Marketing lies, omissions, and misunderstandings (Marketing + Models Part 1)
I saw something recently that made my head nearly explode.
In a promo email for a program promising you can build a “lead-to-product funnel” in six weeks, the seller addressed this question from a prospect: What if I’m new? Can I really build a funnel in six weeks?
Unsurprisingly, her response was yes because “we give you all the training and support you need.”
This kind of bullsh$% answer drives me mad! 😡 No way is someone new in their business going to build a funnel in 6 weeks.
First, here are the components of a simple lead-to-product funnel like this person is selling:
Ads
Lead magnet landing page
Lead magnet promo emails
Lead magnet confirmation page
Lead magnet confirmation email
Lead magnet nurture and product intro emails
Product sales page
Product cart page
Purchase confirmation page
Purchase confirmation email
Product open cart announcement and sales emails
Product purchase welcome/access email
Cart abandon emails
Even if you lop off the ads and the cart abandon emails, we're talking almost a dozen elements—all of which need design, copy, and build. And that's just the technical components!
To get that funnel beyond functional to where it’s working, by which I mean the funnel brings in the right people and converts them, what you actually need is:
Capacity — Either you have the hours available to do all the work required, or you have the money to pay someone who does. And I’m not talking about squeezing this in during nap time or after the kids go to bed. I’m talking about 15-20 hours a week minimum, for at least 8-12 weeks. Possibly more if you hit any snags (and you will).
Skills — A funnel doesn’t need to be super high-tech, but you're going to use software for email and webpages at minimum. You need to know how to set up email sequences, build landing pages, connect payment processors, troubleshoot when things break at 11 p.m. on a Sunday. Either you have these skills, or you have the money to pay someone who does.
Copy — What words are you going to put everywhere in all the funnel elements? Beyond words that technically say something, you need copy that's been tested, that you know resonates, that converts in real conversations before you ever automate it. Copy that doesn't make people squint and go, “Wait, what do you do again?”
Product — The thing you're selling—a service, program, or product—needs to be something people want and are willing to pay for. Not something you think they should want. Not something that sounds good in theory, but something that's been validated in the real world as something people actually want.
Message-market fit — You need some evidence that your audience actually wants what you’re offering beyond polite interest from your friends; proof that people will open their wallets when you make the offer.
Mindset — This kind of work requires letting go of perfection, getting comfortable with visibility and failure, self-trust, patience, and kicking the Inner Critic and Imposter Monster to the curb time and again. If you're someone who spirals every time something doesn't work on the first try, building a funnel is going to test every ounce of your emotional resilience.
Accountability — How will you keep on task when you hit roadblocks? Because you will hit them. The tech will break. You’ll get stuck on the copy. You’ll question whether anyone will even want this thing. Without accountability, it's very easy to quietly stop showing up and tell yourself you'll get back to it “when things slow down.”
Traffic plan — You’ll need enough reach to make the math work. If you need 100 people to see your offer to get 10 sales, where are those 100 people coming from? Organic social? Your list of 200 people? Paid ads? Hope?
Everything I just listed above is the part that most people don't talk about.
This person selling the funnel building program claims to have made millions selling small digital products and she’s ready to teach you how you can make bank, too.
What she’s really selling is the fantasy that what worked for her will work for you.
The message from her is: “It’s totally doable! I give you everything you need to be successful.”
In reality, what’s required to make it happen—capacity, skills, money, copy, a product that's been validated, message-market fit, a traffic plan, and a lot of self-trust—isn’t fully disclosed.
The fact of the matter is, someone new in their business will simply not have one or more of these eight things required to build a funnel in 6 weeks.
That's no shade on being a newbie.
That's the reality for anyone at the beginning stages of acquiring experience and expertise in any area of life.
I’m sharing this story as just one of hundreds of examples of people selling marketing strategies and business-building products without full disclosure (unintentionally or otherwise), and buyers who don’t understand that what they’ve purchased is completely inappropriate for the kind of business they’re running.
It comes down to a mismatch between the product, the stage of business, and the business model.
Because it goes against the grain of traditional marketing and selling to say, “Sorry but no, you can’t do this because you don’t have what it takes (yet).” Or “No, what I’m selling will not work for your type of business,” the problem of this mismatch is rampant.
I mean if I had a dollar for every story about someone wasting money on strategies that were wrong for their stage and business model, well, I’d have that Rivian truck in gunmetal grey I’ve been dreaming about.
I’ve been that buyer, caught up in the fantasy, ignorant of the reality that I’d invested in the wrong thing until I learned the hard way.
I’ve probably been that seller, too, as much as I hate to admit how my naivete may have contributed to the problem.
But I know better now, and when I see others being hurt by this lack of disclosure and misunderstanding to the point of lost money, time, and, more devastatingly, self-trust, I’m impassioned to change it.
This post marks the first in a 4-part series about business stages, models, and growth strategies because the more you understand what kind of business you’re running or want to run, the better choices you’ll make for your path forward.
By the end of this series you’ll know what you need and when, why things may have gone off the rails before, and what you can leave behind to build the kind of business that you really want vs. the one “they” say is the best.
The Three Marketing Layers
Let’s begin with a couple of concepts fundamental to the conversation: marketing layers and business model types because a lot of the strategies being sold, especially in the online business space, weren’t built for owner-operator service-based businesses. They were built for businesses that rely on scale and volume.
Before we can fix any misalignment in how you’re marketing, we have to understand how the layers of marketing work and where most service providers accidentally skip ahead which makes everything feel harder than it should.
All marketing activities fall into one of three buckets:
🪣 1 – Direct 1:1 outreach + follow-up (networking, personal emails, calls, direct mail, etc.)
🪣 2– Mass nurture + visibility (social media, speaking/teaching, collaborations, PR, etc.)
🪣 3 – Scale plays (ads, retreats, building large communities, traffic systems, etc.)
For a service-based business, think of these buckets as layers.
Layer 1 = direct, 1:1 outreach + follow-up is where you're always closest to the money.
Layer 2 = mass nurture and visibility will amplify your reach but pointless without Layer 1.
Layer 3 = scale plays are powerful accelerators but only when the first two layers are solid.
These layers are sequential.
Layer 1 is your foundation where you learn what resonates, build trust, and generate revenue directly through relationships.
Layer 2 keeps you visible and connected to people who aren't in direct conversation with you yet.
Layer 3 can be an excellent way to leverage your IP and unhook your effort from your time—when you have the business model, capital, and infrastructure to support it.
If you’re a service provider whose business runs on relationships and referrals, Layer 3 is not where you need to be focusing your time and money. At least not at first.
Understanding Business Models
The vast majority of service providers—consultants, creative professionals, and many coaches—are solo owner-operator businesses whose primary revenue comes from handling a finite number of client engagements per year (unless you hire help when demand exceeds your capacity). A lot of agencies are in this category as well.
This is what we call a low-volume, high-ticket business model.
On the other hand, most content creators and education-based businesses run the opposite model which requires an incessant inflow of people to buy products (i.e. memberships, courses, books, etc.) to generate meaningful revenue.
This is the high-volume, low-ticket business model.
Both models are valid but they are completely different, requiring different marketing strategies, different infrastructure, different combo of resources, and different timing.
The high-volume, low-ticket model needs a Layer 3 strategy immediately.
A service business can absolutely work a Layer 3 strategy—once Layers 1 and 2 are solid.
The Cost of Using the Wrong Tool for the Job
As in the example of the person selling the funnel program, the problem occurs when a Layer 3 strategy is being sold to people for whom it’s not the right fit—because of their business model or stage of business—but the seller is either given no context or disclosure.
When you buy a strategy designed for a different business model than the one you’re running, the cost goes beyond the money you spent without ROI. It's also:
❌ The time you’ll never get back, spent learning tools and building things you don’t need.
❌ The opportunities you missed while you were “building” instead of selling.
❌ The momentum you lost by constantly switching strategies.
❌ The confidence that eroded every time something didn’t work.
❌ The trust in your own judgment that took a hit.
This is the tax you pay when you operate on someone else’s assumptions instead of understanding your own model.
If you’re a service provider—consultant, coach, creative, agency owner—your business runs on relationships with individuals, not traffic to amass an audience.
You don’t need a funnel to fill your calendar.
You need a consistent process for reaching out, following up, and staying in conversation with the right people.
You don’t need ads to generate leads.
You need clear messaging that makes people say, “Oh, I know someone who needs that.”
You don’t need a membership to create recurring revenue.
You need pricing that reflects your value and a client experience that generates referrals.
These are Layer 1 and Layer 2 activities, and they’re the activities that will move the needle in your business.
When you understand the real layers of marketing and the model your business runs on, the noise starts to quiet down. You stop chasing someone else’s playbook and start working the system that fits your capacity, your strengths, and your goals.