Editing The Pen Addict 548/transcript (section)

== Cortex Brand's Sidekick Notepad Launch ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' It's soft launch season. The next product from Cortex brand is now available. It's called Sidekick Notepad. This is the first podcast I'm talking about it on. Oh, nice. But I felt like this is something Pen Addict listeners would like to hear about. I want to say I'm in soft launch season. We're kind of announcing it on the Cortex podcast in February. But this product has been in development for so long and has actually been sitting at Cotton Bureau since November. It got to the point where me and Gray were completely sick of the fact that it wasn't available for sale and decided to put it on sale. And it has actually been very helpful for me so far in kind of like building the story of the product in a way to be able to explain it to potential customers. You know, like in what imagery we show and trying to explain how to use it, what it is and how it works. And so also today is like my first crack at trying to explain the Sidekick Notepad to people in audio form. It is a desk pad. Like it is a landscape style desk pad with perforated pages. It has 60 pages of Munk and Lynx 100 GSM. So it's the same paper we use in the theme system journal, but slightly thicker. It is made by hand in London, England, which I am immensely proud of. We found a supplier in London. I have spent a lot of time at their manufacturing facility over the last year that we've been working on the product. It has been in development for since June of 2021 is when we started work on this project. And it was in manufacturing on and off for about a year because we had a lot of stuff we needed to work out to make it work the way we wanted it to work.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to come back to that part in a moment, the manufacturing part, because I just think that you would find some of this fascinating too. It is the way that the notepad is separated. It's about two thirds dot grid and then one third, maybe like more like a quarter really of a to-do list. So similar to the journal, it's got the little circles of the lines through and boxes next to them. The idea for this notepad is that it's kind of serves two purposes. The one that I use it in the most is I have it sitting in between me and my keyboard. We measured it out in such a way that I think is a very comfortable for a lot of people, for most people. We measured it on people of all sizes to see that this was like a good size, a good depth to put your keyboard behind. It's 18 centimeters by 30 centimeters. We also kind of molded it around about the width of a 13 inch MacBook. It was like that's the kind of width that we wanted. It's a little smaller than that because it just didn't want to match up completely. Basically, the what else can I say? The the cover of the notepad flips over and around the back. So you get this kind of spine across the top and it goes around to the back because really this notepad is supposed to remain open on your desk like that is its ideal form. So you open it and leave it in front of you to take notes whenever you want. And the other place that it is perfect is for meetings. So one of the ideas for this product in my mind is whenever I go to a meeting, I don't like to have a laptop in front of me because I feel like it puts a barrier between me and the people that I'm talking to. And also it's too easy for me to get distracted by what's going on on my computer. And so the sidekick notepad is made in such a way that you would bring it to a meeting, take all your notes down, write your action items down in the to do area and then take it back with you and tear off the page or whatever you want to do. Keep it around until you tear off and start again with the next page. In that element, we had to work with our paper suppliers and manufacturers to laminate the paper that we're using to make it thick enough that when you picked up the notepad, it didn't bend under its own weight. It was very important to me. But the weightage of the paper that we wanted to use did not exist. So we had to go through an expensive process of laminating paper together to get a thickness, like a weight that this product's not offered in. The cover and backboard paper is made of something called Extract by another British company called G.F. Smith, who I worked with a friend, Matt, who works there. You've met Matt, right? I believe you may have met him at my wedding.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe so.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm going to blank right now, but I know we've had this conversation about Matt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And this paper is called Extract, and it is made from recycled coffee cups, which is the only thing you can do with the paper coffee cup. Paper coffee cups are otherwise unrecyclable because they have the plastic lining inside. But G.F. Smith has been pioneering with this machine that can take these cups and with a very expensive process, produce paper at the other side of it. So the sidekick notepad's cover and back is made of coffee cups that otherwise would have been sent to landfill. So I'm very happy that we were able to find that product and the paperwork's great. We've gone a little extra with the debossing this time and put a clear coat foil inlay on the debossing so it shines more. I am so freaking proud of this thing. I have been using the sidekick notepad every day for nearly a year in some form, and it's exactly what I want. It has 60 pages. I don't use a page a day. I will use a page every couple of days or whatever whenever I'm ready to start fresh. Tear it out. It's got a wonderful perforation, and you're ready to go again. So sidekick notepad, it's made to sit between you and your keyboard. It's made to go with you on your meetings. You take your notes. You write down your to-dos, and when you're done, tear a page off, and you're ready to go for the next day.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So a couple of things. One that I've talked to Myke about, and he sent me one and had me test it out. The paper is awesome. It works perfectly with fountain pens of all shapes and sizes. You can see the sheen on a sheen ink. You can see shading on a shading ink. The smoothness of the paper works with your extra fine nibs. It's great for markers, pencils. I threw everything at it, which is what I normally do when I test, and it just worked super well. Outside of your standard Sharpie markers, right? So Sharpie, you need sketchboard paper for that to not bleed through. Everything else is perfect.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But the bleeding through is not so important because, really, it's only printed on one side. So if it bleeds through to the other side, it's just a blank page on the back there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but literally none of the fountain pens bled or feathered or even the Zebra Mildliner, which is generally a highlighter, but it's more of a marker. That didn't even touch anything on the page. The things I haven't specifically called out to Myke are the little details that opinionated designer boy over here appreciates. If you didn't mention it, I was going to mention the back cover. It's ridiculously good. I have a very short list of particular things that I overly enjoy about notebooks, especially one is extremely thick and rigid covers for products that need them. And while you might be keeping this at your desk, it still just gives you this feel that your notebook is going to stay how you want it to stay. And that's how the backboard is. This was that process I was talking about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They presented to us originally putting it on a gray board. And I have a version like that and I didn't like it. It didn't look finished. And then they gave me the thickest paperweight they had in extract. But when I picked it up, it would fold over on itself. I was like, this isn't going to work. So we did this thing and we at one point used all of the extract that was available in the UK. Like that was like a delay that we had. We had to wait for more to be made.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's ridiculously good, the back cover. The second, which I didn't even put together in my head, even though I've seen it the whole time until you mentioned about the printing. You actually printed the reverse side of the cover. So the Cortex logo is on the outside. But when you flip it over to actually use it, there is a little sidekick deboss in the top left of the spine. That's abnormal. Like you don't like even though, OK, does that technically make your pad better? No. But it's a design element that you don't see. Right. Like this is something that I noticed because it doesn't belong there. And when I see it, I was like, that's a choice. They made a choice to do that little thing and it makes it that much better for me. So those are the little things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like the pre-folding of the cover. Like all of this stuff was so complicated to work out. Like that debossing on this kind of the spine was a mathematical nightmare for all. But like trying to work out like exactly where it was placed and then producing a file that it would be the right way up. Because technically it's printed upside down.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. Because it's on the fold. Yep. But on the inside. So, yes, it is. I look at that and go, that is not normally done because it is difficult. And like having gone through all these printing processes, I look at that and I was like, that is a cool touch. Do you want to know why it's there? They did not have to do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can tell you why it's there. So when we originally made the product, it was just blank up there. Right. And as I was using it, I was like, well, I've designed this product to be open. Like that's what it's for. Right. It has a cover, but you're supposed to just leave it open. So it's always ready for any notes that you might have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But then there was no branding on the product at all. Right. Like you wouldn't look at it and remember what it was or like people wouldn't see it. Like all of the photos we'd take of it wouldn't have anything on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And you didn't steal from the paper layout to put your logo in the corner of the grid. Right. Which is what the choice a lot of companies would make.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I was like, well, I didn't want to put the brain logo on there either because it was a bit too busy. Like we tried that and I found it a little too busy. And so we spent a lot of time trying to come up with a name for the product. And like this is part of the production process as well. Like this was originally just called Sidekick. But the longer I used it, I was like, we could make more than one of these. Like we could make hopefully if this does well, like I want to make just a to-do list version. Right. Well, then that's Sidekick to-do list. So I didn't want to. So I thought, well, I like the name Sidekick Notepad. It also helps with Googling because, you know, the word Sidekick is very generic, right? Right. And so, you know, it helps with intellectual property and stuff like that. So I was like, oh, we'll call it Sidekick Notepad. And also it allows us a little bit of flexibility that hopefully this could be a little sub-brand for Cortex Brand. And I don't think we would put Sidekick Notepad on the top. I don't know. Maybe I'll see how it looks when we go for our second printing. But that's why it says Sidekick there right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's great. That's what those little things I noticed. The whole thing is great. Y'all did a really good job. So you should be proud. I know this was a long process. And I'm glad it exists. And great job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'll give you some deets and stuff. So it was made by a company in London called F.E. Berman. They are based in South London. I can take the train to them. And there was a couple of months where I was going every week because we were working through various things. There's a couple of things about it that are fascinating to me. So I'm referring to this as hand-assembled. And I don't think people believe me. But I will tell you, this product is hand-assembled. Like machines print the paper, right? Right, right. But I have watched the paper being fed into a binding machine. And I have watched a guy bind it. I watch a guy cut each notebook. Every notebook is cut to size by hand because they glue it, right? So it's glued to the top. But you have to make the notebook a little bit wide or you'd have to glue like a glob of glue on each side. So they make it a little wide. And then someone goes in by hand, cuts, cuts, cuts. The corners, the rounded corners, they had to buy a machine to do this where they made a blade, a rounded blade. Someone feeds it into the machine, steps on a pedal, boom, cuts it. And every single one of these products is made like this. It's one of the reasons it took so long. But the other reason was I had to push them in a bunch of directions, right? Right. This is one of those things where I know you must have experienced this too. When you haven't come from this world, you have ideas that aren't the way that things are done. Correct. But then you push and work with people to find a way to do it. And I found it incredibly valuable. And I think they did too. They were like things that this company had done in the way that I wanted them. They didn't have a machine to do the rounded corners that I wanted. So they found one and this was now a new thing that they can offer, right? They can round the corners with notebooks. But like it was so fulfilling and so amazing that I would get to go there and I would talk with these guys. And, you know, this book had to go through some revisions in its design to make it work the way that I wanted. Like the original, I wanted the circular perforation that we have in the theme system journal. Right. Right. Along the top. Yeah, it's like a dot. Yeah. And they made it. They made a version for me and it didn't look right because it was too messy at the top. Because it was like all these like little sharp corners left. It looks great in the journal because it's like a tiny corner. But you got an entire 30 centimeters of that thing and it looked bad. You know, so like we had to go through all this product revision. They were an incredible partner for us to work with. And I am so excited. And we applied for and got a certification that we got the Made in Britain certification, which I am also immensely proud of. And I want to get out ahead of it. These things are made in London. They are put on a boat and sent to Philadelphia. Right. And that's where they're shipped from. If you are buying it in the UK, I just want to let you know something. You are paid. The reason it's more expensive is because you're paying the VAT. Right. You're paying the sales taxes. This is the same for most of Europe, especially. The actual shipping of this product is expensive. It costs $12 to ship it inside of the US because it's oddly sized. And also, that's what shipping costs. Shipping costs what it costs. Like there is no way around this. Right. Like we are, I feel, I am now like full on independent maker. Yeah. Shipping podcast. Let's go. No, because it's like Amazon messes up for all of us because they made people, including me, believe that shipping is free. Shipping is not free. No one's making money on shipping except the shipping companies. Right. Like it's just what it costs. So my point is, especially in the UK, I've checked this myself. It costs about $12 still to ship, but you're paying 20% on top, which is sales tax. If we had a facility in the UK, but we shipped it to you from, you'd still pay the VAT on top of the US sales price. Like that's what we charge. It's the same for Europe. So if you're going to the thing like, wait a second, this is like $50 in total. Please check that there's taxes being added to it. There are taxes we have to pay. And what it means by you paying it at checkout. We spoke about this on the show before. You pay it at checkout means you won't get a customer's notification later on. And then it saves you money because then you don't have to pay a handling fee. You still have handling fees. So like, trust us. We're doing the best we can. If it was as easy to just have a second facility, I tell you, we would have done it a long time ago. It is so hard. Like, you know, we work at Cotton Bureau and they, you know, and even if we worked, you know, Cotton Bureau only shipped from the US at the moment. I don't know if they're ever going to change that. But if we went, if we were with a company that didn't, that had the opportunity for us to have a second logistics facility, I still think at the scale that we're at right now, I don't think we could do it because it's hard enough to manage one set of stock numbers. I would have to manage two sets of stock numbers. And I just don't know if we're at the stage in our business right now where we can do that. I hope that one day we will. Hey, if you want it, support Cortex Brown to buy a psychic notepad. That's what I'll say. I'm so proud of this product. You know, I don't know how many times I will say this, but I'll say it right now. I love the journal. The journal is so important to me. But I think psychic notepad is the best thing that I've designed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. Yeah, I love it. It's really great. And I love manufacturing shipping digressions. It's my favorite. Yeah. I know the listeners don't, but I'm over here just like, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, this is, I'm not going to talk about that so much on Cortex, but I feel like this is the place where I can talk about it with you.