Exploring Life & Business with Natalie McCarty of Gut Instinct Media

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie McCarty.

Hi Natalie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve done a lot before starting Gut Instinct Media, but if I’m being real, my life didn’t really begin until this. It’s my company, but it’s also my life, you know? Gut Instinct is definitely this extension of me, but it’s also taken on a life of its own. My co-founder, Stella Violet, and I were laughing the other day because people will say “Thank you, Gut Instinct,” and of course they’re talking to us or our team, but it almost feels like they’re speaking to an actual person. It’s become its own presence.

I have huge dreams for where it’s going. I see Gut Instinct growing into something like the next Condé Nast—Vogue, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, Architectural Digest… They define presence. Condé Nast also produces TV and film, they’ve got subsidiaries, they set the tone for culture. I mean, that’s the total blueprint. I know that’s kind of ambitious to say, but I believe in it. And I believe that what we’re doing with this authentic media could be such a culture shaker.

We’re starting to build toward that like multiple medium approach with Frat Magazine, which is this incredibly designed, wildly creative fashion and comedy magazine spearheaded by my business partner, Bruce Gregg. It’s mainly all his own work, but he pulls in a few selects of Gut Instinct content each month, which, through Bruce’s formatting, completely transforms. It’s the same words, sure, but it becomes something totally different with its own energy and its own identity. Frat is just this extension of him. It’s so Bruce.

I mean, at the end of the day, I’m driven by connection. I’m an observer. I’m always analyzing, always thinking about what I could be doing better, about what I should be speaking on more. Culture, media, influence, reform: it’s all tangled up. I’ve always felt that. Now I’m just doing something with it.

Alright, 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?
No one really talks about how hard this is. When you build something like Gut Instinct, you become it. There’s no off-switch. Every moment of every day is either for Gut Instinct or for Frat. You have to be obsessed: with the people, with culture, with what’s happening and why. That kind of obsession is exhausting, especially in the current climate.

You have to be ruthless in the pursuit of the story, but deeply empathetic in the way you tell it. That balance is everything. I work as a publicist outside of this, so I understand the mechanics of buzz—the pitching, the spin, the Hollywood circus. But I’m also just a student of the world. I care about real stories. There’s meaning in that, and there’s a market for it too; however, transparently speaking, it’s just not a very funded one. At least not yet.

The truth is, it’s hard to scale without funding. So right now, this is a business fueled largely by passion. And honestly, passion is the only currency that matters at this stage. If you don’t have it, you won’t last. That’s why I only work with people who are clear in their purpose. No confusion, no half-in energy. My team is hungry, but more importantly, they’re committed to the long game.

Everything becomes a pitch when you’re in this space. There’s always an angle—because there has to be—but that doesn’t mean you have to lose your integrity. That’s what I’m most protective of.

Integrity and Hollywood don’t usually go together. Neither do authenticity and media. Or vision and success. In my opinion, it’s insane that they don’t, that the things that should coexist are almost always at odds. But we’re trying to change that.

We’ve been impressed with Gut Instinct Media, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Gut Instinct is honestly the thing I’m most proud of in my life. I love the people I work with, I love what we’re doing. Because our team is so wide-ranging, we cover everything. I mostly write about politics and the entertainment industry, because those are the worlds I live in outside of this, so it just bleeds in naturally. I love film and music. That’s my forever thing. I’m probably annoying at this point because every conversation turns into a media reference or comparison. But whatever, film and music have changed my life a hundred times over.

You know when you watch a movie and it just shifts something in you? Or you hear a song at the exact right moment and it re-wires how you see the world? It’s just THAT feeling that I keep chasing, and now I get to do it for Gut Instinct. All of my writers do: we cover it, we connect over it, we build something bigger through it. It’s kind of like one giant book club for everyone who finds us.

Stella is the pure essence of carpe diem. Like, every day she’s just seizing all of it. You can tell by the people in her orbit that she leads with love and connects deeply, and it shows in her writing! She’s fun, she’s always the life of the party, she finds every function, always covering music festivals and underground parties and alternative scenes for Gut Instinct. She gets this different aspect of culture and in the best way. There’s a very specific “Stella tone” to what she does.

And like, with Frat Magazine, Bruce is the ultimate comedy and fashion guy, and Frat is the epitome of that energy. He’s actually working on a play right now called Menswear, which is just so next level. It’s funny, it’s sharp, it’s honest. It feels lived in. It feels personal. Bruce is the ultimate writer; he really is. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say about Menswear yet because it’s his baby, not mine, but circle back in a couple weeks when I start PR for it and I’ll tell you everything. He’s just that guy. The ultimate New Yorker—in a good way. Tailored but casual. Smart, cool, totally original.

I mean, all this to say, I think you have to work with people who push you. Stella does that. Bruce does that. Everyone on our team does. We’ve got writers who are actresses, journalists, radio hosts, students, teachers, even a dentist. It’s wild. But that’s what makes it so good. It’s life. It’s the world. It’s so sick. It’s real. It’s life. And that’s what we’re trying to reflect.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
It’s actually hilarious because I used to be such a nervous person. I grew up in Los Angeles, moved to New York for school, and then came back here, and I came back a completely different person. New York forces you to, for lack of a better term, man up. You figure out who you are there. I dropped the nerves and just started taking risks.

I mean, yes, this was definitely influenced by the company I used to keep, but they pointed me in the right direction! New York sharpened my intuition and zoned in my perspective. Got me set on what I wanted. There’s something about being surrounded by people who are chasing something that wakes something up in you.

And yeah, the risks I took were still calculated, because that’s the smart thing to do. You’ve got to be ballsy, but you don’t have to be stupid. There’s a balance. You put yourself out there, but you also need a fallback plan. And one behind that. And one behind that.

Risks are everything. Believe in yourself. Follow that gut instinct! I really believe you build your own luck. You’ve got to gamble on yourself and trust yourself enough to know when to fold, and when to go all in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gutinstinctmedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliekmccarty
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliemccarty7321
• Other: https://www.fratmagazine.com

Image Credits
Lauren Aho, Axel Tamayo, Livia Wippich