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Gabriella Ulloa is a freelance journalist whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Remezcla, Refinery29, Domino, and more.
In this episode of Coffee with a Journalist, freelance writer Gabriela Ulloa—whose work spans Architectural Digest, NY Mag, The New York Times, and more—shares how she manages a packed inbox, juggles multiple roles (including her YouTube show Irregardless), and stays organized with her unique labeling system.
Tune in for insights on what makes a pitch stand out, the stories she's currently chasing—from culturally rich home tours to Latin talent and mental health—and why authenticity is key in today’s media world.
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
How Gabriella Organizes The Pitches In Her Inbox
[00:01:50] BB: Thank you. So tell us, tell us, how is your inbox?
[00:01:55] GU: You know, honestly, clearer than. Than normal. I'm trying to become a zero inbox.
[00:02:01] BB: Ah, this is the biggest slay, if you ask me. Yes, they trying.
[00:02:08] GU: Well, I used to be a zero inbox person. When I started my career, I was the assistant to the editor in chief at Architectural Digest, and I didn't really have an. I had to stay on top of everything. So I was very much a zero inbox type of person back then. Now juggling so many different hats, I. It gets tough. It gets tough to keep it on zero. I'm really trying to rely on labels more.
[00:02:33] GU: And I do have my labels, but I have to see the number to remember to go back to it.
[00:02:38] BB: Oh. So, yeah, you can't just file with the label. You got to see like, oh, 19 with that label. Yeah, See? Yes. Yeah. I, I, Yes, I understand. I. I cannot do the labeling thing because I'm like, you're just putting it away somewhere, like in a drawer. It's still in the drawer, right?
[00:02:56] GU: It's in a drawer. But you know what? Maybe I have to schedule in the way that. I mean, I time block my calendar in an interesting way again, because I juggle a lot of different things, and so I'll have days that I'm. They're writing days or they're pitching days, whatever. So maybe I just need to slot into the calendar and just say, check labels and go through.
[00:03:14] BB: Maybe. Okay, so what do you. What are the labels?
[00:03:19] GU: Okay, we have a lot. We have a lot. We have pitch and then parentheses inbound.
[00:03:27] BB: Okay.
[00:03:27] GU: And then I have pitches that are outbound that I'm pitching out. We have different categories. We have home pitches.
[00:03:36] BB: Okay. Okay.
[00:03:37] GU: Because I still write a ton for Architectural Digest. We have wellness/mental health category in there.
[00:03:44] BB: Okay.
[00:03:44] GU: And then for my show, Irregardless, I have something in there. And then I randomly have. I just have a bunch of old ones that I have to clear out, so I can't even recall which ones because those are the main ones that I really use. And then I prioritize.
[00:04:00] BB: Okay. Okay.
[00:04:01] GU: I need to go through it. This is. This is giving me a good reminder that I need to go back to my assistant intern roots and do a deep clean.
[00:04:09] BB: So you don't ever delete?
[00:04:12] GU: Oh, I delete.
[00:04:13] BB: Oh, you delete. Okay, so you were deleted because it's either going to delete or it's getting a label.
[00:04:17] GU: It's getting. Well, or you'll just get unread. If it's someone where I'm like, okay, maybe I'll come back to this at some point. Or we could, like, circle back at some point in time. I won't delete you. The ones that I delete are the types of pictures that I get where I'm like, why did you. Why is my name on this listserv that you're sending this out to?
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The Types Of Pitches A Freelancer Like Gabriella Is Looking For
[00:12:19] BB: Got it. And could you tell us, for those who need to understand this more with Working like, with a freelancer, which is different than someone who's in house at the. At, you know, at the media, whatever it is, pitching their stories. You have to pitch your story. So how does it work for you? Like, you get a pitch, you're like, oh, I like that. Then what happens? You now have to pitch it to Refinery29. Like, how does that process work for you?
[00:12:40] GU: Exactly, yeah. So if I get a pitch inbound into my inbox that I find interesting, or I think, okay, I can put a good cool spin on this, or I think people need to know about this, then yes, I will go ahead and pitch it out to the publication that I think would be the best fit for it. Typically, it's one of the publications that I've already developed a relationship with or am a contributor for every now and again. It's like the random one where I'm like, oh, I think this would be fun, but I’ve never written for them, but like, let's try it out. And then, yeah, I'll email the editor that I'm in contact with at that publication, and then we'll sort of go from there. I think it oftentimes, you know, this is why a good pitch matters from a publicist or PR team, because you have to catch, I think, any freelancer on a specific moment of their day where they're down to take a really bad pitch and structure it themselves into something fun and exciting and new.
[00:13:38] GU: And so I definitely will do that. Don't get me wrong, like, I'm not, you know, a lazy girl in that regard. But I think it is really important to structure a pitch to a freelancer where you're understanding the thing or the person or the product that you're even pitching and providing, you know, if you don't have a really strong angle or a really strong hook, you're at least providing, like, a couple of different ways that we can look at this.
The Sources That Gabriella Is Looking For
[00:04:43] BB: Yep. Okay, good. Good to hear. What about what you want to see right now, pitch wise?
[00:04:51] GU: Okay. A couple of things when it comes to home design, because I do get a lot of pitches for home because, again, I was Architectural Digest just full time, and I still write for them, and I've written for Domino. I love a home tour pitch where the actual homeowner is very involved in the creative process because I find for me personally, it makes the best type of story. Sure, there's plenty of incredible designers out there that we're going to interview as well because they're attached to the story, naturally, if there's a designer attached to the project. But I find when there's that duo of the homeowner who was really involved in that creative process with the designer. Best type of stories that I've personally got to work on. I'm always looking for stories that are interesting people that we need to know about. I think people that are just moving culture forward in a cool way, whether it's an up and coming artist.
[00:05:49] BB: Yeah.
[00:05:50] GU: Talent of some sort, especially in the Latino community. Both my parents are Cuban immigrants. Miami. Yep. So always looking for the Latinos out there. And I would say those are my two big ones. Ooh. And then I love just like a cultural zeitgeist moment, especially in the dating world.
[00:06:07] BB: Ooh. Okay.
[00:06:11] GU: I've written a few fun pieces when it comes to dating, and I'm just fascinated by the way that different generations approach dating and the way that we talk about it on TikTok. And even just the differences in my own personal life versus when I was single, the way my outlook was versus in a relationship. And I just love taking a poll and seeing where people are at and doing a quick pulse check on it. So hearing from different dating experts or just like trends that are popping up on social media that we're like, why are we talking about this? Yeah, I want to know about it.
[00:06:40] BB: What's one of the things of late where you're like, why? Why what? Why are we talking about this in.
[00:06:46] GU: Terms of dating or just, like, in life?
[00:06:48] BB: Well, I'll take in life in general, but like, anything that stood out to you recently, like, what the hell? What?
[00:06:54] GU: There's a lot of mental health coded ones. Because I do write a lot about wellness and mental health and I used to have a mental health podcast and there's a lot.
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