What If Being Called a ‘Gold Digger’ Wasn’t the Worst Thing? Elena Cardone Explains on ‘The Dream Bigger Podcast’

When Elena Cardone started dating her now-husband, billionaire businessman Grant Cardone, people called her a gold digger. It was whispered behind her back, lobbed from the sidelines of his social circle, and used as shorthand to dismiss her. But rather than shrink from the title, Cardone leaned into it. 

On The Dream Bigger Podcast, hosted by Siff Haider, Cardone explains how she flipped the insult into a source of power. “Why am I a gold digger? Because I dig for gold in myself,” she says. That reframe, she explains, has become the foundation for how she’s built her business, her marriage, and her life—a vision that’s bigger than any insult could ever contain. 

Cardone also unpacks the words that used to make her flinch—like “support”—and why redefining them changed everything.

Gold Digger Isn’t an Insult, Says Elena Cardone on ‘Dream Bigger’

Why she embraces the gold digger label 

Cardone recalls her early years in Los Angeles, where she hustled on her own since she was 17 and refused to depend on anyone. By the time she met Grant, she says he was “the wealthiest or richest guy that I had ever dated,” which fueled skepticism among people around him. 

When the chorus of suspicion started chanting around her, she turned it into a mantra. “I’ve been digging for gold since I moved out here at 17 by myself,” she says, “to dig for gold, to mine my own gold, to find my own way.” By reframing the insult, she found a way to both protect herself and demand excellence—from herself and from her partner. 

Reclaiming the meaning of support  

Another word Cardone struggled with was “support” because of the baggage it carried. She admits that for years, being seen as a supporting partner felt like weakness. Then she decided to go back to basics. “I went to the dictionary and I said, ‘What is this word ‘support’ and what does it mean and why do I protest it so much?’” she says. 

Two definitions changed her view: showing active interest in another’s success, and bearing the weight of. That second one hit especially hard. “If you’re a support beam, wouldn’t you have to be stronger than the thing that you are bearing the weight of? It would collapse without it,” she says. 

For Cardone, redefining the words and the roles was as strategic as it was personal. She and Grant had to figure out how to stop fighting each other and start coordinating their strengths.

That shift meant being honest about their differences. He was the senior in business. She, meanwhile, was the visionary and the protector of their inner circle. The focus was just as much about equity as it was about complementing each other in business.

Be it before you have it

During the 2008 financial collapse, the Cardones were on the verge of losing everything. That was when she discovered the philosophy of “be, do, have.”

“Most people think that they have to have before they can be,” she says. “But it’s actually a reverse order. You have to be it first.” 

She took courses on finance, communication, and sales—not because she had not yet achieved success, but to be embody who she was becoming. It’s a framework that carried her from near-collapse to a billion-dollar life. 

“I will never apologize for being stronger than Grant Cardone ever again. I own that,” Cardone says. 

Cardone’s story is a reminder that the labels people try to stick on you can become the very thing that sets you apart. They can be flipped, reframed, and turned into armor.

For Cardone, being called a gold digger wasn’t the end of the story. It was the beginning. 

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