Build Trust. Build Wealth. Build a Business That Lasts.

Build Trust. Build Wealth. Build a Business That Lasts.

Let’s talk about something that does not get nearly enough attention in the world of coaching, consulting, and online business: simplicity.

In this episode of The Amanda Kaufman Show, I had the absolute joy of sitting down with Marquel Russell. He is a powerhouse when it comes to growing businesses that generate real revenue and create actual client success.

Right from the jump, Marquel said something that stuck with me:

“If you want to help people, you make it simple. If you want to impress people, you make it complicated.”

That one line carries so much truth.

Because the reality is that many business owners spend way too much time trying to look “professional” instead of focusing on what actually works. It is not about the flash. It is about results. And results come from clarity.

Why Simplicity Is a Superpower

We have all been there. You buy the course, sign up for the webinar, and you are left with just enough information to feel overwhelmed. Marquel called this out for what it is. Some so-called experts purposely make things complicated so you keep buying.

But here’s the thing. If your offer only works when you are personally involved every step of the way, that is not scalable. And it is not really helping.

Simplicity makes your process scalable. That is what allows you to help more people and create real transformation. That is what makes you trustworthy.

The Real Way to Build Trust in 2025

Trust is the foundation of every great business. And in today’s noisy, algorithm-driven world, trust is harder to earn than ever.

Marquel introduced the idea of mind share and it blew me away. According to a Google study, people need to engage with 7 hours of content, across 4 different platforms, with at least 11 touchpoints before they feel ready to buy.

So ask yourself this. If someone searched your name today, would they find that much value? Or would they find silence?

You do not need more offers. You need more visibility. People do business with those they trust, and trust comes from showing up consistently.

Your Personal Brand Is Everything

This part of the conversation hit hard. Marquel said,

“Your greatest assets right now are your personal brand and your relationships.”

And he is right.

It is tempting to let AI or automation do the heavy lifting. But here’s the truth. People want connection. They want to know you are real. When you try to automate all your relationship-building, you lose that magic.

Marquel shared a story where he asked a room of business owners, “What do you yell when you get an AI on the phone?”
Everyone shouted the same word: Representative.

We want to talk to real people. So why would your audience feel any different?

Relationships Over Funnels

Funnels have their place. But relationships are where the magic happens.

Marquel talked about the importance of engaging directly with people who interact with your content. Say thank you. Ask a question. Start a conversation. Not with an agenda, but with intention.

I have seen this firsthand in my own business. When you treat your audience like humans, not numbers, the results are incredible.

This is not just about nurturing leads. It is about building a brand people trust and want to work with.

The Audit That Changes Everything

One of my favorite moments in the episode was when Marquel asked:

“Would you give YOU money right now?”

Take a moment. Search your name on Google, Instagram, LinkedIn. Look at your own content through fresh eyes. Based on what you find, would you trust yourself enough to buy?

If the answer is no, then it is time to raise your visibility and lead with value.

The most successful entrepreneurs are not the ones shouting the loudest. They are the ones serving the deepest. They prove they can help by actually helping.

Final Thoughts

This episode is a powerful reminder that real growth is not about hacks, trends, or flashy tactics. It is about getting back to what works.

Show up. Serve consistently. Make your systems simple. Build real relationships.

You already have what it takes to build something incredible. Now is the time to put it into action.

Chapters List

01:12 Why Simplicity Creates Real Success

03:49 What’s Working in Marketing Right Now

05:40 The Hidden Power of Personal Branding

07:10 Relationships Over Funnels: The New Business Rule

13:24 Prove You Can Help by Actually Helping

Full Transcript

Amanda Kaufman (00:00)

Be honest, would you give you money right now? Like totally unbiased. Like if you were to go on the internet and type in your name in Google based on what you see come up, would you give you money?

Speaker 1 (00:30)

Well, hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. And oh, my gosh, I'm so excited because Markel Russell is joining us today. And he is arguably one of us when it comes to revenue growth for experts. He's a multimillion dollar revenue generator, a bestselling author, Inc. 5000 CEO, rapid business growth strategist and an advisor who's been called one of the greatest business growth geniuses of our time.

And his genius lies in his innate talent for creating simple systems to strategically grow companies that are more profitable, more scalable, sustainable, enjoyable, and sellable. And on a personal note, he is friendly. He is cool. He breaks things down. So it's just so simple. And I know this because I met him while we were in a mastermind years ago. And we've remained in touch over social media over the years. And it's just been so exciting to see him.

do what he does. So hey, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:31)

Thank you for having me, man. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:33)

my gosh, my gosh. yeah, you know, I would say the same thing. I love taking the complex and making it simple. But here's my question for you. What makes that so important these days?

Speaker 2 (01:44)

Because I believe that if you, I have this philosophy that I live by, right? It's that if you want to help people, you make it simple. If you want to impress people, you make it complicated. So when I first came into the online business education world, it seemed like everybody was making everything so complicated, right? And you would buy a course or you would buy a program and they give you just enough.

⁓ to buy something else. I also began to see trainers and coaches and they weren't called influencers then, but the teachers, the gurus, they literally teach people to make it complicated. It's like, hey, you want to make it as complicated as possible? So that way they see that they need you. And I was like, that doesn't seem like integral to me. So I was like, I committed and I was like, hey, once I figured this stuff out, once I cracked the code.

I'm going to share this with as many people as possible and I'm going to simplify it so that other individuals can get results because I'm in the game, I'm in the business of creating success stories, not how much money can I make from as many people as possible. It's how many client success stories can we create? And the way to create client success stories is to make processes simple, simple and duplicatable.

Speaker 1 (03:06)

That's it. I mean, do you really have a good solution if it's not duplicatable? If you're the only person who could ever do it, like that's such an egoic ⁓ approach. And you know, when I was newer as an entrepreneur, I definitely fell into that mindset, you know, so I'm not like perfect or anything either, but I feel exactly the same way that if you are not creating results for other people yet,

then you need to develop the skills to be able to do so because that is the real value unlock. And you don't have to trick people into liking you. You know, you don't have to like do all these acrobatic things. You can just like, I know it sounds so trite, but you can really just be yourself. And that's the most attractive thing you can possibly be. ⁓ So these days, what I wanted to ask you about specifically is like, what are you seeing right now?

in the success stories of your students. You know, there's a lot of change lately with AI. There's so much heartache and frustration and division that's happening just in the world in general. Not a political statement or anything, but the fact I said not a political statement, like that's, that's kind of the world we're in right now. It's a lot of separations, a lot of vitriol. It's a lot of frustration and you know, how is this affecting success? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (04:28)

Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I'm seeing is that two things, right? Well, actually three things. So number one is depending on your marketing process. And some people are saying like, hey, my marketing I used to do a year ago or two years ago or three years ago isn't working as effectively no more. They're like, hey, I'm spending even more money on the ads. I'm creating more content, but things don't seem to click. And it seems like it's taking people longer to buy.

And part of that is true, right? In some respects, it's taking individuals longer to buy because there are so many voices, there are so many voices, there are so many options, there are so many platforms, and which erodes trust because you don't know who to listen to. And a lot of people have been jaded and they bought different things and people didn't deliver. So people take more time to kind of do the due diligence. Now, the beautiful thing, the flip side of that is those individuals who are willing to help people do the due diligence.

are gonna be the ones that are more top of mind. So I got this concept called mind share. And it's like, okay, the person who takes up the most mind share in the market or in a prospect's mind, that's the person you're gonna do business with. So how do you do that? Well, Google did this study and they found that it takes people seven hours of content, 11 touch points in four different locations before they make a buying decision. So right now, are there seven hours of content?

with you in it showing your expertise on the internet right now. If not, I would get there as fast as possible. So now when somebody sees your ads, they see you on the Amanda Kaufman show, or they see you on other platforms, they're like, huh, I like this person. Let me go do some research. Can they actually go do research or do you don't have anything on the internet? So that's one thing. You want to have more expert education-based content on the internet.

to help accelerate the process, which leads to the second thing is that our greatest assets right now with AI and all these different things, our greatest assets are two things. Number one, personal brand and number two, relationships. So a lot of times people are trying to automate their relationships. So they're trying to do it, let AI do all the relationship building. I think there's a place for AI. However, you want to have the proper automation and humanization connection, right? So AI can start the conversation.

But you want to get in there as fast as possible with some kind of human touch. So I give an example of this. So I did a client event and everybody was asking about AI. How do I use AI? How do I use AI? And I was like, we'll talk about how to use it in the best way to do it. But I was like, let me ask y'all a question. When you call your credit card company, when you call your phone company, when you call any service provider and the AI person comes on and it says, hey, just answer these prompts and I'll be able to support you. I'll say, what's the first thing all of you do?

in the entire room yelled out, representative, representative, all saying they hated engaging with AI. So I'm like, if you hate engaging with AI, you, why do you think other people enjoy engaging with your AI? So how do you create relationships at scale? You leverage that with your personal brand and then you leverage that with creating your content and then creating a systemized process to go about doing it. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (07:43)

It makes perfect sense. And I'd love for you, if you don't mind, just to break down a little bit, what is the difference between establishing your personal brand and establishing relationships?

Speaker 2 (07:55)

Yeah, so for sure. So sometimes people do just, they put out content. It's amazing to me. They put out content and they'll have people leaving comments and engaging. And I'm like, hey, why don't you like comment and engage with those people who are engaging with your stuff? People are like, well, I don't know. They just think people should jump in the funnel and just go buy. And I'm like, no, these are people that have shown interest. The least you can do is say, hey, thanks for coming.

Or, hey, thanks for leaving that comment. What resonated with you most? And now you begin to have a conversation, because most people aren't going to do that. Or, what if when people, depending on, of course, at a certain level, different things have to happen, but especially in the earlier phases, everybody who likes your posts, why not go reach out and start a conversation? Everybody who follows you on Instagram, like a new follow, hey Amanda, thanks for the follow. I checked out your page, I saw you got a cool podcast. How long you been doing the show?

And like start an actual conversation with no agenda other than connecting, right? So I was telling our clients, I'm like, what's old is new again. So at one point you want to automate everything. But now it's like, no, you want to go back to high touch is going to really differentiate you. So when you're generating leads, call them. So I ask clients all the time. It's like, you're generating leads, you just launched a new marketing campaign. People don't really know who you are. I'm like, hey, you had 20 leads opt in, one of them booked a call.

I'm like, hey, what did you do to those other 19 leads? And it's like, well, they're on my followup sequence. I'm like, hey, why don't you pick up the phone and call them and say, hey, thanks, I saw that you downloaded XYZ. Just curious, what made you download it? And like start a conversation. And just by stuff like that, I'm seeing clients go from 10 % of people booking a call to 30 % booking a call, just simply because they actually reached out and started a conversation. Even if they didn't get on a book of call, that's fine, but they still reached out and...

started a conversation. And I think that's where you begin to create like real relationships, like really developing community, right? And not focusing on conversion so much. Conversions that happen when you cultivate the community.

Speaker 1 (10:02)

I love this. And I want to add like a little tip for people on this because, and validation, know, the fact we're here having this conversation now, I responded to an awesome post that you wrote like three weeks ago and you did exactly what you just said. You replied and you said, well, what about this post really stood out for you? And I replied there and we went a little back and forth and, you know, it led to a couple of conversations and here we are. And, you know, that's how all relationships are. They all-

with this micro interaction, this micro moment of in when I think of it, I like to think of the offline, you know, where you just make eye contact with somebody. And when I think way back to when we actually met, that's exactly what happened. We were both sitting, you know, in the lobby at this event, eye contact made. Hello. Right. And it was just friendly human connection. And, you know, there was no pressure.

Speaker 2 (10:57)

No agenda, no nothing. Even when we like go back to what you said, it's like even when we had our call what last week, I was just like, hey, let's catch up. It's been a minute, right? We jumped on Zoom with no intention. I didn't jump on to get on the podcast. We just had a conversation. It was like, hey, what you up to? How can I be of value? And then, you know, here we are and who knows what this will lead to. But it's like a lot of times we're in a place where things are so transactional, right? If it's like, hey, if I'm not making something or like,

It's okay for me to refer you to somebody who needs your service without me making something. I don't have to be an affiliate. Now, if you me, great. But it's like, we can actually have a conversation or we can jump on Zoom to have a quick catch up just because. It doesn't have to be like, huh, I need to make money every single time and it has to lead to a conversion. It's like, how do you develop real genuine connections? And I think the people who do that, because a lot of times people will be in my comments,

or they'll be in my DMs and they'll be like, is this more cool or is this someone on the team? Now, if somebody's on my team handling my DMs, they'll just be like, hey, this is someone on the team. But sometimes it'll be me. the other day I was like, I did a picture and I was like, hey, now it's me. I'm just checking my DMs like regular people typically do, right? And I just saw you and I was like, let's start a conversation. And it's like, people now are craving depth and connection more than anything. Webinars was amazing, right? Zoom calls are amazing.

But it's like those individuals who go to Extra Mile, because we're even looking at like how to start doing local events here in the area, like local marketing and business golf events, maybe once a week, every other week, once a month, essentially what would have been a webinar or multi-hour workshop, but it's local in person because individuals aren't doing that and everything, while social media was designed to connect everybody, in reality is actually, you know, disconnecting us, you know, more than anything.

Speaker 1 (12:54)

Totally, yeah. one of the things that I hear a lot in my community is, ⁓ I don't want to be pushy. I don't want to be pitchy. And I think of this idea, I call it pitch placement. There's a time and a place to make the pitch. And I think one reason why social media feels so disconnecting, especially for business owners, is there's the friend request.

And then, well, blammo, you would you like me to make you a million dollars in seven minutes? Right. You know, are you looking for somebody who's setting? Are you looking for somebody who's who can optimize your YouTube or whatever their offer is? There's no warm up. And I think like one of the things that I noticed in my own buying behavior is that that seven four eleven rule from Google for sure, where I'm like, hey, how long have you been doing this? How often do you talk about this? Do other people talk about you talking about this?

Right. And like that credibility piece, I heard something genius this year, which was you are not an expert until someone else says that you are.

Speaker 2 (13:59)

Mmm.

Speaker 1 (14:00)

I was like, man, right? Because that just raises the bar and makes you show up and really give value, not because you're begging for business or begging to get paid or, you know, any of that vibe. It's like, what if crazy idea you genuinely actually help people?

Speaker 2 (14:20)

That's it, that's it. The secret sauce, I think heard Frank Curran say this the first time and I took it and ran with it. It's like the, the prove to people you can help them by actually helping them. Like it seems kind of sneaky, but it's like legit. so, so it's individuals typically ask me like, Hey, what's the fastest way to create a cash injection in my business? And I'll look at like what they're doing. Are you creating content? Are you emailing your list and not doing any of the things? And I'm like, I'm like, be honest.

Would you give you money right now? Like totally unbiased. Like if you were to go on the internet and type in your name in Google or type your name in Instagram or Facebook or YouTube, based on what you see come up, would you give you money? And be honest, right? I think that's an audit we can all do based on the value that you've already put out. Cause a lot of times we're trying to take equity out of the marketplace in the form of sales.

be honest.

Would you give you money right now? Like totally unbiased. Like if you were to go on the internet and type in your name in Google or type your name in Instagram or Facebook or YouTube, based on what you see come up, would you give you money? And be honest, right? I think that's an audit we can all do based on the value that you've already put out. Cause a lot of times we're trying to take equity out of the marketplace in the form of sales.

but we haven't sold enough equity in the marketplace. We'll look at individuals who have a million followers on Instagram, but we'll overlook the 300 and some thousand posts that they've made. Or we'll see all the subscribers, but we'll overlook the, we said a million subscribers, I wanna get to a million subscribers, but we'll overlook the 5,000 videos that they've uploaded.

So it's like we miss that type of stuff, but we just wanted to jump right into actual conversions in the millions of dollars without the actual sowing of the seeds.

Speaker 1 (16:22)

Yeah, my gosh, it's so true. You know, lately, in my coaching conversations, I'm really calling people out a bit, you know, just friendly jab. I'm like, everybody wants more money. Like, everybody and like even people who swear it off and say like, money's not important to me. They want it the most right? Because because there's this confusion about how is value actually created? You know, and it's always in the eye of

the beholder, not in yours. It's in the eye of the beholder. So like that connection or that willingness to connect on the level of like you have a desire. It's a deep desire. You're experiencing the pain of not achieving whatever that goal is or or becoming who you want to be or just doing what you want to do. And it's like, how can you instead of thinking like, how can I insert myself into your attention? How can I insert myself into your success and make sure that you are

Achieving the goals that are important to you because you know, there's there's so much value so much value That's just waiting for people that want to be of service and and to actually do it and kind of get out of the money's not important to me or money's so important to me kind of Games and go like hey, that's a secondary consequence consequence secondary consequence.

Speaker 2 (17:38)

I agree 100%.

Speaker 1 (17:39)

Amazing. So hey, if people wanted to follow you and see what you're up to next, what's the best way to do that?

Speaker 2 (17:46)

So, it's real simple, whatever your favorite social media platform or whether that's Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, whatever, just my name, Markoel Russell, M-A-R-Q-U-E-L, R-U-S-S-S-E-L-L, come over there, connect with me, send me a DM, let's connect. Or I got a ton of resources for business owners who are looking to grow and scale while working less hours. If you go to scalemadeeasy.com, so just scalemadeeasy.com, got a lot of cool resources that you can dive into for free.

Speaker 1 (18:14)

That's super awesome. And we're to have the links for you, dear, dear listener in the show notes. So if you didn't quite catch it, just check the description of wherever you happen to be listening to this. We'll make sure that you have those links to check all of that out. Thank you so much for your time today and just bringing it like you always do. It's awesome. Yeah, so good. And hey, dear listener, make sure that you hit subscribe so you don't miss another episode. And if this resonated for you, if it sparked something in you,

Speaker 2 (18:34)

Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (18:43)

I'll bet you've got a few friends that would love to hear this same short episode. Just grab the link and share it with them on text or messenger. Make it nice and easy for them. And hey, if you're just like really loving what you're hearing, do make sure you leave a review. I know it's a little bit of a pain. takes you out of your way, but it really makes a huge difference because it helps people choose the show when they're trying to decide among all the different options. And we always, always, always appreciate an honest review.

Until our next episode, just want to remind you, do what matters and help other people do that too.