The Pen Addict 187/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	187
Title:	Members Only Fishing Vests
Release Date:	January 6th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 187
Audio File:	Audio Episode 187
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 187
Length:	6161 min <br />1.017 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 187. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined as always by the lovely Brad Dowdy. And this episode is brought to you by The Pen Chalet, Harry's, and Squarespace. How's it going, big man?

Brad Dowdy: It's going very good, little man.

Brad Dowdy: Myke is not a little man. Myke is a big man.

Myke Hurley: I'm a big man. You are, you are. Trying to get a little bit littler over the next few weeks.

Brad Dowdy: You and me both. It is January. That's when you do these kind of things and commit yourself to that, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. I'm hungry all the time now, though.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think if people are hungry for pen talk, what do you think?

Pen Talk

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think so. We've been away for a couple of weeks and it's been building up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it has. We don't usually take weeks off. But when we pre-record sometimes, and there's actually two weeks between when we record, it seems like it takes forever to get to that second week. This time it flew by. It seems like we just recorded last week. I guess we've just all been so busy around the holidays. I know I've been busy running all over creation these past few days. But it's all in a good kind of way.

Myke Hurley: So we should probably just get straight to the big news. Sure. That as part of your recent turn of events in leaving your job and taking the pen addict and not gone to be your full-time job, basically, you have now given the ability for people to support the pen addict brand and the website and everybody that's kind of connected to it with pen addict memberships.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. This is something I was excited to do and wanted to do and was kind of the whole impetus behind me leaving my job. It was part and parcel to the whole big picture thing. This didn't come up separate from quitting my job. This has all been in the works for months and months and months, trying to get things right, trying to get to a point where I feel good about offering these, feeling like I'm offering good value to people who do choose to support me. And those that have done so, I really, really appreciate it. I've gotten tons of great feedback about it. And, you know, I have a post on the blog and if you haven't seen it, we'll have the link in the show notes. And it goes through, you know, why I chose to do this, you know, what you get, you know. And if you, you know, aren't interested in memberships at all, you're not going to miss anything from the regular pen addict blog. Nothing's going to change at all, which was very, very important to me. So I'm real happy with how it turned out yesterday and today. And, you know, going forward, it's going to be something, you know, I'll be talking about from time to time on the blog. And, yeah, the feedback has been really positive. It's scary to push that kind of button where you're asking people to, you know, give you money. And, you know, I sweated that post for a long, long time trying to word it right and trying to get it right and trying to make sure I explain myself correctly and, you know, things like that. So it was really good, I think, how it turned out. I was stressed hard for the past couple of days until I pushed the button and then it's been all good since then.

Myke Hurley: So right now is clearly there is a trend. There is a trend of memberships. It is a thing that is happening. It happened. This happened a couple of years ago and now it's happening again. Many people are doing memberships. Why should people be a member of the pen addict? You said nothing's going to change. So why would they give you the five dollars every month?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, nothing's going to change with the pen addict dot com site. So that site, you know, the site as a whole will actually get better. I'll actually have more content, you know, for the general posting reviews, you know, updates, having Jeff and Susan continue to write, continue having guest posts. Nothing's going to change. But with the memberships, you're going to get more stuff that's outside of the website. And it's primarily going to be delivered via newsletter.

Brad Dowdy: I've just I always have more things to say. I think sometimes than like straight up reviews. So I wanted a vehicle to to write a little bit more to, you know, I never hold back an opinion on my reviews. But, you know, I have other opinions that I want to share and, you know, editorialize on some things. Then I want to provide additional content. You know, aside from that type of writing, some more insight behind the scenes. Then I'm going to have things like ink links returning, but in a very smaller, more concise, more dedicated format to where, you know, I will elaborate on the links, things like that. I'm going to have members. I'm going to have members Q&A where members can be directly involved in the newsletter. That'll just be for members only. I'm going to have giveaways of all the stuff I have here that is just piled up. There's going to be some serious, serious giveaway boxes going out once a month.

Brad Dowdy: You know, there's going to be other features I want to add to the newsletter. I'm working on some audio things right now that I can do is as a side project from the podcast and and have those things featured in there. Some video projects that I might do that, you know, the members will get all of these type of additional type things that aren't normally on the pen addict on the on the website itself. This is all going towards the newsletter and hopefully, you know, all the members are going to enjoy that extra content.

Myke Hurley: So basically what people are going to get is is more more pen addict stuff, but maybe that you wouldn't well that you wouldn't have posted on the blog, but there's going to be some interesting things. And hopefully as well as more people join the idea for expansion as well, right? Like so people can so you'll be sorry, you'll be able to go into different things. You'll be able to go into audio video that type of stuff and just add more and more because, you know, the more that people the more people that sign up the easier it is to devote your time to creating more varied content as well.

Brad Dowdy: I think exactly exactly and I'm adding a shop to that's not going to be a members only shop unless we do members only jackets like literally everyone wants members only jackets. I said we can do members only fishing vests, but there's going to be a shop. It'll be a public shop, you know, for for the pen addict, but members will get discounts on that. Things like that. That will be, you know, only for members, things like that. So there's a lot involved with it, you know, and it's going to continue to morph and change as, you know, I get, you know, more feedback on the newsletter, more feedback on what people are wanting to see, read or hear about from me. But I think it's going to be pretty cool. I'm looking forward to it.

Myke Hurley: So obviously one of the things that we have going on right now, which may cause confusion for people listening to the show is there is the Relay FM membership as well, right? So people can give money to the pen addict podcast. So this is just the thing. The pen addict is part of Relay. Relay is doing memberships and the pen addict you can give to the pen addict and the money goes to me and Brad. And then also you have the pen addict website and the money will go to Brad to help support the pen addict. Brad won't agree with this, but I'll say just if you're wondering which one to give money to, just give money to him. That's what I say. Just go sign up for the pen addict membership over at pen addict.com. That's where, that's what you should be doing in my opinion.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I mean, honestly, I think so too. And I was asked this question yesterday, you know, how does it differ from any podcast or Relay membership? And the best way I could come up with it is that if you support the podcast via Relay FM, you're going to get more Relay FM extras. If you support the pen addict directly, the blog, you're going to get more pen addict extras. Exactly.

Myke Hurley: Yep. That's exactly it. So you can choose which one you want to do. You can support both of them. You can support none of them and what you're used to won't change. But whatever you decide to support, wherever you decide to put your money, you're going to get some extras. Yeah. How did you come to this price? $5 a month?

Brad Dowdy: So you kind of, you kind of alluded to like how the kind of the memberships and things like that have kind of become a thing. In the past, you know, year, it's kind of become a popular, popular way for, for people to, you know, content creators to make additional money and support themselves. In my case, fully support myself with the pen addict and not. And I didn't have any like hard science on the money thing. But, you know, just looking at what other people offer and the type of content they offer, you can see kind of like $5 is kind of like the sweet spot for that. It has to be at a certain level to make it worthwhile, like something around $2 or $3 and then creating all this extra content and all this extra work. And then getting hit with, you know, different fees and different, you know, subscriptions to make, you know, all like these things work behind the scenes. You know, there's money that's taken out immediately from that. So when you get down low enough to like $2 and $3, it ends up making it not worth a while. And I didn't want to just make it a donation thing. Right. I didn't want to say have a donation thing. I wanted to create more and give back more for people who choose to support. So that was important that I felt like one, it was a good value for what I'm offering. I guess then that's that's the primary thing. There probably is no number two. You know, it was enough to make it worthwhile, make it worth my while and then a good enough value for the members to make it worth their while to, you know, support me and feel like they're getting something good enough back for that price.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, no doubt. And why did you choose to roll your own with member for and put it on the site and not go with something like, I don't know, Patreon? I think.

Brad Dowdy: I think. I'm just more comfortable with handling that stuff directly. Like, I don't even though, you know, you know, I have a membership manager and a payment processor and things like that. Those are just like utilities. Right. Patreon is more of a platform. And I felt like I wanted to do something completely separate. I mean, I could just I could have just created a Patreon. And but I didn't want to deal with like the different levels of, you know, I didn't want to say, you know, if you give this much per month, you get this. And if you give it this much per month, you give this. Even though you don't have to do it that way, that seems to be what Patreon does. I didn't want to have it tied into the blog at all in where I said, you know, for every post I make, you know, donate X amount. It just felt cleaner to just have a flat membership. For the one thing, even though you get a lot in that one thing, you know, the one membership. It's not variable, if you will. And I feel more comfortable having that. And, you know, I don't have anything against Patreon. I actually support several people via Patreon. I just didn't feel it was right for me.

Myke Hurley: There are certain scenarios where it works better. And like for the type of content that you put out and the way that you put it out, it doesn't work so well, I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think the video creators, it works well for.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's who it was built for, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. But like for writers, I don't know. It didn't seem like as great of an idea for me personally. But like for the video creators, that seems like kind of the perfect vehicle for that. Like if I was a video creator, I would most likely go with Patreon.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You know, nothing against the platform at all, like I said. So I just didn't feel like in this case, it was the right setup that I wanted to have. That, you know, it just, this was just how I wanted to do it and have the control over it directly. And, you know, just have the single flat pricing essentially. And that's about it.

Myke Hurley: Anything else you wanted to add on the membership today?

Brad Dowdy: I don't think so, except that, you know, thank you everyone for all the great feedback. You know, the one thing that surprised me, you know, I was prepared for a little bit of pushback. I haven't had any yet. Not that I'm expecting any. But, you know, there's always, you know, people see change. People kind of freak out. I do the same. I've been guilty of things. You know, knee-jerk reactions. But it's been so positive and this community has been so great. And I just want to make sure, you know, that I deliver, you know, and meet the expectations of everyone who is choosing to spend their hard-earned dollars, you know, to support me and the website and everything I create. And, you know, I'm just really proud to be a part of this community. And, you know, it shows when you do something like this in the support system you have. It's pretty cool to see.

Myke Hurley: Most definitely.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there'll be a lot of changes as we go forward, you know, with members. I'll get a lot of feedback. You know, there's really no feedback yet that everyone can give. But, you know, as we move forward, there'll be a lot of changes, a lot of additions. And, you know, I want the members to feel a part of what's going on. So it feels pretty good. I am pretty happy with how things have gone so far.

Atlanta Pen Show

Myke Hurley: Whilst we're talking about this, just want to mention again, we did last time. And Atlanta Kickstarter is the preparation is underway. So we're going to be doing that again in the coming weeks. We have a new kind of cool, I think slightly unexpected perk that we're going to be giving this time. Yeah, I think so. Just say not a case. I'm going to go out there and say that. Not a case. Not a case. Not a case. This is something brand new that we've been thinking about for a while. We're very excited about it. And I think you guys are going to love it. So bear that in mind. You want to set just a little bit of money aside. The next couple of weeks, we've got something cool coming.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. We'll have more details. But the Atlanta Pen Show preparations are about to kick into high gear for me personally here in the next couple of weeks. Finalize everything. But it's going to be a big party just like it was last year. An even bigger one, I think, this year.

Myke Hurley: I'm so excited. I cannot wait. We're only a couple of months away, right? It's like early April? April. Yeah, early April. I'm very, very excited. It's April 15th, right?

Brad Dowdy: I think that's right. Yeah. I don't see. I don't have it. Yeah, it is. It's April 15th. I'll pull it up. Okay. Yeah, that sounds right.

Myke Hurley: 15th to the 17th. It's going to be awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Mark it on your calendars, people.

Brad Dowdy: Mark it down. Get your plans made. Get your hotel rooms reserved for sure. If you're interested at all, reserve it now. And even if you can't go, cancel it later. But get your room reserved.

Myke Hurley: Can you reserve us a room, please?

Brad Dowdy: I already have. Thank you. Yeah, believe me.

Myke Hurley: I just thought about that.

Brad Dowdy: I was like, oh, no. No, I've got all the rooms reserved for all the people we're bringing like last year.

Myke Hurley: You're a good man. You're a good man. Whilst we're talking about spending money, let's thank the Pen Chalet. You know Pen Chalet. They have all of your favorite brands. They have Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco. They have authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ball points, mechanical pencils, pen holders, carrying cases, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. The Pen Chalet are awesome. They have all of the stuff you're going to want, and they have them at fantastic prices. They're always doing great discounts. They're always doing closeout specials. They're adding new stuff all the time, and they just want to get rid of the other stuff. They do great discounts. It's absolutely fantastic. They are so awesome at this. As you know, right, for the whole of last year, the Pen Chalet was with us. They're with us again in 2016. So I want to thank everyone that has bought something from the Pen Chalet. You know, using the code PenAddict, you get your 10% off, and it helps support us and the show as well, which is awesome. So please continue doing that. More reasons why you should. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the continental United States, and they also sell internationally with great shipping rates. Pen Chalet really believes in customer satisfaction, which is why they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their low prices and high-quality pens. Go to PenChalet.com, use the code PenAddict of anything that you buy, and you'll get 10% off your order. Or click the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password PenAddict, for some more savings as well as your 10% off. This week, there are some special offers on a line of Delta Capri pens, which are really interesting. I've never seen these before, Brad. I don't know if you are familiar with them.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't either, and the fountain pen is really pretty. The day-night collection fountain pens with its blue and black and rhodium trim. It's really pretty looking.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I was taking a look today, as I always do. I'd see what runs got up for us, and I thought that these were real interesting looking pens.

Quo Vadis Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and then he also has Rodier Web Notebooks and Quo Vadis Habana Memo Books. These notebooks don't go on sale that often, and these are the smaller sizes, 3.5x5 and 4x6 notebooks, but for under $10 each, those are really, really good prices. And then he's got things like the Visconti Van Gogh Sunflowers. That's been a really, really popular pen in fountain pen circles. These are all on sale. And as always, you know, with Ron, you get some really great deals. And I hope he had a big Christmas because, boy, I was getting pinged left and right about all the hot deals he's had going on recently. So you should definitely check out what he's got going on at Pen Chalet right now.

Myke Hurley: No doubt. Thank you so much to Ron and everybody at Pen Chalet for sponsoring Real AFM and The Pen Addict. All right, so I've been sent the link to this pen by practically everybody on the internet in the last week.

Brad Dowdy: So all the links that we've got and we're sharing, you know, I tried to put, you know, who sent it to us. You know, we have some more down the line that I've attributed to individual people. But for these Star Wars pens that somehow we missed, I don't know if they were a late release or what, I just said this is via the internet because literally everyone sent it to us, right?

Myke Hurley: Oh, it's been insane.

Brad Dowdy: So most of them that came in were the lightsaber ones. That was the first one I saw. And then later, you know, I thought that was kind of the end of it. And then I kind of had the oh my gosh moment when I started seeing the X-Wing fighter fountain pens and the TIE fighter fountain pens. I had never seen those. Those are nuts. Those are pretty cool. I'm not going to lie. Those are pretty awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's an X-Wing one that I really like where it has refills and the ends of the wings. These are really cool. I mean, they're stupid prices, right? You're looking anywhere from 400 to 16,000 pounds for the levitating lightsaber fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: I mean, yeah, cool. They look great. I'm not spending 16 grand. I don't know how they levitate like some kind of magic magnets. It does look really cool. But I mean, who? Who's buying it? Who's buying this? I don't know, man. But yeah, they're there. If you've got 16 grand to spend on a Star Wars Jedi Yoda levitation lightsaber limited edition pen, go for it. But I don't know who's doing it.

Brad Dowdy: We need to get John Bemis on this stat.

Myke Hurley: Oh, there's only eight of them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This TIE fighter is sick. This TIE fighter is really awesome. And seriously, I mean, these pens, the Star Wars pens we've been talking about have been out for months. Where were these the whole time? Certainly, you know, they've been out. But they just appeared on the Internet like what the week after Christmas or maybe the week before we started getting the links. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. But I was really impressed with the design of these. I'm not going to lie. The price is stupid. I mean, it's just a total, you know, guilty expenditure. But man, the X-Wing and the TIE fighter are really, really cool.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. And they come in those cool stands, right? Where you can make it look like that. Yes. It's nice. These are like if you're going to spend stupid money on a Star Wars pen. These are the ones to go with.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They're pretty cool. But yeah. Thank you, Internet, for sending us those links because we got them. For sure. They were awesome because when the first one came in, I had no idea. I had not seen these before. You know, I got the links on Twitter.

Myke Hurley: I thought it was a joke at first.

Brad Dowdy: I thought the lightsaber was a joke until I saw the other ones. And then it kind of blew my mind. So, this next one is for you. This is actually via Julio on Twitter. Milarex sent it to you. It really was aimed at you and CGP Grey talking about the Apple Pencil. And I think what CGP uses this D-Brand skins for his phone, I think. And what they did is they made a skin for the Apple Pencil. How cool is this? Have you ordered this yet? You're ordering this, right?

Myke Hurley: I haven't, but I've considered it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. When I first saw it, I was like, man, that is cool. That is so cool. Now, I think the coolness would wear off. I'd probably want the traditional white just because that's kind of the design that it's supposed to be. It feels kind of dirty putting that on there. As cool as it is, though, it's pretty awesome. When I saw this, I was like, that is great. They really did a good job on this.

Myke Hurley: See, I'm the man, right? Who throws stickers all over his iPad. Right. You know what? It's six bucks. Right, right. I'm just going to order it and I'll see how I feel when it comes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, it's an adhesive type deal. So, yeah. I mean, it's just a skin, not a case or anything. I don't know. I always worry about these things. I'm so, so in a row tent of that. Like, I would just stress out putting the thing on. If it was crooked, I would have a conniption. And like, rage tear it off. And it'd be done and, you know, $6 down the drain. But that's just how I am.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm going to buy two of them.

Brad Dowdy: Two to get one good?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I figure I won't get it. And it's like they're shipping from the States. So, it's going to take a while to arrive. And if I get it wrong and then I have to want to order another one, it's going to take forever.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And you'll end up with the second pencil anyway. So, if you get it right the first time, you'll have another one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I haven't bought the second one yet. But I'm planning on it. Like, I'm going to at some point. Because I know, you know, eventually I'm going to lose it. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, Dave Ray in the chat room is, I believe in this philosophy, is two is one and one is none.

Myke Hurley: Yep. That's what we talk about on Cortex all the time. The rule of two, man.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It just is. It just is. But this next item, Myke, you're not getting two of these. You're not getting any of these. I know. But this is a super old link. But I just got sent it this week. I don't know if this actually exists. I can't tell if this is a real item, was like a lab item or what. But I wanted to talk about it because it's kind of cool. Not that I would ever use it. But it's, what's it called? It's called paper to pencil. Where you take, like, your scrap paper from your office. You run it through, like, this scanner looking machine. Except it doesn't scan the paper. It rolls it around a graphite core. And makes a pencil out of the junk paper in your office. I mean, this link is from 2010. But I was still kind of impressed by it. Even if it's just like a mock-up. But I think it was real at the time. I don't know. It's either like a school project. Or it's like the scribble pen, right? That's all I could think of when I saw this. This is kind of like the scribble pen. Like, does this really work? I guess it does. I don't know how you'd sharpen your copy paper around the lead. But I got sent this link. And I had to include it. Because it kind of threw me for a loop there. What do you think about this thing?

Recycled Pencils

Myke Hurley: So I've used pencils that have been made from, like, plastic cups and stuff like that.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. And they do use, they do have some of the recycled paper pencils. That is a thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm trying to see if I can, like, there's loads of links to the fact that it exists. But nowhere to buy one.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: It looks like it's a concept.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It does kind of look like a concept.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because I'm not 100% sure that these images are real. I think they're renderings.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. As I was looking, I was like, wow, this is very scribbly. But it's also kind of cool. It's also kind of cool if it really, really works. But like I said, this is an old, old link. But I got sent it and never seen it before. And I thought it was pretty interesting. Um, this is more interesting, though. Way more interesting. Our friend Casey, aka Punky, sent me this link about the nitro engine powered pencil sharpener. Have you watched this? I watched it today. What did you think?

Myke Hurley: Why? It's amazing because you can. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Okay. But sometimes it's like.

Brad Dowdy: This guy's, this guy's like a hacker, right? He's like a DIY hacker.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. He's a YouTuber. This is what he does. Yeah. This is what he does. He looks like he takes RC cars and does, turns them into Frankenstein monsters, basically.

Brad Dowdy: Well, this is a Frankenstein monster pencil sharpener and it's totally awesome. I mean, at the end when he sharpened the, sharpened the three pencils in seven seconds. Like it was a race. That was pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: I said, look, it was fun and I enjoyed watching the video. And it's like, this is a cool thing that you made. But like the whole time I'm thinking to myself, like, what were you going to use this? Like, what are you doing it for, man?

Brad Dowdy: But he sure made it work. I could totally see, like, I know Jeff, I think is listening live today in the shop. So, hey, Jeff, if you're listening, I totally, when Casey sent this, I was like, there's no way I can show this to Jeff because he'll end up trying to do this. And like, you know, he'll blow something up or lose a finger. I can, I can totally feel it. But this is something that Jeff would do. I could see it. He's like, oh, check this out. Um, yep, there he is. He's typing now. So he's listening. Um, it's awesome. Uh, I'm not going to lie. I got a ton of enjoyment out of watching this video. Um, just watching this guy go through the process of actually making this, making this work was pretty cool. I mean, it wasn't straightforward at all. Like this isn't, this isn't something like a build your own kit. You could do it yourself at home. He, I mean, he hacked the heck out of this thing to get it, to get it to work right. And, uh, in the end he got it and it was, it was pretty sick.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, it, it is an interesting thing to build. I was worried he was going to lose a finger at one point.

Brad Dowdy: Um, he was always, uh, jamming his fingers in there. I was, uh, yeah, it's not something I can handle. That's for sure.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And parts, it seemed a little bit out of control, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. He was pulling it off the desk when he was trying to, trying to start it. So yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But it was, it's cool. Like it is, I'm very surprised that it worked.

Brad Dowdy: I am too. I think he was surprised it worked to be quite honest.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's definitely.

Harry's Products

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of something that works every time. Our good friends at Harry's, man, their stuff always works.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to ask you about that in a minute, but first I've got to let you know, right? A new year is upon us. It is 2016. It's time for a fresh start. And an easy new year's resolution to make is to stop overpaying for a great shave. This is where Harry's comes in. Harry's makes their own blades. The German engineered five blade cartridges. The Harry's blades will give you a close, comfortable shave without cuts and razor burn. Harry's believes so much in the quality of their blades that they guarantee it. They guarantee the quality of their blades. They will give you a full refund if you're not happy. Over 1 million people have switched to Harry's. You should be one of them. Harry's offers high quality shaves at about half the price of other big brand blades. On average, an everyday shaver saves about $150 a year because they use Harry's blades. They'll ship them to your front door for free and they have a great starter set deal, which you should take advantage of today. For just $15, you get a razor, moisture eggs and shave cream and three razor blades. Because you are so effusive about Harry's products, Mr. Dowdy, please tell the listeners what you love so much about them.

Brad Dowdy: So it's funny. I had a panic attack, a Harry's panic attack this morning. And this goes back to Dave Ray's two is one thing. I was shaving this morning with my Harry's razor and my Harry's shave cream. And I felt the shave cream bottle was a little light and, you know, getting down to like the last last few shaves. And I was like, oh, my God, do I have a backup? Do I have another one in the drawer or have I forgotten to order them and and make sure I have, you know, the two is one concept? I had to go over and double check that I still had another one because it gave me a panic attack this morning while I'm shaving. And I'm like, do I have any more of this stuff? So I'm addicted, I guess you could say, to Harry's products.

Brad Dowdy: It's all I use. It's all I want to use. And it's such a good price and such a good product. It's a real no brainer, just a complete no brainer for me to use it. Yeah. And the whole the whole family at this point.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Harry's Harry's stuff is great. I love the look of the stuff. I love the feel of the stuff. I love the smell of their stuff as well. The blades are great. Just the whole package. Stop overpaying for a great shave and start the new year right. Go to harrys.com right now and they'll give you $5 off if you use the coupon code PENADDICT with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S.com. Coupon code PENADDICT at checkout for a special $5 off. Thank you so much to Harry's for supporting this show on Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: So we got a cool thing going on between our good friends Thomas Hall and Sean Newton.

Brad Dowdy: Thomas is obviously a huge fan of Sean's pens and especially a model called the Shinobi, which I've talked about. I own one. I've used Thomas's. That's why I bought one because I love the pen. Thomas has so many he's going to give one away. What he's doing is he's giving it away via Sean's website. So the donations for the giveaway actually go to the Newton Pen Scholarships, which Sean Newton has run for a while. It's a fantastic cause. I wanted to make sure I pointed this out so everyone can go look in, get into it. You know, it's got the rules for joining this giveaway. And I thought it was just a really neat thing to do. And I'm happy to support those guys and especially, you know, supporting Sean's scholarship fund and, you know, via purchasing postcards and the things that he does for raising these funds. And he said so far they've raised $3,400, not for this thing, but, you know, just in general for the scholarship fund. So I'm hoping they can get a good bit more for Thomas Hall's first Shinobi from Mr. Newton. So I thought that was a really, really cool thing that they're doing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've always had my eye on Thomas's Shinobis. So maybe I'm going to have to get involved in this one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, really. You should. You should. I mean, and it goes for. It goes for a good cause. It goes for a good cause. So I've had some. I've had lots. I've been breaking lots of news here recently the past month.

Myke Hurley: Such a busy guy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's time. It's definitely go time. And 2016 is going to be the year of the pen show for me, it appears. And I am super thankful that Lisa Venice wants me in her presence. I guess it's the best thing I can say that she doesn't kick me in the butt and right out of the room. But I'm going to work for Venice Pins at three pen shows this year that we've announced so far. L.A. in February. Chicago in end of April or May. And then San Francisco in August. Wow. So I'm going to be traveling out to those shows. We'll do some meet and greets and things like that. But y'all need to come say hi to me and Lisa at the Venice Pins booth.

Myke Hurley: When's the Chicago pen show?

Brad Dowdy: I want to say it's at the end of May. I got it in my calendar.

Myke Hurley: Because I've always wanted to go to Chicago.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Field Notes HQ. So aside from that, that's just three shows. With Knock, we're obviously doing Atlanta. And then Knock will be in D.C. as well. So that's five shows this year that either myself or myself and Jeff with Knock will be at. So if you haven't made it out to a pen show in any of these or even remotely in your area, you need to try to come. I know a lot of people travel to Atlanta for that show. And, you know, that's kind of like our home show for Knock. You know, that's our home show for the pen addict, right? Because it's our area. That's where we fly you in. That's kind of like the biggest, you know, podcast, blogger type event that we do. But there's so much other stuff going on at these other shows. You should definitely try to attend as well. Chicago is the first week of May, it looks like. Like literally like May 1st.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's not going to happen if I'm in Atlanta in like the middle of April.

Brad Dowdy: Two weeks. It'll be two weeks before. Yeah. Two to three weeks before. That's a real shame. That's a real shame. Two weeks after. So April 28th to May 1st.

Myke Hurley: Unless I just sleep on your couch for three weeks. That's fine.

Brad Dowdy: I know you'd say that.

Myke Hurley: I can't do that, but I appreciate it.

Brad Dowdy: We don't have enough internet for the both of us.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. No, definitely not.

Brad Dowdy: So I wanted to throw that out there. Mark your calendars. You know, those are pretty much solid. I mean, you can kind of book around those things. You know, there's always things can change. I don't know what we'll be adding or if we'll be adding anything. But that's definitely more than enough to start with. So we will definitely have the world tour going. And everyone wants tour t-shirts for the 2016 world tour. So we'll have to see if we can come up with something for that.

Myke Hurley: But who knows? Oh, that would be sweet. So who knows? What's making you want to do all of these?

Brad Dowdy: I just want to do. I just want to get out there and make these events more of a community event. You know, get people interested in like coming to pin shows because it's such a different thing. And, you know, people who have never done it before, there's always a hesitancy to do that. I was certainly hesitant the first time I came to a pin show. And I think if you're there and kind of know other people that are going to be there, even if you just know them online, like, you know, through the chat room or through the Slack channel, things like that, or through the blog or Twitter, whatever. It makes it easier and more comfortable to get out there and go to these shows. And once you kind of go to one, you're hooked. Then you realize how much fun they are and how much there is to see and how much there is to learn and how many great people you can meet in there. And I just want to get out and meet more people. I think it's just an awesome opportunity to do that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, no doubt, man. That's going to be sweet. I'm jealous of you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's going to be fun. Look forward to it. And I definitely look forward to Atlanta and D.C. to where Noc is going to go big at both of those. So we are ready for that stuff already.

Myke Hurley: Go big or go home, man. That's right.

Pen Stories

Brad Dowdy: That is correct. All right. So go big or go home is definitely the tale of this next story. I don't think you're familiar with this. I don't know how many people are familiar with this. A bunch of people on Instagram are. But this, if it didn't happen on, if I didn't get the news of it on January the 1st, it would have been the story of 2015. But in the place of the blog of the week this year, we're going to do the Instagram of the week. And it's our friend at My Custom Puppet. A bunch of you follow him on Instagram. Instagram, I'm a huge fan of what he does. He graciously takes a bunch of pictures of our Noc cases in all these beautiful environments. But he's got killer handwriting, right? He does tons of videos on his handwriting. And it just so happened, Myke, that I open up Instagram on January the 1st and I have a direct message from him in my Instagram inbox. And he says, hey, did you see what happened to me yesterday? And my first thought is, oh, no, what happened? And I said, no, I have no idea. And yesterday being New Year's Eve. And he said, well. On Ryan Seacrest, I guess, is that the rockin' New Year's Eve special? Whatever the big New Year's television show here in the U.S. is. He said, I did this handwriting thing that said Happy New Year. And they posted it on the TV show as one of the, you know, cool things. I've never seen the video of the television show of this actually appearing on TV. But he put up his Instagram handle, the MyPuzzCustomPuppet Instagram handle, and showed the video of his handwriting. And it blew up his Instagram. He got, right now this one that was on TV on the Ryan Seacrest New Year's Eve show has 155,000 likes on it. And he has like 48,000 followers now. Yep. His follower count went to 48,000. And it's the most insane thing I have ever seen.

Myke Hurley: Hey, not bad to get a little, get a knock case up in there now. I see that. Shoot, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So that's why, so that's why he, he Instagrammed me. He's like, so people are asking me, you know, what pens I should use and, you know, things like that. And I want to point them to like, to your cases. Is that okay? I'm like, yeah, that's okay. I appreciate you thinking.

Myke Hurley: You went for the unicorn explosion as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, you don't have to ask. But yeah, I appreciate you asking. But he told me the story and it just blew my mind. It's still blowing my mind to this day. And he keeps pushing out the content and gets all these people. And a bunch of us have started like replying to him with some of the silly comments. It's probably frustrating him because a bunch of people are asking, hey, write my name and do all this stuff. And, you know, so I'm writing a bunch of silly stuff in there. And Joey Feldman and Lisa Van Es were all writing, you know, hey, you like he'd write, you know, some just whatever phrase. I was like, hey, you spelled my name wrong. Do better next time and things like that. So just getting on him. It's absolutely the craziest thing I've ever seen or been involved with in this community. It's nuts. I'm still like my jaw drops every time I look at this. It's so I'm so happy for him. He's such a nice guy and does an amazing job on Instagram.

Brad Dowdy: It's pretty cool. I got to admit, it was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long, long time. So that's a story time with the pen addict today. But my custom puppet, man, you deserve it. You deserve it. It was unbelievably.

Myke Hurley: I just love that his you'd expect one thing from his Instagram name. But like, it's just not there. There's no puppets. Like, it's just all. Yeah. And pen stuff. I love that.

Brad Dowdy: He did a puppet sketch of me like way, way back in the day. I remember that. Just a sketch. Yeah. That's who this is. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because obviously, this is what he does like for a business, like makes. Right.

Brad Dowdy: You go to his. Yeah. You go to his Etsy store and he's got like a lot of like television, movie, media, like customers. Right. That use puppets for various commercials, promotions. Like I was reading his Etsy and one of them, you know, there was the people from whoever did this Doritos commercial. We're thanking him for the puppets he made for that. So stuff like that. So it's pretty. It's pretty awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's just funny that like the majority of his Instagram feed that we just found in pen stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Totally. Just like the rest of us.

Brad Dowdy: Completely. And he posts a lot too. And it's always just lovely, lovely stuff. So it's, this was like the biggest, coolest thing I have seen in a while. And I just loved every minute of it for him. And it was so cool. So cool.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I just found the, I found the picture of you now. So I'm going to put that in the show notes.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, cool.

Myke Hurley: All right. So what else have we got?

Brad Dowdy: Man, we've got, we got a bunch of few, few more things that I want to talk about. I did an article about steel nibs that I want to talk about. I want to talk about our favorites of last year and getting ready for 2016. Right. So we need to talk about these things, but let's, let's talk about one of our good friends first. And that's our friends at Squarespace.

Myke Hurley: Start building your own website today at squarespace.com. You want to use the code Inc at checkout to get 10% off Squarespace. Build it beautiful. You can build a Squarespace website so easily. You don't need to know how to code. You don't need to have ever had a website before. They have intuitive and easy to use tools that will make your website look and feel exactly how you want. They give you a place online and give you everything that you need to do it with. Their site templates are fantastic. They all feature responsive web designs. They look great on all sizes of the device. And they have a bunch of different templates that you can customize to your heart's content. There's some that are like really tailored for certain types of business or certain types of art that you do. Like maybe you want a lovely galleries. Maybe you want an audio player for music. That kind of stuff. They have all of that. But their templates are really adaptable. And you can drag and drop all the different functionality that you want into it. Squarespace are trusted by millions of people around the world because they use state-of-the-art technology and they ensure security and stability. This is what they're known for. That and their 24-7 support. They have live chat and email. They're ready to help you with anything that you need. They have their great commerce platform that we use at RelayFM. And that also the guys over at NotCo use as well. Right? Absolutely. They have everything all built on Squarespace. That's what they believe.

Brad Dowdy: And I have an interesting story if you would like it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'd love it.

Brad Dowdy: So I had to... Since I want to put a shop on the PinAnnex site, I had to convert to a commerce site. Right? I was just a blog site. I think that... I don't know if that's the terminology that they use. But they have a... You have to kind of flip the switch over to have these added features with the commerce site, like hooking into ShipStation and things like that to help with the shipping. And for me to change the PinAddict, I was like... I was kind of worried as I was going into this. I was like, what's going to break with my current site? You know, because it's a blog site. And, you know, I'm going to add all these commerce features, even though nothing like is going live right now. But it was really just a matter of flipping a switch, changing my site type. You know, I just... I emailed the help desk. They replied. I said, this is what I'm trying to do. And they said, yeah, you just have to make the switch, change the billing, and it'll be no problem. And that was it. It just flipped right over. Like, you don't notice any change with PinAddict.com at all. When I did this, it just changed some stuff on the back end, and now I'm ready for commerce is as quick and simple as that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That's awesome, man. This is how great they are. It's so simple to use this stuff.

Brad Dowdy: It was easy.

Myke Hurley: You can check out Squarespace yourself. If you sign up for a year, you'll get a free domain name, right? So you'll be able to give whatever name you want to your site. Their plans start at just $8 a month. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required and start building your own website today by going to squarespace.com. And when you decide to sign up for Squarespace, make sure that you use the offer code INK, I-N-K, at checkout. You'll get yourself 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. Thanks to Squarespace for helping us out today and supporting us all at Relay FM. Squarespace, build it beautiful.

On Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: So, Maybelline Tan over at On Fountain Pens, which is a great blog if you're not following it, you should, does a feature every year called The 12 Days of Christmas where she invites other bloggers and writers and pen aficionados to write an article for this series that she does. She does one every day for 12 days and she asked me to participate this year and I wasn't sure what to write about. And, you know, I took a few days to think about it and then it hit me that pretty much every ink or every pen I had inked up at the time had a steel nib in it and I realized how much I enjoy steel nibs. So, I wanted to, you know, explain a little bit why I love steel nibs, why people should not discount steel nibs. Like if they're, you know, kind of new to the whole world of fountain pens and, you know, you don't have to buy a gold nib to get started to have an amazing writing experience with a fountain pen and things like that. And I always have Brian Gray's, you know, article in the back of my head and I've linked to it a thousand times on, you know, why steel nibs are such a good option for fountain pens. And, um, I just, I, I enjoyed writing that because I really believe that I just, the functionality of a steel nib and the way I can swap them between pens really fits my style. Um, also they're generally firmer than gold nibs, which fits my style. It has to be, you know, you have to find something to fit your writing style, but you should give, you know, steel nibs, you know, a chance, you know, the gold nibs are so different. They can be super expensive in, in relation to the steel. I just think, you know, I don't think really necessarily anyone that listens to this show, um, you know, doesn't already know these types of things, but I just kind of wanted to put it out there in a more direct way with, with this article.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I read it today and like, I, I kind of get where you're coming from. Like, I don't really know if I would say that one is categorically better than the other, right? And sure. Like I have some gold nibs that I love. I have some steel nibs that I love. I think that there is, for me anyway, there are a bunch of other factors at play, not just the material. Like, I don't think that one is universally better than the other. Like I have some, some of my favorite pens have gold and some of my favorite pens are steel.

Brad Dowdy: Sure, sure. And, you know, I, I elaborate on that. Like I'll, you know, all my Nakayas have gold nibs on it and I wouldn't want it any other way. You know, things like that. But when you're getting more into fountain pens and trying several different things, you can have several different experiences with the same pen just by changing the nib.

Brad Dowdy: With a steel nib, it's so much more cost effective than with a gold nib where you can try different things. You can try an extra fine, a broad and a stub all for, you know, half the price you'd pay for a gold nib, you know, just to see what type of things you like. So I'm just throwing those options out there for people who are looking at those things that, you know, you don't have to go nuts buying gold nibs. If, you know, if you can find some steel ones that work just as well for you. And it does, it does matter your writing style. Like my writing style definitely benefits from a steel nib because it's fast and firm and blocky. You know, it's not smooth and, you know, cursive and swoopy like, you know, a larger handwriting does that might benefit from a softer gold nib. But, you know, other factors, all things being equal, they're awfully similar a lot of times. But yeah, I certainly have pens where I wouldn't take my gold nib out of them for anything. And I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying you can be very creative with steel nibs in what you're using on a daily basis.

Myke Hurley: Yep. No doubt.

Brad Dowdy: I also wrote another article on Pen Addict where I don't do too many year end posts. I do some here and there. I'm not honestly not very consistent about doing that. And I'd like to be a little bit more consistent. But I wanted to do just kind of a wrap up of what I use the most in 2015, what pens I got the most enjoyment out of. So I did my favorite products of 2015 post. And I talked about a few things that were obvious, like my Edison Pearl G10 orange pen was probably the best pen I bought all of last year. So there was no doubt that was going to make it in the list. The Montblanc JFK ink, which I've raved about and fill it up in all kinds of different pens. That's going to make the list. But, you know, I had things like the Blackwing 602. I use the heck out of that pencil. Like it's one of those items where if I don't have it near me, which I've talked about a lot, even if I'm not using it, if I know it's not anywhere near me, I don't like that. I'd rather it be, you know, kind of within arm's reach of in my desk to where I can just grab it. And that's how, you know, like a product is really, really stuck with you. Well, you know, I also love the pen type B. I carry that every day, pretty much. It's got brought me back in love with the high tech C refill, the 0.3 millimeter and the Karis custom ink, which is not really a surprise to me, but it's I'm surprised at how much. I want to use it, you know, I don't want it to go sit uninked and me not have it ready to use. Right. So that's, you know, kind of the kind of the baseline for like these products. Like if I didn't have something, one of these items either inked up or sitting right next to me or loaded up with ink or like the paper I put the Rodia, you know, I'm always scratch padding, doodling and writing reviews and Rodia. If I don't have all of these things like right around me and available at all times, I miss them. And then I want to go get them and ink them up or use them, things like that. So that's how I knew that these were the right products for me. And I probably left some out, but like I just kept thinking, like if I could have one case filled up with all of these things, I'm golden. Like that's all I need. Like that's what kind of felt good about, you know, doing a list like this. It wasn't, you know, 50 products that I loved or things like that. It was what, six, you know, four pens.

Brad Dowdy: Well, three pens, a pencil, a pad and an ink. That's pretty good. That's a pretty good kit, I think. And it feels good. Like I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. It felt like a good usability kit. It gave me a good enough range of things to use. And it's just products I was super, super happy with last year.

Myke Hurley: That's a nice selection. I saw this when it went up. That special orange Edison, though, he's just so mean for putting that in there.

Brad Dowdy: It's totally unfair. And I think I wrote that in the comments. I mean, it's a literal, right now, it's a literal one of one pen. It doesn't mean they're not going to make any more later, but it was a prototype, right? And it's the only one they made. And that plays almost nothing into why I like it so much, right? Yep. It's basically like if I had a pen made for me, this is like what I would dream up. Like this hard G10 material and this bright, bright orange. And in the Edison Pearl shape, which is a Nakaya Piccolo shape. I mean, it just spoke to me like no other pen did. Now, did you have any favorite products of 2015? Not to totally put you on the spot. I kind of think I know what if you like chose a pen, like your favorite pen of the year. I kind of think I know what it might be. But do you have anything like this?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. The Sailor Pro gear. Yeah. That's such a good pen. It's one of my favorite things of the year that I came across. The Colt Pens Mechanical Pencil. Yeah. Is another one. For me, definitely. I think they're the two things that I added to my collection this year that have made me the happiest, have made the biggest impact.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's like the repetitive use. Things kind of, it's like a natural selection thing that happens on your desk, right? You just keep grabbing the same thing over and over again. Then you realize that you don't want to use anything else. Then you realize that, wow, this is a really great product. Yeah. You know, that's kind of how it comes about. And everything else gets pushed to the side. And that's what those products did for me. Now, coming up next year, or I guess we're in this year now, like 2016. Like, we don't have any big, like, thing planned, you know, for the show to talk about, like, our stationary resolutions like we have in the past. But do you have any, like, goals, plans, anything like that for 2016? Is there anything you're looking forward to buying? I mean, obviously, you're looking forward to coming to the Atlanta Pen Show. I know that. But do you have any plans for going forward in 2016 on things you'd like to do in the stationary realm?

Myke Hurley: I have some stuff that I want to maybe talk about next week. Things that I want to do a little bit differently. Yeah. Just with the current stuff that I have.

Myke Hurley: But in regards to, like, stuff that I'm looking for, I don't know. Like, I don't know. Maybe I need to buy less field notes. Yeah. I need to stop buying extras, I think. Sure. I think they – I redid my membership, right, my colors. And I think they screwed up something with the order because they sent me more of the current ones, what are they called?

Brad Dowdy: Snowblind.

Myke Hurley: They sent me more Snowblind.

Brad Dowdy: That's happened to you once before, hadn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. They always send me extra stuff. But now I have more – I have, like, eight packs of Snowblind now.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And so I just need to stop buying extras, I think. I need to stop doing that because it's just building up.

Stationery Usage

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think we can explore that more because I want to touch on this topic too, right? You know, about using what we have and buying what we need and things like that.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I don't, you know, do resolutions or things like that. But – and we've talked about in the past. And I've actually had this, what, two years ago where I want to use my Hobonichi, right? Mm-hmm. I've bought this planner. It's for a specific purpose. And I failed the last time I did it two years ago. I mean, it was a fail. I think I made it two or three months and didn't use it the rest of the year. I'm already using it differently this year. And we can talk about that more later. You know, maybe we'll have a whole segment on how I'm using it this year. But, you know, my life has changed, right, since that time before where I failed using it. But now it's more integral in my day-to-day. So I have it handy more. I'm writing in it more. I'm retroactively using it more. I'm going back and doing things with it on previous days. So I think, you know, that's my primary thing. You know, other than that is, you know, just staying upright. That's the biggest challenge for me right now.

Brad Dowdy: Keeping it going.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Do you think you're going to be able to?

Brad Dowdy: Hobonichi or stay upright?

Myke Hurley: A bit of both.

Brad Dowdy: I'll definitely be able to stay upright. There's no doubt in my mind.

Myke Hurley: Good.

Brad Dowdy: I'm committed. I'm all in. I'm happy. It's what I want to be doing.

Myke Hurley: How's your sleep schedule?

Brad Dowdy: It's great. It's great. I slept from like 11 to 6 or 11 to 7 last night. I can't beat that. Like, you just can't. You know, I'm still figuring out the work schedule thing. Like, it's been a hectic week for me. And most weeks are going to be this way. So, you know, still sorting that kind of stuff out. Like, I took a picture on Instagram this morning. I was like, I haven't touched my desk in days. And, but I just keep, aside from dropping crap off on it, you know, mail that needs to be open. Pins I've received, products to review, business stuff that's piling up. Just because I've been on the road just so much these past few days. So today is the first, my first home day. So I'm trying to get some of that stuff done. So it's figuring that stuff out. But I'm totally going to be able to do it. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind. It's like in my blood now. It's, I mean, it's always been just like the pen stuff has been in my blood. But I just believe in what I'm doing, what we're doing, what the community is doing as a whole, that there's no doubt I'm going to continue to stay upright. Hobonichi, to be determined. But I'm pretty good. I'm pretty confident on that one, too.

Myke Hurley: It's funny how quickly it becomes normal. Like that this is just the life that you lead. Like when you're going full time. It's really strange. But I'm pleased that it's going well for you, man.

Brad Dowdy: There's no doubt it's strange. I have a lot of work to do on getting more familiar with every day than having every day feel strange. Right? That takes a lot of work and a lot of brain power. And that's the stuff I'm still figuring out. And I know it's not good. I'm trying not to let myself feel overwhelmed or feel like I have to force things. Because it's just going to take time. And then, you know, one day it's just going to have clicked and I won't even have known it. Right? And I'm good with that. You know, I just, you know, the one day at a time cliche is the truth. And not letting yourself get just completely overwhelmed. Which I used to do in the past when my schedule was so different. I would get overwhelmed very easily. Now, even though I'm like freaking out, running around like a crazy person. I can still stop and tell myself, you know, more that this is going to be okay. Kind of thing. You know, does that make sense? 100%. Yeah, this turned real. This podcast turned real quick, didn't it? That happens.

Myke Hurley: We're going to be talking about this a lot.

Brad Dowdy: We will be. We will be.

Myke Hurley: But I think that's enough for today.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that's enough today. I'm still upright. And I'm still like super happy with everything so far. And there's a lot of work to be done. And that's good.

Myke Hurley: You should go and check out Pen Addict membership. Go to penaddict.com slash members. Right? It's where they can find out all the information that they're going to want for that. You can find our show notes over at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 187. If you want to find Brad online, of course, go to penaddict.com. And he's at dowdyism on Twitter. D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And penaddict on Instagram. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram and on Twitter. We'll be back next time. Thank you again so much for our sponsors for this week's episode. Squarespace, Harry's, and Pen Chalet. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.