Elena Cardone: Empire Builder, Wife, Mother, and all-around Boss Lady
Building an Empire in Heels
Being No. 1 on Forbes as the Top 20 Entrepreneurs to Follow and the Global Woman of the Year at the Global Women’s Summitdoesn’t stop Elena Cardone from also being a No. 1 wife to Grant Cardone and mother to Sabrina and Scarlet.
She’s the creator of build an empire university and the 10 X Ladies event. She’s also a woman on a mission to create her 10X empire.
And she does it all in style.
10X Ladies
To Elena, a 10 X lady is “a woman who owns the responsibility of the power she possesses. She knows she is capable of building, protecting and expanding an empire and will do whatever it to achieve our mission.”
Her husband Grant Cardone is a bestselling author, renowned speaker, entrepreneur, international social media influencer and real estate mogul. Being married to him, Elena says is “amazing.”
“I’ve really discovered myself as a woman through him and the whole experience of being with him.”
Challenges Do Exist
But there are some challenges: “There’s also the burden of, you know, running with someone like that who expects competency and 100% of excellence all the time because he demands that of himself,” she says.
“So I’ve really had to completely rise up to the challenge. And not only that, but a lot of the times I even have to be more, I know that’s sounds ironic, but sometimes I feel like I have to be even more to do what I do, to kind of run the behind the scenes and facilitate his power.”
Still she says, it’s very rewarding.
Being Transparent
Of course, building and maintaining an empire isn’t nearly as easy as it looks. “I know it appears that we just look blessed and things come easy to us,” says Elena.
The Cardones do an excellent job about making people feel welcomed into their world, seeing what it truly is like day in and day out. And it’s not all glamourous.
Elena makes a concerted effort to show the realistic side of things on social media. “I try to be very transparent, whether it’s wherever I’m at with learning martial arts, I don’t try to be better than I am.”
She and her family have to bear the burden of tremendous amount of sacrifices. It’s exhausting to have to monitor everything they say and do at all times.
“There’s a specific group of people out there who want to see our demise,” she explains, “who are looking for gotcha or catch you or how can I spin it?”
Parenting 10X
“Sometimes they’re required to be in another room when I’m doing a podcast or they have to travel with us or be away from us when we’re doing what we’re doing,” she explains. “But they’ve also been indoctrinated into the fact that, look, we’re a team. This is what’s expected of you when we leave is to protect the Fort.”
Elena believes it’s important for her children to help out and to gain responsibility.
“Kids like anyone else need a purpose,” she notes. “A lot of time I feel like kids suffer from kind of feeling like they’re just existing until they get to be an adult and they don’t get to have freedom of choice or participation. Production work is the basis of morale, period.”
She gives her daughters “little purposes.” Scarlet, for example, is a baker and a chef. It gives her a sense of accomplishment and competence.
Life During Covid-19
Quarantine life has brought up many emotions for Elena and her family. “We’re extroverts. We love being with people. How do you deal with that?”
To make sure they keep a positive mindset, Elena has kept her daily habits in check.
“I make sure that my feet hit the ground whether I want to or not by 6:00 AM, and I carry myself out here and I make myself write on my men’s book,” she says.
“I do not like sitting still. I do not like writing. I did not like school. It’s like the last thing that I want to do, but my goal and my mission is to help these guys that I care about. And I think I have information, I think that maybe could help one or two of them.”
She drinks her gallon of water, takes her vitamins, and walks. Elena makes sure to write her to-do list each day and spend more time with her children.
Surrounding Yourself With The Right People
What’s great about building an empire, she says, is that her to-do list can also be checked off by others.
“I say, is this something that my executive assistant can help me with? If it is, I delegate it to her. I don’t have to be the hero, I don’t have to do it all myself. An empire will have to expand and you will have to have people help you. I have surrounded myself with people who genuinely want to help me.”
For women working on finding that close inner circle, Elena has some sage advice.
You must answer these questions:
• Are people actively interested in concern for the success of, of me? Am I actively concerned for the success of them?
• Do I believe in their products? Do they believe in my products? Can we depend on each other?
• Can we trust each other?
• Are my friends strong enough to bear the weight of something and me what are my empire and hold it up, right? Am I strong enough?
“Some people aren’t strong enough and that’s okay,” she notes. “You know we can come together at later times but I mean I need really strong people around me too to handle what goes on for all of us.”
Networking 10X
“I talk about what I’m going through, how we can get through this together, not just there’s Coronavirus, but with everything that we’re dealing with. How to really own our or responsibility is powerful women. And what is the definition of power, the capacity or the ability to influence the behavior of others. So how can we really figure out who we are, what our purposes, how we can affect the lives of others, make very big impacts, take care of ourselves, our families, and the community,” she says.
Be Authentic, Always
She may even be giving her husband some steep competition. At one of their recent events, that she’s sure people came up to him and asked if he’s Elena’s husband…when it’s usually the other way around.
“How did he handle that? He’s so wonderful,” she muses. “My success is his success, and his success is my success. Even though we compete at everything, we are really proud of each other.”
Elena has created several opportunities for people to invest in themselves, without breaking the bank.
Elenacardone.com/empire (You can get her book!)
Be Unstoppable!
– Tori
