LIVE TuneUp! :: "Write Your Own Headline"

Hello!!

The Live Broadcast of the TuneUp is back this week today Wednesday at 1pm EST! Register here.

Today, we are going to learn how to write your own headlines when pitching the media. You need to hook the reporter, and simply saying: "Will you feature my business?" will get you a field of silent crickets, or a big "No," or worse, "Sure, buy advertising and we'll promote it!"

This TuneUp will teach you how to hook a reporter, producer or intern, to pique their curiosity to compel them to write about you or your business. The first step: immerse yourself in headlines to get your wheels turning.

Get ideas! Join us live on the broadcast!

If you can't make it to this free broadcast, Tin Shinglers with the Media Membership get 24/7 access to watch any TuneUp whenever they want. Activate your Tin Shingle membership today to get access!

Non-members can buy TuneUps as a single, to build a personalized collection. But having them all is the most fun. Join.

TODAY: Office Hours TuneUp To Slow Roll Through Your Website Refresh

Office Hours
Open Today

When: Wednesday, April 27th, 2022
Time: 1pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone.
How: Click Here if you are a member of Tin Shingle. You need to be logged into your account.
Required: Membership with Tin Shingle. Join today.

Hello!
It's a Wednesday, and depending on how yours is going, it might be a tired one. That's why we're going to slow roll through website ideas you can make onto your website now to attract what you need: new clients, product sales, media hooks.

This session is open to all members of Tin Shingle, to use as a strategy session. If there are more than one person in the session, we will alternate. You will have the ability to listen to the other person's challenge and needs, and also contribute your ideas. This is a sharing space.

If you can't make this time, you can book a Private Training session for 25% off for a personal phone call.

About TuneUp Office Hours

If you are a member of Tin Shingle, come on today's Members-Only TuneUp! These are closed sessions, and not open to the public. This is a safe space for Tin Shingle Members to come in with brainstorms to give and get feedback.

You can turn on your video camera to speak eye-to-eye, or just talk on the phone or through your computer speakers.

In this series, members of Tin Shingle with the Media Kit Membership can call in to workshop any need in their marketing campaign, including:

• Media Pitching: What a pitch to a certain media outlet should look like, and how it should read.

• Instagram: How to get sales and create PR opportunities from you posts.

• Facebook: How do you increase traffic from this platform?

• Website: The media will circle back to evaluate their website. What are they seeing, and is it clear?

• SEO: What's your game plan? Let's get one. You don't want to miss out on all that search traffic.

HOW IT WORKS:
Tin Shingle's owner Katie will moderate the call.

She will rotate through people on the call, and encourage each other to contribute to each person's challenge as a conversation.

CALL-IN DETAILS
When you are logged into your Media Kit Member account at Tin Shingle, you will be able to click this link in our Community section of the website to get the private link to call in details.

Once on the call, Katie will adjust your settings so that we can hear and/or see you. We love talking face-to-face, so turn your video on if you want. Otherwise, audio-only is fine.

TODAY: Office Hour TuneUp. Nudging You Into Your Confidence

Office Hours
Open Today

When:Wednesday, April 13th, 2022
Time: 1pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone.
How: Click Here if you are a member of Tin Shingle. You'll need to be logged into your account.
Required: Membership with Tin Shingle. Join today.

Hello!

Some of you might need a nudge.

Some of you are really good at the business side of things. Setting up bank accounts, sending and collecting invoices, etc.

Some of you have less confidence when it comes to getting the word out. For whatever reason.

Maybe you don't know what to say.

Maybe you think you aren't modern enough.

Maybe you think that there is no interest in coverage of your story.

Maybe you answered for all of the people before you even tried.

Get on this private, members-only TuneUp so that you can be dispelled from this way of thinking. And you can get the word out!

Register now for this Office Hours TuneUp for Tin Shingle members only.

Ready To Stream: [PR] TuneUp: Editing Email Pitches For TV

Editing Email Pitches For TV

During this TuneUp, Katie went over 3 email pitches intended for a TV segment. Listen in to hear how she edited them. What did she keep in mind? What kind of changes did she make?

Plus, get a minute of motivation to start it all off, as per usual. Because getting the word out is hard to do, and requires gumption and courage.

HOW TO WATCH

Anyone can watch a Tin Shingle TuneUp from their computer, mobile phone or tablet. The process is different for premium members and the public.

MEMBERS OF TIN SHINGLE (FREE)

Stream any TuneUp Webinar anytime with your Tin Shingle membership. No need to purchase it, this TuneUp is ready to play from this page! When you are logged in, you will see a big screen.

NON-MEMBERS ($65)

Once you buy a TuneUp, you own it forever. The video or audio recording will appear on the TuneUp page that you just purchased from, and all you need to do is press play.

LIVE TuneUp Today! Editing Email Pitches; Skimming Editorial Calendars

Editing Email Pitches For TV

When: Wednesday, April 6th, 2022
Time: 1pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone. Register Now
Price: Free for all during during the live broadcast.
The replay is made available for free to Tin Shingle Members to stream.
Non-Members can pay per TuneUp.

Hello!
The Live Broadcast of the TuneUp is back this week!
Today, Katie will go over 3 email pitches intended for a TV segment. Listen in to hear how she edited them. What did she keep in mind? What kind of changes did she make?

Skim Tin Shingle’s Editorial Calendars with her as well. If you are not a member yet, you can peek inside our Editorial Calendar Collection to see what they are like.

Plus, get a minute of motivation to start it all off, as per usual. Because getting the word out is hard to do, and requires gumption and courage.

Get ideas! Join us live on the broadcast!

Loving These Bathing Beauties: Tin Shingle's Office Hours Open Today 1-2pm EST

Office Hours
Open Today

When:Wednesday, March 16th, 2022
Time:1pm EST
Where:At your computer or on your phone.
How:Follow the directions on this pageto get the registration link.
Or, if you're a Tin Shingle Member and are already logged in,click here to get the special registration link.
Required:Media Kit Membership with Tin Shingle. Join today.

Hello!

Loving this highlight of bathing in Allure this month. This magazine continues to expand widely in its coverage of beauty. Come in today to Tin Shingle’s Office Hours to discuss your PR strategy and look althoughEditorial Calendarsof this and more magazines so that you can pitch them timely stories in advance.

If you can't make this time, you can book aPrivate Trainingsession for 25% off for a personal phone call.

About TuneUp Office Hours

If you are a member of Tin Shingle, come on today's Members-Only TuneUp! These are closed sessions, and not open to the public. This is a safe space for Tin Shingle Members to come in with brainstorms to give and get feedback.

You can turn on your video camera to speak eye-to-eye, or just talk on the phone or through your computer speakers.

In this series, members of Tin Shingle with theMedia Kit Membershipcan call in to workshop any need in their marketing campaign, including:

• Media Pitching: What a pitch to a certain media outlet should look like, and how it should read.

• Instagram: How to get sales and create PR opportunities from you posts.

• Facebook: How do you increase traffic from this platform?

• Website: The media will circle back to evaluate their website. What are they seeing, and is it clear?

• SEO: What's your game plan? Let's get one. You don't want to miss out on all that search traffic.

HOW IT WORKS:
Tin Shingle's owner Katie will moderate the call.

She will rotate through people on the call, and encourage each other to contribute to each person's challenge as a conversation.

CALL-IN DETAILS
When you are logged into your Media Kit Member account at Tin Shingle, you will be able toclick this link in our Community section of the website to get the private linkto call in details.

Once on the call, Katie will adjust your settings so that we can hear and/or see you. We love talking face-to-face, so turn your video on if you want. Otherwise, audio-only is fine.

Great PR Idea For Any Business: The "My Economy" Segment On Marketplace

As many of you know, if you follow Tin Shingle’s Instagram, I’m a big fan of the radio/podcast series of shows under Marketplace from APM (American Public Media). All of the Marketplace shows. Your business definitely wants to be showcased there, in some capacity. The benefit of business news is that it gives your business validation - as a business. Not just as a service or product that people really want to buy. Of course you want that :) But you also want to be a contributor to how businesses are thinking right now.

In Tin Shingle’s PR Leads section, that you can access with a membership with Tin Shingle, you’ll find a suggestion to pitch the “My Economy” segment that airs from time to time on Marketplace. It’s where Marketplace host Kai Rysdall interviews a business owner for their take on their corner of the economy. He wants to know how the pandemic shifted the business, or how a life transition transformed the business or started a new one. Anything that has to do with trends (good or bad) in the economy right now, he wants to know about it as it relates to your business. Sometimes he has back a guest as a followup!

The story angle must be money-focused, as well as small-business focused. Ideas can include life-based transitions, pandemic-based transitions, supply-chain-induced transitions, anything related to money and regular life and how it help or hurt the business.

Producers seem to like a focus on a money-shift as it relates to current events. So if it's the sad, sad war in Ukraine, the pandemic, BLM (Black Lives Matter), a fight for living a normal life in the LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Queer) community, transitioned life as a parent or caregiver, etc.

Recent recorded features have included:

A traveling barber makes house calls and friends
Tara Morgan roves Vashon Island to help customers look spiffy. Her business, C'Mon Barber, is the result of a midlife transition.

Role reversal at home has allowed her photo studio to grow during the pandemic
When her husband started working from home, Liz Hansen was able to spend more time at her boudoir-style photography business.

How a Kentucky teen is balancing work and her first year of college
Aneesha Edwards has a full tuition scholarship but still expects to take on about $10,000 of debt every year she's in school.

This Maine fishery owner tries to keep an even keel amid volatile scallop prices
"How do you set your price when you don’t know if it’s going to be $12 a pound or $37 a pound?" says Togue Brawn of Downeast Dayboat.

Interviews are few, so this is a difficult spot to land. Use Tin Shingle’s Pitch Whisperer in the Google Group to run a draft of your pitch by us (ok, me, Katie) to see how it reads, and if it can be catchier. Feeling shy? You can book a Private Session no problem.

TODAY: Open Office Hours at Tin Shingle

Office Hours
Open Today

When: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022
Time: 1pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone.
How: Follow the directions on this pageto get the registration link.
Or, if you're a Tin Shingle Member and are already logged in,click here to get the special registration link.
Required:Media Kit Membership with Tin Shingle. Join today.

Hello!

From 1-2pm EST, get in for Tin Shingle's Office Hours to go over your latest plans for publicity. This session is to read your draft email pitches, and think of reasons to pitch your #1 goal. We can also explore other media outlets that you need publicity in for validation or to reach a new audience.

BONUS: Katie is also a reporter, creative writer, and SEO specialist. She can see how your website can rank organically for very niche terms, that most likely brings in leads who want to pay for what you sell. Use her brain! Get on this call.

If you can't make this time, you can book a Private Training session for 25% off for a personal phone call.

About TuneUp Office Hours

If you are a member of Tin Shingle, come on today's Members-Only TuneUp! These are closed sessions, and not open to the public. This is a safe space for Tin Shingle Members to come in with brainstorms to give and get feedback.

You can turn on your video camera to speak eye-to-eye, or just talk on the phone or through your computer speakers.

In this series, members of Tin Shingle with theMedia Kit Membershipcan call in to workshop any need in their marketing campaign, including:

• Media Pitching: What a pitch to a certain media outlet should look like, and how it should read.

• Instagram: How to get sales and create PR opportunities from you posts.

• Facebook: How do you increase traffic from this platform?

• Website: The media will circle back to evaluate their website. What are they seeing, and is it clear?

• SEO: What's your game plan? Let's get one. You don't want to miss out on all that search traffic.

HOW IT WORKS:
Tin Shingle's owner Katie will moderate the call.

She will rotate through people on the call, and encourage each other to contribute to each person's challenge as a conversation.

CALL-IN DETAILS
When you are logged into your Media Kit Member account at Tin Shingle, you will be able toclick this link in our Community section of the website to get the private linkto call in details.

Once on the call, Katie will adjust your settings so that we can hear and/or see you. We love talking face-to-face, so turn your video on if you want. Otherwise, audio-only is fine.

When Speaking Your Truth Is Risky Business - So You Wear It On Your Sleeve And Decorate The Shop

We have learned in the past two years, now entering the third, that not speaking on an issue you do have feelings for can lead to harm, or pigeon-hole you or your business into a group you did not intend to be a part of, because others made assumptions based on the neutral stance.

What happens when simply existing is an open show of resistance and speaking truth? Local business owner and restaurateur, Kamel Jamal of Beacon, NY, runs such a business. A Palestinian refugee, he was born in Palestine and left with his parents and some siblings when he was a toddler. Passionate about his home country, he cannot not speak about Palestine. One of his restaurants, Ziatun, is his self-declared happy place, and has Palestinian love decorating their entire small and cozy eatery.

Like many restaurants in his small town, he showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement when citizens were marching down his Main Street in the summer of 2021. “Free Palestine” signage is in the window and on different artwork, and he has designed merchandise to subtly promote the message.

At times, he’ll hear from a customer who is against the Free Palestine concept, and won’t set foot into the restaurant. Everyone else is coming into the restaurant, enjoying the flavors, vibe, and Kamel hopes, getting more awareness about the people of Palestine who live under occupation.

Putting our podcasting hats on, Brandon Lillard and I (Katie) interviewed Kamel to learn more deeply about his opinions on the occupation and Palestinian people on our locally-based podcast, Wait, What Is That? after the May 2021 escalation resulting from a Palestinian neighborhood protest over more homes being demolished.

Without hesitation, he said yes. He remained careful in choosing his words, yet unable to contain his emotion at times, especially when speaking about when others in the know remain silent for a myriad of their own reasons.

Listen to the podcast here, produced by Tin Shingle and A Little Beacon Blog.

Stand For Something, Or Stand For Nothing

A friend and community advocate, Ali Tawfiq Muhammad of Beacon and Newburgh, New York, put this statement as his email signature: “Stand for something, or fall for anything.” In this day in age, with a global human rights reckoning going on, the statement resonates. To give no indication of where one stands, or what one stands for, can be damaging to a brand.

Here are concepts to consider when putting out commentary on world or local developments on your business or personal social media:

• Alienation: While some might fear alienation of customers or friends if the business puts out a signal in a direction of support for something, a business or individual risks then being assigned incorrectly by others if nothing is said or acknowledged at all.

• Self-Identify Before Identity Is Assigned To You: If your brand or your person says or shows nothing for a big deal that is going on around you, then others can make assumptions incorrectly about where you stand. You might say: “People shouldn’t assume!” But they do :) Make it clear.

• Hope: By speaking your truth on the subject, as a business or your person, you are giving another group of people hope (as opposed to a smaller group you might be alienating)

• Helps People Be Seen: One of the best feelings ever. A marginalized group may be used to not be seen or believed. Your support could do a lot of good for someone’s mental health.

• Fear: “But I’ll lose clients!”: You might. But you’ll gain a lot more. Tin Shingle always took an open stance on positions, but in the last two years, the subject matter shifted and got steeper. Still climbing and speaking, I have heard from people who are silent on the sidelines, but say: “Thank you for speaking on / pursuing XYZ. I cannot, because I have clients who are ABC.” And this, from people who are vocal about one topic, but silent on another.

Piggy Back On The Media

Not sure when to publish or pursue something? If you see it anywhere in the media, that can be your chance. It’s a “short lead” approach, where you are angling for a spin-off story, but relevancy is created. You can even pitch reporters with something your business did that has to do with what they covered, in a “no ask” pitch, where you are simply getting something on their radar.

In our case, Vanity Fair published a story, “Generation Gaza” by veteran war reporter Janine di Giovanni, in their February 2022 issue. This created relevance for our podcast episode to be circulated.

Subtle Ways To Speak Your Truth To Help Define Your Brand

This article was published when Putin attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, starting a war. This article was intended to be published last week, but like with all things, got pushed to today. Before we knew that Putin would actually put into action what he had been threatening. If you’ve been speaking your truth in business, then continuing to do so will flow as defining moments happen overnight to present in the morning.

If speaking your business truth isn’t something you normally show, but want to start incorporating, there are subtle ways to do it. For example:

• Food: Any food business can highlight a dish or ingredient they sell that pays homage to whatever is going on.

• Retail: Colors or types of products can be showcased this day, with a verbal acknowledgement in some way.

• Insurance: Messages of how to prepare for uncertainty, with a verbal, empathetic acknowledgement to what is happening.

• Authors: Highlighting another author’s book who is from a region or community that is in the news right now.

• Who are you? Join Tin Shingle for direct access on getting advice on how to show a message in a subtle or strong way in your branding.

Podcast Episodes & Services

Tin Shingle offers podcast production services which you can learn about here. We can produce your podcast with you from afar, or if you’re local in Beacon, then in person. Prices are changing, with everything that’s going on (inflation!) so lock it in how with a package.

TODAY: Office Hours: Compartmentaling Your Time For Pitches; Writing The Best Pitch

Office Hours
Open Today

When: Wednesday, February 23th, 2022
Time: 1pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone.
How: Follow the directions on this page to get the registration link.
Or, if you're a Tin Shingle Member and are already logged in, click here to get the special registration link.
Required: Media Kit Membership with Tin Shingle. Join today.

Hello!

Hope you had a great Double 2 Tuesday yesterday! Today is Wednesday, and that means it's time for Tin Shingle Members to use their free pass for a group training session during this Office Hours TuneUp.

Talk with Tin Shingle's owner, Katie Hellmuth Martin, to get her opinion about how to get your business publicity. There are so many angles to be taken right now. Success will come down to:

A. Compartmentalizing your time, so that you stay laser focused on what to pitch, when.
B. What your pitch email to a media person says.

BONUS: Katie is also a reporter, creative writer, and SEO specialist. She can see how your website can rank organically for very niche terms, that most likely brings in leads who want to pay for what you sell. Use her brain! Get on this call.

If you can't make this time, you can book a Private Training session for 25% off for a personal phone call.

About TuneUp Office Hours

If you are a member of Tin Shingle, come on today's Members-Only TuneUp! These are closed sessions, and not open to the public. This is a safe space for Tin Shingle Members to come in with brainstorms to give and get feedback.

You can turn on your video camera to speak eye-to-eye, or just talk on the phone or through your computer speakers.

In this series, members of Tin Shingle with the Media Kit Membership can call in to workshop any need in their marketing campaign, including:

• Media Pitching: What a pitch to a certain media outlet should look like, and how it should read.

• Instagram: How to get sales and create PR opportunities from you posts.

• Facebook: How do you increase traffic from this platform?

• Website: The media will circle back to evaluate their website. What are they seeing, and is it clear?

• SEO: What's your game plan? Let's get one. You don't want to miss out on all that search traffic.

HOW IT WORKS:
Tin Shingle's owner Katie will moderate the call.

She will rotate through people on the call, and encourage each other to contribute to each person's challenge as a conversation.

CALL-IN DETAILS
When you are logged into your Media Kit Member account at Tin Shingle, you will be able to click this link in our Community section of the website to get the private link to call in details.

Once on the call, Katie will adjust your settings so that we can hear and/or see you. We love talking face-to-face, so turn your video on if you want. Otherwise, audio-only is fine.