The Two Funnels You're Mixing Together

You're posting content, you're nurturing your email list, you're showing up on stories, and somehow it all still feels like pushing a square boulder up a hill. Adam Roach knows that feeling well. He spent years lumping every audience together into one funnel, and it never worked.In this episode, Adam and Jess break down a distinction most coaches never make: the attraction funnel and the trust funnel are two completely different systems, built for two completely different jobs. Confuse them, and you'll either come across as a salesy stranger to people who don't know you yet, or you'll under-serve the people who already trust you by treating them like cold leads.Adam opens with the four trust tiers every coach's audience actually sits inside: Unknown, Known, Like, and Trust. He walks through his own Kia Telluride buying journey to show exactly how a person moves through those tiers in real life, and why rushing that process backfires. Jess ties it back to the "I know a guy" language from the recent Coaches #1 Problem series: if the people who already know you can't name what you do in one clean sentence, that's a bigger opportunity than any cold audience ever will be.What you'll learn:- The four trust tiers your entire audience already falls into (Unknown, Known, Like, Trust) and why treating them the same kills conversion- What the "Trust Ledger" is and why deposits have to come before you ever ask for a withdrawal- How to audit your own database in under ten minutes to find the relationships you're leaving on the table- Why approaching strangers with an offer is the coaching equivalent of selling pink highlighters on a street corner- The real difference between top, middle, and bottom of funnel content, and the 50/40/10 ratio that actually works- The one filter question to ask before every post: am I trying to get seen by someone new, or trusted more by someone who already knows me?- Why relationship-based conversion is consistently the easier, faster path to a sale than a transactional pitch ever will beThe big idea:It's simple but easy to miss: your existing relationships are your highest-leverage, lowest-cost growth channel, and most coaches skip straight past them chasing strangers instead. Fix the order, and both funnels get easier.Memorable Quote: "Social media channels are meant to connect, not to convert." - Jess WebberResources Mentioned:- Coaches #1 Problem Series (Ep. 187, Ep. 188)- ILC community: ilovecoachingco.com- Instagram: @ilovecoachingco / @adamrroach / @coachjesswebber- YouTube: youtube.com/@ilovecoachingcoTimestamps:[00:00] Intro: two funnels, two completely different jobs[02:04] The four trust tiers: Unknown, Known, Like, Trust[03:56] Adam's Kia Telluride story: how attraction becomes trust[06:14] Tying it back to "I know a guy" language[07:40] Where most coaches get the order backwards[08:44] The Trust Ledger: deposits before withdrawals[10:12] Why transactional focus shrinks your bottom tier[11:55] Audit your database: the trust list and the engaged list[14:05] The pink highlighter analogy: selling to strangers[15:36] Why relationship conversion is the easier lift[16:34] Top, middle, and bottom of funnel content, defined[18:40] The posting filter: new eyes or deeper trust[20:17] The 50/40/10 content ratio[21:32] Breaking the habit of selling on social media[24:26] Wrap up and where to go nextReady to stop guessing which funnel you're even in? The ILC community is where coaches go to build the relationships and the systems that actually convert. ilovecoachingco.com