The Pen Addict 451/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	451
Title:	Changing the World One Person at a Time
Release Date:	March 3rd, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 451
Audio File:	Audio Episode 451
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 451
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 451. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Ooni Pizza Ovens. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad: Hey Myke, how are you?

Myke: What's so funny to you?

Brad: I have no idea. I think, legitimately, I'm happy to be here. I'm not even like joking. Like the last 30 minutes, you know, I've just kind of been bouncing around. Like I got up, got some things done this morning. You know, I did awesome fun businessy things like accounting and, you know, emails and bills and that kind of stuff this morning. And then like the last 30 minutes before the show, I was just like bouncing around like it's podcast time, it's podcast time. So I'm just in a good mood, Myke. Is that so wrong?

Myke: There's nothing wrong with that at all.

Brad: What is wrong with you?

Myke: What's wrong with you?

Feedback on Episode 450

Myke: Anyway, that's exactly the right way to start a show. Last week, big episode, episode 450. We got lots of great feedback. I enjoyed putting it together. It was a fun time.

Brad: It was good. It was, number one, when companies started replying to us, then that was, that was funny. Like a Johto reached out and was like, hey, that was funny. Like, and then, you know, I've had some other people talk to me, you know, behind the scenes about it. And it was like, oh, that was fun. It was really cool to put that together. It was fun to kind of run through that. And we're still getting commentary about it, which I appreciate because we put like a lot of work into that. And that was, it was fun to do. So now it makes me like, should I get back into like aggressively kickstarting again, which that's not going to happen. But I, I just enjoyed the whole idea of the show running through the goods and the goods and the bads. And it was just a fun look back because it ran, you know, such in sync with the podcast as a whole, right? That's what made it good. Like we, it was basically a running thread from when we started, um, was not far after, uh, Kickstarter started. So it was, it was good to do, but thank you all for all the great feedback. It was, it was awesome to read. Speaking of which all the Kickstarters, Myke, I just wanted to give a quick knock co Kickstarter shipping update. I have shipped through backer 200. This is for the wax canvas cases. The feedback has been great for people who have received there. So thank y'all for that. Keep that coming. You know, let me know your thoughts on the cases. Um, there was like 530 backers maybe. So I'm not quite halfway there yet, but, uh, I should be past halfway before the week is out. And yeah, that's kind of the pace I'm going at. And I need to kind of ramp that up, Myke. Right. Because next week we're going to talk about another product. I'm going to have to start shipping, which is the, the spoke fountain pen release is going to be next week. So we'll save. Well, like ready to go. Yeah. Huh? Okay. Like it's go time. I'd love to get one, but you just never sent anything to me. It's questionable. Questionable. Maybe now when I sent, start selling the fountain pens, I'll send you your roadie. That's probably the move. Well, I will also want to couple it with a fountain pen. So, you know, maybe I'll have a six month delay or something. Yes. Yes. So like, I think now's the time to ship the roadie to you. And then we'll just put the fountain pens just on the ledger somewhere. Yeah. That sounds about right. If I, if I actually buy one, will it force you to send it to me? Yes. Okay. So maybe I'll just cancel the order. Maybe I'll just cancel the order. Grease the palms. Mm-hmm. Over at the spoke company. So I have a wheel. Grease the wheel. Get it. There you go. Um, we'll do a full breakdown of what we're doing next week, um, for next week's show. So plan on that. Uh, that'll be like a half episode of the madness that, that we're trying to, uh, put forth out into the world. It is going to, it's a little bit crazy, but it's, it's good. It's, it's, it's okay to be a little bit crazy and do things that, you know, other companies don't really do. And that's kind of what we're setting out to do here. So stay tuned for that. I teased the, a single fountain pen that I made through all the parts of the fountain pens that I've received so far on stream yesterday. So if you want a teaser of that, you can go to, uh, um, the Twitch stream. You can catch the VOD, which is twitch.tv slash pen addict. Or you can go to the pen addict YouTube channel and see a replay of it and see what I built. I'm maybe that's why I'm in a good mood, Myke, because it's awesome. It looks really good. I'm very happy with it. So that's the deal. Um, and as coincidence would have it, launch day is going to be actually podcast day next week. So I'll be a little bit, uh, a little bit harried. Uh, I'm looking at, I'm looking at the video right now. That's a good looking pen. Yeah. It's fun. We like to have fun with this stuff. Right. So it's like exactly what I want to use. Yeah. Right. And we've talked about this a hundred times over the nearly decade we've been doing this. Like I make the things I want to use and yeah. And then hopefully you like them too. Yeah. It looks, but this is, this is even going to be like, this is going to be very different from a lot, what a lot of people are used to. People who have been following me, teasing the prototypes kind of know what they're getting into. But for people who haven't seen it, I think they're going to be surprised with a couple of the, a couple of the things that we're doing with this pen. So, and I look forward to the feedback from that. So there you go. I have some feedback for Kaweco, Myke. Is that okay?

Myke: Yes. I would love to hear it.

Brad: You're still looking at the pen, aren't you?

Myke: I was.

Brad: Just wait. I'll take some pictures of it when I get the official spoke pen nib in, which should happen today. So that's what I'm waiting for. That's why I haven't done like Instagram pictures because I don't have the proper nib. I have a nib that fits. They take a Govo number sixes. But until then, let me, let me have a conversation with Kaweco. I think we need to just chat about their new procedures for naming their special edition pens, right? We covered this, what, a month ago, a few weeks ago about how, hey, good idea naming all your special editions collection and getting rid of all these machinations that they were trying to put in place with regional naming and stamping the name, you know, on the, on the pen, you know, rest in peace, Paladin Evergreen. I'll miss you. Rest in peace, Golden Espresso. I'll miss you. But that experiment ended quickly. They're just going to go with straight up collection, Myke, on the limited editions, except this first one. Except this first one where they apparently got to, forgot to tell the factory not to stamp sport on, on the, on the, on the sport model and put collection on it. It's hilarious. Like this is no big deal whatsoever, but I get so much pleasure and joy from this. How did you find this? Someone, someone tweeted me.

Myke: So basically it's a link to Goulet pens and there's a couple of different images on the page. The renders or like, well, clearly very, like very much the official images from Caveco say Caveco collection, but the pictures, which I would assume have been taken by Goulet, the product page say Caveco sport on the side. So something got messed up here. I mean, we'll have to see when they, I guess when they, if they haven't already started shipping, like landing with people for all we know, that's a prototype or something. And sure. They didn't stamp it correctly. So if anybody buys one of these, um, Brad's probably already bought one. I wouldn't be surprised. No, no. Okay. If anybody buys one of these, the lavender ones, we want a picture of the side. Does it say sport or collection on it? Because now it's, it's all over the map.

Brad: So they've started showing them in the, uh, pen attic slack. And I think they're, I think they're getting both. I know there's definitely been some sports.

Myke: Oh, it says, it says on the Goulet page. No, some pens are engraved Caveco sport and others Caveco collection. Our stock is mixed. And unfortunately we are unable to honor special requests. So they must've gotten a bunch of questions about it. This is so funny.

Brad: I love this so much. This may, this is why I want to do a podcast. I don't care what, you know, about using the stuff. I want to, I want to see when companies do goof ups like this. Cause it, it really doesn't matter. But the lead up into, Hey, this is now what we're going to do. And me thinking, Hey, this is a great idea. And then they did this straight up butcher it right out the gate. I love it.

Myke: That's so strange. Especially cause it's like a sense of like a new product launch type deal, right? Like new branding. You would assume that they would be all over it, but I don't know. Maybe the samples that Caveco got, I mean, we've, we've all had this. Anyone that's made stuff has had this happen. The samples that Caveco got like sent to them from the factory or whatever, or whoever was signing it off said one thing. But then when they went actually went out to the distributors, someone messed up.

Brad: Yeah. And I'm thinking like, I don't want to say like it's in house, like, I don't know for sure, but I mean, I think they're their own manufacturer kind of thing. Right. So I could be, could be mistaken on that. Yeah. It's just funny because of what you said, like the importance they put on this at the jump, and then just goof it up in the right, in the beginning. I love it. It's funny. So now we're going to have to, we need to count, Myke. We need to count which one's going to be rare. This is like those, it's like a collectible error card or something like that. Right. So like, is the, is, did they only make 10% sports? Is that the rare one now? And is that one going to go secondary market for a bajillion dollars? Right. I don't know. I don't know, Myke. It's just, you know, maybe this is, maybe this is Caveco's. Maybe they did it on purpose. Maybe there's a conspiracy theory. Now people have to buy multiples. So now they have two, one that says sport, one that says collection. Maybe this is big pen with the conspiracy going on.

Myke: Well, this is how you get it. Maybe they did it on purpose. This is how you make it more valuable.

Brad: This is why we do this show, Myke. This is what I care about the most.

Myke: Someone needs to make an NFT of this, Brad. That's the thing. That's what you got to do now.

Electricity and NFTs

Brad: I have electricity concerns about this topic, Myke, so I need to learn about this more.

Myke: The electricity thing is one thing, and I understand that, but there's parts about the NFT stuff where artists benefit greatly. That's the thing that I support. Here's the thing that I found out about NFTs, in case you didn't know. Every time they resell, so like if I bought your art and sold it to somebody else, you make a percentage of the cut of my sale forever. Every time an NFT is resold, the original artist makes money. Hmm. And I think that that is so incredible and is exactly how art should work, in my opinion. Like that every time it's resold, like there should be a royalty that goes back to the artist. I think it makes sense. You're buying the work of somebody else.

Brad: Yeah. No, I don't disagree. I just don't know enough about it to be able to speak on it.

Myke: NFTs, in case you don't know, they're called non-fungible tokens. It is digital art sale. This is a topic that you may have heard a little bit about. It's to do with the blockchain and crypto and all that stuff.

Brad: Yeah, I would like to understand more because that's like a market I would participate in personally. Right? But I just don't, I haven't spent the time to learn about what's going on.

Myke: We're going to mention Betty in a little bit of the Pictorial podcast here on Relay.fm. You should go and subscribe to Pictorial because as they are saying in the chat, and as I would have assumed anyway, they will cover NFTs on that show because it's a big thing in the art world. So Relay.fm slash Pictorial, which is also just a great show for people that listen to this show. It focuses on art. It's by Quinn and Betty, two art enthusiasts. But it's not a like highbrow, you know, like, oh, you don't understand art kind of show. This is for people that enjoy art but don't, but like want to learn more and that kind of thing. So it's more about sharing and enthusiasm rather than like, oh, you know, you've got to pay the price to come into this room. Do you know what I mean? Right.

Brad: I mean, and now that we're leading into this and you mentioned highbrow, I would like to put on Betty's radar that we need a lowbrow art episode. She'll know what I'm talking about. And that's a art world I like to follow. You know, it's not exactly what you think. But that is one of my art fandom areas.

Myke: An underground visual art movement that arose in the 1960s.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: So there you go. All right. Let's make a pizza.

Myke: Okay. Is this like just a new phrase? Yeah. It's like this is when we get on with the show. Okay. Let's make a pizza. No, let's talk about Ooni Pizza Ovens, the world's number one pizza oven company. They make surprisingly small ovens that are powered by your choice of either wood, charcoal or gas, letting you make restaurant quality pizza in your own backyard. Ooni Pizza Ovens are super easy to use. They're very portable and will fit in any outside space. Ooni Pizza Ovens can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit or 500 degrees Celsius, which enables you to cook restaurant quality pizza in as little as 60 seconds. It's that high temperature that separates these pizzas from those that you can make in a home oven. One of their most popular models is the Ooni Coda 16. This is a gas powered oven that can cook up to 16 inch pizzas and has an innovative L-shaped burner at the back that gives you even heat distribution. Ooni Pizza Ovens start from just $299 with free shipping to the US, UK and the EU, with two of their coolest models being the multi-fueled Ooni Karu, which can use wood, charcoal or gas, or the Ooni Coda 16. They also make an awesome app as well to help you perfect your dough recipe and give you loads of pizza making tips. Brad, can you, actually before we started the show today, you were saying that it's nearly Ooni season in the Dowdy household again.

Brad: Yeah, it's mainly because I'm a big chicken and don't want to go out in the cold and fire it up. But it's actually, it would be smart if I did, right, because the Ooni oven is just going to warm me up. So, we have an Ooni. We love to use it. We tend to use it more, which is when I say, you know, it's not cold. That's like nine months out of the year. It's not cold around here. So, we fire up the Ooni quite frequently. It's an amazing piece of technology. I still haven't totally wrapped my head around. But what Ooni has created has been nothing short of impressive. And they kind of change the industry, if I'm being honest about it. Like, I didn't see so many, you know, such competition before they showed that they have such a great product out there. And it's one of the first to really do this. It's the best.

Brad: And it is so easy to use. It's so fun to use. And it's really like this family gathering point. It's like, you know, you're not going to do it. I'm not going to break out the Ooni for myself, Myke, if everyone's out of town. But it's like we make an evening of it. Like, let's all make pizzas. Yeah. We can all make our own pizza. Fire it in the Ooni. And we can be done. Like, I can cook four pizzas for the four of us in our family in like five minutes. Right? It's awesome. I love it.

Myke: Listeners of this show can get 10% off their purchase of an Ooni pizza oven, which is up to $50 off of the Ooni code of 16. Just go to Ooni.com and use the code PENADDICT21 at checkout. When you're there, you'll find a great range of accessories from peels to cutters to oven tables. Everyone's making pizza at home right now. It's a great lockdown activity. And this is a perfect tool for the job, which also explains why Ooni pizza ovens are incredibly, are in incredibly high demand. So don't miss out. Ooni pizza ovens are the best way to bring restaurant quality pizza to your own backyard. So go to Ooni.com. That's O-O-N-I.com and use the code PENADDICT21 for 10% off. Our thanks to Ooni pizza ovens for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Ooni Pizza Oven Promotion

Brad: I think I'm excited about this next topic, Myke, but I'm not totally sure. And I'm definitely interested in what you have to say about the launch of the Pilot Custom Heritage SE. Okay. So we started getting links for this last week, right? Some of our friends were sending these links. Hey, this is, you know, what you've been looking for from Pilot or look at this new pin from Pilot. And we've been seeing it, you know, around the internet. And just full disclosure, the Tokyo Inklings podcast, episode 26, they have this pin in hand and did a full breakdown of awesomeness on this pin. And you should go listen to CY, Jacob, and their special guest this week, Elisa, who has the pin in hand. And they've been able to check these out in Japan because that's the only place they're at right now, which we'll talk about later. But what is the Pilot Custom Heritage SE? It is a special edition styled in Pilot's traditional. It looks like the miniature version of the 912. I don't want to call it the 91 because it has like the 912 clip, but it has the smaller nib, like on the 91 or the 74, if you're familiar with those Pilot models. And what they did was kind of a marbled resin barrel with black grip section, black finial. And then they have five different colors, like an orange, red, blue, green, and gray. Basically swirled marble patterns. It's kind of not exactly like a Pelican type of swirl, but that kind of look. Like I get that like in the blues and greens. I see kind of, okay, I could see a Pelican making this kind of swirl. It is approximately $300 to purchase this, you know, which I'll talk about that a little bit more in a second. But I'm a little delimited, right? This is what I've been asking for for Pilot for I don't know how many years, right? I want to see Pilot. I don't want to see them copy Sailor, right? And what Sailor has done as far as custom editions, special editions, limited editions. We'll have a conversation about that later. I almost think Sailor might have gone too far in it or maybe, you know, making a path that I don't know that they can recover from. But I want to see Pilot do more with what they have because what they have is really good. Like a pin like the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 is an amazing pin that I recommend a lot. But, Myke, it comes in black with rhodium trim. Like the end. Like there's no annual special edition for that.

Brad: You know, they'll mix in new barrel colors for different product lines here and there. Like the Falcon had two barrel colors this year, like a purple barrel and a blue barrel, and those did very well. But it's still standard-ish. So this is a dedicated special edition to a certain pin lineup, and it's a little bit different design. So what do you think about this pin just as a pin from Pilot and kind of the pricing and just kind of the whole bigger picture? Because I have a few more thoughts on it.

Myke: So the pricing is kind of around $300 or so, right?

Brad: Mm-hmm.

Myke: Hmm. I don't know, Brad. Honestly, I really, I'm struggling with this one. I think that's it, yeah. Like our friend Thomas sent this to us, and Thomas said kind of what other people have said. It was like, this is what you wanted, right? And my answer is kind of like, no?

Brad: Right. My final takeaway is I think this is a half measure.

Myke: Yeah, I... It's like just regular-ish looking swirls. And they're nice. It's like a nice acrylic. It's nice. And it's a thing to do, right? They did a thing, yes. But I just... Especially having a small nib, like it looks like a kind of Progear slim size nib. It is. And it doesn't look like it's a particularly small-bodied pen, right? Like it's so... I can't tell.

Brad: Yeah. It's kind of... This is basically the Progear slim model of Pilot. This is the Custom 91, Custom 74 sizing of Pilot with the Pilot's 5 nib. I hesitate to call it a number 5 nib. It's not. Pilot has their own nib sizing. Where the Pilot 912 is the 1911 large or the Progear standard with the larger nib. And in Pilot, it'd be the 10 nib. Right? So this is the smaller category of the pen. I think I can tell you why this bothers me.

Myke: I think I've bottled it now. I want to see, like you do as well, Pilot do more exciting things to dig into their back catalog as well. You know, like we talk about some of the incredible pen designs they have in their history that they are not doing anything with. You know, like all of the Mayu, the Murex and all that. It's like a whole thing. And then another is...

Brad: I'll ask you a question about that later.

Myke: Okay. And then the other thing is like, by and large, the stuff that is a kind of regular bread and butter is mostly like solid color, acrylic, whatever. Right? Yeah. For reasons I can't explain. When I see this Heritage SE with its marble-like texture and its fun... And very Pelican-like, to be honest. I think maybe that's part of my problem. Because I feel like I've seen this pen before and it's a Pelican. I look at this and it's like, for a reason I can't explain, I feel like this is as far as they're willing to go.

Myke: And that's not exciting enough for me.

Pilot's New Product Line

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. That's bothersome if you think that. Right? I think this is the least that they could do.

Brad: Which I'm glad they did it because maybe there's a round two. But if there's not, this is an oof. This is like... Yeah. Like, you can do so much better.

Brad: It's unfair for me to compare them to Sailor. I understand that. But I just... I want something that tells me they understand what's going on in different parts of the market. Right? This is clearly... They know their market better than I do. And according to Tokyo Inklings, they're selling out of a lot of these colors in Japan. And it's been popular. You know? Because they know their market. That's why they make, you know, black and gold trim pens. Right? Like, Pilot's a big deal. Oh, man. I just love them so much. I just want something that expresses me a little bit more. You know? I want to express myself through Pilot's pens a little bit more. And I'm kind of done. Like, I've got the things. I don't necessarily... I don't need the Custom Heritage SE. Like, if I see one in person, maybe down the line, and it's compelling. You know? Maybe I'll pick them up. But I'm not, like, rushing out to make this purchase. Like, it's okay. It's perfectly fine. I think the price is okay. Right? It's borderline for the smaller version of the pen. But that's kind of what these pens are going for these days. Right? You're starting to see the limited edition slims get up, you know, in the upper 200s, close to three. Like, it's on the edge for that size pen. When you can get, like, a standard... So, like, the Custom 74, Myke, is one of their standards. And they introduce new colors in that every year. It's their translucent, number five nib. And it's a great pen. It's, like, $160. Right? They introduced a blue and a burgundy last year. They introduced a forest green this year. They're pretty. I would buy any of those before. You could buy two of those, basically, for this pen. Right? And that just makes you start to think, like, I don't know. Like, I feel... I'm happy this exists.

Brad: But I want to see the next 12 months. You know? So, like, if it's over now, like, if we're done, then, like, it's bad.

Myke: It's like, I imagine it being, like, okay, here you go then. And we'll get back to what we were doing. It's kind of how... I don't know why. It's, like, this is how it makes me feel. It's just kind of, like, this is what you wanted, right? Now you can shut up and we can just go back to doing what we were doing before. We'll go do that.

Brad: I'm not asking for a lot. I'm asking for you to make solid color barrel 912s. And lime green and orange and sky blue. And, you know, rotate one or two of those out every year. Like, I'm not asking for a lot, Pilot. No! No! I'm really not.

Myke: We will not do it.

Brad: But, like, yeah, your point is valid. It's like, this is what you wanted, right? It's like, you know, from Pilot's perspective, like, hey, look, we did the thing. We did it. I was like, ooh, okay. Do you want a treat? Like, here's some cookies, I guess. I don't know. So, like, let's see what happens in the next 12 months. I have a feeling we'll keep, depending on these next 12 months, we'll keep rewinding back to this pen at some point. But it's just not exciting or compelling. Other than I'm glad to exist, I would totally own this pen. Like, it seems fine. But we're not there. I don't know what there is, but I don't think this is it.

Brad: I do know what is there, Myke. And this is me not playing fair by putting the Bung Box Dandelion launch right behind this. It's not comparing apples to apples. I understand that. But when I look at everything Sailor did on this pen for a small independent store and get the same size pen with exponentially more features and design thought for a lower price, I can't help but compare them. I know it's not fair. I know it's not Pilot's business model to make products like this. But just in the context of the pen addict world where we've fallen over limited edition pens that are special and neat and unique, you cannot compare. These are, they are not playing the same game. When you look at a pen like the Dandelion and you look at something like the Custom Heritage SE. Now, I understand. I'm going to keep saying it. I know that's not fair for me to compare those two. I know it's not. But when you're asking me to spend upwards of $300 for a pen and you put these side by side, they're not playing the same game. They just aren't. What do you think about the Dandelion?

Myke: Oh, it's beautiful. So it's a green body with a translucent green grip section and finial on the body of the pen with a bright yellow cap and a, there's like a, like a little Dandelion with a Rushi. Or like Rodden, I should say. Sorry, Rodden. In the finial on the cap. It's beautiful. And it immediately made me think of a key cap set, which is available right now, called GMK Dandy. And it's available, like as we recorded today, it's the last day you can buy it. And they would just suit together so perfectly. It's like green, white, and yellow.

Myke: Do you see what, see that? GMK Dandy? Yeah, I look at it.

Brad: Like I get it. And Dandelion, and like it's perfect. Like it is, it's perfect. So this is my expectation. Like I have no interest in buying Dandelion, right? But I get it. Like I understand what you're telling me as a company. That we made something awesome. We put a lot of extras into it and we're going to charge you a premium for it. And there's only a limited edition going to be made. This is my expectation of what ends up on my desk, right? Where I got to stop. I got to stop comparing them. It's not fair for me to compare. No, but I don't think. Sailor's business and pilot's business.

Myke: No, it's fine.

Brad: But from a consumer, it is fair when I have $300 to spend and I'll just dismiss this pilot out of hand. Good products have stories, right?

Myke: That story can be almost created just to sell the product, right? But it doesn't matter. Your job as a manufacturer and as a marketing team is to tell the story of the product. Mm-hmm. The pilot custom heritage SE's story doesn't speak to me. Mm-hmm. Maybe it doesn't help that we're looking... Well, I mean, the website that pilot have available right now, even though it's in Japanese, there's no information on it, right? It's just like, here's the pen. Yeah, it's like the product sheet. Yeah. And at least calling this product the dandelion and showing me its colors and having a little bit of information about it explains to me the story. And if that resonates with me, I will like this product. So then this company deserves my money. Well, not. I don't think it's too much to ask of a company to create a compelling story around what they're selling you.

Brad: Yeah. But in the end, both of these companies are beholden to their shareholders because they're public companies in Japan. And this is what I think about when I see something like Pilot. They're just going to take this to the bank. They're going to house it, right? Like, hey, this is what our customers want. And maybe it's not, you know, what, you know, the 1% or 2% of, like, some of these special edition make me feel special chasers want, like myself. But you know what? At the end of the year, my shareholders are going to be happy. And that's what I feel. Even though Sailor's in the same boat, I feel like Sailor talks to me personally more than Pilot. Pilot is segmenting themselves into a corporate feel where Sailor is segmenting themselves into a consumer feel is the way, like the big picture. I feel it.

Myke: And that will work for some people, you know, but it won't work for others. And it does, it tends not to work for the two of us.

Brad: Yeah. But I want it to. That's why I get all, you know, anxious about these topics. I love Pilot. I love Pilot. And I want more, right? I will spend my money, but I'm not going to get it, I don't think. I just, I, not anytime soon. I don't think. As much as I want that to be the first of a new trend, I would not bet on it. And I'm a betting man. I would not bet on it.

Myke: All right. Let's take our second break. We've got some more fun stuff to talk about on the other side. And let's thank Squarespace for their support of this show. You can make your next move with Squarespace because they give you all of the tools that you need to easily create your next project for your next idea. The website that you're going to need exactly for it. They give you all of the tools that you're going to need to easily create that website that you want to maybe launch your store or maybe launch your blog, your portfolio. Maybe you have an online event coming up that you want to promote. No matter what type of website you want to make, Squarespace has all of the tools. They're an all-in-one platform to help you build your next project online. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. They take care of all of that stuff. You don't have to worry about it. They've got you covered. And if you need any help, they have an award-winning 24-7 customer support team right there on hand. I talk about how long I've been using Squarespace. Brad's been using it for as long as me. I think we've both been Squarespace customers for like 10 years now. It's as simple as, look, when you have something that you want to do, something that you want to get online, the thing that you want it to be there for is not just so you can spend hours and hours and weeks building the website. It's like content you want to put out there or stuff that you want to sell or something you want to promote. And Squarespace is the easiest way to go from idea to having that website there because they have all of these fantastic tools. It's really customizable and you end up with something really professional looking that you can access from their apps. It's so fantastic. I love it. You can try it out today. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you can sign up for a trial and build your entire website. And then when you're ready to set it live to the world, just sign up for one of their plans. They start at $12 a month, but you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain by using the offer code penaddict to check out. And you'll also be supporting the show. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% of your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and all of RelayFM, Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad: I saw this link pass through my feeds because I follow the awesome articulations on Twitter, which is the aforementioned Betty from the awesome RelayFM podcast pictorial. And I noticed something that she reviewed, Myke. And it was, whoa, and it was a YouTube ad that will end in six seconds, followed by the Cortex theme system journal review. Yep. How cool was that to see?

Myke: So Betty, she knows a guy and missed the initial sale, but I was able to get one to her. And I didn't know that this was something that she was going to do. And she sent it to me and said, like, hey, I'm going to publish this. I watched it just before. She's like, please tell me if I've got anything wrong. And I found it so incredibly gratifying and it was like an emotional experience for me because in the video, she's talking about how she uses the journal, but I hadn't yet seen, like, no, this is the first video review that I've seen, I think. Oh, no, there was one more that I've seen. But this was like, the way that Betty spoke about it in the video, it really felt like she completely understood what I was trying to get out there with the product. And it just felt very, like,

Myke: I just keep saying gratifying. Like, that's how it felt to me. It just felt very like I was understood. And that feeling was just so awesome because it was like, oh, yeah, like, what I have made, the product that I have made, which I use in this certain way, people just naturally get that this is how it's done and they've integrated it into their lives this way. And I've heard, you know, we've had so much fantastic feedback, especially about this second edition. But the level at which this type of feedback has come in has been increasing. And just to see it on video and have someone show you how they're using it and show it all set up and stuff, just, I don't know, it really just enhanced the whole thing for me.

Brad: Yeah, it was great. Let's be clear about one thing. She is very good at the YouTube. Yeah, I mean, that definitely helps. When I finished the video, I was like, dang, like, she is awesome. Being a good communicator

Myke: does definitely help get a point across.

Brad: Yeah, it was great. Secondly, I had two takeaways from just the video itself. One, I didn't, I don't completely understand like how necessarily like Gray uses it, right? But she broke down, like she uses Gray's system setup. Yeah. And I was like, oh, that's pretty good because I don't really use it like that. I take it more, you know, like I don't, I don't really intersperse business in it, even though I do, but I like that type of breakdown. Can you explain that a little bit? Yeah. So I don't butcher it and you have to redo it.

Betty's YouTube Channel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Myke: it was another one and a half tons.

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

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

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

Myke: Yeah,

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

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

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

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

Brad: Custom customs.

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

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

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

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

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

Brad: Welcome.

Myke: Yeah.

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

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

Brad: So, that short answer is no.

Letter Writing Campaign

Myke: I generally don't like that kind of stuff, like myself. Like, you know, people taking, like, trying to bend companies to their will on social media and stuff. It's like, you've just made somebody's day who's handling a social media account bad. You know, like, some intern, their day was just ruined because everyone started tweeting at someone.

Brad: Yeah, and let's be perfectly clear, these companies do not know who we are. Like, Kaweco does, because I've talked with them, but, like, Lamy and Pilot do not have a clue who we are, nor would they care that there is a campaign to get me an orange Pilot Custom 912. The distributors do know who we are, and they will just let me know when they're mad at me for saying that their pins cost too much, but that's okay. Like, that's part of the deal. Like, we all have to deal with that. But, yeah, it's, we're, a lot of writing campaign for the Purple Lamy 2000 or the Orange Pilot's not going to happen. I would love to see an M90 resurrection, except we already had one. It should just

Myke: be a product.

Brad: It should just, yeah, I, you're preaching in the choir on this one. We could yell about this for an entire episode. One thing I will say, our Windlil, I think Kaweco is going to do a sport piston filler. I think that was on the roadmap about a year ago that they'd mentioned that they're going to try that again, because they used to have those in the 30s and 40s, and I have a couple of them here. They're awesome. I think they're going to try to resurrect that idea. I haven't seen or heard of anything in probably over a year on that, but I think that's at least an attempt by them. You're going to see that before I think we get a wider availability of some of the other things you're looking for. There you go.

Myke: All right. Marty asks, in your opinion, what is the best off-the-shelf spiral-bound notebook that you can get at a Staples or Office Depot? I'm looking for an everyday notebook for work that is not too costly, work will cover the cost, but can handle fountain pen ink and roller balls and that kind of stuff.

Brad: I don't really have one right now. The Black and Red, I think, is, I don't know if that's a specific store brand that Staples exactly. One of the store brands is called Black and Red and I think they make a spiral-bound. They used to make like a hard-bound.

Myke: Oh, I used to see those at the bank. Yeah. We just had cabinets full of those.

Brad: So it's definitely one of the suppliers. Those are fountain pen friendly. If you can find it in spiral-bound, I won't swear to them having that because I haven't looked at this category in a long time. There hasn't been any standouts that I'm aware of currently. So if anyone right now has some off-the-shelf spiral-bounds that you're using that are fountain pen friendly, that's the challenge to get from Staples, Office Depot, outside of Black and Red. Any of the ARC stuff that's built for the disk-bound systems, I don't know if they have morphed that ARC lineup into a spiral-bound outside of the disk-bound.

Myke: You're super internet disk-bound now, aren't you? I was reading in your newsletter about you pulling pages out of old notebooks, you're just going to punch them and put them in the William Hanna.

Brad: Yeah, I have a really defined system now, like that is my work notebook, right? And then that work notebook also has to have note pages, just like the back of your theme system journal has note pages, because sometimes other stuff has to go there, and that's what I use for that. And you're just

Myke: putting all kinds of random paper in there now.

Brad: Yeah, yeah. Like, it's like the notebook I have open as I'm doing this show with you right now. So, yeah, like I'm all in on that. It's, like, we talk about things

Myke: that stick. I look forward so much to being able to actually see this thing of yours one day.

Brad: It's not impressive. I just want to get a sense of it. No, I mean that in, like, the nicest way possible. It's a killer product that does its job extremely well, and I've been able to, it has stuck with me. Like, that's when we know, like, a product's good when you try to go away from it and you return to it because you miss using it because it works so well. That's what that is for me. So, it's because of the calendar layout, the task list layout. I have exactly what I want, and then I can just fill the rest of the notebook with all kinds of cool paper. So, yeah. So, you'll see some from some of my friends that are, like, really, really crazy looking. Mine is very, very normal, normal-ish looking. You'll be like, huh, yeah, that's a notebook. Cool. But it just works super well for me.

Myke: All right, and Myke Wiles asks, endless home improvement projects have got me wondering, what kinds of pencils do you like to use when marking on walls?

Brad: I feel like you should probably ask my kids this because it would just be some random markings on the wall. I am not home improvement guy. My wife will tell you that. And I would almost never go with carpenter pencils because I just think they're too big for markings. The only thing I'll use for markings these days is for picture hanging or anything like wall hangings. Those get pencil marks. It's honestly any pencil. I would always use a mechanical

Myke: pencil for this because mechanical pencil makes the smallest mark and that's what I want. I don't want to leave a big mark on the wall.

Brad: Yeah, so I don't have a specific, I don't have a wall marking pencil. It's probably going to be the first mechanical pencil I will pick up off my desk, which there's only a few. It's like a Rotering 600 and a spoke model for like that's it. It's going to be one of those two. Even more so than like a wooden pencil, which I have, I'm staring at like 30 of them right now on my desk. I'm still probably going to grab a mechanical pencil for that task, especially if a ruler is involved. I'm going to go with the mechanical pencil as well because the pipe managing up against the ruler will not affect the graphite as much.

Myke: All right, if you would like to send in a question for us to answer on the show, just send out a tweet with a hashtag ask TPA or you can use question mark ask TPA in the RelayFM members discord. I'd like to thank our sponsors for this week's episode, Squarespace and Uni. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, go to spokedesign.com. Yep. You want to keep locked to there, right? What are the best social media destinations for the spoke fountain pen launch?

Brad: It's all spoke design, everything. So Instagram, Twitter, probably Instagram is the best. That's the most active.

Myke: Yeah, of course. It makes the most sense, right? All right, I'll put a link to that in the chat. It's a very

Brad: good looking Instagram page. Of course it is.

Myke: Of course it is. Yeah, actually, this is aesthetically pleasing. It is. Yeah.

Brad: Like the style of the spoke aesthetic that Brian came up with really is really great. That's all Brian. I want to give him full credit. Yeah, this is good.

Myke: Brian's better than you. Oh, no doubt.

Brad: Like, yeah, I'm just a pretty face, Myke. Yeah, you really are. He does all the work. He really are. Brian is the brains behind this operation. Let me tell you that right now.

Myke: So keep your eye on that. You can find Brad. He's at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter and penaddict on Instagram. You can also find Brad streaming live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I am iMike,

Myke: streaming this Friday at mike.live at 10.30 Eastern time. 10.30 a.m. Eastern time at mike.live this week. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.