The Takeover with Tim and Cindy

A Couple’s Framework to Building a Billion-Dollar Empire with Elena Cardone

• Episode 57

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What if the secret to building a billion-dollar empire lies in your ability to master both your business and personal life with your partner?

This week we’ve had the pleasure of having an extraordinary guest who embodies the essence of empire building and the dynamics of couples in business—Elena Cardone. She’s a bestselling author, in-demand speaker, and empire builder conquering the world of business and family life with her husband Grant Cardone.

In this episode, we’ll dive deep into the inner workings of a power couple in a business. How do successful married entrepreneurs make it work? Elena's shares invaluable insights into balancing her personal and professional life and how she illuminated the definition of support and how it played a vital role in achieving their success in all aspects of life. 

If you’re looking to 10X your business, relationship, and life, look no further! This episode is tailor-made for you. 

We'll talk about: 

  • Elena Cardone’s Story
  • What questions should you ask if you want to go into business with your partner?
  • How to Successfully Delineate Roles in a Partnership
  • Illuminating the meaning of "Support"
  • What are the challenges of building an empire with your spouse?
  • The definition of Winning as a Billion-Dollar Couple

Check out Elena’s upcoming 10X Ladies Exclusive Weekend in Miami, Florida on August 16-17th, 2024.

And her 2-day Build an Empire Mastermind

Connect with Elena:

https://elenacardone.com/

Instagram: @elenacardone

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About The Hosts:

  • Tim & Cindy Dodd are the Co-founders of PEMA.io, based out of Miami, FL. Connect with Tim and Cindy: Instagram

About PEMA.io:

  • PEMA.io is a Inc 5000 Outbound Marketing Agency specializing in Enterprise Sales & Appointment Setting. With over 7-years and 1,000+ clients served in the industry, PEMA is the leading agency for cold outreach appointments & systems. Learn more about PEMA.io here: www.pema.io/discover

00:00
For the greater good of winning the Super Bowl Ring of Life, whatever that trophy is that y'all are going for, being willing to let that person being the boss of that division or that role. And then the other one provides support in terms of advice or a sounding board or whatever. But at the end of the day, trusting the one that's running that division, I call it the IC, the in-charge.

00:28
of that division, trusting them. They're going to make a mistake here and there. Allow them the time to course correct. Support them in that. If y'all decided that you were the boss of the business or the finances or whatever, let them run point while the other one is maybe the boss of the family or the in-charge of the family. And same thing, advice, but not bypass. So once you designate the roles, don't bypass your partner. And these are the challenges.

00:57
of what you're going to come across. Welcome back to the Takeover with Tim and Cindy. How do you navigate the dynamics of being a successful couple in business? Whether you are single and maybe want to one day work in business with your spouse, maybe it's something that you and your partner have been considering and you want to know how to do it well. Or maybe you're on the other end where you already work with your spouse and you want to know how to 10X

01:27
and go to the next level. Today's guest is the ultimate empire builder, and I'm excited to welcome her to the show. Elena Cardone is an author, speaker, and the co-founder of the 10X Empire, where her and Grant Cardone are building a billion dollar empire. Elena Cardone, welcome to the show. Hello, thank you for having me, Cindy. So excited about today's conversation. I want to start at the beginning to give

01:56
I'll listen to some context into your life. So why don't you walk us through the journey, growing up in Louisiana, moving to Hollywood for modeling and acting career to now building this billion dollar empire. What was that journey like? Well, the journey, gosh, seems like forever ago, but yes, I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. I always had some big aspirations, big dreams. Always thought I could conquer the world, but didn't really have the know-how.

02:25
of how to execute on that. But I did move to Los Angeles at 17 to pursue an acting and modeling career until I figured this whole thing out. And I had success with that. There was ups and downs through that journey and just figuring out who you are and accepting yourself and then dealing with traumas or different challenges in your life. I had to go through a lot to really self-reflect and evolve and...

02:55
and learn how to love myself and to become a best friend to myself. And through all of that, I sort of kind of climbed my way out of this rut or ditch or hole that I perceived myself to be in at those earlier years in my life. But I was definitely reared to be an independent, powerful woman and never depend on a man for anything. So I did that up until I was 30 years old. Married Grant when I was 30.

03:24
And that was a huge 180 shift in my adjusting and thinking. And, you know, I had never really, even though I had been in relationships before, it was always about me, me, me, me, me. It was never about who are we, we, we, we, we. And so for the first four years of our marriage, I was really trying to figure that out because I was still operating as a me within an us, but.

03:50
After about the four year mark in our relationship, we had a pivotal moment happen with 2008 that kind of forced me to re self-reflect again. And that's when I really realized, wow, we're married now. I don't have the luxury to just be me. So without neglecting the importance of me and self-care and all of my stuff, if we were gonna evolve as a couple, it...

04:18
had to become bigger than just me. And that bigger became about us. And that's when I really made another 180 pivot to figuring out how do we do this thing together? How can we become stronger together to reach our mutual goals? And that's really when we turned our lives around to really start to achieve monumental successes personally and financially, professionally. So.

04:47
That's really in in a nutshell. So for me, it was really having to overcome just what I thought who I was to my very core in my DNA and having to reassess it and come out of that and figure out, wait a minute, I can choose to be another way for the greater good of us and the impact that we wanna make in the world. So that's really what I did. That's amazing. I want to zoom in on the topic of couples in business.

05:16
So I work with my husband, Tim. We run the Takeover podcast together. We own a marketing agency together. We always get asked the question, should you go into business with your spouse? And so I wanna pose that question to you. And a follow-up to that is, if a couple is considering going into business together, what are some questions they should ask themselves? Okay, first of all, should couples go into business together? It's unique for every couple.

05:45
Obviously, if one's doing business and one has a different career path and they don't just mutually benefit each other, then no, it doesn't make sense. Stay on your own career path. However, if it gets to the point where one is kind of exceeding or really has the potential to really succeed on a bigger level, if you had additional support, then you would have to look at whether you're willing to.

06:15
go through the challenges of working together in a business to grow this thing together. So I mean, it's really unique per couple. I can't really say you should or you shouldn't. It's where do you want to be? The questions they should ask themselves, part two of your question, the question they should ask themselves is where do they want to go as a couple? Who are they as a couple? What is the vision and the purpose line?

06:44
of the two of you together? Who are we? What do we represent? Where do we want to go? And then reverse engineer from that big picture to say, is it more beneficial that you stay in your business and I stay in my business because we can actually flow to the middle pot and get there faster? Or does it make sense to where maybe one person is willing to

07:12
trade in in order to trade up to this ideal life and ideal scene and ideal vision. The next, and that was a lot of questions there, but senior to that, I guess, once you would make a decision to go into business with your significant other would be, okay, are we willing to separate and delineate who does what based on strengths and weaknesses, not based on ego?

07:42
So sometimes a woman might be stronger in a finance or leadership or an executive role, and a man might be stronger in other areas of PR or marketing or whatever, and isn't really in operations. And so can they, are they willing to separate the hat of being equal in marriage from not being equal in the company if that effort combined

08:12
would get you to the ideal scene and picture and purpose that you two have. Are you willing to do that for the greater good and then figure out who does what and go for the goal? So good. The separation of roles has been critical for Tim and I in succeeding in our business and in our marriage as well. And I think having those questions and those conversations upfront leads to success. And I think far too often some couples are not talking about what their goals and their vision are.

08:41
They're not talking about what are our strengths and weaknesses. And I think even just taking that one extra second to do that is going to set you up for success. Right. It is. It sets expectations and based on stats, you know, not just this ego thing of, well, I'm this and I'm that. Well, but are you really? Where is the statistic? I would say I would recommend based on statistics.

09:07
strengths and weaknesses, but it does set expectations. And then the next hurdle is to really, for the greater good of winning the Super Bowl ring of life, whatever that trophy is that y'all are going for, being willing to let that person being the boss of that division or that role. And then the other one provides support in terms of advice or a sounding board or whatever, but at the end of the day,

09:37
the one that's running that division, I call it the IC, the in charge of that division, trusting them. They're going to make a mistake here and there. Allow them the time to course correct, support them in that. If y'all decided that you were the boss of the business or the finances or whatever, let them run point while the other one is maybe the boss of the family or the in charge of the family. And same thing, advice but not bypass.

10:06
So once you designate the roles, don't bypass your partner. And these are the challenges of what you're gonna come across and why it makes it difficult because it's very easy to slip into husband or wife hat or versus what is my role in the business. I'm not equal in business to Grant. Grant is my senior in business because of a stat. He knows more about sales and follow-up and how to build a business and how to market and scale.

10:35
I don't as much. That is not my strength. Now I've learned a lot and he's been an incredible mentor, but I'm not gonna kid myself in thinking that I'm his equal in business because I'm not. I trust him to do his role and I can self-educate and become as powerful and as strong as I need to be to be of comparable magnitude in the business. But I always understand that his say is the final say.

11:05
And I, in that role, don't take my words out of context, right? But in that role, I'm not talking husband and wife, I'm talking in our role as business, he is my senior and I'm his junior. In my role as running the family, he is my junior. And it's very hard to not wanna bypass cause he's a parent, he's the father. Of course he's gonna want, but.

11:33
major decisions about school and activities and who's in the house and who's not in the house, whether they have sugar, don't have sugar, have sleepovers, not have sleepovers. Those are my executive decisions. I am the CEO of our family. And so it's very hard for him not to bypass or vice versa. Sometimes I want to interject or act like I know more about business, sometimes when I don't. But at the end of the day, when we are working like just

12:04
together is where I'm really trusting him in his role and he's really trusting me in my role. And together, because we have an incredible family life, not perfect, I don't wanna misguide or mislead anyone to think we're trying to be the perfect family. We're just trying to be 10X and the best that we can be and always evolving and always going. But I'm proud to be the mother of the family that I've.

12:33
created so far and where we're going. And you look at my kids and they're just off the charts. And I know I'm a biased mom, but you can also see the stats. I mean, they're- That's- I'm proud of that. And Grant runs the business to afford us the lifestyle to be together and to have these trips and to fly all around the world and have access. And so we create the space over here at home.

13:00
for him to be able to run the business and not be a distraction, but create a distraction-free environment. And I believe however much of a success, whether it's a centimeter or an inch, that adds to his success. That cannot be discarded that us as a family add to his success. One, in that we're never saying, wins enough, enough, stop, you know, or giving problems. And two, I think,

13:30
family legitimately, not that he needs it because he's already credible on his own based on his own stats, but we as a family being as tight knit and as ethical and like phenomenal, it adds to the edification of him. A lot of people who see Grant through my eyes go, okay, he must be okay because here's this woman.

13:58
that stands by and we just had our 20 year anniversary and look at their kids and look at what they're doing. So it's the whole picture that comes together to have and create the life that we actually designed that we work for. It didn't just happen. It's created. A design means something you planned, you intended to have happen, you intended to occur.

14:26
So we figured out the whole big picture of what we want it all to look like, the family, our health, our businesses, the people that surround us, our philanthropic work, the Grant and Elena Cardone Foundation, like all of our philanthropic work, like that's just not papers thrown to the wind. That's very strategic in our planning of our vision. So good. There's so many gems that you shared. And one thing that I love that you teach about Elena is-

14:54
the concept of the support role. So often it is women that take on the support, but I feel like you have redefined that word. So why don't you share with our listeners how you define support. Hey there friend. If you're enjoying the podcast so far, make sure that you are subscribed so you never miss an episode. Subscribe and follow The Takeover with Tim and Cindy wherever you are listening. New episodes are released every week.

15:25
Well, I struggled with this coming from being an independent, powerful woman, never dependent on a man, to all of a sudden I'm in this support role. I found myself starting a family and having kids, and I suffered through my own whatever I was doing to myself. Like, somehow I thought being in the family role was some sort of not as...

15:48
importance in value because before then I lived on my own since I was 17. I based everything in my identity on my money, my earnings. I didn't look and value myself based on my contribution into raising children and to be productive contributing members to society. I didn't value those things. So now I found myself being more in the support role and kind of feeling.

16:12
maybe it was self to self what I was doing to myself, or maybe it was actually others to me of what I perceived that they did to me. But regardless, I perceived that somehow I was in a secondary, not as important, discredited role. And so I looked up the word support. So you said, I redefined it. I never redefined it. I just went to the dictionary and said, what is this thing that I'm protesting so much that's called support?

16:40
And do I agree to support or do I not agree with support? And support many different definitions, but the two that really stand out were one, show active interest in the success of. Okay, so as a partner and as someone standing beside her husband, I have to apologize for showing active interest in the success of him and us.

17:04
because we're together, that didn't make sense. Of course I support, okay, I'm not gonna apologize for that definition. And then I came across the other one that I just really grabbed by the horns because it really was powerful for me, which is it's like a support beam. It says can bear the weight of. So strong enough to bear the weight of, like a support beam, right? Anything that it's supporting, the support beam would have to be stronger.

17:33
than the thing that it's supporting. And that's when I really looked at, wow, that's my role. So do I need to apologize because I either put onto myself that I'm a second rate citizen, that somebody else views me of that, or do I just need to know in our relationship that I am the stronger of the two because it's not to demean or invalidate.

18:02
who Grant is because he's an extremely, as we all know, powerful and strong man. But I'm stronger because I am bearing the weight of him and the whole world of that that comes with that. I'm bearing the weight of that and the family and all of these other things and making it look and seem and appear effortlessly. From that day forward, I really said, you know what, I'm knocking this off with myself.

18:30
No longer will I apologize. I'm going to speak out. I'm really going to own this thing called support. What used to be this, oh, now I was like, you know what? I'm going to own it. And I'm going to say, I support. If you come out with that, then nobody else can attack you for that. Because you took that away from them. The people that I perceive that were doing that were trying to diminish me and make me feel smaller and less than.

18:57
So once I came out and owned it, I am support. And this is why, and this is what it means. Now the energy and the weight to try to keep me down or small or whatever the intentions are of somebody that would do that to somebody are fizzled out. So good. So I think it's not redefining. You illuminated the definition. Exactly. I wish honestly I could take credit for that, but no, it's the dictionary.

19:27
Here we go. What would you say, Elena, is one of the most challenging aspects of working with grants and being a couple in business, working on this billion-dollar empire? The challenges are those times when you're tempted to bypass your partner and their role. And that's very hard. And, you know, there's little minute challenges of when do you talk about business and when do you not talk about business?

19:56
I used to only want to talk about business. He used to only want to talk about business. It was something we were very excited about as we've evolved. I've learned don't bring up something about business right before bed that's going to jack him up and then he can't sleep. Like, that's just not nice. So I stopped that years ago. Now, when he wakes up in the morning and we have our coffee and tea together, old school us, we would have been business, business, business. Now it's like, OK, we've kind of paid that.

20:25
price. So now we can afford the luxury to to maybe have some few moments of just relaxation, talk about the kids or the beautiful weather or the beach or some of these casual conversations before we lay into what do you think of this and the businesses and so I guess the challenges now are because we put so much of our certain aspects of our relationship on hold.

20:53
until we built this empire. And don't get me wrong, we want to go to the next level. But we're also now looking at, look, we hit milestones now. While we're gearing up to the next phase, we can go out to dinners together. Because we used to only do dinners with other people. And so it was kind of cross collaboration, right? We were doing business and mingling our personal and.

21:21
business, but not really just having date nights and stuff like that. We we just kind of thought, well, that's a little ridiculous while we're trying to go win the Super Bowl game of life. And so now the challenge is, is how do we kind of blend more of the ideal scene on the, you know, the relationship, romantic type things and still go to these next levels of business? So good. The takeover, Elena, is all about.

21:49
How do you dominate? How do you win in all areas of life and business? So Elena, what does winning mean to you? 10Xing. No, winning is doing exactly what you just said. Winning is when you dig in and you're willing to do the work, self-enhance, you've got good intentions, you wanna impact the world and make a difference for the better. You're continuing to put one foot in front of the next, whether you get knocked down.

22:19
stand back up and keep moving forward, knowing that you're wearing the crown of a greater cause. Ours is we wanna help people, we wanna make a difference. So you see that in everything that we do. So that's winning. Winning is being wearing that crown because that crown is bigger than you. When you wear the crown, you don't have the luxury to just be you.

22:44
The queen, before she passed away, she can't just go do things like go into a bar or sleep with whoever she wants to or say things that she didn't want to. She's wearing the crown. So winning is being willing to sometimes sacrifice your own personal, greedy motivations in order to have and make impact for the greatest good.

23:11
for the greatest number of people and opportunities and situations for others. Incredible, I love this conversation. I received so much and I know that our listeners did as well. Elena, what are you working on right now? How can people get in touch with you or even participate in all the amazing things that you all are doing? Well, you can go to elenacardon.com. What I'm working on right now, my next big venture is 10X Ladies.

23:39
That's August 16th and 17th in Miami. And then I have my 10X Ladies Club. That's for the club members only on Sunday. And then Monday and Tuesday in the classroom at our headquarters in Miami, I have a mastermind, a two-day mastermind. It's called Design Your Life. And we go through a workbook so you can actually know how to turn, convert,

24:08
your dreams, which are stuck in your head, and convert it to make it actually manifest in the physical universe, dreams into reality. And you'll have that blueprint in your workbook by the time you leave that two-day workshop. So that's the five-day event starting August 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th in Miami. So exciting. I went to last year's TinX Ladies. It was phenomenal.

24:37
So ladies and gents, make sure that you connect with Elena, ElenaCardon.com. It was such a pleasure having you on the show. Thank you for all the wisdom that you shared. I'm excited to connect again soon. Oh, I adore you. Thank you for having me on the show. Awesome. Bye for now. Bye. What an amazing conversation of what it's like working with your spouse, being a couple in business and doing it on 10X levels.

25:03
If you loved this show, make sure that ladies and gentlemen, you connect with Elena at elenacardon.com or visit 10xladies.com to see all the awesome events, workshops, and the likes that they have in store for you. If you love the takeover and make sure that you give us a thumbs up, leave us a rating or review, it helps so much. And I look forward to seeing you in our next conversation. Remember, domination is not a destination. It's a way of life.

25:33
Stay winning.