Derek Moneyberg: Tough Guy for Clicks? Strickland vs. Moneyberg | DSH #1556

Summary

Digital Social Hour – Episode #1556

Guest: Derek Moneyberg

Host: Sean Kelly
Date: October 6, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of Digital Social Hour features controversial business coach and entrepreneur Derek Moneyberg. Sean Kelly dives into Derek’s recent headlines – from the uproar around how he earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, to online beefs with notable fighters like Sean Strickland and controversies around his aggressive style and rapid rise. Derek gives his unfiltered take on haters, reputation, fighting culture, and the reality of building wealth through discipline – not hype. The conversation also covers long-term investment thinking and the discipline needed to thrive both in martial arts and business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Strickland Incident: Clicks, Confrontation & Reputation

• Moneyberg’s Version of Events: Derek recounts how Sean Strickland allegedly acted tough online but avoided a real conversation or grappling session in person.
  • Quote: “He takes the phone out when we’re by the elevator, and then he totally, totally changes his persona. And now he’s a tough guy on camera.” (00:00, 16:04)
  • Derek claims Strickland refused to speak or train off-camera, only to act confrontational for his followers.
  • Derek says he’s invited Strickland to train together and privately messaged him, but Strickland continued posting what Derek calls lies damaging to his reputation.
• Legal and Personal Fallout:
  • Derek mentions he’s only sued two people in his life but plans for Strickland to be the third due to reputational damage (11:40, 18:34).
  • “You can say you doubt my black belt, but you can’t say that I steal money from people.” (17:19)
• Perspective on Online Haters:
  • Haters are often “jealous fans” who hate themselves the most (09:10).
  • “The number one thing a hater hates is himself... It’s almost always a guy.” (09:10)
  • Animal world analogy: Hyenas taking from lions as a metaphor for online critics (07:25).

2. Moneyberg’s Rapid Black Belt in Jiu-Jitsu: Controversy Explained

• How He Did It:
  • Derek says he compressed the normal 10-15 year process into under 4 years by training daily with top coaches and building several private gyms.
  • “I got my black belt in three years and seven months… I put in the same number of hours, just in a more compressed amount of time with… the best coaches in the world.” (00:43)
  • He spent millions of dollars on gyms and training, and objects to accusations that he “bought his belt.”
• Response to Haters:
  • Dismisses the argument he just paid for his credentials: “That doesn’t mean you didn’t do the work.” (05:28)
  • Calls out critics as those who took longer or didn’t have his resources.
  • Perspective: Others are upset by his success or using his name for attention: “They’re trying to use your name to leapfrog and get more clicks and views.” (07:08)
• Realism about Skill Levels:
  • Derek admits there are purple belts in elite gyms who could “kill almost every black belt.” (03:08)
  • Acknowledges he's not a pro fighter and doesn’t compete at the world’s top tournaments, positioning himself as a serious hobbyist.

3. The Craig Jones Invitational & Marketing Games

• Being Used for Publicity:
  • Craig Jones used Derek’s name and likeness to promote his event without prior permission. Derek is more impressed than annoyed (“the audacity of this, in kind of a good way…” 19:24).
  • Finds it “shameless but admirable” in terms of marketing, and acknowledges it made them both bigger talking points.
• Derek’s Approach:
  • Shares DMs with Jones and details their humorous exchange. (22:16–24:10)
  • Would have insisted on contract terms if he were to participate; he respects Jones’ talent and promotional abilities.
  • “He’s a promoter. Clicks and views… Not a very high integrity person in my estimation, but great grappler, great promoter.” (21:10)

4. Perspectives on Martial Arts, Discipline & Culture

• Why He Trains:
  • Derek sees martial arts as part discipline, part self-defense, and a vehicle for personal improvement.
  • “When you’re sixty-something, can you really protect yourself?...If you don’t have good fight training, that’s just not realistic.” (25:51)
• Respect for Fighters:
  • Says that high-level MMA fighters tend to be the most honorable, sincere people he knows: “It’s the last enclave of people that are very sincere, hard working.” (26:36)
• Accountability in Fighting:
  • Tells a story from Lyoto Machida: "There’s nothing to say about the referee. Just be better." (28:34)

5. Wealth Building & Investment Philosophy

• Investment Discipline and Psychology:
  • Warns strongly against emotional reactions and trend chasing in investing: “People that buy individual stocks tend to lose money.” (36:34)
  • Emphasizes boring, overlooked assets over hype, e.g., uranium ETFs as a play on future energy needs (32:09–33:32).
  • “There’s so much capital that goes into that short-term thinking, that I have to think about, well, what are they not focused on yet?” (33:40)
  • Anti-leverage: “It’s mathematically impossible to go bankrupt if you don’t have debt.” (40:09)
• Teaching vs. Tipping:
  • He doesn’t give specific investment picks to followers. Focuses on teaching decision-making frameworks. (35:52)
  • “I teach people how to make better financial decisions and how to be a good independent thinker… I teach people how to think.” (35:52)
• Handling Losses:
  • Recounts being down 70% in 2008-2009, but sticking with it and quadrupling his wealth (38:08–39:44).
  • Experience and education let him weather tough markets.

6. Personal Wealth, Risk, and Security

• Personal vs. Business Risk:
  • Doesn’t like personal debt and prefers to keep leverage low on properties he uses personally (40:27–43:30).
  • Sees more sense in leveraging business/investment properties with strong cash flow.
• Threshold for Freedom:
  • Describes reaching the point where investments can fund his lifestyle, not just business income.
  • “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to.” (43:47)
• No Get-Rich-Quick Nonsense:
  • Derek rejects the idea of instant riches: “I didn’t get rich quick… You’re not going to be a millionaire overnight.” (46:49)
  • Credits his wealth to decades of work, not shortcuts or hacks.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Haters:
  “The number one thing a hater hates is himself. …It’s almost always a guy.”
  — Derek Moneyberg (09:10)

• On Sean Strickland’s Behavior:
  “He takes the phone out when we’re by the elevator, and then he totally, totally changes his persona. And now he’s a tough guy on camera.”
  — Derek Moneyberg (00:00, 16:04)

• On Buying Your Belt:
  “I paid my coaches. I also paid my tuition at my university… That doesn’t mean you didn’t do the work.”
  — Derek Moneyberg (05:28)

• On Martial Arts Accountability:
  “‘There’s nothing to say about the referee. Just be better.’ That really sticks in my head in other areas of life.”
  — Derek Moneyberg (28:34)

• On Investment Risk:
  “It’s mathematically impossible to go bankrupt if you don’t have debt.”
  — Derek Moneyberg (40:09)

• On Wealth and Paradox:
  “Later in life, there’s days I made a few million dollars in a day, but that took 40 years of me thinking about it and strategizing and doing the right things before those.”
  — Derek Moneyberg (46:49)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:00, 16:04: Derek breaks down the alleged Strickland confrontation and online persona shift.
• 00:43–06:27: Derek explains his accelerated black belt journey and counters accusations that he bought his belt.
• 07:10, 09:10: Philosophizes on haters and online critics; animal kingdom analogies.
• 11:15–18:34: In-depth recounting of the Strickland beef, attempts to resolve it, and legal plans.
• 19:14–24:10: The Craig Jones Invitational’s use of Derek’s name and the inside story from their direct messages.
• 25:18–29:40: Why he trains martial arts, the culture of MMA, and discipline analogies.
• 29:53–36:26: Stock market philosophy, risk, emotional discipline, and learning from losses.
• 38:08–43:47: Surviving massive investment losses, personal property and debt philosophy, security.
• 46:02–47:39: Final thoughts on coaching, investing, and the myth of fast wealth.

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Tone & Style

• Derek is blunt, confident, occasionally self-deprecating, and frequently calls out “haters” or critics.
• The conversation is direct and sometimes irreverent, especially when lampooning online “tough guy” behavior.
• Throughout, Derek’s advice is focused on realism, personal accountability, hard work, and thinking long-term – whether in business or martial arts.

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For those curious about Derek Moneyberg’s provocative approach – from investing and coaching to fighting and online controversy – this episode delivers a raw, unfiltered, and instructional listen.

Transcript

[Derek Moneyburg]

Sean Strickland confronted Derek Moneyburg. Like, say, I'm not challenging you to a fight, but we can go roll around tonight. We kind of, kind of head down, look, you don't want to make eye contact. And then he takes the phone out when we're by the elevator, and then he totally, totally changes his Persona. And now he's a tough guy on camera. I don't think you could tap me in five minutes. You want to say all this tough guy shit. Like, I think he just wants to talk shit for clicks and view.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Okay, guys, Derek Moneybird back on the show. It's been. Been almost two years since his last episode, I believe, and he's been doing a lot, so thanks for coming on, man.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Hey, thanks for inviting me back.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You've been all over the news. All the biggest podcasts are talking about you. Joe Rogan included in that.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Must be pretty crazy times for you.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I'm just a business nerd that did some MMA training, man. And, you know, I tried to accelerate that the way I tried to accelerate everything else in life. And. Yeah, but the, you know, that's when it's a defense to the jiu jitsu community that I got my black belt in three years and seven months. And so, you know, many of the top fighters in the world, the. The people that know me and trained with me said amazing things. And then, of course, the, you know, people around them, you know, of course they ask is like, you know, hey, you know, that guy, Is that legit? And they'd be like, oh, yeah. So then, then they're understood. But, you know, for, like, for people that don't train much or people that took, you know, 12, 15 years to get their belt, and they're. They're a little offended by that. Yeah, Like, I put in the same number of hours. I just did it in a more compressed amount of time with, you know, some of the many of the top coaches in the world. So I don't even think it should be so controversial, but, yeah, we do.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You said a little offended. I'd say some people got very offended based off what I was seeing on social media. It was very interesting.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, I guess, you know, Gordon Ryan made the point the. On the Rogan show about that, that, like, the thing that they're most trusty about is that, you know, that I did use that something as a. Of a marketing campaign. Be like, you know, yeah, I get my belt a lot quicker than you because I'm smarter than you.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I mean, might as well monetize It.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

We're less dumb and harder working. You could do the same thing.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Which I believe and I stand by that.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I mean, look at it.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You've.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You're top 1% in multiple fields. It's not just fighting.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Business stocks. Probably name a few more.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Well, I mean, objectively, and it's not a, it's not even a cocky thing. It's just objectively true of like, if we go to the gym and lift weights, I'm stronger than, you know, more than 99% of the people in the gym if we go, you know, grapple or whatnot. Like, yeah. Even with the, all the UFC guys, a lot of the UFC guys I've trained with and any other ones, I'm not calling them out or challenging them, and I'm like, yeah, I'll be happy to train with you.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Like respectfully, and you can hold your own. Yeah, I do good with the UFC guys, with the, you know, top level grapplers that are specialists in grappling. You know, if I go to Gordon Ryan's gym, John Danaher's gym, it's called Kingsway, it's down in Austin, Texas, every. Everybody there is just elite.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah. So.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So, you know. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. There's some purple belts there that are better than I am because they're like the best grapplers in the world. The best school in the world. So that's totally true.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Okay, so is that how it works with the belts? So, like, depending on the city you're in, like a black belt doesn't hold the same value.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Well, if you're, you know, if you're competing at ADCC is like, that's like the Olympics of grappling. They hold that event every two years here in Vegas.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Or, you know, they have the world championships and you know, there's all sorts of big tournaments, but ADCC is the biggest and best. Okay. And you know, there's purple belt guy down there, they call him big Dan. He's 6 foot 7, he's 320ish. He's a purple belt. But he'd kill almost every black belt, you know, any normal black belt. But, you know, you guys number three purple belt in the world at adcc, you know, so that guy's better than most black belts. So, you know, you can call it sandbagging if you want to, that they, they hold the belts back.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Okay.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You know. Yeah, the guy would beat most black belts, including me.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Makes sense. If the. Yeah, some of the top purple belt guys are better than a majority or like the bottom half of the black belts are.

[Derek Moneyburg]

No, that's, that's totally true. You know, so am I going to go in ADCC or the big tournaments in the world? No, I'm a business guy that did that as a hobby. But to your point of like, you know, anything that I did in life, it doesn't mean I'm great at everything. I'm not great at everything. But anything that I focused on, I'm very physically strong. I went to the best business school in the world. There's for. At the time that I went to my MBA program. There's 416 programs in the country. I went the number one ranked school. University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Shout out to Booth. Yeah, I did well in my business recently. I got, you know, fifty million dollar revenue recognition. I did well in that business. I helped with other businesses before that. I did good at everything. I did good at stock investing. I did good at real estate investing.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I'm no good at tennis. I'm no good at golf. You don't want me to be your heart surgeon. You probably die. So there's a lot of things I'm no good at. But the things that I focused on, I did very well. And I kind of have that sort of an obsessive personality that I'm going to do something extremely well or probably I'll do something else, you know.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I don't kind of do things part way. So, you know, elaborating on the process that went into that belt, it's like I spent $4 million on gyms.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Which was mostly real estate expenses. Okay. But then the renovations. So there's four properties that got renovated to be like MMA gym and a weightlifting gym. And then I spent another few million dollars. So you bought your belt? You bought your belt. You paid your coaches? No, I paid my coaches. No, I paid my. I also paid my tuition at my university. I paid tuition at my university too, guys. My, my professors got paid. They got paid too. You know, everybody that I, you know who else gets paid? My, my weight training coach when I ask him to come train with me, who's, you know, amazing guy, was on the Olympia stage many times. I pay him too.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I, I also pay my cell phone bill. I pay for a lot of things. So that doesn't mean that you didn't do the work.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

People had an issue with you paying coaches.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Oh, man. It's absurd.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I don't understand that though.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You know, who else pays coaches? All the UFC champions, they pay their coaches, too.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's why I'm confused. I don't understand that argument. I understand the timing argument, because people just can't grasp how you did it so quickly. Right. Because the average person, like you said, takes 13 years to get it.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah. I think. And, you know, a lot of people say tennis years, and some people is. I mean, most people would never do that. But of people that have a black belt, you know, 10 years is good. 12, 15.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And that's a guy that show. You know, he takes a year off in between, and he takes family trips and he's got a normal job, and he shows up at the gym three days a week and for an hour. Of course, it takes 15 years if you show up three days a week for an hour and you take time off. But I'm showing up most every day of the year, and I have the best coaches in the world, Literally the best coaches in the world. And I put in a lot of hours and spent millions.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

It's not even. It's not even, like, a controversial thing in terms of, like, I spent the same hours with them. I did it with better coaches, and I did it at my private facilities. And I don't even know what the fuss is, honestly, but I'm grateful for it.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Were you shocked with all the. The hate and outrage at first, or did you kind of expect it?

[Derek Moneyburg]

No, no, not to that level, actually. There's always, you know, somebody always has something to say. I'm sure in your comments, there's.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Oh, I get hate every day.

[Derek Moneyburg]

There's some geniuses out there that have, you know, like. But what are they doing better than you? What are they doing? The guys that are talking about, you know, me or you or anybody else that did anything of, you know, of any notoriety.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

What are they doing better than you? What are they doing better than me?

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Usually it's someone.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That I don't give a about. To be honest.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I don't even know who they are.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

The majority of them, I don't even know who they are, or if I do know who it is, then it's somebody that just, you know, they're. Your. Your name is trendy at the moment, so they're trying to use your name to leapfrog.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And get more clicks and views, you know, which.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I get that, too, as a. As a someone. As a content creator, I get that part of it.

[Derek Moneyburg]

That's life.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I think of it, like. I don't get very emotional about it. At all. I think of it like, you know, if you watch like an animal show, like a documentary about, you know, the African wildlife or parasites or something of that nature, you know, they think, well, when a, when a lion chases down a zebra in the savannah and digs his claws in and you know, the zebra barely gets away and they chase some more and he tackles the zebra, usually a she tackles the zebra, bites it on the neck and you know, waits for it to die. Well, if the lions by itself, you know, if there's 14 hyenas there, the 14 hyenas can take the zebra from the lion, you know.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Does that mean a hyena is a more noble creature than the lion? No, not in my opinion. And you know, if you look at like there's all sort of parasitic relationships when like, you know, there's, there's, I, I, I'm not a, an expert on this topic but you know, there'll be some, some worm that gets in your body and lives in your intestines and swims around in your all day. Parasite. Yeah, like, and sometimes I look at the Internet comment, I'm like, oh, that's one of those intestineary worms. When a person says some of the things they say, I'm like, oh, that must be like one of those hyenas.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Like do you block them or do you just ignore them?

[Derek Moneyburg]

It depends, you know, I mean it depends what mood I'm in at that moment. And if I have time, I think to myself, if there's a moment for, you know, for a good business promotion, I'll take advantage of that. If there's a moment where I just feel like I have a humorous response in my mind and it just make me laugh personally, I'll take advantage of that. But you know, some people just say such absurd things and I'm just like, yeah, block, like it's so unreasonable that I'm just like, there's, you're not going.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

To change their opinion?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, there's nothing, there's no common ground or we're not going to get you anywhere. But last comment about haters. It's like I thought this many years now, like the, the number one thing a hater hates is themselves. They're not mad at you, they're not mad at me. The number one thing a hater hates is himself. And I say himself rather than themselves because it's almost always a guy. It's almost always.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't even think about it. But you're so Right. It's always dudes.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Pretty women don't hate on pretty women. I bet when pretty women send you a message, they say real nice things to you.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Even ugly woman. I don't see them really. Actually, no, that's.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Ugly women don't rate me much.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

They're, they're in the political comments I guess. You know, you don't see that because you don't talk about politics, but yeah, I see that.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, but, but usually it's dudes when it comes to other topics.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, I'm talking about fighting and finance mostly. Yeah, I don't have ugly women.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

No.

[Derek Moneyburg]

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[Sponsor or ad reader]

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[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Go anywhere without it.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And it sincerely accents that in a political context there's a horde of ugly women that tend to vote for a particular product.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

The other thing I think about a hater is like a hater is a jealous fan. Like they're not taking the time to, to poke at you or poke at me because, because they really hate you. It's like they're interested in you and somewhere in their head they'd like to be you.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

The haters are jealous, they're projecting. Yeah, no, it's, it's interesting because a lot of my comments are like, oh, I'm unfollowing. I'll click on their profile. I still follow me. They're just leaving comments just for the fun of it. I feel like half the time the hate only gets to me when it's someone I respect. And I would consider that more criticism in that scenario for the most part. So when I saw the Sean Strickland thing, that one surprised me because that's someone probably you respected, right?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Oh, you know, I've said that to him and you know, there's a few times that I've in the past I asked Sean Strickland twice, like, hey, come do an interview with me. He never did that. I did interviews with 300, 300 or so world champions and even before he was world Champion. I asked him, hey, come do an interview with me. I thought, the guy's kind of interesting. I like that he's not politically correct. I think he's a talented fighter. There's. There's things I respect about the guy.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I said that to him. And, you know, as soon as I got that black belt, within hours, he's. He's talking on the Internet and saying things that are not true and saying, repeating things. There's, you know, I have a little bit of a reputation that, like, you know, oh, Derek likes to sue people. Finally sued two people in my life, and Sean's going to be the third, by the way, that only sued two people in my life. And Sean's reposting that type of content. He's reposting content from one of those people that I still have an ongoing litigation with. And, yeah, you're just saying things that, you know, I. I'm a fraudster and a scamster and other various things that I'm disappointed about that, you know, if you want to say that my black belt's fake, I come train with me. And I, And I. And I sent him DMs private. They didn't respond back publicly. I privately sent him dms and I said, yeah, more or less. And I don't remember word for word, but I have screenshots of all of it that I've given to my attorney. And I said, you know, hey, if you. If you believe that, you know, take the time to meet me, come do an interview with me, come train with me. Yeah, I'm sure there's something I could learn from you. I'd be happy to train together. You know, you don't want to do that. Is a series of more insults. Then he goes back and posts more negative things that are just not true. They're lies. And then I see the guy in person recently a training at Glover to share his gym and start in Vegas, Connecticut.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Oh, okay.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So I flew to Connecticut to go train with Glover. Glover is one of my main coaches. He's my striking coach. Him and Leoto Machida, my striking belts under them. And yeah, so Strickland's there. He. You know, he don't. He don't. He doesn't go to the gym. And Glover told me before. So Alex. Alex Pereira has his fight on October 4th.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And he liked. And Alex already beat Strickland. When they fought, Alex knocked him out. They're both very talented, though. And, you know, he's. He said that. Oh, oh, by the way, Strickland's gonna be here, blah, blah, blah. Alice asked him to come spar with him, and I said, okay. I said, when I see him, we have to have a conversation. I'm not going to be aggressive with him. I don't think he's going to be aggressive with me. But we have to have a conversation about the things he said. Like, you understand that, right? And Glover was again, you know, I understand. Makes sense. So when I go there, I'm there all day. On Wednesday, no, no, Strickland doesn't show up.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Did he know you were there?

[Derek Moneyburg]

He did, and I'll explain why. And I'm not. So he doesn't show up all day. I'm there from 11:45 in the morning till about 10:30 at night. Left for two hours to get food and stuff with Clover, came back again. So I'm there all day. Yeah, he doesn't show up the next day. I'm there from noon 11 something in the morning till 5 something pm we go get food and then ask Clover, hey, drop me off at the hotel. I want to shower before our second training session. When I walk into the hotel, he's staying at the same hotel as I am. And then on the Internet, they say, you know, Sean Strickland confronted Derek Moneyburg. Like, that's not true. I go see the guy and I see him in the lobby, and I was respectful and polite about it, as a gentleman about it. I said, you know, Sean, take a minute to come talk with me. And he kind of, we can talk at the gym tomorrow. I'm not going to be here tomorrow. I fly tomorrow. But I'd appreciate it if you take a minute to come talk with me. He didn't want to do that. Then he had some detergent from the front desk. I waited for a second. We walk away a few feet and we have a little conversation for 90 seconds, maybe about two minutes total, before he brings his camera out. And I said, you know, you talk all this, but you won't take a minute. I've asked you to do interviews with me. I'm asking you now take a minute to come talk with me in person. I said, I'm going to go back to the gym in an hour. Yeah, if you believe that stuff, we can train together tonight. So I'm not challenging you to a fight, but we can go roll around tonight. And he's like, we kind of. Kind of head down rook way. You don't want to make eye contact. So then I said, sean, I don't think you even believe the shit you're saying. But if you believe that, then do a grappling match with me. We'll do a public grappling match. We'll do it for the public. We'll schedule it. I need to. And I said, I said that I didn't explain this detail, but like, you know, I need to get my cardio appropriate to do that.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So I needed, you know, eight week training camp the same way all fighters would. Like I said, you can't tap me, you're not going to tap me in a grappling match. And then he's, you know, he don't want to do that. So then we walk to the elevator, which by the way, when you go into a hotel, the natural place you would go is to the elevator.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

To go to your room. And then he takes the phone out when we're by the elevator. And then he totally, totally changes his Persona. And now he's a tough guy on camera.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's the video I saw.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, yeah, that's a video that's on the Internet that he wants to pretend to be a tough guy on camera. He's not a tough guy. He's just a bully. He's just a bully. That is interesting.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, that is very interesting that he wouldn't fight you because that for him, that should be pretty winnable.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

If he doesn't believe that I've done the work, then it should be super easy.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Like, I don't know his grappling experience, but I don't know.

[Derek Moneyburg]

He's had a black belt for over a decade.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Oh, okay.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I'm, I'm not saying that I. The guy up. I'm not even saying that. I'm saying I don't think you could tap me in five minutes. You want to say all this tough guy, like, you know, and I've tried to be a gentleman to him several times. There's things I respect about the guy. There are things that I like about the guy. And I think he just wants to talk for clicks and views and that's okay if you want to talk.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

But then when you get into the realm of, of seeing like disparaging things that are, that are bad for my reputation and bad for my business. Well, now you owe me money. Well, now you owe me money.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, he is pretty unfiltered. Gotta give it to him.

[Derek Moneyburg]

It's not just unfiltered.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

It's.

[Derek Moneyburg]

It's, you know, detached from reality at that point. The things that he's saying are they're just simply not true.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You can say you doubt my black belt. You can say that. Okay. But you can't say that I steal money from people. You're scammer, you're this, you're that. It's like, it's just not true.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, that one was interesting to me because most of the fighters seem to talk positively about you.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Almost everybody. Anybody that knows me well.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Exactly. So when I saw that one, I was like, the hell is going on there?

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

You know?

[Derek Moneyburg]

No, it's disappointing. I would have liked to have a different type of relationship with him, but I, I've tried that multiple times. I. I reached out to him previously, as I said, to ask for interview. I've reached out to him. When he, when he did talk about me publicly, I was, you know, I wrote him privately and tried to fix that. My coach, Jake Shields, forgave me the belt. Train at the same gym frequently. Randy Couture's gym. Shout out to Randy, Great, man. And, you know, Jake talked to him and said, you know, Sean, what are you doing? Like, you think I gave him a fake belt? You know, I didn't give him a fake belt. Continue to talk after that. When I see him in person, I'm not aggressive. I was a gentleman. I say, hey, I'd like you to take a minute to come talk with me. Will you talk with me for a minute, please? So you don't want. You don't do anything reasonable. He just wants to tell lies and spread lies and say disparaging things on the Internet.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's crazy. You think it's too late to mediate this through a mutual friend or you think it's kind of, you know, I've.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Tried four times, so I'm done trying. And that's going to be.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's a lot of times. Yeah, that's a lot of times.

[Derek Moneyburg]

That's going to be a legal issue for him. He said things that are damaging to my reputation and my company, and, you know, he owes me for that.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, we'll leave it there. Good luck with that, man. So the Craig Jones Invitational was last month. You got invited to that?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Well, Craig Jones, who also is very talented grappler. I don't want to say anything bad about his. I don't know what the rankings are, but I, I imagine he's, you know, top five in his weight division. He might be higher than that. So, yeah, for sure. Top 10, maybe top 5 in his weight division. I know he's very talented guy. I respect that about him. And he's a hell of a marketer and promoter. Yeah, it's an amazing marketer.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah. That event was sold out, I believe.

[Derek Moneyburg]

He does a great job with it. He used my name, by the way. He used. Oh yeah. To market the event. He used my image and my name without your consent.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah. Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I thought to myself the audacity of this, that it kind of in a good way, you know, I thought to myself, this guy is so audacious that he takes my image and my name and used it for all kinds of promotion of like Derek Moneyburg. Super fight. Never spoke to me before. We never had a conversation and I. And in that context I think to myself like, I'm just like, wow, this is the most audacious, shameless man. But he's also co branding me with the event and it's not necessarily a bad thing for me. So I'm like, yeah, I guess, I.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Guess it was a win win because you were at the talk of the town with the black.

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[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

About controversy and you probably helped him sell some tickets.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So no, you just piggybacked off of it. Yeah, he piggybacked off of that momentum that there was a trendy thing to talk about at the time. Yeah, I think to myself this guy is truly shameless. Which again, I'm not even saying it in an insulting way. I'm a little bit admire the audacity of this goofball to do this, you.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Know, so he didn't even Message you?

[Derek Moneyburg]

He just. Well then he messaged me later. What's his name? Gable Stevenson. My understanding, I don't, I don't follow all these things in detail. So my understanding is that Gable Stevenson pulled out of the fight that he was supposed to do with Craig. And then about eight days ahead, eight days before the event, seven, eight days, Craig Jones reaches out to me, he sends me a dm. I posted these on my Instagram recently. And maybe because Craig's done several slimy things. So like, you know, when people send me a private message, I've never, ever, ever published a private message, ever. Except for this one time. And that's because, you know, Craig wants to talk shit. He just, he's got another guy. He's a promoter. Clicks and views, great grappler. Not a very high integrity person in my estimation, but great grappler, great promoter, you know, give. Give credit for, for what it is. Yeah, there's things he's great at. Happy to give him credit for that, but yeah, he wrote me and he said, I'll bring the messages out and if you want to, I'll send them to you if you edit them into the video. Just for. If you feel like it, whatever's best for you.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

If he doesn't sue me, I'm gone.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Nothing to sue you for. It's just, you're just. So Craig reaches out to me, he says, want to have a match against me for cji? And he's like, legit, no joke request.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

What date was this?

[Derek Moneyburg]

August 23rd. Okay, August 23rd. And I said, you're a world class. These are my first words to him ever. You are a world class. I've been to Australia 11 times, so I know how hard it must have been to out compete all the other there. And he's like, he said, you know, yeah, I am an idiot.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

So he admitted it.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So we go on a little bit. He's like, either way, boss, you want some seats to the event, let me know. You're the talk of the town. I said, I'm in Europe until September 1st. The following weekend I'll be trading with Gordon and some of the guys at Kingsway. He says, gordon, my nemesis. Hahaha. Because they used to be in the same team and that team split. Okay. I said, when is your event next week? He says, event is August 31st, so that's eight days ahead of time in Vegas. I said, I'll be in Germany. He said, I've been thinking. He said, I keep thinking we have a match and you Beat me. Funniest ever. Socks on. Then I've never heard from again. Hahaha. And I said, you know, thank you for the invitation. I said, I'm a lot bigger than you, but you're much more experienced and very talented. Would be hard for me to beat you. I don't even think I can beat the guy, but super talented guy, one of the best in the world. He said, I just throw it. I just throw it. Haha. I mean, I have no idea how good you are. It's just hilarious. I said, well, you're a great promoter.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So I posted those publicly. If you want to, I'll send you the screenshot.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You think he was joking or serious?

[Derek Moneyburg]

I mean, if I took that, it would be written into a contract. If I accepted something like that, it would be written into a contract.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

He's not allowed to win. Or there'd be a liquidated damages clause that he owes me X dollars if he violated that agreement.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, because allegedly Jake Paul does some similar wording to that. Allegedly.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I've heard that. I don't know if that's true or not. I've seen Jake Paul. We've been in the same room together. I don't know the guy.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, it's. It's not real like boxing, I guess it's like exhibition, exhibition fights. So it's a little different.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, I've heard these things, you know, whatever anybody wants to say about him. I mean, that guy has done a hell of a job promoting himself. He's made a lot of money. He's helped other people make. So yeah, I hear different things about him. I don't know what's true or not true, but, you know, looks like he's doing pretty damn well for himself. Good for him.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I will always respect him. Even though, yeah, he's. He used to be one of the most hated people. He's still pretty hated, but he kind of channeled most of it, I feel like into, into success. So you got to respect that.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Right. Looks like he's doing good to me.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

So you didn't get the belt to get into fighting? You just did it as a side.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Well, that's a hobby. I never, there's, there's not a sound bite anywhere. I never said to my coaches, I never said on Instagram, I never said anywhere that like, like, Dude, I'm 46 years old. Who am I supposed to be? Beaten up? Yeah, I wanted to do that for my fitness. I wanted to do that because, like, I traveled a lot. I've been to 66 countries, I've traveled a couple million miles, more than 2 billion miles.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Holy.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I think to myself, you know, well, you know, in, in my 40s, I'm still, I'm a big guy, I'm pretty strong. Not a lot of people, you know, want to attack some guy you know my size.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

No.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You know, 20 years from now, is that still true? When you're 60 something, can you really protect yourself and your woman? When you're 60 something, you know, in some other country and you know, two or three young men want to mess with you, it's not realistic. If you don't have good fight training, that's just not realistic. You know, and I'd like to have the confidence when I'm an older man that I could protect myself, I could protect my woman, I could protect people that are, that I care about. So, you know, I was always interested in martial arts. I never did that when I was younger. So I was interested in the topic. It was good for my fitness. It's good for self defense. You know, it's something that shows discipline and commitment. So, you know, it's good for a co branded thing with my business in that way that it shows discipline and commitment. The same way entrepreneurship or other things require discipline and commitment.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So it was a good thing for me.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, I think a lot of wins came out of it, to be honest.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I think it was, it was very good for me. Some of the other, the people that are the high level in say UFC or the highest level fighters, there are some of the nicest and best and most honorable good people in the world. It's like the last enclave of people that are very sincere, hard working. They're exactly how they say they are, you know. Yeah. Like Leoto Machida or a guy like Hoist Gracie. It's exactly who he, who you think he is.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

It's very interesting how there's so many sports, but you're right, the fighters seem to have. I wonder if it's like the discipline or the work ethic that goes into it.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

The mindset.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I agree with that. And it's also, it's an individual sport. You know, if you're, if you're on a team where there's, you know, five people on the basketball court or 13 people in football or whatever it is. Well, then you can say, oh, you know, that guy should have done something different. No, it's you and one other person in a cage. It's you and one other person and it's, it's pretty clear what your skills are, you know, but yeah, you got.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

To take full accountability when you lose or mess up.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Some people don't. They still want to coach or something, but. Yeah, well, true, true. And yet that comment about the ref, just briefly, the Odo told me a story like this. Leoto Machida's one of the best strikers ever. Amazing guy, former UFC champion, multi time 205 pound division. And Leota says when he's a child, he started training really at birth, but he started official training when he was 4.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And you know, he said that he lost a tournament. I don't know if he's seven, eight years old. He lost some, some tournament, he lost a match. And he's in the car with his father driving home and he's upset about it. He say, the referee, blah, blah, blah. And he says, father pulls the car over. He said, lyoto, you never think this way again. Say you do better if you finish the guy. There's nothing to say about the referee. Gordon Ryan says the same thing. He's like, you know, there's no excuse for this shit. There should never be a referee decision. If you choke the guy and he taps, you're not worried with the referee.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Things, I love that.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Just be better. Just be better.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's great advice.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

That really sticks in my head of like in other areas of life. I think that really is the answer that if you, if you're a man, that if you're not happy with your current circumstances, then, then work harder and be smarter and make yourself a better man and you'll have better circumstances.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

How's the stock portfolio? I know the first time you came on, we talked about stocks a lot. You did a lot of this year very well overall.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So the, when there was a lot of, in April, there was a lot of turmoil around tariffs and you know, there was change in a lot of things in the economy.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So, you know, I got a good smackdown for a little while.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Then everyone got hit with that.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And that's life. Warren Buffett did too. So whoever wants to make fun of me on the Internet for that, like, that's how life is, guys. Like a stock market, the stock chart is not linear. It doesn't just go, didn't he.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Was that him that cash out everything or was that Bill Gates?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Oh, no, he, he did take a lot of liquidity before then. And he also didn't buy things when they were low, you know, and I've had an amazing return since then. But, you know, it's hard to argue with Warren. Warren's done. The only points where I can have real disagreement is, which is not to criticize what he's doing, but he's managing so much money that there's only certain things that are worth his while to invest in. He has a smaller basket of opportunities to invest in. He's not going to invest 5 million here or 10 million. It doesn't move the needle for him. It means nothing. Yeah, just his personal net worth is about 160 billion. So, you know, if he, if he can invest, there's opportunities available to me or to other people with, you know, a respectable net worth, but a much lower net worth than him that, you know, if I can spend 5 million and turn it into 15, that's a nice opportunity for me.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

If he spend five, but that might not be a big enough opportunity that he'd have to buy the whole company, you know.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

There's no liquidity for his investment size.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So he has that limitation. But yeah, he's done great. He's also been a, you know, a role model or inspiration to me. Amazing, amazing what he's accomplished.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I mean, I've heard great things from fighters that have been on the show about your, your, your stock, your stock picks.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I do very well.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Claudia spoke highly of you. Same with Jake. Are you investing in AI this year or are you kind of just thinking that's a fact.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You have to, you know, and a way that I've been thinking about it, just, just very honestly, I don't know. I'm not a heavy tech guy, you know, I'm not a guy that knows all the little technology things. I don't know coding. There's a lot of things I don't know about technology. So then I have to think about that in a different way. And I say, well, you look at Nvidia, the price is up so high, you know, it's hard to follow in there and think that you're going to multiply your money. You look at a lot of those type of companies. Palantir. I met Peter Thiel years ago.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Oh, yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I think he's one of the most brilliant people I ever spoke to. Seemed like a highly, highly intelligent person. I wish I would have bought that company. I didn't. And it's up 23x2 years. Crap, in less than two years, it's up 100%.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

So if you put a million, you'd be up 23.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Your million would be 23 million two years less than two years.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, look at the chart.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Same. Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So, you know, there's, there's opportunities like that that are, you know, loosely on my radar, but I don't, I don't feel confident enough to pull the trigger on that. I just don't know the technology well enough. So then I got to think about second and third order effects. So then you could look at companies like, say, Digital Realty Trust or, you know, Equinix that, you know, these are REITs, that they own the buildings where the servers are stored, where they have backup generators and redundant backup generators so their servers never lose power. They're air conditioned, everything is temperature controlled. They're going to have power no matter what, et cetera, et cetera.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Got it.

[Derek Moneyburg]

So, you know, but those companies have moved up a lot, too. So then I think, all right, I got to go further back on the food chain and think, or the supply chain technically, and say, well, what the hell? What's not overpriced yet, that has to go up later. And I, I think nuclear energy is a great place for that. So I bought URA recently because I'm not, I'm also an audience expert on nuclear energy. But if you want to build a nuclear plant, you need uranium. And I spent a lot of money on URA recently, which is just a uranium etf. And I bought the ETF because I'm sure there's some stock in there that's going to outperform the other ones. But I'm not a fucking nuclear scientist and I don't know every detail. So I'm just like, well, if I, if I own the uranium mines, all the, all this AI and Bitcoin, it takes so much electricity. Not, not just bitcoin, but the cryptocurrency and all the AI stuff takes so much electricity. You know, it's not possible with windmills, it's not possible with solar. We're already burning a good amount of natural gas. There's a lot of natural gas out there. They can burn more natural gas. You could, you could spin up more plants to burn natural gas. But if you're serious about having, you know, significant power, it's not going to be hydroelectric, it's not going to be windmills, it's not going to be solar, it has to be nuclear. And to build those nuclear plants, you need uranium. So I bought a bunch of the uranium mines because we're not there yet, you know.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And that's done very well in recent months. Well done.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You think, you think, like, way ahead of the curve, I'd say, you know, everybody's focused.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You'll understand this. You're, you're very smart and you'll get it. It's like everybody's so focused on the short term of what's going to happen this week, this month. It's hard for them to think past this quarter, and it's really hard for them to think past two quarters. And everybody's focused on the next six months with a heavy bias towards right now. And I think it's hard for me to compete in that space, that there's so much capital that goes into that short term thinking that I have to think about, well, what are they not focused on yet? That in a year or three is going to be very valuable. That's been a very good investment strategy. Me, I buy boring things. I'm not an exciting trendy guy with investments. I buy boring things like electricity and retailers and REITs and stuff. I buy very boring things that are just out of favor and underpriced. And I think, well, these numbers just don't make sense in the future. I think this has to do a lot better.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Well, electricity seems like a very safe play these days. My bill has doubled since I've moved to Vegas in four years.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You know, the, the, the thing about the. I think another good one, and I'm not, I'm not telling. Hey, if you don't understand the stock market, don't, don't buy these things. Not financial advice, guys. No. Yeah, but sincerely, I'm not a person who doesn't understand what they're buying, shouldn't buy it. I don't buy things that I don't understand.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I like that advice.

[Derek Moneyburg]

They don't understand what I'm talking about. Like, like, sincerely, please don't buy that. It's. You're not going to know when to sell that. If you don't understand what it is and how it works, you're going to find a way to mess it up. And I don't want you to mess up your money. So, I mean, I'm not just saying that. It's like a precaution for, you know, I'm not giving financial advice, but here's. Financial advice is like, no, it's dangerous, man. If you don't know what you're doing, probably you shouldn't do it.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You know, I'm the same way because people ask me for crypto advice. That's how I made my, my millions. And I, I never tell them what coins to buy, to be honest. Yeah, and they'll get mad at me if they lose money.

[Derek Moneyburg]

If, when things go well, it was there is because of them when things go bad, you, you won't even know.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

If you made the money. They won't tell you that. And if they lose even 5, 10%, you're going to get in calls and.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Texts and they're going to sell it at the exact wrong time. And then when it goes up later.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Then they're, then they're extra mad at you.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

By then the damage is done. They've already texted people that you're a scam and you gave them bad advice.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I teach people how to make better financial decisions and how to be a good independent thinker. What variables they have to think about and consider. I teach people how to think. Not exact specific stock picks.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I'm happy to talk about things that I own. I don't mind that at all. And, but that's just a case study is like, this is how I'm thinking about it. This is what I bought. This is why I bought it. This is what I think might happen. And sometimes I have to tell them I'm wrong. You know, And I don't mind doing that either because I, I don't, I don't know anybody that's super successful. That's like, you know, it's a hundred percent right all the time. It's like you're gonna have, that, you're gonna have little failures and you're gonna have little setbacks and like, that's life.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

No one shoots 100. But in stocks, the fact that you're even making money is abnormal. I think most people lose money on stocks.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Right.

[Derek Moneyburg]

People that buy individual stocks tend to lose money.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Same with crypto.

[Derek Moneyburg]

If you don't know what you're doing, you're, you'll, the momentum of the market is going to cause you to have irrational emotions or, you know, to have emotional, make emotional decisions rather than logical decisions. And you're, you're doomed if you're, if you're not thinking rationally, if you're not thinking more long term. And Italy, like, I strongly recommend you don't buy stocks. Like it's going to be bad people over leverage too.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's the big problem.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You know, people ask me about, a guy wrote me the other day, he's like, I got, you know, triple leveraged ETFs for this and this and this. And like, he's like, you know, I made so much money. And I'm like, yeah, but someday the market will go down 20%. That happens every, you know, 18 months, couple years. Something happens like, like the tariffs and the market goes down 20 ish percent. Happens all the time. Happens every, you know, couple years. And you know, and you'll be, you won't be down 20, you'll be down 60. And for most people, that's about the time that they liquidate.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And then, and then the thing goes up again, you know, and he's here. I don't even know the guy. It's just a random guy writing me and he's like, you know, yeah, man, but I made so much money, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, you poor thing, you know.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Like, you know, Buffett says like the, a couple times per century, the market's going to go down 50% or more. Chase and you know, for, for that guy. If the market goes down by 1/3, your account's at 0. You have a full liquidation.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, he'd be wiped out. Have you survived a swing like that before? 50%.

[Derek Moneyburg]

2000. I remember this. I was on Canal street in New Orleans, which is near the French Quarter.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I remember with one of my buddies, I won't say his name for his privacy, but we, we met maybe in 2006 or seven. And he was asking me about my investments. I started buying stocks in heavily in December 2008 and the market was just down, down, down. I bought a lot of casino stocks this time. Down, down, down, down. And you know, I kind of ran out of money where I was spending cash, I ran out of cash. I had assets, I didn't have cash. I was spending all that Money in through December 1st. And you know that I didn't have any more cash. And the market just kept. And the bottom was the first week of March 2009. At that time I was down. My portfolio was down 70%.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Holy shit.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I was down 70%. And I remember, I remember being in New Orleans with, with my buddy. He was broke at the time, or more or less. He was a young kid. He was in his early 20s. And he was smart, ambitious guy. And we were having a conversation. I remember this, this car drove by a Lamborghini. I don't give a. About sports cars. But I just made an example to him. Like the, the car probably costs four or five hundred thousand dollars, but yeah, I just lost that in the last ten days. You could have bought a couple of those. But instead my account's down 70%. Now if you fast forward a couple years, that got me from like 1 million to 4 million net worth.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That was you. How old do you survive that? You didn't liquidate losses?

[Derek Moneyburg]

No, well, no, but, you know, but I also had a bachelor's degree in business. I also studied a lot of things from Warren Buffett and some other investors. That. That's very uncomfortable. You don't feel good.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You don't feel good when you're down that much. And that was without leverage.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Wow.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And I've always thought about that. I don't, I don't like a lot of leverage. I don't have a lot of debt. I don't like to have a lot of debt because I. It's mathematically impossible to go bankrupt if you don't have debt.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's true.

[Derek Moneyburg]

It's impossible to go bankrupt. You at home should write that down. It's impossible to go bankrupt if you don't have debt.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

So. Do you use credit cards?

[Derek Moneyburg]

I mean, I pay it off every month. Yeah, I use credit cards. I pay the bill every month.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, I'm a fan of credit cards. Loans are where it gets tricky, though, you know, taking loans with high interest.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I don't. For what.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Have you done that before? For a house or anything?

[Derek Moneyburg]

I mean, I have normal mortgages, but even in properties I own, I don't have a lot of debt on it.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You put down a big percentage for the dollar.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You know, some people criticize that. And fairly. And fairly. This is a personal preference, in my opinion. I grew up poor and, you know, I grew up in a small house, 800 square foot, which was. My mom was a hoarder, my dad was a hoarder. The house was packed with stuff. My dad was in prison, so at least his stuff wasn't there. And, you know, my best friend lived in the trailer park that was basically in my backyard. There was a second trailer park at the end of the, the street. And I grew up around a bunch of white trash trailer park people. And you know, for, for me, I have enough money and, you know, I make enough money in my business, I have enough money in my, in my brokerage account that like, I just don't want a lot of debt on real estate. Like if it's personal, if it's things that I use. Now, I say it two different ways. If we bought a hotel, you and I go buy a hotel together or an apartment building or an office building, okay. Ideally, I'd like to own 0% and I'd like us to manage it well and have good cash flow, that the cash flow pays all the expenses and what we have is profit and we have 0% down. I'm not saying that structure is viable structure. I'm saying ideally, if we could buy a half a billion dollar building with 0% down and we only make 4% per year, but we have nothing to lose. You know, worst case, it's the bank's problem. If the economy tanks, it's not my problem or your problem, it's the bank's problem. Okay. So I think about that very differently than, you know, property that you use for yourself that's, you know, for your personal use or for your business use. I'd rather not have debt on that. I just don't want to have to think about it.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Okay.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And, and probably that's fear based thinking from my childhood. That's mostly true.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I could see that. Yes. You view your personal property as separate from a business investment. Basically.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I just think of them as different things. So, you know, if it's your personal house, I just rather, you know, own it or have, have little debt, have.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

The peace of mind.

[Derek Moneyburg]

If it's something I use for my business, you know, my studios and stuff, I own those properties. I have very little debt on that relative to their value.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

No, I could see that my, you know, my loved one, you know, moving house to house growing up was tough on her mentally, I think. So when we bought the house, I was like, yeah, I'll put down a lot because I know you want to be comfortable. You know, even though I didn't like, I'm gonna be honest, I like that stability.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And there's a fair criticism on the other side that somebody would say, like, if you're a good businessman, you should, your money should be in the markets, your money should be in your investments making you more money. That's a fair argument.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I think it's a personal preference that if you have a strong appetite for more risk and you're, you're willing to tolerate the volatility of maybe losing your, all your properties and moving into a shitty apartment somewhere.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Okay.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah, if you like. Okay. Like I, I'm just a little less risk averse. I'm not trendy, I'm not, I don't like a lot of, again, I don't buy trendy stocks. I buy boring things. I like safety and security.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, well, you're at the point now where you're just living off the, the interest of your, your investments, right?

[Derek Moneyburg]

I make good money from my business. My business pays the bills and you know, they put some money away every month from the business. Yeah. I make more money with that. And in the future, if I don't want to run that business.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Okay.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Then my investments can pay for my life.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I don't have to do anything I don't want to.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

That's awesome. That's where I want to be in a few years. I want to probably have. I think I calculated it. 20 mil liquid is where I need to be to live off. I think what, 7% a year off that?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yes. 1.4. Minus inflation.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, I think I could do that with 20 mil.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I mean, you'd be spending, you know, 60, 70, 000amonth if you. Depending how you want to think about inflation. Right.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah. I spend 40 right now without kids, so I think I factored in another 15. 20 with kids.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You know, so 20 mils where I need to.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

On a puppy or something.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I. I got two puppies. Those are expensive too, but not as much as kids. But I feed my dogs like raw meat and it's pretty expensive. It's like a thousand a month, I guess.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Lucky dogs for them. Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

No tap water for them either. They drink out of glass.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I even drink.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You do?

[Derek Moneyburg]

I even drink.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I'm surprised. Do you know what's in there?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Maybe if I knew, I wouldn't drink tap water. I don't know.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

I'll have to educate you, man.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I know when I go through the airport here, this is the most true thing you've ever heard in your life. Okay. I go through the airport, I fly twice a week. I'm always flying somewhere and I bring about four empty bottles with me.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Derek Moneyburg]

And then, then I'll go through security and go fill the bottles up in the lounge on the other side and you know, put cold water in the bottles.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

It.

[Derek Moneyburg]

My brain can't fathom that I'm going to pay $6 for a bottle.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

I hate it.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

No matter how much money I have, still paying that airport water fee is insane to me.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I can't do it. $8 pay, is it?

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, it's 8 bucks for a plastic water bottle.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I don't.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Some of them 10. Depends on the airport.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Yeah.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

You're hurt.

[Derek Moneyburg]

You're giving me a heart pill.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Why do you travel twice a week? That's a lot.

[Derek Moneyburg]

I'm always traveling to meet clients and you know, I have business conference here this weekend. I'll go to the gym here with you. Then I got my conference and just non stop stuff.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

So you got events everywhere?

[Derek Moneyburg]

I do events about half a dozen times per year. So I do about six Six events, four days each per year. And then I'll do like one on one client meetings, like, you know, weekend after weekend to go do one on one meetings with the clients and help them with their specific, you know, whatever investment or business problems or either counselor that weekend or whatever's on their mind that I could help with.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Got it. So you're doing a lot of coaching?

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Okay, that's cool, man. Well, where can people find your coaching, find your, your social media and everything?

[Derek Moneyburg]

Well, I think fun thing, if you looked up, you know, Derek Moneyburg on Instagram, you'll find some fun stuff on there. And that's a pretty, pretty good way to get an understanding of, you know, who I am or what's going on. There's a lot of stuff on YouTube as well. So, you know, Derek D E R E K Moneyburg B E R G And yeah, I mean, I think, you know, just if you want to get rich quick, I can't help you with that. You know, that's. I'm not the right person to help you get rich quick. I didn't get rich quick. I didn't did anything so quick, you know, but if you're willing to put in the work and learn the fundamentals that you can make independent decisions and understand how the pieces work, I think you could do very, very well over time. And I like to help somebody that thinks like that.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Such a breath of fresh air to hear that take on social media, you hear the opposite.

[Derek Moneyburg]

That's what sells in the short term and that's what gets clicks and views and sells. And it's really unfortunate because there's a lot of young people that they don't know any better and then they hear that and then, you know, then they mess up what they do have. You know, it's really unfortunate that, you know, you're not going to gain 20 pounds of muscle overnight. You're not going to get your butt built overnight. You're going to be a millionaire overnight. You know, later in life, there's days I made a few million dollars in a day, but that took 40 years of me thinking about it and strategizing and doing the right thing is before those there's times I've lost $2 million in a day, but you're, you know, later on you can make a million dollars in a day on occasion, or a few. Warren Buffett, well, you know, on a random day that the market's up or down, you know, 2%, that's $3 billion to him.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Totally.

[Derek Moneyburg]

He's up 3 billion or down 3 billion. And you don't think anything of it because it's every day.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

You know, he still drives the same car.

[Derek Moneyburg]

He's 95 years old.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Yeah, that same shitty car.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Good for you, Warren. I know you're watching right now.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Shout out to Warren Buffett, Legend, man. Well, thanks for coming on, man.

[Derek Moneyburg]

Hey, thanks for inviting me again.

[Host (possibly Derek's interviewer or podcast host)]

Check him out, guys. Peace.

[Sponsor or ad reader]

I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm.

[Co-host or secondary interviewer]

Thank you.