In this episode of The Writing Coach podcast, writing coach Kevin Johns discusses the significance of small acts of kindness and their impact on his life, as well as the role of personality in shaping an artist’s reputation. He explains how the behaviour of various artists–from writers to comic book artists to musicians–has influenced his perception of their work and how some of the most powerful acts of marketing involve small, personal actions.
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The Writing Coach Episode #203 Show Notes
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The Writing Coach Episode #203 Transcript
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Hello, beloved listeners and welcome back to The Writing Coach podcast. It is your host, as always writing coach Kevin T. Johns here.
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Something happened to me today that inspired this episode, and I’m going to tell you about it. Like all of you, I have rough days sometimes—stressful days, days where I’m feeling a little frustrated. Today was one of those days. By the time my job was done for the day, I was ready for a beer. I needed a little adult beverage to help me relax a bit after a stressful day.
So, I head into my local beer store here in beautiful Ottawa, Ontario, where I live, and I picked up some beer. There’s this new Moosehead beer, a lime and salt beer. I really like it. I like Mexican flavors that are Tex-Mex, and I like lime in beer. So, I’ve gotten really into this beer. I pick up some beer and start waiting in line at the cash.
The guy in front of me turns around, looks me up and down, looks away, then looks back and says, “Give me that beer.” I was like, “What?” because I didn’t know if he didn’t feel like going back into the store to get his own and wanted to take mine, or if he was stealing from me, or what. I was a little confused. Then he continued, “Hey, I work for Moosehead. I want to pay for your beer.”
Honestly, I was completely blown away. It was a rough day, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this representative from Moosehead bought me a six-pack. It absolutely made my day. It was exactly what I needed at that moment in time, and I am forever going to be grateful to Moosehead Beer for that. I don’t know if that’s part of their process or if this guy just took the initiative, but it was exactly what I needed at exactly the right moment. They’ve made me a lifelong fan. Now, I’m going to be getting that Moosehead beer every time I hit the corner store after that amazing incident.
It got me thinking about small actions—these little small acts of kindness. Not only what an incredibly huge role small acts can play in someone’s life but also the role they can play in marketing and the selling of your book.
It reminded me of a couple of stories. I think I’ve actually told these stories on the podcast before, but it’s been a couple of years. These are two incidents that happened to me in my life almost 20 years ago. Well, more than 20 years ago, and they have stayed with me to this day.
The first was when I was working as a journalist for an arts and culture magazine. The best part about being a journalist is you get to go to events and conventions, and you normally get to get in for free or at least get to skip the line. I had been to the Toronto ComiCon many times back then just as a fan. I was kind of tired of it because the crowds are brutal, and it’s just a big crazy thing. But my magazine was able to get me a free pass where I could skip all the lines and have a green room where I could chill out a bit in between recording interviews and whatnot.
Even so, I didn’t really want to make the drive. It’s five hours from Ottawa to Toronto, but I found out that this comic book artist, Alex Maleev, was going to be there. At that time in my life, Daredevil was just absolutely my favorite comic book in the world. I had done my thesis in English literature on a Daredevil storyline. It was a huge part of my life. Alex Maleev was the artist of Daredevil at the time, and I just loved his work. It made such a big impact on my life. When I heard I had the opportunity to interview him, I was like, “Okay, I gotta go. I have to make the drive.”
I spoke to the conference, and they said they’d get the interview setup for me. Just head on in and get your pass and whatnot. So, I hopped in the car and made the five-hour drive to Toronto. I got to the comic book convention, got my pass, and asked the organizers, “When is my interview with Alex Maleev scheduled?” They said, “Oh, well, we didn’t schedule any interviews. You just go up and talk to anyone there. They’re at their booths or in Artist Alley.” So, I found out Alex was over in Artist Alley.
Artist Alley is where comic book artists sit in conferences, do commissioned art, talk to people, sign fans’ books, or just hang out. So, I headed over into the convention hall and saw him—there’s Alex Maleev, my favorite comic book artist at the time, sitting there. This was my big opportunity to chat with him and get an interview. I waited in line, got to the front, and said, “Hey Alex, I’m from such and such magazine. I’m here to interview you.” He just said, “I’m not doing interviews.”
It was like I was a balloon 50 feet up in the air, and it just popped. I tried to engage him in some conversation, at least, even if I wasn’t going to get an interview for my magazine. He just had no interest in engaging with me whatsoever. Maybe he was having a bad day—maybe I should have bought him a six-pack of Moosehead beer, right? Who knows what was going on in his life. Maybe he just didn’t like the looks of me. Maybe it was his 20th interview request that day, since the conference didn’t seem to do a good job of scheduling interviews appropriately. I don’t know what it was, but it broke my heart.
I had gotten in the car and driven five hours to another city to get an opportunity to meet this guy, and when I met him, he just completely shot me down. It really took the air out of my balloon. Obviously, you need to separate artists from their work, but at the same time, I never felt the same about Daredevil and about Alex Maleev again after that. I don’t know what the circumstances were for him, but over 20 years later, I’m still thinking about that moment. It did impact my feelings toward his work. Every time I pick up those Daredevil stories that I love so much, the bad feelings from him shooting me down come back all over again.
It’s a five-hour drive one way, but it’s also a very long five-hour drive home having been shot down by one of your heroes. It affected me; it was a little thing, but it changed the way I felt about him, his art, and Daredevil. More recently, JK Rowling has really done the same thing. It’s not necessarily just her politics. While I don’t necessarily agree with her politics, it’s that she’s a bully. Her public statements, particularly on Twitter, seem really cruel and give off an attitude of an absolute jerk. She’s one of the most successful people in the world. She has more money than God. If anyone could be kind, it would be her, but clearly, success has gone to her head, and she thinks she’s better than everyone else and can be completely rude and without manners. That affects how I feel about Harry Potter and her work.
I honestly think her book The Christmas Pig—I don’t know if any of you listeners have read the book, let me know if you have—it’s a dark book. At the same time, it’s so clearly trying to be Pixar. You can just read this book and go, “Oh, she’s absolutely trying to get this made into an animated Pixar movie.” The problem is that while Pixar’s stories get dark and sad, they have heart and humanity at their core. I don’t think JK Rowling has that. I think there might be a monster lurking in her heart, and I think it comes across in The Christmas Pig. The depressing, bleak, horrible parts feel real and raw, and the happy parts feel fake. They feel forced, like she’s trying to be Pixar without Pixar’s heart. She’s trying to falsify a heart.
Anyway, the point is that just little actions, the way you treat people, can impact the way they feel about your art. I’ll give you a continuing example of this. Around the same time that Alex Maleev shot me down, it would have been a few years later because I was working as a journalist by the time Alex Maleev shot me down, and I was a teenager when this story happened. I was probably about 16 years old, so it would have been around 1996. A friend of mine and I drove again around five hours to the suburbs of Toronto to go to the Lollapalooza festival. Our favorite band in the world at the time, Rancid, was playing. We were big punk rockers and were doing that drive almost exclusively to see Rancid. It was a big festival. I didn’t really care about anyone else; it was nice to see the other bands, but I was there for Rancid. I was so worried about trouble getting into the concert or being late that we actually went a day ahead of time. We went up a day before the concert started. We arrived in the small town where it was taking place outside of Toronto, and we were like, “Well, let’s go to the movies tonight.” This was when Will Smith, another person whose little actions can make a big difference in how you feel about him, had his outburst at the Oscars. Certainly, the world will never look at him the same way again. His legacy is tarnished forever. But this is back in 1996 when Will Smith was the bomb. He was starring in Independence Day, the big alien blockbuster movie.
My friend and I went to the movies, and when you’re a punk rock kid walking around with purple hair, dreadlocks, or punk rock shirts and clothes in 1996, there was always the risk of getting beaten up or called out. Virtually every time I went out from ages 13 to 19, someone yelled some sort of slur at me. When you’re out as a punk rock kid, it’s always nice to see other punk rockers. We went to the movies to see Independence Day and saw some punk rock girls lined up at the concession stand to buy popcorn. We were like, “Oh my god, they must be here for Rancid too.” It felt so great to not be the only punk rockers at the movies. We got our popcorn and headed into the theater. We noticed that the punk rock girls were going to the same theater as us. There were a few punk rock guys in the theater a few rows ahead of us. They went and sat down with the girls.
I sat down with my friend and enjoyed Independence Day. In those days, I don’t know if you remember this, but in the old days, for some reason, movie theaters used to exit directly onto the street. I think when they made the big megaplexes, that stopped. But back when I was young, you kind of came into the theater one way and always left out this sad side entrance to the parking lot or onto the sidewalk in front of the theater or something. Anyway, Independence Day ended, and my friend and I walked out of the theater, and all these punk guys in front of us walked out as well. We got out onto the street, and in the light of day for the first time, we saw the punk rock guys who were sitting in front of us. They weren’t there to see Rancid; it was Rancid! My favorite band of all time, rock gods in my eyes, standing on the street in front of us.
Of course, we knew their names, and we’re like, “Matt! Tim! Lars!” They’re like, “Yeah, that’s us.” Their frontman, Tim Armstrong, came over and started chatting with us, hanging with us, answering our questions, talking to us, being so cool, and giving all his attention and time to these two 16-year-old kids on the street. When we were done talking, he’s like, “You know what? Why don’t you come hang out backstage with us tomorrow? I’ll put your names down to get backstage and hang with us.”
Again, like the Alex Maleev thing, I never looked at Maleev the same way again, and Tim Armstrong and Rancid, to this day, are the coolest dudes in the world. I cannot speak to how much of an impact that had on me. It was literally a dream come true. They didn’t have to do that, right? We’re just some random kids, and they’re trying to relax before a big concert. But they took the time, made the effort, and got us backstage. It’s hard to express how much that meant to me, and I’ll support Rancid until the end of time most likely because of that.
When we think about marketing, we think about big-scale campaigns, promotions, and launches, but today, having a representative from Moosehead Beer buy my beer on a day when I was feeling pretty down really meant something. Alex Maleev shooting me down meant something. JK Rowling being a bully on Twitter means something. And Tim Armstrong taking half an hour to hang out with some kids on the side of the road in front of a movie theater meant the world to me. When you’re thinking about your book, building an audience, or just being a human being and interacting with the people around you, remember this stuff. Remember what a huge impact you can have. Sometimes that impact is via your art, but sometimes that impact is via reaching out to someone, making them feel special on a tough day, showing a fan some attention, or giving someone the acknowledgment that they exist and are worthy. You might just earn yourself a lifelong fan.
At the end of the day, when it comes to books, people aren’t buying your book; they’re buying you. When someone grabs the new Stephen King book, they’re not grabbing it because it has an interesting premise; they’re grabbing it because it’s the new Stephen King book. You get there one interaction at a time. You’ve got to write great art, but you also have to be conscious of the impact you have in the world and the impact you have on people.
That’s it for today. I was just so blown away by someone buying me a beer, and it really made my day. Now I am passing that on to you. I’m telling you to go buy Moosehead Beer. I will be promoting them; they’re now the unofficial sponsor of the show.
I hope you found some insight in those thoughts on relationships and interactions between customers and the creators of art, and also beer, which arguably is an art form in and of itself.
Speaking of creating art, the next round of Story Plan Intensive starts in just over a week’s time. You want to get signed up now if you want to participate. It’s four weeks of daily writer’s craft training videos. You get inspiring assignments each week. The assignments build upon one another, and by the end of the program, you have an incredible outline for your next book. It’s fun; we have a good time. Come on over and get involved. You can get signed up at kevintjohns.com/story-plan-intensive. I believe there’s also just a link right at the top of the menu at the top of the website that says Story Plan. I should probably confirm that. I think I put it there. You can get there as well, or check out the show notes for this episode. You can find the transcript for this episode and for every episode of The Writing Coach Podcast on the website, and I will also include a link to where you can get signed up for Story Plan.
Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button, grab yourself a Moosehead veer, turn on some Rancid, enjoy yourself, and I will see you on the next episode of The Writing Coach.
