May 31, 2025 • 9 mins
I just got back from Monaco, and this trip changed everything for me. For the first time in six years, I set a real out-of-office. No inbox checking. No early morning emails. Just full presence—and it gave me the space to realize how much needs to change if I’m going to reach the next level.
In this episode, I’m sharing the mindset shift that came from being around billionaires, how I’m restructuring my schedule, and why I’m done pretending my vision looks like anyone else’s. Your environment either elevates you or dilutes you—and I’m done watering mine down.
If you’re ready to stop operating like a slightly shinier version of average and start building a life that actually matches your ambition, this one’s for you.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Welcome to business and the podcast for people making it
all happen. Running a successful business completely takes over your life,
but I'm a believer that there is still room for
some ands like health, wealth, beauty, and maybe even some fashion.
On this podcast, I'll share with you what's working for
scaling my nine figure business while keeping you up to
date on the latest trends, news and fun finds. This
(00:23):
is a place for business and let's dive in. Back
to business and let's talk about business and vacation. This
is the very first trip I have taken in the
last six years, where I set an out of office
and my out of office said this. Bonjour! I'm currently
(00:44):
out of the office and we'll be back online next Wednesday.
This week is a special one. I'm checking off a
longtime personal, professional, and financial goal of heading to Formula
One in Monaco while I'm away. If something is urgent,
feel free to text me. To request a meeting. Please
reach out to tailor insert my assistant's email. And finally,
and most importantly, I won't be sorting through a backlog
(01:07):
of emails when I return. My inbox was at zero
before I left and will be cleared while I'm out.
If there's something I need to see, please resend it
on Wednesday when I return so it doesn't get missed.
Thanks so much and have a ten day. The reason
I set this out of office is I am going
to change my environment, and being in Monaco solidified this
(01:27):
change that I'm about to go through. Because in order
to get to where I want to go, I can't
keep spending my time the way that I'm spending my time.
I've had different transitions through running Cardoen ventures, where I
reshape meetings, I reshape emails, I reshape my communication to
my team and my role with my team. And that's
(01:48):
had to happen in order to go from where we
were six years ago to having hundreds of team members
today with portfolio companies and partners and different demands on
my time. But being in Monaco just cemented for me
that I have to take full ownership of my environment
and how I set other people up for success in
(02:09):
my environment and it's really cool. Right now, I updated
my screensaver because my screensaver for me is always like
the theme of the current time that I'm in. And
my screensaver is this picture of this glass building on
a street of brownstones, and this glass building has bright
(02:31):
pink smoke in it. So it's like electrifying. And it
it's different. It stands out from everything else that's beside it.
And this is my visual on building my own dream
house and my environment is what my dream house is.
And when you really own how you do business, how
(02:53):
you want your life structured, how you want people to
communicate with you, who you want to show up as.
It's okay that the way you do things might look
entirely different than everybody else, because it is your freaking
dream house. It is your environment that you get to create,
that you get to craft. And I just had this
realization right before I went out of the country that
(03:16):
I am no longer going to pretend like I'm every
other brownstone on the block. Like, oh, come in, and
we're just slightly better. No. Like the way I do
things and the way that I want to run. My
life is different. The way that I view the people
who I will allow in my environment is different. My expectations,
they are different. And so pretending. And this is a
(03:38):
trap that I sometimes find myself in. Pretending like it's
the same and then surprising people doesn't get a great result.
But being so clear on who you are, what you expect,
what you want your environment to look like, and being
really willing to confront areas that don't fit. Is this
next area of evolution. And so as something as simple
(04:00):
as emails, I mean, every vacation I've taken for six
years has been me still answering emails and waking up
early in order to to clear out my inbox and
to make sure I'm there for my team. And what
if something happens? No, I'm now in a phase where
that doesn't work. That's not going to get me where
I want to go, where I want to go, and
what's required to get there is actually me doing a
crap ton of research and talking to other people and
(04:22):
networking and learning. That's the only thing that's going to
get me from where I'm at to where I want
to go. It's not more one on ones, it's not
more structure. It's learning new skills to catapult into this
next level, into this next arena. And my I'm going
to be sending an email out later to my team saying,
(04:44):
this is what you can expect from me when it
comes to emails moving forward, because I'm not doing emails
for more than 30 minutes a day. I have other
things that I have to learn and I have to
contribute to and be involved with that. I currently am
not able to do because so much of my time
is spent approving people's projects and reviewing metrics and going
through and operating. But now I have the operations skill.
(05:06):
I don't I don't need to flex that muscle any longer.
I know that I can operate, I know that I
have the skill set. Therefore, what do I need to
do in order to manage a portfolio of $100 million
going to $1 billion going to $10 billion. It's a
different skill set. It's an elevated skill set. And the
fastest way to get there is learning and immersing myself
(05:28):
in that arena. Not the same arena that I'm already in.
And so this trip has been eye opening and spectacular,
and being around people who make hundreds of millions, if
not billions of dollars and watching how they think, watching
how they operate, watching how they make decisions just through
the periphery over the last week was inspiring and gave
(05:51):
me more excitement and zest than I've had in recent
months to really become the next version of myself and
to put myself in uncomfortable positions yet again. The fun
part of evolving and changing in order to get to
where I'm trying to go. So if you haven't gone
(06:13):
to Formula One, or if you're somebody who hates on
wealth or thinks that you know money is gross, and
if people make more money, they should just give all
of it away because there's people who need it more.
You know, you probably still aren't listening to this podcast.
To be honest, I'm not that type of person that
if you if you thought that that was the message
for today, that is not the message. In fact, I
(06:33):
just posted a Instagram reel where I'm explaining how I
ended up with the Rolls-Royce that I drive and it's,
you know, as 2 million plus views. It's gone pretty viral.
And there are people who are just so not my
people in the comments. They're just not my freaking people.
I take zero offense to it. I could care less.
(06:54):
I'm honestly completely unbothered by it, but it's just a
reminder that I'm creating my own environment, as should you.
Your environment matters and only you can decide what you're
willing to tolerate, what you want, what you are going
to communicate to the world about who you are, what
you believe, and the level of conviction that you have
(07:17):
for your environment is a reflection of the vision that
you have for your life and for the goals that
you have. And so if you're very low, confront in
your environment. You don't tell people when they make you uncomfortable.
You don't call people out for making a mess of
something that matters to you. It might be that you're
(07:37):
not that committed to your dream, and if that's the case,
then go get around your dream. Be closer to your dream.
One of my dreams one day is to have a yacht.
I want a yacht. I haven't decided if I want
to own one or just rent one for a month
out of the year. But like, there is no question
in this lifetime I'm going to freely have access to
(07:57):
a yacht and it's going to be a big one,
and it's going to be a beautiful one. I don't
have that yet. I haven't created the wealth yet. I
haven't created the skill set that would create the wealth yet.
But getting in proximity to it made me feel even
more excited about what the prospect is, and made me
honestly more willing to confront the parts of my life
that I've allowed to depart from where I want to go.
(08:21):
And so, guys, I'm back in action. This is like
the first hour that I've been back in my office,
but I really want to share this podcast because this
trip was so pivotal for me, and I'm so glad
that I wrote this goal down eight years ago to
go to Grand Prix in Monaco, and to be around
the type of people that I've just spent the last
seven days around, because those types of bucket list items,
(08:45):
if you choose to allow them to be meaningful to you,
really can transform your life and transform how you view things.
And sometimes it's just about getting in that proximity to
what you want in order to actually get to where
you want to go.
S2 (09:00):
If you enjoyed this podcast, you are going to definitely
not want to miss out on my new newsletter. It
just dropped. I just started creating this content and I
am obsessed. Every single week in your inbox, I'm going
to send you business. And which is exactly what it
sounds like. How do you fit business and all of
the other things in your life so that you are
(09:20):
up to speed on fashion, beauty, wellness, all things that
really matter. If you want to subscribe and get this
special gift and weekly treat in your inbox, go to.
Welcome to business and the podcast for people making it
all happen. Running a successful business completely takes over your life,
but I'm a believer that there is still room for
some ands like health, wealth, beauty, and maybe even some fashion.
On this podcast, I'll share with you what's working for
scaling my nine figure business while keeping you up to
date on the latest trends, news and fun finds. This
(00:23):
is a place for business and let's dive in. Back
to business and let's talk about business and vacation. This
is the very first trip I have taken in the
last six years, where I set an out of office
and my out of office said this. Bonjour! I'm currently
(00:44):
out of the office and we'll be back online next Wednesday.
This week is a special one. I'm checking off a
longtime personal, professional, and financial goal of heading to Formula
One in Monaco while I'm away. If something is urgent,
feel free to text me. To request a meeting. Please
reach out to tailor insert my assistant's email. And finally,
and most importantly, I won't be sorting through a backlog
(01:07):
of emails when I return. My inbox was at zero
before I left and will be cleared while I'm out.
If there's something I need to see, please resend it
on Wednesday when I return so it doesn't get missed.
Thanks so much and have a ten day. The reason
I set this out of office is I am going
to change my environment, and being in Monaco solidified this
(01:27):
change that I'm about to go through. Because in order
to get to where I want to go, I can't
keep spending my time the way that I'm spending my time.
I've had different transitions through running Cardoen ventures, where I
reshape meetings, I reshape emails, I reshape my communication to
my team and my role with my team. And that's
(01:48):
had to happen in order to go from where we
were six years ago to having hundreds of team members
today with portfolio companies and partners and different demands on
my time. But being in Monaco just cemented for me
that I have to take full ownership of my environment
and how I set other people up for success in
(02:09):
my environment and it's really cool. Right now, I updated
my screensaver because my screensaver for me is always like
the theme of the current time that I'm in. And
my screensaver is this picture of this glass building on
a street of brownstones, and this glass building has bright
(02:31):
pink smoke in it. So it's like electrifying. And it
it's different. It stands out from everything else that's beside it.
And this is my visual on building my own dream
house and my environment is what my dream house is.
And when you really own how you do business, how
(02:53):
you want your life structured, how you want people to
communicate with you, who you want to show up as.
It's okay that the way you do things might look
entirely different than everybody else, because it is your freaking
dream house. It is your environment that you get to create,
that you get to craft. And I just had this
realization right before I went out of the country that
(03:16):
I am no longer going to pretend like I'm every
other brownstone on the block. Like, oh, come in, and
we're just slightly better. No. Like the way I do
things and the way that I want to run. My
life is different. The way that I view the people
who I will allow in my environment is different. My expectations,
they are different. And so pretending. And this is a
(03:38):
trap that I sometimes find myself in. Pretending like it's
the same and then surprising people doesn't get a great result.
But being so clear on who you are, what you expect,
what you want your environment to look like, and being
really willing to confront areas that don't fit. Is this
next area of evolution. And so as something as simple
(04:00):
as emails, I mean, every vacation I've taken for six
years has been me still answering emails and waking up
early in order to to clear out my inbox and
to make sure I'm there for my team. And what
if something happens? No, I'm now in a phase where
that doesn't work. That's not going to get me where
I want to go, where I want to go, and
what's required to get there is actually me doing a
crap ton of research and talking to other people and
(04:22):
networking and learning. That's the only thing that's going to
get me from where I'm at to where I want
to go. It's not more one on ones, it's not
more structure. It's learning new skills to catapult into this
next level, into this next arena. And my I'm going
to be sending an email out later to my team saying,
(04:44):
this is what you can expect from me when it
comes to emails moving forward, because I'm not doing emails
for more than 30 minutes a day. I have other
things that I have to learn and I have to
contribute to and be involved with that. I currently am
not able to do because so much of my time
is spent approving people's projects and reviewing metrics and going
through and operating. But now I have the operations skill.
(05:06):
I don't I don't need to flex that muscle any longer.
I know that I can operate, I know that I
have the skill set. Therefore, what do I need to
do in order to manage a portfolio of $100 million
going to $1 billion going to $10 billion. It's a
different skill set. It's an elevated skill set. And the
fastest way to get there is learning and immersing myself
(05:28):
in that arena. Not the same arena that I'm already in.
And so this trip has been eye opening and spectacular,
and being around people who make hundreds of millions, if
not billions of dollars and watching how they think, watching
how they operate, watching how they make decisions just through
the periphery over the last week was inspiring and gave
(05:51):
me more excitement and zest than I've had in recent
months to really become the next version of myself and
to put myself in uncomfortable positions yet again. The fun
part of evolving and changing in order to get to
where I'm trying to go. So if you haven't gone
(06:13):
to Formula One, or if you're somebody who hates on
wealth or thinks that you know money is gross, and
if people make more money, they should just give all
of it away because there's people who need it more.
You know, you probably still aren't listening to this podcast.
To be honest, I'm not that type of person that
if you if you thought that that was the message
for today, that is not the message. In fact, I
(06:33):
just posted a Instagram reel where I'm explaining how I
ended up with the Rolls-Royce that I drive and it's,
you know, as 2 million plus views. It's gone pretty viral.
And there are people who are just so not my
people in the comments. They're just not my freaking people.
I take zero offense to it. I could care less.
(06:54):
I'm honestly completely unbothered by it, but it's just a
reminder that I'm creating my own environment, as should you.
Your environment matters and only you can decide what you're
willing to tolerate, what you want, what you are going
to communicate to the world about who you are, what
you believe, and the level of conviction that you have
(07:17):
for your environment is a reflection of the vision that
you have for your life and for the goals that
you have. And so if you're very low, confront in
your environment. You don't tell people when they make you uncomfortable.
You don't call people out for making a mess of
something that matters to you. It might be that you're
(07:37):
not that committed to your dream, and if that's the case,
then go get around your dream. Be closer to your dream.
One of my dreams one day is to have a yacht.
I want a yacht. I haven't decided if I want
to own one or just rent one for a month
out of the year. But like, there is no question
in this lifetime I'm going to freely have access to
(07:57):
a yacht and it's going to be a big one,
and it's going to be a beautiful one. I don't
have that yet. I haven't created the wealth yet. I
haven't created the skill set that would create the wealth yet.
But getting in proximity to it made me feel even
more excited about what the prospect is, and made me
honestly more willing to confront the parts of my life
that I've allowed to depart from where I want to go.
(08:21):
And so, guys, I'm back in action. This is like
the first hour that I've been back in my office,
but I really want to share this podcast because this
trip was so pivotal for me, and I'm so glad
that I wrote this goal down eight years ago to
go to Grand Prix in Monaco, and to be around
the type of people that I've just spent the last
seven days around, because those types of bucket list items,
(08:45):
if you choose to allow them to be meaningful to you,
really can transform your life and transform how you view things.
And sometimes it's just about getting in that proximity to
what you want in order to actually get to where
you want to go.
S2 (09:00):
If you enjoyed this podcast, you are going to definitely
not want to miss out on my new newsletter. It
just dropped. I just started creating this content and I
am obsessed. Every single week in your inbox, I'm going
to send you business. And which is exactly what it
sounds like. How do you fit business and all of
the other things in your life so that you are
(09:20):
up to speed on fashion, beauty, wellness, all things that
really matter. If you want to subscribe and get this
special gift and weekly treat in your inbox, go to.
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