Episode 1 - Inspiration & Purpose Behind HBH

A little background on Host Abby Bolt and the purpose behind Her Brotherhood.

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Transcript

spk_1:   0:08
welcome to her brotherhood. We're celebrating women out there who put their lives on the line every day. I'm your host, Abby Bolt. It is truly an honor. It's been this time with you. Please don't forget to hit the subscribe button so that you can make sure to catch the next episode. And we would love to hear what you think about the show. If you could leave review way, be ever grateful. I hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks for coming along with me and being a part of her brotherhood for another episode. I figured this time around I just, you know, I just had this feeling about

spk_0:   0:47
just sharing with you guys. Like who in the heck this Abby Bolt gal is that has started this podcast. And when the world is she doing calling it her brotherhood. And I thought, you know what was gonna talk and share with you guys and just like a zit were standing around the campfire having a cup of coffee or maybe a fire camp just catching up and introducing ourselves. I grew up in a really small town, actually, in California, a lot of people don't even realize that these towns like this exist, but they do. They're not all L A. And they're not all Yosemite. But the one that I grew up in actually used to be the county seat. It used to be a pretty big deal before, well, during the Gold Rush days, and now it's just a tiny little dot on the map that you wouldn't notice as you drove through. So, yeah, I grew up there. My parents seem to find this place. It's amazing. It's one of those places you grow up out where you really have no idea how great you had it until you step away. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for doing everything that you've done for us to give us that experience. I grew up without electricity, and some people seem to think that that means I didn't have indoor plumbing. But no, that's not how toilets work. So yep, had indoor plumbing. We just didn't. We were off. The grid are off the grid. So my folks found this place. My dad happens to be a builder, and slowly but surely, he built us an amazing home up there in the woods. And while he was building it, though. Um, we all five. I have Mom, Dad and then two other sisters, and we all lived in a one room cabin for a few years while he was actually building it. And those years were probably some of the just the most memorable years of my childhood. Probably being crammed in a box with your parents and your sisters of a certain age might not be so preferable. But we were all young enough to where we were into it. And there weren't mobile devices and things like that. And, you know, we had a TV that we could hook up to the generator now and then and play a movie. But we actually at nighttime, we would listen to those am radio stories that they would play from, just like back in the day. And they had a replay station of them and oh, my God, that was so cool. And then we had land turns on the side of the wall that actually fed off of propane. And my dad would like those in those woods. Things would like the cabin and together is pretty pretty special. And, you know, then the big house got built and life charged on. And but we live out in the boondocks and I'm actually back. They're staying at the ranch right now because it's just pretty amazing, and I want to take advantage of it while I can. So yes, so that's That's how I grew up about two sisters, a brunette and a redhead. So with a blonde brunette redhead all the same, Mom and Dad, God just decided to give them the variety to make them crazy. I think I'm a firefighter and my middle sister is a schoolteacher and a mama, and my youngest sister is a comedian. Slash producer slash director slash documentary filmmaker slash podcaster one of those Hollywood doing it all kind of gals. So we're really across the gamut for sure. I grew up with a lot of animals and in the sticks. How did I ever say that I grew up in the sticks? I don't know if I just say that so that it's like an excuse. So if I start sounding a little more backwoods than I should say, Hey, if you sell where I grew up, it would make sense. But I I love where I grew up very small town, but yeah, a lot of animals. So we grew up with everything that you can throw on a ranch or a farm, basically. And then that progressed into, like, four H and showing animals and High School Rodeo and Jim Cana. All that country girls stuff said that we all have to do so. I think I kind of like go into that because so many people ask me how or why did you become a wild land fire fighter? So that's kind of why I like to give a little background on my childhood and and how I grew up. So yeah, that's me. I grew up like that, went to high school, played a lot of sports. I played a bunch. My sisters played a bunch. It was really great being in a small town because you turned out to be the star because there's not a lot of competition. So to get on the front page of the paper in your hometown newspaper is, um, easier than it might be in a big city, so it gives us a lot of confidence that we might not have had otherwise. That was pretty fortunate you moved on through high school and then so I had no idea that I wanted to be a firefighter. You know, some people say all that's what I always wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to do something outdoorsy, active, and I would really have liked to have been on a sports team for the rest of my life on a team sport, because that's where I had the most fun. And I loved competition. So, you know, gotten with high school, didn't really know what I wanted to do. I graduated kind of early because I was one of the babies in the class and started taking a You need to fill in some credits. And I saw this wild land fire fighting class and it really caught my interest just based on the little paragraph written in the course catalog and signed up for that took it loved it really piqued my interest in the folks that were teaching that explained how we could apply and get a job. So I kind of started from there. You know, there's all kinds of little stories to share about the true beginning and my rookie year and lots of details that we can share later and little stories of adventure that are sure to come along with all of that. I started off on a hot shot crew and then went to a helicopter, repelled crew out of a bell to 12 hp and then went Thio Montana and worked on an engine there. And then I went to South Dakota, and then I came back to be towards the nearer family back in California. And uh, that's that was it's been 21 years, 2122. I think 21 years that I've been in fire and you would say in fire and just kind of term we used we don't really say fire batteries. They've been in fire for all that time, I think because, like in the agency that I work for, you can be in fire or in, you know, one of the apologies and recreation. So I've been in fire for all that time and a lot of amazing adventures. You know, I have seen some of the most amazing and beautiful places in the world right here in the United States. While being paid for my job to go see that some of them I've seen out of the window of a helicopter or from dangling on a rope underneath one, you know. So I've I cannot tell you how fortune I've been and how much I have absolutely loved my job. You think back Thio memories of your job and you forget like the horrible physical struggles you might have dealt with trying to get up the mountain at one point or how exhausted you were after a certain fire. There's just like these crisp, beautiful, memorable moments that really come to life when somebody asks you about that. And I think that's why so many of us hold on for our whole careers, and it just flies by without realizing it. It's certainly not about the employer, the agency or the politics or the admin. It's those those fire moments, those those struggles that you all ever come together in an emergency situation that just really brings together makes it all worth it, though that is my quick rundown of a career. In a nutshell. Maur important than anything in the whole wide world is that I'm a mama, so I have a little boy who is just the light of my life. And he is a fireball, and he is all boy. And I am pretty sure that I was not meant have girls. I'm pretty sure I was mean Dabble, Boy, I love my little man and bless my sister's heart. I am so glad that I don't have to break all the hair like she does. She does a great job of it. My little nieces have, like the most amazing long, thick hair, and I would never be able to keep up with it. Especially, I think being in fire developed the way that I am. And it's simple hair tied back. It's okay if you're dirty at the end of the day. If you know if you didn't have time to get cleaned up, knock yourself out with a wet wipe. It can't, you know, make it happen. So boys really work out for me. Well, I figure if he's not dirty, he's not having fun. So, you know, sometimes all feel myself. Oh God, please don't slide down that dirty hill or get in that mud and then I remember like, Hey, Mom, it's all part of part of being a kid and having a great time, so I try to remember that. So, yeah, he is the light of my life. And of course, my career changed pretty drastically when I decided to become a mom, because that's kind of part of the being a gallon. Some of these career choices it's not as easy as you might think, and it definitely takes a village to raise a kid in this life. So we will be talking about that for sure. And I can't wait to talk Thio, mothers and all different aspects of your brotherhood type careers that you know how they did it, how they didn't do it, how the lessons they learned or if they had to back out altogether or you know what made it work. And I can't wait to talk to some more of them and hear some of their stories, because there sometimes we'll hear from a woman that has, like four kids she's rocking. It is a captain or achieve, and I just I need to know how that chick did it basically like there's one thing of getting through all the maternity stuff, and then there's managing the family in the household and the kids and school, and I just I have one, and it just racks my brain every day. I couldn't imagine having more, and I want to learn for more women about how they did that and find out how the dad's played in and you know what it took from the family. So I think it's really interesting. My little boy just happens to have two parents that are firefighters, so he's getting it from both sides. And we've never said to him like Oh, you know, you want to be a firefighter when you grow up. Of course, it's just coming out of his mouth because that's what he sees and knows and loves. And every time he hears about our jobs, he hears about how much we love it, and he loves to visit. So So, yeah, we'll probably will probably turn out to be a cop, not about your fighter in the end, but I will be so excited no matter what he does, because I know we're giving him a good experience. So why in the world am I here doing this? My sister is She has a podcast called Bunker Buddies and she gets to do all kinds of really great stuff and share information with that. I mean, of course, it's like more of an entertainment podcast, but it's all on a comedy podcast, but it's also very informative about, like the Apocalypse, Basically like it's Who's gonna be your Bunker Betty and one of the skills that you need and the things that you need to know about Thio basically survive once things go to hell. Here in this country, you know, heaven forbid we have zombies or a complete war. You know, she's really inspired me with that and she hers for years she's been hearing. They're my stories are my experiences and just like having you got to do something, you've gotta write a book or you've got a do this or that cause she's always really interested in my life and my experiences. But to me it's just my life. It's really not all that exciting. You know, I might tell a story about a bear attack or a crazy fire, this unit city burning down or this flood, whatever it is. And to me, it's just kind of, you know, I know it sounds lame, but another day at work. But Andy will hear things like that, just like Oh my God, you need to share that stuff with more people. But I just there's no way I could ever take I don't know if it's embarrassment or like, just humility or what it is. But to me, that would never make a big enough story. I guess they'll let you guys be the judges of that once you hear more in my life. But the more that I thought about it, and the more women that I talked to you and the more things that I learned, I realized it. There's a lot of possibilities in storytelling that is bigger than me, can be inspired by me, but I can make it bigger than me toe where we can learn from so many more people than just me. So that once I started thinking that way, I was like, Oh yeah, this we we may need to hear more. This isn't about a business. This isn't about a venture. This is about wanted about an adventure or about a mission. But it's about bringing some positive light to women that do some pretty kick ass jobs. So I started looking and you. To me, fire is like boring because I hear about it all the time. Lives Lee breathe. That's all that we talked about. All my friends are firefighters. Every person ever been a relationship with is a firefighter. So that's what I know and what I hear. So it's not that interesting to me, but clearly it is to a lot of other people. So I need to start looking at it from other people's eyes. And my sister, my friends, have been helping me do that. But see, to me, the more interesting thing is, like the other women in these really great life risking jobs like the police officers, law enforcement, FBI, CIA i a military, you know all the aspects of the military. R. E. M s folks got that paramedic that comes out of the helicopter and scrapes people up out of their cars on the freeway and flies them to the hospital and saves them. That's just got those people to me. You're so interesting. And those were the stories that I want to hear. So I started realizing if I want to hear their stories as much as people might want to hear firefighting stories. Then it all really started to click to me. So wrapping all that up into one of these stories I mean, there's something about women in some of these jobs. It seems so interesting. And whether I'm sharing information at a school or a man, a public event or whatever it is young women and girls, really, Sometimes you can see the ones that would grasp onto and that are Actually, they've got the blood for something like this. They will look at you like I they just look at you like you're the Easter buddy. I don't have to explain it like they look at you like, Oh, my gosh, look at this gal standing in front of me and then they'll start talking to you and you can tell that there's some girls out there that have that drive inside them to do something like these jobs, but they really never knew that they could. And to me, that's insane. I thought that every little girl knew she could be an astronaut when she grows up. If she wanted to be or, you know, she could be an enemy fire her if she wants to be, she could be a fighter pilot. She could be any of this stuff. And even though girls will see it, sometimes they just we have. It's our culture. It is so male dominated. Like it or not, it's just the way that human behavior is in these jobs. And in these careers, it is male dominated for many reasons that we're going to explore and explain to you that, yeah, it is. And I welcome you know, the argument of different things. I want to hear some different aspects. So it's these little girls that are out there that I think there needs to be an outlet for more story sharing about jobs and women basically women that put their lives on the line all the time to take care of people that they have never even met. I mean, God, look at these military women. I mean all the military folks, of course. But I want to hear from those rare military women that are overseas doing things in Third World countries. You know, they're out there in Iraq just just in those insane places and leaving their babies behind because they have that greater mission in their heart. And I want to know about that. I want to talk to him. I think it's I think it's extremely interesting and I think their stories out there that we really need to hear. Yeah, some of these stories are heroic and, you know, life saving and risk death defying. But some of these stories are like, hilarious, the stupid shit that people d'oh on assignments Or you know what? While I was in another country, I had this monkey and he came and ate all my cookies like, there's a dumb little stories like that that are just super entertaining and exciting to hear about that you never hear. They're all the little things that all of us share, like within our circles. But you never really hear about it, you know, for for me and my world, like there is nothing, sometimes more entertaining. Then a bunch of hot shots drinking beer, telling old hotshot stories like some of the crap that they share and tell you about. And it's like, where are these stories wearing the out there? Because nobody wants to talk about him right about him and admit to them half of the time, but those were some of the most interesting ones. So I thought, you know, with this, I could share inspiration, sheer positivity, share some struggles, some solutions. And maybe there will be some things to talk about, that there are just no solutions to just flat out sucks. Or maybe it will inspire some women and young girls to do some of these positions and realize that they can, or maybe to realize, like it's not for them at all, because these jobs and careers are not for everybody hands down 100%. I believe that not all women are created equal. Not all men are created equal, like not when it comes to mental and physical want and passion. Where does not everybody's got something different? So I think it's really great to hear about you know, some of these stories and find out what it is that really goes on out there, and I don't want to just inspire people on the outside. I want to support the women on the inside of this stuff, like my vision for this is much bigger than I could ever possibly imagine. Right now, like I envisioned someday. You know, us being able to help new mother's help with mental health with all of these different aspects, because there are some different facets of how women react to things and the difficulties that they face as women different than men. You know, it's just true. I mean, women are always gonna have the babies. You guys, that's just the way it's gonna be. And until the daddies can breastfeed, we're stuck with it. So we need to figure out how to make it work for us. And you know how we can make it work for them, how we can support them in all these little being a woman tweaks. So that's that's a one of that. I could go all in and on and on about why I'm doing this and we'll talk about it a lot more in the future. There's gonna be some drama. Yeah. I mean, we're gonna talk about some of the difficult things you were gonna talk about controversy and probably have some conflictual thoughts and ideas. There's no doubt there's gonna be a little bit of cussing, cause I mean, sometimes it comes out of my mouth, so I apologize up front, but it's kind of you guys. I work with a whole bunch of dudes, and sometimes it's the only way we could communicate with each other's, and sometimes it comes out. But I promised, like if I haven't episode, that is for young folks like it's focused on kids, which I would like to do that. That's one of my my hopes. Promise that I'll keep that one clean. We're gonna talk about some dark stuff, you know, fatalities and challenges that women have faced with that. But we're gonna talk about funny stuff. Fire Gauls, Detectives C I. A. Anybody that is willing to talk to us and share some stories. So disclaimer, You know, people always kind of freak out, and they're like, Well, I can't talk because I work for this agency or I do whatever Well, guess what. Just like me, you can talk on your own time on your own device, about your thoughts and feelings and not representing the agency just representing yourself. You could do that, and I'm hoping that more people realize that you can and they share, and we get to hear and hear from the great ones not just from the ones that are just willing to share and throw it all out there because they don't have anything to lose. I want to hear from the women that are that are in action right now. And they've got, you know, they're not. They're not. I want to hear from the retired ones and the active ones. So I'm hoping that everybody really kind of gets a good grasp on that and realizes that they can share and we can talk and share experiences. It doesn't just have to be, you know, in the child line. We can do it here so that other people can hear the great stories about some amazing women out there and get more of a positive spin. Nothing kills me more than all the news media that I see about women and these jobs, whether it's military or fire law enforcement, like so much of the media, is negative. Like she's got a complaint. She's this. She's that this one was arrested. Yeah, we're gonna talk about that stuff, folks. We are. We're gonna talk about some of the darkness and we are gonna talk about some of the falsely accused and we're gonna talk about all that. But I want to get those stories spun toe wear. It's more and more stories of positivity. I am seeing a lot of stories of first women in this department ever promoted. First African American woman doing this, You know, I am. I am seeing a lot of that Not gonna lie. When I did another Google search just before this to see, like, what was really popping up with female firefighters feel on the military. The one thing that I cringe and I want Thio get it toe where the search engines pop up with more of the professional stuff is you know, when you search military women or female firefighter, the hot fire fighters show up for these girls taking sexy pictures. And, um, you know, hey, I hate that that floats to the top because that's the image that we don't want out there. And I mean, we're gonna be talking to some other girls and maybe my opinions on things don't match everybody's because I mean, Lord knows, I mean, boldest, full of controversy always will be like, I don't like that I don't like that sexy fire chicks pop up. And, like, there's some really great calendars out there of amazing women that are doing things for charity. Love it always. Well, but you guys know which ones I'm talking about. I know. You know what I'm talking about. We gotta get Just get the media Thio be overwhelmed with these amazing stories, you know, on top of just the the controversy. So hopefully this will be a little bit of that too. So, you know, I mentioned controversy. I'm a bold girl. I mean, Red and Terry, those were my parents, and, well, they made me the way I am, and I'm just never gonna lack. So Mom and Dad give us all of our tough traits. But you know what they give us, over Awesome trait to like it or not. Like, all of the greatest things about me come from my mom and dad. So, Mama, Dad, it's all your fault that I get on soap boxes all the time. And I tried to stand up for what is right to the point where it's probably not always good for me, but I do. And sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's not so great. Usually it's in the honor of somebody else. And, you know, I I will just take my legs as they come, and that's fine. So you'll you'll hear controversy out of me here, you will. And that's just that's how it is. I want to make sure that you know this. This is my podcast with its gonna have some of my opinions, but I'm gonna be inviting a lot of other opinions too, and I can't wait to hear them. I'm really do look forward to that. So yep, before warned. But we wouldn't want to listen. All this stuff of what was on a little bit colorful, right? Some other things I want to do I want to talk about, you know, what are the cool products that all the fire chicks in the military chicks always girls like? Like what are you digging? What are what iss What? What saves your ass is a dry shampoo. Is it? Is it, baby? Why? It's like, what really helps you when you're out there in the field. You know, I wanted hit some of that stuff so that everybody listening, especially those girls of you out there that are on the field can here and we can share some stories and some opinions. You know, I would like to maybe have confessions of the unnamed Jane and John Doe. You know, some folks that want to have their story store Excuse me? Their stories of their opinion shared on here, but they really just, you know, they don't want their names out here yet. Maybe we can do a little bit about that. As you can see, my mind is a wide open, and there's so much that I want to do and so many awesome ideas that I have and that I know that you guys were gonna be totally along for the ride with me, But I knew if I just kept thinking like, we want to do this, I want to do that. He wasn't ever gonna happen. So I just gotta jump out there and make it happen. And I really hope that you come along with me because I think that we can inspire some folks and we can support the hell out of these gals that are out there every day putting their lives on the line for all of us. All of us, like Right now, there is a reconnaissance mission happening somewhere in the air that we will never know about and we will never see. And there is a badass chick, either in the cockpit or back running the drone. There's somebody back there and I want to know more about these girls. So there's so much that we can do with this podcast. I really hope that you guys come along with me. If there's a product that I speak up about, it's gonna be because that product or that company's doing something great to have a patriot and website that folks that do you want to support us can come along and support us. If you do have ideas about people or products or companies that you think you're doing really great things for women that are a part of a brotherhood, then please go to our website at her brotherhood dot com and send me a message on there so that we can check that out. Follow us on Facebook, instagram all of that fun

spk_1:   24:43
stuff and just, you know, please be a

spk_0:   24:45
part of us where we're really hoping that you come along, share stories, let me know what you like. Let me know what you

spk_1:   24:49
don't like. This is a show for you to show for all of you. So please come along with me on this adventure. Let's celebrate the women that are in her brotherhood.

spk_0:   30:47
It has been an honor to spend this time with you. Thank you so much for being here. If you're interested in supporting the future of her brotherhood, check out our show notes and become a patri on without you. None of this is possible.