Editing The Pen Addict 211/transcript (section)

== J.M. Writing ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' And I wanted to ask you in the video that you put on your site, uh, you write out J.M. and then you write out the whole name of the ink. How many tries did it take you to get the whole name on one piece of paper?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That was all one shot, one shot deal.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No way. See, cause I could imagine like me doing it and ending up not having enough space for the final E starting over again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, you gotta get smaller as you go or else you're like, ah, I'm going to have to do this whole thing over again. So there's, there's pretty good motivation to get it right the first time.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. I laughed when I saw you put this in the, in the show notes, Myke, cause I had the exact same thought and I could see Ed adjusting on the way down. I was like, oh, this is looking great. There's no way he's getting this whole thing in there. I really committed with that gigantic C. Yeah. Well, those folded nips will get you. It's not like you can write tiny with that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh no. So I've never used a folded nib and like just looking at that, I mean, it was one of my things that I really wanted to try Atlanta, but I never got the chance. Um, how long does it take the ink to dry? Cause it basically looks like you're just pouring in ink onto a page. Like how long does it take something like that to dry? I'm pretty sure it's still wet. And I did that like a week ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, a long time. Don't count on it drying and in any reasonable amount of time. Cause it's like you said, it's literally just pouring ink on a page. It's not even like a paintbrush. It's like, um, it's just like dumping it. And then the paper gets all wrinkly because it's soaking wet. Yeah. I could see that happening. It was starting to like crunch up. Oh, but yeah, it's so crunchy. And I usually just rip them and then throw them out because I don't know, nothing to do with them. And the best is when you do a couple in a row. Cause then you have 10 pieces of paper with puddles on it on your desk that you're trying not to knock into.

'''Ed Jelley:''' That's awesome. All right. So you alluded to like shooting the videos and doing some work for J.R. Bond and, and as part of your, your deal. So I think we should, we should get into the, uh, to the, the burnout and the blogging topic that, uh, that we had you on here to talk about. Uh, before that, let's talk about our good friends at Harry's Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's time to stop compromising on your shave. It's time to get started with Harry's. If you haven't yet made the switch, I bet that you're either paying too much for a comfortable shave or you've settled for a lower quality razor. Neither of these things are acceptable when Harry's is here to offer you something you've never had before. A great shave at a fair price. It's simple. Get the best of both with Harry's. They have German engineered five blade cartridges that will give you a close, comfortable shave without cuts or razor burn. They make their own blades. That's how they guarantee the quality of those blades. They'll give you a full refund. If you're not happy over 1 million people will switch to Harry's because of these reasons, quality guaranteed, great razors, comfortable shave, and they're a fantastic price as well. It's about half the price that you'll see from other big brand blades on average and everyday shaver says $150 each year on blades. When they use Harry's, it's so simple to get started for just $15. You can get a razor, moisturize and shave cream, and three razor blades. That is the Truman set. Mr. Brad Dowdy, have you had any Harry's escapades in your life recently? Yeah, I have actually. We don't plan this. I just can feel it.

'''Ed Jelley:''' We don't, but there's always something. So I followed through with the Father's Day gift thing, remember? You know, the Harry's box set that they did. So we gave it to my father-in-law, whose name is Harry, and he opened it up. He's like, oh, this is great. I enjoyed it. And he says, I've seen this on TV. He says, these are supposed to be the best blades, right? And I was like, man, he's got the, Harry's has got the marketing down. Like, he doesn't listen to the podcast, so he wouldn't know what Harry's is. But he knew that Harry's had very good blades, so he was excited to get it and try it out. So it's good that they're kind of getting the word out, you know, in, you know, non-traditional formats. You know, I've seen him do some other advertising and things like that. So I thought that was pretty cool that he had at least heard of them. And then his comment was, oh, these are supposed to be the best blades. So I thought that was pretty cool. There you go. I can agree with that statement.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The word is on the street.

'''Ed Jelley:''' So Harry says Harry's blades are excellent.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's good to know. It's time to stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to harrys.com and they will give you $5 off. If you type in the coupon code PENADDICT at checkout with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. Coupon code PENADDICT at checkout for $5 off. Thank you so much to Harry's for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Ed Jelley:''' All right. So we started talking to Ed on the Twitter bot when we were looking for questions for an episode a few weeks ago. And, you know, everyone's asking, what about this pen? What about this paper? How do you use this? And Ed goes, hey, what do you do when you feel like you're burning out of writing a blog? I was like, well, that's turned a corner pretty quickly. It's kind of ugly. No, but I thought it was awesome because, you know, I've gone through this. I've gone through it publicly here on the show and in the past on the blog. So why don't you let me give you the floor for a minute to kind of give a little bit of background, you know, the impetus for the tweet. It's obviously something you've been thinking about for a while, I imagine. So just kind of give us an idea of what's going on and what your thought process is right now with blogging.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I think that, like, I started this when I was in college. I didn't have, like, a ton of other stuff going on. And, you know, I thought it was fun. I built an audience, get to go on podcasts. It's gotten me jobs. And then other things kind of start creeping their way in. And you're just like, do I like doing this anymore? Is this, like, something that I should spend, you know, five to ten hours a week on? Or is it, you know, am I doing this because I feel obligated, like, because I have sponsors and because I don't want my audience to disappear? And then you kind of sit back. And then I started thinking about how, you know, other than Kickstarter, there's a pretty overwhelming lack of, like, new products in the stationary world. Like, I'm four years and, like, 370 posts in. And it's like, I don't want to review stuff that's just something in a different color. And I don't have the type of income to buy every Mont Blanc limited edition. So it's like kind of getting that where can I go from here and starting to feel like you're repeating yourself. And then when you get other things going on, like, I'm a staff writer for Everyday Carry. And that's, like, that's my second job. So, you know, now either I can spend more time doing articles and posts there that I'm compensated for. Or I can force myself to get a post up a week about something that I'm not feeling super thrilled about. So I'm kind of like, you know, last two months was, like, maybe one or two posts. I mean, I did get married. Congratulations. Thank you. And back in August, I bought a house. So I did, like, all this really super adult stuff. And that takes a lot of time. And then if you have other things going on, you're like, wow, that takes a lot of time. And then, like, the thing that you used to love gets pushed back because you might not feel that it's, like, the best use of time. Or it's not giving you that feeling that you're like, oh, this is great. I can't wait to do this. And, oh, by the way, you have a day job, too. You've. Oh, yeah. I'm there. I'm there right now. Oh, yeah. And I have a day job. So I have my day job. I have Everyday Carry. I have EdJelly.com. And I just started working at my local coffee roaster on Saturdays because I'm a maniac. Yes, you are a maniac.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Question for you, Ed. Yes. Why do you write at Everyday Carry?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I write there because, number one, I'm interested in it. It's always been kind of like a hobby of mine. And about a year and a half ago, almost two years at this point, they asked me to write for their site. And it was a good deal. And getting paid to write is still kind of crazy to me because it's like, Brad, you never thought you were going to quit your day job and just do stationery. And, Myke, same thing with you where it's like, oh, podcasting, this is my job now. And now it's like, oh, I can write about things that I care about and take pictures that go out to this huge audience every single day and get paid for it. That's a no-brainer for me.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah, I think that's – hearing you talk about that, it's focusing on what drives you the most right now. And, you know, doing the ADC stuff, you know, one of the things – we're going to talk about this later because I have a question from a listener. It's one of the things where edjelly.com is a standout, you know, not just from the content and the writing, but your photography is always so popular and so well done. And that really shows in that ADC community, right? That's kind of how that site's built on. So it's a really good flow and focus for you. I mean, it seems like a really good fit. And, you know, I've known Bernard since – gosh, about since he started the blog and seeing that site blow up. I imagine that's a – has a lot come out of that for you, not just money, but just from, like, you know, other people seeing your work and reaching out and things like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, it's cool, like, just from a personal standpoint because, like, I never thought I'd be shooting a Leatherman ad or, like, Victorinox Swiss Army. It's, like, that's – that's, like, the brand. It's, like – and then if somebody trusts you enough to do, like, the photos for something they're paying for, it's, like, oh, this is cool. Like, this is, like, justification for sure. Like, super, super great. Right. And, I mean, just even, like, the sense of accomplishment and the money that goes with it. I hate to keep bringing up money because I probably sound like I'm, like, oh, give me money. But, like, it's a pretty strong motivator when you can turn a hobby into a job. And it's, like – You know, I'm not saying it's, like, oh, I only write for EDC because they pay me. It's, like, you take this interest. They hit me up because of my website, because of edgelly.com. And now it's, like, springboarded into a whole other thing.