Heroic Chat with Gareb Shamus: Using Fun And Love As Guiding Stars

Hey Heroes. Today's episode features a mastery level chat with one of our friends and world class experts sharing how they show up as the best version of themselves. This heroic chat with Brian was recorded live in front of a virtual audience of heroic community members and coaches. To learn more about this series as well as how you can join Brian's daily live coaching sessions at 1:01pm Central Time. Plus get access to a ton more to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and express the best, most heroic version of yourself. Head to Heroic US today and if you like this episode, please leave a positive review and hit the subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts now, here's your host, Brian Johnson.

Heroes it is 1:01pm plus a few we have a special guest today, Garib Seamus, a new friend of mine I met in Toronto. We were having dinner together with our friend Giovanni Marcicco before he premiered his movie Hero. His movie is called Hero. I'm like, yeah, I'll be there, let's go. And we had dinner together and I'm sitting next to Garrett and we talk about his experience with superheroes that we're going to talk about today. And I just hit it off and I felt such an affinity for you and who you are and how you show up that I was so excited to spend more time together the following night and then to be able to connect with you together with our community today. Garab but great to see you and bless you. Can't wait to chat.

Oh, thank you so much. I mean, I get to talk about superheroes. You know, that's what I love to do every day. So. So I'm really excited to be here. And you know, when I found out that you had the word hero heroic tattooed on your arm, I was like, you know, we had to be instant friends.

That's great. And to state it explicitly, I had said it in the prelude the last couple of days. But Garab, did you found Comic Con or are you just the largest producer of the comic cons or both?

Well, it's kind of a combination of the two. So when I got into the business, I started out publishing. I grew up reading comic books and I have three brothers, so collected sports cards and comic books at the time. And then my mom opened up a comic book retail store when I was a kid and then subsequently when I graduated I was 21, couldn't get a job, terrible economy. So I worked in the store and I didn't like it that much so I started a newsletter about comic books, which then turned into wizard magazine. So if we've got any kind of comic book fans out there. So back in 1991, started this magazine about superheroes and everything that was going on. Movies, television, toys, games. But it actually wasn't a lot back then, and it just really resonated. And by the mid-1990s, the magazine was doing 400,000 copies just in English in 75 countries around the world. And then it was also probably about a dozen languages. So at the time, I just wanted to throw a party for the magazine. And at the time, there was about. There were two comic cons. There was one in san diego, one in chicago. But, you know, we're talking about the mid to early 90s here. 1990s. And it was at a time when the concept of comic con as a brand didn't exist. It was really. Comic con was just short for comic convention. It's I kind of joke. It's like when federal express came out to ship packages, you, know, people very quickly called it fedex, Just because it was easier to say, not because fedex was the brand of the company. It ultimately became the brand of the company. And. And then fedex became synonymous with overnight shipping. So it was kind of that type of. Back then where comic con was just short for comic convention. There was one in san diego and the one in chicago. The one that was in Chicago had about 2,3000 people over the weekend. It was basically a glorified hotel show. San diego wasn't much bigger at the time, and it was just comic books. It was literally old people selling old comic books on tabletops. That was the business. And then when I took over, I bought the chicago show. And then what happened was, because I had a monthly magazine that was reaching the film and television and toy and gaming space, as well as the entire comic book world, we actually just decided to throw a party and invited everybody to come, and 20,000 people showed up. And that really defined the new industry of not just comic books, but everything related to do with superheroes. And then. And because I had the magazine, it wasn't just people showing up. It was all pre Internet. So we can show what happened in the magazine On a worldwide basis, and that's really what exploded it out there.

That's so cool. All right, so let's rewind. Because you get paid to hang out with superheroes, Literal and metaphorical. You're also an artist. We'll talk about that, too. But I want to hear more about your hero's journey. So you gave Us, the quick super. All right, well, I went to college and I always loved comic books and this and that. But tell us more about your journey. Tell us more about the decisions you made, the call to adventure that you heard, the dragons you needed to face, the scars you may have gotten in the process. And just give us a little bit more nuance because the fact that you do what you do, it's easy to take for granted. Okay, cool. But I want to hear more about you as a human being who evolved in order to be the guy that you are today. So however you want to frame that up, I just love to hear more about you and your story in that context.

Yeah. So when I, when I started, I was very blessed with an extraordinary family. My parents, you know, we were just kind of low middle class, middle class family, but, you know, it was very, very loving. And my parents were very, very big on just make sure you get educated. And once you get educated, you can do whatever you want. And we're not going to tell you what to do, but just make sure you, you have something that nobody could ever take away from you. And I had three brothers, and there was only six years between my oldest brother and my youngest brother. I'm number two. So I always had three best friends, you know, to have a catch, play tag, two on two football, two on two baseball, whatever. We had basketball. We always had a friend, you know, built in the family that I could, that I could always kind of hang out and play with. Our friends at school were our mutual friends. So I was very blessed in that when I wanted to go on my adventure and get into the comic book and start the newsletter, I didn't have the I want to overcome this bad issue that happened in my life. It was more from a positive, optimistic standpoint of I want to make a difference. Know, I have this, I have this backstop of a loving family that's never going to let me go hungry. So how can I take advantage of the fact that I have this resource in my life that I can take a chance with my own life, you know, to actually do something really fun and great. And I don't think, I don't think I thought about it like that at the time. So much of what we're going to talk about today is the realization in retrospect as opposed to, you know, at the time, did I know I was blessed that way? No. You know, it's only in, in looking back did I realize that I was enabled. I, I was able to take that chance because I Had that backstop that, you know, a lot of people in life don't have. And yeah, so I started that newsletter and it was really fun. And our comic book sales increased in the store like crazy because we just gave people the greatest information about what was going to out. And I was, it was back in the late 80s, early 90s when I be, when I got into desktop publishing when the Apple computer had just come out and I worked for the school newspaper when I was in college selling ads and made a lot of money. So we went completely desktop. So I became very fluent on Apple computers when desktop publishing was just started. So when I got out of college, I started the newsletter on my Macintosh and Apple computer and I had a photocopy machine. So, you know, and I had customers that were in the store that were just about my age, you know, high school, college kids that wanted to write, that were just happy to write for free. So I'd give them stuff to write, they turn it in and I kind of organize it into a newsletter which ultimately became wizard magazine.

That's so cool. You remind me of your story of Gary V2. You know, parents got a wine shop and I kind of, I was into it, but I really wanted to do something a little different and boom, look what, what, look what happened. And on a parallel track, but then I also love your use of the word fun, you know, and as you know, Joseph Campbell and the hero's myth, you know as well as anyone. But that idea of following our bliss and trusting that sense of what we have fun doing as a very powerful signal of what we're meant to do. What's your experience with that and how would you reflect on that in your own life and then from what you've seen in those with whom you've, you've connected over the years, etc, then I want to step back and talk about some of your guides and some of your favorite heroes and all that good stuff.

Yeah, I mean there's no question I, I've had lots of adversity to overcome, but actually is my whole life to follow my bliss. And I really kind of, you know, I'm a very optimistic, rose colored glasses person and you know, I have a very good way of kind of, you know, either compartmentalizing things or just not getting stuck in the past. And you know, I didn't realize it too much but you know, I really, I really don't let how people think about me, you know, change the way I think about what I want to do. So you know, even though I Might appear a certain way because I have a certain way about me. I probably have one of the thickest skins out there in that, you know, my whole life what we've been doing is very controversial. You know, whether it's, you know, promoting geek and nerd culture. When that was considered to be, you know, you were a loser and a loner out there. And I can't tell you how many rooms I got laughed out of, you know, but I never saw it as a, I'm doing something wrong. It was always, they don't know what they're talking about. And it could be 20 to 1 or 50 to 1 or 5,000 to 1. I never felt like I was doing anything wrong. It's just people didn't see what was really happening out there.

Let's go there. So I think that the secure attachment that you didn't explicitly recognize when you're a young man doing what you're doing clearly played a role and it inspires me. I got 11 year old and a 6 year old is like, okay, cool. Note to self. Continue to create that really safe base where one can go out and explore without the risk of not having that backstop that you talked about and the safety there. But what other practices, how have you been able to stand in the face of that one or five or 5,000 to one kind of contrarian view as you do what you've done? Are there any practices that you've deliberately engaged in or in hindsight you can look at and go, yeah, that was helpful. And that might be helpful for those of us who are out on our quest right now dealing with pushback, et cetera.

I think a lot of it is self confidence, you know, just believing in myself and believing what I believe. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I'm doing and the future of what I'm doing. And, you know, I kind of joke that I'm clairvoyant, but not in the sense that I could pick lottery numbers. But I seem to have a really good knack of thinking about what people want before they want it. And you know, one, one of the things that I kind of, kind of joke about a lot is that probably every single person here probably has that same ability. They just don't realize it, you know, because we all are in an industry or business that we've been in for a long time or grew up loving. And if I sat everybody down individually and said, what do you think your world is going to look like in two or three years from now? You know, what's going to be the state of the industry? Who are the big players and what are they going to be doing? Who are the small players that are coming up? Are they going to be in business? Are they going to be out of business? Do they have a great product? Does their product suck? What would they do to their product to make it better? And if I sat down with everybody and mapped that out, everybody would probably have a really strong opinion of what the future is going to be like. And then I say, okay, well, if this is what the future is going to be like in three years, why wait three years to do it? Why don't I just do it now? Or whatever version or of it I could do now? So if I think that Marvel and DC are going to make comic books a certain way and the demographic is moving more towards adult themes versus kid themes, or it's moving more towards a lighter sensibility versus a darker sensibility, or all of a sudden the films and TV shows are happening this way, or there's card gaming that's starting to emerge, or, wow, I see a lot of Japanese animation migrating into this country, right? If I saw that happening, why wait 3 years for it to come here in a tidal wave? Why don't I just start working on it now so that by the time it does happen, I was there first, I called it, I get credit for it, and then people see me as the authority or expert on it. And. And that's what I did. And I did it for decades. And. And it's just extraordinary how you don't have to be right all the time or most of the time. You just need to be right some of the time. And when you're right some of the time, you start getting that credibility that you were the person that or you were the group or you were the organization that really identified what was going to be happening. You called it. You staked your reputation on it, and you did it.

Hey, hero, have you heard the news about Brian's book? Activate your heroic potential. Head to Heroic US Book to learn more and get your copy, as well as check out exclusive content and bonuses. That's Heroic US Slash Book. Now back to today's episode.

That's great. And then you had the foundation to be in the game even when you inevitably missed at times. So it wasn't a, oh, this has to work or everything is lost. It's, no, no, I'm going to take an appropriate level of risk because I got a going concern in the form of my underlying structures that you had created over the years? What specifically, if anything, that. That you can make explicit did you do to cultivate the ability to do that, that one who is here with us today might be able to do, in addition to what you described, which is just think about it, spend a moment or three or ten or a lot more than that, thinking about it. And that may be the. And clearly is at least tied for first is the most important thing. But are there any other things that you've done to help cultivate that ability?

Yeah, I think a lot of it is looking at parallel worlds to the one that you're in and then applying what you learn into those worlds. So, you know, take like, comic books, for instance, which is where I started. We were doing. We were. We were killing it in the comic book world. We were getting access to every single comic book that was coming out, Every new title, every new artist, writer, everything. We were getting everything first before everybody. But it turns out that we were also fans of action figures. So, you know, instead of just ignoring it, we said, hey, we love action figures. Our fans love what we're doing. Why don't we just add some action figure content to our magazine and see what people think? So we started calling Hasbro Mattel and started getting more information about their Marvel and DC toys and Star wars toys. And we started some coverage of that in the magazine, and it turns out that people loved it. And then I used Uizard as a way to incubate a whole new category for people about action figures. And then it got to be. I used the 400,000 people that were buying the magazine, so the millions of people that were reading it as a vehicle to launch a new action figure magazine. So when I started the magazine, it became profitable, literally, day one, because I had already built an audience for it through Uizard. And then I kept using. It's like, okay, well, then what else do people like? Oh, if they like comic books, maybe they like Japanese manga and anime that was getting imported into country. Okay. So we added content like that and then spun that out. And then there was something called magic. And we loved Dungeons and Dragons internally. We loved a lot of the role playing games and the board games out there. So Magic the Gathering started, and it turns out that we'd write about comic books and play with toys. But then at the end of the day, we started playing magic against each other. And it's like, well, if we're into it, we know our fans are going to want to be into it. So these were all kind of parallel worlds. That were alongside comic books. But we took what we did that made us successful in the comic book world and applied it to those other industries that had never seen that kind of content or that type of application. And it worked incredibly well. So, you know, so for everyone that's in one industry, if you take a lot of the things that have made you successful in one industry, chances are really good that if you applied it to a second industry, you'd probably have some success, because that industry has either never seen it before or never. You don't come. You come from a different direction about maybe the same product.

Yeah, that's great. And I. My son's into chess. You know, we were at a tournament on Sunday and I read Arnold Schwarzenegger's new book, cover to cover. I haven't done that in a long time. Right. And his rule number one is seven rules for creating a great life or whatever the subtitle is. But the rule number one is vision. So what I'm hearing from you is that you had a clear vision, the clairvoyance. I did an interview the morning after you and I hung out where someone asked me about that and I talked about my own practice of meditation and reflection. That helps me. And it was a moment in the interview where I'm like, it may sound weird, but I see things. I can see where things are going to be and need to be, both in general and with our movement and our strategy, et cetera. But that struck me as really important, the vision. And then I think either his second or third is dream big. So you have also had that audacity. I see what's going on here. Let's see if we can step. Function that up in terms of growth. Talk to us a little bit about that. Just the scope of your vision and clearly that dream of what's possible.

I always knew this industry would be big. I just didn't have the scale in mind of how big it got. And it was. You couldn't. Back in those days, it wasn't. You couldn't dream like that. I don't want to say you couldn't dream that big, but you. But. But I was just trying to get people to care about this stuff. Never thinking about how many people would care. It was just, how do we get people to care? And I think that there was. There was one. I think there was one big kind of turn that happened that kind of put us on the way to the turn for many, many people that. To. To. For it to happen. And. And I think it was probably around, you know, when we started. It's really kind of what happened in the Comic Con space that I think really, really altered history. Not just in, like, the way everybody thinks about where, you know, live events have really, like how we transform live events and how companies actually talk and interact with their fans. And not just in the geek and nerd space, but I think we've had an impact on almost every single product that reaches a consumer in terms of how companies talk to their consumers. To show that there's a great way to embrace your fans out there, and they're not just a. A purchase. It's a. It's a, you know, there's a person there that believes in you. But something else really happened, and it's kind of fascinating, which is, you know, being a geek or a nerd back in the day was a very kind of loner loser experience. It was, you know, you were. It's not something that you could talk about to other people because you were seen as being, you know, different. A loser. Right. So. So people didn't share that knowledge and that information with anybody. So it's kind of funny because then when people ultimately came to our first event in Chicago, it was so eye opening because a lot of people that were there met friends that were into comics and superheroes that they never even realized because it's not something you ever talked about. And then the other thing that happened was we created such a fun, loving, embracing environment for people to feel comfortable that all of a sudden they had something that they had never had before, which is self confidence, which is believing in themselves that what they were doing was not wrong anymore, but it was right. And they could look across the horizon and see tens of thousands of people there that were like themselves, where they felt like they were wanted, that they were part of a group, that they weren't by themselves, and that they could be themselves, you know, and then, you know, we can get into the cosplay side of it too. That was a big part as well, that we. That we kind of built into a global experience there. But for the first time, people felt this. I can talk to other people about what I enjoy and what I love and what I care about and what I'm passionate about. And that then translated outside of the halls of Comic Con, you know, for the first time, people had this confidence that what they were doing was not wrong and then were able to speak about it publicly in a way that they had never done before. And the minute people start getting a self confidence where they could Talk about it. It's really what I think started the whole movement, you know, on a global basis was the idea that it used to be kind of hidden and then it was no longer hidden. And you know, the more comfortable people felt talking to their friends about it, the bigger it got by exponential amount.

Yeah, that's so cool. And again, so many different parallels. One of Arnold's idea, because when Arnold was coming up in bodybuilding, it wasn't the geek or nerd, but it was just the freak show. Like what is that? We're considered athletes. And he had to. One of the chapters is sell, sell, sell. Just get people to understand what this was all about. So I see some parallels on that as well. And just the number of times you've used fun and love is so that in itself is inspiring and instructive of what you wanted to do. And connecting not with numbers in terms of volume, but with an individual and finding a way to connect with them and then to connect them to one another, which is a big part of what we're trying to do with our side of things and the movement. Etc. I want to grab the book that I got after we hung out. So I got Peter Goobers or Tell to Win. You tell a story in there, share that story.

So, so yeah, so Brian's holding a great book there called Tell to Win and it's written by a gentleman named Peter Goober who, who's one of the owners of Gold, the old Golden State warriors. But he was also the producer on Flashdance, the Color Purple, some of the most iconic films of all time. And I, I, I was working on, you know, doing a lot in the geek space. And a friend of mine had come to me and he said, hey, I'm friends with Peter Goober. You know, I want to get into the geek space here. I, I would never do it without you. You know, let's go meet Peter Goober, you know, and pitch him this idea of doing a newsletter about geeks. And I was like, great. You know, Peter Guber, unbelievable. He had just gotten finished. He was the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, you know, one of the most, you know, iconic library of films that, that have ever been produced, you know, he's been involved with. So it was great. So I go to his office, I fly immediately out to la. I was in New York at the time and, and Peter Guber's there. We're in this like extraordinary office and Peter's there. My other friend is there and one of Peter's right hand guys are There. And, you know, and we're having this meeting about starting this newsletter called. It was called Geek Chic Daily at the time, and because it was going to be daily doses of geek. And. And so I start talking to Peter about, you know, the magazines and the comic Cons, and, you know, we're getting into, like, the conversation, and I can see that, you know, he's listening to me, but I don't know that he's really grasping 100 of what I'm saying or, you know, that the industry was so sophisticated in that there was such this deep fandom there. You know, to really understand, you know, this fan group out there, you know, I. I knew I had a kind of give him a. An anecdote that I thought would. That would appeal to him. And because he's a movie guy, you know, I say to Peter, I'm like, did you. Have you seen the movie Big? And he's like. He's a. Like, what movie person has it right? So I'm like. I'm. I'm like, tom Hanks in the movie Big? I'm a little kid in a big kid's body. And he's like, yeah, you know, like, I can see that. And then he goes. And then I say, you remember that scene at FAO Sports Schwartz where they're at the top of the escalator and there's this piano keyboard on the floor? And he's like, of course. And I'm like. And then Tom Hanks and the older guy that owns the toy company, Tom Hanks, starts dancing and playing Chopsticks on the. On the piano. And he's like, of course. And then the. And then the toy owner jumps in, and they start playing together. And he's like, of course. It's one of the most memorable scenes of all movie history. And I said, well, that's like you and me, you know, and the piano is geek chic Daily. It's us playing together. And for the first time, you know, I saw that he understood that he can have, you know, bring back that fun and that childhood, you know, and that play and that. That. That aspect of the industry. And then through me and what I've done, you know, we can now, you know, have access to this incredible audience and world that exists out there, and that this would be his window into that world. And. And then, you know, an hour and a half goes by, and Peter Goober says to me, and my friend, I'm doing this. I'm in. I'm investing. We're starting this company. And we're getting going right away. And it was like one of these Hollywood moments for me, because it's. You're never in a meeting where at the end they say, yes, we're doing it. Here's the money. Let's get started. It's like, that was it. We were in business. And then Peter told me later on that he was writing a book about telling stories in business. And he had called me up, and he's like, gab, you know, you told me the story in the meeting. I just interviewed Deepak Chopra, Nelson Mandela, and President Clinton, and I want to interview you for the book. And I'm like, peter, you can't say my name in the same sentence as these people. He's like, no, no, no. You told me this story, and I want to put it in the book. And I was like, peter, I don't remember the story. I tell a lot of stories. And he's like, it was the Tom Hanks story. So I wound up meeting with Peter, recanting the whole story, and then he wound up putting that story in the book. And it was just kind of this wonderful kind of slice in time of how storytelling is one of the most powerful things in the world and how it really, it. You can. You can express things, and you could say things that will resonate with people. And what Peter said to me was King of Garab, you know. You know, because he's a very wealthy guy. And he said, you know, everybody I meet that comes to me, he goes, they're always after my wallet. He goes, and you went, from my heart. He goes, when you get my heart, you get my wallet. He goes. And you would have never known that, but he goes, you know, after you told me that story, he goes, I was in. He goes, you would have never known, but he goes. He goes, that was it, you know, the minute you captured me, he goes, I was there. And it really goes to show how powerful storytelling can be, you know, just in life.

I think so. And I think that when I look at it and I step back, I think the story was almost an epiphenomenon of your. Your own hero's journey, and your presence was there. And whether or not you had figured out the combo lock in order to get into his consciousness, your joy, your love, and your proven success at what you've done. But that Joseph Campbellian theme again, of you're following your bliss, when you truly follow your bliss and your grunt and you do the hard work, which is another one of Arnold's chapters Work your butt off, right? There is a felt sense of something to you that was special. And again, this is Campbell, one on one, when you follow your bliss, then doors appear where there were only once walls before, and hidden hands come in to help you. So there's something about your soul force and who you are and how you had dedicated your life so fully and. And you happen to be a great storyteller. That was the thing that was the final little turn there. But I can feel you in that meeting and that unconscious poll you know, that you have toward yourself and toward your ideas. It's a function of you having done so many reps in trusting yourself and answering the call to adventure, et cetera. What a cool story for so many reasons. So then, you know, you're one of the world's leading thinkers on superheroes, heroes journeys in general. How would you frame it up if you were going to explain a hero's journey? Like we're five or 10 or whatever. How would you describe it in both mythological terms and practical terms for us as we strive to live our heroic quest? And then I'm going to get to who are your favorite guides and who are your favorite superheroes? But I'd just love to hear your take on that.

So I have a very simple exercise here, and it's one of my secrets. And, you know, I think everyone's going to really enjoy this because it was something that kind of a master story teller told me many years ago. And I don't put it in my materials, but I put it in whatever I'm pitching or whatever I'm talking to somebody about. And I use the classic fairy tale beginning, which is I start everything with once upon a time. And if you use that as a, as a phrase before you say anything, it helps frame, you know, everything I believe, you know. So every time I would tell my friend, hey, I'm working on this, and what he's like, stop. Once upon a time. And I would be like, oh, once upon a time, you know, I lived in this really great village and I was doing my thing, and then the dragon came, you know, and ruined it all for all of us. So I had to go rework it, right? So every single thing I work on, I tell my own little fairy tale story to myself. You know, what's that? What's the world like? What's coming in to disrupt it? What, where am I going to go to fix it? How am I going to come back and tell everybody what I did and put us all in a better place? Right. And I try to keep it so, so, so simple. And, you know, and. And if I keep it that way, it's so much easier to tell. And then once you get into the stories and stuff, then you can get more sophisticated. You could start adding more details to it. But for me, I try to keep it very, very simple, you know, and just literally go into a fairy tale type setting with it.

It's amazing. And I had a conversation with a prospective investor this morning, and I realized, okay, that's an arc I just need to use. Once upon a time, I talk about, oh, this happened and that happened. But I love the arc that you just described. I'm excited to get some reps in on that.

Yeah. Because whenever you're talking to somebody about what you're doing, nobody's got the time and energy to listen to the whole thing. Right. So you got to make it simple. And that phrase frames it in. In the most simplistic way. Every single person has heard that those. That. That phrase, once upon a time, you know, Star wars, once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away. Right. Like, it's like it just. It just frames everything.

That's awesome. Favorite superhero?

Spider Man. And why? Always, always has been, always will be.

You do have the Peter Parker look as well. That's fantastic.

Yeah. So physically, Spider Man's build. Right. So that's number one. Number two, I was born in Queens, actually New York. And then also I was very close with Stan Lee. And so not only was he a hero of mine, but I. But I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him. And, you know, I've heard him tell the Spider man story, you know, so many times over and over again. And it was always so special to me because of Spider man always being anyone, you know, behind. Because of the mask, every single kid could feel like they were Spider Man. It didn't matter. Girl, boy, color of your skin, race, religion just did not matter. Every kid could feel like they're Spider Man. And then especially with me, I loved a few of the different Spider man eras in comic books with certain writers or artists. From a transformative growing up, being a creative person and loving art and storytelling. And then more and more, the more I became, you know, a figure in the. In the. In the superhero space. And I was very young when I got involved. I was 21 when I started. You know, I really did feel that sense of responsibility because all of a sudden, in a very short time after I started, we became the voice for the industry. We were the ones that were. Were basically, I don't want to say dictating in a bad way, but really showing everybody what's coming out, what we liked. We were an extraordinary influencer and curator, not only of material, but. But where people should be looking and who they should be looking to and towards. And. And that was a really great weight kind of on my shoulder to make sure that we were constantly, you know, showing and presenting the right people and to the. To the fans, you know, and so. So Spider man always had that. That great power with, you know, you know, great responsibility, and with great responsibility comes great power. Right. So it kind of works both ways, as Jim Crick would say. And so, yeah, it's. You know, I always felt that pressure, and that's why that character always resonated with me.

That's so great. My next question was going to be your favorite guide. Let's go to Stan Lee, who I assume was a mentor and a guide in many ways and just would love to hear any wisdom he may have shared with you or how he inspired you with how he showed up.

So I was blessed to spend, you know, over 30 years knowing him, and I kind of have. He did something really extraordinary. When I was younger, when I was first starting out, I was. I was. I was right. We were writing about a lot of the newer comic books that were coming out. And at the time, whenever you're in these kind of older industries, because it was an old industry at the time where a lot of people were much older than me even, not only was I fighting the world, but I was even fighting internally within the industry that saw me as this. This kid that talks about the new stuff, but doesn't have a regard for the past. And, you know, Stan Lee, in my earliest, earliest days, he literally put his arm around my shoulder and said, I love what you're doing. I wish wizard magazine was there when I was a kid and growing up. And, you know, and that, to me was. Was everything I needed, you know, to keep inspired, to moving on. Because no matter how many people in the business were like, oh, you're some kid that doesn't know what he's talking about. This is not the way the industry does things. It's not the way it works. I had, you know, the Stan Lee telling me that he loves what he. That he does. So. So no, no one could affect me in my thinking because. Because that's the way, you know, not only Stan, but. But all the elders, Will Eisner, like, all kind of the elders of the Business actually said the same thing to me. So it was really kind of inspiring. But certainly Stan. So I would write Stan letters all the time. This is also pre Internet, even pre email. I would write Stan letters all the time knowing that he'd write me back. So I have at least a dozen that I found handwritten letters that Stan wrote back to me. And some of them are extraordinary. At some point, I'll publish them. I have one where he's. Where he starts out a letter to me where he says, I hate you. So imagine Stanley writing that to you. I had found out that he was a Yo yo expert. Believe it or not, he was like an expert Yo Yo. And. And probably so I bought him like a Yo Yo. I spent like a hundred dollars on a Yo yo back in like the early 1990s, which was an extraordinary amount for a Yo Yo. And I sent it to him. And then that's when he sent me that letter saying that he hates me because he's playing yo yo all day in the office. He doesn't get any work, everyone's yelling at him to get. To stop playing Yo Yo. So there's so many stories like that that I have with Stan, and most of it revolves around his personality. And he was larger than life in person too. No matter how many times I've spent time with him, even well into his 90s, he had this personality that made everybody feel special and everybody feel welcome and wanted. And, you know, it was even kind of exemplified after he passed away. And everybody was posting pictures of him on. On social media. And it didn't matter who you were, whether you were some fan off the street or Jeff Bezos, that everybody had the same thing to say about him. And he really. He didn't differentiate anybody from one another. He just treated everyone as if they were the most special person in the world. And. And it's just. That's resonated. And quite frankly, no one has actually replaced him or that. Not. Not that they would. Anyone could replace him. But there's been kind of no one else that's kind of, you know, been able to achieve, I think that that sort of, you know, place in the industry.

Oh, what a beautiful story. I feel so much love again in that. And it's the hero getting a guide and going back to your confidence. And one of the sources of the confidence. And there's a science to confidence we talk a lot about in these conversations. One of them is prior success. When you've done something in the past, you're like, oh, I can do it again. Another is someone else's success. And then the third one is someone like Stan Lee telling you you've got it. And it's. When you combine those things together, there's this really beautiful, robust sense of. Of true, true earned and grounded confidence. And it's. It's my Tuesday, which is when I go talk to my Stan Lee, Yoda, Phil Stutz, who's done exactly that for me. So, coaches who are here, this is one of the most important roles of a guide. So Stanley was believable. He wasn't just a nice, warm and fuzzy guy. He truly had the charisma of presence, power, and warmth, and he had earned it because he had achieved the things that so many people admired and wanted to achieve. So as we again, as a community of coaches and heroes aspiring to be guides, being believable, being warm, being so supportive that you're the one telling people you've got this. I love your work, you know, even your parents. It's what I do with my son before he goes into every match. I love you, buddy. Oh, I just love spending time with you, you know, and. Tears my eyes right now. Let's fill them up. So. What a gift you are. I'm so happy we connected. And, yeah, I appreciate you and how you've shown up and taking the time to be with us today. Anything that you want to leave us with as we all go into the rest of our days and our next heroic quest?

Yeah, you know, I try to come up with, like, some ideas, like, in retrospect, you know, what did I learn, right? Because, you know, when people ask me, did I ever think Comic Con was going to be as big as it was, you know, did I ever think I was going to be reaching hundreds of millions of people around the world and. And produce 180 of them? And the answer is no. Like, I never thought, you know, I knew I'd run a lot of shows. I knew I'd impact a lot of people. But to. To be that big, you know, I never thought, like, that we would do that. So only in retrospect, you know, can I look back and say, well, what did I really do? You know, and, you know, I think a lot of things are, you know, just kind of using my platform as a way to elevate others was something very big. You know, it was. You know, it wasn't the platform of wizard, and the comic cons weren't there to. To advance me. It was to create a platform for new artists, new writers, new companies, new Brands to reach this audience in a way that they couldn't do on their own, right? And it didn't matter. And it was the Hasbro's and the Mattels and The marvels and DCs too. It wasn't just the people who didn't have access or resources. It was even the biggest players in the world would turn to me to access their fans. Right? So I think using whatever platform you have to elevate others is something that was really big. The other thing is believing in myself, which we've talked a lot about today. You know, another one is failure not to be afraid of failure. I always joke to myself that no matter what room I walk into, I'm the biggest loser there. Now I've had, I've had successes, of course, that have outnumbered the losses, but I've taken more chances than I think anybody I know or will meet in terms of how many emails and texts and phone calls and things that I've tried that haven't worked. People that didn't get back to me, ideas that I've wanted to do that never panned out, investors that I spoke to that never got back to me. Right. So I've taken more chances than almost anybody I know. So in effect, I'm the biggest loser I know. But, but I, but I don't let that stop me from, from achieving and from, and from going after the wins and you know, so it's those kind of things that, you know, that you can only kind of learn in retrospect, you know, and then, you know, use that on a moving forward basis.

Bless you. That was so good. The whole thing was good. But I'm so glad that you came back to the. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And let's not talk about all the times I didn't get what I wanted and just that, that it's a heart filled hustle, you know, I can feel your joy and everything that you've done and it's like I care so much. I don't care is what one of my mentors and guides taught me back in the day. Look, I care so much. I just don't care about all the misses and the failures. And you knew at some point that, that that was exactly how you were going to achieve what you wanted to achieve. Super inspired and grateful. I look forward to connecting again. When you get out to Austin. We're going on a hike. When I make it out to New York, can't wait to see you. And I got to go to your, your next. I've never Been to Comic Con. Yeah. Dude, that's going to be so fun. Fantastic. Thank you so much and look forward to seeing you soon.

Appreciate you. Thank you and everyone. Thank you.

All right, have a great day.

See.

Oh, my goodness, how fun. We did not flip the switch. We got straight into heroic activation. Great to see everybody. I didn't say hi to everybody but Lucas, Stuart, Madeline, Jean, Josh, David, Lydia, Nice to see you again. Anna, Paul, Gary, Ryan, Roy, Evie, superhero creator, Sarah, Mark, Simon, Claire, Judith, Bill, Tim, Good to see you. Pauline, Coach, Lanny and RJ on my first screen. Super fun to hang out. Two quick sessions. We're going to bring Gabrielle back. She was with us yesterday. I saw people posting on social how they're already changing their. Their, you know, protein intake and all that stuff. Big idea. I changed mine this morning. Started my stopwatch. Oh, shoot. I usually waited four hours before I. Not now. I got my last bite in one hour and 59 minutes after I got up. It was great. But we'll bring her back. We've got Ben Greenfield on Thursday. We've got Michael Bungay standing here on Friday. So it's a lot of great shots like this. So loved Garb and his energy and that if you can connect everyone who would like to connect with one another, that would be phenomenal. And like I said, it's time for me to go hang out with my Yoda and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Day one. We'll get back to the coaching side of things. Until then, Nat.

Hey, hero. We hope you enjoyed this heroic chat. To learn more about this series as well as how you can join Brian's daily live coaching sessions at 1:01pm Central Time. Plus get access to a ton more to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and express the best, most heroic version of yourself. Head to heroic us today and if you liked this episode, please leave a positive review and hit the subscribe button on your platform of choice. Have a fantastic day.