Editing The Pen Addict 53/transcript (section)

== Pen Industry Jobs ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a good question. That's a tough question. For me, it was just luck. I mean, I was just persistent in my blogging, built an audience, built kind of a rapport with the readers, and that turned into a rapport with various pen companies. And then we just got to talking about JetPens. They wanted to try to do a couple different things, and they asked if I was interested. And I said, of course, yeah, I was. In the end, it didn't work out best for either of us. But I think it's probably a hard industry to get into because most of the things that you and I and other people see are publicly are all from the marketing PR side, right? So that's how, you know, those are the paths that are the ends to the pen company. And, you know, I don't know if that's where you would want to be or not. You know, I don't know exactly what you're looking for. I mean, but, you know, all the people that we interface usually are, you know, marketing PR types. So, you know, those are the skills you want to have, you know, being very, you know, open and accessible and providing information and, you know, having a good rapport with the audience. That's what helped me. But, you know, I also wasn't looking to get a job in the pen industry at the time. It just kind of happened. There wasn't anything specific I did. I just did what was important to me and what I felt was the right thing to do, and it just kind of worked out. So, you know, I wasn't looking for that job at the time, so I don't know if I have a great answer. Like, because I didn't target it and say, you know, here's what I'm going to do, and here's how I'm going to get in. And it didn't work that way for me. It was more just kind of on a whim, thing kind of happened. So it was a fantastic experience. I loved it. So, you know, if I ever have a, I don't know if I'll ever have a next job in the pen industry, it'll probably be blogging, you know, just doing what I'm doing. Maybe it'll turn into a job one day. I don't have any plans to do that, though. But I guess what I'm saying is my next job in the pen industry will be a job of my own creation. I don't know that I will ever work for anyone again, but you never know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a really, really good answer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Mpacer on App.net. This might be more appropriate for John Siracusa, but how do you actually deal with the health issues that arise from constantly writing and typing? I've gotten better with my wrist posture. That doesn't mean it's easy. I don't have any answers for this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I thought this was a really good question, and this may not be the answer you want to hear, but not so much in typing, but in writing. When I write with, you know, my high-tech Cs and the really fine pens and my printing style, I use a heavy grip pressure. I don't get near as much writing fatigue with fountain pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And you may not be a fountain pen person, but I have found that fountain pens are, the way you write with a fountain pen is less stressful on your hand and your wrist. I can't really speak to it in typing. I mean, I type a lot all day, and I haven't, fortunately, knock on wood, I haven't really run into any issues with carpal tunnel or any of those type of issues with that combination of writing and typing. But I have found that I do have a lot less stress in my hand using a fountain pen, for what it's worth.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. You have a time machine that only allows you to revisit past pen decisions. What do you change? This is from Brad Huss, which is at SPH33R. It's sphere, I guess. Sphere. I never would have purchased the Oto Rook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Terrible decision.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is funny, because mine is very much along the same lines, but broader. I would waste less money on lower-end fountain pens, which encompasses the Rook and the dude from Oto. You know, there's lots of things. You know, there's tons of fountain pens available that are less than $30. There's very few that I've found that have been worth the price, no matter if they're $5 or $25. The Safari's one, that's why we talk about it all the time. There's maybe a couple of others. You know, so I've spent way too much money and too much time with other pens in that $10, $15, $20 range that I will never go back to again in my life. And, you know, that's probably hundreds of dollars of pens sitting there that I could have applied that money in a better fashion buying a single pen or two pens. That would be much better. So, there's definitely been some waste in that area. So, it's kind of along the same lines as you, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah, just... I guess if I was only going to pick one, it'd be that. It's probably the worst pen I've ever used. Well, not the worst pen I've ever used. It's the most disappointing. Yeah. Yeah. Michael Franznik. Two obvious questions. At least obvious to me, he says. Excluding vintage pens, which I believe contain the best value in Estabrook. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What do you consider the best or worst value in pens you have actually used? So, I guess what he's asking is consider satisfaction versus cost and gifts may be considered. Value-wise, what do you consider to be the best and worst? I guess value... Best value, I guess, would be something along the lines for me of like a Lamy Safari or a Pilot Prera because they're so good and they're very cheap. I would also go with the retro in there as well. One of the reasons I love that line is because I think they are actually relatively cheap for what you're getting. Worst value, I don't think I've spent enough, honestly. Yeah. To really get into that. What do you think?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think my best value, like modern pens-wise, is the Twisby. Probably the 580, which is the current model. It's really versatile and it's really high quality and I think it's a completely fair price.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Worst values, I really think, are the cheaper pens. Kind of relating to that last question, you know, like spending $20 or $25 on a couple of Oto fountain pens, that's just turned out to be, you know, money flushed down the toilet. You know, it doesn't have to be a $200 or $300 pen to be a bad value. I mean, I thought, you know, a $25 pen that I'm going to use one time to do a pen review and never use again, that's pretty poor value. So, I think some of my worst values have been in some of the cheaper pens, to be quite honest.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Interesting. Okay. And also from Michael, do you better appreciate, as he does, collectors of vintage firearms and automobiles now? Can you imagine your interesting quality tools transferring to another tool or machine? I guess, yeah, I appreciate collectors of all kinds. Vintage stuff too, although I've not really got into vintage stuff, so for me, it's just collectors. I have an addictive personality. I become obsessed with things. Pens is a long-term obsession of mine, we spoke about earlier. So, yes, I can totally see that I could transfer this interest, not that I would remove my pen addiction, to something else in the future. I have no idea what that could be. I get consumed by things. It's part of who I am.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, I agree with that completely. I definitely have that same type of behavior traits. You know, I do find certain things and obsess over. I could see me getting, I definitely appreciate all the collectors, different types of collectors, and I could see myself, you know, I read a lot of things that like about watches or about knives or about, you know, flashlights, a lot of that everyday carry type stuff I like. But, you know, that's all stuff that can get really expensive too. But I could, you know, I don't think I'll ever like go full bore like I've gone with pens and that's why pens are so great because you can find something awesome for, you know, $3 and that can really change how you work and how you do things whereas getting into some other things are, you know, quite cost prohibitive. Not that it won't happen down the line but I can definitely, I definitely respect and, you know, see the enjoyment that a lot of other collectors have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sorry, I was taking a drink. Last question from Todd Peppercorn. On behalf of his wife, when does it all end? Mrs. Peppercorn. Unfortunately, Mrs. Peppercorn, it doesn't. Yeah,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm sorry. Yeah, it doesn't.

'''Myke Hurley:''' When the pens end, which will probably be never.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, which is great for us all and I know, I know Todd, Todd is happy to hear that answer too. He's like, yes, it never ends because Todd's a pretty good collector. He uses lots of really good fountain pens and, you know, I talk to him pretty frequently and he's got some good stuff so you can tell your wife that I'm sorry, honey, it doesn't end and then figure out what you can buy for her to make up for all your fountain pen purchases because it's not ending anytime soon. I can promise you that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okie dokie. I think we've come to the end. Well,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' we have. Yeah, unlike this show. Yeah, unlike this show, it is ending soon. Right now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not forever, just this episode. Oh gosh, no. We're not doing that again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I got an email about that the other day. Did you? What is it? That episode, the take a break episode, someone said, I just listened to that. She said it was so depressing but, you know, I was consoled in the fact that I knew already that there were more episodes afterwards so it was okay but boy, I was like, yeah, in retrospect, that was a pretty depressing episode.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it was unintentional, wasn't it, that we...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Totally, totally unintentional. I thought it was a great episode personally but it's not in line with, you know, what a normal episode would be. So anyway, we won't get stuck on that but yeah, this was a fun episode. It was. I was excited to do this and we will do it again soon, you know, maybe later this year we'll do it and see, we'll get another batch of questions, see how it goes but I love doing stuff like this just because, you know, the community around this podcast and just around pens in general, you know, even, you know, other pen bloggers, other pen companies, everyone is so helpful, so nice and, you know, I just wanted to give back a little bit even though, you know, I'm free to answer questions all the time and yeah, it was fun.

'''Myke Hurley:''' As I say though, there is no greater community than the pen addict community, our community. That's right. We have the best one because of all of you guys who tune in every week and we love you all dearly and we're very, very happy that you continue to be with us and, you know, we really, really appreciate it and we appreciate all of your questions. I've tried to do this sort of stuff in the past with other shows. I've never got that many questions. Never. And this is on shows that have much larger audiences. So, that just shows you guys are so engaged and we love it and as Brad promised, if any question was not answered, feel free to contact him. You're going to get a better answer out of him but if you've got stuff that's maybe non-pen related, you know, so we had some other stuff, feel free to ask me too. I'd love to hear it. I mean, I can help where I can with the pen stuff but we all know that Brad is the real guru around these parts. So, get in touch with us. I know for me, Twitter and app.net are best, especially if you want shorter answers or they're just short questions. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on both. Brad is at dowdy, D-O-W-D-Y on app.net and dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. Also, if you want to email Brad if you have longer questions, email thepenaddict at gmail.com. Is it good? Perfect. Perfect. So, I think that we are at the end, sir.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We are. Great job by you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One hour, 15 minutes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good deal. I think that worked out well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not too far off what I thought it was going to be, which was 90 minutes I said to you before we started. not too far off that. So, thank you for sticking with us. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and we will, of course, be back next week. Until next time, I'm Myke and he is Brad. Have a great week. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]