From Ninja Turtles to Bible Warriors: How God Reignited Howard “Quigley” Chang’s Creative Fire

Former Ninja Turtles toy designer Howard “Quigley” Chang shares his redemption story and the God-given vision behind Ancientz—Bible-based collectible figurines reimagining heroes like David & Goliath. We talk faith-led entrepreneurship, identity, prayer, and launching at San Diego Comic-Con. Howard unpacks the Hall of Faith inspiration (Hebrews 11), his shift from serial entrepreneur to mission-driven creator, and why excellence beats perfectionism.

Howard's contact info:

Website - www.ancientz.com

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Chapters

• 0:16 Welcome And Mission Of The Show
• 0:55 Meet Howard “Quigley” Chang
• 1:18 Designing Ninja Turtles At 18
• 4:08 Early Faith And Family Roots
• 6:37 From Office Sketches To Own Studio
• 9:20 Burnout And Leaving Toy Design
• 12:27 Twenty Ventures And Ambition
• 19:10 Identity, Calling, And Ancients
• 22:31 Divorce, Rock Bottom, And Surrender
• 25:22 Prayer, Transformation, And Radiance
• 28:02 Visions That Sparked Ancients
• 31:56 From Shelf To Momentum With Gloria
• 35:32 Five-Month Sprint To Comic-Con
• 37:43 Letting Go Of Perfectionism
• 41:26 The Lore: Spirits In Robotics
• 44:56 Heroes And Villains Lineup
• 47:49 Funding, Art Toys, And Strategy
• 52:29 Partnerships, Outreach, And Bold Asks
• 55:59 Favorite Figures And Women Heroes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wild-hearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations, and thrive with confidence, courage, and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to newwingscoaching.net and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Howard Chang, who is also known as Quigley, to the show. We had a chance to just catch up a little bit. I've just met him for the first time today, and I actually wanted to save hearing more about him until we hit record. So before we get into your story, would you just tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02: 1:15

Hi. Well, thank you for having me today. Um yeah, well, I'm um a former toy designer from 1989 to 1996. I designed hundreds of Ninja Turtle toys. Some of you may have heard of them. Um many decades later, it's still going. That was my first job out of high school. And when I was doing it, I never imagined they would be such iconic collectible uh toys decades later. And the franchise is still going strong, movies are still coming out, toys are still being sold. And um, just a brief intro. We just launched our new line of figurine collectibles, and they are Bible-based. Um, they're characters from the Bible, uh, stories that we love. Um, it's not like Superman with superpowers or anything. They are, for example, David and Goliath. David was a small weak shepherd boy who overcame obstacles with faith, not with superpowers, but through his faith in God. And I felt like the world needs something like this instead of more Pokemons or Spider-Mans. And these are actually toys that we believe kids will actually love to have. Um, you know, it's not like you know, Christianity is very popular in pop culture, or or are toy companies willing to take on something with religious undertones or of any kind, but we are hoping, we're praying, and we just literally launched this uh starting this year. And we were at we were at Comic Con in July in San Diego, which is like the biggest geek convention in the world, right? Okay, uh, we launched it, people loved it. We there was a whole Christian community there. They came over and prayed for us, and it was just the most amazing experience. And uh our Kickstarter, unfortunately, it's gonna end tomorrow. Was struggling a little bit because we were we weren't getting uh enough help from Kickstarter. Uh we didn't have the marketing budget that we were hoping for, but you know, we we know that this is God's business, uh not mine. We're just working for him, and we're doing our best, and I'm here to share what it's all about today.

SPEAKER_00: 3:41

That is so amazing. Yeah, when I saw um, you know, what what you're working on right now, I was I was very um enamored and I wanted to hear more about it, but and I want you to share more kind of about what you're doing now, but I wanted you to back it up a little bit. So you're working like straight out of high school, you you know, get into doing the ninja turtles. Where were you at like in your faith at that point back in the in those days?

SPEAKER_02: 4:08

You know, uh growing up, we were uh immigrants from South Korea. And uh uh immigrants living in Southern California, going to church was more of a social thing for my parents. Okay. So, you know, we would just go. Um, you know, sometimes we would miss. It was just one of those things we did on Sundays. Um, you know, as a child as a young person, I didn't see my parents really pray at home. So when we go to church, I would end up in Bible study, Bible school, uh uh Sunday school. Okay you would learn about all these things, and there were just stories, and we knew about it. And the whole culture being um a child, I came when I was six years old. I was just literally I started peace uh kindergarten all the way up to high school. Um, I just thought of church as somewhere you you go to be good. Okay, uh maybe cleanse yourself, but if you don't go, it's not good. It's just a positive negative. So yeah, I believe in uh in a God, but I didn't have anything what you would consider as a relationship or or a deep deep knowledge of him or or um dependence on him at all.

SPEAKER_00: 5:22

Yes. So you you you didn't necessarily have the relationship, you did have you know some foundation. Um, and I can imagine like going right out of high school. Did you did you go to college to do like design, or what did that look like right out of high school?

SPEAKER_02: 5:37

Yeah, uh out of high school, I was gonna go uh I I was gonna start at Cal State University of Long Beach here in Southern California, and it's a school known for the arts. Uh it was um up against Arts Center, which was one of the best schools here. So yeah, I was gonna study illustration or maybe design. Um you know, I didn't know exactly, but during that summer, um, I was gonna start a job at Blockbuster. It was like a video rental place.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

We might have to explain what that is to some of our audience. I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02: 6:15

People used to have devices at home where you rent or buy these tapes that look like a large cassette tape, and you stick it in the machine and you play videos and movies. So that was a rental place. And um, before I started, my mom decided, hey, you're you're always good at art, winning you know, drawing competitions and everywhere. So she found an ad in the newspaper. I went in and they hired me on the spot just to maybe because uh I was young, I was affordable, and I was willing to do anything. So they hired me. I was a mold maker, and somehow, some way, uh, I feel like God was part of it. But Playmates Toys, the company that just started uh manufacturing and distributing the Ninja Turtles, which in 1988, it was a major hit. They couldn't keep it in the stores. So I joined in 1989 a year later. I didn't know what the Ninja Turtles were, it was just a job. And they asked if anyone drew in the office, and my bosses Steve Arner, Eddie Mosquetta, they called me, hey, you know how to draw, right? So yeah, they uh asked me to um do a quick mock-up of a fugitoid toy, which today is is a collector's item, right? But I just did it a quick sketch, and there was a machine called a fax machine back then. Similarly, they faxed it over. I went home, I came back the next day, I didn't have my desk anymore. They're like, I thought I got fired, but they go, No, you have your own office from now on, you're just drawing all day. So I was 18 years old. I start I started drawing ninja turtles and it became a job while going to college part-time. I was going to part-time school, part-time uh work because they couldn't design and create enough ninja turtles in time.

SPEAKER_00: 8:10

Oh my gosh. Wow, so I mean, quite a story. I mean, this uh wouldn't you say this is a little atypical for somebody?

SPEAKER_02: 8:19

It's definitely atypical. I have kids now who are uh 16, three kids, 16 to 21, and they're having a hard time finding a job, right? But I had the job that my school classmates dreamt of after they graduated. I I was already living it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:38

Wow, wow. And at that time, like were you praising God or you just kind of weren't you're just kind of like, oh, this is just happening, you know. Like, what did that look like? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02: 8:48

I was at that stage, didn't really depend on God, I didn't really know him. It was just it was just just a job. Yeah, I didn't uh when I was doing it, I didn't realize what a kind of blessing it was. I just it was just a job to go to.

SPEAKER_00: 9:02

Okay, and how long did you do that work?

SPEAKER_02: 9:05

Uh almost eight years.

SPEAKER_00: 9:08

Yeah. Wow. Okay, so quiggly, you gotta tell us a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_02: 9:14

So aka aka quigley. Um so that summer, after the summer was over, I told my bosses I gotta go to college, and so I have to quit. And they were they weren't having it. I mean, they were uh apparently making a lot of money designing the toys. It was a sculpting company, they would build out the prototypes to send to the factories to get tooling done and everything. But since I came in, we're now designing the toys that we're gonna sculpt. And I think I was at a point where 80% of my drawings were were being approved by Playmates Toys to manufacturer, so we were creating our own work constantly. So when I said I was gonna go, they were upset about it. And you know, uh my the the vice president uh Eddie Musqueta, kind of the the comedian of the the studio, he's like, No, you don't you don't you don't quit, you're fired. You're fired Howard, you're fired that it sounded as cool, so he came the next day. He found a character in the Jetsons cartoon when you're yelling, Quigley, you're fired. So it's stuck ever since. And um, a book came out five years ago. Um, all these drawings I did back then, there was thousands of them. Um, so me and another co-worker, uh, a couple of co-workers, our work was featured in this 400-page book. Uh, it's called Varner Studios Sketchbook, and it says Howard Quigley Chang. Um it's spelled Q-U-I-G-G-L-Y. That wasn't what Eddie Mosquetta, my old boss, wanted to uh imagine the spelling to be, but it's sure he would have had just one G. Yeah. But but it's sad.

SPEAKER_00: 11:09

Wow, I love it. Well, so go back to you know, the you were there for eight years. Like, what trend what did end up transitioning you out of that role then?

SPEAKER_02: 11:18

Yeah, I mean, it was eight years. I didn't take one vacation.

SPEAKER_00: 11:22

We were just so busy one vacation.

SPEAKER_02: 11:24

No, it was like an eight year well. I was going to school, you know, finished school, still uh going through that uh the work process, and um I was do I was designed not just Ninja Turtles, there was Star Trek, there was uh Exos Squad. We did uh we did a lot of Happy Meal toys, like the big doubles, yeah, toys and everything. But uh after a while, you know, yeah, I had skills to draw and and and design, but it was supposed to be a hobby. I was supposed to enjoy it, and I didn't enjoy it anymore. And there was a point I had friends at home waiting. I came back after a long day of designing Ninja Turtles, and they're like, Howard, you could draw, can you draw me something? And I snapped back, you want me to draw you something? Pay me. You know what I mean? Yeah, so something I enjoyed became work, and then uh long story short, I quit, I left, and then um I went through all these different businesses. I was a serial entrepreneur launching my own toy, toy, many toy importing business. To I got into computer programming, I was running fashion businesses, manufacturing, wow, automotive parts. Uh yeah, we did every I did everything for 20 20 years.

SPEAKER_00: 12:45

Wow, 20 years. It reminds me of um, do you know the story of like the Kentucky fried chicken guy? Have you heard his story before?

SPEAKER_02: 12:53

Yeah, like he he got successful at age 55 or 60.

SPEAKER_00: 12:57

Yeah, later on, and he had so many different things that he dipped his toes in, like so many different realms that were like they were so different, right? But he was also a serial entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_02: 13:10

Yeah, so I'm gonna launch Quigley's uh fried chicken.

SPEAKER_00: 13:13

Yeah, and that could be a great thing to go with everything you've done. Um, I just think it's incredible. Like, I truly, you know, I I resonate with being like an entrepreneur, like in my blood, like it's generational. Um, is this something that was like generational for you and in your family as well?

SPEAKER_02: 13:32

Like, I mean my dad was a uh chemistry teacher, and then he became uh he ran his own uh painting contracting business. Yeah, he had a fleet of painting trucks that used to go out every morning, and that was about it. Wow business.

SPEAKER_00: 13:50

Well, what like what did you love most about um stepping into like the entrepreneur world? Like, did you know what you were doing when you first got started?

SPEAKER_02: 14:37

No, you know what? It was a hundred percent ambition. Uh I had an ambition to um become a successful businessman.

SPEAKER_01: 14:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 14:47

Uh so long story short, I did uh I think the I listed about 24 businesses that I can remember where businesses meaning I had a bank account, I started uh I got a license, and we started at business cards. I'm just collecting all these business cards I had back then. Yeah, so uh yeah, uh a couple of them did well. I mean, we we we got into manufacturing hats for uh five years, we went from zero to twelve billion dollars in sales in four and a half years. So that was one thing, uh late 90s, and then I've been running and still running a digital marketing company. Uh like I would help companies like you uh social media and get out there to Google ads and things like that. And it's that sustained me for the last 20 years. It was like a side business that I had, but now that I look back, that was my main business.

SPEAKER_00: 15:42

Was it that my so out of all of them, like which one has been because I I feel like um a lot of what I focus on with women is really getting to the core of their identity and destiny, and I feel like until we kind of know what that is, what God's given us, we might kind of, and it's I'm not saying anything about like trying different things because I I feel like I'm multi-passionate, probably how you are too. Um, but until you kind of get a hold of like that God-given identity and destiny, um, you know what I'm saying? Like, had did you have that moment of like, okay, like I I really know what I'm being called to do? And kind of going back to the original question, like which one was your favorite and how did that tie into your you know, identity and destiny as well?

SPEAKER_02: 16:28

Well, the the company I explained when I first introduced myself, uh, is called Ancients with the Z at the end. Ancients with the Z. Um, I truly feel that was God calling me, and everything that I did in the past, even manufacturing, even computer. I was a software uh programmer for six years. I love that uh put that together with my toy design. And uh I'll explain more later, but that was God putting in everything in his perfect ingredient, and here I am, um, launching this line. And I feel like this is really what my calling is.

SPEAKER_00: 17:08

Love that. Wow. So when did you have like this? Did you did you have a dream about this? Like, what did it look like for ancients to am I saying that right?

SPEAKER_02: 17:17

Ancients, ancients with the Z.

SPEAKER_00: 17:20

A-N-C-I-E-N-T-Z for everybody who's listening.

SPEAKER_02: 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:25

Um, like what did it look like for you to step into this? Did you have a dream? Was it a vision? Tell us a little bit more about it.

SPEAKER_02: 17:31

You know how I said I was running around doing all different businesses? I really felt like there was a uh I don't know, identity crisis. Uh I'm not here, I'm I'm doing it, I'm enjoying it. Yeah, I have the ambition to make this something, but do I belong here? I mean, I I really didn't feel like I belonged in the software programming because you literally have to read uh thousands of pages of programming books a year, right? And that made me hate reading. It was really a tough time. Um, even manufacturing, I enjoyed it. Am I a manufacturer? No, but I felt like God really gave me a gift to uh be creative, right? And I felt uh during the whole time of doing all these businesses, I felt like I was abandoning my true calling. Um, so it was almost like I'm cheating on myself. But about 12 years ago, um, this is where my my faith journey begins. Uh I have I was married, I had three kids, and uh as my therapist used to say that you know, my ex-wife, she really had some issues before connecting with anybody, and I really couldn't connect with her in any level. If you can't connect with her even having a regular conversation, how can you connect physically or or emotionally, right? So it was um tough 10 years of marriage for me where I felt the loneliest I've ever been. Uh I went through depression, anxiety. Uh um, I thought I knew a lot of things about life, and I found out I knew nothing about life. And I was a father of three kids, and eventually that led to a divorce um 12 years ago. So while I was going through the divorce, um, that's when I had my first real encounter with that with God, and he literally picked me up like out of the ashes, and it took one friend while I was going through the divorce, and I was a complete mess. I was uh um depressed, I was didn't even know what depression was. Uh apparently the psychiatrist said, Hey, you know, you've been you're lucky to be alive, and you're a complete mess physically and emotionally. Because for about seven years I was avoiding the marriage bed because I was constantly afraid of being rejected every night, right? So I was avoiding the bed, overworking myself, and I was averaging three to four hours of sleep a night for seven years.

SPEAKER_00: 20:15

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02: 20:16

And my psychiatrist said, you know, most men they don't they die after a year of that, and you did that for seven years. You were doing all-nighters at least two, three times a month for seven years, right? Um, so I was on heavy medication and so depressed, I was still drinking heavily during that time, which is a no-no, right?

SPEAKER_00: 20:38

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 20:39

So you can only imagine what kind of a mess I was, like internally, internally, and externally. And I was outside one time and I was smoking a cigarette outside, looking like my own self. And a friend of mine came by and just looked at me. He goes, Howard, this is too much for you. You cannot you can't handle this. You have to just let it go, let it go. Those three words, let it go, and give it to God. And you know, I didn't, like I said, I didn't really believe that God was something somebody that can do that. But the moment I heard those three words, I just wait to say just disappeared. I felt light again. And so, since those three words that day, same day, I went online, I was just wondering what happened. And a friend of mine uh um found me on Facebook and just a casual conversation. Howard, how have you been? I go, Oh, good, you know, I'm just gonna get a divorce. And she calls me right away and introduced me, introduces me to a church she's going to that saved her marriage.

SPEAKER_01: 21:48

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02: 21:48

So somehow I went there, uh, went to this men's retreat, and I told God, hey, you know, I've known you, yeah, but this time I'm gonna try for for once to follow these steps. I don't know how to do it, but they told me I have to go to church every Sunday, I have to pray every day, and I have to read the Bible every day. So if I do those three things, please God, uh, will you not leave me this time? And that was 12 years ago, he has not left me since, right? And so since I've uh that moment, um you know, my my parents, my dad, knowing my past, I was um in and out of getting arrested all the time in my 20s. I've had multiple DUIs. I he picked me up from jail, so I had that life growing up, right? And he was ex anticipating uh after after I get divorced that he's gonna have to pick me up from jail, right? He's already thinking in his head what he knows of me. And he was at my house one day, and I walk in, and he was just shocked. Like he's looking at me and he's like, Are you okay? I'm like, Yeah, what are you talking about? He's like, You look so good. What do you mean? Yeah, so I so I went up and looked in the mirror, and I did look refreshed. And I realized it was uh for me, it was just me following the steps, but me um following those three things, reading the Bible and praying and going to church, it changed me. Like my skin got better, right? Um I'm smiling, I have no worries. Uh it's amazing. I mean, if you just yeah, the Holy Spirit did all that, but just how those three simple things can help you more than any skincare regimen or or or any therapist. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean I'm just I'll go to you, Chris. But I'm saying it's better than all of those things, right? It's just the hope and the joy that comes out of that.

SPEAKER_00: 24:06

Yes. Well, thank you so much for sharing that part of your story. Um, I too, I was actually saved from addiction when I was 25, and I look back, I was sharing a little bit about this yesterday, even. And I look back at pictures and I'm like unrecognizable. And it reminded me, I don't know if you know this verse, um, Psalm 34. I immediately thought of when you're sharing is um Psalm 34, 5, those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.

SPEAKER_02: 24:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 24:36

Do you know that is and isn't so powerful?

SPEAKER_02: 24:39

It sounds sounds exactly like what I just described.

SPEAKER_00: 24:42

I mean, truly, it's that um, I think 2 Corinthians 5 17, like you're a new creation, literally. And you look back and you're like, who was I?

SPEAKER_02: 24:53

So so so like I'm sorry, like that time when I was going through prayer, right? So I was experiencing miracles. Um the craziest miracles you can imagine, but um so when people pray, um I hear uh friends and and um brothers and sisters talking about how they get answers, how they get hope, how they get um just uh more uh insight on what they need to do. But for me, I would get visions and images in my head, in my and in my dreams. And one of those uh things was ancients, what we have today. These were the robotic images that would just pop up while I'm praying. And 12 years ago, while I was I think my wife, ex-wife just left, and I was you know stuck with three little kids, four, six, and nine. Um, we were doing you know, just uh co-parenting, and I had the kids Monday through Thursday, it's the busiest days of the week, right? Taking them to three different schools.

SPEAKER_01: 26:02

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02: 26:03

So I'm learning how to be a single dad. And I remember looking at the Christmas tree, and I go, hey, this is Jesus' birthday. We're celebrating a Christ's birthday. What can I get my kids that's more Bible-facing or or or faith-facing than buying another Pokemon, right? And then I looked online, I couldn't find anything. I mean, it was like nothing. Oh, Christian or any biblical toys or um any entertainment options were just so outdated. Yeah, I guarantee if I got one of those toys for my kids, they would cry and probably not talk to me.

SPEAKER_01: 26:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 26:46

But so I'm thinking uh I put two and two together, and that's when I realized this God, He gave He gave me this experience of designing the most iconic toys that's still running, right? And that was one of the biggest lines of toys in pop culture. And all these images coming in my head, I go, you know what? There could be something here where we could break into cut pop culture with biblical figures, yes, right. And yeah, um, and then it took this long to finally launch 12 years later.

SPEAKER_00: 27:24

Wow, so this was like a vision that you had 12 years ago. Like, what did you what did you do with the vision? Because I'm I'm just imagining somebody listening in today, and um like you, I I get a lot of visions. I think in pictures, I'm constantly seeing things. Um, he drops dreams, and I don't know about you, but sometimes I get a lot, and it's like, wow, there's a lot here. Like, do you put it? Did you put it in a journal? Like, how did you like keep track of this? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02: 27:52

Yeah, well, what happened was I for the first time in decades, I pulled out my pencil, started sketching things out again. Um, and I actually have a couple of larger um uh canvases. I I threw some of these pictures into. And it's it's kind of like I don't know if you saw that Close Encounters of a Third Kind movie a long time ago, William Dreyfus. No, I haven't. Well, he was seeing visions of UFOs, and he he would make his whole living room into this sculpture. Well wow, I felt a little bit of that energy, and I was like, I like just was just painting it. And at that time, I was running a marketing company, and I had some employees, and I had two of them just start sketching, and I was drawing, and you know, um, when I was designing for other companies like Playmates, Ninja Turtles, or uh all these other toys, I couldn't design something in one day and I'm done, right? But since this is my own and it had to be perfect, I was never happy with any of the drawings that was coming up. And even if I would see those visions in my head, details of the arms and legs, I would dry it up, but I was never happy. So I would I I kept doing it, and then I put it on the shelf. I tried it again. Life happens. I'm raising three kids, and uh I'm trying to make money and making mortgage and car payments and insurance, so it just was on the shelf for a long time. I would try to pick it up again, and um, two and a half years ago, I met Gloria, who is now my wife. I just got married seven months ago. She's also a single mom, and she's a woman of faith. And two and a half years ago, when it when I told her about this idea, and she was blown away. Just like, oh my gosh, the world needs this, and we gotta get this thing going. And I said, I know we have to launch this, but we were busy. She had a job, I'm running my own business again. Um, but I feel like God really when his timing is perfect, yeah. And there was a reason why it was on the shelf for so long that I didn't do it with any other partner. Uh the way the world is right now with all the division and what's happening in in the Middle East and Russia. So somehow um, the business we were doing with some partners it broke up. And then suddenly we had an opportunity, and around the same week, my old boss Steve Varner, uh Um he had a booth at Comic Con. Comic Con is one of the hardest uh shows to get into. And you can ask any company if they don't have a booth there. It's almost impossible to get a booth in there unless you pay somebody else or uh something happens, right? So he suddenly says, I'm too old for this, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm tired. I don't want to pay for this booth. I go, you know what? I'll pay for it. So I'll I'll take over the booth. And suddenly it was the beginning of this year, this 2025. Right. Um we were we had an opportunity to have a booth at Comic-Con. And Lori and I, we just ended our partnership with our other partners. Uh we had a little bit of time, and we decided to take this fast forward. Um try to finish the designs, get them made, and launch in the end of July. So literally five months, right?

SPEAKER_01: 31:34

Five months.

SPEAKER_02: 31:35

In five months, we finished all the designs. Uh I got them sculpted uh through uh friends of mine. We 3D printed everything, we made the booth. Uh it was uh incredible.

SPEAKER_00: 31:49

Incredible. Like I just have to okay, so you shared previously that you you know kind of had some perfectionists that came into this, right? So what did that look like? Did you kind of let go of that to be able to get this launched in like five months? Like, what did that look like? Because you know, I would I would love for you to kind of speak to those, especially in business or just women in general. A lot of women listen to this, and I think that people do have some of that perfectionist and they don't launch something because of that reason. What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_02: 32:26

You're asking the most perfect questions today. Uh nobody, nobody that nobody's asked me this. Uh, because for me, of course, everybody wants it perfect, but nobody gets it perfect, there is no such thing as perfect.

SPEAKER_01: 32:45

Say that again.

SPEAKER_02: 32:47

Everybody wants perfect, but there is no such thing as perfect. Um, even when you think it's perfect, it's not perfect. So when uh Gloria was getting frustrated at me when I was saying it's not no, that's not the way it's supposed to look. She told me these words. She goes, Hey, you know what? It doesn't have to be perfect.

SPEAKER_00: 33:08

Wow. So I love Gloria.

SPEAKER_02: 33:13

When she said that, uh it just clicked again. I go, you're right. You know, these all these car companies out there, they have to create their designs and it has to come out and they have to sell it. There's an opportunity cost the more you wait, right? So uh and even car companies every few years they have a newer version, uh upgraded, uh, better design. So if this is the time, just have create what I have in my head, right? And right when she said that, uh, you know, we've been going ever since we got married. Uh, we took I told her that the only way this marriage is gonna work, since it's both of our second marriages, uh, we have to pray every morning. I'm saying 30 minutes every morning, and then she agreed. It's like a challenge. Oh, yeah, no problem, right? I told her, Hey, you have to guarantee me three days a week, and she said, I'll give you six and uh we we haven't missed a day since it's been the last seven months, and it's been um life-changing. I try to give everything to God, and he's in even through failures. God has a uh reason for why this is happening, and uh it's been um really a big um source of comfort because uh doing a business uh is the furthest away from being uh comfortable, it's stressful and money flies out, and we're always stressed about deadlines, and somehow because we pray every day, uh we're comforted. I mean suddenly, suddenly when we did made it that decision, all these images came through prayer. Like it was perfect now. I see it. I saw the image of how Goliath should look. And a quick um description of what ancients is. Yeah, tell us this is uh the idea that came about was uh um a technology came out. Imagine Elon Musk, just imagine he created a new company that could manifest spirits in physical form. And and the spiritual realm comes into uh this world and it can move something, you can talk, right? So um a company called SNBR, Supernatural Biorobotics, uh, developed this and it took 20 years and suddenly it came to life, it's moving, and it the orb starts to glow in the cryo chamber, and the tentacles start to move in different colors. And and the evil scientist was who was part of the team steals that technology, and they realize all these spirits they're trying to summon, it didn't work, but biblical characters were strong enough that they would actually manifest, right? So Professor Bale decides to steal it and take over the world with this technology, and he started building robots: Goliath, uh, Pharaoh, Sisera, uh, Jezebel, and just you name all these evil characters and uh giant robots, and then they're run by the actual spirit of Goliath and and all the um uh antagonists, and they would he wants to take over the world and be his own god, right? Yeah, and then and then the the company now starts building David, Noah, um, Joshua, Gideon, Rahab, and Deborah, and the list goes on. I mean, imagine um Pokemon meets Robotech.

SPEAKER_01: 36:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 36:58

So uh I think these are a little cooler than uh Vegetails and all the other toys out there that broke into pop culture. Yes, and I think this has legs, they this could actually compete against Pokemon and Robotech, right?

SPEAKER_00: 37:15

Absolutely, for sure. I mean, and it's a vision from God.

SPEAKER_02: 37:19

I truly believe it. He whenever I'm praying, he he showed me details. Whenever I was frustrated with how the shoulder would look, and I would pray, and I would just suddenly get these images.

SPEAKER_00: 37:29

Yeah. You know, as you're like as you're praying in those moments, I'm just kind of curious, like, and I know for some, you know, how we pray sometimes for something, and there's um what feels like delay, but it's you know, even you talked about this earlier, like there's always a timing to things. But as you're praying, like you're drawing and you're you're digging in and you're like really trying to get the fullness of what he's showing you here. Was it pretty quick? Were you just literally because I I've talked to people before, like I when I work with women for some reason, I I tend to work with women who have book I call them book babies in them, and they'll just start writing and it just flows out. So, did you feel like you were praying and then things were flowing out at the same time? I'm just kind of curious like what your process was like.

SPEAKER_02: 38:14

Um yeah, like when I pray, sometimes it comes right away, sometimes it takes a while for it to come out, and then um there's moments in prayer I go, I would see it, it's like flickering. I go, God, God, I need I need it uh get a little bit more clear, please.

SPEAKER_01: 38:29

Yeah, what is it?

SPEAKER_02: 38:30

I need it, I need a close-up. Yeah, I would just come home and I would just stick with it. Yeah, there's nothing to change. I felt like God gave me that shape, and I would just draw it up. And um, I was able to do this in six months, five or six months, right? So I just went with it.

SPEAKER_00: 38:47

Yes, and five represents grace, so there's so much grace on this, let's just say. Um, I don't know if you've ever do you know the name, the meaning of your name, Howard, at all?

SPEAKER_02: 38:58

Uh no, you know, when you know, I told you we were immigrants here, yeah, and my mom wanted to give me an English name and she liked Howard Hughes.

SPEAKER_00: 39:09

Yeah, like the movie director.

SPEAKER_02: 39:12

Yeah, no, no. He he used he was a um super rich man who was an engineer. He built machines, he built that airplane, the spruce goose, and and yeah, he did movies. You're right. He was also producing movies.

SPEAKER_00: 39:27

I had a feeling he was in movies or something, but so you don't know what Howard means, huh?

SPEAKER_02: 39:31

No, do you?

SPEAKER_00: 39:32

I do. I have a book, and for some reason I was looking at the book, and I feel like I'm supposed to tell you what your name means. I think I heard it before, but I never really so the the cultural origin is English, the inherent meaning is chief guardian, the spiritual connotation is discerning, and there's a scripture that is tied to it, Psalm 3723, which I really um feel is very on point here. It's um again, it's Psalm 3723, and I'm just reading this in um NASB 1995 in my U version Bible app. The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and he delights in his way.

SPEAKER_02: 40:11

Oh my gosh. I just got I just got goosebumps.

SPEAKER_00: 40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 40:16

37 3726.

SPEAKER_00: 40:18

Uh Psalm 3723.

SPEAKER_02: 40:22

I gotta mark it down. Thanks. I never heard in that context. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 40:26

Yeah, isn't that incredible? It's a it's a book, it's called The Name Book, and it's by Dorothy Astoria. And I love to bring this into coaching calls sometime, and I've never brought this into a podcast interview before. It's so interesting. I just follow where he leads, and I'm like, all right, we're going here. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02: 40:44

Definitely leading right now.

SPEAKER_00: 40:45

Yeah, this is so amazing. So you've got like what what is happening now? I know you mentioned you've got your Kickstarter, you said ends tomorrow, and today is September 30th.

SPEAKER_01: 40:56

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 40:57

This will be coming out um probably in you know, November November ish, maybe end of October. Um, what do we expect when we hear this then? Like, how can people help? Or what do you need? Like, I guess that's a question that I would ask is what do you need at this point?

SPEAKER_02: 41:13

Well, you know, to break into the toy industry, it's almost impossible. I mean, you gotta have really deep pockets, you have to compete against Hasbro, Mattel, uh, playmates. So we're actually doing something, some something we can actually manage. Uh, there's a whole new industry right now um called art toys, like figuring collectibles, where artists make their own little figures, right? And I don't know if you have heard of uh Le Boo Boo is one of them, where an artist came out with his own design and they're like multi-billionaires now. La Boo Boo, um this little collectible stuffed animal thing, but it looks like a pagan kind of evil-looking face, but it's a keychain, and one of the K-pop uh black pink Lisa featured it on her one of her Instagram posts, and it just went crazy viral. And um, these are more expensive uh art toys you would mainly put on your wall and collect. Uh a lot of well-to-do people collect bear bricks, which could go up to tens of thousands of dollars, starts at a thousand. Um, so we're competing in that market, and we're also creating a mini version of all the characters that can be keychains. They light up in the eyes and the and the hair to make it show like they're they are spirits.

SPEAKER_01: 42:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 42:39

Um, so we we're in the middle of fundraising. We need to raise some more money to um get this out to everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 42:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 42:48

We spent we we kind of um bootstrapped everything up to now, and we're um doing the Kickstarter didn't do too well. We're kind of uh novices at that. But um, you know, uh we're gonna manufacture uh get these all 3D printed and at least get them out to people. Um we're doing as many trade shows as possible. We need people's prayers, and um, you know, if anybody knows Scotty Scheffler, I'd like to make one for him and so he can put it on a social media.

SPEAKER_00: 43:20

Or who is he?

SPEAKER_02: 43:22

Oh, he oh, he's he's the number one. I feel like I'm supposed to know, but I don't he's the world number one golfer. People compare him to um Tiger Woods, but he's a very outspoken honest Christian faith. Yeah, every time we play him, uh we he wins a tournament, you know, he just gives it all to God. And uh I like that. I I I I like it when pop culture celebrities and musicians could go up and you know they they give things to God. And I want to do a whole Warrior series, robots with their likeness, and I want to give to I I don't know if you heard of the football player Tim Tebow.

SPEAKER_01: 44:00

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 44:02

My son would actually be really mad. My oldest son would be really mad at me because he plays golf and he probably knows who Scotty is. He's like 19.

SPEAKER_02: 44:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:11

Is that is Scotty like 19?

SPEAKER_02: 44:13

No, he's like 28, maybe 29. I'm thinking it's not the father now, but he's an amazing golfer. Uh love watching him, and um, I feel like more and more celebrities are now giving uh notice to God on television. So we need more of that, and um it also gives other believers you know faith. Yeah, we should be outwardly uh sharing with others our faith instead of hiding it and exactly in a world where it's frowned upon, right?

SPEAKER_00: 44:48

Exactly. Uh yeah, and we get to be warriors in doing that, right?

SPEAKER_02: 44:54

So that that'll be a great marketing for me to be able to, as an artist, create one-offs or maybe two two pieces and give it to present it to Tim Thibault on his platform and have him recognize what it is and perhaps share with people. And uh we need we want the world to know about this.

SPEAKER_00: 45:14

Yes, which um which one would you give them? Do you call it like a I feel like I'm losing my word of like what what do you call like a figurine almost?

SPEAKER_02: 45:24

Like it's a figurine, it's a 10-inch uh figurines. I have so far the you know the way I'm building these characters out, the larger ones are like uniquely shaped okay um characters, robots. Uh Goliath obviously has this giant look. Cecera is a lopsided robot. Uh, I'm gonna make Pharaoh. Uh I'm working on him, and for the for the evil characters, and then we have the uh protagonist, David, um, Joshua, Gideon, and Noah have the same body shape.

SPEAKER_01: 46:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 46:01

Um the the women, Deborah and Rahab, who we're starting with, have their own body shape. And I would make one pretty much like David, and I would change his markings, put um you know Scottie Scheffler's favorite verse on his chest, and then uh put a Nike sign. He's sponsored by Nike and Taylor Main. I would put put those stickers on it and present it to him. This is a likeness of you from ancients, and you know, this is a Warrior series for um all of you celebrities out there, influencers who are openly uh you know, just thanking the Lord for everything. We'd like to recognize you guys for all this.

SPEAKER_00: 46:47

Yes, I love that. I mean, I feel like you're gonna have a an open door to that.

SPEAKER_02: 46:53

I hope.

SPEAKER_00: 46:54

I I do, I believe it. Um, and I don't know, just it sometimes it's just asking the question, somehow getting to their agent, or I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02: 47:04

Maybe maybe maybe it's maybe through this podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 47:07

I don't know. I mean, what's really what's been really fun? Like I've actually I don't ask a lot of people to be on the podcast, but I've asked you know, some people that you know others might know their names, and it's literally just putting the ask out there, you know. You never know. It's finding contact information and just asking because you never know.

SPEAKER_02: 47:26

Um we we start with messaging them on Instagram, but we know they have billions of followers, so that it's uh it's a tough ask, but that that's a start.

SPEAKER_01: 47:36

And it is. I love that idea.

SPEAKER_02: 47:38

I'd love to I would love to meet Greg Laurie and uh and down here. Uh he's uh one of those pastors from uh I don't know if you saw Jesus Revolution.

SPEAKER_00: 47:49

Yes, I did. I think he'd be a great one to reach out to.

SPEAKER_02: 47:52

I may have to go to his church and uh camp out in the parking lot until he talks to me.

SPEAKER_00: 47:58

I mean, seriously. It's I mean, I'm serious. It's really I think it just being bold to to do the ask, honestly. And it just takes one, right? I think I shared before, like doing something for the one. And just there, there can be like I don't know, I just love the the picture of like the apple seed. Like, you don't even know how many seeds are in an apple, one little apple seed, because that one seed gets planted, and then there's more apples, and they all have seeds, and it's just it's just wild to think of. So I just bless you in this. Um, which one's your favorite? Which figurine is your favorite?

SPEAKER_02: 48:35

Oh man, I always care around David. He's got um a chrome body, which which is which looks cool. It's got blue eyes and blue tentacles representing his hair. It's got a jetpack in the back, and so and then Goliath, they all look good to me. I love them. Um, if you look on the website, ancients.com, uh, if you go to our Instagram, you'll see yeah, Cisera looks cool. I love Goliath.

SPEAKER_00: 49:03

I love that. Well, Deborah is like one of my favorite girls. Um, I actually just got done reading literally like a day or two ago, The Deborah Company by Jane. Um, why am I totally drawing a blank on her last name? But, anyways, it's called The Deborah Company, and uh I just love Deborah, and Esther too is probably one of my other favorites. I think Esther would be a huge hit.

SPEAKER_02: 49:27

I want to do Esther, I want to do Ruth, I want to do everybody, but um you you can see it.

SPEAKER_00: 49:33

I can see this, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 49:34

This is Deborah, it's just purple.

SPEAKER_00: 49:37

Oh my gosh, I love it.

SPEAKER_02: 49:39

And she has her staff. Wow, there's a uh a judge, you know, uh fighting against the Canaanite soldiers, and that's Cisera, the lopsided robot in the back, who's a Canaanite captain.

SPEAKER_00: 49:52

Oh my goodness, this is incredible. I mean I I tell people there's certain things. Um, you know, one of my favorite phrases is like, you can't make this stuff up.

SPEAKER_02: 50:04

I think this is God's doing. This is uh David.

SPEAKER_00: 50:07

Oh wow, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_02: 50:08

You see first Samuel 17 engraved on his test plate.

SPEAKER_00: 50:12

Incredible. You guys definitely go to the website. I'm gonna post it in the show notes, and I'll also be posting um you know ways to get in touch with Howard, how to get onto the Instagram. If you if you guys know a way to you know make connections with some of these people he's talked about, oh wow, he's got the mini version of David. That's super cool. So so just if you could maybe just share with us, since this will likely be coming out um towards the end of October, early November, probably. Um we're gonna be heading into the holiday season. How can people, you know, get their hands on these and give them to their kids put under their Christmas tree?

SPEAKER_02: 50:58

You know, uh again, these are uh not like toys for kids yet. Um good news, we do have a meeting with Playmates Toys this Friday. Um they're the huge manufacturer of Ninja Turtles, the first wave, and they have all the licenses, and they want me to bring all these 21 pieces in um on Friday to perhaps talk about doing a deal. But uh you know, it's uh it's a hard ask for a major toy company to publicly traded toy company to consider doing a religious uh line, but it's good practice. But uh for Christmas this year, we're working our butts off to get it done. Uh it's gonna be all handmade, uh hand hand produced for everybody. So um these are the first initial sets, and I one day hopefully they'll be collectivolves.

SPEAKER_00: 51:56

Yes. Well, what would be like I don't know if you're able to share with us, what would be kind of a price point for the keychain and or the figurine?

SPEAKER_02: 52:04

We're trying to keep it down the keychains to$35.40. They have the the light electronic piece inside. Uh all of them have their light up features, um, roughly about the same price as you would buy a Labu Boo doll or something. Uh the larger figurines are a lot more expensive. It takes a lot to build. Uh our cost is extremely high, but they're all hand built uh um figurines. Uh, if we are able to raise money and it does cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to um work with the manufacturer to produce these, um we can probably get them down lower, but in the time being, you get to have the first wave of handmade by the by the artist. So it could be it could be worth a lot of money later. If this right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 52:54

I love that. Oh my gosh. Well, so you're you're going from Kickstarter to are you doing a different like campaign at this point then?

SPEAKER_02: 53:02

Yeah, well, it's over tomorrow. Um, we're barely gonna make it, but I think uh right after that, we're building out our website on ancients.com. We're gonna put a shop button where you can pre-order. Um, and I'm also gonna sell posters and merch and all that, but it should be up probably mid-October, maybe. Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_00: 53:25

That'll be good timing then.

SPEAKER_02: 53:26

Yeah, perfect.

SPEAKER_00: 53:27

This has been really fun. Um, I've never interviewed anybody before who's done any work like this. It's incredible. Um, I grew I was born in '77, so I was a big fan of Ninja Turtles. Um, so it's super cool to you know have a conversation with somebody who was, you know, catalyst to bringing them to life, right? So um, and thank you for being a brave voice who's setting others free. That's like part of part of why you're here today, I believe. Um, I believe you've given hope to others to persevere and you know, bring things to life that the Lord brings to you, even though I don't know about you, but I was even thinking about this this morning. I'm like, man, business is such a faith journey.

SPEAKER_01: 54:12

It is.

SPEAKER_00: 54:12

It's like the biggest faith journey ever. So um as I, you know, do this podcast, I do it for the one. And I would love for you to just think of that one who's listening today. Would you be open to just sharing any words of encouragement or wisdom that you know comes to your heart? And then would you pray us out today?

SPEAKER_02: 54:29

Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, I've like you just said it. Um, I was just thinking all these businesses I've done before I've encountered God. I don't remember what my motivation or uh what how I was supposed to succeed. Um but yeah, when when you have God as your CEO, I mean the the the confidence level just skyrockets. And uh, you know, like God will know what to do with the money, he'll know who to raise money with and all that. So yeah, we are we worry less, and at the same time, we worry less and more confident, and we really need money now, but we don't we're not stressed, right? So we're we're confident wherever God takes us, and I really think this will go somewhere. And I just hope that people do, especially the listeners here and people of faith, will put God as their CEO.

SPEAKER_00: 55:30

Yes, that's a huge key right there.

unknown: 55:33

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 55:34

Um, would you pray us out today? I would love to.

SPEAKER_02: 55:37

I'd love to. Uh uh, Father, we thank you so much for um just guiding today's conversation. Uh, we pray that um there's listeners out there who will be touched and inspired by today's uh just conversation, which was led by you, and we pray that um you will touch the lives of um people out there who are um I don't know, lacking faith or have uh low confidence levels that you will lift them up, and that we all know that you know, even through our failures, you're working, and there's failures out there that allow us to see something that we're supposed to see. And again, like we said today, um nothing is perfect, none of our designs are perfect, even our business isn't perfect, our spouses aren't perfect, we are not perfect, but we know that you are perfect, and we can just um put our eyes towards you and um know that you will guide us to eternity in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

SPEAKER_00: 56:45

Amen. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. Um, could you just repeat again how people can get in touch with you? The the website, just kind of spell it out. I'll put it in the show notes again.

SPEAKER_02: 56:55

Yeah, we have a very original name, Ancients with a Z. And um quick thing, it is based on Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 and 2, the hall of faith.

SPEAKER_01: 57:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 57:08

And so uh, you know, uh the ancients were commended for their faith, right? So if you Google search ancients with a Z, you'll find us. But ancients.com, uh, it has all our social media links, and it's gonna have our our shop, it's gonna have our videos, and uh, once this podcast comes out, uh, I'll put a link to this on there too in the media.

SPEAKER_00: 57:31

Well, that's amazing. Thank you for being on today. I will be sure to link all of the information in the show notes so you guys can easily get in touch with Howard, go follow their socials, get on their website, go check everything out. Thank you again for being on today. I'm gonna close with the Hope Unlocked Anchoring Verse. It's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 15, 13. So thank you, Howard. I will be back with another episode next week. Have a good one, everybody.