My Brother and Sister-in-law on Pregnancy, Business Failure & Embarrassing Childhood Memories
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- Driving to your house that night, I was like, "I feel like Abby's gonna tell us she's pregnant." - We were just at the doctor too. We had just gone for our first ever appointment. So when you guys told us that you were pregnant, we were just like, "No freaking way." - Your business is either gonna thrive and continue to grow or you're gonna suffocate. And I just feel like it kind of got to a point where it's like, "I don't know." - I was in my tighty-whities in front of our whole entire family at Easter. I was on the cross and because you didn't follow directions, Jesus ended up coming off the cross and biting the Roman soldier on the butt.

Hey, before we get started, if you guys could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it goes a long way. It means a whole lot to us. And let's get started with the episode. What's up, dudes? And welcome back to the Unplanned Podcast. Woo!

Today we've got my brother and sister-in-law on today, Caleb and Abigail. Thanks for being here. We have to call her Abigail because your name is Abby and my wife's name is Abby. We should actually talk about that. I'm explaining this for the viewers right now. I took Abby's name from her.

No, we should talk about the other options of nicknames there were. Oh, yeah. We have two Abby Howards. Two Abby Howards in our family. So it's like we got to differentiate somehow. Well, okay. It's because you and your brother both married Abby. Exactly. Some people think that we're sisters. I started dating you first. Exactly. I stole your name. You guys were engaged first though. But you're way taller than my Abby and my Abby's really short. So my Abby's little Abby and you're big Abby. Okay.

My mom was like, my mom's like, well, we got to like differentiate somehow. Like, well, you're, you're a five, eight and Abby's five, two and we'll call you big. Oh, we can't do that. Big Abby, little Abby. And I was like, Oh yeah, I'll go by that. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that.

I think there was another one that was like quick. We're like, what if we did like, cause you're from West County and I'm from Quincy. We're like wabby and quabby. I don't remember. That's not going to stick. Maybe not do that. And then we're

- Your full name is Abigail and mine's just Abby, so. - I love my given name, I'll take it. We'll go with that. - But the funny thing is when I'm with my, when I'm around family and I call you Abby, my mom's like, "Caleb, it's Abigail." - I love when your mom makes such like a, your family makes such a direct effort, they go,

And Abigail. Like, they're so, like, you know. I messed up because I don't think I've ever called you Abigail. That's okay. I thought it was funny. Caleb, for a while, was calling you Gail. Oh. And that made you really mad. Yeah. And it was kind of funny to listen to, honestly. I didn't want that to stick, you know? You have to be a Gail. Didn't Gail have a certain context also only? Yeah, it was when I was doing something stupid or dumb or clumsy. Oh, Gail. Oh, Gail. That's a Gail move. Yeah.

- Like when she left the oven on, I wasn't home and you had to leave and you left the oven on with broccoli or cauliflower in it. I think it was cauliflower, so cauliflower was white. I got home, it was straight carbon. It was black. - It was dust. You didn't smell it? Well, I left. - No, she was gone. - Oh, you left. - I checked the stove every like multiple times. I'm like, everything's turned off. This is safe.

forgetting fully that I had food in the oven and it was fire. I walk in, I walk into the apartment, not our apartment, not our like room, like the apartment building. And I'm like, oh, it sounds like, smells like a fire. And I get closer and closer, closer to the door. And I'm like, oh, this is our room. And there was like char marks on the top of the oven. Never came off. Oh, on the oven itself. That pan was probably done for.

So you guys were together much longer than Abby and I were before you got married But we got engaged before you guys so I'm curious when we got engaged before you guys well We're both high school sweetheart. Yeah, we are yeah, you guys are dating high school Abby and I started dating in high school Actually, that's like really cool that we both ended up marrying our high school sweethearts Was it your freshman or sophomore year when you guys started dating? Uh

No, senior year. Right after junior year. Oh, really? Yeah, so summer before senior year, we started dating. Oh, that was like same with us. But we were long distance though. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, you guys dated a while and then we get engaged before you. Did that kind of rub you the wrong way when your younger brother got engaged before you did, even though you dated your girlfriend for like six years? I think we were both, like we both knew that we were wanting to get married to the Habbies. Yeah.

I think the timing, because you were... You guys got engaged at Kaleo and Disney World. Yeah. And you weren't there. And I wanted to do it. Well, I asked your dad permission at the end of that summer. And he said no. Wait, what? You knew that. But like, he actually did though? Like, it was actually... It was like, not now. Like, your sister was... Your sister was about to get married. Your sister was engaged. Yeah. And he's like...

I already have one daughter that's about to get married in September. Let's talk after September. And so I was like, okay. She got married on a Saturday in September. And literally on Monday, I was like, hey, John. Can we talk? And I already had the ring, I think, at that point. And so I was like, I was ready to go. And we were engaged already at that point, right? Did he say yes then? Yes.

They said yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They had concerns just like your parents. We were young. I mean, Caleb was 21 when you asked for permission and I was 22. So they had the same concerns. Like, how the heck is this?

heck is this gonna work? We had similar experiences. Abby and I were 19. I was 19 asking her parents for permission and her mom and I had like a 45 minute conversation about it. Me and her dad talked for maybe- Was it pleasant or was it- We talked for maybe 45 seconds, me and her dad. That was the funniest part. He's a man of few words. Yeah. I was like, hey, I want to marry your daughter. He's like, cool. Sounds good. I don't think he was surprised either. They knew it was coming. Yeah. He spent so much time at our house and everything. But then mom, she-

She's the one you got to get through. Did you talk to Ruth, Abby's mom at all about asking her to marry you? So when I talked to Abby's dad, like in the end of that summer, so July or whatever, he's like, wait till, let's wait till September. And then we're going to have a conversation between like him and Ruth and me, like the three of us.

So, yeah, that's how that kind of went. And was that intimidating? Because like Abby's dad's kind of famous in the St. Louis area where we're from. He's the announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. So like for you, were you nervous? John Hewlett, if you guys know who that is, if you're a local St. Louisan. The U-Man, blah, blah, blah, blah. Wait, is that his name? The U-Man? Yeah. Because he does radio, right? Yeah. That's cool. Your dad's a really nice guy. But did that intimidate you? I don't think that was like a factor at all.

Like we've already been dating for what was it? Six years. Yeah, at that point. So I mean I knew him, you know. Just that conversation in general is probably an intimidating conversation to have. Not the second time. Oh, the second time around you warmed up. The third time. Wait, there were two? Well, the first time was after my junior year summer. And it was more of like a, hey, I'm going to date you.

I have intentions to marry your daughter. What do you expect from me? What do you want to see out of me? Like, it was like, hey, this is coming. Just a heads up. So I feel like it prepped him. Yeah. And so then the next summer was a no. So it was like, hey, this is coming. No. Okay. Three months later. We're here now. Fine. Yeah. But I feel like your guys' moms bonded over like these crazy Howard boys. Oh.

Literally, I think so. I think we bonded over that too. But then think about what your parents were going through. They had two weddings together.

like literally less than a month apart. Yeah. It was such a fun summer. Cause when yours was June 14th. Yeah. July 6th. Yeah. I mean to us at the time, like I did not feel young because like to me, 19 was like old. I was getting so mature and old, but now that I'm 24 about to turn 25, thinking about me asking for someone's hand in marriage at 19, I'm like, dang, I was a young kid and you were young too. Like you're, you're way younger than I was.

So, or than I am now. So, yeah, that's pretty wild. Your parents really are troopers. They didn't really bat an eye, I feel like. They were just excited. Yeah. I think we kind of... We're kind of... We are like... When we are setting our mind towards something, there's not really much...

If we're convicted and like, well, I'm doing this, then I think mom and dad know they're going to do it. They raised you to be that way. They did. And they gave you... I feel like they gave you a lot of wise counsel. So it was like, we told them and did all we could and they're still going to do what they want to do. So we'll respect their decision. Yeah, they're really respectful that way. I feel like once you became adults, they were like, well, it's your decision. But also it's like...

it's not just that decision but it was like the people were marrying and my parents love you guys so much and love your personality and hearts and yeah you guys were like quickly accepted into our family like um you did the muni with matt and so my mom obviously loved you and then yeah your dad was john hewlett so my dad loved you that was the only reason yeah which which was so funny like the first thing i remember about you meeting abigail was in high school you told like

our whole family at dinner time like, "Yeah, this girl has a World Series ring that she said she could give to me." Because the Cardinals had won the World Series in 2011, right? And so with Abby's dad working for the Cardinals, he had access to these World Series rings and you wanted one. I feel like you and dad talk about that a lot. I don't remember that being the most prominent

Really? I do. I remember getting a text from you before we were even like dating or even talking and you're like, hey, there's a game coming up where they're giving out replica rings. Can you get tickets? And I was like,

well, you want to go on a date with me? Because what is that? That's so funny. That was like in high school. Yeah. Yeah. It was simpler times. Yeah. That's all you had to worry about. Was that hard? Like going from high school to college? I mean, I guess we did the same thing. We dated in high school and college, but like you guys, I don't know. Were there any hiccups along the way with dating for what was it? Five, six years?

I feel like... Yes. Yeah, there were. Because we did two years of like semi-long distance. Because I played volleyball in Indianapolis for a semester. And that was like one of the hardest, that first semester of college was one of the hardest semesters of my life. And Caleb was in high school having like his senior year moment of like, I'm a football star and I'm killing it. I did not say that.

But you were just on cloud nine, you know? I was killing it. And I'm like crying in my dorm bed every day, you know? So we were just on such opposite wavelengths at that time that we almost broke up during that semester. There was like a season in there. And then I transferred to Mizzou. It got a little easier. Then he went to Rolla and we did that for a year. So I feel like, but also at the same time, I feel like that made us closer too. Yeah. Yeah. So there was like,

Two full years of distance. Like, I mean, we were an hour and a half apart. So, I know other couples of, like, you know, across the country. But that's really impressive, though, because, like, when you switch to college, you're going through a major, like...

Maturity, like a growing process and the fact that you guys stayed together through that like for anyone most people break up when they do distancing. I don't know how people do distance for more than a year like we did distance for our whole entire senior year and it was it was awful like I would drive to Quincy as much as I could. Yeah don't really count it because we saw each other all the time. Well I would drive every other weekend to go see you. Luckily you were only two and a half hours away but for you guys like was it was it a year? How long were you guys long distance technically? When I was a senior in high school you were

a year apart. And then Abby was at Mizzou and I was at Rolla. And that was a, I was there a full year. So it was kind of like two full years apart. And when I was at Indy, we only saw each other twice that whole semester. Cause I was playing volleyball. So I couldn't travel. And he was in high school. So he wasn't allowed to come visit me.

which makes sense. And yeah, so that was really hard. But then when we were closer, like an hour and a half isn't that far. So we'd teach each other every weekend pretty much. Was moving to go to the same school, the move, like, was that, was that the right decision you think when you. For sure. For like a ton of different reasons. Yeah. When people like willingly go like different schools for college, when they're dating someone, I'm like, I don't know how that's gonna work. I mean, I, people do make it work. I know there are people that like get married and they're happy and all that, but especially to go like four years,

I don't know. That's something beyond me. That'd be really tough. It's a pivotal time in your life. Yeah.

My older sister did that with her now husband for four years. Really? But I think there is something to it. Like when you're 18, 19, 20, 21, like that's such a pivotal time where you're maturing and growing, where it was almost nice where Caleb, like during the week, I could focus on making friends and, you know, doing my own thing a little bit. And then we'd see each other on the weekends. And it was kind of like a little bit of the best of both worlds. Yeah. So I don't know. I kind of enjoyed it a little bit for a time. Yeah. Abby's...

sister and boyfriend at the time now husband they were in Texas and Milwaukee like holy cow like very far apart yeah that's pretty cool yeah

So then comes the big summer of the weddings. That was so fun. We had combined bridal showers. I'm so happy we did that. There's so many awkward pictures. You sent me one last night. Wait, we got to post an awkward bridal shower picture. I don't even recognize myself. No, we look so different. That awkward bridal shower picture, though, was freaking hilarious. Well, did you see my hair? It was so long. I thought you looked really pretty. I thought you looked gorgeous. I liked it. Yeah. It's just...

I was like, wow, that wasn't that long ago. I look like a different person. I asked you the other day, I was like, how close were you to Abby? You guys weren't

close we didn't really know each other we didn't and now you guys are like closer than caleb and i i know we're best friends i know but i think that made us closer like because i think at the time you were always in you mean you were in quincy we didn't cross paths really that much yeah and you would go visit more often than you would come to st louis yeah so question when what was that moment was there like one time or has it just like been a continuous thing like when do you guys feel like you got the closest to each other i feel like it was before you moved here

Yeah, I think it was when we came and visited you guys in Springfield. And we went to Silver Dollar City. That was fun. The Yule Log. And we made a Yule Log. You guys were just starting YouTube. I mean, you guys had done a little bit and were growing at that point. And they've gone on a lot of trips together, I feel like. Between Bandon, Hawaii, Joshua Tree. We've done a lot of traveling together. You moving here, obviously, was...

Yeah. Really fun. Thanks for moving here, guys. We didn't have any family in Arizona until you guys moved here. Yeah. It was a big reason we wanted to come out. Yeah. Well, mostly Griffin. Yeah. Griffin was the one. We don't care about you guys. I remember actually when you're like big moving tracks, you're calling. I was like so pregnant at that point. I was like, I'm going to help you guys move in. You're like, you brought snow cones. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And you're like, well, what can I help with? I was like, nothing. You're eight months pregnant. I don't really know if I'm going to be able to get it. It was hot that day. Thank you.

- Well you guys moved at the worst time because Arizona is like 120 in the summertime and you guys were like, yeah, we're moving in the summer. And it was brutal. It was so freaking hot. I remember I was like, I had sweat stains on my t-shirt from trying to get your stuff out of your moving truck. 'Cause well, you guys had a ton of stuff. You guys moved your small business all the way from Kansas city to Phoenix.

And you had a whole entire moving truck dedicated just to product for Bolt Boutique, your small business. It feels like that was a long time ago. Because it feels like you guys have been here this whole time. But it wasn't that long ago. Not even a year. Yeah. I feel like that moving trip was a whole other like story. Yeah, I kind of go into that. You drove, Abby. You drove a moving truck with pulling a large vehicle also behind it. I'm a real woman. And you crashed into a car. Yeah. Tell us about that. It was part of it.

I need to find pictures of this. Keep talking. You guys were like, that thing is like a semi truck. It's massive. And then you're trying to get out of your neighborhood or your house. And you hit a vehicle parked on the street. Yes. So we picked up these two 16 foot trucks with trailers on the back for our cars.

And our street that our apartment was on was so narrow. And I had never turned one of these things before. It is so narrow. I had literally driven that truck for a whole 10 minutes. And Caleb was calling me to tell me not to turn the truck. And I pick up and I go, his little words were, you didn't. I'm bawling. I'm like, I didn't. I can't breathe. It was so bad. Like, huge chunk of the bumper off. Yeah.

Did you hear it? Like, did it happen slow? Are you looking for a picture of it, Caleb? Yeah. I feel like I'm not finding it right now. I have a picture of you unloading our truck. I mean, those things were huge. That was really impressive. Honestly, one accident, a win. That's a win. That's a high score. Abby and I would have killed each other trying to move two massive semi-trucks. There's no chance I would have driven it. No shot. Abby wouldn't have done it. I don't know how you guys did that. I can barely drive in Phoenix. They're 16 foot.

with a trailer on the back. With your vehicle, right? With the vehicle on the trailer, hitched down. I didn't tell you, I did tell you this. When we stopped at one of like the places to get gas or whatever, and I realized on, I think it was your car, one of the like ratchet straps that go on the tires to keep your car from moving was like it fell off or something. So I mean, it could have been, I mean,

I mean, it was not. What were we doing? That would have been really dangerous. If a car falls off a trailer. Bro, Lightning McQueen in Cars. Like, that's what happens a lot. Yeah, that would have been what happened. It would have drove away on its own. I'm getting out of here. Dude, Cars takes place in, I think, Sedona. So, like, that could have actually happened, like, from the movie. In real life. Route 66. Yeah, Route 66. So, you both drive these massive vehicles down and then...

I was so nervous. Yeah, Abby was paranoid about this. I was so nervous. I'd slept an hour the night before and I mean, I don't know how TMI you guys got on here but I was like, I couldn't stop going to the bathroom all night. I was so nervous. We've got way more TMI than that. I can guarantee that. I woke up every hour on the hour just to go sit on the toilet. I was like, I'm so scared. I just hit

It was a torrential downpour the day that we were driving. It was pouring rain. Couldn't even see. And I'm like, I don't want to do this at all. But we made it. And you get used to it quick. Was that scary? And I never want to do it again. Like, you guys, I mean, you're like me. Like, when we moved to Hawaii, that was a big jump because we were just small town, like, Midwesterners. I mean, I guess I grew up. You were not small town. I grew up outside of St. Louis, but, like, it wasn't like I've ever. You were a city boy through.

Okay, whatever. But I'm not like, I'm not that much of a city boy. Yeah, you are. You know, I am. Why do you power boys think that you're like countrymen? Caleb keeps saying, I'd make a great cowboy. A great cowboy. He's allergic to horses. Our grandpa. Your grandpa. Your grandpa. Your grandpa. Your grandpa. Oh my gosh. Caleb's allergic reaction to the horses. Your eyes swelled up. We rode a horse. It was so worth it. Gosh. Yeah.

Yeah, Caleb had an allergic reaction to a horse when we were riding horses in Oregon on a trip and his eye turned into like a... It happened fast. Yeah. I feel like you were like, something feels weird and the next thing... It was worth it. The tears just streaming out the one eye. No, but you guys left Kansas City, like, were you scared or were you excited? Or both, probably. Oh, so many different emotions. Yeah, all of them. Yeah. Yeah, you answer. I don't know. No, yeah, that's my answer. We had a ton of just all the emotions. Excited, happy...

be sad that... I mean, we cried leaving our friends and community and our church that we had a ton of friends through. That was...

Super hard. We had so many like really deep, great connections with people in Kansas City. And you guys, you know, owning Bolt Boutique, a small clothing boutique that you guys run, like you guys at the time were both full time with Bolt. And then moving that across the country, like a physical business, our business is online. I mean, I guess technically yours is like an online clothing boutique, but that's scary too, to take all that product and hope it doesn't get stolen along the way. I

upon thousands of dollars in products in just those moving trucks if one would have gotten stolen like it's like game over for your business right that was one of your paranoid things like we we bought all the security measures we bought the the steering wheel like locks yeah we bought locks locks for the trailers which is kind of an obvious one we bought uh like the the boots that like go on the tires that the parking police will put on people's cars you know um

Because a week or two before we moved, our neighbor was like, you know, U-Haul theft is really common. And I was like, what? What do you mean? That's so bold. Apparently they're easy to hot wire. Take a whole truck? Yeah. It's so smart though. I mean, think about people have so many valuables in those trucks.

And they're moving them themselves. So not saying it's a good idea. Yeah. But it just makes sense that that happens. That's a bold move though. So it was scary for sure. Well, yeah. And then I mean like that's taking a big risk. And now you guys are in Arizona. I know a lot's happened in the past year. Abby, you're kind of focusing more on social media now, right? Like art.

from what i understand you're moving away from bolt um and you're kind of taking more on like you're full-on content creator now like making content on instagram tick tock like tell me about that that's been like a big transition yeah i mean the last year was really hard with the business and it kind of started a little bit before the move

And yeah, I think we just kind of started to see like a decline in sales. And I mean, we're a small operation. It was me, Caleb, and we had one other employee at the time. And I just think there are a lot of things that like, I mean, I started Bolt when I was 21 years old and just learning as we go. And I made a lot of mistakes for sure. There are a lot of things we did really well and a lot of things that we could have done differently.

But I mean, don't regret any of them. But we just started to see changes in the business like within the last year. Yeah. And obviously tried everything that we could to continue to make it grow and work and all that. But now with the baby, I just feel like it's a wise time to maybe wind down the business and close it. So that's what we've been in the process of doing.

the last like month and a half is closing bowl, which has been super sad. But also I feel like, you know, God's timing has been really, really gracious to us. And yeah, I feel like the opportunity to start doing social media has kind of come about at a time where I'm like, okay, I had very, it's very uncertain. Um,

what my future brings, you know? So that's been cool. And I feel like, yeah, I've just seen the opportunity. So started to pursue that, which has been fun. Totally. Yeah. Like what, when was the moment that you were like, I think I need to close this down. Cause that's, that's, we should also talk about like it's starting because like that was pretty incredible to start a business at 21. You had saved, like talk about how like you literally invested, you saved,

Thanks. Into it at the beginning. Thanks. Yeah. I mean, I had, I always knew I wanted to do something in fashion. Wasn't sure what it would be. But when I was 18, my older sister was like, there are these things called online boutique starting. And I was like, I'm going to do it. So I was like, that's it. I'm doing that. And so my senior year of college, I took my life savings and,

and invested probably like $7,000 or $8,000 into starting this business. And I launched it during my senior year of college. So March 28th, 2018, during my senior spring break, I was like, all right, business is up and running. Like, let's sell some things. And obviously we were dating and we were like, Mizzou offered an entrepreneurship class and you were taking, didn't you get like a minor in entrepreneurship? And I feel like at the time I was on like a big,

entrepreneurship, you know, grind type of mentality. And I was like, I was like, Abby, you need to start this, start it sooner rather than later. Like, you need to do this. Uh-huh.

And you waited until January just for like tax purposes, which made sense. So yeah, didn't you go to market in February? Yeah, it was so fast. I registered the business January 1st, 2018. Wow. During winter break. Went to market February like 14th and then launched it March 28th. Like I was like, let's just go. And we...

Because originally, I think you wanted to wait until you graduated. And I'm like, let's just start now, sooner rather than later. Yeah, which is good. And we painted your parents' spare bedroom in the basement pink. And that's where Bolt first got his founding. Yeah, where did Bolt even come from? The name or the business? Well, that's the hardest part, I think, of starting a business. You're like, what should I name this thing? What?

took me so long to start and I'm like I have no idea what to call it I mean I'm sure you guys felt that with like this podcast like what do we name it yeah actually I was like it just kind of came to Abby one day she's like unplayed like a lightning bolt hey is that what happened

Kind of. Yeah. I mean, everything I would just be on Google, like synonyms for clothes, synonyms for cool, synonyms for fashion-y, you know, just like random things. And when you buy fabric, you buy a bolt of fabric. Yeah. So I'm like, that makes sense. And then it's easy to spell, easy to remember. Yeah. I love it.

Yeah. So that's how that came about. And even before that though, like your summers you'd work at boutiques and didn't you like fully help this boutique that was a physical location get their product online? Yeah. So it's like you had a lot of experience going into it and...

Like you were fashion major, correct? Yeah, I did business major, fashion minor, and then I minor in entrepreneurship. And yeah, I loved my opportunities working for, I think if you want to be a business owner, something that I did a disservice of to myself. So like this is something practical to share is,

I worked at a lot of small businesses, which was awesome. Well, not a lot, but I worked at one small business, a boutique for years and I learned so much practical, which was awesome, but I never had a corporate internship and it's very different. Like I just didn't have the mindset or the skill or know how to like

run an empire or scale a business past just being small. And that's where Caleb, when he came on the team in 2020, like really helped take Bolt to the next level 'cause he had been working corporate for the previous year.

Well, I think with businesses, there's pros and cons to small and big businesses. Like with a small business, with that boutique, you learned agility and creative, like creativeness and how to move quickly and try different ideas. Bigger businesses can't do that as much, but they do have the, they have the infrastructure and they have the, the regiment and the, just the,

The processes. Yeah, the processes of how to do things. And they have like everything is detailed and written out of, okay, if you want to do this campaign, these are the steps that you need to do, which can limit creativity sometimes. But there's definitely like the pros and cons of those. Yeah, you're writing those rules for yourself. But I think another big pro of like small businesses and specifically with Bolt is like you can really see the passion behind these small businesses and like

Also, I think with bigger businesses, it's harder to keep the business's integrity. And that's something I can say for Bolt. Like, throughout the whole thing, like, you have maintained, like, incredible integrity with your business. Thank you. And also been very, like –

generous with it too, even when it was struggling. So like, you want to talk about like your philanthropy through Bolt? Because you were for a while, I don't know if you still do this right now, but I know you're giving a portion of profits to charities like Stand Up To Cancer and Hope For Justice, which is really cool. I love how you had like this positive impact focus with your business. And I feel like a lot of businesses don't do that. And I liked how you, it seemed like you were

running it very ethically and trying to just to do good, you know? - Thank you. Yeah, that was the biggest thing was like, man, someone asked me recently, like, what would success mean to you? And I'm like, man, if we could just be generous, you know? Because I think that's what,

You can buy yourself more things, whatever. But it's like, really, what's the impact you're going to make with what you've been blessed with? And so with Bull, it was always like, man, I want to make a difference with this business. So Hope for Justice, they fight human trafficking, which is one of the biggest issues in our world. And so it was so cool to get to partner with them. And we were able to be really generous with them for a couple years. The last year was definitely harder to give when it's like, man, we have...

Debts to pay. Debts to pay. Bills to pay. Bills are dropped. Yeah, but we were still able to give like here and there. But I mean, that was always like, oh, let's get it back up and going so we can give and give. You know what I mean? It's just like that was always like the passion behind it for sure. Yeah. And look like,

My hope in sharing this, by the way, is I hope everyone can just go show Bolt some love, whether that's liking one of their photos on Instagram or sharing with a friend, because I know they're doing a sale right now as Caleb and Abby close up the doors of Bolt. But you guys can share whatever you want to share. But obviously, with 2020, everyone was at home. Sales were really crushing it for a while there, right? Because your small business being online, everyone's at home. It was killing it.

And then, and then like out of nowhere, it's like you moved to Arizona. And then like after that was where the sales kind of dropping because COVID was over and people weren't as, I don't know, buying stuff online as much as they were like, what, I guess what happened? Like,

I'm curious. Yeah, that's the best question. I don't know. I mean, I think there were a ton of different things. Like, I think it was the perfect storm and your business is either going to thrive and continue to grow and you're going to be able to pivot when things are hard or you're going to suffocate. And I just feel like it kind of got to a point where it's like, I don't know, like when we don't have the money to like,

invest in learning more about advertising and these things. Like at that point it was like the sales were down and it's like, okay, well our Google ads and our Facebook ads are broken. So like we need to hire someone that's an expert in these to fix them. But like we couldn't and it was past my like knowledge level, you know? So that's one thing. And then, yeah, there's obviously like economic shifts and all that. So it's like, I don't know. I feel like there's, there was a perfect storm of things. Well, I feel like even you guys, like,

I don't know if the term is like the age of social media. I don't think that's past, but you guys started when you started to grow the same time when Bolt was like, when it was like super easy to grow organically on different social medias, TikTok, Instagram, whatever. Yeah, it was easier to like, you could post or make a video and it would actually get promoted. I feel like the market is

I mean, you guys are still killing it, but it's gotten way more saturated. Oh, yeah. Especially with businesses. Totally. Because people have told businesses like, "Oh, you want to grow? You got to be on social media. You got to make posts and videos." And so in 2020, when everyone's at home now and there's only a lesser percentage of businesses online and making that content, you could rise to the top a little bit easier. Now it's so saturated.

I'll speak for myself, but like, I don't like following like a ton of businesses personally on like Instagram. Like I want to follow my friends. And I think that sentiment has kind of shifted when everyone was at home and you, everyone was just scrolling. Like people did follow more accounts, but now it's like, yeah,

I feel like instead of following more people, I've been unfollowing people or businesses just 'cause I wanna strip down that content. So I feel like part of that is maybe a part of the business, from the business side of things. - For sure. Yeah, I think, and this would be more advice to someone who wants to start a small business, start your small business. Just 'cause it didn't work out for us doesn't mean that it's not gonna work out for someone else. - And still be on social media. - Yeah, oh yeah. And I think the thing is, it's just you have to be, you have to make sure you're differentiating yourself.

And I think maybe I lost a little bit of like my vision of like, what is making us different? And yeah, like just really focusing and narrowing it down. It's like, well, why should someone shop from Bull? Like what is different about it? Because when you are in a market that there's a lot of competition, it's like, okay, what's going to set you apart?

And so that would be my advice, just being, and you would talk about this, like you want to be a niche, like you got to be niche. Yeah. You got to think of yourself as like a fine dining restaurant. You got to be very niche focused, serve a very specific audience. But we can get on to more positive stuff about you guys being pregnant at the same time and all that. But before we switch topics, today is March 15th.

28 this is bolts five five year birthday today the day that we're filming this five year birthday yeah wow honestly five years is an incredible that's incredible hey congratulations the doors open for five years and that's awesome feels like sad but that's like an incredible accomplishment yeah thank you but hey here's the deal though you guys have done one business now and most entrepreneurs it takes them 5 10 20 businesses to finally have that home run business and so like

i don't know just because you're ending bolt doesn't mean that you can't start another business there's so many good things that come from bull i could literally like you just thought like had such an amazing community that you've had on your page and you're so intentional with each purchase you're handwriting a card yeah and there's you're praying for your customers like doing incredible things through it and then like we said been generous and then also if you want to see abby get fired up like get her talking about fast fashion

I feel like you've maintained so much integrity also through your product. Thank you. That's funny. Last night we were talking about fast fashion and I was getting heated and I look over at Caleb and he's like, kind of gesturing to me. It was Sheen specifically. You were like, I don't even know how you say it. Just funny. Yeah. I think something that is important to share is like, man, just don't be afraid to fail. Because failure, we've learned...

starting a business at 21, learning as we're going, like it has opened so many doors for us and opportunities in different ways just because you learn from your mistakes. And it's like, how would we even know how to like run a business or do anything like Caleb's starting a franchise now. And it's like, man, just those opportunities come because you take chances. And it's like, if the worst thing that ever happens is you fail, like boo hoo. You know what I mean? Like that's such a gift, honestly. - Oh, totally. And I think people don't see the failures behind success. 'Cause like even us,

I tried so hard for a year to grow a YouTube channel. I basically put in 20 hours a week for a whole year on YouTube trying to grow and I failed. We got to 300 subscribers after almost a year and we had maybe 100 views on every video. I was so mad because I was working my butt off trying to grow this thing. People were making fun of you, right? People made fun of me. I was making fun of you.

- I was making fun of you. - Abby was making fun of me. You were making fun of me. - Everyone makes fun of people until they're successful. - Exactly. - If Joe Rogan didn't have millions of listeners and he was still putting that much effort into his podcast, people would make fun of him for that. Like, dude, what are you doing? - I remember you being like, I wanna have a million YouTube subscribers. I think you maybe had like a hundred at the time.

And I told Caleb, I was like, that's a pipe dream. You know what I mean? This musical theater kid, what does he think? But if you keep trying and trying and failing and failing, eventually you're going to have that home run. And so like, I don't know. I just think about like when you listen, I love to listen to entrepreneurs talk. And a lot of them are like, yeah, I like had like 10 fans.

10 business failures before I had this big success. We actually have a friend who their dad is like extremely successful. And he was telling me about, like I learned from them about how he failed too to finally get to where he's at. So look, Bolt ending, it's like that stinks, but I know that you guys are gonna have so much success in front of you. And also like if you guys wanna support Bolt at all, I know they have a sale going on right now as they, are you guys liquidating your inventory? So if you guys wanna go support Bolt,

Their Instagram is at bolt boutique. Yeah. And then you guys should also follow Abigail. We call her Abigail to differentiate. Follow Abigail Howard on Instagram and follow you guys on TikTok. We can put links to the description of this video. That's great. One more thing before we move on. I just want to say like I commend Abby so much and like she's like the least prideful person when it comes to stuff. Like you have so much humility like and like even just sharing these things like most people wouldn't want to talk about that like.

because especially because it has been so hard for like this door to close um

So I just want to commend you for that. I always tell them, I'm like, Abby is like the least prideful person. Like, well, yeah. And it's, it's hard too. Cause like owning a business where you buy inventory, like for me, I've made YouTube videos where I put in like maybe 50 hours of work into one YouTube video and then it fails. And I'm so bummed because I worked so hard for it. But like, at least I don't have like, it's not like I invested, I don't know, $20,000 into this one video. Um, I guess there are YouTubers like Mr. Beast that do that, but

like I don't know for me it's like my time but for you guys like you have put your money like into this and so it is scary to like you're trying to sell and then like pay it like when you take out loans for your business like you got to pay those off and so it's like that is scary too so I just commend you guys for having that courage and being like brave enough to be you know to face failure if you need to and but I don't know I just I just see success coming your way and there's some very exciting news coming

Coming up. Yeah. You want to share? Hey, real quick. If you could please leave our podcast review, it would mean the world to us. It only takes just a couple of seconds and you can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to our podcast on. Seriously, guys, it helps push it out to a lot more people and it really, really does help us. So we'd really appreciate it. And if you're driving right now, please do not leave review while you're driving. You can just like pull over or something. Just please don't be unsafe.

We'd really appreciate your help in pushing the podcast out to more people. And now back to the episode. Or you can even like share it with a friend. Hey, yeah. Could you share this with a friend? Okay. Thanks. Back to the episode. We're having a baby. Yay. So that's like been the most exciting thing is that we're both pregnant at the same time. Oh my gosh. So we should kind of go back to like the day that you told us, I feel like, because we

The background for us is that we just come back from the doctor doing like a very early ultrasound because we didn't know how far along it was. So they were like, you need to come in right now just to make sure. Mm-hmm.

Even though I was like, I'm pretty sure it's very early. But so we had just come from the doctors, but you guys didn't know that because I was like five weeks pregnant. No, I don't know, five or six weeks pregnant. And we go to dinner at your house and you said like right off the bat, you're like, I have an outfit I really want to put Griffin in. It's a Christmas outfit. It's so cute. We're like, sure. Yeah. Okay. And so then tell us what you did. That day we went to what's the baby store?

Carter's. Carter's. And bought, we're like, how do we want to tell them? And we bought a little onesie that said cousin crew on it. Bought it there because all the ones on Amazon. The ones on Amazon are gross. Really? They're just not cute. Yeah, they're just...

if you like them they're cute but you just got i yeah sorry so treat people with kindness i'm like they're gross so abby runs upstairs to change griffin he didn't want to be changed he was like crying and then we you brought him down and you guys were like cover your eyes and and you were like holding him like simba and like okay open and they were like and you guys we did a terrible reaction literally i watched the video i was like i

But I think your reaction was like shocked because you're like, oh my gosh, we're pregnant at the same time. No, yeah. That was my exact thought. Also, I literally told Matt, I don't know why, I've never said this before, but driving to your house that night, I was like, I feel like Abby's going to tell us she's pregnant. Yeah. I literally don't know why in the world. I had something to say.

had some instinct i was like you know that'd be really crazy we were just at the doctor too we had just gone for our first ever appointment abby was so early in her pregnancy that we couldn't even hear a heartbeat yet and they confirmed after multiple tests that yes abby is indeed pregnant so when you guys told us that you were pregnant we were just like no freaking way i think you were just like shocked i want to apologize for my reaction honestly i love your reaction i didn't like my reaction either i hated it no you're

To Abby? No. No. You guys have to go on her Instagram and watch his reaction. It was great. Yes. Yeah. Is that on your Instagram, Abby? Yeah. Actually, Matt did like his reaction. At Abigail Howard? At Abigail G. Howard. Yeah. Abigail G. Howard. Matt didn't like his reaction to finding out that I was pregnant with Griffin. Why? Yeah. Why was that? My reaction? Yeah. You were like,

like that. Oh, with Griffin? Well, okay, here's the deal. If I get in my head really easily, and so you told me like 15 minutes before, you're like, I'm going to make a TikTok with you. Like, can you come out? I'm going to take a video of you for a TikTok. I have to explain why the camera's going to be out. So I just got in my, like, I mean, look, I lived in the moment, but I was a little in my head because I was like, I'm being recorded. But when you told me recently that we were pregnant with baby number two, I was half asleep. Like, I was just like, I walk in. You're like, we'll deal with it tomorrow. Yeah. You went back to sleep.

I went back to sleep. Anyway, that's not about us. Not about us. But anyway, that was crazy. I was just like so thrilled that you guys were getting to be pregnant at the same time. Oh, yeah? Yeah, because before we were like, we were still kind of like sad, but we were very, we hadn't felt the positive emotions of like finding out that we were pregnant yet because it was so soon. So then when you said that, like I was like, oh, wait, this could be really fun. Like I was like really excited. No, that was definitely the turning point for us because we kind of were sad about being pregnant.

It was just such a shocking thing. And we were like working through those emotions. But yeah, after you guys announced to us, I was freaking stoked. Yeah. You know? I'm happy that we got to aid in that. I was happy for you guys. Yeah. It's fun. It's been super fun. And I think too, when you guys told us, like a lot of people have asked like,

Were you sad? Like Matt and Abby stole your thunder? I'm like, are you kidding? Oh. This has made it so much more fun. Like when I told you, I was like, when we told you, I was excited. And then when you told us, I started bawling. I'm like, this is going to be a bit better, you know? You were so sweet with your reaction. I wanted to ask you guys that on the podcast. Did you feel in any way that we stole your thunder? Because we had some comments on our YouTube video. Even personal DMs. People were like, I just feel so bad for you.

They're like, could you not have waited?

That's people who don't know our relationship. We do everything together. We get married together. We do showers together. We travel together. We have babies together. Why are we not doing a gender reveal? We should have done a combined gender reveal. Yeah, let's not get me started on that. Why did we not do that together? Well, you guys would have revealed and we would have been like, we're not finding out. I would have been gray. Gray. Yeah, yellow. So sad. Yeah, they're not finding out the gender of their baby and it's honestly driving me so, probably more crazy than it's driving me.

I feel so calm. Man, it's going to be like the week before Abby's due and we'll be like, oh, we need to buy some baby clothes. We need to buy diapers. Like, we'll figure it out probably the week before. Yeah, we're not really planners either. Well, Caleb is a planner. I'm not. And I think a little bit of not knowing the gender does kind of make it feel less like...

real in a sense when you say because it's not like you can be like hey little baby girl a little yeah i love you or call them by their name yeah so i think it's gonna we're gonna show up to the hospital and the baby's gonna come out and be like what the there was a baby in there you know what i mean like honestly that happens anyway though you're kind of like what

Yeah. I don't know. At the end, you can tell there's a baby in there. I was looking back at videos of Abby last night and I was like, holy crap. Her belly was huge. It looked like there were four babies in there. I think what gets me the most is the fact that my skin had stretched so much around my belly button area that it was all purple.

I think you look really cute. You look so cute. It did hurt. You're a cute mama. She said it looks like it hurt. It was really cute. It was cute. It is cute. And it's still cute. But I remember you being like, it hurts. And I was like, I mean, it looks like it hurts. It's going to explode. But anyway. So you both will be in the last part of your pregnancy when it's like the hottest part of the year. Yes. We'll be in the pool. Floating. Floating. And you guys will be bringing us water. I'm excited.

for you to have that feeling of getting in the pool when you're like so big and you're just like the problem though baby moves so much in the pool it's so weird cool the doctor told us though that if abby's in the pool it's less pressure downward to help get the baby out so like you almost you almost want to like i don't know go on walks and like try to get the baby jumping jack yeah i spent my whole day doing that and by the end of the day i was like ready to get in the

Ride a roller coaster or something like that. Lots of things. So, Abby, you're about two weeks ahead of my Abby? Yeah, three. Yeah, 23 weeks on Thursday. Okay. So, yeah, almost 23. That's crazy. So, you got, yeah. Wait, I'm 20 weeks today. Oh, my gosh. Abby's 20 weeks pregnant today. We're halfway. Yay. We're filming this on March 28th. Okay, so like two and a half weeks then. Sweet.

It's going to be so fun. So how do you feel right now? Like how are you doing? I honestly feel really good, which I'm thankful for. I told Caleb, I'm like, if all my pregnancies are this easy, let's have 10. And I'm like, just wait until you push the thing out. Yeah, we'll evaluate that later. I feel like I don't want to scare you, but the third trimester is where Abby really, really could feel it. Started to feel it. Was that even worse? I lost my mental game in the third trimester.

Was that worse than the first? Was the third worse than the first? I don't know. They're worse in different ways. Because the first is just like you feel sick. And then the third is like I have a massive child. Well, Abby didn't feel sick at all. Oh. I felt better than ever. I actually felt more ravenous than ever. What? How do I feel right now? Yeah. I couldn't stop eating. It was actually a problem. I went to the doctor. I was like, am I gaining too fast? And he was like, no, you're good.

you're good, but you know, don't eat the potatoes. I'm like, that's all I want to eat. You know, don't eat the potatoes. It totally

He was like, just be careful with like, you know, people go crazy with pastas and pizzas and potatoes and carbs. And I was like, that's all I'm eating. It was at your parents' Christmas dinner and your mom made like these twice baked potatoes, like cut in half. And so it's still like filled with stuff. Abby had like equivalent of like three potatoes. She had like six of them. Full russet potatoes.

my favorite food it's great i made potato soup twice in one week like that of it kielb was like yeah the potato soup's good and i'm like cool should i make more should i make more i will make more would you say that was a craving or just i don't know i think my body was just so hungry i just wanted substantial things and like i didn't want smoothies or fruit or vegetables like i would make myself eat them but i was just like all i really want is to be filled up on carbs right now

I didn't eat anything healthy my first trimester. Like, literally not a single green thing. Yeah. It was...

I wasn't having any health. Oh, sorry. I was just going to say like when you were both in your first trimester, you guys were already back in St. Louis at my parents' house. And we're like, you're like waiting to tell, like you wanted to wait for us to be there. We were trying to hide it. And Abby pukes on the carpet and we get a text or I don't know if it was a text or call. It was projected. It was like, you guys need to get here now. Like, I can't do this anymore. I can't keep a secret. You said.

And then he sent a text with like, seriously, you got to get here quick. I think there's ham going in the oven. Oh my gosh. Not the ham. I literally hate ham when I'm pregnant. Yeah, ham is just a big no for both of you, right? Yeah. What is it about ham? Ham is not good, let's be honest. Freaky, dude. I don't know.

I don't like it. Ham is so freaky. Turkey's way better. My favorite was when- And it fills up, it's mostly the smell. Like the smell is so consuming. Like it's like, and the look of it. My favorite was in Abby's first pregnancy. My parents or our parents were wanting so badly to make this ham. They had this ham in their fridge, like ready to go. And Abby said like, by the way, the one thing I cannot eat right now is ham. And then the next day, mom and dad asked Abby to prepare the ham.

Well, mom's like, but it's like a honey baked ham. It's like my mom's big hype daughter. It's good ham. It is probably their quality. So I bought Abby Chipotle and then mom and dad were kind of offended by that. I'm like, I'm sorry, guys. Like she cannot have ham. It's not going to happen. Now they're going to watch this.

Watch this. No, no. Sorry, Mom. We love you, Mom and Dad. I think we did tell them. Yeah, they're aware. I'm fine with ham now. It was just the first trimester. Everything in the first trimester was so bad. Even over Christmas, we got Chinese food that one day, and I was like, I felt game for it. And then I got it, and I was like, not game for this. But then lasagna, too. Do you have a lasagna version now? Because you threw up all your lasagna. Yeah.

um back i could probably eat it again honestly and i don't know if like nobody really caught on like i made a tiktok because i was abby throws up and i'm like wait this is actually like the perfect teaser for people to like to suddenly tell people that we're pregnant but then like not tell them um but no one caught on my parents didn't realize when abby was throwing up that she was just in the first trimester i thought for sure they would because i was like i'm not eating anything like they're trying to feed me stuff and i was eating rice cakes and yeah then i was throwing up

Nobody on the TikTok comments. Mom calls me and is like, Abby is food poisoning from the lasagna. We just feel so bad. She was on the phone and killed me. We were like driving to the airport. We know. We knew. We were like, yeah. Oh, no. That was when we landed and she was telling us. Yeah. In the car. She's like, poor Abby got sick last night. Like the lasagna. Yeah. Yeah. We were just like, mm-hmm. Like just so excited. Dude. That was fun.

And then we told the family and no one has better reactions than the Howard family. Oh my gosh. Ever true. Those telling our family was hilarious. You guys like, I was watching the footage back last night and they just, our parents go crazy, man. From mom to Josh to grandma. It's,

- It was so good. Honestly, you just need to watch it and focus on one person. Yeah, your dad and one of them. He's just like so excited 'cause he knew and he was waiting for the rest of the family to react. He was so excited. - Yeah, that was fun too 'cause I feel like, well, first of all, they were shocked that you guys were pregnant. I feel like that might've been a little bit more on the radar because

We just had a baby and they're like, maybe Caleb and Abby will have a baby one of these days. But that definitely shocked them. And then they were and then to find out that you guys are pregnant together, then they're really shocked. So that was that was a really cool time. It kind of works out nicely for them because then they just take one visit out and they get to meet two grandbabies. I know. I know. It's like ideal.

- So fun. - It's really exciting. - Yeah, it was funny editing that video. Well, we had an editor work on the video and then I also worked with, I also put in like 10, 20 hours on that video, but I was like, why am I spending so much time on this? I'm like, oh, this is gonna be like a memory I'm gonna watch back for a very long time. Like it'll be cool every year to go back and watch those announcement videos. And I actually just watched the announcement from last year, this past week. And that was really cool. So I'm excited for that. - It's gonna be so fun to get big bellies together.

and then have newborns together. I don't know if we're going to see each other that much at that point or maybe we'll hang out every day. Yeah, I was trying to think about that and I'm like, how will my – because I feel like we're very similar, but then also I feel like you're much more extroverted where you're like, I love to have people around all the time, whereas I'm like, I could shut myself into the house for like four days and be like, oh, I haven't talked to anybody and like kind of be okay. Yeah.

And so I'm like, I wonder how that will be like after. I'll take your, I'll follow your lead. How about that? Yeah. I'll see what you're feeling like. Cause I'm going to want to be around people. Yeah. So you can, you can let me know. I will. Yeah. I will. I was thinking about that. I'm like, even just with our moms coming and staying, I'm like, I'm going to have to have a conversation with them. Just being like,

don't ask me any questions just do things you know yeah just because I feel like I know that I would get overwhelmed by that how cool would it be if we have another boy and then you guys have a boy and we just have three little boys running around together I didn't

No, I know one of us is having a girl right now. Yeah, actually, I think you're right. When we first found out you guys were pregnant together, you were like convinced. I don't know what your rationale was. You're like, it's just so cool. Like one of us is like guaranteed to have a girl because they already have Griffin. So that means one of us. I'm like...

why couldn't Abby have a boy and you have a boy? And you're like, oh. That just wouldn't happen. It doesn't feel right. I'm with you. Honestly, it's not going to happen. Or how funny would it be if there's Griffin and the two little girls? And Griffin's like the protector. He's a protector. The protector cousin. See, in my head, that's not it either, though. One of us is having a boy. One of us is having a girl in my head. Yeah. I think you guys are having a girl. Aw, thanks. Even when I saw the ultrasound, I was like,

Really? Looks like a little girl. What do you guys think we're having? That's a good question. I can see a little girl, but just because you told me you got emotional over the name. Yeah. And I'm like, that's so sweet. Plot twist. The name no longer makes him cry. Yeah. The name didn't hit the same. We said it yesterday. And he actually told me he doesn't like it. No, no. I like the name still. I still like the name. No, but it was weird. Two nights ago, I was like...

Have you guys shared your boy or girl names? No, we haven't. Have you guys shared yours? I don't know. We haven't really thought about that. What about you guys? We just share it with family. Have you guys posted anything on your Instagram or TikTok about your baby names? I feel like we're pretty set, but not like 100% set. Yeah.

By the way, are you guys still making TikToks for a while? When we first started TikTok, they would copy our TikTok dances and make fun of us on their TikTok. It was the funniest thing. I mean, our name is Caleb and Abby. Because. Just because. And you had a decent following, maybe like 50,000 at the time. I mean, you have a lot more than that now. But we...

We made Caleb and Abby as a parody off of Matt and Abby. It was a date night and we were like, well, you guys are amazing dancers. We're terrible dancers. And so we were like, it would just be funny and goofy. And like it was 2020, so you couldn't leave. So like, let's just be goofy and copy Matt and Abby's dances and just kind of make fun of them. Wait, I remember this. You had the tie-dye jumpsuits. Yeah, we made tie-dye jumpsuits. We also did the... I duetted one of your videos when you were talking about your period. And Matt's like...

Matt, do you remember this? Yes. And Matt was like, I just think it's like beautiful because your body is like, you're just a woman. And then we do edit it and you asked me like, Caleb, what do you think about my period? And I was like, I'm all jokes, man. I'm never like serious. And I was like, period. Like, you know that TikTok that's going around where the kid's like.

Good impersonation. And people were like, I don't know if we got mean comments on that. I don't care what people say. Obviously, I was just goofing. That's hilarious. It's just funny because I think you and Caleb are very different. So different. It's like we're not even related. That was my whole best man speech for you. Yeah. I was like, you got good grades. I didn't. You did Muni. I did sports. I like you did this. I did that.

Yeah, that was like that was the basis of my whole like best man speech for your wedding. It's funny because like I feel like me, you and Josh look nothing alike. Me and Abby are kind of similar. Yeah, we're the same. We have a lot of similar interests. Yeah, it's just weird. I don't know how that happened. In the nicest way possible. And I think I've said this to you. I was like, if we weren't brothers, we wouldn't. I don't know. We would be friends. No. But you would never run in the same circle because you just have different interests. Yeah. Totally. Totally.

Totally. Well, you guys. Well, wait. I also want to say something. Yeah. Matt looks up to you so much. And especially, like, as a kid. Like, I don't know. I just. The way that. Oh, yeah. I don't want to get you embarrassed. But he just, like, looks up to you so much. And, like, all throughout your childhood. Like, such a good big brother. Are you tearing up? Oh, he's crying. That's sweet. Come here. Give me a hug, man. I love that.

- This is so sweet. - I think it's because it's mutual. - Love you bro. - I'm too tough to cry. I don't cry. - This reminds me of when you left for college and I cried the day that you left for college. And I think it was because like that was my realization of like our childhood being over. 'Cause when you were gone, I'm like, wow, like this whole norm that I had lived with my whole life of like you being my brother and you being at home, like it's done. And yeah, that was like, I've like, I barely ever cry.

But that was... Yeah, you don't cry. Yeah. That was really sad. I was like, wow, my childhood's done. My brother's moving out. He's going to college. You also viewed Caleb as the coolest person. Yeah, I always thought you were so cool. I still think you're cool, but I thought you were way cooler when I was younger. It's a more level playing field. Yeah. Now that I've gotten more mature, I'm like, ah, Caleb and I... It's not like Caleb's at this other level of coolness than I am. But when I was a kid... You've passed me up in a lot of... From a... No...

yeah from a handful of uh i still think you're cool caleb what's your guys favorite childhood memory watching your guys home videos was the sweetest thing ever have you posted have you shared any of those circus magnifico have you shared any of those i put that on my instagram story maybe i'll have to share that to the unplanned podcast now that you guys are on the podcast because i feel like it's just so funny because you can tell that matt is like forcing you to do it every

a good big brother and he was like, okay. Matt used to direct plays. My dad built a stage in our basement and you would direct plays and you would

And this, again, I was always just goofing and you were like so serious. Like, Caleb, you're going to do this and you're going to do that. And then you're going to go there and I'd be like, okay. And then like, I just would do stuff to make you mad. Yeah. Well, I think, I think the funniest memory that we have, this is like our most famous memory from our family is when we were kids. I think we were like four,

four and six and our church put on the passion, which is like, you know, the story of Jesus. And so I wanted to be Jesus. Well, the crucifixion. The crucifixion. It was like that. Obviously, you wanted to be the main guy. I wanted to be the main character. I called Jesus. I was the director and I was the star in the show and I needed you to be the Roman soldier. And I had the, yeah, I was the Roman soldier. And so I was in my tidy whities at four years old in front of our whole entire family at Easter. And I remember that

And you weren't, you didn't follow my directions. I directed you. I was making a spectacle of it. Yeah. And so I was on the cross. Like I was, you know, doing this whole performance as a four-year-old in my tighty-whities. And because you didn't follow directions, Jesus ended up coming off the cross and biting the Roman soldier on the butt. He bit me on the butt. Yeah. In front of all my family, aunts, uncles, uncles.

And I think you started crying and then I started crying. And then I think the whole family just started laughing and we were just confused at that point. I'm just confused by you baseball. I don't know. I don't know. I was just so mad. I was so mad at him. He wasn't following. Good surface area at six. Yeah. Wait, what was he?

I don't know what Caleb was wearing. I know. Probably like a, you probably had me like in a, just a bed sheet, like a toga or a Roman soldier type thing. Yeah. I forget about that. I forget that I used to direct plays like every single family gathering we ever had up until I was like 12.

I made every single one of our cousins like be in a show and made you and Josh be in the show. And I was like director and like, we're going to do this show. But, um, that was, that was fun. That was, that was a lot of fun. You've always loved making videos. I remember in high school, you'd make like the PSA videos. Yeah. Like drinking and driving and like the prom videos. And I was always like, that's so cool. Like Matt is so good at video and all that stuff. Well,

Well, yeah, I've said this before. Like, Matt, every single class, whether it was history class and it was like you needed to make a presentation on World War I or whatever, you'd be like, can I make a video out of this? And they're like, that's weird, but sure. And so you've been making videos for a long time just because you've always loved it. Yeah.

And it paid off. Yeah. Thanks, man. I love hearing you guys talk about like, obviously, we would go to your plays and stuff. Yeah. And Caleb weirdly knows like a lot of show tunes. And like Caleb hates musicals. And I'm like, how do you know these songs? And he's like, because my mom would always make me go sit through Matt's plays. She always like, Caleb, you have to go to one. You have to just go to one. I was like, okay. And I just imagine you sitting there like this the whole time, like dead face.

Well, my mom, you would be like practicing throughout the house. You'd just be singing the songs. And I'm like, get this guy to shut up. And I'm like, I was like, Matt, stop singing. And mom would yell at me like, Caleb, he's practicing. And mom was like, mom's a muni mom. She doesn't want to admit it, but she was a muni mom. That's so funny, dude. We were just emotional yesterday. No, wait, two days ago. Matt's like show tunes in the car on Sunday.

And I never do that. I never listen to show tunes ever. But I just felt like, hey, maybe we should listen to some show tunes. He turns around. I'm in the backseat of the car and he goes, we're theater people. And we're listening to... Defying gravity. We're theater people. I was like, we haven't listened to this in

Makes me want to like I don't know relive my theater dreams again one day and be in a show or I don't know I don't know if we would ever if Broadway's ever on the horizon for us, but like I Don't know dude. I'll kill me down. I would still be down like I There's something in my soul that gets moved when I hear Tony in West Side Story I would crap my pants Yeah, I'm like I'm the perfect age for Tony right now probably I

Yeah. Start with community theater. But I don't know. We'll support. Thank you. We'll go to your show. Should I do a community theater show? Why not? That'd be sick. I love that. I can't even picture it now. You'd fill the audience. You'd fill the crowd. They would sell a lot of tickets. Okay, if you're in the Phoenix area and doing West Side Story, send the auditions as well. Even if it's a high school. He looks young. Oh my God.

Matt comes in and plays the adult in like a high school show. Oh my God. The kid that's been waiting for the role and he's finally a Z. Never saw this coming. You're out kid, Mattson. Never saw this coming.

oh my goodness anyway well thanks so much for being on the show thank you and what's the best way people can find you on social media like what which which platforms are you most uh active on instagram i'd say at abigail g howard follow the pregnancy yeah yeah go buy something from bolt i think there's there's a sale right now for bolt and you guys don't you guys have stuff like 20 bucks like there's some good deals okay probably less than that we're marking things

Whoa, okay. That's crazy. Stuff is marked down. It's on sale. Go support Bolt. Go support Caleb and Abby. Thanks. Or if there's not a sale in the media when this gets posted, there will be. So just keep an eye out for that. Keep an eye. That's sweet. Yep. Well, we love you guys. We'll also at your YouTube channel in the description. I know you guys have a YouTube channel. I'm not as active on social media. I'll post time to time, but at Chow7000. At Chow7000.

I love calling you chow. Well, you guys, we love you. Thanks for being on the podcast. And thank you guys for listening. Again, if you could make sure that you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it goes a long way. And yes, let's read a review from our podcast reviews. This one says best podcast in all caps. And it says, I love this podcast so much. It actually says I love this podcast too much. Wow. Okay. Wow. They love it too much. That's

That's so, I don't, yeah, maybe they love it too much or so much. Either way, sounds good. Good job, guys. Her Instagram is HattieKate2219. So thank you. HattieKate. HattieKate. Thank you. We'll see you guys in the next episode. And as always, 3, 2, 1. Peace out, dudes.