#Lockboss Talk with Megan (and some news)

POSTS OF THE WEEK

It looks like the lockbosses were hooked into it and they have choosed the red pill. Happykey626 even commented “I love the fruit snacks y'all give out in the orders 🔥. That's why I come back to you, CLK Supplies 👏”

"I didn’t know I had won until I saw the replay of the video on You Tube. Thank you all and have a blessed day" - Sandra K.

The best kind of surprise! Thanks so much for sending this pic in 😄

"How about refurbish my recently acquired early Christmas present. I intend to clean it up, lube and such before I power it up. BTW any insights on when this was made and such is OK. I do not think I will have any trouble working on it, I'm kind of good at that stuff. These are all 'before' pictures I took. I spent a little time on it tonight and it's cleaning up OK.

"The first rule of successful tinkering is saving all the parts." - Robert W. aka WRWhizard

It's awesome to see an old key cutting machine like this! Thanks so much for sharing these pics with us, Robert! And if anyone wants to see the machine in action, he has some videos up on his YouTube showing it cut 🙌

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

That is what we’re all hoping. Although, the only downside is will they show keys that they don’t make? I was thinking the same thing but I don’t want to press Walter and get him in trouble. They better hold off.

UPDATE ON THE PINNING MAT

PJ: We've gotten the approved version. I signed off on it this morning.

Megan: It looks great. Spoiler alert.

PJ: It was worth it. There are a couple of little tiny tweaks I wanted that you guys weren't okay with. Like, “PJ, that might be a little overboard.”

Megan: Yeah. But after seeing the finalized product, that was worth it. I think it'll make a big difference for everybody out there when they finally get it. There's a lot that went into that. It wasn't just some mat that was thrown together.

PJ: Yes. The thing I love most about it is that we took all the community feedback, our original mat, and start going through all of the conversations and meetings we had about. It was taking the information from our community and trying to apply as much as for them; not for us. I get it. Like you can use a mat as like an advertising tool to some degree. I mean, we still have our name on it.

Megan: But that's not the point. It wasn't the main reason we're making it. It was all completely for the community and people who are going to be using it.

PJ: Absolutely. And, you know, there's a couple of little features about it that I'm obsessed. Is it bad? A little bit?

Megan: It's just you. I think you want a nice obsession. A little bit healthy obsession. You would, for sure, be obsessed with some of these things.

PJ: It's exciting. I just wish it would come out. The last couple of revisions just felt like -

Megan: - you want to take already. But now that it's finalized, everything was worth it.

PJ: Now just the waiting game.

PJ: Okay. All right. So, let's go ahead and get into Catching up with Megan. Let's just go ahead and burst the bubble. Okay, the main reason I wanted to bring Megan on is if you haven't noticed by now, she's pregnant and the due date is approaching. And so, Megan's last day here is next Tuesday. A week from today. If you wanted to quit, you don't have to get pregnant. I mean, that's pretty dramatic. You know, most people just put their two weeks in most of the time. Megan may be back next year or maybe not. She's going to be getting ready to have her first child and she will be focusing on that. I bring her on so everybody could say goodbye and feel free to call in before the end of next Tuesday to say bye.

Megan: Sad, for sure but very exciting.

PJ: We've known this has been coming for months and months. Right. I mean -

Megan: - I've had plenty of time to grieve.

PJ: Yeah, pass the grieving just now in the denial stage. So yeah, it'll be a new adventure for you to be starting. I hope my around here will be true for you, which is, “A lot less labor and a lot more baby.”

Megan: Applied; very specifically.

PJ: Let’s rewind a little bit. One of the funny parts is that, when you were hired years ago, it was right when Kylie was getting ready to have, and now, it’s your turn. I want to publicly say I appreciate everything you've done and being a part of our team. We've had a lot of fun, for sure. When you started here, we had 30 to 40 videos on YouTube. And both of us know, I wanted nothing to do with them.

Megan: None at all. Which is you would never guess that today with how much our channel has changed and how much of your face is on the channel? You'd never guess that. All those old videos, you've never shown your face. He didn't want his face in the front just hands at a table.

PJ: Yes. Yeah, I wanted nothing to do with it. I think the funny part though, is for a while, on one of your first few weeks, your job was to hold the camera. Do you remember that?

Megan: I remember. I’ve grown muscles.

PJ: We were so low-tech. Right. So low-tech using my phone.

Megan: You didn't have a tripod or anything?

PJ: Nor did I want any?

Megan: For whatever reason, no.

PJ: I mean, the way I looked at is, it doesn't take long to look on the internet to see that it's not a friendly place a lot of times, and I'm like, why would I want to bring that on in my life?

Megan: I mean, that makes sense. Yeah, that's true.

PJ: But now, the lockboss community has surprised me with how awesome and positive everybody is.

Megan: We've got a great community. I think we're very lucky in that; not just saying that. You can see it in the comments. How everybody talks to each other. It's not what we expected. We were always prepared for just a lot of negativities.

PJ: It's funny. Yeah, Cheryl. I mean, I just didn't want to do one. You're nervous looking at a camera.

Megan: It’s very scary.

PJ: Yeah, and it surprises me because I don't necessarily feel that much different.

Megan: Yeah, we don't feel the same about it.

PJ: Yeah, but the reason to bring this up is I want to talk about something in particular that won't always happen.

Megan: I know what you're talking about.

PJ: I could not think when I was doing the videos that they were so ridiculous, I would start busting up laughing. Uncontrollably.

Megan: Right when we're almost finished recording, almost finish the whole process, and then you’ll just start laughing. Looking back is so funny, but holding the camera for an amount of time, trying not to move and hold it very low, and you’ll start laughing. I was like, “Alright let me shake my arms off and try again.

PJ: I mean, just so dumb, and part of the reason we had to do that was that like, we didn't have a video editor. I was not interested in editing videos, so I’ll just upload it as it is. So, we need to do this in one shot. I mean, man, that was ignorant, but we've come a long way. But the laughing took me years to overcome.

WHO CAME UP WITH LOCKBOSS

PJ: It was the beginning of 2020. I sat everybody down and I was like, “This is what I'm thinking. I know what I want to do. This is what it looks like, but we need to kind of come up with a name. It's going to be painful”

Megan: There was that big warning.

PJ: Yeah, and you looked at me.

Megan: Usually, it's always it'll be easy or it'll be fine and that's kind of painful. But if PJ's warning us that it's going to be painful, it's going to hurt.

PJ: I mean, well, it was just a lot of hours. Like, behind the scenes you put a lot of hours on.

Megan: Yeah, I'm creating all of this.

PJ: Yeah. Like I've said many times before, we all ended up voting on the name that we were going to use. And of course, lockboss was the name that came out and that was your suggestion

Megan: We had a whiteboard filled with filled themes. Top to bottom filled with a bunch of different options.

PJ: And so, you know, we'll forever be grateful for you making that suggestion.

Megan: So glad I did. Yeah. It's a good one. I think.

PJ: So yeah. Honestly, from that point on, it's kind of been a big blur. Hasn't it?

Megan: Yeah, because if you look back from before versus now, there's a lot that happened in between that. It's very different. All the things that happened. We worked hard, but it was worth it. It's been fun. Here we are today.

PJ: How awesome is that? Thank you very much.

Megan: We're talking about the positivity of this community.

PJ: Yeah. It's been really fun making. So, is there anything you'd like to say? I mean, I want to make sure I can make it as awkward as possible for you.

Megan: Thank you. I love that. Yeah. No, I've just I've enjoyed my time here. I've enjoyed the community and the relationships that have been made over the phone with customers and you guys. I know, I've talked to a lot of you over the phone over the years and it's been really good here. Thank you. Thank you for such a fun place to work.

PJ: That's been good. It's been really good. So, there you have, everybody. That is the news. Hopefully, you enjoyed our kind of reminiscing over the past years, and give you a little more inside scoop, if you ever heard some of it before. At the end of the day, being a parent is amazing. Probably the best part is when you have a kid, it's like violent, but not like violent physically, but like, emotionally and mentally. You know, some of the guys who work for my dad, who I worked with years ago locksmithing, they were like, “You know, PJ, as I've known you, every kid you have had we've seen you to mellow out more and more.”

Megan: Somehow kind of calms you down at the same.

PJ: Yeah. There's like something humbling about having to do stuff you don't want to do all the time.

Megan: That makes sense. Yeah.