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Money Focused Podcast
Helping ordinary people, become extraordinary with MONEY! Each weekly episode is packed with actionable tips, expert insights, and real-world advice to help you grow financially and take control of your future. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up your wealth, you’ve found the perfect place. Get ready to transform your financial journey, one episode at a time!
Money Focused Podcast
EP 51 - Exit the 9-to-5 Life with Stock Options Trading
Discover financial freedom with stock options trading with Dr. Laquore Meadows, CEO and co-founder of Invest2Give. On this episode Dr. Meadows shares her journey from Lincoln Heights, Ohio, to becoming a leader in financial education and a successful stock trader. Learn how early guidance and key opportunities set her on the path to success, and how a pivotal encounter redirected her career ambitions. Dr. Meadows explains strategies for handling stock market volatility, risk management, and the mindset needed for trading. Discover the importance of investing for financial independence and learn about "The Wealth Exchange" community. Tune in for valuable insights to inspire your financial journey.
📺 You can watch this episode on Moses The Mentor's YouTube page and don't forget to subscribe: https://youtu.be/IWyUZyVZ9lo
🎯Connect with Dr. Laquore Meadows @invest2give on Instagram and visit her website invest2give.com
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Welcome to the Money Focus Podcast. I'm your host, moses the Mentor. I'm super excited because today I'm able to bring you guys Dr LaCour Meadows, and she is the CEO and co-founder of InvestiGate. She's a visionary leader in financial education and she's an Amazon best-selling author. She's a visionary leader in financial education and she's an Amazon bestselling author. She's here to really share her journey as well as her insights on stock trading, wealth building and empowering communities. So let's go All right. I appreciate you joining the Money Focus podcast. I know you're super busy and taking out the time to come and talk to me and my audience is much appreciated. The first thing I want to ask you is to just really break down your career journey, professional journey and, ultimately, how you started your business. So the floor is yours.
Speaker 2:Yes, awesome. Well, first and foremost, I just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to join you on this podcast and to share a little bit about my story with your audience. So again, thank you, thank you. I'm truly honored to be here. So you asked a little bit about my journey.
Speaker 2:So I come from a home where we have more ambition. That means quote unquote came from poverty but have been able to, thanks to the help of my late mother, really transition to a career that I love, and I'm able to leverage the skill sets and the knowledge that I have in order to bless others. So it's been quite a journey. I started out growing up in Lincoln Heights, ohio. I was very fortunate to be a part of the University of Cincinnati's Overbound Program, which enabled me to go to college. At one point I thought that I wanted to be a university president. Okay, that was my whole goal. But after attending a fellowship it was American Council on Education Fellowship I just decided you know what, I'm not sure I want to do that anymore. And in the process, what actually led me to the career that I'm in now?
Speaker 2:I had a chance when I was working for the Ohio State University to engage with a woman who was very wealthy okay, like really wealthy and when I was working with her, I was a part of the team that actually went and cultivated a gift from her, and so she donated $5.3 million to the office that I led, and I was so inspired by that and so in awe because, listen, the people I've seen do philanthropy were in church.
Speaker 2:We're just passing a plate, but I never saw anybody be able to give in that level, and so I had a couple of questions in my head. One, how did she make this money? Okay. But then two, like, how much money you got, my goodness gracious. And so, through getting to know her a little bit more, she told me that she accumulated a lot of her wealth in the stock market, and so I said, say less, okay, let me figure this out. So that's what really led me on my journey to begin in the stock market and begin working to figure out what is this whole world about, what does this look like, and how can I put the money that I am getting from Ohio State to work so that it could grow, so that I too can build and leave a legacy that will be the answer to someone's prayers.
Speaker 1:Nice. So that exposure to wealth, you know, and being curious enough to ask those questions, that was very courageous. A lot of times people might have been too fearful to even ask. So, you know, kudos to you. And also the fact that she shared her knowledge too. We need people to also share information and not hoard it, so I appreciate her for that. So you went in, you started to invest. Talk us through that, you know. Did you kind of tell a lot of people, or was it like, well, I got this great job at Ohio State? Let me kind of keep it under wraps. What was that transition like before you ultimately left Ohio State? But what was your trading career, your investing career like, leading up to where you are today?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. That's such a good question. So, yes, I did try to keep it under wraps as much as I possibly could in my job the wraps as much as I possibly could, and my job. And actually one of the things that led to me finally making that decision to go ahead and take that leap was, one, the math stopped mapping because I was making more money trading than I was on my monthly salary. But then, two, I would never forget, my supervisor at the time sent me a text message with my business email Like my I'm sorry, not the email, the website. He was like what is this? And so I said, oh, I guess somebody told me Okay, cool, Well, let's go.
Speaker 2:So at that point I was just like you know what? I don't want to have to explain this. I'm not trying to, you know, pacify anyone because really my needs are being met here. So I just decided that it was time to go ahead and go. Some other things led up to that. I was dealing with some anxiety issues and things like that, because it was just a lot going on at the job. But at the end of the day it was absolutely the best decision I could have ever made.
Speaker 1:Great yeah, now kudos to you. I know myself and a lot of people that are listening are looking forward to that moment where they can make that leap, so I'm happy it happened for you. How long did it take, though? Was it a short period of time? Or walk us through the length of time that it took for you to actually go from the moment you got the information from the wealthy lady that you spoke to to when you ultimately left your job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was about two years. So what happened was I met her and at the same time I was away on fellowship, so we secured the gift. I was away on a fellowship, so we secured the gift, and then shortly thereafter I left and I went to go study at some other institutions of higher education, and so when I came back from my fellowship, that's when that true transition began to kind of matriculate out Two years is not a long time.
Speaker 1:No, but I was serious, I was like these stock market streets like for real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, For real, for real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so talk us through, like some of the key you know concepts that you really teach from stocks trading, and just the principles, ultimately, that help you be so successful. What are some things that you can point out?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So one of the things that I absolutely love about the stock market is that it does not matter who you are, how much money you have, what zip code you grew up in. If you can understand how to read the stock chart, how to understand market momentum and, most importantly, how to have your mindset in the right space, then you can be successful in the stock market. So one of the things that and I'm not saying you don't need money, yes, you need money to enable yourself to trade, but you don't have to start with a whole lot. So one of the things that I love doing is I love working with beginners, those who have absolutely no idea where to even, like they don't know the difference between a stock and a whatever right. I love that because it enables me to open up this world to them, that otherwise they may not feel like they even belong, and I know that's how I felt initially.
Speaker 2:I didn't see people that look like me on, you know, cnbc and other places, right, maybe one or two, but they're typically a male. So I'm like, listen, like where we at you know. So being able to expose people to this wealth building tool is like my complete jail right and also helping to remove that fear barrier, because a lot of people are a little afraid of investing and trading. My expertise is not in the investing side. I definitely understand the fundamentals but specifically on the trading side I'm really opening that door so that they can understand that from a step-by-step, paint-by-number way. That's my aim and that's what I do with my students.
Speaker 1:I want people who are listening and watching to really understand the difference. So you know what you specialize in is not that long game. You know 401k, roth, ira type of investing that's more of like a set and forget it approach. You focus on trading, which and correct me if I'm wrong, because my specialty and background is really real estate I kind of equate trading to like flipping houses. Yeah, compared to like rental properties.
Speaker 1:Like me, I'm a rental property investor, which is a long game. Yeah, you know you get cash flow, so I look at them more like dividend stocks, my rental properties. But if I'm a flipper, I'm looking to capitalize on some growth and buy low, sell high, repeat some growth. And buy low, sell high, repeat. And whatever I net is what I take home. Am I saying that right? Or, you know, maybe fill in the gaps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I love the analogy that you made as well to real estate, because everything you said was definitely in alignment with what we can do on the stock market. So let me share a little bit about, just in case someone needs to kind of understand the difference between investing and trading on the stock market in particular. So one of the things that I teach my students, I talk about this notion of building a financial fortress around yourself. So, as it relates to the stock market, we can have, as you mentioned, a long-term gain and what I call that is our legacy pillar. Okay, so that's a long-term approach. We're going to buy today and we're going to hold for a year, two years, five years, decades, right down the line. We're just going to let that fit and let that earn us money over an extended period of time. So there's a number of different ways. You can do that through index funds. You can also do that through ETFs, which are called exchange traded funds. You can also buy individual companies as well. So those are different types of securities. So that's the legacy pillar. But then, also within this financial fortress formula that I teach, there is the income pillar. Okay, so that is when we're looking for opportunities to make today money. Okay, I love me some today money, right. So that is the trading aspect of it all, right. So, for example, last week, my today money was $11,000, right, I traded the S&P 500. I was in, I purchased it at 130, closed out my trade award when the market closed and then over two days I made over $11,000, right. So that was from that.
Speaker 2:Today opportunity pillar I mean the income pillar okay, last but not least, so we have the legacy, we have the income, and then we also have the opportunity pillar. I mean the income pillar. Okay, last but not least, so we have the legacy, we have the income, and then we also have the opportunity pillar. The opportunity pillar is really focused around looking at things outside of the stock market to invest in. So that could be your lane right.
Speaker 2:Looking at real estate I'm an angel investor, I like to invest in small businesses right. Looking at collectibles, looking at other types of ways to generate some money while we sleep. Right, because if we're in a long-term game, the market is not always going to appreciate. There are going to be times and seasons of our economy that the market is going to pull back, so if that's happening. We can hop over to the income pillar and make some money as the market falls okay, or we can lean on our opportunity pillar for that money that's coming in, while these other things might not be performing in the way that we want it to right. So that's what I call my financial fortress, just to get people thinking about diversification beyond just the stock market, but diversifying among strategy as well.
Speaker 1:That's a great approach and pretty much it sounds like whatever economic factor that's in play, you can make money and you know. So that's the cool part All day. Yeah, you can be a one-shirt pony. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be a one-trick pony.
Speaker 1:Yes. What do you say to people who argue that you know the volatility of the stock market is just flat out too risky for the average person? Is that true in your opinion? And?
Speaker 2:but if not, you know, talk us through how that is a big misconception and a lost opportunity for the average person who really have an opportunity to grow wealth, absolutely, absolutely. So I am the first to say, while I am a stock and options trading coach, trading is not for everybody. It is not, and I say that because the one thing that it's kind of hard to recognize, but it's very much true, is that training is 20% skill but 80% mindset Okay, 20% skill but 80% mindset.
Speaker 2:Happening on our charts on what's happening in the market, on what's happening with our respective trades, then that can cause some issues for us, because that volatility absolutely can cause some issues, right? However, if we can get ourselves in a space where we can focus right, we can make it happen all day. And there are various risk management strategies, despite volatility, that we can put in place to make sure that if a trade does go against us, it doesn't take us out of the game. So learning those types of things is really helpful for anyone to employ as they're navigating the volatility of the market. But as stock traders, we want it to be volatile. We want the market to go up and to go down, right, because that's how we're able to generate money out of that price movement. So that's actually a good thing, but if you're not in the right mind, space not so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think you do have to have a certain mindset to see your money constantly go up in debt.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and patience, right, some patience.
Speaker 1:Outside of what you've covered already. For a beginner, I know you have this e-book called Income on Demand, pretty much like a beginner's guide for anyone that's interested in the stock market. Is there any other tips or best practice that you want to point out? That's within your ebook.
Speaker 2:I think the most important part of navigating in this space is to educate yourself, right. So that's the biggest tip I got. One of the things that I find is, a lot of times, people kind of just hop into the market, they learn about options and they're like yo, let me go ahead and open a Robinhood account, let me trade some options, right. But there's a lot to that, right. Understanding intrinsic value, extrinsic value, the Greeks all of that stuff is really important If we want to not just be a one trade wonder, be consistently successful in the stock market. So being sure to educate yourself, that is incredibly important. I also recommend hiring a coach, right?
Speaker 2:Another challenge that a lot of new traders have is that they seek to learn from YouTube, which we all learn things from YouTube, but it's not enough on YouTube by any means. I love YouTube, but when it comes to trading, it is really important to have an A to Z strategy, right, and we're trying to pace the puzzle pieces together. So finding somebody who can coach you, someone who has been through some battle, wounds, okay Lost some good money in the market, right, but also has been extremely successful in the market that is really important, okay. So being able to do. That is also really helpful as one who's getting started.
Speaker 2:And the last thing I would share is that finding a community. Community is everything okay when it comes to trading. Having someone that you can bounce ideas off of, having someone to have be an extra set of eyes for you looking for various opportunities in the market, having someone who's also learning alongside you that can help you along the way, that is really important as well. So, ideally, if you can find a coach who has a community, even better right, because that will be very helpful as you're getting to learn and understand.
Speaker 1:You mentioned options and you know I have, you know varying, you know experience levels in stock market that listen to the show, so can you break down what exactly an option is for the audience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I would love to. Ok. So when we think about stocks right, what we're acquiring when we buy a stock is ownership, okay, so we're getting ownership over a publicly traded company. So if we want to have right now I'm in a co-working space, right next door it's Macy's If we want to own a piece of Macy's, we can go buy Macy's stock. Okay, some Macy's, we can go buy Macy's stock. Okay.
Speaker 2:When we're talking about options, we are not having the most options. Traders do not have the goal of ownership Okay. What they have the goal of is creating income or creating extra money off of trading something which is called a contract. Okay, the contracts give us the right to buy or sell shares of stock. Okay, not the ownership, but it gives us the right to buy or sell. So it's very similar to real estate in some ways. When we think about earnest money, okay, when we put earnest money down on a property that's entering us into a contract and at that time we have the right to buy or sell or buy essentially that property, okay, same thing in the stock market. We just have rights. So, as long as the value of the contract goes up, whether it be in a bullish move in the market or a bearish move, then the value of our contract increases, and that's how we're able to profit.
Speaker 1:Got you. Now if it goes down, do you have to purchase the rights? Like is that contract, whether it goes up or down?
Speaker 2:You can trade options in a bullish direction. So if we think that the price of the underlying stock is going to go up, we would do something called buy a call. If we think that the price is going to go down, we would do something called buy a put. Okay, so if it goes up, we make money. If it goes down, in a put, we'll make money. Now to get to your question if it does the opposite of what we are anticipating it's going to do, do we have to actually buy it? We don't have to buy it. Ultimately, if that contract goes into its expiration date, it will lose all its value. So in that case we lose the premium price, so related to real estate, the earnest money that we paid the seller. Okay, so that's the max you would lose if it goes down and we don't close out our contract before it's worth zero.
Speaker 1:Great explanation and I love the way you relate it to real estate. It makes it click for me, so appreciate it. Is there any best practices or what do you teach to truly research a company, to really decide whether or not you should invest? Like what does that process look like for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. My expertise is not around investing the fundamental side All right. Now again, I do understand it, I know how to, but the way that I help students is on the trading side. Ok, so let me talk a little bit about both, just really quickly. If we're looking at investing, that's our long-term approach.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're going to be looking for a company's fundamentals. Now. It may be helpful to have a financial advisor help support you in that process, but you can also learn it as well, all right. So understanding things like price to earnings, something called PE ratio, is really helpful. Something called book to sales, is really helpful. Understanding the EPS, the earnings per share, that's really helpful, right? So I'm just throwing some terms out here so that if someone wants to begin to research, those are some things that will be helpful just to get started with understanding a company's fundamentals. One other thing I'll add to that. There are three key financial documents that companies produce for investors every single quarter. It's called the 10Q, if it's Q1, 2, and 3, or the 10K, which is the annual report. Within those documents, there are going to be three things an income statement, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement. Okay, all of those are really helpful. Actually, they're entertaining to me. I'll ignore it all, but they're really helpful to read.
Speaker 1:There is some time.
Speaker 2:Right, just so you can understand kind of what's happening behind the scenes with these respective companies. Okay, and you can find that information by going to the SEC, secgov, securities Exchange Commission, or you can go to a company's website and actually go to their investor relations pages. Okay, so that's the long-term. That's the fundamental as it relates to trading. There are some key things that I teach my students to look for when they are selecting securities to trade. Okay, one we need to determine price movement. Okay, we don't need no snails, right, we need something that's gonna move, that's gonna get up and go in the morning for us, right, or nap, no, it doesn't matter. Right, it's not moving, so we need to move. So I give them an indicator to look at in order to determine, you know, if it's, if it's a move or not. We also need to understand how it trades.
Speaker 2:So some companies are just kind of pace along the trade. The sideways is called consolidation. Right, we're not going to make any money in that if we're depending upon a strategy, okay, so we want something that has some rallies as well as some pullbacks, okay, so it's also something that's really important for traders to do. All, right, and there's a couple of other things too, depending upon a person's lifestyle. All companies have their own cadence to them, and so some I call them freight trains. They move really fast, right. And then some are more like you know, I'm just gonna wake up in the morning and do my little stretching, right. We don't want that, okay, if we want to make more money. So those are a couple of different factors that I mentioned. Also, quality Quality is key.
Speaker 1:For your trades? Is there a certain percentage of profit that you're looking for before you will trade? Like are you looking for, you know, 5%, 2%, 10%? Like is there a minimum that you say, okay, well, it's hit our threshold, we can start looking to sell now? Walk me through, like that thought process.
Speaker 2:I am very, very adamant about making sure that my students are not one train wonders. Ok, we, it's very easy to go into the stock market, press some buttons and make money All right, we can do that. Ok, but it's also very easy to just go into the market and make money All right, we can do that. Okay, but it's also very easy to just go into the market and lose money too. So one of the things that I do with my students is I take them on a step-by-step approach. I call it my roadmap to 25K. So, every day, their goal is to make at least $100 a day. Okay. Once they've made the $100, great, let's check that out. Okay, are we able to do that consistently? We're able to do that consistently.
Speaker 2:Phenomenal, we've got an extra 25K a year. You want to know how? Because there's 252 trading days every year. Okay, so, with that approach, that gets us to that 25K. Now, if we wanna make more than that, great. Now that we've mastered the skill of trading, we mastered the skill of making that $100, we can look for ways to either let that trade run even more okay, where we can put in what is called a trailing stop, or another thing we can do is increase our volume. So if we were trading one contract before making $100 a day consistently, if we want to make $400, then we back four contracts, right, and so that quadruples it, just like that. So I'm really adamant about teaching them the skill to be consistent than just out here looking for these large, big oh thousand, $2,000, $5,000 days. No, we wanna be consistently successful.
Speaker 1:So that makes sense to me because it also you know you, you get some wins under your belt. You know what it feels like. It's just a matter of just duplicating what you've been doing, so it's consistency, cool. I want to ask you about something that you you say, where you say like, hey, use your nine to five as a bridge and not your destination, and that resonates a lot with me and probably a lot of people who are listening and watching. I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk more about that. You made the transition from your corporate career to a full-time entrepreneur, so talk to us about how that came about and maybe expand on that for the people, because it's a great way to look at.
Speaker 2:I like to use that quote a lot because I feel like and this is, you know, my views I feel like we have been conditioned by society to have this four-step process to success in life right, go to school, get a good job For women, sometimes we're told Mary, we're told right, right, and then you know, make good money, which we're taught. That's the process we're supposed to have, but nobody really tells us how to make the money we're making. Make more of it, right, that's not a part of the conversation. How do we make sure that our money are making money? Babies? We're not having that conversation enough.
Speaker 2:And so my whole aim with that statement is to OK, we have our nine to fives, which is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm not, I'm never out here preaching leave your nine to five Not saying that at all because that's your foundation, that helps to pay the bills, that helps to take care of your families. But if we can follow some of that money we're getting to our nine from a nine to five into an investment, into a trading opportunity, then we can use that to grow it so that whatever our North Star goal is in life whether that be a philanthropist, whether that be we want to take this phenomenal vacation every year, whether that be, I want to make sure my children's college is taken care of right. Then we're able to have additional resources beyond what our job gives us to be able to do just that. And so that's what I mean by, you know, making sure that that nine to five is a bridge right and not our final destination. And then at some point, you know we do it and we do it right, we'll be able to set it down to five. Goodbye.
Speaker 1:That's great. That's great. What's next for your company? Your company is called Invest to Give. What are some of the things that you're looking to take to the next level over the next few years?
Speaker 2:So one thing immediately that I am getting ready to launch and it's actually a membership community. So right now I have an inner circle, and what I found is that everybody is not able to invest in a six-month coaching program in any you know point in their lives, and so I want to provide an opportunity for people who are still very much interested in getting started on the stock market but don't necessarily want to have that extended time worth of an investment unless they choose to. And so what I've created is called the Wealth Exchange, which I'm super excited about, and the whole goal behind that and I believe what really makes me different as a stock trading coach is that I want us to understand the technicals of the stock market absolutely, but I also want us to focus on the trader that's in front of the charts, okay. So making sure that we focus on well, okay, being well mentally right and, as far as I hope, hope on that pathway to wealthy, and so that's the whole goal behind the wealth exchange is to focus on both of those things so that when we come to our charts, when we arrive in that space, we're ready to press that button, we can come up.
Speaker 2:Laser focus. You would not believe how many times I hear students say you know what? Because every week I meet with my inner circle weekly and I hear this often. You know, life is just life. Oh my God. There's so much going on right. So I want us to have a space where we can deal with some of that life and stuff right and be supportive of one another in community to make sure that we can make it happen on these top industries. So that's the next thing that's coming. I'm also writing a book. I'm using one of the keynote speeches that I have, keynote workshops that I have. I currently have it for women, but I transitioned it for men too. It's called Sis Are you Ready to Invest? Start here. So I'm going to be also writing a book that will align with that actual workshop that I do, so that people can not only experience workshop but also have something tangible in hand to go back and study in a very practical way. So those are two things that are on the horizon as well.
Speaker 1:Sounds good and definitely you know. Keep me abreast of what's going on so I can share it on my platform as well. So that's both great. Go ahead and close this out with your final thoughts or advice that you have for the audience, and also, please shout out your website and all your social media so we can tap into you for, you know, future needs. So the floor is yours, Thank you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. So I guess the parting advice that I would want to leave everyone with is get started, right, get started. There are so many people out here that are interested in a thing but have not taken that step to become invested in that thing. Transition and evolve from being interested to being invested. Okay, invest in yourself, invest in your knowledge, your education, so that you can be successful when you invest and trade on the stock market. So that's what I would say as my words for advice. As it relates to my social media pages, yes, please connect with me. You can find me on Instagram. It is at invest. The number to give. That is my handle. You can also find me there on all other social media platforms TikTok, youtube and Facebook as well, and then also, if any of the ladies anyone here are a member of a Greek letter organization. I'm also the founder of a beautiful community called Stops and Soars, and so we have a Facebook about 7000 strong Facebook group on Facebook, so please feel free to join us there as well.
Speaker 1:And I'll make sure to include all your contact information in the show notes, so if anybody's listening or watching, just go ahead and check that out. I just want to say thank you so much for joining the show. I really appreciate you. I love what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Pleasure was all mine. Thank you for the show. I really appreciate you. I love what you're doing. Pleasure was all mine. Thank you for the opportunity.
