It has been a week. A weird, exhausting, and surprisingly productive week here in Oakville. Between the pierce of the needles and the hum of the machine, My Analog Heart took some massive steps forward. It turns out you can get a lot done when you’re forced to sit in a reclining chair for hours at a time—provided you can fight through the brain fog and manage everything with one hand.
This week was the ultimate test of resilience. Between home hemodialysis and Crohn’s infusions, I’ve officially become a human pincushion. But while the clinical side of life was loud, the business side was louder.
My analog heart update:
Here is what went down this week, the walls we hit, and what’s coming next.
The Digital Home is ALIVE!
I spent a concerning amount of time staring at my screen this week, fighting with WordPress and watching Elementor tutorials. Building digital infrastructure for a company that is entirely about physical, analog products feels a bit ironic. Kinda icky. But the site is up. We officially have a home base.
Here’s the temporary under construction landing page. Feel free to browse and take a look:
I finally published the core introduction to the brand. It’s out there. It explains the “why” behind all of this—why we care about paper feel, why we care about the glide of a good pen, and why doing things by hand matters right now. Hitting “publish” on that felt heavier than I expected. It made the whole thing real.
We desperately need an actual logo. The current graphics are strictly placeholders. I am currently filling up notebooks with mostly bad sketches, trying to figure out what shapes and symbols make sense for My Analog Heart. If you have an eye for design or a good idea, drop it in the comments. I need the help.
Securing Stationery Wholesale Accounts and Strategic Partnerships:
The biggest win of the week? Wholesale approval. Usually, securing accounts as a new local business is a sterile corporate nightmare. However, we’ve already connected with a professional supplier who “gets” it. The specialty stationery world is full of enthusiasts who understand that a pen isn’t just a tool—it’s an experience.
I couldn’t have done this alone. My business partner, Yuki Akogi, has been a lifesaver. While she spends her days as a dance instructor and performer, she brings a dynamic energy to the logistics of My Analog Heart. When my “battery” hits the red zone due to treatment, she keeps the momentum going. We’re narrowing down catalogs now to pick our starting inventory—a process that is very dangerous for my wallet but exciting for the brand.
nappy birdy: Managing Brain Fog and Business Logistics
It wasn’t all smooth. My sleep schedule has been a wreck; going two days without dialysis over the weekend completely scrambled my internal clock. Trying to review wholesale catalogs and write SEO taglines on three hours of sleep is a unique kind of struggle.
When the digital frustration peaked, I went back to basics. I grabbed a pen, opened my Midori MD notebook, and practiced ballpoint shading drills. It’s a reminder of why we’re doing this: the analog world is the antidote to the digital grind. It allows you to stop forcing progress and start feeling it.
Whats next for my analog heart?
We are shifting from the planning phase into the action phase. Here is the docket for next week:
- Inventory Selection: Finalizing our first order of high-quality pens and paper.
- Sustainable Packaging: Designing an unboxing experience that feels like a gift, not an Amazon delivery.
- Logo Design: Moving past placeholders and sketching the visual identity of the brand.
We are building this piece by piece, needle by needle. Thanks for sticking around for the messy parts.
Until next time,
Z