Editing The Pen Addict 243/transcript (section)

== Listener Appreciation ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. I couldn't, you know, there's going to be a lot of appreciation for listeners over the next 15 minutes or so. But like step one, massive thank you to all of you out there that listen. And the fact that for a reason that I can't really seem to wrap my head around, there are more of you than there's ever been. And for us to be nearly 250 episodes into this thing, for the people that continue to join us and people that continue to go through the back catalog, just thank you. Like you're all incredible. You make our lives better. And we love you for that. So thank you so much for tuning in for five years.

'''Jared:''' Yeah, so the coolest thing is it definitely feels like a family. Like we're well into five-digit listenership, if you'll allow me to at least say that. I will. Per episode, like well into it. But it still just feels like we're having a conversation. You know, it's just a conversation between us and like our buddies on the other end of the wire. Yeah. Like that's how it works for us. And that's what it feels like while we're recording this show. So that that many people like actively download the Pen Addict podcast, a podcast about pens. It's kind of amazing. And I love it. And I'm excited. Like I've said in some of our recent shows, like I still feel like we're scratching the surface. There's so much more. We're not going anywhere. This is like crazy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So to continue on this train, last week we set a goal for you to help us achieve a $20,000 stretch goal on our current Kickstarter campaign. So we would be able to not only do a show in Atlanta and a meetup in DC, but also to record a show in Chicago with the Field Notes crew. I said at the end of the episode, come on, let's see if we can do this by next week. Like Brad was like, that's madness. And we did it again in 24 hours. So we now...

'''Jared:''' It seemed like it was by that night, right? It was, I think. It was that day. By like late, like 10 o'clock that night or something. We were watching it and it clicked over.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So as we are right now, we have 17 days left to go on the Pen Addict Live 2017 US Tour Kickstarter is what I'm referring it to now. We have 559 backers, which is nearly 100 more than our previous two years. So again, like thank you to all of the new backers as well as our existing backers. Yeah. And we're at $23,500. We don't have any more plans. I do keep thinking to myself, it's like, where else could we go? And I'm like, no, not this year. No. Not this year. But I'm getting swept up in it now. I keep referring to the fact that I'm going on tour this year, which is very funny to me.

'''Jared:''' Yeah. And the backers are swept up in it too. They're like, more, more, do more, do more. And I'm like, yeah, but maybe we will. I mean, it's not going to be more travel. You know, maybe we can do something else. But we're like, the travel thing is done for this year. We want to save up for next year. Like there's always something else, which is a thing we talk about all the time. And it's like, okay, this is awesome. And we want it to keep going and growing. It was funny when we were like $50 or $100 away, Field Notes started tweeting it out. Like, come on, make it happen. I was dying. It was pretty funny.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They've been amazing through this, like to help us get to this point. So I think it's incredible. Like we have other plans of things we want to do. We just can't do them in 2017 because the logistics would be too much. But we have, and again, you are all filling us with the confidence that we need to go bigger in 2018. Which I know that sounds bonkers, but yeah, we have plans to go bigger in 2018. There's already a plan. There's already a plan. It's underway. And so, yeah, don't forget, save up your pennies for this time next year as well. I'm really excited to see where this will go, where this show will go. And, you know, in the true spirit, the Panavik Kickstarter, every time we will find a way to put any extra money back into the people that helped us get here. So absolutely. We don't do this as a profit-making endeavor. You know, like last year, we surprised everybody with temporary tattoos. And if you're at the shows, then we do things to try and put on like a party. So we'll continue to do all of that. And we'll do, you know, if the money's there, we'll do giveaways for backers and stuff like that from stuff that we pick up at the show ourselves. So just, you know, this is something that's important to me is we don't do this so me and Brad can go sit on a beach somewhere. Right. We do this as a community event. And everybody that is involved in this, we want to get something great out of it. And we reinvest the money that we make into doing that and making it bigger and better.

'''Jared:''' Yeah. We spend all the money that we collected in the Kickstarter for all the events. You know, like last year, we were able to do the pizza party after the podcast. And if you know how hotels work even remotely, that kind of stuff isn't cheap. So we included that in, you know, trying to, you know, like into the budget. Like I've shared the budget, you know, like in the Slack room and, you know, people were happy to see the numbers and, you know, kind of get an idea of, you know, what we're looking at. And, you know, I said this was all before the Chicago stuff and things like that. So though we, if there isn't like any extra, we try to put it back into stuff for you guys, which is just fun. It's fun for us. I mean, this is a fun thing for us to do. Um, and, uh, I, I think, uh, everyone enjoys it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And we, we, we'll continue to try and make it as best we can. And, uh, let's say everybody that has backed. And if you're still going to back, thank you so much for that.

'''Jared:''' Yep. Yep. Yep. We should, Stacy in the chat room gave me an idea. Maybe we should, we should just rent out the waffle house from like 2 AM to 3 AM. I'll be on board with that.

'''Jared:''' That would be hilarious. All right. So one more, one more bit of business. Um, I mentioned last week, uh, how we, we always had been talking about doing the pen attic wiki. And I mentioned the idea about doing a pen database. I got so many emails and tweets and Slack messages from people wanting to be involved in that stuff. And that just made me feel number one. It made me feel wonderful that people want to like be involved in this. And two, it made me feel guilty because I have to get both of these things started. And I just don't have that time yet. But I, I think these are like valid things and something I would like to do at some point. Um, it's not going to happen today or this week or this month, but it's something on my radar. Um, I replied back to everyone who messaged me and saying, you know, well, I, once something gets going, I will let you know, because so many people like wanted to be involved and volunteer their time and help do certain things. And it was really, really killer feedback. Um, and, uh, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent that in. And, you know, if we do something, you will be the first to know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We will one day. We promise before we hit our next five year anniversary, there will be a wiki for the pen addict podcast. All right. That's make that promise.

'''Jared:''' And I've got five years to set it up. Five year plan. I don't have a five year plan for my life.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, I don't have one for anything.

'''Jared:''' But the wiki is on a five year plan.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's the only thing I have on my five year plan.

'''Jared:''' Okay, cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Today's show is brought to you by a new sponsor, Mack Weldon. Mack Weldon makes the most comfortable underwear, socks, shirts, undershirts, hoodies, and sweatpants around. If you're not a Mack Weldon customer, I feel pretty confident in saying that Mack Weldon makes better stuff than whatever you're wearing right now. They believe in smart design, premium fabrics, and simple shopping. The shopping is so simple. You can just go onto their website. You pick what you want. You get discounts for the more that you buy, which I really like. And everything is nicely designed. It's all modeled out well. They have good sizing guides. And you should get everything sent out to you. They have good return policies and stuff like that. Like, for example, talking about their return policies, if you don't like your Mack Weldon clothes or your underwear or socks, they will refund you. But they don't want you to send it back. They're just like, you keep it. We don't want anything to do with that business. And they just refund you. This is all part of their simple shopping. And also, I think, because they don't want you to send underwear to them back. I think they're cool sending it out, but they don't want it on the return. Makes sense. Which makes a lot of sense. I mean, who really wants that? I am a big fan of my Mack Weldon clothing. So yesterday, I had a friend coming over in the evening. And I realized that I was wearing pajamas. I hadn't gotten dressed, which is a normal thing for me. I don't know if you go through this, Brad. But being a home worker, I tend to just work my time in pajamas. Yeah. And I realized, oh, you know, I've got someone coming over. I should dress a bit smarter. So I grabbed my Mack Weldon sweatpants and put those on because I could remain comfortable, but also look good. Mack Weldon's underwear, socks, and shirts perform as well as they look. They're great for working out, going to work, going out on dates for when your friends come over and you want to look like you haven't just been in your pajamas all day. That's what Mack Weldon's all about. Listeners of this show can get 20% off at MackWeldon.com. That's M-A-C-K-W-E-L-D-O-N.com. With the code PENADDICT, you will get that 20% off. Thank you so much to Mack Weldon for their support of this show and RelayFM. Go and check them out, buy some stuff, and then they will sponsor us again, which will be great.

'''Jared:''' Yeah, since we're all good friends here, I can share that I am a big fan of the Mack Weldon boxers. And they, you know, I'm a large individual, Myke, and it's not easy to find clothing from all these cool new sponsors that we have, but I have to say Mack Weldon's boxers do the trick for me. Same with their no-show socks. I'm on a no-show sock kick, so I have those, and they work wonderfully.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thanks, large individual.

'''Jared:''' Yes, we're all good friends here. We can talk. Speaking of good friends,

'''Jared:''' Neil Gaiman, good friend of the show. Friend of the show.

'''Jared:''' He has kicked Moleskine to the curb, Michael.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes.

'''Jared:''' I just thought this was funny. I started getting looped into a bunch of responses to his tweets, but it started off, well, there's basically two tweets that were involved in this. So, the first one was, I stopped using Moleskine when they went to cheaper, thinner ink bleeds through paper, now mostly using Leuchterm 1917. So, he just, it was a throw, it essentially is a tweet throwdown right there. He's like, no more this, I'm all of that. And Leuchterm was pretty stoked about this. I bet they were. Yeah. Um, and then he later said, I asked Moleskine reps at TED a few years ago, they said that not many people use fountain pens these days, so almost no one cares. So, taking that second tweet, this is what David Sachs talks about in the Revenge of Analog, chapter two, which is the paper chapter, and it's generally about Moleskine. It was disheartening to read. It's, I think even David, the way he wrote that chapter by the end, he was even kind of saying, he was surprised how little Moleskine cares about the product and how much they care about the brand. Like, he felt like, he was asking, I think, about innovations, I don't have it right in front of me, like towards the end of the, you know, after laying out the entire story of talking with the people involved, talking about the marketing, talking about the business, he wanted to talk about the products, and they were kind of like, yeah, don't really care. I mean, this is me paraphrasing and putting it in my own words, but it was generally, not too concerned about the product, as long as our brand is super popular.

'''Jared:''' It was very, very awkward chapter.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, it's just a different, I mean, it's not wrong, it's just a different way of doing business to what we like, right? Like, this is totally fine for them to do this if they want to, provided that they keep their customers happy, and it looks like some of their bigger, you know, their bigger fans are not happy anymore, but I don't think it's changing what you see in the workplace, you know? Right. So, I mean, I find it frustrating and kind of upsetting, because they can do better than they do, they can, and I don't think it would make too much of a difference to their bottom line, but it is a decision that they make. It's not the way I like to do business, it's not the way I conduct my own business, but that's the way that they choose to run theirs, but that's also why I don't buy any of their products. Right. Right.

'''Jared:''' So, it's, you know, even if they would just take the stance to say, you know, we really don't see our products as being, like, necessarily a fountain pen friendly product, but here's why it's really good. Yeah. Like, they don't even do that, they don't even care that much, you know, to say, use this, try this, and, you know, there's nothing inherently wrong with Moleskine as a product, and it's perfectly functional and usable. But there's just so many better choices, so many companies that aren't built on false marketing, like, the historical aspects of the brand.