George Kao presents a critique of traditional sales funnels—arguing they create hidden agendas and erode trust—and proposes the "concentric circles" business model as a more wholesome alternative. In this model, the creator sits at the center and radiates value outward through layers (one-to-one clients, group programs, online courses, books, free content) with decreasing access and price, allowing people to enter or exit levels without pressure.
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Some of you know that I really don't like funnels. What do I mean? In my field of marketing and sales, if you learn anything about marketing, you'll probably start to learn about sales funnels or marketing funnels. And the idea is that with a funnel you probably have experienced this. Like you watch someone's free video and then they like pressure you to sign up on their email list to get some goodies, some freebies, some, you know, a wonderful, some kind of like PDF or video series or some other free gift. Right. And so they kind of take you from the free content level down to the email subscriber level. And then once you're on their email list or consistent follower, then they'll try to pressure you into buying some low level product, some online course, some book, some workbook, whatever it is. And then once you've bought a lower level, lower price thing, then you'll feel the pressure to buy their higher price thing and then the higher price and then finally you're working with them one to one. So that's, the sales funnel is like this kind of designed journey for the customer to kind of go from one level, one level of spending to a higher level spending. I don't do that. Okay. I don't love it because I've been part of, obviously, just like you have. I've been part of many funnels and I always feel like there's some agenda there. I feel I can't really trust a person because I just know that I'm consuming content, I'm consuming this online course just so that you know, at the end of it or some time in the middle, they're going to try to get me to sign up and I just can't trust that person because I know they have an agenda that's hidden. Ulterior. That's, that's the problem I have with funnels. Ulterior motive. Agendas. You know it, I'm sorry, if you've been trained in it, by the way, and if you're using it, I don't, I don't want, I don't want to judge you. You didn't know until you saw this video, you never really thought it through that you have this ulterior motive, that it's eroding the trust of the person who is in that funnel with you. It's just, it feels, it feels off because they can't trust you. Right. So what do I recommend instead? Here's what I recommend. I recommend the concentric circles business model. And so what I mean by this, and if you want to see a diagram, you can Google concentric circles business model George Kao. And you'll, you'll see a diagram, but I'll just explain it to you in a few minutes. Hopefully it's easy to understand. So concentric circles is kind of built off the funnel, but it's much more wholesome. And the way it works is this. Imagine a series of circles like you here in the center of the circle. You're the one who radiates the value, the presence, the wisdom, the products, the services. Your creativity is what creates the other levels in the circle. So it's you at the center and then right outside of you is the level. It's the circle called one on one. One to one clients, your private clients, have the most access to you. Well, they're your private clients, right? They pay, I don't know what they pay $500 a month. Let's say your private clients, some of you charge more, some of you charge less, whatever, it doesn't matter. But they pay you a certain, let's say $500 a month. They pay you to get access to you. One to one, you have, you can customize your advice the most to them and you have the most responsibility for what happens at this level compared to the other levels because they have the most access to you. You can customize your advice for them. You get to know them the best. And then outside the one on one client level is the next circle up, which is group programs. And with the group programs, you are able to serve more people than you could at the one on one level. One on one level you can't serve that many. With group programs you can serve more people, but they get less access to you. Maybe they get a weekly, you know, group call with you or something like that. You can't customize your advice to your group program members as much as you could with the one on one clients. And they don't expect as much from you. Right? And they're paying less. So let's say your one on one clients are paying you 500amonth. Your group program members might pay you 200amonth. And they get access to group call and then they get to know each other as well. And you have less responsibility for what happens at the group program level compared to one on one level. And then what's above that? Online courses. Above the group programs. You can serve even more people with online courses. So instead of them paying you $200 a month, maybe your online course is $100 each. Or $150 each or whatever. So it's like online courses, you can serve a lot more people, they pay you less per month or one time anyway. And then you can deliver your value to a lot more people. And you actually, you know, you can make a lot of money doing that. Online courses, you can serve a lot more people, they get less access to you. And then above that are books. So online courses and above the online courses are books because books can be bought by potentially millions of people. And your book readers aren't going to expect to be able to email you detailed questions and have you, when was the last time you bought your books? And go, let me make sure the author responds to me. Whereas online courses, they have a bit more expectation that you'll respond. And your group program members, right. Further from books, they don't expect as much. Online courses, they expect some group program members, they expect more from you. And then obviously one on one clients, they expect the most from you. Right. And you have the most responsibility there. And finally, at the outer level is free content. Free content, it doesn't cost you any more if you know a million people watch your YouTube videos or read your blog posts. Not really. Right. Your blog post, Web hosting maybe a little bit more per month, but it's like it doesn't, it's truly scalable for the, to, to touch the whole world. And they should have the least expectation. They usually do have the least expectation for what they can, the kind of access they have to you. And you should give yourself the least sense of responsibility. And this, so this, this model. So this is why it's more wholesome than the funnel. That's more wholesome because I allow people to enter and exit any level without the pressure of going to the next level. That's the key. So you can watch all my free content all you want. And I hope you won't feel the pressure to have to buy my books or to get my courses or whatever. I still make invitations regularly because that's my business. I mean that's, I hope you do as well. You make invitations to your audience regularly to tell them about your product or services, but hopefully you do it gently. Hopefully you do it in a way that doesn't create a negative feeling for them. I try to do it in a gentle way. So it's like I allow people to enter or exit any of the levels whether they want to buy a course or be a part of group program or just, just check out free content or whatever without the pressure of going to the next level. I think that's what makes concentric circles work well, and it also helps you to visualize the boundaries that you create with each group of people so that you can stay healthy and that their expectations can be healthy with you as well. And the money you make also is, you know, it's very clear how much or how little you're charging for each level, so I hope this is helpful as an overview. Thanks for watching, and I look forward to seeing any comments you have below. And thank you so much for joining me.
