Editing The Pen Addict 210/transcript (section)

== Product Sales ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. You've got some big news this week. Now, I had an idea that this was on the way. We've spoken about this recently because you've been doing something secretly in the back that you didn't tell anybody about. A selection of knock products are now made to order.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So all of our primary goods, all of our primary cases, which we consider the Sinclair Brasstown lookout and Hightower. That's what we sell the most. That's what's the most popular. That's what everyone wants the most of. We've had well-known stock issues, keeping colors in stock, keeping products in stock. Jeff and I started working on this a couple of months ago, knowing that something had to change. We can't keep making.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 30 red and navy Sinclairs, putting them on the site at 12 o'clock noon on Friday and having people not be available to purchase the case and they're gone in an hour and people get ticked off. Understandably so. We had to stop that. We had to get in a place where either we have so much inventory that it's not an issue or we need to manufacture things differently. Our workflow has to be different. Yep. So we don't, we're not in a position to have all kinds of inventory. So we chose the second path. Well, that involved a lot of things. Number one, and most importantly, could we actually accomplish this? Could we take an order when it came in, produce the case and have it shipped out in a reasonable timeframe? We were very, very unsure about that. We ran our own internal test for about two weeks running pretend orders, timings, quantities, different things, different shop setups, different sewing machine setups. And by the end of that two weeks, we're like, oh, this is better than I thought. I think we can actually do this. I think we can actually get hit the numbers that we need to be able to produce cases. Because our argument and our theory in the past was it's easier to make 30 cases than it is, or it's just as easy to make 30 cases as it is to make five, right? But you get kind of pigeonholed into those 30 cases where that's the only thing you make. Well, maybe we can make five of five different kinds.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's kind of more what people wanted. They wanted to, well, if I only had red and navy that day, well, what if people wanted midnight foliage? Well, I can't tell them when they can order that now because I don't know when it's going to hit, you know, hit the line, hit the inventory.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we tested it. We made these decisions. So once we realized we could do that, we started secretly rolling in the inventory numbers into the site. So we started with the Sinclair about a month ago. And we just put inventory. We just raised what's available on the site so they wouldn't show us sold out and just let people order them as they stumbled across them. We didn't announce it, didn't do anything. And so we did that for about two weeks. And every day we were able to produce all the orders that came in and have them shipped that same day or no later than the next morning. So we're very happy about that. So as we did this, well, we can't just do it for one case. We have to do it for all of them. So the lookout was mixed in there about two weeks later. And so we had the Sinclair and the lookout with unlimited inventory. We could still keep up. The real stretch was adding the Brasstown. We were nervous at that point. So now we're going to have three cases that would just be available to order. We would have to make them that day. Our goal was to get them that morning, the previous day's orders, and have them shipped by that afternoon. And we turned on the Brasstown and didn't tell anybody again because we couldn't. We didn't want to flood ourselves. We needed to see if we could accomplish it. And we did. Like, we've never gotten anything past, like, the next day. So we felt comfortable enough about a week ago knowing that, okay, we're going to roll this out to everyone this week, let everyone know that essentially the cases are always in stock and we're making them as they order. That means that the order comes in on a Monday. Tuesday morning, we start building that case. Our goal would be to ship it by Tuesday afternoon. That won't always happen, but I think it's reasonable to have, you know, two to three days depending on the quantities. You know, some days are, you know, 10 cases. Some days are 40 cases. You just never know. So if your case gets pushed back two days, no big deal. You still know you're getting the case. Whereas before, people didn't know they were getting the case. They didn't know when they could get the case. They didn't know if they would have to be at their computer at a certain time when we launched it. It's just a much better system for our customers. And we're able to handle the capacity of it. So we're super happy to be able to finally kind of put this out there and let people know they can get the cases that they want. So that comes with one caveat, at least right now. I might think of another one as I'm talking. We're limiting the colors that you can order as we ramp this up. So we just have three colors in the Hightower Lookout and Brasstown and four colors in the Sinclair that we're making right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But as we do this, you know, it's allowing us to allow people to order our goods, which is kind of important. So that's the biggest news. The side news from this is that... You're going to make the briefcase. We are going to make the briefcase. And that goes in with what I'm about to say. Oh. We may have actually found legitimate help outside our door to make high quality American made goods at a price we can afford. And most importantly, at the quality expect. Oh, wow. I was kidding around. Nope. We're on the last phase of approvals. And Jeff and I are giddy at the prospects because that will allow us to be way more flexible in colors. It'll allow us to launch products quicker. It'll allow us to have the quantities to go to retail. And it will be an amazing looking product like you expect from us right now. Like, you can't tell any difference at all. And Jeff and I are just like, we're basically having a holy crap, this is what we've been working for moment. Here in the past month. It's not done yet. So I'm putting the cart before the horse a little bit. But I feel... It's far enough along that I feel pretty confident that something's going to get done. It's a pretty big deal for Nock as a company to be able to do this. Because it's going to basically blow the roof off our expansion in a way that we can handle. And that's what we have to have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because this will be a way for you to make more product without making more Jeffs. Right. Right. Huh. I definitely don't have enough Jeffs. That is amazing news. I'm really happy. But I want to go back because I was being kind of silly. I didn't know that that was going to come from around the corner. But I still have more questions for you on the made-to-order stuff. All right. I'm done rambling. So you fire away. One, congratulations. Thank you. So the other is... And so this is something that... I mean, when you originally told me this, I struggled with it a little bit. So I expect maybe some of our listeners might not get this either. So how are you able to make and sell enough cases now when you couldn't do that before? So like whenever you made cases and put them up on the site, I sold out immediately. And then there were a bunch of people that couldn't buy. So because you weren't able to make enough cases to fulfill that demand. How now are you able to do that if you're just taking every single order that comes through?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a very good question. And it's one I still struggle with answering. But I think it was more a case of... So let's see. How do I put this? Because in the past, we had four employees. Me, Jeff, and then the two girls that sewed for us. And they sewed, you know, like 20 to 30 hours a week each. When they were working, there was not necessarily enough work for Jeff to get in there and me to get in there with the amount of machinery we had. To do things in conjunction that were moving products forward.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we let them go. We ended up letting Alice and Shanika go, which killed us, like, physically, mentally. Like, it broke us pretty hard. We were pretty upset about that for a pretty long time. But we understood as a business that we couldn't continue to operate like that. We weren't making enough product. When we put Jeff... Gave Jeff access to all the machines at all times. He was making, essentially... And this is not an exaggeration. He could outperform two other people at a rate... Two other people combined at a rate between 5 and 10 to 1.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Huh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If he had the freedom to do what he needed to do at the time he needed to do it. And then you mix in me picking up the side stuff. Which, the side monotony stuff. Cleaning cases. Trimming cases. Bar tacking. Flipping cases inside out. To where he can just run sewing machines. It was... It was... The efficiency went through the roof. And it was really, really freaking weird. And I think it was just having... Jeff having complete freedom... To not have to stop... Every 10 or 15 minutes... To either answer questions... Help with design... Pattern... Fix a machine... He's so talented... He runs circles around people... Sitting in front of a sewing machine... So now that he has free reign... He's able to handle that. It's really strange. And it is hard to explain. It doesn't make sense. But the way we're set up... We don't have 20 machine... A 20 machine workflow... To where I can put... Six people on those 20 machines... And work through. Right? Right. We have... Five... That we use... And when you get... Three to four people... There's road... They're stopping... Constantly. Yep. We cleared that out... Jeff has a clear path... For a single case...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And the pace that he can produce that... Is able to keep up... With what we're doing now... With Made to Order. And... You know... I've committed to being there... Instead of two days a week... I'm there three days a week... Doing more stuff... Jeff's there... All the time now... You know... He's had... You know... He had... His two kids... And his wife... And you know... Just had a baby recently... So there's been some... Times where both me and him... You know... Aren't there... But right now... This is really working for us... But... For us to survive... We have to do that... Plus we have to have an outside manufacturer... And... That's where we're at right now... So... Everything's really really going...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah... Alright... So if I'm following correctly... In conjunction with the Made to Order... You've also changed the way that... Things are being produced... Mm-hmm... Because Jeff can produce at a faster rate... You're able to kind of... Take a day's orders... And then make them the next day... And ship them out... Yeah... As opposed to like... Making 30 or 40... And then there's like a backlog... And they all hit at once in one week... Because there's a backlog of people... As opposed to spreading that production out... And actually making the cases people are looking for... Right... As opposed to just putting them up... And then 30 out of the 100 people... Can only order on one day... Right... Because he spent time making them... Like making configurations... That maybe not necessarily everybody wanted... Right... Okay... I think I'm kind of following... It is weird right... There is just some... Weird... Economics in there somewhere... Right... That somebody much smarter than maybe... All of us can like... Understand it immediately... Yeah... But to me and you... It's a confusing thing...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah... I mean in the end... It's straightforward... It's just efficiency... Like our efficiency improved... With less people...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay... So you may have been able to do this anyway... But you just didn't know...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah... Yeah...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But to have like the real growth we want... We don't want a 20 person sewing shop... You know... We want to... You know... Make our... Make stuff... Me and Jeff... And then have a partner... That can... Make huge... Huge quantities... That we could never... You know... Afford enough people... Or machinery... Or rent to make... You know... So that's kind of the two-fold... The two-fold plan... That we're working with...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay... Well this is cool man... Seems like things are really kicking off... In a way that I don't think we expected... Right now...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you alluded to the briefcase...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah I did... I was a complete trolling moment... But seems... Maybe I was wrong...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No... That's... That's the biggest questions... Are like... Okay... When can we get new colors... And then when can we get... New products... Like the briefcase and the folio... That you've been teasing... The folio is on hold... It's not on indefinite hold... We want to make that case... It's a very difficult case to make... Just Jeff and I... Cannot make that... And do this made to order... So we have to make decisions... You know... Around that... And that's fine... You know... We're totally happy with that... The briefcase... Is something we do think we can make... And we actually would prefer to make it... Because it's a little bit of an outlier... For our product line... It's something really different... As opposed to the folio... Which is a little bit different... And... We're working on the final prototype this week... If we can get it in... And then we'll see... You know... That's going to come to market sooner than the folio is... So... I can tell you that...

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I basically spent the whole week last week... Telling people... In San Francisco... How awesome your bags are going to be... Just so you know... Right? Like I'm priming the pump already...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good... Good... That... And you know what... It's going to be kind of a crossover product... You know... Where a lot of technical people... You know... That are into like the digital stuff... It's going to be able to fit their style... You know... As well... And be able to carry a few extra things... So... It's a really... Mega... It's a killer setup... I'm really... Really happy with it... So... Yeah...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Alright... I'm looking forward to all of this man... So... We've got more knock news in the pipe...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' More knock news in the pipe... So... That's our hugest... Huge announcement... And then we probably... We'll have... Hopefully... Maybe in two more months... Maybe a month... Have another announcement... And I don't know if it'll be briefcase... Or I don't know if it'll be... Retail... Or... New colors... Whatever... We... I don't have the clarity on that yet... But... We've never... Been as excited... About the business... As we are right now...

'''Myke Hurley:''' God... That's awesome man... Congratulations to both of you... You deserve it... Thank you... Thank you... Thank you... Thank you... But real time follow up... Chuck has created a... An Acumen soundboard... Already... Already... Already... And I put it in the show notes... Christ... That's amazing... So... Give that guy five minutes... And he can do horrible things...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know... Right... That's why I love him... You really can't mess it up... That's why I love him... That was his... That was his loner jeep... That I took the... I call it loner... He hates when I do that... His... His... His toy jeep... That I took the first briefcase photo... In front of... So... Chuck's my man...