Finding Peak w/ Ryan Hanley - Street Hustler to CEO: How Selling Drugs Prepared Marquel Russell for Big Business

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Spartan philosophy, built in the black-ops lab of business: https://www.findingpeak.comFinding Peak podcast: https://linktr.ee/ryan_hanley How does one rise from the perilous world of street dealing to become a respected business leader? Marquel Russell's journey from the streets of Atlanta to founding Client Attraction University is nothing short of extraordinary.Where great leaders learn to Finish Big: https://linktr.ee/ryan_hanleyConnect with Marquel RussellScale Made Easy: https://scalemadeeasy.com/movement-1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marquelrussell/Website: https://www.marquelrussell.com/In today's episode, we promise you'll uncover invaluable lessons on personal development, overcoming limiting mindsets, and the transformative power of mentorship. Marquel's story is a masterclass in turning adversity into opportunity and building a life that aligns with your true values.Marquel walks us through his early life, marked by dropping out of high school and navigating a tough environment, to his ultimate revelation that legitimate business could be his way out. We dissect the critical skills he carried over from street entrepreneurship into the business world, such as leadership, marketing, and resilience.What does it take to go from a high-stakes, risky environment to establishing a successful, legitimate empire? Marquell reveals the mindset shifts and strategic moves that made all the difference.In our conversation, Marquell also delves into deeper issues like the impact of childhood trauma on financial behaviors and the necessity of aligning business goals with personal values.He shares his unique insights on maintaining personal discipline, avoiding the pitfalls of entitlement, and why integrity is non-negotiable in both life and business.If you're looking for actionable advice on scaling your business while ensuring personal fulfillment, this episode offers a treasure trove of wisdom you won't want to miss.--Recommended Tools for GrowthOpusClip: #1 AI video clipping and editing tool: https://link.ryanhanley.com/opusRiverside: HD Podcast & Video Software | Free Recording & Editing: https://link.ryanhanley.com/riversideWhisperFlow: Never waste time typing on your keyboard again: https://link.ryanhanley.com/whisperflowCaptionsApp: One app for all your social media video creation: https://link.ryanhanley.com/captionsappGoHighLevel: It's time to take your business workflow to the Next Level: https://link.ryanhanley.com/gohighlevelPerspective.co: The #1 funnel builder for lead generation: https://link.ryanhanley.com/perspective--Episodes You Might Enjoy:From $2 Million Loss to World-Class Entrepreneur: https://lnk.to/delkFrom One Man Shop to $200M in Revenue: https://lnk.to/tommymelloIs Psilocybin the Gateway to Self-Mastery? https://lnk.to/80upZ9This show is part of the Unplugged Studios Network — the infrastructure layer for serious creators. 👉 Learn more at https://unpluggedstudios.fm.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Even when I was, like, in the street selling drugs, it was like, I always knew that there was more. I never wanted to just be like a local corner boy, and we just made a little bit of money here. I'm like, hey, if we're going to do this, we need to do this thing big. Dude, you are an interviewer's dream because I now have like 37 questions to ask you. Let's go. Yeah, make a look. Make a look. The Ryan Hanley Show shares the original ideas, habits, and mindsets of world-class original thinkers

you can use to produce extraordinary results in your life and business. This is the way. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Marquell, He is the founder of Client Attraction University. He has an incredible story. Coming from the streets of Atlanta, selling drugs, turning his life around so much as moving into legal businesses, what that transition looks like, how he was able to see past his old life and the old limiting mindsets that kept him in that world and branch out into the entrepreneur space, having built businesses that. scale, very large, just incredible storyteller.

And there is a section of this podcast, which you're going to hear me during the show. I'm going to tell you to stop the podcast, take your fingers, slide the little marker back about seven minutes and re-listen because there is a section of this podcast that is an absolute masterclass on defining exactly what you want and how to get it. You are going to love this show. And as always, I appreciate the hell out of you being here. Now, you know that I do not run ads on this show. And the reason is because I just want you to enjoy this.

I want you to get value. I want you to appreciate the people that come on. I want you to work with the people that come on this show if you find what they do to be valuable. That being said, I am dropping my own course. It's called Master of the Clothes. This is for sales individuals, particularly those who handle inbound leads or want to build an inbound lead operation. My company, Rogue Risk, we were founded in 2020 and we were able to scale that

business so fast that we were acquired within two years and I was able to early exit that business in November of 2023. We were able to put over 1,200 clients on the books with almost a zero paid marketing budget in less than three years. And we did that because it wasn't just about lead acquisition while that's a part of it. It was about how we closed that sale. And this is a battle tested thousands and thousands of inbound leads over the course of my 20 year career that we then were able to test each line of this script, each line of this psychological process to come up with the highest closing ratio

possible. Reps who started using this program came in at around a 25 to 30 percent close ratio and within six months they were closing north of 80% of the qualified leads. That means we were closing four out of every five qualified leads that came into our business. That is how we were able to scale and I'm teaching that at master of the close.com. If that sounds good to you, if that sounds something you're interested, go over to Master of the Close. If you're listening to this in the future, we are launching in October. So if you're listening to it before October, get on the wait list.

If you're listening to it after October, go in, join the, join the, join. Join the program. You're going to get detailed videos. You're going to get actual scripts. You're going to get tons of resources. The actual resources that we used and refined at my business. And I just look forward to dropping this for you guys and giving you this program. This is the best inbound lead sales system that exists in the world.

I promise you that. All right. With that pitch out of the way, I love you for listening to this show. I love you for listening to this show. let's get on to Marquell Russell. Markwell is great to have you on the show. Appreciate you, I'm excited to be here, man.

I'm excited to be here. Let's get to it. Well, I was researching you. Your team reached out, and I was super interested in what you had going on, and then I started researching you, and your story is pretty incredible. I want to spend some time today,

as we discussed beforehand, talking about how people get started and how you get started, and I think the power of that part of our conversation is set by kind of your backstory, like what was going on in your life when you were younger and how you were able to put yourself in the position today.

So maybe if we could start, like, as far back as you want to go and you think is relevant. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, let's just, let's dive in. So in short, so I dropped out of high school in 10th grade. So I grew up in a drug-infested environment, the earlier part of my life, my aunt actually raised me up until, like, third grade,

and I actually thought my aunt was my mom, right? So I was with her at a very young age. And then I met my biological mom in third grade and started living with her. And 10th grade, I actually, and my aunt was like a real, she was a drug addict. Well, we, from Atlanta, we call them crackheads, right? But she's my aunt. So respectfully, she was a drug addict, I guess. But she was functional, right?

So she made sure we had a place to live and power and water, all that different type of stuff and everything that came with that. Fast forward, though. 10th grade, I dropped out of high school and went just full time in the streets. Like, the only people who I knew who were successful in my eyes at the time who was like making money and so forth was drug dealers. So I went that path. And fast forward a little bit more. 19. I met my, I met my first son for the first time in visitation. He was just born. My goal, I was planning to get out before he was born, which crazy enough, it was literally the same year LeBron James was drafted. Yeah, so I met my son for the first time there, and I was like, okay, I got to do something

different because my dad wasn't around when I was growing up. So I was like, I got to go a different path. So I got out, tried to do the job thing, the multiple jobs thing. It just wasn't really my cup of tea. So I defaulted back to what I knew best, which was the streets, but I used that money to start a record label. So I was doing artist management, club promotions, and so forth. I was always entrepreneurial. I might just kind of use my entrepreneurial gift in the wrong way. So I went into the entertainment world doing artist management club promotions and so forth. I knew people who'd wrapped. I knew people who did production.

So I brought them together. My goal was never to be out front or be the personality or that type of stuff. It just kind of turned into a thing. So while I was in the club one night at a friend of mine's mixed tech release party, a guy approaches me and he pitches me on network marketing. He didn't tell me it was network marketing. And network marketing, some people call it MLM, some people call it a pyramid scheme. People have different names for it.

He invited me to a home meeting that Wednesday to meet some of his mentors who were millionaires and they were looking to expand in the area. So went to the meeting. They started talking about this ground for opportunity and all I had to do is get two and they'll get two and they'll get two. I signed up, signed up. My brother, I paid half of his way to get in. And I was just like, oh, we're going to be rich from this thing.

That didn't happen the way we wanted to happen. However, it introduced me to person development. And it also introduced me to the online market. world because I had to learn how to generate leads and so forth. So I went into that world. I started learning about marketing and direct response marketing and attraction marketing and so forth and realized it was people making money online, which was crazy. And I got bit by the book, right? I bought my first $40 ebook that took me down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. And the niche I decided to go in at the time was teaching network marketers, how I was growing my network marketing

business online. And then I discovered a massive opportunity because a lot of business owners were actually struggling because they didn't know how to get leads. So I really began to hone the craft of lead generation. They started teaching people that. And then I started really honing the craft of converting leads into clients. And then people started reaching out asking me, could I teach them what I was doing? And then I realized that coaching was an industry and a business in itself, which was mind blowing to me. So we started coaching companies, started coaching businesses on how to attract clients, and that actually turned into

client attraction university. And we grew client attraction university. We helped, you know, thousands of business owners, you know, with their marketing and their client acquisition systems. We helped our clients over a billion in revenue. That company got in 5,000 fastest-going company list on recognition. But throughout that process, we realized

that as we were helping businesses fix their lead generation and their client attraction and their revenue issues, in many cases their business was imploding because they didn't have infrastructure. So they weren't set up to scale in terms of team and systems and processes and really operating as a CEO. So we started a company to fix that need called Strategic Scale Institute. And that's really what we focused on now is helping businesses scale to the seven figure mark and beyond while actually taking more days off because a lot of times people are scaling and they're generating more revenue and they're growing a bigger business

faster, but it's swallowing their life and they're actually having less time with their family and with the people that matters most. So we're helping them build systems so the business can actually run and scale without them so they can actually enjoy all the other areas of their life that they actually enjoy. So yeah, so that's a quick backstory of kind of bringing me all the way up to, you know, at this point of us having this conversation. Dude, you are an interviewer's dream because I now have like 37 questions to ask you, So we're good.

Good. I came out of probably what you'd call the white version of that, a very small drug-infested town in the middle of the woods in the north. So I have a different filter, but a similar understanding of the environment that you came out of. And of the town that I came out of, I'm literally the only one who made it out. Yeah, we too.

Anybody who was in three or four years around me. So I have a very strong appreciation for, for where you're at. I'm really interested in so many people who grow up in that type of environment. They don't make the mind shift that you made. You know, my dad spent time in jail twice when I was a kid, you know, for years. I thankfully have avoided that, but I know so many who have been in and out forever, right? They don't have the wake-up call.

They see the kid. You know, they've, they, similar story. But for whatever reason, you were able to, to look at the world and say, I want something different and better for myself and for my family or whatever. What is it about you? Did you have a mentor? Did you meet someone? How are you able to make that pivot?

Because so few are. That's a great question, man. I think for me, I think it's a really, it's a really. really great question, man. So I think a lot of it came from, I always wanted more. So like, even when I was like in the street selling drugs, it was like, I always knew that there was more, right? So I was like, all right, I never wanted to just be like a local corner boy and we just made a little bit of money. I'm like, hey, if we're going to do this, we need to do this thing big drug kingpin style, right? Or because earlier than that, right, I wanted to go to the NBA, right? Or I wanted to go to the NFL, like most young kids, right? Especially from my community. However, one thing... All right, everyone, let's talk about drinking and driving. A decision that will change your whole world. Things will never be the same once you get a DUI,

because legal fees, time and court are just the beginning. Getting into a crash is another way your world could be irreversibly changed after drinking and driving. Your vehicle may not be the only thing that gets damaged in that crash. You could face a life-altering injury or even death. But you're not the only one who could face those consequences. Your decision to drink and drive could permanently. change someone else's world, whether you injure them or leave their loved ones grieving.

The next time you're out drinking, call a ride share, a taxi, a sober friend, or a designated sober driver. Always plan for a safe ride home. The only decision that will change your world for the better is the decision to call for a sober ride. It's never worth it to drive drunk. Don't risk it. Drive sober or get pulled over paid for by NHTSA. that people used to always say, I guess what their limiting beliefs was, well, that sounds good, but have a plan B just in case, right? So my plan B was like the only way I saw to make money because when I asked somebody for something to go to the candle lady or something like that, I was like, I don't got money and money don't growing trees and all the different type of stuff. And I was like, man, how can somebody work all week and never have any money?

It was crazy to me. So I always wanted more. And my way of getting it was that way. and then as I was just exposed. So like my first book I think I bought was when I got into the music industry, I bought a book called Everything You Need to Know About the music business by Dahma Passman because I wanted to learn it, right? I always had this hunger to learn.

Even before I dropped out of school, I was great in school. I got A's and Bs up until I wasn't interested anymore. And then I was just like, I don't see how algebra two and all this stuff is going to make me a millionaire. It just didn't make sense to me. So I just always kind of had this hunger for more. And then I think I didn't really hear the word mentor until I was like 25. And that's when I was in the network marketing world.

And I started hearing about mentors and coaches. And that introduced me to the person development world. And then I was introduced to like guys like Jim Ron and John Maxwell and Miles Monroe and Eric Thomas. And these guys was just talking different. Just speaking of a totally different language. And I'm still in the streets at the time. So I'm listening to like young Jeasy, but then I'm also listening to Jim Ron.

And my guys who was around me, they was like, man, what, what is this stuff? What is this? Like, you're tripping. We smoking weed and all that. And Jim Ron is playing. Or the success magazines to send out these magazines with a CD that came with it. It was like, listen to that. And I'm like, we're like in the spot.

And they was like, what is this? And I was like, bro, I don't know. It was just different. And it just began to nurture something that I feel like God just planted in me at some point. And I just would start getting around these different environments where the game started to change. So, yeah, hopefully I answered your question, man, but it's really, you know, looking back, you connect some of the dots. But I know early on I just always wanted more. And maybe that just came from never having anything and just knowing it was more out there to be had.

Did any of your guys pick up on it with you? Or did they just, they give you hell for it? So they didn't give me hell for it, but they didn't really come. So, like, one of my guys who I used to be with every day, I invited him to a network marketing meeting. He saw the presentation. He was like, oh, man. and I followed up to get him signed up and he like stopped answering my phone calls

and we like went for a while before we even connected again but nobody, one of my homies I was went every day he went to prison he went to prison he just came home he was gone for like 17 years another one of my homies when he went and did like 18 and all my other homies

some of them are still in the streets and then some of them kind of transitioning out now but none of them really was like hey I see what you're doing I'm all in with this thing But they also never was like, well, at least not to my face, give me hell about it. They were just kind of doing their thing. And I just knew, I never judged them either.

But I was just like, I know everybody kind of get at their own time. So I was patient with them. And I'm like, hey, I'll pull up when I can pull up. But I can't just be in the environments that we used to be in because it's just not, it's not conducive to, you know, what I'm looking to build and what I'm doing. Are you tired of endless follow-ups and missed opportunities in your sales process? chasing leads is a losing game. That's why I created the one-call closed system,

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And not that I want to put rose-colored glasses on the drug game, but there are a lot of business lessons that you can take from that life. Oh, 100% of it. Yeah, what do you think from having to be in that environment, to having to make your numbers, to having real consequences to making your numbers, not just getting your hand slapped by a boss? What did you take from that environment that has propelled you now? So great question, man. And actually, all of it, right?

The beautiful thing, well, I'm something beautiful thing. One of the beautiful things about this whole experience was I was always a leader, right? So to your point, I never actually was in an environment where I owed anybody any money. So I wasn't in a position where I would get, you know, my hand slapped from a boss or, hey, you're not making money in the corner. I always kind of ran my own organization, so to speak, right? So I, so leadership is something that we could actually obviously take that and that directly correlates to legitimate business.

Another thing is marketing, right, because you've got to be able to market your product, right? Because it's a lot of people selling the same thing, especially with. where I'm from, but it's like, so why should people do business with you and not them, what was somebody else, right? Sales, that goes without saying. Also, critical thinking. So for me, I never, I know on TV a lot of times we see drug dealers and so forth on the corner and standing at the store and that type of thing.

That was never my thing because it never made sense to me. I was like, if we stand out here, at some point, the police is going to pull up and snatch everybody up or we're going to sell to an undercover or something. So I always was like, okay, how do I sell to those guys who are on the street? deal in, they got to re-up with somebody. Why not be me, right? And then branding, of course, branding, you know who has good product and who doesn't have good product.

People who have the good product is to be going to cost a little bit more. People who don't have as good. You probably can get it cheaper. So that's branding. That all correlates, right? Analytics and knowing your numbers to the point that you mentioned. Everything has to weigh up. If it doesn't weigh up the right way, it's going to affect your return on investment.

So all those things have to match up. So literally, I get this question a lot. Like, what all transitioned over? Everything trains over from being okay with risk. Like, I took risk at the highest level. Like, every day I left out my house, I took penitentiary chances. Like, anything could happen. Everybody's against you.

Like, the people around you could be your enemy, or they could be plotting on you. The girls you're dealing with could be plotting on you. Then you got the people who aren't with you. So it's a lot of different variables. So you've got to be moving a certain type of way. So literally all that came over into. legitimate business. And because in a lot of ways, the legitimate business world is the same way. The characters just look different. Yeah, you know, I think it's, I've never been in the drug game

necessarily, but I can only imagine that it's, it has to, it has to give you some confidence moving into, say, a legitimate, a legitimate business, not that selling drugs is a legitimate, it's just illegal. It's got to give you some confidence walking into those rooms knowing you've played at a level where the consequences were as dire as you get removed from society. Or worse. And, you know, did you feel that? Did you walk into those rooms?

Maybe not necessarily with the same knowledge that you had from your previous life. But with a level of confidence, having played such a risky game that you could operate and be successful in those spaces. Great question. So early on, when I first came into this world, I actually thought everything that was an advantage for me, I actually looked at as a disadvantage. So what I mean by that, when I first came into the online world and was like teaching and so forth, it wasn't as many black people in this space teaching and being voices and so forth. Everybody was like, oh, the white guys normally had made money in real estate, got knocked out the game when 2008, 2009, happened to, whatever, right? Or they was accessible in corporate, but nobody looked like me. So I was like, man, who was going to listen to me? A young black guy with gold teeth tattoos, talk kind of fast

from Atlanta, dropped it out school in 10th grade. Like, is anybody going to listen to me? So I had some of those limiting beliefs. And I'm like, my story is totally different. And it wasn't until I started being genuine and authentic. I was wearing suits and stuff like that to events because that's what we learned in network marketing. But it wasn't until I just start showing up authentic and people and just started sharing my authentic story. I started realizing, to your point, like everything that I thought was a disadvantage is actually an advantage. Like, I played this game at the highest level and the highest level of risk. And then to come into this business world, I bring a lot of that with me that a lot of people are fearful of.

So I was like, a lot of people in this world are fearful of being told no. Somebody being quick. So I was in network marketing. And I was like, let me ask my mentor. I was like, let me make sure I get this right. So the worst thing that can happen is this is somebody. tell me no or somebody quit and it was like yeah and I was like I'm gonna kill this because I'm like I'm like I'm like where I'm from the it's stacked right there's so many things that can go

wrong I'm like we can make meals at all doing this and the worst thing somebody can say is no it was like pretty much and I was like oh it's a rap all I got to do is focus just like in the street game I had to it skills and so forth that I had to develop there I'm like if I put that same level of effort and focus, a mastery here, I can do something with this and I can actually go home and sleep at night and not worry about anybody trying to take anything from me or my life taking from me or my freedom taken from me. Now you're in the coaching game, why do you think so many people like literally lose sleep, they lose hair, they lose weight or put weight on about hearing the word know. Why is that word so scary to so many people, especially early on?

I think because we people, now here's the craziest thing, Ryan. I've seen people, so like, we work with clients and they'll be like, man, I'm getting a lot of noes and they're having their consultation calls. And I'm like, I'm like, let's slow down forthmaking. I'm like, has anybody ever actually told you no? And it was like, not really. They just couldn't buy for, you know, they didn't have the money or they didn't speak to a wife or something like that. But nobody just flat out said, no, right? So a lot of times people fear rejection.

So they'll take anything other than a yes as rejection or they'll call it an objection. So one of the things I, when I teach this and part, as part of our framework, one of the things we teach is that the sales world have called certain things objections that's not objections. So, for example, and they're just situations. So somebody to say they doesn't have the money, they don't have the money. That's not an objection, right? Because I like shows like Law & Order, SVU and stuff like that. Me and my wife nerd out on that stuff.

And one of the things is when they're in court, if the attorney doesn't agree with the, the DA or whatever is saying, they say objection, right? Because they don't agree with what's being said. And I'm like, well, the person on the phone isn't objecting to what you're offering. They're just saying they don't have the money or they just don't believe in themselves. and they're coming up with all other type of stories of why they're actually not buying. So I think a lot of it just comes from us being children in the trauma that we were raised with, right? So, for example, some adults are just hesitant about sales because they were told as children to not take money from strangers, right?

Or they believe that $5,000 or $10,000 or whatever is a lot of money, and people don't just have that laying around because of what they were taught about money growing up in their relationship with money. So they actually have a legit disdain for large amounts of money based on how they were raised in their relationship with money. So I think a lot of it goes back to like childhood trauma and then just those fears that come with that. Yeah, I completely agree. I had a couple guys. They just wrote a book called Start Thinking Rich. It's actually an incredible book. And one of the guys is a behavioral psychologist.

and they have an entire chapter of the book based on the phrase, money doesn't buy happiness and how this particular phrase that is so rooted in so many of the, we'll call it lower middle class, lower class and poor families in our country, right, though, as a way of, as a way of making us feel better about our, what we believe our current station is, we'll say things like, well, money doesn't buy happiness, so you should go after it. and they just terrorize and tear apart this phrase and how this is like if you're struggling with these things sales, if you're struggling with large amount of monies or even being

able to visualize the idea of having large amount of monies in your bank account. Like there's people, there's been studies done where people literally can't visualize having a million dollars in the bank account. Like they can't even put the picture in their mind of what that would look like. And it comes back to this, you know, they kind of pull it back to this phrase and a few others. of money can't buy happiness. And their whole point is that's not true. Because your happiness has nothing to do with money to begin with.

So it, but it certainly gets you out of all the negative that comes with not having money, which I think a lot of people on this that are listening to this right now at some point, right? If you've tried anything, you've gone broke at least once. And a lot of us came from situations where we were broke. So like,

it certainly solves all the money problems that you got. That you got. we're talking about the transition out of the drug game into, you know, a legal business environment, you made kind of an offhanded comment that the people act the same, they just look a little different. And I 100% agree. I feel one of the things that we completely miss, especially when we start to move up the ranks inside of organizations or even just in a community, if we're an entrepreneur, is we see people who will smile to our face, but behind us, they either are rooting against us or are actively a competitor or they want what we have.

And I'm interested, like, did you find that? How did you deal with them? What was the difference in, say, someone who may be, and I could be wrong. Again, I've never been in the drug game, how they maybe were open about their, I'm coming after your business versus how you dealt with people when maybe you knew that was true, but they're going to smile and shake your hand and hang out with you at the party or the networking event or whatever? Yeah. So I think it's crazy, it's crazily identical, right, in a lot of ways. So in this world,

I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it regularly where I'm like, I'm talking to somebody and they'll be talking about somebody else, like gossiping about them basically. And I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, I thought that's, I thought that was his man. Like, because I see them together. and it's like, wow. And one thing I've learned is that if somebody will gossip to me, they'll gossip about me, right? Because that's just, that's who they are, right? So I can't just be like, oh, no, he just does that to them.

It's like, no. And it's also one of the rules that I have is I don't do business with brothers who cheat on their wives because if you cheat on your wife, like, who am I? Right? So I've seen that. I've also saw, and again, it's just, just like down the streets.

It's like guys will come talk to you or women. And it'll be like it's all good. And they'll be talking about somebody else who I'm thinking is their people. But it's like, no, this is just who they are. Right. I think in the legitimate business world, it's fascinating because, especially when you're dealing with humans, humans are typically easily manipulated from visual persuasion, right?

so people who look like they have money, right? And I always tell people like, looking like money doesn't have a look, right? And the internet is like, so, for example, somebody would be like, oh, man, well, I see people comment on my videos all the time. Oh, man, how are you going to be on stage, you know, with a backpack, or how are you going to be on

a hoodie on and your hat to the back? Or how are you going to be, if you want people to take you serious, you got to, you know, dress the professional. And it's like, what does dress professional even mean, right? So it's like, well, you take me, well, will you take me more serious if I had a suit on? Right. And I'm like, a lot of guys know that.

That's why they put suits on. And then they embezzle millions of dollars because they knew all they had to do is show up with a suit with a certain look. And they could get you that particular way. Right. And I'm like, wow, this is, they call it, I think, white collar crime. Right. But it's like they're just doing it differently. They're doing it through fraud and bank accounts.

And, you know, Ponzi's scheme. and all those different things, but it's like, that's no different in a lot of ways than dudes in the hood, you know, selling bricks or weed or peels or whatever. They're just doing it a little bit differently. They just figured out another side of the game. So the games are almost identical, and in both games, it's very rare that you're going to find individuals who are just authentically genuine in who they are. That's why a lot of these, like, popular events and things of that nature, I like to stay away

from. A lot of times people like, man, I don't see you here. I don't see you there. I don't never see you with those guys. I'm like, well, I know of those guys. They know of me and I'm cordial when I see them. We speak. We don't have a problem. But I'm just not in the I'm not in the social. I don't play the social game, right?

I like to, whoever my allies are, like I run through walls with them, but I'm not trying to play the game where I'm just trying to say the right things or do the right things to get in certain rooms and getting certain tables. That's exhausting to me. I'd rather be at home with my kids and my wife and my handful of people who I really rock with on a daily basis.

Dude, we're completely aligned on that. The deeper that I've gotten into, starting with the podcasting game and then moving into coaching and selling some courses doing that kind of stuff, I want to say this the right way because I don't want to broad stroke, but I found there's two very clear types of people. They're the people who are talking to you because maybe they have a community or they have an offer, they care about what they're doing, they're trying to help.

This is their delivery mechanism, et cetera. That's great. And there is a whole other group of people that it's like, build this list, hit him with this automation sequence, pitch them this, then you upsell them. And I'm like, and I'm listening to it and like, yeah, I get it. Like you make money. Like, no doubt.

No doubt you do. That's awesome. Except, like, at the end of the day, what are people getting? Like, one, they don't have a clue who you actually are because this is all the game, the gimmick, the look, the picture

with you perfectly framed in the, you know, one third, you know, they got this whole, it's a whole equation. And I get how it works. Like I'm, I completely understand why, the how,

behaviorally, from a psychology standpoint, I completely get it. But it's like they spend so much time on the tactics and the gimmicks and the automics and the automits. and the automations and all this kind of stuff.

And at the end of the day, I'm like, but what, what are these people getting? Like, what, what are, like, what are they getting on the, on the backside? And that is not to say that there aren't legitimate people also using those tactics. And if you can combine the two, you're an absolute killer. But it, to me, I just find it to be, I found it to be a little distasteful.

Like, like, I'm with you. I would rather make a little less money, but have a little more time to coach my kids baseball team and be home. and not have to be on the road and not have to go to this networking event and this mastermind thing just to meet this guy because he's got this list and I start to get to the point where like I don't care I'll take less I'll take less I'll give more to the people who do do business with me and I'll be happier because then I can go coach my kids baseball team which is what I really want to do at the end of the day I just want to coach my kids you know that's where like my happy place

so like if I'm doing all this gimmicky shit and have to be on the road and fly to this thing and that thing like you you said it and this is you said it and this is this is kind of where I want to take this to your strategic scaling institute because you said something to me that I think is lost on so many people that are trying to come up, right, that they don't see enough zeros in their bank account. They're feeling that pressure, right? They're, they do, they, they miss the season of transition out of the grind, which you have to do at the beginning into what you're teaching. And I would love for you to go there next. How do these people, and so that season, that early season of grinding, I believe,

it's 100% necessary. If you're going to get something off the ground, you got to go to your kids, go to your wife, go to your partner, whoever, and say, look, for two months, I'm going to be putting in some nights. I'm going to be up early. You know, I got to get this thing off the ground. But then there's a transition period where you're supposed to get your life back from doing that. And so many don't. So how do you help people make that transition and maybe even get into a little bit where you see some common mistakes in that place. Yeah, for sure. So I think a big thing is this, right?

Even in the earlier season, right? So I think a lot of times, even in the grind season that you spoke of, right? So I was that guy where it was like, hey, man, you shouldn't have time. I remember when Empire first came out to show. And I used to post on, I used to be one of the guys posting on social. Man, if you watch an empire, man, you should be focused on building your own empire. You shouldn't be watching basketball games or football games unless you own the team. I used to be on that type of stuff, right?

But in reality is like you should have a business that affords you the freedom to do whatever else you want to do, whether that's watch TV or watch the game or whatever the case may be. I think the biggest thing is we spend a lot of time, and I'm saying we, because from a community standpoint, working off a scoreboard that somebody else's scoreboard, right? So I read this quote. I forget who it was. Basically that a life lived based on somebody else's scoreboard is a life not worth living, right? And how often are we chasing somebody else's scoreboard?

So, for example, I, so earlier in my career, I was into, I was like, and I saw the cars and the Lombos and the Ferraris and stuff like that. And I went to the dealership one day and I got into one of those Ferraris. And I'm not even a big guy, right? I'm like, you know, I'm like five, seven. But even for me, it was so tiny. I was like, man, and this ain't no shades of Ferraris or anything. But it was, to me, I was like, man, this is so small.

Like, how would I be comfortable riding in one of these, right? And then I was like, I wanted all these things, right? And a lot of these things, I just wanted because I saw other people having. them. And then as I did deeper work, I learned this thing called memetic desire. And memetic desire is essentially us just wanting things that we see other people with and we want to mimic them. Right. So I think just to bring this all together, when it comes to a strategic scale, most people think that scaling a business means bigger, faster. When in reality, scaling is about duplicating and multiplying, right? And replicating. So you can actually

free up more of your time, right? Because at some point, the business should continue to grow without you, right, and without you having to put as much effort into it, right? But we got to figure out how do we strategically do it. And also, when I say strategic scale, strategic scale actually means moving closer, focus on moving closer versus focusing on more. So here's what I mean by that. So a lot of times we, so let's, I'll give an example. So I had an event last weekend with some of our clients, we call them CEO camps. And a lot of of times we have these revenue numbers. So somebody might be like, I want to make eight figures. And I'm like, well, what is, what's eight figures? Well, you know, eight figures. I'm like,

well, eight figures is 10 million all the way to 99 million, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or somebody may say they want to make seven figures. And I'm like, well, what's that? That's a million all the way to nine million, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? But a lot of times we just throw these numbers out because other people have said it. And then it's like, all right, the next level of that is, why do you want to make that? well, just seems like it would be good to make, right? And I'm like, well, have you actually sat down and ran the numbers of exactly how much you want to personally take home to afford the lifestyle that you want? Have you actually random numbers? Most people haven't.

However, when you do, you will realize that here's what I have to make personally take home. And because of that, that's now my business revenue goal because my business has to make that for me, need to take this. My business has to make this at this particular profit margin for me to take this home. But a lot of people haven't sat down and ran those numbers, they're just chasing a goal because somebody else set a number and they feel like they got to say that same number to feel cool or fit in or they got to say a bigger number to try to impress them and it sounds good on the internet, right? But we haven't done that. But now once we do that, we'll say, okay, here's the number. And then also, what else are you prioritizing? So they may say I want

to prioritize family. So I give an example. I was speaking of it even in a number. I was speaking of even in Kentucky, it's 250 leaders there. And I was like, how many y'all want to spend more time with your kids? Of course, you know everybody raised their hand. And I was like, how many you have your kids on your calendar? Everybody hand went down but one person. I was like, how many you want to get in better shape and hit the gym more? Everybody hands went up.

I was like, how many you got the gym on your calendar? Most people hand went down. And I was like, well, if you prioritize family, and let's say success to you is being home when your kids or picking your kids up from school at 4 o'clock and doing homework with them. them if that's success to you. If somebody calls you and be like, hey, I got this deal for you, I got a contract. Will you accept that if it takes you out of being able to pick your kids up and forth? If you take that deal, then you're a liar because you're incongruent. Because if you said, this is why I prioritize, you won't accept money and replace it at because this is what you're doing. So if your goal is moving closer to more time,

with your family, with your wife, with your husband, whatever that may look like, doing ministry or whatever, but making more money is pulling you away from that. We got to decide what you're going to go after. So what our clients, we focus on moving them closer. So it's like, all right, what's the priority outside of money? Money is a byproduct. Money is just a means to an end, right?

Money is just a tool to afford us the things that we want, right? So it's like if it's more time with kids. The typical business stuff that people throw around the internet is they'll say, well, if you want to free up more time, just delegate, just hire somebody. And it's like, all right, cool, let's do that. Let's say you want to free up 12 hours a week so you can spend time with your family. Cool. Let's say you hire somebody and you say they're going to replace those 12 hours.

But guess what? Now you've got to manage this person because this person now needs a direct report. And if you don't have anybody for the manage, now you've probably added 12 hours. now you've probably added 12 hours to your week just managing this person. So that actually moved you further. It didn't move you closer. It actually moved you further away. Now, in reality, you could have probably zoomed out.

And this thing that you were trying to delegate probably could have just been eliminated. So we want to look at eliminating and then automating and then delegating. So a lot of times we're doing stuff every day just out of habit. But it can actually be eliminated or we can actually automate it. And then if it is something that's important, then we look at delegating it in a systemized way. so now we're doing the thing with the family. So a guy's flying me out to Dallas to do his podcast. And he was like,

he was like, well, what kind of room and stuff like that? And I was like, to be honest with you, man, if I can fly out there after my kids leave to school, we do the show, and then I fly back out, you don't got to get me a hotel. Because my scoreboard is how many days I wake up and help my kids get ready for school. And then how many days am I there when they get home from school?

right so if i can shoot out there serve you serve your community and then get back that's a win for me right and that'll save you some money at the same time two rooms because my videographer would be with me and it was like okay perfect so again that's me and how that's my philosophy being a recovering addict to faster more big i'm like man if we do an event we got 200 people there we got a double we got to do 400 next time oh we made 500 000 last month we need to make 100 000 we need to make a million this next month right bigger, faster, grow. And all of that was that, and I had my priorities with my family and my

kids, but that was actually moving me further away from the priorities that I had, which in reality I wanted to be closer and spend more time with the family. And that didn't look like growing bigger, growing faster. It looked like strategically scaling so I can multiply

and then I can optimize for profit instead of top line revenue, which is a whole other conversation, also optimizer for happiness, client results, and then also creating his life that I want. So I feel like that was a super long answer, but does that make sense? Guys, I know I'm not supposed to say this, like in the podcast world or whatever, but I want you to hit pause right now.

I want you to take your finger on whatever you're listening to this on YouTube or Spotify or app or whatever and slide it back about seven minutes and start and listen to that section again that starts with, are you living by someone else's scorecard? This is a freaking masterclass that Marquil has given us right now. And I couldn't agree with you more. And my man, I have learned this lesson, made the mistake again, learn the lesson, made the mistake again over and over in my career. And I keep level setting. And I think the only thing that I want to add is if you find yourself in that place that you're doing all the things that Mark Wallace saying don't do, right?

If your family is your priority, right? Because I think that's the place that we're at with this conversation. and don't beat yourself up. I got buddies who will call me and they're like almost in tears. They're like, I've been on the road three weeks in a row and, you know, and this and I'm trying to get this here. And I just am like, dude, take a deep breath. Like, it's okay, you know.

Yeah, you may not love that you didn't see your kids or your wife or your spouse or whatever for the last three weeks. I get that. And that sucks. But like, let's just learn from it. Like, let's just, let's take this and start dialing back. Are there, when's the last time you said no to an event? you know if you're doing good work and you're putting your your brand out in the marketplace you're going to get invited to a ton of stuff it's just the way that it happens when's the last time

you said no like let's talk through him dude the next and i've said to guys before like the next time you got a thing and you're not sure call me i'll just pepper you with questions and you can make the decision yourself you know what i mean like find a buddy find a friend find a mentor find a partner talk to your spouse and just say like is this something i really want to do when i started asking myself that question and putting it through filters like you've described, I took my, I used to do 40 plus keynote speaking events a year. 40 plus. I basically didn't see my oldest son when he was one years old. I was just gone all the time. And in my mind, it's, I'm building this brand. I'm building this business. I'm in demand. I'd be an idiot not to take these events. I got to

get my name. All those things in my head, right? We're going, I got it. I gotta, I gotta. And then I come home and I'd be frigging miserable because I didn't get to see my kid, you know, do this or, you know, I just hadn't seen him in days or, you know, and like, it was brutal. And then you know, then you wake up and you start to say, well, I'm not leaving unless it's this amount or it's this type of person. I'm only taking 12 gigs a year, tops. That's one a month. That's not a problem. Right. So you start to put these filters in place.

And then to your point, and I think this is the hardest part for people. and I'd love to hear if you have a strategy for this, holding themselves accountable to it. Because the number of people that I know, myself included, who've gone through an exercise and come up with a plan, like a filter, like I'm only going to take 12 gigs. And then that 13th gig comes in and it sounds good and it's something you'd like to do and you're like,

you know, it's only one more and then another one comes in, right? And now we start to break that thing. So do you have a process, an idea, a belief structure for holding yourself accountable to some of these filters that we put in to guide our life by what you're talking about. Yeah, I think, so great. So the relationship you have with your buddy, I think having relationships like that are solid

and then letting them know these commitments. Otherwise, Kobe Bryant has this thing where he say, one of the things that helped him become great is he never negotiated with himself, right? So if he says, if he says, I'm going to the gym at 5, when the alarm goes off, if he says, I need 15 more minutes of sleep, that's him negotiating with himself, right?

If he said, I'm going to put up 3,000 shots. If he says, man, you've been going hard this month. Man, you deserve to just go a little easier today. That's him negotiating with himself. He said once he realized that he couldn't negotiate with himself, or that's when things unlock from. So I think we have to do a better job of not negotiating with ourselves and then having solid people in our circle who are going to shoot us straight

and can help us like with those filters. Because we're going to have our biases, right? And I think another thing for me, and we can get, it can be, a lot of the stuff is like ego driven, right? It's like we're doing a lot of stuff for ego. So it's like when growing businesses, a lot of times we're growing based on ego,

just to be able to go into the mastermind or going these rooms and shout out your revenue numbers and you're making the most revenue or you're doing this or your team is bigger. So one time we scaled our team up to like 35 people, right? And I was like, man, we got a lot of people. I was like, let's get to the point. I don't even know a lot of people on the team. We're paying them, but I don't know a lot of people on the team.

And you start realizing you got all this bloat. It's like, yeah, you got a bigger team. You're generating more revenue, but it's costing you more money to make this revenue, right? And I'm like, well, we was making less more profit when we're making less revenue with less people. So it was like, okay, how do we begin to cut the grass and like scale this thing back? And then also even with our coaching company, one of our other coaching company was like, we was having our conferences and I remember having our events and I knew the people. I knew the clients, right?

Their kids and all the different type of stuff. We got to the point where it was like, we was having the conferences. And I was like, I asked my business partner when I was like, dude, he was like, I don't know anybody in here. And I was like, I enjoyed the people. I genuinely love the people and love being able to connect. But I was like, I couldn't do that. And we got to the point where events were so big. my team was like hey maybe we need start getting security and stuff like that to make

you all are good and y'all need to stay backstage and all this and I was like no I enjoy the people I like to touch the people right it's exhausting for me after events I like to go sleep and all that and I have a I have a limit my social meter would deplete but it's like when I do I like to be in and touch the people but we we had got so far from that because we were just focusing on scale and grow and this this and the third and then a lot of it was just ego driven So I was like, I had to get realigned and be like, okay, Markwell, why are you really doing this and getting back in alignment with that? You've kind of tangentially referenced faith or God a couple times. So I'll share this with you.

I believe, and I've written this down many times in my own little journal or whatever, I believe the phrase, I deserve or you deserve are the words of the enemy. 100% because we don't deserve shit we deserve nothing right like we were given everything we could possibly need at birth by God

so when when someone tells you hey Marquil you deserve to be making another million bucks a year right in your head you go oh shit I do work hard I do deserve that I need to go get that like right and then you start

then you start breaking all your filters you start breaking all your you start negotiating with yourself or you say or the worst is I deserve. I'm not getting mine. Where's my Ferrari? Where's my McMansion in the suburbs or whatever your dream place? You know what I mean? Like, or I want a beach house someplace or I can take fancy pictures and put them on Instagram. Right? Like, I deserve that. And, and you want to talk about the worst decisions you're going to make in your life. They're going to come directly after. I deserve

or you deserve. Those are going to be the worst decisions that you make in your life are going to come after. Those two phrases. I deserve to be, you know, you know, my wife doesn't appreciate me. I deserve someone that does. I'm going to go. I'm going to leave her and go do this. Or, you know, my business partner isn't holding up. I deserve someone better.

I'm going to go do. And just the worst possible decisions you can make in your life come after. I deserve or you deserve. And I believe they're absolutely the language of the enemy, not to get all, I know some of you want spiritual on here, but that's my take. That's powerful. That's powerful. That's powerful.

Dude, I could continue asking you questions for hours, man. I think what you're doing is phenomenal. I'm so glad that we've had a chance to connect. And guys, I was dead-ass serious around minute 30-ish of this conversation. The part that starts with someone else's scoreboard, go re-listen to that section. Listen to that section. It's about eight or nine minutes long. I marked it down here.

Listen to that section over and over. Your life will get better. It will reframe the way you think about it. That was a master class, my friend. I appreciate you showing up for us today. If people want to get to know you more, they want to get into your world, follow you. How do they do that? Yeah, for sure.

So first of all, thank you so much for having me on, man. I'm definitely honored. I'd never take it lightly to get an opportunity to come on in individuals, introduce me to the community. So I'm grateful for that and grateful for you as well. So a couple different ways. So whatever your favorite social media platform is, like connect with me. If you're on Instagram, connect with me on Instagram, send me a direct message.

Let's connect. I reply to my messages. I like to connect with people. If you're on LinkedIn, connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook. whatever your platform is you're on YouTube. I'm going to type in Mark Quill Russell. You'll see my YouTube channel. And we have a strategic scale show where we sit down with businesses that are making $250,000 a year up to a million dollars a year or more.

And we actually do real-time deep dives. Like if they paid me $10,000 an hour for consulting or whatever, you actually get to see behind the scenes of us working on their business. And it's not, we're digging it and the cameras are just rolling. So it's super uncut, super powerful. So those are a couple of social media platforms. I also put together a page with like just tons of resources, whether it's marketing, sales, scaling your business or whatever. If you go to scale madeeasy.com,

just scale S-C-A-L-E-M-A-M-A-D-E-E-E-E-A-E-A-S-Y-E-A-S-Y. Just go over there. We've got tons of resources, go over and dive in, whatever kind of challenges or constraints you have in your business. I guarantee it's a resource over there. That'll be a benefit for you. So scale-made-E-E-E-E-D-com. guys and I'll have links to all this in the descriptions whether you're on apple spotify

wherever you're listening watching I'll have links as well so just scroll down and uh and you can find everything to so you can connect with mark well my friend I wish you nothing but the best I appreciate the hell out of you and you got a fan for life now so I wish we'll we'll talk again definitely thank you so much let's go yeah make it look make a look at least thank you for listening to the Ryan Hanley show to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts. Ain't anything for me. I never switched to no change in me. The only thing changed to this. Twice as many deals by this time next week. Sound impossible. It's not. With the one call

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