Editing The Pen Addict 465/transcript (section)

== Background and Early Influences ==


'''Brad:''' Yeah. So, I actually want to talk about the pre-Gravitas Pens time, which is kind of the Ben Walsh Designs time. Because as I was getting ready for this, I was learning a little bit more that you've actually been making things for a little while now, and not just pens. So, I want to dig into that. But how did the pen thing start with you? How did you get into pens? Did you have a fascination with pens when you were younger? Were you in the stationery realm at all, like when you were a kid? Did you even care what you wrote about with, and then suddenly you decided, well, I should make one?

'''Ben Walsh:''' No, actually. Well, yes. Stationery has always been very important to me, simply because of my dad. So, my dad, he is an artist. And since I can remember, he's been doing comic book art. And he had, do you know the Rotaring Isograph Pens?

'''Brad:''' Absolutely, yeah.

'''Ben Walsh:''' So, he had a bunch of them from when I was very young, these pens that I was never allowed to touch. So, I was always around some really high-end stationery. And I was always being dragged to shops that had the really high-end mechanical pencils and the drawing instruments that I had no clue what they were. But I got to see them from a very young age. My dad actually gave me a clutch pencil when I was four. So, I got to use some higher-end stuff at a very young age. So, I was using, like, Rotaring Pens and Staedtler clutch pencils.

'''Brad:''' Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And for those who don't know those Rotaring Isographs, Ben was not allowed to touch them because those tips are very fragile.

'''Brad:''' And, like, all the artists, they protect those with their lives, right?

'''Ben Walsh:''' Yeah, I did, like, break one at one point.

'''Brad:''' I think we all probably all have at some point. So, you were around stuff. And that's kind of like me. Like, I was just around, like, pens and paper and things like that. And then I started figuring out, for me, it was trying to figure out what I wanted to write with. For you, what made you decide to actually go out and make a pen? Like, were you... Do you have a manufacturing background? What was your business like, you know, before starting, like, the Gravitas Pens? You know, what got you involved in pen making in the beginning?

'''Ben Walsh:''' So, I have a huge background in manufacturing. I was a cabinet maker and a carpenter before I went into any of this. But it was probably college. No, it definitely was college that pushed me down this avenue. So, I did interior and furniture design. And everybody made wooden furniture. So, for our end-of-year project, we had to make three pieces of furniture. And everybody was making standard chairs and tables out of wood or metal. And I decided to do something different. And I started to explore concrete as a material. And my dad thought I was an idiot. Because why would you use concrete to make a chair? Or why would you use concrete to make a table? And I said, well, why wouldn't you? It's a brilliant material. And he just didn't get it. Around that time, though, my dad got very, very ill. And he's a very stoic man at the best of times. So, we didn't really talk much. I would never get much out of him other than, I think that's a bad idea. Just do something else. So, I decided to show him that concrete can be used in interesting ways. And because he collected stationery, I decided to make a concrete pen. Basically, just to talk to my dad about something. So, I made a concrete pen. It took me a year to figure it out. And when I finally did figure it out, he just thought it was a gimmick. But people liked it. It got a lot of attention. I shared it on LinkedIn. And I got 20,000 reshares. And some of the big companies in the States got in contact and said, can you make us pens? And that's how it started. I was like, wow, okay. And then he realized, okay, there is actually something to this. That's how it started. Wow. Okay. Trying to prove my dad wrong.

'''Brad:''' So, I picked up on this later from talking to you. Like, we've talked for a little while. And we're going to talk about how we met later online. But I picked up on this concrete pen manufacturing thing only a short time ago.

'''Brad:''' And kind of, you know, like your dad was alluding to, like saying, like, I just don't get it. Like, this is a thing that should not work, right? It should not work. But, you know, I've seen concrete pens that have actually blown my mind because it shouldn't work. And, like, when you got to that process down to actually make it, like, what was that? You said it took a year to kind of, you know, figure it out completely and put it out there. At what point, what were those challenges like? And what was that point where you said, I'm going to share this out there? And that's when you saw that feedback. Like, oh, people got it and understood it. Like, what was that process like trying to get to that inversion you were able to share with everyone?

'''Ben Walsh:''' I had a full-time job. I was working as a designer at the time. And I kind of had to just come home in the evenings and hunker down in my bedroom with different chemicals and different materials trying to just make this work. I hadn't a clue what I was doing. I actually made a few massive explosions of concrete in my bedroom. And I was actually banished down to the shed in the winter to do my experiments. But it took me a lot of money, a lot of time. I failed 50 times, more than 50 times. And it just kept going and going because every time I did it, I got a little bit better. Or I was able to make a concrete that was stronger or thinner. And I figured it out in the end. And to this day, I still don't tell people how I do it. Nor should you. Yeah. Yeah. A funny story about that. Because I'm not the first to do it. But there's people that think they own the right to do it. Because they came up with the idea first. But they didn't actually do it first. So I've had people try to sue me.

'''Brad:''' Interesting. Interesting. That's something you and I can take up offline. And I have thoughts on that. But yeah, that's interesting. Because I've had, you know, being in my position, I've definitely had concrete pens pass through my hands from small companies and large companies. So yeah, I think that's certainly an interesting topic. So you saw, like, that little bit of feedback come in that, oh, wow, can you make pens? You know, what was the moment that put you past, like, the concrete pens and making them? And, like, were the concrete pens, did you start selling them? Did you make them for those people that were reaching out and that became a thing? And then what was the next step after that?