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Meet Aisha Ervin of E-Line Media & Production in Downtown

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Aisha Ervin.

Aisha, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am originally from Niagara Falls, New York I am one of those kids who grew up watching Solid Gold, Soul Train and the end of the Dick Clark reruns. Every since I was five years old, I wanted to be in entertainment. I wanted to be an actor or dancer and later on a model. My father’s and mother’s parents were middle class at a time a lot of blacks didn’t have money but my parents lived in a lower-income area I spent most of my time with my grandparents. They paid for me to go to Catholic School and as my love for entertainment grew they paid for me to take Dance, Acting and Modeling.

In the 5th grade I wrote a play that my school allowed me to do for our fall production. As I got older I did a lot of talent shows and dance performances I even started modeling with a model troupe. One summer I went to visit my fathers family that moved to Atlanta and I was approached about modeling a year later I was 13 and moved to Atlanta I signed with an Agency and began modeling I also began to act landing some long-term feature extra roles and doing videos. The modeling business was hardcore and it was full of people who were not really able to provide what they said or they wanted to exploit young talent. My family lost much money on fraud agencies and photographers I became knowledgeable in negotiation. At age 15 I was known as the negotiator after being taken advantage of so much other talent would call me to sit in on their meetings or to look over their contract. Soon the business got the best of me and I found myself running to something different at age 17 so I joined the Army.

Over the next 11 years of me being in the Army I kept finding myself going back to my first love doing things with MWR in entertainment. It was my final event with MWR when I was over in Iraq they had brought Robin Williams and Hulk Hogan and I did the fashion show and something happen inside me I knew it was time to get back at it. In 2005 I opened my first business EbonisStephens Model & Video Agency now known as ESMV Creative Arts Agency we managed and trained talent and over the years we expanded our services, I finally got to help talent get better gigs and contracts.

In 2007 I began a magazine E-Line Magazine in 2008 I did a workshop for models called America Model Boot Camp and someone approached me about filming it and pitching it to MTV, but that production company pulled out leaving us with a complete project and no home we independently distributed it and did some product placement. Which led to me in 2012-13 writing, producing and finally selling another reality-based show entitled Fashion Hustle I didn’t get the value of the project and I promised to never sell another project. In 2016 my husband retired from the Army and we moved back to Atlanta I moved ESMV to Conyers we immediately started working on producing local TV shows and shorts. ESMV seemed to be doing everything in Entertainment so in 2019 I decided to separate the two and I launched E-Line Media & Production, where we can just focus on the magazine and production. This is how I got started in the industry I am in, now.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road, I have wanted to quit so many times and have. Starting with when I got out of the military my income changed so I had to work a job and grow my business. Then I got married and had to jungle family work and running my business. My husband being in the military meant we moved every 3-4 years which was another struggle because just as I would start making money and getting my name out we would be moving. My marriage also was challenged by all the hours I put in and it caused me to question if t was all worth it. Soon my money had run out, I lost friends, lost family time and I had gotten discouraged.

Then after my children were teenagers I had another baby and we had moved again and I was just barely holding on to my marriage and I just wanted to give up. As much as I wanted to close my doors I just couldn’t. After having my son I had to work smarter and I pushed on, it’s hard to explain but it’s like I couldn’t stop. It’s like if I would have gave in I would have died. Something keeps pushing me and finally I feel we are on the right road and I still feel compelled to push and work harder.

E-Line Media & Production – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We specialize in running ads and marketing through our magazine and producing small TV/film projects. We are known for helping people find ways to market and advertise their business using the media related platforms. We went from 2 employees to 11 with people specializing in social media marketing and building relationships our bloggers and of course our production team who produces podcast and tv/film. What we are most proud of is helping people bring their dreams and their message to life through a lens. What sets us a part is that we specialize in average people stories and we work with people who only can sometimes verbalize their vision and we lay it out from beginning to the end.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
When I was able to create this team of people I met from all over and bring them together and pay them a decent wage and launch E-Line Media & Production with the best I’ve ever worked with.

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