#oh look i snuck a letter into a love story from the 40s
Note
hellooo mota prompt if this floats your boat:
demarco/macon practically together in every scene in the stalag is very much thought provoking, maybe some postwar getting together? I firmly believe benny was Enamored by macon!! benny swinging by macons base/flight school to introduce meatball after months of back and forth letters is suchh an image.
if this doesnt spark anything for you thats completely alright too, i love your prompt fics and vibrating with the thought of reading your rosielemmons!!
[Oh, I got thoughts right away! Love this idea! NOTE: Oh, this one got away from me.]
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY
RECIEVED AT Birmingham, AL
Via CHICAGO, IL
R: Leaving Noon. Chicago. Stopping just in KY for the night. Back on road 6AM tmw. C U in the afternoon. - BD&M
Richard reads the telegram twice, just because he can. It's just after two o'clock now, the humidity really digging into the air. He'd mentioned it to Benny a few letters ago, warning him to make sure Meatball had extra water for the trip.
It feels odd that it's finally happening. After months of letters and cards, Benny's coming to Alabama to see him. To see the flight school he's setting up. To meet Richard's family and friends.
Like that's something a white boy does.
Richard puts the telegram on his desk and walks outside, looking up at the sky. He thinks about the Stalag more than he'd like, but this time, it's on purpose. Strange way to make a friend, bunking together at a prison camp. But they are friends. Richard's sure about that.
He thinks about Benny's smile and his laugh. The way his handwriting gets messy when he writes a funny story. Richard turns his gaze to the hanger he's nearly finished building. There are two planes in there, a third on the way. It's due to get delivered while Benny is here. They'd planned the trip on it.
...I'm happy to help with whatever you need while I'm there. I haven't flown a Cessna since training, so maybe don't put me in the pilot's seat, but I'd love to see a plane get delivered. You'd think they'd fly it in, but I guess a truck delivery makes a little more sense. Guy's gotta get back home somehow...
*
Benny pulls up to the little house by the airfield at four o'clock the next day. All the windows of his car are down. Meatball's got his head out of one of them, panting like all get out.
Richard steps out the front door and waves hello, then walks towards Benny, hand out to shake.
Benny's handshake is as firm as Richard remembers. His smile is brighter, but they're not worn out at a camp anymore. They're men who survived and came home. Who wrote each other the first letter on the same day by accident.
Richard's not one for signs, but he holds that fact close to his heart. That they wrote each other that first letter on the same day, neither of them truly doing it first. The friendship they'd built in the Stalag had simply done the work when it was time.
"Look at you!" Benny says. He grabs Richard's shoulders and squeezes. "You look like you get three meals a day!"
"Sure do," Richard replies. "You're about as skinny as ever."
Benny grins. "My ma's trying her best, but I've always had a hollow leg, you know?" He turns and opens the back door of the car. Meatball jumps out, sniffs, and immediately pees on the driveway.
"Is that approval or disapproval?" Richard asks.
"Think it's just urine," Benny replies.
And it's Richard's turn to grin. Meatball walks over and sniffs his hand, and Richard pets him. "Never actually seen one of these in person before," Richard says to Benny. "Huskies don't do great down here."
Benny wipes his hand across his temple where sweat is beading. "Yeah, I can tell. Chicago gets warm in the summer, but we get the lake breeze."
"Well, come on inside. It's a little cooler."
Benny grabs his suitcase from the trunk, then lets Richard lead the way into the house. Meatball walks next to Benny, snuffling every inch of yard he can.
Benny sighs in relief when he steps into the house. "Oh, yeah, this feels much better."
"Built it to let the heat out in the summers," Richard says.
"Those plans you sent me don't do it justice," Benny replies, looking around in the living room. "But I think I remember where everything's supposed to be. He points to the door at the left. "That's the dining room."
"It is."
He points right, "And that's the hallway with two bedrooms."
"Yes."
"And on the back, you've got the kitchen on the left, and your office on the right, with the bathroom tucked in between."
"Yup."
"Did you paint the bathroom blue like you planned?"
"Find out," Richard says, gesturing that way.
Benny walks that way, and Richard watches him move. He bounces on his toes a little. He didn't do that at the camp. Richard likes it.
He likes a lot of things about Benny.
He sometimes thinks Benny likes a lot of things about him.
But they've only had letters since the camp, and some things a man does not write down without surety.
"It is blue!" Benny calls from the bathroom. Richard listens to him walk towards the kitchen, then turn and walk to the office. "Oh, this turned out real fine," he hollers. "Those bookshelves are beautiful. You hand-carve the curve?"
"Yes, I did," Richard says. He walks into the office himself. Benny's looking at the built-in shelves with a smile, leaning in to read a few book titles. Meatball comes in, sniffs a leather chair, then climbs up and lies down.
"Meat--"
"He's okay," Richard says. "I don't mind dogs on the furniture."
"My sister doesn't let him in her house anymore. He shed all over the baby."
Richard laughs, picturing it. "Bet the baby loved it."
"He was climbing all over him. Meatball was delighted."
"Must have been a little rough for him, going from a whole base full of people giving him love to just you."
Benny's face changes, his smile turning smaller, but not in a bad way. More like he's having a private thought he likes a lot. "It's not so bad," he says. "Sometimes, you just need one person to love you the right way, you know?"
Richard swallows hard, nodding. He thinks about his first few days at the camp, the pain from his broken neck, and the frustration and rage about being a prisoner. Locked in a bunkroom with a bunch of white boys he didn't know and couldn't bring himself to trust.
And then when he'd been struggling to sit up one day, Benny had leaned over from the next bunk and held out his arm. Richard had stared, waiting for him to say something, but Benny had just sat there, arm out. The offer plain as day.
Richard had grabbed his arm and managed to sit up.
"We don't have much for pain around here," Benny had said once Richard had breathed through the spike of agony in his neck. "But I could make a fire, if you wanted. Heat some water. Get something warm on your neck."
Alex and Robert aren't there to help. They'd gone with a few of the other men to learn where to scrounge up supplies. Richard considers his options, then nods.
"Something warm might help," he'd said.
And that had been the start of it. Benny made a fire and warmed up some water and soaked some rags. He'd laid them over Richard's neck and sat next to him, asking him about himself like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Where you from?" Richard had asked.
"Chicago," Benny had replied.
"You know any black people there?"
Benny had thought a moment. "My neighborhood's mostly Italian and Jewish," he'd said. "But I talked a little with a couple of fellas at work."
The answer had felt honest, and Richard had liked it. "Yeah, don't know a lot of white boys myself. Are Italians white in Chicago?"
Benny had laughed. "Mostly, I think," he'd said, and then he'd gotten up to get another cloth out of the water.
Richard looks at Benny, looking at his books in his office. Remembering the layout of the house in a way that tells Richard he's re-read his letters.
Richard's re-read Benny's letters, too.
"You got anyone loving you the right way these days?" Richard asks.
Benny bites the corner of his mouth. "Maybe," he says. He shuffles his feet and takes a step forward. "I, um, I wrote you a letter yesterday. Before I left Chicago."
"What's it say?" Richard asks.
"Nothing much," Benny replies. "But it didn't feel right to miss a week, you know?"
Richard takes a deep breath and a step forward. "I know," he says. "I usually write you on Wednesdays."
"Yeah, I've noticed." Benny leans against the bookshelf and looks up at Richard. His face is different than in the camp, more filled out. He's still skinny, but there's a glow of health to him now. They're doing all right, the both of them, Richard thinks.
"Richard."
"Yeah?"
"You wanna be loved by just one person in particular?"
Richard thinks of Benny making that fire. Warming up those rags. Thinks of Benny telling him terrible jokes and asking him about books and chemistry. Telling Richard about his family and asking about his. Playing cards side-by-side, where they cheated by showing each other their hands. Walking side-by-side during that whole long march, Benny checking every now and again that Richard was doing okay.
And then letters. Letters upon letters. All the devotion and care Benny had shown before shining through in a different way. Richard had read them in disbelief at first. Devotion and care like this, in this world. From a white boy.
"You got anyone in mind?" Richard asks.
Benny takes one more step forward, and Richard dips his head down. Benny touches right where his neck used to hurt the most, and Richard holds his wrist, and the kiss is just a little thing. Brief and a bit dry. But it's a promise. An agreement. A start.
*
Richard:
Just a quick note this week. I'm about to get Meatball loaded into the car and start driving. With a little luck, I'll beat this letter to Birmingham. Won't beat the telegram I'm sending, though. But it didn't feel right to go a Saturday without a note.
I'm writing this down so I don't chicken out: Ask me if I'm seeing anybody, will you?
Yours,
Benny
#demarcomacon#masters of the air#benny demarco#richard macon#oh look i snuck a letter into a love story from the 40s#how original of me and my work#fic prompt
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[ dating steve rogers would include: ]
warnings: just a few cusses and a few sexual implications
///
He's an absolute gentlemen even in awkward, but adorable ways:
He’s always asking for permission before taking action whether it’s asking if you’re okay with him wrapping his arms around you in public or if you mind him kissing you even if you’ve been dating for 6 months.
He’s always racing to your side of the car or to the entrance of any room/building just so he can open the door for you-But despite him being super human, you still manage to beat him to it sometimes.
He even sometimes sprawls his jacket across a puddle just so your shoes don’t get wet, but you usually end up jumping in the puddle and splashing the water everywhere with an innocent grin. You do appreciate the thought and effort, though.
He constantly offers you his jacket just in case you’re cold and even sometimes goes ahead and drapes it over your shoulders, because he knows how stubborn you are to actually bother accepting it or asking for it.
He absolutely HAS to walk or drive you home every time just to make sure you arrive home safely and make sure no knucklehead dares to mess with you, but when you refuse to let him go through all that trouble he settles for ‘observing from a distance’ which is basically him stalking you.
Despite him having the spontaneous job of being a superhero, he never keeps you waiting too long-Mostly because of him missing his dance with Peggy by years resulted in him being as punctual as he can.
The list goes on...From him pulling your seat out for you to sit on and helping you put on your coat to paying for every date regardless of your protests.
In the beginning, he was extremely shy and flustered to the point where he would stutter uncontrollably and question every move he made so he wouldn't embarrass himself.
At the end of your dates, He tried to kiss you but usually ended up chickening out and end up kissing your cheek instead.
But finally, when he walked you to your apartment on your 4th date, he stood there awkwardly stuttering a goodnight while staring directly at your lips, only for you to grab him by the collar of his shirt and kiss him yourself.
When Tony heard the story of you being the one to make the first move and kiss him, he stayed about a whole month teasing Steve about it.
"Is (Y/N) gonna be the first one to make a move in the bedroom too, Steve?"
Him giving you those adorable sideways smiles with his eyes glimmering with adoration that’s reserved just for you.
You teaching him about the latest technology, slang, and trends after realizing that getting Tony to do it was a completely bad idea-He ended up just telling Cap’ either completely incorrect things or just things that would give him a good laugh.
“Wow (Y/N), that’s so fetch.”
"Alright let me get this straight, you tag people? Wasn’t that a game people played where you chase someone and if you touch them, they're it? Did they make that into an...app-apparatus?"
A lot of ‘Wait, I didn’t mean to send that’
You get to see the clumsy, imperfect, and wounded side of Captain America the world doesn’t get to see; you get to witness all the ‘Him getting up in the middle of the night to pee and accidentally stepping on his shield, making it hit him in the shin’s, all the sleepless nights spent together because the nightmares are getting too vivid, all the regrets and disappointments he holds for himself because he was too late, all the insecurities that eat him alive because of him having all of this strength and these abilities yet still not being enough, all the reckless and deadly actions he makes without even a second thought because he’s just not used to having someone to live for, the way he slightly flinches when Thor summons and uses his powers, all the times he misplaces his shield to the point where Tony ends up putting a tracker in it, the emptiness of his apartment because he’s too afraid to settle down, the bright red color that seeps through his cheeks when you press your body tightly against his, all the low swears that escape through his mouth when he thinks no one can hear him, all the uncertainties and hesitations that he never dares to show because he’s ‘Captain freaking America’. You get to witness all his deepest fears, thoughts, and feelings. You get to witness and love Steve Rogers.
Steve always making sure that his superhero life doesn't affect his private life especially when said superhero life concludes of spontaneous and agonizingly long missions. He makes it his personal duty to make time for dates, events, and well, you.
Steve doesn't like bullies. He doesn’t care who they are.
Steve woke up from almost 75 years of being frozen in ice after fighting wars and battles, fighting for America and it’s freedom only to wake up and find out the world is still a dark place and he can’t help but think that all his friends died for nothing. Steve makes it his new mission to fight for equality and power to the people, to make sure everyone has a voice, to make sure no one is overlooked or ignored, to make sure that everyone gets the God-given rights they have.
Captain America symbolizes freedom and protection and he'll be damned if he can’t offer minorities the freedom and protection they DESERVE. Captain America has always been for standing up for the little guy, for following what’s right not the law. Captain America is the symbol of how America should be.
Steve Rogers was a fugitive of the law at some point, there is no way he’d hold back on joining in on women’s marches, protests and riots, and pride parades.
Steve Rogers volunteering at Youth Centers to teach kids self-defense and offering them the guidance, support, and comfort Bucky always managed to offer him.
Steve Rogers protecting people from police brutality-His insomnia and Tony’s drones helped him keep an eye out for it and other forms of harassment.
Steve refusing to reinforce nor aid any governments that took part in the oppression of it’s own citizens and worked hard to striving for a better life for them with the help of T’challa and Tony help creating a treaty that ensures it.
A lot of slow dancing and slight swaying while being wrapped in each others arms.
Especially to Billie Holiday. Boy, is he a fan of Billie Holiday.
He's not exactly supportive of technology due to the unfortunate difference in human interactions between the 40s and now, so he sticks to some of his old habits.
Instead of sending text messages or calling during missions, he mostly writes you letters. Every single different alias he uses for each letter is inscribed into your brain.
Instead of staying home all day, he takes you out to soak in the beautiful weather of New York and tells you about how it used to be back in the 40’s.
Instead of watching a movie on your laptop or the TV, he takes you to the local cinema or even a drive-in.
Oh, how he loves taking you to the Smithsonian Museum just so he can point out all the inaccurate facts and exhibitions in display.
Leaving each other sticky notes everywhere to remind each other of events because of the fact that his unstable working hours so you don’t see each other much for you to tell each other face to face. Slowly, the both of you ended up developing a habit of leaving short cute love notes on each other’s things-Every single sticky note is saved in your own special places but Steve takes a few with him whenever he goes on missions to keep him company.
Although, you’d never tell Steve this, but his handwriting is absolutely terrible. Despite him being quite the artist, reading his notes is like decoding what a doctor’s prescription note says. However, with every not he wrote you, you started recognizing the way his I’s look like E’s, the way he curves and arcs his letters like he’s drawing loops, and the way punctuation is a stranger to him and soon enough it was like you were reading your own handwriting. You did enjoy decoding the notes he leaves you everyday. It was like a secret language only you could understand.
Him taking you to Brooklyn and telling you stories of the trouble he'd get himself into in EVERY spot.
He told you about how he almost got arrested at the Old Stone House because he snuck in there with Bucky. All because they couldn’t wait for the Grand re-opening. Bucky managed to talk the police out of it by lying to them, and saying that Steve had 2 weeks left to live and how it was his dying wish to see the place.
Oh, and how he had his first kiss with Leslie Jordan in front of Bamonte’s during their first and only date in the 11th grade. He remembered all the fights he got into with the jerks in his class that were always picking on her because of the birthmark on her face, he remembered all the times they sat together because no one wanted to sit with them, he remembered how he asked her to the school dance because every girl deserved the chance to have a special slow dance with a boy, he remembered how he saved up so that they could eat at that fancy italian place-Bamonte’s-afterwards. She ended up switching schools and moving to Wisconsin the following week.
Steve told you about all the places that were rundown and were there before all the replacements and modifications, all his happy childhood memories, all the alleys he got his ass kicked in, all the places him and Bucky got kicked out of. But it wasn’t until after you met Bucky and shared hundreds of stories about Steve that you realized that even before the serum Steve was still a fucking dumbass that went headfirst into reckless and dangerous trouble; Now, he didn’t jump out of planes without a parachute back then but he did climb 3 floors up the side of his apartment building just because he felt like it.
Helping and comforting Steve after Peggy dies and being his shoulder to cry on, to lean on, to hide his dorky smile in, and rest his head on that fit perfectly as if it was hand sculpted by God himself just for Steve.
He tells you everything. Absolutely everything. From how many punching bags he managed to make fly today to telling you about his failed missions or missions with casualties-Sometimes he didn’t even need to verbally tell you, you could tell what happened by the slouch of his shoulders and the lack of glimmer in his oh-so-bright eyes.
Jesus, the man can swear like a goddamn sailor. It took him about 2 months for him to feel comfortable enough swear in the presence of a lady, but it was expected that he’d break at some point considering all the pent up rage he has bottled up. The man makes punching bags fly for God’s sake! Not to mention the fact that he was in the army with the Howling Commandos of all people. He just couldn’t help the series of cusses that flew past his lips when-despite the years of training-he accidentally hits himself with his shield, the ‘Fucks’ and ‘Shits’ that escaped through clenched teeth when he got injured during a mission, the soft profanities whispered against your neck as you came apart underneath him, the loud and consistent obscenities that forced his way out of his throat during his road rage-God help anyone who dares to ride in a car with Steve Rogers. You asked him to drive you to work ONCE during rush hour while your car was in the shop and oh boy, he let out words so colorful and vibrant they’d bring Tony Stark to tears.
Tony having a habit of interrupting you and Steve whenever you’re clearly having a moment.
“Did I walk in on some pre-fonduing?” Of course Howard told Tony about it during one of this drunken rants about Captain America, The Living God, and of course Tony would bring it up from time to time just to see Steve’s face turn redder than the Ironman armor.
Getting a mini heart attack whenever you hear about another reckless thing he did despite him telling you that he’d be more careful.
At some point, Bucky and Natasha become your personal spies who inform you of every Godforsaken idiotic thing he does
“You got into a brawl with a God, seriously?"
"Well, so did Tony.”
“AGAIN? You jump out of a plane without a parachute AGAIN?”
He gets homesick quite often but thankfully you’re there to help him through it with ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ ready for him at any moments notice as well as trips to Coney Island and the Stark Expo, but mostly, even if Steve doesn’t admit it, your presence is what helps him through it. The way you run your fingers through his hair and draw circles with them on his skin takes him back to simpler times when he was a little boy lying in the arms of his beloved mother, Sarah. A time of safety and comfort.
Helping him go through his To-Do list.
One of the most precious memories you have of him was when he saw Rocky for the first time with you, he was in awe of the storyline and the colors-He was put in a wonderous state after seeing the deep red color of blood being spat onto the floor, the sweat shimmer of Rocky’s face darimg his opponent to come at him, the overwhelming saturation and hue of actually seeing colors on a screen, of no longer seeing the dull and bland black-and-white pictures he was so used to.
You’re pretty sure he has Marvin Gaye’s entire discography memorized by heart at this point. Steve is eternally grateful to Sam to mentioning Troubleman to him because it was the start of a great obsession.
Training with him. Steve Rogers will personally wake you up for a morning run everyday and honestly you wouldn’t mind it if he didn’t wake you up everyday at the break of dawn. He can’t help it though. Sleep has become a stranger to him since he’s been back.
You’d be lying to yourself if you said you didn’t enjoy it, running with him side-by-side during the rare moments where the city was actually asleep offered you solace. Sometimes the both of you would talk, othertimes you’d run in silence, but mostly on each run you’d use it as a chance to help him catch up on another music album you thought was culturally important for him to know-Dating Steve really diversified your music taste.
He’s a hugger. He just loves embracing you in any possible way whether its linking his arms around you while you’re working, resting his head on your shoulder and hugging you from behind while you’re cooking, or pulling you onto his lap so he can breathe in your scent while he’s doing paperwork.
He has dozens of notebooks filled with hundreds of illustrations he drew of you and The Avengers. You’ve got a few hung up on your fridge but your favorite is definitely the drawing he made of a ring, set in between the cushions of a tiny blue box, that he gave you right before he bent down on one knee.
#bucky barnes#chris evans#marvel#marvel imagines#mcu#steve rogers x reader#avenger masterlist#captain america#captain america x reader#y/n#steve rogers x y/n#you#imagine#steve rogers imagines#smut#captain america imagines#the avengers imagines#marvel studios#marvel comics#chris evans x reader#tony stark#iron man#hulk#spiderman#hawkeye#black widow#peter parker#marvel preferences#dating would include
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A longtime affair revealed ; Brian May x reader
*Author’s note*
Hey guys well be prepared to do some binge reading because for my Rock Angel series I’ve got 3 chapters ready for ya’ll. Now for this one, I just wanna let you all know THIS IS PURELY FANFICTION!!! In this chapter we’re gonna get into how the Rock Angel soon found out about Brian and Anita. Now like I told my Wattpad followers and readers, if this causes any wars, harrassment or bullying in ANY SHAPE OR FORM. THIS. CHAPTER. WILL. BE. DELETED!!!
I’m writing through how the Rock Angel would react plus a bit of combination on facts that I have gotten from seeing/reading interviews from Brian about this topic.
Warnings: Angst, cheating, affairs, swearing, more angst, maybe fluff (if you squint).
Taglist:
@plethora-of-things
@waddles03
@psychosupernatural
@ixchel-9275
@simonedk
@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels
@platawnic
@queensdivas
@kairosfreddie
@queendeakyy
@geek-and-proud
@onebigfangirlworld
@naturalswifty89
@starswin
@dj-lowkey
@isabella-bby
@labessieisallama
@5sos-wdw
@bohemiansweede
____________________________________________________________
*April 14th, 1988. LA home*
Now don’t get me wrong, I love having the guys over and my door is always open to them but—this is just weird. To brush you all up, around late February just a couple weeks after my birthday, Brian shows up out of nowhere on our doorstep in our home in LA wanting to stay with us for a while.
He didn’t give us any rhyme or reason just that he needed to be out of the country for a bit. So Jack and I welcomed him in and he’s been a great help around the house. Helping with the laundry, cleaning the place, taking care of Kelly, and he’s also been helping me produce my music.
Since Queen hasn’t decided to do another tour in the past 2 years, Rog and Bri took this time to do some solo works. Freddie also did a couple of solo stuff and Deacy’s worked with a different band playing the bass for them but his days are just spending it with Ronnie and the little Deaklings.
But back to Brian. He’s been so secretive lately, late night phone calls (and I’m talking about phone calls at like 3am our time), wanting to keep certain letters or mail to himself, and anytime I mentioned Chrissie at all, he’d get all tense and try to leave the room by making up some excuse regarding Kelly or working on his next solo project.
One night at almost 4o’clock in the morning, I woke up cause I was thirsty. So quietly I went downstairs to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of milk. But just as I poured myself a cup and was about to drink it, I could hear the soft murmuring voice of Brian out on the back deck.
“I know, I know. I just needed to get away for a bit, besides, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the Kline family and they are important to me.” I silently stalked towards the back door to see Brian standing with the cordless phone up to his ear. “I’ll be back by the end of the week. I love you too, bye.” He spoke with such love as he made his declaration of love.
Okay maybe I’m being paranoid but he couldn’t be—no not Brian Harold May. There’s no way he could be cheating. Could he? No, no, no, no, no snap out of it! Just because it happened to you (and Dominique, god I wish I could just slug Roger sometimes) but there’s no way that Brian could do something like this.
I heard him sigh as he now sat on one of the lawn chairs we had along the back deck while I silently snuck back to the kitchen and quietly rinsed off my cup after I downed the milk. After putting it in the dishwasher I snuck back upstairs and fell right back asleep.
The next morning I had made a full buffet for breakfast for my two hungry boys, myself, and my baby girl.
“Okay here we go breakfast. The most important meal of the day. Eggs Sunnyside up, bacon on a side of toast. A stack of humungous chocolate chip pancakes which do smell incredible, if I do say so myself. And for my favorite guitarist Jelly filled muffins, and wholesome banana bread with tofu dogs and a tall glass of OJ.”
“Alright mama lioness, thank you.” Jack praised as he cut his Sunnyside egg and ate the piece of it.
“Ba bou mama.” Kelly thanked me in her baby tongue.
“You are most welcome my loves.”
“It really does look delicious (Y/n).” Brian told me. While the three of us began eating our meal, Brian just sat there with his hands in his lap staring at his food.
“You’re not hungry again?” Jack questioned as he paused from eating his bacon. I set my knife and fork down and said as I walked up to him.
“Okay what’s going on?” Brian looked at me humming in confusion. “Last night for dinner you hardly touched my veggie lasagna, which you say is my best dish ever, and now you don’t want breakfast. Bri are you sure you’re not sick?” I cupped his face in my hands trying to feel for a fever.
“I’m fine darling, really I am.” He took my hands off his face and kissed the back on my right one.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m fine just—a little tired is all. Hadn’t really been sleeping well these past few days.” I raised my brow at him skeptically. I hummed suspiciously as I went back to my seat and finished up my breakfast.
After breakfast, Jack went to work selling cars (ever since we officially decided to stay in LA around last year, Jack got a job at a local car dealership. It pays well whenever I wasn’t working and it’s nice to see two breadwinners instead of it just being me).
While I was cleaning up the dishes and Brian was cleaning up Kelly of the chocolate from the chocolate chip pancakes she wanted to devour I said to him.
“Hey Brian.”
“Yeah poppet?”
“You know there are additional ways to try and go to sleep that don’t involve raising my phone bill.”
“Wait you knew?”
“Bri, I have a toddler that still wakes me up every now and again. I’m sorta trained to wake up at odd hours in the morning, even when she doesn’t need me. So who is it that you keep calling at odd hours of the night and risking a higher raise on my bill? Cause I sure as hell know it’s not Miami or the guys.”
“It’s uhh—it’s uhh well it’s…..Chrissie!”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, yeah. She-she’s just been wanting to check up on me. In fact she’s in New York for a conference.”
“Ahh I see. So you wanted to call Chrissie at a time that was convenient for her because of the time difference.”
“Yes! Exactly because of the time difference!” Brian cheered. I turned off the tap and dried my hands off agreeing with Brian. I then took my baby girl out of her high chair as I told him point blank,
“So you waited until it was 1am her time. That makes perfect sense.” His face dropped but he suddenly blurted out.
“Actually!” my brow raised at him challengingly. He better come up with the best lie right now. Hell he calls me a bad liar, well he’s even worse, especially once he’s put under the radar. “It was 7pm her time. See while she was in New York for business, she’s now been transferred to—Paris.” What?
But doing that cute little nod of his and smiling confidently, he thought he could make it believable. I would’ve continued on but I was gonna be late if I kept at it.
“Nice save.” I took Kelly into the living room and set her down in her play pin where she grabbed her stuff lion that Roger gave her for her birthday. “Alright look Bon Jovi, I know you’re producing my new album but I need you to stay here and look after Kelly since Jack is working late today and we can’t find a sitter for her. Besides Elton’s coming over for our duet song today so we can handle that.”
“Okay sure. I can keep little Kelly company. Maybe we can go for an outing in the park today.”
“No outings! Remember what that bastard reporter did last month when all of us were out?” long story short, a vulgar male photographer from an LA tabloid stalked me, Brian, Jack and Kelly while we were out for a spring picnic. He even went as far as to shove his camera in my baby’s face.
Had it not been for Brian and Jack holding me back, I would’ve knocked that camera right into his eye. And he’d have a camera lens for an eye for the next 20 years cause technology of today wouldn’t be able to get it out of him less he dies.
Needless to say, my name went on the tabloids the next day as Rock Angel throws Raging Rampage! Of course I did my explanation to a radio station in England and now it’s divided fans on whether I was in the wrong or right to do that.
“Oh yeah. Okay fine, we can find some stuff to do here, can’t we Kelly?” she babbled as she continued to play with her stuffed lion. “See?”
“Okay. But—promise you’ll call if anything comes up.”
“No worries mama, I can handle things from here. We’ll see you both tonight. This time I’ll cook dinner.” He said as he came up to me, cupped my face and stroked my cheeks with his thumbs. Looking down at me with those soft blue eyes finally made me submit to his will.
“Okay, love you both.” I kissed Brian’s cheek before going over to my baby girl and gave her many kisses all over her cheek and finally heading out the door to work with Elton on our duet song.
Later that night both Jack and I returned home exhausted and tired from a long day. As we met up in the driveway of our home, we met each other and kissed each other.
“How was your day love? Sell any good cars?”
“Yep. Managed to sell off this old ’79 corolla that’s been in the shop since they came out. And for a good price too.”
“Excellent.”
“And how was working with Elton John? You know my mom would die if she found out. She’s a huge Elton John fan, ever since she was a teenager.”
“I know. She showed me her collection of Elton vinyl’s she’s collected in the past. But working with Elton is—certainly a challenge. I mean David was tough enough but Elton—yeesh. But they both are my idols and dearest friends. They have their own way of doing things, and you have to find a compromise.”
“I’ll bet.” Just before we went back inside the house, we saw walking right up the sidewalk a women around her 30’s possibly even 40 years old. She had curly red hair, and she had that vibrant glow about her.
“Ohh sorry, I figured you both would still be out. But I guess it had to come out eventually.” I turned to Jack and he said alarmed.
“I swear baby I have no idea who this woman is.” I turned back towards the woman and said.
“Can we help you Miss?”
“Oh right, sorry. I’m just here to return Brian’s jumper that he left at my place.” His jumper? At her place?
“Okay well I can just give it to him, and—how exactly do you know Brian? And no offense ma’am but how did you get my address?” she softly laughed. Laughed? What the—why the hell was she laughing?! Is this chic on something?
“No worries darling I’m not some deranged fangirl or anything. Freddie told me where Brian was staying at. I’m Anita Dobson.”
Wait, wait I know that name. Yeah I know exactly who she is. She’s an actress from the soap opera EastEnders. She’s also a singer and rumors have been speculating about her and Brian—oh god no! Oh HELL NO!!
At that point my fist clenched up and my breathing grew sharp and heavy. I turned back towards the house and stormed towards it.
The door slammed open and I cried out.
“BRIAN HAROLD MAY!! GET YOUR FUCKING ARSE DOWN HERE NOW!!” I heard a thunderous and rapid pacing of footsteps coming down the stairs as Brian with a horrified look on his face.
“What the hell (Y/n) you’re gonna wake up your own daughter.”
“Oh no you don’t get to talk back to me after what you’ve done!”
“What did I do? I-I-I-I hadn’t done anything.”
“You call this not doing anything!?” at that moment Jack came inside the house with Anita. Nervous she waved at Brian and greeted him.
“Hello Brian.”
“Anita? Wha—what are you doing here? I told you I would be back by the end of the week.”
“I know, I know but—you know that jumper you left over at my place at New Years, I found it.” She then took out Brian’s jumper that I had given him as a Christmas present the first time I spent my first Christmas with them.
I crossed my arms over my chest as Brian awkwardly came down the rest of the stairs and took his jumper back.
“Thanks love.”
“Someone better start talking or I swear heads will roll.” I threatened. Both Brian and Anita shifted on their feet as Brian said.
“(Y/n), Jack. Anita and I—well……we’ve been…..we’ve been seeing each other.”
“As in—”
“Yes Jack. Anita and I have been very secretly involved with each other.” At that point everyone went silent. At this point I was beyond pissed off. This was just like seven years ago when I caught Adam with that blonde bitch Becky in our bed shagging each other. Now here was Brian.
Brian May! One of the four men who helped comfort me the day after I found out I had been cheated on. And now here he was doing, what my dick of a boyfriend did, to Chrissie!
I just……I couldn’t even look at him.
“Look. I—I didn’t mean to impose, especially to you (Y/n), maybe I shouldn’t have come.” You think?! “Maybe I should go?”
“No, no Anita I can’t have you walking out this late all alone.” Brian said as he took hold of her hand.
“Well where am I gonna sleep, here?”
“Whoa-ho!” I warned them. They looked at each other and Brian said.
“We’ll go to a hotel. I think uhh—after tonight I—might not be welcomed back here.” Anita looked at Brian and said.
“If you insist.” They walked towards the door. I beat them to the front door and locked it saying in a low, threatening tone.
“No you’re not.”
“No we’re not.” Anita enforced as she and Brian walked away from the front door. “If you both go to a hotel you’re gonna be—” I tried to ease out my breathing trying to get them mental picture out of my brain. “Doing things. I want you both where I can see you!”
“Wait you’re gonna keep an eye on us?” Brian asked in a ‘are you serious’ manner.
“That’s right Brian Harold May and I don’t care how old you are. As long as you live under my roof, you’ll obey by my rules! And that means no sleeping with your girlfriend.”
“Wow, you weren’t kidding, she can be a fierce lioness.” I heard Anita whisper to Brian and he nodded.
“Now Anita, there’s a guest room down here you can rest in. Brian, you’ll stay in your room. Jack take Anita to her room.” He nodded and guided Anita just down the hall.
Once they were gone, Brian turned to me and tried to explain everything.
“Now (Y/n) this isn’t what it—”
“Oh so you didn’t invite your hussy to my house so that you could finally bring into light that you’re cheating on Chrissie with an actress? The typical Rock Star affairs! I expected this from Roger but never from you Brian! Do you realize how sick this makes me feel?”
“I just—”
“I don’t wanna hear about it anymore! Now go to your room!” I yelled as I pointed up the stairs. He sighed heavily and walked up the stairs, shoulders slumped and his spirit broken.
As Jack and I now prepared for bed, I didn’t speak a word to my husband as I angrily got into bed. After a long bit of awkward silence Jack said.
“You know I hadn’t seen you this angry since Prenter went on that interview and spilled out all of Freddie’s secrets.”
“If this is your way to try and cheer me up, I’m gonna boot you to the couch for the next month.” I turned away from him, “I don’t wanna discuss this anymore till morning, good night Jack.”
“Night (n/n). Love you.” I didn’t respond back. All I kept thinking was the rage I was feeling towards Brian about this whole thing.
The next morning, Anita showered up, got dressed and Brian helped pay for her cab fair to the airport. Once she was out of the house, Jack went to take Kelly out for a walk leaving Brian and I alone in the house.
I was currently getting lunch started cutting up some cucumbers, peppers and onions for a sauce while Brian stood on the other side of the island I was cutting on.
“So……how long have you and……” I couldn’t even finish my sentence so I just went back to rapid cutting the veggies.
“Anita and I met 2 years ago, in Beverly Hills for a premiere. I even invited her to our show at Wembley stadium when we did our last tour. She said you were phenomenal on stage.” I ceased my cutting and looked up at him.
“Flatter will get you nowhere hound dog.”
“(Y/n) seriously you’re not playing fair.”
“And you’re one to talk about fair. Does Chrissie know about her?!” Brian didn’t say a word. “See? Brian you—you know what I went through when I got cheated on. Hell you comforted me! But yet here you are doing what that dick Adam did to me! Tell me something, does Anita provide you the same sexual pleasures that you used to have with Chrissie?”
“Oh my god (y/n) how do you…..”
“When you’re friends with one Freddie Mercury and one Roger Taylor. You hear a lot more than you should.”
“It has nothing to do with sex, lust or anything like that. I—I love her. I fell in love with Anita.”
“But what about Chrissie? Your kids? Would you really leave them for that actress?”
“The kids never. But—” Oh my god. He would willingly leave Chrissie. Oh my god that poor, poor woman. “Listen (Y/n), I didn’t want to tell you this but—my marriage has been falling apart for years. I just—I didn’t know what else to do, but when I met Anita, she was like—a light force had come into my life.” I remained silent as I stuck the knife into the cutting board.
“I can’t do this anymore. I—I want you out of this house within the hour.” His eyes widened and he softly said my name.
“(Y/n). I—”
“GET OUT OF HERE!!!” I shouted as I turned my back on him. Silence once again surrounded us and it was then I heard him gently tread up the stairs to pack his stuff. Next thing I heard was the front door opening and then closing.
A few weeks later; I was cleaning up the house while Jack and Kelly were out having their monthly Father-daughter bonding time.
As I turned the vacuum off, there was a loud, thunderous knock at the door. I at first jumped, startled by the knocking, but I went to answer the door. And I was surprised to see just who it was.
“Chrissie?” for the first time in 2 years since I’ve seen her she suddenly appears on my doorstep in LA with a bag full of groceries. “What are you doing here?”
“I first came to give you this,” she handed me the bag. “And this!” that’s when I got slapped hard in the back of my head.
“Owie! Why though?” she stormed into my house as she said.
“Why did you have to fill Brian’s head about trying to make things right!?” She sat down on my couch. “Honestly (Y/n), now there’s some ice cream in there, put it in the freezer before it melts.” I quickly did as she said and I turned towards her and asked her in complete shock.
“Wait so—you knew?!”
“Of course I knew!”
“Why didn’t you say anything? To Brian or even reach out to me?” I said as I sat beside her. She took a deep breath before saying.
“Sweetie I hate to tell you this but—our marriage has been failing for years.” I looked at her in shock.
“What? How long?”
“It’s been so long that I’ve forgotten now. But it’s really been hard since 2 maybe 3 years now.” What? But—they always seemed happy together whenever I saw them.
“Chrissie I—why didn’t you talk to anyone about it?”
“Brian and I tried to work in marriage counseling but with the final Queen tour it got too much, and once the tour was over it—felt like we were both wasting our time. So we just—agreed to not talk or be near each other for a bit till we both came to an agreement on what to do. Plus we didn’t want to upset the kids. Do you know how hard it is for a child so see their parents screaming at each other constantly?” From what I remember my parents rarely got mad at each other, they always had the perfect marriage.
Now I’m not naïve I know that some marriages never work out. Some of my friends I once had in secondary school had to go through their parents getting divorce and it really affected them. Hell I can even give my aunt and uncle, they hated each other and yet they continued to stay married to each other (to my knowledge I don’t think I ever heard them say I love you to each other).
“Plus all this fighting and the arguments it hasn’t been helping Brian mentally.” My brows furrowed in confusion. “There’s—also been some stuff going on beyond just us. His father got diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer and he’s getting sicker and sicker by the day. That, plus our marriage crumbling to bits, Brian he—he’s said if it weren’t for the kids, as well as you and Kelly…….he would’ve contemplated suicide.”
What? He—he never mentioned that to me. Oh god and now I’ve……shit.
“Chrissie if this is a way to try and guilt me, it’s working.”
“Oh sweetie I don’t mean to guilt you. I’m just telling you all on what’s been going on.”
“I knew Brian had his dark moments but—lately, especially since Kelly was born, he’s always put on a happy face around us. I just—I can’t believe I never saw it.”
“Even the brightest people can have their darkest moments.” No shit. I mean I should know cause I’ve had those days myself. God I feel like such a hypocrite now.
“I will say this though; ever since he did meet that—actress. He’s been more involved with the kids, he’s been more attentive to them, more loving, and involved in their lives. In fact I’ve never seen him happier than he is right now.” God now I really feel like shit. But what about Chrissie herself?
“But what about you?”
“I’ll be fine. I think—I think Brian and I have come to an understanding in the last few months that…..it’s best for us and for the kids that we get a divorce. Because at this point it’ll get too crazy. Now you little miss. You gotta make things right with him.”
“I don’t think he’ll listen to me. Chrissie I—I unleashed every ounce of anger I had. It felt like I got cheated all over again. I thought back to when—and then I thought of you and…….” She wrapped an arm around me and she said.
“Oh angel, I know you were thinking your heart was in the right place. Especially since I’m the mother of his kids and we’ve been married for over 10 years. And Brian told me what had happened to you when that bastard of an ex-boyfriend cheated on you. Being cheated on its—it sucks.”
“I agree it totally sucks.” I groaned out as we both softly laughed.
“Go get the ice cream, we can drown our sorrows in that instead of wine.” I went to the freezer and got the ice cream out as well as two spoons and we both shared the ice cream together.
After finishing the tube of ice cream, I was lying on the floor while Chrissie was sprawled out on my bed.
“Can I be honest with you Chrissie?” she hummed. “Since—you and Brian are gonna be….you know divorced, does—does that mean we won’t see each other again?” she slid down the couch to come close to me and she said.
“That’s up to you honey. I’ll tell you what; if you ever need a neutral ground to stand on, and rant about how crazy your child and future children make you, I’ll be there for you.”
“Thanks Chrissie. And I’m really sorry I screwed this up.”
“You should be. But—I forgive you.” she said as she hugged me. As we both swayed from side to side she then asked me, “So—have you met her?” I knew that she was referring to Anita.
“Yes. You’re ten times prettier than she is.”
“That’s sweet. Could I take her?”
“With this right hook, no contest Lady Ali.” She chuckled and embraced me tighter.
After that, she left my house and she stayed at a hotel nearby before she would fly back to LA. It was then I decided to call Brian to talk this out. He agreed and so I was going to fly out to London to see him so that he and I could talk about this like reasonable adults.
So that night I booked a flight for tomorrow morning and told Jack what all was going to happen. I would stay with Roger for a few days while Brian and I tried to talk things out.
When I got to London, I was sitting in Hyde Park with my shades (well an old pair of Roger’s shades he had back in the 70’s that I ‘borrowed’) on protecting my eyes from the bright sun.
“(Y/n).” I looked up and there wearing his own pair of shades was the curly haired guitarist himself.
“Bri.”
“Shall we walk?” I nodded and soon the two of us walked side by side. There was a bit of awkward silence between us at first till I finally spoke up.
“Chrissie came to the house and told me everything that’s been going on.”
“Of course she did.” He muttered.
“You should be grateful though. Bri—I really wanted to try and forget you after hearing about what you did. But hearing about everything that’s been going on in that head of yours—I can’t believe you’d think about killing yourself.”
“It’s—I’ve got no excuse. I’ve been feeling like an utter failure these past couple of years outside of Queen. Chrissie and I just….we were constantly fighting all the time. But when I met Anita—it was like finally coming out from the water I had been drowning in.”
“I don’t condone the cheating cause—you know how I went through it. After getting both sides of the story I—I know I can’t be involved in this situation cause it’s none of my business. This is between you, Chrissie and—Anita. But…..just promise me this. Tell me again this has nothing to do with anything sexual.”
“It had nothing to do with the fact that Anita was prettier than Chrissie. Nothing about appearances, not about urges. Nothing of that sort.” I nodded.
“It’s gonna take some time. I mean hell I don’t even know if I can accept her but—I’ll try my best to not be a total bitch around your new lady friend.”
“That’s all I ask for (Y/n). I won’t force you to be friends with Anita. I just…..want you to understand where I stand on this matter.” I nodded. “Are there any other questions you have for me?”
The rest of the day was just Brian and I talking about his relationship with Anita. How it began, when they first started falling for each other, things like that.
By the first week of May, Chrissie and Brian finalized their divorce papers. Brian May was now officially separated from his wife and he was now freely able to stay with Anita over at her place. I’ll be grateful that they didn’t go off and get hitched as soon as it happened.
In fact Brian invited Jack and myself to have dinner to officially get to know Anita better. It was a calm, quiet meal with small talk of just getting to know one another on a more stable level.
I apologized to Anita on my behavior when we first met and she immediately forgave me (Brian had told her that I had been cheated on and that’s why I had flipped my shit on the both of them).
Now I won’t get into too much after this but I will say this, it took me a year and a half to finally come around to Anita and accept her into the ‘Queen/Angel’ circle. Cause like Brian said, she is charming, witty, sweet, loving, a bit cheeky, but she is passionate about what she does and—she is definitely a force not to be reckoned with.
Chrissie and I still kept in contact but eventually when my schedule soon started back up with recording and doing my tours again, we lost contact with each other. And I hate to admit it but eventually all contact suddenly just ceased from her end.
Yeah I was heartbroken at first, but I had a feeling deep down that Chrissie might have wanted to just cut ties with everyone. I’m even told by Veronica and Dominque that they hadn’t heard a word from her either.
In the end, not all relationships can be successful and eventually old ties must be severed if we are to continue on in life. But in my mind I’ll still remember the support and love Chrissie gave me.
#bohemian rhapsody#bohemian rhapsody movie#bohemian rhapsody imagines#bohemian rhapsody imagine#bohemian rhapsody x reader#queen#queen x reader#queen imagine#queen imagines#queen fanfic#queen fanfiction#brian may#brian may x reader#freddie mercury#roger taylor#john deacon#gwilym lee!brian may#gwilym lee!brian may x reader#brian may fanfiction#anita dobson#brian x anita
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regarding tdc, some things i’d like to remind everyone about:
EDIT: this was supposed to be like 6 bullet points and then i ended up describing basically every little detail of the movie, so there’s that.
1. that elaborate opening plan that brought everyone back - Frypan hopping out of hiding, harriette pointing a gun at the berg pilot’s head, etc. they all did that!
2. “How’s it looking, Newt?” “Don’t rush me.” SNARKY!NEWT !!!! I refuse to let this little line go unnoticed and under the radar. i want everyone to remember it.
3. vince just being an overall badass and risking his life for all these kids!! that jump onto the train car! hell yes!
4. the newtmas hug on top of the train car you all saw it
5. ARIS’ FACE?? He fought back so hard! And even though they’re not a big part of the main story, aris harriett and sonya reuniting was so sweet! i want more stories about them
6. Thomas’ utter distraught at realizing minho isn’t on the train and having to break the news to newt but barely being able to say the words
7. vince’s rallying speech about fighting back
8. thomas sneaking off because he doesn’t want to risk any more lives, but newt and frypan Just Knowing it’s exactly something he would do, so they’re already waiting for him (in the dark and everything. dramatic fools.) and thomas’ complete love for them when he sees fry in the car too (bc lets be honest obvi newt would go with him but him seeing frypan following him into danger was probably so endearing)
9. frypan driving! stuck in the glade for 3 years and our boy knows how to drive a jeep good for him man
10. the return of more snarky!newt “not to be negative, but if i was a crank that’s exactly where i’d go.” a nice reminder of “people. in the mountains. mountain people. that’s your plan.” from tst! (and of course the “alright i got shotgun” and the look between thomas and fry like okay we’re doing this
11. frypan flooring the truck and getting rid of that crank! (and also totaling the jeep but hey man)
12. the fact that frypan’s door wouldn’t open and he kept punching the life out of it until thomas was like “dude go AROUND.”
13. newt just falling out of the door like a mess
14. fry shooting the cranks the whole time they’re running! he’s such a fighter in this movie! i’m glad we got action!fry
15. BRENDA IN THE JEEP WITH THE GUN. BRENDA.
16. “i think what he means to say is thank you.” - frypan translating thomas’ worry for everyone else
17. newt finding the walls when they look at the last city and jorge’s offhand comment about “they built walls, that seems to be Wicked’s answer for everything” i mean LMAO another great line that better not get overlooked. i mean, come on lol
18. i forgot what exactly frypan said at this moment in response to newt but they had an exchange that i laughed about for like 10 minutes. when i rewatch i’ll fill it in better.
19. the whole Wall scene was honestly magnificent and jorge’s annoyed “GET OUT OF MY WAY” to the crowds as he and thomas make their way to the front? a+
20. newt noticing the “armed guards” and immediately running up to thomas and saying they had to leave now. (which, btw how did i NOT realize that was gally even with the mask on.)
21. everyone getting captured and the contrast of thomas and brenda sitting quietly while jorge literally kicks a guard out of the truck. can you imagine how that ride was going down with them?? lmao and brenda telling him she was there and just the overall love and care jorge has for brenda!
22. gally’s return obvi. “we watched you die.” “you left me to die.” YIKES.
23. newt being able to calm thomas down (WHAT A CONTRAST TO NEWT’S TEMPER LATER. HAHA i hate myself.)
24. Gally saying he deserves it and asking if fry or newt wanna get a shot in too because he knows that everything he did was wrong and he probably lives with that shame and guilt every day and i want to cry
25. rose took my nose i suppose! fun fact: this line was also said by a crank in the scorch trials, though not nearly as clear - it’s very background ish and more violent. can’t remember the exact scene but it may have been when they’re in the abandoned mall and one of the cranks jumps on newt and thomas kicks him off the ledge. i was curious to know if it was supposed to be the same crank, but given the distinction between the two cranks i don’t think it was, but it’s something to consider. anyway - THE EFFECTS! his face was so cranky i loved it.
26. newt lacing up his boot probably to make sure his leg is okay and subtly noticing the pain in his hands and the twitching of them and panicking and trying to conceal it.
27. “gally, take care of them.” AW.
28. in the sewers, snarky!newt returns “ugh, this is gross.”
29. out in the city and newt and thomas seeing a real city for the first time aw.
30. the telescope and thomas seeing teresa for the first time and not even saying a word but gally just knowing and responding “i didn’t say you were gonna like it.”
31. the meeting when they get back and brenda saying “wait, isn’t this the same girl who betrayed you? the same dick?” and gally saying “i like her.” brenda and gally have attitudes that give me LIFE. <3
32. newt just sitting quietly off to the side during all of this but you can see the annoyance and rage in his eyes until he finally speaks up “worried your little girlfriend’s gonna get hurt?” etc. and the looks between everyone else around the table as the two of them fight.
33. the rage in newt’s eyes and then the immediate fade of the rage as he realizes what’s going on and he has to leave
34. brenda’s face when newt slams thomas against the wall because DO YOU THINK SHE BRIEFLY REMEMBERS WHEN SHE CRANKED OUT??? even though she really get angry with thomas but i’m sure she had moments before the boys met with her and jorge. not that she knows newt’s a crank yet but i mean?? memory trigger?
35. don’t get me started on the deleted scene.
36. thomas’ face when he sees newt’s wrists and the veins
37. the fact that newt must have written the letter shortly after this scene
38. let’e jump back to the cutaways now with teresa/minho/wicked quickly.. teresa thinking she’s found a cure for the little girl and talking with her and being so happy
39. teresa seeing minho and trying to tell him that something in his blood could save this little girl and could save a ton more people, but minho not having any of it because as far as he’s concerned she’s a traitor and has fcked with them and mostly thomas for so long and that kills him because now he’s separated from his friends and he has no idea if they’re alive or not after that raid
40. teresa learning that the little girl wasn’t cured and she’s back to square one now and really beginning to doubt herself.
41. not sticking up for ava paige here but the scene of her and jansen when she’s telling him that maybe it’s done and maybe there can’t be a cure, maybe it was all for nothing??
42. teresa’s walk through the city to take it in one last time and see the people around her whom she thought she would be able to help and realizing that humanity is dying and she can’t do anything to stop it.
43. HER FACE WHEN SHE SAW THOMAS.
44. thomas barely even being able to look at her without crying.
45. newt being the one to angrily rip the covering from teresa’s eyes and taking his seat next to thomas.
46. “Don’t look at him. look at me. why’re you looking at him. he can’t help you.” GALLY.
47. gally talking to teresa because he knows it will be too hard on thomas, and then threatening to chop her finger off???
47a (had to go back because i just remembered other stuff and i don’t want to renumber everything): teresa seeing how good brenda’s doing and realizing it’s thomas’ blood but thomas telling her he doesn’t believe her anymore and to stop speaking and you know how much that had to hurt for him??
47b. Brenda telling thomas to be careful because he has a bad habit of not being able to leave people when he should (flashback to him not leaving her when she was cranking out and when she ran back in the warehouse when they first met thomas could have gone out the window with everyone else but he stuck around to make sure she was safe and got out too).
47c. jorge and brenda’s goodbye. i’m crying for three years.
47d. teresa trying to grab the knife she used because it had thomas’ blood on it but gally stopping her “nice try” because he prob thought she was gonna try to stab them, but she ended up taking the bandage at least! smart.
48. teresa had to have snuck into wicked for the uniforms and then back out right? how’d that work. only slightly curious.
49. newt (in uniform) walking directly up to thomas and teresa and staring at them briefly and threateningly before he nods his head and they’re like “oh, that must be newt.. okay.”
50. gally finding the mech box and Doing The Gally Thing that he was known for in the fever code!! did everyone forget gally was amazing at tech??? seeing him be able to put his brain to use here made me so happy.
51. newt cranking out on the staircase and teresa suddenly realizing why thomas is such a mess and newt turning away from her when he sees her staring at him because he’s still trying to hide it.
52. running and saving all those kids! (and again, sadly, realizing minho is not there)
53. thomas dragging teresa and telling her he’d better bring him to him right away.
54. newt immediately saying he’s going with them and thomas saying no that he has to stay for the serum but newt looking at him and just saying “minho comes first, remember?” SELFLESS.
55. gally leading the kids out to brenda, but when he realizes thomas never met up with her he tells her to stay and he runs back into Wicked to find him.
56. brenda keeping those kids safe with everything she’s got, even when it does mean leaving without thomas because she knows that if these kids get taken again, she’d never be able to live with herself.
57. back to thomas and friends - the whole elevator scene. priceless, honestly. thomas bumping into jansen? perfect. also gave him away probably, but it’s okay.
58. teresa and thomas’ argument in the hallway where he rips his mask off and immediately newt’s like “what’re you doing????” because if wicked sees thomas they’ll take him and newt can’t have that.
59. dumbass jansen coming and ruining everything. thomas holding a gun to teresa’s head, even though he knows he’d never be able to pull the trigger, but maybe teresa wasn’t actually sure for a moment and thought she might die? newt probably cheering this on a little bit.
60. teresa playing middle ground again and locking them behind the glass doors, trapping them, but also giving them more time. making sure jansen knows she needs them alive.
61. minho hearing the commotion outside and realizing that he might actually have a chance at escaping and it’s enough to pull him out of his unconscious/messed up state and fight back.
62. thomas and newt fighting and constantly looking out for each other “newt get down!” “tommy get back!” and pushing him back before throwing the bomb. just having each others’ backs in general and newt fighting so hard if only to see minho one last time/save tommy.
63. minho coming and saving them by THROWING THAT GUY THROUGH THE WINDOW.
64. THE REUNION. The biggest hug of life and minho looking at them in amazement and saying “is this real” because for a brief minute he probably thought he was back in the room with wires stuck in him making him see things
65. locking themselves in that room and throwing furniture in front of the door to keep jansen out (throwback to tst!)
66. jansen looking just totally annoyed leaning on the door while the guy comes in with the saw to open the door
67. “any ideas?” thomas’ awkward “maybe.”
68. the scene where they throw the tank out the window and the whole shot of it falling in the water was beautiful because it was so quiet too omg
69. the three boys looking out the window like.. here we go. and the silent exchanges/thoughts probably going on in their heads?? thomas like “okay, okay, it’s doable. i have to get these two out of here no matter what.” and minho like “jesus i did not think i’d be doing this” and eyeing newt briefly. and newt just overall “well i’ve done it before” and also “well, if tommy says this is the plan, this is it.” because he’d FOLLOW HIM ANYWHERE, EVEN OUT OF A WINDOW. -- also, it should be noted that minho doesn’t have shoes in all of this, poor boy running around on broken glass all day. christ.
70. when the saw starts along the door and you see newt’s slo-mo turn. epic.
71. the pep talk!!! “we’re all bloody inspired” !!!!!!!! snarky!newt and book!newt in one! and thomas’ brief look at him like “cut me some slack.”
72. jansen breaking through and the boys just not hesitating at all and going for it and minho yelling thomas’ name when they jump!!
73. jansen almost falling out of the window himself did anyone catch that? and then aiming to shoot and realizing it was futile while also thinking “these fucking kids....” lmao
74. the return of thomas flipping off jansen.
75. jansen saying he wants everyone finding thomas immediately and the other guard saying they were on it and they’ve got eyes already on the bus and jansen stops and is like “what bus?” LIKE... HIS MIND WAS PROBABLY LIKE ARE YOU KIDDING ME WTF ELSE DID THOMAS DO?
76. cut to badass brenda! when she gets stopped and leaves the bus and tells the kids to stay on and then stops and comes back and is like “you’re all doing great.” like!!!! <3
77. FRYPAN COMING TO SAVE THE DAY. That whole scene lifting the bus oh my god. frypan apologizing when he bangs the bus into the side of the wall. the absolute fear in brenda’s eyes when the bus starts breaking and she realizes she might fall. but then frypan running them down as close to the ground as possible so they don’t fall from that height! so great.
78. “out of service”
79. our trio getting out of the water (sidenote - minho is still without shoes and probably bleeding everywhere) and being caught and thomas’ utter “you’ve gotta be kidding me” like i know i didn’t just jump out of that window for nothing.
80. GALLY!
81. minho’s look of complete confusion at gally and thomas saying he’ll explain later but minho is still standing there in complete shock like what is happening.
82. “you guys are nuts.” lmao at gally’s reaction to them jumping out of the window. he must’ve been running around inside and heard one of the guards like “LET’S GO, THEY JUST JUMPED OUT THE WINDOW” and he was like “jesus christ thomas always doing dumb shit”
83. them running for cover behind a small wall and newt coughing like hell and minho suddenly realizing that his best friend is Not Okay. “hey how’re you feeling” “bloody terrible, but it’s good to see you again minho.” TEARS EVERYWHERE.
84. minho being so concerned and asking thomas how long newt had been like that and thomas struggling on how to tell minho and minho probably realizing that even cranking out like he was, newt pushed himself to be there and save minho.
85. ps in the background of this little exchange between minho and thomas, you see newt open his jacket and grab the necklace - possibly making sure it was still there and didn’t come off in the water. :) :) :) :) :) :(
86. “gally i don’t get it, why are you helping us? i put a spear through your chest.” “yeah well, nobody’s perfect.” minho and gally!!!!!!!!! minho was the only one who stood up for gally in the fever code they were friends first and this little exchange just made my heart hurt.
87. thomas and minho (still barefoot???) carrying newt throughout the streets of the city and gally having their back the entire time.
89. teresa finding the cure!
90. brenda and fry getting back and realizing nobody was there and there was probably a big chance that thomas and them might have been captured and all they could do was wait.
91. the crank bombs. the scene of that crank (forgot his name because i’m the worst..) riding into the building with the bombs how epic
92. the explosion and gally’s utter shock of it. “it was just supposed to be the building, not the entire city.” and thomas being like it’s okay let’s just go and gally still just panicking like “oh my god we’re destroying the city, this is not what i wanted, what have i messed up this time” gally just keeps feeling so much guilt for everything and i’m not okay
93. the breakout of the war between everyone in the city and our four boys just constantly struggling to find cover and finally thomas radios brenda and is like “we’re not gonna make it” and brenda is like “we’re not leaving you. i’m not leaving you so forget it.” and NOW WHO CAN’T LEAVE PEOPLE BRENDA I’M CRYING.
94. the boys running to the tunnels and gally turning and saying “we’re almost there newt” and the poor boy saying “just leave me” I MEAN????
95. as they’re crouched low again and thomas realizes that newt is almost fully cranked and they’re not gonna make it and he tells minho - their fastest runner - to get the serum. gally immediately saying he’ll cover him - which i believe 100% he would protect him with his life, if only it meant some sort of release from the guilt of chuck
96. newt pulling minho in by the collar and telling him thank you. what a LOADED thank you. everything from the maze, being his friend, protecting them in the scorch, giving newt a second change at life. i’m in tears, son.
97. jorge coming with the berg and vince’s return! brenda saying thomas isn’t with them and vince insisting they go get him and everyone’s hype about it.
98. newt completely zoning out and his eyes turning fully now as he actually starts cranking out. thomas’ fear as he tried to bring him back and newt finally does come back to himself and he realizes it’s now or never so he gives thomas the necklace and says THE LINE.
99. “come on newt, it’s me and you. i need you to give me everything you’ve got okay?” “okay.” AND HE FIGHTS AGAIN TO TRY TO MAKE IT.
100. you start to see newt completely cranking out with his legs dragging and his head twitching back and forth and he’s so far gone at this point and they fall and thomas keeps trying to get him up but newt’s just on the ground at this point with zero strength
101. teresa’s voice over the loudspeaker telling thomas that he is the cure and everyone’s reactions to it - brenda, minho, etc.
102. thomas turning around to look at newt again but newt’s standing now and when newt turns around thomas loses it because he’s gone
103. THE FIGHT. OH MY GOD. “kill me tommy” and the roars
104. brenda BOOKING IT
105. newt’s struggle between cranking out and coming back where we see both newt and crank!newt throughout the fight - including when he jump on thomas and breathes out “i’m sorry tommy” before putting the gun to his head.
106. thomas’ look of COMPLETE FEAR when he does this so much so that he just completely smacks the gun out of the way not caring where it landed and crank!newt’s growl at him right before he takes his knife and tries to stab thomas
107. thomas just crying as he tried to keep the knife from going in his chest because he knows they just have to hold off a little longer and the serum will be there, but when the knife actually starts pressing against him he just punches and kicks newt off to the side and it probably killed him to do that but he knew he didn’t have a choice
108. when It Happens and newt’s eyes clear and he just says “tommy” before falling and i’m crying as i write this so i need to skip to the next bullet point before i dwell on this.
109. brenda running to the scene and getting there just a minute too late. feeling guilty because she didn’t run fast enough, she didn’t leave early enough, etc. and seeing newt’s body thinking that could have been her months ago if thomas hadn’t saved her life.
110. thomas just having no words and just slowly walking away.
111. minho and fry getting to the scene and omg. frypan looking at him and probably thinking back to winston (i’m convinced these two were bffs so)
112. Minho. Minho seeing his best friend with a knife in his chest. And his knees just buckled because he couldn’t even stand anymore. do you ever wonder how long minho knelt there in silence until fry and brenda had to step in and try to pick him up and bring him back to the berg? because i do.
113. thomas just walking into wicked because he doesn’t care anymore. that was the final straw. he won’t lose anyone else. even if it means sacrificing himself. “just let everyone else go.”
114. having ava shot right in front of him and barely even registering what just happened. trying to fight jansen but honestly he was probably so weak and tired and mentally shot after everything with newt that he could barely fight. he puts one last effort into it, all of his hatred at everything he’s been put through, but jansen still gets the better of him because he just can’t do it anymore.
115. teresa smashing that vase over jansen’s head and trying to save thomas. she fights so hard! she gets thrown across that table like a ragdoll!
116. jansen and the gun and thomas realizes that he’s going to shoot teresa and thomas runs in front of her to push her aside because despite everything he still cares about her and he knows she was trying to do the right thing.
117. thomas watching teresa protect him and hold off jansen until he can’t take it anymore and throws the thing. “you missed.” “did i?”
118. jansen getting eaten alive by cranks amirite???
119. teresa and thomas running on top of the building as the city burns around them and they realize that this might actually be it and it’s over. and teresa feeling so, so guilty for everything. “i tried, tom, i tried.” “i know.”
120. the berg! working to get thomas onto the platform and teresa pushing him up because he has to be saved no matter what, because he’ll save everyone. slipping the cure in his pocket, making sure he takes it with him.
121. thomas’ face when he realizes teresa isn’t going to come aboard, that she’s accepted her fate.
122. teresa’s fall!!!! oh my goodness. what a beautiful shot, cinematically.
123. thomas now lying on the berg practically bleeding to death, his last thoughts probably being about newt and teresa and the last half hour or so he’d just gone through.
124. minho probably seeing that thomas is shot and freaking out because there is no way he is losing both of his best friends today - not when the only reason they’re here is because they came to save him. (also, is minho still barefoot? i hope there were shoes on the berg for this poor boy..)
125. the safe haven! thomas walking out and seeing everyone and him and minho embrace and i just cry every time i think about it.
126. vince’s speech and The Rock for everyone to come make their peace.
127. minho giving the necklace back to thomas, probably not even realizing what it was, what it meant.
128. thomas finding the note and realizing its a letter and immediately folding it and dropping his head because he can’t believe that’s what this was. in his last moments, newt made sure thomas took this with him and thomas had no idea what it even was when he took it, probably thinking “okay sure yeah i’ll hold your necklace, whatever this is i’ve got it” possibly wondering if it was just cranked out newt or if it was actually something important.
129. The. Letter. Not getting into detail here. You all know it. I can’t talk about it yet. Not yet.
130. Seeing Minho be the one to carve Newt’s name into the stone. I bawled.
131. Thomas carving Teresa’s name into it, because despite everything, she worked hard to save him and get him to where he was, and in the end, she did find the cure. She deserves to be remembered for that.
132. Seeing Sonya Harriet and Aris together again! Group B trio!
133. When they show the stone you see all of the names. Chuck - do you think Gally wrote in chuck’s name as a little release? What about Alby? Maybe Minho? I’m calling it now that Fry wrote Winston’s name. They still had Ben’s name - I’m saying Minho wrote Ben’s name, because back in the glade they ran together, and he probably still misses him so often. Rachel’s name is there, probably from Aris. There are so many names, so many stories unheard. But you think about everyone in the safe haven and all of these people they lost and it just hurts.
134. the last words of the entire trilogy being “goodbye mate. Newt.” and how those words spoke to every single one of us.
feel free to add more bits.
#TDC#TDC spoilers#the death cure#tmr#the maze runner#thomas#minho#newt#teresa#brenda#frypan#jorge#vince#aris#sonya#harriet#i'm forgetting names probably#SPOILERS
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Vonnie: 4, 11, 18. Casey: 2, 5, 10 Silas: 11, 14, 17. Chuva: 6, 9, 16. Aaaand a wild card: Evelyn: 3, 7, 19. And 12 for anyone you've thought of one for!!
Vonnie
4. What would their favorite cartoons me and why? What would their favorite characters be?: This is a little difficult to answer because ModPark takes place in a vague-ass time period, but I think that Vonnie would like comedic cartoons that aren’t afraid to get really adult and/or dark. Stuff like Courage The Cowardly Dog, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Ren And Stimpy.
11. What kinds of foods and drinks do they like? Do they like certain foods to be fried? Do they like certain foods to be prepared hot/cold?: I always envisioned her as Latinx so she likes Mexican food for sure. She’s always down for junk food though, fried, sweet, hot, cold, you name it.
18. What type of singing voice does your OC have?: She can just barely carry a tune.
Casey
2. Say your OC made a playlist on Spotify. What bands would be on that playlist? Any specific genres?: All the songs would be nostalgic pop songs from 10-15 years ago that are really upbeat, the kind of shit you’d hear over the loudspeakers at an amusement park. I can’t really say which bands because again, vague-ass time period.
5. What’s their favorite type of weather? Do they like to do anything specific on days when the weather is how they like it?: Casey prefers dry weather; if it’s raining or even really humid, he feels like he’s going to mildew (whether that’s the truth or not). However, he never takes much notice of temperature, unless it’s EXTREMELY hot or cold. Anytime it’s clear and dry, he likes to go out and explore the city, which has led to Vonnie repeatedly explaining that forty degrees is not ideal going-out weather.
10. What’s their favorite time of day?: Late morning/early afternoon, like 10 AM to 1 PM.
Silas
11. What kinds of foods and drinks do they like? Do they like certain foods to be fried? Do they like certain foods to be prepared hot/cold?: So this is interesting since because of Silas’s mask, his sense of pleasure is dulled, and that includes the pleasure he gets from food. As a result, he lives on plain foods that are quick/easy to make, but nothing fried because the grease bothers him. However, the mask can’t completely get rid of his sweet tooth.
14. If your OC owned a Tumblr blog, what kind of content would they post?: Either he’d just reblog news and social justice stuff, or he’d never move beyond the default icon and a blog named “Untitled.”
17. If your OC was a musical artist, what genres would they do?: He would specialize in really long and intricate songs that tell some kind of story. So not exactly top 40 hits here.
Chuva
6. If they’re a fan of Hot Chocolate, Tea, or Coffee, how do they like either of those drinks prepared?: Something I never really got a chance to mention in The Other Side is that most gods have a really hard time ingesting major stimulants or depressants like caffeine or alchohol, so no coffee or tea for her. That said, she enjoys hot chocolate, but only if you make it with milk instead of water. You need to love yourself.
9. How do they write? Do they write in cursive? How do they dot their i’s and j’s? Do they have specific ways that they write certain letters?: She does write in cursive, but that’s because when she was growing up it was just common for everybody to write in cursive. Her handwriting always looks really rushed and impatient and it slants to the right a lot. Also, half the time she doesn’t dot her i’s and j’s or cross her t’s.
16. If your OC was a film director, what kind of movies would they make?: Oh martial arts movies for sure. Not just action movies, but movies that really focus on elaborate fighting technique.
Evelyn
3. What kind of video games would they play? Any specific titles?: …do they have video games in Halloweentown? Uh, well, let’s pretend she snuck into the human world to play video games. Probably she’d play any of those horror games with “cute” characters, like FNAF or Bendy and the Ink Machine. And she obviously roots for the monsters.
7. What kind of animals would they like as a pet? What names would they give their pets if they got any? If they already have pet’s what are their names?: She owns a large black widow spider named Kitty! She’d also like to get a bat, but her parents told her that the bat might eat Kitty, so she hasn’t done that yet.
19. Does your OC like to collect things? What kind of things do they collect?: She likes to collect “treasures” which are usually just discarded things that seem like they might be somehow valuable: discarded or broken jewelry, empty potion bottles, unusual stones, things like that.
Aaaaaand 12. If they were an actual character in an animated film or TV series, who would they be voiced by? Do they have a certain accent that the person would need to perfect?
I do actually have voice actors in mind for Chuva and Silas! Chuva would be voiced by Teal Wicks, who was Elphaba in Wicked and also Emma in the latest version of Jekyll & Hyde. Silas would be voiced by Ramin Karimloo, who’s done a bunch of stuff, but I know him most from playing the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera! He’s actually my favorite Phantom, and his voice has this sort of regal yet modern feel that I think would be perfect for Silas.
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I really liked answering these
1. You woke up naked next to the last person you texted, what would you say?
“Good morning” and then kiss his face (John FINALLY got service and texted me. Still can’t call though…)
2. What’s going on between you and the last person you kissed?
We’re happily dating eachother.
3. If your boyfriend or girlfriend was into drugs, would you care?
I’d be concerned.
4. Is your last name longer than six letters?
Nope!
5. Was your last kiss drunk or sober?
Sober and sad.
6. Have you ever wanted to have someone but you messed it up?
Nope, I have who I want.
7. What does your last received text say?
“This cell reception thing is going to be hard” nofuckingshitihateit
8. How many times have you kissed the last person you kissed?
Not enough! :)
9. Where was your last kiss at?
At my boyfriend’s house right before I drove home.
10. When is the last time you saw your sister?
My pseudo sister? A year and two months ago.
11. What do you drink in the morning?
Water. Always water haha.
12. Where did you sleep last night?
My bed.
13. Do you think relationships are hard?
Honestly… No. I think communication is hard, and since most of relationships comprise of communication, they can be hard, but if you’re communicating well - relationships are great.
14. If you could go back and change something in the past 5 months, would you?
I would have spoken my mind more… Now it’s a little too late, and things won’t be the same.
15. You’re locked in a room with the last person you kissed, any problems?
None at all.
16. Would you rather it be sunny or rainy?
I like when it’s both!
17. Do you know anyone with the same middle name as you?
I don’t think so…..
18. Are you wearing jeans,sweatpants,or pajama pants?
I’m wearing athletic gear, because that’s what I basically live in.
19. Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 years from now?
Yes. John and I are forever.
20. Does anyone like you?
Yeah, and he loooooves me :)
21. Have you ever kissed someone with a name that starts with an S?
I haven’t.
22. Is the last person you kissed gay?
Nah
23. Is there a person you CANNOT stand?
Yes. A lot. lol.
24. Have you ever considered getting a tattoo?
Every. Damn. Day.
25. In the past week have you cried?
Yes. Like seven thousand times.
26. What breed was the last dog you saw?
In real life… oorrr… I saw a terrier mix outside of the ice cream shop I went to Friday night.
27. Do you dry off in the shower or out of the shower?
Mix of both, actually.
28. Have you ever kissed a football player?
Fortunately, not.
29. Do you think you’re old?
I’m getting there haha.
30. Do you like text messaging?
Sometimes. I’m so bad at replying, but I like texting more than talking on the phone.
31. What type of day are you having?
I’ve done nothing but watch YouTube videos all day… So I’m feeling a bit cooped up. Tomorrow I’m going to be productive though! I already have my day planned out.
32. Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced?
Yeah, but I have such bad allergies and I always have boogers, and getting boogers stuck in my nose ring never seemed like a good idea.
33. Do you prefer warm or cold weather?
COLD! I love to be warm in cold weather. :)
34. Is there a person of the opposite sex who means a lot to you?
Yes, John. Homie is my favorite person ever.
35. Would you prefer a relationship or a fling?
A relationship. Never liked flings...
36. Are you a simple or complicated person?
I’m simple. Like too simple, sometimes.
37. What song are you listening to?
“What about us” by Pink
38. When you say you’re sorry do you mean it?
Always. I don’t apologize for shit I’m not sorry for haha.
39. Is there a girl that knows everything or almost everything about you?
Yeah
40. What made you start liking the person you like now?
His interests, humor and personality.
41. When did you last receive a text message?
Two hours ago… He lost service, but at least I heard from him!
42. What is wrong with you right now?
I’m cooped up and alone...
43. How well do you know the last female you texted?
Well enough to send texts about our menstrual cycles.
44. Does anyone disgust you?
Donald Trump
45. Would you date someone right now if they asked?
John.
46. Are you in a good mood right now?
I’m starting to be, now that I’m answering a bunch of questions about John haha.
47. Who was the last person you talked to in person?
My coworker Brigette! I had to think about that….
48. What color shirt are you wearing?
Black.
49. Has someone recently told you something you didn’t want to hear?
Uh, no?
50. Anyone you’re giving up on?
Yep
51. Do you hate the person you fell hardest for?
Not at all.
52. Have you ever thought about giving up on someone but couldn’t?
Wait, you talking romantic or platonic? … Wha
53. Do you like rain?
Yes, but not when it gets on my face…. lol
54. Do you care if your boyfriend/girlfriend drinks?
No, I don’t care.
55. Have you ever liked somebody and never told them?
Nah, I’ve always been the “hey I like you” kind of girl. Mostly because it gives me anxiety NOT to tell someone.
56. Do you like to cuddle?
I didn’t used to, but now I really enjoy it.
57. Are you shy?
Reserved, not shy.
58. Do you get along with girls?
Most of the time.
59. Have you dated the person you texted last?
Yes, and currently.
60. What do you carry with you at all times?
Water bottle, purse, phone and keys. Sometimes the phone and keys are in the purse, but sometimes they roam free.
61. If you were paid 1 million dollars to spend the night in a supposed haunted house, would you?
Yes.
62. Do you think you can last in a relationship for five months?
I didn’t used to think I could, but I defs can. lol
63. Think back to October, were you in a relationship?
Yep, and we were Mary Poppins and Bert for Halloween.
64. The person you like kisses you on the forehead, do you find this cute?
I actually don’t care for forehead kisses, but CHEEK kisses, now those are my shit. They make me smile instantly.
65. Did anything “cute” happen in the last week?
I’m sure it did.
66. How old are the last three people you kissed?
The last one is the only one that matters; he’s 24. Youngster.
67. Would you rather pay to get your nails done or do them yourself?
I’d love to pay someone to tend to my nails, because I hate doing them, but neither. For both my jobs I have to have bare, short nails.
68. Which do you like better- Zebra print or leopard print?
Neither…..
69. Do you have any stickers on your car?
Just the reminder to change my oil.
70. Would you rather listen to Luke Bryan or Lil Wayne?
Luke Bryan
71. Blackberry, Anroid, or iPhone?
Android.
72. When’s the last time you had pizza from Pizza Hut?
Oh Lord, I don’t remember…..
73. Do you like diet soda?
I don’t like soda, period.
74. What color are the walls in your room?
White.
75. Are you 16 or older?
Ten years older, actually.
76. Do you watch Pretty Little Liars?
Never.
77. Do you have a job?
Two.
78. What are your initials?
APH
79. Did you ever have braces?
Never
80. Are you from the south?
My mother’s southern region! AYOH
81. What does your last status on facebook say?
“I found my favorite chapstick under my bed! SO BALM!”
That was a real story with a GREAT pun. I’m still proud.
82. Do you still talk to the first person you ever kissed?
God no hahahha
83. Are you closer to your mom or your dad?
Mommy
84. Have you ever done cheerleading or gymnastics?
Yeah, well indirectly. I had friends that did both and would teach me things.
85. What’s the last movie you saw in theaters?
I can’t remember…….
86. Do you smoke?
Occasionally marijuana.
87. Would you rather wear heels or flip flops?
Flip flops.
88. Is your phone touch screen?
Yep.
89. Do you normally wear your hair straight or curly?
All natural - curly.
90. Have you ever snuck out of your house?
Yes, several times lol.
91. Would you rather swim in a river, lake, or pool?
Pool.
92. Have you ever made out in a car?
Yep, last weekend :)
93. …Had sex in a car?
Close to sex.
94. Are you single or in a relationship?
In a relationship
95. What were you doing last night at midnight?
Sleeping.
96. When’s the last time you saw fireworks?
Um, at Lake Powell, whenever that was.
97. Do you like the camera on your phone?
Sometimes.
98. Have you ever had a friend with benefits?
Kinda
99. Have you ever passed out from drinking?
Nope
100. Are you friends with people on facebook that you actually hate?
Not ~hate
101. Have you ever had a pregnancy scare?
Never
102. Name your favorite Kesha song:
I don’t have one???
103. Do you have any tan lines right now?
Always hahahah
104. Would you ever wear cowboy boots with shorts?
I don’t think I look good in cowboy boots, so no.
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1-104 lol
1. You woke up naked next to the last person you texted, what would you say?
- Not a word. I would just cry.
2. What’s going on between you and the last person you kissed?
-Nothing important.
3. If your boyfriend or girlfriend was into drugs, would you care?
-Depends on the type.
4. Is your last name longer than six letters?
-No.
5. Was your last kiss drunk or sober?
-Drunk
6. Have you ever wanted to have someone but you messed it up?
-Sure have.
7. What does your last received text say?
-”Let’s hangout soon.”
8. How many times have you kissed the last person you kissed?
-Too many times.
9. Where was your last kiss at?
-At some park.
10. When is the last time you saw your sister?
-I don’t have one.
11. What do you drink in the morning?
-Water
12. Where did you sleep last night?
-My bed.
13. Do you think relationships are hard?
-I think they take work…Just like everything else. But no, not “hard”. I don’t think relationships should be hard.
14. If you could go back and change something in the past 5 months, would you?
-Nah.
15. You’re locked in a room with the last person you kissed, any problems?
-Oh yeah.
16. Would you rather it be sunny or rainy?
-Rainy.
17. Do you know anyone with the same middle name as you?
-No.
18. Are you wearing jeans,sweatpants,or pajama pants?
-Sweatpants.
19. Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 years from now?
-I’m not sure. Depends.
20. Does anyone like you?
-Yeah.
21. Have you ever kissed someone with a name that starts with an S?
-Yes. His name was Sal
22. Is the last person you kissed gay?
-No.
23. Is there a person you CANNOT stand?
-Not Really.
24. Have you ever considered getting a tattoo?
-I already have some.
25. In the past week have you cried?
-Yes, but not because I was sad. I was watching a movie that had me crying for like an hour after it ended, lol.
26. What breed was the last dog you saw?
-Chihuahua.
27. Do you dry off in the shower or out of the shower?
-In the shower.
28. Have you ever kissed a football player?
-No.
29. Do you think you’re old?
-No.
30. Do you like text messaging?
-I don’t mind it but I’m like self conscious about it because I feel like I’m not exciting enough through texting or any type of messaging. I’m better at face to face interaction, lol.
31. What type of day are you having?
-It’s okay.
32. Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced?
-No but I had my septum.
33. Do you prefer warm or cold weather?
-Cold!
34. Is there a person of the opposite sex who means a lot to you?
-Yup.
35. Would you prefer a relationship or a fling?
-Depends on who I’m talking to.
36. Are you a simple or complicated person?
-I would like to think I’m simple.
37. What song are you listening to?
-Sports - You Are The Right One
38. When you say you’re sorry do you mean it?
-I never say sorry so uh yeah. When I say it, I really, really mean it.
39. Is there a girl that knows everything or almost everything about you?
-yeaaaah.
40. What made you start liking the person you like now?
-I actually don’t like anyone right now.
41. When did you last receive a text message?-At 10:32pm
42. What is wrong with you right now?
-I’m super tired. Like I just woke up right now. Fell asleep on like question 22, lol. & it’s 11:47pm oops
43. How well do you know the last female you texted?-It was my mom, sooo.
44. Does anyone disgust you?
-Yes.
45. Would you date someone right now if they asked?
-No.
46. Are you in a good mood right now?
-Yeah sure.
47. Who was the last person you talked to in person?
-My brother.
48. What color shirt are you wearing?
-It’s green.
49. Has someone recently told you something you didn’t want to hear?
-Yes.50. Anyone you’re giving up on?
-Not currently that I could think of?
51. Do you hate the person you fell hardest for?
-No.
52. Have you ever thought about giving up on someone but couldn’t?
-A few times.
53. Do you like rain?
-I love the rain!
54. Do you care if your boyfriend/girlfriend drinks?
-Nah. Unless they’re violent drunks or have to be watched over for whatever reason when they drink.
55. Have you ever liked somebody and never told them?
-Yeah. lol.
56. Do you like to cuddle?
-I doooo.
57. Are you shy?
-No. Not really
58. Do you get along with girls?
-For the most part?
59. Have you dated the person you texted last?
-Not really. It’s complicated.
60. What do you carry with you at all times?
My purse & what’s in my purse is a whole other story, lol.
61. If you were paid 1 million dollars to spend the night in a supposed haunted house, would you?
-You could pay me 5 bucks & I’ll do it.
62. Do you think you can last in a relationship for five months?-Of course.
63. Think back to October, were you in a relationship?
-No.
64. The person you like kisses you on the forehead, do you find this cute?
-I don’t like anyone rn but forehead kisses are always really nice & sweet.
65. Did anything “cute” happen in the last week?
-I mean, I dressed cute all last week so yeah, me. I happened last week.
66. How old are the last three people you kissed?
-22, 31 & 25
67. Would you rather pay to get your nails done or do them yourself?
-Depends on if there was an occasion or not.
68. Which do you like better- Zebra print or leopard print?
-Leopard.
69. Do you have any stickers on your car? -No.
70. Would you rather listen to Luke Bryan or Lil Wayne?
-Oh god, If i had to choose….lil Wayne..
71. Blackberry, Anroid, or iPhone?
-Android.
72. When’s the last time you had pizza from Pizza Hut?
-I don’t even know.
73. Do you like diet soda? -Nope.
74. What color are the walls in your room?
-White.
75. Are you 16 or older?
-Yes.
76. Do you watch Pretty Little Liars?
-No.
77. Do you have a job? -Yes
78. What are your initials?
-ING79. Did you ever have braces?
-No. My teeth are straight.
80. Are you from the south?
-Nope,
81. What does your last status on facebook say?
-Not sure & I don’t even want to look because last time I posted, I was in hs.
82. Do you still talk to the first person you ever kissed?
-No.
83. Are you closer to your mom or your dad?
-Neither.
84. Have you ever done cheerleading or gymnastics?
-No. I’ve only done ballet
85. What’s the last movie you saw in theaters?
-Transformers the last knight.
86. Do you smoke?
-Smoke what? lol
87. Would you rather wear heels or flip flops?
-Depends where I’m going.
88. Is your phone touch screen? -Yes.
89. Do you normally wear your hair straight or curly?
-I leave my hair Curly/Wavy. Whatever it feels like doing.
90. Have you ever snuck out of your house?
-Yeah when I was younger.
91. Would you rather swim in a river, lake, or pool?
-River.92. Have you ever made out in a car? -Yes.
93. …Had sex in a car?
-Maybe baby.94. Are you single or in a relationship?
-Single.
95. What were you doing last night at midnight? -I was driving home.
96. When’s the last time you saw fireworks?
-Earlier. 97. Do you like the camera on your phone?
-Yeah, it’s cool.98. Have you ever had a friend with benefits?
-Yes.99. Have you ever passed out from drinking?
-YES
100. Are you friends with people on facebook that you actually hate?
-Nah.
101. Have you ever had a pregnancy scare? -Unfortunately
102. Name your favorite Kesha song:
-I pay zero attention to her. Sorry.
103. Do you have any tan lines right now? - Yes.
104. Would you ever wear cowboy boots with shorts?
- I did once for this themed birthday party.
#That was so long#Sorry I make you guys answer all the questions lol#I fell asleep halfway through this
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066: Real Estate Investing in Portugal and Uganda – Nathan Amaral Explains How it Works
Today we’re talking with Nathan Amaral of Fearless-Millionaire.com. Nathan is a real estate investor, podcaster, educator, coach and more!
I met Nathan several years ago and we’ve stayed connected over the years. What I find really intriguing about Nathan is that he primarily invests in countries outside the United States, namely Portugal and Uganda.
We wanted to get Nathan on the show to learn about what other opportunities there are outside the U.S. to learn how deals are found, how financing works and how things work outside of this comfortable bubble we have in the USA.
Portugal and Uganda are very different from each other, and both countries are very different from the United States, so I’m sure we’ll discover at least a few new things here.
Links and Resources
Fearless-Millionaire.com (Nathan’s website)
048: Investing in Belize Real Estate w/ Will Mitchell
Brian Tracy
Robert Kiyosaki
Tony Robbins
Jim Rohn
Compassion International (Sponsor a Child!)
The Beginner’s Deal Finding Guide
Share Your Thoughts
Leave a note in the comments section below!
Share this episode on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (social sharing buttons below!)
Help out the show:
Leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts Your ratings and reviews really help (and I read each one).
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
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Thanks again for joining me this week. Until next time!
Right-click here and “Save As” to download this episode to your computer.
Full Transcription
Seth: Hey there, tipsters. This is Seth and Jaren with the REtipster podcast and today we’re talking with Nathan Amaral. Nathan is a real estate investor, podcaster, educator, coach, and a lot more. I met Nathan several years ago now and we’ve stayed connected over the years. What I find really intriguing about Nathan is that he primarily invests in countries outside of the United States, namely Portugal, in Uganda of all places.
So, we wanted to get Nathan on the show to learn about what the real estate opportunities are there outside of the U.S. How are deals found, and how does financing work? And if we were to get out of this comfortable bubble we have in the U.S., what does that look like? Just personally, I know very little about how the outside world works once you leave this country. And I don’t know anybody who has done anything in Africa, outside of maybe South Africa. So, I’m sure we’re going to discover a lot of new interesting things here. With that, Nathan, how are you doing?
Nathan Amaral: I’m good man. Thanks, guys, for having me here. I do have a small cough. I was recovering from a cold, but everybody thinks, “Oh, do you have coronavirus?” But I’m doing well. I’m doing well. We are in this lockdown period here. We’re only supposed to leave our homes for that supermarket and stuff, but I have three kids. So, working from home is a little stressful. They are running around all the time. I’m actually here at one of my short-term rentals, which is empty. Right? That’s where are my offices during this time.
Seth: You are in Portugal right now, right?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, I’m in Portugal. It’s actually just off the coast of Portugal. It’s these nine islands of the Azores. It’s the Hawaii of Europe. The Hawaii volcanic islands.
Jaren: And just some trivia information for our listeners there. My mom was adopted by a woman from the Azores, so I grew up calling my grandmother “Vovó”. That is so crazy. Small world.
Seth: So, do you speak Portuguese, Jaren?
Jaren:No, I know like one word, “Vovó”. That’s about it.
Seth: Well, I’m assuming, do you speak Portuguese, Nathan?
Nathan Amaral: I do. Yeah. I speak Portuguese. I understand it. I’m a citizen. I’m a Portuguese citizen.
Seth: Yeah. Okay, awesome. That’s actually one of the interesting things I want to dive into as we get further along is how important is it to actually speak the language in the place where you’re buying and selling real estate?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, that’s a great question.
Seth: Anyway, we’ll get to that in a second. That kind of ties into much of the stuff we’re going to do. But anyway, just to kick this off, why Portugal and Uganda of all places in the world? Maybe you can explain your backstory and help us understand how you landed in those two countries.
Nathan Amaral: Okay. Well, I’ll kick it off in Portugal because one, yeah, it is my heritage. My parents immigrated to the United States. Most of my family immigrated to the United States in Massachusetts. But every year we would come to the Island of San Miguel in the Azores. Sometimes even twice a year. So, at a very young age, I was emotionally deeply rooted here, going into the fields with the cows and stopping on Sundays for picnics in the farmlands and stuff like that. And it’s beautiful scenery here. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. So that over the years, just stay with me. And then when I left the United States in 2013 and I moved to Uganda and as I was raising a family there, it was kind of like, “Okay, where’s the middle ground for me to reconnect with my family?” Because my family did go to Uganda for my wedding, but we needed a middle meeting ground. And so, it just works out. That right here is in the middle of the world. So, we meet here on the Island in Portugal.
Seth: Yeah. And you’ve got an interesting story about how you got connected with Uganda, right?
Jaren: I was about to say, man,
Seth: We can’t brush over that story out.
Jaren: Give us that story out. Come on.
Nathan Amaral: All right. I’ll give you the quick version because we’re talking like 18 years in the making. But about 18 years ago, my dad, God bless him, he’s a big believer “When you give, you shall receive”. He is a believer in the law of reciprocity. At 14 years old, I was a paperboy at the time. Have you guys ever been a paperboy? Paper counter?
Seth: Three and a half years right here.
Jaren: I’ve never done it.
Nathan Amaral: Never done it?
Jaren: I was a bum man growing up. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t get a real job until I was married. Legitimately, the only job I worked, after getting married I was short term part-time at Wendy’s and I lasted a month. I was a complete bum until I actually had to pay bills. I was a late bloomer.
Nathan Amaral: Well, one of the things that my dad taught me at a very young age was “Give and you shall receive”. We went to this local church and there was this group, this choir that came to the church. They would call the African Children’s Choir. They’re still in existence. They’ve been on Oprah. Will Smith supports them and all this stuff. Well, after they’re done singing their songs at the back table, there was a home study courses there to buy. At the back table, they had a whole table full of children’s pictures and you could sponsor a child. So, my dad said, “Well listen, this is what you’re going to do. You’re going to pay me $40 and I’m going to use my credit card and you’re going to pay me $40 every month on my card”. And I was like, what? Like I wasn’t too happy about this.
But anyway, he said, pick a child. So, I’m literally looking there at all these kids. And honestly you guys, I looked probably for the cutest girl on the table. That’s what I did. I’m just like a 14-year-old boy, right? So, I picked a child and we became pen pals. We wrote letters back and forth for a number of years. Just small talk, house school, and stuff like that. Well, when my pen pal, the girl I chose on the table that day, she turned 18, years go by. She turns 18, three letters come back in the mail to me from the organization. And I called them up. I’m like, hey, I got some letters back. And they’re like, “Oh yeah, your sponsor child has graduated. They’re done”. And I’m like, “Well, can I have her phone number? Her address?” They are like, “Oh no, for privacy reasons, we’re not allowed to do that”. So, we literally got disconnected for a number of years. This was before social media guys. So, years go by and Facebook comes out and she was actually searching for me on Facebook. She actually had this burning desire to thank me after all these years of helping cover school fees and stuff like that. So, she was looking me up on Nathan Amaral. There’s a bunch of Nathan Amaral’s in Brazil. Like a huge population.
So, she kept asking all these other Nathan’s. Finally, one day she gets me. And the interesting thing guys, listen to this, her name that I knew her by for privacy reasons was different than the one she was using. Basically, they call it a Christian name, it was the one I was associated with. And then her on her Facebook was her real name, her Uganda name. So, when this name comes up and she’s like, “Did you sponsor a girl?” I get a message, “Did you sponsor a girl in Uganda?” And I’m like, “Yes. Where is she? How do you know?” She’s like, “Nathan, it’s me”.
Seth: That is crazy man.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, yeah, it was crazy. That was 2012. We had our first phone conversation, first video chat, all in a matter of a few months. And then in 2013, I decided to fly out there. I took a six-month sabbatical. I went there. But you guys are both married, right? So, when I hugged my sponsored child friend at the airport, I instantly knew that like “This is your wife”. I just had this instant, “This is it”. And I was like, “Whoa, wait a second”. I didn’t say that right away guys. The week goes by, I’m meeting her family, her friends, and all this stuff. And I just fell in love with the culture and the people and her family and her. And on the day before I left, I snuck away from her because we were together the whole time, I couldn’t get away from this girl. We were just together. She was my tour guide and my friend. On the day before I left, she went to go and get her hair done and all this stuff and I snuck away and I went to go buy her a ring. I met her in the Sheraton. There was a Sheraton Hotel gardens. And while I was there, I was basically telling her, I said, listen, if I leave this country and I go back to the U.S. we’re probably not going to see each other either ever again or many years from now when we have kids and families. And I said I know how I am. If I don’t commit to something right away, I am just going to move on. And I said I don’t want to do that without making a commitment today. So right there I got on one knee, pulled out a ring, asked her to marry me, and luckily, she said yes.
Jaren: Wow, that’s awesome.
Seth: How many times that has happened in the history of sponsored children? Where like a sponsor ends up marrying the child?
Nathan Amaral: It’s like, does that happen often? Right?
Seth: Yeah. I mean it almost seems like something they could make a movie out of it. It’s one of those stories.
Jaren: When I shared it with my wife, that’s exactly what she said. She legit started tearing up and she was like “That’s like a movie”.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, I hear that all the time. I’m actually in talks right now with a famous actress that I pinned on Instagram. I don’t know how to make a movie like that, but I’m trying to do it because so many people have told me this should be a book or a movie. And I’m like, well, this is my personal private life. And then I thought about it, I said, you know what? If I bring awareness to what I did 18 years ago, it could be motivating for other people to give in return to help other kids that need sponsorships for school.
Seth: Yeah, that is actually pretty mind-blowing. There was a child in Guatemala that I sponsored through Compassion International back in 2003 I think is when I started. He got all the way through the system and he graduated and he found me on Facebook. It was crazy. I didn’t end up marrying him. It was pretty crazy just to realizing, this kid that I used to write letters for so long and we still don’t speak the same language. It’s like we rely a hundred percent on Facebook’s horrible translation service that they have. But it’s sort of this moment when you realize like, “Wow, this is a real person. This is an actual life”. You sort of realize that all along, but when you see them outside of the context of writing letters through the organization, it’s like, whoa, that’s really cool.
Nathan Amaral: That’s so cool Seth. I didn’t know that. That’s awesome. That’s awesome for you. Cool.
Seth: So, that is how you landed in Uganda, right?
Nathan Amaral: That’s how I got to Uganda. Yeah. And I was there for a year. I went back to the U.S. After those two weeks we went back home. I literally sold everything I had. I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time. I moved to Uganda. And then 30 days after that, we were married. A few months after that we were pregnant. And now three kids later here I am.
Seth: Would Uganda in terms of investing in real estate there, would that even enter your radar if you didn’t have that connection there?
Nathan Amaral: No, it would never like honestly, even my friends were shocked with Africa. Like I was probably the guy who would never go to Africa. And the funny thing is, even though a lot of my previous ex-girlfriends were African American, I never would have thought I’m going to Africa. So, when I got there I was just like, wow. And then guys I did that, was that…?
Seth: Test ancestry?
Nathan Amaral: Test ancestry.
Jaren: 23 minutes.
Seth: Yeah, 23 minutes.
Nathan Amaral: It comes to find out there was a little bit of Congolese in my DNA and I was like, “Oh, that’s why”. Yeah, crazy. I was like, what?
Seth: Yeah, I can kind of see it when you say that.
Nathan Amaral: That’s funny. But Uganda was never on my radar for real estate. It never was. I was actually really surprised at how much growth there was when I got there. And when I started looking around, I was… I’m still impressed today how much growth there is in that country and so much land, so much undeveloped land. It’s funny.
Seth: Is that one of those African countries that’s like really good for farming actually? I’ve heard Ethiopia is like that. It’s like prime farmland.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, because it’s on the equator the temperature it doesn’t get colder than 65. Okay, 60 maybe that’s a really cold, rainy day, but it’s usually 65 and it doesn’t get hotter than 85. So, it always has this warm climate. It’s really nice.
Seth: We kind of get the context of the countries then. So, in terms of real estate, just as a real estate investor, what was your foray into that? How did you decide? At what point in your life? “Hey, real estate. That’s going to be the thing”
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. Just rewind like maybe 13-15 years ago I started my hunt for real estate investing. The knowledge hunt and learning. A bunch of seminars. Two years of learning and doing nothing until I hired a coach kicked me in the butt. But it was the best thing I ever needed. And yeah, it cost me a lot of money, but that money turned into a lifestyle. The reality is, I started off wholesaling single-family houses, right in my few states that I was in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and that area. I did that for two years. My coach told me to do this strategy for two years and don’t do anything else because there’s a lot of other strategies out there. So, I did that for two years. I did really well. I was doing four to five deals a month, a lot of motivated sellers at the time during that market. And after that, I got into apartment investing. I got hired by David Lindell. Some people know him in the apartment space. Do you know him?
Seth: Yeah.
Nathan Amaral: So, he’s actually having kids himself now. He’s raising a family so he’s not on the road so much. He actually hired me and I worked in his office for three years. Half the time I was working in his office, like building out a sales team and whatnot. And the other half of the time I traveled around the country with him as he would be speaking, I was his assistant. I just learned so much while I was there. I learned about apartments. A lot of the stuff I had learned previously was all single-family strategies. That going into the apartments I started investing at apartments and start expanding that portfolio and syndicating deals.
And then from there, the first time I actually started getting into let’s say a virtual investing was when I moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina. A buddy of mine over there was doing a whole bunch of business and he was already doing it. And so, I kind of adapted to that because it was very new to me. I started buying real estate remotely. Maybe the first one was like an hour and a half away, then it was three hours and then with the next state, that kind of thing. So, I started flipping houses and then buying houses, owner financed, creating older finance opportunities for other people. I buy all-cash, turn those into owner finance opportunities. But I’ll tell you what, Seth, when I started doing that virtual real estate investing, that’s when I knew I could live the lifestyle. I could be anywhere. Just a phone and a laptop and you’re good to go.
So that’s what really got me into that thing. That’s why it was a little easier for me to transition. After five, six years of doing virtual real estate, it was easy for me to transition to whether I was living in Uganda or Portugal. It was like, “Oh, I’m already doing this. It’s no problem”.
Jaren: So how did you go from investing in the States virtually to Portugal? What are you doing now? I’m assuming that when you were flipping houses, you’re not probably flipping houses now, right?
Nathan Amaral: No, not too often. Right now, flipping houses it’s a very saturated, very competitive market. Lower margins. I haven’t flipped a house in probably a year and a half. And that’s just because of the different strategies I’ve been doing. I have been doing a lot more owner finance properties by flipping some land, but mostly owner financing properties has been a primary for a number of years.
Jaren: But what about your short-term rentals? Because right now, I’m assuming you do Airbnb quite a bit in Portugal, right?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. The short-term rentals started out again by building a base here in the Azores in Portugal. And that was like, okay, well, how can I have investment property even though I’m not here primarily but yet still generate some income? The whole short-term rental market was there because this is a tourism area. Portugal and these islands, 80% of their income comes from tourism. That’s really important here. So that started picking up. It was very easy to do that. But a lot of people ask me, “Well Nathan, how do you do short term rentals in Portugal and in Uganda?” By the way, I’ll tell you that in a second. And I do short term rentals in Uganda. How do you do that by traveling everywhere? Who is checking your people in? What’s happening, who’s managing your properties? And that’s very simple. A property management company I found through connections and networking. I found a good property management company here. They manage about 45 properties all over the Island. That wasn’t the first choice by the way. The first time it was this woman who was a cleaner and she was checking people in and out and that was okay.
But we eventually transitioned into a company, who had much more experience. So that’s where it’s been since now.
Jaren: So, dive into how it works. We want to get dive into both markets because they’re both kind of different, but they’re both outside of the United States. But in Portugal, let’s go granular a little bit and dive into how do you find deals? How do you get financing for deals? What is the attitude towards short term rentals? Because out here, depending on where you’re at, you might have to fight a little bit with the lenders or the local municipalities to be able to do short term rentals. What is the lay of the land look like in Portugal?
Nathan Amaral: Sure. And that was the transition by the way. Every country is going to be a little different when it comes to investing there. So, starting with Portugal, you have to get experienced with first the laws, what’s available. For example, here, there’s regulation in Europe. You have to have a fire extinguisher. You have to have placards that show where the exit is. You have to have, what do they call those? That’s fire mat that goes over the stove. You have to have certain railings. So, you have certain things. Also, you have to have a little plaque outside on the street or outside of the residence that says “local apartment” or “apartment local”. You have to go pay a tax for that. You have to go pay a fee, have it registered. So that’s a little different compared to the United States Airbnb system. And or especially even Uganda, it’s a little different as well. But here that’s a little different.
When it comes to finding properties, it is kind of similar. For example, not many people know this, but RE/MAX is here. Century 21 is here. They have a presence here. You can easily access the MLS per se, and data very easily through the government website and through their brokers.
Seth: One of the sorts of related questions to that. Given that there is an MLS system or something like that in Portugal, that makes me wonder just about access to owner information and that kind of thing. Is direct mail something you can do in Portugal? Can you get property ownership data and send out mailers or does it not work like that in Portugal?
Nathan Amaral: I would say this, Seth. What matters most about investing in different countries, most importantly is culture. It’s not about, I guess like there is direct mail here, but if someone got a letter in the mail about it, it’s probably not going to be so accepted. Just like for example in Uganda. Where there’s like literally no direct mail at all. So how would you run a direct mail campaign? It’s really about culture. You have to know what the culture is used to, what they’re comfortable with and what they accept. Here primarily the best way to get deals is through bankruptcies. Like foreclosures, REO’s
I’ll tell you some interesting parts about investing here in Portugal. There’s a lot of incentives. There are a lot of incentives and banks are very flexible with lending. As long as you have a job very similar to the United States. You have a job, you have a decent income, you can actually go to the bank, you can get a foreclosed property, you can get it with no money down. They will actually give you any money for rehab. Like if you need it to fix it up, they’ll give you the cash for that. And they’ll put it on a 40-year note.
Seth: Is that if you’re a Portuguese citizen or could somebody like a foreigner like myself do that?
Nathan Amaral: There is a little difference. If that’s for Portuguese citizen, by the way, also I want to mention the rates, Seth. The rates are typically under 2% normally. Like my buddy has a mortgage. Most of my friends who are here and family members, they have rates of 1.5%.
Seth: Gosh, that’s crazy. It’s like basically free, right?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. And now listen, here’s the advantage with foreigners. By the way, I’m speaking from my own experience, but also Berkshire Hathaway talks a lot about Portugal as being a destination but also advantages for investors. Number one is the Golden Visa. Have you guys ever heard of the Golden Visa? The Golden Visa is an investment scheme that Portugal came up with where it gets investors to invest in Portugal and they can get a Visa which will last like five years and then they can go for their citizenship almost like instantly. Other countries, like for example, the United States, it takes like 10 years. There’s a lot of different barriers for different countries.
Well, Portugal has a very unique system with this Golden Visa, which it would take 350,000 euros in some deals. They have different levels, but the lowest one is 350,000 euros. You can buy a property as long as it’s older than 30 years and that needs rehab and it needs to be revitalized. All you need is to invest at a minimum of 350,000. There are other ones in between. The highest and easiest one is if you take a million euros, wire it to any Portuguese bank and leave it there for no set amount of time, you automatically get the Golden Visa. There are different advantages to that kind of program, and the different ones that fall under.
But there’s also some huge tax benefits to Portugal. One, there’s the non-habitual tax regime. There is also no inheritance tax. You guys are familiar with it. Then also there’s no, what they call that in the U.S.? They call it the wealth tax. When someone dies of a certain amount of net worth, there’s no tax on that. If one of your family members dies inheritance, you don’t get taxed on that. None of that. It’s not capital gains.
Actually, here’s the difference. There’s no capital gains tax here. Get this. When you buy a property, the person who’s buying has to pay the tax upfront.
Seth: Like sales tax almost?
Nathan Amaral: There’s a sales tax and there’s this. You have to pay all of the property tax upfront.
Seth: Is there no recurring annual property tax? There is just one?
Nathan Amaral: There is, but it’s an additional lump tag. There are different words for it, but it’s an additional lump sum of money. It’s a percentage, usually 0.08% of the purchase price that you have to pay at closing. You actually have to go pay the tax before you go to the bank. The taxes must be paid before you close.
Seth: Is that like a transfer tax sort of?
Nathan Amaral: It’s not a transfer tax. Portugal has quite a few unique taxes. It is a socialistic government. So, for example, health care, schools, all that is free. There are a lot of advantages if you lose your job. So, again, lower rates on mortgages and whatnot. The downside of that guys, guys like us, the entrepreneurial drive is not there so much. It’s kind of like, first of all, if you start a business, you have to have money. You have to have some good money, or you have to know someone who has money as a partner. No ones like rushing to go start a business like in the U.S. or in Uganda. Like people love starting businesses in Uganda. Those are some of the pros and cons there.
Seth: With those financing stuff you mentioned earlier, like the 2%- and 40-year term and all that stuff. Can a foreigner like me get that? Or I cannot get that? What’s to keep me from just saying, “Hey, I’ll go put a million dollars into Portugal, but I’m going to borrow all of it from Portugal at a low-interest rate”. Is that not something I can do?
Nathan Amaral: You can. The only thing is whenever you invest outside of the United States or in a different country, you have to do it in an entity. If you are not a citizen of that country, you have to do it in an accompany. Okay, so preliminary, you have to set up a company entity, typically what they call an LDA or limited company. You have to set those up first and then you can go and then you can get those rates in property and investments.
I’m just skimming the surface guys, but there’s actually incentives, let’s call it a stimulus. If an investor does that and set up a stock company, the government will actually fund your projects sometimes up to as high as 70%. Like literally they’ll help you. If you present the plan and the proposal, and I want to be clear, this is specifically for tourism. So, if you say, “Hey, I want to invest in Portugal, I want to open up a hotel, I want to open up some bungalows, short term rentals”. Whatever. Whether you want to buy the property, whether you want to build it. I’ll give you an example. A buddy of mine, he’s investing here. He’s buying a land, building a building and it’s going to be a bungalow. So, it’s 12 bungalows. The government’s going to pay for 60% of the project just because that’s what they offer.
Jaren: Well, Seth, it sounds like we need to quit what we’re doing and get some stuff going on in Portugal. Let’s go.
Seth: Sign me up.
Jaren: Let’s go.
Seth: What are the prices look like for properties in Portugal? I mean, maybe it’s probably different in Azures versus mainland Portugal.
Nathan Amaral: Right, exactly. Yeah. So, a lot of people know Lisbon as the main land and the main city. Of course, things in any capital’s is going to be more expensive. Properties here are still relatively affordable or cheaper, not to the locals anymore because this market is slowly taking up. Right now, for example, downtown, you can get a three bedroom for about 300,000 euros. That’s an apartment, guys. That’s an apartment condo. That’s a little expensive because you take the average property here, you can buy a single-family house, three-bedroom, two baths, just outside of the city. I would say if you’re looking at square footage, maybe like 1800 to let’s just say 2000 square feet, you’re probably looking at maybe 200,000 euros, 8180 that’s more retail.
The best thing to do is to buy that property through a bank foreclosure or something like that and you can get the property a lot cheaper under 150,000 euros. I’ll give you another example. A buddy of mine bought a property to live in. He bought it for 60,000 euros. He put in 100,000 euros and it’s worth, I want to say 290,000. Close to 300,000 euros. And it’s in the city.
Seth: Yeah. The exchange rate from the U.S. dollar to Euro as of today, assumption this is going to change a lot. What is the Euro? What does it? Do you know off the top of your head? I’m just trying to get a context for when you say like 200,000 euros, what does that actually mean in U.S. dollars? Is that like $400,000?
Nathan Amaral: No, no, no. So, it’s a little less than that. So, the Euro is stronger than the U.S. dollar. So, whenever I exchange money from the United States to Portugal, I lose money. And it’s typically right now like 92 cents. If you wanted one euro for me, I’m going to give you 92 cents. Does that make sense?
Seth: Yeah. I’m looking at it right now. It’s $1 U.S. dollars 92 Euro cents, whatever you call that.
Nathan Amaral: And that goes up and down. That goes up and down on a daily basis.
Seth: Now, I’m actually curious about this whole thing you were talking about earlier about how Portugal is a socialistic government and how people aren’t just rushing to start businesses. I’m wondering why if interest rates are cheap and if you can get such great terms if there’s money to be made, what is the reason for that? Or is everything just taken care of so people don’t have a need for that or what’s going on there?
Nathan Amaral: Well, not to get political, but we have Bernie Sanders, right? Which is “College is free and healthcare is free”. And that is very similar to here. Portugal is a socialistic country and is very similar to a “Bernie Sanders” type of way of place. When everything’s taken care of for you and I know there’s like different ways of thought about this when, unfortunately, some people do have to go on food stamps or welfare. If you’re not a hustler and you’re able to get that kind of treatment all the time, well, you can just settle, right? You can just kind of mellow out and be like, “Oh yeah, my food’s taken care of. I’m all set”. So, if you have that attitude and that environment, then that’s where it comes from.
Seth: Yeah. Do you think a socialistic atmosphere creates that kind of mindset where otherwise wouldn’t be? Because people that are like, “Well, if I have this option here and it’s nice, I might as well just go for that”. Or people who are naturally hustlers, they’re going to hustle no matter what, regardless of the environment they’re in. Maybe it depends on the person.
Nathan Amaral: That’s a great question. You’re absolutely right. Listen, the government is the overall authority. Are there hustlers in every country, in every regime? Absolutely. So, I have friends here. My good friend owns a 55 room or as they say in hotels, keys. A 55-key hotel. Okay. He’s a hustler. Him, his dad, his family. They just want another building. They’re going to expand it to 85. My business partner who I bought 26 apartments here and included in that is a commercial mixed-use space and the whole thing’s going to be in assisted living building. My tenant is my business partner and he’s a hustler. This guy is very well known on the Island, but he’s a hustler. So, in that unique situation with these 26 apartments that I’ve bought plus this commercial space, my tenant, he’s a motivator.
Listen to this. He was born in one of the other islands, came to this island for greener pastures per se, and it’s very green here by the way. It’s so green. This is his company. He owns the property management company. He calls it Green Vacation. My business partner is the one who runs the property management company and manages short-term rentals. It was almost like an easy fit when he said, “Hey, I have this idea, I’m interested in doing an assisted living project”. And at the time Seth, I was like “Assisted living?” I was in the hotels, I was already looking at hotels. I had offers on hotels and stuff like that. But after a while, these two hotel deals that I got, let’s just use the word snaked from to keep it light, eventually, my business partner ended up saying, “Hey, there’s a building over here. This would be good”.
So, we went to go look at it and yet ended up, we just purchased that last year. But the assisted living building opens up hopefully in June, hopefully. Now we got Covid. So, the set date was June. But anyway, so to answer that question, yes, I do believe there are hustlers in every country. The government does set the tone of that. Whether you’re a capitalistic country or a socialist and all that kind of stuff. But I still believe that if you hustle and you build relationships and you work hard, you can still make it.
Seth: Gotcha. And I know we sort of touched on this earlier, but in terms of the language barrier thing, so if I don’t speak a word of Portuguese, can I do this? Is there a way to make this work or do I really need to get some Rosetta Stone and learn myself?
Nathan Amaral: Right. You can do it. Actually, I know a lot of people who are investing here. There’s a lot of people from Germany and Switzerland a lot. There’s a lot of Swiss money coming in right now into Portugal. And they don’t speak a hoot of Portuguese. The good thing is the Portuguese people are very welcoming people. They’re very friendly to tourists and there’s a lot of people on the island who also provide services, who will either do translation or if they’re working in real estate for example, they more than likely speak English as a second language. My lawyer for example, speaks English as a second language. My property manager speaks English as a second language.
Seth: I gotcha. So, there is a way then.
Nathan Amaral: There is a way. If there is no way, use Google translate.
Jaren: It’s really intriguing. Once I get a little bit more establishment, I have to venture out into investing in places like the Azores because the fact that it’s sunny and ocean and an island vibe and both places I’ve walked away, I feel like until this Will Mitchell’s interview and we can link to that in the show notes. What’s that episode?
Seth: Episode 48 I believe.
Jaren: Yeah, it’ll be linked in the show notes below guys. But both this conversation and that conversation has left me like, “Huh, I really think that this is what I’m supposed to get into”. I love the idea of a short-term rentals. I love the idea of hotels and just investing in land and real estate that has intrinsic value. No matter what the government’s doing in Portugal, the Azores is always going to be an amazing place. Same thing with Belize. Same thing with the reason why I flip land in Florida. No matter what the heck is happening in the government, Florida is always going to be valuable. I don’t know, man. I just am sitting over here on the edge of my seat, extremely inspired to go take over the world.
Nathan Amaral: Jaren, let me tell you something. We’re looking at now a very unique situation in the world where people are being pushed into work from home situations, right? But before the COVID, look at what you guys were doing, look at what Seth was doing. Virtual was already in place, so if you start now, there are already people doing this. They’re not on stages, they’re not gurus. They’re quiet people. You don’t even know their names. There are already people investing here remotely. But the thing is we are like, I want to say we’re pioneers. If you start talking about it and you start doing it, then you end up becoming a pioneer to many other people. But I think in the near future, that more and more people are going to start investing globally. It’s becoming easier because the technology and blockchain in the near future, it’s going to become so much easier to do this than ever before.
I feel like I’m going in there earlier, but I have to get through all this hardship and there’s a lot of like paperwork and stuff like that, that somethings I don’t know, laws that you have to learn along the way. The way to navigate all that is find the best people in that area. I’m talking like my attorney is the best attorney on the island. Like no joke. Easy. He’s probably one of the best attorneys even in the continent of Portugal. Is he a little bit more expensive? Yes, but guess what? I don’t have to worry so much. I know we speak the same language. He also connects me to great people. Anyway, my point is that you can start now and I think there could be a lot more opportunities of investing outside of the United States as these avenues open up to people.
Jaren: I love it, man. Let’s transition a bit to Uganda because I’m sure the climate in Uganda is totally different than the climate in Portugal. And at least that’s my assumption.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah.
Jaren: So, lay the foundation for us in Uganda. What are you doing primarily as your investment strategy? What does financing look like? Where do you find deals? Is there something like the MLS there, all that stuff?
Nathan Amaral: Let’s do one of those at a time.
Jaren: One of those at the time.
Nathan Amaral: First of all, guys, let me tell you, I love living in booming areas. Okay? I love action. I don’t like slow markets. Actually, where I grew up, where I was born is a very slow-moving market. It’s so boring. Nothing’s going on there. When I got to Charlotte, I was like, “Whoa, this is the best city in the country”. Because it was just explosive growth. They were buying land, building apartments, buying land, building apartments. I’m like, wow, I’ve never seen so much growth. I never lived in an area with so much growth. Then when I got to Uganda I was like, “Holy smokes”. I thought Charlotte was booming. Just in my neighborhood in Uganda, there are over 20 apartment buildings being built. It’s insane. Just in my neighborhood. Then you go down into the city, they’re constructing brand new skyscrapers. It’s on another level. I mean it’s just fantastic.
Seth: Where’s all the economic growth coming from? Is there some huge industry booming in Uganda right now?
Nathan Amaral: There is a lot of industry. Uganda, Africa itself, the African Union is about to complete its union shift. There are the African Union and last year in 2019, they just finished signing I think 54 out of 56 signatures to become unified. So, in the near future, we might see the African Union with 55-56 states. Okay. So that’s in the works. China is heavily invested in. I’m just going to speak for Uganda. But China is heavily invested in Uganda. They’re building roads. They’re building trains. It’s on another level. A lot of that comes from manufacturing. I would say the tech industry it’s not like there’s a bunch of companies rushing there to build, tech companies moving there. However, one thing, Uganda is like more like China in regards to technology. Compared to the U.S. I feel like in the U.S. it’s about 10 years behind compared to China. For example, in China, there’s no cash. Like literally I think 2% of the population has cash. Everybody else uses WeChat on their profile and it’s all a cashless society. Very similar to Uganda. Everything is through what’s called mobile money. Mark Zuckerberg went to Kenya to learn how to do Facebook payments, which is coming out that new coin, I forgot the name of it, sorry guys. He went to Kenya to learn how they do it because Kenya was the founding country in all of Africa to do mobile money. So, this whole idea of sending money, buying things right from your phone. And I’m not talking through an app or website guys, I’m talking literally like a wallet on your phone. Apple just came out with that just a few years ago. This has already been existence in Uganda for many, many years. So, there’s a lot of things like that that are really impressive.
The taxes are really cheap. When you buy a property, you only pay the taxes one time at purchase. And it’s 1.5% of the value of that property. That’s it. You’re done. You don’t pay taxes ever again.
Seth: You’re talking about property taxes. So, what we normally pay every year here in the U.S. they pay a one-time there?
Nathan Amaral: One time. That’s it.
Seth: Wow.
Nathan Amaral: That’s an awesome thing.
Jaren: I see Seth taking notes there.
Seth: So, I guess governments just don’t draw any money from property taxes, right? They must have an income tax or sales tax or something else.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. The sales tax, if I recall is 18% which is actually matching into Portugal. Portugal has an 18% tax on a sales tax.
Seth: That’s where money comes from.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. There are other avenues like the government for example, remember how this Trump administration started creating tariffs for China about bringing stuff in, right?
Seth: Yeah.
Nathan Amaral: Well, that tax is already there in Uganda. To buy an iPhone in the U.S. it’s like whatever, $1,000, right? Let’s just say like an average. In Uganda, it’s like $3,000 because you got to pay all the tax. I’m inflating numbers here, but the tax is very high. So, to get good quality electronics in Uganda is very expensive. And it’s supposed to be because of tax.
Seth: Yeah. That’s actually, I think it was Barbados or some place. I remember going there and don’t quote me on that. It was some remote island, but the taxes to own a car is 150%. Like it’s insane. And as a result, nobody has cars or there’s like at the most one car per household because it’s just crazy expensive.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, exactly. It’s like that. The biggest disparity in Uganda is the separation of barrier to income. You got big social gaps of economics. So, I lived in the city of Kampala, the capital. I lived just outside of the city. And the city is booming. I mean beautiful apartments, all this stuff and very quality buildings in material. I mean the buildings are amazing. The funny thing is 20 minutes’ drive outside of the city, you’re in a third world country. So, you can feel like you’re in a second, first world country. That’s a second world country living in the city. But as soon as you go outside of the city, you’re in a third world country where we’re talking mud houses or brick red houses, small huts and your water, your kitchen, all of that, your bathroom is all outside. So, it’s a little bit different of a type of environment in that regard.
When it goes to, banking in that country, for example, you want to go get a loan, your interest rate is like 18% on a minimum. However, the savings rate in Uganda is 13% – 14%. So, if you put your money in a savings account, you’re earning like 13% interest.
Seth: Wow.
Jaren: That’s awesome.
Seth: Why not just throw your money in there instead of the stock market?
Jaren: That’s even like real estate investors that are like trying… What?! That’s awesome.
Seth: What’s the catch?
Nathan Amaral: What’s the catch? Right. One of the things is you cannot. They do not allow foreigners to wire money and let the money sit there just to earn interest. So, there is some regulation to that.
Jaren: Oh, man.
Seth: Ugandans have everything, man.
Jaren: Well, what about finding deals though, man? How do you find? Do they have an MLS?
Nathan Amaral: Oh, my gosh, no. This stuff is really crazy. So, there is no MLS. They have what’s called GG which is Craigslist. It’s like a Craigslist, they call it GG, which is an online platform for classified ads. That is very popular and everything else guys is a sign or word of mouth. That’s it. Word of mouth. There is no MLS. Now there is a way to go into the search. They’re getting better at this because, for a long period of time, Uganda is broken down into a few kingdoms. It’s not like you go get a title and it’s owned by the government. That kind of thing. It’s actually a kingdom. So, they’re actually now breaking up the kingdoms and dispersing titles and creating new titles, let’s put it that way. So, in the mix of that, there’s been a lot of “Who bought this land? Oh, I bought this land. No, you didn’t. I’m on title, what title do you have?” A lot of confusion. So that’s not everywhere, but it’s in some districts of where it is. But while I’ve been there, I’ve been buying up some way up myself.
Seth: Yeah. That’s actually one of the ongoing concerns I’ve heard about. I don’t know about Uganda specifically, but in a lot of third world countries buying up real estate at all, it’s a big deal if the government respects property rights. Does it actually mean something if your name is written on the title or could it just get wiped out tomorrow when the government’s overthrown and you lose everything? Is it a pretty solid title system in Uganda?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, I think what’s important is to always look at the stability of the government and military security. Uganda is a safe haven for many refugees. That is first a good sign of this stability. Very strong military. There are people from Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania that have come in for refugee purposes, especially Somalia because they’re having civil war. So, they’re very secure in that aspect. Now when it comes to property rights and all that stuff, yes, they do care about that and it’s very protected. I would be careful with countries that are going through war. Whether it was, let’s say Afghanistan or Somalia. You do have to be careful with those kinds of countries. And again, would you be wanting to invest there? Is it a short-term thing, a long-term thing and why are you investing there? That’s really the things you have to consider.
Seth: Yeah. So, if your goal is to find deals below market value in Uganda, what is an effective strategy for doing that? Because like you said, direct mail doesn’t exist there and there is no MLS system. So, how would you go about finding somebody who is a motivated seller?
Nathan Amaral: Well, that’s a great question. And in Uganda, I find there’s a lot of motivated sellers. There’s a lot of boatloads because of economics, right? So, I’ll give you an example. Sometimes people will sell acres and acres of land just to pay for their kids’ school fees. Uganda has a very different unique education system. There is free education, but it is very bad. So, in order for your kids to get a good education, you’re going to pay for a boarding school or you are going to pay for private school. There are more private schools than there are 7-Eleven. Let’s put it out like you know there’s like convenience stores everywhere in the United States. I mean there is private schools everywhere and Uganda. There are a lot of hardship. When someone goes through hardship and they need money to keep their kids in school because they know education is so important that they’ll sell their land, they’ll sell their house to keep their kids in school. So, you have a lot of that. Then you have your health issues and all that kind of stuff. Like people selling, they went to the hospital, whatever.
Divorce is not a big thing. So, going to a lawyer and trying to get divorced leads and stuff like that it’s not common. Probate, not too common. Honestly, I said the most motivated sellers you’re going to get is some economical or financial stress. That’s probably the biggest motivated seller you’re going to get. And that’s actually how we get most of our deals. We get most of our deals that way there.
Seth: What is your primary strategy in Uganda specifically?
Nathan Amaral: Yes, we’ve been doing two strategies. We’ve been doing land and we’ve been doing short term rentals. Uganda has a very busy short-term rental market. And here’s the powerful thing and it’s just phenomenal. You can literally do a sublease in Uganda. You could do a sublease and you can literally three times your money for that rental.
Seth: That’s when you do a normal lease from just the owner and then you sublease the property to somebody else, but you do it at much higher rates so that you can… Did you say triple your money?
Nathan Amaral: You can literally triple your money. Yeah, you can triple your money. I know people who are literally renting houses for $800 a month and they are making $3,000 in more a month. It’s unique. There’s a lot of people from Australia, the UK, Europe, China who are coming to Uganda for an investment opportunity, and when they stayed there, there is a big mindset. Okay, here’s Nathan. How are these people paying this amount of money for these rentals? There’s a big fear in Uganda from foreigners that when they come to Uganda that they’re unsafe. Like I want to be in a safe, secure area. Well, guess what? The locals play on that. They play on that fear. They increase their prices. The reality is they’re living in the same neighborhoods that are fine. They’re normal neighborhoods, but they hike up the prices because a lot of foreigners think, “Oh no, I’m in Uganda, I’m in a foreign country. Something’s going to happen to me”. So, they pay more for a more secure place. But the reality is it’s not.
I don’t live in those areas. I don’t live in those tourist areas. All my neighbors are Ugandan and the rent we pay literally is a $270 a month. All included $300 a month. And I’m talking, I got a nice place, man. This is like, it’s got grass. It’s a huge yard, great place for my kids to play. Super safe. We have a security guard all the time. It’s a little different too. I say security guard, but he’s also a gatekeeper. So, for example, you know-how in the United States or wherever you have an automated garage door opener? They don’t have that. They have basically people will open up the door. It’s a person. That’s all they do. Yeah. So, talk about job growth.
Seth: Seriously? Can’t they just install a garage door opener or wouldn’t it be cheaper?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, well, I mean they could but then Uganda for example, I’ll give you an example. They just started installing toll boosts and they had a big decision to make. Should we make it technology? They had like a bunch of new toll boosts coming in because they got all these roads coming in. So, should we do it with computers or should we do it with people? They actually chose people.
Seth: Whoa, seriously?
Nathan Amaral: Yes.
Seth: Interesting.
Nathan Amaral: That was a big decision. There were people fighting like “No, let’s do digital tags”. And they have the technology for it. They said no because they know they’re going to an employee like thousands of more people. And what they need most now is jobs. The interesting thing is the middle class is on the rise in Uganda. It’s on the rise. More and more people are buying cars. More people are buying homes. It’s on the rise. They’re now doing 30-year mortgages. That’s never been done before. They do want 100% financing. That’s never been done before.
Seth: That’s interesting that there’s such economic growth there. Yet there’s still such a huge need for such low paying jobs. It’s almost there’s maybe like two separate categories of workers there. Maybe there’s like the high-end middle-upper class and then there are the ultra-low class ones. I don’t know.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, there are definitely three levels. There are three levels. We got high-, middle- and low-income earners. The reality is though, when we talk about poverty in the United States, you could think of a homeless person or someone living in the projects or low-income housing. However, when we talk low income in Uganda it’s below low-income housing.
Seth: It’s a different level of poverty.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. It’s dirt floors. No electric, no light bulbs in their house. It’s just on a whole another level. And by the way, guys, if you ever want to come here or you ever want to go to Uganda, just let me know. Some of our buddies in the business have flown out there and we’d spend time together. So, if you ever want to go, just let me know. I’ll hook you up.
Jaren: Let’s talk about currency for a minute. What does it look like in Uganda? Because in Portugal it’s euros. I know my wife is from Kazakhstan and if anything is done, that is a big purchase, whether it’s a car or house or something like that, it’s done in U.S. dollars. Is that similar in Uganda? What’s it like there?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, so right now the exchange rate I believe is $1 U.S. and you get 3700 Ugandan shillings. So, what does that mean? Okay, so let’s take this. You tell me guys, it’s been a while. How much would this bottle of water cost? This is 1.5 liters. So how much do you think it would cost in the U.S. right?
Jaren: $2 to $3.
Nathan Amaral: That’s right. $2 to $3. Here in Portugal, these costs probably like 80 cents. In Uganda, this costs 25 cents.
Seth: Like 25 cents in U.S. dollars. Not in the local currency.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. In Ugandan shilling that would be 1,000 shillings.
Seth: So, your money can actually go pretty far in Uganda if you wanted to retire there.
Nathan Amaral: Right. It does go very far. My long-term plan is we’re creating opportunities for our family and giving them the opportunity to have options in the future. I’d love my children to go to some school in Europe and get very well educated in the future. But retirement, it could either be here or Uganda. You could go a long way. Your money goes a long way in Uganda.
Seth: Now when it comes to finding tenants and screening tenants, I guess you don’t even really mess with that, right? Because you’re doing short term rentals. Is it all through Airbnb and handle on that platform?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, it’s two platforms. In Portugal, I do have my property manager. So, in Uganda, I use two platforms. I use Airbnb and I use booking.com. Those are the two primary ones. And it’s kind of interesting. Booking.com does better in Portugal than Airbnb. That’s because the demographic that uses booking.com and then Airbnb does way better in Uganda than it does booking.com. I do have a property manager in Uganda and he actually manages everything. He even gets me, clients, outside of Airbnb and booking.com. So, he does the check-in, he manages everything from checking, checkout, cleaning, any issues that come up. I have a property manager. And that’s how you have to be when you go remote and you go virtual, you have to have the teams, you have to hire people.
Seth: Are you subleasing all these properties or do you like literally own these properties that you use in as short-term rentals?
Nathan Amaral: So, in Uganda, not Portugal, Portugal I own. But in Uganda, the land we’ve been buying is owned. Okay. Now the short-term rentals, I wanted to try the whole subleasing method that I heard some time ago and all these guys online doing it. So, I was like, let’s do it. So actually, all of them have been subleased. All those short-term rentals.
Seth: And that’s all going okay? Is there anything about that’s unexpectedly challenging?
Jaren: Especially in the time of COVID and all of that.
Nathan Amaral: Oh, so they’re all empty right now. Yeah, all of them are empty. But this is what we’ve done. We have shifted all our short-term rentals and shifted them into long-term rentals. So, we have to reduce our prices. They are fully furnished apartments. So, we do have the furniture, we provide the furniture. So, we’ve increased the price a little bit and everything’s long-term. I don’t have a problem right now signing six months or even one-year leases right now because I don’t expect this to come back anytime soon.
Jaren: So how do you find tenants then? How do you screen tenants in Uganda?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah, good question. There’s no like online search you can do a credit check and all that stuff. There’s none of that. So, you basically would ask them, “What do they do? How long they’ve been working there?” And you kind of want to find some simple things like “Do they have a car?” Primarily the properties that I pick up are for middle-class individuals. They’re middle-class people. I identify some key factors. I like to find people who have a car. If they have a car, I know they have a steady job. If they don’t have a car and they are using public transportation, they probably could lose their job pretty quickly.
Seth: And when it comes to finding a good property manager or contractor or anybody like that, I mean super important path like you alluded to earlier. So, you just take references or something? Or is it a similar process to how you do it here in the U.S.? You just find reputable sources and say, “Yeah, this is a good gem, work with him.” Or how do you do that?
Nathan Amaral: That’s a great question, Seth. Seth, my philosophy to this hasn’t changed even before I was investing before the internet what it is today. My philosophy and my method haven’t changed since I started and that’s getting good referrals. So, I’m not the one to go onto like HomeAdvisor and I’m nothing against HomeAdvisor by the way or Craigslist and all that stuff. I’m not into that. I’m more into contacting great people in great areas and asking them for referrals. Great people. I have to really find out who’s doing well in that area. When I found my property manager here as I said, he was a referral from my friend who owns a hotel and I trust him. And guess what? It’s been a great relationship ever since. Now we’re doing the assisted living project. In Uganda, it was getting a referral from someone I trusted. He gave me the referral. I monitored. I gave him a few tasks. He was very well done, so I like to test people also after I get a referral. Give him a little bit, see how they do, and then if they perform well, then you keep going. Just like you would if you’re hiring, let’s say a VA. Test them out first. See how they do. Hire experience, don’t hire potential.
Jaren: I like that.
Nathan Amaral: Hire experience, do not hire potential. Seth, I just want to add this because I know your audience, everybody’s doing stuff virtually, right? A lot of people, when they think about hiring a virtual assistant or someone in a different country to do work for them, I think one of the most important things to realize or to find is someone who’s already doing this every day, doing that task over and over again for somebody else. They’re already doing it every day. It’s already natural to them. A lot of people get stuck and they think, “Oh, I have to train my VA. So, I need to learn this first”. – No. Watch you learn stuff from your own VA. Get someone who’s more knowledge, who knows specific things a little better than you do maybe. There have been times one of my VA’s is George. I mean he’s really smart. I’m like, “Wow, George, good job man. That’s awesome”. I mean that’s what you want to get to.
Seth: Yeah, I gotcha. Now I know this is totally coming from a place of ignorance. I don’t know the situation, but when I think of Uganda, I wonder is there a lot of corruption in that kind of country? Is there a lot of fly by night people? Like when I think of working in Mexico for example, I would probably think of a very similar thing. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t even know. I just, that’s what I think. Is that accurate or is that totally off base? And if it is accurate, how big of a problem is that?
Nathan Amaral: That’s a great question. And I truly believe corruption is everywhere because we’re all humans. Do you know what’s interesting? I was actually doing trainings in Uganda for major companies. I’d only do real estate but I’ve been a trainer for many years and coaching and all that stuff. So, I’ve actually partnered with a company there in Uganda and I started training. I trained Coca-Cola, Uganda. I’ve trained the biggest insurance companies in Uganda. And one of the trainings that I did in Uganda, I trained some of the top companies about bribery and corruption. Now let me tell you something interesting about this because it wasn’t on my radar years ago. Bribery and corruption can be easily defined as even networking. Go look it up. Networking can even be defined. It’s actually defined under corruption and bribery. Because you’re trying to build yourself up. I’m like, “How does that even include it?”
But anyway, my point is in different countries, corruption is defined in different ways. I truly believe in the United States, for example, corruption is legalized through lobbying. There are different countries that are going to do different things. I’ve even been told like for example, this is something I do and maybe you’ve done this before. When my title company or my attorney, we close a deal quickly, I send them an Amazon gift card. That’s considered corruption. And I’m like, “What?” If you dive deep and even in some countries, they’re like, “You do that, they’re going to favor you next time”. And I’m like, “Well, yeah, that’s the idea”. So, it’s a gratitude and favoritism, right? When you’re trying to close deals, great. But again, this is a great area to answer your question, Seth, the reality is you don’t want to get corruption to a point where people are totally breaking the law and there are things being done that are not legal, ethical, moral to a point where it’s just the Wild West. So, I get that.
Now, is that more prevalent in some countries than others? Yes. I found in Uganda, I would say that there’s a lot of the mindset, I think of Robert Kiyosaki whenever I hear this. But there’s a lot of the mindset of, because there’s a lot of more people there that they always feel that the wealthy are rich and they’ll always be rich. Does that make sense? So, they start talking about corruption much more often. Like, “Oh, they’re only wealthy because their family’s wealthy or they cheated people”. There’s a lot of talk like that.
However, as I told you earlier in Uganda, they’re a capitalistic society. They’re a democracy. Everybody wants to start a business. It’s impressive. It’s shocking actually. I’ve been so impressed with how many Ugandans want to make it on their own and start their business. They’re full of ideas. Corruption is something that’s a very difficult topic, but I don’t find it as prevalent as I guess the media puts it out to be.
Seth: Gotcha. It really is kind of relative too, how you define corruption and who you point fingers at. And I agree it’s much easier to call a person corrupt when you’re not the person who’s in the place of privilege.
Nathan Amaral: Right, right.
Seth: So, one last question on Uganda. Similar question to Portugal. The language barrier thing. How hard is that if you don’t speak… What language is it in Uganda?
Nathan Amaral: There are actually 54 languages in Uganda.
Seth: That’s awful.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. A lot of them are tribal-based. The primary language in Uganda is called Luganda with an “L”. It’s the primary language. Yes, I do speak Luganda. I started learning it, hired a trainer, and took classes and all that kind of stuff. So, I do speak Luganda. However, Uganda was colonized by the British. So, the second language is English. So, you literally can go anywhere and talk English and most people know it.
Seth: Sweet. Well Nathan, I really appreciate everything you’ve been sharing. It’s been awesome to talk with you here.
Jaren: It’s been very, very intriguing.
Seth: Yeah, I’ve been loving it. As we kind of near the end of this, we have three exit interview questions that we ask of all our guests. Just kind of unrelated to all the stuff we’ve been talking about. Just to figure out more about, how you work, how your brain works, how you think through things. Our first question is what is your biggest fear?
Nathan Amaral: Oh, my gosh. What is my biggest fear?
Seth: No big deal. Don’t sweat it.
Nathan Amaral: No big deal because I only have a brand that’s based around fear. I would say, I’ll tell you this, it’s a great question. My fears are not business-related, by the way. First of all, I’m a big believer that everything I manage is God-given. Like that’s one of the things I believe. So, if I’m partly in a position and I’m doing something operating, it’s because it’s been given to me to manage, to grow, to operate in.
When it comes to business, I really don’t fear. And if I’m in a fear position in business, it’s because I’m not adding enough value. I would say the biggest fear I have right now is my son falling off the table. Like it’s been on my mind. He’s now climbing, he’s 11 months and he’s climbing up on the table. I just fear him like falling off the table and knocking himself out.
Seth: I totally get that. My son is now three, so he’s sorts of out of that. But man, there were months there and he did like bashes tooth then at one point and it’s horrible. So, I wish you all the best.
Jaren: I literally bought a playpen this morning because my one-year-old, he just turned one year old last month. He’s very much crawling and he’s like in that spot right when he’s about to start walking. So, like he’ll take a few steps and then like just hit the deck man. So, my anxiety is very high too, bro. I feel you.
Nathan Amaral: So, my son started walking at 10 months. He’s now climbing a table. That’s the size of my knee. I got videos. I’ll send it to you guys. He’s climbing up and he’s touching the TV and I’m thinking, “My God, this kid’s going to knock the TV over and it’s going to be crazy”. So in regards to that guys, I can’t say I have any other fears that are there. I love horror movies. I love horror movies because I’m into film. I love a good horror movie, but anyway, I’m not scared of it.
Seth: What’s your favorite one?
Nathan Amaral: Oh, my gosh. My favorite series is Paranormal Activity because they take everyday life and it’s like, “Oh, that could have happened”. Where the other ones are kind of like, I don’t know a little bit made up. But Paranormal Activity is very well done.
Seth: Yeah man. I remember seeing the first one in the theater by myself, which is a very foolish decision. But there is something about that particular topic. Maybe if you’re one who believes in spiritual warfare, maybe it seems more relevant, which I am one who happens to believe in that. But like a lot of horror movies, as you say, it’s like, “Whatever, just stay away. This has never actually happened”. But there’s something about that really kind of hits close to home.
Nathan Amaral: Except I have a similar belief and I’ll tell you what though. I have a stronger belief about this and myself is this – If you believe in ghosts, you’re going to see ghosts. That’s what I believe. And I don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t believe I’m going to see a spirit or something like that. So, guess what? I live my life like, “No, that’s not even going to happen to me”. It’s not even a thought because I don’t believe it. What you believe is what you’re going to end up perceiving. But I truly love it when it comes to filmmaking and all that. I love pushing fear because I grew up a very shy guy and I grew up with pushing that button. My coaches have always had to push me over that barrier, especially getting into real estate to push me to get over my fears.
I love today grabbing fear and say, “You don’t have a hold of me. You have no control.”? I love dancing with fear. I love to be in that. And I’m not saying I walk down dark alleys. That doesn’t freak me out or anything. But my point is when I watch a movie, it takes me there mentally and it’s like, “Oh yeah, alright”. But I enjoyed the cinematic of it.
Jaren: Yeah. Both me and Seth are videographers in our hearts. So, what’s something that you’re most proud of?
Nathan Amaral: Most proud of?
Jaren: And we’ll give you a pass. You don’t have to say being on the REtipster podcast. We already know.
Nathan Amaral: Oh yeah. Well, it does have to do with being on the podcast though. I would say the most thing I’m personally proud of outside of my family, having a family and kids and all that, and that’s an amazing experience. The most thing I’m proud of personally is my business of helping people overcome, stepping from fear to faith, and helping people discover and have these mental barriers and break through them. That’s probably been the biggest thing. The most thing I’m proud of is when I have someone that says, “Nathan, you helped me overcome this. And now I’ve done deals, I’ve made money, I’ve increased my lifestyle”. That to me is the most thing I’m proud of. My client’s success is what I’m most proud of.
Seth: Yeah, that is a pretty cool thing. Especially when you’ve been on the other end of that and you know what it’s like to have those “a-ha” moments or realize you’re capable of more than you thought you were. You kind of realize the magic of that. But then when you can flip it around and realize like, “Hey, I was able to do that for somebody else”. That’s really an amazing thing to be able to work at in your life.
Nathan Amaral: It is. Absolutely.
Seth: So, what is the most important lesson you have ever learned?
Nathan Amaral: Oh, my gosh. Really? Life lessons. Oh, my goodness. Okay. The one that comes to mind right now because of your previous question, is my buddy Dave Seymour, he’s a real estate guy. He’s been on the TV show “Flipping Boston”. I remember this is when he was smoking. He doesn’t smoke anymore. But when he was smoking, we were outside on the deck and he was smoking and we were talking about this product that I was coming out with and I was selling it for really cheap, like $149 and I’ll never forget this. I was going to go speak at the New York Rhea group in Brooklyn. This was two weeks before that. And I said, “I’m a little nervous. I don’t know if people are going to buy my product and is this $149 too expensive?” And he turned around and he looked at me and he poked me right in the chest and he’s from England by the way. So, he’s poking me in the chest and speaking with me in that British accent. “If you don’t raise your bleeping price, I am never going to talk to you again”. And I was like, why? He’s like, “Because you are worth it. What you’ve put into that training is so valuable and you’re worth more than that”. Okay, one last thing that he told me. I went to Jim Rowan’s funeral. You guys familiar with Jim Rowan?
Seth: Really? No kidding?
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. He used to be my mentor.
Seth: Are you serious?
Nathan Amaral: I used most of his coaching programs. Yeah. Yeah.
Seth: That’s crazy, man.
Nathan Amaral: Yeah. I went to his funeral. My buddy Dave went with me again. We were traveling. We went to the funeral. Guys, I was so excited to meet Brian Tracy. I’m sorry. I was just like a fanboy. I was like, “Brian Tracy is going to be there. Brian Tracy is going to be there”. So, I was looking for him everywhere and my buddy Dave could see that I was like really a fanboy about this. All of a sudden, I see him with his assistant going up the escalator and I’m like, “Dave, I’ll be back”. So, I started running. He stops me. He grabs me by the collar and pulls me and he says, “Look at me. Look at me. Everyone in this world, their pants go to their ankles”. And I’m like, “What?” This is how he is. He’s like, “Everyone’s pants go to their ankles. You don’t need to fanboy that guy because you are better than him”. He said, “You know the only differences between you and him?” I was like, “Gosh, 21 published books? All this experience?” And he’s like, “No, no, no. You haven’t started yet. You haven’t started. The problem is he’s already been doing this for 30 years. You need to get started”. And I was like, “Wow”. He’s like, everything that you have within you just needs to come out and you just haven’t let it out yet. So, guys, I know that’s a long answer, but there are two valuable points there. Number one, the most valuable lesson I learned was that “I am worth more than what I think I am”. As long as I’m adding value to people’s lives. And number two is that once you change your mind and start believing that you’re providing value and that you are worth more than you can command more, you can now say, “You know what? My prices are this much, this property is this much”. And you can start commanding more for your life. And when you do that, your wealth increases. So those were probably the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned.
Seth: Yeah, those are pretty profound. I am curious though, just to be the devil’s advocate. What if you had increased your price to some just crazy number and then nobody bought it? And the feedback you got was “It’s too expensive. I don’t think it’s worth it”? Would you have assumed, “Okay, I guess I’m wrong, I guess I’m not worth that much”? Or how would you mentally process that if that was the response from the market?
Nathan Amaral: Well, I’ll tell you what, I did exactly that. Let me tell you because I grew up in the seminar industry, I saw prices of products that were like over $100,000 for seminars and all this stuff. So, one day, I’m not kidding you. I raised my price on one of my programs to $97,000. I’m not kidding you, Seth. I raised it. And you know what? A few people call me. One guy was in Massachusetts, actually, I was with my buddy Dave. He drove from New York City with his business partner to Massachusetts to meet me, just to interview me to understand why I was charging $97,000. And I had another buddy of mine with me there at the time and we just did the whole interview in someone’s yard. We were at a rehab project and I explained to him. What I learned at that moment, he didn’t buy, he wasn’t my customer. Did you know what happened though? I held my price and guess what? The right customers did show up. Seth, listen, another thing I’m proud of is I’ve had clients pay me over a $100,000. Not in one shot, maybe it was in six months or a six-month contract or a one-year contract, but I have clients paid me because I know the value that I brought and the amount of money that I’ve made my clients. Does that make sense?
Seth: Yeah, for sure.
Nathan Amaral: I know that if you have a price that’s higher, it’s okay. I’ll give you one last example. The example I always give to people is this. You know like fitness coaches are really prevalent in the world, right? If you’re a fitness coach and you charge $25 an hour, right? Some people are going to think that’s too cheap. Some people are going to be like “Wow, $25?”. So, if you’re marketing to celebrities and they looking for a personal trainer and a coach, if they look at $25, they’re going to be like, “That’s too cheap. I’m looking at $300 or $500 an hour. That’s how much I pay my personal coach”. So, to some people, your price is too cheap and its low quality. And to other people it’s too high, right? So, you have to know your audience. You have to know who your target market is. One thing I learned from my buddy Dave, is that premium pricing. And I actually learned this from Dan Kennedy as well. I learned from Dan Kennedy premium pricing and marketing to the affluent and how to do that. So again, that was another thing I learned over the years. And I hope that answers your question because it really comes down to mindset and scaling up.
Seth: It is interesting that no matter what price you choose, like anything, somebody out there is going to judge you for that. Either you’re too cheap or you’re too expensive. So, it’s like, “Well, just stick your flag somewhere”.
Jaren: And something that I’ve noticed kind of being around, I don’t think that we’ve had a price change since I’ve been here in the land course. But I knew you when you have upped your prices on the land master class. It’s funny man. It’s weird. I know from your feedback and from other people that I’ve talked to, it’s this weird thing. When your product is price relatively low, the people that it attracts complain and want refunds and there are headaches. But it’s almost like the more you charge, the barrier to entry is like a filter against bad customers or something. Because the people that we work with now, and correct me if I’m wrong Seth, but it’s very rare for us to get somebody asking for their money back or having a negative experience with the land master class.
Seth: I won’t say never, but like almost never. That is the thing. I remember when we started out super cheap. Like my goal was to be so that literally anybody could afford it and I felt really good about that. The thing was though like I had this light bulb moment one day when somebody emailed me and say, “Hey, I see this other land course that’s priced like 10 times higher than yours, so I’m assuming yours is not nearly as good. Can you explain how it’s worse?” And I was like, are you kidding me?”
Nathan Amaral: The reality of that, Seth, I’m going to interrupt you. The reality is for all your audience – You provide more value than any other land trainer out there. Hands down.
Seth: Thanks, man. I appreciate that.
Nathan Amaral: I’ve been in this industry for 15 years. I used to work for Rich Dad Education, Trump University. I know the industry and you are the only land guy. This is why I admire what you do and what you deliver to your community. You’re the only land person in the industry that delivers the most value, hands down.
Seth: Wow, I appreciate that, man.
Nathan Amaral: No problem. The fact that you changed your prices and you’re right, sometimes it’s like if you give it for free, it’s like people will think, “Oh, it must be cheap. It must be not worth it. It must be not good”. There’s a lot of people who can feel that way.
Seth: Yeah, for sure.
Nathan Amaral: But when you increase your price, you have to price your product to the right clientele that’s willing to pay for that value.
Seth: Yeah, it’s an interesting thing too. It’s like some people will snare it one price or another, but really you got to factor in how much experience, how many years did it take the educator to even know what they’re talking about, to be in a position to talk about that thing. You’re not going to compensate them for all the time they spent just so that you could have a much easier ride to get there.
Nathan Amaral: And shorten the learning curve and speed up your process, right? That’s the idea.
Seth: Yeah, for sure. Well, Nathan, if people want to learn more about you, all the things you got going on, is there a website they should check out or should they find you on social media somewhere or what’s the best way to learn more about what you got going on?
Nathan Amaral: The easiest thing over the years I have a few companies. I think I have like six or seven companies these days. Real estate companies, consulting companies. The company that I feel good about, the one that I give back to other people. You can go to Google. The easiest way to do this. Go to Google, type in Fearless Millionaire. Thank you, Ryan Dice, for helping me come up with that name. Yes, you can just easily type in Fearless Millionaire. My website will pop up. It’s the only brand with that name. You can easily go there. Connect with me online. That’s probably the best way. When it comes to real estate stuff, most of my stuff is private. When I’m raising money for my deals, it’s private networking and stuff like that, but anybody can hit me up online and if they’re interested in partnering with me or investing in one of my projects, it’s not a problem. They can connect with me right on the website.
Seth: Man, is there any huge influencer you don’t know? I feel like you’ve dropped so many names here that’s like “Seriously?”
Jaren: He also knows Brandon Bouchard, which is the gateway to me getting into entrepreneurship. That thing changed my life, man. That thing set me on the course to where I’m at today.
Nathan Amaral: That’s awesome. It is a great read. Fortunately, the good thing is, I was gullible to all the books I read and all those books are some of the classics that we know “Think and Grow Rich”, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, “A Personal Power” by Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins changed my life, but I was so gullible to all those books and trainings, the classics that I believe everything I read, and I applied everything I read. So, I believed and I applied. And guess what? That stuff works. That’s the thing. It works. So, that is how I got around guys like Brendon Burchard, Tony Robbins because I was in groups. I was in mastermind groups, marketing mastermind groups, speaker mastermind groups with those guys. I used to be a student. I used to be the guy in the seats. This goes back to that story I shared about Dave. See, I’ve been in the seminar industry for so long. I used to be the guy in the seats looking up at these guys, taking notes while they’re on stage. So, when I was transitioning that as I said, my boy, Dave Seymour told me – “You are just as good as they are. You just haven’t started. You haven’t put in the time yet”. And he was absolutely right. He was absolutely right.
Seth: Cool. We will include a link to Fearless Millionaire in the show notes for this episode. By the way, this is episode 66. You can find everything we talked about here retipster.com/66.
So, Nathan, thank you again so much for coming on the show. It’s been awesome to talk to you.
Nathan Amaral: Thanks, Seth. Thanks, Jaren.
Seth: So, there you have it, folks. That was our conversation with Nathan. I hope you enjoyed it. Jaren, were there any big takeaways you got from that that is going to stick with you?
Jaren: A lot. I think the biggest one that comes to mind is about pricing and how he was talking about he charges $97,000 for one product. There would have been a time when I would have heard that and my mouth would have dropped to the floor and I would have been secretly judging the crap out of Nathan and be like, “How could you ever do that to people?” But I guess just time in being around have found primarily in like commercial real estate, commercial multifamily, high priced education packages are actually justified. Because like let’s say you spent $30,000 on a mentorship program, but you were able to if you took action, get your first deal in three months. Well, in that first deal, just in the acquisition feel alone, you’re going to be making, if you’re on the general partnership, you’re going to make it back plus some. So, it hopefully makes sense. I think that really the major issue is about the value that is being given and the ROI. If I spend $97,000 obviously if I have it, but if I spend $97,000 on a program, am I going to make $200,000 the next month? And if anybody would take that. So, you have to weigh the ROI of the education and the program compared to the year investment.
Seth: It is an interesting kind of a mind game because I know what you mean. I have similar things in life too where I just kind of have the snap judgment where I just hear a number and immediately start thinking bad things about that person. But at the same time, it’s actually very similar thing to when we make a really low offer to somebody just on the other opposite end of the spectrum. Why would somebody judge me because I’m sending them a really low offer? This really has nothing to do with the personal offense. It’s just a number. If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t do it. And the story, there’s no reason you need to like to hate me for it. On one hand, I get it. But on the other hand, just think about this logically. This doesn’t have to mean anything. If it doesn’t work, then just walk away. No big deal. No harm, no offense. But a lot of people get really opened arms about it. I know on the BiggerPockets forums for years it’s been a really hot topic that people talk about. Just really hating on anybody who charges anything for real estate information.
Jaren: And that’s not to call BiggerPockets out because everybody knows if you know me, I very, very, very deeply respect BiggerPockets.
Seth: Yeah, for sure. I do too.
Jaren: But it is very interesting. It was very smarter on their end from a brand play and I don’t know if this was intentional, I really don’t think it was intentional. But with them creating a division down Real Estate Investor Education programs as like the Gurus and then BiggerPockets. Like are you in the BiggerPockets camp or are you in the Guru camp? And that division was a really smart play on their part because pretty much anybody that is not BiggerPockets is untrustworthy immediately. I don’t think that it’s really that black and white, guys. I think that they are probably some really good educators out there that have a really good program. But the key is you have to as the buyer really do your due diligence and make sure that if you buy into something that expensive that you’re going to get an ROI on it. Look at it like a deal.
Seth: I think where it gets tricky is because I’ve bought into super expensive coaching programs before and there’s no question, I learned tons from it. It’s stuff that I still apply today, but at the same time it’s a part of why I remember buying into one of those coaching programs is because I was told you’re going to make $10,000 a month, no problem, in the next few months. Like that is totally something you can do. I don’t think the person was lying to me at all. I think they were being totally truthful. But the way that my life in business ended up going, it did not end up going down the track that I was sold on and I did not end up making that kind of money. I don’t know, there’s a lot of different facets to it. There’s understanding the reliability of the coach and there’s also understanding your own personal goals of where you’re going to go with that. It’s not a black and white thing. And just because you don’t end up adhering to your goal, it doesn’t mean it was a failure. You can still learn amazing things from that and get all the value in the world. So, I don’t know. I think it’s the whole jump to judgment and hating on people who charge anything for information. It’s an easy thing to do because it doesn’t require much thought. Whereas a lot of times there’s more you have to take into consideration to really know what you’re talking about when you start saying “This person is bad or good” for one reason or another.
Jaren: Yeah man, 100%. So, I think I’m maturing in that area where I don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I will say I had had bad experiences with close friends of mine buying into programs where we didn’t get the value out of those programs early in my real estate career. And so, I think that’s what put a bad taste in my mouth. I’m sure like in the particular, I’m not going to name drop anybody, but the particular program that we bought into, I think the strategies that they talked about and they taught would work in places like the Midwest or maybe the South. But in San Francisco, California, they definitely did not work. Can I throw everything and say, “No, it didn’t work for me so it’s completely useless and they’re just scam artists ripping people off”? I don’t think I can really say that because I’m not looking at it objectively and I’m not looking at the whole picture.
Seth: Yeah, totally. Cool. So, conversation starter time, let’s find an interesting question for both Jaren and I to answer. Okay. So, the question is, “What are your views on fame and celebrity culture?”
Jaren: I think that when it comes to fame and celebrity culture, what’s happening is kind of an evolutionary thing. Back in the way day, eons and eons ago, I always had a tribe leader. I think that the tribe leaders, we didn’t have such a huge nation. We were always a small tribe, small groups of people. And I think that our tribe leaders were people that we really exemplified and almost in some cultures and a lot of cultures undefiled. We had looked at them as Gods. And I think that somehow in our development and our psyche, we’ve still held onto some aspect of that. It manifests in this worship of celebrities and famous people. I think that it’s a dangerous thing and it’s a primitive thing. Even how Nathan mentioned in today’s podcast when he saw Brian Tracy.
Seth: Yeah, he was sure talking about that whole time.
Jaren: Like you have to realize if you’re going to evolve as a human being or I don’t know what language you want to use like just become a more developed person. You have to get to this point where you realize that the person at the front of the stage and the mic or the person making your favorite music or your favorite author, they’re just human beings just like you. And when you see something in them that helps you or is really valuable, appreciate the value, but also let it be an inspiration that says, “Man, if they can do that, I wonder what I can do”. And that’s the mindset that a successful person has to have. There’s no difference between Tony Robbins and me. The only difference is that he has more experience. That’s it.
Seth: Yeah. I think my flaw in my thinking for much of my life, I feel like I’m getting better at this now, but for much of my younger life, I literally looked at those people and thought to myself, “They are better than me. I am not as good of a person as they are.” Which is absurd. There are all kinds of personal failures and all kinds of problems. It almost kind of reminds me of Instagram and social media culture where people will post the highlights of their life and you’ll never see the crap beneath the surface. The stuff that would just make them look like terrible people. Celebrity is, I don’t know, sometimes the media likes to broadcast their failures so it’s not exactly like that. But still if I see Tom Cruise in a movie, I mean the guy looks perfect. Everything about him, it’s like “Man, that’s the guy I want to be.” Everything about him is cool, he’s successful, he’s got it all. But he doesn’t even speak his own words in movies. He’s reading stuff that somebody else wrote. It’s not reality. And for some reason, we’ve got this twisted thought process where we look at that as though it is real and as though it is something to aspire to be when it’s impossible. I don’t have somebody to writing my lines for me every day. I think it’s unhealthy in a lot of ways. At the same time, I cannot understand why this obsession with celebrities exists.
Jaren: We’re wired to need to put our hope and faith into something bigger than ourselves. Whether you’re a faith-based person or a religious person or not, you can be a complete atheist and acknowledge that that’s true. We are people, we are a species of idealism and to some degree when we’re a fan of a band or we’re a fan of some celebrity, it’s like, “Oh man”. It just gives you this sense of hope and it gives you the sense of inspiration that I think we’re hardwired for. I don’t think that that’s the best fit for it. Obviously, I have a bias towards Christianity and things like that in my own life. But even if that wasn’t your thing, joining the Peace Corps, finding some kind of purpose to give yourself to I think would be much better suited to fit that hardwire need for something bigger than ourselves. I think that’s really why people admire celebrities so much and they geek out. It’s the same thing why people get so obsessed about football. It’s the same thing. It’s just instead of football, it’s celebrities.
Seth: I remember back when I was in college, I saw U2 in concert. I had followed U2 for years. And I remember seeing Bono on stage. I’m kind of ashamed to say this now, but like I literally felt like I was in the presence of a God. Like it was just this crazy thing to see somebody who I had watched on music videos and listened to music for years and years and there he was in the flesh – 50 feet away from me. It was crazy. I even realized at the time like, “Why am I freaking out as much?” But as I’ve gotten older and I know just this past year, we went to different conferences for different YouTubers and big influencers in the personal finance industry. And it’s actually really interesting, especially, I’ve gotten to do video interviews with some of these big-name people and I get to see like in person, see them screw up what they’re trying to say in front of the video – “I got to start stuff over”. It’s oddly comforting to be like, “Man, this huge person screws up just like I do. This is just as hard for them as it is for me”. I don’t see that when I watched the video on YouTube, I just see all the takes that went well. But I think as I’ve gotten older and I’ve seen more of the world, it’s become more evident to me that nobody needs to be put on a pedestal for any reason. If everybody had all their junk spread out and if we saw everybody’s imperfections, I think everybody would realize that really quickly. But of course, that’s not the way the world works.
Jaren: And if you really want to know what somebody is like, ask their spouse.
Seth: Yeah. We’re talking about that. You look at different highly successful people in the world, they may be a famous author or recording artist or actor, something like that. And the reason they’ve succeeded is that they’ve put so much of their time and life and energy into that one thing, making that their “thing” that they’re amazing at. But in the process, they let a lot of other stuff fall by the wayside. Like their family life is in shambles. Maybe they’ve been divorced 10 times. Maybe their kids hate them. Of course, they’re not going to tell you about that. You don’t hear that part of it. You just see the part that they’re so successful at and they get worshiped for that reason. Well, it’s a good reminder that everything has a cost to it. If you’re going to excel in one thing, you better believe you’re saying “no” to a heck of a lot of other stuff. So, nobody has it all figured out.
Jaren: Yeah, man.
Seth: Well, again, if you want to check out all the stuff from this episode, you can find it at retipster.com/66. If you want to stay up to date on all the stuff we’re doing, you can take out your phone and text the word “FREE”. F-R-E-E to the number 33777.
Thanks again everybody for sticking with us. I hope you have enjoyed this episode and we will talk to you next time.
The post 066: Real Estate Investing in Portugal and Uganda – Nathan Amaral Explains How it Works appeared first on REtipster.
from Real Estate Tips https://retipster.com/066-nathan-amaral/
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The Story Behind Faye Dunaway’s Iconic ‘Morning After’ Photo
Though he took some of the most iconic celebrity portraits of the 1960s and ‘70s, it was never Terry O’Neill’s plan to become a photographer. In 1960, he was 20, and his immediate goal was to get a job as a flight attendant. “I was a jazz drummer, and I thought I’d become an air steward. The flight from London to New York was 14 hours in those days, and then you had three days off in New York. Then you’d fly back, and have three days off in London,” he told the Cut. “I saw this whole new future for myself as an international jazz drummer.”
But when he went to apply to the BOAC (the British Overseas Airway Corporation, now British Airways), O’Neill was told there were no openings for stewards, and was directed instead toward the photography department. “I took a job in the photographic unit just as a means to become an air steward,” he explains. “I never really wanted to be a photographer. I just snuck in.”
Within a year, O’Neill had secured a job as the youngest photographer at The Daily Sketch — a now-defunct British tabloid — where his early pictures of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones became some of the first pop-music photography to be published in newspapers. It wasn’t long before he was shooting stars like Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Frank Sinatra. His current traveling exhibition, “Big,” features large-scale blowups of some of his most famous images, including Faye Dunaway lounging by the pool the morning after winning the 1977 Oscar for her performance in Network, and a sullen Brigitte Bardot smoking in the wind. The photographs are currently on view at Miami’s Black Square Gallery and will open in New York later this spring.
The Cut spoke with O’Neill about spending time with Frank Sinatra, the role of luck in photography, and how he convinced Faye Dunaway to wake up at 6 a.m. the morning after she won her Oscar.
Do you remember the first celebrity photographs that you shot?
Well, when I first started working at the newspaper, the first job I was sent on, they said, “I want you to go down to Abbey Road and photograph a group called the Beatles who are recording a song called ‘Please Please Me.’” That was my first big job. I mean, it was unbelievable. Next, they asked me what bands I liked, and I said I liked the Rolling Stones. So they said, go photograph them, and I did. My editors thought they looked like five prehistoric monsters, so they sent me out to photograph a good-looking group, the Dave Clark Five, and they ran the two sets of pictures as “Beauty and the Beast.” Those were the first pop pictures in newspapers. That really set me up. Suddenly all sorts of people were ringing me up to photograph them, because I was a photographer who could get them into newspapers. In England, we didn’t have a Life Magazine — the newspapers were the magazines. So, I had the luckiest start to my career. I’ve never been intimidated by personalities or famous people. I sort of started at the top and never looked back.
How were your portraits different from what other photographers were doing at the time?
They were candid and real, I think. And I did understand light. I made them look good, so they’d always ask me back to take more pictures, and then it just grew from there. After about four years, I got fed up with the newspapers — I started to feel like I was intruding on people’s lives. It wasn’t right. So then I went out on my own and started working on films. I met Ava Gardner, and I said, “They want me to go photograph your ex-husband [Frank Sinatra].” So she wrote me a letter, and I don’t know what it said, but whatever it did, it opened every door in the world for me, with him. That’s when I realized that he always loved Ava Gardner, because he was great to me. He let me into his life totally. I spent three weeks with him, and we barely talked, but we made a bond. And I worked with him on and off for the next 40 years.
What were your relationships like with the people you photographed?
They were all very professional. I never liked getting too close to personalities. I’m a photographer — I’m there to do a job. I didn’t want to get any more in their lives than I did. I would be in their lives for weeks at a time, photographing them, and it was great — sometimes I pinch myself when I look back. I only stopped about ten years ago, but when I look back at all the people I’ve photographed, I can’t believe it. When you’re doing the job, you don’t realize — it’s only when you look back at your work, you’re like, God, I really had a fantastic life.
One of your most well-known photographs is the picture of Faye Dunaway the morning after she won her Oscar. Where did the inspiration for that photo come from?
Funny enough, I was photographing her on an assignment for PeopleMagazine at the time — they always did a piece on the girl they think is going to win. Anyway, they picked Faye Dunaway, and while we were doing the pictures, I said to her, “I’ve been to the Oscars before. If you win, they always take the same pictures of you receiving the statue in the press room.” I knew that wasn’t the real story — the real story is the next day, when they realize suddenly they’re getting all these offers to do films, their value goes from $100,000 to $10 million, and they’re just sort of stunned. I wanted to capture that, so I told her my idea, and she was sport enough to do it early in the morning at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She got up at 6 a.m., and we got that great picture. It’s become one of the most Hollywood pictures of all time. [Editor’s Note: O’Neill and Dunaway later married, in 1983, and stayed together until 1987. They have one son, Liam Dunaway O’Neill.]
You’ve said that your famous photograph of Brigitte Bardot with the wind in her hair was just luck. How often does getting a great shot come down to luck?
It’s all luck. Some people are lucky, you know. I think God pointed down a finger at me when he sorted out my life and said, Let him do it! and he set me up. I’ve come through all the best times in show business — and the best personalities. There just aren’t any real good personalities around anymore. There aren’t any stars. I grew up with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, John Wayne — you name it. Today’s actors all sort of look the same in black suits, and they just make sequel after sequel.
Do you think the notion of celebrity has changed since you first started out?
Oh, yeah. Now you get them on talk shows. It’s not a surprise to see them anymore. In my day, if celebrities did TV, it was a unique hour-and-a-half program. Now they’re on talk shows every other night. They’ve lost all the mystique. Plus, the way the business is run, all the pictures have to go through PR, and PR only wants a certain shot here, or this shot there. They even want approval of the copy. It’s a joke. We need better magazines. They should restart Life Magazine, and Look Magazine.
Audrey Hepburn, 1967
In the exhibition catalogue, you mention that Audrey Hepburn was afraid of water. How did you get this shot? Yeah, she had to be flung into the pool. But she was such a pro — she’d always make a picture. I couldn’t take a bad picture of Audrey Hepburn. She was a stunning girl and a really fabulous woman. There’s no girls like that around anymore.
Brigitte Bardot, 1971
“I was lucky with this one. I was on the last frame on my roll of film, and I thought, Should I take it? The wind blew, and I took a chance — and it turned out to be a winner.”
Faye Dunaway, 1977
How did you persuade Faye Dunaway to wake up at 6 a.m. the morning after the Oscars? I don’t know. She went to bed at 3 a.m. and got up at 6 a.m. She was great. The whole mood of it was great. It was the perfect thing that she was tired, because it was the morning after — literally, 6:30 in the morning. We shot it at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool before anyone else came out, because you’re not allowed to take pictures there.
Mick Jagger, 1963
“This was taken the second time I met the Rolling Stones. After I published the first set, I was friendly with their manager, and he had me come down to the BBC Television studios. I went into the dressing room and there was Mick Jagger having his hair done, and then he put on this fur jacket and I shot them in the makeup trailer.”
David Bowie, Elizabeth Taylor, 1975
“[David Bowie] was out of it at the time. [Taylor] had wanted to meet him, but she showed up four hours late, and she was just about to leave. But she’s such a pro, you’d never guess that she was angry or anything. She just grabbed him, we did all these pictures in about ten minutes, and then she left. She was great. He didn’t know what hit him. “
Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, 1964
Ava Gardner, 1973
“She was the most beautiful woman I ever met. I can imagine why all those men fell in love with her. I met her sister as well. They’d say, ‘We’re just two little girls from Texas.’ They used to run around all over the place. They hated wearing shoes.”
Raquel Welch, 1970
Frank Sinatra, 1967
“I loved photographing Sinatra. He was a special personality. It was just a one of a kind.”
Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, 1972
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