We were lucky to catch up with Tom Alper recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Tom thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I had given up acting to help take care of my family. An actor friend of mine told me had just made $400K in 2002 as a telemarketer. He told me it was a ‘gold mine’ and that I should consider coming to work with him. I figured if he made $400k, with my charisma I could easily make $500-600K in one year, and then I could quit this job and go back to acting for ten years. (since I was making about $50K a year back then). So I went to work in this telemarketing ‘boiler-room’ sales office and I quickly found out I was not going to make $600k in my first year (although I did make more money than I had ever made in any previous office job, I worked 100 times harder than any other job). I quit after one year and went back to my previous job, but what I learned about sales, manipulation, control, and pressure from these colorful, entertaining, and charismatic salesmen gave me the ingredients and impetus to go back to my creative passions. I decided to write about my experiences as a salesman and single father with the ultimate goal of pursuing my love for Acting, writing and ultimately producing.
Tom, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I graduated from UCLA with a degree in creative writing. Although I always had a knack for creative writing, acting was my true love of labor in life. Once I graduated I stopped writing and began pursuing acting full-time. This lasted for about a decade until I had a family and I felt pressure to pivot from my creative pursuits in favor of a more financially stable career. The further I invested in making means for my family, the further apart I drifted from my creative passions. This led to a complete feeling of unhappiness and contributed greatly to the disintegration of my life as a family man. Being divorced and watching my daughters grow up I decided to go back and give my artistic endeavors one more shot. I created a production company (‘Waterfront Productions”) and started writing and acting again. Although I was approaching 50 these creative projects reenergized me and made me feel 30 years younger. Not coincidentally, my relationships with my children, family, and loved ones improved dramatically. What I learned is if you feed your soul there is no such thing as a wrong move. You will prosper in every way imaginable. My play, ‘The Pitch’ has gone on to two critically acclaimed productions, and is on the verge of even bigger things!
Have you ever had to pivot?
At age 32 I had temporarily stopped my creative pursuits to procure a more stable job when I was having a family. I needed health insurance for my children and I took a full-time which secured that goal but left me completely bereft of any creative outlets. For the first time in my life, I was financially above water, but as unhappy as I had ever been. This unhappiness permeated throughout my entire family and negatively impacted all my relationships with them. I found myself taking my frustrations out on them and living vicariously through my children. Subsequently, a tremendous amount of pressure was placed on them to succeed, not only for themselves but for me. Predictably this didn’t end well and my entire family suffered because of my creative inertia. Something had to drastically change. I took a job as a telemarketer in a boiler-room sales office. This job changed my life:
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The telemarketing job is where I learned, to my complete surprise, all the manipulative and seductive ways of relating that exist today in every conversation and interpersonal relationship. Having been faced with trying to ‘dance with the devil’ and make as much as possible, while not deviating from my scruples, I ultimately realized this type of life was not for me. It was then I came up with the idea of writing about my experiences as a Salesman and a father of two teenage daughters. Hence, my play, ‘The Pitch’ was formed! ‘The Pitch’ is a hilarious look at today’s economy, which centers around a single father who is trying to survive in a manipulative sales world, while maintaining his integrity. My play is basically ‘Glengarry Glen Ross in a boiler room, with an earnest father/daughter subplot. I used this play as my reentry into the world of art, as I wrote, produced, and starred in two successful, sold-out productions. Presently, I am in discussions to bring this play to an even bigger, venue, stage. I used my life experiences as a salesman, father, and entrepreneur and reinvented myself as a working artist. I have never been more happier creatively in my life after 30 plus years of pursuing this business.
Contact Info:
- Website: tomalper.com
- Instagram: tomalper
- Facebook: Tom Alper
- Youtube: Tom Alper@tomalper4192
Image Credits
Photos by Olivia Neil