Beauty Bylines & Mastheads with Writer & Editor Melanie Rud – Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith  

 Melanie Rudd is a Chicago based beauty and lifestyle writer and editor with nearly 15 years of experience in the industry. After graduating with degrees in journalism and English from New York University. She spent several years in New York City working as a beauty editor at several prominent publications including shape, good housekeeping and health. She now contributes to numerous national print and digital outlets, including Birdy, women’s health, people.com, and more. Additionally, Melanie appears on television as a beauty and lifestyle expert and also consults and provides Editorial Services for many major beauty companies. I am so excited for today’s conversation. I always love to kick things off. We already know you’re in Chicago. So besides Where do you live? What do you like to do outside of work for fun?

 

Melanie Rud  

What do I like to do? Well, first and foremost, I am an avid Bravo fan. So I am really in a state right now because of this Vanderpump Rules drama. I’m going to put that aside while we’re recording

 

Lexie Smith  

hold on pin that because I watched the show up until I watched it in the pandemic. And I’ve seen some headlines high level something with Tom and Ariana what happened? Selfishly?

 

Melanie Rud  

Wait, Lexie, you really don’t know it was on like New York Times and CNN I

 

Lexie Smith  

saw the headline and then I was I didn’t like dive into the article. So I know there’s a scandal, but I don’t know what the scandal is.

 

Melanie Rud  

So Tom Sandoval, who was with Ariana for 12 years or something crazy, has been cheating on her with Raquel for the last seven months, including when they were filming the season that is airing now. But they were using Tom Schwartz, his best friend as a decoy and basically saying that we’re callin Tom Schwartz had a thing when in reality, the other two have been talking up for like seven months. Oh, yeah. Oh my god. This is why it’s big news. It’s very, it’s very intense.

 

Lexie Smith  

All right, I’m processing I’m processing it didn’t mean to cut you off. So I’m gonna continue processing and for anyone else. News to actually probably be new old news by the time they hear it but you’re hearing me process in real time. Okay, beyond Bravo.

 

Melanie Rud  

Bravo. What else is there beyond Bravo. So we talked about this a little bit I have two rescue dogs Georgia and Willa that fingers crossed will not be yapping and yapping during this, but they are my my precious angels. So I love I love being with them. I love to cook and entertain like nothing makes me happier than having friends over and making dinner. I’m a big reader too. I love to read. So yeah, I actually I like it all. I like a good you know, beach read Chiclet nonsense, but I like historical fiction too. I like nonfiction.

 

Lexie Smith  

To top of mine. I know there’s probably a million in one books you could recommend. But when I say what do you recommend what’s coming to mind?

 

Melanie Rud  

Oh my God, that’s tough. In what genre?

 

Lexie Smith  

Oh, man. What’s it? Well, you said beach reads so we can go there and let’s surf beach read.

 

Melanie Rud  

There’s a book called beach read. Oh, actually amazing. Yeah. And I’m pretty sure it’s the same author who wrote a book called book lovers, which is also a little bit meta, but are both very cute, easy, easy, girly books. Early books.

 

Lexie Smith  

I like my books. Like I like my wine. It depends on the mood. And I like to mix

 

Melanie Rud  

it up. Amen. Yes. 100%.

 

Lexie Smith  

Okay, so normally on the show, I have everyone rewind their career, kind of Cliff Notes style. But today, your career and your career progression is exactly what I want to get into. Because literally you would you have what I call almost this beautifully textbook resume of a journalistic career. And I think it would be really really helpful to not only hear how your journey progressed, but also dive into what these different titles and roles and positions entailed as you work your way up and around the masthead. So we’re gonna start going back to undergrad I stalked her LinkedIn. So this is where this is all coming from LinkedIn, it says you have three internships, Good Housekeeping, InStyle and glam.com, which is very epic. So how did you land? These coveted internships?

 

Melanie Rud  

Yeah, so I was living in New York, I was at NYU, thinking I was Carrie Bradshaw. And I knew I wanted to go into women’s magazines, I went into my journalism major, knowing that I was not cut out for, you know, hardcore New York Times CNN reporting. And I wasn’t sure which genre specifically, I actually applied for a few internships at food magazines that I did not get. And then I applied for a beauty internship at Good Housekeeping. Got it? I worked with April friend Zeno, who was now the beauty director there and still my good colleague and friend and basically realized that you could get paid to write about makeup and skincare and hair. And, you know, realized, okay, this is the this is the genre we’re going in. This is great, what could be, what could be better. And then from there, I went to InStyle, and glam and then when I graduated, started as a beauty assistant at health, worked there for a few years ended up back at Good Housekeeping as their assistant and associate beauty editor for three years, I think. And then was it shape, rip shape, one of the many magazines that is folded in my time. But was the beauty editor there before I moved to Chicago?

 

Lexie Smith  

Okay, so perfect. We talked about internships, you already teed me up perfect. After your internships, post grad, you became a beauty assistant at Health magazine. So talk to us a little bit about this role. How was it? Or was it different than your internships or what does necessarily a UD assistant do?

 

Melanie Rud  

I mean, a was to be honest, it was a little bit like a glorified internship, I was writing I had my first by lines there. So I was writing, you know, short, front of book, beauty stories. It was a lot of kind of assistant type work and helping manage the department calendar and the beauty closet, and doing things like that. I mean, this was in 2009. And, you know, this was when magazines had a beauty department that had three or four people like that’s, that’s gone. Now you have one beauty editor working across two or three titles these days. So it was a really different time in terms of job delegation, and things like that. But it was an invaluable experience. I mean, I learned so much I learned about you know, going to press events and interacting with members of the PR community like yourself, and, you know, requesting products and doing market work. I mean, basically a little bit of a little bit of everything.

 

Lexie Smith  

Have you seen the bowl type?

 

Melanie Rud  

No, I have not, but my girlfriend was actually in it in the show. And I haven’t watched it yet.

 

Lexie Smith  

Oh, well, okay, in the bold type, which if you if you like shows like Gossip Girl, that would be kind of what right? Compare it to, but they have a epic fashion closet. And it’s just something I always always think about. And maybe the was at Laguna Beach, or the hills where they had the

 

Melanie Rud  

Vogue, that people asked me about this all the time there was especially when I worked at InStyle. Like, yes, there is a massive fashion closet. There’s a massive beauty closet. It is kind of like Devil Wears Prada, where people go in there and like, you know, take stuff and borrow stuff. And it’s, it’s fun. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, like, especially when I was an intern, my little desk was in the beauty closet, a good housekeeping. So you’re sitting just amidst products, like it’s,

 

Lexie Smith  

it’s fun. There’s no other word for it’s just fun. It’s fun to envision. Okay, so from there, you became a associate beauty editor for good housekeeping. And to me, here’s where things get a little bit more complicated. And on the coaching side of PR, this is where I see people start to flounder a bit on understanding who they should pitch to this is where those titles in the newsroom get a little bit more convoluted. So talk to me, what is that that word is does the word associate in front of beauty editor? I mean, anything are what does that role look like?

 

Melanie Rud  

Now? I mean, honestly, like, I think a little bit and again, it’s so different now than it was 10 years ago. So I think it’s really a totally different landscape, then I mean, essentially, I was doing a lot of the same things that Good Housekeeping was a team of two in the beauty department instead of three. So there was more responsibility, more writing, and then by the time I was beauty editor at shape, I had somebody underneath me. So there was some managerial things and some editing that I was doing. So that was a little bit of a bigger progression. I think. At the time, I was always getting pitched a lot, because I think the mindset then was don’t pitch the beauty director who would be like the top top, because they are so busy, and they don’t really answer emails. So typically pitches would get sent to the associates and assistants. So yeah, I mean, I’ve been getting PR pitches, though, literally every single day since like June 2009. Well, you highlighted

 

Lexie Smith  

it looks very different now. And I want to kind of lean into that. So there are still some sites out there, or magazines or publications where you do see more traditional mass heads, they definitely shrunk, which is unfortunate, but those who maybe went to school 10 years ago for PR, for example, um, what do they need to know now? How do they go about selecting or figuring out who the right person is to pitch?

 

Melanie Rud  

I think that’s a good question. I think, I mean, like you said, these mastheads are getting very, very streamlined. And a lot of times, it’s just one person doing beauty, like there really is just one person to pitch. I think the big thing I would say the big change is that there’s in this as the magazines of the number of magazines have decreased, the staffs have shrunk, more digital has come about, that’s also correlated with the increase in freelancers out there. And, you know, I’ve been freelancing since 2014. And even in that time, things have changed a lot in the freelance landscape. I do think with some of the I don’t want to say older PR people, but some of the more like old school PR agencies, let’s call them, there’s still a little bit of this, what I find to be a very dated mentality where the only journalists worth pitching are, you know, the top beauty editor at a magazine, and freelancers and digital editors, and everybody else gets kind of pushed to the wayside. And yes, like 10 years ago, when I started out more than that, there was very much a hierarchy. But honestly, that’s, that’s gone. That’s been totally blown up. And you know it for PR people, I would just say, Sure, you can pitch the people at the magazine, but honestly, a lot of the times the people that are writing for that magazine and actually have more power to get you featured are freelancers.

 

Lexie Smith  

Hmm, really great insight. So talk to me is this shift or this transition in the industry why you chose to move from in house to Freelancer what was that?

 

Melanie Rud  

I didn’t find that decision was not really my decision. That’s not true. It was more of a life move. I moved to Chicago in 2014 with my now ex husband. And when I moved, I realized I looked briefly for magazine jobs in Chicago, and they were just non existent. So it was scary in the first few years were hard and kind of building up a career and a portfolio were challenging me. I was lucky in that I had a lot of good contacts, both editorially and PR, etc, just from being in New York and being on staff at magazines for so long. And at the time, you know, I hated freelance life, like I missed being on staff, I missed being, you know, at a magazine, in an office, obviously, that’s all different now because nobody’s even going to an office but I missed that environment. I missed, you know, everything that came with it. And now, I don’t even know what you would have to pay me for me to go in house back to a magazine. Like there’s no I don’t think there’s any amount of money that I would take. I enjoy the freelance life so much that I don’t think I would go back. Go back to a magazine for anything.

 

Lexie Smith  

I hear you in the, for me, the entrepreneurial I’m my own boss type of way. 100% Yeah, um, I think a lot of people have experienced that, especially in the past few years. You know that I send out a community newsletter roundup every Tuesday, chocked full of resources, free media kit, downloads, event invites, journalists, contacts, visibility opportunities. Basically, if you’re not on the list, hit pause and sign up. It’s super simple. Go to the PR bar inc.com/newsworthy. That link is in the show notes. Okay, back to the show. freelance life specifically, Brian question, what does today circa 2023? When we’re recording this, an average average is the wrong word a day in the life of a freelancer look like for you in the beauty world.

 

Melanie Rud  

I mean, every day is different. There’s a lot of the same, but every day is a little bit different. Most days, I would say, you know, if there’s how many work days are there in a month 20 work days. Right five trends for I would say 17 or 18 of the workdays, and a month, I have deadlines and multiple deadlines that that today we’re using today as an example today, I actually have no deadlines, shockingly. But I have things I need to do, you know, ahead of tomorrow. But it’s it’s a mix of writing, obviously, trying to meet these deadlines, doing market work, looking for products for these stories, a lot of interviews with experts, for these stories, virtual events, those come into play a lot. And then also, you know, I mean, the thing I like about freelance is being my own boss and setting my own schedule. So, you know, I like I will go to a 12 o’clock workout class, right? Or I’ll take my dogs for like an hour walk at 9am If I can, I like to. I try really hard to maintain a work life balance. And then there’s also and you know, this, I’m sure, when you’re your own boss, there’s hustle all this logistical like, nonsense that you have to do the invoicing and the follow up and the taxes and like all that kind of just bureaucracy. Yeah, nonsense, but has to be done. So there’s always that there’s always that too, and the maximum,

 

Lexie Smith  

and we’re literally in the middle of tax season right now recording this now, I

 

Melanie Rud  

haven’t even emailed my accountant. Is it up?

 

Lexie Smith  

Fluff? I’m like March night. Okay. I’m pretty sure they gave me a deadline of March 15. Anyways, that’s not next week, right? Um, okay. So I’m curious, is there any sort of average lead time that you’re given in the freelance world? Or does it differ per publication in terms of when you get its story assigned versus deadline, and when you have to turn it in,

 

Melanie Rud  

it differs for a lot of outlets that I write for regularly, I’ll get all of my assignments for for the month at the start of the month, and they’ll be kind of spread out throughout. For a lot of assignments that I write more kind of hard hitting, you know, quick of the moment news stories, I’ll get the assignment in the morning, and I’ll have to turn it in by five o’clock, but day, so it can vary. And then I still, you know, for considering how few print magazines there are, so do a good amount of print work as well. And for that that’s a little bit of a longer lead time. Like I’m working on something right now for July issue. So it really runs the gamut from us. It could be literally four hours to four months. Yeah, is the short answer to your question.

 

Lexie Smith  

Um, so in terms of assignments, are you seeing as the majority of the work you’re doing assigned to you? Are you doing a fair amount of pitching of the angles yourself?

 

Melanie Rud  

I think here’s where I’m probably different than 99.9% of freelancers. I never pitch I have pitched maybe like three. Now, that’s not true. Maybe like 10 times in my freelance career. I and I say this all the time, I could never be a publicist. I hate pitching. I don’t do well with rejection. I cry when people say no, I, I have the utmost respect for PR people, because I could never do it ever. So I mean, I am lucky that I have enough work and sometimes too much work. Without pitching that outlets come to me and I have good relationships with editors and you know, kind of standing gigs that are reoccurring every month that I don’t You no need to pitch necessarily, I will pitch occasionally. If there’s something I really want to write about, I’ve written some, like personal essay type pieces that I’ve pitched so far that I’ve you know, pitched in that context, but otherwise, on a day to day basis, absolutely not.

 

Lexie Smith  

Thank you for highlighting the resilience that it takes to be in the VR. God

 

Melanie Rud  

bless all of you truly I cannot. I can’t do it. And then it’s like I spent all this time writing this amazing pitch and you didn’t even open the email or you said no, like, I can’t I can’t do it.

 

Lexie Smith  

It’s it’s it’s a I actually equate it to which is a lot of PR people would cringe but there’s almost resilience like sales that is needed. 100% Yeah, there’s a rejection. There’s a ton of reach Action and sales, there’s a ton of rejection in PR. So you really have to have a right headset for it. So that being said, you obviously receive a ton of pitches Yes, yes, a ton. So I’d love to talk a little bit, we’re gonna go into some rapid fire preferential, but before we go into that, any top pet peeves or top do’s that you want to offer for anyone listening, whether they be in the PR world, or a brand pitching themselves.

 

Melanie Rud  

Pet peeves, I think, are when you get very basic information wrong. I’ve had emails they’re sent to me that are addressed to the wrong name, it’ll say like, dear Susan, and I get that it’s a copy paste thing and whatever, but it’s like, that’ll really kind of knock you down at the ledge on my or wrong on my ladder. Same thing, like, you know, I know you work for x. And it’s like, no, I clearly don’t. That’s very frustrating. To me, it just, it’s not hard to do a quick Google and just kind of get basic information of who, you know, you’re, you’re pitching to do’s. keep it succinct. Like, tell me in the first, you know, two lines what this is because honestly, most of the time and I do open them, I do open all the pitches, even if I don’t respond, but I open them and but I I’m not reading the whole thing. I’m literally skimming it so so so quickly. And there needs to be something in there in that first 123 lines, it’s going to catch my attention either for you know, in the moment for something I’m working on or that I’ll be like, Oh, I should file this away because this could be helpful later. So I think keep it succinct. You know people try to get like cute and witty. I get it you’re writing the same thing all the time. You want to be like interesting. I wouldn’t say that necessarily correlates with it being like a more quote unquote successful pitch in my eyes.

 

Lexie Smith  

Plot so one of the I’m going to turn that into pleasantries. Are you pro pleasantries? Meaning like I do when they get it? Right.

 

Melanie Rud  

Yeah, when they get it right. When they get it right. 100% I do like pleasantries. I like when people try to, it’s hard in this day and age when obviously everything’s virtual. I’m in Chicago, the majority of this industry is in New York, you know, it’s hard to develop a relationship. So people who do, you know, go a little bit of the extra mile, obviously without being like, creepy. But, you know, yes, I do appreciate pleasantries, or like a little something that indicates or shows that they know who they’re talking to. It’s funny, you

 

Lexie Smith  

say creepy. This is probably a terrible joke. But I often say with my team, a part of PR is also being a professional stalker, which sounds terrible. But there is a line you in doing research where you can start to learn too much about someone. And it’s a good reminder, to pull it back. You don’t need to know that you now know where they live in blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah,

 

Melanie Rud  

totally. And like there’s a fine line, but then sometimes it is helpful, you know, like, I don’t I cover mostly, probably 80% Beauty 20% other kinds of lifestyle topics, right? I have recently done a handful of pet centric pieces. And you know, it’s somebody emailed me and they’re like, I know you don’t do pet coverage of time, but I saw your dog lovers gift guide, and I saw on Instagram that you’ve two really cute dogs. Can I send you whatever like this brand of treats for your dogs? This is a bad example. Because anything for my dogs, I’ll say yes. But point being it was like they had done their research about my professional career. They had a little personal tidbit in there. You know, great.

 

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. Okay, perfect. So let’s transition into some quick, rapid fire preferential questions. The disclaimer I always get is obviously there’s no right or wrong answers. It’s just what you want. So first and foremost, day of the week, is there a day of the week you prefer to be pitched

 

Melanie Rud  

there’s not one that I prefer I just don’t love Fridays I dry per my work life balance theme, try to kind of take Friday’s and just do all my personal stuff then kind of handle some of this admin stuff that we talked about. So I’m not super on email and like really focused on you know, writing necessarily on Fridays as a general rule, but other than that, no,

 

Lexie Smith  

fair enough. Time of day.

 

Melanie Rud  

Doesn’t matter. I mean, I think I don’t when people are emailing me like all hours of the night it makes me think like, huh, like what are they doing? But I don’t I don’t really I don’t really care.

 

Lexie Smith  

Okay. Do you want to receive product especially since you’re In beauty, I’m sure this is a big one.

 

Melanie Rud  

Oh, yeah. I mean, if my office was in such a mess, by me show you my own beauty closet. Beauty is one of those things where you can tell if somebody has experienced a product, you know, for themselves when they’re writing about it, versus if they’re just looking at, you know, a product description on Sephora. There, there’s something to be said about trying it, you know, having it be tangible in your hands or putting lipstick on or whatever it may be. So as a general rule of thumb, I say yes to products. That being said, I do think, and this this has been happening more and more as people are now asking, can they send product, which I think is really helpful? I mean, I live in Chicago, I’m lucky enough to have my own office and a whole separate closet for product. But my colleagues and friends who live in New York and tiny studio apartments, like they can’t take boxes and boxes of things every day. So I do think, yes to product in general. But ask before you’re going to send,

 

Lexie Smith  

yeah, great. I’m gonna point to Tatiana Diaz guys listening, she recorded season two, don’t quote me on that when she was with refinery 29. I think she’s with romesco. Anyways, we went into this topic a lot in her episode. And she is someone I believe at the time was living in one of those New York situations where she’s like, I just don’t have room. So it’s something we don’t always think about if we’re not ourselves in one of these situations. So great reminder for rule of thumb to ask, ciliate links, or they needed affiliate links

 

Melanie Rud  

you had Ali Wilczynski on I think it was like at the end of last year, and she says about how they just like crush her soul. And I have to agree because, you know, coming from an editorial background, like you’re taught that you should be featuring the best of the best, not who’s paying you essentially. And so affiliate links really do grind my gears. I am lucky enough that as a freelancer, a lot of the affiliate linking stuff is, you know, handled on the back end by the outlet, I’m basically told, you know, if I’m reading a gift guide or something, make sure that 80% of them have affiliate links, and then the rest, you know, small businesses, Etsy, whatever, is fine. which I appreciate. I mean, I do think most brands now. And even in the last, I would say like I don’t know, six months to a year, I mean, everybody now gets it. And is, is participating. So it’s, it’s less challenging than it used to be. I mean, unfortunately, I wish it was, I wish it was different. But this is just the nature of the beast. I mean, we also though, like I don’t benefit from the affiliate link, if I got a kickback, I would be much more inclined, I’m sure to include affiliate links, it’s just the, you know, the, the publisher that’s getting the money at the end of the day.

 

Lexie Smith  

So that’s helpful to hear the 8020 split, meaning there is still a chance for the small businesses out there. Yeah.

 

Melanie Rud  

And then the affiliate link thing, you know, tends to be much more prevalent and really focused on for E commerce stories. So you know, things where it’s not a lot of editorial copying, it’s just basically, you know, clicking buy kind of thing. And the more editorial stories, obviously, that’s, that’s less important. And then for print, that’s, you know, noticing

 

Lexie Smith  

follow ups or you pro or okay with people following up.

 

Melanie Rud  

I am with the caveat of it needs to be in, you know, appropriate doses, like, don’t pitch me on a Monday and then follow up Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, when I already said to you, thanks. I’ll keep this in mind. You know. If I said to you, this isn’t like a great fit right now. I’ll be in touch if something comes up. Don’t follow up the next week and say like, Do you have a place for it? If I said, Oh, hey, this could work for XY and Z that I’m working on then sure, like, follow up with me the next week or whatever. I think it’s just a matter of targeting your follow ups based on who you’re pitching.

 

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, great advice. Let’s see. Last I’m gonna do one more question. How do you feel about people sliding into DMS with pitches? Um, yeah, this

 

Melanie Rud  

happens a lot. I think this is like the, you know, 2023 version of back in the day it was like Facebook Messenger. Um, I I get it. I think a lot of small businesses do it. And I don’t fault like listen, I love small businesses. Shoot your shot. I am all for it. I tend to just like I have like a copy and paste that I just bought from a note on my phones. It’s like thanks, email me at x. It’s a little bit frustrating because I’m pretty issue on my website is in my Instagram profile that has my contact info and things like that. So that’s one of those things where I’m like, it just takes another minute or two to kind of, you know, and I don’t see a lot of the times I don’t see the DMS to be totally honest with you, they’ll go and like the requests, you know, folder or whatever. So yeah, I’m more likely to respond to it. If it’s a small business, I would say.

 

Lexie Smith  

Okay, fair enough. So my last question for you is we talked Pichon what can we find you sip in? What’s your favorite beverage?

 

Melanie Rud  

Well, right it’s 1130 in Chicago, so it’s just you know, my basic be Stanley water which I do love the Stanley Cup. I have to say I did not want to like it, but I like it. Okay, so in the morning, it’s always coffee with a hot, steamed oat milk. That’s exactly what I drink the best. I just had two cups, so I cut myself off. And then what else do I like to sip? I like kombucha that’s kind of like my little afternoon pick me up usually. And then after hours, I love in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Extra extra cold. I keep my wine glasses in the freezer. So it’s super cold. And Dirty Martini.

 

Lexie Smith  

Okay, like super, super dirty. Yeah. I love it. We have very similar palates minus, I have I’ve never had it. I keep bringing this up, meaning I need to just solve this problem. I’ve never had like a plain martini, or a dirty martini. I’ve had like Frou Frou version. Oh, okay. Okay. And I don’t know why. And I keep getting on this show. And people keep bringing up martinis and I keep being faced with the fact that I need to have one.

 

Melanie Rud  

So the sin acquired taste. Do you like olives? Do you like salty?

 

Lexie Smith  

I love salty olives. You know, I can even tell you last time I had an olive, so I need to revisit that food group too.

 

Melanie Rud  

Okay. Oh, you can revisit them via a martini Martini. I think the key is you need to get like extra extra dirty. So there’s a lot of olive juice. The vodka, isn’t it. So otherwise, it’s just like straight vodka, basically. And I love olives. So I was getting extra olives and instance, a little snack dollars.

 

Lexie Smith  

Awesome. So if people want to connect with you interact with you pitch rookie, where’s the best pitch with you? Pitch you? Where would be the best place to send them? Where can they get more information?

 

Melanie Rud  

Email is always, always good. And I have a website, my contact info is up there. You can slide into the DMS. I don’t know if I will answer but people are welcome to if I see it, I definitely answer. But email is always best for me. And I really try you know, per my point of having the utmost respect for what PR people do, because I could never do it. I do always try to respond. And like literally, even if it’s a copy and paste, like thanks, we’ll keep in mind, I try to at least respond to that, you know, you know that I got the email and I saw it and I really do. Unless it’s something that I know in a million years will never be applicable. I save all my pitches, I file them away, I have a very methodical email folder system. And I file them all away. And then when I you know need something, I type in whatever topic I’m working on in my email subject line and everything pops up. So definitely pitch like please do.

 

Lexie Smith  

And are you on substack yet? Do you have a sub stack?

 

Melanie Rud  

I’m not this is a should I or shouldn’t I in 2023 topic I have some other other career things I’m working on so so we’ll see how this AppStack plays out. But yeah, what from what I’ve heard it’s, it’s worthwhile for everybody involved. So yeah,

 

Lexie Smith  

okay, well, if and when you get one, reach back out to us and we’ll add it into the show notes but amazing. Yes, for now, guys. We will include the link to her website in the show notes. Definitely. Listen back to this episode if you’re going to pitch her regardless, let her know you heard her on the show and thank her for the amazing advice that you shared today. And for next time on the pitching and sipping podcast. Hey guys, if you are enjoying the pitching and sipping podcast, please do me a huge favor and leave a review wherever you are listening. If you want to connect with me to learn more about the PR bar Inc. You can do so on Instagram Act, the PR bar underscore inc or you can check out my website at the PR bar inc.com Cheers