Paula Rizzo, a former TV news health reporter, helps autism researcher Theresa Lyons reshape a pitch about a nonprofit that places autistic adults in jobs like graphic design and bakery work. The nonprofit even designs MTA jackets for major corporations. Paula explains why editors rejected the original pitch as too commercial, and walks through how to broaden the angle, add visual storytelling, and show real impact beyond the autism community.
Chapters
Hey there, Paula Rizzo here, and I'm joined by Theresa Lyons, who is a professor of healing of autism. And she and I got to know each other a bit a while back, right? And we've been chit-chatting for quite a while. And as many of you know, my background is in television news and specifically health media. And so Theresa and I have spoken about autism quite a lot because I've covered it through the years. And so recently you had some interesting interest from media outlets., right? And so you and I are going to chit-chat about that a little bit, because now you need to go pitch them. And so I want to see if I can help you out a little bit. So give me the backstory here. You had pitched a story to a local TV station, right?
Correct. I pitched a story to a local reporter, and I had worked with her before on a previous story. So we had a relationship. It wasn't just a cold pitch. And she had told me if I ever had a good story for her to let her know. So I was kind of cultivating that relationship. And so for April, it's Autism Awareness Month. And there was an organization, a local organization that is doing some great work having an integrated workforce. So you have adults with autism who are independently working in an integrated workforce. Now there's a class action lawsuit going on because an organization used by the Oscars and the Grammys were paying workers with disabilities less than a dollar to do very menial tasks.
Wow.
So they're— and that is allowed by law, but it's just because so many people don't understand the abilities of someone with a disability.
Ah, I see. So this organization that you know of that's a local organization, what they do is they basically help adults with autism to find jobs, right? To find things for them to do, right?
Yeah, they have, they have their own organization. So they have, they provide the actual jobs and it's integrated workforce, meaning that there are people with disabilities and people without disabilities. So that's very, very unique and they do this.
But this is all separate from the The Oscars thing. The Oscars thing is just like, this is it. This is a newsworthy thing because of this.
Correct.
Right.
It's Autism Awareness Month and there's a current lawsuit going on that, you know, Oscars, Grammys, that kind of pulls the viewer in. So I was thinking of that as the hook.
Ah, I see. Okay. So it was unrelated.
It's unrelated.
Okay.
But relevant.
So the company that creates these integrated experiences, right? They are local. And so when you pitched it to the reporter, she liked it, but her managers didn't love it because it feels very, it could be kind of commercial, which is sort of what I thought. As soon as you told me about it, I was like, okay, it's one organization. That's a little bit of a tough sell. Anytime you're pitching media when it's just one thing, it looks like, oh, that could be like a commercial for this one company or commercial for just this one book or commercial, you know what I mean? So the media is a little bit allergic to that. They want a wider, like, let's zoom out a little bit. Let's see the broader scope of this. How is this being done or being used in other communities or other ways if somebody doesn't have access to this company? How could they still get something out of it? So what do you think? What is sort of the zoom out on this, even though this organization is great and they're doing really good things?
Well, the manager gave some pushback and said, how are the people finding this? So yeah, there's a place that offers jobs, but how do you become job ready? So then we were thinking about— and I have a good relationship with the reporter. So she comes back and tells me, like, OK, how— you know, can we do something like this? And so there's a college, a local college here that does do— that does have certain training. It's been doing it for 32 years. And then the idea was, OK, let's try and get an administrator from that program and then a successful person who went through that program to talk about how to prepare for having a job and being independent, which is very unusual for someone with autism. That's, that's like the dream of a parent. So it's very relevant to someone in the autism world, but for those not in the autism world, it doesn't feel as meaningful. So it's kind of hard to bridge that gap and make that story meaningful to everyone listening to it. So I know we don't have that part of the story.
I see, I see. So, you know, as you're talking about it, you know, it's just so interesting because it is a lot of the back and forth with the reporter or with the producer or whoever, you know, whoever your contact is. And a lot of times people think, oh, I'm gonna get, you know, I'm gonna pitch one story and that's gonna be it. Like, that never happened. Even with, you know, with me, I was like, okay, what else do you have? What else can you— it's very much a back and forth. So you're doing, you're doing it right. The idea behind there being some education here, right, because people don't realize what a big deal this is. So that's of of course, your place to be able to bridge that gap and to show people. But I wonder if it is, is that, could you show what types of jobs are being done? You know, is there a, I would call it like a patient story. Is there a person who we could go to their job with them and show that it is something to be able, maybe there's two people you could do that with so that you can actually show and then talk to their families and whatever it is, you know?
Yeah, so I had that I have one person who works at this integrated workforce and I got his mom to agree to be interviewed. But again, it was feeling really one-dimensional, kind of just that pushback of it's only one.
And what is the job? Because I'm wondering if there's something we can push into having it be like different areas or different things we can highlight, you know?
It was graphic design.
Huh, graphic design. See, like, that's like not a job I would have thought. What other kinds of jobs are they, you know, getting people ready for?
They do have also bakery and a laundromat, but the graphic design type work is the more academic type work.
Yeah.
And it's also their working with organizations like Google, so that those are— Google is their customer, the MTA, different universities, local universities. So it's a much more business-type focused.
Right. And that is definitely different, right, from typical. Yeah.
Okay.
So talk to me about that a little bit.
Let's see. So the organization is a nonprofit, but they are actually profitable. So they were up to doing $5 million worth of this graphic design and like screen printing work. They do have these major corporations as customers with the integrated workforce. The corporate customers are working with this organization for more corporate social responsibility so that these corporations are interested in yes, getting the work done, but also they're interested in supporting those with autism.
So from a business standpoint, like, it's a, you know, that's nice and that's noble and it's, you know, but I care less about that as a story, as a viewer, as somebody who's watching, right? Like, that to me is like, ah, good for them, you know, like, that's nice, you know. But I want more of like the personal story, right? More of like the, the who is this person or who, who is the company. I wonder if there was a way to even have, if this person with autism was working with a local company, helping them to design something, I don't know, like, I'm just trying to think, if it was that they designed, you know, their logo or they helped to design the artwork on the outside of the building, or I don't know, if it was a local business, that would be able, that would be like a nice integration to show. You could talk to the shop owner or whoever, you know what I mean? Who's using their designs. You could talk to the family, you could talk to this person about how this is sort of an atypical job that people would be doing if they had autism. Autism, but look, hey, this person's doing it and look at this amazing result. Just trying to think like visually if there's something we can show and then to integrate it to be more like community-based. I don't know if that exists.
It does. They were working on a project designing and then also not sure how much of the manufacturing they did, but for the MTA jackets. So the guys that are working the crew with the reflection, you know, every New Yorker.
Cool. Yeah, yeah, of course. Right.
So that might be very, visual, you know, you see the jacket.
Very visual. And it's sort of like the, the story behind the story, you know. It's sort of like, wow, you would have never known, you know, if it's a New York story, if it's a local New York, you know, uh, outlet, to be able to say, hey, you know, New Yorkers on the street are walking by these, these jackets every single day. Guess who, guess who put that together? You know, it's sort of like a nice, uh, kind of an interesting slice of life work thing, you know.
Yeah. And it's very visual for TV.
Very visual. Just Exactly. So I don't know, I mean, I think that would be, that would be kind of a cool, cool way, you know, go back to your person, see, or at least see what you can, can get, you know, to be able to say, can I, would this be something we could show? Could this be something of interest? You know, I think it might be, especially for a local, because then you're not really like highlighting just that one, that one organization. It's more of like, hey, look at the greater good in what's happening, you know, here. It's kind of interesting.
Yeah, I like that. I like that quite a bit.
Good. Well, let me know how it goes and obviously, you know, send out, you know, shoot me back an email. Let me know if it works out and when it does, because I know if not even this, something else will come through and that's how it goes. You got to kind of be diligent and keep coming up with the ideas and because it is a noble cause. I mean, you want people to know about it.
So yeah. Thank you very much.
Good work. Of course.
I didn't know how much back and forth this was involved. I have to say, I thought you kind of pitch and it's either like yes or no.
And sometimes it is. Sometimes it is. But you know, and especially though that you're a repeat guest, you know, that she's already worked with you.
Right.
This is where it's— this is going to happen even more because that's what I did with my go-to experts. I'd be like, well, what else you got? What else is there? I knew there'd be something, you know, like you're the expert here so I could find out even more from you. It's not just a one-hit wonder. So this is actually— Good thing.
Awesome. Well, thank you for talking through it with me.
Of course. Of course. See you soon. Bye. And for more ways to get the media to pay attention to you, I want you to check out my checklist. It is a checklist for becoming a go-to media expert. And the way that you can get it is to go to paularizzo.com/checklist.
