Editing The Pen Addict 252/transcript (section)

== Pencil of the Month ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I want to, I want to change the, change the course a little bit and talk about a couple of things you've done just as a whole, as the shop. Like when you started, I thought it was a very cool thing. You did a pencil of the month club and that went really, really well. And I know you enjoyed putting that together and then that stopped. And I'm sure you got some interesting emails about that. And recently, I guess this year you started up a new type of subscription. You're doing a quarterly subscription, pencil subscription, where you're kind of putting together an entire set. Sometimes I guess around a theme. So tell us how like the pencil of the month worked, why it went away. And then kind of, I think what it's morphed into now.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah. Pencil of the month was, I think something that was, I don't know, it was something that I'd wanted to do from the beginning. It was something that I thought was really important to do. And it was a subscription where every single month at the beginning of the month, we'd send you like a little box and inside the box, there would be an insert with information about the pencil that was in the box. And then there would be a pencil that was always a pencil that we did not already sell. That was important that it was something that would be like totally new for most of the people who shop with us. And it was fun. There was a lot of packaging involved because we'd like wrap the pencils in tissue paper and we'd like pick out a different washi tape each month and a different colored box and different twine. And it was a, it was very tedious. And then I made the mistake of talking about it in a couple of magazines. And then like out of nowhere, we were like, we looked at our numbers and we had like over 800 subscribers.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh my gosh.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Which is a lot for a tiny shop. At the time, like Caitlin was, I don't even know if Caitlin was, well, yeah, Caitlin would have just become full time. And we had like two people who worked a couple of days a week and it was, it was, it just became to be too much. Like we couldn't do that. I needed to hire somebody to do that like full time to keep up with it. And so we made the really hard decision to kind of just like stop it and just phase everybody out. And we got a lot of emails about it. A lot of emails. People were very mad at me for this, but I told them all like, we will do this someday in the future. I cannot tell you when, but it will happen again in a different format, but we just like cannot do this anymore without going crazy. There was one day like December, the first year when the, when we first started having like crazy numbers and the pencils didn't show up on the day that we needed to do it. On a Monday when the shop was closed, the pencils weren't here and like nothing was happening right. And we were in the shop just like surrounded by boxes and like it was, it was a nightmare. It was horrible. We were there until like 2am fulfilling pencils a month subscriptions. And at one point, one of the girls was like, wait, is that Jonah Hill? And we all looked up and Jonah Hill was standing at the bottom of our stoop, just like watching us in the shop, just like surrounded by bubble mailers. At like probably like midnight. It was, it was bad, but.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One day that is going to find its way into a movie, right? Like just this scene of like three or four ladies putting individual pencils into envelopes, right? Like that's going to appear one day.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' I don't know where that came from. Yeah, totally. But yeah, that was kind of like a really, a really terrible moment. That was around the time when we were like, we cannot do this anymore.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Was part of the problem that is because it was a single pencil?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Um, I don't know. People liked that it was a single pencil, um, that it was just like very simple, but I don't know for us, because it was a single pencil. We felt like we had to overcompensate by like making, by like making it feel like really extra special. Sure. Um, and it also was hard for me to find pencils every month. It was a lot of work to like come up with something interesting and relevant and exciting, like stuff that people would actually want. We had to be careful that we weren't like repeating brands all the time, that we weren't repeating like types. Um, so it required a lot of organization. Um, and so just recently in March, we shipped our first box. We started doing a quarterly subscription called the pencil box and, um, each box is themed like most subscription boxes are. And, um, we include like a few pencils, a couple of accessories, like maybe like, like wild card kind of novelty thing. And the first box was called the classics box, um, which you guys talked about. So a lot of you probably already know what it's about. The next box is so much fun. I just, just finished buying everything today, actually. And I'm very excited about it. They're just going to keep getting better. I can promise.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, I can't wait.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah. But it's been a lot of fun and it's a lot easier and it gives us more time to like really think about the things we're putting into it. And we've cut back on the packaging a lot this time, like with the, it's not as tedious of a process. Um, but even so, like we decided this time we were actually going to like make a, like, I guess like make a limit and we sold out like in a week with the first round and we're slowly like introducing more as we feel more comfortable with it. But we're definitely doing it so that we have a little bit more control this time around.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So one thing you mentioned this a couple of times and the, you know, I don't want to say tedious, but you, you use the word and I know you like really care about the aesthetic of the package and just like the joy someone on the other end is going to receive when they get this box in the mail and the yellow envelope and the, the black and white twine. So tell us, tell me something about that, how that came about and like how important is that to you specifically as part of just the entire experience?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' I think that's really, really crucial. That's like one of the most important things to me is, um, the, is the packaging because I, I think that we sell really special things and I want people to feel like they are receiving something that is cared about and something that is really special, even if it is a 25 cent pencil and, um, wrapping it in an envelope and tying it up between like those like very small extra steps that really don't cost us a ton of extra money or time. Um, I think just make a really big difference. We handwrite the notes that go into our online orders and we, we get so many emails every week from people who are like, wow, I can tell that an actual human packed my order and, um, people get really excited about it. Are people in the shop when they don't realize that we go through all this extra effort? Just think it's like the coolest thing, but, um, super cool. I set the bar pretty high for us though, which may have been a bad idea because now there are a lot of expectations. You definitely did that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You definitely did. And I will hold you to that. You set the bar very high, but that's why we love you and the CW pencils enterprises so much because we know like, that's why your subscription sells out in like a minute because we know what's going into it and it's not the products. It's the people behind it. And our faith is in you and your staff. And that's part of it, you know, like we get it, you know, and I think a lot of your customers feel the same way. So now we have a lot more to get to. We have a book to talk about. I want to know about some of your personal likes and dislikes and pencils, but now I'm going to ask you the hardest question, um, of this, uh, this hard hitting interview. Um, what's next for the shop? What's the future hold? Is there a second shop? Is there more, you know, online presence, bigger and better? What's, what's the future holding right now for CW pencils?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' That is quite the question. Um, I, I, I'm hoping that in, at least in the next couple of years, I want to start doing more of our own products. We've done a couple of collaborations. Now we've started designing products and having other people manufacture them, which is really, really exciting. Um, that's for me personally, in my role in this business, that's the thing that I'm most interested in. Um, Caitlin's doing a lot of work to, um, expand and improve our online presence. Um, yeah, we're always, we've been making a lot of like small web improvements lately. Um, I don't think we're going to open another store anytime soon. Um, I'm really scared of that, to be honest. Um, running one store is a lot of work, especially with like the level of integrity that I expect. And, um, I just think it would be really, really hard to replicate. I get, I get offers to franchise this place all the time and I like just can't, I just can't, I'm not ready for that. Maybe someday I'll open another shop. I'd have to be careful about where I put it. Um, because I think this type of shop, I mean, we wouldn't be, we wouldn't be selling high enough volume to be able to sustain it. And a lot in most places, I'd have to be very strategic about where I put it, but, um, maybe one day, but not now. Definitely not now. Um, I'm really happy with my one tiny shop and maybe by only having one of them that just makes it extra special. Um, but yeah, we're looking forward to lots of new products. We have a lot of ideas, so many ideas, but, um, I don't know. It's all of this happened so fast within two years, everything that I could have ever dreamed about for like 10 years of this business already happened, just kind of like organically. So I feel like I'm only just now catching my breath. Um, I only just now feel like I can take a weekend off and not feel guilty about it. So I think we're just going to like chill out for like the next six months and then maybe start like rolling out some new products. That's my, that's what I hope for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I like it. I like it. I think that's perfect. And yeah, it has gone by so fast. Yeah. I'm sure you're just still like running every day and, you know, hopefully that doesn't stop anytime soon. And I don't see any reason why it would. And, uh, adding anything else into the mix would just add to the craziness. You know, I think y'all are doing just awesome. All right. So Myke, let's talk about one of our good friends at Pen Chalet. Then I have a lot more I want to get into about, um, some of these products that they're making and a little book that Caroline wrote.