The Untold Story

In this episode Agnieszka has a special guest, Kristen Vallejo - a thriving entrepreneur, a lifestyle photographer, and... a wife of the trader. Together they explore the world of trading but this time from a different perspective - a partner of a trader. Kristen and Agnieszka discuss challenges of trading faced not only by traders, but also by their partners, shedding light on the intricate web of emotions that both navigate. They emphasize the difficulty in providing advice or support, as the trader needs to come to their own decisions. Agnieszka shares her own story of how her trading impacted her husband. They both highlight the importance of emotional support and understanding in periods of poor trading decisions.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to gain insight into how the trading world can affect relationships and how to overcome those obstacles together.

About Kristen Vallejo

Over the years Kristen has become known for her light-hearted and thoughtful approach to portrait photography, and for the five-star experience that she provides to all of my clients. Empowering people to fall in love with photography (and themselves) gets her out of bed in the morning and drives her to continuously reinvent herself. She is a thorough planner, a dedicated listener, and she wants YOU to be the star of your own show.

Kristen eats, sleeps and breaths photography. If you start a new business, want to level up your dating game, refresh your corporate headshot, or you're ready to treat yourself to a transformational experience – Kristen is your go to. In a session with her you’ll laugh, you’ll feel empowered, and as she says "you’ll walk away with the best pictures that you have ever seen of yourself. You’ll feel free to be YOU, worthy of time and attention, and safe in a judgement-free zone. You will leave your session with self-confidence, and maybe you’ll feel just a tad invincible!"

Contact Agnieszka Wood | Ahead Coach: 

• Website: aheadcoach.com
• Twitter: @Ahead_Coach
• YouTube: @aheadcoach
• Facebook: Agnieszka Wood
• Instagram: ahead.coach
• LinkedIn: Agnieszka Wood

Contact Kristen Vallejo:

• Website: www.kristenvallejo.com
• Facebook: Kristen Vallejo Photography
• Instagram: kristen_vallejo_photography
• LinkedIn: AKristen Basar Vallejo

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Transcript

[00:00:03.730] - Agnieszka

Welcome to the Confidence in Trading podcast. I am Agnieszka Wood and I am very excited to introduce my special guest, Kristen Vallejo. Kristen is a successful entrepreneur and a lifestyle photographer, capturing people and their pets in magazine-style scenarios to help them tell their stories, sell their products, connect, and feel empowered. When she does not have her hands on the camera she's either cooking, playing with dogs, or working out on her peloton. She's also a big fan of Yin Yoga, cheese, coffee, and BlackBerry pie. And some day she wants to live in a little stone house in the European countryside. All this sounds absolutely amazing and seems like a pretty relaxing lifestyle. What I did not mention to you yet is that she's also the wife of one of my former students. That's how I met Kristen and it's exactly what I want to talk about today. The trading journey was experienced from the sideline as a wife of a trader. Welcome, to episode number seven, behind every trader The Untold Story of their partner. Hi Kristen. Welcome to my podcast and thank you so much for your willingness to come into the spotlight and share your personal experience and perspective on this topic.

[00:01:32.020] - Kristen

Hi, Agnieszka. It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:35.010] - Agnieszka

So training is such a hot topic these days, especially with COVID a lot of new people stepping into the arena, and soon after finding out that it's not easy as it seems. Can you tell us a little bit more about your first contact with trading?

[00:01:53.050] - Kristen

Sure. Trading was always something that felt foreign to me. I grew up in a small town in Ohio and finance New York City, the stock exchange trading were not at the top of everyone's minds at that time. So when I was in grade school and in high school, I had very little exposure to anything financial and probably first started hearing about it when I got to college. But as you could tell by my intro, I am a fine arts person. So math, numbers, anything like that wasn't really in my purview. And to be honest, at that time in my life, I steered clear of numbers as much as possible because it made me uncomfortable. It changed a little bit, but it really wasn't until my mid twenty s I got a job as a graphic designer at an investment bank.

[00:02:51.730] - Agnieszka

Oh, wow.

[00:02:52.420] - Kristen

Yeah. Weird, right? So started to learn a little bit about the culture and what was going on there and it became a little more palpable to me than it had in the past.

[00:03:02.110] - Agnieszka

Okay, so that's how your first contact with it was. How did you feel about it? Were you immediately interested? Because a lot of people who get in touch with trading and stock market and they see, oh my God, this is a way I can make money. Were you ever inspired to just try yourself? Being in that environment?

[00:03:25.230] - Kristen

That didn't really happen until recently, honestly. In my early 20s, when I first was exposed to investment banking, to be really honest, I was very turned off by the culture. My job was kind of the bottom of the barrel. I got to work on everything when there were deadlines and everybody was amped up and this was the mid-90, and investment banking was having its heyday. It was crazy. So the environment was crazy and aggressive. At least that's how it felt to me at the time. So it actually kind of pushed me a little further away from being interested in finance because I was like, that is not the life for me.

[00:04:09.730] - Agnieszka

You were like, that's exactly what I thought finance is.

[00:04:13.330] - Kristen

Yeah, [chuckles].

[00:04:15.630] - Agnieszka

That's why I don't like it.

[00:04:17.890] - Kristen

Confirmed. So still, at that point, I didn't think I would touch it with a ten-foot pole.

[00:04:25.350] - Agnieszka

All right, so when did you decide to touch it? Did it change or how did you meet guys with Rob? Was it not until you met Rob that you actually got back into looking at stocks or at the market?

[00:04:42.380] - Kristen

Yeah, I would say that's true, and even not at the very beginning. And oddly enough, we met at Goldman Sachs. So I had been living in San Francisco and worked in this design capacity at an investment bank, wanted to move to New York, got a transfer from one investment bank job to another one, and was still immersed in that culture. But from such a different perspective, when you're in those administrative roles, you don't really understand the financial opportunities, even though you're working within that realm since you were there, pounding away at jobs that support it, and you're not seeing the same financial benefits that those employees are, you don't understand how lucrative and rewarding it can be. So at that point in my life, it was just a job, it was a paycheck, it was something I had to get in and do and get as far away from as possible. And when I met Rob, we had dual roles at Goldman. He was in one building and I was in another, doing the same job. And he was intrigued by the atmosphere. I wanted to get the hell away from it. But hearing his perspective and what he wanted to learn from it and how he wanted to change his life with it, always piqued my interest and the nature of our relationship is that we're both very respectful of one another's interests and support. So I listened and I paid attention and I did my best to learn about what he was doing so that I could support him.

[00:06:16.980] - Agnieszka

So was he already trading at that time when he was working for Goldman Sachs? For himself?

[00:06:21.950] - Kristen

He was not. He as well as in an administrative role, but rather than being repelled by it like I was, he was drawn into it and wanted to get some of that for himself in some way. So when we first met and got together, he was just talking about wanting to do it. And it took a few years into our relationship for him to take steps toward actually being a trader.

[00:06:45.370] - Agnieszka

So when he told you, hey, listen, I'm going to be a trader, what was your first initial reaction? What did you think?

[00:06:52.550] - Kristen

I think by that point, I had kind of softened