The Money Mondays - MMA and Money: Michael Chandler's Winning Formula 💪 E54

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Michael Chandler isn't just a powerhouse in the UFC; he's a multi-talented individual excelling as a fighter, investor, and entrepreneur. Beyond the octagon, Chandler strategically navigates the business world, showcasing his financial acumen. Whether delivering knockout performances or making savvy investment moves, he embodies the modern fighter who excels not only in the ring but also in the realms of finance and entrepreneurship. Michael Chandler: a force to be reckoned with both inside and outside the cage. Like this episode? Watch more like it 👇 The Power of Social Media: Michael Sartain's Guide to Making Millions 🤑: https://youtu.be/8v4pJMlwHis UFC Michael Chandler & CEO Wes Watson Talk MONEY 💸: https://youtu.be/e2J-QZU3cQE 'Lions Not Sheep' Sean Whalen + Boxing Champion Andre Berto 👊: https://youtu.be/kaeitVrwh0Q Watch 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=1 Dan Fleyshman, The Money Mondays Learn more here: https://themoneymondays.com Watch all the podcast episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k Let’s Connect... Website: https://themoneymondays.com Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-money-mondays/id1663564091 Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneymondays LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-money-mondays/about/ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@themoneymondays FB: https://www.facebook.com/The-Money-Mondays-110233585203220/

So it's June 29th. It's 946 p.m. And your hand gets raised Conor McGregor is very upset and he storms out of the ring doesn't even do an interview the next morning Every brand wants to do a deal with you What happens to Michael Chandler in June 30th after he beats Conor McGregor? I call you and I say Danny's I need some help figuring this thing out. Ready. Ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to, I was about to do the like, let's get ready, but I can't do that because I don't want to get sued.

Let's get, nope, I didn't say it. We have a special guest here. It's very rare that we have a recurring guest, but you're probably going to see him multiple times a year because he's a dear friend of ours. He's an iconic athlete. It's fun to talk to him. He's got a great heart. So he embodies everything that we do here, talking about how to make money, how to invest money, how to give away to charity. He's incorporated all those things into his world, which I really, truly passionately like because most athletes, sadly, we've heard the statistics, 85% go bankrupt

within five years of leaving the NFL and the NBA. That is heartbreaking. And so I get really excited when I see athletes like our guests that have investments in the companies, tequila brands, everything in between. It's really exciting because that paves the way, especially with how big and famous he's getting over and over and over year after year

for other athletes to see what he's doing. When I say athletes, that applies to influencers, musicians, etc. Being able to invest their money into projects, businesses, real estate, etc. Seeing him do that makes my heart warm because it inspires other people to do that, which is our main passion here with my co-host, The Real Tarzan. As you guys know, I always say The Real Tarzan gets over 200 million views a month on social media but he showed me his Instagram account today. He's had 195 million views in January. Well January's not over so you can do the math. He's gonna surpass the 200 million views average which is absolutely insane. It's really hard to explain but he's got the stats to prove

it every single time. He's been growing 100,000 followers every three days the whole month. Like we started the month off with 7.6 and now he's at 8.8. It's just absurd. All right guys, that is a long-winded intro to our special guest today. He is a longtime wrestler, UFC fighter, and more importantly, the way that he just called out his own shot over and over at the end of his matches and manifested What seems to be one of the biggest fights in history and very well could be Conor McGregor's last fight ever Without further ado, please give a warm round of applause to mr. Michael Chandler Warm round of applause to Mr. Michael Chandler. Oh, he's got me pumped up. Let's go!

Let's go, boys. Let's get ready. Oh, bro. Don't say that. It's time. No. All right. By the way, licensing rights, let's talk about that real quick.

The reason that we can't say in that tone, let's get ready to rumble or it's time is because Bruce Buffer and Michael Buffer own the rights to those trademarks. Not only do they own the rights, they do it for video games, clothing, but especially for live events, entertainment, etc. Michael Buffer has literally done hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue off that one sentence, that one slogan. Bruce Buffer makes really good money.

Obviously he's the host of the UFC and hosts lots of events, hosts lots of charity things. He's a fantastic business person also, but the numbers of Michael is like, I literally can't explain. I've heard some crazy, like $300, $400 million type numbers. And so when we joke about it, I just wanna talk from a business perspective.

Licensing rights is how I started my business, how I started my life. I originally owned the catchphrase, who's your daddy? I trademarked it for 300 products. It was 16 class of trademarks, which is very expensive because it's only 800, 1200 bucks a pop. But you got to do that for every class of trademark in every country in the world. You can do the math as I broke quick, especially when I was 18 years old, 19 years old when

I did it. However, I ended up licensing it to Starter Apparel just for the UK for $9.5 million, which helps set up my career. And so, licensing rights, something for you guys to think about. If you come up with a catchphrase or a name or a product, whether it's a product like this, or a product like the Money Mondays,

or Young LA clothing, or whatever you're sponsored by, or whatever you work with, think about trademarks and licensing rights research that after this podcast. Okay guys, as you guys know, the podcast is 40arks and licensing rights research that after this podcast. Okay guys, as you guys know, the podcast is 40 minutes because the average workout is 40 minutes, the average commute to work is 40 minutes.

So we have about 38 minutes with Michael Chandler. I would like to dive in, please. If you could give us a two or three minute bio, we'll get straight to the money. Quick bio, I was a small guy from High Ridge, Missouri, a small town south of St. Louis. Tried my hand at the sport of wrestling, worked out pretty well, didn't, didn't quite make it to where I wanted to be in wrestling as a high schooler. It wasn't a state champ, wasn't recruited by schools, walked on to the university of Missouri. Nobody gave me a shot. I was the lowest guy on the total poll, ended up becoming an all American there,

but still didn't reach my goals there. I figured I'd try this thing called mixed martial arts. I fought, you know, three months after I graduated and now 15 years later, 31 fights later, top five in the world. I'm still trying it 15 years later and it's working out really well. But outside of that, obviously, that's how I make the bulk of my money. But I've always thought about how do I take that money that I've always thought about how do I take that money and invest it into things, people, experiences that are going to then set me up for later in life. And obviously I have a wife and two sons now.

So the stakes are even higher. So we keep on, keep on keeping on, keep on keeping on and keep on building. Walk on, you just said, I've seen that you post about that. I've seen your hashtags, like what is walk on to you? Man, so walk on for me, and it doesn't matter when I do make it. And I say see at the top a lot too. And that's not something I own.

Somebody who actually did trademark that by the way, but I licensed that from somebody, but Zig Ziglar said it. But in that vein, even when I get to the top, it's going to be because of the walk on mentality still with all of the money, all of the platform, all the lights, all the fame, all of the accolades, everything still having that walk on mentality, the white belt mentality, like we were just talking about jujitsu, even when you're a black belt, the ones that continue to keep evolving are the ones that

have that I'm still the lowest guy on the totem pole, I still have a lot of I still have a lot of open mindedness and willingness to learn. So everybody's a walk-on, in my opinion. And everybody will always benefit from having that walk-on mentality of knowing that even success is always rented. It's never owned, and the rent is due every single day, and that's kind of the walk-on mentality. See you at the top.

See you at the top. Tell me about that. Man, well, it's a Zig Ziglar quote. He wrote a book. In my mind, he was the greatest speaker of all time, the late a Zig Ziglar quote. He wrote a book. In my mind, he was the greatest speaker of all time, the late great Zig Ziglar. But I mean, CU at the top to me, obviously, it caught fire. I said, in my UFC debut,

and knocked out Dan Hooker in two and a half minutes, yeah, God bless CU at the top. And everybody just thought it was synonymous with me, but really it was a hat tip to the great Zig Ziglar. And the biggest thing about CU at the top too is it's more about the CU there than it is the me at the top. If I get to the top and I look to my left and I don't see you and I look to my right and I don't see you

and I don't see anybody else who was coming up with me. If I didn't inspire, if I didn't touch hearts and minds, captivate and capture hearts and minds and make people feel something by my performances, how I live my life, what I do. If I can't look to my left and my right, look behind me in front of me and see all the people that I was able to bring up with me, then really I'm just standing there and it's a very lonely place, right? So that was kind of the mindset behind the CU at the top. It's not a very self-serving, hey guys, I'm getting to the top because I'm the man. It's like, I want to see you at the top.

Because that's what Zigg always said. He's like, if you do this and this and this, I won't just see you at the top, but I'll see you over the top and I'll see you there with me. So that's, I love his work. And it's very, very rooted in community and what we're created for, creating relationships and community

and bringing people up with you. So on the making money side, there's a lot of people out there that are obsessed with martial arts, whether it's karate, jujitsu, so many different forms of martial arts. Is there money when you're first getting started and how long do you think theoretically we'd have to wait before you can actually start making 40 grand, 50 grand, 100 grand, 200 grand type numbers for the year? Yeah, it's definitely a cut your teeth type of industry.

I mean I know guys still that I train, I trained in the gym down in Florida and I'm a part owner of a gym in Nashville. And a lot of those guys who are still in their first couple of fights, they got some amateur fights where obviously they make no money and then they're still in that kind of beginning stages

where they're making a little bit of money but really they're losing money because after you play for your hotel or you gas money and your food and all that, like they're basically breaking even just to get a win on the record. It really does take a really, there's a little bit of luck involved. Obviously it's a lot of skill. You got to be, you have to put on great performances, but you also have to be a little bit more

marketable. And you also have to have, you know, we just listened to Walter talking, he talked about his high IQ and you can have a high fight IQ or be really good in the cage. But if you don't have that, you know, EQ to be able to have relationships with other people too, because there was their responses that were giving me free gear. And obviously, that's the the life cycle of a sponsor, right? You get the free gear, and then all of a sudden you get get the free

gear and a little bit of money. And then before you know it, you get more money. And before you know it you actually get equity in the company and you keep just kind of working your way up. But that takes the right EQ and doing the right things, being a good steward of the gifts that you were given. So I mean it could take a couple years before you're really going to, I mean it took me, I was fortunate I did a Bellator tournament where I fought six fights in 13 months and I did three Sorry three fights in three months and that was a hundred thousand dollar tournament So I made my first six six figures within the first two years of my career

But that's not normal right now. All right When I look at the sponsorship of an athlete whether it's a UFC fighter football player basketball player I think back to George St. Pierre Gsp He sent me a deck many years ago And then that deck was a photo of him and it showed price points How much it cost to sponsor his hat how much the cost to sponsor his sunglasses How much it cost if you wanted to do anything accessories wise how much was it for a necklace or jewelry brand? How much was it for a t-shirt not just t-shirt main logo exclusive logo or multiple patches?

Mm-hmm. He had his shorts in the photo Right each one was 50 grand 100 grand 250 grand or if you want exclusive is 500 grand and It's been burned into my mind for I don't know how many years now because basically made himself into a $2 million package Mm-hmm of a lot of 50K, 100K, 250K. And again, the numbers change for you. Let's say you're a startup fighter, you've had four fights, you can make the numbers 1,000, 5,000, 10,000. The number I don't wanna say is irrelevant,

but it's adjustable based on your situation. But if you just look at yourself head to toe, and by the way, this applies to an Instagram model, an influencer, a musician, et cetera, from your shoes, from your socks, from your pants, or your shorts, or for your dress for Fashion Nova, or pretty little thing, or whatever. Like, every part of you has an influencer,

look at Tarzan, same concept. It is fascinating when you start to think about that, well, who should I get from my watch company? Who should I get for my accessories company? Who should I get for my clothing? Who should I get for my headphones? Who should I get for my watch company? Who should I get for my accessories company? Who should I get for my clothing? Who should I get for my headphones? Who should I get for my hat? And so to look at it, that's who you go out there in DM.

That's who you go email. That's who you have your agent call if you have an agent. Go out there and interact with these brands and think about yourself head to toe as a marketing arm. It's so rare that I see influencers or athletes reaching out. I have a social media agency. We pay 3,500 influencers.

Guess how many were inbound? None. If they weren't in a referral, nobody'd like, hey, I want to be an influencer. It just doesn't happen enough. It's crazy to me how rare influencers, athletes, et cetera, go out there and reach out to brands. The brands want you guys, right?

Who doesn't want Tarzan to have 200 million views? Who doesn't want one of the most famous fighters on the planet to sponsor them? And so rare that influencer and athletes reach out to the brand. So if you're listening out there and you are an influencer, athlete, musician, artist, make yourself that photo.

And say, I'll take two grand for my hat, five grand for sunglasses, whatever those numbers are, for endorsement deals or for one-off posts or three posts, and it will shock you how many brands respond to you, it doesn't have to be a lot of them. You mess with 100 brands and three respond, and all of a sudden you're getting two grand, five grand, 10 grand a month,

you're making 17 grand a month for sending out 100 DMs. You know how long it takes to send 100 DMs? One hour. You just copy and paste the picture of yourself and what you want for endorsement deal. All right guys, Sorry for my little Rants, but it's so rare that I get in there. It's good. Good wisdom effort Put the put that effort into it and that's that's how those seeds get sown and then they get reaped, you know

So Tarzan recently you started doing some more endorsement deals. There was a took a break We were building a freaking wild jungle here You're bringing in 204 animals So you were in grind mode, literally building, spending $3.1 million building an animal sanctuary. Now, we went to Dubai, started talking with brands, and you did a couple endorsement deals. You did a one-year deal, a six-figure deal, one-year with a tequila brand, and then you brought on Young LA recently, also a six-figure deal, but a long-term deal.

How do you decide whether it's Young LA clothing or the tequila brand, etc. How do you decide who you work with? All passion projects, you know. As far as like the tequila, it's like a cool bottle, has a Jaguar logo, I represent, you know, Jaguar. It's my favorite animal, you know, something I can get behind. It tastes good. The bottle shaped in the Aztec temple, I'm really into culture. Love hanging out with tribes and learning about warriors, you know. So, something I can really resonate with. Young LA. Living in California. And actually it was the first company that gave me a shot with drop shipping merch when I first ever started shipping and doing clothes like six years ago.

They had like Bradley Martin and themselves, and they were an up and coming, growing company, and they didn't have much influences on their shelves, and they put me on their shelves. It was like, well, ship all your, my original wild stuff I had. And we always had a good relationship, a good connection. And just recently, they was like,

hey, top of the year, we're posting money Mondays, posting our analytics. And I don't take many brand deals, especially clothing because we have our wild jungle brand, you know? And there was like, dude, let's do an online exclusive, a couple posts, you know, we got a cool, you know, athletic line, young LA, just rock it, do your thing, just be organic, take a photo, make a reel,

go work out with it, roll with it, go jungle with it. We don't care I'm like bro. I love that. I love the openness to creativity and it's something I can connect with you know These are the homies so Before I eat these Cram all right. Yeah Listen, I'm literally addicted so I eat them all the time and there's not that many food items that I'm addicted to. Walk me through, you ended up doing an equity deal with them. Walk me through the brand, how do you decide things? You don't

have to say the exact numbers, but you can walk us through the general concept. Man, so honestly it's obviously it's a product but it does start with the people. Ruth and her son Austin, they are a mother and son duo, actually out of Northern California. And once I discovered it, tried it, and then I spoke to them, I thought right away, this is, these are people that I wanna be in business with, right? Aside from the fact that it's just the,

an on-the-go snack, like a, it's just like our largest competitor, Uncrustable, right? But sprouted organic fermented bread, no sugar added. I also am a father of two, obviously. My kids love PB and J's and I want to be more conscious of what I'm giving them. Right. So and then so their vision that they had the actual passion, I mean, they started in a little kitchen about this big, you know, proofing like proving the concept and trying to sell them out of their back of their car and bringing them to the little grocery stores and little markets and farmers markets and you could feel the passion that they have for it. And now we're

growing like crazy. It's a phenomenal product. We're doing different going to do different renditions when it comes to different flavors and all those different things. So it's a it's really, really cool. It's cool to see the growth and it's cool to win together, right? I mean, you've done a thousand of these things now where you get to go into business people and you're able to take their vision with their passion and their vision with a smaller company, if you will, and just watch it grow massively. So it's just been so extrinsically satisfying, but also intrinsically

satisfying to know years ago when we had our first conversation now a couple years later to see the growth. So it's just, it's really, really cool when we're to grow and like crazy. How do you decide between cash deals, one-off deals, salary deals, or equity deals? It's a really, really good question because I honestly think it's a it's the life cycle of the deal. Right. I mean, like I just was like I was saying, and I you got to make sure that especially for us fighters, right? I when I mentor young guys, I say, Hey, listen, don't put the cart before the horse. It's very unbecoming if you come off entitled at all. For sure. If anything, do something for less than you think, right?

To leave, I call it leaving a little bit of meat on the bone, right? And I've done this with almost every single contract deal I've done with Bellator back in the day, left a little bit of meat on the bone, but the UFC, then all of a sudden, the UFC wants to double my pay because they felt there was a, I'm bringing more value than they're paying me. I've done that, I've had that same mindset and mentality when it comes to all of my different deals, right? So I mean, now I'm at the point where I also know myself,

trust myself, and I have to sometimes save myself from myself because I know, like when I take on a project like Cram and I am an owner of Cram, I know I'm going to eat, sleep and breathe it and try to, we've had numerous conversations. I'm going to put a lot of effort into it. So therefore the juice has to be worth the squeeze. So at the life cycle or the stage I'm at now too,

I want equity in companies more than I want just the cash deals because I do see the long term and I do know that I'm gonna take the gloves off for the last time and I do wanna be doing business and maybe we have an exit or maybe we just continue to grow and grow and grow and numerous ones of these different companies that I'm involved in. But that's mainly because I have a little bit of a heart and a passion for actually being somewhat of an operator and a connector to different people and bringing in different ideas and people who have

greater influence, more relationship capital and you have a good reputation to be able to help a brand go from where they are to where they want to be. Tarzan? Wild Jungle now obviously is... We're making a lot of different products. From pet products that are actually like for dental care for the animals. I mean we're going on down the toys path. We're doing children's books. We actually finished our coloring book already. Accessories, clothing for humans. It's like we're going on the toys path we're doing children's books we actually finished our coloring book already accessories clothing for humans so it's like we're doing for children and for pets at the same time for you wise while jungles so important

spending this much time energy on something outside of the ranch itself in the sanctuary but obviously like the animals part but why built it into products uh... for both children and for animals the wild jungle so important because uh... i feel to new uh... initiative and how to make money for animals you know like

or tired of the zoos and thinking we're gonna save the planet by thirty dollar emissions at the Zeus. That's not the way to do it. It's been rinse, wash, and repeat it from state to state. It hasn't worked.

Country to country hasn't worked. Animals are in zoos and not going back to the wild. People are paying to go to the zoos and zoos ain't saving animals in the wild. At least they're not at a rate where they're actually making a big difference. Then if I look at it from an outside perspective, it's like, man, you know, all these organizations are going on. What can I provide and give to the world that's different?

Let's sell dog food, cat food, kids toys. Let's reach a younger generation and grow them up with animals like I was through Steve Irwin or Jane Goodall or David Attenborough. Let's reach the kids, raise them up, give them products, put you know wild jungle you know scientists kits in every science classroom for free you know give dogs that are getting rescued free you know vet care if you buy our food and we stuff like that we really want to make a change make a difference $136 billion a year are spent on dog food and cat food just in America alone every year $136 billion if I have a top 10 annual platform on the planet give or take five accounts If I can land anywhere in a 1% how to 10% how of that market,

how much money can we donate and actually save the wild jungles of the world to our products? We're gonna find out. Boom. We're gonna find out. Check back in. That's why, you know, passion, you know, it's a long term long term thing, you know The game I'm in is a it's a risky game, you know But that's a part that's a part of the work, you know, wherever I go, I'm always learning Tarzan myself. I'm always learning. Tarzan, myself, I'm not just me with all these crazy gifs

or these crazy talents. There's so many people that I love and respect and ask so many questions that are actually true experts in certain species. And they're my teachers. You know, I'm just a student gathering so many, you know, informational points from so many different apartments about so many different species And then boom, you got Tarzan

It's me, but a bunch of teachers behind me, you know Michael Chandler at the end of Some of your major matches the last five years You would point and scream the top of your lungs at Connor McGregor and you literally manifested and willed the biggest fight in history. From someone who has the pick of the litter, right, because everyone wants to go after him and they want to hype the media, the money and everything that comes with that and

There's five or six guys in your weight class that have a real shot at fighting him Yeah, you willed your way into it and then the TV show happened with the ultimate fighter And then all these things occurred, but every single time I just remember so I was watching every one of your fights You just said at the end. I'll see you there kind of a greger you just said at the end, I'll see you there, kind of a gregg. Talk us through that, basically your Babe Ruth moment of pointing over and over, and now it's real, it's happening this summer. Yeah, it's, you know, obviously the first,

my first fight in the UFC, I shared a card with Connor, and that was my first introduction to the UFC, right? Cause I had been outside the UFC for my entire career, and there was a lot of hype coming over with my signing. I needed to have a good showing. I did have a good showing. And then it was time for me to just rattle off this big post fight speech.

And obviously I said Conor's name, because ultimately, when I signed with the UFC, I sat in the room with Hunter Campbell. And I said, I'm not here for a long time. I'm here for a good time. I want to fight the biggest and baddest and best dudes possible. And I have done that, right? And Connor is on that list. He's the

biggest. He's the biggest MMA fighter on the planet. Um, there was a lot of talk about he and I. And then obviously when that, when the ultimate fighter started being talked about, I got that phone call, not just because of my exciting fights, not just because me and Connor is a fun, exciting matchup. I was the perfect great fit for that TV show, for the Ultimate Fighter, and I was a great next opponent for Connor McGregor. The excitement, the hype, how big it was, and ultimately too, I just look at it

and just realize how God has had me in the palm of His hand my entire career and how it always ends up working out. It's almost like we can, we can have missteps, we can have miscalculations, we can have quote unquote losses, right? But it's almost like you, if you never grow weary in doing right, things usually work out for you eventually. All the hard work pays off as long as you're still standing there to receive it when it does. And I've just continued to see these things, make bold claims, make go out and fight with my heart on my sleeve, fight as hard as I possibly can, make people feel something different. And there was a lot of mutual respect between Connor and I.

I think that has had a lot to do with it because like you said too, Connor is the most, he's the most, he's the biggest draw in the sport and people want to fight him. Sawed after. It's a sawed after fight. And I think honestly it happened because it's a great matchup stylistically fighting wise. It's something that people are gonna be interested in but ultimately too, it made a lot of sense

for me to step into that role because of the brand, of the reputation of everything that comes along with my fights you got a guy who the UFC is like we want to get our name behind this guy why because he's he's a great fighter he's exciting and we kind of like him because he's kind of he does the right thing he says the right thing he doesn't try to doesn't try to be something that he's not he's authentically himself. We like that and It's worked out really well and now yeah June 29th We we go out there and put a stamp on this and like you said it could be his last fight

But I'll never tell a guy when you retire, but what with after what I'm gonna do with that one with what I'm gonna do to him It's gonna be a little tough We're gonna be sitting front row, so yeah, it's okay if the blood gets out Okay, good little babe. I have a very serious question. Mm-hmm when you walk into that ring I see something different in your eyes. Mm-hmm in those moments Does it feel like you black out and just fucking go for it for the next few minutes or the next five ten fifteen thirty minutes? Whatever is this calm and focus is it quiet like walk us through when you walk in the ring and you're standing across from another big names fighter because your last three or four fights have been against household names in the game.

Like you went after it. Like you just been fighting all the big boys. Like is it quiet in that arena? Is it loud in that arena? What happens when you walk in? It is very quiet. You know, obviously during the walk out and stuff you're still kind of enjoying the moment, right?

Yeah, you're still kind of, you're feeling your music. You're going through the thing. But then as soon as I, I, I stomp my feet up this, up the cage, up, there's these metal steps, just like WWE, where they smash them on, right? They're metal steps. And it's like, you haven't quite gotten into fight mode yet, you need to feel a little bit of something. So I slam my feet on those steps as hard as I possibly can. And I slam my feet in the octagon, I want to feel that crazy impact into my feet. Because then that kind of is my trigger that kind of turns me into the other side of Michael, right? You know, it shuts off the nice guy that we that we all know is sitting here. And I turn into

that guy. And I'm calm. I'm composed. I'm quiet. I know what's about to happen. I'm not afraid of it, I'm excited for it. I'm excited to get into it. Because that's when you know that you're doing what you're called to do. Whenever, things that would absolutely scare the heck out of people, whether it's business, whether it's sports, whether it's anything,

entertainment, the things that would scare the death out of people, you know that you were right where you were supposed to be. You got ice water in your veins, right? And I think my biggest thing is looking across the cage and just getting excited. I got this like little smirk in my eye and my at the corner of my mouth, right? Just like excited to get into the fight. And it's not because I like fighting. I'm actually a very non-confrontational person But I enjoy the competition. I enjoy the hand-to-hand combat. I enjoy the I enjoy the high stakes. I enjoy

I've really learned to relish being in arena full of 20,000 people and knowing millions of people are watching and Braving the unknown knowing that I could very well end up flat on my back Everybody laughing at me and making fun of me or I could very well get my hand raised and I'm doing back flips right and I love that roulette I love that I love that role of the dice because I think we take two two little risks and we don't take enough chances in life and that is a physical manifestation right there in front of the entire world to see for 15 minutes and I get to be that guy it's such a huge blessing and that's all I'm really feeling in there.

It's a huge blessing to be able to do what I do. Tarzan, you walk into a jungle and you're in India and you're looking for a 15 foot King Cobra. Is it quiet? Can you hear the hissing? Do you even realize that other people around you? It's very similar. You know, those moments are right where I'm supposed to be, you know. A lot of things make me uncomfortable. Cobras don't.

You know. Cobras don't. No. In the beginning, when I first started with Cobras, they were like really scary. And then I just kept going and going. I'm like, man, this dude's great. But you can't miss. You can't miss, man.

That's the thing. Yeah, don't miss. You know, you get tagged by that thing. You toast. You toast, you know. Okay, seriously, what happens? Oh, bro, you're toasting India. You ever put like a nice piece of bread in like a toaster

and you just leave it as brown or smoke. And it just pops up. That's your skin. that's your muscle tissue, that's your nerves, that's your, that's no joke. The King Cobra bites you in India, what happens? Indian, okay Indian King Cobras are the largest of the King Cobras. There's Chinese banded King Cobras, there's Indonesian Kings, there's Balinese Kings, and there's also Indian kings. And dude, they are the big, I think they get 18 feet long.

They have enough to kill a bull male elephant. Like if it bit an Indian, like an Asian elephant, it could kill it. So you got bit? Oh, we die, you know. So many people that do get bit by cobras, especially King cobras, because they have such a big huge men meal

Just die if you don't get immediate help. Do you realize we got to build while jungle, right? You carry the you have the anti-vandal You have to go to the hospital you have to get like an IV and like You have to go to the hospital, you have to get like an IV and like adrenaline. How far close is the hospital? Yeah, exactly. Well, it depends on where you're at, India, you know? Sometimes the hospitals don't have King Cobra,

but they gotta get a flown in, or you gotta fly somewhere else, you gotta, it's pretty nuts. How long before your toast? Depends on the snake, depends on your immune system. Some guys get bit and they're just like, hey, don't freak out, you know? Because if you freak out,

your stress drops you 10%, 15%, and that might be where you, like your life may be at just 15% of you making it, and the doctors will bring you back. But if you stress out, you're toast. Your ability to stay calm keeps you alive longer. 15% keeps you alive. Same in the ring? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I always talk about this too, because if you ever watched a fight, and we could be sitting here watching you watch a guy who's really, really, he looks really, really tired and we're all like, dude, this is a professional athlete. He did not train at all for this fight. And it's funny because you we're all trained. We all train hard.

Obviously, there's discrepancies in who put in the most amount of work, but we're all in shape. But it has everything to do with heart rate. What's going on inside your mind, you know, how how fast your blood is pumping through your body. How how are you able to calm the nerves? How are you able to stay more in that homeostasis? And and the crazy thing about a fight is it's always like this, right? There's moments where I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I'm about to get choked out. And your heart rate's going

through the roof. And then you get out of it. Yeah. Or like, oh my gosh, I'm about to get choked out. And your heart rate's going through the roof. And then you get, yeah, then you get out of it. Yeah. Or like, yeah, or the worst is, yeah, you drop a guy and you're like, okay, I'm going to get the finish here. They call it punching a guy out, right? And then all of a sudden you, you know, you throw 35 punches and he's still standing there. Yeah.

Oh, great. What just happened? But unfortunately you're like, okay, there's two minutes of 47 seconds left on the clock, which feels like an hour. Yeah. All right. So it's June 29th. It's 946 p.m. And your hand gets raised Conor McGregor is very upset and he storms out of the ring doesn't even do an interview the next morning Every brand wants to do a deal with you What happens to Michael Chandler on June 30th

after he beats Conor McGregor? I call you and I say, Dan, I need some help figuring this thing out. No, but that is true. Honestly, I seriously would start there. Like who knows more than me? Who do I know, love, trust, who's better at this than me? You know, instead of me being like, okay,

hey, everybody come to me, let me take the highest suitor because it's not always the highest suitor. It's not the most amount of cash. It's not, you know, it's, it really is that relationship capital and it's who is in your corner who, hello? Yeah, exactly. Right. You know, it would be those kind of calls where, you know, and, and honestly, the biggest thing after this fight is, okay, what got you here? And what did we first start talking about? The walk on, right? Because even the guy who was undersized at 14 years old

and started wrestling at Northwest High School, and then the walk on at Mizzou, and then the guy who beats Conor McGregor, they still have to stay grounded, right? Even the guy who beats Conor McGregor on the biggest stage possible in front of the most amount of eyeballs He still has to have the groundedness Have some confidence like obviously I have leveled up

I believe in myself more when I win that fight than I did when I was 14 But you still have to have that humility and say hey man, I got to stay grounded and let's let's maximize this Because I got my wife and my two sons and let's maximize this thing and do it the right way. I've always wanted to, since the very beginning when I started the sport, I knew I was gonna go places and I always wanted to change the outlook of what people thought an MMA fighter was. If I can do things differently, if I can move differently, speak differently, invest differently, build differently, inspire and motivate differently, then I'm doing something

different and I have this shiny object called fighting that gets people to look but it's all the other layers that gets people to stay. It's really just a larger platform and bigger numbers or bigger brighter lights of me doing the exact same thing and hopefully staying the exact same person if that makes sense. I actually reference that with Tarzan a lot because he's so calm, humble, will be at airports and 45 people try to take a selfie while we're trying to rush to the gate and he stops for every single person. All of them.

Literally all of them. And the numbers are compounding. And compounding. And compounding. And what happens when you get, you were really excited to get 8 million now We're gonna hit 9 million by two weeks from now and you hit 10 million like When you just think about the sheer math of like how famous you're gonna be forward even famous but like June 29th is it's over. You can't walk outside after that. I mean you can but I'm saying like when you walk outside

It's you're talking about global global global fame after that fight Especially after you win at 946 p.m. And for Tarzan it's literally can't walk because it's two billion views last year alone So it's literally a third of the human population have seen you in some fashion on social media that we know of that's just from your social That doesn't count people reposting your stuff. And so as that goes into your mind, you guys are two of the most humble guys I know. You know that you're good at what you do. There's nothing wrong with being cocky in the fact that you put in the work to get

to become top five, top five in the whole category of what you do. How do you guys stay humble and stay focused and stay calm as you're gaining to this huge, huge, huge, top of the mountain situations in both your lives? Let me get this one off the rip. Okay. I think we both can attest we both know God has given us everything that we have. Yeah. And we know it and we feel it and we see it and we know if he gives he can also take away If you walk around him with our chest out and Let's take that away, you know, and we both know It can happen and

And we're both mics were we're archangels. Yeah, exactly, right? Archangels, and we have a, we got our protection around us, man. And we feel it, we love it, we see it, and we appreciate everybody, you know? Cause we wouldn't be who we are without the people supporting us, you know?

And that's what I gotta say, what you got? No, yeah, no, I mean, yeah, it's just been a huge blessing, like I say, my entire life, knowing, watching the way it was all orchestrated and all the lows have always ended up working out, you know, right? And it can be taken away from you very quickly. Heavy is the crown and hard is the fall, right?

Whenever you think that it was all about you, right? Whenever you think it was all about what I did. It wasn't me, it was my coaches, it was my people. It was my people around me. It was the people that believed in you, right? And ultimately it was our God who blessed us with this ability to do it, right? And for me, one of the biggest things too, aside from that,

because I always, I'd lived my life by that pre-Fontaine quote, to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. Like we've been given so many great gifts and for us not to give our best and do it in a humble manner is to sacrifice those gifts. And I remember the trenches, man. I remember when I worked just

to start you, you have you had just as much of a passion for animals. 10 years ago as you do now, right, but you just didn't have the following you still have that same passion but you remember back in the day when it was just you and you did it for the passion and it was nobody really cared because you didn't have this big platform right I remember working just as hard as all the guys I trained with, but I was a fighter outside of the UFC and I was asked, walking through Vegas, hey dude, will you take a picture of me and Ryan Bader?

Will you take a picture of me and Gray Maydern? And I never let it bother me. I mean, it bothered me a little bit, but I never was bitter. I just knew, I was like, hey, patience. Yeah, my time will come. Patience, patience. And it's the practicing of the patience.

It's the coiling of the spring. It's the galvanizing of who you're supposed to become in those moments where it finally pays off. And yeah, whenever, I mean, I took, you know, 10 pictures today at the airport, you know, and it's like, but it's, it always feels like a new blessing every single time someone does it because I remember all the times I walked through an airport nobody who knew who I was right of course

Yeah, whenever you guys are getting close to the the flights about the takeoff. It's like sometimes you're like, okay, you know It's not inconvenience, but it's definitely like a deterrent to get you to where you want to be on time Right, so it's just a huge blessing and it a huge blessing and it's a platform and a place that you always dreamed of. It's what you wanted. It's what you wanted, right? It's what you, we all want to get to a place where people know what we do and know who we are and care about what we're doing and they're invested in what we're doing. And ultimately, they are the people that are going to help you get your message out. You can't help save the animals without the people who believe in you.

Right? I can't make the money that I'm going to make and have the platform if the people don't follow me and buy my pay-per-views and buy my merch and buy my products and all those different things. It's a people business. It's the business of people and if you treat them right they will then in return reciprocate that. Last topic, charity. We talked about how to make money, invest money. We talked about some of the major moments in your lives, especially for both of you on the social media side and building brands.

Let's talk about the charity side. One charity, I'm sure there's multiple charities that you care about. Let's just talk about one charity that matters to you and why. So my wife and I, obviously we have two adopted sons and we are right now, we're kind of putting some stuff together to move in that direction

because ultimately obviously we have had our adoption journey now twice and we've been in the space or in the world of adoption if you will. There's so many people who need resources, who need help, who need just a information, and we have been that to a lot of people, phone calls and speaking to different people and helping make things happen. There's so much stuff that's going on behind the scenes that people will never know about because we don't talk about it, but we have a huge heart for adoption. So we are in the works right now of standing some things up hopefully here very soon. How long does it take to adopt Ballpark?

Well it's really, this is one of those, that's one of those answers to the question that's always tough because for us it's been, it has been an absolute cakewalk. And to anybody who might be listening who has gone through the journey, because there's people who, who wait years. And sometimes it maybe never even happens. For us, it was so, so quick. And part of me wants to feel a little bit guilty for that, knowing that there's so many people out there who have had horror stories of waiting forever or failed adoptions or whatever, but our Sun Hap, where it was a six minute match.

We literally got an email at 1.40 PM, at 1.46 PM, we got a phone call, and then we said yes, and then our Sun Hap, right? With our Sun Ace, it was just as quick. It was so quick. As soon as we kind of entered in and got, you basically have to get approved. Once you go through all the whole approval process, it was so quick and it was absolutely clear to us, this is our next step, this is our son, it's going to happen, then it happened, right? And so it can take, it takes about a year to get all the paperwork and all that crazy stuff done,

FBI background checks, financial background checks, health background checks, there's so many different things. Fingerprints at 16 different places. Yeah, it's a, which it's good. I mean, I, it should be a process. It should be a process that there needs to be a good vetting system. Obviously there's, there's messed up things in the system

and things that don't make sense obviously, but I like the, I like that it takes a little bit of time, energy and effort. But once you get approved, it was very fast for us, but there's a lot of people who are waiting a very long time. Fascinating. Yeah. Tarzan, and the multitude of animal related charities that you can choose.

Let's just talk about one. Doesn't that be your favorite one? Just let's talk about one charity off the top of your head. A rank of tanks. Oh man. I can go all day, youutans. Ooh. Oh man. I can go all day, you know. But um.

Hold on, all right. So scroll back two weeks on our social media. We look at the orangutan that fell in love with Tarzan. We were in Dubai, okay. And I can't even explain. It was on site by the way. There's a bunch of us. There's, we have friends with us.

There's like all the sheiks and their whole staff. This is Rangitang, Sawatarsan, made a beeline for him and just jumped and hugged him. This is not us. You've never met him before? Never met him in my life. No. I like 16 people just seek me out and chose me out.

She just bear hugged him. No pun intended, she's in Rangitang, but she just bear hugged him and then wouldn't let go for two days. We ended up staying the night Because you it was just that it was that magical you didn't want to have a separation anxiety Yeah, I don't want to leave them a go on depression. Oh, yeah, yeah, dang dude and at the whole time She could rip his arm off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's just so strong. Yeah. Yeah, everybody's looking like hey, dude

I'm about to they got their phone Yeah, yeah everybody's looking like hey dude. I'm about to they got their phone But out of all those people just And that goes back to the charity aspect. They're so special man I don't know what it is, but I have such a love for apes Chippansies gorillas or ringing tangs. I mean again Tarzan the whole chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans. I mean, again, Tarzan, the whole movie is about him growing up with gorillas and apes in the jungle, you know? So to be able to have a moment as a human

and share a moment with a creature so close to us as homo sapien, a human, and they're a primate, you know? It's magical, you know? And there's a lot of times I've had interactions with chimpanzees and orangutans I just feel such a connection and like it's almost even with a high site It's like we can look at you like hey, I know that you know that I know that you are there Yeah, you know like I know what you're there such a thinker, you know, and like I can hang out with a ranger Thank you. Hey take that ring off

And I just like little grab your hand and And it's like dude you understood what I just said. No, I'm saying like hey take my shoe off And it was like oh I'm sorry. I'm tying your shoe. It's insane. The Rangutan took the water bottle out of my hand, uncapped it, drank, capped it and handed it back to me. On video It's insane. How smart they are You know And I want to protect them with my life because there's people out there that have you know Showed me what they do for while the rain tanks for decades in the jungle, you know, and they have such a

Positive impact in their community. They have such a positive impact for the species, have such a positive impact for the species and they're doing such great work for so long and they're losing help. You know I got this big platform like bro how can I help? Anyway I can help. These people are bringing me through the jungle to show me why the Ranging Tanks. We're releasing while the Ranging Tanks that were in captivity for bad situations and they're really re- re letting them go with the government. It's insane how much work they have 300 baby orangutans deep in the jungle in Orphanage.

Just raising them up, letting them go. You know, and it's a lady out there named Dr. Baruch Galakas. Her son actually lives in San Diego. They own orangutan.org. Orangutan Foundation International, I'm saying Diego they own orangutan.org orangutan foundation international or if I I didn't don't need you I was in Hawaii I was walking and I was like I want to go to zoo once it is you check it out and had a orangutan there and I saw a female the Same size 46 years old well, right?

Insane ours we met was 14 years old So look at that difference of that and then I seen the male they had there at the Honolulu Zoo and he was 280 pounds I was like oh I was looking at him oh my god he's so big and I had again I hung out with a 14 year old orangutan and Mike when I tell you when I had to like let her go like I to leave she don't want to let me go. So it went from this, I'm hugging you to like, now I'm squeezing you with all of my grip and my feet. And bro, I was just unbearable.

Like it was like almost I wrestled with a crocodile or something. You know, it's like, and it was so cool that at any moment the animal can just rip me apart. I have no chance of, like, I don't even have an ounce of get that thing off of me if I want it to. You know, and it was five of us trying to get it off of me.

It couldn't get off. You wouldn't let go. You know? But that's how, but going back to where you said it earlier too, that's when you know you're doing exactly what you're supposed to do. Like one of those moments where it's like all of those people are there and she's like,

that one, that one. That's the chosen one. I know he has something in him. I can feel it. They can feel that, right? Whereas me, I probably wouldn't be chosen. I like it, I'd like to look at it, but like, he'd be like, no, he's not into but that one that one. Let me jump on him

Special creatures man. Yeah special so the last two weeks. I've been filming for season two of a TV show called going public Two days ago. They made me go through a lie detector test and suffer my final question Michael Chandler If I had a lie detector test on you right now, on a scale of one to a hundred percent, do you win on June 29th against Connor McGregor? I'm a hundred percent positive that I win on June 29th. That's my boy. I think, you know, even, yeah,

even just outside of the physical aspect of things, I just believe that I was born for a time such as this. I believe that my entire life has led up to this, and obviously I am very biased because it's me and I've had a fine tooth comb through the entire thing and seen it through a microscope, but it's all led me to this. And it's the biggest stage possible. I'm better than him inside the octagon. I'm better than him outside of the octagon.

And I just believe this is what was supposed to happen. All of those nights where I questioned things and I didn't feel like I was where I wanted to be, it's that moment that I get to do it. And I believe it's gonna be masterful and I believe it's gonna be huge and it's gonna be life changing and it's gonna be fun for all of us.

Well, the world will be watching that night and sometime in July we'll probably bring the RV motor home over to you and do another podcast and talk about your victory with your 100% success rate. I love that. How calm and focused you were in that answer. For sure the lie detector test did not go off. You got, you passed.

Nailed it. Got him. All right guys. So as you know, the Monday Mondays, we are now on week 44 out of the 52 weeks, because it's our one year anniversary, of being number one in the entrepreneur category. Number three in the business category.

We know, we know, we cannot get to number one cause it's freaking day Ramsey. He puts out a podcast every day. We cannot beat his algorithm. That's okay. But number one entrepreneur category, thanks to you guys. So make sure to like, comment, share, subscribe, et cetera. But the point of this is when you're listening to champions

like Michael Chandler, business guys, business ladies, entrepreneurs, influencers that we brought onto this podcast, it's because we want you to understand and think about money. We all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. And obviously here at the Money Mondays, we think it's rude to not talk about it and have discussions about salaries, loans, FICO scores, credit, how to do this with your banking. Should I rent or lease or what do I do if my friend owes me 400 bucks?

All the little things that we should have these discussions about, we need to have discussions and I'm glad that the Money Mondays work out so well as we approach our one-year anniversary this might be our one anniversary episode by the way Michael Chandler. Nice that will be awesome. So like comment subscribe etc visit the money Mondays.com and we will see you guys next Monday.