#32: My Pandemic from Examining Eyes to Making Monday in the Stock Market with Asma Alsalameh
Tina Marie St. Cyr 00:00
Hello, I'm Tina Marie St. Cyr and welcome to light your life, the podcast. I believe our dreams have energy calling and purpose, and that when we move in their direction, our lives become even more joyful, fulfilled, and effortless. This podcast gives you insights to the strategies our guests use to overcome obstacles and manifest their dreams, in business, career, relationships, and in life. Listen to find new levels of energy, perspective, and courage. Your journey to light your life begins now. Hello, and welcome to let your life I'm your host, Tina Marie St. Cyr. As always, we get to learn from the beautiful souls that share their stories here on let your life so that you can take away your answers of wisdom and apply their insights into your life and let your life shine. So, today, our guest is a dear friend, her name is Asma Alsalameh and she is going to teach you some pivots that she did that have been magnificent, and I've actually got to watch them happen. So, Alsalameh. Did I say that correctly?
Asma Alsalameh 01:11
Pretty close. But I don't expect anybody to say it.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 01:18
Thank you so much. She was born to immigrant parents in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, now resides in Houston, Texas. Asma is married with a four-year-old daughter who is so cute and oftentimes finds herself on our videos together and she gives people the gift of sight as an optometrist by the day. But in her free time, she enjoys being a coffee connoisseur, and sharing her serial digital courses so that you can learn how to make money in the stock market. That's what we're going to be talking about tonight and today so that you can learn how to be part of her stock market stories. You're going to want to learn about this, you're going to want to take notes and join in and this is a community specifically for women who trade. So, gentlemen, if you're listening ladies, and this is what you're going to share with them the story today of Asma. Asma, thank you so much for being our guest today on light your life.
Asma Alsalameh 02:11
I am so excited that you asked me to join, thrilled actually.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 02:15
I couldn't help but I've been watching you soar and I remember, this timid, shy questioning herself scared, when we first started coaching and you have just sprouted multiple versions of wings for the last many months.
Asma Alsalameh 02:34
You said it beautifully, multiple versions of wings. Oh, yeah, I was in a completely different place two years ago, even.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 02:45
So, tell us about that, where were you two years ago? What was life like back then?
Asma Alsalameh 02:54
Yeah, I would say about a year two years ago, year and a half ago, I was in a completely different state, emotionally, physically, and mentally than I am today. So, this was pre pandemic. I would say starting from 2017, right up to the pandemic, I was in overworked, overstressed, overburdened over pressured millennial. I saw I am an optometrist by day, and I was actually a I was a business owner, I had three offices, I had what we call them, the optometry world, corporate subleases, where I leased space from corporate optical and ran them as my own business. So, I had two that were open full time one that was part time. Also, at some point, accepted a job and because I needed the regular income. I was in a place where I was having to work like 12, 13 days in a row, when they take one day off. I was exhausted, I had employees, I had associates and I had a lot of payments, I had debts, I just I felt like I could not keep up. I felt that I was always in this state where I was behind. But I was just going through the motions of life. I was exhausted all the time. I was in a brain fog. When I came to talk to you for the first time I was in a brain fog, I did not have the mental clarity to be able to see which is funny because I'm an optometrist, so, I help people see, but I did not have that mental clarity to be able to see that,, things could be different, or even to just recognize that I was unhappy, and that I was miserable and that this is not how it's supposed to be. I was watching some of my colleagues, some of them succeeding and what they were doing and I just figured that I was supposed to be as well and I didn't understand so I just continue to push myself through the misery.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 05:02
Yeah. I remember when we first met, I was like you're doing how much you're doing what I remember just mapping the course of your week and on this side, this feels like insanity. We have to peel things back in order to start realizing what would you truly love and then having the faith to even get there, can I have the life I truly love and is there a way out of this madness and you were you're willing that's what it takes is like, I need to reach out for help and find that course and know that you're not alone through that unveiling of your destiny, which we're going to talk about today. So, what have you reach out for coaching? You did say you're very stressed, stressed, and overwhelmed. But what was that one thing? What did you say, I want this to happen?
Asma Alsalameh 05:06
Yeah. Actually, I want to add to that is, despite how much I was working, and I was working, not only lots of days, but I was working long days, because when the patient hours were done, I was having to do other stuff with payroll, and bookkeeping, and insurances, and things like that. So, I wish I could say that my bank account reflected the amount that I was working and it was funny, because it's like, the more I was working, the less money I would have, literally, the more hours I was putting in, the more rash in my bank account look.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 06:33
By the way, I want to pause there, because I think that is truly evidence that you're not on your path. So, if anybody else is in that place, where you're working your tosh off, and you're thinking you're doing everything you're supposed to do, and you're just putting more effort into it and your bank account is not reflective, like Asma said, of the amount of work you're putting in, that is a true sign, big red flashing lights, saying you are not on the right path. Would you say so?
Asma Alsalameh 07:02
Absolutely, Tina, and you know what, I wish I knew that. I actually didn't know that. I thought I wasn't working enough. I wasn't being efficient with my time, which I wasn't being efficient with my time. But I thought it had to do with the amount of work I was putting in, that something was wrong with the work I'm getting. I wish I knew that I agree.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 07:24
We learnt that didn't we?
Asma Alsalameh 07:27
Yeah, so, going back, I was stuck in that phase of life for years and looking back on it, sometimes I want to say, wow, that was some wasted time. But it wasn't wasted time because I have to go through those things to bring me to where I am now to bring me to some light. So, pun intended and I will tell you, at some point in 2019, I had accepted and employed an employed position. I still had my offices, I still had my businesses, but I accepted a job opportunity. It was actually going back to an old job that I had and the reason why is because I needed the regular income because I was struggling on my own it was up and down and it actually proved to be a good decision to make it was a wise decision to make this was the end of 2019. So, what happened later on in 2020, I don't have to tell anybody about it. But I remember sometime in March, I think the date was like March 19 or March 16. So, if I wasn't working at my employer job, which was like a three to four day a week commitment, I was working in one of my offices. So, I happened to be in my employee position. I was getting a manicure during my 40-minute lunch break. That's when I did things. I did things during lunch breaks because I had no other time otherwise. And I got a text from my boss, my wonderful boss, actually and he was like, hey, go home. We are closing up the offices and I will keep you updated. Shutdown was happening. I think at that point, nobody really knew what was about to happen. I didn't know, I'm sure my boss didn't know.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 09:26
We could not have predicted in fact, March 16 was the day that I shut my office as well. That's kind of ironic. Oh, wow. Yeah, well, everybody we're going to be working from home now and let's see what goes, I released everybody early. I said get to the grocery store, go someplace, get all the stuff, you need to stock up. We're going to see what's going to happen.
Asma Alsalameh 09:45
Yeah. So, I wonder how many people got a similar text or a similar phone call on that day. I remember just having confusion but let me tell you how I felt in that moment. met Tina. I was so relieved, I was happy. I don't want to say I was happy. But it was like somebody took this weight off my shoulders. Again, I didn't know what was coming. But the only thing I could think about at that moment was, wow, I really want to be able to sleep in the next day. That's the only thing I was thinking about. I was physically exhausted, I was tired, I think I would have worked like a 15-day stretch. I was like, oh, my God, go home, like go home early, go to sleep, like don't wake up tomorrow and come to work. I mean, I still had my office is operating. But the next day I was supposed to come out. So, that was really my feeling. Like I was just relieved, I was so excited about being able to sleep. So, I was like, okay, keep me updated and I went home.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 10:50
That's the other side. By the way, if you're an entrepreneur out there a business owner, and you find yourself in a place where you're overwhelmed AND you're overworked and you're not being efficient. I've been there too. Where do you have that thought, Oh, great. I get to sleep in today and it's almost like a pass, you get a pass, something happens. I've also had some clients say that, whenever a client cancels something, you go, oh, thank God, they cancelled. Well, as business owners, we don't want to hear that. Because our time is stretch so much. Th
Asma Alsalameh 11:27
Yeah, Oh, my God. That's interesting that you say that, because I listen to a lot of podcasts and there's a podcast. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention another podcast. The Happiness Project, I don't know if you've heard of it, if I've listened to it. so, the professor, I don't want to say her name wrong. But she's a happiness professor, which is interesting, because during the pandemic, she offered her course online for free and normally, she teaches it, I think, at Stanford. one of her podcast episodes, she says that as a surprise, intentionally, she likes to cancel her class in the morning, just send her students out saying my classes cancelled today and she's like, some of the responses that she get, she'll have students crying and being like, thank you so much. I needed this.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 12:21
wherever that's strung out on time, then that's another one of those red flashing lights that we need to start writing our life. We need to really take control of our life and ask ourselves the question that we asked her bonfire. As a coach, I asked my clients, and I asked you this question, I did it. So, well, what would you love? If you could rewrite, you know, reset button to chain reset, what would you love? There was something that you said, and I remember it was on your intake, it was like a hobby, or it was a spare time thing, something you loved was the stock market. Do you remember asking me, do you have anybody that you know, that teaches stuff about the stock market?
Asma Alsalameh 12:59
I do. Absolutely. So, great pivot into the next thing. So, as work was starting to slow down, we shut down in March, we were slowing down in about February, March. I remember watching as I get ready in the morning, I'll have the news on and I remember watching these headlines about, you know, the stock market falling, you know, stocks, hitting lows and things like that and here's the thing I had never had before 2020, I had never really owned any stocks I have passive accounts and stuff like that. But I loved flipping, I guess, for lack of a better term. So, I could remember, you know, when I was in high school, the day I got my driver's license as a 16-year-old, I used to love going to TJ Maxx and Dillards and going to the clearance section and buying this, you know, clearance stuff and then selling it on eBay. So, that was something that I had always enjoyed doing buying low selling high. Even as an adult, I was doing that with like, designer bags I would do that with at the time. So, this was something that I always gave me a thrill to do. So, when I was listening to these headlines early in 2020, and this is before the shutdown, this is before we were sent home, about the market coming down in the market crashing. I was like, well, would it now be a good time to buy, I don't know anything about finance and economics, but I know a lot about buying low and selling high. I've been doing it since I was a teenager.
So, that was my first aha moment. So, shortly after that, I opened up just one of those accounts with one of those commission free brokers. I put some money in it and during the time, we were slow in my in my office or at work, I would just star buying and selling and consuming content. sent on YouTube and things like that and then after that, I was sent home. So, two weeks after I was sent home is when I got a phone call from my boss and it was actually unexpected. It's silly of me to think it was unexpected, but it was unexpected and this phone call said I thought he was going to tell me to come back to work. But this phone call said that I was being furloughed from my job, from the job that I thought was so stable, from my cushion from my safety net. It sounds silly, but I really wasn't expecting it, Tina. So, this time, I was not relieved. But I was I started to panic, I was stressed out, I was freaked out. I was like, I'm not prepared for this, I know I had to close my offices. It was a new car business and that was all shut down. I was like, wow, can we survive with no income coming in? How long am I going to be able to survive with no income coming in?
Tina Marie St. Cyr 14:35
That's a big question many of us ask and not only through a pandemic, through any type of a crisis or things that happen that we have not adequately planned for or prepared for. So, that's so many people.
Asma Alsalameh 16:19
Absolutely. So, during this time, back to trading, what I was doing at the time, I don't know if you're in the market, I know, you do a little bit of training. But I had charted a pattern, I created a little chart and pattern for the stocks that I was following that were there was a lot of volatility. So, they would hit these lows, and then they would hit these highs the day after. So, I discovered that I could buy Tesla stock at the time, it went down to like $400 A share 420. So, I would buy a couple of shares of Tesla one day, and then the next day, and then two days after I would sell them for $100 share more. I kept doing that. I did that with Tesla and I did that with Apple. So, at some point, I was like, well, hey, like, this is actually making money. I could not believe that I could sit down wearing whatever I wanted, sitting in my office or on my phone, typing and make money that way. So, I couldn't believe how powerful something like this could be and not only that, but it made me happy like I was enjoying it. I felt like this is something I was really good at. So, it gave me a sense of hope to think that, okay, can I learn this? Can I build on this skill? Can I do something with this until things get figured out?
Tina Marie St. Cyr 17:55
You decided you wanted to coach together and we have coaches in our lives that specifically have great genius input on certain areas and you found someone that you took course from and helped you feel more stable and confident in pursuing the stock market?
Asma Alsalameh 18:16
Yeah, absolutely. So, I want to say , my coaching was a team effort and you were a huge part of that. So, I actually came to you. It was shortly after I was furloughed from my job.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 18:36
You came back after the furlough.
Asma Alsalameh 18:39
Yes. So, during this time, I also identified that I know that I got to sit at home, sit my butt at home during the pandemic, and identify how unhappy I was where I was doing what I was doing. But I discovered some other things that actually made me happy, that I was actually good at. I worked with you, I hired you. I also worked in a group coaching community. I started taking classes, I took various classes with trading in the stock market and during this time, I had made the decision that I and it was a hard decision to make. But I made the decision that things needed to change with my own business and Optometry. I just decided one day, this is not for me and just because it works so well for somebody else for my colleagues, it doesn't mean that it's also my path. That's what helped me
Tina Marie St. Cyr 19:43
That's enlightenment right there Asma. Because sometimes we compare ourselves to other people so much, and if only we do what they do, and if only we had this magic been right, then it'll turn around and we don't look at the struggle that we're in and tell the truth about the struggle that maybe either struggle is pointing us into a different direction and we're not doing what we would truly love.
Asma Alsalameh 20:06
Absolutely. I love that you said that now because, going back to podcast, I was listening to Gabrielle Bernstein's new podcast and she said something in the first episode.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 20:21
Obstacles are detours in the right direction. I love Gabby.
Asma Alsalameh 20:31
Obstacles are detours in the right direction, that was the story of my life, that's my pandemic story. So, that's really what was happening was I was hitting these challenges, and they were moving me in completely different ways. But in one of the coaching programmes that I had joined, I was tasked with taking a strength test it was it was one of the, it was one of the things that we had to do in this group programme that I was in a Clifton strength test. I'm sure you're familiar with it, and there's different types of strength tests, and I had never done anything like that before. Some of the results of that tests were just really enlightening. For me, you use the word enlightening, but that's probably the best word I can think of. I realized during that time is I was really good at strategic thinking it came up as like a top strength for me, I was really good at ideation, I was really good at influencing it, you know, making, I guess what I think of influencing is being in a in a mentorship, kind of role. These were things that I was good at and what was funny is that I was really bad at execution, I actually have zero execution strengths and my entire strengths profile, I was really bad at organization, I have zero organization skills and that really was a white bulb going off and this sounds so cliché, but it was a light bulb going off. Because in my role in my in the business that I was in, and as a business owner in optometry, I was struggling because my responsibilities, were all in the things that I was not good at pay, I was not good at execution I was not good at organization. But I was responsible for all of that and that's why it was just so painful for me. What I was really good at is are things that I was not doing very much of as a business owner, I liked making connections with people and I like talking to people. So, I like sitting in a room with a patient examining eyes, but I wasn't even doing much of that I was hiring other people to do that, because I was on the business end and with that knowledge, that's when I also I realized this is why I was really enjoying trading and that's what I was doing. I was swing trading because it's a lot of strategy. It's strategic thinking and that was something I was really good at, I was good at identifying patterns. So, for anyone out there, who was who was struggling in what they were doing, number one, I highly recommend you get with a coach. Number two, I highly recommend that you identify what you're good at and what you're bad at and this is why I was struggling, whereas my colleagues may have been thriving in the same role. I didn't understand that we were not going to have the same strengths profile or weakness profiles. I thought I was inadequate somehow.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 23:30
Yes, thank you for sharing that so much. That's so helpful and so, taking your stock passion that the stock market passion, you had this brilliant idea to create an open forum in Facebook, for ladies who trade in the market. So, could you speak about the stock market stories? Where was that inspiration for you and where has it grown?
Asma Alsalameh 23:51
Yep. Oh, thank you for asking and I get so excited talking about all of this and then I'm like, because lately so during this time, we were home. So, we were cut off from the rest of the world. So, I was going online for a lot of my knowledge. I was in Facebook groups, I was in what's called discord groups, training discord groups, I was in these telegram groups, free communities as well as paid communities. One thing I have found is a lot of these spaces were really dominated by men, the moderators were men, the admin were men, the people leading the community were men and there was this there was this culture that was not very friendly to I guess we can call people who are newbies or beginners or maybe more humble, or don't have the background. I noticed that there was a pattern of people asking a question and inexperienced person asking a question a very legit question and they would be felt that they were didn't know what they were doing or that they were stupid and that was a common theme in a lot of these groups. They were messy. I was like, okay, I’m going to create the group because I could not find one free group where I felt comfortable as a community of support, at wanting to learn about good deals in the market, and sharing what I knew, because I don't know what I'm talking about.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 25:29
There's trepidation there and in any form, if we want to join a community and be welcomed as a novice, because we all begin, you know, there's the beginning point, and beginning doesn't mean that as soon as you began, now, you're a wise person or an expert, it just doesn't happen that way it takes tripping and falling and failing and learning. So, novices that put themselves out there courageously to learn from masters to learn from experts, as well, we want we want that truth telling, and please accept me because I do not know at least I've have the courage to ask. I'm with you, I'm also a murderer. So, whenever I did that, I'm new at photography of birds. Now, if you've ever tried to take a picture of birds, it's hard because they move and they move fast and so, being a new photographer, whenever we're on those forums, and you humbly ask, well, what are you shooting with? So, you could start learning what lens to have? What camera body, what speed, what aperture? What are you using? What lighting, that type of stuff, very often were met with the same type of you shouldn't already know or if you were a real burger, you would have known this. I was like, oh, Lord, God, get off.
Asma Alsalameh 26:45
Yeah, absolutely.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 26:47
So, I'd like to note, I'd write down the names of the people that were the jerks, and I'd go okay, so ask your question again, okay. But what I love is that you created a forum for ladies that are new, or at least are learning from each other, we're not going to shame each other, we're not going to embarrass each other, we're going to learn from each other, we're going to celebrate each other. What I really love is that you allow celebration in this forum. So, I know I interrupted, but go ahead and tell us more about stock market stories on Facebook.
Asma Alsalameh 27:16
Yeah, that's exactly what I did. I was like I'm going to create the space fair woman, because what I noticed the pattern was the one who didn't have the voice. It was rare to see a woman admin and one of the communities so I created a space and it was for those who identify as non-males, the best way to define it and when I started, it was really just to support community. I put it on my Facebook page and ironically, one of my friends and a neighbor, a friend, dash neighbor, her name is Stacey, she saw a message and she was like, hey, I didn't know you trade in the stock market. I was like, oh, it's a new hobby for me and she was like, oh, I've been doing this forever. I make money trading these stocks, and I want to great join me and be my co admin helped guide us in this community. So, we created a Facebook community, and it was just a support group for women and it, you know, and at the time, that's really all I envisioned it to be, we share our daily trades with each other, we share any good deals we find with each other, any resources, and it made a huge difference for me and my wife to be on both ends, to be on the receiving end, because there were people in this community like Stacy, who had more experience, who are happy to share, as well as on the giving end, because I had been taking classes and I was profitable. I was a profitable trader. Sure, I made lots of mistakes. But I was able to show that I was making money on at least doing a couple of trades a week. So, it felt really good to experience both ends of that, and to be the leader of this community.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 28:59
Yes, you've done such a great job, I want to give you a major amount of kudos, I love that you have there's like templates or themes that you do and you've stayed so consistent, you know, in order to, especially in a group that we're talking about money, because money has a lot of triggers, and it with ladies and men, you know anyone, you know, whenever we're being vulnerable about our finances. What I love is that you're creating this environment where we can trust where we can be truthful within one another. We don't have to get it right. It's not like a showboating. It's not like look at me, it's let's get real about where we are and simply support each other and every day you have the stock market story. So, you have the date and you say what your trades were and what you did, and if you came out on the bottom side, you're like, hey, man, on the bottom side. This is what I've learned from it.
Asma Alsalameh 29:47
It's very much a sisterhood. I learned a lot of unintended things from forming this community. So, over time as our communities started growing and as people started to add people, we started I would get a lot of requests for education, like, hey, can you show me how you figure this out? You're saying that Apple is really risky, why are you saying that? So, I started to get a lot of requests for teaching from our members.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 30:27
I'm going to say how many people you have now, you have 2.8k, which is really great, because you started when?
Asma Alsalameh 30:32
Oh, it has been a year. I think we started in, April May, it's probably exactly one year and its really just people adding people and we don't do any paid advertising, I'm going to call this promotion for this podcast. But we really don't do much of that. It's just people adding organic.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 30:57
Absolutely. I remember you reached out whenever we were coaching, and you said, okay, I have an idea. People were asking me about this, and I think I need to teach but oh my goodness, who am I? What do I do? I remember that that call like, can you take us to that to that space? Do you remember?
Asma Alsalameh 31:13
Yes, and you know what I remember that call to Tina. So, what I did, because we were having all of these, you know, people came up to us, and they were they really wanted to learn from us and it was really interesting, because I had no professional background or anything like that. I don't even know what FINRA stands for. But what I realized is they were coming to me, they were asking me, because we had this relationship, we had this connection, they were watching me every day, I was being very honest about how much I was making or how much I was losing. If it was a bad week, I would tell them I lost money this week and so they didn't care that I didn't have this background. I didn't have a teaching school or anything like that. I realized how powerful it was to be able to create a community of trust and connection that people were coming to you and asking you to be the source of information to be the source of education.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 32:01
To guide them.
Asma Alsalameh 32:18
Absolutely.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 32:20
You're a great guide.
Asma Alsalameh 32:23
I came to teach, actually and I said I had this idea. We want to bring in some type of education because there's clearly a demand, clearly a need for it but my original idea was, I was going to find people, I was going to find the experts to come to my community and teach, that was the original thing. I was like, I know this person, I know that person, or a friend of a friend teaches this and Tina was like, okay, a full stop, and I thought I had an awesome idea. I was like, isn't my idea awesome and you were like, no.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 33:08
I don't think I said no. I said let's hold multiple perspectives here.
Asma Alsalameh 33:11
Yeah, you're nicer about that. Bu that's what I heard, I heard no. So, my idea wasn't as awesome as I thought it was and so, what you told me in that conversation is, why aren't you teaching this? Why aren't you going to be showing them and he was like, me? I'm an optometrist. I have a degree in biology and Optometry. What do you need? I literally just started trading yesterday. She was like, well, you make money, and I was like, well, yeah, I make money. She was like, okay, so just show people what you're doing that makes money. I'm like, okay, I have to thank you for that, Tina. Because I think just that conversation that we had was like life changing for me just you telling me that I should be in this role of guiding and teaching the community that I will, it brought me here and, in this place, today. Thank you for that.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 34:16
You are welcome. Thanks for listening. All right. I just say what that the energy is, because it only made sense that you hold the hands of the people who are asking you to hold their hands, right, and not interred in bring in anybody that they don't have that trust and rapport with. They have the trust and rapport with you. They've watched you. They've watched your struggles, you're very vulnerable. You say your ups and downs and all arounds and everything and they're going we trust you. We want you to guide us and this the truth is we're only ever two to three steps ahead of those people that we can help and oftentimes we think we must be experts. We must have some kind of huge degree on the wall. We must have gone through some trials and tribulations that prove our efficacy and our expertness. The truth is that it's just two or three steps ahead. It builds that rapport and it's enough to reach out our hand that we have the length to be able to hold hands with those people that we're, we're in community with. So, where's that come? You, you started your first course. I remember I was on it. So, take our listeners to the place where you had your first course, because I remember you were shaking knees.
Asma Alsalameh 35:22
Well, I just want to say what you just said right now is so powerful, it's actually more important than being an expert is to have this is to have established yourself as a trustworthy guy that you have a connection that you have a connection with. I didn't call it a seminar, they call it a course. But we call it an introduction, emergence seminar, with your guidance. So, we put that together, I put that together with two of my admins and the whole purpose of the seminar that I brought to my community was to show, a very basic foundation method, a very basic strategy. I called it my bread-and-butter strategy. I was taking the best of the things that I learned from here and there, and just kind of put it together and what we could fit in two hours, I wanted it to be really simple. I marked it as being something really simple. Because I know I can't do you like really complicated math, and I don't like long words. So, my goal was to make it, you know, simple, but my goal was also to make it concrete and to put something together and two hours, that somebody would be able to sit through it, and just from what they got in that two hours, they would be able to turn around, apply it and make some money just from the information they got in that two hours. So, myself and two co admins worked together to put this presentation together. We did some practicing, we did rehearsing and all it was it, you know, it was nothing fancy, but it was concrete and tangible and we rolled this out in March, march, actually, so not too long ago, today, we're in May. So ,we rolled the first one out in March. I remember talking to my co admins. I remember telling Tina, that hey, I hope we can get about 15 to 20 people from our group to sign up to make this worth our efforts to make it to pay the incorporation fee into the pay the attorney.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 37:39
I remember, you wanted to charge a really low fee, and I we pushed on that one, because I wanted you to retain the value of what your information was going to be to your audience. So, we found some middle grounds there and so, your goal was 10 to 15 to break even.
Asma Alsalameh 37:53
Pretty much.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 37:55
What was the turning? What was the outpouring of love and affection for you? Because you did guide so many people.
Asma Alsalameh 38:03
Yeah, and thank you for encouraging me to raise my prices, because I this was another thing, I felt so uncomfortable charging anything other than what I consider to be cheap. You encouraged me to still charge a valuable, you know, still give a lot of value, but charge something that was more worthwhile. So, we rolled it out, and we had an early bird special for $99 and in our early bird special, we ended up getting 74 people who signed up. We had, again, no paid advertising or promotion or anything like that this was all done within our Facebook community. At that point, we were under 2000 members, right, and obviously just a fraction of that that would be active. After the early bird special, I believe we got 10 more and then we ended up selling the replay after we went live. And so, after all was said and done, we had we sold 92 tickets for this live two-hour seminar and it was way beyond my expectations way beyond and I can't even say we hustled to promote this or anything like that. It was just within our Facebook community. So, it was amazing. It was really worth it and we had no testimonials to go off and we had no you know, no previous class or previous seminar to build off of this was literally like, we were shooting in the dark.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 39:42
What I love is that you trusted. I was on that course and you've produced more sense. so, for those that are listening for the first time here and learning about stock market stories, you want to find this group on Facebook, and what I love is that you trusted and them beautiful thing, optimize that you stay humble through the whole thing. You stayed humble with your group you stayed humble in your life, you take us on that course of journey of not just you as learning the stock market and applying and, and yes, you're coming on the upside, which is beautiful to watch and see and witness, but also you as a mother, and you as a wife, and you as a doctor, and you as a daughter, in this journey that you're in, and you avail yourself to us so humbly and beautifully. Thank you.
Asma Alsalameh 40:29
Thank you so much and I have to say, the power of working with a coach, you guys, when I hired Tina, initially, this was a side thing that I wanted to do. But it was really to help me clean up my, you know, my business and optometry was to help me clean up my messes there. That was really what I came to four and with our work together and with some of the work that I did with group coaching, I'm in a place where I feel like I am meant to be like, I feel like I'm working in my genius. I mean, that first launch, we grossed over 10k, we had another course the month after it was also, we grossed over 10k. This is two months after I incorporated the group as a business. We're now doing the introduction seminar for a second time. So that will be in about a week and a half and two weeks and the testimonials that I got afterwards, I was in tears, I was crying at how the beautiful things that people said, who sat with us for two hours. Some of the things that they said were I wish I had printed some of this out. But what one thing that stuck with me is people said, You're so relatable. I feel like I can do it too and that was really my purpose, I wanted to break it down for the people who didn't have a background. Also, throughout this, I realized that believe it or not, it was it was almost an advantage that I did not have this background that I was I was not an expert on paper that I did not have this formal training it, it came to be an advantage, which is crazy to think but it made it made my community feel more of a connection with me, because they felt like they could relate to real.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 42:31
That's what we teach here Bonfire is above the line in the first you know, order of being for above the line is loving connection and then you grow together and you contribute together and you have built an amazing community that's doing that every single day. I applaud you and so, what's next? In fact, before I asked that question, I know that you have now this mantra that you want the audience to hear is that if they have a skill that they love and a passion, it can be monetized.
Asma Alsalameh 42:59
Absolutely. So, exactly, I believe, and this is one thing I learned with coaching, thanks to coaching, I believe everybody has a skill, no matter who you are, I don't care who you are. Everyone has a skill or has a passion that can somehow be monetized and monetized authentically and true to yourself and in a way that doesn't feel like a salesperson, and I've done that, right, and I'm living it now, and so, I believe everybody, everybody has that. I'm in a coaching programme with other people and I'm seeing people do it every day, I'm seeing people who are lawyers by profession or dentist by profession, but they're selling their art, or they're selling their comedy. I'm inspired all the time every day, by watching what other people do I absolutely believe that everybody has a skill and everybody has a passion that can be monetized.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 44:04
That's awesome. So, where are you now on your goal so we can support you?
Asma Alsalameh 44:09
Well, thank you so much. So, stock market stories is growing. We are in the education space, we have rolled out an options course, and which is more of an advanced strategy. So ,I taught an introduction course right after mine, we had an options course, I'm repeating the Introduction to Trading course and we are looking at what else we can bring to our community, we are listening to our community we because we know that they're looking to they're looking to me and to my admins as a source of guidance. I'm not the only person in the world that's going to teach an Introduction to Trading class. That's one thing I realized is, the people that I have a connection with, they would rather hear it from me or they would rather you take more from me Exactly, and it's the same thing for me. When I booked for a class, when I looked for a trading course to take, there were a lot of options. But I really wanted to choose somebody that I felt connected with, that I felt aligned with. That's how I choose my teachers and my mentors. So now that I have this understanding, you know, I definitely want to be a source of education or have stock market stories be a source of education, to provide quality education at a value to make it accessible, and to, you know, to make trading easy. So, we had, for example, NFT's are really big right now, and they're very new. So, we had a wonderful member of our community put together a great presentation for the benefit of our members, it was done exclusively in our community. Her name is Sarah Fernandez and she's also somebody who has pivoted in the pandemic and cryptocurrency is huge. Now everybody's talking about crypto. So, we want to look into bringing in some kind of, you know, crypto education in our community. So, stock market stories, we really want to grow it to be the source of education. Thank you, basically.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 46:13
Thank you so much. So, how can they find you? I think we've mentioned it a million times at least, but I want them to definitely have this in their minds and go find you on Facebook.
Asma Alsalameh 46:23
Absolutely. Stock market stories is on Facebook and right now, that's really all we're doing. Now I am on you know, I'm also on Facebook. So, I am happy to you know, accept any DMS from anybody. If any guys are listening to this, and they're like, oh, I'm bummed, I'm happy to talk stocks and answer your question. So, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, as far as that I'm at in my group is stock market stories on Facebook. So, we keep the events that are happening in that group.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 46:58
Awesome. Thank you for your time today, Asma, it's been amazing. I've enjoyed so much watching you bloom and grow and all the contribution you're bringing to the ladies that follow you.
Asma Alsalameh 47:09
Thank you so much. Thank you for giving me this platform. Thank you for being in my life, thank you for guiding me through this and giving me the confidence and making me feel so empowered to take these actions. So, thank you so much, Tina.
Tina Marie St. Cyr 47:28
You are so welcome. Thank you everyone for listening. You have been part of our audience today for like your life. We ask that you share this podcast with those people that you care about and subscribe. You can find us on iTunes and all the other platforms out there for podcasts and you can go to bonfirecoaching.com. If you're interested in having a coach, we have complimentary consultations right there on the front page. Don't stop, don't hesitate. Jump right now. There's been light your life. I'm Tina Marie St. Cyr here until next time, have a great day. That was so energizing I have takeaways that will help my life and I'm sure you do too. To get show notes bonuses, gifts for you from our guests and more and over to light your life podcast.com and be sure to bookmark this podcast is one of your favorites. I am Tina Marie St. Cyr, founder of Bonfire coaching and creator of the Bonfire method. Thank you so much for being connected. Now my homework for you. summon the courage to light your life a little more and go ma