Editing The Pen Addict 451/transcript (section)

== Betty's YouTube Channel ==


'''Myke:''' No, so I'll put a link in the show notes as well to like the, a short video that Gray made promoting the journal, which was one of the reasons that we sold out so fast last time because it went up on Gray's YouTube channel. And Gray's use of the journal is broken down into a couple of different categories. So he writes in the first two boxes, box one is what he is personally grateful for that day. Box two is what he is professionally grateful for that day. The larger box is what's on his mind, which I co-opted that as well to change mine at the start of the year, which I just call thinking now. And then the smaller box at the bottom is like of all of the tasks that day, what is the most important task to do? And he does his journaling in the morning as well, which is not what I do. And then relates to it back at the end of the day as well to maybe to add more in or to tick off the task when it's completed.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So I like that. I'm going to think about that more and see if maybe that's a different type of integration for me.

'''Myke:''' And Betty uses some, some of that in her system. Again, like it's like everybody has always starts with something and then adapts it a little bit. Yeah. But the great, like the gratitude stuff from box one and box two has come from Grace Up.

'''Brad:''' So the second thing I took from the video is that Betty uses the Uniball vision and we have had to have a talk behind the scenes.

'''Brad:''' So she will be receiving very shortly a Retro 51 from me, a very cool Shiba, pastel Shiba edition. You know, nothing wrong with the Uniball vision. As she explained to me, she gets them, she gets them free from work and I'm like, hey, that's like the 99th percentile level pen for like an office, for an office pen to be stocked with the vision. That's like night, you're in the 99th percentile of good office supplies. But, you know, as I told her, I said a lot of people love the vision. I just personally don't like the vision whatsoever because it's very like wet and bleedy and like it's just not my favorite pen. So I was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to send me your address. I'm going to send you something. So we had a good laugh about that behind the scenes. But I get it. Changing the world one person at a time, Brad. You got to do it, man. You got to do the thing. And once I saw that, I was like, okay, like Betty, let's talk and let's get this done. So I'll be sending her, I'll be sending her a Retro 51 here pretty soon. We'll see. And she may hate it. Like, that's cool. Yeah. Like, I just want to try, like, let's, let's try, let's try this thing. And you may hate it. Yeah. You may totally hate it. And like, that is completely cool if you don't like the thing and you prefer yours. But I at least want to show some options out there. So yeah, we are, we are definitely talking.

'''Myke:''' I'm in a weird moment with the journal.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. You've been talking to me. Can I get a kilo, a shipping weight update? Oh,

'''Myke:''' it was another one and a half tons.

'''Brad:''' Those are my favorite things from you. It's like, okay, the weight of this shipment

'''Myke:''' is one and a half tons. Yeah. We, we, we deal in like amounts that I can't properly comprehend. You know, it's like, oh no, it's like a full truck now. It's like a, you know, okay, great. So the journals are done. They're, they're sitting in Cotton Bureau right now. So we have achieved something that has up until this point been impossible to deliver a product on time, which we've never done that before. We've always had timelines. Like I would love to get it arrived by this time. How about six months later? So, you know, we wanted to have them available in March because then people will be ready for April, right? Which is, you know, if you've got a book that can be quarterly, that's exactly what you need.

'''Myke:''' So in theory, they're ready. We had to put them on sale, but we're now, we're now looking at the VAT restrictions. So, yay government. Our friends at Cotton Bureau are going through the hoops to get the ability to charge VAT for UK sales and I believe all of Europe sales up front.

'''Myke:''' Yeah,

'''Brad:''' so we touched on this, you know, a month or two ago with the shipping changes that just honestly came out of the blue, sort of.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, no, it was out of the blue because it couldn't be decided until some of the Brexit stuff was decided. So it was like, okay, it's 1st of January, here's the new stuff. So, but now it's like, effectively, we're waiting now for a government body to provide them with what they need. Cotton Bureau's ready, they just need to be able to have the VAT numbers and stuff.

'''Brad:''' Right, there's registration and government's

'''Myke:''' bureaucracy involved. in this point of like, okay, I don't want to hold them all because of just the United Kingdom. Right? So we're now kind of, it's like, I just sent them an email before the show began and I was like, so here's what I want. I want these journals to be landing on people's doorsteps before the end of March. Right? Right. So we just need to set a date that we're going to put them on sale and when they get their UK stuff in, they can put that in and anybody that buys from the UK beforehand, I guess it would do just like the first time where we just cross our fingers and hope that they arrive and I know as somebody who lives in the United Kingdom, that's happening. Stuff's just arriving. Right? So, really, I think we're just going to have to probably roll the dice roll the dice of it a little bit and just put them on sale. But it will be great though because now, one of the biggest complaints that we get is just, oh, I got hit by this customs thing. Right? But now, you'll see what it's going to cost you up front so you can decide. Right? And in theory, you should, people won't be paying, I would assume, no one's going to pay handling fees anymore with their customs agencies because it won't be put through customs. So, Right.

'''Brad:''' Custom customs.

'''Myke:''' Right? I'm expecting, you'll just see, it's going to cost you like $20 or whatever it's going to be and that includes shipping and your taxes and that's that. Right? And so, my expectation is it's going to make the customer experience better going forward. But now, we're just in this weird point. And really, my feeling is we're just going to get to some point here over the next week or so and we're just going to have to put them on sale. Yep. I don't want to hold up the entire world of customers just for the United Kingdom.

'''Brad:''' You can retroactively bookkeep this stuff. It's just a P-I-T-A. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' And I know that Cotton Bureau will work with me on that and we'll just get it done. But yeah, that's kind of the state of it right now which is that they're done and they're sitting in a warehouse and we're just waiting to start selling them.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Well, that's good. That's good. I mean, you're most of the way there. But it's always something. It's always going to be something. Yeah, yeah. It's just frustrating. It's like, can I stop being frustrated? I did the thing this time, Mom. It was awesome. It was like, yeah, but... Not to mention

'''Myke:''' the fact that there was like a brand new issue at Customs we've never experienced before. Good times. It's always something. This is how I am submitting to the fact that this is my life now. Right? Yes. Right. And so the sooner that I come to accept that the better for me and my frustration levels. You know, I just, this is just part of who I am now as a person that gets annoyed about how hard it is to move physical products around the world.

'''Brad:''' Welcome.

'''Myke:''' Yeah.

'''Brad:''' All right. What we are as well, Myke, is where the Ask TPA answers. Our hockey friends haven't gotten in on the game. I think they might have given up. I haven't checked in a couple days. I am really anxiously awaiting ! I'm waiting these hockey questions, but until then, we just have pen questions to cover.

'''Myke:''' R. Windlel asks, is it possible to organize a letter writing campaign to ban corporations to the collective will of pen addicts? We could petition Lamy for a Lamy 2000 and other colors. We could get an M90 resurrection from Pilot, maybe even a piston filler for Cafeco.

'''Brad:''' So, that short answer is no.