astonished that anybody who pay a nickel for the and and and when and if these words are worth five spent I just couldn't believe it you know and now I earn between 50 cents and a dollar or word and that's that's just in four in four years you know and you know those articles are silly they're packing guides they're not hard heavy-hitting research but I'm so so proud of them because I was scared as hell I thought what business do I have having a byline anywhere yeah you know and Alex was such a fantastic editor and she ended in the way where I could see the changes she made she was constantly encouraging she would let me know and she saw my work was improving she would let me know where I needed to work harder and from there I got the encouragement to start reaching out to other publications you know and the rest is really really history and then through joining different Facebook groups or connecting with other writers on Twitter's I started to find out what fair rates are and what I should be getting paid and that you know forty dollars an article for an article it took you hours of research to write isn't really fair you know what I used to advocate for yourself and at the left Tina's something I'm always thinking about is that for every dollar or a white man makes I make 93 cents so I negotiate like a mediocre white dude which i think is advice we could all yeah assertive be confident if you're sending out a pitch it means you are confident in the idea and you believe it the fit of that publication and you believe it's a story that needs to be written and read um one thing that I noticed when we started like writing for publications was not having a strong enough understand of the different terms in the journalism world and I felt like that that is super important to understand as well and knowing different terms and so just really quickly like what are your top would you say top five terms you know that you without they would say like hey this is what you like things like byline in the very beginning you know I thought like was understanding like what that meant like sub-editor like understanding like different roles and you know all the things so I mean what are your top five I'm right there with you like I said I'm completely self-taught I didn't go to journalism school so in the beginning I was googling like what is a graph which is G GRA F why isn't it paragraphs what is a nut graph what is a lead you know what is a byline so I utilize Google a lot and honestly sometimes I still do I wouldn't see my understanding of these things are perfect but a byline is your name's being credited with the article right so it's normally headline by line Lola Mendes okay a pitch I think we've gotten pretty deep into we can understand that your headline is what the title of the article would be that it's really important to remember that most of the time the final headline was not written by the journalist it's often the publication that comes up with that so I've had many articles come out where the headline was like cringe-worthy to me and I just want to put that out there that's not always the freeness writer who came up with it graph like I said this paragraph nut graph is kind of the introductory paragraph that's what hooks the reader alright that's your elevator speech that's your 15 seconds of fame this is what the story is all about and the lead I believe could be wrong is like the first sentence you know have some articles they have headline the byline and live like one sentence that's the lead so that really is some are anything it in like 70 letters not a whole paragraph this is a great otk you'll see TK a lot in here that means to come which is TK not TC but it basically means like you're gonna fill it in later right so where I put publication XX or TK that's where you would fill in CNN Reader's Digest Teen Vogue whatever that may be good ones really really good ones I hope you were taking notes you're watching those are some really great ones you know as we close out here I I knew that you mentioned that you've partnered with a charity because we aren't encouraging those that haven't learned it from this particular session that they either would donate to any charity partner that you might definitely advocate for or on the other side of it is if you love this creator and feel free to also venmo Pay Pal you know all that jazz and we're going to list all of that in the details below but if you did partner with the charity feel free to tell us a little bit more about that I really love the International Women's Media Foundation it's a great resource and they've been giving out grants to female journalists around the world we're struggling during carnival risk so it's I wmf gorg and I sent ulanda a link to the donation page which I'm sure she'll be including here so you can make a donation directly to support other female journalists I just want to thank everyone for joining us on this session of school days just make sure you tune in next week we have a incredible session coming up it's gonna be good now but we want you to come back and join us and again thank you so so much Lola is it's been such a pleasure having you thank you for having me this is so much fun and I hope it can be really a good useful tool for some people who want to get into coaching thank you to everyone for joining us for this episode of school days where we go behind the scenes with creators and learn more about the creative process and learn a thing or two through the tutorials we'll see you next week [Music]