Kirby Tepper	The Week of April 10th, 2005

Charisma Consultant

1. What’s in your wallet right now?

Receipts totaling almost $450.00 (Oy).

2. What do you wish your parents taught you about money?

I wish I’d learned basic principles of money-building and discipline.

3. What is your worst habit around finances?

Restaurants. I spend way too much in restaurants. The other bad habit is that my checkbook has all my transactions written in it, but isn’t balanced with my statement.

4. What makes you happy?

Eating at restaurants with friends. Great conversation. Friends. Travel. Sex. My Dogs. My family.

5. Personal philosophy around money?

Money is to be enjoyed, but it must be used wisely. I think money doesn’t buy happiness but it affords people a way to avoid anxiety about the future IF they (we) want to see it that way, and want to approach it with balance.

6. Where does money come from?

Everywhere. Anywhere. Pennies on the street. Jobs you didn’t expect. Networks of people.

7. What would you do with a million dollars?

I’d put away a large portion into investments (not sure how much at this moment, but likely 85%). Pay off the balance of my debt. The rest I’d take care of some things I’d like to do to improve my house. I’d buy a new car. Travel some more. I am close with two kids to whom I’m sort of a Dad (tragically, their mother, my friend, was killed through domestic violence), so I’d invest money for them.

8. What is your most prized possession?

My house.

9. Who is your role model?

I have many; it runs from Peter Ustinov (because he was always involved in countless interests), to Max Cleland or Lance Armstrong, who have lived well in spite of difficult health issues, Harry Truman (a failed haberdasher at 42); Rosa Parks; the man who stood up to the tank in Tiananmen Square. I don’t face the challenges these people did, so I think if they could do what they did in their extreme situations, then I should easily be able to accomplish a lot in my life. Corny, I know. Aren’t you sorry you asked?

10. What is your greatest achievement?

Life: living with epilepsy, Type I diabetes, severe Meniere’s (inner ear) disease and deafness in one ear, and overcoming cancer of the tongue. Career: appearing on Broadway, writing a song in “Shrek”, and singing in Carnegie Hall.

11. Tell us about Courtroom Appeal.

My business partner, Barbara Epstein, and I have taken our entertainment backgrounds (she participated in producing ‘Rent’ & ‘Avenue Q’ on Broadway, and she produced/directed the theme park entertainment for The Walt Disney Company and Universal), and combined them with my M.A. in psychotherapy and both of our work coaching Fortune 500 execs in their speeches. We teach acting skills to attorneys for public speaking improvement, offering continuing education courses, group, and private training. We also have an adjunct to Courtroom Appeal called Charisma Consultants, offering the same service to business executives and their companies.

12. What contributions to society do you want to make?

I hope that people I’ve met and worked with might be a little better off for knowing me, and as a result affect others, etc. I’d like to have people say they learned something from me.

13. If you could buy one thing right now what would it be?

One thing? Does a new wardrobe count as one item? Okay, if it’s one item, I’d say a new car.

14. Favorite activity that doesn’t cost a dime?

Reading.

15. How do you indulge yourself?

Cheap indulging is going to the movies in the afternoon and having a milkshake. For more expensive indulging I go to an expensive restaurant in a city where they don’t speak English.

Kirby Tepper, M.A., has performed everywhere from Broadway to television to Carnegie Hall, usually performing his own music and lyrics. He contributed a song to the first “Shrek” film, and is currently authoring the lyrics for Broadway musicals of both “A Room with a View” and “Gladiator”. (Yes, you read that right). He has combined his entertainment experience with his background as a marriage, family, & child counselor to become the co-owner of Courtroom Appeal and Charisma Consultants, a firm teaching acting and speaking skills to attorneys and business executives.

---

« Previous Interview

Next Interview »

Send to a Friend:

From:

To: