From Super Bowl To Stock Market: The Mindset Shift You Need To Succeed with Ellis Hobbs III
In this interview, host Sam Daghash sits down with former NFL defensive back Ellis Hobbs III, who survived two broken necks and a forced early retirement, to discuss how he reinvented himself as a six‑figure day trader, entrepreneur, mentor, and public speaker. Hobbs shares the physical and emotional challenges of his spinal injuries, the spiritual perspective that helped him accept his new reality, and the process of extracting the intangible skills—discipline, work ethic, mental toughness, and the ability to compartmentalize—from professional football and applying them to trading. He explains how focusing on process over outcome, maintaining emotional mastery through self‑awareness, journaling, meditation, and faith in a higher purpose enables consistent performance. The conversation also covers the broader theme of identity beyond a single career, the importance of viewing setbacks as moments rather than defining failures, and practical advice for anyone needing to reinvent themselves after a major life disruption. Hobbs emphasizes incremental progress, the power of daily positive momentum, and the belief that "to gain what is desired, one must do what is required."
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where our intention is clear and it's always to share information for transformation. So guys, I've got a very, very special guest with me today. And I'm going to start by a nice little background in case of you— some of you who don't know him. So Ellis Hobbs III is nationally known for his high energy and intense passion to help people develop skills to become successful, but more importantly, sustain the success. And this process is intangible, right? The skill sets are taken from his own personal experience and interactions among others who have been as successful as him or beyond while in similar or different arenas, thus creating an undeniable self-confidence that is constantly evident in his day-to-day life. Having a successful career within the National Football League, the NFL for those of you who are out of the US, he was unfortunately forced into an early retirement after sustaining 2 broken necks in which that last left him temporarily paralyzed, which was— we'll get into that. But however, the setback only created a stronger foundation to become even more successful as a serial entrepreneur. He's a 6-figure day trader that has gained immense credibility among some of the best in the world. However, he connects the skill set to his greatest passion, which is professional mentorship and public speaking. by which he encourages all who want to achieve success in any space to focus on the process rather than the outcome. He truly is within a unique class of elites, and I've had the pleasure, honestly speaking, the pleasure to share the stage with him twice in our Conscious Trading Conference in LA. Got to spend some private time with him as well, and I resonate with Ellis a lot. And this is one of the reasons why I wanted to bring him on the show and to share his his wealth of experience. And I resonate as well in terms of changing and reinventing himself and changing his timeline, changing from one aspect where things happen to us in our life and we need to reinvent ourselves. And sometimes that can be very, very challenging. But without further ado, Ellis Hobbs III, welcome on the show, brother. Really good to see you, my man. How you been, brother?
Sam, I've been great, man. I, I I really appreciate, uh, and then, and I gave you your flowers off, off air, right? But yeah, really appreciate individuals like you. I was talking to someone yesterday about this. When I get to meet people who are genuine, uh, from a perspective of humility and just, um, they're, they're, they're interested, but they're also interesting. And for us to resonate the way that we did, I was more than excited to, uh, to do this podcast with you because not only whatever I'm bringing to the table, but as your listeners will, will see, I'm pretty, pretty much going to draw things out of you as well. And it's just literally the synergy that we bring to the table. So I told my wife about how, how well we work together, you know, when we were communicating, um, just throughout it, like a different type of feeling and everything that was about it, man. So I'm really looking forward to this.
Yeah, thank you, thank you, Ellis. I really appreciate it. And honestly, the, the feelings are mutual. And I was also excited about today because I think this world today, in my experience, we need more authentic people that are speaking their truth, brother, you know, without the fluff, you know, like just going out there and going, look, this is how it is. It is what it is. And this is how I navigated. And this is what worked for me. And this is what doesn't work, et cetera. But Ellis, if you allow me, brother, of course, with your permission, I want to rewind the movie. You know, I want to go back a little bit and I want to— because I think everyone, You know, it's important even though sometimes we don't want to touch on our past, but I think it's super important to be open in that space. And that mindset, you know, that mindset after NFL retirement, you know. So, for me, my question would be starting this conversation is, Ellis, after sustaining 2 broken necks, you know, and facing the end of your NFL career, how did you begin? How did you begin to shift that mindset towards a new path in trading and entrepreneurship? Because I know you're a successful entrepreneur.
Yeah.
I've heard really great things about, about that as well. And, and of course, your trading, it's a complete different, different timeline. So how did— yeah, how did, how did that go about, man?
Well, and that's the thing where I'll actually start it where you ended it to where it's a completely different timeline, but not a completely different person, right? And that was the disconnect for a very long time. And what I mean by that is, When I actually sustained my second neck injury— so, um, just for the listeners and for full understanding, I have what they call spinal stenosis. That's the medical term. Um, I was born— I was born with it. I had no idea. And so I don't know if it— if how well everyone can see, but— or if they can, but, um, if you just take your, your pointer finger and your thumb and just make the biggest circle that you can and then put your finger in, in the middle of that hole, right?
Mm-hmm.
That's a typical spinal cord going through the spinal canal. Well, mine was extremely tight.
Yeah.
So there wasn't a lot of room for error.
Yeah.
Meaning that if my spinal cord got swollen or went a different way, I would feel the effects or ramifications through a numb shoulder or tingling in my fingers. Ultimately, worst case scenario, paralysis. And so once that was made known to me, of course, as anything, you put it into the universe, things start to manifest themselves around that, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so I ended up getting my first surgery. And, um, after that surgery in, in year 5, um, it was my C67. They took the disc out, put a bone out of my hip into that, to that area. And now that is a, is a fused area. That is a solid area. So it no longer bends like a typical neck or vertebrae would. So what that does ultimately puts pressure on below, above and below those areas. So I'm that much more at risk for it happening again or that much worse. The worst factor ended up happening where I ended up breaking my C3-C4, and now I'm paralyzed for about 20 minutes or so. And so that feeling in itself, when you're completely out of control, right? So you've worked all your life and you've controlled all the factors, whether it be you know, your body, your mindset, how you're gonna perform, how you're gonna do it, actually applying the information and doing it. None of that was in my control anymore. So you can imagine, you know, where, where your mind is. And I, and I say this with no ego.
Mm-hmm.
There was that part of me, but there was also a calmness about me, right? And I'm a very spiritual person. I'm a Christ follower.
Mm-hmm.
And it was one of those things to where if, if you are of that or you understand that world or, or where that comes from, or where that, um, uh, practice originates from, you really start to realize that, um, the Holy Spirit does a lot of different things, that we're just here. We're here and we're conduits, right? Uh, whatever talents, whatever gifts we are, that is to expose the source. That's it. It's literally to expose the source and be what we call shepherds for it. And so as I'm talking through it, I start to realize and have this euphoric epiphany about these things. So you talk about all that, right? And there's a lot of in between. For the sake of time, we won't get into it. But Sam, I'll sit here and tell you right now, as I got into the real world, I had no idea. Because again, it's the conundrum, the catch-22, or the double-edged sword. You work so hard at one thing because if you focus on anything else, you won't achieve that. But the other side of that is, now what do I do? Because I've given everything to this.
Mm-hmm.
And there was a level of shame. to where I didn't want to let anyone know that I played in the NFL, that I did X, Y, and Z, because then it comes with something. It comes with the questions of, well, what happened? Or, well, why do you have to work now? Or why do you have to do these things? And so we have this false narrative or perception of what the reality is. It's like, I'm 28 years old. Why wouldn't I want to keep doing something? Why wouldn't I want to achieve more, right? And so when you get to this, when you get to this world— give me one second, that was my daughter. Hold on.
No worries, no worries, no worries, no worries.
Let me turn it down. Let's put this on do not disturb. That's part of being a parent.
No worries, man. No worries at all. Thank you.
That's fine. Perfect.
Yeah, yeah.
So when you get to that part of the world and you're trying to figure that out, I was constantly battling myself to where I felt shame. I felt very shameful that I could no longer play in the NFL. But then the connection of, this is what I did, it is not who I am. And if I can take— if I can take all the intangibles out of that equation— persistence, work ethic, um, toughness, discipline—
Discipline.
I mean, anywhere that's synonymous with success and all the— and even failure.
Mm-hmm.
Not only am I leapfrogging everyone else because I've been through it before, Mm-hmm. but I start to gain traction in other worlds.
Mm-hmm.
And so when you talk about day trading, I had the same issues as everyone else, you know, doubling down on trades, um, bag holding, everything else. But the difference between me and say another person Mm-hmm. is that I, I actually learn quicker from applying the information and the mistakes. Because I've been in a world of success before to where there's a narrow margin for the mistakes, right? And so what I, what I equate professionalism to is, uh, in sports anyway, imagine you go to work every day, Sam, and somebody's behind you, and no matter what you do, they're either booing you, cheering you, or wanting to kick you out. And so that's what professional sports is, because they're constantly trying to replace you, right?
Mm-hmm.
And you're always put on a level of metrics. So yeah, you You may be able to make a catch one time, Mr. Normal Person, but can you do it over and over again? Now, can you do it with distraction? Can you do it while being sick? Can you do it while having a family member that's ill? Can you do it while now having an argument with your spouse, and 10 minutes later they expect you to pick up right there and go? So those types of things helped me along the way, and they accelerated my maturity in success and failure. And people think that success and failure are opposite. They're congruent. Like, you don't have success without failure. So as I started to learn these things and started to connect those worlds, that's what gave me the sense of confidence again in the sales room when I was— when I had a sales corporate job, uh, with trading within the world of entertainment, uh, those spaces. It wasn't that I didn't have the difficulties. I just understood that it was a part of the process. And then I just keep moving forward, almost in a sense of expectation. Like, I know it's coming. Whenever it gets here, let's deal with it and let's move on.
I really appreciate how you break that down, Ellis. That's well, well said, man. And I just want to comment on something for the listeners as well. And I think, you know, there was this relevant revelation for you, I'm sure, in the process where you realized that my NFL career and my NFL, that identity is not just— I'm so much more than that. And I think most of the time, if you would agree with me on this point, Ellis, a lot of the time we connect our self-worth and our value to our position at the company or at a title. And if that is taken away from us, that sense of shame, as you mentioned, or something else starts to creep up.
Yeah.
And I think this is a great reminder for everyone listening because, you know, you've lived through it and it's really powerful to Remember that no matter who you think you are, and this is not necessarily— it can be spiritual or it can be logical— you are so much more than that. You always have the capability and ability to reinvent yourself. And what you did, which I think is sometimes also not highlighted enough, is— or people are not aware of it— is what can I extract from my previous lifetime? Like, I call it the previous life, you know. This is what I— you know, even me, you know my story, Ellis.
Yeah.
you know, in the corporate rat race. I worked myself up to, you know, a director level in Dubai. I had a team of like, you know, 50 people reporting me at any given moment. And, and I like ticked all those boxes. But I realized that, okay, that is not, not only me. Like, if I want to change my course, if I want to be doing something more purposeful in my life, if I want to, you know, at the age of in my late 30s, go back into university, go back to study, which most people find, you know, complicated or, or impossible, is that's the message is like you can always change no matter what situation you are in your life today, you always, you think you're stuck. You're not. You can always reinvent yourself. And, and anything you've been through is, is of value. Even the failures, as you rightfully said, is of value because those are the learnings, right? Right.
I mean, I actually believe, I actually believe that's where you get the most value, of course, because if you were just 100% successful, I mean, we've all been there to where we're, we get distracted by the win so much. We're not really like, like in sports, right? To where When I noticed that when I would win a game, I didn't really want to critique myself because we won, right? But I should be critiquing myself because if I want to win again, I need to understand how I did that. But as soon as we fail or we have a humiliating loss, we start to pick apart everything, right? And sometimes we go too far to where we start degrading ourselves.
Yeah.
And we start putting ourselves in such a place to where we— I'm lower than earth. I can never do this. I'm so stupid. And like, that can get dangerous, right? Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. But what you're talking about and what you said earlier is that we start to identify with an outcome.
Mm-hmm.
And what we need to understand is that those 2 things have no correlation.
Mm-hmm.
Whatever happened to me, is it because of behavior, routines, habits, and process, right?
Mm-hmm.
And if I keep it in that space, I can now pragmatically break it down to say, okay, if I change this or if I tweak this. Now, if you take that same outcome and you identify with who you are, there's feeling, there's emotion tied behind it. Now you feel as if you can never get out of that because that's who you are, right?
Yeah.
And so I started to disconnect those worlds and say, this is just something that I've done, but I can 100% be over here and do something completely different, right? And so Ellis Hobbs now no longer was a professional athlete. He's just Ellis Hobbs. He's Ellis Hobbs who works very hard. He's Ellis Hobbs who never quits. Think about that. Just say the word never quits and put that against anything. You can be anything of that that never quits. I'm the, I'm the world's fastest hot dog eater that never quits, right? And like, you can make up, you can make up anything that you want. And put that word behind it. So when I started to connect those things, Sam, that's, that's where a lot of my ascension started to happen. And when you talk about people that do the adverse of that, I call it, I call it stacking to where it seems as if when we're more— when we get fearful, we don't want to jump out there. Like you said, you were in the rat race.
Mm-hmm.
We'll find any excuse to not do it. But then we actually take it and compound it with if I can complicate this thing as much as possible, it justifies why I don't want to do it, right?
Yeah.
When really the simplicity of it is, is I just don't go to work and I go do something else. But it's like, I'm thinking about this, I'm doing this, or what about this and all this? And all of a sudden, we look up 10 years later and we're in the exact same place that we didn't want to be. And all we had to do was make that decision and move forward.
100%, brother. And, you know, for our listeners, to give them a little bit of insight, you know, why that actually happens is what you're talking about is more like the comfort zone, right? And we call this the familiar. So our mind is, you know, the subconscious mind.
I call it the warm blanket.
There we go. The warm blanket. But the warm blanket fools you, right? It starts to give you rational thinking and real— and it tricks you into 110 reasons why you should stay where you are because it's familiar. And familiar is safe. Even if familiar is toxic for you today, even if familiar is making you, you know, having to battle for your bills and make money. Whatever that is, but familiar is not necessarily always good. And this is why reinventing ourselves and being able to step out and tap into different avenues, like most of the guys that are listening are doing the trading aspect of things, which brings me into this question that actually, Ellis, I want to ask you. Moving from that experience of the toughness, because I know NFL requires toughness, right? No doubt. And I want to know, like, from your perspective, and we could just touch on it, we don't have to go too deep, but how does that mental toughness that you get from NFL, how did that translate for you to your success as a trader? You know, like, how did you find, are there any psychological similarities between sports and trading? This is probably a good question because you're very unique in that perspective, you know? So is there any similarities that you go, oh wow, that is something that I have taken from here and I'm applying it in my day-to-day trading today, for example?
Yeah. I mean, there's 100%. I mean, so to give you some, some depth to that, um, before I even knew how to trade, I knew that I wanted to be in it. And so when I started in 2016, I literally went into it with the premise of, um, I understand that I have something that most people do not. Right. And it's a background within professional sports. Okay. You can say that, right? But then taking it to a higher level, I, I'm like, I'm talking about executive penthouse suite professional sports, right? I've been to the highest mountain of the Super Bowl, uh, played for the New England Patriots. We were undefeated. I've seen Hall of Fame players, how they operate. I'm in the Hall of Fame. Like, how, like, I know what that looks like, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so when you talk about, again, trying to learn something new, I always had this, this, this premise in my mind of if I get to a certain level with this, I— it's almost like I already know what to do with it because I've been there before. So like, the success is the end game, but I know that once I get there, that's just the beginning, right? Because now I'm really going to expand on this thing because I've been in this other space, another world. So for me, we call it the next play, right? So when I was in professional sports, I played one of the toughest positions on the field. Again, for American football on defense, I played a defensive back. And for defensive backs, what we do is basically we are trying to mimic someone who is on offense running a specific pattern on the field. They can go left, they can go right, they can go all the way down the field, they can come all the way back. My job is to do everything that they're doing in reverse. And so they're running forward, I'm running backwards. They're running left, I'm running right. And so I gotta learn how to do everything in reverse. The other thing that I have to learn how to do is I don't typically come off the field. Receivers, if you know anything about American football, they rotate.
Mm-hmm.
So one down, two downs, then somebody comes in for them. I'm constantly on the field, right? And so what you gotta learn how to do You think, well, first off, you think about the odds of me being successful at that. I'm reacting to something, right?
Mm-hmm.
There's a very small window of— I always use this example of in baseball, there's Hall of Famers who batted .300, .300 batting average. So 3 out of 10 times they hit the ball, they got on base. That means 7 times they struck out or they, they got out, right? So that's a low percentage.
Mm-hmm.
But in the world of baseball, that's a very high percentage. Similar to in football, if I have a winning percentage, meaning that that receiver didn't catch that ball at least 30% of the time or 40% of the time, that's a great defensive back right now. That's not to say that you want— you can't be better, but that's a great defensive back. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
When, when you have those type of odds against you, you have to, you have to live in the state of mind of compartmentalization. To where you cannot focus on the last. You have to be ready for the next, good, bad, or indifferent. And so how does that transition into trading? It's exactly that. I don't care how well I did on this trade. I don't care how well or bad I did on this trade. Of course I need to dissect it. I need to study it. But once that is said and done, it is where it's at. And there's nothing else that can come from it.
Mm-hmm.
What's going to affect me moving forward is how I perceive the next trade. Yes. And so there's been many of times in my earlier career to where, and I'm pretty sure a lot of your listeners can attest to this, or traders, to where you're holding onto a trade that is a complete loser. And until you trade this effectively, you're not going to trade your next trade effectively. But if you just let that one go, mm-hmm, and now you're solely focused on this one or the next trade from that, it's all of a sudden you see it differently, you react to it differently, you respond, all these things, right? And so that was my leg up on everybody.
Wow.
I already had the ability to compartmentalize.
Mm-hmm.
So when I had a bad trade for those 2 and a half years, 3 years of, of losing money, Mm-hmm. I lost about $40,000. But every trade that I would lose on, it was always that I was starting brand new. I never thought about the money like that.
Mm-hmm.
And it, it had nothing to do with me playing professional sports because I, I was a working man, 9 to 5. I had to feed my family. There was a lot of different— I had a crazy burn rate. And so the pressure was there, but the ability to compartmentalize and stay focused, stay focused. And, and, and my, and my— and this is the last part of it— my willingness to continually have faith and hope unseen, unheard of. But I actually had the sight of, if they can do it, I can do it.
Mm-hmm.
And it is simply me simplifying the process and quit making the excuses and getting in my own way. and start to execute the plan, right?
Mm-hmm.
And slowly but surely, things started to turn around. And then from there, I started to add in. So what, what I, what I was removing in the beginning was my ego. That, that's what helped me in football. What I was removing is the alpha dominating. But then once I got a plan and a process, all these things that I had to remove in the beginning, all of a sudden they became weapons for me to where now I know when to be aggressive. I know when to pull off. I know when to do these things. I have conviction. Okay, it didn't work for me this time, but I didn't lose my confidence. And so all these things that were working against me in the beginning, they started to accelerate me moving forward. And so that's that part where we were talking about to where once all these other intangibles that you have in these other spaces, you can 100% use them in trading. You— it's all about timing. It's just timing and understanding when to do it.
Ellis, you've broken down that so well. And in fact, it's one of the areas that I see with traders I work with, the first, you know, the up-and-coming traders, first 1 to 3 years, they struggle with that part where, you know, they don't want to admit that they have a losing trade and their ego comes in because they take that personal, right? There's a personal relationship. Well, if that's a losing trade, then I'm a loser. That's how they perceive it themselves. many cases. And what you did by extracting that is you don't even give that meaning in your mind. You're going onto the next one. And that's part of the extraction you've taken from your previous timeline, I call it previous life, bringing it into now is like, I'm not dwelling about this because if I'm gonna dwell about every single losing trade, which by the way, we all know as traders, every single trader on this planet Earth is gonna have a losing trade. So if you're gonna worry about—
Absolutely.
It's just part of the game, right? If you're gonna start worrying about every time or beating yourself down about a losing trade, you're not, you're not focusing on what the opportunities are. And this is something you do very well because of your past. You've implemented it today. And of course, it has improved. So, so the, so the lesson for all of the listeners and watchers out there is move to the next one, have that system in play, have that determination. And you said something beautiful, Alice, which a lot of people don't raise, which is that trust. That trust that it's going to work out, that trust in the unknown. Because if we don't see it, unfortunately, this world today, we've been conditioned to always look for the evidence and feel it and see it before then we get calm and relaxed. But a man of faith like yourself and like myself and the man that understands energetics as well understands that if you put your intention out there, if you work hard, if you put your head down, there is— there's a beautiful— someone is out there looking, man. They're looking at what you're putting in with your heart, with determination, and they are— you're going to get rewarded for it. But you got to trust.
Well, you just said it. Yeah, you just— and you said it, but you said it in, in, in within the context of what you were stating where the cat— because, because what, what happens to me, and I don't know if this happens to you, when people start to find out who I am and things, they'll tell me, I'm working really, really hard, I'm doing these things, but innately, without me being in front of you, and I always say this about people, innately as human beings and just us as individuals, we know.
Mm-hmm.
We know The amount of effort that we're putting in, right? We know if we've exhausted our resources. And so when I start, when I hear those things, I don't, I don't get aggressive, but I start to now pay attention to what I'm— I, I start to align what you're saying with some of your actions.
Mm-hmm.
And it's okay, you're telling me that you're putting all this work in, but when I ask you to do something as simple as give me a full theory on this next trade that you're gonna make, Mm-hmm. It, it, it, it comes in very half done. Mm-hmm. Or, um, I don't know how to do it, but if I told them Kim Kardashian was licking ice cream in the middle of the street on Rodeo Drive, they would Google everything to get to that information. Right? Mm-hmm. But here we are trying to make thousands of dollars, but you're telling me you don't, you don't have the comprehension skills to go source what information you need to get there. Right? Mm-hmm. And so it's about the effort that you're putting in. And so, When I said what I said about the conviction and the faith and the hope, that came from a place within me that knew that I had done everything that I possibly could. And what I mean by that is—
Mm-hmm.
I, I switched my entire schedule around with a family of 5 at the time. I'm working. I woke myself up at 2 in the morning, and I would put myself through trading class or going through my courses till 4 o'clock, till 5 o'clock in the morning, stop that, get my kids ready for school. and operate as if nothing has changed about my life, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so have you done that type of work? And so I think sometimes people, they're saying that they're working hard within the realm of their context, within the realm of their quote unquote warm blanket. But if you truly look at them and then if they can see, okay, your hard work versus theirs, 'cause somebody told me, hey, I have, they don't really look into my story, right? They like, hey, you know, I didn't, unfortunately I have a family of, 4, or I'm a dad and I'm, I'm working part-time. I'll say, well, that's funny because I didn't start learning trading until I was 33 with a family of 5. And when they hear that, they're like, oh. And so now I've taken that bullet out of their gun.
Mm-hmm.
And now there's no other excuse. Right?
Exactly.
And so that's where, again, that faith and conviction, it came from putting in a, a such a deep level of work to where now I believe that I can do this because I've done everything that I possibly can to put myself in a place of success. And there's little clues and hints along the way. Like you said, it's not like life just leaves you out to dry. It doesn't work like that. And I'll let you stay in the realm of explaining those types of things. But success gives you clues. It gives you hints. And I like to call it, it's the wind that keeps pushing your sail forward.
Absolutely.
And as you start to recognize those more and become aware, your confidence gets stronger and stronger. You may not be there yet, but you start to believe more because you're seeing the Yeah.
That's so true, brother. That's so true. And like I said, I think it's energetics, right? So, in the realm of energetics, when we understand that there's an energy that comes with conviction of doing something and putting in the work, you have an innate— it's almost like a little thing that starts to grow inside of you that says— it's a sense of confidence. It's a sense that you're going to be looked after. It's a sense of trust that you're going to get the reward, especially when you're being authentic and honest about it, especially when you're being fully committed to the process. And, you know, I want to touch on 2 more things, Alex, because I don't want to take too much of your time, brother. This conversation can go for long. I know me and you can dive deep, but I want to touch on 3 quick things. And we don't have to go deep, but it's just because I really want our listeners to gain so much value from this conversation is emotional mastery. This is an area that I emphasize a lot at the academy with our students. And I say to them, you got to keep your emotions in check, right? You got to keep your emotions because our emotions dictates our decision-making process. So, the other day I was chatting to David and even in our masterclass, I was like, the fear of missing out is a big issue. We actually did a podcast on it as well.
Yes.
And I said, you know, the fear of missing out, the essence of desperation coming in and you got to make— so how do you perceive, like, even if we look at football or trading, but emotions always run high. I'm sure you would agree, like, you got to keep that in check. So particularly, how do you deal with that from your perspective? And even when the stakes are are high. Like, how do you keep yourself in check emotionally, brother? Like, keeping that grounded, that— because I see that in you, you know. I know we do about the next, the next, but, but generally, your emotional state, how do you keep that in check?
So it's, uh, it's— I'm gonna hit, I'm gonna hit the listener with like kind of like some Yoda right now, but it has nothing to do— it has nothing to do with trading. It really does.
Okay.
It has nothing to do with trading. Um, it has nothing to do with repetition. It has nothing to do with the experience. My reasoning and my understanding of emotional control has everything to do with how I operate in life.
Mm-hmm.
And I tell people all the time, if you want to figure out, for the most part, obviously you have to look at the technicals and your size and position and everything, but if you wanna really truly start to expand your world of becoming a better trader, start to look at your overall life. Start to see where some of the things that you do in trading are being reflected in your everyday life. Like, why is it such and such— and I'm just using an example here—
Mm-hmm.
Why is it that every time a trade happens, you feel the need that you have to go get it right now?
Mm-hmm.
You feel the need that you have to trade it. Well, if I look into your life and every time the phone rings, you just gotta pick it up. and you don't even know why, or you can't explain it, that's a habit. That's something that can be reversed, right?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Why is it that every time your spouse gives you some sort of critical information, you fly off the handle? You don't like to be judged or this and that. They may just be telling you, um, something that may be benefiting, but you can't handle it, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so when you're trading, every time you lose, you're ready to throw the computer out the window. Or you're ready, you, you can't move on from it, right? So I, I really started to hone in on self-awareness.
Mm-hmm.
Why am I doing what I'm doing? What made me react the way that I reacted? And then I started to practice that in the real world. Okay, here, my wife is about to tell me something. I'm not going to say anything for 5, I'm just gonna let her talk. Or it's something that I don't agree with. I'm just gonna let it be what it is. And then we're gonna revisit this 15 to 20 minutes, or I'm gonna step outside, or my kids have done something, or I gotta make a decision, but I need to really dissect this, right?
Mm-hmm.
And as I started to become aware, and there's things you can do, right? Meditation. Mm-hmm. Um, breathing exercises. Mm-hmm. I started to see that being reflected in my trading.
Mm-hmm.
To where I miss a trade, but I'm not ready to all of a sudden all in, right? Mm-hmm. Or I'm like, you know what? I'll get the next opportunity. Or, hey, we lost this time, but I know that I can do this. It's just a matter of time before this comes back around. And so when you tell people that type of way of life, it— to them it seems impossible because that's all they know. They only know one way. Um, I told this— we were at the conference, uh, together— like, the biggest revelation for people is that they can't sit with themselves for a minute. Because now that the clock is on and they have, they know that they have to actively be with themselves without scrolling, without doing anything else. You now start to become aware of all your impatience, all of your little idiosyncrasies that, that literally push the buttons when you're trading.
Mm-hmm.
And so when you start to become aware of that, now that you're aware, now you can start to, start to maneuver, take control, and start to reverse engineer these issues to help you benefit from trading moving forward. So yeah, my emotional control has nothing to do with trading. It all has to do with how I operate in life.
Beautiful, brother. Well said. And it's a reflection, right? So your emotional responses in, in, in when stakes are higher, when you're doing trading, is a reflection of who you are in your life as an overall. And, and it's so beautiful how you said it. And this is something, uh, you know, we, we have that we share the same principles, which is self-awareness, number one. And journaling is important, you know, journaling and reflecting and sitting with yourself. Yeah, big part of it. Yeah, big part of it. Like, because that's the way— because a lot of the time, which people, a lot of traders out there don't know, is that 95% of us is an unconscious process. There's an operating system happening, there's programs and voices in our head that are running. And in order for us to step out of that, which, you know, Ellis, we've We've demonstrated that in the conferences, is stepping out and becoming the observer, stepping out of the program, journaling, sitting in silence, understanding where these emotional responses, those that take over our body and our mind, come from. And, it's okay because we all have some conditioning that creates some form of insecurity, some form of not accepting a loss or not accepting this or don't want to be told. And that's the charge. I call this in our neurology a charge. The charge is what's coming because I'm like touching on a nerve. You know, like when you hit someone on a nerve, they go, ooh. So, that's what happens on a mental level internally, Ellis.
Yeah.
And until you create that self-awareness, until you do the work, you reflect, you journal, you do some more deep work if you want, which we do, as you know. So, understanding that component is what I feel will make a difference. So, Ellis, I want to wrap up with one last point. And I want to say thank you so much again for your time, brother. It's really appreciated. But for everyone that is listening, everyone that's listening, everyone that's watching, for anyone facing the need to reinvent themselves after a setback, you know, whether in sports, career, or in life, what advice would you offer? What advice would you offer, brother? Hold on.
So my phone is about to die.
No problem.
And when it's about to die, it like, it took away the volume. So let me say it one more time. No problem.
for anyone facing the need to reinvent themselves after a setback, whether in sports career or life, what advice would you offer?
So the advice that I always try to give people is what we talked about initially, like, don't associate your actual self with the circumstance or the outcome, right? But just, just understanding that this is a moment. And we're In life, I'm not necessarily having a bad day. I'm having a bad moment.
Mm-hmm.
And if we can step back and see it for what it is as a moment, then I can somehow reverse that with a different moment, right? And so I try to go to sleep ending on a good moment regardless of where my day is. I want to end it on a positive note.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, when I wake up in the morning, I want to start on a positive mo— uh, note. Why do I do that? Because I'm trying to create momentum. And when we get stopped in our tracks with a bad circumstance and it gets worse, like typically people allow it to, it's just we allow momentum to start to be created against us. But if we start to be aware and say, you know what, what's actually happening right now is fully in my control, this part of it, because whether we know it or not, we have the control of how we react to it.
Mm-hmm.
Not necessarily the circumstance, but how we react to it. That alone is a moment that's reversing it. And so to be successful and to continually do that in such a way of yourself, myself, or anybody else who's successful is just simply become aware and understand and start to believe that you have what you need right now in front of you to start. And people, they, they try to say, well, one day it's like, no, this is day one.
Yes.
Not one day. This is day one. And if you start to take that one bite of an elephant approach, you'll look up and you've gone so far, right? And the last thing I'll say to that is, you know, we, we, we see a worm and see, people think I'm crazy when I say this, but when we look at a worm and then we turn our head and we have a conversation or we get distracted, it's like that worm is gone, right? That worm didn't just take up and run. It didn't fly off. It just kept at it. And wherever he was going, he got to that destination by continually inching forward. The success is in the details, and the details are within the boredom. And if you can align those things constantly, all the time, you'll start to realize that I don't have to do this extravagant thing to be great. I just simply have to keep at it each and every day.
Uh, brother, listen, I want to end up with— I want to end this beautiful conversation with your quote. which is, to gain what is desired, I must do what is required. Ellis Hobbs III, thank you so much for being with me today, brother. I appreciate it. I really honor you. Thank you very much. And I hope to connect with you and see you in person very soon. And I feel that's gonna happen soon, brother. So until then, thank you so much, brother. Enjoy the rest of your trip, and I will connect with you soon, brother. Thanks so much.
Yeah, man. As soon as I get to a charger, I'll contact you back, man. But I appreciate this again. Thank you very much, man.
Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Have a beautiful day, my man.
All right, buddy. Talk to you later.
God bless. God bless. Cheers. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.
