The Money Mondays - From Mowing Lawns to Madison Square: The Grind to Pro | Andre Berto 🥊 E123

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

Before the lights and fame, Andre Berto was mowing lawns to chase his boxing dream. No social media. No big promoter. Just grit. In this episode of Money Mondays, Berto breaks down what it really takes to go from the streets to the spotlight — mentally, physically, and strategically.---Andre Berto is a Haitian-American former professional boxer and two-time welterweight world champion. Known for his explosive speed, power, and resilience in the ring, Berto held the WBC and IBF welterweight titles and fought some of the biggest names in boxing, including Floyd Mayweather Jr., Victor Ortiz, and Shawn Porter. Beyond the ring, he's respected for his work ethic, comeback stories, and raw honesty about the mental and physical grind of the fight game.---Like this episode? Watch more like it 👇UFC Michael Chandler & CEO Wes Watson Talk MONEY: https://youtu.be/e2J-QZU3cQENFL Player Turned Real Estate Investor & CEO of RepeatMD w/ Larry English & Phil Sitter: https://youtu.be/Gk07Zz56MFgWhy Most Men Are Losing The Battle of Life w/ Garrett White: https://youtu.be/V57TeomhR1YHow We Went From a Beat-Up Van to 200+ Franchises w/ Nick Friedman & Vince Ricci: https://youtu.be/cOF0BpMujVsWatch ALL Full Episodes Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k---The Money Mondays is a business podcast here to teach you how to make money, invest money, and donate money by showcasing some of the world's most successful people and how they do the same. Hosted by serial entrepreneur Dan Fleyshman, the youngest founder of a publicly traded company in history, this money podcast gives you an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the wealthiest celebrities, entrepreneurs, athletes and influencers make, invest and donate money.If you want to learn more business and investing while you work to improve your financial life, you're in the right place! Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneymondays?sub_confirmation=1Dan Fleyshman,The Money MondaysLearn more here: https://themoneymondays.comWatch all the podcast episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6kLet’s Connect...Website: https://themoneymondays.comPodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-money-mondays/id1663564091Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneymondaysLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-money-mondays/about/TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@themoneymondaysFB: https://www.facebook.com/The-Money-Mondays-110233585203220/

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special edition of the Monday Mondays. Normally we do this podcast inside of an RV motorhome for the last hundred and twenty five ish episodes, but my friend is in town. He's about to host a big boxing event going on right outside of the W Hotel in Hollywood. So I'm here with Roger and Freddie, content CEO inside the studio. So I decided, why don't we make a podcast real quick before Andre Birdo, the legend in the boxing space, goes downstairs and hosts this big event.

So as you guys know, we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give away to charity. But today, we're gonna, ah, we're gonna make some moves because we got Andre Birdo in the house. So if you can, Mr. Andre Birdo, give us a quick two minute bio, so we can get straight to the money.

Me? Hell yeah. All yo, what's going on, it's your boy Andre Birdo. We are here in the building. A 2004 Olympian, two time boxing world champion, and I've been smacking people for a very long time. That's pretty much a bio. Are you boxing from a kid?

Yes, yes, yes. I was a troubled kid growing up, man. My parents, they were immigrant parents from Haiti. So they were working all the time. So they just gave us a lot of time to be outside and get in trouble. And for some reason, somehow, I was just a very aggressive kid.

You know what I'm saying? Very aggressive kid, and I just didn't take any type of shit at all. So I used to put my hands on a lot of kids growing up. And it got to a point, man, it got to a point, my teachers, I used to call my parents all the time like this, you got to do something with this kid. Did it again. Yeah, man, you got to do something with this kid, man. He has a lot of energy.

He has a lot of shit to him. You guys need to take him somewhere progressive so he can let a lot of his energy out of my daddy. He was an MMA fighter. So he trained in a lot of different spaces of disciplines and just started taking me to the boxing gym with him, man. Ever since then, man, just fell in love with it. So on the make money side of the podcast,

at what point can a boxer make money? Cause the first one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight years, it's kind of hard to make money, right? You're just living off of sponsor money, but boxing is expensive. You got to get trainers and coaches and food and supplements and gym time. Like there's a lot of money that goes into it.

How do you make money? and food and supplements and gym time. There's a lot of money that goes into it. How do you make money? Me, myself, I was a little bit fortunate. As a professional, I'm not gonna say fortunate because I put in a lot of work. Just coming from the amateurs, I went to the Olympics in 2004, so turning pro.

I had a lot of eyes on me, a lot of big promoters, a lot of big managers. But a lot of big promoters, a lot of big managers. But a lot of kids, man, they're not as fortunate. And they want to turn pro. They want to box just in general. I mean, so as an amateur, I had to do, like I said, I had to work. I had to, because I was more yards.

We had car washes. We did everything we could just to get a dollar, just to move around and go to these, you know, I mean, local tournaments, just to be known, just to be heard. And... You didn't even have social media back then. They didn't even have social media back then.

You didn't have a smartphone to those before. That's what I'm saying. There was no iPhone. You know what I'm saying? So I had to make a point every time I went to a tournament. My name's Andre Berto. My name is Andre Berto, y'all gonna see me. When that thing just had to really, really, really

make sure my presence was known every time. So, you know, like you said, we didn't have social media, so the people, I had to go out there and knock out. Everybody else had to go out there and talk. And that shit spread like wildfire, man. Smaller wildfire. So when you go from amateur to pro, do you need a manager, an agent?

Can people do it on their own? What has to happen? Yeah, people can do it on their own, but you're going to be playing a long game at that point. I mean, boxing does have a union, so you really can turn pro if you want to. But most likely you're going to be fighting it properly, like local bars fighting for 200 bucks. So it's great to find your great established manager, who has plugs when it comes to all of that big networks. There's only like a half a dozen main guys in boxing still, like decades later, there's the Bob Arum over here.

Yeah. Don King over there, Oscar De La Hoya, like there's main characters that are like- Yeah, main characters. You got the Bob Arum's at the top rank. You got Golden Boy. You got PBC with Al Heyman. Now you guys got guys like Eddie Hearn over at the zone. Those are probably like the main four to five. You know what I mean? Top guys now. But now you guys have, you have a Turkey Al-Sheik over there in Saudi Arabia.

He is paying. He is paying. Come on over. He is paying the big bread to get all the kids over, man. And like I said, he paid his way to get into the game. And he's got a chance just to shake it up within the last few months, within the last year. And I mean, I say right now, he's the man in the inbox right now. But I think he's bringing in, as you can see, my man Dana White as well. So yeah, I'm looking forward to see what they're gonna do.

Well, things are different now. There is social media. Yes. But there is tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe a million boxers around the planet. Yeah. Only a certain amount of thousands that are actually good and can actually go for it.

What can you do to stand out if you're actually good? I'm not saying for the bad ones. You actually have a chance, right? You're 10 and three, you got a shot at going to the other thing. How can you stand out from all the other 10 and three boxes? Man, just right now, just like you said, like we have social media now.

You guys need to utilize it. You say a guy like Ryan. Ryan Garcia, exactly. You know, like I said, all of us had to go through the amateurs, go to the Olympics and blah, blah, blah. I mean, just try to use all these different things to be heard. But you see a guy like Ryan, he's good. But he really tracks the situation with social media.

So I tell all these young guys now, man, if you're good, if you're saying you're as good as you are, continue to train, fight. but you need to document everything. Document everything. Put it out there. Let these people see who you are. Pick up that phone and make sure to talk to them. You have to let these people understand your story

and continue showing these guys that you're knocking everybody out of your training hard. You need to use social media. You know what I mean? I can say I see a benefit. Because ultimately, boxing is a show. Of course it is. That's why the weigh-ins happen, right?

That's why the shit talking happens. That's a fact. That's how you sell tickets and pay for these. That's how you sell tickets. You have all that old school shit, you're sitting back, letting the promoter do it. Nah, that's all over. Go out there, promote yourself.

You know what I mean? Train hard, continue to post, continue to document. You know what I mean? Knock these guys out, continue to post, continue to document. Knock these guys out, continue to post, continue to document. You're going to have your own, you know what I mean? A press conference in your room. You can have your own. Promote yourself, train hard, and go out there and make it happen.

That shit's going to fly. So quick non-money question, the mental game. Yes. Speaking of Ryan Garcia what both those fights seem like he lost before he walked in yeah it's your friend of mine but it feels like he's got the skills to beat both those guys except well not all the time but let's say out of a hundred times he could beat them some of the time yeah but in those situations couldn't because of me and something was going on his

mind like yes he went down with that kidney shot it looked like yeah at the eight o'clock he stood right up. Like he could have actually stood up. He could have stood up. He's like, ah, I don't know. I don't know if I wanna win this. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?

There's one thing about it, man. This fight game is so mental. It's so mental. That's one great thing about this event tonight that I'm going to about a mental health aspect of boxing because you have, you're some of your highest highs in life and you have some of your lowest lows when it comes to this fight game just like you said about Ryan Garcia and he just had another loss.

So I'm going to be looking forward to see how he's going to come back mentally now. Physically he has the skills. For sure. A lot of guys, a lot of guys. I mean I even went through it myself after my first loss. Of course I still had the skill, but mentally I still have the confidence walking there to do it again. I've seen it happen over and over and over again to a lot of the greatest fighters. Roundarousey, you know, Mike Tyson went through it as well. She was 11 to 1 favorite against Holly Holm.

People forgot, Holly Holm was a seven-time boxing champion. That's a fact. Once she lost that fight, that was it for Holly. That was it for Ronda. And that was it. She was a movie star after that. And just walking into the next fight, I could literally see it on her face. She was trying to blind it out and trying to walk in there focused. But like

I said, I went through it myself. So I got a chance to really see her demeanor coming into that ring. And I was like, ah, shit, man, it's going to happen. It's like you're walking back into a nightmare. If you're not getting your mind right, it seems like you're walking back into that same nightmare that ruined your life the last time. So it's definitely a mental... You just want to get out of there. You just want to get out of there. You know what I mean? So it's a wild ride. Can anybody beat Devin Haney right now?

Oh yeah. I mean as you can see, even the last fight with Devin Haney, he went through a situation with Ryan. He lost to Ryan. Very embarrassing time. He got a chance to see how he was on top of the world. He got embarrassed by Ryan Garcia in front of the world. He had to sit out for a year to deal with that in his house alone. Now all these people that praised you, now they're talking all this shit, talking to you crazy, saying you're a bum,

making memes and all that shit. Social media just made it worse. You know what I mean, memes everywhere. And like I said, just me just being a fighter now for like 20, 21 years, I wanted to see how he was gonna come back mentally. I mean, it didn't matter to me how hard he trained, the pictures that he took looking like he was in shape.

I wanted to see how he was gonna react once he walked back into that same world circle where he got embarrassed last time. And you know, he showed up, but a lot of people said, okay, you know, he fought, the fight was boring, it looked like he had some type of PTSD, he was fighting very, you know what I mean, like very skittish. You know, I think he just wanted to get that under his belt and just come back for a win and process it and just move on. So we're going to see how he's going to continue to move forward.

So it's a tough guy. So we got a big fight coming up with Canelo and Crawford. Yes sir! Really big. What are your thoughts? Man! Man! It's a tough one. What are your thoughts? Man, man, it's tough.

It's a tough one. Because Terrence Crawford, I mean, I love both guys, but Terrence Crawford is doing something very extreme. And I don't think people realize how tough that is to jump up two to three weight classes to fight a guy. You know, he's daring to be great. It's a lot of money on the line so of course I mean to add it to the fire and why he wanted to do it.

But I mean it'll be great. It'll be amazing if he's able to go in there and have the skills that he needs to be Canelo which everybody believes that he needs to beat Canelo, which everybody believes that he does. But like I said, Canelo fights in 168. He's been there for the last, I don't know, four or five to six years. He's nice, he's settled, he's strong at that weight class and I think it was going to be a complete different feel than what Terrence is used to. Now we have to wait and see, you know, once he gets hit with one of those shots,

you know, by Canelo, how his body's gonna react. That's gonna be the question. That's gonna be the main thing. If he's able to withstand it, okay, we got us a fight. If he's not, it's gonna look ugly. Right. So, also on the make money side, there is one in particular character

that helped make boxing famous again. Yeah. That has a ton of drama, shit talking. All time. And, but he's brought in hundreds of millions of views. Yes sir. Sold out arenas and stadiums. Yes sir.

Sold out pay-per-views and broke records. Like what are your thoughts on Jake Paul and the concept of influencers coming into boxing? Jake Paul! My guy. He's a good friend of Jake. I think it's great for the sport, man. I think it's great for the sport.

It's definitely, you know, like I said, it's definitely put a lot more eyes on the sport when it comes to just casual fans. And a lot of people that didn't, that wasn't really into boxing. Especially the younger demographic. Of course, the younger demographic. But one thing I do respect about Jake is, is he's taking it serious.

Right, he's really training. He's really training. He really put a real team around him. He's going through real training camps. I know a lot of people in his team, he's hired the best of the best within boxing to train them and work with them, just like all the way across the board.

So that's one thing, do I love about Drake. But like I said, this is a tough game. This is a game that you really have to put in a lot of years to really try to, let me try your best to try to master it. I know he's trying to fast-track it, but You know, but with this shit, I don't think you can really fast-track, you know, I mean he's doing a great job Yeah, I said marketing himself and fighting the type of guys he's fighting to continue to build that

You know me that interest form as well. He's generating a shitload of money, but When he really gets in there with some real fighters, we may see a big difference. I mean the only real boxer that he fought was Tommy Fury. Neither one of them really did anything that fight. Exactly, and to be honest, when it comes to the boxing, fraternity, we don't really see Tommy as a real boxer. But he does have, he has skills and he beat Jake.

So we're gonna see, man. I think, like I said, his overall thing is great for the sport. Jake's fighting on the 28th against him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's fighting against him. He's fighting against Chavez Jr. Which, he's another guy that, us within the fighting community, eh, yeah, you know, we don't respect to him. What does Jake need to fight?

He wants to fight Canelo, but that shouldn't happen, right? Yeah, I mean, I heard it was gonna happen though. I didn't hear about that. Yeah, I heard about it, but I can't see how. I mean, he's bringing the money. I mean, I understand the money. You're bringing the money, that's how. I mean, shit, I was on. I'm talking about like, Even me, I was caught off guard with him, man. They almost really made the fight happen. Like the paper towards sign.

Okay. If that fight happens. Again, I love Jake, but on what plan does he beat Canelo? No, that ain't happening. That ain't happening. No, not at all. No. Ever. Ever. You know, Jake's my guy. For sure. But that's not happening. That's not happening. Well, I have a question.

Four years from now, and he does 20 more fights. Can he fight Canelo? Or does that not matter because Canelo's done it for 20 years, 30 years? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like I said, I've been in boxing for a very long time. You can see if somebody has the stuff to compete on that type of level. But at the same time, like I said, he's still growing in the sport, maybe four or five years.

And his skills may advance in a way that we can sit back and say, okay, maybe, well right now, no. So you were the last one to ever actually professionally fight with Floyd Mayweather. Yep. Flight number 50. Logan went in there and that's a humongous size difference.

Huge. Some humongous size difference. Logan's a big boy. Do you think that Mayweather ever actually fights Jake? Yeah, he could. I mean, at this point in the game, Jake has came in, Jake has shown people that he can generate a lot of money. So at that point, I believe he can fight anybody.

I mean, it doesn't matter if the true hardcore boxing fans might respect it, but it's entertainment. Especially right now it's entertainment. They got a chance to show you that you know, with the whole Mike Tyson switch. You know what I'm saying? I mean, everybody started, it's crazy, it's bullshit. La la la la.

But I was at that fight, that fucking stadium was packed. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they had like six billion views on Netflix, so it doesn't matter at this point. A lot of this shit now on boxing is entertaining. So he's able to do whatever he wants. Alright, so we talked a lot about boxers making money, fame, etc. Now let's say you've made the money, right? You fight for it, it's time to retire.

There's a lot of options you could do, you know, hosting on boxing shows, you can build gyms, you can build supplement companies. How do you take the next chapter once you've retired from the sport? You know, there's one thing about it, man. I think it's extremely hard, you know what I mean? Just me just being in space and just me just really, you know, kind of stepping away to just focus more on business. And just even for somebody like myself that I've always had a great network of huge, you know what I mean, just, I'm just somebody of everybody.

To a point I've sat a mastermind, I've learned so much about, you know, just overall just business, but still a transition that can be pretty tough. Like when you're at the events, what percentage do you want to jump in the ring? All the time. All the time. I mean, it got to a point that I kind of got tired of a little bit

because every time I went to every event, everybody just wanted to talk to me about boxing. Right. You still look fresh. You still look like you're ready to go. Exactly. You know what I mean? But it gets to a point that, OK, cool. I need to just have one win outside of the ring, business-wise, so I can start having some different conversations. And that's where I've been at for some time.

And I had a great conversation with my boy Shaq. He said the same thing. He's like, man, you know what? I hate when people talk to me about basketball. I want people to respect me for my business sense. Now, when you come to speak to me, yeah, I did that shit way back then. But talk about all the companies I own.

Talk about this, talk about this. I want to be able to have those different type of conversations. So I think that's a different type of source of respect. I already have all the belts on the wall. I already have all the titles. Not too many people can make that transition and jump in and be respected. So most times when people retire from any sport or retire from acting or retire from anything, they kind of fade away into oblivion, right?

That's a fact. How do you stay so relevant? How do you stay out there? You know, for me, man, I think I've always been, you know, I love media. You know, just like you say, yeah, I love media. I have a great, yeah, I mean, network of great friends that are heavy in a lot of different spaces. I was never one of those guys that only thought of himself as a fighter.

I'm a boxer, you don't need to talk to me, you're not talking about boxing or training or coming to a fight. You know what I mean? I was always one of those guys like, okay, cool, you know what I mean? I want to dive into this, I want to talk about this, I want to jump into this business. I want people to see me and see all the different, you know what I mean? All the different sizes and layers of me and all different aspects. So I think it's really been the main thing that's really kind of been keeping me relevant this long and being able to continue to speak

because a lot of these fighters, a lot of these athletes period, they think that we're just dumb brutes and we don't know shit outside of the sport. A lot of these guys don't talk. They don't go to social media and actually talk and let people in know who they are. Like I say, just as people. I think that's a big flaw, but it's always been one of my big, big benefits.

The professional speaker athletes are the wealthiest in the game. When you think about Magic Johnson, billionaire, Shaquille O'Neal, billionaire. A-Rod has 19,000 apartments. Crazy. Right? Crazy. These are legends from sports, but they transition to becoming professional speakers and investors into companies.

So when you get all these different options, because you know so many people, you can invest in cryptocurrency, the stock market, private businesses, real estate. How do you pick when you're bombarded with so many different options? Oh man, I mean, you gotta sit back and study up. You gotta be able to learn again.

You know, I think that's one thing too, man. A lot of great athletes, they do not feel like they should go back and be students, and I believe that they should. Especially outside of the game, you need to put yourself in a space to humble yourself enough to be a student again. And a lot of us don't. We put a lot of work in for a lot of years, we've been respected and always been seen at a certain level.

So how do you tell a guy with all this money and all of this fame and success to try to humble himself? So sit down and listen. We try to listen to something else or sit down in a seat, you know what I mean, like at a mastermind and try to learn something else. You understand what I'm saying? A lot of guys, you know, even though, you know, outside of the game, if they haven't, you know what I mean, like made the right decisions, you know what I mean, and just knowing that they need to do something, they're not humble enough to sit back and try to be

a student again and learn again. And that's always been a downfall. The video I posted a few hours ago was that. I said, even though I speak at 100 events a year, afterwards I sit front row. There you go. Because there's Ed Mylett. There you go.

Ed Goggins. There you go. I want to learn from them. There you go. Even though I book these guys, I'm friends with these guys, I sit front row and listen to them because I can then help the people that are coming to my mastermind.

That's a fact. I'm learning from them. I want to know things in real time. I'm listening, I'm studying all the time. That's a fact. I mean, just like you, like you said, like you've seen it in real time with me. I'm sitting at these masterminds, I'll be there by myself.

And people around me, they're taking pictures, they want to sign on. I'm like, all right, cool, thanks. Let me sit down. You know what I'm saying? I think that's the great thing about me is the fact that I've always wanted to learn. I've always been a sponge. I've always been a sponge. And like I say, that transition, I want to be a strong example of that transition. Right. I wish more athletes were doing this. Yeah, yeah, for sure, man.

But like I said, I don't see it. That's the one save these clips for later on when I make a billion. And you know, I'm sitting with Dan and really talking about this shit. So on the charity side, why do you think it's important that athletes have some type of charity component

for their communities or for their life? I really think, when it comes down to it and you know I had a whole sports aspect and the fact that you've been chosen, you've been blessed to be part of this small percentage of people, this small percentage of people to compete at such a high level and to be looked at and admired at such a high level. Me, myself, I don't believe that all of that is just for you. I believe that you've been exalted to a point to give and spread to everybody else as well. You know what I mean? I think I think I think you need to be able to find something that's a little bit. You know what I mean? I graded it yourself to really motivate you and to put those good you know what I mean?

Jujus out to the world as well. You know what I mean? God has blessed you to be at a really amazing point in your life. You should always give. You should always give. That's the way I've always looked at it. There's one question that I ask on every single episode and I've never gotten the same answer before. What's that? Andre Berto, you end up making a billion dollars on that next company.

A supplement company, a chain of gyms all these investments are to happen billion dollars But unfortunately at some point you pass away What percentage of the billion dollars? Nothing. Or too high. That's what I'm saying too. I'm rich. Yeah, I'm rich. They ain't not rich.

They gotta work for it. Shit, I don't know. You need two degrees to get money from these. Yeah, man. I mean, shit, I don't know, man. I don't think I've got to that point yet. I mean, I understand what everybody's saying. I've heard zero.

I've heard 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure. I have to still, I've heard 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure. I have to still relic of that question, because on one hand, I want my kids to work for everything. But then again, I want to be able to leave, like they said in the Bible, like I said,

a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. I want to be able to leave them something. So with that being said, I may leave a good portion, say 50% or maybe 60%, but I'm going to put together such extensive and a crazy trust. Trust in place with requirements to be able to unlock this shit. And if you're able to do it, shit is yours. You know what I'm saying?

I want to put them through the gauntlet. You know what I'm saying? So by the time they get this thing, man, they're just going to be transformed to completely different people. And once they get it, they'll know to do it. All right, we know you got to get to work. You got to host this mental health event

for Boppers downstairs. Where can people find you across social media? Across social media, my name at Andre Birtle everywhere, Instagram, Twitter, on Spaces, Tik Tok, everything at Andre Birtle. I got a lot going on, I'm excited. Yeah, it's Money Monday. Alright guys, as you know, this podcast is designed for you to have real discussions with your friends, family, and followers about money. We grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money, but I believe it's really the true

reason that there's so much stress and anxiety and problems and credit card debt that's happening in our society is because we can't have open discussion about money if you think about being rude. We have to have discussions. And so when you're out there with your friends, family, followers, talk to them about leases and payments and salaries and cars, saving money. Have real life discussions because it's part of your real life.

There's nothing rude about it. We need to change the entire sentiment in our country and in our planet so that people can be educated about money. That's super important. So as you guys know, follow Andre Birdo across social media, check us out on the moneymondays.com and we'll see you guys next Monday.