Trading Podcast Episode 007 Agnieszka Wood of AheadCoach.com

Hello and welcome to the Consistent Profits podcast brought to you by Inside out trading and Brian McAvoy, where the focus is on consistency, because when you have the consistent part down, profits become easy. Hello, everyone. This is Brian McAvoy with a new episode of the Consistent Profits podcast. Today I'm excited to be interviewing Agnieszka Wood. Agnieszka is a trading mindset coach and founder of a head coach. She helps traders who want to make a career from trading but struggle with profit consistency to create a solid mental basis for over. For achieving trading success and financial independence. Thank you so much for being on the Consistent Profits podcast.

Hi, Brian. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me and it's a pleasure.

Okay, great. Glad to have you. Just so you know, everybody, Agnieszka helps traders stop failing and start following their trading plan so that they can make consistent profit and live the life they want. Because, as she puts it, no strategy can make you stick to your trading plan, but I can show you how to do it. And she also, she bases her coaching on over a decade of trading experience and 20 years of expertise as an NLP Master, Practitioner and trainer, and a life coach. And she discovered a simple but very powerful approach to breaking the cycle of failure and transforming trading into a reliable source of income. Again, thanks for being here and for being game for the interview. Now, before trading, you had done quite a few different things, such as working in marketing in the automotive industry, freelance design, and other creative work. So how did you wind up in trading? I mean, it's like, not exactly a. A logical jump. How do you end up trading, you know?

Yeah, definitely not logical. And I can tell you that when I told my friends that I started trading, they were totally flabbergasted and they were like, but how. You are the creative person, so what do you have to do with financing? So, because I have. You just said, I have been doing a lot of different things. I am just incredibly passionate about starting new things, new challenges, and just learning new things. And when I met my. My current husband, he was always looking at his phone and, you know, looking at something, and I had no idea what he was looking at. And then very shortly after, I found out that even when we were on a date, he was like, you know, trying to check his phone. And now I understand why he was doing it while being with me even, you know, it's kind of hard to stay away from when the market is open. Right? But he, Sorry, he must be.

He must be a pretty Good guy to survive that.

Well, he's, he's the best. And especially when I was struggling with my trading, he was the best supporter I could have ever wished for. So, yeah, that's how I started. Basically. I saw him trading and I started getting interested and I saw the charts, price going up and down. I thought, this looks so easy. I'm just gonna get in when it's down and I'm just gonna get out when it's up. So that' started basically with that exact approach. This is going to be a new challenge, but I'm just going to succeed.

Huh. So what, what had you been doing like right before you started trading? What was your occupation right before that?

Actually, I had my own company at the time. I was running a marketing services company which was doing very well. So I had no problem with money. I had, you know, enough savings to open my account and not have any financial pressure. Um, so my beginning was very optimistic and I just thought, I just put some money in and I just start to play. This was a very open, open thing for me to do, just starting out that way. And the moment that I decided to move to the US which was two years later, I thought, you know, I gave. Of course I closed my company because that was back in Europe, in the Netherlands, and I came to MIAM Miami beach and I thought, this is just a perfect moment to start trading for a living. Because look at this lifestyle. It's all about freedom, right? So this is the right moment, huh?

Wow. So you just decided to close up your other company, huh?

Yes. So I close up pretty much my life back in the Netherlands and I moved here, Miami beach. At that time I actually got the job offer from my previous supplier. He said, you know what, now you're in the U.S. we have operation here. We would like you to help us running it since you are in the location. So I was actually freelancing for them. So I had a very well paid job doing it from, from home, different time zones. So I was able to learn trading because at that time I already had some losses, as you can imagine, right? Because I had no idea what I was doing. So I already took some losses. And I thought, you know what, when I'm, I'm gonna do this for a living, I have to learn. So I took a bootcamp of three months. I paper traded for probably two to three months and I started life. But because I decided just like with everything else in life, I have to fully go for it. Because if I don't, it's not Gonna work. So I gave up my great paid freelance job and I started trading for a living. I did have some savings. Not two years, as everyone was saying, because I thought I'm smarter than that. Very arrogant attitude at that time. Thank God the market made me much more humble and brought me back to the earth. And I started day trading, and my first two weeks were absolutely amazing. I made $10,000 in the first two weeks. I was very, very disciplined. And then in the next week, I lost it all. And that's where the usual journey started. Fear, hope, greed, you know, very typical journey. And I started really struggling. And that took me about two years before I thought, this is not working. I got to do something. Two years of tears, sweat, frustration, anger, all the emotions that you can possibly imagine and simply not understanding. Why am I not succeeding in this? Because I had success everywhere else in my life. Everywhere. Everything I took in my hands turned into gold. What is going on here?

Well, so as far as you said, it took, you said like two years. What was kind of a turning point for you? What was like an event or something that happened that caused things to start turning around for you?

Yeah, so my health started to really take toll. So the stress was pretty immense at that point because I was hitting my head on the wall like, you know, it was just a sustain task. At some point, you know, I would really stay disciplined for a month. And then on the last day of the month, the pressure and everything just took everything out. And it was going on and on for a while. So I started getting really stressed. My body started to give me signals of, this is just not good for you. And actually I had pretty intense incident where just one day, all of a sudden, my blood sugar dropped to level 30. And I was home at that time on my own.

Wow.

And it was just. I was fine. And then suddenly my blood sugar. I didn't know that, obviously, because I just started to feel weird. And I decided to. And, you know, that has never happened before to me. But because I didn't know what was going on, I called an ambulance. And they came and they checked my blood sugar and they said, you know, you could have died. So they really scared me. They really scared me. And I got so scared that I can die anytime. You know, that fear of. You find one moment and then something is happening. Another moment really woke me up that my body was giving me signals of, you know, stress and. And I had all kinds of pains. And it was just like, I couldn't explain any of it. But that particular incident was just like the top of the mountain. And from that moment on, I actually. I decided to stop trading. And my doctor said, why don't you go and talk to. Talk to a psychologist, right? Maybe she can. She can figure it out what is going on, where. Where all the stress is coming. And because I really didn't want to stop trading. I mean, of course I knew where the stress was coming. I mean, come on. I did wanted to lie to myself, but I knew it deep down, but I said, okay, I'll go. And I remember that I was sitting there. And one thing. She was very young, and because I, you know, I was a life coach, I had all the knowledge. I was like, what is she gonna teach me? What is she gonna teach me? But she made a huge difference because of one question that she asked me. She said, okay, so you're trading and you say, possibly this could be a source of stress. Why don't you just stop? And at that moment, I just completely broke into pieces, and I started crying like crazy person, you know, it came, like, out of my, you know, heels, basically. And I said, because I can't. I can't stop. And that for me, I remember I walked out the door and I thought, wow, that just scared me. I was like, this is crazy. This is not me. What does it mean? I cannot stop. So that was the moment where I stopped and I thought, I gotta figure this out. Like, what. What is that need? Why am I so fixated on it? Why do I need to make this happen? And I started actually going very deep into my. Into myself and trying to figure it out. Like, what was that? What was I trying to prove? To whom was I trying to prove it? What were the mechanics behind all this? And luckily, I had the background to do that for myself, which, you know, throughout this whole period, I had the background, but there was no catalyst, no someone that would point it out to me. Like, my husband was telling me, you know, don't take it too seriously. Like, you can do other things. You have so many talents, you know, but if you have that need, if you have the desperation that believe behind it, it's just gonna drive you. And, like, the worst behaviors were triggered in me during trading, and I didn't understand when they were coming from. So when I did this research on myself, I discovered that I was really handling a lot from a survival instinct, which I had, a very strong one. I developed it throughout my whole life. And a lot of behaviors that I was. The sabotaging behaviors were coming out of my triggers that I have been developing throughout my whole life. So that's where. Where everything started pivoting. And I thought, you know what? I just need to take a break. I just need to distance myself from this, because otherwise, this is not just not gonna work. And I remember that after a few months of, you know, taking a break, not putting the pressure, I started looking at charts again. And I thought, you know what? Let me just look. Let me just look. Not necessarily trade, because I have to, but let me just look at the charts, see how I feel. Like, feel the temperature. Am I healed yet? You know what I mean? Like, do I feel pressure or stress? And I remember I cleaned all my charts. I. I did not listen to Twitter, to any chat rooms or anything. I thought, I'm just gonna see if I can figure it out myself for myself. It was just such a nice experience. And I started, like, making plan, you know, like, looking at the trade. Okay, if I would do this, how would that work? And just slowly started building that confidence again, which was totally shattered at that point. And at some point, I was like, okay, you know what? Let me just take one trade and then let me take another trade. And they were all working out, and I had no stress. My trades were working out. And I thought, this is completely crazy. And I started noticing that, you know, the old behaviors or old thoughts were coming up, but I was dealing with it very different way, and it was such a relief. And, yeah, that's basically the rest is history because I simply started trading again.

Well, when you say some of the old thoughts were coming up, but you were dealing with it, dealing with them differently, like, what kind of thoughts are you talking about? And how did you deal with them differently than you did before?

Yeah. So I would note, first of all, I would be aware of them. I would notice them coming up, you know, that fear of losing. Like, I would. So let's say I'm entering a trade, but my risk was much slower. And then I would tell myself, no, you don't. You don't have to. You don't have to make money. You don't have to make money. You have. You have money to live off this. This is not. This is. If you lose this money, this is just part of that game. So I was very much more aware of accepting the risk before I enter the trade instead of just focusing on, I need to make money. I need to. I. I need to be right on this trade, because I have to prove that I can make this work. And, you know that reference point that I used to have of. I always make things work, so I kind of have to prove it to everyone else. I wasn't even telling anyone I was trading at that time. It was just for me. And that really helped me to say, no, this is for you. If this doesn't work, it doesn't make you bad person. It doesn't make you a failure. I was talking a lot to myself. I was giving a lot of love to myself, let's say it that way. And when I felt that I feel stressed that something is coming up, I would just stop and say, okay, then I don't take this trade because my body is telling me I shouldn't. Right. It just doesn't feel good. So I wouldn't. And it's not like I just jumped back into it, but I slowly started building that confidence that if I feel comfortable with something and if I don't stress, if I don't push, it just works out much better for me. And then I notice that it works out much better in the market.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Actually, I'm glad you mentioned that because one thing I've heard come up in a few different conversations over the years, specifically with regards to trading, and that is comfort zones.

Yes.

There are some people who say, you know, you know, you should stay in your comfort zones. And other people say, no, you're supposed to stretch them. And what I've learned over the years in my own experience, but also working with a lot of other traders, paying attention to your comfort zones is huge. And here's why. If you're outside your comfort zone, by definition, you are in an emotional state, by definition, because that means, yes, I'm feeling stressed over here, I'm outside my comfort zones, I'm feeling uneasy, I'm feeling stressed, I'm feeling some fear, anxiety, all this stuff that's not helpful for good trading.

That's right. That's right. And it takes you like you can. I mean, the market is putting you in a comfort zone already because we tend to, we tend to want to know what's going to happen. Right. We, we, we want to know if we are making the right decision. And in the market, you are out of comfort zone because you have to make decisions that you just simply don't know if they're going to work out. So you are by definition out of your comfort zone, but then that's in a relation to the market. But if you add your personal comfort zone where you feel stressed just because you're afraid to lose money or for any other reason, like just simply Badly, you know, because you can have a certain anxiety and not really understanding where it's coming from. And if you ignore that, this is going to influence how you manage the trade.

Oh, sure, big time.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well. And seriously, I mean, the fact that you were saying, you know, when you came back into it, that, you know, you were taking it easy and you were paying attention when you felt stressed and your signals from your body and that kind of stuff, so that, you know. Yeah. If you. And if you're feeling that way, you didn't take the trade. And that's huge because you have to be calm when you're trading. Not just forced calm, but you just actually calm and not. Not fearful or stressed and that kind of stuff.

When.

Yeah, there's the, the element of uncertainty there in the unknown, of course, but you have to be at peace with it.

Exactly. And that's not easy. That's not easy. Yeah. And, you know, it's like, actually it's. I had this. It's really funny I had this way to measure it because I remember that I would, When I was stressed, when I was trading, I would usually like, dress up and, you know, like. So I feel like I would dress up for work. Right. And I would feel, okay, now, now I'm working. And I would always put lipstick on. And then after an hour or so, I would see my lipstick all over my journal. And I noticed that when I was stressed, I would just like, you know, go with my hands over my lips. I would be doing something weird. So later on, this was like a measure for me whether I was stressed or not. I just, it just popped up back in my head. I completely forgot about it. But I, I use that actually to see, like, am I. Am I relaxed or am I, you know, subconsciously stressing out?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, now, one thing I noticed, particularly on your site and on your LinkedIn profile and stuff that you, you mentioned confidence and courage and their critical role in trading.

Yes.

Now, I wanted to ask you about that because when it comes to trading, there are a lot of facets and aspects to, you know, being a trader. How did you end up focusing on these two in particular?

Yes. So I think confidence is so important to do anything in life and to achieve anything in life. And I am talking about the confidence that is not born out of competence, because a lot of times that's where traders think they can tap into. If I know how to do it, then I will feel confident. But I learned in my life that if I am confident, if I Believe. And I'm talking really about the confidence that comes from inside the belief in yourself. Can I do it? Because if I, if I believe that I can do it, the rest is just the action. But I have to believe first that I can do it, that I am confident in myself, that if I go for something, I will just commit to it and go. Go for it no matter what, no matter what challenges I will encounter on my way. That, that takes. You have to have that before you attempt anything because that will define how you guide yourself through that process. And a lot of traders tap confidence from competence, and that's. It's a huge problem because every time when they have a loss, they think, oh, I don't get it. And now they feel insecure. Now they don't think they can make it. Now they, they don't feel confident anymore. You know, but to build that confidence. Confidence about yourself goes so much deeper because it goes back to what do you believe in, about yourself? Do you. Do you believe you're worth the success? Do you believe that you can actually make it? Do you believe that you're good enough? And those beliefs define whether you will, you will achieve success in anything in life. So that's about confidence. That's why I think it's such an important factor. And that confidence also gives you that certainty that even if you fail, you will still be fine. Because you know that if you fail, you will get up. Because failing is really not failing. It's more like falling. You fail. If you, if you fall and don't get up, then you fail. And I forgot who said that, but someone actually has a quote about that. So it's not that I, like I came up with that, but if you fall and you get up, you take that fall as a feedback, you can learn from it and then move on. So having that confidence that no matter, it doesn't matter if I fall, but as long as I can get back up and follow my plan and adjust, that's. That's where I can actually achieve success. And courage is connected to that uncertainty that I mentioned. You have to have courage to make decisions without knowing if it's a right decision. And it takes simply courage, and it takes courage to take the responsibility for your decisions.

True, true.

And that goes back to wanting freedom. You know, traders trade because they want to be free. And I talked about it recently during my presentation that if you don't have the courage to take consequences which are sometimes, you know, not pleasant, then, Then, then you are not ready to be free. You're not ready. If you're not ready for the responsibility, then, then it's not very likely that you're going to have the success you want because success goes with ups and downs. Success like once you're successful, it doesn't mean that you, you, you know, there's no challenge in the, in your life. I think you need the challenge to achieve success. Right. That's how you achieve success. You overcome challenges and you say, yes, success, that's, that's what success is to me anyway.

Oh yeah, well, and one thing you mentioned that brought another thought to mind. It's kind of related to that as far as, you know, dealing with the challenges that are going to come with pursuing something. Just reading a quote and I really liked it because what they were talking about is, you know, it's one thing that's real important is that you get clear on what you want but not only identifying what you want, but do you want it bad enough or do you want it enough that you're willing to put in the effort required to get it and go through what you're going to have to go through to realize it? And it's, if you don't feel that passionate about it, maybe you should think twice about pursuing it because yeah, any, anything worth having, it's going to take some effort and probably some challenges along the way on its way, you know, on your way to getting there. And so you just.

Yeah, yeah.

Do I want it bad enough to actually, you know, go through what I'm going to need to go through to get there? Because with trading it's the same thing. I mean, because like, you know, you're saying, yeah, you know, you know, when you came back to it, it's like, you know, you wanted to kind of prove it to yourself. But also just obviously like most of us, the trading is pretty cool. So it's like really hard to walk away from.

Yes.

But there are some people that get into trading and they're only getting into it because they think, yeah, you know, it's a way to make money. I don't really enjoy it. The charts aren't really that interesting and they don't, they don't have that, you know, that inherent. Yeah, I just really like this. And so it's like they're starting off like with big, a, huge, you know, mark against them because it's like you better figure out how to find some drive because it's going to take some work to get there.

Totally. And you know, I always compare it with applying for a Job. If you, if you're applying for a job and you go to a company, they want to know why you want to work for them. They want to know why you want to do this job. If you tell them, well, because I want to make money, they're not going to hire you.

Right, That's a good point. True, very true.

It's there, there is always, there has to be a drive because, and I always say the money is not a reason to do something, it's the result of your effort. It should never be a reason for your effort because it's very short sighted. You will just get simply, very quickly discouraged. And yeah, when the challenges come on your way, you will be questioning. You will question immediately whether you really want it or not. And then if you decided you didn't want it, it's like you just wasted your time and maybe money. Like, you know, I mean, how many traders are there that they want to trade for money? Like, okay, it's a good, you know, good income source. I'll take a course. They pay, they pay a course, then they pay, maybe a coach and then they find out, you know what, I don't really feel like looking for stocks to trade. It's like, how do these people make money? And now they have wasted all this time money. They probably have lost some too and they drop it.

Yeah, true, true.

So that's a waste.

Well, speaking of new occupations, so you had your own business, you left that, started trading, went through your, your learning curve with that. How did you end up helping other traders and deciding that, okay, yeah, you know, I've got a handle on this now. I want to, you know, start coaching other traders. How did that happen?

You know, I was always passionate about realizing my dreams. I know it sounds so very vague, but. And also helping people realizing their dreams. And when I started studying nlp, I got even more passionate about it because I realized how much power we have that we can use to get anything we want. And I saw that not many people are actually using that power. And trading was for me, that very first thing in my life that actually proved itself more challenging than anything else that I have experienced. So after this whole struggle and you know, when I finally managed to get myself out of the losing cycle, I thought this is maybe a good time to start sharing those insights that I have learned here and help people to break through their mental barriers and help them achieve their dreams. Because I was so excited about it and I thought, now I have the knowledge, now I have the experience, but I can tell you that I was, I found myself caught in between. Do I help everyone or I help traders? I was like, do I really want to get into this trading world? Which you know is pretty, pretty tough, tough world, right? It's all about money. I, there is a lot of, a lot of money focus. It's like, do I want to get into that area or do I want to get to this fast? I can help you realize your dreams. So every time I was working on like, okay, so what's my vision? What do I want? I would go back and forth, back and forth. And then I finally decided, you know what? I actually do want to work with traders. But it has to be, it has to be meaningful for them. I don't want to work with all the traders who are just there for quick buck and you know, make million in a month. I want to work with traders that are really intending to make this a career, to make it for a living because of what you said, because of the commitment, because I knew that if I do that, I'm just gonna put 150% into it like I do in everything. And I just don't want to pull anyone to do that. You know what I mean? I want people to really want it. And I saw also more urgency in helping traders than people to realize their dreams because I thought, you know, people have all kinds of dreams and if they don't get realized their dreams, like, okay, maybe someone wants to have a great job or someone maybe wants to have a boat, I don't know, right? There are all kinds of dreams. I thought traders had more urgency because they're losing money. And I came across people who were losing their life savings and they were in trading just putting more and more into their account. And I thought this has so much more urgency to help them because they are on the clock. You know, it's like there is, there is more need there for, for urgency. And maybe you have heard, I'm sure you have, that the way we trade is the, the way we live. Right? So what end up happening now is actually the traders who went through my program, the Confident Trader, not only transform their trading, but now they also saw a lot of positive changes in their life. So in a way I do help both.

Very true, very true. Well, speaking of, you know, you helping other traders and you got a program, when, you know, when somebody does reach out to you and they want to work with you, what, what is, what's that like as far as, you know, how you help people, what's the experience like? For the people that you help.

Yes.

Your program. How does that work?

Yeah, so first, you know, usually I get on a call with someone to qualify, and that is really to qualify, to kind of get clear for both of us. To get clear is what are your goals, what are your challenges? Which usually are the same type of challenges. But what are your goals and where are you in your life? At what point in your life are you. So during the call, I already kind of, you know, talk around it and sometimes simply give some advice on, you know, maybe this is not the best moment. Like if you're struggling to, to pay your bread, maybe this is not the best moment to try to solve your issues in trading. I think you should probably first solve your financial issues because, you know, there are certain conditions where, where you have to create those conditions in order to be successful. Right. You have to set yourself up for success. And the second part, which is very important is do you want to trade for a living or is this just something you just want to do? You know, just like, okay, if it works, it works, but I just want to try. I don't work with people who want to try because I'm more like the Yoda from Star Wars, I think said, there is no try, just do it. Something like that.

And actually the phrase was, there is no try, do or do.

Not exactly, exactly. So you see, I'm not very Star wars fan. Are you?

Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I thought. I remember that phrase. That was one of the classic ones.

Sure, yeah, yeah. So because if I go for something, I don't try, I don't do things to try. I do it to enjoy it and to. And then I see what comes out of it. Right. But the most important thing is, is that, that I enjoy it. It has to be enjoyable. And I do have certain idea where I want to bring it and, and then I see how I can steer it there. So, you know, that is how we basically begin. And once we decide, okay, this is a good fit and we are going to work together, you enter the Confident Trader program and then.