Editing The Pen Addict 373/transcript (section)

== Aolani Pen ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So let's talk about the Aolani, which is the most recent pen. Yes. Who made it? Who made the body, the material? Where did it come from? Commercial break time?

'''Hugh:''' I'm sure there's a sponsor that we need to know. You want to talk? So first, may I say, we want to thank Jonathan Brooks for taking us from zero to A. And without having found Jonathan and spoken with him on the phone and said, dude, I got an idea. Have you ever thought about this kind of... I said, well, I went back in this website, this forum, and I looked at every single blank you've ever posted. I know that you have the skill. I know that you have the talent. And here we are today.

'''Hugh:''' Jonathan has gotten us to be able to take our inspiration, and he executes that at our direction. It's our requirements, our specifications. Yeah, these are project kind of things that we talk with him about. And he will continue to supply us with...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because he's still making the original set, I would assume. Yes.

'''Hugh:''' Because they're Jonathan Brooks pens, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Absolutely. Like, you can see it. Like, that's his skill. And if you want to continue making them to the quality, then you have to continue with him doing it.

'''Hugh:''' And so we become personal friends. We do this work together. And we're growing our inspiration through his hands and his heart as we do our hands and our heart.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But my assumption here is that over the time that you've been working with Jonathan, he has also become a very, very busy individual. Hugely. Yes. So I would assume that that became a bottleneck for you? No. Okay.

'''Hugh:''' Actually, quite opposite.

'''Hugh:''' The transition to bringing on a new second supplier is just a basic business decision. Because after analyzing our website statistics, our Google Analytics, the other social media stats, we realized that our Ohana like what we're doing and they want more. And so bringing on another source of supply is just a basic good business decision for us at this size and what we're doing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So the plan is multiple concurrent suppliers?

'''Hugh:''' Correct.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Okay.

'''Hugh:''' And Eilani is made by another individual with whom we are under nondisclosure. Signed, documented, cannot discuss. And so we thank everybody for respecting that. But I will say that we will continue to have our inspirational designs created by artisans that can bring through the material what we felt standing in front of that place, looking at that thing, and make sure that there's no departure from that sensation in somebody's heart when they see something that was where we were that day looking at that. So we will continue with Jonathan very much so. In fact, we have many more. When we called him and told him about the new supplier, I said, quote, unquote, buckle up, buttercup, because we got lots more to do together. And so he's very much Ohana to us in lots of ways.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I feel like I'm going to I have to ask why the nondisclosure? That was not our decision. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. It's the other way around. Right. All right. You are under the nondisclosure. We are under nondisclosure. Yeah. Okay. Cool. That makes sense. I am me and Brad have had this conversation many times incredibly intrigued because the level of skill shown in this pen is incredibly high. So I cannot work out who it is. And I've tried.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But really, like, I just assumed Jonathan made it because it is of that caliber. Right. And he is of the best. So it means there is another of the best out there. And I don't know who it is. Do you know who it is, Anna? Nobody knows. It will be a secret. But it is an incredible pen.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I would be under nondisclosure. That's true. That's very true.

'''David Sparks:''' Sure.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you.

'''David Sparks:''' I want to go on, Brad. No, I was just going to ask. So circling back to the Aolani, how has that launch gone for y'all in relation to the rest of the product lineup? What's the feedback been like? Because it was such an important launch. When you're putting all your efforts into one to two releases per year, you have to deliver. So that's a huge pressure. So how have the results been?

'''Carol:''' The results have been great. Fabulous feedback from new Ohana as well as folks that have purchased previous pens, which has been very exciting. And some of the comments have been, we're so glad that you added something in this color palette. You know, a purple. Yay. That was very good. And it's kind of fun for us because people share their suggestions with us. Oh, we'd love to see something in, you know, how about this? We had a couple suggestions today. And that's nice for us because we know what you all are thinking and we think that's great when you share that.

'''David Sparks:''' So like if this shirt was like from Hawaii somewhere, like would that be the inspiration? Is this your next inspiration? No, we can't. No, we can't do that one. You sure? You don't. It'll save you a trip. Just take a picture.

'''Ana Reinert:''' That's right. Inspiration.

'''David Sparks:''' Yeah. Okay.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Never make a pen that looks like that shirt.

'''David Sparks:''' I would agree with that wholeheartedly. I like it, Brad. Don't worry. I like it.