Editing The Pen Addict 676/transcript (section)

== Memo Pad Discussion and Listener Question ==

* Let's move on. So shout out David for wrecking the show right from the jump. But this was an important question. Like, like, that's why I put it in here. It's like, Hey, I want to tell you about the best memo pad. I'm like, well, yeah, we already talked about it, but no one knows what to call it. I don't know if there's a sticky pad in this Kickstarter, Myke, but I had a friend send this to me and I'm kind of interested in what's happening here. So this, it's called the Bell and Union, the ephemeria collection, which I don't like. Ephemeria is, is not a word. I don't like it. I mean, that is literally how the Kickstarter campaign begins. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ephemera. That's a hard word to say. Yeah. But it's ephemeria, Myke. So anyway. This to me is like, it's like such a Kickstarter branding. You know what I mean? Or it's like. Yes. Like, I mean, I don't mean this, but this looks like a great like idea for a sexual products. The design is really nice. I'm not sure how much thought went into it for ephemeria to be your, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? Yeah, I did. Well, to, to your point, I didn't even notice that name until today. And I've been looking at this for like two days. Well, because when you actually just glance at it, it says ephemera. Like, that's what it says to your mind, but it's not actually what they're calling it. They describe in the, in the campaign that it's a coined word, right? Yeah, yeah. Like they're making this up. I just don't think it's a very good one. Like, I mean, I don't, you know, it's not. It's a portmanteau of ephemera and nostalgia, like you're saying. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Sure. Anyway, I didn't even notice that until today. So, uh, yeah, the, the paper names are confusing this week, but I like, this throws me back. This is like a, not quite an OG type of Kickstarter because this is actually a shop, right? Uh, I believe in Texas. I want to say Austin or San Antonio. Yeah. Um, uh, Bell and Union, but they're going, they're going to Kickstarter to launch like a stationery collection. An own brand, like an own brand stationery stuff. Which I think is pretty sick. Like I haven't, I mean, there's lots of different ways to do Kickstarters and we've done, you know, things to help us support travel, you know, at knock, we've done things to help us product launch. And I think this is like that product launch one where it looks like a lot of like design elements have gone into this. And like, it's a real station made and some stuff is just like, this is what we want it to look like kind of thing. Yeah. It's a combo. And it's a real cohesive kit. That's like large, right? Like I want, I want the labels. I want the adhesive labels. Like that's what I want. Like I, the notebook, I'm sure the notebook's great and fine. I want the adhesive labels. Cause I like that kind of vintage looking stationery. This is like a vintage looking stationery thing. Yeah. We've done a bad job explaining this so far. So it's essentially a line of stationery, like across the board from notebooks to letter writing kits to pads, like a whole, a whole brand essentially that would be, I'm assuming sold in the Bell and Union store or probably on their website. And at the moment they have like a lot of designs and they have some ideas and they've got a lot of like little tweaks and like nice details. It's kind of got like the letter writing kits have a fun motel kind of vibe, right? Like there's a bunch of different ones and you can imagine they're all different places somewhere. And then there are a bunch of like, as Brad said, like sticky labels that you would write on that look like kind of plates, like, like a label plates that you would stick on the front of a journal or inside of a book and write somebody's name on it or whatever. Yeah. Like classic, like from the 60s, 70s, you see a lot of those being used in books and notebooks and things like that. So anyway, I thought this was an interesting use of Kickstarter was kind of really why I wanted to bring this up. It's like right up my alley and then it's not in a traditional stationery, but the mix of traditional stationery and Kickstarter, I don't see very much. Right. So I thought this was an interesting one to share with people who might be interested. I'm going to back this. I'm, I'm waiting till I get back to DC. It's just, it's just kind of started and it's got like, yeah, three and a half more weeks to go. So when I get back, I'm going to figure out which like reward level I'm going to back, but I want to support this because I think it looks pretty cool. So there's all kinds of levels from like, you know, like the $20 note taker level up to, you know, some like really like deep, all the things level. So pretty cool. Pretty cool stuff. It reminds me a lot of the NotCo Kickstarter. Yeah, that was a mistake. No, no. I don't know why you would say that. Well, it was a, it was a like, hey, this is our first time and it went spectacularly well. And then it was like, oh my God. Well, that's every, that's every, every first Kickstarter that succeeds. There is some element of that. But I just mean the like, we have an idea for an entire product line and you can help plus kickstart that, like the whole point of Kickstarter. Like this is, this is what it's for. But then you learn very quickly as all people that have Kickstarter campaigns for the first time, the kind of mess you've landed yourself in once it's been successfully funded because you're just inevitably, it's like, you know, if you ever hear us talk about like, oh, you know, we're making a thing and it's taking longer than expected. Imagine that when there's like tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars already in your, like burning a hole in your bank account. Like I was talking to someone about this yesterday for an episode of Cortex that will be coming out soon. I spoke to, I'll spoil it here because why not? Simone Yet, who she's a YouTuber and she has a company called Yetch Studio. Yeah. It's like, and she had a very successful Kickstarter that started her business. And the, I don't know why I'm supporting the content of the show. You have to go, you have to promise you to go listen to it when it comes out. We promise, Myke. That like, when you're trying to develop something and you're not sure if it's working, the problem is you're spending the money you've already been given. That is not how it usually works if you're not doing Kickstarter. Yes. So if you're just putting in the profits or the revenue of your company that exists, right? You are betting your own money on this. It just ticks along. But if, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, right? But with Kickstarter, that's someone's money that you have. Already. And that's ticking away and you still have to deliver them a product. Because like people like to believe, and I understand it. People like to believe that like if the product fails, they'll get their money back. But it's like, no, the money's gone. Like the reason, like while this was getting delayed, that money was being spent on whatever it ended up delaying the product. This is why I'm terrified of Kickstarter, by the way. Like that. Yeah. I couldn't live with that. I think I would make that. I think that would make it really, really hard for me to run a business. Yeah. Small, self-defined, small-defined, you know, low-volume Kickstarter is the way to go. Singular product launch. Yeah. Or something that like, you know, that you are very sure you can do, right? Like even though I don't like it, I do appreciate to a degree like companies that are established that are on Kickstarter because they've already done the hard work. Yeah. Even though I don't particularly like people using Kickstarter as a marketing tool. But. Yeah. It's like I, it's like yes to both, right? Like I feel like that's a very yes to both. It's like, oh, well, this is your 13th Kickstarter. Yeah. And, but at the same time, I can get a little bit of a discount and I know you're probably going to deliver, to deliver based on previous campaigns. So yeah, I'm good either way. And for reasons that I'll never fully understand, people pay attention to Kickstarters in a way that they don't just like product launches. Well, it's funny. We've totally digressed here, but I'm going to keep going. Enso is one of, you know, the really, really good Kickstarter brands. And I don't think anyone thinks of Enso, at least this is just a perception thing for me, is I'm going to go to the Enso store and buy the Enso pen. It's like, I'm going to get the Enso pen from Kickstarter is kind of how I feel. And there's, they always have, you know, they'll always continue to sell their, their pens and products and, you know, full disclosure, they've sponsored me and they've sponsored the, they probably sponsored the podcast before, um, plenty of times, but like every product they release goes through Kickstarter. Right. And then it appears on the site. And I don't know any time that I've ever gone to Enso to buy the pen. I've bought it always from the Kickstarter. So it's interesting. There's lots of ways to do it and do it well. Do you think Lamy should start, should start Kickstarters, Myke? I don't know. Maybe it would give you the opportunity to leave some mean comments. I'm not sure. We have a new AL star, a special edition, and I am just flummoxed with this whole deal. So dark dusk and sage appeared, uh, magically. I'm doing like the hand motions, uh, in the last few days on the internet. They're straight up. They look fantastic. Right. I think they look great. And now I'm wondering how many years in a row, and I didn't have time to go back and look. How many years of a, in a row have we had a mid year, uh, special edition release? They started doing this with the Safari a few years ago. I know the all-star has done it at least a couple of years. And it's just so funny to me. I get overly hyped for the beginning of the year release because I know it's coming in like late February, early March. Like every year, what is the new Safari going to be? What is the new all-star going to be? And then usually around like summertime and fall, they'll do another special edition, which why does that fall flatter to me than the first ones of the year? Maybe it's because I'm not tired of using the first ones, like the ones that begin with. Uh, maybe it's because usually the ones at the beginning of the year tend to be better for some random reason. Maybe they have an A team and a B team and you really like the B team. Yeah. Is this the, uh, this is the RB Cash App pin? Yes. And the earlier ones are the Red Bull, the official Red Bull pin.