Troy Sterling Woody started his first business at age 7, with the help of his father, in his home town of Portland, Oregon. Sterling Enterprise was a door-to-door novelty gift item sales biz; within a couple of years he had grown the business to include a couple of neighborhood friends as sales people with their own neighborhood territories. His next childhood venture was an industrial cleaning service for his father’s bank, cleaning repossessed houses to prepare them for the market again.
By the time he hit high school in the ’80s, his love for photography, printing and the new world of video production, had sparked an interest in TV and film production. While still in high school, he began attending night classes at the Oregon Art Institute’s NW Film and Video Center, and working on production of live TV programming for cable nets on various northwest cable TV networks. His studies in 16mm Film Production and Editing as well as Video Production & Editing, and Sound for Film led him to work on live TV shows on TCI Falcon Cable in Portland as a studio camera operator and floor director, and shortly later as technical director, director and producer.
Troy continued these interests through college, and he soon afterward found himself managing a newly opened club in Portland: booking bands, running the door, stage, concessions & merchandising, and mixing sound and setting lights for the venue as well.
At the same time he began a mentorship job as assistant engineer at one of the biggest little recording studios in Portland, working with many small to mid-sized independent labels and bands in both studio and live applications.
He began his own video production business, video taping the hottest West Coast bands at the many local live music venues in Portland in the early 1990s and producing programming and commercials for cable TV and network television. He had the privilege of working with such notables as Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Everclear, Elliot Smith, Dandy Warhols, Crackerbash, Poison Idea, Jello Biafra, Sub Pop, C/Z Records, Elemental Records, Candy Ass, Tim Kerr Records and Disney.
Troy also added to his list of business endeavors: a record store on the soon-to-be-trendy shopping district of South East Hawthorne Boulevard, a small indy record label, a coffee bar, a new live music club, a World Beat DJ dance club, and heading up a DJ sound system. He continued his video production business, as well as working for the two largest music promotion companies in the Northwest.
When it came time to start a family, he sold portions of his Portland businesses and moved to the quieter, slower pace of Southwestern Oregon. Troy first went to work for a FOX TV station in Medford, KMVU FOX 26, working in both creative services and engineering. Troy was hired by KVAL TV (CBS 13) in Eugene, Oregon, then moved to the beautiful Oregon Coast when he was hired by KCBY-TV (CBS 11) in Coos Bay. He served as Production Manager and Creative Services Director for four years. He was then convinced to move to the (Dark Side) Sales and Marketing department, where he took the award as Salesman of the Year for four consecutive years (not to mention salesman of the month and quarter for the majority of periods). His family is settled into a house with a great bay view, where he focuses his time on his three young children and developing a cutting edge knowledge of the rapidly evolving media and advertising business.
Troy has always remained closely connected to helping the community where he lives, and has served on boards of directors for the United Way of South West Oregon, Coos Head Food Store, Oregon Coast School of the Arts, The Guild 4 After School Enrichment, and the Bay Area Rotary Club, among others. He has worked closely with such groups as the Small Business Administration’s Business Development Center, The Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, CCDC, Opportunity Knocks, Coos Bay Lion’s Club, Advertising Account Executives of America, Media and Entertainment Professionals, The Creative Spin, and others.
He continues development regional businesses and that of Sterling Media Northwest, in the role of President and Creative Director, at an advertising agency with a strong local and regional, West Coast focus, combined with a global business perspective. His passions for visual story telling, use of cutting edge technology, global business networking, Internet and TV marketing, as well as helping people and communities, provides him with a directive for thoughtfully charging ahead into the future while leaving an indelible (yet environmentally friendly) imprint on yesterday and today.
“The Future is being written right here, right now.”, T.S.Woody, President, & C.D., Sterling Media Northwest
