Pump Up Your Book Chats with Kevin Coupe: ‘The Big Picture’

(l) Kevin Coupe (r) Michael Sansolo

Kevin Coupe has been a working writer all his professional life.  He is the co-author, with Michael Sansolo, of The Big Picture:  Essential Business Lessons From The Movies, which uses movies to illustrate tenets of leadership, the importance of marketing and branding, and how to survive in the workplace.  For the past decade, he’s had his own website/blog – MorningNewsBeat.com – providing what he calls “business news in context, and analysis with attitude.”  In addition to speaking at hundreds of conferences in the U.S. and abroad and reporting from 45 states and six continents, Kevin has worked as a daily newspaper reporter, video producer, bodyguard, clothing salesman, supervised a winery tasting room, run two marathons (slowly), drove a race car (badly), taken boxing lessons (painfully) and acted in a major (and obscure) motion picture.  He is married with three children, and lives in Connecticut.

Thank you for this interview, Kevin.  Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later?  Do you remember your first published piece?

I always liked to write, and have been fairly fast and facile, which served me well back the old days when we used typewriters and did not have the advantages of spell-check and cutting and pasting.  I could knock out high school and college papers and generally get decent grades with my first draft.  As I got older, my orientation was more toward writing movies and TV shows, but when I was a senior at Loyola Marymount University, one of my professors – who enjoyed reading my papers – suggested that I write for the campus newspaper.  Well, I was hooked…and when I got out of college and wanted to work as a writer, I gravitated to newspapers…and ended up working for the same chain, Gannett, as Michael Sansolo, with whom I wrote The Big Picture:  Essential Business Lessons from the Movies all these years later.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

The frustrating part had to do with time and energy.  I write a 3,000-word blog five days a week, and so sometimes it was hard to find the time and energy to write another few thousand words for the book.  But I was lucky – I had a patient co-author and understanding publishers.  (Or maybe that’s an understanding co-author and patient publishers.  But you get my point.)  The most rewarding part has to do with simply holding the finished book in my hand, and the emails we’ve gotten from people who have liked it and appreciated our core message about the importance of narrative in any business venture.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life?  Do you have support?

Been married for 26 years, and have three kids, only one of whom lives at home right now.  Because I am a full-time writer, the working process has always been sort of integrated into my home life.  When I’m in town, I can be working on an article or my blog or the book, and at the same time be making supper or taking a break to pick someone up at school or run an errand.  It is all mixed together…I’d probably be better off if I were more disciplined with specific times for specific work and personal tasks, but that’s not the way I work.  (It helped on the book that Michael Sansolo is a lot more disciplined and compartmentalized than I am.)

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?  Where do you like to vacation?  Can you tell us briefly about this?

I cook.  I like eating out and trying new wines that I’ve never tasted before.  I jog and am learning to box.  I’m a big fan of American mystery novels.  And, quite obviously, I like to go to the movies…which is good, because between us, Michael and I watched hundreds of them in preparation for writing The Big Picture.   As for vacationing…I don’t have any particular favorite, and because of my work we haven’t done as many structured vacations as I would have liked.  I love the Pacific Northwest and Cape Cod…I’m big on London and Paris and Dublin…and if you suggested someplace I’ve never been, I’d probably be gung-ho.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one hour right now, where would that place be and why?

Tough one to answer, because it is hard to whittle down to one.  So I’ll say a beach somewhere in the Caribbean with my wife…mostly because it has been snowing for about 12 hours here in Connecticut, and a warm beach and a cold margarita sound pretty good right now.  (Though if I had a chance to talk about the book on either “The Daily Show” or “Morning Joe,” I’d give up the beach in about a second.)

Who is your biggest fan?

I’m lucky.  The book and my blog, MorningNewsBeat.com, have generated more support and positive reinforcement than anybody has a right to expect.  I think Michael Sansolo feels the same way.  But my biggest fan?  I hope it is my wife…but you’d have to get confirmation from her on that one.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

These days I’m using my son’s bedroom, because he’s off at college and it is convenient and I can spread my stuff out on his bed.  When everybody is home, I have a little office about a quarter-mile away that I use.

What’s your favorite library and why?

I’m an online guy.  I don’t believe in walls.

What’s your favorite bookstore and why?

I love any bookstore that carries The Big Picture:  Essential Business Lessons from the Movies.  That includes Barrett Book Store, here in Connecticut, and Amazon.com.

Do you have any pets?

Two.  Buffett, a five year-old yellow lab who right now is curled up underneath my feet and who keeps me company when I write.  And Buddy, a cockatiel that my daughter named after the Morey Amsterdam character on the old “Dick Van Dyke Show.”

What are you reading right now?

I recently finished The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson, which I loved.  I have two books on my table that I’m deciding between:  The First Rule, by Robert Crais, and Baja Florida by Bob Morris.  But the new Robert B. Parker novel, Split Image, is set to arrive any day now…and since I’m in mourning for him since his death last month, I may just wait for it.

Tell us a secret no one else knows.

I have many.  I plan to keep them that way.

What’s the first thing you notice when you meet someone?

Depends on who the person is.  Part of observation is noticing what matters.  One of the things I tend to pay attention to is whether someone seems intellectually curious about the world around him or her.

Have you ever won anything?

One of my sons and I have been doing a small football pool for the best six or seven years.  We bet on the Giants, Jets, Patriots and the Monday night game, at a buck a game…and whoever wins the week gets to pick the next week.  In the playoffs we pick all the games.  I’ve never ended the season with a win or being ahead financially…until this year.  I picked the Saints in the Super Bowl, and won.  Fourteen bucks.  I’m very proud of myself.

What’s on your to do list today?

I have some outside writing projects I have to finish…or at least get a head start on.  I have to iron out some travel plans for some speeches I’m giving about The Big Picture in the next few weeks in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland (Oregon) and Kalamazoo (Michigan).  I have to write my blog for tomorrow.  I have to record a radio commentary for MorningNewsBeat.  I’ll probably have to do some snow shoveling.  Michael Sansolo and I will probably talk three or four times about some publicity stuff we’re doing for the book, including phone and blog interviews.  (He’s in Texas right now giving a speech about The Big Picture.)   And I think I’m making tilapia for dinner.

Thank you for this interview, Kevin.  Good luck on your virtual book tour!

My pleasure.  And thank you.