Ten years ago, Chanel Nicole Scott moved to Atlanta from North Carolina with nothing but vision. Crashing with her cousin, she birthed CheMinistry, a live relationship platform launched out of Dream Café on Peters Street. Originally behind the scenes, Scott stepped into the spotlight with encouragement from her publicist and never looked back. Her persistence paid off when she pitched CheMinistry to Fox Soul’s then-general manager, James DuBose, eventually landing a televised pilot.
Despite early production hiccups, the show aired and thrived, thanks to DuBose’s belief in her vision. After Fox Soul restructured, DuBose left the company but tapped Scott again, this time to co-host Crown, a spin-off of Cocktails with Queens, and later invited her to join his newest venture, In The Black Network, as a flagship face. Recognizing her talent, leadership, and creative brilliance, DuBose named Scott his network’s Chief Marketing Officer.
She took A Seat At The Table to talk her career and relationships.
Give some advice for the men. Why are men unsuccessful when they shoot their shot with women?
First of all, you gotta read the room. You gotta be aware of a person’s energy. A person will tell you if they’re interested or not, and it’s okay if they’re not. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. That just means that’s not your person.
Can you grow into liking someone? Is that a real thing?
I don’t think that’s real. I’ve had two experiences like that, where, for me, I knew I wasn’t attracted to the man, but he was extremely nice to me. He was friendly to me, and he liked to take me out, and we had fun. But I knew I was not romantically attracted to him, but because he was so persistent, I went with it. I was young. I was in my 20s. And when I tell you, I crushed this gentleman, because the moment I met someone that I really liked, I dropped him, and that actually happened to me twice, and I didn’t feel good about that. That’s why that karma makes its way around.
What’s some advice for that young woman or man who wants to be in your shoes one day?
Oh, prepare yourself. Be prepared, right? I got my MBA in 2009 [and] nobody would give me a job because I didn’t have experience. So, I went to the church. I attended a mega-church in Nashville. I lived in Nashville for about four years back then, and I served. I volunteered and, because it was a mega-church, I had high-level assignments. So, I was the advertising director at the church, and I went out into the community, and solicited ad space, ad sales, and I raised about $30,000 for a church magazine. It was just a church magazine, but I was grinding.
And then I was exposed to a lot of the things that I learned in terms of marketing. That was like my first entry level to marketing. But I will always say, put into practice what it is that you want to do, even if you don’t have the opportunity in a large corporation do it, where someone will appreciate your gift. Don’t just limit yourself to, “Oh, I didn’t get this job.” No, do it in whatever capacity you can and hone in on that skill set. Because when I got to the network, I was just doing it for me. I had done it for the church, but I did it at a high level, and I used my own money. That was the other thing. You got to invest in yourself. If you don’t invest in yourself, nobody else will, period. So, make the investment. Do what you need to do to prepare. Don’t cut corners, and somebody is watching and will see it.
What do you think are red flags in men that that women shouldn’t ignore?
Men who want to date multiple women. I know now this generation, because I’m old school, they say, “Oh, you should date.” Yeah, well, you know, maybe not. I heard a woman say on social media yesterday, “I urge women to date multiple people.” I don’t agree with that. Because how can you really hone in and really know what you like, if your mind is all over the place? Like, what do I got time to go out with five different men? You might get one day out of me, if you get that.
