Before the Vows: Unfiltered Relationship Q&A w/ Jaime

What's up, you guys? Welcome back to the podcast.

If you are listening to this episode as it drops, this is a very special week because I'm about to get married. It's officially wedding week and we are in Spain just days away from saying I do.

So obviously I had to release one of the most fitting episodes and one of my personal all-time favorites because I'm joined by none other than my soon-to-be husband, Mr.

Jaime Lopez himself. This is a conversation we recorded together a while back before we were even engaged, and looking back at some of the questions that you guys had sent in for this relationship relationship Q&A episode.

I honestly have to laugh because some of them were pretty prophetic.

I think you're gonna love revisiting this one and getting a behind-the-scenes peek at our relationship, our honest first impressions of each other, how we keep the spice, our biggest icks about each other, our timeline for marriage and kids, and a man's take on being with a female breadwinner, and so, so much more. But before we dive in, there are a few things I want to share with you. If you are into the wedding content and you want to see everything that's going down this week, head over to my Instagram at _samanthadaily because my incredibly talented friend Alyssa, who you might know as Inspired Media Co. She's been a guest on the podcast a couple of times, and she is just an absolute icon when it comes to social media content.

She is doing our wedding content, and I'm so excited for you guys to see what she captures. It's going to be so, so good, so follow along on Instagram.

Secondly, there are some new vlogs up on my YouTube channel if you want some extra content to binge this week, to be in the love bubble with me. There is a full Bachelorette vlog from my trip to Miami, and fair warning, we're playing some Bachelorette games and some V personal details were spilled.

So if you want the tea, go watch that vlog.

There's also going to be another full behind-the-scenes vlog of all the beauty and wellness things that I did in the lead-up to the wedding, every single thing that I got into for my glow-up process, what was worth it and not. So if you're planning your glow-up era, that one is going to be for you. And lastly, if you want to give me a little virtual wedding gift of sorts this week, the one thing that would genuinely mean so much to me is if you went and dropped a 5-star review on the podcast right now as you're listening. Whatever platform you're on, drop us 5 stars. And if you're on Apple podcast, please, please, please write a quick review about one of your favorite episodes or a moment that you love from the show. That is truly the greatest gift you could give me, and it always helps the show so much. And I just want to say a big thank you for being here week after week. You guys have no idea how much it means to me that so many of you have been here through so many different seasons of my life, from starting my business to moving countries, buying my house, starting over in Florida, evolving my brand, getting engaged, and now my wedding. Some of you have been listening to the podcast since 2020, and you've seen me through so many different chapters. So the fact that I get to share such a special time in my life with you just makes my heart so, so warm. Thank you for being here. I love you so much.

Okay, now let's get into this episode. Here we go.

Welcome to the Makeshift Happen podcast. I'm your host, Samantha Daly, entrepreneur, life coach, and your no BS bestie, here to bring you all things mindset, manifestation, and personal development. This podcast is designed to help you expand your mind and uplevel your life. So turn the volume up and roll the windows down if you're coming along for the ride. Let's go make shift happen.

What's up guys? Welcome back to the podcast. Special episode today because I have Jaime with me. We have convinced him to come onto the podcast. Thank you guys for asking all of your amazing questions that we put a question box on Instagram. So we're just gonna go through and kind of see how many we can get to.

Yeah, let's go.

All right, let's go. We don't really like— we haven't thought of our answers for these questions, and you kind of have no idea what the questions are, so We're just gonna see how far we get. All right, also we don't have like an official multi-person setup for this podcast yet, so bear with us. We're going to be sharing the same mic. Hopefully it's fine. Yeah. Okay, um, what is the hardest part about having an ambitious partner? I think that both of us are pretty ambitious. Yeah. So maybe for us it's not as challenging because it's not like one person is so ambitious and has goals and wants to work on stuff and be entrepreneurial, and the other person is just like, oh, like, why can you not just like chill and hang out all the time? We're not really like that, so we're both kind of working on our own stuff a lot. But I don't know, maybe you had a different opinion when you were working in corporate in Spain and I was doing entrepreneurial stuff and I was kind of working long hours.

I was so happy about you, and I was supporting as much as I was able to. And I think like seeing you growing from zero, it made me so happy and so proud of you. So yeah, I think you can like even grow 10 times more.

Yeah. You've always been really supportive of me, but there's never been anything about like my ambition or how long I work that's been like annoying for you. Probably the fact that you take care of the dog all the time.

Yeah, a lot. But I mean, I like it. I go down with him, I play with him, but it's the only thing, you know?

Yeah. Because you do a lot more for Storm than I do.

Yeah, sometimes for cooking and cleaning in the kitchen.

What about that? Sometimes. What do you mean sometimes? Who makes dinner for us every night?

I mean, the schedule that you have, you know, it's pretty weird. Yeah, if you want to talk about it, you can. Like, you sometimes— you ate lunch at 5 PM.

I know.

You leave the plates and the coffee.

I don't even drink coffee anymore.

The tea or whatever. So yeah, I mean, but, but I, I don't like to see you working a lot because I, I want to be more time with you and like spend more time with you and everything. But I think you are like growing.

But you never complain.

I never complain because I know you are like getting your goals and living a dream, you know, like you love your, your, your company, your, your staff. So Yeah, that made me happy too.

Yeah, cool. What advice do you have for men that also have partners who are like busy building a business or an empire or something? Like, what advice would you give to another man if his woman was like working all the time and being busy?

I guess like support them, love them a lot, and love their business, you know?

Yeah.

And you support them.

You like— by love their business, I feel like you mean like be curious about their business because you ask me all the time Yeah, I ask you like, what's going on?

What are your next like steps? Like your schedule? What are you going to do like for the quarter 4, you know, like whatever. Yeah. You're am— when you're ambitious, I mean, I like it too. So I try to like ask you about your day by day too.

Yeah. And you're interested.

Yeah.

Yeah. So be maybe like be interested in like what your partner is building and be curious.

Yeah. I think, I think that's important.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's good. Okay, are either of you thinking about marriage or starting a family outside of Storm? So Storm is our full-time only child.

Yeah, he's spoiled.

He's really spoiled. He probably loves the fact that we have no one else to take care of. Yeah, so he's living the dream right now. But yeah, like, we have thought and are thinking about marriage a lot. We have had a lot of conversations about that. I think like people, there was a lot of people also asking like, when are you going to propose? Like, when are you getting married? When are you having babies?

Um, that's a good question though.

But great question, you guys. We love the excitement, love the enthusiasm.

But how many kids do you want to have?

Um, I think 2.

That's the maximum.

Yeah, yeah, I think 2 is that— 2 is probably the max. Yeah, yeah. Someone asked if we had names picked out.

We like— we like— I mean, or I like—

you know what's a thing? Like, you probably don't know this, but like in influencer culture, it's like the baby names that you're thinking of are like coveted. Like, people do not tell them, they do not share them.

I know.

No, it's like if you have a baby name that you like, it's top fucking secret because you don't want anyone else to steal it, which—

I mean, I can't say mine because I know you don't like them anymore.

Yeah, it's not like that in Spain because everyone has the same name.

Oh, here too. Brian, Samantha.

Just all my family members' names. The only American names you could think of. Yeah, no, I feel like everyone in Spain is named like Carlos and Maria.

Yeah, I mean, Carmen. I like Scotty, that I guess is like Scotland.

Yeah, at one point we did like the name Scotty for a girl. I don't know if I would actually name my child that. I feel like you can never say until you're pregnant, you kind of like feel the energy of the baby and it's like more real, I guess. Yeah, but we did like the name Scotty for a girl.

I like James. Yeah, yeah, James, because my name Jaime, it's James in, James in, in United States, one in English.

Yeah, Jaime is James in English, so that's kind of cool. He could be like technically a junior without being a junior, but it's like he's named after you without having the same exact name, so that's kind of cute. Um, and then we have a running joke that Jaime likes the name Dior. We watched— what was that show? Last Chance U. Yeah, we watched some like Netflix documentary about these kids. Yeah, kids like football. It was like their last chance to— they like got kicked out of schools and stuff. It was like their last chance to go to this community type college that could potentially— they could get scholarships for the NFL or something. And there was this one guy, I think he was a running back or something, his name was Dior. And you were like, that is so cool. I was like, I mean, but for a second, 0% chance we're naming our child Dior.

Yeah, it's pretty tacky.

Pretty tacky. Yeah, definitely. James Dior, that's what you always joke about. Yeah, your future son, James Dior. Okay, what else? What's your favorite way to spend quality time together? I'll, I'll go first. Okay, I like when we just go out to like a dinner or something just us and we have like real conversations. I feel like we get into like more deeper conversations when we go out to a dinner together than what we would normally talk about in like our day-to-day life.

You're right. I think, um, I like more when we go to the beach and we go with the dog and we walk without phones. Oh yeah, we have phones.

Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, we've been trying to do that more.

Yeah, once a week.

Yeah, we set a goal the start of the new year that we would do one morning beach walk together, no phones. Yeah, and that's been nice. Yeah, I like it. Okay, cool. Simple, nothing fancy. I feel like people are always expecting you to say like something crazy, and then it's like, oh, we like going out to dinner and we like going for walks. Yeah, that's basically it. All right, who is the better driver and why?

I mean, it's me.

Um, okay, yeah, I'll give it to you.

I mean, it's better if I don't explain, but yeah, no. Oh, okay, it's me.

I'll give it to you. I think, I think you're a pretty good driver. Okay, you're very good at parking. I'm the best. Parallel parking, reverse parking, excellent. I don't like either of those things. Yeah, but one of us did get a speeding ticket on our last road trip, and it wasn't me. That's all I'm saying.

But I ain't got the ticket yet, so.

Well, we have the ticket. We have the ticket. We just didn't pay for it yet.

Okay.

Okay. Okay, this question we have to answer. It's from my dad, which is hilarious. My dad recently got an Instagram account. I randomly saw one day that my dad started following me on Instagram, and my dad doesn't have social media. Never has. Has never had Facebook, like nothing. He's super like anti-social media, has always been like, my friend book is full. I don't need more friends. Like, don't care. Don't want to be on social media. Don't need to hear about it, don't need to know about it. And I randomly get a notification like 2 weeks ago that my dad was following me, and I'm like, is this really him? Is this an account that my mom made for him? Like, what is happening? He set it up all on his own. I figured like my mom probably convinced him, like, yeah, come on, Brian, like, you've got to get on Instagram if you want to know more about your daughter's life and see her business and keep up to date. Like, you gotta get on Instagram. No, there was no convincing involved. He took it upon himself one day made it.

You ask him?

Yeah, he told me.

Hi.

You know, my mom didn't even know about it. I know. No, she had nothing to do with it. He did it all on his own. Just one day, made his— he goes, oh yeah, I'm figuring it out. And then I put this question box up for you guys on stories the other day, and I start getting questions submitted from my dad. I'm like, I wonder if he thinks these are anonymous, because I can definitely tell they're from him. Um, but that's so funny. So my dad asked you a really great question, Jaime. He said, how do you spend your time waiting for Sam when she's getting ready?

You can do whatever you want because it can be like 4 hours, like Cleopatra. But I watch movies, I go down with the dog, sometimes I go to the gym, but normally like movies or TV shows or whatever.

Because I don't think you normally watch movies when I'm getting ready, you're just normally on your phone.

But I cut them, you know, like I don't watch the whole movie. Yeah, just a little bit.

I feel like mainly you're on your phone, let's be real.

Yeah, but I mean sometimes I go down with the dog and— or I go to a gym sometimes. Yeah, whatever you are like.

Normally we try to coordinate. If it's something that we're going to that I know is going to take me a while to get ready, I tell you like, you have an hour, so go find something to do, essentially.

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I feel like other people are asking, like, do you ever have arguments and like how do you resolve them? I feel like our most common recurring argument probably has something to do with me taking a long time to get ready or us being late for something. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the only thing that we ever like, yeah, get annoyed with each other about or like clash about really, at least recently. I can't think of anything else that we would argue about, but that's— yeah, that's the one.

Yeah, that's the one.

That's the one. Okay, so then people were like, how do you resolve? What do we do? We just get over it.

The thing, like, you don't resolve it with Because next week, don't, don't make me look too good on this podcast. No, no, no, no. I mean, I mean, I think it's all girls.

Okay, but to be fair, I feel like that only happens to us like every once in a while. No, it's not, it's not like all the fucking time.

No, it's like once every like 4 or 5 months.

Yeah, yeah. So that's okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, how do we resolve it?

Forget about it. When you forget about it you do it again, you know? Oh, I mean, you don't— I mean, I guess you don't think when you're going to be ready.

I never— it's never intentional.

No, I guess—

obviously, I'm not intentionally trying to hurt you or bother you by like taking a long time to get ready.

It's just sometimes, you know, also like it can be also my fault sometimes. Sometimes because I say, okay, in 15 minutes we are leaving. Yeah, because I'm thinking about yourself, your own timelines. Like, in 15 minutes it's done, and it's like 15 minutes, 45 minutes, 55 minutes. So, so I mean, it's also like thinking that a man is going to like get ready and leave.

Yeah, you're, you're thinking about your own timelines and then expecting me to like fit them. Yeah. So sometimes you forget. We talked about that really early on in our relationship, I feel like, because before we were together, you didn't like really realize that the things that you're thinking in your head, I'm not aware of. Yeah, yeah, that was the main thing for us. I was like, I understand, I understand that you thought about how you were gonna go to the gym and then you were gonna meet this friend for a quick drink and then you were gonna do whatever and then we were gonna go to dinner together, but like, that was all in your head and none of that was communicated to me. So like, I'm not aware of the plan. And you're like, that's been my plan. I'm like, yeah, in your mind.

Yeah, sometimes I think I, I said Yeah, it's in my mind.

Yeah, yeah, communication is key, which everyone says, but I do think we try to stay— I think every day we kind of like ask each other what you have going on that day and if you have anything important. And we have like one spare bedroom which we're in right now, which we also use as an office. So if you have like an important meeting or something, or I'm recording a podcast, like we have to be, yeah, connected on like who needs what space when. When do you need to be quiet and who's taking the dog outside if someone is super busy? And those are like that.

Yeah, we'll have We have one car.

Oh yeah, we have one car, so we do have to coordinate a lot about, are you going anywhere today? Like, I have this thing, is this going to work?

But the thing is, like, we normally don't use the car.

No, so no, we don't use it that much, so it's fine. Another one from my dad: what did Jaime think when he first met your parents?

They were like happy.

Okay, but like, we need to give some context. We need to give some context about when you met my parents.

Oh, I didn't think about about that.

Yeah, and then you can go back to that moment and think about—

I was in Ohio—

what you really thought about them. Yeah, I was in Ohio.

So I was graduating from Ohio State University, and I was in New York studying.

Jaime was in New York City studying for part of your master's degree in law. And so because he was in the U.S., you were able to fly to Ohio and come to my graduation.

Yeah.

And obviously my parents were going to be there for my graduation, and so that was going to be the first time—

it was the first time I met you. It was, it was the first time that ever met my parents in person. And my English was not as good as it is now. Yeah, I mean, my accent is bad, but my English was so bad.

But people like your accent.

Yeah, it's strong, but I don't think you like it though. I don't like it, but I cannot change it. I know. But anyway, my English—

it's like Sofia Vergara. She does interviews all the time and she's like I can't change my accent. That's really annoying.

We're gonna change it.

I think we can.

But anyway, anyway, I think my English was so bad to have like a conversation.

I don't think it was so bad, but your accent was definitely strong and you had to pay more attention to listen to people to be able to reply. And the thing about it was that we threw a huge party at my house with all of my friends. We lived in— I lived in a house with 6 of my best friends senior year of college. And we threw a huge party with all of our parents and families and stuff the night before graduation, which was so dumb. I would never do that now. We were all so hungover. Yeah, it was a really fun party though. So you technically met my parents at the party. Yeah, but it was a party with a lot of people and they were nice, they were open.

I remember that moment.

My parents are fun.

Yeah, so fun. And your mom is always like like, how do you say? Smiling? Yeah, smile. I don't know how to say it.

Like what? Like her energy?

Yeah, it's like nice, try to welcome.

Yeah, welcoming. Yeah, yeah, she's really welcoming.

Like a hugger.

Yeah, a hugger. Yeah, yeah, she probably gave you a big hug and immediately was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, treating you like, you know, her best friend.

Yeah, so that's nice.

Yeah, yeah, um, and my dad is a jokester, so he's probably trying to make jokes with you.

Yeah, I probably didn't get any. You probably didn't get any. Smiling.

You're like, cool. Um, so yeah, but then the next day was the actual graduation.

Oh man.

And you had to sit alone with my parents in the football stadium.

It was so hot.

In the football stadium. It was so hot. And you were wearing a suit because you—

Okay, so I have something I think you're really gonna love and your business is gonna love it even more. Do you wanna steal the strategy I've been using to seduce premium Buyers and Sell Out My Offers on Instagram Stories. Chances are you're already posting, you're already making sales, but if your Instagram Stories aren't working as hard as you are, you're leaving money on the table. Sold Out Stories is going to teach you exactly how to change that so that you can sell out any offer at any price point. And even high-caliber coaches miss this because selling on stories isn't about how much you post or how frequently you show up face to camera. It's about psychological sequencing, and the way you're posting right now might be giving the premium buyers in your audience the ick. Documenting your day and hoping it builds trust, posting look-at-me content and calling it authority, sharing client wins as soon as they drop in instead of strategically weaving them into a story selling sequence designed to drive demand and convert sales. We both know that you're not here to learn how to show up more. You're here because you know your content could be converting faster and more effectively. Sold Out Stories is going to give you 5 high-converting story selling frameworks built specifically for premium buyer psychology. Inside, you'll get over 6 hours of deep dive video trainings, real IG story breakdowns, and live walkthroughs that show you exactly how to elevate your slides from authority building all the way to offer flow in less than 10 slides. My clients have already been using these frameworks to pull 5-figure sales days while posting less. One client generated 14 premium leads from a single story sequence. Another sold out her event in under 6 hours with just 8 strategic story slides. No sales calls, no paid ads, just the right frameworks. You'll walk away knowing how to sequence for desire, transition into your offer seamlessly and sell daily without ever feeling salesy. You already know your offer is incredible, so now it's just time for your stories to sell it like it is. Grab Sold Out Stories today and turn 10 slides or less into your highest converting content. Let's make your next story your most profitable one yet. Click the link in the show notes below and I'll see you inside.

I have to say that when you don't speak You're like your own language when you are hungover. Yeah, you cannot speak. No, the other language, it's impossible. You are so slow in your own language, imagine in a, another language. Yeah, so impossible. So that day was like horrible.

You were really hungover, it was so hot, you were in a suit, and you were trying to think and speak in—

even in my Spanish. So imagine in English. Yeah, it was horrible. Yeah.

So that was the first time you guys met.

But, um, but it was good.

My dad got you some Dippin' Dots, which you did appreciate and like.

I really like it.

Yeah, that was your first time trying Dippin' Dots, which is like a frozen type of like ice cream. Look, these little frozen balls of ice cream and mostly air, to be honest, but delicious, delicious, delicious. Love it. Okay, why in the world did you show up late for our first date?

Late. I am so up late.

When, when we, when we were supposed to meet at Dubliners.

Oh, that one.

You didn't show up.

Really? The one that I picked you up with? No, no, because it's the Spanish style, you know what I mean? Like, it was, it was the '80s.

I think we told the whole story on last year's Valentine's episode, so if you, if you missed that and you want to hear more of like the full story of like how we met and all of that, that's in the last episode, but essentially, yeah, do a summary. Like, we were— I invited— we had been talking, so I— we'd like messaging, and I had invited him to meet me and some of my friends at an Irish bar for St. Patrick's Day in Madrid, and he agreed. And the St. Patrick's party was happening. It was kind of like a midday, like evening type party. I don't know what day it was, but whatever the case, it was like people were starting to go there at like 6 PM. Like, it was like daytime, but I think I went around like 9, 9 PM. And I told you that I was there and stuff, but you were like working out and doing whatever, and then pre-gaming with your friends. And then so you didn't come to the pub until 2. And at that point I I was fucked up and wasted, and all of my friends had left because they were wasted.

And so that's the thing, like, yeah, in Spain we had to— we had to like tell this— in Spain we go out at 2, 3 AM, and we finished it— we finished the party like at 7, 8.

I know, but I didn't say we're going to a discoteca. I didn't say we're going to a club. It was to meet at a bar, and I told you the time.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know, overplaying.

I mean, it's fine though.

It all worked out fine. It worked out.

It all worked. It was a strategy. I think it worked out best in my favor because I said— I think I said this last time— I came off as like very unattached, like didn't care. Because as soon as you arrived, I was walking out.

You were leaving.

I was leaving to get a cab, and I was just like, oh, bye. And I got a taxi, and you were probably like, what the fuck? But but I'm normally not like that at all. Like, that to me is kind of like mean girl energy. Like, I never would normally do that. But I think for someone of your, like, personality, it probably intrigued you a little bit more. Yeah, man. Oh, like, she's not— she's not even that, like, fussed. Like, she doesn't even care that much. She invited me here and then I show up and she just leaves.

Yeah, maybe, maybe.

I think it, like, pulled you in a little bit more.

Yeah.

Okay, lots of people are, like, asking the question about the breadwinner thing, which I think we also talked about last time, but Like, short summary, what are your thoughts on being in a relationship where you're with a partner that makes a lot of money?

I'm so proud of it. I love it.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah. It's never really like bothered you? Never. But I think if we were telling the full honest truth, like, you like want to compete. Not to like compete with me to be better than me, but because you have your own like natural instinct to want to like provide.

But I, I think man needs a purpose.

A purpose, yeah.

And to feel like, like good in the relationship, and he's also making like the money and supporting with everything for the family, like contributing in like a valuable way. Yeah, but I'm so proud. I love it. Yeah, so keep doing it.

You're like, honestly, keep going, we're thriving.

Yeah.

I love it, I love it. Okay, where is your ideal honeymoon location? I don't even know.

We talk about— what place? Africa.

Um, that's what you would want? You want to do a safari in Africa? I mean, yeah, I mean safari, but like, okay, maybe you could sell me on it if it was like a luxury safari.

Oh yeah, I mean, I think they're like luxury, like beautiful accommodations. Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, what else?

Like Asia, maybe? Like, we wanted to go to the Maldives before we left Europe, but we didn't have time.

Yeah, yeah, but that's like for the last 3 days of the honeymoon to relax, doing nothing.

Yeah, maybe it's a little bit boring.

Yeah, for you. Yeah, I mean, scuba diving, the only thing I can do it.

Yeah, and I don't like scuba diving or snorkeling, so.

But South America too, you know.

But for a honeymoon, that's maybe just more like it. Yeah, I don't really know though.

Whatever. Yeah, I don't really— we like to travel, so I know.

Whatever. Do you think that we will live in Florida long term, or do we see ourselves somewhere else?

I think we're going to live for a long time here. Yeah, but I think at some point we are going to leave.

Yeah, I mean, I, I—

we don't know.

I, I don't know, but we do, we do like to move around. We do like change. Yeah, but we love it here right now. We love our house. And we own this house, so if we were to move, we would have to sell or rent. So it would be more of like a— I don't know, like a bigger decision. Um, but yeah, I think we see ourselves here for a while unless something changes, you know. But I don't think that we would retire here or spend like our late years of life here. I think we see ourselves later in life probably back in Spain. I mean, at least that's what we've talked about.

Yeah, we don't know, but I think—

but don't you agree you want to retire in Spain? Yeah, like better quality of life.

Yeah, healthcare, free healthcare when you're getting old. You're getting—

you're— no, honestly, like, you need— do you need that?

Totally. Yeah, I mean, I don't care going to Bali for 3 months, living there.

Yeah, but not when we're retiring.

Yeah, with 60 years old.

No, that's just like— that's just something that we would like to do. Will you guys get a first sibling for your dog? I would love for Storm to have a companion and someone to be able to play with and spend time with, but I don't think that we will because Jaime doesn't want more dogs and our building doesn't actually allow dogs. No. Unless they are like emotional support or service animals. So it's just kind of like a pain in the butt. And yeah, so I think no, unfortunately.

We love dogs.

We do love dogs. We send each other dog videos all the time.

All the time.

We cry at the dog videos.

And movies. Movies are the worst.

I can't do the dog movies. It's a no for me. It's too much for my little heart. What does Jaime do? The big, big question. What does Jaime do?

I do everything. That's the problem. He does everything. So I do real estate. Uh-huh.

That's like your main project here.

I work with a brokerage. I work with apartment owner. Right now we are like having—

For investments. Yeah. Like real estate investing.

Yeah. We are having some investors. We are having some properties. We are doing flipping, developing. So we are like doing a lot of stuff right now with real estate.

With real estate. Yeah. Building.

We are building.

You are a lawyer. So that's what you did in Spain before we came here.

I'm a lawyer, but in Spain. In America, no.

Yep. So he can't help you with any of your legal needs here. Unfortunately.

Only with contracts.

Only with contracts. Yeah, true. What cultural differences did you guys struggle with as a couple? People were asking things about like language barriers. Do we have any like differences in, in culture or traditions?

Or, I mean, I guess in communication in the beginning.

Yeah. And even sometimes now, you know, like if you're tired or you're hungry and you say something two times and the person isn't understanding it, like sometimes it's annoying. Yeah, you know. Like, it's annoying, but that's just kind of part of the thing.

Yeah, we got used to.

Yeah, like sometimes if you're talking super fast or from the other room or shouting— yeah, shout it like— yeah, and you're just like, what? And then you guys have to say what like 3 times, then you're like, uh, yeah, that's annoying. But, but the culture, the— I feel like a big difference between Spain and America is like the the timing of everything, like when you wake up and go to sleep and meal times and stuff, and you had to kind of adjust to that. But I feel like you have been switched. I feel like you like the American schedule better.

I mean, we still have lunch and dinner late to the Spanish.

No, not totally. I've been trying to make dinner more like 7:30 lately.

Yeah, but there's something in Spain, it's like a snack, right?

So we're not on the Spanish dinner schedule because that's insane. It's like 10 PM. For dinner. We don't do that.

Yeah, I'm waking up.

You, you like the new schedule?

Yeah, I mean, also it's the light, you know.

Yeah, when the sun comes up— sun doesn't come up until 8:30 AM in Spain, which is sick.

Yeah, but we have more day.

Well, it's the same amount of day, it's just at a different time.

Yeah, we'll go to sleep late.

Yeah, I don't think that we've had any like big cultural differences that we've clashed on. The thing about Christmas that's really nice is that we can do the 25th with my family because that's like Christmas Day, that's the main holiday in America. And then you guys also have— which you do celebrate the 25th, but it's usually just like a family dinner. Yeah, there's no gifts, there's no elaborate anything. So then we can do Three Kings Day with your family if we travel to Spain, and then everybody kind of gets a main holiday at Christmas time, which is nice.

That's nice.

Did you guys go through a period of being broke? Would you have ever considered us broke? Money?

Yeah. No, never.

You don't think so? So I mean, no, you were never broke. No, I was probably broke.

No, no, because we had our families. I think, you know what I mean?

I don't count that. It's not like they were paying for me. So yeah, like when I first moved to Spain, I think that I would consider that I was broke with my teaching job, with little it paid me, and then the rent that I had to pay at my place in Atocha. Yeah, it was like more than half my paycheck.

Your parents were helping you maybe in the beginning, and sometimes I help you.

I mean, if I like really needed help, but that wasn't like a constant— it wasn't like they were sending me money or I was living off of that. Yeah, I think I was kind of broke, but it was like, it was fine, you know what I mean?

It was a sort of—

it wasn't, it wasn't— I also was really young, I was 22. Yeah, so it wasn't like I like stressed about it. I just kind of thought that that was like life, you know, just waiting for my paycheck to come and then I would be okay. But if there was a lag between getting my paycheck, yeah, I would have literally no money in the, in the bank.

So I think that's— everybody felt broke once in their life, I think, when you are starting a new thing.

I think if you're taking enough risks with your life and you're being courageous and you're stepping outside the box and you're doing things that you've never done before, then you probably will have periods where you feel broke because I felt broke too when I moved here because I left everything in Spain. Yeah, you had to leave your job. You couldn't work for a while because we were in the green card process. The saving that I had, I was like spending it, spending it, spending your savings.

So yeah, I felt broke too.

But you know, the good thing was that we were broke at different times.

Yeah, yeah.

When one person was broke, the other person was doing okay. Yeah. And that. That's been good for us. That's good. That's been good for us. Do you and Jaime speak Spanish together?

We speak like English-Spanish. I speak in English, he responds in Spanish. I speak in Spanish, he respond in English.

We speak in Spanish, we'll say like one sentence in Spanish and then randomly switch to English.

Yeah, like if one word—

yeah, if one word doesn't come to you— yeah, if one word comes to you in the other language, you just like switch.

Yeah, but everything.

Yeah, yeah, we do that.

People look at us.

I know.

Well, we do.

It's kind of like unconscious when we're doing it at home by ourselves because we both speak both languages, so we don't like notice like, oh, that's so weird, you just switched mid-sentence. Like, you don't like think about it. But then when we go out to like restaurants or something, you can tell people look at us. Sometimes people look at us because they've heard us speaking one language and then just randomly we like switch for no fucking reason.

Or speaking in English and I say one word in Spanish.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's weird. Yeah, but yes, I mean, we do speak Spanish together, and when we're in Spain, 100%.

Yeah, I mean, 100%, we speak Spanish. Yeah, sometimes.

Yeah, yeah. Um, sometimes we'll speak a different language if we want to talk about people. Yeah, yeah, which is actually really hard to do here in South Florida because everyone speaks Spanish, so you never You never know. It's not like a secret code anymore. No, unfortunately not. Okay, your favorite memories or first impressions of each other? I think my first impression of you is that you're really hot.

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I remember, I mean, I was went to that direction. But, and that was my first impression. I was thinking like, you're— you were smiling all the time. Yeah, yeah, you were smiling. You were like so happy. So I remember that. You have a— you have a beautiful smile, you know.

Thank you. So I remember that, like a good energy.

Yeah, good energy, good vibes.

Yeah, I remember thinking that he was like really cool. I was so nervous around you. Yeah, I was so— I was like terrified of you. I was so nervous every single time we would meet up to like hang out. I was like shitting my pants. Yeah, I like considered taking shots alone in my room before I had to go meet up with you.

I was like scared.

I think it was also because of the language at the time, was just knowing like, yeah, I was not speaking English, you were not speaking Spanish. I mean, we were a little bit, that's how we communicated, but it was like way harder.

Love one. Love one.

Yeah, that's right. I remember feeling like you were a playboy. Yeah, like I, I was like, oh, you know, I didn't know what I was to you, but I was just along for the ride. I was just, I just wanted to have fun, and we neither of us were looking for anything serious. So I don't think we really like felt that back to your country. Yeah, we weren't, we weren't like thinking too deeply about it.

No, we're like enjoying living the You're just living in the moment.

Someone asked like, when you knew that I was like your person or whatever, like when did you know that it was like more serious? I didn't— I didn't know that it was like actually a thing or that we would be more serious until we actually left each other. Yeah, like I left Spain and I went back to school, and like the plan was like we're not gonna talk to each other anymore. It was like clean break, but then we kept I know.

That was bad or good?

That was bad or good. Yeah, we didn't follow the clean break thing.

From the beginning, I knew you were like special. That's why I kept talking with you, meeting with you, talking to you like when you already left, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We knew it, like we had something there. So there was feelings, clearly. How do you prevent living like roommates? Because we've lived together for a long time.

Kommunikation, setting with—

like doing things outside of household tasks, because it is easy to just be like, you know, who's making dinner tonight, who's cleaning the kitchen, who's walking the dog, you know, when are you doing this, what time are you going to be home. That's all like roommate stuff, you know. I think the thing that helps us not just be roommates and actually be like life partners and be romantic is making sure that we have conversations like outside of that stuff and being kind of like playful and silly with each other. Like, you always joke with me, and lots of like physical touch. Like, we touch each other a lot throughout the day, whether it's like hugs or, you know, slap on the bum or like whatever. Yeah, but like little things, you know, that we're not just like existing in the same space, but there's like a— there's like a physical attraction there that we're like, you know, stoking all day long.

Yeah, I mean, we said everything, and we try to do like—

we've been more conscious about having conversations with like turning our phones off or going for walks without our phones.

Like, we need to like—

going to sleep without it.

Without it. Yeah, going to sleep without our phones. Like, we need to actually just like be with each other and have conversations.

So I think like we watch a movie, trying to watch the movie together.

Yeah, the TV Yeah, but like being playful, joking with each other, physical touch throughout the day, I think those things help.

And good communication.

And dates, like actually, like we talked about, like going out and just being ourselves. Yeah. What are your favorite things about each other? And then we'll do some icks. Do you want to do icks first? Things that we don't like.

Okay, you start.

What are your icks about me? What do I do?

I mean, your noises. I don't even know how to do them, you know.

What noises?

The one that you do, you do with your throat.

Oh yeah, when I itch my throat I make a very specific noise.

Yeah, yeah. Having with that for 9 years.

9 years of that. I don't do that every day though, that's like very very once in a while, but that is—

it's gone. You don't realize.

No, it's gone.

Stop it. No, I don't do that. I literally do not do that.

Once per week for sure. Stop.

No, Jaime, absolutely not.

Okay, I don't know.

Absolutely not. Maybe clearing my throat, like I do that a lot. Anyway, the throat scratch is, is an ick for Jaime, and, um, we have my dad to thank for that because he taught me Yeah, thank you, Brian. What else?

Your laugh is good. I mean, the first time it happened, I was like confused.

What about my laugh?

So I'm, for example, in the kitchen or working or whatever, and I heard you laughing so much. Like what?

Loud. Like how?

I mean, loud.

Like what is it? Can you do an impersonation?

No, I can't. Come on, yes you I can't, I can't. It's like it comes from your lungs, you know? So, so it's like, it's like so loud and like, what's going on? And she's listening a podcast by herself, or she's thinking about something, she's watching a reel. So, so I mean, I like it randomly bursting out laughing. Yeah, nothing that bothers me. The first time I was like, what's going on there?

Yeah, cuz it's just silence and then it's me.

Yeah, exactly. And then you leave the cups everywhere, like the tea cups or the coffee cups. They are like in the desk, in the living room, in the bathroom.

Yeah, I know. Many drinks at all times. The girlies know.

Yeah. So to get the mugs and put in the dishwasher.

All my mugs everywhere. Yeah, I know. Sorry about that. One of my icks about you is that you always leave your shoes at the front door or—

because I'm always leaving—

or next to the dining room table and I have to trip over them. Yeah, I always say to you, like, I'd rather do things once than do it twice. Oh, oh my God, that is such a big ick for me. Like, when we go to a store and we need to get 5 things and we've gotten 3 of them, and you're like, I'm hungry, let's go, and you just want to leave, and I'm like, I'm not coming back to do the rest of this task later. Like, we're doing it once, we're not doing it twice. But you do that a lot.

Like, I do it for everything.

You do it for everything.

You do things multiple times. You go to the store and you look at something, you're like, I think I'm gonna buy that, and then you leave, and then you have to go back another time to actually get it. Like, just finish it, just complete it.

It bothers me too.

That's definitely one of my biggest icks for you. Or when I can tell that you didn't put effort into something, you know, I get really—

you'll hear that.

I get real— like, low effort is such an ick for me in all facets of life. But if I can tell that you just did something super fast or like didn't put a lot of effort into it, or like don't care— like, not caring to me is like the biggest ick of all.

Yeah, that's true.

That is true.

You know, all your programs are it because you put a lot of effort.

I have a little bit of— I have a little bit of perfectionism. Yeah, yeah, for sure. How do you keep your relationship strong and fresh? Or do we have any real advice on that, like how to keep a strong relationship? We have been together for almost 9 years. What do you think— what do you think helps us keep a strong relationship?

I think it's— I see you—

I think it's cuz we care.

Yeah, I see you're going to be my partner forever. Yeah, like probably some people are are in a relationship, but they don't see to each other. They don't see—

they're not sure.

Yeah, that they're going to be with that person forever. Person forever.

Yeah.

But like, better to not stay with that person if you know.

Once you decide, I think that's what you're saying. It's like, once you've decided, like, I'm going to be with this person for life, it's not as like, oh, what should I do or not do? It's like, well, we're in it now, so you just have to do it.

I mean, the thing is, like, you have to be be like a team.

Yeah, you know, you always say that.

So you have to support each other all the time. For example, in the last 2 years, you have been supporting me so much more than ever.

Mhm.

And when you came to Spain, I supported you with what I had. Mhm. So I think for, for a relationship, in order to work out, everybody has to like put some effort in the relation friendship, you know.

Yeah, but it's like what you're saying is there's, um, there's a balance. Like sometimes one person is going to have to support more.

Yeah.

Than the other, and it's like a give and a take.

I mean, I guess with 40 years old or whatever, they're both of them are going to be like at the same level, or they're going— it's going to be easier, you know.

Yeah, but there will always be something in someone's life that could— like, you know, we at some point we're going to lose our parents, and that might happen at different times, and yeah, like we're gonna have to support each other through hard Yeah, I think, um, one of my favorite things about you in terms of like keeping our relationship strong is that whenever I'm feeling like a big emotion or I'm like overthinking or I'm like emotional about— you buy me an ice cream. It's true, you do buy me an ice cream.

It's just because she's like overwhelmed, unsatisfied, or whatever. That when I go down with the dog, I stop in the, in the Walgreens or the 7-Eleven on, in Publix, and I buy, um, what's the brand?

The Ben Jerry's.

Ben Jerry's.

Yeah, secret to your woman's heart, guys, just buy her ice cream. You do buy me ice cream, but what I was going to say is that you, like, if I'm, if I'm actually upset or I'm like crying about something or I'm like having a big like overthinking crisis about something in the business or something like you are always like there to talk to me like all the way through it and like hold me and like give me hugs and lots of physical touch and affection. And I can feel so much that you like care about my well-being and my happiness. Like I know that you want me to be happy so much and you don't care like how I get there, but as long as I'm happy, that's like the main priority. And I always feel that from you. Like even if it you know, doing things differently in the business or making less money or, you know, pivoting or making changes. It's like you are always there to remind me about like what's truly important and that I need to be like happy and fulfilled and feeling my best.

Yeah, because imagine if you are not happy, the team is not happy. Yeah. So that's the key.

Someone asked like, what's the hardest thing that we've had to support each other through, man.

The thing is like, we moved to different countries— not different countries, different continent. Yeah. So I think we did a lot in comparison with other couples. Yeah. Like leaving your friends, your family, your culture, your language.

Yeah.

Your job. Your job.

Having to start over. Both of us basically had to start from zero when we moved to a different country.

I think that's, that's like a huge seen. So I mean, I also think what can happen, you know.

Yeah, well, I also think like this, like last season of, you know, like being stolen from and all the crazy stuff with me on the retreat with the psychic attack and being so busy and having all kinds of things happening all at once. Like the month of December was like really heavy for us. I think that was probably one of our like heaviest times as a, as a team.

Yeah, it was hard. December, what a motherfucking month.

It was really hard. I turned 30 and then everything fucking blew up. Yeah, it was a lot. And your Saturn return has been really challenging for you. Yeah, the past like a year or so.

You told me that I— it's like trying to teach me whatever I don't want to learn. Point, you know. Stop trying to teach me. Fine how I am.

Okay, thank you Saturn and good night. We don't want any more lessons.

I'm not— I'm fine how I am. I don't want to learn.

So you have to do though. If you don't learn, it gets worse.

Not like the last month, you know.

Yeah, it was a lot. Yeah, yeah, but we got through it. Yeah, strong stronger. That's right. All right, you guys, thank you to our special guest, Mr. Jaime Lopez, for joining us.

If you loved this episode, make sure to check out the show notes where I've linked a few similar episodes I know you're also going to love. You'll find them under the similar episodes section in the description down below with direct links so you can dive in and start listening right away, or add them to your queue for later. Binge away for even more growth, expansion, abundance, and fire motivation.

Victoria Ward.