Amanda Russell is widely respected as a business leader, professor, author, and marketing consultant. In addition to directing two university marketing programs, she advises several internationally recognized companies, including Lamborghini, Cedar Sinai, and Lionsgate. Amanda built and sold two businesses by the age of 32. Her first company started with a fitness YouTube channel and eventually grew into one of the first digital fitness subscription programs: Fit Strong and Sexy. Amanda later founded a digital marketing company: Interesting Agency, specializing in the fitness industry, and worked with some of the biggest names in fitness.

After selling her marketing company in 2018, Amanda spent two years serving as the buyer’s chief marketing officer and was responsible for rebranding acquisitions. She channeled her experience, industry knowledge, and marketing expertise into developing the world’s first fully accredited program in influencer marketing at UCLA, which she then launched at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to her work as a professor, she has written Harvard Business Case studies focusing on companies she has worked with, most recently published is ZICO Coconut Water.

Also an accomplished author and speaker, she conducts workshops and keynotes to institutes and corporations around the globe on the future of marketing. Her latest book, “The Influencer Code,” has become an invaluable resource for marketing and business strategy at university programs worldwide, creating a new paradigm to business school teaching.

Amanda has vast international experience teaching at some of the top universities and corporations in the world, including, London Business School, Harvard, Wharton School of Business, The University of Stockholm Business School, and a wide range of companies including Greenberg Traurig LLC, Lamborghini, Kantar Group and beyond.

Currently, Amanda has just closed an immense partnership to launch and building out the global Center for Influence (C4I) at the University of Texas at Austin this fall 2022. C4I is aimed to create a new way of “doing” higher education based on concepts such as large- and small-scale collaboration, multidisciplinary partnerships, and the creation of “networks of influence” in society.

She also serves as a board member and on advisory councils for several international organizations, including Lamborghini, The Andy Roddick Foundation, and The University of Richmond Business School.

In this wide-ranging interview, Amanda Russell shares what inspired her to join the marketing and business fields, what market opportunities are hiding in plain sight, and so much more.

Can you tell us a little about your journey prior to becoming a serial entrepreneur? 

I never set out to be an entrepreneur. I love structure and have always dreamed of being financially free, which, to my younger self, meant climbing the corporate ladder. I left home at the age of 17 on a track and cross-country running scholarship to study economics in the United States, so I’ve always relied on hard work and an analytical bottom-line-based approach to life to maintain security. Subsequently, as an athlete, my entire identity was tied to the idea of setting concrete goals and developing training plans to achieve them. The challenges of being physically and mentally pushed to your furthest possible level Every. Single. Day. and the ability to embrace the pain and push through to levels I never thought possible enabled me to develop a unique set of skills I never realized until I left my corporate job (Millward Brown-Kantar Group) to go back to business school.

Going from being a top athlete to sitting in a cube crunching data for endless hours forced me to face that while I wasn’t afraid of hard work, this work was not for me. I needed to feel ‘skin in the game,’ but I had no idea what to do next. So, I decided business school would be the most direct and secure stepping stone to buy me the time to experiment and figure it out while also allowing me to stay in NYC (it was big challenge that I wasn’t American, so I needed something that could give me a U.S. visa – something school could provide).

That “little visa issue” opened the entrepreneurial doors. I didn’t have a safety net or money coming from anywhere, so I became very resourceful and started doing the only thing I knew I could do well: train. When a significant injury ended my running career, I dedicated myself to getting back into shape without running. When you become passionate (or somewhat obsessed) with anything, people start asking you about it, and you constantly talk about it and find like-minded others. The lightbulb turned on, and I decided I could make money teaching others to do it.

I put flyers in every NYC coffee shop and place I could, advertising my outdoor boot camps (cash only—this was 2008/2009, by the way!). No overhead except the price of printing flyers! It built slowly and consistently, primarily by word of mouth, until it hit a critical tipping point. I had garnered an incredible following that included the world’s most ‘type A’ of Wall Street and executives spanning industries across Manhattan. Talk about networking. That first business lit the fire, spiraling into more significant opportunities and other collaborations and businesses, from building a fitness community on YouTube to a full-service subscription model to a digital marketing and production company to consulting and academia!

What about the branding and marketing sector inspired you to become an influencer? And how do you continue to grow and develop as a leader? 

Why do some people or brands command cult-like followings while others struggle to stay afloat? Why do some people rise to social media stardom while others can’t get anywhere?

The answer is: influence.

But is it a genetic trait or something you can learn? Where is their influence derived from? And what are the takeaways that we can implement in our business and/or personal branding?

There is a big difference between the stereotype of influencers (ex., Kardashian and social media stars) and influencer marketing. “Influencer marketing” done right is about influence. It’s about understanding the forces that most influence your desired audience regarding your product. Therefore, the “influencer” isn’t necessarily a social media creator or an individual. They may not even be online; instead, an influencer is a force (person, brand, title, etc.) with the power to affect behavior or thinking. Understanding people and what drives them to action is at the heart of it.

Having been on both sides of the stereotype (i.e., a YouTube fitness influencer), then a marketing executive and consultant who helped brands scale, I realized the irony was that there is no such thing as a universal job title of “influencer” and believing otherwise is making brands and individuals very vulnerable.

My mission was ignited to change the face of “influencer marketing” and redefine what it truly is: understanding the sources of influence that can move your desired audience to the desired action.

Keywords: ability + attention

Attention without trust is just noise.

Attention + Trust = Influence

What are the institute’s primary offerings?

Elite education is the scarcest high-value product in the world—it’s globally transformative, but universities have an interesting problem. Their research seldom influences practice. And, business leaders aren’t always able to turn their practice into theory. The result: a lack of a robust system for producing new knowledge that is useful and relevant. This isn’t a new problem per se. Nor is it restricted to schools.

Across the world, the growing gap between academia and practice is a matter of concern. I know several business leaders who are either interested in or have already gone back to school to teach. That’s an admirable movement and will help reduce the gap between academia and practice. Except that these practitioners are not always able to get the support or compensation to allow them to allocate the necessary time and thus often have trouble converting their practical wisdom into theory. In some ways, it is a bit like the criticism leveled against the case study method. There is no way that one can generalize principles or formulate best practices from the study of just one enterprise.

The cracks in the academic world itself have been around for a while. For instance, a world-renowned business leader who pushes the boundaries of practice with his work, builds a company from the ground up into a billion-dollar operation, yet has a hard time being accepted among peers in the academic environment, offered only adjunct/contract positions lacking any security, health benefits, or salary. In my experience, it is these practitioners who often become popular with the students as well as with influential leaders in the community.

As a practitioner who transitioned to academia, I can attest that there have been many moments in my career where both faculty and even some students would object to my teaching method, which relied not on arcane, bookish knowledge but on real problem-solving.

The bottom line is this: higher education is in a state of and perhaps on the verge of becoming irrelevant. The quality of both teaching and research is sorely lacking. Gone are the days when MBA’s and university leaders were revered by the industry and government alike for their views and advice. Professors were passionate about adding severe value to the class. They had industry experience, spent great amounts of time connecting with the industry, and were involved in serious consulting and advisory work. Today, very few qualified industry professionals have made teaching their career, and hardly any academically qualified faculty have any significant industry experience. As a result, research questions are dreamed up in the four walls of cubicles with Google as the only mediator between them and the real world. Of no use to the industry.

Can you imagine a professor in a medical college teaching surgery without having performed even a single surgery himself?

Government bodies are doing little to address such issues; rather, they seem to be treating business schools at the same level as undergraduate or other master’s programs, where a mere academic degree qualifies. Unless there is a change in mindset and the system elevates and adequately supports industry professionals to become part of academia and contribute to new, innovative, and more hands-on business education, both research and teaching quality will further deteriorate.

Clearly, there is a lot at stake here, but there are also a lot of opportunities. Today, the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Moody School of Communications, alongside the McCombs School of Business, is seen as one of the most respected and rigorous schools in the world for business and innovation and communication business. This is due to the incredible leadership at the top; individuals who are not afraid to make waves, push the boundaries of traditional methods, and invest in cutting-edge programs and people.

I can proudly say that it is no surprise that Moody School at UT will be the first communications school in the world to launch a program like this, beginning this fall with the planning phase of analyzing and selecting the best in class of leaders, founders, executives, and companies from all over the world to marry practice and augment the curriculum of the world’s top tenured faculty. We will teach a new way of thinking about how to grow and create real influence and impact by bringing in some of the world’s most brilliant, dynamic, and fascinating minds and souls. A place that brings the best of academia and the best of industry together in a dynamic and actionable way that has never been seen before.

It’s more than a center of study, it’s a movement!

Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace. 

I would say it in a nutshell:

• Competitive
• Collaborative
• Intense
• Driven
• Dynamic
• Coffee loving
• Energetic
• Extroverted introvert
• Compassionate

I thrive on challenges and being rewarded for all my hard work. It’s one of the reasons I do so well in high-pressure, target-driven environments.

I am shameless about my junk food habits, can crush a martini and British wit is the key to my heart!

Tell us about your role and responsibilities as Professor of Marketing. What about the culture and values resonate with you?

I fell into teaching at the university level by chance. When a UCLA professor learned about what I was doing with my digital marketing and production company (we were filming all of our fitness content in LA), he invited me to speak in one of his classes. This was my gateway drug. I fell in love and realized that even before that, teaching was one of the things I enjoyed most in my career. I had the exceptional fortune to have a lot of early success (thanks to the law of numbers; that is, I failed more times than I won, but people only see the successes), and that put me in a position to be a mentor to people just starting in their career.

Sharing what I’ve learned from my success — and, more importantly, from my mistakes — is gratifying. It’s a way to contribute to the broader community and keeps me sharp and more self-aware.

Having been at UCLA, Northwestern (Kellogg School of Management), and now in the midst of launching a center at the University of Texas at Austin, comes with the additional benefit of sharing a community with some of the sharpest thinkers in the business world. I’ve learned far more than I’ve taught from my students and colleagues over the past 15 years (and have worn many hats on my way here).

At the same time, however, elite business schools like the University of Texas and Northwestern can only reach a limited number of people through their traditional service delivery model. Building this center of influence allows us to reach more students from all disciplines, backgrounds, and stages of their careers with more targeted, up-to-date, and engaging content.

What has been the most significant barrier in your career? Just one?

I feel like with every success; I’ve had double the hurdles.

The biggest hurdles for me as a woman (one with an SEO profile that depicts me as a young girl doing jumping jacks on YouTube in leg warmers, I may add) in business were also my greatest strengths—and that was being underestimated.

Many times, being underestimated or having executives and academics roll their eyes judging my background made it harder for me to get them to believe in my ideas and take my work seriously or to give me a chance — but it was also a real competitive advantage for me to grow the company to eventually sell to an “old boys club’ PE firm.

I started to really embrace the phrase “being underestimated” as a young woman, and I’ve been able to stay true to the idea of being feminine and girlie while also being a powerful, no-nonsense businesswoman and a hyper-focused yet compassionate professor. I believe higher education is the most crucial industry in the world, but it’s also the one most ready for disruption. Luckily, as my mentor and partner at Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern), Associate Dean, Sir Mohan Sawhney, likes to say, “no one can ruffle feathers like you [I] do”.

I use that as positive fuel! Use what you have and don’t compete with what everyone else is doing-find your unique ‘super power’ and leverage it, own it!

What is the happiest part of your daily routine? How do you balance work and professional life?

100% the moment I sit down at my desk with my nice steaming cup of coffee and some Italian pastry to dip into the coffee.

I also love the opposite time of day, either on my own catching up on current research or with a quality person over a glass of good wine.

What are the most important attributes of successful marketers and branding leaders? 

They know that marketing and branding can no longer be siloed to a person, department, or agency. Today, customers are more armed with information than ever before.

People don’t trust brands, companies, or even people they believe are endorsed or paid by the brand; rather, they trust people in their lives-online or offline. Therefore, as marketers, it’s our job to reshape the entire idea of marketing as it’s traditionally been done.

Rather than pushing our message out, it’s about finding ways to get our consumers to “carry our stories forward,’ as my dear friend and marketing expert, Mark Schaefer, says. Consumers are the market; their conversations are our marketing. Great marketers need to create company-wide strategies to ensure every touchpoint, every employee, and every stakeholder has such a great experience with our company that they naturally want to talk about it.

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders? 

It’s not about following your passion. It’s not about going to motivational talks to empower yourself. Rather than spending your time listening to women on a stage tell other women this kind of stuff, and use your time to study how successful people get to where they are.

In a nutshell:

• Think BIG. Start small. Master the Walk before you do the Run.
• Launch first, launch fast, and figure it out as you go.
• Set mile markers – mini objectives that indicate if you’re on track or time to pivot before you go too far in the wrong direction
• Remind yourself of that ultimate goal EVERY day and let it guide you with every decision you make.
• Don’t compete on what you don’t have. Aka, find your superpower. If it isn’t ‘experience’ in that topic, find what it is and use it.
• Always take the time to study your audience and why they should care about whatever it is you are pitching or selling – aka, start every external conversation with “what’s in it for them’?
• Turn every ‘ask’ into an opportunity. People don’t want to be asked for things; rather turn it into a win-win opportunity that will drive both sides much more authentically and long-term.
• Think relationship versus transaction.
• Replace competition with collaboration in your vocabulary, and the world opens up!

 Inspirational quotes 

“Failure at any level, is really a gift in disguise, it has this ability to strip you of any ego and make you fearless to go after whatever you want without worrying about how it will look.”- Amanda Russell

Website: www.amandarussell.co