Get ready for an exciting episode with the remarkable Casey Stubbs! Casey is not only a 9 ½ year United States Army Veteran, but also a thriving business owner, a respected leader in his local church, author of The Ultimate Harmonic Pattern Strategy Book, and of course a trader for a living. Oh, and not to mention that he's also a devoted husband and father of nine!
Join Agnieszka as she dives into a captivating conversation with Casey about the challenges that traders face when they want to turn trading into a full-time gig. Discover Casey's secrets to balancing the pressures of providing for a family while pursuing a trading career. He spills the beans on his journey from trading as a hobby to trading for a living and shares his wisdom on the importance of having an additional income source to ease financial stress. Brace yourself as they debunk the myth of trading as a quick fix for financial struggles and reveal the key ingredients: discipline and learning from mistakes.
About Casey Stubbs
Casey Stubbs is the host of the popular podcast "How To Trade It," where he shares his insights and expertise in the world of trading. Additionally, Casey is also the founder of TradingStrategyGuides.com, a website that offers a variety of trading strategies and resources for traders of all levels, and the newly released GlobalPropTrader.com for proprietary trading. With over two decades of experience in the industry, Casey has a wealth of knowledge to share with his audience, and his podcast and websites are widely considered to be among the most valuable resources for traders looking to improve their skills and increase their chances of success in the markets. Casey is dedicated to helping people from all walks of life fulfill their financial dreams, while also achieving financial freedom. Helping others is at the heart of all that drives Casey on a daily basis.
Contact Agnieszka Wood | Ahead Coach:
- Website: aheadcoach.com
- Twitter: @Ahead_Coach
- YouTube: @aheadcoach
- Facebook: Agnieszka Wood
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Contact Casey Stubbs:
- Website: https://tradingstrategyguides.com/
- Website: https://globalproptrader.com/
- Website: https://caseystubbs.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TradingStrategyGuides
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/caseystubbs
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/caseystubbs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TradingStrategyGuides
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/caseystubbs
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Transcript
[00:00:00.650] - Agnieszka
I am Agnieszka Wood. Welcome to the Confidence in Trading Podcast. Let me introduce my special guest on today's show, Casey Stubbs. Casey is a nine-and-a-half-year United States Army veteran and entrepreneur, a leader in his local church, a successful business owner, and a trader. In 2009, Casey launched his first trading business, winners Edge Trading, which generated over 6 million in revenue. He then went on to launch several other successful brands, including Trading Strategy Guides, Learn to Trade for Profit, Finance & Markets, and Price Action & Income. Casey is also the author of The Ultimate Harmonic Pattern Strategy book, the most accurate harmonic patterns, and how to trade them. I met Casey a few years ago when I had the honor to be invited as a guest to his very own How to Trade It podcast. We have kept in touch since, and Casey has been supporting me greatly throughout my development as a head coach, which I am incredibly grateful for. I invited Katie to my podcast not just because he has achieved all these great things and has a wealth of knowledge that all traders can benefit from, but also because he's a married man and a father of nine and he has managed to find a way to combine trading and providing for the family.
[00:01:37.550] - Agnieszka
And I am very excited to talk with Casey about it today because that is something that creates huge pressure for many traders. Welcome, to episode number eight: the Family Factor – how it impacts your trading. Hi Casey. Welcome to my podcast, and thank you for being open to sharing your experience in this rather private field.
[00:02:01.320] - Casey
Hi, Agnieszka. Thank you so much for having me. Quite an honor to be on the show. Really excited to be here today.
[00:02:09.880] - Agnieszka
Thank you. Thank you so much. Casey, could you tell us a little bit more about your trading journey? How did it start and how is it developing?
[00:02:20.650] - Casey
Okay, so I have a really cool story about trading, and I'm really fortunate. So I started as a kid. Being interested in computers. So I grew up in the computers were new, and my aunt Mary. She worked at Intel, which makes computer chips. And so she would be bringing home computers, like parts, computer parts, and she would get extra parts that they would not need anymore, they would be throwing away or whatever. And so we'd put the computers together and she showed me how to do all that. So that created a great interest for me in technology. Me and my brothers, actually, we all. We’re interested in computers. Well, it was fun. It was just so much fun. And I didn't realize it at the time because it was fun for me because we were playing games and we were putting stuff together. But I didn't realize that the computer generation, I had no idea that the future was the computers. I didn't know that my aunt was giving me an interest that was aligned. With great future skills and growth. So I was getting a skill and. I didn't even know it, which is. Kind of a good way to trick a kid into getting high-value skills.
[00:03:32.690] - Agnieszka
Totally. What the timing!
[00:03:34.750] - Casey
Yeah. And so it turned out that my dad was involved in the stock market, and I didn't really know that he was a mechanic, a very hardworking guy, but he would be putting extra money into that. Made into the stock market. And so when I was in high school, the stock market started to get. Online trading in the early ninety s. And he didn't know how to use a computer. They didn't have computers when he was a kid. And so he's like, hey, I need. To set up my stocks, but I don't know how to use a computer. So I would help him. I got him set up, got the computer running, and hooked up the stock programs for him. And then in the process, I was. Like, what is this stock trading? This thing is amazing. I'm blown away. In my mind, I'm an instant millionaire as a teenager, like so excited about picking stocks.
[00:04:27.810] - Agnieszka
Wow, that is incredible. So at what age did you actually start trading?
[00:04:33.130] - Casey
So I practiced a little bit with my dad, and then when I got. Out of high school, I didn't want. To go to college, I joined the army. And in the army, I made $800 a month. That was in 1996. In today's money, that's not a lot of money.
[00:04:53.200] - Agnieszka
No. Was it at that time?
[00:04:55.980] - Casey
Not really. But as a 19-year-old kid. And the army, they pay for all your stuff, right? And so I remembered, I don't know. How I remembered that I was interested in trading. So with my very early on, I got an army bonus because they paid me a bonus because I picked a. Combat field that didn't get a lot of volunteers. So they paid me a $5,000 bonus. And so I took that money and I put all of it into trading accounts. And so I was stationed over in. Germany and I'd take, I don't know. How much I'd take, but most of my paycheck every time went right into my stock account. And so four years later, by the time I got out, I had over $30,000 in stocks. And it was a great time to be in. I wasn't really trading, but it was a great time because it was a big run-up from 1996. That there was what they called the.com bubble. And so I bought some tech stocks, I bought intel and I bought Cisco Systems, which was a really big one at the time. And I just made a massive return. From a very small amount of just whatever I put in every week.
[00:06:07.910] - Agnieszka
That is a great start. But how did you feel about it? Did you consider it something that you were lucky to make that money, or you thought, okay, this is how the stock market works? This is how it's going to be from now on. I'll be just always making money in the stock market.
[00:06:21.930] - Casey
It's funny because as such a young person, I still didn't really have a clue as to what was going on. I mean, I was really just very fortunate, and I didn't realize it, and I got even more fortunate. And so if you're listening to this and you think, oh, it's all your good fortune, no, I fell on my face many times. I got a good start, which helped because it got me interested. It kept the spark going because I was like, oh if I can do this once, I can do it again. But I got out in 2000, and. I got out almost at the top of that's when I got out of the army. But I got out of the market at the same time because I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to take this money and I'm going to roll it into a business. So I sold everything, and I started. My own business, which was a carpet cleaning business. And the reason I did carpet cleaning. Was because my first job was out of. The army was a carpet cleaner. And I saw my boss would show up at 08:00 in the morning, give us the jobs, and then he didn't. Do anything else all day. And I'm thinking, oh, I want to be like this guy. I want to do nothing all day. And I would bring him home, like. $500 from all day. When I didn't do it, I made like 50 and he made 500. I'm like, Wait a second, I want. To do what he's doing. So I sold all my stocks and. I bought this carpet cleaning franchise, and. That didn't end well at all. I totally crashed that into the ground for a lot of reasons. Just immaturity not knowing how to run a business, personal problems, just a lot of things that happened. And so then at that point, I. Decided to get back into the market.
[00:07:58.640] - Agnieszka
To make the money back.
[00:08:01.370] - Casey
Yeah, to try to get it back, to build a foundation. I've had many ups and downs. I've had many ups and downs. So that's basically how I got started, and I really started my love of trading.
[00:08:13.320] - Agnieszka
And was there a point where you followed trading education, or was it something that you have actually just taught yourself how to trade?
[00:08:23.420] - Casey
So. I love learning, and so do I. Would read a lot of books. I love reading. I read probably one book a week on average, and I have for years and years and years. And so I mix it up between trading books and history.
[00:08:45.110] - Agnieszka
Wow. You have to give me the secret. When do you find time for that?
[00:08:50.010] - Casey
Well, here's the secret. I call it reading, but listening is the new reading. So I drive to work, I listen to books, and I put them on two X. Because it gets them done faster.
[00:09:01.730] - Agnieszka
That's smart. Wow. I got to try that.
[00:09:05.230] - Casey
When you first start, it's like, oh, this is too fast. But after you do it for a while, your brain gets used to the speed, I bet.
[00:09:13.650] - Agnieszka
I never really considered that. Yeah.
[00:09:16.130] - Casey
See, you work from home, though. A lot of people I know nowadays. Are working from home. I have nine kids, so I could not have an office at home that they would know about. It would have to be underground, hidden. And so I work in an office. It's about a 30-minute drive too.
[00:09:29.930] - Agnieszka
Work, which is a nice way to spend time for yourself. Right. And for the books. Yeah, I'm much more of a paper person, so I really like the physical books. I still keep buying physical books.
[00:09:44.610] - Casey
I like real books. It's the problem of time. I don't have time to read them. I read very few real books now.
[00:09:52.320] - Agnieszka
Yes, I know. That's why I was asking about your secret, but now I know it. All right, so you basically learn from books, the trade. Right. And was there any point where you thought, okay, I'm going to transition my trading to trade for a living? Because, you see, many traders want to trade for a living, and they cannot make trading work because of the pressure of having to provide for their families. Like, at what point those two met in your life, like, that you started a family, and what was your trading looking like at that point?
[00:10:37.360] - Casey
Okay, so this is a very important question. This is very important, and I have a great answer to this, and I. Have a couple of key steps I. Think that anybody can follow. So the first thing is to make sure you're making money somewhere else. Right. You've got to be making money somewhere. Else because it's just like you said, it's total pressure. It's lots of pressure to do that. And so the way that I did it was I was working in construction. And I had a very young family just starting out. So this was in 2008, so I only had four kids at that time, so pretty early. Pretty early, yeah. And so they were little, too. They were all little. And I was working in construction, and in 2008, we had a real economic slowdown. The market went down pretty significantly.
[00:11:42.600] - Agnieszka
Were you trading at the time as well?
[00:11:44.500] - Casey
No, I had some stocks. I had a stock account because I always put money in. That was the early thing that I. Learned from the army. Take money. And this is everybody should be doing this. You got to have a margin, right? There's got to be a margin in your life, which means you have to be spending less money than what you're making. And even if your bills are maxed out and you can't afford certain things, or even if you're not paying certain. Things, take that money out and put it somewhere that can return the money. It doesn't have to be trading, but it could be trading. It could be investing, it could be dividends, it could be real estate, it doesn't matter. Take that money out, whatever. You pick a number. Pick a number. One of the I guess a great way to say is just take 10%. And put that aside. You can live on 90%, right? And I'm being 100% truthful. It doesn't matter how bad things are. You can always take that 10% off. And do it before anything else happens.
[00:12:51.130] - Agnieszka
Yeah. And even I have been in situations when things were bad and there is always this you can always live without something, right?
[00:13:00.280] - Casey
Here's one thing I tell people, and. I'm not even really getting to my story yet, but I always tell people. Look, trading is not getting rich quickly and seeing the problem. Here's why I think most people fail. And I'm not going to blame the advertisements or the marketers. It's a mindset thing and maybe the. Marketers have something to do with it. You see a commercial that says make. A million dollars trading. But people are trying. They're in financial pain. And it doesn't matter if the economy is good or the economy is bad. There are people that are in financial pain and so they come to trading. To try to solve that financial pain, okay? And that is not even 100% of it. The time, that's never going to work. Because you're treating trading as a lottery ticket, right? You're going to go in there, you're. Going to start trading, and now your financial pain is going to go away. And that's not the case. There's a problem. You need to solve a financial problem and it's all about managing your money, okay? And yes, it's hard to make money right now. The jobs do not pay a lot. Kind of what we just talked about, they don't pay a lot. But you got to learn to take that 10% off and start investing it, right? Because if you can't manage your own. With personal finances, you're not going to be able to manage your trades. It's a fundamental skill that you need to manage, which is managing money, being. Able to have a margin. You got to have a margin in your trading. You got to have a margin in your personal life. And the market is not a casino. If you go into it, you're going to get destroyed and your personal pain. That your experience is going to get worse, right?
[00:14:43.560] - Agnieszka
And a lot of traders go into the market and instead of creating the.
[00:14:47.310] - Casey
Margin, they trade on margin, which is a terrible idea, right? Because then the pain is even worse, right?
[00:14:56.110] - Agnieszka
The market, stock market, or trading is not an Advil pill that is going to take your pain away. It actually will worsen the condition, the reason why you have pain in the first place.
[00:15:07.860] - Casey
It's like putting your problem and putting. It is on ten X. Ten X is your problem. So if you want to hit ground zero faster, then there you go. There's that point where you break that. The breaking point, which I think many of. We have been through, I've been through a couple of times.
[00:15:25.780] - Agnieszka
Yeah, definitely.
[00:15:27.180] - Casey
To me, that's the best way to do it. Change is just basically falling on your face really hard.
[00:15:31.950] - Agnieszka
Yeah.
[00:15:32.640] - Casey
And then willing to change, willing to.
[00:15:35.790] - Agnieszka
Learn from those falls. Right?
[00:15:38.140] - Casey
Yeah.
[00:15:38.760] - Agnieszka
Back to your story. So when you had four kids and you were trading, you were working, actually, for the construction company. Have you ever considered going full-time trading?
[00:15:52.530] - Casey
I was just so into investing and putting my money in the market. I have always done that. And so that's just something that I paid attention to. I was always looking for stocks. So what actually happened to get me? Trading that I ended up losing my job. Okay. And so the economy was bad. I was building houses and construction, and. I was laid off and there was no work. I applied everywhere.
[00:16:21.140] - Agnieszka
Similar story for a lot of traders because of COVID Right. So I'm sure a lot of people are listening very carefully right now.
[00:16:29.310] - Casey
Yeah. And so then I was like, okay. Well, maybe I need to figure out something else. And so I started to research and. I realized that I had a skill. Set with the markets and understand the markets. And I also had that skill set that I talked about, which was computers. And I was pretty tech-savvy. I understood the internet. And so while I started to trade. I thought, you know what, I'm just. Going to start a website as well. And I'm going to see if I can generate some revenue from the web. And so I started a website. The name of it was called Winter's Edge Trading. And I was documenting my trading activity. I was kind of going through a process where, hey, look, I'm trading, I'm. Trying to create some side revenue trading. And so I started a website. And so what happened was that the. The website started to take off. I was trading and I wasn't really. Very good because I made a lot of mistakes and I wasn't making money, but I was making money from the website. So the website was giving me side revenue, which is why I tell people. Get money coming in and keep that money coming in until you're ready to make that switch. Or you don't ever have to if. You don't want to. Or you could switch from something that you enjoy more. Because I do like working. I like trading. I like working. I want to create multiple streams of revenue. So that's really important. And so here's a little thing that. I always find it really interesting. I found this article online and it's called How to Make $1,000 a Month Online. And so I found that article and it was really long and in-depth. And this is a kind of education.
[00:18:36.890] - Casey
I just followed it step by step, everything that the article told me to do. And from there, I learned how to make $1,000 a month online from my website. And as I was continuing to trade, then I was making money trading and. Making money from my website. And so the thing is, nowadays, nowadays it's a lot harder, right? I was at the perfect time to start a website. So now I wouldn't tell you like, go out and start a website.
[00:19:12.440] - Agnieszka
Everyone has a website.
[00:19:13.460] - Casey
Because the market saturates saturated. I wouldn't even tell you to start a YouTube channel because everybody's on YouTube. And so one good thing that's happened. Nowadays that I have been really working hard to get traders involved in prop trading, which means that you can. Pay for a practice test on a prop firm. And so, for example, I recently launched a prop firm and it's called Global Prop Trader.
[00:19:44.230] - Agnieszka
Nice.
[00:19:44.940] - Casey
And so if you go in and. You pay $250 and you pass the test, you get access to $25,000 in funds, right? So that's a way to start generating. Revenue is a little bit faster. But you still have to start very small. You have to learn how to be. Successful with a little bit. And I've been talking a lot, so. I'll let you interrupt. But I would just add one little thing.
[00:20:10.020] - Agnieszka
Do you also teach them how to trade? So imagine if someone is not really good at trading or not trading at all yet. Is this the way you would recommend learning to trade?
[00:20:22.250] - Casey
Well, yeah. So the biggest thing with trading in my mind is you're the mindset coach and so you're big on mindset. So the mindset has got to be really important. We talked about the casino. Mindset doesn’t look at the market as a casino. The next step is to plan your trading journey. Realize that you're going to go from steps one, two, three, and four. And it's a, it's a process, it's a trading process. It's a learning process. It's a phase that you have to change your mindset. You have to grow discipline. There are just so many things that you. Have to change as a person. So you have to plan that journey. So taking the test is probably the last step. You don't want to do that early. And so consistency is another big one. Start small and don't worry about making. A certain amount of money. Yeah. Your goal might be $1,000 a month. To start, don't worry about that. Worry about making a dollar. If you can make a dollar a day or whatever consistently, then you can. Worry about making $2. But it's a lot easier to learn. To make that dollar more than it is with these big numbers.
[00:21:34.320] - Agnieszka
Yeah. And I think indeed that starts all with the mindset, like how do you step in there? Like if you want to make a big amount of money quickly, then you will always rush it. Right, but what's the rush? Well, the rush is if people don't make money next to trading, they are in a hurry because they have a need that has to be fulfilled. But I always say to my students, the need is always there, whether you make money or you don't make money trading or with your business. Because everyone has a need to pay the bills, right? The need is always there. The thing is, like, how do you perform despite the need? Because if you say, I'm stressed because I need to make money. Yeah, everyone needs to make money because we need money to live, that's very normal. But you have to learn how to deal with that pressure. And then when you have a family, now you have a bigger family than just four, right? So basically what I hear you saying is you have always kept an extra income next to so you had multiple sources of income, basically to be able to trade without the pressure, right?
[00:22:56.760] - Casey
Yes. And trading without pressure, I think is important. And in life in general, that's why another reason why that 10% is so important is because of margin, because nothing moves in a straight line. It's always like up and down. Right. And so you need to be able. To withstand downs, because if it comes. Down and you start feeling squeezed and your emotions start kicking in, that's when you're going to start making a lot of mistakes. And so I really appreciated that you. Just said in a hurry, and I don't know if I can get people to believe me when I tell them that. So I want to know if you. Have found a way to get people to actually believe you when you tell them that they're in too much of a hurry. And what's your secret about it?
[00:23:47.020] - Agnieszka
Well, I think the key here is what I help them to disconnect from is to help them understand what is their hurry, and what is the real need that they have. And once you realize everyone has the need, what really makes you have pressure is something else that they need. It's all the things that people put in their heads. So I try to listen very carefully to what they say to me because people will tell you literally with their words what's in their head. Right. So usually it's about them making it if you will. They just want to be successful. They just want to finally, after all this struggle, they just want to finally be done with that pressure. It's not even about the money. Right. And that is where that hurry comes from. Because there is this idea of one day that is going to come and then after that day when I made it. Everything will be beautiful in my life, and I will never have problems, and my trading will be fantastic. I'll be making money every day. This day does not exist, so don't hurry. There is nowhere to hurry too because it's a day-to-day process. Just like when you work for a boss, when you work for your own company or trading, you go in, and every day you put in effort. The next day you do the same thing. And the day after and the day after. It's not that. When you have a job, you think, oh, I have to hurry because one day, finally the job is over. No, there will be always something to do. So even when you are trading, you will always learn. You will always have that pressure because it's a high-pressure environment. And what you need to learn is to release that pressure, release that need of desperation. I think it's a lot about being desperate, and we know that if you're desperate, you will never get a good deal. Right? I like to compare them. When you need a car and you go to a dealership, they will smell it. If you're desperate, you will not get a good deal. So don't be desperate. Don't be desperate. In the market.
[00:26:29.780] - Casey
Yeah, the market knows when you're desperate.
[00:26:33.610] - Agnieszka
Exactly.
[00:26:34.060] - Casey
The market knows. Man, that's really good!
[00:26:36.430] - Agnieszka
Thanks.
[00:26:36.880] - Casey
That's really good because, man, I'm always. In a hurry, and well, not always. I'm getting a lot better, but that's been very difficult for me. So, my son, he's 16, and he. Doesn’t have any means, right? I mean, I take care of all of his stuff, and he has a job, too, and he makes money, and yet he's in a huge hurry. He's 16, and he's just like, me. Got to do this. He's 16, and he's like, I need. To start this business, I need. To make all this money, I need to do this. I'm like, why?
[00:27:13.530] - Agnieszka
Yeah.
[00:27:14.060] - Casey
So this is some good I need to talk to him about this. I don't know. When I tell him, he doesn't necessarily listen to me because he's very young, but you don't need to be in a hurry. He's like, yes, I do. I need it now. But it's that same he feels like he needs to make it. He needs to do something great. That's what it is.
[00:27:32.190] - Agnieszka
Yeah. So now the question is, okay, so where do you need to get to? Where do you want to get to? What's the hurry? Okay, and now you're there. And now what?
[00:27:42.580] - Casey
Yeah, so now you are there.
[00:27:45.300] - Agnieszka
What do you think happens? Do you think life stops or what? Do you think you're ready? And then what you'll be sipping on?
[00:27:52.310] - Casey
Yeah, then you're miserable. Anyways.
[00:27:55.850] - Agnieszka
I know. It's really funny that you said it, because some of my students, actually, their whole idea was to trade just maybe three times a week right? Just three trades a week. And then they got all this time on their hands. Now they're doing it. And then there is the next problem popping up. What do I do with all my time?
[00:28:19.860] - Casey
Right? Yeah. Well, I try to talk to people. About that on the front end. Right? I talk to that on the front end. Because before you start trading, you need to have a purpose. Right. A purpose is really important, and that's. Why I like working. Okay. I want to teach people to trade. I'm going to make some trades, and. Then I'm going to work on creating content. I want to help people learn to trade.
[00:28:49.600] - Agnieszka
Absolutely.
[00:28:50.040] - Casey
I want to help them accomplish their dreams.
[00:28:51.970] - Agnieszka
Yes. Because I work with my students on defining a mission and their vision for life. Because it's not like, okay, you can have some goals, but then you achieve them, and then what else is there? Right. And that when you have something that is bigger than yourself. That's really where your efforts matter. And that's also what will push you through those difficult moments when things are not going that great or when it's difficult to be consistent. I run this challenge in April with my students of everyone picked their habits. We have, like, an app that tracks that. And there is an award if you have 80 or over percent of the habits that you are able to stick to. So consistency, right? It's not easy, especially if you really work on this consistency. For many people, trading is impossible because they cannot be consistent in their life. So having your own business, which you have a lot of experience in, and being a trader, has a lot of things in common. Right. One of them is the uncertainty of income because you just never know what will come in, especially at the beginning, whether you begin your business or whether you begin trading. And to bring money in consistently, you really have to keep putting in your effort consistently, just like with those habits. And even then, there are no real guarantees because you don't control other people, right? You only control yourself. So what was your way to deal with that uncertainty? And does that pressure that this uncertainty causes ever go away? Because now you have a big family, you're running a business, and you have run multiple businesses. Does this pressure ever go away?
[00:31:04.230] - Casey
Wow. I would say no. There's always a responsibility. When you have a responsibility, then that creates extra pressure. But I honestly think it's a good thing. So I have people working for me. And I like to hire young people. And so whenever they get married and they have a kid, I get really excited because now I know that they're. A lot more responsible than they were before. Right. Now they have to actually show up to work like before. You know, what if they took a few days off? No big deal. But. Now they have to be there. There's something about responsibility that when people are counting on you, that really helps keep you focused.
[00:31:53.390] - Agnieszka
That is so beautiful. It's actually a great perspective because from a trading perspective, that could be instead of a pressure builder, could be a motivator for people. I have to stick to my road because I have a responsibility towards my family. Right. Seeing it from the positive perspective, actually having this responsibility helps me to stay disciplined instead of, oh, my God, all this responsibility on my head. I have to make money quickly, so let me just throw some money into this stock because it's moving like crazy.
[00:32:26.850] - Casey
Yeah. I look at my life as kind of like when you think about the. Gym as a business person and as a trader, I have a certain level of capacity. Capacity is the amount of a load. That I can personally carry, whether that's responsibilities, whether that's how much money I can handle, all of those different things are in my bucket. Right. What I can carry in my bucket. And so, as a human being, I. Want to work on increasing my capacity. And the only way to increase your capacity is to push the limits. Right. If you're not going to push the limits, if you're not going to go through the pain, some people say it's getting out of your comfort zone, but getting out of your comfort zone, pushing the limits, doing things you've never done before and not giving up, that's how you increase your capacity.
[00:33:19.160] - Agnieszka
Wow, I just got goosebumps. This is just like gold, people, you got to write this down. Seriously, Casey, this is fantastic. This is a great way to see that, because that getting out of our comfort zone, that pressure that we are experiencing in life or in the market, is what always causes resistance. Right. Something we try to avoid. But the way you bring it is actually a very positive thing. And instead of getting scared of it and trying to run away from it and fight it, lean into it and let it help you to be able to carry more. That's so beautiful. Wow.
[00:34:10.590] - Casey
Thanks. Yeah. That's how you change. And I think we go from a mindset we don't see that going in. And so if we embrace it, we have the mindset, oh, this is changing me. Yes. This is uncomfortable. But if I believe I have faith, I think faith is a really important part. I'm always trusting God with my life. Like, okay, I'm going to come out okay through this.
[00:34:35.500] - Agnieszka
Yes. My yoga teacher would say, what you resist persists. What you embrace passes with grace. He always liked that... [chuckles]
[00:34:47.080] - Casey
Embrace! Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
[00:34:51.710] - Agnieszka
So is there anything else that you would like to tell our listeners that could help them to relieve that pressure of responsibility to provide for their family?
[00:35:05.010] - Casey
Well, I think we covered most of it. I mean, getting a good education will help, but just not giving up. And I would also say get help, get help. Find a friend. Finding a real friend in life is. Really hard because you're embarrassed. Like, oh man, I don't want to. Tell Agnieszka about all these problems. She thinks I'm a cool person. I don't want to tell her about this, how could I do that? But a real friend is not going. To point the finger or say, well, you know what, you made this mistake. You made that mistake. They're just going to help you. They're like, okay, well, you're doing okay, keep going. Or maybe you could try this. You know, just getting somebody in your life, right? I have, I have. So that's a big secret. I have a lot of good people in my life, people that, that support me, people that have a lot more. Experience than me, people that I can share things with. Like, I just do life with people. I don't do life alone. I get experienced people that really care. About me in my life.
[00:36:21.790] - Agnieszka
That's beautiful. That is beautiful. And I think that also helps to create a sort of softness also towards yourself. Because we tend to be very hard on ourselves, especially ambitious people. And most people who get into trading are very ambitious. And I always recommend treating yourself like you would a good friend, become your best friend as well. Because if you can be your own friend, instead of putting yourself down all the time and calling yourself words when things don't go right, that will help you so much knowing that you actually have an ally in you. Right. Because it will be also easier, just like a good friend, it will be easier for you to admit that you're wrong. And in trading, trying to be right and proving yourself right, it's a big issue. Right. So being your own friend helps you in a lot of different areas in trading and then plus having great people around you to support you, that's the key.
[00:37:35.570] - Casey
Yeah, it can be hard to learn to be a friend to yourself. Like you said, ambitious people like, oh my goodness, look at all of the. Mistakes I made, this whole thing. So I always tell people, don't blame. Other people because that's a disaster. That will never work. Don't ever blame anybody. But then again, blaming yourself doesn't work. Either because, yeah, sure, you made the mistakes. Yeah, it's your fault. Yeah, you're a total loser and a total failure. Yes, that's all true. But if you say that stuff about yourself, you're going to dwell on it instead. I just like it. If my thought pops in, I get it out, I replace it. I do thought replacement. Oh, you're a loser. No, I'm going to persevere. I'm going to change my behavior. I'm going to do something different. Yes, this circumstance isn't good, but I'm going to push through. Right. I try to be a good friend of myself and you got to learn how to do that. That's a skill.
[00:38:35.200] - Agnieszka
That is a skill and that's one of the skills that I teach because we have about 70,000 thoughts a day and there's a lot to manage and we definitely don't have to believe all of them, most of them not. And they are simply not helping us and definitely being aware of that process. And I know that in general, we call this mindfulness. I do like to call it to mind awareness rather because when your mind is full that nothing good comes from it. I take words very literally.
[00:39:11.990] - Casey
That's a great idea. I think good is important.
[00:39:15.170] - Agnieszka
Yes, totally. Especially the words that we tell you and mindful.
[00:39:18.910] - Casey
I never thought of that. See, I'm learning a lot, like I. A lot of times forget things because as I talked about capacity, I'm trying to do 50 million things and so sometimes I forget the most basic stuff, right?
[00:39:33.380] - Agnieszka
And you know, mental awareness really helps you to be in the moment because this is really where all these other problems disappear. To be in the moment and dealing with something right now, not something that might happen in the future because 90% of those things are not going to happen that we are afraid of. Things that happened in the past already happened. So it doesn't make sense to dwell on those too. Blame doesn't really help anyone, should have doesn't help anything. So when you can focus on what is happening right now and really enjoy that process that is something that I strive to personally be there all the time with all the hundred thousand things that I'm with ideas. And trying to do to bring them to life. Sometimes it's pretty challenging because I am, in general, very a person with a lot of different ideas. And if I could, I would start working on them all at the same time, immediately. So trading is a sort of meditative experience at this point for me where I can actually focus on one thing and I think that is something that a lot of people could strive towards because that will help you also experience life instead of rushing to someplace in the future, forgetting to live.
[00:41:06.140] - Casey
That's good.
[00:41:09.590] - Agnieszka
Well, thank you so much, Casey, that was a great conversation, I really enjoyed it, and thank you so much for sharing all these insights that from your experience, which is an absolutely captivating and inspiring story. We know each other for several years but I had no idea of a lot of them. So thank you for sharing that. I really enjoy that. Well, that brings us to the end of this episode, and I hope it will help traders who are listening to gain some new perspectives and understand that making the transition to trade for a living, it's always a decision about being able to handle the uncertainty and the load and the pressure and do everything to like Casey said, increase your capacity and making sure that you don't put all your eggs in one basket. Right. Let go of the worry and focus on your effort instead of focusing on the result, focusing on the process, and not rushing into anything, but just being grateful for what you have right now. And if you have a job that is paying you your bills, don't try to quit it as soon as possible. Make sure that you have something instead or next to it so that you don't create unnecessary pressure and let this transition happen organically. An attitude of gratitude, I think, is really key here.
Thank you for listening to the Confidence in Trading podcast. If you enjoy my show, please review it and rate it on the Apple podcast and be sure to subscribe so you can come back for a real-life conversation in the next episode. Until then, this is Agnieszka Wood from ahead. Coach. And don't forget, you too can realize your dreams without losing yourself and you’re in the process.
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