Invest Like a Pro: Claudia Gadelha's Winning Strategies | Claudia Gadelha DSH #777

Athletic career to something else, right?

And I went through that three years ago, and it was, you know, try to be very strong because it is very hard.

And I talk to retired athletes all the time, and it's very challenging, you know, like I tell people all the time, like an athlete dies twice.

You die the day you retired, and then you die later in life when you lose your life, yeah.

All right, guys, former UFC fighter that grew up in Brazil.

Claudia, thanks for coming on.

Yeah, my pleasure, man.

What was that like in Brazil for how long were you there?

It was rough, rough.

I grew up in one of the most challenged parts of Brazil, the northeast.

Grew up in a very

humble, traditional family.

And I saw my parents struggling to raise five kids, you know, and in Brazil, you know, everybody does soccer and trains in jiu-jitsu, you know.

And

i started training in jiu-jitsu as a kid and i saw an opportunity to change my life and change my family's pattern of life and i decided in a very young age that i was gonna

go through that path yeah

um when i was 14 years old i was like fully committed to jiu-jitsu but there was not a lot of money in jiu-jitsu.

Like it was very hard to build a career in jiu-jitsu.

So then I saw a lot of people in my gym moving outside of

that town to go train MMA.

And I understood that that was the path.

I didn't want to get hit in the head.

I didn't want to go through everything you go through in an MMA career.

And I had like this love for Jiu-Jitsu and for the philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu.

But I was committed to change my life and change my family's pattern of life.

And I decided to go fight MMA.

and I'm talking about a time where women was not in a UFC yet right so I made that decision right there so I'm a pioneer in the sport of MMA when I made it to the UFC I was in the first ever straw weight fight in the UFC history so like I launched a division in the UFC back in 2014 and spent almost 10 years fighting for the UFC and now I work for the company so

a lot of struggles to get here.

And,

you know, I watch people that grew up with me and people that didn't make the right decisions in their lives back then.

And they're still there, right?

And my life just has changed so much

from being like very dedicated from a very young age and making the right decisions throughout my life.

Did you move your family over here too?

They don't want to move here.

Oh, really?

No, they don't.

They don't like America?

They don't speak English.

You know, it's hard for them to to you know drive here, to communicate here.

So they don't want to move here.

But they have a really good life in Brazil.

You upgraded them to the the penthouse.

Yeah, yeah.

This is one of the things I'm most proud of, you know, because it's it's not even about the things you achieve throughout having uh

through like I had a really challenging life growing up in Brazil, then moving to the favelas in Rio de Janeiro to be able to make it all the way way to the UFC without any help.

My family couldn't help me or support me, you know.

And just seeing my family now living the life I dreamed about, it's one of the best things that could have happened in my life, you know, because like, yeah, like the money I made was good in my career.

Like I learned how to invest my money, which is one thing that most athletes don't learn throughout their career.

And I learned that in a very young age that I needed to learn how to invest my money and

leverage the money I was making and fighting.

But like

what really matters is it's the person I became on the way of chasing those things for my family and for myself.

I'm very proud of the person

I became throughout those years.

Yeah, so you had to grow up quick.

Yeah, I had.

At 14, I was like fully committed to jiu-jitsu and MMA.

So did you drop out of school, just go full-time?

No, I actually went.

I went to college.

I have a law degree.

Oh, Oh, wow.

Yes.

Holy crap.

So while I was fighting the highest level in the UFC, I was going to college.

Geez, so two full-time jobs per second.

Yes.

And a lot of people are making fun of me.

My friends in the gym, you know, the fighters that were also fighting in the UFC, they were all making fun of me because I was doing both.

They were like, oh, you're not going to get anywhere trying.

do two different careers like that but i was fully committed to that no distractions no addictions no partying with friends, like none of that.

Like my entire life,

I haven't done that.

When I retired, I decided to go try drinking and then go out and stuff, but I was like, no, this is not for me.

This is not me.

Oh, so you didn't drink your whole,

what, 25 years, first 25 years, pretty much?

Yeah, so I started at 14 till now.

living a high performance life, you know, and it's very hard to transition from professional sports to anything else, right?

Like you build the whole life learning skills in your career.

And then by the time you're 30 and 35, somebody tells you, hey, now, guess what?

Forget everything you did, go do something else.

You got to go live a whole different life now.

That's why we see a lot of athletes depressed and

killing themselves.

I know so many athletes that killed themselves and took their lives because it's so hard to transition from an athletic career to something else right and i went through that three years ago and i was you know i tried to be very strong because it is very hard and i talk to retired athletes all the time and it's very challenging you know like i i tell people all the time like an athlete dies twice you die the day you retired and then you die later in life when you lose

life.

Yeah.

So yeah, tough life.

I could see that though, because you get wrapped up in your identity as being that person and then it's all gone.

And then what do you do now?

Yeah, imagine like a medical doctor, right?

You go to

like you go to college and to residency for like, well, almost like 14 years of your life.

So imagine like

midlife, somebody take your degree and just tell you, hey,

go do something else.

everything you studied for, everything you were passionate about, everything you have always dreamed about now it's gone go do something else you know this is kind of like what an athlete goes through because you put your whole life mind soul tears blood in there and then when you get to like mid-30s you're done and you have to do something else so it's very very challenging yeah luckily you had the law degree to fall back on though right so you kind of transitioned easier than most people yeah and like the reason why i got a good job in the ufc the ufc is because I have

a good background.

I know, you know, like most athletes from where I'm from, they barely know how to use a computer.

They're not very educated, and I educated myself because I was thinking about the next thing.

You know, so I only only three fighters ever retired from the UFC and worked for the UFC, and only one female, and I am the one.

So only one girl ever retired from fighting fighting and worked for the UFC.

I have a pretty good position in there helping the community, helping jiu-jitsu, helping MMA and I get a lot of joy from that.

That's incredible.

So Daniel Cormier is the other one, right?

He works for ESPN.

Oh, ESPN.

So Forrest Griffin and Mino Tauro are the other two.

Okay, that's cool.

What type of law did you specialize in?

So in Brazil, you go to law school to decide what you're going to do next, right?

Like there are seven things you can do after you finish law school.

And I wanted to be a federal agent.

Whoa.

That's why I went to law school because in order to become a federal agent in Brazil, you have to go to law school first.

So I didn't want to be a lawyer.

I didn't like study law to follow that path to become an attorney.

I just wanted to be a federal agent.

You want to be a Fed.

I wanted, but you know, my MMA career worked pretty well and I took that path.

So you didn't like criminals and there was probably a ton of those where you grew up.

So that left the impression on you.

A lot, yeah.

I grew up seeing you know a lot of crime, a lot of

girls getting raped, and people getting um

almost killed.

You know, my gosh, the favelas in Brazil are rough.

I've heard about them, yeah.

They're very rough, anything goes over there, right?

Everything, yeah, anything happens, and I saw that a lot of that growing up, and that's when I made the decision of like whatever it takes in my life to get out of this and build a life for myself, I'll do it.

And that was my thought in tough fights, you know, like when I, when I, when I was in bad situations, in fights, I was always thinking about the main purpose and changing my life and changing my family's not life.

And that's what made me hang in there, you know, because I've never been finished in the UFC.

Oh, yeah.

But I had a fight where I was like,

my mind was telling me that I was ready to quit, like, just quit, quit, like, tap, get out of here.

But then I kept telling myself, you know, no, like, you can do more.

Like, stand in here, stay, you can do this.

And, you know, I lost the fight, but one in life.

Yeah, yeah.

You're like the female Cheeto Vera.

Yeah.

That guy never died.

But yeah, like South America is like a rough area to grow up in, right?

Yeah.

We see so many good athletes coming out of that area.

That's true.

Look at Charles Oliveira, Jose Aldo, you know, like all those guys, they grew up pretty rough.

And then when you grow up like that, I feel like

just

like anything that happens in your life is just like another challenge, you know, because you already went through so many challenges growing up, which is different than growing up in America, you know?

Yeah, very different.

Being poor in America is different than being poor in Brazil.

That's one thing you can't teach, though.

You can't.

Because there's a lot of fighters that grow up in money and they pay for coaches, but they don't have that fire.

Exactly.

That fire of like, I have to hang in here.

I got to stay here because I got to change my life.

Like a lot of fighters, they get like knocked out and get concussions and get injured fighting, literally fighting for $10,000, $20,000 because that money will change their lives.

Wow.

Here in America, not so much because you have so many opportunities.

Yeah, 10K here is...

nothing is nothing two months of rent when i learned that you know when i learned that you could make money with other things other than fighting in america i was like hey wait let me learn that

let me learn that white people skills because i want to i want to make that kind of money that's where derek moneyberg comes in shout out to derek yeah how did you how did you two meet we met in a fight actually you know he came up to me and and he was talking about business i was like hmm interesting this guy is pretty confident like

I'm curious about him, you know, and we did an interview together and I was amazed by, you know, how smart he he is and the way he looks at investments.

And I was already investing my money when I met him,

but he just taught me like a different level of investing and making money.

He really taught me how to go make money in America.

I was investing in real estate and a little bit in the stock market, but then he just gave me a whole idea of what to do next and how to you know, create businesses and stuff.

So now I do a lot of other different things other than my job in the UFC because of that guy yeah your money's working for you now right yeah yeah and very few people get to that position yeah exactly so like I like my job but I I

I'm not too attached to because my money is working for me right so I have the freedom of like oh hey if I don't like that if it's not serving me I can go do something else I like because my money is good my money is working for me it's a pretty good position to be in yeah who do you have as your your goat for female fighters?

Greatest of all time?

I think Ronda Rousey, she kind of changed the game for us.

I was training very hard in Brazil, getting beat up by boys all the time.

Oh, you trained with boys?

Yeah, because when I was fighting, there was no girls in the UFC.

So, like, think about it.

Gyms didn't have a lot of girls training either.

I was the only girl in the gym.

Wow.

I grew up training with Jose Aldo, Henan Barral, Josiah Formiga, like guys that made it to top contenders or champion level in the UFC.

And I was getting beat up by those guys, like my entire life, you know.

Jose Aldo is beating up grown men and you're fighting them.

Yeah, I trained with him a lot.

And he was a big inspiration for me

too.

But

Rhonda just changed the game, you know?

Like, she showed everybody that

in order to be a good athlete in the MMA world, you have to be a product, not just a good fighter.

And that's when I learned how

I told myself right there, hey, I gotta go learn English.

I gotta go talk to fans.

I have to learn how to be a product that the UFC can't sell because fighting alone will not do the job.

And she kind of showed that to all the girls.

And then

I started training before her, actually, but she went in there and showed the world that you have to be a badass, but you also have to be a product.

And when I learned that, everything kind of changed for me as well.

Yeah, you see all the top fighters and boxers have that personal brand aspect to them.

Yeah, yeah.

Personal branding is everything, right?

Like, if you understand marketing, sales, and that you are a personal brand, like, you're going to make a lot of money.

Yep.

Sean O'Malley is a good example of that.

He is.

He's crushing.

I think he's the...

best personal brand, like best active personal brand in MMA today.

Agreed.

Yeah, him and I know Sean Strickland's controversial.

He has like a cult following.

I know you're not a fan of him.

I like him, you know, like he's, I, well, I trained at extreme couture.

I spent a lot of time on the mats with him, you know, like we cool with each other.

Like I always talk to him and stuff.

I just don't like the way he talks to people.

I don't like this stuff.

And listen, that's his type of marketing.

You know, like I am more...

humble, philosophical.

I respect the art.

So I don't like the trash talking too much.

I don't like humiliating people.

I don't like that part of the game, but I understand, you know, that's another way of building your brand and making money.

Yeah.

McGregor did it.

He did.

And he made hundreds of millions of dollars because of it.

So

smart guy.

Yeah.

Is that your goal, 100 million?

I'm working on

being a decca millionaire right now.

I have a couple million already, and it's crazy, right?

Like Derek always makes fun of of Guys when we are together because he goes like little girls out there are outworking a lot of men out there you know because I work very hard and you know I try to use my brain not just my body yeah you know and and I made you know a couple million dollars amazing not only from fighting you know like using my brain and investing the money I was making in fighting you know I got to the point where I had nine houses nine properties and I built an Airbnb business and I started selling my houses this year because I fell in love with the stock market.

I was like, oh, I don't have to deal with tenants.

I don't have to deal with maintenance.

I don't have to deal with all of the things that come with rental properties.

So I'm just going to invest in the stock market.

So I still have six houses, but

selling them slowly to put all my money in the stock market and go do other fun things, help other people.

I love helping other people as well.

So that's where I'm at.

That's incredible.

Congrats on that.

That's beautiful.

Not many female fighters reach that wealth.

I know.

You could probably count on one hand.

True, true.

And you see, I see that.

I see girls that

like they beat me in fighting, but I beat them in life.

You know, I go like, okay, you beat me in there, and that was an opportunity for me to make some money, but then you made the wrong decision with the money you made by beating me.

And

I made the right decision, you know?

So

I really focus in like the four core values in life, which is wealth, health, right?

Like, I'm very big in health, relationships, and career, you know.

I'm very focused on those areas of my life, and I try to put all my energy into those things because I feel like if you got those four now,

you're going to be happy and fulfilled.

Yeah.

Two million goes a long way in Brazil, too.

It does.

You guys are probably living like kings out there.

Yeah.

I remember when I went to like Jamaica with like 100 grand, it was like a lot.

You know, I was like a millionaire over there at the time.

Yeah, Jamaica is pretty rough, too.

Yeah, yeah, it was very rough.

I think $1 there is like $13 or something crazy.

Oh, wow.

That's pretty good.

Is Brazil like that?

Like, how much is a dollar worth in Brazil?

Almost six.

Oh, six?

Almost six realities.

Yeah.

So it's pretty good.

Yeah, a quarter mil here is a millionaire over there.

Yeah.

Nice.

That's cool.

Do you go back there often?

I don't go too much.

I try to go to see my family.

And

I miss the culture a little bit.

But I love the way

America thinks about business and responsibilities and

the accountability.

I love the way business is here.

that I want to be in this environment more.

I had the chance of going to Florida when I moved to America and I was like, okay, I'm going to be around a lot of Brazilians.

And if I'm trying to learn a new language and and learn all the things that happens in this country, I want to be in a place where I can learn, you know, so then I moved here, you know.

Yeah.

So

I go to Brazil sometimes to see my family, but I just love America.

I love Vegas too.

Yeah, I do too.

It's hard to be Vegas.

It is.

And you know what?

Like, I think Vegas, in my opinion, is one of the healthiest places you can be.

As crazy as it is, because people come here to go to the strip.

But outside of the strip, we have great gyms.

We have a lot of athletes, a lot of business people that are high performers.

So they train.

Look at Dina.

The guy is a killer in the gym.

He takes care of his health and stuff.

You do too.

I watch you, Instagram.

You're always in the gym, always taking care of yourself.

So I feel like if you're in Vegas doing business, you are a high performer in everything that you do.

So you're taking care of your health.

Like great jiu-jitsu gyms, great places to go do martial arts, great athletes to to surround yourself with, healthy restaurants, and you know, just people looking to be healthy and making money.

Make money here.

I agree, though.

I know it's a controversial take because people assume Vegas, you party and drink and go out, but I don't even go out.

Me neither.

I probably go to the strip like four times a year.

Yeah, I barely go to the strip.

Only for like a business meeting, honestly, or a conference.

And business here is great, right?

Great.

Every time I go to a UFC or PowerShop event, the people I meet, phenomenal.

Yeah.

You know, it's so nice.

Like, and there's always a conference here or an event Derek's always hosting dinners or whatever so it's just always good people shout out to Vegas man yeah it's slept on people always say LA Miami but I got Vegas over those me too and it's not too expensive to live here not at all estate taxes yeah I just got my first house nice yeah congrats trying to get like you get to six yeah you want to invest in real estate I want to have a couple houses in a couple cities yeah that's nice yeah that's when i started was kind of like that because i i bought a house in rio I was living in Rio and I moved to America.

I didn't know it was going to like make the move so fast, but I lost a fight and I was getting injured so much.

And when I was living in Brazil, like we had no clue what

recovery is.

I was killing my body all the way throughout to like my 25th year birthday.

I was like killing my body.

So then when I understood that I could have a healthier life,

I moved here

and I just started to

understand how everything worked here.

So then I rented my house in Rio and

was rented in Airbnb.

And then when I moved here, I rented a house here in Vegas and I was going to New Jersey to train with Frank Key Edgar over there.

And the house I was renting here,

I put a listing on Airbnb.

So when I was in New Jersey, my house was rented here.

I was paying my rent and making money with that house.

I was like, wait, now I got my house in Brazil making me money.

Yeah.

And then now I got a house that I rented in Vegas that it's also making me money.

Wait a minute.

Let me buy houses, you know?

This is how everything started.

Like, I didn't have anybody advising me what to do.

I just knew I had to invest my money because I wasn't just going to, you know, make that money.

I was making fighting, multiply, doing that thing, you know.

Yeah, that's smart though, because 80% of athletes go broke.

True.

So the fact that you have that mindset early on is great.

Yeah, I think if you waited, it would have been tougher, right?

Yeah, if I waited by now, like can you imagine now retired at 35,

not having a job, not having any money, I would kill myself.

It'd be tough, man.

So you were locked in.

Were you even dating like when you were locked in?

No, you gave up dating completely?

Well, I was so focused on fighting, like fighting and

like building a life for myself, you know.

So, not a lot of dating in my life.

Wow.

Because those are like, for a woman, their 20s and 30s, those are like prime years for dating.

Yeah.

But I was focused on, you know, making money and building a career for myself.

That's respect, though.

And that's why you are where you are.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

Now I can go date

and go do whatever I want.

I must be tough, though, because you got money.

So a lot of these guys, you're richer than.

Ah, I don't even like it's very hard for me to

even to have a conversation with the guy you know because

you know

it's very hard to operate in the level I operate in right very hard to like think the way I think and and do things the way I do so like most guys that try to talk to me I just I have no patience like dude like

like please don't talk to me because it it's uh it's it's complicated it's intimidating from a from a point of view of a man when a woman is this successful as you this confident you know this experienced like i'd be pretty intimidated yeah so i could see why they're striking out and i can beat them up too yeah like imagine that like yeah i'm good on that

um what's the next thing you're working on right now so i built a coaching business and um i'm doing weight loss challenges but like you know people love short-term results.

Yeah.

You know, so the weight loss challenge is kind of like the

catchy part of people getting into my business to work with me because I have a couple of coaching certifications and I became a high performance coach.

And I work with athletes too that are retiring from fighting.

And I work with business people.

Like I have a client that is a CEO of a public traded company.

I work with bank

managers and stuff.

I draw in a lot of business people that want to operate in a high performance level and I help them to build their physique and to have a strong mindset and to change their mentality and just block out the noise and go do what they want to do in life.

And I got people went through those weight challenges where, you know, people want short-term results.

So then they come in and, you know, we go through four weeks of a whole transformation where we talk about values, goal setting, a high-performance life when it comes to fitness, recovery, nutrition.

I also talk about investing in personal finances, which most people in this country are totally lost about that.

It's very impressive to

talk to people and see how they don't want to talk about money.

They don't want to look at money.

They just want to work and

they think that one day they will be okay with a life just like that.

And I always say that, hey, if you're not assessing, you are just guessing in any area of your life.

If you're not assessing your fitness, you're not going to achieve the exact numbers you want to achieve when it comes to weight, body fat, muscle mass, all that stuff.

Finances is the same thing.

If you're not assessing your numbers and understanding...

where you want to go and what you want to achieve, I want to become a decamillionaire.

So I have a plan, right?

Most people don't have a plan to retirement.

They don't even know how much money they need to retire, right?

So I like talking about the core viral as I was talking about just to help people to understand that being in shape takes a lot more than physical capabilities and the idea of i gotta go work out if i if your finances are not doing well you might eat your emotions and no not go to the gym because you don't feel inspired and motivated you know so like everything wraps around choosing to live a high performance life because you have a purpose you have a motivation now you understand your finances well you understand your health well now you can go to the gym and have peace and clarity around where you're going in life I love that yeah it's almost like a full circle yeah yeah

and you need that yeah you look like a high performer guy right like yeah I take everything serious health finances mindset all that do you agree you need everything because if you don't sleep well it's gonna affect everything so you need everything exactly they so do you agree with the if you're not assessing you're guessing yeah yeah i'm i'm pretty data driven I track my sleep I track my blood tests I track a lot of stuff because you don't know if you're gonna get better by just guessing exactly that's that's my whole point like most people think oh they guess about what's gonna be next or what their future will look like but um

It's not gonna be like the way they're thinking if they just keep doing the same things and don't change things around and don't look at the numbers.

Yeah, you can't do that.

Yeah, and a lot of people are scared to talk about numbers, but I think it's needed.

Yeah, it is.

It is.

My parents never talked about numbers.

you know.

And I think when I have kids, I'll probably be pretty open if they ask.

Yeah,

I think you should.

I think

school should teach kids about, you know, investing, like putting some money in SP 500 funds.

Like, you know, like start at your 20s, put $200 in there.

Buy SP 500.

By the time you're 70, you're going to have a million dollars in there.

Saving $200.

So like

it's so easy to save $200 if you pay attention.

I wish I did that when I was in my 20s, you know?

So like every time I see a 20-year-old person, I go like, hey, go buy S ⁇ P 500s, like do something.

The compound on it, right?

Yeah.

7% a year.

Yeah, you can't, like, it's up to like 12 now.

Damn, 12 a year?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, with inflation now, 7 isn't really enough.

7% a year.

You can't even beat inflation.

Yeah.

Inflation and then just everything's going up.

It's crazy.

They're printing non-stop.

They're printing non-stop money.

It's crazy.

But, you know, if you understand what's going on and choose the right investments, and like my portfolio is 70% up this year.

Damn.

70%.

70?

Uh-huh.

Sign me up for that.

70%.

And, you know, shout out to Derek because he helped me, you know, in the beginning to choose the right stocks and understand how to analyze the stocks.

And I own a lot of the stuff he owns, and his portfolio is like over 100%

Oh my gosh.

He said he's going to have 100 million in a few years.

Yeah, I bet that guy would be a billionaire.

I could see it because he's pretty young still.

40s.

He's 45.

Yeah, he's still got a good workout ever.

Shout out to Derek, man.

It's good to have a mentor like that.

It is.

Important.

Very good.

I love coaches.

I think coaches need coaches.

I still have fighting coaches because I still train jiu-jitsu.

I don't train MMA anymore because I don't want to get hit in the head.

I did that so much that I don't want to just, I don't want to do it just for fun, you know, but I still train a lot of jiu-jitsu.

and now I've been training jiu-jitsu for 21 years so I just love it so much it kind of like

restructure you your brain you know and teaches you how to deal with hard stuff you know by the time it's 10 a.m.

and I get to work, I already got choked out a few times.

Somebody already twisted my arms in different ways.

Work is easy at that point.

Anything that happens during my day is easy because I already did the

hard stuff.

So

yeah, I love that.

So I love training in Jiu-Jitsu and I still do a lot.

And I have a coach for Jiu-Jitsu.

I have a coach for my finances.

I have coach for my mind.

And I just love that idea of having people that have done what you want to do and just

have them in your life to help you to go where you want to be.

Absolutely.

I got coaches for everything.

I got a sleep coach.

I got a breath work coach, business coach.

health coach.

I mean, it just saves so much time.

Yeah.

So much time.

You can achieve so much more.

People think that they're going to waste your money.

No, you're going to make more money.

You're going to make way more.

Way more money.

Yeah.

People have the wrong mindset when it comes to investing.

Yeah.

Like, you shouldn't see it as you're giving them money.

You're making, you're saving so much time because they took 10, 20 years to learn all that stuff.

You're making it back quick.

Yeah.

You know?

Where can people find you and what you're up to next?

So I'm on Instagram.

Instagram is my biggest platform.

I'm working on other stuff to, you know, put my word out there more, help more people, you know, because

when I talk about coaching and my challenges, you know, when I started thinking about retirement, I wasn't sure if I was gonna find something that brought me the same amount of joy fighting that and something that challenged me the same

way fighting that, you know.

And I love my job in a UFC, I love what I'm doing there, but coaching people and helping people break through fear and changing their mindset and getting shape and getting ripped it's really what gives me a lot a lot of joy so I wanna I want to help more people to get to that point in life because you a high performer tell me if it's not good to operate in the highest level possible

like closing the gap between the person you are now and the person you have the potential to be is one of the most challenging things in the world but also it's one of the most rewarding things in the world there's nothing compared to that so i love that, and I'm working on getting more of that out there so I can help more people to achieve that high-performance life as well.

Awesome.

We'll link your stuff below.

Thanks for coming on.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

That was super fun.

I'll see you tomorrow.