Editing The Pen Addict 517/transcript (section)

== Plotter System Overview ==


'''Brad:''' We're going to audit it down to 100 fountain pens kind of thing.

'''April:''' I think audit is a great word for kaigi. Audit is a great translation for kaigi.

'''April:''' Yeah. If it's in English, it would be a planner audit.

'''Brad:''' Yep. Yep. Exactly. All right. That is unbelievable how you manage all that and get to go back through all the planners. That is definitely something I have to look into. But maybe it is this pen thing that I'm doing that gets me into this whole audit flow that I need to figure out for myself. So I want to talk about a specific planner that you are directly involved in. And I have some questions about a certain brand called Plotter. And I think you might be the right person to ask. But before I do that, I want to tell everyone about our good friends at Squarespace who are sponsoring this episode of The Pen Addict. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. You can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, your services, even the content you create. Squarespace has got you covered. With Squarespace, you can use insights to grow your business. If you ever wondered where your visits and sales are coming from, which channels are most effective, you can analyze all of that in Squarespace. Once you have the data, you can improve your website and build a marketing strategy based on your top keywords or most popular products and content. You can also sell your products on an online store. That's something I do at The Pen Addict. Whether you sell physical or digital products, Squarespace has the tools you need to start selling online. And it's also my preferred blogging platform. Squarespace has powerful blogging tools to share stories, photos, videos, and updates. You'll be able to categorize, share, and schedule your posts to make content work for you. I'm obviously a huge fan. We've been using Squarespace here at The Pen Addict for the longest time, and I appreciate everything that they do. So listeners of The Pen Addict can get a free trial at Squarespace. Head over to squarespace.com slash penaddict. No credit card is required. And if you're ready to launch, if you like what you see and want to continue on, use the offer code penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So head over to squarespace.com slash penaddict. When you decide to sign up, use the offer code penaddict, all one word, to get 10% off your first purchase and to show your support. Thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

'''Brad:''' Tell me how Plotter came into your life.

'''April:''' Plotter. It came unexpectedly. Because I'm not a ring person. I don't want to use the word hate, but I really don't like ring planners. It's different.

'''Brad:''' It's different, right? So just to set the stage for people who don't know, Plotter is, tell us what Plotter is. And then I kind of led you down the secondary question. But for people who don't know, what is a Plotter or what is the brand Plotter?

'''April:''' So yes, Plotter is an analog system that makes daily creative work enjoyable for people. It's a six ring, soon to be five ring, letter ring binder from Japan. So it's a sister company to the other well-known brand, Traveler's Notebook. But Plotter started out five years ago and it's this creative. And in my opinion, very new kind of like ring, planner, journal, notebook experience for people who are looking into an organizer, a scheduler, a diary, a notebook that can make you feel more in control with whatever project. And then inspires your creativity when you are working on them. I love Plotter. And like you asked, how did I get to know Plotter? I didn't. And it all started actually, the origin story is that I interviewed Yuri, who is my boss now at Design Film America. Last year, November? No, sorry, 2020 November, I did a podcast episode for the Stationery Cafe with Yuri about Traveler's Notebook. And so we got to talk a little bit afterwards, like a few times. She was like, oh, she would really love my take about the stationery scene, especially the journaling one. And then that winter, she gifted me a Plotter, an A5 Leashio Leather Plotter as a gift, like a Christmas gift for all the help I've held her with. Like, I don't think they're like true consulting sessions because I was just going off about like, oh, I love this guy.

'''Speaker 02:''' I love the fan addict. I love these people.

'''April:''' You know, I was just doing my usual like stationery talk. But then I got to try it and I was like, wow, this is very, very nice. My first luxury planner journal item, like probably the most expensive I've owned since then. And then the next year, February, she suddenly hit me up and was like, April, do you want to interview for a job at Design Film America? And I'm like, heck yeah. Hook, line and sinker. I'm officially now in the stationery industry working for Design Film America. And one of the first big project actually was not, I didn't actually work on the Traverse Company site at all in that beginning of month. But I was tasked with introducing Plotter to the U.S. market because it's actually a really new brand. Like Plotter is a spinoff from Knox, K-N-O-X, which is another ring leather binder product brand under the Design Film arc in Japan. And it's only like five years old. So very new. But Yuri saw the potential. And I was like, this is going to be something new over here, you know, compared to what's available right now. So an upgrade in many ways in terms of like quality.

'''Brad:''' Yeah.

'''April:''' Not trying to like say bad things about anyone else. But I didn't have any good ring experience, to be honest, like in the past in the U.S. So.

'''Brad:''' Yeah.

'''April:''' So, yeah, I got to kind of learn more about Plotter. I got to like, you know, talk with the director a lot about his vision for Plotter. And then we, I started the job in May. And when we were launching Plotter in September.

'''Speaker 02:''' So four short months to really get it all together. It was the whirlwind of my life, to be honest, my stationary life. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' And fortunately, I got to be part of that. Just kind of the, like the user experience, like the pre-launch user experience program. You know, I was fortunate to, you know, get to take an early look at the Plotter. Everything it could do. Everything it offered. And provide feedback to you and Yuri and the rest of the team who were working on the U.S. launch. And like you said, it's kind of only been its own thing in Japan for like five years, you said. And then bringing it over. That really is a pretty short time frame in the way things go. So how do you think the launch went for y'all in the U.S.?

'''April:''' I think it went great. And it really, like, kudos to everyone who helped me during that beginning month. When we had the supporter program, which you kind of talked about and mentioned. So I felt like the product deserves the feedback for its quality. And it's like the experience itself. Like I've been on the other side of the coin. I have a large following on Instagram for my stationary stuff. So people reach out to me to give me like, hey, would you want to try this product? Do you want to, you know, try this? We'll give it to you for free. And they never follow up with me. Like I literally, like they just want me to show it off on Instagram. That's it. And so I felt like in the end, I started turning down people. I was like, I don't know if I can like commit to like really say good things about this. If I don't like the product and I don't want to waste it by you sending a whole thing to me and not use it. So when we started out with like the promotion program and then also just kind of introducing it to the market. I was like, I need to find people who would really appreciate this, who would really give me good feedback. And, you know, Potter is a lettering binder that we say are for creative work. But it could honestly go beyond artists and designers and go apply to anyone who work in any industry. Because I feel like everyone does creative things every day in their own like job. So I reached out to you and then to a lot of other people like project managers, you know, like a lot of in the architecture firm. Eric Gama, he's like a planner for like planning out like quotations and stuff. So not really super designing, but a lot of math included. So just a variety of people in the community that I know appreciates good things, but also represents a degree of growth in their own career, in their own industry. And I want to like get their feedback on how Potter can help them or be a part of their professional growth and journey. And it really like made me learn a lot of stuff about everyone, to be honest. In each conversation, I got to learn about what people care about when it comes to a work planner or a notebook they use for their professional life work. I got to learn about the nuances of what they do, you know, to get things done, you know, or get things done in an efficient way. And I learned so much and I felt like I did plotter good by like giving it the feedback it deserves. And like you said, it's not new for Japanese company to do this. Right. And I feel strongly about like reflecting back the U.S. market experience because we're right now only doing the U.S. market back to the Japanese people because they could be like very set in like what they expect people you do or use. Especially since Japan is just super mature in terms of like stationary, you know, like they expect people to do use a certain product in a certain way. And that's just how it's always been. But I want the Japan team to know that, hey, we there's a group of people here that cares about stationary, but they may not use it the way you think they use stuff. So it's a thing I'm still trying to like push for design fill. And, you know, I really appreciate the community every day for helping me learn that or letting me lurk in a way. Just kind of like, you know, seeing the different variety of things that catches people's attention and what people truly care about. So, yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, I thought the experience I've never been through an experience like that as far as, you know, just kind of like the preview and how thorough and detailed you and your team were in finding out how I specifically and broader a lot of people use the plotter. And I was impressed like and that's probably selling it short. It was just a master class in like product research. And I was like, it was it was so enjoyable to go through that, even though it may not have been as enjoyable for you because I wasn't always the most responsive was like, Brad, these dates are coming up. And this is what this is, you know, I enjoyed it. You enjoyed chasing Brad through the Internet to get my answers. But no, it was the way it was executed was I'm still thinking about that experience in a positive way. And to have that type of support system behind a product, I just think makes you want to support that product even more. Right. Those that type of work shows in the end results of the product, even though you may not technically be manufacturing the product or or whatever. The type of people who work behind the scenes, I think, really help guide the products as a broader idea. And those types of things translate that attention to detail in, you know, our preview work and, you know, all that initial testing. Those results bear out in the end when it's it's time for launch. And I just thought it was just such a great process. And I hopefully I told you that before. But if not, I'm telling you now that that was a really unique experience. And I took a lot of positive stuff away from that. So how do you think and the team at Plotter, would you do a process like that again for like a full launch or smaller launches? Or was that kind of like, hey, let's get the big launch out of the way and then we'll go from there.

'''April:''' We kind of did it here and there still continuously, even with our gradual launches, because in the beginning, we didn't introduce all the sizes. And so you've seen we had introduced a mini size earlier this year and soon finally the mini five size. And the team back in Japan is still innovating. So they are coming up with new new products all the time. And I feel like it's a matter of like, yeah, really wanting to make sure each release gets the attention it deserves. So I do like while balancing work at Traverse Company and Plotter, I do try to do more of these research experiments. And I'm super excited about the pen shows that's coming up because we are really trying to get the director, Plotter, to be able to come here and visit and like see everyone at the San Francisco pen show. The only hindrance is obviously COVID. So we don't know. That's like the only thing that's kind of keeping the plans from being nailed down. But when he comes, I think it would be a really cool kind of moment or experience for people to really meet him because he's like this super passionate guy about his work. He's the one who went to Italy and sourced the leather. He's the one who comes up with the design. The whole idea about, you know, downsizing to make your work more efficient because, you know, Plotter is a ring binder, but it uses these mini rings, right? So instead of the usual conception of ring planners as like the all-in-one, it's more of all you need, you know, like you really can move things in and out. And he promotes the cycle of like using the ring planner as a cycle of ideas where you are free to put it down anytime, but then also free to remove them and bank them for when it comes to fruition, like maybe a few months later. And the Plotter, the product of his genius, like is that, is that it's a slim, elegant leather product solution that grows with your growth. And then at the same time helps elevate your daily work and keeps your ideas like always fresh and exciting. So I'm super excited. And I have not met him in person as well. So I'm like, I want him to see the people that really likes his product here in the U.S. I want him to like share his methods. And we may or may not have some fun customization event if he does come to the San Francisco pen show. So it's going to be great. It's going to be the next kind of like step in the Plotter growth in the U.S., I think. So, yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. And I'm thinking about it from a product that I use and how I can use it better and what would work for me. And I'm thinking, I've been thinking about in San Francisco and seeing you there and picking up one of the smaller size plotters, either the Bible size or the mini. Nice. Because I would like a very, I think what I would benefit most is having some of the portability from it as opposed to, say, like a traditional A5 size, which I think, you know, would work better in a different situation.

'''April:''' Yeah.

'''Brad:''' I think I would get a lot more day-to-day usefulness. So I'm going to look at that in San Francisco. Anything else I should be, you know, keeping my eyes peeled for in San Francisco?

'''April:''' Even though I said it's been like five years, it kind of like started towards the end of, I think, 2017. So we're hitting our official fifth year anniversary soon. So we may or may not have some cool stuff to preview during the San Francisco pen show for our fifth year anniversary for Plotter.

'''Brad:''' Nice.

'''April:''' And they were originally going to just do in Japan, but I was like, the global market deserves it too. Like the U.S. market wants it too. Specifically me. I want it.

'''Brad:''' Right.

'''April:''' So we're bringing it to the pen show.

'''Brad:''' I like that someone, you know, within the walls has our back. You know, thank you for having our back.

'''Speaker 02:''' I advocate for stuff that I, to be honest, that I want. So, yeah.