In this 12‑minute presentation Trena Little explains why coaches’ email lists can grow while sales shrink: they are attracting the wrong audience. She defines two archetypes—"Beginner Betty," a novice who consumes free, low‑commitment content, and "Expert Esther," a knowledgeable, problem‑aware prospect ready to invest. Little argues that most coaches focus on beginner‑level content, viral views, and low‑ticket lead magnets, which only draw Beginner Bettys and repel Expert Esthers. She backs this claim with personal anecdotes (her first launch yielded only three sales despite a large list) and client case studies, including a 19‑view YouTube video that sold a coaching spot and two clients who generated $42,000 and multiple program fills via a 5‑video YouTube playlist funnel. The data shows YouTube videos targeting Expert Esther convert three times higher than traffic from Instagram or TikTok. Little proposes a solution: build a strategic 5‑video playlist funnel on YouTube that moves Expert Esther through a trust‑building journey, culminating in a sale. She also offers a free GPT tool (trenalittle.com/whoswatching) to test whether video ideas attract the right audience. The presentation concludes with a breakdown of her filming process, schedule, and how the system frees up her time, allowing her to work under 25 hours per week. Throughout, she invites viewers to comment on whether they prioritize views or sales.
Chapters
If your email list is growing but your sales keep shrinking, you're not crazy. This is actually happening to a lot of coaches right now, and it has nothing to do with your offer, nothing to do with your pricing, or even how often you're emailing. It has to do with who you're getting on your email list. In the next 12 minutes, I'm going to tell you exactly who you've been attracting, why they're never going to buy from you, and the one thing you can do that will fix that problem. Before I tell you the fix, I need you to know I've been exactly where you are, so I know the feeling and I know what needs to be done. My first ever course launch, I made 3 sales and one of those sales was a pity sale from a friend of mine, but I had spent the months leading up to that launch building my email list and I had a pretty solid email list going into that first ever launch. But here's what I did wrong. And when I'm working with my coaches build their YouTube strategy, it's the same thing that's happening to them as well. Even if they have an email list, 10 times the size of mine right now, and that is building an email list to build an email list, to get whoever you can on your email list. Because we are told from the beginning, build an email list, grow your email list. And it's almost like the bigger the email list, the better is kind of the idea we're getting. Let me know if you can relate to what I'm saying down in the comments by just saying email if you totally understand this. And it's the same thing with YouTube. We're told get more views, get more subscribers, and that's not what's going to contribute to increasing your sales. So I stopped creating beginner-level content because while beginner-level content will get views and could go viral, it does not create sales. Because as I was getting more views on my YouTube channel who were joining my email list and my email list was getting bigger, I wasn't making any more sales. And I see from the coaches that I work with in my coaching program that that's kind of the trap that they're stuck in right now. They had spent the last couple of months, the last couple of years building an email list full of beginner Bettys. And when they start focusing on YouTube and creating content for beginner Bettys, they're just in this constant cycle of attracting people who will never buy from them and actually repelling the people who are ready to buy and invest in them. Let me explain the difference between the two. You wanna think about your viewers, your buyers, on a journey, and the very first step for them is Beginner Betty. Now these are the people just getting started, just thinking about these things. Let's say she's just thinking about how to start saving money for the future, or she might be just thinking about how to lose that 10 pounds that she has felt that she's added the last couple of years. She's not done a lot of research, and she's not specifically sure what her problem is yet, but she's starting the process, all right? And there's this whole journey that they're gonna go on as they learn, as they try, as they research, until they get to the point where they become expert Esther. Now this doesn't mean they're an expert in your niche. It means that they're an expert on this topic and they understand very specifically what their problem is. And they're searching for somebody who can solve the specific problem they realize that they're having. So Beginner Betty may be downloading PDFs, worksheets, checklists. She may be ready and take that journey to Expert Esther in the next 6 months, maybe 2 years. Whereas Expert Esther's been doing the research, has taken all the free stuff. She's done doing the research. She knows she needs to invest to get faster results that she wants. If you are a money coach, you may wanna be specific in you're helping couples or you're helping parents save a specific amount of money for college funds. That's a very specific thing that people will invest in 'cause that's a specific problem. If you're a health coach, Beginner Betty is gonna search for like a 30-minute ab routine, where Expert Esther may realize where she's at right now, she's in perimenopause. And she's really— she's, she's realizing she has not been eating enough protein and that may be the cause of her weight gain or lack of weight loss. She knows she wants to invest in somebody who understands her and this specific problem, and she's going to be willing to pay for that person. The same thing with the expert Esther that is wanting to save money for college. They know there are certain things that they can do, but they want to ensure that they're going to save like $50,000 for their child's college fund within the next 10 years. They will pay to make that happen. These are ready-to-buy viewers. These are expert Esthers. And here's the thing about these two people: they actually don't mix. You want to think about it as like a holiday at the family, right? Thanksgiving here in the United States. The beginner Bettys are at the kids' table. That's where everybody starts. That's where everybody gets placed. Now, the kids' table does look up to the adult table, and they do aspire to be there, and they may get there at one point in But the adult table never wants to go back down to the kids table. They do not aspire to be in a room with the kids table. So when you're creating content and creating lead magnets and workshops for the kids table, Beginner Betty, those are the only people that you're ever going to attract because Expert Esther, the adult table, is never going to be searching for that content because they are looking for their specific problem and knowing somebody understands their specific problem. So for every video, every lead magnet you make for Beginner Betty at the kids' table, you're invisible to the adults. And the adults, the Expert Esthers, are the ones that have the wallets that can actually pay to work with you. I've slipped into the idea of needing viral videos to look more authoritative in the YouTube space, I guess. And so I started creating Beginner Betty content 'cause I knew it would get me views and I knew it would get me subscribers. You know what it didn't get me? Sales. In fact, my sales almost started to dry up while I was focused on Beginner Betty content. While my YouTube channel looked great— views and subscribers— I wasn't making sales. And what's more important to me is sales. What's more important to you? Let me know in the comments. Type 'views' or 'sales.' I want to know what's more important to you, views or sales. I decided to completely shift my content, delete those Beginner Betty videos, and I also wanted to test Could I attract expert Esthers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok? For 2 months in the summer, I posted a weekly YouTube video like I normally do, like I recommend my clients. Meanwhile, I try to keep up with what is recommended, posting content on Instagram and TikTok. So TikTok, that's like a new TikTok every day. On Instagram, it's like 4 reels a week, multiple stories a week, carousels, right? I kept that up for 2 months. And what I found was the very specific videos I was creating on YouTube for Expert Esther converted 3 times higher than the traffic that I got from Instagram and TikTok. So you can guess, where am I gonna spend my time when it comes to creating content? On content that's going to convert 3 times higher, plus takes me a lot less time because I'm creating one YouTube video a week as opposed to multiple pieces of content every single day, every single week, right? Because on Instagram and TikTok, they're not watching long-form content. They're not getting a full sense of trusting you. They're not actively searching their problem on TikTok, right? The algorithm is pushing them what it thinks it wants to watch. Whereas people on Insta— sorry, while people on YouTube or on AI like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, they're searching very detailed problems. And if your video comes up answering that problem, that specific problem that they're having, instant trust is built because they realize somebody is actually in my head and knows what I'm struggling with. Here's a number that should really shock you. One of my clients sold a spot in her coaching program on a video with just 19 views, and that video was only on YouTube for about 5 days. 19 views. One video, all because the 19 people that were watching her video were Expert Esthers, because that video was addressing a problem that Expert Esther has. Now, if you're wondering, how do I know if my videos are attracting Beginner Bettys or Expert Esthers? I created a quick GPT for you where you can plug in your video idea and it's going to tell you if this is a video that will attract either person. So you can go to trenalittle.com/whoswatching to plug in that video idea to make sure you're not wasting your time on Beginner Bettys anymore. More. Now let me tell you the part most coaches get wrong. Even after understanding this whole viewer journey from Beginner Betty to Expert Esther, they usually say, okay, I need to build a different lead magnet, and they get right back to making the same mistake. They do quizzes, they do free summits with like 30 other speakers, they bundle all their freebies and kind of give it away, right? Maybe they even run like a $9 product. All of those things are going to attract beginner Bettys because beginner Bettys are the ones that have the time to do the quizzes and the ones to sit through the summits and the one to chase the $9 offers. Expert Esther is not wasting her time doing a quiz. She has a specific problem she's trying to solve and she needs somebody who's going to get her that solution. The fastest way to attract her is to build something very specific that will solve one of her problems right now in less than, say, 4 hours is probably a great time frame. Remember, she doesn't have a lot of time. We're not throwing the kitchen sink at her. We're showing her we can help her solve a problem she has right now in a few hours' time. So how can you start building an email list full of expert Esthers? And what do you need to do to start attracting expert Esthers? You Build a Playlist Funnel on YouTube. This is a series of 5 videos. Each video has a specific role. It plays a specific role and it's designed to move Expert Esther to wanting to work with you. It is not random one-off videos. It is strategically built for binge watching, for building trust and converting at the end. This is why YouTube is incredibly powerful for coaches. Because when somebody watches 3 or 4 of your videos, they are no longer a cold lead. They've maybe spent over 45 minutes with you on video getting to know you, sensing your style, feeling your vibe. They've agreed with your takes. They've watched you handle their objections. By the time they decide to click your link to learn more about your coaching program, they are no longer a stranger. They're buying from somebody they already trust, and they are ready to get in. That's why my client Belle was able to make $42,000 into her coaching program with just one playlist funnel. And why another client of mine, Gina, she was able to fill up a coaching program because of her playlist funnels, open a second one, increase the price, not even launch it to the public, and fill it again because of her playlist funnel. And that's why a 19-viewed video can outsell a 50,000-follower Instagram account every day because you need to be attracting quality leads and stop worrying about the quantity of the leads you're chasing. And when you build a playlist funnel like I teach my clients in the YouTube coaching experience, it will attract the right person and it warms them up before they ever consider to buy with you. So it makes the sale piece of cake. What we need to understand here is building a bigger list isn't the answer to your lack of sales. Running more lead magnets isn't the answer either. The answer is making sure every piece of content that you create is created to attract an expert Esther. And this is the part that surprises so many of my clients the most. When you build this system into your business, you actually end up working less. I break down my entire filming process, what it looks like, how I fill my coaching program without posting every day, and how this strategy gave me back my Fridays, gave me back my mornings, and allows me to work under 25 hours a week. I'm breaking down that schedule in the video that's on your screen right now.
