YouSaid · the spoken record

Troy Carter

lines on the record: 63
first: 2018-05-28
most recent: 2018-05-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“She passed away three years ago. And she was 63 years old when she died. And she spent the last three years with me and my family. But I remember Ah man We were at an award show. They were giving me some award for an achievement in the music industry. She was sick and she was my date to the show. We saw Barry Gordy. Said, that's you Dude, you're like Oprah. You bring out the tears.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So what she used to call me the big guy. And she made me feel like I was 6'5". And it was something that she did psychologically that really, really made me feel not only did I belong, but that I was special. So, you know, sometimes I'll go into rooms where it's this person has a lot more experience than me. They're much smarter than I am. But I know what I know. And I think I bring a unique point of view to the table. You know, just with different experiences, and I'm confident in that in that point of view.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At times, right? You know, and I had a fifth grade teacher named Miss Moore. And I was always the littlest guy in the class. You take the school pictures or you get in line. Go to lunch in the hallway. I was always first in line because I was the smallest guy.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you always have it. I'm a simple guy. What I appreciate in life and the things that make me happy tend not to have to do with the money itself. More importantly, it's having the ability to live a life that I can wake up every morning doing what I love to do. Nothing's more important to me than that.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's funny talking to people who grew up poor, you suffer financial PTSD. So going through financial PTSD, you always have that fear, that thing.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, just to promote the music. And the music industry and just Hollywood in general were in litigation with most of the technology companies. So it was this sort of this wall between technology and content. And we embraced it. And so I started building a lot of relationships in Silicon Valley that introduced me to a lot of young entrepreneurs. Who started asking me, you know, could I advise their companies? Could I put in some introductions? Did I want to invest in their companies? And that ended up turning into, you know, I think I've invested in close to 100 early stage technology companies now. Yes.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that sort of came about through, you know, we were doing all of these things in technology with these startups with Gaga, you know, in order to social media.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what? Not even bittersweet. I think it just sweet. The songs that she sang at the Super Bowl, those are records that, you know, I know the origin. I know the stories behind them, you know. We were part of, I was part of getting those records to the Super Bowl. So it's a part of my life that I'm always going to be proud of.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's the thing about management. I can't do it without pouring my soul into it. I can't do it without investing 100% into that relationship. So I didn't go into the relationship with Gaga with my guards up, you know, because the thing happened with Eve. So it just doesn't work that way for me. It's just no gray for me. I'm either all in or all out.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what? I think it just happens Think it differs in opinion on what happened and why it happened. But ultimately, I respected it and took it on the chin.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I can't say it felt any different than it didn't felt the first time. But you know what? It was a different experience for me. First time I went into panic mode, you know, when that happened to me this time, you know, I think I was able to sit in the middle of that storm and watch the storm pass”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I started atom factory. Actually, so I started coalition media group was their original name of the company. Things started, it was this sort of energetic shift. With it within a company. And I've gone through a terrible time period. I said, you know, I'm just going to, I want to change the name of the company. I want to bring a new energy into it. And I said, I want this company to be something small but yet powerful. Just to be honest with you, the thing was I just said I want to wake up every day and do cool shit That was the mantra for me personally. And so whether that included management or, you know, I just wanted to do things that inspired me.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, me, me, Gaga and Vince were like a trifecta and we would always have those moments like oh my God, can you believe? Wow, you know, you look out at a crowd. Or, you know, I remember seeing her play Sting's ringforce event in New York where, you know, Sting will bring out legend after legend, you know, Elton John, Bono, Stevie Wonder, you know, just all of the greats and Harvey and the only Young artists, they are playing with those guys, seeing her hold their own with those guys and them just take her under her wing, you know, under their wings. So, you know, it's just all of those moments are just, you know, very, very special moments.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know what? It was pretty incredible. We had gone to places that I never dreamed about, met people you never thought you would meet. So not only did she go to an incredible level in her career, it actually took me to a level in my career that, you know, I thought what I would do with Eve, I thought I was at a height, but this height was, you know, you're in your Mount Everest.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They had already bought tickets to the show and they just wanted to get in first. And when I saw those kids sleeping outside, I said we did it. We did it because when you can get them to line up, you got something special. You got something special.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, around that time. And I remember driving down the street that morning because I had to go downtown for something and I drove down past the theater and kids were sleep outside.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but I remember we were so nervous about the Wilterno because it's a thousand seats. But we had sold out a couple of nightclubs so we're like maybe we can stretch it. We'll keep the tickets at $20. So, you know, so it's super affordable or whatever. And we can give away whatever we don't sell. We can give to the radio stations or, you know, kind of pad the venue, right?”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The moment that I knew, like, you know, because it wasn't just one moment, right? It just was like this grind over a one-year period to get it on the radio. And so I remember we were playing a theater. It was the Wilton Theater in NA. And this is as things are feeling better.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, we had this for all of the early Gaga fans from the early days, she had this latex costume, you know, with these big shoulder pads that she wore to every single show. Not multiple outfits, one outfit that she wore to every single show. So, you know, so we basically bootstrapped this thing in every dime that she did make, she reinvested it back into her career. So, I think when you married at with the perfect storm of I don't have a plan B.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, you know, it was a shoestring budget. We didn't need a lot though. You know, I remember her, she didn't have outfits, so she had this idea for this sort of mirror bra panty set or whatever that she couldn't afford. So she took a mirror and she actually broke the mirror up with a hammer. And crazy glued each piece onto a bra and panties.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, start it over. And also, you know, this was new for me because this was pop music. Totally different from hip hop. It was a different skill set. And so really starting over.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what? It's these sort of underground music communities that want to find things before other people find them. And I remember we came up with this concept called Gaga Vision for YouTube. And it was like these three-minute video clips of basically these art clips of her and her dancers. But we would have the better music underneath it. And it was super artistic. And, you know, she was brilliant and, you know, one of the first music voices who really knew how to use and leverage social. And it really worked. So we started building these sort of underground followings throughout the world, but it wasn't big. It was 75 to 100 people in clubs that we would play, but we superserved that community.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We, you know what? We ended up, this is as Facebook. And MySpace and YouTube, all of those platforms were starting to just emerge as places where you could reach audiences directly. And we started using the platforms. They were free where we got lucky is that a lot of them were global. They were in markets outside of the US. So we started reaching audiences in places where we didn't travel geographically.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So she ended up becoming a great songwriter, and a few of the songs we actually fought for and we said, we're just not giving these records up. And we went out and we took those songs to radio. And it was a disaster. The radio wouldn't play it. They wouldn't play it.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. So, you know, we made music. That was the big thing. Like Vince was incredibly talented at helping her shape the sound. I knew how to work with female artists. I knew about the fashion business from working with Eve. You know, Gaga had signed to Interscope, which was the same label that Eve was on. So I had a great rapport with the label already. So it was very, it felt natural kind of navigating it. And I think we worked on the music for almost nine or ten months. And then we took it to the record label and the record label said, oh, those songs are great. Let's give this to the pussycat dolls. Let's give this to Brittany Spears”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And she had gone in West Virginia, cried on her grandmother's couch afterwards because her dad gave her a year off from school and basically said you got one year to figure this out or you need to go back to NYU. So she thought her dreams were shattered. I think it was that sort of thing. You can't fall off the floor. And so, you know, she had this spirit in her that, you know, when you feel that sort of pain, you never want to feel it again. So she was an incredibly hard worker. So she just worked hard every day to get better and better.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know what? The real answer is you don't know. You think and you hope, but you don't know. And what people see now is what she was, you know, except for, you know, she was a brunette. And she didn't dance at that particular time. She was behind the piano. Actually, Ellie Reid, who had done your show, had just dropped her from Def Jam. But you know what, in all fairness to LA, she was a piano singer.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wow. A good buddy, Vincent Herbert, who's like this very jubilant guy. Vince is like a character, but he's super talented. You know, he was a child prodigy. He was like 16 or 17 producing records for Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. Tony Braxton, and we were the same age, and every time he was in LA, he would pop by and just, you know, we would just talk and catch up. And he had called me and said, you know, Carter, I got this girl that I saw in my space that I want you to check out. And he brought her in and she played her music, which was great and was Lady Gaga.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm getting a little choked that. I want to do that for my wife and family. And I think Having somebody who has your back, knowing you got somebody who has your back like that. A big deal.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nah, you know what? You can't fall off the floor. And I was on the floor nowhere to go, right? And my mom, you know, she was a single mom. We grew up where a lot of times we had to choose between whether we were going to have a phone line in the house or electricity. And I remember us being on the bed with a penny bank and it was a bronze penny bank shape like a pig. And she would stick a butter knife into the slot to get the coins to come out. And we would divide the coins up to get, you know, so me and my brother would have bus fare to get to school. So we grew up tough. My mom caught the bus every day to go to work and walk sometimes for thirty years straight. So my mom's work ethic and spirit is in my DNA. And I was always working to, I wanted to make my mom and my grandmother proud. That was always a big thing for me.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, so it was tough and super humbling, not just as an entrepreneur, but as a dad and having to live through. That really dark, dark, dark period. Hip hop is a very small community, and it you know, we had a couple of buddies who were like, you know, real executives in our business who had committed suicide, who had successful careers and everything else or whatever. And, you know, and with me, I never considered suicide, but I know why people do.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was over. This was, you know, this kind of bleeds into going into probably 2007 when I didn't have the cash flow and a phone started ringing and it was the landlord of that building saying, you know what, rent hasn't been paid. You know, all of my vendors started calling me. And then it kind of spilled into home. House was under foreclosure and my wife and my mother-in-law ended up pawning there wedding rings to save the house. And even down the, you know, the kids were in private school and having to tell the head of school, asking them to, you know, could you please keep the kids in school? And I'm going to pay tuition. I just need a little bit of time. But scared that when I gave the weight or my credit card for a couple of bowls of oatmeal that it was going to be declined.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And even more, she wasn't even. And we were really close. She was there through girlfriends and through my wedding through the birth of my kids. It was a heartbreak number one in terms of how it ended up happening. And then the business was highly hedged on that success of her. It was a single client business pretty much at that time.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what? Eve walked in one day. You know, I think maybe I was probably about a year, maybe a year or two into the new business. So she came into my office, you know, she sat down on the couch and she said, I think I want to go in another direction. And I said, what do you mean? She said, Well, I think I'm going to find new management. I said, well, why? She said, well, I think I want to go to the next level and I want to go with a manager who I think could get me to the next level. I said, well, are you thinking about anybody specifically? She said, yeah, I'm thinking about this guy Shakem. I said, Shakem, Shaqem's my mentor and good friend. So she ended up signing with one of my good friends for management.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Eve was going with me, so I said, you know what? I know exactly what we're doing. This is going to the next level. Did a build out on these beautiful offices on Wilshire Boulevard and started this new business.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“After I left Sanctuary. One of the things I realized was $2 million isn't actually $2 million. Yeah, pay taxes. Exactly. You buy, you buy a house, you pay taxes.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what? Probably, I remember waking up and talking to my wife a couple times about buying the company back. Because I'm talking about me growing up loving music, worshiping Barry Gordies and all of these guys. And like, this is my dream. And I didn't have a plan B and this is all I wanted to do. And I was dreading getting up in the morning going to the office. Like I had knots in my stomach going in and I would go into the office and I would pull my shades down. We had glass offices and I would pull my shades down because I didn't want to work with people there. About two years in, a year and a half in, it was over.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what? It just was certain things and certain behaviors that showed up during that period that I chose to ignore because I said, I'm just going to take the check and I'll deal with that. And maybe he isn't such a bad guy. And maybe they are ethical underneath some of the things that was happening. During the negotiations, so coming in, I just didn't do the diligence on them that they were doing on me.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I hated it. I hated it. It was fantastic at first. And because I was so excited to, you know, to get the check, I completely overlooked all of the red flags.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“India has long expired. They pay me more than I ever made. I'll tell you, it was a $2 million check. It was actually, the actual number was $2. 2,275,000 was the actual number because I remember when the wire when the wire went through and I called and checked the automated bank machine about 10 times to make sure that the money was still there because I never had a million dollars in my bank account before. I never had even close to it. And in the bank at one time and here it was. Now it's like, okay, you know what? This is very real. And I just, yeah, it was very real.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was hustling. You know, I was living, check the check You know, walking around venues with, you know, a backpack full of cash from venue to venue. So, you know, it was a complete lack of sophistication in the way we operated the business. And then the guys from Sanctuary, you know, they were managing guns and roses and, you know, a bunch of huge rock acts. And they had just done a deal with Matthew Knowles, who was Beyonce's dad and bought his company. And he approached me and said, look, this company can help you scale your business. They can help you grow your business in a way that you can't grow it internationally. And you don't have to live check-to-check. You have a young family. And he said, look, this is going to take you to the next level. And I ended up doing it.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The real reason was at that particular time it was the largest liquidity event that I would have experienced. It was a lot of money.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, it was a big company in the UK called the Sanctuary Group. So I sold it to the sanctuary group and then moved to LA to help them open up their LA offices.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was making hood money. So I was like, I was ghetto rich at that particular time. So if you had, you know, the nicer house out of the 40 row homes on that side of the street, you were doing okay. But by no means was I rich. My goal was to make $1,000 a week If I could make a thousand dollars a week, that was it for me. I was set. That was my goal.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, I was on cloud nine because, you know, this is everything that I've ever dreamed. That's all I ever wanted to do in my life was music. And because I was a failed artist, I was actually able to help. Somebody accomplished their dream was definitely fulfilling. And then the trappings that came along with it as a young guy, I was loving it”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I think a lot of it is West Philly spidey senses. When you have to negotiate for survival and you have to know how to read rooms and you have to know who the bad guys in the rooms are, who has the gun in their pocket, who's just going to brandish it and who's gonna actually pull the trigger? So I think that's just a natural instinct that comes with coming from where I come from. So being able to take that tool into negotiations on reading people and reading rooms and reading circumstances, I think is very, very important. And then also knowing what's important for that person on the other side of the table and what's important for the client. And a lot of times it's not conflicting. So both sides can kind of get what they want out of it.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yet she actually became one of the biggest female hip-hop stars of all time. And I was lucky enough to have the fresh prints blueprint so to kind of understand that a rapper could do TV and a rapper could do things outside of their core business. And what Eve, we ended up building a clothing line, a television show. She had gone on to do barbershop with Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer. So we ended up building something really special and something unique for a female rapper at that particular time.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, the way it works is the manager sort of, you know, is like the hub of an artist's career. So I go out and I hired a booking agent who books the shows, I hire the publicist who does interviews and television. I bring in the record label who distributes the music. So it's sort of like a CEO of Eve Inc. of her business.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I said, I'll be right back. And I got off the bus and I called one of my buddies who had done touring for a long time. And I said, dude, what's float? And he said, it's the money that you give the bus driver for gas, tolls, fuel, you know, everything else or whatever. So I got back on the bus and gave him the money. And, you know, I said, here's the float. And I sort of floated my way through the rest of the next three years. I kind of floated my way through kind of figuring it out as I was going along.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it started off Eve come to me and she said, Look, I need your help in figuring this out. And at first I was kind of helping her find a manager. Finally, she said, look, I want you to do it. And of course, I said yes and jumped at the opportunity. I think initially the job was protecting my friend. So instinctively, the decisions that I was making was really about how do I protect her and make sure that she has the best possible chance to make it and everything else was learning as I was going along. And I remember the first tour that we went on was this cash money rough riders tour. I got on the bus and it was this old bus driver and scruffy beard and he said you got the float.”
2018-05-28 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT