Free Work That Actually Pays w/ Troy Plota | Ep 377

The Futur with Chris Do

The Futur

Arts, Education, Marketing, Design, Business, Self-improvement

4.9 • 998 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Atlanta studios to Hollywood sets to inventing new technology, Troy Plota has built a career on persistence and reinvention. In this conversation with Chris Do, he shares how he went from organizing model books to shooting celebrities, the $35K day that changed everything, and the app that transformed still photos into living motion. But the story doesn’t stop there. Troy opens up about clients who refused to pay, platforms that exploited his work, and why he believes DAOs could finally give artists ownership and fair compensation. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to build, lose, and rebuild again in the creative industry, this episode is for you. Timestamps: (00:00) – Intro (03:29) – Shooting Mariah Carey and Usher (05:00) – Fashion “testing” explained (09:37) – $250 shoots to $35K payday (11:12) – Free work lands a big client (13:33) – Catalog jobs and cashflow struggles (15:58) – Tony Braxton photos used without pay (20:21) – Playboy shoots: nine lights, full precision (22:16) – Investor backs out of VR startup (23:54) – Beta launch earns $230K (24:37) – App turns stills into motion (26:54) – Slammed-fist meeting with acquirers (38:21) – Platforms profit while creators don’t (45:50) – Where to Learn More Check Out Today's Guest, Troy Plota: Website: https://troyplota.com Plotaverse (his app/platform): https://plotaverse.com X (Twitter): @troyplota Instagram: @Plotagraph Check out The Futur: Website: https://www.thefutur.com/ Courses: https://www.thefutur.com/shop LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-futur/ Podcasts: https://thefutur.com/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefuturishere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theFuturisHere/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/thefuturishere TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thefuturishere YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thefuturishere Check out Chris Do: Website: https://zaap.bio/thechrisdo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechrisdo/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BizOfDesign Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thechrisdo/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/thechrisdo TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thechrisdo Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thechrisdo Behance: https://www.behance.net/chrisdo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today I had the opportunity to sit down with Troy and he is a wild person to say the least,
0:06.5	but he's had a long storied career as a fashion and celebrity photographer that spans
0:12.7	decades.
0:13.9	His images have been seen in Vanity Fair, GQ, and pretty much every magazine you can think
0:19.0	of, including Playboy. I'm not saying that you look at Playboy, but can think of, including Playboy.
0:24.3	I'm not saying that you look at Playboy, but he's also shot for Playboy.
0:29.3	And his creativity has no bounds because he's not just limited to the career in which he started in because he's doing exciting things, revolutionary things.
0:32.8	And to his credit, has over five patents.
0:37.8	You got to tune in for the rest of the story.
0:40.7	My name is Troy Ploda, and you are listening to the future.
0:47.8	My guest today is Troy.
0:49.3	He's a well-known and longtime fashion and celebrity photographer.
0:53.6	He's been on things like Vanity Fair,
0:56.2	but he's had, has a really interesting journey on doing lots of different interesting things.
1:00.6	I hope to unpack some of that with him today. Now, let's go back in time. Let's talk about your
1:05.7	career. How'd you get started? Tell us a little bit about that, that whole life that you had.
1:09.7	Career-wise, I, well, I started
1:11.6	shooting when I was 13 and I was the worst student ever, ever. Okay. And but I found photography.
1:20.9	I mean, I really excelled at photography. So I just kind of like that got me through school.
1:26.1	By the time I was a senior in high school, we had seven classes, and five of my seven
1:30.5	classes were photography based, including assisting this photography feature and, you know,
1:36.0	newspaper, photographer, you know, that whole thing.
	...

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