Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Elena Cardone: How to Find a Partner, 10X Your Life, and Build a Real Estate Empire | E208

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

When Elena Cardone was 13 years old, she watched her best friend die in a house fire across the street from her own home. Unable to face the house’s ruins day after day, Elena moved to Los Angeles at 17 years old to become a model and actor. After a successful career in show business, she married real estate mogul Grant Cardone, and together, they built a real estate portfolio of $5.2 billion. In this episode, Elena reveals how she and Grant maintain a healthy marriage and business partnership, how to find the right partner, and how her and Grant’s family dynamic contributes to their success.  Elena is an author, businesswoman, event producer, mentor, public speaker, wife, and mother. She started her career in Hollywood as a model and actor, appearing in shows like CSI, Two and a Half Men, and Saved By The Bell. Drawing upon her vast experience, Elena has developed her own curriculum, to assist aspiring empire builders. In her Build an Empire course, she lays the groundwork for both men and women as she trains them how to create, grow, and defend an extraordinary career and marriage. Additionally, she mentors hundreds of women with personal, one-on-one coaching sessions.  In this episode, Hala and Elena will discuss:  - How Elena's relationship to money changed when she started viewing it as energy - Questioning the value of higher education in today’s economy - How Elena and Grant met  - How to find the right partner for you - Does your dream partner actually WANT the current version of you?  - Why complete independence hurts relationships  - How Elena and Grant’s marriage changed after the 2008 Recession  - The defining qualities of a power couple - Parenting hacks for career-driven families - How to handle haters - And other topics… Elena Cardone is the author of the bestselling book Build an Empire: How to Have it All and the executive producer of massively-successful events like 10x Ladies, Operation 10x Badass, Build an Empire Mastermind, and her own show, “Women in Power.” Elena’s most recent endeavor has been to partner with EXP Realty. She is now a licensed Realtor who plans on building the largest real estate team across the globe helping thousands of people create generational wealth through real estate powered by EXP.  Elena has been happily married to her husband, Grant Cardone, since 2004 (July 4th to be exact - and the fireworks have never stopped) and lives with her husband, their two daughters, Sabrina and Scarlett, along with their two cats, Cash and Flow, in Miami Beach.  Resources Mentioned: Elena’s Website: https://elenacardone.com/   Elena’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenacardone/  Elena’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenacardone/?hl=en  Elena’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/elenacardone?lang=en  Elena’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ElenaCardone  Elena’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elenacardoneWIP/  Elena’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Build-Empire-How-Have-All/dp/1945661542  LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 40% off at yapmedia.io/course. Sponsored By:  Just Thrive - Use promo code YAP for 15% off sitewide at https://youngandprofiting.co/yapjustthrive More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Join Hala's LinkedIn Masterclass - yapmedia.io/course  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. Who's got my money? It's always a who? Who's got your money? Who can you exchange products and services with?

How do you network? How do you get on the communication lines in the world? Now's the time to pour it on, not retreat. Now's the time to be around a 10X mindset. Now's the time to step away from the news and stop hearing the news, except it, make your battle plan. I have three rules to money.

One, you know how to earn it, right? Number two, you know how to store. It doesn't mean save. You save it in a bank. The money's going to zero. And then number three, you store it so that you can invest it into an income-producing asset. Pay the price today so you can pay any price in the future.

That's it. Be strict, be disciplined. What is up, Young, and Profiters? You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting podcasts where we interview the brightest minds in the world and unpack their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. I'm your host, Hallitaha. Thanks for tuning in and get ready to listen, learn, and profit. Elena, welcome to Young & Profiting Podcast.

Hello, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm super excited for today's episode. Young & Profitors, today I'm chatting with. I'm super excited for today's episode. Young and profitors today, I'm chatting with former model and actress Elena Cardone, who has starred in shows like Two and a Half Men, Saved by the Bell, CSI and Days of Her Lives. These days, Elena is still shining in the spotlight. She's a successful entrepreneur, author, speaker, and real estate mogul. And she works alongside her husband, Greg Cardone and her two children,

and the Cardones have built a multi-billion dollar empire and have become a model family in business. During today's episode, we're going to walk through Elaine's interesting career journey, we'll unpack her philosophy towards life and building an empire, and I know we're going to get a ton of gems in terms of leveling up our career and relationships. Alana, before we dive into your journey, I did want to get insight from one of your most famous quotes that I found, and you say that normal is the most dangerous condition you can be because it gives you a false sense of security. So drawing on your own life experiences, I thought this would be a great way to open up.

How does normalcy generally hold people back? Well, it holds people back because you don't strive to go further and to build up an abundance, either in mindset, finances, resources. When you think you're okay and you make sense of okay, it's detrimental because it only takes one incident to come in and wipe it all out. Whether that is an economic collapse or somebody in the family gets sick or dies or becomes incapacitated the entire system becomes threatened and can't withstand. So that's why I say normal is so scary because you make sense of

barely getting by but you convince yourself that you're just fine and you have enough, you are enough, you've done enough, and then the blanket can get pulled out from under you. Yeah. So I'd love to learn more about how you grew up. Well, I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. You know, I had a really great childhood. It was kind of a tomboy. And then one day I had an incident occur where my best friend across the street, she perished in a fire that unfortunately I was there. I witnessed the whole thing. It was devastating to me. And because I was so young and didn't know how to kind of cope

with that, I went down this dark road of self-medicating to try to just numb it and deal with it. So I feel like I wasted a lot of years trying to cope rather than confronting. But out of that, what got me out of New Orleans was an acting career. I saw, okay, I can maybe succeed in enacting and modeling career. So I moved to Los Angeles at 17 years old. I knew no one. And just started to make it on my own. I thought anything is better than where I just came from, even though I loved my hometown. It was just more than I could stand having to confront seeing that burned out empty shell

of a house every single time I went in and out of my home So it just kind of got me to where I am today I went to Los Angeles I was an actress and an model for many years there until I met my husband grand cardone and then we moved to Miami in 2012 and we've continued to build our lives from here, but that's pretty much my childhood in a nutshell. Awesome. And so, for my understanding, you came from humble beginnings.

How has your mindset changed about money? What are some of the things that you had to kind of disprove to yourself so that you could become the super successful person that you are today? Well, I thought that money was only for a select few. I thought you had to be really intelligent. I thought you had to have a college degree. I thought people like me just couldn't ever have wealth because that's not what I was born into.

Also, I grew up in my teen years. I joined the punk rock society, you know, and in that mentality, rich people sucked. They're greedy. They were the anti-Christ, you know, was steel from the rich gift to the poor was kind of my mentality back then. So I had to overcome that, no, you can have wealth and not be greedy. You can have wealth and do great things.

You're not a bad person if you go out and create wealth. So I had a number of these ideas. I never thought that I could make it this far. I never thought that I could surpass grants in money. Well, and I haven't today, let's be fair, but at least now I've opened my mindset to the possibility that that could occur. Yeah, and what really changed your mind? Was it when you went to LA and you saw how people lived and they had money and that kind of opened your eyes or what really flipped that switch for you?

Yes, when I went there, it started to open my eyes. I started to kind of grow up a little. I started to really align with, okay, that's not my eyes. I started to kind of grow up a little. I started to really align with, okay, that's not my beliefs. What are my beliefs? That was the group thing back then with that group I was attached to. What do I really think about money?

And then it was when I got with Grant who really started to have me understand the principles of money. And once I really started to understand money and how to apply it and not violate the policies on money, I started to really be able to have an abundance of it. One of the decoding, the biggest decoders, was when I realized that money doesn't make you greedy.

I realized when I had been thinking money makes me greedy, no matter how high or how successful I would go, something would always knock me back down. Because I had been having this mindset, if I got above this, I would somehow become greedy or an evil person. So I would never allow myself to break up into here, but I didn't do it intentionally. But now looking back, it was because I had already had this

barrier of what I thought was the threshold. And once I crossed it, I would become this evil mean person. So in my life, I just always had a situation come and knock it out, whether it was an end of a career, an end of a job, an end of a car needing an end of, you know, or a car needing repair, a house need a repair, or a lawsuit, or this, or that's something would come in and whack, whack, where it would build up down the coffer to build that up. And it wasn't until I realized, wow, that's a very limiting belief that's actually holding

me down. Can I just be open to the possibility that money could make me more generous. Money could make me actually help more people. And I just, it's a change of that mindset, just a little bit. And then all of a sudden, I got to a certain amount where I thought, wow, because I remember the day when I, I had the goal of having $60,000 in the bank. Like I thought I was rich if I had $1,000 in the bank. And I could never get to that. Then I opened the viewpoint, then I hit the 60,000.

And then I was like, oh, it's a 100,000. That's the real number. And then I cracked 100,000. And then I just opened it up to, I'm just open to the possibility of money. And I don't have to make money mean all these other things. Money is money. Money is a currency.

It's supposed to add and flow. And it's an energy. And I'm supposed to just use it to exchange in place of time and money. That's all it means. It's just a resource. I started to be able to have a lot of it. And then when I look around and I saw, wow, there's trillions of dollars. We're printing trillions of dollars.

There's no shortage of money. Why can't I just go as if I had my bucket in an ocean and scoop up some water? No one's going to notice if I take a bucket of water from the ocean. No one's going to notice if I scoop a billion dollars out of the trillions of dollars that are out there. If I decide to take a billion or a million or a hundred thousand, it's not even going to register. So why do I have this scarcity mindset?

Why do I make it any harder than walking down to the beach and scooping up water? It's only because I'm making it harder. But once you actually understand the certain philosophies that go around money and how simple it is and it's not complex, the more that you can be actually of an abundance mindset and start having and attracting it. I love that. I feel like you gave us so much wisdom in terms of

how we can break out of this limiting mindset when it comes to trying to make more money and not being afraid of Actually achieving the success that we dream of I think a lot of us are actually afraid of the outcome And that's why we don't go ahead and do the things that we need to do or you just don't know the right things You don't have the right information knowledge is power, right? So if you have the wrong information, what do you have? The complete opposite.

So get around the right people, the right mindset, study the right people. It should be easy. It's not difficult. So you just mentioned knowledge, right? Knowledge is power. From my understanding, you went to California when you were 17 years old, which I guess means

that you didn't go to college, right? So I'd love to understand your opinion on higher education. Do you think it's necessary? Obviously, there's so many entrepreneurs like yourself, Steve Jobs, that didn't go to college, that became extremely successful. But for the average person, what are your thoughts in terms of higher education? Look, if you want to become a lawyer or a doctor, obviously you need to go to get a higher education and be very specified with that particular knowledge.

But for anybody else, it's hands on experience. It's getting in the field, it's doing it, it's action. We don't ask anybody here what your qualifications are. We're interested in can you produce a result? Do you have the resources to self-educate, figure it out? You know, when Grant does a $200 million deal on an investment property that he's buying, this institutional grade property that prudential or JP Morgan or Blackstone are also bidding on, they're not asking Grant, what's your college degree? And they're not asking to see his, you know,

and what age did you start speaking in, you know, what degree do you have and from where? And who do you know, it's no, show me the numbers in the account and how can you support this? And how are you gonna take care of the asset? And, you know, and can you pull this thing off? That's it, they're not looking beyond that. And Grant has said this, really,

if you're going to go for higher education in a general field, go for one reason and one reason only, meet the people. No, they're in meet the Obama's, the Trumps, the major pushers and shove world leaders, go to meet the contacts that can collaborate with you in the future. Yeah, I think that's great advice.

So let's move on to talking about Grant and your relationship because I think it's really interesting. You're dynamic together and how you guys met even is an interesting story. So why don't we start there? Can you share the story of how you guys met? Because from my understanding, you weren't actually interested in him at first. No, I wasn't. Yeah, we met in Los Angeles.

I was on a commercial. I was shooting a commercial. It was in downtown Los Angeles, middle of the night. It was a night shoot. And Grant was friends with the director. So he showed up on the shoot. I see him in the trailer.

It was high-high-buy. I never thought anything of him. You know, not my tie shorter than me. Like, just did not register. I was more into actors, musicians at the time. I'm in my 20s. Grants seemed like kind of a business man, just didn't register. Anyway, he guessed my number from the director. You're not supposed to give somebody's number from the call sheet out to a random and the director did. And then Grant calls me and we have this disastrous phone call. He's like, oh, it was just horrible. I don't even need to get into it. But it was horrible. And I decided, okay, this is the last phone call that I'm going to have

with this guy. What a joke. And I hang up the call with him, and he proceeds to call me twice a month every month for the next 13 months with no return phone call. He'd leave a message on my answering machine. But I never thought he was a creepy, scary guy. It was just like a non-event. Just didn't think anything of it. He wasn't stalking me. It wasn't weird.

I wasn't scared. Sometimes his messages were funny. It was just one of the things I thought about. And then eventually he became friends with one of my best friends at the time who I was hanging out with so we kinda got in the circle so then he starts showing up at the clubs

and the restaurants that I'm at and so I'm like, oh well, he's not so bad after all, you know, but I still wasn't interested. But I liked that he could be around. I knew that he liked me, but he wasn't pushing himself on me. It was just like, cool. I just didn't want to be putting that awkward situation. And then he finally found out that I liked to shoot guns. I was ranked 10th in the nation, or actually the 10th in California for shotguns at the time. the nation or actually the 10th in California for shotguns at the time. Anyway, he left a message and he was like,

Hey, I rented the shooting range. You want to come with me? And so that was the first call that got me to call him back. And I was like, okay, I'll go to the shooting range with you. And then that's how we kind of developed a quote unquote friendship. But he didn't push me. And we hung out like that for a few months. And then one day I was like, this guy is special. He's different. I've never had a guy like

this before. And what does he see in me? The way I behaved and kind of treated him would have made any guy like run away or say, I'll screw it to hell with her, but he was just patiently cool, but not in a pathetic way. One day I just like my eyes just kind of open and I was like, oh my God, something really real is here in front of me. And I'm, you know, I was a dinner and I was like, oh my God, and he's like, what? And I said, you're going to make me fall in love with you, aren't you? And he was like, yes, yes, I am. And we've been together ever since. That's so sweet.

So I wanted to dig into something that you said, which is basically that Grant was much different than the other guys that you were dating before. And I'd love to understand what you mean by that. What kind of men were you dating before and how did Grant stand out? Oh gosh. Well, I dated artsy guys. I dated actors, musicians, tattoo people. One one of my, you know, the first day in love of my life, unfortunately, was addicted to crystal

meth. It led to some problems after we broke. I mean, problems while we were together. So much so that I had to break it off with them, not because I wasn't in love with them, but because it was just so many problems and drama that comes with somebody that's addicted to crystal meth. After I break up with him, he ends up in jail for three years.

So that's the type of people I was with, just drama in that art scene, drugs, alcohol, rock and roll. And Grant was very different. He didn't do drugs, he didn't drink. He was a businessman, he had his money together, he was just stable. I just didn't know that world.

I had lived in Los Angeles since I was 17. I never hung out with business people. It was always producers, actors, directors, musicians. It was always somebody in the arts. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree

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from seasoned entrepreneurs and mentors who truly understand what it takes to succeed. From topics like how to start a software business without creating your own software, to more broad discussions such as eight businesses you can start tomorrow to make 10K plus a month, this podcast has it all. So don't wait, now is the time to turn your business idea into a reality by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. New episodes drop Mondays and Thursdays. Find the millionaire university podcast on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The reason why I asked this question is because there's more single women out there than ever

right now, partially because women are doing better than men, right now, in general, like more women are starting to graduate college. I think it's for every one man, it's two women graduate college. Women are starting to make more money. Women usually marry up, and now women are starting to have to marry down, so to speak, because they're leveling up,

and a lot of women being successful actually emasculate men. And so it doesn't, it's not working out like it used to be. Marriage rates are down. And I guess what I'm trying to say is, when you're looking for a partner, obviously nobody's perfect, right?

I remember hearing you say like, you thought Grant was short, right? And if you were, you know, not open-minded, you may not have embarked on this amazing journey that you went on because of something as superficial as height, right? I have a lot of young listeners, women in their 30s. I've met that listen to me too. And I think a lot of people are fixated on this like perfect partner. And I want to understand from you, given that you guys are sort of like a role model couple,

what do you actually need to look for in a partner and how do you understand whether or not what you're looking for is either unrealistic or you're looking at the wrong things basically? Well, I don't think you should settle. I don't think you should compromise. What I would suggest is somebody write down, right? You want to come up with perfect, you shouldn't deviate from that. Write the perfect person.

And you're talking about trivial. I wrote over 100 characteristics. This is before I got together with Grant, over 100 characteristics of what I wanted in the perfect man. And it started with six two and green eyes. Every single item on the rest of the list was Grant except for the first two, six two and green eyes. Every single item on the rest of the list was grant, except for the first two, six two and green eyes. And I only said six two because I had other guys

not want me to wear heels. It really wasn't because I had a consideration. And green eyes, I like green eyes. I should have just said, charming and except me for my height. You know what, I wouldn't have pigeonholed me into being blind, right? Cause I was looking for six two and green eyes. So what I would say is right at all down, right? Because I was looking for six, two, and green eyes.

So what I would say is right at all down, right? You want monogamy, you want ethically ambitious, all the traits, trustworthiness, monogamy, wants a family, right? Everything that you want, you know, that's going to build me up, that's going to support me, show active interest in the success of me, likes women and children,

protects women and children, right? Everything down. I wrote all of that. Has a great relationship, is in drama, is proud to have me with him. Blah blah blah, write every single thing on your list. But here's the catcher. When you write that list,

because after I wrote all the list of what I wanted in a man, because before that, I was like, I'm gonna be this dedicated single woman forever. I don't need a man for anything. And I really thought that was gonna be my life. I didn't even get married until I was 30. And I wouldn't of until grant sort of proposed.

And then I was like, oh my God, but anyway. So after you write the list of what you want, turn around, if this actually became the man of your dreams. When I wrote that list, I said, if this man actually exists, I could be with this man for the rest of my life. I wrote on there like sexually compatible, like adventurous, fun. We fall in love with each other for all the stuff that I wanted. If he existed, this man existed. I could be with him. But now,

if this man existed from his point of view, from the perfect man, what are his qualities? What is he want in a woman? And I wrote them down. He would want monogamy. He would want someone who doesn't excessively drink alcohol, doesn't do drugs, wants to have a family. You see what I'm saying? Is trust worthy? Does what they say isn't a drama queen? Takes care of themselves physically.

Trust me every man wants that. Don't kid yourself. Don't be like, oh, he should love me just the way. I'm right what he would really want on his ideal scene. And when I did that, I realized at the time, this is back in time, right? 20 plus years ago. I saw how off I was.

I was excessively drinking alcohol. I was hanging out in the clubs. I didn't want a family. I didn't want to be married. It wasn't that list that I even considered it. So then I started to go work on myself. How can I improve myself, rather than thinking I'm entitled to this perfect person?

How can you get yourself in your own ethical moral code? How can you get yourself to be the woman that would that man would attract? Yeah, it's like getting on that level. That and that's when we kind of found each other almost immediately because I became comparable magnitude to the thing that I wanted. Now I could also speak on, you know, the immasculation and this and the that of the men. Also, let's have the woman take responsibility for her role in that only because I've been there and I did that.

So I used to have on this strong independent, powerful woman. for her role in that only because I've been there and I did that. So I used to have, I'm this strong independent, powerful woman. I never needed independent on a man for anything. I had all my own expenses. I dated a couple of these guys, right? They lived with me. I don't need you for anything. I made all my decisions.

You don't tell me what to do. I'm doing this with or without you. I made more money than them. But guess what that did? That attitude of not wanting to be needed or who wants to feel like that. I don't want to feel not needed. I don't want to feel in a relationship

that grants going to not include me and go do whatever and whenever. So that made it so that I wanted to go out and like, gee, because they want to go be with a woman that does need them or care about them or is excited by them. I made it seem like I could care less. So I don't think that it's the fact

that you make more money that emasculates the man. I feel like it's your attitude toward them and not including them in on the cycle, not that you need to ask them how you spend your money, but it's a way that you treat them that's inclusive. And there's a way that John can come together and work out who you are as a couple, not just I am this with or without you, but how you can come together as a couple and say who were we as a couple, who do we represent, Are we the winning couple? What are our goals?

What are our dreams? What do we want to accomplish together? And then figure out who does what in the relationships based on your strengths and weaknesses, not male, female, on how you're gonna get there. Because if I'm the big breadwinner in the family, and I'm the female,

but I have this guy who's supporting me and setting up and getting me everything that I need to run all the behind the scenes operations so that we, me, can get there, he's equally as value. Value, you understand? So it's about figuring it out and not caring about what the outside world is, but how you each contribute to the win and to the success of both of y'all as a couple. I've actually talked

to couples where the woman is the big breadwinner and the guys running the whole organization and her follow-up and administration where she gets to go out and be the artist and they're intertwined with each other going for goals together. Yeah, I feel like this is such a great segue to talk about your own experience with Grant. I learned that you guys had a different dynamic before the 2008 recession and after, and I think this illustrates exactly what you're saying so perfectly. Yeah, well, we married in 2004. Again, I had it just in green.

Didn't mean I wasn't trying to prove a point. It was just in green to me to be the strong, powerful, independent woman, never depend on a man for anything. That was just what was always sitting there. I wasn't spoken. It just lived in me. So for the first four years, I mean, Grant and I had, I had my goals. He had his whole goals.

We had never come together and said, who are we as a couple? What do we represent and where do we want to go together? It was always me, him. So I would go out and produce and he would go out and produce and we'd come home and fight and battle because I was like, you're not going to tell me what to do. And I've lived on my own this whole time and you don't own me just because you have more money than me. And I'm not going to make you a meal because you want a meal.

I'm going to make you a meal because I want to make a meal. You know, just weird psychostuff. I mean, this is the man I am married to and I am having issues with like making the you a meal because I wanna make a meal. You know, just weird psychostuff. I mean, this is the man I'm married to and I am having issues with like making the man a meal. That's messed up. Like how about support? Like just feed somebody who's hungry, you know what I'm saying? Without making it mean this.

So we fought each other. So we build, build, build and kind of tear apart at night because we were playing small, bickering small. I was fighting. He was fighting tit for tat. Who's going to get to be the boss? Who's this? Who's that?

After 2008, different story. I'm pregnant with our first child. We're under a lawsuit. Economic collapse occurs. We're on the verge of losing everything financially. Now what are you going to do? Now I had to say, wow, you know what? Why can't I depend on the man that I trusted

and loved enough to marry? Why can't I depend on him? Why does society wanna say, oh, you're co-dependent? Well, I am married, I am co-dependent on him. He is co-dependent on me. I show up for him, he shows up for me, I like that. I don't wanna do this game alone. I want to build with somebody. I want to be able to depend on somebody

who's got my back and vice versa. I had to go through all of this in my head. You know, I believe there are strengths and numbers. I believe in the power of two and the power of more, you know? So that's after 2008, I was like, okay, this is when I had the idea, who are we, where are we going, what do we want to build, what does our empire look like in the future? It was there, this was the vision, but it did not look like that back then.

And I took a big risk and I said, I'm betting on you, Grant, I'm trading in the acting career, I'm going to come in and run background support. I'm going to have your back, I'm going to make you a meal. I'm going to do whatever it takes for us to get ourselves out of this. You know, you need me to this. That boom, boom, boom. I got you. Make connections. Have a vision. Hammer you to get going. Not complain when you're out working too hard. Never staying wins enough enough. Just keep pushing. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Win. Celebrate the wins. Like, I'm going to be your cheerleader. And that's what I did.

And that's when everything started to just go, boom, boom, boom. We started to make major strides. We were no longer fighting. I had a role and he had a role. And he doesn't show up 50 and I show up 50. I show up 100 and he shows up 100. That's how we do our relationship.

Whether we're fighting, we're arguing, we're mad, we hate each other that day. It doesn't matter. I'm showing up in the relationship 100%. And so is he. And that's the way we've been able to be so successful and build empire. Yeah, and I definitely want to get into

what it means to build an empire and all that. But before we get into that, there's a recession that everybody says is coming up. And so I'd love to hear your advice in terms of how couples should deal with that. What should they talk about and get aligned with because a lot of people break apart when the going gets tough? You know, they should just become very aware of where in a recession it's happening, even if it doesn't just be there.

Go there. Okay, what do we need to do? Economize, okay? Let's shut out all the excess spending, which you should anyway. You're violating one of the principles that we know about money. Get on the same page on money. Where are we going to go? How are we going to use this time to self-advance? It's who's got my money? It's always a who?

Who's got your money? Who can you exchange products and services with? It's a who? It's people. How do you network? How do you get on the communication lines in the world? How can you do 10X the amount of work? You know, now's the time to pour it on, not retreat. Now's the time to be around a 10X mindset.

Now's the time to stay away from toxic people in small mind of people. Now's the time to step away from the news and stop hearing the news, except make your battle plan. Grant and I have three rules to money. One, you know how to earn it, right? Number two, you know how to store it. Doesn't mean save.

You save it in a bank. The money's going to zero. It's depreciating in value. Store it and then number three, you store it so that you can invest it into an income-producing passive income asset. That's what Grant and I have done. We earn income.

All earned income either goes to self enhancement, back into myself and my business, not back into Chanel, not back into Gucci, not back into a nice car. It's sacrifice. Pay the price today so you can pay any price in the future. That's it. Be strict.

Be disciplined. This is what Grant and I did for a decade before social media. And you couldn't see us paying the price. We paid the price. What are you willing to give up in order to get where you wanted to go? We weren't doing fancy parties, dinners, no loaf time. We were working hustling, right? Earned income either goes back into self-self-enhancing

a business, the rest gets stored, okay? And that's it. Boom, boom, boom, storage store. Then you get enough income-producing asset. We created a fun, card-owned capital. Anyone can invest, accredited, non-accredited. You can invest with us and have a piece of this from day one, income-producing asset that either delivers a dividend monthly or quarterly,

depending on how you came in as an investor. And that money, okay, and that money, number three, the passive income is what you spend on your Gucci in our case planes because we've a mass such a mass fortune of it or an extra home or a this or a that. But until then we're in sacrifice space. So if you can get into alignment on those three things and know how to do your finances and make agreements on, you know what, now's the time we're going to dig in. And even if we don't financially grow in the next year,

but we grow spiritually, we grow in awareness, we grow with investing in whatever it is that you do in your business, you invest in your network that when the floodgates open, you're so far ahead of everybody else because you've had your discipline in for the last year. You know, people always ask me, what would you do if you lost all your money?

I'm like, yeah, so I wouldn't take me nearly as long to get at the second time. First time? Why? Because you can't take away what I know. You can't take away my connections. You can't take away my intelligence, my grit, my confidence, my discipline.

You know, that's been earned. So now is the time to get together and say, you know what? Now is the time where we can get stronger, where we can fortify. Others are going to fail. Let's make a commitment to be the winning couple. Let's make a commitment to get on the other side of this so that we can help other people who are just like us. Start with a commitment, reaffirm it. Every week, have your little, your meetings to pow out

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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. Again, go to Shopify.com-profiting all lowercase to take your business to the next level today. Again, that Shopify.com-profiting, Shopify.com-profiting all lowercase to take your business to the next level today. Again, that Shopify .com-sush-profiting, Shopify .com-sush-profiting, all lowercase. This is Possibility powered by Shopify. Yeah. So your story is so fascinating because a lot of people would think that you might be upset that you're leaving behind such a great modeling and acting career. But actually, you ended up still being in the spotlight, being very famous, and almost, it's like you took a different path to get to the same place that you wanted to be.

And to me, that's such a powerful lesson because a lot of people are so fixated on this one outcome of this is what I need to pursue my dream. This is the one outcome. But really, there's so many ways you can get to what you really want, which I think for you is like making an impact, being known. And so I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Creativity follows commitment, you know. And once you make a commitment in your open to the possibility,

and once you know what you want, you know your purpose, all of a sudden you can start to see opportunities everywhere. When you get out of the little tunnel vision, in my case, for me, I thought, the only thing I knew how to do was an acting career. What else can I do? I never went to college, never thought I was one of those smart chicks.

I thought that was the only thing. I had my whole identity wrapped up into it. It was very hard to make the move. And exactly what you said. Now, as I just made this commitment, I've used everything along the way. I've just used it all. But if I had that closed mindset,

I wouldn't even be able to see. I used now that I was able to support Grant and to turn that into my superhero. That is my power. I'm not ashamed by that other women. In my case, I'm only speaking about my case, so I'm assuming that because I feel it, there have to be other women out there that feel the same way. But in the beginning, I was this power woman. I moved to Los Angeles. I was the actress. I was this. I was that to come and then take a support role and figure out what all of that means.

Like, ah, you can kind of want to shrink and struggle. I was like, no, I've got to own this. I am the support. I did do this. Own it. And now I'm on the forefront empowering other women owning and I'm building a real estate group with EXP where I have over 730 agents in my organization. I'm helping other powerful people build their empires.

How by doing the same thing that I did for grant offering infrastructure, mindset and support. Oh, it owning it. Stop trying to fight it. These are your assets. Just embrace them and use them. Yeah. So I'd love to understand, first of all, what is your definition of an empire? And then I want to understand what your role is

and grants role in this empire. So an empire is really a mindset. It's about thinking big enough, abundantly enough, big enough expansion, empires require people. No one can build an empire alone. So it's a metaphor for your life, right? This isn't the solo printer. This is the empire.

And my role, of course, in every empire that you have, you should be the king and the queen of your empire. And there's empires within the empires, you know, my executive assistant, she gets to be the queen of her empire. And as the king and the queen, that means our relationship is the most sacred of the entire empire.

Meaning, I don't go to my friends and I metaphorically call them the chambermaids in this book as an example to say, if you're with the queen and you're with a king, and that's the top, how can you go to anyone below you and ask advice about being with the king when they've never been with a king. And that's the top. How can you go to anyone below you and ask advice about being with the king when they've never been with the king? They can't give you the advice.

And why are you nattering and criticizing and complaining the king? And why would the king do that for the queen? And when you are allowed to seek your own counsel with each other and you protect each other, you're able to the rest of the empire filters down and follows suit. So now I can work out my disagreements with my husband and private and I don't have to have dumped on to my friends that now have a negative outlook with him.

I make up with him. They still have the negative outlook. Then I get with them. They have the negative outlook. I have to defend them. Or they bring up something that I've already hashed out, and then I go home and refight all over again. Why? I don't do that. So an empire is about abundance. It's abundance in confidence. It's abundance in resources, finances, people. It's abundance on the mission. It's about wearing the crown, something that's greater than yourself. It's about something in your purpose being so important that you can be willing to feel scared or sad or lazy, but you'll still do it anywhere because you have to do it for the crown, for the people,

for the purpose, for the cause. It gets you going. It's being willing to think bigger than just yourself. Yeah. So one of the things that I'm curious about is how you get your children involved in this empire. It's very interesting that you guys bring them up on stage. You don't see many successful couples even putting their kids on camera, but you guys have decided that your entire family is going to be this role model family in the limelight. I wanna understand how you get buy-in

from your kids to come along this journey. Well, I've just indoctrinated them from when they're very early, very young. I've always tried to respect them as spiritual beings that are in little bodies, not that they're adults, not that they've earned adult rights, but that their spiritual beings are not children, they can understand not like dumb, you know, but like that they can actually understand. So I've communicated, look, Grant and I are super heroes and we want to make a difference for the better. We want to impact lives and grant wants to, you know, help financial literacy and help people take care of their finances

And it helps their families and you know me. I want to restore the family dynamic to society And I want to empower women because I believe we're powerful and we can make a difference and make change on the planet And so do you want to be a part of that? We asked them. We don't make them. We didn't decide We invited them to participate. Do you want to be a part of this? We asked them, we don't make them, we didn't decide. We invited them to participate. Do you want to be a part of this team that makes a difference for the better? Yes, yes, I want to be a superhero. You know, they're in that all, right?

Great. This is how you can do this. You can show up with us at events. You can dance on the stage. You can pass out the flyers. You know, sometimes when we have to leave you behind because we have to go do an event when you're okay When the nanny is watching you and I don't have to worry about you and I can give to that audience and then they can take it home

And then they can go make their lives better for their kids You're contributing do you realize you're not there? But you're contributing because you let us go distraction free. That is a way you were exchanging with us. I let them see that they can exchange from a very young age. And now as you can see, there are 13 Sabrina's on a trip with Grant today about meeting with a very big group for apartments

and whatnot. And she does the real estate king with them and they do 10x kids. They're putting together a show, mini moguls together. They speak at Grand Cardone Foundation to other children. They've taken an active role because they've been allowed to contribute and exchange with as much as they're willing to do. I feel like that's so beautiful.

We want to help. Your kids want to help. It's just understanding that it might not look like in the form that you're used to. So, you know, from a very young age, if the kid sees you on the computer all day long and they come over and they start pounding on your computer, as difficult as it may be to not be like, stop it! What are you doing? You're just growing my document. But being and having the intellect enough to realize the kid is coming over who loves you so much

and is trying to contribute. They're trying to help you by pounding on your computer. They want to contribute. So, you know, from a young age it was, oh wow, thank you so much. Wow, that was amazing. They're like, yay, you know, feel all great. And you take your computer and undo all the little marks that they made and, you know, continue.

But it's about parents recognizing like even a smile or a performance or a dinner they want to make you. I remember they made us dinners and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or whatever. It's like like it's allowing them to discharge that debt that they feel. Can you imagine a kid has been given everything? They can't do anything. They want to feel even from young ages that they are self-determined, that they can do things, that they can give back and they can contribute. And it's important for parents to recognize and allow their children to contribute. Hmm, I love that.

So my last question before we start to close this out is really about you being a role model. It's not easy to be a role model. I know that I've got a lot of fans on LinkedIn, for example, and sometimes I want to respond to a mean comment or do, but then I remember I'm a role model to so many people that are looking up to me. And you have it, you know, a hundred times X as most people. So I'd love to understand how you deal with that. Oh, so that's very easy. Like, you know, you mentioned wanting to respond to somebody. I have all those impulses, too. Um, it helps me in those situations. It isn't really necessarily that, and I should maybe look and say, wait, I'm a role model here.

But I know what I do is I go, look, my purpose is so big. I'm trying to restore the value of family dynamic to the world. I'm trying to empower women to empower themselves to empower their families, their communities. And I feel like I'm so far from having that goal achieved on this planet that I can't waste a second. If that's the goal, and then every time somebody says something negative about me, I go chase it down. What am I doing right now?

I'm going down this rabbit hole. That enemy, that hater has now successfully distracted me from achieving my target because I'm off my target and I'm on to them. And now I'm flowing power. Somebody like me, somebody like you, who has power, who has influence. Now I've put my attention, your attention, your power onto them.

And I'm flowing them power, even if it's a negative comment or whatever. Can you imagine the flow of power you just gave them and how much they received by pulling you off of your agenda? So I don't engage because I can't afford to engage. I am so busy trying to get my mission accomplished that saves me now.

If somebody tries to, and it's a rare circumstance, the real enemy who tries to threaten my family, our staff, our investors, somebody who's really evil intention, not somebody that's just gonna say, I look like, oh god, what do they call me? A drag queen. They say I look like a drag queen. Whatever. The people they want, or say that I'm a gold gold dig or a trophy wife, they try to say these,

I'm not talking about comments like that. I'm talking about real threats or those people, I am not afraid to come off of my post, you know, my job. And I'm not afraid to make an example out of them. And for all to see, because I want people to know, I do fight for my friends, I do fight for my group. You're not allowed to harm me, my family, my people. It won't happen on my watch.

And it only happens about maybe once every five years, but I'm not afraid to stab those people in a public arena because I don't want, I want people to know what the threat is for coming after me and my group. But that's rare. The haters, they're like barking dogs on the wheel of a fire truck.

Like, is the fire truck who's trying to put out a fire going to stop to kick the dog away from biting the tire? No, you're going to keep going. And the dogs going to tire out. And all the haters do because they can't even match your energy. All the energy that they have is to try to bring you down. And when that fails, they peter out. Yeah, I love what you're saying.

You're basically saying, save your energy for when it really matters. And all that little stuff just let it slide off your back because you don't wanna feed your energy, give them your good energy because that's what they want. They want to bring you down. They're jealous. That's right. And the best revenge is to flourish and prosper. It's the best revenge. It's the best for all involved. The more you succeed, the less hate you have for those people,

you know, and it actually heals you from actually wanting revenge and you're doing good for the world. So, the solution to everything is to flourish and prosper. Just flourish and prosper. Don't pay them any attention. You really want to get back at them, flourish and prosper, because what they want for you is they want you to fail. They don't want you to make a difference for the better on this world.

So if you do give into them, they're winning. Don't let them win. Flarsher Crossberg. So, Elena, I want to be respectful of your time. I know we've just a couple of minutes left. So I end my interviews with the same couple of questions. What is one actionable thing that our young and profitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow. Profitable. Stop studying the self-proclaimed experts and really start getting mentors, study the big guys. What is Elon Musk doing? How do they take on debt?

How do they use debt? What are they doing, like model them? What are the greats doing? So find the people and study what they're doing, study the people that have the statistic in the area of which you want to succeed in and go deep on everything that they do, learn everything that they do, and stop trying to get pieces here and there and just study it deep until you master that one thing.

I love that advice. And what is your secret to profiting in life? And this doesn't have to be related to financially profiting, can be profiting in relationships, for example, anything. The secret to profiting for me is, I'm huge on this. I don't live from the past into the present. That's normal. I don't like normal.

I live from the future into the present, that's normal, I don't like normal, I live from the future to the present. So I look at where I want to go, who I want to be, who I want to be around, what I want in my life, and I reverse engineer and take the actions necessary in order to become that person that I want to be in the future. And so that's where I'm always looking from. I'm living from now from my future self, not my past. When I disconnected from that, I really started to profit and have gains.

Otherwise, I was looking at the past. I don't want to buy this program because then the last program didn't work and I failed. Well, I'm not the same person. Maybe I do the new program and a new unit of time and this time it works. Every time I compared myself to the pastor, this relationship's not gonna work

because the last relationship didn't work. Everything from the past, the past I could never get ahead. Once I finally said, this is who I am, I wanna know about finances, I wanna be a good speaker, I wanna be confident, I wanna be competent. Every single course I've done since then has worked because I go, I need to have X, Y, and Z. Once I get through, check, check, check, check,

then I get to be that girl, that girl that I want. So every single thing that I do has impact, meaning I know it's gonna work because I see who I'm supposed to be. I just have to get through the checklist of all my action items, and then I get to have, it is a complete game changer.

I love that you're bringing this up. I just had a conversation with Ben Hardy. And our whole conversation was about future self. And he told me something that I want to just share with my listeners really quick because it's related with what you just said. Basically, it's like you're not your future self yet. You're not your past self.

We're only our who we are in this moment. Your past self is dead. People who hurt you in the past, they're not the same people anymore. They've had new experiences. They think differently. They're doing different things. They have different jobs. It's literally the person who broke your heart, the person who fired you. You can't stay mad at them because they're not the same person. That person doesn't exist anymore. So the past doesn't even matter anymore. And if you spend your time there, you're never gonna get to where you wanna go. So all you can do is be in your present self

and work on your future self. So true. It's been a game changer for me. I like that advice. Thank you so much, Alaina. I really appreciate having you on the show. And thanks for coming on. It's been an honor.

Thank you so much for having me and introducing me to all your amazing audience. Thank you. And that's a wrap on today's episode of Young and Profiting Podcasts with Alina Cardone. I hope you all were inspired by her story and how she was able to turn her life around to become one of the most recognizable business women in the world. Her husband, Grand Cardone, recently came on the show. If you guys missed that episode, I highly recommend that you go find it, take a listen. My interview with Grand Cardone was amazing.

In fact, so many of the nuggets that he shared in his episode keep repeating in my head. I loved our conversation and he is such a smart man. Both Elena and Grant are truly couple goals for me and even family goals. When I think about what I want my life to be like, I often think about Elena and Grant and wanting to have that type of a relationship and that kind of power, honestly, they are true role models, business and personal wise for me. So here's to manifesting that in 2023. And don't forget to follow me,

Halataha on Instagram at Yappupthala or LinkedIn. And we're also on YouTube if you guys want more career and life advice. If you enjoyed this episode, if you listened, learned, and profited, drop us a five star review on Apple podcasts. I absolutely love to read your reviews and feedback. It is one of my most favorite things to do in the world is read your reviews. And again, thank you to Elena Cardone for joining us for dropping so many gems.

Yeah, bam, I hope you work hard and chase your dreams just like Elena did. Until next time, stay young and profit. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben Podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness

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