$100K is Not Enough: Elena Cardone's Wealth Secrets | Elena Cardone DSH #912

Aren't you afraid of ruining the kids?

And I'm like, no, I worked my way from a very dark place.

Why do people think that you have to work your way up to somehow get some life lesson and see how far they can go without having to reprogram and recondition themselves?

That's what I had to do.

What if I just started off right?

How great and how far could I go?

All right, guys, we got Elena Cardone Cardone here today.

Super happy to have you, and you just had a wonderful event, a thousand women at 10X Ladies, right?

Yes, I did.

It was phenomenal.

It was amazing.

I've never seen a woman's event of that capacity, actually.

You might be the first.

Well, let's claim it now.

It is.

It's the biggest.

It's the largest, most successful.

And that was your first one, too, right?

No, this year was the fourth year I've done it.

But last year, I also had a thousand.

Last year, Vivek Ramaswamy showed up.

No one knew who he was.

This was before he did the presidential

debate.

But I also had Megan Kelly, Venus Williams.

So that was last year.

This year I had Lara Trump on and

Lauren Bostick from the Skinny Confidential.

So it was an incredible group.

We just, we killed it.

Natalie Dawson, Sherry Hamilton.

It was some power player women up there.

Powerful.

And what was your goal with bringing all these women together?

Well, my goal is, look, women are behind than men, let's face it.

You know, it wasn't until 1984 that we could actually get a loan for our businesses.

It wasn't until 1974 that, you know,

we could have a loan on our home.

Really?

Yes.

Before that, we had to have a man cosign.

Wow, I never knew that.

So this is like within my lifetime.

So we're behind, you know, we're behind on our wages, on what we get paid.

We're behind on negotiation skills.

We don't know how to ask more for our salaries up front.

We don't know how to invest our money.

I mean, these are just statistics.

This is a generality, but it's also statistically proven.

Like, I think it's some high statistic.

Don't quote me on this one, but it's like 80% of women's wealth is in cash.

So cash is depreciating in value versus in an investment that's paying you income and cash flow.

So we're behind.

We need to know how to earn more, store more, invest more.

So the point of this conference was really about bringing women together to support other women to reaching heightened levels of success and understanding financially how to do better for themselves and their families.

That's incredible.

So you want to teach financial independence to more women, basically.

Yeah, I do.

I want to open up.

Basically, my husband's been my greatest mentor.

We've been married for 20 years.

We have two children together.

You met Sabrina.

I wanted to become a millionaire, a multi-millionaire in my own right.

So and I was an actress before that.

I made six figures.

I thought I was, oh, this was more money than my parents had made.

My mom made $60,000 a year.

So I remember the first year I made $120,000.

I just thought I was rich.

But, you know, obviously I met Grant.

He was a multi-millionaire when I met him.

I just, that was more money than I could conceive of.

I never went to college.

I'm terrible with numbers.

Grant's phenomenal.

I'm here in Vegas.

Grant saw me doing this at the blackjack table.

I was counting on my fingers.

He said, what are you doing?

I was like counting to 21.

He was like, don't ever do that again.

He was mortified.

So I'm just saying that I'm not the genius when it comes to money.

And I said to Grant, you know, I don't want to feel.

unintelligent.

I never went to college.

What do I need to know about money?

And he said, people overcomplicate it.

There's only three things you need to know about money.

You need to know how to earn it.

Most people know how to do that.

You need to know how to store it, not save it in a bank where it depreciates.

That's the scam.

But how to store it to get enough to invest in an income-producing asset that pays a cash flow.

That's different than,

and he told me, he said, you can earn your way to rich.

You can't earn your way to wealth.

So I have taken his advice over the years.

I've listened to all of his programs, his seminars.

Wow, you yourself listen to that?

Yes, I listen to all of his material.

I've been through everything, all of his books, his program, Cardone University.

Wow.

He gets so irritated with me because I'll be listening to my, his program, which is so odd because when I'm wearing that hat as a student, like he's Grant, he's not my husband.

And then Grant will walk into the room and try to talk to me.

And I'm like, stop it.

I'm focusing.

And he was like, but I am that dude.

Pay attention to me.

So it is kind of awkward.

Long story short is,

I know this might sound sound silly and other people might not appreciate this, but I wanted to invest in card owned capital with my money.

I came into the relationship with a little bit of money.

I've also earned my own kind of money, but I wanted to invest in card owned capital.

And Grant just thought I was ridiculous because we're married and, you know, I'm in the will and we share everything.

But it was important to me as a woman.

I wanted to do this.

It was a personal goal.

So I convinced him to allow me to invest in Cardone Capital, and I have, and now I have almost $4 million invested.

And yeah.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

So I'm a multi-millionaire, but that's not all of my assets, but that's just what I have in Cardone Capital.

And it's all because he's mentored me.

Nice.

And so I'm passionate about it because I think

I think it's twofold.

I think women should have more confidence.

It's a large number.

Again, I think it's around 68% of women, if I remember the stats correctly, that say they don't have confidence with money.

So I wanted to learn more.

I'm definitely not the financial expert, nor do I claim to be, but I do know that women can do it with the right information.

So that's why I did the 10x ladies.

I mean, it's from my husband.

I want to bring women into the into

everything that we do,

whether it's an opportunity for a female-owned business owner to joint venture with us at Cardown Ventures, or they can come in and get turned on to 10x Health, because we take health very seriously.

Or they could come into card owned training technologies and understand the meet and greet, the follow-up,

the negotiation skills, the financial planning, the card-owned capital, how to invest.

So I just knew that there were women out there.

I was one of them myself.

I did not get Grant at first.

He rubbed me completely the wrong way.

Yeah, so if there was any other women who weren't going to find him on social media, just because

he can come off abrasive or strong and just some women wouldn't gravitate.

But I thought if I could be the catalyst and a female, someone that that type of woman could identify with, then they could come into the 10x

world via me.

That's actually why I did 10x ladies because I want more women to have access to Grant Cardone and all of this material and knowledge.

I love that.

And let's be honest, when we go to a business conference, it's 95% dudes.

That's why I did 10X Ladies.

I was at 10X GrowthCon.

This was in the beginning.

Now there's more women there.

But in the first two or three years of GrowthCon, it was

a seat.

Yeah.

I went to the first couple, so

speaking from experience.

You remember, I was like, this isn't fair.

Women have got to catch up.

But not only that, in the next 25 years, women are going to inherit $9 trillion.

So we've got to understand how not to just have cash and spend to zero.

But we really have to understand investing and prolonging and protecting.

Right.

And speaking of inheritance, I know with your kids, you're very public about the way you coach them.

Are you leaving them all your money?

To be determined.

If they know how to fly the plane, we'll leave them the the plane.

If they don't know how to fly the plane, metaphorically, then I'm not leaving them the plane.

I'm not going to do that to anyone.

But so far,

my kids are extraordinary.

I mean, they're just incredible assets.

They're learning the business by their own origination.

And I think they're extremely responsible and respectful.

And so far, at the ripe old ages of 12 and now 15,

they're on the right path.

And these are, at least those were the hardest years for me.

That was my stupidest years.

And if they're, if they're this good and stay and continue to grow, then absolutely they're just going to run the empire.

They're just, they're going to have to take care of me.

I'm just, I just hope I stay in the will.

Yeah, imagine where they'll be at your age.

It's unbelievable.

So many people say to me, aren't you afraid of ruining your kids with giving them so much?

And I'm like, well, first of all, I don't give them.

They earn everything.

They work.

They earn

everything.

They have investments in Cardone Capital.

They can live off of the cash flow.

Sabrina was in the office today, made 54 phone calls for Cardone Capital, raised $1.5 million just today from hitting the phones.

Are you serious?

Yes, I am serious.

So she is learning the business.

She started off at like seven years old, five years old, going through our offices.

One of her first jobs, her and Scarlett, was to empty all the trash cans of all the staff there.

And, you know, they kept their little candy stashes.

I found out later.

They were hitting them off on the side.

But

anyway, I forgot what I was saying, but the kids are, are they going to inherit the money?

I just think they're going to be understanding.

Oh, I said that.

I said, aren't you afraid of ruining the kids?

And I'm like, no, why do you?

Because I worked up.

I did too.

I worked my way from a very dark place.

And so, but why do people think that you have to work your way up to somehow get some life lesson?

Why can't they just start off with inspiration and education and see how far they can go without having to reprogram and recondition themselves?

That's what I had to do.

I had to regain self-esteem, re-figure out how to become my own best friend, unlearn all the wrong information I had about money, finance, business.

What if I just started off right?

How great and how far could I go?

So, no, I'm not worried about ruining my kids.

No, I love the way you've done it.

And they're both active on social media, but they're using social media in the right way.

A lot of kids are using it mindlessly.

Yeah.

They're just scrolling.

Well, thank you.

And Sabrina

just recently shut off.

She still has her Instagram account, but she gets to a point where she says, nope, this is affecting me.

And she shuts it off and won't look at it because she'll find herself 15 now

you know i don't want to out her but i think it's my hypnosis she never said this but i can tell she'll start introverting and do i look good or this or that and self-consciousness and i'm like are you kidding me sabrina have you looked in the mirror you're gorgeous and intelligent you have everythings

So she'll on her own will without me having a heart.

That's how ethical these kids are.

They put their own ethics in.

If they feel like they're wasting too much time and feeling depressed on social media, they shut it off.

Yeah, I see all the hate comments she gets.

It's actually mind-blowing to me.

She won't read them anymore.

It's weird how people act like that on the internet.

With a kid.

Yeah, with a 15-year-old.

What's the point in hating on that?

Right.

Who's just trying to find her way and her voice.

Yeah.

People are cruel.

They really are cruel.

Yeah.

It's a dark world, man.

Grant gets a ton of hate too, but he deals with it well.

I think he fuels off of it.

I think he loves it, honestly.

I really do.

I think I get affected the most by it.

You do too, yeah.

Do I get hate?

You get some nasty comments too.

No way.

Yeah.

I don't even read that.

Gold digger comments.

Oh, I love that.

I wrote a chapter about that in my book.

I saw your video about it too.

You did?

Yeah.

You owned up to it.

I did, because in the very beginning, this is pre-social media when I was getting married to Grant.

People in our universe were calling me that.

And, you know, I moved out to

California when I was 17 years old.

And

I didn't have some rich guys.

Matter of fact, I was always the breadwinner with the guys I dated, the losers that I dated.

And so I hated that comment because I used to be very adamant about being the strong, independent woman, never depend on a man for anything.

So I thought it was an extremely degrading compliment.

What was it, not compliment?

insult yes thank you yeah insult so but but and i almost broke up with him over it because it bugged me i was like i don't want this like it just it was it created a resentful wedge

and then i realized that that was silly and just that was one of the biggest lessons i learned if if you can learn how to take

something that someone throws at you that has power and you can turn it into your own and hurl it back, it loses all power.

Like I own it.

I'm like, hell yeah.

I am.

That's the thing.

I am a gold digger.

I am.

But I dig for it in myself.

I don't rest on my laurels.

I've been spending hundreds, if not thousands of hours self-enhancing and educating.

So

I can demand it of anybody else.

And, you know, I'm not going to be happy with you just the way you are.

And Grant's good with that.

And so I'm not stagnant.

And that stinks stagnant.

I don't want that.

Like, we always have to level up and you

You know seek it in me and I seek it in you and that's why we reach heightened levels of success together.

Right.

And when we win, we fall more in love.

Because I think the greatest act of love you can give somebody is to help them achieve their goals and their dreams.

I agree.

So when you do that, we fortify.

When we,

you know, you know how many times in 20 years, I can't speak for him, but there's been times where it's been rough.

And I have the thought.

Now, we have the rule in our house, you never mention the D word.

Really?

That's a rule?

Oh, it's a million percent rule.

We don't say

like, mm-mm.

That's one rule we said in the beginning.

It just doesn't get mentioned.

You want to resolve everything without the D word.

Oh, yeah.

No.

No, no, no.

You don't mention that word.

That's like the most heinous word.

But there's been times when I've been thinking, God, you know, do I have other options?

Like, should I get out of this?

This is hard, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And I always come around with, if we did that the haters that want to see us divorced

they would win

and I can't let them win so I figure out how to get back on the same page with him re-fortify get even stronger make it through that hurdle fall more in love hit bigger wins and it's just a great strategy because they actually force me back into my right frame of mind of like, oh, hell no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to give them that.

Right.

You know how many people would love to see my family torn apart?

They'd love to see us lose all of our money.

It's just.

And that's the thing with public relationships, right?

Because you both are public figures and a lot of those end up disastrous because there's just so many haters just praying on their downfall.

You know?

That's why you got to protect the empire.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've seen some videos of you actually denying him the first year he you guys met, right?

You turned him down for a while.

Oh, yeah, for 13 months.

Wow.

He was already a multi-millionaire when he was hitting you up?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that wasn't enough to win you over.

Oh no, that was at that time in my life, that was a major turnoff.

Really?

Yeah, because I, I, look, I, like I was saying, I moved to California from New Orleans when I was 17.

So I had been in LA as a model and an actress since I was 17.

And by the time I met him, I was in my late 20s.

So I had been through seeing the rich producer guys throwing their monies trying to buy girls.

I mean, it was everywhere.

So I just thought he was another arrogant guy who thought he could just buy women.

So that was a turnoff to me.

I was like, I don't care about your money.

I'm an independent woman.

I have my own house.

I got my own hot rods, my own cars.

I don't need you for nothing, you know?

So, and what did he do that made you change your decision?

I'm such a sucker.

Okay.

You know, like a honey to be.

My weakness at

that time, it's so predictable, but I was shooting shotguns at the time, and I was a competition shotgun shooter.

Yeah.

At that time,

before I even really trained, I was ranked 10th out of the females in California.

Anyway, so I used to shoot all the time on the weekend.

This is really shallow to admit, but he had left all these messages.

And then finally, he found out that I used to shoot guns.

It's not cheap.

I wasn't like I am now where I could afford stuff, but I made myself afford that because it was such a passion of mine.

Anyway, he leaves a message on my phone was like, hey, I rented the whole shooting range if you want to go with me.

And I was like, oh,

he's going to play that card.

I'll take him up on that offer.

So I did.

And that's what made me call him back was he just found my weakness and I was, I was going to take advantage of him,

you know, like fully being transparent.

Like, oh, he wants to play that card.

But then now look at me, I'm like freaking wrapped around his finger now.

I remember I had my little crises

probably when the kids were

very young toddlers.

I was like, I used to have men wrapped around my little finger and now I'm wrapped around yours.

And I was crying and he just died laughing.

Anyway, but it's true.

So you went from being the alpha in relationships to being his beta.

I'm definitely his beta.

I'm definitely like, he is definitely alpha.

And

that is the nature of our relationship.

However, I am very strong and very powerful.

And,

you know, I'm sort of the boss of the house and everything underneath that roof.

And so that's my role.

And

he allows me to run that division.

And he is the boss of the business.

And it doesn't have anything to do with male, female.

It's just he is a boss.

Like, he knows more than I do.

So he's the boss at the business.

And I'm his junior there.

And when we come home,

you know, I run the household.

And he respects the decisions that we make with the children and where they're going to go to school and homeschooled or this or that or who we hang out with and where we go and sort of the PR.

And, you know, so he, so there's no fighting because it's like, look, we got to have it all.

We got to have the business working and the family working.

Right.

And we need to stay out of each other's way and each do a hundred percent in our roles to get us to where we want to be in the life that we want to have.

So we're equal in marriage, but not in business.

And frankly, probably not in the home life either.

Well, it's tough to balance the business with your partners.

Yeah.

Really tough.

It is really tough.

But he is the boss there.

And he earns that.

And I'm not, I'm not entitled to that.

I mean, it is what it is I'm not stupid so

you know I had to overcome a lot of mental challenges I've had to take some turns in my life where he's been the same I've changed I've had identity shifts and you know when I became a mother there was a shift when I left my acting career there was a shift and when I had the realization that I was I found myself four years into a marriage still operating as an independent powerful woman never depending on a man well it didn't work being married to a man with that mentality

so

I had to look at that and say well what do I think and why do I have that and why is that ingrained in me and who is that helping right and I thought it was this imaginary group of women that I was selling out if I depended on my man and it just sounded so Disgusting

and then I realized I was like, I don't know, that's just society saying I can't depend on a man.

Well, why did I marry him?

I mean, I i can do what i can do on my own i've been on my own since i was 17.

the point of being with a man for me is to depend on him to help us reach heightened levels of success where you cap out the other one helps you hit the higher and when grant caps out i help him hit the higher that's the only reason like other than

you know the sexual aspect of it and procreation

There's that aspect of it.

So I said, screw it.

I depend on a man and he depends on me and there's nothing wrong with that.

We depend on each other to do our jobs, our roles, to reach heightened levels of success.

That's the game I'm interested in.

How far can this girl from Louisiana who never went to college,

how far can she go?

Yeah.

And what can I do?

And he helps me do.

I have come quite far.

You know, I haven't done a drug since 2000.

Wow.

Gave birth to two kids naturally with no drugs.

No, at home.

I love that.

I'm looking into that for my future kids.

Oh, it was the most beautiful experience ever.

It was so incredible.

Like

giving birth.

And

I had a doctor there, of course.

I had a hospital close by.

I was healthy enough to do it.

But yeah, it was just incredible.

The doctor got Sabrina and Scarlett's like head out, which is crazy.

And then he gave me my hands.

And then I pulled this kid out for the rest of the way.

And then just having your child there, it's not getting whisked away.

That's just with you.

That's what I hate in the hospital.

They take it away immediately.

They take it away.

For what reason?

It was just, we got to bond, you know, and I looked at her and I said,

I said, hi, welcome back.

I'm your mother this lifetime.

My name's Elena.

This is your father.

His name's Grant.

I'd love to be able to call you Sabrina Francesca Cardone.

Do you like that name?

You know, and I just said, you're welcomed and you're loved and I'm going to protect and honor you for the rest of this lifetime that I have together.

And thank you so much for choosing me as your parent.

And we were emotional.

It was just so beautiful.

And then she just, you know.

Yeah.

stayed on my chest and immediately breastfed.

It was just really incredibly spiritual and beautiful with both kids.

I love that.

Yeah, that sounds like a life-changing moment for you.

Oh, it was.

So I'm proud.

I've come a long way

with so many different shifts that I've had to take.

Yeah.

Being a mother.

I've heard you say on other show, actually, in regards to that, you used to be ashamed of being a mother.

I was.

I wasn't ashamed of being a mother

per se.

It was that when I became a mother and wasn't working, I somehow felt my value was less because I was only a mother and not working.

So it wasn't that I was ashamed of being a mother.

It was that I was ashamed of just being a mother.

Right, like a stay-at-home mom type thing.

Yes, like I felt like I was going to get judged for that.

Oh, now I don't have any worth.

She's just a mom living off the, you know, the

husband.

There is a lot of judgment with stay-at-home moms and dads for sure.

It's devised, I believe, to break up the family.

So I've just rediscovered my purpose in life, which is to empower women, protect children, and restore the value of the family to society.

The value of the family is under attack, and I think it's in ruin.

There's a lot of families.

Yeah, I grew up in a divorced household and that was common where I grew up.

Very common.

Almost all my friends, same thing.

Was it hard on you?

Definitely, yeah.

I didn't realize it at the time, but it definitely played a role in me.

Yeah.

Not having a father figure

as a man.

The stats for not having a father in the house are just horrible.

I mean, I'm not going to quote them because I will mess it up, but the suicides are higher.

Divorce is higher.

Crime's higher.

Crime's higher.

It's just a really bad

statistic without having a father in the house.

Yeah, both parents are integral, I think.

You need both.

Oh, for sure.

You know, there's things Grant can do that I can't do.

Right.

You know.

Do you have days for the kids where you kind of split them apart or do you have family days?

Not designated, but I did just get in

dinners.

I should have done this earlier.

I probably failed a little bit as a mother.

I wish I would have done this sooner, but I have it in now, so I'm really happy.

We're now,

and I tried to be the cook and all of that.

It didn't work but I finally hired a chef

so now we have dinner at 630 every night and everyone shows up for dinner and that happens five nights a week we try to make it even when he's not there the two nights that he has off

and and and that's been instrumental but we've designed our lives to fit our lifestyle So like last week, I did 10X Ladies.

I had another event.

I went right into

another event that I had.

So I've been working for six or seven days in a row, like morning till night.

Now I'm here doing this world.

But they understand that when, and when we have GrowthCon and this and that, they understand that we're going to go home.

We're going to hit it really hard.

We're still going to have family time and this and that.

But then they understand that we do incredible trips.

Like we just.

did a two-week south of France yacht trip.

Wow.

Beautiful.

And we do that every year and sometimes twice a year.

And it's just us, the family.

There's no assistants or staff or film crew or anyone.

And it's just us.

And

we jet ski and we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together in museums or whatever we feel like doing.

So that's when we really say, look, we're paying the price.

We're sacrificing now, but we're also helping people.

So that is on our purpose line.

But then we also get to have this lifestyle the way we designed it on our plane, traveling the world.

So they understand.

They've been incredible with that.

Beautiful.

Do you think parents should have a say in the friends of their children?

Like do you have a say with your daughters on who they bring into the house?

I want them to be able to be self-determined over their friends.

And I am trying to, as a mother, trying to create an environment where

they are wise enough to make their own decisions.

So I

will ask them questions like, like where do they fit on like the emotional tone scale like if you look at the tone scale there's there someone can be an enthusiasm or

or

cheerfulness or conservatism or covert hostile where they smile but they're stabbing you in the back or resentful or unexpressed resentful or anger or hatred or apathy or you know and all of those different tones in between have different like levels.

So we'll just like tone spot where are they at?

Like, where's the apparent tone?

Oh, they appear to be cheerful, but underneath there's they're in grief or sadness, or, you know, and what is their behavior and what is their friends like and what is, what is their interest, and what do they talk about?

And do they gossip about others?

Or, you know, so we watch it in movies.

Where's their tone level?

You know, do they gossip?

You know, so they can start to see and analyze.

And what did you think about that person and this person?

And

how do they present themselves?

And

and what are their stats and how do they talk about life

and so they start to look at that so we'll we'll ask them how is that friend and how's their relationships with our other friends and right and so then they'll be like they'll figure it out and they'll say you know what we found out this person

likes to excessively drink or they're promiscuous or they're like dabbling in drugs and so I'm gonna kind of just keep my distance and be like

friendly but they don't wanna hang out and so that's that's where I'm at I like that approach you know what I'm saying yeah because some parents are a little too strict with it so they'll kick or expel the kid but then the kid will rebel and hang out with them like in secret you know what I mean so you gotta kind of let the kid decide I think I d I agree and so I've just talked to Sabrina as a mom and I've just said, can I give you some mom advice right now or do you want to figure this out?

Because she was upset one time.

I wouldn't let her go over to

this young guy's house that had a boat and

whatever they were going to do.

I don't know.

But I said no, and she was upset.

And she was, you know, young, like 13 or something.

And I just said, Can I just give you some mom advice?

And she said, sure.

And I said, well, look, it's just the way society is until it gets not this way.

I said, but you know,

in society, boys are looked at as cool and conqueror if they get girls and they can have a lot of girls and it makes them cooler and more studly.

And

if

they say that they're with a girl, even if they're not, and sometimes they lie about stuff like that to make themselves seem better, girls,

your reputation gets degraded, unfortunately.

And so I'm trying to protect that in you, and then also, you know, if there's drinking, there's there's even more of, you know, they could maybe cross a line that you

might not be aware of that could happen and put you in a dangerous situation.

Right.

And you and Grant have both been through that phase with alcohol and drugs.

So a million percent.

I mean, and I, and I'm, I'm, I'm open and honest.

And I'm like, look, I'm not going to judge you.

Like, if you need to go through your alcohol and drug phase, like, I'm not going to like it.

I'm going to cut you off from this this or this or this

access because I don't allow that into my life I can't have that toxicity but if you need to go do that you do that but I'm telling you it was extremely painful very depressing degrading and if if I could just prevent that from from that happening to you I mean my first experience was you know, sexually was drunk and horrible.

And I can never take that back.

And that's one of my biggest regrets in life.

That should be a special moment.

It should be.

And I just told her that.

I said, I just would never want that for you because you should be in love and

trust that he's not just telling you that he's in love with you to do whatever.

Right.

You know, and

girl,

they're just a little naive.

Yeah.

And, you know, you read romance novels and you expect it to be this way.

And Disney movies.

Yeah.

And then it could turn on a dime.

So I try not to like put too much adult content on her, but it's there anyway.

So, so, anyway, she gave let me have that piece of advice, and I said, you do what you want.

It's your life if that's how you want it to be.

But my recommendation and how I wish it was for me, even this many years later, I'm 50 years old, I still regret that.

I still wish it was later and with a man I had been in a relationship with for a year or years and it was really special.

Like I really do regret that.

No, that's important because a lot of kids that grow up in rich environments, they go down these dark paths because the parents get so wrapped up.

And I was trying to be like this

like liberated, I'm going to have this experience before my friends.

And, you know, I was, it was just, ugh.

Yeah, even as a guy, too, like,

it's kind of like you're looked at a loser if you don't lose your virginity early.

By a certain time.

I know.

So anyway, I just, she's just an amazing kid.

And I'm so blessed that they aren't doing to us what I did and Grant did to our parents.

What was that?

Oh, I mean, you know, I was

my mom and dad, they were a lot older than most parents.

So they were very naive to what was happening.

I grew up in New Orleans.

I was going out to the French quarter when I was 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 is when I left to go try to make something of myself.

I wouldn't go out to the French Quarter until midnight.

I wouldn't come home until 7 or 8

in the morning.

13, 14, you were doing this?

Yes.

Wow.

You were partying early.

Yeah, I was partying early.

I remember my dad told me,

never get in a car with anyone who's drinking, which of course I didn't do.

But he told me, he said, if you ever call me

and you need to be picked up, even if you were supposed to be at a friend's house, I would rather you do that and you won't get in trouble.

Just call me and I'll pick you up if you ever find yourself in a situation.

And I remember I found myself in a situation in the French quarter where I was 14, 15, I mean, tripping so hard on acid.

Damn.

It was hard, you know, and I called my dad from a payphone back then and I said, you got to come get me right now.

And he came and got me.

I didn't get in trouble.

I just.

had a bad trip.

Oh, it was bad.

Yeah, it was bad.

I mean, it's the people you're around, I heard, on those trips.

So you probably had some bad energy around you.

Yeah.

I mean, it was New Orleans.

I mean, it was like, I don't know if you, you know, who Fellini is, but his films are like weird.

That's New Orleans.

Like, you, especially on acid on LSD or mushrooms.

I did acid.

I had to be alone.

Oh, it was, it is, it is loony tunes in the French quarter back in the day.

And this was Mohawk days, you know, when it was just wild.

You got a mohawk?

No, my sister did, but I did have like a half a shaved head.

Hey, we gotta throw a little photo of this on the screen.

I know.

Oh, my sister's mohawk.

Mohawk and your hair.

You got a shaved hair?

Yeah, I had the bottom shaved.

Wow.

So you couldn't see that it was like really shaved.

And then it was kind of like knotted, like kind of dreadlocky on the top.

And I dyed it blue-black.

Okay.

So you were pretty like rebellious as a kid.

Oh, yeah.

It was like a punk rock.

Wow.

You know, black flag, like old school.

Damn.

Yeah.

What a journey, right?

Now you're judging beauty pageants.

I know, right?

Got Miss World tomorrow.

Oh my God, I know.

It's insane.

Did you ever think it'd come to this?

Like, this is such a transformation.

No, I thought that was sell out to, you know, punk rockism.

You know?

Yeah.

Like, this life that I lead now, but that's not my group.

That's not my group.

I was not happy with that group, you know?

Do you think you were just fitting in, like, but that wasn't you?

Well,

my sister was punk.

She still kind of is.

Like, she's very eccentric.

She's, we, we're very different now.

Um, so she was punk rock, but I think I was A, it's trying to be like her, but also I went through my own

just

horrendous tragedy at 14, where unfortunately I witnessed my best friend who was across the street, my neighbor, burn in a fire.

What?

Yeah, her and her mother.

And so at 14 years old, like

having to see that,

over 95% of her body.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it was, it wasn't so.

I collapsed when I saw her.

Damn.

My father was holding me up.

It was so

devastating.

And I did not know how to cope with that.

And that's really when I started to just kind of self-medicate.

not care whether I lived or not.

And actually did.

I think I had a death wish, you know, because I was wild.

I mean, I was so wild, you know.

Damn.

Yeah.

That's deep.

It was deep.

It was heavy.

Yeah.

It was, it was really painful.

So anyway, that group, that punk rock group felt like a bunch of misfits

that had each other in

that we didn't fit into society.

I didn't feel like I fit in.

I felt like I was.

killed inside walking around society like this is surreal like how is everything okay it's not okay but i didn't know how to communicate or express so i just found my group that you know right we were vandals and yeah they call that trauma bonding where yeah we yeah like that's that's what that group was yeah you all had your own traumas we all had our own traumas wow you know you still talk to any of them um

not really my my core best friends stephanie stacey and rebecca yes We do.

We still talk and we're still best friends.

And speaking of your friends, the clip I loved about you the most was you don't talk negatively about Grant to your friends ever.

Ever.

Which is

a great thing to do if you're dating someone.

Million percent.

Like, that's when I look at the empire as the king and the queen, and there's no one above.

So I equate it to

in the book, I get a lot of heat for this, but like talking to the chambermaid.

I mean, not that my best friends or my business partners are chambermaids, but that's how I look at it.

Like I wouldn't talk to anyone who's not in my shoes about the king.

I mean, it's got to be sacred.

And

there's so many different reasons why, because if I go and dump on them about Grant, and then there's two sides, and then I make up with Grant, then they haven't gotten rid of that.

So then when I hang out with them again, they're bringing it back up, which re-stimulates the argument that I had.

And then when I get back in front of him, I'm re-fighting about the whole thing all over again because, you know what I'm saying?

It's a loser.

So it's a loser because when I make up with Grant and there's his side and my side and there was my responsibility in it as well.

Yeah.

Because I'm not a victim no matter what happens, right?

I had something to do with it.

So yeah, it's just worked out really well for us because

I value and seek our own counsel.

I'll only go talk to somebody who we agree at our church can talk to us about our relationship or show us

how to have a successful marriage.

I love that.

Yeah, when I have a friend or acquaintance talk to me negatively about others, I usually cut them off.

Yeah.

Like it's just a toxic.

Well, they're a friend because a friend is not hearing ill will of the person.

So I don't allow people to speak ill will of anyone in my crew.

Yeah, if they do it to one person, I'll maybe hear it out.

But if they do it to multiple people,

that's like the gossipy person you have to beware of.

Yeah, you gotta be aware.

Now, I don't mind a knowledge report.

That's different than gossip because people misunderstand and then they don't want to tell me things and then that's almost egregious like if you know somebody has done a knowledge something that I will completely not be in agreement with and you don't tell me that's equally as bad as not being a friend but gossip don't gossip to me but knowledge report I saw so-and-so cheating and stealing your

whatever or cheating on their husbands or spouses or they did crack cocaine at the strip club and like these not that this has happened i'm giving examples yeah but i don't that can happen we have thousands of employees at this point i'm not judgmental to everyone but my inner circle like no like you're not cheating on your husbands or your wives that's not not tolerated i'm not a fan of that no hell no you're you're going to cheat on them the one you love the most you're definitely cheating with on my business and in our business 100 no you are out i don't allow drugs or alcohol in in my tight circle wow i mean not not alcohol, like just random alcohol.

When I say alcohol, I meant excessive alcohol.

Get drunk.

Like massive.

I mean, everyone gets drink too much once in a while at a Christmas party.

I'm not talking about that.

I mean, over and over and over, you know, wild, sloppy, like, okay, maybe there's a problem here.

Yeah.

Kind of.

What about political,

like, if they're not a Republican or Trump supporter?

It's the values.

You know,

it's the values.

If you're

If you're not for empowering women, okay?

And so if you're for men that can compete in women's sports, that's anti-woman in my case, because we've worked a really hard and long time to be able to be a woman.

That boxing thing was nuts.

Insane, right?

Couldn't believe it.

I know.

So if you're not for that, I'm going to have a problem.

No matter how much I like you, it's going to come in.

If you're not for protecting children, like you think it's okay for a child to be able to have a life

altering sex change without a consult of a parent as a minor?

That's not protecting children.

That is child abuse to me.

So yeah, I'm probably going to have a problem with that.

And if you're like anti-family,

that's a problem to me.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Yeah.

In my close circle, I don't think I have anyone on the left.

to be honest.

Really?

I'll talk to them, but just

on the friendship level,

it is is different because, you know,

it's hard because I have people that I work with.

And no matter how much I love them and like them, eventually

that side or the,

you know, it just so happens.

That's where my belief.

Like, I'm an anti-vaxxer.

I thought that was a scam.

I don't like the...

World Health Organization, the Economic Forum,

and I'm not for Defund the Police and this and that.

So those viewpoints, when one side is that way and this side is this way, it eventually, no matter how much you like the person or how much they like you, you try to get along and you do, you love that person.

But eventually, there's a little wedge that eventually grows and it becomes this big fault line.

Right.

I'm borrowing the phrase from Titus.

He said that.

Eventually, it does create a wedge and drive you apart because

you can't be pro me if you're anti-everything I stand for.

And it does show up in business.

It does.

Have you always been pretty right-leaning?

No, before I met Grant, I was a Democrat.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean, I was a punk rocker.

I was, you know, F the police.

I was

screw the rich.

I mean, I had to make so many 180s with my whole mentality.

It's been, it's been, you know, at this point, I've been on like a roller coaster ride of who I am and what my thoughts are and having to really assess, well, what do I really think

you know yeah absolutely I was on your Instagram yesterday there was an interesting clip so you said a hundred thousand dollars a year is not enough money to live so what do you think is enough these days

well it's not up to me to tell someone what's enough to live on

but

um

But you know, what's enough to live on?

It depends on where you want and where you set your standards and what you want.

Like, and and and and and and I just believe in abundance.

And so, abundance is the only thing that can protect you.

So,

normal is the worst state to be in.

It's the most dangerous state because everything appears to be okay until one day it's not.

And so, this hundred thousand mark is like, I mean, you've got kids.

Can you withstand an emergency or a time off work?

Or can you afford a vacation if you want, or to help your family?

Probably not.

Or schools or diapers, I mean, and inflation, or home, or good insurance, or health care, or, or,

you know, what I'm saying.

So you have to assess what you're okay with.

And then for me, it's about abundance because I want to be able to withstand economic challenges or devastations that are unexpected or unplanned for, and then have some plus, plus, plus, plus.

So I would say look at what your expenses are for sure.

And then the goal should at minimum be

have your income producing asset that Grant talked about, the only three things you need to know about money, have the income producing asset, not the earned income, because

that could be in a situation where you're not earning it.

You lose your job.

But the income producing asset covering those expenses.

plus, plus, plus, plus.

And that would seem like, okay, that could basically be the baseline.

Right.

But I don't want to tell anyone what they should want or not want.

But yeah, it's also so different depending on where you live, what state, what city.

Exactly.

Because I know Grant went viral for saying 400,000.

Yeah, that's the thing where that came from.

Now, that was taken out of context because he was speaking to a room where they paid him to come out.

And the people that came that brought him out was a bunch of guys, again, all guys.

And so he was speaking to a room of guys that all made

around $400,000 a year.

And so, what he was trying to do was talk to them and say, You should not be satisfied with this, and you should be trying to reach for more and why, and this and that.

Do you know what I'm saying?

So, it got taken out of context.

And,

you know, some people wanted to say, Oh, he doesn't care about the military or the teachers or this or that.

He wasn't, that wasn't the audience he was talking to.

And

he loves the military and the teachers and frontline workers.

And he's actually given them Cardone University for free.

Wow.

Yes.

Cardone Vets.

You can go to Cardone Vets and get all of Grant's content for free.

I mean, he loves it.

His biggest and only regret in life is that he never joined the military.

Really?

Yes.

That's his regret?

Yes.

Wow.

It's his biggest regret.

I'm telling you that because I've heard him say it numerous times over on podcasts and everywhere.

His only regret.

Interesting.

I mean, if you're talking in business, his second might be that he didn't collaborate and go bigger sooner.

But his biggest regret, if you were to ask him, and you can make a note when you have him on next, what's your biggest regret, I bet you'll say he didn't join that he didn't join the military.

I'll definitely ask that.

Your pinned tweet, so you're no longer going to New York anymore.

No.

What happened?

Well, we owe a fiduciary responsibility to our investors.

Like Cardone Capital, we have billions of dollars worth of assets under management.

We own apartments, income-producing assets, like I mentioned numerous times.

We have about 14,000 apartments now.

That's going to go to 50 soon and then 100.

Wow.

And so we can't trust a place like New York that can have government interference that can come in and

not say whether or not I can kick somebody out if they don't pay their rent or they can seize my property if they don't like the way I did a bank loan, even if I paid my own bank loan back based on what they did with Trump, President Trump.

So we're not going to the blue states until this gets worked out because we have a fiduciary, people trust us with large amounts of money and it's our responsibility to maintain and support and fill and occupy these big, beautiful buildings that people have invested in and you know they they they need to make sure that that asset's protected and cash flowing so they can take care of their families and these blue states won't do that so so it's more than New York oh it's all the blue states so it's like 20 states yeah we won't go there now I will tell you this

if Grant did put a billion dollars in some place like a California or something, there is a reason and something he does know.

And if he did it, I would trust him because I've never, as wild as you think Grant is,

and when people ask me, what's something that no one knows about Grant, I say this, that as wild and crazy as you might see him and how he appears on social media, I've never met someone more conservative with money than that man.

Wow.

Period.

He doesn't lose money.

He's never lost money.

Well, to have the fund this long, because it's been like, what, 20 years now?

Yeah.

I mean, I've been.

Because that survived the 08 crash.

Yeah.

Well,

we didn't, it wasn't open to the public right then.

Oh, no, no.

This was recently.

That was because of myself and Ryan Secco, his vice president of Cardown Capital now, that encouraged him to open it up to multiple investors.

Because originally, we didn't want the problem and the this and the that.

And then

finally, I said, this isn't fair that we have this all to ourselves.

I want our friends and family.

We did our friends and family as brother, his sister, my mother.

My mother is now a multimillionaire because of this.

That's incredible.

So if you just put your money in the right places, you can become a multi-millionaire.

Oh, yeah.

Easy.

I mean, you've really got to understand it.

We could get into that.

at some point if you want to turn it into that.

But the thing about the income, you know the asset.

You know what it's doing.

It's real brick and mortar.

It's not people you don't know with paper on Wall Street.

You can drive the apartments and knock on doors and see people in the parking lots.

How do you like living here?

I like it.

I've lived here for so-and-so.

These are real people, real buildings, and the income is

what cash flows.

Now, the thing is, is since the Depression, homes have gone up and down in value drastically.

But if you look at the prices of apartments, it's only gone up.

Really?

Yes.

So think about it.

If we buy a building today, because rents have always gone up, rents, would you, wouldn't you probably renew, yeah, for lifetime?

It's gone up every year.

Exactly.

So, okay, so when we buy a building, let's just make an even number, 100 million.

We buy a building for 100 million,

and three years later, and it's got, and I'm terrible with math, as you know, but

let's say it's got 400 units, and each unit goes up $50 a month over three years, maybe even more, $100, $150 times $400.

Do you realize now

the income and the value of the asset becomes greater than the $100 million?

Because it's now worth more because when you go to sell it, it's an income-producing asset.

Because you understand the rents.

So we bought it at $100, but now the rents got raised.

You got to take the depreciation.

The rents got raised.

Now it's more valuable.

Now, what we can do for our investors, so let's say I have, it's a hundred million dollar building.

I put in a hundred thousand.

That's where I started years ago.

I put in a hundred thousand into this.

Now in three to five years, let's say we go to refinance when the interest rates are lower, we go refinance the hundred million.

Now we put, we put a hundred and fifty million loan because it's worth $200 at this time.

I'm making up these numbers, but to give you the concept, right?

So when we go refinance it, which now the renters are going to pay all of that, I'm not paying anything, but they give us the $150 million.

So now what happens?

What happens?

In the three years, I've been paid dividends every single month with my $100,000.

So now I've already gotten, let's say, $20,000 back, which now I only have 80,000.

Now I refinanced.

I refinance.

Now they give me my original 100,000 back plus what I've had and all the dividends.

How much money do I have in it now?

You said 4 million, right?

Well, no, that's an all-my investment.

So I'm just taking in this scenario.

I had $100,000 that I put in.

We refinanced.

I got $20,000 already back.

So now I had $80,000 still in because they gave me $20,000 back.

Now they refinanced.

I get another $100,000.

Now I got all my money back plus what I've already been paid how much do I have in the building I have a hundred thousand dollars

worth but I have zero invested because they've given it back wow but I still have my share but guess what because it was refinanced it's not taxed so now imagine I don't have to pay money on that

$100,000.

So now the hundred thousand is even worth more because when you earn income, they tax it and it's worth less so now i protected my i got my hundred thousand back and now i go redump it into another asset that's going to pay me and that's how i've become a multi-millionaire that's incredible and and i got my hundred thousand back i still have my my my shares in it but i have no money in it and i've done that with multiple

And that's what our investors do.

Now, I'm not saying we refinance every one, but we have great returns.

And

again, for legal legal reasons, I can't make these promises and I'm not promising anything.

And yada, yada, yada, and any investment can fail.

And do you know what I'm saying?

But our track record hasn't done that.

Wow.

Our track record is every single investor has been paid a dividend and every single investor keeps investing because our deals are so good.

They're institutional grade quality.

No losing years so far?

Not a one.

Even with this recent inflation and all the interest rates going up a lot?

No.

That's impressive.

No.

You know, because Grant puts good debt on, and lately, because that was in the past.

But right now, we're buying all of the assets in cash.

So we don't care what the interest rates are doing.

We're stealing right now.

Our investors are interested in the opportunity of the century, which happens to be right now.

So we're buying everything in cash right now.

Right, because there's some discounts right now.

massive, and so then we can go put some refinancing on very soon.

So, you know, love it.

But even during COVID, the only time we ever paused dividends was during COVID.

And we called an investor call.

We got on a Zoom with them right away.

Yeah.

And we said, we're going to pause the dividends because we don't know where we're going.

We don't know if there's going to be a mass exodus on the rentals.

We don't know.

We need to have this cushion in case we need to handle whatever because we were scared.

Yeah, everyone was.

And so the investor said, no problem.

We put a pause on it.

We actually went to our tenants who love our buildings because they have movie theaters and gyms and they're secure and safe and they're beautiful.

And so we gave the tenants an opportunity to re-opt for another year and most of them did.

And so we only put a pause for like two or three months and then retro paid them what we owed them.

And so no one's ever missed, we've never missed a payment.

I love it.

Yeah, we'll link the fund in the description below.

Yeah, Cardone Capital.

They can go to cardonecapital.com and look at all of our assets.

And then I think there's a link to you can be an accredited or non-accredited investor.

You can just call the office or sign up online.

Awesome.

Anything else you want to promote or close off with here?

Any events coming up?

We have 10x WealthCon coming up.

10xwealthcon.com.

That's what I want to promote.

You know, I'm just really behind the 10x movement, behind Grant, behind our organization.

I'm going to start taking the lead more on the Grant Cardone Foundation

because we want to get this information into all the underserved kids that don't have this environment to learn from.

And we want to give them an opportunity to have every shot of being an entrepreneur and the skills that they need, so I'm gonna start, I am more, but even more so, um, dig my heels into the Grant Cardone Foundation to help the kids.

Yeah, but but follow Grant Cardone, follow me, but follow Grant Cardone because um, he really is at the forefront of really

making a difference and an impact globally.

I love it.

We'll link everything below.

Thank you so much for coming on and

thank you, Sean.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you next time.