How To Pitch 1 Story Idea 2 Ways - Getting The Most Out Of Your Great Ideas

Pitching the media takes time. And you have great ideas! You can repurpose those ideas to get a lot of mileage out of them. Maybe you sell PVC. Or maybe you are a home improvement expert looking to get featured in a story in a magazine or TV. You’re going to spend time thinking up really cool story angles to pitch to the media outlet of your dreams - but the pitching doesn’t need to end there. You can stretch these pitches out to work for different outlets.

How DIY Sprinklers Work For Martha Stewart and Boys’ Life

Look at the example that published in Boys’ Life: “How To Build A PVC Sprinkler For Summertime Fun.”

The words “PVC” and “Build” are very Boys’ Life. They like to work with this material. These terms are not very Martha Stewart friendly terms, but “Sprinkler” is, as is “Make Your Own” or “DIY.”

You know what else Martha Stewart and other DIY magazines like? Repurposing old stuff. So, this article concept, when pitched to Boys’ Life could include the words “PVC” and “Build” in it.

But, when pitched to Martha Stewart or another DIY magazine with a primarily female audience, could read like this:

“How To Repurpose Your Kid’s Soccer Goal Into A Backyard Sprinkler”

See the difference? These word choices are what we discuss in Tin Shingle’s Pitch Whisperer Club when member submit their pitch drafts for feedback.

Join us! Get in here with your pitch ideas, and let’s see you get some media coverage.

How Concious Living Expert Christine Agro Landed 2 Morning Show Segments At Once

Christine Agro is a member of Tin Shingle and therefore a friend. When I saw in her social feeds that she was on a plane preparing to fly to Connecticut to film a morning show segment, I reached out right away to learn more about the big PR score, in order to find out more about how she did it, and share it here with you Tin Shinglers.

Christine was kind enough to give us the pitching play by play! For anyone pitching the media, if you need help with your actual pitch email, Tin Shingle’s Pitch Whisperer Program is a direct level of help that you can use. Available the public, we can write your pitch from scratch. Available to Members of Tin Shingle, you can copy/paste your draft email into our special Pitch Whisperer Forum and get feedback on it from myself and other members. Outside viewpoints are so valuable!

Here’s how the pitching-to-air-time went down:

Pitching August - February

I started pitching TV segments at the end of August. Each week, I sent out a new pitch.

A Response In February! Of…”No Thank You”

At the end of February, I got a ‘no thank you’ from my contact at Fox32 in Chicago. This was the first response I received from her. I took it as a good sign!

Pivots On Her Pitching In March

In Mid-March, I had pitches set to go, but decided to look what else was happening in March. It turned out the following week was Introvert week.

I was in Miami to do a talk, but I still sent my pitches out.

In my MotivateHer group program, I’ve been working with my clients to step up and into being more visible. Dealing with fears, anxieties, uncertainties. I work with them on the energetic difference between Beyonce on the red carpet of the MTV awards as a correspondent - vs - the Beyonce that stepped fully into her Bey-ness two years later.

I’ve been doing the same work on myself. While in Miami, I was sitting in mediation and looked at where I wanted the visibility – mostly, but there was still a part of me that was holding back. I peeled that away and the next day…

I heard back from two producers. The one in Chicago and one in Connecticut. Both wanted me to come in that week, but I was in Miami. I responded that I was not available and asked what other dates they had. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Very key! Christine was persistent. She presented the other dates.]

Both came back with options and I scheduled them both. Chicago asked me to fill out a form with suggested intro and outro (that surprised me). Connecticut asked for a few speaking points.

THE DREAD CREEPS IN

While waiting for my plane to Chicago, I felt that familiar feeling of ‘why did I say I would do this’ – the Introverts Dilemma, I call it.

I realized that despite having the energy tools to deal with this, in the past, I let it overcome me and did what I teach my students not to do - pushed it down, or away and tried to manage it.

With 3 hours to wait, I decided to get to work on this energy. I started picking apart the energy, identifying what it was made up of, decided whether it had merit (none of it did) cleared it all out and by the time I got on the set in Chicago, I was great.

DAYS OF THE MORNING SHOW SEGMENTS

I had hair and make-up done for both morning shows.

Chicago: the show had a Blue Room. A producer took me into the studio where I waited for the anchor to come and do the interview.

Connecticut: A producer brought me into the studio and had a row of chairs for guests to sit and wait while the entire show was happening right in front of me. I had a tiny bit of energy come up but I cleared it here too.

LIFE AFTER THE MORNING SHOW SEGMENTS

I followed up right away with thank you notes that I sent via email.

One week later, I resumed pitching them with new ideas!

Deconstructing the Pitch: Designer of Animal Furniture Featured in Architectural Digest

As you're flipping through your favorite magazines, you are reading inspiring features about other people. In the back of your mind, you may be thinking: "Ah, one day, that will be me."

Reality Check: Today, that is you.

You Can Be Featured In The Magazine Too!

As you are trying to market your business, you're going to want PR. You're going to want to be mentioned in magazines, TV segments, blog posts, and interviewed on podcasts. It's a big job - all of this marketing - but somebody's got to do it, and that someone is you. Here's how you're going to hit the grand slam:

Step 1: Realize that you can be featured in a magazine like Architectural Digest. This is the "Give Yourself Permission" approach we preach in Tin Shingle Training TuneUps (all of which are free with an All Access Pass Level 4 of membership) and is the undercurrent in all of our articles.

Step 2: Find the "Why." Why would this magazine feature your business right now? What about your business is significant to that magazine's readers?

Step 3: Go for the pitch. This means you will write an email to an editor (or contributing writer) at a magazine, with some clever suggestion of why their readers would love to know about your company right now.

The Pitch Deconstructed

The pitch is the trickiest part. It's a simple email, but needs to be written to just the right person in just the right way. We have deconstructed this full page feature in Architectural Digest of the designer Porky Hefer. Tin Shingle Members at the Community Level 1 and above can log into their accounts and find the analysis right here in our Pitch Whisperer Workshop forum of the Community Boards.

Find out what may have appealed to editors at Architectural Digest that convinced them to give this designer a full page in the "back of the book" aka the back of the magazine where lots of people flip the back cover and see it, and how you can do it too.

The Pitch Whisperer Workshop forum is available to Community Members Level 1 and above to submit their pitches to the group and get feedback (and sometimes edits!) from our supportive community. No pitch is to far out for our eyes. Tin Shingle is all about helping you Think Big and Go Big for your business marketing.

PR HOMEWORK:
Read a Feature & Think Backwards

To help train your mind in pitching the media:
1. Read the magazine you want your business featured in.
2. You'll notice a feature of a business that could have been yours.
3. Think about what they featured about that business - all of the highlights and special points that was in the article.
4. These observations will help form your pitch.
5. Use Tin Shingle's Media Contact Database to help you find the right editor or writer to pitch to.
6. Use Tin Shingle's PR Planning & Tracking Template to log when you pitched to them, and when you'll follow up.