We recently connected with Carmen Simmons and have shared our conversation below.
Carmen, appreciate you joining us today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
The biggest challenge to make profitability in the celebrity news media business is first finding stories that will interest your target audience and then keep their engagement long enough to profit from their views. With a marketing budget anyone can acquire views but your stories and or the person reporting it has to be savvy enough to know how to both report and entertain so the viewers you just marketed to won’t click off before you can make profit. Additionally, you want to be the one who breaks a story or has exclusive news that other outlets don’t. That will help you obtain organic views and potentially returning viewership. When I started producing lifestyle and entertainment news it was for my show on Comcast Community Television. If someone watched it; it was because they had become a fan of the show or they found it by simply looking for something new to watch. Now with social media and the internet allowing so much more access you have to work twice as hard to build your audience because their are so many options.
Carmen, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am the Creator and Executive Producer of nstyleatlanta.com, a lifestyle and entertainment news media outlet and N’Style Atlanta Uncut on Fox Soul and Amazon Prime Video. I started in the entertainment industry in 2004 when I decided to create a news entertainment talk show for Community Television after having a hard time finding a job at a major television network. I graduated from Clark Atlanta University in 2002 and after two years of job searching for a tv gig I decided to create my own. While producing for community tv I discovered you can not allow any advertising or self promotion through out the program which limited how I could make money from my content. I then started working in music publishing at LA Reid’s Hitco Music Publishing which gave me even more access to industry insiders and events to build connections for my next move. After 5 years of trying to balance both worlds I decided to rebrand and move off of community television and into cyberspace.
In 2013 I finally launched nstyleatlanta.com which gave me more flexibility to make money off of content and partner with brands that wanted to advertise throughout my website and content. My new platform offers businesses the opportunity to showcase their products or services in front of viewers that may not have normally seen them without paying big marketing budgets to traditional advertising agencies.
In 2023 I expanded my brand to producing unscripted reality television. I created and executive produced a reality show about the journalist that work with nstyleatlanta.com and how we work together to produce entertainment news. The show airs on Fox Soul and we just completed our second season.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my business partner Arturo Ayers Jr. while working for Hitco Music Publishing. He was a tenacious music producer that called regularly to speak to the Creative Director about a publishing deal for his artist. He was very determined and that was something I thought was a great business quality to have so young. He was in his early 20s at the time. A few years later Arturo found me on Facebook to ask me about my industry connections and linking him with writers; but I was no longer with Hitco and focussing primarily on real estate and pursing my television production dreams.
Fast forward ten years later, Arturo found me again, this time on instagram and we connected via telephone. We had an instant connection and he proposed we form a talent management and production company we now call Invisible Ink Entertainment. We began our business relationship in 2018 and within months signed two music producers to major deals. One was as an artist/producer and the other as a producer. We also managed a reality tv personality and gained her several media opportunities and exposure which lead to her being cast on another reality show. In 2024, one of the artist we shopped a deal for in 2019, signed to the same label and person we pitched five years earlier making it a full circle moment for our company. Arturo was an unexpected breath of fresh air on a journey I had never considered. Though I’ve had many people (men) approach about a partner before, he convinced me it would work. Thankfully, his ability to acquire new business, find talent, sell and close deals and my understanding of business, branding, and nurturing relationships, and creative support helped us build a successful foundation for good business. We’ve had a great partnership.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I first began producing what was supposed to only be a sizzle for N’Style Atlanta Uncut. The plan was to shoot, pitch, and sell or license the show to a major network for a major budget to complete a season. What we didn’t know was that upon completion we’d be entering a world wide pandemic. Every network we talked to complimented our work, asked if we had a pilot or full episodes but declined buying a new undeveloped show because their current productions were in quarantine and no one had a clue how to survive the pandemic restrictions. No one could offer a deal unless it was a complete season. I was devastated and discouraged. I had committed so much and now didn’t know how we’d make a return.
That’s when I made the decision to move forward with reimagining how we used the content we had and with the help of another partner, Omar Holland, whom served as a Director and Production Manager, we were able to produce 6 webisodes of the N’Style Atlanta Uncut and share it on YouTube with what we filmed before the pandemic. In 2021, while the world was shut down binge watching television and streaming on the internet; we garnered over 250k views on eight 10-minute episodes. This lead to Fox Soul’s interest in us and they aired a pilot episode in 2022 and finally our first season in 2023.
We have now had two seasons and gained a lot of press. I am forever grateful for the motto of my alma mater, “Find A Way or Make One”. If it wasn’t for that being instilled in me since stepping foot on the campus of Clark Atlanta University, I would have many reasons to give up and shut down. As a teenager I lost both of my parents to AIDS due to my father’s addiction. It would’ve been easy to give up on life and my future. Despite life’s adversities we all have a purpose and that’s my motivation is to keep going, share, live, and learn; so you can live some more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nstyleatlanta.com
- Instagram: @nstyleatlanta
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NStyleAtlanta
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nstyleatlanta
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NStyleAtlanta
- Other: Fox Soul Show: https://foxsoul.tv/shows/nstyle-atlanta-uncut-2/
