How to Build Wealth and Escape the Middle-Class Trap

You got to have a target. You got to have the strategy. You got to know you can do it. Like Americans don't even know they can do it. Like when I say anybody can be rich, half the audience cringes. If you're some 28-year-old who's just gotten like that, you know, $80,000 a year job. You can't afford to buy a house. So, you're already renting, but you might have a little extra disposable income. You should invest it With me at Cardone Capital. But how do you build wealth? Build that. You build your wealth by making investments,

not by buying [ __ ] So you don't you don't view the home the home is not not 100% should not even be on anybody's personal financial. So if there's a voter out there who lives in California like what would be the you know one minute message from Grant Cardone that they don't have to live you're never going to be able to rebuild your house. So yeah I was trying To grow my hair out dude and and and I was like I had it it yesterday I woke up and it was like this high and

I'm like I can't do it anymore. Give me a haircut and just bust it out. key. The key to the hair routine is the right product. Yeah. And then you got to have one of those blow dryers that does not quit. Like if I'm in a if I'm in a hotel room and it's that wimpy little hotel room blow dryer, I just end up looking like Rosie O'Donnell. That's hilarious. But But uh if you've got the real Dyson Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't have the patience for all that. I literally like this is

how I'll wake up in the morning. Would you give me a coffee? Coming. Okay. All right. Thank you. Ginger, look how pretty you look there. You look amazing. Want to shoot it on this side rather than over there, right? Yeah. This is cozier. Yeah. Yeah. So, who's your audience? I mean, your audience is political. No, our audience For this is like young disaffected males. I mean, the people who watch this are are typically men between the ages of like 15 and 45. Wow. Yeah, Dave, how'd you get that audience? Oh, I'd like to think that

it's the it was my sterling reputation as a politician who always fought for the people, but I think it's just they liked watching me rip someone's ass or like my YouTube audience. It's just people who saw me like take some general off the bone. You're running, right? Oh, we're good. All right, cool. So, so, so who'd you rip? Uh, Lloyd Austin, Mark Millie, Merrick Garland, Christopher Ray got the smoke. Oh wow, dude. You got a whole list. Yeah. Well, I was on the armed services committee and the judiciary committee. And so in those roles, you

got the FBI, the ATF, the attorney general, and then you got all the the top brass in the military. And the way most people got on the armed services Committee is by serving in the military. So if you're, you know, got out as a major, lieutenant, you look at these generals and they're still kind of a part of your DNA where they're part of the chain of command. there's a kit glove approach. Whereas I did not serve in the military. I have great admiration for those who did. It wasn't my path. But I sit there

and thought all the military members in my district who were pissed off. What question would they ask If it was unbridled? And when we started having these drag shows at the military, you were you were in you were in you served political office how long? I was in Congress for eight years and I was in the state legislature eight years before that. So from age 26 to age 42 I was uh elected and here we are in Florida. And by the way I was born here in Broward County at the home of the 10X uh

you know headquarters in in this area. And this place has changed. You have totally Remade Broward County. Like you you can't drive around here. You're never outside of the shadow of a building that has 10x on it. Yeah. Yeah. So you went in there so you I I didn't mean to interrupt you, but So you went in there and started mixing it up with what you were asking them. Yeah. That was kind of my style because here's what I figured about Congress. There's a lot that they can take away from you. Uh they can take

away your opportunity to move to a Better committee. They can take away your office. Uh they can take away your your fundraising at times, but they could never take away my five minutes. I always figured I get five minutes with these C with Robert Mueller, with John Durham. Yeah. and I am going to I'm going to use the skills I have to expose something to move the needle. And you know, while a lot of people look at Congress as just a bunch of BS talk, like when I sat there and drugged those Generals about having

drag queen shows for children on military bases, they were so ashamed at the end, they stopped it. They said, "We're not doing this anymore." And so sometimes like exposing the stuff uh can can work and can be um very effective. Yeah. But do you miss the trail? Because I got to say this, man. We hung out in Coachella at the rally there at Madison Square Garden. And I do not know if there was a single of Trump's buddies who had more actual Fun at a Trump rally than you did. I mean, you it was a

family affair. You had your wife there. You got up and I mean, but we didn't I didn't have any political ambitions. I could Everybody else there. I mean, it seems to me like and this all this whole space is very new to me. I'm a very not political person. Like not I I don't mean in politics wise, but like I'm not politically correct. I've never been in clubs. I I'm not a joiner. Um I don't Work on uh boards or I probably don't even work well with people. I mean the truth, you know. So yeah,

but nobody had more fun at the Trump. Well, that's because I didn't want anything. Okay. So you were there as like a political tourist is what you're saying. Well, no. They asked me to come talk to the the deal. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone. I've never been to a rally in my life. Wow. I I don't I don't go to like Would you go again? Would I go again to a Trump rally? Speak to speak. I would, but I wouldn't go watch. I mean, unless my wife makes me, right? So, if she makes me, then

I and then I do stuff. How long you been married? 21 years. So, that's really the reason I came. I want to know the secret. I'm going into year four. My wife is still very nice to me. I can't imagine being married to you, bro. Oh, yeah. No, it's I'm It's a lot. Huh? It's a lot. I told I warned her in advance. Yeah. But honestly, she kne she you gave her a warning. Uh I was telling your team earlier what really helped me out was CO. You know, everybody talks about the bad that CO

did, but there's a lot of good CO did. I mean, the middle seat on the airplane was vacant. You could travel at a at a low cost. The boomers were all locked up for a while. And if you were like a Florida 4, you could land a California 10 because they were closed and we were open. Right. Right. And so it's like you didn't have to be the best dancer if you were in the only state where there was dancing. Right. So that was kind of my thing, man. I uh I I met her during

You met her during Yeah. I met her during COVID. She said I had no chance. California shut down. Florida was open. I got my shot. Uh closed the deal. Five minutes. I got my five minutes and uh it's where I do my best work. And and so now married uh going on four years. Good for you. And so like a Lot of there's a lot of there's this new movement now. A lot of more young men want the trad life, you know, they don't what's traditional like like there there's a whole movement away from the

libertine lifestyle, which definitely uh was more the rage and like the early and now more and more these young men are like, you know what, I don't want to meet my wife when she's like 35 and has 12 strains of HPV. Like, I want to I want to meet someone. I want to make a Commitment to them. I want them to make a commitment to me and I want to build a life together. Like it sounds like after 21 years you built a hell of a life and might have some good advice on that subject.

Yeah. Well, we we we uh I met her in LA. I was in I lived in uh La Hoya, California at the time and wanted to get married. Knew my wife wasn't there. Sold my house in uh La Hoya. Went to Wait, wait, wait. How did you know your wife was not in La Hoya? Because I I I had done enough prospecting because we live in we live in La Hoya now. And I can just tell you where where in La Hoya. La Hoya Cove. I lived on uh I lived on Camino de La Costa.

Nice. Right at Big Rock. So we're like right by where all those seals are flopping around. Yeah, I know where I know where you are. But but I said to Ginger I was like, "Jing, this place But I was there when the homeless that weren't homeless yet." Well, I I it looks like it I I Said to Jinger, "This looks like a white lady paradise. Everywhere there's like a Lululemon. There's all this." And and she said, "No, honey. This is a sugar baby paradise." Yeah. And so that maybe that's maybe that's what you were referencing

is that it wasn't the place you were going to find your forever person. No, I knew I mean I had I was at that time I guess I was 40 uh mid-4s and I had been there long enough and said okay my wife if my wife is in San Diego County I would already know it. So, sold the house and I had I had the place. I had a bachelor pad right on the right on the ocean and you couldn't go in there and escape there. Like there no everybody like it was just magical. And

I got rid of that place. Went to Los Angeles which nobody goes north. When you're in Laoya, you don't go to LA. And met her uh probably I was probably in LA one minute and met her. Not more than two minutes. So I knew right away. I did Too. Yeah. Yeah, it took my wife six dates, but I knew right away. It took my wife uh well, it took Elena 26 phone calls and 13 months. So, it must be another benefit of CO. They fall they fall faster during CO, right? So, 26 phone calls. 26

phone calls. Never returned my phone call. Never returned a message. Oh, I assumed it was 26 conversations. You got 26. Like, I got 26 dropped calls. Yeah. Like I'm dropping my phone. Yeah. Uh, all right. So, 26 dropped calls and on number 27 she picks up. No, on on then I started wander I'd wander around and see her and then I started dating her best friend and that that always works. That's an old Italian trick. Really? Yeah. Don't don't pay attention to the target. Pay attention to the to one of the friends. Me and her

friend started dating. That seems pretty inhumane to the friend. No. No. She She was She was Everybody won. All right. Everybody came out a winner. Everybody came out a winner, you know. All right. So, so when you get like So, you knew it was the one. So, so I think number one rule here is the persistence. When you know it's the one, be persistent. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Okay. This this you can do a motivational and then and then and then after after you you initially of interest. Yeah. We got together and a year later

we got married. So, so you don't have like a lot of people out There that I meet they're in the like four, five, six, sevenyear relationship. Yeah. No, I was ready. I was ready. She wasn't ready. She didn't trust. She didn't know that she wanted marriage at the time. Yeah. I I knew I was ready to go, man. See, that's that's the tread life everybody's searching for. So, we're here at 10X and as I'm walking in, I pass this room full of like 600 people. I said, "What are they learning?" And the answer was, "They're

Learning about leadership." Yeah. And I I look up at the slides and it's all about self-reflection. It's all about, you know, different types of assessment people are doing along the way. If if if if when when people walk out of this 10X seminar on leadership, what do you think is the core thing that you want instilled in them? You know, look, they came here. I don't talk about leadership much. This is my partner delivering this this uh Particular content. Um because people people don't know how to lead, right? They they don't they don't they don't

assume their position of leadership or authority or altitude. Um, so hopefully they'll walk out and understand that everybody does you you're gonna either lead or you're in the way. You're probably not going to just follow. Um, and and if you can't follow, you're in the way. So, and there's nothing wrong with following, by the Way. Somebody has to follow. Following is a is a great trait. I've done a lot of following in my day. It's to me it's made me a better leader. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Like, I have to be be able to be

managed, right? I have to trust the guy. Um, if I go get on a boat, I I need to trust the captain. So, I don't fly my own plane if somebody else does that. And but you know, what do I want them to do, dude? I want them I want these people to get whatever they Came here to get. Like, we do a lot of a lot of education stuff that the government can't get to, that schools can't get to from sales, marketing, scaling, starting a business up, picking a great business, uh, making investments, leadership.

We're just doing we're playing in a space between education and the government that that nobody, you know, but that's actually a critique of the government because if you look back at the postw World War II Education system that was set up, the whole point of education was to make people valuable assets in the economy. Yeah. I mean, there was a technocracy to it. We were we were training the future of the assembly line. Yeah. and the assembly line has changed obviously on on the economic side but but it hasn't really changed in public education. So,

President Trump has g has tasked you with wealth education as an as as really a national enterprise now uh and making America wealthy again. And um you know when when I think back to what I learned about wealth education in high school was like how to balance a checkbook, right? I mean, or or uh you know, how to open a bank account. Uh you know, how did you did you ask President Trump for this opportunity? Was it his idea? How did it come about? This is funny. Okay. So, this is funny. Where did you see

that headline? Huh? Where did you see that? I saw it on Trump's Trump's uh Truth social that he was that he was pushing pushing you to do wealth education. Yeah. So, we we reached out I wrote him back in July last year and said, "Look, this the entire country should be rich. every and I believe this with every part of me. Every person, all the guys that work in here, everybody should be and can be rich in America. But the problem is we don't have the right data. People are not Financially illiterate. It's not that

they're stupid or they're lazy. It's that they don't have the right data. Even the budget like the idea that we would learn to budget is uh you know it's kind of backwards because the budget doesn't matter if you don't produce anything like like what we should have been teaching kids years ago is how to how to increase the top line. Same thing Our country needs. We we need some top line and we need some budget but most people are not the middle class is out buying a house they shouldn't buy. It's a bad deal. they

shouldn't save their money at the bank. It's impossible to save money. These are indoctrinations that I believe have kept people trapped in the middle class. And so what I was telling him in that uh in that letter was every American should have all the same tax uh relief that he gets, that he Knows about, and that I know about, but the American people don't know about. And and so make America wealthy again was or make all Americans wealthy was my proposal to him to to go out and use a bunch of educators like myself for

free, no cost to the government and use the social platforms mandate on Facebook and Instagram and Google uh even Amazon and Apple. Hey, front and center. Make America wealthy again. Free content. If you're on the dole, you'd have to go Through it. Oh, mandatory. Mandatory for certain types of welfare benefits. Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I love that because that's because No, no, it's not a college thing. It's not brick uh brick and mortar. It's all digital. All digital. All digital download available to everybody. So, you're saying you can make someone rich exclusively through

programming? 100% through the internet. I don't care what they do. I don't care How illiterate they are. Anybody can get rich in this country. I I did a show I I did a show. Wait, wait, hold on. What What's the number one thing they have that number one aptitude they have to have to accelerate that process? The target. Very a clear target. That's the only aptitude a person would need. Just like us with our wives. Exactly. I'd have to have a clear target. What is the target? Because America's achieving their targets. They're they're all Achieving

their targets. The budget was their target. That's the problem with the budget. The budget became the target. I don't even think people budget anymore. There's a huge percentage of this country that doesn't have like 600 bucks in their checking account. No, but that's what I mean, bro. They they hit they hit their they hit their expenses and that's all they hit. So, they're basically living at necessity level. Yeah, that's right. And so, somebody Nobody educated them. Hey, look, that's the guy went and became a plumber or he became a teacher or they did whatever they

wanted to do. That was a mistake, by the way. You shouldn't do what you want to do. I know. Wasn't that screwed up when people were like, "What are your passions? What are your interest?" That was a very like millennial said. Yeah. What should be what should be the operative question? What's the number? How do I get paid? How do I get what Number do you need to live at? Okay. Like in in what does it cost to live here? 80 grand. What do you spend a month? Yeah. So, it's got to be above 80

grand. His number his target should probably be 120, 150, maybe 200. Then he's going to say, "I can't make 200 at Grant's place." Okay. Well, then don't work here. Mhm. If your target's 200, I if your if your target is to to fly to uh Dubai, uh don't get on a Ljet. It's not going To get you there. You got to get on my plane. Got to get in the right vehicle. And most people are just getting in the right they're getting in the wrong vehicle. A lot of young people will say, "Well, okay, I

want my target to be a million dollars." Good. You can be it could be a million dollars. Okay. Uh and then they would break it down. I would break it down for them exactly what their target should be every minute. And so so it is about budgeting that time And applying it to the target. Yeah. It's about it's going to be about, you know, if I tell you to Did you see any yellow Corvettes on the way over here? Yeah. Did you? Yeah. Well, you didn't see a yellow Corvette, huh? Yeah, there were yellow Corvettes

in uh uh freaking Ginger, did you see a yellow Corvette on the way over here? I remember the color, but I saw Corvettes. You saw Corvettes, but not You don't remember the color? The point is, you weren't looking for a Yellow Corvette. No. Okay. If you were though, if I if I sent you out there and said, "Go find a yellow car vet." You would find one. And right now, people aren't they're not they don't know what they're looking for, dude. They're just doing a job. And and and so, you know, for sustenance, they're doing

a job because they have a rent to pay. More and more. You talk about people buying houses, man. I mean, being able to buy a house with the interest rates they are Right now on on an entry level or middle manager salary is is almost impossible. It is impossible. And so people become they're paying the mortgages for Black Rockck. Uh and and they are out living as wage cucks who have to you have pod living and you have all these terms I've never heard of. Wage cucks. They've heard of it. And what kind of pod?

Uh like pod living. Pod What's a pod living, dude? Like you know all these people that they Don't live in a house, have a yard the way that you were told like in the in the 1950s you had to get that ranch in the suburbs. more and more people are living in these concentrated apartment complexes that feels like no character. It feels more like a Soviet style living environment than building a life in those complexes, right? Yeah. But look, the people who are Look, you're making money off that. But that's a need that exists because

actual home ownership has Become so unattainable because of the cost of money. Yeah. But hey, look, I I don't you know, I think some of that stuff that we got brainwashed on doing in the 50s was kind of stupid. All right. So, what you the ranch style house and the [ __ ] picket fence, too. Oh, sure. And thanks, man. And and the fence and the the the two kids or the four kids and the two cars and pay all your [ __ ] off. That was a trap, too, man. Well, okay. You have Called

very famously the middle class a trap. So, how do people get out of the trap? Well, don't don't don't don't don't think that a don't think that a trap is a, you know, comfort comfortable place. Like, it's a it's a it's it's not a nice place. Most people in the middle class are living paycheck to paycheck. Yeah. 76% are living paycheck to paycheck. They'll the rest of their money is probably sitting in a 401 or a Kio or a Roth that They'll get maybe when they're 78 years old, at which point they don't even know

what percent they get because the taxes could be three times what they are today. Another scam. They probably got college debt. Another scam. They're locked into a 30-year mortgage. Total scam. So, where should people live? Much better to rent. Be mobile in your pod. Uh here in Miami, you can rent for half of what it costs to own that place. I got a buddy, he rents a place for seven Or eight. But how do you build wealth? Build that. You build your wealth by making investments, not by buying [ __ ] So you don't you

don't view the home the home is not not 100% should not even be on anybody's personal financial statement. So instead of buying a home, where should they put the money? Uh well, where do I put my money? No. Where should where should where should a young per like if you're some 28-year-old who's just gotten like that, you know, $80,000 a year job. You can't afford to buy a house. So, you're already renting, but you might have a little extra disposable income. You should invest it with me at Cardone Capital. There you go. Should invest it

in our real estate Bitcoin fund. It's never been done before. It's going to take a stable return of 10 or 12% and turn it into like 30 or 40% a year. How liquid is that? Uh, it's liquid when when when I take it public. Okay. So, not very. So, You're going to be No, it's going to be liquid. And what I'm saying is I'm building 10 of these. We started the first one. It's never been done before. I'm building 10 more 10 more investment vehicles like this. Then we're going to take it to the marketplace.

Are you one of these Bitcoin maximalists or do you believe that there's a broader spectrum of crypto that's going to pay off for people? Uh I own Bitcoin and and I and I'm doing this Bitcoin fund and I'm Going to make a it's going to become a big deal. But um am I maximalist? I I everything I own I I I don't invest in anything that I wouldn't own forever. Lori, but there's some of the Bitcoin community who like if you even mention Salana, Ethereum, Litecoin, it is like it is like sacrilege to them. Totally.

And there are others who say, "Hey, look, uh, I can make 10x on a good Salana hold." Yeah. I don't know anything about Salon. I don't invest in Anything I don't fully understand. I don't fully understand Salana or XRP or mini uh, you know, Ethereum. I don't I don't understand them. So, I don't know. So until I know it for sure, I just got my head around Bitcoin. Right. So if you're So one of the key decisions Trump has to make in I invest in no stocks, no treasuries. I keep no cash. I try to

go broke three or four times a Year and I'm in real estate and Bitcoin. That's it. And my business. So what would I tell a young kid? Yeah. If you're making 80 grand a year, only invest the money in yourself. Do not even look for other investments. You shouldn't be doing [ __ ] you invest in you become the best version of you. Go to these kind of things where invest in your skills. [ __ ] yeah. Because you can't it's taxdeductible. Nobody can steal it from you. It can't it can't be Taxed until you're

getting better. Just keep pouring it into you. And some people make the mistake of investing in the wrong skills. I I I have seen like I had I had a case uh recently you know two people who had worked for me one in a far superior position one in an entry- level position and they both went and applied for an open job and the and the far less experienced person got it because he had more exquisite digital skills. you know, how to cut video Better. And it sort of feels like, you know, if I was

a young person, becoming capable with the AI agents and and and the and the different tools there and then being able to cut video seem to be central, but like what would you say are the right skills for people to to invest in? Well, I mean, in addition to some of the stuff that you're saying right there, what are we doing? Cuz what are we doing here? What are we doing? He's just setting up for your next thing. [ __ ] Yeah, these guys have got us. Okay. No, I know I'm with you. Just um

Yeah. What? What? Dude, people got to still get they got to work on their people skills. Okay. You could you can know all the AI [ __ ] you want. You still got to How do you service people? How do you [ __ ] put a smile on your face? How do you show up early, stay late? How do you make an impression? How do you move a graph up? Like, how do you like bring in new clients to to to a place? We got 260 employees here. I don't know most of them. I only

know the ones that freaking make the baskets, you know, over and over and over again. So, like to me, those are the skill sets. Whether you're doing AI or graphics or whatever the next thing's going to be, you still got to come with some charisma and some enthusiasm and let people that's what you look for when people show up at Cardone Capital and say, "I want to learn from you. I want to work alongside You." You're looking for those in, you know, the the things I would be looking for. Yeah. I'm not looking for a

bunch of ideas. I'm not looking for a bunch of, "Oh, I got this great idea. Yeah, I'm in the [ __ ] LA, bro. I got enough of that [ __ ] going on. Trust me, I got a billion ideas going on. I need somebody that can comply, somebody that's willing, somebody wants to follow. Let's just kind of the the most attractive thing to me would be somebody that comes To work here and says, "Mr. Cardone, tell me what is working the best? What are the one or two things that's working the best here?" And

that I'm going to go accelerate those one or two things rather than coming in trying to impress me with a new idea. Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. So, so figuring out how you can advance current projects. Yeah. Is that if somebody and is 40 years I've been in business, I've never had anybody Actually offer me that. But that would be the most impressive thing to me. Hey, one of them's going to see this and they're going to sh they're going to show up and say show up. Hey, careers at Grant CCardone.com. Careers at Grantcardone.com. We

hire people every single day. It's so hard to hire the Zoomers now. It's crazy, dude. I mean this workforce they all are many CEOs. Yeah. Like and and everybody wants to be a Boss. Yeah. And they all want to like when I left Congress, they I had employees that wanted to talk to me about their work life balance. When I was a young lawyer grinding away trying to build 1,800 hours a year to impress my bosses, if I'd ever thought to walk into the partner's office and say, "I'd like to talk to you about my

work life balance, right?" They would have shown me the door and told me to clean out my desk and go think about it. Uh, but that I mean what do you encounter with the modern workforce? Well, I don't encounter them anymore. So, you know what the the trick is to get big enough to where you're not the person hiring and managing people. Yeah. But I mean, I look around this place. There's all these hip, cool young people. They're listening to music. They're banging away at their computers. They're things are This is a place of productivity

on a Saturday. This is Saturday. We I'll bet You we work more Saturdays and Sundays here. Wow. Um than any other company in the country. What's is there is there do you guys get paid overtime for this kind of stuff? Oh, well that's why. [ __ ] They get paid overtime. See, I don't know anything, dude. I'm the idea guy here. I market stuff. I'm the marketer. I'm the promoter. Um, now I know why you guys are so happy on the weekends. You're like, "Fuck, I'm I'm banging this guy right now one and a half

times." All Right. So, so Trump's giving you Trump's going to do uh no taxes on overtime. So, well, I don't know. I I actually am worried about that because I look at what's happening in Congress. Yeah. And there's no real cuts. Yeah. Right. Trump and Elon are out there endeavoring to find this nonsense in the budget and get rid of it. And Congress continues to pass budget resolutions that just say we're going to do the everything the same way we've always done it. And I Worry it's a it's a potential vulnerability for them. But the

way Elon's rolling into this thing by just turning off the the grant distributions to whatever craziness had been funded previously, it's kind of inspiring. Like I love it. I hope it gets innovative people interested in government again because another challenge government faced is like the people working in the bowels of the Department of Labor aren't people who think 10X. They aren't people Who would show up at Cardone Capital, right? Um, and that becomes a very self- selected universe who can accumulate a massive amount of power and can be a real barrier. And so maybe with

Elon getting his uh t-shirt wearing geniuses running around these agencies, you know, more of the really bright people say, you know what, I want to actually go uh create some efficiencies and all this. Like, who are you going to rely on to help you uh make America Wealthy again in this project the president's given you? So, so when I pitch that letter, okay, we posted it. So, I don't know where you saw it, but I have not been given assign that assignment. Okay. So, I had another buddy, the guy's worth, I don't know, $12 billion,

and he calls me, "Congratulations on your make America wealthy again." I'm like, "Bro, that's that's not an assignment. I didn't get an assignment." So, all right. So, what If Trump tapped you and said, "We're doing all this." like what is the who are the give me the types of people that you think are out there in the education space in the digital space that can scale a reformation of our of our wealth concepts. Yeah, I would I would find a bunch of guys that are content providers on education in startups, scaling businesses, um the AI

space, anybody that's making money monetizing any of these new things That will be willing to offer their time and services, we would digitalize that digitize that and then um drop it on a platform where it be available through whatever Facebook, Instagram or Amazon and we which I publish on Tik Tok 100% I would dude. Okay. Yes. So you have no you have no compunction about I have no problem with any social media platform. All the people you don't care if if you know the Chinese are literally using it to map The faces of of of

Americans. I am using it I am using it correctly to give people information. Are you using it or are they using you? No, I'm using it. I'm using it. Okay. Okay. I know what I'm using. I'm reaching 170 million people a year and 170 million people a year to do business with 150,000. And you have no worry that in a in a real kinetic conflict we could get in with China. They could use Instagram to weaponize the information space. I I Have zero concern about it. I have concern. Are you worried about China generally? No.

I think China's got their their hands full. You don't think for every problem we have, China has 10 problems bigger than ours. But you don't think that part of their part of the way that they deal with those problems is externalizing their conflict? Because I do agree with you that they got they got a massive um you know slowdown in their growth. They've got these ghost cities That nobody wants to live in. Um they got an agent population. They have so many problems. There's a billion. Look, when I'm competing with somebody else, I just need

them to have more problems than I. That's so good. That's all I need. I just need them to be I compete. I compete. We started this company, Cardone, the the investment arm of Cardone Capital. I was competing with Blackstone, Starwood, Black Rockck, uh These massive institutions. So, I just made a list of all the things they couldn't do that I could do and then we go in and we hit the things they can't do. Every every Yeah, but we're not doing that with China. I'm going to push back a little because we've got some problems

they don't have. You know, they've got a homogeneized target, right? But but it would but America I mean it is our pacing challenge, right? put on your Trump buddy hat, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was there last night, by the way. I was sitting there. Trump's like doing his uh DJ. Uh, no. Oh, I told him one time he was a terrible DJ and he got so mad. He looked at me and he said, "You're just like my son Dawn. You don't know anything." Yeah. Yeah. So, you can't criticize his DJ skills, but I

actually think that I think he's got a weird taste in music. I love the guy. I would take a bullet for him. But when you go from Phantom of the Opera to Cats to YMCA, it's weird. Yeah. And it's loud. Oh yeah. No, I was there with him one night and the people staying at Mara Lago were complaining about the music and it was him doing it. Yeah. What do you like I felt like we were getting busted by our parent like like kids smoking cigarettes getting busted by their parents. It's insane. I was sitting

there last night. There was four of us having dinner and and he's literally like right there and sitting There just having a blast after freaking torching Zinsky. Oh yeah. Well, that was delicious. That was that is what I voted for. TV I've never seen in my life. Yeah. Well, and by the way, finally, because I have spent a generation watching politicians who have the perfect diplomacy, the perfect stance, all this stuff, and then they go shake hands, have their little podium moment, and then we get sold out. The regular guy in this country ends up

paying for Some stupid war in Afghanistan or ends up paying for some stupid foreign aid project or bribe or giveaway. And I love the fact that Trump just wanted to lay it bare. Yeah. Yeah. He just wanted to have him right there and be like, "No, like you don't want to end this war. You don't want to end this war and you don't have the cards and you need to get with the program." Exactly. That skill set could be transferred to people. It should be Taught to people back to what to to teach people. So,

who can teach negotiations? Let's teach people how to negotiate. America's watching that saying, "I don't know what's happening, bro. That is a pure class in negotiation. It's called take them to zero. make it public there. I have nothing to hide. I'll show all my weaknesses. Like, it is a perfect negotiating tool. But the American people don't even know what They're watching when I'm like that. [ __ ] I'm watching a master class right now. No, that's what we need to We break it down. Break that the that the actual way to get everybody as smart

and successful as Grant Cardone is just to have a podcast series that is Trump bringing in world leaders and pistol whipping them in public. Yeah. Like, let me tell you why he's doing this. Because if you don't understand what he's doing, it just looks like brutality, right? And Then this. So you saw something different. It's very it's a very interesting perspective. Oh, dude. I saw like like I can't tell you how many times I've watched it now and saying, "Okay, okay, watch the move right here. Can't you see it?" So, but but look, I don't

understand basketball. I don't understand all the setups and the moves and the preparation, right? Uh I was going to tell you this earlier. I did this show. When did I do that? 20. Yeah. Uh 2020 midco Discovery Channel asked me if back to this could anybody be rich thing. if but they dropped me off in a town I'd never been to um with no money, could I could I how long would it take to build a million- dollar business? I said 60 or 90 days. And they're like, "Come on, man. That's like how you just

said it so nonchalantly." I'm like, "No, you just need you need a strategy." And sure enough, they did the Deal with me, dropped me off in Pueblo, Colorado. Never been there. I've been to Pueblo is not a place I would want to be dropped off with nothing, bro. You ain't been back there. No, I I know you hadn't been back there. Nobody goes back. Yeah. I mean, even Lauren Bober changed districts. She has to represent him. All right. So, you get dropped off in Pueblo. Yeah. Get dropped off. I have $100. And this is what

America should be taught. I took the $100, brought it to The bank, and gave it to the bank. And Discovery Channel is like, "Why are you dropping the $100 off?" I'm like, "I don't need it." And if I don't need it, I'm like, first of all, it's $100, so I'm already at zero. Let's just go ahead and get there. Like, let's just declare zero because this hundred can't help me. They're like, no, we need to see you spend the hundred. And I'm like, this is [ __ ] dumb, dude. I'm a manager. You're making Me

a manager. You can't. I'm I'm here to make a million dollars. So, the first thing I need to do is get rid of the hundred. And they were like, what are you talking about? I said, just follow me. Just it's it's a reality show. So you follow me. I'll We're now following a mentally ill man in PBLO is what the what the producers are thinking with no Exactly. with no money, you know. So So because they wanted to see 100 82 64 58 and I'm like then I'm a manager. Okay. Then I'm managing a budget.

Back to the budget thing. All right. So what do you do? I don't want to manage the bud. I want to go to zero and move to a million. The only way I know to do that in Pueblo is math. Dude, I did a I built a $5.5 million business in 90 days. 88 days. You got never spent a penny. Well, now people just have to go watch that series to figure out how. Yeah, I'll get it to your audience. Um, how could I do it to The audience? Because it's a private link. Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel blocked me from sharing it. I did the behind the scenes of what I was doing. Yeah. I said, "Fuck you. I'll give it to people anyway." So Awesome. Um, and and so was it just the drive or you know, like you say, the target, the strategy. It's the target. You got to have a target. You got to have the strategy. You got to know you can do it. Like Americans don't even know they can Do it. Like when I say anybody can be rich. Half the audience cringes because they're like that's impossible. Not

everybody can be rich. I I told Honestly, I don't really believe it. I know some people that I don't think can be rich. Yeah. Just because of the way they spend money. Well, some people they they're they spend No, I'm with you. I mean, if they're if they're if they're degenerates, right? Like like in the Salana Ethereum space, the people that Bought uh Trump's memecoin, right? Okay. And everybody got all upset about the memecoin. I'm like, why, dude? The guy sell a $70 [ __ ] uh um coffee cup and nobody nobody complains. Trump has

sold everything. Oh, he's he's a great salesman. Okay, so if you buy when the memecoin came out and people bought it for $7, $7, and then $70, the pe most of the people that were buying it didn't give a [ __ ] if they Ever got any money back for it. They were just buying a part of Trump. You agree with that? Yes. Now, the degenerate that went and bought a million dollar at 70 bucks that thought it was going to go to 700, he deserves to lose his money because that's what degenerates do. they

lose money. Uh, how can you make sure you're not ever in business with a degenerate? Like, what are they what are they? Look at how they when they when they when they're 23 Years old and they roll up in a damn Rolls-Royce, you know, that's sign of degenerate. Not a sign of success. That's a DG sign, bro. That that is not a sign of success. He's coming in with his Rolex. Sit down and play a game of back gaming with him or golf and and and and he's over betting. He wants to be the first

guy to pick up the bill and press everybody. I look for all those things. Do you spot The red flags? The the the the $1,500 shoes, but you hadn't made any money yet. I've seen those people, but I can't ever tell if they have cuz some of those people actually did buy Bitcoin. Like they bought a bunch of Bitcoin when it was eight bucks and held it and now they actually have real wealth and they have they have real gambling. You're describing new money in a lot of ways. Yes. Yeah. And or no money. Or

no money. They had to get Everybody wants to go get a a plane now. Everybody seems to like, "Okay, I'm going to figure out how to shit." Not me. Not after I see what that they've done. The DEI and the air traffic controllers. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm doing I'm trying to stay on Earth. Earth has been good to me. All right. So, but your point about how do you spot a DJ is really it's it's a it's a it is because because you can don't be partners with them. Yeah. You can and they as good

as You can be. If you're in business or in a relationship or uh even in a friendship with some of these people, I've been friends with some degenerates. I've paid the price for it. Yeah. Um All right. So, bring them to a casino, you know, and then you you'll see the DJ always, you know, I used to love going to casinos when I had no money, but now that I've got like a little bit more, it just seems like Yeah. stale beer and broken dreams to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um All right. So about acquiring

the target, I'm hanging out in California a lot and there's a lot of concern that this place that had the the most temperate has the most tempered climate in the hemisphere, boundless natural resources, the most innovation on the planet Earth happening there, and it has become a illegal alien overrun. Yeah. Homeless encampment. Yeah. Burnt to a crisp. Yes. uh you know, hell hole and and they're People like my brother-in-law will just like never leave. People have built great businesses there. They're like, "We're never leaving. We'll stay here. We'll endure it." But they're looking for leadership.

And I have heard from a lot of people that there is an effort underway to try to recruit you to run for governor of California. So, uh, is that the target you're interested in acquiring? Well, I tell you what I am interested in doing. Like, this is my Home there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, who survived? Yes. The hope of Malibu, right? Yeah, the hope of Malibu. Dude, you what? You've been doing homework? What? You driving over here just picking up notes. I saw you were on You were talking about it on my on my network on

one American News. You went on my buddy Dan Ball show. You uh talked about uh Were you at CPAC? Huh? I CPAC is like a Republican Woodstock. Like you weren't you weren't there? I wasn't there this Last time. Okay. Okay. So, um, yes, there there is. I went there after the fires. I'm so pissed off, dude. Like, I lived in California 25 years. I love that place. I was there. The first time I went there, I was 29 years old. All right. Give me a year. Like, what were your what were the Grant Cardone, California

years? What do you mean? Well, just like like I want to figure out who was the governor. Like, what was the politics there? Like During the years where you were I mean, it was it was it it was good, bro. It was real Democrats. It wasn't [ __ ] crazy. Well, you had Arnold, you had the Arnold years. Were you? Yeah, I was there during Were you there for like the Pete Wilson years? Yeah, of course. Uh-huh. Yeah. And that's when I left. The Gray Davis years. Yeah, the Gay Davis is great. Gray Davis wasn't

wasn't a nut job. He just couldn't keep the lights on. Yeah. Which apparently is a Big deal. In Florida, we would revolt if the if the power went out. This was just a land for mosquitoes and Indians before How long do you live out there? Uh, well, we've only been out in California for like seven weeks. Okay. and but but all right so there is an effort underway to recruit you tell me about the effort so so well well the effort is that that I am interested in just seeing if people are angry enough your

brother-in-law is Not one of them to to actually flip the place because I don't think it's a blue state I think it's a crazy state it's being led by crazies because when I was there and it was great they weren't talking about transgenders and it it wasn't the number one thing there was everybody was open to do whatever they want to do, but it wasn't a priority, man. Yeah. I'm not like a judgmental person, but when the when there's a law that says if your kid Shows up and says they want gender blockers, if you

don't give them to them, they could take your kids away. That seems to be getting a little off base. Yeah. And I think everybody knows it's insane. I think the fires the fires came in and they said, "Okay, enough is enough. I can't like this is insane." It did look weird to not have water coming out of the fire hydrants. I mean, it looks a little weird, bro. It's undefensible. So it was in my mind I'm Like the Republican party and the conservatives and the independents I guess that's what you guys call each other. Um

there is a moment in time 17 months probably to where if the right person took advantage of this right moment and this mess that they will they're kind of blocked and trapped in. They can't they can't undo this mess. If you if you capitalize on that, you could flip the state. So if there's a voter out there Who lives in California who's not a Republican, because by the way, most of them aren't. I I think it's like Democrat, no major party, and then Republican is like third or something like that. Uh that that wasn't political.

Like what would be the, you know, one minute message from Grant Cardone that they don't have to live? You're never going to be able to rebuild your house. Okay? Your house is going to cost $4,000 a square foot to rebuild. It's going to take seven to eight, maybe 10 years to rebuild it. I have a neighbor, uh, she's 85 years old. She just signed a $1.7 million check from the insurance company. She accepted it. I said, "Don't do it." She's like, "I already accepted." I said, "It's going to cost you 10 million to rebuild your

house." She's like, "No, they told me it's going to cost me 2 million. I'm fine. I'm fine with that." I'm like, "No, man. It's going to be $4,000 a Square foot. You're never going to get insurance on it again. It's going to take 7 to 8 years. You'll be 93 years old. You're not going to be able to rebuild the house you have. And she's like, "What do I do?" I said, "You have to go register a Republican. You send the message to Sacramento. If they see enough blue flip to red, they're going to they're

going to freak out. Then they're going to have to figure out, okay, what are we going to do here?" And They're trapped because they have all these agreements with the coastal commission and environmental groups and they're and they're and they're blocked in, which was crazy to me. The notion that you guys cannot remove the fuel that will light be light lit on fire and destroy the environment for environmental reasons is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Dude, it's insane. Okay. And so and none of that I've got to work on my diet at the Golden

Corral for a while. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's just insane. None of that needed to happen. And you know, you've heard all that. So you so so your argument would be one of just operational competence. All economics. Just going on economics. Hey, you're never going to be able to afford a home. Uh, California has to reduce their taxes. They need to they need to cut their taxes in half. They can. You don't need all these taxes to run anything. I Do not need that level of income. Well, you need that level of taxes when you're spending

$9.7 billion on illegal aliens. Yeah. I mean, just the illegal alien portion of CalMed is $9.7 billion. Yeah. What do you I mean, you don't want those people showing up in the emergency room, but you can't put them on your Medicaid product. It's just strikes me as a mess. Yeah. How do you fix that? I don't know how you fix that today. I know I I know you don't you you make a priority the Property owner and not the um the the the homeowner should be a priority over the homeless. Residents should be priority over

rodents. That's good. I'm just saying like like we need water. There's plenty of water. There's not a shortage of water. You could irrigate every square inch of California if you wanted to. Yeah. But why put up with the homeless the way they do? Because here in Florida, there must be that. Yeah. I I don't know. I Don't know what the deal is, dude. I don't know what the There must be a reward behind the homeless, right? Well, and I was or they're trying to run more people out like me. I I was outside of Target

and there was all these these these tents and they all were plugged into the building and the the people who worked at the Target were getting harassed. They're getting their customers uh scared. I said, "Why don't you just turn off those outlets?" Oh, That would be inhumane. And and I just wonder at what point society allows itself to erode. But uh do you think good good leadership can save it? I mean that's that's kind of my last question for you is yeah is you know I don't know if California has actually been taken to zero

yet. Yeah. The biggest problem in California is the weather because people get upset. They get upset and then they're like it's so beautiful. So it's instant relief. So if You could just bring it really problem after problem after problem. You have to intensify the problem. You got to stack. It's a negotiating tactic. You have to stack the negotiations like on Zillinsky. Then get out of the office and to keep the pressure on him. Okay. Like it have to be tremendous immense pressure on Sacramento to have any change. What's your timeline to decide? I mean I

don't know. Dude, I'm Look, do I look like I'm a politician? Well, in the new era. Yeah. Actually, not really. The new era, it's very different. We're not getting MAGA is different. MAGA is not like, you know, shaking the Bush family tree for whatever falls out next. You know, we're not searching like the Rotary Club and to to Chamber of Commerce presidential list. Not to say there's anything wrong with those people, but we are engaged in the politics of excitement and energy. Yeah, that's what Trump has taught a Whole lot of us and looking for

non-traditional candidates who can excite different coalitions. Um Trump's coalition is different than Mitt Romneyy's coalition, right? And it sounds like your coalition would just be people who want stuff to work, right? Yeah, bro. Like and make more money. I want good weather. I want affordable housing. You can have affordable housing in California. I think what they should do is they should have preset criteria For building a house there. You go to a kiosk system, not a human being. The technology exists. It's the most technologically advanced location on planet Earth. You'd walk in, five criteria. It's

got to be concrete. It's got to be glass. It's got to be steel beams. Hits this with this area, this footprint. You put it in the kiosk. Kiosk says check, check, check. Permits provided. Bang. Automated. Go. Build. This doesn't sound political. It just Sounds like operational to me. And then build at scale so that you can start reducing the prices and give incentives for people to build there. Incentives to build in California. Yeah. Incentives to build. Okay. Like that PCH, you know, the PCH in Malibu. So that's where my home was. All that was old

timber block that's 75 years old. It should have not been timber. People should have been encouraged to rebuild there years ago. But because and they were you could you could build Yeah. But some schmuck in Iowa is going to look at this and say, "Why should my tax dollars go to incentivize somebody to rebuild and ballot?" Well, they would. You wouldn't incentivize all First of all, the guy in Iowa was getting ready to pay for this cleanup. I know. You're right. It's going to be 500 billion. So, you're It is. And Nome's going to go

to Washington. He's going to ask for a big Fat bailout. Yeah. Uh he'll ask for more than one of them. Yep. That's right. This could be as big as the TAR bailout. I I I to it was the most expensive disaster in all of the history of disasters. And the real question is what strings are attached. Because if if I was still in Congress, I'd say not a freaking dime from my constituents is going to California, if they've got $9.7 billion to pay for illegal aliens. They can build rebuild their own damn houses In Malibu.

All right. There are people who are going to watch this and all they're going to say to themselves is, "I can be rich, too. I can do it." Tell folks how to how to connect with the 10x platform. And just go Google search my name Grant Cardone. you you'll have you you Google my name one time, I'll do the rest of the work for you. Okay. And and don't ever Google my name. Yeah. Thanks for uh hanging out. Google our names together. Good to see you, man.