Attention, Trust, Conversion: The Path That Grows A Coaching Business

Some of the most horrifying stories I hear from coaches?

They spend thousands of dollars building funnels, websites, and memberships…and they still don’t have paying clients.

So in today’s episode, I’m breaking down what a funnel actually is — and how to set up a simple funnel as a new coach without complicated tech or expensive software.

Because a funnel isn’t magic.

It’s just the path that turns strangers into clients:
 how people find you → how they trust you → how they pay you.

In this episode, we cover:

• What a funnel really is (in plain English)
• The 3 stages of a simple funnel: Attention, Nurture, Conversion
• Why your funnel won’t be a straight line (and what to do instead)
• How to stop chasing clients and let the system do the work
• The beginner-friendly way to build your funnel

🎁 Resources Mentioned

✅ Free 7-Step Roadmap to Build Your Coaching Business & Get Clients

📩 Want feedback on your funnel idea?
 Email me: michelle@elevatelifecoaching.org

✅ Coaching Business Lounge (ongoing support + feedback)

Meet Your Host:

Hey, I’m Michelle — The coaches’ coach.

I'm a Business and Visibility marketing Coach who helps female life coaches build a coaching biz, get seen at all the right places, and attract paying clients.

I believe your coaching business should feel beautiful and profitable — without sacrificing your sanity, your weekends, or your personality.

Using my 7-Step Client Enrollment Method, I help you build a coaching business that clients can’t help but say, “OMG, that’s who I need!”

More clarity, more clients, more champagne moments. 🥂

Because building your dream business shouldn’t be a nightmare — it should feel like coming home.

🐦 SOCIAL STUFF:

Instagram ➔ / elevatelifecoach
Facebook ➔ / coachmichellekuei
Linkedin ➔ / michellekuei
Website ➔ http://elevatelifecoaching.org

Book a strategy call with Michelle ➔ http://coachwithclients.com/strategycall

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Fancy Funnels Fail New Coaches
• 1:34 Defining A Simple Funnel
• 3:10 Nonlinear Journeys And Consistency
• 5:26 The Three Stages: Attention, Nurture, Conversion
• 8:40 Earning Attention With Clear Messaging
• 11:17 Nurture With The Three Rs
• 15:05 Why A Funnel Stops Client Chasing
• 18:08 Pick Platforms Your Clients Use
• 21:15 Streamlined Visibility And Real Leads
• 24:05 Build Audience With Groups Or Email
• 27:11 Three-Step Build: Find, Freebie, Converse
• 31:10 Keep It Simple And Get Feedback

Transcript

Michelle Kuei: 0:00

Some of the horrifying stories that I have heard, coaches going out of their way to figure out exactly how do I put a funnel together. And sometimes I hear this from my community member as well. I get emails from members where, oh, I'm working on my funnel or I'm working on my website. I'm working on my membership. Kudos to you if you're working on those. But I also hear a lot of horrifying stories where coaches are spending a lot of money and energy in investing, putting these funnel and website and membership together, and they're still struggling with their client. But yet they have already spent it this much of money investing and putting that funnel together. And the funnel was supposed to be the magical thing that would solve your client problem. At the end of the day, a lot of time it doesn't. So today I want to talk about as a new coach, as a beginner, how do you put a simple funnel together that it doesn't require you a whole lot of technology? And I bet that you're already doing this, except you just don't know that you're doing this. So it does not cost you thousands of dollars to put a funnel together. And so if that is you, we're going to figure out how to put your funnel together and why this is such a magical thing. If it works, that's going to help you to stop chasing for clients. So let's get into it. Hey coach, welcome to Make It Visible Podcast. I'm Michelle Quay, your visibility marketing coach, and I help female life coaches to get seen in all the right places, attract happy paying clients, and build a coaching business that actually feels good to run. Even if you are still trying to figure things out. Each week I'm giving you visibility tips, simple marketing strategies, and showing you how to create the kind of content that connects with your audience so that you can stand out, build your authority, and attract clients who's already feeling like a yes before they jump onto your discovery call. So grab a notebook, pour yourself a favorite drink, and that's make your coaching business visible. Alright, so I wanted to start by answering this question of what exactly is a funnel? So we're gonna start there. A funnel is simply a path of how you take someone from finding you to trusting you and wanting to take out their wallet and pay you. That's all there is. That's what a funnel is. A funnel is simply, right, in the simplest terminology, is how people find you, how they start trusting you, and at the end of that funnel is how do someone pay you. And that's it. You can even say that a funnel is how strangers become your client. That's all it takes. Now, for most coaches, they feel like that process is a simple role, but in reality, it's not. It was more like zigzag road. Your client may find you somewhere, and then they go to your podcast, they come back and they join your newsletter. So it's not a straightforward path for a lot of the people who encounter you for the first time, which is why it also explained that why you would want to post consistently on a regular basis, because just because you post today doesn't mean that your prospect has solved your post. So you post it again, and hopefully that person has more time. Maybe it's in the evening, that person has a cup of coffee, and that person will start reading your post. So the first time you posed, that person didn't see it. So if you are someone who's struggling to have that consistency, maybe hearing this episode is going to help you to get an idea of why I need to be consistent because not everyone is glued to the phone and reading your post every single day. So you wanted to make sure that maybe you didn't read it today, so you can read it today. Or maybe you didn't watch my last video yet. Now you can watch and catch up the next video. So you don't want to think of your funnel as a straightforward path. You wanted to think about it as, well, sometime and down the line, you might want to be a multiple platform because there's gonna be people hanging out on LinkedIn, there's gonna be people hanging out on Instagram. We don't know where they hang out. So when you get to that capacity, then you wanted to think about okay, so maybe I need to cross post on my Instagram, maybe I need to be on LinkedIn more, writing more articles. At that point, then you can expand. But right now, we're just gonna keep it very simple. It's how your client, your prospect is going to find you, and therefore, I'm reading your content, I'm reading your posts, I love what you share, I love your video, I love your podcast, and they start to trust you, and you can invite them to the next step, which is maybe hopping on a call with you and figure out if you are the good match. So that essentially is a funnel. That process, that role, that path, that is your funnel. Now, you're going to see sometimes marketers will be out there, and when they talk about funnel, they break it down into these three stages. So the first stage, we talked about how someone finds you. Now, in order to have someone find you, you need to grab their attention. So that first step, the basic funnel is about grabbing attention. Help people discover you. You could be on Instagram and you're doing the dancing reel, or maybe you are on a podcast and you're talking about some specific topic, and people start paying attention because what you share is something interesting to them. So they'll stop and they'll pay attention to you, and that's how people discover you. So that's your step number one inside that simple funnel. So think about right now. I would encourage you as you're watching this video or listening to this podcast, I want you to think about how are people discovering you right now? Maybe they're on. Maybe you haven't put in much of the visibility attention, and maybe you haven't put yourself out there. So that's your step number one. We need to get their attention. How do we get their attention? Well, first of all, is your messaging clear, right? Do you know who your audience is? Those are like kind of your foundation. This is what I teach inside the client enrollment method, and these are my seven-step process. So the first two steps is knowing where your audience is or who your audience is. So you need to find your people. So once you find your people, then your message needs to resonate with them. It needs to land with them so that you can get their attention. The attention is earned. How do you earn their attention? You have to show up, first of all. And number two is that what you show up better be something valuable to them is something that they are interested to hear. And that's your step number one. You're you want their attention, and that's your step one also in a basic funnel. So I would encourage you to think about how are you grabbing their attention right now? And maybe you aren't, then we need to talk because I have this seven-step roadmap, and there's a link in the in the description down below that you can download the seven-step roadmap of client enrollment method. So that will get you started to grab their attention. All right. So the second step in the funnel is about nurturing. Now, this is where you build that trust. So once they know you, once they found you, how are they going to get to know you and trust you? Now, how do you build trust? I like to break it into three R. So, what are the three R? It's realistic, relevant, and relatable. So, realistic, is that a real story? Is it something that she just made up? If you said that uh by doing these three habits, you're going to be successful in life. Well, where's the proof? I like to see some proof, right? Is this something realistic that I can trust, I can believe? Is it something reachable? Is that something tangible that I can see, I can feel, and I can have? So that's where the realistic comes in. And that's your initial step for building a trust. Then you wanted to have the relatability. The relatability is something that maybe you personally have struggled with negative self-talk. Let's just go back to negative self-talk as the example. Maybe you're someone who's struggling with negative self-talk, and therefore there are some the voices that in our head, for someone who don't find you relatable, they might think, well, you have voice in your head. What are you talking about? Is it like the woo-woo stuff? So you have to share some type of relatable experience to get someone to know you and also to trust you. So that's where relatability comes in. And then the last part would be the relevance. Is what you're saying and talking about, whether it's on your social media or when you're doing a video, is it something relevant to their experience, to what you are bringing them here? If I were to jump on this video and we'll start talking about fishing, it's completely irrelevant and not related to the coaching experience that you're building a coaching business. What does fishing have to do with anything? Well, it does, but it doesn't. So you're probably gonna sit there and wondering, well, why is she talking about fishing now? Isn't she always talking about coaching? So there's a disconnect. And that's how you nurture your people. And that's step number two is to nurture them so that they want to get to know you and therefore trusting you. That's the second step in your funnel. So you wanted to think about how people find you. And once they found you, what are you going to talk to them about? Right? So think about what are you going to talk to them about? And that's where I created the seven-step client enrollment method. After we talk about the grabbing their attention, your message, who finding your people, and even creating your signature offer. The next step is how do we enroll them or inspire them to stay connected in our world so that they see themselves in what we're saying and so that they actually feel inspired. I want to learn more from what you have to share. So that's the nurturing part of building your know, like, and trust. Now, the last step in your funnel is clearly once we get them into the step, is to be able to pay you. And that's what we call a conversion. A conversion means like how they're buying your book. The act of taking out their wallet, putting it in the credit card, and actually buy a book. That activity is called conversion. So that's your three basic steps of a funnel. You need to have the attention, you need to be able to nurture them, to build their trust, to get to know you. And then the last step is conversion, and which is what people are paying you. And that's it. Those are the three steps that makes a funnel. So funnel is not complicated, is it? Anybody, once you learn this process, you will know that oh, the funnel involves three steps where people find me, how I'm going to talk to them so that they get to know me and like me and trust me, and how do I get them to pay me? The simplest term of what a funnel is. Nothing complicated. Now, you might ask, okay, so Michelle, if it's not complicated, why would I need a funnel? What is that going to do for me? Now, if you think about all the things that you are doing currently, is you're sitting there and you're wondering, like, how do I get more client? And there's a good chance that you're probably doing a lot of things to chase them. In order to find my client, I need to go and figure out who is interested in coaching. So I need to go and talk to a lot of people. Now, the good thing about creating a simple funnel so that people can discover you, they can come into your world, and then finally they decided to pay you. That process, if you do it right, it does not involve chasing people. Involved chasing people like you're waiting for them in a parking lot, like stalking them to go home. It does not involve any of that. It involves you being strategic about how people are going to find you. You wanted to make sure that your funnel is created or the place that you get discovered is places where majority of your prospect, your ideal client is going to hang out. And that's why you hear people say it all the time. You wanted to be where your ideal client is. Because depending on where you put that funnel, where you set up that funnel, you might funnel the wrong person into your system. And therefore, they're not going to buy because what you have to offer them is not matching what they want. So you wanted to be careful on where you put that funnel to make sure that the right people come into your funnel. So, why would you want to have a funnel as a new coach or as a new beginner? Well, first of all, it gives you an easy and simple way to get clients without you having to chase them. If you position it right, any network that you show up, every time you post on social, uh, anytime someone says, Oh, let me just pick your brain, your funnel allows you to filter in the right person into your world. And you let that system to build that next step for you as part of you. So it's not, it's not something that you have to go out of your way to chase it. It just becomes natural for someone who are interested to hear more what you have to say, or this is a topic that they want to hear more, then it's natural for them to come into the next step, which is the nurture part. And you no longer have to reach out to them and say, Are you interested in this topic? Because they have just raised their hand and said, Yes, please do tell me more. So you save that headache of having to chase someone. Instead, you're just creating it nicely and have them filter themselves in, walk themselves into your door. So if you do it right and you position your funnel right, there's a lot of chasing that you no longer have to do. You don't need to think about, well, where should I find my ideal client? Because your system is set up that way. Okay, another reason why coaches will want to set up this funnel is like I said, instead of wondering where do I find my people, now you don't have to worry about it. So basically, anywhere that you are at, as long as you have the messaging right, and that's the most important thing, you have to have your message, the three R that I was talking about, realistic, relevant, and relatable. You need to be in that space where those foundations are set up. And then if you want to be everywhere, you can be everywhere, but I don't recommend you being everywhere. Pick a platform, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Just pick a place where people can discover you and let your funnel do the work. Instead of you going to chase, like, oh, is my client on LinkedIn? No, if your message is right, your story is right, your offer is right, then all you have to worry about is okay, so here's my funnel. I'm going to use LinkedIn as my place of discovery. People can discover me on LinkedIn. And as they come in, I'm going to walk them to my next step. Maybe it's a call, maybe it's a training, maybe it's a webinar, maybe it's the next event, maybe it's, I don't know, a discovery call, whatever it is, or community. It could be a Facebook community, or maybe it's a um nowadays the Substack is big. There's also school. And I actually wrote a post about, you know, it doesn't matter which platform you're on, as long as you know what you're doing on the platform, it all platform works the same. And at the end of the day, you do want to bring them into something that you own, which is an email list, but that's another topic for another day. So it saves you a lot of headache of having to chase somebody in order to figure out, oh, where's my ideal client? You create that ecosystem where that person is just going to walk in naturally. But again, you have to have some of the foundation right your messaging, your offer, uh, how you describe and articulate uh your experience, make your prospect feel seen. Now, the another reason why new coaches would want to have a funnel is because then it makes your visibility a lot more streamlined and also having more direction. Like right now, you're probably posting on social, but you have no idea you're posting. I mean, you do have an idea of why you're posting. At the end of the day, you want to get client. But in order to get clients, there's like all these missing pieces that you're missing out because posting on social is not going to automatically generate a lead. So that's another magic word you're going to hear a lot from a lot of marketers. A lead is just another word for your prospect. We call prospect in coaching, but in marketing terms, it's just called lee. It's someone who is interested, or someone could be your potential client that you can potentially reach out to and see if they're interested. So we call it prospect in our coaching world. Lee, prospect, the same. You're probably on social, you're posting, but you have no idea of what that is going to do. Yes, someone might reach out to you in a DM. Hey, I'm really interested in what you have to share. How do you work with clients? But I bet majority of the time, what you're getting are spam DMs or other people selling you their coaching. So if you're not clear in terms of why you need to be on social, you're waiting for that prospect to finally send a DM to you. But that's a very passive way of finding your client. What will be a semi-active way of finding your client? You're still delivering the value, you're still building your online presence, you're still posting, but there's a little middle step of nurturing that relationship. When someone opt in, when someone joined your email list or joined your Facebook group, clearly that person has raised their hand and they said, Well, I'm interested to hear more on this topic. Please do tell me more. So if someone joined your Facebook group, that person is probably really interested in hearing more about what your Facebook group is about. Maybe you do a weekly content, maybe you go on live and talk about a strategy or tip, a coaching skill that you do inside that group. So whatever that you do inside that group is what made that person raise their hand. So what you're essentially doing is no longer posting just for the sake of posting. You're posting because now you have a next step, which is a Facebook group where you talk more about this topic in much more detail. So you bring an audience, which is in the beginning, they got their attention, to the next step, which is inside my Facebook group where I can talk to them, I can nurture them, I can start a conversation. And maybe it doesn't have to be a Facebook group. Maybe you have an email list. Great. Put them onto an email list, invite them into email list where you can communicate with them on a regular basis. So as you're building this simple funnel of how people discover you and where is their next step before they're ready to buy, because not everybody coming to your world are ready to buy. So maybe somewhere in the middle, you put them into a Facebook group, you put them into an email list, or you offer them a workshop that they go to, whatever it is. Having a basic funnel allows you to build your audience. Now you're curating your ideal client audience. You have a community now, you bring everybody together. It also builds your visibility because now your visibility actually has a purpose, it has a reason that you are being there. So you're more focused, you know exactly what you need to post and what is their next step. So when I'm ready, I can say, Well, today you've been following me for so long. I want you to come into my community. And by the way, if you want more information like this or tips, I send out my email. There's a link to join my email newsletter. I send out regular emails, usually Tuesday and Thursday. But if you like more tips or more strategy like this, go ahead and hop on to my newsletter. I will send you a newsletter. So that's the reason why a new coach would want to have a funnel like this, a simple funnel. Remember, simple funnel, three steps attention, nurture, and conversion. That is when someone is ready to pay you. Okay, so we cover what is a funnel. Very simple. It's how people discover you, how you Build that trust and then finally get someone to pay you. So those are the three steps in the funnel and why you need one because it saves you a lot of headache and now it gives you a visibility, a purpose to be there. Now, your next question would be Well, Michelle, that sounds great, but exactly how do I build this? Okay, so here it is. We're gonna break it down into three steps. Step number one is you want to pick one way of how people find you. Maybe it's on Instagram. You've been great and you're doing you have followers on Instagram, then pick Instagram. Or maybe you are a social belly fly, you like to go network, then network is probably your place to go to where people find you. So networking could be in another place. Maybe you like to speak, so you are a speaker. If you have already have uh speaking engagement, or you have opportunity to be on a stage and speak or being on podcasts, then those would be places where people can find you. And that's your initial step. You want people's attention, and having attention is a good thing, yeah. Despite the fact that what we used to think that, oh, you don't want to draw attention. No, as a business owner and as a coach, you want attention. Attention is good. All right, so we got that taken care of. So choose one way people find you, get their attention, grab their attention, you want their attention. If you want a business, you want attention. All right, so step number two is creating one simple uh freebie. Now, freebie, I say it loosely because it doesn't have to be like a thing that you download, even though I do have a thing that you can download, it's called seven step-by-step roadmap to build your coaching business and get paying client. I walk you through the seven steps of client enrollment method, and each of the steps you have exercise to put it together. So if you're looking for attention, you need to have the clarity to your messaging, to who your audience is. So, all that is you can grab a copy of it using the link in the description box down below. So creating a freebie. Now it doesn't have to be a freebie like you know what I did as a PDF or as a downloadable, it could be a Facebook group, it could be a WhatsApp group, it could be a private chat. If you currently don't have a big audience, that's okay. None of us started with a big audience, okay? A lot of us started with a small audience, and we got to the place where we are today. So start small, and it doesn't need to be a Facebook group, it could be a WhatsApp, it could be something, a private channel, or it could even be a Zoom meeting that you host on a regular basis, or it could even be like a weekly or a monthly gathering at your home or at someplace close at a coffee shop. There's a lot of ways that you can create these freebie. And what it allows you to do is it allows you to go to the next step, which is step number three, is to have conversation. No matter which platform you pick, what freebie you choose, at the end of the day, your step number three is to have conversation. Because through conversation, we build that know, like, and trust. Whether it's in person or virtually, you want to have regular conversation with your potential client. Um, if you send email, that's one way of having conversation with your subscriber, with your prospect. If you are inside a group, a weekly post, daily post, that's another way of having that conversation. If you're going to network or if you're hosting events or monthly meeting, that's another way of having conversation. So, step three of how you set up that simple funnel is I want to encourage you to think about what are some of the ways that you can have conversation with people and even just with people, okay? Could be your ideal client. And if you need help with the ideal client, again, download my seven-step roadmap. It's going to walk you through that step one and two is finding your people and your messaging. So that roadmap is going to be helpful for you. And then I also walk you through the rest of the uh steps on the client enrollment method. So grab that if you need to know, like how do I position my funnel so that the right person is going to invite themselves in? Okay. So again, how do you create a simple funnel as a new beginner? Well, very simple. When it comes to funnel, it's not complex. It doesn't require you to spend$2,000 or$5,000 to get a system in order to have this funnel. You can do it very simple, very easy. As long as you have a social media or you have a place where people can discover you, that is the top of your funnel. That is the beginning of your funnel. Your next step, you have to remember, people are not ready to pay you sometimes. Most of the people are not ready to pay you yet. They would like to have a conversation with you. So your thinking would be: once they discover me, what would be the next step before they take out their wallet and pay me? That I can continue to have this conversation with them. It could be a Facebook group, it could be WhatsApp, a group chat, it could be email list. And if you don't know, if you don't want to go through the steps of creating freebie, setting up your email marketing, especially if you're just in that first three years of your coaching business, don't bother with it. Like seriously, don't bother with it because then you're just wasting your valuable time same behind the screen, working on these, and there's so much more that you need to change and tweak. And one of the things that I've noticed is that a lot of coaches creating things, but they have no way of getting it reviewed or getting feedback. So they don't have someone like Michelle in their world to look at their website copy. They don't have someone like Michelle to look at their landing page or their lead magnet. So they put it out there, they create it, they put it out into the world, and maybe the copy didn't land very much. Maybe the message is a little off, or maybe the button is at the wrong place, or maybe the picture is not in the right order. There's so many variables that result in how your freebie is not getting any attention and nobody wants it. You spend all these hours and creating one, but nobody wants it. It's not you, it's because there's something wrong, something is off on what you have created. So you need that extra pair of eye to actually tell you, oh, change this, don't do that, skip this, save that for later. You don't have someone like that in your world to tell you all these information. So you can go out and create all of this. You can create your website, you can create your social media post, you can create your banner, but at the end of the day, you don't have that extra PRI to tell you exactly what to do and what to skip or what to amplify and what to save it for later. So I created something called the Coaching Business Lounge. And this is for coaches only by a coach, because I was that someone who was struggling with, oh, I created this free lead magnet, and I created it like 17, 18 pages long. I mean, I don't even go and download 17 pages long of Lee Magnet and having to sit down and go through every single page and doing all these exercises. No, that set on my digital shelf, but I spent all this time creating it. So I remember what it felt like to be a beginner coach who's creating all these assets but have no one in my corner to look at it. So I created the lounge because I want to support those of you who are kind of in between those moments of I know my avatar heart, I know where to find it, but I really need this extra pair of eyes to just tell me what I am doing wrong in my marketing. And so it's an ongoing support, and there's a link in the description box as well. You can go check it out. It is open throughout the year. And if you like, go check it out, come join us inside the lounge. We have coaching calls, and I also look at all your business assets when you drop into a community. I'll give you some feedbacks. So if that is the kind of support that you're looking for, go ahead and click that link and check this out inside the coaching business lounge. But in the meantime, don't feel that you have to have a funnel like a complicated funnel in order to get paying client. A simple funnel like this attention, nurture, and conversion, that's how you create a simple funnel. And you don't need a complicated system in order to have one. A simple free group chat because your number is not big yet. So go ahead and start. And I actually started a group chat when I first started out was I invited my clients to actually join me inside this group chat, and there's other coaches who decided to join, and that got bigger, so I end up moving that group chat into a Facebook group. So there's a lot of different ways of how you can continue that relationship with your prospect before they're ready to pay you as their coach or hire you as a coach. So I hope this has been helpful and I would love to hear if you already have an idea of what your funnel looks like. I would want to hear. So drop your funnel idea in the comment or just hit reply to my email because I want to know what you're planning to do this month to get more paying clients. And next week we're going to fix your website problem because I am so sick and tired of hearing coaches going through dropping$5,000 to get a branding designer for your website or paying over$2,000 to have a person maintaining your website when you have no idea of what they're working on. We need to talk. Thank you for listening to Make It Visible Podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support for your coaching business, head over to elevate lifecoaching.org and see how we can partner together to turn your passion into a profitable business. I help female coaches launch and scale their coaching business faster than ever without wasting time and money. Filling the gaps in your marketing strategies, creating a simple and easy to follow system so you can accelerate on the path of coaching business that you love to wake up to. Head over to elevatelifecoaching.org and grab a free strategy up today.