How To Weather A Financial Downturn Without It Hurting Your Marriage: Elena Cardone
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
Release Date: 05/11/2020
Falling in Love vs Staying in Love: The Science of Maintaining Your Romantic Connection Over Time: Episode 428
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
It’s easy to look at movies or social media and wonder why love once felt effortless, and now feels quieter, more routine, or even distant. No one prepares you for the reality that long-term love doesn’t stay fueled by novelty and adrenaline forever. As relationships mature, biology shifts, responsibilities increase, and especially after kids, connection can slowly give way to comfort… or worse, roommate energy. If you’ve ever thought, “Something’s missing, but I don’t know what,” this episode is for you. In this conversation, we unpack what’s actually happening beneath the...
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3 Places to be More Loving so Your Partner Feels More Loved: Episode 427
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
Most couples want to feel more loved, appreciated, and connected. But the way we go about it often backfires. We wait until we’re running on empty to tell our partner what we need, and in that vulnerable moment, it’s easy for things to slip into defensiveness or comparison. This episode flips that dynamic entirely. Instead of focusing on what your partner isn’t doing, we explore the powerful shift of going first—initiating repair, creating small moments of connection, and becoming the kind of loving presence that naturally evokes more love in return. We’ll walk you through three...
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Do This “End of Year Check-in” Now to Get Aligned and Connected Before 2026: Episode 426
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
Most couples glide into the new year on autopilot, sometimes with excitement and optimism, hoping things will feel different, more connected, less chaotic… yet they end up repeating the same patterns that make it feel the same as last year . In this episode, we’re giving you one of the most powerful “end-of-year check-in” conversations we use with our private coaching clients. It’s a guided reset that helps you break out of routine, reconnect with each other’s dreams and needs, and get aligned before January even begins. Think of this episode as your personal coaching session; one...
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What is Emotional Intimacy, Really? and How to Create More of it: Episode 425
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
So many couples love each other deeply… yet still feel disconnected. They talk every day, but the conversations revolve around schedules, responsibilities, and what needs to get done next. In this episode, we’re unpacking why emotional intimacy often fades in long-term relationships, not because the love is gone, but because genuine connection isn’t being fed. You’ll learn what emotional intimacy actually is (in practical, real-life terms), why so many partners misunderstand it, and the surprising psychology behind why couples get stuck in surface-level communication. Then we’ll walk...
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Focus on the 3 C’s to Feel Loved By Each Other Through the Holiday Season: Episode 424
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
The holidays can bring out both the best and the worst in a marriage. Between packed schedules, family dynamics, and endless to-do lists, it’s easy for connection to get lost in the chaos. But this season doesn’t have to feel like survival mode or that you are just getting through the functions. There are a few key areas in your relationship that—if you focus on them each day—can make you feel appreciated and united as a couple, no matter what the holidays throw your way. In this episode, we’re sharing three powerful shifts with the “3C’s” to help you stay emotionally close and...
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Discussing Holiday Expectations and Visiting In-Laws (To Prevent Chaos and Conflict): Episode 423
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
The holidays are supposed to feel relaxing and joyful. But for many couples, they’re anything but. Between travel plans, family visits, and unspoken expectations, this season can quickly become chaotic, exhausting, and full of tension. One partner often ends up feeling like they’re carrying most of the mental and emotional load, while the other doesn’t realize how unbalanced it feels. In this episode, we’re unpacking the real root of holiday stress in relationships: mismatched and unmet expectations. You’ll hear the kinds of conversations you need to have to prevent disconnection and...
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Accidentally Squashing Your Partner’s Excitement (When You’re on Two Different Wavelengths in a Conversation): Episode 422
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
Have you ever shared an idea or dream with your spouse, something that genuinely excited you, only to have the energy immediately flattened by practicality or fear? In this episode, we’re unpacking a dynamic that quietly drains energy and connection in many marriages: when one partner is in enthusiastic, imaginative energy and the other instantly shifts into logic and control mode. We’ll explore why this happens, what it reveals emotionally for each partner, and how to respond in a way that keeps the energy between you alive instead of shutting it down. In this episode you’ll hear: The...
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Can One Spouse Change the Marriage For the Better? Episode 421
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
As the holiday season approaches, many couples find themselves hitting a quiet but undeniable breaking point. Something about this stretch of time—from mid-October through the new year—brings things to the surface. Maybe it’s the reflection that comes with the end of a year. Maybe it’s the pressure of finances, family expectations, or feeling like life is flying by. But without the closeness you hoped to feel by now. For many, it’s a season where the question “Can we really keep going like this?” starts to creep in. In this episode, we unpack a question so many couples wrestle...
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The Science of Stress, Anger & Connection—How to Heal the Family System with Dr. Taz Bhatia: Episode 420
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
Have you ever thought about how your own stress affects your kids — or how your parents’ stress might still be affecting you? In this powerful conversation with Dr. Taz Bhatia, integrative medicine physician, author, and founder of Hol+, we explore how the health of the parents — especially the mother — sets the tone for the entire family system. Because wellness isn’t just about self-care… it’s about the legacy you’re creating for the next generation. Together, we unpack how patterns of anger, overwhelm, and chronic stress get passed down in families — and how to...
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When the ‘Needing Space’ and ‘Needing Resolution’ Partners Marry Each Other: Episode 419
EmPowered Couples with The Freemans
It seems like the “I need more space” and “I need to talk this out now” partners always find each other! This is the basis of the Pursuer/Withdrawer as well as the Anxious/Avoidant partner dynamics in marriage. When this dynamic happens, it always causes more tension, defensiveness, anxiety, and distance than the initial topic of conversation. If this sounds at all like dynamics you and your partner get into, you certainly are not alone! In today’s episode you will hear more detail about what’s really happening for each partner, whether it is the need for space or resolution....
info_outlineThings have absolutely changed in the world and in your life from this pandemic. You probably experience a change in your relationship roles (including taking on additional roles you never thought you would have to) and the amount of time you are in your home and around your partner. Plus, no matter what type of job, career, or business you are in; you probably have felt an impact in your finances!
Of course this has always been a top stressor on marriages, but now it can be glaring at you in the face, having you feel a lot of fear and uncertainty. This can bring up additional tension and pressure in your relationship together causing you to fight against each other.
So get ready to hear from iconic Elena Cardone, as her and her husband Grant are no strangers to challenges, financial downturns, and crashes. What you are going to know from Elena is that marriage is what makes you a better individual and how you can handle financial downturns. You are going to have the ways to stop fighting about ‘small things’ when you envision, create, and defend your vision and empire together (whatever size it might be). Plus the ways to leverage your individual strengths and weaknesses. So you will feel complete trust, support, and confidence to lay the groundwork to fulfilling your dreams together, no matter what challenges arise.
Questions Asked In This Interview:
- You two had started your relationship 3 years before the 2008 crash. So while many people still feel the impact of that time what was your mindset and belief during those times, that positioned you to be here now?
- What can couples do (including believing) to keep from panicking and weather a financial downturn together without letting money hurt their marriage?
- In your book as well as personally in the media, you talk about “guarding your empire”-- what does that look like for couples right now?
- Many of the pressures on marriages come from forced change in relationship roles. What are some of your strategies for balancing parenting, business, and your vision as a couple?
- Have you and Grant been getting any couples time or huddle together during the quarantine to always be on the same page?
- What are ways that couples can come out stronger after this season?
Quotes:
“When you are attacking your partner, you are playing at a very small level and a small game. You need to have goals and visions that are big enough and exciting enough and know who it is you want to be as a couple.”
“It’s not about male or female, it's about your strengths and weaknesses and who does what best within the relationship. Do what you need to do and have 100% trust in your partner”
“Its vital to be able to change and not be fixed on ideas about the way things are supposed to be.”
- Elena Cardone
Other Resources From The Freemans:
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More About The Guests Elena & Grant Cardone:
They are a truly iconic couple that is building an empire. First for their family as they have been married for 15 years and are loving parents to two children (one of which you will even hear join at the end!)
Then second for other families as they are both best-selling authors, host the 10X Growth Conference, one of the largest for thousands of entrepreneurs, and run one of the largest real-estate empires (Cardone Capital) in the world, valued at $800 M. With this they have been able to raise hundreds of millions for charities. As you will hear from Elena, she passionately wants to empower women partners and help make marriage cool again!
Order Elena’s book Build An Empire HERE