Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons and Justine Simmons have always promoted positivity. Therefore, it was natural for the power couple to team up with AT&T’s #InspiredMobility campaign, which highlights inspiration through technology. It’s been 12 years since the premiere of their fan favorite MTV series Run’s House, and the couple hasn’t slowed down one bit. They continue to develop positive content everyone can stream on their devices with services like DIRECTV NOW, DIRECTV and social media. The duo strives to share positive content and advice about love, marriage and family that can really make a difference in the current state of our world.
Recently, Rev Run and Mrs. Simmons spoke with EBONY.com about using technology to inspire millions of people every day with #InspiredMobility, why they choose to #BeTheGlow and their upcoming scripted comedy series.
EBONY.com: What motivated you both to join the #InspiredMobility campaign with AT&T?
Rev Run: For me, it was very simple. I’ve been on social media for a very long time, and when #InspiredMobility came along, and I connected with AT&T, it was great. It was like a match made in heaven. They’re talking about inspiring people through social media, and I’ve been doing it with Twitter and all of the stuff that I do. It was like a glove fit in my hand to work with them —to go to radio stations. It’s always been really good doing it with social media and AT&T is such a great company. I’ve been able to talk about it on The Breakfast Club and all these great shows, and it’s been bigger than ever.
Justine Simmons: Our TV shows are how I spread #InspiredMobility because we try to make all our shows very positive. At home every day we are constantly trying to make things inspiring and positive. For women especially, whether they are single or married women, I try to inspire them to be stronger.
EBONY.com: Rev, you’ve been working with social media since its inception. As technology has changed and expanded, how have your interactions with your followers changed?
Rev: With Instagram, I’m able to put up memes —not just put up words. You can add pictures and videos to different posts. With Snapchat, I can actually just go on and start talking straight to the camera. They’ve also added more time to video on Instagram. It used to only be a couple of seconds; now it’s a minute. I can really get my word out. Also, you can actually get our television shows on your smart phone. AT&T is connected with DirecTV. So with all of that going on, it’s just been a breeze. When things get better with technology, it just makes it easier for us to connect with people.
EBONY.com: How can we tune out negativity? How can you continue to be a positive person and try to make positive connections in a world that can often be very dark?
Rev: With AT&T we have the hashtag, #BeTheGlow. In a world that’s so negative, you just have to be positive. I put up a post this morning that touched me, and I asked people to say, “Amen.” I’ve been doing that a lot lately just to bring people closer. I get them to interact with me. This morning, I wrote, “May you be so blessed today because you decided to ignore negativity. May you be peaceful because you looked on every bright side. Remember this today: Stay in the light. Avoid dark thoughts, and be with happiness. And I will say, ‘Amen.’ Join in with this prayerful energy now.” So that just happened a little while ago, and I’m up to 4,000 people who said, “Amen.” I’m asking you to comment. Talk with me. Pray with me. Then I wrote in the caption, “This prayer is for you. This prayer just took-off heaven-bound. Join in. Say, ‘Amen.'” As we speak, someone is writing, “Amen”. It’s really a big prayer. It came from my heart. It actually got me to get up, go outside and start moving. I realized that anything that was negative that was going to come at me, I was going to counteract that negativity and those negative thoughts that try to cloud you in the morning, with positive vibrations.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXkrqGlFwJk/?hl=en&taken-by=revwon
EBONY.com: I know that you have an upcoming comedy series, which is going to be very different from Run’s House. Can you tell me a little bit about it?
JS: It will be positive and family-oriented. This time it’s more acting. It will be an actual scripted series. Before, we came in the room and did whatever came to our mind that was going on at the time. It’s going to be different. We have to study lines.
Rev: There’s a big difference. We’ve only done reality thus far. So with the actual scripted show, people are going to have to get their mind in sync that we’re acting. We’re excited to take on this challenge because Hollywood came to us and was like, “Here’s what we want to do.” I’m like, “Uhh, okay.” It’s really been exciting studying scripts and learning things. We’re still in the process of development so we can’t really tell you much more. I can tell you the difference will be this is a scripted series compared to a reality series.
