The entertainment industry suffers from an infestation of over-hyped, under-producing publicists who weigh the industry down like an anchor. Then there is ChiQ Simms, founder of eight-year-old DIVAdend Entertainment. Her southern charm is disarming, but she delivers in a New York minute.
“What makes me special is that I’m very competitive. I’m cutting edge. If you want to be in Black Enterprise, you will be in Black Enterprise,” she says, her words coated in a crisp, authoritative tone. “I hear publicist say all the time, ‘Don’t guarantee results [or] that if you hear publicists guarantee that they can do something, run the other way.’ I’m just the opposite. I’m going to guarantee you results. And I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t sleep until I get what I want. And that’s just the way it is. You get with me, you get with a winner. I want to be on a winning team.”
ChiQ brings winning teams with her. “I travel the country with different sets of media and other publicists and we just try to do as much as we can to educate artists on how to gain national media exposure and how to hire good publicists.”
“I love it when I see somebody so excited because they finally got the opportunity to showcase in front of the right person. This is just a right thing. They didn’t get taken for their money. They didn’t get dogged out. They got some good information. And I just get goose bumps and hopefully a star in my crown for doing it,” ChiQ says of the gratification she derives from these events.
“If you are not placing your clients in national and international positions, then you are not in the hierarchy of publicists in this business. If you’re email blasting, then you are some grassroots marketer. If you’re not where you’re peers are then you are not on the top level of your game. I do want to come off like I am the Kanye of this game. I am the goddess of PR. I’m a let’s get it chick.” The bottom line is ChiQ knows what makes an elite publicist and she fits the definition. – terry shropshire
