Wondering what some of the top marketing experts are all about? Today Jessica sits down with Elena Cardone to talk all things business, family and her brand new book.
Elena Cardone on Entrepreneurship, Marriage, & Motherhood
Jessica: Well, I am very excited to be here with you today. I have Elena Cardone with Cardone Enterprises, Cardone Capital, 10X. They are unbelievable. You are one of my mentors for sure. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I loved your book, Build An Empire.
Elena: Thank you.
Jessica: One of the things that I love about your book was you’re not afraid to talk about the feminine energy that women have and should use in their entrepreneurship and in their marriage. And so when I was reading this book, I was expecting you to talk about the steps you and Grant took to build your massive business that you have today.
Almost a billion dollars in real estate investments…
Elena: $1.4 billion assets under management. We beat our goal!
Jessica: That is awesome! Congratulations.
But I expected the book to be about the business steps you took, but it was really about how you do that as a couple and the dynamics of being the woman in that partnership. And I loved that because nobody is ever talking about that, right? So can you talk about, we have a big audience of women entrepreneurs and network marketers, huge amounts of women that are looking for that guidance as to how to build a business with their spouse, without feeling like they are in their spouse’s shadow.
And you talk about building a business as if you’re building as a team.. So can you speak to that piece of it and that portion that you talked about in your book?
Elena: Yeah, the thing that Grant and I have that’s really worked and helped us catapult each other to the next level is letting go of that male, female kind of role. Like in the beginning of our marriage I was always in competition with him and I think it was because I’ve always been in competition with in my life. Like I compete against myself, I compete against everyone. But it wasn’t until we discussed our vision and who we are as a couple, that things started to change.
Who do we represent? Who am I as Elena Cardone and who am I as Elena Cardone married to Grant Cardone, and how can we merge the two? And vice versa for him as well. And once we got our mission so big and the cause of what we both are trying to achieve, we understood that in order to achieve a mission that big, it can’t be done solo.
Jessica: Yeah, I love that.
Elena: I mean, it’s impossible to build an empire solo, whether you’re in a platonic relationship or not. I’m not telling the single people you have no chance, but I’m telling the single people, yes, you can be single and build an empire, but you’re going to have to include other people at some point. You are going to have to expand and build. No one’s ever done it by themselves. It’s impossible.
Things expand. Things have expanded. No one can stay there. So it was very important for me to really look at us as how can we, now that we’re married and in a union, work together.
Like what is a marriage? Is it just about monogamy? That’s what I thought it was. I thought marriage was just about monogamy and I’m going to have fun and I’m going to be friends with him, but I didn’t understand what a marriage should be.
Jessica: That partnership piece?
Elena: Right. But that’s when I discovered that there’s more to this than just a monogamous, hands holding on the sofa and watching TV thing. Once I realized that real love is helping someone achieve their goals and their dreams, and by doing so they are going to love you forever, that’s what makes me happy.
Overcoming obstacles toward a known goal and having wins and successes with a partner that stands by your side and is willing to battle for you and defend you. That pleases me better than just the handholding couch moments.
Jessica: I love that. I think that’s amazing.
Elena: Yeah! So when we stopped competing and fighting each other and really focused on the big picture and the mission and who we are together, who do we represent together? Once I had the cognition of, well, “what is our couples goals?” No one ever told me about couples goals. It was always me, me, me, me. My whole life was. Everything had to depend on me. I had to be this independent woman. I have to do everything myself.
That was my mindset and then suddenly I had to shift and go, “Okay, let somebody in who can actually help me and push me and we push each other.” And just that one little shift of getting the purpose and the mission so big that we no longer had time to play small and fight each other or have a power struggle of male/female.
It forced us to join. And the minute we had that one little shift it just blows the top off for the ‘volcano’ and just let you go. It’s the little things.
Jessica: I love that you said that because for those that know my story that are watching this as well, very similar experience. I know you were super successful, very driven, worked on some TV shows and were an actress and just very driven in you’re pre-Grant life, and to come into a business and a partnership with someone who is already successful it can be tough.
I felt the same way with Ray, and it took that just one little tweak that you’re talking about, that one little realization to really catapult our business. So I can definitely see how that’s impacted you guys in a big way.
So talk about that shift. What was that like? When you came into this marriage and this partnership, and then you have this realization, do you still get doubts? Do you still have these things that come up in your mind? You’re also a mom. You have two beautiful kids, one of which is named Sabrina, which my daughter’s named Sabrina as well.
Elena: Aww, I love that!
Jessica: So talk about just being a mom and balancing that between the partnership and how that shift happened in your mind.
Elena: The balance. I don’t understand balance. I don’t do balance. I don’t do yoga. I’m not a balanced chick. I am a driven and disciplined person. So I’m always going to show up at, even though, I still have doubts. And every single time, I have doubts. I don’t know how to operate without doubts. So I stopped fighting it. I just operate in spite of doubts and I stopped trying to fit in and I just do whatever the next task or the one that’s most important to me. The main priority.
And I understand that my life is different than probably most everybody else’s life that’s normal. I’m always going to have a lot going on. It’s never going to stop. I just accept that that’s the way that my life is.
And then I try to avoid the people that are like, “When is enough enough? You need to settle down. You need balance.” I just say, “Oh, thank you. Yes. Oh that’s great. Yes.” Because those people can’t operate at my level and I don’t want to operate at their level. So they’re probably saying more about themselves in that moment than they are about me, you know?
So that’s when I had that shift of trying to fit in and care about what people think and the society has these ingrained ideas of what love is and you know, work/life, balance, happiness.
I have everything I want financially. I thought when I got to this place I was going to be happiness forever. It doesn’t happen for me. It didn’t happen for me. I have to fight for everything. I wish I didn’t have to fight for everything. I wish I was happy. I have to fight for happiness or I’m not happy. I’m not content, I’m not satisfied. And guess what? I’m okay with that. It’s me. I stay away from all the people that put labels on me.
Jessica: I love that. I love that you’re so vulnerable and sharing that too, because there’s a lot of women out there that relate to that, that don’t necessarily put that out there, but it’s so true, right?
You get to this point and then you’re like, “Well, what’s next? What’s next? What’s next?” And there’s no real balance, quote unquote, but still, there’s still fulfillment there.
So talk about your kids and how you bring them into that “What’s next? What’s next, what’s next?” mindset. Like I see you and Grant just went on this amazing vacation and it just looked so spiritual and incredible and I’m sure your kids got the most unbelievable experiences that they can’t get in a classroom. Right?
So talk about your two beautiful girls and how you bring them into the fold with this crazy lifestyle that you guys have.
Elena: Well, from a very young age, I’ve kind of indoctrinated them into who we are. We are Team Cardone, and this is what we do on Team Cardone. And there’s times where we’re going to go full on and be a kid. Where we’re going to get dirty, we’re going to mess up our clothes. I want them to be kids.
But then there’s times where we’re going to be in public and Grant is speaking and I’m going to expect them to act a little bit older than they are. And that’s not going to be a long time. It’s not going to be a long period of time. And then we’re going to go back to being kids. But that’s what’s expected of them.
When I go out of town and Grant goes out of town, they’re expected to not have accidents, make our trip distraction free, take care of the house, guard the fort. What does that do for a child? It puts them at cause and it puts them in control of their life so they’re not just this little kid who thinks, “Mommy leaves me, Papa leaves me. I have no control over anything.”
So they have been given having responsibilities and that’s what’s expected of them.
Jessica: Team Cardone.
Elena: Team Cardone. We are Team Cardone. This is who Mama and Papa are. We want to help people. We want to make a difference for the better on this planet. That’s our flag. That’s Team Cardone, and you know what? As long as you want to be on this gravy train, you are onboard. At any point in your life you can step off and do whatever you want and they know that. I told them that. They’re are 10 and 7, and I’m like, ” You can stay on this or you can get off at any time, but this is who we are.”
Jessica: Love it. Absolutely love it. Well, again, loved your book and at the Higdon Group, we’re on a mission to really help a lot of women, especially moms and mompreneurs that are out there. We want to help women entrepreneurs to be able to find that fulfillment and that happiness in their life.
And so we have an event coming up October 3rd through 5th , RankMakersLive.Com. If any of this content interested you, we’re calling it the Social Media Super Summit. It’s a Rank Makers Live event. If you’re looking for something more like that or you just want to learn how to, what are the next steps to get to that next level, then you can head RankMakersLive.Com and check out that event.
Thanks, Elena I appreciate you. You are an unbelievable woman. Such a role model. Your book is incredible. I hope everybody runs out there and gets it.
Elena: It’s free! You just need to go to elenacardone.com/empire
Jessica: Awesome. I didn’t get it for free. This is amazing!
Elena: Well, I appreciate that you paid for it.
Jessica: Yes. I’d pay for it 10 times over. I promise you that.
Elena: Thank you. Thank you. I had to prove my worth to the office here, but my goal was once I paid for the funding of the book, I wanted to be able to give it away for free after that. So thank you for helping me get to the point now where I can now offer that.
Jessica: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I would do it 20 more times.
We appreciate you being on here and letting us use your incredible studio. How amazing is this?
Elena: Thanks for having me. I can’t wait for your event! It’s going to be amazing. You know so many incredible people. Everyone needs to network. No one can do it alone. Surrounding with other like-minded individuals that really understand who you are. And not only that, but instead of trying to put your fire out, they actually want to breathe life into you and let you be you.
These are the people to be around. So I’m really excited for your event, for that networking and opportunity to happen. For all your listeners, it’s going to be awesome.
Jessica: Thanks, Elena. Really appreciate it!
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