Bench Jeweler Memes

#31: April Fools Day Aftermath: JHJ, Stuller, Quality Gold & Gesswein

• Bench Jeweler Memes

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0:00 | 46:45

We're coming down from what can only be described as our Super Bowl... April Fools Day.

In this episode, we break down all the chaos-- from 'Jewelers Helping Jewelers' takeover to getting absolutely UNO-reversed by Stuller (we're still not over it).

We go behind the scenes on how the ideas came together, what actually worked, what almost got us cancelled (probably), and how much time we collectively wasted for the sake of the bit.

Honestly...it was a blast. And somehow, you all played along perfectly--which either means you loved it or we've all lost it together!

Follow us on Instagram & YouTube @benchjewelermemes

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https://buymeacoffee.com/benchjewelermemes

SPEAKER_00

Well, good morning, Brad. Good morning, Dusty. Coming in without a guest.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like um I wonder how everybody's enjoying hearing a little more of us this week. Last week? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, well, yeah. It's a little different.

SPEAKER_01

So today's episode. Uh well, first, I I really want to get better about this because I mean there we have a few people out there who are just like there's only a handful of them, but they are just like, I need you to prove that you're a bench dueler, and I don't understand how we do that. I am not that great at it, but I try to get a little bit better about just pin uh posting. I was trying to combine post and bench. So I was I was I was pinching. You're pinching, posting about benching. Um just stuff, whatever working on. But I don't know a nicer way to say like our everyday work is not that glamorous. Because I know I get it. There are shops who for they range from like I just work on high-end stuff, I just set stones all day on you know, award-winning pieces. And there are shops that like, yeah, we just do custom and we have this nice clean shop. And then there's like I work on a team of three people, and then there's the the range of like, man, I just I work in my family store and and I just do like crappy boring repairs all day, and we're kind of leaning, I guess, more towards that. Um, we do our fair share of custom for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Um and it and it's honestly like at this at this season of our business, um, it would be like show prove to me that you're drowning. It's like like we're we're barely hanging on, like we've got so much to do. It's like, oh, let me take a picture, show you what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01

And then they're like, well, if you got time for you know to spend all day making memes and doing podcasts, you can't have that much work to do. And I will let you know right here and now that our work suffers from all of this.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, especially so we're recording April 2nd. Yesterday was a big day, Dusty.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so this this episode is if you're hearing this, we are well past, let's see, this one. By the time they hear this, it will be April 7th, so it'll be less exciting. Um But we had a it felt so April Fool's Day. We are this is post-April Fool's Day recording, and we just thought it'd be fun to kind of recap that day, and hopefully you didn't miss it. I I Yeah, there's gonna be people who hear yesterday's surprise episode. Yes, they're gonna hear it like this weekend, and they're just gonna be so confused. Yes. But you know that's okay. That's what you get for not staying on top of things.

SPEAKER_00

Stop on stop on top, stop on top. Stop what's that mean? I have no idea. I'm I'm so tired from yesterday.

SPEAKER_01

You know what I thought about doing this for it? I thought about saying Brad. I know we had something scheduled, but I have a surprise for you. Uh, today is the Brad Day, and I just want you to tell me about yourself. Nobody wants to hear that. Somebody will. At some point we're gonna get there where we're both are just like, let's just dive into your past for an hour. Because we'll have nothing else to talk about. Yes, but but that won't be today. No, today is, and we have approximately forty-two minutes left to let's see here. We're just gonna do it, we're gonna do a recap. So let's let's a little behind the scenes. Like leading up to April Fool's Day, uh, in typical fashion, we were scrambling um like what, Monday and Tuesday to really think this through. Yes. And we just started like just throwing out ideas.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. Because we we wanted to do some of the like news, like breaking news, like we and we did a few of those, but we also wanted to take it up a notch.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so although it kind of unfolded at the last second because leading up to it, so our approach was like if we could just come up with a like should we just come up with one big grand scheme, if you will, and that was yesterday's or April Fool's Day podcast. That was gonna be like the culmination, although I feel like that probably wasn't it, where we talked about you know, selling out basically. Um and it was funny because our um so it if if if you're not on we did not sell out. No, we did not. Um everything's back to normal over on Bench Drooler Memes. Um But it was funny because our good friend of the show, Ron, had basically sent me screenshots and he was like, hey, I reached out to Aliyah because I thought it would be fun if we had like a bench jeweler memes like takeover on JHJ. And he was being vague and basically, I know he's here, and I'm not I don't have the messages pulled up, but basically just like you know, he was offering to essentially sponsor, pay for the sponsorship for the day. And you know, he quickly found out that you know Aliyah's already, you know, these are all paid for in advance, you know, which makes makes sense. But she encouraged him and us, like, hey, it's you can post whatever, you know, feel free to to tag me and get me involved to the best of your ability, but you can get a lot of visibility without any kind of sponsorship. Um I thought it was interesting that she implied that some of the people that do the sponsors are people that maybe struggle to get seen, and maybe they're not that great at engagement and content, and so it's kind of like getting their help, which makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

How about Ron though? I mean legend. Not only did he offer to to sponsor a whole day for us, which is insane, just having the wherewithal and and j just I don't even know if that's the word, I don't even know why that's a word, but just just taking it upon himself to contact Aaliyah. Man, what a guy.

SPEAKER_01

So this was we'll we'll work we'll work our way all around all of the shenanigans yesterday, but this one will fit into the joke that we had about uh Ron, if you will. This is the first time he's hearing this, but we've you know long had for several months now, spilling into last year, the hashtag daddy staller. And so yesterday, me and Brad decided that uh Ron is stepdaddy Ron.

SPEAKER_00

Stepdaddy Ron. Yep, yep, we did. Which is why why is it why why is I don't want to say it because my sister is why is he?

SPEAKER_01

Alright, I'm gonna say it quickly and move on. I actually have a stepdad named Ron. Okay. Um, that's not what you thought I was gonna say. I thought you were trying to bait me into Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_00

I was just gonna say he was the dad that stepped up. Oh no, I'm glad that's what you were supposed to say. I hate this. I'm gonna edit that out. Had he gone by Ronnie, then I would have known immediately.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know, I know, I know. Okay, anyway. So one of our posts yesterday was this uh fake, like kind of news update, and it just said Stoller issues a cease and desist. Marketing team is furious over the use of hashtag daddystollar, which I think they genuinely do hate that.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think they would take legal action against us. No, I'm sure it's not their favorite thing that we say. I know. Um it did not, I mean, it it's a kind of a a joke within our little community, but it it is not taken off like we had hoped.

SPEAKER_01

No, it's I think it pops up for a few people here and there, and we think it's funny. Um, so it's it's more funny their reaction to it than what it is now. And then prior, speaking of Stellar, prior to that one, we did another kind of breaking news like press release that says Stellar replaces dum-dums with binstrular meme stickers for the month of April, and it says uh Lafayette. Stellar has announced that for the month of April it would no longer include dum-dum lollipops in outgoing orders, instead, substituting them with commemorative gold commemorative benchduler stickers. Uh although some what someone did say like we gotta we gotta do some stickers.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and then I'm thinking let's do the vinyl stickers that can fit on your laser or car. I don't even know how that works.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think we could if we had some cool benchdowler stickers for the lasers and like for your the little the bench lamp, you know, just stick on the drawers of your of your bench. I think that would be I mean why not? And then I think we should start a trend where it's like because we use uh random pictures of people's benches in the background of a lot of our content, and that would be the surefire way to get on there is if you have a big old fat bench jeweler meme sticker on there. So that one was um very funny. Uh I will say that uh they did not, Stellar did not want to collab on any of those first two things, but what did they want to collab on, Brad? So let me hold on. I gotta go, I'm gonna go find this messaging because so keep in mind we're we're in mid shenanigans yesterday.

SPEAKER_00

I mean we woke up and it was like our I mean it was like Super Bowl Sunday, and and we're kind of working through this in not the order it happened because Yeah, we're not no no no right. So so we had the and we'll get to the JHJ stuff, and it it blew up like bigger than we thought in the morning, and so this is just like icing on the cake, but this is happening around noon.

SPEAKER_01

So we yeah, we had we had some stuff made up to with Stellar that we were saving later for the day. Um mostly the news, the news. Yes, mostly to kind of I shouldn't say bait them, but to make them think that we weren't doing any stellar content. Keep in mind, we absolutely love Stellar, they're the best. Yes. Umpaid. We are not Stellar haters, we we are in love with them. I love them, but I'm not in love with them. And so um, this is around 10 a.m. Eastern. I get a although I don't see this for like an hour because again, we are knee deep in just interactions and comments and just having a good time on JHJ, and I get and I think Stellar was feeling a little left out. And it only took him about two hours to realize we gotta insert ourselves into these jokes. He sure did. So I get a message, a DM from Stellar Bench Jeweler. Dang, the official verified account. So they and it was not one of those automated ones when you comment and it just it wasn't that. It says, Hey, we've been tossing around ideas for next year's bench jeweler workshop. And I saw y'all were interested in co-hosting our live stream. If you're interested, let me know, and we can send over a contract plus more details. Stellar social media team. So of course I get this, and we have joked about this. Yeah. Um, but I didn't in a serious way. We'd love to. Uh and so what was funny is immediately is like, dude, can you believe this? But also, it was like that that that quick snapback of it's April Fools.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Yes. And so I'm like, I I'm pretty sure this is a joke. But yeah, we're 95% sure. But then there's that 5%, and you're like, oh, it's real. It's the hope that kills you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And so I said, and so my response was, hey, can you resend this tomorrow? Because this could be the most epic prank pulled on us, or this could be a really great idea. Mm-hmm. So basically, just can you if this is true, just let's talk tomorrow. Right, right, right. This is not the date for that. And so within three minutes of me saying, Can you just resend this tomorrow, they say kudos to the team over there. Man. They go, Is this official enough? And it's a contract. Just DM to me. It sure is. I won't read it, but it's like this legal contract, and I'm reading it out loud to Brad because I'm like, I legit can't tell if this is serious or not. So but then in the very, very, very, yep. Um, but then there's like this fine print that is I will remind if they're hearing this, it's really hard to read on your phone, so you shouldn't have DM'd me like that because it was very, very hard to read. It gets blurry when you zoom into the fine print, and the fine print says this agreement is intended as a lighthearted invitation and does not constitute a legal binding contract. But it does say a lighthearted invitation, so it's like there's kind of like that little they left a little wiggle room in the legalese, you know what I'm saying? Right, they didn't say it's a joke, they just said so. After reading that, I said, Let me get my best pen, I'll be right back. And uh, I grabbed a Sharpie and me and Brad signed our names in block, right in in uh just straight print. Straight print. It was her first names, and uh sent it back to them, and uh I made a little video that got posted. Uh I sent them the cat the collab invite for like it took them way longer than I should have to get back to me, and then they ended up sharing that um April Fool's blah blah blah. But it does say, it did say, like this if you would like to see them at one of these events. Absolutely. So if you go to Stellar's page and find that little April Fool's Day joke of us signing a contract and blow it up, I know you're gonna be like, you're like, it's April 7th, the the time is gone. No, it's not. No, you can go on there, like it, and just blow up the comments, and they'll be like, why is a week later this post getting some so anyway? That was that's pretty much the the stellar gist of it, right? I mean, so so that's the white leaving anything out.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, I think that was it.

SPEAKER_01

Um quickly went to um which then reminded me to make a uh little reel because I was like, because we also made some quality gold jokes. And we made a reel that uh guess when it was uh okay.

SPEAKER_00

So uh we'll go with the quality gold at first. So my idea was like uh do a news break that quality gold has gone all digital with their catalogs, and we chuckled, but Dusty's like, what if though they just made their catalog even bigger? Which made us laugh slightly. And we're like, let's do that.

SPEAKER_01

So we hopped on the old AI, and they made up a bigger quality gold, and so yeah, we laid the uh catalog on our on our jewelry showcase, and AI, you know, photoshopped it towards like you know, triple the thickness of the already huge catalog. Let me see. It just said um quality gold to start shipping out the 2026-2027 catalogs with over 4,000 pages and 27 new 2,700 new SKUs, and then this fake quote uh client retention is important. We couldn't think of a better way to keep retail clients in your store for literally hours flipping through this new catalog. And then all the jokes started about, and they're still gonna be and half of them will be out of stock. Uh-huh. Which led to I'm like, hey, new we're doing all this on the fly yesterday, by the way, because we completely just shut ourselves down. Now we didn't. We had clients coming in interrupting, and it was so frustrating because our clients don't know that we're in the middle of our Super Bowl. It's kind of like, you know, you're on the field, and like, you know, clients are like, hey, excuse me, come over here, come run off the field for a second. I have a question.

SPEAKER_00

And change my watch battery, Mr. Football Player.

SPEAKER_01

That's what it felt like. That's how I would imagine. Yep. And so then um, a little bit later, I'm guessing a couple hours later, we come up with the idea of, you know, that hypothetically, Quality Gold got the memo that people were complaining about how big the book was. So it says now that in response to the new bigger catalogs, Quality Gold will also be shipping out tiny supplemental catalogs for all the items that are actually in stock. And then we had it photoshopped all the way down to like a teeny tiny pamphlet, but still with the hardcover.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, this is to be fair, quality gold most of the time it's not out of stock. I mean, there are uh definitely times, but I think the vast majority of what we order, it's in stock.

SPEAKER_01

I think they get that wrap because it's always like it's like the one time you need them to come through, that's when it's out of stock. Oh, yeah, that's true. So if it's just like, hey, can I order this cross and you order it, no problem. And you do that a hundred times, but then it's like, hey, um, I really need this specific cross.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and they and I need it tomorrow. And they had spent two hours in your store flipping through. Yeah. And that's the only cross they liked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then they don't have that. Um so that was the yeah, so that was the quality gold jokes. And then we made, I'm like, you know, guess when I wonder if the other companies are just so upset that we're not, you know, picking on them, making them. So then I'm I I wonder if this will play. Let's see.

unknown

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Don't cry.

SPEAKER_01

So it's basically, you know, that scene with The Rock where you say don't cry, and it says Guesswin reps when Bit and Schuler memes didn't make any April Fool's Day content about them. And I know for a fact, uh, I love Adam so much at Guesswin. Actually, I love everyone I've ever met at Guesswin. They are awesome. They're such a an awesome little I shouldn't say I don't mean that. I'm an awesome little company. I mean that the shows.

SPEAKER_00

I mean when they're at like little growing company, just little you when they're at shows, their little team, I meant.

SPEAKER_01

Little team, little little cat. They're so awesome. And I know Adam is very slow. Like people will tag him like crazy when it's like laser stuff, and it's like three days later, it's like, oh yeah, Adam here, blah blah blah. And I know it's because he's a busy man. And so they'll so people already tagging Adam and like maybe next year, Adam, you know. But she liked my comment. Adam has agreed to be on the podcast. It's coming. Um uh very side note, I know we've mentioned a bunch, but starting in this month, um, we still have some things we got to tidy up. We have to finish up a lot of repair work around the store. We have to get the store cleaned up. And um, but that's gonna start allowing us to we've set aside a day to uh be close to the public so that we can mostly get work done, but also uh not have time constraints on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00

So it's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_01

Starting probably late April into May, you'll start seeing um maybe maybe slightly longer episodes, and you'll start seeing some more guests trickle back in. Um so we're not you know neglecting guests, we're just pushing everybody off a little bit until we can kind of get settled in. Yep. Um, all right, so that was so that that touches on Stellar, guess one, quality goal, the kind of little jokes we made there. But the way our day started, Brad, was with a um I have to find it. I'm in the wrong account. I'm on my personal account.

unknown

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

Which one's that? Uh Dusty at facebook.com. Just email me. I'll get it. Uh let's see here. So I gotta scroll back. I gotta scroll. So we first thing in the morning, I changed our profile pictures to basically say JHJ at JHJ memes.

SPEAKER_03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

And implied that we were under new management, and that co coincided with the release of our episode, which we very rapidly posted to you know Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube, um, which is hard to do um on my phone in the in my bathroom while I anyway. While while you're what? Using the bathroom. Um, and so we immediately released uh we did like a fake press release. Should I read all this? It is kind of funny. Should I read it? It's great. Okay, for immediate release. Jewelers Helping Jewelers, and uh, we should get like a AI to read this, but it's fine. Jewelers Helping Jewelers intently announces acquisition of at Ben Schuler Memes in strategic expansion into the jewelry industry comedy sector. Chicago, Illinois, in a landmark deal that is already being described by industry insiders as quote, completely unnecessary yet somehow inevitable, Ben Stiller Memes has officially agreed to terms for a full acquisition of its social media assets by jewelers helping jewelers the rapidly expanding platform led by Leah Arendelle. While exact figures remain undisclosed, sources close to the deal have confirmed the acquisition to be multi-seven figure, all stock transaction reportedly valued somewhere between, quote, aggressively optimistic and quote, financially irresponsible. Additional performance-based incentives are said to include meme engagement thresholds, podcast download metrics, and at least one mandatory viral post per quarter. The acquisition marks a bold and calculated step by Arendelle, uh, Aliah, to expand her influence beyond education and community building and firmly into the comedy and entertainment segment of the jewelry. World. Quote, my favorite. Quote from Ali. Straight from her mouth. The boys at Binstiler Memes have been gaining serious traction. This felt like the natural first step in tightening my grip over the jewelry industry. Effective immediately, Binstiler Memes will be rebranded as at J H J Memes, signaling a new era of curated humor, strategic laughter, and what early reports are calling, quote, compliance forward comedy initiative. The previously anonymous founders of At Vencelor Memes issued a joint statement following the announcement. Quote, it's bittersweet. We've always known we'd sell at the first opportunity. We just never expected it to be Aaliyah. Mostly because she has never once laughed at any of our jokes. As part of the transition, Arendale will assume full operational control of all social media platforms, including content direction, brand partnerships, and what sources describe as, quote, a more disciplined approach to humor. However, in a surprising move, she has elected to retain the original host of the weekly podcast, albeit with, quote, a few adjustments to align with the broader vision of the JHJ brand. Those adjustments are rumored to include reduced sarcasm exposure limits, mandatory professionalism quotas, and a formal review process for all jokes prior to publication. Details remain largely confidential, though insiders suggest the new structure will include quarterly performance reviews, meme audits, and the potential implement implementation of a humor compliance officer. Further information, including updated podcast guidelines and leadership structure, will be released in next week's episode. And then that's yeah, that's like the just of it. So so I posted that very very first thing. Now keep in mind, leading up to any of this, um, I have decided I had decided to do this as a I'm just gonna start posting crap and tagging Aaliyah. And if I post enough, something will stick and get her attention, and I'm not going to the day before run any of this by her.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Um, which proved to be the correct strategy. Woo-hoo! We finally found one. Um, yeah, it's throw everything against the wall, see what sticks. And see what sticks. Um, so now I'm gonna scroll back uh because we didn't know what her reaction we didn't know.

SPEAKER_00

Honestly, there was a a big part of me, and I think for Dusty as well, that it was gonna be you know, crickets. Like, okay, this is just we we got all excited and and just nothing will happen.

SPEAKER_01

And the way these Facebook groups work, the more you interact, the more visibility you have. And truth be told, I don't really I do like scrolling JHJ, but I don't there's so many posts that are just I don't really care to engage with. Not because I you know I just don't care, you know. It's like oh yeah, cool. Because it's a lot of people selling stuff and just asking dumb questions that have been answered for the last eight years. So um I just don't interact a lot, and I don't feel like posting all of our content there. If there's a couple things that I think is funny, I'll share it over there, and then it's like you know, our seven people who follow it'll engage. But very quickly after posting that, she was very quick to interact, both on our page and in JHJ, basically joking that it was the best purchase she's ever made. So she immediately jumped on board. And so after I realized that she was commenting and loving it, I messaged her. I said, Hey, you know, thanks so much for having a good sense of good sense of humor, and um made the joke that today feels like our Super Bowl, and she said, you know, she she laughed, and I it's like midway through this podcast, I start getting little burpees. And then she started sharing with me stuff that her you know kids were pulling pranks on her, and she really does have a good sense of humor. Um, again, I've said it a million times, you know, it's it's one person, and she's made decisions that I think some people they either annoys them or they don't like, they don't agree with. That's fine. I'm not here to defend anyone, I'm just saying from my experience, she's been fine with me. She's never been irritated or mad, she's always laughed. Uh, I've met her personally way before bent chiller memes was ever a thing, and she was perfectly fine. So I'm just speaking from personal experience. Um also I don't follow every single thing she does in her life, so I'm not I don't care. That's her personal life, right? All right, so um we were sharing little stuff like that. So then that was just the initial like press release that that she was taking over. Well, then, so then I so we're what we were doing is just staggering, like every hour we're just dropping new content and JHJ in on our page. And the next one was uh the newly introduced JHJ LG Diamonds, and uh it's just the thing that says, Surprise, we're growing diamonds specifically for jewelers, helping jewelers, and it obviously I used her her picture uh to do this fake ad introductory price. I also noted that the lab, the new lab is located in Aliyah's basement, and that it had an introductory pricing at$13 per carat, and uh which that that post ended up getting quite and she was immediately like, I love it so much. And I said, you know, we're having such a good time, and she's like, Thank you, and I'm like, No, thank you. And then I she's like, No, thank you.

SPEAKER_00

And then you're like, No, thank you. You hang up, and she's like, No, you hang up. You're like, I love you. She's like, I love you more, and like, no, I love you more.

SPEAKER_01

So then this was when I said I started dropping the because I always knew it would be kind of interesting to have her on um on the podcast just to hear, yeah, you know her, just to hear from her. Yeah, so this was my opportunity to be like, hey, just so you know, you know, we obviously do a podcast and name drop some people we've had on as guests. Actually, I didn't. I I name dropped Chuck and he's never been on yet, but he's where he's he's coming. Uh Chuck Kaylor, if you don't know, we'll be on the show soon. Um and I was like, hey, if you ever want to hop on, and she said that she would be honored, Brad. I'm pretty sure she has never listened to a second of this. That's how you know they they have. They're like, I would be honored to be on a podcast I've never heard of. Sounds great. So then she, you know, sends me some stuff and she's like, I can send you all kinds of funny things from JHJ, which uh no disrespect to her, but I'm not interested in no thanks. Uh create our own content. But she did say you can search hashtag bestofj, because I think they're adding that hashtag to some of the posts so they're easier to find. Oh, that's and there are some good highlights on there that might be interesting for a show topic one day to just go back over the years, just some of the most viral, insane, dumb posts that have been made over there that kind of went viral. Yes. So that could be a fun one too. Uh, it would be good to stir up one day when we get really bored with content and have nothing else to say. Um da da da da. So anyway, there was a ton, we just posted all this stuff on JHJ. Um, where did it go? Where did my Facebook go? Um it went pretty, I think it went pretty well, Brad. It went uh we changed our logo to yeah, at JHJ Memes.

SPEAKER_00

Um I changed my logo to Oh yeah, you want to a dude.

SPEAKER_01

Tell them your little jerk your little journey.

SPEAKER_00

My little journey, man. I had a day yesterday. Wow. Um, so yeah, I put um I had AI change our little avatar logo to I said, make me look obnoxiously rich. And so um, if you saw it, you saw it. If you didn't, you didn't. But it it was just me with like a big fur coat and like rings on every finger, and I'm smoking a cigar, big old chain. Um, and so kind of my my little side quest for the day was going to be pretending like I made all this money, and by the end of the day, I have spent it all. So I start in like Fiji, and I'm just like googling image of like dude at the beach, and dude uh passed out on the beach, dude at a dinner, all these things, and just put posted my little avatar face on there. Um, and so basically by the end of the day, I've lost all my money. It was a fun day though.

SPEAKER_01

Oh man, we had we just had if there's a ever I don't you know what's the song say, Brad? Uh too much fun. What's that mean? What's that mean? But we experienced it yesterday, I can say that. We did. We got absolutely no work done. Oh, I'm just seeing a comment from um uh uh because last night laying in bed, I was changing back all of our uh profile pictures and everything back to normal, and uh people are like, oh, what a relief. And the we we threw out so much stuff yesterday that I was getting uh DMs like I don't even know what's a joke and what's serious because some of it was clearly a joke, and some of it was like this sounds kind of serious, right? And I think that was our strategy. We tried to treat treat it like some type of media blends where it's just like we just flood our account and JHJA with just dumb content, and we know some of it you know gets missed, and some of it goes over people's heads, and some of it you know doesn't get get the traction. Um, Callie did uh say I saw that she commented already, and what a what a fun April Fool's Day. You guys are the best. I'm partial, but all the fool stuff yesterday was the most entertaining. Um I feel bad for the people who were just busy yesterday and missed it, and now you're gonna see all these random posts. That's not gonna make any sense.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we both heard from from Ron and just always encouraging, and he was like, I'm I'm proud of you guys, and and he Sim messaged me like this is you know just the beginning for y'all, and I will say it really means a lot.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I I wanna say this on the record because I've said it to him before. Um, dude, just such a cool guy, but he shared something with me yesterday that I thought I would share that that was pretty uh awesome. That he said initially when we first started this, he loved it and was excited about it. And he said his fear was because if you don't gain any traction or you feel like nobody's listening and you're definitely putting time and effort into it, then it would be easy to just kind of give up and just be like, you know, we're not gonna keep doing this podcast, this is stupid. And he said, So I as soon as it was an opportunity to start with the um buy me a coffee's, he's like, that's why I started doing it immediately, because I wanted you guys to feel like it was worth the time and the effort. So I thought that was very sweet. I thought that was very awesome. And um, speaking of buy me a coffee, Brad. Oh we have just a just a few to read. Um I think there's only three. But let's go. Let's go. Melody. By the way, uh, there is a link wherever you're listening to this podcast that says buy me a coffee. You can click that link and donate um as little or as much as you want to to support the show. Um as m if you've been around for a while, you know we are slowly upgrading some stuff so that not only can we keep doing this, but we can keep doing it on a higher level. Uh we want to by the summer, actually the audio versions will still be on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but we are pushing for by the time summer gets here, we can do video podcasting on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00

Because by then we'll both have a luxurious tan.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you know, we want a nice tan, we want to look good. We have some stuff to clean up because like legit, we just we just record this in our shop and and throughout the week, and because it's just again, me and Brad doing the repairs, helping the customers with our uh awesome part-time employee Ari, like the store just gets messy, and we just every few months we just have to clean up and it looks my side looks pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00

And um but we have used um your support. I I like saying your support instead of your money. Um it just feels like that's what people say.

SPEAKER_01

So far, the first thing is we got two new mics. We got Brad a new boom arm, so now he is moving it without I am moving it and you don't even know. It is, and I have one, but I can't utilize my boom arm right now because my bench is a disaster. And um, until we get all the the camera setups that we need, um all that stuff costs money, it costs time, and right now we have neither. So gonna delay it a little bit longer, but um we also the the new mics were gonna allow us to a lot easier and sound professional go live on Instagram or YouTube. And we are not we just be on the lookout because it could happen sooner than you think. Um especially we're probably gonna do a test run very soon. So you might want to turn them notifications on. Ooh. Oh, back to buy me a copy. Melody became a supporter, and uh I'm I'm not gonna say amounts anymore. Because that's that's not fair. Did um I yeah, let's should I just read it? Let's just keep moving.

SPEAKER_00

Let's not read amounts unless it's a company. Substantial. Oh, I see. Okay. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_01

Melody said quote, the durability dilemma episode just got me through 45 minutes of breaking one millimeter melee out of a very well-made but hideous 1980s cluster jewelry going to scrap.

SPEAKER_00

Pretty sure we read that last week. But also thank you. Oh, did we? Think so.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, dang, I am uh okay, so then I only have two to read. Should we cut me off sooner? Edit that out. Uh thank you. Uh Jen said, Thank you for all you do. You're welcome. Use this for equipment or coffee. Can't wait to hear more prank calls. We do have to get back to the old prank calls. We had to take a little break because it was not going as smooth as we thought.

SPEAKER_00

We we are upsetting some people, so we might just go straight anonymous. Like we just call a random jewelry store and and we'll just bleep out the names and the store, and it'll just be like that.

SPEAKER_01

We gotta figure that out. That'll be something that we figure out this this summer.

SPEAKER_00

We're learning very quickly that people don't really know if their coworkers have a good sense of humor. And that happened yesterday as well.

SPEAKER_01

We'll we'll we'll end with that briefly because I'm probably this people will never hear it. So but the last recent supporter we got um is from Brad. Are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_00

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01

Pepe Tools. Pepe. They said keep up the brilliant work. And if this is Pepe Tools attempt at getting a cheap shout out, how dare you?

SPEAKER_00

Well, how much did they pay?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it was ten dollars.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that is a cheap well.

SPEAKER_01

Um so I know they uh we're gonna have to get we're gonna have to get now. Here's the thing. We will read these, at least I don't know when this will stop because once we start finding other avenues of income for this show, um, we'll probably keep this open for as long as we can. But we you know, the merch and you know um sponsorships potentially, we're gonna be very picky about that. I'm just gonna be honest. Uh we did joke about that on the April Fool's A episode about sponsorships and how to handle it. And I will be honest, we are going to be actually very picky. So if you hear us bring on a company or mention a product, um just know that we didn't take it lightly.

SPEAKER_00

Correct. Umless they just gave us ten dollars and we're just reading their name. Yeah. Um but I know they have a really good relationship with uh Past the Torch podcast, so I I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I thought she had a deal with uh a different tool company that I thought it was them.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe both. Maybe both. She uh she's way more professional, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But I I would imagine if I was a company looking, I would probably be like, you know what? Let's let's stay away from those guys. Um anyway, so the last little bit was I and and I'm not I am not blasting this person, but we all love to kind of I feel like we secretly laugh at Maury from JHJ because he just sells like the most random stuff um and he puts them in all these other groups, but because he's a JHA admin, and he apparently from what I've understood, he actually does a lot of the work on JHJ of like making sure that they don't get shut down, making sure that things don't get posted that shouldn't be. Um so I actually do think he works really hard at that. Um, but you know, some people are just easy targets, like Brad, for instance, every time our families are together, like your wife is an easy target. She is she just sets herself up for and I know she's listening, but she just has a gift for just setting herself up and open uh setting herself up and opening herself up to to get poked at and make fun of a little bit in a light hearting, loving way.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and she's a good good spirit and she's a good sport, yeah. Good sport, that's what I meant.

SPEAKER_01

And a good spirit. I think it's weird when people don't realize that they've opened themselves up and then they just don't like at some point, just embrace it, you know. Like, hey, I'm worried, I am selling, you know, low quality emeralds for a very cheap price, and then I'm gonna bump my own post seven times and just be like, oh, deal, you know, check this out, bump. And it's just funny, it's funny. So I made a post about I took some of his pictures of his like little emeralds and random boxes and baggies that he sells, and just made like this fake post of like, hey, Maury's he's sold out, he sold out all of them. So but in my wordage, I said, Hold on, I I don't want to mess this up. I do not want to mess this up. I was gonna fix it, but then I just decided, you know what, screw it. But it says, um, Maury is sad to announce that okay, that was the revised version. I don't want that. Um sad to announce that all the crap nobody wants has officially sold out. I just said I hate to be the bear of bad news, but Maury has sold all of his trinkets, baubles, and gymstones. Oh no. I thought so I led up to this conversation with I knew that this I he doesn't seem like he laughs at a lot of stuff, I'll be honest. He's very serious, which is probably what you need to run, JHJ. Yes. And so I said, Hey Aaliyah, just to be clear, like, does he have a pretty good sense of humor? Because like I want I want to, it's it's a joke, right? We're being silly. And we left this one for last because we were unsure. And she goes, I I should have noticed her response was I think so. Oh no. So anyway, I uh I had shared it with a few people that uh that we kind of all laugh at the stuff more post, and um again in a lighthearted way. I we ain't trying to put nobody down, we're just having fun. And um, my wife is like, Yeah, I don't think you sometimes you guys are doing that, you don't realize it. I'm like, Well, I don't know what to tell you because our heart is pure, we're just being stupid. Because we put ourselves down all day long, yeah. And I will put Dusty down in a second, and so I posted it, and of course it started gaining some traction, and then uh within not not too long, within 30 minutes. Aliyah was like, I did not know that you were gonna do that. And she was like, She admitted it was funny, she admitted that again back to her sense of humor. She said, It's funny. Um, but she was like, you know, I don't maybe you could not say the word crap. And so at first I was like, I understand. He was I'll I'll change it. And then I was like, you know what? I said, if Maury saw this, just let him know. We're just being silly, no hard feelings. I said, I'm just gonna take it down because it's not worth all the trouble at you know 7 p.m. on April Fool's Day. So for all the people over there, I know I know we still get comments and messages whenever we talk about Jay Ch about how like how much they hate it and how much they hate the people and whatever. Again, I'm only speaking from personal experience, I'm not pushing or highlighting them. I said it a million times. That is a it's it's a big community within the jewelry community itself, and there's influence there, and you can get as much out of that group as you want, or you could leave it. I know plenty of people have like, I just don't get anything out of it. I've made a lot of contacts, so I left the group fine by me. Um, and truth be told, I've made all the contacts and friends that I care to make in that group as well. Um, but I still like to scroll and get a good laugh. Nice. Well, it's about that time, Brad, for us to like I don't know, nobody believes us, but we have to shut it down. And we have a crap ton of repairs to do because we got nothing done yesterday, and we have to open our shop, and I'm really hoping that we have a mildly slow day of customers so that we can get caught up. We need it. Um, any closing thoughts, Bradford?

SPEAKER_00

Hmm. Um, I'm not going to Fiji this morning. Sadly, at the bench. I feel like I'm not gonna be able to post like the rest of this week. I'm just I was exhausted last night.

SPEAKER_04

Every rush down play. Back to the bent. See ya next week.

SPEAKER_01

Get your little fancy boom arm ready.

SPEAKER_04

Almost finished. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like I need to clean my ears out. You won't. You won't do it. I have been known to clean my ear out with a burr. With a ball burr.

SPEAKER_00

The magnet fell off this thing. Don't worry about that.

SPEAKER_03

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_01

You sure have. I'm gonna try to dial this back just a tad last time. With the used used burr. No, I'll steam it so it's nice and warm so it kind of just melts the earwax. And I don't like go too deep. I'm careful. Just to kind of loosen it up. Like what kind of burr? Bulbur? Yeah, bulb. Dude. I think you just gotta is I don't think it's a magnet. I think you gotta snap it into a certain place.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, now the the other one's messed up.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe we didn't snap it in yesterday.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I don't think so. Alright, we're just gonna leave that for later.

SPEAKER_01

Alright, I need you to get up on that thing so I can hear you. Alright, hold on.

SPEAKER_02

Lalalala.

SPEAKER_00

This is me up on it. Alright. Sounds like you're all up on it. Mm-hmm. Do your headphones need to go up? No, everything's and see I'm moving the boom arm and you didn't even know it. I can kind of hear it, so if you could just be a little more gentle. How about now? Yeah. This is me, but don't do that.

SPEAKER_01

This is me uh shaking my coffee. I can hear that. So I feel like uh never mind. You got boys too, like training them to to uh potty train. To what? Potty train. You gotta tell after they're done, you gotta.

SPEAKER_00

What do you gotta do after you're done, Dusty?

SPEAKER_01

Anyway, we ready? What are we doing? Oh God. I'm glad we're I have no notes for today, so we're just gonna have to I got my phone ready though, so we can just pull up all the That's good. So, alright, recap. We're just doing a recap of uh April Fool's Day aftermath. Is that what I said?

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Yep. Ready? Alright.

SPEAKER_01

Three, two, one.