This is Karl Schwantes' Freedom Trader Journey

Most people assume that having some share market experience puts you ahead of the game. Karl Schwantes — a jeweller and business coach from Brisbane — is living proof that experience without the right framework can actually give you a false sense of confidence.

Karl had used CommSec, worked with stockbrokers, and done his own research. But his approach was, in his own words, "shoot from the hip." He'd buy stocks he recognised — Westpac, CommBank — without really understanding when to get in, when to get out, or what actually makes a stock worth buying in the first place.

When Karl attended one of Terry's webinars, something clicked. Terry showed him the detail behind technical analysis — the kind of information that was, as Karl puts it, "a gap in what I already knew." He joined the Blueprint shortly after and approached it the way he approaches everything in his professional life: like a business.

"I'm doing the time to research. I'm doing the time to be part of the community. I'm watching Terry's calls. I almost look at this like another business."

The results followed. Two successful trades in his early months, and the confidence that comes from knowing the structures, tools and templates are all in place. Karl now sleeps well at night knowing his money is safe and he's not overexposed — and he's already thinking about what his portfolio could look like in ten years' time.