Editing The Pen Addict 116/transcript (section)

== Pen Chalet Sponsor ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Something that I'm also really happy about is our first sponsor for this week's episode. I'm really, really happy that the Pen Chalet is back on the new iteration of the Pen Addict podcast. The Pen Chalet are a fantastic company that sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they feature all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Sailor, Caveco, and Namiki. And they are, of course, authorized dealers of all of them. Pen Chalet are known for their very fast and reliable customer service. And I found this from my own orders. And I know that Brad's sound the same and loads of you guys that have ordered from them have found exactly the same sort of thing. They are really great with their help if you have any questions. And they just ship things out super fast. But I think everybody's favorite thing about the Pen Chalet is their special discounts that they do. And they run special discounts twice a month and they have closeout specials every two weeks. They're always adding new styles of pens all the time. Every single month there's new different pens and all this fantastic stuff going up on PenChalet.com. As well as all the brands that I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens and all the accessories that you're going to need. Like carrying cases, refills, pen holders, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They do free shipping on orders over $50 in the continental United States. And they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. And don't forget that the exchange rate is in your favor. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Now guys, you know what to do now. Go to PenChalet.com and use the code PenAddict at checkout to get 10% off your order. But what you should be doing is clicking the podcast link at the top of the website and entering the password PenAddict. It's going to give you a bunch of awesome special deals that they do. It's also going to get you a 10% off if you use the code as well at checkout. But we have another fantastic one-time special offer this week. People will remember that we did the part. Brad, help me with the name, please.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We've done two for us so far. We did the – well, no, one we just kind of – We did our own the Pelican M205. We monopolized our own. And then that went so well for them, they decided to do some special editions. And we did the pilot, the Namiki Falcon. That's it. The Flexnip Pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And so continuing that theme, tell them what special hotness we get this time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this is only available to listeners of the Pen Addict. So you guys are in the special club. You can get your hands on a black Lamy 2000 fountain pen at a huge discount. So you want to go to penshalet.com, click the podcast button at the top of the page, and use the code penaddict, all one word. That way you're going to go through to the special page, and you're going to see the Lamy 2000 available for a huge 30% off. And what's even more incredible than that is you can still then use the code penaddict at checkout to get another 10% off. This brings your total savings – you've been counting along, of course – to 40%. So the final cost is at $125.37 with free shipping in the US.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's pretty nuts for a Lamy 2000, which is an awesome pen. It feels unlike any other pen in the hand. It's got this special Macrelon fiberglass barrel that is just crazy. And not to mention, it's one of the best-looking pens on the planet. It's highly recommended by me. I know Jeff Abbott, who writes for me at the Pen Addict, he just reviewed his last week. And, you know, both of us have had some experience. The Lamy 2000, not only is it famous for its looks and its feel, but it's also a little bit famous because the nibs can be a little bit wonky just from a – I don't know, not a not-writing perspective. But they're a little – I don't know. Both Jeff and I came up with the term sticky. They – the nib might need a little adjustment. It might come out perfect. But the price you're getting this pen for, you can definitely get a nibmeister to look at, which, you know, is worth it on its own. You know, Jeff and I have both done that with our Lamy 2000s in there. We're better off for it. But we certainly didn't get the Lamy 2000 up front at as good a price as this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this is an order that I'm going to be placing myself very shortly because I've had my eye on one of these for a long time. It's been on my list. I love Lamy pens. I just love them. I think they're fantastic. And I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. Now, as we look back at some of the previous sales that we've done with the awesome pen chalet, we know these are going to go fast. So you want to act quickly to get your order in. However, pen chalet have confirmed to us that if they sell out, which I'm sure that they will, they will order in as many as they can to fulfill all the orders. So even if they sell out, you should be able to – they should be able to replenish their stock in about a week. So there might just be a slight delay. So penchalet.com. Use the code penaddict. When you click the podcast button at the top, you're going to be able to get your hands on, as well as all their other fantastic discounts and deals that they do for us, and that 10%, you're going to be able to get your hands on a Lamy 2000 in black for an incredible 40% off with free shipping. Thank you so much to pen chalet for their support of the penaddict podcast and the newly formed RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, thank you so much, pen chalet. We really, really appreciate it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So we were talking about focus, and I made my little comment. Yeah, I have something to – a focus topic, and that's related to NotCo. And it's a blog post we did last week on some changes that we're making. But I don't guess they really affect anyone, but it was just more that we wanted to make a post just for clarity's sake because we – as we've started this business, Jeff and I are both new entrepreneurs, new businessmen, and trying to decide on what we want to do for Nock. And we always thought we wanted to carry other products aside from our cases and aside from our paper products that we're making and creating to complement those. And we have done that with our friends Dan at Karis Customs and Myke at Dudek Modern Goods. And we've had those collaborations. And then on top of that, we started stocking TWSBI pens and Organic Studio inks. And what we found is it's causing a little bit of a distraction from what our main focus needs to be, which is actually the manufacturing of our case products and our paper products and collaborating with other makers to make unique products. So right now we're going to stop carrying TWSBI and Organic Studios. And obviously nothing wrong with those two brands. They're really, really great, and I use them and love those products. But it's just kind of not a fit for us right now. It's not what we're trying to do. We want to collaborate on cool pens with Karis Customs and make something unique for us. We don't want to be another retailer just carrying everyone's stock items and just a whole lineup of that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Plus it's taken away from our ability to make and design and create cool new case and paper products, which is what we really, really want to focus on. So that's just something we wanted to throw out there and just kind of be transparent with everyone on what we're doing. So I don't know. I just thought it was worth a little bit of a short little post, just kind of a clarification thing. So we'll still be obviously making cases and paper. We're still working with other companies making collaborative pens and other products like the IdeaDoc, which is just back in stock from Dudek Modern Goods. And those kind of things are going to continue. But stock items we're going to hold off on for now, if not forever. So I hope that makes sense.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So basically, if I'm following this correctly, if you guys haven't got some sort of say in the creation of the product, you won't be stocking it anymore. Yeah. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. That's good. You guys are more than just a reseller. Like, you know, you are more than that. Like, there has to be something special about a product. Or like, I don't know, if you were like, if you had some sort of product that only came from Nock. Right. You know, someone else makes it, but Nock is the people you get it from. Like, that, again, feels like something different. But just to be another place that sells Twisbees or another place that sells organic ink, like, it doesn't feel special enough for what you guys do, I think. Exactly. So I think that that's a good, a really, really good thing to do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I think you've said it better than me. Plus, I mean, honestly, we're busy as all get out. We need to make cases. It's good. We're trying to hire some people right now to come help us, help us sow. I mean, we definitely have enough work for making cases on its own. So, yeah, we're going to work on ramping that up. So, yeah, I think it's going to be good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, sir. So we're continuing on after our hiatus. We've got a pen blog of the week, and it's not exactly a pen blog, but it's from one of our pen blogger friends. Mr. Ian Headley created a new pen search engine at peniquad.net. So have you had a chance to check this out, Myke? I know. So what Ian did, and Ian writes pen, paper, pencils is his blog. And he just created a webpage with a Google custom search back in that just searches pen sites who want to be included in this list. And he's got 50-something sites in there now, which is awesome. So you go to peniquad.net. You type in, I don't know, whatever pen you're looking for, Pelican M205. And it gives you just results from pen blogs. So you can avoid all the Google, like if you type in Pelican M205, you're going to get Amazon and JetPens and vendors selling the pen. So this is just for reviews and information. So I thought he did a good job here. And it's looking good. So everyone check that out. The implementation has been pretty good so far. And I'm definitely seeing some traffic from it. So that's good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm going to be using it all the time for this show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's great. It's just, it's real easy. It's real tight, real simple. Yeah, and it's great. He's done a good job implementing this. So good job, Ian. And everyone check it out for sure. Now, one other, not necessarily pen blog of the week, but pen blog feature.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We have this very interesting crossword puzzle from Chris Gottlieb, who is a big reader and fan. He's been, I've talked to him on email, Twitter forever, and he made a cryptic crossword for pen addicts. And he did this to coincide with the relaunch of the show. So this will be in the show notes. You can go check out this crossword puzzle he made. And he's going to give a prize for the right answers for when you, for you submitted in for the most, most right answers. If you get all of these answers right, you're like a hero because this is really hard.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I take a look at it and I have like no idea about any of them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Chris and I talked about it and even I'm going through it like I have no idea. And he's just laughing. He's like, yeah, I know. It's pretty tough. But he worked hard. Do you know how hard it's got to be to make a crossword puzzle?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I have no idea.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can't imagine. So this is something I need to spend time on and like sit down and figure it out. But he made a good, what do you call it? Description of it. Where did he say it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Man, I'm blanking. But basically he was saying these are all like pen terms, pen vendors, pen nibmeisters. It's just all comes from the whole world of pen, pendom, if you will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All the answers relate to pen parts, brands, personalities, stores on nibmeisters. So have a go. I like that his description right at the top is at the intersection of two very boring hobbies.