Eat My Words

Johanna Almstead:
Hi everyone. I am menu planning right now for our next guest, and I'm feeling a little Asian-fusion inspired tonight. She and I love to meet for sushi at one of the most amazing sushi places in New York called Nami Nori. So I'm thinking that I might try to recreate some of their amazing temaki. So they're like an open-faced hand roll, almost like a little sushi taco, and they are so good. I've never made sushi in my life, so I'm going to try. They do this coconut shrimp one with green curry and lime. And they do this crazy spicy lobster that's like butter poached lobster with crispy potatoes. And then they also just do an amazing spicy tuna with jalapeno and cucumber. It is like, yum. So I've never made sushi before but I think for starters, I'm going to make a little sushi flight. A little sushi tasting.
And then for dinner, I'm going to go a little more Vietnamese vibes, a little more Thai vibes, with a grilled whole fish. I think I want to try to do one of those banana leaf wrapped fish. So like a roasted whole fish with maybe some lemongrass and ginger and a little bit of soy. Nothing too heavy. Maybe I'll serve that with a little coconut rice on the side and some sauteed bok choy and call it a day. And I think I might make this sake cocktail that I had, because I feel like I don't want anything too sweet with this, but I want to change it up a little bit. It was like a dry sake with sparkling water and I think maybe a little bit of Cointreau in it, and then it had fresh lemon juice and a lemon peel. It was so refreshing and delicious and just not too, too sweet at all, and I feel like that would be really refreshing with all this yummy, spicy, herbaceous food.
So, I would say our guest is probably also described as spicy and herbaceous. She's a dear friend, she's hilarious. She's one of the smartest people I know, one of the funniest people I know, and I am so excited for you guys to meet her. Oh, I got to do the music. I think for music ... Let's see. What am I going to do? I think I'm going to do maybe a little Feist, some Janelle Monáe, Air, the French poppy band, and some Lana Del Rey. Girly fun, a little poppy. She's got a lot of energy and this is going to be a really fun conversation, so I can't wait for you guys to get to know her. Let's dig in.
Hello everyone, and welcome to Eat My Words. I am giddy with excitement for today. When we talk about building a community of badass women doing amazing things I'm pretty sure our guest today could be our mayor, our mayor of badassery. She is a legend in the entertainment industry, having worked as a celebrity publicity strategist ... Don't make me laugh. And senior vice president at IDPR in New York for clients, including Stephen Colbert, Bette Midler, Amy Schumer, America Ferrera, Greta Gerwig, Peter Sarsgaard, and more and more and more and more. After two decades at ID, she started her own talent management firm, B. Company with a roster of clients that included America Ferrera, Josh Radnor, Jessica Williams, Zoe Chapman. She is now president, Madam president of Spartina Industries, Stephen Colbert's production company. In that role, she supervises all aspects of Spartina, which I can't wait to hear more about, which has a first look deal with CBS Studios.
Spartina's most recent project is CBS's late night show After Midnight starring Taylor Tomlinson, for which our guest is executive producer. Under the Spartina banner she's also produced sports comedy special, Pickled, a celebrity pickleball tournament benefiting comic relief which ran on CBS Primetime and Paramount Plus.
She is known in the industry for her unconventional approach and her head turning tactics and is one of the most sought after creative minds in the business. She is also a loyal daughter, sister, and auntie. She is a dog mom to her beloved Rufus is a steadfast and loyal friend. She will tell you like it is and will always get to the answer of the hardest questions. Carrie Byalick, welcome to Eat My Words.
Carrie Byalick:
Come on. Come on. Will you do that every day so I can just get up with little pep in my step?
Johanna Almstead:
Do you want me to just record it? And it could be your alarm clock?
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. That'll be my new good morning Carrie. Here's your affirmation so I don't have to do them myself. I'll just have you do that.
Johanna Almstead:
You've done all these things.
Carrie Byalick:
I'm tired. I'm tired.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, first of all, thank you so much for being here. I' so grateful.
Carrie Byalick:
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited that you're doing this because you are the connector. And it's funny because one of the first times we had dinner as official friends, I remember you talking about your love of the slow dinner movement where you're like, "I love restaurants where it's just courses and where you could take your time and have these conversations." So I'm so happy that you're doing this because I think it's important because none of us really stop. And especially those of you who are mothers to actual people, not just animals and balancing and juggling so many things, it's very hard to stop because we're constantly making sure that the balls don't drop. And it's nice to just stop and take a sip and take a bite. And I think that's very necessary, and we all have to remind ourselves as busy people that it is part of all of this living is to also slow down.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. Totally. And it's funny, I was thinking about, there have been several meals that I've had with you where you literally had to be on the phone because there was some client emergency or some studio thing was happening or whatever, and you couldn't stop, right?
Carrie Byalick:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
We're going to talk a lot about that today.
Carrie Byalick:
Sure.
Johanna Almstead:
And there was a time in my life too where I just never ever stopped, I never slowed down, and I never really savored those moments and understood the impact of some of those life-changing conversations that were happening in the midst of all the craziness.
Carrie Byalick:
No. Of course. And thankfully, it's having community in being busy women. We always apologize, and I know a lot of us are getting better at stopping that. But the habit would be like, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." But then it would be like if you and I were together or our friends in common, we wouldn't have to apologize because it's like, "Oh, I'll be right back." And it was like, "Take your time. I'll look at the menu or I'll look at my phone." Because there's an understanding there of what it is to do all of these things at once and also carve time for people you love and want to hang out with and just talk about nothing with. So I think it's nice to have an understanding of you're busy, I'm busy, I'm not going to apologize because I don't feel like I have to.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. And now it's like, okay, we're going to make sure we actually take moments with each other when we can.
Carrie Byalick:
Yes. We have to.
Johanna Almstead:
So I always like to give people context for how we know each other. And I was thinking about the fact that when I worked at Prada in the PR department, which was my first real job out of college, I sat next to the head of VIP services, who became a mutual friend of both of ours. And I remember just hearing your name all day, every day on her end of things. She'd be like, "Byalick needs this. Carrie Byalick needs this." Because you were at ID and she was dressing your clients in the brand, right?
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
And it wasn't until many years later, I don't think that we met in person.
Carrie Byalick:
That's right.
Johanna Almstead:
And I think it was through Shaza in Montauk, right?
Carrie Byalick:
It was. Yeah. And you were at Kate Spade and I had heard all about you from her and our mutual. And she was just like, "Oh, you'd love each other." And I was wearing one of the dresses.
Johanna Almstead:
You were. That's right.
Carrie Byalick:
And you were like, "Wow." And I was like, "No. You don't understand. I go hard at a brand. If I like something or how I look at something, I'm like, does it come in 10 colors? Because I'm a loyalist when it comes to like, oh, this is my style, this is my vibe." And then we just obviously instantaneously were like, "Okay. Well, when are we having dinner?" And that was that.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. And now we're in love. You were in a major Kate Spade phase when I met you.
Carrie Byalick:
I was. Because it was like patterns on patterns on patterns, and that's great to me.
Johanna Almstead:
Color on patterns.
Carrie Byalick:
Just bring it on. Just bursts of flowers and that's my jam. So I was like yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
It was so good.
Carrie Byalick:
It was.
Johanna Almstead:
I think that was 15 years ago, right?
Carrie Byalick:
It was.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I was trying to get the dates right. I was like, I'm pretty sure it was before I was married.
Carrie Byalick:
It was because I remember having dinner with you and you were talking about your wedding and you were like, "It's going to be at this restaurant. This is what I'm thinking." Yeah. You guys were dating, but you weren't engaged yet.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. So crazy.
Carrie Byalick:
Wild.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, so I want to dig in here and talk about your journey.
Carrie Byalick:
Sure.
Johanna Almstead:
Where would you say your journey began?
Carrie Byalick:
Well, it depends on-
Johanna Almstead:
Which journey?
Carrie Byalick:
Depends on the definition. in terms of my draw to the entertainment industry, I was born with that interest. I always loved performing. I came out of the womb with my hand on my hip. I was ready to go. Just enrolled in every tap, jazz, dance situation. I tried every musical instrument. Performing and just expressing myself creatively was just innate. And so I loved Broadway shows as a kid. I loved The Muppet Show. I loved entertainment and variety and performing. I had a real connective interest and magnetic pull to that. And so it began then when I just was like, what is this and what is on the other side of the screen or the stage or the show, whatever it was. So it was a very natural progression of interest as I got older and just knew that I don't know what that is or how to get in that, but I need to do that.
And so in high school, I was part of this arts program called STAC, and it was basically a club of creatives. And so I was initially surrounding myself with people who were good at writing and acting and dance and performing. It was just a built community where I think a lot of people feel ostracized when they're in high school and they're like, "I love theater." But I was part of all these different groups, and that was one of them and it was wonderful because it was just all these people just wanting to express themselves. Anyway, so that early on I was able to shimmy myself into an internship while I was in high school at MTV. My mom would drive me to this bus station. I would go into this city and I had this internship on this TV show, and I was just like, "Oh, wow." It was just instantaneous, my interest in how to make the food in the kitchen and then put it out there.
And so I was lucky enough to go to NYU and I was at the Gallatin School, which is a wonderful program where you design your own curriculum. I was never someone who was like ... Don't force me to do math or science or stuff I'm not going to need. It's like how many people out there are listening to this just applauding in your car or wherever you are that you don't need math? You don't need math. And I know that you're a mom and you have girls who are probably struggling in school with tests and calculus and all that crap. They don't need it. You don't need it.
Johanna Almstead:
I try to tell them that.
Carrie Byalick:
I know. And that's the thing. It's like the pressure we put on ourselves to be successful in whatever genre. But I will say, I told my niece and my nephew who are also incredible kids and overachievers just relax. Because I'm telling you, I worked really hard and I only know how to work hard, but I don't need math. You have a phone, it'll do all the math for you.
So anyway, so I was in Gallatin and one of the amazing things about the Gallatin School and the program that I was in is that they give you credit to intern. So while I was in college, I interned at Saturday Night Live and at PMK, which at the time was the only PR company in the entertainment industry. Now there's dozens upon dozens. However, at the time in the '90s there was one. There was one company, it was called PMK. And I had heard about ... I was like, what is this job to be a publicist? And so I was able to intern and really see what it is to be the connector of the celebrity and the media and what that means to orchestrate someone's image through press. And so I was like, "Oh, I'd be good at this." That's why I always encourage people to intern, because I always say it's like anything. You walk into a room and you're like, "Ooh, I like this room."
Johanna Almstead:
This feels good. Yeah.
Carrie Byalick:
Or you walk into a restaurant, you're like, "This is my new hang. I feel good when I'm in here. I like the space, I like the lighting." It's like that I think with anything. With dating, with work, with friendships, it's like you either have that draw or you don't. And the only way to figure it out as you're trying to navigate what you should do with your life professionally is just do I have that connective tissue to this thing wherein I would have to give it all of myself to learn a skill or many skills and then execute it and get paid doing it? And to me, interning is the way to go because you get to sample it and no harm, no foul. It's not like you have to go, "Sorry, this isn't for me," and leave. You can go, "All right. Well, I'm not getting paid anyway and so let me just get this under my belt and know that that's not a door I will walk through again or that's a door I want to walk through every day."
And so it was wonderful because I got to learn all about what that job was at the time. Like everything. It's a completely different job now with social media, the lack of print. I don't know how people that I know are still doing that job now because it's a completely different world out there and media is a very loose term. But it was something that I was like, "Oh, when I graduate I could see myself doing this." And I was like, "Okay. Well I want to work at SNL, but no one leaves that job." They just had their 50th anniversary and a lot of people who were there when I interned there in the '90s are still working there.
Johanna Almstead:
No way.
Carrie Byalick:
Way. So that's the thing, I was like, no one leaves. There aren't job openings on LinkedIn at Saturday Night Live. So it's like someone works there, they've either been there for a long time or they were grandfathered in through Lorne Michaels or whatever. So all to say I graduated NYU and I started working in PR and it took off. I know this podcast is only about an hour, so I don't need to tell my whole life story, but the crux of your question is how did this begin in terms of this career? This career began because I was like, "Well, I know what I like, I know who I am and I know what I want to be around." And everything else was just, and it still is, instinct.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. I want to stop there for a second because I feel like it's so rare to me to hear someone that was as young as you were at that time, be that confident in what you knew that you loved and what felt right to you. Where do you think that came from? Where do you think that innate sense of who you were and what mattered to you and what you loved? I don't know. I feel like most people in their teens and early 20s are like, "I don't know who I am. I don't even know what I like. What do I like?"
Carrie Byalick:
I think I had that too, but in fits and starts and certain things of like, "Do I want to live here? Do I want to live here?" But in terms of just who I am, it's funny because my mother was going through a bunch of old photos and we were just laughing because in every photo I'm posing. There's no candids of me. It's like I always knew when someone was taking a picture.
Johanna Almstead:
You're like hold on, let me get the right angle.
Carrie Byalick:
And everyone says I have a mirror face. We all do, but mine is very pronounced. I don't know. Again, I always say to my mom, what was I ... And she's like, "You were always like that." Because there's pictures of me and my sister and my sister's just looking off and looking cute, and I'm fully at the camera, my head is tilted, my hand is on my hip and I'm popping a shoulder. I don't know. That's who I always was. My mom used to joke, "Your real mom is from Mars. We don't know how you came out." I'm the youngest of two. My older sister was very disciplined and did everything she was supposed to. I never did. My mom would be like, "Please work on your paper a week ahead of time," and I'd be like, "I got this. Don't worry about it." I've always been very lucky and I will knock on wood that I've been able to figure it out. And all of us have been in tough situations. Life hasn't been easy, breezy, breezy. But I don't know. The way I do things is just innately who I am and I don't have a formula. I just have always been this. I've always been this.
Johanna Almstead:
You have just really good gut instincts.
Carrie Byalick:
My gut has just taken me where we are and I'm grateful for that. And I'm grateful for people really seeing me and seeing the value in how I can help them or a situation or a project wherein it's been desirable and something that they see as added value. You can't learn that in school. That's just experience and that's just connecting with the right people who see the confidence you have in them too. It's a mirror effect. I think the reason people suffer from such heartbreak sometimes when people break up with them is because they think they found their exact mirror. And I think a lot of people fall in love because they see themselves for the first time through someone else's eyes and someone else's heart. And they're like, "That person was the only person who actually recognized me for all of the things that I have and all of the gifts that I have inside and out, and I'll never have that again." And that's not true.
We have to all go through that. But I do think that that's very similar in business too, where it's like it works, it clicks in when you have people who just recognize the uniqueness that is you. And I was very lucky to have that early on in my career. I worked for Simon Halls right out of college. I was his assistant and he was big publicist at the time, and he started this company with Robin Baum and Stephen Huvane, and I left with him to go start that company. From day one, he knew I was a little spitfire that was going to contribute and help him do what he needed to do with his clients. And I was just really ballsy. I always have been. And I was just like, I got this. And I never really knew what I was doing until I was doing it.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. One of the things I think is so funny about publicity and PR is that I always only ever did it on instinct. That was the only way I knew how.
Carrie Byalick:
There's no school.
Johanna Almstead:
And then I found out later after I was hiring interns and stuff, and I'd been way down into my career for a long time where there was like, "Oh no, I was a PR major at school." And I was like-
Carrie Byalick:
I reject that.
Johanna Almstead:
I don't even understand what that is. All it was was relationships and instinct and taking risks, and it was all this stuff that was just innate. And I was like, "How do you teach that in a school? That doesn't make sense."
Carrie Byalick:
A school of lies.
Johanna Almstead:
The school of lies.
Carrie Byalick:
You learn by doing. And especially in fashion and dealing with personalities, there is no lesson other than on the ground lesson.
Johanna Almstead:
There's no textbook for it.
Carrie Byalick:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
And I always say ... I am sure you have this too. People come to you for advice. Young women come to you for advice. They're getting out of school, they want to know what to do. And I'm always just like, "You just have to work. You have to just get into these places and do a job or the job or a job near the job that you want or something so that you understand it. You understand what you're trying to do and so you can decide if you like it or not. But you can't study and research your way into this industry. It doesn't work that way. You just have to be boots on the ground and in it."
Carrie Byalick:
And ... And I say this in all caps, bold, italicized, whatever you can do to enhance the word on your smartphone. Do not ask in a job interview when you would get promoted or is there room for growth.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, all caps, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point.
Carrie Byalick:
Do not do that, young people. If there's young persons listening to this, please, I implore you just be grateful that you are in this job interview and be open-minded and say yes to the opportunity and learn. Because I don't know what happened to this generation ... Maybe it was COVID. This time where everyone was just shoved in their isolation chambers and then when they got out, their parents were like, "No. You go and you ask for a promotion even though you don't know how to do that job." I don't know what happened in this couple of years span of the entitlement, but it is wild to me because you can't have an ego about it. You just do it because it's your job. And a lot of people don't have jobs, and a lot of people would murder to have jobs. And it's like I see this trend of people who ... I think there was a Kim Kardashian meme of her being like, "Well, people just don't want to work." She's not wrong. People don't want to work. They just want to get promoted. And I'm like, I don't even know what to say to that. I'm sorry. You obviously picked a wound there of mine.
Johanna Almstead:
Trigger warning.
Carrie Byalick:
Young people just go in with an open mind and say yes and thank you and show me the way and then once you're doing that job well enough, I'm going to be the one to let you know that, wow, good job. You're now going to get a raise or a promotion. Don't ask in the job interview when that's going to happen.
Johanna Almstead:
I had this young woman call me, she was like the daughter of a friend, a friend who wanted to get in the industry and she really wanted to work in fashion. And she was living at home at her parents' house in Westchester, in Larchmont. And she was trying to tell me on the call that looking for a job was a full-time job. And I was like, "Okay. So here's the thing. You need to be working to get a job. So what I would suggest is I think everybody who works in fashion needs to work retail." I was like, "Or work in a restaurant. If you want to work in PR, get into New York City and work in a restaurant. Understand vibes, understand customer service, understand difficult personalities, understand pace."
Carrie Byalick:
That's great advice.
Johanna Almstead:
"Understand hours. You need to either work retail or get in a restaurant." She was like, "Yeah, but the looking for a job is a full-time job." And I was like, "Oh, honey, no. No, no, no, no. It doesn't take eight hours a day to send out resumes. And I promise you, no one's going to answer those resumes if you're not hustling, if you're not in the mix."
Carrie Byalick:
That's right.
Johanna Almstead:
You need to hone your instincts. You need to know what it's like to be at that pace in this world.
Carrie Byalick:
All experience is good experience.
Johanna Almstead:
I agree. I feel like some of the best experience I ever had for PR was in restaurants, when I worked in restaurants, when I was a bartender, when I was a hostess.
Carrie Byalick:
That's a very good model for exactly what you said. For troubleshooting, for problem solving, for what if scenarios, which I always say are crucial to any ... People are like, "How do you know how to be a producer? How did you know?" I didn't study producing. But producing is all of those things that you just said. It's working in a restaurant, it's problem solving, it's anticipatory thinking, which is strategy. And what are all the things that could go wrong and what are all of the things that could go right? And what is my role in all of that and how can I get ahead of it enough to be prepared? Being prepared combined with the superpower of instinct. And so that is going back to what you had asked me, it's like that's just innate and everything else is from experience. I couldn't do the job that I have now without doing the many years of these other things that I did because ... This is why I said any experience is good experience. It's going to prepare you for a left turn or a right turn or straight down the middle. It just is.
Johanna Almstead:
And thinking on your feet. You're going to have to make those decisions-
Carrie Byalick:
You're not wasting time by working hard.
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Carrie Byalick:
You're preparing for something you may not even know is an option for yourself.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. I remember working, I was the hostess at Pastis. I worked for Keith McNally.
Carrie Byalick:
Every time I go in there, I think about you working there. I do. Have you read his new book? It's amazing.
Johanna Almstead:
No. I haven't read it yet. It's on my nightstand and I can't wait to read it.
Carrie Byalick:
I recommend to everyone out there.
Johanna Almstead:
It might've been one of my first restaurant jobs, and I was the hostess, and it was when Pastis was on fire. People would wait three hours for a table, people would bribe us for tables. It was crazy. And I remember standing there one time, it's mad house. People would literally put their name in at 8:00 and not sit down for dinner until 11.
Carrie Byalick:
I remember that. Just throngs of people on the street waiting.
Johanna Almstead:
Throngs of people. The bar packed. And I remember Keith himself, who was not a chef, he grew up in the restaurant industry. And he came in and it was mayhem and the music and the people and the yelling and the line and me with my clipboard and trying to seat people. And he stood next to the lighting panel and literally fucked with the dimmers by an eighth of a centimeter for 10 minutes because he was not happy with the way the lights went. And I watched him do this in all of this craziness. And I remember just thinking that is the attention to detail. All this magic-
Carrie Byalick:
That's why that restaurant ... That and Balthazar are the two most successful restaurants I think in Manhattan.
Johanna Almstead:
I think so too. Most longstanding for sure.
Carrie Byalick:
And it is because of that.
Johanna Almstead:
And I was like, this doesn't happen by accident.
Carrie Byalick:
No. No.
Johanna Almstead:
This is not just a happy accident that this vibe is happening. It taught me so much in that moment, I remember I think about that all the time. Because I go back to it and I'm like, no, but that does matter. That eighth of a centimeter that he was like boop, boop, boop, up, down. And he would look and he would check the room and then he'd go back. And I was like, this is such a lesson in life of the details do matter. And I don't know. I use that all the time. Doing events, I'd be in an event throwing an event for Kate Spade in Dubai for 400 people and be like, "Mm-mm. We got to get that sound right or we got to get that light right."
Carrie Byalick:
Yes. It matters. Details matter. There's tiny little things that I know I've contributed to many things in my career. A prop on a magazine cover, a nip in a jacket on a photo shoot, whatever it was. Something very small that turned out to be very big on the show I produced. And I know and I don't need to go, "That was me." Because again, young people stop with that shit. I promise you, credit will be rewarded to the work. Work hard you will receive reward. Stop asking for it. Anyway.
But I'll tell you all of those things I know matter because again, I didn't study it in a class. I just was like, "I think that would look a lot better," or, "Why don't we replace this with this?" And the smartest people, the creative directors, the art directors, the fashion directors, the fashion editors, the assistant, all of these people who make these projects happen ... I learned so much from being a publicist and being on sets and watching all of these people do what they do. Letting them do what they do and staying out of the way and making sure my client was happy, satisfied, and also being put out in the world in the way they wanted to be seen. So that was my job.
My job wasn't to meddle and tell these people how to light it or tell these ... Because I think I'm very proud of the career that I had in publicity because what I learned is to be tough and likable at the same time, but not so tough that everyone never wants to work with you. Because a lot of my success had a lot to do with people wanting to say yes to the pitches I had because they knew that if I was going to be there with them that day on set, getting a cover out there to the world, that they wouldn't all want to poke their eyes out, that they would want to work with me again because I respected them enough to let them do their job, but also raise my hand and say, "Is there any way we can try the other dress? I don't think she's going to feel good if she sees this." And without saying to them, "You're wrong. You're doing that wrong."
And I think that there's a fine line there because you're under a lot of pressure by someone who's paying you a monthly retainer to protect them as much as promote them. And being likable and being tough, it's the finest of fine lines. It is the thinnest border of getting something done and being successful at it.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm so glad you brought this up because I don't think enough people talk about this part of it is that ... I now, especially, I only work with people that I enjoy being on set with or being in a meeting with or being wherever I need to be with them. I have zero interest in working with people who I have had a bad experience with.
Carrie Byalick:
No. Thankfully Colbert is all about that. And we only want to create things ... Because it takes a lot of work to make something. To make anything.
Johanna Almstead:
Good or bad. It takes a lot of work to make something bad. It takes a lot of work to make something good.
Carrie Byalick:
We've done some great things. We've done some things five people saw, we've done things that many people see. It doesn't matter. It's all hard work. So if you're going to work hard, we made an agreement, it has to be with people we like. That is the top line. Everyone's like, "What do you guys want to do?" It's like, "We just want to work with people that we like and make things that'll make people smile. And then everything else will happen because of our decisions, our instinct, our drive, our ability to convince other people that this is a good idea." All of those things that come into play. But if everyone out there doesn't already realize how short life is, well pay attention because it is that small window of ... This is not a negative thing or to bum anyone out, but it's like you only have a certain amount of time to do the things that interest you, that excite you, that light you up, and you can't take that for granted. And you have to really know what matters and focus on doing things that light you up with people who equally light you up.
Johanna Almstead:
So you brought it up. I want to talk a little bit about your actual role at Spartina and how that happened. How did you pivot from being ... Well first you had pivoted from being a publicist to a manager. I don't know if you want to talk about that a little bit first.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. Of course. Yeah. I can talk about all of it. So I was aforementioned publicist to many people in the business. I thrived on that career. It was a merry-go-round that sometimes I wanted to get off of and sometimes I just was like, "Well, this is what it is." It's like I'm in my home office here and I have boxes and boxes and boxes of credentials, which are the passes that ... Boxes of them. At some point, maybe I'll cut off all the strings and just make some crazy collage just because I was like, "Well, someday someone's going to want to know what I did in my 20s, 30s and 40s." And all of the answers are these passes to everything that I did and during that time. It's like one day I decided, I was like, "I should save these." And then you can't even imagine the collection of these things that I have.
All to say, that was a very fulfilling career, but it was a very draining career. And it got to the point where I had been doing it for so long and I didn't know what more I could do. I had gotten the accolades, I had gotten everyone the covers of everything. I had worked with the most amazing creatives in like I had mentioned, magazines. I would feel so good about helping produce their talk show elements or segments so that people would talk about them and then go see their projects. I was very fulfilled until I started to feel like it was a drain on me physically and mentally, and it wasn't providing enough joy and there wasn't much more I could do. It was like, am I going to do this forever? I always knew that there was more inside of me. I've always been so creative.
And at the time ... This was like 2015. A lot of my clients were handing me scripts and saying, "Do you mind reading this and telling me if it's funny or do you think I should do this Broadway show instead or should I do this?" One of my clients at the time was America Ferrera, who I had been her publicist for over a decade. And she had said to me like, "Well, if you were a manager, you'd be my manager." It lit a fuse, an idea in my head of like, "Well, if she sees me as this, maybe I am that." And so I did some research as I think everybody should do when the spark ignites to maybe make a change. And I asked people who did that job. Because I knew what they did, but my day-to-day was not that job. It was a job adjacent to that because a lot of actors have agents and they have managers and they have publicists and they have lawyers and sometimes criminal lawyers.Anyway. And so all of these representatives are part of this circle of control around the product that is the person. And so everybody has a role and sometimes people work really hard and do a great job, and other times people sit back because the other person takes the majority of the work and that's just the way it is.
But I was like ... In asking people ... Because I think it's smart to just raise your hand and say, "Can I ask what your day-to-day is?" And so I started to asking people who did that job, and I was like, "That's a lot of what I do, plus I do all these other things." I had a lot of very nice generous offers from people like, "Come work here and be a manager here." Instead of doing that, I just went, well, what's the worst that could happen if I did it myself? Because I don't really know if I want to do this and I don't want to sign up at another company and work for other people with their font and their idea and their vision of how management should look when I feel like I'm doing it anyway.
I had a lot of amazing people that I'm so lucky that are still in my life and in terms of a business manager and a lawyer and friends who are agents and all these different people who went, go for it. You can do it. You already do it. And so I took a big leap and a risk and I was very nervous to do it, but I started B. Company and I had a lot of support. Everyone who knew who had been my clients for so many years were like, "We get it." It was time. What more can I do with this? I've gotten you all the awards and we've done all the things. I don't want to be doing this forever. I know I have more to contribute.
And so I started the company and it was great. And it was scary at first. I was like, "I don't know what I'm doing." And I would take meetings with prospective clients and just say, "I'm a really good publicist. I know how to do that job. It's what I've been doing for years and years and years. I have a good sense of what this management thing is, and I think I have good instincts and I have great taste. And I will look to other people who know how to do this and ask them questions." Because I think that's the sign of a great leader is to just admit what you know and ask questions to people who know things that you don't know. And so that's what I did. And I was able to sign some amazing talent and I was off to the races and I was doing the thing and I was like, "Well, look at me." And all these publicists would see me and go, "How did you know how to do it?" I was like, "I didn't. I still don't know what I'm doing." The whole notion of imposter syndrome is like ... It shouldn't even be a phrase. It's not a syndrome. It's like no one knows what they're doing all day long.
Johanna Almstead:
I agree. Everyone is figuring it out.
Carrie Byalick:
Don't call it a syndrome. A syndrome sounds like it's like a growth that you can't get removed. It's not a syndrome. Everybody just needs to raise their hand and say, "I know a lot and I don't know a lot." And that's just being a person in the world. Either you've done a thing for a long time or you haven't. And if you haven't, ask people who have and then use a little bit of what you are and apply it to the thing that you're supposed to do. And there's a million different ways to be a publicist. There's a million different ways to be a manager. There's a million different ways to be a daughter and a son and a leader and a follower. There's no right or wrong. There's the way you are that folds into the definition of what it is to do this thing, especially in creative fields. Obviously-
Johanna Almstead:
We're not performing heart surgery on a whim.
Carrie Byalick:
It's exactly what I was just going to say. In medicine, you have to follow certain protocols or someone could die. But in talent management, it's instinct. It's like, "Hey, I think this is a good idea and here's why. Here are all the players involved. I think the script is funny. I think you would be great in this. I think people haven't seen you like this in this light. I think people need to see this other side of your talent." That kind of thing lit me up. And shape-shifting, I was always really into that as a publicist too and a manager. Because what I wanted to do is convince people that this person that you've seen one way do this one thing and play this one character for years can also do all kinds of other things and give that person a chance because I'm right about this. I pride myself in having a really good eye for talent and spotting talent and knowing that that person can do a thing that people may or may not have seen them do. So that was the thing.
So I was doing that. And then this gets to how Colbert and I decided to do this thing together, which is during COVID, everything was actually going pretty well. Once the testing was able to start and the protocols began, a lot of my clients that I was managing were able to go back to work or start new jobs. And it was obviously challenging for everybody and things would start and then get shut down and all of the hurdles that we all experienced in all different businesses, but in terms of entertainment, it was happening. And before things got picked up again, there was a lot of time that it was slow.
Johanna Almstead:
He was a management client of yours.
Carrie Byalick:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
He wasn't. Okay.
Carrie Byalick:
I've always been his publicist. He has a manager for years. But when I left ID, he was always the exception. The one client I kept doing publicity for was Stephen because it was just, we had such a shorthand and I was like, "You know what? He is an exception because he's the only client who has a thing that is only one thing. He's not going to go off and do all these other things that I won't have time for." And I was just like, we were too close and are too close where I wasn't going to just be like, "Sorry, I don't do PR anymore." So he was the exception, which a lot of my PR clients at the time were like, "Well, you do for Stephen. Why can't you still do my publicity?" I'm like, "Because I'm moving on. I'm not doing that anymore."
So this summer is our 20 years together. So 20 years ago I signed him when he was leaving The Daily Show to go start The Colbert Report, and he was telling me about it in our meeting when I met him to possibly be his publicist. And I got all excited about the idea of him playing a character and doing press interviewing himself. And I got really jazzed about it and I think my excitement for his idea to do this show was infectious. And he was like, "Yeah, it's you. You're hired." And so we've been working together ever since and just have been through so much and it's been such a creative fulfilling thing. We always had a very ... Like I said, a shorthand in how to execute his idea. Because when he played the character, it was like the art of satire to do that show Colbert Report was so important at the time and it's a real iconic ... If you look back and especially now on the crazy time that we're in of politics and what it's like to put a magnifying glass on that and try to make it funny. It was just incredible what he did. And we had so much fun with the press that we did.
Anyway, so during COVID, when it was quiet, he would say to me like, "Hey, can you check out and see if someone has the rights to this science fiction book? Because I was thinking maybe I'd be interested in exploring making it into a ..." And I was like, "Yeah, great." I was like, "Please bring it out. Give me things to do because it was quiet." And we just started having those kinds of conversation that it came up very naturally that they were really interested at CBS Studios for him to have a deal where he would make content under their umbrella while he was contractually doing The Late Show, but there was no one to run it. There was no one who was going to be at the helm of it because he doesn't have time day-to-day to really pay attention to other things other than getting that show up every day. It is a bear.
He took over for Dave 10 years ago. This fall is 10 years. It's a beast to do every night. People really don't know. If you pulled the curtains behind Oz, people just don't know. To do that show with a fully loaded monologue ... And I call him the aloe vera on the sunburn of the day. To make everyone feel a little bit better about what's going on in the world. And then to interview people like Buttigieg on the same night as you're interviewing Natalie Portman or whoever it is. It is a ebb and flow of mood and emotion and comedy and connecting to the audiences both in person and at home. It's a big job. And so he needed someone if he was going to do this, that he really trusted and really had a simpatico with.
One day he was just like, "Hey, I know you have a job, but would this interest you?" And it was like the fastest yes. Even though it was very difficult when I was leaving ID after so many years of taking care of these people and really shepherding their careers and feeling very good about the role I played in making them successful. Because I really took that job so seriously and with so much pride. And then same thing with management of really using everything I had to help shape these careers. But it was so clear that this was the next step. I wasn't even looking for the next step because I was really enjoying having my own company. I was really enjoying still learning. Which is so nice in your 50s to go, I'm learning all of these things because after a while, and part of the reason I had to leave ID was because I'm like, "I'm not learning anything new."
Johanna Almstead:
That's how I felt about fashion PR too.
Carrie Byalick:
I want to be challenged and I want to be excited and I want to know that I'm going into something I've never done before. That wasn't the case. And I really crave that. And so without even looking ... And it was a really hard time for the world globally and this pandemic, I thought about it for two minutes. I was like, "Well, yeah, I have to do that." And so then I had to do the same hard thing, which is tell the people who relied on me every day that I was going to leave and go do this other thing. I had about almost 40 clients when I left ID. I had to call all those people and all of their representatives. Thankfully it wasn't a Jerry Maguire situation because I wasn't calling people being like, "Stay with me. Come with me." It was just like, "Hey, I'm making a change. I'm going to go become a manager. You already have a manager, so I'm not poaching you, but that's where I'll be and this has been amazing." And I had to make a lot of those phone calls. It was very stressful.
But leaving my own company was just hard because I was like ... Not like, oh, I'm finally getting in the groove of this. But I was like, "I'm in a groove deep enough to know that I could also do this and keep going with this." But it was also like, "Okay. Well, when will this opportunity come again?" He and I have such a shorthand in how to work every day, what we want to get out of work. I know his instincts and I know what he likes and I know what he doesn't like. And that's just a very rare day-to-day working scenario where I can just look at him and go like, "This is a no, right?" Or, "This is something we should explore." It's a very nice, lucky, rare-
Johanna Almstead:
It's magical.
Carrie Byalick:
Situation. It is. And there's no design to it. There's no perfect time. And what I will say is just the overall lesson in making a change in a job is you can't live your life to make other people happy. And in leaving ID and in leaving B. Company ... B. Company still exists. It's my corporate entity. But in leaving management and in leaving publicity and being responsible for all of those people who were relied on me for all kinds of shit ... There's no job description because it defies explanation. Every day is just an adventure. But what I'll say-
Johanna Almstead:
It's also such a intimate job. I feel like people don't necessarily-
Carrie Byalick:
Boundaries are hard.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Carrie Byalick:
Boundaries are hard. I highly recommend having a therapist to help with any job that you're too mired in because all you want to do is make other people happy. Which gets to my point, which is when you make decisions in life, it's not that you're not thinking about other people and how the consequences will affect them or their life, but you cannot make decisions that will ultimately not serve you because it is your life that you're living. And you can't live your life for other people. And that's a huge lesson that I had to learn because I was so worried about letting people down and not actually looking out for what would make me happy, what would light me up, what would challenge me? I always recommend to people who feel stuck to make a very basic pro/con list and take a pen. There's something about seeing your own handwriting when you make a pro and a con list where it comes out of you through the pen. I believe this is true. Where you see the truth in your handwriting in front of you. Sometimes things get super small and I feel like that's you constricting an idea and sometimes when you write something big, it's you expressing the answer in front of you. And I didn't even have to do that because I was like, "Well, it's Stephen."
And I said to Stephen, "I've never run a production company. I don't really know what that is." And he was just like, "I'm not worried." It was like his belief in me, very similar to America Ferrera, me saying to her, "Well, I've never been a manager." She's like, "Whatever. You've done so much." It is that mirror that I will go back to that I brought up earlier. Whereas if someone sees the reflection of you the way you always wanted to see yourself, pay attention to that. Don't go, "Stop it, stop it." Accept it.
Johanna Almstead:
Hear it. Yeah.
Carrie Byalick:
Hear it, own it, act on it and then be that person. I was like, "Okay. I run your production company now."
Johanna Almstead:
I am the boss lady. Okay.
Carrie Byalick:
Again, similar to making the change from ID, I have a lot of friends and I just called them. My friend Becky Sloviter, who's a producer, she's wonderful. I called her, I'm like, "Hi. Question. How do you run a production company?" She's like, "What?" I'm like, "I was thinking about this maybe making a change and I'm just like, what are the top five things I need to know?" It was like that. Truly. Because it's like you have to raise your hand and say, "I know how to do things and I don't know how to do things." And the rest will work itself out because ... I had to pause and go, Stephen would not have offered me this position if he hadn't seen my evolution in all of the roles that I played, not only for him, but for all these other people and the adventures that I had been on for the last couple of years in terms of the things that I did.
So when I was at B. Company, I was a producer on 2 Dope Queens, which was these series of specials based on the podcast because I was managing Jessica Williams at the time. I learned so much. How to do live specials for HBO. It was amazing. And so going into now producing a variety show every night, I took that experience and then applied it to ... I was like, okay, well, when I did that, I knew how to do this and everything is building blocks. And again, in my 50s to be able to say, I'm still learning how to do all of these things, but I have the foundation and the confidence based on all of these other things that I did, it's exciting. And so to answer your question that you asked me 45 minutes ago, those are the two things.
So it was like when I left ID I had to, for self-preservation and exploration of my creative abilities and my ability to see more for that person and get rewarded for saying, "You know what? You should do a comedy. You know what? You should be seen as a villain. You know what? You should not do that endorsement because it's going to take away the opportunity for you to do this other thing." All of these things that were within me, but not being exercised because that wasn't my role.
So then Stephen said yeah, let's do this thing. And so that's where I am at Spartina. Spartina is a type of grass that is in Charleston where Stephen and Evie, his wife are from. And so if you look at this grass in the water ... And the reason we call it industries is we were looking for a domain and it couldn't be productions and it couldn't be .com because all of those things are ... If you're starting a business, you have to realize a lot of branding involves what ultimately will be your URL, your email address.
Johanna Almstead:
Totally. Totally.
Carrie Byalick:
And during COVID, my nephew, who's going into his senior of high school, which is crazy. But my nephew challenged me to watch all the Marvel movies in consecutive order. And so I was watching Iron Man and Captain America and all these things, and Stephen and I were trying to come up with what the domain would be because all these things were not available. And I was watching Iron Man was Tony Stark, it was Stark Industries. And I was like, "What if we called it Spartina Industries?" And Stephen's like, "I love it." And it was available.
Johanna Almstead:
Done. Company name.
Carrie Byalick:
And everyone's like, "What's Spartina Industries?" I'm like, "It's Spartina Industries, and we make things."
Johanna Almstead:
We make cool shit.
Carrie Byalick:
We make cool shit and that's all you need to know.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. That's the best. I love that. I love that also because I feel like so many people go through these really intense naming processes and hiring branding people and doing all this stuff, and it's like, just do what works.
Carrie Byalick:
No. I watch some Marvel movies. I was like, I think comic book nerds know what Stark Industries, what they make, but a lot of people just go like, "Oh, that's a corporation."
Johanna Almstead:
I love it.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I want to talk to you about the flip side of all this hard work, which is, are there sacrifices that you feel like you've made to get to where you are?
Carrie Byalick:
100%.
Johanna Almstead:
Because I think it's very easy to look at you and like, "Wow. She has it all. She was born confident, she came out tap dancing. She's just made her way through this industry and look at her now. She's president of this amazing company that she got to co-found. She got to be a part of the beginning, and she works with a celebrity and all this stuff." And I just want to know ... I as a friend know some of these things, but I also want people to understand that there are sacrifices on the other side.
Carrie Byalick:
Of course.
Johanna Almstead:
And not to be a downer about it or anything, but what are some things that you feel like you've had to give up to get to where you are?
Carrie Byalick:
For a long time my head was down. I would say my 20s, 30s, and into my 40s my head was down. Wherein I was looking at my device, which morphed throughout the years. First it was a Blackberry that looked like a beeper, then it was a Blackberry that looked like a calculator. Then it morphed into whatever and the iPhone, whatever. And I was always looking down because I was focused on fixing the thing in the moment and helping and dealing and taking care of everybody else but myself.
So if I showed you a photo of what I look like at 30 versus what I look like now, I look so much better now. And the reason is because all those years I did not take care of myself physically. I was not sleeping. I was not eating right. I was not exercising. I was not balanced. I am still single, and I'm not thankfully bitter about it. I know my value. I don't look in the mirror and go like, "I don't get it." I get it. If I was looking up and paying more attention to what was going on within me and how I was feeling mentally and physically. And the reason, I didn't have time for a partner or a pet or real relationships other than the friendships I had who were just like, "Oh yeah, Carrie's never home." My friends were like, "Oh yeah, you're never home." And I'm like, "Right. I'm never home."
There was one point in my career that I would go to Los Angeles so much that I knew all of the flight attendants and the people at the airport. They were like, "How are you?" And I was like, "This is crazy." And it's not like any of those miles ever ... I didn't take vacation. I had no balance. None. And someone would say, "Take a vacation." I'm like, "A vacation? I can't because once the Venice Film Festival is over, I have the Toronto Film Festival. Once the Toronto Film Festival is over, I have the Emmys. Once the Emmys are over, I have the Golden Globes. Once the Golden Globes over, I have a holiday movies, then it's Oscar season. What are you talking about?" I would be defensive about ... I'm like, "I am successful and I don't have time for those things that other people do."
Johanna Almstead:
The vacation nonsense.
Carrie Byalick:
And so in between those things, I would date people and they would come and they would go because I wasn't available. I wasn't emotionally, physically ... I wasn't available for other people to make real connections or have that as an option in my life. So yeah. There's sacrifices. I had clients who would say all the time, the reason you're not dating is because you're not looking up. And I always think about that.
Johanna Almstead:
Actually you're not looking up.
Carrie Byalick:
Right. I've never been good at meditating, but I will say I do think stretching is important and not looking down. But I was never looking up. I use that as an actual metaphor because if you're looking up and out, even at yourself, you see, you're like, "Wow. You should probably eat more greens. You should probably maybe physically move your body. You should probably sleep a little bit more than you're sleeping and stop worrying about-
Johanna Almstead:
You should have a glass of water.
Carrie Byalick:
Everybody else. Right. Hydrate. So yeah, the sacrifices I made were ... And again, it's all retrospect because in the time I was just like, "No. I have to be the best at this. It's like if you need a publicist, it's me. I'm going to win this client. I'm going to get you all the things. I'm going to get you the success and you're going to have all of the things you ever dreamed of because I'm going to be the one to help you get it all, which means I'm never going to do anything but that for you plus 38 other people."
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Carrie Byalick:
And yes, I had support and I had great teams in LA and assistance and all of that, but I took it all on myself and I sacrificed a lot. I am very lucky. I have loving parents who were so supportive and proud of me. It's not like I was doing this out of rebellion. It was just like I couldn't get off the merry-go-round until I took myself off and realize what's important to me. The balance that I crave, the health that I need, the exercise from my mind and my body. That is an absolute. And so I'm grateful that I finally stepped off the moving vehicle so that I could just pause and really do what's important, which is also take care of myself. So those sacrifices are not small. I do think if I had a different career, I'd probably be married. I don't know if I'd have kids. I love being an aunt. I love aunt life. It suits me. It feels good to me.
I'm someone who, if I want to do something, I am very determined. And I think if I wanted to have children, I have a lot of amazing friends who without partners have had kids. I think that technology is amazing now that you can be a mom, and being a mom means many things. And there was all different ways to be a mother. So I don't have that, well, if I only had a different job, I would be a mom. I was also a mother to all these people.
Johanna Almstead:
I was going to say you were mothering your clients. I also knowing you know that you can't do anything half-assed.
Carrie Byalick:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
And so it actually would've been impossible because you would've either been a half-ass mother or you would've been a half-ass publicist. And you can't do both. The way you did your job you can't be the mother that you would want to be because you don't know how to not do something to the most extraordinary, most successful way.
Carrie Byalick:
Well, I appreciate that. Yes. It's a blessing and a curse because I want to do all the things.
Johanna Almstead:
But something's got to give right.
Carrie Byalick:
But something's got to give. And so again, do I have it all? I have a lot. I'm very lucky. I have my dream closet.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes, you do. You dream home now.
Carrie Byalick:
No. But that's the thing. It's like all of these things, I have fulfilled many of these buckets and many of these goals that I didn't even realize I had. So I don't look to the left and go look at the empty space. Instead, I go, "This is exciting. I have all of these check, check, check, check, check marks." And now I'm like, "Is love around the corner? Maybe." I don't know. But I'm certainly not like, "Where is he?" Which I understand a lot of people are because they crave that partnership. I'm so lucky that I have so many people in my life who fill my cup and who are there for me and who I feel so much love from.
And so I don't feel like, well, that emptiness is because I spent so many years going to award shows. But I do feel like ... I'll never forget this. I was with my sweet Paul Giamatti, who was my client for many years, who I just adore. And we were at the Venice Film Festival for the Ides of March, which was this movie George Clooney directed. And it was a wonderful cast. And we were sitting in the square in Venice, and it had just rained and the sun broke through and it was as if angels were singing. And we were having cappuccinos or whatever. And I was on my little scrolly blackberry. And we were sitting with the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was just so wonderful and who we were just traipsing around with. He didn't come with a publicist at the time, so he was just following us around, being like, "What time do we have to go to the dinner?" And so we were like, "Come with us and we're going for a coffee."
And we were sitting there and I had my trusty little Blackberry, and I was looking down and I was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, looking, catching up with whatever was happening back in New York and LA. And he took it out of my hands and he said, "Come on. Look where you are." And he looked down and he's like, "Who's this person? That person can wait." And I was like, "He's right." And I think about that all the time because it's like the best advice. It's like, look up is a really good advice because I'm sure my potential husband had walked by me several times in this world, in many airports or in many cities or in wherever I've been, and we missed the eye contact because I was making sure that someone's seamstress was on the way to fix the rip dress. Or the driver that never showed up was getting a new driver. Or the passport that was expired was going to get fixed. Or whatever ridiculous thing that I was doing or fixing because I was looking down. And so I really do ... I have an apartment with an extraordinary view now. And I spend hours without guilt just looking up and out.
Johanna Almstead:
That makes me want to cry.
Carrie Byalick:
And thinking and dreaming. Well, it's true because I think about that all the time. Just look up. Everything's going to be fine, because not everything is fixable and it's very hard for someone like me to ease off, but I'm now in the point in my life where I have this wonderful career and this wonderful job wherein I work for someone who really appreciates and understands my abilities and my drive and my desire to succeed and make things happen. But also someone who wishes for me to have balance and rest and calm as well. And that's-
Johanna Almstead:
That's huge.
Carrie Byalick:
That's the biggest blessing that I can look up.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm not even going to ask my other questions of those because that is everything we need to know. But I do want to do our lightning round of silly questions before we go. Is that okay?
Carrie Byalick:
Of course.
Johanna Almstead:
First of all, I want to go back and say, I'm so fucking happy for you.
Carrie Byalick:
Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm so happy. I'm so proud of you.
Carrie Byalick:
Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
My heart is so full hearing you be in this place right now. This is major.
Carrie Byalick:
Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
This is major. Over the 15 years that I've known you, I've never seen you this fulfilled and calm and happy and content.
Carrie Byalick:
I am. And for that, I have immense gratitude.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm super happy for you.
Carrie Byalick:
I say thank you every day. I do. I believe in that. I believe just like have gratitude because it is ... I do not take it for granted. I really don't.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm glad. Okay. Lightning round of silly questions. Do not overthink it.
Carrie Byalick:
No. I won't.
Johanna Almstead:
Ultimate comfort food.
Carrie Byalick:
There's a tie between a perfectly toasted bagel with cream cheese and lox and tomato, and a bowl of just perfect spaghetti with a little spicy red sauce and a piece of fresh baguette that you can dip into that sauce. It's a tie. Even tie.
Johanna Almstead:
Even tie. Is it a plain bagel? Is it an everything bagel?
Carrie Byalick:
I like a sesame bagel. I think it's just enough seeds. I think an everything bagel is an overwhelming amount of stuff. And who's got time for all that stuff?
Johanna Almstead:
Too many things.
Carrie Byalick:
It's like looking in the mirror. Is it the earrings and the necklace? No. It's one or the other.
Johanna Almstead:
Take one seed off.
Carrie Byalick:
I don't need all those seeds.
Johanna Almstead:
Take one seed off.
Carrie Byalick:
Always too many poppy seeds. I don't have time for that. They show up a week later. I can't.
Johanna Almstead:
So a sesame bagel toasted with cream cheese, lox, tomato.
Carrie Byalick:
Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
No onion.
Carrie Byalick:
No. Get out of here.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What is something you're really good at?
Carrie Byalick:
I know. Don't overthink it. Shopping.
Johanna Almstead:
You you are.
Carrie Byalick:
Very good at shopping.
Johanna Almstead:
What's something you're really bad at?
Carrie Byalick:
Math.
Johanna Almstead:
Favorite word.
Carrie Byalick:
Fuck.
Johanna Almstead:
Least favorite word.
Carrie Byalick:
It's a basic bitch thing to say, but moist.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. I think now you're maybe the fourth guest that's used the word moist as their least favorite word.
Carrie Byalick:
But also there's really gross words that make me cringe, but that's definitely one of them.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Least favorite food. Deal breaker food. You're not ever eating it.
Carrie Byalick:
Like any pate. Anything that has the word bone and marrow, any of that stuff. Also, don't put foam in food. I don't need to go to those restaurants.
Johanna Almstead:
Don't want foam in my food either.
Carrie Byalick:
Don't torch my dessert. Give me an ice cream sundae on a brownie. I don't want a dessert that comes out of a cannon or that has foam. No.
Johanna Almstead:
I don't want smoke either. I don't want anything like dry ice or smoky things or foam.
Carrie Byalick:
Thank you. That's why we've never gone to any of those ... I'm not doing that. And I'm also not being agreeable to try it out. So ask someone else for your fancy reservation. I don't need to go to that.
Johanna Almstead:
Invite someone else. I'm not coming.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. I'm not.
Johanna Almstead:
I agree.
Carrie Byalick:
That's a rejected resi. I'm going to reply N.
Johanna Almstead:
Nope. Not coming. Best piece of advice you've ever received.
Carrie Byalick:
No means they don't understand.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that. I might have to put that on a mug. If your personality were a flavor, what would it be? Definitely not an everything bagel, that's for sure.
Carrie Byalick:
Hot sauce. Cholula hot sauce.
Johanna Almstead:
Cholula hot sauce. What was your first paid job that you ever made any money?
Carrie Byalick:
Besides babysitting I worked at a shoe store, obviously in high school called The Shoe Box in the Americana in Manhasset, and I sold the shit out of shoes.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. You did.
Carrie Byalick:
It's when I knew I could sell anything, because also I believed so much. Shoe was my first word as a child. Before mom, before dad it was shoe.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, that's amazing.
Carrie Byalick:
I said shoe. And so I could sell a shoe.
Johanna Almstead:
You could sell a shoe.
Carrie Byalick:
I did so well. I did really well at that.
Johanna Almstead:
I imagine you did.
Carrie Byalick:
I didn't work in restaurants, but I worked in retail and I sold a lot of things. I worked at a ski shop, I'd never gone skiing, and you would never know it. Someone would come in, I'm like, "Okay. So if you're going to Vermont, you need these boots." I've never skied.
Johanna Almstead:
Fake it till you make it.
Carrie Byalick:
Shit would fly out the door. I had no idea. I would just be like, "I think you should get this jacket and the vest and the pants." And they were like, "Okay."
Johanna Almstead:
You say so, I'll do it. My grandpa was a traveling shoe salesman.
Carrie Byalick:
Incredible.
Johanna Almstead:
Used to knock on people's doors.
Carrie Byalick:
With the boxes.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. Yeah.
Carrie Byalick:
That's so dreamy.
Johanna Almstead:
Isn't that cool?
Carrie Byalick:
I love that. And then would he measure their foot? Did he have-
Johanna Almstead:
Yep. Mm-hmm.
Carrie Byalick:
I wish we could watch him do that.
Johanna Almstead:
I know.
Carrie Byalick:
I love that. I love that.
Johanna Almstead:
And he always had to have a nicer car than my grandma ever did because he was driving into people's driveways and he had to be fancy.
Carrie Byalick:
And then when you pull out, you'd back up. They would look out the window and be like, "Should we have gotten the red also?" Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. Okay. Last supper. You are leaving this body and this earth tomorrow, what are you eating tonight? No restrictions. You can eat as many things as you want.
Carrie Byalick:
Oh, right. Because I wouldn't get a stomach ache.
Johanna Almstead:
You wouldn't get a stomach ache. Even if you did, you're getting axed tomorrow anyway, so it won't last long.
Carrie Byalick:
You're getting axed. Okay. Well, there's Chinese food from this place called Jade King, which is where I grew up in Long Island. It's the best Chinese. Fight me on this, by the way. Write me at Carrie Byalick. Tell me where in Brooklyn or Manhattan there's Chinese food that is as good as Jade King because there isn't. So I would say cold noodles and sesame sauce, hot and sour soup and a egg roll, lo mein from there. Then mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin-Robbins. Just like whatever chemical they put in that fluorescent green-
Johanna Almstead:
Whatever that weird shit is. Okay.
Carrie Byalick:
Just shove it down my gullet. And then sour candies from Bon Bon, but very specific ones I like. I have to do the pick and mix. I have to go with the scooper. Even if I'm on my deathbed, you just have to wheel me in there and I'll-
Johanna Almstead:
Just wheel you in for the scooper.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. Because if someone else picks it out, I have to pick through them and it takes too long. I like super, super ... I like spicy things, and I really sour candy. So yeah, I think maybe I would start with the sour candy, then have the Chinese food, then finish with the Baskin-Robbins.
Johanna Almstead:
I like the sour candy as like an amuse bouche.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. It's amuse bouche. Sort of chewy.
Johanna Almstead:
It's getting all the salivary glands excited about your Chinese food.
Carrie Byalick:
Exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm into it. Okay.
Carrie Byalick:
And then just loaded with sodium and then cooling it off with the ice cream.
Johanna Almstead:
I like it. And you don't have to worry about the bloat for the next day.
Carrie Byalick:
No. And then three diet Cokes.
Johanna Almstead:
No booze. No booze.
Carrie Byalick:
No. Because not at the end.
Johanna Almstead:
No.
Carrie Byalick:
I want to enjoy everything and not be like, "I had so much tequila, I can't remember how good that was."
Johanna Almstead:
I can't remember that I died.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. I want to be like, "Oh yeah, this is bad for ..." Oh, and also a pack of cigarettes.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, yeah.
Carrie Byalick:
While I'm eating that.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I haven't thought about adding those in.
Carrie Byalick:
Adding cigarettes. You have to. Because we all had to quit.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my god.
Carrie Byalick:
And it was so fun, and it was the best thing.
Johanna Almstead:
So fun.
Carrie Byalick:
It was the best.
Johanna Almstead:
I loved smoking cigarettes.
Carrie Byalick:
I don't understand how people are still smoking based on all the things we know. However, I understand the state of the world and needing to whatever. But if it wasn't bad for you, man.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. That's a good one.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. Just smoking in between the-
Johanna Almstead:
In between the candy.
Carrie Byalick:
Just a little. Yeah. Just some lo mein noodles.
Johanna Almstead:
Slurping up those noodles and then taking a giant drag.
Carrie Byalick:
I'm assuming this meal can take hours and hours.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh yeah. you got all day. It's fine.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, that's amazing. Okay. Have you ever had a moment in your life when you've had to eat your words?
Carrie Byalick:
Oh my God. A moment.
Johanna Almstead:
A moment.
Carrie Byalick:
Oh, my dear friend.
Johanna Almstead:
Or one remarkable one that you can think of.
Carrie Byalick:
There's too many.
Johanna Almstead:
There's too many.
Carrie Byalick:
There's too many. Which again, is going back to your, she has it all. It's like, oh, no, no, no. Life lessons have been learned. Life lessons have been learned. Doing and saying the wrong things are the best teachers.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
We can leave it at that.
Carrie Byalick:
I'm not avoiding the question. It's just there isn't one. I think we've all made mistakes and said the wrong things at the wrong time, and there's not one that stands out. I have learned a lot and I've been humbled by situations, and I am grateful for those situations.
Johanna Almstead:
There you go. If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Carrie Byalick:
Assuming this food would just keep you going?
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Assuming that nutritional content doesn't really matter.
Carrie Byalick:
It would probably be like Swedish sour candy.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. You've gotten the real Swedish ones, right?
Carrie Byalick:
Yes. That's why I named the Bon Bon place, because they are like legit Swedish.
Johanna Almstead:
They're so much better.
Carrie Byalick:
They're so much better. Whatever is in them, it really just makes me happy. So if I just had those in my pocket, and that's like what it was-
Johanna Almstead:
Is this what you lived off of?
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah. I'd be good with that. I would. Because there hasn't been a time ... You know when sometimes you order something or you get something and you're like, "It's not hitting the spot."
Johanna Almstead:
Yes.
Carrie Byalick:
It always hits the spot.
Johanna Almstead:
It always hits the spot. I feel that way about those too. You think about it too, I don't know. My daughters have fish in a tank in their bedroom. Those fish only eat fish food their whole lives. You could feasibly just eat Swedish fish your whole life.
Carrie Byalick:
My dog eats the same exact thing every day of his life, and he's great.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So while you're happy eating your fish, where is your happy place? Where would you be eating those fish?
Carrie Byalick:
I have to tell you, I just went into the new Printemps store. Did you go to that store?
Johanna Almstead:
Printemps.
Carrie Byalick:
Printemps. I went in there and I texted my mother. I think I found my new happy place. That store is so-
Johanna Almstead:
Stunning.
Carrie Byalick:
I was like, "What's the hype? Whatever. I love Paris. It's not going to be the same." I went in there. I'm like, "I get it." It is so extraordinary. Part of the experience of buying yourself something really special and rewarding yourself and getting that shopping high, I like to call, is being in the store and having the packaging. There is something special about that.
Johanna Almstead:
Magical.
Carrie Byalick:
Right. I think they did such a beautiful job in Mrs. Maisel when she would go shopping, and the hat boxes and the production design of that show was so spectacular. And so when I walked into that store two days ago, I went for the first time. I was like, "Oh, this is what it's about." This is vision executed of you're not just buying a very expensive bottle of perfume or a purse or shoes. You are having an experience of beauty and architecture and artistry that is so well-thought-out that it is connecting to your heart. So I wouldn't say-
Johanna Almstead:
You want be Eloise. You could live in Printemps.
Carrie Byalick:
I know. I was like, "Well, if they close and I had to be stuck here, I wouldn't be unhappy." But I have to say, Paris is my happy place. I can't believe how much I love that city. Every time I go, I fall more and more in love with it. There's something so magical about it that I feel my molecules shift when I go there into ... Not even a sense of calm, but I'm elated when I'm there. I love New York. It is very much New York or nowhere for me, but being in Paris is very much my current happy place.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that.
Carrie Byalick:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
What do you wear when you feel like you need to take on the world? Because you're not afraid of a bold look.
Carrie Byalick:
No. I love a bold look. It used to be, I would say a dress with a flare. Like an A-line dress or a maxi dress with a print. Now I'm in my suiting era. I just bought this Dries suit in London that I wore the other night, and people were just like, "Can I touch it?" It was that kind of thing. And I felt like I was and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Johanna Almstead:
Go, go, go Joseph you know what they say. Hang on now Joseph you'll make it some day. Sha la la Joseph. You're doing fine.
Carrie Byalick:
Yes. Oh my God. That was amazing.
Johanna Almstead:
That was like a high school musical that-
Carrie Byalick:
Oh, of course it was. It was so good. And then when I was in Paris recently when they announced that Jonathan Anderson was leaving Loewe, I was like, "Well, I have to get a suit."
Johanna Almstead:
I must get an investment piece.
Carrie Byalick:
I need to support the brand. It's all going to be gone in a day.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes.
Carrie Byalick:
So I got this Loewe suit that I've yet to wear. I put it on and I'm like, "Oh, yes." I walked out of the dressing room. I was with my mother, and she's the best champion of everything I do, but her favorite place is to be on the receiving end of me walking out of a dressing room.
Johanna Almstead:
That's her happy place.
Carrie Byalick:
I walked out and she went, oh, Carrie. And I was just like, "So I should get it?" And she was like, "Oh, yes." And so there's something really ... I think I am in my suiting era. And I also I love a big bold in a dress. A dress that fits and cinches. Where you know from every angle you feel good about yourself and you don't even have to think. There's nothing better than that. I got this dress that I wore to the Emmy's last year that I just ... Unfortunately, I had COVID that night and didn't realize it.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, God.
Carrie Byalick:
So the whole night I was like, "God, is it warm in here?" And everyone's like, "You look amazing. Oh my God, that dress is amazing." And I was like, "Thank you so much." And then I would go into the bathroom and splash water on the back of my neck. I'm like, "Why is it a hundred degrees in here?" It turns out I had COVID, which obviously I didn't know.
Johanna Almstead:
It turns COVID looks really good on you.
Carrie Byalick:
I look at the pictures, I'm like, man, I was sick. But again, I just remember zipping that dress up and just being like, oh, I love a big, bold-
Johanna Almstead:
Moment.
Carrie Byalick:
Dress. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Go-to coping mechanism on a bad day.
Carrie Byalick:
A long walk and a great workout. Both. I need both. I need to do cardio dance where I'm sweating to a song that is drowning out and releasing the yikes, because I think a good song and a thousand jumping jacks or just dancing around. I go to this class at Forward Space Called Forward Fire, which is like you dance around and then you lift weights. So it's a great combination. And then there's a place in Los Angeles that I'm obsessed with. I don't want to live in LA, but hopefully they will open in New York. It's called Silver Springs, and it's a hot sculpting, hot hiit workout where you just-
Johanna Almstead:
Dripping.
Carrie Byalick:
Release. And it is the most amazing physical and mental release. Good day, bad day. It's incredible. I love it so much. And so have to exercise and have to take a walk and do that thing that I referred to earlier and look up.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. What is one thing for sure right now, in this moment?
Carrie Byalick:
That I am so grateful for the life that I have.
Johanna Almstead:
Perfect. Well, I am so grateful for you.
Carrie Byalick:
Oh my God. I'm so grateful for you. Obviously, we could talk and talk and talk. Now I am going to go get sour candy.
Johanna Almstead:
I know. Now I'm like, "I need those sour fish."
Carrie Byalick:
Oh, I miss you so much. I'm so proud of you.
Johanna Almstead:
Thank you. I'm so proud of you.
Carrie Byalick:
This was so fun.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my gosh, this was so fun. Thank you so much.
Carrie Byalick:
Thanks for including me.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, are you kidding me? You're fabulous.
Well, that was super fun. Thank you all for joining us. And as always, if you are enjoying this podcast, please make sure that you subscribe, shows up in your feed, follow us on social media, which is Eat My Words, the podcast on Instagram and on TikTok. Like it, share it, comment on it, send it to any of your friends who you think might like it, and keep supporting each other. So as always, thank you so much for being here. This Eat My Words podcast has been created and directed by me. Joanna Almstead. Our producer is Sophy Drouin. Our audio editor is Isabel Robertson, and our brand manager is Mila Bushna.