Aly's Tuesday Newsletter: Newly Published Stories, Recipes and TV Discussion, and Sending a Virtual Hug To All Of You

Oh, and work stuff.

Hi, friends!

First of all, thanks so much to all the really sweet responses I got to yesterday's rather stressed-out newsletter. While life is still feeling pretty out of sorts, each and every virtual hug is always so appreciated. I love that I've made so many new friends here!

Speaking of friends, welcome to all the people that are in New York City this week for Bar Convent Brooklyn, which begins today. I love that something this exciting and important is being hosted in my borough! Bar Convent Brooklyn is an international bar and beverage trade show and will have tons of demonstrations, presentations, workshops, tastings, and more all week. (And if you are in the area and looking for local restaurant/bar recommendations while you are here, obviously drop me a note!)

And yes: That is totally why I chose this week for my cocktail launch. If you are launching a cocktail, you do it when the people who care the most about such content are in town!

Last night, on my Instagram stories, I took some beautiful lobster tails I had been sent and paired them with a surprisingly simple Thai red curry. The recipe is still posted this morning and it came out super delicious - and so easy - I hope you try it. And, obviously, spicy and comforting curry is absolutely food for the soul (and lobster doesn't hurt!).

Also, I have started to watch Becoming Elizabeth (on Starz), and it’s already (obviously) giving me Tudors feels…which is making me very happy. I hope some of you are watching it so we can talk about it.

I have a story I need to finish up this morning and a virtual consulting session this afternoon, so let's get right to today's open story opps!

Be A Mentor

The world is such a mess right now, and this is a really cool way to try to make it a little better: Girls Write Now is looking for mentors who can help mentees with developing writing skills that will help to get them ready for everything from college applications and essays to career readiness. You can volunteer as little as six hours a month! I’m going to apply to be a mentor and I’d love if some people around here who have the time and the interest decide to as well. This is an opportunity to in a small way help the next generation and I honestly couldn’t possibly be more honored to be able to participate in this program.

Newly published or freshly updated stories

Want to make your own nut-based milks at home but don't want to invest in yet another pricey gadget? For The Kitchn, I wrote a new piece about how You Can Make Almond Milk at Home and All You Need Are Two Ingredients and Your Juicer. Make that almond milk using a gadget you probably already have!

TODAY.com: Celebrate Father's Day with 15 food discounts and freebies

Clean Plates: The Best Healthy Snacks to Buy at Target, According to Dietitians

RetailMeNot: The Best Father’s Day Sales and Deals to Shop Now

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares tagging @alywalansky and the outlet. 

Here's what I'm working on:

Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.

RetailMeNot

Fourth of July Store Hours + Stores Open Fourth of July (similar to the Easter and Memorial Day store hours roundup I did for this same outlet). This is for major retailers, look at my versions for other holidays for an idea of what I'm looking for.

I'm also working on - Fourth of July Sales: The Best of the Best - it's an update of last year's story, but in a format more like this like this. Basically, I'm just going to be featuring the retailer and then a blurb about what kind of sale they're doing for Fourth of July. So, instead of being product specific, it'll be more "store specific" so, i'm looking for store-wide sales with promo codes (or department-wide discounts).  Looking to include major retailers such as the following, so if you rep any of them, please do reach out! ie: Kohl's, Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe's, Old Navy, Gap, Casper, Mattress Firm, Ashley HomeStore, Target, Walmart.

TODAY

I’m done with dads and grads, but I’m now putting out feelers for restaurant chains doing 4th of July freebies/deals/discounts. If you have anything that may be a fit, please send me info on the deal (what you get, when you get it, how you claim it), asap. Thanks :)

Virtual consulting sessions...

I've been popping into a lot of PR team virtual meetings and making myself available to answer all sorts of questions about pitching, events, and trips from a media perspective.  If you are interested in setting anything up for your own team in the coming months, please email me and we'll get something on the books! This is available for entire agencies or smaller group lunch and learn type concepts. If you are a freelance publicist and want to join in with a few other freelance publicist friends and set something up, we can do that as well!

On the fence over whether this is a good fit for your team? Here’s some feedback I received from people who I have worked with recently:

"Aly’s advice and insight is invaluable to our team, not only is she incredibly knowledgeable, she is approachable, generous, and kind too. While we read every one of her newsletters, we decided to go one step further and invited Aly to host a Q&A with our agency. During the session, we felt comfortable asking her everything and anything. She went above and beyond, providing examples and reasoning for each answer, and the team walked away with an abundance of new insight, tips, and tricks, plus a new confidence in handling some of the most crucial parts of our jobs." Sacha Bell, Rachel Harrison Communications

"Looking for a brilliant writer that always goes above and beyond?  Look no further than Aly!  She is an incredible teacher, tells it exactly how it is and is so generous in sharing her knowledge.  She knows what she wants from publicists, is very clear on her needs and expectations, and how to best support one another.  Most of all, her kind personality jumps off the page, and her giggle and smile are infectious.  In this consistently changing world of media, it’s so refreshing to know someone so genuine.” Kirsten Wanket, KT WANKET CONSULTING

“Aly has very kindly agreed to join a few sessions for us talking to both smaller and larger internal groups, and it has been incredibly helpful for our team to understand more about her process, and garner best practices that we leverage as we work on various programs. From sharing dos and don’ts for virtual and in-person events to pitching tips, Aly is a pro and always so thoughtful in her responses. And her own first-hand knowledge has helped us all to better understand the work process for freelancers and how we can most effectively work with other freelancers like Aly. We always appreciate her time and insights!” Erin Delahanty, Edelman

“I would highly recommend booking a virtual consulting session with Aly for an agency of any size!  She offers up to date perspective on everything from the affiliates to how to get your pitches read to timing your pitching correctly. These virtual consulting sessions literally save you time trying to figure out what the media is looking for and give your team an immediate edge.  Aly took her time and answered questions from the team. She is super friendly and you can tell she genuinely wants to create a win-win relationship between the media and publicists. Our team loved having Aly on and we cannot wait to have her back!  It was a blast!” Leah Cybulski, ChicExecs

“Aly was able to join our agency for a PR Perspectives chat and not only was it so much fun, but it was so informative! Keeping a pulse on the constantly changing media landscape is so important and we loved the insights and expertise Aly was able to share with us. Highly recommend setting up a chat with her!” Jennifer Haile, Dentsu Creative PR

“I am always looking for ways to share new ideas and learning opportunities with our team to improve how we pitch and offer value to journalists and in turn their audience. Aly's no nonsense approach gave us accessible advice about the best way to communicate to media, what formats works best, and basically how we can share our client news in a way that will get us noticed and included in stories." Would do again in a heartbeat!” Samantha Davidson, Say My Name Communications

“For my team’s first hybrid media event for a product launch in the COVID era, Aly quickly jumped on a Zoom and dropped great insights that drove many of the event elements. The direction she provided helped us increase attendance and gave her journalist colleagues a more memorable experience. It was a bonus that she was so easy and fun to talk to.” Apryl Ash, Approach Marketing

Now, it’s your turn! Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com to get something on my schedule for this summer.

Are you confused about affiliate marketing?

If you are having trouble learning how to navigate issues of affiliate marketing (trust me, we've all been there!), you may want to try out my friend Sarah Karger, a publicist, and former editor Dana Baardsen (and all-around fab girl!)'s Ultimate Masterclass and Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Publicists. It's a brilliant course and it'll answer all your questions (including some you didn't know you had!)

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<3

aly