Crafting Success and Growth in the Business Realm with Alex Cardona

Embark on a transformative journey with the remarkable Alex Cardona, CEO of Cardona Business Solutions, as he shares his tale of resilience and evolution from social worker to entrepreneurial maestro. In a candid conversation, Alex reveals the pivotal role networking played in his ascension, painting a vivid picture of how strategic connections can build an empire of diverse business services. Discover the art of seeing beyond the immediate transaction, and learn how intentional relationships and thoughtful business continuity planning can be your secret weapon in the entrepreneurial battlefield.

This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone eager to elevate their business and personal growth. I explore with Alex the profound impact of your environment and social circle on your business potential. We'll uncover the courage it takes to venture into new territories and how this bravery can open doors to unexpected triumphs. Prepare to be inspired and equipped with Alex's practical strategies as he announces the Sales Acceleration Series, promising to catapult your business acumen to new heights. Tune in for a masterclass in cultivating success through community, partnership, and the power of personal transformation.

https://www.cardonasolutions.com/

A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business.
Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting

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Transcript

Laura: 0:41

Good morning. I'm your host, laura Wagenknecht, ceo of Mosaic Business Consulting, and you're listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. A mosaic is a bunch of pieces that, when put together, make up the whole in a really beautiful way, and this show plans to discuss the various pieces of a business throughout different industries and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient and effective running of your business. To reach me, contact bizradious. Our guest today is the ever-amazing Alex Cardona, and Alex is CEO of Cardona Business Solutions, and he started his career in social work after graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in public health.

Laura: 1:27

Alex transitioned from social work to teaching after a few years of frustration with the mental health system we kind of get a sense of that and as a middle school physical education teacher, alex thought this is it. I've found my life's purpose. This is awesome and always thinking bigger, though. After just a few years in education, he realized he wanted to take his vision and wanted to impact youth on a national level, and focused opening his own youth training facility. And then the pandemic hit, and so, after losing his income stream and career path, alex was given an opportunity to own his own legal services business, which is interesting and, without hesitation, he took up the opportunity to help empower individuals with access to the justice system and has since become a respected business developer in the community.

Laura: 2:26

In 2021, he took his entrepreneurship to community engagement by serving on the committee for both the young professionals of Asheville and the people's community and inclusion subdivisions of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. In 2022, he expanded his influence and his business by joining the committee of One Million Cups One Million Cups partnering with other businesses that help with other aspects of business development, and increasing his notoriety in Asheville through speaking at the Black Expo Black Business Expo, young Professionals of Asheville, the Boys and Girls Club of Hendersonville, mountain Biz Works, craft, your Commerce and the Freelance Business Week. Alex believes that entrepreneurship is a journey of self-development, fueled by the balance of faith and self-confidence, and so it is my great honor to welcome you to the show, alex. It's great to have you here. Sorry for stumbling over everything.

Alex: 3:31

You are absolutely amazing. You know, I think it's funny when you read a bio. It's like wait, I did all that. It's kind of humbling and so, yeah, interesting to write it. And then it's funny when you read a bio. It's like wait, I did all that. It's kind of humbling and so, yeah, it's interesting to write it and then it's interesting to also hear it. So thank you for I don't know, just reminding me some of the things, some of my journey. I think that oftentimes when you're in it, you forget all the things, trials and tribulations that you've been through to get to those points.

Laura: 3:53

Yeah, so get to those points.

Alex: 3:54

So thank you, thank you very much for that.

Laura: 3:57

Oh yeah, and you know I'm I'm just wondering. I know you've had this long journey, et cetera, but I'm I'm curious what where you've been in the last couple of years, cause it's been a couple of years since we had you on the show and I'm just thinking you've gone through quite a bit of a transition from just working on the legal services business to now working on your own company. What's transpired?

Alex: 4:22

Yeah, that's a great question. To start, I think that one of the things that you mentioned within my bio was my ability to see a big picture, and that, I think, is a very special gift that I was innately born with, and and that's always the way I look at things. I look at things from a big picture perspective and then I figure out what needs to get done in order to make the big picture happen. And, with that being said, where I was when we last spoke was I was obviously, you know, just promoting my legal service side of my business. However, I focus in the business side of the business development side. So within that, it was more teaching business owners the importance of having contract reviews before they sign them, having the ability to enforce a debt collection letter and enforce their income Also, like, hey, the reality is that we're all going to die.

Alex: 5:12

Kevin Hart said that, but, in case you didn't know, that, it's the reality of life. And so I say that because business owners go into business not thinking about, oh my gosh, I should have a will and have you know this, this prepared, in case something crazy happens to my business, what happens to the income, because we're all doing business for the people that we love. And so, at the end of the day, when I was having multiple conversations and going throughout that journey, it was more than just, oh, I need help with the business side, alex. It was, oh, I need help with payroll hey, who do you know? Who do you know for bookkeeping? Hey, do you need, I need help with business credit so I can finance my dream, so I can make this happen. Hey, do you know somebody who can help me with a business plan? Hey, do you need to have somebody who can help me with sales? So, as the more conversations I had, the more I realized that my niche wasn't just, you know, legal services. My niche is actually connecting people.

Alex: 6:07

And that's what I love to do, and so at the same time, when I'm in a networking room, I can boldly say this, and I don't say this to be arrogant. I say this because I know the amount of work that I've put in to become the man, the man that I am today I'm one of the best networkers on planet earth. Okay, and I say that because when I go into a networking room, I am never in a networking room without intention. So what happened was I built a network of people that could serve these different business needs because of my ability to do two things when I walk into a room One, I walk in with intention. Two, after I walk in with intention, I'm actually creating a meeting and creating an appointment.

Alex: 6:56

Things go and that's not the thing way things work in life. So they're like okay, I have hopes, prayers and dreams for my business income to increase. They walk into these networking rooms. They don't do anything from the business card. They're like oh, no one called me and here I am calling. I'll call 150 people in a day, yeah in a networking room so.

Alex: 7:10

So that's how that expanded for me, um, into really helping connecting people. If you look through my emails and my texts and you type in the word connection and you type in the word fruitful, I guarantee you it's probably one of the most used words inside my communications. And so that's where that expanded for me. And that's why Cardona Business Solutions was developed, because it was like, okay, I can help an individual business owner with their systems, but ultimately, what I'm trying to help them with is their sales, because if they can increase revenue by not spending their time in the things that they're not supposed to be doing, because they develop a good team.

Alex: 7:53

But if I can come into the table by developing their team and then help them actually with their sales, oh my gosh, they're going to be able to sustain that business and, more importantly, they're going to be able to walk away from the business.

Alex: 8:08

Because I think a lot of people think, okay, I want to get into something, but let's be real, lebron James is not going to play basketball forever, and what I mean by that is you can have a successful business career and you can make multiple dollars, but you got to think of, like, when am I going to step out?

Alex: 8:26

When am I going to step away? And a lot of business owners don't think about that, and so the more that they have a team, the more they can have that ability to focus on their revenue, to then focus on okay, what is the end game for me into my skills, really tapping into my knowledge and ability to connect people and teach people. That's been the other thing, my gift for teaching, and that definitely comes from both sides of my family. If I could just teach people business or anything on a sand at the beach and get you know, paid for it, I would do it. But it's crazy to me my influence and my passion for helping people actually elevate themselves, and so I've also been focusing on developing my speaking engagements and developing my stages, because that's the ultimate end game for me.

Laura: 9:23

Yeah Well, and you know, when you talk about the networking just as a thing, it's one thing I really liked you saying that you're walking in with intention, because I think that a lot of people go to the same networking meeting over and over and over with zero return on investment, because they know the people and they feel comfortable and all this stuff and they don't stretch themselves to meet new people and so their circle of influence is smaller and their ability to expand their own business is smaller.

Alex: 10:02

Yes, yes, it is, and so I think that when you walk into a networking room and I recently talked about this I did a four week sales series. It's called. It was called the Sales Acceleration Series, and I'm going to launch it again in June, and what's great about is I help people develop ways to really sharpen their sales skills and with that, one of the things that we talked about is we talked about networking. We talked about this exact topic and in this exact topic, one of the things that people are missing is that they go into these rooms, they see the same people, but I go into these rooms thinking on three different levels what's in it for you, what's in it for me, what's in it for the community, if we can actually partner and do something together, because that's what.

Alex: 10:45

I'm here, for I love my community of Asheville. I'm never leaving, this is my place, and so with that, I just try to have that mindset right. So what that does is that allows you to just say, okay, how can I still be intentional? Maybe this person doesn't buy my product, but if I can connect them to someone or if I can help them in their journey no one more thing that they didn't know to accelerate their success. The end game is economic development, because if they make more money here in Asheville and guess what Well, we all can fund public policy here in Asheville. And then the other thing with that is now we have influence, but that all comes through business, right, and so how can I help them be successful? That's the first thing I think about.

Alex: 11:27

Now if I have a product that can help them be successful, I'll help them. But the other thing is that some of the times, when you walk into these rooms, what I found is that you can build a network of strategic alliances. I have been in a room of 150 business owners at one of Asheville's biggest events called Mega Networking through the Asheville Chamber, and I have had absolute room dominance. And I mean this because I had six or seven strategic partners at all the different tables that people are speaking at speaking at and all of a sudden, even though those people are speaking about their businesses because I have a strategic alliance with them, now I have room real estate, which means we're dominating the room.

Alex: 12:13

And so one of the ways that you can strategically build a feel more comfortable inside a networking room is having those one-on-one meetings and then seeing you know, hey, how can I connect with someone who's kind of close and similar, like, for example, just using products that I sell? Like, hey, if I do payroll, let me find someone who may do 401ks or do financial investments. Or, hey, let me find a CPA, let me partner with a CPA, let me partner with somebody who does financial investments. Let's go to a networking room together. We know that we're going to not be able to get everybody in the room, but between two of us we can get all the people in the room.

Alex: 12:54

Well, and what you're?

Laura: 12:55

talking about with that strategic partnership. I really like hearing that it does a few things. It's not just that you have this partnership with this other person who might be sitting at a different table, but they might end up speaking you up as well. And then you have branding for yourself that you express in a mega networking event, but then they are also adding to your brand right. 100%, 100%.

Alex: 13:21

I've been victorious for being in two places at one time. The best compliment that I get when I walk, anywhere I go, is I've seen you somewhere. Is what Probably have. I've seen you somewhere, you look familiar.

Alex: 13:33

Right, right, yeah, you probably have because, at the pace that I was doing things in 2021 and we're really going to be bringing all these things back between the radio show, the radio shows, the magazines, the speaking engagement, all the things that I was doing to committees that created an absolute, massive wave of attention that people were like I've seen you, you look so important. Oh my gosh, I need to talk to you. I've seen you here here, here, here, here. Where does that stop? It doesn't. And so, with that being said, it does add edification, because here's the reality, laura People don't buy products, they buy people.

Laura: 14:12

Yeah, boy, that's a biggie. I don't think enough people really pay attention to that, that it's not just the product that they might be interested or the service that might be interested in purchasing, but they have to believe in you, right? Even when I write help people write business plans. That's the truth that they're going in front of a loan officer and they're going to talk to this person and the person's got to trust you and believe in you, right? So it's so true.

Alex: 14:44

That's why I said, that's why I said in my bio that I believe business is about faith and confidence, because in business, right, you don't know when the next dollar is going to come. Ok, so what do you have to rely on? Your faith is acting as if what you believe in is already going to happen. That's what faith is. Faith is the actual behavior Like I don't know what. I believe in this. I believe that I'm worth X amount of dollars, but faith is.

Alex: 15:07

Okay, I'm going to make this phone call and take this action to make something happen. Well, what's going to get you to do that? Well, it's going to be confidence. Okay, your confidence within yourself and within who you are. These are things I learned when I was poor. You understand, and so, and so what I'm saying with that is where should that confidence come from? This is not a you know. I'm saying with that is where should that confidence come from? This is not a.

Alex: 15:28

You know I'm not speaking on religion, but I am going to speak on a point that, hey, you were divinely anointed to be here on planet Earth from whatever spaceship that you were brought from, okay, and you could believe in whatever you believe in, but the reality is that there's an energy that creates and builds life and that energy decided to give you life. Therefore, the most simplest area of confidence is actually believing that you are divinely anointed to be here. Whoa, how does that show up inside your sales call? How does that show up inside your business plan? How does that show up inside your elevator pitch? How does that show up when you walk into a networking room? Heck, how does that walk outside? How does that in your posture, in your eye contact, in your shaking hands, in your tone, in your diction?

Alex: 16:18

These are the little details that people miss when it comes down to just carrying themselves in a particular mannerism that will highly accelerate their success. Because they don't look at these things and they think that, oh, when I start a business, I'm going to gain more confidence, or when I start a business, I'm going to have more faith. True, but if you don't have that at your core and you don't start at your core developing those things, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It doesn't mean that you're not going to get hung up on. It doesn't mean that you're going to be told no. It doesn't mean that you're not going to go through bumps and bruises. It doesn't mean that you're not going to have a bill collector calling you while you have a sales call. It doesn't mean that you won't get adversity, but what will happen is that there are going to be some amazing miracles because of your ability to show up in those moments that you can't script, and that, to me, is why anyone should be in business, and that's what you find.

Laura: 17:33

By being in business, you build who you are in business, and I don't think there's any other way that you can do it, and you bring up something so important there which is really understanding yourself in order to understand your business. So, yeah, and so maybe you could speak a little bit more about that, that self because you talk about that in your bio, just sort of this idea that we're on a journey of self-revelation in a way. So maybe you could chat about that a bit.

Alex: 17:59

Yeah, I mean, I think that first thing that happens is you know we are the product of our environments, right, and so you know, oftentimes, when anyone starts a business, the first place that they go is they go, you know, to their direct friends and family and this is not a reflection of my direct friends and family, but what I'm saying with that is usually that's a hard place to start because those people already know you. In fact, those people have already crafted your ideas and your beliefs and your actions and behaviors, right.

Alex: 18:24

So, with that being said, you say hey, I'm going to start a new business. Family support me. They may not support you immediately, because they're gonna look at the other five businesses that you started. They're gonna feel like, hey, hey, now. Hey, that didn't work right. And so now you find yourself at a crucible where you're trying to develop a new you, but they only know you for the old you exactly, exactly the only way to develop the old you is to really change your environment.

Alex: 18:52

I was raised in South Florida OK, really, I'm a minority business owner. My mom is from Dominican Republic, my dad is Puerto Rican. I am dark skinned and so I was raised in South Florida, born in Jersey OK, well, in that environment where I was growing up in South Florida, it is very hard to put yourself in a position with people that, in my opinion, would edify you and would honestly give you their shirt off their back and want nothing in return. So what I had to do was I had to change. I knew very quickly at the time that I finished my teaching career I was about 20, 27, 28 years old I knew very quickly that I didn't have the right people in my environment to help me build the man that I wanted to become.

Alex: 19:42

So I took the leap and moved here to Asheville. The reason why I love Asheville so much is not because of I mean, the mountains are beautiful but it's the people in Asheville that have helped me become who I am today and have influenced me and have broke previous molds of what I thought a life on this spaceship could be. They have given me opportunities or they have edified me or they have put me in positions where, like I have seen things in my life in the last four years that, honestly, it can't happen without faith and it needs to be put in a movie. Because of these experiences that I've had, and particularly being a minority, like I've sat courtside on a basketball game. That's incredible. I don't know if I could ever go. You know what they say once the mind has been expanded, it can never go back to its former area of contraction.

Alex: 20:40

Exactly I don't know if I could ever sit with the peasants in the 100 section again. Okay, I'm just being real. I'm sorry, but it's hard. Right, it's hard when you have that kind of experience, you're like oh my gosh, this is completely different than me sitting up there when you're in a suite and you're like what I've had. The amazing moments that I did was I had to take a drastic, drastic move and I changed my environment.

Alex: 21:16

When I changed my environment, I changed my circle. My top six friends are all business owners. My top six friends all make over one hundred thousand dollars a year. These are the people I spend the most time with. These are the people that when I wasn't making $100,000 a year, when I wasn't Mac Daddy, I was Poor Daddy. It was tough. And so that's where you know. I think that's the biggest place that you can change and create influence in yourself.

Laura: 21:47

Yeah, well, and if people wanted to reach out to you and get to know more about you, your business, what you do, et cetera, how can they contact you? How can they reach out to you?

Alex: 22:00

Of course we got the socials. We got cardonasolutionscom, and then we do have the Instagram. Is cool C-O-O-L underscore like a C, so that's the Instagram handle. And then Facebook is obviously under Alex Cardona. You might want to look up in Tampa because I didn't want to let everyone know I lived in Asheville, North Carolina, until now. That's there. And LinkedIn is also under Alex Cardona and then you can go to the website cardonasolutionscom and also email me at cardona C-A-R-D-O-N-A dot legacy at gmailcom.

Laura: 22:40

Wow, well, this has really been great. I mean, I loved everything you talked about the networking, the connections, the influence, the passion you know developing your business and the intention that we need to have in that, and then the faith and the influence, the passion you know developing your business and the intention that we need to have in that, and then the faith and the confidence. That's just fantastic. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and your expertise.

Alex: 23:01

Thank you, and people can find out more on the sales acceleration series. We're going to be doing it in June. I don't have the date locked down yet, but if you go on Eventbrite, go on to look up the sales acceleration series, I'll put in a code for Mountain Biz Work, so it'll be Mosaic Life. I'll just throw it out there right now. And so, yes, four week sales series, lunch and Learn lunch is included, and I'll be diving into all these topics to help you become the best version of you, so you can go out there and go get what you want to get.

Laura: 23:31

OK, fantastic. Well, thank you, alex, and thank you for listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. You can listen to this episode again and get this great content, or listen to other great hosts and their shows by going to bizradious and click on shows. Thanks for listening. Have a great rest of your day.