Luxe Life Magazine Special Edition: Building an Empire with Elena Cardone by Luxe Life Magazine

LUXE LIFE MAGAZINE

Building an Empire with Elena Cardone

SPECIAL EDITION

LUXE LIFE MAGAZINE Special Edition

CONTENTS

05 03

A Note From The Founder

pg. 2

Feature Interview

pgs. 5-14

with Candice Bar

with Elena Cardone

Acknowledgements

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A Note From Our Founder

"I was inspired to create the magazine for female entrepreneurs so we could provide proper advice to all of our readers and followers who are experts in their industry. Knowledgeable advice is invaluable. It's time for the ladies to get some recognition."

Candice Bar is a multi-media mogul speaker, mentor, tv and radio personality and female entrepreneur advocate. Candice is the Founder and CEO of Luxe Enterprise which includes Luxe Media, Luxe Life Magazine, Luxe Life Cosmetics, Luxe Media Studios, Luxe Wear and Luxe Life with Candice Bar podcast. Her show Luxe Life is currently on several major platforms all over the world.

Elena Cardone Elena Cardone started her career in Hollywood and soon became a successful actress and model of TV and film fame. A lifelong competitive sport shooter, and now author, businesswoman, empire builder, event producer, mentor, public speaker, trainer and visionary. She is the author of the best-selling book “Build an Empire: How to Have it All” as well as the executive producer of the annual 10X Ladies Event and Build an Empire Mastermind events. Draw-ing upon her vast experience, Elena has developed her own cur-riculum to assist aspiring empire builders. In her Build An Empire and Kingmaker courses, she lays the groundwork for both men and women as she trains them how to create and maintain both an ex-traordinary career and marriage. Additionally, she mentors hundred of women with personal, one-on-one coaching sessions. Elena currently hosts her own show, “Women in Power and The 10X Ladies Network, along with co-hosting “The G&E Show” with her husband, Grant Cardone, bestselling author, entrepreneur and real estate investor. Together they have created a real estate portfolio of $1.9 Billion. Elena has been happily married to Grant since 2004 (July 4th to be exact- and the fireworks have never stopped) and lives with her husband Grant, their two daughters, Sabrina and Scarlett, along with their two cats, Cash and Flow in Miami Beach.

Interview By: Candice Bar JANUARY 2021 CB: What was the catalyst to make you want to write the book? EC: Well, it was actually my husband that convinced me to write

the book. He said, “You have information that could help people.” So, I was inspired by him to write the book and I had to confront a lot of challenges because I never liked school. School wasn’t my forte. I hated book reports and it was just agonizing for me. I never really considered myself school smart. I never went to college so I’ve always had this thought of “I’m not one of those smart people.” Although, I do consider myself street smart, but not this white tower type of person. I always feel uncomfortable around really proper people, or really highly educated people. I’m like, “Oh God, what am I going to say this 07

time that’s going to embarrass me?”. Learning how to embrace your strengths is important. Being a visionary is one of my strengths, which in school was frowned upon because I was always a day-dreamer. I was always the creative one. I always wanted to have fun. I didn’t like the discipline of learning what they were forcing me to learn, which I didn’t have a purpose for, or a why. I’ve actually learned how to use that vision now, to actually create my future. It doesn’t just happen. Even though it could look on the outside that I just happened to have this beautiful, magical world, which it is, but it also comes with a lot of other sacrifices and hard work. That was created. There was an intention there to go for that. Then, there were actions specifically taken to eventually be able to have the life that we have right now. Which is when I wrote the book, “How to Have It All”. It isn’t just about the secret or the vision and visualization, and then it magically appears. I believe in rainbows, but I don’t live in a fairy tale. I was confronted with all these challenges. Even discipline. I’ve always been very hyper, which wasn’t a plus in school. So I’m always active. I sit and bounce on a Pilate ball. I don’t sit still so writing this book was very difficult for me. I wanted to quit a few times. Finally, it was Grant, and you’ll either hate this or love this, but it was Grant who one day said, “How’s your book coming along?” and I came up with the excuses. Oh, this

and that and he didn’t buy any of it. He said, “You know what? You know what you are? You’re lazy and a coward.” I was so furious. I was like, “I’ve never thought about divorce but maybe now’s the time. But you know what? My husband knows me. He knows what lights a fire under my butt. From that moment forward, in my seething manner, I stayed in the house for the last month and did nothing but write that book, re-write the book, re-write the book. I make a joke about how “I’ve written five books, but only one version came out.” Once I finally finished the book and I threw it at him and I said, “Take that from a lazy and a coward.” That’s when he confessed, and he said, “I’ve never for one second thought you were lazy or a coward, and congratulations.” That’s when I realized it’s the people who love you, who are willing to maybe make something not look so pretty, but if it’s going to get you to reach your height and level of success, they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get you to get there. That was the big lesson that I learned from all of that. It doesn’t always look pretty, and sometimes people push you in ways, but as long as they’re pushing you in a way that builds your strength, then it’s all worth it in the end.

CB: How did you and Grant come to have such a strong unit in family, life and business? EC: Well, that came about in 2008. We were

living in Los Angeles at the time. I was an actress. I had the mindset that I had to be this independent, powerful woman. I’d never depend on a man for anything. For the first five years of my marriage, we were vying for this power position. Many people would have looked at him and said, “He’s very successful.” And he was. But as hard as he worked, it felt like we were a gerbil in one of those wheels. We could never progress or get anywhere. Then 2008 happened, and so the economy collapsed. Grant’s businesses, he knew it was over. There was no acting career for me at the time. I was eight months pregnant. He had a better shot of getting us out of the situation than I did. We were under this lawsuit, and the banks, and it was just really difficult times that we had never experienced before. I was faced with, “Well, I have a choice here. I can either trade in my acting career in order to trade up for this potential empire,” that was only a vision at the time, because there was none of this, like zero. We were literally about to lose everything. So I had to battle with the demons again in my head that said, “Oh, if you quit your acting career, you’re a sell-out.” “Oh, now you’re going to be this housewife that depends on a man. All the women around the world are going to hate you, because now you’re some subservient woman.” So once I got over all of that, and I said, “You know what? I can’t live my life for the imaginary voices in my head,” which I don’t even know if they’re true or not. Certainly, I can’t imagine women that don’t even know me would want to hate me, but that’s what was real for me. I said, “You know what, this is my family,” ‘because I had this baby in my belly’ “We’ve just got to survive this.” I traded in my acting career. I said, “Let

me put all of my resources and creativity, and everything that I’m good at behind Grant because he was closer to the touch-down.” He could do it faster than I could. So that’s what I did. That is what fortified us. That’s when I finally said, “You know what? We’re going to go at this as a team. It’s going to be Grant and myself. Down the line, if it didn’t prove to be right, okay. I would be the humiliated, stupid one.” As you know, from reading the book, I’ve already put myself in those situations, so I’m used to that. I can get to pick myself back up, and I know I’m a survivor. I know I’m not a victim. So no matter what happens, I’ll be okay. It’ll hurt. I’ll be embarrassed but I’ll be okay. Fortunately, that never happened, and all my bets paid off. But in that moment, I realized, we are going to have to figure out how we’re going to do this together. So I said, “Grant, here’s the vision. Here’s where I see it, and you’re the hammer. You’re the doer.” I call him my Triple Crown. He’s my thoroughbred, or I don’t know the horse terminology. I said thoroughbred one time and somebody in the horse industry was like, “Oh no, that’s like petty.” It’s some other name, but I forgot the name. But anyway, he’s the Triple Crown, okay? So I run all the behind the scenes operations, but the big point to take out of that is, we figured out and market our our roles. We figured out I’m a tough, powerful woman. He’s a strong, opinionated, powerful man. I don’t want to change him. He doesn’t want to change me. What do I get to be the boss of? What does

he get to be the boss of in the relationship? And no matter what, at the end of the day, he has to agree with me and back me in all of my decisions in all of these areas, and I, vice versa with him. Now, it just so happens, and it was delegated based on the strengths and the weaknesses. Ironically, it is more traditional male/woman, because it just so happens my husband is a Master of Business and Finance and money, and so I can’t compete on that level. It’s just the basic facts. I’m an artist. I don’t have that. It would take me years to learn that, what he already has. We have different sides and different strengths. Here’s the thing, that’s another reason why I wrote this book, to help fast track others. Whether you’re in a relationship or not, you’re going to have to depend on somebody at some point. You’re never making it alone. So at some point, you’re going to have to figure out how to work with other people and figure this thing out in order for the ultimate purpose, which is to reach, for me, it’s the heightened level of success. Grant would have been a success without me, no doubt. I was certainly successful without him. But where we went above and beyond that is because of each other. So I wrote the book to show the behind the scenes operations on what it did, how we work together and to be able to work with the vision. I could never have done that with just a vision, because I can’t do what he does. He may or may not have had the vision, but some of the most massive home runs that we have had came from a vision of me when I was bou08

-ncing on my silly little Pilate ball because I can’t sit still.

CB: Let’s talk about divine downloads. What are your thoughts when you capture a vision? EC: Yes, and they’re not convinced by other people that some-

thing’s wrong with them, or that they have ADHD or this or that, and then convinced to take drugs that suppress all of that and then it leaves forever, if not temporarily. I just embrace it and I’ve learned how to use it for me, and thank God, I’m old enough that I missed that loop hole in the schooling system that really squashes anyone who’s different. Especially people who think big and have visions that are very hard for other people to see, and therefore they have a tendency to want to make it wrong.

CB: When did you realize that you are valuable and are a person of value? EC: Well, there was a couple of different moments. The first one

that I think of is after I had dealt with my best friend passing away, and then there was years of self-destruction and self-medicating and all of that. I had an epiphany one day that she would be really disappointed in me, because what does anyone who truly love you want for you? They want you to be happy. And I was miserable. So at that point I realized, “Well, I’m not honoring her, and how disappointed would she be in me if I was using her death as an excuse to ruin my life?” And so that’s the first moment I turned my life around and said, at 17, “I’m moving to Los Angeles,” knowing no one, to give myself a shot in life to turn it around. It turned around a little bit and it got a lot better, but it still didn’t get worked out until many years later. I always still struggle with that issue, because I don’t know if it’s because I’m one of these people that is always trying to be the best, and I don’t know where that comes from. It might be just innate, but I always want to be the best and I always wanted to be perfect. I’m always striving for a greater potential, and I never reach it. Never. Any time I remotely get close, then my vision has expanded so much more that now I find myself at the bottom again, trying to go for the top. I don’t want to speak for Grant, but Grant’s similar in the way that this is for real, the truth. We still have conversations with ourselves all the time and say, “When are we gonna make it? When are we gonna make it?” Whereas, that’s just innately us. The kids certainly gave me a lot more confidence as a woman and certainty, and then Grant and I have hit financial milestones that are like, wow. I remember the first time we got the Gulfstream 200, it was a symbol. It’s very important to acquire these symbols in the physical universe. It’s not about having something, to be somebody, to prove something to somebody. It’s never been that for me. It never will be. For me, it was a symbol that we have made enough of the right decisions. We’ve avoided enough of the wrong things which can never be graphed. You can see all the stats of everything we’ve done but you can’t ever measure by not doing A, B and C, and with the damage of having been involved with those people and those activities would have caused. You can never graph it because it didn’t happen. For me, it’s a symbol. It’s a Super Bowl ring. Certainly the first plane was a huge milestone, which was like, “Wow. Okay, I need to acknowledge this.” This was a statistic that we went for, a financial mark, and it showed up in the physical universe. It’s like you were being rewarded for the actions that you have done. Then, when we got the Gulfstream 550, it was like a brand-new plane. I don’t know very many people who get brandnew Gulfstream 550s. So, that was another huge Super Bowl win. I feel like I would understand how Tom Brady would feel because he’s got the Super Bowl ring. It’s like a ring. Who cares, right? But it’s the symbolism of all the hard work, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the hours, the agony, the losses. The arguments, the tension, the stress, being away from the wife, the kids, the family, the stress that that causes. So the plane two was that. Then, I had another one yesterday when we took possession of our Augusta 139 helicopter.So, again, I don’t want to stress that it’s the material objects, but yet those are the things that you do need to see in the 09

physical universe show up as a materialized tangible thing that you can say, “You know what? This is no longer the vision.” It’s the reality that I, and when I say I, I mean a whole team of people, Grant and the team and the crew and the staff. None of it would be possible. It wouldn’t be possible without the empire and the people and what we’ve created.

CB: You and your husband seem to have a lot of fun together, and you do talk about that in your book. You state that it’s very important to have fun with your spouse and celebrate the wins. It seems to me a lot of people tend to celebrate in quiet and almost feel badly about it. EC: Yes, and that is unfortunate. I think a lot of society has this,

“Money is the root of all evil. Wealthy people are greedy.” Everyone who tells you that, by the way, doesn’t have money. They’re just taught wrong. Society makes it seem like these people don’t deserve it, or they’re wrong or they’ve somehow been unethical, and so, it’s a shame. With financial freedom, there comes a lot more respon-sibility to give back in the community and so many other levels. Look at all the families that depend on you, for you to do well so that they can do well. I mean, it’s a whole thing that no one wants to give someone in a position like ours credit for because some people have a tendency to just want to feel entitled. It’s really hard. I’ll go back to the fairy tale. I don’t believe in fairy tales. If you can find the person that has it all and it’s perfect and they have that work-life balance thing figured out and they’re happy 24/7, then I tell people all the time, “Follow that person and give me their number.” But that’s not real. That’s not reality for me.

“It doesn’t always look pretty, and sometimes people push you in ways, but as long as they’re pushing you in a way that builds your strength, then it’s all worth it in the end.”

CB:What are some next steps that we can look forward to seeing with you individually and you and Grant together? Well, one of the things that we’re always interested in together is the real estate portfolio. That’s something that really excites me. I love real estate. We have all these multi-family apartment units, but like 400 on a 30-acre property or something. They’re really nice and I take a lot of pride in them, and they’re just gorgeous and beautiful. I wanted to be at 10,000 by the end of this year, but we’re at 9,000plus, so…we’re almost there. The original goal was 10,000, and the next goal is 40,000. Then, when we get on to around 40,000, there’ll be a massive play and all the investors that came along with us in Cardone Capital, we’re going to have a big celebration and a big heyday, and that’ll be a lot of fun. I can’t wait. So, always into that. We have so many different businesses, Cardone Ventures. I can’t wait to partner up with other female businesses. I’m seeking female businesses that we can partner up with and expand and grow and become partners with. So, there’s Cardone Ventures, Cardone Enterprises. I just want it all to grow and on massive levels. We’re certainly still working on getting ourselves known. That’s the mission is to have our products and services in 7 billion people’s hands and that they’re winning with our product, and that we were able to change the trajectory of somebody’s life by applying the principles

“I want to not only be the woman behind the man for Grant, but I want to be the woman behind the women.”

that they’ve learned. Especially through Grant with the finance and all of that. For me personally, it’s, again, just developing more with the 10X Ladies. I do Build An Empire Mastermind, I have an online program. What I really am interested in is just taking an elite core group of maybe 10 women, and I’m actually taking on men, too, but different. For the women, it would be more of a one-on-one mentorship program throughout the year. I want to not only be the woman behind the man for Grant, but I want to be the woman behind the women. And then for the men’s division I’m doing something called the King Maker project. I want to, for any guy that’s really interested in finding a 10X woman, just working with him on a whole mentorship program to develop him and to finally be able to find the woman of his dreams.

CB: I believe that it’s important for the ladies to realize it’s okay to be in collaboration, but also it’s okay to cheer on. EC: For me, I know that I have the statis-

tics. It just can’t be disputed. Whether you like me or not, my stats are not arguable. They’re not up for debate. They are what they are. For me, there’s no shortage of content because it’s all organic. I can tell you where everything came out of and how I learned it and what not. So I’m not really afraid of people trying to steal my content. I’ve learned that one of the reasons that, although, I don’t like when they do and don’t give me credit for it and there’s been a lot of that, too, it’s just kind of like, “Why would you do that?” But it’s too insignificant to even address, but I will tell you

personally, it does hurt my feelings. I learned later on. I wish I would have learned it earlier on, which is that in collaborating with others, you can grow significantly faster than trying to do it all on your own and hoarding your own stuff. I would rather collaborate and share and not be worried, “Oh, they’re going to steal my material,” knowing that you are organic and can continue to generate it. The amount of energy that it takes to continue anyway, most people don’t have. Especially if it’s not theirs. That’s what I would say to the people that are afraid to collaborate. You will get those backstabbers. It’s just going to happen, that’s life. That’s the part of the fairy tale that makes it not fairy tale. Don’t feel like you have to protect yourself so much that you don’t get out there. Get it out there. Get knonw. Grant says “Best 10

“I have my purpose so solidified. To me, it’s about a purpose. If your purpose isn’t strong enough, you’re going to want to quit, and it’s easy to quit.”

known, beats best product any day.” It’s like Coca-Cola is on every shelf around the world. I wouldn’t say that’s the best product. Maybe a coconut water might be better, but it’s the most known. Just get out there, collaborate. I mean, again, that could be a greedy viewpoint, but I find the more I give, it does come back to me. It keeps a flow open. It’s not a stuck flow.

CB: Do you think you'll take on the project of writing another book in 2021? EC: Yes, I have to finish the KingMaker Project. So I’ve

written a book just for men. I have the first eight chapters up. It is a book form, but I read it and I filmed it in little chapter segments, and eight of them are already up. I think it’s this material, but for guys. I’m really proud of it. I have about eight other chapters written. I just have to clean them up and organize them and get them on tape, which shouldn’t take me too much longer, and that’s my KingMaker Project. 11

CB: When you’re not having such an amazing day, if the day is a little tough, a little rough, a little hard for you, is there something that keeps you going? What gives you strength to keep moving on?

EC: Well, I have my purpose so solidified. To me, it’s about a purpose. If your purpose isn’t strong enough, you’re going to want to quit, and it’s easy to quit. I want to quit all the time because it does get hard. It’s hard for me to sit here and say, “Oh, life can be rough,” because you could look at that I have a plane, I now have a helicopter, so who wants to sit here and listen to a girl in her little Chanel suit say how hard life is? But, it’s my reality of the millions of things that come in at me that maybe somebody doesn’t understand, maybe they’re having other difficult sce-narios. There’s a lot more responsibility and then you have to, not stymie who you are, but you also have to be aware of how you present yourself now because any little thing gets skewed or switched. You have to have a governor on which kind of sucks, but that’s part of wearing the crown. That’s part of assuming that kind of a role. Like Queen Elizabeth has had to make some sacrifices to wear that crown.

I have my purpose really strong and I know what that is. I want financial freedom for all. I want to make relationships cool again. I feel like they’ve had bad press and I’m certainly not going to be the one that’s, “Oh, they’re so easy. We’re in love 24/7.” But I can say this about relationships. When you find the one you trust, you can build an empire. I can also say this, you can reach heightened levels of success quicker and faster when you have somebody in your court pushing you. So I want to make couples cool again and the purpose of them. I then want to restore the value of women in society. I have these three purposes that get me out of bed and keep me motivated and continuing on. In 2008, when the economy collapsed, there was no, “Financial freedom for all. I want to make relationships cool.” I was just figuring out how to do a relationship. My only purpose in 2008 was to survive. To not lose everything that we had, and that was it. I didn’t care about you. I didn’t care about my neighbor. I cared about me, the baby in my belly and Grant and how we were going to get through this. That was it. That was a big enough purpose to get me to where I am now, to where my purpose can now change and evolve. The vision just went bigger recently. So 2021, we’re looking at ranches, we’re looking at islands, we’re looking at really exclusive corporate retreat kind of places. Again, a lot of travel when this COVID thing opens up. We did 19 countries last year on our 10X World Tour. I want to continue that. I love seeing the world. I love meeting the people of the world. 2020 became a necessity level for me. When you reach a necessity level, you will act. When the need becomes so great that it pushes you out of your comfort zone to do whatever it takes to survive. A similar thing happened to me in 2020 that happened to me in 2008. I was terrified. We had to lay off employees, that crushed me. We got so much bad press because we’re the wealthy people that are laying people off, but it also gave us an opportunity to look at what wasn’t working in the organization. We had to temporarily retreat. All this was terrifying in the beginning, because I didn’t know where it was going to go, how deep or how long. I still think there’s more to come. We had to shrink temporarily in order to preserve the longevity of the ones that were going to stay on board with us. It caused a lot of strain between Grant and I with the necessity level and the haters and the ugliness of all of it.

There was loss of really good friendships of people that I thought were like family and close. It turned out they had other agendas, which hurts. It forced me to look at things. It forced me to regain a new, even stronger determination to be bigger, badder and better on the other side. Two things happen when you get a situation where you’re attacked. You can either quit and the other person wins, or you can become better and flourish and prosper and you can win. Not that you want harm anyone, but that’s what happened to me.

CB: I believe a lot of people get mad about changing and shifting, but it’s necessary. EC: You have to be mercurial. Like mercury in a

thermometer, you can’t really grab it. That’s one of my strengths. I can move. I can adapt really well and make it work. But I agree with you there. And so, 2020 for me was, again, it was a huge challenge. However, I was able to make my family stronger and more fortified. We were able to monetize and figure it out. We were also able to help millions of people along the way. We kind of kept the doors open. Throughout the whole time, I’m doing free 10X networking calls, Grant’s doing COVID calls, Cardone Capital calls. We were constantly putting out free content to help everyone and to let everyone know, this is what we’re doing. So I went into massive action. We did. We went into massive action and adapted and I’m glad it’s over. It’s not really over but I’ll be glad to restart in 2021. Although, I’ve already rebooted.

END OF INTERVIEW

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