The Pen Addict 256/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	256
Title:	Excellent Question
Release Date:	May 10th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Joey Cofone
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 256
Audio File:	Audio Episode 256
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 256
Length:	7575 min <br />1.25 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 256. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Away. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined by the travelling man, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I am back from Chicago, and we'll talk about that at the end of the show, and we'll give some highlights about that. But yeah, I think my voice has recovered, although now that I've started talking again, I'm not sure that it has. But that's okay, because we have the New York man himself, the co-founder of Baron Fig, Mr. Joey Cofone, joining us, and his voice ruins us all, Myke. So what you got for us, Joey?

Joey Cofone: Joey. What's up? Good morning from New York City. I'm excited to be doing this. 10 a.m. here.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so we talked early. Joey's pumped. He's up at five. He's got the coffee going. He's already ready to throw down some dinner. So he is primed and ready for us. Myke, are you ready for this?

Myke Hurley: I hope so.

Brad Dowdy: So Myke's not sure what he's getting into today, but I do want to kick this off by apologizing to Joey and Adam and the Baron Fig team for my actions on Twitter last week. I was a little overly aggressive in my angst, I guess you could say. And I haven't learned yet that Twitter's not the best place for that, because it gets a little sideways quickly, context gets lost, and I kind of lost my mind for a second on Joey, and I apologize for that, Joey. I'm really sorry that happened last week. It was a bad, bad look on me, and I regret doing that. So my apologies. I hope you can accept that.

Joey Cofone: Yeah, for sure, man. I appreciate it. Also, it's a very interesting 2017 thing to say. I apologize for my actions on Twitter. I never thought I'd hear that from somebody.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's like, you know, it's just dumb. I tend to get wrapped up in the morning. I feel you. I feel you.

Joey Cofone: I hope that all of your questions are answered before we're done here, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: We will discuss that, for sure. Don't think we're not going to discuss, you know, my questions.

Baron Fig Bags

Joey Cofone: I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, so we have new minimal backpack messenger and tote. Three different types of bags for different types of uses, different types of people, I guess. And it just fits in with our lineup of tools for thinkers, right? That's what we do. That's everything we do. Our mission is literally to champion thinkers, you know, around the world and what they do. We define thinkers, anybody with a brain. And so we started with notebook, right? And that was like four years ago, four and a half years ago now, I think, on Kickstarter, the Confidant. And since then, we've been what I like to call drawing rings around the notebook. So the next ring was a pen and the next ring was cases and pencils. And we keep growing around, making those rings broader and broader. And now we have bags, which is where you put all of your stuff in. And so we've been working on this new Kickstarter project for over a year now, I think. It's been quite a while. And we released it, I guess it's been eight, nine days ago, last Tuesday. I don't even know what today is. Yeah, last Tuesday. Wow. And it was a ton of work to make it happen. The design was crazy. But we're pretty excited to finally put it out there in the world. And as of this moment, we have 71,000 raised, 655 backers and still 27 days to go. Big congratulations to you for hitting that. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. I think Jay did some numbers and he found out we're like 400 or 500 backpacks and a few hundred totes and messengers, which is really exciting.

Brad Dowdy: Good. So how did these specific bag designs themselves come about? How did you decide on

Joey Cofone: these three bags for this project? Yeah. So at first it was just, hey, let's make a backpack. And that's because I use a backpack, right? And I'm primarily designing or at least taking the first step at designing these things. So then as time went on and we developed the bag, you know, Adam uses a messenger. And Adam's like, dude, I don't want a backpack. I don't even know if this is good or not. And so we started discussing a messenger. And then we talked to more people and more and more people were like, I don't use either, but I love using totes, which are just a giant space to throw all my stuff in. And so like this, originally I ignored it kind of. And I said, okay, we'll kick that can down the road and do it at some point later. But it came up so often that we realized to really introduce bags, we had to do a line of bags, unlike the Confidant, which was just the one hardcover notebook. And so it became this ridiculously epic project to coordinate all the different types of bags and the materials and the video. It was quite an endeavor.

Brad Dowdy: This might be the lengthiest scrolling Kickstarter I've ever seen. It is massive.

Joey Cofone: Dude, tell me about it.

Joey Cofone: It just keeps on going and going.

Myke Hurley: A tote bag is cool, right? Because like, as an idea of creating a tote bag with utility more than just a big pocket, I don't recall seeing something like that before. I thought that was an interesting addition to this to this campaign, honestly.

Joey Cofone: Oh, cool. Thank you. The tote bag, tote bag is an interesting thing because the entire process, right, this whole like 14 month process, we were so worried that we weren't giving enough attention to the tote bag that we ended up in retrospect, overcompensating. We gave it more attention, more photography, more film time. And it ended up being like this just super well done thing where people were getting to the tote and they were like, dude, that's my favorite. And I'm like, holy crap. Like I so didn't expect that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's easily my favorite design of the three as well. I mean, just to throw that out there, I think it's a killer design. I think that's right on the money. Awesome. Thank you. I think it looks great. So what was this 14 month process like? How did you kick this off? Did you just have some thoughts in your head and take them to the people and kind of figure out what you wanted to do? Or did you have like a grand scheme all yourself to put these designs out there? What was that process like?

Joey Cofone: So the process is just the same thing over and over again. Starts with a lot of fear.

Joey Cofone: You know, I talk about design, you know, actually not that often, but people ask me all the time. And like, you know, how do you design something, whether it's, you know, a new product or just graphic design in general. And I always mention that I'm afraid every single time. You know, I've been doing this for over a decade now. And every time I start a new project, even if it's just like, you know, a limited edition or something with Chandler, I have fear that maybe this is the time that, you know, I won't figure it out or it won't click. Um, so step one is getting over the fear and reminding myself, you know, when you, when you enter a new project, especially a large one like this, you remind yourself that discomfort and fear is a part of it. And then I think, you know, kind of projecting that towards the team. Baron Fig team is phenomenal. Everybody is just like, it's the coolest group of people I've had the pleasure of being a part of. Um, and everybody really does roll with it, which is great. And so we kind of just sit down and informally as a team and talk about bags and thoughts. And we always start there and then maybe I'll go back and, uh, you know, I do some drawings and then I show people and, you know, the drawings for this project happened probably like just a straight month of Jay asking me like, yo, dude, what do you got? And me being like, eh, I'm still, still doing it, still doing it. Uh, and then it ended up with like a, an art board of, um, I want to say about 20, 20 to 30 versions of each bag. And then we sort of laid it out and discussed it and, uh, you just keep iterating until finally we have something we kind of feel good enough that, um, I can hand to Jay and he can get prototypes made, but then the same thing happens again. But physically now it's like iterations upon iterations of that. Uh, and it just takes a lot of time and patience and, and, uh, like, uh, what's the right word? Not confidence, but just like, um, I guess confidence that, you know, if you keep going, it'll, it'll hopefully work out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I think, I think that's accurate. You know, you got, it's gotta be something you're comfortable with getting past that fear to put out in the world. You gotta be pretty confident in, in what you're doing. And, you know, I think the end result shows. So out of those, those bags, can you give us two or three features that you're really proud of how they turned

Backpack Design

Joey Cofone: out for, for this project? Yeah, for sure. Uh, the, the backpack is, is probably the headliner of the three, uh, cause it's the one we started with and had the most time using. Um, and just as a side note in designing this one, when I first began, I noticed that, um, most people when I would say, Hey, what's in your bag? I was, I was doing that for ever for like six months. Like, dude, can I look in your bag? Can I look in your bag? It's just like on the subway. It's just like, yeah, as many strangers as I could wrangle. And I noticed one through line is that most people in their backpacks, the majority of the time, uh, they have empty space. So these big bags with just a few things in them. Uh, and I thought that was curious. And so we kind of started with the thesis statement of like, Hey, what if we design for the 95% of the time, rather than the 5% when you have a ton of crap in your bag? And so 95% of the time, it's probably a laptop and notebook, a few things, your keys and phone, and that's it. And so we ended up, you know, to answer your question about the features, the backpack being the first one, the, the biggest feature is the slim profile bag, which, um, I haven't really seen anywhere and especially done in the way we're doing it. It's kind of like an old school classic bag mixed with this, uh, slim profile. And it, and the second feature is that the whole thing opens flat, which means that, uh, it's super easy to pack your goods and whatnot. And also we kind of call it like the instant workspace because, uh, like I have a, I have a, a hanger in my apartment next to my desk and I can open the bag up, hang the bag, open it up and my laptop and all of my pencil cases and all of my goods are essentially hanging right on the wall. It becomes sort of like an impromptu bookshelf, which is really cool. And so you can go around and, uh, I can personally work from home and work, uh, at work pretty easily

Brad Dowdy: just with everything in the bag. Yeah. So that's the backpack. Yeah. I think that's a perfect kind of setup, like the way you explain it. What about the other two? Yeah. Then we've got the messenger

Joey Cofone: and the toe and they're more simple, straightforward bags, uh, just like our other products in our lineup. Like our, our, our three tenants that we design on are simplicity, usefulness, and community. Right. And so simplicity means like generally, uh, minimalist products, right? How simple can we make it while still solving the problems? So for example, the notebook, you know, there's, there's nothing superfluous there. It's, it's straight up, uh, you know, hard paper, soft paper on the inside and then a thick paper on the end, no band, no folder, none of that stuff. And, and really, um, distilling the product down to the essence of what it is, right? That that's, that's what excites me. Uh, cause there's a ton of stuff out there with bands all over the place folders. And if that's your thing, you know, more power to you, you'll be able to find it everywhere. Uh, so I go for the simpler stuff. And so the messenger, we tried to create a simple bag that sort of towed the line between formal and informal, right? So you could carry it on the weekend and you'd be, and people wouldn't be like, dude, are you going to work? But you could also carry it to work and people would be like, Hey, that's a pretty rad bag. And so that was, that was the thesis for the messenger. Um, there's a lot of cool things, laptop pocket, you know, the expected stuff, privacy pocket in there, just good materials, water resistant. Uh, I don't want to bore you too much with, you know, the features.

Myke Hurley: If there's an audience that you will not bore, right? Like that's the kind of the stuff we dig.

Joey Cofone: Oh, you guys dig it. Yeah, no, I got it then. Uh, and then there's the tote, right? So the tote, we, we made so many freaking totes that were like one inch taller or shorter or wider, like back and forth trying to find the dimension, kind of like the confidant. I don't know if you guys remember four years ago, you know, we called it smart dimensions for lack of a better term to try to direct attention to the fact that we were not this tall, uh, or thin moleskin-esque format or just a standard, you know, a five or letter, uh, proportion, but we were something different. Right. And so with the tote, we did a similar thing where we tried to create a bag that felt like it had a lot of space, which it does five liters of capacity, but doesn't look like it has a ton of space. And so we just tweaked it and tweaked it, uh, making it fatter and taller and, and the opposite until we finally landed on the design that we like. Um, and it ended up being really cool. We, we carried around and people dig it. So again, we have smart dimensions, um, you know, the cotton weave straps, the straps are so comfortable. Uh, and then we have the laptop ready pocket. I mean, all these things fit laptops. We have a secure access pocket in all three bags actually, uh, which is a pocket that has a special zip, um, on the inside of the messenger and tote bag walls. So you can put your phone and your keys and no one can just reach in and grab it. Like, yeah, it's, it requires you to unzip. And then at the, uh, bottom inside of the backpack, we have another zip pocket that you could put same stuff, passport, things like that. And there's no way anyone is, is getting in there without a significant effort. So your stuff is really safe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's important. I like that feature a lot. Um, so you just announced your first stretch goal. Um, what's the new blue color called? Uh, blue slate, blue slate. It's really pretty. I like that color. I did not see that coming. I have to say because you went with your core, you know, your core colors to begin with. Yeah. So what,

Joey Cofone: what's, what's the official plum color name? Uh, we have charcoal is the dark one. And then we have

Brad Dowdy: fig wine and fig wine. Okay. Fig wine. So that's the official colors. So what's, uh, what's the rest of the project look like for you guys? Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?

Joey Cofone: Yeah, that's a good question. Uh, so right now we're at 71 G's. The stretch is a hundred thousand. And like I said, 27 days to go. I, if we get to a hundred thousand, yes, we are prepared to, um, you know, reveal a couple cool things, you know, along the same lines of what we're already doing. Um, but I, you know, we take one day at a time over at studio. We're not trying not to get ahead

Brad Dowdy: of ourselves. Yeah. Well, before we get into, uh, the, the question I want to ask and we'll, we'll tease that for a second. I have one more comment on this project is that is probably the best squire pin that I've ever seen. The one in fig wine that is just ridiculously good looking.

Joey Cofone: Y'all did a great job on that one. Oh, thank you. That's right. I got to throw some credit to, I believe Adam and Jay for pressing that along to, uh, create something special. So when we did the squire Kickstarter, we had a limited edition confidant, which was the Kickstarter before it. And so these guys were like, Hey, why don't we do, uh, for the bags? Why don't we do the limited edition of the project before that, which is the squire. It's going to get real expensive for you next time we had to do like a limited three bags. Yeah. Oh man. So that's it. Yeah. Thank you. I'm glad you guys dig them. It ended up being, uh, in a lot cooler than, than I thought it would be.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it looks great. All right. So let's take our first brace break Myke and, uh, we'll, uh, we'll get ready to get down and dirty with Joey Cofone of Barry Fig when we come back.

Myke Hurley: Was it a Freudian slip when you said brace there for a second? Oh no. Did I? Yeah. I didn't hear that. Brace yourselves. Brace yourselves. Brace yourselves. Twitter Brad after the break. All right. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at Penn Chalet. They have all of your favorite brands and all of the tools that you're looking for, for your pen life. Whether you're looking for fountain pens, ballpoints, rollables, or pencils, whether you're looking for carrying cases, pen holders, refills, or converters, Penn Chalet have got it. They back this all up with fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, and they have just a bunch of amazing stuff that you're going to love. They have free shipping on orders of 50 bucks in the United States. They also sell internationally with great shipping rates as well. Penn Chalet has low prices on high quality pens, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. You want to get yourself over to PennChalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password Penn Addict, and you'll get access to two things. You'll get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Penn Chalet, and also access to our special offers this week. So I spoke to Ron at Penn Chalet over the weekend, and he told me that he's looking, they're doing a bit of a spring clean over at Penn Chalet right now. So there's a whole host of offers this week, which have prices that are exclusive to Penn Addict listeners. So go to PennChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click that podcast link, enter the password Penn Addict, and take a look through their amazing set of offers, because I'm sure you're going to find something you like. Is there anything in there, Brad, that's catching

Pen Selection

Brad Dowdy: your eye this week? Well, number one, the list is gigantic. It's a lot of pens. So there's a lot of things to scroll through. The thing that caught my eye immediately is the Parker Premier. So I reviewed a similar Parker last year with a steel nib that ran about $280. These are even better looking, have gold nibs, and are much cheaper than the dollar figure that just came out of my mouth. So that is quite interesting from Ron that these are available at that price. So definitely go check them out.

Myke Hurley: Thank you to Penn Chalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Joey, you ready for me?

Joey Cofone: Let's do it!

Brad Dowdy: So I don't want to make too crazy of a deal about it. And it's just something that, you know, I latch on to the manufacturing aspects of things. And one of the things I've noticed with Baron Fig since the beginning is you have a habit of being indirect about country of manufacture for your products. So the question that I heard on the Erasable Podcast last week was just a simple wear these bags made. And your response was essentially, well, let me answer it this way. And then you gave, you know, the response that you have on your FAQ, which let me read that real quick. So it says, where do you make your products? Excellent question, which I can tell you wrote that one, right?

Brad Dowdy: So the Squire Guardian Manifesto are all made in the USA. The Confident Vanguard Archer and accessories and refills are made in Taiwan, China, Portugal, and Germany. Mosaic and Spark are made in the USA. All of our products are designed in New York City. So my question is this, why is... Excellent question. So why is it from, I guess, your perspective or Baron Fig's perspective, why is it a challenge to be very direct when you receive a question on country of manufacture?

Joey Cofone: That's a good question. Excellent question, my friend.

Joey Cofone: Now I'm going to hear that every time I say it. All right. So I have all the answers for you today. And I will kind of hit them one at a time, starting with the one from last week, I guess. So last week you tweeted, Joey Cofone's answer about manufacturing was the worst answer I've ever heard in my life or something like that. And I totally agree. I was bummed that you didn't just come to me and be like, dude, that sucked. That's my mistake. That's what I apologize for. That was really terrible.

Brad Dowdy: So it was... I was literally folding laundry while I heard that and I lifted my head up. I was like, what did I just hear? Then the absolute wrong thing is to go, I should tweet this. So that was a huge... That was a huge mistake on my part. So again, I totally apologize for doing that because it turned into an S storm of epic proportions and it was totally my fault. So again, I'm sorry. Yeah, it was a good time. Totally.

Joey Cofone: So I learned a lesson as well on Andy's podcast last week. And that is definitely do not go on a podcast if you're extremely tired. It was bad. My answer was, you're right. I listened to it and I was like, damn, that sounded terrible, man. That sounded like I was trying to avoid it or hide an answer. And that's not the case. It's really just I'm not the production guy. Jay is. And it was me and Adam, not Jay there to kind of look to for the status. And also combined with the fear of copycats, unfortunately in our lifetime here, Baron Fig's short life so far, we have had just way too many people copying our stuff. And it's made us a little paranoid. And I'd like to think that the paranoia is mostly with good reason. And we've seen cloth bound notebooks pop up everywhere, yellow bookmarks, books in boxes, box design, almost identical. And it's made, made us extremely protective of our information. And we try to avoid it for sure. And I'm pretty open with that. At the time though, last week, we really didn't know where we were making the goods. We had priced it out at several places to make sure that the price we were giving the customer was correct, that was accurate. And then we continued to price. Because you know that the Kickstarter, this one was 35 days long. And there's a ton of work to do during that time to optimize production, prep for it, stuff like that, shipping, logistics, things. So anyway, at the time, I don't know, it was a couple of days into the Kickstarter and we weren't sure yet if people were digging them, but now we know for sure. And so with the quantities that we've gotten, essentially the pre-orders through Kickstarter, we are definitely going with Vietnam where they can handle the higher quantities that we need. And that was it. At the time, it was still kind of a crapshoot whether we'd be doing low quantities or if, honestly, if it would be an enduring product line, you know, period.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. And see, and I think that's great that, you know, you have a choice and it's Vietnam. And I'm not one of those people that actually cares where it's made. Like, you know, I have all kinds of goods I use from all over the world and it's not a concern for me. What concerns me is, do I get a good product? And if they, and I'm sure that's your concern too. And I'm sure you're going to, you'll ensure that no matter where the bag's made, you know, anywhere around the world. So it just seemed that, you know, I'd recalled this happened with the Confidant when it came out, you know, where is it made? And it was a challenge to get an answer for. Yeah. I think it's a little bit strange, if I can be honest with you, that you say Germany's one of your country of manufacture when you're buying Schmidt refills, which are the best in the world for what you do, but that's not really where the pen's made. It's like a, it's like an add-on country for like a refill. Like we don't talk about, you know, do we, our threads from Italy. So our bag is partially made in Italy. It kind of doesn't work that way. So I just noticed all kinds of weird things like that. It seems, it seems to be like a very difficult thing for you guys to do. I understand the copycat aspect of it, but that doesn't really, I understand that from a manufacturing perspective, but that doesn't stop anyone from buying a product and sending it to any factory in the world once it's made. So I think a general country name is A-OK for any product or project that you have. But that's, that's just me. And, but that's why I don't come out firing to anyone saying, well, tell me where it's made. But I end up getting asked that and I say, okay, I will ask. And then, you know, to have a, you know, I think a, a, an indirect answer like last week when there's been several instances of that previously, I think is just kind of a culmination of me going, what is going on here? And why can't we just have a simple direct answer? Because no one, in the end, no one cares where it's made. Right. I firmly believe that.

Joey Cofone: Yeah. We're on laptops and phones and everything is made from all over the place.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But people want to be able to buy into a company all the way. And when there's a, when there's a question about that, that can't be what you would think is a straightforward question. And it's not answered in a straightforward man, forward manner. You kind of go, huh, what's going, am I missing something? What's going on here? So anyway, that was, that's, was kind of my thought process. That's why. Go ahead.

Joey Cofone: I think it was, was, I forget if it was you or someone else who asked the question, you know, where do you make the products? And so I wrote the, the FAQ to include that, right? You know, the Squire Guardian manifesto in the USA, et cetera, et cetera. And we include Germany because we sell the Squire refill separately. So it's like a separate skew. So we thought why not just give information on that particular item? Sure. But yeah, the Squire, the body, you know, assembled everything as the United States. Yeah. Which is pretty cool.

Manufacturing Locations

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it wouldn't hurt to have it on the product page instead of having people to have

Joey Cofone: to hunt it down. But that's just me. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think that's just a matter of opinion. Yes. Yes. It's just like, you know, as long as we got it somewhere. Yeah. We'll go.

Brad Dowdy: We'll go with that. So can I, are you okay if I ask, and I'm actually fine with you saying no with this, because this is something that we could take off, take offline and, you know, we could refer to it later. But I had a little bit of concern when you said, when you launched the Kickstarter project and you didn't, you weren't for sure where you were going to manufacture that. Did that cross your mind when y'all started this project? Like it clearly, it doesn't seem to be a thing. I'm the only one that thinks it's a thing. But that struck me as a very, very odd decision.

Joey Cofone: Yeah. I could see, I could see how you would be like, whoa, wait, you don't even know. But I think it's probably, you know, no offense, but probably a misinterpretation slash on my end, maybe a misdelivery of information. So basically, not only did we know where we could make the bags, we had multiple options, right? Multiple manufacturers ready to go. Right. And then it was just like, once we have that in place and we're like, okay, cool. We, without a doubt, can make these bags. Now let's get on with funding the project as we move forward with exploring the manufacturers and having individual conversations to really, essentially like, it's almost like the manufacturers are fighting for the work, right? You know, who wouldn't want to make like, you know, a ton of products, you know, very simple goods and ship it out. So yeah, not all, I mean, I think I tweeted it, but my answer was like, generally, not only do we know where we're, we're going to make them, we have multiple options, just a matter of choosing.

Brad Dowdy: So I think that was my, I don't know, what's the opposite of rose colored glasses? I was, that was me being unnecessarily skeptical once I got off kilter there, because I think if you were, you were way, way, way, way further down the line than, you know, like I realized as far as choosing the manufacturer, which I assumedly you have to be to have like locked in pricing like that to, to go, which actually now makes complete sense.

Joey Cofone: Have faith, my man.

Brad Dowdy: I know, right? I know. So, so yeah, I mean, I think I'm ready to put a bow in this. And I again, you know, I can't apologize enough for my Twitter actions. They were certainly unfair to you, and the team and unbecoming of me and not like how I like to act and portray myself. So it was a miss all the way around for me. And I appreciate you clarifying your stance on everything.

Joey Cofone: I hear you, man. I appreciate, I appreciate that. Having me come talk live when, you know, who knows what the hell I could say. I got to give you props for doing that.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, no, no, no problem. And, you know, it was, it was definitely something that needed to be done, because I, the only thing that I, I do regret that people felt I was attacking you because I own a company that's a competitor. And that couldn't be further from the truth. I can't avoid that comparison, because it's a fact that I own a company that makes paper and bags. But that was not where that came from, even remotely. If anything, I'm a champion of everyone in this business that we love and stationary as a whole worldwide. And I want to prop up as many people as I can. So coming at it from a competitor's perspective, never even remotely crossed my mind. So I hope you don't think that's the case. Yeah, that's, that's, it's one of those things where I have many outlets, right? So I can't, if I have to question a vendor for the blog or the podcast, well, I can't say, well, I'm going to turn off my knock relationship today, right?

Joey Cofone: So, but you are and how you think,

Brad Dowdy: but I also want to have to understand that perception is a real thing. And, you know, if I can, I need to think about things before I say them sometimes to not make, to not make, give people these ideas, which are valid, even though it never crossed my mind till way after. So, yeah. All right. Without out of the way, without out of the way, I want to, I want to press you on even more questions. How's that sound? Let's do it. All right. So there was, you stirred up a bunch of news late last year when you said, we're going to do subscriptions now. And we're not just doing subscriptions. We're subscribing to all the things. So tell us your thought process. We haven't gotten to talk to you since that launch. So, you know, yeah, we haven't, we haven't. We've talked about you since then, you know, trying to figure out, trying to figure out what's, what's going on and then all the products being released. So we've talked about it a bunch. So tell us the idea of how script subscriptions came around number one and number two, how do you feel they're going as of

Joey Cofone: today? Yeah. So subscriptions are, are pretty cool. We actually did not intend to, to do that. When we first started Baron Fig, we just were enjoying making limited editions, but we got scores of requests. You guys, you need to, to make a subscription so that I can get these and guarantee them, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So we were like, all right, cool, let's do it. And we had, you know, at the time we were like working on four, our four, um, limited edition products are the two notebooks, right? Hardcover, Confidant, softcover, Vanguard. And then we have the Squire pen and we have the Archer pencil. And those are what we had planned to do for limited editions a year for each. So 16 limited editions a year. And that's fun for us. Like, I think that's what we do best at Baron Fig. And we were just having a conversation at the studio the other day. And it's like, it's one of our strengths is I think we can design the hell out of all sorts of things and come up with fun ideas and, and keep churning these out. And, and, uh, you know, hopefully people enjoy seeing the new things as much as we do. So, uh, due to popular requests, like three years, two and a half years after we start Baron Fig, we introduced subscriptions where you could subscribe to any one of those four products, or we have a super subscription where you get one of every edition and you save like an insane amount of cash and they just keep showing up. Uh, and so far it's been going great. It launched, I think in November or so, seven months or so. Um, and the, the, the subscriber count is only going up. It's not dropping, uh, which is nice. Knock on wood, uh, anybody out there listening, you know, feel free to subscribe. And, um, I, I, I love it actually. I think it's just a fun, fun aspect of Baron Fig that it breathes constant life into our goods and what we do. And it also, um, provides a way for people to kind of get tickled, you know, surprises in their mailbox that didn't even know were coming, things like that. So how did the SKU work out for you? Wow. SKU, super, super, uh, controversial. And also, before I forget, we only have, uh, a bit left. So if anyone's looking to get the SKU, now's the chance they're about to be sold out. Gotcha. Uh, SKU is cool. So designer, international phenom, Debbie Millman, decided that, um, she wanted to do a notebook that was hand drawn and I like, you know, weird stuff. So I was like, let's do this. Uh, we released it, you know, through the whole time we're making this at the studio, we're like, wow, this is really cool. You know, not really thinking maybe a little bit about, Oh, I wonder, you know, how effective it is in general, but you know, it's clearly a notebook that you can use. So for those who don't know, the SKU is, um, sort of a classic notebook with the blue lines and the red margin on the left. And I think about 85% of the notebook is the whole notebook's hand drawn. 85% is sort of like basic pages. Just so you can tell it's hand drawn and they have variation. It's all, you know, original artwork. And then 15% of the book is crazy. It's, you know, a SKU where it's just totally wild. You turn the page and all of a sudden all the blue lines are like twisted into a knot, super funky design. And we released it. People loved it. People hated it. Uh, you know, it was written about, um, surprisingly we got zero hate mail. Oh, okay. Good. Yeah. Not one subscriber emailed. And I'd tell you if there was not one subscriber said, this is ridiculous, you know, send me a regular notebook. And I thought maybe one or two people would considering the number of subscribers. Myke's email must've bounced, I guess. I'm not a subscriber, right? Yeah. I remember, I remember Myke, I was listening to, uh, your thoughts. Well,

Brad Dowdy: yeah. I mean, it's a divisive product, right? I absolutely adore it. I think it's the problem, maybe the best thing you've ever done, but I understand that it's a not for everyone thing, which I think makes it perfect for this playground of subscriptions, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like my, my issue was mostly, mostly theoretical and, you know, like the idea that like you subscribe to this product and you get a notebook that 15% of it you can't use. But if you didn't get complaints from your subscribers and you didn't, you know, or the other thing is you didn't have like a massive amount of people unsubscribing, right? Like they might not, they might have voted with their wallet, but again, you would know that. And I'm assuming you didn't, then I don't think that my criticism stands, right? Like, was it so, like I said at the time, people can go back and listen. Like the issue that I had was that you were kind of dropping a notebook on people that they can't necessarily use. But if people didn't have a problem with that, then the, the criticism is moot, right? That's my thing on it.

Joey Cofone: Right. The emails that we did get, and we saw it on Facebook too, a lot is people commented like, two, three months later and send emails two or three months later where they said something along the lines of, you know, this is skew. It was just really weird. And I didn't really like it at first, but I started using it and I love it so much. I bought more because I don't want to run out. Yeah. That's pretty great.

Business Time

Brad Dowdy: I think it's great. Yeah. All right. So I want to put on my businessman hat for a second. Business time. Business time. So I look at the subscription offerings, right? They're limited edition. And then I compare that to what you've released so far and notice that really nothing sold out except for the Alphabet Squire, which was absolutely killer. That was a great product. Thanks. So I guess tell me why someone should choose to subscribe when they can just go to the site and purchase everything you've released so far, essentially.

Joey Cofone: Yes. Okay. So maybe you guys can help me out with this actually, because the story that the site is telling is not the whole story. Okay. So this is actually our new version website came out in April. So two months ago. And all of the products are not on it. So I know you sent over notes before the show and I made a list of all the limited editions we did. So we have done over 20 limited editions and they've sold out compared to the few that are on the site now. So I'm just going to read off this list.

Brad Dowdy: Since you launched the subscription service, not things like Juggler and other things like that. Right.

Joey Cofone: I'm talking about just subscription stuff. We haven't changed our strategy of, I guess, quantity or anything. We're still moving at the same thing. So nothing really has changed. So the ones that are gone, Three-Legged Juggler with the poem in the box, The Maker Confidant, Work Play Number One with Jen Musari, The Lightbulb, The Explorer, The Time Travel, The River Path Grass, The Seer, The MailChimp Collaboration, The Maker Apprentice, The Product Hunt Collaboration, and The Alphabet. So those are all the ones that are gone.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Only one of those has been since the subscription launch and that's The Alphabet. None of the other ones are you asking people to subscribe to, right? You said, hey, these are limited at the time. Come get them. When they're gone, they're gone. Now you're saying subscribe, but everything I could have subscribed to minus one SKU is currently available for me to put in my shopping cart. So I'm just wondering, how is that going to change in the future? What is the impetus for people to subscribe? So basically, I'm telling you, just tell me something awesome that's coming that's going to blow out.

Joey Cofone: You mean like what's coming down the line?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know you won't tell me, but I figured I had to ask.

Joey Cofone: I am so excited for what we have lined up. I feel like every cycle, we destroy the cycle before it. Like Metamorphosis is a gorgeous, gorgeous book. Chandler did an amazing job making it. And I am even more excited. I think there's better ones in the queue right now that absolutely blow me away. So the reason, there's so much good stuff here. The reason that you should subscribe is because you get it first and you get it at a discount, right? So I mean, if you dig our books, like it's straight up, we provide, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Straight up saving money.

Joey Cofone: Yeah, saving cash money, man. And you know, who doesn't want to do that? If you're into our goods, you know, you save like a good amount. I think you save like 25% on, you know, the top tier subscription level. So it's quite a good amount of cash. Also, in terms of them being available on the site, Adam and I have this conversation pretty regularly where Adam feels like, you know, in order for it to feel limited, right? And this is all perception that it should go away relatively quickly.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Joey Cofone: And I feel like it should stick around for a while. I feel like a limited edition should be around for six to nine months, which gives people a good amount of time to check it out. I mean, we've worked, you know, we bust our butt to make the design and put our heart into it. And man, for it to disappear in three months is heartbreaking. And then to get emails and emails and emails about when is it coming back? And it's like, it is not coming back. It is not. It never will.

Limited Editions

Brad Dowdy: I think that is excellent perspective. I think that's excellent perspective. Like I'm on Adam's side of the ledger, right? And these are the conversations you have as a business. You have partners in your business. You sit down, you know, you have ideas, you figure out what's going to work best for you. You know, I would be in Adam's camp. But since you've said that out loud, put your perspective in there. That makes complete sense. You know, let's make this product, project, product available for a six and nine month timeframe instead of a three month timeframe and build towards that. I think that's a really good perspective that you haven't laid out before. And I like that.

Joey Cofone: In the grand scheme of things, you know, six to nine months feels long when you're just watching it sit on the site. But then once it's gone, it's gone. I mean, the three-legged juggler was, you know, two and a half years ago or something like that. And we still get emails.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Joey Cofone: About, you know, how do I get one? And so like, I just feel like they should live a little bit longer. And it's fun to see all the different options. You know, I don't want to make the website stark. Like, two plain notebooks and one limited edition doesn't excite me.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. All right. So let me get one last question in on these subscriptions. I chose to do the Archer subscription because I thought it was pretty neat. I'm into pencils and I'm into the different things. I actually gave the Squire subscription like the most grief. I was like, why would anyone want to do that? Then it finally hit me. Why? Because like we talk about retro 51, and I'm thinking, well, I should have subscribed to that one too. But anyway, the, I held off on the first batch of Archer pencils because I subscribed and the snakes and ladders came in and I felt they were a little lacking and I read other reviews around the internet. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to discuss any issues you guys had with those pencils because I felt it was kind of rampant. And when I say rampant, I understand that, you know, people on the internet are like the 1% of people buying the product. Right. I know that's not the majority. So was there any quality issues you

Joey Cofone: had with those pencils going out into the wild? I think there was not a quality issue, but a consistency or expectations issue. Right. So we, we have the standard Archer pencil. For those, you don't know, it just comes in a tube of 12, they're charcoal and they're fantastic. We have a ton of positive feedback on them. Right. I think like for a pencil, you know, knock on wood. I'm a huge fan of knocking on wood, by the way. I think we hit it out of the park, like right on the, right out of the gate with that and certain sort of like a full use, uh, all around pencil, which, you know, I couldn't be happier about. So then we're like, okay, we, we waited a while before we started limited edition production. Cause we weren't sure if that would be a product people were interested in. So it turns out people are, they totally dig them. Uh, so we went back and we started making, you know, designing new limited editions and, uh, producing pencils. And apparently, you know, I'm again, I'm not the pencil expert. We actually, both of us do know who the pencil expert is.

Joey Cofone: And so long story short, they, the pencils came out softer than, um, the Archer, the Archer sort of, sort of like an F pencil, the, the, um, snakes and ladders is kind of like a B, a 2B, something like that. So, uh, again, for those that don't know the B scale, the higher, the B the softer and, uh, F is sort of in the middle and then H is the higher, the H the harder it is, but also the lighter it is. And B's being softer, uh, are darker because more graphite is, uh, coming off the pencil. So the snakes and ladders was just softer and it actually went more, a little bit into the territory of like, uh, drawing rather than just writing as using a pencil for writing. And so when we received the pencils, you know, I use them Chandler and the other designer use them. And we totally were into it because we draw in our notebooks all the time. And we were like, oh wow, it's slightly softer. I can go darker and I can create more, you know, gradated shades and whatnot. Uh, but what we didn't think about was, Hey, you know, if it's slightly softer and that you don't draw or, you know, this is the thing that's important to you. Um, you know, is it, is it going to be an issue? And so we tested a bunch and we handed them out and the majority of people did not even notice like Chandler and I, you know, having gone to art school, it was like a very obvious to us, you know, we know the difference between a one B two B three B, you know, all that stuff. Uh, so we found that most people thought it was totally fine. And so we said, okay, you know, we'll release them if there's any issue. Um, we'll address it completely. Like we've always done in the past. We've never had a problem with customer service because we thought this might be a cool part of the limited edition. And I could see that if we had softer, all of a sudden softer pencils for the standard edition where it changed, that would be a no go. And like in the past where the quality hasn't been what we wanted it, we have actually, uh, not released products. We've actually not released several different products, uh, just because the quality wasn't where we wanted it. So it was safe to say, you know, to give it a shot. And, uh, the vast majority of our customers totally dig it. And there just seems to be a small, you know, small, but vocal few who noticed the difference. Uh, but again, Myke, you know, you mentioned emails coming in. Um, the emails weren't outrageous. You know, it wasn't a big deal. Uh, it wasn't like this overwhelming thing. And if there were anyone didn't like it, we just said, keep them. And, and here's, um, here's a regular Archer to go with it. Cool. So how do you, Oh, the most important part is we hear you and all the new Archers are now back to, uh, the standard hardness of these, uh, regular Archer and the limited editions that are coming

Brad Dowdy: out are really cool. That was my question. Like dude, you've got it, got it, uh, sorted for like

Joey Cofone: the next run. Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's, it's, it's gone. I mean, we had issues with the confidant, like, you know, a small issue with the confidant three years ago and we fixed it. Right. You know, you know what manufacturing is like, you have to just work through it, but Oh my God, the limited editions that are coming out. I am so excited for there is, there is a pencil coming out this fall that I almost dream about every night that Chandler did. And it is so cool. That's all I can say, but Oh my God.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. I'm glad I'm a, an Archer subscriber, so I can't wait for that. All right. So we still have, you know, being the company that you are, there's still more stuff to talk about. So we want to hit one more sponsor real quick. We're going to get into some new products you just launched. And we're also going to talk a little about, uh, about digital apps. So, uh, what do we have, uh, this week, Myke, is this a new sponsor for us?

Myke Hurley: It's a new sponsor for the pen addict. It's a way, a way believe that your luggage shouldn't cost more than your plane ticket. And that's why they make smart premium suitcases for under $300. Go to away travel.com slash pen addict, and you can braise, you can browse all of the ways suitcases. They're all made of premium German polycarbonate, which is unrivaled in strength and impact resistance while still remaining lightweight. They offer four sizes of suitcase. They have the carry on the bigger carry on the medium and the large, and they have nine colors that you can choose from. All of their suitcases feature a patent pending compression system, which is fantastic. If you're an over packer and four, 360 degree spinner wheels, all of the carry ons are also compliant with major us airlines while still maximizing the amount that you can pack in them. And I have, I have the smallest, I have the regular carry on and I'm able to put everything I need in there for like four day trips, which I was really surprised about. I've always been a bit hesitant about carry on bags, but away sent me one of theirs and it is fantastic. Like I check it and stuff, right? Like it is perfect size for like a, small trip. Like a, and I think it's fantastic as well as having the ability for me to stick all of my stuff in there. Like I can put a laptop in there as like a, in the built into the compression system is an extra pocket where you can put all that stuff. It's really cool. They also have a removable washable laundry bag, which I like. So you're able to separate your clean clothes from your worn ones. And they also, the, the, what the machine it's machine washable and it's also, um, it has a zip on the top. So you put your clothes in, you zip it up when the trip's done, you just put that into the suitcase again, and then you've got everything nice and separated. Then when you get home, you unzip it into the laundry basket. Excellent. Also, right. The thing that I have to mention about their carry ons is they have a USB battery powered pack inside of them with four, with USB ports on the suitcase. So with their two carry on sizes, you get a battery powered thing, right? You get a life battery, so you can power all of your stuff. So if you have your iPhone, your iPad, whatever it is you want to do, you just stick it into the USB, charge it up as every, uh, away carry on case comes with one of these and a single charge of that battery can charge your phone five times over. You will never be without power when you're traveling again, which is amazing. Away offer a lifetime guarantee on their products. If anything breaks, they'll fix it or replace it for life. And they have a 100 day trial with a no questions fast return policy. We're free shipping on any order within the lower 48 states of the US travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone to find out more, go to away travel.com slash pen addict. And if you use the code pen addict to check out, you'll get a fantastic $20 off any of their suitcases. That is away travel.com slash pen addict and code pen addict for $20 off. Thank you so much to away for their support of this show and relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I look on the site. I don't know if I got an email. I don't think I did according to your response when I put this in the show notes, but you launched the mastermind and the nomad. These are new paper products.

Myke Hurley: Wait, a new, a new product from Baron Fick. I don't believe it. Surprise.

Brad Dowdy: And I'm leaving out the pen sheath too. That was, that was, that was snuck in there as well. And I have one of those here on my desk. So why don't you tell us about these three new products?

Joey Cofone: Yeah. So a pen sheath is first product is a simple sheath for your squire. And it just came out of, again, like we say that our company runs on simplicity, usefulness and community and communities. It's amazing when, when we emphasize it, how much response we get for that, you know, in terms of Twitter feedback and emails. And believe it or not, a pen sheath or like a single thing to slip my pen in was the thing that we got so many requests for. So on a whim, we decided, you know, it's not that difficult. You know, we, we spend a lot of time designing it. I think Jay ended up designing the final thing that you see there. And we put it out there and people totally dig it. And it's a fun product. And I, I have one myself and I surprisingly love it. It just feels so fun in my pocket. It's kind of like, um, you know, I grabbed my pen sheath and I grabbed my wallet and I head out. So that's cool. And we got the mastermind and the nomad. You guys have good eyes. So these are totally new. We just put them on the site. It didn't say anything. Uh, we will at some point, but the Kickstarter has just been so crazy that we haven't had time to, to bring anyone's attention to it. Uh, so the mastermind is a desk pad. It is a large format, um, pad that has tear off sheets that you does. It's designed to put underneath your keyboard, right? Just kind of like those, um, we don't see them that much anymore, but remember back in the day, like my grandpa had the big calendar underneath his, uh, typewriter actually. Oh, absolutely. You know, any, I mean, there was very little to do with actually what was in the dates and more like just notes and scribbles. And I thought, you know, that would be cool if we bring that back minus the calendar and just have a nice big pad that you can access on the fly. Uh, and so we made the mastermind, which is a 12 by eight. It's got a 70 sheets and it's dot grid and you tear the sheets off and use them. And people have been digging them, uh, way more than expected. And it turns out, uh, we got the same enthusiastic response for the nomad, which is our, uh, sticky pads. And, uh, you know, I write all the, I write the majority of the copy on the site. Uh, Chandler writes some too. The nomad is described as here a note, there a note, everywhere a note.

Joey Cofone: That's gotta, gotta have fun. Uh, and these are just dot grid sticky notes, uh, three by three inches. Um, you get 70 sheets per pad, three pads. So it's a pretty, it's pretty good amount. Um, and the cool back, the little cool thing about the nomad is that, um, it's, it's difficult cause we ship everything. So we're like totally an e-commerce company. Uh, so, you know, shipping a tiny little thing is a little bit difficult for us, but what's cool is we pass on like insane savings if you get three packs. So you save 40% and they're like 14 bucks for nine pads. I don't even know a zillion

Brad Dowdy: sheets. So that, that's actually what's held a knockback from doing something like the mastermind. We love the format. Jeff's been on me to make a desk pad for years, but I was like, how do I ship the thing? It's going to be way too big to be any kind of reasonable thing. So, uh, hopefully I'll, y'all've got that on lockdown. Obviously you do if you've, we're pushing this out there. Cause it's an awesome product, but actually both of those, the mastermind and the nomad are super useful products and things I like to see, you know, out in the wild. I think they're great.

Joey Cofone: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Codex App

Brad Dowdy: All right. So you also do an app called codex, which Matt, uh, Myke and I have talked about before and we really liked the idea of it. And the thing I learned after the fact was that Adam essentially took like a year off to go learn how to program this app himself. Is that, is that accurate? Is that how that happened?

Joey Cofone: That is correct. Adam went to code school and it was actually a self teaching code school, not even your standard type where, uh, you attend classes. They sort of, uh, give you a place to work in a curriculum and you teach yourself. Uh, and then Adam did that. And I think, you know, he's listening probably correct me if I'm wrong via Slack, but I think he did it in four months. Um, he did the whole thing. He came back and he was like, yeah, I think, I think, uh, I'm ready. And he spent the next, uh, you know, four to six months building codex from zero to what you see now.

Brad Dowdy: That's crazy. That boggles my mind. Major purpose, Adam. Good job, Adam.

Joey Cofone: He just slacked me 4.5 months.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that was, that's, uh, it's very, very polished. Um, what's tell, if anyone's not familiar with codex, can you give them a quick rundown on what they can expect?

Joey Cofone: Yeah, sure. So I, I, I use a lot of notebooks, believe it or not. And these things pile up on my desk. I've got like eight to 10 of them now since we started full of notes. And, you know, as we go forward in time, they collect and finding a note is ridiculously difficult, right? You have to, I like literally sit there and flip through pages and pages. And so we thought, Hey, what if we could hashtag our notebooks? And so essentially codex is in a nutshell, uh, a way to hashtag your notebooks. And why is that cool? That's cool because every other app, um, you take a picture and then you put a page into a folder, right? And so when you do that, you have to make a decision at that moment of what is on that page. But what if like, I have a page in front of me right now that has limited editions and has a, uh, thumbnail for the website, right? And so what do I, what folder do I put it in? Limited editions or website for this page? So instead with codex, you do hashtag limited editions, hashtag website, and you can index it in any way you want. And so your stuff is like very, very flexible. And that's the, that's essentially the thesis statement and the idea

Brad Dowdy: behind codex. Well, I think it's really cool. It's something I need to dig into a little more. That's one of those apps that I see the value in and then I download them and I never like totally dig into, to get all the features in, but I love how that one's set up. And, um, that's definitely something I want to want to look at using. Thanks. All right. So I'm not going to let you out of here with asking, without asking the one question you probably get a lot. Um, and it's one I get a lot or see in comments and feedback and it's the Baron fig just marketing as a whole. Um, we get a lot of is Baron fig more of a style over substance, um, company. And I feel like I know the answer to that being a customer of yours, that the substance being the products you sell are outstanding, but sometimes the marketing is laid on a little bit thick and that turns a lot of people off. So how do you handle those

Joey Cofone: questions or that type of pushback? Yeah, that's a, that's a excellent question. Excellent question. Uh, I, I like to design what I want to see in the world, right? And that is products and that's also presentation. Um, so, you know, essentially our, our substance and our marketing, uh, and in terms of substance, like I, I think any customer knows that our products are definitely high quality. Like for our confidant notebook, for example, we ship that notebook for, uh, 18 bucks to your door, which is like, you know, several dollars, probably about 20% less than a moleskin. And we do it at a lower price with higher quality materials. The pit, every inch of our notebook is just better quality. So there's no doubt. And if you, you know, you look at our guardian, right, our leather case is 85 bucks, a comparable leather case from a guy like Shinola, I think is 110, $120 for a real leather case. And keep in mind that our leather case is Horween leather from Chicago and it's made in America. So it's not like you're getting, you know, from somewhere else. It's not like we're pulling a fast one on you. It's the same thing. And so our goal is to create products we want to use at a price we would actually pay for. Right. So even though we saw that we could probably sell a leather case for 120 bucks, it just didn't feel right. So it's $85 case. And that feels, that's sensible for what you're getting. We feel good about that. And same thing with our, uh, our confidant notebook. And in terms of marketing, I, I like when there's a story behind stuff. I mean, I, I'm not sure if you guys know, I can't remember if we discussed it like a year ago or something, but I went to school for literature and philosophy, right? Right. Right. I do recall that. Yeah. And so like, I essentially studied like, you know, the greatest minds that ever lived in like all their ideas and, and read the best books, you know, in the last like couple thousand years or something. Um, and so like narrative is a huge part of who I am. Right. And ideas are a huge part of who I am. And in going to design school afterwards, you know, I, I think that I was successful in doing that because I infused my design with substance, with narrative and with ideas. And, and it made you think, or it made you laugh, or I, at the very least I had an opinion about something. Right. And so our products are the same. Our marketing is the same, right. You know, we make tools for thinkers. That's certainly a stance and I think it's sensible one. Uh, and then you can see like our latest limited edition, I think was, uh, metamorphosis, right? The limited edition confidant. And you know, the marketing says big leaps start with small steps. Great ideas don't materialize all at once, but rather as a series of thoughts that come together to create something bigger. And metamorphosis reminds us to start small and keep going. Right. So it's a small, essentially a thesis statement that kind of guides the design, uh, and the presentation. And then we have a Van Gogh quote that said, uh, great things are done by a series of small things brought together. Uh, and that gets me excited. Like I want to see that. And it's the same thing with all of our products and our campaigns. I, I just, I couldn't, um, I don't get excited shopping on Amazon where there's no presentation or there's no effort or there's no, you know, for me, there doesn't seem to be a soul or a human being that, that crafted that, uh, that product with like intent. And so that's why we, we speak the way we do and, and, you know, we market the way we do it. It most certainly comes from, um, an honest,

Brad Dowdy: genuine place. Yeah. And I, I think it's pretty clear that it's working. Um, you guys continue to grow. You continue to evolve, develop, you're hiring more people. There's, it's actually more than you and Adam now. Um, right. I don't give a shout out to any, any of your employees that you want. Cause I know they're, they're working in it as well. Yeah. All those guys. Yeah. I'll give them a shout

Joey Cofone: out for sure. There's Jay, there's Sam Chandler, Andy, and we even have intern Matt. What's up?

Brad Dowdy: All right. Look at you. So did you envision this four or five years ago that you're, that you're

Joey Cofone: now somebody's boss? Uh, no, that, I mean that, that last part's probably the worst aspect. I mean, I don't, I don't, it does, it's no fun doing that part of it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well,

Brad Dowdy: you're awesome. I appreciate the openness and honesty, um, and of you coming on and, um, you know, best of luck in everything you have going because I'm sure we'll hear about something

Joey Cofone: tomorrow, right? What's dropping tomorrow? Oh, what is tomorrow? Tomorrow's Thursday, but we do have something on Tuesday coming. Okay. And Oh, actually, I guess I can tell you what it is. Uh, at least a little bit. It is our second limited edition Squire pen.

Chicago Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. So yeah, we'll be ready for that. We'll be talking about that next week without question because I think I might, I might have to jump on that subscription bandwagon because I like the alphabet one so much. All right, Joey. Well, thank you for coming on. Tell everyone if they don't already know already where they can find you online and check out your awesome goods.

Joey Cofone: Yes. So thanks for having me also, Brad, thank you for, uh, you know, keeping us in check, right? Critics are, critics are there for a reason. They do serve a purpose, right? It's kind of like, uh, checks and balances. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Um, yeah, you can find us at baronfig.com B-A-R-O-N F-I-G like the fruit. And, uh, you could follow me online if you could find me, but I'd rather you just check out Baron Fig. There you go. All right, bud. Well, we're going

Brad Dowdy: to let you go. Um, I have a couple of things to recap for the Chicago show, but, uh, you were awesome. And, uh, thanks for doing this and it hopefully it won't be so long next time. It, uh, y'all move so fast. We need to get you on here, uh, sooner to talk about everything that's going on.

Joey Cofone: Cool. Yeah, man. I got a fancy new mic now. Uh, I'm ready for it. Thank you so much.

Brad Dowdy: All right. We'll take care and we'll talk to you later. All right, guys. Have a good one. Bye-bye. All right, you too. Bye. All right, man. Uh, that was great. Thank you, Joey. Yeah, Joey was fantastic. So one thing I wanted to do this week, Myke, um, and it just came about all of a sudden and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention something before giving it a proper, uh, coverage next week is our good friend, Susan worth passed away yesterday afternoon. And I'm already getting choked up talking about this because it was sudden. I mean, she, she had a fall and due to complications from the fall, she passed away yesterday afternoon. I started getting phone calls and texts. Um, I talked to her, her friend, John, her companion who you all know from shows. Um, he's just devastated. Um, my friends are devastated that I've known Lisa for, I mean that like Lisa Van Es that have known Susan for a lot longer than I have. And it was really tough afternoon yesterday. It's been a tough morning this morning. I've gone back and people are starting to link and share all the things, um, that Susan meant to them linking pictures on Instagram and videos. And I went back and watched, you know, one of the videos we recorded at the Chicago pen show, um, this last year and Susan just makes you smile and to lose someone, you know, that brings that out of other people and gives way more than she ever took in this world. It's a kind of a devastating loss. I don't really have words to say. I didn't really plan on anything. I'd like to do something, you know, maybe next week where we can talk, tell some stories or things like that. But I just wanted to, um, tell the world that I miss her. I miss her a lot already. And, um, you know, wanted to, you know, to just say that he, there's a big hole in the community today and not having Susie at the next pen show I go to is going to be weird because she's never not been at a pen show I've been to. I mean, granted, I've only been to maybe a dozen or so, but she's been there every time. And this time she's not. And that's not going to go well for me. Um, when I show up in Raleigh next month, um, I don't know what to expect yet. I'm still trying to get all my feelings in check. Um, but it sucks. And I hate that she's gone from us too soon and too quickly without saying proper goodbyes, um, without buying her one more drink at the bar and hearing her stories, um, until the wee hours of the morning. So I just wanted to tell Susie, I love her and I miss her. And, um, there's definitely, uh, a hole that cannot be replaced, uh, that she's left behind, but, uh, she's made us better people and a better community for who she was.

Myke Hurley: And for that, I'm just forever grateful. Yeah. For just some added context, like Susan has been, uh, at basically every pen show forever, I think. And, uh, she, she, she's a pen salesperson, right? They bring, uh, stuff to sell like vintage pens and things like that. But she's always also taught classes, you know, like calligraphy class classes and handwriting classes. And, but, but more than anything else, she is and was this undeniable character, um, unlike anybody that I've ever come into contact with. And she would walk into a room at the pen show and the whole, uh, makeup of the room immediately changes as everybody was just, you know, kind of watching like, where was she going to do? Where's she going to go? And she provided the three of us, me, you and Jeff with some absolutely unforgettable moments. The first time we met her, um, that we still laugh about until now, because she, she was effectively pen show royalty and, and kind of, uh, what made that even better is I think that she kind of knew that, um, and would, and would have fun with that. And so she will be when, when we're in DC and when we go to Atlanta next year, I completely agree with Brad that there is an element of that show, uh, that we're going to lose now. So, so it's a real shame, but she, she seemed like someone who had an incredible life and enjoyed it, you know, like she seemed to, to, to get a lot of enjoyment out of a lot out of her life. So, uh, you know, we can, we can celebrate that and, and commiserate her loss. So, uh, rest in

Brad Dowdy: peace, Susan Worth. Yes. Rest in peace, Susie. And I think from now on, I mean, you know, it's, it's hard these first few days, but it's going to be nothing short of a celebration, um, from here on out. Um, once we get past the little, our grieving stage, um, the, these stories will never go away and, uh, Susie will never go away. Um, yeah. In, in all of our hearts. So, uh, I miss you, Susie. I love you and, um, rest in peace.

Myke Hurley: So, we're going to talk about, uh, we're going to talk about the Chicago Penn show in more detail next week. I have like a million items of follow-up, but Brad just won't stop booking guests. So, we will hopefully get to those next week. I don't know. Are you going to pick any fights in the next week? Which might be if we need a guest. Real good. You're going to keep your mouth shut for now?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I figure I've got like a nine to 12 month window before my next foo bar. So, y'all will be to that.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to mark it down in my calendar then, I guess. All right. All right. Um, something to note about the, uh, the Kickstarter campaign. I think, I think that we've had the final video delivered to me and you. Um, so we now just need to watch that. So, keep, keep your eye out because maybe before the next episode, uh, we'll send out something to, to the Kickstarter backers to let them know, uh, that the, the, the video of the, of episode two 53, the, the live in Atlanta episode may be done and, and released to you. So keep, keep going on that inbox and, uh, we'll keep you updated on that as, as, uh, as things move along. You can find, uh, the show notes for this week over at, uh, relay.fm slash pen addict slash two five six. Or really you can probably just go to baronfig.com and you'll find everything that's in there anyway. Uh, cause it's, it's basically all that. Um, I want to take a moment to thank Joey again. He was a great sport. He's a great character. Um, we love, we love talking to the guy and, and he's a, he was a, as a real standup guy to come onto the show and, and, uh, potentially face the wrath of a dowdy, but you know, like, cause he didn't know, I don't think he really knew what he was getting himself into today. So that is a, that is a standup guy right there to, to come on the show and to, to talk to us about everything. So we really appreciate that. Definitely. Thank you, Joey. Um, if you want to find Brad online, he's over at pen addict.com. He is pen addict on Instagram and he is dowdyism on Twitter. You can go to knock.co for a selection of incredible products, which you should go check out. Uh, if you want to find me online, I'm at I Myke, I M Y K E. Thank you to Penn Chalet and away for their support this week. And, uh, most of all, as always, thank you for checking out the pen addict podcast. If you enjoy the show, why don't you recommend it to a friend? There are hidden stationary people out there in the world. Maybe you can try and convert another one until next time. Say goodbye, right? Goodbye, Brad.