Caz and Rachel got sent to the pool. That was probably a mistake.

We took E-Stim Systems back to the ANME show in Burbank this year, and the show itself went brilliantly. Getting there was the problem. Two crates, shipped a week early, got stuck in customs at LAX and never made it to the floor. So our entire stand turned up to Los Angeles in two black hand-luggage bags and an iPad. And it worked.

I'm joined by Ian from Joanne's E-Stim Emporium, stockist, reviewer, maker, designated driver of the world's largest Jeep, and the man the industry knows as Stuntcock. We talk through the customs saga in full, why a managing director apparently isn't a real job, how you run a trade show off what fits in a carry-on, and why manufacturing your own kit in-house is the thing buyers actually cared about once we got talking. There's also Ian's route from the army to reviewing sex toys, a masturbation coach, a vibrating machine driving itself across the ballroom, Caz and the lift buttons, and a photo Ian really should not have sent his mum.

It's the honest version of a trade show. The systems failed. The people didn't.

New episodes drop the second Tuesday of the month. Full show at imakesextoys.me.

Drop us a message, we cannot reply directly but it would be great to hear from you

"I Make Sex Toys" is the personal podcast of Wayne Allen, the Director of E-Stim Systems. We have been creating ElectroStimulation Technology since 2004, Find out what really happens behind the doors of a specialist sex toy company.

Please Note the content of these podcasts are not designed to be Explicit or Erotic but we may discuss adult topics and therefore these podcasts are not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition. You have been warned.

If you are interested in E-Stim Systems the company, or any of our products, have a look at https://estim.store

Most people who deal with E-Stim Systems never speak to me. They speak to Kay. She runs our sales, answers the phones, handles the emails and the live chat, and quietly built the wholesale side of this business from nothing. So for once I handed the microphone to the person who actually does the talking.

We recorded this in a hotel room in Barcelona, the night before a trade show, with a brew and no real plan. Remember Victor Kiam? The man who tried a Remington and was so taken with it he bought the company. "So impressed, I bought the company," as he put it. Kay's version went a bit differently. She turned up in 2006 as a customer, bought a Series 1, came back for a remote, made a glib comment about why nobody stocked us in shops, and then talked her way into getting us into shops. She didn't quite buy the company. She just helped build the wholesale side of it from nothing, and put up with me and my little black book for the best part of twenty years.

We get into the bits nobody tells you about this trade. The Dragon's Den moment where a store manager told us we'd never survive. They're gone. We're worldwide. Why you can't just double your money on adult products. What actually makes a stockist sell, and why it's never the margin. The nervous customer who walked past the shop three or four times before he came in. The Python that US customs flagged as an endangered species. And how a company this small keeps innovating with no development team, no design house, and no crowdfunder in sight.

Kay also talks, in her own words, about coming out as trans during lockdown, and what changed from Mick to Kay. We're putting this one out in Pride Month. That felt right. You'll notice we didn't make a song or dance about it, and that was deliberate. It's her story, told her way.

Next month, the machines take over. That's the second Tuesday of July.

You'll find E-Stim Systems wherever you care to look, and the podcast wherever you're listening to this right now. Give it a follow, and as always, be safe and have fun.

https://imakesextoys.me/season-2/your-box-has-knobs-meet-kay

Drop us a message, we cannot reply directly but it would be great to hear from you

"I Make Sex Toys" is the personal podcast of Wayne Allen, the Director of E-Stim Systems. We have been creating ElectroStimulation Technology since 2004, Find out what really happens behind the doors of a specialist sex toy company.

Please Note the content of these podcasts are not designed to be Explicit or Erotic but we may discuss adult topics and therefore these podcasts are not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition. You have been warned.

If you are interested in E-Stim Systems the company, or any of our products, have a look at https://estim.store

A bonus mini-pod from the road back from EroSpain.

We went to Vegas in April. Three and a half thousand miles across the Atlantic. Customs paperwork was a web form. Some clicking, some typing, done. Then we went to Spain for EroSpain Barcelona. Nine hundred miles across one short hop of Europe. Customs paperwork cost nearly eight hundred quid in stamps, an ATA carnet via the chamber of commerce, four stamps each way, and a building site we had to cross to get to work. The doorstep cost more than the ocean.

This is the EroSpain episode of record. Caz and I sit down together for the mini-pod treatment — about thirteen minutes, two-handed, no script — and we walk you through what it actually takes to ship a trade show stand into the EU since Brexit. The carnet. The chamber of commerce. The four stamps. Frankie the Tankie versus the budget Fiat. Spanish drivers who treat the car horn like a percussion instrument. A 787 with a tail cam and crew sales versus an A320neo with a packet of pretzels and no wifi. Three days of paella. A rooftop pool we never got near because Brexit didn't get us that one, the wind did. And the Spanish, who frankly speak better English than I do.

It's a working podcast, not a holiday slideshow. If you ship product internationally, if you've watched post-Brexit trade shipping turn from a clipboard into a forensic accountancy exercise, or if you just like the gap between what a trip costs on paper and what it actually costs in admin, this one's for you.

If you're enjoying the show, hit the follow button wherever you're listening. And if you've got a moment, a rating or a quick review genuinely helps other people find us.

Mentioned in this episode: EroSpain Barcelona, ATA carnet, post-Brexit trade shipping, Altitude Intimates Las Vegas, Frankie the Tankie.

"I Make Sex Toys" is the personal podcast of Wayne Allen, founder and Managing Director of E-Stim Systems, the UK manufacturer of electrostimulation products. Made in Britain since 2004. Find us at e-stim.co.uk and at imakesextoys.me.

Drop us a message, we cannot reply directly but it would be great to hear from you

"I Make Sex Toys" is the personal podcast of Wayne Allen, the Director of E-Stim Systems. We have been creating ElectroStimulation Technology since 2004, Find out what really happens behind the doors of a specialist sex toy company.

Please Note the content of these podcasts are not designed to be Explicit or Erotic but we may discuss adult topics and therefore these podcasts are not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition. You have been warned.

If you are interested in E-Stim Systems the company, or any of our products, have a look at https://estim.store