the school newspaper. After finding out that
Carter had promoted campus events and
concerts, she suggested that Carter take an
internship at the advertising agency where
the woman worked. That agency turned out to be
Levenson and Hill, Dallas' largest
advertising and public relations firm, where
Carter interned during summers and
Christmas breaks for two years. She was hired
upon graduation in 1985.
"My first day on the job was working with Tom
Hanks, Jackie Gleason, and Gary
Marshall for the movie
Nothing in Common." Initially assigned to a
variety of corpo-
rate and film accounts, she found her greatest
satisfaction came from her involvement
with the major marketing campaigns of music
artists such as ZZ Top, Merle Haggard,
and Tanya Tucker. Eventually, she was promoted
to vice president and director of
client services.
In 1993, Carter was approached to run PLA
Media, which had offices in Los
Angeles and Nashville. After much debate about
leaving behind a great job, great
salary, her family, her husband's employment,
and a new home, she accepted. Just as
she had severed her Dallas connections, the
deal fell through and she was left
hanging. Trusting in fate, she made the move to
Nashville. "Tanya Tucker called me
up and said, `I'll be your first client. You
can handle my publicity and marketing.' I
didn't give myself time to think. I just packed
up the U-Haul and moved to
Nashville--it sounds a little like a bad
country song--I started my company and
hoped for success." Within three months she
picked up several new clients, hired
three employees, and opened her own
full-service promotion/publicity/marketing
company: Trifecta Entertainment.
Through the course of building up a client list
that included corporate accounts
like CMT and Sony Music/Nashville, and artists
like Naomi Judd and Tanya Tucker,
Carter became aware of the need to include
management among the services her firm
offered. Hiring Andy Barton away from Chief
Talent Agency in 1996 provided her
with a partner in her management company.
Together, the two have built a manage-
ment roster that includes Take 6, Doug Stone,
Michael English, and The Lynns. Carter
and her company expanded into the world of
professional wrestling and became TNA
Entertainment LLC.
TERRY ELAM, MANAGER, FITZGERALD HARTLEY
COMPANY
Terry Elam's musical career began on trumpet.
After years of struggling to master
the instrument--"I quickly found all the flat
notes in that instrument"--at age 15 he
switched to drums and joined a band. "It was a
garage band. We worked at sock hops,
the YMCA shows, and high school dances." He
continued to play in bands while
attending the University of Tennessee Memphis.
One of these groups landed a con-
tract with Mercury Records and moved to New
York City, but it fell apart a few years
later. Back home in Memphis, Elam got a call
from a friend who played guitar for
singer Roy Orbison, and traveled to Nashville
to audition for the band.
CASE STUDY:
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