The Pen Addict 633/transcript

Introduction and travel updates

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 633. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hey Myke Hurley, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm in Chicago right now. I'm in transition on my way home. So I left Memphis yesterday, came to Chicago today, and then I'm leaving for home tonight. So what feels like a very, very, very long trip is nearly at its end. Well, it was a very long trip, both in days and in things you were doing. Like you were super busy most of this entire trip. So can we get a little podcast-a-thon wrap-up and figure out what's going on here? I know we got some St. Jude talk I want to do. I want to hear. You know, I was there for a lot of it. But I'm not as strong as Kate was in the chat, who had a much tougher time zone to deal with. I made it to about 11pm. So I made it 11 hours. But that was just a normal people time. Kate had some tough times. But y'all had a 12-hour podcast-a-thon last Friday. So how'd that go? It was an absolute success. I couldn't have been happier. The event was fantastic. We raised over $130,000 for the Kids of St. Jude during the 12 hours, which is the most we've ever raised during one of our podcast-a-thons. I think it rivals basically any other day. I mean, this year has been incredible. We've had some kind of historic fundraising days. And this was one of them. As we're recording right now, we're a hair away from $850,000 raised for the Kids of St. Jude. So we have passed last year's goal, which like last year's fundraising total, which was our biggest fundraising total. We passed that by like 100 grand now. So we still got, we will go talk a little bit. We're going to remind you where to go in a minute. But yeah, the podcast-a-thon was incredible. It's all on YouTube. So you can go and watch it if you want to. I do recommend it. We had a really fun time. It looked great. It was fun to play. We've got the whole thing on YouTube. Yeah, it was a joy this year. So I had a really great time. We had wonderful guests with Casey, Kathy, and Jason. And there were tons of great games. The best games we played. I genuinely could not have been happy with how the whole thing went off. So thank you so much to everyone who was there, including you. I know you were watching along. And I want to get you out there, Brad. Yeah, one of these years we'll do it. I'm lobbying for you.
• Yeah, I was feeling for y'all. Like I might turn you down seeing some of the games that y'all played. The blind box touchy-feely thing. I was noping out of there pretty hard on that one. I felt for y'all on that one. So funny thing on that. I don't know if I've ever mentioned before. So this happened to be last year and it's happened again this time. So we've got those boxes that we're reaching into, right? Yeah. They're quite large. Both of my biceps are really bruised from those boxes. This happened last time. It's happened again. That's hilarious. Yeah, I mean, some things were larger than others that went in those boxes. So they needed the space.
• My issue with it wasn't just the things that you had to touch. It was the number of things. It was like 30-something different things. I was like, this is a lot. This is a lot. This year, I think. I think there was a certain point where I genuinely felt like I was being emotionally tortured. Yeah. Because it just wouldn't stop.
• They actually cut some, you know. There was going to be more. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe two segments next year. Maybe. Get them all in there. There's so much fun stuff to watch in the podcast-a-thon. So I hope that y'all go check it out. Yeah. You can skim through. We've got 12 hours, but I think it's all really good. Yeah.

Surprise delivery and recognition

• Before we talk about where you can go find everything at St. Jude, I had a surprise delivery made.
• You and Stephen were very sneakily sending out a little bit of recognition. I got a little plaque here, Myke. So what was the story behind that? Because it made me super happy. Yeah. So as we are now a 10-year-old company, we've kind of hit that point where people can start getting service awards. Yeah. Where's my catalog? Where's my catalog? Yeah, exactly. Oh, is that what usually happens? So you get a catalog and you choose? Yeah. Is that how it usually goes? In the US, they traditionally start giving you a catalog and you can pick the pen or the backpack or the whatever, desk accessory, the thing. So yeah. Right. Well, we opted to just make awards for everybody. It was one of these things that started as a joke, but then as Stephen started to look into it, he was like, oh, you know what? I actually just like this idea. I think this is just a good idea. And so what we're doing now is every year, Stephen will take a look at who's going to turn 10 years this year for their service to the company and they're going to get a plaque ordered and sent to them. So this is for like anybody who has been, anybody who will take over to podcasting with us for 10 years will receive one of these. I put a link in the show notes. Me and Stephen have one. You have one. Casey has one. Matt Alexander has one. You destroyed Matt Alexander on Mastodon. Everybody was talking about this because you just absolutely ruined him. I'll put a link in the show notes to that post.
• Dan Morin has one too. And Jason has one now as well. I think that's everybody who's got one so far and they're going to keep ticking along as time goes on. Yeah. We'll put a link into my comment on Matt. I was like, I have to go in here on him somehow. And it actually took me a second and I was like, oh, got it. And that was it. And we'll save it for you all to go click the link. I'm pretty happy with that. You were the talk of everybody in Memphis that day.

Visit to St. Jude and its impact

• So, yeah, I'm in, I just left Memphis, spent the week at St. Jude, which is always such a fulfilling experience for me. Because it is such an incredible place to be. To feel the energy of that place and all the people that work there.
• Especially at a time like this, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. So, I want you all to go to stjude.org slash relay where you can find out more about donating today to support the life-saving work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Because it is important work and it is work that works. We're always blown away by the efforts that they go to and the successes that they see. St. Jude's mission is to make sure that no child loses their life to cancer no matter where they live. And they need our help to drive that mission forward. The podcast of thumb was a great success. As I mentioned, we have actually now passed $850,000 raised. Which is just so, so incredible. And this kind of fundraising is what makes the difference. And it allows for things like the Family Commons to be built. Which is this incredibly special place that opened last year. It's a 45,000 square foot space that is just for the families. It's for, you know, the kids that are receiving treatment and the families that they have with them at St. Jude. It is free of any treatment and clinical stuff. It is a place for families to rest and reconnect between appointments. It's like a town hall for them. Where families gather to get a coffee. The kids can be in a creative and an on-site recording studio. I hope we get some great St. Jude podcasters from there. Art room. They have a maker space too. So really, these are just play areas, private rooms to rest. A science lab and library. But this is all for the kids. Tech support if they need it. And also child care. This was a space that was created from feedback from parents of St. Jude patients. Who were looking for a space on campus where families could get downtime together. And Stephen's wife, Mary, Mary Hackett. She was part of the kind of group that was helping to steer this project. So it also, we have that, like with many things, we have this special connection to this place.
• So I really want you to go and check this all out for yourself. Our community has absolutely blown us away over the last six years. And I would say especially this year with the generosity that you're once again showing to support the work of the Lifesaving Mission of St. Jude. Please go to stjude.org slash relay where you can make a donation. And there are some amazing rewards that you can redeem if you do. You'll also find out more about employee matching, which is really important. Go check that. You can double your donation if your company will match it. You can also set up a fundraising campaign of your own. So you can also, again, increase the amount of money that you can help raise for the kids of St. Jude. That is stjude.org slash relay to donate or create your campaign today. Thank you.
• Yeah, so one of the things I'm doing is running a big giveaway over on the Pen Addict to help raise money for St. Jude. And every week I've been adding more and more goods as more and more goods come in for us to give away. Okay, and Myke, we added a Pen Addict watch. So thanks to our friends at Notice who helped bring this product to life. They held one back specifically to add into this list here. And it's pretty awesome that they did that. And they also made a big donation while we were streaming, during the podcast-a-thon, like the first hour or two. I'm sitting there, and it's like, boom, here comes like a $7,000 gift from Notice. And they're like, y'all were reading some of this stuff out. And I was like, did they just say Notice? And they didn't know that was going on. This was just the time for them. Like they asked me, you know, where to donate the money that we raised. So we did a portion of the proceeds to go and help St. Jude. That is an incredible amount of money. Thank you to both of you for doing that. Yeah. It's really amazing. Absolutely, absolutely. That was something when we decided to go forward with this project that was important to me. And they completely agreed with that. And it was really fun to see that come in live while I was sitting there watching. That was pretty cool. I was like, oh, hey, cool. But yeah, I'll put the links in the show notes to all the different posts of all the different products. I can't read them all because it's so many. But there's some really wild and wonderful stuff here. Some really hard to find, hard to get. Some exclusives, some very useful stuff, some very practical stuff.
• So yeah, go check that out. I think we're up to, I'm up to like my fourth post, adding in new products. And y'all should go check that out. And you'll find out how you can participate there at the end of the post.
• I want to talk about a couple of things semi-related to what I'm giving away. But before we do that, I wanted to give a shout out to April Wu from Penguins Creative for joining me last week on last week's Panatic Podcast, episode 632. Which if y'all haven't listened, y'all should go listen to April. She's one of my favorite people in the community. She's one of my close friends. I really appreciate her coming on, opening up on the stream, opening up on the podcast to talk about her making changes in planners and how personal planners are to her and what that means to her. And it was a fantastic discussion. Got a lot of great feedback from this. So just wanted to shout out April. And if y'all aren't following April or the Stationery Cafe podcast, y'all need to go do that right now. Really thoughtful episode. I loved it a lot. I loved it a lot. Yeah, she's good people. And I wanted her to have this opportunity. And it was really good. She's amazing. She's amazing. So relatedly, Myke, after we recorded, me and April, she's like, oh, Brad. And she's like, I have never sent Myke a plotter. And I want to. I was like, oh, OK. I was like, yeah, that was like, you don't have to. Like, no one ever says, hey, why doesn't Myke a plotter? Well, I don't agree. But sure, that's fine. I think everybody should send me stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So everyone's sending Myke stuff. So I was like, yeah, absolutely. He'll love it. And, you know, we'll send him. And I said, by the way, he's in the US. So if you want to do it, now's the time. And we can do it. And she did. And she sent you something. And I'm not exactly sure what she sent you. I thought I heard her tell me that she was going to send you the plotter mini five. Yes. Is that what you got? That's what I got. It's the little guy. It's the small handheld one. I have one here on my desk. So yeah. Well, I will just say that April went above and beyond. She sent me two ones for Adina. Oh, jeez, Louise. And just the biggest selection of inserts. I think I have all of them. All the inserts. Yeah. I'm very, very excited to play with this. Because you told me that April was going to send some stuff to me. And I was thinking like, okay, really interesting to check out. I hadn't really considered how small the mini five is. Yes. Like when we'd looked at it before. And also five just made me think A5. You know what I mean? But no, this is like a pocket notebook, essentially. Yes. So do you know what the five means? I'm really interested to try it out. Because I feel like this is like a notebook kind of thing that I don't have anything that I use all the time that is in this kind of configuration. So I'm really intrigued to play around with this, to be honest. Yeah. So the five, the reason why it's called the mini five is unlike most of their larger planners, this one has five rings in it, where most of them have six. So that's the size difference. This is essentially like your fancy field notes, right? Yeah. Like it's a beautifully made, well-constructed, unique design, just fun and functional. Is it your like everyday journaling thing? It's like, no. Well, they have other products for that, right? Like I'm not doing a plotter ad here. But this is a very unique product in their lineup. And I was, I didn't, I always wanted one and I finally bought one. And I'm finally just now starting to figure out how I want to use it. Like it sits at my desk mostly because I have a regular plotter that I use for planning and other notes. But at my desk when I need to take quick notes, like a lot of things in here, Myke, or like me doing ink samples, me doing doodles. I will actually use it as my video game notebook if I'm like making a note. Like those quick notes because these pages are, you can save them, but they're essentially disposable, right? Like you just refill it. You take filled pages out, put new pages in, things like that. But I'll be interested to see what you think about it because it is an interesting format. And I think it's pretty cool. It's a pretty cool product. So yeah, I'll be interested to see, you know, six months from now what you think about it. Like if you've found any use for it. Because honestly, it took me, shoot, probably more than a year to figure mine out. But I could never, I always thought, well, if I'm not going to use it, I'll just sell it because, you know, I just need to do something with it. But I've found a way to use it and incorporate it in my daily stuff. So April wasn't the only one trying to meet you in Memphis, Myke. I had to get a pen into your hands and you got your Esther Brook gratitude, which I spoke about the last time we were on the show together. This is Esther Brook's idea of giving back to thank the community for their, they just crossed 50,000 followers on Instagram. And they wanted to do something special for the people that helped to get them there. And they sent us three pens, one for me, one for you, and one for my St. Jude project. And I just wanted to know, did you get the pen? Yes. And what do you think? I got it. And it's a special pen. I see what they're doing here with this, right? Like if you want to make something that is like something special, gold is great. You know what I mean? Like that's like a great idea. Yeah, I think it's beautiful. I mean, I love the SD and I don't, I don't know if they have a name for this material type that they use. They do. And I don't have it in front of me, but it's, it's really, it's really good looking. Diamond cast. Yeah. I think it's a diamond cast. I just found it on Instagram. Yeah. I have a couple of these. There's sometimes a name for it. Yeah. And it's the way that they put the, like the glitter and the shimmer through it. It's, yeah, I love it. I really, I think it looks fantastic.
• It's great. I haven't inked mine up yet either. And I want to get, like, I'm really debating, like, do I just need to go all in and just go like big shimmer ink? I'm going to use that gold ink that I have. Yeah. And see, I have a gold shimmer ink, a Menarca Ray Jaguar, which is a really popular gold shimmer ink. Mine is a Bungle Box ink, I think. Yeah. It was the Inpitsu 5th Anniversary ink, I believe is the name. I know it was the 5th anniversary, but I think that's the name. It's an awesome ink. Yeah. So I'm going to dig that out and I'm going to use that. I haven't used that ink in a long time, but this feels like the perfect pen for it. Because I have that pen and I should take a picture of them together. That's a good pen. The Sailor with the black cap with the gold. The black and gold. Oh, that's a good pen. Oh, boy, that's a good pen. That's a good pen. That's one of the pens that I know I've packed away from when we moved. And I've now realized I've forgotten about it. Like, I need to find that pen too. Yeah. I had actually recently gone through all my pens and set aside some pens that I love that I hadn't used in a while that I want to get into the rotation. And that was one of them. It's that good. That's a beautiful pen. Speaking of good pens, Myke. You want to know where to get them? I do want to know where to get them. I need more. Of our friends over at Pen Chalet, they have the products that you're looking for. They have amazing pens. They have beautiful pens. They have stunning pens from your favorite brands. Whether you want to pick up a new Sailor or a Kavehka, maybe you want a Lamia Pelican. Just actually, do you know what? Whatever you want, it's all there. They're an authorized dealer. They're adding new styles of pens every single month. You'll go find new products over at Pen Chalet. And multiple times a month, they have discounts with closeout specials too. They want to make sure that you're getting the best products with the best prices and with fast and reliable customer service. They do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the United States. Pen Chalet also sell internationally with really great shipping rates. They have low prices and high quality pens, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go take yourself right now to penschalet.com slash penaddict, and you'll get 10% off anything at Pen Chalet, and you'll see this week's exclusive offers for listeners of this show. What are they going to find, Brad Dowdy? All right, so y'all need to pay attention this week. So number one, like leading off on the page, at least when I log into it, are some Colodex rotary cards. So this is from the Well Appointed Desk. Our good friend Anna makes these cards, these products. So a lot of people use these for ink swatching, and these are kind of the perfect cards for that. They're really good quality paper. Show off the colors well. You see a lot of people online using them, sharing them when they do ink swatches. Go check that out. And then I rolled down, Myke, and I found one of the awesomest pens ever in a version I have never seen. And you're not going to believe me when I tell you this, but the Pelican Twist is an amazing beginner fountain pen. It is so weird looking. It's made for kids, essentially, right? That's Pelican's idea. They usually make these. It's a real lightweight kind of ergonomic barrel. You know, it has the molded grip, you know, like a Lamy. This is really like a pen designed to help kids, you know, when they're learning writing. And it turns out that it's just a good pen overall, like not just for kids. So they actually have a version, which I've never seen, called the Pelican Twist Classy fountain pen. So they know they have a good pen. And then they tried to upscale the barrel here with like the metallic looking blue and the metallic looking pink. Instead of just like the, you know, the bright greens and blues and yellows, like the traditional, you know, plastics, which they do for like fun visuals with these pens. They tried to class them up a little bit here, given the name. And I'm here for it. This is an awesome pen. And I'm not joking. And it is so cheap. Like this is just one of those beginner pens you get and use. And you will see how much you can fall in love with it. Yeah, they've done a very good job of making that look like something kind of intentional in its design, rather than like it was this one thing. And then we made it another thing. Yeah, it's like they know. It's like a little nod and a wink. It's like, yeah, we know this is a good pen. We know you want it. Let's make a couple. Yeah.
• Speaking of wanting it, I haven't seen the Ranga Abamanu fountain pens on here before. And so these are unique colors, these resins, a blue and pink resin, a multicolor resin, a pink, yellow, cream resin. I'm really liking these. I love the shape of this pen.
• It's I don't want to say it's like small. It's it's maybe on the smaller side, but it's got a really great shape, really great weight. I've used these before and they're fantastic. And I usually don't see these up on the up on the sale page. So a lot of good stuff over there at Penn Chalet. I haven't even made it to the bottom yet. So, yeah, really, really good stuff. So thank you, Ron. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com slash pen addict. Our thanks to Penn Chalet for the support of this show and relay.
• All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. Woo. Wall town pens. So we're going to talk more about pens right now. Wall town.
• So Caroline, who writes for the pen addict. I don't know what that means. It's like downtown. Down. Oh, OK. Are you in downtown Chicago? Is that why you're doing this? I don't. I think I might be in downtown Chicago. I don't know. Actually, that's fair given the Chicago sprawls. But anyway. I'm in the center. Like I'm near those two like buildings that look like Corn on the Cobb.
• Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Wilco Towers. Yeah. That's downtown. I call them the Wilco Towers. I don't know their name. They have a name. OK. So, yeah.
• Wall town pens. Thank you, Brett, for sitting with Caroline to do your meet your maker interview. Really beautiful pens. I don't know that I've actually tried any of these, but my goodness.
• There's just too many in just this interview that Caroline did that Brett decided to share with us over at penannetic.com. I was like, yeah, I'll be looking into some more of these because really beautiful craftsmanship. Man, these are. How these look. Wow. These are something. Yeah. I really like. See a Kathy Campbell pen in here. Yeah. I put that up high in there because that's a little inlay. There's a little unicorn inlay. Not only is it a really cool unicorn material that the little unicorn head is an inlay. That's using diamond cast. We were just talking about that. Yeah. So diamond cast is actually a material that a lot of people use for pens that it's basically a brand. It's basically like a brand of a material that people will make rods for people to turn pens from. Very cool. So I definitely have a few diamond casts, but I don't have a wall town and I'm sure that will change in the coming year. So thank you, Brett. Thank you, Caroline, for getting all this out there. And I love seeing all the Meteor Maker posts. Definitely. All right, Myke. Now we get to make our hard transition into the talk. We get to have a talk, Myke. Can I set the scene here? Okay. Actually, yes. Let's do this. I've been somewhat disconnected, right? Past week or whatever. Well over a week. Yeah. Well over a week at this point. I've been like all eyes on St. Jude, right? Like I said, I've been- Your busiest week of the year. You've made no bones about it. It's your busiest week of the year. iPhones, St. Jude, the whole thing. I'm like, all I have is the energy for that. And I like, I was at St. Jude all week. And then one evening I sit down. I'm like, oh, my favorite thing. I can read Refill. I love Refill. Brad's beautiful newsletter. Makes me happy. I love to read Brad's writing because it feels like I'm talking to Brad. Love it. So I sit down. I'm like, oh man, there's been so much drama this week. I'm like, wait, what? What's going on? And like, so I'm reading your newsletter. You're like talking about like, you know, during times like this, I've got to take care of my mental health. And I'm like, what is happening? I'm like, has Brad been canceled? Like, what is going on? And then I'm like looking around and like, I can't see anything. Right. It's like, I know where to go.
• Read it.

Fountain Pen subreddit drama

• If you need the drama, if there's drama existing, where is it being recorded? Read it. And so I went to the Fountain Pen subreddit and I got exactly what I needed, which was the mega thread. I'm like, that's, that's it. I found it. I found the drama. And so then I found the drama. And yeah. And then from there I did what I should, then I did what I should have done first, which is I should have gone to the Penge channel in the discord where people were talking about it. And they also included a video that I'm going to put in the show notes for people to go watch where you give, I think maybe more context than you're going to give now. I don't know what you're going to want to say. But yeah, there's been drama.
• Yeah. And so there's a lot of context around this and I will give a little bit of like the introductory, but like I, what I'm going to say, you know, is really not going to cover everything. Um, because like I said, it's been a week and a half, like we've gone through a lot as a community over the past week and a half. Um, and so, yeah, we'll, we'll put a couple of links to some of my statements that I've made and I'm actually glad it's the wrong term, but I'm happy. We had a little bit of time to get here to where we're at today to where no, I'm there's I'm happy that you're pre-recorded last week's episode. So we can talk about it now, which has, I don't know, there's at least the thing that we wanted, which was a statement, right? Like, yeah, at least wanted that. And that has now happened. So, yeah. So let me give a little background for people who may not be interested. And I totally get, if you don't want to hear this and you're going to tell me to stick to stationary. And if you know me, you know that I'm not, I'm not gonna, because I believe in standing up for what's right. So what happened, I'd say it was last Monday. So Monday, like a week and a half ago, um, it came to light that Brian and Rachel Goulet from Goulet Pens are members of a church that, uh, is starting to form in their area that they're helping raise this church in this area. And it, it, this all came to light because they mentioned it in their newsletter, right? They talk about, um, you know, family stuff in their newsletter, which I'm like, I've always thought that companies should be to a degree, um, you know, open and talk about personal stuff and, you know, show that have been themselves on camera and things like that. And so they talk about their church in their Goulet Pens newsletter that they send out to everyone and people started looking into the church. And when they started looking into the church, um, they learned that this church has some very extreme beliefs and some very hateful beliefs, um, to the point where the parent church of their, there's this new church that they're raising, um, has a podcast where they equate being gay to being a murderer. Huh. And I can't think of anything more extreme to like to say about someone else. I'll be honest. I haven't bothered listening to this because it's all just nonsense, right? To me. But I can't even, um, like, I don't want to know, but like, I can't even imagine how you link those two things together, but like, there's no point in me even listening to that. You know what I mean? Cause it's like, I'm, I'm not going to get a satisfying answer. Right. If, if that's where you're, you're starting at, you know what I mean? Right. Right. So the key point right now, which will, will come to light here in a minute is that the pastor of their new church was on this podcast. So we'll, we'll circle back to that, but pin that. That's an interesting bit of information that I didn't have. Yeah. So, um, this all came out Monday. Um, Goulet just bunkered down, you know, from that point, trying to tamp down the flames, deleting comments and everything, not making any real public statements or disavowing anything. Yeah. Um, and then they continued to not say anything. So it took them a full week to get a message out on their YouTube channel. Um, and over that week, like nothing had, had simmered down. Like this was a serious, you know, event in our community, nor should it have simmered down. Right. It was, it's very extreme. Um, what these, these words and the amount of hate coming from, from this church. Um, so they put out a video called a message to our community on their YouTube channel. Um, and I'd say it did not go over well. Um, the church, uh, the video, um, you know, it's, you know, people were looking for answers and people were looking for them to disavow, you know, the church and like none of that happened. So a couple of important points on the video. If you do go watch the video, we're not going to link it. You can find it, um, on Goulet's YouTube channel.
• This isn't an apology video. Like just the title. It's just a selection of, of pieces of information, right? Like they're not, exactly. They're not, it looks like an apology video. It feels like an apology video, but they're not apologizing. And like, yeah. So people will take this and say, oh, they posted an apology video. They don't have to, right? You know what I mean? They don't have to apologize, but then the way that people react to them going forward is based around how they approach this right now. Right. Right. Right. So yeah, the intent of the video is to give them a marker to say, we've discussed this and we're going to move on now. Right. It's, it's, it's a PR move, right? But they don't really get to decide like when it's time to move on. Right. It's just like this PR buzzword video trying to save face. Mm-hmm. Victim blaming when like, there's really no discussion of the, the victims who they're really affecting, which is the LGBTQIA plus community, the members of our community who have to deal with this hate every day. Right. Like, like, like this is, this is tough stuff. Um, and then Brian also says in the video, and I'm going to quote this part. Um, we want to be very intentional about the words we use. And we should believe Brian when he says that. And especially the words he doesn't use.
• The hate on that podcast that was mentioned earlier, where they were talking about equating, equating things that should never be equated. Um, Brian addresses it and tries to pass it off as someone related to the parent church made the comments and leaves it at that. What he doesn't say, and he's correct in that, he's correct in that statement, but what he doesn't say is that there are two other members on that podcast, one of whom is the pastor at their new church. Yeah. You see, this is what I, he conveniently leaves that out. I, I, all I knew is that there was a thing. And then the information I got was from watching their video. Right. And like, so I, as a person who doesn't have that information, I watch that and I go, okay, that's fair. Right. So like they got me on that. Right. Cause without what you just told me, it is a thing of like, yeah, well you can't control what everyone says. Right. Sure. And so it's like, oh, well, if someone in the church is saying this thing, well, that's their opinion. They don't have to follow that opinion. Sure. But it is a bit strange when it's like the, the guy that they look to as their leader, right. I don't think that's a bad way to describe that. Like the, yes, no, it's right. Is one of the people, I don't, was he saying these things or was he like engaged in a conversation or was he just there? I don't know. Yeah. I think it was just an all around conversation. It was a, it was the topic of conversation. Like the, the podcast title, I don't have it in front of me is something about like, you know, let's talk about pride month. So it's like a little, the entire show about how to, to handle that. Yeah. As, as people, there's certain beliefs. So yeah. Um, and I just want to say, and I know you're not saying this either. I should make this incredibly clear. Like the issue is not that they are religious, right? 100%. Yeah. That is not the problem here. The problem also is not that they may believe in a faith that has these opinions, right? Like, correct. Correct. Because there is a spectrum of opinion. And like, even, even to a point, like the fact that somebody in their church has these opinions is also not necessarily the problem. But I feel like, given this information, one of two things should have happened. They should have said anything faster, although it probably wouldn't have helped. But realistically, in the situation that they are in, they should be leaving that church, I think. That would be the statement that people might be happier with. Yep. And that's my next point. If they want to protect their business and their community, they should be like, they should not just be like trying to excuse this. They should be wanting to disavow this. Now, I will just state, I'm not telling them that's what they have to do, right? Absolutely. I'm saying that's what I think is the way to resolve this situation. They don't have to resolve this situation. They can be perfectly happy with how people feel. Because that is a very valid thing for them to do. Because, do you know what? We have free speech, right? You can choose to do whatever you want. But what you can't expect is that people will just treat you the same as they did before with new information.
• I agree with you across the board on all those statements. So, they can do whatever they want. They can say whatever they want. They can believe whatever insane things they want to believe, if they believe them. I'm not saying they do, but if they do, right? Or they can be associated with people that have these beliefs, if they want to. But then you have to be willing to accept the way that people will react to you. And if what you want to do is just sell pens to people that want to buy them, great. If you want to sell. But what you can't do is stuff that they have done in the past where they try and encourage this wider community. Which is more diverse because it is a creative community. So, it's more diverse in opinion and belief and thought.
• You have to encourage that. And this is not encouraging that. Right? Like, look at us. I'm not queer. I'm a straight man. Right? I'm a straight white man. But I believe that I do everything I can to encourage anyone and everyone to listen to our shows. Like, I understand that by having these conversations, we do actually shut down a particular type of person. But that is one that I'm fine with. And similarly, I feel like if you don't agree with me, I'm not telling you that you should. Right? Like, I'm just saying, like, this is how I feel. But, like, and I think you go many steps further than me. Like, you're way more eloquent about these things than me. I think they hit you even more strongly from an emotional perspective than me.
• But, like, that's kind of the spectrum of it all. Right? Like, and I think what we try and do is try and encourage people. And, like, what we're not doing is trying to shut these people down. And I feel like that's what they're doing here. And, but then also at the same time trying to say, oh, yeah, but we're just the same as we were a week ago. But nobody sees you that way anymore. It's so complicated. But, again, I think a lot of people would say, right, like, you should not believe this. And I agree with that. But I'm not telling them what to do. Like, it's up to them what they do. But then they have to accept that their business has changed now. Yeah.
• Absolutely. Like, you have to take ownership of your beliefs. And if that's what you believe, you have to act in accordance to that. What they want, though, as business owners to have it both ways. Right? They want to present that they're inclusive. So, like, they made a point in the video that they love everyone and we're an inclusive community at Goulet Pens. But what they didn't say is that they're personally against the beliefs of the church or that they're leaving the church. Right? Yeah. So, it's just a really, really trying to have it both ways. And putting a video up like this is just trying to hand wave away, like, the real issues. And, you know, they didn't commit to any change. Right? There was no next step in this video. There was no mention of change. They didn't call the apology. Didn't call it an apology video because it wasn't apologizing for anything. Right? There's no changes coming that, as far as I can tell, you know. So, it's just tough when, like you said, we just have an amazing community. That our community is smart and they're diverse and, you know, they're just really, really strong in their beliefs. And it means a lot to see our community stand up against these types of beliefs. Right? You know, my friends in the LGBTQIA community, like, they're the strongest of all of us. Right? Because they have to fight this every day. Yeah. We just get drawn into this once a month or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, they're out there fighting these things on a daily basis. And we're fighting for them. They're fighting for themselves. And that is a whole different kettle of fish. Yeah. And there was just a complete dismissal of really, like, it was basically, you know, we're sorry if we offended anybody. And that's just completely missing the point.
• I just want to be clear that I love my LGBTQIA friends. Like, I just love you all so much. I'm going to fight for you. And that's why we're going to talk about this today. You know, are we going to talk about this every week? No. You know, we really, like, this is a podcast about pins. But I'm telling you what, if there's someone that I can help stand up for and I'm able to, I'm going to use my platform to help stand up for people that are fighting against hate. And this is one of those times where it was an easy decision for me to make and make the comments that I did over the past week. So, if you all have any questions, definitely feel free to reach out to me. If we're wrapping this up, I will finish it with just one thought, which is, if you're listening to this and you don't agree with us, right, that's fine for you. Right? But the one thing that I'll say on this is, try and keep in mind, why do you have the right to tell anyone what to do?
• Right? Like, and what people choose to do in their lives doesn't affect you, shouldn't affect you. That's their choice. Right? If someone wants to love someone, they can just love them. Somebody loving someone, no matter who they are or where they come from, does not affect you. It's nothing to do with you. You love who you love. Let them love who they love.
• It's very simple. Right? That's the frustrating thing. It's like, ah, this isn't hard. Because you know what doesn't happen? Gay people don't fight against straight people. Right? They're not out there being like, what you're doing is disgusting. They're not doing that. So why do you have to do it? Just let people live their lives. It's so simple.
• Your life would be easier if you didn't care. Right? Your life would be easier if you just let them do, everyone do, whatever they want. Like, it's not hard. Just let people love. Love is love, man. It's nice. Like, we should all be able to have it. Like, it shouldn't be complicated.
• Yep. And I love the people the most who love themselves and live their true selves and live their true identities. And, yeah, I just wanted to know, everyone, that, you know, you have my undivided support and our undivided support. I'll put it to Myke's mouth. But I think it's pretty clear where we stand on this issue. And I don't think it's going to go away because nothing's changed. I don't think we're – we're not saying that boycott Goutlet, right? Like, but just – Absolutely not. Make your own decisions, you know? Exactly. Yeah, make your decisions. But this is the thing of, like, they're a shop, right? They're a shop. They're a business. That's what they are.
• But this stuff gets more complicated when people are trying to build a brand.
• And if someone's trying to build a brand, a brand has beliefs and ethics that are pushed forward by the people that lead that brand. They can choose whatever they want those to be. You just have to – and you don't have to align with the ethics of a brand. You don't have to do that. But you can make those decisions based on that stuff if you want to. And maybe you choose a different company to buy from because they reflect your ethics a bit more. Like, it's just another decision you have to make. And, like, you can choose on price. You can choose on quality. You can choose on availability. You can choose on shipping. You can choose on ethics. It's just one of the things that you have in your availability to choose from. I think the ethics of Goulet has changed, right? Right. So you have the decision now if you want to continue buying from them or not, which you can.
• But just know that. It doesn't mean you're supporting bad people, essentially, right? But it's just a thing – it's just a decision you have to make. And maybe now it's, like, maybe one company, their shipping is, like, $3 more. But you like their ethics more. So you support them instead. It's kind of as simple as that, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So, again, just to wrap it up, it's been a tough week for a lot of people. Yeah. And I'm here to lead as much support as possible. And, yeah, we're going to keep supporting all of our friends out there. So – Turns out I'm not done. Yeah, good stuff. You're the best. Do you know that? No, I'm being serious right now. Like, I think this community is so lucky that you lead it. And I know you won't accept that, but I mean it. Like, you are at the top of this thing. That's just the end of it, right? Like, everybody knows this. You're Brad Dowdy, right? Like, you are the guy. I think this community is as good as it is, and we are as lucky as we are because we have someone like you at the top of it. Like, you're so inclusive. You're so warm. You're so welcoming. You're such a good communicator.
• Like, we are so lucky that you are here because what you say matters. And I'm convinced, convinced that you're part of the reason that pushed them to say anything. Right? That if you would have said nothing, they might have been able to try and get away with this. But like, the fact that you are pushing on them as hard as you are, and this goes for all companies in this industry. Like, you push people and things change. Because that is who you are. People care about what you have to say. And I think that we're lucky that you care about everybody as much as you do when you think about what you have to say. So, take that. I've never thought of it that way. Well, you should. Because it's just who I am. No, it's just who I am. So, when you live who your true self is, everything is easy. Or easier. Not easy, but easier. Right? It's easy for me to stand up against hate. Shocker.
• Shocker. Super simple. I'm glad I cried a lot last week because you'd have me crying there. I know you're trying to get me to cry, but... Yeah, I'm just going for it. I ran out of tears last week. Give me them tears. I want them.
• You make me better. You make everyone better. It's just amazing. I appreciate that. I try. I'm not infallible. I make mistakes. I try to get better and learn from those mistakes and implement change. And I think a lot of people could learn from those very, very basic things. Let's all live our lives hoping we never need to make an apology video. You know? Yes.

Discussion of MKBHD controversy

• I live my life in a way that means I never have to do one of those. I try very hard every day not to get in the position where I have to make an apology video. I mean, are you even aware of everything that's happening with MKBHD right now? Have you seen any of this? Not until this morning. We're going to segue into this real quick because I'm an outsider as far as that goes. So I'm on Mastodon yesterday and I'm like, I'm seeing a lot of my friends who do wallpaper posts like wallpaper ads. And then I see like not ads, you know, just tweeting about wallpaper. And I like, I have no concept of this going on. And then I see Steven post. He's blocking the term wallpaper on Ivory. And I was like, what is going on?
• So I was like, finally, someone like linked the two things together. You had the same response as me with the fountain pen in it. So finally this morning, someone linked wallpaper and NKBHD together. Then that's all I needed. I went and searched and I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. But it took me like a day. It's one of these things where like my very top thought is like, I don't think it requires an apology. Like it's just some decisions that he made and like a lot of people don't like them or whatever. But like he is being like put into a box where people want him to make an apology video. And so basically my point is these can happen to you in a way in which you do not expect. So I just live my life hoping I never get put in that position.
• Exactly. Exactly. But hey, if you do get put in that position, this is life advice. Be honest. Be yourself. Tell the truth. You know, be straightforward. Leave no ambiguity. Don't let other people put words in your mouth. Be very clear on where you stand. So man, let's I'm going to let you do an ad read because I need to take a drink real quick. Good idea. And then there is actually a pin I would like to discuss because I actually think it it deserves a lot of discussion. I'm very interested to get your thoughts on this. So let's do an ad read. I'm going to take a drink and then we're going to talk about a pin before we close this up today. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the only one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're getting started or managing a brand, you can stand out from the crowd of a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell your products, services, or the content you create. Squarespace has everything you need all in one place, all on your terms. You can start a completely personalized website with Squarespace's guided design system. Choose from their professionally curated layout and styling options to build a unique online presence from the ground up, tailored to your brand or business and optimized for every device. And launch your website easily and get discovered fast. They've integrated optimized SEO tools so you show up more often to more people growing the way you want to. You can also integrate flexible payments to make checkouts seamless for your customers with simple but powerful payment tools. You can accept credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay. And in eligible countries, offer customers the option to buy now and pay later with Afterpay and Clearpay. It's so easy to sell your content with Squarespace as well as your physical goods. So they have all the integrations that you need to sell physical products and make it incredibly easy. That's how Brad manages the Panatic shop. It's all on Squarespace. But they also have tools to sell content, digital stuff on your site. You can add a paywall to select content or courses. Or you can sell files that your customers can download like PDFs, music, or e-books.
• Go and check it out for yourself today. Go to squarespace.com and sign up for a free trial. You can then build your entire website and see how incredibly flexible Squarespace is. It's why both of us have been coming to Squarespace for years for the projects that we have. Over 15 years, actually. Because they have all of the integrations you need, all of the tools you're going to need, all of the functionality, and they keep updating it and making it better over time. Once you've built your site and you're ready to launch it, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict when you decide to sign up. And you'll get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. A thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of Relay.

Ajoado Pocket Pen Kickstarter campaign

• All right, Myke. I put a link in the show notes knowing that you're busy and probably haven't had much time to dig into this. But a little bit of context before I want you to go first on your thoughts on this pen. This is the Ajoado Pocket Pen. There is a Kickstarter up. I am a super big Ajoado fan. I'm one of the, I don't know, one of the more outwardly outspoken pro Ajoado people in the market because they make a very expensive pen that I very much enjoy. I love, love, love Ajoado's pens. So now they're making a pocket pen. So I was like, oh, cool, Ajoado Pocket Pen. I don't have this pen. I didn't get any preview of this. I know the people behind Ajoado very well. We talk a lot. I didn't get any word other than I saw this in my Kickstarter one day.
• So I was like, oh, sweet, Ajoado Pocket Pen. And I clicked the link. And what did you expect when you clicked this link, Myke?
• Not this.
• Not this at all. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but like very not this. This is not a Ajoado style as I know it to be.
• Where I kind of consider their pens more like jewelry, I think is a thing that they have established over time. And this pen falls firmly into the EDC world. And that is what they're building. Like this is.
• This is a prime example of this product to me of the benefit of a Kickstarter video. Yeah. Because when I saw the images, I was like, oh, no, no, no. But when I watched the video, I was like, okay. Right. Like this pen is not for me. I would not use this pen because this is not EDC, that kind of idea. It's just not a thing that I think about. Right. Yeah. It's not what you need every day. No. And what is typically EDC turns me off visually. Right. Like products that are made to be carried around constantly have a certain aesthetic and considerations that you need for that. But I think for a product like this, they've done two things that are interesting. One is the way that you engage the pen, which is almost like a flick knife, which is I find almost kind of comical as well as interesting. Because it's like, hey, what are EDC people like? They like knives. What if we make a pen work like a knife? Right. So it's kind of funny, but it's interesting. Right. Like it fits that idea of you don't have a cap that you're going to drop, which is good if you're kind of using it. On the go. And also the engaging of it is pleasurable in an interesting way. I think that kind of stuff ticks the boxes of EDC. But the thing that actually really sold me, I love the way that you can attach like clips and like little, what do they call them? Like carry rings, they call it carabiners and stuff like that. Yeah. I think that's a very smart little idea that they've got of like, oh, this pen can be attached to you in a bunch of ways. And like we have built it that you can swap those out. So watching the whole video, I'm like, this looks like a great option in that market. But it is absolutely not a product for me.
• It is absolutely not a product for me either. For all the reasons you've said, I've still backed it because I like a Johto's construction and design and I want to see it for myself. I'm very intrigued to how it feels like to use. But even just like the way that they have designed the body of the pen itself.
• I just, I've used pens that are that shape and I don't like it. Yeah, that's another thing. So it's a rectangular shape pen when it's in action. And that does work for me. So remember that time. And I say this, I say this from love. Remember that time Dan and Tom from Studio Neat made a cat toy and put it on Kickstarter? Yeah, Obi.
• Yeah, Obi. And it didn't do so well. I don't think it made it right. But that's the right platform. I think they ended up pulling it. Yeah, they closed it. I'm remembering correctly.
• That's why we started It's Early Considered. Yeah, and this is why Kickstarter exists. You put these ideas out there and people vote with their wallets. This project has not made a goal of $20,000 yet. It's been up for about two weeks, I think.
• This product will fund. It will get made. But it's not like a wild, wild success. And I think people are seeing a Johto as a brand and wondering what this is. Kind of like the same conversations we're having. It will... It will... I'm maybe wish casting a little bit. But I think it technically, from a technical aspect and from a build aspect and a construction aspect, it'll be great because that's what a Johto does, right? They're going to put everything they have into this and make a great product. But is it something that someone needs? And that's where I'm not sure. But like, I'm going to give it a shot. I have backed this project. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. It's close enough. We'll follow through on it. It's going to make. It's going to make it. But it's going to make it just. Yeah. Most likely. So it's still got a month to go. But yeah, I'm interested to see what this is like. And kind of like you, the interesting parts to me were the clip and the hook parts of it. I have plenty of little pocket pens I can use that I will enjoy more than this. But if I can get the little connection pieces and maybe do something a little different with this, we'll see. Maybe it'll live in my backpack forever or something like that. So I'm looking forward to it because I love a Jodo as a brand. But I don't necessarily need a pen like this in my writing rotation. And that's the way I'm looking at it. But again, like you made the point in the beginning, like I'm not in the EDC market. Like from this type of product is what I need for my day-to-day usage. So it's interesting. I'll be enjoying following this project. I will look forward to getting this pen whenever I don't even I didn't even look at the end date for this. Probably I'm assuming it's 30 days. So no, no, no, no. The production time. Oh, I meant to say. Okay. Yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure it'll be next year. So they expect spring of 2045. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. All right. So, yeah, that's something I'm looking forward to. And we'll see. We'll see.
• All right. Before we wrap up today, with those that I've got to mention. So we do milestones throughout the campaign. I am. And one of them is I'm going to be on October 4th at noon Eastern. I'm going to be streaming at Myke.live, my Twitch channel, a Cortex brand prototype stream. So I'm going to be showing off some stuff that we've made that didn't work and talking about why and showing off like some of the items of how we got to like the finished products, some of our stuff. Also going to be showing off a selection of products that we are working on, which I've never done before. So I'm going to be showing off a bunch of stuff that we've got in the works, hopefully for the next year and hopefully getting some feedback from people. So come and join me on October 4th at noon Eastern on Myke.live. And we'll go through some stuff together and answer some questions and have a fun time, I hope. Oh, yeah. You've sold me. I will be there. Good. I want you to be there. So please do. Do you know. But this was unlocked because of our St. Jude campaign, which we have now passed $850,000 raised for the kids of St. Jude. Let's go to the moon. Go to stjude.org slash relay. Donate today. And then don't forget to go to penaddict.com and find out how you can get entered into the giveaway for one of these incredible items that we've been donated from all over the Penn community, which is a wonderful community that we love so much. If you would like to send in questions, follow up feedback for the show, be kind. Go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send those in. If you want to find Brad online, he's at penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. He's at penaddict and streams over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. And you can find my products at Cortex Brand and my podcasts at relay.fm. Thanks to Squarespace and Penn Chalet for the support of this episode. But most of all, thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.