Elena Cardone

Cardone grew up in New Orleans and moved to Los Angeles at 17 to pursue acting, recalling: “I wanted to be an actress.” She has described her family as working-class.⁠[1]

She worked in Hollywood as a model and as a television and film actress, and has been a lifelong competitive sport shooter.⁠[2][3]

She married Grant Cardone in 2004; the two met in Los Angeles, and she said he “changed my mind about being married.” They have two daughters and live in Miami.⁠[3][1][2]

Her book Build an Empire: How to Have it All was released as an audiobook in 2018, narrated by herself, with copyright held by Grant Cardone. The book offers a framework for building both a career and a marriage, covering topics such as setting short- and long-term goals, staying aligned with a partner, rejecting “normal” expectations in pursuit of freedom, and finding a partner.⁠[4]

On August 4–5, 2023, she hosted a two-day, sold-out 10X Ladies empowerment seminar at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa. Keynote speakers included Venus WilliamsVenus WilliamsVenus Williams is an American tennis player, design entrepreneur, and investor who has won seven Grand Slam singles titles and four Olympic gold medals and has been ranked world No. 1 in women’s singles. She founded the design firm V Starr, co-founded Happy Viking and Palazzo, and has invested in ventures including Ellevest, Asutra, WeWard, and Los Angeles Golf Club.Open the full entry, Megyn Kelly and actress Marisol Nichols; Vivek RamaswamyVivek RamaswamyVivek Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur and Republican politician who founded the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and the asset manager Strive, ran for president in 2024, briefly took part in DOGE, and was the Republican nominee in the November 2026 Ohio governor’s election.Open the full entry appeared as a surprise guest speaker, and Grant Cardone also made an appearance.⁠[2]

She summarized the event’s focus as four pillars: “Mindset, Relationships, Money and Designing Your Ideal Life.”⁠[2]

In a July 2025 interview with Fox News Digital, she said she had been a Democrat as a teenager and now supports Donald Trump; criticizing the left’s approach to feminism, she said: “That’s not feminism, that’s hijacking.”⁠[5]

In the same interview she recalled having been an independent woman who “never depended on a man for anything,” a mindset she said caused friction early in her marriage until she and her husband began working as a team.⁠[5]

On August 13, 2026, the YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel Hard Knocks Business published the short video “She’s a BILLIONAIRE @ElenaCardone,” filmed as a street interview in Miami. In the video she said she became a millionaire in her thirties and a billionaire at 47, and that she did not come from money.⁠[6][6][6][6]

She said one difference between billionaires and millionaires is that they are “not afraid to use money as a tool,” and on raising her daughters she said: “Privilege is responsibility. Privilege is not entitlement.” She defined success as empowering women, protecting children and restoring the family unit, adding that she is successful only when the people around her are doing well.⁠[6][6][6]

On August 29, 2026, Hard Knocks Business published the long video “I Asked People How Much Debt They Have (Miami),” a set of Miami street interviews that includes the same conversation with her. In this version she also said billionaires think differently “in orders of magnitude” and do not think in terms of scarcity.⁠[7][7][7]

She advised young entrepreneurs to live from their future self: work out how the person they want to become would think, speak and act, then reverse-engineer the actions needed to get there (video at 00:46).⁠[6]

She said she has failed many times but no longer lives from the past, so her failures became lessons (video at 00:55).⁠[6]

She said entrepreneurs must learn to sustain pain, and that when one’s purpose is bigger than the pain and one does not quit, the target will be reached (video at 01:02).⁠[6]

On building a business and a family, she advised joining forces with the person you trust to face outside challenges together rather than fighting each other (video at 10:22).⁠[7]

She is a co-founder of the Grant Cardone Foundation, which helps underserved youth learn about finance and business, and a co-founder of Cardone Mortgage; she is also a licensed Realtor with eXp Realty.⁠[8]

Her title at Cardone Capital is “CFO,” standing for Chief Family Officer; she runs businesses including Cardone Mortgage, Cardone Enterprises and Cardone Capital alongside her husband.⁠[1][5]

She hosts the podcasts The Elena Cardone Show and Women in Power, co-hosts The G&E Show with Grant Cardone, and is executive producer of 10X Ladies and the 10X Couples Retreats; she also runs the Build an Empire course, one-on-one coaching and four annual Empire Elite Academy masterminds.⁠[8][3]

Personal website: https://elenacardone.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

X: Public account: https://x.com/ElenaCardone (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM6beNtY_5gE3ngtDniCePA (opens in a new window).⁠[9]