If you’re like us, you could spend countless hours scrolling throughTikTok videos.
Then Vine came along, and I was heavily on Facebook pushing stuff.
I’m over all this social media."
I was posting videos here and there on Instagram, mainly for friends and stuff.
I was like, “Maybe there’s something here.”
I quickly hopped on the bandwagon with Abbie, and the rest is history.
In what ways do you feel like your life has changed since gaining such a large following?
In retrospect, when I look back, music that’s a very tough business.
I worked on it in jobs my whole life, and to be honest, I was miserable.
It definitely has its ups and downs.
You’ve got to separate the wife from the business partner at times, and we work on that.
We do it really well.
She’s my best friend.
We have a blast making content.
Were there any other alternative options that you almost chose?
We wanted a play on something husband-wife related or like “His and Herberts.”
Somehow, between all three of us, “Who Wears the Pants” [came up].
It was like, “This is the name.”
As soon as we all said it, we were like, “Yep, this is it.”
It worked out perfectly.
Wow, that’s a great question.
I got asked yesterday, “Who would you like to meet?”
and I had to think about it.
I’m like, “I don’t know.
There’s no one I’m crazy about meeting.”
I really like Ed Sheeran.
I feel like the way he lives his life, I can relate to it.
Is there anything in your life that you consider off-limits?
It’s almost a day-to-day thing.
We decide, “Hey, do we want to put this out?”
We both decide, “Hey, yeah.
We can post this” or not.
Then you go out in public, and it’s like, “Oh, man.
People recognize us, and they know who we are, and they watch our stuff.”
That’s the direction we want to head.
Having it be my job.
Having this as my everyday job is amazing, and it’s shocking at the same time.
Number one is: Be your authentic self.
There’s less gravity toward you, in a sense.
Being your authentic self is special, being true to yourself.
That’s really important, being authentic.
What was it that made you want to sign up for it?
It’s pretty crazy how things happen.
Talking to him … he had this electric personality.
I’m like, “Man, what does that guy do?
What kind of coffee does that guy have?”
We talked a little bit about Ironman.
I’d never thought of it before, but I’ve always been athletic.
I was like, “I just talked to this guy.
He set up our payroll, but he does multiple Ironmans.
I can send you his contact.”
He called him that night, and lo and behold, he signed up for the Ironman.
He’s like, “Dude, you got to do it with me.”
I’m like, “All right, man.”
He’s my best friend.
I’m like, “I’m not going to let you down.”
It was a huge feat for me, personally, in overcoming things, especially the swimming part.
I was terrified of that.
How did you overcome the swimming part?
I was sinking because I have a lot of muscle mass.
My legs are all muscle.
I finally found a passion and almost a zenness to swimming.
That was my breath control, and I would come out of swimming being like, “Wow.
I’m ready to go for the day.”
It was a new challenge to me, because you weren’t swimming in a pool for Ironman.
You were swimming in Lake Erie, so it changes the game.
I’m not going to lie, I would be up at nights having anxiety.
As I experienced that day, my goggles fogged up a minute into the race.
I couldn’t see anything.
There’s people swimming on top of you.
You’re getting dunked, slammed, kicked in the face, punched in the face.
Not only that, but you’re fighting the current.
The water’s deep, and it’s dark water.
Once I got out of that water, I was like, “All right.
It’s game time,” because that was the turning point for me.
Working out’s always been a big part of my life.
I could channel similar music.
It was an outlet for me to go in the gym for an hour and come back feeling great.
I’d always do that.
Then I had a passion for running same thing.
But this punch in of training was different from everything else.
It was very long, extensive bike rides, the swimming, and a high-mileage run.
Pushing up toward 14-mile days or 15-mile days was nothing.
There’s a lot of stuff.
This is my first one, so I knew nothing going into it.
Going into it, I was very tight and very anxious for the swim.
It does start out [there], but definitely the transitions and T1 and T2.
I forgot my water bottle."
I didn’t put it in the holder, so I had to run back.
That lost me a couple of minutes.
On the run, it got hot.
And I definitely had more in the tank.
I didn’t know my time, so I finished in six hours and two minutes.
Were you doing a different thing to prepare each day?
Where it got extensive was on the weekends.
Saturday and Sunday were the long haul of the training.
My weekends were carved out for that, which drastically changed my lifestyle.
What’s the number one thing you always have to have during a typical workout?
What do you think is most important?
I actually enjoy these salt supplements called Element right now.
I only just learned that I had no nutrition experience in working out prior to Ironman.
It really opened my eyes [that] you better eat.
There’s a thing called bonking, which I’ve done, which is not great.
Your body shuts down, because your blood sugar and everything’s haywire because you’re pushing yourself.
What you’ll see Josh Herbert working on next
What projects are coming up next for you?
I have a lot of stuff in the works.
Abbie and I are building a home right now, so that’s been a huge process.
I never thought I’d have a Pinterest account.
[laughs]But I’m always getting inspiration, and that’s the art side in me.
That’s taking up a lot of my time right now, getting all that dialed in.
I do have plans on releasing new music in 2023.
It’s just finding the balance and the time.
[I also want to] sign up for another Ironman.
Check out more content from Josh Herbert and his wife Abbie onTikTok,YouTube, andInstagram.
New episodes of their podcast “Who Wears the Pants” are released each week on Spotify.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
