The Squeeze - Matt and Abby: Unplanned but Meant to Be

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

YouTube stars Matt and Abby join the Lautners to discuss all things love, babies, and business. They share how they felt when they discovered they were having another baby so quickly after the first, and Abby opens up about her challenging birthing story. The two share that their in-laws are moving in and how important it is for them to surround their child with people who are going to be in his life forever. They then go back to the beginning (like the Lautners did a few weeks ago—be sure to check out that ep) and share how they met and why they ultimately made a huge career shift to spend more time together. They discuss how they got started on social media and how they deal with online hate. Matt then opens up about his journey with anxiety and how Abby has helped tremendously. Lastly, they talk about starting their podcast, which actually launched and releases episodes on the same day as The Squeeze. A double feature!  Be sure to follow @_matt_howard_, @abbyelizabethhoward and the @unplanned_podcast! Plus, check them out on YouTube and listen to The Unplanned Podcast wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.   To email us your questions or share your story, you can reach out to [e-mail]. Be sure to rate, review, and follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode! Plus, follow us on Instagram, @thesqueeze and personally @taylautner and @taylorlautner.   To learn more from The Lemons Foundation, follow @lemonsbytay on Instagram and visit lemonsbytay.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Go to your rise-adviseur on Sunnycars. When life gives you lemons, what do you do with them? Over here at the squeeze, we talk about it. Hello, you little lemon drops, and happy Wednesday.

Welcome to the squeeze. Welcome to the squeeze. You got two tailors here. Sure do. A boy and a girl. Two tailors and a remi on the floor. And a remi on the floor. She's a little camera shy today.

So she didn't hop up here. How are we doing? We're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Got another killer episode this week. Yes. It's going to be a fun one.

Yeah. I'm excited. Yes. My stomach is currently very cramming. for anybody watching. It's hurting. But yeah, I just want to throw that out there. I'm sorry. So if anybody else's stomach is not feeling great at the moment, I'm thinking about you. I appreciate that. Yeah. I'm sure the people do you as well. Okay. Yeah. Who do we have on the episode this week? This week, we have Matt and Abby. Matt and Abby. Who you may know from the You of the

YouTube, the TikTok, they just launched a podcast called the unplanned podcast. Yes. Which we were on. Yes. We had a very fun day of filming. We taped an episode together and then they, we tore down and then they did their whole little setup. Yeah. Whole little set up.

It was impressive. Yeah, it was. They definitely know what they're doing. They do know what they're doing. So we had a fun little like back-to-back day, but we had so much fun just sitting down and talking with them. They're such like down-to-earth, genuine people. So the conversation was great and easy. Yeah.

And their life is just fascinating. Yeah. They're pregnant, about to have their other baby, and their babies will be 13 months apart. Crazy. Yeah. That would be a hectic household. Yeah, but we just had like awesome conversation with them about, you know, parenting, being first time parents, what it was like with them, how they're feeling about baby number two. And just kind of like the adjustment, because, you know, that'll be us in our next stage in life at some point.

at some point. Not right now. So I always love just getting different people's perspectives on parenthood, especially when, you know, they are so early in the process and they're about to have baby number two. Yeah. So close. They're pretty young too.

But yeah, good for them. They seem like they are wonderful parents already. And we'll keep it up. And yeah, we were very excited to have them on the squeeze. So hope you guys enjoy the conversation and learn. something. But yeah, we're just super excited for this episode because it's a very just genuine fun conversation. We laughed a lot and had a lot of fun with them. So enjoy this episode. And then we're done with this episode. Head over to their podcast. Yes. Fun planned.

Unplanned. And take a listen to our episode. Boom. Yeah. Boom, baby. See you on the other side. Matt and Abby. Welcome to the squeeze. Thank you for having us. No, thanks for being here. We're so stoked. This is awesome. It's an honor. It really is. I love the setup, by the way. This is super official. I love the neon sign. I love the lemon tree behind you guys. It's actually a real lemon tree.

That's not. Don't listen to him. I believed you immediately. I was going to like pull one for them. I would have tasted it. Plastic. Oh my gosh. Okay.

We start each episode with a little game called Citrus Got Real. And recently we've been forgetting to do this. So we're not going to forget it today. In front of you, you have that lemon jar. There are pieces of paper with very random questions in there. If you could pull maybe one for you and one for you, and let's get this citrus got real going. Your brandy is so amazing. Yes, I love your branding.

I'm going to grab Abby's because she's pregnant and can't really bend over too well. Okay. Here's one for you, babe. Sorry, the papers are long. Can I go first? Yeah, go first. You got one for me. What would be the worst thing for the government to make illegal?

Ooh, it would be the worst thing for the government to make illegal. Oh, that's a good answer. That would be terrible. Oh, my gosh. Wait, that kind of made me sad. Yeah, I would say the worst thing. Oh, gosh. I don't take it seriously.

What would be bad to make a little? legal. You could be like almond milk. Oh, yeah. Dairy-free alternatives. If they made those legal, I couldn't eat food. Oh, no. I'm a dairy girl.

I'm lactose and tolerant. I'm a dairy girl. Maybe PDA for us. Oh, yeah, because that actually is illegal. Yeah, oh, there's some countries where PDA is illegal. Well, you guys can't go there. No, we will get arrested. Like in the mall, you can't hold hands.

Really? I've heard that. Yeah. So no one should honeymoon in Dubai, apparently. Right. Noted. It probably is a honeymoon desk. Am I making something up?

Yeah. People are going to be like, oh, you're wrong. I don't know. Yeah, I know. We have friends that are gay that went to Dubai and they were like super careful not to hold hands because like they just had to be careful. Yeah. But I don't know.

I don't know if PDA, I know there are countries where PDA is illegal though. No, PDA is definitely not allowed. Yeah. So that would be bad. Okay. We do less now that we've been married almost four years. Yeah, we like our personal space a little more down. We would be a so hard.

at the beginning. I think that's a good answer. That's a good answer. That is a very good answer. Oh my gosh. How funny. Okay. Should I go? Yeah. If you could be a fly on the wall, who would you want to listen in on? Anyone? That's really good. I feel like we just had this conversation recently about someone like, if I could just speak. Wait, really? I can't think of it now. Maybe the president? I don't know. I'm just curious. I feel like that's like the go-to answer. Oh, I don't want to know what's going on. I'm just so curious, yeah, like, what does it actually look like? I don't know. That must be really interesting.

Yeah, definitely fascinating. Mine would probably just be Simon Cowell when he's chilling at home. Oh, my gosh, of course. I was actually just thinking about this because we were talking about Justin Bieber. And I was like, I wonder just like what him and Haley talk about. I'm not even like a fan girl, but I'm just like, did they have normal conversations? Do they wake up in the morning together, like, and drink coffee? I'm curious why Simon Cowell.

Are you a big Simon Cowell? Yeah, I'm just obsessed with him. Always have to. Have you met him? No, I don't think I have. Really? Put it out there. Get him on the show. I don't think so.

This is my thing. I forget, like, I say that answer a lot. Like, people ask me, like, have you met that person? And it's happened before where I've said, no. And then a couple days later, I think back. I'm like, oh, of course I did. I like ran into them at this event or something. So I always forget if I actually have met people.

Yeah. But I don't think I have met Simon. You've done a lot of things. Maybe he'll come on the squeeze. That would be a dream. That would. Would you be okay? Would you be able to do that interview?

I don't know. I would definitely need to like take some deep breaths beforehand. That's so funny. to me, for me to hear you say that you would be nervous to have Simon Cowell on. I'm like, Simon Cowell should be honored to be on your show, you know? Like, I don't know what it is. I just, I mean, I started watching American Idol when I was a young kid. That must have been it. And then I just like fell in love with him. Wow. Our friend recently interviewed Simon and they, he knows that Taylor loves him. So they recorded a little video.

Did you post that? I posted it. posted it. Like hardcore static reel posted that. Yeah. Of course. I'm so happy for you. Yeah. It was, she was still sleeping. And I woke up and I watched that video and I was freaking out. I mean, I think the most surprising thing about that sentence is you woke up before me. Simon was calling.

I know how to wake you up early. Yeah. Simon's the only thing that could wake me up before you. His voice is the alarm clock. It's like, Taylor, wake up. Yes, I need to do that. That would be jarring. Anyways, okay. Simon, president. Did you have one?

No, I don't. I don't know. Okay. She's Justin and Haley. I don't even, I'm not even like a huge. Abby's a huge Justin Bieber fans. That's photos of him all over our bedroom. I was like, do you think they'd tune in front of each other and like do all those things?

I hope they do. Do you guys two in front of each other? No. No, he won't let us. Oh, gosh. No, what? Seriously? And I have IBS.

So. Yeah. That's a problem. I don't know. I may get there one day. I don't know. I honestly think that's where it's just going to. Well, even after I had, I had a colonoscopy probably like three years and two years into us dating.

And like after that you are like, stuff's like, there's air coming out of you. Yeah, no. Citrus got real. Yeah. Really real. Yeah. I don't know what it is. We burped, like, crazy in front of each other.

I respect that. But. Number two? No. Whoa. Wow. No. Yeah, they're newlyweds for sure.

No. They didn't know. I don't know. I don't think you would do that, though. No, I think I needed, like, a long time with that. Honestly, I would prefer it. He just always finds his way. Like, I wouldn't care if you did it, like, if the door was open, but I'm like, I need to, like, just have a moment.

to myself. I feel the same. So I guess we're not going to do it. Actually, it's a great time to have a conversation. Right? They can't leave. Someone can't get away. Yeah, she can't get away. Trap. Oh my. I did not think we're going to talk about this so early on. I'm so sorry. I'm going to start doing that to you. I'll get you to listen. Oh, yeah. Okay. You're sitting. You're stuck. We'll see how that goes. So something as you guys know that has been a huge part of my mental health. journey, Taylor's mental health journey, journeys as individuals, and as a couple has been therapy.

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I love that cerebral is 100% online because that means you have no excuse. You have to go. Yeah. Like there's no, oh, I don't have time to go drive. It's too long of a drive. No, you can do it on your lunch break. You can do it before work, after work. And it's honestly just, it's convenient.

Yeah. It's convenient and they have great therapists. Yeah. And it's, it'll just keep you accountable too. So we highly, highly encourage that you guys check out cerebral because therapy is just then wonders for us. And we know it'll do the same for you. To get started on your path towards better mental health, cerebral is giving our listeners

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Yes. Congrats on baby number one. Thank you. Congratulations on baby number two. Thank you. We were just talking. How far apart are they going to be? 13 months.

And that was planned or? No. goes with their theme. Yes. Oh my gosh. Brick. Wait, is that where the idea came from? Not really, but it just works well.

Kind of. It's very on brand. The branding. The unplanned podcast. No, I think Abby came up with the name and I was like, no way. Because like we're very unplanned. I think you guys told us to be here at 1030 or something. I feel bad because we're so unplanned.

I think we're like a little late. I'm like, crap, this is like we're going to see the Lawners. We're so unplanned. but it's just on brand for us. And then I was like, oh, we're this break and see is unplanned too. So I guess it's the perfect name for a podcast. We keep saying, I feel like unplanned, but meant to be. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. There you go. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. We're so, so excited. I truly believe that we have the best years ahead of us, having two little boys 13 months apart. It's going to be so cool to watch them.

Bond, grow up together, be best friends. And yes, it'll probably be hard while we have two under two, but we have our in-laws who just moved in with us to help with the babies. And it's going to be fun. We see extra hands. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm not even sure if our first will be walking by then.

So we're going to be really in for it. Oh, yeah. But when you, the moment you first found out, were you freaking a bit? Because we just, we had friends that just went through this, not as quite, but similar. And it was a scary feeling at first. It was. I think, I mean, it sounds awful, but the first day, we were on a Disney World family trip. And I remember just like being in like the happiest place on it, like all these true music.

And I was feeling, I actually felt dread for a little bit because I was just like, how are we about to do this all over again? Because we were in kind of a rough stage with having a four month old where it's like, there's like a sleep regression that happens. And we weren't sleeping. and I also had a double hernia repair after my first pregnancy. So I was like physically, am I even able to like carry a child right now? Like they told me to wait. So I was like, is this okay? And then also there was a lot of denial.

I kept telling Matt, I was like, we just got to get to the doctor because I just don't think that this is right. He's like, you took two tests. They're very positive. They were like immediately positive. And so then I was like, oh, what if it's twins? Oh, God. Because the test was so. And because the nature of it.

we knew when we got pregnant because we weren't being careless, but we weren't being perfect. There were literally two times, though, like two times that it could have even potentially happened. So I was like, for it to be this early and it's that dark. And then I like Google it. And if you're, I was breastfeeding at the time. Err, I still like still kind of am. They're like, your chances of having twins go up. Really? I don't know. That's what Google said. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. And we're just like freaking out all day. It was a secret, but it's changed so much since then. Once you see that little baby on an ultrasound, you're like, this is perfect. This is the happiest thing ever.

It just took an adjustment mentally. Yeah. I can't. I can't imagine. I can't imagine, like, housing a baby inside of it. I used to like, I used to want, I mean, because I'm an only child. I used to want like five kids in a huge family because I'm kind of like the only one out of like my cousins that is my age. Everyone's like 10 years and 10 years.

So I was kind of just like, alone. So I was like, I want a big family. And then I went through nursing school and like doing my OB rotation and like learning everything and like seeing births. I was like, I have to forget all of this before I even have a child because I like can't. Like watching that, I came home and I was like, they were never having children. I can't. It's jarring. It's very intense.

Oh my gosh. Meanwhile, my best friend is a labor and delivery nurse. And she like wants a bunch of babies. I'm like, how do you? No. No. Yeah. This started by you wanting, like, a massive family and me being like, I think two might be fine. Yeah. And now I feel like we've gone like this.

Yeah. You switched. You went. I don't, I don't think I want, like, I don't think I want, like, four plus kids. That seems like it would be a lot. But I don't think I want one. But I don't know. We're going to have to figure out. I feel like we're going to have one and we're going to be like sucked in and be like, give me all of them. Like, I could see us having one and then just like pump and like a bunch of them out. 13 months later, number two. Yeah.

I don't know if I could do that. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We will see.

But your birth was like a little rough. Yeah. It really was. I kind of forget that. Yeah. It was scary. I got pushed out of the way. They had to like high Gabby's legs up and do all this crazy stuff.

stuff to try to get our baby out because he got stuck for a little bit. It's called Shoulder Distosh. This is why you don't marry someone a foot taller than you. I was a big baby too. I was like nine, four and my brothers were both both over two pounds. Both over 10 pounds. So I was like the smallest of all my mom's babies. So Abby had a big baby. Our first son was eight pounds, four ounces. It's really not that big, but I guess just in relation to I'm five to. Yeah. But I think we just went to the doctor like two weeks ago. and they said you're measuring at four pounds, eight ounces. What was it right now?

So, yeah, Abby's going to have big babies and she already has. Oh, man. Yeah, but it gets stuck in there. Is that? Yeah. So. Have you seen that as a nurse? I haven't seen that physically happen, but I've, like, read about it.

Yeah, they, like, get stuck because you have to, like, turn them as they're coming out. But sometimes their shoulder, like, literally, like, just, it gets stuck and you literally can't pull them out. The shoulder got stuck. So what do you do? I mean, I think there's a few things you can do. Don't clout me on that. There's like a progression. So the first thing they did worked, basically.

They just moved me in a crazy position. And then everyone pushed on my stomach and, like, ejected him. Push on your stomach. Yeah, they pushed him out of the way. And then, like, all pushed him out. Wait, did that hurt when they push on your stomach? I don't think it felt good. I don't really, like, I kind of like.

Yeah. He does so much a superstar. Like, going through that much pain, she was in so much pain. She couldn't even make any noise. The videos of me look so peaceful. Really? I was peaceful, but I was like, it was not peaceful. Inside, you were.

No, I was like, that was the craziest thing I've ever been through. But it was not enough to make me not do it again. So, I mean, the hormones are crazy afterwards. So moving forward now, is that like a fear? What is like the, what is your doctor saying about the chances of that? Yeah, it can happen again. So I think she feels most comfortable. Like, she's kind of pushing for a C-section.

So. How do you feel about that? Honestly, at this point, I've really come to terms with it. I'm like, honestly, I'll just come with my suitcase. Oh, yeah. Yeah. To the hospital. Show up for your appointment.

Yeah. My baby will be here two hours later. Yeah. Honestly sounds great because the first time it took like 27 hours. Yeah. Were you in labor for over 24 hours? Yeah, it was over 24 hours. I just don't want them to mess up my hernia surgery I had.

Oh. Yeah. I'm like, everyone, let's just all get aligned, get it all figured out before we go. Yeah. But I don't know. It's long as my baby's here, I really don't care. Yeah. My girlfriend had, she's very like a planner. And she scheduled both C-section. She didn't need a C-section at all. But she told her doctor, she was like, I'm going to like, I'll have two. You can time my tubes after like I'm done, but I want like C-sections. And so she literally like showed up date and time. She has this thing where she brings a lamp to like make it feel cozy and because it's like a warm light. I don't know. But that I don't know. I wish I was like that. Like I'm obviously not a good. planner. So something that still keeps me up at night is the fact that I never made like gift

baskets for our nurses at the hospital. People do that and it feels like I'm like, man, I meant to do it. I just didn't do it. Yeah, you had a bit going on. Yeah, you were a little busy. I can tell you that it's totally fine. Those labor and delivery nurses, man. They get all the gift baskets. As cardiac nurses. Get nothing. They get nothing. Earlier, I forgot to ask this, your parents living with you. Is that like... Yeah, I'm very curious about this. Yeah. It literally just happened. So check back with us. They moved in on Sunday and today is Tuesday, right? Yeah. So they moved in and the next day it's like we're driving to L.A. to go film podcasts. Okay. So you haven't lived with that situation for long? No. I mean, I've lived with my parents since I was in high school. Yeah. But we're really

close. And I think it's just the stage of life we're in where it's like the people that are in our son's life. I want them to be people that are going to be in his life forever. Yeah. You know, like long term. So it feels really good to know that like the people that are going to be there and investing in him are his actual grandparents. And yeah, so we're really thankful. And I don't know, we're both very, I would say we're extroverted people. Oh yeah. And so I feel like my, our social battery is high. Okay. Okay. You don't need a ton of a lone time. So they're not, they're going to keep their own space. I'm sure. Yeah. That's right. I can only imagine how helpful it's going to be.

Totally. And they're great about not getting into our business. I mean, that makes sense. And we don't really get into their business. I think it'll be good. Like, we'll just respect each other's space. And we do, it's funny, we have a desk bedroom and connected to it is our podcast studios. They're going to take over those two rooms.

And then we're going to use our podcast studio once a week to film. And then the rest of the week, they just get to use it. So, it's, yeah. Day one went very smoothly. Okay. Great. We'll have to a good start. Yeah.

The hopes are high. I like it. How was the road trip? Well, you know, we split time with the baby. So, like, the first half of the road trip, we had him in our car and then we're like, well, you know what? You guys are going the same place. So he slept most of the time in their car.

Okay. And it was actually really nice. Yeah. It was good. And then for the second half when Griffin was asleep in their car, I was like, Abby, we should really listen to an episode of the squeeze. We listened to the squeeze. We listened to your first episode together.

Oh my gosh. Which wouldn't have happened otherwise. It would have been Miss Rachel on the car. That's usually Miss Rachel. Oh, my gosh. Well, thanks for tuning in. Of course.

Love the podcast, by the way. It's really fun listening to you guys. Abby and I were joking. Like, it's almost like therapy listening to you talk because you're so chill. And you guys have, you seem to have very high emotional intelligence. So it was almost like therapeutic listening to your podcast.

Oh, wow. I appreciate that. That's how we feel doing it. Yeah. Or like, it's so therapeutic for us. We love it. Yeah, we always say it's just free therapy. I feel like after each one, we like leave. Like one of us has either had like an aha moment or we've like taken something away from it.

So it's been really cool. Some episodes I'm literally like, this is me. Like I completely understand. It happens to you a lot. It does happen to me a lot. We'll have like guests on and they say something like, you know, I think I do this. probably because of this. And I'm like, oh, the light bulb just goes off. And I'm like, that's exactly why I do that. Yeah. I learned so much about myself. It's fun. That's cool. Yeah. Okay. Can I go back to the beginning a little bit before babies? And could you just tell me how you guys like met? Because you said high school? Yes. Well, we technically met in middle school. Wow. And I had a massive question of Matt. And he did not exist. You know, how the story goes.

It's kind of a long story. Long story short, we are theater kids. Okay. And so it was a summer theater in St. Louis. And I lived two hours from St. Louis. So I would just come in and my mom was like the sweetest and really supported like my dreams as a kid and would stay in a hotel. If I got cast in a show, it was a regional theater. Okay.

And if I got cast, she would stay for like three to four weeks while I did the rehearsal and performance process. And, um, anyway, Matt was a resident at this, like he was in all the shows. Okay. So he was also local.

He was always there. Okay. I was local and I started doing shows at this professional theater since I was, eight, I guess was the first time. Okay. Um, and so yeah,

we just met. We were acquaintances. Didn't really know each other that well, but apparently Abby had a crush on me. I had no idea. I told all my friends back at home. I was like a small town girl at this like, bigger theater and they all knew each other kind of and I was like the outcast so I was like silent.

But in high school though, summer before our senior year, I had just, I had been crushing on this girl in high school for a really long time. I was like, you know what? Like I need to, I need to move on from this. And immediately I was like just blown away by how beautiful this cute, this cute girl in the show. We put cards together and he doesn't even remember this. I don't know. It's just like, I had this eureka moment where I was like, I just, I just. just had my head down. It wasn't like paying attention. And I look up and like, this is, this girl is so beautiful.

She's so sweet. She's such like a good person. Yeah. And I was like, I need to ask her on a date. What have I been doing? Yeah. What have I been doing? So I asked her on a date.

His 18th birthday was our first day. Oh, cool. Yeah. First date on my 18th birthday. And ever since then, you know, the rest of history. Which is weird because he was still going into a senior year of high school. He did kindergarten twice. Just for the people that are going to fact check that.

Yeah. I have undiagnosed ADHD, so I, like, would not since... He did a second lap around there. He did not still in school. Okay. But yeah, no, I mean, then we dated long distance throughout high school, went to college together, pursuing the arts. We went to school at Missouri State, University in Springfield, Missouri for the acting program. We were BFA acting majors.

And then after a semester, we were like, you know what? We want to focus on a relationship. We knew a lot of people at the time that were in theater. and I know it's different with like film and television, but like in theater, a lot of times people will have to go on a tour and they don't see their spouse for like six months. Right. And we just decided we couldn't do that.

So we're like, let's get like regular people degrees in college and we can always come back at the arts at some point. But let's just like focus on regular jobs for now. Oh, wow. And maybe one day we can return. And so it was. I went into teaching and I went to finance. Yeah.

Wow. Dang. And then... What a little switcheroo. Yeah, we really switched it up and then switched it up again now. Yeah. Yeah, because we had always wanted to be like on Broadway. I think that was the dream for both of us.

And then with social media, like somehow this just, I don't know, it was this side hustle, this side gig that was like, it'd be so cool if we could make videos together and maybe make a little bit of side money. Yeah. you know, so that we can have a creative outlet in addition to our regular jobs. Yeah. We have to do something creative no matter what. Yeah, for sure. Because we can't just, like, switch it up and start doing finance. Yeah.

Yeah. Fully. But, um, yeah. Fun fact about us is that we've only ever kissed each other and only ever dated each other. Wow. Oh, wow. Because we started dating so young and, like, oh, isn't that weird? Yeah.

I think about it sometimes. I'm like, that's pretty weird. Am I a good kisser? I don't know. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. That's so funny.

Oh my gosh. That's crazy. That normally like doesn't work. I know. I always think I'm like, don't have this expectation because you most people, I would say 99% of people should not marry the person that was their first boyfriend or girlfriend.

That doesn't seem like a good idea. Yeah. That's pretty special though. It is really special. What was that game of cards you played? Do you remember what the game was? Oh yeah, we played ERS. Remember that?

E-R-S. Oh, that's right. It's like you slap the deck. Oh. Yeah. Egyptian-R-R-R-R-R-R-R. I didn't want to say that because it sounds weird. Is that politically correct?

Maybe, yeah. I'll just call ERS. ERS. It's a game where you, like, slap the deck if there's like a double or a sandwich. Yeah. And then you get all the cards. Okay. Yep, I played that.

We played that. I literally don't remember that. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. One of many. I moved on from that, but I did just need to go back to it because I wanted to know what you were playing. A fun note I wanted to add is when Abby and I were in college, we worked at this pizza restaurant together. And the reason we worked together is we only had one vehicle.

We shared a car. I think at that point might have been sharing the same bank account too. We didn't have any money, so it really didn't make a difference. I don't know, we were so in love and we knew we wanted to get married in college and we knew that to make that happen. We wanted to be independent from our parents. So we just got jobs right away freshman year to make money so we could be independent and be young and happy and free and married. Anyway, but at this pizza restaurant, we thought of so much fun and we thought, wow, one day we could work together, you know, doing something or have a company or something. We talked about like, what if we had like a cupcake shop or some business together?

And it really has like come full circle. Yeah. And at that time, we had no idea what TikTok was. We kind of knew that people were, you know. I don't think it existed then. Yeah, it might have still been whatever it was called before. It was TikTok. Oh, music.

Yeah. But YouTubers were starting to become a thing, but still, like, I was like, people actually make money doing that? Like, can you make that your job? I don't know. So kind of crazy. As you're at the pizza restaurant. That's so awesome.

I know. Some of our, like, regular customers would try to, like, set us up. They'd be like, there's a Matt guy over there. And I think he has eyes for you. And I'd be like, I think he's so cute too. We were like engaged at the time. Oh my gosh. You're like, that's because he does have eyes for me.

When did you guys start like picking up like social media and YouTube and all that stuff? Yeah. Totally. I mean, I had seen Abby watching couples bloggers and I was like, no way. Like people are vlogging their life as a couple and people watch that. Oh my God. I was like, I love to make videos. I used to make videos for fun as a kid.

It was just a passion of mine. I'm like, yeah, we should totally do this. And so we made YouTube videos for about a year. year and like nobody watched them. Like I'm talking nobody. We got maybe a hundred views. How do you start? I am not. So you did when you started. You only like you just said, but you stayed with it. Stayed with it. So I was basically working a part-time job as a YouTuber, but baking no money. Because there's no guarantees. As a full-time student and also working an internship at a finance. In a newlywed. And it wasn't until the pandemic.

happened that we like, we both lost our jobs and they were just like, see you guys. And so we had, and school went fully online. We were still students at the time. And so we were kind of like, well, we're forced to make a change right now. Like, what if we just like really, it was Matt who decided this. Like, what if I just really like, you relied on our savings and just really traveling. Wow. And so then you grinded and it literally just happened. You grinded too. You worked very hard too. Like it wasn't just me. But I will say it was a huge blessing that we had been saving up money. We barely ate out.

If her friends went to go get ice cream for a dollar, we'd be like, sorry guys, can't afford it. We're trying to save up money so we could maybe move some more cool when we graduate or just build up a nest egg and try to play our cards right. But that allowed us to not have to rush and find a job immediately. We got fired during COVID. And we're like, let's just pour all of our energy to this social media thing and see if it works. We were in our tiny apartment all day every day. So like what else we're going to do?

Yeah. Because everything shut down. Yeah. Yeah. And that's just. You guys are the definition of just like going for it. Like so many people, which I feel like I, you know, I'm like this. Like my fear holds me back a lot.

So many people, you know, they would just feel like that. Sounds like a crazy idea. I'm going to stay in this bubble that I'm comfortable with. And, you know, stick to your teaching. Stick to your finance. Matt's the ultimate dreamer. but he's also, I feel like you're the perfect combination because you're a dreamer and you're a newer.

Like, you make it happen. You're so nice to be ready. I don't know why I'm being so nice to him right now. Abby, you're incredible. Like, Abby is so good at like everything she does. Abby was over a 4.0 student. She should have been like valedictorian. I don't know how you didn't get valedictory or whatever at your school.

But like Abby's so intelligent. She's very good at like everything she does. And she's a natural on camera. Something I love about Abby is she doesn't care what people think about her. And I get so in my head, I get nervous, I guess myself, I overthink everything. Abby doesn't do that. She's always herself. It doesn't matter if she's, you know, talking to someone who's homeless or a billionaire.

It doesn't matter. She's going to be herself. It's going to be the same conversation. All the time. And I love that about her. Yeah. That's super cool. Thank you.

Yeah. You're a good team. Very good team. You want to say something nice about me? He's like, no. No, I don't. You're a good dog, mom. Oh, thanks.

And you're not as good as Matt, but pretty good with the camera. I'll take second. I'll take second. I'll take second. I'll take second there. Gladly, we'll take second. Okay, so obviously, like, with social media, there comes, you know, the trolls, the hate, all of that stuff. And I know that you guys have had your fair share of having to go through that.

And we like, just to talk about it because I feel like social media is such a large, it can be good. But it also can be really bad. And everybody can relate to it, whether it's on, you know, a different level. Yeah. I just feel like everybody can relate to that. Yeah. And I know that you kind of had like a really hard time with it. Can you just kind of like share about like that time and how you kind of got out of it or like boundaries you have to set moving forward after that?

Yeah. I mean, there's just like with the internet like something gets caught like picked up and then the story just like snowballs and snow walls and it becomes like there's like nothing good about these people and you know who knows there's been so many different things I'm like not even one singular incident but yeah I think people can forget that you're human for sure that you make mistakes and that you're not some character from a movie like you you are just a person and especially I think the comments for us um can be especially tough on TikTok because I think

everything around TikTok is just like short videos and so people see a short video of you and they don't see you as a person they don't see you as a human they see you as a character. They judge you off of that. Yeah.

Little snippet. Totally. And so it's interesting though because when you're building and growing, I think everyone's like rooting for you and cheering for you. But once you get to a certain size, people want to see you fall.

They want to drag you down. They're like, this is a good story. People love them. Now they hate them. So, yeah. I would say Who was it tougher on? Me.

What specifically we're talking about? I think we're talking about when we kind of got canceled in Hawaii. I didn't remember that. Yeah, we did a whole podcast episode on it. But we, that was harder on me. Yeah, it was definitely hard.

I think on Abby. It was definitely hard on the both of us. But I think for you it was like especially hard. It just got to the point where like we really have to just be careful about how much we read and like there's certain things. I'm like, I will never, ever go there because it's just not important. Like, if there's a video that's about us and it's clearly like a mean video, just scroll, move on, block. Like, don't look at it.

Yeah. Like, I don't, I don't even dip my toe anywhere near Reddit. Like, there's like, there's just so many things where it's like, I've just, it's just, it's not for me. It wasn't written for me to see and I don't need to read it. Like, and I know who I am. And so I don't need random strangers. I think go and look like we've never, I mean, there's people that could cancel and it's like really bad. Like we've never gone through that. Ours, I would say are pretty miles compared to what it can be. We didn't have like brands dropping anything with us. We didn't have like it wasn't anything. It wasn't like there was some massive scandal. Yeah. But I think like going through that though, you realize, wow. First of all, I don't wish this on anybody. Even someone who has actually done like when people do like bad things and they're canceled, I still feel bad for them. Yeah. Because I'm like, no amount.

I always say the crime never fits a punishment online. Yeah, it doesn't. It really doesn't. And, yeah, I think it's just strong restrictions. Like, both of us are apps, like our social media apps are like, what are they, 15 minutes a day. And we just break it just to post and then pretty much disappear. Yeah. And you got to recognize, too, that it's okay for people to be wrong about you.

It's okay for some people to not like you. Yeah. And just know that what matters is what your family thinks about you, your friends, your spouse, people in your circle. people in your circle. And the good so much outweighs the bad. It really does. And I think that's like really encouraging, like when you see the positive comments because it's weird.

You can read 100 positive comments and you read one mean comment and it just wrecks you. That's the one that's stuck in your brain. Right. I know. Weird, right? Like, isn't it crazy how just one out of, it could be thousands, but you read one. That's mean and you're like that ruin my day. And even in person, everyone we've met in person that's like watched our videos or like listens

to our podcast or things like that. they've been so nice and they have like only good things to say and I'm like, why is that I remember the two people that didn't like it or something? I don't know. They have me figured out. That's just I guess how humans work. They're like it's funny with friendships. You could have a really good friendship for a long time and then one bad thing happens and it could end a friendship. Like it's crazy how the bad outweighs the good in some situations and you have to recognize. You have to bring your mind back to the reality of, okay, there's so much good here. So true. So true. healthy boundaries. Yeah. Like, I like that, the timer thing. I want to do that

for us. Yeah, no, you do. We're not like, we're not like, I mean, we're trying to get more

into TikTok of posting. Yeah, I need to post again. Yeah. I had like a hard launch and just ghosted. Yeah.

He really did. How often do you guys post on TikTok? I've only posted once. Twice. Or twice. Well, he just made one. Yeah.

I probably, like once a week twice a week. What the heck was the last thing you posted? Well, I'll post the podcast stuff. But I have a bunch of... What? You have.

I have. Oh, that's good. Maybe you need to look at my profile? I haven't gone. I haven't gone on TikTok in like two weeks. Oh, wow. Yeah. What do you do on your phone all day?

Instagram real? My golf game. Oh, my gosh. I need to put a restriction on that way. That's the app you need to put a restriction on. The golf game. It's like, he has to like, fling the golf game. golf. Oh my gosh. I'll be showing him something on my phone. He's like one

sec. Because it's on a timer because he's playing. You only have like 15 seconds to take a shot. So it literally happened last night. I was trying to show him something. I'm like zip, zip. I'll come back to you. Just let me get the shot off. Okay. That's my here. That's a lot of dear. Always always. All I'm saying though, app restrictions are the move. Really? Because we put I, okay, I put 20 minutes on TikTok and Instagram combined. So it won't let me open up the apps. I spend 20 minutes total on TikTok and Instagram, then it's done. Now, I do know my passcode. So I'll go back in and like if I need to make a post my story or post a TikTok, I can do that. But if it's just a scroll. It's crazy though. Like I'm like TikTok and Instagram and YouTube all that. Like that's our job. And I'll talk to my friends and like what how many hours do you guys spend on TikTok a day and they'll look in like, oh, I spend about like three, four hours. And then I'll be like, oh, wow, I'm only spending like 30, 40 minutes a day. If that, you know. So that's been super helpful. for my mental health because I think as a creator, if you just scroll and scroll and scroll, sometimes it feels like you're working because you're trying to come up with new ideas, but you're

really just consuming and it's not good for you. It's draining you, but you're like, for what? Yeah. Mine's on one minute just so I like, I obviously break it. But I have to be intentional when it's like, I don't just like impulsively click on the app and then because my fingers were just doing that. I would open my phone and it would just like go to it. So now it's like, okay, I actually have to stop, think for a minute. Do I need to, is there a purpose for me? me being on this right now. And then, and also how long do I want to spend on it? Because then I can set, okay, I'm only going to be here for one minute or 15 minutes or an hour max, you know? Yeah. It's good. That's really good. It's better that way. Yeah, I agree. Matt, you have opened up,

I wanted to touch on this. You've opened up about anxiety. And, you know, how much Abby helps you with that. When has that always been something that has been a part of your life? Or did it start, like, somewhat recently? What was that journey? How's that been for you? Yeah, I think, yeah, growing up, like, performing and wanting to be the best, whatever I did, I put a lot of pressure on myself. And I think that's probably where I first noticed it. And I would get nervous, like, even in high school, like, before I'd go on stage, I'd, like, almost be shaking because I'd be so nervous.

I just wanted to perform so bad. And I just had all this, these. nerves build up. But where the social anxiety really came in was also high school. I just noticed myself like really, like really, really caring what people thought about me. And I didn't even know why. And even though I wasn't afraid to like, I don't know, I was passionate about sitting with kids at lunch who maybe didn't have someone to sit with or being a friend of those who didn't have a friend. And I knew that people probably thought like, why is he not sitting with the cool kids or whatever. I don't know. Like I, I still, even though I did those things, I still was very aware of

like, man, I hope people don't think I'm a weirdo or I hope people don't judge me. And when I met Abby, she kind of put me at ease. I don't know. It just something happened. Something about falling in love really helped me like get out of that anxious stage of my life. And it was amazing. I think like Abby didn't really realize it at this time, but just by having someone I could talk. We used to talk on the phone like an hour minimum. We had FaceTime like an hour every single day throughout our senior year while we dated long distance. And I think just having that friendship, that bond like really helped me calm down. And that was incredible.

Yeah, I can relate to a lot of that for sure. And I can also relate to like finding your person like help so much with that. Like sometimes it's the littlest things, but like just like her presence will just bring that from a eight to a three. Yeah. Yeah. And I can like sense sometimes if we're out somewhere and he's like feeling a little anxious and I'll just like go like this.

Yeah. And he'll calm down. And it's just, it's nice to know, like it's not, the touch on my knee isn't like alleviating all of it. But it's nice to just know that like your person or somebody else that you care about like knows. Like they know like she can definitely sense. when it heightens for me.

And just knowing that she's aware settles me. That's really sweet. Abby actually does that for me too. Like, I get weird. I don't know. Sometimes if people recognize us in public, I'll get nervous.

And Abby's like, hey, it's okay. Like, hey, it's all right. I don't know if you guys experience, if Tay does the same thing for you. But she's definitely, she's very aware of me and knows when I'm anxious. I think it's really cool that you open about that stuff too

as like both of you being like, you're very like, I don't know. Yeah. No one would guess it outside. Like no other people would guess it. And so like even our own family, like when Matt was like kind of talking a little bit about this, so it's like, Matt? No.

Yeah. He doesn't. He doesn't. He's outgoing. He's like. Yeah. Obviously like always in a social setting. Like how could someone that's so comfortable being seemingly so comfortable in a social setting possibly have social anxiety?

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's so cool. Learning more. about your story and you guys. I've been, I've been listening to your podcast and stuff and just like,

I feel like I really know you guys. And it's been inspiring to know that you, as someone who's been a big name, been in all these big movies and done so many cool things, is very open about, yeah, your anxiety.

And that, to me is inspiring. Because I'm like, oh, wow, someone who's, like, done so much is, I can relate to them. I can relate to like feeling this need to put on this show or just like to try to be like this

macho guy when really I'm like, I get freaking nervous and I get social anxiety. And sometimes I don't know what the freak I'm doing. And I just get, I find a lot of comfort and knowing that I'm not alone. Yeah. It goes back to what you were saying earlier that at the end of the day, we're all humans. Yeah. And it's like it doesn't matter if somebody is whatever. Like we all experience. the same emotions and go through the same, you know, similar things. Yeah, for sure. No matter what. Yeah, and that's the whole goal.

Like with our podcast, with lemons, with everything, is like, even though like, like, we have this platform and, like, we want to use it to, like, make people feel like they're not alone. So, like, us being able to impact one person's life is really cool because at the end the day, what you said, we are all human. And we are literally, like, going through the same thing, whether it's one troll or a thousand controls or whatever it is, anxiety, depression, like we all deal with it, obviously, in different ways, but at the end of the day, it's all the same. Yeah, I would say our number one goal when we started this was just to let people know that they're not alone, like, no matter what.

Like, because that's, I mean, that's, that's what like hits me the hardest is when people think that, you know, they are alone and there's nowhere they can turn. There's nobody they can talk to or get help. Like, that's the last thing I want. Yeah. That's really cool. Good job. I was staring at you and your facial hair is really long. I know it's, it is growing out. I'm seeing how long I can last and I might be getting towards the end here. I'm jealous. I can't, I can't do that really. Mine's just like so scruffy. Yeah. Maybe one day I'll get to your level, but I got nothing. I got nothing. I love that. Okay, we kind of talked about the podcast already. And I can't remember if we set it down there up here. So I'm just going to ask

again. Where did the idea come from? Why did you even start one? Yeah. Okay. Originally, a long time ago when we were doing YouTube, uh, in the earlier days, which I guess wasn't that long ago. It was like three years ago. Okay. Um, we had two types of videos. We did blogs and like sit down videos where we would maybe answer juicy questions or play some sort of couples game or, uh, there was a trend for a while. Yeah, sit and talk. And I think from that, I was like, this would be cool if we could one day have a podcast. Like maybe, maybe we have two channels. And I put out the idea to our audience at the time, like, three years ago, what if we have a blog channel and, like, more of like a sit-down channel? And people are like, no, we don't

really like that. But over the past year, our videos really moved towards more the blog style. And I was thinking, man, we still have an audience for these sit-down videos, but our channel's kind of like moved away from that. Yeah. So what if, rather than, you know, keeping up the sit-down videos and the blog videos, what if we just made a podcast and just got to talk? And that'd be nice to for me because I'm someone who I'm very, I like things to be done a certain way. I'm very particular about the editing. I want our videos to be good. I want to be proud of them. When people spend, you know, 10 or 15 minutes watching Matt and Abbey video, I want them to walk away like, wow, that was a great video. I feel changed. I'm happier now that I watch that video. So I put a lot

of work into them. But I thought, man, if we could do a podcast, I don't have to spend 20 hours editing or working with our editor. Because even when we have someone to edit, I still spend like 20 hours like making church. I just really care about the stuff we put out. So the podcast was a way for us to still keep that talking format, but maybe be more real and not have so many edits and just people could feel like they're just hanging out with us. Yeah. I think also making, we make a lot of short form content and it's really easy to get misunderstood if it's a snippet. Yeah. And so it's cool that if someone listens to, you know, a whole podcast episode, like, they can really see a better glimpse of who we actually are.

Now, on the flip side of it, if you take snippets of the podcast to promote the podcast, then that's where they kind of get out of control, but we just don't look at those. You got to be careful. It's funny, like, part of the reason, like Abby was saying, we want people to see a longer video, they can

feel, yeah, they're not just seeing some short snippet. They can see who you are as people. Like, we all say things in the moment. Like, it's like, you can't, You can't cherry pick. Yeah. Exactly.

But to promote the podcast, we do make shorts and TikToks of it. And then sometimes the comments can get a little out of hand if people kind of take it out of context or something. I think another layer also just starting the podcast, this has kind of become a long-winded answer. Oh, no. But it's really cool because now that we have started a family, we feel ourselves like tightening the reins on privacy when it comes to like us as family. Yeah. And it's really nice that the podcast. It is just us or like us and guests.

And so it's, it helps us like, I don't know, keep a lot of the personal elements out of it while like we're still talking about our personal lives. Yeah. It's just a little bit more removed and it's like, oh, this is when we're filming this and it doesn't feel like filming is seeping into every corner of our life. Yeah. Like it has before. Yeah, I was going to ask like how, like now having a child, like how does that boundary with like what you share of parenting or like about them or how does that kind of. of like bleed, what's like the boundary there? Yeah, it's ever evolving, honestly.

Like, even since he's been born, he's not even a year yet. And like, it has changed so much even within that year. And I think that we're always going to have to use our discretion, especially like, as the internet is constantly changing, our son is changing. Like, there are so many things. And he will always be our priority. And so that, like, this is all so secondary to that. So.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Foundry's changing a lot and fluctuating. And as far as, like, talking about parenting goes, I'm comfortable talking about my parenting decisions because, I don't know, that's the one thing. It's like, I tell Matt, I'm like, people can tell me I'm bad mom or they can be like, it's just like telling me I'm a walrus.

A walrus. I'm not a walrus. So it's like, it doesn't affect me. I'm like, no, you're wrong. Right. And you just don't care. You're like, I know I'm a good mom to my son. Yeah.

I feel really thankful for that sense of confidence in that area because otherwise I feel like I would have been chewed up and spit out and like never want to talk about anything. But I'm like I'm okay talking about it because. Yeah. Well, it's so hard because everyone has like their own opinion on how to parent, how to. Yeah. Some people don't say no to their kids. Some do. Some do. Some swing.

Some don't. Like they're so like that was like two examples of thousands. But like everyone's different. And that's because every parent is different. Every child's different. Yeah. And some people don't like to accept that. And we had to learn.

to set some firm boundaries to with being parents. Because like before, I mean, we, you know, we've always been very vulnerable online. We've really shared a lot of what we go through. But now that we have our son, it's like, we need to keep things. There's things that need to be kept private. Like, we don't talk about his medical stuff on the internet. And that also means certain things about us need to be kept private too. Because it's like, if we have a kid now, like, we got to consider him.

Totally. And I think something that we've really come to the conclusion of more now so than ever is like, I don't know, growing up, Abby and I found our love for theater and performing in the arts as young kids. And we discovered that it wasn't pushed upon us. Our parents didn't force us into the arts. I remember being a little, like, four or five-year-old, like, begging my mom to let me audition for a show. And just like, almost in tears because I just wanted it so bad. I just thought it was so cool and I wanted to be a part of it. And I want our kids to experience that too.

So we've kind of just like shifted now more so to where we're really like, we want our audience to be there for us, not our kids. And one day, you know, if our kids want to maybe pursue film or pursue something in the arts, like, that's cool. But we're not going to force anything on them. We want them to have that choice for themselves. That's awesome. That's a great outlook on that. Fun fact for everyone listening. We talked about this right before we started filming.

But we launched our podcasts on the same exact day. And we put out episodes on the same exact day. We both launched the same. the squeeze and unplanned on February 1st and we both release episodes every Wednesday. So crazy. So now your guys'

Wednesdays are filled. Everyone gets a double feature. Yes, double feature every Wednesday. And then get you some food because it's your stomach rally? Yes, it is. Oh, wow. Oh, no. Have you heard it multiple times? I've literally heard it through my

headphones. I think I maybe felt it. The vibrations. The rumble in the couch. I put my mic away because Remedy's been kissing the crap of Sweet I know you're asking for your lunch I know can you say thank you

Thank you for coming Matt Thanks for squeezing us in Thank you for having us in Thank you It's been really fun It's really such an honor thank you Yeah And we'll have their podcast linked below

And Unplanned podcast Onmoney February 1st Every Wednesday Every Wednesday Oh bye Thank you guys

Thank you so much for squeezing us into your day. Please be sure to rate, review, and follow our pod and check out full episodes on YouTube. You can follow me at Taylor Lautner, my lovely wife, at Tay Lautner. Check out the squeeze on Instagram at the squeeze. And also give a little glance and a follow to Lemons by Tay. That's at Lemonsbytee on Instagram and Lemonsbytea.com. And also be sure to email us, Lopner.com.

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