Trading Secrets - 195. Abigail Heringer & Noah Erb tell all! From careers before becoming one of Bachelor Nation’s favorite couples and reality TV to DIY and wedding planning, all the $$$ behind it!

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

This week, Jason is joined by one of Bachelor Nation’s favorite couples, Abigail Heringer and Noah Erb! Abigail made her reality TV debut on Matt James’ season of the Bachelor, while also being the first contestant with a cochlear implant ever on the show. Noah made his debut on Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams season of the Bachelorette. The two ended up meeting each other on the beaches of Mexico in season seven of Bachelor in Paradise and the rest is history. Noah and Abigail dive into their careers prior to joining Bachelor Nation, how they handled finances while filming the show, how COVID impacted their experiences, how paradise is more like dating in the real world, why they think the format of Paradise needs to change it up,  working on renovation projects, and wedding planning.  Noah breaks down his work as a travel nurse, why he wanted to get out of staff nursing, the differences between the two types of nursing, who nominated him for the show, how he felt about Aaron on the show, and saving money by doing home renovation projects on his own. Abigail reveals her financial journey while working in a budgeting and financial analyst role, budgeting event planning for two weeks, how she applied for The Bachelor, how being furloughed during COVID allowed her to go on the show, how influencing differentiates from the corporate world, the hardships of being in the spotlight, and her new book “The Deaf Girl: A Memoir of Hearing Loss, Hope, and Fighting Against the Odds.” Noah and Abigail reveal all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!  Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guest: Noah Erb + Abigail Heringer Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals!

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by one of Bachelor Nation's favorite couples, Abigail, Herringer, and Noah Earb. Abigail made her reality TV debut on Matt James season of The Bachelor, while also being the first contestant with a cochlear implant ever on the show. Noah made his debut on Claire Crawley and Tasia Adams season of The Bachelorette. The two ended up meeting each other on the beaches of Mexico in season seven of Bachelor in Paradise, and the rest is history. Since their time on reality TV, they have been busy traveling and expanding on their career endeavors.

Abigail, a former finance professional, we love to see it, has her first book titled The Deaf Girl, a memoir of hearing loss, hope in fighting against the odds. Coming out next month, go pre-order now. We'll have that link on our profile. And Noah, a traveling registered nurse, continues his career in the medical field while also putting his handyman duties to work as the two of them document their home renovation projects from their new home in Tulsa on social media. We're going to cover their experiences, of course, in Bachelor Nation.

Abigail's inspiration story of growing up deaf and how it inspired her for her new book and Noah's career in the medical field and everything in between Abigail and Noah, thank you so much for being on this episode, Trane Secrets. Thanks for having this fun. It is great to have a couple

that is ready to rip. I've had a great experience. I know you guys are getting married in October. I see this setup. This is probably a little four and being this far away, huh? I know. You guys, are you okay?

Is it too far or not? I'll throw a pinky. I'll throw a pinky every now and then it needed. throw a pinky every now and then, and that engagement ring will just be blinging in the cameras when it is. That looks good. We'll get into all that. Let's start with this. We're going all the way before your bachelor nation days. I already mentioned it. Financed, registered nurse, then a traveling nurse. We'll start with you, Noah. Registered nurse, traveling nurse, a little bit about the industry. I saw the average salary of an RN in 2023 is $100,000. That's a traveling

RN. And the average salary of a regular RN in 2023 is $82,750. The average length of an assignment for a travel RN is about four to 13 weeks. So how do those lengths of an assignment and those dollars compare to your experiences of traveling RN? I think the thing with travel nursing, once I got into it, you kind of realize it's all a need basis. So you can make more if you go to the spots that people don't love to go. Give me an example. Modesto, California. And you went there?

It's money. Okay. So that's the arm pit of California. Everyone hates going to work there. It's not, I'm sorry from Disnot. People from Modesto. Yeah. But that's a,

Modesto is not a place that everyone wants to go live for three months because most contracts are one month to three months. So you'll get paid more based on the city you go to that has less demand to go there. They have less nurses. as well. So it's kind of a, it's a, it goes both ways. So were you intentionally though finding the cities where demand was low and pay was high? Everyone did a different. Everyone does a different. For me at first, you know, you think about everyone during COVID was like travel nurses or millionaires. They travel everywhere. There's this whole like, you know, glimmer to it.

Yeah. There's parts of it that are true. And then there's obviously parts that that's total BS. Okay. But for me, initially it was I wanted to get out of staff. nursing. Why? It's just, well, Abby makes fun to me. She says I'm not a corporate guy. I'm not a corporate guy. But there's a lot of politics to it. I don't like having the concept of saving my vacation hours to go to Colorado with my friends for four days when as a travel nurse I can work hard and then take a whole month off. So your strategy was I'll make as much as I can and then I'll just take time off. So my strategy is, yeah, I will find the highest paying, get comfortable. Okay. My skills, you know, my backgrounds are trauma.

Yeah, neurotrauma ICU, and I did a lot of different ICU, so I felt comfortable. Okay. And then it was, I went to the fun places. You know, I went to Napa. I went to a different place in California. Then it was, let's go where the highest paying is. Okay. In the bay, during every fall, every winter, whatever, the rights are going to be higher because

less people want to be there. Exactly. So if you're fine with that, I started just doing, I'm going to work before I met Abby. I'll work as many hours as I can in a month. Why am I doing three-month contracts, 14-week contracts, when I can do a four-week contract, work mad hours, time and a half in California

after a certain amount of hours, and you're just doubling down, then I take three months off. Okay, for my staff nurses out there or anybody that's pursuing the nursing industry, we talk numbers here, got to ask. When you're a staff nurse, talk to me how much you got paid,

and then think about like the best month you had because your strategy was like, I'll do what I could do in a month, what I could have done in like three months and I'll go enjoy life. Give me a comparison. The staff nurse to like when you were traveling at one of the places that was low demand, high paying. It's not even close, honestly, when it comes to staff nursing, but part of the reason why people stay staff nursing is because it's comfortable. You have your people you work with. That's what you know. And that's, I mean, a lot of people talk trash on travel nurses, but it's also they could do the same thing. And I'm telling you it's better. You know, I'm not going to,

convince people, but it's better. So the pay for staff nurse, I'd have to think back to eight, you know, seven years ago in Oklahoma. I was starting out at like 25 an hour. Okay. It's terrible. But then you'd pick up, you know, you'd stack your shifts. You'd work with the hospital to try to make more but work more hours. But travel nursing, you're doing that anyways and then work don't when you don't want to. So I, for travel nursing, you could make somewhere in the threes a week. Like three grand? Yeah. Oh, wow. A few grand a week. So you, is a travel nurse, you'd be making like 15, 20 grand a month if you're in the right spot? If you do it, if you do it, right?

But if you're also willing to give up, you know, some of the luxuries, you know, you're not in Hawaii, but in Hawaii you're making two grand a week. Wow. So it's kind of a tradeoff versus staff, you know, it's still work dependent. It's still an hourly-based thing, but you're limited, you know, I would make. If I worked extra hard, I could make maybe, you know, $2,200 for that week. you know, I'd make a few, I'd make, you know, four or six grand. Right.

But if you're looking at it. I'm thinking of old term, you know. Of course, yeah, this is way before inflation stuff, but you're still talking about 25 bucks an hour. And let's say you do 200 hours in a month, which is absurd. But let's just say you do 200 hours a month. You're talking five grand versus like 15, 20 grand based. And essentially, the job duties are still the same, right?

Like you show up and you're a nurse. It's just you're doing it in a place that has a higher demand for that skill set. It's a little different because there. There's some hospitals, some nurses, kind of resent travel nurses. So you're expected to know your stuff as a travel nurse. Got it. So that's why I don't recommend everyone going to travel nursing right away. Because you're expected to kind of know your stuff.

Interesting. I, you can essentially, yes, double what you're making. Okay. So this staff, the most part of the country. Okay. So this stat then at the average salary of a travel RN in 2023, that's not even considering their potential time off. This 100K a year is pretty accurate.

Well, you know the average. I mean, look at it. You know the averages are kind of wonky. Yeah, that's true. As far as if you're going to... That's why we have the show. Put it in terms of that. Yeah, you can make at least double what you would make as a staff.

Okay. And probably work close to half the amount of time. Amazing. All right. That sounds like a pipe dream, which it's not. But yeah, there's a lot more. If you can get confident and there's a lot of huge community of travel nurses, yeah.

If you can kind of start getting confident yourself and the other travel nurses, they're all over every hospital. It's kind of a community. You can make a lot more doing the same work and then having time off. That's cool. The pros and cons of nursing that is an area we've never touched in this show.

It's freedom is what it comes down to. Right. Because you're not, you can treat it almost like contract work where you get to work really hard and focus on people without getting as much of a burnout if you're able to take the breaks.

Okay. That's kind of the way I saw it. I saw it as being a better nurse, making more money, but also having a lot more freedom than when I was working my staff position for two years. Okay. Interesting. That's fascinating. Now, Abigail, let's jump to you before you go on the show. Graduated from Linfield University with a degree in finance. We'd love to hear

that here. Worked as an investment financial analyst from 2017 to 2021. And then you were working in the budgeting department for an event planning company, correct? Okay. So you were setting the budgets then for these events. Okay. Well, we know that you two have a big event coming up. So we'll get into how you set budgets for that wedding down the road. I got to tease people a little bit. Before we do, talk to me about your financial journey in the investment budgeting and financial analyst role before going on reality TV. Yeah. So I went to Linfield University and I actually started off as a marketing major. But then I think I just kind of realized I really enjoy kind of solitary work. I don't know if that's just part with my hearing loss or so forth, but really just enjoyed numbers. I'm not a

science nurse person. So we're complete opposites when it comes to that. And then my first job out of college, yeah, was the investment analyst job. I think I was just more relieved. I had a job leaving college because, you know, you just have your four-year plan. You have the job. But I didn't love it. I didn't really love the investment side, kind of the whole stock market, corporate investments never really clit in my head. I never really understood it fully. So then I moved over to the budget side at my event planning job, but I actually was only there for about two weeks before COVID hit. So I really enjoyed the work I did for the two weeks, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert in terms of budgeting, whatnot, because we were out of a bench really quickly. But it was really

fun when I was there. And then, yeah, in terms of our wedding, carry some of that step over. But I would definitely say I'm the more budgeting person out of us too. You're the final, you're the numbers person in the relationship. 100%. I think I taught Nala how to use this brush sheet when we were dating, so. Can you confirm that?

I cheated in that class. You were looking at Abigail's paper. I did. All right. She is, you can tell she came from a finance corporate job because I'm,

everything's up here, you know, up in my head. I understand the business and the finance, but I don't have it organized. Yeah. But she has,

she has like how she's going to organize things into an organization folder. Got it. She's like everything. everything spelled out. Everything needs to be inviting. Yeah. Amazing. All right. Well, we'll get into the show. Before we do, though, give me an idea, like, in this world about what income looked like. And if you didn't take this wild detour in reality TV, you know, what was the career plan? What was that like? Yeah. So kind of full transparency, my first job out of college, the investment analyst job, it was about

$40,000 a year. When I was a banker, it was $45,000 right out of school. And at the time, I thought it was amazing. It covered my living expenses and my everyday expenses, but I really wasn't thinking kind of long-term planning. So that's why that number didn't really freak me out at the time. But it definitely did not leave me with a lot of extra money. So I was at that job for about two, three years. And then my budgeting job, I think, went up to about $60,000. So I was about a $60,000 range before the show. It's definitely interesting to kind of see where life took me, because I really don't know if I was still at that job where my pay would be at four years later, what my life would look like.

So I think it definitely was one of the best choices I made to go on the show just in terms of love, obviously, and then kind of the financial aspect, too. Okay. So tell me about when you, so you're in budgeting for events, the world turns over. There are no more events. And then all of a sudden, the Bachelor franchise finds you. One, how do they find you? And then two, what did you do?

when it came to work and balancing the idea of going on reality TV for a season of The Bachelor? I actually found them. Okay. Yes, just because so I started that job in February of 2020 and then COVID really kind of took over the world that March. And then budgeting usually is kind of the last kind of the tail end of events. So they were able to keep me on for a few months just because we have to wrap up the budgets to all the events. So we were kind of tying out the budget from all the 2019 events. So I kept my job until about June.

And then I got told by my manager that, you know, it's not looking like this is going to get any better. We're not doing any events for the next year. We're going to have to furlough you. And I had never heard of that word before. I didn't really know what it meant. So basically, furlough means you're still with the company. You're just not getting paid. But you also can't collect unemployment.

So it's actually- bullshit to me. I mean, excuse the language, but it was a really shitty position just because I was just kind of sitting there. I couldn't really make any money. And then I saw an ad for The Bachelor. And Matt James had already been announced. So I was kind of in a unique kind of position

that I knew who the Bachelor was before I had applied. So it was like I had all my job applications in one tab. And then I applied for the Bachelor. So I actually found them. applied. And then I left in September. And with my job, they were very understanding because I think they felt bad that I was furlough. So they were like, yes, please go do this. We don't know what your path is going to look like. So I was actually able to go do that. And then when I came back from filming, they started doing events. The world kind of started opening up a little bit more.

So I actually went back to my job. To go back to that same job, no longer furloughed, making the same salary. Yeah. And having this wild momentum behind you. Yeah, it was a little awkward at the office, well, like all the virtual zooms and whatnot, because I feel like everyone knew I went on the show, but I couldn't really talk about it. So, yeah, definitely interesting work dynamic. And that was even before Paradise. We'll get into your journey on The Bachelor in Paradise in a second. Talk to me about this.

It's often a conversation with people from the Bachelor franchise. You hear all different kind of numbers and preparation. I've heard some people spend $10,000, $30,000 on dresses. I've heard people say they lost money because they were, you know, spending all the money on rent while they were filming. Do you have any financial journey while going on the show? Like either how much you spent getting ready for the show or while you were filming, you know, you had to spend on your rent still and we're losing money. What did that look like? So stressful. To be honest, I think going from my $40,000 job and then not being paid for two, three months, but you're still having to pay for your apartment,

your groceries, everything. And not to sound like that girl, but I had nothing on the wardrobe list that the show wanted me to have. I mean, I'm from Portland, Oregon. And if you're from there, you know, you don't really own any dresses. You go out to the bars and like a crop top and jeans. And so there was a stress of having to buy the however many dresses they tell you to come with. And then on top of that, nothing was open.

So I had to do, well, I found out two weeks. I don't know how long you knew before you were going on the show. But I found out two weeks right before I was supposed to fly out. So I had to do all my online shopping. Everything's backed up with COVID. So I did not have the best style on the show. But thankfully, a lot of the girls in the house let me borrow clothes. We traded.

So that's kind of how I budget it with that. Okay. That is good to know. I look like a joker. I mean, my outfits all. I like to think I helped your style a little bit of this as we've been dating. I had a tip. It was a 400, I can't know what he said.

I think he said a $400 suit tailored. It's the same as a $2,000 suit on tailored. I like that. And so I thought, you know what? I'm going to go to J.C. Penny and buy a bunch of suits and then go, we've got a legit tailor that, you know, I'm going to drop it off at him and get it. So that was about mine. But the rest, all baggy. I probably didn't look that good. And I picked up an extra nursing contract for it, I think. There you go. We love it. You looked great. Do you have, so Joey came on

the show. He talked a little bit about the fact he didn't have one of his credit cards on auto payment. And as a result of that, he went into further and further issues with a small amount of debt and impacted his credit. When you were on the show, did you have everything teed up? Were you still paying rent? Did you have any type of financial struggles when you got off the show? You're like, oh, shit, I forgot about that. See, that's where you and I are very different. I got all my boxes checked before I left. I was like, I were to go through every single auto pay, everything. I think the only thing I didn't do was I didn't realize it was going to fall on boating because there was a election year. And that was just something

that I didn't check my box on, but in terms of everything else, yes. Yeah, I wasn't that smart. I think on the Bachelorette, I had open call options that were expiring in the middle of the show. I had my twin with the login to try to log in so he could cash in or sell out if it's going south. And he got locked out. So I lost those expired. You almost have faulted on a payment. And my, I had just bought a duplex. My first duplex. I was super excited about it. I renovated, you know, moved into one side, renovated it, rented the other, did the process again. Didn't have that set up on auto payment. I had to basically convince them not to send me to just ruin my credit,

pay all these fees. So I didn't have things set up. All right, we're going to have to put, you and I're going to have to put a finance checklist for anyone that goes on the show. Finance major comes and I'm glad you didn't default. That would have been, that one about a story. No. You did mention your twin brother. At some point, I'm going to have to ask. He was on the show. A lot of people from the Money Mafia are curious about how and if you consulted him. But before we get to that, were you a travel nurse and then you went on Tasha and Claire's season? Were you in your time off? Did you have to leave the job mid midway for filming? What did it look like? So I was actually, it was kind of the whole process for me because I was nominated by my little

sister and her friends. Okay. Like the whole process, the whole time, the timing, everything to me was crazy and it just so happened to work out perfectly. Yeah. So I was, my contract had just ended for, it was clear season. I was doing YouTube videos on her driving home to figure out who this girl was. Contracts just ended. Did you not know who it was going to be or you're like learning? They let me know.

And I'm like, okay, 40 year old lady, I'm 25. I'm going to do my research. Let's see what we can find out that works, you know, with both of us. It didn't work out that way. Only the bachelor. So I actually had just finished a con. So when we're in the hotel, COVID was declared national emergency. Show got canceled.

I went back to nursing. When they called me back, I had the week. So hang on, let's just, I forgot about that. So you're in the hotel, getting ready to go film. And then next day. Before they started filming, that's when COVID hit. So COVID was out because I knew about it. I was in the hospital, but nobody, it was nothing.

Okay, it just wasn't what it was. Nobody knew what it was. And then they set everyone home, right? So then the day before going to the mansion, they were like, yeah, the COVID thing was legit. National emergency was declared you guys, we're not doing the show. We'll reach back out. You go right back to work. No issues getting back to work or anything?

I don't think they were not going to turn away any nurses during COVID. Good point. They gladly opened me. Good point. God bless the work you guys did at that time. And then I went right back into it and then they had reached out. How much longer? It was a while.

It was at least a full contract. Was there any hesitation of maybe not doing the show because you already went through that or were you like, no, I'm doing it? I kind of thought to myself, listen, I should have never been on the show in the first place. I should be, like, it's a liability for everybody. I should be in the hospital and I should be traveling like I've been doing. Wait, why do you think it's a liability?

I'm just like, you know, I'm already doing okay. Because he has no filter. I'm like, you know what? Is that true? Do you have no filter? No. That's why you weren't good in the corporate environment. No, no, no, no.

I was like, you know what? It didn't work out like I thought this little slimmer was. I'm going to go back to what I know, which is, you know, nursing. So then they reached out like a month before and basically said, we think you're kind of funny. We might have you back on. You have no filter. You're perfect. And, yeah, they're like, we want you to fight Bennett.

No. No, they said, you know, would you be willing? And I was like, I'm not going to leave my COVID contract. to go. And if I pass my COVID tests, I'm all in. But I didn't know because I'm in the COVID ICU. Yeah, okay. So I went and did all the tests right after.

Yep. And it was pretty much like, I don't remember not a lot of times, straight from COVID ICU directly to the show. I was negative for all the tests. And then we went into it. Okay, you mentioned your sister. You've mentioned the no filter. Your brother, does he too have no filter, would you say?

Abigail. He's like, I'm not going to get to show him. What would you say? Who has more of a filter? I think my twins switched. I was going to say that too. I was always the loud. I mean, you're like, dude, you're loud now.

I used to be, you know, the more loud outgoing. Outspoken. Outspoken. He was the quiet, you know, like he was the guy that would help me cheat on math. Yeah. You know? Like he's the brain. But I'm the books.

Or he's the book smarts on the streets parts. I'm kind of the rule follower out of you too. Interesting. Boom, flip. Flan domesticated, you know, probably, yeah, not as sharp edges. And he's like, you know, he's doing his thing. Okay.

We're going to go back to your experience. The last thing, though, before is I wasn't going to bring it up now, but you already said it. You teamed me up. As an interview, I can't pass on it. You mentioned Bennett. All the Bachelor Nation fans who watch the show, too, are thinking, okay, what happened with you and Bennett in the book?

It's the same thing that happened with Aaron and Devin, like, did he not see that coming? Like, I mean, what, you're, you've talked to him? I wish, I wish, I wish it wouldn't have gone down the way it went down. Okay. That's all. That's all you got. I love that Aaron got to do his thing.

Yeah. And that was always the goal, let Aaron do his thing. He's his own different person. The show is a mad animal. Kind of good luck. Here's my advice. Okay. You know, we know Aaron listened to none of our advice.

I'm not going to say what it was or what it wasn't. I mean, we didn't really give him that much advice, but yeah. But for the Bennett thing. I was like, come on. At least do it better. At least do it better. I'm fine with it being better, but at least do it better. Yeah.

But it's still, it was his thing. So it's fair to say then that we didn't get the depiction of Aaron that you two see all the time that you grew up with and that we, there's much more to the Aaron story that we haven't seen. I think so. I think, yeah, I was super, and I think Aaron, I'm not dogging Aaron on the show. I thought it was entertaining and funny. I cringed a little bit, but we talk trash to each other, and it is what it is.

I think Aaron, there's a lot of facets to Aaron. The dude is incredible, but I'm also, I've been on the show, you know, and I was a villain for two. I didn't check Twitter for a whole week or two weeks, so I'm like, you know what? All right, it is what it is. This is how it's shown. But, I mean, he doesn't have any regrets about it. He's about to go fly F-16s. I thought it was funny.

I definitely think he did it worse than me. So I'm like, you know what? Just I'll tap him on the shoulders, say move on. You did your thing and go do your thing. But I don't think it was a bad experience for him. I'm happy for him. I think he, it was a cheap copy of me from however it went down. He should at least, you know, read off a page, done a salute, said, I'm going to go serve my country.

And then got out of there because that's what he was going to do. But all the rest of the stuff. Well, he didn't know that I was going to come up. But yeah. Yeah. Aaron's a great dude. I think we're showing little pieces. obviously, but there's definitely more to him.

Your business mind also had fun with it. There was a book on the table, and then you go to social media, and you put Abigail's book out there, The Deaf Girl, Memoir of Hearing, Loss, Hope, and Fighting Against the Odds. I thought that was the fun little spin on it to make light of a situation that obviously wasn't made light of by, like, Bachelor fans. So we'll get into that book, and that also makes me think about Paradise because I think about Aaron.

Maybe he'll have a redemption story. in paradise, you know? Maybe that'll happen. Just like you... The timing would have to be perfect. Okay. It would have to be perfect because he's going to go fly planes.

Paradise. But I mean, we were definitely encouraging because they worked out for us. I preferred Paradise. I was just, well, I was just say, and that's my transition back to you to, how could, like, if Aaron's offered paradise, given what happened and where you guys are today,

how could you tell him not to do it? I didn't tell him not to do it. I mean, he's a wild card. I said. Be my only hesitation. Wait, who's a wild card? Aaron. It sounds like no one's a wild card.

You both are wild cards. But I would definitely probably encourage him to do it. The schedule's worked out. If the timing works out, yes. Okay. Just like I encouraged him to do the show and you did. And we had fun with it.

I made the post about the book because everyone's kind of like, has this preconceived notion that I like sat Aaron in a chair and coached him how to do it. And he did all this for me. and I'm like, none of that makes me sense. We gave advice, but we want him to do well.

Well, and I think he's definitely in a place that he's very open to everything. I think he is open to love. He's open to finding his person. And, I mean, it works for us. And I think he is somebody that can take kind of the elements of paradise and getting to know someone quickly and asking kind of the deep questions. He is a very kind of introspective person in that way. I think we saw a little glimpse.

that on the show. It's just a little unfortunate that I think he got a little distracted by other things that kind of took up that energy in him. But if he found a good person on Paradise, I think he could have a really good time on Paradise. I hate to say there was almost, he was almost the antithesis of me to where Devin's not me, obviously. Interesting. There was a lot of like, on Paradise, it's not all the guys. And you're figuring out who you want to be friends with and the girl and all this. Paradise is a lot more laid back. it's more like real life. I think he would do a lot better.

Okay. But I think if the timing works out, I did encourage him to go on because it worked out for me. You know, we broke up on the show, but we didn't, you know, lose side of...

Hey, look at us now. Now look at you. A few years later, it ended up working out exactly kind of how it should have. She, I just hate to blame her. She just wasn't good for...

No, all boys hate to blame. I watched it back. Why you blame it her? That was hard to watch. No, I'm not blaming her. You were heartbroken, though. No, of course. I'm saying,

Everyone is not meant for your real emotions and a relationship. I know. I'm like reliving everything that happened three years ago. Everyone's not meant for that to be out there. So people get to stumble through your mess-ups with you. And it's hard to fully open up. And we just weren't able to do that on the show. But after we were.

Well, you know what? Like conversely, a lot of fans see people fall in love on the show. And then they go back to the real world. and they can't connect in real world. And inversely, some people don't fall in love in the show and then do connect in the real world, right? So I think that's just like the nature of how it goes, the ebbs and flow.

So that's Bachelor in Paradise Season 7 you guys are on. I want to go back to work stuff, though, real quick. You go back to your job. You then tell them you're going to go to Paris. What do they say? Yeah, so I was at my job. So I got back from filming that season around the election. So November 2020, and then I moved out to January,

and they let me keep working remotely. So that was already a big ass. And then I kept working from January until May. And that's kind of when the discussions kind of finalized, went to them, told them, hey, I'm kind of interested in pursuing this opportunity. What do you think? And I kind of just asked them just because I was kind of going back and forth if I wanted to do it, just kind of the longevity of it, trying to figure out, okay, is it really worth it?

I might have to quit my job. Is my job going to let me do this? And so they came back and said, unfortunately, you're not going to be able to keep your job just because it's a lot of time off. Sure. And I guess I was like, okay, well, I mean, it's too good to do it. Like, this is a good out. I mean, I liked my job, but I think at that point, I had, I was able to talk to enough people that had gone through the show and kind of were giving me advice about the opportunities after the show and just the money, the freedom, so forth.

And so to kind of have that thought in my mind while being based with my corporate job. I was like, well, you know, I can keep going down this path and kind of have the big what if for the rest of my life or I can say yes to this. Who knows what's going to happen after? It could be something really great. So I put in my two weeks and my job quit and I haven't worked in my corporate job sense. You were also thinking about your future fiancé, right? That's true, the opportunity and mighty love.

That dude, that was crying in the sand. But I mean, just full transparency, I will say just the month leading up to paradise. It is just so chaotic and it's so hectic of. you know, planning out your life for that month of June, all the things that you kind of have to say no to, the opportunities that while the show is about finding love, it is so hard to focus on that element until you get there. I would say kind of the month leading up to it,

I was just so stressed. It was so chaotic. And then when I finally got to Mexico, I was like, oh, wow. I could meet my person here. Yeah, for sure. The other thing is after the Bachelorette, you know, all of us are living normal lives.

and then you're thrust into that and you're like, okay, this is kind of weird. Yeah. And then you have the opportunity to do Paradise and you're kind of like, I'm already in this at this point. Like for me, it was hard to do nursing because a lot of the nurses were fans of the shows

or patients. I was like, I can't do what I'm, like, what I want to do anyways right now. Yeah. Paradise is the obvious next option. It'll be such a good point and then we're going to get into after Paradise life professionally and financially. But it'll be really interesting to see what happens with

Paradise, seeing that they took so much time off. And now we have 2025 Paradise coming. And to your point, like a lot of the people that went back into their real worlds and their professions and are starting to accelerate, can they take that time off? Will they take that time off? Just your take, you guys had a successful relationship that began in paradise. What's your state of the union on Paradise and Paradise 2025 being a couple that is getting married in October as a result of being on Paradise together? I go back and forth on it for sure just because I think it is a really great show to meet people. I will say, I think I did know this on our season. And granted, I don't know the other people that well, but I did feel like on our season specifically,

there were just so many people that were looking for a long-term partner relationship. So I just felt like everyone was taking it really seriously. Like once they found someone that they connected with, they honed it on that and focused on that. Whereas maybe the last season, it felt a little bit more chaotic of people just kind of barely getting to know someone and kind of switching around. And I don't know if that kind of falls on the format of the show, if that kind of needs updating. I was going to say, I think we're getting, we're however many seasons in now. A lot of people, and we've got to break off, so you have a few seasons combined into one, there's going to be a lot of people that are like, okay, I'm friends with the people from

the paradise, or I know kind of, there's a lot of people with how they expect it to go. I think the format needs to be switched up a little bit. Okay. And people, like, I think it will work the best. Most dating, you know, ours worked out, but it'll work the best if your expectations are not already set. Okay. And we've had the same format and we've had, you know,

we've got the people that are already talking to each other. They're already going on dates before. And it's kind of like things need to be switched up and you just got to go in with no expectation. Because worst case near you go back to your life. There you go. You know, that's kind of the way I took it. Worst case nearer, we don't work out.

We go back to our lives. But clean slate is, I think, I mean, the best way to go about it. Good advice from two people that have been there and getting married. Now, Abigail, you had said it. we're going back to your professional world. You haven't gone back to corporate America since being a bachelor in paradise. Tell me a little bit about what businesses looked like. How is the influencing space? The ups, the downs, the money behind it compared to what you were doing before. It's definitely been a world win for sure. I'm sure so many people say this,

but it really is true. I never expected all of this to come off just going on a reality show, open to finding love. And I definitely was not equipped to kind of deal with a lot of it. So thankfully, I found a manager pretty quickly actually before I went on Paradise. So she definitely kind of helped me with a lot of the decisions around that time. And then in terms of the financial stuff, I'm telling you, when I saw my first brand deal come in, I was shot just at the level of not only just the money value compared to my corporate job, but then also just the freedom to be able to do something remotely and then kind of have my own free time. Whereas in the corporate world, it's you have to get everything approved. You only get a few days of the year. So it was a complete

180 switch of having a very structured kind of lifestyle. And then going to, you become your own boss. You have to set your own kind of retirement fund, how much you want to put into that, your own savings. So it definitely was a learning curve. And I think the most frustrating and awkward thing is you have to do that learning curve at the time when the most eyes are on you. Yeah, that's true. And just having to learn to deal quickly with the criticism around, you know, how dare you go to influencing. We thought you were normal, blah, blah, blah.

And so you kind of feel guilt in a way of, well, people liked me because I was relatable and I had this corporate job. But I feel like any person in my shoes would take the opportunities given to them as long as you do something good with it. Sure. So it definitely was a learning curve for sure. I wouldn't change anything about it, but... Did you ever think of quitting the whole influencing game because of all the noise?

A lot. Yeah. Definitely. No and I have a lot of conversations about this. And I think we were in L.A. for about a year and a half after the show. And it definitely was a really hard time on my mental health, just being in that industry in person and just seeing how quickly people can write you off. or judge you or feel like you don't have enough followers or so forth.

And so many times I told him, you know, I'm not cut off for this. I really don't want to do this. Yeah. And I would say probably a year ago, I kind of shifted my perspective on it. Okay, you know, I need to kind of get out of feeling like I need to fit into this mold of like an influencer and so forth. And let me focus on what I'm passionate about. And whoever wants to stay with me love that. If they don't, I have to be okay with that.

So I try and leaning more into my hearing loss content, our home renovation, so forth, and just being a little bit more, just having a little bit more freedom with what I'm posting that feels more like me. And that has made me feel better about influencing, if you will. But we do talk a lot about kind of long-term plans with our families and is this something we want to be doing in five years. It's definitely an ongoing conversation. One thing he said there was like some of the noise threw you off. But I felt like you made two comparisons, one, two potential trolls or people that are hating online, but also a comparison to other people that are in the spaces like creators and stuff. Did you feel that from both ends?

Like, did you ever, when you said we were out in L.A. and you're running another creators or public figures, did that? Because I don't think people hear enough about the hardships with this type of industry. Did some of those things deter you, or was it more just the noise of fans? That's a really good question. And I would say while the show is airing, definitely kind of the noise from the fans. I think just in terms of when they found out that I quit my job to go on Paradise, whenever I would do a Q&A, that was always my number one question of why didn't you go back to your job.

And I almost kind of felt like I have people kind of scolding me to going back to my job. And I just felt a lot of guilt around that. You know, am I just falling into kind of this influencer, trap hole, so forth? Like, are people realizing something that I'm not seeing with my own? in terms of kind of longevity. Yeah. And then more kind of with L.A. seeing the influencer circle, I would say with that, it was more, I felt guilty of, we got thrown into the spotlight.

And we are very fortunate that we were able to gain a following really quickly. I mean, our numbers shot up in less than a year, whereas you meet these creators that have been working for years. And they're following kind of grows more slowly and they've worked really hard for it. and part of you is kind of like, well, you know, I put myself out there on national television, like these are kind of some of the benefits. Like I should enjoy them and I've earned them in some ways. But I think when you're talking to creators at events and you say, oh, I'm Abigail from The Bachelor. Sometimes you kind of just feel a little dismissed of, oh, you were just on a reality show. You know, that's how you're here versus, you know, you make six, seven videos a day. You

have your niche and you worked really hard for it. Right. Kind of that kind of just, Just kind of the reality TV bucket. One word you said was longevity, and then, no, I want to come back to you, but longevity. So you're out in 2021, 22, and 2, 2023. We're now in 24. Has the income risen each year? Has it dipped and gone up? Like, what is it, has it looked like in this new world for you professionally?

No, that's a really good question. I would definitely say the year, like a full year, because 2021, it was still half my corporate job and then half influencing. So it's kind of a hard year. measure because obviously the first half of the year weighs me down incense. And then that was the half of the year that was probably the most relevant. But then I would probably say 2022 was my best year. But that has been something that has surprised me because I was preparing myself of you get one or two years with this, with all the money coming in, you got to save most of it,

enjoy it. But it has been really surprising that even in 2023 and even now where I feel like pretty far removed from the show and kind of the spotlight. I mean, we're in Oklahoma, which is like in the middle of nowhere for a lot of people. And it has stayed really consistent. And that has been something that's been really surprising. I love it. Noah, let's get to you. And then I want to get into the DIY. But as far as your career path after the show, you became, you went back to being a nurse and you were doing travel nursing. How long did you do it for? Are you currently doing travel nursing today? I tried. I got. I got back in the hospital.

It just was hard for me because I'm a nurse. It's what I've done, you know, the last however long. I enjoy it, like, helping people. Then I leave. Yeah. I just, I'm very separate with my nurse work and the rest of my life. Okay. And in the hospital, a lot of the bachelor spilled over.

It's where either I was talking about it all the time or people would treat me weird, you know, or the charge nurses would assign me some weird assigned me. are just all sorts of random stuff to where I'm like, I'm here to work in the hospital. I'm not here to talk about the show. Okay. You know, and I don't even want to think about the show because I'm here.

I can't, I'm in the ICU, you know? So it was kind of one of those things where I was like, I'm not really enjoying the hospital as much, nor am I leaning into what everybody else has gotten from the show. Gotcha. Because I'm still just posting whatever the heck I want, you know,

not trying to make money. Sure. So it was kind of like, well, if I'm not able to fully devote myself to nursing and actually enjoy it, like when I like to work hard, I work hard. When I play, I play hard. Right now it's this whole mix of stuff.

Yeah. I need to just be done with it. Take a break from it. Okay. You know, we did do, I picked up some shifts in San Diego and L.A. and stuff when I was with Abby. Okay. I was part of the struggle with California.

She, we were never in the same place. Okay. You know, we're moving around different friend groups that I know, different, you know, things. So it was kind of hard, but I just decided I can actually make more money off social media. It's hard for me to focus on nursing like I have in the past, like I want to. And I don't know, call it crazy.

I feel like I've done my time. That's kind of the thought. I'm like, I'm tired of getting shit on. I'm tired of the politics of the hospital. I'm tired of things out of my control. And all I want to do is help, you know, people. I'm going to lean into the next thing. So right now it's real estate.

and it was social media, and I'm building on those things. But it was like, it was very hard for me to transition. Okay. Because I've done pretty much every job you can think of. But for some reason, my brain, social media and influencing is the weirdest. Like, it's a weird one for me for some reason. Well, it's a weird one in general. It's just like I'm used to working with my hands and show, I have something to show in the time that I put in.

Here people don't see the time I've put in. You don't know how much work went into this. No idea. And it's actually a lot more than I thought. You know, but it was a hard transition to where now I'm like, okay, we took drastic measures. We moved back to Oklahoma. You know, we got her family's there, my family's there. And we were able to say, okay, if we want to maintain this and we also want to have kids and live a normal life,

we have to post stuff that we are doing anyways and we enjoy. Or else I'm going to get burned out. You're going to be burned out. And I don't want to show my kids all over. And there's ways about it. We just have to limit ourselves for a little bit. and do it in and do it how we want to do it. And the people that stay, you know,

the people, those people will stay. But at the end of the day, then we're filming stuff. We are already doing and enjoy. You're already doing. All right, before we get into what you're doing and you enjoy, we know how much you're making in travel nursing. You're making more doing influencing? Yeah.

Okay. There you go. The goal was always six figures. Okay. Social media. And that's a vague, you know, if I can do travel nursing and start, I made a, you know, escort. Yep.

Start as LLC, running through an S-Corp. If I can make six figures of this, how can I, if I want to be out of the hospital, which I said I did, how do I get myself out of the hospital and turn brand deals into real estate? Okay. Which is what I want. So it was. I love it. I was working less and less and less, more brain deals, working less and less and less.

And then I finally decided, you know what, let's buy a rental project to work on, move, and I'll get back into nursing. I love it. All right. So you'll get back into nursing, both do an influence in. both making more than what you were before, and now you're doing DIY stuff. And Abigail, you talked a lot on social media in 2023, July 2023, you announced a new exciting chapter in your life's buying your first home in Tulsa. So when you guys are doing projects together, like give me some numbers here, give me some dirt. Like, give me the scoop. What's it

look like? You're the finance expert. Are you creating the budgets? How much are you spending on the homes? Have you flipped a home? What does the success look like? This is a big portion of not only your content, but also what you're doing for work. What does it look like with the projects you've done? It was definitely a lot in first for both of us in the last year. You've done a lot of kind of hands-on renovations up growing up. But I think trying to do that with someone that has kind of a design element mapped out, kind of learning how to work with that. And then obviously, a place that we're living in. We came in very hot and heavy with our first projects. That was our kitchen. Just gutted the whole house and lived in it. So how much

should it cost you to get the whole? Well, first of all, when you bought the house, how much of the house would cost? The house was high 500s. Okay. And it was in a part of town that we really wanted to live in. And it had everything we wanted. Big yard for our dog, enough rooms for our future kids. And it really was just a perfect home. The best part, the best town or area to live in, but the house has been neglected the last couple years. It's been through it. Okay. One of those situation. It's undervalued, great part of town. We wanted to do the work on it. So what you're thinking is just for people back home that are buying, good location, but the property needs a lot of help. And so if we help the property, value will go up significantly. Our thought process was

buying the cheapest house in the best neighborhood. Oh, should I just repeat what he said? Yes. Short answer. Our credit out here. Our process was exactly like you just said. Okay. What little things can we do? It's mostly small things, way easier than people think, you know, and then save your money for the stuff you can't do to subcontract it out. Love it. What little things can we do to make this house closer to the median?

Because the ceiling is super high in that neighborhood. I could put 500 grand. I would never, I couldn't spend enough to bring it up, right? It's a nice house. It could use touching up, but our ceiling's very high. So our thought process was, how much work can we do? to make this house, how we want to do it, saving money along the way.

And then down the line, it's going to be a 1031 project, pretty much every other year. Love it. All right. Talk to me about this. There's a lot of couples that listen to this podcast

that want to do projects like this. They don't know where to start in this world when it comes to, do you have contracts? How much do you each put in? What are the conversations look like? Does one person own it, the other person, how like,

where do you start when you want to go into business with your significant other? You're not married yet and you're trying to do these projects. Where do you, where do you guys go with this? What's the conversation look like? How do you do it? I think in terms of project management, only do one room at a time. That's the biggest thing just so you're not playing too much on your plate and you can kind of budget as you go. And then in terms of us not being married, we have just been splitting everything kind of down the middle. Obviously, we're getting married so that's not really a thing. But for a couple of set might not be married or so forth,

we kind of just found that was easiest for us. And then in terms of kind of where to start, so I knew nothing going into it. Yeah. You definitely had kind of the contractor expertise, but we did have to do a lot of navigating with contractors. I mean, there were a couple that we weren't overly happy with. That's just going to be a learning curve with anybody. And I think it did help too that we did have some connections through you in Oklahoma.

I mean, your brother is the builder. So we were able to get some contracts from him. But I think where to start for people that are not married, not joint finances, trying to, you know, grow or do whatever. Plan. What's your budget? Yeah. Collectively.

So she, believe it or not, makes more money than me on social media. She's better looking than me. Just more, you know, people care more about what she's doing. This is a no filter thing you're talking about, right? I can save us a lot of money by doing a lot of the work myself or doing the demo in bidding out somebody to do the tile, right? Yeah, yeah. Who's worth more? Sure, right? It's going to be her monetary value. But for our situation, we weren't combined finances, so it was, okay, I'm going to be saving us basically 10,000 on this. Here's our budget of what we want,

how much we want to spend. And then my role is going to be all, I'm able to show, here's the projects I can do. I can go straight to YouTube and somebody can walk you through or follow me on Instagram. Somebody can walk you through how to do everything. Yeah. It's just it's got to start with the plan and the budget. And then it's like, dude, if she makes more than you and she's contributing more financially, why don't you get on YouTube and learn how to save yourself by doing something else, right? Because she makes more than you. You're not going to stop that if, if that's the case. So how can you guys pick up each other's slack? But you got to have a plan with a budget, pretty foundation early or else it gets really like who's contributing what and I need to go with

the planning aspect too is just figuring out kind of you list out everything that you want to do with the room and then figuring out what can we do ourselves so like the demo we would do all the demo ourselves interior design it was just Pinterest I mean you can hire an interior designer if you want but just trying to figure out things okay where can I do it myself because labor cost when it comes to home stuff is the biggest killer, 100%. Yeah. But then also figuring out, recognizing, okay, what can I absolutely not do? You know, building cabinets, installing the floor tile, that was stuff that was going

to be very, very difficult. So we were like, okay, you know what? That's worth paying more for. To get it out. Okay. So let's do it. Success story here. Yeah.

You buy it for mid-500s. You put in how much, what's the value today? Like, give me a like TLC makeover addition here, if you can on one of your properties. Maybe the big one that you did. Yeah. So, I mean, we're still not even close to being done. But I would say so far, we probably put $60,000 to $70,000 into it. The kitchen was the biggest one. The kitchen was about $50,000. But that's without. That's living room and kitchen. Okay. And then pretty much every other, we want to do one other big renovation upstairs, our master bathroom. And I'm just a bunch of small DIY projects.

Are you looking to flip it? Like, yeah, I'm thinking like, so you guys do this together. You do the project, you recognize the value, you come up with an idea. It's going to be 50-50. You're not married. You've given people great ideas. You buy it for, let's call it 550. You put 60 in. You got another 50 in. So let's just call it 650 all in. What do you think the retail value of this home will be when you're done? When we're done? Yeah. Like, what do you think it'll go on the market? Well, we bought in a good area. That's the first step. Give me the number. Give me so what's your timeframe. Let's say in the next year you put it up. Say a year from now. Forget about market conditions.

They stay the same. Okay, forget about market conditions. I mean, I think right now we could have turned, probably sold it for seven. I think we could have turned around $100,000 profit, I think. But I feel like the kitchen's the biggest kind of selling point. And the kitchen before just was not it. So I think we added a lot of value with that. It's just because the areas, a lot of the stuff, we didn't do, like, we didn't do a whole

lot of changes. The main change was the kitchen. Okay. And just that kitchen for sure returned. You know, the kitchen, I think. cost 50 for costs okay and the kitchen probably for sure added 80 that's just just overall we opened up a wall you know make it kind of a longer view for everything and some of the stuff we did but we don't i'm not looking to flip okay so ours is all retention you know get renters in there and stuff like

that but as far as for this house if we just went after it and we had a time frame of like a year Yep. We could have done a lot less work and still, I think, yeah, turned a profit. $50,000 profit. Are we going to see you two on TLC flipping homes and building a portfolio? Is that in the future? Getting closer. See, you would be open to that. I'm okay with The Bachelor of being my time on TV. Okay. All right. So maybe we'll see it. Maybe we won't, but we'll at least see it in your content. I got a transition, though. The next step after this home is built and you're keeping it, but still appreciating over 100 grand on it,

which is a beautiful thing, the wedding. You're the budget queen. Yep. How did we budget for the wedding? What does it look like? Where did you overspend, underspend? Noah, what was your take on at all? Where do you want to start?

I mean, I feel like the only right answer is you overspend on every single area. You just have no idea how expensive weddings are until you get into it. But thankfully, I mean, what I do is I just keep track of every single expense, not. And then we have an amazing planner that really did all kind of budget buckets for us. And, you know, we're over in this area. If we go this route, you're going to be over under this area. So it's definitely at the forefront of our minds. But yeah, it's definitely been a journey trying to navigate the wedding. Can you share what you started? Like you said like, okay, you spent more, but we were like, all right, let's try and make the wedding $10,000. Did you have a starting budget?

I think about 20 or 25. So initially, we were thinking more of a micro wedding. But I mean, he's one of 10 siblings. So a micro winning to us would be 50 people by the time we had both of our families. And actually, we were thinking of just having it in our backyard at the time. So we were thinking maybe 20 to 30. But then in the last year, we've just connected with so many good people in Oklahoma that our guest list just kept growing and growing. Oh, boy. Still under 100. Okay. Still under 100. Yeah. All right. Are there anybody from Bachelor Nation that'll be at your wedding? We'll see you online. Definitely a couple. Joe weaseled in there. Joe greased his wedding.

I mean, you went to his wedding. Come on. Plus, Joe's the bad. Joe, shout out to you. Who else from Bachelor Nation can we expect there? I mean, I don't want to put people on this spot. I'll just say people that have confirmed, yes. Just in case I want it can't make it.

And then they're on the spot. Becca and Thomas, Joe and Serena, Chelsea. You, okay, you have to realize, though. Yeah, Ivan. A few guys from my season, a couple from her, Chelsea and Anna. Okay. But you have to realize that we. wanted it super low key

because you either got to do if I'm from Tulsa it's either going to be 90 people or 500 because all the bros and all you know it's like so we kind of made the decision we're going to not do a lot of

brand stuff around it we're not going to have a lot of acquaintances that we're still friends with it's going to be people that we over the last few years have spent time with like on a consistent basis which

means you're cutting people that you're friends with that you're like that was actually kind of my boy or you know that was like a good friend but it's also like that's part

of the budgeting of it though right just overall it's we want to keep it yeah the budget's one and just the vibe the vibe one budgeting tip for people out there

right now they're planning wedding you were a budgeter literally in your past life one tip you've learned give one piece of advice as it comes to wedding planning and budgeting

that you've undergone that's a good question well it's something that I've actually learned is I think you just have to be okay with, it might not look like the Pinterest photo. You cannot break the bank to get the Pinterest photo because what you might see as a simple table with some florals and whatnot is $20,000 right there. So I think just going in with the mindset, have your budget and be so firm and sticking with that, like the numbers that the numbers at the end of the day. You will still have an amazing wedding. Your vision.

If you have a really good vendor, planner, whatnot, you can still get all of that. And budget, just that should be the top priority is budget. Budget, budget. You had a number? Yes. And you think it's going to be at least two times that number or less than that? It's actually going to be really, really close. I want to say maybe a few grand over.

But we're still on track. Of our initial budget? Well, our last current budget. Well, okay, so we had an initial budget with our micro wedding and then we updated closer. What's the current budget? We were hoping around $50,000. Okay. And we are still kind of around that range.

We've been hanging around there. So you might have to write a second book all about wedding wedding budget. People are interested. Good for what you guys are thinking to do it. My tip is get a wedding planner. Get a wedding planner. I'm planning the honeymoon. I'm in the wedding planner.

And I'm in a group chat. Where's the honeymoon? I think Japan. So nothing has been planned yet. So in Japan. What's your budget for the honeymoon? I'm not going to spare a whole lot of expenses for a honeymoon. But I'm going to places, well, I'm going to the Philippines in Japan.

I've been to the Philippines for a month. You can do it crazy cheap. You can get a whole house for $900 for a week, you know. You can do these places cheap, but I'm not going to, it's kind of like we're only going to married once. We're only going to go on one honeymoon. Yeah. Yeah, let's chill in the budget a little bit, bring it down.

Well, and then for full transparency, we are kind of making that our main registry item is people can donate to the honeymoon. Oh, that's great. That's a great idea. Just because we are very lucky to get a lot of things with our job. But with our honeymoon, we wanted to go off the map. Preemptively pretty much canceled all trips over the last year when we moved back. Because it was like, all right, let's, you know, I bought some properties.

We were trying to hustle and grind and try to get back into it. So it was basically like honeymoon is a culmination of the three trips that we canceled because we couldn't go. I love it. So we're just going to turn it to war. And I think that is a genius idea to have people contribute to your honeymoon. If it's something you're budgeting for, I've never heard that. I don't know how people thought about that. That is probably, yeah, it's just like, you know what, don't get us a blender that's going to go to shit and do it. Like, get us, contribute to something we'll never forget in our entire life. All right. So you're going to write a book on wedding planning, but you already wrote a book, the Deaf Girl, a memoir of hearing loss, hope and fighting against the odds. It will be out when?

September 10th. Where can people pre-order today? You can pre-order on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Okay. And if someone pre-orders it, what are they contributing to? What impact are they contributing to? What impact are they contributing to? what can they expect to read and hear from your story? Yeah, so the deaf girl has been about three years in the making. It really kind of just started, obviously, after my time on the show, just realizing what an audience, kind of an unheard audience, that there is around the hearing loss in Coltrane implant community, you know, people like me, like my mom, so forth.

And so I combined my mom and my own experiences into this book, really from childhood all the way up to, the show, after the show. And I think what people can expect is really, if you're a parent kind of just navigating, you know, an unforeseen circumstance with your child, whether it's a disability, an illness, so forth, you know, where do you go from there? And just having some sort of comfort, you know, are the emotions that I'm feeling? Are they appropriate? So forth, I mean, there's just, there's so much that goes into it being a parent in that situation. And then I think also what people in my shoes can expect is you are not alone. You know, I think just going up,

there was not a lot of representation, you know, almost kind of feeling like I had to over-normalize myself to fit in. And I think just trying to give people in my shoes the reassurance of it is totally okay that you are not normal. You're not like your peers. Instead of kind of shying away from that, just embrace it. You will feel so much better in the long run. So it's kind of just all of that in one book. I love that. I appreciate you sharing that and you're paving the way for sure. And I think with Noah here, it would be great, especially with your tie to The Bachelor. And of course, your book is like, what advice would you give to couples that are navigating interabled relationships? That was

something I had to navigate for the very first time with Noah. Really, my only boyfriend growing up was the one I had in high school and, you know, high school relationships. You just never really dive into anything deep. He knew I was deaf, but we never had conversations. I don't think he really learned how to be an ally in that way. And then obviously dating Noah. I had started to open up about my disability before I had met him. So I was starting to get a little bit more comfortable with it. But when it came to dating somebody, I think the biggest thing that I learned is how really not a bit deal it is.

I think it was just kind of this gray cloud that had loomed over me for so long. I mean, I remember when I was on Matt's season and on this. group date, I was panicking of, you know, hometowns are coming up. I need to tell him, you know, my fears about, you know, having kids that could be deaf. Is that something he's prepared for? Just because I thought it always had to be this heavy conversation that you had to have around your disability. And, I mean, we all know how it ended up with Matt. But then you get to paradise and I met Noah. And it just happened so seamlessly, I guess. I mean, even on the first day that we met, I think you knew that I was deaf.

And so the small things that you would do of, like, turning your head to talk to me. If there was a group setting going on, he would check him. You know, are you picking things up, so forth? And even just letting me know, you know, I'm always here. If you want to have a deeper conversation about it, you know, personally, I don't have any, like, concerns or pressing questions about it. So I would just say that was kind of the biggest thing, you know, the right person won't make it feel very effortlessly.

Yeah. and not make it like this looming thing that, you know, we have to sit down once a week and check in or, you know, so forth. You said the word ally. For us that are listening that, like, say, we were motivated by that. We want to be an ally. What are some things that we can do to be allies in this community? I mean, the biggest thing kind of day-a-day is just captioning your content. I think that's the biggest thing.

Okay. I mean, there's small things, too, of, you know, in group settings, just making sure that I can see your face because I do read lips. And then I think just more kind of just not saying, never mind, so forth, because I think we, people in my shoe, we are working really hard to pick up things that come really easy to everybody else. And so when we're working that hard and we miss something and we ask someone for clarification, they're like, never mind. Or I'll tell you later. It's just kind of a defeating feeling. Yeah, like don't dismiss it. That's a new one.

That's a really good one. You think you're doing it to be polite. Like, oh, I'm not going to waste. Yeah. What we said really was not a huge thing. No, I'm not saying you. I'm saying, like, in my mind, when I'm like, oh, never mind. Or most people in general, it's like, oh, you didn't hear me.

Like, you're kind of, I'm thinking, like, I'm doing you a favor. You didn't hear it's not big deal. But to you, it's like, it's not worth it. Because I have no idea. Yeah, you're like, you're just, like, I'm here really trying and you just dismissed me, which is a fascinating thing that, like, that's another trading secret right there. Amazing. All right.

Well, we're getting down to our time here. Let's do some rapid fire, right? We've got some stuff we've got to get, so let's get into it. Think about, we talk dollars and cents here. Give me a dollar amount. It could be connected to anything, something that you bought, something that you earned, one big paycheck, one dollar amount that comes to mind when I say Noah, Abigail. Give me a dollar amount that has to do with your career or spending, earning, or investing.

What's the dollar amount? Rapid Fire. What'd you think of? What's the amount? What's it represent? $7,000. And it represents? The new AC units, condensers.

and furnaces. I keep having to replace. Okay, 7K for those. Abigail, dollar amount, career spending, finance, investing. What's the first thing that comes to mind? Earning? I mean, I feel like because we were just talking about it, but $50,000, that was our kitchen renovation. Okay. That's what I got. There is one. Noah, what's one thing you overspend on? You know you overspend on it. And how much do you think you spend on it? I got a couple. What do you think it is? Yeah, what do you think? Golf? Golf. Quick trip. Guilty. What's quick trip? Always little snacks. It's like a quick trip.

Yeah, like the gas station? Yes. It's not a gas. It's not a gas station. I sure he goes there. Like how much do you spend at your convenience store? It's a bad habit of just 20, 40, 10, 1, 2. An upper decky and some Twizzlers, you know.

It adds up. Oh, and then last thing in your car. It's a really, really old car. I don't think you need to be putting any more money into it. What kind of car is it? into it. V803-4 Runner. How much did it cost? I bought that car for $6,000. How much have you put into it? I did it all myself. And I probably sell that car for twice that right now. How much did you put into it today? I haven't put a ton into it. Okay. It's just a lot of time. If we count time as

money, which I'm assuming we do, that might be something to discuss. I have a bad habit of that. I've put in a lot of time. Yeah, you do that with your DIY stuff too. I'm like, dude, outsource some help. here. Abigail, you have not escaped the question. One thing you overspend on, you know you overspend on it. How much? Before you answer, Noah, what do you think it is for Abigail? Exactly. Purses. What? I've had the same purse for the last six months. Oh, wait, sorry, no. Curtains. Interesting. Absurds. Currants are expensive. No, she overspends on the little things of the house. But they're starting to all be the elegant touches that I think should be done. That's your answer. Abigail.

What's your answer? One thing you overspend on, you know you overspend on it. What is it? I was going to say furniture. Furniture. Okay. If I am my mindset on a piece, I have to have it. Most expensive piece you bought. Well, there's a kitchen. No, kitchen's not furniture. It's got to be a lamp. A lamp. I did spend, oh, chandeliers, yeah. Almost $800 on one light fixture. Okay. So you have to understand. Light fixtures could change the, I mean, this thing. Thank you. Thank you. It's no joke. And it was a really funky, You got to appreciate that. You ask how much, right? And you're thinking a large number. And she says, guilty, 800. That's the budgeting queen. Tell me that's not just. She's going to have to be a special guest on every episode.

I have to convince her it's okay to take a shorter flight and spend the extra $12. Okay. We've come so far. I am frugal. Budgeting queen. I was going to say, though, the next question is, what is something you are frugal on? What's the biggest thing? Number one thing you're frugal on. Air travel. You know what? Everything except for like food and experiences. We're both pretty. You're there. Okay. Except for if it's an experience that we were like, we're cheap on everything else. We're going to pay for this experience or food. Everything else we're pretty like. Okay. Frugal. One of the last sections I got when we talk about talk money to me. That's a book I wrote, the questions you got to know. Have you, do you guys go over

finances? Do you know where you spend? You know each other's net worth. Do you know each other's credit score? We know everything. Seriously? Is that how. Do you manage an open portfolio where you show it all? Yeah, we're getting married. I mean, if you say that, like everyone does it. I know, I know what I'm saying in my mind, we're getting married. So I'm thinking, all right, if we're about to both do this, let's figure out what we've both got, but let's keep everything open book. We're about to start building together.

That's so how do you build together if you don't know what you're starting with? You can. But I will say we were really privileged going into a relationship, like neither of us had a ton of day or we didn't really have to have a ton of hard conversation. We were very lucky. We were on the same page of spending habits where we were financially. So it did come easy, but we definitely do have a lot of conversations. Yeah, I mean, I think it starts with the communication. I grew up really poor and she's a finance major.

So it was one of those conversations that once you have it, you're like, this is actually not as bad as I thought. Like you're expecting skeletons in the closet and all this stuff. It made it easier that she was actually pretty, you know, financial savvy. But we discuss it all specifically. that's the, that's the name of the game. You know the statistics of finances and relationship. Yeah, and it does not work in your favor when you don't talk about it. So it's so good you guys are talking about it. Everything from working in finance to being a

travel nurse, staff nurse going on the show after the show, influencing DIY to your wedding budget to even the honeymoon. I think we nailed it all. The only thing I got before you get your training secret 10 years from now, paint the picture, manifest it. Where are you living. How many kids and give me your dream net worth at that age, 10 years from now? Where are you living? How many kids dream realistic net worth within your control? What do you got? Abigail, you want to start? I feel like we talk about this a lot. I think ultimately our dream is not even so much about net worth. It's more financial freedom. And just being able to, I think we've talked about how many kids. We definitely want more than one. We're not sure how many yet. Maybe 10?

Absolutely not. I'm tapping out of four, the most I will do. But I think just having a house on some property where our kids can just be kids and we're able to spend a lot of quality time with them, I think that is the dream for me. And just having the financial freedom, I don't need to have a certain network. But to be a stay-at-home for you to do what you love and our kids just to be happy. I like it. I think similar to along the lines, same sentiment. I've always been about, you know, the freedom, like work should have freedom in it. You should be able to create, do what you want to do kind of thing. For me, I think 10-year goal would be a, we have a house with land that I can be with my kids and help them learn and everything like that. And there's

$20,000 a mailbox money hitting every month. I don't care what my net worth is at that point. I like it. So a healthy life, a happy life, financial freedom, and passive income. Because then you're You're only working on, you're only got to figure out how much you spend, you know, your lifestyle. Then you get to tweak that lifestyle to go travel the way you want to, you know. And who knows? By then, maybe your brother is coming back from paradise. And you never know by then.

It's so interesting to hear your story. Obviously, one of ten and your story and you're sharing it in your book, whichever can go pre-order now, where can people find that book? Amazon or Barnes & Noble? Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to buy five copies right. now. We're buying five copies. Go to the reviews. Give us five stars. Let us know your biggest

takeaway from this episode and then put in your email address in that review. And the first five people, you're going to get a copy of Abigail's book. So we're buying five. Evan, if you hear this, make sure you make that happen. All right. Let's end. Go ahead. Say one thing about the book because I didn't say anything. Yep. I'm almost done with it. You know, I've got a background, crazy background, medical background, all those things. The perspective of that book, especially her mom's element to it, is I think it's way more niche than you think.

I'm not deaf. And there's so many different lessons and things in that book that you don't really think about. Yeah, I mean, even... Totally recommend. Even asking how we can be an ally and just the concept of never mind, I think that should almost be applied to almost anyone, right?

Like when you're dismissing someone, there's probably so many things that maybe you've seen in a different lens that can give us perspective in any form of life. So I think that's a really good perspective. And it's coming from some of the medical background. So the sign sealed stamp of approval from NOAA is there. We've got to wrap up with the trading secret. So it's something that people can only get from your career navigation,

your financial experience, what you've done and how you've done it. And they can't get in a textbook or learn from a professor. Who wants to drop the trading secret first? my trading secret is it's all in the selection whether it's the house we talk about we got a nice house a undervalued house in a good area talk about the travel nurse i decide i want to work in hawaii and make you know way less money but i'm in paradise versus living in a not great place your best outcome is in your selection i know that's a vague trading secret but i think it applies specifically especially the stuff we talked about, even smallest down to the DIY, detail. Everything is, it starts with the

selection. It makes your process up and down way easier if you took the time to make sure you I love it. And I think that there's so many things in this world that are uncontrollable. Selection is controllable, right? So it's like owning the hell out of the things that you can control. You can choose what you put your, you know, hard work into and your money because it's yours. You get to make that choice. After that, it's like, okay, so don't let other people waste your money. Yeah. And choose what you want. And take that choice seriously. Yeah. I think so many people just yeah, just get that. Just get that. Take it seriously. I love it. Abigail, one trading secret you could wrap us up with. What can you leave us with? I mean, mine's definitely cliche, but I definitely have

experienced it firsthand after kind of entering the influencing world is always spends under your means just because, you know, I think I developed that approach very luckily with my corporate job. I learn how to spend with a smaller kind of income. But I think with how up and down the world can be income across the board, especially influencing that's very come and go fleeting. I have seen too often than not people just spending over their means because they think that's going to be my income for the rest of my life, blah, blah, I need to show people how well I'm doing. And I'm just a firm believer of the opposite. You know, save more than you're bringing in or, you know, try save as much as you can. You don't need to have the flashiest things. And you're

Your pockets. Well, thank you in the long run. Biggest issue in America is exactly that. Overspending. And now is social media, everyone trying to keep up with everyone else. And we've just seen it. Every profession from the biggest athletes, the biggest actors and celebrities, the amount of bankruptcy because of overspending. It's the name of the game. It's a hell of a trading secret. Abigail, Noah, thank you so much for being here.

Where can everyone find? We'll start with you, Noah, all your projects, everything you are going online. Where can they find all things, Noah? Noah underscore herb. Noah underscore herb, or at least it should be. It is. We're getting active. I'll tell you what.

He's getting active. We're getting them going. I found out he's an Xboxer guy. You might see him on Twitch here soon. I'm just kidding. All right, Abigail, where can everyone find everything you have going on? I'm Abigail underscore Herringer. All right.

And The Deaf Girl, a Memoir of Hearing, Lost, Hope, and Fighting Against the Odds. We're giving five copies away. Give us a review. Put your email address in those reviews. First five people. We will be sending you a copy. It's out for pre-order now. and thank you guys so much for being on this episode, Trank Secrets.

Thanks for helping us. We appreciate you.