The "genie" is a character named Diana. Described on the book's jacket as "part Cameron Diaz, part Barbara Eden," she spends the rest of the book helping Johnny find the six secrets to a rewarding career.

While Pink didn't create the character of Johnny Bunko with anyone specific in mind (it's not based on himself, he says), he wanted to "create a character that readers could identify with," he wrote in an e-mail. The book itself was "in some ways a letter to my younger self ... I keyed this book, in part, around the sorts of thing I wish I'd known 25 years ago. Maybe I can spare some people some of my mistakes."