He calls himself a creative all-rounder. The Zoetermeerse Tom Blok (34) has had his own company since last year that does everything that has to do with writing and online marketing: Project Epos. In addition, he supervises self-written fantasy role-playing games and has a few more books to his name. “I like words.”
Ad is loading…
Writing books and stories was not a long-cherished dream for Tom, but a passion he discovered by chance. “I was on the train to school and suddenly had an idea in my head. Then I took a piece of paper from my bag and started writing it down. Before I knew it there was a whole story with characters and events. Since then I have continued to write. But, I didn’t call myself a writer until I finished my first book.”
In total Tom wrote three books which he published with his own publishing house. These days he is so busy with his business that there is no time left to work on new books.
Business and entertainment
Tom’s company Project epic has, in his words, a business and an entertaining side. On the business side, he does assignments for companies such as setting up a marketing campaign or building a website. “I already did that for friends because I like it. Last year I thought: why not make a business out of it. Immediately there were a few acquaintances who took a job from me and more customers came to me via via. I soon noticed: I am good at this because I can do this and I enjoy it.”
Role playing
In addition to all business assignments, Tom supervises role plays in his self-created fantasy world Thalorne. That’s the fun side of his business. Those role-playing games are based on Dungeon & Dragons. This is originally an American game in which all players play a role and do assignments. A set of dice determines whether this succeeds and a so-called dungeon master leads the game.
Read on after the image >
“I often hear from people that they think I’m a nice and calm dungeon master, because I help novice players,” says Tom. “I have already taught 150 people the game. Companies can hire me to, for example, do a role play as team building. Because I have read, seen and played so many fantasy stories myself, I can adapt to any group. Many people find it a bit scary because they don’t know what is allowed. I say: just play along. I also help people who have not eaten cheese from fantasy.”
Ad is loading…
Happy
“I myself have been looking for a long time what kind of work suits me,” Tom continues. “But, ever since I started my business, I think, yes, I’m happy. Of course I still want to grow further. There are a few very nice companies in Zoetermeer that I would like to work with. Because I am a bit introverted, it remains exciting to approach that. But, you still have to do it as an entrepreneur. If you sit still, nothing will happen.”