Adam Torres and Claudienne Hibbert-Smith discuss the Grant Cardone Foundation.
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Show Notes:
The Grant Cardone Foundation creates opportunities to impact our youth. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Claudienne Hibbert-Smith, Board Member at The Grant Cardone Foundation, explore the Grant Cardone Foundation.
About Claudienne Hibbert-Smith
Shifted the paradigm of what the premise of a teenage mother could ever be. Claudienne became pregnant at the age of 14. The stigma of ruining her life was completely thrown upon her shoulders. Unlike some who saw doom in her future as a result of her pregnancy, failure was not an option for her.
Today, Claudienne Hibbert-Smith is a multi-million dollar real estate producer. The graduate from the University of Florida quit her job (Just Over Broke) and became a licensed real estate agent at the age of 21. At the same time, she decided to purchase her very first duplex to generate passive income. Instead of buying things, she took her commissions and purchased multi-family properties.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today’s guest is Claudienne Hibbert Smith, and she is a board member on the Grant Cardone Foundation.
Claudienne, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Oh my gosh. So you don’t know this, but I’ll tell you right now I’m recording today from Miami and let me tell you, I went to the Grant Cardone headquarters the other day, a couple of days ago, and I was one of the judges from one of the the pitch competitions and oh my gosh, mind blown.
I am just so amazed by the work that’s going on. How do you feel like as a board member at the Grant Cardone foundation, it’s just infectious. How do you feel? Listen, every time I get to be a judge for those competitions , it literally it’s mind blowing. It is mind blowing and it’s encouraging and it just gives you a whole new level of perspective and motivation myself.
And , it’s more of how do we get to more people like this? How do we get to impact more people, more teams? It’s just an exciting process. and let me just say this. The ideas and the thoughts are just mind blowing. Hmm. I completely agree. Maybe because this is the, I believe this is the first board member I’ve had on the show.
I know I had Ed on the show, so Ed is a board member as well. , my first question here on the board side of things, why did you join the board? Like, why did you feel it was important to serve? You know, I would just say this. At 14 years old, I gave birth to my son, Amari, who’s now 30.
You guys can do the numbers. And I just remembered a lot of people counting me out. I could literally count on my hand how many people supported me. So it just gives you an idea of how many people didn’t support me. Yet, I took the experience and I made It out of success. I graduated from high school.
People thought I would have four or five kids by the time that I got to the 11th grade, wouldn’t graduate, probably end up in jail. And not only did I graduate, I graduated as a VP of my class at the top of my class, went on to the University of Florida and then graduated at the top of my class there again.
And so it, I remember those moments in between 14 and about 21. Where literally I was on food stamps, government assistance, you name it, I had it. But the struggle that came with it was not one of, I mean, it was a struggle. It wasn’t easy. And I just remember that handful of people that champ, that were my champions.
And I never forget that. And I said when I made it, And I’m still making it, but I’m in a very, very much different position than I was at 14 and even 18, to be honest. I would always go back and help the people that needed what I needed in those days. So, that’s really where my motivation comes from. I love to serve.
I love community service. Listen, if I could do it full time, I would. Yeah, I think it’s absolutely amazing. And I want to go a little bit further for some of those that maybe haven’t been following this story or following this series that we’re doing for the foundation, maybe talk a little bit , about the pitch competition and how those work and just some of the impact that you’ve seen.
Cause you’ve been a judge prior. This is my first time being a judge and I’m already excited for the next time I get to participate. It was just an amazing experience. So maybe talk a little bit about the pitch competition. So I want to back up before we even get to the pitch itself. Let’s talk about the kids that are being flown in, never flew on a plane, never went out of their city.
And so now we’re funding organizations to literally be flown here on our expense. We put them in hotels, these some of the nicest hotels. We accommodate their lunches and boom, they’re getting ready for their pitch. They get to get into the space that I say is full of high energy. Like, and, if you’ve never been to the Cardone headquarters, I would say, You are just in for a treat.
I mean, from the morning meet, just think about being a part of the morning nine o’clock meetings for 20 minutes, the energy there, and then just going right into, , that pitch, being able to be there. In the space right before you get to get on stage and present and then to have your peers there.
And so not everybody that’s in the building is not in the pitch competition. And so now you get to be supported by your peers and the energy is just amazing. And so, , I know you asked about the actual pitch, but. I wanted to just talk a little bit about before they even got to the pitch. You know what, I’m glad that you brought that up, by the way, because when I was talking , to the students, and I was just asking them about their day when they started, because they were talking about, like, about, they couldn’t believe, , and what was interesting to me was some of them , were, , their feedback was literally, man, I want to, I want to work here.
I want to be here. This is amazing. I didn’t think work could be like this. They were like caught up, and I was like, that’s amazing. So I’m glad you brought that up. Thank you. Yeah, Gray has done such an amazing job alongside Sherry and, you know, other key individuals where they just curated such a positive work environment.
Like, sometimes I feel like I want to go over there and work. You know, it’s that positive. The energy is just through the roof. And now, let’s talk a little bit about the pitch competition. What product or project or idea has the ability to be sustainable? Like, we want to pour into the youth.
Obviously, we want to pour into a project that we believe based on business that’s going to be sustainable for the next years and years and years to come. And so, you know, having a thought, a well thought out master plan the presentation, and then the feedback. I mean, you’re getting feedback from Sherri Hamilton.
We’re talking about, you know, Very, very, like, well experienced beyond what I could even imagine. And being able to take, whether you win or you don’t win, being able to take that feedback from really all of the judges, and be able to implement that so that the next time you pitch, because this would not be the first time they will pitch.
Oh, yeah. It might be the first time that they pitched in their lives. But it will not be the first time that they will pitch and whether they know that or not before they get there, we let them know this is not your first or your last. And just because you’re the winner doesn’t mean that this will be your last, because there will be bigger and greater things out there for each individual.
So being able to take that feedback, which I believe is so important, and implement it in your business structure. Or maybe, you know what, let me go back to the drawing plan. Or, or let me go back to the sketch. Let me go back and revisit some of the other ideas. Or maybe this is the idea, but I need to fine tune it based on the feedback.
And I just think it’s just amazing. Yeah, was pretty blown away by the pitches to like how prepared they were. There was this whole process in the behind, like in the beginning where they were working with a business coach. I think Sheree was the one for this particular one. They may, I don’t know if they switched them up, but they were working with a business coach like all summer or fall.
And then they had like another coach that was Sarah was this particular one who she had won, I think two years ago, maybe when they started this. And she was coaching the students and she’s now speaking to what you just said. They don’t know if this is their first one. I can tell you, Sarah, she was, she was one of the judges and she won, like, like I mentioned a couple of years ago and like her plans and her level of aptitude and staying involved and everything else.
I’m like, Oh my gosh, they’re doing this for context for everybody listening. When we say kids or high school age, I think in this particular competition, the youngest contestant was or participant was 15 years old. And then the most mature one was 19 year old years old. And I’m like, man, the 15 year old was holding her weight.
Like they, I think she won second off the top of my head. I could be off on that, but I was I was like, man, what was I doing at 15? 15 years old or 16 years old. I’m telling you right now I was not, I was not flying out to a place like Grant Cardone’s headquarters and pitching adults that are highly experienced on my business ideas.
I was blown away, blown away. Listen to this. The real question is. What if we had these types of programs for us at this age? You know, would I have been pregnant? Would I have been doing the things I should not have been done? You know, maybe that was bottled up energy that I could have been using in the entrepreneurial world, which many people don’t talk about.
It’s the basic go to school, graduate, get a degree, get a job, which is okay. Yeah, and we’re going to need that but for for our attorneys and our doctors and those people but what about you know what? Although I want to be a doctor, I want to open my own practice. I want to, you know, take , health and wellness to a whole nother level.
Like, your mind expands when you walk in the doors, and I’m not just saying this because I sit on the board. I say this because With passion, I say this with truth, and I’ll tell you what I model my business after them when I go to their meetings at night. I said, no, January 1st. We’re going to implement this in our structure.
We’re meeting Monday through Friday, 9 to 9 30. And we’re talking about. The wins like what wins that we have what goals that we have did we accomplish them? What are our stats? What are our targets? Those are things that we want to teach the youth that they you know that they can accomplish Yeah, that’s amazing.
And I and I think about like going back to my life and I was pretty reflective and, and sometimes when you participate in something like this, I’ve participated with, let’s just say adults and things like this and they have a when it comes to competitions and other things, but this one, I’m telling you, it hit home.
So one of the, one of the particular participants was talking about like an alternative to teaching for drug awareness and otherwise. platform and his concept and it was, and he was talking about back in the day. So the, for the, for the young, the young ones that are listening to this, we used to have this program called dare.
And that was something that, you know, keep kids off drugs. And it was the war on drugs and all these other things. And I was one of those dare kids in school. And he was talking directly to my generation and I’m like, man, I got a 16 year old up there solving the problems of my generation right now at his age and thinking and having that force.
Site of maybe some things that didn’t work in the past and thinking about how they can be improved on for the next generation. So he was reaching back to my generation. He was speaking to his generation and projecting forward what could be done for future generations. I’m like, come on, man. How can that not be amazing?
I was sitting there listening to his pitch. I’m telling you right now, Claudia. And I was like, wow. I was just. I was, I was shook. I was shook at that, like somebody that at this age had this inspiration and was thinking that deeply. It was amazing. Wow. Wow. Listen, I’m just looking forward to more competitions and , you asked me why was it important for me to sit on that board?
You know, I just sat postulated and I got the phone call and I was excited. I want to help be a part of a big vision. I know what it did for me and I know that what we have can help so many, not even in our surrounding areas only, but across the world globally. So I’m excited about it. Yeah, amazing.
Well, Clayton, I really appreciate you coming on the show today and really just sharing a little bit more about your experience with the Grant Cardone Foundation as a board member working through the , pitch competitions too, , just wanted to give my audience and viewers the opportunity to kind of have a glimpse into this, because I want people to, to get involved with the Grant Cardone Foundation , and to participate in whatever ways they can.
They can that being said, Claudia, if somebody wants to connect with you or follow your journey on social media or otherwise, how do they do that? That is simply just go to act and my first and last name, which is Claudia and Hibbert spelled C L a U D I E N N E H I B B. Wonderful. And for everybody listening to that, just so you know, we’ll, we’ll put that in the show notes so you can head right on over and follow Claudia.
And, and speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters, and you haven’t done it yet, make sure you hit that subscribe button because we, or that follow button, depending on where you’re listening, you might be on Spotify. Spotify because we have many more mission based individuals coming up on the show.
This is a daily show, by the way, if this is your first time with us. So each and every day we’re putting out new episodes, new content, and hopefully bringing you more inspiration that’s going to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe button and Claudia, and again, thank you so much for the work you’re doing.
We really appreciate it. You got it. Thank you so much.